Daniel Deronda
乔治.艾略特 George Eliot
CHAPTER XII.
your oratory. I know what I am going to do." mean."yourexperience.
"O gentlemen, the time of life is short;To spend that shortness basely were too long,If life did ride upon a dial's point,Still ending at the arrival of an hour."--SHAKESPEARE: _Henry IV_.
On the second day after the Archery Meeting, Mr. Henleigh MallingerGrandcourt was at his breakfast-table with Mr. Lush. Everything aroundthem was agreeable: the summer air through the open windows, at which thedogs could walk in from the old green turf on the lawn; the soft, purplishcoloring of the park beyond, stretching toward a mass of bordering wood;the still life in the room, which seemed the stiller for its soberantiquated elegance, as if it kept a conscious, well-bred silence, unlikethe restlessness of vulgar furniture.
Whether the gentlemen were agreeable to each other was less evident. Mr.Grandcourt had drawn his chair aside so as to face the lawn, and with hisleft leg over another chair, and his right elbow on the table, was smokinga large cigar, while his companion was still eating. The dogs--half-a-dozen of various kinds were moving lazily in and out, taking attitudes ofbrief attention--gave a vacillating preference first to one gentleman,then to the other; being dogs in such good circumstances that they couldplay at hunger, and liked to be served with delicacies which they declinedto put in their mouths; all except Fetch, the beautiful liver-coloredwater-spaniel, which sat with its forepaws firmly planted and itsexpressive brown face turned upward, watching Grandcourt with unshakenconstancy. He held in his lap a tiny Maltese dog with a tiny silver collarand bell, and when he had a hand unused by cigar or coffee-cup, it restedon this small parcel of animal warmth. I fear that Fetch was jealous, andwounded that her master gave her no word or look; at last it seemed thatshe could bear this neglect no longer, and she gently put her large silkypaw on her master's leg. Grandcourt looked at her with unchanged face forhalf a minute, and then took the trouble to lay down his cigar while helifted the unimpassioned Fluff close to his chin and gave it caressingpats, all the while gravely watching Fetch, who, poor thing, whimperedinterruptedly, as if trying to repress that sign of discontent, and atlast rested her head beside the appealing paw, looking up with piteousbeseeching. So, at least, a lover of dogs must have interpreted Fetch, andGrandcourt kept so many dogs that he was reputed to love them; at anyrate, his impulse to act just in that way started from such aninterpretation. But when the amusing anguish burst forth in a howlingbark, Grandcourt pushed Fetch down without speaking, and, depositing Fluffcarelessly on the table (where his black nose predominated over a salt-cellar), began to look to his cigar, and found, with some annoyanceagainst Fetch as the cause, that the brute of a cigar required relighting.Fetch, having begun to wail, found, like others of her sex, that it wasnot easy to leave off; indeed, the second howl was a louder one, and thethird was like unto it.
"Turn out that brute, will you?" said Grandcourt to Lush, without raisinghis voice or looking at him--as if he counted on attention to the smallestsign.
And Lush immediately rose, lifted Fetch, though she was rather heavy, andhe was not fond of stooping, and carried her out, disposing of her in someway that took him a couple of minutes before he returned. He then lit acigar, placed himself at an angle where he could see Grandcourt's facewithout turning, and presently said--
"Shall you ride or drive to Quetcham to-day?"
"I am not going to Quetcham."
"You did not go yesterday."
Grandcourt smoked in silence for half a minute, and then said--
"I suppose you sent my card and inquiries."
"I went myself at four, and said you were sure to be there shortly. Theywould suppose some accident prevented you from fulfilling the intention.Especially if you go to-day."
Silence for a couple of minutes. Then Grandcourt said, "What men areinvited here with their wives?"
Lush drew out a note-book. "The Captain and Mrs. Torrington come nextweek. Then there are Mr. Hollis and Lady Flora, and the Cushats and theGogoffs."
"Rather a ragged lot," remarked Grandcourt, after a while. "Why did youask the Gogoffs? When you write invitations in my name, be good enough togive me a list, instead of bringing down a giantess on me without myknowledge. She spoils the look of the room."
"You invited the Gogoffs yourself when you met them in Paris."
"What has my meeting them in Paris to do with it? I told you to give me alist."
have made her an offer already, then?"must be.
Grandcourt, like many others, had two remarkably different voices.Hitherto we have heard him speaking in a superficial interrupted drawlsuggestive chiefly of languor and _ennui_. But this last brief speech wasuttered in subdued inward, yet distinct, tones, which Lush had long beenused to recognize as the expression of a peremptory will.
"Are there any other couples you would like to invite?"
"Yes; think of some decent people, with a daughter or two. And one of yourdamned musicians. But not a comic fellow."
"I wonder if Klesmer would consent to come to us when he leaves Quetcham.Nothing but first-class music will go down with Miss Arrowpoint."
Lush spoke carelessly, but he was really seizing an opportunity and fixingan observant look on Grandcourt, who now for the first time, turned hiseyes toward his companion, but slowly and without speaking until he hadgiven two long luxuriant puffs, when he said, perhaps in a lower tone thanever, but with a perceptible edge of contempt--
"What in the name of nonsense have I to do with Miss Arrowpoint and hermusic?"
"Well, something," said Lush, jocosely. "You need not give yourself muchtrouble, perhaps. But some forms must be gone through before a man canmarry a million."
"Very likely. But I am not going to marry a million."
"That's a pity--to fling away an opportunity of this sort, and knock downyour own plans."
"_Your_ plans, I suppose you mean."
"You have some debts, you know, and things may turn out inconvenientlyafter all. The heirship is not _absolutely_ certain."
Grandcourt did not answer, and Lush went on.
"It really is a fine opportunity. The father and mother ask for nothingbetter, I can see, and the daughter's looks and manners require noallowances, any more than if she hadn't a sixpence. She is not beautiful;but equal to carrying any rank. And she is not likely to refuse suchprospects as you can offer her."
"Perhaps not."
"The father and mother would let you do anything you like with them."
"But I should not like to do anything with them."
Spare your oratory. I know what I am going to do."You did not?
Here it was Lush who made a little pause before speaking again, and thenhe said in a deep voice of remonstrance, "Good God, Grandcourt! after yourexperience, will you let a whim interfere with your comfortable settlementin life?"
"Spare your oratory. I know what I am going to do."
"What?" Lush put down his cigar and thrust his hands into his sidepockets, as if he had to face something exasperating, but meant to keephis temper.
"I am going to marry the other girl."
"Have you fallen in love?" This question carried a strong sneer.
"I am going to marry her."
"You have made her an offer already, then?"
"No."
"She is a young lady with a will of her own, I fancy. Extremely wellfitted to make a rumpus. She would know what she liked."
"She doesn't like you," said Grandcourt, with the ghost of a smile.
"Perfectly true," said Lush, adding again in a markedly sneering tone."However, if you and she are devoted to each other, that will be enough."
Grandcourt took no notice of this speech, but sipped his coffee, rose, andstrolled out on the lawn, all the dogs following him.
Lush glanced after him a moment, then resumed his cigar and lit it, butsmoked slowly, consulting his beard with inspecting eyes and fingers, tillhe finally stroked it with an air of having arrived at some conclusion,and said in a subdued voice--
"Check, old boy!"
Lush, being a man of some ability, had not known Grandcourt for fifteenyears without learning what sort of measures were useless with him, thoughwhat sort might be useful remained often dubious. In the beginning of hiscareer he held a fellowship, and was near taking orders for the sake of acollege living, but not being fond of that prospect accepted instead theoffice of traveling companion to a marquess, and afterward to youngGrandcourt, who had lost his father early, and who found Lush soconvenient that he had allowed him to become prime minister in all hismore personal affairs. The habit of fifteen years had made Grandcourt moreand more in need of Lush's handiness, and Lush more and more in need ofthe lazy luxury to which his transactions on behalf of Grandcourt made nointerruption worth reckoning. I cannot say that the same lengthened habithad intensified Grandcourt's want of respect for his companion since thatwant had been absolute from the beginning, but it had confirmed his sensethat he might kick Lush if he chose--only he never did choose to kick anyanimal, because the act of kicking is a compromising attitude, and agentleman's dogs should be kicked for him. He only said things which mighthave exposed himself to be kicked if his confidant had been a man ofindependent spirit. But what son of a vicar who has stinted his wife anddaughters of calico in order to send his male offspring to Oxford, cankeep an independent spirit when he is bent on dining with highdiscrimination, riding good horses, living generally in the most luxurianthoney-blossomed clover--and all without working? Mr. Lush had passed for ascholar once, and had still a sense of scholarship when he was not tryingto remember much of it; but the bachelor's and other arts which softenmanners are a time-honored preparation for sinecures; and Lush's presentcomfortable provision was as good a sinecure in not requiring more thanthe odor of departed learning. He was not unconscious of being heldkickable, but he preferred counting that estimate among the peculiaritiesof Grandcourt's character, which made one of his incalculable moods orjudgments as good as another. Since in his own opinion he had never done abad action, it did not seem necessary to consider whether he should belikely to commit one if his love of ease required it. Lush's love of easewas well-satisfied at present, and if his puddings were rolled toward himin the dust, he took the inside bits and found them relishing.
This morning, for example, though he had encountered more annoyance thanusual, he went to his private sitting-room and played a good hour on thevioloncello.