Barchester Towers
by
Anthony Trollope

Part 6 out of 11



much in her favour. It is ordained that all novels should have a
male and female angel, and a male and female devil. If it be
considered that this rule is obeyed in these pages, the latter
character must be supposed to have fallen to the lot of Mrs
Proudie. But she was not all devil. There was a heart inside that
stiff-ribbed bodice, though not, perhaps, of large dimensions, and
certainly not easily accessible. Mrs Quiverful, however, did gain
access, and Mrs Proudie proved herself a woman. Whether it was the
fourteen children with their probable bare bread and the possible
bare backs, or the respectability of the father's work, or the
mingled dust and tears on the mother's face, we will not pretend to
say. But Mrs Proudie was touched.

She did not show it as other women might have done. She did not
give Mrs Quiverful eau-de-Cologne, or order her a glass of wine.
She did not take her to her toilet table, and offer her the use of
brushes and combs, towels and water. She did not say soft little
speeches and coax her kindly with equanimity. Mrs Quiverful,
despite her rough appearance, would have been as amenable to such
little tender cares as any lady in the land. But none such was
forthcoming. Instead of that, Mrs Proudie slapped one hand upon the
other, and declared--not with an oath; for as a lady and a
Sabbatarian and a she-bishop, she could not swear,--but with an
adjuration, that 'she wouldn't have it done.'

The meaning of this was that she wouldn't have Mr Quiverful's
promised appointment cozened away by the treachery of Mr Slope and
the weakness of her husband. This meaning she very soon explained
to Mrs Quiverful.

'Why was your husband such a fool,' said she, now dismounted from
her high horse and sitting confidentially down close to her
visitor, 'as to take the bait which that man threw to him? If he
had not been so utterly foolish, nothing could have prevented your
going to the hospital.'

Poor Mrs Quiverful was ready enough with her own tongue in accusing
her husband to his face of being soft, and perhaps she did not
always speak of him to her children quite so respectfully as she
might have done. But she did not like to hear him abused by others,
and began to vindicate him, and to explain that of course he had
taken Mr Slope to be an emissary of Mrs Proudie herself; that Mr
Slope was thought to be peculiarly her friend; and that, therefore,
Mr Quiverful would have been failing in respect to her had he
assumed to doubt what Mr Slope had said.

Thus mollified Mrs Proudie again declared that she 'would not have
it done,' and at last sent Mrs Quiverful home with an assurance
that, to the furthest stretch of her power and influence in the
palace, the appointment of Mr Quiverful should be insisted upon. As
she repeated that word 'insisted', she thought of the bishop in his
night-cap, and with compressed lips slightly shook her head. Oh! my
aspiring pastors, divines to whose ears nolo episcopari are the
sweetest of words, which of you would be a bishop on such terms as
these?

Mrs Quiverful got home in the farmer's cart, not indeed with a
light heart, but satisfied that she had done right in making her
visit.



CHAPTER XXVII

A LOVE SCENE

Mr Slope, as we have said, left the palace with a feeling of
considerable triumph. Not that he thought that his difficulties
were over; he did not so deceive himself; but he felt that he had
played his first move well, as well as the pieces on the board
would allow; and that he had nothing with which to reproach
himself. He first of all posted the letter to the archbishop, and
having made that sure he proceeded to push the advantage which he
had gained. Had Mrs Bold been at home, he would have called on her;
but he knew that she was at Plumstead, as he wrote the following
note. It was the beginning of what, he trusted, might be a long and
tender series of epistles.

'My dear Mrs Bold,--You will understand perfectly that I cannot at
present correspond with your father. I heartily wish that I could,
and hope the day may be not long distant, when mists shall have
cleared away, and we may know each other. But I cannot preclude
myself from the pleasure of sending you these few lines to say that
Mr Q. has to-day, in my presence, resigned any title that he ever
had to the wardenship of the hospital, and that the bishop has
assured me that it is his intention to offer it to your esteemed
father.

'Will you, with my respectful compliments, ask him, who I believe
is a fellow visitor with you, to call on the bishop either on
Wednesday or Thursday, between ten and one. This is by the bishop's
desire. If you will so far oblige me as to let me have a line
naming either day, and the hour which will suit Mr Harding, I will
take care that the servants shall have orders to show him in
without delay. Perhaps I should say no more,--but still I wish you
could make your father understand that no subject will be mooted
between his lordship and him, which will refer at all to the method
in which he may choose to perform his duty. I for one, am persuaded
that no clergyman could perform it more satisfactorily than he did,
or than he will do again.

'On a former occasion I was indiscreet and much too impatient,
considering your father's age and my own. I hope he will not now
refuse my apology. I still hope also that with your aid and sweet
pious labours, we may live to attach such a Sabbath school to the
old endowment, as may, by God's grace and furtherance, be a
blessing to the poor of this city.

'You will see at once that this letter is confidential. The
subject, of course, makes it so. But, equally, of course, it is for
your parent's eye as well as for your own, should you think it
proper to show it to him.

'I hope my darling little friend Johnny is as strong as ever,--
dear little fellow. Does he still continue his rude assaults on
those beautiful long silken tresses?

'I can assure your friends miss you from Barchester sorely; but it
would be cruel to begrudge you your sojourn among flowers and
fields during this truly sultry weather.

'Pray believe me, my dear Mrs Bold Yours most sincerely, 'OBADIAH
SLOPE. 'Barchester, Friday.'

Now this letter, taken as a whole, and with the consideration that
Mr Slope wished to assume a great degree of intimacy with Eleanor,
would not have been bad, but for the allusion to the tresses.
Gentlemen do not write to ladies about their tresses, unless they
are on very intimate terms indeed. But Mr Slope could not be
expected to be aware of this. He longed to put a little affection
into his epistle, and yet he thought it injudicious, as the letter
would he knew be shown to Mr Harding. He would have insisted that
the letter should be strictly private and seen by no eyes but
Eleanor's own, had he not felt that such an injunction would have
been disobeyed. He therefore restrained his passion, did not sign
himself 'yours affectionately,' and contented himself instead with
the compliment to the tresses.

We will now follow his letter. He took it to Mrs Bold's house, and
learning there, from the servant, that things were to be sent out
to Plumstead that afternoon, left it, with many injunctions, in her
hands.

We will now follow Mr Slope so as to complete the day with him, and
then return to his letter and its momentous fate in the next
chapter.

There is an old song which gives us some very good advice about
courting:--

"It's gude to be off with the auld luve
Before ye be on wi' the new."

Of the wisdom of this maxim Mr Slope was ignorant, and accordingly,
having written his letter to Mrs Bold, he proceeded to call upon
the Signora Neroni. Indeed it was hard to say which was the old
love and which was the new, Mr Slope having been smitten with both
so nearly at the same time. Perhaps he thought it not amiss to have
two strings to his bow. But two strings to Cupid's bow are always
dangerous to him on whose behalf they are to be used. A man should
remember that between two stools he may fall to the ground.

But in sooth Mr Slope was pursuing Mrs Bold in obedience to his
better instincts, and the signora in obedience to his worse. Had he
won the widow and worn her, no one could have blamed him. You, O
reader, and I, and Eleanor's other friends would have received the
story of such a winning with much disgust and disappointment; but
we should have been angry with Eleanor, not with Mr Slope. Bishop,
male and female, dean and chapter and diocesan clergy in full
congress, could have found nothing to disapprove of in such an
alliance. Convocation itself, that mysterious and mighty synod,
could in no wise have fallen foul of it. The possession of L 1000 a
year and a beautiful wife would not al all have hurt the voice of
the pulpit character, or lessened the grace and piety of the
exemplary clergyman.

But not of such a nature were likely to be his dealings with the
Signora Neroni. In the first place he knew that her husband was
living, and therefore he could not woo her honestly. Then again she
had nothing to recommend her to his honest wooing had such been
possible. She was not only portionless, but also from misfortune
unfitted to be chosen as the wife of any man who wanted a useful
mate. Mr Slope was aware that she was a helpless hopeless cripple.

But Mr Slope could not help himself. He knew that he was wrong in
devoting his time to the back drawing-room in Dr Stanhope's house.
He knew that what took place would if divulged utterly ruin him
with Mrs Bold. He knew that scandal would soon come upon his heels
and spread abroad among the black coats of Barchester some tidings,
some exaggerated tidings, of the sighs which he poured into the
lady's ears. He knew that he was acting against the recognised
principles of his life, against those laws of conduct by which he
hoped to achieve much higher success. But as we have said, he could
not help himself. Passion, for the first time in his life, passion
was too strong for him.

As for the signora, no such plea can be put forward for her, for in
truth, she cared no more for Mr Slope than she did for twenty
others who had been at her feet before him. She willingly, nay
greedily, accepted his homage. He was the finest fly that
Barchester had hitherto afforded to her web; and the signora was a
powerful spider that made wondrous webs, and could in no way live
without catching flies. Her taste in this respect was abominable,
for she had no use for the victims when caught. She could not eat
them matrimonially as young lady-flies do whose webs are most
frequently of their mother's weaving. Nor could she devour them by
any escapade of a less legitimate description. Her unfortunate
affliction precluded her from all hope of levanting with a lover.
It would be impossible to run away with a lady who required three
servants to move her from a sofa.

The signora was subdued by no passion. Her time for love was gone.
She had lived out her heart, such heart as she ever had ever had,
in her early years, at an age when Mr Slope was thinking of his
second book of Euclid and his unpaid bill at the buttery hatch. In
age the lady was younger than the gentleman; but in feelings, in
knowledge of the affairs of love, in intrigue, he was immeasurably
her junior. It was necessary to her to have some man at her feet.
It was the one customary excitement of her life. She delighted in
the exercise of power which this gave her; it was now nearly the
only food for her ambition; she would boast to her sister that she
could make a fool of any man, and the sister, as little imbued with
feminine delicacy as herself, good naturedly thought it but fair
that such amusement should be afforded to a poor invalid who was
debarred from the ordinary pleasures of life.

Mr Slope was madly in love, but hardly knew it. The signora spitted
him, as a boy does a cockchafer on a cork, that she might enjoy the
energetic agony of his gyrations. And she knew very well what she
was doing.

Mr Slope having added to his person all such adornments as are
possible to a clergyman making a morning visit, such as a clean
neck tie, clean handkerchief, new gloves, and a soupcon of not
necessary scent, called about three o'clock at the doctor's house.
At about this hour the signora was almost always in the back
drawing-room. The mother had not come down. The doctor was out or
in his own room. Bertie was out, and Charlotte at any rate left the
room if any one called whose object was specially with her sister.
Such was her idea of being charitable and sisterly.

Mr Slope, as was his custom, asked for Mr Stanhope, and was told,
as was the servant's custom, that the signora was in the
drawing-room. Upstairs he accordingly went. He found her, as he
always did, lying on her sofa with a French volume before her, and
a beautiful little inlaid writing case open on her table. At the
moment of his entrance she was in the act of writing.

'Ah, my friend,' said she, putting out her left hand to him across
the desk, 'I did not expect you to-day and was this very instant
writing to you--'

Mr Slope, taking the soft fair delicate hand in his, and very soft
and fair and delicate it was, bowed over it his huge red head and
kissed it. It was a sight to see, a deed to record if the author
could fitly do it, a picture to put on canvas. Mr Slope was big,
awkward, cumbrous, and having his heart in his pursuit was ill at
ease. The lady was fair, as we have said, and delicate; every thing
about her was fine and refined; her hand in his looked like a rose
lying among carrots, and when he kissed it he looked as a cow might
do on finding such a flower among her food. She was graceful as a
couchant goddess, and, moreover, as self-possessed as Venus must
have been when courting Adonis.

Oh, that such grace and such beauty should have condescended to
waste itself on such a pursuit!

'I was in the act of writing to you,' said she, 'but now my scrawl
may go into the basket;' and she raised the sheet of gilded note
paper from off her desk as though to tear it.

'Indeed it shall not,' said he, laying the embargo of half a stone
weight of human flesh and blood upon the devoted paper. 'Nothing
that you write for my eyes, signora, shall be so desecrated,' and
he took up the letter, put that also among the carrots and fed on
it, and then proceeded to read it.

'Gracious me! Mr Slope,' said she. 'I hope you don't mean to say
that you keep all the trash I write to you. Half my time I don't
know what I write, and when I do, I know it is only fit for the
black of the fire. I hope you have not that ugly trick of keeping
letters.'

'At any rate I don't throw them into a waste-paper basket. If
destruction is their doomed lot, they perish worthily, and are
burnt on a pyre, as Dido was of old.'

'With a steel pen stuck through them, of course,' said she, 'to
make the simile more complete. Of all the ladies of my acquaintance
I think Lady Dido was the most absurd. Why did she not do as
Cleopatra did? Why did she not take out her ships and insist on
going with him? She could not bear to lose the land she had got by
a swindle; and then she could not bear the loss of her lover. So
she fell between two stools. Mr Slope, whatever you do, never
mingle love and business.'

Mr Slope blushed up to his eyes, and over his mottled forehead to
the very roots of his hair. He felt sure that the signora knew all
about his intentions with reference to Mrs Bold. His conscience
told him that he was detected. His doom was to be spoken; he was to
be punished for his duplicity, and rejected by the beautiful
creature before him. Poor man. He little dreamt that had all his
intentions with reference to Mrs Bold been known to the signora, it
would only have added zest to that lady's amusement. It was all
very well to have Mr Slope at her feet, to show her power by making
an utter fool of a clergyman, to gratify her own infidelity by thus
proving the little strength which religion had in controlling the
passions even of a religious man; but it would be an increased
gratification if she could be made to understand that she was at
the same time alluring her victim away from another, whose love if
secured would be in every way beneficial and salutary.

The signora had indeed discovered with the keen instinct of such a
woman, that Mr Slope was bent on matrimony with Mrs Bold, but in
alluding to Dido she had not thought of it. She instantly
perceived, however, from her lover's blushes, what was on his mind,
and was not slow in taking advantage of it.

She looked at him full in the face, not angrily, nor yet with a
smile, but with an intense and overpowering gaze; and then holding
up her forefinger, and slightly shaking her head she said:-
'Whatever you do, my friend, do not mingle love and business.
Either stick to your treasure and your city of wealth, or else
follow your love like a true man. But never attempt both. If you
do, you'll have to die with a broken heart as did poor Dido. Which
is it to be with you, Mr Slope, love or money?'

Mr Slope was not so ready with a pathetic answer as he usually was
with touching episodes in his extempore sermons. He felt that he
ought to say something pretty, something also that should remove
the impression on the mind of his lady love. But he was rather put
about how to do it.

'Love,' said he, 'true overpowering love, must be the strongest
passion a man can feel; it must control every other wish, and put
aside every other pursuit. But with me love will never act in that
way unless it is returned;' and he threw upon the signora a look of
tenderness which was intended to make up for all the deficiencies
of his speech.

'Take my advice,' said she. 'Never mind love. After all, what is
it? The dream of a few weeks. That is all its joy. The
disappointment of a life is its Nemesis. Who was ever successful in
true love? Success in love argues that the love is false. True love
is always despondent or tragical. Juliet loved. Haidee loved. Dido
loved, and what came of it? Troilus loved and ceased to be a man.'

'Troilus loved and he was fooled,' said the more manly chaplain. 'A
man may love and yet not be a Troilus. All women are not Cressids.'

'No; all women are not Cressids. The falsehood is not always on the
woman's side. Imogen was true, but now was she rewarded? Her lord
believed her to be the paramour of the first he who came near her
in his absence. Desdemona was true and was smothered. Ophelia was
true and went mad. There is no happiness in love, except at the end
of an English novel. But in wealth, money, houses, lands, goods and
chattels, in the good things of this world, yes, in them there is
something tangible, something that can be retained and enjoyed.'

'Oh, no,' said Mr Slope, feeling himself bound to enter some
protest against so very unorthodox a doctrine, 'this world's wealth
will make no one happy.'

'And what will make you happy--you--you?' said she, raising herself
up, and speaking to him with energy across the table. 'From what
source do you look for happiness? Do not say that you look for
none? I shall not believe you. It is a search in which every human
being spends an existence.'

'And the search is always in vain,' said Mr Slope. 'We look for
happiness on earth, while we ought to be content to hope for it in
heaven.'

'Pshaw! you preach a doctrine which you know you don't believe. It
is the way with you all. If you know that there is no earthly
happiness, why do you long to be a bishop or a dean? Why do you
want lands and income?'

'I have the natural ambition of a man,' said he.

'Of course you have, and the natural passions; and therefore I say
that you don't believe the doctrine you preach. St Paul was an
enthusiast. He believed so that his ambition and passions did not
war against his creed. So does the Eastern fanatic who passes half
his life erect upon a pillar. As for me, I will believe in no
belief that does not make itself manifest by outward signs. I will
think no preaching sincere that is not recommended by the practice
of the preacher.'

Mr Slope was startled and horrified, but he felt that he could not
answer. How could he stand up and preach the lessons of his Master,
being there as he was, on the devil's business? He was a true
believer, otherwise this would have been nothing to him. He had
audacity for most things, but he had not audacity to make a
plaything of the Lord's word. All this the signora understood, and
felt much interest as she saw her cockchafer whirl round upon her
pin.

'Your wit delights in such arguments,' said he, 'but your heart and
your reason do not quite go along with them.'

'My heart!' said she; 'you quite mistake the principles of my
composition if you imagine that there is such a thing about me.'
After all, there was very little that was false in anything the
signora said. If Mr Slope allowed himself to be deceived it was his
own fault. Nothing could have been more open than her declarations
about herself.

The little writing table with her desk was still standing before
her, a barrier, as it were, against the enemy. She was sitting as
nearly upright as she ever did, and he had brought a chair close to
the sofa, so that there was only the corner of the table between
him and her. It so happened that as she spoke her hand lay upon the
table, and as Mr Slope answered her he put his hand upon hers.

'No heart!' said he. 'That is a very heavy charge which you bring
against yourself, and one of which I cannot find you guilty--'

She withdrew her hand, not quickly and angrily, as though insulted
by his touch, but gently and slowly.

'You are in no condition to give a verdict on the matter,' said
she, 'as you have not tried me. No; don't say that you intend doing
so, for you know you have no intention of the kind; nor indeed have
I either. As for you, you will take your vows where they will
result in something more substantial than the pursuit of such a
ghostlike, ghastly love as mine--'

'Your love should be sufficient to satisfy the dream of a monarch,'
said Mr Slope, not quite clear as to the meaning of his words.

'Say an archbishop, Mr Slope,' said she. Poor fellow! She was very
cruel to him. He went round again upon his cork on this allusion to
his profession. He tried, however, to smile, and gently accused her
of joking on a matter, which was, he said, to him of such vital
moment.

'Why--what gulls do you men make of us,' she replied. 'How you fool
us to the top of our bent; and of all men you clergymen are the
most fluent of your honeyed caressing words. Now look me in the
face, Mr Slope, boldly and openly.'

Mr Slope did look at her with a languishing loving eye, and as he
did so, he again put forth his hand to get hold of hers.

'I told you to look at me boldly, Mr Slope; but confine your
boldness to your eyes.'

'Oh, Madeline,' he sighed.

'Well, my name is Madeline,' said she; 'but none except my own
family usually call me so. Now look me in the face, Mr Slope. Am I
to understand that you say you love me?'

Mr Slope never had said so. If he had come there with any formed
plan at all, his intention was to make love to the lady without
uttering any such declaration. It was, however, quite impossible
that he should now deny his love. He had, therefore, nothing for
it, but to go down on his knees distractedly against the sofa, and
swear that he did love her with a love passing the love of man.'

The signora received the assurance with very little palpitations or
appearance of surprise. 'And now answer me another question,' said
she; 'when are you to be married to Eleanor Bold?'

Poor Mr Slope went round and round in mortal agony. In such a
condition as his it was really very hard for him to know what
answer to give. And yet no answer would be his surest condemnation.
He might as well at once plead guilty to the charge brought against
him.

'And why do you accuse me of such dissimulation?'

'Dissimulation! I said nothing of dissimulation. I made no charge
against you, and make none. Pray don't defend yourself to me. You
swear that you are devoted to my beauty, and yet you are on the eve
of matrimony with another. I feel this to be rather a compliment.
It is to Mrs Bold that you must defend yourself. That you may find
difficult; unless, indeed, you can keep her in the dark. You
clergymen are cleverer than other men.'

'Signora, I have told you that I loved you, and now you rail at
me?'

'Rail at you. God bless the man; what would he have? Come, answer
me this at your leisure,--not without thinking now, but leisurely
and with consideration,--are you not going to be married to Mrs
Bold?'

'I am not,' said he. And as he said it, he almost hated, with an
exquisite hatred, the woman whom he could not help loving with an
exquisite love.

'But surely you are a worshipper of hers?'

'I am not,' said Mr Slope, to whom the word worshipper was
peculiarly distasteful. The signora had conceived that it would be
so.

'I wonder at that,' said she. 'Do you not admire her? To my eyes
she is the perfection of English beauty. And then she is rich too.
I should have thought she was just the person to attract you. Come,
Mr Slope, let me give you advice on this matter. Marry the charming
widow! She will be a good mother to your children and an excellent
mistress of a clergyman's household.'

'Oh, signora, how can you be so cruel?'

'Cruel,' said she, changing the voice of her banter which she had
been using for one which was expressively earnest in its tone; 'is
that cruelty?'

'How can I love another, while my heart is entirely your own?'

'If that were cruelty, Mr Slope, what might you say of me if I were
to declare that I returned your passion? What would you think if I
bound you even by a lover's oath to do daily penance at this couch
of mine? What can I give in return for a man's love? Ah, dear
friend, you have not realised the condition of my fate.'

Mr Slope was not on his knees all this time. After his declaration
of love he had risen from them as quickly as he thought consistent
with the new position which he now filled, and as he stood was
leaning on the back of his chair. This outburst of tenderness on
the Signora's part quite overcame him, and made him feel for the
moment that he could sacrifice everything to be assured of the love
of the beautiful creature before him, maimed, lame, and already
married as she was.

'And can I not sympathise with your lot?' said he, now seating
himself on her sofa, and pushing away the table with his foot.

'Sympathy is so near to pity!' said she. 'If you pity me, cripple
as I am, I shall spurn you from me.'

'Oh, Madeline, I will only love you,' and again he caught her hand
and devoured it with kisses. Now she did not draw from him, but sat
there as he kissed it, looking at him with her great eyes, just as
a great spider would look at a great fly that was quite securely
caught.

'Suppose Signor Neroni were to come to Barchester,' said she,
'would you make his acquaintance?'

'Signor Neroni!' said he.

'Would you introduce him to the bishop, and Mrs Proudie, and the
young ladies?' said she, again having recourse to that horrid
quizzing voice which Mr Slope so particularly hated.

'Why do you ask me such a question?' said he.

'Because it is necessary that you should know that there is a
Signor Neroni. I think you had forgotten it.'

'If I thought that you retained for that wretch one particle of the
love of which he was never worthy, I would die before I would
distract you by telling you what I feel. No! were your husband the
master of your heart, I might perhaps love you; but you should
never know it.'

'My heart again! How you talk. And you consider then, that if a
husband be not master of his wife's heart, he has not right to her
fealty; if a wife ceases to love, she may cease to be true. Is that
your doctrine on this matter, as a minister of the Church of
England?'

Mr Slope tried hard within himself to cast off the pollution with
which he felt that he was defiling his soul. He strove to tear
himself away from the noxious siren that had bewitched him. He had
looked for rapturous joy in loving this lovely creature, and he
already found that he met with little but disappointment and
self-rebuke. He had come across the fruits of the Dead Sea, so
sweet and delicious to the eye, so bitter and nauseous to the
taste. He had put the apple to his mouth, and it had turned to
ashes between his teeth. Yet he could not tear himself away. He
knew, he could not but know, that weakness of his religion. But she
half permitted his adoration, and that half permission added such
fuel to his fire that all the fountain of piety could not quench
it. He began to feel savage, irritated, and revengeful. He
meditated some severity of speech, some taunt that should cut her,
as her taunts cut him. He reflected as he stood there for a moment,
silent before her, that if he desired to quell her proud spirit, he
should do so by being prouder even than herself; that if he wished
to have her at his feet suppliant for his love it behoved him to
conquer her by indifference. All this passed through his mind. As
far as dead knowledge went, he knew, or thought he knew, how a
woman should be tamed. But when he essayed to bring his tactics to
bear, he failed like a child. What chance has dead knowledge with
experience in any of the transactions between man and man? What
possible between man and woman? Mr Slope loved furiously, insanely,
and truly; but he had never played the game of love. The signora
did not love at all, but she was up to every move on the board. It
was Philidor pitched against a school-boy.

And so she continued to insult him, and he continued to bear it.

'Sacrifice the world for love!' said she, in answer to some renewed
rapid declaration of his passion, 'how often has the same thing
been said, and how invariably with the same falsehood!'

'Falsehood,' said he. 'Do you say that I am false to you? Do you
say that my love is not real?'

'False? Of course it is false, false as the father of falsehood--if
indeed falsehoods need a sire and are not self-begotten since the
world began. You are ready to sacrifice the world for love? Come
let us see what you will sacrifice. I care nothing for nuptial
vows. The wretch, I think you were kind enough to call him so, whom
I swore to love and obey, is so base that he can only be thought of
with repulsive disgust. In the council chamber of my heart I have
divorced him. To me that is as good as though aged lords had
gloated for months over the details of his licentious life. I care
nothing for what the world can say. Will you be as frank? Will you
take me to your home as your wife? Will you call me Mrs Slope
before bishop, dean, and prebendaries?' The poor tortured wretch
stood silent, not knowing what to say. 'What! You won't do that.
Tell me then, what part of the world is it that you will sacrifice
for my charms?'

'Were you free to marry, I would take you to my house to-morrow and
wish no higher privilege.'

'I am free;' said she, almost starting up in her energy. For though
there was no truth in her pretended regard for her clerical
admirer, there was a mixture of real feeling in the scorn and
satire with which she spoke of love and marriage generally. 'I am
free; free as the winds. Come, will you take me as I am? Have your
wish; sacrifice the world, and prove yourself a true man.'

Mr Slope should have taken her at her word. She would have drawn
back, and he would have had the full advantage of the offer. But he
did not. Instead of doing so, he stood wrapt in astonishment,
passing his fingers through his lank red hair, and thinking as he
stared upon her animated countenance that her wondrous beauty grew
more and more wonderful as he gazed on it. 'Ha! Ha! Ha!,' she
laughed out loud. 'Come, Mr Slope, don't talk of sacrificing the
world again. People beyond one-and-twenty should never dream of
such a thing. You and I, if we have the dregs of any love left in
us, if we have the remnants of a passion remaining in our hearts,
should husband our resources better. We are not in our premiere
jeunesse. The world is a very nice place. Your world, at any rate,
is so. You have all manner of fat rectories to get, and possible
bishoprics to enjoy. Come, confess; on second thoughts you would
not sacrifice such things for the smiles of a lame lady?'

It was impossible for him to answer this. In order to be in any way
dignified, he felt that he must be silent.

'Come,' said she--'don't boody with me: don't be angry because I
speak out some home truths. Alas, the world, as I have found it,
has taught me bitter truths. Come, tell me that I am forgiven. Are
we not to be friends?' and she again put her hand to him.

He sat himself down on the chair beside her, and took her proffered
hand and leant over her.

'There,' said she, with her sweetest, softest smile--a smile to
withstand which a man should be cased in triple steel, 'there; seal
your forgiveness on it,' and she raised it towards his face. He
kissed it again and again, and stretched over her as though
desirous of extending the charity of his pardon beyond the hand
that was offered to him. She managed, however, to check his ardour.
For one so easily allured as this poor chaplain, her hand was
surely enough.

'Oh, Madeline!' said he, 'tell me that you love me--do you--do you
love me?'

'Hush,' said she. 'There is mother's step. Our tete-a-tete has been
of monstrous length. Now you had better go. But we shall see you
soon again, shall we not?'

Mr Slope promised that he would call again on the following day.

'And Mr Slope,' she continued, 'pray answer my note. You have it in
your hand, though, I declare during these two hours you have not
been gracious enough to read it. It is about the Sabbath school and
the children. You know how anxious I am to have them here. I have
been learning the catechism myself, on purpose. You must manage it
for me next week. I will teach them, at any rate, to submit
themselves to their spiritual pastors and masters.'

Mr Slope said but little on the subject of Sabbath schools, but he
made his adieu, and betook himself home with a sad heart, troubled
mind, and uneasy conscience.



CHAPTER XXVIII

MRS BOLD IS ENTERTAINED BY DR AND MRS GRANTLY AT PLUMSTEAD

It will be remembered that Mr Slope, when leaving his billet doux
with Mrs Bold, had been informed that it would be sent out to her
at Plumstead that afternoon. The archdeacon and Mr Harding had in
fact come into town together in the brougham, and it had been
arranged that they should call for Eleanor's parcels as they left
on their way home. Accordingly they did so call, and the maid, as
she handed to the coachman a small basket and large bundle
carefully and neatly packec, gave in at the carriage window Mr
Slope's epistle. The archdeacon, who was sitting next to the
window, took it, and immediately recognised the hand-writing of his
enemy.

'Who left this?' said he.

'Mr Slope called with it himself, your reverence,' said the girl; '
and was very anxious that missus should have it to-day.'

So the brougham drove off, and the letter was left in the
archdeacon's hand. He looked at it as though he held a basket of
adders. He could not have thought worse of the document had he read
it and discovered it to be licentious and atheistical. He did,
moreover, what so many wise people are accustomed to do in similar
circumstances; he immediately condemned the person to whom the
letter was written, as though she were necessarily a particeps
criminis.

Poor Mr Harding, though by no means inclined to forward Mr Slope's
intimacy with his daughter, would have given anything to have kept
the letter from his son-in-law. But that was now impossible. There
it was in his hand; and he looked as thoroughly disgusted as though
he were quite sure that it contained all the rhapsodies of a
favoured lover.

'It's very hard on me,' said he, after a while, 'that this should
go on under my roof.'

Now here the archdeacon was certainly the most unreasonable. Having
invited his sister-in-law to his house, it was a natural
consequence of that she should receive her letters there. And if Mr
Slope chose to write to her, his letter would, as a matter of
course, be sent after her. Moreover, the very fact of an invitation
to one's house implies confidence on the part of the inviter. He
had shown that he thought Mrs Bold to be a fit person to stay with
him by his making her to do so, and it was most cruel to her that
he should complain of her violating the sanctity of his roof-tree,
when the laches committed were none of her committing.

Mr Harding felt this; and felt also that when the archdeacon talked
thus about his roof, what he said was most offensive to himself as
Eleanor's father. If Eleanor did receive a letter from Mr Slope,
what was there in that to pollute the purity of Dr Grantly's
household. He was indignant that his daughter should be so judged
and so spoken of; and, he made up his mind that even as Mrs Slope
she must be dearer to him than any other creature on God's earth.
He almost broke out, and said as much; but for the moment he
restrained himself.

'Here,' said the archdeacon, handing the offensive missile to his
father-in-law; 'I am not going to be the bearer of his love
letters. You are her father, and may do as you think fit with it.'

By doing as he thought fit with it, the archdeacon certainly meant
that Mr Harding would be justified in opening and reading the
letter, and taking any steps which might in consequence be
necessary. To tell the truth, Dr Grantly did feel rather a stronger
curiosity than was justified by his outraged virtue, to see the
contents of the letter. Of course he could not open it himself, but
he wished to make Mr Harding understand that he, as Eleanor's
father, would be fully justified in doing so. The idea of such a
proceeding never occurred to Mr Harding. His authority over Eleanor
ceased when she became the wife of John Bold. He had not the
slightest wish to pry into her correspondence. He consequently put
the letter into his pocket, and only wished that he had been able
to do so without the archdeacon's knowledge. They both sat silent
during the journey home, and then Dr Grantly said, 'Perhaps Susan
had better give it to her. She can explain to her sister, better
than you or I can do, how deep is the disgrace of such an
acquaintance.'

'I think you are very hard upon Eleanor,' replied Mr Harding. 'I
will not allow that she has disgraced herself, nor do I think it
likely that she will do so. She has a right to correspond with whom
she pleases, and I shall not take upon myself to blame her because
she gets a letter from Slope.'

'I suppose,' said Dr Grantly, 'you don't wish her to marry this
man. I suppose you'll admit that she would disgrace herself if she
did so.'

'I do not wish her to marry him,' said the perplexed father; 'I do
not like him, and do not think he would make a good husband. But if
Eleanor decides to do so, I shall certainly not think that she has
disgraced herself.'

'Good heavens!' exclaimed Dr Grantly, and threw himself back into
the corner of his brougham. Mr Harding said nothing more, but
commenced playing a dirge, with an imaginary fiddle bow upon an
imaginary violoncello, for which there did not appear to be quite
room enough in the carriage; and he continued the tune, with sundry
variations, till he arrived at the rectory door.

The archdeacon had been meditating sad things in his mind. Hitherto
he had always looked on his father-in-law as a true partisan,
though he knew him to be a man devoid of all the combative
qualifications for that character. He had felt no fear that Mr
Harding would go over to the enemy, though he had never counted
much on the ex-warden's prowess in breaking the battle ranks. Now,
however, it seemed that Eleanor, with her wiles, had completely
trepanned and bewildered her father, cheated him out of his
judgement, robbed him of the predilections and tastes of life, and
caused him to be tolerant of a man whose arrogance and vulgarity
would, in a few years since, have been unendurable to him. That the
whole thing was as good as arranged between Eleanor and Mr Slope
there was no longer any room to doubt. That Mr Harding knew that
such was the case, even this could hardly be doubted. It was too
manifest that he at any rate suspected it, and was prepared to
sanction it.

And to tell the truth, such was the case. Mr Harding disliked Mr
Slope as much as it was in his nature to dislike any man. Had his
daughter wished to do her worst to displease him by a second
marriage, she could hardly have succeeded better than by marrying
Mr Slope. But, as he said to himself now very often, what right had
he to condemn her if she did nothing that was really wrong? If she
liked Mr Slope it was her affair. It was indeed miraculous to him,
that a woman with such a mind, so educated, so refined, so nice in
her tastes, should like such a man. Then he asked himself whether
it was possible that she did so.

Ah, thou weak man; most charitable, most Christian, but weakest of
men! Why couldst thou not have asked herself? Was she not the
daughter of thy loins, the child of thy heart, the most beloved of
thee of all humanity? Had she not proved to thee, by years of
closest affection, her truth and goodness and filial obedience? And
yet, groping in darkness, hearing her name in strains which wounded
thy loving heart, and being unable to defend her as thou shouldst
have done!

Mr Harding had not believed, did not believe, that his daughter
meant to marry this man; but he feared to commit himself to such an
opinion. If she did do it there would be then no means of retreat.
The wishes of his heart were--First, that there should be no truth
in the archdeacon's surmises; and in this wish he would have fain
trusted entirely, had he dared to do so; Secondly, that the match
might be prevented, if unfortunately, it had been contemplated by
Eleanor; Thirdly, that should she be so infatuated as to marry this
man, he might justify his conduct, and declare that no cause
existed for his separating himself from her.

He wanted to believe her incapable of such a marriage; he wanted to
show that he so believed of her; but he wanted also to be able to
say hereafter, that she had done nothing amiss, if she could
unfortunately prove herself to be different from what he thought
her to be.

Nothing but affection could justify such fickleness; but affection
did justify it. There was but little of the Roman about Mr Harding.
He could not sacrifice his Lucretia even though she should be
polluted by the accepted addresses of the clerical Tarquin at the
palace. If Tarquin could be prevented, well and good; but if not,
the father would still open his heart to his daughter, and accept
her as she present herself, Tarquin and all.

Dr Grantly's mind was of a stronger calibre, and he was by no means
deficient in heart. He loved with an honest genuine love his wife
and children and friends. He loved his father-in-law; and he was
quite prepared to love Eleanor too, if she would be one of his
party, if she would be on his side, if she would regard the Slopes
and the Proudies as the enemies of mankind, and acknowledge and
feel the comfortable merits of the Gwynnes and Arabins. He wished
to be what he called "safe" with all those whom he had admitted to
the penetralia of his house and heart. He could luxuriate in no
society that was deficient in a certain feeling of faithful staunch
high-churchism, which to him was tantamount to freemasonry. He was
not strict in his lines of definition. He endured without
impatience many different shades of Anglo-church conservatism; but
with the Slopes and Proudies he could not go on all fours.

He was wanting in, moreover, or perhaps it would be more correct to
say, he was not troubled by that womanly tenderness which was so
peculiar to Mr Harding. His feelings towards his friends were, that
while they stuck to him he would stick to them; that he would work
with them shoulder to shoulder; that he would be faithful to the
faithful. He knew nothing of that beautiful love which can be true
to a false friend.

And thus these two men, each miserable enough in his own way,
returned to Plumstead.

It was getting late when they arrived there, and the ladies had
already gone up to dress. Nothing more was said as the two parted
in the hall. As Mr Harding passed to his own room, he knocked at
Eleanor's door and handed in the letter. The archdeacon hurried to
his own territory, there to unburden his heart to his faithful
partner.

What colloquy took place between the marital chamber and the
adjoining dressing-room shall not be detailed. The reader, now
intimate with the persons concerned, can well imagine it. The whole
tenor of it also might be read in Mrs Grantly's brow as she came
down to dinner.

Eleanor, when she received the letter from her father's hand, had
no idea from whom it came. She had never seen Mr Slope's
handwriting, or if so, had forgotten it; and did not think of him
as she twisted the letter as people do twist letters when they do
not immediately recognise their correspondents either by the
writing or the seal. She was sitting at her glass brushing her
hair, and rising every other minute to play with her boy who was
sprawling on the bed, and who engaged pretty nearly the whole
attention of the maid as well as of the mother.

At last, sitting before her toilet table, she broke the seal, and
turning over the leaf saw Mr Slope's name. She first felt
surprised, and then annoyed, and then anxious. As she read it she
became interested. She was so delighted to find that all obstacles
to her father's return to the hospital were apparently removed that
she did not observe the fulsome language in which the tidings were
conveyed. She merely perceived that she was commissioned to tell
her father that such was the case, and she did not realise the fact
that such a commission should not have been made, in the first
instance, to her by an unmarried young clergyman. She felt, on the
whole, grateful to Mr Slope, and anxious to get on her dress that
she might run with the news to her father. Then she came to the
allusion to her own pious labours, and she said in her heart that
Mr Slope was an affected ass. Then she went on again and was
offended by her boy being called Mr Slope's darling--he was
nobody's darling but her own; or at any rate not the darling of a
disagreeable stranger like Mr Slope. Lastly she arrived at the
tresses and felt a qualm of disgust. She looked up in the glass,
and there they were before her, long and silken, certainly, and
very beautiful. I will not say but that she knew them to be so, but
she felt angry with them and brushed them roughly and carelessly.
She crumpled the letter with angry violence, and resolved, almost
without thinking of it, that she would not show it to her father.
She would merely tell him the contents of it. She then comforted
herself again with her boy, and her dress fastened, she went down
to dinner.

As she tripped down the stairs she began to ascertain that there
was some difficulty in her situation. She could not keep from her
father the news about the hospital, nor could she comfortably
confess the letter from Mr Slope before the Grantlys. Her father
had already gone down. She had heard his step upon the lobby. She
resolved therefore to take him aside, and tell him her little bit
of news. Poor girl! She had no idea how severely the unfortunate
letter had already been discussed.

When she entered the drawing-room the whole party were there,
including Mr Arabin, and the whole party looked glum and sour. The
two girls sat silent and apart as though they were aware that
something was wrong. Even Mr Arabin was solemn and silent. Eleanor
had not seen him since breakfast. He had been the whole day at St
Ewold's, and such having been the case it was natural that he
should tell how matters were going on there. He did nothing of the
kind, however, but remained solemn and silent. They were all solemn
and silent. Eleanor knew in her heart that they had been talking
about her, and her heart misgave her as she thought of Mr Slope and
his letter. At any rate she felt it to be quite impossible to speak
to her father alone while matters were in this state.

Dinner was soon announced, and Dr Grantly, as was his wont, gave
Eleanor his arm. But he did so as though the doing it were an
outrage on his feelings rendered necessary by sternest necessity.
With quick sympathy Eleanor felt this, and hardly put her fingers
on his coat sleeve. It may be guessed in what way the dinner-hour
was passed. Dr Grantly said a few words to Mr Arabin, Mr Arabin
said a few words to Mrs Grantly, she said a few words to her
father, and he tried to say a few words to Eleanor. She felt that
she had been tried and found guilty of something, though she knew
not what. She longed to say out to them all, 'Well, what is it that
I have done; out with it; and let me know my crime; for heaven's
sake let me hear the worst of it;' but she could not. She could say
nothing, but sat there silent, half feeling that she was guilty,
and trying in vain to pretend even to eat her dinner.

At last the cloth was drawn, and the ladies were not long following
it. When they were gone the gentlemen were somewhat more sociable
but not much so. They could not of course talk over Eleanor's sins.
The archdeacon had indeed so far betrayed his sister-in-law as to
whisper into Mr Arabin's ear in the study, as they met there before
dinner, a hint of what he feared. He did so with the gravest and
saddest of fears, and Mr Arabin became grave and apparently sad
enough as he heard it. He opened his eyes and his mouth and said in
a sort of whisper, 'Mr Slope!' in the same way as he might have
said, The Cholera!' had his friend told him that that horrid
disease was in his nursery. 'I fear so, I fear so,' said the
archdeacon, and then together they left the room.

We will not accurately analyse Mr Arabin's feelings on receipt of
such astounding tidings. It will suffice to say that he was
surprised, vexed, sorrowful, and ill at ease. He had not perhaps
thought very much about Eleanor, but he had appreciated her
influence, and had felt that close intimacy with her in a country
house was pleasant to him, and also beneficial. He had spoken
highly of her intelligence to the archdeacon, and had walked about
the shrubberies with her, carrying her boy on his back. When Mr
Arabin had called Johnny his darling, Eleanor was not angry.

Thus the three men sat over their wine, all thinking of the same
subject, but unable to speak of it to each other. So we will leave
them, and follow the ladies into the drawing-room.

Mrs Grantly had received a commission from her husband, and had
undertaken it with some unwillingness. He had desired her to speak
gravely to Eleanor, and to tell her that, if she persisted in her
adherence to Mr Slope, she could no longer look for the countenance
of her present friends. Mrs Grantly probably knew her sister better
than the doctor did, and assured him that it would be in vain to
talk to her. The only course likely to be of any service in her
opinion was to keep Eleanor away from Barchester. Perhaps she might
have added, for she had a very keen eye in such things, that there
might be some ground for hope in keeping Eleanor near Mr Arabin. Of
this, however, she said nothing. But the archdeacon would not be
talked over; he spoke much of his conscience, and declared that if
Mrs Grantly would not do it he would. So instigated, the lady
undertook the task, stating, however, her full conviction that her
interference would be worse than useless. And so it proved.

As soon as they were in the drawing-room Mrs Grantly found some
excuse for sending her girls away, and then began her task. She
knew well that she could exercise but very slight authority over
her sister. Their various modes of life, and the distance between
their residences, had prevented very close confidence. They had
hardly lived together since Eleanor was a child. Eleanor had
moreover, especially in latter years, resented in a quiet sort of
way, the dictatorial authority which the archdeacon seemed to
exercise over her father, and on this account had been unwilling to
allow the archdeacon's wife to exercise authority over herself.

'You got a letter just before dinner, I believe,' began the eldest
sister.

Eleanor acknowledged that she had done so, and felt that she turned
red as she acknowledged it. She would have given anything to have
kept her colour, but the more she tried to do so, the more she
signally failed.

'Was it not from Mr Slope?'

Eleanor said that the letter was from Mr Slope.

'Is he a regular correspondent of yours, Eleanor?'

'Not exactly,' said she, already beginning to feel angry at the
cross-examination. She determined, and why it would be difficult to
say, that nothing would induce her to tell her sister Susan what
was the subject of the letter. Mrs Grantly, she knew, was
instigated by the archdeacon, and she would not plead to any
arraignment made against her by him.

'But, Eleanor dear, why do you get letters from Mr Slope at all,
knowing, as you do, he is a person so distasteful to papa, and to
the archdeacon, and indeed to all your friends?'

'In the first place, Susan, I don't get letters from him; and in
the next place, as Mr Slope wrote the one letter which I have got,
and as I only received it, which I could not very well help doing,
as papa handed it to me, I think you had better ask Mr Slope
instead of me.'

'What was the letter about, Eleanor?'

'I cannot tell you,' said she, 'because it was confidential. It was
on business respecting a third person.'

'It was in no way personal to yourself, then?'

'I won't exactly say that, Susan,' said she, getting more and more
angry at her sister's questions.

'Well I must say it's rather singular,' said Mrs Grantly, affecting
to laugh, 'that a young lady in your position should receive a
letter from an unmarried gentleman of which she will not tell the
contents, and which she is ashamed to show her sister.'

'I am not ashamed,' said Eleanor, blazing up; 'I am not ashamed of
anything in the matter; only I do not choose to be cross-examined
as to my letters by any one.'

'Well, dear,' said the other, 'I cannot tell you that I do not
think that Mr Slope a proper correspondent for you.'

'If he be ever so improper, how can I help his having written to
me? But you are all prejudiced against him to such an extent, that
that which would be kind and generous in another man is odious and
impudent in him. I hate a religion that teaches one to be so
onesided to one's charity.'

'I am sorry, Eleanor, that you hate the religion you find here; but
surely you should remember that in such matters the archdeacon must
know more of the world than you do. I don't ask you to respect or
comply with me, although I am, unfortunately, so many years your
senior; but surely, in such a matter as this, you might consent to
be guided by the archdeacon. He is most anxious to be your friend
if you will let him.'

'In such a matter as what?' said Eleanor very testily. 'Upon my
word I don't know what this is all about.'

'We all want you to drop Mr Slope.'

'You all want me to be illiberal as yourselves. That I shall never
be. I see no harm in Mr Slope's acquaintance, and I shall not
insult the man by telling him that I do. He has thought it
necessary to write to me, and I do not want the archdeacon's advice
about the letter. If I did I would ask it.'

'Then, Eleanor, it is my duty to tell you,' and now she spoke with
a tremendous gravity, 'that the archdeacon thinks that such a
correspondence is disgraceful, and that he cannot allow it to go on
in this house.'

Eleanor's eyes flashed fire as she answered her sister, jumping up
from her seat as she did so. 'You may tell the archdeacon that
wherever I am I shall receive what letters I please and from whom I
please. And as for the word disgraceful, if Dr Grantly has used it
of me he has been unmanly and inhospitable,' and she walked off to
the door. 'When papa comes from the dining-room I will thank you to
ask him to step up to my bed-room. I will show him Mr Slope's
letter, but I will show it to no one else.' And so saying she
retreated to her baby.

She had no conception of the crime with which she was charged. The
idea that she could be thought by her friends to regard Mr Slope as
a lover, had never flashed upon her. She conceived that they were
all prejudiced and illiberal in their persecution of him, and
therefore she would not join in the persecution, even though she
greatly disliked the man.

Eleanor was very angry as she seated herself in a low chair by her
open window at the foot of her child's bed. 'To dare to say that I
have disgraced myself,' she repeated to herself more than once.
'How papa can put up with that man's arrogance! I will certainly
not sit down to dinner in this house again unless he begs my pardon
for that word.' And then a thought struck her that Mr Arabin might
perchance hear of her 'disgraceful' correspondence with Mr Slope,
and she turned crimson with pure vexation. Oh, if she had known the
truth! If she could have conceived that Mr Arabin had been informed
as a fact that she was going to marry Mr Slope!

She had not been long in her room before her father joined her. As
he left the drawing-room Mrs Grantly took her husband into the
recess of the window, and told him how signally she had failed.

'I will speak to her myself before I go to bed,' said the
archdeacon.

'Pray do no such thing,' said she; 'you can do no good and will
only make an unseemly quarrel in the house. You have no idea how
headstrong she can be.'

The archdeacon declared that as to that he was quite indifferent.
He knew his duty and he would do it. Mr Harding was weak in the
extreme in such matters. He would not have it hereafter on his
conscience that he had not done all that in him lay to prevent so
disgraceful an alliance. It was in vain that Mrs Grantly assured
him that speaking to Eleanor angrily would only hasten such a
crisis, and render it certain if at present there were any doubt.
He was angry, self-willed, and sore. The fact that a lady in his
household had received a letter from Mr Slope had wounded his pride
in the sorest place, and nothing could control him.

Mr Harding looked worn and woebegone as he entered his daughter's
room. These sorrows worried him sadly. He felt that if they were
continued he must go to the wall in a manner so kindly prophesied
to him by the chaplain. He knocked gently at his daughter's door,
waited till he was distinctly bade to enter, and then appeared as
though he and not she was the suspected criminal.

Eleanor's arm was soon within his, and she had soon kissed his
forehead and caressed him, not with joyous but with eager love.
'Oh, papa,' she said, 'I do so want to speak to you. They have been
talking about me downstairs to-night; don't you know they have,
papa?'

Mr Harding confessed with a sort of murmur that the archdeacon had
been speaking of her.

'I shall hate Dr Grantly soon--'

'Oh, my dear!'

'Well; I shall. I cannot help it. He is so uncharitable, so unkind,
so suspicious of everyone that does not worship himself: and then
he is so monstrously arrogant to other people who have a right to
their opinions as well as he has to his own.'

'He is an earnest, eager man, my dear: but he never means to be
unkind.'

'He is unkind, papa, most unkind. There, I got that letter from Mr
Slope before dinner. It was you yourself who gave it to me. There;
pray read it. It is all for you. It should have been addressed to
you. You know how they have been talking about it downstairs. You
know how they behaved to me at dinner. And since dinner Susan has
been preaching to me, till I could not remain in the room with her.
Read it, papa; and then say whether that is a letter that need make
Dr Grantly so outrageous.'

Mr Harding took his arm from his daughter's waist, and slowly read
the letter. She expected to see his countenance lit up with joy as
he learnt that his path back to the hospital was made so smooth;
but she was doomed to disappointment, as had once been the case
before on a somewhat similar occasion. His first feeling was one of
unmitigated disgust that Mr Slope should have chosen to interfere
in his behalf. He had been anxious to get back to the hospital, but
he would have infinitely sooner resigned all pretensions to the
place, than have owned in any manner to Mr Slope's influence in his
favour. Then he thoroughly disliked the tone of Mr Slope's letter;
it was unctuous, false, and unwholesome, like the man. He saw,
which Eleanor had failed to see, that much more had been intended
than was expressed. The appeal to Eleanor's pious labours as
separate from his own grated sadly against his feelings as a
father. And then, when he came to the 'darling boy,' and the
'silken tresses,' he slowly closed and folded the letter in
despair. It was impossible that Mr Slope should so write unless he
had been encouraged. It was impossible that Eleanor should have
received such a letter, and received it without annoyance, unless
she were willing to encourage him. So at least, Mr Harding argued
to himself.

How hard it is to judge accurately of the feelings of others. Mr
Harding, as he came to close the letter, in his heart condemned his
daughter for indelicacy, and it made him miserable to do so. She
was not responsible for what Mr Slope might write. True. But then
she expressed no disgust at it. She had rather expressed approval
of the letter as a whole. She had given it to him to read, as a
vindication for herself and also for him. The father's spirits sank
within him as he felt that he could not acquit her.

And yet it was the true feminine delicacy of Eleanor's mind which
brought her on this condemnation. Listen to me, ladies, and I
beseech you to acquit her. She thought of this man, this lover of
whom she was so unconscious, exactly as her father did, exactly as
the Grantlys did. At least she esteemed him personally as they did.
But she believed him to be in the main an honest man, and one truly
inclined to assist her father. She felt herself bound, after what
had passed, to show the letter to Mr Harding. She thought it
necessary that he should know what Mr Slope had to say. But she did
not think it necessary to apologise for, or condemn, or even allude
to the vulgarity of the man's tone, which arose, as does all
vulgarity, from ignorance. It was nauseous to her to have such a
man like Mr Slope commenting on her personal attractions; and she
did not think it necessary to dilate with her father upon what was
nauseous. She never supposed they could disagree on such a subject.
It would have been painful for to point it out, painful to her to
speak strongly against a man of whom, on the whole she was anxious
to think and speak well. In encountering such a man she had
encountered what was disagreeable, as she might do in walking the
streets. But in such encounters she never thought it necessary to
dwell on what disgusted her.

Mr Harding slowly folded the letter, handed it back to her, kissed
her forehead and bade God bless her. He then crept slowly away to
his own room.

As soon as he had left the passage another knock was given at
Eleanor's door, and Mrs Grantly's very demure own maid, entering on
tiptoe, wanted to know would Mrs Bold be so kind as to speak to the
archdeacon for two minutes in the archdeacon's study, if not
disagreeable. The archdeacon's compliments, and he wouldn't detain
her two minutes.

Eleanor thought it was very disagreeable; she was tired and fagged
and sick at heart; her present feelings towards Dr Grantly were
anything but those of affection. She was, however, no coward, and
therefore promised to be in the study in five minutes. So she
arranged her hair, tied on her cap, and went down with a
palpitating heart.



CHAPTER XXIX

A SERIOUS INTERVIEW

There are people who delight in serious interviews, especially when
to them appertain the part of offering advice or administering
rebuke, and perhaps the archdeacon was one of these. Yet on this
occasion he did not prepare himself for the coming conversation
with much anticipation of pleasure. Whatever might be his faults he
was not an inhospitable man, and he almost felt that he was sinning
against hospitality in upbraiding Eleanor in his own house. Then,
also he was not quite sure that he would get the best of it. His
wife had told him that he decidedly would not, and he usually gave
credit to what his wife said. He was, however, so convinced of what
he considered to be the impropriety of Eleanor's conduct, and so
assured also of his own duty in trying to check it, that his
conscience would not allow him to take his wife's advice and go to
bed quietly.

Eleanor's face as she entered the room was not much as to reassure
him. As a rule she was always mild in manner and gentle in conduct;
but there was that in her eye which made it not an easy task to
scold her. In truth she had been little used to scolding. No one
since her childhood had tried it but the archdeacon, and he had
generally failed when he did try it. He had never done so since her
marriage; and now, when he saw her quiet easy step, as she entered
the room, he almost wished he had taken his wife's advice.

He began by apologising for the trouble he was giving her. She
begged him not to mention it, assured him that walking down the
stairs was no trouble to her at all, and then took a seat and
waited patiently for him to begin his attack.

'My dear Eleanor,' he said, 'I hope you believe me when I assure
you that you have no sincerer friend than I am.' To this Eleanor
answered nothing, and therefore he proceeded. 'If you had a brother
of your own I should not probably trouble you with what I am going
to say. But as it is I cannot but think that it must be a comfort
to you to know that you have near you one who is as anxious for
your welfare as any brother of your own could be.'

'I never had a brother,' said she.

'I know you never had, and it is therefore that I speak to you.'

'I never had a brother,' she repeated; 'but I have hardly felt the
want. Papa has been to me both father and brother.'

'Your father is the fondest and most affectionate of men. But--'

'He is--the fondest and most affectionate of men, and the best of
counsellors. While he lives I can never want advice.'

This rather put the archdeacon out. He could not exactly contradict
what his sister-in-law said about her father; and yet he did not at
all agree with her. He wanted her to understand that he tendered
his assistance because her father was a soft good-natured
gentleman, not sufficiently knowing in the ways of the world; but
he could not say this to her. So he had to rush into the
subject-matter of his proffered counsel without any acknowledgement
on her part that she could need it, or would be grateful for it.

'Susan tells me that you received a letter this evening from Mr
Slope.'

'Yes; papa brought it in the brougham. Did he not tell you?'

'And Susan says that you objected to let her know what it was
about.'

'I don't think she asked me. But had she done so I should not have
told her. I don't think it nice to be asked about one's letters. If
one wishes to show them one does so without being asked.'

'True. Quite so. What you say is quite true. But is not the fact of
your receiving letters from Mr Slope, which you do not wish to show
to your friends, a circumstance which must excite some--some
surprise--some suspicion--'

'Suspicion!' said she, not speaking above her usual voice, speaking
still in a soft womanly tone, but yet with indignation; 'suspicion!
and who suspects me, and of what?'

And then there was a pause, for the archdeacon was not quite ready
to explain the ground of his suspicion. 'No, Dr Grantly, I did not
choose to show Mr Slope's letter to Susan. I could not show it to
any one till papa had seen it. If you have any wish to read it now,
you can do so,' and she handed the letter to him over the table.

This was an amount of compliance which he had not at all expected,
and which rather upset him in his tactics. However, he took the
letter, perused it carefully, and then refolding it, kept it on the
table under his hand. To him it appeared to be in almost every
respect the letter of a declared lover; it seemed to corroborate
his worst suspicions; and the fact of Eleanor's showing it to him
was all but tantamount to a declaration on her part, that it was
her pleasure to receive love-letters from Mr Slope. He almost
entirely overlooked the real subject-matter of the epistle; so
intent was he on the forthcoming courtship and marriage.

'I'll thank you to give it back, please, Dr Grantly.'

He took his hand and held it up, but made no immediate overture to
return it. 'And Mr Harding has seen this?' said he.

'Of course he has,' said she; 'it was written that he might see it.
It refers solely to his business--of course I showed it to him.'

'And Eleanor, do you think that that is a proper letter for
you--for a person in your condition--to receive from Mr Slope?'

'Quite a proper letter,' said she, speaking, perhaps, a little out
of obstinacy; probably forgetting at the moment the objectionable
mention of her silken curls.

'Then, Eleanor, it is my duty to tell you that I wholly differ from
you.'

'So I suppose,' said she, instigated now by sheer opposition and
determination not to succumb. 'You think Mr Slope is a messenger
direct from Satan. I think he is an industrious, well-meaning
clergyman. It's a pity that we differ as we do. But, as we do
differ, we had probably better not talk about it.'

Here undoubtedly Eleanor put herself in the wrong. She might
probably have refused to talk to Dr Grantly on the matter in
dispute without any impropriety; but having consented to listen to
him, she had no business to tell him that regarded Mr Slope as an
emissary from the evil one; nor was she justified in praising Mr
Slope, seeing that in her heart of hearts she did not think well of
him. She was, however, wounded in spirit, and very angry and
bitter. She had been subjected to contumely and cross-questioning
and ill-usage through the whole evening. No one, not even Mr
Arabin, not even her father, had been kind to her. All this she
attributed to the prejudice and conceit of the archdeacon, and
therefore she resolved to set no bounds to her antagonism to him.
She would neither give nor take quarter. He had greatly presumed in
daring to question her about her correspondence, and she was
determined to show that she thought so.

'Eleanor, you are forgetting yourself,' said he, looking very
sternly at her. 'Otherwise you would never tell me that I conceive
any man to be a messenger from Satan.'

'But you do,' said she. 'Nothing is too bad for him. Give me that
letter, if you please;' and she stretched out her hand and took it
from him. 'He has been doing his best to serve papa, doing more
than any of papa's friends could do; and yet, because he is the
chaplain of a bishop whom you don't like, you speak of him as
though he had no right to the usage of a gentleman.'

'He has done nothing for your father.'

'I believe that he has done a great deal; and, as far as I am
concerned, I am grateful to him. I judge people by their acts, and
his, as far as I can see them, are good.' She then paused for a
moment. 'If you have nothing further to say, I shall be obliged by
being permitted to say good night--I am very tired.'

Dr Grantly had, as he thought, done his best to be gracious to his
sister-in-law. He had endeavoured not to be harsh with her, and had
striven to pluck the sting from his rebuke. But he did not intend
that she should leave him without hearing him.

'I have something to say, Eleanor; and I fear I must trouble you to
hear it. You profess that it is quite proper that you should
receive from Mr Slope such letters as that you have in your hand.
Susan and I think very differently. You are, of course, your own
mistress, and much as we both must grieve should anything separate
you from us, we have no power to prevent you from taking steps
which may lead to such a separation. If you are so wilful as to
reject the counsel of your friends, you must be allowed to cater
for yourself. Is it worth you while to break away from all those
you have loved--from all who love you--for the sake of Mr Slope?'

'I don't know what you mean, Dr Grantly; I don't know what you are
talking about. I don't want to break away from anybody.'

'But you will do so if you connect yourself with Mr Slope. Eleanor,
I must speak out to you. You must choose between your sister and
myself and our friends, and Mr Slope and his friends. I say nothing
of your father, as you may probably understand his feelings better
than I do.'

'What do you mean, Dr Grantly? What am I to understand? I never
heard such wicked prejudice in my life.'

'It is no prejudice, Eleanor. I have known the world longer than
you have done. Mr Slope is altogether beneath you. You ought to
know and feel that he is so. Pray--pray think of this before it is
too late.'

'Too late!'

'Or if you will not believe me, ask Susan; you cannot think she is
prejudiced against you. Or even consult your father, he is not
prejudiced against you. Ask Mr Arabin--'

'You haven't spoken to Mr Arabin about this!' said she, jumping up
and standing before him.

'Eleanor, all the world in and about Barchester will be speaking of
it soon.'

'But you have spoken to Mr Arabin about me and Mr Slope?'

'Certainly I have, and he quite agrees with me.'

'Agree with what?' said she. 'I think you are trying to drive me
mad.'

'He agrees with me and Susan that it is quite impossible you should
be received at Plumstead as Mrs Slope.'

Not being favourites with the tragic muse we do not dare to attempt
any description of Eleanor's face when she first heard the name of
Mrs Slope pronounced as that which would or should or might at some
time appertain to herself. The look, such as it was, Dr Grantly did
not soon forget. For a moment or two she could find no words to
express her deep anger and deep disgust; and, indeed, at this
conjuncture, words did not come to her very freely.

'How dare you be so impertinent?' at last she said; and then
hurried out of the room, without giving the archdeacon the
opportunity of uttering another word. It was with difficulty that
she contained herself till she reached her own room; and then,
locking the door, she threw herself on her bed and sobbed as though
her heart would break.

But even yet she had no conception of the truth. She had no idea
that her father and sister had for days past conceived in sober
earnest the idea that she was going to marry the man. She did not
even then believe that the archdeacon thought that she would do so.
By some manoeuvre of her brain, she attributed the origin of the
accusation to Mr Arabin, and as she did so her anger against him
was excessive, and the vexation of her spirit almost unendurable.
She could not bring herself to think the charge was made seriously.
It appeared to her most probable that the archdeacon and Mr Arabin
had talked over her objectionable acquaintance with Mr Slope; that
Mr Arabin, in his jeering sarcastic way, had suggested the odious
match as being the severest way of treating with contumely her
acquaintance with his enemy; and that the archdeacon, taking the
idea from him, thought proper to punish her by the allusion. The
whole night she lay awake thinking of what had been said, and this
appeared to be the most probable solution.

But the reflection that Mr Arabin should have in any way mentioned
her name in connection with that of Mr Slope was overpowering; and
the spiteful ill-nature of the archdeacon, in repeating the charge
to her, made her wish to leave his house almost before the day had
broken. One thing was certain: nothing should make her stay there
beyond the following morning, and nothing should make her sit down
in company with Dr Grantly. When she thought of the man whose name
had been linked with her own, she cried from sheer disgust. It was
only because she would be thus disgusted, thus pained, and shocked
and cut to the quick, that the archdeacon had spoken the horrid
word. He wanted her to make her quarrel with Mr Slope, and
therefore he had outraged her by his abominable vulgarity. She
determined that at any rate he should know that she appreciated it.

Nor was the archdeacon a bit better satisfied with the result of
his serious interview than was Eleanor. He gathered from it, as
indeed he could hardly fail to do, that she was very angry with
him; but he thought that she was thus angry, not because she was
suspected of an intention to marry Mr Slope, but because such an
intention was imputed to her as a crime. Dr Grantly regarded this
supposed union with disgust; but it never occurred to him that
Eleanor was outraged, because she looked at it exactly in the same
light.

He returned to his wife vexed and somewhat disconsolate, but,
nevertheless, confirmed in his wrath against his sister-in-law.
'Her whole behaviour,' said he, 'has been most objectionable. She
handed me his love letter to read as though she were proud of it.
And she is proud of it. She is proud of having this slavering,
greedy man at her feet. She will throw herself and John Bold's
money into his lap; she will ruin her boy, disgrace her father and
you, and be a wretched miserable woman.'

His spouse who was sitting at her toilet table, continued her
avocations, making no answer to all this. She had known that the
archdeacon would gain nothing be interfering; but she was too
charitable to provoke him by saying so while he was in such deep
sorrow.

'This comes of a man making a will as that of Bold's' he continued.
'Eleanor is no more fitted to be trusted with such an amount of
money in her own hands than is a charity-school girl.' Still Mrs
Grantly made no reply. 'But I have done my duty; I can do nothing
further. I have told her plainly that she cannot be allowed to form
a link of connection between me and that man. From henceforward it
will not be in my power to make her welcome at Plumstead. I cannot
have Mr Slope's love letters coming here. I think you have better
let her understand that as her mind on this subject seems to be
irrevocably fixed, it will be better for all parties that she
should return to Barchester.

Now Mrs Grantly was angry with Eleanor, nearly as angry as her
husband; but she had no idea of turning her sister out of the
house. She, therefore, at length spoke out, and explained to the
archdeacon in her own mild seducing way, that he was fuming and
fussing and fretting himself very unnecessarily. She declared that
things, if left alone, would arrange themselves much better than he
could arrange them; and at last succeeded in inducing him to go to
bed in a somewhat less inhospitable state of mind.

On the following morning Eleanor's maid was commissioned to send
word into the dining-room that her mistress was not well enough to
attend prayers, and that she would breakfast in her own room. Here
she was visited by her father and declared to him her intention of
returning immediately to Barchester. He was hardly surprised by the
announcement. All the household seemed to be aware that something
had gone wrong. Every one walked about with subdued feet, and
people's shoes seemed to creak more than usual. There was a look of
conscious intelligence on the faces of the women; and the men
attempted, but in vain, to converse as though nothing were the
matter. All this had weighed heavily on the heart of Mr Harding;
and when Eleanor told him that her immediate return to Barchester
was a necessity, he merely sighed piteously, and said that he would
be ready to accompany her.

But here she objected strenuously. She had a great wish, she said,
to go alone; a great desire that it might be seen that her father
was not implicated in her quarrel with Dr Grantly. To this at last
he gave way; but not a word passed between them about Mr Slope--not
a word was said, not a question asked as to the serious interview
on the preceding evening. There was, indeed, very little confidence
between them, though neither of them knew why it should be so.
Eleanor once asked him whether he would not call upon the bishop;
but he answered rather tartly that he did not know--he did not
think he should, but he could not say just at present. And so they
parted. Each was miserably anxious for some show of affection, for
some return of confidence, for some sign of the feeling that
usually bound them together. But none was given. The father could
not bring himself to question his daughter about her supposed
lover; and the daughter would not sully her mouth by repeating the
odious word with which Dr Grantly had aroused her wrath. And so
they parted.

There was some trouble in arranging the method of Eleanor's return.
She begged her father to send for a postchaise; but when Mrs
Grantly heard of this, she objected strongly. If Eleanor would go
away in dudgeon with the archdeacon, why should she let all the
servants and all the neighbourhood know that she had done so? So at
last Eleanor consented to make use of the Plumstead carriage; and
as the archdeacon had gone out immediately after breakfast and was
not to return till dinner-time, she also consented to postpone her
journey till after lunch, and to join the family at that time. As
to the subject of the quarrel not a word was said by any one. The
affair of the carriage was arranged by Mr Harding, who acted as
Mercury between the two ladies; they, when they met, kissed each
other very lovingly, and then sat down each to her crochet work as
though nothing was amiss in all the world.



CHAPTER XXX

ANOTHER LOVE SCENE

But there was another visitor at the rectory whose feelings in this
unfortunate matter must be somewhat strictly analysed. Mr Arabin
had heard from his friend of the probability of Eleanor's marriage
with Mr Slope with amazement, but not with incredulity. It has been
said that he was not in love with Eleanor, and up to this period
this certainly had been true. But as soon as he heard that she
loved some one else, he began to be very fond of her himself. He
did not make up his mind that he wished to have her for his wife;
he had never thought of her, and did not know how to think of her,
in connection with himself; but he experienced an inward
indefinable feeling of deep regret, a gnawing sorrow, and
unconquerable depression of spirits, and also a species of
self-abasement that he--he Mr Arabin--had not done something to
prevent that other he, that vile he, whom he so thoroughly
despised, from carrying off his sweet prize.

Whatever man may have reached the age of forty unmarried without
knowing something of such feelings must have been very successful
or else very cold hearted.

Mr Arabin had never thought of trimming the sails of his bark so
that he might sail as convoy to this rich argosy. He had seen that
Mrs Bold was beautiful, but he had not dreamt of making her beauty
his own. He knew that Mrs Bold was rich, but he had no more idea of
appropriating her wealth than that of Dr Grantly. He had discovered
that Mrs Bold was intelligent, warm-hearted, agreeable, sensible,
all, in fact, that a man could wish his wife to be; but the higher
were her attractions, the greater her claims to consideration, the
less had he imagined that he might possible become the possessor of
them. Such had been his instinct rather than his thoughts, so
humble and so diffident. Now his diffidence was to be rewarded by
his seeing this woman, whose beauty was to his eyes perfect, whose
wealth was such as to have deterred him from thinking of her, whose
widowhood would have silenced him had he not been so deterred, by
his seeing her become the prey of--Obadiah Slope!

On the morning of Mrs Bold's departure he got on his horse to ride
over to St Ewold's. As he rode he kept muttering to himself a line
from Van Artevelde:-

How little flattering is woman's love.

And then he strove to recall his mind and to think of other
affairs, his parish, his college, his creed--but his thoughts would
revert to Mrs Bold and the Flemish chieftain:

When we think upon it
How little flattering is woman's love,
Given commonly to whosoe'er is nearest
And propped with most advantage.

It was not that Mrs Bold should marry any one but him; he had not
put himself forward as a suitor; but that she should marry Mr
Slope--and so he repeated over and over again:

Outward grace Nor inward light is needful--day by day Men wanting
both are mated with the best And loftiest of God's feminine
creation, Whose love takes no distinction but of gender And
ridicules the very name of choice.

And so he went on troubled much in his mind.

He had but an uneasy ride of it that morning, and little good did
he do at St Ewold's.

The necessary alterations in his house were being fast completed,
and he walked through the rooms, and went up and down the stairs
and rambled through the garden; but he could not wake himself to
much interest about them. He stood still at every window to look
out and think upon Mr Slope. At almost every window he had before
stood and chatted with Eleanor. She and Mrs Grantly had been there
continually, and while Mrs Grantly had been giving orders, and
seeing that orders had been complied with, he and Eleanor had
conversed on all things appertaining to a clergyman's profession.
He thought how often he had laid down the law to her, and how
sweetly she had borne with somewhat dictatorial decrees. He
remembered her listening intelligence, her gentle but quick
replies, her interest in all that concerned the church, in all that
concerned him; and then he struck his riding whip against the
window sill, and declared to himself that it was impossible that
Eleanor Bold should marry Mr Slope.

And yet he did not really believe, as he should have done, that it
was impossible. He should have known her well enough to feel that
it was truly impossible. He should have been aware that Eleanor had
that within her which would surely protect her from such
degradation. But he, like so many others, was deficient in
confidence in woman. He said to himself over and over again that it
was impossible that Eleanor Bold should become Mrs Slope, and yet
he believed that she would do so. And so he rambled about, and
could do and think of nothing. He was thoroughly uncomfortable,
thoroughly ill at ease, cross with himself and every body else, and
feeding in his heart on animosity towards Mr Slope. This was not as
it should be, as he knew and felt; but he could not help himself.
In truth Mr Arabin was now in love with Mrs Bold, though ignorant
of the fact himself. He was in love, and, though forty years old,
was in love without being aware of it. He fumed and fretted, and
did not know what was the matter, as a youth might do at
one-and-twenty. And so having done no good at St Ewold's, he rode
back much earlier than was usual with him, instigated, by some
inward unacknowledged hope that he might see Mrs Bold before she
left.

Eleanor had not passed a pleasant morning. She was irritated with
every one, and not least with herself. She felt that she had been
hardly used, but she felt also that she had not played her own
cards well. She should have held herself so far above suspicion as
to have received her sister's innuendoes and the archdeacon's
lecture with indifference. She had not done this, but had shown
herself angry and sore, and was now ashamed of her own petulance,
and yet unable to discontinue it.

The greater part of the morning she had spent alone; but after a
while her father joined her. He had fully made up his mind that,
come what might, nothing should separate him from his youngest
daughter. It was a hard task for him to reconcile himself to the
idea of seeing her at the head of Mr Slope's table; but he got
through it. Mr Slope, as he argued to himself, was a respectable
man and a clergyman; and he, as Eleanor's father, had no right even
to endeavour to prevent her from marrying such a one. He longed to
tell her how he had determined to prefer her to all the world, how
he was prepared to admit that she was not wrong, how thoroughly he
differed from Dr Grantly; but he could not bring himself to mention
Mr Slope's name. There was yet a chance that they were all wrong in
their surmise; and, being thus in doubt, he could not bring himself
to speak openly to her on the subject.

He was sitting with her in the drawing-room, with his arm round her
waist, saying now and then some little soft words of affection, and
working hard with his imaginary little fiddle-bow, when Mr Arabin
entered the room. He immediately got up, and the two made some
trifle remarks to each other, neither thinking of what he was
saying, and Eleanor kept her seat on the sofa mute and moody. Mr
Arabin was included in the list of those against whom her anger was
excited. He, too, had dared to talk about her acquaintance with Mr
Slope; he, too, had dared to blame her for not making an enemy of
his enemy. She had not intended to see him before her departure,
and was now but little inclined to be gracious.

There was a feeling through the whole house that something was
wrong. Mr Arabin, when he saw Eleanor, could not succeed in looking
or in speaking as though he knew nothing of all this. He could not
be cheerful and positive and contradictory with her, as was his
wont. He had not been two minutes in the room before he felt that
he had done wrong in return; and the moment he heard her voice, he
thoroughly wished himself back at St Ewold's. Why, indeed, should
he have wished to have aught further to say to the future wife of
Mr Slope?

'I am sorry to hear that you are too leave so soon,' said he,
striving in vain to use his ordinary voice. In answer to this she
muttered something about the necessity of her being in Barchester,
and betook herself industriously to her crochet work.

Then there was a little more trite conversation between Mr Arabin
and Mr Harding; trite, and hard, and vapid, and senseless. Neither
of them had anything to say to the other, and yet neither at such a
moment liked to remain silent. At last Mr Harding, taking advantage
of a pause, escaped from the room, and Eleanor and Mr Arabin were
left together.

'Your going will be a great break-up to our party,' said he.

She again muttered something which was all but inaudible; but kept
her eyes fixed upon her work.

'We have had a very pleasant month her,' said he; 'at least I have;
and I am sorry it should be so soon over.'

'I have already been from home longer than I intended,' she said;
'and it is time that I should return.'

'Well, pleasant hours and pleasant days must come to an end. It is
a pity that so few of them are pleasant; or perhaps rather--'

'It is a pity, certainly, that men and women do so much to destroy
the pleasantness of their days,' said she, interrupting him. 'It is
a pity that there should be so little charity abroad.'

'Charity should begin at home,' said he; and he was proceeding to
explain that he as a clergyman could not be what she would call
charitable at the expense of those principles which he considered
it his duty to teach, when he remembered that it would be worse
than vain to argue on such a matter with the future wife of Mr
Slope. 'But you are just leaving us,' he continued, 'and I will not
weary your last hour with another lecture. As it is, I fear I have
given you too many.'

'You should practise as well as preach, Mr Arabin?'

'Undoubtedly I should. So should we all. All of us who presume to
teach are bound to do our utmost towards fulfilling our own
lessons. I thoroughly allow my deficiency in doing so; but I do not
quite know now to what you allude. Have you any special reason for
telling me now that I should practise as well as preach?'

Eleanor made no answer. She longed to let him know the cause of her
anger, to upbraid him for speaking of her disrespectfully, and then
at last forgive him, and so part friends. She felt that she would
be unhappy to leave him in her present frame of mind; but yet she
could hardly bring herself to speak to him of Mr Slope. And how
could she allude to the innuendo thrown out by the archdeacon, and
thrown out, as she believed, at the instigation of Mr Arabin? She
wanted to make him know that he was wrong, to make him aware that
he had ill-treated her, in order that the sweetness of her
forgiveness might be enhanced. She felt that she liked him too well
to be contented to part with him in displeasure; and yet she could
not get over her deep displeasure without some explanation, some
acknowledgement, on his part, some assurance that he would never
again so sin against her.

'Why do you tell me that I should practise what I preach?'
continued he.

'All men should do so.'

'Certainly. That is as it were understood and acknowledged. But you
do not say so to all men, or to all clergymen. The advice, good as
it is, is not given except in allusion to some special deficiency.
If you will tell me my special deficiency, I will endeavour to
profit by the advice.'

She paused for a while, and then looking full in his face, she
said, 'You are not bold enough, Mr Arabin, to speak out to me
openly and plainly, and yet you expect me, a woman, to speak openly
to you. Why did you speak calumny of me to Dr Grantly behind my
back?'

'Calumny!' said he, and his whole face became suffused with blood;
'what calumny? If I have spoken calumny of you, I will beg your
pardon, and his to whom I spoke it, and God's pardon also. But what
calumny have I spoken of you to Dr Grantly?'

She also blushed deeply. She could not bring herself to ask him
whether he had not spoken of her as another man's wife. 'You know
that best yourself,' said she; 'but I ask you as a man of honour,
if you have not spoken of me as you would not have spoken of your
own sister; or rather I will not ask you,' she continued, finding
that he did not immediately answer her. 'I will not put you to the
necessity of answering such a question. Dr Grantly has told me what
you said.'

'Dr Grantly certainly asked me for my advice, and I gave it. He
asked me--'

'I know he did, Mr Arabin. He asked you whether he would be doing
right to receive me at Plumstead, if I continued my acquaintance
with a gentleman who happens to be personally disagreeable to
yourself and to him?'

'You are mistaken, Mrs Bold. I have no personal knowledge of Mr
Slope; I have never met him in my life.'

'You are not the less individually hostile to him. It is not for me
to question the propriety of your enmity; but I had a right to
expect that my name should not have been mixed up in your
hostilities. This has been done, and been done by you in a manner
the most injurious and the most distressing to a woman. I must
confess, Mr Arabin, that from you I expected a different sort of
usage.'

As she spoke she with difficulty restrained her tears; but she did
restrain them. Had she given way and sobbed about, as in such cases
a woman should do, he would have melted at once, implored her
pardon, perhaps knelt at her feet and declared his love. Everything
would have been explained, and Eleanor would have gone back to
Barchester with a contented mind. How easily would she have
forgiven and forgotten the archdeacon's suspicions had she but
heard the whole truth of it from Mr Arabin. But then where would
have been my novel? She did not cry, and Mr Arabin did not melt.

'You do me an injustice,' said he. 'My advice was asked by Dr
Grantly, and I was obliged to give it.'

'Dr Grantly has been most officious, most impertinent. I have as
complete a right to form my acquaintance as he has to form his.
What would you have said, had I consulted you as to the propriety
of banishing Dr Grantly from my house because he knows Lord
Tattenham Corner? I am sure Lord Tattenham is quite as
objectionable an acquaintance for a clergyman as Mr Slope is for a
clergyman's daughter.'

'I do not know Lord Tattenham Corner.'

'No; but Dr Grantly does. It is nothing to me if he knows all the
young lords on every racecourse in England. I shall not interfere
with him; nor shall he with me.'

'I am sorry to differ with you, Mrs Bold; but as you have spoken to
me on this matter, and especially as you blame me for what little I
said on the subject, I must tell you that I do differ from you. Dr
Grantly's position as a man in the world gives him a right to
choose his own acquaintances, subject to certain influences. If he
chooses them badly, those influences will be used. If he consorts
with persons unsuitable to him, his bishop will interfere. What the
bishop is to Dr Grantly, Dr Grantly is to you.'

'I deny it. I utterly deny it,' said Eleanor, jumping from her
seat, and literally flashing before Mr Arabin, as she stood on the
drawing-room floor. He had never seen her so excited, he had never
seen her look so beautiful.

'I utterly deny it,' said she. 'Dr Grantly has no sort of
jurisdiction over me whatsoever. Do you and he forget that I am not
altogether alone in this world? Do you forget that I have a father?
Dr Grantly, I believe, always has forgotten it.'

'From you, Mr Arabin,' she continued, 'I would have listened to
advice because I should have expected it to have been given as one
friend may advise another; not as a schoolmaster gives an order to
a pupil. I might have differed from you; on this matter I should
have done so; but had you spoken to me in your usual manner and
with your usual freedom I should not have been angry. But now--was
it manly of you, Mr Arabin, to speak of me in this way--, so
disrespectful--so--? I cannot bring myself to repeat what you said.
You must understand what I feel. Was it just of you to speak of me
in such a way, and to advise my sister's husband to turn me out of
my sister's house because I chose to know a man of whose doctrine
you disapprove?'

'I have no alternative left to me, Mrs Bold,' said he, standing
with his back to the fire-place, looking down intently at the
carpet pattern and speaking with a slow measured voice, 'but to
tell you plainly what did take place between me and Dr Grantly.'

'Well,' said she, finding that he paused for a moment.

'I am afraid that what I may say may pain you.'

'It cannot well do so more than what you have already done,' said
she.

'Dr Grantly asked me whether I thought it would be prudent for him
to receive you in his house as the wife of Mr Slope, and I told him
that I thought it would be imprudent. Believing it to be utterly
impossible that Mr Slope and--'

'Thank you, Mr Arabin, that is sufficient. I do not want to know
your reasons,' said she, speaking with a terribly calm voice. 'I
have shown to this gentleman the common-place civility of a
neighbour; and because I have done so, because I have not indulged
against him in all the rancour and hatred which you and Dr Grantly
consider due to all clergymen who do not agree with yourselves, you
conclude that I am to marry him;--or rather you do not conclude
so--no rational man could really come to such an outrageous
conclusion without better ground;--you have not thought so--but, as
I am in a position in which such an accusation must be peculiarly
painful, it is made in order that I may be terrified into hostility
against this enemy of yours.'

As she finished speaking, she walked to the drawing-room window,
and stepped out into the garden. Mr Arabin was left in the room,
still occupied in counting the pattern on the carpet. He had,
however, distinctly heard and accurately marked every word that she
had spoken. Was it not clear from what she had said, that the
archdeacon had been wrong in imputing to her any attachment to Mr
Slope? Was it not clear that Eleanor was still free to make another
choice? It may seem strange that he should for a moment have had a
doubt; and yet he did doubt. She had not absolutely denied the
charge; she had not expressly said that it was untrue. Mr Arabin
understood little of the nature of a woman's feelings, or he would
have known how improbable it was that she should make any clearer
declarations than she had done. Few men do understand the nature of
a woman's heart, till years have robbed such understanding of its
value. And it is well that it should be so, or men would triumph
too easily.

Mr Arabin stood counting the carpet, unhappy, wretchedly unhappy,
at the hard words that had been spoken to him; and yet happy,
exquisitely happy, as he thought that after all the woman whom he
so regarded was not to become the wife of the man whom he so much
disliked. As he stood there he began to be aware that he was
himself in love. Forty years had passed over his head, and as yet
woman's beauty had never given him an uneasy hour. His present hour


 


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