Warleggan (37 page)

Elizabeth's troubled eyes widened. She looked very lovely in
her white dress against the dark wainscot of the room. `I have given my reasons. Aren't they sufficient?' He smiled. 'No, they are not'

She made a
little
gesture of helplessness. 'I have no others, George, but they're sincere. Will you not humour me?' `All the guests are invited.'

`Guests? But we agreed there were to be none! This was to be an entirely private wedding.'

'And so it is. A few of my closest friends wo
uld be hurt if they didn't come
to the house afterward. I have had to notify them. I am proud, so proud of my bride. I would have asked five hundred if it had been left to me.'

`How many are there? What numbers have you asked?'

'Oh -
about twenty-five.'

From the way he spoke she knew it was more. She bit her lip.

`I feel so ashamed to be asking for a postponement; but But what?'

`I have promised to marry you, George, and I'll try not to go bac
k on that promise. But it would
somehow, I feel it would not be fair to you to either of us
-
to marry in such haste.

He watched her with his careful, possessive eyes. She was more nervous than he had ever seen her, fine-strung; her eyes did not meet his but went anywhere about the room.

`Is it something to do with Ross?'

She instantly flushed. The colour came almost before he had stopped speaking, `It is nothing to do with anyone but
myself ! That day you asked me
-
at Cusgarne
-
I was so beset with worry, not able to see which way to turn. I said I would marry you-'

`You regret it?'

Her head went up. `Not in the very least. But time then seemed unimportant-'

'So it is.'

'Not altogether. I was forgetting Francis. It's only right to allow a decent, interval to pass,'

`Many
marry after three months -
some less. You know that, my dear. No one would think anything of it at all. Ross has been here, hasn't he?'

'He came, of course.'

`You quarrelled?'

‘
In a way,'

'He naturally does not like the idea of our marriage' 'No.'

'And he is at the bottom of this change of heart on-your
part!
’

She hesitated. George had so exactly stated the truth that
she didn't know how to answer.

`Please. I don't want to discuss Ross. What we decide, you and I, is quite our own concern. I've asked as a great favour, George, that you would postpone the wedding. When I wrote you, I did n
ot know it would inconvenience
you so much, because of the guests. But I still request it. Believe me, I don't ask lightly or capriciously. It is a
-
a feeling I have.'
-
She touched her breast. Please don't
be angry with
me.
I
-
can't stand that.

George's forgers; moved round
the
knob, on the end of his stick. He was disappointed, angry, suspicious, and jealous. But fortunately he did not suspect the truth. He was jealous of Ross's' influence and bitterly resentful of it, that was all.,
Thanks to Ross, thanks
to something he had said or done, the prize that he, G
eorge, had coveted for so many
years had slipped a little out of his grasp. No money could buy it, no power obtain it. At present he had no control over it at all. He must go carefully,
walk
gingerly, lest it slip away altogether.

He
said
: `I want to be indulgent, to your wishes both before
and after marriage,, my
dear. It's a bitter disappointment to me. When I read, your letter, I could hardly believe it true. I have the licence, the ring, the . . . But whatever you wish in the way of a postponement I will do
-
if you'll promise one thing.!
’

'What is that?'

'That you fix another date tonight'

She hesitated again, Her impulse to postpone had been overwhelming. Whatever else, she was not a liar and a wanton. To go from one man's bed to another - in the course of a few,
days
however disgracefully she had been taken advantage of.

Still less could she go from Ross's caresses to George's. Perhaps that was at the root of her feelings. Well, now the postponement was achieved; George had given way.

But ther
e was a sting in the
tail.' To gain
her end she
must bind herself for the future
-
to an exact
day, not a
vague time suc
h as she had promised herself.

'A month from today,' he said. "That's surely a sufficient concession:'

'Oh, no.
. .
' She stopped. Did
she want and need to marry, him or did she not? If
she did,
she owed him some consideration. But in the meantime, what would Ross do? 'I had thought of August,' she ended lamely.' `That would then be almost the twelve months.'

He shook his head decisively. She knew that shake. It meant
bu
siness. 'I may have to go away
in August. Besides, that would upset other arrangements relating to Cardew
-
and to

your own
mother.' Whom do you fear?'

'Fear? -.Why, no one!
’

`Whose opinion do you fear, then? Ross's?
’

"No, no, of course not. It is entirely what. I feel myself--'

He took her hand and tried to look into her face again. `'Come, my dear Elizabeth; let's not shy at bogies. And let us compromise in this arrangement so that we may both have something out of it. You disappoint me grievously by wishing to postpone our wedding at all. Give me the consolation of being
able to fix
it for this day month. I know you are not
a
changeable-minded woman, and I know you will stick to your word. Let me take something-home with,
me tonight.’

Elizabeth freed her
hand,
but not ungraciously, and walked to the table, stood turning the leave-of a book with beating heart. If Demelza had been in tribulation this last week, hers had not
been much less. She
had not seen Ross since the
night he h
ad called. In some moods she felt she never wanted to see him again. But those moods, were, by no means constant.

Not a changeable-minded woman ! Was that what George
thought her? All, all than had happened was a result of it. If she had not changed her mind, she would have been married to Ross these ten years and neither George nor Demelza would have been anything - in their lives. But what had Ross to offer, her now?
A sudden wicked
climbing in at windows, an incursion on her privacy, a violent taking of what was not rightly his. Demelza lived and would live. They had no money to run away. Ross had not proposed it. He had not even been near her since. That was the crowning insult.

`I know you will stick to your word,' George had said. I do not go back on my promises,' she had said to Ross that night. Were these things true? Yes, but the whole purpose of this postponement was that she should have time to think,
to consider,- and perhaps leave others with time to consider too. What was the good of time if she was bound at the end of it?

He had come up behind her. So far he had kept his attentions within the strictest confines. A half dozen times he had
kissed her cheek, sometimes he held, her, hand. No more. She was not so foolish as to think him cold because of it. He disciplined himself to meet her varying moods. Only a man of his calibre could do it and she respected him for it. Now he lightly rested his fingers on her shoulder
-
in such a way as to make it -
quite clear that she was free to escape. She made no move to escape.

`Can
I rely on you, Elizabeth?' he
said. `A month from today?'

`Very well,' she said. `A month from today'

At that he put his lips on her neck. She thought other lips have be
en there. God, I am in a cage
Lost for ever! Why did Ross have to come? How I hate him for coming! And despise him. There'll never: be any friendship between us again! Only enmity. I shall be George's heart and soul, his faithful wife and faithful friend! Anything I can do against Ross. Why did he have to 'come? God, I am in a cage. Lost for ever,

Elizabeth and George were married on the twentieth June. Contrary to her wishes, a big reception was held at Cardew at which m
ore than a hundred guests were
present. This had been George's
intention all along. The bride
and groom went away for their honeymoon and did not return to the county, until late August. Then they took up resid
ence at Cardew. Elizabeth found that Nicholas Warleggan
and h
is wife had not vet moved out, which according
to George they had promised to do, but which, also according to George, they were still preparing to do.

Cusgarne was sold and, Elizabeth's father and mother moved to Trenwith, where two elderly gentlefolk and a number of servants,
were engaged to look after
them. George wanted to have Aunt Agatha turned out so that Ross wou
ld be forced to look after her;
but Elizabeth would have none of that and Aunt Agatha stayed,
Sale of the headgear of
Wheal Grace mine was countermanded, and work rebegan on the fourth June. By July the debris was cleared and the lode was bein
g worked again
. Among the first miners to go down were Ellery and young Nanfan. The money ran
out, but Ross borrowed another £
50
from Blewett and then another £50, and that saw them
through:
Life at Nampara moved on with the change of the seasons. The hay was gathered and nicked. The wheat and the barley turned from green to yellow, and deepened and grew ripe. This year they had sown close down to the back of the house, and the stalks whispered together all day long. Even when the sea roared you could still hear the other sibilant voice close at hand,
The Allied armies had still
not taken Paris, and now it
looked as if the
opportunity had passed for yet
another year. Perhaps it had; passed for longer than that, for the latent energies of the, revolution were at last beginning, to work. General Custine had been thrown to the guillotine for the crime
of being unsuccessful, and, an
unknown Burgundian,
L
azarre Carnot, had been appointed to organise victory. His, first decree was a levee en masse, calling all Frenchmen to the colours, and marshalling the services of France dow
n to the last woman and child.
It was
a new conception of war, or an o
ld conception revived, reversing the civilising
influence of a thousand years.

There had been no proper reconciliation between' Ross and Demelza. Sometimes she wished she had
left. Sometimes
she
thought of it even now. Yet she couldn't be sure of what he
was f
eeling. Elizabeth
was marrie
d to George. The thing had gone
through in spite of his intervention. Therefore unless he was prepared to take El
izabeth from Cardew by force he had nothing
to hope for from her. Therefore he would stay at Nampara married to Demelza. If she was prepared to be
content with second best,
then she could be of service to him.

But was she content with second be
st? Sometimes she, thought yes,
often emphatically no. Stall the
goad of her refusal of Malcolm
McNeil worked in her. She, Demelza Poldark, had proved' herself to be
chaste and virtuous
- that was what
almost killed, her. –She h
ad given up praying to die, but only just. The next time she met Sir Hugh Bodrugan h
e had questioned her peevishly
on what had happened, and she had lied to him, telling him she never intended to stay the night and had slipped away soon after the end seeing him surrounded by friends
and not wishing to intrude. She
prayed that she would never meet McNeil again. That would be the crowning horror.

Ross still slept downstairs. He had never made any attempt to resume a normal relationship with her, and this was a second alienating influence
-
even though she would have re
fused him if he had made the approac
h. She supposed him to find her
distasteful after the rare and delicate joy of Elizabeth's arms.

So two acids worked, both corroding
to her self-respect, both in turn
standing in the way of her customary impulses which always were to forgive and forget.

Often he was inscrutable to her, in a way he had never been
since their marriage, though some, days he was friendly and companionable enough within the limits of ordinary living. When news of Elizabeth's marriage reached them, he did nothing and said nothing unusual only his face expre
ssed strain for a tune, but, he
changed the subject and did not mention it again.

The mine was his escape from his own thoughts. He buried himself mentally as well as actually, working longer hours than any of the men, and his face grew paler instead of brow
ner with the summer's advance.
The uncomfortable hours were in the evening, but usually Demelza contrived to be busy while the long days lasted;

As the nights drew in, the mine. began to sho
w a small profit. He worked it
over twice with Henshawe to be sure there was no mistake. Henshawe proposed that they should frame the cost book which recorded it. They could none of them expect
money back yet, but
at this rate they would creep slowly away from the red line. With four months still to go befo
re the next reckoning of Ross's personal account,
he estimated that if he could see a hundred pounds clear, or a hundred and twenty, by the end of the year he, might somehow, somewhere, scrape together enough to satisfy
his creditors for another few
months. His unknown well-wisher, being a well
-
wisher, could hardly foreclose on him for the sake of seventy or eighty pounds.

In September it became known that. Mr. and Mrs. George Warleggan were staying at Trenwith House. This news served to incense Ross more than the
news of the wedding, for which he had been in some measure
prepared. For two days he contrived to spend all his time out of the
house, and at mealtimes it was
more than he ,could do to behave as if life were moving in a normal way. News soon followe
d, that extensive repairs were being undertaken at Trenwit
h. One could not help but wonder at George's generosity in doing so much,
for
Elizabeth's parents. If he was doing it for them. Both Ross and Demelza wonde
red, but neither spoke of it to
the other. Speculation on such a subject was better not voiced.

Demelza received a letter from Verity,

My dear Cousin,

Thank You for your warm and Affectionate letter, and for all your Warnings and advice, which, coming from one who
used to seek mine, reads a little strange.' Howsoever, I fully admit that in respect of Babies your experience has been greater than mine, and I defer to everything you say.

We had a great Scare last week when news spread
through
the Town that, five. French
Privateers had been sighted,
one of them but three miles off the Castlehead. Everyone was, in a
Consternation
,-
and the Iris, Captain Soames, the Barbadoes Packet, which had just sailed, had a near escape of being taken. However, he put back in
time, and an Officer was sent hot
to Penzance to deliver a message by swift Cutter to Admiral Bell, who was cruising off Scilly. There is no doubt that he would have intercepted the Privateers, but a thick sea-mist came down a few hours later to Blanket our sight and theirs: Much Qui Vive all night lest the Privateers should take advantage of the Fog; but they did ;not and when morning came the Horizon
was clear. But it has given us
all, I believe, a salutary shock.

I hope Ross is prospering. I need hardly be told the effect Elizabeth's , marriage to George Warleggan will have had on,
him, and now that
they are, coming to live beside you it; will be an added Offe
nce. Pray be patient with Ross
at this time. I have not
seen Elizabeth since the day o
f the wedding, but have had on
e letter from her. We went, of
course, to the wedding, Andrew, and I; for Elizabeth's, sake we could not well refuse
-
s
he had f
ew enough of her own people abou
t her. From the start I do not think I liked greatly the thought of this Union. I, have no feud such as
Ross has to support me, and I have nothing against the Warleggans because they are new rich. Most of our aristocratic families were founded by successful traders at one time or another. But George has never
quite carried his money Rightly: None of them do
and when you see them in Aggragate, it is specially noticeable. -

The
wedding was a very brilliant Affai
r;
St. Mary's Church decked with lilies
regardl
ess of cost, a splendid Crimson
Awning outside, and crimson c
arpet all the way up the aisle
to walk on. The Rev. Dr. Halse performed the ceremony, and he used just the same voice that he uses on the Bench for malefactors. You will want to know what Elizabeth wore. Well it was a gown of heavy cream satin, with a crepe train decorated with small bouquets of white and purple lilac and a wide sash w
ith a thick silver fringe. She t
old me afterwards when I admired it that it took twenty-six yards of material. Old
Jonathan must have had a long stocking somewhere. But you, will know without me to, tell you that she looked very beautiful in
I
t
-
like a
queen-yet nervous, ill at ease
: inclined to flush up and go pale at the least thing. George of course was unruffled by anything, even when his great, friend Paul Boscoigne dropt
the ring; he was very smart in a
rich goldlaced coat and a scarlet waistcoat with broad gold lace.

Andrew
is, due home on Wednesday. Only one packet, the Trefusis, has had trouble as yet
-
what can a single ship do if she finds herself attacked by five? I ask myself
that sometimes,
in the, night.

Is it tr
ue, do.you
know, that. Elizabeth is with child?
She
makes no mention o f it in her letter, but Mrs. Daubuz te
lls me that her mother had been
saying so. It will be strange to have a family of Warleggans founded in the home of the
Poldarks.

My dearest love to you both, and a special hug for Jeremy; Your loving cousin,

Verity

Demelza did not, show this letter to Ross. She had her own reflections on, parts of it, but she thought it better he should not share them. As it happened he came, home that day more than ever preoccupied; though earlier than usual; It was Lobb's day, but he did not even ask if there were any letters: Demelzaa began to feel she could not stand: his silences much longer. They dined in silence and Jane cleared in silence. Demelza stuck on, dete
rmined not to be frozen out,
and more and more
certain that a
conflict must come. At length, her heart swelling, she said suddenly
`Ross, if this is to go on you will have to eat alone !
For days now you have scarce
spoken
- and today has been the worst of all ! I know
whe
n you are like this and cannot help you to a solution. Perhaps there is no
solution any
more. But there can be one for
us. If I stay -
if you want me to stay, then let us behave like human beings. But if you want for me to go, then say so, for go I shall if this be the way .you expect us to live!'

Ross looked up, and the surprise in his face was a su
rprise to her. `Has it had been
as bad as that?' He laughed She did not remember when he bad laughed before, `I'm sorry. I hadn't realised. I should explain:-'

'Is that necessary?'

`Very nece
ssary, considering I have not bee
n thinking about Elizabeth and George this evening at all.'

She stared at him. 'Is there some other bad thing then?'

'No, good rather. I was hesitating yet whether to say anything of it because so often before.
- I hadn't realised my face naturally set into such
morose lines
that
..’

'What good thi
ng?'

'But of course y
ou're right
-
I have been in
a mo
od all this week, and for that
My feeling
about Elizabeth's marriage need
s of be gone unto now. That's something I've had to think out
-
fight out in my own way. But George's coming to stay at Trenwith and showing signs of remaining, that's a
-
a crowning
indecency. Trenwith
is part of the Poldark family ! It is our home,; if you understand! I cannot accustom myself at,
all to the idea
of its, belonging to George. I really can't, Demelza. It's
-
unnatural, a monstrous pervers
ion of the right , -
or so it seems to me. That has been my trouble all this week. But today . .

Today?'

'It is the mine. I,' thought it wiser not to tell you as yet. I have been almost af
raid. The lode has split today.
One half of it, the best half is twice the size of the old lode. It appears to be over twelve feet thick. The first assays are very rich too. Henshawe says he has never seen richer ground.'

Demelza felt confused, as if she had braced herself to fight something that wasn't there. But
-why not tell me? Why sit there....'

'I'm sorry. I was so preoccupied, calculating... Why not tell you? Because we've grasped at so many false hopes. I can't help having them, but I thought of saving you.'

'That I b'lieve is something you need not save me' from. But wil
l it mean so much? The mine is
already paying, its way, you said.'

He stared back at her and his face
was no longer set in the old lines. She perceived that she had mistaken the tensions behind it.

'Let's wait,' he said. 'Let's c
atch the chickens first.'