Robert Orange Part 1

Robert Orange.

by John Oliver Hobbes.

CHAPTER I

One afternoon during the first weeks of October, 1869, while wind, dust, and rain were struggling each for supremacy in the streets, a small yellow brougham, swung in the old-fas.h.i.+oned style on c.u.mbersome springs and attached to a pair of fine greys, was standing before the Earl of Garrow's town residence in St. James's Square. The hall clock within that mansion chimed four, the great doors were thrown open by two footmen, and a young lady wearing a mauve silk skirt deeply flounced, a black cloth jacket embroidered in gold, and a mauve hat trimmed with plumes--appeared upon the threshold. She paused for a moment to admire the shrubs arranged in boxes on each window-sill, the crimson vines that brightened the grey walls; to criticise the fresh brown rosette under the near horse's ear; to bestow a swift glance upon the harness, the coachman's livery, and the groom's boots. Then she stepped into the carriage and gave her order--

"To the Carlton Club."

The groom climbed on to his seat, and the horses, after a brilliant display of their well-disciplined mettle, suffered themselves to be driven, at an easy pace, toward Pall Mall.

Lady Sara-Louise-Tatiana-Valerie De Treverell, only child of the ninth Earl of Garrow, had been, since her mother's death, the mistress of his house and his chief companion. Essentially a woman of emotions, she was, nevertheless, in appearance somewhat dreamy, romantic, even spiritual.

The eyes were blue, bright as a cut sapphire, and shone, as it were, through tears. Her mouth, uneven in its line, had a scarlet eloquence more pleasing than sculpturesque severity. At the moment, she wore no gloves, and her tapering fingers shared their characteristic with her nose, which also tapered, with exquisite lightness of mould, into a point. For colour, she had a gypsy's red and brown. The string of gold beads which she fastened habitually round her throat showed well against the warm tints in her cheek; her long pearl earrings caught in certain lights the dark shadow of her hair--hair black, abundant, and elaborately dressed in the fas.h.i.+on of that time. Pa.s.sionate yet calculating, imperious yet susceptible of control, generous yet given to suspicion, an egoist yet capable of self-abandoning enthusiasm--she represented a type of feminine character often recognised but rarely understood.

On this particular afternoon in October she had some pressing matters on her mind. She was considering, among other things, an offer of marriage which she had received by post two days before from a n.o.bleman of great fortune, the Duke of Mars.h.i.+re. But Sara was ambitious--not mercenary.

She wanted power. Power, unhappily, was the last thing one could a.s.sociate with the estimable personality of the suitor under deliberation.

"I must tell papa," she said to herself, "that it would never do."

Here she fell into a reverie; but as her expression changed from one of annoyance to something of wistfulness and sentimentality, the question of marriage with the Duke of Mars.h.i.+re had clearly been dismissed for that moment from her heart. At intervals a shy smile gave an almost childish tenderness to her face. Then, on a sudden, her eyelashes would droop, she would start with a sigh, and, apparently caught by some unwelcome remembrance, sink into a humour as melancholy as it was mysterious. Quiet she sat, absorbed in her own emotions, heedless alike of the streets through which she was pa.s.sing and the many acquaintances who bowed as she drove by. It was her daily custom, when in town, to call at the Carlton Club for her father and take him for a short drive round the Park before his tea. To-day he was already waiting on the club steps as the brougham halted before the entrance. He smiled, joined Lady Sara at once, and seating himself by her side in his usual corner, maintained his usual imperturbable reserve. As a rule, during these excursions he would either doze, or jot down ideas in his note-book, or hum one of the few songs he cared to hear: "Go tell Augusta, gentle swain," "Revenge, revenge, Timotheus cries," and "She wore a wreath of roses." This time, however, he did neither of these things, but watched the reflection of his daughter's face in the carriage window before him.

He had white hair, a dyed moustache and a small imperial--also dyed the deepest black--just under the lower lip. In appearance he was, spite of the false touches, good-looking, sensitive, and perhaps too mild. The cleft in his rounded chin was the sole mark of decision in a countenance whose features were curved--wherever a curve was possible--to a degree approaching caricature. Temples, eyebrows, nostrils, and moustache, all described a series of semi-circles which, accentuated by a livid complexion and curling hair, presented an effect somewhat commonplace and a little tiresome. He had spent his existence among beings to whom nothing seemed natural which did not depart most earnestly from all that nature is and teaches: he had always endeavoured to maintain the ideal of a Christian gentleman where, as a matter of fact, Christianity was understood rather as a good manner than a faith, and ideals were prejudices of race rather than aspirations of the soul. Well-born, well-bred, and moderately learned, he was not, and could never be, more than dull or less than dignified. The second son of his father, he had spent the customary years of idleness at Eton and Oxford, he had journeyed through France, Italy, and Spain, contested unsuccessfully a seat in Mertford, and thought of reading for the Bar. But at four-and-thirty he became, through the influence of his mother's family, groom-in-waiting to the Queen--a post which he held till his elder brother's death, which occurred six months later. At this point his Court career ceased. A weak heart and a const.i.tutional dislike of responsibility a.s.sisted him in his firm decision to lead the life of a country n.o.bleman. He retired to his estate, and remained there in solitude, troubling no one except his agent, till a Russian lady, whom he had first met and loved during his early travels on the Continent, happened to come visiting in the neighbourhood. As the daughter of a Russian Prince and Amba.s.sador, she had considered her rank superior to Lord Garrow's, and therefore felt justified, as she informed her relations after he had succeeded to the earldom, in making the first advance toward their common happiness. The marriage was soon arranged; the alliance proved successful if not always serene; one child--Sara-Louise-Tatiana-Valerie--was born, an event which was followed, nine days later, by the death of the Countess.

Lord Garrow, a man of refined ideas rather than profound feelings, displayed in mourning his wife's loss the same gentle, dispa.s.sionate, and courteous persistency with which he had remained constant to his first impression of her charms. She had been a beautiful, high-hearted girl; she became a fascinating but wayward woman; she died a creature of such mingled ferocity and sentiment that, had she not perished when she did, she must have existed in misery under the storms of her own temperament. As Garrow watched his daughter's face, he may have been touched to a deeper chord than usual at the sight of her strange and growing resemblance to his dead Tatiana. Did she too possess--as her mother had possessed--the sweet but calamitous gift of loving? He himself had not been the object of his wife's supreme devotion. Before the child's birth she had given him an emerald ring which, she declared, was all that she valued on earth. It was no gift of his; it had belonged to a young attache to her father's emba.s.sy. Affection had taught Lord Garrow something; he asked no questions; the jewel was placed, by his orders, on her dead hand; it was buried with her, and with that burial he included any jealousy of her early romance. He had been sincerely, wholly attached to her; he had been proud of her graces and accomplishments; he knew her virtue and honoured her pure mind; she was the one woman he had ever wished to marry. He did not regret, nay, it was impossible to regret, their marriage. But she had been ever an alien and a stranger. Each had too often considered the other's heart with surprise. True love must rest on a perfect understanding; at the first lifting of the eyes in wonder there is a jar which by and by must make the whole emotion restless. An unconquerable curiosity lay at the very root of their lives. She thought him English and self-sufficient; he thought her foreign and a little superst.i.tious. This ineffable criticism was constant, fretful, and ever nearing the climax of uttered reproach.

Sara had inherited all the amazement, but she owned, as well, its comprehension. She adored pa.s.sionately the mother she had never seen; she loved her father, whom she knew by heart. After exchanging an affectionate glance with his lords.h.i.+p, she began to draw on her gloves.

Whilst b.u.t.toning one she said--

"Have you seen him?"

"No," he replied; "but, in any case, I think he would have avoided me to-day."

"Why?"

"From motives of delicacy. Henry Mars.h.i.+re is a man of the nicest feeling. He is never guilty of the least mistake."

Sara smiled, and so disguised a blush.

"I did not mean Mars.h.i.+re," she said. "I was thinking then of Robert Orange."

"Robert Orange," exclaimed Lord Garrow in astonishment.

"Yes, dear papa. Is he not sometimes at the Carlton with Lord Wight? He seems to me a coming man; and so good-looking. We must really ask him to dinner."

Some minutes elapsed before the Earl could utter any comment on a suggestion so surprising, and at that particular moment so inconsequent. Was his daughter not weighing--with prayer, he hoped, and certainly with all her senses--the prospect of an alliance with the Duke of Mars.h.i.+re? How, then, could she pause in a meditation of such vital interest to make capricious remarks about a mere acquaintance?

"Does Mars.h.i.+re know him?" he asked at last.

"I hope so. He is a remarkable person. But the party is blind."

"My dear, the English are an aristocratic people. They do not forgive mysterious blood and ungentle origins. While we have our Howards, our Talbots, and our Poulets--to say nothing of the De Courcys and Cliftons--it would surely seem excessively absurd to endure the intrusion of French _emigres_ into our midst."

"How I hate the great world!" exclaimed Sara, with vehemence; "how I dislike the cla.s.s which ambition, wealth, and pride separate from the rest of humanity! My only happiness now is found in solitude."

"Your mother, dear Sara, had--or fancied so--this same desire to shun companions.h.i.+p and be alone. Her delicate health after our marriage made her fear society."

"There are days when it seems an arena of wild beasts!"

"Nevertheless, my darling, at your age you must learn to live among your fellow creatures."

"How can I live where I should be afraid to die?"

"Ought you to give way to these moods? Is it not mistaking the imagination for the soul? Young people do this, and you are very young--but two-and-twenty."

"I am double-hearted," said Sara; "and when one is double-hearted the tongue must utter contradictions. I like my advantages while I despise them. I wish to be thought exclusive, yet I condemn the pettiness of my ambition. And so on."

"I fear," said Lord Garrow gravely, "that your mind is disturbed by a question which you must soon--very soon, my dearest child--answer."

"Papa, I cannot."

"Surely you will gratify me so far as to take time before you object to what might possibly be most desirable."

"It may be desirable enough, but is it right?"

"Right," repeated her father, with exasperation. "How could it be otherwise than right to marry a man of Mars.h.i.+re's position, means, stamp, and general fitness? You would be in possession of a station where your interest would be as independent as your spirit. Nothing could have been more brilliant, or flattering, or more cordial than his offer. I argue against my natural selfishness for your welfare. I don't wish to part with you, but I must consider your future."

He spoke with energy, and Sara knew, from the length and substance of the speech, that the subject had been for some time very near his heart.

She resolved, on the instant, not to fail him; but as she foresaw his crowning satisfaction, she permitted herself the luxury of prolonging his suspense.

"I do not love him," said she.

"In marriage one does not require an unconquerable love but an invincible sympathy."

"An invincible sympathy!" she exclaimed. "I have had that for certain friends--for one or two, at any rate. For Robert Orange, as an example."

"That man again? Why do you dwell upon him?"

"He is interesting, he has force, and, as for origin, do people ever repeat pleasant facts about a neighbour's pedigree? I believe that his family is every bit as good as ours. His second name is de Hausee. No one can pretend that we are even so good as a genuine de Hausee. We may make ourselves ridiculous!"

"Let me entreat you to guard against these inequalities in your character. To-day I could even accuse you of levity. Dearest Sara, Mars.h.i.+re is hardly the man to be kept waiting for his reply."

"I am not well," said Sara, almost in tears. "There are hours when I would not give my especial blessings for any other earthly happiness, and then, a moment after, the things which pleased me most become vexations, all but intolerable!"

"How little importance, then, should we attach to our caprices, when we know, by experience, how short is the pleasure and displeasure they can give," was the careful reply.

"Caprices!" said Sara, "yes, you are right. My mind gets weary, disgusted, and dismayed. But the soul is never bored--never tired. Poor prisoner! It has so few opportunities."

She sighed deeply, and her father saw, with distress, the approach of a sentimental mood which he deplored as un-English, and feared as unmanageable.