Lady Anne Granard/Chapter 63
CHAPTER LXIII.
A daylight view of their much altered mother was undoubtedly a very painful thing to our travellers from the Continent; but Lady Anne was refreshed when they saw her, and, being dressed and laid on a couch, was seen to greater advantage than when in bed; and, on her old system of keeping up appearances, she still managed to be agreeable-looking. Lord Allerton was busy giving orders for the renovation of his house in Cavendish Square; where he contented himself with the reports his lady might bring; but Glentworth accompanied the sisters, though himself busied with hunting in the first place a ready-furnished house. In truth, he wanted to present little Frank to his grandmamma, for he feared lest the child might be alarmed, and thought his presence would impose silence.
But Frank behaved with all due decorum, clapped his hands at the word of command, pronounced his two words, and shewed his four teeth to admiration, and was declared by his grandmamma to be perfection; "but he was really too delightful, he excited her too much;" and, as both parents thought this very possible, Helen carried him down stairs, her mamma internally observing, "how can people be such fools as to talk of a child, who have an election before them! besides, to tell truth, Charles Penrhyn's boy is the handsomer and bigger."
Released from "the enchanting creature," she entered with avidity and warm interest into the election affair, reminded Mr. Glentworth of numerous persons he had met in his boyhood, and others of whom he had heard Mr. Granard speak, shewed herself perfectly cognizant on all subjects connected with obtaining votes, and thought, by an hour's calculation, she could find what would be the average price of all who hung back, and recalled the different character of the neighbouring parishes. Lady Allerton ventured to remind her, "that a great change had taken place since she left the Park, as the Reform Bill had passed."
"The Reform Bill has shortened the period for the canaille to get drunk in, we all know, but it has nothing to do whatever with the voters themselves. Some give their votes for the colour, because their fathers did; others, to oppose their fathers; the thoughtless, for the honour and the fun; but prudent men sell them, and are always the surest card."
"I cannot bring myself to encourage a system of corruption," said Glentworth.
"Nor would I have you; but you cannot fail to be aware that considerable, unavoidable, and what may be called natural expenses must take place?"
"Of course; and I shall go to my bankers the first thing, and secure a round sum in my pocket."
"Well, then, set out, and leave women to talk about women's work."
The moment he was gone, Lady Allerton was placed at the writing-desk; and Lady Anne not only dictated a succession of notes to dear old friends with the utmost perspicuity and ability, but she drew up with her own hand minutes for the forming a committee, and a short digest of what it was necessary for a candidate to promise, admit, and avoid. Recalling her local knowledge of the neighbourhood, she advised what charities he should subscribe to, what interests he had best support, and on what topics he must touch, observing, "that there was not any thing so flattering to obscure people as shewing, beyond a doubt, that you had made their welfare a particular study, and knew not only the magnates of the town, but every gradation, down to the lowest cobbler's last apprentice."
On Glentworth's return, he was absolutely surprised by exertions which were wonderful, as made by such a shadow; and, struck by the penetration and practical knowledge displayed, he could not help exclaiming, "What would I give for such a secretary?"
"Give! you know you will give nothing; it is my misfortune to have such an incorruptible chief. But I shall continue to work for you, because you are your son's father."
Yet Glentworth was aware his bank-notes, like Acres's courage, must ooze out for all this kindness; but he did also see that her heart was in the business, that her gay and busy, her proud and aspiring, days had returned; and, as she had asserted and shewn the night before, that, as either on Granard's account or his friend's, she had been a busy woman at eleven elections, and never lost one, he could not forbear considering her a lucky person. Like Lord Meersbrook, his anxiety made him a little superstitious. The wisest of men do not walk on the stilts of philosophy through the whole of life's paths; and, since it is allowed that sorrow may have its phantoms, love its presentiments,*[1] why should not ambition (the meaner passion) be allowed its lucky numbers and lucky days!
"The most fortunate thing in the world for you,'" continued Lady Anne, "would be, were it possible, to secure the companionship of this young sailor; only, one would not like him to be positively killed by any extraordinary exertion, otherwise he would be as great a show in Yorkshire as the 'living skeleton' was here; and, though he may not have eloquence (which is by no means desirable in a friend when the candidate has it himself, since he ought always to be the prominent person, the positive leader), yet being, I must own, a most pleasant spoken young man, and calculated to charm the women, depend upon it he wouldn't be refused by any body—his courage, his misfortunes, his profession itself would render him irresistible: the Count, too, would be a good auxiliary; his fine person and broken English would tell on the hustings."
The latter words were spoken so exactly in Lady Anne's own old peculiar tones, that the sisters considered her at the moment to be all herself; but the effort so exhausted her, that she sank into a swoon, which they would have considered death itself, if Helen had not reassured them, and by slow degrees recalled her perceptions; but for this day her efforts were ended.
Nothing could offer a greater contrast to the life Mrs. Glentworth had ever previously led, than that presented by ever-bustling London, at this time every day increasing its inhabitants, and presenting to her especial sight some object of dazzling captivation or extreme interest; but the former were entirely abandoned for the latter: notwithstanding, every day Lady Anne inquired what she was doing not to shew herself at the Opera, and enable her friends to pay her due honour. She had to spend a quiet day with dear Louisa, learn to know more of her excellent husband and admire her handsome boy, devote another most happy one to the Palmers, and meet there the kind Gooches, who had proved so much the friends of her beloved sister in her day of trial; her choice in carriages was positively demanded by her husband, and her taste called upon by Lord Allerton, who found his modest, considerate bride averse to giving an opinion, lest she should increase his expence, and considering every thing she found on the spot only more handsome than she desired. She did not discover, though Isabella did, that he had very naturally set his heart on changing the general appearance of things, in order to erase from his memory its written sorrows, and enter into a new existence with that amiable woman, who every day grew dearer to his heart, and more approved by his judgment.
How different this to the solitude of Pisa! to the long, anxious time when her husband was wandering in search of health and peace, and the pains of widowhood were suspended over her head in a strange country, where she had not a single friend, and her extreme youth and unprotected situation made her shrink from strangers; when a drive to the Campo Santo, and a melancholy walk within its walls alone varied the scene, save as it was soothed, or enlivened, by the child whose father was far away and might return no more.
Come what would, however, the election was certainly the uppermost thing, and she consented even to leave her child under Louisa's care, in order to accompany her husband. The very first of Lady Anne's letters had been addressed to the present owner of Granard Park, who had not lost an hour in answering it, lamenting that his interest was not great on that side of the country where the borough in question lay, but assuring her he would use his utmost exertions on behalf of Mr. Glentworth, with whom he considered himself acquainted through Count Riccardini, and he offered his house especially to the ladies of the party, his fair cousins.
The offer freely given was freely accepted, this gentleman already standing high in their opinion from his conduct to the Count; nor could they doubt that Lady Anne had lost herself many years of pleasant, and probably profitable intercourse with him, from her own acrimony of temper and overweening pride of manners; but her severest judge (because he had known her the longest) could see no fault in her now. Every one of her letters were answered, and her requests every where attended to, either from a naturally kind disposition inclined to forget and forgive, from the abiding love inspired by her husband, and the pity felt for his fair children, or certain recollections she had adroitly called up of "the handsome youth who danced with your daughter when a bride," or "the beloved protégé of my lamented Granard, whom you taught to shoot;" there was an universal predilection excited in Glentworth's behalf, and offers of houses made on every side, with all the hospitality habitual to the West Riding, which we need not say comprises the finest tracts of beautiful, picturesque, and fertile country on the island, enriched by castles and mansions inhabited by the noble, the ancient, the wealthy, and the good.
"Surely," said Isabella to Lord Allerton, "you will permit my sister to accompany me to Granard Park! I have been so used to look to her for advice and comfort of every description, that on this momentous occasion I should be lost without her; and it is natural to suppose we should like to see the old place together, especially her, who knows it so much better than I do."
"It would be a difficult matter for me to refuse my Mary any thing she wished, for, indeed, I fully intended to swell the pomp of my friend Glentworth's train, and I have still another motive for my journey. I much desire to introduce my wife—my virtuous, excellent wife—to a worthy uncle, the brother of my mother, whom I know to be deeply interested in me, and who lives not more than thirty miles from our scene of action. In fact, you and Mary, to which I may now add Mrs. Penrhyn and the girls, have given me such a high sense of the value and sweetness of family affection and family intercourse, that it will not be my fault if we are ever long divided. As an only son, I have never till now known the comfort and pleasure of such alliances, which I really consider to be holy ones."
Thus reassured on a point of infinite moment to her, Isabella again became a traveller; Lady Anne rejecting with anger any idea of increased ailment in herself being a sufficient cause for their detention, "As if," said she to Mrs. Palmer, "I could do so imprudent a thing as to die at this momentous period! Think what I have to do; insure Glentworth's election; witness his reception in the house, which must be flattering; get young Hales well, insure him a ship and at least knighthood, both being due to his father's son, let alone his own great merits; marry him to Georgiana; and ensure some parti of respectability to poor Helen. The great advantage of one marriage in a family is, that it pretty generally makes another; in that respect Lady Allerton was useless to her sisters."
To hear Lady Anne run over her catalogue of pressing affairs demanding her life, and to look at her, and feel how closely those words applied to her case—"Thou fool! this night shall thy soul be required of thee!" rendered her visit, as usual, a very painful task to the kind-hearted and well-judging neighbour. As this, however, was the first time she had ever permitted the possibility of her dying to escape her, Mrs. Palmer hoped it was the beginning of better things, and that, perhaps, in the midst of so many engagements for this world, she would remember she was booked for another.
A huge caravan of caps from Miss Griffiths, and an assortment of satins from Howell and James's, ushered into the dressing-room by Fanchette, silenced all observation, save on the subjects before them. Mrs. Palmer indulged a latent hope that Georgiana, who really wanted dress to a painful degree, was the person to be provided for; but that hope quickly vanished, like the one which preceded it, as Lady Anne said—
"There cannot be a more foolish idea, my dear friend, than that of thinking any kind of dress may do for an invalid; on the contrary, there never was a time when it is so necessary to have one's coiffure bien arrangée, one's general drapery flowing and rich, substituting the beauty and wealth of art for the deficiencies of nature. Autumn arrays all things in glowing colours; Spring produces snowdrops and violets, showing clearly that a girl may be dressed in cheap muslin; but her mother, dahlia-like, should appear in claret-coloured satin. Pope's satirical verses, in my opinion, only prove that the dying lady (for you'll observe she was a lady) understood dress properly, when she said—
"'No, let a charming chintz and Brussel's lace
Wrap my cold limbs and shade my lifeless face.'"
Mrs. Palmer could only shake her head, take orders for more jellies, and depart.
- ↑ * "Presentiment is the superstition of tender hearts."—Madame de Stael.