Played Out. A novel

Front matter

VOL. % Srtil. BY ANNIE THOMAS, AUTHOR OF "ON GUARD," "WALTER GORING," "DENIS DONNE." IN THEEE VOLUMES. VOL. II. LONDON: CHAPMAN AND HALL, 193, PICCADILLY. 1866. [The right of Translation u reserved.} JOHN CHILDS AND SON, PRINTEIiS. CONTENTS. VOL. II. CHAP. PAGB I. A FAMILY DIFFICULTY . . . 1 II. PUTTING ON THE LUNGE ... 23 III. THE END OF EOCK .... 47 IV. MEDITATIONS AMONGST THE HENS . 67 V. FANCY 78 VI. FACT ...... 96 VII. SOMETHING NEW . . . .111 VIII. FOE disteaction's SAKE ! . . . 127 IX. " FEOM OUB FRIENDS, GOOD LOED ! DE- LIVER us" 135 X. MISUNDEESTOOD 154 xi. cæsae's bay ! 1 74 XII. "O THE DALLIANCE AND THE WIT, THE FLATTEEY AND THE STEIFE " . . 187 XIII. MISS BAELOW ..... 195 XIV. THE FLOWEE SHOW . . . .211 XV. ME FLEMING AND MISS BAELOW MISUNDEE- STAND EACH OTHER . . .236 XVI. KATE HEDGES .'.... 250 XVII. HEIDEROSLEIN .... 265 XVIII. CAPTAIN LYSTEE'S CONSIDERATION .

Chapter I

A FAMILY DIFFICULTY. " Do come over early to-morrow morning and see papa and mamma, Mrs Darrock," the Collins's chorussed in the kindness of their hearts, as they took leave of Mrs Darrock that night, forgetting that the law of reason for bade that this lady could possibly care to do anything of the sort. Mrs Darrock felt her self compelled to promise that she would do so, although she had not the remotest desire to see the objects in question, and knew that they knew that she had none. It was a bit of social humbug. However, Mrs Darrock per- 1 VOL. formed it gracefully, without any attempt to portray anxiety on the subject of the pro jected meeting, thus maintaining her sincerity without sacrificing her good breeding — a success which it does not fall to the lot of the many to achieve. " Don't be a bit earlier than you like to morrow, Mrs Darrock," Mrs Petherton said to her guest, when the latter was going to bed • " breakfast goes on from nine till eleven.

Mr Byrne says it's quite a Liberty Hall." And Mrs Darrock promised that she would not be a bit earlier than seemed good to her the following morning, and kept her promise. It was about a quarter past eleven when she found her way down into the breakfast-room. Maurice Byrne had been already an hour employed in finding out how Kate and the bay filly suited each other. " Lord Powerston sent over one of his keep ers just now to remind us of the battue shoot ing in his preserves this morning ; he only cared about Byrne going, I know that very well ■ I told Byrne so ; I told him Lord Powerston would be disgusted if the rest of the men went without him, and he said, ' Perish the rest of the men, and Lord Powerston too — I'm engaged.' ' " Scarcely civil and very irreligious of him, it seems to me," Mrs Darrock, to whom this speech was made, replied.

Mrs Petherton fancied that it behoved her to "stand up for the absent," — a sort of chival rous taking up of arms in their cause, with which most men would willingly dispense. " Mr Byrne is a thorough gentleman ; he found Lord Powerston had never had the civility to ask you before,Tom, and so he wouldn't go." Nellie was a very good wife in many respects. She did desire to put the dignity of the man she had married in a good light before Mrs Darrock. " I don't think that was his reason, on my honour I don't," Tom Petherton answered earnestly. He had no overweening objection to telling stories on an emergency, but he had a blundering incapacity for telling them at the right time. He always lied too early or too late, so his sin invariably came home to him. " Yes, it was his reason," Nellie replied, sharply; "he thinks Lord Powerston a snob, and very rightly wouldn't go over to please him.

If Lord Powerston wanted Mr Byrne, he should not have been such a young fool as to let all last year go by without getting to know7 us." "Well, I don't think that's the reason," Tom Petherton persisted, stolidly ; " he hasn't let that stand in the way in other cases ; he told me he had promised to go for a ride with Miss Lethbridge this morning." When he said that Mrs Darrock was conscious of a certain feeling of gladness at Mrs Petherton being engaged in frowning her liege lord down. A faint col our flushed the beautiful face, whose beauty was so very sternat times, and at other times so very soft ; and Mrs Darrock was glad that the flushing escaped the notice of Nellie's sharp cold eyes. " How well your house stands," she said, re lapsing into the conventional guest manner for the sake of a diversion.

" Yes, how do you like the view from your bed-room window ? Most people think it charming," Mrs Petherton replied. Once more the colour swept over Mrs Darrock's face in a scarlet wave, but there was evi dence of desire to laugh in her eyes ; the blush was not a painful one. " I thought it charming too ; such a view in deed as one very rarely sees : " and then she did laugh a little to herself at some recollections which beset her respecting that view from her bed-room window, which it was satisfactory to herself to find she could conscientiously pro nounce "charming." Thursford Hall stood on a rise that was al most a hill in that part of the country, and the flat land which extended between the bottom of the park — which sloped away from the soutli front of the hall — and the grange lawn, was not very thickly wooded.

Mrs Darrock's window was situated in this south front, and standing at it this morning she had seen a well-defined pair cross a vista that seemed in a straight line with her room, in a slanting direction, and at a pace that gave her ample time to look at them through her field glass, and identify them. One was a lady whose supple grace of form was well displayed by the hardly-restrained bound ing movements of the handsome bay horse she was mounted on. The other was a walking figure, — a man who kept his place, without swerving, close to the off side of the horse. " Who's the amazon's squire ? " Mrs Darrock had said carelessly, when she first brought the glass to bear upon them. A minuate after her interest was less flaccid in them, for she had recognized Miss Lethbridge and Maurice Byrne, and she told herself, with something akin to triumph, that the recognition was powerless to pain her.

" I was quite right to come," she said, as she stood gazing after them, without flinching. "As far as I'm concerned, Maurice Byrne has outlived his power, and I wasn't sure of it till now." Then the two she was watching pass ed out of sight, and she turned away from the window and went down-stairs, and presently made those little remarks which have been re counted, relative to the view. Repeatedly, as she sat there that morning, listening to the wrangling which went on between Mr and Mrs Petherton, relative to Maurice Byrne, and his motives for resisting Lord Powerston's allurements, did she congratulate herself on the heart-suicide she had committed. The romance of her life had not been a kind one ; and now after years of sub mission to its tyranny, and of late a feeling of indifference about it, which she feared her self was only the numbness that seizes on the spirit after a long period of pain — now, after all this, she had killed it.

She had dared to take a hair of the dog that had bitten her : she was a terribly burnt child — but she had braved the fire, and found that it no longer scorched her. Maurice Byrne had outlived his power over her. What she had said to him on the previ ous night, was perfectly true the morning after her arrival. "Calmly she could greet him now, calmly see him go." She had been very right to come and prove to herself that she was thus calm about him. " I suppose we had better go over and see mamma this morning?" Mrs Petherton said, in a tone that still seemed to deprecate the necessity. " I suppose we may as well, as we promised," Mrs Darrock replied. It mattered very little to her whether she went out or stayed at home with Mrs Petherton. If that lady's so ciety was to be her portion for awhile, the manner of taking it was of very small moment.

" They'll be offended if we don't," Nellie went on, rather crossly ; " that's the bore of living so close to your own people; you scarce ly belong to yourself." The fact being that Nellie had had a small explanatory scene with her sisters the night before, which had result ed in those hapless satellites returning home much aggrieved in their several minds. " Come over, all of you, again to-morrow evening, and we'll have another little carpet hop," Tom Petherton had injudiciously said to his eldest sister-in-law, and that young lady had accepted the invitation for herself and her sisters with an avidity that Nellie at once de cided must be checked. So she followed them out into the hall when they were going away, and spoke firmly, but far from mildly, to the following effect. " Of course what Tom said means nothing, Fanny, you understand that ?

" " Which, that Tom said?" Fanny asked, be stowing more attention upon the fastening of her shawl than the construction of her sentence. "Why, about your coming over again to-morrow." Dancing was dear, very dear, to the Misses Collins — they would have dared much, and suffered anything, to get a good lot of it. So now they dared Nellie, and Fanny said dog gedly, "I should have thought that Tom did mean it, when he asked people to his house." " Well, I don't care whether he means it or not," Nellie retorted, sharply ; " at any rate I don't intend to have anyone to-morrow." Then Mrs Petherton paused for a reply, which, when it was given, lashed her into fuller fury. " Good gracious, Nellie, pray don't think we want to come if you can get any other girls." " Whether I can get any other girls or not, I won't have people say that the house is be sistered always, and that's what they would say if I gave in to you ; I declare," Mrs Pether ton continued, charging up and down the hall as she spoke, " I declare Tom can't know sometimes which of us he married.

No one can say I'm not kind to my sisters, and properly affectionate, but you should show some sort of moderation." " I can answer for myself, that I shall not trouble you again in a hurry," Fanny Collins exclaimed, and the others echoed the senti ment with sobs. " Oh, bother, that's utter nonsense," Mrs Petherton answered, angrily ; " you know you'll be very glad to come again, and I shall be very glad to see you ; I declare it's enough to try the patience of a saint, that you should take offence, and make idiots of yourselves, because I do sometimes venture to wish to have my house and my husband to myself." " Oh, my dear, pray don't alarm yourself," Fanny replied, as coherently as a recollection of the noble manner in which the rest had resigned Tom Petherton to Nellie shot across her mind ; " pray don't alarm yourself; perhaps if one had wanted Mr Petherton, one could have had him."

" One might," Nellie retorted, mimicking her sister, " but you couldn't, any way." " I'm not so sure of that." " Well, I am ; and I call it iniquitous that you should speakin that way of your brother-in-law, pretending he wanted to marry you ; iniquit ous; it's disgusting:" saying which Mrs Pether ton turned and ran up-stairs, where she waited for an hour, sitting in her dressing-room, in order that she might give Tom the benefit of her thoughts on the subject before sleep had calmed her. This had been her parting with her sisters the night before, therefore it is not to be won dered at that she should have walked to the rectory with Mrs Darrock that morning, in the reverse of an enthusiastic spirit. Hitherto she had " kept the beast in awe," with sharp ness certainly, but still with civility.

But of late, "the girls," as Tom called them, had been dominant at the hall to a degree that did not seem good to its mistress. There was a good deal of truth and reason in Nellie's view of the case, though her exposition of that view bor dered on the severe and unkind. " I should ask my sisters much oftener if I didn't know that I was liable to them any hour of the day," she said to Mrs Darrock, as they walked through the rectory garden ; " perhaps you'll see a little coolness between us, for I huffed them last night, and if they give themselves airs I shall not trouble myself to soothe them. I dare say you found it a little difficult to keep things straight with your sister sometimes, when you were married ? " Mrs Darrock laughed to herself at the no tion of comparing Georgie to these Collins's ; even in this round-about way.

" I can understand your difficulty," she re plied, "but it's not a sympathetic understand ing at all, for I have never seen and I never shall see too much of my sister." " Perhaps you'd find the difference if you had seven sisters," Mrs Petherton replied saga ciously: " really I don't mean anything unkind to them," she continued earnestly, and really, to do her justice, she did not ; " but we live so very near each other, that if I didn't stand out a little, it would get completely taken for granted that I'm only ' one of the Collins's ;' still to share and share alike with the others. I don't mean that they want to take from us at all, but they often seem to feel that it's unjust if the six of us are separated, and that sort of thing becomes very tedious, and often it makes me wish that there were hundreds of miles be tween us."

The coolness, the natural successor of the warmth of the night before, was plainly per ceptible to Mrs Darrock as soon as she got into the midst of the Collins's this morning. Mrs Collins had cried herself scarlet and shiny on the subject. " I dug and delved," she said, metaphorically addressing Mrs Lethbridge, who had paid her an early visit ; " I dug and delved, as I may say, for that girl, to dress her well while Tom Petherton was after her, and now she wants to turn her back on us." " Oh no, not that," Mrs Lethbridge replied in her own bonnie balmy way ; " mothers shouldn't expect too much from their girls when the girls have gone under another rule." " My dear," Mrs Collins answered, weeping the while and inflaming her face frightfully by the process; "my dear, I didn't expect much from Nellie, but I did expect that she would have remembered that there were seven of them left at home, and have put out her hand to help her sisters off.

God knows I don't want my girls married unless it's for their happiness, and the men are comfortably off," Mrs Collins went on, with a quiet belief in the probability of the Almighty seeing to the men's cheque books, be fore he sanctioned the matches,which was pleasing to witness : " but I don't think it would be like a mother to see their married sister stand in their way and not speak of it, and I shall speak of it, Mrs Lethbridge ; no one's fonder of your Kate than I am, but she's only one, and they're seven, and Nellie shouldn't give Kate a chance before her own sisters." " Give Kate a chance! " Mrs Lethbridge re peated ; "Kate a chance ! what do you mean ? Kate wants no chance given her," the prettv, brilliant little matron continued animatedly, " pray dismiss that suspicion from your mind, Mrs Collins, my girl will never rival yours."

" Is she going to Nellie's to-night ? " Mrs Collins asked quickly. "She is asked; yes, I believe she is going." " Ah! there it is," the mother of ten sighed jealously, "Nellie can ask other people, but her own sisters, who slaved at her wedding out-fit for weeks, she doesn't want. I won't say what I think of Tom Petherton for permitting her to treat her own family in such a way — but I think him a fool, a born fool," Mrs Collins re iterated, as if the saving clause of his being an unborn one might by any possibility suggest itself and its train of extenuating considerations to Mrs Lethbridge's mind. " A born fool, and I always thought him so," she continued, with emphasis. Almost immediately after the enunciation of this opinion, Mrs Petherton and Mrs Darrock came into the room, and Mrs Lethbridge attempted to get herself out of it, foreseeing that the meeting would not be a harmonious one.

But Nellie detained Mrs Lethbridge, by declaring that she knew she had some message to send to Kate, which she would re member presently, if Mrs Lethbridge would be good enough to sit down again. Accord ingly, Mrs Lethbridge sat down again, and Nellie began to hope that the family row and reconciliation scene, which she had been dread ing all the morning, would be avoided. "Mrs Darrock has come over the first thing, you see, mamma, to renewher acquaintance with you; where's Papa?" the married daughter ask ed, as she stooped to kiss the cheek which was redder and glossier than usual, through much weeping for her (Nellie's) iniquities. " I am very happy to see Mrs Darrock — very glad indeed," Mrs Collins said, rising to meet Mrs Darrock with an air of mournful humility, that was intensely aggravating to Nellie ; " Mr Collins is out — gone for a walk."

"I suppose he will come home to luncheon," Nellie asked, in a tone that was meant to con vey to her mother a desire to forgive and be forgiven, and an intention of staying to partake of that meal, by way of making peace. But Mrs Collins would not even look at the olive branch which Mrs Petherton tried to wave be fore her mother's eyes. Some of the first gloss was worn off the Petherton alliance. Mrs Collins was quite capable now of taking up arms on the side of the oppressed unmarried. So in answer to Mrs Petherton's remark about her Papa coming in to luncheon, Mrs Collins wagged her head, with a terrible increase of mournfulness, and replied, she " didn't know ■ Mr Collins had been very much upset — they had all been very much upset in fact." " Where is Fanny ? " Mrs Petherton asked ; " hasn't she been told we're here, I wonder ?"

" Fanny has a head-ache." Mrs Darrock thought she would throw in a suggestion, which might be fortunate enough to give another colour to the conversation. " Dancing after twelve o'clock generally means a head-ache the next morning ; with me at least," she said ; " they had mercy on me, and let me off, as I had been travelling all day, so I escaped the evil effects." " It was not the dancing upset them, Mrs Darrock ; it was something — " " Oh gracious ! Ma, you're not going to rake up things after they're over, and ought to be forgotten, I should hope," Nellie inter rupted pettishly, " making them out martyrs because I don't ask them to my house every day of my life, that's what it comes to." Then Mrs Petherton went on somewhat volubly to ex press her opinion as to the bane and bore it was " for a girl when she was married, to be so close to her own people, that they counted every breath she drew nearly," winding up with VOL. II. the assurance that she had not wished to quarrel, but that as her mother " goaded her on before Mrs Lethbridge and Mrs Darrock," she could not be blamed for having spoken the truth.

To Mrs Darrock, the stranger in the land, this scene was simply a gross outrage on good taste — a foolish, futile, feminine squabble, with which she had no concern. Therefore, during its continuance, she, being neither agitated nor amused by it, looked out of the window, and speculated as to why life was given to those who made it so little. The want of motive in many things was perplexing. The crude, verbal strife, in which this mother and daugh ter were plunged, which took its rise in nothing, and would terminate in the same, and which, while it lasted, merely made their existence ugly. What were they prompted to indulge in it for ? Had there been any sharp thrusts and brilliant parryings, any delicate fencing, any of the science of warfare displayed, it would have been different. Morally she would have still seen cause to censure it ; but mentally it would not have seemed so utterly void of purpose.

But Mrs Lethbridge was not a stranger in the land. Her tent was pitched for life, she believed, in the midst of these people, and she could not bear that there should be division amongst them. She was not a bad social diplomatist. The politics of which she was mistress were integrity of purpose, kindliness of disposition, and a courageous truthfulness, that had cleared away more mists of misapprehen sion from the neighbourhood than could be easily counted. These politics she now called into requisition. " You see," she began, brightly, " you're both right in a measure, and you have both said more than you quite mean ; it's a fortunate thing that you know each other so w7ell as to be sure of this before you can acknowledge it to each other." " I wish I could think Mrs Petherton didn't mean it all — her sisters do feel being looked upon as intruders, when they're ready to do anything — anything for her."

(" Poor woman ; disagreeable as she is, I pity her if she has to develop gratitude at every turn to the seven Misses Collins,") Mrs Darrock thought. " Of course she doesn't ; do you ? " Mrs Lethbridge went on, cheerfully, " and they don't think that she does. I'll go up and see how Fanny's head is by this time." Then she went away out of the room, and rather pleased the Misses Collins, by telling them that " when they were married they would find they must not give other people their reasons for doing many things — husbands don't like it ;" and after offering sundry uncompromising solutions of Nellie's conduct to the sisterhood, those gentle girls were appeased, and came down in a body to celebrate the return of peace. " I'm very much obliged to you for helping to make things pleasant again," Mrs Petherton followed Mrs Lethbridge out into the hall to say it, " but they're all so gushing now, that if I don't do just what I have been trying to avoid, and ask them eternally, they'll declare I'm wanting to shake them off, or some non sense of that kind."

The elder matron shook her experienced head. " My dear," she began, with a decision in her voice that showed she was thoroughly conversant with the subject treated of. " My dear, the less said about these things the bet ter ; people often quarrel with a declaration of what you are going to do, when, if you did it without a word, they would find the act proper and praiseworthy ; a grievance can't help gain ing when six or seven women handle it, even if they don't handle it unamiably." " They handle it awkwardly in there," Nellie replied, nodding her head towards the dining-room, " and that's worse. Ask Kate to come to dinner this evening, Mrs Lethbridge ; I don't care to be with Mrs Darrock alone." " I will ask her ; she is out trying her new horse this morning. Mr Byrne has very kindly taken a great deal of trouble with the filly, and he is seeing how his pupil and her mis tress get on together."

" Kate had better look out," Mrs Petherton replied sharply, forgetting Mrs Lethbridge's friendly intervention on her behalf in an instant; " Kate had better look out, or she'll be off with the old love and not on with a new ; how does Mr Fleming like her admiration for Mr Byrne ? " "Why shouldn't he like it?" Mrs Lethbridge answered, with a genuine wonder in her face at the stupidity of the suggestion of jealousy on Roy's part. " Why shouldn't he like it ? Mr Byrne is old enough to be her father. Kate always admires what is new and agreeable at the same time." " Yes ; we all know that," Mrs Petherton replied, more suavely than usual, " and yet I thought she didn't seem to admire Mrs Darrock very much yesterday. Give my love to her, and make her come to dinner." Then the ladies shook hands and parted, and Nellie went back to luncheon with her mother and sisters, who had waxed suspicious during the period of her absence, and who were now an aptly illustrative group of the seven stages of glumness.

But Mrs Petherton evaded ex planations by adopting the line of conduct Mrs Lethbridge had recommended, and had her reward for her discretion in getting away at last without being impelled to seek to soothe them by entreating them to believe that " come when they would, they'd be welcome to her."

Chapter II. Putting On The Lunge

It has been said that the rector of Thurs ford was out walking during the family diffi culty and Mrs Lethbridge's diplomacy. The worthy gentleman had had a very uncomfort able morning before he took the air. He had been called upon by his wife and his two eldest daughters to express a decided opinion as to Ellen's conduct. A list of her sins of omission and commission was made out at the breakfast table, and it was a long one. " I'm sorry to say Nellie has altered a great deal since her marriage," Mrs Collins said, regret fully ; " she only lives for excitement now, and is never happy unless she has strangers about her ; as her father, I think you ought to speak to her, my dear." " Well, well ; we will see about it," Mr Collins replied, uneasily. " See about it ! there's where it is, Mr Col lins," his helpmate went on severely; "dilatori ness in a matter of vital importance to your child's welfare — her spiritual welfare, becomes a sin."

" Besides, I think Pa should stand up for us a little," the second daughter chimed in, and poor Mr Collins felt himself a guilty man, as he vowed to himself that he would not be goaded into interfering with the Pethertons. " No parent would stand by in silence if he had right feeling," Mrs Collins proceeded, "and see such things going on." " What is going on ? " the harassed father asked; " this is all news to me." " Well, I ask you, Mr Collins, does it look well when a girl tries to separate herself from her family, when she gets people, whose Christ ian principles I'm very far from being satisfied with, about her." As a man, Mr Collins felt that this was not strong reasoning ; as a clergyman, he knew he ought to think there was something in it. However, he only said, " Nellie's not a girl, you know, my dear — she's a married woman, accountable to her husband, and not to us ; and as for her friends, I thought you were delighted with them all."

" I am quite accustomed to have my opinions treated as worthless," Mrs Collins replied, and it must be granted that, if she spoke the truth, universal discrimination was brought to bear on her opinions ; " it would be wonderful in deed if you listened to a word from me, Mr Collins." Poor Mr Collins, he who had listened to so many words from her, for she was essentially a wordy woman. He did feel the charge to be very unjust. " My dear, I am listening," he said, depre catingly, " but I don't see the good of scolding Nellie,"* he added, with more firmness, as a vision of the way in which Nellie would pro bably receive a scolding from him crossed his mind. " Nellie has never done wrong in Pa's eyes since Tom Petherton married her," Fanny put in, with an awful effort to be sarcastic that fell short, and was only spiteful ; " I didn't think, though, that he would have backed her up in treating us as if we were not good enough to mix with her friends:" and when she said that, Mr Collins, seeing his wife begin to cry, thought he had better go and walk about, till the domestic waters were less troubled.