Marie Corelli

“ It isn’t love, you see. It’s something else. Love has gone out with the tinder-boxes and stage-coaches. It’s all electricity and motor-cars now—flash and fizzle through life at a tearing pace, and leave a bad smell behind you! Ha, ha! You’re old-fashioned, Dick! I like you for it because I’m a bit old-fashioned myself—but we’re out of it,—we’re old stumps of trees that can’t understand the rank and quickly withering weeds of youth that are growing up around us to-day—weeds that are going to choke and poison the destinies of England by-and-by! ”

“ Major Desmond laid down his paper and looked at him full in the face, with the straight steel-blue eyes that had in them as much command as tenderness.
“Sorry for what?” he demanded,—“For touching the gun, or for telling a lie?”
Boy’s heart swelled, and his eyes were misty and aching.
“For both, sir,” he said.
The Major held out his hand, and Boy laid his own little trembling hot fingers in that cool clean palm.
“That’s right!” said Desmond: “Disobedience is bad, but a lie is worse,—don’t do either! Is that agreed?” ”

“ Anyway, whatever wonders lie hidden in waiting for us behind Death’s dark curtain, it may be conceded that the unfaithful soul of the man she loved was in no wise injured by Miss Letty’s remembering tenderness and prayers, but rather strengthened and sustained. She was touched just now by Boy’s admiration of the pictured angels,—and to her always thoughtful mind there was something quaint in the spectacle of the little wondering fellow bending over the abstruse Great Poem of Italy which arose to life and being through the poet’s own Great Wrong. ”

“ Into the foul and festering slums of the great city—into the shabby dwellings of poorly paid clerks and half-starved curates,—up among the barely furnished attics where struggling artists worked for scanty livelihood and the distant hope of fame, “Kiss-Letty” took her sweet and gracious presence, wearing a smile that was a very good reflex of God’s sunshine, and speaking comfort in a voice as tender as that of any imagined angel bringing God’s messages. ”

“ It is warm, isn’t it? Oh dear, Miss Letty, you do look so sweet! Were you always as good as you are now?”
Miss Letty laid down her embroidery and smiled at this question.
“Good? My dear child, I’m not good! I am just as I always was—a woman—getting to be a very old one now—full of faults and failings. What makes you ask me such a funny question?”
“I don’t know!” and Violet bit the ribbon of her hat spasmodically—“My own Miss Letty! Were you ever in love?” ”

“ I am sure that I do not, and could not love a man{278} who has deliberately disgraced himself and ruined the honour of a woman! I am sure—yes—that if I met Max Nugent now I would pass him by as beneath the notice of an honest girl! I mean it!” continued Violet, her eyes glowing more brilliantly than ever with the intensity of her thought. “Yes! for though I am only a girl, I have never done any harm to any one that I know of, nor would I hurt any one by so much as a word if I could help it, and so far at least I am above this millionaire, who has made himself too mean for even a man to know!” ”

“ Quietly Miss Letty laid her two hands over the soft hair, stroking it gently,—and controlling her own tears, she made a gentle sign to the stricken Major to go. With a mute glance of farewell tenderness, that gallant officer stole out of the room on tiptoe,—and pausing in the hall outside, wiped his eyes and blew his nose guardedly lest he should make too much noise.
“God bless my soul!” he ejaculated. “These women beat everything! Break their hearts, and they say the pain shall make them better! ’Pon my soul! What brutes we men are—what revolting, dirty, selfish, downright brutes! ”

“ The plain fact of the matter was that, however much “Muzzy” wanted him, he did not want “Muzzy.” Nor did he at all wish to go home. But he had already a dim consciousness of the awful “must” set over us by human wills, which, unlike God’s will, are not always working for good,—and he had a glimmering perception that he was bound to submit to these inferior orders till the time came when he could create his own “must” and abide by it. But he could not put these vague emotions into speech; all he did was to lose his appetite for bread-and-jam and to stare blankly at “Kiss-Letty.” ”

“ Such sweet and holy thoughts!—thoughts of her dead lover,—her ‘brave, true Harry,’ as she was wont to call him in her own mind—a mind which was as white and pure as the ‘Taj-Mahal,’ and which enshrined this same ‘Harry’ in its midst as a heroic figure of stately splendour and godlike honour. No man was ever endowed by woman with more virtues than Letty gave to her dead betrothed, and her faith in him was so perfect that she had become content with her loneliness because she felt that it was only for a little while,—that soon she and her beloved would meet again never to part. ”

“ A grand environment is frequently bestowed on a low and frivolous character that has not, and never will have, any appreciation of its fortunate position, while all rights, privileges, and advancements are obstinately refused to the soul that would most gladly and greatly have valued them. And so it was fated to be with Boy. The happy days of his visit to Miss Letty came, as all happy days must do, to an end; and one morning, as he sat at breakfast eating a succulent slice of bread-and-jam, he was startled to see “Kiss-Letty’s” blue eyes brimming over with tears. ”

“ And part of this game of life, with latter-day Englishmen, is to check all natural emotion,—kill enthusiasm,—and let all the wonders of the world and the events of time and history pass by, while you stand in the place where fortune or circumstance has thrown you, never budging, and indifferent to all things but your own precious, and (if you only knew it!) most unimportant and ridiculously opinionated self. It was the knowledge of this system of education that gave Miss Letty the uncomfortable little ache at her heart, as she noted Boy’s evident listlessness and cynicism ”

“ Violet uttered an exclamation.
“Oh no, uncle!”
“‘Oh no, uncle?’—I say ‘Oh yes, uncle!’ Leave this to me, child! There are too many scamps sneaking about in society embittering and spoiling the lives of innocent women, and a few sound thrashings on the backs of such fellows would be pure joy and relief to the feelings of the majority. I should like to thrash a millionaire!—especially if his conduct is on the level of a play-actor, who is the worst kind of unprincipled rogue between this world and the nearest gallows.” ”

“ Violet, in her simple white gown, tied at the waist with a knot of ribbon, paused and shaded her eyes from the burning sunlight, while she looked right and left to see if Miss Letty were anywhere near. Yes!—there she was, sitting just inside the verandah in a low basket-chair, protected by a pretty striped awning, busy as usual with the embroidery at which she was such a skilled adept, her white fingers moving swiftly, and her whole attitude and expression one of the greatest simplicity and content. ”

“ Not Dick Desmond certainly; though he had himself loved her for nearly twenty years, and being of a steadfast nature had found it impossible to love any one else. And he was more content to have her as a friend than to have the most charming ‘other woman’ as a wife. And he had jogged on quietly till now—well, now he was fifty, and Letty was forty-five.
“We’re getting on—by Jove, yes!—we’re getting on!” mused Dick. “And just think what that dead rascal out in India has cost us! Our very lives! All sacrificed! Well, never mind!—I would not spoil Letty’s belief in her sweetheart for the world.” ”

“ So young! Poor fellow—poor little chap!—with mettle in him after all! Wasted life—wasted hope—wasted love—all a waste! God knows I’ve done my best to keep a stout heart—but upon my soul, life is a sad and cruel business!”
With slow and lagging footsteps he made his reluctant way to Hans Place and to Miss Letty’s always bright house, though it was scarcely so bright now as it used to be, for the hand of its gentle mistress was not so active and her supervision was not so careful and vigilant. ”

“ Now here, in America, was Violet,—studying hard to become a bright, clever, sweet woman,—to learn to talk well and to know thoroughly what she was talking about—not to be a mere figure-head of femininity, just{195} capable of wearing a gown and having a baby. Something more than that was demanded for Violet,—the Major wanted her to be brought up to understand the beauty and satisfaction of an impersonal life—a life that should widen, not narrow with experience,—and who could be a more faithful home instructress of unselfishness and virtue than Miss Letty? ”

“ Which remarkable narratives, in their grotesque incongruity, conveyed the true lesson that a strong or giant mind may be frequently destroyed by indulgence in one vice; though Boy was too young to look for morals in fairy legends, and accepted these exciting histories as veracious facts. And so the morning passed pleasantly after all,—though now and then a wistful look came into Boy’s eyes, and a shadow crossed the placid fairness of “Kiss-Letty’s” brow when either of the two chanced to think of the coming parting from each other. ”

“ The deep, hard cynicism which showed itself more and more as the foundation of his character made him casual and flippant even in his ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; and by-and-by, after trying him on various themes,—his home, his studies, his ‘sports,’ his interests generally—Desmond instinctively realised that this young and embittered scrap of humanity was sitting in cold judgment on himself, and relegating him to the level of a garrulous old man who did not know what he was talking about. For irreverence to age is one of the unadmirable features of a large proportion of the rising ‘new’ generation. ”

“ D’Arcy-Muir expansively, “that you have taken such a fancy to my boy! That’s quite natural. And really, Letitia, if you don’t know how to dispose of your fortune otherwise, I cannot imagine anything more pleasant for you than to make him your heir. But to adopt him for the purpose of educating him according to your notions! Oh dear no! It would never do!”
“If he is not educated according to my notions he will certainly not be my heir,” said Miss Letty very firmly. “He is just now at an age when anything can be done with him. ”

“ Meanwhile, in the self-same monster metropolis of London, where Violet went daily to her work in the hospital—where the Major divided his days between his club and Miss Letty’s always charming house—and where Miss Letty herself, growing more feeble and ailing with years, was content to sit very much at home with her embroidery,—Boy, who had unconsciously been a link in the chain of their three lives, was drifting like a wreck in a vast ocean. ”

“ Believers in hereditary development would have asked her how she could imagine it possible for a child born of such parents to possess an ideal or exceptionally endowed nature? To which she would have replied that she did not believe in the heritage so much as the environment of life. Here she was partly wrong and partly right. Such inexplicable things happen in the evolution of one particular human being from a whole chain of other human beings that it is impossible to gauge correctly the result of the whole. ”

“ D’Arcy-Muir looked politely surprised.
“Love! Oh, I don’t think that had very much to do with it,” she said. “One doesn’t think about love after one is fifteen or sixteen. That’s all goosey-goosey-gander, you know!”
And a placid smile of superior wisdom lit up her fat face as she thus clinched the would-be heart-searching enquiries of the mere sentimentalist. Because, after all, as she argued, if Jim would get drunk it was no use attempting to thwart him,—he was master of himself and of his own actions. ”

“ He did not know that ‘Kiss-Letty’ was many years older than ‘Muzzy,’—but he did know that she was ever so much more charming and agreeable to look at. He judged by appearances,—and these were all in ‘Kiss-Letty’s’ favour. For in truth the elderly spinster looked a whole decade younger than the more youthful married woman. Mrs. D’Arcy-Muir, though she took life with such provokingly indifferent ease, ‘wore’ badly,—Miss Leslie, despite many concealed sorrows and disappointments, wore well. ”

“ Is it impossible to believe that the steadfast faith and love of a good woman may uplift the departed spirit of an unworthy man out of an uttermost Hell by its force and purity? Surely in these days, when we are discovering what marvellous properties there are in simple light, and the passing of sound through space, it would be foolish to deny the probability of noble Thought radiating to unmeasured distances, and affecting for good those{63} who are gone from us, whom we loved on earth,—and whose present state and form of life we are not as yet permitted to behold. ”

“ The little dry pedagogues who undertake the high and responsible business of fostering the growth and guiding the education of young unspoilt natures, do their best as a rule to cramp and destroy all that is fresh and eager and enthusiastic. A young colt gallops about in the meadows, and frisks and rolls on the soft green turf, rejoicing in his youth and strength,—but the young boy must take his college ‘sports’ as he takes his lessons,—by rule and line and with more or less severity, under the control of a master. ”

“ D’Arcy-Muir’s obstinate disposition to be quite certain of the fact that because a hint had been thrown out by Major Desmond as to the advantages of her adopting Boy, she would be forced to see less of him than ever. Strange it is, and in a manner terrible, that the future of a whole life should be suspended thus between two human wills!—the one working for pure beneficence, the other for selfishness, and that the selfish side should win the day! ”

“ CHAPTER IX The summer flew by,—on wings of romance for Violet Morrison, but somewhat burdened with anxiety for Major Desmond and Miss Leslie. Max Nugent, millionaire and man of the world, was most charming in his manner to both the elderly people, and most tender and deferential in his devotion to the young girl in their charge,—but Major Desmond was not altogether satisfied about him. He wore a glass in his eye for one thing. People laughed at the Major when he made objection to such a trifle,—even Miss Letty laughed. ”

“ And the Major returned to Miss Letty with the account of his embassy, whereat the gentle soul laughed a little, though there was a sadness in her laughter. All her old affection for Boy as a child had come back in full force for Boy as a young man, now that she knew all the story of his griefs and temptations. For after the affair of the bank notes, the Major had judged it best to tell her of the lad’s expulsion from Sandhurst, and when she knew everything, her pity and tenderness for him knew no bounds. ”