CHAPTER XIV.
Mr Darnley and his son were now left to themselves; and the young gentleman was wishing that Mr Pringle had kept his cousin’s foolish letter to himself; and Mr Darnley the elder was just beginning an elaborate and serious lecture on his son’s folly and pertinacity, when the discourse was suddenly interrupted and stopped by the appearance of Sir George Aimwell’s carriage driving up the avenue in much quicker time than it was ordinarily accustomed to. And presently Lady Aimwell was seen alighting from the carriage in great haste; and presently afterwards a loud talking was heard, inasmuch as five female voices were in full cryat their very topmost pitch, and there were heard gabblings and exclamations and almost shriekings. Mr Darnley and his son must have been the veriest stoics that ever lived had they not been anxious and curious to know the meaning of all this clatter.
If the female sex be curious, let not this be said of them reproachfully; for they are as anxious to gratify the curiosity of others as they are to have their own curiosity gratified. Not long were the rector of Neverden and his son kept in suspense, touching the cause of the clamour above alluded to; for there rushed into the study with most irreverent haste and unceremonious abruptness, three young ladies almost out of breath, but all speaking at once, and with such eager impetuosity, that they were forced to tell their story three times over before it could be understood. One of the three could have delivered the message in one-third of the time.
Mr Darnley and his son at length understoodthat the family at Neverden Hall were in the utmost consternation at the loss of Miss Glossop, who was missing, and nowhere to be found. The gentlemen then quitted the study, and hastened to contribute their share of condolence and conjectures to the distressed Lady Aimwell.
“Oh, Mr Darnley!” exclaimed her ladyship, in a tone so pathetic that we would not venture to describe it if we were able—“only think of that ungrateful and wicked creature Arabella Glossop, after all the kindness she had experienced at the hall, to leave us in this disgraceful manner!”
“Disgraceful manner, my lady!” said Mr Darnley; “to what do you allude?”
“I mean, sir,” answered her ladyship, “that there is every reason to believe that Arabella is gone off with Colonel Crop.”
“With Colonel Crop!” repeated the rector, sceptically and magnificently; “the colonel is old enough to be Miss Glossop’s father. And why was any elopement thought necessary? Thecolonel is a man of family and consideration; and I should not suppose that Mr Glossop could object to such a match for his daughter.”
“Oh, but Mr Darnley!” replied her ladyship, “you do not understand me.”
This had a very singular sound to the rector of Neverden, to be told that there was anything which he did not understand. Then the reverend gentleman replied, “I perfectly understand your ladyship to say that Miss Glossop has eloped with Colonel Crop.”
“Yes, sir,” replied her ladyship; “but not to be married to Colonel Crop.”
Thereat Mr Darnley the elder lifted up his eyes, opening them widely, and he spread out his hands, lifting them up also, and he stood for a moment with open lips, and then with prodigious energy he exclaimed, “Not to be married!”
“No, sir,” answered Lady Aimwell, “not to be married to Colonel Crop. But the poor simpleton has suffered herself to be persuadedby that unprincipled man, that Lord Spoonbill is so much attached to her that he is desirous of marrying her privately; and everybody knows what a profligate man Lord Spoonbill is.”
This information made the whole party start with astonishment, except Mr Robert Darnley; for it immediately occurred to him that herein was a solution of Zephaniah Pringle’s letter. He could not for a moment suppose it possible that Miss Primrose could, under any circumstances whatever, have consented to any negociation with Lord Spoonbill; but it was by no means improbable that Miss Glossop might have been deceived by his lordship’s plausibilities.
To the elder Mr Darnley, however, there arose a difficulty, as he was not aware that Miss Glossop had ever had an opportunity of being in Lord Spoonbill’s company. But a solution of this difficulty was immediately given by Lady Aimwell, who informed the reverend gentleman that he had recently been at Smatterton. “And,” her ladyship added, “Arabella wascontinually going to the castle, and taking every opportunity of throwing herself in Lord Spoonbill’s way.”
In this part of her ladyship’s narrative there was an inaccuracy of statement amounting to a falsehood. It was a lie too of that nature which even Dr Paley would not allow. There are some falsehoods to which that dexterous moralist extends his mercy. He says, for instance; “There are falsehoods which are not lies, that is, which are not criminal—as, where no one is deceived.” This, we presume, is the principle, though not avowedly so, on which the ingenious moralist vindicates his latitudinarian doctrine on the subject of subscription to the Thirty-nine articles. For that subscription does not deceive any one. But Lady Aimwell had not read Paley, or if she had, she thought that she had as great a right to extend the latitude as the moralist had to make it. Thus, laws are like crockery; one servant cracks them,and another breaks them, and both find their own excuse.
The long and the short of the matter is, that Lady Aimwell’s assertion that Miss Glossop was in the habit of visiting the castle, and throwing herself in the way of Lord Spoonbill, was absolutely incorrect. But without some such assertion there was no making a good story of it. And as written and printed biography generally contains about fifty per cent lies of compliment and flattery, so, spoken biography, or gossip, contains as generally about fifty per cent lies of scandal and calumny.
When Mr Darnley the elder heard this melancholy narrative, and when Lady Aimwell, through much speaking, was totally exhausted and reduced to compulsory silence, the worthy clergyman addressed himself in the language of consolation to her ladyship, and as her ladyship was too much exhausted to speak, she was under the necessity of listening. And then MrDarnley went on to say much concerning the obstinacy of young women, thinking perhaps at the same time quite as much of the obstinacy of young men. When, gentle reader, when will that happy day arrive, in which young men and young women will act, think, dress, talk, and fall in love, just exactly as old men and old women wish them to do?
The next consideration was to take such steps as might be thought necessary to bring back the fugitive. And then the consultation went on very gravely, and then Robert Darnley ventured, and not till then, to say that no doubt this was the lady alluded to in Mr Zephaniah Pringle’s letter.
Mr Darnley the elder could not gainsay this, for the evidence was so very strong; and thereupon the rector of Neverden began to waver in his opinion concerning Miss Primrose, for it was very clear that Miss Primrose was not the person who had eloped with Colonel Crop.
Addressing himself again to Lady Aimwell,who was beginning to recover from her fatigue, Mr Darnley asked more particularly concerning the eloped one. And in answer to the rector’s enquiries, Lady Aimwell informed him that Miss Glossop had actually acknowledged having received proposals from Lord Spoonbill through Colonel Crop, and that the young lady had also avowed her readiness to consent to a private marriage. Her ladyship also proceeded to inform Mr Darnley that, in consequence of this avowal, she had written to inform the young lady’s father, and that Mr Glossop had sent an answer to the communication, requesting that Arabella might be sent home immediately. This letter was shewn to Miss Glossop, who professed her readiness to return home; and preparations were accordingly made for her departure from Neverden Hall; but, on this very morning on which she should have returned home, she was missing. Lady Aimwell then informed Mr Darnley that enquiry was made among the servants, and that the old gardener had seen Miss Glossop as early as sixin the morning walking towards Smatterton; and that when messengers were sent to the castle, word was brought back that Colonel Crop and a young lady had set off in a post-chaise with four horses at a little after six.
But at length came the worst part of the story, and that was that Sir George Aimwell treated the whole affair with levity and indifference: he said that Lord Spoonbill was a man of honor, and that Miss Glossop was in very good hands. “Lord Spoonbill,” continued her ladyship, “may be a man of honor, but he is a very profligate and unprincipled man for all that.”
That was a strange assertion for Lady Aimwell to make, but she was very much agitated, and she hardly knew what she said.
“But after all, Lady Aimwell,” said Mr Darnley the elder, “what is to be done?”
That is a question more easily and more frequently asked than satisfactorily answered. It was altogether unanswerable in the present case.Sir George Aimwell was not at all disposed to pursue the fugitives, and such a pursuit was not a fit excursion for Lady Aimwell. As for sending domestic servants after so fierce and gallant a man as Colonel Crop, that was quite out of the question. The baronet’s whole establishment would be insufficient to cope with the powerful arm of the gallant colonel.
While they were yet talking and meditating on various plans which might be adopted if they possessed the means, an important addition was made to the party, by the unexpected entrance of Mr Glossop himself. For the anxious father, thinking that his daughter would be safest in his own keeping, had made a journey to Neverden for the purpose of accompanying the young lady on her return home.
Now here we are very sorry that some of our readers must necessarily be grievously disappointed, inasmuch as at the announcement of Mr Glossop’s appearance they have made up their minds to find the worthy gentleman in amost tremendous passion, and raving and roaring without mercy. But he really was much more cool than might have been expected. He had received his information of the particulars of the young lady’s departure from Sir George Aimwell, and the baronet had so represented the case, and so spoken of Lord Spoonbill, that Mr Glossop was of the baronet’s opinion, that his lordship only meditated a private marriage, and that the elopement was for that object. Mr Glossop had so great a reverence for nobility, that he was content to suffer his fair daughter to creep up to the dignity of nobility by means of the undignified step of elopement.
The presence of this gentleman made an alteration in the discussions, and gave them something of a more definite direction. Now, it is very strange, though as very true, that Lady Aimwell had been full of concern under the apprehension of Mr Glossop’s possible and highly probable indignation; and one source of her grief was the thought of the gentleman’s violentanger; but when the gentleman made his appearance and was perfectly, or at least comparatively cool, then did her ladyship feel very much shocked, and even offended that he was not in a passion. It is absolutely impossible to please some people.
When Lady Aimwell found that Mr Glossop’s calmness arose from the conversation which he had had with the worthy baronet, her ladyship launched out into most eloquent vituperation of Lord Spoonbill, as a gay deceiver and a most profligate young man; and so far did her ladyship’s indignation transport her that she did all but explicitly assert that no marriage, public or private, was contemplated, either by Lord Spoonbill or the young lady.
This was of course enough to rouse Mr Glossop from his composure, and at all events to prompt him to pursue the fugitives with as much speed as possible. For the purpose of this pursuit he very speedily took leave of the party at Neverden rectory, and was preparing to set outon his journey for London, when the rector of Smatterton returned to Neverden, and in great haste begged to speak to Mr Darnley.
Mr Pringle, it appeared, had on his return to Smatterton been greeted with the information of Miss Glossop’s elopement with Colonel Crop, and though no daily newspaper was published at Smatterton, stories, tales, and calumnies were circulated with great rapidity, and everybody knew everything about everybody. By the story of this elopement, the reverend divine was puzzled. Had he heard that Miss Primrose had fled with the colonel, he would not have been astonished; and nothing could persuade him that he had not been misinformed, till he saw Miss Primrose herself.
Hereupon, the young divine was under the necessity of hastening back to Neverden, in order to unsay all that he had said concerning Penelope. And when he found Mr Glossop there, and heard from Lady Aimwell a brief narrative of the elopement, he forthwith corroborated,by means of the information which he had received from his cousin, the suspicions which Lady Aimwell had excited in the mind of Mr Glossop.
The father of Arabella then became more serious, for this was a matter of grief rather than violent anger. He questioned Mr Pringle very minutely, and Mr Pringle found it necessary to state all that he knew; and it certainly did appear, from the account of the talk between Lord Spoonbill and Mr Erpingham, that the profligate young lord had an intention of deceiving and betraying some confiding one. Mr Pringle was however very anxious that Mr Glossop should not let Lord Spoonbill know from what source he had received his information.
“My good sir,” said the agitated father, “assist me in recovering my child, and I will promise you anything.”
“I have told you, sir,” replied Mr Pringle, “all that I know; and if on your arrival in London you will call on my relative, he will nodoubt be able to direct you where to find Lord Spoonbill.”
For this information Mr Glossop was grateful, and he forthwith departed. And they that remained at Neverden rectory began to talk about the strange event, and they all found out that though at first they had been mightily surprised, yet they could not much wonder at it. Then they all made their several but not very various comments on Miss Glossop’s conduct and demeanour. They all agreed that there was a degree of pertness about her which rendered her very disagreeable; and then they found out that she was exactly such a person as would be likely to attract the notice of Lord Spoonbill. So, from beginning with expressions of great astonishment at the elopement, they concluded that they were almost astonished that the young lady had not taken her departure sooner.