 Book 2 Chapter 13 of the Heavenly Twins. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Jennifer Painter. The Heavenly Twins by Sarah Grand. Book 2 Chapter 13. On the day following her children's party, Evadney went to see Edith. She always went there when she felt brain-fagged and world-weary and came away refreshed. Edith's ignorance of life amazed and perplexed her. She thought it foolish and she thought it unsafe for a mature young woman to know no more of the world than a child does. But still she shrank from sharing the pain of her own knowledge with her and had never had the heart to say a word that might disturb her beautiful serenity. She showed some selfishness in that. She could be a child in mind again with Edith and only with Edith and it was really for her own pleasure that she avoided all serious discussion with the latter. Although she firmly persuaded herself that it was entirely out of deference to Mrs Beale's wishes and prejudices. She owed a great deal, as has already been said to Mrs Beale. When her attitude began to attract attention and provoked criticism, the old lady declined emphatically to hear a word against her from anybody and so supported her in public. While in private, the influence of her sweet old-fashioned womanliness was restraining in the way that Mrs Orton Begg had foreseen. It was a check upon Evadney and prevented her from going too far and fast at the time. Argument would not have hindered her but when Mrs Beale was present she often suppressed a firebrand of a phrase because it would have wounded her. As she went out that afternoon she met old Lord Groom on the doorstep just coming to call on her and hesitated a moment between asking him in or allowing him to accompany her as far as Mrs Beale's but decided on the latter because she would get rid of him so much the sooner. Her attitude toward him however was kindly and tolerant as a rule and she was even amused by his furious conceit. He was always ready to express what he called an opinion on any subject but more especially when it bore reference to legislation and the government of peoples generally for he was comfortably confident that he had inherited the brain power necessary for a legislator as well as a seat in the House of Lords and the position of one, a pardonable error surely since it is so very common. Socially he lived in a comfortable conception of the fitness of things that were agreeable to him. Morally he did not exist at all. Religiously he supported the established church and politically he believed in every antiquated error still extant in which respect most of his friends resembled him. Ah and so you're going to see Mrs Beale. That's right. I like to see one young lady with her work in her hand tripping in to sit and chat with another and while away the long hours till the gentleman return one can imagine all their little jests and confidences. Young ladyhood is charming to contemplate. The implication that a young lady had no great interest in life but in the return of the gentleman and that while awaiting them her pursuits must of necessity be petty and trivial. Both amused and provoked of Adne and she answered with a dry enigmatic. Yes. A few steps further on they overtook that soft voice person of singular views. Mrs Malcomson from whom Lord Groom would have fled had he seen her in time for they detested each other cordially and she never spared him. She was strolling along alone with her eyes cast down humming a little tune to herself and thinking. There was a tinge of color in her cheeks for the air was fresh for Malta. Her eyes were bright. Her hair as usual had broken from bondage into little brown curls all crisp and shining on her forehead and neck. And her lips were parted as if they only waited for an excuse to break into a smile. A healthier, pleasanter, happier, handsomer young woman Lord Groom could not have wished to encounter and consequently his disapproval of those absurd newfangled notions hers which were an effectual bar sir as he said to himself a kind of thing that destroys a woman's charm makes it impossible to get on with her. Mounted to his forehead in a frown of perplexity. What are you so busy about? A bad knee asked her. My profession, she answered, look onically. And what is that? Lord Groom inquired with that ponderous affectation of playfulness which he believed to be acceptable for women. The higher education of man, she rejoined, then darted down a side street, laughing. I'm afraid you are too intimate with that lady, Lord Groom observed severely. You must not allow yourself to be bitten by her revolutionary ideas. She is a dangerous person. Not Revo, but evolutionary, the bad knee answered smiling. Yes, Mrs. Malcomson has taught me a great deal. She is a very remarkable person. The world will hear more of her, I'm sure, and be all the better for her passage through it. But here we are. Thank you for accompanying me. What a hot afternoon. Goodbye. She shook hands with him, then opened the door and walked in, leaving him outside. He felt the dismissal, somewhat summery, but shrugged his shoulders philosophically and walked on, reflecting apropos of Mrs. Malcomson. That's just the way with women. When they begin to have ideas, they spread them everywhere. And all the other women in the neighborhood catch them and are spoiled by them. The bad-niss spirits had risen in the open air, but the moment she found herself alone, a reaction set in. The hall was cool and dark, and she stopped there, thinking, oh, that is satisfaction of it all. There were no servants about, and the house seemed curiously still. She heard the ripple of running water from an unseen fountain somewhere, and the intermittent murmur of voices in a room close by. But there is a silence that broods above such sounds, and this it was that a bad knee felt. Close to where she stood was a divan with some tall foliage plants behind it, and she sat down there and, leaning forward with her arms resting on her knees, began listlessly to trace out the pattern of the pavement with the point of her parasol. She had no notion why she was lingering there alone, when she had come out with the sole purpose of not being alone. But the will to do anything else had suddenly forsaken her. Her mind, however, had become curiously active all at once, in a jerky, disconnected sort of way. Lord Grown, thank heaven for having got rid of him so easily. I was afraid it would be more difficult. Poor, foolish old man. Yes, it is ridiculous that the destinies of nations should hang on the size of one man's liver. Where did I hear that now? It seems as old. Old as the iniquity itself. Subjects get into the air. I heard someone say that too, by the way, here, soon after I came out. Who was it? Oh, the dance on the abomination. Mrs. Malcomson and Mr. Price. He said subjects were diseases which got into the air. She said they were more like perfumes. Now, I should not have compared them with either. The door of the room where the voices had been murmuring intermittently opened at that moment, and Edith came out, followed by men teeth. It was a vision which Evadney never forgot. Edith was dressed in ivory white and wore a brooch of turquoise and diamonds at her throat, a buckle of the same at her waist, and a very handsome ring, also of turquoise and diamonds, on the third finger of her left hand. Evadney took the ornaments in at a glance. She had seen all that Edith had hitherto possessed, and these were new, but she did not for a moment attach any significance to the fact. It was Edith's radiant face that riveted her attention. A bright flush flickered on her delicate cheek, deepening or fading at each breath. Her large eyes floated in life. Even the bright strands of her yellow hair shone with unusual luster. Her step was so buoyant she scarcely seemed to touch the ground at all. She was all shy smiles, and as she came, with her slender white right hand, she played with the new ring she wore on her left, fingering it nervously. But anyone more ecstatically happy than she seemed, it is impossible to imagine. Menteeth could not take his eyes off her. He seemed to gloat over every item of her appearance. Oh, here is Evadney! She exclaimed in a voice of welcome, running up to the latter and kissing her with peculiar tenderness. Then she turned and looked up at Menteeth, then back again at Evadney, wanting to say something but not liking to. With a start of surprise, Evadney awoke to the significance of all this, and she knew too what was expected of her. But she could not say, I congratulate you, try as she would. I will wait for you in the drawing room. It was all she was able to gasp, and she hastened off in that direction as she spoke. How can you care so much for that cold, unsympathetic woman? Menteeth exclaimed. She is not cold and unsympathetic. Edith rejoined emphatically. I am afraid there is something long. I must go and see what it is. Oh, Mosley, I feel all chilled. It is a bad omen. This is a bad damn whore, he answered, laughing at her. You are too sensitive to changes of temperature. It seemed so, really, for her colour had faded and she had not recovered it when she appeared in the drawing room. Evadney was standing in the middle of the room alone, waiting for her. Edith, you are not going to marry that dreadful man. She exclaimed. Edith stopped short, astonished. Dreadful man, she gasped. You must be mad, Evadney. Mrs. Beale came into the room just as Edith uttered these words and overheard them. She had been on the point of happy smiles and tears, expecting kind congratulations, but at the tone of Edith's voice, almost more than at what she had said. And at the sight of the two girls, standing a little apart, looking into each other's faces in alarm and horror, her own countenance changed and the expression of blank inquiry succeeded the smiles and dried the tears. Oh, Mrs. Beale. Evadney entreated. You are not going to let Edith marry that dreadful man. Saying that, Edith exclaimed. My dear child, what do you mean? Mrs. Beale said gently to Evadney, taking her hand. I mean that he is bad. Thoroughly bad, said Evadney. Now tell me, what do you know about him? The old lady asked, leading Evadney to a sofa and making her sit down beside her upon it. Her manner was always excessively soothing and the first heat of Evadney's indignation began to subside as she came under the influence of it. I don't know anything about him. She answered confusedly, but I don't like the way he looks at me. Oh, come now. That is childish. Mrs. Beale said smiling. No, it is not. I'm sure it is not. Evadney rejoined, knitting her brows in a fruitless endeavour to grasp some idea that evaded her, some item of information that had slipped from her mind. I feel I have a consciousness which informs me of things my intellect cannot grasp and I do know, she exclaimed, her mental vision clearing as she proceeded, I have heard Colonel Cahoon drop hints and you would condemn him upon hints. Edith interjected contemptuously. I know that if Colonel Cahoon hints that there is something objectionable about a man, it must be something very objectionable indeed, Evadney answered, pooling suddenly. Edith turned crimson. Evadney, dear, Mrs. Beale remonstrated, patting her hand emphatically to restrain her. Edith has accepted him because she loves him and that is enough. If it were love it would be, Evadney answered, but it is not love she feels. Proved to her that this man is not a fit companion for her and she will droop for a while and then recover. The same thing would happen if you separated them for years without breaking off the engagement. Love which lasts is a condition of the mature mind. It is a fine compound of inclination and knowledge controlled by reason, which makes the object of it not a thing of haphazard, but a matter of choice. Mrs. Beale, she reiterated, you will not let Edith marry that dreadful man. My dear child, Mrs. Beale replied, speaking with angelic mildness, your mind is quite perverted on this subject and how it comes to be so I cannot imagine for your mother is one of the sweetest, truest, most long-suffering womanly women I ever knew and so is Lady Adeline Hamilton Wells and Mrs. Orton Bay. You have been brought up among womanly women, none of whom ever even thought such things as you do not hesitate to utter, I am sure. I once heard a discussion between Lady Adeline and Aunt Olive, who badly rejoined. It was about a lady who had a very bad husband and had patiently endured a great deal. It is beautiful, pathetic, pitiful to see a woman making the best of a bad bargain in that way, Aunt Olive said. It may be all that, Lady Adeline answered, but is it right? If this generation would object to bad bargains, the next would have fewer to make the best of. That is so like dear Adeline, Mrs. Beale observed, but what a memory you have, my dear, to be able to give the exact words. The bad news countenance fell. She was disheartened, but still she persisted. It is you good women, she said, clasping Mrs. Beale's hand in both of hers and holding it to her breast. It is you good women who make marriage a lottery for us. You, for instance, because you drew a prize yourself, you see no reason why every other woman should not be equally fortunate. I think when people make quite sure beforehand that they love each other, they are safe, even when the man has not been all that he ought to have been. Love is a great purifier, and love for a good woman has saved many a man, Mrs. Beale declared with the fervour of full conviction. That is presuming that a man who has not been all that he ought to have been is still able to love, said of Adne, which is not the case. We are all endowed with the power to begin with, but love is a delicate essence, as volatile as it is delicious, and when a man's moral fibre is loosened, his share of love escapes. But this is not the point. She broke off, dropping Mrs. Beale's hand and gathering herself together. The trouble now is that you are going to let Edith throw herself away on a man you know nothing about. Ah, my dear, there you are mistaken, Mrs. Beale interrupted, comfortably triumphant. They have known each other all their lives. They used to play together as children, and when I wrote to ask her father's consent to the engagement, he replied that the one thing which could reconcile him to parting with Edith was her choice of a man who had grown up under our own eyes. I can assure you that we know his faults quite as well as his good qualities. I thought she would like to have me in the regiment with Adne. With Benchard, with timid reproach. I would not like to have you anywhere as that man's wife, the bad me answered. Well, if he is, said Edith, with a flash of enthusiasm, if he is bad, I will make him good. If he is lost, I will save him. Spoken like a true woman, dearest, her mother said, rising to kiss her, and then standing back to look up at her with yearning love and admiration. If Adne rose also with a heavy sigh, I know how you feel, she said to Edith drearily. You glow and are glad from morning till night. You have a great yearning here, she clasped her hand to her breast. You find a new delight in music and new beauty in flowers. Unaccountable joy in the warmth and brightness of the sun, and rapture not to be contained in the quiet moonlight. You despise yourself and think your lover worthy of adoration. The consciousness of him never leaves you, even in your sleep. He is your last thought at night, your first in the morning. Even when he is away from you, you do not feel separated from him as you do from other people for a sense of his presence remains with you. And you flatter yourself that your spirits mingle when your bodies are apart. You think too that the source of all this ecstasy is holy, because it is pleasurable. You imagine it will last forever. Edith stared at her, that Adne should know the entranced of love herself so exactly that what reverence it is holy amazed her. And you call it love, if Adne added, as if she had read her thought. But it is not love. The threshold of love and hate adjoin. And it, this feeling, stands midway between them, an introduction to either. It is always a question, as marriages are now made, whether, when passion has had time to cool, husband and wife will love or detest each other. But what is the use of talking? She exclaimed, You will not heed me. It is too late now. She turned and walked toward the door. But Edith caught up by the arm and stopped her. Adne, do not go like this. She entreated with a sob in her voice. Wish me well at least. I do wish you well, said Adne, with what other motive could I have said so much? But I ask again, what is the use? Your parents are content to let you marry a man of whose private life they have no knowledge whatever, Mrs. Beale interrupted her. This is not quite the case, she confessed. We do know that there have been errors, but all that is over now. And it would be wicked of us not to believe the best and hope for the best. A young man in his position has great temptations and if he succumbs, he is pardoned because of his position. Oh, come now, Abadney, Mrs. Beale, remonstrated. You cannot think that such a consideration affects our decision. His position and property are very nice in themselves and indeed all that we care about in that way for Edith. But we were not thinking about either when we gave our consent. It is the dear fellow himself that we want. I can make him all that he ought to be. I know I can! Edith exclaimed fervently, clasping her hands and looking up with bright eyes full of confidence and passion. Abadney said not another word, but kissed them both and left the house. Mother, how strange Abadney is! Edith ejaculated. Mrs. Beale shook her head several times. I heard that she had some trouble at the outset of her own married life. She said, I don't know what it was, but doubt this it accounts for her manner today. Don't think about it, however. She will recover her right-mindedness as she grows older. A little shock upsets a girl's judgment very often, but she is so clever and conscientious she will certainly get over it. But you are quite agitated yourself, dear. Come! Think no more about what she said. Her own marriage quite disproves all her arguments. For Colonel Cahoon was notoriously just the kind of man she would have us believe Mosley is, and see what she has done for him and how well they get on together. Think no more about it, dear child. But come out with me. The air will tranquilise us both. On her way home, Abadney overtook Mr. Singin. He was walking slowly with his chin on his chest, looking down, and his whole demeanour was expressive of deep dejection. He looked up with a start when Abadney overtook him and their eyes met. You have heard, she said. He made an affirmative gesture. I never, never dreamt of such a thing, she went on. I thought, I hoped. Pardon me, but I hoped it would be you. She liked you so much, I know she did. But not enough, for she refused me. He answered gently. But doubtless, it is all for the best. His ways are not our ways, you know. And we suffer because we are too proud to resign ourselves to manifestations of his wisdom, which are beyond our comprehension. When you came up, I was feeling as if I could never say, Thy will be done with my whole heart, fervently in this matter. But since you spoke to me, I think I can. Abadney took his arm and the gentle pressure of her hand upon it expressed her heartfelt sympathy eloquently. If it had been anyone else, I thought at first. But doubtless, doubtless, it is all for the best. He added. And then he raised his head and changed the subject bravely. But Abadney did not hear what he was saying. But suddenly she found herself on the cliffs at home and it was a scented summer morning. The air was barmy, the sun was shining, the little waves rippled up over the sand, the birds were singing and the dewdrops hung on the yellow gauze. But that joy in her own being, which lent a charm to these, was wanting. And the songs seemed tune-less, the scent abrasive, the sea all sameness, the land a waste and the sun itself a glaring, garish boldness of light that accentuated her own disconsolation, the length of a life that is not worth living and the size of a world which contains no corner of comfort in all its pitiless expanse. And it was the same story too. She was witnessing the same mystery of love rejected, the same worthiness for the same unworthiness, the same fine discipline of resignation which made the pain of it indurable, listening to the same old pulpit platitudes even which had such force of soothing when reverently expressed. She and Edith were very different types of girlhood and it seemed a strange coincidence that their opportunities should have been identical nevertheless. But not singular that their action should have been the same because the force of nature which controlled them is a matter of constitution more than of character and subject only to a training which neither of them had received and without which, instead of ruling, they are ruled erratically. Havadney had quite forgotten by this time all her first fine feelings on the subject of a celibate priesthood. She now held that the laws of nature are the laws of God and marriage is a law of nature which there is no evidence that God has ever rescinded. Havadney had not heard what Mr. St. John was saying and she did not care to hear. She knew that it was not relevant to anything which either of them had in their minds but still held his arm and looked up at him sympathetically when he paused for a reply. And at that moment, Colonel Cahoon, accompanied by Sir Mosley Menteeth, turned out of a side street just behind them and followed on in the same direction. When Menteeth saw the two walking so familiarly, arm in arm, he glanced at Colonel Cahoon out of the corners of his eyes to see how he took it. But Colonel Cahoon's face remained serenely impassive. Easy, he said, we won't overtake them till we arrive at the house. I expect he is seeing her home. And as Mrs. Cahoon is only at her best, take our teeth, it would be a shame to deprive him of the small recompense he will get for his trouble. He twisted his moustache and continued to look at the pair thoughtfully when he had spoken. Menteeth glanced at him again to see if he might not for chance be concealing some secret annoyance under an affectation of easy indifference. But there was not a trace of anything of the kind apparent. There is no doubt that women do cling to the clergy. Was the outcome of Colonel Cahoon's reflections? I mean, metaphorically speaking, of course. He hastened to add with a laugh, perceiving the double construction that might be put on the remark in view of the situation. Now, there is only one fellow on the island that Ovadni cares for as much as she does for her friend there. I think she likes the other better, though. You mean yourself, of course, said Menteeth. No, I don't mean myself, of course, Colonel Cahoon answered, putting myself out of the question. It is price, I mean. I tried up old chap, Menteeth exclaimed, well, he's pretty safe, I should say. And I should never be jealous of a person myself. Women always treat them, dear Holt Ombar. I believe, sir, that Mrs. Cahoon is perfectly safe with anyone whom she may choose for a friend. Colonel Cahoon said with an emphasis which made Menteeth apologise immediately. Colonel Cahoon asked Ovadni that evening what she thought of the projected marriage. Think it detestable, she answered. Well, I think it a pity myself, he said. She's such a nice-looking girl, too. Ovadni turned to him with a flash of hope. Can't you do something, she exclaimed. Can't you prevent it? Absolutely impossible, he answered. And I beg as a favour to myself that you won't try. I've done my best already, she said. Then you have made your friends enemies for life, he declared. A girl like that won't give up a man she loves even for such considerations as have made you indifferent to my happiness and welfare. Ovadni perceived the contradiction involved in commending Edith for doing what he considered it a pity that she should do. But she recognised her own impotence also and was silent. It was the system, the horrid system that was to blame and neither he nor she nor any of them. Colonel Cahoon ruminated for a little. It is rather curious, he finally observed, that you should both have shied at the Parsons seeing how very particular you are. Who told you he had both refused a clergyman, Ovadni asked? Everybody in Morton knows that St. John proposed to Miss Beale, he answered. And your father told me about the offer you had. He remarked at the time that girls will only have manly men and that therefore we soldiers get the pick-off. Ovadni was silent. She was thinking of something her father had once remarked in her presence on the same subject. I have observed, he said in his pompous way, that the clergy carry off all the nicest girls. You will see some of the finest, who have money of their own too, marry quite commonplace Parsons. But the reason is obvious. It is their faith in the superior moral probity of churchmen which weighs with them. The scales went home the following week to prepare for the wedding which was to take place immediately. They both wrote to Ovadni kindly before they left and she replied in the same tone. But she could not persuade herself to see them again, nor did they wish it. End of Chapter 13 End of Book 2 The Heavenly Twins by Sarah G. Book 3 Development and Arrest of Development Fury Blood thou canst see and fire and canst hear groans Worse things unheard, unseen remain behind. Prometheus Worse? Fury In each human heart terror survives, the raven it has gorged, the loftiest fear all that they would disdain to think were true. Hypocrisy and custom make their minds, the feigns of many a worship now outworn. They dare not devise good for man's estate and yet they know not that they do not dare. The good want power but to weep, bear in tears. The powerful goodness want, worse need for them. Love and those who love want wisdom and all best things are thus confused to ill. Many are strong and rich and would be just, but live among their suffering fellow men as if none felt they know not what they do. Prometheus Unbound Chapter 1 Edith was married in the cathedral at Morningquest and of course the twins were present at the wedding. From what social gathering were they ever excluded they chose to be present. Mrs. Beale had not thought of asking them at all, but Angelica intimated in her royal way that she wished to be a bridesmaid and Diavolo must be a page and Lady Adeline begged Mrs. Beale for heaven's sake to arrange it so less worse should come of it. But the twins did not enjoy the occasion at all for the truth was that they were not as they had been. Angelica was rapidly outstripping Diavolo as was inevitable at that age. He was still a boy, but she was verging on womanhood and already had thoughts which did not appeal to him and moods which he could not comprehend, the consequence being continual quarrels between them, those quarrels in which people are hottest and bitterest, not because of their hate, but because of their love for each other. There is such agony and misunderstanding and blame when all has hitherto been comprehension, approval and sympathy. The shadow of approaching maturity which would separate them inevitably for the next few years already touched Angelica perceptibly and although to the onlookers they seemed to treat each other as usual both children felt that there was something wrong and their discomfort was all the greater because neither of them could account for the change. Angelica had been for some time in her most hoidonish, least human stage, during which she had given up hugging Diavolo and take into butting him in the stomach instead. But she was growing beyond that now and was in fact just on the borderland, hovering between two states, in the one of which she was a child, all nonsense and mischievous tricks and in the other a girl with tender impulses and yearning senses seeking some satisfaction. She and Diavolo had promised themselves some fun at Edith's wedding but when the morning came Angelica was moody and irritable and Diavolo watched her and waited in vain for a suggestion. When they were in the cathedral during the ceremony she had a strange feeling that there was something in it all that specially concerned her and she looked at Edith and listened to the service intently in an involuntary effort to obtain some clue to her own sensations. Diavolo, who was all sympathy when there was anything really wrong with her became alarmed. "'Does your stomach ache?' he whispered. They were kneeling side by side. "'Oh,' she answered shortly. "'Oh, then I suppose there is something morally wrong,' he observed in a satisfied tone as if he knew from experience that that was a small thing compared with the other complaint. They sat together at the wedding breakfast but Angelica continued silently observant. Diavolo had brought a big boiled shrimp in his pocket. It was black and of great age and he managed to fasten it adroitly on the shoulder of the lady who sat next to him so that its long antenna tickled her neck and provoked her attention to it. Glancing down sideways and catching a glimpse of black eyes and many legs she thought it was some horrid creature with a sting and jumped up shrieking wildly to everybody's consternation. Angelica declared it was a stupid trick. "'Will you put me up to it yourself?' Diavolo grumbled. "'Did I?' she snapped. Then I was wrong. Somebody began to make a speech which was all in praise of the lovely bride and Diavolo, listening to it and remembering that he had wished to marry her himself, became intensely sentimental. He recovered his shrimp and laying it out on the cloth before him gazed at it in a melancholy way. "'All the nice girls marry,' he complained, thinking of Evadney. "'Well, what's that to you?' Angelica demanded with a jealous flash. "'Only that I suppose you also will marry and leave me some day,' he readily responded. Diavolo was nothing if not courtly. But Angelica knew him and resented this attempt to impose upon her. "'I despise you,' she exclaimed. And then she turned to Mr. Kilroy of Ilverthorpe, who was her neighbour on the right, and made great friends with him to spite Diavolo. But the latter was engrossed in his breakfast by that time and took no notice. When they got back to Hamilton House, Mr. Ellis asked her how she had enjoyed the wedding. "'It made me feel sick,' she said, and then she got a book and slinging herself down on a window seat with her long legs straggling out behind her and her face to the light, made a pretense of reading. Diavolo hovered about her with a dismal face, trying to devise some method of taking her out of herself. "'My ear does bother me,' he said at last, sitting down beside her with his back to the window, and his legs stretched straight out before him close together. "'I feel as if I could tear it off.' "'No, don't. You might want it again,' Angelica retorted. And then, the observation striking her as ludicrous, she looked up at him and grinned, and so broke the ice.' Mr. Ellis was the first to notice signs of the impending change in Angelica. Although she was over fifteen, she had no coquettish or womanly ways. Insisted on wearing her dresses up to her knees, expressed the strongest objection to being grown up and considered a young lady, and had never been known to look at herself in the glass. But she began to be less teasing and more sympathetic, and sometimes now, if the tutor were tired or worried, she noticed it and pulled Diavolo up for being a nuisance. The day after the wedding, in the afternoon, Dr. Galbraith walked over from Fountain Towers to Hamilton House, through the fields, and encountered Lord Dawn in the porch. It was lovely summer weather. "'I am looking for the children,' Lord Dawn said. "'I have come over from Morn with a message for them from their grandfather. "'Do you happen to have seen them anywhere?' "'Yes, I have,' Dr. Galbraith answered dryly, but with a twinkle in his eyes. "'I discovered them just now in a field of mine—a hayfield. Not that they were making any pretense of hiding themselves, however,' he hastened to add. For they were each sitting on the top of a separate haycock, carrying on an animated discussion, in tones as elevated as their position, so that I heard them long before I saw them. "'They will end the discussion by demolishing my haycocks, I suppose,' he concluded, resignedly. "'What was it all about?' Lord Dawn asked. "'Well, I believe they started with the vexed question of primogeniture,' Dr. Galbraith replied. When I came up with them they were quarreling because they could not agree as to whether they were more their fathers or their mother's children. Angelica maintained the latter, for reasons which she gave at the top of her voice with admirable accuracy. When I appeared they both appealed to me to confirm their opinions, but I fled. I am not so advanced as the heavenly twins.' Lord Dawn looked grave. "'What will become of the child Angelica?' he said. "'Oh, you needn't be anxious about her,' Dr. Galbraith replied, and full at him with sympathy and affection in his kind grey eyes. She has no vice in her whatever, and not a trace of hysteria. Her talk is mere exuberance of intellect.' "'I don't know,' her uncle answered. "'Qui pour tout dire, arrive à tout faire, you know.' "'I find that falsified continually in my profession,' Dr. Galbraith rejoined. "'It depends entirely as a rule upon how the thing is said and why. If it be a matter of inclination only, controlled by fear of the law or public opinion which is expressed, the aphorism would hold probably. But language which is the outcome of moods or phases that are transient makes no permanent mark upon the character.' Lord Dawn took Dr. Galbraith to the drawing-room where they found Lady Adeline with Mr. Hamilton Wells and the tutor. Mr. Ellis had been a great comfort to Lady Adeline ever since he came to the house. She felt, she said, that she should always owe him a deep debt of gratitude for his patient care of her terrible children. "'You are just in time for tea, George,' she said to Dr. Galbraith. "'Dawn, you had better wait here for the children. They won't be late this afternoon, I am sure, because Mr. Kilroy of Ilverthorpe is here, and Angelica likes him to talk to.' "'Ah, now you do surprise me,' said Dr. Galbraith, for I should have thought that Mr. Kilroy was the last person in the world to interest Angelica.' "'And so he is,' Mr. Hamilton Wells observed in his precisest way, and she does not profess to find him interesting. But what she says is that she must talk, and he does for a target to talk at.' Lady Adeline looked anxiously at the door while her husband was speaking. She was in terror lest Mr. Kilroy should come in and hear him, for Mr. Hamilton Wells had a habit of threshing his subject out, even when it was obviously unfortunate, and would not allow himself to be interrupted by anybody. He made his favorite gesture with his hands when he had spoken, which consisted in spreading his long white fingers out as if he wore lace ruffles which were in the way, and was shaking them back a little. He had a long, cadaverous face, clean shaven, straight hair of suspicious brownness, parted in the middle, and plastered down on either side of his head, and a general air of being one of his own Puritan ancestors, who should have appeared in black velvet and lace, and his punctilious manners strengthened this impression. The one trinket he displayed was a ring, which he wore on the forefinger of his right hand, a handsome intoglio carved out of crimson coral. It seemed to be the only part of his natural costume which had survived, and came into play continually. Mr. Kilroy entered the room in time to hear the concluding remark, but naturally did not take it to himself, and Lord Dawn, seeing his sister's trepidation, came to the rescue by diverting the subject into another channel. They were all sitting round an open window, and just at that moment the twins themselves appeared in sight, struggling up the drive in a deep discourse with their arms round each other's necks, and Angelica's dark head resting against Diavolo's fair one. Harmony reigns among the heavenly bodies apparently, said Dr. Galbraith. The powers of darkness plotting evil more likely, said their Uncle Dawn. Naughty children! What have they done with their hats? Lady Adeline exclaimed. Discovered some ingenious method of doing damage to my hay with them most probably, Dr. Galbraith observed. They all leaned forward, watching the children. Angelica is growing up, said Lord Dawn. She has always been the taller, stronger, and wicketer of the two, and will remain so, I expect, said Dr. Galbraith. But how old is she now exactly, Mr. Kilroy wanted to know? Nearly sixteen, Lady Adeline answered. But a very young sixteen in some ways I am thankful to say, and I believe we have you to thank Mr. Ellis for keeping her so. The tutor's strong but care-worn face flushed sensitively, but he only answered with a deprecating gesture. Then how old is Diavolo? Mr. Kilroy pursued absently. About the same age, Mr. Hamilton Wells replied, without moving a muscle of his face. Lady Adeline looked puzzled. Of course they are the same age, she said, as if the point could be disputed. Mr. Kilroy woke up. Oh, of course, of course, he exclaimed with some embarrassment. The twins had gone round the house by this time, and presently Diavolo appeared in the drawing-room alone. His thick, fair hair stood out round his head like a rumpled mop. His face and hands were not immaculate, and his clothes were creased. But he entered the room with the same courtly, yet diffident air and high-bred ease which distinguished his Uncle Don, whom he imitated as well as resembled in most things. He took his seat beside him now, and remarked that it was a nice day, and— but before he could finish the affable phrase, the door burst open from without, and Angelica entered. Hello, are you all here? she said. How are you, Uncle Don? I wish you would not be so impetuous, Diavolo remonstrated gently. You quite startled one. You are a coon, said Angelica. My dear child! Lady Adeline began. Well, Mama, no matter what I do, Diavolo grumps at me. Angelica snapped. What expressions you use! sighed Lady Adeline. Angelica plumped down on the arm of her Uncle's chair, and hugged him round the head with one hand. She smelt overpoweringly strong of hay and hot weather, but he patiently endured the caress, which was over in a moment as it happened, for Angelica caught sight of her cat lurking under a sofa opposite, and bending down double whistled to it. Then she turned her attention to a huge slice of bread, butter, and jam she held in her hand. Diavolo's soul appeared in his face, and shone out of his eyes when she bit it. Have some, said Angelica, going over to him, and edging him half off his chair so as to make room for herself beside him. She held the bread and butter to his mouth as she spoke, and they finished it together, bite and bite about. Now I am ready for tea, said Angelica when they had done. So am I, said Diavolo, with a sigh of satisfaction. Let us have afternoon tea with you here today, Mr. Ellis, Angelica coaxed. It's so much more sociable, and I want to talk to Mr. Kilroy. She jumped up in her impetuous way, plumped down again on a low stool in front of that gentleman, clasped her hands round her knees, and looked up in his face as she spoke. That's a nice place you've got it, she was beginning, but Mr. Ellis interrupted her by throwing up his head and ejaculating, Grammar! Bother, Angelica exclaimed testily. Now you've put me all out. I was going to say, you have a nice place at Ilverthorpe. We were over there the other day and inspected it. Very happy. Glad I am sure you did not stand upon ceremony, Mr. Kilroy answered. But this politeness seemed altogether superfluous to Angelica, and she did not therefore acknowledge it in any way. I suppose you will go into Parliament now, she pursued. Mr. Kilroy looked surprised. The idea had occurred to him lately, but he was not aware of having mentioned it to anyone. I hope you will at all events, she continued, and let me write your speeches for you. That is what Diavolo is going to do. You see, I shall want a mouthpiece until I get in myself, and I don't mind having you two if you are clever at learning by heart. You have a pleasant voice and good address to begin with, and that is all in your favour. Oh, you needn't exchange glances with Papa, she broke off. He doesn't know how I mean to order my life in the least. But you will allow him some voice in the ordering of it, at least until you marry, I suppose, Mr. Kilroy observed. That depends, Angelica answered decidedly. You see, a child comes into the world for purposes of its own, and not in order to carry out any preconceived ideas its father may have of what it is good for. And as to marrying, well, that requires consideration. Now I call that a very proper spirit in which to approach the subject, Mr. Kilroy declared. You have every right to expect to make the best match possible, and the choice for a young lady in your position will be restricted. Not at all, said Angelica bluntly. Is thy servant a slave of a princess that she should marry a rickety king? I have quite other views for myself. In fact, I think the wisest plan for me would be to buy a nice clean little boy and bring him up to suit my own ideas. I needn't marry him, you know, if he doesn't turn out well. She slipped from the footstool onto the floor as she spoke and began to make friendly overtures to the cat. I always thought you had designs on Dr. Galbraith, said Diavolo, meaning to provoke her. Did you? she answered. Then you must have thought me of a suicidal tendency. Why, he would pound me up in a mortar if I disagreed with him. You have heard him slam a door? He is irascible, Diavolo answered, quite as if Dr. Galbraith were not present listening to him. He called me a little brute on one occasion. Which reminds me, said Dr. Galbraith, what have you done to my decoy? The birds have forsaken it. We never did anything to your decoy, rejoined Angelica in a positive tone. You just went down there yourself one day and exploded some long words at the ducks, and naturally they scooted. Well, I warn you, said Dr. Galbraith, frowning with decision. I warn you that I am going to have keys made for everything about the place that will lock up. And all the same I shall only allow you to come under escort of the chief constable, and I shall keep a posse of detectives concealed about the grounds to watch for you carefully. The twins exploded with delight. Didn't I promise you I'd draw him this afternoon? Diavolo exclaimed. You did!" Angelica responded, with tears in her eyes. Lord Dawn got up. Won't you stay for tea? Lady Adeline exclaimed. It is just coming. I don't care for any thank you, he answered, and I really ought not to have stayed so long. I only came to ask if you would let the children come. Both my father and Fulda have set their hearts upon having them. Are we to go to mourn? cried Angelica. For a visit? To stay, said Diavolo. If you behave yourselves, their mother answered. Oh, in that case, said Diavolo, shrugging his shoulders as at an impossibility. It would never do for us to be good there, said Angelica. Grandpapa would be so dreadfully disappointed if we were. Quite so, said Diavolo, and then they scampered out together into the hall and kicked each other in the exuberance of their spirits. But without ill-will. End of Book 3, Chapter 1 Book 3, Chapter 2 of The Heavenly Twins This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Devorah Allen. The Heavenly Twins by Sarah G. Book 3, Chapter 2 As soon as the Heavenly Twins were safely settled at Morn, Mr. Hamilton Wells played them a huge trick. He made Lady Adeline pack up and set off with him for a voyage round the world without them. When their parents were well on the way and the news was broken to the children, the people at Morn expected storm and trouble. But the Heavenly Twins saw the joke at once and chuckled immoderately. I wonder how long it took him to think it out, said Diavolo. It must have been a brilliant impromptu, Angelica supposed, because you know our coming here was all arranged in a moment. If you remember, we came because they looked so sure that we shouldn't. I expect as soon as we had gone it was such a relief that Papa said, Adeline, my dear, we must prolong this period of peace. And he's just about hit on the only way to do so. I should like to have seen him, though, popping in and out of the train whenever it stopped. He must have been in a perfect fever until they were safe on board and out at sea, fearing we might have heard that they were off and found some means of following them. We might do so still, said Angelica thoughtfully. No, too much bother, said Diavolo. And besides, there is a good deal going on here, you know, he added significantly. But I say, he demanded, becoming parent sick suddenly, do you understand how they could go off like that without saying goodbye to us? We call it beastly unnatural. I'll give them their due, said Angelica. They did say goodbye to us. Don't you remember how particularly affectionate they were the last time they came, and all the good advice they gave us? Do attend to Mr. Ellis. Don't worry your grandfather, and that sort of thing. They must have relieved their own feelings thoroughly. Well, then they didn't consider ours much, Diavolo grumbled, and they might have allowed us, poor grass orphans, the comfort of bidding them farewell. We'll write them a letter, said Angelica. Diavolo grinned. And this was how it happened that the heavenly twins, who had only gone to mourn for a month, remained a year there, and one of the most important years of their lives, as was afterward evident. It was during this time that they managed to identify themselves completely with their grandfather in the estimation of the people of Morningquest. Charming manners were a family trait, and the heavenly twins had always been popular in the city on their own account. Their spontaneity and extreme affability having usually been held to balance their monkey tricks. Hamilton House, however, was ten miles distant from Morningquest, and they had hitherto been thought of as Hamilton Wells. But after that year at the castle, they became identified with the old stock, the alien Hamilton Wells being dropped out of sight altogether. The Duke himself had always been popular. He had, like his ancestors, lived much in his castle on the hill overlooking the city, and had dominated the latter by his personality as well as by his place, so that the people, predisposed by the pressure of hereditary habit to recognize the preeminence of one of his family, and being no longer subject to the authority of their Duke, as in the old days when he was a ruler who must be obeyed, looked up to him involuntarily as an example to be followed. Which was how it came to pass that, for the last half-century, there had been two influences at work in Morningquest. That of the Chime, full-fraught with spiritual suggestion, and that of the Duke, which was just the opposite. They were the influences of good and evil, and needless to say, the effect of the latter was much the more certain of the two. A great change, however, came over the Duke toward the end of his life. In his youth he had filled the place with riot and debauchery. In middle age he had concealed his doings under respectable cloaks of excuse, such as the county club and business. But now he was old and superstitious, and sought to sway the people in another direction altogether. For when his youngest daughter, the beautiful Lady Fulda, became a Roman Catholic, she wrought upon him by her earnestness so as to make him fear the flames, and drove him in that way to seek solace and salvation in the church as well. And when he had done so himself, he rather expected, and quite intended, that everybody else should do likewise. But the people of Morningquest who had adopted his vices did not fear the flames themselves, and would have nothing to do with his piety. They were like the children in Punch, who, when threatened with the policeman at the corner, exclaimed in derision, Why, that's father! And besides, the times were changing rapidly, and the influence which remained to the aristocracy was already only dominant, so long as it went the way of popular feeling and was human. Directly it retrograded to past privileges, ideas, superstitions, and tastes, the people laughed at it. They knew that the threatened rule of the priest was a far-fetched anachronism, which they need not fear for themselves in the aggregate, and they therefore gave themselves up with interest to the observation of such evidences of its effect on the individual as the duke should betray to them from time to time. Their theory was that, having grown too old for worldly dissipation, he had entered the church in search of new forms of excitement, and to vary the monotony generally, as so many elderly coquettes do when they can no longer attract attention in any other way. This, the people maintained, was the nature of such religious consolation as he enjoyed, and upon that supposition certain lapses of his were accounted for uncharitably. But in truth the duke was perfectly sincere. He had turned so late in life, however, that he was apt, by force of habit, to get muddled. His difficulty was to disconnect the past from the present, the two having a tendency to mix themselves up in his mind. The great interest of his old age was the building of a Roman Catholic cathedral and morning quest. But occasionally, and always at the most inconvenient times, he would forget it was a cathedral, and imagine it was an opera house he was supporting. And when he went to distribute the prizes in the schools, he would compliment the pretty girls on their good looks instead of lecturing them on the sin of vanity, and promised that they should sing in the chorus, or dance in the ballet if their legs were good, when he should have been discoursing about the dangers of the vain world and pointing the moral of happy, humble obscurity. On these occasions, Lady Fulda, who was always beside him, suffered a good deal. She would pull him up in a whisper which he sometimes made her repeat until everyone in the place had heard it but himself, and then at last when he did understand he would hasten to correct himself. But, of course, it was the mistake and not the correction which made the most lasting impression. Lady Fulda was not at all clever. In the schoolroom she was always far behind her sisters, Lady Adeline and Lady Claudia. And before his conversion, her father used to say that she had the appearance of a Juno, and the cow-like capacity one would naturally expect from the portraits of that matron, now extant. But this was not fair to her intelligence, for she had a certain range which included sympathetic insight and the knack of saying the right thing, both for her own purpose and for the occasion. She had a full exterior of uncrumpled, lineless, delicately tinted flesh, a voice that made good morning impressive when she said it, a sincerity which paused upon every expression of opinion to weigh its worth. She would hardly say, it is a fine day, without first glancing at the weather, just to be sure that it had not changed since she decided to make the remark. And she had a great, loving heart. If she did not sigh for husband and children, it was because she was never in the presence of any creature for many minutes without feeling a flood of tenderness for them suffuse her whole being, so that her affections were always satisfied. Because of her grand presence people expected great things of her, and none of them ever went disappointed away. She filled their hearts, and nobody ever complains of the head when the heart is full. Love was the secret both of her beauty and her power. The twins arrived late one day at morn, and immediately afterward the whole castle was pervaded by their presence, and signs of them appeared in the most unlikely places. A mysterious packet, rolled up in a sheet of the Times, considerably soiled and known as Angelica's Work, which nobody had ever seen opened, was found in the Oriole Room on the seat of the chair sacred to the Duke himself, and a cricket cap of diavolos was discovered on one of the tall candles which stood on the altar in the private chapel of the castle, as if it had been used as an extinguisher. A peculiar intentness was also observed in the expression of the children's countenances which was thought to be token mischief, because always hitherto it had been noticed that when the gravity of their demeanor was most exemplary, the wickedness of the design upon which they were engaged was sure to be extreme. But all the old symptoms were misleading at this time, for the twins settled down at once, with lively, intelligent interest, to the innocent occupation of studying the ways of the household, their own conduct being distinguished for the most part by a masterly inactivity. For the truth was they were thinking. They had lately taken to reading the books and papers and magazines of the day, which they found in the library at Hamilton House, and at Morn they followed the same occupation, and thus had an opportunity of seeing the questions which interested them treated from different points of view. At home all had been liberal, Protestant, and progressive, but at Morn the tendency of everything was Roman Catholic, conservative, and retrograde, and they were doing their best, as their conversations with different people at this time showed, to discover the why and wherefore, and right and wrong of the difference. Angelica was naturally the first to draw definite conclusions for herself, and having made up her own mind she began to instruct Diavolo. She was teaching him to respect women for one thing. When he didn't respect them, she beat him, and this made him thoughtful. You wouldn't strike me if you didn't know that I can't strike you back because you're a girl, he remonstrated. And you wouldn't say that if you didn't know the cruelest thing you can do to a woman is to hurt her feelings, she retorted. Oh, feelings, exclaimed Diavolo. You've got castanets that clock where you should have feelings. Angelica raised her hand, and then dropped it by her side again and looked at him. What do you mean by this nonsense? She demanded. We always have fought everything out ever since we were born. Yes, he said regretfully. And you used to be as hard as nails. When I got a good hit at you it made my knuckles tingle. But now you're getting all boggy everywhere. Just look at your arms. Angelica ripped her tight sleeve open to the shoulder with one of her sudden jerks, and looked at her arm. Now see mine, said Diavolo, taking off his coat, and turning up his shirt sleeve in his more deliberate way. Angelica held out her arm beside his to compare them. Hers was round and white and firm, with every little blue vein visible beneath the fine transparent skin. His was all hard muscle and bone, burnt brown with the sun, and coarse of texture compared with hers. You see now, he said. Angelica slowly drew down the tattered remains of her sleeve, and then she looked at Diavolo thoughtfully, and from him to a full-length reflection of herself in a long mirror on the wall. We're growing up, she said, in a surprised sort of tone. You are, he said. I seem to be just about as young as ever I was. All the more reason that I should teach you then, said Angelica. Education matures the mind, and the principal instrument of education for your sex has always been a stick. Women are open to reason from their cradles, but men have to be whopped. They are thrashed at school, that being, as they have always maintained themselves, the best way to deal with them. He that spareth the rod hated his son, but he that loveth him chaseneth him betimes. And withhold not correction from the child, for if thou betest him with the rod he shall not die. It is only the boys you see that have their minds enlarged in that way, because if you tell a girl a thing, she understands it at once. And when men grow up and things go wrong, they still think they ought to thrash each other. That is also their creative way of settling the disputes of nations. They just hack each other down in hundreds, sacrificing the lives which are precious to the women they should be loving, for the sake of ideas that are always changing. You certainly are the stupid part of humanity," she concluded. And how you ever discovered the way to manage each other, I can't imagine. But it was the right one. A whip for the horse, a bridle for the ass, and a rod for the fool's back. And so, saying, she flounced out of the room, without, however, administering the parting slap of another kind which he expected. But the episode made a lasting impression on Diavolo, as was apparent in much that he said, and particularly in some remarks which he made during a conversation he had with his grandfather toward the end of the year. A capital understanding had always existed between Diavolo and his grandfather. A fact which caused Lady Adeline's heart to sink every time she observed it, but had an opposite effect on the duke himself. A quite exhilarating effect, indeed, which was the cause of certain of those lapses which Lady Fulda had so often to deplore. As when, for instance, he aided and abetted Diavolo in some of his worst tricks, and then had to sit sheepishly by saying nothing when the boy was found out and corrected. Lady Fulda was puzzled by the intelligent glances that passed between the two at such times, but Diavolo was perfectly loyal, and never once got his grandfather into trouble. One of the dreams of the old duke's life was to make a good Catholic of Diavolo, and to that end his conversation was often directed. Intermittently it is true because Diavolo was skilled in the art of beguiling him into other subjects when it suited himself. The duke was turning his attention at this time, under Lady Fulda's direction, to the spiritual welfare of that class of women which in former times he had been accustomed to countenance in quite another way. Lady Fulda had established a refuge for these in Morning Quest, and her father was deeply interested in the success of the undertaking. The heavenly twins were all so much interested. At first they could not make out why their aunt Fulda so often breakfasted in her outdoor dress, and whether she had just come in or was just going out. If there were no visitors staying at the castle, the party at breakfast was small, there being only the old duke, Father Ricardo, Mr. Ellis, and the heavenly twins as a rule. When Lady Fulda did appear, the meal was usually half over. The duke sat at the end of the long table, with the twins on either side of him. But he was generally limp and quarrelous in the morning, and more kindly disposed toward Father Ricardo than to his own flesh and blood, as Angelica pointed out on one occasion. When Lady Fulda came in she always went up to her father and kissed him. He did not rise to receive the salute, but he invariably held her hand some seconds, and asked any news anxiously, to which she always answered yes or no, and then he would say, you must tell me afterward. Go to your seat now, take plenty of rest and refreshment. Both are necessary, both are necessary. The heavenly twins were inclined to regard this scene with scorn and contempt of ignorance at first. But when Lord Dawn came to the castle for a few days, with their widowed aunt Lady Claudia and Ideala, and all these paid the same reverent attention to Lady Fulda's report as the duke and Father Ricardo did, they reserve judgment until they should know more about the matter. They asked Mr. Ellis for an explanation, but he told them bluntly to mind their own business, and further puzzled them by a remark which they chanced to hear him make about Lady Fulda to Dr. Galbraith. They did not overhear what Dr. Galbraith had said to lead up to it, but Mr. Ellis answered, grasp her character. She is not a character at all. She's a beautiful abstraction. Now, Ideala is human. Although the twins were protestants by education, and also by nature, one may say, it had pleased them to go regularly to certain services in the chapel from the day of their arrival at the castle. We enjoy them very much, Angelica said, to the great delight of her aunt and grandfather. I am sure the atmosphere of devotion in which we live will have its effect upon the children, the latter said several times. And so it had. It was never the low mass, however, at which they appeared, but the more sensuous, sumptuous functions, when there was music, of which they both were exceedingly fawn, both of them being excellent musicians. Soon after her arrival at the castle, Angelica bought a big drum. She said she couldn't express her feelings on any other instrument on Sunday. Her spiritual fervor was so excessive. Her behaviour in chapel, however, was for the most part exemplary. Her aunt noticed that she often knelt all through the service with a book before her, thoroughly absorbed. Lady Fulda was anxious to know what the book was, and on one occasion when Angelica remained on her knees after the congregation had dispersed, with her handkerchief pressed to her face, apparently deeply moved. Her aunt stole up behind her softly, and peeped over her shoulder, expecting to see a holy imitation, or something of that kind. But to her horror, she found that the book was Bernan's happy thoughts, and that Angelica's gurglings were not tears of repentance, but suppressed explosions of hearty laughter. This happened during what proved to be rather a trying time for Lady Fulda. It was while Lord Dawn, Lady Claudia, and Ideala were at the castle, and the Old Duke was, as Lady Fulda delicately phrased it to her sister Claudia in private, inclined to be tiresome. It was at this time that he had several relapses. One of these happened in chapel during benediction. The choir had been singing O Salutares Hostia, at the conclusion of which everybody was startled by a senile cheer from the stalls. The Duke had dozed off into a dream of the opera, and had awakened suddenly, under the impression that a wooden image of the Blessed Virgin opposite had just completed a lovely solo, and was unexpectedly following it up by an audacious past soul. Aren't our ancestors like us? Diavolo whispered to Angelica enthusiastically. But Angelica dampened his ardent admiration of the coup by refusing to believe that the diminutive Duke had done it on purpose. CHAPTER III The next day Diavolo happened to stroll into the Oriole Room about tea-time, and finding his grandfather sitting there alone, looking down upon morning-quest from his accustomed seat in the great deep window which was open, he carefully chose a soft cushion, placing it on the low sill so that he could rest his back against it, and stretching himself out on the floor, looked up at the old gentleman sociably. You're growing a big fellow, sir, the latter observed. But not growing so fast as Angelica is, said Diavolo. Ah, women mature earlier, said the Duke. But their minds never get far beyond the first point at which they arrive. I suppose you mean when they marry at seventeen, or their education is otherwise stopped short for them, just when a man is beginning his properly, Diavolo languidly suggested. The Duke frowned down at him. Where is your sister, he asked? That I can't tell you, Diavolo answered. Don't you know, the Duke said sharply. Yes, was the cool rejoinder, but I don't happen to have my sister's permission to say. The old man's face relaxed into a smile. That's right, my boy, that's right, he said. Loyalty is a grand virtue. Be loyal to the ladies. He shook his head in search of an improving atherism, but only succeeded in extracting a familiar saw. Kiss but never tell, he said. It's vulgarly put, my boy, but there's a whole code in it. And a damned chivalrous code, too. I tell you, men were gentlemen when they stuck to it. There was a sound of stealthy footsteps in the room at this moment, and the old Duke glanced over his shoulder apprehensively, while Diavolo bent to one side to peer around the chair his grandfather was sitting in, which was between him and the door. It's one of the dogs, he said carelessly. Father Ricardo is out, I think. The Duke looked relieved. Well, Diavolo resumed, reflectively. I should have thought myself that it was playing it pretty low down to sneak on a woman. But I say, sir," he asked innocently, how would you define a lady-killer? Lady-killer, said the little old gentleman, taking hold of his collar to perk himself up out of his clothes, as it were, on the strength of his past reputation. A lady-killer is a, uh, a fellow whom ladies, uh, admire. Do you mean real ladies are only pretty women, said Diavolo? Both my boy, both," the Duke answered complacently. He was beginning to enjoy himself. You were one once, were you not, sir, said Diavolo. I suppose you had adduced good time. Ah, the Duke ejaculated, with a sigh of retrospective satisfaction. Then, suddenly remembering his new role, he pulled himself up and added severely. But keep clear of women, my boy, keep clear of women. Women are the very devil, sir. But supposing they run after you, said Diavolo. Nowadays, you know, a fellow gets so hunted down, they say. Oh, ah, then. In that case, you see, said the Duke, relapsing, the principal has always been to take the good the gods may send you and be thankful. There was a pause after this, during which the Duke again recollected himself. We were talking about women, he sternly recommended, and I was warning you that their wiles are snares of the evil one, who finds them ever ready to carry out his worst behests. Women are bad. Are they now, said Diavolo? Well, I should have thought, taking them all round, you know, that they're a precious sight better than we are. It was a woman, my boy, the Duke said solemnly, who compassed the fall of man. Well, Diavolo rejoined, with a calmly judicial air. I've thought a good deal about that story myself, and it doesn't seem to me to prove that women are weak, but rather the contrary. For you see, the woman could tempt the man easily enough, but it took the very old devil himself to tempt the woman. Huh! said the Duke, looking hard at his grandson. And at any rate, Diavolo pursued. It happened a good while ago, that business, and it's just as likely as not that it was Adam whom the devil first put up to a thing or two and Eve got it out of him. For I grant you that women are curious. And then they both came a cropper together, and it was a case of six of one and half a dozen of the other. It mostly is, I should think, in a business of that kind. Well, yes, said the Duke. In my own experience I always found that we were just about one as bad as the other, and he chuckled. Then we may conclude that there is a doubt about that Garden of Eden story, whichever way you look at it, and it's too old for an argument at any rate, said Diavolo. But there is no doubt about the redemption. It was a woman who managed that little affair. And altogether it seems to me, in spite of the disadvantage of being classed by law with children, lunatics, beggars, and irresponsible people generally, that in the matter of who have done most good in the world, women come out a long chalk ahead of us. Why the devil don't you speak English, sir? The Duke burst out testily. Diavolo started. Good gracious grand-papa! He began with his customary deliberation. How sudden you are! You quite made me jump. Is it the slang you don't like? Yes, sir, it is the slang I don't like. Then you've only got to say so, said Diavolo, in a tone of milder monstrance. You really quite upset me when you're so sudden. Angelica will tell you I never could stand being startled. She's tried all kinds of things to cure me. You can't frighten me, you know. It's just the jump I object to. So you object, do you? said the Duke, bending his brows upon him. Then I apologize. Oh, no, pray don't mention it, sir, said Diavolo. I didn't mean you to go so far as that, you know, and it's over in a minute. Angelica burst into the room at this point, followed by two or three dogs, and immediately took up her favorite position on the arm of her grandfather's chair. I want some tea, she said. It's coming, said Diavolo. You say that because you don't want the trouble of getting up to ring, Angelica retorted. Diavolo looked at her provokingly, and she was about to say something tart when a footman opened the door wide, and two others entered, carrying the tea things, and at the same time the rest of the party began to assemble. Lady Fulda was the first to arrive with her widowed sister, Lady Claudia. They presented a great contrast, the one being so perfectly lovely, the other so decidedly plain. Lady Claudia was a tall, gaunt woman, hard in manner, with no pretension to any accomplishments, but wise, and of a faithful affectionate disposition, which deeply endeared her to her friends. Lord Dawn came in next, with Dr. Galbraith and Mr. Kilroy of Ilverthorpe, and these were followed by Father Ricardo and Mr. Ellis, after whom came Ideala herself, alone. This was before she made her name, but already people spoke of her, and theoretically men were supposed not to like her, because of her ideas, don't you know, which were strongly opposed in some circles, especially by those who either did not know or could not understand them. There is no doubt that mankind have a rooted objection to be judged when the judge is a woman. If they cannot, in common honesty, deny the wisdom of her decisions, they attack her for venturing to decide at all. Now, said Angelica, skipping over to a couch beside which Mr. Kilroy was sitting, now we shall have a little interesting conversation. I hope you will kindly allow us to have a little interesting tea first, said Diavolo, who had risen politely when the other ladies entered the room, a formality which he omitted in Angelica's case, because he insisted that she wasn't a lady. When the tea was handed round and the servants had withdrawn, he lounged over to the couch where she was in his deliberate way, sat down beside her and put his teacup on the floor, and then they put their arms round each other, slented their heads together and sat expectant. This had been a favorite position of theirs from the time they could sit up at all. And when there was a good deal of gossiping going on about them, it had always been a treat to see them sitting so, with blank countenances and ears open, collecting capital doubtless for new outrages on public decency. What do you want to talk about, Angelica? Idiola asked, smiling, Oh, a lot of things, Angelica exclaimed, straightening herself energetically and giving Diavolo's head a knock with her own to make him move it out of the way. I've been reading, you know, and I want you to explain. I want to know how people can be so silly. In what way, Idiola asked. Well, I'm thinking of Aunt Folda, said the candidate, Angelica. You know, she very much wants to make a Roman Catholic of me and she gave me some books to read and of course I read them. They were all about the church being the true church and all that sort of thing. And then I got a lot of books about other churches and each said that it was the true church just as positively. And I said that anyone who would read about her church must be convinced that it is the true church but the difficulty is to get people to read. So when I found these other books I took them to her to show her all about the other true churches and I told her she ought to read them because if there were truth in any of them we could none of us possibly be saved unless we belong to all the different churches. But, you know, she wouldn't look at a book. She said she wasn't allowed to. Now, what do you think of that? And after telling me what a mistake it was Lady Fulda and her father were talking together in the window and did not therefore overhear these remarks but Father Ricardo was listening and Adiala flashed a mischievous glance at him as Angelica spoke. Then the latter continued before anyone could answer her and Fulda is just as good as she possibly can be and Father Ricardo says it is because she is submitted to his holy church and Mrs. Orton Begg and Mama are also as good as they possibly can be and the Bishop of Morningquest says that Mrs. Orton Begg is a holy woman because she is a humble follower of Christ but he rather shakes his head about Mama. Uncle Don, however, and Dr. Galbraith both maintain that Mama is admirable because she doesn't trouble her head about churches and creeds any longer. She used to do so once but now she thinks only of what is morally right or wrong and leaves the ecclesiastical muddle for the divines to get out of as best as they can. Mama used to dread bringing us to mourn when we were younger. We were always so outrageous here and we told her it was Aunt Fulda who made us so because she is too good and the balance of nature has to be preserved but now I am quite sure Aunt Claudia is quite as good as she is and so are you and Mama and Mrs. Orton Begg. Idiella smiled at her and so you are puzzled she said well now I will explain your aunts and mother and Mrs. Orton Begg are all of those people born good who would have been saints in any calendar, Buddhist, Christian or Jewish. They come occasionally these good people to cause confusion on the subject of original sin and overthrow the pride of professors who maintain that their own code of religious ethics must be the right one because it produces the best specimens of humanity. There was a Chinese lady living at Shanghai a few years ago a devout Buddhist who in her habits of life, her character, her prayers, her penances and her sweetness of disposition quickly resembled your Aunt Fulda the only difference between them being the names of the ideal of goodness upon whom they called for help. Their virtues were identical and the moral outcome of their lives was the same. I see what you mean Angelica burst out and you wouldn't say either convert or pervert yourself would you? Well no Idiella acknowledged. I always adopt a little pleonasm myself to avoid Christian controversy and say when so and so became a Roman or Anglican Catholic a Protestant, positivist or whatever else it might be and I let them say convert or pervert whichever they like to me because I know that it really cannot matter so long as they are agreeable not that anybody ever expects them to be poor little people although they know quite well that they should never let their angry passions rise they have no sense of humor at all but just fancy how silly it must seem to the angels when Miss Protestant throws down a book she is reading in shrieks convert indeed while Miss Catholic at the same time groans pervert indignantly. Must be something rotten in the state of Denmark surely or one or other of them would have proved their point by this time or do you suppose, she added looking at Lord Don, that the opposition is mercifully preordained by nature to generate the right amount of heat by friction to keep things going so that we do not come to a standstill on the way to human perfection. It is very wonderful anyway, she added, to the look around, wonderfully funny I did not know that Lady Adeline had definitely left the Church of England Mr. Kilroy observed and I am surprised to hear it are you? said Adiella now we were not Adeline has always been of a deeply religious disposition but it was not bound to be and it was never likely to be the religion of any church which would secure her lasting reverence I wonder what the religion of the future will be Mr. Kilroy remarked it will consist in the deepest reverence for moral worth the tenderest pity for the frailties of human nature the most profound faith in its ultimate perfectability Adiella answered the religion of the future must be a thing about which there can be no doubt and consequently no dispute it will be for the peace and perfecting of man not for the exercise of his power to outwit an antagonist in an argument and there are only the great moral truths perceived since the beginning of thought but hard to hold as principles of action because the higher faculties to which they appeal are of slower growth than the lower ones which they should control and the delights they offer are of a nature too delicate to be appreciated by uncultured palates but it is in these the infinite truths known to Buddha reflected by Plato preached by Christ undisputed even by the spirit of evil that religion must consist and is steadily growing to consist while the questionable man-made gods of sensuous service are gradually being set aside the religion of the future will be neither a political institution nor a means of livelihood but an expression of the highest moral attribute human or divine disinterested love she sat for some time looking down at the floor and thought when she had said this and then rousing herself she turned to Fr. Ricardo I had a fit of Roman Catholicism once myself she said to him pleasantly I enjoyed it very much while it lasted but you do a great deal of harm you clergy in the first place you begin by setting up Christ as an ideal of perfect manhood and then you proceed to demolish him as a possible example by maintaining that he was not a man but a god and therefore a being it is beyond the power of man to imitate oh you terrible terrible clergy you preach the parable of the buried talents and side by side with that you have always insisted that women should put theirs away and you have soothed their sensitive consciences with the dreadful can't of obedience not obedience to the moral law but obedience to the will of man for what moral law could be affected by the higher education of women the Anglican church is rather countenancing the higher education of women is it not said Mr. Kilroy you don't put it properly Ideala answered women after a hard battle secured for themselves their own higher education and now that it is being found to answer the churches are coming in to claim the credit dear how rapidly reforms are carried out when we take them in hand ourselves she exclaimed all the spiritual power is ours and while we refuse to know it must be wasted for want of direction but that is what you reject said father Ricardo the church is ever ready to direct her children for her own advantage and very badly Ideala answered does her direction ever benefit the human race generally or anybody but herself in particular every great reform has been forced on the church from outside just consider the state of degradation and the dense ignorance of the people of every country upon which the curse of Catholicism rests wherever churches and monasteries abound the people are backward it is written just lately there has been a little revival of Catholicism a flash in the pan here in England due to Cardinal Newman and Cardinal Manning who introduced some good old Protestant virtues into your teaching but that cannot last you carry the instrument of your own destruction along with you in the degrading exercises with which you seek to debase our beautiful wonderful perfectible human nature but the church has done all that is possible for the people father Ricardo began lamely the church has always taught for one thing that the laborer is worthy of his hire but the church never used its influence to make the hire worthy of the laborer instead of that it is always sought to grind the last penny out of the people and then it popularized them with alms said Ideala why have the priests done so little good Uncle Don Diavolo asked because they are no better than other people was the answer and when they get money they use it just as everybody else does to strengthen their own position and make a display with ah the terrible mistake it has been this making a paid profession of the doing of good Ideala exclaimed Angelica who had put her arm round Diavolo again and was sitting with her head against his listening gravely now looked at Ideala I want to know where the true spirit of God is she said I can tell you Ideala answered fearlessly it is in us women we have preserved it and handed it down from one generation to another of our own sex unsullied and very soon we shall be called upon to prove the possession of it for already she turned to Father Ricardo here and specially addressed him speaking always in gentle tones without emphasis already I that is to say woman am a power in the land while you that is to say at least retain ever less and less even of the semblance of power pardon me dear lady the priest replied but it shocks me to hear you assume such an arrogant tone I don't think the tone was in the least arrogant Angelica put in briskly and at any rate it's your own tone exactly for I've heard you say as much and more speaking of the priesthood not exactly Diavolo corrected her Father Ricardo always says heaven for some great inscrutable purpose has mercifully vouched safe this wondrous power to us poor or humble or unworthy the first adjective of that kind he can catch priests I like the short way of putting it myself but why do you always try to make out that it is our duty to be miserable sinners Angelica asked if we taught ourselves to be happy in this world we should grow to love it too much and then we should not strive to win the next and that would impoverish the church Diavolo suggested but why not let us be happy and you raise money in some other way Angelica wanted to know miracles now I should try some miracles a miracle must be much better than a bizarre to raise the funds oh but you forget the nunnery's Father Ricardo was telling us about the other day Diavolo said the austere orders where they only live a few years you know I had forgotten for the moment but I read up the subject at the time and found out that when the nuns die all their money remains in the church is that what you mean said the practical Angelica yes said Diavolo you see it would hardly cost ten shillings a week to keep a nun and of course he said to Father Ricardo the more fasting you counsel the less outlay there would be so I don't wonder you promise them more goodies in the next world the more austerities they practice in this it must really work like a provision of nature for the enrichment of holy church so many nuns worked off on the prayer and fasting mill per annum so many unencumbered fortunes added to the establishment Angelica observed Jerusalem said Diavolo how easy it is to go the public the heavenly twins had been speaking in a confidential tone as if they were behind the scenes with Father Ricardo and now they watched him seeming to wait for him to wink at least that was how Dr. Galbraith afterward interpreted the look of this kind coming to pass however they both got up and both together strolled out of the room yawning undisguisedly that child Angelica will be one of us Ideala whispered to Lord Don yes he answered gravely they will both be of us eventually only we must make no move but wait in patience until the day break and the shadows flee away end of book 3 chapter 3 book 3 chapter 4 of the heavenly twins this is the LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by Elsie Selwyn The Heavenly Twins by Sarah Grand book 3 chapter 4 there was much high talk of doing good and living for others at mourn in these days to which the twins listened attentively it is evident from the thoughts they expressed at this time that the minds of both were in a state of fermentation and that the more active pursuits in which they still indulged occasionally were the mere outcome of habit when the conversation was interesting they would sit beside Father Ricardo whom they insisted on classing with themselves as an inferior being and watch the speakers by the hour together and Father Ricardo too gauging his moral temperature and noting every sigh of pity or shiver of disapprobation that shook his sensitive frame where does it hurt you dear Diabolo asked him once I know you are a bad bad man because you say so yourself I never said so Father Ricardo exclaimed with a puzzled air while you said you were a miserable sinner not worthy etc and it comes to the same thing Diabolo rejoined and I don't wonder you are disheartened when you see how impossible it is for you to be as disinterestedly good as Uncle Don and Dr. Galbraith I feel so myself sometimes oh I hope I am disinterested Father Ricardo protested I can't make it out if you are said Diabolo shaking his head you don't seem to love goodness for its own sake but for the reward after the whole system you preach is one of reward and punishment Father Ricardo had an instant hobby he was fond of old China and had made a beautiful collection with the help of such friends as Lord Don Dr. Galbraith and Lady Adeline Hamilton Wells who never failed to bring him back any good specimen they might find in the course of their travels one day at this time after the talk had been running as usual he invited the whole party to inspect his collection and they all went with the exception of the heavenly twins who were not to be found at the moment when the others reached the room in which Father Ricardo kept his treasures however they were surprised to find the cabinets comparatively speaking bare and with great gaps on the shelves as if someone had been weeding them indiscriminately the good father looked very blank at first but the windows were wide open and before he could think what had happened on below attracted everybody's attention and on looking out to see what was the matter they beheld the heavenly twins apparently intent upon organizing a rebel they were busy at the moment and had been for some hours evidently for they had collected an organ man with a monkey a wandering musician with a heart a man with a hammer who had been engaged in breaking stones a punch and Judy party consisting of a man woman and boy with their Toby dog five Christy minstrels in their war paint a respectable looking mechanic with his wife and three children who were tramping from one place to another in search of work and a blind beggar and all these were seated in more or less awkward and constrained attitudes on easy chairs covered with satin velvet or brocade about the lawn with little tables before them on which was spread all the cooked food apparently that the castle contained when their admiring relatives first caught sight of the twins Angelica with her hair and worn a long black dress borrowed from her aunt Fulna's wardrobe a white apron with a bib and a white cap like a nurses the property one of the ladies made was pouring tea out of a silver urn and Diavolo in his shirt sleeves with a serviette under his arm like a waiter in a restaurant was standing beside her with a salver in his hand waiting to carry it to the mechanics lady what on earth are you children doing Lord Don exclaimed feeding the hungry sir Diavolo draw cheerfully well grown the poor priest you needn't have taken all my best china for that purpose we did that sir Diavolo reply with dignity in order that you all unworthy as you are might have the pleasure of participating in this good work but there he said to Angelica I told you he wouldn't appreciate it to the credit of the heavenly twins and their guests it must be recorded that no harm happened either to the china or the plate the next day was a saints day and the children announced at breakfast that they intended to keep it they said they were going to compose a religion for themselves out of all the most agreeable practices enjoined by other religions and they proposed to begin by making that day a holiday Mr. Ellis would have remonstrated at the waste of time and Father Ricardo at the absence of proper intention but the way the twins had put the proposition happened to amuse the Duke and therefore they gained their point but having gained it they did not know very well what to do with themselves Angelica wouldn't make plans she was thinking of the long dress she had worn the day before and feeling a vague desire to have her own lengthened and she wanted also to take that mysterious packet known as her work to her and Fulda's sitting room where the ladies usually spent the morning so as to be with them but she knew that Diavolo would scorn her as she did and the outcome of all this vagueness of intention was a fit of excessive irritability she wanted sympathy but without being aware of the fact herself and the way she said about obtaining it was by being excessively disagreeable to everybody there was a rose in a glass beside her plate and she took it out and began to twiddle it between her fingers and thumb and patiently till she managed to prick herself with the thorns and then she complained of the pain oh that sort of thing doesn't hurt much Fulda declared it does hurt she maintained aggressively and pain is pain whether the seat of it be your head, heart or hind quarters Angelica Lady Fulda exclaimed with tragic emphasis someone must really talk to you seriously you are positively vulgar thank heaven Angelica ejaculated fervently I knew I was going to be something she got up as she spoke and walked out of the room in the air affecting a proud consciousness of having had greatness suddenly thrust upon her Lady Fulda looked helplessly first at Father Ricardo then at Mr. Ellis can't you do something she said to the latter Mr. Ellis replied by an almost imperceptible shrug of his shoulders we know better than to interfere when she's in one of her bad language tantrums Diavolo explained when his grandfather left the table he followed him uninvited with a lot of inspection around the castle and grounds and finally retiring with him to the library whether the old Duke usually went to rest, read or meditate sometime during the morning he coiled himself up in an armchair took a small book out of his pocket and began to study it diligently his grandfather glanced at him affectionately and with interest from time to time he was lonely in his old age and liked to have the boy about he had nobody left to him now who would touch his heart or take him out of himself as what Diavolo did for nobody else attached themselves to him in the same way or showed such an unaffected preference for having him alter themselves what are you reading sir he asked him at last Euripides sir Diavolo answered glancing over the top of his book for a moment as he spoke I'm just where Hippolytus exclaims oh Jove where for indeed did a cell place in the light of the sun that specious evil to men are you reading Euripides with a key his grandfather asked sternly no I'm reading a key to Euripides Diavolo answered don't you know your Greek sir his grandfather demanded I'm just looking to see sir Diavolo rejoined returning to his book when he had finished the page he looked up at his grandfather who was sitting with his hands folded upon a large volume he held open on his knee meditating apparently a bad tone about women in the classics Diavolo remarked don't you think so sir ah my boy you don't know women yet the old Duke responded then I have not made the most of my opportunities Diavolo said with a grin for we meet with a fine variety in the houses about here but what I object to in these classical chaps he resumed is the way they sneaked and snibbled about women's faults as if they had none of their own and then their mean trick of going back upon the women and reproaching them with their misfortunes what do you mean by that? his grandfather asked well sir I suppose you would call old age a misfortune to a pretty woman Diavolo answered and just look at the language in which that fellow Horace, Tonslidia and Lysie when they grow old and after the sickening way he fond upon them when they were young too and here again he said holding up his book as that fellow Hippolytus just because one woman has shocked him he says my hatred against women for in some way or other they are always bad and a little further back too he scuffed the leaves over he says that women is a great evil because men squander away the wealth of their houses upon them if the men were such superior beings why don't they show it somehow Horace was as spiteful himself as any old woman we should have called him a cad nowadays and all this abuse he shook his euripides his beastly bad form whichever way you look at it he ruffled his thick towel hair as he spoke and yawned in conclusion then you are coming out as a champion of women? said the Duke oh by Jove no Diavolo exclaimed straightening himself I haven't the conceit to suppose they would accept such a champion and besides I think it's the other way on now we shall want champions soon you see in the old days women were so ignorant and subdued they couldn't retaliate or fight for themselves in any way they never thought of such a thing but now if you hit a woman she'll give you back one promptly he asservated rubbing a bump on his head suspiciously she'll put you in punch or revile you in the dailies magazine you write you down an ass in a novel blackguard you in choice language from a public platform or paint a picture of you which will make you wish you had never been born ridicule he ejaculated lowering his voice they ridicule you that's the worst of it now there's Adila she can make a fellow ridiculous without a word when old lord groom came back from Malta the other day he called and began to jeer at mrs. churston's feet for being big and ugly Adila let him finish and then she just looked down at his own feet and you could see in a minute that he wished himself an eastern potentate with petty coats to hide them under for they were ugly enough to be indecent the duke stretched out one of his own miniature models of feet upon this and glanced at it complacently where do you get all these ideas he asked at your age I never had any and if I had I should have been ashamed to own it you'll be a prig sir if you don't mind I don't mind Diavolo rejoined I've heard you say that ladies dearly love a prig and therefore I rather think of cultivating that tone you should have been sent to public school his grandfather said it would have made a man of you no time will do that just as well Diavolo answered encouragingly at that moment the door opened and lady Foda answered Papa may I speak to you now she asked and Diavolo got up politely and lounged off to look for Angelica he did not succeed in finding her however because she had driven into morning quest to do some shopping with her aunt Claudia and Adila she hated shopping as a rule and could seldom be persuaded to do any but that morning after breakfast she had gone to lady Foda's room where the three ladies were sitting and after fidgeting them to death by wandering up and down doing nothing with a scowl on her face in an ugly look of discontent on her fine dark eyes she burst out suddenly aunt Foda I want some long dresses lady Foda looked up at her in blank amazement but lady Claudia who was all energy rolled up her work in an instant rang the bell ordered the carriage and answered come then and get what you like and ten minutes afterward they had started all unsuccessful attempts had been made to persuade Angelica to wear long dresses and lady Claudia felt that now when she proposed it herself it would never do to check the impulse and accordingly in less than a week from that day Angelica the tomboy was to all appearance no more and Miss Hamilton Wells astonished the neighborhood she came down to the drawing room quite shyly in her first long dinner dress with her dark hair coyote neatly high on her head she had met Mr. Kilroy on the stairs and he had looked at her in a strange startled way but he said nothing and neither did anybody else when she entered the room her grandfather however opened his eyes wide when he saw her and smiled as if he were gratified Lord Don gave her a second glance and seemed a little sad and Idila went up to her and kissed her and then looked into her face for a moment very gravely making her feel as if she were on the eve of something momentous but Diavolo would not look at her a second time one glimpse had been enough for him and during the whole of dinner he never raised his eyes his uncle Don saw what was wrong with the boy and glanced at him from time to time sympathetically he meant to talk to him when the ladies had left the table but Diavolo escaped unobserved before he could carry out his intention Mr. Ellis however had seen him go and followed him he found him in the school room crying as if his heart would break his slender frame all shaken with great convulsive slobs and the old books and play things which had suddenly assumed for him the bitterly pathetic interest that attaches to one's love things when they are carelessly cast aside and forgotten scattered about him Mr. Ellis sat down beside him and touched his hand and tried to comfort him but the tutor was sad at heart himself before very long however Angelica burst in upon them with her hair down and in the shortest and oldest dress she possessed her passionate love for her brother a hopeful and redeeming point of her character and if she did show it principally by banging his head she never meant to hurt him almost any other sister would have owed him a grudge for not admiring her in her first fine gown and so spoiling her pleasure but Angelica saw that he was thinking that the old days were over and there had come a change now which would divide them and she thought only in the pain he was suffering on that account so when she found that he was not going to join the ladies in the drying room she went upstairs to her own room which her maid was arranging for the night and relieved her feelings by tearing off her dinner dress rolling it in a wisp and throwing it at the woman her petticoats followed and then she kicked off her white satin shoes one of which lit on the mantelpiece the other on the dressing table and tearing out her hairpins flung them about the floor in all directions my old brown gown Elizabeth she demanded stamping what's the matter Miss Angelica had stacked the gown from the wardrobe put it on and was halfway downstairs buttoning it as she went before the maid could finish the sentence when she entered the school room she threw herself on her knees before Diavolo and hugged him tight as if she had been going to lose him altogether or he had just escaped from a great danger I won't wear long dresses if you don't like them she protested well you won't go about like that he grumbled recovering himself the moment he felt her close to him again struck by a sense of impropriety in her short skirt after the grown-up appearance she had presented in the long one you look like a beggar well if I do wear a long one she declared it shall only be a disguise I promise you I'll be just as bad as ever in it and she drew a handkerchief out of her pocket which had been left there for months and wisk frowsy and wiped her own eyes and Diavolo's abruptly your feelings are quite boggy Diavolo she said giving a dry sob herself as she spoke you can't touch them at all without coming to water you cry when you laugh Mr. Ellis had stolen softly out of the room as soon as he could do so unobserved and now the twins were sitting together in their favorite position on the same chair with their arms around each other and Angelica's dark head slanted so as to lean against Diavolo's fair one he had rewarded her last remark with a melancholy grin but the clouds had broken and it now only required time to roll away you'll get a mustache in time Angelica proceeded in her most matter-of-fact tone I can see signs of it now in some lights only it's so fair it doesn't show much I'll shave it to make it darker he suggested now you mustn't do that because that'll make a course and I want you to have one like Uncle Don's but when it comes it'll make you look as much grown up as my long dresses do me and then we'll study some art and sit together and not be separated all our lives we will said Diavolo but I think we ought to begin at once Angelica added thoughtfully just give me time to consider and come out into the grounds for a frolic I feel smothered in here and there is a moon end of book 3 chapter 4