Twickenham

“ I'd only had to hang up my hat in the hall to become king of the castle. When I'd wanted all that a chap had got I'd always been game to fight him; but I wasn't used to his handing it over to me, without so much, even, as a trifling argument, with a remark that it was mine. It looked as if I was in for a real good thing.
And yet--human nature's a freak; you never know where to class it!--and yet, I wasn't sure that I felt so inclined to kick up my heels as I expected. The Marquis of Twickenham was an uncommonly fine person to be: for those who liked to be the Marquis of Twickenham. ”

“ And I? Reggie was my debtor to the extent of nearly every penny I had ever had. If he was not the Marquis, because Leonard still was in the flesh, then he and Vi, and I, were ruined. And Edith could never marry a pauper.
Down toppled our whole card edifice, never again to be rebuilt by us.
But the question was--was the man under the glass case, lying on the mattress, in the white pyjamas, Leonard Sherrington, third Marquis of Twickenham? The Twickenham peerage carried with it rather over than under a hundred thousand pounds a year. ”

“ A rich necklace of pies, Twickenham's fairest jewellery, dazzles his weak vision, and fastens, as with a golden hook, all his eyes. He is under a Savory spell, longing for More. A hundred appetites glisten from his cavernous brows. Epicurus and Dando seem to have chosen his high cheek-bones for their respective thrones. His mouth opens and shuts a thousand times, just like the Strand Theatre opposite; but, alas! takes in nothing by each new motion. Hunger could not well have spared a leaner Frenchman. ”

“ Some one came into the room.
'I'm the Marquis of Twickenham,' he said.
He was quite young, and not bad-looking, and carried himself as, to my mind, only a gentleman can. He was very polite, though in quite a different way to Mr. Howarth. What he said I felt he meant; and I never had that feeling about the other man. I liked him, in spite of all my trouble, directly I set eyes on him and heard him speak. Though the idea of my mixing as an equal with the likes of him did strike me, even then, as against nature. You can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear ”

“ You never confuse one person with another, even if it is a person you only saw for five minutes twenty years ago. If you have seen a man who was so like Twickenham that you would not like to say it was not Twickenham, it was. Reggie won't be Marquis yet.'
She leant against the mantel, looking pale. There was something in her attitude which seemed to me condemnatory. I felt ashamed. Reggie threw himself into an arm-chair.
'If it was Twickenham I shall be in a pretty tight fix.'
'We all shall. I shall have to instal Edith in those country lodgings. You will have to marry Mary Magruder. ”

“ The profligate and clever Duke of Wharton lived also at Twickenham.
Marble Hill was built by George II, for the countess of Suffolk, and Henry, Earl of Pembroke, was the architect. Of later years, the beautiful and injured Mrs. Fitzherbert might be seen traversing the greensward, which was laved by the then pellucid waters of the Thames. The parish of Twickenham, in fact, was noted for the numerous characters who have, at various times, lived in it: Robert Boyle, the great philosopher; James Craggs, Secretary of State; Lord George Germaine ”

“ By no possibility can we ever have such a place in America.
Leaving Hampton Court at about four o'clock, we walked through Bushy Park,—a beautiful tract of ground, well wooded with fine old trees, green with moss, all up their twisted trunks,—through several villages, Twickenham among the rest, to Richmond. Before entering Twickenham, we passed a lath-and-plaster castellated edifice, much time-worn, and with the plaster peeling off from the laths, which I fancied might be Horace Walpole's toy-castle. ”

“ Kitty Clive, the charming actress who lived at Little Strawberry Hill, and for whom Walpole had a platonic attachment, is buried in the chancel. Naturally, in a classic village where many tremendous personages have dwelt, Twickenham is full of fine and interesting old houses, mainly of that square red-brick order of architecture which, if not precisely picturesque, is suggestive of comfort and homeliness. The old houses at Twickenham are of the sort in which Thackeray’s people lived—still redolent of the charming but indescribable odour of the days of good, harmless Queen Anne. ”

“ Is it true that you're the widow of the late Marquis of Twickenham?'
I paid no attention to her hand whatever.
'About that I know nothing. I am Mrs. Merrett.'
I let her see I could be as stiff as she was--in spite of all that I was feeling. Miss Desmond slipped her arm through mine.
'That's right, Mary; you're a faithful creature--stick to the name which you know best. Leonard must have had some redeeming qualities, or he would never have been able to win the love of a good woman and keep it. There must be something in a man if he can do that. ”

“ So that now I had all three of them against me.
'Will you please tell me at once, Douglas, if the Marquis of Twickenham is alive?'
This she said with something very like the stamp of her foot. She can be imperious when she chooses; as, one of these days, her husband will learn. ”

“ Had the man stepped into a room in which I was, I should unhesitatingly have recognised him as Leonard, Marquis of Twickenham. There would have been no necessity for him to announce his name and title. I should have known him then and there. But, as matters stood, the case was altered. There was room for doubt. Or I tried to persuade myself there was. To begin with, a man with practically unlimited resources at his command, would hardly be likely to masquerade in such a fashion. ”

“ He seemed to reflect once more; the smile returning to the attenuated, cruel, shifty lips which had always been one of Twickenham's most unpleasant features.
'That dying will come off. As you observed, a thousand pounds is not a trifle. I've given a show for less. I suppose the money's safe?'
'It is. When will you--die?'
'That's it. I'm engaged almost right along. It'll have to be soon. What do you say to to-morrow?'
'To-morrow?'
The imminence of the thing startled me. ”

“ But when he would have it that I was the Marquis of Twickenham, my thoughts flew back to that master of lies who was so like me, and who would have it that he was an English nobleman. It was something to wake from a thirty days' sleep--with occasional intervals for exercise and refreshment--to find oneself a Marquis. That interview with Mr. Smith at the York did tickle me. So I was a Marquis; and as a Marquis I was to die, for his benefit--and a thousand pounds. I'm a fool; we're all fools; but I'm not the kind of fool who can't see things when they're shown him. ”

“ I've heard it over and over again. What I say is this. Edith is getting on. You certainly are no longer young; you are going both bald and grey. Financially, you are worse off than when I first knew you. Isn't that the case?'
'It is.'
'You have absolutely no prospects.'
Reggie struck in.
'O aunt, come! If he's hard up it's only because I owe him such a heap. There's no doubt whatever that Twickenham's dead. We only have to prove it to be both of us in clover.'
'Twickenham is not dead. ”

“ If a man makes it his business to decorate my features, I make it mine to endeavour to induce him to wish he hadn't. It had been growing on me that the Marquis of Twickenham was a blackguard on lines which weren't just mine, and that I'd no intention of bearing the burden of sins I was not inclined to. ”

“ If it were not for the fact that I'd made it a rule of my life never to quit a position I've once taken up till driven from it at the bayonet's point, the Marquis of Twickenham would have been sent flying, and James Merrett would have gone hopping up those stairs to make love to his wife.
That first day as a marquis didn't come up to my expectations. I know that first impressions are not to be trusted. That which begins in a fog ends, occasionally, in a blaze of sunlight. ”

“ It is no use your counting on his death. He's alive. Twickenham is not the kind of man who dies easily.'
'I thought dreams went by contraries.'
'Not such dreams as I have had.' She turned to me with a question which took me aback. 'Don't you know that he's alive?'
'My dear Lady Desmond!'
'You do know that he's alive; and I know you know. I don't want any discussion; you will only fence and quibble. ”

“ Tweezer’s alley, Milford lane, in the Strand.
Twelve Bell court, Bow church-yard, Cheapside.*
Twickenham, a pleasant village in Middlesex situated on the Thames between Teddington and Isleworth, and between two brooks that here fall into that river. The church, which is a modern edifice, rebuilt by the contribution of the inhabitants, is a fine Doric structure. Here is a charity school for fifty boys, who are cloathed and taught: And this delightful village is adorned with the seats of several persons of distinction, particularly on the bank of the river. To begin at the upper end ”

“ It was exceedingly well-furnished, and surrounded by spacious grounds, wherein were a number of old yews and beeches. Old-fashioned, queer in its bygone taste, it had stood there on the broad highway from historic Hampton to London for probably a century and a half, being built in the days when the villadom of Fulwell had not yet arisen, and Twickenham was still a quiet village with its historic ferry, and where the stage-coaches changed horses at that low-built old hostelry, the King’s Head. ”

“ I think I would rather live here, where it is so quiet and still, like a Bush township. I like Twickenham; but on one side there's nothing but people going up and down in boats, and on the other side the same thing, only coaches instead of boats. And I hate the sound of those coaches, with their jingle and rattle and horn-blowing ”

“ If the man was not available in one way he might be in another. Even if he was Twickenham, I fancied that I had hit upon just the sort of devil's trick which would appeal to his madman's sense of humour. ”

“ The first thing he said, directly their backs were turned, showed what was in his mind.
'It would be awkward if what that brute Foster keeps hinting at was true, and Twickenham was married.'
'No fear of that. He wasn't. Twickenham wasn't a marrying man.'
'Let's hope it. A wife and family of his would be a crowning mercy.'
'There's not the slightest fear of anything of the kind. I'm sure of it. It's Foster's cue to make you fidgety. Don't you let him have the satisfaction of thinking that he even retains the power of making himself disagreeable.'
Reggie was observing the silent figure. ”

“ James Merrett, Esquire. Glad to meet you. We're getting on nicely, Mr. Gayer, you and I. It's always a privilege to meet a man who's got sense, even if you can't think where he keeps it. Might I ask you if the Marquis of Twickenham is at home? ”

“ Is it the old complaint? Try a bushel of pills before breakfast and a scuttleful at lunch. A young man with a pair of legs like yours ought to have more sense. He did really. For goodness gracious sake don't be a fool just because you look it. Try to behave as if you'd left your face at home. Did you hear me ask if the Marquis of Twickenham is at home, or are you deaf both back and front?'
The footman plainly did not know what to make of the position.
'Your lordship----'
Mr. Merrett sprang up the steps. ”

“ He spoke with an amount of fluency which after the recent struggle he had made to utter disconnected words was surprising. 'I'm not dead yet, so don't let any one order me about as if I were--curse you, you bald-headed old fool!' This was to Hancock; the top of whose scalp is smooth. 'I'm not going to have my brother mixed up with a bold-faced judy; he's not going to make a girl of whom I disapprove the Marchioness of Twickenham. I tell you, Foster, that if Reggie marries that jade--if he marries--if he----'
He stopped as if at a loss for a word. ”

“ His voice and manner were the two chief points on which he differed from my recollections of Leonard. They could be simulated. The man had always been an actor. Still, I could scarcely force the man to claim his peerage. Little would be gained by my proclaiming, 'Behold, the Marquis of Twickenham!' if he himself declared that he was nothing of the kind. ”

“ The mellifluous bard of Twickenham was egregiously mistaken when he pronounced "a little learning" to be "a dangerous thing." Had it not been for the modicum of letters, small as it was, acquired by Mr. Wheelwright, at the school of which I had occasion to speak early in the present history, to say nothing, as seems most meet, of the university, his family would now have been rather short of bread and butter. ”

“ Then we pass Kingston, where several Saxon kings were crowned, and the coronation-stone, marked with their names, it is said, still remains in the market-place. Teddington Lock is the last upon the Thames, and a mile below is Eel-Pie Island, lying off Twickenham, renowned for the romance that surrounds its ancient ferry. Near here lived the eccentric Horace Walpole, at Strawberry Hill, while in Twickenham Church is the monument to the poet Pope, which states in its inscription that he would not be buried in Westminster Abbey. ”

“ But you mustn't mind.' He brought them forward. 'Here, my dear lord, are two ladies who have come to see you--Miss Desmond and Lady Violet Howarth.'
'Edith?' He hit upon her surname; he alone knew how. 'You're an old woman--aren't you?'
That was a civil thing to say,--particularly from a man in his position. I could have shaken him again. Edith only smiled.
'I'm not so young as I was. But you're not an old man, and I'm younger than you.'
'Old?--I am old. Rotten. Done. I feel a thousand. The years lie heavy--on me. I was--never--young.'
The thing was curiously true of Twickenham. ”