Peter Paragon

“ A few days later Marbury came to town and took his seat as member for Sandhaven. Peter secured him for the following evening, and they all three dined together at the flat in Golder's Green. Marbury was called upon for advice as to Curzon Street.
"Peter," he said, "this is a new phase. Don't encourage him, Mrs. Paragon. He wasn't intended for an exquisite. He's too robust."
"He does not need encouraging," said Mrs. [Pg 218] Paragon. She had calmly accepted Peter's new enthusiasm, and now only wondered how long it would endure. ”

“ It was arranged that Peter should give a farewell dinner. Atterbury insisted on the Savoy, and tactfully picked a day when the Wenderbys were to be out of town. He frankly discussed the position over Mrs. Paragon's dinner-table in Curzon Street. Vivette was there—accepted by Mrs. Paragon with large reserve.
"We want all Peter's friends," he said, "except those who cannot be present. It will be an advantage if Lady Mary is far away. She doesn't go at all well with Vivette." ”

“ Paragon rose and went thoughtfully home.
By the time he reached the Kidderminster Road he had definitely settled the question of Peter's career. Peter should get knowledge. He should [Pg 38] possess the inner fortress of learning. He should be the perfect knight of the oppressed people, armed at all points. Thus did Mr. Paragon reconcile his Radical prejudices with his fatherly ambition.
Arrived home, he showed the headmaster's letter to Mrs. Paragon. ”

“ Paragon intended, to discover the fraud of priests and kings, but to voyage with Shelley's Mab through the beautiful stars.
To-night the adventure had lost its edge. Nothing could be more exciting than a transit of Jupiter's third moon. The gradual approach of the tiny moon to the edge of the planet; its momentary extinction; the slow passage of the little shadow on the cloud-bright surface—the loveliness of this miniature play was sharpened for [Pg 19] Peter by knowledge of its immensity. Mr. Paragon gave up the telescope to Peter, and waited for breathless exclamation. But Peter was silent. ”

“ Le Roy," said Atterbury.
Vivette looked at Mrs. Paragon in astonishment.
"May I look?" she asked. Mrs. Paragon handed her the sketch.
"Yes," said Vivette, "she is certainly beautiful."
Atterbury turned to her:
"She will be worse for you than Lady Mary."
"That was my nonsense. I love a beautiful woman." She handed back the picture.
[Pg 309]
"Peter hasn't seen it. He may not approve," she warned Atterbury.
"I'm arranging this dinner," said Atterbury. "Still Peter may look."
"I'll wait for the original," Peter growled.
"Where do you say she is staying?" said Peter's mother to Atterbury. ”

“ Every sensation died in Peter. He stood in the darkness, hearing small noises of water, the light patter of soot dislodged from the chimney, the creak and rustle of a house deserted.
When his eyes were used to the dark, he moved towards a glimmer from the hall-door. He could not yet believe what he saw. He expected the silence of his dream to break. Mechanically he went through the house, standing at last under the eaves of Miranda's attic-room. ”

“ Mr. Paragon broke out.
"Education," Henry began.
"Education yourself," interrupted Mr. Paragon. "What's the good of all that second-hand stuff?"
"It helps."
"Yes. It helps to make a nob of my son. It's little he'll learn at the University except to take off his hat to people no better than himself."
"Can't you trust him?"
"Peter's all right," Mr. Paragon jealously admitted.
"There's no harm in a bit of Greek. You talk [Pg 37] as if it was going to turn him straight off into a bishop."
Uncle Henry paused, and, desiring to make a point, took the hearthrug. ”

“ Mrs. Paragon did not, like many of her friends, overtask an incompetent drudge at £10 a year. She saved her money, and halved her labour. Ends met; and things were decently in order. Mr. Paragon was happy; insured against reasonable disaster; with sufficient energy and spirit left at the end of a day's work to take himself seriously as a citizen and a man.
There were times when Mr. Paragon took himself very seriously indeed. On the evening of the day when Mr. Samuel, curate of the parish, called to urge Mrs. Paragon to have Peter christened, Mr. ”

“ He heard only snatches of their talk, enough to show that Miranda entirely outmatched him in conversation and address. She was complete mistress of herself. She had put away all sense of crisis, ignoring the tumult of her late encounter. Atterbury loved all things French, and Peter had many opportunities to notice their enthusiastic agreement.
Peter could not so well recover. Miranda's return had blotted out the last five years. He saw no change in her. She was the woman he had always divined her to be. He had never seen in her the awkward girl whose disappearance Mrs. Paragon had noted. ”

“ Paragon. I have given up Lady Mary."
"We ought to have Lady Mary on the mantelpiece," said Vivette. "She'd go so well with the china."
"Envy," Atterbury retorted. "You say that because you can't sit still, and haven't a decent feature in your face."
"Lady Mary is the most beautiful woman in the world," Peter solemnly intervened.
"Hark to the oracle," cried Vivette.
"He's not far wrong," said Atterbury. "My heart always beats a little faster when she comes suddenly round the corner in a crush." ”

“ Life's too fine to be picked up anyhow."
"It's not easy to keep with the young. There's so much to understand."
Mrs. Paragon said this a little sadly, and Mr. Paragon felt bound to comfort her.
"Peter's a good boy," he said.
Meantime Peter in his attic was not asleep. It was his habit, shut in his room for the night, to climb through the skylight, and sit upon a flat and cozy space of the roof by the warm chimney. [Pg 28] There he was frequently joined by Miranda from the attic of the next house.
But Peter sat this evening at the window. The garden was quick with faint play of the wind ”

“ Peter might justly have complained that his birth was too calmly received. For Peter's mother accepted him without demur. Women who nurse themselves more thoroughly than they nurse their babies will incredulously hear that Mrs. Paragon made little difference in her life on Peter's account until within four hours of his coming. Nevertheless Peter was a healthy baby, shapeless and mottled. ”

“ Paragon had not for nothing lived with his wife for nearly seventeen years.
[Pg 39]
VI
Peter was not happy at the High School. It is disconcerting, when you have been First Boy and a Captain, to be put among inferior creatures to learn Greek. Peter had risen with his former friends from the lowest to the highest; they had grown together in sport and learning. ”

“ The contrast was striking at these times between Peter and his father. For Mr. Paragon every double star resolved was a nail in the coffin of the Established Church; every wonder of the skies, inspected and verified, was a confirmation that society was built on stubble. But for Peter these excursions were food for fancy, the stuff of his dreams. He soared into space, not as Mr. ”

“ Vivette curled herself up.
"This is heavenly," she purred. "I simply love peace and quietness."
"I've noticed it," said Peter bitterly, surveying a litter of empty champagne bottles on the table behind them.
"Don't, Peter. You are spoiling the beautiful silence. Besides, your views are all wrong. The only people who really understand peace and quietness are people who also like a jolly good racket. We get it both ways."
"You always do," said Atterbury. "Life is the art of getting it both ways—eh, Vivette?"
"Not worth living," grunted Peter.
"That's your ignorance, Peter," said Vivette. ”

“ Peter was amazed at the diversity of the stalls—substantial dames, platitudes in flesh and blood, whom he instinctively matched with the men who lunched solidly to the east of Fleet Street; women, beside them, who breathed ineffable distinction; vivacious young girls bright with pleasure and health; women, beside them, boldly putting a final touch to an elaborate complexion. Other parts of the house were more of a kind. The balcony beneath him presented a solid front of formal linen and dresses in the mean of fashion. ”

“ Peter's adventure would not with her have ended perfectly; but neither would it have ended in a fruition merely brutal. She realised how gradually he was losing grip of himself, and saw him soon as tinder for any woman with brains and a high temperature. She saw him slipping his self-respect. She would last night have saved him from the worst. There was friendliness and grace enough between them to justify their passion. But Vivette was now differently inspired. Surely Peter could be braced and stiffened. ”

“ Haversham had told him that Wenderby was a charming fellow. Peter wondered whether he would ever be a charming fellow; and, in a fit of misgiving, began to exhaust the possibilities of self-contempt. He had had a glimpse of the beautiful life; but suppose he were not worthy to enter. Suppose Haversham could not be the friend of a young colt who had nothing in the world to fit him for an agreeable part in the social comedy. Suppose he would never again come into touch with exquisite creatures like Lady Mary. ”

“ He waved his hands in an inclusive gesture toward the chairs and tables. Mrs. Paragon mildly looked about her.
"But, Peter, I thought you liked all this pretty furniture."
"It's modern," said Peter briefly. "There is no such thing as modern furniture. Ask Marbury."
He came and sat on the arm of his mother's chair.
"I must get Marbury to help. I want to see you talking to Lady Mary over a tea-table by the Brother's Adam."
"Peter, this is the third time to-day you have mentioned Lord Marbury's sister."
"Naturally, mother. This is polling day at Highbury. ”

“ In that moment Peter had his first glimpse of the irony of life. He felt impulsively that he ought to comfort that foolish bowed figure whose babble had been so rudely answered.
Then, as Mr. Smith was seen to wipe his watery eyes with a spotted handkerchief, Peter grew impatient under that sting of absurdity which in life pricks the holiest sorrow. He turned sharply away, and in the path he saw Miranda.
She put out her arm with a blind gesture to check the momentum of his recoil from the lighted window. He caught at her hand, but his fingers closed upon the rough serge of her sleeve. ”

“ Peter felt that Miranda was right. He would come to her with a mind blown fresh by the sea. No wraith of an experience unshared would survive into the perfect day of their marriage. The scattered rays of his passion were to be focussed anew in a dedication absolute and untroubled. ”

“ It must surely be death to touch her to the heart, to pierce rashly to the secret of her power.
Into his happiness there intruded, when it gave him leave, a profound gratitude. He felt the need of a visible Power to thank. Almost it seemed he had supernaturally been led to this perfect moment, to encounter it perfectly. All his youth was gathered up. He would plunge at once to the heart of love, his soul unblunted, no step of his adventure known. Many times, during his [Pg 333] days at sea, he had trembled to think how near he had come to losing the unspoiled mystery of the gift Miranda kept. ”

“ Peter found in Miranda the perfect maid, and Miranda, eager for knowledge and greedy of adoration, reaching after the life of a woman with the mind and body of a girl, found in Peter the pivot of the world. In these years were laid the foundations of an incredible intimacy. Daily they grew in a perpetual discovery of themselves. ”

“ This day do I become the envied bride of Peter, justly surnamed Paragon; and much I wonder what in me he found (he, who Perfection so personifies) that he could condescend an eye to cast on faulty, feather-headed Emily! How solemn is the stillness all around me! (A loud bang is heard behind screen.) Methought I heard the dropping of a pin!—perhaps I should arise and search for it.... Yet why, on second thoughts, disturb myself, since I am, by my settlements, to have a handsome sum allowed for pin-money? Nay, since thou claim'st thy freedom, little pin, I lack the heart to keep thee prisoner. ”

“ Lady Mary caught at Peter's wrist upon the oars.
"You will believe in me always, Peter?"
"Always."
"My life may take me away from you," she desperately urged. "We read things differently."
A burst of laughter came from the deck of the wherry. Lady Mary withdrew her hand from Peter's wrist.
"Nothing in the world can shake my belief in you," said Peter, still pausing on the oars.
"That is easily said."
Lady Mary cried out in pain at the light heart of the boy she loved.
"I mean it in every fibre," Peter insisted. "I am utterly yours."
"Row in to the boat," said Lady Mary. "This is the end." ”

“ But the lure was true, for he found it also in Miranda—the look he had seen in her eyes years ago when first he had kissed her. She seemed to be giving herself to him—to give and give again, with treasures uncounted to follow. Yet it was not mere giving, but a passing of virtue from one to the other.
"I am glad we waited until now," Peter said in a note so low that it hardly reached her. "Why were you so wise to send me away? Each day has added to you. I cannot believe I shall ever hold you. It seems like wanting the whole world." ”

“ The breath in his nostrils was that same air from the sea which had met Peter upon the terrace. Nature was knit in a friendly vitality, mysteriously opposed to all the categories. The categories were somehow mystically shattered beneath the iron of the horse's beating hoofs; were shredded by the wind which noisily fluttered Peter's coat.
That same evening he attended a fashionable lecture, wherein it was explained that marriage was an affair of State. The theme touched in Peter a strain of feeling that had slept from the moment he had lost Miranda. ”