Pharisees. A novel

Chapter I

' " Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees," ' he mused. ' Yes, I am certainly called upon to heed the warning. Beware ! It's plain enough, and kindly intentioned no doubt ; so now let us review the special evils against whicli we are forewarned to be forearmed.' Guy Oldcastle settled himself more com fortably in the seat of the railway carriage, leant his head back against the cushions, and continued his retrospect. It was a long time since his eye had rested on the vol. i. Pharisees. source of that kindly warning, and he was not quite sure how much he could recall of its bearing on his particular case. ' Let me see ! what do they do specially, these Pharisees, that Ave are Avarned against,' he continued, pursuing his subject. " They bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men's shoulders, but they themselves will not move them Avith one of their fingers."

Good ! men's shoulders ! women I suppose are exempt. So if that's the case, load away, good Pharisees, to your heart's content ; my shoulders are broad enough and strong enough, thanks to your kindly early training, to carry any burden you may now see fit to lay upon them. I should only have been afraid if women had been included in your attentions. Well ! what do they do to women, since it is for a woman I am fearful? They devour widows' houses, I know, but it happens that Star is not a widow, nor likely to be one, Pharisees. 3 if fate and I keep up the neAv friendship we have just entered upon. Ah ! I have it ! ' slapping his hand upon his knee and startling a fellow traveller out of an early slumber, who, looking across at Guy Oldcastle, thought he must be a madman, because of the delight with which he was sitting there chuckling to himself regardless of all outside opinion, ' I have it !

"Ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and Avhen he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves." That's where the warning comes in ! That's our case ! That's what the Pharisees will do — or try to do — for Star. Make a proselyte of her — show her the most approved road to damnation ! The question is will she follow ? She is generally strong enough in her own purposes — but all women will sell their souls for the praises of men. On the other hand Star has no soul to sell — so the Pharisees will tell her — she sold hers eight years ago ; 1—2 Pharisees. sold it to me ! Great Heavens ! her con demnation is complete ! ! ' Again he chuckled aloud, half satirically, half derisively, but with an altogether unmerry chuckle ; again his felloAv traveller looked suspiciously across at him ; this time taking the precaution to move to that end of the railway carriage most remote from Guy Oldcastle.

But he, either uncon scious of the estimation in Avhich he Avas held by his neighbour, or being accustomed to stand outside the pale of vulgar sympathy, did not even notice the change of seat, but continued his meditations. It was still the Pharisees who occupied him. ' There is something yet more applicable to our case, if I could only remember it,' he said to himself. ' It's so long since one felt faith in these things, that one's memory fails one. It is something, I know, about shutting the kingdom of Heaven against those Avho — besides themselves — might by chance be entering in. This is of course. Pharisees. 5 They will shut the doors and double lock them too as an extra precaution, so that Star, and such as Star, shall by no means find a way in. They have willed it so from the beginning, you see, and they are bound to prove themselves right.

Oh ! my Star, you have yet to learn the surpassing wisdom of self-righteousness ! You have yet to understand that if you don't condemn yourself, by differing from them, they will not condemn you. Only, poor child, you hap pen to have set them at naught already, and they will never pardon you. They have baptized you sinner, and nothing you can ever do or say now will prove you righteous. You will always be arrayed in battle against them — always. But you are strong, child — strong in your own uprightness — and they won't frighten you — not easily,' he added, a doubt of her strength or theirs still pursuing him. Guy Oldcastle was travelling at express speed from London southAvards, and his 1' ha risers. thoughts were travelling even faster. They were going before him to the end, not of a day's, but of a life's journey.

They were striving to grasp all the possibilities of his future ; striving to handle the probabilities of his present — this neAv, strange present Avhich to-day was beginning for him. He Avas going home after eight years of exile ; going to take possession of money and lands, and a name which was known throughout the length and breadth of the county and far beyond it. An old family name, which tradition said he alone in all its annals had ever disgraced. Behold him then to-day called upon to bear it before the face of all men ! How Avould it sit upon him, and, Avorse still, Iioav would it sit upon Star ? They had clone very well, these two, as Australian farmers, and received honour enough in the little community, amongst Avhich they had lived and worked. They made no great gain, truly ; but, then, they Pharisees. 7 lost nothing, having had nothing to lose.

To-day they possess everything this world holds worth the possession, except — the good-will of their fellows. ' But this we can buy Avith the rest,' Guy Oldcastle said, satirizing the greed of men, ' one values Avhat one pays for so much above what is given one gratis !' He had won some fame as a satirist through the columns of a New England journal; but all he had imagined Avas poor in comparison with the irony of his own fate as it laid itself out for review before him on this homeward journey. The story of his life — up to about three months ago — was as the story of a thousand others. His family Avas wealthy and respected, bore a good old county name, and good old county honour. The land was entailed, and Guy Oldcastle was not the eldest son. Neither was he the second son who, if Pharisees. the first should die, must hold himself ready to step into his shoes and wear them, as if they had been made for him.

Guy Oldcastle was a third son, and therefore of no account ; a very cypher in the family calculations. He Avas, too, quite unlike the rest in person and disposition ; had from childhood a disagreeable habit of reasoning for himself, and taking nothing for granted because older ancl Aviser people said to him ' such things are ' — the conse quence Avas that older and wiser people despised him. Later, this habit of differing from his family caused dissensions ancl quarrels amongst them, and ultimately, separation. But for separation other grounds than mere independence of thought must be found for their self -justification's sake. These were soon forthcoming. Guy Old castle fell in love with an actress ! a second-class actress on a provincial stage ! — a nobody — a worse than nobody I This, of Pharisees. 9 course, was humbling enough to their pride when they discovered the fact, but when he told them in self -justification, as he supposed, being ignorant of their creed, that as soon as he became independent he should marry this ' worse than nobody,' there was no more mercy for him in Heaven, or on earth.

He had always been ' utterly devoid of principle,' ' utterly depraved,' 'utterly reckless of his duty to his family and to society.' ' But,' said paternal justice, ' I will take care that through me at least the means of com mitting this crime shall never be his. He shall choose between his home and such portion of the family money as I am able to leave away from the estate, or exile and disinheritance.' Guy chose the latter alternative, which he called independence, and he went away an emigrant to Australia, taking Star, the actress — the worse than nobody — with him as his wife. But three months ago, after a day of Pharisees. 10 hard work and some disappointment, when Guy and Star ancl their eight-year-old son were sitting at the door of their 'hut,' trying to be hopeful in the face of new difficulties, tidings reached them from home.

Home ! a word utterly meaningless to these two as regarded the country of their birth. Other emigrants talked of ' Home,' but they, never. The tidings were, that a fever had entered the house of Oldcastle, and had cut off in the space of one Aveek, the father and tAvo sons, and that he, Guy, had succeeded to the property and estates. He must return to England immediately, he was informed, and take possession of his own. At first, he could not say whether he were glad or sorry at the neAvs. But soon the old ambition of bis boyhood, old dreams of greatness and power, had new birth within him, and he triumphed with the fiendish triumph of a slave, who, at last, sets his foot upon his tyrant's neck. He triumphed, not over his own success, but Pharisees. 11 over the fall of those who had struggled to crush him.

Fate had ranged herself on his side at last, and poor human effort had crumbled into dust at the touch of the hand, Avhich she held out to lead him onwards and upwards. There was only one thing now whicli made him doubt of the good this change must bring to him — Star ! Hoav would they receive her, these men and women amongst Avhom he Avas to work out his greatness ? And if they refused to receive her, how should he stand up amongst them ? For the first time (but secretly, there being too much of manhood in him to betray his Aveakness) he argued that, perhaps, after all his father had been right, and there was no honour in such a marriage as his. ' Society ' condemned it altogether on principle of some kind he supposed; he had taken upon himself to differ from 'society;' but — was 'society' right after all ?

At any rate, Guy Oldcastle, looking Pharisees. at ' Society ' in the new light of his oaati prosperity, admitted — the possibility of error on his own part. He, avIio until uoav had scoffed at a Society, ancl satirized a Christi anity Avhich dared to preach openly in its streets that marriage might be a greater sin, a worse dishonour than heart-breaking, or trust-betraying ! The Temple of Diana might be pillaged, and its most sacred treasure taken from it, because in the weakness of a new faith someone trusting you had failed to send you away thirsting from its doors. And this was not sacrilege ■this was not dishonour. ' Well ! Diana was a myth,' Guy argued, now learning his new faith ; ' and an enlightened society does not believe in robbing and pillaging what never existed. There are no temples to-day, there are only public thoroughfares, and Society is right to Avarn the passer by, that he has but to look carefully to his own safety, and to steer clear of dangerous places.' Pharisees. 13 Society had warned him, and he had not heeded its warning, and now perchance he would be called upon to pay the penalty. ' But if Star does not find me out,' he said, ' what matter ! A little more or a little less of deceit is of no account.' The end justifies the means !

Chapter II

It Avas five o'clock in the evening before Guy Oldcastle reached Oldcastle Station, and called himself at home. Amongst other things he had been wondering hoAV they Avould receive him at Oldcastle. Should he find an empty house, SAvept and garnished, or Avould his family — all that remained of it — be in possession still ; refusing to yield up the old territory to the neAv sovereign one moment before he should compel them. It was because Guy Oldcastle had doubted of all these things, that he left Star and the boy in London. It was arranged that they should follow him later, Pharisees. 15 when he should have made certain, that none of the Pharisees should be found Avait ing on the doorstep to strike the first blow at Star as she crossed the very threshold of her new life. As to his OAvn reception, he need not, knoAving his family, have doubted the propriety with which all things Avould be done.

He had Avarned them of his coming, and the carriage was at Old castle Station to meet him, with the servants to Avait upon him, and the luggage cart for his effects. Only Guy, having for all luggage one small portmanteau, started in his neAv life, by putting to utter confusion his own obsequious servants. For obsequious enough they were noAv, these very men who eight years ago had sneered at his orders, and Avatched his doings, and made reports against him, to curry favour AAith his eldest brother, the heir, avIio had hated him always. But, as usual, Guy, satirizing their reformation, said, ' They are only making to themselves friends of the Pharisees. mammon of unrighteousness, in obedience to orders, that they may be received into our houses. Other people besides servants will find this somewhat difficult doctrine easy enough of acceptance now.

I shall make myself the exponent of a new faith. It is Avell to be looked up to for some thing!' And Guy Oldcastle, making himself comfortable in the carriage, drove horne- Avards, leaving Theology to prove or dis prove itself by its results. It Avas a drive of over three miles to Old castle, and he, being unaccustomed to restraint, grew restless in his confinement. He stopped the carriage at the park-gates, sent it home empty, and decided to walk for the remainder of the way. Another mile he must pass over from the park-gates to the house — a mile of turf and woods, and lakes, and all the peace breathing beauty of an English pastoral landscape. Pharisees. 17 Pride, a mighty pride, awoke in Guy Oldcastle's soul, as his eye ranged over the thousand acres of hill, and valley, and level meadow-land which was his own, and his children's after him — pride of possession, pride of race and blood, national pride, and pride of intellect.

As he walked slowly over the soft undulations of turf, in no hurry to reach the house, he laid out the whole plan of his future as in a map before him. He would take politics as the field for his ambition ; he would govern not only men but nations, compelling them to his will. The heads of the Oldcastle family had from all time represented the county in Parliament ; he should meet with no op position. ' There is one thing rather against me,' he said ; ' I left home a Radical, and I return to support the Tories ! And this is — I was going to say, principle — but it's custom, whicli is the same thing. A man is always a Radical Avhen he has. vol. i. Pharisees. 18 nothing to lose, and some notoriety to gain. Principle is always Radical ; necessity, Conservative.' Guy laughed aloud, satirizing himself, even as he had satirized the Pharisees, who were to sit in judgment upon Star.

Presently, he could see the red gables of the house smiling him welcome through the trees, with the gloAv of the setting sun on the AvindoAvs, luring him, beacon-like, to his rest. Oldcastle Avas celebrated in all the county — not as being a specimen of any special style of architecture of any particular date or era, but as a Avhole of perfect artistic beauty. Long, low, and irregular, it strayed and wandered about, and was lost to sight and appeared again, and seemed to be ahvays playing hide-and-seek with the trees. It was old, very old, all of it, and in some parts falling into decay, notwithstanding the care which generations of devoted OAvners had spent upon it to keep it Pharisees. 19 habitable. But this crumbling aAvay and mouldering of now unused parts, only gave it the extra charm of romance and senti ment.

It looked so sleepy when the sun shone over it, and so ghostly when the moon deepened the shadows, and sharpened the outline, and gave to it a size and majesty which was not all its own. Until to-day Guy Oldcastle had never felt its beauty. He had heard people going into what he sneered at as ' raptures ' about it, and talking what he called ' senti mental nonsense,' about poetry, and art, and harmony, and their embodiment in Oldcastle. But for him it had held no charm of any kind, for none of its softening influences had fallen over his life. It had been to him nothing but the lurking-place of tyranny and injustice, and of self righteous bigotry. Bigotry, which, wrap ping itself about in a convenient garment, shaped and fashioned by society, and calling itself religion, set itself upon a throne, and 2—2 Pharisees. inscribed itself the Judge over all humanity,. and the door-keeper of Humanity's heaven. ' But they will open to me now,' he said, thinking of all these things ; ' even a place in heaven can be bought with the rest.' And then he reached the house.

There was a high porch over the door, creeper-covered, with seats underneath it, and old stained-glass windows. The bell hung in the roof of the porch, and was pulled by a rope, like a church bell ; but its voice was deep and mellow, and it seemed to bid him welcome to his home. The door was opened by the man Avho had always opened it from the earliest time of Guy's remembrance. He looked not a day older in these eight years, and he smiled patronizingly upon his new master, as who should say, ' Enter ; I will forgive you all your past sins for the sake of our future fellowship.' But Guy scarcely acknowledged the condescension, for his mother was standing Pharisees. 21 in the hall with hand outstretched to bid him welcome. His heart beat with a new gladness. Not that he loved his mother ; she had never sought love of him, or offered him any in return ; but he was glad that she had come out to greet him.

Some human voice had elected to bid him welcome home ; some human hand would lead him over the threshold of his new possession. He took her hand and kissed her on both cheeks, and put his arm in hers as they made their way across the hall, and through the armoury, and up the broad oak stair case to the drawing-room. But there had been no response to the warmth of his greeting. ' We are glad you were able to come so soon, Guy,' was what she said, speaking in a dry mechanical voice. ' It is right for you and for the place, that you should take possession early. I have kept all things in order for you ; but Oldcastle Avas never without a master.' Pharisees. ' Or a mistress,' he said jestingly, remembering that his mother had always been chief ruler there. But she, not understanding a joke, mistook his meaning, and ansAvered as if apologising for an omission. ' Yes — pardon me — I hope she is well ; for the moment I was forgetting.' ' She— who ?' ' Your — er — your wife.' Mrs. Oldcastle laid special point on the word wife, as if she Avere bringing herself by force to acknowledge, for duty's sake, something, which like many other duties of to-day was utterly repellant to her. ' Star !

I wasn't thinking of Star — but she's quite Avell.' ' And the boy — my grandson ?' with less of condescension. You see, he was an Oldcastle, and she never denied to her family its full meed of honour. ' Never ill in his life — has his mother's faculty for perfect health ; but I doubt Pharisees. 23 not you will soon alter all that with your English prejudices against what you call exposure and fatigue, but which we call air and exercise. Luckily for the good of the boy, Star is not an Englishwoman.' ' Not English ! I understood she had that virtue ' (if not any other — implied). 'By birth she's English — or I suppose she is — I meant educationally.' ' Indeed; Avhere then was she educated?' (I did not know that she was educated at all — implied.) ' Her education has been someAvhat cosmopolitan, certainly,' he answered. ' Europe, Asia, America, Australia.

Oh ! I assure you she does not lack that precious possession, worldly wisdom — the wisdom of experience,' he added sarcastically. • But you told me she was only twenty eight now ; she cannot have much experience at eight-and-twenty.' ' At Oldcastle one can't certainly. Some people live as much in ten years or five, Pharisees. as others in their three score. Star has lived, and I have lived. But I suppose Ave shall die now.' ' Hoav so ? I don't understand you.' ' We shall have to bury — as decently as we may — our individuality. We cannot afford to be ourselves now ; we must die, and in our places we are expected to set up an effigy of ourselves, which will be dressed and fashioned by an obliging society avIio will pull the strings, and we shall dance.' ' You may have lived, but you have not benefited by the lessons life has offered you.

I had hoped you would have learnt by this time, that there is neither wisdom nor honour in scorning the laws, social or moral, of the society in which you live.' ' Pardon me. I said I was about to acknowledge the wisdom of your teaching, and to practise it.' They had passed through the hall where Pharisees. 25 the armour, and the war trophies, and the trophies of the chase had greeted him with old familiar forms and faces. These at least had never done him injustice, and he raised loAdng eyes to them as group by group he passed them on his way to the drawing-room. They had Avalked always arm in arm, he and his mother, to the infinite satisfaction of the servants, who, watching them, augured well for the stability of their appointments when the old mistress and the new master Avere seen entering life arm in arm.

About the new mistress they neither thought nor cared ; they had her history by heart, and that was sufficient for them ; she was a mere cypher in their calculations. When they came to the drawing-room door, Guy loosed his mother's arm, to let her pass in before him. Following her, he saw gathered together a goodly assemblage of people, but not one of Pharisees. them came forward to meet him. How ever, they were relations, and he, knowing them, felt no surprise. Nearest to him was his eldest sister, Martha, who looked up from knitting a stocking, gave him the tips of her fingers and remarked as if she had parted with him yesterday, ' You have arrived earlier than we expected. We calculated that you would reach here at half-past six ; it is only a quarter past. How do you find mother looking ?' and she resumed her knitting.

He answered that his mother was but little changed, or herself (Martha) either ; and then he passed on to the next in order of nearness. That was ' Jo,' and Jo was absorbed in pulling her mastiff's ears, and rolling up the skin on his neck, so that she did not notice her brother's outstretched hand, until he spoke to her. Then she turned, took up the dog's huge paw, and put it where her oavii should have gone — into Guy's hand. Pharisees. 27 ' Mentor is proud to see the lord and master,' she said, speaking with the voice and manner of a ' doggy ' or ' horsey ' fellow fresh from college. ' Mentor repre sents his mistress, ergo, his mistress is proud.' There Avas intended insolence in the manner of this reception, but as Mentor Avas a dog, and as dogs as a race Avere dear to Guy, he shook the grand old paw more warmly than he would have shaken Jo's hand.

Beyond Jo again, in a corner on the sofa, as if he had left her yesterday, reposed Tiny, the youngest of the family ; the pet, the invalid — Tiny, who was always suffering from something indescribable and altogether imperceptible ; Tiny, avIio could go to a ball and dance all night if her special partner happened to ' suit ' her, but who must ' lie up ' the whole of the followipg day, and the next, and the next, unless indeed there was another ball Pharisees. to follow, or a favoured lover (all men Avere lovers to Tiny) was coming to enquire after her well being. Tiny Avas always ' poor dear Tiny,' and ' sweet child ;' and she always expected to be petted and kissed by her sisters and friends Avho brought her little offerings to lighten the weariness of her confinement to her couch. Of course she was the family tyrant, and of course she said and did whatever it entered into her versatile mind to say and do, regardless of its effect upon the comfort or convenience of her neighbours.

If Tiny flew in a passion and flung at Martha's head her last gift of flowers or fruit gathered Avith some toil and back breaking on the part of the long-suffering elder sister, they only said of it ' Poor child, she has such a highly-strung nervous sensibility.' If Tiny played at her favourite game of shooting little delicately pointed shafts into people's tenderest wounds, they were asked not to heed her, for constant Pharisees. 29 suffering had made her ' a little thoughtless sometimes.' The consequence was, that Tiny prided herself on being able to say and do with impunity — nay, to be admired for saying and doing — what in any other person under the sun would have been accounted insolence and heartlessness. ' So you really did come when you said you . would,' Tiny remarked in a thin far away voice, Avhich seemed to come from anywhere else than from human lips ; and she dropped a little weary hand into Guy's, but the strength to remove it failing her, it lay there as if affectionately, which, however, was far enough from its meaning. ' Your character has improved evidently ; you have developed punctuality, which was not a strong point Avith you.

Can't say as much for the improvement in your person. You are as ugly as ever,' and Tiny looked round at the assembled com pany for admiration of her ' honesty.' Pharisees. Some of them smiled back upon her, as they would smile on a whimsical child, and she was content. The others of the party were tAvo cousins, Will Orme, a gilded youth of the period, Avhose money Avas supposed to stand to him in the place of brains, and his sister Phyllis. Now Guy Oldcastle, in the days of his very early youth, had imagined that he loved this beautiful cousin Phyllis who belonged to the world of frivolity and fasbion. She had not held him in con tempt and scorn, as did the others of his family. She understood and acknowledged his intellect and his great mental strength, and having an intellect of her own, and a mind of her own, she had been able to sympathise Avith him in his Teachings after knowledge.

Guy was grateful for the part she took with him, and out of gratitude grew love. Whether Phyllis had ever loved him, he did not Pharisees. 31 know to this day ; she had never expressed anything but the gentlest affection for him, but then Phyllis had stood out always to ' make a good match,' and Guy at that time was out of all calculation — a third son ! Very soon Guy learnt that his feeling for Phyllis had been only a sentiment, Avhich flew aAvay ashamed at the first bidding of real loATe. He met Star, and after that there Avas no more thought of his cousin, ever. So, to-day, he greeted Phyllis without any shade of uneasiness, but with unusual warmth ; taking both her hands in his and holding them all the time he was speaking. ' You are glad to see me, Phyllis ?' he said, looking to her, as in the old days, for sympathy. ' Very glad, Guy, very, very glad ; glad to see you, and glad of all the good things Avhich have come to you.