第50章 SQUIRE PETRICK'S LADY(4)

But he could hardly believe it possible;and,thinking it best to be frank with the doctor,told him the whole story which,till now,he had never related to living man,save his dying grandfather.To his surprise,the physician informed him that such a form of delusion was precisely what he would have expected from Annetta's antecedents at such a physical crisis in her life.

Petrick prosecuted his inquiries elsewhere;and the upshot of his labours was,briefly,that a comparison of dates and places showed irrefutably that his poor wife's assertion could not possibly have foundation in fact.The young Marquis of her tender passion--a highly moral and bright-minded nobleman--had gone abroad the year before Annetta's marriage,and had not returned till after her death.The young girl's love for him had been a delicate ideal dream--no more.

Timothy went home,and the boy ran out to meet him;whereupon a strangely dismal feeling of discontent took possession of his soul.

After all,then,there was nothing but plebeian blood in the veins of the heir to his name and estates;he was not to be succeeded by a noble-natured line.To be sure,Rupert was his son;but that glory and halo he believed him to have inherited from the ages,outshining that of his brother's children,had departed from Rupert's brow for ever;he could no longer read history in the boy's face,and centuries of domination in his eyes.

His manner towards his son grew colder and colder from that day forward;and it was with bitterness of heart that he discerned the characteristic features of the Petricks unfolding themselves by degrees.Instead of the elegant knife-edged nose,so typical of the Dukes of Southwesterland,there began to appear on his face the broad nostril and hollow bridge of his grandfather Timothy.No illustrious line of politicians was promised a continuator in that graying blue eye,for it was acquiring the expression of the orb of a particularly objectionable cousin of his own;and,instead of the mouth-curves which had thrilled Parliamentary audiences in speeches now bound in calf in every well-ordered library,there was the bull-lip of that very uncle of his who had had the misfortune with the signature of a gentleman's will,and had been transported for life in consequence.

To think how he himself,too,had sinned in this same matter of a will for this mere fleshly reproduction of a wretched old uncle whose very name he wished to forget!The boy's Christian name,even,was an imposture and an irony,for it implied hereditary force and brilliancy to which he plainly would never attain.The consolation of real sonship was always left him certainly;but he could not help groaning to himself,'Why cannot a son be one's own and somebody else's likewise!'

The Marquis was shortly afterwards in the neighbourhood of Stapleford,and Timothy Petrick met him,and eyed his noble countenance admiringly.The next day,when Petrick was in his study,somebody knocked at the door.

'Who's there?'

'Rupert.'

'I'll Rupert thee,you young impostor!Say,only a poor commonplace Petrick!'his father grunted.'Why didn't you have a voice like the Marquis's I saw yesterday?'he continued,as the lad came in.'Why haven't you his looks,and a way of commanding,as if you'd done it for centuries--hey?'

'Why?How can you expect it,father,when I'm not related to him?'

'Ugh!Then you ought to be!'growled his father.

As the narrator paused,the surgeon,the Colonel,the historian,the Spark,and others exclaimed that such subtle and instructive psychological studies as this (now that psychology was so much in demand)were precisely the tales they desired,as members of a scientific club,and begged the master-maltster to tell another curious mental delusion.

The maltster shook his head,and feared he was not genteel enough to tell another story with a sufficiently moral tone in it to suit the club;he would prefer to leave the next to a better man.

The Colonel had fallen into reflection.True it was,he observed,that the more dreamy and impulsive nature of woman engendered within her erratic fancies,which often started her on strange tracks,only to abandon them in sharp revulsion at the dictates of her common sense--sometimes with ludicrous effect.Events which had caused a lady's action to set in a particular direction might continue to enforce the same line of conduct,while she,like a mangle,would start on a sudden in a contrary course,and end where she began.

The Vice-President laughed,and applauded the Colonel,adding that there surely lurked a story somewhere behind that sentiment,if he were not much mistaken.

The Colonel fixed his face to a good narrative pose,and went on without further preamble.