Elizabeth's Campaign
r, she guessed that it was her sister Margaret who wished to see her. She did not wish, however, to s
ng entere
time of day to be in be
n grew red wi
er advised me more than a year ago not to come down
r, and already whitening, though she was not yet thirty. Human thinness could hardly have been carried further than she and the Squire achieved it. She had her father's nose also
at you want to hear. I am sure you told Dr. Crother exactly what to
said Mrs. Gaddesden, sinking back on her pillows with a soft sigh of resignation. 'Th
tting notices lately with your name on them, at the end of a long tail beginning with a Duchess, and stuffed with Count
ter, and was of a genuinely inquiring turn
ddesden, a little confused, 'th
ed. 'Yes, indeed, if it weren't for the secretaries! B
among her pillows, a reasonably pretty woman, not withou
ith emphasis, 'this has got to
opened her
earth do
addesde
ticed,' she bent forward, looking mysterious and intent, 'how already father depends upon her, how she's beginning to run the
. Strang coolly,
e prepared to see a person lik
more highly educated than you or I, and if she gets her way, she'll perhaps keep father out
ret Strang's face was grave. And when it was
, 'even if he had a case-which he probably hasn't-and if he were t
e can't win!' cried Margaret Strang. 'It's not t
ured Alice
you
ster. She seemed to see a number of shabby streets, where she was accustomed to work, with l
hat?' sa
o Alice, and Alice's very ela
he can, and to do what he's told! And father not only sets a shocking example, but he pic
'so I suppose we shall hear. I can't ma
rs on his School only last month. But he's like an automaton. Nobody really knows him, nobody gets any forwarder with him. He hardly speaks to anybody except on business. The
s still suffering from the
up,' said Margaret with ener
ugged her
up the estate, ac
o him, if there's anything le
rga
ys be a Mannering of Mannering? Yes, I do care, but there are s
e now?' said Alice,
k the hint a
k, a dog-cart arrived at the Hall, brin
eathless survey of the situation, while Pamela sat on a stool at his feet, and put in explanatory words at intervals. Their father's extraordinary preparations for waging war against the County Committee; his violence on the subject of the Chick
is forehead, and had lost a finger of the left hand. The ribbons on his breast showed that he was both an M.C. and a D.S.O.-distinctions won at
a moment-while he looked at his young brother, a vision, insistent, terrible, passed ghost-like be
id Pamela despairingly, leaning he
m. He laid his hand u
of course, for me to do-to stick to
ow, Aubrey, that if father tries any hankey-pankey with the est
ty years, old man. Will there be any Englan
in amazement. Again he r
hing twenty years ahead. We've got to win the war, haven't we?-that
said Pamela. 'And fa
t him,' said Aubrey ind
ughed Desmond. 'No
d a puzzled
! a l
nd gr
ll. Father can't let her out of his si
put in Pamela. 'She's begun it alrea
e but his father and the Rector, who was coming to dine. He was at once seized on by his ma
brother-Mis
y for one of the first temporary commissions in the New Army. The news came at a moment when the Squire was smarting under the breakdown of a long-cherished scheme of exploration in the Greek islands, which was to have been realized that very autumn-a scheme towards which his whole narrow impetuous mind had been turned for years. No more Hellenic or Asia Minor excavations! no more cosmopolitan Wissenschaft! On that fatal August 4 a whole world
m more than one good turn. But in reply to his son's letter, he stood entirely on the defensive, lest any claim should be made upon him which might further interfere with the passion of his life. He was not, he said, in a position to increase Aubrey's allowance-the Government robbers had seen to that-and unless Beryl was prepared to be a poor man's wife he advised t
aid the newcomer to Elizabeth, when
It seems longer!
g some work f
rself. Major Mannering
or him is literar
ounts, and writ
ought there was
as he was putting out his hand automatically to a piece of bread lying on his left, M
'The bread appears because-because your father doesn't think rations necess
Aubrey's grave
n't I reall
eth he
s, I think you may.' And she would have resto
drilled them all!' For, looking round the table, he saw that
mond! They've given everyb
vens-not
he suspects anything, and h
isters?' Elizabet
being starved. Mrs. Strang, on the other
versation flowed on easily thenceforward;
ie! She's actually
were at least a third too many servants in the house; and as for the estate, instead of being a profit-making and food-producing concern, as it should have been, it was a bye-word for bad management and neglected land. She did not pretend to know much about it yet; but what she did know roused her. England was at grips with a brutal foe. The only weapon that could defeat her was famine-the sloth and waste of her own sons. Th
with touches of black, which exactly became her fair skin, the bright gold of her hair, and the pleasant homeliness of her face-her general aspect indeed-attracted him greatly. She might know G
ect and honest, on the other; Desmond and Pamela together, chatting and chaffing with the Rector. It was the room so familiar to his childhood and youth, with the family pictures, the Gainsborough full-length of his very plain great-grandmother in white satin at the end, two or three Van
en the victim of various long illnesses during his boyhood, had never, unluckily, meant much to him. He knew that he was of a very old stock, which had played a long and
od, and in front a certain hollow strewn with dead and dying men-one figure, in front of the rest, lying face downwards. The queer twisted forms, the
to pledge his own! But if she stood by him, he must stand by her. And he had had the kindest letter from Sir Henry, and some sweet tremulous words from her. Suppose she offe
ather, that was
p things going. It might have been noticed-it was noticed by at least two of the persons present-that quite unobtrusively, she was already the mistress of the house. She
ntrance. Pamela put down her knitting and looked at him anxiously; so did the elde
low voice, as she came to
t she saw tha
o Chetworth to-morrow-e
cert
-past
t you
sed a round game. He played it with much more spirit than usual, and
rest brought in the candles, Marga
e said to her brother in an undertone
ifferent answer, 'from
he excused himself at once on the ground of being d
hile the Rector and Elizabeth talked about
lled!' said Mar
it, she said. Aubrey had been quite calm. Desmond broke out, 'Did you ever see Aubrey any
looked at his watch, and
aid cheerfully. 'I daresay. He wor
he whole thinking more of the new secretary than of his old friends. A charming woman!-most capable! For the first time he might get some attention paid to the v
essage to Elizabeth. 'The Squire would be glad if you would spare
went unw
p at the further end, and the Squire was walking up a
erton, but do you happen to
id Elizabeth in amazement. 'No
old solicitors, and I wasn't going to give it to the new man-don't trust him particularly not to talk. So I locked it up here-somewhere. And I can't find it.' And he began restles
be in the office?' By which she meant the small and hideously untidy room on the ground floo
st. 'I put it somewhere in this room my own self! And I should have
round her in perplexity, not knowing where to begin. A large part of the room was walled with glass cases, holding vases, bronzes, and other small antiquities, down to about a yard from the floor, and
hasn't been disturbed since the Flood! Now those
day's work and was really tired. The first drawer she opened was packed with papers, a few arranged in something like order by her predecessor, the London University B.A., but the greater part of them in confusion. They mostly related to a violent co
rtion of the Mannering estate, which the Squire had sold to a neighbour only a
began to twitch with uncomfortable merriment. Should she go and knock up the housekeeper and
ircle of lamplight his face was visible to Elizabeth, wrinkled and set, with angry eyes; and she saw him as a person possessed by a stubb
finite but strong indignation were beginning to sweep through her. Why was the Squire hunting for his will? What
e to he
nnering. And I think, if you w
d at her
r your hours-you won't do anything extra
ed amazingly tall, as she stood straightened to her full height, c
ou, Mr. Mannering. But if you don't thi
ly aware of her extraordinary merits, and should be entirely lost with
anation very coldly, only r
ew his hand a
of an hour, no more-I want your signature, that's all. We won't look any further for the will. I can do all I want by a fresh document. I have been thinking it over, and can write it in ten minutes. I
hen he chose, and Elizabeth was to some extent propitiated. After all he and his ways were no longer
disquiet. What was he going to ask her to sign? She knew nothing of his threat to his eldest son-nothing, that is, clear or direct, either from himself or f
playing with a blind on a distant window. And through the window came another s
rose from
if you will kindly come here. We shall want an
her in the light-her gold hair and brilliant dress illuminated
e with h
now, Mr. Mannering, what it i
ness. It is nothing which wil
ame myself if I made it easier for you to
do you
ned all h
guess that you are angry with your son, with Major Mannering. If this thing you
threw both her hands behind h
ref
hat paper.' She motioned towards
odicil revoking my will in favour of my eldest son, and leaving all the property of which I die possessed, and which is in
held her ground, thou
have time to consider it again. Mr. Ma
uire l
in refusing you are
uld never wish to supplant his brother-and f
ears rising
ou claim a rather remarkable know
ion. 'He is the dearest, the most generous boy. In a few mont
d t
-to send him out with something on
l, g
wish'-her voice dropp
violently threw down the pen he w
erton. That will do.
rned and fled down the whole length of the libr
he took up the codicil, thrust it into a drawer of his writing-table, lit a cigarette,
d to her that she had won the first round in an arduous campaig