CHAPTER XV.
It is of course taken for granted that the elopement of Miss Glossop was the only subject of conversation all the rest of the day at Neverden and Smatterton; and everybody was mightily shocked at it, save and except the worthy magistrate of Neverden Hall. Sir George Aimwell laughed at his lady’s fears, and Lady Aimwell scowled indignation at her lord and master for his flippant manner of treating so serious a subject. Sir George was very well satisfied that his young kinswoman was in the way to become a countess, and Lady Aimwell was indignant at the disgrace brought upon Neverden Hall by such irregular proceedings.
Indeed the truth is, that no turn of affairs whatever could give satisfaction to Lady Aimwell. For even on the supposition that a marriage should take place, and that Miss Glossop should become Lady Spoonbill, that success on the part of the young lady would be a mortifying mode of disappointing Lady Aimwell’s predictions; and any other termination would be reproachful to Sir George.
This mortification, which was so deeply felt by her ladyship, was greatly increased if not altogether occasioned by the confident manner in which she herself had spoken of her own ability to manage young people and to subdue the rebellious. It was not however quite so easy as her ladyship had imagined. And very probably Lady Aimwell is not the first person who has been so disappointed, and very probably Lady Aimwell will not be the last person to be so disappointed. So far will we venture to carry our assertion on this topic, that we do verily believe, that were it possible to collect together into one comprehensive mass the experience of all individuals inevery age of the world, from the creation down to the present hour, and were it possible to convey to such a mind as that of Lady Aimwell a knowledge of all the disappointments experienced by those who have thought themselves wiser than the rest of the world, that knowledge would produce no effect whatever in abating conceit or diminishing confidence. Let us leave Sir George and Lady Aimwell to grumble at each other till they are tired.
The effect produced on the feelings of Mr Darnley by the elopement of Miss Glossop, is of more importance to our narrative than the disagreements and grumblements at Neverden Hall. After the departure of Mr Glossop and the other visitors whom the elopement had brought to the rectory, Mr Darnley retired to his study for the purpose of meditation. Now when a very obstinate and positive mind is really shaken in its obstinacy and moved from its perverseness, that movement is a mighty and effectual movement. And when, combined with obstinacy, there is a high degree of pride, then the resolution orchange of mind is magnificent and highly thought of. And when, in addition to pride and obstinacy, there is a conscientious and moral feeling, and no admixture of essential ill-humour and malignity, then the change of views and revolution of thought is acknowledged with candour and almost with penitence.
To some such state of mind as this was Mr Darnley the elder brought by reflecting on the events of the morning, and by recollecting and comparing the several observations and remarks which had been made on the elopement of Miss Glossop. There came into his mind in the very first statement of the affair a thought of the very wide difference between the characters of Miss Glossop and Miss Primrose. The recollection of Penelope’s early life came back to him again with the thought of those pleasing manners which he had so much admired when she was too young to think of artifice or concealment. He recollected the time when he had thought most highly of her, and had regarded her asgiving promise of many virtues, and indicating a development of strong features of moral beauty and integrity. Then also did he recollect how very plain and simple an explanation his son had given of those passages in the young lady’s history, by which the first feelings of alienation were roused. He thought also of the good understanding and good feelings of his own beloved and only son; and he could not upon serious reflection and cool deliberation think it very likely that Robert Darnley was altogether deceived. He knew that his son had discernment, and principles of decided integrity; he therefore became more willing to think that the young man’s attachment was not infatuation.
Thus thinking, and thus experiencing a total revolution in his feelings towards Penelope Primrose, the reverend rector of Neverden next bethought himself that it was an act of duty on his part to avow this change of thought and feeling. Nine hundred and ninety-nine men in a thousand would have wriggled and shuffled out of this difficultyby some mean, roundabout, underhand, contemptible artifice; they would almost, if not altogether, have told many lies and have made many trumpery excuses, to avoid the acknowledgment that they had been wrong. But Mr Darnley was too proud for anything of that kind. So long as he thought that he was right, he was proudly and firmly stubborn; but when he found that he had been in an error, he was willing to retract. He thought it no degradation to acknowledge it, even to his own son.
Mr Darnley therefore sent for the young man into the study, and began by saying, though with much pomp of manner and dignity of bearing, “Robert, this is a strange affair of Miss Glossop’s elopement. Had you any suspicion of any acquaintance between this young woman and Lord Spoonbill?”
“I had merely heard,” replied the young man, “that Miss Glossop had been at the castle, and had met Lord Spoonbill, and that his lordshipwas very much struck with her beauty and accomplishments.”
There was something ironical in the tone with which this sentence was uttered, and the dignified rector himself smiled and said: “Beauty and accomplishments! And may I ask you to whom you were indebted for this information concerning Lord Spoonbill’s admiration of Miss Glossop’s beauty and accomplishments?”
“My informant, sir,” replied the young gentleman, “was Sir George Aimwell.”
The rector of Neverden smiled again, and said, “As good a judge of beauty and accomplishments as Lord Spoonbill himself.”
Assuming then a more serious look and a graver tone of voice, the reverend divine continued—“Robert, I fear that I have acted unjustly towards an excellent young woman.”
There was a symptom of a tear in the eye of the father when the young gentleman, whoimmediately understood the full meaning of the sentence, hastily and warmly grasped his father’s hand, and said, “No, sir, you never act unjustly; you may have been misinformed.”
“You are generous in putting the most liberal construction on the fact; but I shall not be satisfied till I have made a suitable recantation of my error. I have certainly inflicted pain, but my intentions were not evil.”
“I beg, sir,” interrupted the young gentleman, “that you will not distress me by such concessions. If your opinion of Miss Primrose has experienced a favorable change, the knowledge of that fact will abundantly counterbalance all the unpleasantness that is past.”
“But,” replied Mr Darnley the elder, “I must see Miss Primrose herself as soon as possible, and must ask her forgiveness of my erroneous apprehensions.”
To this proposal also the young gentleman made objection as before. But it was part ofthe reverend gentleman’s pride to acknowledge himself in an error, when he found that he had been misled. It was a pleasure to him to be able to contemplate with complacent approbation the condescension of his acknowledgments. That, indeed, is the genuine enjoyment of pride, that it can find peculiar gratification even in the exercise of humility.
And though the day was then too far advanced for Mr Darnley to go to Smatterton, he resolved upon paying an early visit on the following morning to Mr Primrose and his daughter. In this resolution the rector of Neverden felt himself composed and happy, and as a burden was thereby removed from his mind, he was cheerful, and then the restraint which had chained up the tongues of his family was broken, and they talked—oh, how they did talk!
The breaking up of a long, long frost, the first blossomings of spring, and the revelling song of the birds, the traveller’s home and fire-side,and wife, and children, after a weary journey, and a long anxious absence, are all very delightful in their way, yet they are faint images of the joy that fluttered and danced on the lightened bosoms and enlightened countenances of the family of the rector of Neverden.
Ever since the return of Robert Darnley from India, there had been an unpleasant and awkward restraint in the family, by the virtual prohibition of all mention of that topic which formerly had been the most agreeable and delightful of all topics. They had all been very partial to Penelope, and had admired and loved her cordially, till that wicked and profligate young hereditary legislator had so cruelly interrupted the correspondence between Robert Darnley and his young friend. And then all the family, except Robert Darnley himself, began to think unkindly and unjustly of the young woman; and then they began to find out defects and imperfectionswhich they had never seen, thought of, or suspected before.
That is a curious faculty which some persons possess of finding the virtues and vices in clusters. So that, in an individual whom they regard with a favorable eye, they can see nothing but what is good, and if by any one single change whatever, a revolution of feeling takes place in the mind, then all that was good becomes bad. The family at Neverden had been habituated to admire everything that Penelope Primrose said or did; but when they regarded her as having renounced her connexion and intimacy with the family, then were they greatly indignant and mightily censorious, and everything that she did, or thought, or said, became altogether stark naught.
But who shall blame them? Is not this the almost universal feeling; of mankind? It is in this country most especially and peculiarly so. Every man’s own sect or party contains all thatis wise and virtuous, while folly and vice are the lot of the rest of mankind. What does the Quarterly Review mean by “the wise and the good,” but Tories and high churchmen? When Cobbett wrote Peter Porcupine, he was one of the wise and good, and if he would become Peter Porcupine again, he would be again one of the wise and good.
We will not however dwell very copiously upon the recollection of the unfriendly feelings which they of Neverden rectory once entertained towards Miss Primrose. They themselves have forgotten those feelings and have recanted their unkind expressions; and as for Penelope herself, there was too much joy in her heart to admit of a moment’s hesitation to forgive and forget. This is pleasant. And very pleasantly did the day pass and close at Neverden rectory; but it did not close quite so early as it had been wont to do. For, in consequence of the long suspension of social and pleasing family chat, there was an arrear of prate to be paid off; andevery individual of the family had something new or extraordinary to say.
But most of all was Robert Darnley himself full of talk, because he was the personage on whose account the long wearisome silence had been inflicted upon the family. And though he had much to say concerning India, his mother and sisters were ready to pass that over, and reserve it for a future occasion, so that they might hear from him an account of his visits to Smatterton rectory, and a narration of the particulars which led to the cessation of the correspondence, and caused the unpleasant misunderstanding. Something of this the young ladies had already heard from Penelope herself, but it was only Robert Darnley who could inform them of the confession of Nick Muggins and the full measure of Lord Spoonbill’s iniquity. And they were all astonished at what they heard; and they knew not which to admire most, the virtues of their brother or the wickedness of Lord Spoonbill.
Mr Darnley the elder also, when he heard with a proper temper and a patient ear the narrative which his son gave of the events of the few preceding months, and when he recollected how much of this he had heard before, and that without paying due regard or attention to it, then was he indeed and truly sorry. He did most sincerely regret that he had wilfully and obstinately closed his mind to evidence. In this recollection he did not feel the pride of humility, but the real and actual self-abasement of humiliation. How strange it is and yet how true, that a man, not wanting in understanding, whose business it has been for twenty, thirty, or perhaps forty years, to give advice and direction to others, should, in the evening of his days and in that season when the judgment is most cool, stand in need of lessons himself! So it was in the present case, and Mr Darnley felt it so, and he resolved silently and internally that he would not again so give way to moroseness and ill-humour.
This reflection however, which occupied for a while the mind of Mr Darnley, did not abate or diminish the pleasantness of the evening at Neverden rectory.