The Small House at Allington

by Anthony Trollope

  ‘Yes; we did come early,’ said Mrs Eames, ‘because Mary thought she would like to go up into the girls’ room and just settle her hair, you know.’

  ‘So she shall,’ said Lily, who had taken Mary by the hand.

  ‘And we knew we shouldn’t be in the way. Johnny can go out into the garden if there’s anything left to be done.’

  ‘He shan’t be banished unless he lies it,’ said Mrs Dale. ‘If he finds us women too much for his unaided strength –’

  John Eames muttered something about being very well as he was, and then got himself into an arm-chair. He had shaken hands with Lily, trying as he did so to pronounce articulately a little speech which he had prepared for the occasion. ‘I have to congratulate you, Lilly, and I hope with all my heart that you will be happy.’ The words were simple enough, and were not ill-chosen, but the poor young man never got them spoken. The word ‘congratulate’ did reach Lily’s ears, and she understood it all – both the kindness of the intended speech and the reason why it could not be spoken.

  ‘Thank you, John,’ she said; ‘I hope I shall see so much of you in London. It will be so nice to have an old Guestwick friend near me.’ She had her own voice, and the pulses of her heart better under command than had he; but she also felt that the occasion was trying to her. The man had loved her honestly and truly – still did love her, paying her the great homage of bitter grief in that he had lost her. Where is the girl who will not sympathize with such love and such grief, if it be shown only because it cannot be concealed, and be declared against the will of him who declares it?

  Then came in old Mrs Hearn, whose cottage was not distant two minutes’ walk from the Small House. She always called Mrs Dale ‘my dear’, and petted the girls as though they had been children. When told of Lily’s marriage, she had thrown up her hands with surprise, for she had still left in some corner of her drawers remnants of sugarplums which she had bought for Lily. ‘A London man is he? Well, well. I wish he lived in the country. Eight hundred a year, my dear?’ she said to Mrs Dale. ‘That sounds nice down here, because we are all so poor. But I suppose eight hundred a year isn’t very much up in London?’

  ‘The squire’s coming, I suppose, isn’t he?’ said Mrs Hearn, as she seated herself on the sofa close to Mrs Dale.

  ‘Yes, he’ll be here by-and-by; unless he changes his mind, you know. He doesn’t stand on ceremony with me.’

  ‘He change his mind! When did you ever know Christopher Dale change his mind?’

  ‘He is pretty constant, Mrs Hearn.’

  ‘If he promised to give a man a penny, he’d give it. But if he promised to take away a pound, he’d take it, though it cost him years to get it. He’s going to turn me out of my cottage, he says.’

  ‘Nonsense, Mrs Hearn!’

  ‘Jolliffe came and told me’ – Jolliffe, I should explain, was the bailiff – ‘that if I didn’t like it as it was, I might leave it, and that the squire could get double the rent for it. Now all I asked was that he should do a little painting in the kitchen; and the wood is all as black as his hat.’

  ‘I thought it was understood you were to paint inside.’

  ‘How can I do it, my dear, with a hundred and forty pounds for everything? I must live, you know! And he that has workmen about him every day of the year! And was that a message to send to me, who have lived in the parish for fifty years? Here he is.’ And Mrs Hearn majestically raised herself from her seat as the squire entered the room.

  With him entered Mr and Mrs Boyce, from the parsonage, with Dick Boyce, the ungrown gentleman, and two girl Boyces, who were fourteen and fifteen years of age. Mrs Dale, with the amount of good-nature usual on such occasions, asked reproachfully why Jane, and Charles, and Florence, and Bessy, did not come – Boyce being a man who had his quiver full of them – and Mrs Boyce, giving the usual answer, declared that she already felt that they had come as an avalanche.

  ‘But where are the – the – the young men?’ asked Lily, assuming a look of mock astonishment.

  ‘They’ll be across in two or three hours’ time’, said the squire. ‘They both dressed for dinner, and, as I thought, made themselves very smart; but for such a grand occasion as this they thought a second dressing necessary. How do you do, Mrs Hearn? I hope you are quite well. No rheumatism left, eh?’ This the squire said very loud into Mrs Hearn’s ear. Mrs Hearn was perhaps a little hard of hearing; but it was very little, and she hated to be thought deaf. She did not, moreover, like to be thought rheumatic. This the squire knew, and therefore his mode of address was not good-natured.

  ‘You needn’t make me jump so, Mr Dale. I’m pretty well now, thank ye. I did have a twinge in the spring – that cottage is so badly built for draughts! “I wonder you can live in it,” my sister said to me the last time she was over. I suppose I should be better off over with her at Hamersham, only one doesn’t like to move, you know, after living fifty years in one parish.’

  ‘You mustn’t think of going away from us,’ Mrs Boyce said, speaking by no means loud, but slowly and plainly, hoping thereby to flatter the old woman. But the old woman understood it all. ‘She’s a sly creature, is Mrs Boyce’, Mrs Hearn said to Mrs Dale, before the evening was out. There are some old people whom it is very hard to flatter, and with whom it is, nevertheless, almost impossible to live unless you do flatter them.

  At last the two heroes came in across the lawn at the drawing-room window; and Lily, as they entered, dropped a low curtsey before them, gently swelling down upon the ground with her light muslin dress, till she looked like some wondrous flower that had bloomed upon the carpet, and putting her two hands, with the backs of her fingers pressed together, on the buckle of her girdle, she said, ‘We are waiting upon your honours’ kind grace, and feel how much we owe to you for favouring our poor abode.’ And then she gently rose up again, smiling, oh, so sweetly, on the man she loved, and the puffings and swellings went out of her muslin.

  I think there is nothing in the world so pretty as the conscious little tricks of love played off by a girl towards the man she loves, when she has made up her mind boldly that all the world may know that she has given herself away to him.

  I am not sure that Crosbie liked it all as much as he should have done. The bold assurance of her love when they two were alone together he did like. What man does not like such assurances on such occasions? But perhaps he would have been better pleased had Lily shown more reticence – been more secret, as it were, as to her feelings, when others were around them. It was not that he accused her in his thoughts of any want of delicacy. He read her character too well – was, if not quite aright in his reading of it, at least too nearly so to admit of his making against her any such accusation as that. It was the calf-like feeling that was disagreeable to him. He did not like to be presented, even to the world of Allington, as a victim caught for the sacrifice, and bound with ribbon for the altar. And then there lurked behind it all a feeling that it might be safer that the thing should not be so openly manifested before all the world. Of course, everybody knew that he was engaged to Lily Dale; nor had he, as he said to himself, perhaps too frequently, the slightest idea of breaking from that engagement. But then the marriage might possibly be delayed. He had not discussed that matter yet will Lily, having, indeed, at the first moment of his gratified love, created some little difficulty for himself by pressing for an early day. ‘I will refuse you nothing,’ she had said to him; ‘but do not make it too soon.’ He saw, therefore, before him some little embarrassment, and was inclined to wish that Lily would abstain from that manner which seemed to declare to all the world that she was about to be married immediately. ‘I must speak to her tomorrow,’ he said to himself, as he accepted her salute with a mock gravity equal to her own.

  Poor Lily! How little she understood as yet what was passing through his mind. Had she known his wish she would have wrapped up her love carefully in a napkin, so that no one should have seen it – no one but he, when he might choose to have the trea
sure uncovered for his sight. And it was all for his sake that she had been thus open in her ways. She had seen girls who were half ashamed of their love; but she would never be ashamed of hers or of him. She had given herself to him; and now all the world might know it, if all the world cared for such knowledge. Why should she be ashamed of that which, to her thinking, was so great an honour to her? She had heard of girls who would not speak of their love, arguing to themselves cannily that there may be many a slip between the cup and the lip. There could be no need of any such caution with her. There could surely be no such slip! Should there be such a fall – should any such fate, either by falseness or misfortune, come upon her – no such caution could be of service to save her. The cup would have been so shattered in its fall that no further piecing of its parts would be in any way possible. So much as this she did not exactly say to herself; but she felt it all, and went bravely forward – bold in her love, and careful to hide it from none who chanced to see it.

  They had gone through the ceremony with the cake and teacups, and had decided that, at any rate, the first dance or two should be held upon the lawn when the last of the guests arrived.

  ‘Oh, Adolphus, I am so glad he has come,’ said Lily. ‘Do try to like him.’ Of Dr Crofts, who was the newcomer, she had sometimes spoken to her lover, but she had never coupled her sister’s name with that of the doctor, even in speaking to him. Nevertheless, Crosbie had in some way conceived the idea that this Crofts either had been, or was, or was to be, in love with Bell; and as he was prepared to advocate his friend Dale’s claims in that quarter, he was not particularly anxious to welcome that doctor as a thoroughly intimate friend of the family. He knew nothing as yet of Dale’s offer, or of Bell’s refusal, but he was prepared for war, if war should be necessary. Of the squire, at the present moment, he was not very fond; but if his destiny intended to give him a wife out of this family, he should prefer the owner of Allington and nephew of Lord De Guest as a brother-in-law to a village doctor – as he took upon himself, in his pride, to call Dr Crofts.

  ‘It is very unfortunate’, said he, ‘but I never do like Paragons.’

  ‘But you must like this Paragon. Not that he is a Paragon at all, for he smokes and hunts, and does all manner of wicked things.’ And then she went forward to welcome her friend.

  Dr Crofts was a slight, spare man, about five feet nine in height, with very bright dark eyes, a broad forehead, with dark hair that almost curled, but which did not come so forward over his brow as it should have done for purposes of beauty – with a thin well-cut nose, and a mouth that would have been perfect had the lips been a little fuller. The lower part of his face, when seen alone, had in it somewhat of sternness, which, however, was redeemed by the brightness of his eyes. And yet an artist would have declared that the lower features of his face were by far the more handsome.

  Lily went across to him and greeted him heartily, declaring how glad she was to have him there. ‘And I must introduce you to Mr Crosbie’, she said, as though she was determined to carry her point. The two men shook hands with each other, coldly, without saying a word, as young men are apt to do when they are brought together in that way. Then they separated at once, somewhat to the disappointment of Lily. Crosbie stood off by himself, both his eyes turned up towards the ceiling, and looking as though he meant to give himself airs; while Crofts got himself quickly up to the fireplace, making civil little speeches to Mrs Dale, Mrs Boyce, and Mrs Hearn. And then at last he made his way round to Bell.

  ‘I am so glad,’ he said, ‘to congratulate you on your sister’s engagement.’

  ‘Yes,’ said Bell; ‘we knew that you would be glad to hear of her happiness.’

  ‘Indeed, I am glad; and thoroughly hope that she may be happy. You all like, do you not?’

  ‘We like him very much.’

  ‘And I am told that he is well off. He is a very fortunate man – very fortunate – very fortunate.’

  ‘Of course we think so,’ said Bell. ‘Not, however, because he is rich.’

  ‘No; not because he is rich. But because, being worthy of such happiness, his circumstances should enable him to marry, and to enjoy it.’

  ‘Yes, exactly,’ said Bell. ‘That is just it.’ Then she sat down, and in sitting down put an end to the conversation. ‘That is just it,’ she had said. But as soon as the words were spoken she declared to herself that it was not so, and that Crofts was wrong. ‘We love him’, she said to herself, ‘not because he is rich enough to marry without anxious thought, but because he dares to marry although is not rich.’ And then she told herself that she was angry with the doctor.

  After that Dr Crofts got off towards the door, and stood there by himself, leaning against the wall, with the thumbs of both his hands stuck into the armholes of his waistcoat. People said that he was a shy man. I suppose he was shy, and yet he was a man that was by no means afraid of doing anything that he had to do. He could speak before a multitude without being abashed, whether it was a multitude of men or of women. He could he very fixed top in his own opinion, and eager, if not violent, in the prosecution of his purpose. But he could not stand and say little words, when he had in truth nothing to say. He could not keep his ground when he felt that he was not using the ground upon which he stood. He had not learned the art of assuming himself to be of importance in whatever place he might find himself. It was this art which Crosbie had learned, and by this art that he had flourished. So Croft retired and leaned against the wall near the door; and Crosbie came forward and shone like an Apollo among all the guests. ‘How is it that he does it?’ said John Eames to himself, envying the perfect happiness of the London man of fashion.

  At last Lily got the dancers out upon the lawn, and then they managed to go through one quadrille.1 But it was found that it did not answer. The music of the single fiddle which Crosbie had hired from Guestwick was not sufficient for the purpose; and then the grass, though it was perfect for purposes of croquet, was not pleasant to the feet for dancing.

  ‘This is very nice’, said Bernard to his cousin. ‘I don’t know anything that could be nicer; but perhaps –’

  ‘I know what you mean’, said Lily. ‘But I shall stay here. There’s no touch of romance about any of you. Look at the moon there at the back of the steeple. I don’t mean to go in all night.’ Then she walked off by one of the paths, and her lover went after her.

  ‘Don’t you like the moon?’ she said, as she took his arm, to which she was now so accustomed that she hardly thought of it as she took it.

  ‘Like the moon? – well; I fancy I like the sun better. I don’t quite believe in moonlight. I think it does best to talk about when one wants to be sentimental.’

  ‘Ah; that is just what I fear. That is what I say to Bell when I tell her that her romance will fade as the roses do. And then I shall have to learn that prose is more serviceable than poetry, and that the mind is better than the heart, and – and that money is better than love. It’s all coming, I know; and yet I do like the moonlight.’

  ‘And the poetry – and the love?’

  ‘Yes. The poetry much, and the love more. To be loved by you is sweeter even than any of my dream – is better than all the poetry I have read.’

  ‘Dearest Lily’, and his unchecked arm stole round her waist.

  ‘It is the meaning of the moonlight, and the essence of the poetry,’ continued the impassioned girl. ‘I did not know then why I liked such things, but now I know. It was because I longed to be loved.’

  ‘And to love.’

  ‘Oh, yes. I would be nothing without that. But that, you know, is your delight – or should be. The other is mine. And yet it is a delight to love you; to know that I may love you.’

  ‘You mean that this is the realization of your romance.’

  ‘Yes; but it must not be the end of it, Adolphus. You must like the soft twilight, and the long evenings when we shall be alone; and you must read to me the books I love, and you must not teach me to think that the
world is hard, and dry, and cruel – not yet. I tell Bell so very often; but you must not say so to me.’

  ‘It shall not be dry and cruel, if I can prevent it.’

  ‘You understand what I mean, dearest. I will not think it dry and cruel even thought sorrow should come upon us if you – I think you know what I mean.’

  ‘If I am good to you.’

  ‘I am not afraid of that – I am not the least afraid of that. You do not think that I could ever distrust you? But you must not be ashamed to look at the moonlight, and to read poetry, and to –’

  ‘To talk nonsense, you mean.’

  But as he said it, he pressed her closer to his side, and his tone was pleasant to her.

  ‘I suppose I’m talking nonsense now?’ she said pouting. ‘You liked me better when I was talking about the pigs; didn’t you?’

  ‘No; I like you best now.’

  ‘And why didn’t you like me then? Did I say anything to offend you?’

  ‘I like you best now, because –’

  They were standing in the narrow pathway of the gate leading from the bridge into the gardens of the Great House, and the shadow of the thick-spreading laurels was around them. But the moonlight still pierced brightly through the little avenue, and she, as she looked up to him, could see the form of his face and the loving softness of his eye.

  ‘Because –,’ said he; and then he stooped over her and pressed her closely, while she put up her lips to his, standing on tip-toe that she might reach to his face.

  ‘Oh, my love!’ she said. ‘My love! my love!’

  As Crosbie walked back to the Great House that night, he made a firm resolution that no consideration of worldly welfare should ever induce him to break his engagement with Lily Dale. He went somewhat further also, and determined that he would not put off the marriage for more than six or eight months, or at the most, ten, if he could possibly get his affairs arranged in that time. To be sure, he must give up everything – all the aspirations and ambition of his life; but then, as he declared to himself somewhat mournfully, he was prepared to do that. Such were his resolutions, and, as he thought of them in bed, he came to the conclusion that few men were less selfish than he was.