Shirley, Charlotte Brontë [free children's ebooks online .txt] 📗

and Donne chatter about the authority of the church, the dignity and claims of the priesthood, the deference due to them as clergymen; when I hear the outbreaks of their small spite against Dissenters; when I witness their silly, narrow jealousies and assumptions; when their palaver about forms, and traditions, and superstitions is sounding in my ear; when I behold their insolent carriage to the poor, their often base servility to the rich⁠—I think the Establishment is indeed in a poor way, and both she and her sons appear in the utmost need of reformation. Turning away distressed from minster tower and village spire⁠—ay, as distressed as a churchwarden who feels the exigence of whitewash and has not wherewithal to purchase lime⁠—I recall your senseless sarcasms on the ‘fat bishops,’ the ‘pampered parsons,’ ‘old mother church,’ etc. I remember your strictures on all who differ from you, your sweeping condemnation of classes and individuals, without the slightest allowance made for circumstances or temptations; and then, Mr. Yorke, doubt clutches my inmost heart as to whether men exist clement, reasonable, and just enough to be entrusted with the task of reform. I don’t believe you are of the number.”

“You have an ill opinion of me, Miss Shirley. You never told me so much of your mind before.”

“I never had an opening. But I have sat on Jessy’s stool by your chair in the back-parlour at Briarmains, for evenings together, listening excitedly to your talk, half admiring what you said, and half rebelling against it. I think you a fine old Yorkshireman, sir. I am proud to have been born in the same county and parish as yourself. Truthful, upright, independent you are, as a rock based below seas; but also you are harsh, rude, narrow, and merciless.”

“Not to the poor, lass, nor to the meek of the earth; only to the proud and high-minded.”

“And what right have you, sir, to make such distinctions? A prouder, a higher-minded man than yourself does not exist. You find it easy to speak comfortably to your inferiors; you are too haughty, too ambitious, too jealous to be civil to those above you. But you are all alike. Helstone also is proud and prejudiced. Moore, though juster and more considerate than either you or the rector, is still haughty, stern, and, in a public sense, selfish. It is well there are such men as Mr. Hall to be found occasionally⁠—men of large and kind hearts, who can love their whole race, who can forgive others for being richer, more prosperous, or more powerful than they are. Such men may have less originality, less force of character than you, but they are better friends to mankind.”

“And when is it to be?” said Mr. Yorke, now rising.

“When is what to be?”

“The wedding.”

“Whose wedding?”

“Only that of Robert Gérard Moore, Esq., of Hollow’s Cottage, with Miss Keeldar, daughter and heiress of the late Charles Cave Keeldar of Fieldhead Hall.”

Shirley gazed at the questioner with rising colour. But the light in her eye was not faltering; it shone steadily⁠—yes, it burned deeply.

“That is your revenge,” she said slowly; then added, “Would it be a bad match, unworthy of the late Charles Cave Keeldar’s representative?”

“My lass, Moore is a gentleman; his blood is pure and ancient as mine or thine.”

“And we two set store by ancient blood? We have family pride, though one of us at least is a republican?”

Yorke bowed as he stood before her. His lips were mute, but his eye confessed the impeachment. Yes, he had family pride; you saw it in his whole bearing.

“Moore is a gentleman,” echoed Shirley, lifting her head with glad grace. She checked herself. Words seemed crowding to her tongue. She would not give them utterance; but her look spoke much at the moment. What, Yorke tried to read, but could not. The language was there, visible, but untranslatable⁠—a poem, a fervid lyric, in an unknown tongue. It was not a plain story, however, no simple gush of feeling, no ordinary love-confession⁠—that was obvious. It was something other, deeper, more intricate than he guessed at. He felt his revenge had not struck home. He felt that Shirley triumphed. She held him at fault, baffled, puzzled. She enjoyed the moment, not he.

“And if Moore is a gentleman, you can be only a lady; therefore⁠—”

“Therefore there would be no inequality in our union.”

“None.”

“Thank you for your approbation. Will you give me away when I relinquish the name of Keeldar for that of Moore?”

Mr. Yorke, instead of replying, gazed at her much puzzled. He could not divine what her look signified⁠—whether she spoke in earnest or in jest. There were purpose and feeling, banter and scoff, playing, mingled, on her mobile lineaments.

“I don’t understand thee,” he said, turning away.

She laughed. “Take courage, sir; you are not singular in your ignorance. But I suppose if Moore understands me that will do, will it not?”

“Moore may settle his own matters henceforward for me; I’ll neither meddle nor make with them further.”

A new thought crossed her. Her countenance changed magically. With a sudden darkening of the eye and austere fixing of the features she demanded, “Have you been asked to interfere? Are you questioning me as another’s proxy?”

“The Lord save us! Whoever weds thee must look about him! Keep all your questions for Robert; I’ll answer no more on ’em. Good day, lassie!”

The day being fine, or at least fair⁠—for soft clouds curtained the sun, and a dim but not chill or waterish haze slept blue on the hills⁠—Caroline, while Shirley was engaged with her callers, had persuaded Mrs. Pryor to assume her bonnet and summer shawl, and to take a walk with her up towards the narrow end of the Hollow.

Here the opposing sides of the glen, approaching each other and becoming clothed with brushwood and stunted oaks, formed a wooded ravine, at the bottom of which ran the mill-stream, in broken, unquiet course, struggling with many stones, chafing against rugged banks, fretting with gnarled tree-roots, foaming, gurgling, battling as it went. Here,