Disturbing Elements

Chapter I

Dinner was over in Bronte Hall, and little parties of the students were already collecting in one another's rooms for the cocoa and argument revels, with which they love to undermine their digestions, and relax their hot pursuit of the phantom education. Why a complete disregard for the digestive faculties should even now so often be associated in the feminine mind with a profound reverence for the faculty of ab sorbing miscellaneous information, is one of those problems which have so far baffled even the master mind of man. Questions of this annoying sort are however some times asked even in Bronte Hall itself, but they are not well received. Kitty Winter, who never seemed to be in harmony with the strenuous and scholastic spirit of the place, was given to making all sorts of B observations whose levity was pitiable.

It would have been merely contemptible but for the curious and ex asperating fact that she occasionally did a brilliant piece of work, and would suddenly shoot up like a rocket at lecture, to the amazement alike of the Pro fessor and of those ninety-and-nine just sheep who never strayed far before or behind him. It did not happen very often, but when it did it was decidedly upsetting, and, taken together with her frivolous attitude towards the enthusiasms by which she was surrounded, showed very plainly that Bronte Hall was scarcely the right place for her. She certainly did not look altogether at home in the large and deserted common room, where she now sat on a corner of the table, meditatively contemplating the point of a very shapely little slipper. She was perched beside a huge dictionary, with the sort of light grace habitual to her, and the crude gaslight just above caught the gold sparkles on a ueat little head, whose ripples and soft tendrils all showed a method and smartness in their vagaries not commonly seen in that home of high thinking and hasty toilets.

The pretty curves of her figure, the delicate irregularities of her face, the half-mocking laughter seldom absent from the curious onyx-coloured eyes, combined to fascinate and repel most of her companions by turns ; but one of them at any rate was never repelled — one who seemed the most thoroughly well-balanced and contented of all, Miss Brown's right hand and secre tary, Mary Lanion. She was not in the common room now, and Kitty, who was not fond of cocoa parties, pursued her medi tations alone, with a little frown of perplexity drawing her straight eyebrows together. She was presently interrupted by Virginia Rigby, the champion of the ' Woman's Movement ' in the Hall ; one of those pale faced, long-featured young women whose mathematical angles and plane surfaces stalk abroad by the hundred thousand, in their immense boots, all up and down this favoured country.

She peered round through her eyeglasses, and then said abruptly : ' Isn't Mary Lanion here ? ' ' What do you think ? I should say not,' replied Kitty with polite neutrality. Virginia made the im patient sound which Miss Winter seldom failed to draw from her. ' If she was, there would be one sensible person, at any rate, to ask a question of.' ' I hope there would, but I don't think it would be Mary,' returned Kitty in a mild voice. ' I thought you were so fond of her,' pursued Virginia, who seldom had the wisdom to refrain from B provoking an unequal contest with her blunt and primitive weapons of war. ' I am, extremely, but not because she is sensible — quite contrariwise.' ' What do you mean now ? ' exclaimed Miss Rigby, impelled both by curiosity and combativeness to shut the door and take up her station in a rocking-chair close by. ' I should have thought,' she went on, settling her elbows at right angles to her person, and her feet a long way out towards the fireplace, ' I should have thought nobody could have lived under the same roof with Mary for a week without seeing what remarkably sound judgment she has, and how calm and even-tempered she is in daily life.' ' I should hope it takes most people less than a week to see all that, and a great deal more too, about Mary in daily life.' ' Everybody in the house goes to her for advice in difficulties.' ' That shows how sensible everybody in the house is.' ' Then you were only talking bosh just now ?

Kitty surveyed all the angular projections opposite to her for a moment without answering. She was not fond of explaining herself at any time, least of all to persons constructed after the pattern of Virginia, mentally or physically. But if you yield to an im pulse of indiscretion, it is often better to pay for it in ready money, if you can. ' No, I don't think it was bosh. I believe Mary is one of those people who are born a size too large for this niggling world. It makes it rather an unsafe place for them, and for other people too, at times. On most days they are far wiser and more sensible than their neighbours, because they don't mind about any of the small things which really matter very much, and they have no little susceptibilities to bother them. But sometimes they are taken in ; they think they have got hold of an idea of their own size, and it hardly ever is, and then nobody can do anything and lots of people get hurt.

Or else a colossal emotion seizes them, and that is worse still. It is hard on anyone to be born rather great ; it is particularly hard on a woman. Let us be thankful, Virginia, that our souls are of the ordinary stock size.' Virginia did not look as though she was so sure of owing Providence this particular debt ; she kicked one of her shoes off abstractedly before replying. 'It's all very far fetched. You are so odd. But I suppose you are thinking of that Socialistic craze Mary had for a time ; she has quite got over that.' ' Only because that woman who got hold of her fortunately took a fancy to shoplifting as a recreation, and did it so badly she was removed and shut up, just as Mary was on the point of presenting her with all she possessed to devote to the cause.' 'Yes, it was a good thing she was exposed in time.

Mary would certainly have ruined herself. Nobody could stop her.' ' Exactly.' ' Fancy calling that a cause,' exclaimed Virginia, suddenly sitting up, with new animation ; ' now the beauty of ours is ' ' Hush ! ' cried Kitty, jumping down in a moment, ' don't you hear ? ' There was an indistinct sound of many voices further down the passage. ' It is Dorothy Mason. She is holding a discus sion on marriage as the best career for women. She has been growing more and more reactionary since the Long, and she has great influence in the Hall.' A creak of the rockers, a thump, a dash. Virginia had rushed to the fray, and in another moment the common room was deserted.

Chapter II

To evolve theories more or less fantastic about her friends was admitted to be Kitty Winter's besetting vice at this time in her life. They some times showed a pretty trick of discernment ; on the other hand, it was often said that they were too ingenious altogether. When Mary Lanion passed along the corridor to her own rooms a little later, she received several invitations through open doorways to join the lively gatherings which were now in full swing. She was the unconscious object of a good deal of enthusiasm amongst the students. She perhaps supplied some thing of a male element in the feminine community by her habitual composure, her daily appearance of content, and a rare moderation in her ordinary speech and judgments. Then she had a handsome, power ful face, and a well-grown, finely proportioned figure.

Women are, after all, at least as impressionable to appearances as men, and the sight of Mary's rather massive head, her well-opened gray eyes, the satis factory way her dark hair massed itself where it sprang from her forehead, and the sudden sweetness of her smile, no doubt counted for something in her popularity. Moreover, she was a decidedly silent person — another valuable quality for her friends. The common feminine necessity for expressing one self about everything did not seem to exist for her ; on the contrary, she found it quite difficult to talk at all about things which affected or interested her keenly. Whether she minded much or little about the small things of life, she certainly minded a good deal about Kitty, and looked pleased when she found that young person stretched out in the wicker lounge beside her sitting-room fire.

Kitty's hands were clasped under her head, and she was gazing at the ceiling. She did not move when her hostess knelt down beside her and warmed herself at the cheerful blaze. ' I'm glad you're here, Kitty,' said Mary presently, laying a large but admirable hand on the bronze slipper and silk instep. There was a petulant, small wriggle in response, and then came a grumble. ' This is the only room which does not reek of cocoa and spirit-lamp. What is more, there is no bed under your sofa ; your bookshelf will not dart out into a washhand stand, if pushed at the wrong end, and there are no hair brushes in the drawer of it. It is something, after all, to be planted as an official here; you get two rooms like a civilised being. Bah ! hoAV I hate all the fusty triumphs of female ingenuity in the others !

So many enthusiasms at large, combined with a universal joy in stuffy makeshifts, are at times hard to bear.' ' Kitty, Avhy are you here at all ? At college, I mean ? ' ' Where else should I be ? At home with my stepfather in Northumberland, listening to copybook sentiments, or information about housekeeping details all day ? ' ' At home somewhere, anyway,' said Mary thoughtfully, subsiding into a low chair. ' I had a home once,' said Kitty, with the ghost of a sigh, ' even as lately as three years ago. If father had not died,' she went on, in a voice whose hardness was a little overdone, ' you might have known me as quite a domesticated, amiable, and even fairly intelli gent young woman. To think of the worthy Horneck after my father ! ' She stopped short, and went on presently with a change of manner. 'Well, you have no real home with your grandmother.

Tell me how you manage to be always contented? It would be worth coming here to find out that.' ' Am I always contented ? ' asked Mary of the fire, a trifle doubtfully. 'Always, until quite lately,' responded Kitty, sitting up with sudden eagerness. ' Now you have just begun to discover that life is a little more com plicated than you thought. You must be very care ful, Mary ; you would take things so hard if you made any mistake, any permanent one, that is, of course.' Miss Lanion looked at her small mentor with real perplexity. ' Kitty, what can you possibly mean ? ' At this moment the door opened and Virginia Rigby reappeared, holding a letter in her hand. ' Miss Brown asked me to give you this note, Mary. It is from Mr. Bruce, I think. I saw him coming out of the office just now. Does he want you to take his coaching for him next term ?

He is being sent out to the excavations at Ephesus for six months, you know.' ' Is he ? ' exclaimed Kitty, with animation. ' Thank the Lord ! ' ' Why ? ' demanded Virginia, turning upon her with the light of battle gleaming from her pale eyes through the glasses. The person who had expressed such inopportune gratitude to Providence paid no attention to her ; she was watching Mary over her letter out of the corner of her eye, and she now laid a sudden, restraining hand on the arm of her friend, who was about to poke the fire with the handle of a highly decorated candle extinguisher. ' Dear me ! ' exclaimed the culprit in confusion, ' what am I doing ? ' ' That is more than you or I can say ; take care, Mary, oh, take care ! ' said Kitty, with such unusual seriousness that Virginia stared at them both with awakened curiosity, on which Miss Winter began to laugh. ' Let us make a burnt-offering of this instead, but pray spare the presentation extinguisher,' tweaking the letter out of Mary's hand to toss it on to the coals. ' Stop ! ' cried Miss Lanion, serious in her turn now, and rescuing it hurriedly. ' Stop !

I haven't — I mean I've not done with it.' Her eyes dropped, and a clear blush passed over her cheeks. Kitty thumped a cushion into position viciously, sighed with impatience, and exclaimed : ' What are any of us here for ? What is the good of it ? ' ' Kitty, you are dyspeptic to-night.' ' Nothing of the sort. I leave that to weaklings like Virginia. When I saw her grappling with the college pie at dinner, I knew an irresistible impulse to go forth and elevate somebody would seize her before the evening was over. Are you going to elevate us now, Virginia ? make haste, if so. I give you six minutes.' ' Whoever manages to elevate you in six minutes, or six years either, will have earned repose, and pie too, for life,' said Virginia crossly. ' I certainly did not come to Bronte Hall for any object so hopeless as that.' ' Well, but I believe you are really here for just the same reason that Mary and I are, if the truth were known.

And I dare say any three average young women picked at random out of a convent centuries ago would have had to give much the same account of themselves." ' I don't know what your reasons may be, but I am pretty sure they are very different from mine. I came to learn, to improve myself, to prepare for my life's work in the cause of women's progress to freedom, to find the intellectual atmosphere I needed.' ' Exactly. You could not find it at home. Yet I always thought you could do whatever you liked there, short of preaching in your father's pulpit.' Virginia was the daughter of a Congregationalist minister in the smoky town of Dimsdale. His sermons were the pride and delight of his congregation. Mr. Horneck, Kitty's stepfather, was one of his chief supporters. ' At home, indeed ! ' exclaimed the preacher's child bitterly. ' Thank you !

I have aspirations which extend a little beyond the chapel and its theology, and the children's pinafores and pie-crusts.' ' Well, it is just as I said then, not one of us could get on at home. How clever the people are who do ! How much more complicated it is than working for honours in the examinations, and living here with people who have no claims upon us ! ' Virginia looked at her with fine scorn. ' You still belong to the dark ages. I can't think why you don't marry some hidebound country squire, and turn into a wife and mother and domestic slave as soon as possible.' ' No more can I, except that I have never been offered the situation by any hidebound Tory yet. How nice it would be ! ' said Kitty, with an ostentatious sigh, casting up her eyes to the ceiling. Miss Rigby turned her back upon her and ad dressed herself to Mary ; the subject on which she had been started was too enthralling to abandon lightly. ' Things are very serious with me, because I can only win freedom by earning my own living.

We are so very poor ; if it were not for the scholarship I could not be here.' She continued to expatiate on the difference in their fortunes and other personal matters, with all the unsparing insistence common to those who are born destitute of any sense of manners, until she had reduced both her listeners to a state of extreme discomfort. ' Heigh ho ! ' broke in Kitty at last ; ' I am sure if we were wise we should be trimming our lamps and breaking up this little feast of reason. By the way,' with a wave of her hand, 'do we not represent three of the primary elements of disturbance in this world since time began ? ' 'Do we ? How ? I am sure I am harmless enough,' said Mary. ' You harmless ! You are by far the most danger ous of all. Virginia is the preacher, I am the woman, but you are the devil.' ' You raving lunatic ! ' cried Virginia ; but the person to whom the chief honours were thus start lingly ascribed only smiled placidly. ' Yes,' said Kitty, nodding sagaciously, ' she has not got into much mischief yet, but wait till she has the chance.

There is another disturbing element or two to come into her world first, and then you will see.' ' Well, I have no more time to waste to-night,' said Virginia, getting up. At the door she turned. 'You don't seem to think there is any disturbing element in my world, then ? ' she said, playing with the handle of the door. ' Good gracious, no !. You are above disturbances, you are complete in yourself, you ' ' Oh, good-night ! ' interrupted Virginia irritably ; ' it is very hard to distinguish between some people's wisdom and their folly.' Kitty laughed her clear merry laugh when she had disappeared. ' I wonder hoAV it is these advanced spinsters, thirsting to devote their lives to Causes, generally like to cherish some sort of unrequited passion as ,a tame worm i' the bud to feed on their damask cheeks.' ' You absurd child !

Virginia, at any rate, has not indulged in any such thing so far.' ' Hasn't she though ? ' ' Of course not. Isn't that a good photograph of Felix ? ' Kitty had taken up a photograph frame from the chimney-piece. ' Yes, he is charming ! Fancy leaving a brother like that to come and live here. I wouldn't.' ' No, but you are different. You could understand him better than I do, and he would never disapprove of you.' ' Of course not ; I should not let him.' ' That's just it. I can't help it. All the same, there is nobody I care for so much, except possibly you. But grandmother does not want me at home. She is devoted to Felix, but she is always wishing I was different.' ' That is such a reprehensible attitude for one's elders to take up. But you are dreadfully humble minded, or she would behave better.

She always seems such an adorable old lady, the typical Marquise of the grand age ; but I dare say it is easier to appreciate her charms as somebody else's grandmother than as one's own. Well, I am getting incoherent.' ' Do go to bed.' ' You want to get rid of me, I know. You want to bother about something else. Mary,' taking both her hands and looking at her with unusual earnestness, 'if you stop to think you are lost. Don't give a qualified No ; promise me that you will do it in two letters of the alphabet and no more.' ' 0 Kitty ! how did you find out ? But please don't talk to me. I can't think why women are said to enjoy these experiences. I have never had one before. I find it so disagreeable.' ' Write " No " here and give it to me ; I shall post it, and it will be done with.' ' I can't. He wants to see me.

After all, he has paid me a great compliment, and I admire and respect him deeply.' ' Oh, of course, of course ! but don't see him.' ' It is the least I can do, since he wishes it.' ' What a perfectly disgusting man he is ! Mind you remember, though, all the time that you would rather be hanged than marry Edward Bruce, for all your respect, etcetera.' ' I suppose I would. Yes ! I don't want to marry him — indeed I am sure I could not.' ' Of course you couldn't. I am only afraid of some fatal weakness of mind on your part at the critical moment.' ' I am generally considered rather strong-minded, you know.' • That is quite a mistake. You are not at all to be trusted about your own concerns ; do send for Mr. Felix.' ' What would be the use ? Certainly not ! You don't suppose I shall let him know anything about it ! ' c ' You don't suppose he does not know ? ' ' How could he ? ' demanded his sister with great surprise. ' Oh ! he is one of those people who know everything. Good-night.' And she flitted off along the dim corridor.

Chapter III

While Mary and her friends discussed things in general in a more or less academic fashion at Bronte Hall, her brother and grandmother were spending a domestic evening together in London. They had always been deeply attached to one another since the time when Mrs. Lanion took her son's orphan children under her charge, after the successive deaths of their father and mother in India, twenty years before this March evening, when they sat by the fire side in Norfolk Street. Mrs. Lanion was one of those women who instinc tively prefer the other sex to their own at any age ; and she had all the charm, the pleasantness, and pretty egotism which occasionally accompany this characteristic. After all, it is a more harmless pre judice in itself than many another which the world treats with respect, and in the hands of so well-bred and admirable a person as Augusta Lanion had not often seriously interfered with anyone's comfort.

But Felix and his grandmother were not discussing c the nature of things at large in the bright drawing room, where the whirling dust and the piercing wind outside were forgotten in the warm subdued glow of lamplight and firelight. The house was always full of flowers, and to-night the air was sweet with Parma violets, daffodils, and other fragrant blossoms. All the chairs were comfortable, and every corner of the har monious room shoAved the knowledge and skill of the hand that arranged it. Mrs. Lanion, sitting erect in her great cushioned chair, as usual presented an embodi ment of mellow and graceful age. She knitted away at some soft web, while the diamonds flashed and twinkled on the white and delicate fingers. Her face under its crown of white hair, cunningly softened with old Mechlin lace, still possessed a faint charming bloom, thanks to the care and pains which she had devoted to the preservation, not decoration, of that fine skin all her life.

Her eyes were as blue and almost as bright at sixty-seven as they had been at thirty. Her clear-cut features and slightly aquiline nose had a distinct resemblance to a fine eighteenth-century French miniature, which was suspended with others on a screen at her side. Every detail of her fur trimmed brocade gown and yellowy laces was, as usual, perfectly harmonious, and contributed to a picture which many people added with peculiar pleasure to the gallery of treasures we all collect, and to which no thief can break in and steal. To her grand-daughter alone, probably, of all those who knew her, the vision of that highly-finished woman in her Louis-Seize chair under the softly shaded lamp rose now and then as a dream without agreeable associations. It was apt to recall a sudden sense of failure, of isolation, of helpless clumsiness, and other sensations which are not pleasing even to a nature entirely free from the usual forms of pettiness.

Mrs. Lanion's tall grandson leaned against the chimney-piece with a coffee-cup in his hand, and contemplated her with a smile of gentle, almost paternal satisfaction. There was a strong family likeness between him and his sister, but his face was brighter, keener, and merrier than hers. His eyes were bluer, and what hair was spared by the shears curled crisply over his head. ' ReaUy, grandmother, you are such a credit to our family ! You are an anxiety to me very often, but there, I don't blame you, I assure you I don't ! ' ' Thank you,' said his grandmother blandly, ' it is handsome of you, I am sure. May I be permitted to inquire into the nature of the agitation I cause you ? ' ' You are so giddy ! ' he exclaimed, shaking his head. ' You don't get it from me, I am sure. I look after you as well as I can, but it's all no use ; your young men run after you the minute my back is turned.

Only yesterday I came in at dinner-time, and found you still listening to the impassioned utterances of Edward Bruce.' 'You did,' said his grandmother grimly. ' Well, I believe he had been here for hours.' ' Too true.' ' Mrs. Lanion, I warn you at once I do not approve of that person as a relative, and I shall not give my consent.' ' You had better tell her so,' replied his grandmother drily. ' What ! ' cried Felix, serious in a moment. ' He has not dared to speak about Mary ? Brute! Why didn't you tell me ? I would have kicked him down stairs.' ' I have no doubt you would, and as I am not anxious either for Mary to introduce him as a member of this family, I should be sorry to add a martyr's crown to any other attractions he may have for her.' ' What attractions can he possibly have for her ?

That pragmatical Scotch ass of a don, that self opinionated ' ' There, child,' said his grandmother, interrupting his indignant flow of eloquence, ' don't squander your epithets on me ; though better on me than on her. I don't pretend to understand much about the young women of the present day, Felix. They seem to have invented a new gender, as I have often said before, but ' — she knitted a few stitches, and then went on impressively — ' if they have anything in common with the sex to which I belong, a girl who is only flattered in the usual way by a man's proposal will certainly be driven far along the road towards matrimony, however little she cares for him, if anyone but her self ventures to depreciate what has been offered to her.' ' Oh, I know ! Trust me ; I'll be wilier than the serpent ; but she must not have him, Madam.' ' No,' she replied decidedly. ' But it is quite time she was married, and gave up all this moonshine about an independent life, higher education, and so forth.

Mary is a good-looking girl, but this is absolutely the first offer of marriage she has had. See what comes of being so eccentric. By the time I was twenty-four I had been married seven years ; your father was born on my eighteenth birthday. He was married at twenty-three.' ' Shocking ! But we've altered all that nowa days.' ' More's the pity ! I can't see what you gain by turning out a number of crass, self-opinionated women bachelors, who don't know the elements of their metier de femme, and are never likely to learn them.' ' These are matters too high for me Madam, dear. But we must at all costs prevent Mary from marrying this fellow.' ' I think so too.' ' She is a thousand times too good for him.' Mrs. Lanion only slightly raised her fine eye brows ; she had learned to reserve further expressions of opinion on the subject of Mary, at any rate in the presence of Felix.

There he claimed a monopoly of disapproval. It was one in which he indulged with tolerable freedom, but, as he was also greatly attached to his sister, his grumblings had a genial ring about them, whereas his grandmother's had not. That keen-sighted lady, however, agreed with him entirely on the desirability of preventing a person so displeas ing to them both as was Edward Bruce from entering their domestic circle — if possible. But this was a point on which she did not entirely share her grand son's cheerful confidence. She believed that Mary might prove as untrustworthy as the most feminine of her sex with regard to matrimony, and she feared that her grand-daughter's ideas were sufficiently perverted to make even Edward Bruce conceivable as her ideal of manhood. Mrs. Lanion was a woman who did not, however, submit tamely to the workings of Provi dence or man while there was a possibility of circum venting either by the exercise of a fine diplomacy.