The Farringdons | Page 8

then I'd never speak to you again as long as I live."
Of course it was unwise of Christopher to condemn a weakness to
which Elisabeth was prone, and to condone one to which she was not;
but no man has learned wisdom at fifteen, and but few at fifty.
"You are the most disagreeable boy I have ever met, and I wish I could
think of something to do to annoy you. I know what I'll do; I'll go by
myself and see Mrs. Bateson's pig, just to show you how I hate you."
And Elisabeth flew off in the direction of Mrs. Bateson's cottage, with
the truly feminine intention of punishing the male being who had dared
to disapprove of her, by making him disapprove of her still more. Her
programme, however, was frustrated; for Mrs. Bateson herself
intervened between Elisabeth and her unholy desires, and entertained
the latter with a plate of delicious bread-and-dripping instead. Finally,
that young lady returned to her home in a more magnanimous frame of
mind; and fell asleep that night wondering if the whole male sex were
as stupid as the particular specimen with which she had to do--a
problem which has puzzled older female brains than hers.

But poor Christopher was very unhappy. It was agony to him when his
conscience pulled him one way and Elisabeth pulled him the other; and
yet this form of torture was constantly occurring to him. He could not
bear to do what he knew was wrong, and he could not bear to vex
Elisabeth; yet Elisabeth's wishes and his own ideas of right were by no
means always synonymous. His only comfort was the knowledge that
his sovereign's anger was, as a rule, short-lived, and that he himself was
indispensable to that sovereign's happiness. This was true; but he did
not then realize that it was in his office as admiring and sympathizing
audience, and not in his person as Christopher Thornley, that he was
necessary to Elisabeth. A fuller revelation was vouchsafed to him later.
The next morning Elisabeth was herself again, and was quite ready to
enjoy Christopher's society and to excuse his scruples. She knew that
self of hers when she said that she wished she had somebody else to
play with, in order that she might withdraw the light of her presence
from her offending henchman. To thus punish Christopher, until she
had found some one to take his place, was a course of action which
would not have occurred to her. Elisabeth's pride could never stand in
the way of her pleasure; Christopher's, on the contrary, might. It was a
remarkable fact that after Christopher had reproved Elisabeth for some
fault--which happened neither infrequently nor unnecessarily--he was
always repentant and she forgiving; yet nine times out of ten he had
been in the right and she in the wrong. But Elisabeth's was one of those
exceptionally generous natures which can pardon the reproofs and
condone the virtues of their friends; and she bore no malice, even when
Christopher had been more obviously right than usual. But she was
already enough of a woman to adapt to her own requirements his
penitence for right-doing; and on this occasion she took advantage of
his chastened demeanour to induce him to assist her in erecting a new
shrine to Athene in the wood--which meant that she gave all the
directions and he did all the work.
"You are doing it beautifully, Chris--you really are!" she exclaimed
with delight. "We shall be able to have a splendid sacrifice this
afternoon. I've got some feathers to offer up from the fowl cook is
plucking; and they make a much better sacrifice than waste paper."

"Why?"
Christopher was too shy in those days to put the fact into words;
nevertheless, the fact remained that Elisabeth interested him profoundly.
She was so original, so unexpected, that she was continually providing
him with fresh food for thought. Although he was cleverer at lessons
than she was, she was by far the cleverer at play; and though he had the
finer character, hers was the stronger personality. It was because
Elisabeth was so much to him that he now and then worried her
easy-going conscience with his strictures; for, to do him justice, the boy
was no prig, and would never have dreamed of preaching to anybody
except her. But it must be remembered that Christopher had never
heard of such things as spiritual evolutions and streams of tendency: to
him right or wrong meant heaven or hell--neither more nor less; and he
was overpowered by a burning anxiety that Elisabeth should eventually
go to heaven, partly for her own sake, and partly (since human love is
stronger than dogmas and doctrines) because a heaven, uncheered by
the presence of