The Baroness. A Dutch story

Front matter

I. a " The laws which have their foundations laid deep in the Eternal Verities are not shackles, but supports, to keep our feeble humanity from falling again into chaos." Duttf) §>torp. BT FRANCES MARY PEARD, AUTHOR OP " THE ROSE GARDEN," " NEAR NEIGHBOURS," " THE COUNTRY COUSIN," " PAUL'S SISTER," ETC. IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. I. LONDON: RICHARD BENTLEY AND SON, in ©rBinarg to f^et fHajestg tfjc ©ucm 1892. (__ rights reserved.) CONTENTS OF VOL. I. CHAPTER PAGB I. The Brothers ... ... ... 1 II. Who are they? ... ... 28 III. The Town Councillor's Family ... 47 IV. In Dordt ... ... ... 70 V. A First Encounter ... ... ... 97 VI. Quirine ... ... ... 120 VII. Madam Imperative ... ... ... 142 VIII. For the Defence ... ... 172 IX. Shaken ... ... ... ... 201 X. The Group ... ... ... 221 XL "I HAD BETTER GO " ... ... ... 247 XII. "O-oh!" ... ... ... 272 XIII. For Hilvardine ... ... ... 291 XIV. " Forgive her ! " ...

Chapter I. The Brothers

" Her place was empty." Tennyson. In the south-western corner of the Nether lands, there stands a house which goes by the somewhat imposing name of the Castle of Boekenrode. It is no more, however, than a large and ugly country house, surrounded by great beeches, underneath which, in spring lilies of the valley grow and blossom pro fusely. The building, as has been said, is large, but the rooms are by no means of great VOL. I. l size, the dining-room, perhaps, being the most imposing. Owing to the nearness of the trees, the house is decidedly gloomy, and the furniture, though handsome, heavy with carved backs and velvet coverings. In one of these rooms, which might be called either a library or a study, two men, brothers, were sitting, on a cheerless spring day. It was cold, unusually cold for the beginning of May ; it had rained for quite a week past, the frogs were croaking their loudest in the large ponds near the house, and every now and then a hailstorm flung itself against the windows like a charge of shot, beating the young green leaves un mercifully.

The room itself was warm, for the great stove was alight, but the cheerful ness of an open fire was wanting, and altogether the impression conveyed to the eye was depressing. One of the men was sitting in a large arm-chair, with his thin hands placed on the arms, and eyes fixed upon a THE BROTEERS. red gleam which shone behind the iron door of the stove ; he was the elder of the two, and looked older than he really was from the stern lines which suffering or some other cause had written on his face. The other, and the younger, was an unusually big man, a little heavy in face and figure, and a little slow in every movement, even to the raising of his eyes, which at times impressed you with almost the dignity of an action. He sat by the great centre table, on which his elbows rested, and where a number of letters and papers lay scattered, as if he had just been examining them.

This, indeed, was the case, and from the gloomy silence which had fallen upon the brothers, it might have been inferred that the examination had not proved satisfactory. The silence was at length broken by the younger man, and he appeared to be only pertinaciously repeating what he had already urged. " There can't be any question," he said slowly, " as to your right course." The Baron van Cortlandt did not lift his look from the stove. " From your point of view, and in your judgment, I can understand that there would be none," he replied, " but looking at hers, I " " You ? " I find myself groping in a thick fog of doubt." His brother looked at him, and then let his right hand fall heavily down on the table. "No, Maurits, there should be no doubt. The woman does not deserve consideration. Her action has brought disgrace not only upon you but upon the whole family.

I shall never cease to regret that I obeyed your directions and remained in Batavia when I should have hurried home and obliged you to defend yourself, or, if too late for that, insisted upon the decision being revoked. I TEE BROTEERS. would have fought her with her own weapons." Baron van Cortlandt smiled faintly. " "What are the weapons of a butterfly ? " he asked. " A butterfly may be crushed," returned Hugo grimly. " But a man could hardly set himself to the work." Maurits spoke with a sort of disdain which seemed habitual to him, and his brother, with out heeding, returned doggedly to the point. " It is unfortunate for us that Tante Anna's illness makes it very unlikely that she will be able to appear, but I shall have her evi dence put into writing and duly witnessed." " I am not so sure of Tante Anna as you are, or whether much of this misery may not be laid at her door.

I begin to think that she loved me and Boekenrode so well, that she fenced us about with a complete palisade of prejudices. All that was different she detested, and Quirine was — very different ; " and as his wife's name passed his lips, a slight lingering, an involuntary softening, might have been noticed by an attentive listener. Hugo van Cortlandt, however, was just then absorbed in a review of the past. Some six years before, when the younger brother was engaged in managing the family estates in Batavia, the Baron Maurits, then two and thirty, but always older than his years, had surprised the world by marrying a young girl of barely eighteen, not his equal in family, and his very opposite — so the same world vowed — in taste and cha racter. He was grave, she was flighty ; he was punctilious, she, daringly unconven tional ; he, sober in taste, she, extravagant, changeful, impatient.

Unlucky gratitude on his part kept Tante Anna at Boekenrode, and over her eyes there was no glamour cast to soften the faults of the young wife. In her thinking no one was good enough for TEE BROTEERS. 7 Maurits ; imagine, therefore, what she felt and what she said at finding him linked to one whom she honestly could not believe to be good at all ; imagine her wrath at hearing the venerable traditions of the family scorned, at finding pet dogs with muddy feet reposing upon velvet covers, at seeing the famous blue china given into the hands of careless servants, at knowing that the young baroness, instead of blessing the fate which had given her Boekenrode and Maurits, cried because she wanted to have been in Paris, where she had been brought up ! Meanwhile, in the outer world, the marriage was reported not to have turned out happily ; but although rumour flew about, Boekenrode was so retired a spot that few facts escaped, until one day the neighbourhood was electrified by the news that the first steps towards a separation had been actually taken.

Every one said he was not surprised, the baron was a stern man, the baroness giddy and vain, until byandby it became known that it was the baroness, not the baron, who was seeking for a separation, and that on the ground of her husband's cruelty. This was much more astounding and interesting, and the flood of talk surged backwards and forwards, and round and round, with constantly increasing vigour. Hitherto, the Baron van Cortlandt's silence and preference for solitude had brought upon him what might be called a negative unpopularity, but no one had sus pected that he would ever have been guilty of cruelty, and any one who could give in formation on the matter was eagerly ques tioned. Friends he had, who protested that the charge was utterly baseless, and vowed that when he and his wife went before the judge to be questioned, he would in a few words be able to disprove it ; but not even these faithful few were admitted to his con fidence, and the extraordinary affair became yet more extraordinary when it turned out that upon the young baroness making her complaint, she was able to bring forward pretty strong evidence to substantiate it — nothing less, in short, than a long heavy bruise on her white shoulder, which she said had been caused by her husband with a ruler, or paper knife, or some sharp weapon of that sort, and which by its appearance answered to her account of the cause.

This was bad, and there were anxious inquiries what the baron had to say for himself in reply. It turned out nothing — nothing at all. He made absolutely no rejoinder, and when the judge — who was an irate little man, just about to marry a daughter of his own to an elderly deputy — asked him what he desired to plead, and whether he admitted having struck his wife, he merely answered that the blow had been given, under circumstances which his wife could explain. Asked further whether he could urge in excuse that he had received serious provocation, he returned that he did not consider any provocation could excuse a blow. After this the judge rather veered round, and questioned the young Madame van Cortlandt with sharpness; but she held stoutly to her story, and to the point that she had established a right to the separa tion she demanded.

By the Dutch laws this can at first be only granted temporarily, for a term of five years ; at the end of this time, and before the decree is finally pronounced, husband and wife must again appear before the judge, and be examined as to whether their wishes remain the same, or whether either has anything to advance against the divorce. " And I trust you will employ this interval in coming to a better understanding," remarked the little judge impressively, feeling that he had done his best without success, and devoutly hoping that his daughter and the deputy would never be foolish enough to allow such a scandal to grow out of their domestic misunderstandings. "I shall talk pretty plainly to Adelheid," he mentally resolved ; " she can be extremely aggravating sometimes, and when Van Resslaer has the gout he is naturally irritable.

Heavens, what a care one's children are ! " The judge might moralize, but all people had to go upon was the fact that the baroness had established her case, and that her husband had not a word to say for himself. Naturally, when a man makes no attempt at* defence, it is because defence is impossible ; naturally, at any rate, tried by the rough and ready reasoning which prevails in this hurrying world. The baron was, therefore, universally condemned. Harsh, taciturn, stingy, passionate, sullen, cold, relentless — ■ the most contradictory bad qualities were hurled at his head, but he made no sign that they affected him. He sat in his usual place at church, where all that could be reported was that his face looked as though cut out of marble. When the bags at the ends of long poles were extended to him twice in the course of the sermon, once for the good of the poor, and once for the pastor, he gave to each as usual, notwithstanding that some members of the congregation had prognosticated that he would withhold his gift from at least one.

When the governor of the province arrived at Arnheim, the Baron van Cortlandt met him according to his custom, and invited him to Boekenrode. Yet he was neither unaware of nor indifferent to the adverse opinions of his neighbours, being, indeed, more sensitive than they would have conceived possible. He was simply taking his fate, or his punishment, with what dogged ness he could muster. And, after all, when a great shock comes, smaller blows do not add very much to the general disturbance. Quirine was gone. Her husband allowed her such an income as made every one the TEE BROTEERS. more certain that he was conscious of owing her a large compensation, and himself remained at Boekenrode, more of a recluse than ever, and busying himself in certain ethno logical studies which claimed his whole attention.

Sometimes Tante Anna was with him but Tante Anna could hardly forgive his passiveness under his wife's accusation, and her affection became tiresome when it ex pressed itself in continual reproaches. Hugo would willingly have come back, and wrote with insistence to this effect, but he was acting for his brother in his large Indian possessions, he was wanted there, and the baron refused to recognize any reason for his return until he approached thirty. At that age he would be qualified to enter the Legislative Chamber, and at the first opportunity Maurits proposed that he should become a candidate. All this had taken some years to carry out,. and when the young baron reached the Netherlands the five years of experimental separation were within a few months of expiring. He travelled night and day after landing, and the sight of his brother only served to deepen his anger against his unknown sister-in-law.

Hugo van Cortlandt was a man whose wrath was not easily kindled, but, once alight, it burned with a strength which made it dangerous. His chief characteristics, indeed, were all strong-, but this strength was massive rather than agile, and had very little care to display itself. He was simple and unambitious, was more likely to yield to others than to himself, went his own way quietly, and, once having made up his mind, carried through his purpose. He loved his brother before any one else in the world, and his pride of family was perhaps greater than his love — pride which, like all else about him, was not showy or aggressive, yet dominated his motives un consciously. It is not always the case that the outer being is in direct harmony with the inner, but with Hugo van Cortlandt this might be not unfairly asserted.

He was a large man, with honest blue eyes, and a certain nobility of head. He looked you straight in the face, and whether you liked or disliked him, you would probably feel that you would make no discoveries which were either mean or petty. Hugo had heard more of the unfortunate marriage of his brother from Tante Anna than from Maurits. She had written vigorously, having been anxious to enlist his influence, and, according to her, Quirine's action was taken because her own conduct had been so unbecoming and outrageous that she was aware she had laid herself open to a separation being demanded by her husband, and was clever enough to see the importance of getting the first word in such a matter. But when, in the conversation already partly given, Hugo went on to hint at this suggestion of Tante Anna's, his brother repudiated it almost with violence.

" That," he exclaimed, " is the worst thing that has yet been said of me. I try for a separation ! What for ? Do not believe such an absurdity, Hugo. I will be perfectly frank with you, although it pains me to speak of it, and I should prefer your treating the matter as something which is* both dead and buried. Still, if Tante Anna has given you such an impression, it is my duty to remove it. I loved Quirine, but I knew too little about women to have married her, and I hadn't an idea of the sort of thingwhich is wanted to make a girl care for you in return. I was a grave, ugly fellow, fourteen years older than she ; when we married she told me straight out that she didn't love me, but her mother said they were all alike, and I was fool enough to believe that a man and his wife would shake together after a time.

When she seemed restless, or put out, I kept away from her, thinking .perhaps she saw too much of me, and was weary. After her mother's death things grew worse. Tante Anna said there was no pleasing her — she wanted this, wanted that, to go to Paris, to leave Boekenrode. I suppose that was true," he went on after a momentary pause, " for Quirine did one day ask me to sell Boekenrode." Hugo did not speak, he only stirred. " Then she grew imprudent, certainly im prudent. She drove about in search of amusement, made friends with undesirable people, invited them to the house, shocked Tante Anna, kept away from me, and shut me out of her confidence. There was a certain Madame de Marigny who, I think, acted a very mischievous part." " Madame de Marigny," repeated the younger man quietly, as though noting the name.

" I have not, as you know, the gift of vol. i. winning hearts. Often as I longed to break down the barrier, I did not know how, and the very longing made me, I dare say, staffer and more harsh. She was extravagant, and at her age it would not have been right not to have remonstrated with her ; where I failed was in making her understand how much I loved her all the time. She let me see that she was indifferent, Tante Anna did not spare me when she repeated my wife's words, and so the miserable estrangement went on." " What others were there besides Madame de Marigny ? " asked Hugo. His brother went on without noticing the question. " A separation ! I swear tlie thought never entered my head, not even after that fatal Thursday, when Quirine fled from the room, vowing that she would not stay in the house.

I was horrified, shucked, at what I had done; but she had made me bitterly angry by the things she had said, and before I cooled she was gone. I don't want to defend myself to you ; though it is easy enough to defend one's self to those who love you, and pretty nearly impossible when the love is all on one side. Picture the same wretched thing happening to yourself. If such an accusation were hurled at your head by some one for whom you would have died, would you have had the heart to turn to the world, and say that you had not done it?" " Yes," said the younger brother briefly. " It was your duty." Maurits had risen, and walked about the room, emphasizing his words by sweeping gestures with his arms. " Where was the use ? Every one be lieved it. The old pastor, who had known me for twenty years, came up and denounced my conduct; before I could realize what the charge meant, it had grown over my name like a fungus.

A dozen denials would not have cleared me. And," he added in a softer tone, "it was, after all, nothing to me, if Quirine herself could believe it." "That was of no consequence compared with the blot which the action for cruelty has brought upon our family name. You must speak, Maurits, before it is too late." " There is no more to make me speak now than there ever was. Less. Hugo, are you still boy enough to conceive that if I chose to offer an explanation, one person in a hundred would credit it ? They would ask why it was not given at the time, and they would have reason on their side. But I am sorry for you. Coming home, and coming just at this moment, has given it all a freshness and a rawness which has passed for me. I am sorry for you." His voice dropped, and he stood still, staring blankly at the papers scattered on the table.

Hugo got up, shook himself, kicked open the latch of the stove-door with his foot, and flung a couple of logs into the glowing furnace; then, shutting it again, remained standing in front of it while he lit a cigar, offering one, at the same time, to his brother. As he took it, Hugo said firmly — " Whether it is believed or not, your name must be formally cleared. No doubt you let }-our opportunity slip, and I shall never cease to regret that you did not allow me to come back to you five years ago. But it is not too late. We must insist upon that woman withdrawing her accusation, and the world will necessarily be forced to acquiesce, even if they pay as little respect to your word as you appear to imagine." " Quirine must suffer no annoyance," said the older man quickly. His brother took his cigar between his fingers, and pointed with it to the heap of papers on the table.

" These scarcely look like annoyance," he remarked in a quiet tone. "Madame van Cortlandt has had money enough to provide for her wildest whims. I only wish I could see a way of obliging her to withdraw her disgraceful charge, and yet leaving the separation as it is ; I cannot believe that to be impracticable. As for the charge, the first thing is to put an end to it. Do you think she understands that your allowance will cease altogether when the decree be comes absolute ? " " Her settlement remains. " Of course. But the settlement is a very different matter, and after she has ceased to be your wife, you cannot insult her by offering her money. She must be told this." " Unnecessary. My lawyer has already communicated every particular." " Still, she may not have taken it in. A woman who lives at such an extravagant rate must dread even comparative poverty."

His brother shook his head. TEE BROTEERS. 23 " It is natural that you should think so. But I am not at all sure. You do not know Quirine, nor did I." " Do you know her better now ? " " Perhaps. I have thought of her a good deal." Hugo stood looking reflectively at his brother. " Whatever you feel, Maurits," he said slowly at last, " you owe it to us all to allow yourself to be righted. If you are indifferent to your position, I am not." " No," replied the older man, in the same tone, " and I cannot understand it. To me the opinion of these people, whose judgments are formed by prejudice or a morsel of mere gossip, is absolutely worthless. I should not have said formed. They never arrive at such a consistency, they are simply fluid. Why should one regard them ? " " For the sake of those who are gone."

Maurits smiled. " That is scarcely a motive power — with me, Hugo." " You are not turning into a cynic, are you ? " demanded his brother with anxiety. " Do not, for Heaven's sake. Cynicism never helped a man to one good action." " Perhaps not. But it serves as a drag on the wheels of folly," returned the baron carelessly. Hugo made a step towards the table, and lifted one of the papers. " You refuse to take any measures your self ? " he asked. " I have told you. I shall not move." " Then I shall act on your behelf." " And if I refuse to permit interference ? " " You have no right to refuse," replied Hugo, his face darkening ; " but in that case I shall act on my own responsibility, and take care that what I have to say is heard by the world." Maurits looked at him. THE BROTHERS. " You are as obstinate as ever, Hugo," he said, with an impatient sigh.

" It would have been better if you had remained in Batavia until this matter was for ever decided. However, do what you will, do what your own notion of the honour of the family requires, since it touches you so nearly. Heaven knows, I have not managed my own affairs so well as to have the right to resent your blame ! " " I should never blame you, Maurits," said his brother quickly. He was, indeed, both surprised and relieved to have gained this acquiescence. A woman would have sus pected that an unacknowledged wish had played traitor in the citadel, and might have guessed what this was, but Hugo simply be lieved that the force of his arguments had convinced the baron. It was a weight off his mind. He strode to the window and flung up the sash. " Come down to the ponds," he said. " Brouwer swears the big copper beech TEE BARONESS. will smash somebody one of these days.

Here, we'd better shove those papers into a drawer, hadn't we ? " As they were gathering them up, he returned to the subject which had occupied them. " Where is Madame van Cortlandt to be found ? " " Do you intend to see her ? " " Certainly," Hugo answered in some sur prise. " I shall tell her exactly what I propose to do, so that she may have fair warning. Is she at Paris, or Petersburg, or where ? " " She is nearer home," Maurits returned slowly. " She has just taken a house at Dordrecht." "At Dordt! You must be dreaming! What on earth should attract her there ? Dordt! Why, there is neither theatre, nor garrison — stay, I believe there are some barracks, but, still — impossible ! " " I cannot tell you what attracts her ; TEE BROTEERS. 27 I only know that a house is being pre pared." " Very good," said his brother, thrusting in the last packet, and closing the drawer.

" Whom do we know at Dordt ? " " Heer de Groot." " Yes; and his son was out in Batavia. He will do." As they went out of the door and down the stairs, the elder man said hesitatingly — ■ " I should like to know what arguments you will use." " I shall let Madame van Cortlandt clearly understand that it is for her own interests to withdraw that disgraceful charge." " You will never get Quirine to act for her own interests," returned his brother.

Chapter II. Who Are They

? " I loathe that low vice, curiosity ; But if there's anything in which I shine, 'Tis in arranging all my friends' affairs." Byron. " No, no ; I don't believe it ! " " Don't you ? Well, it is no matter ; I only repeat what they say." " What they say ! Those foolish boys and girls you listen to!" returned Rolina Schuylen, serene in the superiority of her married years, and of a baby boy of prodigious intellect, reposing at this moment in his cot upstairs. Jan, her husband, stirred his long length to answer. " You need not believe it if you'd rather not." WEO ARE TEEYt 29 "But who told you?" demanded his wife for the third time. Husband and wife were sitting in a pleasant room in a pleasant house just outside the town of Dordrecht. The house stood sociably on the border of the road to the station, from which it was only separated by one of those tiny canals, fringed with long grass, which in the Netherlands serve in place offence or railings.

There was a garden, as a matter of course — a bed brilliant with late tulips, another just filled with arums and cinerarias, a standard magnolia conspicua covered with white flowers, and lilac bushes in blossom clustering round a green arbour. As Rolina sat at the window, the fresh scent of the lilacs was carried up to her, and she could just see the brown sails of a great wind mill wheeling lazily, and — -which interested her far more — catch glimpses of the people who walked along the tree-shaded road, and an occasional tram jingling by on its way to or from the station. As she often remarked, THE BARONESS. she could not imagine the pleasure of burying yourself in the country where there would be nothing to enliven you but green trees, or, at best, a few black and white cows, and al though Dordt was a quiet town, and not to compare with Amsterdam or the Hague, yet she had been thankful that Madame Schuylen had not carried out her threat of sending: Jan to live in one of her country houses, and that she had consented to his becoming advocaat, since, as Rolina argued, that meant they must be where there were people, and would ensure their not being absolutely buried alive.

Rolina was young, fair, and plump ; a good tempered and spiteful little woman, with a decided chin and strong opinions about most things. She would have made a better advocaat than her husband, who was as laro-e and lazy as he was kindly. " Oh, if it isn't true, it isn't," he said, with a yawn. " It doesn't matter a stiver to us. I tell you what, Rolina, I haven't anything WHO ARE THEY? 31 particular to do, and, if you like, I'll go over to Papendrecht with you this evening." " How can you say that it doesn't matter ! " returned his wife, ignoring the offer. " I am sure it would make all the difference in the world to me if there were pleasant neighbours in the next house, people with whom one might exchange occasional ideas. Our gardens join, and if we were friendly it Avould be quite easy to make a little opening in the fence, so that on some days they might come and sit in our arbour, and on others I might go to them, and take Marius."