Marcia

Front matter

MARCIA. BT W. E. NORRIS, AUTHOR OF "THIELBT HALL," ETC. IN THREE VOLUMES. VOL. III. LONDON: JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET. 1890. [The right of translation is reserved.] LONDON : PRINTED DT WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED, STAMFORD STREET AND CHARING CROSS, CONTENTS OF VOL. III. CHATTER * TACF. I. Mb. Mortimer ... ... ... ... 1 II. Lady Evelyn backs the Winner ... ... 10 III. A Disappointing Day... ... ... ... 35 IV. Willie goes to Church ... ... ... 52 V. Sir George is very Firm ... ... ... O'J VI. A Friendly Warning ... ... ... 83 VII. Mortimer is Confidential ... ... ... 90 VII[. Rough-Weather Sailing ... ... ... 110 IX. Sir George as a Diplomatist ... ... ... 128 X. Mortimer takes Leave ... ... ... 148 XI. Willie breaks Bounds ... ... ... 1C0 XII. Maternal and Filial Love ... ... 171 XIII.

" Worse than an Ass " ... ... ... 1S9 XIV. Lady Evelyn disgraces herself ... ... 205 XV. Marcia declines to jump ... ... ... 21!) XVI. Sir George's Last Concession ... ... MAKCIA

Chapter I. Mr

MORTIMER. When Lady Wetherby said her prayers — and this she did with unfailing regularity twice a day — she never forgot to return thanks for the extraordinary number of blessings which had been showered upon her all her life long. She had, it is true, lost her husband, and that had been a terrible grief to her ; but time bad caused the wound to heal over, and she had not the shadow of a doubt that she would meet him again in a future state of existence, and in the meantime she was very well contented to linger for a while upon the surface of this more or less agreeable planet. She had found her residence here below agreeable, as well she might ; for she had good health, a large jointure, and children who had given her all the happiness that it is in the power of children to VOL III. B MARCIA. bestow upon a fond parent.

If Wetherby had any vices, she was not aware of them, while Evelyn, though she had sometimes behaved in a way which had made her mother a little uneasy, now seemed quite inclined to do the right thing and marry Mr. Mortimer, and take her place amongst the better class of young matrons. Lady Wetherby, who was as good a woman as ever breathed, would not for the world have urged any daughter of hers to marry for the sake of wealth or position ; but, other things being equal, a son-in-law who possesses both of these advantages is a son-in-law to be desired, and there were very few mothers in England who would not have deemed Mr. Mortimer desirable. He had large estates in several counties ; he was a gentleman and a sportsman ; he raced a little and hunted a good deal, and shot pretty well ; probably he would. enter Parliament before he was much older.

No body had a word to say against him, while very many people were loud in praising him ; so that there was every reason to rejoice at the thought that he would shortly be coming to Torquay in his yacht, and that he would come with a special and scarcely disguised purpose. Lady Wetherby had no great fear but that he would succeed in that purpose. So far as she was aware, he was without a rival, and assuredly it would never have occurred to her to dread poor Willie Brett in that capacity. Indeed, she was but seldom reminded of the young man after his departure, nor did she see very much of her neighbour and the friend of her youth. Evelyn did not get on with Mrs. Archdale, and when Evelyn did not get on with a person it was always the simplest plan to avoid asking that person to the house. So, although Marcia and Lady Wetherby remained upon the best of terms, their intercourse was confined to occasional drives into the country, during which the former discoursed chiefly upon the disenchantments of life, the latter listening in a good-humoured, somnolent fashion, and abstaining from contradiction when she found herself unable to agree.

All this time Willie had not only remembered Lady Evelyn, but was thinking about her through every hour of the long summer days. He had never been in love before, and now he had taken the disease in its severest form. He was not sanguine ; he was sure that she did not care for him, he doubted whether she ever would, and he thought it extremely likely that she already cared for somebody else. Nevertheless, he would not for any earthly consideration have obliterated the MARCIA. 4 memory of her from his mind or parted with the sweet sorrow which, as he was convinced, was destined to last him his life. It does not and cannot last. Love, like all the other passions and emotions which stir .he surface of our shallow mortal nature, passes away ; but young people do not know this, and will not believe it when they are told, and in truth one would be very sorry if they did believe it.

For the rest, it may be admitted that some men and women are far more constant than the general run. Willie Brett might fairly claim to have estab lished a character for fidelity. He had not been unfaithful as a lover, for the excellent reason that he had not hitherto been a lover at all ; but he had been somewhat unusually faithful as a son, and he was now fully prepared to brave his uncle's displeasure for his mother's sake. If it was not entirely for her sake that he contemplated spending a month or six weeks in the watering-place where she was sojourning, yet he would cheer fully have done as much to please her, nor would he have been deterred from doing so by any fear of Sir George. He respectfully signified his deter mination to that powerful personage, promising that the latter portion of his leave should be passed at Blaydon, and abstaining from any promise as to the future disposal of his private means ; after which he had the comfort of feeling that he had done his duty all round, and might legitimately employ his leisure in dreaming of the good time that was coming.

A very happy fellow he was when the longed-for day came at last, and he reached that beautiful and sunny town of villas which had the privilege of containing the two people whom he loved best on earth. One of them was ready to receive him with open arms. Perhaps she would have been less demonstrative had she believed in the existence of a rival ; but, oddly enough, she had not detected what had been perfectly apparent to her husband, and had laughed the suggestions of that experi enced observer to scorn. As one grows old one does not, as a rule, grow more credulous ; yet one grows more willing to believe whatever one wishes to believe, aud Marcia would not have been Marcia if she had not wished her son's heart to belong to her alone. "It is such perfect happiness to have you with me again, Willie!" she exclaimed.

"But I have never doubted you through all these long years ; I always felt sure that you would come back to me some day." One would have thought, to hear her, that it MARCIA. 6 had been he who had separated himself from her, and it is not in the least impossible that she may have formed some confused impression to that effect. In any case, he did not quarrel with the terms in which she welcomed him, nor did his patience give way when she embarked upon a plaintive recital of her grievances. Torquay, she told him, was ineffably dull. Cecil did not find it so, because he was always playing whist at the club when he was not working by fits and starts at an unfinished picture ; but she herself had no friends and no interests in the place. "However, it is comparatively cheap, so I suppose one ought not to grumble," she concluded, with a sigh.

"But you have Lady Wetherby: she is still here, isn't she ? " asked Willie, for he was natu rally anxious to ascertain that much. "Oh yes; Laura is still here; only she isn't much use, somehow. Laura is one of those people who have got everything that they can possibly want, and have sunk into a state of sleepy con tentment which makes them rather uninteresting to associate with. Besides, she generally has friends or relations staying with her, so that we don't meet very often. Her daughter is a rude, disagreeable sort of girl, too." That singularly inappreciative expression of opinion was all that Willie was able to obtain from his mother in the way of information about Lady Evelyn; but he was more successful with Flossie, who presently came in to tea, and who, after greeting him enthusiastically, led him out into the garden to show him the spot where she had interred the remains of a deceased canary.

Flossie, it appeared, had made friends with Lady Evelyn, and required but little encouragement to expatiate upon the young lady's charms. "Is she going to marry Mr. Mortimer ? " the child inquired. "Everybody says she is. You know Mr. Mortimer, don't you ? He has come here in his yacht, and he told me he would take me out sailing some day, but he hasn't done it yet." "I used to know him when we were boys," answered poor Willie, with a sinking sensation about the region of the heart ; "I have never seen him since. I suppose he is as good-looking as ever ? " Flossie made a grimace. " Oh, I don't know. He isn't bad ; but he isn't half good enough for Lady Evelyn. I should like you to marry her," this impartial looker-on continued, with engaging candour. " Do you flirt with her ? Papa says you do, and then mamma gets quite red and says, ' Stuff and nonsense ! ' " MARCIA.

"Mamma is right," replied Willie gravely; "I have never flirted with Lady Evelyn Foljambe, and I have never had the chance. Is she — er — given to flirting ? " But to this insidious question Flossie could make no satisfactory response. Was flirting wrong ? If it was, Lady Evelyn certainly didn't do it. She seemed to like Mr. Mortimer, though ; and that was a pity, because Mr. Mortimer was " not nearly as nice as you are." All this was not very reassuring, and the worst of it was that Flossie's statements were fully corroborated by Mr. Archdale, who came in from the club just before dinner, and who professed himself greatly pleased by the arrival of his guest. It was not until the two men were smok ing together in the evening that he broached the subject to which Willie had more than once tried ineffectually to lead up ; but when he did so he was as explicit as could have been desired.

" I am sorry to tell you, my dear fellow," said he, "that your nose has been put out of joint. I saw that you were smitten with the fair Lady Evelyn when you were down here last — you needn't blush, there's nothing to be ashamed of in that — so my heart quite bled for you when I found that another was destined to bear away the prize. If I were in your place, I dare say I should try to cut out Mr. Mortimer, for the fun of the thing ; but the chances are that you wouldn't succeed, and if you did succeed you would undoubtedly regret it afterwards. People who marry always do regret it afterwards. All the same, she is an uncommonly pretty girl." " Is Lady Evelyn engaged to Mortimer ? " Willie asked, in a voice which he could not con trive to keep steady. "Well, no ; I believe not. But she is going to be.

It's a first-rate match, you see. You yourself are not to be sneezed at; but, saving your presence, Mortimer is a cut above you. There's a vast difference between expectation and possession, not to mention his aristocratic connections." Now, it was evidently out of the question to discuss such a topic any further with a man who regarded it in that vulgar light. Willie disclaimed any intention of pitting himself against Mr. Mor timer, and began to talk about something else. Nevertheless, he walked over to Lady Wetherby's villa on the following morning, though he knew that he was doing an unusual and unceremonious thing by calling before luncheon. When it comes to be a question of life or death, or of life-long MARCIA. 10 misery or happiness, use and ceremonial must needs be disregarded. Not, of course, that he was so insane as to think of hinting to Lady Wetherby at the motives which had prompted this matutinal visit.

He found her in the drawing-room, writing letters, and she was so kind as to say that he did not interrupt her at all, and he duly discoursed upon topics which did not possess the slightest interest for either of them during fully five minutes before he made so bold as to inquire after Lady Evelyn. "Oh, she is quite well, thank you," answered Lady Wetherby. " I believe she is sitting out on the verandah with Mr. Mortimer. Perhaps you may have heard their voices." Willie thought he had — indeed he was quite sure that he had, and he was not very reluctant to comply with a suggestion which his good natured hostess presently put forward. "I don't want to send you away," said she; "but I really must finish these tiresome letters before luncheon. Won't you stay and lunch with us ? And I dare say you would be better amused in the meantime if you were to go out and join the young people."

So he stepped out through the open window, and in another moment the meeting which he had pictured to himself a hundred times as taking place after a hundred different fashions was over. It is scarcely necessary to add that he did not behave in the least as he had intended to behave, and that if Lady Evelyn Foljambe had been the most casual of acquaintances he could not have greeted her more formally. She said she was so glad he had made up his mind to give poor Torquay a second trial, and then she introduced him to Mr. Mortimer. "Only you don't need to be introduced to one another, do you ? " she asked. " Rather not ! " responded Mr. Mortimer, as he rose from the chair in which he had been reclining. He was a well-proportioned young man, with light brown hair which would have curled crisply if he had allowed it to grow long enough ; he had bright blue eyes and a straight nose, and his slight moustache did not conceal the perfect curve of his lips ; so that altogether it would have been quite absurd for any rival to deny him the advantages which belong to a prepossessing exterior.

" This is a rare piece of good luck, Brett," said he ; " I've often wondered what had become of you, and I've asked heaps of fellows ; but nobody knew anything more than that you had gone into the Army. I say, do you remember our both getting nailed up at Windsor fair ? I was swished and MARCIA. you weren't, which I thought hard lines at the time, and I think so still." "Not a bit," answered Willie. "I could plead ' first fault ' and you couldn't ; that was how it happened." Well, it was impossible to resist the friendly overtures of an old schoolfellow who could appeal to such reminiscences ; added to which, Willie felt that he had no right in the world to quarrel with any man for being more highly favoured by fortune than he himself was. In manhood, as in boyhood, contests may be amicable, and a gentleman should always be ready to say " Detur digniori," however bitter may be the pangs of defeat.

Therefore, since Lady Evelyn was so obliging as to second her mother's invitation, and since Mortimer had a vast stock of incidents relating to old Eton days to refer to and chuckle over, Willie consented to remain where he was, nor had he any reason to repent of his decision. For it really did not seem to him that Lady Evelyn and Mortimer conducted themselves at all like a pair of lovers, though he kept an anxious watch upon them both before luncheon and during that meal. Mortimer, it was true, appeared to admire her (small blame to him) and was in a certain sense attentive to her ; but they did not, so far as Willie could discover, exchange any stolen or significant glances, nor did they manifest the slightest desire to rid themselves of the company of third persons. On the contrary they both entreated him to come on board the' yacht on the following day and sail round to Dartmouth.

To be sure, Lady Evelyn rather robbed this invitation of its flattering character by adding : " It will be an act of real kindness to mamma if you will come. Her duty as a mother and a chaperon compels her to brave the perils of the deep with us ; but she hates the whole thing, and she will feel ever so much happier if she is provided with a companion in misfortune." But if that sounded a little like an intimation that he was valued rather for purposes of general utility than for his own sake, the same objection could not be brought against a proposal which Mortimer broached as soon as they had left the dining-room. " How are you going to get through the after noon, Brett?" he asked. "You haven't an idea, of course ; it's impossible that you should in a place like this. Well, now, I'll tell you what you shall do.

You shall come out to Babbacombe Down with me and we'll play golf. Did you ever play golf before ? " Willie shook his head. " I've seen it played MARCIA. once or twice," he answered. " It didn't look to me to be much of a game." " That's all you know about it ! However, for the sake of argument, we'll call it a poor game if you like. Even so, it's exercise, and any game is better than lolling in a garden-chair and staring at the view, isn't it ? " Willie was of opinion that that depended very much upon the question of who might chance to be sitting in the neighbourhood of the garden chair ; but he was gratified to hear so frank a confession of his friend's tastes, and when Lady Evelyn announced that she would drive her pony cart as far as the downs later in the afternoon for the purpose of seeing how the players got on, he was able to say with perfect honesty that he would like very much to try his hand at golf.

Given such conditions as were offered to him, he would have liked very much to try his hand at marbles. Lady Wetherby, it appeared, did not deem her duty as a mother and a chaperon compelled her to accom pany her daughter on this occasion, for she observed that she was going to pay a round of calls. "And I think," she added, "I will end by look ing in upon your mother and telling her that you are in safe custody. Otherwise she may take it into her head that you have fallen over one of the cliffs." "Well, then, that's all settled," said Mortimer, who seemed to have a good-humoured matter-of course way of settling things in accordance with his personal wishes. " Come on, Brett, we shall have to look sharp if we want to finish before dark." MARCIA. 16

Chapter II. Lady Evelyn Backs The Winner

What makes the average upper-class Englishman so much happier, healthier, wiser, and more serviceable than his compeers of other nations (and nobody, it is to be hoped, will have the per versity to deny that he is all of these things) is, without doubt, his inherited and invincible love for sports and pastimes. It may seem a little hard upon those whose avocations debar them from hunting, rowing, cricketing, and playing football, or whose tastes do not incline them thereto, that they should deteriorate physically and mentally, by reason of their disabilities ; but many natural laws seem hard, and the most superficial observers cannot fail to perceive that people who lead a sedentary life do deteriorate. Nevertheless, rowing is a pursuit which usually has to be abandoned before youth is well past, and football is a game for boys rather than for men, and middle-aged cricketers are seldom of much use ; so that a man may very well be still full of vigour and yet not know how to provide his body with the exercise which it requires, unless he has learnt to play golf.

Not many years ago, all golfers who dwelt south of the Tweed were compelled, when speaking of their favourite relaxation, to take up an apologetic tone : they had to explain with humility, and with the chilling certainty of being disbelieved, that an immense amount of experience, dexterity, and self command are requisite in order to make sure of hitting a little ball across five hundred yards of broken ground and depositing it in a small hole in four or five strokes ; but now that golf-links have been established all over England, there is no longer any need to make excuses for one of the finest games that human ingenuity or the accident of circumstances have ever called into existence. The theory of the game is simplicity itself — you have only got to put your ball into a hole in one or more strokes less than your opponent — but the practice is full of difficulty, and what is better still, full of endless variety ; so that you may go on playing golf daily, from the age of eight to that of eighty, and yet never grow tired of it.

Indeed, the circumstance that grey-haired enthusiasts are to be seen enjoying themselves thoroughly, and losing VOL. III. c MARCIA. 18 their temper ludicrously wherever the "royal and ancient " sport has taken root has caused certain ignorant persons to describe golf contemptuously as an old gentleman's game. Such criticisms, however, only come from those who have not attempted to acquire the art ; and some of us have good reasons for holding that a game which need not be abandoned with advancing years is quite the right sort of game. Golf-links, of course, differ even more widely than cricket-grounds ; it is not everywhere that one can obtain such a noble stretch of the peculiar descrip tion of land required as at St. Andrew's or West ward Ho ! and the Torquay Golf Club is but a modest association which has never achieved notoriety.

" You mustn't expect anything great," Mr. Mortimer warned his companion, while they were walking out towards Babbacombe together ; " the greens are very fair, and there are some pretty little hazards ; but it isn't a course for long drivers." " I'm quite sure that it wouldn't be the course for me if it were," answered Willie, laughing. " I shall miss the ball altogether at first, shan't I ? " "Yes, very likely ; but you'll soon get into the kuack of it. I'm not much of a performer myself, you know; only I've played a little in Scotland, and as I foresaw that I should be at Torquay for several weeks, off and on, I thought I had better try to keep myself in condition by joining the Golf Club. If I give you a stroke a hole, you ought to be able to make a match of it. A stroke is pretty heavy odds to allow with short distances like these, mind you.

However, we'll see how things go, and if it isn't enough I can give you more." Willie, who, to tell the truth, was a good deal more interested in his friend's incidental admission that he meant to remain where he was for several weeks, than in the fairness of the proposed handi cap, asked whether Torquay was a good place for yachts to lie. But Mortimer had come out to play golf, not to discuss his personal plans and pro ceedings. "No; beastly," he answered briefly; "one wouldn't think of stopping here if one hadn't friends in the place. Now, I'll tell you what it is, Brett : there are a hundred things that you ought to bear in mind every time that you get into position for a drive ; but the only important thing is to hit the ball clean, and you had better start by doing that the best way that you can.

Keep your eye dead upon it, let the club swing back slowly, and don't attempt to swipe. Stick to these rules and you'll probably astonish yourself." MARCIA. Golfers will perceive that this Mentor was not without glimmerings of science ; for of course there can be no sounder advice than to hit the ball clean, just as there can be no sounder advice than to shoot a pheasant in the head instead of in the tail, and novices are less confused by being told what they ought to do than by being instructed as to the best means of doing it. Still, when they had reached the little club-house, and when Willie had been supplied with the necessary equipment of driver, brassy, iron, short spoon, cleek and putter, as well as with a boy to carry these implements for him, he had naturally but a hazy idea as to the method of their employment.

Mortimer led him up to the down, indicated the whereabouts of the first hole (which was invisible from the starting point) and told him to " go straight for it." The result was that he made a short, sharp, cricketing sort of stroke, thumped the ground hard and sent his ball about ten yards in the required direction. " That's what everybody does at first," remarked Mortimer placidly. " I'll just show you the way to drive." Now, Mortimer, who had not learnt golf as a boy, and consequently had no chance of ever becoming a player, had acquired a totally un orthodox style which, nevertheless, proved telling about once in three times, and which therefore gave him far too high an opinion of himself. On this occasion he hit the ball fairly, although he had no business to do so, and thus he not only swept it away out of sight, but buried it beneath a stone wall which intervened between the strikers and the hole.

As, however, he did not know what a misfortune had overtaken him, he was proportionately complacent. " That's about the right line," he remarked. " Now you'll have to play again. In the ordinary course of things you would be playing the 'odd,' but as I'm giving you a stroke, you only play ' the like.' The ball isn't lying particularly well, so you had better take your cleek. Hit as hard as you like ; you won't go too far." A cleek is a weapon with a comparatively short shaft and a polished steel head : it is more fre quently made use of by beginners than by experts. Willie, obediently following the advice that had been given him, put his whole strength into his next stroke, and, notwithstanding that, as before, he wasted a large proportion of this upon mother earth, he was so far successful as to get well under his ball, which he sent some hundred yards on its way.

" That will do very well," said Mortimer ap- MARCIA. provingly. " If you can only manage to play your iron, your next stroke ought to land you on the green." It is not every mature golfer who can make sure of playing his lofting-iron, which is the most difficult of all the clubs to use effectively ; but nothing gives such confidence as complete igno rance, and Willie, having been told what he ought to do, performed the unexpected feat of doing it — so that his quick wrist-stroke lifted the ball high into the air and deposited it close to the fluttering white flag which marked the hole. Mortimer only said, "By Jove ! " But he used more forcible language than that when his own ball was discovered, wedged in between two stones of the wall which they now approached. He said that sort of thing was very hard lines, and showed the nasty, tricky nature of the course over which they were playing.

" As fair a drive as I ever made in my life — and then to get punished in this way ! I don't mind legitimate difficulties ; but really it's too bad to have hazards that no human being can get out of. Of course that gives you the hole ; because the only thing I can do is to lift and lose two strokes." The hole was not necessarily lost yet ; but perhaps his annoyance caused him to lose it, for, after lifting his ball and aiming at it somewhat carelessly, he sent it back to very much the same place from which it had been taken. After that, he observed that it was not worth while to try again, and explained that his antagonist had won the first hole by sheer good luck. But his ruffled equanimity was restored after he had taken the second hole with perfect ease. This, being placed on the summit of a hill, beyond another wall and a clump of gorse-bushes, de manded a lofting stroke, which he delivered accu rately, whereas Willie came to hopeless grief in the gorse and had played " six more " before he extricated himself.