Lord Kilgobbin

A SMALL DINNER-PARTY

It is sad to have to record that all Kate’s persuasions with her cousin, all her own earnest attempts at conciliation, and her ably-planned schemes to escape a difficulty, were only so much labour lost. A stern message from her father commanded her to make no change either in the house or the service of the dinner – an interference with domestic cares so novel on his part as to show that he had prepared himself for hostilities, and was resolved to meet his enemy boldly.

‘It’s no use, all I have been telling you, Nina,’ said Kate, as she re-entered her room, later in the day. ‘Papa orders me to have everything as usual, and won’t even let me give Miss Betty an early dinner, though he knows she has nine miles of a ride to reach home.’

‘That explains somewhat a message he has sent myself,’ replied Nina, ‘to wear my very prettiest toilet and my Greek cap, which he admired so much the other day.’

‘I am almost glad that my wardrobe has nothing attractive,’ said Kate, half sadly. ‘I certainly shall never be rebuked for my becomingness.’

‘And do you mean to say that the old woman would be rude enough to extend her comments to me?’

‘I have known her do things quite as hardy, though I hope on the present occasion the other novelties may shelter you.’

‘Why isn’t your brother here? I should insist on his coming down in discreet black, with a white tie and that look of imposing solemnity young Englishmen assume for dinner.’

‘Dick guessed what was coming, and would not encounter it.’

‘And yet you tell me you submit to all this for no earthly reason. She can leave you no legacy, contribute in no way to your benefit. She has neither family, fortune, nor connections; and, except her atrocious manners and her indomitable temper, there is not a trait of her that claims to be recorded.’

‘Oh yes; she rides capitally to hounds, and hunts her own harriers to perfection.’

‘I am glad she has one quality that deserves your favour.’

‘She has others, too, which I like better than what they call accomplishments. She is very kind to the poor, never deterred by any sickness from visiting them, and has the same stout-hearted courage for every casualty in life.’

‘A commendable gift for a squaw, but what does a gentlewoman want with this same courage?’

‘Look out of the window, Nina, and see where you are living! Throw your eyes over that great expanse of dark bog, vast as one of the great campagnas you have often described to us, and bethink you how mere loneliness – desolation – needs a stout heart to bear it; how the simple fact that for the long hours of a summer’s day, or the longer hours of a winter’s night, a lone woman has to watch and think of all the possible casualties lives of hardship and misery may impel men to. Do you imagine that she does not mark the growing discontent of the people? see their careworn looks, dashed with a sullen determination, and hear in their voices the rising of a hoarse defiance that was never heard before? Does she not well know that every kindness she has bestowed, every merciful act she has ministered, would weigh for nothing in the balance on the day that she will be arraigned as a landowner – the receiver of the poor man’s rent! And will you tell me after this she can dispense with courage?’

‘Bel paese davvero!’ muttered the other.

‘So it is,’ cried Kate; ‘with all its faults I’d not exchange it for the brightest land that ever glittered in a southern sun. But why should I tell you how jarred and disconcerted we are by laws that have no reference to our ways – conferring rights where we were once contented with trustfulness, and teaching men to do everything by contract, and nothing by affection, nothing by good-will.’

‘No, no, tell me none of all these; but tell me, shall I come down in my Suliote jacket of yellow cloth, for I know it becomes me?’

‘And if we women had not courage,’ went on Kate, not heeding the question, ‘what would our men do? Should we see them lead lives of bolder daring than the stoutest wanderer in Africa?’

‘And my jacket and my Theban belt?’

‘Wear them all. Be as beautiful as you like, but don’t be late for dinner.’ And Kate hurried away before the other could speak.

When Miss O’Shea, arrayed in a scarlet poplin and a yellow gauze turban – the month being August – arrived in the drawing-room before dinner, she found no one there – a circumstance that chagrined her so far that she had hurried her toilet and torn one of her gloves in her haste. ‘When they say six for the dinner-hour, they might surely be in the drawing-room by that hour,’ was Miss Betty’s reflection as she turned over some of the magazines and circulating-library books which since Nina’s arrival had found their way to Kilgobbin. The contemptuous manner in which she treated Blackwood and Macmillan, and the indignant dash with which she flung Trollope’s last novel down, showed that she had not been yet corrupted by the light reading of the age. An unopened country newspaper, addressed to the Viscount Kilgobbin, had however absorbed all her attention, and she was more than half disposed to possess herself of the envelope, when Mr. Kearney entered.

His bright blue coat and white waistcoat, a profusion of shirt-frill, and a voluminous cravat proclaimed dinner-dress, and a certain pomposity of manner showed how an unusual costume had imposed on himself, and suggested an important event.

‘I hope I see Miss O’Shea in good health?’ said he, advancing.

‘How are you, Mathew?’ replied she dryly. ‘When I heard that big bell thundering away, I was so afraid to be late that I came down with one bracelet, and I have torn my glove too.’

‘It was only the first bell – the dressing-bell,’ he said.

‘Humph! That’s something new since I was here last,’ said she tartly.

‘You remind me of how long it is since you dined with us, Miss O’Shea.’

‘Well, indeed, Mathew, I meant to be longer, if I must tell the truth. I saw enough the last day I lunched here to show me Kilgobbin was not what it used to be. You were all of you what my poor father – who was always thinking of the dogs – used to call “on your hind-legs,” walking about very stately and very miserable. There were three or four covered dishes on the table that nobody tasted; and an old man in red breeches ran about in half-distraction, and said, “Sherry, my lord, or Madeira?” Many’s the time I laughed over it since.’ And, as though to vouch for the truth of the mirthfulness, she lay back in her chair and shook with hearty laughter.

Before Kearney could reply – for something like a passing apoplexy had arrested his words – the girls entered, and made their salutations.

‘If I had the honour of knowing you longer, Miss Costigan,’ said Miss O’Shea – for it was thus she translated the name Kostalergi – ‘I’d ask you why you couldn’t dress like your cousin Kate. It may be all very well in the house, and it’s safe enough here, there’s no denying it; but my name’s not Betty if you’d walk down Kilbeggan without a crowd yelling after you and calling names too, that a respectable young woman wouldn’t bargain for; eh, Mathew, is that true?’

‘There’s the dinner-bell now,’ said Mathew; ‘may I offer my arm?’

‘It’s thin enough that arm is getting, Mathew Kearney,’ said she, as he walked along at her side. ‘Not but it’s time, too. You were born in the September of 1809, though your mother used to deny it; and you’re now a year older than your father was when he died.’

‘Will you take this place?’ said Kearney, placing her chair for her. ‘We ‘re a small party to-day. I see Dick does not dine with us.’

‘Maybe I hunted him away. The young gentlemen of the present day are frank enough to say what they think of old maids. That’s very elegant, and I’m sure it’s refined,’ said she, pointing to the mass of fruit and flowers so tastefully arranged before her. ‘But I was born in a time when people liked to see what they were going to eat, Mathew Kearney, and as I don’t intend to break my fast on a stockgilly-flower, or make a repast of raisins, I prefer the old way. Fill up my glass whenever it’s empty,’ said she to the servant, ‘and don’t bother me with the name of it. As long as I know the King’s County, and that’s more than fifty years, we’ve been calling Cape Madeira, Sherry!’

‘If we know what we are drinking, Miss O’Shea, I don’t suppose it matters much.’

‘Nothing at all, Mathew. Calling you the Viscount Kilgobbin, as I read a while ago, won’t confuse me about an old neighbour.’

‘Won’t you try a cutlet, godmother?’ asked Kate hurriedly.

‘Indeed I will, my dear. I don’t know why I was sending the man away. I never saw this way of dining before, except at the poorhouse, where each poor creature has his plateful given him, and pockets what he can’t eat.’ And here she laughed long and heartily at the conceit.

Kearney’s good-humour relished the absurdity, and he joined in the laugh, while Nina stared at the old woman as an object of dread and terror.

‘And that boy that wouldn’t dine with us. How is he turning out, Mathew? They tell me he’s a bit of a scamp.’

‘He’s no such thing, godmother. Dick is as good a fellow and as right-minded as ever lived, and you yourself would be the first to say it if you saw him,’ cried Kate angrily.

‘So would the young lady yonder, if I might judge from her blushes,’ said Miss Betty, looking at Nina. ‘Not indeed but it’s only now I’m remembering that you’re not a boy. That little red cap and that thing you wear round your throat deceived me.’

‘It is not the lot of every one to be so fortunate in a head-dress as Miss O’Shea,’ said Nina, very calmly.

‘If it’s my wig you are envying me, my dear,’ replied she quietly, ‘there’s nothing easier than to have the own brother of it. It was made by Crimp, of Nassau Street, and box and all cost four pound twelve.’

‘Upon my life, Miss Betty,’ broke in Kearney, ‘you are tempting me to an extravagance.’ And he passed his hand over his sparsely-covered head as he spoke.

‘And I would not, if I was you, Mathew Kearney,’ said she resolutely. ‘They tell me that in that House of Lords you are going to, more than half of them are bald.’

There was no possible doubt that she meant by this speech to deliver a challenge, and Kate’s look, at once imploring and sorrowful, appealed to her for mercy.

‘No, thank you,’ said Miss Betty to the servant who presented a dish, ‘though, indeed, maybe I’m wrong, for I don’t know what’s coming.’

‘This is the menu,’ said Nina, handing a card to her.