Tales and Novels Volume X Part 14

"A cheap provision it is for a family in many cases," said Lord Davenant. "Wife, son, and daughter, Satan, are thy own."

"Not in this case," cried Beauclerc; "you cannot mean I hope."

"I can answer for one, the daughter at least," said Lady Davenant; "that Mad. de St. Cimon, whom we saw abroad, at Florence, you know, Cecilia, with whom I would not let you form an acquaintance."

"Your ladys.h.i.+p was quite right," said the general.

Beauclerc could not say, "Quite wrong,"--and he looked--suffering.

"I know nothing of the son," pursued Lady Davenant.

"I do," said Beauclerc, "he is my friend."

"I thought he had been a very distressed man, that young Beltravers,"

said the aid-de-camp.

"And if he were, that would not prevent my being his friend, sir," said Beauclerc.

"Of course," said the aid-de-camp, "I only asked."

"He is a man of genius and feeling," continued Beauclerc, turning to Lady Davenant.

"But I never heard you mention Lord Beltravers before. How long has he been your friend?" said Lady Davenant.

Beauclerc hesitated. The general without hesitation answered, "Three weeks and one day."

"I do not count my friends.h.i.+p by days or weeks," said Beauclerc.

"No, my dear Beauclerc," said the general: "well would it be for you if you would condescend to any such common-sense measure." He rose from the breakfast-table as he spoke, and rang the bell to order the horses.

"You are prejudiced against Beltravers, general; but you will think better of him, I am sure, when you know him."

"You will think worse of him when you know him, I suspect," replied the general.

"Suspect! But since you only _suspect_," said Beauclerc, "we English do not condemn on suspicion, unheard, unseen."

"Not unheard," said the general, "I have heard enough of him."

"From the reports of his enemies," said Beauclerc.

"I do not usually form my judgment," replied the general, "from reports either of friends or enemies; I have not the honour of knowing any of Lord Beltravers' enemies."

"Enemies of Lord Beltravers!" exclaimed Lady Davenant. "What right as he to enemies as if he were a great man?--a person of whom n.o.body ever heard, setting up to have enemies! But now-a-days, these candidates for fame, these would-be celebrated, set up their enemies as they would their equipages, on credit--then, by an easy process of logic, make out the syllogism thus:--Every great man has enemies, therefore, every man who has enemies must be great--hey, Beauclerc?"

Beauclerc vouchsafed only a faint, absent smile, and, turning to his guardian, asked--"Since Lord Beltravers was not to be allowed the honours of enemies, or the benefit of pleading prejudice, on what _did_ the general form his judgment?"

"From his own words."

"Stay judgment, my dear general," cried Beauclerc; "words repeated! by whom?"

"Repeated by no one--heard from himself, by myself."

"Yourself! I was not aware you had ever met;--when? where?" Beauclerc started forward on his chair, and listened eagerly for the answer.

"Pity!" said Lady Davenant, speaking to herself,--"pity! that 'with such quick affections kindling into flame,' they should burn to waste."

"When, where?" repeated Beauclerc, with his eyes fixed on his guardian, and his soul in his eyes.

Soberly and slowly his guardian answered, and categorically,--"When did I meet Lord Beltravers? A short time before his father's death.--Where?

At Lady Grace Bland's."

"At Lady Grace Bland's!--where he could not possibly appear to advantage! Well, go on, sir."

"One moment--pardon me, Beauclerc; I have curiosity as well as yourself.

May I ask why Lord Beltravers could not possibly have appeared to advantage at Lady Grace Bland's?"

"Because I know he cannot endure her; I have heard him, speaking of her, quote what Johnson or somebody says of Clariss--'a prating, preaching, frail creature.'"

"Good!" said the general, "he said this of his own aunt!"

"Aunt! You cannot mean that Lady Grace is his aunt?" cried Beauclerc.

"She is his mother's sister," replied the general, "and therefore is, I conceive, his aunt."

"Be it so," cried Beauclerc; "people must tell the truth sometimes, even of their own relations; they must know it best, and therefore I conclude that what Beltravers said of Lady Grace is true."

"Bravo! well jumped to a conclusion, Granville, as usual," said Lady Davenant, "But go on, general, tell us what you have heard from this precious lord; can you have better than what Beauclerc, his own witness, gives in evidence?"

"Better I think, and in the same line," said the general: "his lords.h.i.+p has the merit of consistency. At table, servants of course present, and myself a stranger, I heard Lord Beltravers begin by cursing England and all that inhabit it. 'But your country!' remonstrated his aunt. He abjured England; he had no country, he said, no liberal man ever has; he had no relations--what nature gave him without his consent he had a right to disclaim, I think he argued. But I can swear to these words, with which he concluded--'My father is an idiot, my mother a brute, and my sister may go to the devil her own way.'"

"Such bad taste!" said the aid-de-camp.

Lady Davenant smiled at the unspeakable astonishment in Helen's face.

"When you have lived one season in the world, my dear child, this power of surprise will be worn out."

"But even to those who have seen the world," said the aide-de-camp, who had seen the world, "as it strikes me, really it is such extraordinary bad taste!"

"Such ordinary bad taste! as it strikes me," said Lady Davenant; "base imitation, and imitation is always a confession of poverty, a want of original genius. But then there are degrees among the race of imitators.

Some choose their originals well, some come near them tolerably; but here, all seems equally bad, clumsy, Birmingham counterfeit; don't you think so, Beauclerc? a counterfeit that falls and makes no noise. There is the worst of it for your protege, whose great ambition I am sure it is to make a noise in the world. However, I may spare my remonstrances, for I am quite aware that you would never let drop a friend."

"Never, never!" cried Beauclerc.

"Then, my dear Granville, do not take up this man, this Lord Beltravers, for, depend upon it, he will never do. If he had made a bold stroke for a reputation, like a great original, and sported some deed without a name, to work upon the wonder-loving imagination of the credulous English public, one might have thought something of him. But this cowardly, negative sin, _not_ honouring his father and mother! so commonplace, too, neutral tint--no effect. Quite a failure, one cannot even stare, and you know, Granville, the object of all these strange speeches is merely to make fools stare. To be the wonder of the London world for a single day, is the great ambition of these ephemeral fame-hunters 'insects that s.h.i.+ne, buzz, and fly-blow in the setting sun.'"

Beauclerc pushed away his tea-cup half across the table, exclaiming, "How unjust! to cla.s.s him among a tribe he detests and despises as much as you can, Lady Davenant. And all for that one unfortunate speech--Not quite fair, general, not quite philosophical, Lady Davenant, to decide on a man's character from the specimen of a single speech: this is like judging of a house from the sample of a single brick. All this time I know how Beltravers came to make that speech--I know how it was, as well as if I had been present--better!"

"Better!" cried Lady Cecilia.

"Ladies and gentlemen may laugh," resumed Beauclerc, "but I seriously maintain--better!"