Lady Stafford

“ Thomas Stafford, who then exiled in France suddenly coming into England should title himself king (for that he was descended from the house of the dukes of Buckingham) and should marry with the Lady Elizabeth; they supposing themselves strong enough against Queen Mary. It was not long before Mr. Stafford put this in execution; for coming out of France only with forty men on 24th April, 1557, and took Scarborough Castle, with hope that either the Lady Elizabeth would send her forces to fetch him or with them to come to him herself. ”

“ He obeyed and lay back in his low chair with a sigh of content.
"Yes; never mind Stafford and never mind Kate. Why should we? They're not here."
"My silence is not to be taken for consent," said Claudia, "only it's too fine a day to spend in trying to improve you or, indeed, anybody else. But I shall not forget any of my friends."
Now up to this point Eugene had behaved tolerably well. It is, however, a dangerous thing to set yourself deliberately to study a lady's attractions. Like all other one-sided views of a subject, it is apt to carry you too far. ”

“ I think of nothing but the nothingness of the good things of this world, the transitoriness of its joys, the pungency of its sorrows, and many discoveries that have been made these three thousand years, and committed to print ever since the first erecting of presses. I advise you, as the best thing you can do that day, let it happen as it will, to visit Lady Stafford: she has the goodness to carry with her a true-born Englishwoman, who is neither good nor bad, nor capable of being either ”

“ While, then, Sir Stafford sat overwhelmed with shame and sorrow at the bare thought of the public discussion that awaited him, Lady Hester was speculating upon condolences here, approbation there, panegyrics upon her high spirit, and congratulations upon her freedom. The little, half-shadowy allusions her friends would throw out from time to time upon the strange unsuitableness of her marriage with a man so much her senior, would soon be converted into comments of unrestricted license. ”

“ Apropos, what are you doing down here?"
"As an artist, I study your insolence professionally, Ayre, and it doesn't annoy me. I came down here to do nothing. I have stayed to paint Stafford."
"Ah! is Stafford then a professional saint?"
"He's an uncommon fine fellow. You're not fit to black his boots."
"I am not fit to black anybody's boots," responded Sir Roderick. "It's the other way. What's he doing down here?"
"I don't know. Says he's writing a book. Do you know Lady Claudia well?" ”

“ One trait of manners, however, I cannot help admiring, the extreme care that every one takes never to give even the slightest offence; not only that the wrong thing is never said, but ever even suggested. Such an excessive deference to others' feelings bespeaks great refinement, if not a higher and better quality. Lady Hester is delightful in this respect. I cannot tell you how the charm of her manner grows into a fascination. Captain Onslow I see little of, but he is always good-humored and gay; and as for Sir Stafford, he is like a father in the kindliness and affection of his cordiality. ”

“ It was hard to say if Sir Stafford was more amused at the absurdity of this imputation, or stung by the cool indifference with which she uttered it; nor was it easy to know how the struggle, within him would terminate, when she went on: “It does appear so silly to see a pair of elderly gentlemen raking up a difference out of an amourette of the past century. You are very fortunate to have so quiet a spot to exhibit in!”
“I am sorry to destroy an illusion so very full of amusement, Lady Hester; but I owe it to all parties to say that your pleasant fancy has not even the shadow of a color. ”

“ Airey.
“How simply lovely!” cried Miss Stafford.
“In God’s name, man, tell us what you mean,” said the priest.
“It’s herself,” gasped Brian. “It’s the one that’s nameless. Her wail is heard over all the lough—I heard it with my ears and hurried here for your reverence. Don’t we know that she never cries except for a death?”
“He means the Banshee,” said Lady Innisfail.
“The people, I’ve heard, think it unlucky to utter her name.”
“So lovely! Just like savages!” said Miss Stafford.
“I dare say the whole thing is only part of the ceremony of the Cruiskeen,” said Mr. Durdan. ”

“ Now, Lady Hester had never at least since her marriage, and very rarely even before it been more than on the periphery of fashionable society. When she did obtain a footing within the charmed circle, it was by no prescriptive right, but rather on some ground of patronage, or some accidental political crisis, which made Sir Stafford's influence a matter of moment. There was, therefore, a flattery in the thought of thus becoming a leader in society ”

“ Stafford? Is not that to be part of the program?”
“Stay,” cried Lady Kilcroney, springing to her feet. She flung out a small imperative hand. “Mistress Lafone's proposal is absurd indeed; I will lend no hand to help a woman lose her character. But there is something, nevertheless, in the suggestion. Ladies!” she looked round upon the expectant circle with commanding eyes, “I have a plan for you which will encompass all your desires. You will make your husbands jealous, aye, and ridiculous! We will cut Beau Stafford's comb for him, and the town shall ring with the joke of it. ”

“ Mrs. Lane had been moved by this idea, but not consciously and, a little distressed at suspecting herself of an unkindness, entertained the Bishop with an entirely fanciful catalogue of Claudia's virtues, which, being overheard by Bob Territon, who had no lady, and was at liberty to listen, occasioned him immense entertainment.
Claudia, meanwhile, was drifting into a state of some annoyance. Stafford was very courteous and attentive, but he drank nothing, and apparently proposed to dine off dry bread. ”

“ A still, hot summer morning does not incline the mind or the body to activity, and all of them had sunk into attitudes of ease. Mrs. Lane's work was reposing in her lap; her sister, Miss Jane Chambers, had ceased the pretense of reading; the Rector was enjoying what he kept assuring himself was only just five minutes' peace before he crossed over to his parsonage and his sermon; Lady Claudia Territon and Miss Katharine Bernard were each in possession of a wicker lounge, while at their feet lay two young men in flannels, with lawn-tennis racquets lying idle by them. ”

“ A few moments saw him seated between the brother and sister on the sofa, recounting the circumstances of his journey, and detailing, for Kate's amusement, the latest news of Florence.
“Lady Hester is much better in health and spirits, too,” said the Abbé; “the disastrous circumstances of fortune would seem to have taken a better turn; at least, it is probable that Sir Stafford's losses will be comparatively slight. I believe her satisfaction on this head arises entirely from feeling that no imputation of altered position can now be alleged as the reason for her change of religion.” ”

“ At the same moment a phaeton was rapidly driven up to the door of the station, and all the porters rushed to meet it.
"Label it all for London," he heard Eugene's voice say. "Four boxes, a portmanteau, and a hat-box. No, I'm not going—this lady and gentleman."
Kate, Haddington, and Eugene came through the ticket-office on to the platform. Stafford involuntarily shrank back.
"Just in time!" Eugene was saying; "though why the dickens you people will start at such an hour, I don't know. Haddington, I suppose, always must be in a hurry—never does for a rising man to admit he's got spare time. ”

“ Death for love's sake was held up in poetry and romance as a thing in some sort noble and honorable; as a man might die because he could not save his country, so might he because he could not please his lady-love. In old days, Stafford, rigidly repressing his aesthetic delight in such literature, had condemned its teaching with half-angry contempt, and enough of his former estimate of things remained to him to prevent him regarding such a state of mind as it pictured as a romantic elevation rather than a hopeless degradation of a man's being. ”

“ His wife Anne died of consumption probably in the winter of 1512-13, and about Easter 1513 he married Elizabeth, eldest daughter of Edward Stafford, duke of Buckingham, by Lady Elinor Percy, daughter of the Earl of Northumberland. ”

“ They helped to tide him over the mental emergency. Happy the man who has such an odd streak in the composition of his under-nature.
"Still," Stafford laughed to himself, "I am an abused man. I am a victim of atrocious circumstances. I'm an injured being, and I'm at bay! I'm going to turn and make the best of it savagely. I'll have, at least, the [254] comfort of looking into a pair of eyes and listening to a voice. I'll go and talk to Her."
And he went into the next car and seated himself beside the Far Away Lady, who received him kindly. ”

“ And Ayre, more perturbed about other people's affairs than a man of his creed had any business to be, returned to the Times as Eugene went to pursue his errand.
CHAPTER XI. Waiting Lady Claudia's Pleasure
Stafford had probably painted his state of mind in colors somewhat more startling than the reality warranted. When a man is going to act against his conscience, there is a sort of comfort in making out that the crime has features of more striking depravity than an unbiased observer would detect; the inclination in this direction is increased when it is a question of impressing others. ”

“ The implicit demand is that for greater freedom for women, socially and economically. Incidentally we see that the man, Stafford, does not suffer in the same degree. His splendid love for Lady Mary is thwarted, but he finds an outlet. It is a new aspect of escape, by the way, for Stafford's illuminating business of spreading and collating knowledge is a relief from the scientific research which was in some form or another the specific of the earlier novels—if we exclude Remington's political propaganda in The New Machiavelli, a suggested solution that was, at the best, something half-hearted. ”

“ It was perfectly impossible that she could approach Sir Stafford with such a request; every sense of shame, delicacy, and self-respect revolted at the very thought. Still less could she apply to Lady Hester, whose extravagant and wasteful habits always placed her in want of money ”

“ She's there with Aunt Julia."
"I will. Do you think she'll see me?"
"My dear fellow, I don't know; only if I wanted to see a girl, I bet she'd see me."
Eugene smiled at his friend's indomitable self-confidence, and let him fly to the arms of pleuro-pneumonia. He then dispensed with his own presence in his branch of the Legislature, and took his way toward Grosvenor Square, where Lord Rickmansworth's town house was.
Lady Claudia was not at home. She had gone with her aunt earlier in the day to give Mr. Morewood a sitting. Mr. Morewood was painting her portrait. ”

“ Leaving the other men, except the Bishop, who was already at rest, in the billiard-room, they strolled out together on to the terrace.
"Well, old man, how are you getting on?" asked Eugene.
"Capitally! stronger every day in body and happier in mind. I grumbled a great deal when I first broke down, but now I'm not sure a rest isn't good for me. You can stop and have a look where you are going to."
"And you think you can stand it?"
"Stand what, my dear fellow?"
"Why, the life you lead—a life studiously emptied of everything that makes life pleasant."
"Ah! you are like Lady Claudia!" ”

“ Ayre put up his eyeglass.
"Après?"
"It's all affectation."
"Really, Lady Claudia, you might be quite old, from the way you talk. That is one of the illusions of age, which, by the way, have not received enough attention."
"That's very true," said Eugene. "Old people think the world better than it is because their faculties don't enable them to make such demands upon it."
"My dear Eugene," said Mrs. Lane pertinently, "what can you know about it? As we grow old we grow charitable."
"And why is that?" asked Morewood ”

“ All round and in every unbuilt on space are endless groves of date palms, with masses of yellow dates. The creeks are embanked with brick and lined with popular café's where incredible numbers of Arabs squat and eat or drink huggas and hacshish and the like. The creeks and river swarm with bhellums and mahilas. A bhellum is a cross between a gondola and a Canada canoe: and a mahila is a barge like the ones used by King Arthur, Elaine or the Lady of Shallott: and its course and destination are generally equally vague.
We stayed six days at B. mainly on a captured Turkish pilgrim ship. ”

“ Ah, Ayre! it's all empty to me now."
"For God's sake, be a man! Is there nothing on earth to be but a saint or a husband?"
Stafford looked at him inquiringly.
"Heavens, man! have you no ambition? Here you are, with ten men's brains, and you sit—I don't know how you sit—in sackcloth, clearly, but whether for heaven or for Claudia I don't know. You think it odd to hear me preach ambition? I'm a lazy devil; but I have some power. Yes, I'm in my way a power. I might have been a greater. You might be a greater than ever I could."
Stafford listened.
"Do good if you can," Ayre went on, "and you can. ”

“ Haddington."
"In the scheme of creation everything has its use," replied Eugene tranquilly. "Haddington supplies a felt want."
"Be quiet. But will you?"
"Yes; come along. Be swift and silent."
"I must go and put on an old frock."
"All right; be quick."
"What is the use?" Eugene pondered; "I can't have her, and Stafford may as well—if he will. Will he, I wonder? And would she? Oh, Lord! what a nuisance they are! By Jove! I should like to see Kate's face if she spots us."
A few minutes later the strange and unedifying sight of Lady Claudia Territon and Mr. ”