Heartsease; Or, The Brother's Wife Part 60

Theodora's face was such that Violet ventured to kiss her, then found an arm round her neck, and a warm kiss in return. Theodora ran down-stairs, thinking it a discovery that there was more beauty in those eyes than merely soft brown colour and long black lashes. It was a long time since her heart had been so light. It was as if a cold hard weight was removed. That one softening had been an inexpressible relief, and when she had thrown aside the black veil that had shrouded her view, everything looked so bright and sweet that she could hardly understand it.

The whole scene was new. She had been seldom from home, and only as a visitor in great houses, whither Lady Martindale carried formality; and she had never known the charm of ease in a small family. Here it would have been far more hard to support her cold solitary dignity than in the 'high baronial pride' of Martindale. She was pleased to see how well Arthur looked as master of the house, and both he and his wife were so much delighted to make her welcome now that she would allow them, that it seemed extraordinary that a year and three quarters had pa.s.sed without her ever having entered their house. Violet was, she owned, a caressing, amiable, lovable creature, needing to be guarded and petted, and she laid herself open to the pleasure of having something to make much of and patronize.

After breakfast, Violet installed her in the back drawing-room, promising that she should there be entirely free from interruption, but she had no desire to shut herself up; she was eager to see little Johnnie, and did not scruple to confess it. He was their chief bond of union, and if she was charmed with him now, when feeble and ailing, how much more as he recovered. Even at his best, he was extremely delicate, very small, thin, and fair, so that face and arms, as well as flaxen hair, were all as white as his frock, and were only enlivened by his dark eyes. He was backward in strength, but almost too forward in intelligence; grave and serious, seldom laughing, and often inclined to be fretful, altogether requiring the most anxious care, but exceedingly engaging and affectionate, and already showing patience and obedience to his mother that was almost affecting. Their mutual fondness was beautiful, and Theodora honoured it when she saw that the tenderness was judicious, obviating whines, but enforcing obedience even when it was pain and grief to cross the weakly child.

Moreover, Theodora was satisfied by finding that she had diligently kept up the Sunday-school teaching of the little Brogden maid; and as to her household management, Theodora set herself to learn it; and soon began to theorize and devise grand plans of economy, which she wanted Violet to put in practice at once, and when told they would not suit Arthur, complacently answered, 'That would not be her hindrance.'

Violet wrote to John that if he could see Theodora and Percy now, he would be completely satisfied as to their attachment and chances of happiness.

CHAPTER 12

I saw her hold Earl Percy at the point With l.u.s.tier maintenance than I did look for Of such an ungrown warrior.

--King Henry IV

As soon as Violet could leave her little boy without anxiety, the two sisters deposited Charles Layton at the Deaf and Dumb Asylum, with hopes that a few years' training there would enable him to become Miss Martindale's little page, the grand object of his desires.

Their next and merriest excursion was to Percy's lodgings, where he had various Greek curiosities which he wished to show them; and Theodora consented to come with her brother and sister in a simple straightforward way that Violet admired.

His rooms were over a toy-shop in Piccadilly, in such a roar of sounds that the ladies exclaimed, and Arthur asked him how much he paid for noise.

'It is worth having,' said Percy; 'it is cheerful.'

'Do you think so?' exclaimed Violet. 'I think carriages, especially late at night, make a most dismal dreary sound.'

'They remind me of an essay of Miss Talbot's where she speaks of her companions hastening home from the feast of empty sh.e.l.ls,' said Theodora.

'Ay! those are your West-end carriages,' said Percy; 'I will allow them a dreary dissatisfied sound. Now mine are honest, business-like market-waggons, or hearty tradesfolk coming home in cabs from treating their children to the play. There is sense in those! I go to sleep thinking what drops of various natures make up the roar of that great human cataract, and wake up dreaming of the Rhine falls.

"Bright volumes of vapour through Lothbury glide, And a river flows down the vale of Cheapside."

Eh, Mrs. Martindale?'

Violet, who always received a quotation of Wordsworth as a compliment to the north, smiled and answered, 'I am afraid with me it would end in,

"The stream will not flow, the hill will not rise."'

'Pish, Violet,' said her husband, 'how can you expect to feel like poets and lovers? And halloo! he is coming it strong! "Poems by A."; "The White Hind and other Poems"; "Gwyneth: a tale in verse"; "Farewell to Pausilippo", by the Earl of St. Erme. Well done, Percy! Are you collecting original serenades for Theodora? I'll never betray where they came from.'

'It is all in the way of trade,' said Percy.

'Reviewing?' said Theodora.

'Yes; there has been such an absurd amount of flattery bestowed on them that it must provoke any reasonable being. It really is time to put forth a little common sense, since the magazines will have it that earls write better than other people.'

'Some of the verses in Lord St. Erme's last volume seem to me very pretty,' said Violet.

'There, she is taking up the cudgels for her countryman,' said Arthur, always pleased when she put herself forward.

'Which do you mean?' said Percy, turning on her incredulously.

'I like those about the Bay of Naples,' she answered.

'You do not mean these?' and he read them in so good-humoured a tone that no one could be vexed, but marking every inconsistent simile and word tortured out of its meaning, and throwing in notes and comments on the unfaithfulness of the description.

'There! it would do as well for the Bay of Naples as for the farm-yard at Martindale--all water and smoke.'

Arthur and Theodora laughed, but Violet stood her ground, blus.h.i.+ngly but resolutely.

'Anything so read would sound ill,' she said. 'I dare say it is all right about the faults, but some parts seem to me very pretty. This stanza, about the fishermen's boats at night, like sparks upon the water, is one I like, because it is what John once described to me.'

'You are right, Mrs. Martindale,' said Percy, reading a second time the lines to which she alluded. 'They do recall the evening scene; Mount Vesuvius and its brooding cloud, and the trails of phosphoric light upon the sea. I mark these for approval. But have you anything to say for this Address to the Mediterranean?'

He did not this time mar the poem in the reading, and it was not needed, the compound words and twisted epithets were so extravagant that no one gainsaid Arthur's sentence, 'Stilts and bladders!'

'And all that abuse of the savage north is unpardonable,' said Theodora.

'Sluggish torpid minds, indeed, frozen by skies bound in mist belts! If he would stay at home and mind his own business, he would not have time to talk such nonsense.'

'Now,' said the still undaunted Violet, when the torrent of unsparing jest had expended itself, 'now it is my turn. Let me show you one short piece. This--"To L."'

It was an address evidently to his orphan sister, very beautiful and simple; and speaking so touchingly of their loneliness together and dependence on each other, that Mr. Fotheringham was overcome, and fairly broke down in the reading--to the dismay of Violet, who had little thought his feelings so easily excited.

'Think of the man going and publis.h.i.+ng it,' said Theodora. 'If I was Lady Lucy, I should not care a rush for it now.'

'That is what you get by belonging to a poet,' said Arthur. 'He wears his heart outside.'

'This came straight from the heart, at least,' said Percy. 'It is good, very good. I am glad you showed it to me. It would never do not to be candid. I will turn him over again.'

'Well done, councillor,' cried Arthur. 'She has gained a verdict for him.'

'Modified the sentence, and given me some re-writing to do,' said Percy.

'I cannot let him off; the more good there is in him, the more it is inc.u.mbent on some one to slash him. Authors are like spaniels, et cetera.'

'Hear, hear, Theodora!' cried Arthur. 'See there, he has the stick ready, I declare.'

For in truth Arthur would hardly have been so patient of hearing so much poetry, if it had not been for the delight he always took in seeing his wife's opinion sought by a clever man, and he was glad to turn for amus.e.m.e.nt to Percy's curiosities. Over the mantel-piece there was a sort of trophy in imitation of the t.i.tle-page to Robinson Crusoe, a thick hooked stick set up saltire-wise with the green umbrella, and between them a yataghan, supporting a scarlet blue-ta.s.selled Greek cap. Percy took down the stick, and gave it into Theodora's hand, saying, 'It has been my companion over half Europe and Asia; I cut it at--'

'By the well of St. Keyne?' suggested the malicious brother.

'No, at the source of the Scamander,' said Percy. It served us in good stead when we got into the desert of Engaddi.'

'Oh! was that when the robbers broke into John's tent?' exclaimed Violet. 'Surely you had some better weapon?'

'Not I; the poor rogues were not worth wasting good powder on, and a good English drubbing was a much newer and more effective experiment.