Part 17 (1/2)
Have you also a headache?”
”I have been playing tennis all day; and I am quite tired out.”
Soon afterward, when Marian was in bed, and Miss McQuinch, according to a nightly custom of theirs, was seated on the coverlet with her knees doubled up to her chin inside her bedgown, they discussed the adventure very earnestly.
”Dont understand him at all, I confess,” said Elinor, when Marian had related what had pa.s.sed in the plantation. ”Wasnt it rather rash to make a confidant of him in such a delicate matter?”
”That is what makes me feel so utterly ashamed. He might have known that I only wanted to do good. I thought he was so entirely above false delicacy.”
”I dont mean that. How do you know that the story is true? You only have it from Mrs. Leith Fairfax's letter; and she is perhaps the greatest liar in the world.”
”Oh, Nelly, you ought not to talk so strongly about people. She would never venture to tell me a made-up tale about Marmaduke.”
”In my opinion, she would tell anybody anything for the sake of using her tongue or pen.”
”It is so hard to know what to do. There was n.o.body whom I could trust, was there? Jasper has always been against Marmaduke; and Constance, of course, was out of the question. There was Auntie, but I did not like to tell her.”
”Because she is an evil-minded old Jezebel, whom no nice woman would talk to on such a subject,” said Elinor, giving the bed a kick with her heel.
”Hush, Nelly. I am always in terror lest you should say something like that before other people, out of sheer habit.”
”Never fear. Well, you have done the best you could. No use regretting what cannot be recalled. You cannot have the security of conventionality along with the self-respect of sincerity. By the bye, do you remember that Jasper and his fond mamma and George had a family council after dinner? You may be sure that George has told them everything.”
”What! Then my wretched attempt to have Marmaduke warned was useless.
Oh, Nelly, this is too bad. Do you really think so? When I told him before dinner what Mrs. Leith Fairfax wrote, he only said he feared it was true, and refused to give me the address.”
”And so threw you back on Conolly. I am glad the responsibility rests with George. He knew very well that it was true; for he had only just been telling Jasper. Jasper told me as much in the plantation. Master Georgy has no right to be your brother. He is worse than a dissenter.
Dissenters try to be gentlemen; but George has no misgivings about himself on that score; so he gives his undivided energy to his efforts to be parsonic. He is an arrant hypocrite.”
”I dont think he is a hypocrite. I think he sincerely believes that his duty to the Church requires him to behave as he does.”
”Then he is a donkey, which is worse.”
”I wish he were more natural in his manner.”
”He is natural enough. It is always the same with parsons: 'it is their nature to.' Good-night. Men are all the same, my dear, all the same.”
”How do you mean?”
”Never mind. Good-night.”
CHAPTER V
A little removed from a pretty road in West Kensington, and communicating with it by a shrubbery and an iron gate, there stood at this time a detached villa called Laurel Grove. On the opposite side were pairs of recently built houses, many of them still unlet. These, without depriving the neighbourhood of its suburban quietude, forbade any feeling of rustic seclusion, and so made it agreeable to Susanna Conolly, who lived at Laurel Grove with Marmaduke Lind.
One morning in September they were at breakfast together. Beside each was a pile of letters. Marmaduke deferred opening his until his hunger was satisfied; but Susanna, after pouring out tea for him, seized the uppermost envelope, thrust her little finger under the flap, and burst it open.
”Hm,” she said. ”First rehearsal next Monday. Here he is at me again to make the engagement renewable after Christmas. What an old fool he must be not to guess why I dont want to be engaged next spring! Just look at the _Times_, Bob, and see if the piece is advertized yet.”