The year passed,and he did not return;and it was doubted if he were alive.Barbara's contrition for her unconquerable repugnance was now such that she longed to build a church-aisle,or erect a monument,and devote herself to deeds of charity for the remainder of her days.To that end she made inquiry of the excellent parson under whom she sat on Sundays,at a vertical distance of twenty feet.But he could only adjust his wig and tap his snuff-box;for such was the lukewarm state of religion in those days,that not an aisle,steeple,porch,east window,Ten-Commandment board,lion-and-unicorn,or brass candlestick,was required anywhere at all in the neighbourhood as a votive offering from a distracted soul--the last century contrasting greatly in this respect with the happy times in which we live,when urgent appeals for contributions to such objects pour in by every morning's post,and nearly all churches have been made to look like new pennies.As the poor lady could not ease her conscience this way,she determined at least to be charitable,and soon had the satisfaction of finding her porch thronged every morning by the raggedest,idlest,most drunken,hypocritical,and worthless tramps in Christendom.
But human hearts are as prone to change as the leaves of the creeper on the wall,and in the course of time,hearing nothing of her husband,Barbara could sit unmoved whilst her mother and friends said in her hearing,'Well,what has happened is for the best.'She began to think so herself;for even now she could not summon up that lopped and mutilated form without a shiver,though whenever her mind flew back to her early wedded days,and the man who had stood beside her then,a thrill of tenderness moved her,which if quickened by his living presence might have become strong.She was young and inexperienced,and had hardly on his late return grown out of the capricious fancies of girlhood.
But he did not come again,and when she thought of his word that he would return once more,if living,and how unlikely he was to break his word,she gave him up for dead.So did her parents;so also did another person--that man of silence,of irresistible incisiveness,of still countenance,who was as awake as seven sentinels when he seemed to be as sound asleep as the figures on his family monument.
Lord Uplandtowers,though not yet thirty,had chuckled like a caustic fogey of threescore when he heard of Barbara's terror and flight at her husband's return,and of the latter's prompt departure.He felt pretty sure,however,that Willowes,despite his hurt feelings,would have reappeared to claim his bright-eyed property if he had been alive at the end of the twelve months.
As there was no husband to live with her,Barbara had relinquished the house prepared for them by her father,and taken up her abode anew at Chene Manor,as in the days of her girlhood.By degrees the episode with Edmond Willowes seemed but a fevered dream,and as the months grew to years Lord Uplandtowers'friendship with the people at Chene--which had somewhat cooled after Barbara's elopement--revived considerably,and he again became a frequent visitor there.
He could not make the most trivial alteration or improvement at Knollingwood Hall,where he lived,without riding off to consult with his friend Sir John at Chene;and thus putting himself frequently under her eyes,Barbara grew accustomed to him,and talked to him as freely as to a brother.She even began to look up to him as a person of authority,judgment,and prudence;and though his severity on the bench towards poachers,smugglers,and turnip-stealers was matter of common notoriety,she trusted that much of what was said might be misrepresentation.
Thus they lived on till her husband's absence had stretched to years,and there could be no longer any doubt of his death.Apassionless manner of renewing his addresses seemed no longer out of place in Lord Uplandtowers.Barbara did not love him,but hers was essentially one of those sweet-pea or with-wind natures which require a twig of stouter fibre than its own to hang upon and bloom.
Now,too,she was older,and admitted to herself that a man whose ancestor had run scores of Saracens through and through in fighting for the site of the Holy Sepulchre was a more desirable husband,socially considered,than one who could only claim with certainty to know that his father and grandfather were respectable burgesses.
Sir John took occasion to inform her that she might legally consider herself a widow;and,in brief;Lord Uplandtowers carried his point with her,and she married him,though he could never get her to own that she loved him as she had loved Willowes.In my childhood Iknew an old lady whose mother saw the wedding,and she said that when Lord and Lady Uplandtowers drove away from her father's house in the evening it was in a coach-and-four,and that my lady was dressed in green and silver,and wore the gayest hat and feather that ever were seen;though whether it was that the green did not suit her complexion,or otherwise,the Countess looked pale,and the reverse of blooming.After their marriage her husband took her to London,and she saw the gaieties of a season there;then they returned to Knollingwood Hall,and thus a year passed away.
Before their marriage her husband had seemed to care but little about her inability to love him passionately.'Only let me win you,'he had said,'and I will submit to all that.'But now her lack of warmth seemed to irritate him,and he conducted himself towards her with a resentfulness which led to her passing many hours with him in painful silence.The heir-presumptive to the title was a remote relative,whom Lord Uplandtowers did not exclude from the dislike he entertained towards many persons and things besides,and he had set his mind upon a lineal successor.He blamed her much that there was no promise of this,and asked her what she was good for.
