Pride and Principle CHAPTER 7.
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"It seems that we are going to lose Helen Pimlico, just as we have become so well acquainted with her as to admire her for her elevated character and simple manners, and love her for her purity of heart," Mrs. Glanville said, one evening, after the tea things had been removed, and the family had assembled for social fellowship.
"How so?" asked her son Albert in a voice that betrayed some surprise and disappointment, and a good deal of interest.
"Mrs. Goodwin called today, and mentioned that Helen was going to return with her and spend a few months in Bolton," replied Mrs. Glanville.
"I wish her aunt were her mother," Albert said, half to himself, yet aloud.
"Why so, my son?"
The young man looked up with a slight air of confusion into his mother's face, and said,
"Because, her aunt is a real lady, while her mother is only one in appearance, and not always even in that, as much parade and pretension as she makes."
"But what has that to do with Helen?" asked Mrs. Glanville, looking steadily at her son.
"Oh! as to that it's a pity for any young lady, not to have a true gentlewoman for a mother, that is all," Albert returned, smiling with recovered ease and self-possession.
"So I think myself," Mr. Glanville remarked. "But a good aunt is an excellent substitute in the case, especially if a niece has the privilege of residing with her, even for a short period. I am glad Helen is going home with her aunt, even if we do lose the pleasure of her society. She is better with Mrs. Goodwin than with her mother."
"Perhaps so," was the rather absent reply of Albert Glanville, who had thought a good deal more about Helen in the last few weeks, than he cared that anyone should know.
Mr. and Mrs. Glanville exchanged quiet, intelligent glances with each other, and then changed the theme of conversation.
On the afternoon of the next day, Albert Glanville went into his mother's room, and seating himself by her side, asked, in a voice intended to be careless and unconcerned, but which, nevertheless, was far enough from being so,
"What do you think of Helen Pimlico, mother?"
"Why do you ask, my son? Or rather, in what that respects her, do you wish my opinion?"
"O, of nothing particular. But what is your general opinion of her character? Do you think well of her? But I needn't ask that, for I know you do. What, then, do you I mean that is--"
"Nonsense, Albert! Speak out like a man."
"Well, then, to speak out like a man, as you say--I have taken quite a fancy to Helen. What do you think of that?"
"I can't say that I much wonder at it. Everybody is pleased with her, and it would be a little strange if you formed the exception."
"But I am particularly pleased with her. That is, pleased with her in a particular way."
"Are you indeed!" Mrs. Glanville said, with a smile that set the young man's heart at rest as far as she was concerned. "But, are you not aware," she resumed, with affected seriousness, "that Helen is not the pink of good-breeding? that she betrays, at times, the fact that she has a warm and generous heart?"
"I am well aware of that defect, or peculiar merit, just as you please to consider it. She certainly is not quite so high-bred as her mother; but as society is fast degenerating in this respect, it won't matter a great deal. Her lack of true polish will not attract very marked notice. Seriously, however, I wish to consult with you, as my mother, in regard to Helen. I have never seen anyone whose character has so pleased me; nor anyone whose person and accomplishments so won my admiration. There is something so pure about her feelings, and something so chaste and appropriate in all she says and does, that I never meet her without being charmed. Tell me, then, in a word, how you would like to have her for a daughter-in-law?"
"Then you are really serious in this matter?"
"I am indeed."
"I know of no reason, my son," Mrs. Glanville said, "why I should make the slightest opposition, so far as Helen is concerned. I love her already almost as tenderly as if she were my daughter. Her mother, however, does not please my fancy, altogether. Her outrageous violation of true lady-like conduct in the case of Lizzy Malcolm and her sister, I can neither forget nor forgive."
"I have thought of all that," replied Albert, "and found it hard to get over. But it seems to me scarcely right to visit the mother's sins upon the child."
"It certainly is not. And if you are willing to tolerate Mrs. Pimlico, I, of course, ought not to object. But Helen is going to leave us, as you are aware, in a day or two."
"I know that. And this is why I have introduced the subject to you just at this time."
"Do you wish to prevent her going?"
Albert paused some time before he replied. He then said,
"No I believe I do not care to do so. I will let her go, and then think more seriously of the matter. If my mind retains its present preference, I will write to her, and thus ascertain how far my regard is reciprocated."
Mrs. Glanville fully approved this course.
"In her aunt," she said, "she has a perfect pattern. You need have no fear for her, while under the roof of Mrs. Goodwin. Indeed, seeing that matters have taken this turn, I cannot but feel glad that Helen is going to spend a few months with her. She is just now at that age when her habits and principles are beginning to harden into permanent forms. The molding hand of Mrs. Goodwin, will be everything to her."
"You are right," the young man returned. "Let her go. It will be best for her in any event."
A few days afterwards, Helen parted with her father and mother--and went back with her aunt. To the father, this was a strong trial. The short period that had elapsed since his daughter's return, after having completed her course of instruction, had served to make him better acquainted with her character, and the affectionate sweetness of her disposition, than he had ever been. But he was a man of sense, and saw that his wife was not the one to bring to a healthy maturity, Helen's rapidly developing mind. In Mrs. Goodwin he had full confidence; and for the sake of his child, he was willing to make some temporary sacrifices. As for Mrs. Pimlico, she deemed all hope of making an impression upon young Glanville at an end. Helen, she could not conceal from herself, was becoming less and less refined every day, according to her standard. That calm, dignified exterior under all circumstances, which was so essential to a well-bred woman, it was too lamentably apparent, Helen did not possess. She had feelings, and what was more, let those feelings too often express themselves in inappropriate language. Under these circumstances, she was rather pleased than otherwise, at Mrs. Goodwin's proposition for Helen to return with her. In parting, some natural emotions were felt, but nothing in the expression of her countenance, or tone of her voice, betrayed them. She was still resolved to be a lady, even if she had, once in her life, been betrayed into the enactment of a scene.
About three weeks after Helen had become again a member of Mr. and Mrs. Goodwin's family, her uncle handed her, one evening, when he came in from his office, a letter, directed in, to her, an unknown hand. She broke the seal, and, glancing at the signature, perceived the name of Albert Glanville. A quick throb of the heart sent the blood to her cheeks, and produced a slight agitation. Perceiving that she had lost her self-possession, she arose and retired to her chamber, there to read her letter alone. Of its contents, we need say but little, except that it contained, among other things, a direct offer of marriage. Neither need we present Helen under the various aspects of a pondering, consulting, and finally consenting maiden. Matters like these are better left to the reader's imagination, who will dress them according to his or her own taste.
No less surprised was Mrs. Pimlico, a few weeks afterwards, to learn from her husband that a formal application had been made to him for the hand of their daughter, by Albert Glanville. She could hardly credit the fact. It seemed improbable that so highly polished and refined a young man could prefer Helen, of whose defects in regard to external accomplishments, no one was more conscious than herself, even if she were her mother.
But the early return of Helen, and the subsequent brilliant marriage festivities, finally expelled all doubts. And while, as a mother, she could not help feeling deeply gratified at the event, yet, as a lady, she was compelled to mourn over the melancholy declension that had taken place in regard to those high-bred customs which so palpably distinguish the true gentlewoman, from the mere upstart. Had this not been the case, a woman like Mrs Goodwin could never have eclipsed one so refined and polished as herself; nor could her conduct in the case of the Misses Malcolm have been so broadly condemned; and last, though not least, in these palpable evidences of declension, a man of Mr. Glanville's standing, polish and pretensions, would never have chosen her daughter for a wife, if a strange disregard to well-bred forms had not begun to prevail in society to an alarming extent!
All these plain indications of a change, were, to Mrs. Pimlico, sources of deep regret. As a high-bred woman, she felt her power and influence. No one possessed a more minute knowledge of social forms and fashionable life, than herself. And no one could act them out with more ease or graceful self-possession. But to act the lady from genuine good-will towards all, and in doing so, even to vary from social prescription, and know how to do so without compromising the conventional lady, was a task too hard for her. Any woman of fine feelings could, at this rate, be a lady, and that she was not prepared to admit. A lady, in her eyes, as she had often said, was something far above the woman yes, even above the Christian. There were a few who considered her a perfect exponent of her own doctrines, and not without cause, as the reader will be able to determine from what he has already seen. And now, he will, doubtless, be able to determine for himself the question PRIDE, OR PRINCIPLE, WHICH MAKES THE LADY?
THE END.
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