Part 7 (1/2)
_El_. Oh, papa, do stop!--here we are at the Victoria--and we have no right to judge any one so harshly. I a.s.sure you such strong expressions only make me feel more and more convinced how wrong you must be. [_To_ Plumper, _handing back his paper_.] Thank you so much. I'm so sorry I have not had time to read it.
_Lady G_. Good-bye, Mr Gresham; remember that you have promised to dine with us to-morrow night. We shall be quite alone; but I am sure you don't care about a party.
_Ad_. I need not say with what pleasure I shall look forward to it. _Au revoir_, Lady Elaine. [_Aside_.] You do not know how you have been tempting me to abandon all my cherished political convictions for your sake. It is to be hoped that the Radicals will not follow up their success with the caucus by organising the young ladies of their party and letting them loose on society as propagandists of their Utopian ideas and political fallacies.
[_Exeunt omnes_.
SCENE II.--Lady Gules's Boudoir. Elaine and Adolphus.
_Ad_. Dear Lady Elaine, Lady Gules has given me special permission and opportunity to explain myself more fully than was possible yesterday.
Please tell me why you were so surprised at what I said, and why you think me so very objectionable?
_El_. I don't think you at all objectionable, Mr Gresham, as a member of society; on the contrary, I think you charming; though I do feel that, magnetically, we are wide as the poles asunder! Oh, believe me, we have no grounds of common sympathy, either in matters of philosophical, political, or religious thought--and above all, in art! You seem to lack that enthusiasm for humanity which could alone const.i.tute an affinity between us. I was surprised, because I had hoped to find in you an intelligent companion; and mortified at the discovery that you could not rise to higher ground than that of an ordinary admirer,--men in these days seem to think that women have no other _raison d'etre_ except to be made love to.
_Ad_. I do not think that is a new idea, Lady Elaine; but is it absolutely necessary, in order that you should return the deep affection I feel for you, that we should agree politically, philosophically, theologically, and aesthetically? In old days women did not trouble themselves on these matters, but trusted to their hearts rather than to their heads to guide their affections.
_El_. And so I do now. I feel instinctively that we are not kindred spirits; that the mysterious chord of sympathy which vibrates in the heart of a girl with the first tone of the voice of the man she is destined to love, does not exist between us. Oh, indeed, indeed, Mr Gresham, although I adore Frederic Harrison as a thinker, as much as I dislike Mr Mallock--though I read every word he writes as a duty--I am not dest.i.tute of romance. I am a profound believer in the doctrine of affinity. Who that accepts, as I do, the marvellous teaching of Comte, and remembers that the highest ideas which it contains were inspired by a woman, could fail to be? But I shall know the man towards whom I am destined to occupy the relation that Comte's Countess did to him, at a glance. No words will need to pa.s.s between us to a.s.sure us that we are one in sentiment. It will be as impossible for him to be indifferent to elevating the taste of the ma.s.ses in matters of domestic detail, or be otherwise wanting in a whole-hearted devotion to the service of humanity, or to scoff at the theory of evolution, as it would be for him to accept the errors and superst.i.tions of an obsolete theology, or the antiquated dogmas of the Conservatives about landed property.
_Ad_. And if I fulfilled all these conditions, so far as a thorough philosophical and political sympathy was concerned, would that avail me nothing to produce this hidden affinity?
_El_. Absolutely nothing. In the first place, you could not pretend to believe and feel what you did not believe and feel; and in the second, if you could, I should instantly sense the absence of that internal attraction towards each other which would be irresistible in both. You were right, Mr Gresham, when you said the heart and not the head should be the guide; and I trust it absolutely--so give up a hope which must be vain. Believe me, I feel deeply pained at having to speak so decidedly, but it is better that you should be under no delusion. Still, do not let me lose you as a friend whom I shall always esteem. You will soon get over it, and will have no difficulty in finding a wife who will suit you far better than I should ever have done.
_Ad_. There, believe me, you are mistaken; but it is a point impossible to discuss. Good-bye, Lady Elaine. Thanks for your frankness and patience with me. Perhaps I shall get over it, as you say. I shall take refuge in my yacht, and try the curative effect of a cruise round the world. It will be a year at least before we meet again. [_Exit_ Adolphus.
_El_. Poor Adolphus! how absolutely impossible is love, where the hidden sympathy of soul is wanting!--and yet how nice he is [_sighs_], and how manfully he accepted his fate! What philosophy can really explain the mystery of that magnetic affinity called love, which so unaccountably exercises its attracting influences over the whole animal creation, and most probably over plants? If it is a latent potentiality of matter, how did it get there? Now for a scene with mamma.
[_Exit_ Elaine.
SCENE III.--The Countess of Gules's Boudoir. Lady Gules and Lady Elaine reading. Enter Charles with card and letter.
_El_. [_reading card_]. Mr Adolphus Plumper! Is the gentleman coming up- stairs, Charles?
_Charles_. No, my lady; he only left the card and this letter, and said he would call again. [_Exit_ Charles.
_El_. [_opening letter_]. From Mr Gresham, mamma, dated Naples.
[_Reads_.] ”DEAR ELAINE,--I felt so much touched by the kindness of your last words to me when we parted, that I venture to hope that it may interest you to know, as a friend, how it has fared with me since I left England. The curative process does not seem to have fairly set in yet, but I am going to try the effect of a little mild excitement by joining the demonstrating fleets at Alexandria. For a month past I have been idling here; and curiously enough, the first person I stumbled upon in the Chiaja Gardens was Mr Adolphus Plumper--our railway companion on the only journey I ever had the happiness to take with you, and who seated himself by my side on a bench to which I had resorted for a quiet cigar.
As there are few foreigners here at this season, we have been thrown almost daily together, and I have been quite delighted to find how very much superior he is to what I thought he _looked_ when you honoured me by pointing out our resemblance. I ought to speak highly of him, for he saved my life. I took him a cruise in my yacht, and the gig in which we were landing one day was upset in some breakers. I had been stunned, and should have been drowned had he not come to the rescue; and I really feel that for this and some other reasons which I will explain when we meet, I owe him a debt of grat.i.tude that I can never hope to repay. Although he is too retiring by nature to say so, I could see, when I made some laughing allusions to the occasion of our first meeting, that he would be glad to continue to make the acquaintance of Lord and Lady Gules--in other words, to continue the political discussion he then commenced with you. Singular to state, he is an admirer of Congreve and all that school, so I am sure you will have plenty of topics in common. Mr Plumper has made an enormous fortune as a contractor, and now chiefly occupies himself with works of charity and benevolence. One of his special hobbies is the introduction of the aesthetic principle into _Kindergartens_. I have given him a hint not to introduce his vulgar friend Flamm--pardon me the expression, though he is a Radical. I have given Plumper a few lines to Lady Gules. Please do all you can to overcome the prejudice against him which both she and Lord Gules are sure to entertain; and believe me, yours faithfully,
”ADOLPHUS GRESHAM.”
_Lady G_. A Radical, a plutocrat, and an infidel! That is a mixture that ought to suit you, Elaine.
_El_. Quite as well as a Tory, a spendthrift, and a bigot, which is the one I usually meet in society, mamma. But please do not let us quarrel.
I always try to be polite to your mixtures. For Mr Gresham's sake, be civil to mine.