Two, by Tricks: A Novel

by Edmund Yates

'Of a very private and confidential nature;' said Mrs. Chadwick. 'If Lady Forestfield had expressly wanted to thwart my plans, she could not have laboured more earnestly than she seems to have done. It appears that she took her own life as the text of the sermon which she preached to Mr. Pratt, talking to him all sorts of things about the misery of marriage without love, and the difference between imaginary and real love, and a great deal more in the same style.'

'And what did Mr. Pratt say to this?' asked Mrs. Hamblin. 'He is scarcely, I should have thought, the style of man on whom such an argument would have had much effect.'

'On the contrary, he seems to have been very much impressed by it,' said Mrs. Chadwick. 'He agrees to all Lady Forestfield says, and there is quite a ridiculous friendship and confidence between the three.'

'A friendship and confidence between three people never lasts,' said Mrs. Hamblin; 'for one is always certain to be jealous of the other two. But I am much surprised at what you tell me; I confess I do not see the bond of union.'

'O, the bond of union with which they have entrapped that silly little man,' said Mrs. Chadwick, rather forgetting herself; 'is their common love of art, and their superiority over the people in society, who are supposed to be heartless and frivolous, and that sort of thing.'

'And the result of this delightful conference is, then, that Mr. Pratt has not merely been refused by Miss Irvine, but has been persuaded that she cannot love him with that pure and holy affection which is so desirable; but ought to be rather ashamed of his boldness in venturing to think of her, and quite proud of being permitted to remain her friend. Lady Forestfield's convincing powers are really very extraordinary.'

'O, I am quite disgusted with it all,' said Mrs. Chadwick; 'the time and trouble I have spent in endeavouring to secure a proper position for that girl no one can tell but myself; but I should not grudge them one atom if she had shown me the slightest gratitude.'

'The affection you have shown, and the skill you have brought to bear, have been equally ill rewarded,' said Mrs. Hamblin, who preserved her outward calmness of demeanour, although inwardly raging at Spiridion's defection.

'I am tired of it,' said Mrs. Chadwick, not perceiving the least sarcasm in her friend's tone; 'and the result is certainly enough to make me give up any farther attempt. Mr. Pratt was, as I have said before, exactly the man to suit Eleanor; but if she intends to do with others as she has done with him, and when she finds a man perfectly devoted to her she won't marry him, but will go in for making a tame cat of him, she deserves to lose any chance of settling herself.'

With all this, and very much more, Mrs. Chadwick went prosing on, Mrs. Hamblin from time to time throwing in an interjectional remark which incited her companion to continue, though it had no value or meaning in itself; for indeed her thoughts were very far away from the worthy woman, whose monotonous voice, like the dropping of water, kept ceaselessly falling on her ear. To her jealous mind the introduction of Lady Forestfield among the persons of the drama acted as a shock; for Mrs. Hamblin believed in neither virtue, nor repentance, nor honesty in friendship. Lady Forestfield had 'gone wrong' once, and there was every reason to suppose would do so again. What more likely than that she should adopt Spiridion Pratt as a lover? He was weak minded, as Mrs. Hamblin well knew, ridiculously romantic, could easily be persuaded into accepting the position of champion to beauty in distress, and would feel infinitely flattered at its being known that he had been selected by a woman of Lady Forestfield's rank to do battle for her with the world. However much she had endeavoured to persuade herself to the contrary, Mrs. Hamblin in her secret heart had never given up the intention of bringing Spiridion back to his allegiance to her, and she saw at once that any mésalliance such as that the possibility of which she was then contemplating would bring entire destruction upon her hopes. She could have looked on at his marriage with a quiet simple girl like Eleanor Irvine with comparative equanimity; men, as Mrs. Hamblin knew from experience, and more especially men of Spiridion Pratt's disposition, very soon tired of innocence, and it was probable, or at all events possible, that when the charm of domesticity began to wane she might without much trouble, had she been so disposed, have regained her old lover. And now all this has been knocked on the head. Spiridion had kept away from her, and so she had been left unacquainted with all that was going on. What she felt most acutely was that Spiridion had so completely ignored her. If she had had the least inkling of his intention to propose to Miss Irvine, even if, after he had proposed and had been rejected, he had come to her and taken her into his confidence, she could have prevented this horrible introduction to Lady Forestfield, and all that would probably ensue from it.