The Tale of Chloe | Page 5

Sir Martin Caseldy, settled on the estate she made him free to

take up intact on his father's decease.'
'Pah! a villain!'
'With a blacker brand upon him every morning that he looks forth
across his property, and leaves her to languish! She still--I say it to the
redemption of our sex--has offers. Her incomparable attractions of
mind and person exercise the natural empire of beauty. But she will
none of them. I call her the Fair Suicide. She has died for love; and she
is a ghost, a good ghost, and a pleasing ghost, but an apparition, a taper.
The duke fidgeted, and expressed a hope to hear that she was not of
melancholy conversation; and again, that the subject of her discourse
was not confined to love and lovers, happy or unhappy. He wished his
duchess, he said, to be entertained upon gayer topics: love being a
theme he desired to reserve to himself. 'This month!' he said,
prognostically shaking and moaning. 'I would this month were over,
and that we were well purged of it.'
Mr. Beamish reassured him. The wit and sprightliness of Chloe were so
famous as to be considered medical, he affirmed; she was besieged for
her company; she composed and sang impromptu verses, she played
harp and harpsichord divinely, and touched the guitar, and danced,
danced like the silvery moon on the waters of the mill pool. He
concluded by saying that she was both humane and wise,
humble-minded and amusing, virtuous yet not a Tartar; the best of
companions for her Grace the young duchess. Moreover, he boldly
engaged to carry the duchess through the term of her visit under a name
that should be as good as a masquerade for concealing his Grace's,
while giving her all the honours due to her rank.
'You strictly interpret my wishes,' said the duke; 'all honours, the
foremost place, and my wrath upon man or woman gainsaying them!'
'Mine! if you please, duke,' said Mr. Beamish.
'A thousand pardons! I leave it to you, cousin. I could not be in safer
hands. I am heartily bounders to you. Chloe, then. By the way, she has

a decent respect for age?'
'She is reverentially inclined.'
'Not that. She is, I would ask, no wanton prattler of the charms and
advantages of youth?'
'She has a young adorer that I have dubbed Alonzo, whom she scarce
notices.'
'Nothing could be better. Alonzo: h'm! A faithful swain?'
'Life is his tree, upon which unceasingly he carves his mistress's
initials.'
'She should not be too cruel. I recollect myself formerly: I was . . .
Young men will, when long slighted, transfer their affections, and be
warmer to the second flame than to the first. I put you on your guard.
He follows her much? These lovers' paintings and puffings in the
neighbourhood of the most innocent of women are contagious.'
'Her Grace will be running home all the sooner.'
'Or off!--may she forgive me! I am like a King John's Jew, forced to
lend his treasure without security. What a world is ours! Nothing,
Beamish, nothing desirable will you have which is not coveted! Catch a
prize, and you will find you are at war with your species. You have to
be on the defensive from that moment. There is no such thing as
peaceable procession on earth. Let it be a beautiful young
woman!--Ah!'
Mr. Beamish replied bracingly, 'The champion wrestler challenges all
comers while he wears the belt.'
The duke dejectedly assented. 'True; or he is challenged, say. Is there
any tale we could tell her of this Alonzo? You could deport him for the
month, my dear Beamish.'
'I commit no injustice unless with sufficient reason. It is an estimable

youth, as shown by his devotion to a peerless woman. To endow her
with his name and fortune is his only thought.'
'I perceive; an excellent young fellow! I have an incipient liking for this
young Alonzo. You must not permit my duchess to laugh at him.
Encourage her rather to advance his suit. The silliness of a young man
will be no bad spectacle. Chloe, then. You have set my mind at rest,
Beamish, and it is but another obligation added to the heap; so, if I do
not speak of payment, the reason is that I know you would not have me
bankrupt.'
The remainder of the colloquy of the duke and Mr. Beamish referred to
the date of her Grace's coming to the Wells, the lodgement she was to
receive, and other minor arrangements bearing upon her state and
comfort; the duke perpetually observing, 'But I leave it all to you,
Beamish,' when he had laid down precise instructions in these respects,
even to the specification of the shopkeepers, the confectioner and the
apothecary,