The worst of it is leaving them behind; and as neither of the gentlemen can afford a journey home, we mean to have the double wedding before Lent. As to outfit, the native tailors must be chiefly trusted to, or the stores at Calcutta, and I must send out the rest when I come home. Only please send by post my wedding veil (Gillian knows where it is), together with another as like it as may be. Any slight lace decorations to make us respectable which suggest themselves to you and her might come; I cant recollect or mention them now. I wish Reginald could come and tell you all, but the poor fellow has to go home full pelt about those Irish. Jasper is writing to William, and you must get business particulars from him, and let Gillian and the little ones hear, for there is hardly any time to write. Phyllis, being used to the idea, is very quiet and matter-of-fact about it. She hoped, indeed, that I guessed nothing till I was satisfied about papa, and had had time to rest. Alethea is in a much more April condition, and I am glad Frank waited till I was here on her account and on her fathers. He is going on well, but must keep still. He declares that being nursed by two pair of lovers is highly amusing. However, such homes being found for two of the tribe is a great relief to his mind. I suppose it is to ones rational mind, though it is a terrible tug at ones heart-strings. You shall hear again by the next mail. A brown creature waits to take this to be posted.
Your loving sister,
L. M.
Gillian came down to dinner quite pale, and to Aunt Adas kind Well, Gillian? she could only repeat, It is horrid.
It is hard to lose all the pretty double wedding, said Aunt Ada.
Gillian does not mean that, hastily put in Miss Mohun.
Oh no, said Gillian; that would be worse than anything.
So you think, said Aunt Jane; but believe those who have gone through it all, my dear, when the wrench is over, one feels the benefit.
Gillian shook her head, and drank water. Her aunts went on talking, for they thought it better that she should get accustomed to the prospect; and, moreover, they were so much excited that they could hardly have spoken of anything else. Aunt Jane wondered if Phylliss betrothed were a brother of Mr. Underwood of St. Matthews, Whittingtown, with whom she had corresponded about the consumptive home; and Aunt Ada regretted the not having called on Lady Liddesdale when she had spent some weeks at Rockstone, and consoled herself by recollecting that Lord Rotherwood would know all about the family. She had already looked it out in the Peerage, and discovered that Lord Francis Cunningham Somerville was the only younger son, that his age was twenty-nine, and that he had three sisters, all married, as well as his elder brother, who had children enough to make it improbable that Alethea would ever be Lady Liddesdale. She would have shown Gillian the record, but received the ungracious answer, I hate swells.
Let her alone, Ada, said Aunt Jane; it is a very sore business. She will be better by and by.
There ensued a little discussion how the veil at Silverfold was to be hunted up, or if Gillian and her aunt must go to do so.
Can you direct Miss Vincent? asked Miss Mohun.
No, I dont think I could; besides, I dont like to set any one to poke and meddle in mammas drawers.
And she could hardly judge what could be available, added Miss Ada.
Gillian must go to find it, said Aunt Jane; and let me see, when have I a day? Saturday is never free, and MondayI could ask Mrs. Hablot to take the cutting out, and then I could look up Lilys Brussels
There she caught a sight of Gillians face. Perhaps one cause of the alienation the girl felt for her aunt was, that there was a certain kindred likeness between them which enabled each to divine the others inquiring disposition, though it had different effects on the elder and younger character. Jane Mohun suspected that she had on her ferret look, and guessed that Gillians disgusted air meant that the idea of her turning over Lady Merrifields drawers was almost as distasteful as that of the governesss doing it.
Suppose Gillian goes down on Monday with Fanny, she said. She could manage very well, I am sure.
Gillian cleared up a little. There is much consolation in being of a little importance, and she liked the notion of a day at home, a quiet day, as she hoped in her present mood, of speaking to nobody. Her aunt let her have her own way, and only sent a card to Macrae to provide for meeting and for food, not even letting Miss Vincent know that she was coming. That feeling of not being able to talk about it or be congratulated would wear off, Aunt Jane said, if she was not worried or argued with, in which case it might become perverse affectation.
It certainly was not shared by the children. Sisters unseen for three years could hardly be very prominent in their minds. Fergus hoped that they would ride to the wedding upon elephants, and Valetta thought it very hard to miss the being a bridesmaid, when Kitty Varley had already enjoyed the honour. However, she soon began to glorify herself on the beauty of Aletheas future title.
What will Kitty Varley and all say? was her cry.
Nothing, unless they are snobs, as girls always are, said Fergus.
It is not a nice word, said Miss Adeline.
But theres nothing else that expresses it, Aunt Ada, returned Gillian.
I agree to a certain degree, said Miss Mohun; but still I am not sure what it does express.
Just what girls of that sort are, said Gillian. Mere worshippers of any sort of handle to ones name.
Gillian, Gillian, you are not going in for levelling, cried Aunt Adeline.
No, said Gillian; but I call it snobbish to make more fuss about Aletheas concern than Phyllissjust because he calls himself Lord
That is to a certain degree true, said Miss Mohun. The worth of the individual man stands first of all, and nothing can be sillier or in worse taste than to parade ones grand relations.
To parade, yes, said Aunt Adeline; but there is no doubt that good connections are a great advantage.
Assuredly, said Miss Mohun. Good birth and an ancestry above shame are really a blessing, though it has come to be the fashion to sneer at them. I do not mean merely in the eyes of the world, though it is something to have a name that answers for your relations being respectable. But there are such things as hereditary qualities, and thus testimony to the existence of a distinguished forefather is worth having.
Lilys dear old Sir Maurice de Mohun to wit, said Miss Adeline. You know she used to tease Florence by saying the Barons of Beechcroft had a better pedigree than the Devereuxes.
Id rather belong to the man who made himself, said Gillian.
Well done, Gill! But though your father won his own spurs, you cant get rid of his respectable Merrifield ancestry wherewith he started in life.
I dont want to. I had rather have them than horrid robber Borderers, such as no doubt these Liddesdale people were.
There was a little laughing at this; but Gillian was saying in her own mind that it was a fine thing to be ones own Rodolf of Hapsburg, and in that light she held Captain White, who, in her present state of mind, she held to have been a superior being to all the Somervillesperhaps to all the Devereuxes who ever existed.
CHAPTER VII. AN EMPTY NEST
There had been no injunctions of secrecy, and though neither Miss Mohun nor Gillian had publicly mentioned the subject, all Rockquay who cared for the news knew by Sunday morning that Lady Merrifields two elder daughters were engaged.
CHAPTER VII. AN EMPTY NEST
There had been no injunctions of secrecy, and though neither Miss Mohun nor Gillian had publicly mentioned the subject, all Rockquay who cared for the news knew by Sunday morning that Lady Merrifields two elder daughters were engaged.
Gillian, in the course of writing her letters, had become somewhat familiarised with the idea, and really looked forward to talking it over with Kalliope. Though that young person could hardly be termed Aletheas best friend, it was certain that Alethea stood foremost with her, and that her interest in the matter would be very loving.
Accordingly, Kalliope was at the place of meeting even before Gillian, and anxiously she looked as she said
May I venturemay I ask if it is true?
True? Oh yes, Kally, I knew you would care.
Indeed, I well may. There is no expressing how much I owe to dear Miss Alethea and Lady Merrifield, and it is such a delight to hear of them.
Accordingly, Gillian communicated the facts as she knew them, and offered to give any message.
Only my dear love and congratulations, said Kalliope, with a little sigh. I should like to have written, but
But why dont you, then?
Oh no; she would be too much engaged to think of us, and it would only worry her to be asked for her advice.
I think I know what it is about, said Gillian.
How? Oh, how do you know? Did Mr. Flight say anything?
Mr. Flight? exclaimed Gillian. What has he to do with it?
It was foolish, perhaps; but I did hope he might have helped Alexis, and now he seems only to care for his music.
Helped him! How?
Perhaps it was unreasonable, but Alexis has always been to good schools. He was getting on beautifully at Leeds, and we thought he would have gained a scholarship and gone on to be a clergyman. That was what his mind has always been fixed upon. You cannot think how good and devoted he is, said Kalliope with a low trembling voice; and my father wished it very much too. But when the break-up came, Mr. White made our not being too fine, as he said, to work, a sort of condition of doing anything for us. Mr. Moore did tell him what Alexis is, but I believe he thought it all nonsense, and there was nothing to be done. Alexisdear fellowtook it so nicely, said he was thankful to be able to help mother, and if it was his duty and Gods will, it was sure to come right; and he has been plodding away at the marble works ever since, quite patiently and resolutely, but trying to keep up his studies in the evening, only now he has worked through all his old school-books.
And does not Mr. Flight know that I will help him?
Well, Mr. Flight means to be kind, and sometimes seems to think much of him; but it is all for his music, I am afraid. He is always wanting new things to be learnt and practised, and those take up so much time; and though he does lend us books, they are of no use for study, though they only make the dear boy long and long the more to get on.
Does not Mr. Flight know?
I am not sure. I think he does; but in his ardour for music he seems to forget all about it. It does seem such a pity that all Alexiss time should be wasted in this drudgery. If I could only be sure of more extra work for my designs, I could set him free; and if Sir Jasper were only at home, I am sure he would put the boy in the way of earning his education. If it were only as a pupil teacher, he would be glad, but then he says he ought not to throw all on me.