|
Chapter 30
MR. AND MRS. HEYWOOD`S RECEPTION of their daughter on her unexpected arrival home was greatly to their credit as sensible parents. Their surprise, when she walked in across the fields to join the family party at tea, without an escort, a trunk or advance notice of her intentions, can be readily imagined; but after their first exclamations, they were willing to listen to her explanations, which were delivered in so collected a manner as to cause more astonishment than alarm. In walking from the road, Charlotte had plenty of time to rehearse what she had to tell them; and though in everything which related to herself, she witheld nothing and spoke only the simple truth, she felt she could be forgiven for omitting both Clara Brereton and Henry Brudenall from her tale. If her parents had ever seen Clara, they might perhaps have recognised her as the beautiful and bewitching heroine of a romance, and expected her to provide them with all the entertainment of a fairy tale come to life; but even to Charlotte, who did know her, it still appeared slightly incredible that two young men should have planned to elope with her on the same day. She had very quickly reached the conclusion that Clara and Henry would only add to the complications of her own story; so she limited the account to her own uneventful trip to Hailsham, where she had driven in Lady Denham`s carriage to meet Lady Denham`s niece; and where she had been -- so strangely and unexpectedly -- abducted by Lady Denham`s nephew by marriage. Reduced to its essential elements and told with no inflated re sentation of her own first reactions of panic and anger it sounded nevertheless, a very shocking business to her sympathetic family audience. However, their Charlotte was certainly home and unharmed now, once again seated at her normal place at table, pouring out tea for her younger brothers and sisters; and her plain, unvarnished account of the villainous conduct, immoral behaviour and unprincipled selfishness she had met with seemed too far-fetched to concern her parents to any marked extent. Indeed, had it not been their own honest, straightforward Charlotte telling the story, Mr. and Mrs. Heywood could scarcely have been blamed for disbelieving it. Her daughter`s adventure was of a type Mrs. Heywood had sometimes encountered in novels set in far distant countries but would never have associated with the safe counties of England. As for Mr. Heywood, it had never previously occurred to him that such folly could have been contemplated -- much less carried out; and it was clear from his bemused questions that Sir Edward`s conduct struck him as improbable rather than dangerous. "You say this young man actually tried to abduct you in broad daylight in an open gig?" " Yes, sir. " "And drove you at walking pace within a mile of your own home?" "I hardly think he could have been aware of that fact when he chose his route, sir," said Charlotte. "He struck me from the first as not possessing a particularly strong head, so I doubt if it was ever clear to him exactly where I lived. And perhaps Sir Edward had little choice in the matter of his destination. He had been offered the use of a friend`s hunting lodge, which probably played a decisive part in his plans. I gather his own financial resources are fairly limited." Charlotte was rather amused by her attempts to apologise for Sir Edward`s woolliness. "Ah! that would explain the gig and the one horse too, agreed her father, shaking his head in amazement at such preposterous arrangements. "But it sounds quite muddle-headed to me. Very strange indeed! No money to afford such adventures either! Bless my soul! Quite extraordinary! Well, Charlotte, you have certainly shown your usual good sense and I am only sorry your holiday has ended thus abruptly. But it is only by two days. For my part I am glad to see you returned home, and you must write to Mr. and Mrs. Parker directly. It is quite likely they may be worried over your disappearance." "To be sure, as they are not so well acquainted with your character as ourselves, such a very shocking story will be bound to alarm them," agreed Mrs. Heywood comfortably. "I will write first thing in the morning," promised Charlotte; and discovering her parents had nothing further to add on the subject, she escaped to her own room to hide the attack of nerves she felt only too imminent. Her courage had remained steady throughout the events of the day and the long tense drive with Sir Edward; but despite her composure, the sensation of anti-climax in this happy conclusion to her improbable adventure gave some evidence that she was suffering symptoms of shock. Her exertions that day had been considerable, and were now beginning to depress her -- the more so from not having overpowered her at the time. She was home and she was safe; but her spirits had never been so low nor her thoughts so hopeless. After a disturbed night, Charlotte arose early to write her letter to the Parkers. She did not doubt her kind friends would be distressed to learn what had happened to her while under their care. And as she wanted to make it very clear that no shadow of blame attached itself to them, to relieve them of the anxiety they must be feeling about her, and to attempt some explanation of Sir Edward`s conduct -- which was still not very clear to herself -- her task was indeed a difficult one. She wrote and rewrote painstakingly, her mind cool and active; and it was only when she came to that paragraph in her letter, in which she thanked them for her holiday, expressed her sincere pleasure in the visit, and asked for her trunk to be returned, that her pen began to slacken and she allowed her thoughts to wander. "I will never forget Sanditon, she wrote, after long consideration, "and the summer I spent there will always remain one of my happiest memories. And discovering there were tears in her eyes, she quickly signed her name, sealed the letter hurriedly without rereading it, and leaving it on her father`s desk, escaped into the shrubbery. It was over. It was indeed only a memory. And although she walked up and down the tidy walks trying to convince herself that she could never have hoped for anything more, she sighed many times and wished the ending had been less abrupt, and that there had been a few more days to prepare herself for it. From such reflections she was aroused by her youngest sister, Margaret, calling from the lawn in high excitement. "Charlotte, where are you? Charlotte! Charlotte! are you there? Mr. Parker has come. Mr. Parker has come." Not a little distressed to hear her good friends had been so concerned about her that Mr. Parker should have found it necessary to drive all the way to Willingden to see her parents, Charlotte ran to join Margaret on the lawn and saw Mr. Parker`s carriage standing in the driveway. "Is he in the drawing room? she called, overtaking her sister on her way to the open french windows. "No, no. He was in the breakfast room. John showed him in while mama was giving me my history lesson. We were so surprised! He seemed most upset about something; and when mama told him you were here, he just said "Thank God!" and sat down in a chair for so long, without saying anything at all, that mama said she would go and find papa, leaving me all alone with him. And then -- " "Where is he now?" "I`m telling you," said Margaret very importantly. "Then he suddenly woke up out of his daze and asked where you were; and so I took him to look in the study but you weren`t there, so then he asked for papa -- " "Dear Margaret -- just tell me where he has gone now." "The second meadow behind the hayfield," said Margaret crossly. "The one the hedge-cutters are working on. I directed him round by the road but I am not so sure now papa is there this morning. If you take the path near the copse -- " But Charlotte had already run on ahead across the garden, and gathering speed down the grassy slope on the far side of it, was soon out of sight behind the small wood. Skirting this wood by a small path, she arrived at the hedge which bounded the field to the road and was rewarded by the sight of a gentleman`s hat beyond it. In her anxiety to reach Mr. Parker and beg him not to complicate her story by any mention of Miss Brereton and Mr, Brudenall, not to confuse her parents by acknowledging this successful elopement from Sanditon, she panted to a stop, rather out of breath, and called his name. The hat paused, turned and Mr. Parker seemed to be seeking the gap for a stile in the hedge. She had taken only a few more steps along the path towards it, when he must have caught sight of the opening himself, and a few strides brought him abreast of it. But to Charlotte`s very great astonishment, the head which came through the hedge belonged not to Mr. Parker but to Sidney. "Oh! But my sister said Mr. Parker had come," she said, staring at him foolishly. "I wanted to see Mr. Parker first -- before he spoke to my father. I hope they were not too upset -- how strange they must have -- no blame to them. But it was Mr. Parker`s carriage in the drive. Indeed, I thought it must have been Mr. Parker. Not you. This is -- I mean -- Dimly aware that she was speaking entirely at random, that her words had very little connection, and were making so little sense to herself that they probably conveyed none at all to him, Charlotte withdrew her fascinated gaze from Sidney Parker`s face and stared down at a point near her feet. Her thoughts became more coherent when she was no longer looking at him. Was it this Mr. Parker who had said "Thank God" and sat down in a daze without saying anything further at all? A very queer sort of breathlessness, which had nothing to do with having run so fast and so far, seemed to have constricted her throat; and the colour which had been driven from her face returned with an additional glow; but so long as she did not look at him, her mind at least remained perfectly clear. "There are other Mr. Parkers besides my brother," said Sidney and she heard him brushing against the bushes as he walked towards her. "And at ten years old, you know, it may not seem very important to make distinctions between them. I also agree it is my brother`s carriage in the driveway. His horses were quite fresh, you see; and my last pair of post horses were blown on the final stage down from London. I could not hope to exchange them for another good pair till I drove back to Hailsham." He paused after each of these trivial sentences to discover if she was yet ready to reply; and deciding she was not, went on talking in the same politely effortless manner. "And yes, Tom and my sister-in-law have certainly been concerned about you; though I did my best to convince them, during the short time I was at Trafalgar House, that the sensible Miss Heywood would very soon outwit a paltry suitor like Sir Edward." "How did they know Sir Edward had anything to do with my disappearance?" Charlotte demanded, her embarrassment momentarily overcome by surprise. She managed a fleeting glance up at him, saw that he was laughing at her, and quickly looked down again. That familiar teasing smile was more than she had powers to contend with at present. "Oh, it was most confusing at first! By the time I arrived, Lady Denham had read her two letters from Hailsham, both of which announced their writers` intentions of eloping with quite different people. She had also rushed here and there, spreading their contents around Sanditon and hearing all sorts of conflicting stories in return. Mary told her you had gone to Hailsham at Miss Brereton`s special invitation; Miss Beaufort told her you had driven off with Henry in a barouche loaded heavily with luggage; Hodges told her Sir Edward had left for Hailsham the previous day; and Saunders told her it was Miss Heywood and not Miss Brereton Sir Edward had met there. All very contradictory, as you see. It took the combined efforts of Miss Elizabeth Brereton and myself to produce any sort of order out of such chaos." "Miss Elizabeth Brereton?" exclaimed Charlotte. But how did she come to be in Sanditon?" "Well, naturally, I drove her there. I found her at the inn in Hailsham some hours after the mail coach had left her there. She was a little distressed, wondering what she should do -- whether to wait for the return mail to London or to try and hire some conveyance for Sanditon. All this because of a letter Sir Edward had written her. What a fellow he is for words -- always writing letters or making speeches! And all of them so long-winded and incomprehensible! This one was full of malice and dire warnings -- but otherwise so vague one could scarcely make head or tail of it. Never having met Sir Edward, Miss Elizabeth was in some confusion, hesitating whether to take his letter seriously and abandon her journey, or to ignore both that and the discourtesy of not being met and continue her way to Sanditon. I was soon able to convince her what nonsense it all was and explain that Sir Edward`s speeches, letters, quotations, compliments or threats would never be taken seriously by any normal person. So we continued the journey together depositing Miss Elizabeth at Sanditon House, where she has already become the prop and pivot of Lady Denham`s household." "Oh! I am so glad," Charlotte said thankfully. Even in her present agitation, she could experience some relief at this news. In addition to her other anxieties, she had not ceased to worry about her failure to carry out Clara`s plans for her cousin. "But I still do not quite understand how -- " How we could guess what really happened at Hailsham? Well once Miss Elizabeth and I had added our testimony to support Clara`s letter -- and Saunders had backed it up by describing the meeting of coach and barouche on the Hailsham road -- none of us had any difficulty in concluding Sir Edward had taken leave of his senses and attempted to console himself elsewhere. l assure you your fate is being mourned throughout Sanditon at this moment. I did my best to convince them Miss Heywood was no feeble character; and Mary agreed she was certainly more equal to dealing with such a situation than most young women would have been. But, you know, I was the only one who really believed you could rescue yourself from the clutches of our village villain." This was all spoken very lightly. But while she heard the amusement in Sidney`s voice, Charlotte was remembering Margaret`s description of his arrival in Willingden: "Mr. Parker seemed most upset about something; and when mama told him you were here -- " She had derived a delightful conviction from these words; but she felt a reluctance to repeat them to him, to look up at him or do anything at all which might make his real feelings apparent to her. And though impatient to know everything at once, she tried to be calm and leave things to take their natural course. Had she been able to encounter his eye, she might have read his sentiments for herself; but she was scarcely in a humour to wait while Sidney went on amusing himself at her expense, and went rushing into sentences she had not properly thought out. "Oh, it was all such thick-headed nonsense! I could make nothing of Sir Edward! Miss Brereton, of course, is so beautiful and romantic that I can understand why he should want to elope with her -- she is exactly the sort of heroine one can imagine something of the kind happening to -- but Sir Edward must indeed have been out of his mind in thinking that I -- I mean -- that is -- " "You feel the same thing could never happen to a sensible young woman like you?" "Certainly not," Charlotte said, the more decisively because she envied Clara the power of inspiring such illogical actions. It is most unlikely. No normal person would ever dream of such folly. Only someone as scatterbrained as Sir Edward could -- " "The devil take Sir Edward!" cried Sidney between exasperation and amusement. "It seems always my fate to be having to adjust my conduct to avoid any comparison with his. After his compliments, you never believed any of mine! And now will you ever believe that long before such an idea entered Sir Edward`s muddled head I had decided to behave exactly as he did yesterday?" "To elope with Miss Brereton? But you knew that -- " "Let us put aside Miss Brereton for the moment. My plans had nothing to do with her either. Oh, I have met many young ladies in London far more beautiful and romantic than Miss Brereton, but I have never imagined eloping with any of them. Shall I tell you the only sort of young woman who could inspire such thoughts in me?" Charlotte discovered she had lost the power of speech; but her silence seemed sufficient encouragement to Sidney. "I have always wanted to find someone with so much common sense that an elopement would not appeal to her at all. Such a thing would never enter her head, except perhaps when she was reading a romantic novel. At the very suggestion of it, all the practical objections would immediately occur -- the lack of consideration to her parents, the folly of the entire proceedings, the inconvenience of so unnecessary a journey. You see, I am a very prosaic, unromantic, sensible sort of fellow myself; and I have always had my heart set on finding the most sensible, prudent, level-headed wife in the world. But, on the other hand, it is very important to me that she possess one very particular flaw: she must have no sense whatsoever where I myself am concerned. She would only have to take one look at me and -- no matter what her steadiness of mind -- she would lose it in the space of seconds. She would be willing to elope with me -- without another thought -- the moment I asked her. This is the only way I can ever hope to be certain I have found exactly what I am looking for. If someone insists their feet are always firmly on the ground, how else can you discover if their head is sometimes in the clouds? Just lately, I have sometimes thotight I may have found what I have always wanted. But just lately I have also noticed she has developed a most irritating habit of looking at the ground whenever we are together. Do you think she could try to overcome io Well, Charlotte, are you going to look at me now ? " It was the first time he had used her name. Like the touch of his hand in the tea rooms, it made her heart begin to pound with a happiness so heady, so immediate and so violent that she could not have spoken a word. She raised her eyes to his face, however, and what she read in his was almost too wonderful for her to believe. "-Well, my Charlotte? he said again. "You know very well I could never refuse anything you asked," she replied, hardly knowing what she said. "All the same, I want you to say it," Sidney insisted, smiling down at her and holding out his hand. "Will you elope with me, instantly, without one more second`s thougho" "Yes," said Charlotte, putting her hand in his and moving towards him without realising what she did. "Even though it may turn into an abdtiction and I take you to a remote farm-house in a gig straight past your own home?" "Yes," repeated Charlotte. You know perfectly well that I will. And you have known it for weeks." "I only hoped," said Sidney modestly. "But now I am quite certain you have not a particle of common sense where I alone am concerned, let us go and find your father." "Then we are not going to elope?" "Certainly not, he said with his old commanding air of authority. "I have far too much respect for convention and decomm to consider such a ridiculous course of action. But he was heedless enough of conventions to make Charlotte very happy strolling through woods, down lanes and across fields without any attempt to discover the direction Mr. Heywood had taken with his hedge-cutters. This was an hour of such high-wrought felicity for Charlotte as made her awed to discover so perfect, exquisite and unalloyed happiness could really exist for anybody. All the little variations of their meetings and conversations were gone through, and of the progress of their attachment, there could scarcely be an end, As Charlotte could date the exact moment of her falling in love -- or, to be more precise, the exact moment of realising she had done so -- she was very interested to learn if Sidney could do the same. At first he disclaimed there had been any such moment of revelation for him, protesting it had been far too gradual a process to recognise any beginning at all. But as he had no dislike of the subject and a strong curiosity to know which particular moment held such importance for Charlotte, he had soon persuaded her to describe her sensations in the curio shop at Brinshore. "Ah, but you were miserably behind hand," he cried. "I may not be able to date a beginning but I had certainly begun long before that. The very first evening of meeting, when you rebuked me so very correctly for my levity, I was struck by the firmness of your opinions and caught by their sincerity. And I distinctly remember the first time I had an overwhelming desire to take you in my arms -- we were sitting on a green bench on the Terrace with Miss Beaufort in between us. And though you always refused to believe it, I did arrange the seating on the drive to Brinshore to have four hours of your company. There were, of course, several other motives to combine as well; but the balance was certainly in your favour. These details were of absorbing interest to Charlotte; and the dread of being awakened from the happiest of dreams made her stifle any objections and any inconsistencies which occurred to her, and allow Sidney to have all his own way, quite unchallenged. "And I can date another precise moment too," he added triumphantly. "When you told me you disapproved of elopements, I made up my mind I would make you consent to elope with me within a month." But Sidney`s final assurance that his main purpose in attending the Assembly was to dance with her finally strained Charlotte`s credulity to such an extent that she blushed, disclaimed and openly doubted. She absolutely refused to believe him, murmuring something incoherent about delivering Clara Brereton`s new trunk. "As if I could not have arranged some other way of sending that trunk down to her!" cried Sidney scornfully. "And surely my manner to you that day must have made my feelings plain though? I told you -- I distinctly remember it -- that I had driven all the way from London only to dance with you, that I had missed you all the week. It was you who made me pause in my madness and decide I was proceeding too quickly for you to keep pace with me." "I thought you were only paying me compliments to tease your sister Diana," Charlotte confessed. "But Diana was not there when I paid you compliments." "She was there when you held my hand in the tea rooms." "Oh yes -- I scarcely noticed her at first. But she was quite determined to get in the way. The complications she introduced for the rest of the day! I could see her prying and gossiping was making you uncomfortable; and though my original plan had been to seek out some opportunity that day to put my proposals and offer you my hand and my heart, between them my maddening relations certainly succeeded in turning it all upside down. Diana upsetting Mary by telling her I was paying you too much attention! Tom demanding an explanation of my conduct -- and when I satisfied him with one, what must he do but immediately go repeating the nonsense to you! Oh, I could see you were never going to take me seriously once Tom had got in first with that rigmarole about Henry`s cousin`s wedding day! I knew that would make you doubt I had meant anything I said to you! I realised then that I had bungled the whole business; and that I would have to restrain my impatience and try again another time." How I wish I could have known what was in your mind!" sighed Charlotte. "It seemed to me you were only ashamed of your behaviour in the tea rooms and trying to part with me on friendly terms." "To paro Surely you could not have misconstrued my meaning to that exteno At least I told you at the Assembly that I wanted to take you fully into my confidence. I begged you never to believe anything my family said about me; and I apologised for causing you such embarrassment. What more could I do then? I hoped I was making the situation plain to you and preparing my way for taking a second chance." "I thought you were merely being kind," said Charlotte, "Treating me as a friend and making it clear you never wished to be anything more." Sidney could only repeat that he had long wished for a great deal more; and he now made this so clear that Charlotte had no more excuse for doubts. But she was still encouraging him to repeat such very satisfactory explanations when Mr. Heywood found them. On being applied to by Sidney for permission to marry his daughter, Mr. Heywood gave his most willing consent. The good sense and good manners of his future son-in-law were immediately apparent to him: he could see at a glance he was not a young man who would go about abducting females in gigs. Sidney`s sincere regard for his daughter and his steady principles were self-evident recommendations; and Mr. Heywood was confident this judgement would be confirmed by further acquaintance with him. But for the moment, Sidney could not stay in Willingden as long as he would have liked. The Parkers were anxiously awaiting news of Charlotte; and he felt he should drive to and from Sanditon yet again before accepting the Heywoods` pressing invitation to remain as their guest. When he returned, he brought back all the warmest wishes of his family; for though he had stayed only the one night in Sanditon, he had been energetic enough in his calls to collect congratulations for himself and messages for Charlotte from both relations and friends. The joy with which Adela received the information that she and Charlotte were to be sisters perhaps surpassed all the rest. She wrote five pages expressing her delight and decorating the margins with sketches of shells and seaweed. This made some amends for the empty professions and insipid sentences of the Miss Beauforts, who could not quite disguise their astonishment that the staid and sensible Charlotte had walked off with the most eligible bachelor of the season under their elegant and disdainful noses. Even Lady Denham sent a kindly greeting and a downright condemnation of her nephew`s folly. Sir Edward had sunk himself indeed with Lady Denham -- to the point where she would no longer allow even his sister to be admitted to Sanditon House; and the news of Sidney Parker`s engagement to Miss Heywood affected her only as it gave gleeful satisfaction for the setback it would be to Miss Esther and the chagrin it might cause her brother, when she wrote to him at his friend Atwell`s hunting lodge. Sir Edward, Lady Denham trusted, was now experiencing the first labour pains of common sense and would never again allow his conceit to undermine his morality. It was not possible that the outcome of this one disastrous adventure could turn him, overnight, into a well-judging, rational unselfish creature for the rest of his life, but some improvement was inevitable. Removed for some time from the influence of each other, both he and his sister improved in temper; and though their real characters underwent no revolution, they at least learned to hide them more successfully from others. Miss Parker and Miss Diana decided their constitutions had weathered a summer in Sanditon in rather more robust style than they had ever imagined; and they soon began making plans to remove themselves there for good: to be close enough to the rest of the family to interfere in all their concerns, and to provide themselves with a receptive audience for all their nervous spasms. They tried to persuade Sidney to settle there with Charlotte, but he was easily able to evade that suggestion, and would never promise more than the occasional visit they were both happy to make every summer. For although Charlotte knew Sidney could only have lived in London, she had a great attachment to Sanditon, which held so many fond memories and good friends. Sanditon itself, to the greater comfort of most of its inhabitants and all of its summer visitors, never prospered into the smart seaside resort Lady Denham and Mr. Parker had wished to make it. An Esplanade, a Waterloo Crescent and even a Wellington Square were added in time, a few more visitors came each year, but it retained its peaceful, secluded character long after the introduction of Sidney`s gaslight, which his brother resisted as a vulgar outrage for as long as he possibly could.
|
