Mr. Wendover

“ It is a day for basking rather than work. Shall we go to the end of the lane—there is a lovely view from there—and sit and bask?'
'With all my heart,' replied Mr. Wendover. 'Come, Miss Palliser, of course you'll join the basking detachment.'
Urania would have liked to leave Ida out of the business, but she smiled sweetly at Mr. Wendover's speech, and they all three strolled to the end of the lane, which ascended all the way, till they found themselves upon a fine upland, with a lovely view of woodland and valley stretching away towards Alresford. ”

“ Extreme, indeed, was the joy of Mr. Wendover as he clasped his child, [216] and implored blessings on her deliverer, whom in his wet condition, with his hair hanging about his face, the merchant did not recognize, but to whom he promised payment of the large reward which he had offered, supposing that alone to have been the motive for going to the rescue of Helen. Frank made no reply, for ignorant of Mr. Wendover's forgetfulness, he imagined that he must be known, and he felt indignant at money being offered for saving one who was far more precious to him than his own life. ”

“ Wendover had taken no stimulants since he had been attending upon him.
'Are you sure he cannot get any without your knowledge?' Ida asked. 'Dr. Mallison told me that in this malady a patient is terribly artful—that he will contrive to evade the closest watchfulness, if it is any way possible to get drink.'
'Ah, that's true enough, ma'am,' sighed the man; 'there's no getting to the bottom of their artfulness: but I'm an old hand, and I know all the ins and outs of the complaint. It isn't possible for Mr. Wendover to get any drink in this house, and he never goes out of it without me. ”

“ A week later she heard from Laura Wing, from Antwerp, that she was sailing to America from that port—a letter containing no mention whatever of Selina or of the reception she had found at Brussels. To America Mr. Wendover followed his young compatriot (that at least she had no right to forbid) , and there, for the moment, he has had a chance to practise the humble virtue recommended by Lady Davenant. He knows she has no money and that she is staying with some [Pg 158] distant relatives in Virginia; a situation that he—perhaps too superficially—figures as unspeakably dreary. ”

“ Brian stifled a yawn.
'No; I'm afraid I have never worked hard enough for that. The need will come, perhaps, later—when the work comes.'
On more than one occasion when Ida talked of the Abbey, Mr. Wendover replied in the same tone. It was evident that he was indifferent to the family seat, or that he even disliked it. He had no pride in surroundings which might have inspired another man. ”

“ No, it is not the custom for young ladies here to [Pg 76] take strange gentlemen off to call on their friends the first time they see them.'
'So that Lady Davenant will think it rather extraordinary?' Mr. Wendover eagerly inquired; not as if that idea frightened him, but so that his observation on this point should also be well founded. He had entered into Laura's proposal with complete serenity. ”

“ You'll never see him; if he is a gentleman he'll rush away.'
'Bless me, what a rushing away!' murmured the old woman. Then passing her arm round Laura she added, 'You'll please to come upstairs with me.'
Half an hour later she had some conversation with her butler which led to his consulting a little register into which it was his law to transcribe with great neatness, from their cards, the addresses of new visitors. This volume, kept in the drawer of the hall table, revealed the fact that Mr. Wendover was staying in George Street, Hanover Square. ”

“ Two men don't waltz round like that when they're carrying anyone, usually. It's impossible, for their footmarks show they were both walking straight ahead all the time; and if they were carrying a man between them they'd have had to reverse somehow if the front man changed round to the rear. That's no good, Mr. Wendover.”
“What do you propose then, inspector?” Wendover inquired, without troubling to repress a nettled tone in his voice.
“I propose to take casts of their footprints and hunt up shoes to match, if I can.”
“I shouldn't trouble, inspector,” Sir Clinton interposed. ”

“ Wendover—that's you, you know—not Mrs. Wendover at Kingthorpe.'
'Oh, Vernie, you were not listening?'
'Of course not. I wasn't listening on purpose; but I was in the lobby outside the housekeeper's room, waiting for some grease for my shooting boots. I always grease them myself, you know, for nobody else does it properly; and Rogers said the brandy Mr. Wendover had drunk in three weeks would make Mrs. Moggs' hair stand on end ”

“ An hour elapsed before Brady was recovered from his fit, which left him weak and exhausted, but restored to consciousness and to a sense of his perilous situation: still the inveterate and hardened criminal was unsubdued, and retained all the craftiness of his character. Mr. Wendover addressed him in energetic language. Frank earnestly implored him to reveal all he knew of the fate of his parent, but the wily man "denied all knowledge of the lieutenant beyond placing him in the hackney-coach." ”

“ Jardine's first act was to telegraph to the London physician, his next, to put the unused bottles of cognac under lock and key, and, with Towler's help, to clear away the empty bottles without the knowledge of the servants. No doubt every member of the household knew the nature of Mr. Wendover's illness; but it was well to spare him the exposure of these degrading details.
CHAPTER XXVIII. AN ENGLISHMAN'S HOUSE IS HIS CASTLE. Ida felt a strange relief to her spirits, despite the absolute blackness of her domestic horizon, when the carriage drove away from Wimperfield. ”

“ The old lady however concealed such surprise as she may have felt, and greeted Mr. Wendover as if he were any one of fifty familiars. She took him altogether for granted and asked him no questions about his arrival, his departure, his hotel or his business in England. He noticed, as he afterwards confided to Laura, her omission of these forms; but he was not wounded by it—he only made a mark against it as an illustration of the difference between English and American manners: in New York people always asked the arriving stranger the first thing about the steamer and the hotel. Mr. ”

“ Berrington had been happy enough to be Miss Lina, even though she was the elder sister; and the girl liked to think there were still old friends—friends of the family, at home, for whom, even should she live to sixty years of spinsterhood, she would never be anything but Miss Laura. This was as good as Donna Anna or Donna Elvira: English people could never call people as other people did, for fear of resembling the servants.
Mr. Wendover was very attentive, as well as [Pg 69] communicative; however his letter might be regarded in Grosvenor Place he evidently took it very seriously himself ”

“ One knows everything that anybody else knows in a small village like Wendover."
"You do not know when Mr. Lytton and Miss Cavendish are to be married?"
"No, because I do not think they know themselves. But the people say it will be as soon as the young gentleman gets settled in his practice."
"Good again! The delay is favorable," muttered Mary Grey to herself. ”

“ She thought her uncle was in trouble; went to help him; dodged the constable; and fell straight into the trap they'd set for her. You know all the rest. And probably by now you understand why I was quite content to let Mr. Aird have his full dose in the funnel of the souffleur. There's nothing like a confession for convincing a jury, and I meant him to hang if it could be managed. I didn't want to run any risk of his getting off merely because it was all circumstantial evidence.”
“Thanks,” said Wendover, seeing that the chief constable had finished his outline. ”

“ You will want hours to dress. No: Blanche must make herself useful for once in her ridiculous life. Au revoir, auntie darling. Go, lovely rose'—to Ida—'and make yourself still lovelier in order to captivate Dr. Rylance.'
The dinner was over. It had passed without a hitch, and the gentlemen were now enjoying their claret and conversation in a comfortable semicircle in front of Miss Wendover's roomy hearth.
The conversation was for the most part strictly local, Colonel Wendover and Mr. Hildrop Havenant leading, and the Vicar a good second ”

“ If you have any such high-flown idea, abandon it. The Wendovers are not a mercenary tribe. We shall welcome Brian's bride, whoever she be, for her own sake, and not for her dowry.'
'It is no such reason. I cannot tell you. You must forgive me, and let me go.'
'Then I forgive you, and you can go,' replied Miss Wendover, coldly. 'I am deeply disappointed in you. If you cared for me as you say you do, you would trust me. Love without faith is an impossibility. ”

“ It is picturesquely situated in a shallow defile of the Chiltem Hills, towards their western face. Wendover is a quiet town of no great activity. Its church of St Mary is mainly Decorated, and a few old houses remain.
Wendover (Wendovre, Wandovre, Wendoura) is on the Upper Icknield Way, which was probably an ancient British road, and various traces of a British settlement have been found in the town and neighbourhood. In 1087 the king held the manor of Wendover, and therefore it belonged to the ancient demesne of the crown. There is no trace of any incorporation of the town. ”

“ Ida's occupation at the table gave her an excuse for silence. She had only to attend to her cups and saucers, and to listen to Miss Wendover and her nephew, who had plenty to talk about. To hear that deep full voice, with its perfect intonation, was in itself a pleasure—pleasant, also, to discover that Brian Wendover, albeit a famous Balliol man and a Greek scholar after the Porsonian ideal, could still be warmly interested in simple things and lowly folk. ”

“ When he was indoors his stentorian voice penetrated from garret to cellar; when he was out of doors the same deep-toned thunder could be heard across a couple of paddocks. He pervaded the gardens and stables, supervised the home farm, and had a finger in every pie.
Mrs. Wendover was sitting in her own particular arm-chair, close to her husband's sofa—they were seldom seen far apart—with a large basket of crewel-work beside her, containing sundry squares of kitchen towelling and a chaos of many-coloured wools, which never seemed to arrive at any result. ”

“ Wendover was evidently anything but a reading man.
'No wonder he does not like the Abbey,' she thought. 'The country must always seem dull to a man who does not care for books.'
And then she reminded herself remorsefully of his generous affection, his single-minded devotion to her, and how much gratitude she owed him.
She read all that was worth reading in the magazines, she laughed at all that was laughable in Punch, and the long, slow day wore on somehow. Mrs. Topman brought her lunch, and consulted her about dinner. ”

“ The Abbey was the ancestral home of the Wendovers, now in possession of Brian Wendover, only son of the Colonel's eldest brother, and head of the house.
'Well, don't upset her oftener than you can help,' replied the father. 'I suppose you don't much mind being spilt off an outside car, Miss Palliser? I believe young ladies of your age rather relish the excitement.'
'She needn't be afraid,' said Reginald; 'I am going to drive.'
'Then we are very likely to find ourselves reposing in a ditch before the day is over,' retorted Bessie. ”

“ Which speech being interpreted meant that Miss Wendover had not had a new frock or an invitation to a garden party for the last fortnight.
'Still,' she argued,' one ought to make the best of one's life even at Kingthorpe, and picnics and rambles help one to endure existence. You used to be such a delightful companion, and now no one but little Vernie ever seems to get any fun out of you. He is always talking of the larks he has at the Abbey.'
'Sir Vernon is good enough to call the mildest form of diversion a lark!' said Brian Wendover, smiling at her. ”

“ But if he’s one of them, he’ll have to be fairly smart. I’ve got photographs of all the ones who were at the Maze—took them under pretence of needing someone to give the scale in the pictures. A photograph’s better than a description, you know.”
Wendover was silent for a few seconds.
“I suppose you’re going to Ardsley about the poison on the darts?” ”

“ Wendover, while an outspoken and honest writer, is more moderate in his language than Paris, and therefore probably more trustworthy where personal character is concerned; but his chronicle, partly because it reveals less strong feeling, lacks the vigour and brightness that distinguish the work of Paris. A fairly complete picture of the younger historian can be gained from his writings, but the ‘Flores’ do not enable us to become acquainted with Wendover. ”

“ That exquisite neatness which gave such a charm to Wendover's house was not attained without labour. The polished surface of the old Chippendale bureaus, the inlaid Sheraton chairs and tables, could only be maintained by daily care. A housemaid's perfunctory dusting was not sufficient here; and Miss Wendover, gloved and aproned, and armed with leathers and brushes, gave at least half an hour every morning to the care of her old furniture. Another half hour was devoted to china; and the floral arrangements indoors, even in this wintry season, occupied half an hour more. ”