A Matter of Temperament

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A MATTER OF TEMPERAMENT BY THE SAME AUTHOR The Comedy of Cecilia A Question of Degree Crown 8?'o, price 3s. 6d. each A MATTER ov TEMPERAMENT nv CAROLINE FOTHERGILL AUTHOR OF "THE COMEDY OF CECILIA" "a QUESTION OF DEGREE" ETC. LONDON ADAM AND CHARLES BLACK CONTENTS — ♦ CHAP. PAGE I. WHAT DE. MORRISON SAID ... 7 ii. mrs. Lloyd's opinion . . . .32 III. CONTAINS a suggestion . . . .48 IV. GILBERT GETS A NEW PATIENT AND ATTENDS AN URGENT CASE ..... 56 V. ELLINOR CHANGES HER PLANS - . .85 VI. WHEREIN A NEW POINT OF VIEW IS OFFERED TO CHARLOTTE ..... 103 VII. GILBERT'S DINNER-PARTY . . . .122 VIII. GEORGIE'S VIEW OF GILBERT . .142 IX. KINDRED SPIRITS ..... 153 X. BUILDING ON SAND . . . .178 XI. FRANK AND GEORGIE TALK OF THE FUTURE . 197 XII. CHARLOTTE TAKES A DEFENSIVE ATTITUDE . 208 XIII. IN VARYING MOODS ..... 223 XIV.

IN THE WILDERNESS .... 246 XV. CONTAINS MUCH UNPLEASANTNESS FOR ELLINOR . 265 XVI. GILBERT IS UNHAPPY .... 302 XVII. HENRIETTA COMES TO A CONCLUSION . .318 XVIII. ELLINOR AND ROBERT .... 330 XIX. HENRIETTA AND CHARLOTTE MEET . . . — ♦ —

Chapter I What Dk

MORRISON SAID When Dr. Ford had finished his afternoon round, he drove on to the station to meet Miss Farring ton, who had gone to London a few days before to consult a speciahst about the health of her sister, which had lately been giving them all a great deal of anxiety. This afternoon she was to come home again, and he felt almost absurdly happy at the thought of having her back. When he had reached the station he walked impatiently up and down the platform untU the train came in, for he had made up his mind whUe she was away that they would not be separated again before their marriage, and the time seemed long untU he could tell her so. When at last she was there, he was too much delighted to notice how grave she looked, and that a deeper feeling underlay the pleasure she felt at coming home.

He had a great deal to talk about concerning the things that had happened during her absence. He talked incessantly, so that there was practically no opportunity for her to speak, and it was not until she had reached home, and he had come in with her to hear the account she had to give, that they began to talk of the business which had taken her away. She spoke of it first. " It is a pity that I am obhged to spoU this delightful home-coming with bad news," she said almost apologetically. " What bad news ? " he asked, as if they had no reason to fear anything of the kind. " About Georgie. I told you in my letter that Dr. Morrison's report was not favourable, and that you should hear all about it when I came home." " Of course. Upon my word, Henrietta, I am so glad to have you back that I had forgotten why you went away What did Morrison say ?

Was his opinion less favourable than mine ? " Instead of answering his question directly, she said — " He thinks her only chance is to spend the winter in Egypt." Gilbert said nothing for a minute or two ; he did not know quite what he should say. The great London doctor's opinion differed from his own, which in all its nakedness he had never told Henrietta, and which he was prepared to hold by, even though the other immensely outweighed it in importance. " What else did he say ? " he asked at last. " He said it is only a chance, — though, if she goes at once, it is a fairly good one. No time must be lost — she should go next week if possible ; otherwise he wiU not be responsible for ordering her to go at all." " I see. Morrison always knows where to hedge. Is she going ? " " She must, Gilbert ; it is her only chance.

" And who will go with her ? She is not tit to go alone." " There is only myself," she answered in rather a low voice, and looking fully at him. " You ! " he repeated. " Do you mean you want to go away for the whole winter ? " " What am I to do ? " she asked ; " there is no one else to go with her. I have thought of nothing else since he told us, and I have made all kinds of plans for arranging it differently, but they are all impossible." " And what would become of our wedding ? " he asked. " I am afraid we should have to put it off until the spring ; should you mind very much ? " " My dear, what a question to ask ! " he said, with a mixture of tenderness and impatience. " Is there anything in the world I should mind a quarter so much 1 The bare idea takes my breath away; I don't see how I can agree to anything of the kind."

" I can scarcely bear to think of it," she replied ; " but what else can I do ? " " I don't know. Do you think it is worth the journey and everything ? Is it certain to do her any good ? " " He says so ; and if it does not, nothing else wiU. I can see it almost for myseff now," she answered, speaking rather slowly, as if she were making herself face some possibility from which before this she had shrunk. " That's what I mean," he said, crossing his knees. " Suppose the case is too far advanced ? That is reaUy my own opinion, though I have held back from saying so because I did not want to frighten you, and I thought I would wait and see what view Morrison took. But in the letter I wrote him before you went up, I told him I did not think it would make any difference what she did. It may prolong her life just the length of time she is there, — though it is always possible it may not do even that, — and it certainly will do no more ; and seeing that the result will be the same in any case, I must say that to put off our wedding for at least six months seems scarcely good enough."

She drew her hand almost sharply out of his, and said nothing for a Uttle whUe. She was more stung and disturbed than she could have said, and was trying to conquer the feeling that he was treating her unfairly and forcing an additional responsibility upon her. If this was what he thought, he should have given her some idea of it before Dr. Morrison had been consulted and the matter was practically settled. Since he had waited so long, he should have said nothing, and have let her go in peace with such faith and hope as she could make herseff feel. It was undeniably unfair to send her away with just enough light to enable her to see the surrounding darkness. Gilbert excelled in doing that ; he always spoke on impulse. When he laboured under any mental burden it was a necessity to him to get rid of it, no matter who took it up ; and the knowledge that someone else always did take it up — Henrietta generally since they had been engaged — in no way lessened his relief at being without it.

He was very happhy constituted. As her first feeling passed away, Henrietta at once began to make excuses for him ; reminding herself that as it was his nature he probably could not help it, and that, after all, a disappointment more or less made very Uttle difference in the sum of sacrifice which had fallen to her share. " I did not know you thought so badly of her as that," she said. " I wish you had told me before I went to London ; I should have liked to talk it over with Dr. Morrison." " He knew ; he could have mentioned it if he had chosen, but knowing it, of course, I am unwilling to let you go." "It is too positive to say 'knowing,'" she depre cated ; " you can only think or believe, and Dr. Morrison thinks there is a good chance if she goes at once." " Morrison's always so sanguine," answered one of the most hopeful of men ; " he can persuade people into believing the most impossible things.

I don't know how he does it ; I suppose that is how he is so successful." " In this case I must believe he is right," she said emphatically. " It is too much to expect me to give up hope in that way. I dare not even consider what you say ; it would take away all my courage." " Of course you don't want to beUeve it, and there is no reason why you should. My opinion is nothing compared to Morrison's, and I may be aU wrong ; I only give it for what it is worth. I would not hurt you for anything ; but to be robbed of you for a whole winter, and to have to put off our wedding, is more than I can stand." " Don't talk in that way," she said, smiling with tearful eyes ; " I am being robbed of you too. Do you think I want to go ? It will be far worse for me out in the wilderness there. At least you will be at home and among friends, while I — and if Georgie does not improve, if the worst happens, as you seem to expect " — He began as usual to feel vexed with himself for what he had said in his disappointment ; he hated to see Henrietta in distress from any cause.

" Don't look like that," he protested ; " you make me feel like a murderer. I did not intend to frighten you ; I only wanted you to guard against expecting too much. You must not run away with the idea that it is aU up with her ; U it were, is it likely I should let either of you go ? — there now, there, don't worry about it." He was petting and soothing and caressing her all the time he spoke, and, knowing how hopeless it was to expect anything like consistency from him, she let his contradictions pass without remark, and allowed herseU at least to appear comforted by his more hopeful words and manner. " It wUl really be worst for me," he said ; " you will have Georgie and your nursing of her to keep you going ; but I shall be alone — and how unspeak ably long and dreary the time wiU be untU you come back."

" I wish you could come with us," she said ; " you see, I must go. Georgie must have every chance, and there is no one to take her but myself. If you were coming too, I should not mind ; in fact, I should enjoy it, because I feel certain the climate will do a great deal for her. It is the cutting myself adrift from home that makes me feel so wretched." "Well," he said, "couldn't I? Put off going for a week, and we will be married first by special licence, and all go together. I daresay I could get someone just to keep the practice together whde I am away. I really don't see why we should not." " I am afraid that is quite out of the question," she said regretfully ; " such delightful things don't happen. When you came back you would find there was more to be done than to step back into your old place."

" I suppose it would not do," he agreed ; " winter ing in Egypt on one's capital is rather lavish. No ; if you must go, you must, and we shall have to wait, and look forward to being married in the spring. Georgie is your only sister, and we must do everything we can for her. I suppose the thing has simply to be borne." "Would you care to ask Laura to spend the winter with you ? " she asked doubtfully. " Certainly not," he answered, with remarkable firmness ; " she would drive me mad. Now that she is at last settled in her own place, she shall stay there, as far as I am concerned. It would be the very height of folly to uproot her again, and risk a repetition of the scenes I went through before she would leave me in peace. I intend to leave her very much to herself in the future." " It was nothing but her affection for you," said Henrietta, smiling.

" I suppose even widowed sisters, who have kept house for unmarried brothers, resent it when they have to make room for wives." " She had only to make room for one," he grumbled, " and I see no reason why she should have been so precious disagreeable about it. It is aU rot pre tending she was concerned for my happiness, as if I could not look after my own happiness." " Well, it is all over now," she said soothingly. " She has got a very nice little cottage almost at your gate, with plenty of room for herself and her maid, and a spare room for a friend U she likes." " That reminds me," he said, " when she was in here the other day she told me she had made her plans for the winter. She has invited a friend to spend it with her, but she did not seem to know if she would come." WHAT DR. MORRISON SAID 17 " Who is she ?

" asked Henrietta, after a little silence. " I don't know who she is ; she caUed her Charlotte something — one of the friends of her married days before she came back here, I suppose. I think she meant me to understand that, now I have cast her off, she considers herself quite in dependent of me. I am only too glad to see her take up that position." " I expect," said Henrietta sceptically, " that you will be running into the cottage every evening." " Catch me ! — she and her friend will see little enough of me, I promise you." " If her friend should not come, and you think she has really any sore feeling about it, we had perhaps better ask her to stay with you," she said ; " I am sure it is what she would like, and most likely expects." " I shall do nothing of the kind. After expecting to have you, I am certainly not going to deliver myself into her hands again.

Does Georgie remain in London until you go ? " " Yes ; we shall meet there. Dr. Morrison said she must not think of coming here in this damp weather." I " Of course not Poor little Georgie ! who would have thought of this a year ago ? " "Yes," she answered; "I dare not let myself think of it sometimes. We must look forward to next year ; when things are gloomy all round, I always try to see beyond them." "Yes, but you are an angel," he said, kissing her. The housemaid knocked at the door, and said a messenger from Moorseat had come for the doctor, and he went out of the room, leaving Henrietta alone. She sat stUl for a few minutes, and then went into the garden, which was rich with autumn colouring and fragrant with the scent of late roses and all the other flowers which filled it to over flowing.

The scent hung in the stUl air and seemed to surround her, as she walked along the winding paths, with the sweetness and friendliness of home. She felt sure that in no other garden would their perfume have been exactly the same. Through the garden ran a stream, noisy and overflowing after the heavy autumn rains which had been falling plenteously during the last few days. She could see the foam and swirl of it from where she stood on the lawn, which ended in open fields sloping down to the river which bounded them on that side. Across the valley were moun tains, and others still higher and more lonesome farther up ; they compassed her about on every side, and in the hollows of some of them lay deep stUl lakes of surpassing solitude and beauty. Henrietta had known these things all her life ; she and they seemed part of one another — the tie binding them together was so close that the thought of leaving them gave her an almsot unendurable pang of actual physical pain ; and hard circumstance was driving her from them into the wilderness, into that very land of Egypt where so many hopes and fears and loves and hatreds lie buried in the sand.

The things she was leaving, the things she was going to, contrasted themselves in her mind, filhng her with a singular and unaccustomed sense of terror and loneliness. For more reasons than she could tell Gilbert, she was anxious and dismayed at the doctor's sentence upon her sister, and at the thought of leaving him for so long ; the thought of what might so easily happen whUe she was away struck her heart Uke a knUe. She stood perfectly stiU in the sweet-smelling old garden, her eyes hfted desperately to the hills that she might have help, and in a little while a feeling of some calm and courage did begin to come to her. The man she was engaged to was a country doctor, with a smaU and not very lucrative practice. If Henrietta had not had her own income they could not have married in comfort ; and she was sometimes divided within herseU as to whether these comparatively easy circumstances had been and would be an advantage.

If then marriage had depended on his own exertions, would the necessity for action have called out the abihties which every one knew he possessed, and have raised him in his profession, or would it have had another effect ? As his future wife, she may be forgiven for never having found a definite answer to the question. She had often assured herself it was his love for her — a love less selfish than that of other men — which had enabled him to put his pride away. Still, they would not be rich ; not rich enough for him to put his small practice into the hands of someone else for six months, and go with herself and her sister to Egypt. Even he saw that, and he did not generally see the disagreeable side of any question. It was for other reasons than the advantage of having his professional advice that she wished he was going with them.

The gloomy view he took of Georgie's case recurred to her, and it was certainly a little hard for the woman who loved him to have to comfort herself with the thought that there was probably nothing in it ; Dr. Morrison's opinion was far more likely to hold the truth, and he had taken a hopeful view. As she walked about she found herself surrounded by gloomy prospects, so that at last the very extremity of the case proved its own cure, and she began to laugh at her own perplexities. WhUe she was still laughing she heard the click of the gate and the scrape of it upon the ground as it was pushed open ; and round the bend in the drive came a girl of exceptional height, with a slender swinging figure, which she took no pains to hold with any grace. She had a handsome face, with a pleasant expression, and wore the regulation costume of coat and skirt, sailor hat and brown boots ; she carried a stick in a very businesslike way, and her hands were carefully gloved.

Henrietta's face lighted up as soon as she saw her. " My dear Ellinor," she cried, hastening towards her, " how good of you to come and see me the very instant I have come home." " I thought you would not mind, and I am dying to hear all about it; I have heard nothing since you went away. What did Morrison say ? — nothing very bad, I hope, as you were laughing." " I was laughing because the thing is so desperate it could scarcely be worse. Come into the house ; it is too dark and damp to stay out any longer." " Is not Dr. Ford with you ? " asked Ellinor, as they blinked in the lamplight. " He was called away just before I came into the garden." " I hope he won't make his patient, whoever he may be, pay for that," said Ellinor easily, as she stretched her length in her favourite chair and tilted back her hat.

" What a rage he would be in ! You can't imagine, Henrietta, how miserable he has been while you were away. I believe if you had stayed in London another day he would have left his patients to look after themselves and have followed you. He came in to see me one evening " — She stopped with a look of annoyance, as if she had said more than she had intended ; and then, almost before the pause could have been noticed, went on — " And he could talk of nothing but his desolation. There is an idea that of people in your case one is active and the other passive, but no one could find out which of you is which. I should doubt if you know yourselves." " I hope we don't. Poor fellow ! " she went on tenderly, " much worse than that is in store for him," — and she told Ellinor the result of her journey to London.

"To Egypt ! " echoed Ellinor blankly ; " why, it is exile, neither more nor less. Are you going ? " she asked, as Henrietta said nothing. " We must," she answered, giving some further details, and Elhnor heard it all with a grave face, and had singularly little to say. " WUl you be married before you go ? " she asked at last. " What will Dr. Ford say ? " she answered, when Henrietta had told her of the change in their plans, and no one knew better than Miss Farrington that another question was even more prominent in her mind. " He says, oh, he says it will be a great nuisance," replied Henrietta, with affected airiness ; " and of course it is. I really have not faced it as a settled thing yet. I will begin to-morrow." " What did Morrison say ? " repeated Ellinor ; " how did he account for Georgie breaking down in that way all at once ?

She never used to look as if she would go into a decline." " He asked us a great many questions which we conscientiously and laboriously answered ; it would have been very wearisome U so much had not been at stake. At the end he said there must always have been more or less of a predisposition to con sumption, and it was probably developed by the frightful wetting she got last winter, when she went into the lake to save that child who got under the ice. You know, there was no one else there, and she sat with it on the bank in her wet things, trying to bring it round. She did at the time, but in the end it died ; so there they are, both sacrificed for nothing." My dear Henrietta ! " remonstrated Ellinor " Georgie is not going to be sacrificed, — Egypt is to save her. We can't spare her." " Dr. Morrison said he thought she had a good chance, but Gilbert's opinion is that it won't make any difference ; the case is too far gone," she said, rather as if she wanted to hear what Ellinor thought.

" Dr. Ford said so to you now ? " said Ellinor, as if she could not believe what she heard. " He spoke on impulse," said Henrietta excusingly, " and I ought not to have repeated it. I should not have done so if I did not feel so tired and worried. He was vexed; you see, he does not want me to go, and he seems to think that Dr. Morrison is always too sanguine." " I wish I had been there," remarked Elhnor slowly and reflectively, as she drew her finger down her soft pink cheek in a way she had. " I am glad, on the whole, you were not," answered Henrietta cheerfully ; " he is quite enough upset about it already." " It is not easy to quarrel with him, but I think I could have done it then," Elhnor reassured her. " And so you and Georgie are to be driven out into the wilderness together Uke two scapegoats ? — I have always admired the idea of the scapegoat.

I wish I was going with you." " I wish you were, — I wish someone I know were going with us. It is having the whole responsibility that makes me so nervous." " I am surprised to hear that," said Ellinor, looking at her. " You are quite accustomed to responsibility, and you are not usually nervous. I would go with you if I could ; I am sure I would find someone in one of these big hotels. The situation is becoming really serious ; the competi tion is dreadfully keen, — there are so few men and such crowds of us ; it should be restricted by law somehow. Widows ought not to be allowed to marry again ; it is quite disgraceful to see them, while strings and strings of girls never get a chance." " Oh, my dear Ellinor ! " said Henrietta, beginning to laugh. " It is all very well for you to laugh," said the ghl, beginning herself, — " you are safe.

Oh, Henrietta, what shall I do if I don't get a husband this year ? I shall be seven and twenty next birthday." " Do without, Miss Massingberd ; you'U be much happier ; they are not good enough ; ask Henrietta, — she knows." " Is that you, Dr. Ford ? " she said, turning round and speaking in her usual easy manner. " I know very well what Henrietta would say. You should not come in so quietly and overhear what people WHA T DR. MORRISON SAID 27 are talking about ; that is what I call the stealthy school of criticism." " That was Rossetti's phrase, was it not ? " he asked, shaking hands with her. " You see, I can remember that ; but I could not have told you who discovered the circulation of the blood, to save my life." " I suppose professional people are always excused from remembering their own alphabet," she returned ; " a parson is the only man who can't pray without his book."

" That's rather good," — laughing, and drawing a low chair up to the couch on which Henrietta was lying. " I am glad you came in," he went on, " as Henrietta would have been alone. It was most annoying to have to go away the very instant I had got her back. Two mUes, if it was an inch ! and nothing but a wretched broken leg at the end of it. A doctor's life is a dog's Use, there's no doubt about it." He spoke in a way to make anyone feel that it was the very height of unreasonableness to ask a doctor to attend to such a trifle as a broken lirub, and that one ought to apologise for being out of health, or disabled at all. Henrietta reprimanded him, but Ellinor laughed encouragingly; in her opinion Gilbert was an embodiment of the comic side of life. " When I break my leg," she said, " I shall send for Dr. Thompson from Countersett ; and I advise you to do the same, Henrietta " " I should like to see anyone else come near her while I am alive," he said, kissing her hand.

" Has she told you what Morrison says, and of the horrible desolation that is going to fall upon me ? " We were talking about it when you came in ; it was what I came to hear. I am awfully sorry, for every reason." " Well, you know," he began, " I think Morrison's all wrong. I don't myself believe it will make " — " If I can help you at all in your packing and arrangements, run errands, or otherwise make myself useful, mind you teU me," she inter rupted, unsparingly turning straight from him to her friend. " How does Georgie take it ? " she went on. " Oh, you know her way ; she is in the best of spirits, and sure she will come home perfectly stronoand well. Whatever she may feel, you may be certain that is the tone she will take. She pro fesses to be dying to be gone, and feels better at the very thought of a winter of sunshine.