Читать книгу: «An English Squire», страница 29
Epilogue
“Mr Ellesmere! I saw your name in the visitors’ book. So you are taking a holiday in Switzerland?”
“Mr Stanforth! Very glad to meet you. You will put us up to all we ought to see and admire. Are you alone?”
“Yes; you know I have lost my travelling companion. My next girl is still in the schoolroom, and I think will never be so adventurous as Gipsy.”
“You have good accounts, I hope, of Mrs Jack, as we irreverently call her.”
“Excellent; she adores the boys, and the boys adore her; her letters are very educational and aesthetic. She has picked up more ‘art’ as a schoolmaster’s wife than ever she learnt as an artist’s daughter, and could, doubtless, set me right on tones and colours.”
“Cherry told me that Jack had taken to the new culture.”
“Yes, he was much amused at the development produced by house-furnishing. But double firsts have a right to vagaries. But tell me something of the Oakby world. It is a very long time since I have been there, and one does not see much of people at a wedding, though I thought Cheriton looking very well.”
“Yes, he is fairly well, very useful, and, I think, quite content. Alvar has settled into his position, and fills it well. He is indignant if he is supposed to be ignorant of anything English; and his sweet graceful wife guides him as much as ‘Fanny’ did his father thirty years ago. His one trouble is that little Gerald is as dark as all his Spanish ancestors, and even Frances is like the Seytons, but that he can forgive.”
“Does she promise to rival her aunt? What a beautiful creature Miss Lester is!”
“Splendid! and still Miss Lester, which is rather a trouble to her grandmother. Whether she will ever be Lady Milford – or whether – Any way, Nettie can keep her own counsel.”
“And now, tell me about Elderthwaite. Has Cheriton justified his experiment?”
“Yes, I think I may say that he has. He has done a great deal. No one else could have done so much good, and certainly no one would have done so little harm.”
“And the old parson is resigned to improvements?”
“Yes, but there have been fewer external changes than you would expect, or than Cherry would wish if he were his own master, or even if he could depend on himself. But of course his health has weighted him heavily, and he cannot promise perfect regularity in services or arrangements.”
“I wonder he can manage at all.”
“Well, I think on the whole his health has improved, and he is well enough off to contrive things – has a horse and waggonette for bad weather; and his house is near the church, and he has built on a great room to it, and fitted it up with books and games, and he makes a sort of club of it for the boys and young men. His sitting-room opens into it, and he has classes and talks, and gets them to come and see him one by one. If he cannot do one thing he does another. And they have evening services in the summer, and early ones when it is possible. I think the sort of resolute way in which Cheriton has recognised the need of special care of himself, if he is to be useful, and carries it out, is one of the most remarkable things about him. Many young men might have killed themselves with hard work, and many would forget the danger when well and in good spirits, but he has recognised the limitations set to him, and bows to them.”
“Yes, and he does not offend his vicar.”
“Rarely, he has never failed to recognise his right to respect – never allowed the Wilsons, who are ardent and enthusiastic, to force anything on him. And there’s a great change. I don’t mean that the old fellow is cut after any modern pattern yet; but he is considerably more decorous, and sometimes there’s a sort of humility about him in admitting his shortcomings that is very touching. Cherry is the very light of his eyes.”
“And how does Cherry hit it off with the modern element?”
“Well, there I think his position has been a great advantage to him; they are a little afraid of him. But he gets on admirably with them, and you know they have improved the church immensely this last year, and what is more to the point, perhaps, it is filled with good congregations.”
“Is Cheriton a fine preacher?”
“Well, his people like him. I have rarely heard him; he is very difficult to get. Yes, I like his sermons; but he has not much voice, you see, and his manner is very quiet. He has not the sort of vehement eloquence you might have expected. I made some comment once to him, and he looked at me, and said, ‘I daren’t get eager and tire myself.’ I saw then how little strength he had to work with.”
“Poor fellow! But this life – does it satisfy him? Is he happy in it?”
“He is just as merry and full of fun as ever. He has a wonderful capacity for taking an interest in every one and everything; and though Alvar does not depend on him in the old exclusive way, he is most tender and careful of him, and Cherry delights in the children. I think Jack’s marriage was rather a wrench; those two do cling together so closely, and Jack was a great deal with him; but still there are grand plans for the holidays, and he is very fond of your daughter.”
“I don’t think that marriage will loosen the tie.”
“No; and he is much too unselfish really to regret it. Then all his village boys bring him pets; he says everything makes a link from a horse to a hedgehog. And my curates and the Ashrigg ones run after him, and think it a privilege to take a service for him; and he has done one rather feather-pated fellow, I know, a world of good.”
“That I can believe.”
“Yes; for, after all, Mr Stanforth, it is not his being a Lester of Oakby, nor a man of means, nor his wonderful tact, nor even his great charm of manner in itself that counterbalances his weak health and frequent absences, or makes a life spent among rather uncongenial elements sufficient to him. It is that he has the root of the matter in him as very few have. What he does and says may be less in quantity, but it is infinitely above in quality the ordinary work of his profession. He looks deep and he looks high, and men feel it. He has come through much tribulation, and – well, Mr Stanforth, the dragon slayers have their reward.”
“Yes, one must touch a high note in thinking of him.”
“So high, that one fears ‘to mar by earthly praise,’ one who I verily believe is as true a saint, as full of love and zeal. – Well, being so, as I truly think, he has what some holy souls have lacked, the gift of a gracious manner and a most sympathetic nature; and if a few more years and a little more experience could be granted to him, I believe he will have a great spiritual influence, if not wide, deep. Any way he will leave in one place the memory of a pure and holy life, and will lead others to follow the Master he loves so well.”
