Part 54 (1/2)

This short epistle, written in a bold but well-formed handwriting, and sealed with the initials of the writer, M'Kinlay forwarded by the night-mail to Miss Courtenay, and in due course received the following three lines:

”Dear Sir,--It will not be necessary in future to impose any further trouble on you in this matter. Sir Within Wardle, the young lady, and yourself, are all admirable representatives of the orders you severally pertain to.

”And I am, your faithful servant,

”Georgina Courtenay.”

CHAPTER x.x.xIII. SIR WITHIN AND HIS WARD

How time has slipped over since we were last here, in the midst of the Welsh mountains! It is more than a year, but still wonderfully little has gone on in that interval. The larch-trees at Dalradern have added some palms to their stature, but the venerable oaks and elms disdain to show by change the influence of so brief a period, and, in the same way, it is in Kate alone--that plant of rapid growth--that we have much alteration to mark.

What a change has been wrought in her! It is not merely that she has grown into a tall and graceful girl, but that one by one the little traits of her peasant origin have faded away, and she looks, and seems, and carries herself with all the air of a high-born beauty. In her lofty brow, her calm features, her manner, in which a quiet dignity blends with a girlish grace, and, above all, in her voice singularly sweet-toned as it was, might be read every sign of that station men distinctively call the ”best.”

Masters and professors of every kind had surrounded her, but she had a sort of indolent activity in her disposition, which tended little to the work of learning, while her quickness enabled her to pick up smatterings of many things. But, as she said herself, Sir Within was her best teacher. The old minister's tact, his social readiness, his instinctive seizure of the nice points of every situation,--these were the gifts that had a special attraction for her; and while she was envying him the charm of a manner that could captivate all, from the highest to the humblest, she had actually acquired the gift and made it her own.

To recognise in her the traits on which he most prided himself, to see in that lovely girl his pupil in the arts of society, to mark in her a copyist of himself in the little tricks of manner and effect, was the greatest of all flatteries; and he never wearied of watching her repeating himself before him in a form so captivating and so graceful.

Although he had lost--and it was a loss he deplored--the friendly intercourse with the Vyners, and although the neighbourhood more strictly than ever quarantined him now, no representations nor remonstrances could prevail upon him to send Kate to a school, or to place her under other protection than his own. Innumerable were the governesses who had come down to take charge of her; none, however, remained long. Some alleged it was the solitude that oppressed them; others averred that their pupil would submit to no discipline but such as she liked, and that not alone the studies she would pursue, but even the hours she would devote to them, should be at her own choosing.

And one or two took higher ground, and declared that the establishment which contained an old bachelor and a very beautiful ward, was not in a position to confront the criticisms of the world.

To such as have not known, or met with the cla.s.s Sir Within pertained to, it will perhaps seem incredible that the old rake actually felt flattered by this attack on his reputation. All that he had ever known of life was pa.s.sed amongst people of admirable manners and very lax morals. They were the best bred, the best informed, the best dressed, and the pleasantest in the universe. Nowhere was life so easy and agreeable as in their company; every one was kind, considerate, and obliging; not a hard word was ever dropped. Who could be uncharitable where all was tolerated? Who could be severe where everything was pardoned?

It was by a very easy induction that he was led to believe that a certain laxity on the score of morals was an essential element of good breeding, and that nothing was so low in tone as that ”eternal scrutiny,” as he called it, into one's neighbours' habits, which would make of a gentleman very little other than a detective.

When he heard, therefore, that a certain Mademoiselle La Grange had taken her departure on these exceptional grounds, he actually chuckled with delighted vanity.

”So 'Ma Mie'”--this was his pet name for Kate--”they tell me that Mademoiselle has gone off this morning,” said he, ”no longer able to tolerate a house where there is no mistress.”

”The note she left behind her went fully into the matter,” said Kate.

”It was not alone that you were unmarried, but that you were a very well-known monster of vice.”

”Vrai! vrai!” cried he, with ecstasy; ”monstre epouvantable!”

”And, to confirm it, she added, that no one came here; that the neighbours avoided the house, as the abode of a plague; and even sight-seers would not gratify the craving of their curiosity at the cost of their propriety.”

”Did she say all that?”

”Yes; she said it very neatly, too; as prettily and as tersely as such impertinence can be put in nice French.”

”And this is the ninth departure, is it not, Ma Mie, on these high grounds of morality?”

”No, Sir; only the fifth. Two alleged loneliness, one accused the damp, and one protested against _my_ temper!”

”What had you done, then?”

”Everything that was cross and ill natured. It was the unlucky week that Cid Hamet staked himself.”

”I remember; there were two days you would not come down to dinner on pretence of headache, and you told me afterwards it was all ill humour.”