Lord Cheriton

“ Cheriton had never seen her display so much color as when he made her a little bow to attest his bona fides. It was rather a pity that his smile unconsciously resembled that of a satyr; not, however, that it really mattered, for although the ever-observant Caroline duly noted it Miss Burden did not.
“It is twenty-five minutes past two, Lord Cheriton,” said Miss Perry, putting a sugar-plum in her mouth, “and you have promised to take me to the circus.”
“Cheriton,” said the old lady, “I forbid you to do anything of the kind. To spend three afternoons a week at a circus is outrageous.” ”

“ You would have been sorry if a footman had knocked down one of your Sèvres vases and smashed it. One is sorry for anything that can’t be replaced.”
“That is a harsh and unjust way of speaking, Mrs. Porter,” said Lord Cheriton, drawing himself up suddenly with an air of wounded dignity. “You can tell me nothing about our trouble, I see; and I am not in the mood to talk of any older grief. Good night.”
He lifted his hat with grave respect and walked back to the park gate, vanishing slowly from those grey eyes which followed him in eager watchfulness. ”

“ Lord Cheriton returned to Dorsetshire on the following afternoon. He drove from Wareham to the Priory, and had a long tête-à-tête with Theodore in the garden before dinner.
“You have acted for my daughter throughout this miserable business,” he said, when he had told all that was to be told about Mrs. Porter’s seclusion at Cheshunt. “She has confided in you more completely even than in me—her father, and I leave my cause in your hands. You must plead to the daughter for the erring father, whose sin has exercised a fatal influence upon her life. ”

“ So far as any man can think with satisfaction of the days when he shall be no more—and when this world will go on, badly, of course, but somehow, without him—Lord Cheriton thought of those far-off years when Godfrey Carmichael should be owner of Cheriton Chase. The young man had shown such fine qualities of heart and mind, and, above all, had given such unobtrusive evidence of his affection for Juanita’s father, that the elder man must needs give measure for measure ”

“ A man might have understood as much only to see him lean over the cob’s neck, and pat him, as he did to-night, riding slowly up the hill that leads from Cheriton to the wild ridge of heath above Branksea Island.
Theodore Dalbrook, junior partner in the firm of Dalbrook & Son, Cornhill, Dorchester, was a more distant relative of Juanita’s than the sandy first-cousin in the auctioneer’s office whom Lord Cheriton had once hated as the only alternative to a charitable endowment. The sandy youth was the only son of Lord Cheriton’s elder brother, long since dead. ”

“ Lord Cheriton hailed the first hansom he found upon his way, and told the man to drive him to Camberwell Grove.
The neighbourhood through which he went was curiously unfamiliar after the changes and forgetfulness of twenty years; and yet it was curiously familiar to him, and brought back the memory of that dead time, when a man who was himself, and yet not himself, had gone to and fro that road until its every shop-front and every street corner seemed engraven upon his brain.
It is a busy, teeming world—a world of seething humanity, jostling, striving, anxious, hollow-cheeked and eager-eyed. ”

“ She comes to my room every night to see if I am miserable. She is very good to Tobias. Aunt Caroline says she is too romantic. She had a love affair when she was younger. Lord Cheriton says I must be careful that I don’t have one, as they are so bad for the complexion. He says he knows as a fact that all the men in London are untrustworthy. He says oldish men, particularly if they have been married twice, are very dangerous. As Dearest Papa is not here to advise me, Lord Cheriton acts as he thinks Dearest Papa would like him to. He goes out with me everywhere to see that I come to no harm. ”

“ Lord Cheriton took lemon with his tea, also a rusk.
“Genius is a delightful thing,” said he, conversationally. “I have a genius for admiring it in others.”
“One feels sure you must have,” said Jim’s mother, most sympathetically. “I am trying to cultivate it also. As one is the mother of a highly gifted son, one feels that one ought.”
“Precisely,” said Cheriton. “And may one venture [238] to remark that you will not find the undertaking difficult?”
“Lord Cheriton,” said Jim, in a tone of warning, “weigh your words carefully. My life is in danger of becoming a burden to me. ”

“ Then, too, Muffin dearest, I must tell you that Aunt Caroline and Lord Cheriton have almost quarreled over Gobo. Lord C. insists upon not inviting the harmless old dear. He says if he comes to the ball he will abuse the wine, yet drink more of it than is good for him, and that he will play bridge all the evening and be a nuisance to everybody. Lord Cheriton says he always vitiates an atmosphere of virginal purity by saying and doing things that he oughtn’t. I suppose Lord Cheriton will have to have his way, because he is acting as a sort of deputy to Dearest Papa. ”

“ If girls will be so stupid they must take the consequences.”
“Do you really think I ought?”
[316] “You know you ought, Mrs. Lascelles,” said Cheriton, almost sternly. “And you know that you will. It is the least that a woman and a mother can do.”
The mother of Jim Lascelles sighed deeply.
“Yes, Lord Cheriton,” said she, “I am afraid you are right.”
The gray eyes were fixed upon Gwydr. But Gwydr appeared to frown upon them.
How long Jim’s mother and Lord Cheriton sat on the round slab of slate by the marge of Lake Dwygy is not really material to this history. ”

“ Who was his murderer, and what the motive of the crime? Those were questions which Lord Cheriton had been asking himself with maddening iteration through that intolerable summer day. He welcomed the fading sunlight of late afternoon. He could eat [Pg 64] nothing; would not even sit down to make a pretence of dining; but waited chafing in the great stone hall of the hotel for the carriage that was to take him and his wife to the steamer.
CHAPTER VIII.
“The stars move still, Time runs, the clock will strike.” ”

“ Jack was going to dine and sleep at Ashrigg, he himself had another dinner engagement, and on the next day he had really promised to go early and shoot with Lord Milford. Cheriton had forgotten all about this, and, anxious not to irritate Alvar, said nothing about the magistrates’ meeting during the short time they were together.
Chapter Forty Four. A New Life.
“His peaceful being slowly passes by
To some more perfect peace.”
The next morning Cheriton slept late, and awoke to the consciousness that he had caught a slight cold, “which,” as he said to himself, “might happen to any one.” ”

“ The eyes glittered as fiercely and as shrewdly as of yore; the curve of the nose was just as grim and hawklike as ever; while as for the resolute jaw and the thin-lipped, tightly drawn mouth, enough hard sarcasm and unflinching force of character lurked about it to quell the vast majority of human kind.
Cheriton was a fop and fribble, as all the world knew. Nevertheless, he belonged to that honorable company that is not abashed easily. He greeted the formidable occupant of the four-poster with a robustness of demeanor that served him well. ”

“ If old Lady Crewkerne derived a grim satisfaction from the absolute possession of the nine days’ wonder, Cheriton was one of the proudest and happiest men in London. He took to himself the whole merit of the discovery.
“I assure you,” he declared to a circle of the elect, “that blind old woman would never have seen the likeness. It was quite providential that I happened to look in and point it out.”
In matters of art Cheriton’s taste was really fastidious. And in addition to his other foibles no man was more susceptible to beauty. ”

“ Cheriton felt it to be a hopeful one. He was sure that he had no serious rival to contend against, for George with all his flourishes was sure to end by marrying Priscilla. The Georges of this world invariably marry the Priscillas.
“I am willing to tie three thousand a year upon the creature,” said Cheriton. His tone was not exactly that of an auctioneer, although his standard of wisdom rendered it necessary that he should always suit his discourse to his company. “Upon the condition, my dear Caroline, that you tie an equal sum upon her. ”

“ With a grim, but not ungrateful, inclination of the second-best turban, the recipient began to relieve the present of its numerous trappings. A small but expensive hand-glass was exposed to view.
“Thank you, Cheriton. A very charming present.”
“I hope it pleases you, my dear Caroline,” said Cheriton, with quite the bel air. “You have so long defied time that I felt a memento of his impotence might appeal to you.”
“Thank you, Cheriton,” said the redoubtable Caroline. “It is very kind to remember an old woman.”
“A woman is as old as she looks,” said Cheriton, “as Byron says.” ”

“ All this was fully apparent to Cheriton. There was no longer the daze and confusion of that first attack of illness, the boyish astonishment at the fact of being ill at all, the novelty of all the surroundings, now, alas! so familiar; no longer, too, the sense that the exceeding sweetness of life made death incredible; no longer the same instinctive dependence on those around. Since then Cheriton had travelled a long way on the road of life, had looked across the dark river, and grown familiar with the thought of its other shore ”

“ The discovery shocked Cheriton unspeakably; all the parties concerned were well known to him, and he felt that of such sins he could never think or speak lightly. But he would not join in loud or careless blame of his friend, who perhaps felt his truest pang of repentance at the boy’s confused miserable face in the one parting interview allowed by Mr Lester before Roland joined his regiment, about to sail for India. ”

“ By one of those coincidences in which real life indulges so recklessly, Miss Perry had not reached the bottom of the stairs when Cheriton, duly admitted by John, and himself armed cap-à-pie for Divine worship in a brand-new wig, with freshly dyed mustache, light-gray trousers, lilac gloves, white gaiters, and a gardenia in his buttonhole, was enabled to take up a strategical position in the entrance-hall. ”

“ Surely there is to be found in the world some youngish person of modest attractions—do not delude yourself, Cheriton, that you can ask for more—to whom you can offer a vocation.”
“There is a little actress at the Gayety,” said Cheriton, thoughtfully. “She seems a healthy creature. I dare say she——”
“Burden, quit the room,” said the old lady. ”

“ During luncheon Cheriton was seen to particular advantage. At any time it called for very little effort on his part for him to be one of the most agreeable men in London. To-day he excelled. He retailed some of the newest stories and a quantity of the freshest gossip; he was really genial to George Betterton, and encouraged him to enlarge at length upon the [195] subject of the Militia; and to his hostess he gave a tip for the Oaks, for which species of information she had a decided weakness. ”

“ If he cannot do one thing he does another. And they have evening services in the summer, and early ones when it is possible. I think the sort of resolute way in which Cheriton has recognised the need of special care of himself, if he is to be useful, and carries it out, is one of the most remarkable things about him. Many young men might have killed themselves with hard work, and many would forget the danger when well and in good spirits, but he has recognised the limitations set to him, and bows to them.”
“Yes, and he does not offend his vicar.” ”

“ Those who should be sentinels are sleeping on their posts, if not going over to the enemy outright, and he who strives to awaken them must expect their enmity, aye, though he prove every word he says to be in agreement with the standards of that very Church he is accused of striving to pull down."
"True," said Mr. Cheriton, "I am taken to task severely for teaching that a man may know his sins forgiven, and that by those who read the Absolution every day. But I dare not condemn my brethren, seeing what mine own life has been," said Mr. Cheriton, sadly. ”

“ The Priory was by no means so fine a place as Cheriton, but it was old, and not without interest, and Lady Jane was justified in the assertion that it was too large for her. It would be too small perhaps for Sir Godfrey and his wife in the days to come, when in the natural course of events James Dalbrook would be at rest after his life labour, and Cheriton would belong to Juanita.
“No doubt they will like Cheriton better than the Priory when we are all dead and gone,” said Lady Jane, with her plaintive air. “I only hope they will have a family. Big houses are so dismal without little people.” ”

“ As Cheriton bore his candle up the ghostly stone-flagged staircase, with suits of armor grinning at him and mediæval weapons menacing him from the walls, and the young moon peering at him through the oriel windows, he knew that his old adversary would make a last final and consummate effort to entangle George Betterton. And if she succeeded, the United Kingdom would not contain a happier old woman than she. ”

“ For there was precious little justice in that old woman. She was well satisfied that she had won at cards, but in [360] the matter of her niece she had a very decided feeling that that man Cheriton had overreached her. The clause of the three thousand pounds per annum took a good deal of the gilt off the gingerbread. Without that clause there would have been a certain amount of gilt upon it.
Cheriton, for all his coxcombry, was a pretty considerable parti, at whom the arrows of the worldly had been aimed for two generations. But in Caroline’s own phrase, “Cheriton was no fool.” ”