Lesbia Newman (1889)/Chapter 21
CHAPTER XXI.
Frivolous and Important.
Cardinal Archbishop Power, Papal Legate in the year 189—the hierarchy had succeeded in winning back this ancient privilege from the late Government—was a man fitly chosen for his responsible post. His rise in the Church was due to no truckling, but, on the contrary, to the possession of a powerful will and natural ascendency over common minds which marked him out to the shrewd Roman curia as a man well able to take care of its interests. His ruling motive was ambition, but not of a vulgar kind; mere place and title he set little store by, unless as they could help him to figure as one of the men who have made epochs in ecclesiastical history. For this end he was ready to discard prejudice of all kinds, and to seize his opportunity in whatever shape it might present itself. Having no political bias, he was on terms with the best London society, whatever party might be in office; particularly he had known and visited the Hawknorbuzzard family, who were not catholics, for some three years before the present juncture.
The afternoon gathering at the marquis’s house in Belgravia next day was fairly large; about half-past four there were over a hundred people in the rooms. Lady Hilda was in her element, and, even more than her mother, seemed to be everywhere at once, but Friga thought it detestable, and whenever she could snatch half-a-minute from the incessant conversation she was obliged to keep up, drew Lesbia aside. Our heroine’s mother and aunt had both come, partly out of curiosity to see the Cardinal, who had not yet arrived. As for her uncle, he was extensively interviewed by old and new acquaintances, and had his hands full. Lesbia’s dress for such occasions was a compromise between frock and zouaves, with tunic above and stockings below carefully harmonised. She and her uncle had bestowed great pains upon it in consultation with the makers to the Rational Dress Society, and the result was a decided success; everyone who knew her, and some who did not, coming near to have a look, and going away with a gain of new ideas as to female fashion. As for the young girl herself, she was by this time so thoroughly inured to being peculiar, that it sat as naturally upon her as her clear healthy complexion. It is fair to mention, by the way, that the complexion, good or bad, of all ladies who had the entrée of this house sat naturally upon them; the hostess did not care to know the sort of people who make themselves up, no matter in what manner or in what region.
‘How d’ye do, Miss Newman; rawther meet you here than at lawn tennis, aw,’ suddenly drawled a dapper little young man, twirling his moustache with his night finger and thumb, while he thrust the left into his trousers pocket, and swung his way up to Lesbia on alternate heels.
‘What? Oh, Mr Dandidimmons, to be sure!’ she said, holding out her hand. ‘How could I be such an oaf as not to recognise at once the Julius Cæsar of chivalry, the patron of ladies?’
Julius seemed a little dashed for the moment, but resumed with smiles and swaying and more vigorous manipulation of the moustache.
‘Waal, you converted me, Miss Newman; you worked a revolution in my notions, aw, about gurls, aw. I’m now all for gurls pitching modesty and that sort of thing to the dogs, aw, and showing us what’s what, aw, don’t you know.’
‘Are you indeed, Mr Dandidimmons?’ said Lesbia suavely. ‘I should like to put you to the proof. Suppose now you were to make me the prettiest and sugariest of sugary pretty speeches, something quite too transcendentally the thing, don’t you know; and suppose, instead of hanging my head with the regulation coy-maidenly blush and simper—‘she gives a side glance and looks down,’ don’t you know—I were just to walk round the table and plant you a persuader, don’t you know.’
It was over Mr Julius Dandidimmons’ face that the maidenly blush now spread, while a peal of laughter rang from Lady Hilda and all the other girls near. Mrs Bristley’s teacup stopped half-way to her mouth, and her stare was if she had run her nose against the dark portion of the moon.
‘Upon my word, Lesbia!’ said Mrs Newman, biting her lip, ‘one would think you had been brought up entirely among stable-boys.’
‘Better that than among weaker vessels, mamma,’ she replied.
But Julius felt that he cut a foolish figure and must do something for prestige. Taking for granted that Lesbia would not be as good as her word, he swaggered up to her again.
‘Haw, weally, Miss Newman, can only say, aw, shall be quite delighted, aw, to have a kick, cuff, or what you please, aw, from such a peculiarly sweet gurl as you.’
‘Really, Mr Dandidimmons? Mind I’ve got a biceps as well as a boot—a pretty good one fer a sweet gurl, else I’ve knocked about with the gloves for nothing.’
‘Never mind,’ he persisted; ‘let’s see what you'd do if I sugared you all over.’ Without another word, hitting straight from the shoulder, Lesbia sent Dandidimmons sprawling upon the floor.
‘Now there’s a sweet gurl shown your chivalry what's what, aw; how do you like it?’ laughed Lesbia.
The fallen hero made no answer, but lay quite still in the same position. The others still laughed, but Lesbia changed countenance, and, springing to the side of Julius Dandidimmons, snatched him up im her arms as if he had been a baby, carried him to a sofa which happened to be vacant at the time, laid him gently on his back, putting the cushion under his head, then sat down by him on a chair and took his hand in hers while she said tenderly,—
‘I hope you don't feel badly hurt, Mr Dandidimmons? 1 never meant that, I assure you.’
Already the smart, sharp as it had been, was passing away, and the young man was occupied more with his mental than with his bodily sensations. He felt shaken in his self-esteem; it was giving place to a new feeling, one of respect for the girl, wholly different in kind from the sort of respect one might feel toward a man. His habits of thought about girls had sustained a double shock, first in the unconventional violence, then in the unconventional caressing; he was getting a glimpse of the truth that the frailty and timidity of women is a paste of imposture, manufactured by the slavery system of an undeveloped civilisation, and having nothing corresponding to it in the spiritual world. A comical way by such an incident as this, we allow, for Divine Order to reveal itself to the conscience; yet Julius Dandidimmons might have studied theology till it oozed out of his fingers, without learning what he was taught by the rudeness and rough treatment of this unspoilt girl. With an involuntary and genuine glance of devotion at her, he raised himself on his elbow and said timidly,—
‘No, Miss Newman, I don’t feel it now, and if I did, you have more than made up for it.’
‘I’m thankful you’re not the worse,’ said Lesbia gently. ‘But I see we understand each other better now, and I will always be your friend if you wish it; that is the most I am likely to say to any man.’
Julius understood the hint thus delicately and promptly conveyed on purpose to prevent him from commiting himself to a declaration which frivolous young ladies would have been only too ready to gratify their vanity by evoking. The next time he had occasion to speak of Lesbia Newman behind her back, he did not say he hated her, but expressed his opinion fearlessly that ‘she’s queer, but a noble gurl for all that.’
Meanwhile the hostess in another part of the rooms was saying to Lesbia’s uncle,—
‘I do hope nothing has prevented the Cardinal from coming; I thought he would have been here before now. En attendant, let me introduce you to another acquaintance of his, Miss Francesca Wilson; it was through her I heard of his wish to meet you.’
‘Pray, Miss Wilson,’ asked Mr Bristley, when they had been introduced, ‘do you know why Cardinal Power is so good as to be interested on my account? I have not hitherto found myself sought out by Catholic prelates.’
‘Yes, it’s very simple, Mr Bristley,’ she answered. ‘Though I have known the cardinal for years, and we are firm friends, I may tell you at once that not even he has been able to induce me formally to enter the Church for whose ritual I have so great admiration. I prefer to keep my judgment free, and you would not be far wrong in calling me an extreme Rationalist. I cull the flowers of all religions as I find them by the wayside. You will not wonder, then, that I was attracted to your lectures, which well repaid my attendance.’
‘I see that you and I have much in common, Miss Wilson. Still your interest in my lectures does not explain that of the cardinal.’
‘That is explained,’ she answered, ‘by your frequent and mysterious allusions to a mission of the Church of Rome, which you have never described. It was I who mentioned this to Cardinal Power, and he can no more guess the riddle than I. But it has aroused his curiosity, and that is why he desires to see you. I wonder what makes him so late.’
At this moment the servant entered, announcing, ‘His Eminence, Cardinal Power.’
‘Better late than never, cardinal,’ said the hostess, advancing; ‘we almost gave you up.’
‘Very sorry, Lady Humnoddie; I had to preside at a meeting and could not get away. But I hope,’ he added, looking round, ‘that I am still in time for a few words with the learned friend to whom you kindly promised to introduce me?’
‘Certainly; here he is. Mr Bristley, thou man of sin or of wisdom or of something, come forth and come hither.’
‘Lady Humnoddie evidently supposes me to be in a furnace of expectancy to meet your Eminence. And that might be justified by the result; who knows?’
‘More likely on my side than on yours, Mr Bristley,’ replied the cardinal; ‘it is I who should expect much from the acquaintance. Miss Wilson, with whom you were speaking as I came in, has perhaps told you why.’
‘Yes, I understand it is because of certain references to your Church, which have occurred in my lectures. Well, the reasons for making those references were very strong, but being also very grave, I hardly know how to state them in a way suitable to an occasion like this.’
‘We will make a suitable occasion, with your kind permission,’ said the cardinal, smiling, ‘and an early one, for I confess you make me very curious. A special mission of the Catholic Church about which she remains wholly in the dark! I cannot conceive of it. Is it new? has it never been propounded before?’
‘It is older than the beginning of the world. It is propounded by every fact in nature. But whether it has been formulated to you in words by others, I do not know, and care not to inquire. If it has not, it is because the time was not ripe,—you were unprepared to receive the higher dispensation. The important question is whether you will receive or reject it now.’
‘Do you claim to be its depositary then?’
‘Far be such a claim from an individual, and that individual a man!’ replied the other gravely. ‘I may claim to be one of its humbler apostles, at the most, one of the mere teachers of the divine wisdom. Consider, Cardinal Power, what is the relation, for example, of a good teacher of singing to his pupil. If nature has given the pupil a good voice, the teacher can show how the true tone of that voice should be produced and made the most of. But if the vocal organs be naturally bad, no teacher in the world can make them good. Analogously, if the heart of your Church be in a fit state for the higher dispensation, I can tell you what that dispensation is. But I cannot give you the grace to accept it.’
‘More and more mysterious,’ said the cardinal, half to himself, as, pressing his knuckles on his lips, he gazed for a few seconds abstractedly on the floor. ‘Let me see,’ he added, consulting a pocket-book. ‘I am rather busy just now, Mr Bristley, but if to-morrow week, Saturday, at nine in the evening, would suit, I expect to be at home, and could spare two or three hours for discussion.’
‘I shall be delighted, Cardinal Power,’ he replied. ‘But may I be allowed to introduce to your Eminence my niece Lesbia Newman, and may I further take the great liberty of asking permission to bring her with me? She is fully as capable of taking part in such a discussion as I am, and even more directly concerned in it.’
‘So indeed!’ said the cardinal, regarding our heroine with unusual interest. ‘By all means come with your uncle, Miss Newman,’ he added, smiling, ‘and when he has defeated me, construct a golden bridge for a retreating foe.’
Cardinal Power was then summoned by the hostess to another introduction, and the groups dispersed.
Her friend Lady Friga approached Lesbia in another part of the rooms.
‘I say, Lesbie, would you like to go with me to the Ladies’ Gallery of the House of Commons next Wednesday? My father can give you an order; the Screaming Farce Bill is on, and they expect a shindy.’
‘What, Parliament is still good for that, Fri? Yes, I should like very much to go with you.’
‘Well, I'll drop you a line about Monday evening.’