“Everything is at a standstill, Mr. Wilberforce.”
“Well,” said Theo, almost angrily, turning to the rector, “there is no hurry, I hope. One need not start, axe in hand, as if one had been waiting for that. There is time enough, in autumn or in spring, or when it happens to be convenient. I am in no haste, for my part.”
There was again a little pause, for there had been temper in Theo’s tones. And then it was that the rector distinguished himself by the most ill-timed question—a question which startled even Chatty, who was coming in at the moment with a bowl full of roses, carried in both hands. Yet it was a very innocent-seeming question, and Cavendish was not aware of any significance in it till he saw the effect it produced. “How,” said Mr. Wilberforce very distinctly, “is Lady Markland?” He was looking straight at Theo, but as the words came out of his mouth, struck too late by their inappropriateness, turned and looked Mrs. Warrender somewhat severely in the face.
“Oh!” she said, as if someone had struck her; and as for Warrender, he sprang to his feet, and walked across the room to one of the windows, where he stood pulling to pieces one of Chatty’s bouquets. She put down her roses, and stood with her hands dropped and her mouth a little open, a picture of innocent consternation, which, however, was caused more by the effect upon the others than by any clear perception in herself. All this took place in a moment, and then Mrs. Warrender replied sedately, “The last time I saw her she was well enough in health. Sor—trouble,” she added, changing the word, “does not always affect the health.”
“And does she mean to stay there?” the rector said, feeling it necessary to follow up his first question. Mrs. Warrender hesitated, and began to reply that she did not know, that she believed nothing was settled, that—when Theodore suddenly turned and replied:—
“Why shouldn’t she stay? The reason is just the same for her as for us. Death changes little except to the person immediately concerned. It is her home: why shouldn’t she stay?”
“Really,” said the rector, “you take it so seriously I—when you put the question to me, I—As a matter of fact,” he added, “I did not mean anything, if I must tell the truth. I just said the first thing that occurred. And a change is always the thing that is first thought of after such a—after such a—” The rector sought about for a word. He could not say calamity, or affliction, or any of the words that are usually employed. He said at last, with a sense of having got triumphantly over the difficulty—“such a shock.”
“I agree with the rector,” said Minnie. “It would be far better that she should go away, for a change. The circumstances are quite different. For a lady to go and look after everything herself, when it ought not to be supposed possible that she could do anything: seeing the lawyers, and giving the orders, and acting exactly as if nothing had happened—oh, it is too dreadful! It is quite different from us. And she does not even wear a widow’s cap! That would be reason enough for going away, if there was nothing else. She ought to go away for the first year, not to let anybody know that she has never worn a widow’s cap.”
“Now that is a very clever reason,” said Dick Cavendish, who felt it was time for him to interfere, and lessen the serious character of the discussion. “Unaided, I should never have thought of that. Do at Rome as Rome does; or if you don’t, go out of Rome, and don’t expose yourself. There is a whole system of social philosophy in it.”
“Oh, I am not a philosopher,” cried Minnie, “but I know what I think. I know what my opinion is.”
“We are not here to criticise Lady Markland,” said her mother; and then she burst into an unpremeditated invitation, to break the spell. “You will bring Mr. Cavendish to dine with us one evening?” she said. “He and you will excuse the dullness of a sad house.”
The rector felt his breath taken from him, and thought of what his wife would say. “If you are sure it will not be too much for you,” he replied.
Dick’s eyes and attention were fixed upon the girls. Minnie’s face expressed the utmost horror. She opened her mouth to speak; her sharp eyes darted dagger thrusts at her mother; it was evident that she was bursting with remonstrance and denunciation. Chatty, on the contrary, looked at her mother, and then at the stranger, with a soft look of pleasure stealing over her face. It softened still more the rounded outline, the rose tints, which were those of a girl of seventeen rather than twenty-three, and which her black dress brought out with double force. Dick thought her quite pretty—nay, very pretty—as she stood there, her sleeves thrust a little back on her arms—her hands a little wet with the flowers, her face owning a half guilty pleasure of which she was half ashamed. The others were involved in thoughts quite different: but innocent Chatty, relieved by the slightest lifting of the cloud, and glad that somebody should be coming to dinner, was to him the central interest of the group.
“You put your foot in it, I think,” he said to the rector, as they walked back, “but I could not quite make out how. Who is the unhappy woman, lost to all sense of shame, who wears no widow’s cap?”
“I meant no harm,” said the rector. “It was quite natural that I should ask for Lady Markland. Of course it stands to reason that as he died there, and they were mixed up with the whole business, and she is not in my parish, they should know more of her than I.”
“And
