when mr. lionel trafford went into parliament for the borough of wednesbury as an advanced radical, it nearly broke the heart of his uncle, the old marquis of kingsbury. among tories of his day the marquis had been hyper-tory,—as were his friends, the duke of newcastle, who thought that a man should be allowed to do what he liked with his own, and the marquis of londonderry, who, when some such falling-off in the family politics came near him, spoke with indignation of the family treasure which had been expended in defending the family seat. wednesbury had never been the marquis's own; but his nephew was so in a peculiar sense. his nephew was necessarily his heir,—the future marquis,—and the old marquis never again, politically, held up his head. he was an old man when this occurred, and luckily for him he did not live to see the worse things which came afterwards.
the member for wednesbury became marquis and owner of the large family property, but still he kept his politics. he was a radical marquis, wedded to all popular measures, not ashamed of his charter days, and still clamorous for further parliamentary reform, although it was regularly noted in dod that the marquis of kingsbury was supposed to have strong influence in the borough of edgeware. it was so strong that both he and his uncle had put in whom they pleased. his uncle had declined to put him in because of his renegade theories, but he revenged himself by giving the seat to a glib-mouthed tailor, who, to tell the truth, had not done much credit to his choice.
but it came to pass that the shade of his uncle was avenged, if it can be supposed that such feelings will affect the eternal rest of a dead marquis. there grew up a young lord hampstead, the son and heir of the radical marquis, promising in intelligence and satisfactory in externals, but very difficult to deal with as to the use of his thoughts. they could not keep him at harrow or at oxford, because he not only rejected, but would talk openly against, christian doctrines; a religious boy, but determined not to believe in revealed mysteries. and at twenty-one he declared himself a republican,—explaining thereby that he disapproved altogether of hereditary honours. he was quite as bad to this marquis as had been this marquis to the other. the tailor kept his seat because lord hampstead would not even condescend to sit for the family borough. he explained to his father that he had doubts about a parliament of which one section was hereditary, but was sure that at present he was too young for it. there must surely have been gratification in this to the shade of the departed marquis.
but there was worse than this,—infinitely worse. lord hampstead formed a close friendship with a young man, five years older than himself, who was but a clerk in the post office. in george roden, as a man and a companion, there was no special fault to be found. there may be those who think that a marquis's heir should look for his most intimate friend in a somewhat higher scale of social rank, and that he would more probably serve the purposes of his future life by associating with his equals;—that like to like in friendship is advantageous. the marquis, his father, certainly thought so in spite of his radicalism. but he might have been pardoned on the score of roden's general good gifts,—might have been pardoned even though it were true, as supposed, that to roden's strong convictions lord hampstead owed much of the ultra virus of his political convictions,—might have been pardoned had not there been worse again. at hendon hall, the marquis's lovely suburban seat, the post office clerk was made acquainted with lady frances trafford, and they became lovers.
the radicalism of a marquis is apt to be tainted by special considerations in regard to his own family. this marquis, though he had his exoteric politics, had his esoteric feelings. with him, liberal as he was, his own blood possessed a peculiar ichor. though it might be well that men in the mass should be as nearly equal as possible, yet, looking at the state of possibilities and realities as existent, it was clear to him that a marquis of kingsbury had been placed on a pedestal. it might be that the state of things was matter for regret. in his grander moments he was certain that it was so. why should there be a ploughboy unable to open his mouth because of his infirmity, and a marquis with his own voice very resonant in the house of lords, and a deputy voice dependent on him in the house of commons? he had said so very frequently before his son, not knowing then what might be the effect of his own teaching. there had been a certain pride in his heart as he taught these lessons, wrong though it might be that there should be a marquis and a ploughboy so far reversed by the injustice of fate. there had been a comfort to him in feeling that fate had made him the marquis, and had made some one else the ploughboy. he knew what it was to be a marquis down to the last inch of aristocratic admeasurement. he would fain that his children should have understood this also. but his lesson had gone deeper than he had intended, and great grief had come of it.
the marquis had been first married to a lady altogether unconnected with noble blood, but whose father had held a position of remarkable ascendancy in the house of commons. he had never been a cabinet minister, because he had persisted in thinking that he could better serve his country by independence. he had been possessed of wealth, and had filled a great place in the social world. in marrying the only daughter of this gentleman the marquis of kingsbury had indulged his peculiar taste in regard to liberalism, and was at the same time held not to have derogated from his rank. she had been a woman of great beauty and of many intellectual gifts,—thoroughly imbued with her father's views, but altogether free from feminine pedantry and that ambition which begrudges to men the rewards of male labour. had she lived, lady frances might probably not have fallen in with the post office clerk; nevertheless, had she lived, she would have known the post office clerk to be a worthy gentleman.
but she had died when her son was about sixteen and her daughter no more than fifteen. two years afterwards our marquis had gone among the dukes, and had found for himself another wife. perhaps the freshness and edge of his political convictions had been blunted by that gradual sinking down among the great peers in general which was natural to his advanced years. a man who has spouted at twenty-five becomes tired of spouting at fifty, if nothing special has come from his spouting. he had been glad when he married lady clara mountressor to think that circumstances as they had occurred at the last election would not make it necessary for him to deliver up the borough to the tailor on any further occasion. the tailor had been drunk at the hustings, and he ventured to hope that before six months were over lord hampstead would have so far rectified his frontiers as to be able to take a seat in the house of commons.
then very quickly there were born three little flaxen-haired boys,—who became at least flaxen-haired as they emerged from their cradles,—lord frederic, lord augustus, and lord gregory. that they must be brought up with ideas becoming the scions of a noble house there could be no doubt. their mother was every inch a duke's daughter. but, alas, not one of them was likely to become marquis of kingsbury. though born so absolutely in the purple they were but younger sons. this was a silent sorrow;—but when their half sister lady frances told their mother openly that she had plighted her troth to the post office clerk, that was a sorrow which did not admit of silence.
when lord hampstead had asked permission to bring his friend to the house there seemed to be no valid reason for refusing him. low as he had descended amidst the depths of disreputable opinion, it was not supposed that even he would countenance anything so horrible as this. and was there not ground for security in the reticence and dignity of lady frances herself? the idea never presented itself to the marchioness. when she heard that the post office clerk was coming she was naturally disgusted. all lord hampstead's ideas, doings, and ways were disgusting to her. she was a woman full of high-bred courtesy, and had always been gracious to her son-in-law's friends,—but it had been with a cold grace. her heart rejected them thoroughly,—as she did him, and, to tell the truth, lady frances also. lady frances had all her mother's dignity, all her mother's tranquil manner, but something more than her mother's advanced opinions. she, too, had her ideas that the world should gradually be taught to dispense with the distances which separate the dukes and the ploughboys,—gradually, but still with a progressive motion, always tending in that direction. this to her stepmother was disgusting.
the post office clerk had never before been received at hendon hall, though he had been introduced in london by lord hampstead to his sister. the post office clerk had indeed abstained from coming, having urged his own feelings with his friend as to certain unfitnesses. "a marquis is as absurd to me as to you," he had said to lord hampstead, "but while there are marquises they should be indulged,—particularly marchionesses. an over-delicate skin is a nuisance; but if skins have been so trained as not to bear the free air, veils must be allowed for their protection. the object should be to train the skin, not to punish it abruptly. an unfortunate sybarite marchioness ought to have her rose leaves. now i am not a rose leaf." and so he had stayed away.
but the argument had been carried on between the friends, and the noble heir had at last prevailed. george roden was not a rose leaf, but he was found at hendon to have flowers of beautiful hues and with a sweet scent. had he not been known to be a post office clerk,—could the marchioness have been allowed to judge of him simply from his personal appearance,—he might have been taken to be as fine a rose leaf as any. he was a tall, fair, strongly-built young man, with short light hair, pleasant grey eyes, an aquiline nose, and small mouth. in his gait and form and face nothing was discernibly more appropriate to post office clerks than to the nobility at large. but he was a clerk, and he himself, as he himself declared, knew nothing of his own family,—remembered no relation but his mother.
it had come to pass that the house at hendon had become specially the residence of lord hampstead, who would neither have lodgings of his own in london or make part of the family when it occupied kingsbury house in park lane. he would sometimes go abroad, would sometimes appear for a week or two at trafford park, the grand seat in yorkshire. but he preferred the place, half town half country, in the neighbourhood of london, and here george roden came frequently backwards and forwards after the ice had been broken by a first visit. sometimes the marquis would be there, and with him his daughter,—rarely the marchioness. then came the time when lady frances declared boldly to her stepmother that she had pledged her troth to the post office clerk. that happened in june, when parliament was sitting, and when the flowers at hendon were at their best. the marchioness came there for a day or two, and the post office clerk on that morning had left the house for his office work, not purposing to come back. some words had been said which had caused annoyance, and he did not intend to return. when he had been gone about an hour lady frances revealed the truth.
her brother at that time was two-and-twenty. she was a year younger. the clerk might perhaps be six years older than the young lady. had he only been the eldest son of a marquis, or earl, or viscount; had he been but an embryo baron, he might have done very well. he was a well-spoken youth, yet with a certain modesty, such a one as might easily take the eye of a wished-for though ever so noble a mother-in-law. the little lords had learned to play with him, and it had come about that he was at his ease in the house. the very servants had seemed to forget that he was no more than a clerk, and that he went off by railway into town every morning that he might earn ten shillings by sitting for six hours at his desk. even the marchioness had almost trained herself to like him,—as one of those excrescences which are sometimes to be found in noble families, some governess, some chaplain or private secretary, whom chance or merit has elevated in the house, and who thus becomes a trusted friend. then by chance she heard the name "frances" without the prefix "lady," and said a word in haughty anger. the post office clerk packed up his portmanteau, and lady frances told her story.
lord hampstead's name was john. he was the honourable john trafford, called by courtesy earl of hampstead. to the world at large he was lord hampstead,—to his friends in general he was hampstead; to his stepmother he was especially hampstead,—as would have been her own eldest son the moment he was born had he been born to such good luck. to his father he had become hampstead lately. in early days there had been some secret family agreement that in spite of conventionalities he should be john among them. the marquis had latterly suggested that increasing years made this foolish; but the son himself attributed the change to step-maternal influences. but still he was john to his sister, and john to some half-dozen sympathising friends,—and among others to the post office clerk.
"he has not said a word to me," the sister replied when she was taxed by her brother with seeming partiality for their young visitor.
"but he will?"
"no girl will ever admit as much as that, john."
"but if he should?"
"no girl will have an answer ready for such a suggestion."
"i know he will."
"if so, and if you have wishes to express, you should speak to him."
all this made the matter quite clear to her brother. a girl such as was his sister would not so receive a brother's notice as to a proposed overture of love from a post office clerk, unless she had brought herself to look at the possibility without abhorrence.
"would it go against the grain with you, john?" this was what the clerk said when he was interrogated by his friend.
"there would be difficulties."
"very great difficulties,—difficulties even with you."
"i did not say so."
"they would come naturally. the last thing that a man can abandon of his social idolatries is the sanctity of the women belonging to him."
"god forbid that i should give up anything of the sanctity of my sister."
"no; but the idolatry attached to it! it is as well that even a nobleman's daughter should be married if she can find a nobleman or such like to her taste. there is no breach of sanctity in the love,—but so great a wound to the idolatry in the man! things have not changed so quickly that even you should be free from the feeling. three hundred years ago, if the man could not be despatched out of the country or to the other world, the girl at least would be locked up. three hundred years hence the girl and the man will stand together on their own merits. just in this period of transition it is very hard for such a one as you to free himself altogether from the old trammels."
"i make the endeavour."
"most bravely. but, my dear fellow, let this individual thing stand separately, away from politics and abstract ideas. i mean to ask your sister whether i can have her heart, and, as far as her will goes, her hand. if you are displeased i suppose we shall have to part,—for a time. let theories run ever so high, love will be stronger than them all." lord hampstead at this moment gave no assurance of his good will; but when it came to pass that his sister had given her assurance, then he ranged himself on the side of his friend the clerk.
so it came to pass that there was great trouble in the household of the marquis of kingsbury. the family went abroad before the end of july, on account of the health of the children. so said the morning post. anxious friends inquired in vain what could have befallen those flaxen-haired young herculeses. why was it necessary that they should be taken to the saxon alps when the beauties and comforts of trafford park were so much nearer and so superior? lady frances was taken with them, and there were one or two noble intimates among the world of fashion who heard some passing whispers of the truth. when passing whispers creep into the world of fashion they are heard far and wide.
