The Semi-attached Couple/Chapter 10
CHAPTER X
"Mamma," said Eliza Douglas, as they were sitting working in the evening, "did you know that the Trevors had left Eskdale Castle?"
"No, my love; how should I know anything about the Trevors? Lady Amelia never deigned to call here but once, and then at an hour when she knew I should be out."
"Yes, another time with Mr. Trevor, mamma. If you remember"
"Well, Mr. Trevor wanted to see your father, and she was obliged to come with him; I do not call that a visit."
"And then on Sunday, mamma, after church?"
"My love, what is the use of contradicting me? If Lady Amelia did call then, she ought to be ashamed, with all her pretence of goodness, to pay visits at all on Sunday. And all these little trifling facts make no difference, in my opinion, that all these young women are much too fine to pay any attention to their mother's old friend. Who told you they were gone?"
"Mrs. Birkett told Sarah, and Betsy said, when she was dressing me, that she had seen Lady Eskdale's maid, who had mentioned it."
"Well, now, I should like to know what business Betsy had to be talking to Mrs. Nelson. It will not at all do for our servants to get a habit of gossiping at Eskdale Castle; not that I shall be at all sorry if it obliges me to speak out and to make a thorough reform in our household: I am always glad of an opportunity to tell servants what a thoroughly bad race I think they are."
"That must be encouraging to them," said Mr. Douglas, "and produce a great increase of attachment to yourself."
"Oh! my dear, that is one of the subjects you do not understand, and so you may as well not talk about it. If you would let me send away that old Thomas of yours, the house would go on much better. Mrs. Birkett, and Mrs. Dashwood, and everybody says I manage servants better than anybody; and I know I do, by never letting them have their own way on any one point; and as for attachment, you might as well expect it from this table."
"I should think so, under the circumstances," said Mr. Douglas; "but whatever you do, do not interfere with Thomas."
A silence followed while Mrs. Douglas was thinking what a clever manager she was, and how well she contrived to make her servants hate her; and then her thoughts recurred to the Eskdales.
"So Amelia is gone; I suppose to some gay party at a country-house. I must say, that after all the fuss that has been made about those girls, it is not much to their credit that they leave their parents quite to themselves in their old age, while they are flying about in search of amusement. I will answer for it Amelia went off because she thought it dull."
"Are you speaking of the Trevors?" said Mr. Douglas, who was reading the paper. "I see his father is dead, and they have been sent for into Sussex. Trevor is now Lord Walden."
"Oh!" said Mrs. Douglas; and there was another long silence.
"Well," she began again, "I do pity Lord Eskdale: I do not see what he is to do, after being accustomed to the society of his daughters, and used to having one of them always with him. Those die-away, languid airs of Lady Eskdale's must be rather trying. To be sure, she is not so young as she was, whatever you may say, Mr. Douglas; but she might exert herself to be a little more of a companion to him. She has none of my ideas that a wife is bound to exert herself for her husband's good."
"I met them riding together to-day," said Mr. Douglas.
"Riding, my dear!"
"Yes, riding, Anne."
"You must be dreaming, Mr. Douglas. Lady Eskdale on a horse!"
"No, my love, on a mare; the gray mare Helen used to ride."
"Impossible! How was she dressed, Mr. Douglas?"
"In a habit, my dear, and hat, with a veil. I can swear to the hat, for it became her particularly."
"Well," said Mrs. Douglas, with a scornful laugh, "I think this is by far the most amusing thing I ever heard. Lady Eskdale doing the youthful, galloping about the country flirting with her husband; I suppose she will begin dancing next. Lord Eskdale and she are probably at this moment practising the Gavotte de Vestris up and down the saloon. I don't know when I have been so diverted; but to a person of plain commonsense like myself, the tricks and ways of these London ladies are amazingly entertaining."
"However, you must allow, Anne, that this is not a die-away, languid air; and as you take such a kind interest in Lord Eskdale's fate, you will be happy to hear that he said he was quite delighted to have his wife riding with him again."
"Oh, my dear love! unless you mean to make me quite ill, you must not offer me the mawkish idea of Lord Eskdale making pretty speeches to his wife; I really cannot stand that. And pray, are this promising young couple likely to remain long in their solitary paradise? or are they going to, St. Mary's? or is there any company coming to the castle?"
"I think they are expecting a large party at home. Lord Eskdale was beginning to say something about it, and then she gave him a look, and he stopped short."
"What! I suppose we are not to know, for fear we should expect to be asked. Why, it is just the very thing I would go miles out of the way to avoid, and the last society into which I should like to take my girls."
"Oh, mamma!" said Eliza, "I wish you would not say that; and I wish they would ask us constantly to their house. It is very odd, that though I feel afraid of everybody all the time, there is nothing I like so much as dining there. And I am sure, mamma, it would be very good for my manner, which you say is so unformed at home. Before I have crossed the hall at Eskdale Castle I feel quite refined," she said, laughing.
Mrs. Douglas laughed too, for though she rarely lost any opportunity of speaking malevolently of her neighbours' children, she was very much disposed to admire her own. And her own misanthropy found a pleasant relief in Eliza's enjoyable views of life.