Faversham

“ However, you have only to say the word, and we shall be delighted to take you in for as long as you like."
"Oh, I must stay here now," said Faversham decidedly. "One couldn't be ungrateful for what has been done. But my best thanks to Lady Tatham all the same. I hope I may get over to see her some day."
"You must, of course. Dixon tells me there is a carriage coming—perhaps a motor; why not!"
A flush rose in Faversham's pale cheek.
"Mr. Melrose talked of hiring one yesterday," he said, unwillingly. "How far are you?" ”

“ Haven't you any thanks for Faversham?"
"I never asked him to do it! How can I look after all that! It'll kill me. I want to sing! I want to go on the stage!"
He sat down beside her. Her dark head covered with its silky curls, her very black eyes and arched brows in her small pink face, the pointed chin, and tiny mouth, made a very winning figure of her, as she sat there, under a garden vase, and an overhanging yew. And that, although the shawl was huddled round her shoulders, and the eyes were red with tears.
"You will be able to do anything you like, Felicia. You will be terribly rich." ”

“ He tossed the letter carelessly upon the table-cloth. "I am grateful from the bottom of my heart, but it has no art."
At once Geoffrey Faversham's hand reached out and closed upon the letter.
"You have told me why you have read it aloud."
"Yes," said Plessy, a little disconcerted by the quickness of Faversham's movement.
"Now I will tell you why I allowed you to read it to the end. I was of the same mind as that English girl whose name we both know. I could not believe that a man, brave as I knew you to be, could outside his bravery be so contemptible." ”

“ Faversham said reading her thoughts with a startling clearness. "You can hold your revolver to my head and ask for a policeman. You won't regret it, Miss Peggy. And if I can prove myself, even by inferences, to be a deeply wronged man, you will be the first to rejoice with me." ”

“ The two subalterns were as perplexed as Faversham to account for their hero's conduct. They sat dumb and displeased. Plessy stood for a moment thoughtfully, then he made a gesture with his hands as though to brush the whole incident from his mind and taking a cigarette from his case proceeded to light it at the candle. As he stooped to the flame he noticed the glum countenances of his brother-officers, and laughed carelessly. ”

“ Expensive for the moment, they would be economical in the long run. He had given them his best brains and his hardest work. And he had taken the best advice. But they meant, no doubt, a complete change in the administration and personnel of the estate.
Faversham stepped into the garden, and, hanging over the low wall which edged the sandstone cliff, he looked out over the gorge of the river, across the woods, into the ravines and gullies of the fells. Mountain and wood stood dark against a saffron sky. In the dim blue above it Venus sailed. A light wind stirred the trees and the stream. ”

“ Faversham spent the rest of the morning in cogitations that may be easily imagined. He certainly attributed some share in the extraordinary proposal that had been made to him, to his possession of the gems, and to Melrose's desire to beguile them from him. But what then? Sufficient for the day! He would decide how to deal with that crisis when it should arrive.
Meanwhile, the amazing proposal itself was before him. If it were accepted, he should be at once a comparatively rich man, with an infinity of chances for the future; for Melrose's financial interest and influence were immense. ”

“ Faversham indeed was certain, from his own observation, that the mere excitement of opening and exploring the huge collections he had accumulated, during these twenty years, in the locked rooms of the house, had imposed a sharp nervous strain on a man now past seventy, who for all the latter part of his life had taken no exercise and smoked incessantly. ”

“ Faversham, after some ten minutes of motionless reflection, heavily returned to his papers, ordering his horse to be ready in half an hour. He forced himself to write some ordinary business letters, and to eat some lunch, and immediately after he started on horseback to find his way through the October lanes to the village of Mainstairs.
A man more harassed, and yet more resolved, it would have been difficult to find. For six weeks now he had been wading deeper and deeper into a moral quagmire from which he saw no issue at all—except indeed by the death of Edmund Melrose! ”

“ Tatham was silent a moment, his blunt features expressing some bewilderment. Then he said—awkwardly:
"So you don't really know what you're going to take up?"
Faversham lit another cigarette.
"Oh, well, I have some friends—and some ideas. If I once get a foothold, a beginning—I daresay I could make money like other people. Every idiot one meets seems to be doing it." ”

“ The topic, naturally, was Faversham's appointment. Every landowner there was full of it. He had been seen in Brampton on market day driving in a very decent motor; and since his accession he had succeeded in letting two or three of the derelict farms, on a promise of repairs and improvements which had been at last wrung out of Melrose. It was rumoured also that the most astonishing things were happening in the house and the gardens.
"Who on earth is the man, and where does he come from?" asked a short, high-shouldered man with a blunt, pugnacious face. ”

“ Undershaw observed him, with an amusement carefully concealed. He had suspected from the beginning that in these possessions of the poor stricken youth means might be found for taming the formidable master of the Tower. For himself he scorned "la curiosité," and its devotees, as mere triflers and shell-gatherers on shores bathed by the great ocean of science. But like all natural rulers of men he was quick to seize on any weakness that suited his own ends; and he said to himself that Faversham was safe.
"They are valuable?" he asked, as Melrose still sat absorbed. ”

“ Faversham to a camel, Tony!"
"Don't be an ass," said Antony, proudly. "Mrs. Faversham and I feel alike about it. Money will play no part in our mutual future." And, as he said this, was sure neither of her nor of himself.
"Under which circumstances," said his companion, "I shall offer you another cup of coffee and tell you my secret. Going with my play to London is not the only one. I am in love. When you have drunk your coffee we'll go home. Potowski is going to play for us, and he is going to bring his wife at last." ”

“ He resumed:
"And by the way, if you accepted my proposal, I should naturally expect that for a time you would devote yourself wholly to the organization of the collections, inside the house, and to the work of the estate, outside it. But you are of an age when a man hopes to marry. I should of course take that into account. In a year or two—"
"Oh, I have no immediate ideas of that kind," said Faversham, hastily.
There was a pause. At the end of it Faversham turned on his companion. A streak of feverish colour, a sparkling vivacity in the eyes, showed the effect produced by the conversation. ”

“ Besides if you kill me, you can escape into Paris."
"I will not fight you to-night," said Captain Plessy and he set down the candle upon the table. Then with an elaborate correctness he drew his sword from its scabbard and offered the handle of it to Faversham.
"Lieutenant, you are in command of St. Denis. I am your prisoner of war."
Faversham stood for a moment or two with his hands clenched. The light had gone out of his face.
"I have no authority to make prisoners," he said. He took up one of the candles, gazed at his guest in perplexity. ”

“ Faversham smiled. "I shall have to attend and give evidence to-morrow against those people at Lewes. Now you see the advantage of borrowing Ted's dress-clothes. I'll get you to steal one of his overcoats for me as well. Why didn't I go back to Lewes with the others? Well, it's no great way, and I shall enjoy the walk. Besides, I wanted to have a word with you first."
"Is there anything that I can possibly say?" Peggy whispered.
"There is a good deal that you can say," Faversham replied. ”

“ Of the store, indeed, of precious or curious objects lying heaped together in the confusion of Melrose's den, the only treasures of a portable kind that Faversham found any difficulty in handling were his own gems. Melrose would bring them sometimes, when the young man specially asked for them, would keep a jealous eye on them the whole time they were in their owner's hands, and hurry them back to their drawer in the Riesener table as soon as Faversham could be induced to give them up. ”

“ He must smoke less—travel less—give himself more variety and more amusement. Well, if Faversham consented, he should at least have bought for himself a companionship that was agreeable to him, and relief from a number of routine occupations which he detested.
Suddenly—a child's voice—a child's shrill voice, ringing through the gallery—followed by scufflings and hushings, on the part of an older person—then a wail—and silence. Melrose had risen to his feet with an exclamation. ”

“ I sing a lyric, a little complete song, but in its entirety."
"But, my dear Potowski," Mrs. Faversham laughed, "a bas-relief or a bust is complete."
"But why," cried the Pole, "why behead a lady? As for a profile, it is destruction to the human face." He turned to Fairfax. "You think I am a pagan. In France they have an impolite proverb, 'Stupid as a musician,' but don't think it is true. We see harmony and melody in everything." ”

“ Tatham felt a little awkward. Faversham's tone was already that of a man to some extent disappointed and embittered.
"You had always so much more brains than the rest of us," he said cordially. "You'll be all right."
"It's not brains that matter nowadays—it's money. What do you get by brains? ”

“ I saw Colonel Barton this morning. He and Mr. Andover are in despair. They felt such confidence in Mr. Faversham. The state of the Mainstairs village is too terrible! Everybody is crying out. The Carlisle papers this week are full of it. But there are scores of other things almost as bad. Mr. Faversham rushes about—here, there, and everywhere—but with no result, they tell us, as far as any of the real grievances are concerned. Mr. Melrose seems to be infatuated about him personally; will give him everything he wants; and pays no attention whatever to his advice. ”

“ Faversham in my opinion wants a change of scene. He has been in that room for three weeks, and—he understands there is no other to which he can be moved. It would be a great advantage, too, to be able to carry him into a garden. In fact"—the little doctor spoke with the same cool frankness he had used in his first interview with Melrose—"your house, Mr. Melrose, is a museum; but it is not exactly the best place for an invalid who is beginning to get about again." ”

“ The Favershams held property in Germany; influence might be exerted; it was only right that those who held a substantial stake in a country should venture something for its cause. The words came quite easily from Geoffrey's lips; he had been schooling himself to speak them ever since it had become apparent that Germany and France were driving to the collision of war. General Faversham laughed with content when he heard them. ”

“ Wealth grasping at that best has a way of killing it—as the child kills the butterfly. That's what she's afraid of. As to Faversham"—he got up from his seat, and with his thumbs in his waistcoat began to pace the room—"Faversham no doubt is in a bad way. He's on the road to damnation. Melrose of course is damned and done with. But Faversham? I reserve judgment. If he's in love with that girl, and she with him—I can't make out, however, that you have much reason to think it—but suppose he is, she'll have the handling of him. Shan't we back her?"
He turned with vivacity to his hostess. ”

“ Faversham, in spite of his look of youth, much impaired for the present by the results of his accident, was not so very young; he had just passed his thirtieth birthday, and Melrose soon discovered that he had seen a good deal both of the natural and the human worlds. He was the son, it seemed, of an Indian Civil Servant, and had inherited from his parents, who were both dead, an income—so Melrose shrewdly gathered from various indications—just sufficient to keep him; whereby a will, ambitious rather than strong, had been able to have its way. ”

“ Captain Plessy bowed. He was now almost as sober as when he had sat down to his dinner.
"We will choose a time and place," said he.
"There can be no better time than now," suddenly cried Faversham, "no better place than this. You have two friends of whom with your leave I will borrow one. We have a large room and a candle apiece to fight by. To-morrow my duties begin again. We will fight to-night, Captain Plessy, to-night," and he leaned forward almost feverishly, his words had almost the accent of a prayer. The two subalterns rose from their chairs, but Plessy motioned them to keep still. ”

“ He also held estates near Faversham, which he charged by his will with an annuity of 20l. to provide prizes for a foot-race, open to competitors of both sexes, to be run in the neighbourhood of Faversham every 19th of May. ”

“ Tatham, cut off from the county, agricultural, or sporting subjects in which he was most at home, fumbled a good deal in his efforts to adjust himself; while Faversham found it no use to talk of travel, art, or music to one who, in spite of an artistic and literary mother and wonderful possessions, had himself neither literary nor artistic faculty, and in the prevailing manner of the English country gentleman, had always found the pleasures of England so many and superior that there was no need whatever to cross the Channel in pursuit of others. ”