Mrs. Chadwick

“ No wonder that Mr Musgrave was annoyed; that he looked upon Mrs Chadwick as highly objectionable, and resented her presence in his house.
“You are a very daring woman,” commented Mrs Sommers. “Although I have grown up with John I would never have ventured to say such a thing as that.”
“Possibly,” returned Mrs Chadwick calmly, “if I had been brought up with John I would not have adventured either. Familiarity with a person’s prejudices makes one diffident. I am not laying myself out to please Mr Musgrave, but to modernise him, as you suggested. ”

“ I feel nearer God alone in His great world, than in any church built with human hands. But we must all follow our own light.” She spoke in her flat, soft voice, gravely but very simply; and she looked affectionately at her hostess as she added: “You wouldn’t want me to come with you from mere conformity.”
Poor Mrs. Chadwick, standing, her brood about her, in the sweet Sabbath sunlight, had to Oldmeadow’s eye an almost comically arrested air. How was a creedless, churchless mistress of Coldbrooks to be fitted in to her happy vision of Barney’s future? ”

“ The little village in which he lived his bachelor existence was invaded by some up-to-date people who took the Hall, and proceeded to liven up things. Mrs. Chadwick freely shocked the poor man; she smoked, was a reckless conversationalist and had modern ideas, all which disturbed the decorous manner of his life. Moreover, she had taken upon herself the heavy task of finding him a wife, and John's phlegmatic heart began to flutter when he saw Peggy, her lady-gardener and niece, standing on a ladder, in blue trousers. ”

“ You asked me if I liked Lord Chadwick. I was thinking. Somehow it seems to me that I rather like him, though I have no reason to do so. He thinks me crazy, but so do others; I know that my conversation bores him, he always tries to get away from me, yet somehow it seems to me that I do like him.'
'Is he a fast man, father, is he like Lord Chiselhurst?'
'He is much the same as the other men that come here. I don't think he's a bad man—no worse than other men. Is he kind to you, dear; tell me that; do you like him?'
'Yes, father; he and Mr. St. Clare are the men I like best here. ”

“ She spoke with listlessness rather than sympathy.
“Poor child,” said Oldmeadow. “One can hardly wonder at it. But it makes a wretched existence for you, I’m afraid. You and she oughtn’t to be alone together.”
He drew her to a chair and, seating herself, her faded face and eyes that had lost their old look of surprise turned to the light, Mrs. Chadwick assented, “It’s very fatiguing to live with, certainly. Sometimes I really think I must go away for a little while and have a change. Nancy would come and stay with Meg, you know. ”

“ Barney is better. When will you all be back at Coldbrooks?”
“In June, I hope. Yes; she is better. But so feeble, still; so frail. And quite, quite changed from her old bright self. It’s all very depressing, Roger. Very depressing and wearing,” said Mrs. Chadwick, opening her eyes very wide and staring before her in a way characteristic of her when she repressed tears. “Sometimes I hardly know how to keep up at all. For nothing cheers her. And Barney isn’t really much help. He has very little power of fighting against depression.” ”

“ Not by any means.”
“I don’t see how anyone can be more of one, nowadays, Roger. She heals people and she says prayers, and she is always good and gentle and never thinks of herself. I’m sure I can’t think what you want more.”
A touch of plaintiveness and even of protest had come into Mrs. Chadwick’s voice.
“Perhaps what I want is less,” he laughed. “Perhaps she’s too much of a saint for my taste. I think she’s a little too much of one for your taste, really—if you were to be quite candid with yourself. Has she spoken to you at all about Barney? ”

“ Those two women do not pull well together, it is impossible they should; for one is all natural fire, and the other all artificial ice. Mrs. Chadwick is evidently bent upon throwing this pretty girl at the head of Mr. Pratt, who is graciously condescending to spread out his palms to catch her; but Miss Eleanor, I imagine, does not intend to allow herself to be tossed about for her sister's amusement or advantage, and she will hold to her friend whom the worldly-wise Mrs. Chadwick so roundly denounces. Both these women, each in her own way, evidently feel strongly about that matter. ”

“ You must get back to Coldbrooks as soon as possible and see Nancy and Mrs. Averil and your neighbours. That will help to change the current of your thoughts.”
“People don’t forget so easily as that, Roger,” Mrs. Chadwick murmured, and it was now with severity, as though she suspected him of triviality. “When something terrible has happened to people they are in the current and Nancy and the neighbours are not going to change it. Poor Nancy; she feels it all as much as we do, I’m sure.”
And that Mrs. Chadwick thought of him as unfeeling he saw. She thought of him, too, with Barney, as criminal ”

“ The vicar smiled at her indulgently.
“I’ve a rebel, you see, John, in my own household. Mary only requires a kindred spirit to break into open revolt. The coming of Mrs Chadwick may create an upheaval.”
“I doubt whether the advent of Mrs Chadwick will work any great change,” John Musgrave returned in his heavy, serious fashion. “We are too settled to have the current of our ideas disturbed by a fresh arrival. She will adapt herself, possibly, to our ways.”
Mrs Errol rose with a little shrug of the shoulders, and left the room. ”

“ Chadwick, is one of those women who have the superficial knowledge and the taking manner which would please a man like Tito, and the girl no doubt has caught it from her. But, in addition to this, Mrs. Chadwick is a keen woman of the world, who conducted her own marriage on the cleverest commercial principles, and who wishes to see her sister as safely and as reputably landed. To such a person Tito is a catch, and his alliance very desirable; so that I shall have no assistance from her. The girl may possibly have the same views; but I should have a better chance with her than with her sister. ”

“ Chadwick; 'nothing of the sort. No such idea ever entered Sir Nugent Uffington's head. He has fixed his fancy on some one else; and he is very likely to have his way.'
'Indeed!' said Mr. Chadwick, who, when the question of Eleanor was thus disposed of, had no farther interest in Sir Nugent Uffington's matrimonial project; 'indeed!'
'Yes,' said Mrs. Chadwick; 'and the chance has come about in this way. Sir Nugent has come down to say that Lord Forestfield is very ill indeed--almost dying, I believe--and that he wishes to be reconciled to his wife before his death. ”

“ Chadwick delights in letters, dearly loves to live in an avalanche of notes and messages, and never loses an opportunity of despatching telegrams. She has a notion that it is chic to be perpetually busy 'with people and things outside her home, and she has succeeded in accreting to herself a number of fussy little intimacies which don't really mean anything--which would smash and go to pieces under the weight of a real trial, a genuine difficulty, either on her own part or on that of the object of any one of them, but which she maintains with scrupulous care. ”

“ Mrs Chadwick may have been mistaken in her deduction, but at least she believed in it firmly.
Had John Musgrave had any idea of what floated through her busy brain while she smilingly confided to him some of her plans for the improvement of Moresby, he would have been horrified. Marriage was the one subject of all others he considered it indelicate to dwell upon. If people married they did it for some good reason ”

“ Mrs Chadwick could have told him that such a woman did not exist outside a man’s imagination. She would not have done so, of course. She believed in encouraging masculine fallacies when they were harmless; to attempt discouragement was to invite defeat. Opposition is the least effective form of argument. A clever woman seldom makes the mistake of forcing her ideas; and Mrs Chadwick was undoubtedly clever. ”

“ Oldmeadow suggested. “And I believe that he is sincerely devoted to Meg.”
“Harm, Roger!” poor Mrs. Chadwick wailed, “when he is a married man and Meg only a girl! Oh, if there is harm in anything there is in that! Running away with a girl and ruining her life! Barney will make him feel what he has done. Barney has gone?”
“Yes, he’s gone, and I am sure we can rely on him to speak his mind to Hayward.”
“And don’t you think he may bring Meg back, Roger? Nancy says I must not set my mind on it; but don’t you think she may be repenting already? My poor little Meg! ”

“ Oldmeadow suggested, to which Mrs. Chadwick murmured, “I’m sure they seem to have devils in them, sometimes, poor dears, when they won’t let themselves be caught. Do get some more cream, Barbara. It’s really too hot for arguments, isn’t it,” and Mrs. Chadwick sighed with the relief of having rounded that dangerous corner.
Barbara went away with the cream-jug and Johnson emerged bearing the afternoon post.
“Ah. Letters. Good.” Palgrave sat up to take his and Adrienne’s share. “One for you, Adrienne; from Meg. Now we shall see what she says about meeting us in the Tyrol.” ”

“ Jabez, Jabez, do try!”
“I will,” said he, hoarsely.
Had he not often declared in his secret heart that he would give his life to serve her?—and should he be ungenerous enough to shrink now?
“It is folly to attempt. I forbid it!” exclaimed Mrs. Ashton, laying her hand on his arm. And Ellen Chadwick, pale as Augusta, tried to stop him with—“You must not! you must not! You will perish!”
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Even strangers from the crowd warned him back. But he was gone ere Mrs. Chadwick softly recalled her daughter to herself. “Hush! Ellen. This is not seemly. Mr. Clegg will attempt nothing impossible.” ”

“ Once or twice Augusta tapped at the door, to ask if Jabez was better, and to “hope he would soon be well,” and the simple words ran through his brain with a thousand chimerical meanings.
Joshua Brookes paid him a couple of visits, brought him papers of sweetmeats and messages from Mrs. Clowes, and a Latin Testament and a worn Æneid from his own stores, as a little light reading. Mrs. Chadwick, too, made her appearance at his bedside, with kindly and grateful words from her husband; and amongst them he was in a fair way of becoming elevated into a hero to his own hurt. ”

“ Mrs Chadwick glanced towards John Musgrave, seated erect in his chair, conversing seriously with the vicar’s bored little wife; then her eyes wandered back to Belle’s face and rested there affectionately.
“You have set me something of a task,” she said. “But I am going to attempt it.”
Walter Errol laughed softly.
“Since I possess already unshakable faith in your sex,” he said, “I predict enormous changes. ‘Ce n’est pas une simple émeute, c’est un révolution.’”
Chapter Five. ”

“ If girls who behave like Meg find it pleasanter to be called fools than knaves, they are welcome to the alternative. Noble they never were nor will be, whatever the fashion.”
Oldmeadow did not want the sandwiches, so, as soon as they reached Coldbrooks, he was led upstairs to Mrs. Chadwick’s room. He found his poor friend lying on the sofa, the blinds drawn down and a wet handkerchief on her forehead. She burst out crying as he entered. Oldmeadow sat down beside her and took her hand and, as he listened to her sobs, felt that he need not trouble to pity Adrienne. ”

“ Row! Row! We must win."
"Don't let 'em pass us!" came from the Fairview coxswain. "A few strokes—only a few more!"
The boats were even! Pandemonium had now broken loose. The band was drowned out by shouts. Ruth found herself hammering Madge on the back, and shouting—she knew not what—in her ear. Madge was crying—she did not know why.
As for the Randall lads, they were mere machines. There was no more thought left in them. They saw nothing, but each man in front of him viewed his fore-man's back—Frank could not see the face of Jackson, but he could hear his rasping voice. ”

“ If I am to marry, I do not see that I could do better than choose that little girl. She has no money, to be sure, but I have plenty, and she is quite the sort of person who will do one credit by her appearance. There is nothing objectionable in her surroundings either, which is a great point; for though Chadwick is not polished, every one knows him and he receives the best people, and there would be no real reason for seeing more of him than we chose. ”

“ She could have obtained the notoriety she wanted in one season, by entering into a desperate flirtation--for there would have been no lack of men willing to flirt to any extent with her, some for mere fun, and others in the hope of making a good thing of it--and there are always plenty of persons ready to spread scandal and slander. But Mrs. Chadwick had no intention of entering upon any flirtation, even of the mildest kind ”

“ John Musgrave with a touch of the Byronic weakness might have been interesting, and would certainly have been lovable. Coldness of itself is scarcely a virtue, nor is it an endearing characteristic. The man possessed of a big heart and a quite legitimate inclination towards the opposite sex is human; and Mrs Chadwick loved humanity.
The most human types she had as yet discovered in Moresby were those of the vicar and his wife, and Robert. Robert and the new mistress of the Hall were allies. Robert held the sex, as a sex, in contempt ”

“ There was nothing left for Mr Musgrave to do save order his car for a certain hour to take the ladies into Rushleigh.
Most people would have been relieved to be spared further trouble; but John Musgrave was old-fashioned. He felt that in these matters it was fitting that the woman should depend on the man; just as he would prefer that a woman confronted with a burglar should scream for assistance rather than attempt an encounter with the intruder, physical courage being no more a womanly attribute than independence. But Mrs Chadwick belonged to a type of womanhood he had not met with before. ”