“Madam,” I broke in, trembling with excitement, “I respect you and I respect my ancestors; but as to making a fool of myself for the gratification of their ante-diluvian crotchets, I won't do it. No; if every De Winton from the Flood down were to stalk out of his coffin and bully me, I won't.”
“Won't what?” demanded my [pg 600] step-mother, looking now rather alarmed.
“I won't have those seven devils let loose over the place,” I said defiantly; “and unless you pledge me your word of honor that there will not be anything of the sort, as sure as I'm a living De Winton I'll bolt from the country, and never set foot in it again!”
“You misapprehend our relative positions altogether, Clide,” resumed Mrs. de Winton. “When the time of your majority has arrived, you will, by the very fact of its advent, be master to deal with it as you choose, quite independent of my wishes. I should hope, however, that by that time you will have conceived a better notion of your duty to society in your own person, and to the traditions of the illustrious race from whom it is your privilege to descend, than you seem to possess at present. It has been from time immemorial the custom in the family to celebrate with pomp and festive gatherings the majority of the heir. I am at a loss to understand why this venerable custom should inspire you with such irrational fury; why you should anticipate the welcome that awaits every De Winton on his coming of age otherwise than with a sense of grateful and honorable pride.”
I had calmed down when I discovered that I was my own master in the matter. Otherwise I should not have listened so patiently to the end of her tirade. When it was over, I began to feel rather ashamed of myself. I had been making a storm in a butter-boat.
“If I have forgotten in the least degree the deference I owe you, madam,” I observed, twisting my wide-awake to give myself what the French call a countenance, “I apologize for it.”
“I trust you will learn to control yourself, in future, for your own sake,” observed Mrs. de Winton, washing her hands again. “Be assured of one thing: I shall take no steps towards the celebration of the event, which is looked forward to by the tenantry with very different feelings from yours, without having your consent. I would not expose them or you to such an exhibition as that I have just witnessed. But you have twelve months to wait, and to improve, I hope, before your coming of age makes it necessary to remind you what that circumstance involves.”
“If it involves a fuss, madam,” I said emphatically, and waxing wroth again, “once more, I won't have it. I'd rather never come of age!” And having delivered myself of this decided opinion, I wished her good-morning.
I came of age in due time, and fearing that, in spite of my commands to the contrary, the tenantry might get up some insane rejoicings and caterwaulings, I feigned illness and waited in London till the anniversary was a week old.
That Rubicon was no sooner safely passed than the other, the fearful one that had been the nightmare of my childhood, threatened to overtake me. I had so constantly announced at school my determination never to marry that my views on that subject were known to all who knew me, and the reputation of a woman-hater preceded me amongst my own people. Still, the Moat being a fine old place, with a clear rent-roll of fifteen thousand pounds a year, and I being an only son and in all other respects what dowagers call an “eligible young man,” the female mind of ——shire resented such a resolve on my part as premature [pg 601] and absurd, and set to work diligently to bring me to a better way of thinking. I pass over the history of that merciless campaign of match-making mothers and enterprising daughters. The very thought of it now is painful to me. Enough that I came out of it unscathed. After two years of comparative quiet—for I persistently refused to be lured to the sirens' caves in the neighborhood, and forced them to beard the lion in his den, which gave me no inconsiderable vantage-ground over the enemy—the fire slackened, and I was left in peace.