the christening
§ 1
lady charlotte sydenham was one of those large, ignorant, ruthless, low-church, wealthy, and well-born ladies who did so much to make england what it was in the days before the great war. she was educated with the utmost care by totally illiterate governesses who were ladies by birth, chiefly on the importance and privileges of her social position, the anglican faith and mrs. strickland’s “queens of england”; she had french from a guaranteed protestant teacher and german from a north german instructress (lutheran protestant), who also taught her to play the piano with the force and precision of a crack regiment of cavalry. subsequently she had improved her mind by reading memoirs and biographies of noble and distinguished people and by travel amidst obvious scenery and good foreign hotels. she had married at two-and-thirty when things were beginning to look rather doubtful for her.
old mr. sydenham, who had made his money and undermined his health in india in the john company days, had been fifty-four, and from the very outset she had been ever so much too much for him. at sixty-five he had petered out like an exhausted lode. she had already got an abject confidential maid into thorough training, and was fully prepared for widowhood. she hung out big black bonnets and expensive black clothes upon her projections, so as to look larger than ever, and took her place and even more than her place, very resolutely, among the leaders of the county anglicans.
she had early mastered the simple arts of county family intercourse. her style in contradiction was very good, her insults were frequently witty, she could pretend to love horses, there was no need for her to pretend to despise and 79hate tradesmen and working people, and she kept herself well-informed upon the domestic details of the large and spreading family of the “dear queen.” she was very good at taking down impertinent people, and most people struck her as impertinent; she could make a young man or a plain girl or a social inferior “feel small” quicker (and smaller) than almost any one in that part of surrey. she was a woman without vices; her chief pleasure was to feel all right and important and the centre of things, and to that her maid as a sort of grand vizieress, her well-disciplined little household and her choice of friends ministered. the early fear of “romanists” in which she had been trained had been a little dispelled by the wider charities of maturity, but she held secularists and socialists in an ever-deepening abhorrence. they planned, she knew, to disturb the minds of the lower classes, upset her investments, behead the dear queen, and plunge the whole world into vice and rapine and sabbath-breaking. she interested herself in such leisure as the care of her own health and comfort left her, in movements designed to circumvent and defeat the aims of these enemies of god and (all that was worth considering in) man. she even countenanced quite indulgent charities if they seemed designed to take the wind out of the sails of socialism. she drove about the district in a one-horse carriage and delivered devastating calls.
such was the lady whom arthur had made one of the four guardians of his little son and niece. he had seen her twice; he had rather liked a short speech of five sentences she made at a flower show, and he had heard her being extremely rude to a curate. he believed her to be wealthy and trustworthy and very well suited to act as a counter influence to any extravagant tendencies there might be in aunt phœbe. also she was dolly’s cousin, and appointing her had seemed a sort of compensation for altering his will without dolly’s knowledge. besides, it had been very unlikely that she would ever act. and he had been in a hurry when he altered his will, and could not think of any one else.
now lady charlotte was not by any means satisfied by her visit to the ingle-nook. the children looked unusually big for their years and disrespectful and out of hand. it 80was clear they had not taken to her. the nurse, too, had a sort of unbroken look in her eye that was unbecoming in a menial position. the aunts were odd persons; phyllis was much too disposed to accentuate the father’s wishes, and lady charlotte had a most extraordinary and indecent feeling all the time she was talking to her that aunt phœbe wasn’t wearing stays. (could the woman have forgotten them, or was it deliberate? it was like pretending to be clothed when you were really naked.)
their conversation had been queer, most queer. they did not seem to realize that she was by way of being a leader in the county and accustomed to being listened to with deference. nearly everything she said they had quietly contradicted or ignored. the way in which the children were whisked away from her presence was distinctly disrespectful. she had a right, it was her duty, to look at them well and question them clearly about their treatment, to see that they had proper treatment, and it was necessary that they should fully understand her importance in their lives. but those two oddly-dressed young women—youngish women, rather, for probably they were both over thirty—did not themselves seem to understand that she was naturally the principal guardian.
phyllis had been constantly referring to the wishes of this stubland person who had married george sydenham’s dolly. apparently the woman supposed that those wishes were to override every rational consideration for the children’s welfare. after all, the boy was as much dolly’s child as a stubland, and as for the girl, except that the stublands had been allowed to keep her, she wasn’t a stubland at all. she wasn’t anything at all. she was pure charity. there was not the slightest obligation upon any one to do anything for her. making her out to be an equal with a legitimate child was just the subversive, wrong-headed sort of thing these glorified shoddy-makers, the stublands, would do. but like to like. their own genealogy probably wouldn’t bear scrutiny for six generations. she ought to be trained as a maid. there were none too many trained maids nowadays. but arthur stubland had actually settled money on her.
there was much to put right in this situation, a great occasion 81for a large, important lady to impress herself tremendously on a little group of people insultingly disposed to be unaware of her. the more she thought the matter over the more plainly she saw her duty before her. she did not talk to servants; no lady talks to servants; but it was her habit to think aloud during the ministrations of unwin, her maid, and often unwin would overhear and reply quite helpfully.
“it’s an odd job i’ve got with these two new wards of mine,” she said.
“they put too much on you, m’lady,” said unwin, pinning.
“i shall do what is right. i shall see that what is right is done.”
“you don’t spare yourself enough, m’lady.”
“i must go over again and again. those women don’t like me. i disturb them. they’re up to no good.”
“it won’t be the first dark place, m’lady, you’ve thrown light into.”
the lady surveyed her reflection in the glass with a knowing expression. she knitted her brows, partly closed one eye, and nodded slowly as she spoke.
“there’s something queer about the boy’s religious instruction. it’s being kept back. now why did they get embarrassed when i asked who were the godparents? i ought to have followed that up.”
“my godfathers and godmothers wherein i was made,” murmured unwin, with the quiet satisfaction of the well-instructed.
“properly it’s the business of the godparents. i have a right to know.”
“i suppose the poor boy has godparents, m’lady,” said unwin, coming up from obscure duties with the skirt.
“but of course he has godparents!”
“pardon me, m’lady, but not of course.”
“but what do you mean, unwin?”
“i hardly like to say it, m’lady, of relations, ’owever distant, of ours. still, m’lady——”
“don’t chew it about, unwin.”
“then i out with it, m’lady. ’ave they been baptized, m’lady, either of them? ’ave they been baptized?”
82
§ 2
before a fortnight was out lady charlotte had made two more visits to the ingle-nook, she had had an acrimonious dispute upon religious questions with phœbe, and she was well on her way to the terrible realization that these two apparently imbecile ladies in the shapeless “arty” dresses were really socialists and secularists—of course, like all other socialists and secularists, “of the worst type.” it was impossible that those two unfortunate children should be left in their aunts’ “clutches,” and she prepared herself with a steadily increasing determination and grandeur to seize upon and take over and rescue these two innocent souls from the moral and spiritual destruction that threatened them. once in her hands, lady charlotte was convinced it would not be too late to teach the little fellow a proper respect for those in authority over him and to bring home to the girl an adequate sense of that taint upon her life of which she was still so shockingly unaware. the boy must be taught not to call attention to people’s physical peculiarities, and to answer properly when spoken to; a certain sharpness would not be lost upon him; and it was but false kindness to the girl to let her grow up in ignorance of her disadvantage. sooner or later it would have to be brought home to her, and the later it was the more difficult would it be for her to accept her proper position with a becoming humility. and a thing of immediate urgency was, of course, the baptism of both these little lost souls.
in pursuit of these entirely praiseworthy aims lady charlotte was subjected to a series of very irritating rebuffs that did but rouse her to a greater firmness. on her fourth visit she was not even allowed to see the children; the specious excuse was made that they were “out for a walk,” and when she passed that over forgivingly and said: “it does not matter very much. what i want to arrange today is the business of the christening,” both aunts began to answer at once and in almost identical words. phœbe gave way to her sister. “if their parents had wanted them christened,” said aunt phyllis, “there was ample time for them to have had it done.”
83“we are the parents now,” said lady charlotte.
“and two of us are quite of the parents’ mind.”
“you forget that i also speak for my nephew oswald,” said lady charlotte.
“but do you?” said aunt phyllis, with almost obtruded incredulity.
“certainly,” said lady charlotte, with a sweeping, triumphant gesture, a conclusive waving of the head.
“you know he is on his way back from uganda?” aunt phyllis remarked with an unreal innocence.
lady charlotte had not known. but she stood up gallantly to the blow. “i know he will support me by insisting upon the proper treatment of these poor children.”
“what can a man know about the little souls of children?” cried phœbe.
but aunt phyllis restrained her. “i have no doubt mr. sydenham will have his own views in the matter,” said phyllis.
“i have no doubt he will,” said lady charlotte imposingly....
even mary showed the same disposition to insolence. as lady charlotte was returning along the little path through the bushes that ran up to the high road where her carriage with the white horse waited, she saw mary and the children approaching. peter saw lady charlotte first and flew back. “lady wiv de whisker!” he said earnestly and breathlessly, and dodged off into the bushes. joan hesitated, and fled after him. by a detour the fluttering little figures outflanked the great lady and escaped homeward.
“come here, children!” she cried. “i want you.”
spurt on the part of the children.
“they are really most distressingly rude,” she said to mary. “it’s inexcusable. tell them to come back. i have something to say to them.”
“they won’t, mum,” said mary—though surely aware of the title.
“but i tell you to.”
“it’s no good, mum. it’s shyness. if they won’t come, they won’t.”
“but, my good woman, have you no control?”
84“they always race ’ome like that,” said mary.
“then you aren’t fit to control them. as one of the children’s guardians, i—— but we shall see.”
she went her way, a stately figure of passion.
“orty old ag,” said mary, and dismissed the encounter from her mind.
§ 3
“you got your rights like anybody, m’lady,” said unwin.
it was that phrase put it into lady charlotte’s head to consult her solicitor. he opened new vistas to her imagination.
lady charlotte’s solicitor was a lean, long, faded blond of forty-five or so. he was the descendant of five generations of lincoln’s inn solicitors, a low churchman, a man of notoriously pure life, and very artful indeed. he talked in a thin, high tenor voice, and was given to nibbling his thumbnail and wincing with his eyes as he talked. his thumbnail produced gaps of indistinctness in his speech.
“powers of a guardian, m’lady. defends upon whafower want exercise over thinfant.”
“i do wish you’d keep your thumb out of your mouth,” said lady charlotte.
“sorry,” said mr. grimes, wincing and trying painfully to rearrange his arm. “still, i’d like to know—position.”
“there are three other guardians.”
“generous allowance,” said mr. grimes. “do you all act?”
“one of us is lost in the wilds of africa. the others i want to consult you about. they do not seem to me to be fit and proper persons to be entrusted with the care of young children, and they do not seem disposed to afford me a proper share in the direction of affairs.”
“ah!” said mr. grimes, replacing his thumb. “sees t’point t’chacery.”
lady charlotte disregarded this comment. she wished to describe aunts phyllis and phœbe in her own words.
“they are quite extraordinary young women—not by any stretch of language to be called ladies. they dress in 85that way—like the pictures in the grosvenor gallery.”
“æsthetic?”
“i could find a harsher word for it. they smoke. not a nice thing for children to see. i suspect them strongly of vegetarianism. from something one of them said. in which case the children will not be properly nourished. and they speak quite openly of socialism in front of their charges. neither of the poor little creatures had been bought a scrap of mourning. not a scrap. i doubt if they have even been made to understand that their parents are dead. but that is only the beginning. i am totally unable to ascertain whether either of the poor mites has been christened. apparently they have not....”
mr. grimes withdrew his thumb for a moment. “you are perfectly within yer rights—insisting—knowing”—thumb replaced—“all thlese things.”
“exactly. and in having my say in their general upbringing.”
“how far do they prevent that?”
“oh; they get in my way. they send the children out whenever they feel i am coming. they do not listen to me and accept any suggestions i make. oh!—sniff at it.”
“and you want to make ’em?”
“i want to do my duty by those two children, mr. grimes. it is a charge that has been laid upon me.”
mr. grimes reflected, rubbing his thumb thoughtfully along the front of his teeth.
“they are getting no religious instruction whatever,” said lady charlotte. “none.”
“hot was the ’ligion father?” said mr. grimes suddenly.
lady charlotte was not to be deterred by a silly and inopportune question. she just paused for an instant and reddened. “he was a member of the church of england,” she said.
“even if he wasn’t,” said mr. grimes understandingly, but with thumb still in place, “ligion necessary t’welfare. case of besant chil’n zample. thlis is klistian country.”
“i sometimes doubt it,” said lady charlotte.
“legally,” said mr. grimes.
“if the law did its duty!”
86“you don’t wanner goatallaw fewcan ’void it?” asked mr. grimes, grasping his job.
lady charlotte assumed an expression of pained protest, and lifted one black-gloved hand. mr. grimes hastily withdrew his thumbnail from his mouth. “i am saying, lady charlotte, that what you want to do is to assert your authority, if possible, without legal proceedings.”
he was trying to get the whole situation clear in his mind before he tendered any exact advice. most children who are quarrelled over in this way gravitate very rapidly into the care of the lord chancellor; to that no doubt these children would come; but lady charlotte was a prosperous lady with a lot of fight in her and a knack of illegality, and before these children became wards in chancery she might, under suitable provocation, run up a very considerable little bill for expenses and special advice in extracting her from such holes as she got herself into. it is an unjust libel upon solicitors that they tempt their clients into litigation. so far is this unjust that the great majority will spare neither time nor expense in getting a case settled out of court.
nor did lady charlotte want to litigate. courts are uncertain, irritating places. she just wanted to get hold of her two wards, and to deal with them in such a way as to inflict the maximum of annoyance and humiliation upon those queer stubland aunts. and to save the children from socialism, secularism, catholicism, and all the wandering wolves of opinion that lie in wait for the improperly trained.
but also she went in fear of oswald. oswald was one of the few human beings of whom she went in awe. he was always rude and overbearing with her. from the very first moment when he had seen her as his uncle’s new wife, he had realized in a flash of boyish intuition that if he did not get in with an insult first, he would be her victim. so his first words to her had been an apparently involuntary “o god!” then he had pretended to dissemble his contempt with a cold politeness. those were the days of his good looks; he was as tall and big as he was ever to be, and she had expected a “little midshipmite,” whom she would 87treat like a child, and possibly even send early to bed. from the first she was at a disadvantage. he had a material hold on her too, now. he was his uncle’s heir and her trustee; and she had the belief of all victorian women in the unlimited power of trustees to abuse their trust unless they are abjectly propitiated. he used to come and stay in her house as if it was already his own; the servants would take their orders from him. she was assuring grimes as she had assured the stubland aunts that he was on her side; “the sydenhams are all sound churchmen.” but even as she said this she saw his grim, one-sided face and its one hard intent eye pinning her. “acting without authority again, my good aunt,” he would say. “you’ll get yourself into trouble yet.”
that was one of his invariable stabs whenever he came to see her. always he would ask, sooner or later, in that first meeting:
“any one bagged you for libel yet? no! or insulting behaviour? some one will get you sooner or later.”
“anything that i say about people,” she would reply with dignity, “is true, oswald.”
“they’ll double the damages if you stick that out.”...
and she saw him now standing beside the irritating, necessary grimes, sardonically ready to take part against her, prepared even to give those abominable aunts an unendurable triumph over her....
“i want no vulgar litigation,” she said. “everything ought to be done as quietly as possible. there is no need to ventilate the family affairs of the sydenhams, and particularly when i tell you that one of the children is——” she hesitated. “irregular.”
the thumb went back, and mr. grimes’ face assumed a diplomatic innocence. “whascalled a love-shild?”
“exactly,” said lady charlotte, with a nod that forbade all research for paternity. if joan were assumed to be of stubland origin, so much the better for lady charlotte’s case. “everything must be done quietly and privately,” she said.
“sactly,” said mr. grimes, and was reminded of his 88thumb by her eye. he coughed, put his arm down, and sat up in his chair. “they have possession of the children?” he said.
“should i be here?” she appealed.
“ah! that gives the key of the situation.... would they litigate?”
“why should they?”
“if by chance you got possession?”
“that would be difficult.”
“but not impossible? perhaps something could be managed. with my assistance. once or twice before i have had cases that turned on the custody of minors. custody, like possession, is nine points of the law. then they would have to come into court.”
“we want nobody to come into court.”
“exactly, m’lady. i am pointing out to you how improbable it is that they will do so. i am gauging their disinclination.”
the attitude of mr. grimes relaxed unconsciously until once more the teeth and thumbnail were at their little play again.
he continued with thoughtful eyes upon his client’s expression. “possibly they wouldn’t li’e ’nquiry into character.”
“oh, do take that thumb away!” cried lady charlotte. “and don’t lounge.”
“i’m sorry, m’lady,” said mr. grimes, sitting up. “i was saying, practically, do we know of any little irregularities, anything—i won’t say actually immoral, but indiscreet, in these two ladies’ lives? anything they wouldn’t like to have publicly discussed. in the case of most people there’s a something. few people will readily and cheerfully face a discussion of character. even quite innocent people.”
“they’re certainly very lax—very. they smoke. inordinately. i saw the cigarette stains on their fingers. and unless i am very much mistaken, one of them—well”—lady charlotte leant forward towards him with an air of scandalous condescension—“she wears no stays at all, mr. grimes—none at all! no! she’s a very queer young woman indeed in my opinion.”
89“m’m!... no visitors to the house—no gentlemen, for example—who might seem a little dubious?”
lady charlotte did not know. “i will get my maid to make enquiries—discreetly. we certainly ought to know that.”
“the elder one writes poetry,” she threw out.
“we must see to that, too. if we can procure some of that. nowadays there is quite a quantity—of very indiscreet poetry. many people do not realize the use that might be made of it against them. and even if the poetry is not indiscreet, it creates a prejudice....”
he proceeded to unfold his suggestions. lady charlotte must subdue herself for a while to a reassuring demeanour towards the aunts at the ingle-nook. she must gain the confidence of the children. “and of the children’s maid!” he said acutely. “she’s rather an important factor.”
“she’s a very impertinent young woman,” said lady charlotte.
“but you must reassure her for a time, lady charlotte, if the children are to come to you—ultimately.”
“i can make the sacrifice,” the lady said; “if you think it is my duty.”
meanwhile mr. grimes would write a letter, a temperate letter, yet “just a little stiff in tone,” pointing out the legal and enforceable right of his client to see and have free communication with the children, and to be consulted about their affairs, and trusting that the misses stubland would see their way to accord these privileges without further evasion.
§ 4
the stubland aunts were not the ladies to receive a solicitor’s letter calmly. they were thrown into a state of extreme trepidation. a solicitor’s letter had for them the powers of an injunction. it was clear that lady charlotte must be afforded that reasonable access, that consultative importance to which she was entitled. phyllis became extremely reasonable. perhaps they had been a little disposed to monopolize the children. they were not the only madonnas 90upon the tree. that was phyllis’s response to this threat. phœbe was less disposed to make concessions. “those children are a sacred charge to us,” she said. “what can a woman of that sort know or care for children? lapdogs are her children. let us make such concessions as we must, but let us guard essentials, phyllis.... as the apples of our eyes....”
in the wake of this letter came lady charlotte herself, closely supported by the faithful unwin, no longer combative, no longer actively self-assertive, but terribly suave. her movements were accompanied by unaccustomed gestures of urbanity, done chiefly by throwing out the open hand sideways, and she made large, kind tenor noises as reassuring as anything mr. grimes could have wished. she astonished aunt phyllis with “ha’ow are the dear little things today?”
mary was very mistrustful, and aunt phyllis had to expostulate with her. “you see, mary, it seems she’s the children’s guardian just as we are. they must see a little of her....”
“and ha-ow’s peter?” said lady charlotte.
“very well, thank you, lady charlotte,” said mary.
“very well, thank you lazy cha’lot,” said peter.
“that’s right. we shall soon get along famously. and how’s my little joan?”
joan took refuge behind mary.
“pee-bo!” said lady charlotte tremendously, and craned her head.
peter regarded the lady incredulously. he wanted to ask a question about the whisker. but something in mary’s grip upon his wrist warned him not to do that. in this world, he remembered suddenly, there are unspeakable things. perhaps this was one of them.... that made it all the more fascinating, of course.
lady charlotte was shown the nursery; she stayed to nursery tea. she admired everything loudly.
“and so these are your toys, lucky peter. do you play with them all?”
“joan’s toys too,” said joan.
“such a pretty room!” said lady charlotte with gestures of approval. “such a pretty outlook. i wonder you 91didn’t make it the drawing-room. isn’t it a pretty room, unwin?”
“very pritty, m’lady.”
very skilfully she made her first tentative towards the coup she had in mind.
“one day, mary, you must bring them over to tea with me,” she said....
“i do so want the dear children to come over to me,” she said presently in the garden to aunts phyllis and phœbe. “if they would come over quite informally—with their mary. just to tea and scamper about the shrubbery....”
mary and unwin surveyed the garden conversation from the nursery window, and talked sourly and distrustfully.
“been with ’er long?” asked mary.
“seven years,” said unwin.
“purgat’ry?” said mary.
“she ’as to be managed,” said unwin.
§ 5
the day of the great coup of lady charlotte was tragic and painful from the beginning. peter got up wicked. it was his custom, and a very bad one, to bang with his spoon upon the bottom of his little porringer as he ate his porridge. it had grown out of his appreciation of the noise the spoon made as he dug up his food. now, as mary said, he “d’librately ’ammered.” how frequently had not mary told him he would do it “once too often!” this was the once too often. the porridge plate cracked and broke, and the porridge and the milk and sugar escaped in horrid hot gouts and lumps over tablecloth and floor and peter’s knees. it was a fearful mess. it was enough to cow the stoutest heart. peter, a great boy of five, lifted up his voice and wept.
so this dire day began.
then there was a new thin summer blouse, a glaring white silk thing, for peter, and in those days all new things meant trouble with him. it was put on after a hot fight with mary; his head came through flushed and crumpled. but joan accepted her new blouse as good as gold. then 92for some reason the higher powers would not let us go and look at the kittens, the dear little blind kittens in the outhouse. there were six of them, all different, for the ingle-nook cat was a generous, large-minded creature. only after a dispute in which joan threatened to go the way of peter was “just a glimpse” conceded. and they were softer and squealier and warmer than anything one had ever imagined. we wanted to linger. mary talked of a miracle. “any time,” she said, “one of them kitties may eat up all the others. any time. kitties often do that. but it’s always the best one does it.”
we wanted to stay and see if this would happen. no! we were dragged reluctantly to our walk.
was it peter’s fault that when we got to the edge of the common the fence of master’s paddock had been freshly tarred? must a little boy test the freshness of the paint on every fence before he wriggles half under it and stares at wonderland on the other side? if so, this was a new law.
but anyhow here we were in trouble once more, this beastly new white blouse “completely spoilt,” mary said, and mary in an awful stew. the walk was to be given up and we were to go home in dire disgrace and change....
even aunt phyllis turned against peter. she looked at him and said, “o peter! what a mess!”
then it was that sorrow and the knowledge of death came upon joan.
she was left downstairs while peter was hauled rather than taken upstairs to change, and in that atmosphere of unrest and disaster it seemed a sweet and comforting thing to do to go and look at the kittens again. but beyond the corner of the house she saw old groombridge, the occasional gardener, digging a hole, and beside him in a pitiful heap lay five wet little objects and close at hand was a pail. dark apprehension came upon joan’s soul, but she went up to him nevertheless. “what you been doing to my kittays?” she asked.
“i drownded five,” said old groombridge in a warm and kindly voice. “but i kep’ the best un. ’e’s a beauty, ’e is.”
93“but why you drownded ’em?” asked joan.
“eh! you got to drown kittens, little missie,” said old groombridge. “else ud be too many of um. but ollays there’s one or so kep’. callum jubilee i reckon. ’tis all the go this year agin.”
joan had to tell some one. she turned about towards the house, but long before she could find a hearer her sorrowful news burst through her. aunt phœbe writing ruskinian about the marvellous purity of childish intuitions was suddenly disturbed by the bitter cry of niobe joan going past beneath the window. joan had a voluminous voice when she was fully roused.
“they been ’n dwouwnded my kittays, petah. they been ’n dwouwnded my kittays.”
§ 6
it seemed to mary that lady charlotte’s invitation came as a “perfect godsend.” it was at once used to its utmost value to distract the two little flushed and tearful things from their distresses. great expectations were aroused. that very afternoon they were to go out to tea to chastlands, a lovely place; they were to have a real ride in a real carriage, not a cab like the station-cab that smells of straw, but a carriage; and mary was coming too, she was going to wear her best hat with the red flower and enjoy herself “no end,” and there would be cake and all sorts of things and a big shrubbery to play in and a flower garden—oh! miles bigger than our garden. “only you mustn’t go picking the flowers,” said mary. “lady charlotte won’t like that.”
was auntie phyllis coming too?
no, auntie wasn’t coming too; she’d love to come, but she couldn’t....
it all began very much as mary had promised. the carriage with the white horse was waiting punctually at two o’clock on the high road above the house. there was a real carpet, green with a yellow coat-of-arms, on the floor of the carriage, and the same coat-of-arms on the panel of the door; the brass door-handle was so bright and attractive that mary had to tell joan to keep her greedy little hands off 94it or she would fall out. they drove through pine woods for a time and then across a great common with geese on it, and then up a deep-hedged, winding, uphill road and so to an open road that lay over a great cornfield, and then by a snug downland village of thatched white cottages very gay with flowers. and so to a real lodge with a garden round it and a white-aproned gate-keeper, which impressed mary very favourably.
“it’s a sort of park she has,” said mary.
as they drew near the house they were met by a very gay and smiling and obviously pretty lady, in a dress of blue cotton stuff and flowers in her hat. she had round blue eyes and glowing cheeks and a rejoicing sort of voice.
“here they are!” she cried. “hullo, old peter! hullo, old joan! would you like to get out?”
they would.
“would they like to see the garden?”
they would.
and a little bit of “chockky” each?
glances for approval at mary and encouraging nods from mary. they would. they got quite big pieces of chocolate and pouched them solemnly, and went on with grave, unsymmetrical faces. and the bright lady took them each by a hand and began to talk of flowers and birds and all the things they were going to see, a summerhouse, a croquet-poky lawn, a little old pony stable, a churchy-perchy, and all sorts of things. particularly the churchy-perchy.
mary dropped behind amicably.
so accompanied it was not very dreadful to meet the great whisker-woman herself in a white and mauve patterned dress of innumerable flounces and a sunshade with a deep valance to it, to match. she didn’t come very near to the children, but waved her hand to them and crowed in what was manifestly a friendly spirit. and across the lawn they saw a marvel, a lawn-mower pushed by a man and drawn by a little piebald pony in boots.
“he puts on his booty-pootys when little boys have to take them off, to walk over the grassy green carpet,” said the blue cotton lady.
peter was emboldened to address lady charlotte.
95“puts on ’is booty-pootys,” he said impressively.
“wise little pony,” said lady charlotte.
they saw all sorts of things, the stables, the summerhouse, a little pond with a swan upon it, a lane through dark bushes, and so they came to the church.
§ 7
lady charlotte had decided to christen both the children.
she was not sure whether she wanted to take possession of them altogether, in spite of mr. grimes’ suggestion. her health was uncertain, at any time she might have to go abroad; she was liable to nervous headaches to which the proximity of captive and possibly insurgent children would be unhelpful, and her two pet dogs were past that first happy fever of youth which makes the presence of children acceptable. and also there was oswald—that woman had said he was coming home. but christened lady charlotte was resolved those children should be, at whatever cost. it was her duty. it would be an act of the completest self-vindication, and the completest vindication of sound anglican ideas. and once it was done it would be done, let the ingle-nook aunts rage ever so wildly.
within a quarter of a mile of chastlands stood a little church among evergreen trees, otfield church, so near to chastlands and so far from otfield that lady charlotte used to point out, “it’s practically my chapel of ease.” her outer shrubbery ran to the churchyard wall, and she had a gate of her own and went to church through a respectful avenue of her own rhododendrons and in by a convenient door. wiscott, the curate in charge, was an agreeable, easily trodden-on young man with a wife of obscure origins—lady charlotte suspected a childhood behind some retail shop—and abject social ambitions. it was wiscott whose bullying arthur had overheard when he conceived his admiration for lady charlotte. lady charlotte had no social prejudices; she liked these neighbours in her own way and would entertain them to tea and even occasionally to lunch. the organ in otfield church was played in those days by a terrified national schoolmistress, a sound, nice churchwoman of the 96very lowest educational qualifications permissible, and the sexton, a most respectful worthy old fellow, eked out his income as an extra hand in lady charlotte’s garden and was the father of one of her housemaids. moreover he was the husband of a richly grateful wife in whose rheumatism lady charlotte took quite a kindly interest. all these things gave lady charlotte a nice homelike feeling in god’s little house in otfield; god seemed to come nearer to her there and to be more aware of her importance in his world than anywhere else; and it was there that she proposed to hold the simple ceremony that should snatch peter and joan like brands from the burning.
her plans were made very carefully. mrs. wiscott had a wide and winning way with children, and she was to capture their young hearts from the outset and lead them to the church. mary, whom lady charlotte regarded as doubtfully friendly, was to be detached by unwin and got away for a talk. at the church would be the curate and the organist and the sexton and his daughter and cashel, the butler, a very fine type of the more serious variety of anglican butlers, slender and very active and earnest and a teetotaler. and to the children it would all seem like a little game.
mr. wiscott had been in some doubt about the ceremony. he had baptized infants, he had baptized “those of riper years,” but he had never yet had to deal with children of four or five. the rubric provides that for such the form for the public baptism of infants is available with the change of the word “infant” to “child” where occasion requires it, but the rubric says nothing of the handling of the children concerned. he consulted lady charlotte. should he lift up peter and joan in succession to the font when the moment of the actual sprinkling came, or should he deal with them as if they were adults? lady charlotte decided that he had better lift. “they are only little mites,” said lady charlotte.
now up to that point the ceremony went marvellously according to plan. it is true that mary wasn’t quite got out of the way; she was obliged to follow at a distance because the children in spite of every hospitality would every now 97and then look round for her to nod reassuringly to them; but when she saw the rest of the party going into the little church she shied away with the instinctive avoidance of the reluctant church woman, and remained remotely visible through the open doorway afar off in the rhododendron walk conversing deeply with unwin. they were conversing about the unreasonableness of unwin’s sister-in-law in not minding what she ate in spite of her indigestion.
the children, poor little heathens! had never been in church before and everything was a wonder. they saw a gentleman standing in the midst of the church and clad in a manner strange to them, in a surplice and cassock, and under it you saw his trousers and boots—it was as if he wore night clothes over his day clothes—and immediately he began to read very fast but yet in a strangely impressive manner out of a book. they had great confidence now in mrs. wiscott, and accompanied her into a pew and sat up neatly on hassocks beside her. the gentleman in the white robe kept on reading, and every now and then the others, who had also got hold of books, answered him. at first peter wanted to laugh, then he got very solemn, and then he began to want to answer too: “wow wow wow,” when the others did. but he knew he had best do it very softly. there was reverence in the air. then everybody got up and went and stood, and mrs. wiscott made joan and peter stand, round about the font. she stood close beside joan and peter with her hands very reassuringly behind them. from this point peter could see the curate’s adam’s apple moving in a very fascinating way. so things went on quite successfully until the fatal moment when mr. wiscott took peter up in his arms.
“come along,” he said very pleasantly—not realizing that peter did not like his adam’s apple.
“he’s going to show you the pretty water,” said mrs. wiscott.
“naw!” said peter sharply and backed as the curate gripped his arm, and then everything seemed to go wrong.
mr. wiscott had never handled a sturdy little boy of five before. peter would have got away if mrs. wiscott, abandoning joan, had not picked him up and handed him neatly to 98her husband. then came a breathless struggle on the edge of the font, and upon every one, even upon lady charlotte, came a strange sense as though they were engaged in some deed of darkness. the water splashed loudly. it splashed on peter’s face and peter’s abundant voice sent out its s. o. s. call: “mare-wi!”
mr. wiscott compressed his lips and held peter firmly, hushing resolutely, and presently struggled on above a tremendous din towards the sign of the cross....
but joan had formed her own rash judgments.
she bolted down the aisle and out through the open door, and her voice filled the universe. “they dwounding petah. they dwounding petah—like they did the kittays!”
far away was mary, but turning towards her amazed.
joan rushed headlong to her for sanctuary, wild with terror.
“i wanna be kep, marewi,” she bawled. “i wanna be kep!”
§ 8
but here mary was to astonish lady charlotte. “why couldn’t they tell me?” she asked unwin when she grasped the situation.
“it’s all right, joan,” she said. “nobody ain’t killing peter. you come alongo me and see.”
and it was mary who stilled the hideous bawling of peter, and mary who induced joan to brave the horrors of this great experience and to desist from her reiterated assertion: “done wan’ nergenelman t’wash me!”
and it was mary who said in the carriage going back:
“don’t you say nothing about being naughty to yer aunt phyllis and i won’t neether.”
and so she did her best to avoid any further discussion of the matter.
but in this pacific intention she was thwarted by lady charlotte, who presently drove over to the ingle-nook to see her “two little christians” and how aunt phœbe was taking it. she had the pleasure of explaining what had happened herself.
99“we had them christened,” she said. “it all passed off very well.”
“it is an outrage,” cried aunt phœbe, “on my brother’s memory. it must be undone.”
“that i fear can never be,” said lady charlotte serenely, folding her hands before her and smiling loftily.
“their little white souls!” exclaimed aunt phœbe, and then seizing a weapon from the enemy’s armoury: “i shall write to our solicitor.”
§ 9
even lady charlotte quailed a little before a strange solicitor; she knew that even grimes held the secret of many tremendous powers; and when mr. sycamore introduced himself as having “had the pleasure of meeting your nephew, mr. oswald sydenham, on one or two occasions,” she prepared to be civil, wary, and evasive to the best of her ability. mr. sycamore was a very good-looking, rosy little man with silvery hair, twinkling gold spectacles, a soft voice and a manner of imperturbable urbanity. “i felt sure your ladyship would be willing to talk about this little business,” he said. “so often a little explanation between reasonable people prevents, oh! the most disagreeable experiences. nowadays when courts are so very prone to stand upon their dignity and inflict quite excessive penalties upon infractions—such as this.”
lady charlotte said she was quite prepared to defend all that she had done—anywhere.
mr. sycamore hoped she would never be put to that inconvenience. he did not wish to discuss the legal aspects of the case at all, still—there was such a thing as contempt. he thought that lady charlotte would understand that already she had gone rather far.
“mr. sycamore,” said lady charlotte, heavily and impressively, “at the present time i am ill, seriously ill. i ought to have been at bordighera a month ago. but law or no law i could not think of those poor innocent children remaining unbaptized. i stayed—to do my duty.”
“i doubt if any court would sustain the plea that it was 100your duty, single-handed, without authorization, in defiance it is alleged of the expressed wishes of the parents.”
“but you, mr. sycamore, know that it was my duty.”
“that depends, lady charlotte, on one’s opinions upon the efficacy of infant baptism. opinions, you know, vary widely. i have read very few books upon the subject, and what i have read confused me rather than otherwise.”
and mr. sycamore put his hands together before him and sat with his head a little on one side regarding lady charlotte attentively through the gold-rimmed spectacles.
“well, anyhow you wouldn’t let children grow up socialists and secularists without some attempt to prevent it!”
“within the law,” said mr. sycamore gently, and coughed behind his hand and continued to beam through his glasses....
they talked in this entirely inconsecutive way for some time with a tremendous air of discussing things deeply. lady charlotte expressed a great number of opinions very forcibly, and mr. sycamore listened with the manner of a man who had at last after many years of intellectual destitution met a profoundly interesting talker. only now and then did he seem to question her view. but yet he succeeded in betraying a genuine anxiety about the possible penalties that might fall upon lady charlotte. presently, she never knew quite how, she found herself accusing joan of her illegitimacy.
“but my dear lady charlotte, the poor child is scarcely responsible.”
“if we made no penalties on account of illegitimacy the whole world would dissolve away in immorality.”
mr. sycamore looked quite arch. “my dear lady, surely there would be one or two exceptions!”...
finally, with a tremendous effect of having really got to the bottom of the matter, he said: “then i conclude, lady charlotte, that now that the children are baptized and their spiritual welfare is assured, all you wish is for things to go on quietly and smoothly without the miss stublands annoying you further.”
“exactly,” said lady charlotte. “my one desire is to go abroad—now that my task is done.”
101“you have every reason to be satisfied, lady charlotte, with things as they are. i take it that what i have to do now is to talk over the miss stublands and prevent any vindictive litigation arising out of the informality of your proceedings. i think—yes, i think and hope that i can do it.”
and this being agreed upon mr. sycamore lunched comfortably and departed to the ingle-nook, where he showed the same receptive intelligence to aunt phœbe. there was the same air of taking soundings in the deep places of opinion.
“i understand,” he said at last, “that your one desire is to be free from further raids and invasions from lady charlotte. i can quite understand it. practically she will agree to that. i can secure that. i think i can induce her to waive what she considers to be her rights. you can’t unbaptize the children, but i should think that under your care the effect, whatever the effect may be, can be trusted to wear off....”
and having secured a similar promise of inaction from the miss stublands, mr. sycamore returned to london, twinkling pleasantly about the spectacles as he speculated exactly what it was that he had so evidently quite satisfactorily settled.
