Virtue and Vanity: Continuing Story of Desire and Duty (21 page)

Chapter Thirty-Three

The next morning Sarah awoke with a longing to speak to Andrew. She had dreamed of never seeing him again and felt it was due to her indecision. Well, life is not a dream
!,
she thought.

She must tell him what was in her heart. Perhaps, he would only wish to renew their friendship. In any case, she must let him know how she had grievously misjudged him and allowed Laura to come between them.

Caught between a longing for friendship and desire for marriage, she concluded that she must throw protocol and caution to the wind and visit Andrew before he left Pemberley.

When she asked Georgiana to accompany her to Pemberley, Georgiana smiled with a knowing expression about the purpose of her visit.

During the carriage ride, Lady Staley said, “I hope Andrew is still home. I heard he was preparing for another trip.”

“Then you have guessed my intent,” Sarah replied.

“I do hope you make amends with Andrew. He is the most worthy of young men.”

As Sarah turned to look out the carriage window, she said softly. “I hope it is not too late.”

The carriage arrived in front of the steps. It being a fine, sunshine-filled day, Elizabeth came out to greet them.

Sarah nervously asked if Andrew were still home and Elizabeth smiled and pointed towards the lake.

Sarah spotted Andrew down by his favorite tree next to the lake. He was sitting at a bench with his back to her with a small table in front of him. As she approached, she noted colorful flowers and leaves lying flat as for botanical study. Her quiet approach did not alert him to her presence until she stood behind him. Startled, he turned and stood to look at her.

“Sarah, your presence is a pleasant surprise.”

“May I sit down?”

“Of course.”

“What are you studying now?”

He gently lifted a small flower and held it up to her. “There is this one flower that looks very much like a wild primrose, but which is not in any of my guides. I wonder if it is a new species.” Sighing, he continued, “I have difficulty with classifying some flowers like I have difficulty understanding people.”

He looked away.

“Oh, Andrew, do not be hard on
yourself
. . . I have a confession to make. . . I misjudged you when I told you that you did not like authoresses. Little did I know you saw to the publication of my first
poem.
I want to thank you for the love you showed without my
knowing  it
.”

Andrew sat down next to her.

She looked out on the lake. “Your recent note assured me of you constancy. . . .”

Andrew turned his head with a look of surprise and hope. He sat back and was quiet for a moment. Sarah eagerly awaited his next statement.

“Sarah, you know there has never been anyone else in my heart.”

“I am afraid that first my scar and then my pride has wasted much time between us. . . .”

He moved closer to her, placed his hands on her face, brushed back her hair to reveal her left temple and leaned over to kiss the scar.

Tears filled her eyes.

“It seems that many things have changed since we were children.” He tenderly lifted her head
til
her eyes met his. Glancing away, he slowly began, “Perhaps hope has made me interpret things in the wrong way. . . .”

Cautiously, she raised a hand and turned his head face back to hers. “I think your heart has always seen things clearly.”

Andrew gazed into her eyes for a long moment, before finding the confidence to proceed. “I lay my heart open before you once again. Will you complete my happiness and marry me?”

Tears freely ran down her cheeks now, as with a shaky smile, she whispered, “Yes, yes, yes.”

Her tears were quickly wiped away as Andrew embraced her. Their lips met in a tender kiss, full of restrained passion. Both were unaware of the passage of time as they sat on the bench lovingly sharing their hopes and dreams for the future, and brushing away regrets of the past.

Epilogue

Andrew and Sarah were to be married in a double ceremony with Paul and Maria at Pemberley. A finer day of celebration was never seen in memory by the history of the estate.

Granny Williams soon recovered to resume leadership of the Methodist class. After another year, one of Sarah’s pupils was able enough to teach literacy at the Sunday
School
class. It is the best kind of teaching that renders a teacher no longer necessary.

Sarah’s participation in the Methodist classes and Andrew’s approval gained them widespread esteem among the working class of the area. While general political unrest existed among the lower classes in the mid-nineteenth century throughout England, this section of Derbyshire experienced little of it.

As happily married couples tend to live long, Elizabeth and Fitzwilliam lived well into their seventies, thus not relinquishing Pemberley to Andrew and Sarah until they were in middle age. Prior to that time, the young couple was very content in the roomy cottage the
Darcys
had built for them near Andrew’s favorite spot by Pemberley
lake
. From their letters to each other during Andrew’s
botannical
expeditions, Sarah and Andrew’s love for each other continued to grow.
And why not?
Their parents had provided such excellent examples.

As of this writing, we have been unable to discover, from the Pemberley archives, if Mr. and Mrs. Andrew Darcy had any children. Nor have we learned further history about Mr. and Mrs. John Darcy. Maria, however, continued as a graceful companion to her husband, Mr. Paul Westbrook. Quality always rises and it took a shorter than usual time for Mr. Westbrook to become a bishop in the Anglican
church
.

Maria was a key part in her husband’s success. When they visited smaller and poorer parishes, where the help of servants was minimal or absent, she was known to tie her hair back, and start helping with chores. The natural manner in which she engaged in such unusual servant-hood caused many a hard-pressed pastor’s wife to fall in love with this bishop’s wife; confiding their stresses and anxieties to Mrs. Westbrook then provided them natural relief.

The authors wish to thank the Pemberley Estate directors for their cooperation in providing access to their archives.

“Imagination is everything.” -- Jane Austen.

Ted and Marilyn Bader

Historical Notes

Chapter One

Virtue and Vanity, the continuing story of Desire and Duty, is written to stand by
itself
. However, readers told us they enjoyed the appended historical notes and so we will continue a set for this volume. Readers may wish to peruse the historical notes of the previous story for a more complete understanding of English aristocratic society in the early 1800's.

The British Embassy in Paris is still at
39,
rue du
Faubourg
-Saint-
Honore
. It was acquired by the British government in 1814 from Pauline Borghese, sister of
Napolean
.

In the spring of 1830, the French army embarked on an expedition to punish the Algerians. To the British, the extent of the preparations suggested more than a temporary operation and London pressed for a promise that France was not planning conquest and the establishment of a French colony. The French remained vague and the British government was annoyed, and its sympathies with the Bourbon regime, which it had helped to found only a decade earlier, noticeably cooled. (
Pinkney
, 16)

In retrospect, the invasion was an effort by the current French monarch, Charles X, to raise popular support for his sagging monarchy before dissolving the uncooperative deputy chamber and calling for an unprecedented third election in one year. The French had not savored a military victory since the bitter taste of Waterloo in 1815.

Chapter Two

A guinea was an odd sort of historical British coinage equal to the old pound plus a shilling (or 21 shillings total). It was the proper currency to pay an artist, lawyer or physician.

Chapter Three

Sarah’s bout with smallpox is borrowed from an episode in Fanny Burney’s Camilla. It is difficult for the modern reader to appreciate the terror that smallpox represented in eighteenth and nineteenth century Europe and America.

Smallpox epidemics regularly swept through cities and villages producing mortality rates of 10 - 35% in those afflicted; in survivors, single or multiple facial scars were an often
sequalae
. Of interest, it is thought that the
portraits
of Queen Elizabeth I, where her face is literally painted white, represents the heavy use of makeup to cover smallpox scars.

In the mid-eighteenth century,
variolation
was introduced whereby a needle and thread were passed through an active pustule and then used to probe the skin of a non-infected person. The disease produced was usually much milder and resulted in lifetime immunity. However,
variolation
still caused
a 1
- 2% mortality which lead to vociferous opposition.

Edward Jenner’s treatise in 1798 stated his observation that milk maids who had contracted cowpox never suffered from smallpox. Thus, vaccination with cowpox material began to be widely practiced over the next century since there was no mortality associated with it.

Strength of constitution, as in Sarah’s case, from the previous practice of
variolation
, would have still been thought important prior to vaccination.

More than 110,000 cases of smallpox were reported in the USA for the year 1929 and none at all since 1949. Aggressive international cooperation in vaccination during the mid-twentieth century led to the WHO Global Commission declaring on December 9, 1979 that smallpox had been eradicated entirely from all nations. (White, 868)

Chapter Four

That it might not be to a woman’s advantage to exhibit a “head and a heart” was a topic of feminine debate in nineteenth century literature.

Americans unfamiliar with the aristocratic social scale should understand a marquis was one step below a duke, which in turn was only a step below a prince.

Chapter Six

Many of the 1830 social customs of Paris were gleaned from the famous American author, James
Fenimore
Cooper, who stayed extensively in Paris from 1828-1829. The story about the process of matchmaking and advertisement are taken directly from his travel book. (Cooper, 306)

The turned around social custom of those new in town sending cards to the established French socialites may seem strange to Americans, but Cooper discusses this extensively. (Cooper, 76)

The story of the Marquis is taken from Moliere’s seventeenth century play, Les Precious
Provencials
.

Chapter Eight

Hand fans were an important ladies accessory from the 16th century until World War I with the peak of production in the 19th century. The non-verbal language using the fan was extensive and a few of the signals are listed in this chapter. The
eventail
(hand fan) museum in Paris is an enjoyable way to spend 1 - 2 hours. It is small and hard to find, but worth the effort.

Chapter Nine

The
Jardin
des
Tuileries
is a 63 acre park in central Paris,
laid
out in the year 1564 adjacent to the new
Tuileries
palace being built. The name
Tuileries
derives from the kilns for the manufacture of tiles, or
tuiles
, which occupied the site before the palace was built. The garden has been a popular place for strolling and promenading for more than two centuries. However, walking on the grass was traditionally reserved for royalty. The ban continues today, so one does not see anyone walking on the grass as we do in American parks.

In 1830, Paris was behind London in having piped water to homes–few, if any Parisians had indoor plumbing as evidenced by lack of plumbing even to the palace! In contrast, most apartments and homes in London had indoor piped water (
Willms
, 222), but operational toilets with return to the sewer were yet to be invented thirty years later. However, Paris was the first major city in the world to install gas lighting in 1829, while London was to take another 5 - 10 years to do so.

The Monitor was the official government newspaper and on the fateful day of July 26, 1830 it listed the King’s plan to dissolve the upcoming deputy congress and censorship of the press.
             
             
             
             
             

Chapter Ten

The historical events concerning Charles X are accurately portrayed in this chapter. The interested reader may wish to refer to David
Pinkney’s
detailed account–The French Revolution of 1830.

The Palace of St. Cloud is no longer standing as it was razed by a fire in 1870, by the Prussians during the Franco-Prussian war. The Grand Cascade waterfalls, however, are still functional.

The charter of 1814 formed the post-
Napoleanic
agreement between France and the Allied Powers as to how the new French government should function. Unfortunately, parts of it were vague, which led to an inevitable difference in interpretation and subsequent rift between the monarchy and deputy congress.

Charles X and family were allowed to
emigrate
to Great Britain and form exile in Castle
Lulworth
in the county of Dorset. A return to France by way of a counter-revolution never materialized beyond written plans.

Chapter Eleven

Mr. James
Woodforde
writes in The Diary of a Country Parson (late eighteenth century) about the common remedy for epileptic seizures being
Assafoetida
drops.

Chapter Seventeen

While it is difficult for modern Americans to appreciate, in 1830's England and America only a small percentage of adults could read and write.

The Methodists were among the first to promote Sunday
School
in the eighteenth century, an effort which was principally a literacy class rather than religious teaching. Even in the 1830's, this was still true.

Methodism was a strong social-religious force at the time of this story, particularly in northern England where Staley Hall is set. As much as 12% of the
population of the northern counties were
affiliated with them.

While the authors are not Methodist, they share, with the famous French historian,
Elie
Halevy (see History of the English People in 1815) admiration for their social contributions which are often overlooked.

Chapter Eighteen

Social unrest was great in England from the rise of industrialism through the mid-nineteenth century when worker’s unions gained legal acceptance.

Control of land was a key issue. Many previous lands, which were considered available for community use and planting, were being privatized with the resulting in reduction of the lower class’ already tenuous income. We have tried to show a typical scene of worker unrest. In the early 1830's, window smashing took place at Derby; houses were burnt at Nottingham, and the Duke of Newcastle’s Castle was destroyed by fire. (
Wearmouth
, Working Class, 43-44)

Chapter Nineteen

All of the riddles given by Mr. Darcy in this chapter would have been known in 1835. They are derived from Archer Taylor’s English Riddles from Oral Tradition.

Chapter Twenty-One

Methodists were the first major religious group in England to allow women to teach men and women together. However, their founder, a conservative Anglican priest, John Wesley, did not come to the position easily since this view differed from the Anglican church of the time. However, given the two to one ratio of women to men in the movement and his observation that women leaders, when needed on an exceptional basis, brought as good or even better spiritual results as men, he began to allow the practice–but not without grief from his critics. The Methodists were also the first major social group in history to call for universal suffrage (i.e. the right to vote) for all adults, including women. It is true there were a few women voting rights advocates before Methodism, but numerically these latter groups were quite small compared to the hundreds of thousands of Methodists.

In 1739, women were appointed to be the leaders of classes at Bristol. “It might be claimed that emancipation of womanhood began with him [Wesley].” (
Wearmouth
, Common People, 223)

Chapter Twenty-Four

The reader is presented with a typical Methodist class session. Classes consisted of fewer than twenty adults. Classes were subdivisions of a larger society and ultimately one conference. Many later nineteenth century political groups (e.g. Marxists) recognized and patterned their group’s structure after the ingenuous Methodist organization.

It is difficult for the modern reader to appreciate the challenges of the social disruption that the production of cheap gin caused in eighteenth and early nineteenth century Britain. Accurate statistics for consumption in the eighteenth century were not kept, but some historians have said that eighteenth century England was the most inebriated country in the history of the world.

Coffee and tea were aggressively promoted in the early nineteenth century as
alochol
substitutes. There were only eight coffee houses in London in 1805, but more than 800 by the start of Queen Victoria’s reign.

Sometimes the local Methodist parson was the only literate man living among the lower industrial class and it often fell to the local pastor to represent the worker’s grievances.

The industrial management was backed by the controlling triumvirate of aristocracy, government and state church, which were comprised essentially of the same small number of wealthy individuals.

This social arrangement also explains why most of the early nineteenth century writers (i.e. well to do), wrote in contemptible terms about the Methodists, since the latter group was seen as a supporter of both the poor and unions (and thus, a real threat to the ruling aristocracy).

Given that only a few landowners could vote, the British government was not sympathetic to the worker’s plight of six day work, sixteen hour days and child labor (often down to age 3 - 5, if they were physically able). Unions were outlawed and attempts to improve conditions jailed many a worker and Methodist pastor.

The typical miner was drunken, dissolute, and brutalized, tyrannized over by his employers and their underlings. The majority had never received any education whatever. To these people the Methodist class leader or preacher brought the Bible and the Methodist Hymn Book. They were eventually taught to read and reflect. There came to them a desire for learning and for improvement which had to be gratified. They sent their children to the Sunday
School
, and not content with that, they often accompanied them.
Men who had grown up and had children to go to school, have been sitting side by side on a form learning the very rudiments of reading and writing.
The miner not only went to school, he took to going to Chapel, and, finding it necessary to appear decent there, he got new clothes and became what is termed respectable. (
Wearmouth
, Working Class, 226)