第32章

Ay;anybody can be what you call graceful,if he lives a little time in a city,and keeps his eyes open.And he might have picked up his gentlemanliness by going to the galleries of theatres,and watching stage drawing-room manners.He reminds me of one of the worst stories I ever heard in my life.

What story was that?

Oh no,thank you!I wouldnt tell you such an improper matter for the world!

If his father and mother had lived in the north or east of England,gallantly persisted Elfride,though her sobs began to interrupt her articulation,anywhere but here--you--would have--only regarded--HIM,and not THEM!His station--would have--been what--his profession makes it,--and not fixed by--his fathers humble position--at all;whom he never lives with--now.Though John Smith has saved lots of money,and is better off than we are,they say,or he couldnt have put his son to such an expensive profession.And it is clever and--honourable--of Stephen,to be the best of his family.

Yes."Let a beast be lord of beasts,and his crib shall stand at the kings mess."

You insult me,papa!she burst out.You do,you do!He is my own Stephen,he is!

That may or may not be true,Elfride,returned her father,again uncomfortably agitated in spite of himself You confuse future probabilities with present facts,--what the young man may be with what he is.We must look at what he is,not what an improbable degree of success in his profession may make him.The case is this:the son of a working-man in my parish who may or may not be able to buy me up--a youth who has not yet advanced so far into life as to have any income of his own deserving the name,and therefore of his fathers degree as regards station--wants to be engaged to you.His family are living in precisely the same spot in England as yours,so throughout this county--which is the world to us--you would always be known as the wife of Jack Smith the masons son,and not under any circumstances as the wife of a London professional man.It is the drawback,not the compensating fact,that is talked of always.There,say no more.You may argue all night,and prove what you will;Ill stick to my words.

Elfride looked silently and hopelessly out of the window with large heavy eyes and wet cheeks.

I call it great temerity--and long to call it audacity--in Hewby,resumed her father.I never heard such a thing--giving such a hobbledehoy native of this place such an introduction to me as he did.Naturally you were deceived as well as I was.I dont blame you at all,so far.He went and searched for Mr.Hewbys original letter.Heres what he said to me:"Dear Sir,--

Agreeably to your request of the 18th instant,I have arranged to survey and make drawings,"et cetera."My assistant,Mr.Stephen Smith"--assistant,you see he called him,and naturally I

understood him to mean a sort of partner.Why didnt he say "clerk"?

They never call them clerks in that profession,because they do not write.Stephen--Mr.Smith--told me so.So that Mr.Hewby simply used the accepted word.

Let me speak,please,Elfride!"My assistant,Mr.Stephen Smith,will leave London by the early train to-morrow morning.MANY

THANKS FOR YOUR PROPOSAL TO ACCOMMODATE HIM.YOU MAY PUT EVERY

CONFIDENCE IN HIM,and may rely upon his discernment in the matter of church architecture."Well,I repeat that Hewby ought to be ashamed of himself for making so much of a poor lad of that sort.

Professional men in London,Elfride argued,dont know anything about their clerksfathers and mothers.They have assistants who come to their offices and shops for years,and hardly even know where they live.What they can do--what profits they can bring the firm--thats all London men care about.And that is helped in him by his faculty of being uniformly pleasant.

Uniform pleasantness is rather a defect than a faculty.It shows that a man hasnt sense enough to know whom to despise.

It shows that he acts by faith and not by sight,as those you claim succession from directed.

Thats some more of what hes been telling you,I suppose!Yes,I

was inclined to suspect him,because he didnt care about sauces of any kind.I always did doubt a mans being a gentleman if his palate had no acquired tastes.An unedified palate is the irrepressible cloven foot of the upstart.The idea of my bringing out a bottle of my 40Martinez--only eleven of them left now--to a man who didnt know it from eighteenpenny!Then the Latin line he gave to my quotation;it was very cut-and-dried,very;or I,who havent looked into a classical author for the last eighteen years,shouldnt have remembered it.Well,Elfride,you had better go to your room;youll get over this bit of tomfoolery in time.

No,no,no,papa,she moaned.For of all the miseries attaching to miserable love,the worst is the misery of thinking that the passion which is the cause of them all may cease.

Elfride,said her father with rough friendliness,I have an excellent scheme on hand,which I cannot tell you of now.Ascheme to benefit you and me.It has been thrust upon me for some little time--yes,thrust upon me--but I didnt dream of its value till this afternoon,when the revelation came.I should be most unwise to refuse to entertain it.

I dont like that word,she returned wearily.You have lost so much already by schemes.Is it those wretched mines again?

No;not a mining scheme.

Railways?

Nor railways.It is like those mysterious offers we see advertised,by which any gentleman with no brains at all may make so much a week without risk,trouble,or soiling his fingers.

However,I am intending to say nothing till it is settled,though I will just say this much,that you soon may have other fish to fry than to think of Stephen Smith.Remember,I wish,not to be angry,but friendly,to the young man;for your sake Ill regard him as a friend in a certain sense.But this is enough;in a few days you will be quite my way of thinking.There,now,go to your bedroom.Unity shall bring you up some supper.I wish you not to be here when he comes back.