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Can you forgive her?

Can you forgive her?

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Chapter 1 Mr Mavasor and His Daughter

Word Count: 2916    |    Released on: 11/11/2017

with any strength of affirmation. By blood she was connected with big people — distantly connected with some very big people indeed, people who belonge

dom with half his income; and so the thing went on.There can, however, be no doubt that Mr Vavasor was better off — and happier with his almost nominal employment than he would have been without it. He always argued that it kept him in London; but he would undoubtedly have lived in London with or without his official occupation. He had become so habituated to London life in a small way, before the choice of leaving London was open to him, that nothing would have kept him long away from it. After his wife’s death he dined at his club every day on which a dinner was not given to him by some friend elsewhere, and was rarely happy except when so dining. They who have seen him scanning the steward’s list of dishes, and giving the necessary orders for his own and his friend’s dinner, at about half past four in the afternoon, have seen John Vavasor at the only moment of the day at which he is ever much in earnest. All other things are light and easy to him — to be taken easily and to be dismissed easily. Even the eating of the dinner calls forth from him no special sign of energy. Sometimes a frown will gather on his brow as he tastes the first half glass from his bottle of claret; but as a rule that which he has prepared for himself with so much elaborate care, is consumed with only pleasant enjoyment. Now and again it will happen that the cook is treacherous even to him, and then he can hit hard; but in hitting he is quiet, and strikes with a smile on his face.Such had been Mr Vavasor’s pursuits and pleasures in life up to the time at which my story commences. But I must not allow the reader to suppose that he was a man without good qualities. Had he when young possessed the gift of industry I think that he might have shone in his profession, and have been well spoken of and esteemed in the world. As it was he was a discontented man, but nevertheless he was popular, and to some extent esteemed. He was liberal as far as his means would permit; he was a man of his word; and he understood well that code of by-laws which was presumed to constitute the character of a gentleman in his circle. He knew how to carry himself well among men, and understood thoroughly what might be said, and what might not; what might be done among those with whom he lived, and what should be left undone. By nature, too, he was kindly disposed, loving many persons a little if he loved few or none passionately. Moreover, at the age of fifty, he was a handsome man, with a fine forehead, round which the hair and beard was only beginning to show itself to be grey. He stood well, with a large person, only now beginning to become corpulent. His eyes were bright and grey, and his mouth and chin were sharply cut, and told of gentle birth. Most men who knew John Vavasor well, declared it to be a pity that he should spend his time in signing accounts in Chancery Lane.I have said that Alice Vavasor’s big relatives cared but little for her in her early years; but I have also said that they were careful to undertake the charge of her education, and I must explain away this little discrepancy. The biggest of these big people had hardly heard of her; but there was a certain Lady Macleod, not very big herself, but, as it were, hanging on to the skirts of those who were so, who cared very much for Alice. She was the widow of a Sir Archibald Macleod, K.C.B., who had been a soldier, she herself having also been a Macleod by birth; and for very many years past — from a time previous to the birth of Alice Vavasor — she had lived at Cheltenham, making short sojourns in London during the spring, when the contents of her limited purse would admit of her doing so. Of old Lady Macleod I think I may say that she was a good woman — that she was a good woman, though subject to two of the most serious drawbacks to goodness which can afflict a lady. She was a Calvinistic Sabbatarian in religion, and in worldly matters she was a devout believer in the high rank of her noble relatives. She could almost worship a youthful marquis, though he lived a life that would disgrace a heathen among heathens; and she could and did, in her own mind, condemn crowds of commonplace men and women to all eternal torments which her imagination could conceive, because they listened to profane music in a park on Sunday. Yet she was a good woman. Out of her small means she gave much away. She owed no man anything. She strove to love her neighbours. She bore much pain with calm unspeaking endurance, and she lived in trust of a better world. Alice Vavasor, who was after all only her cousin, she loved with an exceeding love, and yet Alice had done very much to extinguish such love. Alice, in the years of her childhood, had been brought up by Lady Macleod; at the age of twelve she had been sent to a school at Aix-la-Chapelle — a comitatus of her relatives having agreed that such was to be her fate, much in opposition to Lady Macleod’s judgment; at nineteen she had returned to Cheltenham, and after remaining there for little more than a year, had expressed

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1 Chapter 1 Mr Mavasor and His Daughter2 Chapter 2 Lady Macleod3 Chapter 3 John Grey, the Worthy Man4 Chapter 4 George Vavasor, the Wild Man5 Chapter 5 The Balcony at Basle6 Chapter 6 The Bridge over the Rhine7 Chapter 7 Aunt Greenow8 Chapter 8 Mr Cheesacre9 Chapter 9 The Rivals10 Chapter 10 Nethercoats11 Chapter 11 John Grey goes to London12 Chapter 12 Mr George Vavasor at Home13 Chapter 13 Mr Grimes gets his Odd Money14 Chapter 14 Alice Vavasor becomes Troubled15 Chapter 15 Paramount Crescent16 Chapter 16 The Roebury Club17 Chapter 17 Edgehill18 Chapter 18 Alice Vavasor's Great Relations19 Chapter 19 Tribute from Oileymead20 Chapter 20 Which shall it be21 Chapter 21 Alice is taught to grow Upwards, towards the Light22 Chapter 22 Dandy and Flirt23 Chapter 23 Dinner at Matching Priory24 Chapter 24 Three Politicians25 Chapter 25 In which much of the History of the Pallisers is t26 Chapter 26 Lady Midlothian27 Chapter 27 The Priory Ruins28 Chapter 28 Alice leaves the Priory29 Chapter 29 Burgo Fitzgerald30 Chapter 30 Containing a Love-letter31 Chapter 31 Among the Fells32 Chapter 32 Containing an Answer to the Love-letter33 Chapter 33 Monkshade34 Chapter 34 Mr Vavasor speaks to his Daughter35 Chapter 35 Passion versus Prudence36 Chapter 36 John Grey goes a Second Time to London37 Chapter 37 Mr Tombe's Advice38 Chapter 38 The Inn at Shap39 Chapter 39 Mr Cheesacre's Hospitality40 Chapter 40 Mrs Greenow's Little Dinner in the Close41 Chapter 41 A Noble Lord Dies42 Chapter 42 Parliament Meets43 Chapter 43 Mrs Marsham44 Chapter 44 The Election for the Chelsea Districts45 Chapter 45 George Vavasor takes his Seat46 Chapter 46 A Love Gift47 Chapter 47 Mr Cheesacre's Disappointment48 Chapter 48 Preparations for Lady Monk's Party49 Chapter 49 How Lady Glencora went to Lady Monk's Party50 Chapter 50 How Lady Glencora came back from Lady Monk's Par51 Chapter 51 Bold Speculations on Murder52 Chapter 52 What occurred in Suffolk Street, Pall Mall53 Chapter 53 The Last Will of the Old Squire54 Chapter 54 Showing how Alice was Punished55 Chapter 55 The Will56 Chapter 56 Another Walk on the Fells57 Chapter 57 Showing how the Wild Beast got himself back from t58 Chapter 58 The Pallisers at Breakfast59 Chapter 59 The Duke of St Bungay in Search of a Minister60 Chapter 60 Alice Vavasor's Name gets into the Money Market61 Chapter 61 The Bills are made all right62 Chapter 62 Going Abroad63 Chapter 63 Mr John Grey in Queen Anne Street64 Chapter 64 The Rocks and Valleys65 Chapter 65 The First Kiss66 Chapter 66 Lady Monk's Plan67 Chapter 67 The Last Kiss68 Chapter 68 From London to Baden69 Chapter 69 From Baden to Lucerne70 Chapter 70 At Lucerne71 Chapter 71 Showing how George Vavasor received a Visit72 Chapter 72 Showing how George Vavasor paid a Visit73 Chapter 73 In which come Tidings of Great Moment to all the P74 Chapter 74 Showing what happened in the Churchyard75 Chapter 75 Rouge et Noir76 Chapter 76 The Landlord's Bill77 Chapter 77 The Travellers return Home78 Chapter 78 Mr Cheesacre's Fate79 Chapter 79 Diamonds are Diamonds80 Chapter 80 The Story is finished within the Halls of the Duke