Evereld

“ And you keep me company, Evereld. We will make the appreciative audiences for the others. What is the fun of acting or singing if there is no one to applaud.”
In fact she applauded much more heartily than Evereld that evening. Evereld’s appreciation was pretty plainly visible in her glowing face and bright eyes, but she left the hand-clapping to her companion, and sat in a sort of happy dream watching the play contentedly with the blissful consciousness that every minute the time drew nearer when Ralph would make his appearance. ”

“ Sir Matthew had reserved his direct command and the allusion to his authority as a guardian as his trump card. He thought because she had made no reply to this speech that he had convinced her. But Evereld knew that obedience to the truth must always stand before obedience to any authority, and she was emphatically not one of those plastic, weak-minded girls who furnish victims for the modern marriage market, and allow themselves to be sacrificed to the ambition of their parents. ”

“ He had a perception somehow that, once broken, that brotherly and sisterly intimacy could never again be the same thing. Later on, Evereld knew that it was indeed at an end, but for the moment his promise cheered her, and she set herself to work to make the most of the present. “Come,” she said, “tea is getting cold, and you must eat all you can, for who knows where you will dine. Oh, Ralph! what do you mean to do? Where shall you go in London?”
“I think I shall go first to my father’s solicitor, old Mr. Marriott. ”

“ Perhaps he intuitively guessed that Evereld’s position would not be without its difficulties, and he did his very utmost to smooth the way for her. He at once allowed her to feel that she could be of use.
“I am glad you caught the early train from Stratford,” he said as they sat down to a two o’clock dinner. “No, you must take the head of the table for the future. I shall claim the privilege of an old man and sit at the side. As for Ralph he is a very decent carver and we will leave the work to him. ”

“ My good man you’ll break the child’s neck if you don’t support its head better. Talk about kites and ravens being instructed to nurse it, why he wants instruction himself. It’s as bad as seeing a young curate at a christening.”
Evereld was obliged to laugh a little, and her eyes were still bright and mirthful when suddenly she perceived Ralph emerging through a side door and approaching them. ”

“ Don’t you remember the little picture of it that Aimée had in our bedroom at school? Come, after all things are not so dark. You will always be my friend in spite of Mr. Denmead, and perhaps later on when you are engaged there will be a regular row and you will have to come to us.”
“You look as if you quite longed for the row,” said Evereld smiling wistfully. “I wish I had a little of the love of fighting which you Irish people seem to have such stores of. How would you face an angry guardian under the circumstances, I wonder.” ”

“ He’s an odious, conceited, empty-headed amateur, not in the least fit to be an actor. I wish he would go back to his private theatricals in the country with his Duchesses, and leave us in peace.”
“Poor fellow! perhaps he really means to work hard and improve,” said Evereld.
“You are always charitable,” said Ivy. “As for me I believe we shall never have a moment’s peace till Mr. Vane-Ffoulkes has gone.” ”

“ We have been arguing the matter ever since we parted with Barry Sterne at the station and nothing can I get out of Ralph but protests which quite take me back to Mrs. Micawber. The fact is you two read Dickens to such an extent that you are quite saturated with him. This is an excellent offer and ought to be accepted.”
“But I never will, no I never will desert Mr. Macneillie!” quoted Evereld merrily. “Why are you so anxious to get rid of us? You always pretend that you miss us when we are away.” ”

“ Evereld and Bride were in the great drawing-room, both looking rather pale and tired after their long journey.
“Time to go to church?” asked Bride with a portentous yawn.
“No my dear, you would only go to sleep,” he said teasingly, “as your brother-in-law and Evereld’s guardian I strictly prohibit church-going this morning. Rest and be thankful, and don’t forget that you will be travelling all to-morrow night. Evereld, if you have energy enough for the interview, Mr. Marriott has sent someone round on business. Should you mind just going down to the library? ”

“ It is only natural that it should be so.”
Evereld shook her head.
“No,” she said. “He will wait for me, and when he has got on a little in his profession, we shall be engaged. We might have been engaged now only he was too honourable.”
“You talk just as one might expect an innocent girl fresh from school to talk, my dear,” said Sir Matthew. “But it will not do. Such a marriage would be preposterous, your father would never have allowed it, and I once more repeat that acting in your interests I shall insist on your accepting Mr. Wylie’s offer. You think me unkind ”

“ Oh, indeed you are mistaken!”
“The mistake is yours!” said Myra, “Ivy is a very coaxing little thing and would of course find it most convenient to have your friendship. She is clever and managing, and always contrives to get her own way, and then of course she is a born actress. I have no doubt she was delighted to vow an eternal friendship with you. It’s just what would suit her best.”
Evereld’s heart sank, she seemed to be suddenly plunged into an entirely new region, where doubt and suspicion and jealousy and evil intention made the whole atmosphere dark and oppressive. ”

“ Is it possible though that such a girl can care for a regular man of the world thirty years older than herself? I’ll never believe it. There’s a mystery somewhere. I shall stay here and watch how things go.”
Evereld greeted him pleasantly, but not at all warmly when she encountered him after table d’ hôte. She could have liked him extremely if his attentions had been a little less overwhelming, or if she could have told him of Ralph. As it was, he frightened her, and she was too much of a novice to know the best way to steer her course. ”

“ Myra he had known for a long time both before her engagement and since her marriage; she was a much more complex character, but he understood her thoroughly and had noted, though she little guessed it, that she was jealous both of Evereld’s happiness and of Ivy’s success in her profession: moreover he was not without a shrewd suspicion that she was just a little bit in love with Ralph herself.
“Life is never altogether easy when a great number of people are going about the world together,” he said. “There are sure to be little rubs. ”

“ Could I flatter myself that Lord Orville would, indeed, be sensible of your worth, and act with a nobleness of mind which should prove it congenial to your own, then would I leave my Evelina to the unmolested enjoyment of the cheerful society, and increasing regard, of a man she so greatly admires: but this is not an age in which we may trust to appearances; and imprudence is much sooner regretted than repaired. ”

“ My kinsman, John Evelyn, of Nutfield, a young and very hopeful gentleman, and Member of Parliament, after having come to Wotton to see me, about fifteen days past, went to London and there died of the smallpox. He left a brother, a commander in the army in Holland, to inherit a fair estate.
Our affairs in so prosperous a condition both by sea and land, that there has not been so great an union in Parliament, Court, and people, in memory of man, which God in mercy make us thankful for, and continue! The Bishop of Exeter preached before the Queen and both Houses of Parliament at St. Paul's ”

“ In fact, an air of sincere and inevitable truthfulness robs John Evelyn's diary of all that is romantic and sentimental. We see in it the life of a highly cultivated and deeply religious man, whose fate it was to witness all those tremendous and sovereign changes which swept over England like successive tidal waves between the execution of the Earl of Strafford and the accession of Queen Anne. ”

“ It is wonderful that you should mind so much, Everard, but you do, and I love you for it.”
“Mind?” he groaned. “Mind!”
“You are so like him and yet so different,” she went on meditatively. “You drink so little wine, you are always so self-controlled, so serious. You live as though you had a life around you of which others knew nothing. The Everard I remember would never have cared about being a magistrate or going into Parliament. He would have spent his time racing or yachting, hunting or shooting, as the fancy took him. And yet—”
“And yet what?” Dominey asked, a little hoarsely. ”

“ But one of Czar Peter's favorite recreations had been to demolish the hedges by riding through them in a wheelbarrow.
October, 1699, his elder brother, George Evelyn, dying without male issue, aged eighty-three, he succeeded to the paternal estate; and in May following, he quitted Sayes Court and went to Wotton, where he passed the remainder of his life, with the exception of occasional visits to London, where he retained a house. In the great storm of 1703, he mentions in his last edition of the "Sylva," above one thousand trees were blown down in sight of his residence. ”

“ Young, animated, entirely off your guard, and thoughtless of consequences, Imagination took the reins; and Reason, slow-paced, though sure-footed, was unequal to the race of so eccentric and flighty a companion. How rapid was then my Evelina's progress through those regions of fancy and passion whither her new guide conducted her!-She saw Lord Orville at a ball,-and he was the most amiable of men! ”

“ Oh, Everell, loth as I am to send you away, I feel in my soul that I ought! My heart, which would keep you here, at the same time urges you to fly: with one beat it calls to you, ‘Stay,’ and with the next cries, ‘Go!’ Oh, why did you not go on with your friend?”
“Indeed, ’tis better he and I are apart, since that fellow at the inn knew we travelled together,” replied Everell, trying to reassure her. “If the man really meant to continue dogging us, our separation was the best means of confusing him. ”

“ Here Sir Evelyn's guardian angel smiled again. How far these beings arrange our future for us is uncertain, but there is no doubt that they know what is going to happen to us some time ahead. When they hear us asserting confidently that we are going to do something, or not going to do it, they are [24] amused, being aware that our plans have very little to do with what actually happens. Sir Evelyn's angel knew perfectly well that his ward would lunch that day at the vicarage, that he would meet Mrs. Eames, and that consequences of the most unexpected kind would follow. ”

“ But as for going into the house to fetch a knife and with that knife dissecting a Red Admiral’s head, as Evelyn would have done, no sane person in the twentieth century would entertain such a project for a second. Individually we may know as little as Evelyn, but collectively we know so much that there is little incentive to venture on private discoveries. We seek the encyclopædia, not the scissors; and know in two minutes not only more than was known to Evelyn in his lifetime, but that the mass of knowledge is so vast that it is scarcely worth while to possess a single crumb. ”

“ By the time the turret clock struck ten, Everard would be strolling back through the park in the direction of his rooms, with no company save a cigar and his own thoughts. At such seasons, with the fresh night air blowing about him, with the stars raining down sweet influences upon him, and with the huge ghost-like trees to sentinel him on his way, whither ought a young man’s thoughts to wing their flight save to the one fair being, fairer to him than all the world beside, who holds captive his heart, a willing prisoner! ”

“ OH, Sir, Lord Orville is still himself! still what, from the moment I beheld, I believed him to be-all that is amiable in man! and your happy Evelina, restored at once to spirits and tranquillity, is no longer sunk in her own opinion, nor discontented with the world;-no longer, with dejected eyes, sees the prospect of passing her future days in sadness, doubt, and suspicion!-with revived courage she now looks forward, and expects to meet with goodness, even among mankind:-though still she feels, as strongly as ever, the folly of hoping, in any second instance, to meet with perfection. ”

“ Everard’s love for Ethel, which her refusal of him had compelled him to crush down with all the force of his will, but which nothing had availed to kill, under the daily sunshine of her presence sprang up into fresh and vigorous life. To all outward seeming, as he flattered himself, his treatment of her in no wise differed from that which he would have accorded to any other young woman with whom circumstances might have brought him into daily contact; but on that point, as we have seen, he was mistaken, Lady Pell having penetrated his secret almost from the first. ”

“ I had seen it full of light and of the sound of merry music on the night when I brought the dreadful news of Sir Evelin’s escape and of the danger which threatened to fall upon the city from the sea. But now all was changed and well in keeping with the brightness of the day without.
Sir Evelin and I were in one corner of the room listening with considerable amusement to a debate which was going on in the center by the great carved table. Lady Marmaduke and the Earl were striving with as much heat as good nature would allow; and Miriam, the cause of their dispute, stood beside them. ”