The Adventures of Harry Richmond. Complete. George Meredith
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head from hills and valleys lying East; they seemed to have the secret of my father. Blank enough they looked if ever I despaired of their knowing more than I. My Winter and Summer were the moods of my mind constantly shifting. I would have a week of the belief that he was near Riversley, calling for me; a week of the fear that he was dead; long dreams of him, as travelling through foreign countries, patting the foreheads of boys and girls on his way; or driving radiantly, and people bowing. Radiantly, I say: had there been touches of colour in these visions, I should have been lured off in pursuit of him. The dreams passed colourlessly; I put colouring touches to the figures seen in them afterward, when I was cooler, and could say, ‘What is the use of fancying things?’ yet knew that fancying things was a consolation. By such means I came to paint the mystery surrounding my father in tender colours. I built up a fretted cathedral from what I imagined of him, and could pass entirely away out of the world by entering the doors.
Want of boys’ society as well as hard head-work produced this mischief. My lessons were intermittent Resident tutors arrived to instruct me, one after another. They were clergymen, and they soon proposed to marry my aunt Dorothy, or they rebuked the squire for swearing. The devil was in the parsons, he said: in his time they were modest creatures and stuck to the bottle and heaven. My aunt was of the opinion of our neighbours, who sent their boys to school and thought I should be sent likewise.
‘No, no,’ said the squire; ‘my life’s short when the gout’s marching up to my middle, and I’ll see as much of my heir as I can. Why, the lad’s my daughter’s son: He shall grow up among his tenantry. We’ll beat the country and start a man at last to drive his yard of learning into him without rolling sheep’s eyes right and left.’
Unfortunately the squire’s description of man was not started. My aunt was handsome, an heiress (that is, she had money of her own coming from her mother’s side of the family), and the tenderest woman alive, with a voice sweeter than flutes. There was a saying in the county that to marry a Beltham you must po’chay her.
A great-aunt of mine, the squire’s sister, had been carried off. She died childless. A favourite young cousin of his likewise had run away with a poor baronet, Sir Roderick Ilchester, whose son Charles was now and then our playmate, and was a scapegrace. But for me he would have been selected by the squire for his heir, he said; and he often ‘confounded’ me to my face on that account as he shook my hand, breaking out: ‘I’d as lief fetch you a cuff o’ the head, Harry Richmond, upon my honour!’ and cursing at his luck for having to study for his living, and be what he called a sloppy curate now that I had come to Riversley for good.
He informed me that I should have to marry his sister Janet; for that they could not allow the money to go out of the family. Janet Ilchester was a quaint girl, a favourite of my aunt Dorothy, and the squire’s especial pet; red-cheeked, with a good upright figure in walking and riding, and willing to be friendly, but we always quarrelled: she detested hearing of Kiomi.
‘Don’t talk of creatures you met when you were a beggar, Harry Richmond,’ she said.
‘I never was a beggar,’ I replied.
‘Then she was a beggar,’ said Janet; and I could not deny it; though the only difference I saw between Janet and Kiomi was, that Janet continually begged favours and gifts of people she knew, and Kiomi of people who were strangers.
My allowance of pocket-money from the squire was fifty pounds a year. I might have spent it all in satisfying Janet’s wishes for riding-whips, knives, pencil-cases, cairngorm buttons, and dogs. A large part of the money went that way. She was always getting notice of fine dogs for sale. I bought a mastiff for her, a brown retriever, and a little terrier. She was permitted to keep the terrier at home, but I had to take care of the mastiff and retriever. When Janet came to look at them she called them by their names; of course they followed me in preference to her; she cried with jealousy. We had a downright quarrel. Lady Ilchester invited me to spend a day at her house, Charley being home for his Midsummer holidays. Charley, Janet, and I fished the river for trout, and Janet, to flatter me (of which I was quite aware), while I dressed her rod as if she was likely to catch something, talked of Heriot, and then said:
‘Oh! dear, we are good friends, aren’t we? Charley says we shall marry one another some day, but mama’s such a proud woman she won’t much like your having such a father as you ‘ve got unless he ‘s dead by that time and I needn’t go up to him to be kissed.’
I stared at the girl in wonderment, but not too angrily, for I guessed that she was merely repeating her brother’s candid speculations upon the future. I said: ‘Now mind what I tell you, Janet: I forgive you this once, for you are an ignorant little girl and know no better. Speak respectfully of my father or you never see me again.’
Here Charley sang out: ‘Hulloa! you don’t mean to say you’re talking of your father.’
Janet whimpered that I had called her an ignorant little girl. If she had been silent I should have pardoned her. The meanness of the girl in turning on me when the glaring offence was hers, struck me as contemptible beyond words. Charley and I met half way. He advised me not to talk to his sister of my father. They all knew, he said, that it was no fault of mine, and for his part, had he a rascal for a father, he should pension him and cut him; to tell the truth, no objection against me existed in his family except on the score of the sort of father I owned to, and I had better make up my mind to shake him off before I grew a man; he spoke as a friend. I might frown at him and clench my fists, but he did speak as a friend.
Janet all the while was nibbling a biscuit, glancing over it at me with mouse-eyes. Her short frock and her greediness, contrasting with the talk of my marrying her, filled me with renewed scorn, though my heart was sick at the mention of my father. I asked her what she knew of him. She nibbled her biscuit, mumbling, ‘He went to Riversley, pretending he was a singing-master. I know that’s true, and more.’
‘Oh, and a drawing-master, and a professor of legerdemain,’ added her brother. ‘Expunge him, old fellow; he’s no good.’
‘No, I’m sure he’s no good,’ said Janet.
I took her hand, and told her, ‘You don’t know how you hurt me; but you’re a child: you don’t know anything about the world. I love my father, remember that, and what you want me to do is mean and disgraceful; but you don’t know better. I would forfeit everything in the world for him. And when you’re of age to marry, marry anybody you like—you won’t marry me. And good-bye, Janet. Think of learning your lessons, and not of marrying. I can’t help laughing.’ So I said, but without the laughter. Her brother tried hard to get me to notice him.
Janet betook herself to the squire. Her prattle of our marriage in days to come was excuseable. It was the squire’s notion. He used to remark generally that he liked to see things look safe and fast, and he had, as my aunt confided to me, arranged with Lady Ilchester, in the girl’s hearing, that we should make a match. My grandfather pledged his word to Janet that he would restore us to an amicable footing. He thought it a light task. Invitations were sent out to a large party at Riversley, and Janet came with all my gifts on her dress or in her pockets. The squire led the company to the gates of his stables; the gates opened, and a beautiful pony, with a side-saddle on, was trotted forth, amid cries of admiration. Then the squire put the bridle-reins in my hands, bidding me present it myself. I asked the name of the person. He pointed at Janet. I presented the pony to Janet, and said, ‘It’s from the squire.’
She forgot, in her delight, our being at variance.
‘No, no, you stupid Harry, I’m to thank you. He’s a darling pony. I want to kiss you.’
I retired promptly, but the squire had heard her.
‘Back, sir!’ he shouted, swearing by this and that. ‘You slink from a kiss, and you’re Beltham blood?
Back to her, lad. Take it. Up with her in your arms or down on your knees. Take it manfully, somehow. See there, she ‘s got it ready for you.’
‘I’ve got a letter ready for you, Harry, to say—oh! so sorry for offending you,’ Janet whispered, when I reached the pony’s head; ‘and if you’d rather not be kissed before people, then by-and-by, but do shake hands.’
‘Pull