BARCHESTER TOWERS
TABLE OF CONTENTS
I Who will be the new Bishop
II Hirams Hospital according to Act of Parliament
III Dr and Mrs Proudie
IV The Bishops Chaplain
V A Morning Visit
VI War
VII The Dean and Chapter take Counsel
VIII The ExWarden rejoices at his probable Return to the Hospital
IX The Stanhope Family
X Mrs Proudies Reception—Commenced
XI Mrs Proudies Reception—Concluded
XII Slope versus Harding
XIII The Rubbish Cart
XIV The New Champion
XV The Widows Suitors
XVI Baby Worship
XVII Who shall be Cock of the Walk
XVIII The Widows Persecution
XIX Barchester by Moonlight
XX Mr Arabin
XXI St Ewolds Parsonage
XXII The Thornes of Ullathorne
XXIII Mr Arabin reads himself in at St Ewolds
XXIV Mr Slope manages matters very well at Puddingdale
XXV Fourteen Arguments in favour of Mr Quiverfuls Claims
XXVI Mrs Proudie wrestles and gets a Fall
XXVII A Love Scene
XXVIII Mrs Bold is entertained by Dr and Mrs Grantly at Plumstead
XXIX A serious Interview
XXX Another Love Scene
XXXI The Bishops Library
XXXII A New Candidate for Ecclesiastical Honours
XXXIII Mrs Proudie Victrix
XXXIV Oxford—The Master and Tutor of Lazarus
XXXV Miss Thornes Fete Champetre
XXXVI Ullathorne Sports—Act I
XXXVII The Signora Neroni the Countess De Courcy and
Mrs Proudie meet each other at Ullathorne
XXXVIII The Bishop sits down to Breakfast and the Dean dies
XXXIX The Lookalofts and the Greenacres
XL Ullathorne Sports—Act II
XLI Mrs Bold confides her Sorrow to her Friend Miss Stanhope
XLII Ullathorne Sports—Act III
XLIII Mrs and Mrs Quiverful are made happy
Mr Slope is encouraged by the Press
XLIV Mrs Bold at Home
XLV The Stanhopes at Home
XLVI Mr Slopes parting Interview with the Signora
XLVII The Dean Elect
XLVIII Miss Thorne shows her Talent at Matchmaking
XLIX The Belzebub Colt
L The Archdeacon is satisfied with the State of Affairs
LI Mr Slopes Farewell to the Palace and its Inhabitants
LII The new Dean takes Possession of the Deanery
and the New Warden of the Hospital
LIII Conclusion
CHAPTER I
WHO WILL BE THE NEW BISHOP
In the latter days of July in the year 185 a most important question was for ten days hourly asked in the cathedral city of Barchester and answered every hour in various ways—Who was to be the new Bishop
The death of old Dr Grantly who had for many years filled the chair with meek authority took place exactly as the ministry of Lord was going to give place to that Lord The illness of the good old man was long and lingering and it became at last a matter of intense interest to those concerned whether the new appointment should be made by a conservative or liberal government
Bishop Grantly died as he had lived peaceably slowly without pain and without excitement The breath ebbed from him almost imperceptibly and for a month before his death it was a question whether he was alive or dead
A trying time was this for the archdeacon for whom was designed the reversion of his fathers see by those who then had the giving away of episcopal thrones I would not be understood to say that the prime minister had in so many words promised the bishopric to Dr Grantly He was too discreet a man for that There is a proverb with reference to the killing of cats and those who know anything either of high or low government places will be well aware that a promise may be made without positive words and that an expectant may be put into the highest state of encouragement though the great man on whose breath he hangs may have done no more than whisper that Mr Soandso is certainly a rising man
Such a whisper had been made and was known by those who heard it to signify that the cures of the diocese of Barchester should not be taken out of the hands of the archdeacon The then prime minister was all in all at Oxford and had lately passed a night at the house of the master of Lazarus Now the master of Lazarus—which is by the bye in many respects the most comfortable as well as the richest college at Oxford—was the archdeacons most intimate friend and most trusted counsellor On the occasion of the prime ministers visit Dr Grantly was of course present and the meeting was very gracious On the following morning Dr Gwynne the master told the archdeacon that in his opinion the matter was settled
At this time the bishop was quite on his last legs but the ministry was also tottering Dr Grantly returned from Oxford happy and elated to resume his place in the palace and to continue to perform for the father the last duties of a son which to give him his due he performed with more tender care than was to be expected from his usual somewhat worldly manners
A month since the physicians had named four weeks as the outside period during which breath could be supported within the body of the dying man At the end of the month the physicians wondered and named another fortnight The old man lived on wine alone but at the end of the fortnight he still lived and the tidings of the fall of the ministry became more frequent Sir Lamda Mewnew and Sir Omicron Pie the two great London doctors now came down for the fifth time and declared shaking their learned heads that another week of life was impossible and as they sat down to lunch in the episcopal diningroom whispered to the archdeacon their own private knowledge that the ministry must fall within five days The son returned to his fathers room and after administering with his own hands the sustaining modicum of madeira sat down by the bedside to calculate his chances
The ministry were to be out within five days his father was to be dead within—No he rejected that view of the subject The ministry were to be out and the diocese might probably be vacant at the same period There was much doubt as to the names of the men who were to succeed to power and a week must elapse before a Cabinet was formed Would not vacancies be filled by the outgoing men during that week Dr Grantly had a kind of idea that such would be the case but did not know and then he wondered at his own ignorance of such a question
He tried to keep his mind away from the subject but he could not The race was so very close and the stakes were so very high He then looked at the dying mans impassive placid face There was no sign there of death or disease it was something thinner than of yore somewhat grayer and the deep lines of age more marked but as far as he could judge life might yet hang there for weeks to come Sir Lamda Mewnew and Sir Omicron Pie had thrice been wrong and might yet be wrong thrice again The old bishop slept during twenty of the twentyfour hours but during the short periods of his waking moments he knew both his son and his dear friend Mr Harding the archdeacons fatherinlaw and would thank them tenderly for their care and love Now he lay sleeping like a baby resting easily on his back his mouth just open and his few gray hairs straggling from beneath his cap his breath was perfectly noiseless and his thin wan hand which lay above the coverlid never moved Nothing could be easier than the old mans passage from this world to the next
But by no means easy were the emotions of him who sat there watching He knew it must be now or never He was already over fifty and there was little chance that his friends who were now leaving office would soon return to it No probable British prime minister but he who was now in he who was so soon to be out would think of making a bishop of Dr Grantly Thus he thought long and sadly in deep silence and then gazed at that still living face and then at last dared to ask himself whether he really longed for his fathers death
The effort was a salutary one and the question was answered in a moment The proud wishful worldly man sank on his knees by the bedside and taking the bishops hand within his own prayed eagerly that his sins might be forgiven him
His face was still buried in the clothes when the door of the bedroom opened noiselessly and Mr Harding entered with a velvet step Mr Hardings attendance at that bedside had been nearly as constant as that of the archdeacon and his ingress and egress was as much a matter of course as that of his soninlaw He was standing close beside the archdeacon before he was perceived and would have also knelt in prayer had he not feared that his doing so might have caused some sudden start and have disturbed the dying man Dr Grantly however instantly perceived him and rose from his knees As he did so Mr Harding took both his hands and pressed them warmly There was more fellowship between them at that moment than there had ever been before and it so happened that after circumstances greatly preserved the feeling As they stood there pressing each others hands the tears rolled freely down their cheeks
God bless you my dears—said the bishop with feeble voice as he woke—God bless you—may God bless you both my dear children and so he died
There was no loud rattle in the throat no dreadful struggle no palpable sign of death but the lower jaw fell a little from its place and the eyes which had been so constantly closed in sleep now remained fixed and open Neither Mr Harding nor Dr Grantly knew that life was gone though both suspected it
I believe its all over said Mr Harding still pressing the others hands I think—nay I hope it is
I will ring the bell said the other speaking all but in a whisper Mrs Phillips should be here
Mrs Phillips the nurse was soon in the room and immediately with practised hand closed those staring eyes
Its all over Mrs Phillips asked Mr Harding
My lords no more said Mrs Phillips turning round and curtseying with a solemn face His lordships gone more like a sleeping baby than any that I ever saw
Its a great relief archdeacon said Mr Harding A great relief—dear good excellent old man Oh that our last moments may be as innocent and peaceful as his
Surely said Mrs Phillips The Lord be praised for all his mercies but for a meek mild gentlespoken Christian his lordship was— and Mrs Phillips with unaffected but easy grief put up her white apron to her flowing eyes
You cannot but rejoice that it is over said Mr Harding still counselling his friend The archdeacons mind however had already travelled from the death chamber to the closet of the prime minister He had brought himself to pray for his fathers life but now that that life was done to dally with the fact of the bishops death—useless to lose perhaps everything for the pretence of a foolish sentiment
But how was he to act while his fatherinlaw stood there holding his hand How without appearing unfeeling was he to forget his father in the bishop—to overlook what he had lost and think only of what he might possibly gain
No I suppose not said he at last in answer to Mr Harding We have all expected it for so long
Mr Harding took him by the arm and led him from the room We will see him again tomorrow morning said he We had better leave the room now to the woman And so they went downstairs
It was already evening and nearly dark It was most important that the prime minister should know that night that the diocese was vacant Everything might depend on it and so in answer to Mr Hardings further consolation the archdeacon suggested that a telegraph message should be immediately sent off to London Mr Harding who had really been somewhat surprised to find Dr Grantly as he thought so much affected was rather taken aback but he made no objection He knew that the archdeacon had some hope of succeeding to his fathers place though he by no means knew how highly raised that hope had been
Yes said Dr Grantly collecting himself and shaking off his weakness We must send a message at once we dont know what might be the consequences of delay Will you do it
I Oh yes certainly Ill do it only I dont know exactly what it is you want
Dr Grantly sat down before a writing table and taking pen and ink wrote on a slip of paper as follows
By Electric Telegraph
For the Earl of Downing Street or elsewhere
The Bishop of Barchester is dead
Message sent by the Rev Septimus Harding
There said he Just take that to the telegraph office at the railway station and give it as it is theyll probably make you copy it on to one of their own slips thats all youll have to do then youll have to pay them halfacrown And the archdeacon put his hand in his pocket and pulled out the necessary sum
Mr Harding felt very much like an errandboy and also felt that he was called on to perform his duties as such at rather an unseemly time but he said nothing and took the slip of paper and the proffered coin
But youve put my name into it archdeacon
Yes said the other There should be the name of some clergyman you know and what name so proper as that of so old a friend as yourself The Earl wont look at the name you may be sure of that but my dear Mr Harding pray dont lose any time
Mr Harding got as far as the library door on his way to the station when he suddenly remembered the news with which he was fraught when he entered to poor bishops bedroom He had found the moment so inopportune for any mundane tidings that he had repressed the words which were on his tongue and immediately afterwards all recollection of the circumstance was for the time banished by the scene which had occurred
But archdeacon said he turning back I forgot to tell you—the ministry are out
Out ejaculated the archdeacon in a tone which too plainly showed the anxiety of his dismay although under the circumstances of the moment he endeavoured to control himself Out Who told you so
Mr Harding explained that news to this effect had come down by electric telegraph and that the tidings had been left at the palace door by Mr Chadwick
The archdeacon sat silent for awhile meditating and Mr Harding stood looking at him Never mind said the archdeacon at last Send the message all the same The news must be sent to some one and there is at present no one else in a position to receive it Do it at once my dear friend you know I would not trouble you were I in a state to do it myself A few minutes time is of the greatest importance
Mr Harding went out and sent the message and it may be as well that we should follow it to its destination Within thirty minutes of its leaving Barchester it reached the Earl of in his inner library What elaborate letters what eloquent appeals what indignant remonstrances he might there have to frame at such a moment may be conceived but not described How he was preparing his thunder for successful rivals standing like a British peer with his back to the seacoal fire and his hands in his breeches pockets—how his fine eye was lit up with anger and his forehead gleamed with patriotism—how he stamped his foot as he thought of his heavy associates—how he all but swore as he remembered how much too clever one of them had been—my creative readers may imagine But was he so engaged No history and truth compel me to deny it He was sitting easily in a lounging chair conning over a Newmarket list and by his elbow on the table was lying open an uncut French novel on which he was engaged
He opened the cover in which the message was enclosed and having read it he took his pen and wrote on the back of it—
For the Earl of
With the Earl of s compliments
and sent off again on its journey
Thus terminated our unfortunate friends chance of possessing the glories of a bishopric
The names of many divines were given in the papers as that of the bishop elect The British Grandmother declared that Dr Gwynne was to be the man in compliment to the late ministry
This was a heavy blow to Dr Grantly but he was not doomed to see himself superseded by his friend The Anglican Devotee put forward confidently the claims of a great London preacher of austere doctrines and The Eastern Hemisphere an evening paper supposed to possess much official knowledge declared in favour of an eminent naturalist a gentleman most completely versed in the knowledge of rocks and minerals but supposed by many to hold on religious subjects no special doctrines whatever The Jupiter that daily paper which as we all know is the only true source of infallibly correct information on all subjects for a while was silent but at last spoke out The merits of all these candidates were discussed and somewhat irreverently disposed of and then The Jupiter declared that Dr Proudie was to be the man
Dr Proudie was the man Just a month after the demise of the late bishop Dr Proudie kissed the Queens hand as his successor elect
We must beg to be allowed to draw a curtain over the sorrows of the archdeacon as he sat sombre and sad at heart in the study of his parsonage at Plumstead Episcopi On the day subsequent to the dispatch of the message he heard that the Earl of had consented to undertake the formation of a ministry and from that moment he knew that his chance was over Many will think that he was wicked to grieve for the loss of episcopal power wicked to have coveted it nay wicked even to have thought about it in the way and at the moment he had done so
With such censures I cannot profess that I completely agree The nolo episcopari though still in use is so directly at variance with the tendency of all human aspirations of rising priests in the Church of England A lawyer does not sin in seeking to be a judge or in compassing his wishes by all honest means A young diplomat entertains a fair ambition when he looks forward to be the lord of a firstrate embassy and a poor novelist when he attempts to rival Dickens or rise above Fitzjames commits no fault though he may be foolish
Sydney Smith truly said that in these recreant days we cannot expect to find the majesty of St Paul beneath the cassock of a curate If we look to our clergymen to be more than men we shall probably teach ourselves to think that they are less and can hardly hope to raise the character of the pastor by denying to him the right to entertain the aspirations of a man
Our archdeacon was worldly—who among us is not so He was ambitious—who among us is ashamed to own that last infirmity of noble minds He was avaricious my readers will say No—it was not for love of lucre that he wished to be bishop of Barchester He was his fathers only child and his father had left him great wealth His preferment brought him in nearly three thousand a year The bishopric as cut down by the Ecclesiastical Commission was only five He would be a richer man as archdeacon than he could be as a bishop But he certainly did desire to play first fiddle he did desire to sit in full lawn sleeves amongst the peers of the realm and he did desire if the truth must be out to be called My Lord by the reverend brethren
His hopes however were they innocent or sinful were not fated to be realised and Dr Proudie was consecrated Bishop of Barchester
CHAPTER II
HIRAMS HOSPITAL ACCORDING TO ACT OF PARLIAMENT
It is hardly necessary that I should here give to the public any lengthened biography of Mr Harding up to the period of the commencement of this tale The public cannot have forgotten how ill that sensitive gentleman bore the attack that was made upon him in the columns of the Jupiter with reference to the income which he received as warden of Hirams Hospital in the city of Barchester Nor can it be forgotten that a lawsuit was instituted against him on the matter of that charity by Mr John Bold who afterwards married his Mr Hardings younger and then only unmarried daughter Under the pressure of these attacks Mr Harding had resigned his wardenship though strongly recommended to abstain from doing so both by his friends and his lawyers He did however resign it and betook himself manfully to the duties of the small parish of St Cuthberts in the city of which he was vicar continuing also to perform those of precentor of the cathedral a situation of small emoluments which had hitherto been supposed to be joined as a matter of course to the wardenship of the hospital above spoken of
When he left the hospital from which he had been so ruthlessly driven and settled himself down in his own modest manner in the High Street of Barchester he had not expected that others would make more fuss about it than he was inclined to do himself and the extent of his hope was that the movement might have been made in time to prevent any further paragraphs in the Jupiter His affairs however were not allowed to subside thus quietly and people were quite as much inclined to talk about the disinterested sacrifice he had made as they had before been to upbraid him for his cupidity
The most remarkable thing that occurred was the receipt of an autographed letter from the Archbishop of Canterbury in which the primate very warmly praised his conduct and begged to know what his intentions were for the future Mr Harding replied that he intended to be rector of St Cuthberts in Barchester and so that matter dropped Then the newspapers took up his case the Jupiter among the rest and wafted his name in eulogistic strains through every readingroom in the nation It was discovered also that he was the author of that great musical work Hardings Church Music—and a new edition was spoken of though I believe never printed It is however certain that the work was introduced into the Royal Chapel at St Jamess and that a long criticism appeared in the Musical Scrutator declaring that in no previous work of its kind had so much research been joined with such exalted musical ability and asserting that the name of Harding would henceforward be known wherever the Arts were cultivated or Religion valued
This was high praise and I will not deny that Mr Harding was gratified by such flattery for if Mr Harding was vain on any subject it was on that of music But here the matter rested The second edition if printed was never purchased the copies which had been introduced into the Royal Chapel disappeared again and were laid by in peace with a load of similar literature Mr Towers of the Jupiter and his brethren occupied themselves with other names and the underlying fame promised to our friend was clearly intended to be posthumous
Mr Harding had spent much of his time with his friend the bishop much with his daughter Mrs Bold now alas a widow and had almost daily visited the wretched remnants of his former subjects the few surviving bedesmen now left at Hirams Hospital Six of them were still living The number according to old Hirams will should always have been twelve But after the abdication of their warden the bishop had appointed no successor to him and it appeared as though the hospital at Barchester would fall into abeyance unless the powers that be should take some steps towards putting it once more into working order
During the past five years the powers that be had not overlooked Barchester Hospital and sundry political doctors had taken the matter in hand Shortly after Mr Hardings resignation the Jupiter had very clearly shown what ought to be done In about half a column it had distributed the income rebuilt the building put an end to all bickerings regenerated kindly feeling provided for Mr Harding and placed the whole thing on a footing which could not but be satisfactory to the city and Bishop of Barchester and to the nation at large The wisdom of this scheme was testified by the number of letters which Common Sense Veritas and One that loves fair play sent to the Jupiter all expressing admiration and amplifying on the details given It is singular enough that no adverse letter appeared at all and therefore none of course was written
But Cassandra was not believed and even the wisdom of the Jupiter sometimes falls on deaf ears Though other plans did not put themselves forward in the columns of the Jupiter reformers of church charities were not slack to make known in various places their different nostrums for setting Hirams Hospital on its feet again A learned bishop took occasion in the Upper House to allude to the matter intimating that he had communicated on the subject with his right reverend brother of Barchester The radical member for Staleybridge had suggested that the funds should be alienated for the education of the agricultural poor of the country and he amused the House by some anecdotes touching the superstition and habits of the agriculturists in question A political pamphleteer had produced a few dozen pages which he called Who are Hirams heirs intending to give an infallible rule for the governance of such establishments and at last a member of the government promised that in the next session a short bill should be introduced for regulating the affairs of Barchester and other kindred concerns
The next session came and contrary to custom the bill came also Mens minds were then intent on other things The first threatenings of a huge war hung heavily over the nation and the question as to Hirams heirs did not appear to interest very many people either in or out of the House The bill however was read and reread and in some undistinguished manner passed through its eleven stages without appeal or dissent What would John Hiram have said in the matter could he have predicted that some fortyfive gentlemen would take on themselves to make a law altering the whole purport of the will without in the least knowing at the moment of their making it what it was that they were doing It is however to be hoped that the under secretary for the Home Office knew for to him had the matter been confided
The bill however did pass and at the time at which this history is supposed to commence it had been ordained that there should be as heretofore twelve old men in Barchester Hospital each with 1s 4d a day that there should also be twelve old women each with 1s 2d a day that there should be a matron with a house and L 70 a year a steward with L 150 a year who should have the spiritual guidance of that appertaining to the male sex The bishop dean and warden were as formerly to appoint in turn the recipients of the charity and the bishop was to appoint the officers There was nothing said as to the wardenship being held by the precentor of the cathedral nor a word as to Mr Hardings right to the situation
It was not however till some months after the death of the old bishop and almost immediately consequent on the installation of his successor that notice was given that the reform was about to be carried out The new law and the new bishop were among the earliest works of a new ministry or rather of a ministry who having for a while given place to their opponents had then returned to power and the death of Dr Grantly occurred as we have seen exactly at the period of change
Poor Eleanor Bold How well does that widows cap become her and the solemn gravity with which she devotes to her new duties Poor Eleanor
Poor Eleanor I cannot say that with me John Bold was ever a favourite I never thought him worthy of the wife he had won But in her estimation he was most worthy Hers was one of those feminine hearts which cling to a husband not with idolatry for worship can admit of no defect in its idol but with the perfect tenacity of ivy As the parasite plant will follow even the defects of the trunk which it embraces so did Eleanor cling to and love the very faults of her husband
She had once declared that whatever her father did should in her eyes be right She then transferred her allegiance and became ever ready to defend the worst failings of her lord and master
And John Bold was a man to be loved by a woman he was himself affectionate he was confiding and manly and that arrogance of thought unsustained by firstrate abilities that attempt at being better than his neighbours which jarred so painfully on the feelings of his acquaintances did not injure him in the estimation of his wife
Could she even have admitted that he had a fault his early death would have blotted out the memory of it She wept as for the loss of the most perfect treasure with which mortal woman had ever been endowed for weeks after he was gone the idea of future happiness in this world was hateful to her consolation as it is called was insupportable and tears and sleep were her only relief
But God tempers the wind to the shorn lamb She knew that she had within her the living source of other cares She knew that there was to be created for her another subject of weal or woe of unutterable joy or despairing sorrow as God in his mercy might vouchsafe to her At first this did not augment her grief To be the mother of a poor infant orphaned before it was born brought forth to the sorrows of an ever desolate hearth nurtured amidst tears and wailing and then turned adrift into the world without the aid of a fathers care There was at first no joy in this
By degrees however her heart became anxious for another object and before its birth the stranger was expected with all the eagerness of a longing mother Just eight months after the fathers death a second John Bold was born and if the worship of one creature can be innocent in another let us hope that the adoration offered over the cradle of the fatherless infant may not be imputed as sin
It will not be worth our while to define the character of the child or to point out in how far the faults of the father were redeemed within that little breast by the virtues of the mother The baby as a baby was all that was delightful and I cannot foresee that it will be necessary for us to inquire into the facts of his after life Our present business at Barchester will not occupy us above a year or two at the furthest and I will leave it to some other pen to produce if necessary the biography of John Bold the Younger
But as a baby this baby was all that could be desired This fact no one attempted to deny Is he not delightful she would say to her father looking into his face from her knees he lustrous eyes overflowing with soft tears her young face encircled by her close widows cap and her hands on each side of the cradle in which her treasure was sleeping The grandfather would gladly admit that the treasure was delightful and the uncle archdeacon himself would agree and Mrs Grantly Eleanors sister would reecho the word with true sisterly energy and Mary Bold—but Mary Bold was a second worshipper at the same shrine
The baby was really delightful he took his food with a will struck out his toes merrily whenever his legs were uncovered and did not have fits These are supposed to be the strongest points of baby perfection and in all these our baby excelled
And in this the widows deep grief was softened and a sweet balm was poured into the wound which she had thought nothing but death could heal How much kinder is God to us than we are willing to be to ourselves At the loss of every dear face at the last going of every well beloved one we all doom ourselves to an eternity of sorrow and look to waste ourselves away in an everrunning fountain of tears How seldom does such grief endure How blessed is the goodness which forbids it to do so Let me ever remember my living friends but forget them as soon as they are dead was the prayer of a wise man who understood the mercy of God Few perhaps would have the courage to express such a wish and yet to do so would only be to ask for that release from sorrow which a kind Creator almost always extends to us
I would not however have it imagined that Mrs Bold forgot her husband She really thought of him with all conjugal love and enshrined his memory in the innermost centre of her heart But yet she was happy in her baby It was so sweet to press the living toy to her breast and feel that a human being existed who did owe and was to owe everything to her whose daily food was drawn from herself whose little wants could all be satisfied by her whose infant tongue would make his first effort in calling her by the sweetest name a woman can hear And so Eleanors bosom became tranquil and she set about her new duties eagerly and gratefully
As regards the concerns of the world John Bold had left his widow in prosperous circumstances He had bequeathed to her all that he possessed and that comprised an income much exceeding what she or her friends thought necessary for her It amounted to nearly a thousand a year and when she reflected on its extent her dearest hope was to hand it over not only unimpaired but increased to her husbands son to her own darling to the little man who now lay sleeping on her knee happily ignorant of the cares which were to be accumulated in his behalf
When John Bold died she earnestly implored her father to come and live with her but this Mr Harding declined though for some weeks he remained with her as a visitor He could not be prevailed upon to forego the possession of some small house of his own and so remained in the lodgings he had first selected over a chemists shop in the High Street at Barchester
CHAPTER III
DR AND MRS PROUDIE
This narrative is supposed to commence immediately after the installation of Dr Proudie I will not describe the ceremony as I do not precisely understand its nature I am ignorant whether a bishop be chaired like a member of parliament or carried in a gilt coach like a lord mayor or sworn in like a justice of the peace or introduced like a peer to the upper house or led between two brethren like a knight of the garter but I do know that every thing was properly done and that nothing fit or becoming to a young bishop was omitted on the occasion
Dr Proudie was not the man to allow anything to be omitted that might be becoming to his new dignity He understood well the value of forms and knew that the due observations of rank could not be maintained unless the exterior trappings belonging to it were held in proper esteem He was a man born to move in high circles at least so he thought himself and circumstances had certainly sustained him in this view He was the nephew of a Irish baron by his mothers side and his wife was the niece of a Scottish earl He had for years held some clerical office appertaining to courtly matters which had enabled him to live in London and to entrust his parish to his curate He had been a preacher to the royal beefeaters curator of theological manuscripts in the Ecclesiastical Courts chaplain of the Queens Yeomanry Guard and almoner to his Royal Highness the Prince of RappeBlankenburg
His residence in the metropolis rendered necessary by the duties entrusted to him his high connections and the peculiar talents and nature of the man recommended him to persons in power and Dr Proudie became known as a useful and rising clergyman
Some few years since even within the memory of many who are not yet willing to call themselves old a liberal clergyman was a person not frequently to be met Sydney Smith was such and was looked on as a little better than an infidel a few others also might be named but they were rarae aves and were regarded with doubt and distrust by their brethren No man was so surely a tory as a country rector—nowhere were the powers that be so cherished as at Oxford
When however Dr Whately was made an archbishop and Dr Hampden some years afterwards regius professor many wise divines saw that a change was taking place in mens minds and that more liberal ideas would henceforward be suitable to the priests as well as to the laity Clergymen began to be heard of who had ceased to anathematise papists on the one hand or vilify dissenters on the other It appeared clear that high church principles as they are called were no longer to be the surest claims to promotion with at any rate one section of statesmen and Dr Proudie was one among those who early in life adapted himself to the views held by the whigs on most theological and religious subjects He bore with the idolatry of Rome tolerated even the infidelity of Socinianism and was hand and glove with the Presbyterian Synods of Scotland and Ulster
Such a man at such a time was found to be useful and Dr Proudies name began to appear in the newspapers He was made one of a commission who went over to Ireland to arrange matters preparative to the working of the national board he became honorary secretary to another commission nominated to inquire into the revenues of cathedral chapters and had had something to do with both the regium donum and the Maynooth Grant
It must not be on this account be taken as proved that Dr Proudie was a man of great mental powers or even of much capacity for business for such qualities had not been required in him In the arrangement of those church reforms with which he was connected the ideas and original conception of the work to be done were generally furnished by the liberal statesmen of the day and the labour of the details was borne by officials of a lower rank It was however thought expedient that the name of some clergyman should appear in such matters and as Dr Proudie had become known as a tolerating divine great use of this sort was made of his name If he did not do much active good he never did any harm he was amenable to those who were really in authority and at the sittings of the various boards to which he belonged maintained a kind of dignity which had its value
He was certainly possessed of sufficient tact to answer the purpose for which he was required without making himself troublesome but it must not therefore be surmised that he doubted his own power or failed to believe that he could himself take a high part in high affairs when his own turn came His was biding his time and patiently looking forward to the days when he himself would sit authoritative at some board and talk and direct and rule the roost while lesser stars sat round and obeyed as he had so well accustomed himself to do
His reward and his time had now come He was selected for the vacant bishopric and on the next vacancy which might occur in any diocese would take his place in the House of Lords prepared to give not a silent vote in all matters concerning the weal of the church establishment Toleration was to be the basis on which he was to fight his battles and in the honest courage of his heart he thought no evil would come to him in encountering even such foes as his brethren of Exeter and Oxford
Dr Proudie was an ambitious man and before he was well consecrated Bishop of Barchester he had begun to look up to archepiscopal splendour and the glories of Lambeth or at any rate of Bishopsthorpe He was comparatively young and had as he fondly flattered himself been selected as possessing such gifts natural and acquired as must be sure to recommend him to a yet higher notice now that a higher sphere was opened to him Dr Proudie was therefore quite prepared to take a conspicuous part in all theological affairs appertaining to these realms and having such views by no means intended to bury himself at Barchester as his predecessor had done No London should still be his ground a comfortable mansion in a provincial city might be well enough for the dead months of the year Indeed Dr Proudie had always felt it necessary to his position to retire from London when other great and fashionable people did so but London should still be his fixed residence and it was in London that he resolved to exercise that hospitality so peculiarly recommended to all bishops by St Paul How otherwise could he keep himself before the world How else give the government in matters theological the full benefit of his weight and talents
This resolution was no doubt a salutary one as regarded the world at large but was not likely to make him popular either with the clergy or the people of Barchester Dr Grantly had always lived there and in truth it was hard for a bishop to be popular after Dr Grantly His income had averaged L 9000 a year his successor was to be rigidly limited to L 5000 He had but one child on whom to spend his money Dr Proudie had seven or eight He had been a man of few personal expenses and they had been confined to the tastes of a moderate gentleman but Dr Proudie had to maintain a position in fashionable society and had that to do with comparatively small means Dr Grantly had certainly kept his carriages as became a bishop but his carriage horses and coachmen though they did very well for Barchester would have been almost ridiculous at Westminster Mrs Proudie determined that her husbands equipage should not shame her and things on which Mrs Proudie resolved were generally accomplished
From all this it was likely to result that Dr Proudie would not spend much money at Barchester whereas his predecessor had dealt with the tradesmen of the city in a manner very much to their satisfaction The Grantlys father and son had spent their money like gentlemen but it soon became whispered in Barchester that Dr Proudie was not unacquainted with those prudent devices by which the utmost show of wealth is produced from limited means
In person Dr Proudie is a goodlooking man spruce and dapper and very tidy He is somewhat below middle height being about five feet four but he makes up for the inches which he wants by the dignity with which he carries those which he has It is no fault of his own if he has not a commanding eye for he studies hard to assume it His features are well formed though perhaps the sharpness of his nose may give to his face in the eyes of some people an air of insignificance If so it is greatly redeemed by his mouth and chin of which he is justly proud
Dr Proudie may well be said to have been a fortunate man for he was not born to wealth and he is now bishop of Barchester but nevertheless he has his cares He has a large family of whom the three eldest are daughters now all grown up and fit for fashionable life and he has a wife It is not my intention to breathe a word against the character of Mrs Proudie but still I cannot think that with all her virtues she adds much to her husbands happiness The truth is that in matters domestic she rules supreme over her titular lord and rules with a rod of iron Nor is this all Things domestic Dr Proudie might have abandoned to her if not voluntarily yet willingly But Mrs Proudie is not satisfied with such home dominion and stretches her power over all his movements and will not even abstain from things spiritual In fact the bishop is henpecked
The archdeacons wife in her happy home at Plumstead knows how to assume the full privileges of her rank and express her own mind in becoming tone and place But Mrs Grantlys sway if sway she has is easy and beneficent She never shames her husband before the world she is a pattern of obedience her voice is never loud nor her looks sharp doubtless she values power and has not unsuccessfully striven to acquire it but she knows what should be the limits of womans rule
Not so Mrs Proudie This lady is habitually authoritative to all but to her poor husband she is despotic Successful as has been his career in the eyes of the world it would seem that in the eyes of his wife he is never right All hope of defending himself has long passed from him indeed he rarely even attempts selfjustification and is aware that submission produces the nearest approach to peace which his own house can ever attain
Mrs Proudie has not been able to sit at the boards and committees to which her husband has been called by the state nor as he often reflects can she make her voice heard in the House of Lords It may be that she will refuse to him permission to attend to this branch of a bishops duties it may be that she will insist on his close attendance to his own closet He has never whispered a word on the subject to living ears but he has already made his fixed resolve Should such an attempt be made he will rebel Dogs have turned against their masters and even Neapolitans against their rulers when oppression has been too severe And Dr Proudie feels within himself that if the cord be drawn too tight he also can muster courage and resist
The state of vassalage in which our bishop had been kept by his wife has not tended to exalt his character in the eyes of his daughters who assume in addressing their father too much of that authority which is not properly belonging at any rate to them They are on the whole fine engaging young ladies They are tall and robust like their mother whose high cheek bones and—we may say auburn hair they all inherit They think somewhat too much of their grand uncles who have not hitherto returned the compliment by thinking much of them But now that their father is a bishop it is probable that family ties will be drawn closer Considering their connection with the church they entertain but few prejudices against the pleasures of the world and have certainly not distressed their parents as too many English girls have lately done by any enthusiastic wish to devote themselves to the seclusion of a protestant nunnery Dr Proudies sons are still at school
One other marked peculiarity in the character of the bishops wife must be mentioned Though not averse to the society and manners of the world she is in her own way a religious woman and the form in which this tendency shows itself in her is by a strict observance of the Sabbatarian rule Dissipation and low dresses during the week are under her control atoned for by three services an evening sermon read by herself and a perfect abstinence from any cheering employment on Sunday Unfortunately for those under her roof to whom the dissipation and low dresses are not extended her servants namely and her husband the compensating strictness of the Sabbath includes all Woe betide the recreant housemaid who is found to have been listening to the honey of a sweetheart in the Regents Park instead of the soulstirring evening discourse of Mr Slope Not only is she sent adrift but she is so sent with a character which leaves her little hope of a decent place Woe betide the sixfoot hero who escorts Mrs Proudie to her pew in red plush breeches if he slips away to the neighbouring beershop instead of falling into the back seat appropriated to his use Mrs Proudie has the eyes of Argus for such offenders Occasional drunkenness in the week may be overlooked for six feet on low wages are hardly to be procured if the morals are always kept at a high pitch but not even for the grandeur or economy will Mrs Proudie forgive a desecration of the Sabbath
In such matters Mrs Proudie allows herself to be often guided by that eloquent preacher the Rev Mr Slope and as Dr Proudie is guided by his wife it necessarily follows that the eminent man we have named has obtained a good deal of control over Dr Proudie in matters concerning religion Mr Slopes only preferment has hitherto been that of reader and preacher in a London district church and on the consecration of his friend the new bishop he readily gave this up to undertake the onerous but congenial duties of domestic chaplain to the bishop
Mr Slope however on his first introduction must not be brought before the public at the tail of a chapter
CHAPTER IV
THE BISHOPS CHAPLAIN
Of the Rev Mr Slopes parentage I am not able to say much I have heard it asserted that he is lineally descended from that eminent physician who assisted at the birth of Mr T Shandy and that in early years he added an e to his name for the sake of euphony as other great men have done before him If this be so I presumed he was christened Obadiah for that is his name in commemoration of the conflict in which his ancestor so distinguished himself All my researches on the subject have however failed in enabling me to fix the date on which the family changed its religion
He had been a sizar at Cambridge and had there conducted himself at any rate successfully for in due process of time he was an MA having university pupils under his care From thence he was transferred to London and became preacher at a new district church built on the confines of Baker Street He was in this position when congenial ideas on religious subjects recommended him to Mrs Proudie and the intercourse had become close and confidential
Having been thus familiarly thrown among the Misses Proudie it was more than natural that some softer feeling than friendship should be engendered There have been some passages of love between him and the eldest hope Olivia but they have hitherto resulted in no favourable arrangement In truth Mr Slope having made a declaration of affection afterwards withdrew it on finding that the doctor had no immediate worldly funds with which to endow his child and it may easily be conceived that Miss Proudie after such an announcement on his part was not readily disposed to receive any further show of affection On the appointment of Dr Proudie to the bishopric of Barchester Mr Slopes views were in truth somewhat altered Bishops even though they be poor can provide for clerical children and Mr Slope began to regret that he had not been more disinterested He no sooner heard the tidings of the doctors elevation than he recommenced his siege not violently indeed but respectfully and at a distance Olivia Proudie however was a girl of spirit she had the blood of two peers in her veins and better still she had another lover on her books so Mr Slope sighed in vain and the pair soon found it convenient to establish a mutual bond of inveterate hatred
It may be thought singular that Mrs Proudies friendship for the young clergyman should remain firm after such an affair but to tell the truth she had known nothing of it Though very fond of Mr Slope herself she had never conceived the idea that either of her daughters would become so and remembering that their high birth and social advantages expected for them matches of a different sort Neither the gentleman nor the lady found it necessary to enlighten her Olivias two sisters had each known of the affair so had all the servants so had all the people living in the adjoining houses on either side but Mrs Proudie had been kept in the dark
Mr Slope soon comforted himself with the reflection that as he had been selected as chaplain to the bishop it would probably be in his power to get the good things in the bishops gift without troubling himself with the bishops daughter and he found himself able to endure the pangs of rejected love As he sat himself down in the railway carriage confronting the bishop and Mrs Proudie as they started on their first journey to Barchester he began to form in his own mind a plan of his future life He knew well his patrons strong points but he knew the weak ones as well He understood correctly enough to what attempts the new bishops high spirit would soar and he rightly guessed that public life would better suit the great mans taste than the small details of diocesan duty
He therefore he Mr Slope would in effect be bishop of Barchester Such was his resolve and to give Mr Slope his due he had both courage and spirit to bear him out in his resolution He knew that he should have a hard battle to fight for the power and patronage of the see would be equally coveted by another great mind—Mrs Proudie would also choose to be bishop of Barchester Mr Slope however flattered himself that he could outmanoeuvre the lady She must live much in London while he would always be on the spot She would necessarily remain ignorant of much while he would know everything belonging to the diocese At first doubtless he must flatter and cajole perhaps yield in some things but he did not doubt of ultimate triumph If all other means failed he could join the bishop against the wife inspire courage into the unhappy man lay an axe to the rock of the womans power and emancipate the husband
Such were his thoughts as he sat looking at the sleeping pair in the railway carriage and Mr Slope is not the man to trouble himself with such thoughts for nothing He is possessed of more than average abilities and is of good courage Though he can stoop to fawn and stoop low indeed if need be he has still within him the power to assume the tyrant and with the power he has certainly the wish His acquirements are not of the highest order but such as they are they are completely under control and he knows the use of them He is gifted with a certain kind of pulpit eloquence not likely indeed to be persuasive with men but powerful with the softer sex In his sermons he deals greatly in denunciations excites the minds of his weaker hearers with a not unpleasant terror and leaves an impression on their minds that all mankind are in a perilous state and all womankind too except those who attend regularly to the evening lectures in Baker Street His looks and tones are extremely severe so much so that one cannot but fancy that he regards the greater part of the world as being infinitely too bad for his care As he walks through the streets his very face denotes his horror of the worlds wickedness and there is always an anathema lurking in the corner of his eye
In doctrine he like his patron is tolerant of dissent if so strict a mind can be called tolerant of anything With WesleyanMethodists he has something in common but his soul trembles in agony at the iniquities of the Puseyites His aversion is carried to things outward as well as inward His gall rises at a new church with a high pitched roof a fullbreasted black silk waistcoat is with him a symbol of Satan and a profane jestbook would not in his view more foully desecrate the church seat of a Christian than a book of prayer printed with red letters and ornamented with a cross on the back Most active clergymen have their hobby and Sunday observances are his Sunday however is a word which never pollutes his mouth—it is always the Sabbath The desecration of the Sabbath as he delights to call it is to him meat and drink—he thrives upon that as policemen do on the general evil habits of the community It is the loved subject of all his evening discourses the source of all his eloquence the secret of his power over the female heart To him the revelation of God appears in that one law given for Jewish observance To him the mercies of our Saviour speak in vain to him in vain has been preached that sermon that fell from the divine lips on the mountain—Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth—Blessed are the merciful for the they shall obtain mercy To him the New Testament is comparatively of little moment for from it can he draw no fresh authority for that dominion which he loves to exercise over at least a seventh part of mans allotted time here below
Mr Slope is tall and not ill made His feet and hands are large as has ever been the case with all his family but he has a broad chest and wide shoulders to carry off these excrescences and on the whole his figure is good His countenance however is not specially prepossessing His hair is lank and of a dull pale reddish hue It is always formed into three straight lumpy masses each brushed with admirable precision and cemented with much grease two of them adhere closely to the sides of his face and the other lies at right angles above them He wears no whiskers and is always punctiliously shaven His face is nearly of the same colour as his hair though perhaps a little redder it is not unlike beef—beef however one would say of a bad quality His forehead is capacious and high but square and heavy and unpleasantly shining His mouth is large though his lips are thin and bloodless and his big prominent pale brown eyes inspire anything but confidence His nose however is his redeeming feature it is pronounced straight and wellformed though I myself should have liked it better if it did not possess a somewhat spongy porous appearance as though it had been cleverly formed out of a red coloured cork
I never could endure to shake hands with Mr Slope A cold clammy perspiration always exudes from him the small drops are ever to be seen standing on his brow and his friendly grasp is unpleasant
Such is Mr Slope—such is the man who has suddenly fallen into the midst of Barchester Close and is destined there to assume the station which has heretofore been filled by the son of the late bishop Think oh my meditative reader what an associate we have here for those comfortable prebendaries those gentlemanlike clerical doctors those happy wellused wellfed minor canons who have grown into existence at Barchester under the kindly wings of Bishop Grantly
But not as a mere associate for those does Mr Slope travel down to Barchester with the bishop and his wife He intends to be if not their master at least the chief among them He intends to lead and to have followers he intends to hold the purse strings of the diocese and draw round him an obedient herd of his poor and hungry brethren
And here we can hardly fail to draw a comparison between the archdeacon and our new private chaplain and despite the manifold faults of the former one can hardly fail to make it much to his advantage
Both men are eager much too eager to support and increase the power of their order Both are anxious that the world should be priestgoverned though they have probably never confessed as much even to themselves Both begrudge any other kind of dominion held by man over man Dr Grantly if he admits the Queens supremacy in things spiritual only admits it as being due to the quasi priesthood conveyed on the consecrating qualities of her coronation and he regards things temporal as being by their nature subject to those which are spiritual Mr Slopes ideas of sacerdotal rule are of a quite different class He cares nothing one way or the other for the Queens supremacy these to his ears are empty words meaning nothing Forms he regards but little and such titular expressions of supremacy consecration ordination and the like convey of themselves no significance to him Let him be supreme who can The temporal king judge or gaoler can work but on the body The spiritual master if he have the necessary gifts and can duly use them has a wider field of empire He works upon the soul If he can make himself be believed he can be all powerful over those who listen If he is careful to meddle with none who are too strong in intellect or too weak in flesh he may indeed be supreme And such was the ambition of Mr Slope
Dr Grantly interfered very little with the worldly doings of those who were in any way subject to him I do not mean to say that he omitted to notice misconduct among his clergy immorality in his parish or omissions in his family but he was not anxious to do so where the necessity could be avoided He was not troubled with a propensity to be curious and as long as those around him were tainted with no heretical leaning towards dissent as long as they fully and freely admitted the efficacy of Mother Church he was willing that that mother should be merciful and affectionate prone to indulgence and unwilling to chastise He himself enjoyed the good things of this world and liked to let it be known that he did so He cordially despised any brother rector who thought harm of dinnerparties or dreaded the dangers of a moderate claretjug consequently dinnerparties and claretjugs were common in the diocese He liked to give laws and to be obeyed in them implicitly but he endeavoured that his ordinances should be within the compass of the man and not unpalatable to the gentleman He had ruled among his clerical neighbours now for sundry years and as he had maintained his power without becoming unpopular it may be presumed that he had exercised some wisdom
Of Mr Slopes conduct much cannot be said as his grand career is yet to commence but it may be presumed that his tastes will be very different from those of the archdeacon He conceives it to be his duty to know all the private doings and desires of the flock entrusted to his care From the poorer classes he exacted and unconditional obedience to set rules of conduct and if disobeyed he has recourse like his great ancestor to the fulminations of an Ernulfus Thou shalt be damned in thy going in and in thy coming out—in thy eating and thy drinking c c c With the rich experience has already taught him a different line of action is necessary Men in the upper walks of life do not mind being cursed and the women presuming that it be done in delicate phrase rather like it But he has not therefore given up so important a portion of believing Christians With the men indeed he is generally at variance they are hardened sinners on whom the voice of priestly charmer often falls in vain but with the ladies old and young firm and frail devout and dissipated he is as he conceives all powerful He can reprove faults with so much flattery and utter censure in so caressing a manner that the female heart if it glow with a spark of low church susceptibility cannot withstand him In many houses he is thus an admired guest the husbands for their wives sake are fain to admit him and when once admitted it is not easy to shake him off He has however a pawing greasy way with him which does not endear him to those who do not value him for their souls sake and he is not a man to make himself at once popular in a large circle such as is now likely to surround him at Barchester
CHAPTER V
A MORNING VISIT
It was known that Dr Proudie would immediately have to reappoint to the wardenship of the hospital under the act of Parliament to which allusion has been made but no one imagined that any choice was left to him—no one for a moment thought that he could appoint any other than Mr Harding Mr Harding himself when he heard how the matter had been settled without troubling himself much on the subject considered it as certain that he would go back to his pleasant house and garden And though there would be much that was melancholy nay almost heartrending in such a return he still was glad that it was to be so His daughter might probably be persuaded to return there with him She had indeed all but promised to do so though she still entertained an idea that the greatest of mortals that important atom of humanity that little god upon earth Johnny Bold her baby ought to have a house of his own over his head
Such being the state of Mr Hardings mind in the matter he did not feel any peculiar personal interest in the appointment of Dr Proudie to the bishopric He as well as others at Barchester regretted that a man should be sent among them who they were aware was not of their way of thinking but Mr Harding himself was not a bigoted man on points of church doctrine and he was quite prepared to welcome Dr Proudie to Barchester in a graceful and becoming manner He had nothing to seek and nothing to fear he felt that it behoved him to be on good terms with his bishop and he did not anticipate any obstacle that would prevent it
In such a frame of mind he proceeded to pay his respects at the palace the second day after the arrival of the bishop and his chaplain But he did not go alone Dr Grantly proposed to accompany him and Mr Harding was not sorry to have a companion who would remove from his shoulders the burden of conversation in such an interview In the affair of the consecration of Dr Grantly had been introduced to the bishop and Mr Harding had also been there He had however kept himself in the background and he was now to be presented to the great man for the first time
The archdeacons feelings were of a much stronger nature He was not exactly the man to overlook his own slighted claims or to forgive the preference shown to another Dr Proudie was playing Venus to his Juno and he was prepared to wage an internecine war against the owner of the wished for apple and all his satellites private chaplains and others
Nevertheless it behoved him also to conduct himself towards the intruder as an old archdeacon should conduct himself to an incoming bishop and though he was well aware of all Dr Proudies abominable opinions as regarded dissenters church reform the hebdomadal council and such like though he disliked the man and hated the doctrines still he was prepared to show respect to the station of the bishop So he and Mr Harding called together at the palace
His lordship was at home and the two visitors were shown through the accustomed hall into the wellknown room where the good old bishop used to sit The furniture had been bought at a valuation and every chair and table every bookshelf against the wall and every square in the carpet was as well known to each of them as their own bedrooms Nevertheless they at once felt that they were strangers there The furniture was for the most part the same yet the place had been metamorphosed A new sofa had been introduced and horrid chintz affair most unprelatical and almost irreligious such a sofa as never yet stood in the study of any decent high church clergyman of the Church of England The old curtains had also given away They had to be sure become dingy and that which had been originally a rich and goodly ruby had degenerated into a reddish brown Mr Harding however thought the old reddish brown much preferable to the gaudy buffcoloured trumpery moreen which Mrs Proudie had deemed good enough for her husbands own room in the provincial city of Barchester
Our friends found Dr Proudie sitting on the old bishops chair looking very nice in his new apron they found too Mr Slope standing on the hearthrug persuasive and eager just as the archdeacon used to stand but on the sofa they also found Mrs Proudie an innovation for which a precedent might be in vain be sought in all the annals of the Barchester bishopric
There she was however and they could only make the best of her The introductions were gone through in much form The archdeacon shook hands with the bishop and named Mr Harding who received such an amount of greeting as was due from a bishop to a precentor His lordship then presented them to his lady wife the archdeacon first with archidiaconal honours and then the precentor with diminished parade After this Mr Slope presented himself The bishop it is true did mention his name and so did Mrs Proudie too in a louder tone but Mr Slope took it upon himself the chief burden of his own introduction He had great pleasure in making himself acquainted with Dr Grantly he had heard much of the archdeacons good works in that part of the diocese in which his duties as archdeacon had been exercised thus purposely ignoring the archdeacons hitherto unlimited dominion over the diocese at large He was aware that his lordship depended greatly on the assistance which Dr Grantly would be able to give him in that portion of the diocese He then thrust out his hand and grasping that of his new foe bedewed it unmercifully Dr Grantly in return bowed looked stiff contracted his eyebrows and wiped his hand with his pockethandkerchief Nothing abashed Mr Slope then noticed the precentor and descended to the grade of the lower clergy He gave him a squeeze of the hand damp indeed but affectionate and was very glad to make the acquaintance of Mr oh yes Mr Harding he had not exactly caught the name— Precentor in the cathedral surmised Mr Slope Mr Harding confessed that such was the humble sphere of his work Some parish duties as well suggested Mr Slope Mr Harding acknowledged the diminutive incumbency of St Cuthberts Mr Slope then left him alone having condescended sufficiently and joined the conversation among the higher powers
There were four persons there each of whom considered himself the most important personage in the diocese himself indeed or herself as Mrs Proudie was one of them and with such a difference of opinion it was not probable that they would get on pleasantly together The bishop himself actually wore the visible apron and trusted mainly to that—to that and to his title both being facts which could not be overlooked The archdeacon knew his subject and really understood the business of bishoping which the others did not and this was his strong ground Mrs Proudie had her sex to back her and her habit of command and was nothing daunted by the high tone of Dr Grantlys face and figure Mr Slope had only himself and his own courage and tact to depend on but he nevertheless was perfectly selfassured and did not doubt but that he should soon get the better of weak men who trusted so much to externals as both bishop and archdeacon appeared to do
Do you reside in Barchester Dr Grantly asked the lady with the sweetest smile
Dr Grantly explained that he lived in his own parish of Plumstead Episcopi a few miles out of the city Whereupon the lady hoped that the distance was not too great for country visiting as she would be so glad to make the acquaintance of Mrs Grantly She would take the earliest opportunity after the arrival of her horses at Barchester their horses were at present in London their horses were not immediately coming down as the bishop would be obliged in a few days to return to town Dr Grantly was no doubt aware that the bishop was at present much called upon by the University Improvement Committee indeed the Committee could not well proceed without him as their final report had now to be drawn up The bishop had also to prepare a scheme for the Manufacturing Towns Morning and Evening Sunday School Society of which he was a patron or president or director and therefore the horses would not come down to Barchester at present but whenever the horses did come down she would take the earliest opportunity of calling at Plumstead Episcopi providing the distance was not too great for country visiting
The archdeacon made his fifth bow he had made one at each mention of the horses and promised that Mrs Grantly would do herself the honour of calling at the palace on an early day Mrs Proudie declared that she would be delighted she hadnt liked to ask not being quite sure whether Mrs Grantly had horses besides the distance might have been c c
Dr Grantly again bowed but said nothing He could have bought every single individual possession of the whole family of the Proudies and have restored them as a gift without much feeling the loss and had kept a separate pair of horses for the exclusive use of his wife since the day of their marriage whereas Mrs Proudie had been hitherto jobbed about the streets of London at so much a month during the season and at other times had managed to walk or hire a smart fly from the livery stables
Are the arrangements with reference to the Sabbathday schools generally pretty good in your archdeaconry
Sabbathday schools repeated the archdeacon with an affectation of surprise Upon my word I cant tell it depends mainly on the parsons wife and daughters There is none at Plumstead
This was almost a fib on the part of the Archdeacon for Mrs Grantly has a very nice school To be sure it is not a Sunday School exclusively and is not so designated but that exemplary lady always attends there an hour before church and hears the children say their catechism and sees that they are clean and tidy for church with their hands washed and their shoes tied and Grisel and Florinda her daughters carry thither a basket of large buns baked on the Saturday afternoon and distribute them to all the children not especially under disgrace which buns are carried home after church with considerable content and eaten hot at tea being then split and toasted The children of Plumstead would indeed open their eyes if they heard their venerated pastor declare that there were no Sunday schools in the parish
Mr Slope merely opened his eyes wider and slightly shrugged his shoulders He was not however prepared to give up his darling project
I fear there is a great deal of Sabbath travelling here said he on looking at the Bradshaw I see that there are three trains in and three trains out every Sabbath Could nothing be done to induce the company to withdraw them Dont you think Dr Grantly that a little energy might diminish the evil
Not being a director I really cant say But if you can withdraw the passengers their company I dare say will withdraw the trains said the doctor Its merely a question of dividends
But surely Dr Grantly said the lady surely we should look at it differently You and I for instance in our position surely we should do all that we can to control so grievous a sin Dont you think so Mr Harding and she turned to the precentor who was sitting mute and unhappy
Mr Harding thought that all porters and stokers guards breaksmen pointsmen ought to have an opportunity of going to church and he hoped that they all had
But surely surely continued Mrs Proudie surely that is not enough Surely that will not secure such an observance of the Sabbath as we are taught to conceive is not only expedient by indispensable surely—
Come what come might Dr Grantly was not to be forced into a dissertation on a point of doctrine with Mrs Proudie nor yet with Mr Slope so without much ceremony he turned his back upon the sofa and began to hope that Dr Proudie had found the palace repairs had been such as to meet his wishes
Yes yes said his lordship upon the whole he thought so—upon the whole he didnt know that there was much ground for complaint the architect perhaps might have—but his double Mr Slope who had sidled over to the bishops chair would not allow his lordship to finish his ambiguous speech
There is one point I would like to mention Mr Archdeacon His lordship asked me to step through the premises and I see that the stalls in the second stable are not perfect
Why—theres standing for a dozen horsessaid the archdeacon
Perhaps so said the other indeed Ive no doubt of it but visitors you know often require so much accommodation There are many of the bishops relatives who always bring their own horses
Dr Grantly promised that due provision for the relatives horses should be made as far at least as the extent of the original stable building would allow He would himself communicate with the architect
And the coachhouse Dr Grantly continued Mr Slope there is really hardly any room for a second carriage in the large coachhouse and the smaller one of course holds only one
And the gas chimed in the lady there is no gas through the house none whatever but in the kitchen and passages Surely the palace should have been fitted through with pipes for gas and hot water too There is no hot water laid on anywhere above the ground floor Surely there should be the means of getting hot water in the bedrooms without having it brought in jugs from the kitchen
The bishop had a decided opinion that there should be pipes for hot water Hot water was very essential for the comfort of the palace It was indeed a requisite in any decent gentlemans house
Mr Slope had remarked that the coping on the garden wall was in many places imperfect
Mrs Proudie had discovered a large hole evidently the work of rats in the servants hall
The bishop expressed an utter detestation of rats There was nothing he believed in this world that he so much hated as a rat
Mr Slope had moreover observed that the locks of the outhouses were very imperfect he might specify the coalcellar and the woodhouse
Mrs Proudie had also seen that those on the doors of the servants bedrooms were in an equally bad condition indeed the locks all through the house were oldfashioned and unserviceable
The bishop thought that a great deal depended on a good lock and quite as much on the key He had observed that the fault very often lay with the key especially if the wards were in any way twisted
Mr Slope was going on with his catalogue of grievances when he was somewhat loudly interrupted by the archdeacon who succeeded in explaining that the diocesan architect or rather his foreman was the person to be addressed on such subjects and that he Dr Grantly had inquired as to the comfort of the palace merely as a point of compliment He was very sorry however that so many things had been found amiss and then he rose from his chair to escape
Mrs Proudie though she had contrived to lend her assistance in recapitulating the palatial dilapidations had not on that account given up her hold of Mr Harding nor ceased from her crossexamination as the iniquity of Sabbatical amusements Over and over again had she thrown out her surely surely at Mr Hardings devoted head and ill had that gentleman been able to parry the attack
He had never before found himself subjected to such a nuisance Ladies hitherto when they had consulted him on religious subjects had listened to what he might choose to say with some deference and had differed it they differed in silence But Mrs Proudie interrogated him and then lectured Neither thou nor thy son nor thy daughter nor thy man servant nor thy maid servant said she impressively and more than once as though Mr Harding had forgotten the words She shook her finger at him as she quoted the favourite law as though menacing him with punishment and then called upon him categorically to state whether he did not think that travelling on the Sabbath was an abomination and a desecration
Mr Harding had never been so hard pressed in his life He felt that he ought to rebuke the lady for presuming so to talk to a gentleman and a clergyman so may years her senior but he recoiled from the idea of scolding the bishops wife in the bishops presence on his first visit to the palace moreover to tell the truth he was somewhat afraid of her She seeing him sit silent and absorbed by no means refrained from the attack
I hope Mr Harding said she shaking her head slowly and solemnly I hope you will not leave me to think that you approve of Sabbath travelling and she looked a look of unutterable meaning into his eyes
There was no standing for this for Mr Slope was now looking at him and so was the bishop and so was the archdeacon who had completed his adieux on that side of the room Mr Harding therefore got up also and putting out his hand to Mrs Proudie said If you will come to St Cuthberts some Sunday I will preach you a sermon on the subject
And so the archdeacon and the precentor took their departure bowing low to the lady shaking hands with the lord and escaping from Mr Slope in the best manner each could Mr Harding was again maltreated but Dr Grantly swore deeply in the bottom of his heart that no earthly consideration should ever again induce him to touch the paw of that impure and filthy animal
And now had I the pen of a might poet would I sing in epic verse the noble wrath of the archdeacon The palace steps descend to a broad gravel sweep from whence a small gate opens out into the street very near the covered gateway leading to the close The road from the palace door turns to the left through the spacious gardens and terminates on the Londonroad half a mile from the cathedral
Till they had passed this small gate and entered the close neither of them spoke a word but the precentor clearly saw from his companions face that a tornado was to be expected nor was he himself inclined to stop it Though by nature far less irritable than the archdeacon even he was angry he even—that mild and courteous man—was inclined to express himself in anything but courteous terms
CHAPTER VI
WAR
Good heavens exclaimed the archdeacon as he placed his foot on the gravel walk of the close and raising his hat with one hand passed the other somewhat violently over his now grizzled locks smoke issued from the uplifted beaver as it were a cloud of wrath and the safetyvalve of his anger opened and emitted a visible steam preventing positive explosion and probably apoplexy Good heavens—and the archdeacon looked up to the gray pinnacles of the cathedral tower making a mute appeal to that still living witness which had looked down on the doings of so many bishops of Barchester
I dont think I shall ever like that Mr Slope said Mr Harding
Like him roared the archdeacon standing still for a moment to give more force to his voice like him All the ravens of the close cawed their assent The old bells of the tower in chiming the hour echoed the words and the swallows flying out from their nests mutely expressed a similar opinion Like Mr Slope Why no it was not very probable that any Barchesterbred living thing should like Mr Slope
Nor Mrs Proudie either said Mr Harding
The archdeacon thereupon forgot himself I will not follow his example nor shock my readers by transcribing the term in which he expressed his feelings as to the lady who had been named The ravens and the last lingering notes of the clock bells were less scrupulous and repeated in corresponding echoes the very improper exclamation The archdeacon again raised his hat and another salutary escape of steam was effected
There was a pause during which the precentor tried to realise the fact that the wife of the bishop of Barchester had been thus designated in the close of the cathedral by the lips of its own archdeacon but he could not do it
The bishop seems a quiet man enough suggested Mr Harding having acknowledged to himself his own failure
Idiot exclaimed the doctor who for the nonce was not capable of more than spasmodic attempts at utterance
Well he did not seem very bright said Mr Harding and yet he has always had the reputation of a clever man I suppose hes cautious and not inclined to express himself very freely
The new bishop of Barchester was already so contemptible a creature in Dr Grantlys eyes that he could not condescend to discuss his character He was a puppet to be played by others a mere wax doll done up in an apron and a shovel hat to be stuck on a throne or elsewhere and pulled about by wires as others chose Dr Grantly did not choose to let himself down low enough to talk about Dr Proudie but he saw that he would have to talk about the other members of his household the coadjutor bishops who had brought his lordship down as it were in a box and were about to handle the wires as they willed This in itself was a terrible vexation to the archdeacon Could he have ignored the chaplain and have fought the bishop there would have been at any rate nothing degrading in such a contest Let the Queen make whom she would bishop of Barchester a man or even an ape when once a bishop would be a respectable adversary if he would but fight himself But what was such a person as Dr Grantly to do when such another person as Mr Slope was put forward as his antagonist
If he our archdeacon refused to combat Mr Slope would walk triumphant over the field and have the diocese of Barchester under his heel
If on the other hand the archdeacon accepted as his enemy the man whom the new puppet bishop put before him as such he would have to talk about Mr Slope and write about Mr Slope and in all matters treat with Mr Slope as a being standing in some degree on ground similar to his own He would have to meet Mr Slope to—Bah The idea was sickening He could not bring himself to have to do with Mr Slope
He is the most thoroughly bestial creature that ever I set my eyes upon said the archdeacon
Who—the bishop
Bishop No—Im not talking about the bishop How on earth such a creature got ordained—theyll ordain anybody now I know but hes been in the church these ten years and they used to be a little careful ten years ago
Oh You mean Mr Slope
Did you ever see any animal less like a gentleman
I cant say I felt myself much disposed to like him
Like him again shouted the doctor and the assenting ravens again cawed an echo of course you dont like him its not a question of liking But what are we to do with him
Do with him asked Mr Harding
Yes—what are we to do with him How are we to treat him There he is and there hell stay He has put his foot in that palace and he will never take it out again till hes driven How are we to get rid of him
I dont suppose he can do us much harm
Not do harm—Well I think youll find yourself of a different opinion before a month is gone What would you say now if he got himself put into the hospital Would that be harm
Mr Harding mused awhile and then said he didnt think the new bishop would put Mr Slope into the hospital
If he doesnt put him there hell put him somewhere else where hell be as bad I tell you that that man to all intents and purposes will be Bishop of Barchester and again Dr Grantly raised his hat and rubbed his hand thoughtfully and sadly over his head
Impudent scoundrel he exclaimed after a while To dare to crossexamine me about Sunday schools in the diocese and Sunday travelling too I never in my life met his equal for sheer impudence Why he must have thought we were two candidates for ordination
I declare I thought Mrs Proudie the worst of the two said Mr
Harding
When a woman is impertinent one must only put up with it and keep out of her way in future but I am not inclined to put up with Mr Slope Sabbath travelling and the doctor attempted to imitate the peculiar drawl of the man he so much disliked Sabbath travelling Those are the sort of men who will ruin the Church of England and make the profession of clergyman disreputable It is not the dissenters or the papists that we should fear but the set of canting lowbred hypocrites who are wriggling their way in among us men who have no fixed principle no standard ideas of religion or doctrine but who take up some popular cry as this fellow has done about Sabbath travelling
Dr Grantly did not again repeat the question aloud but he did so constantly to himself What were they to do with Mr Slope How was he openly before the world to show that he utterly disapproved of and abhorred such a man
Hitherto Barchester had escaped the taint of any extreme rigour of church doctrine The clergymen of the city and the neighbourhood though very well inclined to promote highchurch principles privileges and prerogatives had never committed themselves to tendencies which are somewhat too loosely called Puseyite practices They all preached in their black gowns as their fathers had done before them they wore ordinary black cloth waistcoats they had not candles on their altars either lighted or unlighted they made no private genuflexions and were contented to confine themselves to such ceremonial observances as had been in vogue for the last hundred years The services were decently and demurely read in their parish churches chanting was confined to the cathedral and the science of intoning was unknown One young man who had come direct from Oxford as a curate at Plumstead had after the lapse of two or three Sundays made a faint attempt much to the bewilderment of the poorer part of the congregation Dr Grantly had not been present on the occasion but Mrs Grantly who had her own opinion on the subject immediately after the service expressed a hope that the young gentleman had not been taken ill and offered to send him all kinds of condiments supposed to be good for a sore throat After that there had been no more intoning at Plumstead Episcopi
But now the archdeacon began to meditate on some strong measures of absolute opposition Dr Proudie and his crew were of the lowest possible order of Church of England clergymen and therefore it behoved him Dr Grantly to be of the very highest Dr Proudie would abolish all forms and ceremonies and therefore Dr Grantly felt the sudden necessity of multiplying them Dr Proudie would consent to deprive the church of all collective authority and rule and therefore Dr Grantly would stand up for the full power of convocation and the renewal of its ancient privileges
It was true that he could not himself intone the service but he could pressure the cooperation of any number of gentlemanlike curates well trained in the mystery of doing so He would not willingly alter his own fashion of dress but he could people Barchester with young clergymen dressed in the longest frocks and the highest breasted silk waistcoats He certainly was not prepared to cross himself or to advocate the real presence but without going this length there were various observances by adopting which he could plainly show his antipathy to such men as Dr Proudie and Mr Slope
All these things passed through his mind as he paced up and down the close with Mr Harding War war internecine war was in his heart He felt that as regarded himself and Mr Slope one of the two must be annihilated as far as the city of Barchester was concerned and he did not intend to give way until there was not left to him an inch of ground on which he could stand He still flattered himself that he could make Barchester too hot to hold Mr Slope and he had no weakness of spirit to prevent his bringing about such consummation if it were in his power
I suppose Susan must call at the palace said Mr Harding
Yes she shall call there but it shall be once and once only I dare say the horses wont find it convenient to come to Plumstead very soon and when that once is done the matter may drop
I dont suppose Eleanor need call I dont think Eleanor would get on at all well with Mrs Proudie
Not the least necessity in life replied the archdeacon not without the reflection that a ceremony which was necessary for his wife might not be at all binding on the widow of John Bold Not the slightest reason on earth why she should do so if she doesnt like it For myself I dont think that any decent young woman should be subjected to the nuisance of being in the same room with that man
And so the two clergymen parted Mr Harding going to his daughters house and the archdeacon seeking the seclusion of his brougham
The new inhabitants of the palace did not express any higher opinion of their visitors than their visitors had expressed of them Though they did not use quite such strong language as Dr Grantly had done they felt as much personal aversion and were quite as well aware as he was that there would be a battle to be fought and that there was hardly room for Proudieism in Barchester as long as Grantlyism was predominant
Indeed it may be doubted whether Mr Slope had not already within his breast a better prepared system of strategy a more accuratelydefined line of hostile conduct than the archdeacon Dr Grantly was going to fight because he found that he hated the man Mr Slope had predetermined to hate the man because he foresaw the necessity of fighting him When he had first reviewed the carte de pays previous to his entry into Barchester the idea had occurred to him of conciliating the archdeacon of cajoling and flattering him into submission and of obtaining the upper hand by cunning instead of courage A little inquiry however sufficed to convince him that all his cunning would fail to win over such a man as Dr Grantly to such a mode of action as that to be adopted by Mr Slope and then he determined to fall back upon his courage He at once saw that open battle against Dr Grantly and all Dr Grantlys adherents was a necessity of his position and he deliberately planned the most expedient method of giving offence
Soon after his arrival the bishop had intimated to the dean that with the permission of the canon then in residence his chaplain would preach in the cathedral on the next Sunday The canon in residence happened to be the Honourable and Reverend Dr Vesey Stanhope who at this time was very busy on the shores of Lake Como adding to that unique collection of butterflies for which he is so famous Or rather he would have been in residence but for the butterflies and other such summerday considerations and the vicarchoral who was to take his place in the pulpit by no means objected to having his word done for him by Mr Slope
Mr Slope accordingly preached and if a preacher can have satisfaction in being listened to Mr Slope ought to have been gratified I have reason to think that he was gratified and that he left the pulpit with the conviction that he had done what he intended to do when he entered it
On this occasion the new bishop took his seat for the first time in the throne allotted to him New scarlet cushions and drapery had been prepared with new gilt binding and new fringe The old carved oakwood of the throne ascending with its numerous grotesque pinnacles halfway up to the rood of the choir had been washed and dusted and rubbed and it all looked very smart Ah How often sitting there in happy early days on those lowly benches in front of the altar have I whiled away the tedium of a sermon considering how best I might thread my way up amidst those wooden towers and climb safely to the topmost pinnacle
All Barchester went to hear Mr Slope either for that or to gaze at the new bishop All the best bonnets of the city were there and moreover all the best glossy clerical hats Not a stall but had its fitting occupant for though some of the prebendaries might be away in Italy or elsewhere their places were filled by brethren who flocked into Barchester on the occasion The dean was there a heavy old man now too old indeed to attend frequently in his place and so was the archdeacon So also were the chancellor the treasurer the precentor sundry canons and minor canons and every lay member of the choir prepared to sing the new bishop in with due melody and harmonious expression of sacred welcome
The service was certainly well performed Such was always the case at Barchester as the musical education of the choir had been good and the voices had been carefully selected The psalms were beautifully chanted the Te Deum was magnificently sung and the litany was given in a manner which is still to be found at Barchester but if my taste be correct is to be found nowhere else The litany of Barchester cathedral has long been the special task to which Mr Hardings skill and voice have been devoted Crowded audiences generally make good performers and though Mr Harding was not aware of any extraordinary exertion on his part yet probably he rather exceeded his usual mark Others were doing their best and it was natural that he should emulate his brethren So the service went on and at last Mr Slope got into the pulpit
He chose for his text a verse from the precept addressed by St Paul to Timothy as to the conduct necessary in a spiritual pastor and guide and it was immediately evident that the good clergy of Barchester were to have a lesson
Study to show thyself approved unto God a workman that needeth not to be ashamed rightly dividing the word of truth These were the words of the text and with such a subject in such a place it may be supposed that such a preacher would be listened to by such an audience He was listened to with breathless attention and not without considerable surprise Whatever opinion of Mr Slope might have been held in Barchester before he commenced his discourse none of his hearers when it was over could mistake him for either a fool or a coward
It would not be becoming were I to travesty a sermon or even repeat the language of it in the pages of a novel In endeavouring to depict the characters of the persons of whom I write I am to a certain extent forced to speak of sacred things I trust however that I shall not be thought to scoff at the pulpit though some may imagine that I do not feel the reverence that is due to the cloth I may question the infallibility of the teachers but I hope that I shall not therefore be accused of doubt as to the thing to be taught
Mr Slope in commencing his sermon showed no slight tact in his ambiguous manner of hinting that humble as he was himself he stood there as the mouthpiece of the illustrious divine who sat opposite to him and having presumed so much he gave forth a very accurate definition of the conduct which that prelate would rejoice to see in the clergymen now brought under his jurisdiction It is only necessary to say that the peculiar points insisted on were exactly those which were most distasteful to the clergy of the diocese and most averse to their practices and opinions and that all those peculiar habits and privileges which have always been dear to highchurch priests to that party which is now scandalously called the highanddry church were ridiculed abused and anathematised Now the clergymen of the diocese of Barchester are all of the highanddry church
Having thus according to his own opinion explained how a clergyman should show himself approved unto God as a workman that needeth not to be ashamed he went on to explain how the word of truth should be divided and here he took a rather narrow view of the question and fetched arguments from afar His object was to express his abomination of all ceremonious modes of utterance to cry down any religious feeling which might be excited not by the sense but by the sound of words and in fact to insult the cathedral practices Had St Paul spoken of rightly pronouncing instead of rightly dividing the word of truth this part of his sermon would have been more to the purpose but the preachers immediate object was to preach Mr Slopes doctrine and not St Pauls and he contrived to give the necessary twist to the text with some skill
He could not exactly say preaching from a cathedral pulpit that chanting should be abandoned in cathedral services By such an assertion he would have overshot his mark and rendered himself absurd to the delight of his hearers He could however and did allude with heavy denunciations to the practice of intoning in parish churches although the practice was not but unknown in the diocese and from thence he came round to the undue preponderance which he asserted music over meaning in the beautiful service which they had just heard He was aware he said that the practices of our ancestors could not be abandoned at a moments notice the feelings of the aged would be outraged and the minds of respectable men would be shocked There were many he was aware of not sufficient calibre of thought to perceive of not sufficient education to know that a mode of service which was effective when outward ceremonies were of more moment than inward feelings had become all but barbarous at a time when inward conviction was everything when each word of the ministers lips should fall intelligibly into the listeners heart Formerly the religion of the multitude had been an affair of the imagination now in these latter days it had become necessary that a Christian should have a reason for his faith—should not only believe but digest—not only hear but understand The words of our morning service how beautiful how apposite how intelligible they were when read with simple and distinct decorum But how much of the meaning of the words was lost when they were produced with all the meretricious charms of melody c c
Here was a sermon to be preached before Mr Archdeacon Grantly Mr Precentor Harding and the rest of them Before a whole dean and chapter assembled in their own cathedral Before men who had grown old in the exercise of their peculiar services with a full conviction of their excellence for all intended purposes This too from such a man a clerical parvenu a man without a cure a mere chaplain an intruder among them a fellow raked up so said Dr Grantly from the gutters of Marylebone They had to sit through it None of them not even Dr Grantly could close his ears nor leave the house of God during the hours of service They were under an obligation of listening and that too without any immediate power of reply
There is perhaps no greater hardship at present inflicted on mankind in civilised and free countries than the necessity of listening to sermons No one but a preaching clergyman has in these realms the power of compelling audiences to sit silent and be tormented No one but a preaching clergyman can revel in platitudes truisms and untruisms sic and yet receive as his undisputed privilege the same respectful demeanour as though words of impassioned eloquence or persuasive logic fell from his lips Let a professor of law or physic find his place in a lectureroom and there pour forth jejune words and useless empty phrases and he will pour them forth to empty benches Let a barrister attempt to talk without talking well and he will talk but seldom A judges charge need be listened to per force by none but the jury prisoner and gaoler sic A member of parliament can be coughed down or counted out Towncouncillors can be tabooed But no one can rid himself of the preaching clergyman He is the bore of the age the old man whom we Sindbads cannot shake off the nightmare that disturbs our Sundays rest the incubus that overloads our religion and makes Gods service distasteful We are not forced into church No but we desire more than that We desire not to be forced to stay away We desire nay we are resolute to enjoy the comfort of public worship but we desire also that we may do so without an amount of tedium which ordinary human nature cannot endure with patience that we may be able to leave the house of God without that anxious longing for escape which is the common consequence of common sermons
With what complacency will a young parson deduce false conclusions from misunderstood texts and then threaten us with all the penalties of Hades if we neglect to comply with the injunctions he has given us Yes my too selfconfident juvenile friend I do believe in those mysteries which are so common in your mouth I do believe in the unadulterated word which you hold there in your hand but you must pardon me if in some things I doubt your interpretation The bible is good the prayerbook is good nay you yourself would be acceptable if you would read to me some portion of those timehonoured discourses which our great divines have elaborated in the full maturity of their powers But you must excuse me my insufficient young lecturer if I yawn over your imperfect sentences your repeated phrases your false pathos your drawlings sic and denouncings sic your humming and hawing your ohing and ahing your black gloves and your white handkerchief To me it all means nothing and hours are too precious to be so wasted—if one could only avoid it
And here I must make a protest against the pretence so often put forward by the working clergy that they are overburdened by the multitude of sermons to be preached We are all too fond of our own voices and a preacher is encouraged in the vanity of making his heard by the privilege of a compelled audience His sermon is the pleasant morsel of his life his delicious moment of selfexaltation I have preached nine sermons this week four the week before I have preached twentythree sermons this month It is really too much Too much for the strength of any one Yes he answered meekly indeed it is I am beginning to feel it painfully Would said I you could feel it—would that you could be made to feel it But he never guessed that my heart was wrung for the poor listeners
There was at any rate no tedium felt in listening to Mr Slope on the occasion in question His subject came too home to his audience to be dull and to tell the truth Mr Slope had the gift of using words forcibly He was heard through his thirty minutes of eloquence with mute attention and open ears but with angry eyes which glared found form one enraged parson to another with widespread nostrils from which already burst forth fumes of indignation and with many shufflings sic of the feet and uneasy motions of the body which betokened minds disturbed and hearts not at peace with all the world
At last the bishop who of all the congregation had been most surprised and whose hair almost stood on end with terror gave the blessing in a manner not at all equal to that in which he had long been practising it in his own study and the congregation was free to go their way
CHAPTER VII
THE DEAN AND CHAPTER TAKE COUNSEL
All Barchester was in a tumult Dr Grantly could hardly get himself out of the cathedral porch before he exploded in his wrath The old dean betook himself silently to his deanery afraid to speak and there sat half stupefied pondering many things in vain Mr Harding crept forth solitary and unhappy and slowly passing beneath the elms of the close could scarcely bring himself to believe that the words which he had heard had proceeded from the pulpit of the Barchester Cathedral Was he again to be disturbed Was his whole life to be shown up as a useless sham a second time would he have to abdicate his precentorship as he had his wardenship and to give up chanting as he had given up his twelve old bedesmen And what if he did Some other Jupiter some other Mr Slope would come and turn him out of St Cuthberts Surely he could not have been wrong all his life in chanting the litany as he had done He began however to have doubts Doubting himself was Mr Hardings weakness It is not however the usual fault of his order
Yes All Barchester was in a tumult It was not only the clergy who were affected The laity also had listened to Mr Slopes new doctrine all with surprise some with indignation and some with a mixed feeling in which dislike of the preacher was not so strongly blended The old bishop and his chaplain the dean and his canons and minor canons the old choir and especially Mr Harding who was at the head of it had all been popular in Barchester They had spent their money and done good the poor had not been ground down the clergy in society had neither been overbearing nor austere and the whole repute of the city was due to its ecclesiastical importance Yet there were those who had heard Mr Slope with satisfaction
It is so pleasant to receive a fillip of excitement when suffering from the dull routine of everyday life The anthems and Te Deums were in themselves delightful but they had been heard so often Mr Slope was certainly not delightful but he was new and moreover clever They had long thought it slow so said now may of the Barchesterians to go on as they had done in their old humdrum way giving ear to none of the religious changes which were moving the world without People in advance of the age now had new ideas and it was quite time that Barchester should go in advance Mr Slope might be right Sunday certainly had to been strictly kept in Barchester except as regarded the cathedral services Indeed the two hours between services had long been appropriated to morning calls and hot luncheons Then Sunday schools Sabbathday schools Mr Slope had called them The late bishop had really not thought of Sunday schools as he should have done These people probably did not reflect that catechisms and collects are quite hard work to the young mind as bookkeeping is to the elderly and that quite as little feeling of worship enters into one task as the other And then as regarded that great question of musical services there might be much to be said on Mr Slopes side of the question It certainly was the fact, that people went to the cathedral to hear the music c c
And so a party absolutely formed itself in Barchester on Mr Slopes side of the question This consisted among the upper classes chiefly of ladies No man—that is no gentleman—could possibly be attracted by Mr Slope or consent to sit at the feet of so abhorrent a Gamaliel Ladies are sometimes less nice in their appreciation of physical disqualification and provided that a man speak to them well they will listen though he speak from a mouth never so deformed and hideous Wilkes was most fortunate as a lover and the damp sandyhaired saucereyed redfisted Mr Slope was powerful only over the female breast
There were however one or two of the neighbouring clergy who thought it not quite safe to neglect the baskets in which for the nonce were stored the loaves and fishes of the diocese of Barchester They and they only came to call on Mr Slope after his performance in the cathedral pulpit Among them Mr Quiverful the rector of Puddingdale whose wife still continued to present him from year to year with fresh pledges of her love and so to increase his cares and it is to be hoped his happiness equally Who can wonder that a gentleman with fourteen living children and a bare income of L 400 a year should look after the loaves and fishes ever when they are under the thumb of Mr Slope
Very soon after the Sunday on which the sermon was preached the leading clergy of the neighbourhood held high debate together as to how Mr Slope should be put down In the first place he should never again preach from the pulpit of Barchester cathedral This was Dr Grantlys earliest dictum and they all agreed providing only that they had the power to exclude him Dr Grantly declared that the power rested with the dean and chapter observing that no clergyman out of the chapter had a claim to preach there saving only the bishop himself To this the dean assented but alleged that contests on such a subject would be unseemly to which rejoined a meagre little doctor one of the cathedral prebendaries that the contest must be all on the side of Mr Slope if every prebendary were always there ready to take his own place in the pulpit Cunning little meagre doctor whom it suits well to live in his own cosy house within Barchester close and who is well content to have his little fling at Dr Vesey Stanhope and other absentees whose Italian villas or enticing London homes are more tempting than cathedral stalls and residences
To this answered the burly chancellor a man rather silent indeed but very sensible that absent prebendaries had their vicars and that in such case the vicars right to the pulpit was the same as that of the higher order To which the dean assented groaning deeply at these truths Thereupon however the meagre doctor remarked that they would be in the hands of their minor canons one of whom might at any hour betray his trust Whereon was heard from the burly chancellor an ejaculation sounding somewhat like Pooh pooh pooh but it might have been that the worthy man was but blowing out the heavy breath from his windpipe Why silence him at all suggested Mr Harding Let them not be ashamed to hear what any man might have to preach to them unless he preached false doctrine in which case let the bishop silence him So spoke our friend vainly for human ends must be attained by human means But the dean saw a ray of hope out of those purblind old eyes of his Yes let them tell the bishop how distasteful to them was this Mr Slope new bishop just come to his seat could not wish to insult his clergy while the gloss was yet fresh on his first apron
Then up rose Dr Grantly and having thus collected the scattered wisdom of his associates spoke forth with words of deep authority When I say up rose the archdeacon I speak of the inner man which then sprang up to more immediate action for the doctor had bodily been standing all along with his back to the deans empty firegrate and the tails of his frock coat supported over his two arms His hands were in his breeches pockets
It is quite clear that this man must not be allowed to preach again in the cathedral We all see that except our dear friend here the milk of whose nature runs so softly that he would not have the heart to refuse the Pope the loan of his pulpit if the Pope would come and ask it We must not however allow the man to preach again here It is not because his opinion on church matters may be different from ours—with that one would not quarrel It is because he has purposely insulted us When he went up into that pulpit last Sunday his studied object was to give offence to men who had grown old in reverence to those things of which he dared to speak so slightingly What To come here a stranger a young unknown and unfriended stranger and tell us in the name of the bishop his master that we are ignorant of our duties oldfashioned and useless I dont know whether to most admire his courage or his impudence And one thing I will tell you that sermon originated solely with the man himself The bishop was no more a party to it than was the dean here You all know how grieved I am to see a bishop in this diocese holding the latitudinarian ideas by which Dr Proudie has made himself conspicuous You all know how greatly I should distrust the opinion of such a man But in this matter I hold him to be blameless I believe Dr Proudie has lived too long among gentlemen to be guilty or to instigate another to be guilty of so gross an outrage No That man uttered what was untrue when he hinted that he was speaking as the mouthpiece of the bishop It suited his ambitious views at once to throw down the gauntlet to us—here within the walls of our own loved cathedral—here where we have for so many years exercised our ministry without schism and with good repute Such an attack upon us coming from such a quarter is abominable
Abominable groaned the dean Abominable muttered the meagre doctor Abominable reechoed the chancellor uttering a sound from the bottom of his deep chest I really think it was said Mr Harding
Most abominable and most unjustifiable continued the archdeacon But Mr Dean thank God that pulpit is still our own your own I should say That pulpit belongs to the dean and chapter of Barchester Cathedral and as yet Mr Slope is no part of that chapter You Mr Dean have suggested that we should appeal to the bishop to abstain from forcing this man on us but what if the bishop allow himself to be ruled by his chaplain In my opinion the matter is in our own hands Mr Slope cannot preach there without permission asked and obtained and let that permission be invariable refused Let all participation in the ministry of the cathedral service be refused to him Then if the bishop choose to interfere we shall know what answer to make to the bishop My friend here has suggested that this man may again find his way into the pulpit by undertaking the duty of some of your minor canons but I am sure that we may fully trust to these gentlemen to support us when it is known that the dean objects to any such transfer
Of course you may said the chancellor
There was much more discussion among the learned conclave all of which of course ended in obedience to the archdeacons commands They had too long been accustomed to his rule to shake it off so soon and in this particular case they had none of them a wish to abet the man whom he was so anxious to put down
Such a meeting as that we have just recorded is not held in such a city as Barchester unknown and untold of Not only was the fact of the meeting talked of in every respectable house including the palace but the very speeches of the dean the archdeacon and chancellor were repeated not without many additions and imaginary circumstances according to the tastes and opinions of the relaters
All however agreed in saying that Mr Slope was to be debarred from opening his mouth in the cathedral of Barchester many believed that the vergers were to be ordered to refuse him even the accommodation of a seat and some of the most fargoing advocates for strong measures declared that this sermon was looked upon as an indictable offence and that proceedings were to be taken against him for brawling
The party who were inclined to him—the enthusiastically religious young ladies and the middleaged spinsters desirous of a move—of course took up his defence the more warmly on account of this attack If they could not hear Mr Slope in the cathedral they would hear him elsewhere they would leave the dull dean the dull old prebendaries and the scarcely less dull young minor canons to preach to each other they would work slippers and cushions and hem bands for Mr Slope make him a happy martyr and stick him up in some new Sion sic or Bethesda and put the cathedral quite out of fashion
Dr and Mrs Proudie at once returned to London They thought it expedient not to have to encounter any personal applications from the dean and chapter respecting the sermon till the violence of the storm had expended itself but they left Mr Slope behind them nothing daunted and he went about his work zealously flattering such as would listen to his flattery whispering religious twaddle into the ears of foolish women ingratiating himself with the very few clergy who would receive him visiting the houses of the poor inquiring into all people prying into everything and searching with the minutest eye into all palatial dilapidation He did not however make any immediate attempt to preach again in the cathedral
And so all Barchester was by the ears
CHAPTER VIII
THE EXWARDEN REJOICES IN HIS PROBABLE RETURN TO THE HOSPITAL
Among the ladies in Barchester who have hitherto acknowledged Mr Slope as their spiritual director must not be reckoned either the widow Bold or her sisterinlaw On the first outbreak of the wrath of the denizens of the close none had been more animated against the intruder than those two ladies And this was natural Who could be so proud of the musical distinction of their own cathedral as the favourite daughter of the precentor Who would be so likely to resent an insult offered to the old choir And in such matters Miss Bold and her sisterinlaw had but one opinion
This wrath however has in some degree been mitigated and I regret to say that these ladies allowed Mr Slope to be his own apologist About a fortnight after the sermon had been preached they were both of them not a little surprised by hearing Mr Slope announced as the page in buttons opened Mrs Bolds drawingroom door Indeed what living man could by a mere morning visit have surprised them more Here was the great enemy of all that was good in Barchester coming into their own drawingroom and they had not strong arm no ready tongue near at hand for their protection The widow snatched her baby out of its cradle into her lap and Mary Bold stood up ready to die manfully in that babys behalf should under any circumstances such a sacrifice be necessary
In this manner was Mr Slope received But when he left he was allowed by each lady to take her hand and to make his adieux as gentlemen do who have been graciously entertained Yes he shook hands with them and was curtseyed out courteously the buttoned page opening the door as he would have done for the best canon of them all He had touched the babys little hand and blessed him with a fervid blessing he had spoken to the widow of her early sorrows and Eleanors silent tears had not rebuked him he had told Mary Bold that her devotion would be rewarded and Mary Bold had heard the praise without disgust And how had he done all this How had he so quickly turned aversion into at any rate acquaintance How had he overcome the enmity with which those ladies had been ready to receive him and made his peace with them so easily
My readers will guess from what I have written that I myself do not like Mr Slope but I am constrained to admit that he is a man of parts He knows how to say a soft word in the proper place he knows how to adapt his flattery to the ears of his hearers he knows the wiles of the serpent and he uses them Could Mr Slope have adapted his manners to men as well as to women could he ever have learnt the ways of a gentleman he might have risen to great things
He commenced his acquaintance with Eleanor by praising her father He had he said become aware that he had unfortunately offended the feelings of a man of whom he could not speak too highly he would not now allude to a subject which was probably too serious for drawingroom conversation but he would say that it had been very far from him to utter a word in disparagement of a man of whom all the world at least the clerical world spoke of so highly as it did of Mr Harding And so he went on unsaying a great deal of his sermon expressing his highest admiration for the precentors musical talents eulogising the father and the daughter and the sisterinlaw speaking in that low silky whisper which he always had specially prepared for feminine ears and ultimately gaining his object When he left he expressed a hope that he might again be allowed to call and though Eleanor gave no verbal assent to this she did not express dissent and so Mr Slopes right to visit at the widows house was established
The day after this visit Eleanor told her father of it and expressed an opinion that Mr Slope was not quite so black as he had been painted Mr Harding opened he eyes rather wider than usual when he heard what had occurred but he said little he could not agree in any praise of Mr Slope and it was not his practice to say much evil of any one He did not however like the visit and simpleminded as he was he felt sure that Mr Slope had some deeper motive than the mere pleasure of making soft speeches to two ladies
Mr Harding however had come to see his daughter with other purpose than that of speaking either good or evil of Mr Slope He had come to tell her that the place of warden in Hirams hospital was again to be filled up and that in all probability he would once more return to his old house and his twelve bedesmen
But he said laughing I shall be greatly shorn of my ancient glory
Why so papa
This new act of parliament that is to put us all on our feet again continued he settles my income at four hundred and fifty pounds per annum
Four hundred and fifty said she instead of eight hundred Well that is rather shabby But still papa youll have the dear old house and garden
My dear said he its worth twice the money and as he spoke he showed a jaunty kind of satisfaction in his tone and manner and in the quick pleasant way in which he paced Eleanors drawingroom Its worth twice the money I shall have the house and the garden and a larger income than I can possibly want
At any rate youll have no extravagant daughter to provide for and as she spoke the young widow put her arm within his and made him sit on the sofa beside her at any rate youll not have that expense
No my dear and I shall be rather lonely without her but we wont think of that now As regards income I shall have plenty for all I want I shall have my old house and I dont mind owning now that I have felt sometimes the inconvenience of living in a lodging Lodgings are very nice for young men but at my time of life there is a want of—I hardly know what to call it perhaps not respectability—
Oh papa Im sure theres been nothing like that Nobody has thought it nobody in all Barchester has been more respected than you have been since you took those rooms in High Street Nobody Not the dean in his deanery or the archdeacon at Plumstead
The archdeacon would not be much obliged to you if he heard you said he smiling somewhat at the exclusive manner in which his daughter confined her illustration to the church dignitaries of the chapter of Barchester but at any rate I shall be glad to get back to the old house Since I heard that it was all settled I have begun to fancy that I cant be comfortable without my two sittingrooms
Come and stay with me papa till it is settled—theres a dear papa
Thank ye Nelly But no I wont do that It would make two movings I shall be very glad to get back to my old men again Alas Alas There have six of them gone in the few last years Six out of twelve And the others I fear have had but a sorry life of it there Poor Bunce poor old Bunce
Bunce was one of the surviving recipients of Hirams charity and old man now over ninety who had long been a favourite of Mr Hardings
How happy old Bunce will be said Mrs Bold clapping her soft hands softly How happy they all will be to have you back again You may be sure there will soon be friendship among them again when you are there
But said he half laughing I am to have new troubles which will be terrible to me There are to be twelve old women and a matron How shall I manage twelve women and a matron
The matron will manage the women of course
And wholl manage the matron said he
She wont want to be managed Shell be a great lady herself I suppose But papa where will the matron live She is not to live in the wardens house with you is she
Well I hope not my dear
Oh papa I tell you fairly I wont have a matron for a new stepmother
You shant my dear that is if I can help it But they are going to build another house for the matron and the women and I believe they havent even fixed yet on the site of the building
And have they appointed the matron said Eleanor
They havent appointed the warden yet replied he
But theres no doubt about that I suppose said his daughter
Mr Harding explained that he thought there was no doubt that the archdeacon had declared as much saying that the bishop and his chaplain between them had not the power to appoint any once else even if they had the will to do so and sufficient impudence to carry out such a will The archdeacon was of the opinion that though Mr Harding had resigned his wardenship and had done so unconditionally he had done so under circumstances which left the bishop no choice as to his reappointment now that the affair of the hospital had been settled on a new basis by act of parliament Such was the archdeacons opinion and his fatherinlaw received it without a shadow of doubt
Dr Grantly had always been strongly opposed to Mr Hardings resignation of the place He had done all in his power to dissuade him from it He had considered that Mr Harding was bound to withstand the popular clamour with which he was attacked for receiving so large an income as eight hundred a year from such a charity and was not even satisfied that his fatherinlaws conduct had not been pusillanimous and undignified He looked also on this reduction of the wardens income as a paltry scheme on the part of government for escaping from a difficulty into which it had been brought by the public press Dr Grantly observed that the government had no more right to dispose of a sum of four hundred and fifty pounds a year out of the income of Hirams legacy than of nine hundred whereas as he said the bishop dean and chapter clearly had a right to settle what sum should be paid He also declared that the government had no more right to saddle the charity with twelve old women than with twelve hundred and he was therefore very indignant on the matter He probably forgot when so talking that government had done nothing of the kind and had never assumed any such might or any such right He made the common mistake of attributing to the government which in such matters is powerless the doings of parliament which in such matters is omnipotent
But though he felt that the glory and honour of the situation of warden of Barchester hospital was indeed curtailed by the new arrangement that the whole establishment had to a certain degree been made vile by the touch of Whig commissioners that the place with the lessened income its old women and other innovations was very different from the hospital of former days still the archdeacon was too practical a man of the world to wish that his fatherinlaw who had at present little more than L 200 per annum for all his wants should refuse the situation defiled undignified and commissionridden as it was
Mr Harding had accordingly made up his mind that he would return to his old house at the hospital and to tell the truth had experienced almost a childish pleasure in the idea of doing so The diminished income was to him not even the source of momentary regret The matron and the old women did rather go against the grain but he was able to console himself with the reflection that after all such an arrangement might be of real service to the poor of the city The thought that he must receive his reappointment as the gift of the new bishop and probably through the hands of Mr Slope annoyed him a little but his mind was set at rest by the assurance of the archdeacon that there would be no favour in such a presentation The reappointment of the old warden would be regarded by all the world as a matter of course Mr Harding therefore felt no hesitation in telling his daughter that they might look upon his return to his old quarters as a settled matter
And you wont have to ask for it papa
Certainly not my dear There is no ground on which I could ask for any favour from the bishop whom indeed I hardly know Nor would I ask a favour that granting of which might possibly be made a question to be settled by Mr Slope No said he moved for a moment by a spirit very unlike his own I certainly shall be very glad to go back to the hospital but I should never go there if it were necessary that my doing so should be the subject of a request to Mr Slope
This little outbreak of her fathers anger jarred on the present tone of Eleanors mind She had not learnt to like Mr Slope but she had learnt to think that he had much respect for her father and she would therefore willingly use her efforts to induce something like good feeling between them
Papa said she I think you somewhat mistake Mr Slopes character
Do I said he placidly
I think you do papa I think he intended no personal disrespect to you when he preached the sermon which made the archdeacon and the dean so angry
I never supposed that he did my dear I hope I never inquired within myself whether he did or no Such a matter would be unworthy of any inquiry and very unworthy of the consideration of the chapter But I fear he intended disrespect to the ministrations of Gods services as conducted in conformity with the rules of the Church of England
But might it not be that he thought it his duty to express his dissent from that which you and the dean and all of us here approve
It can hardly be the duty of any young man rudely to assail the religious convictions of his elders of the church Courtesy should have kept him silent even if neither charity nor modesty could do so
But Mr Slope would say that on such a subject the commands of his heavenly Master do not admit of his being silent
Nor of being courteous Eleanor
He did not say that papa
Believe me my child that Christian ministers are never called on by Gods word to insult the convictions or even the prejudices of their brethren and that religion is at any rate not less susceptible to urbane and courteous conduct among men than any other study which men take up I am sorry to say that I cannot defend Mr Slopes sermon in the cathedral But come my dear put on your bonnet and let us walk round the dear old gardens at the hospital I have never yet had the heart to go beyond the courtyard since we left the place Now I think I can venture to enter
Eleanor rang the bell and gave a variety of imperative charges as to the welfare of the precious baby whom all but unwillingly she was about to leave for an hour or so and then sauntered forth with her father to revisit the old hospital It had been forbidden ground to her as well as to him since the day on which they had walked forth together from its walk
CHAPTER IX
THE STANHOPE FAMILY
It is now three months since Dr Proudie began his reign and changes had already been affected in the diocese which show at least the energy of an active mind Among other things absentee clergymen have been favoured with hints much too strong to be overlooked Poor dear old Bishop Grantly had on this matter been too lenient and the archdeacon had never been inclined to be severe with those who were absent on reputable pretences and who provided for their duties in a liberal way
Among the greatest of the diocesan sinners in this respect was Dr Vesey Stanhope Years had now passed since he had done a days duty and yet there was no reason against his doing duty except a want of inclination on his own part He held a prebendal stall in the diocese one of the best residences in the close and the two large rectories of Crabtree Canonicorum and Stogpingum Indeed he had the cure of three parishes for that of Eiderdown was joined to Stogpingum He had resided in Italy for twelve years His first going there had been attributed to a sore throat and that sore throat though never repeated in any violent manner had stood him in such stead that it had enabled him to live in easy idleness ever since
He had now been summoned home—not indeed with rough violence or by any peremptory command but by a mandate which he found himself unable to disregard Mr Slope had written to him by the bishops desire In the first place the bishop much wanted the valuable cooperation of Dr Vesey Stanhope in the diocese in the next the bishop thought it his imperative duty to become personally acquainted with the most conspicuous of his diocesan clergy then the bishop thought it essentially necessary for Dr Stanhopes own interests that Dr Stanhope should at any rate for a time return to Barchester and lastly it was said that so strong a feeling was at the present moment evinced by the hierarchs of the church with reference to the absence of its clerical members that it behoved Dr Vesey Stanhope not to allow his name to stand among those which would probably in a few months be submitted to the councils of the nation
There was something so ambiguously frightful in this last threat that Dr Stanhope determined to spend two or three summer months at his residence in Barchester His rectories were inhabited by his curates and he felt himself from disuse to be unfit for parochial duty but his prebendal home was kept empty for him and he thought it probable that he might be able now and again to preach a prebendal sermon He arrived therefore with all his family at Barchester and he and they must be introduced to my readers
The great family characteristic of the Stanhopes might probably be said to be heartlessness but the want of feeling was in most of them accompanied by so great an amount of good nature that their neighbours failed to perceive how indifferent to them was the happiness and wellbeing of those around them The Stanhopes would visit you in your sickness provided it were not contagious would bring you oranges French novels and the last new bit of scandal and then hear of your death or your recovery with an equally indifferent composure Their conduct to each other was the same as to the world they bore and forbore and there was sometimes as will be seen much necessity for forbearing but their love among themselves rarely reached above this It is astonishing how much each of the family was able to do and how much each did to prevent the wellbeing of the other four
For there were five in all the doctor namely and Mrs Stanhope two daughters and one son The doctor perhaps was the least singular and most estimable of them all and yet such good qualities as he possessed were all negative He was a good looking rather plethoric gentleman of about sixty years of age His hair was snow white very plentiful and somewhat like wool of the finest description His whiskers were large and very white and gave to his face the appearance of a benevolent sleepy old lion His dress was always unexceptionable Although he had lived so many years in Italy it was invariably of a decent clerical hue but it never was hyperclerical He was a man not given to much talking but what little he did say was generally well said His reading seldom went beyond romances and poetry of the lightest and not always most moral description He was thoroughly a bon vivant an accomplished judge of wine though he never drank to excess and a most inexorable critic in all affairs touching the kitchen He had had much to forgive in his own family since a family had grown up around him and had forgiven everything—except inattention to his dinner His weakness in that respect was now fully understood and his temper but seldom tried As Dr Stanhope was a clergyman it may be supposed that his religious convictions made up a considerable part of his character but this was not so That he had religious convictions must be believed but he rarely obtruded them even on his children This abstinence on his part was not systematic but very characteristic of the man It was not that he had predetermined never to influence their thoughts but he was so habitually idle that his time for doing so had never come till the opportunity for doing so was gone forever Whatever conviction the father may have had the children were at any rate but indifferent members of the church from which he drew his income
Such was Dr Stanhope The features of Mrs Stanhopes character were even less plainly marked than those of her lord The far niente of her Italian life had entered into her very soul and brought her to regard a state of inactivity as the only earthly good In manner and appearance she was exceedingly prepossessing She had been a beauty and even now at fiftyfive she was a handsome woman Her dress was always perfect she never dressed but once in the day and never appeared till between three and four but when she did appear she appeared at her best Whether the toil rested partly with her or wholly with her handmaid it is not for such a one as the author to imagine The structure of her attire was always elaborate and yet never over laboured She was rich in apparel but not bedizened with finery her ornaments were costly rare and such as could not fail to attract notice but they did not look as though worn with that purpose She well knew the great architectural secret of decorating her constructions and never condescended to construct a decoration But when we have said that Mrs Stanhope knew how to dress and used her knowledge daily we have said all Other purpose in life she had none It was something indeed that she did not interfere with the purposes of others In early life she had undergone great trials with reference to the doctors dinners but for the last ten or twelve years her eldest daughter Charlotte had taken that labour off her hands and she had had little to trouble her—little that is till the edict for this terrible English journey had gone forth since then indeed her life had been laborious enough For such a one the toil of being carried from the shores of Como to the city of Barchester is more than labour enough let the cares of the carriers be ever so vigilant Mrs Stanhope had been obliged to have every one of her dresses taken in from the effects of the journey
Charlotte Stanhope was at this time about thirtyfive years old and whatever may have been her faults she had none of those which belong particularly to old young ladies She neither dressed young nor talked young nor indeed looked young She appeared to be perfectly content with her time of life and in no way affected the grace of youth She was a fine young woman and had she been a man would have been a very fine young man All that was done in the house and that was not done by servants was done by her She gave the orders paid the bills hired and dismissed the domestics made the tea carved the meat and managed everything in the Stanhope household She and she alone could ever induce her father to look into the state of his worldly concerns She and she alone could in any degree control the absurdities of her sister She and she alone prevented the whole family from falling into utter disrepute and beggary It was by her advice that they now found themselves very unpleasantly situated in Barchester
So far the character of Charlotte Stanhope is not unprepossessing But it remains to be said that the influence which she had in her family though it had been used to a certain extent for their worldly wellbeing had not been used to their real benefit as it might have been She had aided her father in his indifference to his professional duties counselling him that his livings were as much as his individual property as the estates of his elder brother were the property of that worthy peer She had for years past stifled every little rising wish for a return to England which the doctor had from time to time expressed She had encouraged her mother in her idleness in order that she herself might be mistress and manager of the Stanhope household She had encouraged and fostered the follies of her sister though she was always willing and often able to protect her from their probable result She had done her best and had thoroughly succeeded in spoiling her brother and turning him loose upon the world an idle man without a profession and without a shilling that he could call his own
Miss Stanhope was a clever woman able to talk on most subjects and quite indifferent as to what the subject was She prided herself on her freedom from English prejudice and she might have added from feminine delicacy On religion she was a pure freethinker and with much want of true affection delighted to throw out her own views before the troubled mind of her father To have shaken what remained of his Church of England faith would have gratified her much but the idea of his abandoning his preferment in the church had never once presented itself to her mind How could he indeed when he had no income from any other sources
But the two most prominent members of the family still remain to be described The second child had been christened Madeline and had been a great beauty We need not say had been for she was never more beautiful than at the time of which we write though her person for many years had been disfigured by an accident It is unnecessary that we should give in detail the early history of Madeline Stanhope She had gone to Italy when seventeen years of age and had been allowed to make the most of her surpassing beauty in the saloons of Milan and among the crowded villas along the shores of the Lake of Como She had become famous for adventures in which her character was just not lost and had destroyed the hearts of a dozen cavaliers without once being touched in her own Blood had flowed in quarrels about her charms and she heard of these encounters with pleasurable excitement It had been told of her that on one occasion she had stood by in the disguise of a page and had seen her lover fall
As is so often the case she had married the very worst of those who sought her hand Why she had chosen Paulo Neroni a man of no birth and no property a mere captain in the popes guard one who had come up to Milan either simply as an adventurer or as a spy a man of harsh temper and oily manners mean in figure swarthy in face and so false in words as to be hourly detected need not now be told When the moment for doing so came she had probably no alternative He at any rate had become her husband and after a prolonged honeymoon among the lakes they had gone together to Rome the papal captain having vainly endeavoured to induce his wife to remain behind him
Six months afterwards she arrived at her fathers house a cripple and a mother She had arrived without even notice with hardly clothes to cover her and without one of those many ornaments which had graced her bridal trousseaux Her baby was in the arms of a poor girl from Milan whom she had taken in exchange for the Roman maid who had accompanied her thus far and who had then as her mistress said become homesick and had returned It was clear that the lady had determined that there should be no witness to tell stories of her life in Rome
She had fallen she said in ascending a ruin and had fatally injured the sinews of her knee so fatally that when she stood she lost eight inches of her accustomed height so fatally that when she essayed to move she could only drag herself painfully along with protruded hip and extended foot in a manner less graceful than that of a hunchback She had consequently made up her mind once and for ever that she would never stand and never attempt to move herself
Stories were not slow to follow her averring that she had been cruelly illused by Neroni and that to his violence had she owed her accident Be that as it may little had been said about her husband but that little had made it clearly intelligible to the family that Signor Neroni was to be seen and heard of no more There was no question as to readmitting the poor illused beauty to her old family rights no question as to adopting her infant daughter beneath the Stanhope roof tree Though heartless the Stanhopes were not selfish The two were taken in petted made much of for a time all but adored and then felt by the two parents to be great nuisances in the house But in the house the lady was and there she remained having her own way though that way was not very comfortable with the customary usages of an English clergyman
Madame Neroni though forced to give up all motion in the world had no intention whatever of giving up the world itself The beauty of her face was uninjured and that beauty was of a peculiar kind Her copious rich brown hair was worn in Grecian bandeaux round her head displaying as much as possible of her forehead and cheeks Her forehead though rather low was very beautiful from its perfect contour and pearly whiteness Her eyes were long and large and marvellously bright might I venture to say bright as Lucifers I should perhaps best express the depth of their brilliancy They were dreadful eyes to look at such as would absolutely deter any man of quiet mind and easy spirit from attempting a passage of arms with such foes There was talent in them and the fire of passion and the play of wit but there was no love Cruelty was there instead and courage a desire for masterhood cunning and a wish for mischief And yet as eyes they were very beautiful The eyelashes were long and perfect and the long steady unabashed gaze with which she would look into the face of her admirer fascinated while it frightened him She was a basilisk from whom an ardent lover of beauty could make no escape Her nose and mouth more so at twentyeight than they had been at eighteen What wonder that with such charms still glowing in her face and with such deformity destroying her figure she should resolve to be seen but only to be seen reclining on a sofa
Her resolve had not been carried out without difficulty She had still frequented the opera at Milan she had still been seen occasionally in the saloons of the noblesse she had caused herself to be carried in and out from her carriage and that in such a manner as in no wise to disturb her charms disarrange her dress or expose her deformities Her sister always accompanied her and a maid a manservant also and on state occasions two It was impossible that her purpose could have been achieved with less and yet poor as she was she had achieved her purpose And then again the more dissolute Italian youths of Milan frequented the Stanhope villa and surrounded her couch not greatly to her fathers satisfaction Sometimes his spirit would rise a dark spot would show itself on his cheek and he would rebel but Charlotte would assuage him with some peculiar triumph of her culinary art and all again would be smooth for a while
Madeline affected all manner of rich and quaint devices in the garniture of her room her person and her feminine belongings In nothing was this more apparent than in the visiting card which she had prepared for her use For such an article one would say that she in her present state could have but small need seeing how improbable it was that she should make a morning call but not such was her own opinion Her card was surrounded by a deep border of gilding on this she had imprinted in three lines
La Signora Madeline
Vesey Neroni
Nata Stanhope
And over the name she had a bright gilt coronet which certainly looked very magnificent How she had come to concoct such a name for herself it would be difficult to explain Her father had been christened Vesey as another man is christened Thomas and she had no more right to assume it than would have the daughter of a Mr Josiah Jones to call herself Mrs Josiah Smith on marrying a man of the latter name The gold coronet was equally out of place and perhaps inserted with even less excuse Paul Neroni had not the faintest title to call himself a scion of even Italian nobility Had the pair met in England Neroni would probably have been a count but they had met in Italy and any such pretence on his part would have been simply ridiculous A coronet however was a pretty ornament and if it could solace a poor cripple to have such on her card who could begrudge it to her
Of her husband or of his individual family she never spoke but with her admirers she would often allude in a mysterious way to her married life and isolated state and pointing to her daughter would call her the last of the blood of the emperors thus referring Neronis extraction to the old Roman family from which the worst of the Caesars sprang
The Signora was not without talent and not without a certain sort of industry she was an indomitable letter writer and her letters were worth the postage they were full of wit mischief satire love latitudinarian philosophy free religion and sometimes alas loose ribaldry The subject however depended entirely on the recipient and she was prepared to correspond with any one but moral young ladies or stiff old women She wrote also a kind of poetry generally in Italian and short romances generally in French She read much of a desultory sort of literature and as a modern linguist had really made great proficiency Such was the lady who had now come to wound the hearts of the men of Barchester
Ethelbert Stanhope was in some respects like his younger sister but he was less inestimable as a man than she was as a woman His great fault was an entire absence of that principle which should have induced him as the son of a man without fortune to earn his own bread Many attempts had been made to get him to do so but these had all been frustrated not so much by idleness on his part as by a disinclination to exert himself in any way not to his taste He had been educated at Eton and had been intended for the Church but had left Cambridge in disgust after a single term and notified to his father his intention to study for the bar Preparatory to that he thought it well that he should attend a German university and consequently went to Leipzig There he remained two years and brought away a knowledge of German and a taste for the fine arts He still however intended himself for the bar took chambers engaged himself to sit at the feet of a learned pundit and spent a season in London He there found that all his aptitudes inclined him to the life of an artist and he determined to live by painting With this object he retired to Milan and had himself rigged out for Rome As a painter he might have earned his bread for he wanted only diligence to excel but when at Rome his mind was carried away by other things he soon wrote home for money saying that he had been converted to the Mother Church that he was already an acolyte of the Jesuits and that he was about to start with others to Palestine on a mission for converting Jews He did go to Judea but being unable to convert the Jews was converted by them He again wrote home to say that Moses was the only giver of perfect laws to the world that the coming of the true Messiah was at hand that great things were doing in Palestine and that he had met one of the family of Sidonis a most remarkable man who was now on his way to Western Europe and whom he had induced to deviate from his route with the object of calling at the Stanhope villa Ethelbert then expressed his hope that his mother and sisters would listen to this wonderful prophet His father he knew could not do so from pecuniary considerations This Sidonia however did not take so strong a fancy to him as another of that family once did to a young English nobleman At least he provided him with no hope of gold as large as lions so that the Judaised Ethelbert was again obliged to draw on the revenues of the Christian Church
It is needless to tell how the father swore that he would send no more money and receive no Jew nor how Charlotte declared that Ethelbert could not be left penniless in Jerusalem and how La Signora Neroni resolved to have Sidonia at her feet The money was sent and the Jew did come The Jew did come but he was not at all to the taste of la Signora He was a dirty little old man and though he had provided no golden lions he had it seems relieved young Stanhopes necessities He positively refused to leave the villa till he got a bill from the doctor on his London bankers
Ethelbert did not long remain a Jew He soon reappeared at the villa without prejudices on the subject of his religion and with a firm resolve to achieve fame and fortune as a sculptor He brought with him some models which he had originated at Rome and which really gave much fair promise that his father was induced to go to further expense in furthering these views Ethelbert opened an establishment or rather took lodgings and workshop at Carrara and there spoilt much marble and made some few pretty images Since that period now four years ago he had alternated between Carrara and the villa but his sojourns at the workshop became shorter and shorter and those at the villa longer and longer Twas no wonder for Carrara is not a spot in which an Englishman would like to dwell
When the family started for England he had resolved not to be left behind and with the assistance of his elder sister had earned his point against his fathers wishes It was necessary he said that he should come to England for orders How otherwise was he to bring his profession to account
In personal appearance Ethelbert Stanhope was the most singular of beings He was certainly very handsome He had his sister Madelines eyes without their stare and without their hard cunning cruel firmness They were also very much lighter and of so light and clear a blue as to make his face remarkable if nothing else did so On entering a room with him Ethelberts blue eyes would be the first thing you would see and on leaving it almost the last thing you would forget His light hair was very long and silky coming down over his coat His beard had been prepared in the holy land and was patriarchal He never shaved and rarely trimmed it It was glossy soft clean and altogether not unprepossessing It was such that ladies might desire to reel it off and work it into their patterns in lieu of floss silk His complexion was fair and almost pink he was small in height and slender in limb but wellmade and his voice was of particular sweetnessmanner and dress he was equally remarkable He had none of the mauvaise honte of an Englishman He required no introduction to make himself agreeable to any person He habitually addressed strangers ladies as well as men without any such formality and in doing so never seemed to meet with rebuke His costume cannot be described because it was so various but it was always totally opposed in every principle of colour and construction to the dress of those with whom he for the time consorted
He was habitually addicted to making love to ladies and did so without scruple of conscience or any idea that such a practice was amiss He had no heart to touch himself and was literally unaware that humanity was subject to such infliction He had not thought much about it but had he been asked would have said that illtreating a ladys heart meant injuring her promotion in the world His principles therefore forbade him to pay attention to a girl if he thought any man was present whom it might suit her to marry In this manner his good nature frequently interfered with his amusement but he had no other motive in abstaining from the fullest declaration of love to every girl that pleased his eye
Bertie Stanhope as he was generally called was however popular with both sexes and with Italians as well as English His circle of acquaintance was very large and embraced people of all sorts He had not respect for rank and no aversion to those below him He had lived on familiar terms with English peers German shopkeepers and Roman priests All people were nearly alike to him He was above or rather below all prejudices No virtue could charm him no vice shock him He had about him a natural good manner which seemed to qualify him for the highest circles and yet he was never out of place in the lowest He had no principle no regard for others no selfrespect no desire to be other than a drone in a hive if only he could as a drone get what honey was sufficient for him Of honey in his latter days it may probably be presaged that he will have but short allowance
Such was the family of the Stanhopes who at this period suddenly joined themselves to the ecclesiastical circle of Barchester close Any stranger union it would be impossible perhaps to conceive And it was not as though they all fell down into the cathedral precincts hitherto unknown and untalked of In such case no amalgamation would have been at all probable between the new comers and either the Proudie set or the Grantly set But such was far from being the case The Stanhopes were all known by name in Barchester and Barchester was prepared to receive them with open arms The doctor was one of the prebendaries one of her rectors one of her pillars of strength and was moreover counted on as a sure ally both by Proudies and Grantlys
He himself was the brother of one peer and his wife was the sister of another—and both these peers were lords of whiggish tendency with whom the new bishop had some sort of alliance This was sufficient to give to Mr Slope high hope that he might enlist Dr Stanhope on his side before his enemies could outmanoeuvre him On the other hand the old dean had many many years ago in the days of the doctors clerical energies been instrumental in assisting him in his views as to preferment and many many years ago also the two doctors Stanhope and Grantly had as young parsons been joyous together in the common rooms of Oxford Dr Grantly consequently did not doubt but that the new comer would range himself under his banners
Little did any of them dream of what ingredients the Stanhope family was now composed
CHAPTER X
MRS PROUDIES RECEPTION—COMMENCED
The bishop and his wife had only spent three or four days in Barchester on the occasion of their first visit His lordship had as we have seen taken his seat on his throne but his demeanour there into which it had been his intention to infuse much hierarchical dignity had been a good deal disarranged by the audacity of his chaplains sermon He had hardly dared to look his clergy in the face and to declare by the severity of his countenance that in truth he meant all that his factotum was saying on his behalf nor yet did he dare throw Mr Slope over and show to those around him that he was no party to the sermon and would resent it
He had accordingly blessed his people in a shambling manner not at all to his own satisfaction and had walked back to his palace with his mind very doubtful as to what he would say to his chaplain on the subject He did not remain long in doubt He had hardly doffed his lawn when the partner of all his toils entered his study and exclaimed even before she had seated herself—
Bishop did you ever hear a more sublime more spiritmoving more appropriate discourse than that
Well my love hahumhe The bishop did not know what to say
I hope my lord you dont mean to say you disapprove
There was a look about the ladys eye which did not admit of my lords disapproving at that moment He felt that if he intended to disapprove it must be now or never but he also felt that it could not be now It was not in him to say to the wife of his bosom that Mr Slopes sermon was illtimed impertinent and vexatious
No no replied the bishop No I cant say I disapprove—a very clever sermon and very well intended and I dare say will do a great deal of good This last praise was added seeing that what he had already said by no means satisfied Mrs Proudie
I hope it will said she I am sure it was well deserved Did you ever in your life bishop hear anything so like playacting as the way in which Mr Harding sings the litany I shall beg Mr Slope to continue a course of sermons on the subject till all that is altered We will have at any rate in our cathedral a decent godly modest morning service There must be no more playacting here now and so the lady rang for lunch
This bishop knew more about cathedrals and deans and precentors and church services than his wife did and also more of the bishops powers But he thought it better at present to let the subject drop
My dear said he I think we must go back to London on Tuesday
I find that my staying here will be very inconvenient to the
Government
The bishop knew that to this proposal his wife would not object and he also felt that by thus retreating from the ground of battle the heat of the fight might be got over in his absence
Mr Slope will remain here of course said the lady
Oh of course said the bishop
Thus after less than a weeks sojourn in his palace did the bishop fly from Barchester nor did he return to it for two months the London season being then over During that time Mr Slope was not idle but he did not again assay to preach in the cathedral In answer to Mrs Proudies letters advising a course of sermons he had pleaded that he would at any rate wish to put off such an undertaking till she was there to hear them
He had employed his time in consolidating a Proudie and Slope party—or rather a Slope and Proudie party and he had not employed his time in vain He did not meddle with the dean and chapter except by giving them little teasing intimations of the bishops wishes about this and the bishops feelings about that in a manner which was to them sufficiently annoying but which they could not resent He preached once or twice in a distant church in the suburbs of the city but made no allusion to the cathedral service He commenced the establishment of the Bishop of Barchesters Sabbathday Schools gave notice of a proposed Bishop of Barchester Young Mens Sabbath Evening Lecture Room—and wrote three or four letters to the manager of the Barchester branch railway informing him how anxious the bishop was that the Sunday trains should be discontinued
At the end of two months however the bishop and the lady reappeared and as a happy harbinger of their return heralded their advent by the promise of an evening party on the largest scale The tickets of invitation were sent out from London—they were dated from Bruton Street and were dispatched by the odious Sabbathbreaking railway in a huge brown paper parcel to Mr Slope Everybody calling himself a gentleman or herself a lady within the city of Barchester and a circle of two miles round it was included Tickets were sent to all the diocesan clergy and also to many other persons of priestly note of whose absence the bishop or at least the bishops wife felt tolerably confident It was intended however to be a thronged and noticeable affair and preparations were made for receiving some hundreds
And now there arose considerable agitation among the Grantleyites whether or not they would attend the bidding The first feeling with them all was to send the briefest excuses both for themselves and their wives and daughters But by degrees policy prevailed over passion The archdeacon perceived that he would be making a false step if he allowed the cathedral clergy to give the bishop just ground of umbrage They all met in conclave and agreed to go The old dean would crawl in if it were but for half an hour The chancellor treasurer archdeacon prebendaries and minor canons would all go and would take their wives Mr Harding was especially bidden to go resolving in his heart to keep himself removed from Mrs Proudie And Mrs Bold was determined to go though assured by her father that there was no necessity for such a sacrifice on her part When all Barchester was to be there neither Eleanor nor Mary Bold understood why they should stay away Had they not been invited separately And had not a separate little note from the chaplain couched in the most respectful language been enclosed with the huge episcopal card
And the Stanhopes would be there one and all Even the lethargic mother would so far bestir herself on such an occasion They had only just arrived The card was at the residence waiting for them No one in Barchester had seen them and what better opportunity could they have of showing themselves to the Barchester world Some few old friends such as the archdeacon and his wife had called and had found the doctor and his eldest daughter but the elite of the family were not yet known
The doctor indeed wished in his heart to prevent the signora from accepting the bishops invitation but she herself had fully determined that she would accept it If her father was ashamed of having his daughter carried into a bishops palace she had no such feeling
Indeed I shall she said to her sister who had greatly endeavoured to dissuade her by saying that the company would consist wholly of parsons and parsons wives Parsons I suppose are much the same as other men if you strip them of their black coats and as to their wives I dare say they wont trouble me You may tell papa I dont mean to be left at home
Papa was told and felt that he could do nothing but yield He also felt that it was useless of him now to be ashamed of his children Such as they were they had become such under his auspices as he had made his bed so he must lie upon it as he had sown his seed so must he reap his corn He did not indeed utter such reflections in such language but such was the gist of his thoughts It was not because Madeline was a cripple that he shrank from seeing her made one of the bishops guests but because he knew that she would practise her accustomed lures and behave herself in a way that could not fail of being distasteful to the propriety of Englishwomen These things had annoyed but not shocked him in Italy There they had shocked no one but here in Barchester here among his fellow parsons he was ashamed that they should be seen Such had been his feelings but he repressed them What if his brother clergymen were shocked They could not take it from his preferment because the manners of his married daughter were too free
La Signora Neroni had at any rate no fear that she would shock anybody Her ambition was to create a sensation to have parsons at her feet seeing that the manhood of Barchester consisted mainly of parsons and to send if possible every parsons wife home with a green fit of jealousy None could be too old for her and hardly any too young None too sanctified and none too worldly She was quite prepared to entrap the bishop himself and then to turn up her nose at the bishops wife She did not doubt of success for she had always succeeded but one thing was absolutely necessary she must secure the entire use of a sofa
The card sent to Dr and Mrs Stanhope and family had been sent in an envelope having on the cover Mr Slopes name The signora soon learnt that Mrs Proudie was not yet at the palace and that the chaplain was managing everything It was much more in her line to apply to him than to the lady and she accordingly wrote to him the prettiest little billet in the world In five lines she explained everything declared how impossible it was for her not to be desirous to make the acquaintance of such persons as the bishop of Barchester and his wife and she might add also of Mr Slope depicted her own grievous state and concluded by being assured that Mrs Proudie would forgive her extreme hardihood in petitioning to be allowed to be carried to a sofa She then enclosed one of her beautiful cards In return she received as polite an answer from Mr Slope—a sofa should be kept in the large drawingroom immediately at the top of the grand stairs especially for her use
And now the day of the party had arrived The bishop and his wife came down from town only on the morning of the eventful day as behoved such great people to do but Mr Slope had toiled day and night to see that everything should be in right order There had been much to do No company had been seen in the palace since heaven knows when New furniture had been required new pots and pans new cups and saucers new dishes and plates Mrs Proudie had first declared that she would condescend to nothing so vulgar as eating and drinking but Mr Slope had talked or rather written her out of economy—bishops should be given to hospitality and hospitality meant eating and drinking So the supper was conceded the guests however were to stand as they consumed it
There were four rooms opening into each other on the first floor of the house which were denominated the drawingrooms the receptionroom and Mrs Proudies boudoir In olden days one of these had been Bishop Grantlys bedroom and another his common sittingroom and study The present bishop however had been moved down into a back parlour and had been given to understand that he could very well receive his clergy in the diningroom should they arrive in too large a flock to be admitted to his small sanctum He had been unwilling to yield but after a short debate had yielded
Mrs Proudies heart beat high as she inspected her suite of rooms They were really very magnificent or at least would be so by candlelight and they had nevertheless been got up with commendable economy Large rooms when full of people and full of light look well because they are large and are full and are light Small rooms are those which require costly fittings and rich furniture Mrs Proudie knew this and made the most of it she had therefore a huge gas lamp with a dozen burners hanging from each of the ceilings
People were to arrive at ten supper was to last from twelve to one and at halfpast one everybody was to be gone Carriages were to come in at the gate in the town and depart at the gate outside They were desired to take up at a quarter before one It was managed excellently and Mr Slope was invaluable
At halfpast nine the bishop and his wife and their three daughters entered the great receptionroom and very grand and very solemn they were Mr Slope was downstairs giving the last orders about the wine He well understood that curates and country vicars with their belongings did not require so generous an article as the dignitaries of the close There is a useful gradation in such things and Marsala at 20s a dozen did very well for the exterior supplementary tables in the corner
Bishop said the lady as his lordship sat himself down dont sit on that sofa if you please it is to be kept separate for a lady
The bishop jumped up and seated himself on a canebottomed chair A lady he inquired meekly do you mean one particular lady my dear
Yes bishop one particular lady said his wife disdaining to explain
She has got no legs papa said the youngest daughter tittering
No legs said the bishop opening his eyes
Nonsense Netta what stuff you talk said Olivia She has got legs but she cant use them She has always to be kept lying down and three or four men carry her about everywhere
Laws how odd said Augusta Always carried about by four men Im quite sure I wouldnt like it Am I right behind mama I feel as if I was open and she turned her back to her anxious parent
Open To be sure you are said she and a yard of petticoat strings hanging out I dont know why I pay such high wages to Mrs Richards if she cant take the trouble to see whether or no you are fit to be looked at and Mrs Proudie poked the strings here and twitched the dress there and gave her daughter a shove and a shake and then pronounced it all right
But rejoined the bishop who was dying with curiosity about the mysterious lady and her legs who is it that is to have the sofa What is her name Netta
A thundering rap at the front door interrupted the conversation Mrs Proudie stood up and shook herself gently and touched her cap on each side as she looked in the mirror Each of the girls stood on tiptoe and rearranged the bows on their bosoms and Mr Slope rushed up stairs three steps at a time
But who is it Netta whispered the bishop to his youngest daughter
La Signora Madeline Vesey Neroni whispered back the daughter and mind you dont let any one sit upon the sofa
La Signora Madeline Vicinironi muttered to himself the bewildered prelate Had he been told that the Begum of Oude was to be there or Queen Pomara of the Western Isles he could not have been more astonished La Signora Madeline Vicinironi who having no legs to stand on had bespoken a sofa in his drawingroom—who could she be He however could now make no further inquiry as Dr and Mrs Stanhope were announced They had been sent on out of the way a little before the time in order that the signora might have plenty of time to get herself conveniently packed into the carriage
The bishop was all smiles for the prebendarys wife and the bishops wife was all smiles for the prebendary Mr Slope was presented and was delighted to make the acquaintance of one of whom he had heard so much The doctor bowed very low and then looked as though he could not return the compliment as regarded Mr Slope of whom indeed he had heard nothing The doctor in spite of his long absence knew an English gentleman when he saw him
And then the guests came in shoals Mr and Mrs Quiverful and their three grown daughters Mr and Mrs Chadwick and their three daughters The burly chancellor and his wife and clerical son from Oxford The meagre little doctor without encumbrance Mr Harding with Eleanor and Miss Bold The dean leaning on a gaunt spinster his only child now living with him a lady very learned in stones ferns plants and vermin and who had written a book about petals A wonderful woman in her way was Miss Trefoil Mr Finnie the attorney with his wife was to be seen much to the dismay of many who had never met him in a drawingroom before The five Barchester doctors were all there and old Scalpen the retired apothecary and toothdrawer who was first taught to consider himself as belonging to the higher orders by the receipt of the bishops card Then came the archdeacon and his wife with their elder daughter Griselda a slim pale retiring girl of seventeen who kept close to her mother and looked out on the world with quiet watchful eyes one who gave promise of much beauty when time should have ripened it
And so the room became full and knots were formed and every new comer paid his respects to my lord and passed on not presuming to occupy too much of the great mans attention The archdeacon shook hands very heartily with Dr Stanhope and Mrs Grantly seated herself by the doctors wife And Mrs Proudie moved about with well regulated grace measuring out the quantity of her favours to the quality of her guests just as Mr Slope had been doing with the wine But the sofa was still empty and fiveandtwenty ladies and five gentlemen had been courteously warned off it by the mindful chaplain
Why doesnt she come said the bishop to himself His mind was so preoccupied with the signora that he hardly remembered how to behave himself en bishop
At last a carriage dashed up to the hall steps with a very different manner of approach from that of any other vehicle that had been there that evening A perfect commotion took place The doctor who heard it as he was standing in the drawingroom knew that his daughter was coming and retired to the furthest corner where he might not see her entrance Mrs Proudie parked herself up feeling that some important piece of business was in hand The bishop was instinctively aware that La Signora Vicinironi was come at last and Mr Slope hurried to the hall to give his assistance
He was however nearly knocked down and trampled on by the cortege that he encountered on the hall steps He got himself picked up as well as he could and followed the cortege up stairs The signora was carried head foremost her head being the care of her brother and an Italian manservant who was accustomed to the work her feet were in the care of the ladys maid and the ladys Italian page and Charlotte Stanhope followed to see that all was done with due grace and decorum In this manner they climbed easily into the drawingroom and a broad way through the crowd having been opened the signora rested safely on her couch She had sent a servant beforehand to learn whether it was a right or a left hand sofa for it required that she should dress accordingly particularly as regarded her bracelets
And very becoming her dress was It was white velvet without any other garniture than rich white lace worked with pearls across her bosom and the same round the armlets of her dress Across her brow she wore a band of red velvet on the centre of which shone a magnificent Cupid in mosaic the tints of whose wings were of the most lovely azure and the colour of his chubby cheeks the clearest pink On the one arm which her position required her to expose she wore three magnificent bracelets each of different stones Beneath her on the sofa and over the cushion and head of it was spread a crimson silk mantle or shawl which went under her whole body and concealed her feet Dressed as she was and looking as she did so beautiful and yet so motionless with the pure brilliancy of her white dress brought out and strengthened by the colour beneath it with that lovely head and those large bold bright staring eyes it was impossible that either man or woman should do other than look at her
Neither man nor woman for some minutes did do other
Her bearers too were worthy of note The three servants were Italian and though perhaps not peculiar in their own country were very much so in the palace at Barchester The man especially attracted notice and created a doubt in the mind of some whether he were a friend or a domestic The same doubt was felt as to Ethelbert The man was attired in a loosefitting common black cloth morning coat He had a jaunty wellpleased clean face on which no atom of beard appeared and he wore round his neck a loose black silk neckhandkerchief The bishop assayed to make him a bow but the man who was welltrained took no notice of him and walked out of the room quite at his ease followed by the woman and the boy
Ethelbert Stanhope was dressed in light blue from head to foot He had on the loosest possible blue coat cut square like a shooting coat and very short It was lined with silk of azure blue He had on a blue satin waistcoat a blue handkerchief which was fastened beneath his throat with a coral ring and very loose blue trousers which almost concealed his feet His soft glossy beard was softer and more glossy than ever
The bishop who had made one mistake thought that he also was a servant and therefore tried to make way for him to pass But Ethelbert soon corrected the error
CHAPTER XI
MRS PROUDIES RECEPTION—CONCLUDED
Bishop of Barchester I presume said Bertie Stanhope putting out his hand frankly I am delighted to make your acquaintance We are in rather close quarters here ant we
In truth they were They had been crowded up behind the head of the sofa the bishop in waiting to receive his guest and the other in carrying her and they now had hardly room to move themselves
The bishop gave his hand quickly and made a little studied bow and was delighted to make— He couldnt go on for he did not know whether his friend was a signor or a count or a prince
My sister really puts you all to great trouble said Bertie
Not at all the bishop was delighted to have the opportunity of welcoming the Signora Vicinironi—so at least he said—and attempted to force his way round to the front of the sofa He had at any rate learnt that his strange guests were brother and sister The man he presumed must be Signor Vicinironi—or count or prince as it might be It was wonderful what good English he spoke There was just a twang of foreign accent and no more
Do you like Barchester on the whole asked Bertie
The bishop looking dignified said that he did like Barchester
Youve not been here very long I believe said Bertie
No—not long said the bishop and tried again to make his way between the back of the sofa and a heavy rector who was staring over it at the grimaces of the signora
You werent a bishop before were you
Dr Proudie explained that this was the first diocese he had held
Ah—I thought so said Bertie but you are changed about sometimes ant you
Translations are occasionally made said Dr Proudie but not so frequently as in former days
Theyve cut them all down to pretty nearly the same figure havent they said Bertie
To this the bishop could not bring himself to make any answer but again tried to move the rector
But the work I suppose is different continued Bertie Is there much to do here at Barchester This was said exactly in the tone that a young Admiralty clerk might use in asking the same question of a brother acolyte in the Treasury
The work of a bishop of the Church of England said Dr Proudie with considerable dignity is not easy The responsibility which he has to bear is very great indeed
Is it said Bertie opening wide his wonderful blue eyes Well I never was afraid of responsibility I once thought of being a bishop myself
Had thought of being a bishop said Dr Proudie much amazed
That is a parson—a parson first you know and a bishop afterwards If I had once begun Id have stuck to it But on the whole I like the Church of Rome the best
The bishop could not discuss the point so he remained silent
Now theres my father continued Bertie he hasnt stuck to it I fancy he didnt like saying the same thing so often By the bye bishop have you seen my father
The bishop was more amazed than ever Had he seen his father No he replied he had not yet had the pleasure he hoped he might and as he said so he resolved to bear heavy on that fat immoveable rector if ever he had the power of doing so
Hes in the room somewhere said Bertie and hell turn up soon
By the bye do you know much about the Jews
At last the bishop saw a way out I beg your pardon said he but Im forced to go round the room
Well—I believe Ill follow in your wake said Bertie Terribly hot isnt it This he addressed to the fat rector with whom he had brought himself into the closest contact Theyve got this sofa into the worst possible part of the room suppose we move it Take care Madeline
The sofa had certainly been so placed that those who were behind it found great difficulty in getting out—there was but a narrow gangway which one person could stop This was a bad arrangement and one which Bertie thought it might be well to improve
Take care Madeline said he and turning to the fat rector added Just help me with a slight push
The rectors weight was resting on the sofa and unwittingly lent all its impetus to accelerate and increase the motion which Bertie intentionally originated The sofa rushed from its moorings and ran halfway into the middle of the room Mrs Proudie was standing with Mr Slope in front of the signora and had been trying to be condescending and sociable but she was not in the very best of tempers for she found that whenever she spoke to the lady the lady replied by speaking to Mr Slope Mr Slope was a favourite no doubt but Mrs Proudie had no idea of being less thought of than the chaplain She was beginning to be stately stiff and offended when unfortunately the castor of the sofa caught itself in her lace train and carried away there is no saying how much of her garniture Gathers were heard to go stitches to crack plaits to fly open flounces were seen to fall and breadths to expose themselves—a long ruin of rent lace disfigured the carpet and still clung to the vile wheel on which the sofa moved
So when a granite battery is raised excellent to the eyes of warfaring men is its strength and symmetry admired It is the work of years Its neat embrasures its finished parapets its casemated stories show all the skill of modern science But anon a small spark is applied to the treacherous fusee—a cloud of dust arises to the heavens—and then nothing is to be seen but dirt and dust and ugly fragments
We know what was the wrath of Juno when her beauty was despised We know too what storms of passion even celestial minds can yield As Juno may have looked at Paris on Mount Ida so did Mrs Proudie look on Ethelbert Stanhope when he pushed the leg of the sofa into her train
Oh you idiot Bertie said the signora seeing what had been done and what were the consequences
Idiot reechoed Mrs Proudie as though the word were not half strong enough to express the required meaning Ill let him know and then looking round to learn at a glance the worst she saw that at present it behoved her to collect the scattered debris of her dress
Bertie when he saw what he had done rushed over the sofa and threw himself on one knee before the offended lady His object doubtless was to liberate the torn lace from the castor but he looked as though he were imploring pardon from a goddess
Unhand it sir said Mrs Proudie From what scrap of dramatic poetry she had extracted the word cannot be said but it must have rested on her memory and now seemed opportunely dignified for the occasion
Ill fly to the looms of the fairies to repair the damage if youll only forgive me said Ethelbert still on his knees
Unhand it sir said Mrs Proudie with redoubled emphasis and all but furious wrath This allusion to the fairies was a direct mockery and intended to turn her into ridicule So at least it seemed to her Unhand it sir she almost screamed
Its not me its the cursed sofa said Bertie looking imploringly in her face and holding both his hands to show that he was not touching her belongings but still remaining on his knees
Hereupon the signora laughed not loud indeed but yet audibly And as the tigress bereft of her young will turn with equal anger on any within reach so did Mrs Proudie turn upon her female guest
Madam she said—and it is beyond the power of prose to tell of the fire that flashed from her eyes
By this time the bishop and Mr Slope and her three daughters were around her and had collected together the wide ruins of her magnificence The girls fell into circular rank behind their mother and thus following her and carrying out the fragments they left the receptionrooms in a manner not altogether devoid of dignity Mrs Proudie had to retire to rearray herself
As soon as the constellation had swept by Ethelbert rose from his knees and turning with mock anger to the fat rector said After all it was your doing sir—not mine But perhaps you are waiting for preferment and so I bore it
Whereupon there was a laugh against the fat rector in which both the bishop and the chaplain joined and thus things got themselves again into order
Oh my lord I am so sorry for this accident said the signora putting out her hand so as to force the bishop to take it My brother is so thoughtless Pray sit down and let me have the pleasure of making your acquaintance Though I am so poor a creature as to want a sofa I am not so selfish as to require it all Madeline could always dispose herself so as to make room for a gentleman though as she declared the crinoline of her lady friends was much too bulky to be so accommodated
It was solely for the pleasure of meeting you that I have had myself dragged here she continued Of course with your occupation one cannot even hope that you should have time to come to us that is in the way of calling And at your English dinnerparties all is so dull and so stately Do you know my lord that in coming to England my only consolation has been the thought that I should know you and she looked at him with the look of a shedevil
The bishop however thought that she looked very like an angel and accepting the proffered seat sat down beside her He uttered some platitude as to this deep obligation for the trouble she had taken and wondered more and more who she was
Of course you know my sad story she continued
The bishop didnt know a word of it He knew however or thought he knew that she couldnt walk into a room like other people and so made the most of that He put on a look of ineffable distress and said that he was aware how God had afflicted her
The signora just touched the corner of her eyes with the most lovely of pockethandkerchiefs Yes she said—she had been very sorely tried—tried she thought beyond the common endurance of humanity but while her child was left to her everything was left Oh My lord she exclaimed you must see the infant—the last bud of a wondrous tree you must let a mother hope that you will lay your holy hands on her innocent head and consecrate her for female virtues May I hope it said she looking into the bishops eye and touching the bishops arm with her hand
The bishop was but a man and said she might After all what was it but a request that he would confirm her daughter—a request indeed very unnecessary to make as he should do so as a matter of course if the young lady came forward in the usual way
The blood of Tiberius said the signora in all but a whisper the blood of Tiberius flows in her veins She is the last of the Neros
The bishop had heard of the last of the Visigoths and had floating in his brain some indistinct idea of the last of the Mohicans but to have the last of the Neros thus brought before him for a blessing was very staggering Still he liked the lady she had a proper way of thinking and talked with more propriety than her brother But who were they It was now quite clear that that blue madman with the silky beard was not a Prince Vicinironi The lady was married and was of course one of the Vicinironis by right of the husband So the bishop went on learning
When will you see her said the signora with a start
See whom said the bishop
My child said the mother
What is the young ladys age asked the bishop
She is just seven said the signora
Oh said the bishop shaking his head she is much too young—very much too young
But in sunny Italy you know we do not count by years and the signora gave the bishop one of her very sweetest smiles
But indeed she is a great deal too young persisted the bishop we never confirm before—
But you might speak to her you might let her hear from your consecrated lips that she is not a castaway because she is a Roman that she may be a Nero and yet a Christian that she may owe her black locks and dark cheeks to the blood of the pagan Caesars and yet herself be a child of grace you will tell her this wont you my friend
The friend said he would and asked if the child could say her catechisms
No said the signora I would not allow her to learn lessons such as those in a land ridden by priests and polluted by the idolatry of Rome It is here here in Barchester that she must first be taught to lisp those holy words Oh that you could be her instructor
Now Dr Proudie certainly liked the lady but seeing that he was a bishop it was not probable that he was going to instruct a little girl in the first rudiments of her catechism so he said hed send a teacher
But you will see her yourself my lord
The bishop said he would but where should he call
At papas house said the signora with an air of some little surprise at the question
The bishop actually wanted the courage to ask her who was her papa so he was forced at last to leave her without fathoming her mystery Mrs Proudie in her second best had now returned to the rooms and her husband thought it as well that he should not remain in too close conversation with the lady whom his wife appeared to hold in such slight esteem Presently he came across his youngest daughter
Netta said he do you know who is the father of that Signora
Vicinironi
It isnt Vicinironi papa said Netta but Vesey Neroni and shes Dr Stanhopes daughter But I must go and do the civil to Griselda Grantly I declare nobody has spoken a word to the poor girl this evening
Dr Stanhope Dr Vesey Stanhope Dr Vesey Stanhopes daughter of whose marriage with a dissolute Italian scamp he now remembered to have heard something And that impertinent blue cub who had examined him as to his episcopal bearings was old Stanhopes son and the lady who had entreated him to come and teach her child the catechism was old Stanhopes daughter The daughter of one of his own prebendaries As these things flashed across his mind he was nearly as angry as his wife had been Nevertheless he could not but own that the mother of the last of the Neros was an agreeable woman
Dr Proudie tripped out into the adjoining room in which were congregated a crowd of Grantlyite clergymen among whom the archdeacon was standing preeminent while the old dean was sitting nearly buried in a huge armchair by the fireplace The bishop was very anxious to be gracious and if possible to diminish the bitterness which his chaplain had occasioned Let Mr Slope do the fortiter in re he himself would pour in the suaviter in modo
Pray dont stir Mr Dean pray dont stir he said as the old man essayed to get up I take it as a great kindness your coming to such an omnium gatherum as this But we have hardly got settled yet and Mrs Proudie has not been able to see her friends as she would wish to do Well Mr Archdeacon after all we have not been so hard upon you at Oxford
No said the archdeacon youve only drawn our teeth and cut out our tongues youve allowed us still to breathe and swallow
Ha ha ha laughed the bishop its not quite so easy to cut out the tongue of an Oxford magnate—and as for teeth—ha ha ha Why in the way weve left the matter its very odd if the heads of colleges dont have their own way quite as fully as when the hebdomadal board was in all its glory what do you say Mr Dean
An old man my lord never likes changes said the dean
You must have been sad bunglers if it is so said the archdeacon and indeed to tell the truth I think you have bungled it At any rate you must own this you have not done the half what you boasted you would do
Now as regards your system of professors— began the chancellor slowly He was never destined to get beyond the beginning
Talking of professors said a soft clear voice close behind the chancellors elbow how much you Englishmen might learn from Germany only you are all too proud
The bishop looking round perceived that abominable young Stanhope had pursued him The dean stared at him as though he was some unearthly apparition so also did two or three prebendaries and minor canons The archdeacon laughed
The German professors are men of learning said Mr Harding but—
German professors groaned out the chancellor as though his nervous system had received a shock which nothing but a week of Oxford air would cure
Yes continued Ethelbert not at all understanding why a German professor should be contemptible in the eyes of an Oxford don Not but what the name is best earned at Oxford In Germany the professors do teach at Oxford I believe they only profess to do so and sometimes not even that Youll have those universities of yours about your ears soon if you dont consent to take a lesson from Germany
There was no answering this Dignified clergymen of sixty years of age could not condescend to discuss such a matter with a young man with such clothes and such a beard
Have you got good water out at Plumstead Mr Archdeacon said the bishop by way of changing the conversation
Pretty good said the archdeacon
But by no means so good as his wine my lord said a witty minor canon
Nor so generally used said another that is for inward application
Ha ha ha laughed the bishop a good cellar of wine is a very comfortable thing in a house
Your German professors sir prefer beer I believe said the sarcastic little meagre prebendary
They dont think much of either said Ethelbert and that perhaps accounts for their superiority Now the Jewish professor
The insult was becoming too deep for the spirit of Oxford to endure so the archdeacon walked off one way and the chancellor another followed by their disciples and the bishop and the young reformer were left together on the hearthrug
I was a Jew once myself said Bertie
The bishop was determined not to stand another examination or be led on any terms into Palestine so he again remembered that he had to do something very particular and left young Stanhope with the dean The dean did not get the worst of it for Ethelbert gave him a true account of his remarkable doings in the Holy Land
Oh Mr Harding said the bishop overtaking the cidevant warden I wanted to say one word about the hospital You know of course that it is to be filled up
Mr Hardings heart beat a little and he said that he had heard so
Of course continued the bishop there can be only one man whom I could wish to see in that situation I dont know what your own views may be Mr Harding—
They are very simply told my lord said the other to take the place if it be offered me and to put up with the want of it should another man get it
The bishop professed himself delighted to hear it Mr Harding might be quite sure that no other man would get it There were some few circumstances which would in a slight degree change the nature of the duties Mr Harding was probably aware of this and would perhaps not object to discuss the matter with Mr Slope It was a subject to which Mr Slope had given a good deal of attention
Mr Harding felt he knew not why oppressed and annoyed What could Mr Slope do to him He knew that there were to be changes The nature of them must be communicated to the warden through somebody and through whom so naturally as the bishops chaplain Twas thus that he tried to argue himself back to an easy mind but in vain
Mr Slope in the mean time had taken the seat which the bishop had vacated on the signoras sofa and remained with that lady till it was time to marshal the folk to supper Not with contented eyes had Mrs Proudie seen this Had not this woman laughed at her distress and had not Mr Slope heard it Was she not an intriguing Italian woman half wife and half not full of affectation airs and impudence Was she not horribly bedizened with velvet and pearls with velvet and pearls too which had been torn off her back Above all did she not pretend to be more beautiful than her neighbours To say that Mrs Proudie was jealous would give a wrong idea of her feelings She had not the slightest desire that Mr Slope should be in love with herself But she desired the incense of Mr Slopes spiritual and temporal services and did not choose that they should be turned out of their course to such an object as Signora Neroni She considered also that Mr Slope ought in duty to hate the signora and it appeared from his manner that he was very far from hating her
Come Mr Slope she said sweeping by and looking all that she felt cant you make yourself useful Do pray take Mrs Grantly down to supper
Mrs Grantly heard and escaped The words were hardly out of Mrs Proudies mouth before the intended victim had stuck her hand through the arm of one of her husbands curates and saved herself What would the archdeacon have said had he seen her walking down stairs with Mr Slope
Mr Slope heard also but was by no means so obedient as was expected Indeed the period of Mr Slopes obedience to Mrs Proudie was drawing to a close He did not wish yet to break with her nor to break with her at all if it could be avoided But he intended to be master in that palace and as she had made the same resolution it was not improbable that they might come to blows
Before leaving the signora he arranged a little table before her and begged to know what he should bring her She was quite indifferent she said—nothing—anything It was now she felt the misery of her position now that she must be left alone Well a little chicken some ham and a glass of champagne
Mr Slope had to explain not without blushing for his patron that there was no champagne
Sherry would do just as well And then Mr Slope descended with the learned Miss Trefoil on his arm Could she tell him he asked whether the ferns of Barsetshire were equal to those of Cumberland His strongest worldly passion was for ferns—and before she could answer him he left her wedged between the door and the sideboard It was fifty minutes before she escaped and even then unfed
You are not leaving us Mr Slope said the watchful lady of the house seeing her slave escaping towards the door with stores of provisions held high above the heads of the guests
Mr Slope explained that the Signora Neroni was in want of her supper
Pray Mr Slope let her brother take it to her said Mrs Proudie quite out loud It is out of the question that you should be so employed Pray Mr Slope oblige me I am sure Mr Stanhope will wait upon his sister
Ethelbert was most agreeably occupied in the furthest corner of the room making himself both useful and agreeable to Mrs Proudies youngest daughter
I couldnt get out madam if Madeline were starving for her supper said he Im physically fixed unless I could fly
The ladys anger was increased by seeing that her daughter had gone over to the enemy and when she saw that in spite of her remonstrances in the teeth of her positive orders Mr Slope went off to the drawingroom the cup of her indignation ran over and she could not restrain herself Such manners I never saw she said muttering I cannot and will not permit it and then after fussing and fuming for a few minutes she pushed her way through the crowd and followed Mr Slope
When she reached the room above she found it absolutely deserted except for the guilty pair The signora was sitting very comfortably up for her supper and Mr Slope was leaning over her and administering to her wants They had been discussing the merits of Sabbathday schools and the lady suggested that as she could not possibly go to the children she might be indulged in the wish of her heart by having the children brought to her
And when shall it be Mr Slope said she
Mr Slope was saved the necessity of committing himself to a promise by the entry of Mrs Proudie She swept close up to the sofa so as to confront the guilty pair stared full at them for a moment and then said as she passed on to the next room Mr Slope his lordship is especially desirous of your attendance below you will greatly oblige me if you will join him And so she stalked on
Mr Slope muttered something in reply and prepared to go down stairs As for the bishops wanting him he knew his lady patroness well enough to take that assertion at what it was worth but he did not wish to make himself the hero of a scene or to become conspicuous for more gallantry than the occasion required
Is she always like this said the signora
Yes—always—madam said Mrs Proudie returning always the same—always equally adverse to the impropriety of conduct of every description and she stalked back through the room again following Mr Slope out of the door
The signora couldnt follow her or she certainly would have done so But she laughed loud and sent the sound of it ringing through the lobby and down the stairs after Mrs Proudies feet Had she been as active as Grimaldi she could probably have taken no better revenge
But shes lame Mrs Proudie and cannot move Somebody must have waited upon her
Lame said Mrs Proudie Id lame her if she belonged to me What business had she here at all—such impertinence—such affectation
In the hall and adjacent rooms all manner of cloaking and shawling was going on and the Barchester folk were getting themselves gone Mrs Proudie did her best to smirk at each and every one as they made their adieux but she was hardly successful Her temper had been tried fearfully By slow degrees the guests went
Send back the carriage quick said Ethelbert as Dr and Mrs
Stanhope took their departure
The younger Stanhopes were left to the very last and an uncomfortable party they made with the bishops family They all went into the diningroom and then the bishop observing that the lady was alone in the drawingroom they followed him up Mrs Proudie kept Mr Slope and her daughters in close conversation resolving that he should not be indulged nor they polluted The bishop in mortal dread of Bertie and the Jews tried to converse with Charlotte Stanhope about the climate of Italy Bertie and the signora had not resource but in each other
Did you get your supper at last Madeline said the impudent or else mischievous young man
Oh yes said Madeline Mr Slope was so very kind to bring it me I fear however he put himself to more inconvenience than I wished
Mrs Proudie looked at her but said nothing The meaning of her look might have been translated If ever you find yourself within these walls again Ill give you leave to be as impudent and affected and as mischievous as you please
At last the carriage returned with the three Italian servants and la Signora Madeline Vesey Neroni was carried out as she had been carried in
The lady of the palace retired to her chamber by no means contented with the result of her first grand party at Barchester
CHAPTER XII
SLOPE VERSUS HARDING
Two or three days after the party Mr Harding received a note begging him to call on Mr Slope at the palace at an early hour the following morning There was nothing uncivil in the communication and yet the tone of it was thoroughly displeasing It was as follows
My dear Mr Harding Will you favour me by calling on me at the palace tomorrow morning at 930am The bishop wishes me to speak to you touching the hospital I hope you will excuse my naming so early an hour I do so as my time is greatly occupied If however it is positively inconvenient to you I will change it to 10 You will perhaps be kind enough to give me a note in reply
Believe me to be My dear Mr Harding
Your assured friend OBH SLOPE
The Palace Monday morning 20th August 185
Mr Harding neither could nor would believe anything of the sort and he thought moreover that Mr Slope was rather impertinent to call himself by such a name His assured friend indeed How many assured friends generally fall to the lot of a man in this world And by what process are they made And how much of such process had taken place as yet between Mr Harding and Mr Slope Mr Harding could not help asking himself these questions as he read and reread the note before him He answered it as follows
Dear Sir—I will call at the palace tomorrow at 930 AM as you desire
Truly yours S HARDING
And on the following morning punctually at halfpast nine he knocked at the palace door and asked for Mr Slope
The bishop had one small room allotted to him on the groundfloor and Mr Slope had another Into this latter Mr Harding was shown and asked to sit down Mr Slope was not yet there The exwarden stood up at the window looking into the garden and could not help thinking how very short a time had passed since the whole of that house had been open to him as though he had been a child of the family born and bred in it He remembered how the old servants used to smile as they opened the door to him how the familiar butler would say when he had been absent for a few hours longer than usual A sight of you Mr Harding is good for sore eyes how the fussy housekeeper would swear that he couldnt have dined or couldnt have breakfasted or couldnt have lunched And then above all he remembered the pleasant gleam of inward satisfaction which always spread itself over the old bishops face whenever his friend entered his room
A tear came into his eyes as he reflected that all this was gone What use would the hospital be to him now He was alone in the world and getting old he would soon very soon have to go and leave it all as his dear old friend had gone—go and leave the hospital and his accustomed place in the cathedral and his haunts and pleasures to younger and perhaps wiser men in truth the time for it had gone by He felt as though the world were sinking from his feet as though this this was the time for him to turn with confidence to others What said he to himself can a mans religion be worth if it does not support him against the natural melancholy of declining years and as he looked out through his dimmed eyes into the bright parterres of the bishops garden he felt that he had the support which he wanted
Nevertheless he did not like to be thus kept waiting If Mr Slope did not really wish to see him at halfpast nine oclock why force him to come away from his lodgings with his breakfast in his throat To tell the truth it was policy on the part of Mr Slope Mr Slope had made up his mind that Mr Harding should either accept the hospital with abject submission or else refuse it altogether and had calculated that he would probably be more quick to do the latter if he could be got to enter upon the subject in all illhumour Perhaps Mr Slope was not altogether wrong in his calculation
It was nearly ten when Mr Slope hurried into the room and muttering something about the bishop and diocesan duties shook Mr Hardings hand ruthlessly and begged him to be seated
Now the airy superiority which this man assumed did go against the grain of Mr Harding and yet he did not know how to resent it The whole tendency of his mind and disposition was opposed to any contraassumption of grandeur on his own part and he hadnt the worldly spirit or quickness necessary to put down insolent pretensions by downright and open rebuke as the archdeacon would have done There was nothing for Mr Harding but to submit and he accordingly did so
About the hospital Mr Harding began Mr Slope speaking of it as the head of college at Cambridge might speak of some sizarship which had to be disposed of
Mr Harding crossed one leg over the other and then one hand over the other on the top of them and looked Mr Slope in the face but he said nothing
Its to be filled up again said Mr Slope Mr Harding said that he had understood so
Of course you know the income is very much reduced continued Mr Slope The bishop wished to be liberal and he therefore told the government that he thought it ought to be put at not less than L 450 I think on the whole the bishop was right for though the service required will not be of a very onerous nature they will be more so than they were before And it is perhaps well that the clergy immediately attached to the cathedral town should be made comfortable to the extent of the ecclesiastical means at our disposal will allow Those are the bishops ideas and I must say mine also
Mr Harding sat rubbing one hand on the other but said not a word
So much for the income Mr Harding The house will of course remain to the warden as before It should however I think be stipulated that he should paint inside every seven years and outside every three years and be subject to dilapidations in the event of vacating either by death or otherwise But this is a matter on which the bishop must yet be consulted
Mr Harding still rubbed his hands and still sat silent gazing up into Mr Slopes unprepossessing face
Then as to duties continued he I believe if I am rightly informed there can hardly be said to have been any duties hitherto and he gave a sort of half laugh as though to pass off the accusation in the guise of a pleasantry
Mr Harding thought of the happy easy years he had passed in his old house of the wornout aged men whom he had succoured of his good intentions and of his work which had certainly been of the lightest He thought of those things doubting for a moment whether he did or did not deserve the sarcasm He gave his enemy the benefit of the doubt and did not rebuke him He merely observed very tranquilly and perhaps with too much humility that the duties of the situation such as they were had he believed been done to the satisfaction of the late bishop
Mr Slope again smiled and this time the smile was intended to operate against the memory of the late bishop rather than against the energy of the exwarden and so it was understood by Mr Harding The colour rose in his cheeks and he began to feel very angry
You should be aware Mr Harding that things are a good deal changed in Barchester said Mr Slope
Mr Harding said that he was aware of it And not only in Barchester Mr Harding but in the world at large It is not only in Barchester that a new man is carrying out new measures and casting away the useless rubbish of past centuries The same thing is going on throughout the country Work is now required from every man who receives wages and they who have superintended the doing of the work and the paying of the wages are bound to see that this rule is carried out New men Mr Harding are now needed and are now forthcoming in the church as well as in other professions
All this was wormwood to our old friend He had never rated very high his own abilities or activity but all the feelings of his heart were with the old clergy and any antipathies of which his heart was susceptible were directed against those new busy uncharitable selflauding men of whom Mr Slope was so good an example
By no means said Mr Slope The bishop is very anxious that you should accept the appointment but he wishes you should understand beforehand what will be the required duties In the first place a Sabbathday school will be attached to the hospital
What For the old men asked Mr Harding
No Mr Harding not for the old men but for the benefit of the children of such of the poor of Barchester as it may suit The bishop will expect that you shall attend this school and the teachers shall be under your inspection and care
Mr Harding slipped his topmost hand off the other and began to rub the calf of the leg which was supported
As to the old men continued Mr Slope and the old women who are to form part of the hospital the bishop is desirous that you shall have morning and evening service on the premises every Sabbath and one weekday service that you shall preach to them once at least on Sundays and that the whole hospital be always collected for morning and evening prayer The bishop thinks that this will render it unnecessary that any separate seats in the cathedral should be reserved for the hospital inmates
Mr Slope paused but Mr Harding still said nothing
Indeed it would be difficult to find seats for the women and on the whole Mr Harding I may as well say at once that for people of that class the cathedral service does not appear to me to be the most useful—even if it be so for any class of people
We will not discuss that if you please said Mr Harding
I am not desirous of doing so at least not at the present moment I hope however you fully understand the bishops wishes about the new establishment of the hospital and if as I do not doubt I shall receive from you an assurance that you will accord with his lordships views it will give me very great pleasure to be the bearer from his lordship to you of the presentation of the appointment
But if I disagree with his lordships views asked Mr Harding
But I hope you do not said Mr Slope
But if I do again asked the other
If such unfortunately should be the case which I can hardly conceive I presume your own feelings will dictate to you the propriety of declining the appointment
But if I accept the appointment and yet disagree with the bishop what then
This question rather bothered Mr Slope It was true that he had talked the matter over with the bishop and had received a sort of authority for suggesting to Mr Harding the propriety of a Sunday school and certain hospital services but he had no authority for saying that those propositions were to be made peremptory conditions attached to the appointment The bishops idea had been that Mr Harding would of course consent and that the school would become like the rest of those new establishments in the city under the control of his wife and his chaplain Mr Slopes idea had been more correct He intended that Mr Harding should refuse the situation and that an ally of his own should get it but he had not conceived the possibility of Mr Harding openly accepting the appointment and as openly rejecting the condition
It is not I presume probable said he that you will accept from the hands of the bishop a piece of preferment with a fixed predetermination to disacknowledge the duties attached to it
If I become warden said Mr Harding and neglect my duty the bishop has means by which he can remedy the grievance
I hardly expected such an argument from you or I may say the suggestion of such a line of conduct said Mr Slope with a great look of injured virtue
Nor did I expect such a proposition
I shall be glad at any rate to know what answer I am to make to his lordship said Mr Slope
I will take an early opportunity of seeing his lordship myself said Mr Harding
Such an arrangement said Mr Slope will hardly give his lordship satisfaction Indeed it is impossible that the bishop should himself see every clergyman in the diocese on every subject of patronage that may arise The bishop I believe did see you on the matter and I really cannot see why he should be troubled to do so again
Do you know Mr Slope how long I have been officiating as a clergyman in this city Mr Slopes wish was now nearly fulfilled Mr Harding had become very angry and it was probable that he might commit himself
I really do not see what that has to do with the question You cannot think that the bishop would be justified in allowing you to regard as a sinecure a situation that requires an active man merely because you have been employed for many years in the cathedral
But it might induce the bishop to see me if I asked him to do so I shall consult my friends in this matter Mr Slope but I mean to be guilty of no subterfuge—you may tell the bishop that as I altogether disagree with his views about the hospital I shall decline the situation if I find that any such conditions are attached to it as those you have suggested and so saying Mr Harding took his hat and went his way
Mr Slope was contented He considered himself at liberty to accept
Mr Hardings last speech as an absolute refusal of the appointment
At least he so represented it to the bishop and to Mrs Proudie
That is very surprising said the bishop
Not at all said Mrs Proudie you little know how determined the whole set of them are to withstand your authority
But Mr Harding was so anxious for it said the bishop
Yes said Mr Slope if he can hold it without the slightest acknowledgement of your lordships jurisdiction
That is out of the question said the bishop
I should imagine it to be quite sosaid the chaplain
Indeed I should think so said the lady
I really am sorry for it said the bishop
I dont know that there is much cause for sorrow said the lady Mr Quiverful is a much more deserving man more in need of it and one who will make himself much more useful in the close neighbourhood of the palace
I suppose I had better see Quiverful said the chaplain
I suppose you had said the bishop
CHAPTER XIII
THE RUBBISH CART
Mr Harding was not a happy man as he walked down the palace pathway and stepped out into the close His preferment and pleasant house were a second time gone from him but that he could endure He had been schooled and insulted by a man young enough to be his son but that he could put up with He could even draw from the very injuries which had been inflicted on him some of that consolation which we may believe martyrs always receive from the injuries of their own sufferings and which is generally proportioned in it strength to the extent of cruelty with which martyrs are treated He had admitted to his daughter that he wanted the comfort of his old home and yet he could have returned to his lodgings in the High Street if not with exultation at least with satisfaction had that been all But the venom of the chaplains harangue had worked into his blood and had sapped the life of his sweet contentment
New men are carrying out new measures and are eating away the useless rubbish of past centuries What cruel words these had been and how often are they now used with all the heartless cruelty of a Slope A man is sufficiently condemned if it can only be shown that either in politics or religion he does not belong to some new school established within the last score of years He may then regard himself as rubbish and expect to be carted away A man is nothing now unless he has within him a full appreciation of the new era an ear in which it would seem that neither honesty nor truth is very desirable but in which success is the only touchstone of merit We must laugh at every thing that is established Let the joke be ever so bad ever so untrue to the real principles of joking nevertheless we must laugh—or else beware the cart We must talk think and live up to the spirit of the times and write up to it too if that cacoethes be upon us or else we are nought New men and now measures long credit and few scruples great success and wonderful ruin such are now the tastes of Englishmen who know how to live Alas alas under the circumstances Mr Harding could not but feel that he was an Englishman who did not know how to live This new doctrine of Mr Slope and the rubbish cart new at least at Barchester sadly disturbed his equanimity
The same thing is going on throughout the whole country Work is now required from every man who receives wages and had he been living all his life receiving wages and doing no work Had he in truth so lived as to be now in his old age justly reckoned as rubbish fit only to be hidden away in some huge dust hole The school of men to whom he professes to belong the Grantlys the Gwynnes and the old high set of Oxford divines are afflicted with no such selfaccusations as these which troubled Mr Harding They as a rule are as satisfied with the wisdom and propriety of their own conduct as can be any Mr Slope or any Dr Proudie with his own But unfortunately for himself Mr Harding had little of this selfreliance When he heard himself designated as rubbish by the Slopes of the world he had no other recourse than to make inquiry within his own bosom as to the truth of the designation Alas alas the evidence seemed generally to go against him
He had professed to himself in the bishops parlour that in these coming sources of the sorrow of the age in these fits of sad regret from which the latter years of few reflecting men can be free religion would suffice to comfort him Yes religion could console him for the loss of any worldly good but was his religion of that active sort which would enable him so to repent of misspent years as to pass those that were left to him in a spirit of hope for the future And such repentance itself is it not a work of agony and of tears It is very easy to talk of repentance but a man has to walk over hot ploughshares before he can complete it to be skinned alive as was St Bartholomew to be stuck full of arrows as was St Sebastian to lie broiling on a gridiron like St Lorenzo How if his past life required such repentance as this had he the energy to go through with it
Mr Harding after leaving the palace walked slowly for an hour or so beneath the shady elms of the close and then betook himself to his daughters house He had at any rate made up his mind that he would go out to Plumstead to consult Dr Grantly and that he would in the first instance tell Eleanor what had occurred
And now he was doomed to undergo another misery Mr Slope had forestalled him at the widows house He had called there on the preceding afternoon He could not he had said deny himself the pleasure of telling Mrs Bold that her father was about to return to the pretty house at Hirams hospital He had been instructed by the bishop to inform Mr Harding that the appointment would now be made at once The bishop was of course only too happy to be able to be the means of restoring to Mr Harding the preferment which he had so long adorned And then by degrees Mr Slope had introduced the subject of the pretty school which he had hoped before long to see attached to the hospital He had quite fascinated Mrs Bold by his description of this picturesque useful and charitable appendage and she had gone so far as to say that she had no doubt her father would approve and that she herself would gladly undertake a class
Anyone who had heard the entirely different tone and seen the entirely different manner in which Mr Slope had spoken of this projected institution to the daughter and to the father would not have failed to own that Mr Slope was a man of genius He said nothing to Mrs Bold about the hospital sermons and services nothing about the exclusion of the old men from the cathedral nothing about dilapidation and painting nothing about carting away the rubbish Eleanor had said to herself that certainly she did not like Mr Slope personally but that he was a very active zealous clergyman and would no doubt be useful in Barchester All this paved the way for much additional misery to Mr Harding
Eleanor put on her happiest face as she heard her father on the stairs for she thought she had only to congratulate him but directly she saw his face she knew that there was but little matter for congratulation She had seen him with the same weary look of sorrow on one or two occasions before and remembered it well She had seen him when he first read that attack upon himself in the Jupiter which had ultimately caused him to resign the hospital and she had seen him also when the archdeacon had persuaded him to remain there against his own sense of propriety and honour She knew at a glance that his spirit was in deep trouble
Oh papa what is it said she putting down her boy to crawl upon the floor
I came to tell you my dear said he that I am going out to
Plumstead you wont come with me I suppose
To Plumstead papa Shall you stay there
I suppose I shall tonight I must consult the archdeacon about this weary hospital Ah me I wish I had never thought of it again
Why papa what is the matter
Ive been with Mr Slope my dear and he isnt the pleasantest companion in the world at least not to me Eleanor gave a sort of half blush but she was wrong if she imagined that her father in any way alluded to her acquaintance with Mr Slope
Well papa
He wants to turn the hospital into a Sunday school and a preaching house and I suppose he will have his way I do not feel myself adapted for such an establishment and therefore I suppose I must refuse the appointment
What would be the harm of the school papa
The want of a proper schoolmaster my dear
But that would of course be supplied
Mr Slope wishes to supply it by making me his schoolmaster But as
I am hardly fit for such work I intend to decline
Oh papa Mr Slope doesnt intend that He was here yesterday and what he intends—
He was here yesterday was he asked Mr Harding
Yes papa
And talking about the hospital
He was saying how glad he would be and the bishop too to see you back there again And then he spoke about the Sunday school and to tell the truth I agreed with him and I thought you would have done so too Mr Slope spoke of a school not inside the hospital but just connected with it of which you would be the patron and visitor and I thought you would have liked such a school as that and I promised to look after it and to take a class—and it all seemed so very— But oh papa I shall be so miserable if I find that I have done wrong
Nothing wrong at all my dear said he gently very gently rejecting his daughters caresses There can be nothing wrong in your wishing to make yourself useful indeed you ought to do so by all means Every one must now exert himself who would not choose to go to the wall Poor Mr Harding thus attempted in his misery to preach the new doctrine to his child Himself or herself its all the same he continued you will be quite right my dear to do something of this sort but—
Well papa
I am not quite sure that if I were you I would select Mr Slope for my guide
But I have never done so and never shall
It would be very wicked of me to speak evil of him for to tell the truth I know no evil of him but I am not quite sure that he is honest That he is not gentlemanlike in his manners of that I am quite sure
I never thought of taking him for my guide papa
As for myself my dear continued he we know the old proverb—Its a bad thing teaching an old dog new tricks I must decline the Sunday school and shall therefore probably decline the hospital also But I will first see your brotherinlaw So he took up his hat kissed the baby and withdrew leaving Eleanor in as low spirits as himself
All this was a great aggravation to his misery He had so few with whom to sympathise that he could not afford to be cut off from the one whose sympathy was of the most value to him And yet it seemed probable that this would be the case He did not own to himself that he wished his daughter to hate Mr Slope yet had she expressed such a feeling there would have been very little bitterness in the rebuke he would have given her for so uncharitable a state of mind The fact however was that she was on friendly terms with Mr Slope that she coincided with his views adhered at once to his plans and listened with delight to his teaching Mr Harding hardly wished his daughter to hate the man but he would have preferred that to her loving him
He walked away to the inn to order a fly went home to put up his carpet bag and then started for Plumstead There was at any rate no danger that the archdeacon would fraternise with Mr Slope but then he would recommend internecine war public appeals loud reproaches and all the paraphernalia of open battle Now that alternative was hardly more to Mr Hardings taste than the other
When Mr Harding reached the parsonage he found that the archdeacon was out and would not be home till dinnertime so he began his complaint to his elder daughter Mrs Grantly entertained quite as strong an antagonism to Mr Slope as did her husband she was also quite as alive to the necessity of combatting the Proudie faction of supporting the old church interest of the close of keeping in her own set much of the loaves and fishes as duly belonged to it and was quite as well prepared as her lord to carry on the battle without giving or taking quarter Not that she was a woman prone to quarrelling or ill inclined to live at peace with her clerical neighbours but she felt as did the archdeacon that the presence of Mr Slope in Barchester was an insult to every one connected with the late bishop and that his assumed dominion in the diocese was a spiritual injury to her husband Hitherto people had little guessed how bitter Mrs Grantly could be She lived on the best of terms with all the rectors wives around her She had been popular with all the ladies connected with the close Though much the wealthiest of the ecclesiastical matrons of the county she had so managed her affairs that her carriage and horses had given umbrage to none She had never thrown herself among the county grandees so as to excite the envy of other clergymens wives She had never talked too loudly of earls and countesses or boasted that she gave her governess sixty pounds a year or her cook seventy Mrs Grantly had lived the life of a wise discreet peacemaking woman and the people of Barchester were surprised at the amount of military vigour she displayed as general of the feminine Grantlyite forces
Mrs Grantly soon learnt that her sister Eleanor had promised to assist Mr Slope in the affairs of the hospital and it was on this point that her attention soon fixed itself
How can Eleanor endure him said she
He is a very crafty man said her father and his craft has been successful in making Eleanor think that he is a meek charitable good clergyman God forgive me if I wrong him but such is not his true character in my opinion
His true character indeed said she with something approaching scorn for her fathers moderation I only hope he wont have craft enough to make Eleanor forget herself and her position
Do you mean marry him said he startled out of his usual demeanour by the abruptness and horror of so dreadful a proposition
What is there so improbable in it Of course that would be his own object if he thought he had any chance of success Eleanor has a thousand a year entirely at her own disposal and what better fortune could fall to Mr Slopes lot than the transferring of the disposal of such a fortune to himself
But you cant think she likes him Susan
Why not said Susan Why shouldnt she like him Hes just the sort of man to get on with a woman left as she is with no one to look after her
Look after her said the unhappy father dont we look after her
Ah papa how innocent you are Of course it was to be expected that Eleanor should marry again I should be the last to advise her against it if she would only wait the proper time and then marry at least a gentleman
But you dont really mean to say that you suppose Eleanor has ever thought of marrying Mr Slope Why Mr Bold has only been dead a year
Eighteen months said his daughter But I dont suppose Eleanor has ever thought about it It is very probable though that he has and that he will try and make her do so and that he will succeed too if we dont take care what we are about
This was quite a new phase of the affair to poor Mr Harding To have thrust upon him as his soninlaw as the husband of his favourite child the only man in the world whom he really positively disliked would be a misfortune which he felt he would not know how to endure patiently But then could there be any ground for so dreadful a surmise In all worldly matters he was apt to look upon the opinion of his eldest daughter as one generally sound and trustworthy In her appreciation of character of motives and the probable conduct both of men and women she was usually not far wrong She had early foreseen the marriage of Eleanor and John Bold she had at a glance deciphered the character of the new bishop and his chaplain could it possibly be that her present surmise should ever come forth as true
But you dont think that she likes him said Mr Harding again
Well papa I cant say that I think she dislikes him as she ought to do Why is he visiting there as a confidential friend when he never ought to have been admitted inside the house Why is it that she speaks to him of about your welfare and your position as she clearly has done At the bishops party the other night I saw her talking to him for half an hour at the stretch
I thought Mr Slope seemed to talk to nobody there but that daughter of Stanhopes said Mr Harding wishing to defend his child
Oh Mr Slope is a cleverer man than you think of papa and keeps more than one iron in the fire
To give Eleanor her due any suspicion as to the slightest inclination on her part towards Mr Slope was a wrong to her She had no more idea of marrying Mr Slope than she had of marrying the bishop and the idea that Mr Slope would present himself as a suitor had never occurred to her Indeed to give her her due again she had never thought about suitors since her husbands death But nevertheless it was true that she had overcome all that repugnance to the man which was so strongly felt for him by the rest of the Grantly faction She had forgiven him his sermon She had forgiven him his low church tendencies his Sabbath schools and puritanical observances She had forgiven his pharisaical arrogance and even his greasy face and oily vulgar manners Having agreed to overlook such offences as these why should she not in time be taught to regard Mr Slope as a suitor
And as to him it must be affirmed that he was hitherto equally innocent of the crime imputed to him How it had come to pass that a man whose eyes were generally widely open to everything had not perceived that this young widow was rich as well as beautiful cannot probably now be explained But such was the fact Mr Slope had ingratiated himself with Mrs Bold merely as he had done with other ladies in order to strengthen his party in the city He subsequently attended his error but it was not till after the interview with him and Mr Harding
CHAPTER XIV
THE NEW CAMPAIGN
The archdeacon did not return to the parsonage till close upon the hour of dinner and there was therefore no time to discuss matters before that important ceremony He seemed to be in an especial good humour and welcomed his fatherinlaw with a sort of jovial earnestness that was usual with him when things on which was intent were going on as he would have them
Its all settled my dear said he to his wife as he washed his hands in his dressingroom while she according to her wont sat listening in the bedroom Arabin has agreed to accept the living Hell be here next week And the archdeacon scrubbed his hands and rubbed his face with a violent alacrity which showed that Arabins coming was a great point gained
Will he come here to Plumstead said the wife
He has promised to stay a month with us said the archdeacon so that he may see what his parish is like Youll like Arabin very much Hes a gentleman in every respect and full of good humour
Hes very queer isnt he asked the wife
Well—he is a little odd in some of his fancies but theres nothing about him you wont like He is as staunch a churchman as there is at Oxford I really dont know what we should do without Arabin Its a great thing for me to have him so near me and if anything can put Slope down Arabin will do it
The Reverend Francis Arabin was a fellow of Lazarus the favoured disciple of the great Dr Gwynne a high churchman at all points so high indeed that at one period of his career he had all but toppled over into the cesspool of Rome a poet and also a polemical writer a great pet in the common rooms at Oxford an eloquent clergyman a droll odd humorous energetic conscientious man and as the archdeacon had boasted of him a thorough gentleman As he will hereafter be brought more closely to our notice it is now only necessary to add that he had just been presented to the vicarage of St Ewold by Dr Grantly in whose gift as archdeacon the living lay St Ewolds is a parish lying just without the city of Barchester The suburbs of the new town indeed are partly within its precincts and the pretty church and parsonage are not much above a mile distant from the city gate
St Ewold is not a rich piece of preferment—it is worth some three or four hundred a year at most and has generally been held by a clergyman attached to the cathedral choir The archdeacon however felt when the living on this occasion became vacant that it imperatively behoved him to aid the force of his party with some tower of strength if any such tower could be got to occupy St Ewolds He had discussed the matter with his brethren in Barchester not in any weak spirit as the holder of patronage to be used for his own or his familys benefit but as one to whom was committed a trust on the due administration of which much of the churchs welfare might depend He had submitted to them the name of Mr Arabin as though the choice had rested with them all in conclave and they had unanimously admitted that if Mr Arabin would accept St Ewolds no better choice could possibly be made
If Mr Arabin would accept St Ewolds There lay the difficulty Mr Arabin was a man standing somewhat prominently before the world that is before the Church of England world He was not a rich man it is true for he held no preferment but his fellowship but he was a man not over anxious for riches not married of course and one whose time was greatly taken up in discussing both in print and on platforms the privileges and practices of the church to which he belonged As the archdeacon had done battle for its temporalities so did Mr Arabin do battle for its spiritualities and both had done so conscientiously that is not so much each for his own benefit as for that of others
Holding such a position as Mr Arabin did there was much reason to doubt whether he would consent to become the parson of St Ewolds and Dr Grantly had taken the trouble to go himself to Oxford on the matter Dr Gwynne and Dr Grantly together had succeeded in persuading this eminent divine that duty required him to go Barchester There were wheels within wheels in this affair For some time past Mr Arabin had been engaged in a tremendous controversy with no less a person than Mr Slope respecting the apostolic succession These two gentlemen had never seen each other but they had been extremely bitter in print Mr Slope had endeavoured to strengthen his cause by calling Mr Arabin an owl and Mr Arabin had retaliated by hinting that Mr Slope was an infidel This battle had been commenced in the columns of the daily Jupiter a powerful newspaper the manager of which was very friendly to Mr Slopes view of the case The matter however had become too tedious for the readers of the Jupiter and a little note had therefore been appended to one of Mr Slopes most telling rejoinders in which it had been stated that no further letters from the reverend gentlemen could be inserted except as advertisements
Other methods of publication were however found less expensive than advertisements in the Jupiter and the war went on merrily Mr Slope declared that the main part of the consecration of a clergyman was the selfdevotion of the inner man to the duties of the ministry Mr Arabin contended that a man was not consecrated at all had indeed no single attribute of a clergyman unless he became so through the imposition of some bishops hands who had become a bishop through the imposition of other hands and so on in a direct line to one of the apostles Each had repeatedly hung the other on the horns of a dilemma but neither seemed to a whit the worse for the hanging and so the war went on merrily
Whether or no the near neighbourhood of the foe may have acted in any way as an inducement to Mr Arabin to accept the living of St Ewold we will not pretend to say but it had at any rate been settled in Dr Gwynnes library at Lazarus that he would accept it and that he would lend his assistance towards driving the enemy out of Barchester or at any rate silencing him while he remained there Mr Arabin intended to keep his rooms at Oxford and to have the assistance of a curate at St Ewold but he promised to give as much time as possible to the neighbourhood of Barchester and from so great a man Dr Grantly was quite satisfied with such a promise It was no small part of the satisfaction derivable from such an arrangement that Dr Proudie would be forced to institute into a living immediately under his own nose the enemy of his favourite chaplain
All through the dinner the archdeacons good humour shone brightly in his face He ate of the good things heartily he drank wine with his wife and daughter he talked pleasantly of his doings at Oxford told his fatherinlaw that he ought to visit Dr Gwynne at Lazarus and launched out again in praise of Dr Arabin
Is Mr Arabin married papa asked Griselda
No my dear the fellow of a college is never married
Is he a young man papa
About forty I believe said the archdeacon
Oh said Griselda Had her father said eighty Mr Arabin would not have appeared to her to be very much older
When the two gentlemen were left alone over their wine Mr Harding told his tale of woe But even this sad as it was did not much diminish the archdeacons good humour though it greatly added to his pugnacity
He cant do it said Dr Grantly over and over again as his fatherinlaw explained to him the terms on which the new warden of the hospital was to be appointed he cant do it What he says is not worth the trouble of listening to He cant alter the duties of the place
Who cant asked the exwarden
Neither can the bishop nor the chaplain nor yet the bishops wife who I take it has really more to say to such matters than either of the other two The whole body corporate of the palace together have no power to turn the warden of the hospital into a Sunday schoolmaster
But the bishop has the power to appoint whom he pleases and—
I dont know that I rather think hell find he has no such power Let him try it and see what the press will say For once we shall have the popular cry on our side But Proudie ass as he is knows the world too well to get such a hornets nest about his ears
Mr Harding winced at the idea of the press He had had enough of that sort of publicity and was unwilling to be shown up a second time either as a monster or as a martyr He gently remarked that he hoped the newspapers would not get hold of his name again and then suggested that perhaps it would be better that he should abandon his object I am getting old said he and after all I doubt whether I am fit to undertake new duties
New duties said the archdeacon dont I tell you there shall be no new duties
Or perhaps old duties either said Mr Harding I think I will remain content as I am The picture of Mr Slope carting away the rubbish was still present to his mind
The archdeacon drank off his glass of claret and prepared himself to be energetic I do hope said he that you are not going to be so weak as to allow such a man as Mr Slope to deter you from doing what you know is your duty to do You know that it is your duty to resume your place at the hospital now that parliament has so settled the stipend as to remove those difficulties which induced you to resign it You cannot deny this and should your timidity now prevent you from doing so your conscience will hereafter never forgive you and as he finished this clause of his speech he pushed over the bottle to his companion
Your conscience will never forgive you he continued You resigned the place from conscientious scruples scruples which I greatly respected though I did not share them All your friends respected them and you left your old house as rich in reputation as you were ruined in fortune It is now expected that you will return Dr Gwynne was saying only the other day—
Dr Gwynne does not reflect how much older a man I am now than when he last saw me
Old—nonsense said the archdeacon you never thought yourself old till you listened to the impudent trash of that coxcomb at the palace
I shall be sixtyfive if I live till November said Mr Harding
And seventyfive if you live till November ten years said the archdeacon And you bid fair to be as efficient then as you were ten years ago But for heavens sake let us have no pretence in this matter Your plea of old age is only a pretence But youre not drinking your wine It is only a pretence The fact is you are half afraid of this Slope and would rather subject yourself to comparative poverty and discomfort than come to blows with a man who will trample on you if you let him
I certainly dont like coming to blows if I can help it
Nor I neither—but sometimes we cant help it This mans object is to induce you to refuse the hospital that he may put some creature of his own into it that he may show his power and insult us all by insulting you whose cause and character are so intimately bound up with that of the chapter You owe it to us all to resist him in this even if you have no solicitude for yourself But surely for your own sake you will not be so lilylivered as to fall into this trap which he has baited for you and let him take the very bread out of your mouth without a struggle
Mr Harding did not like being called lilylivered and was rather inclined to resent it I doubt there is any true courage said he in squabbling for money
If honest men did not squabble for money in this world of ours the dishonest men would get it all and I do not see that the cause of virtue would be much improved No—we must use the means which we have. If we were to carry your argument home we might give away every shilling of revenue which the church has and I presume you are not prepared to say that the church would be strengthened by such a sacrifice The archdeacon filled his glass and then emptied it drinking with much reverence a silent toast to the wellbeing and permanent security of those temporalities which were so dear to his soul
I think all quarrels between a clergyman and his bishop should be avoided said Mr Harding
I think so too but it is quite as much the duty of the bishop to look to that as of his inferior I tell you what my friend Ill see the bishop in this matter that is if you will allow me and you may be sure I will not compromise you My opinion is that all this trash about Sundayschools and the sermons has originated wholly with Slope and Mrs Proudie and that the bishop knows nothing about it The bishop cant very well refuse to see me and Ill come upon him when he has neither his wife nor his chaplain by him I think youll find that it will end in his sending you the appointment without any condition whatever And as to the seats in the cathedral we may safely leave that to Mr Dean I believe the fool positively thinks that the bishop could walk away with the cathedral if he pleased
And so the matter was arranged between them Mr Harding had come expressly for advice and therefore felt himself bound to take the advice given him He had known moreover beforehand that the archdeacon would not hear of his giving the matter up and accordingly though he had in perfect good faith put forward his own views he was prepared to yield
They therefore went into the drawingroom in good humour with each other and the evening passed pleasantly in prophetic discussion on the future wars of Arabin and Slope The frogs had the mice would be nothing to them nor the angers of Agamemnon and Achilles How the archdeacon rubbed his hands and plumed himself on the success of his last move He could not himself descend into the arena with Slope but Arabin would have no such scruples Arabin was exactly the man for such work and the only man whom he knew that was fit for it
The archdeacons good humour and high buoyancy continued till when reclining on his pillow Mrs Grantly commenced to give him her view of the state of affairs in Barchester And then certainly he was startled The last words he said that night were as follows—
If she does by heaven Ill never speak to her again She dragged me into the mire once but Ill not pollute myself with such filth as that— And the archdeacon gave a shudder which shook the whole room so violently was he convulsed with the thought which then agitated his mind
Now in this matter the widow Bold was scandalously illtreated by her relatives She had spoken to the man three or four times and had expressed her willingness to teach in a Sundayschool Such was the full extent of her sins in the matter of Mr Slope Poor Eleanor But time will show
The next morning Mr Harding returned to Barchester no further word having been spoken in his hearing respecting Mr Slopes acquaintance with his younger daughter But he observed that the archdeacon at breakfast was less cordial than he had been on the preceding evening
CHAPTER XV
THE WIDOWS SUITORS
Mr Slope lost no time in availing himself of the bishops permission to see Mr Quiverful and it was in his interview with this worthy pastor that he first learned that Mrs Bold was worth the wooing He rode out to Puddingdale to communicate to the embryo warden the good will of the bishop in his favour and during the discussion on the matter it was unnatural that the pecuniary resources of Mr Harding and his family should become the subject of remark
Mr Quiverful with his fourteen children and his four hundred a year was a very poor man and the prospect of this new preferment which was to be held together with his living was very grateful to him To what clergyman so circumstanced would not such a prospect be very grateful But Mr Quiverful had long been acquainted with Mr Harding and had received kindness at his hands so that his heart misgave him as he thought of supplanting a friend at the hospital Nevertheless he was extremely civil cringingly civil to Mr Slope treated him quite as the great man entreated this great man to do him the honour to drink a glass of sherry at which as it was very poor Marsala the now pampered Slope turned up his nose and ended by declaring his extreme obligation to the bishop and Mr Slope and his great desire to accept the hospital if—if it were certainly the case that Mr Harding had refused it
What man as needy as Mr Quiverful would have been more disinterested
Mr Harding did positively refuse it said Mr Slope with a certain air of offended dignity when he heard of the conditions to which the appointment is now subjected Of course you understand Mr Quiverful that the same conditions will be imposed on yourself
Mr Quiverful cared nothing for the conditions He would have undertaken to preach any number of sermons Mr Slope might have chosen to dictate and to pass every remaining hour of his Sundays within the walls of a Sunday school What sacrifices or at any rate what promises would have been too much to make for such an addition to his income and for such a house But his mind still recurred to Mr Harding
To be sure said he Mr Hardings daughter is very rich and why should he trouble himself with the hospital
You mean Mrs Grantly said Slope
I meant the widowed daughter said the other Mrs Bold has twelve hundred a year of her own and I suppose Mr Harding means to live with her
Twelve hundred a year of her own said Slope and very shortly afterwards took his leave avoiding as far as it was possible for him to do any further allusion to the hospital Twelve hundred a year said he to himself as he rode slowly home If it were the fact that Mrs Bold had twelve hundred a year of her own what a fool would he be to oppose her fathers return to his old place The train of Mr Slopes ideas will probably be plain to all my readers Why should he not make the twelve hundred a year his own And if he did so would it not be well for him to have a fatherinlaw comfortably provided with the good things of this world Would it not moreover be much more easy for him to gain his daughter if he did all in his power to forward his fathers views
These questions presented themselves to him in a very forcible way and yet there were many points of doubt If he resolved to restore to Mr Harding his former place he must take the necessary steps for doing so at once he must immediately talk over the bishop quarrel on the matter with Mrs Proudie whom he knew he could not talk over and let Mr Quiverful know that he had been a little too precipitate as to Mr Hardings positive refusal That he could effect all this he did not doubt but he did not wish to effect it for nothing He did not wish to give way to Mr Harding and then be rejected by the daughter He did not wish to lose one influential friend before he had gained another
And thus he rode home meditating the many things in his mind It occurred to him that Mrs Bold was sisterinlaw to the archdeacon and that not even for twelve hundred a year would he submit to that imperious man A rich wife was a great desideratum to him but success in his profession was still greater there were moreover other rich women who might be willing to become wives and after all this twelve hundred a year might when inquired into melt away into some small sum utterly beneath his notice Then also he remembered that Mrs Bold had a son
Another circumstance also much influenced him though it was one which may almost be said to have influenced him against his will The vision of Signora Neroni was perpetually before his eyes It would be too much to say that Mr Slope was lost in love but yet he thought and kept continually thinking that he had never seen so beautiful a woman He was a man whose nature was open to such impulses and the wiles of the Italianised charmer had been thoroughly successful in imposing upon his thoughts We will not talk of his heart not that he had no heart but because his heart had little to do with his present feelings His taste had been pleased his eyes charmed and his vanity gratified He had been dazzled by a sort of loveliness which he had never before seen and had been caught by an easy free voluptuous manner which was perfectly new to him He had never been so tempted before and the temptation was now irresistible He had not owned to himself that he cared for this woman more than for others around him but yet he thought often of the time when he might see her next and made almost unconsciously little cunning plans for seeing her frequently
He had called at Dr Stanhopes house the day after the bishops party and then the warmth of his admiration had been fed with fresh fuel If the signora had been kind in her manner and flattering in her speech when lying upon the bishops sofa with the eyes of so many on her she had been much more so in her mothers drawingroom with no one present but her sister to repress either her nature or her art Mr Slope had thus left her quite bewildered and could not willingly admit into his brain any scheme a part of which would be the necessity of abandoning all further special relationship with this lady
And so he slowly rode along very meditative
And here the author must beg it to be remembered that Mr Slope was not in all things a bad man His motives like those of most men were mixed and though his conduct was generally very different from that which we would wish to praise it was actuated perhaps as often as that of the majority of the world by a desire to do his duty He believed in the religion which he taught harsh unpalatable uncharitable as that religion was He believed those whom he wished to get under his hoof the Grantlys and Gwynnes of the church to be the enemies of that religion He believed himself to be the pillar of strength destined to do great things and with that subtle selfish ambiguous sophistry to which the minds of all men are so subject he had taught himself to think that in doing much for the promotion of his own interests he was doing much also for the promotion of religion Mr Slope had never been an immoral man Indeed he had resisted temptations to immorality with a strength of purpose that was creditable to him He had early in life devoted himself to works which were not compatible with the ordinary pleasures of youth and he had abandoned such pleasures not without a struggle It must therefore be conceived that he did not admit to himself that he warmly admired the beauty of a married woman without heartfelt stings of conscience and to pacify that conscience he had to teach himself that the nature of his admiration was innocent
And thus he rode along meditative and ill at ease His conscience had not a word to say against his choosing the widow and her fortune That he looked upon as a godly work rather than otherwise as a deed which if carried through would redound to his credit as a Christian On that side lay no future remorse no conduct which he might probably have to forget no inward stings If it should turn out to be really the fact that Mrs Bold had twelve hundred a year at her own disposal Mr Slope would rather look upon it as a duty which he owed his religion to make himself the master of the wife and the money as a duty too in which some amount of selfsacrifice would be necessary He would have to give up his friendship with the signora his resistance to Mr Harding his antipathy—no he found on mature selfexamination that he could not bring himself to give up his antipathy to Dr Grantly He would marry the lady as the enemy of her brotherinlaw if such an arrangement suited her if not she must look elsewhere for a husband
It was with such resolve as this that he reached Barchester He would at once ascertain what the truth might be as to the ladys wealth and having done this he would be ruled by circumstances in his conduct respecting the hospital If he found that he could turn round and secure the place for Mr Harding without much selfsacrifice he would do so but if not he would woo the daughter in opposition to the father But in no case would he succumb to the archdeacon
He saw his horse taken round to the stable and immediately went forth to commence his inquiries To give Mr Slope his due he was not a man who ever let much grass grow under his feet
Poor Eleanor She was doomed to be the intended victim of more schemes than one
About the time that Mr Slope was visiting the vicar of Puddingdale a discussion took place respecting her charms and wealth at Dr Stanhopes house in the close There had been morning callers there and people had told some truth and also some falsehood respecting the property which John Bold had left behind him By degrees the visitors went and as the doctor went with them and as the doctors wife had not made her appearance Charlotte Stanhope and her brother were left together He was sitting idly at the table scrawling caricatures of Barchester notable then yawning then turning over a book or two and evidently at a loss how kill some time without much labour
You havent done much Bertie about getting any orders said his sister
Orders said he who on earth is there at Barchester to give some orders Who among the people here could possibly think it worth his while to have his head done into marble
Then you mean to give up your profession said she
No I dont said he going on with some absurd portrait of the bishop Look at that Lotte isnt it the little man all over apron and all Id go on with my profession at once as you call it if the governor would set me up with a studio in London but as to sculpture at Barchester—I suppose half the people here dont know what a torso means
The governor will not give you a shilling to start you in London said Lotte Indeed he cant give you what would be sufficient for he has not got it But you might start yourself very well if you pleased
How the deuce am I to do it said he
To tell you the truth Bertie youll never make a penny by any profession
Thats what I often think myself said he not in the least offended Some men have a great gift of making money but they cant spend it Others cant put two shillings together but they have a great talent for all sorts of outlay I begin to think that my genius is wholly in the latter line
How do you mean to live then asked the sister
I suppose I must regard myself as a young raven and look for heavenly manna besides we have all got something when the governor goes
Yes—youll have enough to supply yourself with gloves and boots that is if the Jews have not got the possession of it all I believe they have the most of it already I wonder Bertie at your indifference that you with your talents and personal advantages should never try to settle yourself in life I look forward with dread to the time when the governor must go Mother and Madeline and I—we shall be poor enough but you will have absolutely nothing
Sufficient for the day is the evil thereof said Bertie
Will you take my advice said the sister
Cela depend said the brother
Will you marry a wife with money
At any rate said he I wont marry one without wives with money ant so easy to get nowadays the parsons pick them all up
And a parson will pick up the wife I meant for you if you do not look quickly about it the wife I mean is Mrs Bold
Whewwww whistled Bertie a widow
She is very beautiful said Charlotte
With a son and heir already to my hand said Bertie
A baby that will very likely die said Charlotte
I dont see that said Bertie But however he may live for me—I dont wish to kill him only it must be owned that a readymade family is a drawback
There is only one after all pleaded Charlotte
And that a very little one as the maidservant said rejoined
Bertie
Beggars mustnt be choosers Bertie you cant have everything
God knows I am not unreasonable said he nor yet opinionated and if youll arrange it for me Lotte Ill marry the lady Only mark this the money must be sure and the income at my own disposal at any rate for the ladys life
Charlotte was explaining to her brother that he must make love for himself if he meant to carry on the matter and was encouraging him to so by warm eulogiums on Eleanors beauty when the signora was brought into the drawingroom When at home and subject to the gaze of none but her own family she allowed herself to be dragged about by two persons and her two bearers now deposited her on the sofa She was not quite so grand in her apparel as she had been at the bishops party but yet she was dressed with much care and though there was a look of care and pain about her eyes she was even by daylight extremely beautiful
Well Madeline so Im going to be married Bertie began as soon as the servants had withdrawn
Theres no other foolish thing left that you havent done said
Madeline and therefore you are quite right to try that
Oh you think its a foolish thing do you said he Theres Lotte advising me to marry by all means But on such a subject your opinion ought to be the best you have experience to guide you
Yes I have said Madeline with a sort of harsh sadness in her tone which seemed to say—What is it to you if I am sad I have never asked your sympathy
Bertie was sorry when he saw that she was hurt by what he said and he came and squatted on the floor close before her face to make his peace with her
Come Mad I was only joking you know that But in sober earnest Lotte is advising me to marry She wants me to marry Mrs Bold Shes a widow with lots of tin a fine baby a beautiful complexion and the George and Dragon hotel up in High Street By Jove Lotte if I marry her Ill keep the public house myself—its just the life that suits me
What said Madeline that vapid swarthy creature in the widows cap who looked as though her clothes had been stuck on her back with a pitchfork The signora never allowed any woman to be beautiful
Instead of being vapid said Lotte I call her a very lovely woman She was by far the loveliest woman in the rooms the other night that is excepting you Madeline
Even the compliment did not soften the asperity of the maimed beauty Every woman is charming according to Lotte she said I never knew an eye with so little true appreciation In the first place what woman on earth could look well in such a thing as that she had on her head
Of course she wears a widows cap but shell put that off when
Bertie marries her
I dont see any of course in it said Madeline The death of twenty husbands should not make me undergo such a penance It is as much a relic of paganism as the sacrifice of a Hindu woman at the burning of her husbands body If not so bloody it is quite as barbarous and quite as useless
But you dont blame her for that said Bertie She does it because its the custom of the country People would think ill of her if she didnt do it
Exactly said Madeline She is just one of those English nonentities who would tie her head up in a bag for three months every summer if her mother and her grandmother had tied up their heads before her It would never occur to her to think whether there was any use in submitting to such a nuisance
Its very hard in a country like England for a young woman to set herself in opposition to the prejudices of that sort said the prudent Charlotte
What you mean is that its very hard for a fool not to be a fool said Madeline
Bertie Stanhope had so much knocked about the world from his earliest years that he had not retained much respect for the gravity of English customs but even to his mind an idea presented itself that perhaps in a wife true British prejudice would not in the long run be less agreeable than AngloItalian freedom from restraint He did not exactly say so but he expressed the idea in another way
I fancy said he that if I were to die and then walk I should think that my widow looked better in one of those caps than any other kind of headdress
Yes—and youd fancy also that she could do nothing better than shut herself up and cry for you or else burn herself But she would think differently Shed probably wear one of those horrid shehelmets because shed want the courage not to do so but shed wear it with a heart longing for the time when she might be allowed to throw it off I hate such shallow false pretences For my part I would let the world say what it pleased and show no grief if I felt none—and perhaps not if I did
But wearing a widows cap wont lessen her fortune said
Charlotte
Or increase it said Madeline Then why on earth does she do it
But Lottes object is to make her put it off said Bertie
If it be true that she has got twelve hundred a year quite at her own disposal and she be not utterly vulgar in her manners I would advise you to marry her I dare say she is to be had for the asking and as you are not going to marry her for love it doesnt much matter whether she is goodlooking or not As to your really marrying a woman for love I dont believe you are fool enough for that
Oh Madeline cried her sister
And oh Charlotte said the other
You dont mean to say that no man can love a woman unless he is a fool
I mean very much the same thing—that any man who is willing to sacrifice his interest to get possession of a pretty face is a fool Pretty faces are to be had cheaper than that I hate your mawkish sentimentality Lotte You know as well as I do in what way husbands and wives generally live together you know how far the warmth of conjugal affection can withstand the trial of a bad dinner of a rainy day or of the least privation which poverty brings with it you know what freedom a man claims for himself what slavery he would exact from his wife if he could And you know also how wives generally obey Marriage means tyranny on one side and deceit on the other I say that a man is a fool to sacrifice his interests for such a bargain A woman too generally has no other way of living
But Bertie has no other way of living said Charlotte
Then in Gods name let him marry Mrs Bold said Madeline And so it was settled between them
But let the gentlehearted reader be under no apprehension whatsoever It is not destined that Eleanor shall marry Mr Slope or Bertie Stanhope And here perhaps it may be allowed to the novelist to explain his views on a very important point in the art of telling tales He ventures to reprobate that system which goes so far to violate all proper confidence between the author and his readers by maintaining nearly to the end of the third volume a mystery as to the fate of their favourite personage Nay more and worse than this is too frequently done Have not often the profoundest efforts of genius been used to baffle the aspirations of the reader to raise false hopes and false fears and to give rise to expectations which are never realised Are not promises all but made of delightful horrors in lieu of which the writer produces nothing but commonplace realities in his final chapter And is there not a species of deceit in this to which the honesty of the present age should lend no countenance
And what can be the worth of that solicitude which a peep into the third volume can utterly dissipate What the value of those literary charms which are absolutely destroyed by their enjoyment When we have once learnt what was the picture before which was hung Mrs Radcliffes solemn curtain we feel no further interest about either the frame or the veil They are to us merely a receptacle for old bones and inappropriate coffin which we would wish to have decently buried out of our sight
And then how grievous a thing it is to have the pleasure of your novel destroyed by the illconsidered triumph of a previous reader Oh you neednt be alarmed for Augusta of course she accepts Gustavus in the end How very illnatured you are Susan says Kitty with tears in her eyes I dont care a bit about it now Dear Kitty if you will read my book you may defy the illnature of your sister There shall be no secret that she can tell you Nay take the last chapter if you please—learn from its pages all the results of our troubled story and the story shall have lost none of its interest if indeed there be any interest in it to lose
Our doctrine is that the author and the reader should move along together in full confidence with each other Let the personages of the drama undergo ever so completely a comedy of errors among themselves but let the spectator never mistake the Syracusan for the Ephesian otherwise he is one of the dupes and the part of a dupe is never dignified
I would not for the value of this chapter have it believed by a single reader that my Eleanor could bring herself to marry Mr Slope or that she should be sacrificed to a Bertie Stanhope But among the good folk of Barchester many believed both the one and the other
CHAPTER XVI
BABY WORSHIP
Diddle diddle diddle diddle dum dum dum said or sung
Eleanor Bold
Diddle diddle diddle diddle dum dum dum continued Mary
Bold taking up the second part in the concerted piece
The only audience at the concert was the baby who however gave such vociferous applause that the performers presuming it to amount to an encore commenced again
Diddle diddle diddle diddle dum dum dum hasnt he got lovely legs said the rapturous mother
Hm m m m m simmered Mary burying her lips in the little fellows fat neck by way of kissing him
Hm m m m m simmered the mamma burying her lips also in his fat round short legs Hes a dawty little bold darling so he is and he has the nicest little pink legs in all the world so he has and the simmering and the kissing went on over again and as though the ladies were very hungry and determined to eat him
Well then hes his own mothers own darling well he shall—oh oh—Mary Mary—did you ever see What am I to do My naughty naughty naughty little Johnny All these energetic exclamations were elicited by the delight of the mother in finding that her son was strong enough and mischievous enough to pull all her hair out from under her cap Hes been and pulled down all mammas hair and hes the naughtiest naughtiest naughtiest little man that ever ever ever ever ever—
A regular service of baby worship was going on Mary Bold was sitting on a low easy chair with the boy in her lap and Eleanor was kneeling before the object of her idolatry As she tried to cover up the little fellows face with her long glossy dark brown locks and permitted him to pull them hither and thither as he would she looked very beautiful in spite of the widows cap which she still wore There was a quiet enduring grateful sweetness about her face which grew so strongly upon those who knew her as to make the great praise of her beauty which came from her old friends appear marvellously exaggerated to those who were only slightly acquainted with her Her loveliness was like that of many landscapes which require to be often seen to be fully enjoyed There was a depth of dark clear brightness in her eyes which was lost upon a quick observer a character about her mouth which only showed itself to those with whom she familiarly conversed a glorious form of head the perfect symmetry of which required the eyes of an artist for its appreciation She had none of that dazzling brilliancy of that voluptuous Rubens beauty of that pearly whiteness and those vermilion tints which immediately entranced with the power of a basilisk men who came within reach of Madeline Neroni It was all be impossible to resist the signora but no one was called upon for any resistance towards Eleanor You might begin to talk to her as though she were your sister and it would not be till your head was on your pillow that the truth and intensity of her beauty would flash upon you that the sweetness of her voice would come upon your ear A sudden halfhour with the Neroni was like falling into a pit an evening spent with Eleanor like an unexpected ramble in some quiet fields of asphodel
Well cover him up till there shant be a morsel of his little ittle ittle ittle nose to be seen said the mother stretching her streaming locks over the infants face The child screamed with delight and kicked till Mary Bold was hardly able to hold him
At this moment the door opened and Mr Slope was announced Up jumped Eleanor and with a sudden quick motion of her hands pushed back her hair over her shoulders It would have been perhaps better for her that she had not for she thus showed more of her confusion than she would have done had she remained as she was Mr Slope however immediately recognised the loveliness and thought to himself that irrespective of her fortune she would be an inmate that a man might well desire for his house a partner for his bosoms care very well qualified to make care lie easy Eleanor hurried out of the room to readjust her cap muttering some unnecessary apology about her baby And while she was gone we will briefly go back and state what had been hitherto the results of Mr Slopes meditations on his scheme of matrimony
His inquiries as to the widows income had at any rate been so far successful as to induce him to determine to go on with the speculation As regarded Mr Harding he had also resolved to do what he could without injury to himself To Mrs Proudie he determined not to speak on the matter at least not at present His object was to instigate a little rebellion on the part of the bishop He thought that such a state of things would be advisable not only in respect to Messrs Harding and Quiverful but also in the affairs of the diocese generally Mr Slope was by no means of the opinion that Dr Proudie was fit to rule but he conscientiously thought it wrong that his brother clergy should be subjected to petticoat government He therefore made up his mind to infuse a little of his spirit into the bishop sufficient to induce him to oppose his wife though not enough to make him altogether insubordinate
He had therefore taken the opportunity of again speaking to his lordship about the hospital and had endeavoured to make it appear that after all it would be unwise to exclude Mr Harding from the appointment Mr Slope however had a harder task than he had imagined Mrs Proudie anxious to assume to herself as much as possible of the merit of patronage had written to Mrs Quiverful requesting her to call at the palace and had then explained to that matron with much mystery condescension and dignity the good that was in store for her and her progeny Indeed Mrs Proudie had been so engaged at the very time that Mr Slope had been doing the same with her husband at Puddingdale Vicarage and had thus in a measure committed herself The thanks the humility the gratitude the surprise of Mrs Quiverful had been very overpowering she had all but embraced the knees of her patroness and had promised that the prayers of fourteen unprovided babes so Mrs Quiverful had described her own family the eldest of which was a stout young woman of threeandtwenty should be put up to heaven morning and evening for the munificent friend whom God had sent to them Such incense as this was not unpleasing to Mrs Proudie and she made the most of it She offered her general assistance to the fourteen unprovided babes if as she had no doubt she should find them worthy expressed a hope that the eldest of them would be fit to undertake tuition in her Sabbath schools and altogether made herself a very great lady in the estimation of Mrs Quiverful
Having done this she thought it prudent to drop a few words before the bishop letting him know that she had acquainted the Puddingdale family with their good fortune so that he might perceive that he stood committed to the appointment The husband well understood the rule of his wife but he did not resent it He knew that she was taking the patronage out of his hands he was resolved to put an end to her interference and reassume his powers But then he thought this was not the best time to do it He put off the evil hour as many a man in similar circumstances has done before him
Such having been the case Mr Slope naturally encountered a difficulty in talking over the bishop a difficulty indeed which he found could not be overcome except at the cost of a general outbreak at the palace A general outbreak at the present moment might be good policy but it also might not It was at any rate not a step to be lightly taken He began by whispering to the bishop that he feared the public opinion would be against him if Mr Harding did not reappear at the hospital The bishop answered with some warmth that Mr Quiverful had been promised the appointment on Mr Slopes advice Not promised said Mr Slope Yes promised replied the bishop and Mrs Proudie has seen Mrs Quiverful on the subject This was quite unexpected on the part of Mr Slope but his presence of mind did not fail him and he turned the statement to his own account
Ah my lord said he we shall all be in scrapes if the ladies interfere
This was too much in unison with his lordships feelings to be altogether unpalatable and yet such an allusion to interference demanded a rebuke My lord was somewhat astounded also though not altogether made miserable by finding that there was a point of difference between his wife and his chaplain
I dont know what you mean by interference said the bishop mildly When Mrs Proudie heard that Mr Quiverful was to be appointed it was not unnatural that she should wish to see Mrs Quiverful about the schools I really cannot say that I see any interference
I only speak my lord for your own comfort said Slope for your own comfort and dignity in the diocese I can have no other motive As far as personal feelings go Mrs Proudie is the best friend I have I must always remember that But still in my present position my first duty is to your lordship
I am sure of that Mr Slope I am quite sure of that said the bishop mollified and I really think that Mr Harding should have the hospital
Upon my word I am inclined to think so I am quite prepared to take upon myself the blame of first suggesting Mr Quiverfuls name But since doing so I have found that there is so strong a feeling in the diocese in favour of Mr Harding that I think your lordship should give way I hear also that Mr Harding has modified his objections he first felt to your lordships propositions And as to what has passed between Mrs Proudie and Mrs Quiverful the circumstance may be a little inconvenient but I really do not think that that should weigh in a matter of so much moment
And thus the poor bishop was left in a dreadfully undecided state as to what he should do His mind however slightly inclined itself to the appointment of Mr Harding seeing that by such a step he should have the assistance of Mr Slope in opposing Mrs Proudie
Such was the state of affairs at the palace when Mr Slope called at Mrs Bolds house and found her playing with her baby When she ran out of the room Mr Slope began praising the weather to Mary Bold then he praised the baby and kissed him and then he praised the mother and then he praised Miss Bold herself Mrs Bold however was not long before she came back
I have to apologise for calling at so very early an hour began Mr Slope but I was really so anxious to speak to you that I hope you and Miss Bold will excuse me
Eleanor muttered something in which the words certainly and of course and not early at all were just audible and then apologised for her own appearance declaring with a smile that her baby was becoming such a big boy that he was quite unmanageable
Hes a great bit naughty boy said she to the child and we must sent him away to a great big rough romping school where they have great big rods and do terrible things to naughty boys who dont do what their own mammas tell them and she then commenced another course of kissing being actuated thereto by the terrible idea of sending her child away which her own imagination had depicted
And where the masters dont have such beautiful long hair to be dishevelled said Mr Slope taking up the joke and paying a compliment at the same time
Eleanor thought he might as well have left the compliment alone but she said nothing and looked nothing being occupied as she was with the baby
Let me take him said Mary His clothes are nearly off his back with his romping and so saying she left the room with the child Miss Bold had heard Mr Slope say he had something pressing to say to Eleanor and thinking that she might be de trop took the opportunity of getting herself out of the room
Dont be long Mary said Eleanor as Miss Bold shut the door
I am glad Mrs Bold to have the opportunity of having ten minutes conversation with you alone began Mr Slope Will you let me openly ask you a plain question
Certainly said she
And I am sure you will give me a plain and open answer
Either that or none at all said she laughing
My question is this Mrs Bold is your father really anxious to get back to the hospital
Why do you ask me said she Why dont you ask himself
My dear Mrs Bold Ill tell you why There are wheels within wheels all of which I would explain to you only I fear there is not time It is essentially necessary that I should have an answer to this question otherwise I cannot know how to advance your fathers wishes and it is quite impossible that I should ask himself No one can esteem your father more than I do but I doubt if this feeling is reciprocal It certainly was not I must be candid with you as the only means of avoiding ultimate consequences which may be most injurious to Mr Harding I fear there is a feeling I will not even call it a prejudice with regard to myself in Barchester which is not in my favour You remember the sermon—
Oh Mr Slope we need not go back to that said Eleanor
For one moment Mrs Bold It is not that I may talk of myself but because it is so essential that you should understand how matters stand That sermon may have been illjudged—it was certainly misunderstood but I will say nothing about that now only this that it did give rise to a feeling against myself which your father shares with others It may be that he has proper cause but the result is that he is not inclined to meet me on friendly terms I put it to yourself whether you do not know this to be the case
Eleanor made no answer and Mr Slope in the eagerness of his address edged his chair a little nearer to the widows seat unperceived by her
Such being so continued Mr Slope I cannot ask him this question as I can ask it of you In spite of my delinquencies since I came to Barchester you have allowed me to regard you as a friend Eleanor made a little motion with her head which was hardly confirmatory but Mr Slope if he noticed it did not appear to do so To you I can speak openly and explain the feelings of my heart This your father would not allow Unfortunately the bishop has thought it right that this matter of the hospital should pass through my hands There have been some details to get up with which he would not trouble himself and thus it has come to pass that I was forced to have an interview with your father on the matter
I am aware of that said Eleanor
Of course said he In that interview Mr Harding left the impression on my mind that he did not wish to return to the hospital
How could that be said Eleanor at last stirred up to forget the cold propriety of demeanour which she had determined to maintain
My dear Mrs Bold I give you my word that such was the case said he again getting a little nearer to her And what is more than that before my interview with Mr Harding certain persons at the palace I do not mean the bishop had told me that such was the fact I own I hardly believed it I own I thought that your father would wish on every account for conscience sake for the sake of those old men for old association and the memory of dear days gone by on every account I thought that he would wish to resume his duties But I was told that such was not his wish and he certainly left me with the impression that I had been told the truth
Well said Eleanor now sufficiently roused on the matter
I fear Miss Bolds step said Mr Slope would it be asking too great a favour to beg you to—I know you can manage anything with Miss Bold
Eleanor did not like the word manage but still she went out and asked Mary to leave them alone for another quarter of an hour
Thank you Mrs Bold—I am so very grateful for this confidence Well I left your father with this impression Indeed I may say that he made me understand that he declined the appointment
Not the appointment said Eleanor I am sure he did not decline the appointment But he said that he would not agree—that is that he did not like the scheme about the schools and the services and all that I am quite sure he never said he wished to refuse the place
Oh Mrs Bold said Mr Slope in a manner almost impassioned I would not for the world say to so good a daughter a word against so good a father But you must for his sake let me show you exactly how the matter stands at present Mr Harding was a little flurried when I told him of the bishops wishes about the school I did so perhaps with less caution because you yourself had so perfectly agreed with me on the same subject He was a little put out and spoke warmly Tell the bishop said he that I quite disagree with him—and shall not return to the hospital as such conditions are attached to it What he said was to that effect indeed his words were if anything stronger than those I had no alternative but to repeat them to his lordship who said that he could look on them in no other light than a refusal He also had heard the report that your father did not wish for the appointment and putting all these things together he thought he had not choice but to look for some one else He has consequently offered the place to Mr Quiverful
Offered the place to Mr Quiverful repeated Eleanor her eyes suffused with tears Then Mr Slope there is an end of it
No my friend—not so said he It is to prevent such being the end of it that I am now here I may at any rate presume that I have got an answer to my question and that Mr Harding is desirous of returning
Desirous of returning—of course he is said Eleanor of course he wishes to have back his house and his income and his place in the world to have back what he gave up with such selfdenying honesty if he can have them without restraints on his conduct to what at his age it would be impossible that he should submit How can the bishop ask a man of his age to turn schoolmaster to a pack of children
Out of the question said Mr Slope laughing slightly of course no such demand shall be made on your father I can at any rate promise you that I will not be the medium of any so absurd a requisition We wished your father to preach in the hospital as the inmates may naturally be too old to leave it but even that shall not be insisted on We wished also to attach a Sabbathday school to the hospital thinking that such an establishment could not but be useful under the surveillance of so good a clergyman as Mr Harding and also under your own But dear Mrs Bold we wont talk of those things now One thing is clear we mustdo what we can to annul this rash offer the bishop made to Mr Quiverful Your father wouldnt see Quiverful would he Quiverful is an honourable man and would not for a moment stand in your fathers way
What said Eleanor ask a man with fourteen children to give up his preferment I am quite sure he will do no such thing
I suppose not said Slope and he again drew near to Mrs Bold so that now they were very close to each other Eleanor did not think much about it but instinctively moved away a little How greatly would she have increased the distance could he have guessed what had been said about her at Plumstead I suppose not But it is out of the question that Quiverful should supersede your father—quite out of the question The bishop has been too rash An idea occurs to me which may perhaps with Gods blessing put us right My dear Mrs Bold would you object to seeing the bishop yourself
Why should not my father see him said Eleanor She had once before in her life interfered with her fathers affairs and then not to much advantage She was older now and felt that she should take no step in a matter so vital to him without his consent
Why to tell the truth said Mr Slope with a look of sorrow as though he greatly bewailed the want of charity in his patron the bishop fancies he has cause of anger against your father I fear an interview would lead to further ill will
Why said Eleanor my father is the mildest the gentlest man living
I only know said Slope that he has the best of daughters So you would not see the bishop As to getting an interview I could manage that for you without the slightest annoyance to yourself
I could do nothing Mr Slope without consulting my father
Ah said he that would be useless you would then only be your fathers messenger Does anything occur to yourself Something must be done Your father shall not be ruined by so ridiculous a misunderstanding
Eleanor said that nothing occurred to her but that it was very hard and the tears came to her eyes and rolled down her cheeks Mr Slope would have given much to have had the privilege of drying them but he had tact enough to know that he had still a great deal to do before he could even hope for any privilege with Mrs Bold
It cuts me to the heart to see you so grieved said he But pray let me assure you that your fathers interests shall not be sacrificed if it be possible for me to protect them I will tell the bishop openly what are the facts I will explain to him that he has hardly the right to appoint any other than your father and will show him that if he does so he will be guilty of great injustice—and you Mrs Bold you will have the charity at any rate to believe this of me that I am truly anxious for your fathers welfare—for his and for your own
The widow hardly knew what answer to make She was quite aware that her father would not be at all thankful to Mr Slope she had a strong wish to share her fathers feelings and yet she could not but acknowledge that Mr Slope was very kind Her father who was generally charitable to all men who seldom spoke ill of any one had warned against Mr Slope and yet she did not know how to abstain from thanking him What interest could he have in the matter but that which he professed Nevertheless there was that in his manner which even she distrusted She felt and she did not know why that there was something about him which ought to put her on her guard
Mr Slope read all this in her hesitating manner just as plainly as though she had opened her heart to him It was the talent of the man that he could so read the inward feelings of women with whom he conversed He knew that Eleanor was doubting him and that if she thanked him she would only do so because she could not help it but yet this did not make him angry or even annoy him Rome was not built in a day
I did not come for thanks continued he seeing her hesitation and do not want them—at any rate before they are merited But this I do want Mrs Bold that I may make myself friends in this fold to which it has pleased God to call me as one of the humblest of his shepherds If I cannot do so my task here must indeed be a sad one I will at any rate endeavour to deserve them
Im sure said she you will soon make plenty of friends
She felt herself obliged to say something
That will be nothing unless they are such as will sympathise with my feelings unless they are such as I can reverence and admire—and love If the best and purest turn away from me I cannot bring myself to be satisfied with the friendship of the less estimable In such case I must live alone
Oh Im sure you will not do that Mr Slope Eleanor meant nothing but it suited him to appear that some special allusion had been intended
Indeed Mrs Bold I shall live alone quite alone as far as the heart is concerned if those with whom I yearn to ally myself turn away from me But enough of this I have called you my friend and I hope you will not contradict me I trust the time may come when I may also call your father so My God bless you Mrs Bold you and your darling boy And tell your father from me that what can be done for his interest shall be done
And so he took his leave pressing the widows hand rather more closely than usual Circumstances however seemed just then to make this intelligible and the lady did not feel called on to resent it
I cannot understand him said Eleanor to Mary Bold a few minutes afterwards I do not know whether he is a good man or a bad man—whether he is true or false
Then give him the benefit of the doubt said Mary and believe the best
On the whole I think I do said Eleanor I think I do believe that he means well—and if so it is a shame that we should revile him and make him miserable while he is among us But oh Mary I fear papa will be disappointed in the hospital
CHAPTER XVII
WHO SHALL BE COCK OF THE WALK
All this time things were going on somewhat uneasily at the palace The hint or two which Mr Slope had given was by no means thrown away upon the bishop He had a feeling that if he ever meant to oppose the now almost unendurable despotism of his wife he must lose no further time in doing so that if he even meant to be himself master in his own diocese let alone his own house he should begin at once It would have been easier to have done so from the day of his consecration than now but easier now than when Mrs Proudie should have succeeded in thoroughly mastering the diocesan details Then the proffered assistance of Mr Slope was a great thing for him a most unexpected and invaluable aid Hitherto he had looked on the two as allied forces and had considered that as allied they were impregnable He had begun to believe that his only chance of escape would be by the advancement of Mr Slope to some distant and rich preferment But now it seemed that one of his enemies certainly the least potent of them but nevertheless one very important was willing to desert his own camp He walked up and down his little study almost thinking that the time had come when he would be able to appropriate to his own use the big room upstairs in which his predecessor had always sat
As he resolved these things in his mind a note was brought to him from Archdeacon Grantly in which that divine begged his lordship to do him the honour of seeing him on the morrow—would his lordship have the kindness to name the hour Dr Grantlys proposed visit would have reference to the reappointment of Mr Harding to the wardenship of Hirams hospital The bishop having read this note was informed that the archdeacons servant was waiting for an answer
Here at once a great opportunity offered itself to the bishop of acting on his own responsibility He bethought himself of his new ally and rang the bell for Mr Slope It turned out that Mr Slope was not in the house and then greatly daring the bishop with his own unassisted spirit wrote a note to the archdeacon saying that he would see him and naming the hour for doing so Having watched from his studywindow that the messenger got safely off the premises with this despatch he began to turn over in his mind what step he should next take
Tomorrow he would have to declare to the archdeacon either that Mr Harding should have the appointment or that he should not have it The bishop felt that he could not honestly throw over Mr Quiverful without informing Mrs Proudie and he resolved at last to brave the lioness in her own den and tell her that circumstances were such that it behoved him to reappoint Mr Harding He did not feel that he should at all derogate from his new courage by promising Mrs Proudie that the very first piece of available preferment at his disposal should be given to Quiverful to atone for the injury done to him If he could mollify the lioness with such a sop how happy would he think his first efforts had been
Not without many misgivings did he find himself in Mrs Proudies boudoir He had at first thought of sending for her But it was not at all impossible that she might choose to take such a message amiss and then also it might be some protection to him to have his daughters present at the interview He found her sitting with her account books before her nibbling the end of her pencil evidently mersed in pecuniary difficulties and harassed in mind by the multiplicity of palatial expenses and the heavy cost of episcopal grandeur Her daughters were around her Olivia was reading a novel Augusta was crossing a note to her bosom friend in Baker Street and Netta was working diminutive coach wheels for the bottom of a petticoat If the bishop could get the better of his wife in her present mood he would be a man indeed He might then consider victory his own for ever After all in such cases the matter between husband and wife stands much the same as it does between two boys at the same school two cocks in the same yard or two armies on the same continent The conqueror once is generally the conqueror for ever after The prestige of victory is everything
Ahem—my dear began the bishop if you are disengaged I wished to speak to you Mrs Proudie put her pencil down carefully at the point to which she had dotted her figures marked down in her memory the sum she had arrived at and then looked up sourly enough into her helpmates face If you are busy another time will do as well continued the bishop whose courage like Bob Acres had oozed out now that he found himself on the ground of battle
What is it about bishop asked the lady
Well—it was about those Quiverfuls—but I see you are engaged
Another time will do just as well for me
What about the Quiverfuls It is quite understood I believe that they are to come to the hospital There is to be no doubt about that is there And as she spoke she kept her pencil sternly and vigorously fixed on the column of figures before her
Why my dear there is a difficulty said the bishop
A difficulty said Mrs Proudie What difficulty The place has been promised to Mr Quiverful and of course he must have it He has made all his arrangements He has written for a curate for Puddingdale he has spoken to the auctioneer about selling his farm horses and cows and in all respects considers the place as his own Of course he must have it
Now bishop look well to thyself and call up all the manhood that is in thee Think how much is at stake If now thou art not true to thy guns no Slope can hereafter aid thee How can he who deserts his own colours at the final smell of gunpowder expect faith in any ally Thou thyself hast sought the battlefield fight out the battle manfully now thou art there Courage bishop courage Frowns cannot kill nor can sharp words break any bones After all the apron is thine own She can appoint no wardens give away no benefices nominate no chaplains an thou art but true to thyself Up man and at her with a constant heart
Some little monitor within the bishops breast so addressed him But then there was another monitor there which advised him differently and as follows Remember bishop she is a woman and such a woman is the very mischief Were it not better for thee to carry on this war if it must be waged from behind thine own table in thine own study Does not every cock fight best on is own dunghill Thy daughters also are here the pledges of thy love the fruits of thy loins is it well that they should see thee in the hour of thy victory over their mother Nay is it well that they should see thee in the possible hour of thy defeat Besides hast thou not chosen thy opportunity with wonderful little skill indeed with no touch of sagacity for which thou art famous Will it not turn out that thou art wrong in this matter and thine enemy right that thou hast actually pledged thyself in this matter of the hospital and that now thou wouldst turn upon thy wife because she requires from thee but the fulfilment of thy promise Art thou not a Christian bishop and is not thy word to be held sacred whatever be the result Return bishop to thy sanctum on the lower floor and postpone thy combative propensities for some occasion in which at least thou mayest fight the battle against odds less tremendously against thee
All this passed within the bishops bosom while Mrs Proudie stall sat with her fixed pencil and the figures of her sum still enduring on the tablets of her memory L4 17s 7d she said to herself Of course Mr Quiverful must have the hospital she said out loud to her lord
Well my dear I merely wanted to suggest to you that Mr Slope seems to think that if Mr Harding be not appointed public feeling in the matter would be against us and that the press might perhaps take it up
Mr Slope seems to think said Mrs Proudie in a tone of voice which plainly showed the bishop that he was right in looking for a breach in that quarter And what has Mr Slope to do with it I hope my lord you are not going to allow yourself to be governed by a chaplain and now in her eagerness the lady lost her place in her account
Certainly not my dear Nothing I can assure you is less probable
But still Mr Slope may be useful in finding how the wind blows and
I really thought that if we could give something good to Mr
Quiverful—
Nonsense said Mrs Proudie it would be years before you could give them anything else that could suit them half as well and as for the press and the public and all that remember there are two ways of telling a story If Mr Harding is fool enough to tell his tale we can also tell ours The place was offered to him and he refused it It has now been given to someone else and theres an end of it At least I should think so
Well my dear I rather believe you are right said the bishop and sneaking out of the room he went down stairs troubled in his mind as to how he should receive the archdeacon on the morrow He felt himself not very well just at present and began to consider that he might not improbably be detained in his room the next morning by an attack of bile He was unfortunately very subject to bilious annoyances
Mr Slope indeed Ill Slope him said the indignant matron to her listening progeny I dont know what has come to Mr Slope I believe he thinks he is to be Bishop of Barchester himself because I have taken him by the hand and got your father to make him his domestic chaplain
He was always full of impudence said Olivia I told you so once before mamma Olivia however had not thought him too impudent when once before he had proposed to make her Mrs Slope
Well Olivia I always thought you liked him said Augusta who at that moment had some grudge against her sister I always disliked the man because I think him thoroughly vulgar
There youre wrong said Mrs Proudie hes not vulgar at all and what is more he is a soulstirring eloquent preacher but he must be taught to know his place if he is to remain in this house
He has the horridest eyes I ever saw in a mans head said Netta and I tell you what hes terribly greedy did you see the current pie he ate yesterday
When Mr Slope got home he soon learnt from the bishop as much from his manner as his words that Mrs Proudies behests in the matter of the hospital were to be obeyed Dr Proudie let fall something as to this occasion only and keeping all affairs about patronage exclusively in his own hands But he was quite decided about Mr Harding and as Mr Slope did not wish to have both the prelate and the prelatess against him he did not at present see that he could do anything but yield
He merely remarked that he would of course carry out the bishops views and that he was quite sure that if the bishop trusted to his own judgment things in the diocese would certainly be well ordered Mr Slope knew that if you hit a nail on the head often enough it will penetrate at last
He was sitting alone in his room on the same evening when a light knock was made on his door and before he could answer it the door was opened and his patroness appeared He was all smiles in a moment but so was not she also She took however the chair that was offered to her and thus began her expostulation
Mr Slope I did not at all approve your conduct the other night with that Italian woman Any one would have thought that you were her lover
Good gracious my dear madam said Mr Slope with a look of horror Why she is a married woman
Thats more than I know said Mrs Proudie however she chooses to pass for such But married or not married such attention as you paid her was improper I cannot believe that you would wish to give offence in my drawingroom Mr Slope but I owe it to myself and my daughters to tell you that I disapprove your conduct
Mr Slope opened wide his huge protruding eyes and stared out of them with a look of welldignified surprise Why Mrs Proudie said he I did but fetch her something to eat when she was hungry
And you have called on her since continued she looking at the culprit with the stern look of a detective policeman in the act of declaring himself
Mr Slope turned over in his mind whether it would be well for him to tell this termagant at once that he should call on whom he liked and do what he liked but he remembered that his footing in Barchester was not yet sufficiently firm and that it would be better for him to pacify her
I certainly called since at Dr Stanhopes house and certainly saw
Madame Neroni
Yes and you saw her alone said the episcopal Argus
Undoubtedly I did said Mr Slope but that was because nobody else happened to be in the room Surely it was no fault of mine if the rest of the family were out
Perhaps not but I assure you Mr Slope you will fall greatly in my estimation if I find that you allow yourself to be caught by the lures of that woman I know women better than you do Slope and you may believe me that that signora as she calls herself is not a fitting companion for a strict evangelical unmarried young clergyman
How Mr Slope would have liked to laugh at her had he dared But he did not dare So he merely said I can assure you Mrs Proudie the lady in question is nothing to me
Well I hope not Mr Slope But I have considered it my duty to give you this caution and now there is another thing I feel myself called upon to speak about it is your conduct to the bishop Mr Slope
My conduct to the bishop said he now truly surprised and ignorant what the lady alluded to
Yes Mr Slope your conduct to the bishop It is by no means what
I would wish to see it
Has the bishop said anything Mrs Proudie
No the bishop has said nothing He probably thinks that any remarks on the matter will come better from me who first introduced you to his lordships notice The fact is Mr Slope you are a little inclined to take too much upon yourself
An angry spot showed itself upon Mr Slopes cheeks and it was with difficulty that he controlled himself But he did do so and sat quite silent while the lady went on
It is the fault of many young men in your position and therefore the bishop is not inclined at present to resent it You will no doubt soon learn what is required from you and what is not If you will take my advice however you will be careful not to obtrude advice upon the bishop in any matter concerning patronage If his lordship wants advice he knows where to look for it And then having added to her counsel a string of platitudes as to what was desirable and what not desirable in the conduct of a strictly evangelical unmarried young clergyman Mrs Proudie retreated leaving the chaplain to his thoughts
The upshot of his thoughts was this that there certainly was not room in the diocese for the energies of both himself and Mrs Proudie and that it behoved him quickly to ascertain whether his energies or hers would prevail
CHAPTER XVIII
THE WIDOWS PERSECUTION
Early on the following morning Mr Slope was summoned to the bishops dressingroom and went there fully expecting that he should find his lordship very indignant and spirited up by his wife to repeat the rebuke which she had administered on the previous day Mr Slope had resolved that at any rate from him he would not stand it and entered the dressingroom in rather a combative disposition but he found the bishop in the most placid and gentle of humours His lordship complained of being rather unwell had a slight headache and was not quite the thing in his stomach but there was nothing the matter with his temper
Oh Slope said he taking the chaplains proffered hand Archdeacon Grantly is to call on me this morning and I really am not fit to see him I fear I must trouble you to see him for me and then Dr Proudie proceeded to explain what it was that must be said to Dr Grantly He was to be told in fact in the civilest words in which the tidings could be conveyed that Mr Harding having refused the wardenship the appointment had been offered to Mr Quiverful and accepted by him
Mr Slope again pointed out to his patron that he thought he was perhaps not quite wise in his decision and this he did sotto voce But even with this precaution it was not safe to say much and during the little that he did say the bishop made a very slight but still a very ominous gesture with his thumb towards the door which opened from his dressingroom to some inner sanctuary Mr Slope at once took the hint and said no more but he perceived that there was to be confidence between him and his patron that the league desired by him was to be made and that this appointment of Mr Quiverful was to be the sacrifice offered on the altar of conjugal obedience All this Mr Slope read in the slight motion of the bishops thumb and he read it correctly There was no need of parchments and seals of attestations explanations and professions The bargain was understood between them and Mr Slope gave the bishop his hand upon it The bishop understood the little extra squeeze and an intelligible gleam of assent twinkled in his eye
Pray be civil to the archdeacon Mr Slope said he out loud but make him quite understand that in this matter Mr Harding has put it out of my power to oblige him
It would be calumny on Mrs Proudie to suggest that she was sitting in her bedroom with her ear at the keyhole during this interview She had within her a spirit of decorum which prevented her from descending to such baseness To put her ear to a keyhole or to listen at a chink was a trick for a housemaid
Mrs Proudie knew this and therefore she did not do it but she stationed herself as near to the door as she well could that she might if possible get the advantage which the housemaid would have had without descending to the housemaids artifice
It was little however that she heard and that little was only sufficient to deceive her She saw nothing of that friendly pressure perceived nothing of that concluded bargain she did not even dream of the treacherous resolves which those two false men had made together to upset her in the pride of her station to dash the cup from her lip before she had drank of it to seep away all her power before she had tasted its sweets Traitors that they were the husband of her bosom and the outcast whom she had fostered and brought into the warmth of the worlds brightest fireside But neither of them had the magnanimity of this woman Though two men have thus leagued themselves together against her even yet the battle is not lost
Mr Slope felt pretty sure that Dr Grantly would decline the honour of seeing him and such turned out to be the case The archdeacon when the palace door was opened to him was greeted by a note Mr Slope presented his compliments c c The bishop was ill in his room and very greatly regretted c c Mr Slope had been charged with the bishops views and if agreeable to the archdeacon would do himself the honour c c The archdeacon however was not agreeable and having read his note in the hall crumpled it up in his hand and muttering something about sorrow for his lordships illness took his leave without sending as much as a verbal message in answer to Mr Slopes note
Ill said the archdeacon to himself as he flung himself into his brougham The man is absolutely a coward He is afraid to see me Ill indeed The archdeacon was never ill himself and did not therefore understand that any one else could in truth be prevented by illness from keeping an appointment He regarded all such excuses as subterfuges and in the present instance he was not far wrong
Dr Grantly desired to be driven to his fatherinlaws lodgings in the High Street and hearing from the servant that Mr Harding was at his daughters followed him to Mrs Bolds house and there he found him The archdeacon was fuming with rage when he got into the drawingroom and had by this time nearly forgotten the pusillanimity of the bishop in the villainy of the chaplain
Look at that said he throwing Mr Slopes crumpled note to Mr Harding I am to be told that if I choose I may have the honour of seeing Mr Slope and that too after a positive engagement with the bishop
But he says the bishop is ill said Mr Harding
Pshaw You dont mean to say that you are deceived by such an excuse as that He was well enough yesterday Now I tell you what I will see the bishop and I will tell him also very plainly what I think of his conduct I will see him or else Barchester will soon be too hot to hold him
Eleanor was sitting in the room but Dr Grantly had hardly noticed her in his anger Eleanor now said to him with the greatest innocence I wish you had seen Mr Slope Dr Grantly because I think perhaps it might have done good
The archdeacon turned on her with almost brutal wrath Had she at once owned that she had accepted Mr Slope for her second husband he could hardly have felt more convinced of her belonging body and soul to the Slope and Proudie party than he now did on hearing her express such a wish as this Poor Eleanor
See him said the archdeacon glaring at her and why am I be called on to lower myself in the worlds esteem an my own by coming in contact with such a man as that I have hitherto lived among gentlemen and do not mean to be dragged into other company by anybody
Poor Mr Harding knew well what the archdeacon meant but Eleanor was as innocent as her own baby She could not understand how the archdeacon could consider himself to be dragged into bad company by condescending to speak to Mr Slope for a few minutes when the interests of her father might be served by doing so
I was talking for a full hour yesterday with Mr Slope said she with some little assumption of dignity and I did not find myself to be lowered by it
Perhaps not said he But if youll be good enough to allow me I shall judge for myself in such matters And I tell you what Eleanor it will be much better for you if you will allow yourself to be guided also by the advice of those who are your friends If you do not you will be apt to find you have no friends left who can advise you
Eleanor blushed up to the roots of her hair But even now she had not the slightest idea of what was passing in the archdeacons mind No thought of lovemaking or lovereceiving had yet found its way to her heart since the death of poor John Bold and if it were possible that such a thought should spring there the man must be far different from Mr Slope that could give it birth
Nevertheless Eleanor blushed deeply for she felt she was charged with improper conduct and she did so with the more inward pain because her father did not instantly rally to her side that father for whose sake and love she had submitted to be the receptacle of Mr Slopes confidence She had given a detailed account of all that had passed to her father and though he had not absolutely agreed with her about Mr Slopes views touching the hospital yet he had said nothing to make her think that she had been wrong in talking to him
She was far too angry to humble herself before her brother inlaw Indeed she had never accustomed herself to be very abject before him and they had never been confidential allies I do not in the least understand what you mean Dr Grantly said she I do not know that I can accuse myself of doing anything that my friends should disapprove Mr Slope called here expressly to ask what papas views were about the hospital and as I believe he called with friendly intentions I told him
Friendly intentions sneered the archdeacon
I believe you greatly wrong Mr Slope continued Eleanor but I have explained this to papa already and as you do not seem to approve of what I say Dr Grantly I will with your permission leave you and papa together and so saying she walked out of the room
All this made Mr Harding very unhappy It was quite clear that the archdeacon and his wife had made up their minds that Eleanor was going to marry Mr Slope Mr Harding could not really bring himself to think that she would do so but yet he could not deny that circumstances made it appear that the mans company was not disagreeable to her She was now constantly seeing him and yet she received visits from no other unmarried gentleman She always took his part when his conduct was canvassed although she was aware how personally objectionable he was to her friends Then again Mr Harding felt that if she should choose to become Mrs Slope he had nothing that he could justly against her doing so She had full right to please herself and he as a father could not say that she would disgrace herself by marrying a clergyman who stood so well before the world as Mr Slope did As for quarrelling with his daughter on account of such a marriage and separating himself from her as the archdeacon had threatened to do that with Mr Harding would be out of the question If she should determine to marry this man he must get over his aversion as best he could His Eleanor his own old companion in their old happy home must still be friend of his bosom the child of his heart Let who would cast her off he would not If it were fated that he should have to sit in his old age at the same table with a man whom of all men he disliked the most he would meet his fate as best he might Anything to him would be preferable to the loss of his daughter
Such being his feelings he hardly knew how to take part with Eleanor against the archdeacon or with the archdeacon against Eleanor It will be said that he should never have suspected her Alas he never should have done so But Mr Harding was by no means a perfect character His indecision his weakness his proneness to be led by others his want of selfconfidence he was very far from being perfect And then it must be remembered that such a marriage as that which the archdeacon contemplated with disgust which we who know Mr Slope so well would regard with equal disgust did not appear so monstrous to Mr Harding because in his charity he did not hate the chaplain as the archdeacon did and as we do
He was however very unhappy when his daughter left the room and he had recourse to an old trick of his that was customary to him in his times of sadness He began playing some slow tune upon an imaginary violoncello drawing one hand slowly backwards and forwards as though he held a bow in it and modulating the unreal chords with the other
Shell marry that man as sure as two and two makes four said the practical archdeacon
I hope not I hope not said the father But if she does what can I say to her I have no right to object to him
No right exclaimed Dr Grantly
No right as her father He is in my own profession and for aught we know a good man
To this the archdeacon would by no means assent It was not well however to argue the case against Eleanor in her own drawingroom and so they both walked forth and discussed the matter in all the bearings under the elm trees of the close Mr Harding also explained to his soninlaw what had been the purport at any rate the alleged purport of Mr Slopes last visit to the widow He however stated that he could not bring himself to believe that Mr Slope had any real anxiety such as that he had pretended I cannot forget his demeanour to myself said Mr Harding and it is not possible that his ideas should have changed so soon
I see it all said the archdeacon The sly tartufe He thinks to buy the daughter by providing for the father He means to show how powerful he is how good he is and how much he is willing to do for her beaux yeux yes I see it all now But well be too many for him yet Mr Harding he said turning to his companion with some gravity and pressing his hand on the others arm It would perhaps be better for you to lose the hospital than get it on such terms
Lose it said Mr Harding why Ive lost it already I dont want it Ive made up my mind to do without it Ill withdraw altogether Ill just go and write a line to the bishop and tell him that I withdraw my claim altogether
Nothing would have pleased him better than to be allowed to escape from the trouble and difficulty in such a manner But he was now going too fast for the archdeacon
No—no—no Well do no such thing said Dr Grantly well still have the hospital I hardly doubt but that well have it But not by Mr Slopes assistance If that be necessary well lose it but well have it spite of his teeth if we can Arabin will be at Plumstead tomorrow you must come over and talk to him
The two now turned into the cathedral library which was used by the clergymen of the close as a sort of ecclesiastical clubroom for writing sermons and sometimes letters also for reading theological works and sometimes magazines and newspapers The theological works were not disturbed perhaps quite as often as from the appearance of the building the outside public might have been led to expect Here the two allies settled on their course of action The archdeacon wrote a letter to the bishop strongly worded but still respectful in which he put forward his fatherinlaws claim to the appointment and expressed his own regret that he had not been able to see his lordship when he called Of Mr Slope me made no mention whatsoever It was then settled that Mr Harding should go to Plumstead on the following day and after considerable discussion on the matter the archdeacon proposed to ask Eleanor there also so as to withdraw her if possible from Mr Slopes attentions A week or two said he may teach her what he is and while she is there she will be out of harms way Mr Slope wont come there after her
Eleanor was not a little surprised when her brotherinlaw came back and very civilly pressed her to go out to Plumstead with her father She instantly perceived that her father had been fighting her battles for her behind her back She felt thankful to him and for his sake she would not show her resentment to the archdeacon by refusing his invitation But she could not she said go on the morrow she had an invitation to drink tea at the Stanhopes which she had promised to accept She would she added go with her father on the next day if he would wait or she would follow him
The Stanhopes said Dr Grantly I did not know you were so intimate with them
I did not know it myself said she till Miss Stanhope called yesterday However I like her very much and I have promised to go and play chess with some of them
Have they a party there said the archdeacon still fearful of Mr
Slope
Oh no said Eleanor Miss Stanhope said there was to be nobody at all But she had learnt that Mary had left me for a few weeks and she had learnt from some one that I play chess and so she came over on purpose to ask me to go in
Well thats very friendly said the exwarden They certainly do look more like foreigners than English people but I dare say they are none the worse for that
The archdeacon was inclined to look upon the Stanhopes with favourable eyes and had nothing to object on the matter It was therefore arranged that Mr Harding should postpone his visit to Plumstead for one day and then take with him Eleanor the baby and the nurse
Mr Slope is certainly becoming of some importance in Barchester
CHAPTER XIX
BARCHESTER BY MOONLIGHT
There was much cause for grief and occasional perturbation of spirits in the Stanhope family but yet they rarely seemed to be grieved or to be disturbed It was the peculiar gift of each of them that each was able to bear his or her own burden without complaint and perhaps without sympathy They habitually looked on the sunny side of the wall if there was a gleam on the either side for them to look at and if there was none they endured the shade with an indifference which if not stoical answered the end at which the Stoics aimed Old Stanhope could not but feel that he had illperformed his duties as a father and a clergyman and could hardly look forward to his own death without grief at the position in which he would leave his family His income for many years had been as high as L 3000 a year and yet they had among them no other provision than their mothers fortune of L 10000 He had not only spent his income but was in debt Yet with all this he seldom showed much outward sign of trouble
It was the same with the mother If she added little to the pleasures of her children she detracted still less she neither grumbled at her lot nor spoke much of her past or future sufferings as long as she had a maid to adjust her dress and had those dresses well made nature with her was satisfied It was the same with her children Charlotte never rebuked her father with the prospect of their future poverty nor did it seem to grieve her that she was becoming an old maid so quickly her temper was rarely ruffled and if we might judge by her appearance she was always happy The signora was not so sweettempered but she possessed much enduring courage she seldom complained—never indeed to her family Though she had a cause for affliction which would have utterly broken down the heart of most women as beautiful as she and as devoid of all religious support yet she bore her suffering in silence or alluded to it only to elicit the sympathy and stimulate the admiration of the men with whom she flirted As to Bertie one would have imagined from the sound of his voice and the gleam of his eye that he had not a sorrow nor a care in the world Nor had he He was incapable of anticipating tomorrows griefs The prospect of future want no more disturbed his appetite than does that of the butchers knife disturb the appetite of the sheep
Such was the usual tenor of their way but there were rare exceptions Occasionally the father would allow an angry glance to fall from his eye and the lion would send forth a low dangerous roar as though he meditated some deed of blood Occasionally also Madame Neroni would become bitter against mankind more than usually antagonistic to the worlds decencies and would seem as though she was about to break from her moorings and allow herself to be carried forth by the tide of her feelings to utter ruin and shipwreck She however like the rest of them had no real feelings could feel no true passion In that was her security Before she resolved on any contemplated escapade she would make a small calculation and generally summed up that the Stanhope villa or even Barchester close was better than the world at large
They were most irregular in their hours The father was generally the earliest in the breakfastparlour and Charlotte would soon follow and give him coffee but the others breakfasted anywhere anyhow and at any time On the morning after the archdeacons futile visit to the palace Dr Stanhope came down stairs with an ominously dark look about his eyebrows his white locks were rougher than usual and he breathed thickly and loudly as he took his seat in his armchair He had open letters in his hand and when Charlotte came into the room he was still reading them She went up and kissed him as was her wont but he hardly noticed her as she did so and she knew at once that something was the matter
Whats the meaning of that said he throwing over the table a letter with a Milan postmark Charlotte was a little frightened as she took it up but her mind was relieved when she saw that it was merely the bill of their Italian milliner The sum total was certainly large but not so large as to create an important row
Its for our clothes papa for six months before we came here
The three of us cant dress for nothing you know
Nothing indeed said he looking at the figures which in
Milanese denominations were certainly monstrous
The man should have sent it to me said Charlotte
I wish he had with all my heart—if you would have paid it I see enough in it to know that three quarters of it are for Madeline
She has little else to amuse her sir said Charlotte with true good nature
And I suppose he has nothing to amuse him said the doctor throwing over another letter to his daughter It was from some member of the family of Sidonia and politely requested the father to pay a small trifle of L 700 being the amount of a bill discounted in favour of Mr Ethelbert Stanhope and now overdue for a period of nine months
Charlotte read the letter slowly folded it up and put it under the edge of the teatray
I suppose he has nothing to amuse him but discounting bills with
Jews Does he think Ill pay that
I am sure he thinks no such thing said she
And who does he think will pay it
As far as honesty goes I suppose it wont much matter if it is never paid said she I dare say he got very little of it
I suppose it wont much matter either said the father if he goes to prison and rots there It seems to me that thats the other alternative
Dr Stanhope spoke the custom of his youth But his daughter though she lived so long abroad was much more completely versed in the ways of the English world If the man arrests him said she he must go through the court
It is thus thou great family of Sidonia—it is thus that we Gentiles treat thee when in our most extreme need thou and thine have aided us with mountains of gold as big as lions—and occasionally with winewarrants and orders for dozens of dressingcases
What and become an insolvent said the doctor
Hes that already said Charlotte wishing always to get over a difficulty
What a condition said the doctor for the son of a clergyman of the Church of England
I dont see why clergymens sons should pay their debts more than other young men said Charlotte
Hes had as much from me since he left school as is held sufficient for the eldest son of many a nobleman said the angry father
Well sir said Charlotte give him another chance
What said the doctor do you mean that I am to pay that Jew
Oh no I wouldnt pay him he must take his chance and if the worst comes to the worst Bertie must go abroad But I want you to be civil to Bertie and let him remain here as long as we stop He has a plan in his head that may put him on his feet after all
Just at that moment the door opened and Bertie came in whistling
The doctor immediately devoted himself to his egg and allowed
Bertie to whistle himself round to his sisters side without
noticing him
Charlotte gave a little sign to him with her eye first glancing at her father and then at the letter the corner of which peeped out from under the teatray Bertie saw and understood and with the quiet motion of a cat abstracted the letter and made himself acquainted with its contents The doctor however had seen him deep as he appeared to be mersed in his eggshell and said in his harshest voice Well sir do you know that gentleman
Yes sir said Bertie I have a sort of acquaintance with him but none that can justify him in troubling you If you will allow me sir I will answer this
At any rate I shant said the father and then he added after a pause Is it true sir that you owe the man L 700
Well said Bertie I think I should be inclined to dispute the amount if I were in a condition to pay him such of it as I really do owe him
Has he your bill for L 700 said the father speaking very loudly and very angrily
Well I believe he has said Bertie but all the money I ever got from him was L 150
And what became of the L 550
Why sir the commission was L 100 or so and I took the remainder in pavingstones and rockinghorses
Pavingstones and rockinghorses said the doctor where are they
Oh sir I suppose they are in London somewhere—but Ill inquire if you wish for them
Hes an idiot said the doctor and its sheer folly to waste more money on him Nothing can save him from ruin and so saying the unhappy father walked out of the room
Would the governor like to see the pavingstones
Ill tell you what said she If you dont take care you will find yourself loose upon the world without even a house over your head you dont know him as well as I do Hes very angry
Bertie stroked his big beard sipped his tea chatted over his misfortunes in a half comic half serious tone and ended by promising his sister that he would do his very best to make himself agreeable to the widow Bold Then Charlotte followed her father to his own room and softened down his wrath and persuaded him to say nothing more about the Jew bill discounter at any rate for a few weeks He even went so far as to say he would pay the L 700 or at any rate settle the bill if he saw a certainty of his sons securing for himself anything like a decent provision in life Nothing was said openly between them about poor Eleanor but the father and the daughter understood each other
They all met together in the drawingroom at nine oclock in perfect good humour with each other and about that hour Mrs Bold was announced She had never been in the house before though she had of course called and now she felt it strange to find herself there in her usual evening dress entering the drawingroom of these strangers in this friendly unceremonious way as though she had known them all her life But in three minutes they made her at home Charlotte tripped downstairs and took her bonnet from her and Bertie came to relieve her from her shawl and the signora smiled on her as she could smile when she chose to be gracious and the old doctor shook hands with her in a kind and benedictory manner that went to her heart at once and made her feel that he must be a good man
She had not been seated for above five minutes when the door again opened and Mr Slope was announced She felt rather surprised because she was told that nobody was to be there and it was very evident from the manner of some of them that Mr Slope was unexpected But still there was not much in it In such invitations a bachelor or two more or less are always spoken of as nobodies and there was no reason why Mr Slope should not drink tea at Dr Stanhopes as well as Eleanor herself He however was very much surprised and not very much gratified at finding that his own embryo spouse made one of the party He had come there to gratify himself by gazing on Madame Neronis beauty and listening to and returning her flattery and though he had not owned as much to himself he still felt that if he spent the evening as he had intended to do he might probably not thereby advance his suit with Mrs Bold
The signora who had no idea of a rival received Mr Slope with her usual marks of distinction As he took her hand she made some confidential communication to him in a low voice declaring that she had a plan to communicate to him after tea and was evidently prepared to go on with her work of reducing the chaplain to a state of captivity Poor Mr Slope was rather beside himself He thought that Eleanor could not but have learnt from his demeanour that he was an admirer of her own and he had also flattered himself that the idea was not unacceptable to her What would she think of him if he now devoted himself to a married woman
But Eleanor was not inclined to be severe in her criticism on him in that respect and felt no annoyance of any kind when she found herself seated between Bertie and Charlotte Stanhope She had not suspicion of Mr Slopes intentions she had no suspicion even of the suspicion of other people but still she felt well pleased not to have Mr Slope too near to her
And she was not illpleased to have Bertie Stanhope near her It was rarely indeed that he failed to make an agreeable impression on strangers With a bishop indeed who thought much of his own dignity it was possible that he might fail but hardly with a young lady and pretty woman He possessed the tact of becoming instantly intimate with women without giving rise to any fear of impertinence He had about him somewhat of the propensities of a tame cat It seemed quite natural that he should be petted caressed and treated with familiar good nature and that in return he should purr and be sleek and graceful and above all never show his claws Like other tame cats however he had his claws and sometimes made them dangerous
When tea was over Charlotte went to the open window and declared loudly that the full harvest moon was much too beautiful to be disregarded and called them to look at it To tell the truth there was but one there who cared much about the moons beauty and that one was not Charlotte but she knew how valuable an aid to her purpose the chaste goddess might become and could easily create a little enthusiasm for the purpose of the moment Eleanor and Bertie were soon with her The doctor was now quiet in his arm chair and Mrs Stanhope in hers both prepared for slumber
Are you a Whewellite or a Brewsterite or a tothermanite Mrs Bold said Charlotte who knew a little about everything and had read about a third of each of the books to which she alluded
Oh said Eleanor I have not read any of the books but I feel sure that there is one man in the moon at least if not more
You dont believe in the pulpy gelatinous matter said Bertie
I heard about that said Eleanor and I really think its almost wicked to talk in such a manner How can we argue about Gods power in the other stars from the laws which he has given for our role in this one
How indeed said Bertie Why shouldnt there be a race of salamanders in Venus And even if there be nothing but fish in Jupiter why shouldnt the fish there be as wide awake as the men and women here
That would be saying very little for them said Charlotte I am for Dr Whewell myself for I do not think that men and woman are worth being repeated in such countless worlds There may be souls in other stars but I doubt their having any bodies attached to them But come Mrs Bold let us put our bonnets on and walk round the close If we are to discuss sidereal questions we shall do so much better under the towers of the cathedral than stuck in this narrow window
Mrs Bold made no objection and a party was made to walk out Charlotte Stanhope well knew the rule as to three being no company and she had therefore to induce her sister to allow Mr Slope to accompany them
Come Mr Slope she said Im sure youll join us We shall be in again in quarter of an hour Madeline
Madeline read in her eye all that she had to say knew her object and as she had to depend on her sister for so many of her amusements she felt that she must yield It was hard to be left alone while others of her own age walked out to feel the soft influence of the bright night but it would be harder still without the sort of sanction which Charlotte gave to all her flirtations and intrigues Charlottes eye told her that she must give up just at present for the good of the family and so Madeline obeyed
But Charlottes eyes said nothing of the sort to Mr Slope He had no objection at all to the teteatete with the signora which the departure of the other three would allow him and gently whispered to her I shall not leave you alone
Oh yes said she go—pray go pray go for my sake Do not think that I am so selfish It is understood that nobody is kept within for me You will understand this too when you know me better Pray join them Mr Slope but when you come in speak to me for five minutes before you leave us
Mr Slope understood that he was to go and he therefore joined the party in the hall He would have had no objection at all to this arrangement if he could have secured Mrs Bolds arm but this was of course out of the question Indeed his fate was very soon settled for no sooner had he reached the halldoor than Miss Stanhope put her hand within his arm and Bertie walked off with Eleanor just as naturally as though she were already his own property
And so they sauntered forth first they walked round the close according to their avowed intent then they went under the old arched gateway below St Cuthberts little church and then they turned behind the grounds of the bishops palace and so on till they came to the bridge just at the edge of the town from which passersby can look down into the gardens of Hirams hospital and her Charlotte and Mr Slope who were in advance stopped till the other two came up to them Mr Slope knew that the gableends and old brick chimneys which stood up so prettily in the moonlight were those of Mr Hardings late abode and would not have stopped on such a spot in such company if he could have avoided it but Miss Stanhope would not take the hint which he tried to give
This is a very pretty place Mrs Bold said Charlotte by far the prettiest place near Barchester I wonder your father gave it up
It was a very pretty place and now by the deceitful light of the moon looked twice larger twice prettier twice more antiquely picturesque than it would have done in truthtelling daylight Who does not know the air of complex multiplicity and the mysterious interesting grace which the moon always lends to old gabled buildings half surrounded as was the hospital by fine trees As seen from the bridge on the night of which we are speaking Mr Hardings late abode did look very lovely and though Eleanor did not grieve at her fathers having left it she felt at the moment an intense wish that he might be allowed to return
He is going to return to it immediately is he not asked Bertie
Eleanor made no immediate reply Much such a question passed unanswered without the notice of the questioner but such was not now the case They all remained silent as though expecting her to reply and after a moment or two Charlotte said I believe it is settled that Mr Harding returns to the hospital is it not
I dont think anything about it is settled yet said Eleanor
But it must be a matter of course said Bertie that is if your father wishes it who else on earth could hold it after what has occurred
Eleanor quietly made her companion to understand that the matter was one which she could not discuss in the present company and then they passed on Charlotte said she would go a short way up the hill out of the town so as to look back on the towers of the cathedral and as Eleanor leant upon Berties arm for assistance in the walk she told him how the matter stood between her father and the bishop
And he said Bertie pointing on to Mr Slope what part does he take in it
Eleanor explained how Mr Slope had at first endeavoured to tyrannize over her father but how he had latterly come round and done all he could to talk the bishop over in Mr Hardings favour But my father said she is hardly inclined to trust him they all say he is so arrogant to the old clergyman of the city
Take my word for it said Bertie your father is right If I am not very much mistaken that man is both arrogant and false
They strolled up the top of the hill and then returned through the fields by a footpath which leads by a small wooden bridge or rather a plank with a rustic rail to it over the river to the other side of the cathedral from that at which they had started They had thus walked round the bishops grounds through which the river runs and round the cathedral and adjacent fields and it was past eleven before they reached the doctors door
It is very late said Eleanor it will be a shame to disturb your mother at such an hour
Oh said Charlotte laughing you wont disturb mamma I dare say she is in bed by this time and Madeline would be furious if you do not come in and see her Come Bertie take Mrs Bolds bonnet from her
They went up stairs and found the signora alone reading She looked somewhat sad and melancholy but not more so perhaps than was sufficient to excite additional interest in the bosom of Mr Slope and she was soon deep in whispered intercourse with that happy gentleman who was allowed to find a restingplace on her sofa The signora had a way of whispering that was peculiarly her own and was exactly the reverse of that which prevails among great tragedians The great tragedian hisses out a positive whisper made with bated breath and produced by inarticulate tongueformed sounds but yet he is audible through the whole house The signora however used no hisses and produced all her words in a clear silver tone but they could only be heard by the ear into which they were poured
Charlotte hurried and skurried about the room hither and thither doing or pretending to do many things and then saying something about seeing her mother ran up stairs Eleanor was then left alone with Bertie and she hardly felt and hour fly by her To give Bertie his due credit he could not have played his cards better He did not make love to her nor sigh nor look languishing but he was amusing and familiar yet respectful and when he left Eleanor at her own door at one oclock which he did by the bye with the assistance of the now jealous Slope she thought he was one of the most agreeable men and the Stanhopes decidedly the most agreeable family that she had ever met
CHAPTER XX
MR ARABIN
The Reverend Francis Arabin fellow of Lazarus late professor of poetry at Oxford and present vicar of St Ewold in the diocese of Barchester must now be introduced personally to the reader And as he will fill a conspicuous place in this volume it is desirable that he should be made to stand before the readers eye by the aid of such portraiture as the author is able to produce
It is to be regretted that no mental method of daguerreotype or photography has yet been discovered by which the characters of men can be reduced to writing and put into grammatical language with an unerring precision of truthful description How often does the novelist feel ay and the historian also and the biographer that he has conceived within his mind and accurately depicted on the tablet of his brain the full character and personage of a man and that nevertheless when he flies to pen and ink to perpetuate the portrait his words forsake elude disappoint and play the deuce with him till at the end of a dozen pages the man described has no more resemblance to the man conceived than the sign board at the corner of the street has to the Duke of Cambridge
And yet such mechanical descriptive skill would hardly give more satisfaction to the reader than the skill of the photographer does to the anxious mother desirous to possess an absolute duplicate of her beloved child The likeness is indeed true but it is a dull dead unfeeling inauspicious likeness The face is indeed there and those looking at it will know at once whose image it is but the owner of the face will not be proud of the resemblance
There is no royal road to learning no short cut to the acquirement of any art Let photographers and daguerreotypers do what they will and improve as they may with further skill on that which skill has already done they will never achieve a portrait of the human face as we may under the burdens which we so often feel too heavy for our shoulders we must either bear them up like men or own ourselves too weak for the work we have undertaken There is no way of writing well and also of writing easily
Labor omnia vincit improbus Such should be the chosen motto of every labourer and it may be that labour if adequately enduring may suffice at last to produce even some not untrue resemblance of the Rev Francis Arabin
Of his doings in the world and of the sort of fame which he has achieved enough has already been said It has also been said that he is forty years of age and still unmarried He was the younger son of a country gentleman of small fortune in the north of England At an early age he went to Winchester and was intended by his father for New College but though studious as a boy he was not studious within the prescribed limits and at the age of eighteen he left school with a character for talent but without a scholarship All that he had obtained over and above the advantage of his character was a gold medal for English verse and hence was derived a strong presumption on the part of his friends that he was destined to add another name to the imperishable list of English poets
From Winchester he went to Oxford and was entered as a commoner at Balliol Here his special career very soon commenced He utterly eschewed the society of fast men gave no wine parties kept no horses rowed no boats joined no rows and was the pride of his college tutor Such at least was his career till he had taken his little go and then he commenced a course of action which though not less creditable to himself as a man was hardly so much to the taste of his tutor He became a member of a vigorous debating society and rendered himself remarkable there for humorous energy Though always in earnest yet his earnestness was always droll To be true in his ideas unanswerable in his syllogisms and just in his aspirations was not enough for him He had failed failed in his own opinion as well as that of others when others came to know him if he could not reduce the arguments of his opponents to an absurdity and conquer both by wit and reason To say that his object was ever to raise a laugh would be most untrue He hated such common and unnecessary evidence of satisfaction on the part of his hearers A joke that required to be laughed at was with him not worth uttering He could appreciate by a keener sense than that of his ears the success of his wit and would see in the eyes of his auditory whether or no he was understood and appreciated
He had been a religious lad before he left school That is he had addicted himself to a party of religion and having done so had received that benefit which most men do who become partisans in such a cause We are much too apt to look at schism in our church as an unmitigated evil Moderate schism if there may be such a thing at any rate calls attention to the subject draws its supporters who would otherwise have been inattentive to the matter and teaches men to think about religion How great an amount of good of this description has followed that movement of the Church of England which commenced with the publication of Froudes Remains
As a boy young Arabin took up the cudgels on the side of the Tractarians and at Oxford he sat for a while at the feet of the great Newman To this cause he lent all his faculties For it he concocted verses for it he made speeches for it he scintillated the brightest sparks of his quiet wit For it he ate and drank and dressed and had his being In due process of time he took his degree and wrote himself BA but he did not do so with any remarkable amount of academical eclat He had occupied himself too much with high church matters and the polemics politics and outward demonstrations usually concurrent with high churchmanship to devote himself with sufficient vigour to the acquisition of a double first He was not a double first nor even a first class man but he revenged himself on the university by putting first and double firsts out of fashion for the year and laughing down a species of pedantry which at the age of twentythree leaves no room in a mans mind for graver subjects than conic sections or Greek accents
Greek accents however and conic sections were esteemed necessaries at Balliol and there was no admittance there for Mr Arabin within the list of its fellows Lazarus however the richest and the most comfortable abode of Oxford dons opened its bosom to the young champion of a church militant Mr Arabin was ordained and became a fellow soon after taking his degree and shortly after that was chosen professor of poetry
And now came the moment of his great danger After many mental struggles and an agony of doubt which may be well surmised the great prophet of the Tractarians confessed himself a Roman Catholic Mr Newman left the Church of England and with him carried many a waverer He did not carry off Mr Arabin but the escape which that gentleman had was a very narrow one He left Oxford for a while that he might meditate in complete peace on the step which appeared for him to be all but unavoidable and shut himself up in a little village on the seashore of one of our remotest counties that he might learn by communing with his own soul whether or no he could with a safe conscience remain within the pale of his mother church
Things would have gone badly with him there had he been left entirely to himself Every thing was against him all his worldly interests required him to remain a Protestant and he looked on his worldly interests as a legion of foes to get the better of whom was a point of extremest honour In his then state of ecstatic agony such a conquest would have cost him little but it cost him much to get over the idea of choosing the Church of England he should be open in his own mind to the charge that he had been led to such a choice by unworthy motives Then his heart was against him he loved with a strong and eager love the man who had hitherto been his guide and yearned to follow his footsteps His tastes were against him the ceremonies and pomps of the Church of Rome their august feasts and solemn fasts invited his imagination and pleased his eye His flesh was against him how great an aid would it be to a poor weak wavering man to be constrained to high moral duties selfdenial obedience and chastity by laws which were certain in their enactments and not to be broken without loud palpable unmistakable sin Then his faith was against him he required to believe so much panted so early to give signs of his belief deemed it so insufficient to wash himself simply in the waters of Jordan that some great deed such as that of forsaking everything for a true church had for him allurements almost past withstanding
Mr Arabin was at this time a very young man and when he left Oxford for his far retreat was much too confident in his powers of fence and too apt to look down on the ordinary sense of ordinary people to expect aid in the battle that he had to fight from any chance inhabitants on the spot which he had selected But Providence was good to him and there in that all but desolate place on the stormbeat shore of that distant sea he met one who gradually changed his mind quieted his imagination and taught him something of a Christians duty When Mr Arabin left Oxford he was inclined to look upon the rural clergymen of most English parishes almost with contempt It was his ambition should he remain within the fold of the church to do somewhat towards redeeming and rectifying their inferiority and to assist in infusing energy and faith into the hearts of Christian ministers who were as he thought too often satisfied to go through life without much show of either
And yet it was from such a one that Mr Arabin in his extremest need received that aid which he so much required It was from a poor curate of a small Cornish parish that he first learnt to know that the highest laws for the governance of a Christians duty must act from within and not from without that no man can become a serviceable servant solely by obedience to written edicts and that the safety which he was about to seek within the gates of Rome was no other than the selfish freedom from personal danger which the bad soldier attempts to gain who counterfeits illness on the eve of battle
Mr Arabin returned to Oxford a humbler but a better and a happier man and from that time forth he put his shoulder to the wheel as a clergyman of the Church for which he had been educated The intercourse of those among whom he familiarly lived kept him staunch to the principles of that system of the Church to which he had always belonged Since his severance from Mr Newman no one had had so strong an influence over him as the head of his college During the time of his expected apostasy Dr Gwynne had not felt much predisposition in favour of the young fellow Though a High Churchman himself within moderate limits Dr Gwynne felt no sympathy with men who could not satisfy their faiths with the Thirtynine Articles He regarded the enthusiasm of such as Newman as a state of mind more nearly allied to madness than to religion and when he saw it evinced by a very young men was inclined to attribute a good deal of it to vanity Dr Gwynne himself though a religious man was also a thoroughly practical man of the world and he regarded with no favourable eye the tenets of any one who looked on the two things as incompatible When he found Mr Arabin was a half Roman he began to regret all that he done towards bestowing a fellowship on so unworthy a recipient and when again he learnt that Mr Arabin would probably complete his journey to Rome he regarded with some satisfaction the fact that in such case the fellowship would be again vacant
When however Mr Arabin returned and professed himself a confirmed Protestant the master of Lazarus again opened his arms to him and gradually he became the pet of the college For some little time he was saturnine silent and unwilling to take any prominent part in university broils but gradually his mind recovered or rather made its tone and he became known as a man always ready at a moments notice to take up the cudgels in opposition to anything which savoured of an evangelical bearing He was great in sermons great on platforms great at after dinner conversations and always pleasant as well as great He took delight in elections served on committees opposed tooth and nail all projects of university reform and talked jovially over his glass of port of the ruin to be committed by the Whigs The ordeal through which he had gone in resisting the blandishments of the lady of Rome had certainly done much towards the strengthening of his character Although in small and outward matters he was selfconfident enough nevertheless in things affecting the inner man he aimed at a humility of spirit which would never have been attractive to him but for that visit to the coast of Cornwall This visit he now repeated every year
Such is an interior view of Mr Arabin at the time when he accepted the living of St Ewold Exteriorly he was not a remarkable person He was above the middle height well made and very active His hair which had been jet black was now tinged with gray but his face bore no sign of years It would perhaps be wrong to say that he was handsome but his face was nevertheless high for beauty and the formation of the forehead too massive and heavy but his eyes nose and mouth were perfect There was a continual play of lambent fire about his eyes which gave promise of either pathos or humour whenever he essayed to speak and that promise was rarely broken There was a gentle play about his mouth which declared that his wit never descended to sarcasm and that there was no illnature in his repartee
Mr Arabin was a popular man among women but more so as a general than a special favourite Living as a fellow at Oxford marriage with him had been out of the question and it may be doubted whether he had ever allowed his heart to be touched Though belonging to a Church in which celibacy is not the required lot of its ministers he had come to regard himself as one of those clergymen to whom to be a bachelor is almost a necessity He had never looked for parochial duty and his career at Oxford was utterly incompatible with such domestic joys as a wife and nursery He looked on women therefore in the same light that one sees then regarded by many Romish priests He liked to have near him that which was pretty and amusing but women generally were little more to him than children He talked to them without putting out all his powers and listened to them without any idea that what he should hear from them could either actuate his conduct or influence his opinion
Such was Mr Arabin the new vicar of St Ewold who is going to stay with the Grantlys at Plumstead Episcopi
Mr Arabin reached Plumstead the day before Mr Harding and Eleanor and the Grantly family were thus enabled to make his acquaintance and discuss his qualifications before the arrival of the other guests Griselda was surprised to find that he looked so young but she told Florinda her younger sister when they had retired for the night that he did not talk at all like a young man and she decided with the authority that seventeen has over sixteen that he was not at all nice although his eyes were lovely As usual sixteen implicitly acceded to the dictum of seventeen in such a matter and said that he certainly was not nice They then branched off on the relative merits of other clerical bachelors in the vicinity and both determined without any feeling of jealousy between them that a certain Rev Augustus Green was by many degrees the most estimable of the lot The gentleman in question had certainly much in his favour as having a comfortable allowance from his father he could devote the whole proceeds of his curacy to violet gloves and unexceptionable neck ties Having thus fixedly resolved that the new comer had nothing about him to shake the preeminence of the exalted Green the two girls went to sleep in each others arms contented with themselves and the world
Mrs Grantly at first sight came to much the same conclusion about her husbands favourite as her daughters had done though in seeking to measure his relative value she did not compare him to Mr Green indeed she made no comparison by name between him and any one else but she remarked to her husband that one persons swans were very often another persons geese thereby clearly showing that Mr Arabin had not yet proved his qualifications in swanhood to her satisfaction
Well Susan said he rather offended at hearing his friend spoken of so disrespectfully if you take Mr Arabin for a goose I cannot say that I think very highly of your discrimination
A goose No of course hes not a goose Ive no doubt hes a very clever man But youre so matteroffact archdeacon when it suits your purpose that one cant trust oneself to any facon de parler Ive no doubt Mr Arabin is a very valuable man—at Oxford and that hell be a good vicar at St Ewold All I mean is that having passed one evening with him I dont find him to be absolutely a paragon In the first place if I am not mistaken he is a little inclined to be conceited
Of all the men that I know intimately said the archdeacon Arabin is in my opinion the most free from any taint of selfconceit His fault is that hes too diffident
Perhaps so said the lady only I must own I did not find it out this evening
Nothing further was said about him Dr Grantly thought that his wife was abusing Mr Arabin merely because he had praised him and Mrs Grantly knew that it was useless arguing for or against any person in favour of or in opposition to whom the archdeacon had already pronounced a strong opinion
In truth they were both right Mr Arabin was a diffident man in social intercourse with those whom he did not intimately know when placed in situations which it was his business to fill and discussing matters with which it was his duty to be conversant Mr Arabin was from habit brazedfaced enough When standing on a platform in Exeter Hall no man would be less mazed than he by the eyes of the crowd before him for such was the work which his profession had called on him to perform but he shrank from a strong expression of opinion in general society and his doing so not uncommonly made it appear that he considered the company not worth the trouble of his energy He was averse to dictate when the place did not seem to him to justify dictation and as those subjects on which people wished to hear him speak were such as he was accustomed to treat with decision he generally shunned the traps there were laid to allure him into discussion and by doing so not unfrequently subjected himself to such charges as those brought against him by Mrs Grantly
Mr Arabin as he sat at his open window enjoying the delicious moonlight and gazing at the gray towers of the church which stood almost within the rectory grounds little dreamed that he was the subject of so many friendly or unfriendly criticisms Considering how much we are all given to discuss the characters of others and discuss them often not in the strictest spirit of charity it is singular how little we are inclined to think that others can speak illnaturedly of us and how angry and hurt we are when proof reaches us that they have done so It is hardly too much to say that we all of us occasionally speak of our dearest friends in a manner which those dearest friends would very little like to hear themselves mentioned and that we nevertheless expect that our dearest friends shall invariably speak of us as though they were blind to all our faults but keenly alive to every shade of our virtues
It did not occur to Mr Arabin that he was spoken of at all It seemed to him when he compared himself with his host that he was a person of so little consequence to any that he was worth no ones words or thoughts He was utterly alone in the world as regarded domestic ties and those inner familiar relations which are hardly possible between others than husbands and wives parents and children or brothers and sisters He had often discussed with himself the necessity of such bonds for a mans happiness in this world and had generally satisfied himself with the answer that happiness in this world was not a necessity Herein he deceived himself or rather tried to do so He like others yearned for the enjoyment of whatever he saw enjoyable and though he attempted with the modern stoicism of so many Christians to make himself believe that joy and sorrow were matters which here should be held as perfectly indifferent those things were not indifferent to him He was tired of his Oxford rooms and his college life He regarded the wife and children of his friend with something like envy he all but coveted the pleasant drawingroom with its pretty windows opening on to lawns and flowerbeds the apparel of the comfortable house and—above all—the air of home which encompassed all
It will be said that no time can have been fitted for such desires on his part as this of a living among fields and gardens of a house which a wife would grace It is true there was a difference between the opulence of Plumstead and the modest economy of St Ewold but surely Mr Arabin was not a man to sigh after wealth Of all men his friends would have unanimously declared he was the last to do so But how little our friends know us In his period of stoical rejection of this worlds happiness he had cast from him as utter dross all anxiety as to fortune He had as it were proclaimed himself to be indifferent to promotion and those who chiefly admired his talents and would mainly have exerted to secure them their deserved reward had taken him at his word And now if the truth must out he felt himself disappointed—disappointed not by them but by himself The daydream of his youth was over and at the age of forty he felt that he was not fit to work in the spirit of an apostle He had mistaken himself and learned his mistake when it was past remedy He had professed himself indifferent to mitres and diaconal residences to rich livings and pleasant glebes and now he had to own to himself that he was sighing for the good things of other men on whom in his pride he had ventured to look down
Not for wealth in its vulgar sense had he ever sighed not for the enjoyment of rich things had he ever longed but for the allotted share of worldly bliss which a wife and children and happy home could give him for that usual amount of comfort which he had ventured to reject as unnecessary for him he did now feel that he would have been wiser to search
He knew that his talents his position and his friends would have won for him promotion had he put himself in the way of winning it Instead of doing so he had allowed himself an income of some L 300 a year should he by marrying throw up his fellowship Such at the age of forty was the worldly result of labour which the world had chosen to regard as successful The world also thought that Mr Arabin was in his own estimation sufficiently paid Alas alas the world was mistaken and Mr Arabin was beginning to ascertain that such was the case
And here may I beg the reader not to be hard in the judgement upon this man Is not the state at which he has arrived the natural result of efforts to reach that which is not the condition of humanity Is not modern stoicism built though it be on Christianity as great an outrage on human nature as was the stoicism of the ancients The philosophy of Zeno was built on true laws but on true laws misunderstood and therefore misapplied It is the same with our Stoics here who would teach us that wealth and worldly comfort and happiness on earth are not worth the search Also for a doctrine which can find no believing pupils and no true teachers
The case of Mr Arabin was the more singular as he belonged to a branch of the Church of England well inclined to regard its temporalities with avowed favour and had habitually lived with men who were accustomed to much worldly comfort But such was his idiosyncrasy that these very facts had produced within him in early life a state of mind that was not natural to him He was content to be a High Churchman if he could be so on principles of his own and could strike out a course showing a marked difference from those with whom he consorted He was ready to be a partisan as long as he was allowed to have a course of action and of thought unlike that of his party His party had indulged him and he began to feel that his party was right and himself wrong but when such a conviction was too late to be of service to him He discovered when much was discovery was no longer serviceable that it would have been worth his while to have worked for the usual pay assigned to work in this world and have earned a wife and children with a carriage for them to sit in to have earned a pleasant diningroom in which his friends could drink his wine and the power of walking up in the high street of his country town with the knowledge that all its tradesmen would have gladly welcomed him within their doors Other men arrived at those convictions in their start of life and so worked up to them To him they had come when they were too late to be of use
It has been said that Mr Arabin was a man of pleasantry and it may be thought that such a state of mind as that described would be antagonistic to humour But surely such is not the case Wit is the outward mental casing of the man and has no more to do with the inner mind of thought and feelings than have the rich brocaded garments of the priest at the altar with the asceticism of the anchorite below them whose skin is tormented with sackcloth and whose body is half flayed with rods Nay will not such a one often rejoice more than any other in the rich show of outer apparel Will it not be food for his pride to feel that he groans inwardly while he shines outwardly So it is with the mental efforts which men make Those which they show forth daily to the world are often the opposites of the inner workings of the spirit
In the archdeacons drawingroom Mr Arabin had sparkled with his usual unaffected brilliancy but when he retired to his bedroom he sat there sad at his open window repining within himself that he also had no wife no bairns no soft award of lawn duly mown for him to be on no herd of attendant curates no bowings from the bankers clerks no rich rectory That apostleship that he had thought of had evaded his grasp and he was now only vicar of St Ewolds with a taste for a mitre Truly he had fallen between two stools
CHAPTER XXI
ST EWOLDS PARSONAGE
When Mr Harding and Mrs Bold reached the rectory on the following morning the archdeacon and his friend were at St Ewolds They had gone over that the new vicar might inspect his church and be introduced to the squire and were not expected back before dinner Mr Harding rambled out by himself and strolled as was his wont at Plumstead about the lawn and round the church and as he did so the two sisters naturally fell into conversation about Barchester
There was not much sisterly confidence between them Mrs Grantly was ten years older than Eleanor and had been married while Eleanor was yet a child They had never therefore poured into each others ears their hopes and loves and now that one was a wife and the other a widow it was not probable that they would begin to do so They lived too much asunder to be able to fall into that kind of intercourse which makes confidence between sisters almost a necessity and moreover that which is so easy at eighteen is often very difficult at twentyeight Mrs Grantly knew this and did not therefore expect confidence from her sister and yet she longed to ask her whether in real truth Mr Slope was agreeable to her
It was by no means difficult to turn the conversation to Mr Slope That gentleman had become so famous at Barchester had so much to do with all clergymen connected with the city and was so specially concerned in the affairs of Mr Harding that it would have been odd if Mr Hardings daughters had not talked about him Mrs Grantly was soon abusing him which she did with her whole heart and Mrs Bold was nearly as eager to defend him She positively disliked the man would have been delighted to learn that he had taken himself off so that she should never see him again had indeed almost a fear of him and yet she constantly found herself taking his part The abuse of other people and abuse of a nature that she felt to be unjust imposed that necessity on her and at last made Mr Slopes defence an habitual course of argument with her
From Mr Slope the conversation turned to the Stanhopes and Mrs Grantly was listening with some interest to Eleanors account of the family when it dropped out that Mr Slope was one of the party
What said the lady of the rectory was Mr Slope there too
Eleanor merely replied that such had been the case
Why Eleanor he must be very fond of you I think he seems to follow you everywhere
Even this did not open Eleanors eyes She merely laughed and said that she imagined Mr Slope found other attraction at Dr Stanhopes And so they parted Mrs Grantly felt quite convinced that the odious match would take place and Mrs Bold as convinced that that unfortunate chaplain disagreeable as he must be allowed to be was more sinned against than sinning
The archdeacon of course heard before dinner that Eleanor had remained the day before at Barchester with the view of meeting Mr Slope and that she had so met him He remembered how she had positively stated that there were to be guests at the Stanhopes and he did not hesitate to accuse her of deceit Moreover the fact or rather the presumed fact of her being deceitful on such a matter spoke but too plainly in evidence against her as to her imputed crime of receiving Mr Slope as a lover
I am afraid that anything we can do will be too late said the archdeacon I own I am fairly surprised I never liked your sisters taste with regard to men but still I did not give her credit for—ugh
And so soon too said Mrs Grantly who thought more perhaps of her sisters indecorum in having a lover before she had put off her weeds than her bad taste in having such a lover as Mr Slope
Well my dear I shall be sorry to be harsh or to do anything that can hurt your father but positively neither that man nor his wife shall come within my doors
Mrs Grantly sighed and then attempted to console herself and her lord by remarking that after all the thing was not accomplished yet Now that Eleanor was at Plumstead much might be done to wean her from her fatal passion Poor Eleanor
The evening passed off without anything to make it remarkable Mr Arabin discussed the parish of St Ewold with the archdeacon and Mrs Grantly and Mr Harding who knew the parsonages of the parish joined in Eleanor also knew them but spoke little Mr Arabin did not apparently take much notice of her and she was not in a humour to receive at that time with any special grace any special favourite of her brotherinlaw Her first idea on reaching her bedroom was that a much more pleasant family party might be met at Dr Stanhopes than at the rectory She began to think that she was getting tired of clergymen and their respectable humdrum wearisome mode of living and that after all people in the outer world who had lived in Italy London or elsewhere need not necessarily be regarded as atrocious and abominable The Stanhopes she had thought were a giddy thoughtless extravagant set of people but she had seen nothing wrong about them and had on the other hand found that they thoroughly knew how to make their house agreeable It was a thousand pities she thought that the archdeacon should not have a little of the same savoir vivre Mr Arabin as we have said did not apparently take much notice of her but yet he did not go to bed without feeling that he had been in company with a very pretty woman and as is the case with most bachelors and some married men regarded the prospect of his months visit at Plumstead in a pleasanter light when he learnt that a very pretty woman was to share it with him
Before they all retired it was settled that the whole party should drive over on the following day to inspect the parsonage at St Ewold The three clergymen were to discuss dilapidations and the two ladies were to lend their assistance in suggesting such changes as might be necessary for a bachelors abode Accordingly soon after breakfast the carriage was at the door There was only room for four inside and the archdeacon got upon the box Eleanor found herself opposite to Mr Arabin and was therefore in a manner forced into conversation with him They were soon on comfortable terms together and had she thought about it she would have thought that in spite of his black cloth Mr Arabin would not have been a bad addition to the Stanhope family party
Now that the archdeacon was away they could all trifle Mr Harding began by telling them in the most innocent manner imaginable an old legend about Mr Arabins new parish There was he said in days of yore an illustrious priestess of St Ewold famed through the whole country for curing all manner of diseases She had a well as all priestesses have ever had which well was extant to this day and shared in the minds of many of the people the sanctity which belonged to the consecrated grounds of the parish church Mr Arabin declared that he should look on such tenets on the part of the parishioners as anything but orthodox And Mrs Grantly replied that she so entirely disagreed with him as to think that no parish was in a proper estate that had not its priestess as well as its priest The duties are never well done said she unless they are so divided
I suppose papa said Eleanor that in the oldest times the priestess bore all the sway herself Mr Arabin perhaps thinks that such might be too much the case now if a sacred lady were admitted within the parish
I think at any rate said he that it is safer to run no such risk No priestly pride has ever exceeded that of sacerdotal females A very lowly curate I might perhaps essay to rule but a curatess would be sure to get the better of me
There are certainly examples of such accidents happening said Mrs Grantly They do say that there is a priestess at Barchester who is very imperious in all things touching the altar Perhaps the fear of such a fate as that is before your eyes
When they were joined by the archdeacon on the gravel before the vicarage they descended again to grave dullness Not that Archdeacon Grantly was a dull man but his frolic humours were of a cumbrous kind and his wit when he was witty did not generally extend itself to his auditory On the present occasion he was soon making speeches about wounded roofs and walls which he declared to be in want of some surgeons art There was not a partition that he did not tap nor a block of chimneys that he did not narrowly examine all waterpipes flues cisterns and sewers underwent his examination and he even descended in the care of his friend so far as to bore sundry boards in the floors with a bradawl
Mr Arabin accompanied him through the rooms trying to look wise in such domestic matters and the other three also followed Mrs Grantly showed that she herself had not been priestess of a parish twenty years for nothing and examined the bells and window panes in a very knowing way
You will at any rate have a beautiful prospect out of your own window if this is to be your private sanctum said Eleanor She was standing at the lattice of a little room up stairs from which the view certainly was very lovely It was from the back of the vicarage and there was nothing to interrupt the eye between the house and the glorious gray pile of the cathedral The intermediate ground however was beautifully studded with timber In the immediate foreground ran the little river which afterwards skirted the city and just to the right of the cathedral the pointed gables and chimneys of Hirams Hospital peeped out of the elms which encompass it
Yes said he joining her I shall have a beautifully complete view of my adversaries I shall sit down before the hostile town and fire away at them at a very pleasant distance I shall just be able to lodge a shot in the hospital should the enemy ever get possession of it and as for the palace I have it within full range
I never saw anything like you clergymen said Eleanor you are always thinking of fighting each other
Either that said he or else supporting each other The pity is that we cannot do the one without the other But are we not here to fight Is not ours a church militant What is all our work but fighting and hard fighting if it be well done
But not with each other
Thats as it may be The same complaint which you make of me for battling with another clergyman of our own church the Mahometan would make against me for battling with the error of a priest of Rome Yet surely you would not be inclined to say that I should be wrong to do battle with such as him A pagan too with his multiplicity of gods would think it equally odd that the Christian and the Mahometan should disagree
Ah But you wage your wars about trifles so bitterly
Wars about trifles said he are always bitter especially among neighbours When the differences are great and the parties comparative strangers men quarrel with courtesy What combatants are ever so eager as two brothers
But do not such contentions bring scandal on the church
More scandal would fall on the church if there were no such contentions We have but one way to avoid them—that of acknowledging a common head of our church whose word on all points of doctrine shall be authoritative Such a termination of our difficulties is alluring enough It has charms which are irresistible to many and all but irresistible I own to me
You speak now of the Church of Rome said Eleanor
No said he not necessarily the Church of Rome but of a church with a head Had it pleased God to vouchsafe to us such a church our path would have been easy But easy paths have not been thought good for us He paused and stood silent for a while thinking of the time when he had so nearly sacrificed all he had his powers of mind his free agency the fresh running waters of his minds fountain his very inner self for an easy path in which no fighting would be needed and then he continued What you say is partly true our contentions do bring on us some scandal The outer world though it constantly reviles us for our human infirmities and throws in our teeth the fact that being clergymen we are still no more then men demands of us that we should do our work with godlike perfection There is nothing godlike about us we differ from each other with the acerbity common to man—we allow differences on subjects of divine origin to produce among us antipathies and enmities which are anything but divine This is all true But what would you have in place of it There is no infallible head for a church on earth This dream of believing man has been tried and we see in Italy and in Spain what has become of it Grant that there are and have been no bickerings within the pale of the Popes Church Such an assumption would be utterly untrue but let us grant it and then let us say which church has incurred the heaviest scandals
There was a quiet earnestness about Mr Arabin as he half acknowledged and half defended himself from the charge brought against him which surprised Eleanor She had been used all her life to listen to clerical discussion but the points at issue between the disputants had so seldom been of more than temporal significance as to have left on her mind no feeling of reverence for such subjects There had always been a hard worldly leaven of the love either of income or power in the strains that she had heard there had been no panting for the truth no aspirations after religious purity It had always been taken for granted by those around her that they were indubitably right that there was no ground for doubt that the hard uphill work of ascertaining what the duty of a clergyman should be had been already accomplished in full and that what remained for an active militant parson to do was to hold his own against all comers Her father it is true was an exception to this but then he was so essentially nonmilitant in all things that she classed him in her own mind apart from all others She had never argued the matter within herself or considered whether this common tone was or was not faulty but she was sick of it without knowing that she was so And now she found to her surprise and not without a certain pleasurable excitement that this new comer among them spoke in a manner very different from that to which she was accustomed
It is so easy to condemn said he continuing the thread of his thoughts I know no life that must be so delicious as that of a writer for newspapers or a leading member of the opposition—to thunder forth accusations against men in power show up the worst side of every thing that is produced to pick holes in every coat to be indignant sarcastic jocose moral or supercilious to damn with faint praise or crush with open calumny What can be so easy as this when the critic has to be responsible for nothing You condemn what I do but put yourself in my position and do the reverse and then see if I cannot condemn you
Oh Mr Arabin I do not condemn you
Pardon me you do Mrs Bold—you as one of the world you are now the opposition member you are now composing your leading article and well and bitterly you do it Let dogs delight to bark and bite you fitly began with an elegant quotation but if we are to have a church at all in heavens name let the pastors who preside over it keep their hands from each others throats Lawyers can live without befouling each others names doctors do not fight duels Why is that clergymen alone should indulge themselves in such unrestrained liberty of abuse against each other and so you go on reviling us for our ungodly quarrels our sectarian propensities and scandalous differences It will however give you no trouble to write another article next week in which we or some of us shall be twitted with an unseemly apathy in matters of our vocation It will not fall on you to reconcile the discrepancy your readers will never ask you how the poor parson is to be urgent in season and out of season and yet never come in contact with men who think widely differently from him You when you condemn this foreign treaty or that official arrangement will have to incur no blame for the graver faults of any different measure It is so easy to condemn and so pleasant too for eulogy charms no listeners as detraction does
Eleanor only half followed him in his raillery but she caught his meaning I know I ought to apologise for presuming to criticise you she said but I was thinking with sorrow of the illwill that has lately come among us at Barchester and I spoke more freely than I should have done
Peace on earth and goodwill among men are like heaven promises for the future said he following rather his own thoughts than hers When that prophecy is accomplished there will no longer be any need for clergymen
Here they were interrupted by the archdeacon whose voice was heard from the cellar shouting to the vicar
Arabin Arabin—and then turning to his wife who was apparently at his elbow—where is he gone to This cellar is perfectly abominable It would be murder to put a bottle of wine into it till it has been roofed walled and floored How on earth old Goodenough ever got on with it I cannot guess But then Goodenough never had a glass of wine that any man could drink
What is it archdeacon said the vicar running down stairs and leaving Eleanor above to her meditations
This cellar must be roofed walled and floored repeated the archdeacon Now mind what I say and dont let the architect persuade you that it will do half of those fellows know nothing about wine This place as it is now would be damp and cold in winter and hot and muggy in summer I wouldnt give a straw for the best wine that ever was minted after it had lain here a couple of years
Mr Arabin assented and promised that the cellar should be reconstructed according to the archdeacons receipt
And Arabin look here was such an attempt at a kitchen grate ever seen
The grate is really very bad said Mrs Grantly I am sure the priestess wont approve of it when she is brought here to the scene of future duties Really Mr Arabin no priestess accustomed to such an excellent well as that above could put up with such a grate as this
If there must be a priestess at St Ewolds at all Mrs Grantly I think we shall leave her to her well and not call down her divine wrath on any of the imperfections rising from our human poverty However I own I am amenable to the attractions of a wellcooked dinner and the grate shall certainly be changed
By this time the archdeacon had again ascended and was now in the diningroom Arabin said he speaking in his usual loud clear voice and with that tone of dictation which was so common to him you must positively alter this diningroom that is remodel it altogether look here it is just sixteen feet by fifteen did anybody ever hear of a diningroom of such proportions and the archdeacon stepped the room longways and crossways with ponderous steps as though a certain amount of ecclesiastical dignity could be imparted even to such an occupation as that by the manner of doing it Barely sixteen you may call it a square
It would do very well for a round table suggested the exwarden
Now there was something peculiarly unorthodox in the archdeacons estimation in the idea of a round table He had always been accustomed to a goodly board of decent length comfortably elongating itself according to the number of guests nearly black with perpetual rubbing and as bright as a mirror Now round dinner tables are generally of oak or else of such new construction as not to have acquired the peculiar hue which was so pleasing to him He connected them with what he called the nasty new fangled method of leaving cloth on the table as though to warn people that they were not to sit long In his eyes there was something democratic and parvenu in a round table He imagined that dissenters and calicoprinters chiefly used them and perhaps a few literary lions more conspicuous for their wit than their gentility He was a little flurried at the idea of such an article being introduced into the diocese by a protege of his own and at the instigation of his fatherinlaw
A round dinnertable said he with some heat is the most abominable article of furniture that ever was invented I hope that Arabin has more taste than to allow such a thing in his house
Poor Mr Harding felt himself completely snubbed and of course said nothing further but Mr Arabin who had yielded submissively in the small matters of the cellar and kitchen grate found himself obliged to oppose reforms which might be of a nature too expensive for his pocket
But it seems to me archdeacon that I cant very well lengthen the room without pulling down the wall and if I pull down the wall I must build it up again then if I throw out a bow on this side I must do the same on the other then if I do it for the ground floor I must carry it up to the floor above That will be putting a new front to the house and will cost I suppose a couple of hundred pounds The ecclesiastical commissioners will hardly assist me when they hear that my grievance consists in having a diningroom only sixteen feet long
The archdeacon proceeded to explain that nothing would be easier than adding six feet to the front of the diningroom without touching any other of the house Such irregularities of construction in small country houses were he said rather graceful than otherwise and he offered to pay for the whole thing out of his own pocket if it cost more than forty pounds Mr Arabin however was firm and although the archdeacon fussed and fumed about it would not give way
Forty pounds he said was a matter of serious moment to him and his friends if under such circumstances they would be goodnatured enough to come to him at all must put up with the misery of a square room He was willing to compromise matters by disclaiming any intention of having a round table
But said Mrs Grantly what if the priestess insists on have both the rooms enlarged
The priestess in that case must do it for herself Mrs Grantly
I have no doubt she will be well able to do so replied the lady to do that and many more wonderful things I am quite sure that the priestess of St Ewold when she does come wont come emptyhanded
Mr Arabin however did not appear well inclined to enter into speculative expenses on such a chance as this and therefore any material alterations in the house the cost of which could not fairly be made to lie at the door either of the ecclesiastical commission or of the estate of the late incumbent were tabooed With this essential exception the archdeacon ordered suggested and carried all points before him in a manner very much to his own satisfaction A close observer had there been one there might have seen that his wife had been quite as useful in the matter as himself No one knew better than Mrs Grantly the appurtenances necessary to a comfortable house She did not however think it necessary to lay claim to any of the glory which her lord and master was so ready to appropriate as his own
Having gone through their work effectively and systematically the party returned to Plumstead well satisfied with their expedition
CHAPTER XXII
THE THORNES OF ULLATHORNE
On the following Sunday Mr Arabin was to read himself in at his new church It was agreed at the rectory that the archdeacon should go over with him and assist at the readingdesk and that Mr Harding should take the archdeacons duty at Plumstead Church Mrs Grantly had her school and her buns to attend to and professed that she could not be spared but Mrs Bold was to accompany them It was further agreed also that they would lunch at the squires house and return home after the afternoon service
Wilfred Thorne Esq of Ullathorne was the squire of St Ewolds or rather the squire of Ullathorne for the domain of the modern landlord was of wider notoriety than the fame of the ancient saint He was a fair specimen of what that race has come to in our days which a century ago was as we are told fairly represented by Squire Western If that representation be a true one few classes of men can have made faster strides in improvement Mr Thorne however was a man possessed of quite a sufficient number of foibles to lay him open to much ridicule He was still a bachelor being about fifty and was not a little proud of his person When living at home at Ullathorne there was not much room for such pride and there therefore he always looked like a gentleman and like that which he certainly was the first man in his parish But during the month or six weeks which he annually spent in London he tried so hard to look like a great man there also which he certainly was not that he was put down as a fool by many at his club He was a man of considerable literary attainment in a certain way and on certain subjects His favourite authors were Montaigne and Burton and he knew more perhaps than any other man in his own county and the next to it of the English essayists of the two last centuries He possessed complete sets of the Idler the Spectator the Tatler the Guardian and the Rambler and would discourse by hours together on the superiority of such publications to anything which has since been produced in our Edinburghs and Quarterlies He was a great proficient in all questions of genealogy and knew enough of almost every gentlemans family in England to say of what blood and lineage were descended all those who had any claim to be considered as possessors of any such luxuries For blood and lineage he himself had a must profound respect He counted back his own ancestors to some period long antecedent to the Conquest and could tell you if you would listen to him how it had come to pass that they like Cedric the Saxon had been permitted to hold their own among the Norman barons It was not according to his showing on account of any weak complaisance on the part of his family towards their Norman neighbours Some Ealfried of Ullathorne once fortified his own castle and held out not only that but the then existing cathedral of Barchester also against one Godfrey de Burgh in the time of King John and Mr Thorne possessed the whole history of the siege written on vellum and illuminated in a most costly manner It little signified that no one could read the writing as had that been possible no one could have understood the language Mr Thorne could however give you all the particulars in good English and had no objection to do so
It would be unjust to say that he looked down in men whose families were of recent date He did not do so He frequently consorted with such and had chosen many of his friends from among them But he looked on them as great millionaires are apt to look on those who have small incomes as men who have Sophocles at their fingers ends regard those who know nothing of Greek They might doubtless be good sort of people entitled to much praise for virtue very admirable for talent highly respectable in every way but they were without the one great good gift Such was Mr Thornes way of thinking on this matter nothing could atone for the loss of good blood nothing could neutralise its good effects Few indeed were now possessed of it but the possession was on that account the more precious It was very pleasant to hear Mr Thorne descant on this matter Were you in your ignorance to surmise that such a one was of a good family because the head of his family was a baronet of an old date he would open his eyes with a delightful look of affected surprise and modestly remind you that baronetcies only dated from James I He would gently sigh if you spoke of the blood of the Fitzgeralds and De Burghs would hardly allow the claims of the Howards and Lowthers and has before now alluded to the Talbots as a family who had hardly yet achieved the full honours of a pedigree
In speaking once of a wide spread race whose name had received the honours of three coronets scions from which sat for various constituencies some one of whose members had been in almost every cabinet formed during this present century a brilliant race such as there are few in England Mr Thorne called them all dirt He had not intended any disrespect to these men He admired them in many senses and allowed them their privileges without envy He had merely meant to express his feeling that the streams which ran through their not veins were yet purified by time to that perfection had not become so genuine an ichor as to be worthy of being called blood in the genealogical sense
When Mr Arabin was first introduced to him Mr Thorne had immediately suggested that he was one of the Arabins of Uphill Stanton Mr Arabin replied that he was a very distant relative of the family alluded to To this Mr Thorne surmised that the relationship could not be very distant Mr Arabin assured him that it was so distant that the families knew nothing of each other Mr Thorne laughed his gentle laugh at this and told Mr Arabin that there was not existing no branch of his family separated from the parent stock at an earlier date than the reign of Elizabeth and that therefore Mr Arabin could not call himself distant Mr Arabin himself was quite clearly an Arabin of Uphill Stanton
But said the vicar Uphill Stanton has been sold to the De
Greys and has been in their hands for the last fifty years
And when it has been there one hundred and fifty if it unluckily remain there so long said Mr Thorne your descendants will not be a whit the less entitled to describe themselves as being of the family of Uphill Stanton Thank God no De Grey can buy that—and thank God—no Arabin and no Thorne can sell it
In politics Mr Thorne was an unflinching conservative He looked on those fiftythree Trojans who as Mr Dod tell us censured free trade in November 1852 as the only patriots left among the public men of England When that terrible crisis of free trade had arrived when the repeal of the corn laws was carried by those very men whom Mr Thorne had hitherto regarded as the only possible saviours of his country he was for a time paralysed His country was lost but that was comparatively a small thing Other countries had flourished and fallen and the human race still went on improving under Gods providence But now all trust in human faith must for ever be at an end Not only must ruin come but it must come through the apostasy of those who had been regarded as the truest of true believers Politics in England as a pursuit for gentlemen must be at an end Had Mr Thorne been trodden under foot by a Whig he could have borne it as a Tory and a martyr but to be so utterly thrown over and deceived by those he had so earnestly supported so thoroughly trusted was more than he could endure and live He therefore ceased to live as a politician and refused to hold any converse with the world at large on the state of the country
Such were Mr Thornes impressions for the first two or three years after Sir Robert Peels apostasy but by degrees his temper as did that of others cooled down He began once more to move about to frequent the bench and the market and to be seen at dinners shoulder to shoulder with some of those who had so cruelly betrayed him It was a necessity for him to live and that plan of his for avoiding the world did not answer He however had others around him who still maintained the same staunch principles of protection—men like himself who were too true to flinch at the cry of a mob—had their own way of consoling themselves They were and felt themselves to be the only true depositories left of certain Eleusinian mysteries of certain deep and wondrous services of worship by which alone the gods could be rightly approached To them and them only was it now given to know these things and to perpetuate them if that might still be done by the careful and secret education of their children
We have read how private and peculiar forms of worship have been carried on from age to age in families which to the outer world have apparently adhered to the service of some ordinary church And so by degrees it was with Mr Thorne He learnt at length to listen calmly while protection was talked of as a thing dead although he knew within himself that it was still quick with a mystic life Nor was he without a certain pleasure that such knowledge though given to him should be debarred from the multitude He became accustomed to hear even among country gentlemen that free trade was after all not so bad and to bear this without dispute although conscious within himself that everything good in England had gone with his old palladium He had within him something of the feeling of Cato who gloried that he could kill himself because Romans were no longer worthy of their name Mr Thorne had no thought of killing himself being a Christian and still possessing his L 4000 a year but the feeling was not on that account the less comfortable
Mr Thorne was a sportsman and had been active though not outrageous in his sports Previous to the great downfall of politics in his country he had supported the hunt by every means in his power He had preserved game till no goose or turkey could show a tail in the parish of St Ewolds He had planted gorse covers with more care than oaks and larches He had been more anxious for the comfort of his foxes than of his ewes and lambs No meet had been more popular than Ullathorne no mans stables had been more liberally open to the horses of distant men than Mr Thornes no man had said more written more or done more to keep the club up The theory of protection could expand itself so thoroughly in the practices of the country hunt But the great ruin came when the noble master of the Barchester hounds supported the recreant minister in the House of Lords and basely surrendered his truth his manhood his friends and his honour for the hope of a garter then Mr Thorne gave up the hunt He did not cut his covers for that would not have been the act of a gentleman He did not kill his foxes for that according to his light would have been murder He did not say that his covers should not be drawn or his earths stopped for that would have been illegal according to the bylaws prevailing among country gentlemen But he absented himself from home on the occasions of every meet at Ullathorne left the covers to their fate and could not be persuaded to take his pink coat out of the press or his hunters out of his stable This lasted for two years and then by degrees he came round He first appeared at a neighbouring meet on a pony dressed in his shooting coat as though he had trotted in by accident then he walked up one morning on foot to see his favourite gorse drawn and when his groom brought his mare out by chance he did not refuse to mount her He was next persuaded by one of the immortal fiftythree to bring his hunting materials over to the other side of the county and take a fortnight with the hounds there and so gradually he returned to his old life But in hunting as in other things he was only supported by the inward feeling of mystic superiority to those with whom he shared the common breath of outer life
Mr Thorne did not live in solitude at Ullathorne He had a sister who was ten years older than himself and who participated in his prejudices and feelings so strongly that she was a living caricature of all his foibles She would not open a modern quarterly did not choose to see a magazine in her drawingroom and would not have polluted her fingers with a shred of The Times for any consideration She spoke of Addison Swift and Steele as though they were still living regarded De Foe as the best known novelist of his country and thought of Fielding as a young but meritorious novice in the fields of romance In poetry she was familiar with then names as late as Dryden and had once been seduced into reading the Rape of the Lock but she regarded Spenser as the purest type of her countrys literature in this line Genealogy was her favourite insanity Those things which are the pride of most genealogists were to her contemptible Arms and mottoes set her beside herself Ealfried of Ullathorne had wanted no motto to assist him in cleaving to the brisket Geoffrey De Burgh and Ealfrieds great grandfather the gigantic Ullafrid had required no other arms than those which nature gave him to hurl from the top of his own castle a cousin of the base invading Norman To her all modern English names were equally insignificant Hengist Horsa and such like had for her the only true savour of nobility She was not contented unless she could go beyond the Saxons and would certainly have christened her children had she had children by the names of the ancient Britons In some respects she was not unlike Scotts Ulrica and had she been given to cursing she would certainly have done so in the names of Mista Skogula and Zernebock Not having submitted to the embraces of any polluting Normans as poor Ulrica had done and having assisted no parricide the milk of human kindness was not curdled in her bosom She never cursed therefore but blessed rather This however she did in a strange uncouth Saxon manner that would have been unintelligible to any peasants but her own
As a politician Miss Thorne had been so thoroughly disgusted with public life by base deeds long antecedent to the Corn Law question that that had but little moved her In her estimation her brother had been a fast young man hurried away by a too ardent temperament into democratic tendencies Now happily he was brought to sounder views by seeing the iniquity of the world She had not yet reconciled herself to the Reform Bill and still groaned in spirit over the defalcations of the Duke as touching the Catholic Emancipation If asked whom she thought the Queen should take as her counsellor she would probably have named Lord Eldon and when reminded that that venerable man was no longer present in the flesh to assist us she would probably have answered with a sigh that none now could help us but the dead
In religion Miss Thorne was a pure Druidess We would not have it understood by that that she did actually in these latter days assist at any human sacrifices or that she was in fact hostile to the Church of Christ She had adopted the Christian religion as a milder form of the worship of her ancestors and always appealed to her doing so as evidence that she had no prejudices against reform when it could be shown that reform was salutary This reform was the most modern of any to which she had as yet acceded it being presumed that British ladies had given up their paint and taken to some sort of petticoats before the days of St Augustine That further feminine step in advance which combines paint and petticoats together had not found votary in Miss Thorne
But she was a Druidess in this that she regretted she knew not what in the usages and practices of her Church She sometimes talked and constantly thought of good things gone by though she had but the faintest idea of what those good things had been She imagined that a purity had existed which was now gone that a piety had adorned our pastors and a simple docility our people for which it may be feared history gave her but little true warrant She was accustomed to speak of Cranmer as though he had been the firmest and most simpleminded of martyrs and of Elizabeth as though the pure Protestant faith of her people had been the one anxiety of her life It would have been cruel to undeceive her had it been possible but it would have been impossible to make her believe that the one was a timeserving priest willing to go any length to keep his place and that the other was in heart a papist with this sole proviso that she should be her own pope
And so Miss Thorne went on sighing and regretting looking back to the divine right of kings as the ruling axiom of a golden age and cherishing low down in the bottom of her hearts of hearts a dear unmentioned wish for the restoration of some exiled Stuart Who would deny her the luxury of her sighs or the sweetness of her soft regrets
In her person and her dress she was perfect and well she knew her own perfection She was a small elegantly made old woman with a face from which the glow of her youth had not departed without leaving some streaks of a roseate hue She was proud of her colour proud of her grey hair which she wore in short crisp curls peering out all around her face from the dainty white cap To think of all the money that she spent in lace used to break the heart of poor Mrs Quiverful with her seven daughters She was proud of her teeth which were still white and numerous proud of her bright cheery eye proud of her short jaunty step and very proud of the neat precise small feet with which those steps were taken She was proud also ay very proud of the rich brocaded silk in which it was her custom to ruffle through her drawingroom
We know what was the custom of the lady of Branksome—
Nine and twenty knights of fame
Hung their shields in Branksome Hall
The lady of Ullathorne was not so martial in her habits but hardly less costly She might have boasted that nineandtwenty silken shirts might have been produced in her chamber each fit to stand alone The nineandtwenty shields of the Scottish heroes were less independent and hardly more potent to withstand any attack that might be made on them Miss Thorne when fully dressed might be said to have been armed capapie and she was always fully dressed as far as was ever known to mortal man
For all this rich attire Miss Thorne was not indebted to the generosity of her brother She had a very comfortable independence of her own which she divided among juvenile relatives the milliners and the poor giving much the largest share to the latter It may be imagined therefore that with all her little follies she was not unpopular All her follies have we believe been told Her virtues were too numerous to describe and not sufficiently interesting to deserve description
While we are on the subject of the Thornes one word must be said of the house they lived in It was not a large house nor a fine house nor perhaps to modern ideas a very commodious house but by those who love the peculiar colour and peculiar ornaments of genuine Tudor architecture it was considered a perfect gem We beg to own ourselves among the number and therefore take this opportunity to express our surprise that so little is known by English men and women of the beauties of English architecture The ruins of the Colosseum the Campanile at Florence St Marks Cologne the Bourse and Notre Dame are with our tourists as familiar as household words but they know nothing of the glories of Wiltshire Dorsetshire and Somersetshire Nay we much question whether many noted travellers many who have pitched their tents perhaps under Mount Sinai are not still ignorant that there are glories in Wiltshire Dorsetshire and Somersetshire We beg that they will go and see
Mr Thornes house was called Ullathorne Court and was properly so called for the house itself formed two sides of a quadrangle which was completed in the other two sides by a wall about twenty feet high This was built of cut stone rudely cut indeed and now much worn but of a beautiful rich tawny yellow colour the effect of that stonecrop of minute growth which it had taken three centuries to produce The top of this wall was ornamented by huge round stone balls of the same colour as the wall itself Entrance into the court was had through a pair of iron gates so massive that no one could comfortably open or close them consequently they were rarely disturbed From the gateway two paths led obliquely across the court that to the left reaching the halldoor which was in the corner made by the angle of the house and that to the right leading to the back entrance which was at the further end of the longer portion of the building
With those who are now adept at contriving house accommodation it will militate much against Ullathorne Court that no carriage could be brought to the halldoor If you enter Ullathorne at all you must do so fair reader on foot or at least in a bathchair No vehicle drawn by horses ever comes within that iron gate But this is nothing to the next horror that will encounter you On entering the front door which you do by no very grand portal you find yourself immediately in the diningroom What—no hall exclaims my luxurious friend accustomed to all the comfortable appurtenances of modern life Yes kind sir a noble hall if you will but observe it a true old English hall of excellent dimensions for a country gentlemans family but if you please no diningparlour
But Mr and Miss Thorne were proud of this peculiarity of their dwelling though the brother was once all but tempted by his friends to alter it They delighted in the knowledge that they like Cedric positively dined in their true hall even though they so dined teteatete But though they had never owned they had felt and endeavoured to remedy the discomfort of such an arrangement A huge screen partitioned off the front door and a portion of the hall and from the angle so screened off a second door led into a passage which ran along the larger side of the house next to the courtyard Either my reader or I must be a bad hand at topography if it be not clear that the great hall forms the groundfloor of the smaller portion of the mansion that which was to your left as you entered the iron gate and that it occupies the whole of this wing of the building It must be equally clear that it looks out on a trim mown lawn through three quadrangular windows with stone mullions each window divided into a larger portion at the bottom and a smaller portion at the top and each portion again divided into five by perpendicular stone supporters There may be windows which give a better light than such as those and it may be as my utilitarian friend observes that the giving of light is the desired object of a window I will not argue the point with him Indeed I cannot But I shall not the less die in the assured conviction that no sort of description of window is capable of imparting half as much happiness to mankind as that which has been adopted at Ullathorne Court What—not an oriel says Miss Diana de Midellage No Miss Diana not even an oriel beautiful as is an oriel window It has not about it so perfect a feeling of quiet English homely comfort Let oriel windows grace a college or the half public mansion of a potent peer but for the sitting room of quiet country ladies of ordinary homely folk nothing can equal the square mullioned windows of the Tudor architects
The hall was hung round with family female insipidities by Lely and unprepossessing male Thornes in red coats by Kneller each Thorne having been let into a panel in the wainscoting in the proper manner At the further end of the room was a huge fireplace which afforded much ground of difference between the brother and sister An antiquated grate that would hold about a hundred weight of coal had been stuck on the hearth by Mr Thornes father This hearth had of course been intended for the consumption of wood fagots and the iron dogs for the purpose were still standing though half buried in the masonry of the grate Miss Thorne was very anxious to revert to the dogs The dear good old creature was always to revert to anything and had she been systematically indulged would doubtless in time have reflected that fingers were made before forks and have reverted accordingly But in the affairs of the fireplace Mr Thorne would not revert Country gentlemen around him all had comfortable grates in their diningrooms He was not exactly the man to have suggested a modern usage but he was not so far prejudiced as to banish those which his father had prepared for his use Mr Thorne had indeed once suggested that with very little contrivance the front door might have been so altered as to open at least into the passage but on hearing this his sister Monica such was Miss Thornes name had been taken ill and had remained so for a week Before she came down stairs she received a pledge from her brother that the entrance should never be changed in her lifetime
At the end of the hall opposite to the fireplace a door led into the drawingroom which was of equal size and lighted with precisely similar windows But yet the aspect of the room was very different It was papered and the ceiling which in the hall showed the old rafters was whitened and finished with a modern cornice Miss Thornes drawingroom or as she always called it withdrawingroom was a beautiful apartment The windows opened on to the full extent of the lovely trim garden immediately before the windows were plots of flowers in stiff stately stubborn little beds each bed surrounded by a stone coping of its own; beyond there was a low parapet wall on which stood urns and images fawns nymphs satyrs and a whole tribe of Pans followers and then again beyond that a beautiful lawn sloped away to a sunk fence which divided the garden from the park Mr Thornes study was at the end of the drawingroom and beyond that were the kitchen and the offices Doors opened into both Miss Thornes withdrawingroom and Mr Thornes sanctum from the passage above alluded to which as it came to the latter room widened itself so as to make space for the huge black oak stairs which led to the upper region
Such was the interior of Ullathorne Court But having thus described it perhaps somewhat too tediously we beg to say that it is not the interior to which we wish to call the English tourists attention though we advise him to lose no legitimate opportunity of becoming acquainted with it in a friendly manner It is the outside of Ullathorne that is so lovely Let the tourist get admission at least into the garden and fling himself on that soft award just opposite to the exterior angle of the house He will there get the double frontage and enjoy that which is so lovely—the expanse of architectural beauty without the formal dullness of one long line
It is the colour of Ullathorne that is so remarkable It is all of that delicious tawny hue which no stone can give unless it has on it the vegetable richness of centuries Strike the wall with your hand and you will think that the stone has on it no covering but rub it carefully and you will find that the colour comes off upon your finger No colourist that ever yet worked from a palette has been able to come up to this rich colouring of years crowding themselves on years
Ullathorne is a high building for a country house for it possesses three stories and in each storey the windows are of the same sort as that described though varying in size and varying also in their lines athwart the house Those of the ground floor are all uniform in size and position But those above are irregular both in size and place and this irregularity gives a bizarre and not unpicturesque appearance to the building Along the top on every side runs a low parapet which nearly hides the roof and at the corners are more figures of fawns and satyrs
Such is Ullathorne House But we must say one word of the approach to it which shall include all the description which we mean to give of the church also The picturesque old church of St Ewolds stands immediately opposite to the iron gates which open into the court and is all but surrounded by the branches of lime trees which form the avenue leading up to the house from both sides This avenue is magnificent but it would lose much of its value in the eyes of many proprietors by the fact that the road through it is not private property It is a public lane between hedgerows with a broad grass margin on each side of the road from which the lime trees spring Ullathorne Court therefore does not stand absolutely surrounded by its own grounds though Mr Thorne is owner of all the adjacent land This however is the source of very little annoyance to him Men when they are acquiring property think much of such things but they who live where their ancestors have lived for years do not feel the misfortune It never occurred to either Mr or Miss Thorne that they were not sufficiently private because the world at large might if it so wished walk or drive by their iron gates That part of the world which availed itself of the privilege was however very small
Such a year or two since were the Thornes of Ullathorne Such we believe are the inhabitants of many an English country home May it be long before their number diminishes
CHAPTER XXIII
MR ARABIN READS HIMSELF IN AT ST EWOLDS
On the Sunday morning the archdeacon with his sisterinlaw and Mr Arabin drove over to Ullathorne as had been arranged On their way thither the new vicar declared himself to be considerably disturbed in his mind at the idea of thus facing his parishioners for the first time He had he said been always subject to mauvaise honte and an annoying degree of bashfulness which often unfitted him for any work of a novel description and now he felt this so strongly that he feared he should acquit himself badly in St Ewolds readingdesk He knew he said that those sharp little eyes of Miss Thorne would be on to him and that they would not approve All this the archdeacon greatly ridiculed He himself knew not and had never known what it was to be shy He could not conceive that Miss Thorne surrounded as she would be by the peasants of Ullathorne and a few of the poorer inhabitants of the suburbs of Barchester could in any way affect the composure of a man well accustomed to address the learned congregations of St Marys at Oxford and he laughed accordingly at the idea of Mr Arabins modesty
Thereupon Mr Arabin commenced to subtilise The change he said from St Marys to St Ewolds was quite as powerful on the spirits as would be that from St Ewolds to St Marys Would not a peer who by chance of fortune might suddenly be driven to herd among the navvies be as afraid of the jeers of his companions as would any navvy suddenly exalted to a seat among the peers Whereupon the archdeacon declared with a loud laugh that he would tell Miss Thorne that her new minister had likened her to a navvy Eleanor however pronounced such a conclusion unfair a comparison might be very just in its proportions which did not at all assimilate the things compared But Mr Arabin went in subtilising regarding neither the archdeacons raillery nor Eleanors defence A young lady he said would execute with most perfect selfpossession a difficult piece of music in a room crowded with strangers who would not be able to express herself in any intelligible language even on any ordinary subject and among her most intimate friends if she were required to do so standing on a box somewhat elevated among them It was all an affair of education and he at forty found it difficult to educate himself now
Eleanor dissented on the matter of the box and averred she could speak very well about dresses or babies or legs of mutton from any box provided it were big enough for her to stand upon without fear even though all her friends were listening to her The archdeacon was sure she would not be able to say a word but this proved nothing in favour of Mr Arabin Mr Arabin said that he would try the question out with Mrs Bold and get her on a box some day when the rectory might be full of visitors To this Eleanor assented making condition that the visitors should be of their own set and the archdeacon cogitated in his mind whether by such a condition it was intended that Mr Slope should be included resolving also that if so the trial should certainly never take place in the rectory drawingroom at Plumstead
And so arguing they drove up to the iron gates of Ullathorne
Court
Mr and Miss Thorne were standing ready dressed for church in the hall and greeted their clerical visitors with cordiality The archdeacon was an old favourite He was a clergyman of the old school and this recommended him to the lady He had always been an opponent of free trade as long as free trade was an open question and now that it was no longer so he being a clergyman had not been obliged like most of his lay Tory companions to read his recantation He could therefore be regarded as a supporter of the immaculate fiftythree and was on this account a favourite with Mr Thorne The little bell was tinkling and the rural population were standing about the lane leaning on the church stile and against the walls of the old court anxious to get a look at their new minister as he passed from the house to the rectory The archdeacons servant had already preceded them thither with the vestments
They all went together and when the ladies passed into the church the three gentlemen tarried a moment in the lane that Mr Thorne might name to the vicar with some kind of onesided introduction the most leading among his parishioners
Here are our churchwardens Mr Arabin Farmer Greenacre and Mr Stiles Mr Stiles has the mill as you go into Barchester and very good churchwardens they are
Not very severe I hope said Mr Arabin the two ecclesiastical officers touched their hats and each made a leg in the approved rural fashion assuring the vicar that they were glad to have the honour of seeing him and adding that the weather was very good for the harvest Mr Stiles being a man somewhat versed in town life had an impression of his own dignity and did not quite like leaving his pastor under the erroneous idea that he being a churchwarden kept the children in order during church time Twas thus he understood Mr Arabins allusion to his severity and hastened to put matters right by observing that Sexton Clodheave looked to the younguns and perhaps sometimes there maybe a thought too much stick going on during sermon Mr Arabins bright eye twinkled as he caught that of the archdeacon and he smiled to himself as he observed how ignorant his officers were of the nature of their authority and of the surveillance which it was their duty to keep even over himself
Mr Arabin read the lessons and preached It was enough to put a man a little out let him have been ever so used to pulpit reading to see the knowing way in which the farmers cocked their ears and set about a mental criticism as to whether their new minister did or did not fall short of the excellence of him who had lately departed from them A mental and silent criticism it was for the existing moment but soon to be made public among the elders of St Ewolds over the green graves of their children and forefathers The excellence however of poor old Mr Goodenough had not been wonderful and there were few there who did not deem that Mr Arabin did his work sufficiently well in spite of the slightly nervous affection which at first impeded him and which nearly drove the archdeacon beside himself
But the sermon was the thing to try the man It often surprises us that very young men can muster courage to preach for the first time to a strange congregation Men who are as yet little more than boys who have but just left what indeed we may not call a school but a seminary intended for their tuition as scholars whose thoughts have been mostly of boating cricketing and wine parties ascend a rostrum high above the heads of the submissive crowd not that they may read Gods word to those below but that they may preach their own word for the edification of their hearers It seems strange to us that they are not stricken dumb by the new and awful solemnity of their position How am I just turned twentythree who have never yet passed then thoughtful days since the power of thought first came to me how am I to instruct these grey beards who with the weary thinking of so many years have approached so near the grave Can I teach them their duty Can I explain to them that which I so imperfectly understand that which years of study may have made so plain to them Has my newly acquired privileges as one of Gods ministers imparted to me as yet any fitness for the wonderful work of a preacher
It must be supposed that such ideas do occur to young clergymen and yet they overcome apparently with ease this difficulty which to us appears to be all but insurmountable We have never been subjected in the way of ordination to the power of a bishops hands It may be that there is in them something that sustains the spirit and banishes the natural modesty of youth But for ourselves we must own that the deep affection which Dominie Sampson felt for his young pupils has not more endeared him to us than the bashful spirit which sent him mute and inglorious from the pulpit when he rose there with the futile attempt to preach Gods gospel
There is a rule in our church which forbids the younger order of our clergymen to perform a certain portion of the service The absolution must be read by a minister in priests orders If there be no such minister present the congregation can have the benefit of no absolution but that which each may succeed in administering to himself The rule may be a good one though the necessity for it hardly comes home to the general understanding But this forbearance on the part of youth would be much more appreciated if it were extended likewise to sermons The only danger would be that the congregation would be too anxious to prevent their young clergymen from advancing themselves to the ranks of the ministry Clergymen who could not preach would be such blessings that they would be bribed to adhere to their incompetence
Mr Arabin however had not the modesty of youth to impede him and he succeeded with his sermon even better than with the lessons He took for his text two verses out of the second epistle of St John Whosoever trangresseth and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ hath not God He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ he hath both the Father and Son If there come any unto you and bring you not this doctrine receive him not into your house neither bid him God speed He told them that the house of theirs to which he alluded was this their church in which he now addressed them for the first time that their most welcome and proper manner of bidding him God speed would be their patient obedience to this teaching of the gospel but that he could put forward no claim to such conduct on their part unless he taught them the great Christian doctrine of works and faith combined On this he enlarged but not very amply and after twenty minutes succeeded in sending his new friends home to their baked mutton and pudding well pleased with their new minister
Then came the lunch at Ullathorne As soon as they were in the hall Miss Thorne took Mr Arabins hand and assured him that she received him into her house into the temple she said in which she worshipped and bade him God speed with all her heart Mr Arabin was touched and squeezed the spinsters hand without uttering a word in reply Then Mr Thorne expressed a hope that Mr Arabin found the church easy to fill and Mr Arabin having replied that he had no doubt he should do so as soon as he had learnt to pitch his voice to the building they all sat down to the good things before them
Miss Thorne took special care of Mrs Bold Eleanor still wore her widows weeds and therefore had about her that air of grave and sad maternity which is the lot of recent widows This opened the soft heart of Miss Thorne and made her look on her young guest as though too much could not be done for her She heaped chicken and ham upon her plate and poured out for her a full bumper of port wine When Eleanor who was not sorry to get it had drunk a little of it Miss Thorne at once essayed to fill it again To this Eleanor objected but in vain Miss Thorne winked and nodded and whispered saying that it was the proper thing and must be done and that she knew all about it and so she desired Mrs Bold to drink it up and mind any body
It is your duty you know to support yourself she said into the ear of the young mother theres more than yourself depending on it and thus she coshered up Eleanor with cold fowl and port wine How it is that poor mens wives who have no cold fowl and port wine on which to be coshered up nurse their children without difficulty whereas the wives of rich men who eat and drink everything that is good cannot do so we will for the present leave to the doctors and mothers to settle between them
And then Miss Thorne was great about teeth Little Johnny Bold had been troubled for the last few days with his first incipient masticator and with that freemasonry which exists between ladies Miss Thorne became aware of the fact before Eleanor had half finished her wing The old lady prescribed at once a receipt which had been much in vogue in the young days of her grandmother and warned Eleanor with solemn voice against the fallacies of modern medicine
Take his coral my dear said she and rub it well with carrotjuice rub it till the juice dries on it and then give it to him to play with—
But he hasnt got a coral said Eleanor
Not got a coral said Miss Thorne with almost angry vehemence
Not got a coral—How can you expect that he should cut his teeth
Have you got Daffys Elixir
Eleanor explained that she had not It had not been ordered by Mr
Rerechild the Barchester doctor whom she employed and then the
young mother mentioned some shockingly modern succedaneum which Mr
Rerechilds new lights had taught him to recommend
Miss Thorne looked awfully severe Take care my dear said she that the man knows what he is about take care he doesnt destroy your little boy But—and her voice softened into sorrow as she said it and spoke more in pity than in anger—but I dont know who there is in Barchester now that you can trust Poor dear old Dr Bumpwell indeed—
Why Miss Thorne he died when I was a little girl
Yes my dear he did and an unfortunate day it was for Barchester As to those young men that have come up since Mr Rerechild by the by was quite as old as Miss Thorne herself one doesnt know where they came from or who they are or whether they know anything about their business or not
I think there are very clever men in Barchester said Eleanor
Perhaps there may be only I dont know them and its admitted on all sides that medical men arent now what they used to be They used to be talented observing educated men But now any whippersnapper out of an apothecarys shop can call himself a doctor I believe no kind of education is now thought necessary
Eleanor was herself the widow of a medical man and felt a little inclined to resent all these hard sayings But Miss Thorne was so essentially goodnatured that it was impossible to resent anything she said She therefore sipped her wine and finished her chicken
At any rate my dear dont forget the carrotjuice and by all means get him a coral at once My grandmother Thorne had the best teeth in the county and carried them to the grave with her at eighty I have heard her say it was all the carrotjuice She couldnt bear the Barchester doctors Even poor Dr Bumpwell didnt please her It clearly never occurred to Miss Thorne that some fifty years ago Dr Bumpwell was only a rising man and therefore as much in need of character in the eyes of the then ladies of Ullathorne as the present doctors were in her own
The archdeacon made a very good lunch and talked to his host about turnipdrillers and new machines for reaping while the host thinking it only polite to attend to a stranger and fearing that perhaps he might not care about turnip crops on a Sunday mooted all manner of ecclesiastical subjects
I never saw a heavier lot of wheat Thorne than youve got there in the field beyond the copse I suppose thats guano said the archdeacon
Yes guano I get it from Bristol myself Youll find you often have a tolerable congregation of Barchester people out here Mr Arabin They are very fond of St Ewolds particularly of an afternoon when the weather is not too hot for a walk
I am under an obligation to them for staying away today at any rate said the vicar The congregation can never be too small for a maiden sermon
I got a ton and a half at Bradleys in High Street said the archdeacon and it was a complete take in I dont believe there was five hundredweight of guano in it
That Bradley never has anything good said Miss Tborne who had just caught the name during her whisperings with Eleanor And such a nice shop as there used to be in that very house before he came Wilfred dont you remember what good things old Ambleoff used to have
There have been three men since Ambleoffs time said the archdeacon and each as bad as the other But who gets it for you at Bristol Thorne
I ran up myself this year and bought it out of the ship I am afraid as the evenings get shorter Mr Arabin youll find the reading desk too dark I must send a fellow with an axe and make him lop off some of those branches
Mr Arabin declared that the morning light at any rate was perfect and deprecated any interference with the lime trees And then they took a stroll out among the trim parterres and Mr Arabin explained to Mrs Bold the difference between a naiad and a dryad and dilated on vases and the shapes of urns Miss Thorne busied herself among the pansies and her brother finding it quite impracticable to give anything of a peculiarly Sunday tone to the conversation abandoned the attempt and had it out with the archdeacon about the Bristol guano
At three oclock they again went into church and now Mr Arabin read the service and the archdeacon preached Nearly the same congregation was present with some adventurous pedestrians from the city who had not thought the heat of the midday August sun too great to deter them The archdeacon took his text from the Epistle of Philemon I beseech thee for my son Onesimus whom I have begotten in my bonds From such a text it may be imagined the kind of sermon which Dr Grantly preached and on the whole it was neither dull nor bad nor out of place
He told them it had become his duty to look about for a pastor for them to supply the place of one who had been long among them and that in this manner he regarded as a son him whom he had selected as St Paul had regarded the young disciple whom he sent forth Then he took a little merit to himself for having studiously provided the best man he could without reference to patronage or favour but he did not say that the best man according to his views was he who was best able to subdue Mr Slope and make that gentlemans situation in Barchester too hot to be comfortable As to the bonds they had consisted in the exceeding struggle which he had made to get a good clergyman for them He deprecated any comparison between himself and St Paul but said that he was entitled to beseech them for their good will towards Mr Arabin in the same manner that the apostle had besought Philemon and his household with regard to Onesimus
The archdeacons sermon text blessing and all was concluded within the half hour Then they shook hands with their Ullathorne friends and returned to Plumstead Twas thus that Mr Arabin read himself in at St Ewolds
CHAPTER XXIV
MR SLOPES MANAGES MATTERS VERY CLEVERLY AT PUDDINGDALE
The next two weeks passed pleasantly enough at Plumstead The whole party there assembled seemed to get on well together Eleanor made the house agreeable and the archdeacon and Mrs Grantly seemed to have forgotten her injury as regarded Mr Slope Mr Harding had his violoncello and played to them while his daughters accompanied him Johnny Bold by the help either of Mr Rerechild or else by that of his coral and carrotjuice got through his teething troubles There had been gaieties too of all sorts They had dined at Ullathorne and the Thornes had dined at the rectory Eleanor had been duly put to stand on her box and in that position had found herself quite unable to express her opinion on the merits of flounces such having been the subject given to try her elocution Mr Arabin had of course been much in his own parish looking to the doings at his vicarage calling on his parishioners and taking on himself the duties of his new calling But still he had been every evening at Plumstead and Mrs Grantly was partly willing to agree with her husband that he was a pleasant inmate in a house
They had also been at a dinner party at Dr Stanhopes of which Mr Arabin had made one He also mothlike burnt his wings in the flames of the signoras candle Mrs Bold too had been there and had felt somewhat displeased with the taste want of taste she called it shown by Mr Arabin in paying so much attention to Madame Neroni It was as infallible that Madeline should displease and irritate the women as that she should charm and captivate the men The one result followed naturally on the other It was quite true that Mr Arabin had been charmed He thought her a very clever and a very handsome woman he thought also that her peculiar afflictions entitled her to the sympathy of all He had never he said met so much suffering joined to such perfect beauty and so clear a mind Twas thus he spoke of the signora coming home in the archdeacons carriage and Eleanor by no means liked to hear the praise It was however exceedingly unjust of her to be angry with Mr Arabin as she had herself spent a very pleasant evening with Bertie Stanhope who had taken her down to dinner and had not left her side for one moment after the gentlemen came out of the diningroom It was unfair that she should amuse herself with Bertie and yet begrudge her new friend his licence of amusing himself with Berties sister And yet she did so She was half angry with him in the carriage and said something about meretricious manners Mr Arabin did not understand the ways of women very well or else he might have flattered himself that Eleanor was in love with him
But Eleanor was not in love with him How many shades there are between love and indifference and how little the graduated scale is understood She had now been nearly three weeks in the same house with Mr Arabin and had received much of his attention and listened daily to his conversation He had usually devoted at least some portion of his evening to her exclusively At Dr Stanhopes he had devoted himself exclusively to another It does not require that a woman should be in love to be irritated at this it does not require that she should even acknowledge to herself that it was unpleasant to her Eleanor had no such selfknowledge She thought in her own heart it was only on Mr Arabins account that she regretted that he could condescend to be amused by the signora I thought he had more mind she said to herself as she sat watching her babys cradle on her return from the party After all I believe Mr Stanhope is the pleasanter man of the two Alas for the memory of poor John Bold Eleanor was not in love with Bertie Stanhope nor was she in love with Mr Arabin But her devotion to her late husband was fast fading when she could revolve in her mind over the cradle of his infant the faults and failings of other aspirants to her favour
Will any one blame my heroine for this Let him or her rather thank
God for all His goodness—for His mercy endureth for ever
Eleanor in truth was not in love neither was Mr Arabin Neither indeed was Bertie Stanhope though he had already found occasion to say nearly as much as that he was The widows cap had prevented him from making a positive declaration when otherwise he would have considered himself entitled to do so on a third or fourth interview It was after all but a small cap now and had but little of the weepingwillow left in its construction It is singular how these emblems of grief fade away by unseen gradations Each pretends to be the counterpart of the forerunner and yet the last little bit of crimped white crape that sits so jauntily on the back of the head is as dissimilar to the first huge mountain of woe which disfigured the face of the weeper as the state of the Hindoo is to the jointure of the English dowager
But let it be clearly understood that Eleanor was in love with no one and that no one was in love with Eleanor Under these circumstances her anger against Mr Arabin did not last long and before two days were over they were both as good friends as ever She could not but like him for every hour spent in his company was spent pleasantly And yet she could not quite like him for there was always apparent in his conversation a certain feeling on his part that he hardly thought it worth his while to be in earnest It was almost as though he were playing with a child She knew well enough that he was in truth a sober thoughtful man who in some matters and on some occasions could endure an agony of earnestness And yet to her he was always gently playful Could she have seen his brow once clouded she might have learnt to love him
So things went on at Plumstead and on the whole not unpleasantly till a huge storm darkened the horizon and came down upon the inhabitants of the rectory with all the fury of a waterspout It was astonishing how in a few minutes the whole face of the heavens was changed The party broke up from breakfast in perfect harmony but fierce passions had arisen before the evening which did not admit of their sitting at the same board for dinner To explain this it will be necessary to go back a little
It will be remembered that the bishop expressed to Mr Slope in his dressingroom his determination that Mr Quiverful should be confirmed in his appointment to the hospital and that his lordship requested Mr Slope to communicate this decision to the archdeacon It will also be remembered that the archdeacon had indignantly declined seeing Mr Slope and had instead written a strong letter to the bishop in which he all but demanded the situation of warden for Mr Harding To this letter the archdeacon received an immediate formal reply from Mr Slope in which it was stated that the bishop had received and would give his best consideration to the archdeacons letter
The archdeacon felt himself somewhat checkmated by this reply What could he do with a man who would neither see him nor argue with him by letter and who had undoubtedly the power of appointing any clergyman he pleased He had consulted with Mr Arabin who had suggested the propriety of calling in the aid of the master of Lazarus If said he you and Dr Gwynne formally declare your intention of waiting upon the bishop the bishop will not dare to refuse to see you and if two such men as you see him together you will probably not leave him without carrying your point
The archdeacon did not quite like admitting the necessity of his being backed by the master of Lazarus before he could obtain admission into the episcopal palace of Barchester but still he felt that the advice was good and he resolved to take it He wrote again to the bishop expressing a hope that nothing further would be done in the matter of the hospital till the consideration promised by his lordship had been given and then sent off a warm appeal to his friend the master imploring him to come to Plumstead and assist in driving the bishop into compliance The master had rejoined raising some difficulty but not declining and the archdeacon again pressed his point insisting on the necessity for immediate action Dr Gwynne unfortunately had the gout and could therefore name no immediate day but still agreed to come if it should be finally found necessary So the matter stood as regarded the party at Plumstead
But Mr Harding had another friend fighting the battle for him quite as powerful as the master of Lazarus and this was Mr Slope Though the bishop had so pertinaciously insisted on giving way to his wife in the matter of the hospital Mr Slope did not think it necessary to abandon the object He had he thought daily more and more reason to imagine that the widow would receive his overtures favourably and he could not but feel that Mr Harding at the hospital and placed there by his means would be more likely to receive him as a soninlaw than Mr Harding growling in opposition and disappointment under the archdeacons wing at Plumstead Moreover to give Mr Slope due credit he was actuated by greater motives even than these He wanted a wife and he wanted money but he wanted power more than either He had fully realised the fact that he must come to blows with Mrs Proudie He had no desire to remain in Barchester as her chaplain Sooner than do so he would risk the loss of his whole connection with the diocese What Was he to feel within him the possession of no ordinary talents was he to know himself to be courageous firm and in matters where his conscience did not interfere unscrupulous and yet be contented to be the working factotum of a womanprelate Mr Slope had higher ideas of his own destiny Either he or Mrs Proudie must go to the wall and now had come the time when he would try which it would be
The bishop had declared that Mr Quiverful should be the new warden As Mr Slope went down stairs prepared to see the archdeacon if necessary but fully satisfied that no such necessity would arise he declared to himself that Mr Harding should be warden With the object of carrying this point he rode over to Puddingdale and had a further interview with the worthy expectant of clerical good things Mr Quiverful was on the whole a worthy man The impossible task of bringing up as ladies and gentlemen fourteen children on an income which was insufficient to give them with decency the common necessities of life had had an effect upon him not beneficial either to his spirit or his keen sense of honour Who can boast that he would have supported such a burden with a different result Mr Quiverful was an honest pain staking drudging man anxious indeed for bread and meat anxious for means to quiet his butcher and cover with returning smiles the now sour countenance of the bakers wife but anxious also to be right with his own conscience He was not careful as another might be who sat on an easier worldly seat to stand well with those around him to shun a breath which might sully his name or a rumour which might affect his honour He could not afford such niceties of conduct such moral luxuries It must suffice for him to be ordinarily honest according the ordinary honesty of the worlds ways and to let mens tongues wag as they would
He had felt that his brother clergymen men whom he had known for the last twenty years looked coldly on him from the first moment that he had shown himself willing to sit at the feet of Mr Slope he had seen that their looks grew colder still when it became bruited about that he was to be the bishops new warden at Hirams hospital This was painful enough but it was the cross which he was doomed to bear He thought of his wife whose last new silk dress was six years in wear He thought of all his young flock whom he could hardly take to church with him on Sundays for there was not decent shoes and stockings for them all to wear He thought of the wellworn sleeves of his own black coat and of the stern face of the draper from whom he would fain ask for cloth to make another did he not know that the credit would be refused him Then he thought of the comfortable house in Barchester of the comfortable income of his boys sent to school of the girls with books in their hands instead of darning needles of his wifes face again covered with smiles and of his daily board again covered with plenty He thought of all these things and do thou also reader think of them and then wonder if thou canst that Mr Slope had appeared to him to possess all those good gifts which would grace a bishops chaplain How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings
Why moreover should the Barchester clergy have looked so coldly on Mr Quiverful Had they not all shown that they regarded with complacency the loaves and fishes of their mother church Had they not all by some hook or crook done better for themselves than he had done They were not burdened as he was burdened Dr Grantly had five children and nearly as many thousands a year on which to feed them It was very well for him to turn up his nose at a new bishop who could do nothing for him and a chaplain who was beneath his notice but it was cruel in a man so circumstanced to set the world against the father of fourteen children because he was anxious to obtain for them an honourable support He Mr Quiverful had not asked for the wardenship he had not even accepted it till he had been assured that Mr Harding had refused it How hard then that he should be blamed for doing that which not to have done would have argued a most insane imprudence
Thus in this matter of the hospital poor Mr Quiverful had his trials and he had also his consolations On the whole the consolations were the more vivid of the two The stern draper heard of the coming promotion and the wealth of his warehouse was at Mr Quiverfuls disposal Coming events cast their shadows before and the coming event of Mr Quiverfuls transference to Barchester produced a delicious shadow in the shape of a new outfit for Mrs Quiverful and her three elder daughters Such consolations come home to the heart of a man and quite home to the heart of a woman Whatever the husband might feel the wife cared nothing for the frowns of the dean archdeacon or prebendary To her the outsides and insides of her husband and fourteen children were everything In her bosom every other ambition had been swallowed up in that maternal ambition of seeing them and him and herself duly clad and properly fed It had come to that with her that life had now no other purpose She recked nothing of the imaginary rights of others She had no patience with her husband when he declared to her that he could not accept the hospital unless he knew that Mr Harding had refused it Her husband had no right to be Quixotic at the expense of fourteen children The narrow escape of throwing away his good fortune which her lord had had almost paralysed her Now indeed they had received the full promise not only from Mr Slope but also from Mrs Proudie Now indeed they might reckon with safety on their good fortune But what if it all had been lost What if her fourteen bairns had been resteeped to the hips in poverty by the morbid sentimentality of their father Mrs Quiverful was just at present a happy woman but yet it nearly took her breath away when she thought of the risk they had run
I dont know what your father means when he talks so much of what is due to Mr Harding she said to her eldest daughter Does he think that Mr Harding would give him L 450 out of fine feeling And what signifies it when he offends as long as he gets the place He does not expect anything better It passes me to think how your father can be so soft while everybody around him is so griping
This while the rest of the world was accusing Mr Quiverful of rapacity for promotion and disregard for his honour the inner world of his own household was falling foul of him with equal vehemence for his willingness to sacrifice their interest to a false feeling of sentimental pride It is astonishing how much difference the point of view makes in the aspect of all that we look at
Such was the feelings of the different members of the family at Puddingdale on the occasion of Mr Slopes second visit Mrs Quiverful as soon as she saw his horse coming up the avenue from the vicarage gate hastily packed up her huge basket of needlework and hurried herself and her daughter out of the room in which she was sitting with her husband Its Mr Slope she said Hes come to settle with you about the hospital I do hope we shall now be able to move at once And she hastened to bid the maid of all work to go to the door so that the welcome great man might not be kept waiting
Mr Slope thus found Mr Quiverful alone Mrs Quiverful went off to her kitchen and back settlements with anxious beating heart almost dreading that there might be some slip between the cup of her happiness and the lip of her fruition but yet comforting herself with the reflection that after what had taken place any such slip could hardly be possible
Mr Slope was all smiles as he shook his brother clergymans hand and said that he had ridden over because he thought it right at once to put Mr Quiverful in possession of the facts of the matter regarding the wardenship of the hospital As he spoke the poor expectant husband and father saw at a glance that his brilliant hopes were to be dashed to the ground and that his visitor was now there for the purpose of unsaying what on his former visit he had said There was something in the tone of the voice something in the glance of the eye which told the tale Mr Quiverful knew it all at once He maintained his selfpossession however smiled with a slight unmeaning smile and merely said that he was obliged to Mr Slope for the trouble he was taking
It has been a troublesome matter from first to last said Mr
Slope and the bishop has hardly known how to act Between
ourselves—but mind this of course must go no farther Mr
Quiverful
Mr Quiverful said of course that it should not The truth is that poor Mr Harding has hardly known his own mind You remember our last conversation no doubt
Mr Quiverful assured him that he remembered it very well indeed
You will remember that I told you that Mr Harding had refused to return to the hospital
Mr Quiverful declared that nothing could be more distinct in his memory
And acting on this refusal I suggested that you should take the hospital continued Mr Slope
I understood you to say that the bishop had authorised you to offer it to me
Did I Did I go so far as that Well perhaps it may be that in my anxiety on your behalf I did commit myself further than I should have done So far as my own memory serves me I dont think I did go quite so far as that But I own I was very anxious that you should get it and I may have said more than was quite prudent
But said Mr Quiverful in his deep anxiety to prove his case my wife received as distinct a promise from Mrs Proudie as one human being could give to another
Mr Slope smiled and gently shook his head He meant that smile for a pleasant smile but it was diabolical in the eyes of the man he was speaking to Mrs Proudie he said If we are to go to what passes between the ladies in these matters we shall really be in a nest of troubles from which we shall never extricate ourselves Mrs Proudie is a most excellent lady kindhearted charitable pious and in every way estimable But my dear Mr Quiverful the patronage of the diocese is not in her hands
Mr Quiverful for a moment sat panicstricken and silent Am I to understand then that I have received no promise he said as soon as he had sufficiently collected his thoughts
If you will allow me I will tell you exactly how the matter rests You certainly did receive a promise conditional on Mr Hardings refusal I am sure you will do me the justice to remember that you yourself declared that you could accept the appointment on no other condition than the knowledge that Mr Harding had declined it
Yes said Mr Quiverful I did say that certainly
Well it now appears that he did not refuse it
But surely you told me and repeated it more than once that he had done so in your hearing
So I understood him But it seems I was in error But dont for a moment Mr Quiverful suppose that I mean to throw you over No Having held out my hand to a man in your position with your large family and pressing claims I am not now going to draw it back again I only want you to act with me fairly and honestly
Whatever I do I shall endeavour at any rate to act fairly said the poor man feeling that he had to fall back for support on the spirit of martyrdom within him
I am sure you will said the other I am sure you have no wish to obtain possession of an income which belongs by all rights to another No man knows better than you do Mr Hardings history or can better appreciate his character Mr Harding is very desirous of returning to his old position and the bishop feels that he is at the present moment somewhat hampered though of course he is not bound by the conversation which took place on the matter between you and me
Well said Mr Quiverful dreadfully doubtful as to what his conduct under such circumstances should be and fruitlessly striving to harden his nerves with some of that instinct of selfpreservation which made his wife so bold
The wardenship of this little hospital is not the only thing in the bishops gift Mr Quiverful nor is it by many degrees the best And his lordship is not the man to forget any one whom he has once marked with approval If you would allow me to advise you as a friend—
Indeed I shall be grateful to you said the poor vicar of
Puddingdale—
I should advise you to withdraw from any opposition to Mr Hardings claims If you persist in your demand I do not think you will ultimately succeed Mr Harding has all but a positive right to the place But if you will allow me to inform his lordship that you decline to stand in Mr Hardings way I think I may promise you—though by the bye it must not be taken as a formal promise—that the bishop will not allow you to be a poorer man than you would have been had you become warden
Mr Quiverful sat in his arm chair silent gazing at vacancy What was he to say All this that came from Mr Slope was so true Mr Harding had a right to the hospital The bishop had a great many good things to give away Both the bishop and Mr Slope would be excellent friends and terrible enemies to a man in his position And then he had no proof of any promise he could not force the bishop to appoint him
Well Mr Quiverful what do you say about it
Oh of course whatever you think Mr Slope Its a great disappointment a very great disappointment I wont deny that I am a very poor man Mr Slope
In the end Mr Quiverful you will find that it will have been better for you
The interview ended in Mr Slope receiving a full renunciation from Mr Quiverful of any claim he might have to the appointment in question It was only given verbally and without witnesses but then the original promise was made in the same way
Mr Slope assured him that he should not be forgotten and then rode back to Barchester satisfied that he would now be able to mould the bishop to his wishes
CHAPTER XXV
FOURTEEN ARGUMENTS IN FAVOUR OF MR QUIVERFULS CLAIMS
We have most of us heard of the terrible anger of a lioness when surrounded by her cubs she guards her prey Few of us wish to disturb the mother of a litter of puppies when mouthing a bone in the midst of her young family Medea and her children are familiar to us and so is the grief of Constance Mrs Quiverful when she first heard from her husband the news which he had to impart felt within her bosom all the rage of a lioness the rapacity of the hound the fury of the tragic queen and the deep despair of a bereaved mother
Doubting but yet hardly fearing what might have been the tenor of Mr Slopes discourse she rushed back to her husband as soon as the front door was closed behind the visitor It was well for Mr Slope that he had so escaped—the anger of such a woman at such a moment would have cowed even him As a general rule it is highly desirable that ladies should keep their temper a woman when she storms always makes herself ugly and usually ridiculous also There is nothing so odious to man as a virago Though Theseus loved an Amazon he showed his love but roughly and from the time of Theseus downward no man ever wished to have his wife remarkable rather for forward prowess than retiring gentleness
Such may be laid down as a general rule and few women should allow themselves to deviate from it and then only on rare occasions But if there be a time when a woman may let her hair to the winds when she may loose her arms and scream out trumpettongued to the ears of men it is when nature calls out within her not for her own wants but for the wants of those whom her womb has borne whom her breasts have suckled for those who look to her for their daily bread as naturally as man looks to his Creator
There was nothing poetic in the nature of Mrs Quiverful She was neither a Medea nor a Constance When angry she spoke out her anger in plain words and in a tone which might have been modulated with advantage but she did so at any rate without affectation Now without knowing it she rose to a tragic vein
Well my dear we are not to have it Such were the words with which her ears were greeted when she entered the parlour still hot from the kitchen fire And the face of her husband spoke even more plainly than his words—Een such a man so faint so spiritless So dull so dead in look so woebegone Drew Priams curtain in the dead of night
What said she—and Mrs Siddons could not have put more passion into a single syllable—What Not have it Who says so And she sat opposite to her husband with her elbows on the table her hands clasped together and her coarse solid but once handsome face stretched over it towards him
She sat as silent as death while he told his story and very dreadful to him her silence was He told it very lamely and badly but still in such a manner that she soon understood the whole of it
And so you have resigned it said she
I have had no opportunity of accepting it he replied I had no witnesses to Mr Slopes offer even if that offer would bind the bishop It was better for me on the whole to keep on good terms with such men than to fight for what I should never get
Witnesses she screamed rising quickly to her feet and walking up and down the room Do clergymen require witnesses to their words He made the promise in the bishops name and if it is to be broken Ill know the reason why Did he not positively say that the bishop had sent him to offer you the place
He did my dear But that is now nothing to the purpose
It is everything to the purpose Mr Quiverful Witnesses indeed And then to talk of your honour being questioned because you wish to provide for fourteen children It is everything to the purpose and so they shall know if I scream it into their ears from the town cross of Barchester
You forget Letitia that the bishop has so many things in his gift We must wait a little longer That is all
Wait Shall we feed the children by waiting Will waiting put George and Tom and Sam out into the world Will it enable my poor girls to give up some of their drudgery Will waiting make Bessy and Jane fit even to be governesses Will waiting pay for the things we got in Barchester last week
It is all we can do my dear The disappointment is as much to me as to you and yet God knows I feel it more for your sake than my own
Mrs Quiverful was looking full into her husbands face and saw a small hot tear appear on each of those furrowed cheeks This was too much for her womans heart He also had risen and was standing with his back to the empty grate She rushed towards him and seizing him in her arms sobbed aloud upon his bosom
Yes you are too good too soft too yielding she said at last These men when they want you they use you like a catspaw and when they want you no longer they throw you aside like an old shoe This is twice they have treated you so
In one way this will be for the better argued he It will make the bishop feel that he is bound to do something for me
At any rate he shall hear of it said the lady again reverting to her more angry mood At any rate he shall hear of it and that loudly and so shall she She little knows Letitia Quiverful if she thinks I will sit down quietly with the loss after all that passed between us at the palace If theres any feeling within her Ill make her ashamed of herself—and she paced the room again stamping the floor as she went with her fat heavy foot
Good heavens What a heart she must have within her to treat in such a way as this the father of fourteen unprovided children
Mr Quiverful proceeded to explain that he didnt think that Mrs
Proudie had anything to do with it
Dont tell me said Mrs Quiverful I know more about it than that Doesnt all the world know that Mrs Proudie is bishop of Barchester and that Mr Slope is merely her creature Wasnt it she that made me the promise just as though the thing was in her own particular gift I tell you it was that woman who sent him over here today because for some reason of her own she wants to go back on her word
My dear youre wrong—
Now Q dont be so soft she continued Take my word for it the bishop knows no more about it than Jemima does Jemima was the twoyear old And if youll take my advice youll lose no time in going over and seeing him yourself
Soft however as Mr Quiverful might be he would not allow himself to be talked out of his opinion on this occasion and proceeded with much minuteness to explain to his wife the tone in which Mr Slope had spoken of Mrs Proudies interference in diocesan matters As he did so a new idea gradually instilled itself into the matrons head and a new course of action presented itself to her judgement What if after all Mrs Proudie knew nothing of this visit of Mr Slopes In that case might it not be possible that that lady would still be staunch to her in this matter still stand her friend and perhaps possibly carry her through in opposition to Mr Slope Mrs Quiverful said nothing as this vague hope occurred to her but listened with more than ordinary patience to what her husband had to say While he was still explaining that in all probability the world was wrong in its estimation of Mrs Proudies power and authority she had fully made up her mind as to her course of action She did not however proclaim her intention She shook her head continuously as he continued his narration and when he had completed she rose to go merely observing that it was cruel cruel treatment She then asked if he would mind waiting for a late dinner instead of dining at their usual hour of three and having received from him a concession on this point she proceeded to carry her purpose into execution
She determined that she would at once go to the palace that she would do so if possible before Mrs Proudie could have had an interview with Mr Slope and that she would be either submissive piteous and pathetic or indignant violent and exacting according to the manner in which she was received
She was quite confident in her own power Strengthened as she was by the pressing wants of fourteen children she felt that she could make her way through legions of episcopal servants and force herself if need be into the presence of the lady who had so wronged her She had no shame about it no mauvaise honte no dread of archdeacons She would as she declared to her husband make her wail heard in the marketplace if she did not get redress and justice It might be very well for an unmarried young curate to be shamefaced in such matters it might be all right that a smug rector really in want of nothing but still looking for better preferment should carry out his affairs decently under the rose But Mrs Quiverful with fourteen children had given over being shamefaced and in some things had given over being decent If it were intended that she should be ill used in the manner proposed by Mr Slope it should not be done under the rose All the world would know of it
In her present mood Mrs Quiverful was not over careful about her attire She tied her bonnet under her chin threw her shawl over her shoulders armed herself with the old family cotton umbrella and started for Barchester A journey to the palace was not quite so easy a thing for Mrs Quiverful as for our friend at Plumstead Plumstead is nine miles from Barchester and Puddingdale is but four But the archdeacon could order round his brougham and his hightrotting fast bay gelding would take him into the city within the hour There was no brougham in the coachhouse of Puddingdale Vicarage no bay horse in the stables There was no method of locomotion for its inhabitants but that which nature had assigned to man
Mrs Quiverful was a broad heavy woman not young nor given to walking In her kitchen and in the family dormitories she was active enough but her pace and gait were not adapted for the road A walk into Barchester and back in the middle of an August day would be to her a terrible task if not altogether impracticable There was living in the parish about half a mile from the vicarage on the road to the city a decent kindly farmer well to do as regards this world and so far mindful of the next that he attended his parish church with decent regularity To him Mrs Quiverful had before now appealed in some of her more pressing family troubles and had not appealed in vain At his door she now presented herself and having explained to his wife that most urgent business required her to go at once to Barchester begged that Farmer Subsoil would take her thither in his taxcart The farmer did not reject her plan and as soon as Prince could be got into his collar they started on their journey
Mrs Quiverful did not mention the purpose of her business nor did the farmer alloy his kindness by any unseemly questions She merely begged to be put down at the bridge going into the city and to be taken up again at the same place in the course of two hours The farmer promised to be punctual to his appointment and the lady supported by her umbrella took the short cut to the close and in a few minutes was at the bishops door
Hitherto she had felt no dread with regard to the coming interview She had felt nothing but an indignant longing to pour forth her claims and declare her wrongs if those claims were not fully admitted But now the difficulty of her situation touched her a little She had been at the palace once before but then she went to give grateful thanks Those who have thanks to return for favours received find easy admittance to the halls of the great Such is not always the case with men or even women who have favours to beg Still less easy is access for those who demand the fulfilment of promises already made
Mrs Quiverful had not been slow to learn the ways of the world She knew all this and she knew also that her cotton umbrella and all but ragged shawl would not command respect in the eyes of the palace servants If she were too humble she knew well that she would never succeed To overcome by imperious overbearing with such a shawl as hers upon her shoulders and such a bonnet on her head would have required a personal bearing very superior to that which nature had endowed her Of this also Mrs Quiverful was aware She must make it known she was the wife of a gentleman and a clergyman and must yet condescend to conciliate
The poor lady knew but one way to overcome these difficulties at the very threshold of her enterprise and to this she resorted Low as were the domestic funds at Puddingdale she still retained possession of a halfcrown and this she sacrificed to the avarice of Mrs Proudies metropolitan sesquipedalian servingman She was she said Mrs Quiverful of Puddingdale the wife of the Rev Mr Quiverful She wished to see Mrs Proudie It was indeed quite indispensible that she should see Mrs Proudie James Fitzplush looked worse than dubious did not know whether his lady were out or engaged or in her bedroom thought it most probable that she was subject to one of these or to some cause that would make her invisible but Mrs Quiverful could sit down in the waitingroom while inquiry was being made of Mrs Proudie
Look here man said Mrs Quiverful I must see her and she put her card and halfcrown—think of it my reader think of it her last halfcrown—into the mans hand and sat herself down on a chair in the waitingroom
Whether the bribe carried the day or whether the bishops wife really chose to see the vicars wife it boots not now to inquire The man returned and begging Mrs Quiverful to follow him ushered her into the presence of the mistress of the diocese
Mrs Quiverful at once saw that her patroness was in a smiling humour Triumph sat throned upon her brow and all the joys of dominion hovered about her curls Her lord had that morning contested with her a great point He had received an invitation to spend a couple of days with the archbishop His soul longed for the gratification Not a word however in his graces note alluded to the fact that he was a married man and if he went at all he must go alone This necessity would have presented an insurmountable bar to the visit or have militated against the pleasure had he been able to go without reference to Mrs Proudie But this he could not do He could not order his portmanteau to be packed and start with his own man merely telling the lady of his heart that he would probably be back on Saturday There are men—may we not rather say monsters—who do such things and there are wives—may we not rather say slaves—who put up with such usage But Dr and Mrs Proudie were not among the number
The bishop with some beating about the bush made the lady understand that he very much wished to go The lady without any beating about the bush made the bishop understand that she wouldnt hear of it It would be useless here to repeat the arguments that were used on each side and needless to record the result Those who are married will understand very well how the battle was lost and won and those who are single will never understand it till they learn the lesson which experience alone can give When Mrs Quiverful was shown into Mrs Proudies room that lady had only returned a few minutes from her lord But before she left him she had seen the answer to the archbishops note written and sealed No wonder that her face was wreathed with smiles as she received Mrs Quiverful
She instantly spoke of the subject which was so near the heart of her visitor Well Mrs Quiverful said she is it decided yet when you are to move to Barchester
That woman as she had an hour or two since been called became instantly reendowed with all the graces that can adorn a bishops wife Mrs Quiverful immediately saw that her business was to be piteous and that nothing was to be gained by indignation nothing indeed unless she could be indignant in company with her patroness
Oh Mrs Proudie she began I fear we are not to move to
Barchester at all
Why not said the lady sharply dropping at a moments notice her smiles and condescension and turning with her sharp quick way to business which she saw at a glance was important
And then Mrs Quiverful told her tale As she progressed in the history of her wrongs she perceived that the heavier she leant upon Mr Slope the blacker became Mrs Proudies brow but that such blackness was not injurious to her own cause When Mr Slope was at Puddingdale vicarage that morning she had regarded him as the creature of the ladybishop now she perceived that they were enemies She admitted her mistake to herself without any pain or humiliation She had but one feeling and that was confined to her family She cared little how she twisted and turned among these newcomers at the bishops palace as long as she could twist her husband into the wardens house She cared not which was her friend or which was her enemy if only she could get this preference which she so sorely wanted
She told her tale and Mrs Proudie listened to it almost in silence She told how Mr Slope had cozened her husband into resigning his claim and had declared that it was the bishops will that none but Mr Harding should be warden Mrs Proudies brow became blacker and blacker At last she started from her chair and begging Mrs Quiverful to sit and wait for her return marched out of the room
Oh Mrs Proudie its for fourteen children—for fourteen children Such was the burden that fell on her ear as she closed the door behind her
CHAPTER XXVI
MRS PROUDIE TAKES A FALL
It was hardly an hour since Mrs Proudie had left her husbands apartment victorious and yet so indomitable was her courage that she now returned thither panting for another combat She was greatly angry with what she thought was his duplicity He had so clearly given her a promise on this matter of the hospital He had been already so absolutely vanquished on that point Mrs Proudie began to feel that if every affair was to be thus discussed and battled about twice and even thrice the work of the diocese would be too much even for her
Without knocking at the door she walked quickly into her husbands room and found him seated at his office table with Mr Slope opposite to him Between his fingers was the very note which he had written to the archbishop in her presence—and it was open Yes he had absolutely violated the seal which had been made sacred by her approval They were sitting in deep conclave and it was too clear that the purport of the archbishops invitation had been absolutely canvassed again after it had been already debated and decided on in obedience to her behests Mr Slope rose from his chair and bowed slightly The two opposing spirits looked each other fully in the face and they knew that they were looking each at an enemy
What is this bishop about Mr Quiverful said she coming to the end of the table and standing there
Mr Slope did not allow the bishop to answer but replied himself I have been out to Puddingdale this morning maam and have seen Mr Quiverful Mr Quiverful has abandoned his claim to the hospital because he is now aware that Mr Harding is desirous to fill his old place Under these circumstances I have strongly advised his lordship to nominate Mr Harding
Mr Quiverful has not abandoned anything said the lady with a very imperious voice His lordships word has been pledged to him and it must be respected
The bishop still remained silent He was anxiously desirous of making his old enemy bite the dust beneath his feet His new ally had told him that nothing was more easy for him than to do so The ally was there now at his elbow to help him and yet his courage failed him It is so hard to conquer when the prestige of the former victories is all against one It is so hard for the cock who has once been beaten out of his yard to resume his courage and again take a proud place upon a dunghill
Perhaps I ought not to interfere said Mr Slope but yet—
Certainly you ought not said the infuriated dame
But yet continued Mr Slope not regarding the interruption I have thought it my imperative duty to recommend to the bishop not to slight Mr Hardings claims
Mr Harding should have known his own mind said the lady
If Mr Harding be not replaced at the hospital his lordship will have to encounter much ill will not only in the diocese but in the world at large Besides taking a higher ground his lordship as I understood feels it to be his duty to gratify in this matter so very worthy a man and so good a clergyman as Mr Harding
And what is to become of the Sabbathday school and of the Sunday services in the hospital said Mrs Proudie with something very nearly approaching to a sneer on her face
I understand that Mr Harding makes no objection to the Sabbathday school said Mr Slope And as to the hospital services that matter will be best discussed after his appointment If he has any personal objection then I fear the matter must rest
You have a very easy conscience in such matters Mr Slope said she
I should not have an easy conscience he rejoined but a conscience very far from being easy if anything said or done by me should lead the bishop to act unadvisedly on this matter It is clear that in the interview I had with Mr Harding I misunderstood him—
And it is equally clear that you have misunderstood Mr Quiverful said she not at the top of her wrath What business have you at all with these interviews Who desired you to go to Mr Quiverful this morning Who commissioned you to manage this affair Will you answer me sir—who sent you to Mr Quiverful this morning
There was a dead pause in the room Mr Slope had risen from his chair and was standing with his hand on the back of it looking at first very solemn and now very black Mrs Proudie was standing as she had at first placed herself at the end of the table and as she interrogated her foe she struck her hand upon it with almost more than feminine vigour The bishop was sitting in his easy chair twiddling his thumbs turning his eyes now to his wife and now to his chaplain as each took up the cudgels How comfortable it would be if they could fight it out between them without the necessity of any interference on his part fight it out so that one should kill the other utterly as far as the diocesan life was concerned so that he the bishop might know clearly by whom it behoved him to be led There would be the comfort of quiet in either case but if the bishop had a wish as to which might prove the victor that wish was certainly not antagonistic to Mr Slope
Better the devil you know than the devil you dont know is an old saying and perhaps a true one but the bishop had not yet realised the truth of it
Will you answer me sir she repeated Who instructed you to call on Mr Quiverful this morning There was another pause Do you intend to answer me sir
I think Mrs Proudie that under all the circumstances it will be better for me not to answer such a question said Mr Slope Mr Slope had many tones in his voice all duly under his command among them was a sanctified low tone and a sanctified loud tone and he now used the former
Did anyone send you sir
Mrs Proudie said Mr Slope I am quite aware how much I owe to your kindness I am aware also what is due by courtesy from a gentleman to a lady But there are higher considerations than either of those and I hope I shall be forgiven if I now allow myself to be actuated solely by them My duty in this matter is to his lordship and I can admit of no questioning but from him He has approved of what I have done and you must excuse me if I say that having that approval and my own I want none other
What horrid words were these which greeted the ear of Mrs Proudie The matter was indeed too clear There was premeditated mutiny in the camp Not only had illconditioned minds become insubordinate by the fruition of a little power The bishop had not yet been twelve months in this chair and rebellion had already reared her hideous head within the palace Anarchy and misrule would quickly follow unless she took immediate and strong measures to put down the conspiracy which she had detected
Mr Slope she said with slow and dignified voice differing much from that which she had hitherto used Mr Slope I will trouble you if you please to leave the apartment I wish to speak to my lord alone
Mr Slope also felt that everything depended on the present interview Should the bishop now be repetticoated his thraldom would be complete and for ever The present moment was peculiarly propitious for rebellion The bishop had clearly committed himself by breaking the seal of the answer to the archbishop he had therefore fear to influence him Mr Slope had told him that no consideration ought to induce him to refuse the archbishops invitation he had therefore hoped to influence him He had accepted Mr Quiverfuls resignation and therefore dreaded having to renew that matter with his wife He had been screwed up to the pitch of asserting a will of his own and might possibly be carried on till by an absolute success he should have been taught how possible it was to succeed Now was the moment for victory or rout It was now that Mr Slope must make himself master of the diocese or else resign his place and begin his search for fortune again He saw all this plainly After what had taken place any compromise between him and the lady was impossible Let him once leave the room at her bidding and leave the bishop in her hands and he might at once pack up his portmanteau and bid adieu to episcopal honours Mrs Bold and the Signora Neroni
And yet it was not so easy to keep his ground when he was bidden by a lady to go or to continue to make a third in a party between husband and wife when the wife expressed a wish for a teteatete with her husband
Mr Slope she repeated I wish to be alone with my lord
His lordship has summoned me on most important diocesan business said Mr Slope glancing with uneasy eye at Dr Proudie He felt that he must trust something to the bishop and yet that trust was so woefully misplaced My leaving him at the present moment is I fear impossible
Do you bandy words with me you ungrateful man said she My lord will you do me the favour to beg Mr Slope to leave the room
My lord scratched his head but for the moment said nothing This was as much as Mr Slope expected from him and was on the whole for him an active exercise of marital rights
My lord said the lady is Mr Slope to leave this room or am
I
Here Mrs Proudie made a false step She should not have alluded to the possibility of retreat on her part She should not have expressed the idea that her order for Mr Slopes expulsion could be treated otherwise than by immediate obedience In answer to such a question the bishop naturally said in his own mind that it was necessary that one should leave the room perhaps it might be as well that Mrs Proudie did so He did say so in his own mind but externally he again scratched his head and again twiddled his thumbs
Mrs Proudie was boiling over with wrath Alas alas could she but have kept her temper as her enemy did she would have conquered as she had ever conquered But divine anger got the better of her as it has done of other heroines and she fell
My lord said she am I to be vouchsafed an answer or am I not
At last he broke his deep silence and proclaimed himself a
Slopeite Why my dear said he Mr Slope and I are very busy
That was all There was nothing more necessary He had gone to the battlefield stood the dust and heat of the day encountered the fury of the foe and won the victory How easy is success to those who will only be true to themselves
Mr Slope saw at once the full amount of his gain and turned on the vanquished lady a look of triumph which she never forgot and never forgave Here he was wrong He should have looked humbly at her and with meek entreating eye had deprecated her anger He should have said by his glance that he asked pardon for his success and that he hoped forgiveness for the stand which he had been forced to make in the cause of duty So might he perchance have somewhat mollified that imperious bosom and prepared the way for future terms But Mr Slope meant to rule without terms Ah forgetful inexperienced man Can you cause that little trembling victim to be divorced from the woman who possesses him Can you provide that they shall be separated at bed and board Is he not flesh of her flesh and bone of her bone and must he not so continue It is very well now for you to stand your ground and triumph as she is driven ignominiously from the room but can you be present when those curtains are drawn when that awful helmet of proof has been tied beneath the chin when the small remnants of the bishops prowess shall be cowed by the tassel above his head Can you then intrude yourself when the wife wishes to speak to my lord alone
But for the moment Mr Slopes triumph was complete for Mrs Proudie without further parley left the room and did not forget to shut the door after her Then followed a close conference between the new allies to which was said much which it astonished Mr Slope to say and the bishop to hear And yet the one said it and the other heard it without ill will There was no mincing of matters now The chaplain plainly told the bishop that the world gave him credit for being under the governance of his wife that his credit and character in the diocese was suffering that he would surely get himself into hot water if he allowed Mrs Proudie to interfere in matters which were not suitable for a womans powers and in fact that he would become contemptible if he did not throw off the yoke under which he groaned The bishop at first hummed and hawed and affected to deny the truth of what was said But his denial was by silence and quickly broke down He soon admitted by silence his state of vassalage and pledged himself with Mr Slopes assistance to change his courses Mr Slope did not make out a bad case for himself He explained how it grieved him to run counter to a lady who had always been his patroness who had befriended him in so many ways who had in fact recommended him to the bishops notice but as he stated his duty was now imperative he held a situation of peculiar confidence and was immediately and especially attached to the bishops person In such a situation his conscience required that he should regard solely the bishops interests and therefore he had ventured to speak out
The bishop took this for what it was worth and Mr Slope only intended that he should do so It gilded the pill which Mr Slope had to administer and which the bishop thought would be less bitter than that other pill which he had been so long taking
My lord had his immediate reward like a good child He was instructed to write and at once did write another note to the archbishop accepting his graces invitation This note Mr Slope more prudent than the lady himself took away and posted with his own hands Thus he made sure that this act of selfjurisdiction should be as nearly as possible a fait accompli He begged and coaxed and threatened the bishop with a view of making him also write at once to Mr Harding but the bishop though temporarily emancipated from his wife was not yet enthralled to Mr Slope He said and probably said truly that such an offer must be made in some official form that he was not yet prepared to sign the form and that he should prefer seeing Mr Harding before he did so Mr Slope might however beg Mr Harding to call upon him Not disappointed with his achievement Mr Slope went his way He first posted the precious note which he had in his pocket and then pursued other enterprises in which we must follow him in other chapters
Mrs Proudie having received such satisfaction as was to be derived from slamming her husbands door did not at once betake herself to Mrs Quiverful Indeed for the first few moments after her repulse she felt that she could not again see that lady She would have to own that she had been beaten to confess that the diadem had passed from her brow and the sceptre from her hand No she would send a message to her with the promise of a letter on the next day or the day after Thus resolving she betook herself to her bedroom but here she again changed her mind The air of that sacred enclosure restored her courage and gave her some heart As Achilles warmed at the sight of his armour as Don Quixotes heart grew strong when he grasped his lance so did Mrs Proudie look forward to fresh laurels as her hey fell on her husbands pillow She would not despair Having so resolved she descended with dignified mien and refreshed countenance to Mrs Quiverful
This scene in the bishops study took longer in the acting than in the telling We have not perhaps had the whole of the conversation At any rate Mrs Quiverful was beginning to be very impatient and was thinking that farmer Subsoil would be tired of waiting for her when Mrs Proudie returned Oh Who can tell the palpitations of that maternal heart as the suppliant looked into the face of the great lady to see written there either a promise of a house income comfort and future competence or else the doom of continued and ever increasing poverty Poor mother Poor wife There was little there to comfort you
Mrs Quiverful thus spoke the lady with considerable austerity and without sitting down herself I find that your husband has behaved in this matter in a very weak and foolish manner
Mrs Quiverful immediately rose upon her feet thinking it disrespectful to remain sitting while the wife of the bishop stood But she was desired to sit down again and made to do so so that Mrs Proudie might stand and preach over her It is generally considered an offensive thing for a gentleman to keep his seat while another is kept standing before him and we presume the same law holds with regard to ladies It often is so felt but we are inclined to say that it never produces half the discomfort or half the feeling of implied inferiority that is shown by a great man who desires his visitor to be seated while he himself speaks from his legs Such a solecism in good breeding when construed into English means this The accepted rule of courtesy in the world require that I should offer you a seat if I did not do so you would bring a charge against me in the world of being arrogant and illmannered I will obey the world but nevertheless I will not put myself on an equality with you You may sit down but I wont sit with you Sit therefore at my bidding and Ill stand and talk to you
This was just what Mrs Proudie meant to say and Mrs Quiverful though she was too anxious and too flurried thus to translate the full meaning of the manoeuvre did not fail to feel its effect She was cowed and uncomfortable and a second time essayed to rise from her chair
Pray be seated Mrs Quiverful pray keep your seat Your husband
I say has been most weak and most foolish It is impossible Mrs
Quiverful to help people who will not help themselves I much fear
that I can now do nothing for you in this matter
Oh Mrs Proudie—dont say so said the poor woman again jumping up
Pray be seated Mrs Quiverful I much fear that I can do nothing further for you in this matter Your husband has in a most unaccountable manner taken upon himself to resign that which I was empowered to offer him As a matter of course the bishop expects that his clergy shall know their own minds What he may ultimately do—what we may finally decide on doing—I cannot say Knowing the extent of your family—
Fourteen children Mrs Proudie fourteen of them and hardly bread—barely bread Its hard for the children of a clergyman its hard for one who has always done his duty respectably Not a word fell from her about herself but the tears came running down her big coarse cheeks on which the dust of the August road had left its traces
Mrs Proudie has not been portrayed in these pages as an agreeable or amiable lady There has been no intention to impress the reader much in her favour It is ordained that all novels should have a male and female angel and a male and female devil If it be considered that this rule is obeyed in these pages the latter character must be supposed to have fallen to the lot of Mrs Proudie But she was not all devil There was a heart inside that stiffribbed bodice though not perhaps of large dimensions and certainly not easily accessible Mrs Quiverful however did gain access and Mrs Proudie proved herself a woman Whether it was the fourteen children with their probable bare bread and the possible bare backs or the respectability of the fathers work or the mingled dust and tears on the mothers face we will not pretend to say But Mrs Proudie was touched
She did not show it as other women might have done She did not give Mrs Quiverful eaudeCologne or order her a glass of wine She did not take her to her toilet table and offer her the use of brushes and combs towels and water She did not say soft little speeches and coax her kindly with equanimity Mrs Quiverful despite her rough appearance would have been as amenable to such little tender cares as any lady in the land But none such was forthcoming Instead of that Mrs Proudie slapped one hand upon the other and declared—not with an oath for as a lady and a Sabbatarian and a shebishop she could not swear—but with an adjuration that she wouldnt have it done
The meaning of this was that she wouldnt have Mr Quiverfuls promised appointment cozened away by the treachery of Mr Slope and the weakness of her husband This meaning she very soon explained to Mrs Quiverful
Why was your husband such a fool said she now dismounted from her high horse and sitting confidentially down close to her visitor as to take the bait which that man threw to him If he had not been so utterly foolish nothing could have prevented your going to the hospital
Poor Mrs Quiverful was ready enough with her own tongue in accusing her husband to his face of being soft and perhaps she did not always speak of him to her children quite so respectfully as she might have done But she did not like to hear him abused by others and began to vindicate him and to explain that of course he had taken Mr Slope to be an emissary of Mrs Proudie herself that Mr Slope was thought to be peculiarly her friend and that therefore Mr Quiverful would have been failing in respect to her had he assumed to doubt what Mr Slope had said
Thus mollified Mrs Proudie again declared that she would not have it done and at last sent Mrs Quiverful home with an assurance that to the furthest stretch of her power and influence in the palace the appointment of Mr Quiverful should be insisted upon As she repeated that word insisted she thought of the bishop in his nightcap and with compressed lips slightly shook her head Oh my aspiring pastors divines to whose ears nolo episcopari are the sweetest of words which of you would be a bishop on such terms as these
Mrs Quiverful got home in the farmers cart not indeed with a light heart but satisfied that she had done right in making her visit
CHAPTER XXVII
A LOVE SCENE
Mr Slope as we have said left the palace with a feeling of considerable triumph Not that he thought that his difficulties were over he did not so deceive himself but he felt that he had played his first move well as well as the pieces on the board would allow and that he had nothing with which to reproach himself He first of all posted the letter to the archbishop and having made that sure he proceeded to push the advantage which he had gained Had Mrs Bold been at home he would have called on her but he knew that she was at Plumstead as he wrote the following note It was the beginning of what he trusted might be a long and tender series of epistles
My dear Mrs Bold—You will understand perfectly that I cannot at present correspond with your father I heartily wish that I could and hope the day may be not long distant when mists shall have cleared away and we may know each other But I cannot preclude myself from the pleasure of sending you these few lines to say that Mr Q has today in my presence resigned any title that he ever had to the wardenship of the hospital and that the bishop has assured me that it is his intention to offer it to your esteemed father
Will you with my respectful compliments ask him who I believe is a fellow visitor with you to call on the bishop either on Wednesday or Thursday between ten and one This is by the bishops desire If you will so far oblige me as to let me have a line naming either day and the hour which will suit Mr Harding I will take care that the servants shall have orders to show him in without delay Perhaps I should say no more—but still I wish you could make your father understand that no subject will be mooted between his lordship and him which will refer at all to the method in which he may choose to perform his duty I for one am persuaded that no clergyman could perform it more satisfactorily than he did or than he will do again
On a former occasion I was indiscreet and much too impatient considering your fathers age and my own I hope he will not now refuse my apology I still hope also that with your aid and sweet pious labours we may live to attach such a Sabbath school to the old endowment as may by Gods grace and furtherance be a blessing to the poor of this city
You will see at once that this letter is confidential The subject of course makes it so But equally of course it is for your parents eye as well as for your own should you think it proper to show it to him
I hope my darling little friend Johnny is as strong as ever— dear little fellow Does he still continue his rude assaults on those beautiful long silken tresses
I can assure your friends miss you from Barchester sorely but it would be cruel to begrudge you your sojourn among flowers and fields during this truly sultry weather
Pray believe me my dear Mrs Bold Yours most sincerely OBADIAH
SLOPE Barchester Friday
Now this letter taken as a whole and with the consideration that Mr Slope wished to assume a great degree of intimacy with Eleanor would not have been bad but for the allusion to the tresses Gentlemen do not write to ladies about their tresses unless they are on very intimate terms indeed But Mr Slope could not be expected to be aware of this He longed to put a little affection into his epistle and yet he thought it injudicious as the letter would he knew be shown to Mr Harding He would have insisted that the letter should be strictly private and seen by no eyes but Eleanors own had he not felt that such an injunction would have been disobeyed He therefore restrained his passion did not sign himself yours affectionately and contented himself instead with the compliment to the tresses
We will now follow his letter He took it to Mrs Bolds house and learning there from the servant that things were to be sent out to Plumstead that afternoon left it with many injunctions in her hands
We will now follow Mr Slope so as to complete the day with him and then return to his letter and its momentous fate in the next chapter
There is an old song which gives us some very good advice about courting—
Its gude to be off with the auld luve
Before ye be on wi the new
Of the wisdom of this maxim Mr Slope was ignorant and accordingly having written his letter to Mrs Bold he proceeded to call upon the Signora Neroni Indeed it was hard to say which was the old love and which was the new Mr Slope having been smitten with both so nearly at the same time Perhaps he thought it not amiss to have two strings to his bow But two strings to Cupids bow are always dangerous to him on whose behalf they are to be used A man should remember that between two stools he may fall to the ground
But in sooth Mr Slope was pursuing Mrs Bold in obedience to his better instincts and the signora in obedience to his worse Had he won the widow and worn her no one could have blamed him You O reader and I and Eleanors other friends would have received the story of such a winning with much disgust and disappointment but we should have been angry with Eleanor not with Mr Slope Bishop male and female dean and chapter and diocesan clergy in full congress could have found nothing to disapprove of in such an alliance Convocation itself that mysterious and mighty synod could in no wise have fallen foul of it The possession of L 1000 a year and a beautiful wife would not al all have hurt the voice of the pulpit character or lessened the grace and piety of the exemplary clergyman
But not of such a nature were likely to be his dealings with the Signora Neroni In the first place he knew that her husband was living and therefore he could not woo her honestly Then again she had nothing to recommend her to his honest wooing had such been possible She was not only portionless but also from misfortune unfitted to be chosen as the wife of any man who wanted a useful mate Mr Slope was aware that she was a helpless hopeless cripple
But Mr Slope could not help himself He knew that he was wrong in devoting his time to the back drawingroom in Dr Stanhopes house He knew that what took place would if divulged utterly ruin him with Mrs Bold He knew that scandal would soon come upon his heels and spread abroad among the black coats of Barchester some tidings some exaggerated tidings of the sighs which he poured into the ladys ears He knew that he was acting against the recognised principles of his life against those laws of conduct by which he hoped to achieve much higher success But as we have said he could not help himself Passion for the first time in his life passion was too strong for him
As for the signora no such plea can be put forward for her for in truth she cared no more for Mr Slope than she did for twenty others who had been at her feet before him She willingly nay greedily accepted his homage He was the finest fly that Barchester had hitherto afforded to her web and the signora was a powerful spider that made wondrous webs and could in no way live without catching flies Her taste in this respect was abominable for she had no use for the victims when caught She could not eat them matrimonially as young ladyflies do whose webs are most frequently of their mothers weaving Nor could she devour them by any escapade of a less legitimate description Her unfortunate affliction precluded her from all hope of levanting with a lover It would be impossible to run away with a lady who required three servants to move her from a sofa
The signora was subdued by no passion Her time for love was gone She had lived out her heart such heart as she ever had ever had in her early years at an age when Mr Slope was thinking of his second book of Euclid and his unpaid bill at the buttery hatch In age the lady was younger than the gentleman but in feelings in knowledge of the affairs of love in intrigue he was immeasurably her junior It was necessary to her to have some man at her feet It was the one customary excitement of her life She delighted in the exercise of power which this gave her it was now nearly the only food for her ambition she would boast to her sister that she could make a fool of any man and the sister as little imbued with feminine delicacy as herself good naturedly thought it but fair that such amusement should be afforded to a poor invalid who was debarred from the ordinary pleasures of life
Mr Slope was madly in love but hardly knew it The signora spitted him as a boy does a cockchafer on a cork that she might enjoy the energetic agony of his gyrations And she knew very well what she was doing
Mr Slope having added to his person all such adornments as are possible to a clergyman making a morning visit such as a clean neck tie clean handkerchief new gloves and a soupcon of not necessary scent called about three oclock at the doctors house At about this hour the signora was almost always in the back drawingroom The mother had not come down The doctor was out or in his own room Bertie was out and Charlotte at any rate left the room if any one called whose object was specially with her sister Such was her idea of being charitable and sisterly
Mr Slope as was his custom asked for Mr Stanhope and was told as was the servants custom that the signora was in the drawingroom Upstairs he accordingly went He found her as he always did lying on her sofa with a French volume before her and a beautiful little inlaid writing case open on her table At the moment of his entrance she was in the act of writing
Ah my friend said she putting out her left hand to him across the desk I did not expect you today and was this very instant writing to you—
Mr Slope taking the soft fair delicate hand in his and very soft and fair and delicate it was bowed over it his huge red head and kissed it It was a sight to see a deed to record if the author could fitly do it a picture to put on canvas Mr Slope was big awkward cumbrous and having his heart in his pursuit was ill at ease The lady was fair as we have said and delicate every thing about her was fine and refined her hand in his looked like a rose lying among carrots and when he kissed it he looked as a cow might do on finding such a flower among her food She was graceful as a couchant goddess and moreover as selfpossessed as Venus must have been when courting Adonis
Oh that such grace and such beauty should have condescended to waste itself on such a pursuit
I was in the act of writing to you said she but now my scrawl may go into the basket and she raised the sheet of gilded note paper from off her desk as though to tear it
Indeed it shall not said he laying the embargo of half a stone weight of human flesh and blood upon the devoted paper Nothing that you write for my eyes signora shall be so desecrated and he took up the letter put that also among the carrots and fed on it and then proceeded to read it
Gracious me Mr Slope said she I hope you dont mean to say that you keep all the trash I write to you Half my time I dont know what I write and when I do I know it is only fit for the black of the fire I hope you have not that ugly trick of keeping letters
At any rate I dont throw them into a wastepaper basket If destruction is their doomed lot they perish worthily and are burnt on a pyre as Dido was of old
With a steel pen stuck through them of course said she to make the simile more complete Of all the ladies of my acquaintance I think Lady Dido was the most absurd Why did she not do as Cleopatra did Why did she not take out her ships and insist on going with him She could not bear to lose the land she had got by a swindle and then she could not bear the loss of her lover So she fell between two stools Mr Slope whatever you do never mingle love and business
Mr Slope blushed up to his eyes and over his mottled forehead to the very roots of his hair He felt sure that the signora knew all about his intentions with reference to Mrs Bold His conscience told him that he was detected His doom was to be spoken he was to be punished for his duplicity and rejected by the beautiful creature before him Poor man He little dreamt that had all his intentions with reference to Mrs Bold been known to the signora it would only have added zest to that ladys amusement It was all very well to have Mr Slope at her feet to show her power by making an utter fool of a clergyman to gratify her own infidelity by thus proving the little strength which religion had in controlling the passions even of a religious man but it would be an increased gratification if she could be made to understand that she was at the same time alluring her victim away from another whose love if secured would be in every way beneficial and salutary
The signora had indeed discovered with the keen instinct of such a woman that Mr Slope was bent on matrimony with Mrs Bold but in alluding to Dido she had not thought of it She instantly perceived however from her lovers blushes what was on his mind and was not slow in taking advantage of it
She looked at him full in the face not angrily nor yet with a smile but with an intense and overpowering gaze and then holding up her forefinger and slightly shaking her head she said Whatever you do my friend do not mingle love and business Either stick to your treasure and your city of wealth or else follow your love like a true man But never attempt both If you do youll have to die with a broken heart as did poor Dido Which is it to be with you Mr Slope love or money
Mr Slope was not so ready with a pathetic answer as he usually was with touching episodes in his extempore sermons He felt that he ought to say something pretty something also that should remove the impression on the mind of his lady love But he was rather put about how to do it
Love said he true overpowering love must be the strongest passion a man can feel it must control every other wish and put aside every other pursuit But with me love will never act in that way unless it is returned and he threw upon the signora a look of tenderness which was intended to make up for all the deficiencies of his speech
Take my advice said she Never mind love After all what is it The dream of a few weeks That is all its joy The disappointment of a life is its Nemesis Who was ever successful in true love Success in love argues that the love is false True love is always despondent or tragical Juliet loved Haidee loved Dido loved and what came of it Troilus loved and ceased to be a man
Troilus loved and he was fooled said the more manly chaplain A man may love and yet not be a Troilus All women are not Cressids
No all women are not Cressids The falsehood is not always on the womans side Imogen was true but now was she rewarded Her lord believed her to be the paramour of the first he who came near her in his absence Desdemona was true and was smothered Ophelia was true and went mad There is no happiness in love except at the end of an English novel But in wealth money houses lands goods and chattels in the good things of this world yes in them there is something tangible something that can be retained and enjoyed
Oh no said Mr Slope feeling himself bound to enter some protest against so very unorthodox a doctrine this worlds wealth will make no one happy
And what will make you happy—you—you said she raising herself up and speaking to him with energy across the table From what source do you look for happiness Do not say that you look for none I shall not believe you It is a search in which every human being spends an existence
And the search is always in vain said Mr Slope We look for happiness on earth while we ought to be content to hope for it in heaven
Pshaw you preach a doctrine which you know you dont believe It is the way with you all If you know that there is no earthly happiness why do you long to be a bishop or a dean Why do you want lands and income
I have the natural ambition of a man said he
Of course you have and the natural passions and therefore I say that you dont believe the doctrine you preach St Paul was an enthusiast He believed so that his ambition and passions did not war against his creed So does the Eastern fanatic who passes half his life erect upon a pillar As for me I will believe in no belief that does not make itself manifest by outward signs I will think no preaching sincere that is not recommended by the practice of the preacher
Mr Slope was startled and horrified but he felt that he could not answer How could he stand up and preach the lessons of his Master being there as he was on the devils business He was a true believer otherwise this would have been nothing to him He had audacity for most things but he had not audacity to make a plaything of the Lords word All this the signora understood and felt much interest as she saw her cockchafer whirl round upon her pin
Your wit delights in such arguments said he but your heart and your reason do not quite go along with them
My heart said she you quite mistake the principles of my composition if you imagine that there is such a thing about me After all there was very little that was false in anything the signora said If Mr Slope allowed himself to be deceived it was his own fault Nothing could have been more open than her declarations about herself
The little writing table with her desk was still standing before her a barrier as it were against the enemy She was sitting as nearly upright as she ever did and he had brought a chair close to the sofa so that there was only the corner of the table between him and her It so happened that as she spoke her hand lay upon the table and as Mr Slope answered her he put his hand upon hers
No heart said he That is a very heavy charge which you bring against yourself and one of which I cannot find you guilty—
She withdrew her hand not quickly and angrily as though insulted by his touch but gently and slowly
You are in no condition to give a verdict on the matter said she as you have not tried me No dont say that you intend doing so for you know you have no intention of the kind nor indeed have I either As for you you will take your vows where they will result in something more substantial than the pursuit of such a ghostlike ghastly love as mine—
Your love should be sufficient to satisfy the dream of a monarch said Mr Slope not quite clear as to the meaning of his words
Say an archbishop Mr Slope said she Poor fellow She was very cruel to him He went round again upon his cork on this allusion to his profession He tried however to smile and gently accused her of joking on a matter which was he said to him of such vital moment
Why—what gulls do you men make of us she replied How you fool us to the top of our bent and of all men you clergymen are the most fluent of your honeyed caressing words Now look me in the face Mr Slope boldly and openly
Mr Slope did look at her with a languishing loving eye and as he did so he again put forth his hand to get hold of hers
I told you to look at me boldly Mr Slope but confine your boldness to your eyes
Oh Madeline he sighed
Well my name is Madeline said she but none except my own family usually call me so Now look me in the face Mr Slope Am I to understand that you say you love me
Mr Slope never had said so If he had come there with any formed plan at all his intention was to make love to the lady without uttering any such declaration It was however quite impossible that he should now deny his love He had therefore nothing for it but to go down on his knees distractedly against the sofa and swear that he did love her with a love passing the love of man
The signora received the assurance with very little palpitations or appearance of surprise And now answer me another question said she when are you to be married to Eleanor Bold
Poor Mr Slope went round and round in mortal agony In such a condition as his it was really very hard for him to know what answer to give And yet no answer would be his surest condemnation He might as well at once plead guilty to the charge brought against him
And why do you accuse me of such dissimulation
Dissimulation I said nothing of dissimulation I made no charge against you and make none Pray dont defend yourself to me You swear that you are devoted to my beauty and yet you are on the eve of matrimony with another I feel this to be rather a compliment It is to Mrs Bold that you must defend yourself That you may find difficult unless indeed you can keep her in the dark You clergymen are cleverer than other men
Signora I have told you that I loved you and now you rail at me
Rail at you God bless the man what would he have Come answer me this at your leisure—not without thinking now but leisurely and with consideration—are you not going to be married to Mrs Bold
I am not said he And as he said it he almost hated with an exquisite hatred the woman whom he could not help loving with an exquisite love
But surely you are a worshipper of hers
I am not said Mr Slope to whom the word worshipper was peculiarly distasteful The signora had conceived that it would be so
I wonder at that said she Do you not admire her To my eyes she is the perfection of English beauty And then she is rich too I should have thought she was just the person to attract you Come Mr Slope let me give you advice on this matter Marry the charming widow She will be a good mother to your children and an excellent mistress of a clergymans household
Oh signora how can you be so cruel
Cruel said she changing the voice of her banter which she had been using for one which was expressively earnest in its tone is that cruelty
How can I love another while my heart is entirely your own
If that were cruelty Mr Slope what might you say of me if I were to declare that I returned your passion What would you think if I bound you even by a lovers oath to do daily penance at this couch of mine What can I give in return for a mans love Ah dear friend you have not realised the condition of my fate
Mr Slope was not on his knees all this time After his declaration of love he had risen from them as quickly as he thought consistent with the new position which he now filled and as he stood was leaning on the back of his chair This outburst of tenderness on the Signoras part quite overcame him and made him feel for the moment that he could sacrifice everything to be assured of the love of the beautiful creature before him maimed lame and already married as she was
And can I not sympathise with your lot said he now seating himself on her sofa and pushing away the table with his foot
Sympathy is so near to pity said she If you pity me cripple as I am I shall spurn you from me
Oh Madeline I will only love you and again he caught her hand and devoured it with kisses Now she did not draw from him but sat there as he kissed it looking at him with her great eyes just as a great spider would look at a great fly that was quite securely caught
Suppose Signor Neroni were to come to Barchester said she would you make his acquaintance
Signor Neroni said he
Would you introduce him to the bishop and Mrs Proudie and the young ladies said she again having recourse to that horrid quizzing voice which Mr Slope so particularly hated
Why do you ask me such a question said he
Because it is necessary that you should know that there is a
Signor Neroni I think you had forgotten it
If I thought that you retained for that wretch one particle of the love of which he was never worthy I would die before I would distract you by telling you what I feel No were your husband the master of your heart I might perhaps love you but you should never know it
My heart again How you talk And you consider then that if a husband be not master of his wifes heart he has not right to her fealty if a wife ceases to love she may cease to be true Is that your doctrine on this matter as a minister of the Church of England
Mr Slope tried hard within himself to cast off the pollution with which he felt that he was defiling his soul He strove to tear himself away from the noxious siren that had bewitched him He had looked for rapturous joy in loving this lovely creature and he already found that he met with little but disappointment and selfrebuke He had come across the fruits of the Dead Sea so sweet and delicious to the eye so bitter and nauseous to the taste He had put the apple to his mouth and it had turned to ashes between his teeth Yet he could not tear himself away He knew he could not but know that weakness of his religion But she half permitted his adoration and that half permission added such fuel to his fire that all the fountain of piety could not quench it He began to feel savage irritated and revengeful He meditated some severity of speech some taunt that should cut her as her taunts cut him He reflected as he stood there for a moment silent before her that if he desired to quell her proud spirit he should do so by being prouder even than herself that if he wished to have her at his feet suppliant for his love it behoved him to conquer her by indifference All this passed through his mind As far as dead knowledge went he knew or thought he knew how a woman should be tamed But when he essayed to bring his tactics to bear he failed like a child What chance has dead knowledge with experience in any of the transactions between man and man What possible between man and woman Mr Slope loved furiously insanely and truly but he had never played the game of love The signora did not love at all but she was up to every move on the board It was Philidor pitched against a schoolboy
And so she continued to insult him and he continued to bear it
Sacrifice the world for love said she in answer to some renewed rapid declaration of his passion how often has the same thing been said and how invariably with the same falsehood
Falsehood said he Do you say that I am false to you Do you say that my love is not real
False Of course it is false false as the father of falsehood—if indeed falsehoods need a sire and are not selfbegotten since the world began You are ready to sacrifice the world for love Come let us see what you will sacrifice I care nothing for nuptial vows The wretch I think you were kind enough to call him so whom I swore to love and obey is so base that he can only be thought of with repulsive disgust In the council chamber of my heart I have divorced him To me that is as good as though aged lords had gloated for months over the details of his licentious life I care nothing for what the world can say Will you be as frank Will you take me to your home as your wife Will you call me Mrs Slope before bishop dean and prebendaries The poor tortured wretch stood silent not knowing what to say What You wont do that Tell me then what part of the world is it that you will sacrifice for my charms
Were you free to marry I would take you to my house tomorrow and wish no higher privilege
I am free said she almost starting up in her energy For though there was no truth in her pretended regard for her clerical admirer there was a mixture of real feeling in the scorn and satire with which she spoke of love and marriage generally I am free free as the winds Come will you take me as I am Have your wish sacrifice the world and prove yourself a true man
Mr Slope should have taken her at her word She would have drawn back and he would have had the full advantage of the offer But he did not Instead of doing so he stood wrapt in astonishment passing his fingers through his lank red hair and thinking as he stared upon her animated countenance that her wondrous beauty grew more and more wonderful as he gazed on it Ha Ha Ha she laughed out loud Come Mr Slope dont talk of sacrificing the world again People beyond oneandtwenty should never dream of such a thing You and I if we have the dregs of any love left in us if we have the remnants of a passion remaining in our hearts should husband our resources better We are not in our premiere jeunesse The world is a very nice place Your world at any rate is so You have all manner of fat rectories to get and possible bishoprics to enjoy Come confess on second thoughts you would not sacrifice such things for the smiles of a lame lady
It was impossible for him to answer this In order to be in any way dignified he felt that he must be silent
Come said she—dont boody with me dont be angry because I speak out some home truths Alas the world as I have found it has taught me bitter truths Come tell me that I am forgiven Are we not to be friends and she again put her hand to him
He sat himself down on the chair beside her and took her proffered hand and leant over her
There said she with her sweetest softest smile—a smile to withstand which a man should be cased in triple steel there seal your forgiveness on it and she raised it towards his face He kissed it again and again and stretched over her as though desirous of extending the charity of his pardon beyond the hand that was offered to him She managed however to check his ardour For one so easily allured as this poor chaplain her hand was surely enough
Oh Madeline said he tell me that you love me—do you—do you love me
Hush said she There is mothers step Our teteatete has been of monstrous length Now you had better go But we shall see you soon again shall we not
Mr Slope promised that he would call again on the following day
And Mr Slope she continued pray answer my note You have it in your hand though I declare during these two hours you have not been gracious enough to read it It is about the Sabbath school and the children You know how anxious I am to have them here I have been learning the catechism myself on purpose You must manage it for me next week I will teach them at any rate to submit themselves to their spiritual pastors and masters
Mr Slope said but little on the subject of Sabbath schools but he made his adieu and betook himself home with a sad heart troubled mind and uneasy conscience
CHAPTER XXVIII
MRS BOLD IS ENTERTAINED BY DR AND MRS GRANTLY AT PLUMSTEAD
It will be remembered that Mr Slope when leaving his billet doux with Mrs Bold had been informed that it would be sent out to her at Plumstead that afternoon The archdeacon and Mr Harding had in fact come into town together in the brougham and it had been arranged that they should call for Eleanors parcels as they left on their way home Accordingly they did so call and the maid as she handed to the coachman a small basket and large bundle carefully and neatly packec gave in at the carriage window Mr Slopes epistle The archdeacon who was sitting next to the window took it and immediately recognised the handwriting of his enemy
Who left this said he
Mr Slope called with it himself your reverence said the girl and was very anxious that missus should have it today
So the brougham drove off and the letter was left in the archdeacons hand He looked at it as though he held a basket of adders He could not have thought worse of the document had he read it and discovered it to be licentious and atheistical He did moreover what so many wise people are accustomed to do in similar circumstances he immediately condemned the person to whom the letter was written as though she were necessarily a particeps criminis
Poor Mr Harding though by no means inclined to forward Mr Slopes intimacy with his daughter would have given anything to have kept the letter from his soninlaw But that was now impossible There it was in his hand and he looked as thoroughly disgusted as though he were quite sure that it contained all the rhapsodies of a favoured lover
Its very hard on me said he after a while that this should go on under my roof
Now here the archdeacon was certainly the most unreasonable Having invited his sisterinlaw to his house it was a natural consequence of that she should receive her letters there And if Mr Slope chose to write to her his letter would as a matter of course be sent after her Moreover the very fact of an invitation to ones house implies confidence on the part of the inviter He had shown that he thought Mrs Bold to be a fit person to stay with him by his making her to do so and it was most cruel to her that he should complain of her violating the sanctity of his rooftree when the laches committed were none of her committing
Mr Harding felt this and felt also that when the archdeacon talked thus about his roof what he said was most offensive to himself as Eleanors father If Eleanor did receive a letter from Mr Slope what was there in that to pollute the purity of Dr Grantlys household He was indignant that his daughter should be so judged and so spoken of and he made up his mind that even as Mrs Slope she must be dearer to him than any other creature on Gods earth He almost broke out and said as much but for the moment he restrained himself
Here said the archdeacon handing the offensive missile to his fatherinlaw I am not going to be the bearer of his love letters You are her father and may do as you think fit with it
By doing as he thought fit with it the archdeacon certainly meant that Mr Harding would be justified in opening and reading the letter and taking any steps which might in consequence be necessary To tell the truth Dr Grantly did feel rather a stronger curiosity than was justified by his outraged virtue to see the contents of the letter Of course he could not open it himself but he wished to make Mr Harding understand that he as Eleanors father would be fully justified in doing so The idea of such a proceeding never occurred to Mr Harding His authority over Eleanor ceased when she became the wife of John Bold He had not the slightest wish to pry into her correspondence He consequently put the letter into his pocket and only wished that he had been able to do so without the archdeacons knowledge They both sat silent during the journey home and then Dr Grantly said Perhaps Susan had better give it to her She can explain to her sister better than you or I can do how deep is the disgrace of such an acquaintance
I think you are very hard upon Eleanor replied Mr Harding I will not allow that she has disgraced herself nor do I think it likely that she will do so She has a right to correspond with whom she pleases and I shall not take upon myself to blame her because she gets a letter from Slope
I suppose said Dr Grantly you dont wish her to marry this man I suppose youll admit that she would disgrace herself if she did so
I do not wish her to marry him said the perplexed father I do not like him and do not think he would make a good husband But if Eleanor decides to do so I shall certainly not think that she has disgraced herself
Good heavens exclaimed Dr Grantly and threw himself back into the corner of his brougham Mr Harding said nothing more but commenced playing a dirge with an imaginary fiddle bow upon an imaginary violoncello for which there did not appear to be quite room enough in the carriage and he continued the tune with sundry variations till he arrived at the rectory door
The archdeacon had been meditating sad things in his mind Hitherto he had always looked on his fatherinlaw as a true partisan though he knew him to be a man devoid of all the combative qualifications for that character He had felt no fear that Mr Harding would go over to the enemy though he had never counted much on the exwardens prowess in breaking the battle ranks Now however it seemed that Eleanor with her wiles had completely trepanned and bewildered her father cheated him out of his judgement robbed him of the predilections and tastes of life and caused him to be tolerant of a man whose arrogance and vulgarity would in a few years since have been unendurable to him That the whole thing was as good as arranged between Eleanor and Mr Slope there was no longer any room to doubt That Mr Harding knew that such was the case even this could hardly be doubted It was too manifest that he at any rate suspected it and was prepared to sanction it
And to tell the truth such was the case Mr Harding disliked Mr Slope as much as it was in his nature to dislike any man Had his daughter wished to do her worst to displease him by a second marriage she could hardly have succeeded better than by marrying Mr Slope But as he said to himself now very often what right had he to condemn her if she did nothing that was really wrong If she liked Mr Slope it was her affair It was indeed miraculous to him that a woman with such a mind so educated so refined so nice in her tastes should like such a man Then he asked himself whether it was possible that she did so
Ah thou weak man most charitable most Christian but weakest of men Why couldst thou not have asked herself Was she not the daughter of thy loins the child of thy heart the most beloved of thee of all humanity Had she not proved to thee by years of closest affection her truth and goodness and filial obedience And yet groping in darkness hearing her name in strains which wounded thy loving heart and being unable to defend her as thou shouldst have done
Mr Harding had not believed did not believe that his daughter meant to marry this man but he feared to commit himself to such an opinion If she did do it there would be then no means of retreat The wishes of his heart were—First that there should be no truth in the archdeacons surmises and in this wish he would have fain trusted entirely had he dared to do so Secondly that the match might be prevented if unfortunately it had been contemplated by Eleanor Thirdly that should she be so infatuated as to marry this man he might justify his conduct and declare that no cause existed for his separating himself from her
He wanted to believe her incapable of such a marriage he wanted to show that he so believed of her but he wanted also to be able to say hereafter that she had done nothing amiss if she could unfortunately prove herself to be different from what he thought her to be
Nothing but affection could justify such fickleness but affection did justify it There was but little of the Roman about Mr Harding He could not sacrifice his Lucretia even though she should be polluted by the accepted addresses of the clerical Tarquin at the palace If Tarquin could be prevented well and good but if not the father would still open his heart to his daughter and accept her as she present herself Tarquin and all
Dr Grantlys mind was of a stronger calibre and he was by no means deficient in heart He loved with an honest genuine love his wife and children and friends He loved his fatherinlaw and he was quite prepared to love Eleanor too if she would be one of his party if she would be on his side if she would regard the Slopes and the Proudies as the enemies of mankind and acknowledge and feel the comfortable merits of the Gwynnes and Arabins He wished to be what he called safe with all those whom he had admitted to the penetralia of his house and heart He could luxuriate in no society that was deficient in a certain feeling of faithful staunch highchurchism which to him was tantamount to freemasonry He was not strict in his lines of definition He endured without impatience many different shades of Anglochurch conservatism but with the Slopes and Proudies he could not go on all fours
He was wanting in moreover or perhaps it would be more correct to say he was not troubled by that womanly tenderness which was so peculiar to Mr Harding His feelings towards his friends were that while they stuck to him he would stick to them that he would work with them shoulder to shoulder that he would be faithful to the faithful He knew nothing of that beautiful love which can be true to a false friend
And thus these two men each miserable enough in his own way returned to Plumstead
It was getting late when they arrived there and the ladies had already gone up to dress Nothing more was said as the two parted in the hall As Mr Harding passed to his own room he knocked at Eleanors door and handed in the letter The archdeacon hurried to his own territory there to unburden his heart to his faithful partner
What colloquy took place between the marital chamber and the adjoining dressingroom shall not be detailed The reader now intimate with the persons concerned can well imagine it The whole tenor of it also might be read in Mrs Grantlys brow as she came down to dinner
Eleanor when she received the letter from her fathers hand had no idea from whom it came She had never seen Mr Slopes handwriting or if so had forgotten it and did not think of him as she twisted the letter as people do twist letters when they do not immediately recognise their correspondents either by the writing or the seal She was sitting at her glass brushing her hair and rising every other minute to play with her boy who was sprawling on the bed and who engaged pretty nearly the whole attention of the maid as well as of the mother
At last sitting before her toilet table she broke the seal and turning over the leaf saw Mr Slopes name She first felt surprised and then annoyed and then anxious As she read it she became interested She was so delighted to find that all obstacles to her fathers return to the hospital were apparently removed that she did not observe the fulsome language in which the tidings were conveyed She merely perceived that she was commissioned to tell her father that such was the case and she did not realise the fact that such a commission should not have been made in the first instance, to her by an unmarried young clergyman She felt on the whole grateful to Mr Slope and anxious to get on her dress that she might run with the news to her father Then she came to the allusion to her own pious labours and she said in her heart that Mr Slope was an affected ass Then she went on again and was offended by her boy being called Mr Slopes darling—he was nobodys darling but her own or at any rate not the darling of a disagreeable stranger like Mr Slope Lastly she arrived at the tresses and felt a qualm of disgust She looked up in the glass and there they were before her long and silken certainly and very beautiful I will not say but that she knew them to be so but she felt angry with them and brushed them roughly and carelessly She crumpled the letter with angry violence and resolved almost without thinking of it that she would not show it to her father She would merely tell him the contents of it She then comforted herself again with her boy and her dress fastened she went down to dinner
As she tripped down the stairs she began to ascertain that there was some difficulty in her situation She could not keep from her father the news about the hospital nor could she comfortably confess the letter from Mr Slope before the Grantlys Her father had already gone down She had heard his step upon the lobby She resolved therefore to take him aside and tell him her little bit of news Poor girl She had no idea how severely the unfortunate letter had already been discussed
When she entered the drawingroom the whole party were there including Mr Arabin and the whole party looked glum and sour The two girls sat silent and apart as though they were aware that something was wrong Even Mr Arabin was solemn and silent Eleanor had not seen him since breakfast He had been the whole day at St Ewolds and such having been the case it was natural that he should tell how matters were going on there He did nothing of the kind however but remained solemn and silent They were all solemn and silent Eleanor knew in her heart that they had been talking about her and her heart misgave her as she thought of Mr Slope and his letter At any rate she felt it to be quite impossible to speak to her father alone while matters were in this state
Dinner was soon announced and Dr Grantly as was his wont gave Eleanor his arm But he did so as though the doing it were an outrage on his feelings rendered necessary by sternest necessity With quick sympathy Eleanor felt this and hardly put her fingers on his coat sleeve It may be guessed in what way the dinnerhour was passed Dr Grantly said a few words to Mr Arabin Mr Arabin said a few words to Mrs Grantly she said a few words to her father and he tried to say a few words to Eleanor She felt that she had been tried and found guilty of something though she knew not what She longed to say out to them all Well what is it that I have done out with it and let me know my crime for heavens sake let me hear the worst of it but she could not She could say nothing but sat there silent half feeling that she was guilty and trying in vain to pretend even to eat her dinner
At last the cloth was drawn and the ladies were not long following it When they were gone the gentlemen were somewhat more sociable but not much so They could not of course talk over Eleanors sins The archdeacon had indeed so far betrayed his sisterinlaw as to whisper into Mr Arabins ear in the study as they met there before dinner a hint of what he feared He did so with the gravest and saddest of fears and Mr Arabin became grave and apparently sad enough as he heard it He opened his eyes and his mouth and said in a sort of whisper Mr Slope in the same way as he might have said The Cholera had his friend told him that that horrid disease was in his nursery I fear so I fear so said the archdeacon and then together they left the room
We will not accurately analyse Mr Arabins feelings on receipt of such astounding tidings It will suffice to say that he was surprised vexed sorrowful and ill at ease He had not perhaps thought very much about Eleanor but he had appreciated her influence and had felt that close intimacy with her in a country house was pleasant to him and also beneficial He had spoken highly of her intelligence to the archdeacon and had walked about the shrubberies with her carrying her boy on his back When Mr Arabin had called Johnny his darling Eleanor was not angry
Thus the three men sat over their wine all thinking of the same subject but unable to speak of it to each other So we will leave them and follow the ladies into the drawingroom
Mrs Grantly had received a commission from her husband and had undertaken it with some unwillingness He had desired her to speak gravely to Eleanor and to tell her that if she persisted in her adherence to Mr Slope she could no longer look for the countenance of her present friends Mrs Grantly probably knew her sister better than the doctor did and assured him that it would be in vain to talk to her The only course likely to be of any service in her opinion was to keep Eleanor away from Barchester Perhaps she might have added for she had a very keen eye in such things that there might be some ground for hope in keeping Eleanor near Mr Arabin Of this however she said nothing But the archdeacon would not be talked over he spoke much of his conscience and declared that if Mrs Grantly would not do it he would So instigated the lady undertook the task stating however her full conviction that her interference would be worse than useless And so it proved
As soon as they were in the drawingroom Mrs Grantly found some excuse for sending her girls away and then began her task She knew well that she could exercise but very slight authority over her sister Their various modes of life and the distance between their residences had prevented very close confidence They had hardly lived together since Eleanor was a child Eleanor had moreover especially in latter years resented in a quiet sort of way the dictatorial authority which the archdeacon seemed to exercise over her father and on this account had been unwilling to allow the archdeacons wife to exercise authority over herself
You got a letter just before dinner I believe began the eldest sister
Eleanor acknowledged that she had done so and felt that she turned red as she acknowledged it She would have given anything to have kept her colour but the more she tried to do so the more she signally failed
Was it not from Mr Slope
Eleanor said that the letter was from Mr Slope
Is he a regular correspondent of yours Eleanor
Not exactly said she already beginning to feel angry at the crossexamination She determined and why it would be difficult to say that nothing would induce her to tell her sister Susan what was the subject of the letter Mrs Grantly she knew was instigated by the archdeacon and she would not plead to any arraignment made against her by him
But Eleanor dear why do you get letters from Mr Slope at all knowing as you do he is a person so distasteful to papa and to the archdeacon and indeed to all your friends
In the first place Susan I dont get letters from him and in the next place as Mr Slope wrote the one letter which I have got and as I only received it which I could not very well help doing as papa handed it to me I think you had better ask Mr Slope instead of me
What was the letter about Eleanor
I cannot tell you said she because it was confidential It was on business respecting a third person
It was in no way personal to yourself then
I wont exactly say that Susan said she getting more and more angry at her sisters questions
Well I must say its rather singular said Mrs Grantly affecting to laugh that a young lady in your position should receive a letter from an unmarried gentleman of which she will not tell the contents and which she is ashamed to show her sister
I am not ashamed said Eleanor blazing up I am not ashamed of anything in the matter only I do not choose to be crossexamined as to my letters by any one
Well dear said the other I cannot tell you that I do not think that Mr Slope a proper correspondent for you
If he be ever so improper how can I help his having written to me But you are all prejudiced against him to such an extent that that which would be kind and generous in another man is odious and impudent in him I hate a religion that teaches one to be so onesided to ones charity
I am sorry Eleanor that you hate the religion you find here but surely you should remember that in such matters the archdeacon must know more of the world than you do I dont ask you to respect or comply with me although I am unfortunately so many years your senior but surely in such a matter as this you might consent to be guided by the archdeacon He is most anxious to be your friend if you will let him
In such a matter as what said Eleanor very testily Upon my word I dont know what this is all about
We all want you to drop Mr Slope
You all want me to be illiberal as yourselves That I shall never be I see no harm in Mr Slopes acquaintance and I shall not insult the man by telling him that I do He has thought it necessary to write to me and I do not want the archdeacons advice about the letter If I did I would ask it
Then Eleanor it is my duty to tell you and now she spoke with a tremendous gravity that the archdeacon thinks that such a correspondence is disgraceful and that he cannot allow it to go on in this house
Eleanors eyes flashed fire as she answered her sister jumping up from her seat as she did so You may tell the archdeacon that wherever I am I shall receive what letters I please and from whom I please And as for the word disgraceful if Dr Grantly has used it of me he has been unmanly and inhospitable and she walked off to the door When papa comes from the diningroom I will thank you to ask him to step up to my bedroom I will show him Mr Slopes letter but I will show it to no one else And so saying she retreated to her baby
She had no conception of the crime with which she was charged The idea that she could be thought by her friends to regard Mr Slope as a lover had never flashed upon her She conceived that they were all prejudiced and illiberal in their persecution of him and therefore she would not join in the persecution even though she greatly disliked the man
Eleanor was very angry as she seated herself in a low chair by her open window at the foot of her childs bed To dare to say that I have disgraced myself she repeated to herself more than once How papa can put up with that mans arrogance I will certainly not sit down to dinner in this house again unless he begs my pardon for that word And then a thought struck her that Mr Arabin might perchance hear of her disgraceful correspondence with Mr Slope and she turned crimson with pure vexation Oh if she had known the truth If she could have conceived that Mr Arabin had been informed as a fact that she was going to marry Mr Slope
She had not been long in her room before her father joined her As he left the drawingroom Mrs Grantly took her husband into the recess of the window and told him how signally she had failed
I will speak to her myself before I go to bed said the archdeacon
Pray do no such thing said she you can do no good and will only make an unseemly quarrel in the house You have no idea how headstrong she can be
The archdeacon declared that as to that he was quite indifferent He knew his duty and he would do it Mr Harding was weak in the extreme in such matters He would not have it hereafter on his conscience that he had not done all that in him lay to prevent so disgraceful an alliance It was in vain that Mrs Grantly assured him that speaking to Eleanor angrily would only hasten such a crisis and render it certain if at present there were any doubt He was angry selfwilled and sore The fact that a lady in his household had received a letter from Mr Slope had wounded his pride in the sorest place and nothing could control him
Mr Harding looked worn and woebegone as he entered his daughters room These sorrows worried him sadly He felt that if they were continued he must go to the wall in a manner so kindly prophesied to him by the chaplain He knocked gently at his daughters door waited till he was distinctly bade to enter and then appeared as though he and not she was the suspected criminal
Eleanors arm was soon within his and she had soon kissed his forehead and caressed him not with joyous but with eager love Oh papa she said I do so want to speak to you They have been talking about me downstairs tonight dont you know they have papa
Mr Harding confessed with a sort of murmur that the archdeacon had been speaking of her
I shall hate Dr Grantly soon—
Oh my dear
Well I shall I cannot help it He is so uncharitable so unkind so suspicious of everyone that does not worship himself and then he is so monstrously arrogant to other people who have a right to their opinions as well as he has to his own
He is an earnest eager man my dear but he never means to be unkind
He is unkind papa most unkind There I got that letter from Mr Slope before dinner It was you yourself who gave it to me There pray read it It is all for you It should have been addressed to you You know how they have been talking about it downstairs You know how they behaved to me at dinner And since dinner Susan has been preaching to me till I could not remain in the room with her Read it papa and then say whether that is a letter that need make Dr Grantly so outrageous
Mr Harding took his arm from his daughters waist and slowly read the letter She expected to see his countenance lit up with joy as he learnt that his path back to the hospital was made so smooth but she was doomed to disappointment as had once been the case before on a somewhat similar occasion His first feeling was one of unmitigated disgust that Mr Slope should have chosen to interfere in his behalf He had been anxious to get back to the hospital but he would have infinitely sooner resigned all pretensions to the place than have owned in any manner to Mr Slopes influence in his favour Then he thoroughly disliked the tone of Mr Slopes letter it was unctuous false and unwholesome like the man He saw which Eleanor had failed to see that much more had been intended than was expressed The appeal to Eleanors pious labours as separate from his own grated sadly against his feelings as a father And then when he came to the darling boy and the silken tresses he slowly closed and folded the letter in despair It was impossible that Mr Slope should so write unless he had been encouraged It was impossible that Eleanor should have received such a letter and received it without annoyance unless she were willing to encourage him So at least Mr Harding argued to himself
How hard it is to judge accurately of the feelings of others Mr Harding as he came to close the letter in his heart condemned his daughter for indelicacy and it made him miserable to do so She was not responsible for what Mr Slope might write True But then she expressed no disgust at it She had rather expressed approval of the letter as a whole She had given it to him to read as a vindication for herself and also for him The fathers spirits sank within him as he felt that he could not acquit her
And yet it was the true feminine delicacy of Eleanors mind which brought her on this condemnation Listen to me ladies and I beseech you to acquit her She thought of this man this lover of whom she was so unconscious exactly as her father did exactly as the Grantlys did At least she esteemed him personally as they did But she believed him to be in the main an honest man and one truly inclined to assist her father She felt herself bound after what had passed to show the letter to Mr Harding She thought it necessary that he should know what Mr Slope had to say But she did not think it necessary to apologise for or condemn or even allude to the vulgarity of the mans tone which arose as does all vulgarity from ignorance It was nauseous to her to have such a man like Mr Slope commenting on her personal attractions and she did not think it necessary to dilate with her father upon what was nauseous She never supposed they could disagree on such a subject It would have been painful for to point it out painful to her to speak strongly against a man of whom on the whole she was anxious to think and speak well In encountering such a man she had encountered what was disagreeable as she might do in walking the streets But in such encounters she never thought it necessary to dwell on what disgusted her
Mr Harding slowly folded the letter handed it back to her kissed her forehead and bade God bless her He then crept slowly away to his own room
As soon as he had left the passage another knock was given at Eleanors door and Mrs Grantlys very demure own maid entering on tiptoe wanted to know would Mrs Bold be so kind as to speak to the archdeacon for two minutes in the archdeacons study if not disagreeable The archdeacons compliments and he wouldnt detain her two minutes
Eleanor thought it was very disagreeable she was tired and fagged and sick at heart her present feelings towards Dr Grantly were anything but those of affection She was however no coward and therefore promised to be in the study in five minutes So she arranged her hair tied on her cap and went down with a palpitating heart
CHAPTER XXIX
A SERIOUS INTERVIEW
There are people who delight in serious interviews especially when to them appertain the part of offering advice or administering rebuke and perhaps the archdeacon was one of these Yet on this occasion he did not prepare himself for the coming conversation with much anticipation of pleasure Whatever might be his faults he was not an inhospitable man and he almost felt that he was sinning against hospitality in upbraiding Eleanor in his own house Then also he was not quite sure that he would get the best of it His wife had told him that he decidedly would not and he usually gave credit to what his wife said He was however so convinced of what he considered to be the impropriety of Eleanors conduct and so assured also of his own duty in trying to check it that his conscience would not allow him to take his wifes advice and go to bed quietly
Eleanors face as she entered the room was not much as to reassure him As a rule she was always mild in manner and gentle in conduct but there was that in her eye which made it not an easy task to scold her In truth she had been little used to scolding No one since her childhood had tried it but the archdeacon and he had generally failed when he did try it He had never done so since her marriage and now when he saw her quiet easy step as she entered the room he almost wished he had taken his wifes advice
He began by apologising for the trouble he was giving her She begged him not to mention it assured him that walking down the stairs was no trouble to her at all and then took a seat and waited patiently for him to begin his attack
My dear Eleanor he said I hope you believe me when I assure you that you have no sincerer friend than I am To this Eleanor answered nothing and therefore he proceeded If you had a brother of your own I should not probably trouble you with what I am going to say But as it is I cannot but think that it must be a comfort to you to know that you have near you one who is as anxious for your welfare as any brother of your own could be
I never had a brother said she
I know you never had and it is therefore that I speak to you
I never had a brother she repeated but I have hardly felt the want Papa has been to me both father and brother
Your father is the fondest and most affectionate of men But—
He is—the fondest and most affectionate of men and the best of counsellors While he lives I can never want advice
This rather put the archdeacon out He could not exactly contradict what his sisterinlaw said about her father and yet he did not at all agree with her He wanted her to understand that he tendered his assistance because her father was a soft goodnatured gentleman not sufficiently knowing in the ways of the world but he could not say this to her So he had to rush into the subjectmatter of his proffered counsel without any acknowledgement on her part that she could need it or would be grateful for it
Susan tells me that you received a letter this evening from Mr
Slope
Yes papa brought it in the brougham Did he not tell you
And Susan says that you objected to let her know what it was about
I dont think she asked me But had she done so I should not have told her I dont think it nice to be asked about ones letters If one wishes to show them one does so without being asked
True Quite so What you say is quite true But is not the fact of your receiving letters from Mr Slope which you do not wish to show to your friends a circumstance which must excite some—some surprise—some suspicion—
Suspicion said she not speaking above her usual voice speaking still in a soft womanly tone but yet with indignation suspicion and who suspects me and of what
And then there was a pause for the archdeacon was not quite ready to explain the ground of his suspicion No Dr Grantly I did not choose to show Mr Slopes letter to Susan I could not show it to any one till papa had seen it If you have any wish to read it now you can do so and she handed the letter to him over the table
This was an amount of compliance which he had not at all expected and which rather upset him in his tactics However he took the letter perused it carefully and then refolding it kept it on the table under his hand To him it appeared to be in almost every respect the letter of a declared lover it seemed to corroborate his worst suspicions and the fact of Eleanors showing it to him was all but tantamount to a declaration on her part that it was her pleasure to receive loveletters from Mr Slope He almost entirely overlooked the real subjectmatter of the epistle so intent was he on the forthcoming courtship and marriage
Ill thank you to give it back please Dr Grantly
He took his hand and held it up but made no immediate overture to return it And Mr Harding has seen this said he
Of course he has said she it was written that he might see it
It refers solely to his business—of course I showed it to him
And Eleanor do you think that that is a proper letter for you—for a person in your condition—to receive from Mr Slope
Quite a proper letter said she speaking perhaps a little out of obstinacy probably forgetting at the moment the objectionable mention of her silken curls
Then Eleanor it is my duty to tell you that I wholly differ from you
So I suppose said she instigated now by sheer opposition and determination not to succumb You think Mr Slope is a messenger direct from Satan I think he is an industrious wellmeaning clergyman Its a pity that we differ as we do But as we do differ we had probably better not talk about it
Here undoubtedly Eleanor put herself in the wrong She might probably have refused to talk to Dr Grantly on the matter in dispute without any impropriety but having consented to listen to him she had no business to tell him that regarded Mr Slope as an emissary from the evil one nor was she justified in praising Mr Slope seeing that in her heart of hearts she did not think well of him She was however wounded in spirit and very angry and bitter She had been subjected to contumely and crossquestioning and illusage through the whole evening No one not even Mr Arabin not even her father had been kind to her All this she attributed to the prejudice and conceit of the archdeacon and therefore she resolved to set no bounds to her antagonism to him She would neither give nor take quarter He had greatly presumed in daring to question her about her correspondence and she was determined to show that she thought so
Eleanor you are forgetting yourself said he looking very sternly at her Otherwise you would never tell me that I conceive any man to be a messenger from Satan
But you do said she Nothing is too bad for him Give me that letter if you please and she stretched out her hand and took it from him He has been doing his best to serve papa doing more than any of papas friends could do and yet because he is the chaplain of a bishop whom you dont like you speak of him as though he had no right to the usage of a gentleman
He has done nothing for your father
I believe that he has done a great deal and as far as I am concerned I am grateful to him I judge people by their acts and his as far as I can see them are good She then paused for a moment If you have nothing further to say I shall be obliged by being permitted to say good night—I am very tired
Dr Grantly had as he thought done his best to be gracious to his sisterinlaw He had endeavoured not to be harsh with her and had striven to pluck the sting from his rebuke But he did not intend that she should leave him without hearing him
I have something to say Eleanor and I fear I must trouble you to hear it You profess that it is quite proper that you should receive from Mr Slope such letters as that you have in your hand Susan and I think very differently You are of course your own mistress and much as we both must grieve should anything separate you from us we have no power to prevent you from taking steps which may lead to such a separation If you are so wilful as to reject the counsel of your friends you must be allowed to cater for yourself Is it worth you while to break away from all those you have loved—from all who love you—for the sake of Mr Slope
I dont know what you mean Dr Grantly I dont know what you are talking about I dont want to break away from anybody
But you will do so if you connect yourself with Mr Slope Eleanor I must speak out to you You must choose between your sister and myself and our friends and Mr Slope and his friends I say nothing of your father as you may probably understand his feelings better than I do
What do you mean Dr Grantly What am I to understand I never heard such wicked prejudice in my life
It is no prejudice Eleanor I have known the world longer than you have done Mr Slope is altogether beneath you You ought to know and feel that he is so Pray—pray think of this before it is too late
Too late
Or if you will not believe me ask Susan you cannot think she is prejudiced against you Or even consult your father he is not prejudiced against you Ask Mr Arabin—
You havent spoken to Mr Arabin about this said she jumping up and standing before him
Eleanor all the world in and about Barchester will be speaking of it soon
But you have spoken to Mr Arabin about me and Mr Slope
Certainly I have and he quite agrees with me
Agree with what said she I think you are trying to drive me mad
He agrees with me and Susan that it is quite impossible you should be received at Plumstead as Mrs Slope
Not being favourites with the tragic muse we do not dare to attempt any description of Eleanors face when she first heard the name of Mrs Slope pronounced as that which would or should or might at some time appertain to herself The look such as it was Dr Grantly did not soon forget For a moment or two she could find no words to express her deep anger and deep disgust and indeed at this conjuncture words did not come to her very freely
How dare you be so impertinent at last she said and then hurried out of the room without giving the archdeacon the opportunity of uttering another word It was with difficulty that she contained herself till she reached her own room and then locking the door she threw herself on her bed and sobbed as though her heart would break
But even yet she had no conception of the truth She had no idea that her father and sister had for days past conceived in sober earnest the idea that she was going to marry the man She did not even then believe that the archdeacon thought that she would do so By some manoeuvre of her brain she attributed the origin of the accusation to Mr Arabin and as she did so her anger against him was excessive and the vexation of her spirit almost unendurable She could not bring herself to think the charge was made seriously It appeared to her most probable that the archdeacon and Mr Arabin had talked over her objectionable acquaintance with Mr Slope that Mr Arabin in his jeering sarcastic way had suggested the odious match as being the severest way of treating with contumely her acquaintance with his enemy and that the archdeacon taking the idea from him thought proper to punish her by the allusion The whole night she lay awake thinking of what had been said and this appeared to be the most probable solution
But the reflection that Mr Arabin should have in any way mentioned her name in connection with that of Mr Slope was overpowering and the spiteful illnature of the archdeacon in repeating the charge to her made her wish to leave his house almost before the day had broken One thing was certain nothing should make her stay there beyond the following morning and nothing should make her sit down in company with Dr Grantly When she thought of the man whose name had been linked with her own she cried from sheer disgust It was only because she would be thus disgusted thus pained and shocked and cut to the quick that the archdeacon had spoken the horrid word He wanted her to make her quarrel with Mr Slope and therefore he had outraged her by his abominable vulgarity She determined that at any rate he should know that she appreciated it
Nor was the archdeacon a bit better satisfied with the result of his serious interview than was Eleanor He gathered from it as indeed he could hardly fail to do that she was very angry with him but he thought that she was thus angry not because she was suspected of an intention to marry Mr Slope but because such an intention was imputed to her as a crime Dr Grantly regarded this supposed union with disgust but it never occurred to him that Eleanor was outraged because she looked at it exactly in the same light
He returned to his wife vexed and somewhat disconsolate but nevertheless confirmed in his wrath against his sisterinlaw Her whole behaviour said he has been most objectionable She handed me his love letter to read as though she were proud of it And she is proud of it She is proud of having this slavering greedy man at her feet She will throw herself and John Bolds money into his lap she will ruin her boy disgrace her father and you and be a wretched miserable woman
His spouse who was sitting at her toilet table continued her avocations making no answer to all this She had known that the archdeacon would gain nothing be interfering but she was too charitable to provoke him by saying so while he was in such deep sorrow
This comes of a man making a will as that of Bolds he continued Eleanor is no more fitted to be trusted with such an amount of money in her own hands than is a charityschool girl Still Mrs Grantly made no reply But I have done my duty I can do nothing further I have told her plainly that she cannot be allowed to form a link of connection between me and that man From henceforward it will not be in my power to make her welcome at Plumstead I cannot have Mr Slopes love letters coming here I think you have better let her understand that as her mind on this subject seems to be irrevocably fixed it will be better for all parties that she should return to Barchester
Now Mrs Grantly was angry with Eleanor nearly as angry as her husband but she had no idea of turning her sister out of the house She therefore at length spoke out and explained to the archdeacon in her own mild seducing way that he was fuming and fussing and fretting himself very unnecessarily She declared that things if left alone would arrange themselves much better than he could arrange them and at last succeeded in inducing him to go to bed in a somewhat less inhospitable state of mind
On the following morning Eleanors maid was commissioned to send word into the diningroom that her mistress was not well enough to attend prayers and that she would breakfast in her own room Here she was visited by her father and declared to him her intention of returning immediately to Barchester He was hardly surprised by the announcement All the household seemed to be aware that something had gone wrong Every one walked about with subdued feet and peoples shoes seemed to creak more than usual There was a look of conscious intelligence on the faces of the women and the men attempted but in vain to converse as though nothing were the matter All this had weighed heavily on the heart of Mr Harding and when Eleanor told him that her immediate return to Barchester was a necessity he merely sighed piteously and said that he would be ready to accompany her
But here she objected strenuously She had a great wish she said to go alone a great desire that it might be seen that her father was not implicated in her quarrel with Dr Grantly To this at last he gave way but not a word passed between them about Mr Slope—not a word was said not a question asked as to the serious interview on the preceding evening There was indeed very little confidence between them though neither of them knew why it should be so Eleanor once asked him whether he would not call upon the bishop but he answered rather tartly that he did not know—he did not think he should but he could not say just at present And so they parted Each was miserably anxious for some show of affection for some return of confidence for some sign of the feeling that usually bound them together But none was given The father could not bring himself to question his daughter about her supposed lover and the daughter would not sully her mouth by repeating the odious word with which Dr Grantly had aroused her wrath And so they parted
There was some trouble in arranging the method of Eleanors return She begged her father to send for a postchaise but when Mrs Grantly heard of this she objected strongly If Eleanor would go away in dudgeon with the archdeacon why should she let all the servants and all the neighbourhood know that she had done so So at last Eleanor consented to make use of the Plumstead carriage and as the archdeacon had gone out immediately after breakfast and was not to return till dinnertime she also consented to postpone her journey till after lunch and to join the family at that time As to the subject of the quarrel not a word was said by any one The affair of the carriage was arranged by Mr Harding who acted as Mercury between the two ladies they when they met kissed each other very lovingly and then sat down each to her crochet work as though nothing was amiss in all the world
CHAPTER XXX
ANOTHER LOVE SCENE
But there was another visitor at the rectory whose feelings in this unfortunate matter must be somewhat strictly analysed Mr Arabin had heard from his friend of the probability of Eleanors marriage with Mr Slope with amazement but not with incredulity It has been said that he was not in love with Eleanor and up to this period this certainly had been true But as soon as he heard that she loved some one else he began to be very fond of her himself He did not make up his mind that he wished to have her for his wife he had never thought of her and did not know how to think of her in connection with himself but he experienced an inward indefinable feeling of deep regret a gnawing sorrow and unconquerable depression of spirits and also a species of selfabasement that he—he Mr Arabin—had not done something to prevent that other he that vile he whom he so thoroughly despised from carrying off his sweet prize
Whatever man may have reached the age of forty unmarried without knowing something of such feelings must have been very successful or else very cold hearted
Mr Arabin had never thought of trimming the sails of his bark so that he might sail as convoy to this rich argosy He had seen that Mrs Bold was beautiful but he had not dreamt of making her beauty his own He knew that Mrs Bold was rich but he had no more idea of appropriating her wealth than that of Dr Grantly He had discovered that Mrs Bold was intelligent warmhearted agreeable sensible all in fact that a man could wish his wife to be but the higher were her attractions the greater her claims to consideration the less had he imagined that he might possible become the possessor of them Such had been his instinct rather than his thoughts so humble and so diffident Now his diffidence was to be rewarded by his seeing this woman whose beauty was to his eyes perfect whose wealth was such as to have deterred him from thinking of her whose widowhood would have silenced him had he not been so deterred by his seeing her become the prey of—Obadiah Slope
On the morning of Mrs Bolds departure he got on his horse to ride over to St Ewolds As he rode he kept muttering to himself a line from Van Artevelde
How little flattering is womans love
And then he strove to recall his mind and to think of other affairs his parish his college his creed—but his thoughts would revert to Mrs Bold and the Flemish chieftain
When we think upon it
How little flattering is womans love
Given commonly to whosoeer is nearest
And propped with most advantage
It was not that Mrs Bold should marry any one but him he had not put himself forward as a suitor but that she should marry Mr Slope—and so he repeated over and over again
Outward grace Nor inward light is needful—day by day Men wanting both are mated with the best And loftiest of Gods feminine creation Whose love takes no distinction but of gender And ridicules the very name of choice
And so he went on troubled much in his mind
He had but an uneasy ride of it that morning and little good did he do at St Ewolds
The necessary alterations in his house were being fast completed and he walked through the rooms and went up and down the stairs and rambled through the garden but he could not wake himself to much interest about them He stood still at every window to look out and think upon Mr Slope At almost every window he had before stood and chatted with Eleanor She and Mrs Grantly had been there continually and while Mrs Grantly had been giving orders and seeing that orders had been complied with he and Eleanor had conversed on all things appertaining to a clergymans profession He thought how often he had laid down the law to her and how sweetly she had borne with somewhat dictatorial decrees He remembered her listening intelligence her gentle but quick replies her interest in all that concerned the church in all that concerned him and then he struck his riding whip against the window sill and declared to himself that it was impossible that Eleanor Bold should marry Mr Slope
And yet he did not really believe as he should have done that it was impossible He should have known her well enough to feel that it was truly impossible He should have been aware that Eleanor had that within her which would surely protect her from such degradation But he like so many others was deficient in confidence in woman He said to himself over and over again that it was impossible that Eleanor Bold should become Mrs Slope and yet he believed that she would do so And so he rambled about and could do and think of nothing He was thoroughly uncomfortable thoroughly ill at ease cross with himself and every body else and feeding in his heart on animosity towards Mr Slope This was not as it should be as he knew and felt but he could not help himself In truth Mr Arabin was now in love with Mrs Bold though ignorant of the fact himself He was in love and though forty years old was in love without being aware of it He fumed and fretted and did not know what was the matter as a youth might do at oneandtwenty And so having done no good at St Ewolds he rode back much earlier than was usual with him instigated by some inward unacknowledged hope that he might see Mrs Bold before she left
Eleanor had not passed a pleasant morning She was irritated with every one and not least with herself She felt that she had been hardly used but she felt also that she had not played her own cards well She should have held herself so far above suspicion as to have received her sisters innuendoes and the archdeacons lecture with indifference She had not done this but had shown herself angry and sore and was now ashamed of her own petulance and yet unable to discontinue it
The greater part of the morning she had spent alone but after a while her father joined her He had fully made up his mind that come what might nothing should separate him from his youngest daughter It was a hard task for him to reconcile himself to the idea of seeing her at the head of Mr Slopes table but he got through it Mr Slope as he argued to himself was a respectable man and a clergyman and he as Eleanors father had no right even to endeavour to prevent her from marrying such a one He longed to tell her how he had determined to prefer her to all the world how he was prepared to admit that she was not wrong how thoroughly he differed from Dr Grantly but he could not bring himself to mention Mr Slopes name There was yet a chance that they were all wrong in their surmise and being thus in doubt he could not bring himself to speak openly to her on the subject
He was sitting with her in the drawingroom with his arm round her waist saying now and then some little soft words of affection and working hard with his imaginary little fiddlebow when Mr Arabin entered the room He immediately got up and the two made some trifle remarks to each other neither thinking of what he was saying and Eleanor kept her seat on the sofa mute and moody Mr Arabin was included in the list of those against whom her anger was excited He too had dared to talk about her acquaintance with Mr Slope he too had dared to blame her for not making an enemy of his enemy She had not intended to see him before her departure and was now but little inclined to be gracious
There was a feeling through the whole house that something was wrong Mr Arabin when he saw Eleanor could not succeed in looking or in speaking as though he knew nothing of all this He could not be cheerful and positive and contradictory with her as was his wont He had not been two minutes in the room before he felt that he had done wrong in return and the moment he heard her voice he thoroughly wished himself back at St Ewolds Why indeed should he have wished to have aught further to say to the future wife of Mr Slope
I am sorry to hear that you are too leave so soon said he striving in vain to use his ordinary voice In answer to this she muttered something about the necessity of her being in Barchester and betook herself industriously to her crochet work
Then there was a little more trite conversation between Mr Arabin and Mr Harding trite and hard and vapid and senseless Neither of them had anything to say to the other and yet neither at such a moment liked to remain silent At last Mr Harding taking advantage of a pause escaped from the room and Eleanor and Mr Arabin were left together
Your going will be a great breakup to our party said he
She again muttered something which was all but inaudible but kept her eyes fixed upon her work
We have had a very pleasant month her said he at least I have and I am sorry it should be so soon over
I have already been from home longer than I intended she said and it is time that I should return
Well pleasant hours and pleasant days must come to an end It is a pity that so few of them are pleasant or perhaps rather—
It is a pity certainly that men and women do so much to destroy the pleasantness of their days said she interrupting him It is a pity that there should be so little charity abroad
Charity should begin at home said he and he was proceeding to explain that he as a clergyman could not be what she would call charitable at the expense of those principles which he considered it his duty to teach when he remembered that it would be worse than vain to argue on such a matter with the future wife of Mr Slope But you are just leaving us he continued and I will not weary your last hour with another lecture As it is I fear I have given you too many
You should practise as well as preach Mr Arabin
Undoubtedly I should So should we all All of us who presume to teach are bound to do our utmost towards fulfilling our own lessons I thoroughly allow my deficiency in doing so but I do not quite know now to what you allude Have you any special reason for telling me now that I should practise as well as preach
Eleanor made no answer She longed to let him know the cause of her anger to upbraid him for speaking of her disrespectfully and then at last forgive him and so part friends She felt that she would be unhappy to leave him in her present frame of mind but yet she could hardly bring herself to speak to him of Mr Slope And how could she allude to the innuendo thrown out by the archdeacon and thrown out as she believed at the instigation of Mr Arabin She wanted to make him know that he was wrong to make him aware that he had illtreated her in order that the sweetness of her forgiveness might be enhanced She felt that she liked him too well to be contented to part with him in displeasure and yet she could not get over her deep displeasure without some explanation some acknowledgement on his part some assurance that he would never again so sin against her
Why do you tell me that I should practise what I preach continued he
All men should do so
Certainly That is as it were understood and acknowledged But you do not say so to all men or to all clergymen The advice good as it is is not given except in allusion to some special deficiency If you will tell me my special deficiency I will endeavour to profit by the advice
She paused for a while and then looking full in his face she said You are not bold enough Mr Arabin to speak out to me openly and plainly and yet you expect me a woman to speak openly to you Why did you speak calumny of me to Dr Grantly behind my back
Calumny said he and his whole face became suffused with blood what calumny If I have spoken calumny of you I will beg your pardon and his to whom I spoke it and Gods pardon also But what calumny have I spoken of you to Dr Grantly
She also blushed deeply She could not bring herself to ask him whether he had not spoken of her as another mans wife You know that best yourself said she but I ask you as a man of honour if you have not spoken of me as you would not have spoken of your own sister or rather I will not ask you she continued finding that he did not immediately answer her I will not put you to the necessity of answering such a question Dr Grantly has told me what you said
Dr Grantly certainly asked me for my advice and I gave it He asked me—
I know he did Mr Arabin He asked you whether he would be doing right to receive me at Plumstead if I continued my acquaintance with a gentleman who happens to be personally disagreeable to yourself and to him
You are mistaken Mrs Bold I have no personal knowledge of Mr
Slope I have never met him in my life
You are not the less individually hostile to him It is not for me to question the propriety of your enmity but I had a right to expect that my name should not have been mixed up in your hostilities This has been done and been done by you in a manner the most injurious and the most distressing to a woman I must confess Mr Arabin that from you I expected a different sort of usage
As she spoke she with difficulty restrained her tears but she did restrain them Had she given way and sobbed about as in such cases a woman should do he would have melted at once implored her pardon perhaps knelt at her feet and declared his love Everything would have been explained and Eleanor would have gone back to Barchester with a contented mind How easily would she have forgiven and forgotten the archdeacons suspicions had she but heard the whole truth of it from Mr Arabin But then where would have been my novel She did not cry and Mr Arabin did not melt
You do me an injustice said he My advice was asked by Dr
Grantly and I was obliged to give it
Dr Grantly has been most officious most impertinent I have as complete a right to form my acquaintance as he has to form his What would you have said had I consulted you as to the propriety of banishing Dr Grantly from my house because he knows Lord Tattenham Corner I am sure Lord Tattenham is quite as objectionable an acquaintance for a clergyman as Mr Slope is for a clergymans daughter
I do not know Lord Tattenham Corner
No but Dr Grantly does It is nothing to me if he knows all the young lords on every racecourse in England I shall not interfere with him nor shall he with me
I am sorry to differ with you Mrs Bold but as you have spoken to me on this matter and especially as you blame me for what little I said on the subject I must tell you that I do differ from you Dr Grantlys position as a man in the world gives him a right to choose his own acquaintances subject to certain influences If he chooses them badly those influences will be used If he consorts with persons unsuitable to him his bishop will interfere What the bishop is to Dr Grantly Dr Grantly is to you
I deny it I utterly deny it said Eleanor jumping from her seat and literally flashing before Mr Arabin as she stood on the drawingroom floor He had never seen her so excited he had never seen her look so beautiful
I utterly deny it said she Dr Grantly has no sort of jurisdiction over me whatsoever Do you and he forget that I am not altogether alone in this world Do you forget that I have a father Dr Grantly I believe always has forgotten it
From you Mr Arabin she continued I would have listened to advice because I should have expected it to have been given as one friend may advise another not as a schoolmaster gives an order to a pupil I might have differed from you on this matter I should have done so but had you spoken to me in your usual manner and with your usual freedom I should not have been angry But now—was it manly of you Mr Arabin to speak of me in this way— so disrespectful—so— I cannot bring myself to repeat what you said You must understand what I feel Was it just of you to speak of me in such a way and to advise my sisters husband to turn me out of my sisters house because I chose to know a man of whose doctrine you disapprove
I have no alternative left to me Mrs Bold said he standing with his back to the fireplace looking down intently at the carpet pattern and speaking with a slow measured voice but to tell you plainly what did take place between me and Dr Grantly
Well said she finding that he paused for a moment
I am afraid that what I may say may pain you
It cannot well do so more than what you have already done said she
Dr Grantly asked me whether I thought it would be prudent for him to receive you in his house as the wife of Mr Slope and I told him that I thought it would be imprudent Believing it to be utterly impossible that Mr Slope and—
Thank you Mr Arabin that is sufficient I do not want to know your reasons said she speaking with a terribly calm voice I have shown to this gentleman the commonplace civility of a neighbour and because I have done so because I have not indulged against him in all the rancour and hatred which you and Dr Grantly consider due to all clergymen who do not agree with yourselves you conclude that I am to marry him—or rather you do not conclude so—no rational man could really come to such an outrageous conclusion without better ground—you have not thought so—but as I am in a position in which such an accusation must be peculiarly painful it is made in order that I may be terrified into hostility against this enemy of yours
As she finished speaking she walked to the drawingroom window and stepped out into the garden Mr Arabin was left in the room still occupied in counting the pattern on the carpet He had however distinctly heard and accurately marked every word that she had spoken Was it not clear from what she had said that the archdeacon had been wrong in imputing to her any attachment to Mr Slope Was it not clear that Eleanor was still free to make another choice It may seem strange that he should for a moment have had a doubt and yet he did doubt She had not absolutely denied the charge she had not expressly said that it was untrue Mr Arabin understood little of the nature of a womans feelings or he would have known how improbable it was that she should make any clearer declarations than she had done Few men do understand the nature of a womans heart till years have robbed such understanding of its value And it is well that it should be so or men would triumph too easily
Mr Arabin stood counting the carpet unhappy wretchedly unhappy at the hard words that had been spoken to him and yet happy exquisitely happy as he thought that after all the woman whom he so regarded was not to become the wife of the man whom he so much disliked As he stood there he began to be aware that he was himself in love Forty years had passed over his head and as yet womans beauty had never given him an uneasy hour His present hour was very uneasy
Not that he remained there for half or a quarter of that time In spite of what Eleanor had said Mr Arabin was in truth a manly man Having ascertained that he loved this woman and having now reason to believe that she was free to receive his love at least if she pleased to do so he followed her into the garden to make such wooing as he could
He was not long in finding her She was walking to and fro beneath the avenue of elms that stood in the archdeacons grounds skirting the churchyard What had passed between her and Mr Arabin had not alas tended to lessen the acerbity of her spirit She was very angry more angry with him than with any one How could he have so misunderstood her She had been so intimate with him had allowed him such latitude in what he had chosen to say to her had complied with his ideas cherished his views fostered his precepts cared for his comforts made much of him in every way in which a pretty woman can make much of an unmarried man without committing herself or her feelings She had been doing this and while she had been doing it he had regarded her as the affianced wife of another man
As she passed along the avenue every now and then an unbidden tear would force itself on her cheek and as she raised her hand to brush it away she stamped with her little foot upon the sward with very spite to think that she had been so treated
Mr Arabin was very near to her when she first saw him that she turned short round and retraced her steps down the avenue trying to rid her cheeks of all trace of the telltale tears It was a needless endeavour for Mr Arabin was in a state of mind that hardly allowed him to observe such trifles He followed her down the walk and overtook her just as she reached the end of it
He had not considered how he would address her he had not thought what he would say He had only felt that it was wretchedness to him to quarrel with her and that it would be happiness to be allowed to love her And that he could not lower himself by asking for her pardon He had done no wrong He had not calumniated her not injured her as she had accused him of doing He could not confess sins of which had not been guilty He could only let the past be past and ask her as to her and his hopes for the future
I hope we are not to part as enemies said he
There shall be no enmity on my part said Eleanor I endeavour to avoid all enmities It would be a hollow pretence were I to say that there can be a true friendship between us after what has just past People cannot make their friends of those whom they despise
And am I despised
I must have been so before you could have spoken of me as you did And I was deceived cruelly deceived I believed that you thought well of me I believed that you esteemed me
Thought of you well and esteemed you said he In justifying myself before you I must use stronger words than those He paused for a moment and Eleanors heart beat with painful violence within her bosom as she waited for him to go on I have esteemed do esteem you as I never esteemed any woman Think well of you I never thought to think so well so much of any human creature Speak calumny of you Insult you Wilfully injure you I wish it were my privilege to shield you from calumny insult and injury Calumny Ah me Twere almost better that it were so Better than to worship with a sinful worship sinful and vain also And then he walked along beside her with his hands clasped behind his back looking down on the grass beneath his feet and utterly at a loss to express his meaning And Eleanor walked beside him determined at least to give him no assistance
Ah me he uttered at last speaking rather to himself than to her Ah me These Plumstead walks were pleasant enough if one could have but hearts ease but without that the dull dead stones of Oxford were far preferable and St Ewolds too Mrs Bold I am beginning to think that I mistook myself when I came hither A Romish priest now would have escaped all this Of Father of heaven How good for us would it be if thou couldest vouchsafe to us a certain rule
And have we not got a certain rule Mr Arabin
Yes—yes surely Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil But what is temptation what is evil Is this evil—is this temptation
Poor Mr Arabin It would not come out of him that deep true love of his He could not bring himself to utter it in plain language that would require and demand an answer He knew not how to say to the woman at his side Since the fact is that you do not love that other man that you are not to be his wife can you love me will you be my wife These were the words which were in his heart but with all his sighs he could not draw them to his lips He would have given anything everything for power to ask this simple question but glib as was his tongue in pulpits and on platforms now he could not find a word wherewith to express the plain wish of his heart
And yet Eleanor understood him as thoroughly as though he had declared his passion with all the elegant fluency of a practised Lothario With a womans instinct she followed every bend of his mind as he spoke of the pleasantness of Plumstead and the stones of Oxford as he alluded to the safety of the Romish priest and the hidden perils of temptation She knew that it all meant love She knew that this man at her side this accomplished scholar this practised orator this great polemical combatant was striving and striving in vain to tell her that his heart was no longer his own
She knew this and felt the joy of knowing it and yet she would not come to his aid He had offended her deeply had treated her unworthily the more unworthily seeing that he had learnt to love her and Eleanor could not bring herself to abandon her revenge She did not ask herself whether or no she would ultimately accept his love She did not even acknowledge to herself that she now perceived it with pleasure At the present moment it did not touch her heart it merely appeased her pride and flattered her vanity Mr Arabin had dared to associate her name with that of Mr Slope and now her spirit was soothed by finding that he would fain associate it with his own And so she walked on beside him inhaling incense but giving out no sweetness in return
Answer me this said Mr Arabin stopping suddenly in his walk and stepping forward so that he faced his companion Answer me this question You do not love Mr Slope You do not intend to be his wife
Mr Arabin certainly did not go the right way to win such a woman as Eleanor Bold Just as her wrath was evaporating as it was disappearing before the true warmth of his untold love he rekindled it by a most useless repetition of his original sin Had he known what he was about he should never have mentioned Mr Slopes name before Eleanor Bold till he had made her all his own Then and not till then he might have talked of Mr Slope with as much triumph as he chose
I shall answer no such question said she and what is more I must tell you that nothing can justify your asking it Good morning
And so saying she stepped proudly across the lawn and passing through the drawingroom window joined her father and sister at lunch in the diningroom Half an hour afterwards she was in the carriage and so she left Plumstead without again seeing Mr Arabin
His walk was long and sad among the sombre trees that overshadowed the churchyard He left the archdeacons grounds that he might escape attention and sauntered among the green hillocks under which lay at rest so many of the once loving swains and forgotten beauties of Plumstead To his ears Eleanors last words sounded like a knell never to be reversed He could not comprehend that she might be angry with him indignant with him remorseless with him and yet love him He could not make up his mind whether or no Mr Slope was in truth a favoured rival If not why should she not have answered his question
Poor Mr Arabin—untaught illiterate boorish ignorant man That at forty years of age you should know so little of the workings of a womans heart
CHAPTER XXXI
THE BISHOPS LIBRARY
And thus the pleasant party of Plumstead was broken up It had been a very pleasant party as long as they had all remained in good humour with one another Mrs Grantly had felt her house to be gayer and brighter than it had been for many a long day and the archdeacon had been aware that the month had passed pleasantly without attributing the pleasure to any other special merits than those of his own hospitality Within three or four days of Eleanors departure Mr Harding had also returned and Mr Arabin had gone to Oxford to spend one week there previous to his settling at the vicarage of St Ewolds He had gone laden with many messages to Dr Gwynne touching the iniquity of the doings in Barchester palace and the peril in which it was believed the hospital still stood in spite of the assurances contained in Mr Slopes inauspicious letter
During Eleanors drive into Barchester she had not much opportunity of reflecting on Mr Arabin She had been constrained to divert her mind both from his sins and his love by the necessity of conversing with her sister and maintaining the appearance of parting with her on good terms
When the carriage reached her own door and while she was in the act of giving her last kiss to her sister and nieces Mary Bold ran out and exclaimed
Oh Eleanor—have you heard—oh Mrs Grantly have you heard what has happened The poor dean
Good heavens said Mrs Grantly what—what has happened
This morning at nine he had a fit of apoplexy and he has not spoken since I very much fear that by this time he is no more
Mrs Grantly had been very intimate with the dean and was therefore much shocked Eleanor had not known him so well nevertheless she was sufficiently acquainted with his person and manners to feel startled and grieved also at the tidings she now received I will go at once to the deanery said Mrs Grantly the archdeacon I am sure will be there If there is any news to send you I will let Thomas call before he leaves town And so the carriage drove off leaving Eleanor and her baby with Mary Bold
Mrs Grantly had been quite right The archdeacon was at the deanery He had come into Barchester that morning by himself not caring to intrude himself upon Eleanor and he also immediately on his arrival had heard of the deans fit There was as we have before said a library or reading room connecting the cathedral with the deans home This was generally called the bishops library because a certain bishop of Barchester was supposed to have added it to the cathedral It was built immediately over a portion of the cloisters and a flight of stairs descended from it into the room in which the cathedral clergymen put their surplices on and off As it also opened directly into the deans house it was the passage through which that dignitary usually went to his public devotions Who had or had not the right of entry into it might be difficult to say but the people of Barchester believed that it belonged to the dean and the clergymen of Barchester believed that it belonged to the chapter
On the morning in question most of the resident clergymen who constituted the chapter and some few others were here assembled and among them as usual the archdeacon towered with high authority He had heard of the deans fit before he was over the bridge which led into the town and had at once come to the well known clerical trysting place He had been there by eleven oclock and had remained ever since From time to time the medical men who had been called in came through from the deanery into the library uttered little bulletins and then returned There was it appears very little hope of the old mans rallying indeed no hope of any thing like a final recovery The only question was whether he must die at once speechless unconscious stricken to death by his first heavy fit or whether by due aid of medical skill he might not be so far brought back to this world as to become conscious of his state and enabled to address one prayer to his Maker before he was called to meet Him face to face at the judgement seat
Sir Omicron Pie had been sent for from London That great man had shown himself a wonderful adept at keeping life still moving within an old mans heart in the case of good old Bishop Grantly and it might be reasonably expected that he would be equally successful with a dean In the mean time Dr Fillgrave and Mr Rerechild were doing their best and poor Miss Trefoil sat at the head of her fathers bed longing as in such cases daughters do long to be allowed to do something to show her love if it were only to chafe his feet with her hands or wait in menial offices on those autocratic doctors anything so that now in the time of need she might be of use
The archdeacon alone of the attendant clergy had been admitted for a moment into the sick mans chamber He had crept in with creaking shoes had said with smothered voice a word of consolation to the sorrowing daughter had looked on the distorted face of his old friend with solemn but yet eager scrutinising eye as though he said in his heart and so some day it will probably be with me and then having whispered an unmeaning word or two to the doctors had creaked his way back again into the library
Hell never speak again I fear said the archdeacon as he noiselessly closed the door as though the unconscious dying man from whom all sense had fled would have heard in his distant chamber the spring of the lock which was now so carefully handled
Indeed Indeed Is he so bad said the meagre little prebendary turning over in his own mind all the probable candidates for the deanery and wondering whether the archdeacon would think it worth his while to accept it The fit must have been very violent
When a man over seventy has a stroke of apoplexy it seldom comes very lightly said the burly chancellor
He was an excellent sweettempered man said one of the vicars choral Heaven knows how we shall repair his loss
He was indeed said a minor canon and a great blessing to all those privileged to take a share of the services of our cathedral I suppose the government will appoint Mr Archdeacon I trust that we may have no stranger
We will not talk about his successor said the archdeacon while there is yet hope
Oh no of course not said the minor canon It would be extraordinarily indecorous but—
I know of no man said the meagre little prebendary who has better interest with the present government than Mr Slope
Mr Slope said two or three at once almost sotto voce Mr Slope dean of Barchester
Pooh exclaimed the burly chancellor
The bishop would do anything for him said the little prebendary
And so would Mrs Proudie said the vicar choral
Pooh said the chancellor
The archdeacon had almost turned pale at the idea What if Mr Slope should become dean of Barchester To be sure there was no adequate ground indeed no ground at all for presuming that such a desecration could even be contemplated But nevertheless it was on the cards Dr Proudie had interest with the government and the man carried as it were Dr Proudie in his pocket How should they all conduct themselves if Mr Slope were to become dean of Barchester The bare idea for a moment struck even Dr Grantly dumb
It would certainly not be very pleasant for us to have Mr Slope in the deanery said the little prebendary chuckling inwardly at the evident consternation which his surmise had created
About as pleasant and as probably as having you in the palace said the chancellor
I should think such an appointment highly improbable said the minor canon and moreover extremely injudicious Should not you Mr Archdeacon
I should presume such a thing to be quite out of the question said the archdeacon but at the present moment I am thinking rather of our poor friend who is lying so near us than of Mr Slope
Of course of course said the vicar choral with a very solemn air of course you are So are we all Poor Dr Trefoil the best of men but—
Its the most comfortable deans residence in England said a second prebendary Fifteen acres in the grounds It is better than many of the bishops palaces
And full two thousand a year said the meagre doctor
It is cut down to L 1200 said the chancellor
No said the second prebendary It is to be fifteen A special case was made
No such thing said the chancellor
Youll find Im right said the prebendary
Im sure I read it in the report said the minor canon
Nonsense said the chancellor They couldnt do it There were to be no exceptions but London and Durham
And Canterbury and York said the vicar choral modestly
What say you Grantly said the meagre little doctor
Say about what said the archdeacon who had been looking as though he were thinking about his friend the dean but who had in reality been thinking about Mr Slope
What is the next dean to have twelve or fifteen
Twelve said the archdeacon authoritatively thereby putting an end at once to all doubt and dispute among the subordinates as far as that subject was concerned
Well I certainly thought it was fifteen said the minor canon
Pooh said the burly chancellor At this moment the door opened and in came Dr Fillgrave
How is he Is he conscious Can he speak I hope I trust something better doctor said half a dozen voices all at once each in a tone of extremest anxiety It was pleasant to see how popular the good old dean was among his clergy
No change gentlemen not the slightest change—but a telegraphic message has arrived—Sir Omicron Pie will be here by the 915pm train If any man can do anything Sir Omicron will do it But all that skill can do has been done
We are sure of that Dr Fillgrave said the archdeacon we are quite sure of that But yet you know—
Oh quite right said the doctor quite right—I should have done just the same—I advised it at once I said to Rerechild at once that with such a life and such a man Sir Omicron should be summoned—of course I knew that the expense was nothing—so distinguished you know and so popular Nevertheless all that human skill can do has been done
Just at this period Mrs Grantlys carriage drove into the close and the archdeacon went down to confirm the news which she had heard before
By the 915pm train Sir Omicron Pie did arrive And in the course of the night a sort of consciousness returned to the poor old dean Whether this was due to Sir Omicron Pie is a question on which it may be well not to offer an opinion Dr Fillgrave was very clear in his own mind but Sir Omicron himself is thought to have differed from that learned doctor
At any rate Sir Omicron expressed an opinion that the dean had yet some days to live
For the eight or ten next days accordingly the poor dean remained in the same state half conscious and half comatose and the attendant clergy began to think that no new appointment would be necessary for some few months to come
CHAPTER XXXII
A NEW CANDIDATE FOR ECCLESIASTICAL HONOURS
The deans illness occasioned much mental turmoil in other places besides the deanery and adjoining library and the idea which occurred to the meagre little prebendary about Mr Slope did not occur to him alone
The bishop was sitting listlessly in his study when the news reached him of the deans illness It was brought to him by Mr Slope who of course was not the last person in Barchester to hear it It was also not slow in finding its way to Mrs Proudies ears It may be presumed that there was not just much friendly intercourse between these two rival claimants for his lordships obedience Indeed though living in the same house they had not met since the stormy interview between them in the bishops study on the preceding day
On that occasion Mrs Proudie had been defeated That from her standards was a subject of great sorrow to that militant lady but though defeated she was not overcome She felt that she might yet recover her lost ground that she might yet hurl Mr Slope down to the dust from which she had picked him and force her sinning lord to sue for pardon in sackcloth and ashes
On that memorable day memorable for his mutiny and rebellion against her high behests he had carried his way with a high hand and had really begun to think it possible that the days of his slavery were counted He had begun to hope that he was now about to enter into a free land a land delicious with milk which he himself might quaff and honey which would not tantalise him by being only honey to the eye When Mrs Proudie banged the door as she left his room he felt himself every inch a bishop To be sure his spirit had been a little cowed by his chaplains subsequent lecture but on the whole he was highly pleased with himself and flattered himself that the worst was over Ce nest que le premier pas qui coute he reflected and now that his first step had been so magnanimously taken all the rest would follow easily
He met his wife as a matter of course at dinner where little or nothing was said that could ruffle the bishops happiness His daughters and the servants were present and protected him
He made one or two trifling remarks on the subject of his projected visit to the archbishop in order to show to all concerned that he intended to have his own way and the very servants perceiving the change transferred a little of their reverence from their mistress to their master All which the master perceived and so also did the mistress But Mrs Proudie bided her time
After dinner he returned to his study where Mr Slope soon found him and there they had tea together and planned many things For some few minutes the bishop was really happy but as the clock on the chimney piece warned him that the stilly hours of night were drawing on as he looked at his chamber candlestick and knew that he must use it his heart sank within him again He was as a ghost all whose power of wandering free through these upper regions ceases at cockcrow or rather he was the opposite of the ghost for till cockcrow he must again be a serf And would that be all Could he trust himself to come down to breakfast a free man in the morning
He was nearly an hour later than usual when he betook himself to his rest Rest What rest However he took a couple of glasses of sherry and mounted the stairs Far be it from us to follow him thither There are some things which no novelist no historian should attempt some few scenes in lifes drama which even no poet should dare to paint Let that which passed between Dr Proudie and his wife on this night be understood to be among them
He came down the following morning a sad and thoughtful man He was attenuated in appearance one might almost say emaciated I doubt whether his now grizzled looks had not palpably become more grey than on the preceding evening At any rate he had aged materially Years do not make a man old gradually and at an even pace Look through the world and see if this is not so always except in those rare cases in which the human being lives and dies without joys and without sorrows like a vegetable A man shall be possessed of florid youthful blooming health till it matters not what age Thirty—forty—fifty then comes some nipping frost some period of agony that robs the fibres of the body of their succulence and the hale and hearty man is counted among the old
He came down and breakfasted alone Mrs Proudie being indisposed took her coffee in her bedroom and her daughters waited upon her there He ate his breakfast alone and then hardly knowing what he did he betook himself to his usual seat in his study He tried to solace himself with his coming visit to the archbishop That effort of his own free will at any rate remained to him as an enduring triumph But somehow now that he had achieved it he did not seem to care so much about it It was his ambition that had prompted him to take his place at the archepiscopal table and his ambition was now quite dead within him
He was thus seated when Mr Slope made his appearance with breathless impatience
My lord the dean is dead
Good heavens exclaimed the bishop startled out of his apathy by an announcement so sad and so sudden
He is either dead or now dying He has had an apoplectic fit and I am told that there is not the slightest hope indeed I do not doubt that by this time he is no more
Bells were rung and servants were immediately sent to inquire In the course of the morning the bishop leaning on his chaplains arm himself called at the deanery door Mrs Proudie sent to Miss Trefoil all manner of offers of assistance The Miss Proudies sent also and there was immense sympathy between the palace and the deanery The answer to all inquiries was unvaried The dean was just the same and Sir Omicron Pie was expected there by the 915pm train
And then Mr Slope began to meditate as others also had done as to who might possibly be the new dean and it occurred to him as it had also occurred to others that it might be possible that he should be the new dean himself And then the question as to the twelve hundred or fifteen hundred or two thousand ran in his mind as it had run through those of the other clergymen in the cathedral library
Whether it might be two thousand of fifteen or twelve hundred it would in any case undoubtedly be a great thing for him if he could get it The gratification to his ambition would be greater even than that of his covetousness
How glorious to outtop the archdeacon in his own cathedral city to sit above prebendaries and canons and have the cathedral pulpit and all the cathedral services altogether at his own disposal
But it might be easier to wish for this than to obtain it Mr Slope however was not without some means of forwarding his views and he at any rate did not let the grass grow under his feet In the first place he thought—and not vainly—that he could count upon what assistance the bishop could give him He immediately changed his views with regard to his patron he made up his mind that if he became dean he would hand his lordship back to his wifes vassalage and he thought it possible that his lordship might not be sorry to rid himself of one of his mentors Mr Slope had also taken some steps towards making his name known to other men in power There was a certain chiefcommissioner of national schools who at the present moment was presumed to stand especially high in the good graces of the government big wigs and with him Mr Slope had contrived to establish a sort of epistolary intimacy He thought that he might safely apply to Sir Nicholas Fitzhiggin and he felt sure that if Sir Nicholas chose to exert himself the promise of such a piece of preferment would be had for the asking for
Then he also had the press at his bidding or flattered himself that he had so The daily Jupiter had taken his part in a very thorough manner in those polemical contests of his with Mr Arabin he had on more than one occasion absolutely had an interview with a gentleman on the staff of the paper who if not the editor was as good as the editor and had long been in the habit of writing telling letters with his initials and sent to his editorial friend with private notes signed in his own name Indeed he and Mr Towers—such was the name of the powerful gentleman of the press with whom he was connected—were generally very amiable with each other Mr Slopes little productions were always printed and occasionally commented upon and thus in a small sort of way he had become a literary celebrity This public life had great charms for him though it certainly also had its drawbacks On one occasion when speaking in the presence of reporters he had failed to uphold and praise and swear by that special line of conduct which had been upheld and praised and sworn by in the Jupiter and then he had been much surprised and at the moment not a little irritated to find himself lacerated most unmercifully by his old ally He was quizzed and bespattered and made a fool of just as though or rather than if he had been a constant enemy instead of a constant friend He had hitherto not learnt that a man who aspires to be on the staff of the Jupiter must surrender all individuality But ultimately this little castigation had broken no bones between him and his friend Mr Towers Mr Slope was one of those who understood the world too well to show himself angry with such a potentate as the Jupiter He had kissed the rod that scourged him and now thought that he might fairly look for his reward He determined that he would at once let Mr Towers know that he was a candidate for the place which was about to be become vacant More than one place of preferment had lately been given away much in accordance with advice tendered to the government in the columns of the Jupiter
But it was in incumbent on Mr Slope first to secure the bishop He specially felt that it behoved him to do this before the visit to the archbishop was made It was really quite providential that the dean should have fallen ill just at the very nick of time If Dr Proudie could be instigated to take the matter up warmly he might manage a good deal while staying at the archbishops palace Feeling this very strongly Mr Slope determined to sound the bishop out that very afternoon He was to start on the following morning to London and therefore not a moment could be lost with safety
He went into the bishops study about five oclock and found him still sitting alone It might have been supposed that he had hardly moved since the little excitement occasioned by the walk to the deans door He still wore on his face that dull dead look of half unconscious suffering He was doing nothing reading nothing thinking of nothing but simply gazing on vacancy when Mr Slope for the second time that day entered his room
Well Slope said he somewhat impatiently for to tell the truth he was not anxious just at present to have much conversation with Mr Slope
Your lordship will be sorry to hear that as yet the poor dean has shown no signs of amendment
Oh—ah—hasnt he Poor man Im sure Im very sorry I suppose
Sir Omicron has not arrived yet
No not till the 915pm train
I wonder they didnt have a special They say Dr Trefoil is very rich
Very rich I believe said Mr Slope But the truth is all the doctors in London can do no good no other good than to show that every possible care has been taken Poor Dr Trefoil is not long for this world my lord
I suppose not—I suppose not
Oh no indeed his best friends could not wish that he should outlive such a shock for his intellect cannot possibly survive it
Poor man poor man said the bishop
It will naturally be a matter of much moment to your lordship who is to succeed him said Mr Slope It would be a great thing if you could secure the appointment for some person of your own way of thinking on important points The party hostile to us are very strong here in Barchester—much too strong
Yes yes If poor Dr Trefoil is to go it will be a great thing to get a good man in his place
It will be everything to your lordship to get a man on whose cooperation you can reckon Only think what trouble we might have if Dr Grantly or Dr Hyandry or any of that way of thinking were to get it
It is not very probable that Lord—will give it to any of that school why should he
No Not probable certainly not but its possible Great interest will probably be made If I might venture to advise your lordship I would suggest that you should discuss the matter with his grace next week I have no doubt that your wishes if made known and backed by his grace would be paramount with Lord—
Well I dont know that Lord has always been very kind to me very kind But I am unwilling to interfere in such matters unless asked And indeed if asked I dont know whom at this moment I should recommend
Mr Slope even Mr Slope felt at present rather abashed He hardly knew how to frame his little request in language sufficiently modest He had recognised and acknowledged to himself the necessity of shocking the bishop in the first instance by the temerity of his application and his difficulty was how best to remedy that by his adroitness and eloquence I doubted myself said he whether your lordship would have any one immediately in your eye and it is on this account that I venture to submit to you an idea that I have been turning over in my own mind If poor Dr Trefoil must go I really do not see why with your lordships assistance I should not hold the preferment myself
You exclaimed the bishop in a manner that Mr Slope could hardly have considered complimentary
The ice was now broken and Mr Slope became fluent enough I have been thinking of looking for it If your lordship will press the matter on the archbishop I do not doubt but that I shall succeed You see I shall count upon assistance from the public press my name is known I may say somewhat favourably known to that portion of the press which is now most influential with the government and I have friends also in the government But it is from your hands that I would most willingly receive the benefit And which should ever be the chief consideration in such matters you must know better than any other person whatsoever what qualifications I possess
The bishop sat for a while dumfounded Mr Slope dean of Barchester The idea of such a transformation of character would never have occurred to his own unaided intellect At first he went on thinking why for what reasons on what account Mr Slope should be dean of Barchester But by degrees the direction of his thoughts changed and he began to think why for what reasons on what account Mr Slope should not be dean of Barchester As far as he himself the bishop was concerned he could well spare the services of his chaplain The little idea of using Mr Slope as a counterpoise to his wife had well nigh evaporated He had all but acknowledged the futility of the scheme If indeed he could have slept in his chaplains bedroom instead of his wifes there might have been something in it But— And thus as Mr Slope as speaking the bishop began to recognise the idea that that gentleman might become dean of Barchester without impropriety not moved indeed by Mr Slopes eloquence for he did not follow the tenor of his speech but led thereto by his own cogitation
I need not say continued Mr Slope that it would be my chief desire to act in all matters connected with cathedral as far as possible in accordance with your views I know your lordship so well and I hope you know me well enough to have the same feelings that I am satisfied that my being in that position would add materially to your own comfort and enable you to extend the sphere of your useful influence As I said before it is not desirable that there should be but one opinion among the dignitaries in the same diocese I doubt much whether I would accept such an appointment in any diocese in which I should be constrained to differ much from the bishop In this case there would be a delightful uniformity of opinion
Mr Slope perfectly well perceived that the bishop did not follow a word that he said but nevertheless he went on talking He knew it was necessary that Dr Proudie should recover from his surprise and he knew also that he must give him the opportunity of appearing to have been persuaded by argument So he went on and produced a multitude of fitting reasons all tending to show that no one on earth could make so good a dean of Barchester as himself that the government and the public would assuredly coincide in desiring that he Mr Slope should be dean of Barchester but that for high considerations of ecclesiastical polity it would be especially desirable that this piece of preferment should be so bestowed through the instrumentality of the bishop of the diocese
But I really dont know what I could do in the matter said the bishop
If you would mention it to the archbishop if you would tell his grace that you consider such an appointment very desirable that you have it much at heart with a view of putting an end to the schism in the diocese if you did this with your usual energy you would probably find no difficulty in inducing his grace to promise that he would mention it to Lord Of course you would let the archbishop know that I am not looking for the preferment solely through his intervention that you do not exactly require him to ask it as a favour that you expect I shall get it through other sources as is indeed the case but that you are very anxious that his grace should express his approval of such an arrangement to Lord—
It ended by the bishop promising to do as he was told Not that he so promised without a stipulation About that hospital he said in the middle of the conference I was never so troubled in my life which was about the truth You havent spoken to Mr Harding since I saw you
Mr Slope assured his patron that he had not
Ah well then—I think upon the whole it will be better to let Mr Quiverful have it It has been half promised to him and he has a large family and is very poor I think on the whole it will be better to make out the nomination for Mr Quiverful
But my lord said Mr Slope still thinking that was bound to make a fight for his own view on this matter and remembering that it still behoved him to maintain his lately acquired supremacy over Mrs Proudie lest he should fail in his views regarding the deanery but my lord I am really much afraid—
Remember Mr Slope I can hold out not sort of hope to you in this matter of succeeding poor Dr Trefoil I will certainly speak to the archbishop as you wish it but I cannot think—
Well my lord said Mr Slope fully understanding the bishop and in his turn interrupting him perhaps your lordship is right about Mr Quiverful I have no doubt I can easily arrange matters with Mr Harding and I will make out the nomination for your signature as you direct
Yes Slope I think that will be best and you may be sure that any little that I can do to forward your views shall be done
And so they parted
Mr Slope had now much business to handle He had to make his daily visit to the signora This common prudence should have now induced him to omit but he was infatuated and could not bring himself to be commonly prudent He determined therefore that he would drink tea at the Stanhopes and he determined also or thought that he determined that having done so he would go thither no more He had also to arrange his matters with Mrs Bold He was of the opinion that Eleanor would grace the deanery as perfectly as she would the chaplains cottage and he thought moreover that Eleanors fortune would excellently repair and dilapidations and curtailments in the deans stipend which might have been made by that ruthless ecclesiastical commission
Touching Mrs Bold his hopes now soared high Mr Slope was one of the numerous multitude of swains who think that all is fair in love and he had accordingly not refrained from using the services of Mrs Bolds own maid From her he had learnt much of what had taken place at Plumstead not exactly with truth for the own maid had not been able to divine the exact truth but with some sort of similitude to it He had been told that the archdeacon and Mrs Grantly and Mr Harding and Mr Arabin had all quarrelled with missus for having received a letter from Mr Slope that missus had positively refused to give the letter up that she had received from the archdeacon the option of giving up either Mr Slope and his letter or the society of Plumstead rectory and that missus had declared with much indignation that she didnt care a straw for the society of Plumstead rectory and that she wouldnt give up Mr Slope for any of them
Considering the source from whence this came it was not quite so untrue as might have been expected It showed pretty plainly what had been the nature of the conversation in the servants hall and coupled as it was with the certainty of Eleanors sudden return it appeared to Mr Slope to be so far worthy of credit as to justify him in thinking that the fair widow would in all human probability accept his offer
All this work had therefore to be done It was desirable he thought that he should make his offer before it was known that Mr Quiverful was finally appointed to the hospital In his letter to Eleanor he had plainly declared that Mr Harding was to have the appointment It would be very difficult to explain this away and were he to write another letter to Eleanor telling the truth and throwing the blame on the bishop it would naturally injure him in her estimation He determined therefore to let that matter disclose itself as it would and to lose no time in throwing himself at her feet
Then he had to solicit the assistance of Sir Nicholas Fitzwhiggin and Mr Towers and he went directly from the bishops presence to compose his letters to those gentlemen As Mr Slope was esteemed as an adept at letter writing they shall be given in full
Palace Barchester Sept 185 Private
My dear Sir Nicholas—I hope that the intercourse which has been between us will preclude you from regarding my present application as an intrusion You cannot I imagine have yet heard that poor dear old Dr Trefoil has been seized with apoplexy It is a subject of profound grief to every one in Barchester for he has always been an excellent man—excellent as man and as a clergyman He is however full of years and his life could not under any circumstances have been much longer spared You may probably have known him
There is it appears no probable chance of his recovery Sir Omicron Pie is I believe at present with him At any rate the medical men here have declared that one or two days more must limit the tether of his mortal coil I sincerely trust that his soul may wing its flight to that haven where it may for ever be at rest and for ever be happy
The bishop has been speaking to me about the preferment and he is anxious that it should be conferred on me I confess that I can hardly venture at my age to look for such advancement but I am so far encouraged by his lordship that I believe I shall be induced to do so His lordship goes to London tomorrow and is intent on mentioning the subject to the archbishop
I know well how deservedly great is your weight with the present government In any matter touching church preferment you would of course be listened to Now that the matter has been put into my head I am of course anxious to be successful If you can assist me by your good word you will confer on me one additional favour
I had better add that Lord cannot as yet know of this piece of preferment having fallen in or rather of the certainty of falling for poor dear Dr Trefoil is past hope Should Lord first hear it from you that might probably bee thought to give you a fair claim to express your opinion
Of course our grand object is that we should all be of one opinion in church matters This is most desirable at Barchester it is this that makes our good bishop so anxious about it You may probably think it expedient to point this out to Lord if it shall be in your power to oblige me by mentioning the subject to his lordship
Believe me my dear Sir Nicholas Your most faithful servant
OBADIAH SLOPE
His letter to Mr Towers was written in quite a different strain Mr Slope conceived that he completely understood the difference in character and position of the two men whom he addressed He knew that for such a man as Sir Nicholas Fitzwhiggin a little flummery was necessary and that it might be of the easy everyday description Accordingly his letter to Sir Nicholas was written currente calamo with very little trouble But to such a man as Mr Towers it was not so easy to write a letter that should be effective and yet not offensive that should carry its point without undue interference It was not difficult to flatter Dr Proudie or Sir Nicholas Fitzwhiggin but very difficult to flatter Mr Towers without letting the flattery declare itself This however had to be done Moreover this letter must in appearance at least be written without effort and be fluent unconstrained and demonstrative of no doubt or fear on the part of the writer Therefor the epistle to Mr Towers was studied and recopied and elaborated at the cost of so many minutes that Mr Slope had hardly time to dress himself and reach Dr Stanhopes that evening
When dispatched it ran as follows
Barchester Sept 185 He purposely omitted any allusion to the palace thinking that Mr Towers might not like it A great man he remembered had been once much condemned for dating a letter from Windsor Castle
Private
My dear Sir—We were all a good deal shocked here this morning by hearing that poor old Dean Trefoil had been stricken with apoplexy The fit took him about 9am I am writing now to save the post and he is still alive but past all hope or possibility I believe of living Sir Omicron Pie is here or will be very shortly but all that even Sir Omicron can do is to ratify the sentence of his less distinguished brethren that nothing can be done Poor Dr Trefoils race on this side of the grave is run I do not know whether you knew him He was a good quiet charitable man of the old school of course as any clergyman over seventy years of age must necessarily be
But I do not write merely with the object of sending you such news as this doubtless some one of your Mercuries will have seen and heard and reported so much I write as you usually do yourself rather with a view to the future than to the past
Rumour is already rife her as to Dr Trefoils successor and among those named as possible future deans your humble servant is I believe not the least frequently spoken of in short I am looking for the preferment You may probably know that since Bishop Proudie came to this diocese I have exerted myself a good deal and I may certainly say not without some success He and I are nearly always of the same opinion on points of doctrine as well as church discipline and therefore I have had as his confidential chaplain very much in my own hands but I confess to you that I have a higher ambition than to remain the chaplain of any bishop
There are no positions in which more energy is now needed than in those of our deans The whole of our enormous cathedral establishments have been allowed to go to sleep—nay they are all but dead and ready for the sepulchre And yet of what prodigious moment they might be made if as we intend they were so managed as to lead the way and show an example for all our parochial clergy
The bishop here is most anxious for my success indeed he goes tomorrow to press the matter on the archbishop I believe also I may count on the support of at least one of the most effective member of the government But I confess the support of the Jupiter if I be thought worthy of it would be more gratifying to me than any other more gratifying if by it I should be successful and more gratifying also if although so supported I should be unsuccessful
The time has in fact come in which no government can venture to fill up the high places of the Church in defiance of the public press The age of honourable bishops and noble deans has gone by and any clergyman however humbly born can now hope for success if his industry talent and character be sufficient to call forth the manifest opinion of the public in his favour
At the present moment we all feel that any counsel given in such matters by the Jupiter has the greatest weight—is indeed generally followed and we feel also—I am speaking of clergymen of my own age and standing—that it should be so There can be no patron less interested than the Jupiter and none that more thoroughly understands the wants of the people
I am sure you will not suspect me of asking from you any support which the paper with which you are connected cannot conscientiously give me My object in writing is to let you know that I am a candidate for the appointment It is for you to judge whether or no you can assist my views I should not of course have written to you on such a matter had I not believed and I have had good reason so to believe that the Jupiter approves of my views on ecclesiastical polity
The bishop expresses a fear that I may be considered too young for such a station my age being thirtysix I cannot think that at the present day any hesitation need be felt on such a point The public has lost its love for antiquated servants If a man will ever be fit to do good work he will be fit at thirtysix years of age
Believe me very faithfully yours OBADIAH SLOPE
T TOWERS Esq Middle Temple
Having thus exerted himself Mr Slope posted his letters and passed the remainder of the evening at the feet of his mistress
Mr Slope will be accused of deceit in his mode of canvassing It will be said that he lied in the application he made to each of his three patrons I believe it must be owned that he did so He could not hesitate on account of his youth and yet be quite assured that he was not too young He could not count chiefly on the bishops support and chiefly also on that of the newspaper He did not think that the bishop was going to press the matter on the archbishop It must be owned that in his canvassing Mr Slope was as false as he well could be
Let it however be asked of those who are conversant with such matters whether he was more false than men usually are on such occasions We English gentlemen hate the name of a lie but how often do we find public men who believe each others words
CHAPTER XXXIII
MRS PROUDIE VICTRIX
The next week passed over at Barchester with much apparent tranquillity The hearts however of some of the inhabitants were not so tranquil as the streets of the city The poor old dean still continued to live just as Sir Omicron had prophesied that he would do much to amazement and some thought disgust of Dr Fillgrave The bishop still remained away He had stayed a day or two in town and had also remained longer at the archbishops than he had intended Mr Slope had as yet received no line in answer to either of his letters but he had learnt the cause of this Sir Nicholas was stalking a deer or attending the Queen in the Highlands and even the indefatigable Mr Towers had stolen an autumn holiday and had made one of the yearly tribe who now ascend Mont Blanc Mr Slope learnt that he was not expected back till the last day of September
Mrs Bold was thrown much with the Stanhopes of whom she became fonder and fonder If asked she would have said that Charlotte Stanhope was her special friend and so she would have thought But to tell the truth she liked Bertie nearly as well she had no more idea of regarding him as a lover than she would have had of looking at a big tame dog in such a light Bertie had become very intimate with her and made little speeches to her and said little things of sort very different from the speeches and sayings of other men But then this was almost always done before his sisters and he with his long silken beard his light blue eyes and strange dress was so unlike other men She admitted him to a kind of familiarity which she had never known with any one else and of which she by no means understood the danger She blushed once at finding that she had called him Bertie and on the same day only barely remembered her position in time to check herself from playing upon him some personal practical joke to which she was instigated by Charlotte
In all this Eleanor was perfectly innocent and Bertie Stanhope could hardly be called guilty But every familiarity into which Eleanor was entrapped was deliberately planned by his sister She knew well how to play her game and played it without mercy she knew none so well what was her brothers character and she would have handed over to him the young widow and the young widows money and the money of the widows child without remorse With her pretended friendship and warm cordiality she strove to connect Eleanor so closely with her brother as to make it impossible that she should go back even if she wished it But Charlotte Stanhope knew really nothing of Eleanors character did not even understand that there were such characters She did not comprehend that a young and pretty woman could be playful and familiar with a man such as Bertie Stanhope and yet have no idea in her head no feeling in her heart that she would have been ashamed to own to all the world Charlotte Stanhope did not in the least conceive that her new friend was a woman whom nothing could entrap into an inconsiderate marriage whose mind would have revolted from the slightest impropriety had she been aware that any impropriety existed
Miss Stanhope however had tact enough to make herself and her fathers house very agreeable to Mrs Bold There was with them all an absence of stiffness and formality which was peculiarly agreeable to Eleanor after the great dose of clerical arrogance which she had lately been constrained to take She played chess with them walked with them and drank tea with them studied or pretended to study astronomy assisted them in writing stories in rhyme in turning prose tragedy into comic verse or comic stories into wouldbe tragic poetry She had no idea before that she had any such talents She had not conceived the possibility of her doing such things as she now did She found with the Stanshopes new amusements and employments new pursuits which in themselves could not be wrong and which were exceedingly alluring
Is it not a pity that people who are bright and clever should so often be exceedingly improper And that those who are never improper should so often be dull and heavy Now Charlotte Stanhope was always bright and never heavy but her propriety was doubtful
But during all this time Eleanor by no means forgot Mr Arabin nor did she forget Mr Slope She had parted from Mr Arabin in her anger She was still angry at what she regarded as his impertinent interference but nevertheless she looked forward to meeting him again and also looked forward to forgiving him The words that Mr Arabin had uttered still sounded in her ears She knew that if not intended for a declaration of love they did signify that he loved her and she felt also that if he ever did make such a declaration it might be that she should not receive it unkindly She was still angry with him very angry with him so angry that she would bit her lip and stamp her foot as she thought of what he had said and done But nevertheless she yearned to let him know that he was forgiven all that she required was that he should own that he had sinned
She was to meet him at Ullathorne on the last day of the present month Miss Thorne had invited all the country round to a breakfast on the lawn There were to be tents and archery and dancing for the ladies on the lawn and for the swains and girls in the paddock There were to be fiddlers and fifers races for the boys poles to be climbed ditches full of water to be jumped over horsecollars to be grinned through this latter amusement was an addition of the stewards and not arranged by Miss Thorne in the original programme and every game to be played which in a long course of reading Miss Thorne could ascertain to have been played in the good days of Queen Elizabeth Everything of more modern growth was to be tabooed if possible On one subject Miss Thorne was very unhappy She had been turning in her mind the matter of the bullring but could not succeed in making anything of it She would not for the world have done or allowed to be done anything that was cruel as to the promoting the torture of a bull for the amusement of her young neighbours it need hardly be said that Miss Thorne would be the last to think of it And yet there was something so charming in the name A bullring however without a bull would only be a memento of the decadence of the times and she felt herself constrained to abandon the idea Quintains however she was determined to have and had poles and swivels and bags of flour prepared accordingly She would no doubt have been anxious for something small in the way of a tournament but as she said to her brother that had been tried and the age had proved itself too decidedly inferior to its forerunners to admit of such a pastime Mr Thorne did not seem to participate in her regret feeling perhaps that a full suit of chainarmour would have added but little to his own personal comfort
This party at Ullathorne had been planned in the first place as a sort of welcoming to Mr Arabin on his entrance into St Ewolds parsonage an intended harvesthome gala for the labourers and their wives and children had subsequently been amalgamated with it and thus it had grown into its present dimensions All the Plumstead party had of course been asked at the time of the invitation Eleanor had intended to have gone with her sister Now her plans were altered and she was going with the Stanhopes The Proudies were also to be there and as Mr Slope had not been included in the invitation to the palace the signora whose impudence never deserted her asked permission of Miss Thorne to bring him
This permission Miss Thorne gave having no other alternative but she did so with a trembling heart fearing Mr Arabin would be offended Immediately on his return she apologised almost with tears so dire an enmity was presumed to rage between the two gentlemen But Mr Arabin comforted by an assurance that he should meet Mr Slope with the greatest pleasure imaginable and made her promise that she would introduce them to each other
But this triumph of Mr Slopes was not so agreeable to Eleanor who since her return to Barchester had done her best to avoid him She would not give way to the Plumstead folk when they so ungenerously accused her of being in love with this odious man but nevertheless knowing that she was so accused she was fully alive to the expediency of keeping out of his way and dropping him by degrees She had seen very little of him since her return Her servants had been instructed to say to all visitors that she was out She could not bring herself to specify Mr Slope particularly and in order to order to avoid him she had thus debarred herself from all her friends She had excepted Charlotte Stanhope and by degrees a few others also Once she had met him at the Stanhopes but as a rule Mr Slopes visits there had been made in the morning and hers in the evening On that one occasion Charlotte had managed to preserve her from any annoyance This was very goodnatured on the part of Charlotte as Eleanor thought and also very sharpwitted as Eleanor had told her friend nothing of her reasons for wishing to avoid that gentleman The fact however was that Charlotte had learnt from her sister that Mr Slope would probably put himself forward as a suitor for the widows hand and she was consequently sufficiently alive to the expediency of guarding Berties future wife from any danger in that quarter
Nevertheless the Stanhopes were pledged to take Mr Slope with them to Ullathorne An arrangement was therefore necessarily made which was very disagreeable to Eleanor Dr Stanhope with herself Charlotte and Mr Slope were to go together and Bertie was to follow with his sister Madeline It was clearly visible to Eleanors face that this assortment was very disagreeable to her and Charlotte who was much encouraged thereby in her own little plan made a thousand apologies
I see you dont like it dear said she but we could not manage
it otherwise Bertie would give his eyes to go with you but
Madeline cannot possibly go without him Nor could we possibly put
Mr Slope and Madeline in the same carriage without anyone else
Theyd both be ruined for ever you know and not admitted inside
Ullathorne gates I should imagine after such an impropriety
Of course that wouldnt do said Eleanor but couldnt I go in the carriage with the signora and your brother
Impossible said Charlotte When she is there there is only room for two The signora in truth did not care to do her travelling in the presence of strangers
Well then said Eleanor you are all so kind Charlotte and so good to me that I am sure you wont be offended but I think I shall not go at all
Not go at all—what nonsense—indeed you shall it had been absolutely determined in family council that Bertie should propose on that very occasion
Or I can take a fly said Eleanor You know that I am not embarrassed by so many difficulties as you young ladies I can go alone
Nonsense my dear Dont think of such a thing after all it is only for an hour or so and to tell the truth I dont know what it is you dislike so I thought you and Mr Slope were great friends What is it you dislike
Oh nothing particular said Eleanor only I thought it would be a family party
Of course it would be much nicer much more snug if Bertie would go with us It is he that is badly treated I can assure you he is much more afraid of Mr Slope than you are But you see Madeline cannot go without him—and she poor creature goes out so seldom I am sure you dont begrudge her this though her vagary does knock about our own party a little
Of course Eleanor made a thousand protestations a uttered a thousand hopes that Madeline would enjoy herself And of course she had to give way and undertake to go in the carriage with Mr Slope In fact she was driven either to so this or to explain why she would not do so Now she could not bring herself to explain to Charlotte Stanhope all that had passed at Plumstead
But it was to her a sore necessity She thought of a thousand little schemes for avoiding it she would plead illness and not go at all she would persuade Mary Bold to go although not asked and then make a necessity of having a carriage of her own to take her sisterinlaw anything in fact she could do rather than be seen in the same carriage with Mr Slope However when the momentous morning came she had no scheme matured and then Mr Slope handed her into Dr Stanhopes carriage and following her steps sat opposite to her
The bishop returned on the eve of the Ullathorne party and was received at home with radiant smiles by the partner of all his cares On his arrival he crept up to his dressingroom with somewhat of a palpitating heart he had overstayed his allotted time by three days and was not without fear of penalties Nothing however could be more affectionately cordial than the greeting he received the girls came out and kissed him in a manner that was quite soothing to his spirit and Mrs Proudie arms and almost in words called him her dear darling good pet little bishop All this was a very pleasant surprise
Mrs Proudie had somewhat changed her tactics not that she had seen any cause to disapprove of her former line of conduct but she had now brought matters to such a point that she calculated that she might safely do so She had got the better of Mr Slope and she now thought well to show her husband that when allowed to get the better of everybody when obeyed by him and permitted to rule over others she would take care that he should have his reward Mr Slope had not a chance against her not only could she stun the poor bishop by her midnight anger but she could assuage and soothe him if she so willed by daily indulgences She could furnish his room for him turn him out as smart a bishop as any on the bench give him good dinners warm fires and an easy life all this she would do if he would but be quietly obedient But if not— To speak sooth however his sufferings on that dreadful night had been as poignant as to leave him little spirit for further rebellion
As soon as he had dressed himself she returned to his room I hope you enjoyed yourself at— said she seating herself on one side of the fire while he remained in his armchair on the other stroking the calves of his legs It was the first time he had had a fire in his room since the summer and it pleased him for the good bishop loved to be warm and cosy Nothing could be more polite than the archbishop and Mrs Archbishop had been equally charming
Mrs Proudie was delighted to hear it nothing she declared pleased her so much as to think
Her bairn respectit like the lave
She did not put it precisely in these words but what she said came to the same thing and then having petted and fondled her little man sufficiently she proceeded to business
The poor dean is still alive said she
So I hear so I hear said the bishop Ill go to the deanery directly after breakfast tomorrow
We are going to this party at Ullathorne tomorrow morning my dear we must be there early you know—by twelve oclock I suppose
Oh—ah said the bishop then Ill certainly call the next day
Was much said about it at— asked Mrs Proudie
About what said the bishop
Filling up the deans place said Mrs Proudie As she spoke a spark of the wonted fire returned to her eye and the bishop felt himself to be a little less comfortable than before
Filling up the deans place that is if the dean dies—very little my dear It was mentioned just mentioned
And what did you say about it bishop
Why I said that I thought that if that is should—should the dean die that is I said I thought— As he went on stammering and floundering he saw that his wifes eye was fixed sternly on him Why should he encounter such evil for a man whom he loved so slightly as Mr Slope Why should he give up his enjoyments and his ease and such dignity as might be allowed to him to fight a losing battle for a chaplain The chaplain after all if successful would be as great a tyrant as his wife Why fight at all Why contend Why be uneasy From that moment he determined to fling Mr Slope to the winds and take the goods the gods provided
I am told said Mrs Proudie speaking very slowly that Mr Slope is looking to be the new dean
Yes—certainly I believe he is said the bishop
And what does the archbishop say about that asked Mrs Proudie
Well my dear to tell the truth I promised Mr Slope to speak to the archbishop Mr Slope spoke to me about it It was very arrogant of him I must say—but that is nothing to me
Arrogant said Mrs Proudie it is the most impudent piece of pretension I ever heard in my life Mr Slope dean of Barchester indeed And what did you do in the matter bishop
Why my dear I did speak to the archbishop
You dont mean to tell me said Mrs Proudie that you are going to make yourself ridiculous by lending your name to such preposterous attempts as this Mr Slope dean of Barchester indeed And she tossed her head and put her arms akimbo with an air of confident defiance that made her husband quite sure that Mr Slope never would be Dean of Barchester In truth Mrs Proudie was all but invincible had she married Petruchio it may be doubted whether that arch wifetamer would have been able to keep her legs out of those garments which are presumed by men to be peculiarly unfitted for feminine use
It is preposterous my dear
Then why have you endeavoured to assist him
Why—my dear I havent assisted him—much
But why have you done it at all Why have you mixed your name up in any thing so ridiculous What was it you did say to the archbishop
Why I did just mention it I just did say that—that in the event of the poor deans death Mr Slope would—would—
Would what
I forget how I put it—would take it if he could get it something of that sort I didnt say much more than that
You shouldnt have said anything at all And what did the archbishop say
He didnt say anything he just bowed and rubbed his hands Somebody else came up at the moment and as we were discussing the new parochial universal school committee the matter of the new dean dropped after that I didnt think it was wise to renew it
Renew it I am very sorry you ever mentioned it What will the archbishop think of that
You may be sure my dear that the archbishop thought very little about it
But why did you think about it bishop How could you think of making such a creature as that Dean of Barchester—Dean of Barchester I suppose hell be looking for bishoprics some of these days—a man that hardly knows who his father was a man that I found without bread to his mouth or a coat to his back Dean of Barchester indeed Ill dean him
Mrs Proudie considered herself to be in politics a pure Whig all her family belonged to the Whig party Now among all ranks of Englishmen and Englishwomen Mrs Proudie should I think be ranked among the former on the score of her great strength of mind no one is so hostile to lowly born pretenders to high station as the pure Whig
The bishop thought it necessary to exculpate himself Why my dear said he it appeared to me that you and Mr Slope did not get on quite as well as you used to do
Get on said Mrs Proudie moving her foot uneasily on the hearthrug and compressing her lips in a manner that betokened such danger to the subject of their discourse
I began to find that he was objectionable to you—Mrs Proudies foot worked on the hearthrug with great rapidity—and that you would be more comfortable if he was out of the palace Mrs Proudie smiled as a hyena may probably smile before he begins his laugh—and therefore I thought that if he got this place and so ceased to be my chaplain you might be pleased at such an arrangement
And then the hyena laughed loud Pleased at such an arrangement pleased at having her enemy converted into a dean with twelve hundred a year Medea when she describes the customs of her native country I am quoting from Robsons edition assures her astonished auditor that in her land captives when taken are eaten You pardon them says Medea We do indeed says the mild Grecian We eat them says she of Colchis with terrible energy Mrs Proudie was the Medea of Barchester she had no idea of not eating Mr Slope Pardon him merely get rid of him make a dean of him It was not so they did with their captives in her country among people of her sort Mr Slope had no such mercy to expect she would pick him to the very last bone
Oh yes my dear of course hell cease to be your chaplain said she After what has passed that must be a matter of course I couldnt for a moment think of living in the same house with such a man Besides he has shown himself quite unfit for such a situation making broils and quarrels among the clergy getting you my dear into scrapes and taking upon himself as though he was as good as bishop himself Of course hell go But because he leaves the palace that is no reason why he should get into the deanery
Oh of course not said the bishop but to save appearances you know my dear—
I dont want to save appearances I want Mr Slope to appear just what he is—a false designing mean intriguing man I have my eye on him he little knows what I see He is misconducting himself in the most disgraceful way with that lame Italian woman That family is a disgrace to Barchester and Mr Slope is a disgrace to Barchester If he doesnt look well to it hell have his gown stripped off his back instead of having a deans hat on his head Dean indeed The man has gone mad with arrogance
The bishop said nothing further to excuse either himself or his chaplain and having shown himself passive and docile was again taken into favour They soon went to dinner and he spent the pleasantest evening he had had in his own house for a long time His daughter played and sang to him as he sipped his coffee and read his newspaper and Mrs Proudie asked goodnatured little questions about the archbishop and then he went happily to bed and slept as quietly as though Mrs Proudie had been Griselda herself While shaving himself in the morning and preparing for the festivities of Ullathorne he fully resolved to run no more tilts against a warrior so fully armed at all points as was Mrs Proudie
CHAPTER XXXIV
OXFORD—THE MASTER AND TUTOR OF LAZARUS
Mr Arabin as we have said had but a sad walk of it under the trees of Plumstead churchyard He did not appear to any of the family till dinner time and then he assumed as far as their judgment went to be quite himself He had as was his wont asked himself a great many questions and given himself a great many answers and the upshot of this was that he had set himself down for an ass He had determined that he was much too old and much to rusty to commence the manouvres of lovemaking that he had let the time slip through his hands which should have been used for such purposes and that now he must lie on his bed as he had made it Then he asked himself whether in truth he did love this woman and he answered himself not without a long struggle but at last honestly that he certainly did love her He then asked himself whether he did not also love her money and he again answered himself that he did so But here he did not answer honestly It was and ever had been his weakness to look for impure motives for his own conduct No doubt circumstanced as he was with a small living and a fellowship accustomed as he had been to collegiate luxuries and expensive comforts he might have hesitated to marry a penniless woman had he felt ever so strong a predilection for the woman herself no doubt Eleanors fortune put all such difficulties out of the question but it was equally without doubt that his love for her had crept upon him without the slightest idea on his part that he could ever benefit his own condition by sharing her wealth
When he had stood on the hearthrug counting the pattern and counting also the future chances of his own life the remembrances of Mrs Bolds comfortable income had not certainly damped his first assured feeling of love for her And why should it have done so Need it have done so with the purest of men Be that as it may Mr Arabin decided against himself he decided that it had done so in his case and that he was not the purest of men
He also decided which was more to his purpose that Eleanor did not care a straw for him and that very probably did not care a straw for his rival Then he made up his mind not to think of her any more and went on thinking of her till he was almost in a state to drown himself in the little brook which was at the bottom of the archdeacons grounds
And ever and again his mind would revert to the Signora Neroni and he would make comparisons between her and Eleanor Bold not always in favour of the latter The signora had listened to him and flattered him and believed in him at least she had told him so Mrs Bold had also listened to him but had never flattered him had not always believed in him and now had broken from him in violent rage The signora too was the more lovely woman of the two and had also the additional attraction of her affliction for to him it was an attraction
But he never could have loved the Signora Neroni as he felt that he now loved Eleanor and so he flung stones into the brook instead of flinging in himself and sat down on its margin as sad a gentleman as you shall meet in a summers day
He heard the dinnerbell ring from the churchyard and he knew that it was time to recover his self possession He felt that he was disgracing himself in his own eyes that he had been idling his time and neglecting the high duties which he had taken upon himself to perform He should have spent the afternoon among the poor at St Ewolds instead of wandering about Plumstead an ancient lovelorn swain dejected and sighing full of imaginary sorrows and Wertherian grief He was thoroughly ashamed of himself and determined to lose no time in retrieving his character so damaged in his own eyes Thus when he appeared at dinner he was as animated as ever and was the author of most of the conversation which graced the archdeacons board on that evening Mr Harding was ill at ease and sick at heart and did not care to appear more comfortable than he really was what little he did say was said to his daughter He thought the archdeacon and Mr Arabin had leagued together against Eleanors comfort and his wish now was to break away from the pair and undergo in his Barchester lodgings whatever Fate had in store for him He hated the name of the hospital his attempt to regain his lost inheritance there had brought upon him so much suffering As far as he was concerned Mr Quiverful was now welcome to the place
And the archdeacon was not very lively The poor deans illness was of course discussed in the first place Dr Grantly did not mention Mr Slopes name in connexion with the expected event of Dr Trefoils death he did not wish to say anything about Mr Slope just at present nor did he wish to make known his own sad surmises but the idea that his enemy might possibly become Dean of Barchester made him very gloomy Should such an even take place such a dire catastrophe come about there would be an end to his life as far as his life was connected with the city of Barchester He must give up all his old haunts all his old habits and live quietly as a retired rector at Plumstead It had been a severe trial for him to have Dr Proudie in the palace but with Mr Slope also in the deanery he felt that he should be unable to draw his breath in Barchester close
Thus it came to pass that in spite of the sorrow at his heart Mr Arabin was apparently the gayest of the party Both Mr Harding and Mrs Grantly were in a slight degree angry with him on account of his want of gloom To the one it appeared as though he were triumphing at Eleanors banishment and to the other that he was not affected as he should have been by all the sad circumstances of the day Eleanors obstinacy Mr Slopes success and the poor deans apoplexy And so they were all at cross purposes
Mr Harding left the room almost together with the ladies and the archdeacon opened his heart to Mr Arabin He still harped upon the hospital What did that fellow mean said he by saying in his letter to Mrs Bold that if Mr Harding would call on the bishop it would be all right Of course I would not be guided by anything he might say but still it may be well that Mr Harding should see the bishop It would be foolish to let the thing slip through our fingers because Mrs Bold is determined to make a fool of herself
Mr Arabin hinted that he was not quite so sure that Mrs Bold would make a fool of herself He said that he was not convinced that she did regard Mr Slope so warmly as she was supposed to do The archdeacon questioned and crossquestioned him about this but elicited nothing and at least remained firm in his own conviction that he was destined malgre lui to be the brotherinlaw of Mr Slope Mr Arabin strongly advised that Mr Harding should take no step regarding the hospital in connexion with or in consequence of Mr Slopes letter If the bishop really means to confer the appointment on Mr Harding argued Mr Arabin he will take care to let him have some other intimation than a message conveyed through a letter to a lady Were Mr Harding to present himself at the palace he might merely be playing Mr Slopes game and thus it was settled that nothing should be done till the great Dr Gwynnes arrival or at any rate without that potentates sanction
It was droll how these men talked of Mr Harding as though he were a puppet and planned their intrigues and small ecclesiastical manouvres without dreaming of taking him into their confidence There was a comfortable house and income in question and it was very desirable and certainly very just that Mr Harding should have them but that at present was not the main point it was expedient to beat the bishop and if possible to smash Mr Slope Mr Slope had set up or was supposed to have set up a rival candidate Of all things the most desirable would have been to have had Mr Quiverfuls appointment published to the public and then annulled by the clamour of an indignant world loud in the defence of Mr Hardings rights But of such an event the chance was small a slight fraction only of the world would be indignant and that fraction would be one not accustomed to loud speaking And then the preferment had in a sort of way been offered to Mr Harding and had in a sort of way been refused by him
Mr Slopes wicked cunning hand had been peculiarly conspicuous in the way in which this had been brought to pass and it was the success of Mr Slopes cunning which was so painfully grating the feelings of the archdeacon That which of all things he most dreaded was that he should be outgeneralled by Mr Slope and just at present it appeared probable that Mr Slope would turn his flank steal a march on him cut off his provisions carry his strong town by a coup de main and at last beat him thoroughly in a regular pitched battle The archdeacon felt that his flank had been turned when desired to wait on Mr Slope instead of the bishop that a march had been stolen when Mr Harding was induced to refuse the bishops offer that his provisions would be cut off when Mr Quiverful got the hospital that Eleanor was the strong town doomed to be taken and that Mr Slope as Dean of Barchester would be regarded by all the world as the conqueror in that final conflict
Dr Gwyinne was the Deus ex machina who was to come down upon the Barchester stage and bring about deliverance from these terrible evils But how can melodramatic denouments be properly brought about how can vice and Mr Slope be punished and virtue and the archdeacon be rewarded while the avenging god is laid up with the gout In the mean time evil may be triumphant and poor innocence transfixed to the earth by an arrow from Dr Proudies quiver may be dead upon the ground not to be resuscitated even by Dr Gwynne
Two or three days after Eleanors departure Mr Arabin went to Oxford and soon found himself closeted with the august head of his college It was quite clear that Dr Gwynne was not very sanguine as to the effects of his journey to Barchester and not over anxious to interfere with the bishop He had had the gout but was very nearly convalescent and Mr Arabin at once saw that had the mission been one of which the master thoroughly approved he would before this have been at Plumstead
As it was Dr Gwynne was resolved to visiting his friend and willingly promised to return to Barchester with Mr Arabin He could not bring himself to believe that there was any probability that Mr Slope would be made Dean of Barchester Rumour he said had reached even his ears not at all favourable to that gentlemans character and he expressed himself strongly of the opinion that any such appointment was quite out of the question At this stage of the proceedings the masters righthand man Tom Staple was called in to assist at the conference Tom Staple was the Tutor of Lazarus and moreover a great man at Oxford Though universally known by a species of nomenclature as very undignified Tom Staple was one who maintained a high dignity in the University He was as it were the leader of the Oxford tutors a body of men who consider themselves collectively as being by very little if at all second in importance to the heads themselves It is not always the case that the master or warden or provost or principal can hit it off exactly with his tutor A tutor is by no means indisposed to have a will of his own But at Lazarus they were great friends and firm allies at the time of which we are writing
Tom Staple was a hale strong man of about fortyfive short in stature swarthy in face with strong sturdy black hair and crisp black beard of which very little was allowed to show itself in the shape of whiskers He always wore a white neckcloth clean indeed but not tied with that scrupulous care which now distinguishes some of our younger clergy He was of course always clothed in a seemly suit of solemn black Mr Staple was a decent cleanly liver not over addicted to any sensuality but nevertheless a somewhat warmish hue was beginning to adorn his nose the peculiar effect as his friends averred of a certain pipe of port introduced into the cellars of Lazarus the very same year in which the tutor entered in as a freshman There was also perhaps with a little redolence of port wine as it were the slightest possible twang in Mr Staples voice
In these days Tom Staple was not a very happy man University reform had long been his bugbear and now was his bane It was not with him as with most others an affair of politics respecting which when the need existed he could for parties sake or on behalf of principle maintain a certain amount of necessary zeal it was not with him a subject for dilettante warfare and courteous commonplace opposition To him it was life and death He would willingly have been a martyr in the cause had the cause admitted of martyrdom
At the present day unfortunately public affairs will allow of no martyrs and therefore it is that there is such a deficiency of zeal Could gentlemen of L 10000 a year have died on their own doorsteps in defence of protection no doubt some halfdozen glorious old baronets would have so fallen and the school of protection would at this day have been crowded with scholars Who can fight strenuously in any combat in which there is no danger Tom Staple would have willingly been impaled before a Committee of the House could he by such selfsacrifice have infused his own spirit into the component members of the hebdomadal board
Tom Staple was one of those who in his heart approved of the credit system which had of old been in vogue between the students and tradesmen of the University He knew and acknowledged to himself that it was useless in these degenerate days publicly to contend with the Jupiter on such a subject The Jupiter had undertaken to rule the University and Tom Staple was well aware that the Jupiter was too powerful for him But in secret and among his safe companions he would argue that the system of credit was an ordeal good for young men to undergo
The bad men said he and the weak and worthless blunder into danger and burn their feet but the good men they who have any character they who have that within them which can reflect credit in their Alma Mater they come through scatheless What merit will there be to a young man to get through safely if he guarded and protected and restrained like a schoolboy By so doing the period of the ordeal is only postponed and the manhood of the man will be deferred from the age of twenty to that of twentyfour If you bind him with leadingstrings at college he will break loose while eating for the bar in London bind him there and he will break loose afterwards when he is a married man The wild oats must be sown somewhere Twas thus that Tom Staple would argue of young men not indeed with much consistency but still with some practical knowledge of the subject gathered from long experience
And now Tom Staple proffered such wisdom as he had for the assistance of Dr Gwynne and Mr Arabin
Quite out of the question said he arguing that Mr Slope could not possibly be made the new Dean of Barchester
So I think said the master He has no standing and if all I hear be true very little character
As to character said Tom Staple I dont think much of that They rather like loose parsons for deans a little fast living or a dash of infidelity is no bad recommendation to a cathedral close But they couldnt make Mr Slope the last two deans have been Cambridge men youll not show me an instance of their making three men running from the same University We dont get out share and never shall I suppose but we must at least have one out of the three
These sort of rules are all gone out by now said Mr Arabin
Everything has gone by I believe said Tom Staple The cigar has been smoked out and we are the ashes
Speak for yourself Staple said the master
I speak for all said the tutor stoutly It is coming to that that there will be no life left anywhere in the country No one is any longer fit to rule himself or those belonging to him The Government is to find us all in everything and the press is to find the Government Nevertheless Mr Slope wont be Dean of Barchester
And who will be the warden of the hospital said Mr Arabin
I hear that Mr Quiverful is already appointed said Tom Staple
I think not said the master And I think moreover that Dr
Proudie will not be so shortsighted as to run against such a rock
Mr Slope should himself have sense enough to prevent it
But perhaps Mr Slope may have no objection to see his patron on a rock said the suspicious tutor
What could he get by that asked Mr Arabin
It is impossible to see the doubles of such a man said Mr Staple It seems quite clear that Bishop Proudie is altogether in his hands and it is equally clear that he has been moving heaven and earth to get this Mr Quiverful into the hospital although he must know that such an appointment would be most damaging to the bishop It is impossible to understand such a man and dreadful to think added Mr Staple sighing deeply that the welfare and fortunes of good men may depend on his intrigues
Dr Gwynne or Mr Staple were not in the least aware nor even was Mr Arabin that this Mr Slope of whom they were talking had been using his utmost efforts to put their own candidate into the hospital and that in lieu of being a permanent in the palace his own expulsion therefrom had been already decided on by the high powers of the diocese
Ill tell you what said the tutor if this Quiverful is thrust into the hospital and Dr Trefoil must die I should not wonder if the Government were to make Mr Harding Dean of Barchester They would feel bound to do something for him after all that was said when he resigned
Dr Gwynne at the moment made no reply to this suggestion but it did not the less impress itself on his mind If Mr Harding could not be warden of the hospital why should he not be Dean of Barchester
And so the conference ended without any very fixed resolution and Dr Gwynne and Mr Arabin prepared for their journey to Plumstead on the morrow
CHAPTER XXXV
MISS THORNES FETE CHAMPETRE
The day of the Ullathorne party arrived and all the world was there or at least so much of the world as had been included in Miss Thornes invitation As we have said the bishop returned home on the previous evening and on the same evening and by the same train came Dr Gwynne and Mr Arabin from Oxford The archdeacon with his brougham was in waiting for the Master of Lazarus so that there was a goodly show of church dignitaries on the platform of the railway
The Stanhope party was finally arranged in the odious manner already described and Eleanor got into the doctors waiting carriage full of apprehension and presentiment of further misfortunes whereas Mr Slope entered the vehicle elate with triumph
He had received that morning a civil note from Sir Nicholas Fitzwiggin not promising much indeed but then Mr Slope knew or fancied that he knew that it was not etiquette for government officers to make promises Though Sir Nicholas promised nothing he implied a good deal declared his conviction that Mr Slope would make an excellent dean and wished him every kind of success To be sure he added that not being in the cabinet he was never consulted on such matters and that even if he spoke on the subject his voice would go for nothing But all this Mr Slope took for the prudent reserve of official life To complete his anticipated triumph another letter was brought to him just as he was about to start to Ullathorne
Mr Slope also enjoyed the idea of handing Mrs Bold out of Dr Stanhopes carriage before the multitude at Ullathorne gate as much as Eleanor dreaded the same ceremony He had fully made up his mind to throw himself and his fortune at the widows feet and had almost determined to select the present propitious morning for doing so The signora had of late been less than civil to him She had indeed admitted his visits and listened at any rate without anger to his love but she had tortured him and reviled him jeered at him and ridiculed him while she allowed him to call her the most beautiful of living women to kiss her hand and to proclaim himself with reiterated oaths her adorer her slave and worshipper
Miss Thorne was in great perturbation yet in great glory on the morning of this day Mr Thorne also though the party was none of his giving had much heavy work on his hands But perhaps the most overtasked the most anxious and the most effective of all the Ullathorne household was Mr Plomacy the steward This last personage had in the time of Mr Thornes father when the Directory held dominion in France gone over to Paris with letters in his boot heel for some of the royal party and such had been his good luck that he had returned safe He had then been very young and was now very old but the exploit gave him a character for political enterprise and secret discretion which still availed him as thoroughly as it had done in its freshest gloss Mr Plomacy had been steward of Ullathorne for more than fifty years and a very easy life he had had of it Who could require much absolute work from a man who had carried safely at his heel that which if discovered would have cost him his head Consequently Mr Plomacy had never worked hard and of latter years had never worked at all He had a taste for timber and therefore he marked the trees that were to be cut down he had a taste for gardening and would therefore allow no shrub to be planted or bed to be made without his express sanction
In these matters he was sometimes driven to run counter to his mistress but he rarely allowed his mistress to carry the point against him
But on occasions such as the present Mr Pomney came out strong He had the honour of the family at heart he thoroughly appreciated the duties of hospitality and therefore when gala doings were going on always took the management into his own hands and reigned supreme over master and mistress
To give Mr Pomney his due old as he was he thoroughly understood such work as he had in hand and did it well
The order of the day was to be as follows The quality as the upper classes in rural districts are designated by the lower with so much true discrimination were to eat a breakfast and the nonquality were to eat a dinner Two marquees had been erected for these two banquets that for the quality on the esoteric or garden side of a certain deep haha and that for the nonquality on the exoteric or paddock side of the same Both were of huge dimensions that on the outer side one may say on an egregious scale but Mr Pomney declared that neither would be sufficient To remedy this an auxiliary banquet was prepared in the diningroom and a subsidiary board was to be spread sub dio for the accommodation of the lower class of yokels on the Ullathorne property
No one who has not had a hand in the preparation of such an affair can understand the manifold difficulties which Miss Thorne encountered in her project Had she not been made throughout of the very finest whalebone rivetted with the best Yorkshire steel she must have sunk under them Had not Mr Pomney felt how much was justly expected from a man who at one time carried the destinies of Europe in his boot he would have given way and his mistress so deserted must have perished among her poles and canvass
In the first place there was a dreadful line to be drawn Who was to dispose themselves within the haha and who without To this the unthinking will give an offhand answer as they will to every ponderous question Oh the bishop and such like within the haha and Farmer Greenacre and such without True my unthinking friend but who shall define these suchlikes It is in such definitions that the whole difficulty of society consists To seat the bishop on an arm chair on the lawn and place Farmer Greenacre at the end of a long table in the paddock is easy enough but where will you put Mrs Lookaloft whose husband though a tenant on the estate hunts in a red coat whose daughters go to a fashionable seminary in Barchester who calls her farm house Rosebank and who has a pianoforte in her drawingroom The Misses Lookaloft as they call themselves wont sit contented among the bumpkins Mrs Lookaloft wont squeeze her fine clothes on a bench and talk familiarly about cream and ducklings to good Mrs Greenacres And yet Mrs Lookaloft is not fit companion and never has been the associate of the Thornes and the Grantlys And if Mrs Lookaloft be admitted within the sanctum of fashionable life if she be allowed with her three daughters to leap the haha why not the wives and daughters of other families also Mrs Greenacre is at present well contented with the paddock but she might cease to be so if she saw Mrs Lookaloft on the lawn And thus poor Miss Thorne had a hard time of it
And how was she to divide the guests between the marquee and the parlour She had a countess coming and Honourable John and an Honourable George and a whole bevy of Ladies Amelia Rosina Margaretta c she had a leash of baronets with their baronesses and as we all know a bishop If she put them on the lawn no one would go into the parlour if she put them into the parlour no one would go into the tent She thought of keeping the old people in the house and leaving the lawn to the lovers She might as well have seated herself at once in a hornets nest Mr Pomney knew better than this Bless your soul Maam said he there wont be no old ladies not one barring yourself and old Mrs Chantantrum
Personally Miss Thorne accepted this distinction in her favour as a compliment to her good sense but nevertheless she had no desire to be closeted on the coming occasion with Mrs Chantantrum She gave up all idea of any arbitrary division of her guests and determined if possible to put the bishop on the lawn and the countess in the house to sprinkle the baronets and thus divide the attractions What to do with the Lookalofts even Mr Plomacy could not decide They must take their chance They had been specially told in the invitation that all the tenants had been invited and they might probably have the good sense to stay away if they objected to mix with the rest of the tenantry
Then Mr Plomacy declared his apprehension that the Honourable Johns and Honourable Georges would come in a sort of amphibious costume half morning half evening satin neckhandkerchiefs frock coats primrose gloves and polished boots and that being so dressed they would decline riding at the quintain or taking part in any of the athletic games which Miss Thorne had prepared with so much care If the Lord Johns and Lord Georges didnt ride at the quintain Miss Thorne might be sure that nobody else would
But said she in dolorous voice all but overcome by her cares it was specially signified that there were to be sports
And so there will be of course said Mr Pomney Theyll all be sporting with the young ladies in the laurel walks Thems the sports they care most about nowadays If you gets the young men at the quintain youll have all the young women in the pouts
Cant they look on as their great grandmothers did before them said Miss Thorne
It seems to me that the ladies aint contented with looking nowadays Whatever the men do theyll do If youll have side saddles on the nags and let them go at the quintain too itll answer capital no doubt
Miss Thorne made no reply She felt that she had no good ground on which to defend her sex of the present generation from the sarcasm of Mr Pomney She had once declared in one of her warmer moments that nowadays the gentlemen were all women and the ladies all men She could not alter the debased character of the age But such being the case why should she take on herself to cater for the amusement of people of such degraded tastes This question she asked herself more than once and she could only answer herself with a sigh There was her own brother Wilfred on whose shoulders rested the all the ancient honours of Ullathorne House it was very doubtful whether even he would consent to go at the quintain as Mr Pomney not injudiciously expressed it
And now the morning arrived The Ullathorne household was early on the move Cooks were cooking in the kitchen long before daylight and men were dragging out tables and hammering red baize on to benches at the earliest dawn With what dread eagerness did Miss Thorne look out at the weather as soon as the parting veil of night permitted her to look at all In this respect at any rate there was nothing to grieve her The glass had been rising for the last three days and the morning broke with that dull chill steady grey haze which in autumn generally presages a clear and dry day By seven she was dressed and down Miss Thorne knew nothing of the modern luxury of deshabilles She would as soon have thought of appearing before her brother without her stockings as without her stays and Miss Thornes stays were no trifle
And yet there was nothing for her to do when down She fidgeted out to the lawn and then back into the kitchen She put on her highheeled clogs and fidgeted out into the paddock Then she went into the small home park where the quintain was erected The pole and crossbar and the swivel and the target and the bag of flour were all complete She got up on a carpenters bench and touched the target with her hand it went round with beautiful ease the swivel had been oiled to perfection She almost wished to take old Plomacy at his word to go on a side saddle and have a tilt at it herself
What must a young man be thought she who could prefer maundering among the trees with a wishywashy school girl to such fun as this Well said she aloud to herself one man can take a horse to water but a thousand cant make him drink There it is If they havent the spirit to enjoy it the fault shant be mine and so she returned the house
At a little after eight her brother came down and they had a sort of scrap breakfast in his study The tea was made without the customary urn and they dispensed with the usual rolls and toast Eggs were also missing for every egg in the parish had been whipped into custards baked into pies or boiled into lobster salad The allowances of fresh butter was short and Mr Thorne was obliged to eat the leg of a fowl without having it devilled in the manner he loved
I have been looking at the quintain Wilfred said she and it appears to be quite right
Oh—ah yes said he It seemed to be so yesterday when I saw it Mr Thorne was beginning to be rather bored by his sisters love of sports and had especially no affection for this quintain post
I wish youd just try it after breakfast said she You could have the saddle put on Mark Antony and the pole is there all handy You can take the flour bag off you know if you think Mark Antony wont be quick enough added Miss Thorne seeing that her brothers countenance was not indicative of complete accordance with her little proposition
Now Mark Antony was a valuable old hunter excellently suited to Mr Thornes usual requirements steady indeed at his fences but extremely sure very good in deep ground and safe on the roads But he had never yet been ridden at a quintain and Mr Thorne was not inclined to put him to the trial either with or without the bag of flour He hummed and hawed and finally declared that he was afraid Mark Antony would shy
Then try the cob said the indefatigable Miss Thorne
Hes in physic said Wilfred
Theres the Beelzebub colt said his sister I know hes in the stable because I saw Peter exercising him just now
My dear Monica hes so wild that its as much as I can do to manage him at all Hed destroy himself and me too if I attempted to ride him at such a rattletrap as that
A rattletrap The quintain that she had put up with so much anxious care the game that she had prepared for the amusement of the stalwart yeomen of the country the sport that had been honoured by the affection of so many of their ancestors It cut her to the heart to hear it so denominated by her own brother There were but the two of them left together in the world and it had ever been one of the rules by which Miss Thorne had regulated her conduct through life to say nothing that could provoke her brother She had often had to suffer from his indifference to timehonoured British customs but she had always suffered in silence It was part of her creed that the head of the family should never be upbraided in his own house and Miss Thorne had lived up to her creed Now however she was greatly tried The colour mounted to her ancient cheek and the fire blazed in her still bright eye but yet she said nothing She resolved that at any rate to him nothing more should be said about the quintain that day
She sipped her tea in silent sorrow and thought with painful regret of the glorious days when her great ancestor Ealfried had successfully held Ullathorne against a Norman invader There was no such spirit now left in her family except that small useless spark which burnt in her own bosom And she herself was not she at this moment intent on entertaining a descendant of those very Normand a vain proud countess with a frenchified name who would only think that she graced Ullathorne too highly by entering its portals Was it likely that an honourable John the son of the Earl de Courcy should ride at a quintain in company with a Saxon yeoman And why should she expect her brother to do that which her brothers guests would decline to do
Some dim faint idea of the impracticability of her own views flitted across her brain Perhaps it was necessary that races doomed to live on the same soil should give way to each other and adopt each others pursuits Perhaps it was impossible that after more than five centuries of close intercourse Normans should remain Normans and Saxons Saxons Perhaps after all her neighbours were wiser than herself such ideas did occasionally present themselves to Miss Thornes mind and make her sad enough But it never occurred to her that her favourite quintain was but a modern copy of a Norman knights amusement an adaptation of the noble tourney to the tastes and habits of the Saxon yeomen Of this she was ignorant and it would have been cruelty to instruct her
When Mr Thorne saw the tear in her eye he repented himself of his contemptuous expression By him also it was recognised as a binding law that every whim of his sister was to be respected He was not perhaps so firm in his observances to her as she was in hers to him But his intentions were equally good and whenever he found that he had forgotten them it was a matter of grief to him
My dear Monica said he I beg your pardon I dont in the least mean to speak ill of the game When I called it a rattletrap I merely meant that it was so for a man of my age You know you always forget that I ant a young man
I am quite sure you are not an old man Wilfred said she accepting the apology in her heart and smiling at him with the tear still on her cheek
If I was fiveandtwenty or thirty continued he I should like nothing better than riding at the quintain all day
But you are not too old to hunt or to shoot said she If you can jump over a ditch and hedge I am sure you could turn the quintain round
But when I ride over the hedges my dear—and it isnt very often I do that—but when I do ride over the hedges there isnt any bag of flour coming after me Think how Id look taking the countess out to breakfast with the back of my head all covered with meal
Miss Thorne said nothing further She didnt like the allusion to the countess She couldnt be satisfied with the reflection that the sports of Ullathorne should be interfered with by the personal attentions necessary for a Lady de Courcy But she saw that it was useless for her to push the matter further It was conceded that Mr Thorne was to spared the quintain and Miss Thorne determined to trust wholly to a youthful knight of hers an immense favourite who as she often declared was a pattern to the young men of the age and an excellent example of an English yeoman
This was Farmer Greenacres eldest son who to tell the truth had from his earliest years taken the exact measure of Miss Thornes foot In his boyhood he had never failed to obtain from her apples pocket money and forgiveness for his numerous trespasses and now in his early manhood he got privileges and immunities which were equally valuable He was allowed a day or twos shooting in September he schooled the squires horses got slips of trees out of the orchard and roots of flowers out of the garden and had the fishing of the little river altogether in his own hands He had undertaken to come mounted on a nag of his fathers and show the way at the quintain post Whatever young Greenacre did the others would do after him The juvenile Lookalofts might stand sure to venture if Harry Greenacre showed the way And so Miss Thorne made up her mind to dispense with the noble Johns and Georges and trust as her ancestors had done before her to the thews and sinews of native Ullathorne growth
At about nine the lower orders began to congregate in the paddock and park under the surveillance of Mr Plomacy and the head gardener and head groom who were sworn in as his deputies and were to assist him in keeping the peace and promoting the sports Many of the younger inhabitants of the neighbourhood thinking that they could not have too much of a good thing had come at a very early hour and the road between the house and the church had been thronged for some time before the gates were thrown open
And then another difficulty of huge dimensions arose a difficulty which Mr Plomacy had indeed foreseen and for which he was in some sort provided Some of those who wished to share Miss Thornes hospitality were not so particular that they should have been as to the preliminary ceremony of an invitation They doubtless conceived that they had been overlooked by accident and instead of taking this in dudgeon as their betters would have done they goodnaturedly put up with the slight and showed that they did so by presenting themselves at the gate in their Sunday best
Mr Plomacy however well knew who were welcome and who were not To some even though uninvited he allowed ingress Dont be too particular Plomacy his mistress had said especially with the children If they live anywhere near let them in
Acting on this hint Mr Plomacy did let in many an eager urchin and a few tidily dressed girls with their swains who in no way belonged to the property But to the denizens of the city he was inexorable Many a Barchester apprentice made his appearance there that day and urged with piteous supplication that he had been working all the week in making saddles and boots for the use of Ullathorne in compounding doses for the horses or cutting up carcasses for the kitchen No such claim was allowed Mr Plomacy knew nothing about the city apprentices he was to admit the tenants and labourers on the estate Miss Thorne wasnt going to take in the whole city of Barchester and so on
Nevertheless before the day was half over all this was found to be useless Almost anybody who chose to come made his way into the park and the care of the guardians was transferred to the tables on which the banquet was spread Even here there was many an unauthorized claimant for a plate of whom it was impossible to get quit without some commotion than the place and food were worth
CHAPTER XXXVI
ULLATHORNE SPORTS—ACT I
The trouble in civilised life of entertaining company as it is called too generally without much regard to strict veracity is so great that it cannot but be matter of wonder that people are so fond of attempting it It is difficult to ascertain what is the quid pro quo If they who give such laborious parties and who endure such toil and turmoil in the vain hope of giving them successfully really enjoyed the parties given by others the matter would be understood A sense of justice would induce men and women to undergo in behalf of others those miseries which others had undergone on their behalf But they all profess that going out is as great a bore as receiving and to look at them when they are out one cannot but believe them
Entertain Who shall have sufficient selfassurance who shall feel sufficient confidence in his own powers to dare to boast that he can entertain his company A clown can sometimes do so and sometimes a dancer in short petticoats and stuffed pink legs occasionally perhaps a singer But beyond these success in this art of entertaining is not often achieved Young men and girls linking themselves kind with kind pairing like birds in spring because nature wills it they after a simple fashion do entertain each other Few others even try
Ladies when they open their houses modestly confessing it may be presumed their own incapacity mainly trust to wax candles and upholstery Gentlemen seem to rely on their white waistcoats To these are added for the delight of the more sensual champagne and such good things of the table as fashion allows to be still considered as comestible Even in this respect the world is deteriorating All the good soups are now tabooed and at the houses of ones accustomed friends small barristers doctors government clerks and such like for we cannot all of us always live as grandees surrounded by an Elysium of livery servants one gets a cold potato handed to one as a sort of finale to ones slice of mutton Alas for those happy days when one could say to ones neighbourhood Jones shall I give you some mashed turnip—may I trouble you for a little cabbage And then the pleasure of drinking wine with Mrs Jones and Miss Smith with all the Joneses and all the Smiths These latterday habits are certainly more economical
Miss Thorne however boldly attempted to leave the modern beaten track and made a positive effort to entertain her guests Alas she did so with but moderate success They had all their own way of going and would not go her way She piped to them but they would not dance She offered to them good honest household cake made of currants and flour and eggs and sweetmeat but they would feed themselves on trashy wafers from the shop of the Barchester pastrycook on chalk and gum and adulterated sugar Poor Miss Thorne yours is not the first honest soul that has vainly striven to recall the glories of happy days gone by If fashion suggests to a Lady De Courcy that when invited to a dejeuner at twelve oclock she ought to come at three no eloquence of thine will teach her the advantage of a nearer approach to punctuality
She had fondly thought that when she called on her friends to come at twelve and especially begged them to believe that she meant it she would be able to see them comfortably seated in their tents at two Vain woman—or rather ignorant woman—ignorant of the advances of that civilization which the world had witnessed while she was growing old At twelve she found herself alone dressed in all the glory of the newest of her many suits of raiment with strong shoes however and a serviceable bonnet on her head and a warm rich shawl on her shoulders Thus clad she peered out into the tent went to the haha and satisfied herself that at any rate the youngsters were amusing themselves spoke a word to Mrs Greenacre over the ditch and took one look at the quintain Three or four young farmers were turning the machine round and round and poking at the bag of flour in a manner not at all intended by the inventor of the game but no mounted sportsmen were there Miss Thorne looked at her watch It was only fifteen minutes past twelve and it was understood that Harry Greenacre was not to begin till the half hour
Miss Thorne returned to her drawingroom rather quicker than her wont fearing that the countess might come and find none to welcome her She need not have hurried for no one was there At halfpast twelve she peeped into the kitchen at a quarter to one she was joined by her brother and just then the first fashionable arrival took place Mrs Clantantram was announced
No announcement was necessary indeed for the good ladys voice was heard as she walked across the courtyard to the house scolding the unfortunate postilion who had driven her from Barchester At the moment Miss Thorne could not but be thankful that the other guests were more fashionable and were thus spared the fury of Mrs Clantantrams indignation
Oh Miss Thorne look here said she as soon as she found herself in the drawingroom do look at my roquelaure Its clean spoilt and for ever I wouldnt but wear it because I know you wished us all to be grand today and yet I had my misgivings Oh dear oh dear It was fiveandtwenty shillings a yard
The Barchester post horses had misbehaved in some unfortunate manner just as Mrs Clantantram was getting out of the chaise and had nearly thrown her under the wheel
Mrs Clantantram belonged to other days and therefore though she had but little else to recommend her Miss Thorne was to a certain extent fond of her She sent the roquelaure away to be cleaned and lent her one of her best shawls out of her own wardrobe
The next comer was Mr Arabin who was immediately informed of Mrs Clantantrams misfortune and of her determination to pay neither master nor postboy although as she remarked she intended to get her lift home before she made known her mind upon that matter Then a good deal of rustling was heard in the sort of lobby that was used for the ladies outside cloaks and the door having been thrown wide open the servant announced not in the most confident of voices Mrs Lookaloft and the Miss Lookalofts and Mr Augustus Lookaloft
Poor man—we mean the footman He knew none better that Mrs Lookaloft had no business there that she was not wanted there and would not be welcome But he had not the courage to tell a stout lady with a low dress short sleeves and satin at eight shillings a yard that she had come to the wrong tent he had not dared to hint to young ladies with white dancing shoes and long gloves that there was a place ready for them in the paddock And thus Mrs Lookaloft carried her point broke through the guards and made her way into the citadel That she would have to pass an uncomfortable time there she had surmised before But nothing now could rob her of the power of boasting that she had consorted on the lawn with the squire and Miss Thorne with a countess a bishop and the country grandees while Mrs Greenacres and such like were walking about with the ploughboys in the park It was a great point gained by Mrs Lookaloft and it might be fairly expected that from this time forward the tradesmen of Barchester would with undoubting pens address her husband and T Lookaloft Esquire
Mrs Lookalofts pluck carried her through everything and she walked triumphant into the Ullathorne drawingroom but her children did feel a little abashed at the sort of reception they met with It was not in Miss Thornes heart to insult her own guests but neither was it in her disposition to overlook such effrontery
Oh Mrs Lookaloft is this you said she and your daughters and son Well were very glad to see you but Im sorry youve come in such low dresses as we are all going out of doors Could we lend you anything
Oh dear no thank ye Miss Thorne said the mother the girls and myself are quite used to low dresses when were out
Are you indeed said Miss Thorne shuddering but the shudder was not lost on Mrs Lookaloft
And wheres Lookaloft said the master of the house coming up to welcome his tenants wife Let the faults of the family be what they would he could not but remember that their rent was well paid he was therefore not willing to give them a cold shoulder
Such a headache Mr Thorne said Mrs Lookaloft In fact he couldnt stir or you may be certain on such a day he would not have absented himself
Dear me said Miss Thorne If he is so ill I sure youd wish to be with him
Not at all said Mrs Lookaloft Not at all Miss Thorne It is only bilious you know and when hes that way he can bear nobody nigh him
The fact however was that Mr Lookaloft having either more sense or less courage than his wife had not chosen to intrude on Miss Thornes drawingroom and as he could not very well have gone among the plebeians while his wife was with the patricians he thought it most expedient to remain at Rosebank
Mrs Lookaloft soon found herself on a sofa and the Miss Lookalofts on two chairs while Mr Augustus stood near the door and here they remained till in due time they were seated all four together at the bottom of the diningroom table
Then the Grantlys came the archdeacon and Mrs Grantly and the two girls and Dr Gwynne and Mr Harding and as ill luck would have it they were closely followed by Dr Stanhopes carriage As Eleanor looked out of the carriage window she saw her brotherinlaw helping the ladies out and threw herself back into her seat dreading to be discovered She had had an odious journey Mr Slopes civility had been more than ordinarily greasy and now though he had not in fact said anything which she could notice she had for the first time entertained a suspicion that he was intending to make love to her Was it after all true that she had been conducting herself in a way that justified the world in thinking that she liked the man After all could it be possible that the archdeacon and Mr Arabin were right and that she was wrong Charlotte Stanhope had also been watching Mr Slope and had come to the conclusion that it behoved her brother to lose no further time if he meant to gain the widow She almost regretted that it had not been contrived that Bertie should be at Ullathorne before them
Dr Grantly did not see his sisterinlaw in company with Mr Slope but Mr Arabin did Mr Arabin came out with Mr Thorne to the front door to welcome Mrs Grantly and he remained in the courtyard till all their party had passed on Eleanor hung back in the carriage as long as she well could but she was nearest to the door and when Mr Slope having alighted offered her his hand she had no alternative but to take it
Mr Arabin standing at the open door while Mrs Grantly was shaking hands with someone within saw a clergyman alight from the carriage whom he at once knew to be Mr Slope and then she saw this clergyman hand out Mrs Bold Having seen so much Mr Arabin rather sick at heart followed Mrs Grantly into the house
Eleanor was however spared any further immediate degradation for Dr Stanhope gave her his arm across the courtyard and Mr Slope was fain to throw away his attention upon Charlotte
They had hardly passed into the house and from the house to the lawn when with a loud rattle and such noise as great men and great woman are entitled to make in their passage through the world the Proudies drove up It was soon apparent that no every day comer was at the door One servant whispered to another that it was the bishop and the word soon ran through all the hangerson and strange grooms and coachmen about the place There was quite a little cortege to see the bishop and his lady walk across the courtyard and the good man was pleased to see that the church was held in such respect in the parish of St Ewolds
And now the guests came fast and thick and the lawn began to be crowded and the room to be full Voices buzzed silk rustled against silk and muslin crumpled against muslin Miss Thorne became more happy than she had been and again bethought her of her sports There were targets and bows and arrows prepared at the further end of the lawn Here the gardens of the place encroached with a somewhat wide sweep upon the paddock and gave ample room for the doings of the toxophilites Miss Thorne got together such daughters of Diana as could bend a bow and marshalled them to the targets There were the Grantly girls and the Proudie girls and the Chadwick girls and the two daughters of the burly chancellor and Miss Knowle and with them went Frederick and Augustus Chadwick and young Knowle of Knowle park and Frank Foster of the Elms and Mr Vellem Deeds the dashing attorney of the High Street and the Rev Mr Green and the Rev Mr Browne and the Rev Mr White all of whom as in duty bound attended the steps of the three Miss Proudies
Did you ever ride at the quintain Mr Foster said Miss Thorne as she walked with her party across the lawn
The quintain said young Foster who considered himself a dab at horsemanship Is it a sort of gate Miss Thorne
Miss Thorne had to explain the noble game she spoke of and Frank
Foster had to own that he never had ridden at the quintain
Would you like to come and see said Miss Thorne Therell be plenty here without you if you like it
Well I dont mind said Frank I suppose the ladies can come too
Oh yes said Miss Thorne those who like it I have no doubt theyll go to see your prowess if youll ride Mr Foster
Mr Foster looked down at a most unexceptionable pair of pantaloons which had arrived from London only the day before They were the very things at least he thought so for a picnic of fete champetre but he was not prepared to ride in them Nor was he more encouraged than had been Mr Thorne by the idea of being attacked from behind by the bag of flour which Miss Thorne had graphically described to him
Well I dont know about riding Miss Thorne said he I fear
Im not quite prepared
Miss Thorne sighed but said nothing further She left the toxophilites to their bows and arrows and returned towards the house But as she passed by the entrance to the small park she thought that she might at any rate encourage the yeomen by her presence as she could not induced her more fashionable guests to mix with them in their many amusements
Accordingly she once more betook herself to the quintain post Here to her great delight she found Harry Greenacre ready mounted with his pole in his hand and a lot of comrades standing round him encouraging him to the assault She stood at a little distance and nodded to him in token of her good pleasure
Shall I begin maam said Henry fingering his long staff in a rather awkward way while his horse moved uneasily beneath him not accustomed to a rider armed with such a weapon
Yes yes said Miss Thorne standing triumphant as the queen of beauty on an inverted tub which some chance had brought hither from the farmyard
Here goes then said Harry as he wheeled his horse round to get the necessary momentum of a sharp gallop The quintain post stood right before him and the square board at which he was to tilt was fairly in the way If he hit that duly in the middle and maintained his pace as he did so it was calculated that he would be carried out of reach of the flour bag which suspended at the other end of the crossbar on the post would swing round when the board was struck It was also calculated that if the rider did not maintain his pace he would get a blow from the flour bag just at the back of his head and bear about him the signs of his awkwardness to the great amusement of the lookerson
Harry Greenacre did not object to being powdered with flour in the service of his mistress and therefore gallantly touched his steed with his spur having laid his lance in rest to the best of his ability But his ability in this respect was not great and his appurtenances probably not very good consequently he struck his horse with his pole unintentionally on the side of the head as he started The animal swerved and shied and galloped off wide of the quintain Harry well accustomed to manage a horse but not to do so with a twelvefoot rod on his arm lowered his right hand to the bridle and thus the end of the lance came to the ground and got between the legs of the steed Down came the rider and steed and staff Young Greenacre was thrown some six feet over the horses head and poor Miss Thorne almost fell of her tub in a swoon
Oh gracious hes killed shrieked a woman who was near him when he fell
The Lord be good to him his poor mother his poor mother said another
Well drat them dangerous plays all the world over said an old crone
He has broke his neck sure enough if ever man did said a fourth
Poor Miss Thorne She heard all this and yet did not quite swoon She made her way through the crowd as best she could sick herself almost to death Oh his mother—his poor mother how could she ever forgive herself The agony of that moment was terrific She could hardly get to the place where the poor lad was lying as three or four men in front were about the horse which had risen with some difficulty but at last she found herself close to the young farmer
Has he marked himself for heavens sake tell me that has he marked his knees said Harry slowly rising and rubbing his left shoulder with his right hand and thinking only of his horses legs Miss Thorne soon found that he had not broken his neck nor any of his bones nor been injured in any essential way But from that time forth she never instigated any one to ride at the quintain
Eleanor left Dr Stanhope as soon as she could do so civilly and went in quest of her father whom she found on the lawn in company with Mr Arabin She was not sorry to find them together She was anxious to disabuse at any rate her fathers mind as to this report which had got abroad respecting her and would have been well pleased to have been able to do the same with regard to Mr Arabin She put her own through her fathers arm coming up behind his back and then tendered her hand also to the vicar of St Ewolds
And how did you come said Mr Harding when the first greeting was over
The Stanhopes brought me said she their carriage was obliged to come twice and has now gone back for the signora As she spoke she caught Mr Arabins eye and saw that he was looking pointedly at her with a severe expression She understood at once the accusation contained in his glance It said as plainly as an eye could speak Yes you came with the Stanhopes but you did so in order that you might be in company with Mr Slope
Our party said she still addressing her father consisted of the Doctor and Charlotte Stanhope myself and Mr Slope As she mentioned the last name she felt her fathers arm quiver slightly beneath her touch At the same moment Mr Arabin turned away from them and joining his hands behind his back strolled slowly away by one of the paths
Papa said she it was impossible to help coming in the same carriage with Mr Slope it was quite impossible I had promised to come with them before I dreamt of his coming and afterwards I could not get out of it without explaining and giving rise to talk You werent at home you know I couldnt possibly help it She said all this so quickly that by the time her apology was spoken she was quite out of breath
I dont know why you should have wished to help it my dear said her father
Yes papa you do you must know you do know all the things they said at Plumstead I am sure you do You know all the archdeacon said How unjust he was and Mr Arabin too Hes a horrid man a horrid odious man but—
Who is an odious man my dear Mr Arabin
No but Mr Slope You know I mean Mr Slope Hes the most odious man I ever met in my life and it was most unfortunate my having to come here in the same carriage with him But how could I help it
A great weight began to move itself off Mr Hardings mind So after all the archdeacon with all his wisdom and Mrs Grantly with all her tact and Mr Arabin with all his talent were in the wrong His own child his Eleanor the daughter of whom he was so proud was not to become the wife of Mr Slope He had been about to give his sanction to the marriage so certified had he been of this fact and now he learnt that this imputed lover of Eleanors was at any rage as much disliked by her as by any one of the family Mr Harding however was by no means sufficiently a man of the world to conceal the blunder he had made He could not pretend that he had entertained no suspicion he could not make believe that he had never joined the archdeacon in his surmises He was greatly surprised and gratified beyond measure and he could not help showing that such was the case
My darling girl said he I am so delighted so overjoyed My own child you have taken such a weight off my mind
But surely papa you didnt think—
I didnt know what to think my dear The archdeacon told me that
The archdeacon said Eleanor her face lighting up with passion A man like the archdeacon might one would think be better employed than in traducing his sisterinlaw and creating bitterness between a father and his daughter
He didnt mean to that Eleanor
What did he mean then Why did he interfere with me and fill your mind with such falsehood
Never mind it now my child never mind it now We shall all know you better now
Oh papa that you should have thought it that you should have suspected me
I dont know what you mean by suspicion Eleanor There would be nothing disgraceful you know nothing wrong in such a marriage Nothing that could have justified my interfering as your father And Mr Harding would have proceeded in his own defence to make out that Mr Slope after all was a very good sort of man and a very fitting second husband for a young widow had he not been interrupted by Eleanors greater energy
It would be disgraceful said she it would be wrong it would be abominable Could I do such a horrid thing I should expect no one to speak to me Ugh— and she shuddered as she thought of the matrimonial torch which her friends had been so ready to light on her behalf I dont wonder at Dr Grantly I dont wonder at Susan but oh papa I do wonder at you How could you how could you believe it Poor Eleanor as she thought of her fathers defalcation could resist her tears no longer and was forced to cover her face with her handkerchief
The place was not very opportune for her grief They were walking through the shrubberies and there were many people near them Poor Mr Harding stammered out his excuse as best he could and Eleanor with an effort controlled her tears and returned her handkerchief to her pocket She did not find it difficult to forgive her father nor could she altogether refuse to join him in the returning gaiety of spirit to which her present avowal gave rise It was such a load off his heart to think that he should not be called on to welcome Mr Slope as his soninlaw it was such a relief to him to find that his daughters feelings and his own were now as they ever had been in unison He had been so unhappy for the last six weeks about this wretched Mr Slope
He was so indifferent as to the loss of the hospital so thankful for the recovery of his daughter that strong as was the ground for Eleanors anger she could not find it in her heart to be long angry with him
Dear papa she said hanging closely to his arm never suspect me again promise me that you never will Whatever I do you may be sure I shall tell you first you may be sure I shall consult you
And Mr Harding did promise and owned his sin and promised again And so while he promised amendment and she uttered forgiveness they returned together to the drawingroom windows
And what had Eleanor meant when she declared that whatever she did she would tell her father first What was she thinking of doing
So ended the first act of the melodrama which Eleanor was called on to perform this day at Ullathorne
CHAPTER XXXVII
THE SIGNORA NERONI THE COUNTESS DE COURCY AND MRS PROUDIE MEET EACH OTHER AT ULLATHORNE
And now there were new arrivals Just as Eleanor reached the drawingroom the signora was being wheeled into it She had been brought out of the carriage into the diningroom and there placed on a sofa and was now in the act of entering the other room by the joint aid of her brother and sister Mr Arabin and two servants in livery She was all in her glory and looked so pathetically happy so full of affliction and grace was so beautiful so pitiable and so charming that it was almost impossible not to be glad she was there
Miss Thorne was unaffectedly glad to welcome her In fact the signora was a sort of lion and though there was no drop of the Leohunter blood in Miss Thornes veins she nevertheless did like to see attractive people at her house
The signora was attractive and on her first settlement in the diningroom she had whispered two or three soft feminine words into Miss Thornes ear which at the moment had quite touched that ladys heart
Oh Miss Thorne where is Miss Thorne she said as soon as her attendants had placed her in her position just before one of the windows from whence she could see all that was going on upon the lawn How am I to thank you for permitting a creature like me to be here But if you knew the pleasure you give me I am sure you would excuse the trouble I bring with me And as she spoke she squeezed the spinsters little hand between her own
We are delighted to see you here said Miss Thorne you give us no trouble at all and we think it a great favour conferred by you to come and see us dont we Wilfred
A very great favour indeed said Mr Thorne with a gallant bow but of somewhat less cordial welcome than that conceded by his sister Mr Thorne had learned perhaps more of the antecedents of his guest than his sister had done and not as yet undergone the power of the signoras charms
But while the mother of the last of the Neros was thus in he full splendour with crowds of people gazing at her and the elite of the company standing round her couch her glory was paled by the arrival of the Countess De Courcy Miss Thorne had now been waiting three hours for the countess and could not therefore but show very evident gratification when the arrival at last took place She and her brother of course went off to welcome the titled grandee and with them alas went many of the signoras admirers
Oh Mr Thorne said the countess while the act of being disrobed of her fur cloaks and rerobed in her gauze shawls what dreadful roads you have perfectly frightful
It happened that Mr Thorne was waywarden for the district and not liking the attack began to excuse his roads
Oh yes indeed they are said the countess not minding him in the least perfectly dreadful are they not Margaretta Why dear Miss Thorne we left Courcy Castle just at eleven it was only just past eleven was it not John and—
Just past one I think you mean said the Honourable John turning from the group and eyeing the signora through his glass The signora gave him back his own as the saying is and more with it so that the young nobleman was forced to avert his glance and drop his glass
I say Thorne whispered he who the deuce is that on the sofa
Dr Stanhopes daughter whispered back Mr Thorne Signora Neroni she calls herself
Whewewew whistled the Honourable John The devil she is I have heard no end of stories about that filly You must positively introduce me Thorne you positively must
Mr Thorne who was respectability itself did not quite like having a guest about whom the Honourable John De Courcy had heard no end of stories but he couldnt help himself He merely resolved that before he went to bed he would let his sister know somewhat of the history of the lady she was so willing to welcome The innocence of Miss Thorne at her time of life was perfectly charming but even innocence may be dangerous
John may say what he likes continued the countess urging her excuses on Miss Thorne I am sure we were past the castle gate before twelve werent we Margaretta
Upon my word I dont know said the Lady Margaretta for I was half asleep But I do know that I was called sometime in the middle of the night and was dressing myself before daylight
Wise people when they are in the wrong always put themselves right by finding fault with the people against whom they have sinned Lady De Courcy was a wise woman and therefore having treated Miss Thorne very badly by staying away till three oclock she assumed the offensive and attacked Mr Thornes roads Her daughter not less wise attacked Miss Thornes early hours The art of doing this is among the most precious of those usually cultivated by persons who know how to live There is no withstanding it Who can go systematically to work and having done battle with the primary accusation and settled that then bring forward a countercharge and support that also Life is not long enough for such labours A man in the right relies easily on his rectitude and therefore goes about unarmed His very strength is his weakness his very weakness is his strength The one is never prepared for combat the other is always ready Therefore it is that in this world the man that is in the wrong almost invariably conquers the man that is in the right and invariably despises him
A man must be an idiot or else an angel who after the age of forty shall attempt to be just to his neighbours Many like the Lady Margaretta have learnt their lesson at a much earlier age But this of course depends on the school in which they have been taught
Poor Miss Thorne was altogether overcome She knew very well that she had been illtreated and yet she found herself making apologies to Lady De Courcy To do her ladyship justice she received them very graciously and allowed herself with her train of daughters to be led towards the lawn
There were two windows in the drawingroom wide open for the countess to pass through but she saw that there was a woman on the sofa at the third window and that that woman had as it were a following attached to her Her ladyship therefore determined to investigate the woman The De Courcys were hereditarily short sighted and had been so for thirty centuries at least So Lady De Courcy who when she entered the family had adopted the family habits did as her son had done before her and taking her glass to investigate the Signora Neroni pressed in among the gentlemen who surrounded the couch and bowed slightly to those whom she chose to honour by her acquaintance
In order to get to the window she had to pass close to the front of the couch and as she did so she stared hard at the occupant The occupant in return stared hard at the countess The countess who since her countessship commenced had been accustomed to see all eyes not royal ducal or marquesal fall down before her own paused as she went on raised her eyebrows and stared even harder than before But she had now to do with one who cared little for countesses It was one may say impossible for mortal man or woman to abash Madeline Neroni She opened her large bright lustrous eyes wider and wider till she seemed to be all eyes
She gazed up into the ladys face not as though she did it with an effort but as if she delighted in doing it She used no glass to assist her effrontery and needed none The faintest possible smile of derision played round her mouth and her nostrils were slightly dilated as if in sure anticipation of her triumph And it was sure The Countess De Courcy in spite of her thirty centuries and De Courcy castle and the fact that Lord De Courcy was grand master of the ponies to the Prince of Wales had not a chance with her
At first the little circlet of gold wavered in the countesss hand then the hand shook then the circlet fell the countesss head tossed itself into the air and the countesss feet shambled out to the lawn She did not however go so fast but what she heard the signoras voice asking—
Who on earth is that woman Mr Slope
That is Lady De Courcy
Oh ah I might have supposed so Ha ha ha Well thats as good as a play
It was as good as a play to any there who had eyes to observe it and wit to comment on what they observed
But the Lady De Courcy soon found a congenial spirit on the lawn There she encountered Mrs Proudie and as Mrs Proudie was not only the wife of a bishop but was also the cousin of an earl Lady De Courcy considered her to be the fittest companion she was likely to meet in that assemblage They were accordingly delighted to see each other Mrs Proudie by no means despised a countess and as this countess lived in the county and within a sort of extensive visiting distance of Barchester she was glad to have this opportunity of ingratiating herself
My dear Lady De Courcy I am so delighted said she looking as little grim as it was in her nature to do so I hardly expected to see you here It is such a distance and then you know such a crowd
And such roads Mrs Proudie I really wonder how the people ever get about But I dont suppose they ever do
Well I really dont know but I suppose not The Thorne dont I know said Mrs Proudie Very nice person Miss Thorne isnt she
Oh delightful and so queer Ive known her these twenty years A great pet of mine is dear Miss Thorne She is so very strange you know She always makes me think of the Esquimaux and the Indians Isnt her dress quite delightful
Delightful said Mrs Proudie I wonder now whether she paints
Did you ever see such colour
Oh of course said Lady De Courcy that is I have no doubt she does But Mrs Proudie who is that woman on the sofa by the window just step this way and youll see her there— and the countess led her to a spot where she could plainly see the signoras wellremembered face and figure
She did not however do so without being equally well seen by the signora Look look said that lady to Mr Slope who was still standing near to her see the high spiritualities and temporalities of the land in league together and all against poor me Ill wager my bracelet Mr Slope against your next sermon that theyve taken up their position there on purpose to pull me to pieces Well I cant rush to the combat but I know how to protect myself if the enemy come near me
But the enemy knew better They could gain nothing be contact with the signora Neroni and they could abuse her as they pleased at a distance from her on the lawn
Shes that horrid Italian woman Lady De Courcy you must have heard of her
What Italian woman said her ladyship quite alive to the coming story I dont think Ive heard of any Italian woman coming into the country She doesnt look Italian either
Oh you must have heard of her said Mrs Proudie No shes not absolutely Italian She is Dr Stanhopes daughter—Dr Stanhope the prebendary and she calls herself the Signora Neroni
Oh—h—h—h exclaimed the countess
I was sure you had heard of her continued Mrs Proudie I dont know anything about her husband They do say that some man named Neroni is still alive I believe she did marry such a man abroad but I do not at all know who or what he was
Ah—h—h—h said the countess shaking her head with much intelligence as every additional h fell from her lips I know all about it now I have heard George mention her George knows all about her George heard about her in Rome
Shes an abominable woman at any rate said Mrs Proudie
Insufferable said the countess
She made her way into the palace once before I knew anything about her and I cannot tell you how dreadfully indecent her conduct was
Was it said the delighted countess
Insufferable said the prelatess
But why does she lie on a sofa asked the Lady De Courcy
She has only one leg said Mrs Proudie
Only one leg said the Lady De Courcy who felt to a certain degree dissatisfied that the signora was thus incapacitated Was she born so
Oh no said Mrs Proudie—and her ladyship felt somewhat recomforted by the assurance—she had two But that Signor Neroni beat her I believe till she was obliged to have one amputated At any rate she entirely lost the use of it
Unfortunate creature said the countess who herself knew something of matrimonial trials
Yes said Mrs Proudie one would pity her in spite of her past bad conduct if she knew how to behave herself But she does not She is the most insolent creature I have ever put my eyes on
Indeed she is said Lady De Courcy
And her conduct with men is abominable that she is not fit to be admitted into any ladys drawingroom
Dear me said the countess becoming again excited happy and merciless
You saw that man standing near her—the clergyman with the red hair
Yes yes
She has absolutely ruined that man The bishop or I should rather take the blame on myself for it was I—I brought him down from London to Barchester He is a tolerable preacher an active young man and I therefore introduced him to the bishop That woman Lady De Courcy has got hold of him and has so disgraced him that I am forced to required that he shall leave the palace and I doubt very much whether he wont lose his gown
Why what an idiot the man must be said the countess
You dont know the intriguing villainy of that woman said Mrs
Proudie remembering her own torn flounces
But you say she has only got one leg
She is as full of mischief as tho she had ten Look at her eyes Lady De Courcy Did you ever see such eyes in a decent womans head
Indeed I never did Mrs Proudie
And her effrontery and her voice I quite pity her poor father who is really a good sort of man
Dr Stanhope isnt he
Yes Dr Stanhope He is one of our prebendaries—a good quiet sort of man himself But I am surprised that he should let his daughter conduct herself as he does
I suppose he cant help it said the countess
But a clergyman you know Lady De Courcy He should at any rate prevent her from exhibiting in public if he cannot induce her to behave at home But he is to be pitied I believe he has a desperate life of it with the lot of them That apishlooking man there with the long beard and the loose trousers—he is the womans brother He is nearly as bad as she is They are both of them infidels
Infidels said Lady De Courcy and their father a prebendary
Yes and likely to be the new dean too said Mrs Proudie
Oh yes poor dear Dr Trefoil said the countess who had once in her life spoken to that gentleman I was so distressed to hear it Mrs Proudie And so Dr Stanhope is to be the new dean He comes of an excellent family and I wish him success in spite of his daughter Perhaps Mrs Proudie when he is dean theyll be better able to see the error of their ways
To this Mrs Proudie said nothing Her dislike of the Signora Neroni was too deep to admit of her even hoping that that lady should see the error of her ways Mrs Proudie looked on the signora as one of the lost—one of those beyond the reach of Christian charity and was therefore able to enjoy the luxury of hating her without the drawback of wishing her eventually well out of her sins
Any further conversation between these congenial souls was prevented by the advent of Mr Thorne who came to lead the countess to the tent Indeed he had been desired to do so some ten minutes since but he had been delayed in the drawingroom by the signora She had contrived to detain him to bet him near to her sofa and at last to make him seat himself on a chair close to her beautiful arm The fish took the bait was hooked and caught and landed Within that ten minutes he had heard the whole of signoras history in such strains as she chose to use in telling it He learnt from the ladys own lips the whole of that mysterious tale to which the Honourable George had merely alluded He discovered that the beautiful creature lying before him had been more sinned against than sinning She had owned to him that she had been weak confiding and indifferent to the worlds opinion and that she had therefore been illused deceived and evil spoken of She had spoken to him of her mutilated limb her youth destroyed in the fullest bloom her beauty robbed of its every charm her life blighted her hopes withered and as she did so a tear dropped from her eye to her cheek She had told him of these things and asked for his sympathy
What could a goodnatured genial AngloSaxon Squire Thorne do but promise to sympathise with her Mr Thorne did promise to sympathise promised also to come and see the last of the Neros to hear more of those fearful Roman days of those light and innocent but dangerous hours which flitted by so fast on the shores of Como and to make himself the confidant of the signoras sorrows
We need hardly say that he dropped all idea of warning his sister against the dangerous lady He had been mistaken never so much mistaken in his life He had always regarded that Honourable George as a coarse brutalminded young man now he was more convinced than ever that he was so It was by such men as the Honourable George that the reputation of such women as Madeline Neroni were imperilled and damaged He would go and see the lady in her own house he was fully sure in his own mind of the soundness of his own judgment if he found her as he believed he should do an injured welldisposed warmhearted woman he would get his sister Monica to invite her out to Ullathorne
No said she as at her instance he got up to leave her and declared that he himself would attend upon her wants no no my friend I positively put a veto upon your doing so What in your own house with an assemblage round you such as there is here Do you wish to make every woman hate me and every man stare at me I lay a positive order on you not to come near me again today Come and see me at home It is only at home that I can talk it is only at home that I really can live and enjoy myself My days of going out days such as these are rare indeed Come and see me at home Mr Thorne and then I will not bid you to leave me
It is we believe common with young men of five and twenty to look on their seniors—on men of say double their own age—as so many stocks and stones—stocks and stones that is in regard to feminine beauty There never was a greater mistake Women indeed generally know better but on this subject men of one age are thoroughly ignorant of what is the very nature of mankind of other ages No experience of what goes on in the world no reading of history no observation of life has any effect in teaching the truth Men of fifty dont dance mazurkas being generally too fat and wheezy nor do they sit for the hour together on river banks at their mistresses feet being somewhat afraid of rheumatism But for real true love love at first sight love to devotion love that robs a man of his sleep love that will gaze an eagle blind love that will hear the lowest sound when the suspicious tread of theft is stopped love that is like a Hercules still climbing trees in the Hesperides—we believe this best age is from fortyfive to seventy up to that men are generally given to mere flirting
At the present moment Mr Thorne aetat fifty was over head and ears in love at first sight with the Signora Madeline Vesey Neroni nata Stanhope
Nevertheless he was sufficiently master of himself to offer his arm with all propriety to Lady De Courcy and the countess graciously permitted herself to be led to the tent
Such had been Miss Thornes orders as she had succeeded in inducing the bishop to lead old Lady Knowle to the top of the diningroom One of the baronets was sent off in quest of Mrs Proudie and found that lady on the lawn not in the best of humours Mr Thorne and the countess had left her too abruptly she had in vain looked about for an attendant chaplain or even a stray curate they were all drawing long bows with the young ladies at the bottom of the lawn or finding places for their graceful cotoxophilites in some snug corner of the tent In such position Mrs Proudie had been wont in earlier days to fall back upon Mr Slope but now she could never fall back upon him again She gave her head one shake as she thought of her lone position and that shake was as good as a week deducted from Mr Slopes longer sojourn in Barchester Sir Harkaway Gorse however relieved her present misery though his doing so by no means mitigated the sinning chaplains doom
And now the eating and drinking began in earnest Dr Grantly to his great horror found himself leagued to Mrs Clantantram Mrs Clantantram had a great regard for the archdeacon which was not cordially returned and when she coming up to him whispered in his ear Come archdeacon Im sure you wont begrudge an old friend the favour of your arm and then proceeded to tell him the whole history of her roquelaure he resolved that he would shake her off before he was fifteen minutes older But latterly the archdeacon had not been successful in his resolutions and on the present occasion Mrs Clantantram stuck to him till the banquet was over
Dr Gwynne got a baronets wife and Mrs Grantly fell to the lot of a baronet Charlotte Stanhope attached herself to Mr Harding in order to make room for Bertie who succeeded in sitting down in the diningroom next to Mrs Bold To speak sooth now that he had love in earnest to make his heart almost failed him
Eleanor had been right glad to avail herself of his arm seeing that Mr Slope was hovering nigh her In striving to avoid that terrible Charybdis of a Slope she was in great danger of falling into an unseen Scylla on the other hand that Scylla being Bertie Stanhope Nothing could be more gracious than she was to Bertie She almost jumped at his proffered arm Charlotte perceived this from a distance and triumphed in her heart Bertie felt it and was encouraged Mr Slope saw it and glowered with jealousy Eleanor and Bertie sat down to table in the diningroom and as she took her seat at his right hand she found that Mr Slope was already in possession of the chair at her own
As these things were going on in the diningroom Mr Arabin was hanging enraptured and alone over the signoras sofa and Eleanor from her seat could look through the open door and see that he was doing so
CHAPTER XXXVIII
THE BISHOP SITS DOWN TO BREAKFAST AND THE DEAN DIES
The bishop of Barchester said grace over the wellspread board in the Ullathorne diningroom and while he did so the last breath was flying from the dean of Barchester as he lay in his sickroom in the deanery When the bishop of Barchester raised his first glass of champagne to his lips the deanship of Barchester was a good thing in the gift of the prime minister Before the bishop of Barchester had left the table the minister of the day was made aware of the fact at his country seat in Hampshire and had already turned over in his mind the names of five very respectable aspirants for the preferment It is at present only necessary to say that Mr Slopes name was not among the five
Twas merry in the hall when the beards wagged all and the clerical beards wagged merrily in the hall of Ullathorne that day It was not till after the last cork had been drawn the last speech made the last nut cracked that tidings reached and were whispered about that the poor dean was no more It was well for the happiness of the clerical beards that this little delay took place as otherwise decency would have forbidden them to wag at all
But there was one sad man among them that day Mr Arabins beard did not wag as it should have done He had come there hoping the best striving to think the best about Eleanor turning over in his mind all the words he remembered to have fallen from her about Mr Slope and trying to gather from them a conviction unfavourable to his rival He had not exactly resolved to come that day to some decisive proof as to the widows intention but he had meant if possible to recultivate his friendship with Eleanor and in his present frame of mind any such recultivation must have ended in a declaration of love
He had passed the previous night alone at his new parsonage and it was the first night that he had so passed It had been dull and sombre enough Mrs Grantly had been right in saying that a priestess would be wanting at St Ewolds He had sat there alone with his glass before him and then with his teapot thinking about Eleanor Bold As is usual in such meditations he did little but blame her blame her for liking Mr Slope and blame her for not liking him blame her for her cordiality to himself and blame her for her want of cordiality blame her for being stubborn headstrong and passionate and yet the more he thought of her the higher she rose in his affection If only it should turn out if only it could be made to turn out that she had defended Mr Slope not from love but on principle all would be right Such principle in itself would be admirable loveable womanly he felt that he could be pleased to allow Mr Slope just so much favour as that But if—And then Mr Arabin poked his fire most unnecessarily spoke crossly to his new parlourmaid who came in for the teathings and threw himself back in his chair determined to go to sleep Why had she been so stiffnecked when asked a plain question She could not but have known in what light he regarded her Why had she not answered a plain question and so put an end to his misery Then instead of going to sleep in his armchair Mr Arabin walked about the room as though he had been possessed
On the following morning when he attended Miss Thornes behests he was still in a somewhat confused state His first duty had been to converse with Mrs Clantantram and that lady had found it impossible to elicit the slightest sympathy from him on the subject of hr roquelaure Miss Thorne had asked him whether Mrs Bold was coming with the Grantlys and the two names of Bold and Grantly together had nearly made him jump from his seat
He was in this state of confused uncertainty hope and doubt when he saw Mr Slope with his most polished smile handing Eleanor out of her carriage He thought of nothing more He never considered whether the carriage belonged to her or to Mr Slope or to any one else to whom they might both be mutually obliged without any concert between themselves The sight in his present state of mind was quite enough to upset him and his resolves It was clear as noonday Had he seen her handed into a carriage by Mr Slope at a church door with a white veil over her head the truth could not be more manifest He went into the house and as we have seen soon found himself walking with Mr Harding Shortly afterwards Eleanor came up and then he had to leave his companion and either go about alone or find another While in this state he was encountered by the archdeacon
I wonder said Dr Grantly if it be true that Mr Slope and Mrs Bold come here together Susan says she is almost sure she saw their faces in the same carriage as she got out of her own
Mr Arabin had nothing for it but to bear his testimony to the correctness of Mrs Grantlys eyesight
It is perfectly shameful said the archdeacon or I should rather say shameless She was asked her as my guest and if she be determined to disgrace herself she should have feeling enough not to do so before my immediate friends I wonder how that man got himself invited I wonder whether she had the face to bring him
To this Mr Arabin could answer nothing nor did he wish to answer anything Though he abused Eleanor to himself he did not choose to abuse to any one else nor was he well pleased to hear any one else speak ill of her Dr Grantly however was very angry and did not spare his sisterinlaw Mr Arabin therefore left him as soon as he could and wandered back into the house
It is impossible to say how the knowledge had been acquired but the signora had a sort of instinctive knowledge that Mr Arabin was an admirer of Mrs Bold Men hunt foxes by the aid of dogs and are aware that they do so by the strong organ of smell with which the dog is endowed They do not however in the least comprehend how such a sense can work with such acuteness The organ by which woman instinctively as it were know and feel how other women are regarded by men and how also men are regarded by other women is equally strong and equally incomprehensible A glance a word a motion suffices by some such acute exercise of her feminine senses the signora was aware that Mr Arabin loved Eleanor Bold and therefore by a further exercise of her peculiar feminine propensities it was quite natural for her to entrap Mr Arabin into her net
The work was half done before she came to Ullathorne and when could she have a better opportunity of completing it She had had almost enough of Mr Slope though she could not quite resist the fun of driving a very sanctimonious clergyman to madness by a desperate and ruinous passion Mr Thorne had fallen too easily to give much pleasure in the chase His position as a man of wealth might make his alliance of value but as a lover he was very secondrate We may say that she regarded him somewhat as a sportsman does a pheasant The bird is so easily shot that he would not be worth the shooting were it not for the very respectable appearance that he makes in a larder The signora would not waste much time in shooting Mr Thorne but still he was worth bagging for family uses
But Mr Arabin was game of another sort The signora was herself possessed of quite sufficient intelligence to know that Mr Arabin was a man more than usually intellectual She knew also that as a clergyman he was of a much higher stamp than Mr Slope and that as gentleman he was better educated than Mr Thorne She would never have attempted to drive Mr Arabin into ridiculous misery as she did Mr Slope nor would she think it possible to dispose of him in ten minutes as she had done with Mr Thorne
Such were her reflections about Mr Arabin As to Mr Arabin it cannot be said that he reflected at all about the signora
He knew that she was beautiful and he felt that she was able to charm him He required charming in his present misery and therefore he went and stood at the head of her couch She knew all about it Such were her peculiar gifts
It was her nature to see that he required charming and it was her province to charm him As the Easter idler swallows his dose of opium as the London reprobate swallows his dose of gin so with similar desire and for similar reasons did Mr Arabin prepare to swallow the charms of the Signora Neroni
Why arent you shooting with bows and arrows Mr Arabin said she when they were nearly alone together in the sittingroom or talking with young ladies in shady bowers or turning your talents to account in some way What was a bachelor like you asked here for Dont you mean to earn your cold chicken and champagne Were I you I should be ashamed to be so idle
Mr Arabin murmured some sort of answer Though he wished to be charmed he as hardly yet in a mood to be playful in return
Why what ails you Mr Arabin said she here you are in your own parish Miss Thorne tells me that her party is given expressly in your honour and yet you are the only dull man in it Your friend Mr Slope was with me a few minutes since full of life and spirits why dont you rival him
It was not difficult for so acute an observer as Madeline Neroni to see that she had hit the nail on the head and driven the bolt home Mr Arabin winced visibly before her attack and she knew at once that he was jealous of Mr Slope
But I look on you and Mr Slope as the very antipodes of men said she There is nothing in which you are not each the reverse of the other except in belonging to the same profession and even in that you are so unlike as perfectly to maintain the rule He is gregarious you are given to solitude He is active you are passive He works you think He likes women you despise them He is fond of position and power and so are you but for directly different reasons He loves to be praised you very foolishly abhor it He will gain his rewards which will be an insipid useful wife a comfortable income and a reputation for sanctimony You will also gain yours
Well and what will they be said Mr Arabin who knew that he was being flattered and yet suffered himself to put up with it What will be my rewards
The heart of some woman whom you will be too austere to own that you love and the respect of some few friends which you will be too proud to own that you value
Rich rewards said he but of little worth if they are to be so treated
Oh you are not to look for such success as awaits Mr Slope He is born to be a successful man He suggests to himself an object and then starts for it with eager intention Nothing will deter him from his pursuit He will have no scruples no fears no hesitation His desire is to be a bishop with a rising family the wife will come first and in due time the apron You will see all this and then—
Well and what then
Then you will begin to wish that you had done the same
Mr Arabin look placidly out at the lawn and resting his shoulder on the head of the sofa rubbed his chin with his hand It was a trick he had when he was thinking deeply and what the signora said made him think Was it not all true Would he not hereafter look back if not at Mr Slope at some others people not equally gifted with himself who had risen in the world while he had lagged behind and then wish that he had done the same
Is not such the doom of all speculative men of talent said she Do they not all sit rapt as you now are cutting imaginary silken cords with their fine edges while those not so highly tempered sever the everyday Gordian knots of the worlds struggle and win wealth and renown Steel too highly polished edges too sharp do not do for this worlds work Mr Arabin
Who was this woman that thus read the secrets of his heart and reuttered to him the unwelcome bodings of his own soul He looked full into her face when she had done speaking and said Am I one of those foolish blades too sharp and too fine to do a useful days work
Why do you let the Slopes of the world outdistance you said she It not the blood in your veins as warm as his does not your pulse beat as fast Has not God made you a man and intended you to do a mans work here ay and to take a mans wages also
Mr Arabin sat ruminating and rubbing his face and wondering why these things were said to him but he replied nothing The signora went on—
The greatest mistake any man ever made is to suppose that the good things of the world are not worth the winning And it is a mistake so opposed to the religion which you preach Why does God permit his bishops one after the other to have their five thousands and ten thousands a year if such wealth be bad and not worth having Why are beautiful things given to us and luxuries and pleasant enjoyments if they be not intended to be used They must be meant for some one and what is good for a layman cannot surely be bad for a clerk You try to despise these good things but you only try you dont succeed
Dont I said Mr Arabin still musing and not knowing what he said
I ask you the question do you succeed
Mr Arabin looked at her piteously It seemed to him as though he were being interrogated by some inner spirit of his own to whom he could not refuse an answer and to whom he did not dare to give a false reply
Come Mr Arabin confess do you succeed Is money so contemptible Is worldly power so worthless Is feminine beauty a trifle to be so slightly regarded by a wise man
Feminine beauty said he gazing into her face as though all the feminine beauty in the world was concentrated there Why do you say I do not regard it
If you look at me like that Mr Arabin I shall alter my opinion—or should do so were I not of course aware that I have no beauty of my own worth regarding
The gentleman blushed crimson but the lady did not blush at all A slightly increased colour animated her face just so much so as to give her an air of special interest She expected a compliment from her admirer but she was rather grateful than otherwise by finding that he did not pay it to her Messrs Slope and Thorne Messrs Brown Jones and Robinson they all paid her compliments She was rather in hopes that she would ultimately succeed in inducing Mr Arabin to abuse her
But your gaze said she is one of wonder and not of admiration You wonder at my audacity in asking you such questions about yourself
Well I do rather said he
Nevertheless I expect an answer Mr Arabin Why were women made beautiful if men are not to regard them
But men do regard them he replied
And why not you
You are begging the question Madame Neroni
I am sure that I shall beg nothing Mr Arabin which you will not grant and I do beg for an answer Do you not as a rule think women below your notice as companions Let us see There is the widow Bold looking round at you from her chair this minute What would you say to her as a companion for life
Mr Arabin rising from his position leaned over the sofa and looked through the drawingroom door to the place where Eleanor was seated between Bertie Stanhope and Mr Slope She at once caught his glance and averted her own She was not pleasantly placed in her present position Mr Slope was doing his best to attract her attention and she was striving to prevent his doing so by talking to Mr Stanhope while her mind was intently fixed on Mr Arabin and Madame Neroni Bertie Stanhope endeavoured to take advantage of her favours but he was thinking more of the manner in which he would byandby throw himself at her feet than of amusing her at the present moment
There said the signora She was stretching her beautiful neck to look at you and now you have disturbed her Well I declare I believe I am wrong about you I believe that you do think Mrs Bold a charming woman Your looks seem to say so and by her looks I should say that she is jealous of me Come Mr Arabin confide in me and if it is so Ill do all in my power to make up the match
It is needless to say that the signora was not very sincere in her offer She was never sincere on such subjects She never expected others to be so nor did she expect others to think her so Such matters were her playthings her billiard table her hounds and hunters her waltzes and polkas her picnics and summerday excursions She had little else to amuse her and therefore played at lovemaking in all its forms She was now playing at it with Mr Arabin and did not at all expect the earnestness and truth of his answer
All in your power would be nothing said he for Mrs Bold is I imagine already engaged to another
Then you own the impeachment yourself
You crossquestion me rather unfairly he replied and I do not know why I answer you at all Mrs Bold is a very beautiful woman and as intelligent as beautiful It is impossible to know her without admiring her
So you think the widow a very beautiful woman
Indeed I do
And one that would grace the parsonage at St Ewolds
One that would grace any mans house
And you really have the effrontery to tell me this said she to tell me who as you very well know set up to be a beauty myself and who am at this very moment taking such an interest in your affairs you really have the effrontery to tell me that Mrs Bold is the most beautiful woman you know
I did not say so said Mr Arabin you are more beautiful—
Ah come now that is something like I thought you would not be so unfeeling
You are more beautiful perhaps more clever
Thank you thank you Mr Arabin I knew that you and I should be friends
But—
Not a word further I will not hear a word further If you talk till midnight you cannot improve what you have said
But Madame Neroni Mrs Bold—
I will not hear a word about Mrs Bold Dread thoughts of strychnine did pass across my brain but she is welcome to the second place
Her place—
I wont hear anything about her or her place I am satisfied and that is enough But Mr Arabin I am dying with hunger beautiful and clever as I am you know I cannot go to my food and yet you do not bring it to me
This at any rate was so true as to make it unnecessary that Mr Arabin should not act upon it and he accordingly went into the diningroom and supplied the signoras wants
And yourself said she
Oh said he I am not hungry I never eat at this hour
Come come Mr Arabin dont let love interfere with your appetite It never does with mine Give me half a glass more champagne and then go to the table Mrs Bold will do me an injury if you stay talking to me any longer
Mr Arabin did as he was bid He took her plate and glass from her and going into the diningroom helped himself to a sandwich from the crowded table and began munching it in a corner
As he was doing so Miss Thorne who had hardly sat down for a moment came into the room and seeing him standing was greatly distressed
Oh my dear Mr Arabin said she have you never sat down yet I am so distressed You of all men too
Mr Arabin assured her that he had only just come into the room
That is the very reason why you should lose no more time Come Ill make room for you Thankee my dear she said seeing that Mrs Bold was making an attempt to move from her chair but I would not for the world see you stir for all the ladies would think it necessary to follow But perhaps if Mr Stanhope has done—just for a minute Mr Stanhope—till I can get another chair
And so Bertie had to rise to make way for his rival This he did as he did everything with an air of goodhumoured pleasantry which made it impossible for Mr Arabin to refuse the proffered seat
His bishopric let another take said Bertie the quotation being certainly not very appropriate either for the occasion or the person spoken to I have eaten and am satisfied Mr Arabin pray take my chair I wish for your sake it really was a bishops seat
Mr Arabin did sit down and as he did so Mrs Bold got up as though to follow her neighbour
Pray pray dont move said Miss Thorne almost forcing Eleanor back into her chair Mr Stanhope is not going to leave us He will stand behind you like a true knight as he is And now I think of it Mr Arabin let me introduce you to Mr Slope Mr Slope Mr Arabin And the two gentlemen bowed stiffly to each other across the lady they both intended to marry while the other gentleman who also intended to marry her stood behind watching them
The two had never met each other before and the present was certainly not a good opportunity for much cordial conversation even if cordial conversation between them had been possible As it was the whole four who formed the party seemed as though their tongues were tied Mr Slope who was wide awake to what he hoped was his coming opportunity was not much concerned in the interest of the moment His wish was to see Eleanor move that he might pursue her Bertie was not exactly in the same frame of mind the evil of the day was near enough there was no reason why he should precipitate it He had made up his mind to marry Eleanor Bold if he could and was resolved today to take the first preliminary step towards doing so But there was time enough before him He was not going to make an offer of marriage over the tablecloth Having thus goodnaturedly made way for Mr Arabin he was willing also to let him talk to the future Mrs Stanhope as long as they remained in their present position
Mr Arabin bowed to Mr Slope began eating his food without saying a word further He was full of thoughts and though he ate he did so unconsciously
But poor Eleanor was the most to be pitied The only friend on whom she thought she could rely was Bertie Stanhope and he it seemed was determined to desert her Mr Arabin did not attempt to address her She said a few words in reply to some remarks from Mr Slope and then feeling the situation too much for her started from her chair in spite of Miss Thorne and hurried from the room Mr Slope followed her and young Stanhope lost the occasion
Madame Neroni when she was left alone could not help pondering much on the singular interview she had had with this singular man Not a word that she had spoken to him had been intended by her to be received as true and yet he had answered her in the very spirit of truth He had done so and she had been aware that he had done so She had wormed from him his secret and he debarred as it would seem from mans usual privilege of lying had innocently laid bare his whole soul to her He loved Eleanor Bold but Eleanor was not in his eyes so beautiful as herself He would fain have Eleanor for his wife but yet he had acknowledged that she was the less gifted of the two The man had literally been unable to falsify his thoughts when questioned and had been compelled to be true malgre lui even when truth must have been disagreeable to him
This teacher of men this Oxford pundit this doubledistilled quintessence of university perfection this writer of religious treatises this speaker of ecclesiastical speeches had been like a little child in her hands she had turned him inside out and read his very heart as she might have done that of a young girl She could not but despise him for his facile openness and yet she liked him too It was a novelty to her a new trait in a mans character She felt also that she could never so completely make a fool of him as she did of the Slopes and the Thornes She felt that she could never induce Mr Arabin to make protestations to her that were not true or to listen to nonsense that was mere nonsense
It was quite clear that Mr Arabin was heartily in love with Mrs Bold and the signora with very unwonted good nature began to turn it over in her mind whether she could not do him a good turn Of course Bertie was to have the first chance It was an understood family arrangement that her brother was if possible to marry the widow Bold Madeline knew too well the necessities and what was due to her sister to interfere with so excellent a plan as long as it might be feasible But she had strong suspicion that it was not feasible She did not think it likely that Mrs Bold would accept a man in her brothers position and she had frequently said so to Charlotte She was inclined to believe that Mr Slope had more chance of success and with her it would be a labour of love to rob Mr Slope of his wife
And so the signora resolved should Bertie fail to do a goodnatured act for once in her life and give up Mr Arabin to the woman whom he loved
CHAPTER XXXIX
THE LOOKALOFTS AND THE GREENACRES
On the whole Miss Thornes provision for the amusement and feeding of the outer classes in the exoteric paddock was not unsuccessful
Two little drawbacks to the general happiness did take place but they were of a temporary nature and apparent rather than real The first was the downfall of young Harry Greenacre and the other was the uprise of Mrs Lookaloft and her family
As to the quintain it became more popular among the boys on foot than it would ever have been among the men on horseback even had young Greenacre been more successful It was twirled round and round till it was nearly twisted out of the ground and the bag of flour was used with great gusto in powdering the backs and heads of all who could be coaxed within the vicinity
Of course it was reported all throughout the assemblage that Harry was dead and there was a pathetic scene between him and his mother when it was found that he had escaped scatheless from the fall A good deal of beer was drunk on the occasion and the quintain was dratted and bothered and very generally anathematised by all the mothers who had young sons likely to be placed in similar jeopardy But the affair of Mrs Lookaloft was of a more serious nature
I do tell ee plainly—face to face—she be there in madams drawingroom herself and Gussy and them two walloping gals dressed up to their very eyeses This was said by a very positive very indignant and very fat farmers wife who was sitting on the end of a bench leaning on the handle of a huge cotton umbrella
But you didnt zee her Dame Guffern said Mrs Greenacres whom this information joined to the recent peril undergone by her son almost overpowered Mr Greenacres held just as much land as Mr Lookaloft paid his rent quite as punctually and his opinion in the vestryroom was reckoned to be every whit as good Mrs Lookalofts rise in the world had been wormwood to Mrs Greenacre She had not taste herself for the sort of finery which converted Barleystubb farm into Rosebank and which had occasionally graced Mr Lookalofts letters with the dignity of esquirehood She had no wish to convert her own homeland into Violet Villa or to see her goodman go about with a newfangled handle to his name But it was a mortal injury to her that Mrs Lookaloft should be successful in her hunt after such honours She had abused and ridiculed Mrs Lookaloft to the extent of her little power She had pushed against her going out of church and had excused herself with all the easiness of equality Ah dame I axes pardon but you be grown so mortal stout these time She had inquired with apparent cordiality of Mr Lookaloft after the woman that owned him and had as she thought been on the whole able to hold her own pretty well against her aspiring neighbour Now however she found herself distinctly put into a separate and inferior class Mrs Lookaloft was asked into the Ullathorne drawingroom merely because she called her house Rosebank and had talked over her husband into buying pianos and silk dresses instead of putting his money by to stock farms for his sons
Mrs Greenacre much as she reverenced Miss Thorne and highly as she respected her husbands landlord could not but look on this as an act of injustice done to her and hers Hitherto the Lookalofts had never been recognised as being of a different class from the Greenacres Their pretensions were all selfpretensions their finery was all paid for by themselves and not granted to them by others The local sovereigns of the vicinity the district fountains of honour had hitherto conferred on them the stamp of no rank Hitherto their crinoline petticoats late hours and mincing gait had been a fair subject of Mrs Greenacres raillery and this raillery had been a safety valve for her envy Now however and from henceforward the case would be very different Now the Lookalofts would boast that their aspirations had been sanctioned by the gentry of the country now they would declare with some show of truth that their claims to peculiar consideration had been recognised They had sat as equal guests in the presence of bishops and baronets they had been curtseyed to by Miss Thorne on her own drawingroom carpet they were about to sit down to table in company with a live countess Bab Lookaloft as she had always been called by the young Greenacres in the days of their juvenile equality might possibly sit next to the Honourable George and that wretched Gussy might be permitted to hand a custard to the Lady Margaretta De Courcy
The fruition of these honours or such of them as fell to the lot of the envied family was not such as should have caused much envy The attention paid to the Lookalofts by the De Courcys was very limited and the amount of society was hardly in itself a recompense for the dull monotony of their day But of what they endured Mrs Greenacre took no account she thought only of what she considered they must enjoy and of the dreadfully exalted tone of living which would be manifested by the Rosebank family as the consequence of their present distinction
But did ee zee em there dame did ee zee em then with your own eyes asked poor Mrs Greenacre still hoping that there might be some ground for doubt
And how could I do that unless so be I was there myself asked Mrs Guffen I didnt set eyes on none of them this blessed morning but I zeed them as did You know our John well he will be for keeping company with Betsey Rusk madams own maid you know And Betsey isnt one of your common kitchen wenches So Betsey she come out to our John you know and shes always vastly polite to me is Betsey Rusk I must say So before she took so much as one turn with John she told me every haporth that was going on up in the house
Did she now said Mrs Greenacre
Indeed she did said Mrs Guffern
And she told you them people was up there in the drawingroom
She told me she zeed them come in—that they was dressed finer by half nor any of the family with all their neckses and buzoms stark naked as a born babby
The minxes exclaimed Mrs Greenacre who felt herself more put about by this than any other mark of aristocratic distinction which her enemies had assumed
Yes indeed continued Mrs Guffern as naked as you please while all the quality was dressed just as you and I be Mrs Greenacre
Drat their impudence said Mrs Greenacre from whose wellcovered bosom all milk of human kindness was receding as far as the family of the Lookalofts were concerned
So says I said Mrs Guffern and so says my goodman Thomas Guffern when he heard it Molly says he to me if ever you takes to going about o mornings with yourself all naked in them ways I begs you wont come back no more to the old house So says I Thomas no more I wull But says he drat it how the deuce does she manage with her rheumatiz and she not a rag on her said Mrs Giffern laughed loudly as she though of Mrs Lookaloftss probable sufferings from rheumatic attacks
But to liken herself that way to folk that ha blood in their veins said Mrs Greenacre
Well but that warnt all neither that Betsey told There they all swelled into madams drawingroom like so many turkey cocks as much to say and who dare say no to us and Gregory was thinking of telling them to come down here only his heart failed him cause of the grand way they was dressed So in they went but madam looked at them as glum as death
Well now said Mrs Greenacre greatly relieved so they wasnt axed different from us all then
Betsey says that Gregory says that madam wasnt a bit too well pleased to see them where they was and that to his believing they was expected to come here just like the rest of us
There was great consolation in this Not that Mrs Greenacre was altogether satisfied She felt that justice to herself demanded that Mrs Lookaloft should not only not be encouraged but that she should also be absolutely punished
What had been done at that scriptural banquet of which Mrs Greenacre so often read the account to her family Why had not Miss Thorne boldly gone to the intruder and said Friend thou hast come up hither to high places not fitted for thee Go down lower and thou wilt find thy mates Let the Lookalofts be treated at the present moment with ever so cold a shoulder they would still be enabled to boast hereafter of their position their aspirations and their honour
Well with all her grandeur I do wonder that she be so mean continued Mrs Greenacre unable to dismiss the subject Did you hear goodman she went on about to repeat the whole story to her husband who then came up Theres dame Lookaloft and Bab and Gussy and the lot of em all sitting as grand as fivepence in madams drawingroom and they not axed no more nor you nor me Did you ever hear tell the like o that
Well and what for shouldnt they said Farmer Greenacre
Likening theyselves to the quality as though they was estated folk or the like o that said Mrs Guffern
Well if they likes it and madam likes it theys welcome for me said the farmer Now I likes the place better cause I be more at home like and dont have to pay for them fine clothes for the missus Every one to his taste Mrs Guffern and if neighbour Lookaloft thinks that he has the best of it hes welcome
Mrs Greenacre sat down by her husbands side to begin the heavy work of the banquet and she did so in some measure of restored tranquillity but nevertheless she shook her head at her gossip to show that in this instance she did not quite approve of her husbands doctrine
And Ill tell ee what dames continued he if so be that we cannot enjoy the dinner that madam gives us because Mother Lookaloft is sitting up there on a grand sofa I think we ought all to go home If we greet at that whatll we do when true sorrow comes across us How would you be now dame if the boy there had broke his neck when he got the tumble
Mrs Greenacre was humbled and said nothing further on the matter But let prudent men such as Mr Greenacre preach as they will the family of the Lookalofts certainly does occasion a good deal of heartburning in the world at large
It was pleasant to see Mr Plomacy as leaning on his stout stick he went about among the rural guests acting as a sort of head constable as well as master of the revels Now young un if you cant manage to get along without that screeching youd better go to the other side of the twelveacre field and take your dinner with you Come girls what do you stand there for twirling of your thumbs come out and let the lads see you youve no need to be so ashamed of your faces Hello there who are you how did you make your way in here
This last disagreeable question was put to a young man of about twentyfour who did not in Mr Plomacys eye bear sufficient vestiges of a rural education and residence
If you please your worship Master Barrell the coachman let me in at the church wicket cause I do be working mostly alays for the family
Then Master Barrell the coachman may let you out again said Mr Plomacy not even conciliated by the magisterial dignity which had been conceded to him Whats your name And what trade are you and who do you work for
Im Stubbs your worship Bob Stubbs and—and—and—
And whats your trade Stubbs
Plaisterer please your worship
Ill plaister you and Barrell too youll just walk out of this ere field as quick as you walked in We dont want no plaisterers when we do well send for em Come my buck walk
Stubbs the plasterer was much downcast at the dreadful edict He was a sprightly fellow and had contrived since his egress into the Ullathorne elysium to attract to himself a forest nymph to whom he was whispering a plasterers usual soft nothings when he was encountered by the great Mr Plomacy It was dreadful to be thus dissevered from the dryad and sent howling back to a Barchester pandemonium just as the nectar and ambrosia were about to descend on the fields of asphodel He began to try what prayers would do but city prayers were vain against the great rural potentate Not only did Mr Plomacy order his exit but raising his stick to show the way which led to the gate that had been left in the custody of that false Cerberus Barrell proceeded himself to see the edict of banishment carried out
The goddess Mercy however the sweetest goddess that ever sat upon a cloud and the dearest to poor frail erring man appeared on the field in the person of Mr Greenacre Never was interceding goddess more welcome
Come man said Mr Greenacre never stick at trifles such a day as this I know the lad well Let him bide at my axing Madam wont miss what he can eat and drink I know
Now Mr Plomacy and Mr Greenacre were sworn friends Mr Plomacy had at his own disposal as comfortable a room as there was in Ullathorne House but he was a bachelor and alone there and moreover smoking in the house was not allowed even to Mr Plomacy His moments of truest happiness were spent in a huge armchair in the warmest corner of Mrs Greenacres beautifully clean front kitchen Twas there that the inner man dissolved itself and poured itself out in streams of pleasant chat twas there and perhaps there only that he could unburden himself from the ceremonies of life without offending the dignity of those above him or incurring the familiarity of those below Twas there that his long pipe was always to be found on the accustomed chimney board not only permitted but encouraged
Such being the state of the case it was not to be supposed that Mr Plomacy could refuse such a favour to Mr Greenacre but nevertheless he not grant it without some further show of austere authority
Eat and drink Mr Greenacre No its not what he eats and drinks but the example such a chap shows coming in where hes not invited—a chap of his age too He too that never did a days work about Ullathorne since he was born Plaisterer Ill plaister him
He worked long enough for me then Mr Plomacy And a good hand he is at setting tiles as any in Barchester said the other not sticking quite to veracity as indeed mercy never should Come come let him alone today and quarrel with him tomorrow You wouldnt shame him before his lass there
It goes against the grain with me then said Mr Plomacy And take care you Stubbs and behave yourself If I hear a row I shall know where it comes from Im up to you Barchester journeymen I know what stuff youre made of
And so Stubbs went off happy pulling at the forelock of his shock head of hair in honour of the stewards clemency and giving another double pull at it in honour of the farmers kindness And as he went he swore within his grateful heart that if ever Farmer Greenacre wanted a days work done for nothing he was the lad to do it for him Which promise it was not probable that he would ever be called upon to perform
But Mr Plomacy was not quite happy in his mind for he thought of the unjust steward and began to reflect whether he had not made for himself friends at the mammon of unrighteousness This however did not interfere with the manner in which he performed his duties at the bottom of the long board nor did Mr Greenacre perform his the worse at the top on account of the good wishes of Stubbs the plasterer Moreover the guests did not think it anything amiss when Mr Plomacy rising to say grace prayed that God would make them all truly thankful for the good things which Madam Thorne in her great liberality had set out before them
All this time the quality in the tent on the lawn were getting on swimmingly that is champagne without restrictions can enable quality fold to swim Sir Harkaway Gorse proposed the health of Miss Thorne and likened her to a blood racehorse always in condition and not to be tired down by any amount of work Mr Thorne returned thanks saying he hoped his sister would always be found able to run when called upon and than gave the health and prosperity of the De Courcy family His sister was very much honoured by seeing so many of them at her poor board They were all aware that important avocations made the absence of the earl necessary As his duty to his prince had called him from his family hearth he Mr Thorne could not venture to regret that he did not see him at Ullathorne but nevertheless he would venture to say—And so Mr Thorne became somewhat gravelled as a country gentleman in similar circumstances usually do but he ultimately sat down declaring that he had much satisfaction in drinking the noble earls health together with that of the countess and all the family of De Courcy castle
And then the Honourable George returned thanks We will not follow him through the different periods of his somewhat irregular eloquence Those immediately in his neighbourhood found it at first rather difficult to get him to his legs but much greater difficulty was soon experience in inducing him to resume his seat One of two arrangements should certainly be made in these days either let all speechmaking on festive occasions be utterly tabooed and made as it were impossible or else let those who are to exercise the privilege be first subjected to a competing examination before the civil service examining commissioners As it is now the Honourable Georges do but little honour to our exertions in favour of British education
In the diningroom the bishop went through the honours of the day with much more neatness and propriety He also drank Miss Thornes health and did it in a manner becoming the bench which he adorned The party there was perhaps a little more dull a shade less lively than that in the tent
But what was lost in mirth was fully made up in decorum
And so the banquet passed off at the various tables with great eclat and universal delight
CHAPTER XL
ULLATHORNE SPORTS—ACT II
That which has made them drunk has made me bold Twas thus that Mr Slope encouraged himself as he left the diningroom in pursuit of Eleanor He had not indeed seen in that room any person really intoxicated but there had been a good deal of wine drunk and Mr Slope had not hesitated to take his share in order to screw himself up to the undertaking which he had in hand He is not the first man who has thought it expedient to call in the assistance of Bacchus on such an occasion
Eleanor was out through the window and on the grass before she perceived that she was followed Just at that moment the guests were nearly all occupied at the tables Here and there were to be seen a constant couple or two who preferred their own sweet discourse to the jingle of glasses or the charms of rhetoric which fell from the mouths of the Honourable George and the bishop of Barchester but the grounds were as nearly vacant as Mr Slope could wish them to be
Eleanor saw that she was pursued and as a deer when escape is no longer possible will turn to bay and attack the hounds so did she turn upon Mr Slope
Pray dont let me take you from the room said she speaking with all the stiffness which she know how to use I have come out to look for a friend I must beg of you Mr Slope to go back
But Mr Slope would not be thus entreated He had observed all day that Mrs Bold was not cordial to him and this had to a certain extent oppressed him But he did not deduce from this any assurance that his aspirations were in vain He saw that she was angry with him Might she not be so because he had so long tampered with her feelings—might it not arise from his having as he knew to be the case caused her name to be bruited about in conjunction with his own without having given her the opportunity of confessing to the world that henceforth their names were to be the one and the same
Poor lady He had within him a certain Christian consciencestricken feeling of remorse on this head It might be that he had wronged her by his tardiness He had however at the present moment imbibed too much of Mr Thornes champagne to have any inward misgivings He was right in repeating the boast of Lady Macbeth he was not drunk but he was bold enough for anything It was a pity that in such a state he could not have encountered Mrs Proudie
You must permit me to attend you said he I could not think of allowing you to go alone
Indeed you must Mr Slope said Eleanor still very stiffly for it is my special wish to be alone
The time for letting the great secret escape him had already come Mr Slope saw that it must be now or never and he was determined that it should be now This was not his first attempt at winning a fair lady He had been on his knees looked unutterable things with his eyes and whispered honeyed words before this Indeed he was somewhat an adept at these things and had only to adapt to the perhaps different taste of Mrs Bold the wellremembered rhapsodies which had once so much gratified Olivia Proudie
Do not ask me to leave you Mrs Bold said he with an impassioned look impassioned and sanctified as well with that sort of look which is not uncommon with gentlemen of Mr Slopes school and which may perhaps be called the tenderpious Do not ask me to leave you till I have spoken a few words with which my heart is full which I have come hither purposely to say
Eleanor saw how it was now She knew directly what it was she was about to go through and very miserable the knowledge made her Of course she could refuse Mr Slope and there would be an end of that one might say But there was not an end of it as far as Eleanor was concerned The very fact of Mr Slopes making an offer to her would be a triumph for the archdeacon and in a great measure a vindication of Mr Arabins conduct The widow could not bring herself to endure with patience the idea that she had been in the wrong
She had defended Mr Slope she had declared herself quite justified in admitting him among her acquaintance had ridiculed the idea of his considering himself as more than an acquaintance and had resented the archdeacons caution in her behalf now it was about to be proved to her in a manner sufficiently disagreeable that the archdeacon had been right and she herself had been entirely wrong
I dont know what you can have to say to me Mr Slope that you could not have said when we were sitting at table just now and she closed her lips and steadied her eyeballs and looked at him in a manner that ought to have frozen him
But gentlemen are not easily frozen when they are full of champagne and it would not at any time have been easy to freeze Mr Slope
There are things Mrs Bold which a man cannot well say before a crowd which perhaps he cannot well say at any time which indeed he may most fervently desire to get spoken and which he may yet find it almost impossible to utter It is such things as these that I now wish to say to you and then the tenderpious look was repeated with a little more emphasis even than before
Eleanor had not found it practicable to stand stock still before the diningroom window and there receive his offer in full view of Miss Thornes guests She had therefore in selfdefence walked on and Mr Slope had gained his object of walking with her He now offered her his arm
Thank you Mr Slope I am much obliged to you but for the very short time that I shall remain with you I shall prefer walking alone
And must it be so short said he must it be—
Yes said Eleanor interrupting him as short as possible if you please sir
I had hoped Mrs Bold—I had hoped— Pray hope nothing Mr Slope as far as I am concerned pray do not I do not know and need not know what hope you mean Our acquaintance is very slight and will probably remain so Pray pray let that be enough there is at any rage no necessity for us to quarrel
Mrs Bold was certainly treating Mr Slope rather cavalierly and he felt it so She was rejecting him before he had offered himself and informed him at the same time that he was taking a great deal too much on himself to be so familiar She did not even make an attempt
From such a sharp and waspish word as no To pluck the string
He was still determined to be very tender and very pious seeing that in spite of all Mrs Bold had said to him he not yet abandoned hope but he was inclined to be somewhat angry The widow was bearing herself as he thought with too high a hand was speaking of herself in much too imperious a tone She had clearly no idea that an honour was being conferred on her Mr Slope would be tender as long as he could but he began to think if that failed it would not be amiss if he also mounted himself for a while on his high horse Mr Slope could undoubtedly be very tender but he could be very savage also and he knew his own abilities
That is cruel said he and unchristian too The worst of us are all still bidden to hope What have I done that you should pass on me so severe a sentence and then he paused a moment during which the widow walked steadily on with measured step saying nothing further
Beautiful woman at last he burst forth beautiful woman you cannot pretend to be ignorant that I adore you Yes Eleanor yes I love you I love you with the truest affection which man can bear to woman Next to my hopes of heaven are my hopes of possessing you Mr Slopes memory here played him false or he would not have omitted the deanery How sweet to walk to heaven with you by my side with you for my guide mutual guides Say Eleanor dearest Eleanor shall we walk that sweet path together
Eleanor had no intention of ever walking together with Mr Slope on any other path than the special one of Miss Thornes which they now occupied but as she had been unable to prevent the expression of Mr Slopes wishes and aspirations she resolved to hear him out to the end before she answered him
Ah Eleanor he continued and it seemed to be his idea that as he had once found courage to pronounce her Christian name he could not utter it often enough Ah Eleanor will it not be sweet with the Lords assistance to travel hand in hand through this mortal valley which his mercies will make pleasant to us till hereafter we shall dwell together at the foot of his throne And then a more tenderly pious glance ever beamed from the lovers eyes Ah Eleanor—
My name Mr Slope is Mrs Bold said Eleanor who though determined to hear out the tale of his love was too much disgusted by his blasphemy to be able to bear much more of it
Sweetest angel be not so cold said he and as he said it the champagne broke forth and he contrived to pass his arm around her waist He did this with considerable cleverness for up to this point Eleanor had contrived with tolerable success to keep her distance from him They had got into a walk nearly enveloped by shrubs and Mr Slope therefore no doubt considered that as they were now alone it was fitting that he should give her some outward demonstration of that affection of which he talked so much It may perhaps be presumed that the same stamp of measures had been found to succeed with Olivia Proudie Be this as it may it was not successful with Eleanor Bold
She sprang from him as she would have jumped from an adder but she did not spring far not indeed beyond arms length and then quick as thought she raised her little hand and dealt him a box on the ear with such right good will that it sounded among the trees like a miniature thunderclap
And now it is to be feared that every wellbred reader of these pages will lay down the book with disgust feeling that after all the heroine is unworthy of sympathy She is a hoyden one will say At any rate she is not a lady another will exclaim I have suspected her all through a third will declare and she has no idea of the dignity of a matron or of the peculiar propriety which her position demands At one moment she is romping with young Stanhope then she is making eyes at Mr Arabin anon she comes to fistycuffs with a third lover and all before she is yet a widow of two years standing
She cannot altogether be defended and yet it may be averred that she is not a hoyden not given to romping nor prone to boxing It were to be wished devoutly that she had not struck Mr Slope in the face In doing so she derogated from her dignity and committed herself Had she been educated in Belgravia had she been brought up by any sterner mentor than that fond father had she lived longer under the rule of a husband she might perhaps have saved herself from this great fault As it was the provocation was too much for her the temptation to instant resentment of the insult too strong She was too keen in the feeling of independence a feeling dangerous for a young woman but one in which her position peculiarly tempted her to indulge And then Mr Slopes face tinted with a deeper dye than usual by the wine he had drunk simpering and puckering itself with pseudo piety and tender grimaces seemed specially to call for such punishment She had too a true instinct as to the man he was capable of rebuke in this way and in no other To him the blow from her little hand was as much an insult as a blow from a man would have been to another It went directly to his pride He conceived himself lowered in his dignity and personally outraged He could almost have struck at her again in his rage Even the pain was a great annoyance to him and the feeling that his clerical character had been wholly disregarded sorely vexed him
There are such men men who can endure no taint on their personal selfrespect even from a woman—men whose bodies are to themselves such sacred temples that a joke against them is desecration and a rough touch downright sacrilege Mr Slope was such a man and therefore the slap on that face that he got from Eleanor was as far as he was concerned the fittest rebuke which could have been administered to him
But nevertheless she should not have raised her hand against the man Ladies hands so soft so sweet so delicious to the touch so grateful to the eye so gracious in their gentle doings were not made to belabour mens faces The moment the deed was done Eleanor felt that she had sinned against all propriety and would have given little worlds to recall the blow In her first agony of sorrow she all but begged the mans pardon Her next impulse however and the one which she obeyed was to run away
I never never will speak another word to you she said gasping with emotion and the loss of breath which her exertion and violent feelings occasioned her and so saying she put foot to the ground and ran quickly back along the path to the house
But how shall I sing the divine wrath of Mr Slope or how invoke the tragic muse to describe the rage which swelled the celestial bosom of the bishops chaplain Such an undertaking by no means befits the lowheeled buskin of modern fiction The painter put a veil over Agamemnons face when called on to depict the fathers grief at the early doom of his devoted daughter The god when he resolved to punish the rebellions winds abstained from mouthing empty threats The god when he resolved to punish the rebellious winds abstained from mouthing empty threats
We will not attempt to tell with what mighty surging of the inner heart Mr Slope swore to revenge himself on the woman who had disgraced him nor will we vainly strive to depict the deep agony of his soul
There he is however alone on the garden walk and we must contrive to bring him out of it He was not willing to come forth quite at once His cheek was stinging with the weight of Eleanors fingers and he fancied that every one who looked at him would be able to see on his face the traces of what he had endured He stood awhile becoming redder and redder with rage He stood motionless undecided glaring with his eyes thinking of the pains and penalties of Hades and meditating how he might best devote his enemy to the infernal gods with all the passion of his accustomed eloquence He longed in his heart to be preaching at her Twas thus that he was ordinarily avenged of sinning mortal men and women Could he at once have ascended his Sunday rostrum and fulminated at her such denunciations as his spirit delighted in his bosom would have been greatly eased
But how preach to Mr Thornes laurels or how preach indeed at all in such a vanity fair as this now going on at Ullathorne And then he began to feel a righteous disgust at the wickedness of the doings around him He had been justly chastised for lending by his presence a sanction to such worldly lures The gaiety of society the mirth of banquets the laughter of the young and the eating and drinking of the elders were for awhile without excuse in his sight What had he now brought down upon himself by sojourning thus in the tents of the heathen He had consorted with idolaters round the altars of Baal and therefore a sore punishment had come upon him He then thought of the Signora Neroni and his soul within him was full of sorrow He had an inkling—a true inkling—that he was a wicked sinful man but it led him in no right direction he could admit no charity in his heart He felt debasement coming on him and he longed to take it off to rise up in his stirrup to mount to high places and great power that he might get up into a mighty pulpit and preach to the world a loud sermon against Mrs Bold
There he stood fixed to the gravel for about ten minutes Fortune favoured him so far that no prying eyes came to look upon him in his misery Then a shudder passed over his whole frame he collected himself and slowly wound his way round to the lawn advancing along the path and not returning in the direction which Eleanor had taken When he reached the tent he found the bishop standing there in conversation with the master of Lazarus His lordship had come out to air himself afer the exertion of his speech
This is very pleasant—very pleasant my lord is it not said Mr Slope with his most gracious smile and pointing to the tent very pleasant It is delightful to see so many persons enjoying themselves so thoroughly
Mr Slope thought he might force the bishop to introduce him to Dr Gwynne A very great example had declared and practised the wisdom of being everything to everybody and Mr Slope was desirous of following it His maxim was never to lose a chance The bishop however at the present moment was not very anxious to increase Mr Slopes circle of acquaintance among his clerical brethren He had his own reasons for dropping any marked allusion to his domestic chaplain and he therefore made his shoulder rather cold for the occasion
Very very said he without turning round or even deigning to look at Mr Slope And therefore Dr Gwynne I really think that you will find that the hebdomadal board will exercise as wide and as general an authority as at the present moment I for one Dr Gwynne—
Dr Gwynne said Mr Slope raising his hat and resolving not to be outwitted by such an insignificant little goose as the bishop of Barchester
The master of Lazarus also raised his hat and bowed very politely to Mr Slope There is not a more courteous gentleman in the queens dominions than the master of Lazarus
My lord said Mr Slope pray do me the honour of introducing me to Dr Gwynne The opportunity is too much in my favour to be lost
The bishop had no help for it My chaplain Dr Gwynne said he my present chaplain Mr Slope he certainly made the introduction as unsatisfactory to the chaplain as possible and by the use of the word present seemed to indicate that Mr Slope might probably not long enjoy the honour which he now held But Mr Slope cared nothing for this He understood the innuendo and disregarded it It might probably come to pass that he would be in a situation to resign his chaplaincy before the bishop was in a situation to dismiss him from it What need the future dean of Barchester care for the bishop or for the bishops wife Had not Mr Slope just as he was entering Dr Stanhopes carriage received an important note from Tom Towers of the Jupiter Had he not that note this moment in his pocket
So disregarding the bishop he began to open out a conversation with the master of Lazarus
But suddenly and interruption came not altogether unwelcome to Mr Slope One of the bishops servants came up to his masters shoulder with a long grave face and whispered into the bishops ear
What is it John said the bishop
The dean my lord he is dead
Mr Slope had no further desire to converse with the master of
Lazarus and was very soon on his road back to Barchester
Eleanor as we have said having declared her intention of never holding further communication with Mr Slope ran hurriedly back towards the house The thought however of what she had done grieved her greatly and she could not abstain from bursting into tears Twas thus she played the second act in that days melodrama
CHAPTER XLI
MRS BOLD CONFIDES HER SORROW TO HER FRIEND MISS STANHOPE
When Mrs Bold came to the end of the walk and faced the lawn she began to bethink herself what she should do Was she to wait there till Mr Slope caught her or was she to go in among the crowd with tears in her eyes and passion in her face She might in truth have stood there long enough without any reasonable fear of further immediate persecution from Mr Slope but we are all inclined to magnify the bugbears which frighten us In her present state of dread she did not know of what atrocity he might venture to be guilty Had any one told her a week ago that he would have put his arm around her waist at the party of Miss Thornes she would have been utterly incredulous Had she been informed that he would be seen on the following Sunday walking down the High Street in a scarlet coat and topboots she would not have thought such a phenomenon more improbable
But this improbable iniquity he had committed and now there was nothing she could not believe of him In the first place it was quite manifest that he was tipsy in the next place it was to be taken as proved that all his religion was sheer hypocrisy and finally the man was utterly shameless She therefore stood watching for the sound of his footfall not without some fear that he might creep out at her suddenly from among the bushes
As she thus stood she saw Charlotte Stanhope at a little distance from her walking quickly across the grass Eleanors handkerchief was in her hand and putting it to her face so as to conceal her tears she ran across the lawn and joined her friend
Oh Charlotte she said almost too much out of breath to speak very plainly I am so glad I have found you
Glad you have found me said Charlotte laughing thats a good joke Why Bertie and I have been looking for you everywhere He swears that you have gone off with Mr Slope and is now on the point of hanging himself
Oh Charlotte dont said Mrs Bold
Why my child what on earth is the matter with you said Miss Stanhope perceiving that Eleanors hand trembled on her own arm and finding also that her companion was still half choked with tears Goodness heaven Something has distressed you What is it What can I do for you
Eleanor answered her only by a sort of spasmodic gurgle in her throat She was a good deal upset as people say and could not at the moment collect herself
Come here this way Mrs Bold come this way and we shall not be seen What has happened to vex you so What can I do for you Can Bertie do anything
On no no no no said Eleanor There is nothing to be done
Only that horrid man—
What horrid man asked Charlotte
There are some moments in life in which both men and women feel themselves called on to make a confidence in which not to do so requires a disagreeable resolution and also a disagreeable suspicion There are people of both sexes who never make confidences who are never tempted by momentary circumstances to disclose their secrets But such are generally dull close unimpassioned spirits gloomy gnomes who live in cold dark mines There was nothing of the gnome about Eleanor and she therefore resolved to tell Charlotte Stanhope the whole story about Mr Slope
That horrid man that Mr Slope said she did you not see that he followed me out of the diningroom
Of course I did and was sorry enough but I could not help it I knew you would be annoyed But you and Bertie managed it badly between you
It was not his fault nor mine either You know how I dislike the idea of coming in the carriage with that man
I am sure I am very sorry if that has led to it
I dont know what has led to it said Eleanor almost crying again But it has not been my fault
But what has he done my dear
Hes an abominable horrid hypocritical man and it would serve him right to tell the bishop about it
Believe me if you want to do him an injury you had far better tell Mrs Proudie But what did he do Mrs Bold
Ugh exclaimed Eleanor
Well I must confess hes not very nice said Charlotte Stanhope
Nice said Eleanor He is the most fulsome fawning abominable man I ever saw What business had he to come to me—I that never gave him the slightest tittle of encouragement—I that always hated him though I did take his part when others ran him down
Thats just where it is my dear He has heard that and therefore fancied that of course you were in love with him
This was wormwood to Eleanor It was in fact the very thing which all her friends had been saying for the last month past and which experience now proved to be true Eleanor resolved within herself that she would never again take any mans part The world with all its villainy and all its illnature might wag as it like she would not again attempt to set crooked things straight
But what did he do my dear said Charlotte who was really rather interested in the subject
He—he—he—
Well—come it cant have been anything so very horrid for the man was not tipsy
Oh I am sure he was said Eleanor I am sure he must have been tipsy
Well I declare I didnt observe it But what was it my love
Why I believe I can hardly tell you He talked such horrid stuff that you never heard the like about religion and heaven and love—Oh dear—he is such a nasty man
I can really imagine the sort of stuff he would talk Well—and then
And then—he took hold of me
Took hold of you
Yes—he somehow got close to me and took hold of me—
By the waist
Yes said Eleanor shuddering
And then—
Then I jumped away from him and gave him a slap on the face and ran away along the path till I saw you
Ha ha ha Charlotte Stanhope laughed heartily at the finale of the tragedy It was delightful to her to think that Mr Slope had had his ears boxed She did not quite appreciate the feeling which made her friend so unhappy at the result of the interview To her thinking the matter had ended happily enough as regarded the widow who indeed was entitled to some sort of triumph among her friends Whereas Mr Slope would be due all those jibes and jeers which would naturally follow such an affair His friends would ask him whether his ears tingled whenever he saw a widow and he would be cautioned that beautiful things were made to be looked at and not to be touched
Such were Charlotte Stanhopes views on such matters but she did not at the present moment clearly explain them to Mrs Bold Her object was to endear herself to her friend and therefore having had her laugh she was ready enough to offer sympathy Could Bertie do anything Should Bertie speak to the man and warn him that in future he must behave with more decorum Bertie indeed she declared would be more angry than any one else when he heard to what insult Mrs Bold had been subjected
But you wont tell him said Mrs Bold with a look of horror
Not if you dont like it said Charlotte but considering everything I would strongly advise it If you had a brother you know it would be unnecessary But it is very right that Mr Slope should know that you have somebody by you that will and can protect you
But my father is here
Yes but it is so disagreeable for clergymen to have to quarrel with each other and circumstanced as your father is just at this moment it would be very inexpedient that there should be anything unpleasant between him and Mr Slope Surely you and Bertie are intimate enough for you to permit him to take your part
Charlotte Stanhope was very anxious that her brother should at once on that very day settle matters with his future wife
Things had now come to that point between him and his father and between him and his creditors that he must either do so or leave Barchester either do that or go back to his unwashed associates dirty lodgings and poor living at Carrara Unless he could provide himself with an income he must go to Carrara or to His father the prebendary had not said this in so many words but had he done so he could not have signified it more plainly
Such being the state of the case it was very necessary that no more time should be lost Charlotte had seen her brothers apathy when he neglected to follow Mrs Bold out of the room with anger which she could hardly suppress It was grievous to think that Mr Slope should have so distanced him
Charlotte felt that she had played her part with sufficient skill She had brought them together and induced such a degree of intimacy that her brother was really relieved from all trouble and labour in the matter And moreover it was quite plain that Mrs Bold was very fond of Bertie And now it was plain enough also that he had nothing to fear from his rival Mr Slope
There was certainly an awkwardness in subjecting Mrs Bold to a second offer on the same day It would have been well perhaps to have put the matter off for a week could a week have been spared But circumstances are frequently too peremptory to be arranged as we would wish to arrange them and such was the case now This being so could not this affair of Mr Slopes be turned to advantage Could it not be made the excuse for bringing Bertie and Mrs Bold into still closer connection into such close connection that they could not fail to throw themselves into each others arms Such was the game which Miss Stanhope now at a moments notice resolved to play
And very well she played it In the first place it was arranged that Mr Slope should not return in the Stanhopes carriage to Barchester It so happened that Mr Slope was already gone but of that of course they knew nothing The signora should be induced to go first with only the servants and her sister and Bertie should take Mr Slopes place in the second journey Bertie was to be told in confidence of the whole affair and when the carriage was gone off with the first load Eleanor was to be left under Berties special protection so as to insure her from any further aggression from Mr Slope While the carriage was getting ready Bertie was to seek out that gentleman and make him understand that he must provide himself with another conveyance back to Barchester Their immediate object should be to walk about together in search of Bertie Bertie in short was to be the Pegasus on whose wings they were to ride out of their present dilemma
There was a warmth of friendship and cordial kindness in all this that was very soothing to the widow but yet though she gave way to it she was hardly reconciled to doing so It never occurred to her that now that she had killed one dragon another was about to spring up in her path she had no remote idea that she would have to encounter another suitor in her proposed protector but she hardly liked the idea of putting herself so much into the hands of young Stanhope She felt that if she wanted protection she should go to her father She felt that she should ask him to provide a carriage for her back to Barchester Mrs Clantantram she knew would give her a seat She knew that she should not throw herself entirely upon friends whose friendship dated as it were but from yesterday But yet she could not say no to one who was so sisterly in her kindness so eager in her good nature so comfortably sympathetic as Charlotte Stanhope
They first went into the diningroom looking for their champion and from thence to the drawingroom Here they found Mr Arabin still hanging over the signoras sofa or rather they found him sitting near her head as a physician might have sat had the lady been his patient There was no other person in the room The guests were some in the tent some few still in the diningroom some at the bows and arrows but most of them walking with Miss Thorne through the park and looking at the games that were going on
All that had passed and was passing between Mr Arabin and the lady it is unnecessary to give in detail She was doing with him as she did with all others It was her mission to make fools of men and she was pursuing her mission with Mr Arabin She had almost got him to own his love for Mrs Bold and had subsequently almost induced him to acknowledge a passion for herself He poor man was hardly aware what he was doing or saying hardly conscious whether he was in heaven or hell So little had he known of female attractions of that peculiar class which the signora owned that he became affected with a temporary delirium when first subjected to its power He lost his head rather than his heart and toppled about mentally reeling in his ideas as a drunken man does on his legs She had whispered to him words that really meant nothing but which coming from such beautiful lips and accompanied by such lustrous glances seemed to have a mysterious significance which he felt though he could not understand
In being thus besirened Mr Arabin behaved himself very differently from Mr Slope The signora had said truly that the two men were the contrasts of each other that the one was all for action the other all for thought Mr Slope when this lady laid upon his senses the overpowering breath of her charms immediately attempted to obtain some fruition to achieve some mighty triumph He began by catching at her hand and progressed by kissing it He made vows of love and asked for vows in return He promised everlasting devotion knelt before her and swore that had she been on Mount Ida Juno would have no cause to hate the offspring of Venus But Mr Arabin uttered no oaths kept his hand mostly in his trousers pocket and had no more thought of kissing Madam Neroni than of kissing the Countess De Courcy
As soon as Mr Arabin saw Mrs Bold enter the room he blushed and rose from his chair then he sat down again and then again got up The signora saw the blush at once and smiled at the poor victim but Eleanor was too much confused to see anything
Oh Madeline said Charlotte I want to speak to you particularly we must arrange about the carriage you know and she stooped down to whisper to her sister Mr Arabin immediately withdrew to a little distance and as Charlotte had in fact much to explain before she could make the new arrangement intelligible he had nothing to do but to talk to Mrs Bold
We have had a very pleasant party said he using the tone he would have used had he declared that the sun was shining very brightly or the rain was falling very fast
Very said Eleanor who never in her life had passed a more unpleasant day
I hope Mr Harding has enjoyed himself
Oh yes very much said Eleanor who had not seen her father since she parted from him soon after her arrival
He returns to Barchester tonight I suppose
Yes I believe so that is I think he is staying at Plumstead
Oh staying at Plumstead said Mr Arabin
He came from there this morning I believe he is going back he didnt exactly say however
I hope Mrs Grantly is quite well
She seemed to be quite well She is here that is unless she has gone away
Oh yes to be sure I was talking to her Looking very well indeed Then there was a considerable pause for Charlotte could not at once make Madeline understand why she was to be sent home in a hurry without her brother
Are you returning to Plumstead Mrs Bold Mr Arabin merely asked this by way of making conversation but he immediately perceived that he was approaching dangerous ground
No said Mrs Bold very quietly I am going home to Barchester
Oh ah yes I had forgotten that you had returned And then Mr Arabin finding it impossible to say anything further stood silent till Charlotte had completed her plans and Mrs Bold stood equally silent intently occupied as it appeared in the arrangement of her rings
And yet these two people were thoroughly in love with each other and though one was a middleaged clergyman and the other a lady at any rate past the wishywashy breadandbutter period of life they were as unable to tell their own minds to each other as any Damon and Phillis whose united ages would not make up that to which Mr Arabin had already attained
Madeline Neroni consented to her sisters proposal and then the two ladies again went off in quest of Bertie Stanhope
CHAPTER XLII
ULLATHORNE SPORTS—ACT III
And now Miss Thornes guests were beginning to take their departure and the amusement of those who remained was becoming slack It was getting dark and ladies in morning costumes were thinking that if they were to appear by candlelight they ought to readjust themselves Some young gentlemen had been heard to talk so loud that prudent mammas determined to retire judiciously and the more discreet of the male sex whose libation had been moderate felt that there was not much more left for them to do
Morning parties as a rule are failures People never know how to get away from them gracefully A picnic on an island or a mountain or in a wood may perhaps be permitted There is no master of the mountain bound by courtesy to bid you stay while in his heart he is longing for your departure But in a private home or in private grounds a morning party is a bore One is called on to eat and drink at unnatural hours One is obliged to give up the day which is useful and is then left without resources for the evening which is useless One gets home fagged and desouvre and yet at an hour too early for bed There is not comfortable resource left Cards in these genteel days are among the things tabooed and a rubber of whist is impracticable
All this began now to be felt Some young people had come with some amount of hope that they might get up a dance in the evening and were unwilling to leave till all such hope was at an end Others fearful of staying longer than was expected had ordered their carriages early and were doing their best to go solicitous for their servants and horses The countess and her noble brood were among the first to leave and as regarded the Hon George it was certainly time that he did so Her ladyship was in a great fret and fume Those horrid roads would she was sure be the death of her if unhappily she were caught in them by the dark of night The lamps she was assured were good but no lamp could withstand the jolting of the roads of East Barsetshire
The De Courcy property lay in the western division of the county
Mrs Proudie could not stay when the countess was gone So the bishop was searched for by the Revs Messrs Grey and Green and found in one corner of the tent enjoying himself thoroughly in a disquisition on the hebdomadal board He obeyed however the behests of the lady without finishing the sentence in which he was promising to Dr Gwynne that his authority at Oxford should remain unimpaired and the episcopal horses turned their noses towards the palatial stables Then the Grantlys went Before they did so Mr Harding managed to whisper a word into his daughters ear Of course he said he would undeceive the Grantlys as to that foolish rumour about Mr Slope
No no no said Eleanor pray do not—pray wait till I see you You will be home in a day or two and then I will explain to you everything
I shall be home tomorrow said he
I am so glad said Eleanor You will come and dine with me and then we shall be so comfortable
Mr Harding promised He did not exactly know what there was to be explained or why Dr Grantlys mind should not be disabused of the mistake into which he had fallen but nevertheless he promised He owed some reparation to his daughter and he thought that he might best make it by obedience
And thus the people were thinning off by degrees as Charlotte and Eleanor walked about in quest of Bertie Their search might have been long had they not happened to hear his voice He was comfortably ensconced in the haha with his back to the sloping side smoking a cigar and eagerly engaged in conversation with some youngster from the further side of the county whom he had never met before who was also smoking under Berties pupilage and listening with open ears to an account given by his companion of some of the pastimes of the Eastern clime
Bertie I am seeking you everywhere said Charlotte Come up here at once
Bertie looked up out of the haha and saw the two ladies before him As there was nothing for him but to obey he got up and threw away his cigar From the first moment of his acquaintance with her he had liked Eleanor Bold Had he been left to his own devices had she been penniless and had it then been quite out of the question that he should marry her he would most probably have fallen violently in love with her But now he could not help regarding her somewhat as he did the marble workshops at Carrara as he had done his easel and palette as he had done the lawyers chambers in London in fact as he had invariably regarded everything by which it had been proposed to obtain the means of living Eleanor Bold appeared before him no longer as a beautiful woman but as a new profession called matrimony It was a profession indeed requiring but little labour and one in which an income was insured to him But nevertheless he had been as it were goaded on to it his sister had talked to him of Eleanor just as she had talked of busts and portraits Bertie did not dislike money but he hated the very thought of earning it He was now called away from his pleasant cigar to earn it by offering himself as a husband to Mrs Bold The work indeed was made easy enough for in lieu of his having to seek the widow the widow had apparently come to seek him
He made some sudden absurd excuse to his auditor and then throwing away his cigar climbed up the wall of the haha and joined the ladies on the lawn
Come and give Mrs Bold your arm said Charlotte while I set you on a piece of duty which as a preux chevalier you must immediately perform Your personal danger will I fear be insignificant as your antagonist is a clergyman
Bertie immediately gave his arm to Eleanor walking between her and his sister He had lived too long abroad to fall into an Englishmans habit of offering each an arm to two ladies at the same time a habit by the bye which foreigners regard as an approach to bigamy or a sort of incipient Mormonism
The little history of Mr Slopes misconduct was then told to Bertie by his sister Eleanors ears tingling the while And well they might tingle If it were necessary to speak of the outrage at all why should it be spoken of to such a person as Mr Stanhope and why in her own hearing She knew she was wrong and was unhappy and dispirited and yet she could think of no way to extricate herself no way to set herself right Charlotte spared her as much as she possibly could spoke of the whole thing as though Mr Slope had taken a glass of wine too much said that of course there would be nothing more about it but that steps must be taken to exclude Mr Slope from the carriage
Mrs Bold need be under no alarm about that said Bertie for Mr Slope has gone this hour past He told me that business made it necessary that he should start at once for Barchester
He is not so tipsy at any rate but what he knows his fault said Charlotte Well my dear that is one difficulty over Now Ill leave you with your true knight and get Madeline off as quickly as I can The carriage is here I suppose Bertie
It has been here for the last hour
Thats well Goodbye my dear Of course youll come in to tea I shall trust you to bring her Bertie even by force if necessary And so saying Charlotte was off across the lawn leaving her brother alone with the widow
As Miss Stanhope went off Eleanor bethought herself that as Mr Slope had taken his departure there no longer existed any necessity for separating Mr Stanhope from his sister Madeline who so much needed his aid It had been arranged that he should remain so as to preoccupy Mr Slopes place in the carriage and act as a social policeman to effect the exclusion of that disagreeable gentleman But Mr Slope had effected his own exclusion and there as no possible reason now why Bertie should not go with his sister At least Eleanor saw none and she said so much
Oh let Charlotte have her own way said he She has arranged it and there will be no end of confusion if we make another change Charlotte always arranges everything in our house and rules us like a despot
But the signora said Eleanor
Oh the signora can do very well without me Indeed she will have to do without me he added thinking rather of his studies in Carrara than of his Barchester hymeneals
Why you are not going to leave us asked Eleanor
It has been said that Bertie Stanhope was a man without principle He certainly was so He had no power of using active mental exertion to keep himself from doing evil Evil had no ugliness in his eyes virtue no beauty He was void of any of those feelings which actuate men to do good But he was perhaps equally void of those which actuate men to do evil He got into debt with utter recklessness thinking of nothing as to whether the tradesmen would ever be paid or not But he did not invent active schemes of deceit for the sake of extracting the goods of others If a man gave him credit that was the mans lookout Bertie Stanhope troubled himself nothing further In borrowing money he did the same he gave people references to his governor told them that the old chap had a good income and agreed to pay sixty per cent for the accommodation All this he did without a scruple of conscience but then he never contrived active villainy
In this affair of his marriage it had been represented to him as a matter of duty that he ought to put himself in possession of Mrs Bolds hand and fortune and at first he had so regarded it About her he had thought but little It was the customary thing for men situated as he was to marry for money and there was no reason why he should not do what others around him did And so he consented But now he began to see the matter in another light He was setting himself down to catch a woman as a cat sits to catch a mouse He was to catch her and swallow her up her and her child and her houses and land in order that he might live on her instead of on his father There was a cold calculating cautious cunning about this quite at variance with Berties character The prudence of the measure was quite as antagonistic to his feelings as the iniquity
And then should he be successful what would be the reward Having satisfied his creditors with half of the widows fortune he would be allowed to sit down quietly at Barchester keeping economical house with the remainder His duty would be to rock the cradle of the late Mr Bolds child and his highest excitement a demure party at Plumstead rectory should it ultimately turn out that the archdeacon be sufficiently reconciled to receive him
There was little in the programme to allure such a man as Bertie Stanhope Would not the Carrara workshop or whatever worldly career fortune might have in store for him would not almost anything be better than this The lady herself was undoubtedly all that was desirable but the most desirable lady becomes nauseous when she has to be taken as a pill He was pledged to his sister however and let him quarrel with whom he would it behoved him not to quarrel with her If she were lost to him all would be lost that he could ever hope to derive henceforward from the paternal rooftree His mother was apparently indifferent to his weal or woe to his wants or to his warfare His fathers brow got blacker and blacker from day to day as the old man looked at his hopeless son And as for Madeline—poor Madeline whom of all of them he liked the best—she had enough to do to shift for herself No come what might he must cling to his sister and obey her behests let them be ever so stern or at the very least be seen to obey them Could not some happy deceit bring him through in this matter so that he might save appearances with his sister and yet not betray the widow to her ruin What if he made a confidence of Eleanor
Twas in this spirit that Bertie Stanhope set about his wooing
But you are not going to leave Barchester asked Eleanor
I do not know he replied I hardly know yet what I am going to do But it is at any rate certain that I must do something
You mean about your profession said she
Yes about my profession if you can call it one
And is it not one said Eleanor Were I a man I know none I should prefer to it except painting And I believe the one is as much in your power as the other
Yes just about equally so said Bertie with a little touch of inward satire directed at himself He knew in his heart that he would never make a penny by either
I have often wondered Mr Stanhope why you do not exert yourself more said Eleanor who felt a friendly fondness for the man with whom she was walking But I know it is very impertinent in me to say so
Impertinent said he Not so but much too kind It is much too kind in you to take an interest in so idle a scamp
And make busts of the bishop dean and chapter Or perhaps if I achieve great success obtain a commission to put up an elaborate tombstone over a prebendarys widow a dead lady with a Grecian nose a bandeau and an intricate lace veil lying of course on a marble sofa from among the legs of which Death will be creeping out and poking at his victim with a small toastingfork
Eleanor laughed but yet she thought that if the surviving prebendary paid the bill the object of the artist as a professional man would in great measure be obtained
I dont know about the dean and chapter and the prebendarys widow said Eleanor Of course you must take them as they come But the fact of your having a great cathedral in which such ornaments are required could not but be in your favour
No real artist could descend to the ornamentation of a cathedral said Bertie who had his ideas of the high ecstatic ambition of art as indeed all artists have who are not in receipt of a good income Building should be fitted to grace the sculpture not the sculpture to grace the building
Yes when the work of art is good enough to merit it Do you Mr
Stanhope do something sufficiently excellent and we ladies of
Barchester will erect for it a fitting receptacle Come what shall
the subject be
Ill put you in your ponychair Mrs Bold as Dannecker put
Ariadne on her lion Only you must promise to sit for me
My ponies are too tame I fear and my broadbrimmed straw hat will not look so well in marble as the lace veil of the prebendarys wife
If you will not consent to that Mrs Bold I will consent to try no other subject in Barchester
You are determined then to push your fortune in other lands
I am determined said Bertie slowly and significantly as he tried to bring up his mind to a great resolve I am determined in this matter to be guided wholly by you
Wholly by me said Eleanor astonished at and not quite liking his altered manner
Wholly by you said Bertie dropping his companions arm and standing before her on the path In their walk they had come exactly to the spot where Eleanor had been provoked into slapping Mr Slopes face Could it be possible that the place was peculiarly unpropitious to her comfort Could it be possible that she should her have to encounter another amorous swain
If you will be guided by me Mr Stanhope you will set yourself down to steady and persevering work and you will be ruled by your father as to the place in which it will be most advisable for you to do so
Nothing could be more prudent if only it were practicable But now if you will let me I will tell you how it is that I will be guided by you and why Will you let me tell you
I really do not know what you can have to tell
No—you cannot know It is impossible that you should But we have been very good friends Mrs Bold have we not
Yes I think we have said she observing in his demeanour an earnestness very unusual with him
You were kind enough to say just now that you took an interest in me and I was perhaps vain enough to believe you
There is no vanity in that I do so as your sisters brother—and as my own friend also
Well I dont deserve that you should feel so kindly towards me said Bertie but upon my word I am very grateful for it and he paused awhile hardly knowing how to introduce the subject that he had in hand
And it was no wonder that he found it difficult He had to make known to his companion the scheme that had been prepared to rob her of her wealth he had to tell her that he loved her without intending to marry her and he had also to bespeak from her not only his own pardon but also that of his sister and induce Mrs Bold to protest in her future communication with Charlotte that an offer had been duly made to her and duly rejected
Bertie Stanhope was not prone to be very diffident of his own conversational powers but it did seem to him that he was about to tax them almost too far He hardly knew where to begin and he hardly knew where he should end
I wish to be guided by you said he and indeed in this matter there is no one else who can set me right
Oh that must be nonsense said she
Well listen to me now Mrs Bold and if you can help it pray dont be angry with me
Angry said she
Oh indeed you will have cause to do so You know how very much attached to you my sister Charlotte is
Eleanor acknowledged that she did
Indeed she is I never knew her to love any one so warmly on so short an acquaintance You know also how well she loves me
Eleanor now made no answer but she felt the blood tingle in her cheek as she gathered from what he said the probable result of this doublebarrelled love on the part of Miss Stanhope
I am her only brother Mrs Bold and it is not to be wondered at that she should love me But you do not yet know Charlotte—you do not know how entirely the wellbeing of our family hangs on her Without her to manage for us I do not know how we should get on from day to day You cannot yet have observed all this
Eleanor had indeed observed a good deal of this she did not however now say so but allowed him to proceed with his story
You cannot therefore be surprised that Charlotte should be most anxious to do the best for us all
Eleanor said that she was not at all surprised
And she has had a very difficult game to play Mrs Bold—a very difficult game Poor Madelines unfortunate marriage and terrible accident my mothers illhealth my fathers absence from England and last and worst perhaps my own roving idle spirit have almost been too much for her You cannot wonder if among all her cares one of the foremost is to see me settled in the world
Eleanor on this occasion expressed no acquiescence She certainly supposed that a formal offer was to be made and could not but think that so singular an exordium was never before made by a gentleman in a similar position Mr Slope had annoyed her by the excess of his ardour It was quiet clear that no such danger was to be feared from Mr Stanhope Prudential motives alone actuated him Not only was he about to make love because his sister told him but he also took the precaution of explaining all this before he began Twas thus we may presume that the matter presented itself to Mrs Bold
When he had got so far Bertie began poling in the gravel with a little cane which he carried He still kept moving on but very slowly and his companion moved slowly by his side not inclined to assist him in the task the performance of which appeared to be difficult to him
Knowing how fond she is of yourself Mrs Bold cannot you imagine what scheme should have occurred to her
I can imagine no better scheme Mr Stanhope than the one I proposed to you just now
No said he somewhat lackadaisically I suppose that would be the best but Charlotte thinks another plan might be joined with it—She wants me to marry you
A thousand remembrances flashed across Eleanors mind all in a moment—how Charlotte had talked about and praised her brother how she had continually contrived to throw the two of them together how she had encouraged all manner of little intimacies how she had with singular cordiality persisted in treating Eleanor as one of the family All this had been done to secure her comfortable income for the benefit of one of the family
Such a feeling as this is very bitter when it first impresses itself on a young mind To the old such plots and plans such matured schemes for obtaining the goods of this world without the trouble of earning them such longheaded attempts to convert tuum into meum are the ways of life to which they are accustomed Tis thus that many live and it therefore behoves all those who are well to do in the world be on their guard against those who are not With them it is the success that disgusts not the attempt But Eleanor had not yet learnt to look on her money as a source of danger she had not begun to regard herself as fair game to be hunted down by hungry gentlemen She had enjoyed the society of the Stanhopes she had greatly liked the cordiality of Charlotte and had been happy in her new friends Now she saw the cause of all that kindness and her mind was opened to a new phase of human life
Miss Stanhope said she haughtily has been contriving for me a great deal of honour but she might have saved herself the trouble I an not sufficiently ambitious
Pray dont be angry with her Mrs Bold said he or with me either
Certainly not with you Mr Stanhope said she with considerable sarcasm in her tone Certainly not with you
No—nor with her said he imploringly
And why may I ask you Mr Stanhope have you told me this singular story For I may presume I may judge by your manner of telling it that—that—that you and your sister are not exactly of one mind on the subject
No we are not
And if so said Mrs Bold who was now really angry with the unnecessary insult which she thought had been offered to her and if so why has it been worth your while to tell me all this
I did once think Mrs Bold—that you—that you—
The widow now again became entirely impassive and would not lend the slightest assistance to her companion
I did once think that you perhaps might—might have been taught to regard me as more than a friend
Never said Mrs Bold never If I have ever allowed myself to do anything to encourage such an idea I have been very much to blame—very much to blame indeed
You never have said Bertie who really had a goodnatured anxiety to make what he said as little unpleasant as possible You never have and I have seen for some time that I had no chance but my sisters hopes ran higher I have not mistaken you Mrs Bold though perhaps she has
Then why have you said all this to me
Because I must not anger her
And will not this anger her Upon my word Mr Stanhope I do not understand the policy of your family Oh how I wish I was at home And as she expressed this wish she could restrain herself no longer but burst out into a flood of tears
Poor Bertie was greatly moved You shall have the carriage to yourself going home said he at least you and my father As for me I can walk or for the matter of that it does not much signify what I do He perfectly understood that part of Eleanors grief arose from the apparent necessity of going back to Barchester in the carriage of her second suitor
This somewhat mollified her Oh Mr Stanhope said she why should you have made me so miserable What will have gained by telling me all this
He had not even yet explained to her the most difficult part of his proposition he had not told her that she was to be a party to the little deception which he intended to play off upon his sister This suggestion had still to be made and as it was absolutely necessary he proceeded to make it
We need not follow him through the whole of his statement At last and not without considerable difficulty he made Eleanor understand why he had let her into his confidence seeing that he no longer intended her the honour of a formal offer At last he made her comprehend the part which she was destined to play in this little family comedy
But when she did understand it she was only more angry with him than ever more angry not only with him but with Charlotte also Her fair name was to bandied about between them in different senses and each sense false She was to played off by the sister against the father and then by the brother against the sister Her dear friend Charlotte with all her agreeable sympathy and affection was striving to sacrifice her for the Stanhope family welfare and Bertie who as he now proclaimed himself was over head and heels in debt completed the compliment of owning that he did not care to have his debts paid at so great a sacrifice to himself Then she was asked to conspire together with this unwilling suitor for the sake of making the family believe that he had in obedience to their commands done his best to throw himself thus away
She lifted up her face when she had finished and looking at him with much dignity even through her tears she said—
I regret to say it Mr Stanhope but after what has passed I believe that all intercourse between your family and myself had better cease
Well perhaps it had said Bertie naively perhaps that will be better at any rate for a time and then Charlotte will think you are offended at what I have done
And now I will go back to the house if you please said Eleanor I can find my way by myself Mr Stanhope after what has passed she added I would rather go alone
But I must find the carriage for you Mrs Bold and I must tell my father that you will return with him alone and I must make some excuse to him for not going with you and I must bid the servant put you down at your own house for I suppose you will not now choose to see them again in the close
There was a truth about this and a perspicuity in making arrangements for lessening her immediate embarrassment which had some effect in softening Eleanors anger So she suffered herself to walk by his side over the now deserted lawn till they came to the drawingroom window There was something about Bertie Stanhope which gave him in the estimation of every one a different standing from that which any other man would occupy under similar circumstances Angry as Eleanor was and great as was her cause for anger she was not half as angry with him as she would have been with any one else He was apparently so simple so good natured so unaffected and easy to talk to that she had already halfforgiven him before he was at the drawingroom window When they arrived there Dr Stanhope was sitting nearly alone with Mr and Miss Thorne one or two other unfortunates were there who from one cause or another were still delayed in getting away but they were every moment getting fewer in number
As soon as he had handed Eleanor over to his father Bertie started off to the front gate in search of the carriage and there waited leaning patiently against the front wall and comfortably smoking a cigar till it came up When he returned to the room Dr Stanhope and Eleanor were alone with their hosts
At last Miss Thorne said he cheerily I have come to relieve you Mrs Bold and my father are the last roses in the very delightful summer you have given us and desirable as Mrs Bolds society always is now at least you must be glad to see the last flowers plucked from the tree
Miss Thorne declared that she was delighted to have Mrs Bold and Dr Stanhope still with her and Mr Thorne would have said the same had he not been checked by a yawn which he could not suppress
Father will you give your arm to Mrs Bold said Bertie and so the last adieux were made and the prebendary led out Mrs Bold followed by his son
I shall be home soon after you said he as the two got into the carriage
Are you not coming in the carriage said the father
No no I have some one to see on the road and shall walk John mind you drive to Mrs Bolds house first
Eleanor looking out of the window saw him with his hat in his hand bowing to her with his usual gay smile as though nothing had happened to mar the tranquillity of the day It was many a long year before she saw him again Dr Stanhope hardly spoke to her on her way home and she was safely deposited by John at her own halldoor before the carriage drove into the close
And thus our heroine played the last act of that days melodrama
CHAPTER XLIII
MR AND MRS QUIVERFUL ARE MADE HAPPY MR SLOPE ENCOURAGED BY THE PRESS
Before she started for Ullathorne Mrs Proudie careful soul caused two letters to be written one by herself and one by her lord to the inhabitants of Puddingdale vicarage which made happy the hearth of those within it
As soon as the departure of the horses left the bishops stablegroom free for other services that humble denizen of the diocese started on the bishops own pony with the two despatches We have had so many letters lately that we will spare ourselves these That from the bishop was simply a request that Mr Quiverful would wait upon his lordship the next morning at 11 AM and that from the lady was as simply a request that Mrs Quiverful would do the same by her though it was couched in somewhat longer and more grandiloquent phraseology
It had become a point of conscience with Mrs Proudie to urge the settlement of this great hospital question She was resolved that Mr Quiverful should have it She was resolved that there should be no more doubt or delay no more refusals and resignations nor more secret negotiations carried on by Mr Slope on his own account in opposition to her behests
Bishop she said immediately after breakfast on the morning of that eventful day have you signed the appointment yet
No my dear not yet it is not exactly signed as yet
Then do it said the lady
The bishop did it and a very pleasant day indeed he spent at Ullathorne And when he got home he had a glass of hot negus in his wifes sittingroom and read the last number of the Little Dorrit of the day with great inward satisfaction Oh husbands oh my marital friends what great comfort is there to be derived from a wife well obeyed
Much perturbation and flutter high expectation and renewed hopes were occasioned at Puddingdale by the receipt of those episcopal dispatches Mrs Quiverful whose careful ear caught the sound of the ponys feet as he trotted up to the vicarage kitchen door brought them in hurriedly to her husband She was at the moment concocting the Irish stew destined to satisfy the noonday want of fourteen young birds let alone the parent couple She had taken the letters from the mans hands between the folds of her capacious apron so as to save them from the contamination of the stew and in this guise she brought them to her husbands desk
They at once divided the spoil each taking that addressed to the others Quiverfulsaid she with impressive voice you are to be at the palace at eleven tomorrow
And so are you my dear said he almost gasping with the importance of the tidings and then they exchanged letters
Shed never have sent for me again said the lady if it wasnt all right
Oh My dear dont be too certain said the gentleman Only think if it should be wrong
Shed never have sent for me Q if it wasnt all right again argued the lady Shes stiff and hard and proud as piecrust but I think shes right at bottom Such was Mrs Quiverfuls verdict about Mrs Proudie to which in after times she always adhered People when they get their income doubled usually think that those through whose instrumentality this little ceremony is performed are right at bottom
Oh Letty said Mr Quiverful rising from his wellworn seat
Oh Q said Mrs Quiverful and then the two unmindful of the kitchen apron the greasy fingers and the adherent Irish stew threw themselves warmly into each others arms
For heavens sake dont let any one cajole you out of it again said the wife
Let me alone for that said the husband with a look of almost fierce determination pressing his fist as he spoke rigidly on his desk as though he had Mr Slopes head below his knuckles and meant to keep it there
I wonder how soon it will be said she
I wonder whether it will be at all said he still doubtful
Well I wont say too much said the lady The cup has slipped twice before and it may fall altogether this time but Ill not believe it Hell give you the appointment tomorrow Youll find he will
Heaven send he may said Mr Quiverful solemnly And who that considers the weight of the burden on this mans back will say that the prayer was an improper one There were fourteen of them—fourteen of them living—as Mrs Quiverful had so powerfully urged in the presence of the bishops wife As long as promotion cometh from any human source whether north or south east or west will not such a claim as this hold good in spite of all our examination tests detur dignioris and optimist tendencies It is fervently to be hoped that it may Till we can become divine we must be content to be human lest in our hurry for change we sink to something lower
And then the pair sitting down lovingly together talked over all their difficulties as they so often did and all their hopes as they so seldom were able to do
You had better call on that man Q as you come away from the palace said Mrs Quiverful pointing to an angry call for money from the Barchester draper which the postman had left at the vicarage that morning Cormorant that he was unjust hungry cormorant When rumour first got abroad that the Quiverfuls were to go to the hospital this fellow with fawning eagerness had pressed his goods upon the wants of the poor clergyman He had done so feeling that he should be paid from the hospital funds and flattering himself that a man with fourteen children and money wherewithal to clothe them could not but be an excellent customer As soon as the second rumour reached him he applied for his money angrily
And the fourteen—or such of them as were old enough to hope and discuss their hopes talked over their golden future The tallgrown girls whispered to each other of possible Barchester parties of possible allowances for dresses of a possible piano—the one they had in the vicarage was so weatherbeaten with storms of years and children as to be no longer worthy of the name—of the pretty garden and the pretty house Twas of such things it most behoved them to whisper
And the younger fry they did not content themselves with whispers but shouted to each other of their new playground beneath our dear exwardens wellloved elms of their future own gardens of marbles to be procured in the wishedfor city and of the rumour which had reached them of a Barchester school
Twas in vain that their cautious mother tried to instil into their breasts the very feeling she had striven to banish from that of their father twas in vain that she repeated to the girls that theres many a slip twixt the cup and the lip twas in vain she attempted to make the children believe that they were to live at Puddingdale all their lives Hopes mounted high and would not have themselves quelled The neighbouring farmers heard this news and came in to congratulate them Twas Mrs Quiverful herself who had kindled the fire and in the first outbreak of her renewed expectations she did it so thoroughly that it was quite past her power to put it out again
Poor matron Good honest matron Doing thy duty in the state to which thou hast been called heartily if not contentedly let the fire burn on—on this occasion the flames will not scorch they shall warm thee and thine Tis ordained that the husband of thine that Q of thy bosom shall reign supreme for some years to come over the bedesmen of Hirams hospital
And the last in all Barchester to mar their hopes had he heard and seen all that had passed at Puddingdale that day would have been Mr Harding What wants had he to set in opposition to those of such a regiment of young ravens There are fourteen of them living With him at any rate let us say that the argument would have been sufficient for the appointment of Mr Quiverful
In the morning Q and his wife kept their appointments with that punctuality which bespeaks an expectant mind The friendly farmers gig was borrowed and in that they went discussing many things by the way They had instructed the household to expect them back by one and injunctions were given to the eldest pledge to have ready by that accustomed hour the remainder of the huge stew which the provident mother had prepared on the previous day The hands of the kitchen clock came round to two three four before the farmers gigwheels were agin heard at the vicarage gate With what palpitating hearts were the returning wanderers greeted
I suppose children you all thought we were never coming back any more said the mother as she slowly let down her solid foot till it rested on the step of the gig Well such a day as weve had and then leaning heavily on a big boys shoulder she stepped once more on terra firma
There was no need for more than the tone of her voice to tell them that all was right The Irish stew might burn itself to cinders now
Then there was such kissing and hugging such crying and laughing Mr Quiverful could not sit still at all but kept walking from room to room then out into the garden then down the avenue into the road and then back again to his wife She however lost no time so idly
We must go to work at once girls and that in earnest Mrs
Proudie expects us to be in the hospital house on the 15th of
October
Had Mrs Proudie expressed a wish that they should all be there on the next morning the girls would have had nothing to say against it
And when will the pay begin asked the eldest boy
Today my dear said the gratified mother
Oh—that is jolly said the boy
Mrs Proudie insisted on our going down to the house continued the mother and when there I thought I might save a journey by measuring some of the rooms and windows so I got a knot of tape from Bobbins Bobbins is as civil as you please now
I wouldnt thank him said Letty the younger
Oh thats the way of the world my dear They all do just the same You might just as well be angry with the turkey cock for gobbling at you Its the birds nature And as she enunciated to her bairns the upshot of her practical experience she pulled from her pocket the portions of tape which showed the length and breadth of the various rooms at the hospital house
And so we will leave her happy in her toils
The Quiverfuls had hardly left the palace and Mrs Proudie was still holding forth on the matter to her husband when another visitor was announced in the person of Dr Gwynne The master of Lazarus had asked for the bishop and not for Mrs Proudie and therefore when he was shown into the study he was surprised rather than rejoiced to find the lady there
But we must go back a little and it shall be but a little for a difficulty begins to make itself manifest in the necessity of disposing of all our friends in the small remainder of this one volume Oh that Mr Longman would allow me a fourth It should transcend the other three as the seventh heaven transcends all the lower stages of celestial bliss
Going home in the carriage that evening from Ullathorne Dr Gwynne had not without difficulty brought round his friend the archdeacon to a line of tactics much less bellicose than that which his own taste would have preferred It will be unseemly in us to show ourselves in a bad humour and moreover we have no power in this matter and it will therefore be bad policy to act as though we had Twas thus the master of Lazarus argued If he continued the bishop is determined to appoint another to the hospital threats will not prevent him and threats should not be lightly used by an archdeacon to his bishop If he will place a stranger in the hospital we can only leave him to the indignation of others It is probable that such a step may not eventually injure your fatherinlaw I will see the bishop if you will allow me—alone At this the archdeacon winced visibly yes alone for so I shall be calmer and then I shall at any rate learn what he does mean to do in the matter
The archdeacon puffed and blew put up the carriage window and then put it down again argued the matter up to his own gate and at last gave way Everybody was against him his own wife Mr Harding and Dr Gwynne
Pray keep him out of hot water Dr Gwynne Mrs Grantly had said to her guest My dearest madam Ill do my best the courteous master had replied Twas thus he did it and earned for himself the gratitude of Mrs Grantly
And now we may return to the bishops study
Dr Gwynne had certainly not foreseen the difficulty which here presented itself He—together with all the clerical world of England—had heard it rumoured about that Mrs Proudie did not confine herself to her wardrobes stillrooms and laundries but yet it had never occurred to him that if he called on a bishop at one oclock in the day he could by any possibility find himself closeted with his wife or that if he did so the wife would remain longer than necessary to make her curtsey It appeared however as though in the present case Mrs Proudie had no idea of retreating
The bishop had been very much pleased with Dr Gwynne on the preceding day and of course thought that Dr Gwynne had been very much pleased with him He attributed the visit solely to compliment and thought it was an extremely gracious and proper thing for the master of Lazarus to drive over from Plumstead specially to call at the palace so soon after his arrival in the country The fact that they were not on the same side either in politics or doctrines made the compliment the greater The bishop therefore was all smiles And Mrs Proudie who liked people with good handles to their names was also very well disposed to welcome the master of Lazarus
We had a charming party at Ullathorne Master had we not said she I hope Mrs Grantly got home without fatigue
Dr Gwynne said that they had all been a little tired but were none the worse this morning
An excellent person Miss Thorne suggested the bishop
An exemplary Christian I am told said Mrs Proudie
Dr Gwynne declared that he was very glad to hear it
I have not seen her Sabbathday schools yet continued the lady but I shall make a point of doing so before long
Dr Gwynne merely bowed at this intimation He had something of Mrs
Proudie and her Sunday schools both from Dr Grantly and Mr
Harding
By the bye Master continued the lady I wonder whether Mrs Grantly would like me to drive over and inspect her Sabbathday school I hear that it is most excellently kept
Dr Gwynne really could not say He had no doubt Mrs Grantly would be most happy to see Mrs Proudie any day Mrs Proudie would do her the honour of calling that was of course if Mrs Grantly should happen to be at home
A slight cloud darkened the ladys brow She saw that her offer was not taken in good part This generation of unregenerated vipers was still perverse stiffnecked and hardened in their antiquity The archdeacon I know said she sets his face against these institutions
At this Dr Gwynne laughed slightly It was but a smile Had he given his cap for it he could not have helped it
Mrs Proudie frowned again Suffer little children and forbid them not said she Are we not to remember that Dr Gwynne Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones Are we not to remember that Dr Gwynne And at each of these questions she raised at him a menacing forefinger
Certainly madam certainly said the master and so does the archdeacon I am sure on week days as well as on Sundays
On week days you cant take heed not to despise them said Mrs Proudie because they are out in the fields On week days they belong to their parents but on Sundays they ought to belong to the clergyman And the finger was again raised
The master began to understand and to share the intense disgust which the archdeacon always expressed when Mrs Proudies name was mentioned What was he to do with such a woman as this To take his hat and go would have been his natural resource but then he did not wish to be foiled in his subject
My lord said he I wanted to ask you a question on business if you would spare me one moments leisure I know I must apologise for so disturbing you but in truth I will not detain you five minutes
Certainly Master certainly said the bishop my time is quite yours—pray make no apology pray make no apology
You have a great deal to do just at the present moment bishop Do not forget how extremely busy you are at present said Mrs Proudie whose spirit was now up for she was angry with her visitor
I will not delay his lordship much above a minute said the master of Lazarus rising from his chair and expecting that Mrs Proudie would now go or else that the bishop would lead the way into another room
But neither event seemed likely to occur and Dr Gwynne stood for a moment silent in the middle of the room
Perhaps its about Hirams Hospital suggested Mrs Proudie
Dr Gwynne lost in astonishment and not knowing what else on earth to do confessed that his business with the bishop was connected with Hirams Hospital
His lordship has finally conferred the appointment on Mr Quiverful this morning said the lady
Dr Gwynne made a simple reference to the bishop and finding that the ladys statement was formally confirmed he took his leave That comes of the reform bill he said to himself as he walked down the bishops avenue Well at any rate the Greek play bishops were not so bad as that
It has been said that Mr Slope as he started for Ullathorne received a despatch from his friend Mr Towers which had the effect of putting him in that high goodhumour which subsequent events somewhat untowardly damped It ran as follows Its shortness will be its sufficient apology
My dear Sir—I wish you every success I dont know that I can help you but if I can I will Yours ever TT 309185
There was more in this than in all Sir Nicholas Fitzwiggins flummery more than in all the bishops promises even had they been ever so sincere more than in any archbishops good work even had it been possible to obtain it Tom Towers would do for him what he could
Mr Slope had from his youth upwards been a firm believer in the public press He had dabbled in it himself ever since he had taken his degree and regarded it as the great arranger and distributor of all future British terrestrial affairs whatever He had not yet arrived at the age an age which sooner or later comes to most of us which dissipates the golden dreams of youth He delighted in the idea of wresting power from the hands of his countrys magnates and placing it in a custody which was at any rate nearer to his own reach Sixty thousand broad sheets dispersing themselves daily among his reading fellowcitizens formed in his eyes a better depot for supremacy than a throne at Windsor a cabinet in Downing Street or even an assembly at Westminster And on this subject we must not quarrel with Mr Slope for the feeling is too general to be met with disrespect
Tom Towers was as good if not better than his promise On the following morning the Jupiter spouting forth public opinion with sixty thousand loud clarions did proclaim to the world that Mr Slope was the fittest man for the vacant post It was pleasant for Mr Slope to read the following line in the Barchester newsroom which he did within thirty minutes after the morning train from London had reached the city
It is just now five years since we called the attention of our readers to the quiet city of Barchester From that day to this we have in no way meddled with the affairs of that happy ecclesiastical community Since then an old bishop has died there and a young bishop has been installed but we believe we did not do more than give some customary record of the interesting event Nor are we about to meddle very deeply in the affairs of the diocese If any of the chapter feel a qualm of conscience on reading this let it be quieted Above all let the mind of the new bishop be at rest We are now not armed for war but approach the revered towers of the old cathedral with an olivebranch in our hands
It will be remembered that at the time alluded to now five years past we had occasion to remark on the state of a charity at Barchester called Hirams Hospital We thought that it was maladministered and that the very estimable and reverend gentleman who held the office of warden was somewhat too highly paid for duties which were somewhat too easily performed This gentleman—and we say it in all sincerity and with no touch of sarcasm—had never looked on the matter in this light before We do not wish to take praise to ourselves whether praise is due or not But the consequence of our remark was that the warden did look into the matter and finding on doing so that he himself could come to no other opinion than that expressed by us he very creditably threw up the appointment The then bishop then as creditably declined to fill the vacancy till the affair was put on a better footing Parliament then took it up and we have now the satisfaction of informing our readers that Hirams Hospital will be immediately reopened under new auspices Heretofore provision was made for the maintenance of twelve old men This will now be extended to the fair sex and twelve elderly women if any such can be found in Barchester will be added to the establishment There will be a matron there will it is hoped be schools attached for the poorest of the children of the poor and there will be a steward The warden for there will still be a warden will receive an income more in keeping with the extent of the charity than that heretofore paid The stipend we believe will be L 450 We may add that the excellent house which the former warden inhabited will still be attached to the situation
Barchester hospital cannot perhaps boast a worldwide reputation but as we advertised to its state of decadence we think it right also to advert to its renaissance May it go up and prosper Whether the salutary reform which has been introduced within its walls has been carried as far as could have been desired may be doubtful The important question of the school appears to be somewhat left to the discretion of the new warden This might have been made the most important part of the establishment and the new warden whom we trust we shall not offend by the freedom of our remarks might have been selected with some view to his fitness as schoolmaster But we will not now look a gift horse in the mouth May the hospital go on and prosper The situation of warden has of course been offered to the gentleman who so honourable vacated it five years since but we are given to understand that he has declined it Whether the ladies who have been introduced be in his estimation too much for his powers of control whether it be that the diminished income does not offer to him sufficient temptation to resume the old place or that he has in the meantime assumed other clerical duties we do not know We are however informed that he has refused the offer and that the situation has been accepted by Mr Quiverful the vicar of Puddingdale
So much we think is due to Hiram redivivus But while we are on the subject of Barchester we will venture with all respectful humility to express our opinion on another matter connected with the ecclesiastical polity of that ancient city Dr Trefoil the dean died yesterday A short record of his death giving his age and the various pieces of preferment which he has at different times held will be found in another column in this paper The only fault we knew in him was his age and as that is a crime of which we may all hope to be guilty we will not bear heavily on it May he rest in peace But though the great age of an expiring dean cannot be made matter of reproach we are not inclined to look on such a fault as at all pardonable in a dean just brought to the birth We do hope the days of sexagenarian appointments are past If we want deans we must want them for some purpose That purpose will necessarily be better fulfilled by a man of forty than by a man of sixty If we are to pay deans at all we are to pay them for some sort of work That work be it what it may will be best performed by a workman in the prime of life Dr Trefoil we see was eighty when he died As we have as yet completed no plan for positioning superannuated clergymen we do not wish to get rid of any existing deans of that age But we prefer having as few such as possible If a man of seventy be now appointed we beg to point out to Lord—that he will be past all use in a year or two if indeed he is not so at the present moment His lordship will allow us to remind him that all men are not evergreens like himself
We hear that Mr Slopes name has been mentioned for this preferment Mr Slope is at present chaplain to the bishop A better man could hardly be selected He is a man of talent young active and conversant with the affairs of the cathedral he is moreover we conscientiously believe a truly pious clergyman We know that his services in the city of Barchester have been highly appreciated He is an eloquent preacher and a ripe scholar Such a selection as this would go far to raise the confidence of the public in the present administration of church patronage and would teach men to believe that from henceforth the establishment of our church will not afford easy couches to wornout clerical voluptuaries
Standing at a readingdesk in the Barchester newsroom Mr Slope digested this article with considerable satisfaction What was therein said as the hospital was now comparatively matter of indifference to him He was certainly glad that he had not succeeded in restoring to the place the father of that virago who had so audaciously outraged all decency in his person and was so far satisfied But Mrs Proudies nominee was appointed and he was so far dissatisfied His mind however was now soaring above Mrs Bold or Mrs Proudie
He was sufficiently conversant with the tactics of the Jupiter to know that the pith of the article would lie in the last paragraph The place of honour was given to him and it was indeed as honourable as even he could have wished He was very grateful to his friend Mr Towers and with full heart looked forward to the day when he might entertain him in princely style at his own fullspread board in the deanery diningroom
It had been well for Mr Slope that Dr Trefoil had died in the autumn Those caterers for our morning repast the staff of the Jupiter had been sorely put to it for the last month to find a sufficiency of proper pabulum Just then there was no talk of a new American president No wonderful tragedies had occurred on railway trains in Georgia or elsewhere There was a dearth of broken banks and a dead dean with the necessity for a live one was a godsend Had Dr Trefoil died in June Mr Towers would probably not have known so much about the piety of Mr Slope
And here we will leave Mr Slope for a while in his triumph explaining however that his feelings were not altogether of a triumphant nature His rejection by the widow or rather the method of his rejection galled him terribly For days to come he positively felt the sting upon his cheek whenever he thought of what had been done to him He could not refrain from calling her by harsh names speaking to himself as he walked through the streets of Barchester When he said his prayers he could not bring himself to forgive her When he strove to do so his mind recoiled from the attempt and in lieu of forgiving ran off in a double spirit of vindictiveness dwelling on the extent of the injury he had received And so his prayers dropped senseless from his lips
And then the signora what would he not have given to be able to hate her also As it was he worshipped the very sofa on which she was ever lying And thus it was not all rose colour with Mr Slope although his hopes ran high
CHAPTER XLIV
MRS BOLD AT HOME
Poor Mrs Bold when she got home from Ullathorne on the evening of
Miss Thornes party was very unhappy and moreover very tired
Nothing fatigues the body so much as weariness of spirit and
Eleanors spirit was indeed weary
Dr Stanhope had civilly but not very cordially asked her in to tea and her manner of refusal convinced the worthy doctor that he need not repeat the invitation He had not exactly made himself a party to the intrigue which was to convert the late Mr Bolds patrimony into an income for his hopeful son but he had been well aware what was going on And he was thus well aware also when he perceived that Bertie declined accompanying them home in the carriage that the affair had gone off
Eleanor was very much afraid that Charlotte would have darted out upon her as the prebendary got out at his own door but Bertie thoughtfully saved her from this by causing the carriage to go round by her house This also Dr Stanhope understood and allowed to pass by without remark
When she got home she found Mary Bold in the drawingroom with the child in her lap She rushed forward and throwing herself on her knees kissed the little fellow till she almost frightened him
Oh Mary I am so glad you did not go It was an odious party
Now the question of Marys going had been one greatly mooted between them Mrs Bold when invited had been the guest of the Grantlys and Miss Thorne who had chiefly known Eleanor at the hospital or at Plumstead rectory had forgotten all about Mary Bold Her sisterinlaw had implored her to go under her wing and had offered to write to Miss Thorne or to call on her But Miss Bold had declined In fact Mr Bold had not been very popular with such people as the Thornes and his sister would not go among them unless she were specially asked to do so
Well then said Mary cheerfully I have the less to regret
You have nothing to regret but oh Mary I have—so much—so much—and then she began kissing her boy whom her caresses had aroused from his slumbers When she raised her head Mary saw that the tears were running down her cheeks
Good heavens Eleanor what is the matter What has happened to you—Eleanor dearest Eleanor—what is the matter and Mary got up with the boy still in her arms
Give him to me—give him to me said the young mother Give him to me Maryand she almost tore the child out of her sisters arms The poor little fellow murmured somewhat at the disturbance but nevertheless nestled himself close into his mothers bosom
Here Mary take the cloak from me My own own darling darling darling jewel You are not false to me Everybody else is false everybody else is cruel Mamma will care for nobody nobody nobody but her own own own little man and she again kissed and pressed the baby and cried till the tears ran down over the childs face
Who has been cruel to you Eleanor said Mary I hope I have not
Now in this matter Eleanor had great cause for uneasiness
She could not certainly accuse her loving sisterinlaw of cruelty but she had to do that which was more galling she had to accuse herself of an imprudence against which her sisterinlaw had warned her Miss Bold had never encouraged Eleanors acquaintance with Mr Slope and she had positively discouraged the friendship of the Stanhopes as far as her usual gentle mode of speaking had permitted Eleanor had only laughed at her however when she said that she disapproved of married women who lived apart from their husbands and suggested that Charlotte Stanhope never went to church Now however Eleanor must either hold her tongue which was quite impossible or confess herself to have been utterly wrong which was nearly equally so So she staved off the evil day by more tears and consoled herself by inducing little Johnny to rouse himself sufficiently to return her caresses
He is a darling—as true as gold What would mamma do without him Mamma would lie down and die if she had not her own Johnny Bold to give her comfort This and much more she said of the same kind and for a time made no other answer to Marys inquiries
This kind of consolation from the worlds deceit is very common
Mothers obtain it from their children and men from their dogs Some men even do so from their walkingsticks which is just as rational How is it that we can take joy to ourselves in that we are not deceived by those who have not attained the art to deceive us In a true man if such can be found or a true woman much consolation may indeed be taken
In the caresses of her child however Eleanor did receive consolation and may ill befall the man who would begrudge it to her The evil day however was only postponed She had to tell her disagreeable tale to Mary and she had also to tell it to her father Must it not indeed be told to the whole circle of her acquaintance before she could be made to stand all right with them At the present moment there was no one to whom she could turn for comfort She hated Mr Slope that was a matter of course in that feeling she revelled She hated and despised the Stanhopes but that feeling distressed her greatly She had as it were separated herself from her old friends to throw herself into the arms of this family and then how had they intended to use her She could hardly reconcile herself to her own father who had believed ill of her Mary Bold had turned Mentor That she could have forgiven had the Mentor turned out to be in the wrong but Mentors in the right are not to be pardoned She could not but hate the archdeacon and now she hated him even worse than ever for she must in some sort humble herself before him She hated her sister for she was part and parcel of the archdeacon And she would have hated Mr Arabin if she could He had pretended to regard her and yet before her face he had hung over that Italian woman as though there had been no beauty in the world but hers—no other woman worth a moments attention And Mr Arabin would have to learn all this about Mr Slope She told herself she hated him and she knew that she was lying to herself as she did so She had no consolation but her baby and of that she made the most Mary though she could not surmise what it was that had so violently affected her sisterinlaw saw at once her grief was too great to be kept under control and waited patiently till the child should be in his cradle
Youll have some tea Eleanor she said
Oh I dont care said she though in fact she must have been very hungry for she had eaten nothing at Ullathorne
Mary quietly made the tea and buttered the bread laid aside the cloak and made things look comfortable
Hes fast asleep said she youre very tired let me take him up to bed
But Eleanor would not let her sister touch him She looked wistfully at her babys eyes saw that they were lost in the deepest slumber and then made a sort of couch for him on the sofa She was determined that nothing should prevail upon her to let him out of her sight that night
Come Nelly said Mary dont be cross with me I at least have done nothing to offend you
I ant cross said Eleanor
Are you angry then Surely you cant be angry with me
No I ant angry at least not with you
If you are not drink the tea I have made for you I am sure you must want it
Eleanor did drink it and allowed herself to be persuaded She ate and drank and as the inner woman was recruited she felt a little more charitable towards the world at large At last she found words to begin her story and before she went to bed she had made a clean breast of it and told everything—everything that is as to the lovers she had rejected of Mr Arabin she said not a word
I know I was wrong said she speaking of the blow she had given to Mr Slope but I didnt know what he might do and I had to protect myself
He richly deserved it said Mary
Deserved it said Eleanor whose mind as regarded Mr Slope was almost bloodthirsty Had I stabbed him with a dagger he would have deserved it But what will they say about it at Plumstead
I dont think I should tell them said Mary Eleanor began to think that she would not
There could have been no kinder comforter than Mary Bold There was not the slightest dash of triumph about her when she heard of the Stanhope scheme nor did she allude to her former opinion when Eleanor called her late friend Charlotte a base designing woman She reechoed all the abuse that was heaped on Mr Slopes head and never hinted that she had said as much before I told you so I told you so is the croak of a true Jobs comforter But Mary when she found her friend lying in her sorrow and scraping herself with potsherds forbore to argue and to exult Eleanor acknowledged the merit of the forbearance and at length allowed herself to be tranquillised
On the next day she did not go out of the house Barchester she thought would be crowded with Stanhopes and Slopes perhaps also with Arabins and Grantlys Indeed there was hardly any one among her friends whom she could have met without some cause of uneasiness
In the course of the afternoon she heard that the dean was dead and she also heard that Mr Quiverful had been finally appointed to the hospital
In the evening her father came to her and then the story or as much of it as she could bring herself to tell him had to be repeated He was not in truth much surprised at Mr Slopes effrontery but he was obliged to act as though he had been to save his daughters feelings He was however anything but skilful in his deceit and she saw through it
I see said she that you think it only the common course of things that Mr Slope should have treated me in this way
She had said nothing to him about the embrace nor yet of the way in which it had been met
I do not think it at all strange said he that any one should admire my Eleanor
It is strange to me said she that any man should have so much audacity without ever having received the slightest encouragement
To this Mr Harding answered nothing With the archdeacon it would have been the text for a rejoinder which would not have disgraced Bildad the Shuhite
But youll tell the archdeacon asked Mr Harding
Tell him what said she sharply
Or Susan continued Mr Harding Youll tell Susan youll let them know that they wronged you in supposing that this mans addresses would be agreeable to you
They may find out their own way said she I shall not ever willingly mention Mr Slopes name to either of them
But I may
I have no right to hinder you from doing anything that may be necessary to your own comfort but pray do not do it for my sake Dr Grantly never thought well of me and never will I dont know now that I an even anxious that he should do so
And then they went to the affair of the hospital But is it true papa
What my dear said he About the dean Yes I fear quite true
Indeed I know there is no doubt about it
Poor Miss Trefoil I am so sorry for her But I did not mean that said Eleanor But about the hospital papa
Yes my dear I believe it is true that Mr Quiverful is to have it
Oh what a shame
No my dear not at all not at all a shame I am sure I hope it will suit him
But papa you know it is a shame After all your hopes all your expectations to get back your old house to see it given away in this way to a perfect stranger
My dear the bishop had a right to give it to whom he pleased
I deny that papa He had no such right It is not as though you were a candidate for a new piece of preferment If the bishop has a grain of justice—
The bishop offered it to me on his terms and as I did not like the terms I refused it After that I cannot complain
Terms He had not right to make terms
I dont know about that but it seems he had the power But to tell you the truth Nelly I am as well satisfied as it is When the affair became the subject of angry discussion I thoroughly wished to be rid of it altogether
But you did want to go back to the old house papa You told me so yourself
Yes my child I did For a short time I did wish it And I was foolish in doing so I am getting old now and my chief worldly wish is for peace and rest Had I gone back to the hospital I should have had the endless contentions with the bishop contentions with his chaplain and contentions with the archdeacon I am not up to this now I am not able to meet such troubles and therefore I am not illpleased to find myself left to the little church of St Cuthberts I shall never starve added he laughing as long as you are here
But if you will come and live with me papa she said earnestly taking him by both his hands If you will do that if you will promise that I will own that you are right
I will dine with you today at any rate
No but live here altogether Give up that close odious little room in High Street
My dear its a very nice little room and you are really quite uncivil
Oh papa dont joke Its not a nice place for you You say you are growing old though I am sure you are not
Am I not my dear
No papa not old—not to say old But you are quite old enough to feel the want of a decent room to sit in You know how lonely Mary and I are here You know nobody ever sleeps in the big front bedroom It is really unkind of you to remain there alone when you are so much wanted here
Thank you Nelly—thank you But my dear—
If you had been living here papa with us as I really think you ought to have done considering how lonely we are there would have been none of all this dreadful affair about Mr Slope
Mr Harding however did not allow himself to be talked over into giving up his own and only little pied a terre in the High Street He promised to come and dine with his daughter and stay with her and visit her and do everything but absolutely live with her It did not suit the peculiar feelings of the man to tell his daughter that though she had rejected Mr Slope and been ready to reject Mr Stanhope some other more favoured suitor would probably soon appear and that on the appearance of such a suitor the big front bedroom might perhaps be more frequently in requisition than at present But doubtless such an idea crossed his mind and added its weight to the other reasons which made him decide on still keeping the close odious little room in High Street
The evening passed over quietly and in comfort Eleanor was always happier with her father than with any one else He had not perhaps any natural taste for babyworship but he was always ready to sacrifice himself and therefore made an excellent third in a trio with his daughter and Mary Bold in singing the praises of the wonderful child
They were standing together over their music in the evening the baby having again been put to bed upon the sofa when the servant brought in a very small note in a beautiful pink envelope It quite filled the room with perfume as it lay upon the small salver Mary Bold and Mrs Bold were both at the piano and Mr Harding was sitting close to them with the violoncello between his legs so that the elegance of the epistle was visible to them all
Please maam Dr Stanhopes coachman says he is to wait for an answer said the servant
Eleanor got very red in the face as she took the note in her hand She had never seen the writing before Charlottes epistles to which she was well accustomed were of a very different style and kind She generally wrote on large notepaper she twisted up her letter into the shape and sometimes into the size of cocked hats she addressed them in a sprawling manly hand and not unusually added a blot or a smudge as though such were her own peculiar signmanual The address of this note was written in a beautiful female hand and the gummed wafer bore on it an impress of a gilt coronet Though Eleanor had never seen such a one before she guessed that it came from the signora Such epistles were very numerously sent out from any house in which the signora might happen to be dwelling but they were rarely addressed to ladies When the coachman was told by the ladys maid to take the letter to Mrs Bold he openly expressed his opinion that there was some mistake about it Whereupon the ladys maid boxed the coachmans ears Had Mr Slope seen in how meek a spirit the coachman took the rebuke he might have learnt a useful lesson both in philosophy and religion
The note was as follows It may be taken as a faithful promise that no further letter whatever shall be transcribed at length in these pages
My dear Mrs Bold—May I ask you as a great favour to call on me tomorrow You can say what hour will best suit you but quite early if you can I need hardly say that if I could call upon you I should not take this liberty with you
I partly know what occurred the other day and I promise you that you shall meet with no annoyance if you will come to me My brother leaves us for London today from thence he goes to Italy
It will probably occur to you that I should not thus intrude on you unless I had that to say to you which may be of considerable moment Pray therefore excuse me even if you do not grant my request and believe me Very sincerely yours MVESEY NERONI
The three of them sat in consultation on this epistle for some ten or fifteen minutes and then decided that Eleanor should write a line saying that she would see the signora the next morning at twelve oclock
CHAPTER XLV
THE STANHOPES AT HOME
We must now return to the Stanhopes and see how they behaved themselves on their return from Ullathorne
Charlotte who came back in the first homeward journey with her sister waited in palpitating expectation till the carriage drove up to the door a second time She did not run down or stand at the window or show in any outward manner that she looked for anything wonderful to occur but when she heard the carriagewheels she stood up with erect ears listening for Eleanors footfall on the pavement or the cheery sound of Berties voice welcoming her in Had she heard either she would have felt that all was right but neither sound was there for her to hear She heard only her fathers slow step as he ponderously let himself down from the carriage and slowly walked along the hall till he got into his own private room on the ground floor Send Miss Stanhope to me he said to the servant
Theres something wrong now said Madeline who was lying on her sofa in the back drawingroom
Its all up with Bertie replied Charlotte I know I know she said to the servant as he brought up the message Tell my father I will be with him immediately
Berties wooing gone astray said Madeline I knew it would
It has been his own fault then She was ready enough I am quite sure said Charlotte with that sort of illnature which is not uncommon when one woman speaks of another
What will you say to him now By him the signora meant their father
That will be as I find him He was ready to pay two hundred pounds for Bertie to stave off the worst of his creditors if this marriage had gone on Bertie must now have the money instead and go and take his chances
Where is he now
Heaven knows Smoking at the bottom of Mr Thornes haha or philandering with some of those Miss Chadwicks Nothing will ever make an impression on him But hell be furious if I dont go down
No nothing ever will But dont be long Charlotte for I want my tea
And so Charlotte went down to her father There was a very black cloud on the old mans brow blacker than his daughter could ever remember to have seen there He was sitting in his own armchair not comfortably over the fire but in the middle of the room waiting till she should come and listen to him
What has become of your brother he said as soon as the door was shut
I should rather ask you said Charlotte I left you both at
Ullathorne when I came away What have you done with Mrs Bold
Mrs Bold nonsense The woman has gone home as she ought to do And heartily glad I am that she should not be sacrificed to so heartless a reprobate
Oh papa
A heartless reprobate Tell me now where he is and what he is going to do I have allowed myself to be fooled between you Marriage indeed Who on earth that has money or credit or respect in the world to lose would marry him
It is no use your scolding me papa I have done the best I could for him and you
And Madeline is nearly as bad said the prebendary who was in truth very very angry
Oh I suppose we are all bad replied Charlotte
The old man emitted a huge leonine sigh If they were all bad who had made them so If they were unprincipled selfish and disreputable who was to be blamed for the education which had had so injurious an effect
I know youll ruin me among you said he
Why papa what nonsense that is You are living within your income this minute and if there are any new debts I dont know of them I am sure there ought to be none for we are dull enough here
Are those bills of Madelines paid
No they are not Who was to pay them
Her husband may pay them
Her husband Would you wish me to tell her you say so Do you wish to turn her out of your home
I wish she would know how to behave herself
Why what on earth has she done now Poor Madeline Today is only the second time she has gone out since we came to this vile town
He then sat silent for a time thinking in what shape he would declare his resolve Well papa said Charlotte shall I stay here or may I go upstairs and give mamma her tea
You are in your brothers confidence Tell me what he is going to do
Nothing that I am aware of
Nothing—nothing Nothing but eat and drink and spend every shilling of my money he can lay his hands upon I have made up my mind Charlotte He shall eat and drink no more in this house
Very well Then I suppose he must go back to Italy
He may go where he pleases
Thats easily said papa but what does it mean You cant let him live—
It means this said the doctor speaking more loudly than was his wont and with wrath flashing from his eyes that as sure as God rules in heaven I will not maintain him any longer in idleness
Oh ruling in heaven said Charlotte It is no use talking about that You must rule him here on earth and the question is how you can do it You cant turn him out of the house penniless to beg about the street
He may beg where he likes
He must go back to Carrara That is the cheapest place he can live at and nobody there will give him credit for above two or three hundred pauls But you must let him have the means of going
As sure as—
Oh papa dont swear You know you must do it You were ready to pay two hundred pounds for him if the marriage came off Half that will start him to Carrara
What Give him a hundred pounds
You know we are all in the dark papa said she thinking it expedient to change the conversation For anything we know he may be at this moment engaged to Mrs Bold
Fiddlestick said the father who had seen the way in which Mrs Bold had got into the carriage while his son stood apart without even offering her his hand
Well then he must go to Carrara said Charlotte
Just at this moment the lock of the front door was heard and Charlottes quick care detected her brothers catlike step in the hall She said nothing feeling that for the present Bertie had better keep out of her fathers way But Dr Stanhope also heard the sound of the lock
Whos that he demanded Charlotte made no reply and he asked again Who is that that has just come in Open the door Who is it
I suppose it is Bertie
Bid him to come here said the father But Bertie who was close to the door and heard the call required no further bidding but walked in with a perfectly unconcerned and cheerful air It was this peculiar insouciance which angered Dr Stanhope even more than his sons extravagance
Well sir said the doctor
And how did you get home sir with your fair companion said
Bertie I suppose she is not upstairs Charlotte
Bertie said Charlotte papa is in no humour for joking He is very angry with you
Angry said Bertie raising his eyebrows as though he had never yet given his parent cause for a single moments uneasiness
Sit down if you please sir said Dr Stanhope very sternly but not now very loudly And Ill trouble you to sit down too Charlotte Your mother can wait for her tea a few minutes
Charlotte sat down on the chair nearest the door in somewhat of a perverse sort of manner as much as though she would say—Well here I am you shant say I dont do as I am bid but Ill be whipped if I give way to you And she was determined not to give way She too was angry with Bertie but she was not the less ready on that account to defend him from his father Bertie also sat down He drew his chair close to the library table upon which he put his elbow and then resting his face comfortably on one hand he began drawing little pictures on a sheet of paper with the other Before the scene was over had had completed admirable figures of Miss Thorne Mrs Proudie and Lady De Courcy and began a family piece to comprise the whole set of Lookalofts
Would it suit you sir said the father to give me some idea as to what your present intentions are—what way of living you propose to yourself
Ill do anything you suggest sir said Bertie
No I shall suggest nothing further My time for suggesting has gone by I have only one order to give and that is that you leave my house
Tonight said Bertie and the simple tone of the question left the doctor without any adequately dignified method of reply
Papa does not quite mean tonight said Charlotte at least I suppose not
Tomorrow perhaps suggested Bertie
Yes sir tomorrow said the doctor You shall leave this tomorrow
Very well sir Will the 430 PM train be soon enough said Bertie as he asked put the finishing touch to Miss Thornes highheeled boots
You may go how and when and where you please so that you leave my house tomorrow You have disgraced me sir you have disgraced yourself and me and your sisters
I am glad at least sir that I have not disgraced my mother said
Bertie
Charlotte could hardly keep her countenance but the doctors brow grew still blacker than ever Bertie was executing his chef douvre in the delineation of Mrs Proudies nose and mouth
You are a heartless reprobate sir a heartless thankless goodfornothing reprobate I have done with you You are my son—that I cannot help but you shall have no more part or parcel in me as my child nor I in you as your father
Oh papa papa You must not shall not say so said Charlotte
I will say so and do say so said the father rising from his chair And now leave the room sir
Stop stop said Charlotte why dont you speak Bertie Why dont you look up and speak It is your manner that makes him so angry
He is perfectly indifferent to all decency to all propriety said the doctor and then he shouted out Leave the room sir Do you hear what I say
Papa papa I will not let you part so I know you will be sorry for it And then she added getting up and whispering into his ear Is he only to blame Think of that We have made our own bed and such as it is we must lie on it It is no use for us to quarrel among ourselves and as she finished her whisper Bertie finished off the countesss bustle which was so well done that it absolutely seemed to be swaying to and fro on the paper with its usual lateral motion
My father is angry at the present time said Bertie looking up for a moment from his sketches because I am not going to marry Mrs Bold What can I say on the matter It is true that I am not going to marry her In the first place—
That is not true sir said Dr Stanhope but I will not argue with you
You were angry just this moment because I would not speak said
Bertie going on with a young Lookaloft
Give over drawing said Charlotte going up to him and taking the paper from under his hand The caricature however she preserved and showed them afterwards to the friends of the Thornes the Proudies and De Courcys Bertie deprived of his occupation threw himself back in his chair and waited further orders
I think it will certainly be for the best that Bertie should leave this at once perhaps tomorrow said Charlotte but pray papa let us arrange some scheme together
If he will leave tomorrow I will give him L 10 and he shall be paid L 5 a month by the banker at Carrara as long as he stays permanently in that place
Well sir it wont be long said Bertie for I shall be starved to death in about three months
He must have marble to work with said Charlotte
I have plenty there in the studio to last me three months said Bertie It will be no use attempting anything large in so limited a time unless I do my own tombstone
Terms however were ultimately come to somewhat more liberal than those proposed and the doctor was induced to shake hands with his son and bid him goodnight Dr Stanhope would not go up to tea but had it brought to him in his study by his daughter
But Bertie went upstairs and spent a pleasant evening He finished the Lookalofts greatly to the delight of his sisters though the manner of portraying their decollete dresses was not the most refined Finding how matters were going he by degrees allowed it to escape from him that he had not pressed his suit upon the widow in a very urgent way
I suppose in point of fact, you never proposed at all said
Charlotte
Oh she understood that she might have me if she wished said he
And she didnt wish said the signora
You have thrown me over in the most shameful manner said
Charlotte I suppose you told her all about my little plan
Well it came out somehow at least the most of it
Theres an end of that alliance said Charlotte but it doesnt matter much I suppose we shall all be back in Como soon
I am sure I hope so said the signora Im sick of the sight of black coats If that Mr Slope comes here any more hell be the death of me
Youve been the ruin of him I think said Charlotte
And as for a second blackcoated lover of mine I am going to make a present to him of another lady with most singular disinterestedness
The next day true to his promise Bertie packed up and went of by the 430 PM train with L 20 in his pocket bound for the marble quarries of Carrara And so he disappears from our scene
At twelve oclock on the day following that on which Bertie went Mrs Bold true also to her word knocked at Dr Stanhopes door with a timid hand and palpitating heart She was at once shown up to the back drawingroom the folding doors of which were closed so that in visiting the signora Eleanor was not necessarily thrown into any communication with those in the front room As she went up the stairs she none of the family and was so far saved much of the annoyance which she had dreaded
This is very kind of you Mrs Bold very kind after what has happened said the lady on the sofa with her sweetest smile
You wrote in such a strain that I could not but come to you
I did I did I wanted to force you to see me
Well signora I am here
How cold you are to me But I suppose I must put up with that I know you think you have reason to be displeased with us all Poor Bertie if you knew all you would not be angry with him
I am not angry with your brother—not in the least But I hope you did not send for me to talk about him
If you are angry with Charlotte that is worse for you have no warmer friend in all Barchester But I did not send for you to talk about this—pray bring your chair nearer Mrs Bold so that I may look at you It is so unnatural to see you keeping so far off from me
Eleanor did as she was bid and brought her chair closer to the sofa
And now Mrs Bold I am going to tell you something which you may think indelicate but yet I know that I am right in doing so
Hereupon Mrs Bold said nothing but felt inclined to shake in her chair The signora she knew was not very particular and that which to her appeared to be indelicate might to Mrs Bold appear to be extremely indecent
I believe you know Mr Arabin
Mrs Bold would have given the world not to blush but her blood was not at her own command She did blush up to her forehead and the signora who had made her sit in a special light in order that she might watch her saw that she did so
Yes—I am acquainted with him That is slightly He is an intimate friend of Dr Grantly and Dr Grantly is my brotherinlaw
Well if you know Mr Arabin I am sure you must like him I know and like him much Everybody that knows him must like him
Mrs Bold felt it quite impossible to say anything in reply to this Her blood was rushing about her body she knew not how or why She felt as though she were swinging in her chair and she knew that she was not only red in the face but also almost suffocated with heat However she sat still and said nothing
How stiff you are with me Mrs Bold said the signora and I the while am doing for you all that one woman can do to serve another
A kind of thought came over the widows mind that perhaps the signoras friendship was real and that at any rate it could not hurt her and another kind of thought a glimmering of a thought came to her also—that Mr Arabin was to precious to be lost She despised the signora but might she not stoop to conquer It should be but the smallest fraction of a stoop
I dont want to be stiff she said but your questions are so very singular
Well then I will ask you one more singular still said Madeline Neroni raising herself on her elbow and turning her own face full upon her companions Do you love him love him with all your heart and soul with all the love your bosom can feel For I can tell you that he loves you worships you thinks of you and nothing else is now thinking of you as he attempts to write his sermon for next Sundays preaching What would I not give to be loved in such a way by such a man that is if I were an object for any man to love
Mrs Bold got up from her seat and stood speechless before the woman who was now addressing her in this impassioned way When the signora thus alluded to herself the widows heart was softened and she put her own hand as though caressingly on that of her companion which was resting on the table The signora grasped it and went on speaking
What I tell you is Gods own truth and it is for you to use it as may be best for your own happiness But you must not betray me He knows nothing of this He knows nothing of my knowing his inmost heart He is simple as a child in these matters He told me his secret in a thousand ways because he could not dissemble but he does not dream that has told it You know it now and I advise you to use it
Eleanor returned the pressure of the others hand with an infinitesimal soupcon of a squeeze
And remember said the signora he is not like other men You must not expect him to come to you with vows and oaths and pretty presents to kneel at your feet and kiss your shoestrings If you want that there are plenty to do it but he wont be one of them Eleanors bosom nearly burst with a sigh but Madeline not heeding her went on With him yea will stand for yea and nay for nay Though his heart should break for it the woman who shall reject him once will have rejected him once and for all Remember that And now Mrs Bold I will not keep you for you are flattered I partly guess what use you will make of what I have said to you If ever you are a happy wife in that mans house we shall be far away but I shall expect you to write me one line to say that you have forgiven the sins of the family
Eleanor half whispered that she would and then without uttering another word crept out of the room and down the stairs opened the front door for herself without hearing or seeing any one and found herself in the close
It would be difficult to analyse Eleanors feelings as she walked home She was nearly stupefied by the things that had been said to her She felt sore that her heart should have been so searched and riddled by a comparative stranger by a woman whom she had never liked and never could like She was mortified that the man whom she owned to herself that she loved should have concealed his love from her and shown it to another There was much to vex her proud spirit But there was nevertheless an understratum of joy in all this which buoyed her up wondrously She tried if she could disbelieve what Madame Neroni had said to her but she found that she could not It was true it must be true She could not would not did not doubt it
On one point she fully resolved to follow the advice given her If it should ever please Mr Arabin to put such a question to her as suggested her yea should be yea Would not all her miseries be at an end if she could talk of them to him openly with her hand resting on his shoulder
CHAPTER XLVI
MR SLOPES PARTING INTERVIEW WITH THE SIGNORA
On the following day the signora was in her pride She was dressed in her brightest of morning dresses and had quite a levee round her couch It was a beautifully bright October afternoon all the gentlemen of the neighbourhood were in Barchester and those who had the entry of Dr Stanhopes house were in the signoras back drawingroom Charlotte and Mrs Stanhope were in the front room and such of the ladys squires as could not for the moment get near the centre of attraction had to waste their fragrance on the mother and sister
The first who came and the last to leave was Mr Arabin This was the second visit he had paid to Madame Neroni since he had met her at Ullathorne He came he knew not why to talk about he knew not what But in truth the feelings which now troubled him were new to him and he could not analyse them It may seem strange that he should thus come dangling about Madame Neroni because he was in love with Mrs Bold but it was nevertheless the fact and though he could not understand why he did so Madame Neroni understood it well enough
She had been gentle and kind to him and had encouraged his staying Therefore he stayed on She pressed his hand when he first greeted her and whispered to him little nothings And then her eye brilliant and bright now mirthful now melancholy and invincible in either way What man with warm feelings blood unchilled and a heat not guarded by a triple steel of experience could have withstood those eyes The lady it is true intended to do no mortal injury she merely chose to inhale a slight breath of incense before she handed the casket over to another Whether Mrs Bold would willingly have spared even so much is another question
And then came Mr Slope All the world now knew that Mr Slope was a candidate for the deanery and that he was generally considered to be the favourite Mr Slope therefore walked rather largely upon the earth He gave to himself a portly air such as might become a dean spoke but little to other clergymen and shunned the bishop as much as possible How the meagre little prebendary and the burly chancellor and all the minor canons and vicars choral ay and all the choristers too cowered and shook and walked about with long faces when they read or heard of that article of the Jupiter Now were coming the days when nothing would avail to keep the impure spirit from the cathedral pulpit That pulpit would indeed be his own Precentors vicars and choristers might hang up their harps on the willows Ichabod Ichabod The glory of their house was departing from them
Mr Slope great as he was with embryo grandeur still came to see the signora Indeed he could not keep himself away He dreamed of that soft hand which had kissed so often and of the imperial brow which his lips had once pressed and he then dreamed also of further favours
And Mr Thorne was there also It was the first visit he had ever paid to the signora and he made it not without due preparation Mr Thorne was a gentleman usually precise in his dress and prone to make the most of himself in an unpretending way The grey hairs in his whiskers were eliminated perhaps once a month those on his head were softened by a mixture which we will not call a dye it was only a wash His tailor lived in St Jamess Street and his bootmaker at the corner of that street and Piccadilly He was particular in the article of gloves and the getting up of his shirts was a matter not lightly thought of in the Ullathorne laundry On the occasion of the present visit he had rather overdone his usual efforts and caused some little uneasiness to his sister who had not hitherto received very cordially the proposition for a lengthened visit from the signora at Ullathorne
There were others also there—young men about the city who had not much to do and who were induced by the ladys charms to neglect that little but all gave way to Mr Thorne who was somewhat of a grand signor as a country gentleman always is in a provincial city
Oh Mr Thorne this is so kind of you said the signora You promised to come but I really did not expect it I thought you country gentlemen never kept your pledges
Oh yea sometimes said Mr Thorne looking rather sheepish and making salutations a little too much in the style of the last century
You deceive none but your constistitstit what do you call the people that carry you about in chairs and pelt you with eggs and apples when they make you a member of parliament
One another also sometimes signora said Mr Slope with a deanish sort of smirk on his face Country gentlemen do deceive one another sometimes dont they Mr Thorne
Mr Thorne gave him a look which undressed him completely for the moment but he soon remembered his high hopes and recovering himself quickly sustained his probable coming dignity by a laugh at Mr Thornes expense
I never deceive a lady at any rate said Mr Thorne especially when the gratification of my own wishes is so strong an inducement to keep me true as it now is
Mr Thorne went on thus awhile with antediluvian grimaces and compliments which he had picked up from Sir Charles Grandison and the signora at every grimace and at every bow smiled a little smile and bowed a little bow Mr Thorne however was kept standing at the foot of the couch for the new dean sat in the seat of honour near the table Mr Arabin the while was standing with his back to the fire his coat tails under his arms gazing at her with all his eyes—not quite in vain for every now and again a glance came up at him bright as a meteor out of heaven
Oh Mr Thorne you promised to let me introduce my little girl to you Can you spare a moment—will you see her now
Mr Thorne assured her that he could and would see the young lady with the greatest pleasure in life Mr Slope might I trouble you to ring the bell said she and when Mr Slope got up she looked at Mr Thorne and pointed to the chair Mr Thorne however was much too slow to understand her and Mr Slope would have recovered his seat had not the signora who never chose to be unsuccessful somewhat summarily ordered him out of it
Oh Mr Slope I must ask you to let Mr Thorne sit here just for a moment or two I am sure you will pardon me We can take a liberty with you this week Next week you know when you move into the deans house we shall all be afraid of you
Mr Slope with an air of much indifference rose from his seat and walking into the next room became greatly interested in Mrs Stanhopes worsted work
And then the child was brought in She was a little girl about eight years of age like her mother only that her enormous eyes were black and her hair quite jet Her complexion too was very dark and bespoke her foreign blood She was dressed in the most outlandish and extravagant way in which clothes could be put on a childs back She had great bracelets on her naked little arms a crimson fillet braided with gold round her head and scarlet shoes with high heels Her dress was all flounces and stuck out from her as though the object were to make it lie off horizontally from her little hips It did not nearly cover her knees but this was atoned for by a loose pair of drawers which seemed made throughout of lace then she had on pink silk stockings It was thus that the last of the Neros was habitually dressed at the hour when visitors were wont to call
Julia my love said the mother—Julia was ever a favourite name with the ladies of the family Julia my love come here I was telling you about the beautiful party poor mamma went to This is Mr Thorne will you give him a kiss dearest
Julia put up her face to be kissed as she did to all her mothers visitors and then Mr Thorne found that he had got her and which was much more terrible to him all her finery into his arms The lace and starch crumpled against his waistcoat and trousers the greasy black curls hung upon his cheek and one of the bracelet clasps scratched his ear He did not at all know how to hold her However he had on other occasions been compelled to fondle little nieces and nephews and now set about the task in the mode he always used
Diddle diddle diddle diddle said he putting the child on one knee and working away with it as though he were turning a knifegrinders wheel with his foot
Mamma mamma said Julia crossly I dont want to be diddle diddled Let me go you naughty old man you
Poor Mr Thorne put the child down quietly on the ground and drew back his chair Mr Slope who had returned to the pole star that attracted him laughed aloud Mr Arabin winced and shut his eyes and the signora pretended not to hear her daughter
Go to Aunt Charlotte lovey said the mamma and ask her it if is not time for you to go out
But little Julia though she had not exactly liked the nature of Mr Thornes attention was accustomed to be played with by gentlemen and did not relish the idea of being sent so soon to her aunt
Julia go when I tell you my dear But Julia still went pouting about the room Charlotte do come and take her said the signora She must go out and the days get so short now And thus ended the muchtalked of interview between Mr Thorne and the last of the Neros
Mr Thorne recovered from the childs crossness sooner than from Mr Slopes laughter He could put up with being called an old man by an infant but he did not like to be laughed at by the bishops chaplain even though that chaplain was about to become a dean He said nothing but he showed plainly enough that he was angry
The signora was ready enough to avenge him Mr Slope said she
I hear that you are triumphing on all sides
How so said he smiling He did not dislike being talked to about the deanery though of course he strongly denied the imputation
You carry the day both in love and war Mr Slope hereupon did not look quite so satisfied as he had done
Mr Arabin continued the signora dont you think Mr Slope is a very lucky man
Not more than he deserves I am sure said Mr Arabin
Only think Mr Thorne he is to be our new dean of course we all know that
Indeed signora said Mr Slope we all know nothing about it I can assure you I myself—
He is to be the new dean—there is no manner of doubt of it Mr
Thorne
Hum said Mr Thorne
Passing over the heads of old men like my father and Archdeacon
Grantly—
Oh—oh said Mr Slope
The archdeacon would not accept it said Mr Arabin whereupon Mr Slope smiled abominably and said as plainly as a look could speak that the grapes were sour
Going over all our heads continued the signora for of course
I consider myself one of the chapter
If I am ever dean said Mr Slope—that is were I ever to become so I should glory in such a canoness
Oh Mr Slope stop I havent half done There is another canoness for you to glory in Mr Slope is not only to have the deanery but a wife to put in it
Mr Slope again looked disconcerted
A wife with a large fortune too It never rains but it pours does it Mr Thorne
No never said Mr Thorne who did not quite relish talking about
Mr Slope and his affairs
When will it be Mr Slope
When will what be said he
Oh we know when the affair of the dean will be a week will settle that The new hat I have no doubt has already been ordered But when will the marriage come off
Do you mean mine or Mr Arabins said he striving to be facetious
Well just then I meant yours though perhaps after all Mr Arabins may be first But we know nothing of him He is too close for any of us Now all is open and above board with you which by the bye Mr Arabin I beg to tell you I like much the best He who runs can read that Mr Slope is a favoured lover Come Mr Slope when is the widow to be made Mrs Dean
To Mr Arabin this badinage was peculiarly painful and yet he could not tear himself away and leave it He believed still believed with that sort of belief which the fear of a thing engenders that Mrs Bold would probably become the wife of Mr Slope Of Mr Slopes little adventure in the garden he knew nothing For aught he knew Mr Slope might have had an adventure of quite a different character He might have thrown himself at the widows feet been accepted and then returned to town a jolly thriving wooer The signoras jokes were bitter enough to Mr Slope but they were quite as bitter to Mr Arabin He still stood leaning against the fireplace fumbling with his hands in his trousers pockets
Come come Mr Slope dont be so bashful continued the signora We all know that you proposed to the lady the other day at Ullathorne Tell us with what words she accepted you Was it with a simple yes or with two no nos which makes an affirmative or did silence give consent or did she speak out with that spirit which so well becomes a widow and say openly By my troth sir you shall make me Mrs Slope as soon as it is your pleasure to do so
Mr Slope had seldom in his life felt himself less at his case There sat Mr Thorne laughing silently There stood his old antagonist Mr Arabin gazing at him with all his eyes There round the door between the two rooms were clustered a little group of people including Miss Stanhope and the Rev Messrs Gray and Green all listening to his discomfiture He knew that it depended solely on his own wit whether or no he could throw the joke back upon the lady He knew that it stood him to do so if he possibly could but he said not a word Tis conscience that makes cowards of us all He felt on his cheek the sharp points of Eleanors fingers and did not know who might have seen the blow who might have told the tale to this pestilent woman who took such delight in jeering him He stood there therefore red as a carbuncle and mute as a fish grinning just sufficiently to show his teeth an object of pity
But the signora had no pity she knew nothing of mercy Her present object was to put Mr Slope down and she was determined to do it thoroughly now that she had him in her power
What Mr Slope no answer Why it cant possibly be that this woman has been fool enough to refuse you She surely cant be looking out after a bishop But I see how it is Mr Slope Widows are proverbially cautious You should have let her alone till the new hat was on your head till you could show her the key of the deanery
Signora said he at last trying to speak in a tone of dignified reproach you really permit yourself to talk on such solemn subjects in a very improper way
Solemn subjects—what solemn subjects Surely a deans hat is not such a solemn subject
I have no aspirations such as those you impute to me Perhaps you will drop the subject
Oh certainly Mr Slope but one word first Go to her again with the prime ministers letter in your pocket Ill wager my shawl to your shovel she does not refuse you then
I must say signora that I think you are speaking of the lady in a very unjustifiable manner
And one other piece of advice Mr Slope Ill only offer you one other and then she commenced singing—
Its gude to be merry and wise Mr Slope Its gude to be honest and true Its gude to be off with the old love Mr Slope Before you are on with the new—
Ha ha ha
And the signora throwing herself back on her sofa laughed merrily She little recked how those who heard her would in their own imagination fill up the little history of Mr Slopes first love She little cared that some among them might attribute to her the honour of his earlier admiration She was tired of Mr Slope and wanted to get rid of him she had ground for anger with him and she chose to be revenged
How Mr Slope got out of that room he never himself knew He did succeed ultimately and probably with some assistance in getting him his had and escaping into the air At last his love for the signora was cured Whenever he again thought of her in his dreams it was not as of an angel with azure wings He connected her rather with fire and brimstone and though he could still believe her to be a spirit he banished her entirely out of heaven and found a place for her among the infernal gods When he weighed in the balance as he not seldom did the two women to whom he had attached himself in Barchester the preeminent place in his souls hatred was usually allotted to the signora
CHAPTER XLVII
THE DEAN ELECT
During the entire next week Barchester was ignorant who was to be its new dean on Sunday morning Mr Slope was decidedly the favourite but he did not show himself in the cathedral and then he sank a point or two in the betting On Monday he got a scolding from the bishop in the hearing of the servants and down he went till nobody would have him at any price but on Tuesday he received a letter in an official cover marked private by which he fully recovered his place in the public favour On Wednesday he was said to be ill and that did not look well but on Thursday morning he went down to the railway station with a very jaunty air and when it was ascertained that he had taken a firstclass ticket for London there was no longer any room for doubt on the matter
While matters were in this state of ferment at Barchester there was not much mental comfort at Plumstead Our friend the archdeacon had many grounds for inward grief He was much displeased at the result of Dr Gwynnes diplomatic mission to the palace and did not even scruple to say to his wife that had he gone himself he would have managed the affair much better His wife did not agree with him but that did not mend the matter
Mr Quiverfuls appointment to the hospital was however a fait accompli and Mr Hardings acquiescence in that appointment was not less so Nothing would induce Mr Harding to make a public appeal against the bishop and the Master of Lazarus quite approved of his not doing so
I dont know what has come to the Master said the archdeacon over and over again He used to be ready enough to stand up for his order
My dear archdeacon Mrs Grantly would say in reply what is the use of always fighting I really think the Master is right The Master however had taken steps of his own of which neither the archdeacon nor his wife knew anything
Then Mr Slopes successes were henbane to Dr Grantly and Mrs Bolds improprieties were as bad What would be all the world to Archdeacon Grantly if Mr Slope should become the Dean of Barchester and marry his wifes sister He talked of it and talked of it till he was nearly ill Mrs Grantly almost wished that the marriage was done and over so that she might hear no more about it
And there was yet another ground of misery which cut him to the quick nearly as closely as either of the two others That paragon of a clergyman whom he had bestowed upon St Ewolds that college friend of whom he had boasted so loudly that ecclesiastical knight before whose lance Mr Slope was to fall and bite the dust that worthy bulwark of the church as it should be that honoured representative of Oxfords best spirit was—so at least his wife had told him half a dozen times—misconducting himself
Nothing had been seen of Mr Arabin at Plumstead for the last week but a good deal had unfortunately been heard of him As soon as Mrs Grantly had found herself alone with the archdeacon on the evening of the Ullathorne party she had expressed herself very forcibly as to Mr Arabins conduct on that occasion He had she declared looked and acted and talked very unlike a decent parish clergyman At first the archdeacon had laughed at this and assured her that she need not trouble herself that Mr Arabin would be found to be quite safe But by degrees he began to find out that his wifes eyes had been sharper than his own Other people coupled the signoras name with that of Mr Arabin The meagre little prebendary who lived in the close told him to a nicety how often Mr Arabin had visited at Dr Stanhopes and how long he had remained on the occasion of each visit He had asked after Mr Arabin at the cathedral library and an officious little vicar choral had offered to go and see whether he could be found at Dr Stanhopes Rumour when she has contrived to sound the first note on her trumpet soon makes a loud peal audible enough It was too clear that Mr Arabin had succumbed to the Italian woman and that the archdeacons credit would suffer fearfully if something were not done to rescue the brand from the burning Besides to give the archdeacon his due he was really attached to Mr Arabin and grieved greatly at his backsliding
They were sitting talking over their sorrows in the drawingroom before dinner on that day after Mr Slopes departure for London and on this occasion Mrs Grantly spoke her mind freely She had opinions of her own about parish clergymen and now thought it right to give vent to them
It you would have been led by me archdeacon you would never have put a bachelor into St Ewolds
But my dear you dont mean to say that all bachelor clergymen misbehave themselves
I dont know that clergymen are so much better than other men said Mrs Grantly Its all very well with a curate whom you have under your own eye and whom you can get rid of if he persists in improprieties
But Mr Arabin was a fellow and couldnt have had a wife
Then I would have found some one who could
But my dear are fellows never to get livings
Yes to be sure they are when they got engaged I never would put a young man into a living unless he were married or engaged to be married Now here is Mr Arabin The whole responsibility lies upon you
There is not at this moment a clergyman in all Oxford more respected for morals and conduct than Arabin
Oh Oxford said the lady with a sneer What men choose to do at Oxford nobody ever hears of A man may do very well at Oxford who would bring disgrace on a parish and to tell you the truth it seems to me that Mr Arabin is just such a man
The archdeacon groaned deeply but he had no further answer to make
You really must speak to him archdeacon Only think what the Thornes will say if they hear that their parish clergyman spends his whole time philandering with this woman
The archdeacon groaned again He was a courageous man and knew well enough how to rebuke the younger clergymen of the diocese when necessary But there was that about Mr Arabin which made the doctor feel that it would be very difficult to rebuke him with good effect
You can advise him to find a wife for himself and he will understand well enough what that means said Mrs Grantly
The archdeacon had nothing for it but groaning There was Mr Slope he was going to be made dean he was going to take a wife he was bout to achieve respectability and wealth and excellent family mansion and a family carriage he would soon be among the comfortable elite of the ecclesiastical world of Barchester whereas his own protege the true scion of the true church by whom he had sworn would still be a poor vicar and that with a very indifferent character for moral conduct It might be all very well recommending Mr Arabin to marry but how would Mr Arabin when married support a wife
Things were ordering themselves thus at Plumstead drawingroom when Dr and Mrs Grantly were disturbed in their sweet discourse by the quick rattle of a carriage and a pair of horses on the gravel sweep The sound was not that of visitors whose private carriages are generally brought up to countryhouse doors with demure propriety but belonged rather to some person or persons who were in a hurry to reach the house and had not intention of immediately leaving it Guests invited to stay a week and who were conscious of arriving after the first dinner bell would probably approach in such a manner So might arrive an attorney with the news of a granduncles death or a son from college with all the fresh honours of a double first No one would have had himself driven to the door of a country house in such a manner who had the slightest doubt of his own right to force an entry
Who is it said Mrs Grantly looking at her husband
Who on earth can it be said the archdeacon to his wife He then quietly got up and stood with the drawingroom door open in his hand Why it is your father
It was indeed Mr Harding and Mr Harding alone He had come by himself in a postchaise with a couple of horses from Barchester arriving almost after dark and evidently full of news His visits had usually been made in the quietest manner he had rarely presumed to come without notice and had always been driven up in a modest old green fly with one horse that hardly made itself heard as it crawled up to the hall door
Good gracious Warden is it you said the archdeacon forgetting in his surprise the events of the last few years But come in nothing is the matter I hope
We are very glad you are come papa said his daughter Ill go and get your room ready at once
I ant warden archdeacon said Mr Harding Mr Quiverful is warden
Oh I know I know said the archdeacon petulantly I forgot all about it at the moment Is anything the matter
Dont go at the moment Susan said Mr Harding I have something to tell you
The dinner bell will ring in five minutes said she
Will it said Mr Harding Then perhaps I had better wait he was big with news which he had come to tell but which he knew could not be told without much discussion He had hurried away to Plumstead as fast as two horses could bring him and now finding himself there he was willing to accept the reprieve which dinner would give him
If you have anything of moment to tell us said the archdeacon pray let us hear it at once Has Eleanor gone off
No she has not said Mr Harding with a look of great disclosure
Has Slope been made dean
No he has not but—
But what said the archdeacon who was becoming very impatient
They have—
They have what said the archdeacon
They have offered it to me said Mr Harding with a modesty which almost prevented his speaking
Good heavens said the archdeacon and sank back exhausted in an easychair
My dear dear father said Mrs Grantly and threw her arms around his neck
So I thought I had better come out and consult with you at once said Mr Harding
Consult shouted the archdeacon But my dear Harding I congratulate you with my whole heart—with my whole heart I do indeed I never heard anything in my life that gave me so much pleasure and he got hold of both his fatherinlaws hands and shook them as though he were going to shake them off and walked round and round the room twirling a copy of the Jupiter over his head to show his extreme exultation
But— began Mr Harding
But me no buts said the archdeacon I never was so happy in my life It was just the proper thing to do Upon my honour Ill never say another word against Lord—the longest day I have to live
Thats Dr Gwynnes doing you may be sure said Mrs Grantly who greatly liked the master of Lazarus he being an orderly married man with a large family
I suppose it is said the archdeacon
Oh papa I am so truly delighted said Mrs Grantly getting up and kissing her father
But my dear said Mr Harding It was all in vain that he strove to speak nobody would listen to him
Well Mr Dean said the archdeacon triumphing the deanery gardens will be some consolation for the hospital elms Well poor Quiverful I wont begrudge him his good fortune any longer
No indeed said Mrs Grantly Poor woman she has fourteen children I am sure I am very glad they have got it
So am I said Mr Harding
I would give twenty pounds said the archdeacon to see how Mr Slope will look when he hears it The idea of Mr Slopes discomfiture formed no small part of the archdeacons pleasure
At last Mr Harding was allowed to go upstairs and wash his hands having in fact said very little of all that he had come out to Plumstead on purpose to say Nor could anything more be said till the servants were gone after dinner The joy of Dr Grantly was so uncontrollable that he could not refrain from calling his fatherinlaw Mr Dean before the men and therefore it was soon matter for discussion in the lower regions how Mr Harding instead of his daughters future husband was to be the new dean and various were the opinions on the matter The cook and butler who were advanced in years thought that it was just as it should be but the footman and ladys maid who were younger thought it was a great shame that Mr Slope should lose his chance
Hes a mean chap all the same said the footman and it ant along of him that I says so But I always did admire the missuss sister and shed well become the situation
While these were the ideas downstairs a very great difference of opinion existed above As soon as the cloth was drawn and the wine on the table Mr Harding made for himself the opportunity of speaking It was however with much troubling that he said—
Its very kind of Lord—very kind and I feel it deeply most deeply I am I must confess gratified by the offer—
I should think so said the archdeacon
But all the same I am afraid that I cant accept it
The decanter almost fell from the archdeacons had upon the table and the start he made was so great as to make his wife jump from her chair Not accept the deanship If it really ended in this there would be no longer any doubt that his fatherinlaw was demented The question now was whether a clergyman with low rank and preferment amounting to less than 200 pounds a year should accept high rank 1200 pounds a year and one of the most desirable positions which his profession had to afford
What said the archdeacon gasping for breath and staring at his guest as though the violence of his emotion had almost thrown him into a fit
What
I do not find myself fit for new duties urged Mr Harding
New duties what duties said the archdeacon with unintended sarcasm
Oh papa said Mrs Grantly nothing can be easier that what a dean has to do Surely you are more active than Dr Trefoil
He wont have half as much to do as at present said Dr Grantly
Did you see what the Jupiter said the other day about young men
Yes and I saw that the Jupiter said all that it could to induce the appointment of Mr Slope Perhaps you would wish to see Mr Slope made dean
Mr Harding made no reply to this rebuke though he felt it strongly He had not come over to Plumstead to have further contention with his soninlaw about Mr Slope so he allowed it to pass by
I know I cannot make you understand my feeling he said for we have been cast in different moulds I may wish that I had your spirit and energy and power of combatting but I have not Every day that is added to my life increases my wish for peace and rest
And where on earth can a man have peace and rest if not in a deanery said the archdeacon
People will say I am too old for it
Good heavens What people What need you care for any people
But I think myself I am too old for any new place
Dear papa said Mrs Grantly men ten years older than you have been appointed to new situations day after day
My dear said he it is impossible that I should make you understand my feelings nor do I pretend to any great virtue in the matter The truth is I want the force of character which might enable me to stand against the spirit of the times The call on all sides now is for young men and I have not the nerve to put myself in opposition to the demand Were the Jupiter when it hears of my appointment to write article after article setting forth my incompetency I am sure it would cost me my reason I ought to be able to bear with such things you will say Well my dear I own that I ought But I feel my weakness and I know that I cant And to tell you the truth I know no more than a child what the dean has to do
Pshaw exclaimed the archdeacon
Dont be angry with me archdeacon dont let us quarrel about it Susan If you knew how keenly I feel the necessity of having to disoblige you in this matter you would not be angry with me
This was a dreadful blow to Dr Grantly Nothing could possibly have suited him better than having Mr Harding in the deanery Though he had never looked down on Mr Harding on account of his great poverty he did fully recognise the satisfaction of having those belonging to him in comfortable positions It would be much more suitable that Mr Harding should be dean of Barchester than vicar of St Cuthberts and precentor to boot And then the great discomfiture of that arch enemy of all that was respectable in Barchester of that new low church clerical parvenu that had fallen amongst them that alone would be worth more almost than the situation itself It was frightful to think that such unhoped for good fortune should be marred by the absurd crotchets and unwholesome hallucinations by which Mr Harding allowed himself to be led astray To have the cup so near his lips and then to lose the drinking of it was more than Dr Grantly could endure
And yet it appears as though he would have to endure it In vain he threatened and in vain he coaxed Mr Harding did not indeed speak with perfect decision of refusing the proffered glory but he would not speak with anything like decision of accepting it When pressed again and again he would again and again allege that he was wholly unfitted to new duties It was in vain that the archdeacon tried to insinuate though he could not plainly declare that there were no new duties to perform It was in vain he hinted that in all cases of difficulty he the archdeacon was willing and able to guide a weakminded dean Mr Harding seemed to have a foolish idea not only that there were new duties to do and that no one should accept the place who was not himself prepared to do them
The conference ended in an understanding that Mr Harding should at once acknowledge the letter he had received from the ministers private secretary and should beg that he might be allowed two days to make up his mind and that during those two days the matter should be considered
On the following morning the archdeacon was to drive Mr Harding back to Barchester
CHAPTER XLVIII
MISS THORNE SHOWS HER TALENT FOR MATCHMAKING
On Mr Hardings return to Barchester from Plumstead which was effected by him in due course in company with the archdeacon some tidings of a surprising nature met him He was during the journey subjected to such a weight of unanswerable argument all of which went to prove that it was his bounden duty not to interfere with the paternal government that was so anxious to make him a dean that when he arrived at the chemists door in High Street he barely knew which way to turn himself in the matter But perplexed as he was he was doomed to further perplexity He found a note there from his daughter begging him to most urgently to come to her immediately But we must again go back a little in our story
Miss Thorne had not been slow to hear the rumours respecting Mr Arabin which had so much disturbed the happiness of Mrs Grantly And she also was unhappy to think that her parish clergyman should be accused of worshipping a strange goddess She also was of opinion that rectors and vicars should all be married and with that goodnatured energy which was characteristic of her she put her wits to work to find a fitting match for Mr Arabin Mrs Grantly in this difficulty could think of no better remedy than a lecture from the archdeacon Miss Thorne thought that a young lady marriageable and with a dowry might be of more efficacy In looking through the catalogue of her unmarried friends who might possibly be in want of a husband and might also be fit for such a promotion as a country parsonage affords she could think of no one more eligible than Mrs Bold and consequently losing no time she went into Barchester on the day of Mr Slopes discomfiture the same day that her brother had had his interesting interview with the last of the Neros and invited Mrs Bold to bring her nurse and baby to Ullathorne and make a protracted visit
Miss Thorne suggested a month or two intending to use her influence afterwards in prolonging it so as to last out the winter in order that Mr Arabin might have an opportunity of becoming fairly intimate with his intended bride Well have Mr Arabin too said Miss Thorne to herself and before the spring theyll know each other and in twelve or eighteen months time if all goes well Mrs Bold will be domiciled at St Ewolds and then the kindhearted lady gave herself some not undeserved praise for her matching genius
Eleanor was taken a little by surprise but the matter ended in her promising to go to Ullathorne for at any rate a week or two and on the day previous to that on which her father drove out to Plumstead she had had herself driven out to Ullathorne
Miss Thorne would not perplex her with her embryo lord on that same evening thinking that she would allow her a few hours to make herself at home but on the following morning Mr Arabin arrived And now said Miss Thorne to herself I must contrive to throw them in each others way That same day after dinner Eleanor with an assumed air of dignity which she could no maintain with tears that she could not suppress with a flutter which she could not conquer and a joy which she could not hide told Miss Thorne that she was engaged to marry Mr Arabin and that it behoved her to get back home to Barchester as quick as she could
To say simply that Miss Thorne was rejoiced at the success of the schemed would give a very faint idea of her feelings on the occasion My readers may probably have dreamt before now that they have had before them some terrible long walk to accomplish some journey of twenty or thirty miles an amount of labour frightful to anticipate and that immediately on starting they have ingeniously found some accommodating short cut which have brought them without fatigue to their works end in five minutes Miss Thornes waking feelings were somewhat of the same nature My readers may perhaps have had to do with children and may on some occasion have promised to their young charges some great gratification intended to come off perhaps at the end of the winter or at the beginning of summer The impatient juveniles however will not wait and clamorously demand their treat before they go to bed Miss Thorne had a sort of feeling that an inexperienced gunner who has ill calculated the length of the train that he has laid The gunpowder exploded much too soon and poor Miss Thorne felt that she was blown up by the strength of her own petard
Miss Thorne had had lovers of her own but they had been gentlemen of oldfashioned and deliberate habits Miss Thornes heart also had not always been hard though she was still a virgin spinster but it had never yielded in this way at the first assault She had intended to bring together a middleaged studious clergyman and a discreet matron who might possibly be induced to marry again and in doing she had thrown fire among tinder Well it was all as it should be but she did feel perhaps a little put out by the precipitancy of her own success and perhaps a little vexed at the readiness of Mrs Bold to be wooed
She said however nothing about it to any one and ascribed it all to the altered manners of the new age Their mothers and grandmothers were perhaps a little more deliberate but it was admitted on all sides that things were conducted very differently now that in former times For aught Miss Thorne knew of the matter a couple of hours might be quite sufficient under the new regime to complete that for which she in her ignorance had allotted twelve months
But we must not pass over the wooing so cavalierly It has been told with perhaps tedious accuracy how Eleanor disposed of two of her lovers at Ullathorne and it must also be told with equal accuracy and if possible with less tedium how she encountered Mr Arabin
It cannot be denied that when Eleanor accepted Miss Thornes invitation she remembered that Ullathorne was in the parish of St Ewolds Since her interview with the signora she had done little else than think about Mr Arabin and the appeal that had been made to her She could not bring herself to believe or try to bring herself to believe that what she had been told was untrue Think of it how she would she could not but accept it as a fact that Mr Arabin was fond of her and then when she went further and asked herself the question she could not but accept it as a fact also that she was fond of him If it were destined for her to be the partner of his hopes and sorrows to whom she could she look for friendship so properly as to Miss Thorne This invitation was like an ordained step towards the fulfilment of her destiny and when she also heard that Mr Arabin was expected to be at Ullathorne on the following day it seemed as though all the world was conspiring in her favour Well did she not deserve it In that affair of Mr Slope had not all the world conspired against her
She could not however make herself easy and at home When in the evening after dinner Miss Thorne expatiated on the excellence of Mr Arabins qualities she hinted that any little rumour which might be illnaturedly spread abroad concerning him really meant nothing Mrs Bold found herself unable to answer When Miss Thorne went a little further and declared that she did not know a prettier vicaragehouse in the country than St Ewolds Mrs Bold remembering the projected bowwindow and the projected priestess still held her tongue though her ears tingled with the conviction that all the world would know that she was in love with Mr Arabin Well what could that matter if they could only meet and tell each other what each now longed to tell
And they did meet Mr Arabin came early in the day and found the two ladies together at work in the drawingroom Miss Thorne who had she known all the truth would have vanished into air at once had no conception that her immediate absence would be a blessing and remained chatting with them till luncheontime Mr Arabin could talk about nothing but the Signora Neronis beauty would discuss no people but the Stanhopes This was very distressing to Eleanor and not very satisfactory to Miss Thorne But yet there was evidence of innocence in his open avowal of admiration
And then they had lunch and then Mr Arabin went out on parish duty and Eleanor and Miss Thorne were left to take a walk together
Do you think the Signora Neroni is so lovely as people say
Eleanor asked as they were coming home
She is very beautiful certainly very beautiful Miss Thorne answered but I do not know that any one considers her lovely She is a woman all men would like to look at but few I imagine would be glad to take her to their hearths even were she unmarried and not afflicted as she is
There was some comfort in this Eleanor made the most of it till she got back to the house She was then left alone in the drawingroom and just as it was getting dark Mr Arabin came in
It was a beautiful afternoon in the beginning of October and Eleanor was sitting in the window to get the advantage of the last daylight for her novel There was a fire in the comfortable room but the weather was not cold enough to make it attractive and as she could see the sun set from where she sat she was not very attentive to her book
Mr Arabin when he entered stood awhile with his back to the fire in his usual way merely uttering a few commonplace remarks about the beauty of the weather while he plucked up courage for the more interesting converse It cannot probably be said that he had resolved then and there to make an offer to Eleanor Men we believe seldom make such resolve Mr Slope and Mr Stanhope had done so it is true but gentlemen generally propose without any absolutely defined determination as to their doing so Such was now the case with Mr Arabin
It is a lovely sunset said Eleanor answering him on the dreadfully trite subject which he had chosen
Mr Arabin could not see the sunset from the hearthrug as he had to go close to her
Very lovely said he standing modestly so far away from her s to avoid touching the flounces of her dress Then it appeared that he had nothing further to say so after gazing for a moment in silence at the brightness of the setting sun he returned to the fire
Eleanor found that it was quite impossible for herself to commence a conversation In the first place she could find nothing to say words which were generally plenty enough with her would not come to her relief And moreover do what she could she could hardly prevent herself from crying
Do you like Ullathorne said Mr Arabin speaking from the safely distant position which he had assumed on the hearthrug
Yes indeed very much
I dont mean Mr and Miss Thorne I know you like them but the style of the house There is something about oldfashioned mansions built as this is and oldfashioned gardens that to me is especially delightful
I like everything oldfashioned said Eleanor oldfashioned things are so much the honestest
I dont know about that said Mr Arabin gently laughing That is an opinion on which very much may be said on either side It is strange how widely the world is divided on a subject which so nearly concerns us all and which is so close beneath our eyes Some think that we are quickly progressing towards perfection while others imagine that virtue is disappearing from the earth
And you Mr Arabin what do you think said Eleanor She felt somewhat surprised at the tone which this conversation was taking and yet she was quite relieved at his saying something which enabled herself to speak without showing any emotion
What do I think Mrs Bold and then he rumbled his money with his hand in his trousers pockets and looked and spoke very little like a thriving lover It is the bane of my life that on important subjects I acquire no fixed opinion I think and think and go on thinking and yet my thoughts are running over in different directions I hardly know whether or no we do lead more confidently than our fathers did on those high hopes to which we profess to aspire
I think the world grows more worldly every day said Eleanor
That is because you see more of it than when you were younger But we should hardly judge by what we see—we see so very very little There was then a pause for a while during which Mr Arabin continued to turn over his shillings and halfcrowns If we believe in Scripture we can hardly think that mankind in general will now be allowed to retrograde
Eleanor whose mind was certainly engaged otherwise than on the general state of mankind made no answer to this She felt thoroughly dissatisfied with herself She could not force her thoughts away from the topic on which the signora had spoken to her in so strange a way and yet she knew that she could not converse with Mr Arabin in an unrestrained natural tone till she did so She was most anxious not to show to him any special emotion and yet she felt that if he looked at her he would at once see that she was not at ease
But he did not look at her Instead of doing so he left the fireplace and began walking up and down the room Eleanor took up her book resolutely but she could not read for there was a tear in her eye and do what she would it fell on her cheek When Mr Arabins back was turned to her she wiped it away but another was soon coming down her face in its place They would come not a deluge of tears that would have betrayed her at once but one by one single monitors Mr Arabin did not observe her closely and they passed unseen
Mr Arabin thus passing up and down the room took four of five turns before he spoke another word and Eleanor sat equally silent with her face bent over her book She was afraid that her tears would get the better of her and was preparing for an escape from the room when Mr Arabin in his walk stood opposite to her He did not come close up but stood exactly on the spot to which his course brought him and then with his hands under his coat tails thus made a confession
Mrs Bold said he I owe you retribution for a great offence of which I have been guilty towards you Eleanors heart beat so that she could not trust herself to say that he had never been guilty of any offence So Mr Arabin then went on
I have thought much of it since and I am now aware that I was wholly unwarranted in putting to you a question which I once asked you It was indelicate on my part and perhaps unmanly No intimacy which may exist between myself and your connection Dr Grantly could justify it Nor could the acquaintance which existed between ourselves The word acquaintance struck cold on Eleanors heart Was this to her doom after all I therefore think it right to beg your pardon in a humble spirit and I now do so
What was Eleanor to say to this She could not say much because she was crying and yet she must say something She was most anxious to say that something graciously kindly and yet not in such a manner as to betray herself She had never felt herself so much at a loss for words
Indeed I took no offence Mr Arabin
Oh but you did And had you not done so you would not have been yourself You were as right to be offended as I was wrong to so offend you I have not forgiven myself but I hope to hear that you forgive me
She was now past speaking calmly though she still continued to hide her tears and Mr Arabin after pausing a moment in vain for her reply was walking off towards the door She felt that she could not allow him to go unanswered without grievously sinning against all charity so rising from her seat she gently touched his arm and said Oh Mr Arabin do not go till I speak to you I do forgive you You know that I forgive you
He took the hand that had so gently touched his arm and then gazed into her face as if he would peruse there as though written in a book the whole future destiny of his life and as he did so there was a sober and seriousness in his own countenance which Eleanor found herself unable to sustain She could only look down upon the carpet let her tears trickle as they would and leave her hand within his
It was but for a minute that they stood so but the duration of that minute was sufficient to make it ever memorable to both Eleanor was sure now that she was loved No words be their eloquence what it might could be more impressive than that eager melancholy gaze
Why did he look into her eyes Why did he not speak to her
Could it be that he looked for her to make the first sign
And he though he knew little of women even he knew that he was loved He had only to ask and it would be all his own that inexpressible loveliness those ever speaking but yet now mute eyes that feminine brightness and eager loving spirit which had so attracted him since first he had encountered it at St Ewolds It might must all be his own now On no other supposition was it possible that she should allow her hand to remain thus clasped within his own He had only to ask Ah but that was the difficulty Did a minute suffice for all this Nay perhaps it might be more than a minute
Mrs Bold— at last he said and then stopped himself
If he could not speak how was she to do so He had called her by her name the same name that any merest stranger would have used She withdrew her hand from his and moved as though to return to her seat Eleanor he then said in his softest tone as though the courage were still afraid of giving offence by the freedom which he took She looked slowly gently almost piteously up into his face There was at any rate no anger there to deter him
Eleanor he again exclaimed and in a moment he had her clasped to his bosom How this was done whether the doing was with him or her whether she had flown thither conquered by the tenderness of his voice or he with a violence not likely to give offence had drawn her to his breast neither of them knew nor can I declare There was now that sympathy between them which hardly admitted of individual motion They were one and the same—one flesh—one spirit—one life
Eleanor my own Eleanor my own my wife She ventured to look at him through her tears and he bowing his face down over hers pressed his lips upon her brow his virgin lips which since a beard first grew upon his chin had never yet tasted the luxury of a womans cheek
She had been told that her yea must be yea or her nay nay but she was called on for neither the one nor the other She told Miss Thorne that she was engaged to Mr Arabin but no such words had passed between them no promises had been asked or given
Oh let me go said she let me go now I am too happy to remain—let me go that I may be alone He did not try to hinder her he did not repeat his kiss he did not press another on her lips He might have done so had he been so minded She was now all his own He took his arm from round her waist his arm that was trembling with a new delight and let her go She fled like a roe to her own chamber and then having turned the bolt she enjoyed the full luxury of her love She idolised almost worshipped this man who had so meekly begged her pardon And he was now her own Oh how she wept and cried and laughed as the hopes and fears and miseries of the last few weeks passed in remembrance through her mind
Mr Slope That any one should have dared to think that she who had been chosen by him could possibly have mated herself with Mr Slope That they should have dared to tell him also and subject her bright happiness to such a needless risk And then she smiled with joy as she thought of all the comforts that she could give him not that he cared for comforts but that it would be so delicious for her to give
She got up and rang for her maid that she might tell her little boy of his new father and in her own way she did tell him She desired her maid to leave her in order that she might be alone with her child and there while he lay sprawling on the bed she poured forth the praises so unmeaning to him of the man she had selected to guard his infancy
She could not be happy however till she had made Mr Arabin take the child to himself and thus as it were adopt him as his own The moment the idea struck her she took the baby in her arms and opening her door ran quickly down to the drawingroom She at once found by the step still pacing on the floor that he was there and a glance within the room told her that he was alone She hesitated a moment and then hurried in with her precious charge
Mr Arabin met her in the middle of the room There said she breathless with her haste there take him—take him and love him
Mr Arabin took the little fellow from her and kissing him again and again prayed God to bless him He shall be all as my own— all as my own said he Eleanor as she stooped to take back her child kissed the hand that held him and then rushed back with her treasure to her chamber
It was then that Mr Hardings younger daughter was won for the second time At dinner neither she nor Mr Arabin were very bright but their silence occasioned no remark In the drawingroom as we have before said she told Miss Thorne what had occurred The next morning she returned to Barchester and Mr Arabin went over with his budget of news to the archdeacon As Dr Grantly was not there he could only satisfy himself by telling Mrs Grantly how that he intended himself the honour of becoming her brotherinlaw In the ecstasy of her joy at hearing such tidings Mrs Grantly vouchsafed him a warmer welcome than any he had yet received from Eleanor
Good heavens she exclaimed—it was the general exclamation of the rectory Poor Eleanor Dear Eleanor What monstrous injustice has been done her—Well it shall all be made up now And then she thought of the signora What lies people tell she said to herself
But people in this matter had told no lies at all
CHAPTER XLIX
THE BEELZEBUB COLT
When Miss Thorne left the diningroom Eleanor had formed no intention of revealing to her what had occurred but when she was seated beside her hostess on the sofa the secret dropped from her almost unawares Eleanor was but a bad hypocrite and she found herself quite unable to continue talking about Mr Arabin as though he was a stranger while her heart was full of him When Miss Thorne pursuing her own scheme with discreet zeal asked the young widow whether in her opinion it would not be a good thing for Mr Arabin to get married she had nothing for it but to confess the truth I suppose it would said Eleanor rather sheepishly Whereupon Miss Thorne amplified on the idea Oh Miss Thorne said Eleanor he is going to be married I am engaged to him
Now Miss Thorne knew very well that there had been no such engagement when she had been walking with Mrs Bold in the morning She had also heard enough to be tolerably sure that there had been no preliminaries to such an engagement She was therefore as we have before described taken a little by surprise But nevertheless she embraced her guest and cordially congratulated her
Eleanor had no opportunity of speaking another word to Mr Arabin that evening except such words as all the world might hear and these as may be supposed were few enough Miss Thorne did her best to leave them in privacy but Mr Thorne who knew nothing of what had occurred and another guest a friend of his entirely interfered with her good intentions So poor Eleanor had to go to bed without one sign of affection Her state nevertheless was not to be pitied
The next morning she was up early It was probable she thought that by going down a little before the usual hour of breakfast she might find Mr Arabin alone in the diningroom Might it not be that she would calculate that an interview would thus be possible Thus thinking Eleanor was dressed a full hour before the time fixed at the Ullathorne household for morning prayers She did not at once go down She was afraid to seem to be too anxious to meet her lover though heaven knows her anxiety was intense enough She therefore sat herself down at her window and repeatedly looking at her watch nursed her child till she thought she might venture forth
When she found herself at the diningroom door she stood a moment hesitating to turn the handle but when she heard Mr Thornes voice inside she hesitated no longer Her object was defeated and she might now go in as soon as she liked without the slightest imputation on her delicacy Mr Thorne and Mr Arabin were standing on the hearthrug discussing the merits of the Beelzebub colt or rather Mr Thorne was discussing and Mr Arabin was listening That interesting animal had rubbed the stump of his tail against the wall of his stable and occasioned much uneasiness to the Ullathorne master of the horse Had Eleanor but waited another minute Mr Thorne would have been in the stable
Mr Thorne when he saw his lady guest repressed his anxiety The Beelzebub colt must do without him And so the three stood saying little or nothing to each other till at last the master of the house finding that he could no longer bear the present state of suspense respecting his favourite young steed made an elaborate apology to Mrs Bold and escaped As he shut the door behind him Eleanor almost wished that he had remained It was not that she was afraid of Mr Arabin but she hardly yet knew how to address him
He however soon relieved her from her embarrassment He came up to her and taking bother her hands in his he said So Eleanor you and I are to be man and wife Is it so
She looked up into his face and her lips formed themselves into a single syllable She uttered no sound but he could read the affirmative plainly in her face
It is a great trust said he a very great trust
It is—it is said Eleanor not exactly taking what he had said in the sense that he had meant It is a very great trust and I will do my utmost to deserve it
And I also will do my utmost to deserve it said Mr Arabin very solemnly And then winding his arm round her waist he stood there gazing at the fire and she with her head leaning in his shoulder stood by him well satisfied with her position They neither of them spoke or found any want of speaking All that was needful for them to say had been said The yea yea had been spoken by Eleanor in her own way—and that way had been perfectly satisfactory to Mr Arabin
And now it remained to them each to enjoy the assurance of the others love And how great that luxury is How far it surpasses any other pleasure which God has allowed to his creatures And to a womans heart how doubly delightful
When the ivy has found its tower when the delicate creeper has found its strong wall we know how the parasite plants grow and prosper They were not created to stretch forth their branches alone and endure without protection the summers sun and the winters storm Alone they but spread themselves on the ground and cower unseen in the dingy shade But when they have found their firm supporters how wonderful is their beauty how all pervading and victorious
What is the turret without its ivy or the high garden wall without the jasmine which gives it its beauty and fragrance The hedge without the honeysuckle is but a hedge
There is s feeling still half existing but now half conquered by the force of human nature that a woman should be ashamed of her love till the husbands right to her compels her to acknowledge it We would fain preach a different doctrine A woman should glory in her love but on that account let her take the more care that it be such as to justify her glory
Eleanor did glory in hers and she felt and had cause to feel that it deserved to be held as glorious She could have stood there for hours with his arm around her had fate and Mr Thorne permitted it Each moment she crept nearer to his bosom and felt more and more certain that there was her home What now to her was the archdeacons arrogance her sisters coldness or her dear fathers weakness What need she care for the duplicity of such friends as Charlotte Stanhope She had found the strong shield that should guard her from all wrongs the trusty pilot that should henceforward guide her through the shoals and rocks She would give up the heavy burden of her independence and once more assume the position of a woman and the duties of a trusting and loving wife
And he too stood there fully satisfied with his place They were both looking intently on the fire as though they could read there their future fate till at last Eleanor turned her face towards his How sad you are she said smiling and indeed his face was if not sad at least serious How sad you are love
Sad said he looking down at her no certainly not sad Her sweet loving eyes were turned towards him and she smiled softly as he answered her The temptation was too strong even for the demure propriety of Mr Arabin and bending over her he pressed his lips to hers
Immediately after this Mr Thorne appeared and they were both delighted to hear that the tail of the Beelzebub colt was not materially injured
It had been Mr Hardings intention to hurry over to Ullathorne as soon as possible after his return to Barchester in order to secure the support of his daughter in his meditated revolt against the archdeacon as touching the deanery but he was spared the additional journey by hearing that Mrs Bold had returned unexpectedly home As soon as he had read her note he started off and found her waiting for him in her own house
How much each of them had to tell the other and how certain each was that the story which he or she had to tell would astonish the other
My dear I am so anxious to see you said Mr Harding kissing his daughter
Oh papa I have so much to tell you said the daughter returning his embrace
My dear they have offered me the deanery said Mr Harding anticipating by the suddenness of the revelation the tidings which Eleanor had to give him
Oh papa said she forgetting her own love and happiness in her joy at the surprising news oh papa can it be possible Dear papa how thoroughly thoroughly happy that makes me
But my dear I think it best to refuse it
Oh papa
I am sure you will agree with me Eleanor when I explain it to you You know my dear how old I am If I live I—
But papa I must tell you about myself
Well my dear
I do wonder how you will take it
Take what
If you dont rejoice at it if it doesnt make you happy if you dont encourage me I shall break my heart
If that be the case Nelly I certainly will encourage you
But I fear you wont I do so fear you wont And yet you cant but think I am the most fortunate woman living on Gods earth
Are you dearest Then I certainly will rejoice with you Come
Nelly come to me and tell me what it is
I am going—
He led her to the sofa and seating himself beside her with both her hands in his You are going to be married Nelly Is not that it
Yes she said faintly That is if you will approve and then she blushed as she remembered the promise which she had so lately volunteered to him and which she had so utterly forgotten in making her engagement with Mr Arabin
Mr Harding thought for a moment who the man could be whom he was to be called upon to welcome as his soninlaw A week since he would have had no doubt whom to name In that case he would have been prepared to give his sanction although he would have done so with a heavy heart Now he knew that at any rate it would not be Mr Slope though he was perfectly at a loss to guess who could possibly have filled his place For a moment he thought that the man might be Bertie Stanhope and his very soul sank within him
Well Nelly
Oh papa promise me that for my sake you will love him
Come Nelly come tell me who it is
But you will love him papa
Dearest I must love any one that you love Then she turned he face to his and whispered into his ear the name of Mr Arabin
No man that she could have named could have more surprised or more delighted him Had he looked round the world for a soninlaw to his taste he could have selected no one whom he would have preferred to Mr Arabin He was a clergyman he held a living in the neighbourhood he was of a set to which all Mr Hardings own partialities most closely adhered he was the great friend of Dr Grantly and he was moreover a man of whom Mr Harding knew nothing but what he approved Nevertheless his surprise was so great as to prevent the immediate expression of his joy He had never thought of Mr Arabin in connection with his daughter he had never imagined that they had any feeling in common He had feared that his daughter had been made hostile to clergymen of Mr Arabins stamp by her intolerance of the archdeacons pretensions Had he been put to wish he might have wished for Mr Arabin for a soninlaw but had he been put to guess the name would never have occurred to him
Mr Arabin he exclaimed impossible
Oh papa for heavens sake dont say anything against him If you do love me dont say anything against him Oh papa its done and mustnt be undone—oh papa
Fickle Eleanor Where was the promise that she would make no choice for herself without her fathers approval She had chosen and now demanded his acquiescence Oh papa isnt he good isnt he noble isnt he religious highminded everything that a good man possibly can be and she clung to her father beseeching him for his consent
My Nelly my child my own daughter He is he is noble and good and highminded he is all that a woman can love and admire He shall be my son my own son He shall be as close to my heart as you are My Nelly my child my happy happy child
We need not pursue the interview any further By degrees they returned to the subject of the new promotion Eleanor tried to prove to him as the Grantlys had done that his age could be no bar to his being a very excellent dean but those arguments had now even less weight than before He said little or nothing but sat meditative Every now and then he would kiss his daughter and say yes or no or very true or well my dear I cant quite agree with you there but he could not be got to enter sharply into the question of to be or not to be dean of Barchester Of her and her happiness of Mr Arabin and his virtues he would talk as much as Eleanor desired and to tell the truth that was not a little but about the deanery he would now say nothing further He had got a new idea into his head—Why should not Mr Arabin be the new dean
CHAPTER L
THE ARCHDEACON IS SATISFIED WITH THE STATE OF AFFAIRS
The archdeacon in his journey into Barchester had been assured by Mr Harding that all their prognostications about Mr Slope and Eleanor were groundless Mr Harding however had found it very difficult to shake his soninlaws faith in his own acuteness The matter had to Dr Grantly been so plainly corroborated by such patent evidence borne out by such endless circumstances that he at first refused to take as true the positive statement which Mr Harding made to him of Eleanors own disavowal of the impeachment But at last he yielded in a qualified way He brought himself to admit that he would at the present regard his past convictions as a mistake but in doing this he so guarded himself that if at any future time Eleanor should come forth to the world as Mrs Slope he might still be able to say There I told you so Remember what you said and what I said and remember also for coming years that I was right in this matter—as in all others
He carried however his concession so far as to bring himself to undertake to call at Eleanors house and he did call accordingly while the father and the daughter were yet in the middle of their conference Mr Harding had had so much to hear and to say that he had forgotten to advertise Eleanor of the honour that awaited her and she heard her brotherinlaws voice in the hall while she quite unprepared to see him
Theres the archdeacon she said springing up
Yes my dear He told me to tell you that he would come to see you but to tell the truth I had forgotten all about it
Eleanor fled away regardless of all her fathers entreaties She could not now in the first hours of her joy bring herself to bear all the archdeacons retractions apologies and congratulations He would have so much to say and would be so tedious in saying it consequently the archdeacon when he was shown into the drawingroom found on one there but Mr Harding
You must excuse Eleanor said Mr Harding
Is anything the matter asked the doctor who at once anticipated that the whole truth about Mr Slope had at last come out
Well something is the matter I wonder whether you will be much surprised
The archdeacon saw by his fatherinlaws manner that after all he had nothing to tell him about Mr Slope No said he certainly not—nothing will ever surprise me again Very many men nowadays besides the archdeacon adopt or affect to adopt the nil admirari doctrine but nevertheless to judge from their appearance they are just as subject to sudden emotions as their grandfathers and grandmothers were before them
What do you think Mr Arabin has done
Mr Arabin Its nothing about that daughter of Stanhopes I hope
No not that woman said Mr Harding enjoying his joke in his sleeve
Not that woman Is he going to do anything about any woman Why cant you speak out if yo have anything to say There is nothing I hate so much as these sort of mysteries
There shall be no mystery with you archdeacon though of course it must go no further at present
Well
Except Susan You must promise me youll tell no one else
Nonsense exclaimed the archdeacon who was becoming angry in his suspense You cant have any secret about Mr Arabin
Only this—that he and Eleanor are engaged
It was quite clear to see by the archdeacons face that he did not believe a word of it Mr Arabin Its impossible
Eleanor at any rate has just told me so
Its impossible repeated the archdeacon
Well I cant say I think it is impossible It certainly took me by surprise but that does not make it impossible
She must be mistaken
Mr Harding assured him that there was no mistake that he would find on returning home that Mr Arabin had been at Plumstead with the express object of making to same declaration that even Miss Thorne knew all about it and that in fact the thing was as clearly settled as any such arrangement between a lady and a gentleman could be
Good heavens said the archdeacon walking up and down Eleanors drawingroom Good heavens Good heavens
Now these exclamations certainly betokened faith Mr Harding properly gathered from it that at last Dr Grantly did believe the fact The first utterances clearly evinced a certain amount of distaste at the information he had received the second simply indicated surprise and the tone of the third Mr Harding fancied that he could catch a certain gleam of satisfaction
The archdeacon had truly expressed the workings of his mind He could not but be disgusted to find how utterly astray he had been in all his anticipations Had he only been lucky enough to have suggested the marriage himself when he first brought Mr Arabin into the country his character for judgment and wisdom would have received an addition which would have classed him at any rate next to Solomon And why had he not done so Might he not have foreseen that Mr Arabin would want a wife in the parsonage He had foreseen that Eleanor would want a husband but should he not also have perceived that Mr Arabin was a man much more likely to attract her than Mr Slope The archdeacon found that he had been at fault and of course could not immediately get over his discomfiture
Then his surprise was intense How sly the pair of young turtle doves had been with him How egregiously they had hoaxed him He had preached at Eleanor against her fancied attachment to Mr Slope at the very time she was in love with his own protege Mr Arabin and had absolutely taken that same Mr Arabin into his confidence with reference to the dread of Mr Slopes alliance It was very natural that the archdeacons should feel surprise
But there was also great ground for satisfaction Looking at the match by itself it was the very thing to help the doctor out of his difficulties In the first place the assurance that he should never have Mr Slope for his brotherinlaw was in itself a great comfort Then Mr Arabin was of all men one with whom it would best suit him to be utterly connected But the crowning comfort was the blow that this marriage would give to Mr Slope He had now certainly lost his wife rumour was beginning to whisper that he might possibly lose his position in the palace and if Mr Harding would only be true the great danger of all would be surmounted In such case it might be expected that Mr Slope would own himself vanquished and take himself altogether away from Barchester And so the archdeacon would again be able to breath the pure air
Well well said he Good heavens Good heavens and the tone of the fifth exclamation made Mr Harding fully aware that content was reigning in the archdeacons bosom
And then slowly gradually and craftily Mr Harding propounded his own new scheme Why should not Mr Arabin be the new dean
Slowly gradually thoughtfully Dr Grantly fell into his fatherinlaws views Much as he liked Mr Arabin sincere as he was in his admiration for that gentlemans ecclesiastical abilities he would not have sanctioned a measure which would have robbed his fatherinlaw of his fairlyearned promotion were it at all practicable to induce his fatherinlaw to accept the promotion which he had earned But the archdeacon had on a former occasion received proof of the obstinacy with which Mr Harding could adhere to his own views in opposition to the advice of all his friends He knew tolerably well that nothing would induce the meek mild man before him to take the high place offered to him if he thought it wrong to do so Knowing this he also said to himself more than once Why should not Mr Arabin be dean of Barchester it was at last arranged between them that they would together start to London by the earliest train on the following morning making a little detour to Oxford on their journey Dr Gwynnes counsels they imagined might perhaps be of assistance to them
These matters settled the archdeacon hurried off that he might return to Plumstead and prepare for his journey The day was extremely fine and he came into the city in an open gig As he was driving up the High Street he encountered Mr Slope at a crossing Had he not pulled up rather sharply he would have run over him The two had never spoken to each other since they had met on a memorable occasion in the bishops study They did not speak now but they looked at each other full in the face and Mr Slopes countenance was as impudent as triumphant as defiant as ever Had Dr Grantly not known to the contrary he would have imagined that his enemy had won the deanship the wife and all the rich honours for which he had been striving As it was he had lost everything that he had in the world and had just received his conge from the bishop
In leaving the town the archdeacon drove by the wellremembered entrance of Hirams hospital There at the gate was a large untidy farmers wagon laden with untidylooking furniture and there inspecting the arrival was good Mrs Quiverful—not dressed in her Sunday best—not very clean in her apparel—not graceful as to her bonnet and shawl or indeed with many feminine charms as to her whole appearance She was busy at domestic work in her new house and had just ventured out expecting to see no one on the arrival of the family chattels The archdeacon was down upon her before she knew where she was
Her acquaintance with Dr Grantly or his family were very slight indeed The archdeacon as a matter of course knew every clergyman in the archdeaconry it may almost be said the diocese and had some acquaintance more or less intimate with their wives and families With Mr Quiverful he had been concerned on various matters of business but of Mrs Q he had seen very little Now however he was in too gracious a mood to pass her by unnoticed The Quiverfuls one and all had looked for the bitterest hostility from Dr Grantly they knew his anxiety for Mr Harding should return to his old home at the hospital and they did not know that a new home had been offered to him at the deanery Mrs Quiverful was therefore not a little surprised and not a little rejoiced also at the tone at which she was addressed
How do you do Mrs Quiverful—how do you do said he stretching his left hand out of the gig as he spoke to her I am very glad to see you employed in so pleasant and useful a manner very glad indeed
Mrs Quiverful thanked him and shook hands with him and looked into his face suspiciously She was not sure whether the congratulations and kindness were or were not ironical
Pray tell Mr Quiverful from me he continued that I am rejoiced at his appointment It is a comfortable place Mrs Quiverful and a comfortable house and I am very glad to see you in it Goodbye goodbye And he drove on leaving the lady wellpleased and astonished at his good nature On the whole things were going well with the archdeacon and he could afford to be charitable to Mrs Quiverful He looked forth from his gig smilingly on all the world and forgave every one in Barchester their sins excepting only Mrs Proudie and Mr Slope Had he seen the bishop he would have felt inclined to pat even him kindly on the head
He determined to go home by St Ewolds This would take him some three miles out of his way but he felt that he could not leave Plumstead comfortably without saying one word of good fellowship to Mr Arabin When he reached the parsonage the vicar was still out but from what he had heard he did not doubt but that he would meet him on the road between their two houses He was right in this for about halfway home at a narrow turn he came upon Mr Arabin who was on horseback
Well well well well said the archdeacon loudly joyously and with supreme good humour well well well well so after all we have no further cause to fear Mr Slope
I hear from Mrs Grantly that they have offered the deanery to Mr
Harding said the other
Mr Slope has lost more than the deanery I find and then the archdeacon laughed jocosely Come come Arabin you have kept your secret well enough I know all about it now
I have had no secret archdeaconsaid the other with a quiet smile None at all—not for a day It was only yesterday that I knew my own good fortune and today I went over to Plumstead to ask your approval From what Mrs Grantly has said to me I am led to hope that I shall have it
With all my heart with all my heart said the archdeacon cordially holding his friend by the hand Its just as I would have it She is an excellent young woman she will not come to you emptyhanded and I think she will make you a good wife If she does her duty by you as her sister does by me youll be a happy man thats all I can say And as he finished speaking a tear might have been observed in each of the doctors eyes
Mr Arabin warmly returned the archdeacons grasp but he said little His heart was too full for speaking and he could not express the gratitude which he felt Dr Grantly understood him as well as though he had spoken for an hour
And mind Arabin said he no one but myself shall tie the knot Well get Eleanor out to Plumstead and it shall come off there Ill make Susan stir herself and well do it in style I must be off to London tomorrow on special business Harding goes with me But Ill be back before your bride has got her weddingdress ready And so they parted
On his journey home the archdeacon occupied his mind with preparations for the marriage festivities He made a great resolve that he would atone to Eleanor for all the injury he had done her by the munificence of his future treatment He would show her what was the difference in his eyes between a Slope and an Arabin On one other thing also he decided with a firm mind if the affair of the dean should not be settled in Mr Arabins favour nothing should prevent him putting a new front and bowwindow to the diningroom at St Ewolds parsonage
So were sold after all Sue said he to his wife accosting her with a kiss as soon as he entered his house He did not call his wife Sue above twice or thrice in a year and these occasions were great high days
Eleanor has had more sense then we gave her credit for said Mrs
Grantly
And there was great content in Plumstead rectory that evening and Mrs Grantly promised her husband that she would now open her heart and take Mr Arabin into it Hitherto she had declined to do so
CHAPTER LI
MR SLOPE BIDS FAREWELL TO THE PALACE AND ITS INHABITANTS
We must now take leave of Mr Slope and of the bishop and of Mrs Proudie These leavetakings in novels are as disagreeable as they are in real life not so sad indeed for they want the reality of sadness but quite as perplexing and generally less satisfactory What novelist what Fielding what Scott what George Sand or Sue or Duncan can impart an interest to the last chapter of his fictitious history Promises of two children and superhuman happiness are of no avail nor assurance of extreme respectability carried to an age far exceeding that usually allotted to mortals The sorrows of our heroes and heroines they are you delight oh public their sorrows or their sins or their absurdities not their virtues good sense and consequent rewards When we begin to tint our final pages with couleur de rose as in accordance with fixed rule we must do we altogether extinguish our own powers of pleasing When we become dull we offend your intellect and we must become dull or we should offend your taste A late writer wishing to sustain his interest to the last page hung his hear at the end of the third volume The consequence was that no one should read his novel And who can apportion out and dovetail his incidents dialogues characters and descriptive morsels so as to fit them all exactly into 439 pages without either compressing them unnaturally or extending them artificially at the end of his labour Do I not myself know that I am at this moment in want of a dozen pages and that I am sick with cudgelling my brains to find them And then when everything is done the kindesthearted critic of them all invariably twit us with the incompetency and lameness of our conclusion We have either become idle and neglected it or tedious and overlaboured it It is insipid or unnatural overstrained or imbecile It means nothing or attempts too much The last scene of all as all last scenes we fear must be
Is second childishness and mere oblivion Sans teeth sans eyes sans taste sans everything
I can only say that if some critic who thoroughly knows his work and has laboured on it till experience has made him perfect will write the last fifty pages of a novel in the way they should be written I for one will in future do my best to copy the example Guided by my own lights only I despair of success
For the last week or ten days Mr Slope had seen nothing of Mrs Proudie and very little of the bishop He still lived in the palace and still went through his usual routine work but the confidential doings of the diocese had passed into other hands He had seen this clearly and marked it well but it had not much disturbed him He had indulged in other hopes till the bishops affairs had become dull to him and he was moreover aware that as regarded the diocese Mrs Proudie had checkmated him It has been explained in the beginning of these pages how three or four were contending together as to who in fact should be bishop of Barchester Each of them had now admitted to himself or boasted to herself that Mrs Proudie was victorious in the struggle They had gone through a competitive examination of considerable severity and she had come forth the winner facile princeps Mr Slope had for a moment run her hard but it was only for a moment It had become as it were acknowledged that Hirams hospital should be the testing point between them and now Mr Quiverful was already in the hospital the proof of Mrs Proudies skill and courage
All this did not break Mr Slopes spirit because he had other hopes But alas at last there came to him a note from his friend Sir Nicholas informing him that the deanship was disposed of Let us give Mr Slope his due He did not lie prostrate under this blow or give himself to vain lamentations he did not henceforward despair of life and call upon gods above and gods below to carry him off He sat himself down in his chair counted out what monies he had in hand for present purposes and what others were coming to him bethought himself as to the best sphere for his future exertions and at once wrote off a letter to a rich sugar refiners wife in Baker Street who as he well knew was much given to the entertainment and encouragement of serious young evangelical clergymen He was again he said upon the world having found the air of a cathedral town and the very nature of cathedral services uncongenial to his spirit and then he sat awhile making firm resolves as to his manner of parting from the bishop and also as to his future conduct
At last he rose and twitched his mantle blue
Tomorrow to fresh woods and pastures new
Having received a formal command to wait upon the bishop he rose and proceeded to obey it He rang the bell and desired the servant to inform his master that if it suited his lordship he Mr Slope was ready to wait upon him The servant who well understood that Mr Slope was no longer in the ascendant brought back a message saying that his lordship desired that Mr Slope would attend him immediately in his study Mr Slope waited about ten minutes more to prove his independence and then went into the bishops room There as had expected he found Mrs Proudie together with her husband
Hum ha—Mr Slope please take a chair said the gentleman bishop
Pray be seated Mr Slope said the lady bishop
Thank ye thank yesaid Mr Slope and walking round to the fire he threw himself into one of the armchairs that graced the hearthrug
Mr Slope said the bishop it has become necessary that I should speak to you definitively on a matter that has for some time been pressing itself on my attention
May I ask whether the subject is in any way connected with myself said Mr Slope
It is so—certainly—yes it certainly is connected with yourself Mr Slope
Then my lord if I may be allowed to express a wish I would prefer that no discussion on the subject should take place between us in the presence of a third party
Dont alarm yourself Mr Slope said Mrs Proudie no discussion is at all necessary The bishop merely intends to express his own wishes
I merely intend Mr Slope to express my own wishes—no discussion will be at all necessary said the bishop reiterating his wifes words
That is more my lord than we any of us can be sure of said Mr Slope I cannot however force Mrs Proudie to leave the room nor can I refuse to remain here if it be your lordships wish that I should do so
It is certainly his lordships wishsaid Mrs Proudie
Mr Slope began the bishop in a solemn serious voice it grieves me to have to find fault It grieves me much to find fault with a clergyman but especially so with a clergyman in your position
Why what have I done amiss my lord demanded Mr Slope loudly
What have you done amiss Mr Slope said Mrs Proudie standing erect before the culprit and raising that terrible forefinger Do you dare to ask the bishop what you have done amiss does not your conscience—
Mrs Proudie pray let it be understood once for all that I will have no words with you
Ah sire but you will have words said she you must have words Why have you had so may words with that Signora Neroni Why have you disgraced yourself you a clergyman by constantly consorting with such a woman as that—with a married woman—with one altogether unfit for a clergymans society
At any rate I was introduced to her in your drawingroom returned Mr Slope
And shamefully you behave there said Mrs Proudie most shamefully I was wrong to allow you to remain in the house a day after what I then saw I should have insisted on your instant dismissal
I have yet to learn Mrs Proudie that you have the power to insist either on my going from hence or on my staying here
What said the lady I am not to have the privilege of saying who shall and who shall not frequent my own drawingroom I am not to save my servants and dependents from having their morals corrupted by improper conduct I am not to save my own daughters from impurity I will let you see Mr Slope whether I have the power or whether I have not You will have the goodness to understand that you no longer fill any situation about the bishop and as your room will be immediately wanted in the palace for another chaplain I must ask you to provide yourself with apartments as soon as may be convenient to you
My lord said Mr Slope appealing to the bishop and so turning his back completely on the lady will you permit me to ask that I may have from your own lips and decision that you may have come to on this matter
Certainly Mr Slope certainly said the bishop that is but reasonable Well my decision is that you had better look for some other preferment For the situation which you have lately held I do not think you are well suited
And what my lord has been my fault
That Signora Neroni is one fault said Mrs Proudie and a very abominable fault she is very abominable and very disgraceful Fie Mr Slope fie You an evangelical clergyman indeed
My lord I desire to know for what fault I am turned out of your lordships house
You hear what Mrs Proudie says said the bishop
When I publish the history of this transaction my lord as I decidedly shall do in my own vindication I presume you will not wish me to state that you have discarded me at your wifes bidding —because she has objected to my being acquainted with another lady the daughter of one of the prebendaries of the chapter
You may publish as you please sir said Mrs Proudie But you will not be insane enough to publish any of your doings in Barchester Do you think I have not heard of your kneelings at that creatures feet—that is if she has any feet—and of your constant slobbering over her hand I advise you to beware Mr Slope of what you do and say Clergymen have been unfrocked for less than what you have been guilty of
My lord if this goes on I shall be obliged to indict this woman—
Mrs Proudie I mean—for defamation of character
I think Mr Slope you had better now retire said the bishop I will enclose to you a cheque for any balance that may be due to you and under the present circumstances it will of course be better for all parties that you should leave the palace at the earliest possible moment
If however you wish to remain in this neighbourhood said Mrs Proudie and will solemnly pledge yourself never again to see that woman and will promise also to be more circumspect in your conduct the bishop will mention your name to Mr Quiverful who now wants a curate at Puddingdale The house is I imagine quite sufficient for your requirements and there will moreover by a stipend of fifty pounds a year
May God forgive you madam for the manner in which you have treated me said Mr Slope looking at her with a very heavenly look and remember this madam that you yourself may still have a fall and he looked at her with a very worldly look As to the bishop I pity him And so saying Mr Slope left the room Thus ended the intimacy of the Bishop of Barchester with his confidential chaplain
Mrs Proudie was right in this namely that Mr Slope was not insane enough to publish to the world any of his doings in Barchester He did not trouble his friend Mr Towers with any written statement of the iniquity of Mrs Proudie or the imbecility of her husband He was aware that it would be wise in him to drop for the future all allusions to his doings in the cathedral city Soon after the interview just recorded he left Barchester shaking the dust off his feet as he entered the railway carriage and he gave no longing lingering look after the cathedral towers as the train hurried him quickly out of their sight
It is well known that the family of the Slopes never starve they always fall on their feet like cats and let them fall where they will they live on the fat of the land Our Mr Slope did so On his return to town he found that the sugarrefiner had died and that the widow was inconsolable or, in other words, in want of consolation Mr Slope consoled her and soon found himself settled with much comfort in the house in Baker Street He possessed himself also before long of a church in the vicinity of the New Road and become known to fame as one of the most eloquent preachers and pious clergymen in that part of the metropolis There let us leave him
Of the bishop and his wife very little further need be said From that time forth nothing material occurred to interrupt the even course of their domestic harmony Very speedily a further vacancy on the bench of bishops gave Dr Proudie the seat in the House of Lords which he at first so anxiously longed for But by this time he had become a wiser man He did certainly take his seat and occasionally registered a vote in favour of Government view on ecclesiastical matters
But he had thoroughly learnt that his proper sphere of action lay in close contiguity with Mrs Proudies wardrobe He never again aspired to disobey or seemed even to wish for autocratic diocesan authority If ever he thought of freedom he did so as men think of the millennium as of a good time which may be coming but which nobody expects to come in their day Mrs Proudie might be said still to bloom and was at any rate strong and the bishop had no reason to apprehend that he would be speedily visited with the sorrows of a widowers life
He is still bishop of Barchester He has so graced that throne that the Government has been adverse to translate him even to higher duties There may he remain under safe pupilage till the newfangled manners of the age have discovered him to be superannuated and bestowed on him a pension As for Mrs Proudie our prayers for her are that she may live for ever
CHAPTER LII
THE NEW DEAN TAKES POSSESSION OF THE DEANERY AND THE NEW WARDEN OF THE HOSPITAL
Mr Harding and the archdeacon together made their way to Oxford and there by dint of cunning argument they induced the Master of Lazarus also to ask himself this momentous question Why should not Mr Arabin be Dean of Barchester He of course for a while tried his hand at persuading Mr Harding that he was foolish overscrupulous selfwilled and weakminded but he tried in vain If Mr Harding would not give way to Dr Grantly it was not likely that he would give way to Dr Gwynne more especially now that so admirable a scheme as that of inducting Mr Arabin into the deanery had been set on foot When the master found that his eloquence was vain and heard also that Mr Arabin was about to become Mr Hardings soninlaw he confessed that he also would under such circumstances be glad to see his old friend and protege the fellow of his college placed in the comfortable position that was going abegging
It might be the means you know Master of keeping Mr Slope out said the archdeacon with grave caution
He has no more chance of it said the master that our college chaplain I know about it than that
Mrs Grantly had been right in her surmise It was the Master of Lazarus who had been instrumental in representing in high places the claims of Mr Harding had from the Government and he now consented to use his best endeavours towards getting the offer transferred to Mr Arabin The three of them went on to London together and there they remained a week to the great disgust of Mrs Grantly and most probably also of Mrs Gwynne The minister was out of town in one direction and his private secretary in another The clerks who remained could do nothing in such a matter as this and all was difficulty and confusion The two doctors seemed to have plenty to do they bustled here and they bustled there and complained at their club in the evenings that they had been driven off their legs but Mr Harding had no occupation Once or twice he suggested that he might perhaps return to Barchester His request however was peremptorily refused and had nothing for it but to while away his time in Westminster Abbey
At length an answer from the great man came The Master of Lazarus had made his proposition through the Bishop of Belgravia Now the bishop tough but newly gifted with his diocesan honours was a man of much weight in the clericopolitical world He was if not as pious at any rate as wise as St Paul and had been with so much effect all things to all men that though he was great among the dons of Oxford he had been selected for the most favourite seat on the bench by a Whig Prime Minister To him Dr Gwynne had made known his wishes and his arguments and the bishop had made them known to the Marquis of Kensington Gore The marquis who was Lord High Steward of the Pantry Board and who by most men was supposed to hold the highest office out of the cabinet trafficked much in affairs of this kind He not only suggested the arrangement to the minister over a cup of coffee standing on a drawingroom rug in Windsor Castle but he also favourably mentioned Mr Arabins name in the ear of a distinguished person
And so the matter was arranged The answer of the great man came and Mr Arabin was made Dean of Barchester The three clergymen who had come up to town on this important mission dined together with great glee on the day on which the news reached them In a silent manner they toasted Mr Arabin with full bumpers of claret The satisfaction of all of them was supreme The Master of Lazarus had been successful in his attempt and success is dear to us all The archdeacon had trampled upon Mr Slope and had lifted to high honours the young clergyman whom he had induced to quit the retirement and comfort of the university So at least the archdeacon thought though to speak sooth not he but circumstances had trampled on Mr Slope But the satisfaction of Mr Harding was of all perhaps the most complete He laid aside his usual melancholy manner and brought forth little quiet jokes from the utmost mirth of his heart he poked fun at the archdeacon about Mr Slopes marriage and quizzed him for his improper love for Mrs Proudie On the following day they all returned to Barchester
It was arranged that Mr Arabin should know nothing of what had been done till he received the ministers letter from the hands of his embryo fatherinlaw In order that no time be lost a message had been sent to him by the preceding nights post begging him to be at the deanery at the hour that the train from London arrived There was nothing in this which surprised Mr Arabin It had somehow got about through all bah that Mr Harding was the new dean and all Barchester was prepared to welcome him with pealing bells and full hearts Mr Slope had certainly had a party there had certainly been those in Barchester who were prepared to congratulate him on his promotion with assumed sincerity but even his own party were not brokenhearted by his failure The inhabitants of the city even the highsouled ecstatic young ladies of thirtyfive had begun to comprehend that their welfare and the welfare of the place was connected in some mysterious manner with the daily chants of the biweekly anthems The expenditure of the palace had not added greatly to the popularity of the bishops side of the question and on the whole there was a strong reaction When it became known to all the world that Mr Harding was to be the new dean all the world rejoiced heartily
Mr Arabin as we have said was not surprised at the summons which called him to the deanery He had not as yet seen Mr Harding since Eleanor had accepted him nor had he seen him since he had learnt of his future fatherinlaws preferment There was nothing more natural more necessary than that they should meet each other at the earliest possible moment
Mr Arabin was waiting at the deanery parlour when Mr Harding and Dr
Grantly were driven up from the station
There was some excitement in the bosoms of them all as they met and shook hands but far too much to enable either of them to begin his story and tell it in a proper equable style of narrative Mr Harding was some minutes quite dumbfounded and Mr Arabin could only talk in short spasmodic sentences about his love and good fortune He slipped in as best he could some sort of congratulation about the deanship and then went on with his hopes and fears—hopes that he might be received as a son and fears that he hardly deserved such good fortune Then he went back to the dean it was the most thoroughly satisfactory appointment he said of which he had ever heard
But But But— said Mr Harding and then failing to get any further he looked imploringly at the archdeacon
The truth is Arabin said the doctor that after all you are not destined to be the soninlaw to a dean Nor am I either mores the pity
Mr Arabin looked to him for explanation Is not Mr Harding to be the new dean
It appears not said the archdeacon Mr Arabins face fell a little and he looked from one to the other It was plainly to be seen from them both that there was no cause for unhappiness in the matter at least not of an unhappiness to them but there was as yet no clarification of the mystery
Think how old I am said Mr Harding imploringly
Fiddlestick said the archdeacon
Thats all very well but it wont make a young man of me said
Mr Harding
And who is to be the dean asked Mr Arabin
Yes that is the question said the archdeacon Come Mr Precentor since you obstinately refuse to be anything else let us know who is to be the man He has got the nomination in his pocket
With eyes brim full of tears Mr Harding pulled out the letter and handed it to his future soninlaw He tried to make a little speech but failed altogether Having given up the document he turned round to the wall feigning to blow his nose and then sat himself down on the old deans dingy horsehair sofa And here we find it necessary to bring our account of the interview to an end
Nor can we pretend to describe the rapture with which Mr Harding was received by his daughter She wept with grief and with joy with grief that her father should in his old age still be without that rank and worldly position which according to her ideas he had so well earned and with joy that he her darling father should have bestowed on that other dear one the good things of which he himself would not open his hand to take possession And her Mr Harding again showed his weakness In the melee of the exposal of their loves and reciprocal affection he found himself unable to resist the entreaties of all parties that his lodgings in the High Street should be given up Eleanor would not live in the deanery she said unless her father lived there also Mr Arabin would not be dean unless Mr Harding would be codean with him The archdeacon declared that his fatherinlaw should not have his own way in everything and Mrs Grantly carried him off to Plumstead that he might remain there till Mr and Mrs Arabin were in a state to receive him at their own mansion
Pressed by such arguments as these what could a weak man do but yield
But there was yet another task which it behoved Mr Harding to do before he could allow himself to be at rest Little has been said in these pages of the state of those remaining old men who had lived under his sway at the hospital But not on this account must it be presumed that he had forgotten them or that in their state of anarchy and in their want of government he had omitted to visit them He visited them constantly and had latterly given them to understand that they would soon be required to subscribe their adherence to a new master There were now but five of them one of them not having been but quite lately carried to his rest—but five of the full number which had hitherto been twelve and which was now to be raised to twentyfour including women Of these old Bunce who for many years had been the favourite of the late warden was one and Abel Handy who had been the humble means from driving that warden from his home was another
Mr Harding now resolved that he himself would introduce the new warden to the hospital He felt that many circumstances might conspire to make the men receive Mr Quiverful with aversion and disrespect he felt also that Mr Quiverful might himself feel some qualms of conscience if he entered the hospital with an idea that he did so in hostility to his predecessor Mr Harding therefore determined to walk in arm in arm with Mr Quiverful and to ask from these men their respectful obedience to their new master
On returning to Barchester he found that Mr Quiverful had not yet slept in the hospital house or entered on his new duties He accordingly made known to that gentleman his wishes and his proposition was not rejected
It was a bright clear morning though in November that Mr Harding and Mr Quiverful arm in arm walked through the hospital gate It was one trait in our old friends character that he did nothing with parade He omitted even in the more important doings of his life that sort of parade by which most of us deem it necessary to grace our important doings We have housewarmings christenings and gala days we keep if not our own birthdays those of our children we are apt to fuss ourselves if called upon to change our residences and have almost all of us our little state occasions Mr Harding had no state occasions When he left his old house he went forth from it with the same quiet composure as though he were merely taking his daily walk and now that he reentered it with another warden under his wing he did so with the same quiet step and calm demeanour He was a little less upright than he had been five years nay it was nearly six years ago he walked perhaps a little slower his footfall was perhaps a thought less firm otherwise one might have same that he was merely returning with a friend under his arm
This friendliness was everything to Mr Quiverful To him even in his poverty the thought that he was supplanting a brother clergyman so kind and courteous as Mr Harding had been very bitter Under his circumstances it had been impossible for him to refuse the proffered boon he could not reject the bread that was offered to his children or refuse to ease the heavy burden that had so long oppressed that poor wife of his nevertheless it had been very grievous to him to think that in going to the hospital he might encounter the ill will of his brethren in the diocese All this Mr Harding had fully comprehended It was for such feelings as these for the nice comprehension of such motives that his heart and intellect were peculiarly fitted In most matters of worldly import the archdeacon set down his fatherinlaw as little better than a fool And perhaps he was right But in some other matters equally important if they be rightly judged Mr Harding had he been so minded might with as much propriety have set down his soninlaw for a fool Few men however are constituted as was Mr Harding He had that nice appreciation of the feelings of others which belongs of right exclusively to women
Arm in arm they walked into the inner quadrangle of the building and there the five old men met them Mr Harding shook hands with them all and then Mr Quiverful did the same With Bunce Mr Harding shook hands twice and Mr Quiverful was about to repeat the ceremony but the old man gave him no encouragement
I am very glad to know that at last you have a new warden said
Mr Harding in a very cheery voice
We be very old for any change said one of them but we do suppose it be all for the best
Certainly—certainly it is for the best said Mr Harding You will again have a clergyman of your own church under the same roof with you and a very excellent clergyman you will have It is a great satisfaction to me to know that so good a man is coming to take care of you and that it is no stranger but a friend of my own who will allow me from time to time to come in and see you
We be thankful to your reverence said another of them
I need not tell you my good friends said Mr Quiverful how extremely grateful I am to Mr Harding for his kindness to me—I must say his uncalled for his unexpected kindness
He be always very kind said a third
What I can do to fill the void which he left here I will do For your sake and my own I will do so and especially for his sake But to you who have known him I can never be the same wellloved friend and father that he has been
No no sir said old Bunce who hitherto had held his peace no one can be that Not if the new bishop sent a hangel to us from heaven We doesnt doubt youll do your best sir but youll not be like the old master not to us old ones
Fie Bunce fie how dare you talk in that way said Mr Harding but as he scolded the old man he still held him by his arm and pressed it with warm affection
There was no getting any enthusiasm in the matter How could five old men tottering away to their final restingplace be enthusiastic on the reception of a stranger What could Mr Quiverful be to them or they to Mr Quiverful Had Mr Harding indeed come back to them some last flicker of joyous light might have shone forth on their aged cheeks but it was in vain to bid them rejoice because Mr Quiverful was about to move his fourteen children from Puddingdale into the hospital house In reality they did no doubt receive advantage spiritual as well as corporal but this they could neither anticipate nor acknowledge
It was a dull affair enough this introduction of Mr Quiverful but still it had its effect The good which Mr Harding intended did not fall to the ground All the Barchester world including the five old bedesmen treated Mr Quiverful with the more respect because Mr Harding had thus walked in arm in arm with him on his first entrance to his duties
And here in their new abode we will leave Mr and Mrs Quiverful and their fourteen children May they enjoy the good things which Providence has at length given to them
CHAPTER LIII
CONCLUSION
The end of a novel like the end of a childrens dinnerparty must be made up of sweetmeats and sugarplums There is now nothing else to be told but the gala doings of Mr Arabins marriage nothing more to be described than the wedding dresses no further dialogue to be recorded than that which took place between the archdeacon who married them and Mr Arabin and Eleanor who were married Wilt thou have this woman to thy wedded wife and Wilt thou have this man to thy wedded husband to live together according to Gods ordinance Mr Arabin and Eleanor each answered I will We have no doubt that they will keep their promises the more especially as the Signora Neroni had left Barchester before the ceremony was performed
Mrs Bold had been somewhat more than two years a widow before she was married to her second husband and little Johnnie was then able with due assistance to walk on his own legs into the drawingroom to receive the salutations of the assembled guests Mr Harding gave away the bride the archdeacon performed the service and the two Miss Grantlys who were joined in their labours by other young ladies of the neighbourhood performed the duties of bridesmaids with equal diligence and grace Mrs Grantly superintended the breakfast and bouquets and Mary Bold distributed the cards and cake The archdeacons three sons had also come home for the occasion The eldest was great with learning being regarded by all who knew him as a certain future double first The second however bore the palm on this occasion being resplendent in his new uniform The third was just entering the university and was probably the proudest of the three
But the most remarkable feature in the whole occasion was the excessive liberality of the archdeacon He literally made presents to everybody As Mr Arabin had already moved out of the parsonage of St Ewolds that scheme of elongating the diningroom was of course abandoned but he would have refurnished the whole deanery had he been allowed He sent down a magnificent piano by Erard gave Mr Arabin a cob which any dean in the land might have been proud to bestride and made a special present to Eleanor of a new pony chair that had gained a prize in the Exhibition Nor did he even stay his hand here he bought a set of cameos for his wife and a sapphire bracelet for Miss Bold showered pearls and workboxes on is daughters and to each of his sons he presented a cheque for 20 pounds On Mr Harding he bestowed a magnificent violoncello with all the newfashioned arrangements and expensive additions which on account of these novelties that gentleman could never use with satisfaction to his audience or pleasure to himself
Those who knew the archdeacon well perfectly understood the cause of his extravagance Twas thus that he sang his song of triumph over Mr Slope This was his paean his hymn of thanksgiving his loud oration He had girded himself with his sword and gone forth to the war now he was returning from the field laden with the spoils of the foe The cob the cameos the violoncello and the pianoforte were all as it were trophies reft from the tent of his now conquered enemy
The Arabins after their marriage went abroad for a couple of months according the custom in such matters now duly established and then commenced their deanery life under good auspices And nothing can be more pleasant than the present arrangement of ecclesiastical affairs in Barchester The titular bishop never interfered and Mrs Proudie not often Her sphere is more extended more noble and more suited to her ambition than that of a cathedral city As long as she can do what she pleases with the diocese she is willing to leave the dean and chapter to themselves Mr Slope tried his hand at subverting the oldestablished customs of the close and from his failure she has learnt experience The burly chancellor and the meagre little prebendary are not teased by any application respecting Sabbathday schools the dean is left to his own dominions and the intercourse between Mrs Proudie and Mrs Arabin is confined to a yearly dinner by each to the other At these dinners Dr Grantly will not take a part but he never fails to ask for and receive a full account of all that Mrs Proudie does or says
His ecclesiastical authority has been greatly shorn since the palmy days in which he reigned supreme as mayor of the palace to his father but nevertheless such authority as is now left to him he can enjoy without interference He can walk down High Street of Barchester without feeling that those who see him are comparing his claims with those of Mr Slope The intercourse between Plumstead and the deanery is of the most constant and familiar description Since Eleanor has been married to a clergyman and especially to a dignitary of the church Mrs Grantly has found many more points of sympathy with her sister and on a coming occasion which is much looked forward to by all parties she intends to spend a month or two at the deanery She never thought of spending a month in Barchester when little Johnny Bold was born
The two sisters do not quite agree on matters of church doctrine though their differences are of the most amicable description Mr Arabins church is two degrees higher than that of Mrs Grantly This may seem strange to those who will remember that Eleanor was once accused of partiality to Mr Slope but it is no less the fact She likes her husbands silken vest she likes his adherence to the rubric she specially likes the eloquent philosophy of his sermons and she likes the red letters in her own prayerbook It must not be presumed that she has a taste for candles or that she is at all astray about the real presence but she has an inkling that way She sent a handsome subscription towards certain very heavy legal expenses which have lately been incurred in Bath her name of course not appearing she assumes a smile of gentle ridicule when the Archbishop of Canterbury is named and she has put up a memorial window in the cathedral
Mrs Grantly who belongs to the high and dry church the high church as it was some fifty years since before tracts were written and young clergymen took upon themselves the highly meritorious duty of cleaning churches rather laughs at her sister She shrugs her shoulders and tells Miss Thorne that she supposes Eleanor will have an oratory in the deanery before she has done But she is not on that account a whit displeased A few high church vagaries do not she thinks sit amiss on the shoulders of a young deans wife It shows at any rate that her heart is in the subject and it shows moreover that she is removed wide as the poles asunder from the cesspool of abomination in which it was once suspected that she would wallow and grovel Anathema maranatha Let anything be held as blessed so that that be well cursed Welcome kneelings and bowings welcome matins and complines welcome bell book and candle so that Mr Slopes dirty surplices and ceremonial Sabbaths be held in due execration
If it be essentially and absolutely necessary to choose between the two we are inclined to agree with Mrs Grantly that the bell book and candle are the lesser evil of the two Let it however be understood that no such necessity is admitted in these pages
Dr Arabin we suppose he must have become a doctor when he became a dean is more moderate and less outspoken on doctrinal points than his wife as indeed in his station it behoves him to be He is a studious thoughtful hardworking man He lives constantly at the deanery and preaches nearly every Sunday His time is spent in sifting and editing old ecclesiastical literature and in producing the same articles new At Oxford he is generally regarded as the most promising clerical ornament of the age He and his wife live together in perfect mutual confidence There is but one secret in her bosom which he has not shared He has never yet learned how Mr Slope had his ears boxed
The Stanhopes soon found that Mr Slopes power need no longer operate to keep them from the delight of their Italian villa Before Eleanors marriage they had all migrated back to the shores of Como They had not been resettled long before the signora received from Mrs Arabin a very pretty though very short epistle in which she was informed of the fate of the writer This letter was answered by another bright charming and witty as the signoras always were and so ended the friendship between Eleanor and the Stanhopes
One word of Mr Harding and we have done
He is still Precentor of Barchester and still pastor of the little church of St Cuthberts In spite of what he has so often said himself he is not even yet an old man He does such duties as fall to his lot well and conscientiously and is thankful that he has never been tempted to assume others for which he might be less fitted
The Author now leaves him in the hands of his readers not as a hero not as a man to be admired and talked of not as a man who should be toasted at public dinners and spoken of with conventional absurdity as a perfect divine but as a good man without guile believing humbly in the religion which he strives to teach and guided by the precepts which he has striven to learn
THE END