Always quiet, uncomplaining, and kind to every one, the old man would have had rather a snubbed and subdued2 kind of life of it, under the rule of Haldane's bouncing Lucy, but for the vigilance of James Dugdale. That silent and unsuspected sufferer sedulously3 watched and cared for the old man, and Mrs. Haldane, who by no means liked him, so far respected and feared him that she never ventured to dispute any of his arrangements for Mr. Carteret's welfare.
He continued to like Lucy "pretty well," and to regard Robert Meredith with special favour, though he lived long enough to see Robert pass quite out of the category of exceptional boys. Indeed, so much did he like him, that at one time he entertained an idea of bequeathing to him the famous collection, after the demise4 of James Dugdale, who was to have a life interest in its delights and treasures; but on the old gentleman's broaching5 the subject to him one day, Robert Meredith put the objections to the scheme so very strongly to him, that he acknowledged the superior wisdom of his young friend, bowed to his decision, and liked him more than ever for his disinterestedness6.
Robert represented to him that, though the possession of the collection must afford to any happy mortal capable of appreciating it the purest and most lasting7 gratification, not so much the pleasure of the individual as the preservation8, the dignity, and the safe keeping of the collection itself ought to be considered. Unhappily, he, Robert Meredith, was not likely to possess a house in which the treasure might be conveniently and suitably lodged9, and it was a melancholy10 fact that neither Haldane nor his wife appreciated the collection; and, when the present owner of Chayleigh should be no more, and his bequest11 should have come into operation, there would arise the grievous necessity of dislodging the collection.
Under these circumstances--stated very carefully by Robert Meredith, who knew that his particular friend Mrs. Haldane would bundle both James and the collection out of doors with the smallest possible delay on the commencement of her absolute reign12, unless indeed some very valuable consideration should attach itself to her not doing so--he suggested that Mr. Carteret would do well to conquer his objection to the "merging13" of the collection. That it should be "merged14" after his death was a less painful contingency15 to contemplate16 than that it should be destroyed or materially injured. The best, the most effectual plan would be, that Mr. Carteret should bequeath the collection, on James Dugdale's death, to his granddaughter, the heiress of the Deane, with the request that it might be transferred thither17, there to remain as an heirloom for ever. The old gentleman submitted with a sigh; and this testamentary arrangement was actually made.
The friendship between Robert and Mrs. Haldane, which had commenced in his boyish admiration18 of her, and her keen appreciation19 of the sentiment, remained unabated, which, considering that the pretty and vivacious20 Lucy was not conspicuous21 for steadiness of feeling, was not a little remarkable22. Perhaps the lady believed in her secret soul, as the years wore on, that she could have explained Robert's not being a marrying man.
A strictly23 proper and virtuous24 British matron was Mrs. Haldane Carteret--a very dragon of propriety25 indeed, and a lady who would not have received her own sister, if she had been so unlucky as to "get talked of"--and therefore this insinuation must be fully1 explained, in order to prevent the slightest misapprehension on the subject. Lucy would have been unspeakably shocked had it ever been said or thought by any one that Robert Meredith entertained any feeling warmer than the most strictly regulated friendship for her; but she did not object to a secret sentiment on her own part, which sometimes found expression in reverie, and in a murmured "poor boy," in a little genial26 sense of satisfaction as the time went by and Robert did not marry, and was not talked of as likely to marry--when his polite attention to her underwent no alteration27, and she still felt she enjoyed his confidence. Mrs. Haldane was a little mistaken in the latter particular. She did _not_ enjoy the confidence of Robert Meredith; but neither was any other person in possession of that privilege, though it was one of the charms, or rather the achievements, of his manner, that he could convey the flattering impression to any one he pleased.
When Haldane and his wife were put, by the death of Mr. Carteret, in possession of Chayleigh--an event which occurred seven years after Margaret's decease, and four years later than that of Mr. Baldwin--James Dugdale continued to reside in the old house, which had been his home for so many years, only until the return of Lady Davyntry and her orphan28 nieces to England. Haldane Carteret, a "good fellow" in all the popular acceptation of the word, was rather a weak fellow also, especially where his pretty wife's whims29 or feelings were concerned; and not all his sincere and grateful regard for his old friend could prevent his feeling relieved, when James told him he could not resist Lady Davyntry's pressing entreaty30 that he should take up his abode31 with her and "the children." Every one spoke32 of the orphan girls as "the children," and their fatherless and motherless estate was wonderfully tempered to them.
The Deane had been let by Mr. Baldwin's executors for a long term of years; but James Dugdale applied33 to the tenant34 in possession for permission to have the collection transferred thither, and received it. Thus Mrs. Haldane was disembarrassed within a very short period of her father-in-law and his incomprehensible curiosities and of James Dugdale. To do her justice, Mrs. Haldane was sorry for the gentle, quiet old man; and it certainly was not with reference to him that she expressed her satisfaction, when all the flittings had been accomplished35, in "being at last the mistress of her own house." There must have been a good deal of the imaginative faculty36 about Mrs. Haldane Carteret when she rejoiced in her freedom from trammels; for it never could have occurred to anybody that she had not been thoroughly37 and indisputably the mistress of Chayleigh from the day of her arrival there. But there is a great deal in imagination, and Mrs. Haldane knew her own business best.
When James Dugdale left Chayleigh, as a residence, for ever, the passion-flower which embowered the window of the room which had once been Margaret's, and had ever since been his, was in the full beauty and richness of its bloom. He cut a few twigs38 and leaves, and one or two of the grand solemn flowers, and took his leave of the room and the window and the tree. It was very painful, even after all those years--more painful than those to whom life is full of activity and change could conceive or would believe. But so thoroughly was this a final parting, and so truly did James Dugdale feel it so, that when, some time afterwards, Mrs. Haldane, having read in some new medical treatise40 that "green things"--as she generally termed everything that grew, from the cedar41 of Lebanon to the parsley of private life--were unwholesome on the walls of a house, had the passion-flower and the trellis cleared away, and the wall above the verandah neatly42 whitewashed43, it hardly gave him a pang44.
In all the chancres which befell the family at Chayleigh, Robert Meredith had a certain share. Mr. Carteret never ceased to like him, to look for his coming, to enjoy, in his quiet way, the adaptive young man's society. James never permitted the interest he had taken in him for his old friend's sake--his old friend dead and gone now, like all the rest--to flag or falter45. Perhaps he held by that feeling all the more conscientiously46 that he had never been much drawn47 towards Robert Meredith individually. The feeling towards him which he and Margaret had shared at the first had remained with him always, like all his feelings; for it was part of the constitution of his mind, a part powerful for suffering, that he did not change.
When Lady Davyntry went abroad with "the children" James Dugdale's life had become more than ever solitary48; and, though conscious that he derived49 very little pleasure from Robert's presence, he encouraged the visits which Mrs. Haldane was ever ready to invite.
But a day of still greater change came--a sad and heavy day to James Dugdale, and of tremendous loss and evil to the orphan girls. Lady Davyntry died--not suddenly, but unexpectedly--and the full responsibility of the guardianship51 of Gertrude and Eleanor Baldwin was thrown upon Haldane Carteret and James Dugdale. Davyntry, in which Mr. Baldwin's sister had only a life interest, passed into the possession of the young man who had succeeded to the title on the death of Sir Richard Davyntry; and the choice of the guardians50 to the young girls, as to the future home of their wards39, lay between Chayleigh and the Deane, of which it became possible for them to resume possession shortly after Lady Davyntry's death.
When the decision which assigned the Deane to the young heiresses as their future abode had been reached and acted upon, Robert Meredith naturally ceased to have much intercourse52 with the Carterets and with James Dugdale.
Haldane was very much pleased with the kind of life he led at the Deane. He made a first-rate "country gentleman," an ardent53 sportsman, a pleasant companion, hospitable54, kind-hearted, _insouciant_, fond of the place and of everything in it, devoted55 to his wife--"absurdly so," as the spinsters of the neighbourhood, a remarkably56 numerous class even for Scotland, declared--and most indulgent and affectionate to his nieces. This latter quality the aforesaid spinsters accounted for satisfactorily on the double grounds, that it was not likely he would be anything but indulgent to such rich girls--of course he expected to be well recompensed when they came into "all their property"--and that, as he had no children of his own, he might very well care for his "poor dear sister's fatherless girls."
The worthy57 ex-captain of artillery58 knew little and cared less how people accounted for the strange phenomena59 of his fulfilling carefully and conscientiously a sacred duty. He was a good, happy, unsuspicious man, and "the children" loved him better than any one in the world, except James Dugdale and Rose Doran.
Mrs. Carteret was in the habit of "going south" much more frequently than Haldane did so; she liked a few weeks in London in the season, and she scrupulously60 visited her own family, by whom she was regarded with much affection and admiration, not quite unmingled with awe61.
The eldest62 Miss Crofton's "match" had "turned out" much better than the family had expected, and Lucy Carteret shone very brilliantly indeed in the reflected light shed upon her by the wealth and station of her husband's nieces and wards. On the occasion of her visits to England she always saw a good deal of Robert Meredith; and so--owing to the convenience of modern locomotion63, Mrs. Carteret's former home had been brought within easy reach of London--Robert was a not unfrequent guest of old Mr. Crofton's when his daughter was sojourning there. Chayleigh had been advantageously let by Haldane for some years beyond the term of his nieces' minority.
On the last occasion of her "going south" Mrs. Carteret had been accompanied by Eleanor Baldwin, whose health, always delicate, had recently occasioned her uncle and aunt some anxiety. She had enjoyed her trip, and Robert had been very much with both ladies. Never had Mrs. Carteret been more thoroughly convinced that he was one of the most charming of men; never had the secret suspicion, that she could, if she chose, explain the reason of his having remained up to his present age unmarried, presented itself so frequently and so strongly to her mind.
Robert Meredith had been told by Mrs. Carteret that Haldane intended to celebrate the attainment64 of her majority by the heiress of the Deane in splendid style, and he had received from her a pressing invitation to be present on the occasion. The time of year made it difficult for him to feel sure of being able to leave town; but he promised that he would go to the Deane on that auspicious65 and delightful66 occasion, then six months in perspective, if he could possibly manage it.
It was during this visit of Mrs. Carteret to London that George Ritherdon made her acquaintance, and saw for the first time one of "the Baldwin children," of whom he had heard occasional casual mention. Robert Meredith's "chum" pleased Mrs. Carteret much, especially when he did the honours of the Temple Church to her and Eleanor; and while explaining all the objects of interest and their associations, did so with a happy and successful assumption of merely refreshing67 their memory, which was indicative of the nicest tact68. The general result was that, when Robert Meredith received a formal reminder69 of his promise to come to the Deane for Gertrude's birthday, the letter enclosed a pressing invitation to George Ritherdon to accompany his friend.
"Of course you'll come. There's much less to keep you in town than there is to keep me, for that matter, so you can't pretend to object," said Meredith, as the friends were discussing their letters and their breakfast simultaneously70.
"I should like it very much indeed," said Ritherdon; "but--"
"Very well, of course you'll do it." interrupted Meredith; and was about to say something more, when the entrance of their "mutual71" servant suspended the conversation.
The man addressed himself to Robert, with the information that a person was then waiting in the passage, who urgently requested to be admitted to see him; that the person was an old man, not of remarkably prosperous appearance; and that he had replied to the servant's remonstrance72, on his presenting himself at such an unseemly hour, that he was sure Mr. Meredith would see him, for he came from Australia, and from his own "people" there.
Surprised, but by no means discomposed, Robert Meredith made no reply to the servant, but said to George Ritherdon,
"It sounds odd. I suppose I ought to see him."
"I think so, old fellow; and I'll clear off;" which he did.
"Show the old person from Australia in, Wilham." said Meredith to the servant, and added to himself, "I wonder what he has got to say to me--nothing I need mind. I should have had bad news by post, if there was any to send."
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1
fully
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| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
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subdued
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| adj. 屈服的，柔和的，减弱的 动词subdue的过去式和过去分词 | |
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sedulously
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| ad.孜孜不倦地 | |
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4
demise
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| n.死亡；v.让渡，遗赠，转让 | |
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5
broaching
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| n.拉削；推削；铰孔；扩孔v.谈起( broach的现在分词 )；打开并开始用；用凿子扩大（或修光）；（在桶上）钻孔取液体 | |
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disinterestedness
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lasting
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| adj.永久的，永恒的；vbl.持续，维持 | |
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preservation
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| n.保护，维护，保存，保留，保持 | |
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9
lodged
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| v.存放( lodge的过去式和过去分词 )；暂住；埋入；（权利、权威等）归属 | |
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melancholy
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| n.忧郁，愁思；adj.令人感伤（沮丧）的，忧郁的 | |
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bequest
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| n.遗赠；遗产，遗物 | |
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reign
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| n.统治时期，统治，支配，盛行；v.占优势 | |
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13
merging
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| 合并（分类） | |
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merged
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| （使）混合( merge的过去式和过去分词 )； 相融； 融入； 渐渐消失在某物中 | |
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15
contingency
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| n.意外事件，可能性 | |
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contemplate
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| vt.盘算，计议；周密考虑；注视，凝视 | |
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thither
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| adv.向那里；adj.在那边的，对岸的 | |
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admiration
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| n.钦佩，赞美，羡慕 | |
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appreciation
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| n.评价；欣赏；感谢；领会，理解；价格上涨 | |
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vivacious
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| adj.活泼的，快活的 | |
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conspicuous
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| adj.明眼的，惹人注目的；炫耀的，摆阔气的 | |
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remarkable
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| adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的 | |
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strictly
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| adv.严厉地，严格地；严密地 | |
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virtuous
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| adj.有品德的，善良的，贞洁的，有效力的 | |
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propriety
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| n.正当行为；正当；适当 | |
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genial
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| adj.亲切的，和蔼的，愉快的，脾气好的 | |
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alteration
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| n.变更，改变；蚀变 | |
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orphan
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| n.孤儿；adj.无父母的 | |
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WHIMS
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| 虚妄，禅病 | |
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entreaty
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| n.恳求，哀求 | |
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abode
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| n.住处，住所 | |
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spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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applied
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| adj.应用的；v.应用，适用 | |
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tenant
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| n.承租人；房客；佃户；v.租借，租用 | |
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accomplished
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| adj.有才艺的；有造诣的；达到了的 | |
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faculty
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| n.才能；学院，系；(学院或系的)全体教学人员 | |
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thoroughly
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| adv.完全地，彻底地，十足地 | |
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38
twigs
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| 细枝，嫩枝( twig的名词复数 ) | |
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39
wards
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| 区( ward的名词复数 )； 病房； 受监护的未成年者； 被人照顾或控制的状态 | |
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40
treatise
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| n.专著；(专题)论文 | |
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41
cedar
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| n.雪松，香柏(木) | |
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42
neatly
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| adv.整洁地，干净地，灵巧地，熟练地 | |
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whitewashed
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| 粉饰，美化，掩饰( whitewash的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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pang
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| n.剧痛，悲痛，苦闷 | |
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45
falter
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| vi.(嗓音)颤抖，结巴地说；犹豫；蹒跚 | |
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46
conscientiously
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| adv.凭良心地；认真地，负责尽职地；老老实实 | |
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47
drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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solitary
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| adj.孤独的，独立的，荒凉的；n.隐士 | |
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derived
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| vi.起源；由来；衍生；导出v.得到( derive的过去式和过去分词 )；（从…中）得到获得；源于；（从…中）提取 | |
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50
guardians
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| 监护人( guardian的名词复数 )； 保护者，维护者 | |
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51
guardianship
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| n. 监护, 保护, 守护 | |
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52
intercourse
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| n.性交；交流，交往，交际 | |
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53
ardent
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| adj.热情的，热烈的，强烈的，烈性的 | |
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54
hospitable
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| adj.好客的；宽容的；有利的，适宜的 | |
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55
devoted
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| adj.忠诚的，忠实的，热心的，献身于...的 | |
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56
remarkably
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| ad.不同寻常地，相当地 | |
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57
worthy
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| adj.(of)值得的，配得上的；有价值的 | |
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58
artillery
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| n.(军)火炮，大炮；炮兵(部队) | |
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phenomena
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| n.现象 | |
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60
scrupulously
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| adv.一丝不苟地；小心翼翼地，多顾虑地 | |
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61
awe
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| n.敬畏，惊惧；vt.使敬畏，使惊惧 | |
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62
eldest
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| adj.最年长的，最年老的 | |
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locomotion
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| n.运动，移动 | |
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64
attainment
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| n.达到，到达；［常pl.］成就，造诣 | |
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65
auspicious
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| adj.吉利的；幸运的，吉兆的 | |
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66
delightful
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| adj.令人高兴的，使人快乐的 | |
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67
refreshing
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| adj.使精神振作的，使人清爽的，使人喜欢的 | |
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68
tact
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| n.机敏，圆滑，得体 | |
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69
reminder
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| n.提醒物，纪念品；暗示，提示 | |
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70
simultaneously
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| adv.同时发生地，同时进行地 | |
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71
mutual
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| adj.相互的，彼此的；共同的，共有的 | |
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72
remonstrance
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| n抗议，抱怨 | |
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