A Mere Accident | Page 9

may get hold of his property."
"No, no; you must not say such a thing. I will not have you say
anything against his religion. I was very wrong to suggest such a thing.
I am sure no such idea ever entered the Jesuits' heads. Perhaps I am
wrong to send you to them.... Now I depend on you not to speak to him
on religious subjects."
CHAPTER II.
Mrs Norton had known William Hare all her life. She was the youngest
daughter, he the youngest son of equal Yorkshire families. Separated
by about a mile of pasture and woodland, these families had for
generations lived unanimous lives. In England the hunting field, the
grouse moor, the croquet and tennis lawn, with its charming adjunct the
five-o'clock tea-table, have made life in certain classes almost
communal; and Mrs Norton and William Hare had stood in white
frocks under Christmas trees and shared sweetmeats. He often thought
of the first time he saw her, wearing a skirt that fell below her ankles,
with her hair done up. And she remembered his first appearance in
evening clothes, and how surprised and delighted she was to hear him
ask her if he might have the pleasure of a waltz.
He went to Oxford to take his degree; she was taken to London for the
season, and towards the end of the third year she married Mr Norton,
and went to live at Thornby Place. Through the excitement of the
marriage arrangements, and the rapid impressions of her honeymoon,
the thought of having for neighbour the playmate of her youth had
flitted across, but had not rested in, her mind, and she did not realize
the charm that it was for her until one afternoon, now more than twenty
years ago, a young curate, bespattered with the grey mud of the downs,
had startled her and her husband by addressing her as Lizzie. Lizzie she
had remained to him, he was William to her, and henceforth their lives
had been indissolubly linked. Not a week had passed without their

seeing each other. There were visits to pay, there was hunting, and then
habit intervened; and for many years, in suffering, in joy, in hope, their
thoughts had instinctively looked to each other for reflective sympathy,
and every remembrable event was full of mutual associations. He had
sat by her when, after the birth of her first and only child, she lay pale,
beautiful, and weak on a sofa by a window blown by the tide of
summer scent; and the autumn of that same year he had walked with
her in the garden, where the leaves fell like the last illusion of youth
under the tears of an incurable grief; and staying in their walk they
looked on the house which was to be for evermore one of widowhood.
Had she ever loved him? Had he ever loved her? In moments of
passionate loneliness she had yearned for his protection; in moments of
deep dejection he had dreamed of the happiness he might have found
with her; but in the broad day of their lives they had ever thought of
each other as friends. He had advised her on the management of her
estate, on the education of her son; and in his afflictions--in his
widowerhood--when his children quickly followed their mother to the
grave, Mrs Norton's form, face, and words had steadied him, and had
helped him to bear with a life of crumbling ruin. Kitty was now the
only one that remained to him.
Mrs Norton had had projects of wealth and title for her son, but his
continued disdain of women and the love of women had long since
forced her to abandon her hopes, and now any one he might select she
would gladly welcome; but she whom Mrs Norton would have
preferred to all others was the daughter of her old friend. Her son had
deserted her, and now all her affections were centred in Kitty. Kitty
was as much at Thornby Place as at the Rectory, and in the gaiety of
her bright eyes, and in the shine of her gold-brown hair--for ever
slipping from the gold hair-pins in frizzed masses--Mrs Norton
continued her dreams of her son's marriage.
Mr Hare thought it harsh that his daughter should be so constantly
taken from him, but the parsonage was so lonely for Kitty, and there
were luncheon and tennis parties at Thornby Place, and Mrs Norton
took the girl out for drives, and together they visited all the county

families. A suspicion of matchmaking sometimes crossed Mr Hare's
mind, but it faded in the knowledge that John was always at Stanton
College; and to send this fair flower to his great--to his only--friend,
was a joy, and the bitterness of temporary