The Country Cousin

Chapter I

The Ashtons never missed a Richter con cert ; it appeared, indeed, as if they went so far as to consider that a point of honour was involved in their attending every performance. It must not be understood that they were all present, but two representatives maintained the family traditions, and these two were generally Elizabeth and Nan. On one par ticular Monday in May it was as usual Eliza beth and Nan who made a part of the great crowd hushed into silence by a sign from the conductor. Upon this silence broke one of VOL. I. I Haydn's short slow introductions to a spirited vivace, and through sadness and jest the C symphony rushed on, swept along by Avind and strings, dashing into fresh and delicious melody in its final presto, till it ended. and after the applause Avas over A'oices began again.

A lady just in front of Elizabeth Ashton looked back over her shoulder. She was small and fair, with an intelligent bird like face, a slight sharpness of feature being softened by a kindly expression. ' Herr Richter evidently wishes to put us into good spirits at the very beginning to night,' she said, smiling. ' He has made me think of all manner of pleasant things.' I wish I shared them,' said Elizabeth sighing. ' You might. You have been under the magician.' ' Haydn has no spells for me. I Avant something less simple, more exciting.' ' Less wholesome, you mean,' put in Lady Millicent, with a little nod. 'What is the matter with you ? Nan, what is the matter with Elizabeth ?' ' Nan does not know — I don't know myself — at least, I do, but it would take a symphony to tell you,' said Elizabeth, with a laugh ; ' and everything is to be hurried to-night because the programme is too long.

Hush !' When the second performance was ended, it was Nan who leaned forward to speak to Lady Millicent. She was the younger and the prettier of the sisters, though there was only the difference of a year between them, and Nan was twenty-six. She was fair, with fine eyes and a delicate yet rich complexion ; whereas Elizabeth was sallow, and was one of those persons who depend for their looks upon their moods, and, it must be acknow ledged, their dress. Elizabeth was the tallest, and showed to advantage in a crowd ; but she was thin, and might become angular. It I often seemed, indeed, as if Elizabeth suffered rather unduly from the doom of possibilities, as if she scarcely got her fair share of the present. No one ever said that Nan might become scraggy, or sharp, or bitter ; but poor Elizabeth ran the gauntlet through all these predictions, and perhaps, like other predic tions, they helped to fulfil themselves.

Nan was the greater favourite of the two sisters, and yet Nan seldom put herself out of the Avay for anyone. But she had a more win ning smile and a more sympathetic manner, and these fascinations credited her with a stock of sterling virtues. The. Ashtons lived in Hampshire, and always came to London for the season ; this year they had taken a small house in Albion Street. There was a father, Colonel Ashton, who was under ex cellent control ; there was a mother, who was an admirable manager, and had many philan thropic interests ; an elder sister, Susan, who suffered from slight deafness ; and a younger, Constance, who was on the point of marriage. They were a popular family ; they looked Avell, talked well, and were asked to a large number of entertainments, to which Elizabeth and Nan generally went.

Nan had leaned forward to speak to Lady Millicent. ' Has Elizabeth told you the news ?' ' She has told me nothing. She is very uncommunicative and dull to-night. I am waiting patiently until her beloved Wagner has awakened her ; but meanwhile you might throw me something by way of a crumb. What is going to happen ? Have Constance and Mr. Maxwell quarrelled over their car pets ? Are you going to drag Colonel Ashton to Homburg by-and-by ?' ' No. It is nothing very personal. Only imagine the Medhursts coming to town after all !' ' Nonsense. Do you really mean it ? How interesting ! How exciting ! Oh, and here is JHE COUNTRY COUSIN, the music beginning again before I have heard anything ! It is the Meistersinger, and Eliz ' But Lady Millicent was obliged to stop abruptly as the violoncellos took up their grave introduction ; presently the Avind in struments struck out the chorale, and the strings interrupted it with the two ' lieder.' It was quickly over, and Elizabeth leaned back with another sigh. ' I suppose it is a little like dram-drinking,' she said ; ' but certainly it stirs and stimulates one to an extraordinary degree.' ' I have no time to quarrel Avith you now,' Lady Millicent said. ' Tell me quickly, are Lord and Lady Medhurst really going to bring Joan to toAvn ?

Is the venture actually to be made ?' ' Really.' ' For the season ?' ' For the season.' ' Oh, that they should ever have been able to make up their minds ! I can hardly believe it even now.' ' I heard from Joan herself,' said Nan. ' And is she wild with excitement ?' 'She! My dear Millicent ! The poor child is frightened to death, and hardly knows how she is ever to endure such an awful ordeal. The fact is, she has been so preached at, and snubbed, and taught to consider herself a nonentity, that she has the greatest dread of the unknown world, and of what sort of treatment she may meet with. It is really absurd.' Lady Millicent shook her head. ' It is a little sad, I think,' she said gently. ' When one thinks what the reaction will be.' ' I am not so sure that there will be any reaction,' said Elizabeth. ' Oh, with her beauty and position, it is inevitable.' They were interrupted again, and when next Lady Millicent spoke, it was to ask whether the sisters were going to the Foreign Office. ' Yes,' Nan replied. ' We were to meet Mrs. Talbot.' ' Then papa and I can drive you there.

Poor man ! it was very dutiful of him to bring me to-night, for he only knows one tune, and is a little doubtful about that. But there was no one else to come, so he had to be the victim.' That Lady Millicent allowed her mind to dwell rather pressingly upon what she had heard was evident. She was standing near Sir Henry Lancaster, late in the evening, Avhen she spoke of it. ' Do you know the Medhursts ?' ' Him — slightly.' ' They are coming to town.' He laughed. ' Why shouldn't they ? Forgive me, Lady Millicent ; but you spoke with an almost tragic note in your voice. Doesn't everyone at this time of year do the same thing ? Aren't we all puppets, set to dance on the same treadmill ? Who are the Medhursts, that they should be exceptions ?' ' Oh, it is evident indeed that you do not know them.

They are persons to whom London is an abomination, when by London you mean the whirl of society. They love, or perhaps it is he who loves, country, quiet, strict routine, educational fads — oh, I assure you, the uprooting will be something serious !' ' Then why the need of it ? Why do they come ?' ' Apparently from a stern sense of duty, and to bring out an only daughter.' They will soon carry her back again.' I don't know. She is beautiful.' ' Beautiful ?' Sir Henry raised his eye brows. ' There is a large supply of beauty this year, to judge from to-night.' ' But not of such beauty as hers. If she is as lovely as she was a year ago, she must create a sensation, and the question is how she will bear it. She has lived the quietest life imaginable ; she has been very much kept back and snubbed — I doubt Avhether she even knows that she is pretty.

If she does, I have no doubt that she has been so long told that she is awkward or dull, or that she stoops, that admiration will come upon her quite unexpectedly. Poor Joan !' ' I am afraid I hardly believe in such blissful ignorance,' Sir Henry said. ' Depend upon it, she knows all about it, and exactly how pretty she is, for that kind of knowledge comes to a girl just as surely as the air she breathes.' ' What do you know about girls ?' de manded Lady Millicent, smiling. ' They share our human nature,' he re turned ; ' I know no more. Heaven forbid that I should ever be called upon to study a fashionable young lady ! I fly from the genus.' Then he looked at her with a laugh. ' Have I put my foot in it again ? You're not one, are you ?' ' I don't know how I am to disentangle o myself from the crowd,' she replied, with a smile which was slightly wistful. ' I don't know that I have any right to do so.

I go about a good deal, and I think — yes, I am sure that I enjoy it. Otherwise — well, you know, I need not do it.' He did not at once answer. Then he said slowly : ' I have never thought of you in that light. I go out very little myself, only, indeed, as a matter of what seems like necessity, as one is here to-night, and I somehow fancied that you had the same feeling. Of course I had no right to fancy anything.' Lady Millicent had grown slightly pale. ' Once before,' she said, ' you said some thing of the sort, and I have been a little ashamed of myself ever since, because I felt as if I had allowed you to keep an impression which Avas not quite correct. I believe I am really fond of gaiety.' Elizabeth Ashton had once said of her friend that she was inconveniently truthful. It certainly at this moment cost her some thing to act up to her standard, and this may have been owing to a look on her com panion's face which she read as disappoint ment.

He could make no answer, however, to her confession, because at this moment other people drifted into the conversation, and Sir Henry moved aside, and stood re garding a bank of irises. He was a somewhat remarkable-looking man of two or three and thirty, who might have been several years older. H e was large — large in every way, in form and feature — large and also clumsy. His head was massive, his forehead broad ; his ears were long, straight, and set square and Ioav down in his head ; eye brows level and overhanging; his nose was thick, his mouth wide, but very beautifully and firmly cut ; Avhile his eyes, by their keen in telligence, redeemed the face from any pos sible accusation of heaviness. He had had a singularly brilliant and successful career, although the two things do not always go together ; had carried off a seat which the other side held to be exceptionally safe, and now had attained to a place in the Ministry.

He was not universally popular ; indeed, it is probable that such a position would have made him miserable ; he was too strong in his own opinions, too intolerant of opposition — while at all times ready himself for the fray — too scathing in his scorn, for it to be certain that he would ever rise to the foremost rank among statesmen. At the same time he had many warm friends, and his enemies never failed to listen to him with interest, not only because he Avas always worth hearing, and spoke with delightful pungency, but because it was impossible not be struck with the man's honesty, generosity, and undaunted courage. He went to feAv houses, express ing unbounded contempt for the shams and frivolities of London life ; but he was seen most often at Lord Waterton's — Lady Milli cent Fairlie's father— and once or tAvice, in consequence, his name had been coupled Avith hers.

Nothing, however, had ever passed between them which the whole world might not have heard Avithout finding anything to comment upon, and those who knew him best laughed loudest at the idea of his marrying. They added, Avith truth, that he infinitely preferred the society of men to Avomen, and, with less ground for assurance, that he was altogether absorbed in his political career. They might have modilied these assertions if they had not overlooked another point in his character. He was passionately attracted by beauty and art. One or tAvo of those Avho stared at him with some curiosity as he Avas studying the irises, imagined that in his attitude, and in his standing, as it were, alone in a crowd where he had innumerable acquaintances, they saw a proof of that almost insolent care lessness of men and women's opinion with which he was credited.

But, in actual fact, he had forgotten everything else in intense admiration for the flowers. He was lost in the charm of their delicate yet rich colouring, their lovely gradations of shades, their strong and slender stems, and he was thinking of nothing else. Presently Lady Millicent's words recurred to him, and he remembered them with some regret. He had thought of her perhaps more than he himself knew, and possibilities had certainly crossed his mind — crossed them for the very reason that he had believed her to be superior to the other frivolous women, as, with the injustice he would have been the first to scarify in another, he dubbed the crowd wholesale. Without exactly putting it into words, he had taken for granted that she went out night after night to please some fancy of her father's, or to fulfil some imaginary social duty ; it really shocked him when she allowed that it was to please herself, and he found it difficult to forgive her such a shortcoming.

From sheer force of habit he Avas at her side again, later in the evening ; but he Avas silent and pre occupied, and Elizabeth Ashton, who was standing by, chose an opportunity to bend fonvard and whisper, rather maliciously : ' My dear, you have not got your lion to roar at all prettily to-night. Can it be be cause there are other and greater lions ? But no — I apologize. With all his faults, which are legion, that is not one of them. Then what has happened ?' ' Nothing,' said Lady Millicent, flushing slightly. 'Well, we must go,' said Elizabeth aloud ; ' a little eddy in the croAvd has swept Nan into view, and I can't lose her again. Goodbye, Millicent. May I tell Joan that you will assist us in protecting her from all the dragons and terrors which are weighing on her country mind ?' ' When do they come, and where ?' ' This week, and to a house near ours, because Medhurst thinks we are not quite in the vortex.

Joan is to spend part of her time at the South Kensington Museum. She is also to be presented on the twenty-sixth. Good night, Sir Henry.' Lady Millicent glanced at her companion. He Avas frowning. ' Well ?' she hazarded. ' Well !' he repeated impatiently. ' That's the sort of assistance a girl may look for Avhen she comes into this Babylon Avith the intention of living a life not utterly vain and senseless. A jest and a sneer.' ' You are hard upon Elizabeth. She can be a very true friend,' said Millicent gently. ' When I see, I'll believe.' VOL. I. •> ' I think you are rather put out this evening. ' I dare say I am. The sight of all this frivolity, and show, and artificial life always makes me sick. Look at that old woman — she ought to be spending her last days in a more fitting place. And look at that young one.

If anything, she's worse to see. And then, Lady Millicent, you talk of liking it ! Good heavens, Avhat is there to like ?' ' Pray, are we all frivolous and artificial ?' she demanded with spirit. He stared at her. He Avas ahvays a little surprised when she held her own opinions against his. ' Oh,' he retorted, ' if you are expecting compliments ' ' You would punish me if I were,' she said playfully. ' And I cannot wait for even a conscientious attempt, for here comes my father, and I must go. No ; do not go down Avith us ; stay behind, and if you can't be social, remember that you are official. Won't that inspire you ?' She nodded gaily as she went off, though, to say the truth, something in the evening's talk had caused her a strange sinking of heart. She was sensitively alive to his opinions, and it cost her a great deal to acknowledge what she knew he would dis approve ; only her perfect honesty had led her to say what she had said, and in his look, in his words, she had read disappointment.

It was very bitter. He filled a large place in her thoughts. At times she believed that he liked her, and she had long given up the attempt to persuade herself that her own feelings were still undecided. They were all his. When she heard him praised, her heart leapt with pride, and the delicate colour stole up to her face. When men blamed him she thought with scorn that their own dull blind ness caused them to misunderstand him. His friendship had been so great a satisfaction 2 — that only lately had faint longings for some thing nearer and more tender pushed their way to the surface; and often now she pressed them down with the conviction that if she could feel sure the present condition of things would endure, she would desire nothing better. Lady Waterton had died before her child was old enough for the loss to impress itself upon her life, and Millicent's twenty-five years had been very happy.

Her father adored her ; she had been blessed with an excellent governess, and never had known the pain of parting with Mrs. Jameson, for this lady still lived with them in a certain independent fashion which suited them all, having her OAvn rooms and going her own Avay, except when Millicent wanted her, Avhich Avas, indeed, pretty frequently. Lord Waterton was not a very rich man ; if he had bad half a dozen sons it is possible that he would have been poor; but as it was, Millicent was his only child, and there was no lack of money. During the autumn and winter they lived at Denningham Park, in Derbyshire; in the spring they often went abroad, and the season they spent in Berkeley Square. It was while they were at Rome, two years before, that they found themselves in the same hotel with Sir Henry Lancaster ; and Avhile Lady Millicent was struck by the individuality of his remarks in a place which, though suggestive enough, seems to have already suggested so much that it leaves little more to be said, he, on his part, having fought shy of his country people, was beginning to feel, without acknowledging, a touch of for lornness.

He had a mortal dread of flattery., and Lady Millicent never flattered ; she only listened, and listened intelligently. So that by the time they had travelled together the greater part of the way to England — for Sir Henry left them in Paris — they were excellent friends, and it should at once be said of Sir Henry that he Avas very true to his friend ships. Millicent had by this time become much interested in his thoughts, and she Avas not without fear that Avhen he returned to his political work — although he was not then in office — they would gradually fall back into a more formal acquaintance. But this never happened, and afterwards, Avhen she had proved his loyalty and warm-heartedness, she was ashamed to have ever doubted him. He came more to their house than to any other ; he was faithfully interested in recollections which brought back the sunny days they had spent together ; and she was right in feeling that there Avas a bond between them which even London life — more potent than Time — could not break.

If that had been enough ! But, alas for our consistency, that Avhat once made our joy should grow to cause our sharpest pangs ! As yet it was only noAv and then that the pang came, but the worst of it was that it was utterly unreasonable in its attack. She could neither guard against it nor ward it off, nor learn any softening from experience. Sometimes it was a keen momentary anguish, sometimes a dull ache ; it came unexpectedly, it was gone as causelessly. It had been with her that night, and yet she was conscious that he had spent more time Avith her than with anyone else in the room. Elizabeth's voice had been meaning, and even Lord Waterton had remarked, as they drove home : ' I didn't come across Lancaster, but you and he seemed to find a good deal to talk about.' ' I don't think he was in a very talkative mood, for he is out of his element in those parties,' said the girl, with a slight heaviness in her voice. ' I believe we were chiefly taken up with the Medhursts.

Do you know that they are really going to give Joan a season in London ?' ' Who told you ?' 'The Ashtons. They are cousins, you know.' ' No— I'd forgotten. So they're coming ? Well, time they should, if tbe girl is to see anything of life. How old is she ?' ' Quite nineteen.' ' And been kept in the schoolroom up to now ! That's one of Medhurst's fads. He used to provoke his father with all his little particularities, and then married a wife Avho unfortunately encouraged them.' ' Then old Lord Medhurst Avas different ?' ' Different ? I believe you. He was a wild harum-scarum sort of old fellow. I don't knoAv that there was any particular harm in him, but he was the very opposite of his son.' Lord Waterton began to laugh at the recollection. 'And now there is Joan,' said Millicent thoughtfully. ' We must ask them to dinner,' went on her father hospitably. ' Perhaps Lancaster and Hadding would come on Wednesday, and the Ashtons, two of them — two's enough — and a couple of others.

See about it, my dear, will you ?' ' Yes, papa.' Father and child walked together up the broad staircase, but her step lagged a little, and he noticed it. ' I'm afraid you are tired,' he said, putting a helping arm round her. ' Don't ride to-morrow morning.' She brightened instantly. ' Tired ? Not more than I ought to be, and riding is the very thing to set me up. You needn't hope to get off without me.' ' You're sure you are not overdone ?' ' Quite sure.' ' There's nothing you would like me to do for you ?' ' Nothing.' ' Then be off to bed, and mind you sleep Avell,' he called after her anxiously. She made some laughing rejoinder, but, after all, her night was annoyingly restless, haunted by confused dreams, under Avhich she awoke and tossed, and slept and awoke, until the minutes seemed to stretch themselves into hours.

She was vexed and ashamed that one idea should be so capable of domi nating her mind. When she had first ventured to admit it, it had crept in Avith a shoAv of modesty Avhich had deceived her ; it had seemed then so little more than already ex isted. Alas ! noAv it had taken quite another proportion ; day by day it greAV sweeter and dearer ; day by day it gained a firmer foot ing. It pushed that poor ideal friendship out of its home. It was becoming clamorous, insistent. It must not be thought that all this was without a struggle. Her womanly self-respect fought, and fought hard. Her womanlv intuition warned her that before her lay thorns and briars, amidst which she might have to walk with bleeding feet. At times, as now, her heart sank within her. But it Avas too late for warnings. All that remained now, if what they pointed at came, was to endure, and to hide her pain.

And, after all, if she had these seasons of dejection, at other times the future looked rosy. He liked her — of that she was sure — that nothing could take away. And she was also confident that there was no one he liked better. It might be that he would never care for any woman well enough to marry her, and, indeed, this conviction was very generally expressed ; but the thought was not so unendurable as others, and it appeared more liable to be proved erroneous. When Lady Millicent rode the next morning, she looked pale, but her spirits had risen, and her father dismissed his fears.

Chapter II

Lady Millicent's drawing-room was not arranged according to the latest art develop ments, but, in spite of this shortcoming, it was a very charming and comfortable room. Two or three fine Vandykes which looked from the walls gave it a certain air of dis tinction, and whenever anyone Avished to sit down, a chair Avas sure to offer itself at pre cisely the right angle, which, after all, is an unfailing test of comfort. There was always an abundance of flowers, for they were fully supplied from Denningham, and were not without marks of individuality which be longed to Lady Millicent. It must be owned that since Sir Henry Lancaster, who was a passionate lover of flowers, had become so frequent a visitor in Berkeley Square, the baskets arrived more often, and had in creased in size. On the occasion of the dinner-party which was to be given in honour of the Medhursts, the guests were to consist of those mentioned by Lord Waterton, with the addition of Mr. Jefferies, an artist, his wife, and Mrs. Jameson.

As yet, all had not arrived, and Lady Milli cent sat talking with Elizabeth Ashton on a pretty chintz-covered double seat. The two friends made a contrast — Elizabeth, marked in features and colouring, well dressed, and, on the whole, an effective person ; Millicent, fair, small, clad in some combination of white and very pale blue, and one whom it would be always a little difficult to distinguish in a crowd. But at this moment she looked, as she felt, exceedingly happy. The little cloud which a few days ago had dulled her horizon had apparently passed away, and she and Sir Henry, when last they met, had been on excellent terms. She was now listening with an eager sympathetic little face to some grievance of Elizabeth's ; and Elizabeth had a habit of expressing her grievances in a picturesquely exaggerated form, which made them rather amusing than otherwise to her friends. ' And they gave you no tea, after all ?

Poor Elizabeth !' ' It was barbarous. They waited until I was standing up to go, and then one of them said — as if they had been pressing it upon me all the time — " And you won't have any tea? I am .ft? sorry." They might have seen that I was almost dead ; they did see it ; there Avas something hungry in my eyes, no doubt, and they were afraid I should devour too much bread and butter. There is no margin ever allowed in that house. Oh, I was so enraged! It will be a long time before I find myself there again. And the day was so exhausting.' ' Was it ? I thought it delightful ; but then I was not dragging about like you, poor Elizabeth !' ' Who is to take me down to dinner ? ' I thought of Mr. Jefferies. Do you ap prove ?' ' Yes ; I rather like red-haired men, and I don't suppose I shall be expected to admire his paintings, because I don't. I hope I am at a safe distance from Medhurst, as we invariably fight, and ' She was interrupted by Sir Henry Lan caster, who had just arrived, and who came to speak to his hostess.

The next moment the Medhursts were announced, and Lady Millicent rose with some curiosity. Lord and Lady Medhurst looked as they had looked for the last ten years— he, tall and thin, with a long narrow face, high fore head, and light straight hair. His eyes Avere blue, and he kept them very steadily fixed on the person to whom he spoke. His manner was marked with a deliberation which gave the effect of belono-ino; to an older man, so that those who sought his age in the Peerage were surprised to find that it did not exceed forty-five. Lady Medhurst was older ; she had a handsome nose, which had ahvays been a satisfaction, and caused her to value her profile ; and she had the highest possible opinion of her husband's judgment. He and she were thoroughly good and conscientious persons, full of excellent Avorks, and, above all, desirous to root out any germs of A'anity Avhich might shoAv themselves in their daughter, Joan.