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Comedies of Courtship Wheel of Love Chapter 1 - The Virtuous Hypocrites · The Anthony Hope Library

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  Speaker 1: CHAPTER I. THE VIRTUOUS HYPOCRITES. At first sight they had
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  Speaker 1: as little reason for being unhappy as it is possible
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  Speaker 1: to have in a world half full of sorrow. They
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  Speaker 1: were young and healthy. Half a dozen times they had
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  Speaker 1: each declared the other more than common good-looking. They both had,
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  Speaker 1: and never knew what it was not to have, money
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  Speaker 1: enough for comfort, and, in addition, that divine little superfluity
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  Speaker 1: wherefrom joys are born. The house was good to look
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  Speaker 1: at and good to live in. There were horses to ride,
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  Speaker 1: the river to go a-rowing on, and a big box
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  Speaker 1: for moodies every week. No one worried them. Miss Bussey
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  Speaker 1: was generally visiting the poor, or, as was the case
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  Speaker 1: at this moment, asleep in her arm-chair, with Paul, the terrier,
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  Speaker 1: in his basket beside her, and the cat on her lap. Lastly,
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  Speaker 1: they were plighted lovers, and John was staying with Miss
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  Speaker 1: Bussey for the express purpose of delighting and being delighted
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  Speaker 1: by his fiancée, Mary Travers. For these and all their mercies,
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  Speaker 1: certainly they should have been truly thankful. However, the heart
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  Speaker 1: of man is wicked. This fact alone can explain why
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  Speaker 1: Mary sat sadly in the drawing-room, feeling a letter that
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  Speaker 1: was tucked inside her waistband, and John strode moodily up
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  Speaker 1: and down the gravel walk, a cigar badly bitten between
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  Speaker 1: his teeth, and his hand over and again covertly stealing
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  Speaker 1: toward his breast-pocket, and pressing a scented note that lay there.
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  Speaker 1: In the course of every turn John would pass the
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  Speaker 1: window of the drawing-room. Then Mary would look up with
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  Speaker 1: a smile and blow him a kiss, and he nodded
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  Speaker 1: and laughed and returned the salute. But the window passed.
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  Speaker 1: Both sighed deeply and returned to lingering those hidden missives.'
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  Speaker 1: Poor little girl! I must keep it up,' said John.'
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  Speaker 1: Dear good John! He must never know,' thought Mary. And
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  Speaker 1: the two fell to thinking just what was remarked a
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  Speaker 1: few lines back, namely, that the human heart is very wicked.
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  Speaker 1: They were shocked at themselves. The young often are. Miss
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  Speaker 1: Bussey awoke, sat up, evicted the cat, and found her spectacles.'
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  Speaker 1: Where are those children?' said she. Billing and cooing somewhere,
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  Speaker 1: I suppose. Bless me, why don't they get tired of it?
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  Speaker 1: They had not. Not indeed of billing and cooing in general,
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  Speaker 1: for no one at their age does or ought to
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  Speaker 1: get tired of that, but of billing and cooing with
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  Speaker 1: one another. It will be observed that the situation promised
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  Speaker 1: well for a tragedy. Nevertheless, this is not the story
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  Speaker 1: of an unhappy marriage. If there be one thing which
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  Speaker 1: government should forbid, it is a secret engagement. Engagements should
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  Speaker 1: be advertised as marriages are. but unless we happen to
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  Speaker 1: be persons of social importance or considerable notoriety, no such
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  Speaker 1: precautions are taken. Of course there are engagement rings, but
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  Speaker 1: a man never knows one when he sees it on
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  Speaker 1: a lady's hand. It would indeed be impertinent to look
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  Speaker 1: too closely. And when he goes out alone, he generally
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  Speaker 1: puts his in his pocket, considering that the evening will
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  Speaker 1: thus be rendered more enjoyable. The Ashforth Traverse engagement was
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  Speaker 1: not a secret now, but it had been, and had
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  Speaker 1: been too long. Hence, when Mary went to Scotland and
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  Speaker 1: met Charlie Ellerton— and when John went to Switzerland and
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  Speaker 1: met Dora Belairs, the truth is they ought never to
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  Speaker 1: have separated. And Miss Bussey, who was one of the
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  Speaker 1: people in the secret, had been quite right when she
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  Speaker 1: remarked that it seemed a curious arrangement. John and Mary
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  Speaker 1: had scoffed at the idea of a few weeks' absence
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  Speaker 1: having any effect on their feelings, except, if indeed it
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  Speaker 1: were possible, that of intensifying them.' I really think I
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  Speaker 1: ought to go and find them,' said Miss Bussey.' Come, Paul.'
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  Speaker 1: She took a parasol, for the April sun was bright,
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  Speaker 1: and went into the garden. When she came to the
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  Speaker 1: drawing-room window, John was away at the end of the walk.
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  Speaker 1: She looked at him. He was reading a letter. She
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  Speaker 1: looked in at the window. Mary was reading a letter.' Well!'
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  Speaker 1: exclaimed Miss Bussey.' Have they had a tiff?' And she
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  Speaker 1: slowly waddled— truth imposes this word, she was very stout— toward the
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  Speaker 1: unconscious John. He advanced toward her, still reading. Not only
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  Speaker 1: did he not see her, but he failed to notice
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  Speaker 1: that Paul had got under his feet. He fell over Paul,
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  Speaker 1: and as he stumbled, the letter fluttered out of his hand.
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  Speaker 1: Paul seized it and began to toss it about in
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  Speaker 1: great glee.' Good doggie!' cried Miss Bussey.' Come then, bring
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  Speaker 1: it to me, dear. Good Paul!' John's face was distorted
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  Speaker 1: with agony. He darted toward Paul, fell on him, and
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  Speaker 1: gripped him closely. Paul yelped, and Miss Bussey observed, in
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  Speaker 1: an indignant tone, that John need not throttle the dog.
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  Speaker 1: John muttered something.' Is the letter so very precious?' asked
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  Speaker 1: his hostess, ironically.' Precious!' cried John. Yes, no, it's nothing
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  Speaker 1: at all. But he had opened Paul's mouth and took
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  Speaker 1: out his treasure with care. And why, inquired Miss Bussey,
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  Speaker 1: are you not with Mary, young man? You're very neglectful. Neglectful? Surely,
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  Speaker 1: Miss Bussey, you haven't noticed anything like neglect? Don't say—
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  Speaker 1: Bless the boy, I was only joking. You're a model lover.
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  Speaker 1: Thank you, thank you. I'll go to her at once.
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  Speaker 1: And he sped towards the window, opened it, and walked
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  Speaker 1: up to Mary— Miss Bussey followed him, and arrived just
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  Speaker 1: in time to see the lovers locked in one another's arms,
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  Speaker 1: their faces expressing all appropriate rapture.' There' s nothing much wrong,'
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  Speaker 1: said Miss Bussey, wherein Miss Bussey herself was much wrong.'
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  Speaker 1: What a shame! I've left you alone for more than
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  Speaker 1: an hour,' said John.' Have you been very unhappy?' And
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  Speaker 1: he added,' Darling?' It sounded like an afterthought.' I have
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  Speaker 1: been rather unhappy,' answered Mary, and her answer was true.
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  Speaker 1: As she said it, she tucked in a projecting edge
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  Speaker 1: of her letter. John had hurriedly slipped his— it was rather
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  Speaker 1: the worse for its mauling— into his trouser's pocket.' You didn't
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  Speaker 1: think me neglectful?'' Oh, no. I was thinking of you
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  Speaker 1: all the time.'' And I thinking of you, dear. Are
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  Speaker 1: you very happy?'' Yes, John. Aren't you?'' Of course I am. Happy?
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  Speaker 1: I should think so.' And he kissed her with unimpeachable fervour.
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  Speaker 1: When a conscientious person makes up his mind that he ought,
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  Speaker 1: for good reasons, to deceive somebody, there is no one
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  Speaker 1: like him for thorough-paced hypocrisy. When two conscientious people resolve
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  Speaker 1: to deceive one another, on grounds of duty, the acme
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  Speaker 1: of duplicity is in a fair way to be reached.
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  Speaker 1: John Ashforth and Mary Travers illustrated this proposition. The former
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  Speaker 1: had been all his life a good son, and was
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  Speaker 1: now a trustworthy partner to his father, who justly relied
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  Speaker 1: no less on his character than on his brains. The latter,
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  Speaker 1: since her parents' early death had left her to her
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  Speaker 1: aunt's care, had been the comfort and prop of Miss
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  Speaker 1: Bussey's life. It's difficult to describe good people without making
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  Speaker 1: them seem dull, but luckily nature is defter than novelists,
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  Speaker 1: and it is quite possible to be good without being dull.
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  Speaker 1: Neither Mary nor John was dull. A trifle limited, perhaps,
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  Speaker 1: they were, a thought severe in their judgments of others
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  Speaker 1: as well as of themselves, a little exacting with their
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  Speaker 1: friends and more than a little with themselves. One description
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  Speaker 1: paints them both. Doubtless their harmony of mind had contributed
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  Speaker 1: more than Mary's sweet expression and finely cut features, or
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  Speaker 1: John's upstanding six feet and honest, capable face, to produce
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  Speaker 1: that attachment between them which had, six months before this
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  Speaker 1: story begins, culminated in their engagement. Once arrived at, this
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  Speaker 1: ending seemed to have been inevitable. Everybody discovered that they
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  Speaker 1: had foretold it from the first, and modestly disclaimed any
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  Speaker 1: credit for anticipating a union between a couple so obviously
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  Speaker 1: made for one another. The distress into which lovers such
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  Speaker 1: as these fell, when they discovered by personal experience that
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  Speaker 1: to sincerely vow eternal love is one thing, and sincerely
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  Speaker 1: to give it is quite another, may be well imagined,
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  Speaker 1: and may well be left to be imagined. They both
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  Speaker 1: went through a terrible period of temptation, wherein they listened
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  Speaker 1: longingly to the seductive pleading of their hearts, but both
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  Speaker 1: emerged triumphant, resolved to stifle their mad fancy, to prefer
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  Speaker 1: good faith to mere inclination, and to avoid, at all costs,
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  Speaker 1: wounding one to whom they had sworn to be true.
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  Speaker 1: Thus far their steadfastness carried them, but not beyond. They
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  Speaker 1: could part from their loved ones, and they did, but
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  Speaker 1: they could not leave them without a word. Each wrote,
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  Speaker 1: after leaving Scotland and Switzerland respectively, a few lines of adieu,
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  Speaker 1: confessing the love they felt, but with resolute sadness saying
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  Speaker 1: farewell for ever. They belonged to another. It was the
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  Speaker 1: letters that Mary and John were reading when Miss Bussey
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  Speaker 1: discovered them. Mary is ran— My dear Miss Travers, I
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  Speaker 1: have received your letter. I can't tell you what it
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  Speaker 1: means to me. You say all must be over between us.
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  Speaker 1: Don't be offended, but I won't say that yet. It
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  Speaker 1: can't be your duty to marry a man you don't love.
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  Speaker 1: You forbid me to write or come to you, and
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  Speaker 1: you ask only for a word of good-bye. I won't
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  Speaker 1: say good-bye. I'll say au revoir. Au revoir, my darling. Charlie.
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  Speaker 1: Burn this. This was John's. My dear Mr. Ashforth, What
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  Speaker 1: am I to say to you? Oh, why? Why didn't
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  Speaker 1: you tell me before? I oughtn't to say that, but
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  Speaker 1: it's too late to conceal anything from you. Yes, you
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  Speaker 1: are right. It must be goodbye. Yes, I will try
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  Speaker 1: to forget you. But, oh, John, it's very, very, very difficult.
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  Speaker 1: I don't know how to sign this, so I won't.
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  Speaker 1: You'll know who it comes from, won't you? Goodbye. Burn this.
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  Speaker 1: These letters, no doubt, make it plain that there had
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  Speaker 1: been at least a momentary weakness both in Mary and
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  Speaker 1: in John, but in a true and charitable view their
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  Speaker 1: conduct in rising superior to temptation finally was all the
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  Speaker 1: more remarkable and praiseworthy. They had indeed, for the time,
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  Speaker 1: been carried away. Even now Mary found it hard not
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  Speaker 1: to make allowances for herself, little as she was prone
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  Speaker 1: to weakness when she thought of the impetuous abandon and
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  Speaker 1: conquering whirl with which Charlie Ellerton had wooed her, and
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  Speaker 1: John confessed that flight alone, a hasty flight from Interlaken
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  Speaker 1: after a certain evening spent in gazing at the Jungfrau,
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  Speaker 1: had saved him from casting everything to the winds and
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  Speaker 1: yielding to the slavery of Dora Belair's sunny smiles and
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  Speaker 1: charming cockatries. He had always thought that sort of girl
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  Speaker 1: had no attractions for him. just as Mary had despised
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  Speaker 1: butterfly men like Charlie Ellerton. Well, they were wrong. The
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  Speaker 1: only comfort was that shallow natures felt these sorrows less.
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  Speaker 1: It would have broken Mary's heart, thought John, or John's,
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  Speaker 1: thought Mary, but Dora and Charlie would soon find consolation
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  Speaker 1: in another. But here, oddly enough, John swore heartily, and
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  Speaker 1: Mary always began to search for her handkerchief. They're as
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  Speaker 1: affectionate as one could wish when they're together, mused Miss
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  Speaker 1: Bussey as she stroked the cat. but at other times
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  Speaker 1: they're gloomy company. I suppose they can't be happy apart. Dear, dear!
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  Speaker 1: And the good old lady felt wondering whether she had
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  Speaker 1: ever been so foolish herself. End of Section 1