He Knew He Was Right by Anthony Trollope (books you need to read .txt) 📕

the reader may perhaps remember, and had had some intercourse with the

young man, which had not been quite agreeable to him, on the platform

of the railway station at Exeter. And he had also heard something of

the ladies at Nuncombe Putney during his short sojourn at the house of

Mrs Crocket. ‘My belief is, they are beggars,’ said Colonel Osborne.

‘I suppose so,’ said Sir Marmaduke, shaking his head.

‘When I went over to call on Emily that time I was at Cockchaffington,

you know, when Trevelyan made himself such a d fool, I found the mother

and sister living in a decentish house enough; but it wasn’t their

house.’

‘Not their own, you mean?’

‘It was a place that Trevelyan had got this young man to take for

Emily, and they had merely gone there to be with her. They had been

living in a little bit of a cottage; a sort of place that any any

ploughman would live in. Just that kind of cottage.’

‘Goodness gracious!’

‘And they’ve gone to another just like it so I’m told.’

‘And can’t he do anything better for them than that?’ asked Sir

Marmaduke.

‘I know nothing about him. I have met him, you know. He used to be with

Trevelyan; that was when Nora took a fancy for him, of course. And I saw

him once down in Devonshire, when I must say he behaved uncommonly

badly, doing all he could to foster Trevelyan’s stupid jealousy.’

‘He has changed his mind about that, I think.’

‘Perhaps he has; but he behaved very badly then. Let him shew up his

income; that, I take it, is the question in such a case as this. His

father was a clergyman, and therefore I suppose he must be considered

to he a gentleman. But has he means to support a wife, and keep up a

house in London? If he has not, that is an end to it, I should say.’

But Sir Marmaduke could not see his way to any such end, and, although

he still looked black upon Nora, and talked to his wife of his

determination to stand no contumacy, and hinted at cursing,

disinheriting, and the like, he began to perceive that Nora would have

her own way. In his unhappiness he regretted this visit to England, and

almost thought that the Mandarins were a pleasanter residence than

London. He could do pretty much as he pleased there, and could live

quietly, without the trouble which encountered him now on every side.

Nora, immediately on her return to London, had written a note to Hugh,

simply telling him of her arrival and begging him to come and see her.

‘Mamma,’ she said, ‘I must see him, and it would be nonsense to say

that he must not come here. I have done what I have said I would do,

and you ought not to make difficulties.’ Lady Rowley declared that Sir

Marmaduke would be very angry if Hugh were admitted without his express

permission. ‘I don’t want to do anything in the dark,’ continued Nora,

‘but of course I must see him. I suppose it will be better that he

should come to me than that I should go to him?’ Lady Rowley quite

understood the threat that was conveyed in this. It would be much

better that Hugh should come to the hotel, and that he should be

treated then as an accepted lover. She had come to that conclusion. But

she was obliged to vacillate for awhile between her husband and her

daughter. Hugh came of course, and Sir Marmaduke, by his wife’s advice,

kept out of the way. Lady Rowley, though she was at home, kept herself

also out of the way, remaining above with her two other daughters. Nora

thus achieved the glory and happiness of receiving her lover alone.

‘My own true girl!’ he said, speaking with his arms still round her

waist.

‘I am true enough; but whether I am your own, that is another question.’

‘You mean to be?’

‘But papa doesn’t mean it. Papa says that you are nobody, and that you

haven’t got an income; and thinks that I had better go back and be an

old maid at the Mandarins.’

‘And what do you think yourself, Nora?’

‘What do I think? As far as I can understand, young ladies are not

allowed to think at all. They have to do what their papas tell them.

That will do, Hugh. You can talk without taking hold of me.’

‘It is such a time since I have had a hold of you as you call it.’

‘It will be much longer before you can do so again, if I go back to the

Islands with papa. I shall expect you to be true, you know; and it will

be ten years at the least before I can hope to be home again.’

‘I don’t think you mean to go, Nora.’

‘But what am I to do? That idea of yours of walking out to the next

church and getting ourselves married sounds very nice and independent,

but you know that it is not practicable.’

‘On the other hand, I know it is.’

‘It is not practicable for me, Hugh. Of all things in the world I don’t

want to be a Lydia. I won’t do anything that anybody shall ever say

that your wife ought not to have done. Young women when they are

married ought to have their papas’ and mammas’ consent. I have been

thinking about it a great deal for the last month or two, and I have

made up my mind to that.’

‘What is it all to come to, then?’

‘I mean to get papa’s consent. That is what it is to come to.’

‘And if he is obstinate?’

‘I shall coax him round at last. When the time for going comes, he’ll

yield then.’

‘But you will not go with them?’ As he asked this he came to her and

tried again to take her by the waist; but she retreated from him, and

got herself clear from us arm. ‘If you are afraid of me, I shall know

that you think it possible that we may be parted.’

‘I am not a bit afraid of you, Hugh.’

‘Nora, I think you ought to tell me something definitely.’

‘I think I have been definite enough, sir. You may be sure of this,

however I will not go back to the Islands.’

‘Give me your hand on that.’

‘There is my hand. But, remember, I had told you just as much before. I

don’t mean to go back. I mean to stay here. I mean—but I do not think I

will tell you all the things I mean to do.’

‘You mean to be my wife?’

‘Certainly, some day, when the difficulty about the chairs and tables

can settle itself. The real question now is what am I to do with myself

when papa and mamma are gone?’

‘Become Mrs H. Stanbury at once. Chairs and tables! You shall have

chairs and tables as many as you want. You won’t be too proud to live

in lodgings for a few months?’

‘There must be preliminaries, Hugh even for lodgings, though they may

be very slender. Papa goes in less than three weeks now, and mamma has

got something else to think of than my marriage garments. And then

there are all manner of difficulties, money difficulties and others,

out of which I don’t see my way yet’. Hugh began to asseverate that it

was his business to help her through all money difficulties as well as

others; but she soon stopped his eloquence. ‘It will be by-and-by,

Hugh, and I hope you’ll support the burden like a man; but just at

present there is a hitch. I shouldn’t have come over at all; I should

have stayed with Emily in Italy, had I not thought that I was bound to

see you’

‘My own darling!’

‘When papa goes, I think that I had better go back to her.’

‘I’ll take you!’ said Hugh, picturing to himself all the pleasures of

such a tour together, over the Alps.

‘No you won’t, because that would be improper. When we travel together

we must go Darby and Joan fashion, as man and wife. I think I had

better go back to Emily, because her position there is so terrible.

There must come some end to it, I suppose soon. He will be better, or

he will become so bad that that medical interference will be

unavoidable. But I do not like that she should be alone. She gave me a

home when she had one, and I must always remember that I met you there.’

After this there was of course another attempt with Hugh’s right arm,

which on this occasion was not altogether unsuccessful. And then she

told him of her friendship for Mr Glascock’s wife, and of her intention

at some future time to visit them at Monkhams.

‘And see all the glories that might have been your own,’ he said.

‘And think of the young man who has robbed me of them all! And you are

to go there too, so that you may see what you have done. There was a

time, Hugh, when I was very nearly pleasing all my friends and shewing

myself to be a young lady of high taste and noble fortune and an

obedient, good girl.’

‘And why didn’t you?’

‘I thought I would wait just a little longer. Because, because, because—

Oh, Hugh, how cross you were to me afterwards when you came down to

Nuncombe and would hardly speak to me!’

‘And why didn’t I speak to you?’

‘I don’t know. Because you were cross, and surly, and thinking of

nothing but your tobacco, I believe. Do you remember how we walked to

Liddon, and you hadn’t a word for anybody?’

‘I remember I wanted you to go down to the river with me, and you

wouldn’t go.’

‘You asked me only once, and I did so long to go with you. Do you

remember the rocks in the river? I remember the place as though I saw

it now; and how I longed to jump from one stone to another. Hugh, if we

are ever married, you must take me there, and let me jump on those

stones.’

‘You pretended that you could not think of wetting your feet.’

‘Of course I pretended, because you were so cross, and so cold. Oh,

dear! I wonder whether you will ever know it all.’

‘Don’t I know it all now?’

‘I suppose you do, nearly. There is mighty little of a secret in it,

and it is the same thing that is going on always. Only it seems so

strange to me that I should ever have loved any one so dearly and that

for next to no reason at all. You never made yourself very charming

that I know of, did you?’

‘I did my best. It wasn’t much, I dare say.’

‘You did nothing, sir, except just let me fall in love with you. And you

were not quite sure that you would let me do that.’

‘Nora, I don’t think you do understand.’

‘I do perfectly. Why were you cross with me, instead of saying one nice

word when you were down at Nuncombe? I do understand.’

‘Why was it?’

‘Because you did not think well enough of me to believe that I would

give