Doctor Thorne - Anthony Trollope (historical books to read .txt) 📗
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the cousin of the Miss Greshams. And yet the Lady Alexandrina hardly
knew what other construction to put on the words she had just heard.
It was at any rate clear to her that it was not becoming that she
should just then stay any longer in that room. Whether she intended
to be pert or not, Miss Mary Thorne was, to say the least, very free.
The de Courcy ladies knew what was due to them—no ladies better;
and, therefore, the Lady Alexandrina made up her mind at once to go
to her own bedroom.
“Augusta,” she said, rising slowly from her chair with much stately
composure, “it is nearly time to dress; will you come with me? We
have a great deal to settle, you know.”
So she swam out of the room, and Augusta, telling Mary that she would
see her again at dinner, swam—no, tried to swim—after her. Miss
Gresham had had great advantages; but she had not been absolutely
brought up at Courcy Castle, and could not as yet quite assume the
Courcy style of swimming.
“There,” said Mary, as the door closed behind the rustling muslins
of the ladies. “There, I have made an enemy for ever, perhaps two;
that’s satisfactory.”
“And why have you done it, Mary? When I am fighting your battles
behind your back, why do you come and upset it all by making the
whole family of the de Courcys dislike you? In such a matter as that,
they’ll all go together.”
“I am sure they will,” said Mary; “whether they would be equally
unanimous in a case of love and charity, that, indeed, is another
question.”
“But why should you try to make my cousin angry; you that ought to
have so much sense? Don’t you remember what you were saying yourself
the other day, of the absurdity of combatting pretences which the
world sanctions?”
“I do, Trichy, I do; don’t scold me now. It is so much easier to
preach than to practise. I do so wish I was a clergyman.”
“But you have done so much harm, Mary.”
“Have I?” said Mary, kneeling down on the ground at her friend’s
feet. “If I humble myself very low; if I kneel through the whole
evening in a corner; if I put my neck down and let all your cousins
trample on it, and then your aunt, would not that make atonement? I
would not object to wearing sackcloth, either; and I’d eat a little
ashes—or, at any rate, I’d try.”
“I know you’re clever, Mary; but still I think you’re a fool. I do,
indeed.”
“I am a fool, Trichy, I do confess it; and am not a bit clever; but
don’t scold me; you see how humble I am; not only humble but umble,
which I look upon to be the comparative, or, indeed, superlative
degree. Or perhaps there are four degrees; humble, umble, stumble,
tumble; and then, when one is absolutely in the dirt at their feet,
perhaps these big people won’t wish one to stoop any further.”
“Oh, Mary!”
“And, oh, Trichy! you don’t mean to say I mayn’t speak out before
you. There, perhaps you’d like to put your foot on my neck.” And then
she put her head down to the footstool and kissed Beatrice’s feet.
“I’d like, if I dared, to put my hand on your cheek and give you a
good slap for being such a goose.”
“Do; do, Trichy: you shall tread on me, or slap me, or kiss me;
whichever you like.”
“I can’t tell you how vexed I am,” said Beatrice; “I wanted to
arrange something.”
“Arrange something! What? arrange what? I love arranging. I fancy
myself qualified to be an arranger-general in female matters. I
mean pots and pans, and such like. Of course I don’t allude to
extraordinary people and extraordinary circumstances that require
tact, and delicacy, and drawbacks, and that sort of thing.”
“Very well, Mary.”
“But it’s not very well; it’s very bad if you look like that. Well,
my pet, there I won’t. I won’t allude to the noble blood of your
noble relatives either in joke or in earnest. What is it you want to
arrange, Trichy?”
“I want you to be one of Augusta’s bridesmaids.”
“Good heavens, Beatrice! Are you mad? What! Put me, even for a
morning, into the same category of finery as the noble blood from
Courcy Castle!”
“Patience is to be one.”
“But that is no reason why Impatience should be another, and I should
be very impatient under such honours. No, Trichy; joking apart, do
not think of it. Even if Augusta wished it I should refuse. I should
be obliged to refuse. I, too, suffer from pride; a pride quite as
unpardonable as that of others: I could not stand with your four
lady-cousins behind your sister at the altar. In such a galaxy they
would be the stars and I—”
“Why, Mary, all the world knows that you are prettier than any of
them!”
“I am all the world’s very humble servant. But, Trichy, I should
not object if I were as ugly as the veiled prophet and they all as
beautiful as Zuleika. The glory of that galaxy will be held to depend
not on its beauty, but on its birth. You know how they would look at
me; how they would scorn me; and there, in church, at the altar, with
all that is solemn round us, I could not return their scorn as I
might do elsewhere. In a room I’m not a bit afraid of them all.” And
Mary was again allowing herself to be absorbed by that feeling of
indomitable pride, of antagonism to the pride of others, which she
herself in her cooler moments was the first to blame.
“You often say, Mary, that that sort of arrogance should be despised
and passed over without notice.”
“So it should, Trichy. I tell you that as a clergyman tells you to
hate riches. But though the clergyman tells you so, he is not the
less anxious to be rich himself.”
“I particularly wish you to be one of Augusta’s bridesmaids.”
“And I particularly wish to decline the honour; which honour has
not been, and will not be, offered to me. No, Trichy. I will not be
Augusta’s bridesmaid, but—but—but—”
“But what, dearest?”
“But, Trichy, when some one else is married, when the new wing has
been built to a house that you know of—”
“Now, Mary, hold your tongue, or you know you’ll make me angry.”
“I do so like to see you angry. And when that time comes, when that
wedding does take place, then I will be a bridesmaid, Trichy. Yes!
even though I am not invited. Yes! though all the de Courcys in
Barsetshire should tread upon me and obliterate me. Though I should
be as dust among the stars, though I should creep up in calico among
their satins and lace, I will nevertheless be there; close, close to
the bride; to hold something for her, to touch her dress, to feel
that I am near to her, to—to—to—” and she threw her arms round her
companion, and kissed her over and over again. “No, Trichy; I won’t
be Augusta’s bridesmaid; I’ll bide my time for bridesmaiding.”
What protestations Beatrice made against the probability of such an
event as foreshadowed in her friend’s promise we will not repeat. The
afternoon was advancing, and the ladies also had to dress for dinner,
to do honour to the young heir.
Frank Gresham’s First Speech
We have said, that over and above those assembled in the house, there
came to the Greshamsbury dinner on Frank’s birthday the Jacksons
of the Grange, consisting of Mr and Mrs Jackson; the Batesons from
Annesgrove, viz., Mr and Mrs Bateson, and Miss Bateson, their
daughter—an unmarried lady of about fifty; the Bakers of Mill Hill,
father and son; and Mr Caleb Oriel, the rector, with his beautiful
sister, Patience. Dr Thorne, and his niece Mary, we count among those
already assembled at Greshamsbury.
There was nothing very magnificent in the number of the guests thus
brought together to do honour to young Frank; but he, perhaps, was
called on to take a more prominent part in the proceedings, to be
made more of a hero than would have been the case had half the county
been there. In that case the importance of the guests would have been
so great that Frank would have got off with a half-muttered speech or
two; but now he had to make a separate oration to every one, and very
weary work he found it.
The Batesons, Bakers, and Jacksons were very civil; no doubt the more
so from an unconscious feeling on their part, that as the squire was
known to be a little out at elbows as regards money, any deficiency
on their part might be considered as owing to the present state
of affairs at Greshamsbury. Fourteen thousand a year will receive
honour; in that case there is no doubt, and the man absolutely
possessing it is not apt to be suspicious as to the treatment he may
receive; but the ghost of fourteen thousand a year is not always so
self-assured. Mr Baker, with his moderate income, was a very much
richer man than the squire; and, therefore, he was peculiarly forward
in congratulating Frank on the brilliancy of his prospects.
Poor Frank had hardly anticipated what there would be to do, and
before dinner was announced he was very tired of it. He had no warmer
feeling for any of the grand cousins than a very ordinary cousinly
love; and he had resolved, forgetful of birth and blood, and all
those gigantic considerations which, now that manhood had come upon
him, he was bound always to bear in mind,—he had resolved to sneak
out to dinner comfortably with Mary Thorne if possible; and if not
with Mary, then with his other love, Patience Oriel.
Great, therefore, was his consternation at finding that, after being
kept continually in the foreground for half an hour before dinner, he
had to walk out to the dining-room with his aunt the countess, and
take his father’s place for the day at the bottom of the table.
“It will now depend altogether upon yourself, Frank, whether you
maintain or lose that high position in the county which has been held
by the Greshams for so many years,” said the countess, as she walked
through the spacious hall, resolving to lose no time in teaching
to her nephew that great lesson which it was so imperative that he
should learn.
Frank took this as an ordinary lecture, meant to inculcate general
good conduct, such as old bores of aunts are apt to inflict on
youthful victims in the shape of nephews and nieces.
“Yes,” said Frank; “I suppose so; and I mean to go along all square,
aunt, and no mistake. When I get back to Cambridge, I’ll read like
bricks.”
His aunt did not care two straws about his reading. It was not by
reading that the Greshams of Greshamsbury had held their heads up in
the county, but by having high blood and plenty of money. The blood
had come naturally to this young man; but it behoved him to look for
the money in a great measure himself. She, Lady de Courcy, could
doubtless help him; she might probably be able to fit him with a wife
who would bring her money onto his birth. His reading was a matter in
which she could in no way assist him; whether
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