menu_book Chapter 53

recording by bob strigley charlottesville virginia u s a is he pulpenjoy by anthony trollop chapter fifty three poor pulpenjoy on the following morning the party at rudham park were assembled at breakfast between ten and eleven it was understood that the marquis was gone or going the mildmaynes were still there with the baroness and the huttons and the black influx from the cathedral town and few other new-comers had arrived on the previous day mr grosschute who was sitting next to the canon had declared his opinion that after all the marquis of brotherton was a very affable nobleman he's civil enough said the canon when people do just what he wants a man of his rank and position of course expects to have some deference paid to him a man of his rank and position should be very careful of the rights of others mr i'm afraid his brother did make himself troublesome you're one of the family canon and therefore of course know all about it i know nothing at all about it mr groschart but it must be acknowledged that the dean behaved very badly

violence violence personal violence and from a clergyman to a man of his rank you probably don't know what took place in that room i'm sure i don't but i'd rather trust the dean than the marquis any day the dean's a man but is he a clergyman of course he is and a father if he had been very much in the wrong we should have heard more about it through the police i cannot absolve a clergyman for using personal violence said mr grosschut very grandly he should have borne anything sooner than degrade his sacred calling mr groschut had hoped to extract from the canon some expression adverse to the dean and to be able to assure himself that he had enrolled a new ally poor dear little fellow aunt ju was saying to mrs holdenau of course she was talking of popenjoy and you never saw him no i never saw him i am told he was a lovely child very dark i fancy and all those those doubts they're all over now i never knew much about it miss mildmay i never inquired into it for myself i always took it for granted that he was popenjoy i think one always does take things for granted till somebody proves that it is not so

the dean i take it has given it up altogether said mrs houghton to old lady brabazon who had come down especially to meet her nephew the marquis but who had hardly dared to speak a word to him on the previous evening and was now told that he was gone lady brabazon for a week or two had been quite sure that popenjoy was not popenjoy being at that time under the influence of a very strong letter from lady sarah but since that a general idea had come to prevail that the dean was wrong-headed and lady brabazon had given in her adhesion to popenjoy she had gone so far as to call at skomberg's and to leave a box of bonbons i hope so mrs houghton i do hope so quarrels are such dreadful things in families brotherton isn't perhaps all that he might have been not a bad fellow though after all by no means mrs houghton and quite what he ought to be in appearance i always thought that george was very foolish lord george is foolish sometimes

very stubborn you know and pig-headed and as for the dean it was great interference on his part very great interference i won't say that i like foreigners myself i should be very sorry if brabazon were to marry a foreigner but if he chooses to do so i don't see why he is to be told that his heir isn't his heir they say she is a very worthy woman and devoted to him at this moment the butler came in and whispered a word to mr de baron who immediately got up from his chair so my nephew hasn't gone said lady brabazon that was a message from him i heard his name her ears had been correct the summons which mr de baron obeyed had come from the marquis he went upstairs at once and found lord brotherton sitting in his dressing-gown with a cup of chocolate before him and a bit of paper in his hand he did not say a word but handed the paper which was a telegram to mr de baron as the message was in italian and as mr de baron did not read the language he was at a loss

ah you don't understand it said the marquis give it me it's all over with little popenjoy dead said mr de baron yes he has got away from all his troubles lucky dog he'll never have to think what he'll do with himself they'd almost told me that it must be so before he went i grieve for you greatly brotherton there's no use in that old fellow i'm sorry to be a bother to you but i thought it best to tell you i don't understand much about what people call grief i can't say that i was particularly fond of him or that i shall personally miss him they hardly ever brought him to me and when they did it bothered me and yet somehow it pinches me it pinches me of course it does it will be a triumph to the dean and george that's about the worst of it but they haven't got it yet though i should be the most miserable dog on earth i'll go on living as long as i can keep my body and soul together i'll have another son yet if one is to be had for love or money they shall have trouble enough before they find themselves at manor cross nadine'll be dead before that time and so shall i said mr de baron poor little boy you never saw him they didn't bring him in when you were over at manor cross

no i didn't see him they weren't very proud of showing him he wasn't much to look at upon my soul i don't know whether he was legitimate or not according to english fashions mr de baron stared they had something to stand upon but dammit they went about it in such a dirty way it don't matter now you know but you needn't repeat all this not a word said mr de baron wondering why such a communication should have been made to him and there was plenty of ground for a good fight i hardly know whether she had been married or not i never could quite find out again mr de baron stared it's all over now but if you were to have another son oh we're married now there were two ceremonies i believe the dean knows quite as much about it as i do very likely more what a rumpus there has been about a rickety brat who was bound to die am i to tell them downstairs yes you might as well tell them wait till i'm gone they'd say i'd concealed it if i didn't let them know and i certainly shan't write there's no popenjoy now if that young woman has a son he can't be popenjoy as long as i live

i'll take care of myself by george i will fancy if the dean had killed me he'd have made his own daughter a march inness but he'd have been hung then i wish you'd done it i wonder how it would have gone there was nobody there to see nor to hear well i believe i'll think of going there's a train at two you'll let me have a carriage won't you certainly let me get out some back way and don't say a word about this till i'm off i wouldn't have them condoling with me and rejoicing in their sleeves for a thousand pounds tell hoda now or my sister that'll be enough good-bye if you ever want to see me again you must come to como then mr de baron took his leave and the marquis prepared for his departure as he was stepping into the carriage at a side door he was greeted by mr so your lordship is leaving us said the chaplain the marquis looked at him muttered something and snarled as he hurried up the step of the carriage i'm sorry that we are to lose your lordship so soon then there was another snarl i had one word i wanted to say

to me what can you have to say to me if at any time i can do anything for your lordship at brotherton you can't do anything go on the last direction was given to the coachman and the carriage was driven off leaving mr grosschute on the path before lunch everybody in the house knew that poor little popenjoy was dead and that the dean had in fact won the battle though not in the way that he had sought to win it lord brotherton had after a fashion been popular at rudham but nevertheless it was felt by them all that lady george was a much greater woman to-day than she had been yesterday it was felt also that the dean was in the ascendant the marquis had been quite agreeable making love to the ladies and fairly civil to the gentlemen excepting mr groschut but he certainly was not a man likely to live to eighty he was married and as was generally understood separated from his wife they might all live to see lady george marchioness of brotherton and a son of hers lord popenjoy dead said lady brabazon when lady alice with sad face whispered to her the fatal news

he got a telegram this morning from italy poor little boy and what'll he do now the marquis i mean i suppose he'll follow his wife said lady alice was he much cut up i didn't see him he merely sent me word by mr de baron mr de baron afterwards assured lady brabazon that the poor father had been very much cut up great pity was expressed throughout the party but there was not one there who would not now have been civil to poor mary the marquis had his flowers and his fruit and his french novels on his way up to town and kept his sorrow if he felt it very much to himself soon after his arrival at scumberg's at which place they were obliged to take him in as he was still paying for his rooms he made it known that he should start for italy in a day or two on that night and on the next he did not go out in his brougham nor did he give any offence to mrs walker london was as empty as london ever is and nobody came to see him for two days he did not leave his room the same room in which the dean had nearly killed him and received nobody but his tailor and his hairdresser i think that in his way he did grieve for the child who was gone and who had he lived would have been the intended heir of his title and property

they must now all go from him to his enemies and the things themselves were to himself of so very little value living alone at skomberg's was not a pleasant life even going out in his brougham at nights was not very pleasant to him he could do as he liked at como and people wouldn't grumble but what was there even at como that he really liked to do he had a half-worn-out taste for scenery which he had no longer energy to gratify by variation it had been the resolution of his life to live without control and now at four-and-forty he found that the life he had chosen was utterly without attraction he had been quite in earnest in those regrets as to shooting hunting and the duties of an english country life though he was free from remorse not believing in anything good still he was open to a conviction that had he done what other people call good he would have done better for himself something of envy stirred him as he read the records of a nobleman whose political life had left him no moment of leisure for his private affairs something of envy when he heard of another whose cattle were the fattest in the land

he was connected with lord grassingrains and had always despised that well-known breeder of bullocks but he could understand now that lord grassingrains should wish to live whereas life to him was almost unbearable lord grassingrains probably had a good appetite on the last morning of his sojourn at scumberg's he received two or three letters which he would willingly have avoided by running away had it been possible the first he opened was from his old mother who had not herself troubled him much with letters for some years past it was as follows dearest brotherton i have heard about poor popenjoy and i am so unhappy darling little fellow we are all very wretched here and i have nearly cried my eyes out i hope you won't go away without seeing me if you'll let me i'll go up to london though i haven't been there for i don't know how long but perhaps you will come here to your own house i do so wish you would your most affectionate mother h brotherton p s pray don't turn george out at the end of the month this he accepted without anger as being natural but threw aside as being useless of course he would not answer it they all knew that he never answered their letters

as to the final petition he had nothing to say to it the next was from lord george and shall also be given my dear brotherton i cannot let the tidings which i have just heard pass by without expressing my sympathy i am very sorry indeed that you should have lost your son i trust you will credit me for saying so much with absolute truth yours always george germain i don't believe a word of it he said almost out loud to his thinking it was almost impossible that what his brother said should be true why should he be sorry he that had done his utmost to prove that popenjoy was not popenjoy he crunched the letter up and cast it on one side of course he would not answer that the third was from a new correspondent and that also the reader shall see my dear lord marquis pray believe that had i known under what great affliction you were labouring when you left rudham park i should have been the last man in the world to intrude myself upon you pray believe me also when i say that i have heard of your great bereavement with sincere sympathy and that i condole with you from the bottom of my heart pray remember my dear lord that if you will turn aright for consolation you certainly will not turn in vain

let me add though this is hardly the proper moment for such allusion that both his lordship the bishop and myself were most indignant when we heard of the outrage committed upon you at your hotel i make no secret of my opinion that the present dean of brotherton ought to be called upon by the great council of the nation to vacate his promotion i wish that the bench of bishops had the power to take from him his frock i have the honour to be my lord marquis with sentiments of most unfeigned respect your lordship's most humble servant joseph groshuth the marquis smiled as he also threw this letter into the waste-paper basket telling himself that birds of that feather very often did fall out with one another chapter fifty three