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Red Wallflower

<h2 id="id03057" style="margin-top: 4em">CHAPTER XXXV.</h2> <h5 id="id03058"> ANTIQUITIES.</h5> As Pitt went off, Mrs. Dallas came on the verandah. 'You would not go to drive?' she said to Betty. 'It is so hot, dear Mrs. Dallas! I had what was much better than a drive—a good long talk.' 'What do you think of my boy?' asked the mother, with an accent of happy confidence in which there was also a vibration of pride. 'He puzzles me. Has he not some peculiar opinions?' 'Have you found that out already?' said Mrs. Dallas, with a change of tone. 'That shows he must like you very much, Betty; my son is not given to letting himself out on those subjects. Even to me he very seldom speaks of them.' 'What subjects do you mean, dear Mrs. Dallas?' inquired the young lady softly. 'I mean,' said Mrs. Dallas uneasily and hesitating, 'some sort of religious questions. I told you he had had to do at one time with dissenting people, and I think their influence has been bad for him. I hoped in England he would forget all that, and become a true Churchman. What did he say?' 'Nothing about the Church, or about religion. I do not believe it would be easy for any one to influence him, Mrs. Dallas.' 'You can do it, Betty, if any one. I am hoping in you.' The young lady, as I have intimated, was not averse to the task, all the rather that it promised some difficulty. All the rather, too, that she was stimulated by the idea of counter influence. She recalled more than once what Pitt had said of that 'young girl,' and tried to make out what had been in his tone at the time. No passion certainly; he had spoken easily and frankly; too easily to favour the supposition of any very deep feeling; and yet, not without a certain cadence of tenderness, and undoubtedly with the confidence of intimate knowledge. Undoubtedly, also, the influence of that young person, whatever its nature, had not died out. Miss Betty had little question in her own mind that she must have been one of the persons referred to and dreaded by Mrs. Dallas as dissenters; and the young lady determined to do what she could in the case. She had a definite point of resistance now, and felt stronger for the fray. The fray, however, could not be immediately entered upon. Pitt departed to New York, avowedly to look up the Gainsboroughs. And there, as two years before, he spent unwearied pains in pursuit of his object; also, as then, in vain. He returned after more than a week of absence, a baffled man. His arrival was just in time to allow him to sit down to dinner with the family; so that Betty heard his report. 'Have you found the Gainsboroughs?' his father asked. 'No, sir.' 'Where did you look?' 'Everywhere.' 'What have you done?' his mother asked. 'Everything.' 'I told you, I thought they were gone back to England.' 'If they are, there is no sign of it, and I do not believe it. I have spent hours and hours at the shipping offices, looking over the lists of passengers; and of one thing I am certain, they have not sailed from that port this year.' 'Not under the name by which you know them.' 'And not under any other. Colonel Gainsborough was not a man to hide his head under an alias. But they know nothing of any Colonel Gainsborough at the post office.' 'That is strange.' 'They never had many letters, you know, sir; and the colonel had given up his English paper. I think I know all the people that take the London Times in New York; and he is not one of them.' 'He is gone home,' said Mr. Dallas comfortably. 'I can find that out when I go back to England; and I will.' Miss Betty said nothing, and asked never a word, but she lost none of all this. Pitt was becoming a problem to her. All this eagerness and painstaking would seem to look towards some very close relations between the young man and these missing people; yet Pitt showed no annoyance nor signs of trouble at missing them. Was it that he did not really care? was it that he had not accepted failure, and did not mean to fail? In either case, he must be a peculiar character, and in either case there was brought to light an uncommon strength of determination. There is hardly anything which women like better in the other sex than force of character. Not because it is a quality in which their own sex is apt to be lacking; on the contrary; but because it gives a woman what she wants in a man—something to lean upon, and somebody to look up to. Miss Betty found herself getting more and more interested in Pitt and in her charge concerning him; how it was to be executed she did not yet see; she must leave that to chance. Nothing could be forced here. Where liking begins to grow, there also begins fear. She retreated to the verandah after dinner, with her embroidery. By and by Mrs. Dallas came there too. It was a pleasant place in the afternoon, for the sun was on the other side of the house, and the sea breeze swept this way, giving its saltness to the odours of rose and honeysuckle and mignonette. Mrs. Dallas sat down and took her knitting; then, before a word could be exchanged, they were joined by Pitt. That is, he came on the verandah; but for some time there was no talking. The ladies would not begin, and Pitt did not. His attention, wherever it might be, was not given to his companions; he sat thoughtful, and determinately silent. Mrs. Dallas's knitting needles clicked, Miss Betty's embroidering thread went noiselessly in and out. Bees hummed and flitted about the honeysuckle vines; there was a soft, sweet, luxurious atmosphere to the senses and to the mind. This went on for a while. 'Mr. Pitt,' said Miss Betty, 'you are giving me no help at all.' He brought himself and his attention round to her at once, and asked how he could be of service. 'Your mother,' began Miss Betty, stitching away, 'has given me a commission concerning you. She desires me to see to it that ennui does not creep upon you during your vacation in this unexciting place. How do I know but it is creeping upon you already? and you give me no chance to drive it away.' Pitt laughed a little. 'I was never attacked by ennui in my life,' he said. 'So you do not want my services!' 'Not to fight an enemy that is nowhere in sight. Perhaps he is your enemy, and I might be helpful in another way.' It occurred to him that he had been charged to make Miss Frere's sojourn in Seaforth pleasant; and some vague sense of what this mutual charge might mean dawned upon him, with a rising light of amusement. 'I don't know!' said the young lady. 'You did once propose a drive. If you would propose it again, perhaps I would go. We cannot help its being hot?' So they went for a drive. The roads were capital, the evening was lovely, the horses went well, and the phaeton was comfortable; if that were not enough, it was all. Miss Frere bore it for a while patiently. 'Do you dislike talking?' she asked at length meekly, when a soft bit of road and the slow movement of the horses gave her a good opportunity. 'I? Not at all!' said Pitt, rousing himself as out of a muse. 'Then I wish you would talk. Mrs. Dallas desires that I should entertain you; and how am I to do that unless I know you better?' 'So you think people's characters come out in talking?' 'If not their characters, at least something of what is in their heads—what they know—and don't know; what they can talk about, in short.' 'I do not know anything—to talk about.' 'Oh, fie, Mr. Dallas! you who have been to Oxford and London. Tell me, what is London like? An overgrown New York, I suppose.' 'No, neither. "Overgrown" means grown beyond strength or usefulness. London is large, but not overgrown, in any sense.' 'Well, like New York, only larger?' 'No more than a mushroom is like a great old oak. London is like that; an old oak, gnarled and twisted and weather-worn, with plenty of hale life and young vigour springing out of its rugged old roots.' 'That sounds—poetical.' 'If you mean, not true, you are under a mistake.' 'Then it seems you know London?' 'I suppose I do; better than many of those who live in it. When I am there, Miss Frere, I am with an old uncle, who is an antiquary and an enthusiast on the subject of his native city. From the first it has been his pleasure to go with me all over London, and tell me the secrets of its old streets, and show me what was worth looking at. London was my picture-book, my theatre, where I saw tragedy and comedy together; my museum of antiquities. I never tire of it, and my Uncle Strahan is never tired of showing it to me.' 'Why, what is it to see?' asked Miss Frere, with some real curiosity. 'For one thing, it is an epitome of English history, strikingly illustrated.' 'Oh, you mean Westminster Abbey! Yes, I have heard of that, of course. But I should think that was not interminable.' 'I do not mean Westminster Abbey.' 'What then, please?' 'I cannot tell you here,' said Pitt smiling, as the horses, having found firm ground, set off again at a gay trot. 'Wait till we get home, and I will show you a map of London.' The young lady, satisfied with having gained her object, waited very patiently, and told Mrs. Dallas on reaching home that the drive had been delightful. Next day Pitt was as good as his word. He brought his map of London into the cool matted room where the ladies were sitting, rolled up a table, and spread the map out before Miss Frere. The young lady dropped her embroidery and gave her attention. 'What have you there, Pitt?' his mother inquired. 'London, mamma.' 'London?' Mrs. Dallas drew up her chair too, where she could look on; while Pitt briefly gave an explanation of the map; showed where was the 'City' and where the fashionable quarter. 'I suppose,' said Miss Frere, studying the map, 'the parts of London that delight you are over here?' indicating the West End. 'No,' returned Pitt, 'by no means. The City and the Strand are infinitely more interesting.' 'My dear,' said his mother, 'I do not see how that can be.' 'It is true, though, mother. All this,' drawing his finger round a certain portion of the map, 'is crowded with the witnesses of human life and history; full of remains that tell of the men of the past, and their doings, and their sufferings.' Miss Frere's fine eyes were lifted to him in inquiry; meeting them, he smiled, and went on. 'I must explain. Where shall I begin? Suppose, for instance, we take our stand here at Whitehall. We are looking at the Banqueting House of the Palace, built by Inigo Jones for James I. The other buildings of the palace, wide and splendid as they were, have mostly perished. This stands yet. I need not tell you the thoughts that come up as we look at it.' 'Charles I was executed there, I know. What else?' 'There is a whole swarm of memories, and a whole crowd of images, belonging to the palace of which this was a part. Before the time you speak of, there was Cardinal Wolsey'— 'Oh, Wolsey! I remember.' 'His outrageous luxury and pomp of living, and his disgrace. Then comes Henry VIII., and Anne Boleyn, and their marriage; Henry's splendours, and his death. All that was here. In those days the buildings of Whitehall were very extensive, and they were further enlarged afterwards. Here Elizabeth held her court, and here she lay in state after death. James I comes next; he built the Banqueting House. And in his son's time, the royal magnificence displayed at Whitehall was incomparable. All the gaieties and splendours and luxury of living that then were possible, were known here. And here was the scaffold where he died. The next figure is Cromwell's.' 'Leave him out!' said Mrs. Dallas, with a sort of groan of impatience. 'What shall I do with the next following, mamma? That is Charles II.' 'He had a right there at least.' 'He abused it.' 'At least he was a king, and a gentleman.' 'If I could show you Whitehall as it was in his day, mother, I think you would not want to look long. But I shall not try. We will go on to Charing Cross. The old palace extended once nearly so far. Here is the place.' He pointed to a certain spot on the map. 'What is there now?' asked Betty. 'Not the old Cross. That is gone; but, of course, I cannot stand there without in thought going back to Edward I. and his queen. In its place is a brazen statue of Charles I. And in fact, when I stand there the winds seem to sweep down upon me from many a mountain peak of history. Edward and his rugged greatness, and Charles and his weak folly; and the Protectorate, and the Restoration. For here, where the statue stands, stood once the gallows where Harrison and his companions were executed, when "the king had his own again." Sometimes I can hardly see the present, when I am there, for looking at the past.' 'You are enthusiastic,' said Miss Frere. 'But I understand it. Yes, that is not like New York; not much!' 'What became of the Cross, Pitt?' 'Pulled down, mother—like everything else in its day.' 'Who pulled it down?' 'The Republicans.' 'The Republicans! Yes, it was like them!' said Mrs. Dallas. 'Rebellion, dissent, and a want of feeling for whatever is noble and refined, all go together. That was the Puritans!' 'Pretty strong!' said Pitt. 'And not quite fair either, is it? How much feeling for what is noble and refined was there in the court of the second Charles?—and how much of either, if you look below the surface, was in the policy or the character of the first Charles?' 'He did not destroy pictures and pull down statues,' said Mrs. Dallas. 'He was at least a gentleman. But the Puritans were a low set, always. I cannot forgive them for the work they did in England.' 'You may thank heaven for some of the work they did. But for them, you would not be here to-day in a land of freedom.' 'Too much freedom,' said Mrs. Dallas. 'I believe it is good to have a king over a country.' 'Well, go on from Charing Cross, won't you,' said Miss Frere. 'I am interested. I never studied a map of London before. I am not sure I ever saw one.' 'I do not know which way to go,' said Pitt. 'Every step brings us to new associations; every street opens up a chapter of history. Here is Northumberland House; a grand old building, full of its records. Howards and Percys and Seymours have owned it and built it; and there General Monk planned the bringing back of the Stuarts. Going along the Strand, every step is full of interest. Just here used to be the palace of Sir Nicholas Baron and his son; then James the First's favourite, the Duke of Buckingham, lived in it; and the beautiful water-gate is yet standing which Inigo Jones built for him. All the Strand was full of palaces which have passed away, leaving behind the names of their owners in the streets which remain or have been built since. Here Sir Walter Raleigh lived; here the Dudleys had their abode, and Lady Jane Grey was married; here was the house of Lord Burleigh. But let us go on to the church of St. Mary-le-Strand. Here once stood a great Maypole, round which there used to be merry doings. The Puritans took that down too, mother.' 'What for?' 'They held it to be in some sort a relic of heathen manners. Then under Charles II. it was set up again. And here, once, four thousand children were gathered and sang a hymn, on some public occasion of triumph in Queen Anne's reign.' 'It is not there now?' 'Oh, no! It was given to Sir Isaac Newton, and made to subserve the uses of a telescope.' 'How do you know all these things, Mr. Pitt.' 'Every London antiquary knows them, I suppose. And I told you, I have an old uncle who is a great antiquary; London is his particular hobby.' 'He must have had an apt scholar, though.' 'Much liking makes good learning, I suppose,' said the young man. 'A little further on is the church of St. Clement Danes, where Dr. Johnson used to attend divine service. About here stands Temple Bar.' 'Temple Bar!' said Miss Frere. 'I have heard of Temple Bar all my life, and never connected any clear idea with the name. What is Temple Bar?' 'It is not very much of a building. It is the barrier which marks the bound of the city of London.' 'Isn't it London on both sides of Temple Bar?' 'London, but not the City. The City proper begins here. On the west of this limit is Westminster.' 'There are ugly associations with Temple Bar, I know,' said Miss Frere. 'There are ugly associations with everything. Down here stood Essex House, where Essex defended himself, and from which he was carried off to the Tower. There, in Lincoln's Inn fields, Thomas Babington and his party died for high treason, and there Russell died. And just up here is Smithfield. It is all over, the record of violence, intolerance, and brutality. It meets you at every turn.' 'It is only what would be in any other place as old as London,' said Mrs. Dallas. 'In old times people were rough, of course, but they were rough everywhere.' 'I was thinking'— said Miss Frere. 'Mr. Dallas gives a somewhat singular justification of his liking for London.' 'Is it?' said Pitt. 'It would be singular if the violence were there now; but to read the record and look on the scene is interesting, and for me fascinating. The record is of other things too. See,—in this place Milton lived and wrote; here Franklin abode; here Charles Lamb; from an inn in this street Bishop Hooper went away to die. And so I might go on and on. At every step there is the memorial of some great man's life, or some noted man's death. And with all that, there are also the most exquisite bits of material antiquity. Old picturesque houses; old crypts of former churches, over which stands now a modern representative of the name; old monuments many; old doorways, and courts, and corners, and gateways. Come over to London, and I will take you down into the crypt of St. Paul's, and show you how history is presented to you there.' 'The crypt?' said Miss Frere, doubting somewhat of this invitation. 'Yes, the old monuments are in the crypt.' 'My dear,' said Mrs. Dallas, 'I do not understand how all these things you have been talking about should have so much charm for you. I should think the newer and handsomer parts of the city, the parks and the gardens, and the fine squares, would be a great deal more agreeable.' 'To live in, mother.' 'And don't you go to the British Museum, and to the Tower, and to Hyde Park?' 'I have been there hundreds of times.' 'And like these old corners still?' 'I am very fond of the Museum.' 'There is nothing like that is this country,' said Mrs. Dallas, with an accent of satisfaction. <div style="break-after:column;"></div>

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