Chapter XLIX
"A task too strong for wizard spells
This squire had brought about;
'T is easy dropping stones in wells,
But who shall get them out?"
"I wish to God we could hinder Dorothea from knowing
this," said Sir James Chettam, with a little frown on his
brow, and an expression of intense disgust about his mouth.
He was standing on the hearth-rug in the library at
Lowick Grange, and speaking to Mr. Brooke. It was the day
after Mr. Casaubon had been buried, and Dorothea was not yet
able to leave her room.
"That would be difficult, you know, Chettam, as she is
an executrix, and she likes to go into these
things — property, land, that kind of thing. She has her
notions, you know," said Mr. Brooke, sticking his
eye-glasses on nervously, and exploring the edges of a
folded paper which he held in his hand; "and she would like
to act — depend upon it, as an executrix Dorothea would want
to act. And she was twenty-one last December, you know. I
can hinder nothing."
Sir James looked at the carpet for a minute in silence,
and then lifting his eyes suddenly fixed them on Mr. Brooke,
saying, "I will tell you what we can do. Until Dorothea is
well, all business must be kept from her, and as soon as she
is able to be moved she must come to us. Being with Celia
and the baby will be the best thing in the world for her,
and will pass away the time. And meanwhile you must get rid
of Ladislaw: you must send him out of the country." Here
Sir James's look of disgust returned in all its intensity.
Mr. Brooke put his hands behind him, walked to the
window and straightened his back with a little shake before
he replied.
"That is easily said, Chettam, easily said, you know."
"My dear sir," persisted Sir James, restraining his
indignation within respectful forms, "it was you who brought
him here, and you who keep him here — I mean by the
occupation you give him."
"Yes, but I can't dismiss him in an instant without
assigning reasons, my dear Chettam. Ladislaw has been
invaluable, most satisfactory. I consider that I have done
this part of the country a service by bringing him — by
bringing him, you know." Mr. Brooke ended with a nod,
turning round to give it.
"It's a pity this part of the country didn't do without
him, that's all I have to say about it. At any rate, as
Dorothea's brother-in-law, I feel warranted in objecting
strongly
to his being kept here by any action on the
part of her friends. You admit, I hope, that I have a right
to speak about what concerns the dignity of my wife's
sister?"
Sir James was getting warm.
"Of course, my dear Chettam, of course. But you and I
have different ideas — different — "
"Not about this action of Casaubon's, I should hope,"
interrupted Sir James. " I say that he has most unfairly
compromised Dorothea. I say that there never was a meaner,
more ungentlemanly action than this — a codicil of this sort
to a will which he made at the time of his marriage with the
knowledge and reliance of her family — a positive insult to
Dorothea!"
"Well, you know, Casaubon was a little twisted about
Ladislaw. Ladislaw has told me the reason — dislike of the
bent he took, you know — Ladislaw didn't think much of
Casaubon's notions, Thoth and Dagon — that sort of thing: and
I fancy that Casaubon didn't like the independent position
Ladislaw had taken up. I saw the letters between them, you
know. Poor Casaubon was a little buried in books — he didn't
know the world."
"It's all very well for Ladislaw to put that color on
it," said Sir James. " But I believe Casaubon was only
jealous of him on Dorothea's account, and the world will
suppose that she gave him some reason; and that is what
makes it so abominable — coupling her name with this young
fellow's."
"My dear Chettam, it won't lead to anything, you know,"
said Mr. Brooke, seating himself and sticking on his
eye-glass again. " It's all of a piece with Casaubon's
oddity. This paper, now, `Synoptical Tabulation' and so on,
`for the use of Mrs. Casaubon,' it was locked up in the desk
with the will. I suppose he meant Dorothea to publish his
researches, eh? and she'll do it, you know; she has gone
into his studies uncommonly."
"My dear sir," said Sir James, impatiently, " that is
neither here nor there. The question is, whether you don't
see with me the propriety of sending young Ladislaw away?"
"Well, no, not the urgency of the thing. By-and-by,
perhaps, it may come round. As to gossip, you know, sending
him away won't hinder gossip. People say what they like
to say, not what they have chapter and verse for," said Mr
Brooke, becoming acute about the truths that lay on the side
of his own wishes. "I might get rid of Ladislaw up to a
certain point — take away the `Pioneer' from him, and that
sort of thing; but I couldn't send him out of the country if
he didn't choose to go — didn't choose, you know."
Mr. Brooke, persisting as quietly as if he were only
discussing the nature of last year's weather, and nodding at
the end with his usual amenity, was an exasperating form of
obstinacy.
"Good God!" said Sir James, with as much passion as he
ever showed, " let us get him a post; let us spend money on
him. If he could go in the suite of some Colonial Governor!
Grampus might take him — and I could write to Fulke about it.
'
"But Ladislaw won't be shipped off like a head of
cattle, my dear fellow; Ladislaw has his ideas. It's my
opinion that if he were to part from me to-morrow, you'd
only hear the more of him in the country. With his talent
for speaking and drawing up documents, there are few men who
could come up to him as an agitator — an agitator, you know."
"Agitator!" said Sir James, with bitter emphasis,
feeling that the syllables of this word properly repeated
were a sufficient exposure of its hatefulness.
"But be reasonable, Chettam. Dorothea, now. As you
say, she had better go to-Celia as soon as possible. She
can stay under your roof, and in the mean time things may
come round quietly. Don't let us be firing off our guns in
a hurry, you know. Standish will keep our counsel, and the
news will be old before it's known. Twenty things may
happen to carry off Ladislaw — without my doing anything, you
know."
"Then I am to conclude that you decline to do anything?"
"Decline, Chettam? — no — I didn't say decline. But I
really don't see what I could do. Ladislaw is a gentleman."
"I am glad to hear It!" said Sir James, his irritation
making him forget himself a little. "I am sure Casaubon was
not."
"Well, it would have been worse if he had made the
codicil to hinder her from marrying again at all, you know."
"I don't know that," said Sir James. " It would have
been less indelicate."
"One of poor Casaubon's freaks! That attack upset his
brain a little. It all goes for nothing. She doesn't
want to marry Ladislaw."
"But this codicil is framed so as to make everybody
believe that she did. I don't believe anything of the sort
about Dorothea," said Sir James — then frowningly, " but I
suspect Ladislaw. I tell you frankly, I suspect Ladislaw."
"I couldn't take any immediate action on that ground,
Chettam. In fact, if it were possible to pack him off — send
him to Norfolk Island — that sort of thing — it would look all
the worse for Dorothea to those who knew about it. It would
seem as if we distrusted her — distrusted her, you know."
That Mr. Brooke had hit on an undeniable argument, did
not tend to soothe Sir James. He put out his hand to reach
his hat, implying that he did not mean to contend further,
and said, still with some heat —
"Well, I can only say that I think Dorothea was
sacrificed once, because her friends were too careless. I
shall do what I can, as her brother, to protect her now."
"You can't do better than get her to Freshitt as soon as
possible, Chettam. I approve that plan altogether," said
Mr. Brooke, well pleased that he had won the argument. It
would have been highly inconvenient to him to part with
Ladislaw at that time, when a dissolution might happen any
day, and electors were to be convinced of the course by
which the interests of the country would be best served.
Mr. Brooke sincerely believed that this end could be secured
by his own return to Parliament: he offered the forces of
his mind honestly to the nation.