Chapter 11
All were struck by the description. Guy did not speak at first, but the solemn expression of his face showed how he felt its power and reverence. Philip asked if they would like to hear more, and Charles a.s.sented: Amy worked, Laura went on with her perspective, and Guy sat by her side, making concentric circles with her compa.s.ses, or when she wanted them he tormented her parallel ruler, or cut the pencils, never letting his fingers rest except at some high or deep pa.s.sage, or when some interesting discussion arose. All were surprised when luncheon time arrived; Charles held out his hand for the book; it was given with a slight smile, and he exclaimed' Latin! I thought you were translating.
Is it your own property?'
'Yes.'
'Is it very tough? I would read it, if any one would read it with me.'
'Do you mean me?' said Guy; 'I should like it very much, but you have seen how little Latin I know.'
'That is the very thing,' said Charles; 'that Ovis of yours was music; I would have made you a Knight of the Golden Fleece on the spot. Tutors I could get by shoals, but a fellow-dunce is inestimable.'
'It is a bargain, then,' said Guy; 'if Philip has done with the book and will lend it to us.'
The luncheon bell rang, and they all adjourned to the dining-room. Mr.
Edmonstone came in when luncheon was nearly over, rejoicing that his letters were done, but then he looked disconsolately from the window, and pitied the weather. 'Nothing for it but billiards. People might say it was nonsense to have a billiard-table in such a house, but for his part he found there was no getting through a wet day without them.
Philip must beat him as usual, and Guy might have one of the young ladies to make a fourth.'
'Thank you,' said Guy, 'but I don't play.'
'Not play--eh?' Well, we will teach you in the spinning of a ball, and I'll have my little Amy to help me against you and Philip.'
'No, thank you,' repeated Guy, colouring, 'I am under a promise.'
'Ha! Eh? What? Your grandfather? He could see no harm in such play as this. For nothing, you understand. You did not suppose I meant anything else?'
'O no, of course not,' eagerly replied Guy; 'but it is impossible for me to play, thank you. I have promised never even to look on at a game at billiards.'
'Ah, poor man, he had too much reason.' uttered Mr. Edmonstone to himself, but catching a warning look from his wife, he became suddenly silent. Guy, meanwhile, sat looking lost in sad thoughts, till, rousing himself, he exclaimed, 'Don't let me prevent you.'
Mr. Edmonstone needed but little persuasion, and carried Philip off to the billiard-table in the front hall.
'O, I am so glad!' cried Charlotte, who had, within the last week, learnt Guy's value as a playfellow. 'Now you will never go to those stupid billiards, but I shall have you always, every rainy day. Come and have a real good game at ball on the stairs.'
She already had hold of his hand, and would have dragged him off at once, had he not waited to help Charles back to his sofa; and in the mean time she tried in vain to persuade her more constant playmate, Amabel, to join the game. Poor little Amy regretted the being obliged to refuse, as she listened to the merry sounds and bouncing b.a.l.l.s, sighing more than once at having turned into a grown-up young lady; while Philip observed to Laura, who was officiating as billiard-marker, that Guy was still a mere boy.
The fates favoured Amy at last for about half after three, the billiards were interrupted, and Philip, p.r.o.nouncing the rain to be almost over, invited Guy to take a walk, and they set out in a very gray wet mist, while Charlotte and Amy commenced a vigorous game at battledore and shuttle-c.o.c.k.
The gray mist had faded into twilight, and twilight into something like night, when Charles was crossing the hall, with the aid of Amy's arm, Charlotte carrying the crutch behind him, and Mrs. Edmonstone helping Laura with her perspective apparatus, all on their way to dress for dinner; the door opened and in
'Redclyffe temper,' said he, coolly, with a half-smile curling his short upper lip.
'What have you been doing to him?' said Charles.'
'Nothing. At least nothing worthy of such ire. I only entered on the subject of his Oxford life, and advised him to prepare for it, for his education has as yet been a mere farce. He used to go two or three days in the week to one Potts, a self-educated genius--a sort of superior writing-master at the Moorworth commercial school. Of course, though it is no fault of his, poor fellow, he is hardly up to the fifth form, and he must make the most of his time, if he is not to be plucked. I set all this before him as gently as I could, for I knew with whom I had to deal, yet you see how it is.'
'What did he say?' asked Charles.
'He said nothing; so far I give him credit; but he strode on furiously for the last half mile, and this explosion is the finale. I am very sorry for him, poor boy; I beg no further notice may be taken of it.
Don't you want an arm, Charlie?'
'No thank you,' answered Charles, with a little surliness.
'You had better. It really is too much for Amy,' said Philip, making a move as if to take possession of him, as he arrived at the foot of the stairs.
'Like the camellia, I suppose,' he replied; and taking his other crutch from Charlotte, he began determinedly to ascend without a.s.sistance, resolved to keep Philip a prisoner below him as long as he could, and enjoying the notion of chafing him by the delay. Certainly teasing Philip was a dear delight to Charles, though it was all on trust, as, if he succeeded, his cousin never betrayed his annoyance by look or sign.
About a quarter of an hour after, there was a knock at the dressing-room door. 'Come in,' said Mrs. Edmonstone, looking up from her letter-writing, and Guy made his appearance, looking very downcast.
'I am come,' he said, 'to ask pardon for the disturbance I made just now. I was so foolish as to be irritated at Philip's manner, when he was giving me some good advice, and I am very sorry.'
'What has happened to your lip?' she exclaimed.
He put his handkerchief to it. 'Is it bleeding still? It is a trick of mine to bite my lip when I am vexed. It seems to help to keep down words. There! I have given myself a mark of this hateful outbreak.'
He looked very unhappy, more so, Mrs. Edmonstone thought, than the actual offence required. 'You have only failed in part,' she said. 'It was a victory to keep down words.'
'The feeling is the _thing_,' said Guy; 'besides, I showed it plainly enough, without speaking.'
'It is not easy to take advice from one so little your elder,' began Mrs. Edmonstone, but he interrupted her. 'It was not the advice. That was very good; I--' but he spoke with an effort,--'I am obliged to him. It was--no, I won't say what,' he added, his eyes kindling, then changing in a moment to a sorrowful, resolute tone, 'Yes, but I _will_, and then I shall make myself thoroughly ashamed. It was his veiled a.s.sumption of superiority, his contempt for all I have been taught.
Just as if he had not every right to despise me, with his talent and scholars.h.i.+p, after such egregious mistakes as I had made in the morning.
I gave him little reason to think highly of my attainments; but let him slight me as much as he pleases, he must not slight those who taught me.
It was not Mr. Potts' fault.'
Even the name could not spoil the spirited sound of the speech, and Mrs.
Edmonstone was full of sympathy. 'You must remember,' she said, 'that in the eyes of a man brought up at public school, nothing compensates for the want of the regular cla.s.sical education. I have no doubt it was very provoking.'
'I don't want to be excused, thank you,' said Guy. 'Oh I am grieved; for I thought the worst of my temper had been subdued. After all that has pa.s.sed--all I felt--I thought it impossible. Is there no hope for--'
He covered his face with his hands, then recovering and turning to Mrs.
Edmonstone, he said, 'It is encroaching too much on your kindness to come here and trouble you with my confessions.'
'No, no, indeed,' said she, earnestly. 'Remember how we agreed that you should come to me like one of my own children. And, indeed, I do not see why you need grieve in this despairing way, for you almost overcame the fit of anger; and perhaps you were off your guard because the trial came in an unexpected way?'
'It did, it did,' he said, eagerly; 'I don't, mind being told point blank that I am a dunce, but that Mr. Potts--nay, by implication--my grandfather should be set at nought in that cool--But here I am again!'
said he, checking himself in the midst of his vehemence; 'he did not mean that, of course. I have no one to blame but myself.'
'I am sure,' said Mrs. Edmonstone, 'that if you always treat your failings in this way, you must subdue them at last.'
'It is all failing, and resolving, and failing again!' said Guy.
'Yes, but the failures become slighter and less frequent, and the end is victory.'
'The end victory!' repeated Guy, in a musing tone, as he stood leaning against the mantelshelf.
'Yes, to all who persevere and seek for help,' said Mrs Edmonstone; and he raised his eyes and fixed them on her with an earnest look that surprised her, for it was almost as if the hope came home to him as something new. At that moment, however, she was called away, and directly after a voice in the next room exclaimed, 'Are you there, Guy?
I want an arm!' while he for the first time perceived that Charles's door was ajar.
Charles thought all this a great fuss about nothing, indeed he was glad to find there was anyone who had no patience with Philip; and in his usual mischievous manner, totally reckless of the fearful evil of interfering with the influence for good which it was to be hoped that Philip might exert over Guy, he spoke thus: 'I begin to think the world must be more docile than I have been disposed to give it credit for. How a certain cousin of ours has escaped numerous delicate hints to mind his own business is to me one of the wonders of the world.'
'No one better deserves that his advice should be followed,' said Guy, with some constraint.