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The Trial

C >> Charlotte M. Yonge >> The Trial




Falsehood, slander, cruelty, ingratitude, breach of hospitality, were
the imputations that fired the hot brain of Leonard, and writhed his
lips, as he started round, confronted the lady, and assured her it
was a--a--a gross mistake. His father had always attended the child,
and she must have misunderstood his brother. Then, seeing Henry at a
little distance, Leonard summoned him to contradict the allegation;
but at that moment the sudden appearance of the two Mays put the
whole conclave to silence.

Not aware that Mrs. Pugh had confounded together his intelligence and
her surmise, and made him responsible for both, Henry was shocked and
grieved at his brother's insulting and violent demeanour, and
exhausted himself in apologies and denunciations; while the kind-
hearted lady interceded, for the boy, declaring that she doted on his
generous spirit, but not confessing the piece of female embroidery
which had embroiled the matter; probably not even aware of it, though
sincerely and kindly desirous to avert the brother's anger. Her
amiability, therefore, only strengthened Henry's sense of his
brothers outrage, and his resolve to call him to account.

It was impossible that night, for Leonard had gone home with the
sisters, and was in bed long before his brother returned. But at
breakfast Henry found the forces drawn up against him, and his first
attempt to remonstrate was retorted by the demand what he could mean
by spreading such an abominable report--cruel--unfounded--ungrateful
--spiteful--

Averil indeed divined that it was Mrs. Pugh's invention; but Henry
was not inclined to give up Mrs. Pugh, and continued in the belief
that Leonard's fiery imagination had fabricated the sentence, and
then most improperly charged it on the lady, and on himself. Had it
been as Leonard stated, said Henry, his conduct was shameful and
required an apology, whereupon Leonard burst out in passion at being
disbelieved, and Averil was no less indignant. The storm raged till
the business of the day interrupted it; and in Henry's absence,
Averil and her brother worked up their wrath again, at the atrocity
of the assertion regarding the child of their entertainers, the
granddaughter of their truest, kindest friend.

Averil would have rushed to Mary with the whole story, but for
Leonard's solemn asseveration that if ever it came to the ears of any
one of the Mays, he should send back his rifle to Mr. Ernescliffe,
and work his way out to one of the colonies rather than again look
any of the family in the face.

Henry divided his opponents next time, asking Leonard, in his
sister's absence, whether he had come to his senses and would
apologize? Leonard hoped Henry had come to his! On the whole, the
dispute had lost some asperity by the absence of Averil, and though
Leonard held his ground, and maintained that he had every right to
deny the statement, and that it was Henry's duty to make Mrs. Pugh
contradict it everywhere, yet the two approached nearer together, and
there was less misunderstanding, fewer personalities.

But Averil could not forget or forgive. She persisted in manifesting
her displeasure, and recurred to the subject till her pertinacity
wore out Leonard himself.

'Nonsense, Ave,' he said at last, 'it was a foolish woman's gossip
that Henry ought to have quashed; but that is no reason you should
treat them like toads.'

'Would you have me sanction vile slander?'

'As if you were sanctioning slander by being decently civil! Is not
it an intolerable thing that we three should never sit down to a meal
in peace together?'

'O, Leonard, don't you think I feel the misery?'

Put an end to it then, and don't pit those poor children one against
the other. Just fancy Minna's saying to me, "I love you and sister,
but Ella loves Mrs. Pugh and Henry."'

'Yes, they have set Ella against me. She always appeals to Henry,
and I can do nothing with her.'

Leonard looked out of the window and whistled, then said, as if he
had made a discovery, 'I'll tell you what, Ave, something must be
done to set things to rights between us, and I believe the best thing
will be to call on Mrs. Pugh.'

'Not to apologize! O, Leonard!'

'Stuff and nonsense! Only to show we don't bear malice. Henry had
been at you to call ever so long before this, had he not?'

'I can't see any reason for intimacy.'

'I declare, Ave, you are too bad! I only want you just to keep the
peace with your own brother. You have led him the life of a dog
these three days, and now when I want you to be a little obliging,
you talk of intimacy!'

'Only because I know how it will be. If I give that woman an inch,
she will take an ell.'

'Let her then. It would be much better than always living at
daggers-drawn with one's brother.' Then, after waiting for her to
say something, he added, 'If you won't go with me, I shall go alone.'

Averil rose, subdued but not convinced, reverencing her brother, but
afraid of his concessions.

However, the call turned out well. Mrs. Pugh had a talent for making
herself agreeable, and probably had liked the boy for his outburst.
She would not let Mab be excluded, loaded her with admiration, and
was extremely interested in the volunteer practice, so that both the
young people were subjugated for the time by her pleasant manners,
and went away ashamed of their own rancour against one so friendly
and good-natured, and considerably relieved of their burden of
animosity.

Their greeting to their brother was so cordial that he perceived
their good-will, and was sorry that the dread of an evening of
warfare had induced him to accept an invitation to dine at the Swan
with Sam Axworthy and a party of his friends.




CHAPTER X



This night is my departing night,
For here nae longer must I stay;
There's neither friend nor foe of mine
But wishes me away.
What I have done through lack of wit,
I never, never can recall:
I hope ye're all my friends as yet.
Good night, and joy be with you all.
Armstrong's Good Night


The storm had blown over, but heavy flakes of cloud still cumbered
the air, and gusts of wind portended that it might gather again.

Henry Ward took this opportunity of giving his first dinner party.
He said it was a necessary return for the civilities they had
received; and to Averil's representation that it transgressed the
system of rigid economy that so much tormented her, he replied by
referring her to Mrs. Pugh for lessons in the combination of style
and inexpensiveness.

Averil had almost refused, but the lady herself proffered her
instructions, and reluctance was of no avail; nothing but
demonstrations from which her conscience shrank, could have served to
defend her from the officious interference so eagerly and thankfully
encouraged by the master of the house. Vainly did she protest
against pretension, and quote the example of the Grange; she found
herself compelled to sacrifice the children's lessons to learn of
Mrs. Pugh to make the paper flowers that, with bonbons and
sweetmeats, were to save the expense of good food on the dinner-
table, and which she feared would be despised by Miss May, nay,
perhaps laughed over with 'Mr. Tom!'

She hated the whole concern, even the invitation to Dr. and Miss May,
knowing that it was sent in formal vanity, accepted in pure good-
nature, would bring them into society they did not like, and expose
her brother's bad taste. Only one thing could have added to her
dislike, namely--that which all Stoneborough perceived excepting
herself and Leonard--that this dinner was intended as a step in
Henry's courtship, and possibly as an encouragement of Harvey
Anderson's liking for herself. Averil held her head so high, and was
so little popular, that no one of less assurance than Mrs. Ledwich
herself would have dared approach her with personal gossip; and even
Mrs. Ledwich was silent here; so that Averil, too young and innocent
to connect second marriages with recent widowhood, drew no
conclusions from Henry's restless eagerness that his household should
present the most imposing appearance.

While the bill of fare was worrying Averil, Leonard was told by
Aubrey, that his father had brought home a fossil Tower of Babel, dug
up with some earth out of a new well, three miles off, with tidings
of other unheard-of treasures, and a walk was projected in quest of
them, in which Leonard was invited to join. He gladly came to the
early dinner, where he met reduced numbers--the Ernescliffes being at
Maplewood, Tom at Cambridge, and Harry in the Channel fleet; and as
usual, he felt the difference between the perfect understanding and
friendship in the one home, and the dread of dangerous subjects in
the other. The expedition had all the charms of the Coombe times;
and the geological discoveries were so numerous and precious, that
the load became sufficient to break down the finders, and Ethel
engaged a market-woman to bring the baskets in her cart the next
morning.

That morning a note from Richard begged Ethel to come early to
Cocksmoor to see Granny Hall, who was dying. Thus left to their own
devices, Aubrey and Gertrude conscientiously went through some of
their studies; then proceeded to unpack their treasury of fossils,
and endeavour to sort out Leonard's share, as to which doubts arose.
Daisy proposed to carry the specimens at once to Bankside, where she
wanted to see Leonard's prime echinus; and Aubrey readily agreed,
neither of the young heads having learnt the undesirableness of a
morning visit in a house preparing for a dinner-party too big for it.

However, Leonard made them extremely welcome. It was too foggy a day
for rifle practice, and all the best plate and china were in the
school-room, his only place of refuge; Ave was fluttering about in
hopes of getting everything done before Mrs. Pugh could take it out
of her hands, and the energies of the household were spent on laying
out the dining-table. It was clearly impossible to take Gertrude
anywhere but into the drawing-room, which was in demi-toilette state,
the lustres released from their veils, the gayer cushions taken out
of their hiding-places, and the brown holland covers half off. This
was the only tranquil spot, and so poor little Mab thought, forbidden
ground though it was. Even in her own home, the school-room, a
strange man had twice trod upon her toes; so no wonder, when she saw
her own master and his friends in the drawing-room, that she ventured
in, and leaping on a velvet cushion she had never seen before, and
had never been ordered off, she there curled herself up and went to
sleep, unseen by Leonard, who was in eager controversy upon the
specimens, which Gertrude, as she unpacked, set down on floor, chair,
or ottoman, unaware of the offence she was committing. So,
unmolested, the young geologists talked, named, and sorted the
specimens, till the clock striking the half-hour, warned the Mays
that they must return; and Leonard let them out at the window, and
crossed the lawn to the side gate with them to save the distance.

He had just returned, and was kneeling on the floor hastily
collecting the fossils, when the door opened, and Henry Ward, coming
home to inspect the preparations, beheld the drawing-room bestrewn
with the rough stones that he had proscribed, and Mab, not only in
the room, but reposing in the centre of the most magnificent cushion
in the house!

His first movement of indignation was to seize the dog with no gentle
hand. She whined loudly; and Leonard, whom he had not seen, shouted
angrily, 'Let her alone;' then, at another cry from her, finding his
advance to her rescue impeded by a barricade of the crowded and
disarranged furniture, he grew mad with passion, and launched the
stone in his hand, a long sharp-pointed belemnite. It did not strike
Henry, but a sound proclaimed the mischief, as it fell back from the
surface of the mirror, making a huge star of cracks, unmarked by
Leonard, who, pushing sofa and ottoman to the right and left,
thundered up to his brother, and with uplifted hand demanded what he
meant by his cruelty.

'Is--is this defiance?' stammered Henry, pointing to the disordered
room.

'Look here, Averil,' as she appeared at the sounds, 'do you defend
this boy now he has very nearly killed me?'

'Killed you!' and Leonard laughed angrily; but when Henry held up the
elf-bolt, and he saw its sharp point, he was shocked, and he saw
horror in Averil's face.

'I see,' he said gravely. 'It was a mercy I did not!' and he paused.
'I did not know what I was about when you were misusing my dog,
Henry. Shake hands; I am sorry for it.'

But Henry had been very much frightened as well as angered, and
thought, perhaps, it was a moment to pursue his advantage.

'You treat things lightly,' he said, not accepting the hand.

'See what you have done.'

'I am glad it was not your head,' said Leonard. 'What does it cost?
I'll pay.'

'More than your keep for a year,' moaned Henry, as he sighed over the
long limbs of the starfish-like fracture.

'Well, I will give up anything you like, if you will only not be
sulky about it, Henry. It was unlucky, and I'm sorry for it; I can't
say more!'

'But I can,' said Henry with angry dignity, re-inforced by the sight
of the seamed reflection of his visage in the shivered glass. 'I
tell you, Leonard, there's no having you in the house; you defy my
authority, you insult my friends, you waste and destroy more than you
are worth, and you are absolutely dangerous. I would as soon have a
wild beast about the place. If you don't get the Randall next week,
and get off to the University, to old Axworthy's office you go at
once.'

'Very well, I will,' said Leonard, turning to collect the fossils, as
if he had done with the subject.

'Henry, Henry, what are you saying?' cried the sister.

'Not a word, Ave,' said Leonard. 'I had rather break stones on the
road than live where my keep is grudged, and there's not spirit
enough to get over a moment's fright.'

'It is not any one individual thing,' began Henry, in a tone of
annoyance, 'but your whole course--'

There he paused, perceiving that Leonard paid no attention to his
words, continuing quietly to replace the furniture and collect the
fossils, as it no one else were in the room, after which he carried
the basket up-stairs.

Averil hurried after him. 'Leonard! oh, why don't you explain? Why
don't you tell him how the stones came there?'

Leonard shook his head sternly.

'Don't you mean to do anything?'

'Nothing.'

'But you wanted another year before trying for the scholarship.'

'Yes; I have no chance there.'

'He will not do it! He cannot mean it!'

'I do then. I will get my own living, and not be a burthen, where my
brother cannot forgive a broken glass or a moment's fright,' said
Leonard; and she felt that his calm resentment was worse than his
violence.

'He will be cooler, and then--'

'I will have no more said to him. It is plain that we cannot live
together, and there's an end of it. Don't cry, or you won't be fit
to be seen.'

'I won't come down to dinner.'

'Yes, you will. Let us have no more about it. Some one wants you.'

'Please, ma'am, the fish is come.'

'Sister, sister, come and see how I have done up the macaroons in
green leaves.'

'Sister, sister, do come and reach me down some calycanthus out of
the greenhouse!'

'I will,' said Leonard, descending; and for the rest of the day he
was an efficient assistant in the decorations, and the past adventure
was only apparent in the shattered glass, and the stern ceremonious
courtesy of the younger brother towards the elder.

Averil hurried about, devoid of all her former interest in so doing
things for herself as to save interference; and when Mrs. Ledwich and
Mrs. Pugh walked in, overflowing with suggestions, she let them have
their way, and toiled under them with the sensation of being like
'dumb driven cattle.' If Leonard were to be an exile, what mattered
it to her who ruled, or what appearance things made?

Only when she went to her own room to dress, had she a moment to
realize the catastrophe, its consequences, and the means of averting
them. So appalled was she, that she sat with her hair on her
shoulders as if spell-bound, till the first ring at the door aroused
her to speed and consternation, perhaps a little lessened by one of
her sisters rushing in to say that it was Mrs. Ledwich and Mrs. Pugh,
and that Henry was still in the cellar, decanting the wine.

Long before the hosts were ready, Dr. May and Ethel had likewise
arrived, and became cognizant of the fracture of the mirror, for,
though the nucleus was concealed by a large photograph stuck into the
frame, one long crack extended even to the opposite corner. The two
ladies were not slow to relate all that they knew; and while the aunt
dismayed Ethel by her story, the niece, with much anxiety, asked Dr.
May how it was that these dear, nice, superior young people should
have such unfortunate tempers--was it from any error in management?
So earnest was her manner, so inquiring her look, that Dr. May
suspected that she was feeling for his opinion on personal grounds,
and tried to avert the danger by talking of the excellence of the
parents, but he was recalled from his eulogium on poor Mrs. Ward.

'Oh yes! one felt for them so very much, and they are so religious,
so well principled, and all that one could wish; but family
dissension is so dreadful. I am very little used to young men or
boys, and I never knew anything like this.'

'The lads are too nearly of an age,' said the Doctor.

'And would such things be likely to happen among any brothers?'

'I should trust not!' said the Doctor emphatically.

'I should so like to know in confidence which you think likely to be
most to blame.'

Never was the Doctor more glad that Averil made her appearance! He
carefully avoided getting near Mrs. Pugh for the rest of the evening,
but he could not help observing that she was less gracious than usual
to the master of the house; while she summoned Leonard to her side to
ask about the volunteer proceedings, and formed her immediate court
of Harvey Anderson and Mr. Scudamour.

The dinner went on fairly, though heavily. Averil, in her one great
trouble, lost the sense of the minor offences that would have
distressed her pride and her taste had she been able to attend to
them, and forgot the dulness of the scene in her anxiety to seek
sympathy and counsel in the only quarter where she cared for it. She
went mechanically through her duties as lady of the house, talking
commonplace subjects dreamily to Dr. May, and scarcely even giving
herself the trouble to be brief with Mr. Anderson, who was on her
other side at dinner.

In the drawing-room, she left the other ladies to their own devices
in her eagerness to secure a few minutes with Ethel May, and disabuse
her of whatever Mrs. Ledwich or Mrs. Pugh might have said. Ethel had
been more hopeful before she heard the true version; she had hitherto
allowed much for Mrs. Ledwich's embellishments; and she was shocked
and took shame to her own guiltless head for Gertrude's
thoughtlessness.

'Oh no!' said Averil, 'there was nothing that any one need have
minded, if Henry had waited for explanation! And now, will you get
Dr. May to speak to him? If he only knew how people would think of
his treating Leonard so, I am sure he would not do it.'


'He cannot!' said Ethel. 'Don't you know what he thinks of it
himself? He said to papa last year that your father would as soon
have sent Leonard to the hulks as to the Vintry Mill.'

'Oh, I am so glad some one heard him. He would care about having
that cast up against him, if he cared for nothing else.'

'It must have been a mere threat. Leonard surely has only to ask his
pardon.'

'No, indeed, not again, Miss May!' said Averil. 'Leonard asked once,
and was refused, and cannot ask again. No, the only difficulty is
whether he ought not to keep to his word, and go to the mill if he
does not get the Randall.'

'Did he say he would?'

'Of course he did, when Henry threatened him with it, and talked of
the burden of his maintenance! He said, "Very well, I will," and he
means it!'

'He will not mean it when the spirit of repentance has had time to
waken.'

'He will take nothing that is grudged him,' said Averil. 'Oh! is it
not hard that I cannot get at my own money, and send him at once to
Cambridge, and never ask Henry for another farthing?'

'Nay, Averil; I think you can do a better part by trying to make them
forgive one another.'

Averil had no notion of Leonard's again abasing himself, and though
she might try to bring Henry to reason by reproaches, she would not
persuade. She wished her guest had been the sympathizing Mary rather
than Miss May, who was sure to take the part of the elder and the
authority. Repentance! Forgiveness! If Miss May should work on
Leonard to sue for pardon and toleration, and Mrs. Pugh should
intercede with Henry to take him into favour, she had rather he were
at the Vintry Mill at once in his dignity, and Henry be left to his
disgrace.

Ethel thought of Dr. Spencer's words on the beach at Coombe, 'Never
threaten Providence!' She longed to repeat them to Leonard, as she
watched his stern determined face, and the elaborately quiet motions
that spoke of a fixed resentful purpose; but to her disappointment
and misgiving, he gave her no opportunity, and for the first time
since their sea-side intercourse, held aloof from her.

Nor did she see him again during the week that intervened before the
decision of the scholarship, though three days of it were holidays.
Aubrey, whom she desired to bring him in after the rifle drill,
reported that he pronounced himself sorry to refuse, but too busy to
come in, and he seemed to be cramming with fiery vehemence for the
mere chance of success.

The chance was small. The only hope lay in the possibility of some
hindrance preventing the return of either Forder or Folliot; and in
the meantime the Mays anxiously thought over Leonard's prospects.
His remaining at home was evidently too great a trial for both
brothers, and without a scholarship he could not go to the
University. The evils of the alternative offered by his brother were
duly weighed by the Doctor and Ethel with an attempt to be impartial.

Mr. Axworthy, though the mill was the centre of his business, was in
fact a corn merchant of considerable wealth, and with opportunities
of extending his connection much farther. Had his personal character
been otherwise, Dr. May thought a young man could not have a better
opening than a seat in his office, and the future power of taking
shares in his trade; there need be no loss of position, and there was
great likelihood both of prosperity and the means of extensive
usefulness.

Ethel sighed at the thought of the higher aspirations that she had
fostered till her own mind was set on them.

'Nay,' said the Doctor, 'depend upon it, the desk is admirable
training for good soldiers of the Church. See the fearful evil that
befalls great schemes intrusted to people who cannot deal with money
matters; and see, on the other hand, what our merchants and men of
business have done for the Church, and do not scorn "the receipt of
custom."'

'But the man, papa!'

'Yes, there lies the hitch! If Leonard fails, I can lay things
before Henry, such as perhaps he may be too young to know, and which
must change his purpose.'

Mr. Axworthy's career during his youth and early manhood was guessed
at rather than known, but even since his return and occupation of the
Vintry Mill, his vicious habits had scandalized the neighbourhood,
and though the more flagrant of these had been discontinued as he
advanced in age, there was no reason to hope that he had so much
'left off his sins, as that his sins had left him off.' His great-
nephew, who lived with him and assisted in his business, was a
dashing sporting young man of no good character, known to be often
intoxicated, and concerned in much low dissipation, and as dangerous
an associate as could be conceived for a high-spirited lad like
Leonard. Dr. May could not believe that any provocation of temper,
any motive of economy, any desire to be rid of encumbrances to his
courtship, could induce a man with so much good in him, as there
certainly was in Henry Ward, to expose his orphan brother to such
temptations; and he only reserved his remonstrance in the trust that
it would not be needed, and the desire to offer some better
alternative of present relief.

One of the examiners was Norman's old school and college friend,
Charles Cheviot, now a clergyman and an under-master at one of the
great schools recently opened for the middle classes, where he was
meeting with great success, and was considered a capital judge of
boys' characters. He was the guest of the Mays during the
examination; and though his shy formal manner, and convulsive efforts
at young lady talk, greatly affronted Gertrude, the brothers liked
him.

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