ᐸ?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?ᐳ
ᐸsamples n="ENG18941"ᐳ
ᐸsampleᐳᐸp n="ENG189411626"ᐳ“How foolish!” Whether this applied to the endeavour or to the remark, did not quite appear. Lady Engleton's graceful figure leant over the parapet.ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG189411627"ᐳ“Do you know, Mrs. Temperley,” she said in her incessantly vivacious manner, “I have scarcely heard a serious word since our two Professors came to us. Isn't it disgraceful? I naturally expected to be improved and enlightened, but they are both so frivolous, I can't keep them for a moment to any important subject. They refuse to be profound. It is I who have to be profound.”ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG189411628"ᐳ“While we endeavour to be charming,” said Professor Theobald.ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG189411629"ᐳ“You may think that flattering, but I confess it seems to me a beggarly compliment (as men's to women usually are).”ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG189411630"ᐳ“You expect too much of finite intelligence, Lady Engleton.”ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG189411631"ᐳ“This is how I am always put off! If it were not that you are both such old friends—you are a sort of cousin I think, Professor Fortescue—I should really feel aggrieved. One has to endure so much more from relations. No, but really; I appeal to Mrs. Temperley. When one is hungering for erudition, to be offered compliments! Not that I can accuse Professor Fortescue of compliments,” she added with a laugh; “wild horses would not drag one from him. I angle vainly. But he is so ridiculously young. He enjoys things as if he were a schoolboy. Does one look for that in one's Professors? He talks of the country as if it were Paradise Regained.”ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG189411632"ᐳ“So it is to me,” he said with a smile.ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG189411633"ᐳ“But that is not your rôle. You have to think, not to enjoy.”ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG189411634"ᐳ“Then you must not invite us to Craddock Place,” Professor Theobald stipulated.ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG189411635"ᐳ“As usual, a halting compliment.”ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG189411636"ᐳ“To take you seriously, Lady Engleton,” said Professor Fortescue, “(though I know it is a dangerous practice) one of the great advantages of an occasional think is to enable one to relish the joys of mental vacuity, just as the pleasure of idleness is never fully known till one has worked.”ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG189411637"ᐳ“Ah,” sighed Lady Engleton, “I know I don't extract the full flavour out of that!”ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG189411638"ᐳ“It is a neglected art,” said the Professor. “After worrying himself with the problems of existence, as the human being is prone to do, as soon as existence is more or less secure and peaceful, a man can experience few things more enjoyable than to leave aside all problems and go out into the fields, into the sun, to feel the life in his veins, the world at the threshold of his five senses.”ᐸ/pᐳ
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ᐸsampleᐳᐸp n="ENG18941909"ᐳHubert sank back in his chair, and ran his hand over his brow. He seemed about to speak, but he checked himself.ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG18941910"ᐳ“Where did you get such extraordinary ideas from?” cried Miss Temperley.ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG18941911"ᐳ“They were like Topsy; they growed,” said Fred.ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG18941912"ᐳ“We have been in the habit of speculating freely on all subjects,” said Ernest, “ever since we could talk. This is the blessed result!”ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG18941913"ᐳ“I am not quite so sure now, that the Preposterous Society meets with my approval,” observed Miss Temperley.ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG18941914"ᐳ“If you had been brought up in the bosom of this Society, Miss Temperley, you too, perhaps, would have come to this. Think of it!”ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG18941915"ᐳ“Does your mother know what sort of subjects you discuss?”ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG18941916"ᐳThere was a shout of laughter. “Mother used often to come into the nursery and surprise us in hot discussion on the origin of evil,” said Hadria.ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG18941917"ᐳ“Don't you believe what she says, Miss Temperley,” cried Fred; “mother never could teach Hadria the most rudimentary notions of accuracy.”ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG18941918"ᐳ“Her failure with my brothers, was in the department of manners,” Hadria observed.ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG18941919"ᐳ“Then she does not know what you talk about?” persisted Henriette.ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG18941920"ᐳ“You ask her,” prompted Fred, with undisguised glee.ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG18941921"ᐳ“She never attends our meetings,” said Algitha.ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG18941922"ᐳ“Well, well, I cannot understand it!” cried Miss Temperley. “However, you don't quite know what you are talking about, and one mustn't blame you.”ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG18941923"ᐳ“No, don't,” urged Fred; “we are a sensitive family.”ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG18941924"ᐳ“Shut up!” cried Ernest with a warning frown.ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG18941925"ᐳ“Oh, you are a coarse-grained exception; I speak of the family average,” Fred answered with serenity.ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG18941926"ᐳHenriette felt that nothing more could be done with this strange audience. Her business was really with the President of the Society. The girl was bent on ruining her life with these wild notions. Miss Temperley decided that it would be better to talk to Hadria quietly in her own room, away from the influence of these eccentric brothers and that extraordinary sister. After all, it was Algitha who had originated the shocking view, not Hadria, who had merely agreed, doubtless out of a desire to support her sister.ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG18941927"ᐳ“I have not known you for seven years, but I am going to poke your fire,” said Henriette, when they were established in Hadria's room.ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG18941928"ᐳ“I never thought you would wait so long as that,” was Hadria's ambiguous reply.ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG18941929"ᐳThen Henriette opened her batteries. She talked without interruption, her companion listening, agreeing occasionally with her adversary, in a disconcerting manner; then falling into silence.ᐸ/pᐳ
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ᐸsampleᐳᐸp n="ENG189411412"ᐳMrs. Temperley asked for the address of the aunt.ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG189411413"ᐳ“I suppose no one knows who the father is? He has not acknowledged the child!”ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG189411414"ᐳNo; that was a mystery still.ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG189411415"ᐳAbout a week later, Craddock Dene was amazed by the news that Mrs. Temperley had taken the child of Ellen Jervis under her protection. A cottage had been secured on the road to Craddock, a trustworthy nurse engaged, and here the babe was established, with the consent and blessing of the aunt.ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG189411416"ᐳ“You are the most inconsistent woman I ever met!” exclaimed Miss Du Prel.ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG189411417"ᐳ“Why inconsistent?”ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG189411418"ᐳ“You say that children have been the means, from time immemorial, of enslaving women, and here you go and adopt one of your enslavers!”ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG189411419"ᐳ“But this child is not legitimate.”ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG189411420"ᐳValeria stared.ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG189411421"ᐳ“Whatever the wrongs of Ellen Jervis, at least there were no laws written, and unwritten, which demanded of her as a duty that she should become the mother of this child. In that respect she escapes the ignominy reserved for the married mother who produces children that are not even hers.”ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG189411422"ᐳ“You do manage to ferret out the unpleasant aspects of our position!” Miss Du Prel exclaimed. “But I want to know why you do this, Hadria. It is good of you, but totally unlike you.”ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG189411423"ᐳ“You are very polite!” cried Hadria. “Why should I not lay up store for myself in heaven, as well as Mrs. Walker and the rest?”ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG189411424"ᐳ“You were not thinking of heaven when you did this deed, Hadria.”ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG189411425"ᐳ“No; I was thinking of the other place.”ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG189411426"ᐳ“And do you hope to get any satisfaction out of your protégée?”ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG189411427"ᐳHadria shrugged her shoulders.ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG189411428"ᐳ“I don't know. The child is the result of great sorrow and suffering; it is the price of a woman's life; a woman who offended the world, having lived for nearly forty weary obedient years, in circumstances dreary enough to have turned twenty saints into as many sinners. No; I am no Lady Bountiful. I feel in defending this child—a sorry defence I know—that I am, in so far, opposing the world and the system of things that I hate—. Ah! how I hate it!”ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG189411429"ᐳ“Is it then hatred that prompts the deed?”ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG189411430"ᐳHadria looked thoughtfully towards the church tower, in whose shadow the mother of the babe lay sleeping.ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG189411431"ᐳ“Can you ever quite unravel your own motives, Valeria? Hatred? Yes; there is a large ingredient of hatred. Without it, probably this poor infant would have been left to struggle through life alone, with a mill-stone round its neck, and a miserable constitution into the bargain. I hope to rescue its constitution. But that poor woman's story touched me closely. It is so hard, so outrageous! The emptiness of her existence; the lack of outlet for her affections; the endless monotony; and then the sudden new interest and food for the starved emotions; the hero-worship that is latent in us all; and then—good heavens!—for a touch of poetry, of romance in her life, she would have been ready to believe in the professions of the devil himself—and this man was a very good understudy for the devil! Ah! If ever I should meet him!”ᐸ/pᐳ
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ᐸsampleᐳᐸp n="ENG189411814"ᐳHadria, dropping the subject, enquired whether the Professor was well acquainted with this part of the country.ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG189411815"ᐳHe knew it by heart. A charming country; warm, luxuriant, picturesque, the pick of England to his mind. What could beat its woodlands, its hills, its relics of the old world, its barns and churches and smiling villages?ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG189411816"ᐳ“Then it is not only Tudor mansions that attract you?” Hadria could not resist asking.ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG189411817"ᐳTudor mansions? There was no cottage so humble, provided it were picturesque, that did not charm him.ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG189411818"ᐳ“Really!” exclaimed Hadria, with a faintly emphasized surprise.ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG189411819"ᐳ“Have I put my luckless foot into it again?”ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG189411820"ᐳ“May I not be impressed by magnanimity?”ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG189411821"ᐳThe Professor's mouth shut sharply.ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG189411822"ᐳ“Mrs. Temperley is pleased to deride me. Craddock Dene must shrivel under destroying blasts like these.”ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG189411823"ᐳ“Not so much as one might think.”ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG189411824"ᐳThe sound of their steps on the broad avenue smote sharply on their ears. Their absurd-looking shadows stretched always in front of them. “A splendid night,” Hadria observed, to break the silence.ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG189411825"ᐳ“Glorious!” returned her companion, as if waking from thought.ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG189411826"ᐳ“Spring is our best season here, the time of blossoming.”ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG189411827"ᐳ“I am horribly tempted to take root in the lovely district, in the hope of also blossoming. Can you imagine me a sort of patriarchal apple-tree laden with snowy blooms?”ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG189411828"ᐳ“You somewhat burden my imagination.”ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG189411829"ᐳ“I have had to work hard all my life, until an unexpected legacy from an admirable distant relation put me at the end of a longer tether. I still have to work, but less hard. I have always tried not to ossify, keeping in view a possible serene time to come, when I might put forth blossoms in this vernal fashion that tempts my middle-aged fancy. And where could I choose a sweeter spot for these late efforts to be young and green, than here in this perfect south of England home?”ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG189411830"ᐳ“It seems large,” said Hadria.ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG189411831"ᐳProfessor Theobald grinned. “You don't appear to take a keen interest in my blossoming.”ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG189411832"ᐳWhy in heaven's name should she?ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG189411833"ᐳ“I cannot naturally expect it,” Professor Theobald continued, reading her silence aright, “but I should be really obliged by your counsel on this matter. You know the village; you know from your own experience whether it is a place to live in always. Advise me, I beg.”ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG189411834"ᐳ“Really, Professor Theobald, it is impossible for me to advise you in a matter so entirely depending on your own taste and your own affairs.”ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸ/sampleᐳ
ᐸsampleᐳᐸp n="ENG189412393"ᐳ“Really, Mrs. Temperley, you were not born for an English village. I should like Mrs. Walker to hear you!”ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG189412394"ᐳ“Mrs. Walker knows better than to listen to me. She too hides somewhere, deep down, a poor fettered thing that would gladly join the revel, if it dared. We all do.”ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG189412395"ᐳLady Engleton dwelt joyously on the image of Mrs. Walker, cavorting, garlanded, on a Greek slope, with the nymphs and water-sprites for familiar company.ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG189412396"ᐳLady Engleton had risen laughing, and proposed a stroll to Hadria.ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG189412397"ᐳHenriette, who did not like the tone the conversation was taking, desired to join them.ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG189412398"ᐳ“I never quite know how far you are serious, and how far you are just amusing yourself, Hadria,” said Lady Engleton. “Our talking of Greece reminds me of some remark you made the other day, about Helen. You seemed to me almost to sympathize with her.”ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG189412399"ᐳHadria's eyes seemed to be looking across miles of sea to the sunny Grecian land.ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG189412400"ᐳ“If a slave breaks his chains and runs, I am always glad,” she said.ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG189412401"ᐳ“I was talking about Helen.”ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG189412402"ᐳ“So was I. If a Spartan wife throws off her bondage and defies the laws that insult her, I am still more glad.”ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG189412403"ᐳ“But not if she sins?” Henriette coughed, warningly.ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG189412404"ᐳ“Yes; if she sins.”ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG189412405"ᐳ“Oh, Hadria,” remonstrated Henriette, in despair.ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG189412406"ᐳ“I don't see that it follows that Helen did sin, however; one does not know much about her sentiments. She revolted against the tyranny that held her shut in, enslaved, body and soul, in that wonderful Greek world of hers. I am charmed to think that she gave her countrymen so much trouble to assert her husband's right of ownership. It was at his door that the siege of Troy ought to be laid. I only wish elopements always caused as much commotion!” Lady Engleton laughed, and Miss Temperley tried to catch Hadria's eye.ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG189412407"ᐳ“Well, that is a strange idea! And do you really think Helen did not sin? Seriously now.”ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG189412408"ᐳ“I don't know. There is no evidence on that point.” Lady Engleton laughed again.ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG189412409"ᐳ“You do amuse me. Assuming that Helen did not sin, I suppose you would (if only for the sake of paradox) accuse the virtuous Greek matrons—who sat at home, and wove, and span, and bore children—of sinning against the State!”ᐸ/pᐳ
ᐸp n="ENG189412410"ᐳ“Certainly,” said Hadria, undismayed. “It was they who insidiously prepared the doom for their country, as they wove and span and bore children, with stupid docility. As surely as an enemy might undermine the foundations of a city till it fell in with a crash, so surely they brought ruin upon Greece.”ᐸ/pᐳ
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