Chapter I

The first time that the vague splendours, in which, as in a sea of glory, Percy's imagination had moved since the first announcement, became materialized and tangible, was as he drove up to Marston Park with his father half way through November.

He had had glimpses before of his altered circumstances, but glimpses that dissolved again. There had been an air of undreamed of opulence in the house in Wilton Crescent where he had gone to wait one day for his mother, and where in the shrouded drawing-room he had sat listening to the voices of his mother and of mysterious men whom he had later identified as house decorators. He had looked, as in a trance, at some photographs of Marston and had listened, with parted lips, to the raptures of Helen, who had been down there with her mother for a couple of days. But these hints and implications had faded again in the familiarity of the City life which for a month longer his father wished him to continue. Long conversations with his father — the announcement to him that at Christmas his allowance of three hundred a year would begin, and, with it, his duty of getting a knowledge of how to manage an estate — these things had failed to do more than give his imagination vast and vague materials on which to embroider impracticable schemes. These schemes were precise enough, down to the tiniest detail: they included the building of a chapel at Marston of a particular architecture, a proposal of immediate marriage to the girl in the train, and simultaneous with this latter, a rehearsal of the

Digitized by Google scene when he should leave Marston and become a Franciscan friar. But they were in the air; they were sheer flights of imagination; they resembled fairy stories which the relater knows to be untrue: for he was still without the solidity of experience. He knew that all must be in reserve until he had seen Marston and, so to speak, tasted it between his lips. The Franciscan-friar scheme was resolutely put on a shelf until this was done; but he would have said, at this period, if he had been directly questioned, that he still intended to carry this out.

There was only one thing, perhaps, that had helped really to bring the fantastic change that had come to him into the realm of reality, and that the discernibly altered bearing of his employers and fellows in the office. There was a deference paid to him, and a readiness to overlook slips on his part that was exceedingly gratifying. He had responded to this by an increased carefulness that was a great satisfaction to himself. It seemed to him that, of all his friends, Father Hilary was the only one who did not understand. That priest, on the revelation being made to him on the occasion of the next instruction, had smiled and congratulated him courteously, and three minutes later was explaining the doctrine of Indulgences.

" The lodge-gate," said his father, as the brougham that had fetched them both from the station drew up suddenly and the footman leapt down from the box to ring the bell. Percy peered from the window. They had driven up from the deep valley beneath, and were now, it seemed, near the crest of the rolling hill, in the midst of a deep country lane. The village, Percy understood, was over on the other side.

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It wa3 the lodge at which he looked, a solemn Grecian building, resembling a small temple, on the upper side of the great iron gate, with three steps leading up to the portico. A woman ran out, with deference in every movement, rolled back the gates on their tall stone posts each surmounted by a rampant beast, and the carriage moved in. A small boy regarded the carriage gravely from the lodge-door. Percy solemnly bowed his head as the woman curtsied.

And now the glory of the park began its display. Above and below the carriage road it stretched in great luxurious curves and slopes, dotted with groups of giant trees; far away to the left and in front ran the gleam of water which he knew to be the famous trout-stream. The splendour of late autumn was over everything, and golden sunlight. Rabbits skipped into the bracken as they passed: the chuckling of pheasants sounded from the deep woods whose nearer fringe stood high against the sky to the right. A stable bell began to ring far away in front.... A man in gamekeeper's dress came into sight, walking with his gun, and, as the carriage passed, saluted deliberately.

His father was talking now and again as they drove on; but Percy listened with but half his attention. With the rest he was soaking up impressions. This was all his, practically; and would be actually his one day. Here he could walk with his gun (when he had learned to shoot), no man forbidding him; he could fish in that stream; he would ride under those trees.... He would come in the motor along the drive, and be saluted at the gate....

" We're just right for lunch," said his father. " Your mother put it off till two on purpose. This afternoon I want you to come round with me. Have you any knickerbockers? Your mother "

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Percy nodded.

" I bought them on purpose/' he said. " Ah! Is that the house? "

They were passing into a belt of trees and undergrowth; and there, seen dimly between the stems, was a mass of grey buildings.

" The carriage-drive goes right round to the west/' said his father. " We shall see better presently.... There."

And then the trees were past, and the south side came into view.

Ill

It was a noble house that old William Brandreth had built for himself in the reign of Queen Anne; which sovereign herself, it was related, had stayed with him there at least twice. The main entrance is to the west of the square fore-court, of which two sides — the servants' quarters and the stables respectively — face one another across a lawn round which runs the drive; a third side is open, and from the fourth the grand front of the house looks straight across down the slopes and the lower terraced gardens into the valley beneath. It is this fourth side which gives a real classical nobility to the whole, sufficient to draw appreciative Americans from London. It is, literally, in the grand style. Three rows of tall windows, surmounted by a pilastered parapet, are broken by a Corinthian portico to which rises a flight of a dozen shallow steps. Within this portico, beyond glass doors, lies the central hall from which a stone staircase branches up to the gallery on either side, from which open out the stately rooms.

It was in this hall that Mrs. Brandreth-Smith (as she now announced herself on her new cards) was waiting for

Digitized by Google her husband and son. She was standing by the big fireplace, and came forward to kiss Percy.

"You look cold, my boy/' she said.

Percy had scarcely seen his mother at all during the last six weeks. It had been a time of furious activity. There had been the house in Wilton Crescent for which the repainting had to be settled, and then countless inspections and arrangements had to be made down here at Marston. She had come and gone like an intent whirlwind, with Helen whisked reluctantly in her wake. Mysterious persons appeared and reappeared in the little house at Hanstead; notes and -telegrams were as leaves in autumn: Percy would leave home in the morning and come back at night to find his father alone again. He had scarcely expected such competent energy as she had shown. But now, even in the moment of greeting, he perceived that she had assumed another attitude. She seemed to have blossomed in amazing ways.

There was first her dress. He knew nothing of dress, but he perceived there was an appearance of stateliness— of black silk and jet and lace, not so tightly fitted together as her older costumes. There was the way she carried her head, a shade higher and a trifle on one side. There was her voice, that had in it a vague drawl. He did not exactly analyse these things, but he perceived them. As she kissed him she left her hand for an instant on his shoulder in an unusual manner.

"We'll go into lunch at once," she said. "There's Helen coming."

The impression of a subtle change in his family grew on his mind during lunch. It was a great room in which they sat, tall and white-panelled, with a high marble mantelpiece, elongated-looking portraits — one of Queen

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Anne herself, over the mantelpiece, particularly drew his attention — and vast mahogany furniture. Three men waited on them — one, the butler, resembling a very respectable dissenting-minister of the old school, chin-bearded and tight-lipped, in broadcloth; the two others, young men, with a great severity of face and correctness of demeanour. These were servants of old Mr. Brandreth, who had consented to remain at any rate for the present. But even more than these, Percy regarded his family. He noticed now that his father was in a surprising grey tail-suit with khaki spats, Helen in a tailor-made dress of tweed with a shortish skirt that had nothing whatever in common with the Greek style, and his mother as has been described. No one said anything about these changes, and this made them the more observable. Everything, somehow, seemed different. The feel of the tablecloth over the rounded edges of the table was opulent and solid: the silver was amazingly bright; even the taste of the food was suggestive. The very family looked unusual. Percy found himself, almost unconsciously, playing up to his part: he nodded, with drooping eyelids, to a decanter of sherry that appeared in the air by his right shoulder: he leaned forward and took an apple nonchalantly when he had finished cheese. The talk too was slow and stately: there was no quick glancing here and there of his mother's eyes; no sudden nods and sharp directions. All went smoothly and adequately like a huge noiseless machine. Coffee came round with a silver tray on which was a silver box of cigarettes and a silver spirit lamp. Percy lit a cigarette without a word. Then the men went out. It was impossible to conceive a greater contrast than all this, set beside Hanstead.

" Your father wants you to go round with him this afternoon," said his mother. " You have knickerbockers and a Norfolk jacket?"

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" Yes/' said Percy.

" You'd better put them on, I think. It's wet in the park."

"What are you going to do, my dear? " asked the doctor.

" Helen and I have some calls to return. We must go to the Marridons first, I suppose."

Helen lowered her eyelids a little and tilted her head.

" I suppose we shall soon get over all that," she said.

Her mother turned on her; and Percy saw in a moment a kind of set and almost fierce intentness break out through her calm.

" Helen," she said, " we shall not soon get over that, as you say. You must remember that these things are your duty now: and I shall expect you to do them."

The start for the round of calls was a great affair.

Percy had been upstairs to change, and had tried to take his room quietly. It was of incredible size, opening out of the gallery, in the angle near the stables, and looked straight out westwards. His pair of suitcases had vanished entirely, and he had rung to have them brought up. One of the severe young men, named James, had silently, on being questioned, opened wardrobe-doors and drawers and displayed the contents of the suit-cases lying there as if it had been their eternal home. He kindly explained too the mystery of the little curtained cupboard where two pairs of boots, a pair of pumps and another of carpet slippers reposed in state.

" Oh — ah! " said Percy. " You might put out my Norfolk suit and my thick boots, will you? "

James did so instantly, in silence, while Percy looked out of the window in an abstracted fashion. (He felt he was doing it rather well.)

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"Anything more you require, sir? " " Er — no thanks/' said Percy.

When he had changed — pausing during the process to finger some new polished surface of wardrobe or table that caught his eye — he came down again, conscious of a certain suitability in his dress, and yet more of the splendid solidity of the house, the solid white stone stairs under the deep Turkey carpet, the massive banisters, the dignified space and calm of the great hall where Helen was putting on her gloves by the fire. She grimaced in a friendly fashion as he strolled up to her with his hands in his pockets.

"Got to go calling," she said. "Wish I was you!" " Who are you going to call on? "

She nodded to the great polished table against the wall: and he went and looked at the cards in the Chinese bowl.

"Lord Marridon... Miss Marridon," he read from two at the top; and at the corner " Cleever." He turned again on her, with a sudden happy warmth at his heart.

"What d'you think of it all? Rather fun, isn't it? "

She grimaced again, cheerfully.

"Oh! it's got points," she said. "But I do bar this "

She stopped as the rustle of her mother's dress came out of the drawing-room.

Her mother was more stately than ever. Her bonnet nodded with various shining bits of jet: her mantle was rich; her face was severe and stately.

"Well? You've found your way about?" she said.

"Oh! yes — I say, mother "

"Yes?"

"Who's that?" He indicated the portrait of a gentleman in a fawn-coloured suit over the fireplace. The

Digitized by Google gentleman sat at a table, apparently out of doors, in a great chair. In the distance, under a thunderous sky, was Marston Park itself, looking very white and new.

"That's old Mr. Brandreth," she said; "who built the house. Queen Anne stayed here, you know."

"Oli —: and, I say, mother?"

"Yes?"

" What about shooting? I've never shot, you know." " You must learn," she said shortly. " Your father tells me the woods are full of pheasants." "What about a gun?"

"You must get one. We'll see about that."

Percy was astonished and even awed by her adequateness. Certainly she had expanded with her fortunes, pari passu. There was a masterfulness about her that compelled admiration. Already it was plain that she was to rule in a new kind of way. The boy began to perceive that his father even must now take second place — that he had already begun to learn his assigned part; that the grey-tailed suit and the khaki spats were the result of his first lessons, and that Helen and himself too must prepare themselves for school. They were all to be resolutely "county"; there must be no appearance of the nouveaux riches about them; they were of the Blood, and, if they were but recently come into their own, this was no reason why they should show any signs of unfamiliarity with their responsibilities and privileges. The solemn walk round this afternoon, the solemn calls that the ladies were to pay in the two-horse brougham that already waited outside the Corinthian porch — these must all be done in the proper manner.

The actual departure was as awe-inspiring as all else. The doors were gravely set open by Underhill — the butler of a dissenting appearance — and a footman came

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15ft through the swing-door at the back of the hall bearing a fur-rug. Mrs. Brandreth-Smith sailed forward rustling and down the steps: Helen with one giggling glance, and then a deep sigh, followed her. Percy went out after them, interested, and placed one booted leg on the low pedestal of the steps, to observe his mother the better. The carriage door was closed; the long-coated footman, with a black band round his dark blue sleeve, darted round the back and ascended the box beside the habited coachman: Mr. Underhill bowed slightly from the waist; the mistress of the house waved a gloved hand from the window, and the brougham rolled off.

There is nothing like a hot bath for the stimulating of thought; and as Percy, about seven o'clock that evening, lay at full length in the white-tiled bathroom whose door was next to his own, his mind moved like a smooth-running wheel.

The bathroom itself was perfection. It was tiled throughout — walls, floor and ceiling. The bath edges were of marble, and the interior was of a tender blue-green enamel (he glimmered through the clear water like a nymph), the fittings were of the brightest nickel; and a great open kind of rack supported warm and dry towels, above nickelled hot-water-pipes, within reach of his hand when he should choose to stand up.

Since tea he had sat with Helen in an extremely charming room on the ground floor, looking out on to the south lawns, named the "school-room," still in his Norfolk suit; and the two had talked endlessly.... About seven he thought he would go up and dress, so as to have a knock at the billiard-balls before dinner, but had been unable to

Digitized by Google resist the suggestion of James, whom he found in his room laying out his new dress clothes, that perhaps Mr. Percy would like a bath, and should he (James) turn on the hot water, sir? Here, then, he lay, soaking. The pleasant heat thrilled toes and knees and fingers; and, as has been observed, stimulated thought to an astonishing degree.

His primary emotion was one of an intense and excited pleasure at the realization of his dreams. This afternoon he had been round the park with his father, accompanied for a part of the way by a deferential gamekeeper, and had viewed with delight the pheasants clucking in the undergrowth, the stretches of turf beneath the trees, the long vistas of the " rides " in the woods, the roofs of the " Home Farm," the stubble fields against the sky. It was astounding to look upon these things from a proprietor's point of view — to know, for instance, that he was to learn to shoot and ride, that he could ask Reggie Ballard and his other friends to come down and see him do it. For, as has been said, he had dreamed of these things: he had felt, by a kind of instinct, that he had a right to them; he had envied people in motors and large houses: he had woven visionary fabrics of all that he would do if he were rich too.... And now the Prince would enjoy his own again.

His secondary emotions concerned his larger plans for the future. It had dawned on him soon after the arrival of the first news that he was now free in a new kind of way — that he could marry, for instance, practically, at his own will. Now he understood better how vast was this liberty. He need calculate no longer on ways and means. He was to have three hundred pounds a year of his own, at once, as a bachelor: of course, if he married, he would have more. And he and his wife, he supposed, could live here.

Now there clashed with such schemes as these his little

Digitized by Google idea about being a friar. He had not, up to the present, actually renounced that ideal. Certainly it had retired a little; but, as he ldy here now, tingling with exercise and the delicious sting of the hot water, it came and looked him in the face once more, and seemed to him not so attractive. It must be remembered that he had not, to the best of his knowledge, swerved in, the faintest degree from his new religious convictions; he had exulted, vaguely, this afternoon, in the thought that this might be made a Catholic estate one day. But, seriously, it began now to be suggested to him that the complete change in his fortunes might really be an indication of another vocation altogether. He began, in a word, to think of his Responsibilities; and when a young man begins to think of his Responsibilities and the serious call to a secular life that they may involve, his conscience needs watching. Might it not be, he thought to himself, that a Higher Life, for him, was to settle down here quietly and unsensationally, to learn the duties of his estate, to... to marry and have children; to build, in time, a Catholic chapel here, and have a chaplain?... Could he not accomplish more?...

(He turned over on his side in the delicious water.) This must seriously be thought about. He must consult Father Hilary.... He was glad that he had not, so far, actually mentioned to his parents or Helen, his desire to become a friar.

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