Gryll Grange

GRYLL GRANGE

Morgana. Then you may say, I have fallen in love; very irrationally – (he was about to exclaim, but she placed her finger on her lips) – very irrationally; but I cannot help it. I fear I must yield to my destiny. I will try to free myself from all obstacles; I will, if I can, offer my hand where I have given my heart. And this I will do, if I ever do, at the end of four times seven days: if not then, never.

She placed her finger on her lips again, and immediately left the room, having first pointed to a passage in the open pages of Orlando Innamorato. She was gone before he was aware that she was going; but he turned to the book, and read the indicated passage. It was a part of the continuation of Orlando's adventure in the enchanted garden, when, himself pursued and scourged by La Penitenza, he was pursuing the Fata Morgana over rugged rocks and through briery thickets.

CosI diceva. Con molta rovina

Sempre seguia Morgana il cavalliero:

Fiacca ognI bronco ed ognI mala spina,

Lasciando dietro a se largo il sentiero:

Ed a la Fata molto s' avicina

E già d' averla presa è il suo pensiero:

Ma quel pensiero è ben fallace e vano,

Pera che presa anchor scappa dI mano.

O quante volte glI dette dI piglio,

Hora ne' pannI ed hor nella persona:

Ma il vestimento, ch* è bianco e vermiglio,

Ne la speranza presto 1' abbandona:

Pur una fiata rivoltando il ciglio,

Come Dio volse e la ventura buona,

Volgendo il viso quella Fata al Conte

El ben la prese al zuffo ne la fronte.

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Allor cangiosse il tempo, e l' aria scura

Divenne chiara, e il ciel tutto sereno,

E aspro monte sI fece pianura;

E dove prima fa dI spine pteno,

Se coperse de fiorI e de verdura:

E Uagedar dell' altra veni

La qual, con miglior viio che non mole,

Verso del Conte usava tel parole.

Attend, cavalliero, a quella ctitama....74

'She must have anticipated my coming,' said the young gentleman to himself. 'She had opened the book at this passage, and has left it to say to me for her – Choose between love and repentance. Four times seven days! That is to ensure calm for the Christmas holidays. The term will pass over Twelfth Night. The lovers of old romance were subjected to a probation of seven years: –

Seven long years I served thee, fair one,

Seven long years my fee was scorn.

'But here, perhaps, the case is reversed. She may have feared a probation of seven years for herself; and not without reason. And what have I to expect if I let the four times seven days pass by? Why, then, I can read in her looks – and they are interpreted in the verses before me – I am assigned to repentance, without the hope of a third opportunity. She is not without a leaning towards Lord Curryfin.

She thinks he is passing from her, and on the twenty-ninth day, or perhaps in the meantime, she will try to regain him. Of course she will succeed. What rivalry could stand against her? If her power over him is lessened, it is that she has not chosen to exert it She has but to will it, and he is again her slave.

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CHAPTER XXV

HARRY AND DOROTHY (GREEK PASSAGE)

HUMERUS IN ODYSSEA

The youthful suitors, playing each his part,

Stirred pleasing tumult in each fair one's heart.

Adapted – not translated

Harry Hedgerow had found means on several occasions of delivering farm and forest produce at the Tower, to introduce his six friends to the sisters, giving all the young men in turn to understand that they must not think of Miss Dorothy; an injunction which, in the ordinary perverse course of events, might have led them all to think of no one else, and produced a complication very disagreeable for their introducer. It was not so, however. 'The beauty of it,' as Harry said to the reverend doctor, was that each had found a distinct favourite among the seven vestals. They had not, however, gone beyond giving pretty intelligible hints. They had not decidedly ventured to declare or propose. They left it to Harry to prosecute his suit to Miss Dorothy, purposing to step in on the rear of his success. They had severally the satisfaction of being assured by various handsome young gipsies, whose hands they had crossed with lucky shillings, that each of

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them was in love with a fair young woman, who was quite as much in love with him, and whom he would certainly marry before twelve months were over. And they went on their way rejoicing.

Now Harry was indefatigable in his suit, which he had unbounded liberty to plead; for Dorothy always listened to him complacently, though without departing from the answer she had originally given, that she and her sisters would not part with each other and their young master.

The sisters had not attached much importance to Mr. Falconer's absences; for on every occasion of his return the predominant feeling he had seemed to express was that of extreme delight at being once more at home.

One day, while Mr. Falconer was at the Grange, receiving admonition from Orlando Innamorato, Harry, having the pleasure to find Dorothy alone, pressed his suit as usual, was listened to as usual, and seemed likely to terminate without being more advanced than usual, except in so far as they both found a progressive pleasure, she in listening, and he in being listened to. There was to both a growing charm in thus 'dallying with the innocence of love,' and though she always said No with her lips, he began to read Yes in her eyes.

Harry. Well, but, Miss Dorothy, though you and your sisters will not leave your young master, suppose somebody should take him away from you, what would you say then?

Dorothy. What do you mean, Master Harry?

Harry. Why, suppose he should get married, Miss Dorothy?

Dorothy. Married!

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Harry. How should you like to see a fine lady in the Tower, looking at you as much as to say, This is mine?

Dorothy. I will tell you very candidly, I should not like it at all. But what makes you think of such a thing?

Harry. You know where he is now?

Dorothy. At Squire Gryll's, rehearsing a play for Christmas. Harry. And Squire Gryll's niece is a great beauty, and

a great fortune.

Dorothy. Squire Gryll's niece was here, and my sisters and myself saw a great deal of her. She is a very nice young lady; but he has seen great beauties and great fortunes before; he has always been indifferent to the beauties, and he does not care about fortune. I am sure he would not like to change his mode of life.

Harry. Ah, Miss Dorothy! you don't know what it is to fall in love. It tears a man up by the roots, like a gale of wind.

Dorothy. Is that your case, Master Harry?

Harry. Indeed it is, Miss Dorothy. If you didn't speak kindly to me, I do not know what would become of me. But you always speak kindly to me, though you won't have me.

Dorothy. I never said won't, Master Harry.

Harry. No, but you always say can't, and that's the same as won't, so long as you don't.

Dorothy. You are a very good young man, Master Harry. Everybody speaks well of you. And I am really pleased to think you are so partial to me. And if my young master and my sisters were married, and I were disposed to follow their example, I will tell you very truly, you are the only person I should think of, Master Harry.

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CHAPTER XXVI

(GREEK PASSAGE) ALCÆUS

Bacchis! ''Tis vain to brood on care,

Since grief no remedy supplies;

Be ours the sparkling bowl to share,

And drown our sorrows as they rise.

Mr. Falconer saw no more of Miss Gryll till the party assembled in the drawing-rooms. She necessarily took the arm of Lord Curryfin for dinner, and it fell to the lot of Mr. Falconer to offer his to Miss Niphet, so that they sat at remote ends of the table, each wishing himself in the other's place; but Lord Curryfin paid all possible attention to his fair neighbour. Mr. Falconer could see that Miss Gryll's conversation with Lord Curryfin was very animated and joyous: too merry, perhaps, for love: but cordial to a degree that alarmed him. It was, however, clear by the general mirth at the head of the table, that nothing very confidential or sentimental was passing. Still, a young lady who had placed the destiny of her life on a point of brief suspense ought not to be so merry as Miss Gryll evidently was. He said little to Miss Niphet; and she, with her habit of originating nothing, sat in her normal state of statue-like placidity, listening to the conversation near her. She was on the left hand of Mr. Gryll. Miss Ilex was on his right, and on her right was the Reverend Doctor Opimian. These three kept up an

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animated dialogue. Mr. MacBorrowdale was in the middle of the table, and amused his two immediate fair neighbours with remarks appertaining to the matter immediately before them, the preparation and arrangement of a good dinner: remarks that would have done honour to Francatelli.

After a while, Mr. Falconer bethought him that he would try to draw out Miss Niphet.'s opinion on the subject nearest his heart. He said to her: 'They are very merry at the head of the table.'

Miss Niphet.. I suppose Lord Curryfin is in the vein for amusing his company, and he generally succeeds in his social purposes.

Mr. Falconer. You lay stress on social, as if you thought him not successful in all his purposes.

Miss Niphet. Not in all his inventions, for example. But in the promotion of social enjoyment he has few equals. Of course, it must be in congenial society. There is a power of being pleased, as well as a power of pleasing. With Miss Gryll and Lord Curryfin, both meet in both. No wonder that they amuse those around them.

Mr. Falconer. In whom there must also be a power of being pleased.

Miss Niphet.. Most of the guests here have it. If they had not they would scarcely be here. I have seen some dismal persons, any one of whom would be a kill-joy to a whole company. There are none such in this party. I have also seen a whole company all willing to be pleased, but all mute from not knowing what to say to each other: not knowing how to begin.

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Lord Curryfin would be a blessing to such a party. He would be the steel to their flint.

Mr. Falconer. Have you known him long? Miss Niphet.. Only since I met him here.

Mr. Falconer. Have you heard that he is a suitor to Miss Gryll?

Miss Niphet.. I have heard so.

Mr. Falconer. Should you include the probability of his being accepted in your estimate of his social successes?

Miss Niphet.. Love affairs are under influences too capricious for the calculation of probabilities.

Mr. Falconer. Yet I should be very glad to hear your opinion. You know them both so well.

Miss Niphet. I am disposed to indulge you, because I think it is not mere curiosity that makes you ask the question, Otherwise I should not be inclined to answer it, I do not think he will ever be the affianced lover of Morgana. Perhaps he might have been if he had persevered as he began. But he has been used to smiling audiences. He did not find the exact reciprocity he looked for. He fancied that it was, or would be, for another, I believe he was right.

Mr. Falconer. Yet you think he might have succeeded if he had persevered.

Miss Niphet. I can scarcely think otherwise, seeing how much he has to recommend him.

Mr. Falconer. But he has not withdrawn.

Miss Nipket. No, and will not. But she is too high-minded to hold him to a proposal not followed up as it commenced even if she had not turned her thoughts elsewhere.

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