The belton state

Contents

CHALTER I. Tue Remnants or THe AmepRoz Famrny

IJ. Tae Heir PROPOSES TO VISIT HIS Cousrys. Til. Witt Beton 7 a - c IV. Sare aGainsT LovE-MaKING . 4 Y. Nor Sare acainst Love-MAKING . .

VI, Sarge acarnst Love-MAKING ONCE AGAIN . VII. Miss AmeprRoz Gors To PeRIVALE . : VIII. Caprain AYLMER MEETS HIs CONSTITUENTS IX. Carrarn AYLMER’s Promise To His AUNT

Chapter II. ; The Heir Proposes To. Visit His Cousins

Ir was full summer at Belton, and the sweet scent of the new hay filled the porch of the old house with fragrance, as Clara sat there, alone with her work. Immediately before the house door, between that and the old tower, there stood one of Farmer Stovey’s hay-carts, now empty, with an old horse. bety the shafts looking as though he were asleep

Immediately beyond the tower the men were _anoth er cart, and the women and children were as they raked the scattered remnants up to the jnder the shadow of the old tower, but in sight of she sat in the porch, there lay the small beerf the haymakers, and three or four rakes were ne erect against the old grey wall. It was now o'clock, and Clara was waiting for her father, who s not yet out of hisroom. She had taken his breakfast him in bed, as was her custom; for he had fallen into dle ways, and the luxury of his bed was, of all his remaining luxuries, the one that he liked the best. After a while came down to her, having an open letter in his hand. ra saw that he intended either to show it to her or to k of it, and asked him, therefore, with some tone of terest in her voice, from whom it had come. But Mr. droz was fretful at the moment, and instead of answerng her began to complain of his tenant’s ill-usage of him.

“« What has he got his cart there for? I haven’t let him é

16 ‘THE BELTON ESTATE, a the road up to the hall door. I suppose he will bring his things into the parlour next. . ~«T yather like it, papa.”

“Do you? Ican only say that you’re Wek in your

_-tastes. I don’t like it, I can tell you.”

“Mr. Stovey is out there. Shall I ask him to have the things moved further off?” _ “No, my dear,—no. I must bear it, as I do all the rest of it. What does it matter? There'll be an end of it soon.

He pays his rent, and I suppose he is right to do as he pleases. But I can’t say that I like it.”

«‘ Am I to see the letter, papa?” she asked, wishing to turn his mind from the subject of the hay-cart.

“Well, yes. I brought it for you to see; though perhaps I should be doing better if I burned it, and said nothing more about it. It is a most impudent production; and heartless,—very heartless.”

Clara was accustomed to such complaints as these from her father, Everything that everybody did around him he would call heartless. The man pitied himself so much in his own misery, that he expected to live in an atmosphere of pity from others; and though the pity doubtless was there, he misdoubted it. He thought that Farmer Stovey was cruel in that he had left the hay-cart near the house, to wound his eyes by reminding him that he was no longer master of the ground before his own hall door. He thought that the women and children were cruel to chatter so near his ears. He almost accused his daughter of cruelty, because she had told him that she liked the contiguity of the haymaking. Under such circumstances as those which enveloped him and her, was it not heartless in her to like anything? It seemed to him that the whole world of Belton should be drowned in woe because of his misery.

“« Where is it from, papa?” she asked.

“There, you may read it. Per haps it is better that you should know that it has been written.” Then she read the letter, which was as follows :—

« Plaistow Hall,—July, 186—.”

Though she had never before seen the handwriting, she knew at once from whence came the letter, for she had often heard of Plaistow Hall. It was the name of the farm at which her distant cousin, Will Belton, lived, and her

THE HEIR PROPOSES TO VISIT HIS COUSINS. .- een father had more than once been at the trouble of explaining _ to her, that though the place was called a hall, the house was no more thana farmhouse. He had never seen Plaistow Hall, and had never been in Norfolk; but so much he could take upon himself to say, “They call all the farms halls down there.” It was not wonderful that he should dislike his heir; and, perhaps, not unnatural that he should show his dislike after this fashion. Clara, when she read the address, looked up into her father’s face. ‘“ You know who it is now,” he said. And then she read the letter.

Plaistow Hall, — July, 186—.

“ My DEAR Sir,

“I have not written to you before since your bereavement, thinking it better to wait awhile; but I hope you have not taken me to be unkind in this, or have supposed me to be unmindful of your sorrow. Now I take up my pen, hoping that I may make you understand how greatly I was distressed by what has occurred. I believe I am now the nearest male relative that you have, and as such Iam very anxious to be of service to you if it may be possible. Considering the closeness of our connection, and my position in reference to the property, it seems bad that we should never meet. I can assure you that you would find me very friendly if we could manage to come together.

“TJ should think nothing of running across to Belton, if you would receive me at your house. I could come very well before harvest, if that would suit you, and would stay with you for a week, Pray give my kindest regards to my cousin Clara, whom I can, only just remember as a very little girl, She was with her aunt at Perivale when I was at Belton asa boy. She shall find a friend in me if she wants a friend.

“Your affectionate Cousin, “W. Berron.”

Clara read the letter very slowly, so that she might make herself sure of its tone and bearing before she was called upon by her father to express her feelings respecting it. She knew that she would be expected to abuse it violently, and to accuse the writer of vulgarity, insolence, and cruelty; but she had already learned that she must not

18 HE BELTON ESTATE. SS allow herself to accede to all her father’s fantasies. For his sake, and for his protection, it was necessary that she should differ from him, and even contradict him. Were she not to do so, he would fall into a state of wailing and complaining that would exaggerate itself almost to idiotey. And it was imperative that she herself should exercise her own opinion on many points, almost without reference to him. She alone knew how utterly destitute she would be when he should die. He, in the first days of his agony, had sobbed forth his remorse as to her ruin; but, even when doing so, he had comforted himself with the remembrance of Mrs. Winterfield’s money, and Mrs. Winterfield’s affection for his daughter. And the aunt, when she had declared her purpose to Clara, had told herself that the provision made for Clara by her father was sufficient. To neither of them had Clara told her own position. She could not inform her aunt that her father had given up to the poor reprobate who had destroyed himself all that had been intended for her. Had she done so she would have been asking her aunt for ‘charity. Nor would she bring herself to add to her father’s misery, by destroying the hopes which still supported him. She never spoke of her own position in regard to money, but she knew that it had become her duty to live a wary, watchful life, taking much upon herself in their impoverished household, and holding her own opinion against her father’s when her doing so became expedient. So she finished the letter in silence, and did not speak at the moment when the movement of her eyes declared that she had completed the task.

“Well,” said he.

“TJ do not think my cousin means badly.”

* You don’t! Ido, then. I think he means very badly. What business has he to -write to me, talking of his position ?”

“I can’t see anything amiss in his doing so, papa. I think he wishes to be friendly. The property will be his some day, and I don’t see why that should not be mentioned, when there is Occasion.”

“ Upon my word, Clara, you surprise me. But women never understand delicacy im regard to money. They have so little to do with it, and think so little about it, that they have no occasion for such delicacy.” ge

THE HEIR PROPOSES TO VISIT HIS COUSINS. 19

- Clara could not help the thought that to her mind the

subject was present with sufficient frequency to make deli-

cacy very desirable, if only it were practicable, But of

this she said nothing. “And what answer will you send

to him, papa ?” she asked. ‘

* None at all, Why should I trouble myself to write to im ?

“T will take the trouble off your hands.”

“« And what will you say to him ?”

«7 will ask him to come here, as he proposes,”

“Clara!”

“Why not, papa? He is the heir to the property, and why should he not be permitted to see it? There are many things in which his co-operation with you might be a comfort to you. I can’t tell you whether the tenants and people are treating you well, but he can do so; and, moreover, I think he means to be kind. I do not see why we should quarrel! with our cousin because he is the heir to your property. It is not through any doing of his own that he is so.”

This reasoning had no etfect upon Mr. Amedroz, but his daughter’s resolution carried the point against him in spite of his want of reason. No letter was written that day, or on the next; but on the day following a formal note was sent off by Clara, in which Mr. Belton was told that Mr. Amedroz would be happy to receive him at Belton Castle. The letter was written by the daughter, but the father was responsible for the formality. He sat over her while she wrote it, and nearly drove her distracted by discussing every word and phrase. At last, Clara was so annoyed with her own production, that she was almost tempted to write another letter unknown to her father; but the formal note went. o

“My prar Sir,

“Tam desired by my father to say that he will be happy to receive you at Belton Castle, at the time fixed by yourself. .

“Yours truly, “ CLars AMEDROZ.”

There was no more than that, but that had the desired o2 e THE BELTON ESTATE. Se effect ; and by return of post there came a rejoinder, saying that Will Belton would be at the Castle on the fifteenth of August. ‘They can do without me for about ten days,” he said in his postscript, writing in a familiar tone, which did not seem to have been at all checked by the coldness of his cousin’s note,—‘‘ as our harvest will be late; but I must be back for a week’s work before the partridges.”

“Heartless! quite heartless!” Mr. Amedroz said as he read this. ‘“Partridges! to talk of partridges at such a time as this!”

Clara however, would not acknowledge that she agreed with her father; but she could not altogether restrain a feeling on her own part that her cousin’s gocd-humour towards her and Mr. Amedroz should have been repressed by the tone of her letter to him. The man was to come, however, and she would not judge of him until he was there.

In one house, in the neighbourhood, and in only one, had Miss Amedroz a friend with whom she was intimate ; and as regarded even this single friend, the intimacy was the effect rather of circumstances than of real affection. She liked Mrs. Askerton, and saw her almost daily; but she could hardly tell herself that she loved her neighbour.

In the little town of Belton, close to the church, there stood a pretty, small house, called Belton Cottage. It was so near the church that strangers always supposed it to be the parsonage ; but the rectory stood away out in the country, halfa mile from the town, on the road to Redicote, and was a large house, three stories high, with grounds of its own, and very ugly. Here lived the old bachelor rector, seventy years of age, given much to long absences when he could achieve them, and never on good terms with his bishop. His two curates lived at Redicote, where there was a second church. Belton Cottage, which was occupied by Colonel Askerton and Mrs. Askerton, was on the Amedroz property, and had been hired some two years since by the Colonel, who was then a stranger in the country and altogether unknown to the Belton people. But he had come there for shooting, and therefore his coming had been understood. Even as long ago as two years since, there had been neither use nor propriety in keeping the shooting for the squire’s son, and it had been let with the cottage to

~

THE HEIR PROPOSES TO VISIT HIS COUSINS. 2]

Colonel Askerton. So Colonel Askerton had come ther with his wife, and no one in the neighbourhood had known anything about them. Mr. Amedroz, with his daughter, had called upon them, and gradually there had grown up an intimacy between Clara and Mrs. Askerton. There was an opening from the garden of Belton Cottage into the park, so that familiar intercourse was easy, and Mrs. Askerton was a woman who knew well how to make herself pleasant to such another woman as Miss Amedroz.

The reader may as well know at once that rumours prejudicial to the Askertons reached Belton before they had been established there for six months. At Taunton, which was twenty miles distant, these rumours were very rife, and there were people there who knew with accuracy,—. though probably without a grain of truth in their accuracy, every detail in the history of Mrs. Askerton’s life. And something, too, reached Clara’s ears—something from old Mr. Wright, the rector, who loved scandal, and was very illmatured. ‘A very nice woman,” the rector had said; “but she does not seem to have any belongings in particular.” “She has got a husband,” Clara had replied with some little indignation, for she had never loved Mr. Wright. “Yes; I suppose she has got a husband.” Then Clara had, in her own judgment, accused the rector of lying, evil-speaking, and slandering, and had increased the measure of her cordiality to Mrs. Askerton. But something more she had heard on the same subject at Perivale. ‘‘ Before you throw yourself into close intimacy with the lady, I think you should know something about her,” Mrs. Winterfield had said to her. “I do know something about her; I know that she has the manners and education of a lady, and that she is living affectionately with her husband, who is devoted to her. What more ought Ito know?” “If you really do know all that, you know a great deal,” Mrs. Winterfield had replied.

“Do you know anything against her, aunt?” Clara asked, after a pause. '

There was another pause before Mrs. Winterfield answered. “No, my dear; I cannot say that Ido. But I think that young ladies, before they make intimate friendships, should be very sure of their friends.”

‘“* You have already acknowledged that I know a great

02 «0 SSN) “DEE BELTON ESTATE./ eS

Holixbowt her,” Clara replied. And then the conversation was atanend. Clara had not been quite ingenuous, as she acknowledged to herself. She was aware that her aunt would not permit herself to repeat rumours as to the truth of which she had no absolute knowledge. She understood that the weakness of her aunt’s caution was due to the old lady’s sense of charity and dislike of slander. But Clara had buckled on her armour for Mrs. Askerton, and was glad, therefore, to achieve her little victory. When we buckle on our armour in any cause, we are apt to go on buckling it, let the cause become as weak as it may; and Clara continued her intimacy with Mrs. Askerion, although there was something in the lady’s modes of speech, and something also in her modes of thinking, which did not quite satisfy the aspirations of Miss Amedroz as to a friend.

Colonel Askerton himself wasa pleasant, quiet man, who seemed to be contented with the life which he was leading. For six weeks in April and May he would go up to town, leaving Mrs. Askerton at the cottage,—as to which, probably jovial, absence in the metropolis there seemed to be no spirit of grudging on the part of the wife. On the first of September a friend would come to the cottage and remain there for six weeks’ shooting ; and during the winter the Colonel and his wife always went to Paris for a fortnight. Such had been their life for the last two years ; and thus,—so said Mrs. Askerton to Clara,—did they intend to live as long as they could keep the cottage at Belton. Society at Belton they had none, and,—as they said,— desired none. Between them and Mr. Wright there was only a speaking acquaintance. The married curate at Redicote would not let his wife call on Mrs. Askerton, and the unmarried curate was a hard-worked, clerical hack,— a parochial minister at all times and seasons, who went to no houses except the houses of the poor, and who would hold communion with no man, and certainly with no woman, who would not put up with clerical admonitions for Sunday backslidings. Mr. Amedroz himselfneither received guests nor went as a guest to other men’s houses. He would occasionally stand for a while at the gate of the Colonel’s garden, and repeat the list of his own woes as long as his neighbour would stand there to hear it. But there was no society at Belton ; and Clara, as far.as she herself was aware,

THE HEIR PROPOSES TO VISIT HIS COUSINS. 23 was the only person with whom Mrs. Askerton held ane social intercourse, except what she might have during her short annual holiday in Paris. Py

*“ Of course, you are right,” she said, when Clara told her of the proposed coming of Mr. Belton. “If he turned out to be a good fellow, you will have gained a great deal. And should he be a bad fellow, you will have lost nothing. In either case you will know him, and considering how he stands towards you. that itself is desirable.”

‘* But if he should annoy papa?”

“In your papa’s condition, my dear, the coming of any one willannoy him. Atleast, he will say so; though I do not in the least doubt that he will like the excitement better even than you will.”

* I can’t say there will be much excitement to me.”

‘“* No excitement in a young man’s coming into the house ! Without shocking your propriety, allow me to say that that is impossible. Of course, he iscoming to see whether he can’t make matters all right by marrying you.”

“'That’s nonsense, Mrs. Askerton.” :

“ Very well. Let it be nonsense. But why shouldn’t he? It’s just what he ought to do. He hasn’t got a wife ; and, as far as I know, you haven’t got a lover.”

“T certainly have not got a lover.”

“Our religious nephew at Perivale does not seem to be of any use.”

“J wish, Mrs. Askerton, you would not speak of Captain Aylmer in that way. I don’t know any man whom I like ‘so much, or at any rate better, than Captain Aylmer; but I hate the idea that no girl can become acquainted with an unmarried man without having her name mentioned with his, and having to hear ill-natured remarks of that kind.”

“JT hope you will learn to like this other man much better. ‘Think how nice it will be to be mistress of the old place after all. And then to go back to the old family name! If I were you I would make up my mind not to let him leave the place till I had brought him to my feet.” :

“Tf you go on like that I will not speak to you about him again.”

“Or rather not to my feet,—for gentlemen have laid aside the humble way of making love for the last twenty years at least ; but I don’t know whether the women haven’t gained quite as much by the change as the men.”

“As I know nothing will stop you when you once get into a vein of that kind, I shall go,” said Clara. “ And till this man has come and gone I shall not mention his name again in your presence.” bt ~~ So be it,” said Mrs. Askerton; “ but as I will promise to say nothing more about him, you need not go on his account.” But Clara had got up, and did leave the cottage at once.

Chapter III. Will Belton

Mr. Betton came to the castle, and nothing further had been said at the cottage about his coming. Clara had seen Mrs. Askerton in the mean time frequently ; but that lady had kept her promise—almost to Clara’s disappointment. For she,—though she had in truth disliked the proposition that her cousin could be coming with any special views with reference to herself, had nevertheless sufficient curiosity about the stranger to wish to talk about him. Her father, indeed, mentioned Belton’s name very frequently, saying something with reference to him every time he found himself in his daughter’s presence. A dozen times he said that the man was heartless to come to the house at such a time, and he spoke of his cousin always as though the man were guilty of a gross injustice in being heir to the property. But not the less on that account did he fidget himself about the room in which Belton was to sleep, about the food that Belton was to eat, and especially about . the wine that Belton was to drink. What was he to do for wine? The stock of wine in the cellars at Belton Castle was, no doubt, very low. The squire himself dranka glass or two of port daily, and had some remnant of his old treasures by him, which might perhaps last him his time; and occasionally there came small supplies of sherry from the grocer at Taunton; but Mr. Amedroz pretended to think that Will Belton would want champagne and claret ; —and he would continue to make these suggestions in spite

* of his own repeated complaints that the man was no better than an ordinary farmer. “I’ve no doubt he'll like beer,” said Clara, “Beer !” said her father, and then stopped himself, as though he were lost in doubt whether it would best suit him to scorn his cousin for having so low a taste as that suggested on his behalf, or to ridicule his daughter’s idea that the household difficulty admitted of so convenient a solution. ;

The day of the arrival at last came, and Clara certainly was in a twitter, although she had steadfastly resolved that she would be in no twitter at all, She had told her aunt by letter of the proposed visit, and Mrs. Winterfield had expressed her approbation, saying that she hoped it would lead to good results. Of what good results could her aunt be thinking? The one probable good result would surely be this—that relations so nearly connected should know each other. Why should there be any fuss made about ‘such a visit? But, nevertheless, Clara, though she made no outward fuss, knew that inwardly she was not as calm about the man’s coming as she would have wished herself to be.

He arrived about five o’clock in a gig from Taunton. Five was the ordinary dinner hour at Belton, but it had been postponed till six on this day, in the hope that the cousin might make his appearance at any rate by that hour. Mr. Amedroz had uttered various complaints as to the visitor’s heartlessness in not having written to name the hour of his arrival, and was manifestly intending to make the most of the grievance should he not present himself before six ;—but this indulgence was cut short by the sound of the gig wheels. Mr. Amedroz and his daughter were sitting in a small drawing-room, which looked out to the front of the house and he, seated in his accustomed chair, near the window, could see the arrival. For a moment or two he remained quiet in his chair, as though he would not allow so insignificant’ a thing as his cousin’s coming to ruffle him ;—but he could not maintain this dignified indifference, and before Belton was out of the gig he had shuffled out into the hall.

Clara followed her father almost unconsciously and soon found herself shaking hands with a big man, over six feet high, broad in the shoulders, large limbed, with bright ffi a

26 Pa THE BELTON ESTATE. o ~~ quick grey eyes, a large mouth, teeth almost too perfect and a well-formed nose, with thick short brown hair and small whiskers which came but half way down his cheeks —a decidedly handsome man with a florid face, but still, perhaps, with something of the promised roughness of the farmer. Buta more good-humoured looking countenance Clara felt at once that she had never beheld. |

“And you are the little girl that 1 remember when I was a boy at Mr. Folliott’s?” he said. His voice was clear, and rather loud, but it sounded very pleasantly in that sad old house.

“Yes; I am the little girl,” said Clara, smiling.

“‘Dear, dear! and that’s twenty years ago now,” said he.

«“ But you oughtn’t to remind me of that,” Mr, Belton.

“Oughtn’t 1? Why not?”

‘“- Because it shows how very old I am.”

** Ah, yes;—to be sure. But there’s nobody here that signifies. How well I remember this room ;—and the old tower out there. It isn’t changed a bit!”

‘«* Not to the outward eye, perhaps,” said the squire.

“That’s what I mean. So they're making hay still. Our hay has been all up these three weeks. I didn’t know you ever meadowed the park.” Here he trod with dreadful severity upon the corns of Mr. Amedroz, but he did not perceive it. And when the squire muttered something about a tenant, and the inconvenience of keeping land in his own hands, Belton would have gone on with the subject had not Clara changed the conversation. The squire complained bitterly of this to Clara when they were alone, saying that it was very heartless.

She had a little scheme of her own,—a plan arranged for the saying of a few words to her cousin on the earliest opportunity of their being alone together,—and she contrived that this should take place within half an hour after his arrival, as he went through the hall up to his room. “Mr. Belton,” she said, ‘I am sure you will not take it amiss if I take a cousin’s privilege at once and explain to you something of our way of living here, My dear father is not very strong.”

“He is much altered since I saw him last.”

“Oh, yes. Think of all that he has had to bear! Well, Mr. Belton, the fact is, that we are not so well off as we

WILL BELTON. 2r used to be, and are obliged to live in a very quiet way. You will not mind that ?”

Whee. 12”

“I take it very kind of you, your coming all this way to see us———”

‘Vd have come three times the distance.”

**But you must put up with us as you find us, you know. The truth is we are very poor.”

“ Well, now ;—that’s just what I wanted to know. One

‘eouldn’t write and ask such a question; but I was sure I should find out if I came.”

“ You've found it out already, you see.”

** As for being poor, it’s a thing I don’t think very much, about,—not for young people. But it isn’t comfortable when aman gets old. Now what I want to know is this; can’t something be done ?”

“The only thing to do is to be very kind to him. He has had to let the park to Mr. Stovey, and he doesn’t like talking about it.”

“But if it isn’t talked about, how can it be mended?

“Tt can’t be mended.”

“We'll see about that. But I'll be kind to him; you see if I ain’t. And I'll tell you what, I'll be kind to you too, if you'll let me. You have got no brother now.”