Horace Annesley Vachell

“ In your own irresistible way you have invited me to join what I call the great conspiracy of silence in Upworthy. Better men than I are amongst the conspirators. Dear old Pawley, for example. It is natural for him, ten thousand times more so for you, to ‘spare’ your mother, to keep her in cotton wool, to please, in a word, a personality so gracious, so kindly at heart, so sincerely anxious to do the right thing in, alas! the wrong way. But, as an honest man, Cicely, I side with her tenants as against her. ”

“ Do you think I’m breaking from Arthur with the deliberate intention of—of engaging myself to somebody else?”
“Aren’t you? You do care for him; he must care for you. And there you are!”
Chandos silence. Tiddy continued:
“I understand that it would be tactless to mention Mr. Grimshaw to Lady Selina, although that—your feeling for him, I mean—justifies you, forces you, to break this engagement. I believe I should tell my mother. However, I am I and you are you. If I wanted a man, and he chose to behave like a dumbwaiter loaded with rare and refreshing fruit, I—well, I should help myself.” ”

“ Cicely was discreet enough to apologise. Lady Selina continued in the same aggrieved tone:
“Mr. Grimshaw is a radical. I deplore that.”
“But these labels mean nothing, mother.”
“Heavens! That a child of mine should say so!”
Chandos obstinately revealed itself. Cicely remarked tartly:
“It happens that Mr. Grimshaw does not label himself as a Radical. He detests party politics. I have his own word for that. Are you angry with him because he disturbs our peace?”
“Angry? And peace! I despair of peace anywhere. Still, one expects consideration from one’s own people. ”

“ She would be reasonably happy and make him happy. She would adore her babies if they came to her. She would play gracefully the part of Lady Bountiful. It would all be so easy, so free from friction and discomfort. In her dream she had seen herself as the wife of Grimshaw. Now, wide-awake, she beheld herself as Lady Wilverley. But any image of Cicely Chandos, unmarried, regarded by her own kinswomen as a foolish jilt, always conscious of her mother’s silent disapproval, was hopelessly blurred. ”

“ A man with dark, disconcerting eyes had flitted across a susceptible maid’s horizon, and then disappeared. From what Cicely, being a Chandos, had left unsaid, Tiddy was positive upon one point: Grimshaw had kindled in her friend the divine spark. He had become, momentarily, the divine spark. It was likely, men being so amazingly unobservant, that Grimshaw, engrossed with his profession, had left Upworthy unconscious of this. With all her powers of intuition, Miss Tiddle lacked as yet the experience which might guide her to the right conclusion. ”

“ As he reached the first branch, Agatha appeared at the cottage window which fronted the green.
“What has happened?” she asked. The bell went on ringing. Then a sharp whistle was heard.
“Constable’s whistle,” remarked the Ancient. “I knows ’un.”
Excitement gripped them, as a man tore past on a bicycle, heading for Wilverley. As he passed the tree, he yelled out: “Fire! Fire!”
“That was Wilson. My lady’s shover,” faltered Martha. “Oh, dear! oh, dear! Where be fire?”
“ ’Tis a rick, maybe,” hazarded Nicodemus.
By this time, Nick was high up the tree. He shouted down:
“I sees a gert smoke, I do.” ”

“ UNDER THE VILLAGE TREE I Grimshaw had quite lost his look of wear and tear when he re-entered Farleigh’s cottage. Love, we may presume, is omnipotent even over the ravages of malaria. Vitality expressed itself in his eyes and in every movement of his athletic body. He had just visited Isaac Burble; and he knew—humanly speaking—that he had pulled through the plucky old man. He believed, also, that he could restore Mary to the arms of the pessimistic Timothy. ”

“ And she woke up many times, tingling with an exasperation which she tried in vain to resolve into elements. She wished both Wilverley and Grimshaw at Timbuctoo; she wished that she was like Tiddy, who could “take on” three suitors as a “rag”; she almost wished she had been born of humbler parentage. Tiddy assured her that the old order was “down and out,” never to rise again. Admittedly, Tiddy knew nothing of the old order. And Cicely dimly beheld a new disorder, with blatant voices and not too clean linen, that might exercise a greater tyranny than any aristocracy of rank and starched shirts. ”

“ To Pawley and Lady Selina he said emphatically: “I never had such a billet.” To himself, he thought, with amused apprehension: “Will this cosseting get a strangle-hold on me?” And if it did, what of it? Good men and true toiled and moiled, struggling on against adverse winds and currents, to achieve just such snug anchorage.
Pawley introduced him to some of the local magnates, who smiled graciously upon an old Wykhamist. Each day it became more certain to the young man that a prosperous future was his if he played the cards already in his hand. ”

“ Tiddy, as we know, liked men; she had flirted with Midland “nuts.” And these had not impressed her favourably, being, so she decided, concerned with themselves and the colour of their ties and socks. Even young officers, gallant fellows, “swanked” too much for Miss Tiddle’s democratic taste. And she had come to Wilverley Court slightly prejudiced against a man whom she had imagined to be quite other than he was. Arthur’s simplicity and honesty delighted her. She believed that he, at any rate, loved Cicely devotedly, although he might be incapable of tearing a passion to tatters. ”

“ Opulence characterised the room from floor to ceiling. Cicely sank into the carpet and into an arm-chair, almost overpowered by the sense of luxury and comfort. A violent temptation assailed her. Why not float with the current instead of against it? The excitement of any change from apathetic and dull conditions beguiled her. All of us know how the Great War engendered excitement. Possibly women were more susceptible to a craving for action than men. Action was forced upon men.
She heard Wilverley’s sincere voice repeating what his sister had affirmed, but with an emphasis not to be denied. ”