Gaythorne Hall. A novel

Front matter

i VOL. % llotul BV JOHN M. FOTHERGILL ' 'Tia greatly wise to talk with our past hours, And ask them what report they bore to heaven, |And how they might have borne more welcome news. Younu. IN THREE VOLUMES. VOL. III. LONDON : HURST AND BLACKETT, PUBLISHERS, 13, great marlborough street. 1884. All rights reserved. nngan : CLAY AND TAYLOR, PRINTERS. CONTENTS OF VOL. III. CHAP. PAGE I. LIFE AT STANMORE ... ... ... 1 II. THE CHARTIST PLOT ... ... ... 27 III. ESAU HAS HIS BIRTHRIGHT ... ... 52 IV. AFTER THE STORM ... ... ... 78 V. TWISTED STRANDS ... ... ... ... 103 VI. A SUDDEN BLIGHT... ... ... ... 128 VII. CUPID REASONS ... ... ... ... 154 VIII. THE IMPOSSIBLE ... ... ... ... 182 IX. THE MARCH OF TIME ... ... ... 209 X. TRIED AND WORSTED ... ... ... 235 XI. THE RIFT IN THE CLOUD... ... ... 262 XII. THE NEW RUBBER ... ... ...

Chapter I. Life At Stanmore

Edith Wharton found her time pass very pleasantly at Stanmore. The Lady Barbara was garrulous and gossipy. The latter she had always been : the former grew more marked as age advanced. She was a kindly old lady, aud her criticisms were never bitter. Her young kinswoman found amidst her chatter a great deal of interesting matter to which she gave a ready ear. Court news always possess a fascination for the female mind ; and, though a reformer, Edith Wharton listened to her relative's gossip with genuine abandon. Then at times family matters vol. in. B came up for discussion, and Lady Barbara did not make any attempt to conceal the fact that Edith's engagement was by no means acceptable to her ; she held it beneath what a Wharton, — still more when related to a Saville, — should aspire to. Still she was not in any way acrid about it.

She shook her head white as driven snow, in a decided manner, very different from its growing persistent unsteadiness, as she said : ' Your brother is allowing you to throw yourself away : he ought to be more con siderate, my dear. A Wharton ! What does cousin Edward say to it ? I, for my part, solemnly protest against such a sacrifice ; ' and the old lady looked as if penetrated with a sense of poignant regret which rather tended to provoke her kinswoman's risible faculties. ' Is it so very dreadful, Lady Barbara ? I do not think so ! ' 'Perhaps you do not, my dear. I am sure it would be very dreadful if you did. I think girls should marry in their own station. It is most befitting--. An aunt of mine always declared that the marriages where tbe sensible friends on both sides approved wore best.

I think she was right.' ' But George Ashworth has a good posi tion, and will improve it, Lady Barbara,' said Edith, with a ring of confidence in her tones. ' I am glad to hear it, my dear ; I am sure it will make things pleasant if he does. You know success in life is a great thing ! ' and the doddering head wagged sententiously. ' So I have always been given to under stand. All families were made bv some body. Even those that came over with the Conqueror. Some of the men who founded our oldest families that date from then, were not gentlemen.' ' My dear, the Conqueror would have none but gentlemen around him, I am sure ! ' ' Well, as it was a desperate venture, I dare say he was glad to get whom he could. B Some of the great Norman barons were against his venture.' * Were they indeed ? You must read a good deal, Edith.

Reading was not so much in vogue when I was young. There are more books now.' The Lady Barbara certainly did not convey the impression of having at any time been much of a student ; still less a bookworm. ' We were more domesticated then. We had a book of recipes that we knew very well. Aud then we made all the things in it ourselves, to see what they were like. Then came Dr. Kitchener's " Cook's Oracle." George Wynstay said he would rather have a wife who could see he had a good dinner, than one who could explain the foreign news to him. Poor George ! ' ' Who was he, Lady Barbara ? ' ' He was the gentleman I was engaged to be married to, my dear. A fine, hand some ; but hasty - tempered fellow. He quarrelled with a friend at cards, and high words passed, and so they agreed to fight it out ; and poor George was shot at the second fire.

He fell mortally wounded, and could just pull out his locket with a curl of my hair in it, and kiss the curl, which dropped into his blood. He died ; and I never accepted any other offer. I had some good offers : for I Was a good-looking, good-tempered girl, and the geutlemen were fond of me ; but I refused them. And so you see I am a solitary old maid.' ' Don't say that, Lady Barbara ; you have troops of friends. And every one is so fond of you.' ' Yes ; I have always kept up a large circle of friends : good people too. It does not do to forget what is due to your family. The Savilles are a good family. So are the Whartons too.' Then she seemed to slightly wander ; as if following a train of thought without being fully conscious of it. ' Good families hold together : even if they do fight at election times, and nearly beggar each other.

But that is due to politics. Very expensive things elections used to be : especially in the north. But except such occasions, good families stick together. I can remember when the Queen Caroline trial was on, the nobility rallied around the Crown. The Radicals found the money for the Queen to annoy the Royal House. Times were troublous then. The upper ten thousand had to hold together. The Grand Jury threw out the Bill against the authors of the Peterloo affair. The county families felt they must stand together.' ' Do you allude to the massacre in Man chester, Lady Barbara ? ' asked Edith, breaking in on the old lady's train of thought. 'Yes, in 1819, when the lower classes were striving to get the upper hand of the Government ; and we all expected to be murdered. If the authorities had not been firm there would have been a revolution then.' Edith thought this was a somewhat different version of the story to the one which she was accustomed to hear ; but she did not choose to contradict the old lady. ' And now the same times are coming again.

The Reformed Parliament has much to answer for, my dear. The people have far too much power, and they cannot use it properly. You see what has been done lately ; and I am sure Lord Melbourne him self is no great reformer. They have allowed prisoners to have counsel to defend them. The villains now will all get off. There was nothing of that kind in the old days. It's putting a premium upon crime ; that is what my brother says. Lord Horn castle is a Tory, you know, my dear ; and he does not like these things. And then what will we do if a war with Erance came on ? — why we should have no sailors to man the fleet since they have done away with the press-gang. I don't wonder if they are having insurrections all over when they relax the bonds of society as they are doing. It is the encouragement the Whig Parliament has given to the people that is at the bot tom of this Chartist movement.

Sir James Graham called the present Government " a Chartist Government ;" and my brother says he is right about it. It is very sad to think that the people should take advantage of there being a girl on the throne to try to subvert it. It is very mean of them ! ' Edith listened quietly to an expression of opinion so widely different from all she had been taught, and thought herself; but the old lady was evidently quite serious in what she said. The reference to the Queen furnished an opportunity of changing the conversation ; and as she did not agree with her patrician kinswoman, and yet did not wish to hurt her feelings, she availed herself of it. ' Have you seen the Queen, Lady Bar bara ? ' she asked, somewhat eagerly. ' No, my dear, I have never seen her. Her mother brought her up in great seclu sion ; and very few people knew anything of her before she came to the throne.

And I am too old to go to Court again. I don't think I could stand the fatigue of beinc. presented again. And old women are not wanted, — even at a drawing-room. They are only in the way.' ' Is it fatiguing to go to receptions ? ' asked Edith, to whom the whole subject was novel. ' Very trying indeed, my dear. There are so many present ; there is often a rush ; and it lasts for some time. I always was in bed the next day after them.' ' Then it must be very trying to the Queen to receive so many people 1 ' ' Yes, my dear, royalty has its tasks. But the Queen is most amiable, I am told, and bears herself very graciously to all. She never complains ' ' I am afraid I should though when I got tired ! ' ' But if you were in her place you would have to conceal any such feelings. I was always glad I was not a Queen when I went to the drawing-rooms.' ' She is rather pretty too, is she not 1 ' ' She is more than rather pretty.

She is certainly good-looking. You have not seen the picture of her I have. Have you ? ' Yes. Is it said to be like her ? ' Very, I am told.' ' May I look at it again ? ' said Edith, getting up to go for it in another room. ' Certainly, my dear. Take it down, and bring it here. I have not had a good look at it for some time. She is a little older, and more womanly now, I suppose.' The print was brought, and the old lady gazed attentively at it ; Edith standing by her side. ' You see she is in an arm-chair covered with white satin ; in a pale grey watered silk, with a full plain skirt and wide sleeves drawn close at the wrists ; and a large lace collar over it. And her apron, too, black satin, with festoons of flowers worked upon it in silk.' ' She has no rings on. How is that ? ' commented Edith. ' She has no need of any ring yet, my dear ; she is not engaged.' But she is going to be soon 1 ' So it is rumoured.' ' She has a pleasant, intelligent face, and a good forehead,' said Edith ; whose criticism rather scandalized the old lady from its freedom. ' It is a very royal face altogether, my dear,' replied the old spinster, with as much asperity as she could command ; but the tone was thrown away. ' She has pretty, regular features ; but the position is stiff.

She looks too much as if she was sitting for her portrait, and had been saying, " Papa, prunes and prisms," till the lips seem to carry a " p " on them still.' ' I am very shocked, Edith, to hear you speak so. It must have been a great trial to have had to sit for her portrait. You don't seem to think of that.' (Here Edith thought that Lady Barbara seemed to think more of the hardships of royalty than of its allurements.) ' She had to bear the gaze of her subjects as she sat. I am certain it was very trying.' 'What is the building in the back ground ? ' 'That is the east end of St. George's Chapel at Windsor. You see she is sitting out in the open, on a terrace paved with marble. Her bonnet has fallen off, and the bird of paradise looks as if it was coming loose.' ' So it does. Is that a letter in her hand ? ' ' It looks more like a letter than a despatch, I think.' ' A despatch, Lady Barbara ? ' ' Yes, my dear ; the Queen has to read a great many important despatches, and has a great deal to do.

Those who know her well, say she gives great attention to the different documents submitted to her. Ladv Sunderland speaks most enthusiastically of her devotion to business.' ' Then she sets a very good example, I am sure,' remarked Edith, with a frankness that rather jarred on the patrician lady. ' She is most exemplary,' was the response, in a tone of reproof ; while the head nodded away with the tremulous shake of age. ' But we must be moving, Edith, the days are short, and I want to drive over to Pinner this afternoon. It is quite lunch time, I am sure.' The faculties of the old lady were apparently unimpaired by age as regards meal-times, for just then the bell rang announcing that this repast was furnished. ' There is the bell ; ' and the aged organism seemed suddenly to develop an amount of latent energy which would have seemed a physical impossibility a moment or two before.

After lunch, Lady Barbara's massive old carriage, with its rumble at the back, drove round in front of Thirlmere Lodge, and drew up at the front-door : the ladies took their seats, and the equipage drove off, startling the ducks on the pond in front. Past the church they drove, and westward past Bentley Priory. ' There is some talk of the Dowager Queen Adelaide coming here, I hear,' remarked the old lady. ' She is very delicate. I am afraid it will be too cold for her up here. It is very sad her lungs are so weak. And the speaker looked sympathetic ; though she could and did boast that she ' was no friend to the doctors,' as she put it. ' I hope Sir James Clark will be prudent,' she continued. ' He has written on climates, I am told ; but I am not sure if he knows Harrow Weald in March. These fashionable physicians who are so wise about foreign places, are not always so well up about places at home.

I am afraid she will find it cold in the east winds. However, she has not come yet.' While Edith was politely listening to the old lady's monologue — for she rather spoke aloud to herself than addressed her com panion — her eye was rambling over a quiet, placid scene, rendered historical by its associations with Lord Byron ; and at that time Lord Byron was a common topic of conversation. ' How clearly Harrow stands out to-day ! ' she said after a pause. 'Lord Byron often thought of this quiet English scenery when away in Greece. The tomb he was so fond of lying on when musing stood on the west of the church, did it not ? ' ' Yes ; just at the edge of the churchyard at the top of the hill. Strangers go to see it, I am told.' ' On a summer afternoon it must have been a very pleasant landscape bounded by the higher ground in Buckinghamshire.

We see the outline of it well from here.' ' There is Ruislip Park over, there, and beyond lies Uxbridge, and the river Colne ; but we cannot see Windsor,' was the answer. The Lady Barbara was not by any means straitlaced ; but, as a spinster advanced in years, she was not disposed to look favourably upon Lord Byron ; while her companion was at the age when his poetry was highly esteemed, though she had not dipped, even surreptitiously, into the pages of the then much debated ' Don Juan.' The conversation might have taken the direction of the poet and his works more distinctly, but just then the road began to dip, and the landscape was lost to view. When they came to the railway the old lady broke out : ' I've never been in a train, and I hope I never shall.' It i_ difficult for us now to realize the antipathy with which railroads were then regarded by the Conservative element of society ; and Conservative the Lady Barbara was without compromise. 'It is a pleasant method of travelling, I can assure you,' Edith explained. ' Well, it may be, but I won't try it ; dead or alive.

I am going to be buried at Stanmore when my time comes ; there I've lived, and there I'll be buried,' said the Lady Barbara with unwonted emphasis. ' I hope that wdl not be soon,' said her companion. ' It cannot be long. Young may and old must. It won't be much trouble, I hope. I am old enough to die easy.' To this observation Edith made no answer ; her attention had not been turned to the comparative ease, or difficulty, by which the act of dying was accomplished by either young or old ; but suddenly the weir-pool and the accident on the ice flashed into her mind, and she lay back in the corner of the carriage occupied with her thoughts. The two remained silent till the carriage drew up in front of an old mansion, Lord Whistleton's residence ; an old Tory peer, with a wife and numerous offspring.

This was Lady Barbara's goal ; so they entered, and Edith was in troduced to the patrician Whistletons, who surveyed her critically, and apparently with approval. The conversation was at first of the usually conventional character ; and Miss Wharton was asked if she knew the South, and London, and such like questions, which she answered. It happened that a young vol. in. c male Whistleton was at home, albeit the day was so fine ; who seemed very favour ably disposed towards their fair visitor. He wore a high-collared coat, a flowered silk waistcoat, and white gaiters. He was in deed a dandy, — as the young man whose existence centred in his garments, was then termed. He had a retreating fore head, an aquiline nose, and a heavy chin with thick, coarse lips. He seemed to assume that his attentions must be wel come ; but Miss Wharton had some difficulty in concealing her aversion.

She did not Uke the face, and early crow's-feet about the eye did not impress her favourably. She knew quite well the distinction be twixt crow's-feet due to exposure where the eyelids are half-closed to protect the eye against the weather, — and the crow's-feet where the eyes are half-closed to shield the eye, — as an organ of expression, — from betraying what is going on in the brain behind it. The honourable Cecil Whistleton was a young man of whose future she did not augur well. Politeness constrained her to give him her attention, though his range of topics was limited, and his vocabulary decidedly not extensive. She was relieved at last by the conversation turning to the subject of the ' Bed-chamber Question,' then a distinctly ' burning question.' In order to follow it with interest the reader must know that the long reign of the Whig Government was coming to its close.

Lord Melbourne had been saved from defeat on a Parliamentary trial of strength by a majority so trifling as to reveal the precarious position in which the ministry stood, and they resigned. The Duke of Wellington advised the Queen to send for Sir Robert Peel. He gathered a Cabinet about him ; but a difficulty arose, namely, in tbe household appointments. The Queen had been surrounded of course by ladies belonging to the Whigs, who had been in power for some years previous to her accession to the Throne. c Sir Robert pointed out that these ladies should be changed. The Queen had, after due consideration, answered that such a course was ' contrary to usage, and repug nant to her feelings,' and declined to yield. Sir Robert held to the view, that such a course should be adopted, and the project of his forming a ministry fell to the ground.

The subject attracted the liveliest attention throughout the country ; and though Sir Robert may have been quite right in principle, precedent, and, still more, sentiment, were against him. The time was drawing nigh when an appeal to the country was to settle the question whether the Whigs should remain in power, or give way to a Tory administration. Both sides were marshalling their forces ; and the reforming party, despairing of getting any thing from the Whigs and ' Finality John,' were ready to try the Tories, and see what they would do for them. By their aid the Tories were likely to be lifted into office. The ' Bedchamber Question' was thus dragged into the arena of practical politics at a time when feeling ran high. The Lady Barbara and the Whistletons were firm, unquestioning Tories, and looked at the matter through Tory spectacles ; and with all their devotion to the Crown, at that particular epoch in their history, the Tories gave their faction the supremacy over their loyalty.

The Lady Barbara's loyalty re mained unshaken, while Lord Whistleton felt strongly. ' Peel was perfectly justified in what he did. It was a matter of principle. The Queen has been surrounded by nothing but Whigs, until she is practically a Whig her self,' was the opinion of the dissatisfied peer. ' But I thought the Queen held no views on politics,' put in the Lady Barbara. ' Nor should she. The clay is past when the monarch can choose his ministers. The late King found that out. Peel could not form a ministry in the teeth of the country then. It was seen then that the majority of the House of Commons was the sole foundation of a ministry. If the country dictates the officers of the Crown, and the Queen is guided by her ministers ; why should it not determine the official ladies of her household ?

I can't see any difference ! ' 'But the Queen surely has a right to choose ber private friends ? ' pleaded Lady Barbara. ' How are they her private friends . A girl brought up in seclusion, knowing no one practically but her mother, ascends a Throne. She falls into the hands of the Ladies of the Household who are in office. She learns to think as they do ; they are Whigs ; and of course she must be a Whig. It is clear enough ! ' The Lady Barbara was unequal to any conflict with a peer whose views were so pronounced, so she tried a diversion. ' The Duchess of Sutherland and the Marchioness of Normanby are ladies of spotless life. Their conduct has always been most exemplary. They are proper persons to associate with a young girl, such as the Queen is.' ' That is not the point, my dear Lady Barbara,' said the peer impatiently. ' It is the principle.

The monarch should have no politics. He, or she, acts through the ministry.' The Lady Barbara collapsed ; her amount of contending power was exhausted. Not so her companion, however, who had heard the subject thoroughly discussed by her brother and Mr. Carlyon. Young Whistleton had bored her by his dogmatism in his small talk : no opinion which did not coincide with his own was worthy of any consider ation ; it must be ignored. Miss Wharton was not, he found, an unquestioning con vert ; and now she felt a like feeling rising up in her mind about the youth's progenitor. The pompous peer seemed to sit upon the poor old lady ; so Edith ■ determined to do battle on her behalf, and rushed into the lists. ' Had not the Queen a precedent for acting as she did ? And precedent has always been respected in English politics.

The peer turned his gaze upon the audacious young person, as if to see whether she was a young lady really, or only the semblance of one. Despite his crushing air Edith felt no uneasiness, and went on : ' Lady Sun derland and Lady Rialton retained their offices under Queen Anne for a considerable time after their husbands went out of office. That is a precedent. And since then, when their male relatives have gone out of office, the ladies of the household have remained about the Queen, whde the House of Hanover has been on the throne.' It is not certain that the speaker did not enjoy to a certain extent the consternation which her remark produced. What she said had appeared in the press at the time, and afterwards ; but except the Court news, which the ladies read scrupulously, and the sporting matter, which the young male Whistleton read equally scrupulously, the peer himself was the only reader of the newspapers.

He chose to ignore these items, and the rest were in Stygian dark ness on the subject. But that their papa should be contradicted, or opposed on any subject connected with politics, was outside their experience altogether. That the contradiction should come from a young lady was all the more astounding. As to the peer himself, he was almost ren dered speechless ; he managed, however, to say: ' Queen Anne was of mature years ; but the present Queen is only a girl, with un formed views. The cases are not parallel ; ' and this he uttered in lofty tones, — as if the matter was one on which a young lady had no right to hold opinions. A chill fell over the conversation, and the visitors soon took their departure. The Lady Barbara was little less surprised than the Whistletons at Miss Wharton's venture someness.

After they had driven out of the grounds she observed : ' Lord Whistleton does not like to be opposed, and before his own family, Edith. I fear you have offended him.' ' Then I must take the consequences. He ought not to have spoken to you, Lady Barbara, in such an overbearing manner.' The Lady Barbara relapsed into sdence again. She was proud of her kinswoman's knowledge and courage ; and yet, she thought, it was not what girls did when she was a girl.

Chapter II. The Chartist Plot

As the shorter days, with their longer nights, drew on, the more violent section of the Chartists plotted mischief. The purchase of gunpowder, and of fire-arms, chiefly pistols, which could be carried about concealed under the clothes, and the casting of bullets, went on briskly in all directions. Pike-heads were forged, and ' cats ' were made in great quantities. A cat is a ball of iron with protruding spikes, so made that however it fell on the ground a spike stood up. These cats were intended to be scattered about when a cavalry charge was to be made ; so that the horses stepping upon them would come down with their riders, and, further, be so lamed as to be useless. They also made hand-grenades, or rockets, which being ignited and thrust through a window, would explode and blow the roof oft'.

Daggers too were made, or purchased ; and altogether these prepara tions told of a determination to resort to physical force for the carrying of their ends. Plans were laid to attack the barracks at various places, and so keep up an uneasy feeling among the military ; which they probably would have succeeded in doing had any less firm and trustworthy soldier than Sir Charles Napier been in command of the troops in the north of England. Calmly and without perturbation he took his measures to prevent outbreak and out rage. Minor provocations he allowed to pass unheeded ; but whenever there was a gathering too numerous for the police to disperse, the military were called out ; and in no instance was anything like real resist ance offered to the soldiery. The old General showed the agitators that he was in no way afraid of them, or their doings ; that he looked upon their preparations with a measure of contempt, and in so doing held them quietly in check.

Their policy was to create alarm, and to burn and destroy property rather than to take life ; and they succeeded, too, in their design in spreading terror. If the old General would not be alarmed, the bulk of society was ; and the magistrates as a body were nearly beside themselves with panic. Canon Wordsworth, a divine, and Squire Wharton, an old soldier, were, however, conspicuous instances to the contrary. Everywhere the demand was for soldiers ; but Sir Charles Napier had his own ideas. ' It is not decent to have the law upheld by soldiers at every turn,' he said ; and urged the necessity for paid magistrates, and more policemen. And when the timorous and fearful demanded ' vigorous measures,' which meant the apprehension and hanging of a number of the leaders, he opposed them, saying, ' Would hanging a dozen leaders feed the people ? ' ' Old Charley ' was a poor man, and felt for the starving masses, as his memoirs testify.