What by that? I cant quarrel with Pickering. You may kick up a dust with your neighbour, but, sooner or later, it will settle on your own door-stone. It is years and years since I learned that lesson. And as for Pickerings ideas, many a good squire holds the same.
I dont doubt it. Whatever the Ass says, the asses believe; thou wilt find that out when thou goest to Parliament.
Are you really going to Parliament, Father?
Wouldst thou like me to go, Kate?
Yes, if I may go to London with you.
It isnt likely I would go without thee. Did thy mother tell thee, Lord Exham has come back from Italy to sit for Gaythorne.
A long way to come for so little, she answered. Why, Father! there are only a few hovels in Gaythorne, and all the men worth anything have gone to Leeds to comb wool. Poor fellows!
Why dost thou say poor fellows?
Because, when a man has been brought up to do his days work in fields and barns, among grass, and wheat, and cattle, it is a big change to sit twelve hours a day in the Devil's Hole, for Martha Coates told me that is what the wool-combing room is called.
There is no sense in such a name.
It is a very good name, I think, for rooms so hot and crowded, and so sickening with the smells of soap, and wool, and oil, and steam. Martha says her lads have turned Radicals and Methodists, and she doesnt wonder. Neither do I.
Ay; it is as natural as can be. To do his duty by the land used to be religion enough for any Yorkshire lad; but when they go to big towns, they get into bad company; and there couldnt be worse company than those weaving chaps of all kinds. No wonder the Government doesnt want to hear from the big towns; they are full of a ranting crowd of Non-contents.
Well, Father, if I was in their place, and the question of Content, or Non-content, was put to me, I should very quickly say, Non-content.
Nobody is going to put the question to thee. Thy mother has not managed to bring up a daughter any better than herself, I see that. Kate, my little maid, Lord Exham will be here to-day; see that thou art civil enough to him; it may make a lot of difference both to thee and me.
John Atheling! cried his wife, what a blunderer thou art! Why cant thou let women and their ways alone?
When they rose from the breakfast-table, the Squire called for his horse, and his favourite dogs, and bustled about until he had Mrs. Atheling and half-a-dozen men and women waiting upon him. But there was much good temper in all his authoritative brusqueness, and he went away in a little flurry of éclat, his wife and daughter, his men and maid-servants, all watching him down the avenue with a loving and proud allegiance. He was so physically the expression of his place and surroundings that not a soul in Atheling ever doubted that the Squire was in the exact place to which God Almighty had called him.
On this morning he was dressed in a riding suit of dark blue broadcloth trimmed with gilt buttons; his vest was white, his cravat white, and his hat of black beaver. As he galloped away, he swept it from his brow to his stirrups in an adieu to his wife and daughter; but the men and women-servants took their share in the courtesy, and it was easy to feel the cheer of admiration, only expressed by their broad smiles and sympathetic glances. As soon as the Master was out of sight, they turned away, each to his or her daily task; and Kate looked at her mother inquiringly. There was an instant understanding, and very few words were needed.
Thou hadst better lose no time. He might get away early.
He will not leave until he sees us, Mother. That is what he came to Atheling for,Ill warrant it,and if I dont go to the village, he will come here; I know he will.
Kitty, I cant, I cant trust to thatand you promised.
I am going to keep my promise, Mother. Have my mare at the door in ten minutes, and I will be ready.
Mrs. Atheling had attended to this necessity before breakfast, and the mare was immediately waiting. She was a creature worthy of the Beauty she had to carry,dark chestnut in colour, with wide haunches and deep oblique shoulders. Her mane was fine, her ears tremulous, her nostrils thin as parchment, her eyes human in intelligence, her skin like tissue-paper, showing the warm blood pressing against it, and the veins standing clearly out. Waiting fretted her, and she pawed the garden gravel impatiently with her round, dark, shining hoofs until Kate appeared. Then she uttered a low whinny of pleasure, and bent her head for the girl to lay her face against it.
A light leap from the grooms hand put Kate in her seat, and a lovelier woman never gathered reins in hand. In those days also, the riding dress of women did not disfigure them; it was a garb that gave to Kate Athelings loveliness grace and dignity, an air of discreet freedom, and of sweet supremacy,a close-fitting habit of fine cloth, falling far below her feet in graceful folds, and a low beaver hat, crowned with drooping plumes, shadowing her smiling face. One word to the mare was sufficient; she needed no whip, and Kate would not have insulted her friend and companion by carrying one.
For a little while they went swiftly, then Kate bent and patted the mares neck, and she instantly obeyed the signal for a slower pace. For Kate had seen before them a young man sitting on a stile, and teaching two dogs to leap over the whip which he held in his hand. She felt sure this was the person she had to interview; yet she passed him without a look, and went forward towards the village. After riding half-a-mile she took herself to task for her cowardice, and turned back again. The stranger was still sitting on the stile, and as she approached him she heard a hearty laugh, evoked doubtless by some antic or mistake of the dogs he was playing with. She now walked her mare toward him, and the young man instantly rose, uncovered his head, and, pushing the dogs away, bowednot ungracefullyto her. Yet he did not immediately speak, and Kate felt that she must open the conversation.
Do youdo you want to find any place? she asked. I think you are a strangerand I am at home here.
He smiled brightly and answered, Thank you. I want to find Atheling Manor-house. I have a message for Mrs. and Miss Atheling.
I am Miss Atheling; and I am now returning to the house. I suppose that you are the Wrestler and Orator of last night. My father told us about the contest. Mother wishes to talk with youwe have heard that you know my brother Edgarwe are very unhappy about Edgar. Do you know anything of him? Will you come and see mothernow she is very anxious?
These questions and remarks fell stumblingly from her lips, one after the other; she was excited and trembling at her own temerity, and yet all the time conscious she was Squire Athelings daughter and in her fathers Manor, having a kind of right to assume a little authority and ask questions. The stranger listened gravely till Kate ceased speaking, then he said,
My name is Cecil North. I know Edgar Atheling very well. I am ready to do now whatever you wish.
Then, Mr. North, I wish you would come with me. It is but a short walk to the house; Candace will take little steps, and I will show you the way.
Thank you.
He said only these two words, but they broke up his face as if there was music in them; for he smiled with his lips and his eyes at the same time. Kate glanced down at him as he walked by her side. She saw that he was tall, finely formed, and had a handsome face; that he was well dressed, and had an air of distinction; and yet she divined in some occult way that this animal young beauty was only the husk of his being. After a few moments silence, he began that commonplace chat about horses which in Yorkshire takes the place that weather does in other localities. He praised the beauty and docility of Candace, and Kate hoped she was walking slowly enough; and then Cecil North admired her feet and her step, and asked if she ever stumbled or tripped. This question brought forth an eager denial of any such fault, and an opinion that the rider was to blame when such an accident happened.
In a general way, you are right, Miss Atheling, answered North. If the rider sits just and upright, then any sudden jerk forward throws the shoulders backward; and in that case, if a horse thinks proper to fall, he will be the sufferer. He may cut his forehead, or hurt his nose, or bark his knees, but he will be a buffer to his rider.
Candace has never tripped with me. I have had her four years. I will never part with her.
That is right. Dont keep a horse you dislike, and dont part with one that suits you.
Do you love horses?
Yes. A few years ago I was all for horses. I could sit anything. I could jump everything, right and left. I had a horse then that was made to measure, and foaled to order. No one borrowed him twice. He had a way of coming home without a rider. But I have something better than horses to care for now; and all I need is a good roadster.
My father likes an Irish cob for that purpose.
Nothing better. I have one in the village that beats all. He can trot fourteen miles an hour, and take a six-foot wall at the end of it.
Do you ride much?
I ride all over England.
She looked curiously at him, but asked no questions; and North continued the conversation by pointing out to her the several points which made Candace so valuable. In the first place, he said, her colour is good,that dark chestnut shaded with black usually denotes speed. She has all the signs of a thoroughbred; do you know them?
No; but I should like to.
They are three things long,long ears, long neck, and long forelegs. Three things short,short dock, short back, and short hindlegs. Three things broad,broad forehead, broad chest, and broad croup. Three things clean,clean skin, clean eyes, and clean hoofs. Then the nostrils must be quite black. If there had been any white in the nostrils of Candace, I would have ranked her only middling.
Kate laughed pleasantly, and said over several times the long, short, broad, and clean points that went to the making of a thoroughbred; and, by the time the lesson was learned, they were at the door of the Manor-house. Mrs. Atheling stood just within it, and when Kate said,
Mother, this is Edgars friend, Mr. Cecil North, she gave him her hand and answered:
Come in! Come in! Indeed I am fain and glad to see you! and all the way through the great hall, and into her parlour, she was beaming and uttering welcomes. First of all, you must have a bit of eating and drinking, she said, and then you will tell me about my boy.
Thank you. I will take a glass of ale, if it will please you.
It will please me beyond everything. You shall have it from the Squires special tap: ale smooth as oil, sweet as milk, clear as amber, fourteen years old next twenty-ninth of March. And so you know my son Edgar?
I know him, and I love him with all my heart. He is as good as gold, and as true as steel.
To be sure, he is. Im his mother, and I ought to know him; and that is what I say. How did you come together?
We met first at Cambridge; but we were not in the same college or set, so that I only knew him slightly there. Fortune had appointed a nobler introduction for us. I was in Glasgow nearly a year ago, and I wandered down to the Green, and was soon aware that the crowd was streaming to one point. Edgar was talking to this crowd. Have you ever heard him talk to a crowd?
The mother shook her head, and Kate said softly: We have never heard him. She had taken off her hat, and her face was full of interest and happy expectation.
Well, continued North, he was standing on a platform of rough boards that had been hastily put together, and I remembered instantly his tall, strong, graceful figure, and his bright, purposeful face. He was tanned to the temples, his cheeks were flushed, the wind was in his hair, the sunlight in his eyes; and, with fiery precipitance of assailing words, he was explaining to men mad with hunger and injustice the source of all their woes and the remedy to be applied. I became a man as I listened to him. That hour I put self behind me and vowed my life, and all I have, to the cause of Reform; because he showed me plainly that Parliamentary Reform included the righting of every social wrong and cruelty.
Do you really think so? asked Kate.
Indeed, I am sure of it. A Parliament that represented the great middle and working classes of England would quickly do away with both black and white slavery,would repeal those infamous Corn Laws which have starved the working-man to make rich the farmer; would open our ports freely to the trade of all the world; would educate the poor; give much shorter hours of labour, and wages that a man could live on. Can I ever forget that hour? Never! I was born again in it!
That was the kind of talk that he angered his father with, said Mrs. Atheling, between tears and smiles. You see it was all against the land and the land-owners; and Edgar would not be quiet, no matter what I said to him.
He could not be quiet. He had no right to be quiet. Why! he sent every man and woman home that night with hope in their hearts and a purpose in their wretched lives. Oh, if you could have seen those sad, cold faces light and brighten as they listened to him.
Was there no one there that didnt think as he did?
I heard only one dissenting voice. It came from a Minister. He called out, Lads and lasses, take no heed of what this fellow says to you. He is nothing but a Dreamer. Instantly Edgar took up the word. A Dreamer! he cried joyfully. So be it! What says the old Hebrew prophet? Look to your Bible, sir. Let him that hath a dream tell it. Dreamers have been the creators, the leaders, the saviours of the world. And we will go on dreaming until our dream comes true! The crowd answered him with a sob and a shoutand, oh, I wish you had been there!
Kate uttered involuntarily a low, sympathetic cry that she could not control, and Mrs. Atheling wept and smiled; and when North added, in a lower voice full of feeling, There is no one like Edgar, and I love him as Jonathan loved David! she went straight to the speaker, took both his hands in hers, and kissed him.
Thou art the same as a son to me, she said, and thou mayst count on my love as long as ever thou livest. And in this cry from her heart she forgot her company pronoun, and fell naturally into the familiar and affectionate thou.
Fortunately at this point of intense emotion a servant entered with a flagon of the famous ale, and some bread and cheese; and the little interruption enabled all to bring themselves to a normal state of feeling. Then the mother thought of Edgars clothing, and asked North if he could take it to him. North smiled. He is a little of a dandy already, he answered. I saw him last week at Lady Durhams, and he was the best dressed man in her saloon.
Now then! said Mrs. Atheling, thou art joking a bit. Whatever would Edgar be doing at Lady Durhams?
He had every right there, as he is one of Lord Durhams confidential secretaries.
Art thou telling me some romance?
I am telling you the simple truth.
Then thou must tell me how such a thing came about.
Very naturally. I told Lord Grey and his son-in-law, Lord Durham, about Edgarand I persuaded Edgar to come and speak to the spur and saddle-makers at Ripon Cross; and the two lords heard him with delight, and took him, there and then, to Studley Royal, where they were staying; and it was in those glorious gardens, and among the ruins of Fountains Abbey, they planned together the Reform Campaign for the next Parliament.