Major Joshua. A novel

Front matter

MAJOR JOSHUA M A J O E JOSHU A A NOVEL BY FEANCIS FOESTEB LONDON LONGMANS, GEE EN, AND CO. AND NEW YORK : 15 EAST IU"' STREET 1894 All rights TPser ted CONTENTS iiAi'il.r: i-Alill I. A letter of introduction 1 II. AT HALTON TOWEES Il' III. .Mits, fenwick's system '-''. IV. VALENTINE AND MARGARET 40 V. MAJOR ROBINSON AS A PRIVATE DETECTIVE . . ',_ VI. AN APPEAL TO A NON-EXISTENT HEART . . . (Ill VII. THE MAJOR'S MORALITY 80 VIII. PHAYRE-LEIGHTON 1)1 IX. THE GATES OF HELL In:; X. A CRUEL CONTRAST 120 XI. IN IDA'S BEDROOM 127 XII. CONCERNING WOODCOCK AND WINE . . . . 13." I3.i XIII. OS THE CORRIDOR 117 XIV. THE MAJOR GOES TO RED TOO EARLY . . . lafi XV. THE MORPHIA WORKS MORE -MISCHIEF . . 107 107 XVI. END OF THE DRAMA AT HALToX . . . 1 7(i XVII VANITY, VANITY, ALL IS VANITY .... IS.j VI CHAPTEB PA«K XVIII.

MARRIED LIFE 195 XIX. CAPTAIN BERESFORD RETURNS 200 XX. THE LAST OF HALTON 205 XXI. MRS. FENWICK'S NEW FAITH 211 XXII. THE MAJOR TAKES OBSERVATIONS .... 222 XXIII. IN THE ROSE GARDEN -'■>. xxiv. A kiss 240 XXV. THE MAJOR LISTENS 250 XXVI. ENLIGHTENMENT 263 XXVII. THE BIRTH OF A HEART 268 XXVIII. MAJOR ROBINSON GIVES ADVICE .... 27!) XXIX. REMORSE 287 XXX. AT MONTE CARLO 292 XXXI. UNITED 208 XXXII. AN OFFER OF MARRIAGE 3(1-1 XXXIII. MRS. BROWN MAKES AN EFFORT 314 XXXIV. THE GATES OF HELL ONCE MORE ....

Introduction

Captain Beresford was decidedly out of temper as he waited for an answer to his ring at the door of a neat little, house in a pleasant street overlooking a park in Dunchester, the northern manufacturing town where his battery had arrived a few days before. It is a fact worth chronicling that Captain Beres ford was out of temper, because it was a failing of which he was not often guilty. The longest morning on parade, the worst moods of his Major, who was renowned throughout the Service as the greatest marti net in the British Army, even the refusal of leave when he had a more than usually tempting invitation to some good shooting, generally left him smiling and unruffled after a trifling outburst of righteous anger. But on this particular day everything seemed to have gone wrong with him. He had spent a long morning in a stifling church 1! in a thick uniform, and now, after a heavy luncheon, he had had a long hot walk from the outlying barracks, through narrow baking streets, under the blazing August sun.

He was annoyed at leaving all his friends at his last station, and particularly a certain young lady of whom he had thought rather too much for his own peace of mind ; he was annoyed that his battery had been sent to Dunchester, which he openly stigmatized as a ' beastly hole,' and, at that moment, he was espe cially annoyed in thinking of the errand which had caused him to take so much unnecessary exercise in the dog days. ' I cannot imagine why that ass, Johnstone, would insist upon my bringing a letter of introduction to this tiresome Major Robinson,' he muttered half aloud. ' Johnstone is just the sort of idiot to be mortally offended if I do not make use of it too. I foresee that all this man will do for me will be to ask me to some stupid dinner, to meet a set of boring commercial pro vincials, who will talk about nothing but the price of iron and the depression in the coal trade, and who will play indifferent whist.' These gloomy reflections were at this stage inter rupted by the opening of the door, and Captain Beres ford had to exert himself to utter the formula, ' Is Major Robinson at home ? ' ' Yes, sir,' answered the man, and he led the way through a small softly carpeted hall into a room which combined the characteristics of library and smoking room.

The gaily striped blinds outside the windows subdued the afternoon glare ; a little cool breeze came through the open windows, wafting in a faint scent of mignonette from the boxes on the sills. When the servant had gone, taking the letter of introduction to his master, Beresford installed himself in the most comfortable chair he could find, near one of the windows, and looked round with an air of some satisfaction. There was no attempt at artistic decoration in the room, but everything was eminently comfortable. There were a few good etchings on the dull blue walls, some pieces of valuable china in a small corner cabinet. An old-fashioned rosewood piano seemed to be used as a book-stand ; there was a large volume with coloured plates, which looked suspiciously like a cookery book, open on the music desk, and the top was piled with books of travel, with biographies and philosophical works.

There were books everywhere, the walls were almost lined with them and the tables overladen. ' Very comfortable diggings, anyhow,' Beresford said to himself, feeling every moment more charitably disposed towards his unknown host. ' I wonder if Johnstone's tale was true that it was some love trouble that made him leave the Service. I hope Major Joshua Robinson will not turn out to be a melancholy dyspeptic cynic ; can't stand him if he is — shall have to shunt him promptly. He must have taken being crossed in love very much to heart to give up his career when he b was getting promotion so rapidly ; nearly got a CB. for some special service in Burmah, Johnstone said. Rather cool, keeping me waiting like this. Perhaps the sight of Johnstone's fist has brought back sad remembrances, and he is weeping in the next room or writing an ode to his lost love. 1 don't mind much if he does not come; could not be more comfortable than I am, if I only had something to drink.

I wonder how Mary is, and if she misses me ? Perhaps I was a fool to leave the place without saying something to her, but a man cannot marry on little more than his pay. Probably the next time I see her she will be married to some other fellow ; whoever he is, he will have a dear little woman for a wife. How sweet that mignonette smells ! I wonder why it reminds me of Mary ? I wonder if this man means to come at all ? I wonder ' Captain Beresford ceased to wonder. He was fast asleep. Although it was already four o'clock Major Robinson had not yet reached the marmalade stage of a very excellent breakfast. He had eaten a devilled sole and was about to attack a cold grouse, when his servant handed him Colonel Johnstone's letter and a visiting card with ' Captain George Beresford, Royal Artillery,' upon it. ' Johnstone always was the greatest ass,' was his inward comment as he read his late chief's note. ' Why on earth does he send this young cub to me ?

" You will find Beresford a very good fellow " (that remains to be proved), " an excellent billiard player " (what good is that to me ? he will only win my money), "a capital whist player" (soldier's whist, no doubt, the worst in Europe), " and the possessor of the most lovely tenor voice in the Service " (as though I cared for his squalling). For this accomplished young gentleman's own sake I trust he is comfortable in the next room, because if he wishes to see me he will have to wait until I have finished breakfast. I draw the line at talking at breakfast, therefore I will not have him in here ; it is distinctly impossible that I should leave this grouse, therefore I cannot go to him in there. It is a nuisance that the man is here at all ; ergo, if he goes away in a rage I shall be clearly the gainer.

He will have to go when the cart comes round to take me to the Towers. Wait a moment, I have a happy thought. A whist player, Johnstone says. It will not be a bad idea to take him with me. He would make up our rubber, in the place of Valentine.' As he thus satisfac torily concluded his soliloquy. Major Robinson resumed the usual air of contentment that had been for a moment disturbed by the unwelcome intrusion of his guest, and once more turned his attention to the grouse that he had forsaken to read the letter. Having in the most leisurely fashion and with the keenest appetite finished his breakfast, he at length decided that the moment had arrived when the duties of hospitality might be attended to ; and he betook himself to the next room, where Captain Beresford was still placidly sleeping in the big easy chair by the window. ' H'm ! he has been pretty comfortable, it seems,' said the Major to himself as he surveyed his slumbering guest. 'There's plenty of him, anyhow.

Rather a beauty man, too. Favourite with the women, probably. Poor devil ! that means scrapes. Looks a bit of a fool, too. The billiards may be true, but I doubt the whist more than ever. Perhaps I had better wake him.' Whereupon Major Robinson proceeded to stir up the sleeping beauty with his own stick, which had fallen on the floor beside him. Captain Beresford slowly opened a pair of very merry blue eyes, eyes which abundantly redeemed his face from any imputation of want of intelligence, and leisurely returned his host's survey. He saw a short, wiry, rosy, middle-aged man, with small, keen, grey eyes and a high narrow forehead. His dark hair was beginning to be a trifle thin on the temples, but his smooth firm flesh was unlined by a single furrow. He looked like a man to whom care had been unknown.

He exhaled an atmosphere of cheerfulness. Mark Tapley, in the flesh, grown older, the other thought. Beresford shook hands with his host somewhat frigidly. He noticed that the clock on the mantelpiece showed the hour to be half-past four, revealing to him that he had been sleeping undisturbed for half an hour, and he felt that he did well to be aggrieved thereat. ' I began to be afraid that I had made some mistake, and that Colonel Johnstone's letter had been given to the wrong person,' he said, with dignity, looking towards the clock with marked intention. ' Oh, no ! it was quite right,' serenely answered the Major, upon whom an assumption of dignity was always entirely thrown away. ' I was only finishing breakfast. lam very pleased you amused yourself by going to sleep ; it is the very best preventive, of bore dom that I know.

I ought to have sent Brown to tell you that I should be some time, and have sent you something to drink ; but somehow it never occurred to me. You see I was not thirsty myself; that might account for the oversight, but judging by a long and varied experience I should imagine you are. Have a cigar, and I will ring. Let me recommend hock and seltzer with ice. By the bye, I know you won't mind my mentioning that you are sitting in my favourite chair. I am very sorry to disturb you, but one becomes a slave to habit in these little matters, and it is the only really comfortable chair in the room.' Beresford felt very much inclined to leave not only the one comfortable chair in the room, but the room itself, and to bid adieu to Major Joshua Robinson for ever ; and, alas ! for poor human nature that it should be said, it was only the promised advent of the cooling drink that prevented the impulse being carried into execution.

He sold his dignity for a mixture of wine and mineral water, and seated himself on the second best chair. ' I did not expect to find anyone keeping such hours in this dead and alive old hole,' he said. ' Breakfast at four o'clock ! That means the small hours last night, does it not ? ' ' Most certainly not. The men here are much too respectable to play cards after midnight on a Saturday evening, and even if they were willing to do so, I should decline. When you are my age, my dear fellow, I trust for your own sake you will have discovered that nothing in the world is worth sitting up for after midnight. I lie in bed every Sunday morning until three o'clock, because I have a theory that the brain and digestion need complete rest once a week. It is a sounder development of the Christian idea of keeping holy the seventh day.

I should not get up at all on Sundays if it were not that I begin to feel hungry and bored after a time; nature's signals that the necessary recuperation is complete.' ' No doubt you have already successfully overcome the hunger,' said Beresford ; ' but may I ask how you usually battle against the other demon, the boredom ? From what I hear, Sundays at Dunchester are days to be remembered and avoided.' ' I regard boredom as an evil only second to dys pepsia,' answered the Major. ' If an occupation bores me I leave it, and if a man bores me I leave him. As to the Sundays, I always go and see some friends in the afternoon, who live a few miles out of the town ; which reminds me that my dog-cart will be here in a few minutes.' ' That statement comes with crushing effect after the one before it.

I presume I must consider myself classed as " an evil only second to dyspepsia." Perhaps you may not find this demon so easily exorcised. I distinctly refuse to be turned out before I finish this excellent hock and seltzer,' laughingly said Beresford, who was quite restored to his usual good temper by this time. ' As you have mentioned the subject,' said the Major, ' I don't mind telling you ' (he never did mind telling anybody anything) ' that I expected you would bore me intensely. 1 regarded the mere fact of Johnstone praising you as prima facie evidence that you were an unmitigated idiot. I always thought him the greatest fool in the Service, and that is saying a good deal.' Beresford promptly decided to imitate his new friend's candour. ' And I don't mind telling you that as I came here I thought myself an unmitigated idiot also, to con template delivering any letter of introduction from Johnstone.

Any man that Johnstone calls clever and original is certain to be a consummate ass, I said to myself at least a dozen times.' Major Robinson laughed with intense enjoyment. ' Good ! I think you had the best of that little skirmish. And now, if you care to have practical proof that I have misjudged Johnstone, I will give it by asking you to come to Halton Towers, the Fenwicks' place, with me to-day. They are always glad to see any friends of mine.' Beresford hesitated. 'I should like to acknowledge that Johnstone is not such an ass as I gave him credit for being, by saying Yes to your offer, but I have had enough walking on this day of rest, and you say this place is a few miles away. How can I get back ? ' ' I will drive you back. I think you will like the Fenwicks. The eldest daughter, Margaret, is far and away the handsomest girl in the county.' Beresford at once accepted the invitation. ' Strange and inexplicable, this desire of nearly all young men, and of many old ones, to gaze upon a beautiful woman ! ' murmured the Major, with his eyes musingly fixed on Beresford. ' The prospect of a day spent in the society of a man like myself, from whom you would learn nothing bnt sound wisdom and philosophy, who could give you the benefit of a wide and varied experience of life, seems comparatively unattractive ; whereas you eagerly embrace the opportunity of making the acquaintance of a creature who will possibly make you imagine yourself miserable by refusing to marry you, or make you really uncomfortable by consenting.' ' I don't think I shall be in great danger from your Miss Margaret's charms. I have seen more than one pretty woman in my time, and a poverty-stricken younger son like myself cannot allow his thoughts to A LETTER OE

INTRODUCTION.

run on matrimony.' And George. Beresford sighed as he thought of the Mary who was at the other end of England. Major Robinson made a mental note of the sigh, and privately determined to find out the producing cause. His curiosity was as insatiable as his persever ing energy in gratifying it was great. It fared ill with the man or woman of his acquaintance who had a secret of which he could by any possibility get on the track. They were wise to tell him everything at once, and throw themselves upon his mercy to help them to keep it hidden. Otherwise it would be proclaimed from the housetops. At this moment Brown quietly entered, and an nounced that the dog-cart was at the door, and in a few minutes the new allies were bowling along the road north of Dunchester, behind a handsome high stepping chestnut. Major Robinson had the best horses and the best cook in the county.

Chapter II At Halton Towers

They drove past terraces and villas in the suburbs, and then into country lanes, past fields and hedges which were surprisingly fresh and green considering their proximity to smoky, manufacturing Dunchester, until they arrived at a handsome lodge and gates, through which an avenue of fine old beeches could be seen. The park and gardens had all the beauty which age alone can give, but the house before the door of which Major Robinson stopped his dog-cart was disappoint ingly and aggressively new. The smoke from the distant town had not had time to more than slightly tinge the stonework ; the handsome parapets and castellated outlines looked harsh and crude against the summer sky. It was a modern castle with the electric light and a lift, instead of wax candles in old brass sconces and a winding stair. ' Tell me something about these friends of yours,' said Beresford, as he and Major Robinson went in search of Mrs. Fenwick, who, they were informed, was having tea in the garden. ' How does it happen that this hideous modern house is in the midst of these lovely gardens and fine old trees ? ' ' Because the late Charles Fenwick had sufficient common sense to prefer drainage and ventilation to mediævalism and typhoid.

He pulled down a pic turesque but eminently uncomfortable old castle, that had stood here since the fourteenth century, and built this " desirable family residence " in its place. Art lovers were scandalised, but he was comfortable. And Charles Fenwick's personal well-being was always Charles Fenwick's first and only care. His widow and two daughters are here now. Margaret, the beauty, is twenty-two, and Ida is a delightful child of sixteen. There is only one son, who is abroad at present. I shall not tell you anything more, because I want you to give me your candid and unaided opinion about them as we drive home. It always amuses me to hear the impression the people I know have made upon a stranger.' ' But it would be an impossibility to give a really candid opinion if the first impression were unfavourable,' said Beresford. ' I could not very well abuse your friends to you.' ' I assure you that you need have no scruples of that sort,' said the Major earnestly ; ' I merely cultivate people's acquaintance because they interest or amuse me.

The Fenwicks are popularly supposed to be my greatest friends, but it would not give me a pang if they were all annihilated to-morrow. One can always find a substitute for anybody and everybody except oneself. If one could imagine the case of some fabulous dragon of old coming into the garden at this moment seeking whom he might devour, I should say to him as politely as I could for terror, " Spare me, good monster, and I will conduct you to a much more delicate meal round the corner of this hedge. Devour Mrs. Fenwick ! Devour the lovely Margaret ! Devour my young and tender friend Miss Ida ! But do not devour me ! " The Fenwick family I could quickly replace ; but to Joshua Robinson, Joshua Robinson's loss would be irreparable.' At this moment they turned the corner where Major Robinson's mythical wild beast had been supposed to be shown a more dainty meal than a tough middle-aged soldier, and found themselves in the presence of Mrs. Fenwick and her elder daughter.

Beresford quickly decided that his new friend's taste was unimpeachable. He had seldom seen two more beautiful and distinguished-looking women. They were as much alike as a mother and daughter can be, aud yet there was subtly expressed in every line and feature a curious difference of feeling and tempera ment. The masses of blue-black hair, the broad low brow, the thick straight eyebrows, the short Grecian nose, the somewhat square contour of cheek and chin, were identical, but the brilliant dark eyes of the mother were lit up by a fire which never gleamed beneath the daughter's languidly drooping eyelids ; round the panther's clearly cut lips there were lines that might have been caused by passion or by pain, whilst the daughter's only smiled serenely, as yet, with a disdainful weariness.

After the necessary introductions were over, Captain Beresford devoted himself to his hostess, and the Major talked to Margaret with the familiarity of an old family friend. Mrs. Fenwick's manner was all that was graceful and charming, her welcome most cordial ; yet perhaps it was only natural that Beresford's attention should wan der to the younger and fresher beauty, seated on a low basket chair a few yards away, who was listening with an air of interested amusement to what her companion was saying. He did not hear a polite speech Mrs. Fenwick made, about her hope that he would find Dunchester a pleasant station, because he was straining his ears at the moment to catch a sentence of Miss Fenwick's that sounded very like ' It is an impertinence in a man to be so beautiful ; ' and he entirely failed to smile and give a civil answer, because he was trying to guess who the man might be.

It is one of the most difficult things in the world to try to talk to one person, and smile and answer in the right place, when nearly all your faculties are absorbed in listening to and watching another. A woman has been known to succeed in this, and even to make her companion go away with the pleased conviction that he had been remarkably entertaining to a singularly intelligent person ; but a man is clumsy in deceit of this sort, and when, after tea was over, a walk round the garden was suggested, Beresford would have been sur prised to know that it was Mrs. Fenwick, and not he, who contrived a change of companionship. It was not long, however, before Beresford began to wish that he were still talking to the older lady. Margaret had all her mother's grace and ease of manner, but the cordiality was lacking.

Whilst per fectly civil and amiable, she gave him an undefinable impression that she was profoundly uninterested. And Beresford was accustomed to have his vanity soothed instead of ruffled. He had more often been embarrassed by an excess of interest in himself, his doings, and his sayings, than tacitly snubbed by an utter unconcern. The only gleam of animation Miss Fenwick displayed was when he spoke of Major Robinson. ' I delight in him,' she said, with evident sincerity ; ' his imperturbability is absolutely sublime. It is impos sible to make him angry, because he cares for nobody and hates nobody, and he has no small deceptions or vanities. I have no doubt he has already told you some of his views of men and things, and the curious part of it is that he is not posing in the very least. His selfishness is a real selfishness ; his heartlessness a real heartlessness.' Beresford could not help wondering if Miss Fenwick would display an equal amount of enthusiasm on the subject of the Major's want of heart if he were to become a talebearer, and let her know the value that had been put upon her friendship, but he only said, ' Perhaps a good deal of it is posing after all — the pretended want of feeling of a man who has once felt too keenly.

Colonel Johnstone, the man who gave me an introduction to him, told me that Major Robinson left the Service in disgust, because a woman with whom he was passionately in love refused him.' There was a smile of intense amusement on Margaret's face as she answered, ' Ask for our friend's own version of the matter, and I think you will hear a very different tale.' ' I am afraid he would be very angry if I ventured to make inquiries upon such a delicate subject at this early stage of our acquaintance.' ' That remark of yours shows conclusively at what a very early stage the acquaintance is. You will soon learn that it it impossible to offend Major Robinson. That is one of the reasons why 1 find him such a delightful com panion. There is a perpetual charm in being with a man who is always amused and never out of temper.' Beresford was beginning to feel intensely bored by this unstinted praise of another man's very equivocal virtues.

Although he was practically alone with a very beautiful girl, he hoped every moment that Major Robinson would ask for his dog-cart. At that moment the owner of the means of convey ance from the place was saying to Mrs. Fenwick, ' I know you won't mind asking Captain Beresford to stay this evenino-. I brought him with an idea of making C up our rubber to-night, as I hear he is a whist player. He has a lovely tenor voice also, Colonel Johnstone says, which I know will be a great attraction in your eyes — or ears, perhaps, I should say.' ' A great attraction, certainly. I can understand the lovely voice ; it is charming in speaking, it has the true tenor timbre. And tenor voices are so rare ; Valentine's is the only one I know amongst my friends. Of course, I will ask him to stay with the greatest pleasure.' Mrs. Fenwick quickened her steps to reach Cap tain Beresford, who was walking a few yards ahead with her daughter, and cordially gave the unwelcome invitation.

A drowning man will clutch at a straw. Beresford clutched at the straw of no evening clothes. He looked down at his neat grey tweed suit, and said he was afraid his costume — but he knew it was a hopelessly frail support when the Major had the only raft of safety, the dog-cart. His only Scylla of safety on dry land was a long tramp back to barracks on a stifling evening. As a thousand thoughts of the evil he has done in his life time are said to flash through the brain of a drowning man, so did many despairing thoughts invade the mind of Beresford as he felt himself being drawn into the Charybdis of an evening of boredom. ' The Sunday evening meal of two women,' he thought ; ' that means nothing fit to eat or drink. Sacred music afterwards probably. Perhaps prayers.' He was taking the gloomiest view of everything. ' I shall never forgive Robinson for letting me in for this.' The struggles of a drowning man are again said to be succeeded by a soothing sensation of falling asleep in green pastures.

The remembrance that Major Robinson was a fellow victim did something towards inducing this happier condition. He did not appear to be a man who would expose himself to bad cookery and family prayers if it were possible to avoid them. The soothing process ■was completed by Mrs. Fenwick, who devoted herself to him during the rest of the time they remained in the garden. It is only fair to say that had Miss Fenwick shown an equal degree of appreciation of his merits, base thoughts of material comfort would not have in truded. ' Feed the brute ' is a good maxim, but ' Flatter the brute ' is a better. Beresford was feeling quite happy again when Mrs. Fenwick suggested that they should go indoors and ask Ida to play to them. She led the way across a large well-lighted hall, decorated in all the latest fashion of a modern wall paper and frieze, into a drawing-room which gave an almost startling impression of brilliant colour.

The vivid reds and yellows and greens quivered in the rays of the August sun. The almost barbaric colouring of the dress of a young girl, who was lounging on the cushions of a low divan, blended with the glowing tints of the room. There was enough likeness to Mrs. Fenwick to show that this must be her younger daughter, but some c undefinable alteration of perhaps but a hair-breadth in the features reproduced the mother's beauty in some thing more than plainness. Time had worn the delicate, sensuous, Greek loveliness of the one face, but it had not rendered it coarse in outline as nature had formed the other. The somewhat weary expression of the one face was deepened in the other to one of brooding sullenness, of almost savage discontent. Although little more than a child in years, Ida seemed to have attained tropical maturity.