Wilfrid Cumbermede by George MacDonald
G >>
George MacDonald >> Wilfrid Cumbermede
Pages:
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
8 |
9 |
10 |
11 |
12 |
13 |
14 |
15 |
16 |
17 |
18 | 19 |
20 |
21 |
22 |
23 |
24 |
25 |
26 |
27 |
28 |
29 |
30 |
31 |
32 |
33 |
34 |
35 |
36
'Well, I can't say but there's good in that fancy. To have any spot of
your own, however small--freehold, I mean--must be a comfort. At the
same time, what's the world for, if you're to meet it in that
half-hearted way? I don't mean that every young man--there are
exceptions--must sow just so many bushels of _avena fatua_. There are
plenty of enjoyments to be got without leading a wild life--which I
should be the last to recommend to any young man of principle. Take my
advice, and let the place. But pray don't do me the injustice to fancy
I came to look after a job. I shall be most happy to serve you.'
'I am exceedingly obliged to you,' I answered. 'If you could let the
farm for me for the rest of the lease, of which there are but a few
years to run, that would be of great consequence to me. Herbert, my
uncle's foreman, who has the management now, is a very good fellow, but
I doubt if he will do more than make both ends meet without my aunt,
and the accounts would bother me endlessly.'
'I shall find out whether Lord Inglewold would be inclined to resume
the fag-end. In such case, as the lease has been a long one, and land
has risen much, he would doubtless pay a part of the difference. Then
there's the stock, worth a good deal, I should think. I'll see what can
be done. And then there's the stray bit of park?'
'What do you mean by that?' I asked. 'We have been in the way of
calling it the _park_, though why I never could tell. I confess it does
look like a bit of Sir Giles's that had wandered beyond the gates.'
'There _is_ some old story or other about it, I believe. The possessors
of the Moldwarp estate have, from time immemorial, regarded it as
properly theirs. I know that.'
'I am much obliged to them, certainly. _I_ have been in the habit of
thinking differently.'
'Of course, of course,' he rejoined, laughing. 'But there may have been
some--mistake somewhere. I know Sir Giles would give five times its
value for it.'
'He should not have it if he offered the Moldwarp estate in exchange,'
I cried indignantly; and the thought flashed across me that this
temptation was what my uncle had feared from the acquaintance of Mr
Coningham.
'Your sincerity will not be put to so great a test as that,' he
returned, laughing quite merrily. 'But I am glad you have such a
respect for real property. At the same time--how many acres are there
of it?'
'I don't know,' I answered, curtly and truly.
'It is of no consequence. Only if you don't want to be tempted, don't
let Sir Giles or my father broach the subject. You needn't look at me.
_I_ am not Sir Giles's agent. Neither do my father and I run in double
harness. He hinted, however, this very day, that he believed the old
fool wouldn't stick at L500 an acre for this bit of grass--if he
couldn't get it for less.'
'If that is what you have come about, Mr Coningham,' I rejoined,
haughtily I dare say, for something I could not well define made me
feel as if the dignity of a thousand ancestors were perilled in my
own,' I beg you will not say another word on the subject, for sell this
land I _will not_.'
He was looking at me strangely. His eye glittered with what, under
other circumstances, I might have taken for satisfaction; but he turned
his face away and rose, saying with a curiously altered tone, as he
took up his hat,
'I'm very sorry to have offended you, Mr Cumbermede. I sincerely beg
your pardon. I thought our old--friendship may I not call it?--would
have justified me in merely reporting what I had heard. I see now that
I was wrong. I ought to have shown more regard for your feelings at
this trying time. But again I assure you I was only reporting, and had
not the slightest intention of making myself a go-between in the
matter. One word more: I have no doubt I could _let_ the field for you
--at good grazing rental. That I think you can hardly object to.'
'I should be much obliged to you,' I replied--'for a term of not more
than seven years--but without the house, and with the stipulation
expressly made that I have right of way in every direction through it.'
'Reasonable enough,' he answered.
'One thing more,' I said: 'all these affairs must be pure matters of
business between us.'
'As you please,' he returned, with, I fancied, a shadow of
disappointment, if not of displeasure, on his countenance. 'I should
have been more gratified if you had accepted a friendly office; but I
will do my best for you, notwithstanding.'
'I had no intention of being unfriendly, Mr Coningham,' I said. 'But
when I think of it, I fear I may have been rude, for the bare proposal
of selling this Naboth's vineyard of mine would go far to make me rude
to any man alive. It sounds like an invitation to dishonour myself in
the eyes of my ancestors.'
'Ah! you do care about your ancestors?' he said, half musingly, and
looking into his hat.
'Of course I do. Who is there does not?'
'Only some ninety-nine hundredths of the English nation.'
'I cannot well forget,' I returned, 'what my ancestors have done for
me.'
'Whereas most people only remember that their ancestors can do no more
for them. I declare I am almost glad I offended you. It does one good
to hear a young man speak like that in these degenerate days, when a
buck would rather be the son of a rich brewer than a decayed gentleman.
I will call again about the end of the week--that is if you will be
here--and report progress.'
His manner, as he took his leave, was at once more friendly and more
respectful than it had yet been--a change which I attributed to his
having discovered in me more firmness than he had expected, in regard,
if not of my rights, at least of my social position.
CHAPTER XXXI.
ARRANGEMENTS.
My custom at this time, and for long after I had finally settled down
in the country, was to rise early in the morning--often, as I used when
a child, before sunrise, in order to see the first burst of the sun
upon the new-born world. I believed then, as I believe still, that,
lovely as the sunset is, the sunrise is more full of mystery, poetry,
and even, I had almost said, pathos. But often ere he was well up I had
begun to imagine what the evening would be like, and with what softly
mingled, all but imperceptible, gradations it would steal into night.
Then, when the night came, I would wander about my little field, vainly
endeavouring to picture the glory with which the next day's sun would
rise upon me. Hence the morning and evening became well known to me;
and yet I shrink from saying it, for each is endless in the variety of
its change. And the longer I was alone, I became the more enamoured of
solitude, with the labour to which, in my case, it was so helpful; and
began, indeed, to be in some danger of losing sight of my relation to
'a world of men,' for with that world my imagination and my love for
Charley were now my sole recognizable links.
In the fore-part of the day I read and wrote; and in the after-part
found both employment and pleasure in arranging my uncle's books,
amongst which I came upon a good many treasures, whereof I was now able
in some measure to appreciate the value--thinking often, amidst their
ancient dust and odours, with something like indignant pity, of the
splendid collection, as I was sure it must be, mouldering away in utter
neglect at the neighbouring Hall.
I was on my knees in the midst of a pile which I had drawn from a
cupboard under the shelves, when Mrs Herbert showed Mr Coningham in. I
was annoyed, for my uncle's room was sacred; but as I was about to take
him to my own, I saw such a look of interest upon his face that it
turned me aside, and I asked him to take a seat.
'If you do not mind the dust,' I said.
'Mind the dust!' he exclaimed, '--of old books! I count it almost
sacred. I am glad you know how to value them.'
What right had he to be glad? How did he know I valued them? How could
I but value them? I rebuked my offence, however, and after a little
talk about them, in which he revealed much more knowledge than I should
have expected, it vanished. He then informed me of an arrangement he
and Lord Inglewold's factor had been talking over in respect of the
farm; also of an offer he had had for my field. I considered both
sufficiently advantageous in my circumstances, and the result was that
I closed with both.
A few days after this arrangement I returned to London, intending to
remain for some time. I had a warm welcome from Charley, but could not
help fancying an unacknowledged something dividing us. He appeared,
notwithstanding, less oppressed, and, in a word, more like other
people. I proceeded at once to finish two or three papers and stories,
which late events had interrupted. But within a week London had grown
to me stifling and unendurable, and I longed unspeakably for the free
air of my field and the loneliness of my small castle. If my reader
regard me as already a hypochondriac, the sole disproof I have to offer
is, that I was then diligently writing what some years afterwards
obtained a hearty reception from the better class of the reading
public. Whether my habits were healthy or not, whether my love of
solitude was natural or not, I cannot but hope from this that my modes
of thinking were. The end was that, after finishing the work I had on
hand, I collected my few belongings, gave up my lodging, bade Charley
good-bye, receiving from him a promise to visit me at my own house if
possible, and took my farewell of London for a season, determined not
to return until I had produced a work which my now more enlarged
judgment might consider fit to see the light. I had laid out all my
spare money upon books, with which, in a few heavy trunks, I now went
back to my solitary dwelling. I had no care upon my mind, for my small
fortune, along with the rent of my field, was more than sufficient for
my maintenance in the almost anchoretic seclusion in which I intended
to live, and hence I had every advantage for the more definite
projection and prosecution of a work which had been gradually shaping
itself in my mind for months past.
Before leaving for London, I had already spoken to a handy lad employed
upon the farm, and he had kept himself free to enter my service when I
should require him. He was the more necessary to me that I still had my
mare Lilith, from which nothing but fate should ever part me. I had no
difficulty in arranging with the new tenant for her continued
accommodation at the farm; while, as Herbert still managed its affairs,
the services of his wife were available as often as I required them.
But my man soon made himself capable of doing everything for me, and
proved himself perfectly trustworthy.
I must find a name for my place--for its own I will not write: let me
call it The Moat: there were signs, plain enough to me after my return
from Oxford, that there had once been a moat about it, of which the
hollow I have mentioned as the spot where I used to lie and watch for
the sun's first rays, had evidently been a part. But the remains of the
moat lay at a considerable distance from the house, suggesting a large
area of building at some former period, proof of which, however, had
entirely vanished, the house bearing every sign of a narrow
completeness.
The work I had undertaken required a constantly recurring reference to
books of the sixteenth century; and although I had provided as many as
I thought I should need, I soon found them insufficient. My uncle's
library was very large for a man in his position, but it was not by any
means equally developed; and my necessities made me think often of the
old library at the Hall, which might contain somewhere in its ruins
every book I wanted. Not only, however, would it have been useless to
go searching in the formless mass for this or that volume, but, unable
to grant Sir Giles the desire of his heart in respect of my poor field,
I did not care to ask of him the comparatively small favour of being
allowed to burrow in his dust-heap of literature.
I was sitting, one hot noon, almost in despair over a certain little
point concerning which I could find no definite information, when Mr
Coningham called. After some business matters had been discussed, I
mentioned, merely for the sake of talk, the difficulty I was in--the
sole disadvantage of a residence in the country as compared with
London, where the British Museum was the unfailing resort of all who
required such aid as I was in want of.
'But there is the library at Moldwarp Hall,' he said.
'Yes, _there_ it is; but there is not _here_.'
'I have no doubt Sir Giles would make you welcome to borrow what books
you wanted. He is a good-natured man, Sir Giles.'
I explained my reason for not troubling him.
'Besides,' I added, 'the library is in such absolute chaos, that I
might with less loss of time run up to London, and find any volume I
happened to want among the old-book-shops. You have no idea what a mess
Sir Giles's books are in--scarcely two volumes of the same book to be
found even in proximity. It is one of the most painful sights I ever
saw.'
He said little more, but from what followed, I suspect either he or his
father spoke to Sir Giles on the subject; for, one day, as I was
walking past the park-gates, which I had seldom entered since my
return, I saw him just within, talking to old Mr Coningham. I saluted
him in passing, and he not only returned the salutation in a friendly
manner, but made a step towards me as if he wished to speak to me. I
turned and approached him. He came out and shook hands with me.
'I know who you are, Mr Cumbermede, although I have never had the
pleasure of speaking to you before,' he said frankly.
'There you are mistaken, Sir Giles,' I returned; 'but you could hardly
be expected to remember the little boy who, many years ago, having
stolen one of your apples, came to you to comfort him.'
He laughed heartily.
'I remember the circumstance well,' he said. 'And you were that unhappy
culprit? Ha! ha! ha! To tell the truth, I have thought of it many
times. It was a remarkably fine thing to do.'
'What! steal the apple, Sir Giles?'
'Make the instant reparation you did.'
'There was no reparation in asking you to box my ears.'
'It was all you could do, though.'
'To ease my own conscience, it was. There is always a satisfaction, I
suppose, in suffering for your sins. But I have thought a thousand
times of your kindness in shaking hands with me instead. You treated me
as the angels treat the repentant sinner, Sir Giles.'
'Well, I certainly never thought of it in that light,' he said; then,
as if wishing to change the subject,--'Don't you find it lonely now
your uncle is gone?' he said.
'I miss him more than I can tell.'
'A very worthy man he was--too good for this world, by all accounts.'
'He's not the worse off for that now, Sir Giles, I trust.' 'No; of
course not,' he returned quickly, with the usual shrinking from the
slightest allusion to what is called the other world.--'Is there
anything I can do for you? You are a literary man, they tell me. There
are a good many books of one sort and another lying at the Hall. Some
of them might be of use to you. They are at your service. I am sure you
are to be trusted even with mouldy books, which, from what I hear, must
be a greater temptation to you now than red-cheeked apples,' he added
with another merry laugh.
'I will tell you what,' Sir Giles, I answered. 'It has often grieved me
to think of the state of your library. It would be scarcely possible
for me to find a book in it now. But if you would trust me, I should be
delighted, in my spare hours, of which I can command a good many, to
put the whole in order for you.'
'I should be under the greatest obligation. I have always intended
having some capable man down from London to arrange it. I am no great
reader myself, but I have the highest respect for a good library. It
ought never to have got into the condition in which I found it.'
'The books are fast going to ruin, I fear.'
'Are they indeed?' he exclaimed, with some consternation. 'I was not in
the least aware of that. I thought so long as I let no one meddle with
them, they were safe enough.'
'The law of the moth and rust holds with books as well as other unused
things,' I answered.
'Then, pray, my dear sir, undertake the thing at once,' he said, in a
tone to which the uneasiness of self-reproach gave a touch of
imperiousness. 'But really,' he added, 'it seems trespassing on your
goodness much too far. Your time is valuable. Would it be a long job?'
'It would doubtless take some months; but the pleasure of seeing order
dawn from confusion would itself repay me. And I _might_ come upon
certain books of which I am greatly in want. You will have to allow me
a carpenter though, for the shelves are not half sufficient to hold the
books; and I have no doubt those there are stand in need of repair.'
'I have a carpenter amongst my people. Old houses want constant
attention. I shall put him under your orders with pleasure. Come and
dine with me to-morrow, and we'll talk it all over.'
'You are very kind,' I said. 'Is Mr Brotherton at home?'
'I am sorry to say he is not.'
'I heard the other day that he had sold his commission.'
'Yes--six months ago. His regiment was ordered to India, and--and--his
mother----But he does not give us much of his company,' added the old
man. 'I am sorry he is not at home, for he would have been glad to meet
you.'
Instead of responding, I merely made haste to accept Sir Giles's
invitation. I confess I did not altogether relish having anything to do
with the future property of Geoffrey Brotherton; but the attraction of
the books was great, and in any case I should be under no obligation to
him; neither was the nature of the service I was about to render him
such as would awaken any sense of obligation in a mind like his.
I could not help recalling the sarcastic criticisms of Clara when I
entered the drawing-room of Moldwarp Hall--a long, low-ceiled room,
with its walls and stools and chairs covered with tapestry, some of
it the work of the needle, other some of the Gobelin loom; but
although I found Lady Brotherton a common enough old lady, who showed
little of the dignity of which she evidently thought much, and was
more condescending to her yeoman neighbour than was agreeable, I did
not at once discover ground for the severity of those remarks. Miss
Brotherton, the eldest of the family, a long-necked lady, the flower
of whose youth was beginning to curl at the edges, I found well-read,
but whether in books or the reviews of them, I had to leave an open
question as yet. Nor was I sufficiently taken with her not to feel
considerably dismayed when she proffered me her assistance in arranging
the library. I made no objection at the time, only hinting that the
drawing up of a catalogue afterwards might be a fitter employment for
her fair fingers; but I resolved to create such a fearful pother at
the very beginning, that her first visit should be her last. And so I
doubt not it would have fallen out, but for something else. The only
other person who dined with us was a Miss Pease--at least so I will
call her--who, although the law of her existence appeared to be
fetching and carrying for Lady Brotherton, was yet, in virtue of a
poor-relationship, allowed an uneasy seat at the table. Her obedience
was mechanically perfect. One wondered how the mere nerves of volition
could act so instantaneously upon the slightest hint. I saw her more
than once or twice withdraw her fork when almost at her lips, and,
almost before she had laid it down, rise from her seat to obey some
half-whispered, half-nodded behest. But her look was one of injured
meekness and self-humbled submission. Sir Giles now and then gave
her a kind or merry word, but she would reply to it with almost abject
humility. Her face was grey and pinched, her eyes were very cold, and
she ate as if she did not know one thing from another.
Over our wine Sir Giles introduced business. I professed myself ready,
with a housemaid and carpenter at my orders when I should want them, to
commence operations the following afternoon. He begged me to ask for
whatever I might want, and after a little friendly chat, I took my
leave, elated with the prospect of the work before me. About three
o'clock the next afternoon I took my way to the Hall, to assume the
temporary office of creative librarian.
CHAPTER XXXII.
PREPARATIONS.
It was a lovely afternoon, the air hot, and the shadows of the trees
dark upon the green grass. The clear sun was shining sideways on the
little oriel window of one of the rooms in which my labour awaited me.
Never have I seen a picture of more stately repose than the huge pile
of building presented, while the curious vane on the central square
tower glittered like the outburning flame of its hidden life. The only
objection I could find to it was that it stood isolated from its own
park, although the portion next it was kept as trim as the smoothest
lawn. There was not a door anywhere to be seen, except the two gateway
entrances, and not a window upon the ground-floor. All the doors and
low windows were either within the courts, or opened on the garden,
which, with its terraced walks and avenues and one tiny lawn,
surrounded the two further sides of the house, and was itself enclosed
by walls.
I knew the readiest way to the library well enough: once admitted to
the outer gate, I had no occasion to trouble the servants. The rooms
containing the books were amongst the bed-rooms, and after crossing the
great hall, I had to turn my back on the stair which led to the
ball-room and drawing-room, and ascend another to the left, so that I
could come and go with little chance of meeting any of the family.
The rooms, I have said, were six, none of them of any great size, and
all ill-fitted for the purpose. In fact, there was such a sense of
confinement about the whole arrangement as gave me the feeling that any
difficult book read there would be unintelligible. Order, however, is
only another kind of light, and would do much to destroy the
impression. Having with practical intent surveyed the situation, I saw
there was no space for action. I must have at least the temporary use
of another room.
Observing that the last of the suite of book-rooms furthest from the
armoury had still a door into the room beyond, I proceeded to try it,
thinking to know at a glance whether it would suit me, and whether it
was likely to be yielded for my purpose. It opened, and, to my dismay,
there stood Clara Coningham, fastening her collar. She looked sharply
round, and made a half-indignant step towards me. 'I beg your pardon a
thousand times, Miss Coningham,' I exclaimed. 'Will you allow me to
explain, or must I retreat unheard?'
I was vexed indeed, for, notwithstanding a certain flutter at the
heart, I had no wish to renew my acquaintance with her.
'There must be some fatality about the place, Mr Cumbermede!' she said,
almost with her old merry laugh. 'It frightens me.'
'Precisely my own feeling, Miss Coningham. I had no idea you were in
the neighbourhood.'
'I cannot say so much as that, for I had heard you were at The Moat;
but I had no expectation of seeing you--least of all in this house. I
suppose you are on the scent of some musty old book or other,' she
added, approaching the door, where I stood with the handle in my hand.
'My object is an invasion rather than a hunt,' I said, drawing back
that she might enter.
'Just as it was the last time you and I were here!' she went on, with
scarcely a pause, and as easily as if there had never been any
misunderstanding between us. I had thought myself beyond any further
influence from her fascinations, but when I looked in her beautiful
face, and heard her allude to the past with so much friendliness, and
such apparent unconsciousness of any reason for forgetting it, a tremor
ran through me from head to foot. I mastered myself sufficiently to
reply, however.
'It is the last time you will see it so,' I said; 'for here stands the
Hercules of the stable--about to restore it to cleanliness, and what is
of far more consequence in a library--to order.'
'You don't mean it!' she exclaimed with genuine surprise. 'I'm so glad
I'm here!'
'Are you on a visit, then?'
'Indeed I am; though how it came about I don't know. I dare say my
father does. Lady Brotherton has invited me, stiffly of course, to
spend a few weeks during their stay. Sir Giles must be in it: I believe
I am rather a favourite with the good old man. But I have another
fancy: my grandfather is getting old; I suspect my father has been
making himself useful, and this invitation is an acknowledgment. Men
always buttress their ill-built dignities by keeping poor women in the
dark; by which means you drive us to infinite conjecture. That is how
we come to be so much cleverer than you at putting two and two
together, and making five.'
'But,' I ventured to remark, 'under such circumstances, you will hardly
enjoy your visit.'
Pages:
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
8 |
9 |
10 |
11 |
12 |
13 |
14 |
15 |
16 |
17 |
18 | 19 |
20 |
21 |
22 |
23 |
24 |
25 |
26 |
27 |
28 |
29 |
30 |
31 |
32 |
33 |
34 |
35 |
36