Applied Social Psychology Understanding and
Addressing Social and Practical Problems 3rd
Edition Gruman Test Bank download
https://testbankdeal.com/product/applied-social-psychology-
understanding-and-addressing-social-and-practical-problems-3rd-
edition-gruman-test-bank/
Explore and download more test bank or solution manual
at testbankdeal.com
Here are some recommended products for you. Click the link to
download, or explore more at testbankdeal.com
Understanding Social Problems Canadian 4th Edition Mooney
Test Bank
https://testbankdeal.com/product/understanding-social-problems-
canadian-4th-edition-mooney-test-bank/
Understanding Social Problems Canadian 5th Edition Holmes
Test Bank
https://testbankdeal.com/product/understanding-social-problems-
canadian-5th-edition-holmes-test-bank/
Social Problems 3rd Edition Best Test Bank
https://testbankdeal.com/product/social-problems-3rd-edition-best-
test-bank/
Finite Mathematics for Business Economics Life Sciences
and Social Sciences 14th Edition Barnett Solutions Manual
https://testbankdeal.com/product/finite-mathematics-for-business-
economics-life-sciences-and-social-sciences-14th-edition-barnett-
solutions-manual/
Economics 1st Edition Acemoglu Solutions Manual
https://testbankdeal.com/product/economics-1st-edition-acemoglu-
solutions-manual/
Calculus An Applied Approach Brief International Metric
Edition 10th Edition Larson Solutions Manual
https://testbankdeal.com/product/calculus-an-applied-approach-brief-
international-metric-edition-10th-edition-larson-solutions-manual/
Global Economics 13th Edition Robert Carbaugh Test Bank
https://testbankdeal.com/product/global-economics-13th-edition-robert-
carbaugh-test-bank/
Understanding Our Universe 2nd Edition Palen Test Bank
https://testbankdeal.com/product/understanding-our-universe-2nd-
edition-palen-test-bank/
Cryptography and Network Security Principles and Practice
7th Edition Stallings Test Bank
https://testbankdeal.com/product/cryptography-and-network-security-
principles-and-practice-7th-edition-stallings-test-bank/
Abnormal Psychology 7th Edition Nolen-Hoeksema Test Bank
https://testbankdeal.com/product/abnormal-psychology-7th-edition-
nolen-hoeksema-test-bank/
Chapter 6: Applying Social Psychology to Sports Teams
Multiple Choice
1. Which of the following is NOT a key feature of groups, as characterized by Forsythe (1999)?
a. structured patterns of communication
b. interdependence between members
c. appropriate collegiality
d. identifiable roles and structures
Ans: C
Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Team Dynamics
Difficulty Level: Medium
2. According to the textbook, the most significant of the topics examined in sports teams include
______.
a. team cohesion
b. groupthink
c. team success
d. team satisfaction
Ans: A
Cognitive Domain: Knowledge
Answer Location: Team Dynamics
Difficulty Level: Easy
3. “A dynamic process which is reflected in the tendency for a group to stick together and remain
united in the pursuit of its instrumental objectives and/or for the satisfaction of member affective
needs” is the definition of which of the following constructs?
a. motivation
b. satisfaction
c. morale
d. cohesion
Ans: D
Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Team Dynamics
Difficulty Level: Medium
4. Which of the following is NOT a component of team cohesion?
a. permanence
b. affectivity
c. multidimensionality
d. instrumentality
Ans: A
Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Team Cohesion
Difficulty Level: Easy
5. Saying that team cohesion is instrumental means that teams
a. enlist players with different sets of skills
b. have goals and objectives
c. are meaningful to the players and coaches
d. teach players how to play the trumpet
Ans: B
Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Team Cohesion
Difficulty Level: Easy
6. A casual Friday night pick-up hockey league is likely to have teams that possess high ______
and low ______.
a. instrumentality; social cohesion
b. task cohesion; affectivity
c. social cohesion; task cohesion
d. affectivity; instrumentality
Ans: C
Cognitive Domain: Application
Answer Location: Team Cohesion
Difficulty Level: Easy
7. A team member who claims, “This team doesn’t try hard enough to win, and I’m not happy
about it,” would be discussing which form of cohesion?
a. attraction to group–task
b. group integration–social
c. attraction to group–social
d. group integration–task
Ans: A
Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Team Cohesion
Difficulty Level: Medium
8. Which of the following characteristics would have the greatest impact on the cohesion of
teammates?
a. being about the same age
b. being of the same race
c. having similar attitudes
d. being from the same social class
Ans: C
Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Team Cohesion
Difficulty Level: Medium
9. Which of the following teams is likely to have the highest level of task cohesion?
a. a three-person beach volleyball team
b. a football team
c. a 17-person hockey team
d. a soccer team
Ans: A
Cognitive Domain: Application
Answer Location: Team Cohesion
Difficulty Level: Medium
10. Which of the following is likely to have the highest level of social cohesion?
a. a two-man rowing team
b. a football team
c. a three-person beach volleyball team
d. a doubles tennis pair
Ans: B
Cognitive Domain: Application
Answer Location: Team Cohesion
Difficulty Level: Medium
11. The authors of Chapter 6 (“Sports”) suggest that the difficulties encountered by the rowing
team profiled in the opening vignette were due primarily to issues related to ______.
a. role clarity
b. role performance
c. role ambiguity
d. role acceptance
Ans: D
Cognitive Domain: Knowledge
Answer Location: Team Cohesion
Difficulty Level: Easy
12. Which of the following has the greatest influence on team cohesion?
a. role clarity
b. role performance
c. role ambiguity
d. role acceptance
Ans: D
Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Team Cohesion
Difficulty Level: Easy
13. Which of the following is synonymous with collective efficacy?
a. team success
b. team confidence
c. team winning streak
d. team cohesion
Ans: B
Cognitive Domain: Knowledge
Answer Location: Team Cohesion
Difficulty Level: Easy
14. Which of the following is most accurate?
a. Task cohesion correlates more strongly with team confidence than does social cohesion.
b. Social cohesion correlates more strongly with team confidence than does task cohesion.
c. Task cohesion and social cohesion correlate approximately equally with team confidence.
d. Neither task cohesion nor social cohesion correlates with team confidence.
Ans: A
Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Team Confidence
Difficulty Level: Medium
15. In the “Focus on Research” in Chapter 6 (“Sports”), it was reported that providing teams with
false feedback that they were stronger than their competitors led to which of the following
outcomes?
a. higher expectations of success and increasingly better performance following failure on a
subsequent task
b. lower expectations of success but increasingly better performance following failure on a
subsequent task
c. higher expectations of success but worsening performance following failure on a subsequent
task
d. lower expectations of success and worsening performance following failure on a subsequent
task
Ans: A
Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Focus on Research
Difficulty Level: Medium
16. In the sports chapter, it is suggested that wins and losses may affect collective efficacy but
not individual efficacy because
a. task cohesion is the factor that affects collective efficacy
b. wins and losses are contingent on the strength of the opposing teams, so individual efficacy is
not affected
c. team accomplishments are more salient to team members than individual accomplishments
d. team accomplishments are less salient to team members than individual accomplishments
Ans: C
Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Team Confidence
Difficulty Level: Medium
17. Social exchange theory fundamentally focuses on the exchange of ______.
a. nonverbal communication gestures
b. resources
c. respect
d. social behaviors
Ans: B
Cognitive Domain: Knowledge
Answer Location: Effective Communication
Difficulty Level: Easy
18. Which of the following is NOT one of the four main styles of communication identified by
Hanin (1992)?
a. focused messages
b. evaluation messages
c. task-irrelevant messages
d. stimulation messages
Ans: A
Cognitive Domain: Analysis
Answer Location: Effective Communication
Difficulty Level: Easy
19. Team members are likely to display ______ messages before a game, ______ messages
during the game, and ______ messages after the game.
a. orientation; stimulation; evaluation
b. stimulation; orientation; evaluation
c. evaluation; orientation; focused
d. stimulation; focused; evaluation
Ans: A
Cognitive Domain: Knowledge
Answer Location: Effective Communication
Difficulty Level: Easy
20. Which of the following is the most accurate statement regarding team communication and
performance?
a. Team communication is not related to performance.
b. Task communication is not related to team performance.
c. Social communication is related to team performance.
d. Social communication is not related to team performance.
Ans: C
Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Effective Communication
Difficulty Level: Easy
21. When Tom plays rugby, his primary concern is to beat the other team. However, his
teammate Rich is more concerned about giving his all during the game and trying to always play
better than he played in the previous game. Tom has a(n) ______ goal orientation, and Rich has
a(n) ______ goal orientation.
a. process; outcome
b. performance; outcome
c. performance; process
d. outcome; performance
Ans: D
Cognitive Domain: Application
Answer Location: Team Goal Setting
Difficulty Level: Easy
22. Which of the following is NOT an aspect of effective goal setting?
a. setting specific goals in order to reduce ambiguity
b. setting realistic goals so that they are viewed as achievable
c. setting challenging goals so that effort is exerted
d. setting general goals to maintain motivation
Ans: D
Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Team Goal Setting
Difficulty Level: Easy
23. ______ focus on achieving success based on self-comparison.
a. Outcome goals
b. Process goals
c. Performance goals
d. Comparison goals
Ans: C
Cognitive Domain: Knowledge
Answer Location: Team Goal Setting
Difficulty Level: Easy
24. Research has shown that intervening in the problems experienced by sports teams by using
family psychology interventions
a. has little effect because teams are not families
b. has little effect because families usually have children but high-level sports teams are
composed mainly of adults
c. can help to remediate the problems teams face
d. has sometimes resulted in a decrease in team performance
Ans: C
Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Team Building (Family Psychology Intervention)
Difficulty Level: Medium
25. In the communication training intervention developed by Sullivan (1993) for sports teams
(Chapter 6, “Sports”), which of the following was NOT one of the objectives in her intervention
program?
a. effective listening
b. effective speaking
c. self-assessment
d. identification of problems
Ans: B
Cognitive Domain: Application
Answer Location: Team Building (Communication Training Intervention)
Difficulty Level: Medium
26. In their qualitative study of choking in team sports, Hill and Shaw (2013) found that the main
reason athletes choked was ______.
a. fear
b. distraction
c. lack of confidence
d. overconfidence
Ans: B
Cognitive Domain: Knowledge
Answer Location: Effective Communication
Difficulty Level: Easy
27. According to Eccles and Tenenbaum (2007), an alternative way of conceptualizing intrateam
communication in sport is as a ______.
a. social outcome
b. social cognitive exchange
c. social performance
d. social evaluation
Ans: B
Cognitive Domain: Knowledge
Answer Location: Effective Communication
Difficulty Level: Easy
28. In the example provided by Eccles and Tenenbaum (2007), they suggest two strategies for
optimizing communication among teams. These include
a. developing a shared language and cross-training
b. cross-training and increased communication
c. developing a shared language and silent training sessions
d. silent training sessions and cross-training
Ans: A
Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Effective Communication
Difficulty Level: Medium
29. In the ______ framework, messages between teammates are part of a larger process that
contributes to the development and functioning of a team mental model.
a. social comparison
b. fundamental attribution
c. social cognitive exchange
d. social learning theory
Ans: C
Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Effective Communication
Difficulty Level: Medium
30. Eccles and Tenenbaum (2007) describe cross-training as
a. a process by which individuals train for some time in the roles of their teammates
b. a process by which individuals train using different activities than normal
c. a process by which individuals train with different teams
d. a process by which individuals train with their opponents
Ans: A
Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Effective Communication
Difficulty Level: Medium
31. Eccles and Tenenbaum (2007) refer to team mental models that facilitate communication in
sport. Team mental models are
a. the sharing and manipulation of information among team members
b. verbal and nonverbal cues known only to team members
c. images teams use to help understand set plays
d. gestures that promote cohesion
Ans: A
Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Effective Communication
Difficulty Level: Medium
True or False
1. Team performance, coach satisfaction, and motivation are three important consequences or
outcomes of chemistry.
Ans: T
Cognitive Domain: Knowledge
Answer Location: Introduction
Difficulty Level: Easy
2. Research highlights that a unique approach to team communication is the use of family
therapy for sports teams.
Ans: F
Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Effective Communication
Difficulty Level: Easy
3. The construct of cohesion reflects four key characteristics. Specifically, cohesion is one-
dimensional, affective, instrumental, and stable.
Ans: F
Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Team Cohesion
Difficulty Level: Medium
4. Groups are best characterized by certain key features. These features include structured
patterns of communication, interdependence among members, shared identity, and identifiable
roles and structures.
Ans: T
Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Team Dynamics
Difficulty Level: Medium
5. Examples of social factors that influence cohesion are group size, leadership style, and
member roles.
Ans: T
Cognitive Domain: Knowledge
Answer Location: Team Cohesion
Difficulty Level: Easy
6. Anecdotal and research evidence suggests that teams low in cohesion perform better than
teams high in cohesion.
Ans: F
Cognitive Domain: Knowledge
Answer Location: Team Cohesion
Difficulty Level: Easy
7. Research suggests that social cohesion may be more important than task cohesion with respect
to team performance.
Ans: F
Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Team Performance
Difficulty Level: Easy
8. As it relates to the social understanding of teams, another term for the notion of team
confidence is collective efficacy.
Ans: T
Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Team Confidence
Difficulty Level: Easy
9. Two important principles of team goal setting are (1) selecting the team goals and (2)
evaluating, providing feedback, and reevaluating the team goals for effectiveness.
Ans: T
Cognitive Domain: Knowledge
Answer Location: Team Goal Setting
Difficulty Level: Medium
10. As outlined in the text, performance goals focus strictly on the competitive result of an event.
Ans: F
Cognitive Domain: Knowledge
Answer Location: Team Goal Setting
Difficulty Level: Medium
Short Answer
1. Team cohesion plays an important role in sports teams. Describe two antecedents that shape
and influence team unity. (p. 135)
Ans: a. Individual antecedents—Individual factors typically involve personalities and
demographic characteristics of teammates. Nondemographic individual attributes, such as
personality and attitudes, may have a greater impact on cohesion. Research has found that
teammates who are compatible with respect to attributes such as friendliness, dominance, and
acceptance of authority normally do well on task cohesion and are more effective at conflict
management within the group.
b.Social antecedents—Examples of social factors include group size, leadership style, and
member roles. For example, as it relates to leadership style, research has shown that autocratic
leadership (i.e., the coach as leader makes all decisions and refrains from delegating any power)
is associated with lower levels of task cohesion, as measured by the GEQ, whereas democratic
leadership (i.e., the coach involves his or her athletes in making decisions that affect the team) is
related to higher levels of task cohesion. With respect to task cohesion, the most appropriate
method of leadership would appear to be one that empowers the group and allows team members
to have input into decisions and policies.
Cognitive Domain: Analysis
Answer Location: Team Cohesion
Difficulty Level: Medium
2. Team confidence and team goal setting are two core aspects of team dynamics. Describe these
features in detail.
Ans: Team confidence and team goal setting play integral roles in team performance, unity and
overall dynamics.
Team confidence refers to the level of self-confidence among sports team members. Some teams
are composed of members who, on an individual level, have high self-confidence but have little
confidence in the team as a whole. Team confidence encompasses both self-efficacy as well as
collective efficacy. Collective efficacy was coined by Bandura (1997) to refer to a group’s
shared belief in its ability to organize and execute the courses of action required to obtain a
certain outcome.
Team goal setting refers to the different goal orientation subscribed to by team members. Three
different types of goal orientation are discussed; these include outcome goals, performance goals,
and process goals.
Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Team Confidence
Difficulty Level: Medium
3. Effective communication among teams is often understood within the framework of social
exchange theory. Describe this theory, and list two key characteristics in a social exchange
interaction.
Visit https://testbankdead.com
now to explore a rich
collection of testbank,
solution manual and enjoy
exciting offers!
Ans: Social exchange theory refers to a school of theories of interpersonal interaction. These
theories assume that all interactions are a form of negotiation and an exchange of resources that
are valued by the actors. The various social exchange theories tend to offer different
classifications of these resources, but they may be said to include both tangible and intangible
resources.
Two key characteristics in a social exchange interaction are (1) people are assumed to be
interdependent—that is, their actions and decisions rely, in part, on the actions and reactions of
the other people in the situation (these relationships work best if, in the long run, they are
reciprocal and mutually beneficial)—and (2) people are assumed to be rational actors. People not
only evaluate the costs and benefits of their current relationships but also evaluate the ratio of
costs and benefits in other possible relationships.
Cognitive Domain: Analysis
Answer Location: Effective Communication
Difficulty Level: Medium
4. Communication among team members is an important part of team sports. Outlined in the text
are four main styles of communication (kinds of messages). Describe three of them in detail. (p.
145)
Ans: Four main styles of communication include (1) orientation messages, (2) stimulation
messages, (3) evaluation messages, and (4) task-irrelevant messages. Orientation messages are
those that deal with planning strategy or technique. Stimulation messages are those between
teammates that serve to motivate or energize team members. Evaluation messages are those that
are focused on assessments of play, ability, or effort. Lastly, task-irrelevant messages are all
other forms of communication.
Cognitive Domain: Analysis
Answer Location: Effective Communication
Difficulty Level: Medium
5. Research on sports teams suggests that team goal setting plays a key role in performance
outcomes. Three types of goal orientation are noted in the text. Name and describe two types. (p.
147)
Ans: The three types of goal orientation are (1) outcome goals, (2) performance goals, and (3)
process goals. Outcome goals focus strictly on the competitive result of an event. These goals are
based on social comparison—that is, how one does relative to others. With outcome goals,
individuals focus on winning and achieving their goals (by any means). Performance goals focus
on achieving success based on self-comparison. The objective is to improve one’s own
performance; the actual outcome of the competitive event might not be considered important at
all. Process goals are focused on the skills to be performed during competition, such as trying to
complete all passes during a hockey game.
Cognitive Domain: Analysis
Answer Location: Team Goal Setting
Difficulty Level: Medium
6. Based on research by Eys, Patterson, Loughead, and Carron (2006), the text outlines four main
principles of team goal setting. List these principles, and outline the stages. (p. 148)
Ans: The four main principles of team goal setting include (1) selecting the team goals, (2)
establishing the target for the team goals, (3) coaches reminding players of the team’s goals, and
(4) evaluating, providing feedback, and reevaluating the team.
In the first stage of the protocol, the rationale for the goal-setting program and the setting of team
goals are discussed and carried out with the team. The coaches then remind their players of the
team’s goals in the second stage. This can be done verbally or by posting the team goals in a
visible location in the locker room. The third stage is when the goal evaluation and feedback
occurs.
Cognitive Domain: Analysis
Answer Location: Team Goal Setting
Difficulty Level: Medium
7. Sullivan (1993) developed an extensive communication training program for sports teams
designed to optimize the interpersonal communication skills of the athletes. Name the seven
stages, and describe the activities of two.
Ans: Stage 1. Effective listening—Teammates generate a list of good listening skills and
guidelines for implementing them.
Stage 2. Self-assessment—Teammates share and comment on self-completed personality
assessments.
Stage 3. Identification of problems—Pairs of teammates generate a list of problems facing the
team; team consensus is reached on the total list of problems.
Stage 4. Self-disclosure—Each athlete participates in an exercise involving completing a
sentence (e.g., “On the team, I need to improve my ability to . . .”) in front of the team.
Stage 5. Concerns about the current season—Team members write down one fear and one hope
for the season; these comments are reported (anonymously) to the team.
Stage 6. Norm of acceptance—Small groups within the team share personal stories about
mistakes made and lessons learned.
Stage 7. Self-evaluation—Each player evaluates the team’s progress on team members’ being
genuine with one another, communicating in an understanding fashion, valuing each other as
individuals, and accepting one another.
Cognitive Domain: Analysis
Answer Location: Communication Training Intervention
Difficulty Level: Medium
8. As discussed in the text, self-confidence is an important factor in sports teams. Researchers
have distinguished between self-efficacy and collective efficacy. Differentiate between the two.
(p. 139)
Ans: Self-efficacy refers to the belief that one can act to successfully produce a given outcome
under a given set of circumstances. It is essentially a situation-specific form of self-confidence,
whereas collective efficacy refers to a group’s shared belief in its ability to organize and execute
the courses of action required to obtain a certain outcome.
Cognitive Domain: Analysis
Answer Location: Team Confidence
Difficulty Level: Medium
9. Individual roles have been found to affect team cohesion. The text highlights that there are
several different aspects of how roles may affect cohesion. Differentiate between role clarity,
role acceptance, and role performance. (p. 136)
Ans: Role clarity refers to the extent to which one’s role has been clearly defined. This is distinct
from role acceptance—that is, the degree to which the person expected to fill a role agrees to
comply with the requirements of the role. Finally, role performance refers to how well the
individual actually completes the responsibilities of the role. To maximize cohesiveness, each of
these aspects of one’s role must be satisfied.
Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Team Cohesion
Difficulty Level: Medium
10. The text discusses four main characteristics of cohesion. Name all four, and describe two in
detail.
Ans: 1. Multidimensional
2. Dynamic
3. Affective
4. Instrumental
Multidimensional means that cohesion is not one simple factor but rather the sum of several
interrelated factors. Dynamic means that although it is relatively stable, cohesion does tend to
fluctuate over time. Affectivity refers to the emotional state of the athletes. Understanding what
keeps a team united and how the players feel about one another is imperative in understanding
team cohesion. Likewise, another big part of how cohesive a team is has to do with its goals and
objectives. Goals and objectives are the most obvious features that help a team of players remain
united; this is the instrumental nature of cohesion.
Cognitive Domain: Analysis
Answer Location: Team Cohesion
Difficulty Level: Medium
Other documents randomly have
different content
'The handkerchief with which the murderer wiped those blood-
stains off his hands!'
'Pshaw!' exclaimed Churchill, contemptuously. 'There are a
hundred ways in which you might come possessed of a man's
handkerchief. Your tribe lives by such petty plunder. Do you suppose
that you, a gipsy and a vagabond, would ever persuade a British jury
to believe your evidence, against a gentleman?'
'What!' cried the woman eagerly, 'then you know it was a
gentleman who murdered your cousin?' 'Didn't you say so just this
minute?'
'Not I, my noble gentleman. I told you he was tall, and wore an
overcoat. That's all I told you about him.'
'Well, what next?'
'He wiped the blood off his hand, then put the handkerchief back
in his pocket, as he thought; but I suppose he wasn't quite used to
the work he was doing, for in his confusion he missed the pocket
and let the handkerchief fall into the road. I didn't give him time to
find out his mistake, for while he was stooping over the dead man,
emptying his pockets, I crept across the road, got hold of the
handkerchief, and slipped back to my hiding-place in the ditch again.
I'm light of foot, you see, your honour, though an old woman.'
'What next?'
'He opened the dead man's purse, emptied it, and put the
contents in his own waistcoat pocket. Then he crammed watch and
purse down into the ditch—the same ditch where I was hiding, but a
little way off,—took a stick which he had broken off the hedge, and
thrust it down into the mud under the weeds, making sure, I
suppose, that no one could ever find it there. When he had done
this, he pulled himself together, as you may say, and hurried off as
fast as he could go, panting like a hunted deer, across the swampy
ground and towards the river, where they found his footsteps
afterwards. I think it would have been cleverer of him if he'd left his
victim's pockets alone, and let those that found the body rob it, as
they'd have been pretty sure to do. Yet it was artful of him to clean
the pockets out, so as to make it seem a common case of highway
robbery with violence.'
'What did you do with the handkerchief?'
'Took it home with me, to that tent yonder, that's what we call
home, and lighted an end of candle, and smoothed out the
handkerchief to see if there was any mark upon it. Gentlemen are so
particular about their things, you see, and don't like to get 'em
changed at the wash. Yes, there the mark was, sure enough. The
name in full—Christian and surname. It was as much as I could do
to read 'em, for the blood-stains.'
'What was the name?'
'That's my secret. Every secret has its price, and I've put a price
on mine. If I was sure of getting the reward, and not having the
police turn against me, I might be more ready to tell what I know.'
'You're a curious woman,' said Churchill, after a longish pause.
'But I suppose you've some plan of your own?'
'Yes, your honour, I have my views.'
'As to this story of yours, even supported by the evidence of this
handkerchief which you pretend to have found, I doubt very much if
it would have the smallest weight with a jury. I do not, therefore,
press you to bring forward your information; though as my cousin's
next of kin, it is of course my duty to do my best to bring his
assassin to justice.'
'That's just what I thought, your honour.'
'Precisely. And you did quite right in bringing the subject before
me. It will be necessary for me to know when and where I can find
you in future, so that when the right time comes you may be at
hand to make your statement.'
'We are but wanderers on the face of the earth kind gentleman,'
whined the gipsy. 'It isn't very easy to find us when you want us.'
'That's what I've been thinking,' returned Churchill, musingly. 'If
you had some settled home, now? You're getting old, and must be
tired of roving, I fancy. Sleeping upon straw, under canvas, in a
climate in which east winds are the rule rather than the exception.
That sort of thing must be rather trying at your time of life, I should
imagine.'
'Trying? I'm racked with the rheumatics every winter, your
honour. My bones are not so much bones as gnawing wolves—they
torment me so. Sometimes I feel as if I could chop off my limbs
willingly, to be quit of the pain in 'em. A settled home—a warm bed
—a fireside—that would be heaven to me.'
'Well, I'll think about it, and see what can be done for you. In
the meantime I'll give you a trifle to ward off the rheumatism.'
He opened his purse, and gave the woman a bank note, part of
an advance made him by Mr. Pergament that morning. The gipsy
uttered her usual torrent of blessings—the gratitude wherewith she
was wont to salute her benefactors.
'Have you ever been in Cornwall?' asked Churchill.
'Lord love your honour! there isn't a nook or a corner in all
England where I haven't been!'
'Good. If you happen to be in Cornwall any time during the next
three months, you may look me up at Penwyn Manor.'
'Bless you, my generous gentleman, it won't be very long before
you see me.'
'Whenever you please,' returned Churchill, with that air of well-
bred indifference which he wore as a badge of his class. 'Good
afternoon.'
He turned to go back to the city, leaving the woman standing
alone by the river brink, looking after him; lost in thought, or lost in
wonder.
CHAPTER XV.
'THEY SHALL PASS, AND THEIR PLACES BE
TAKEN?'
The letter which told Miss Bellingham that her lover was master
of Penwyn seemed to her almost like the end of a fairy tale. Lady
Cheshunt had dropped in to afternoon tea only a quarter of an hour
before the letter arrived, and Madge was busy with the old Battersea
cups and saucers, and the quaint little Wedgwood teapot, when the
accomplished serving man, who never abated one iota of his
professional solemnity because his wages were doubtful, presented
Churchill's letter on an antique salver.
'Put it on the table, please,' said Madge, busy with the tea-
service, and painfully conscious that the dowager's eye was upon
her. She had recognised Churchill's hand at a glance, and thought
how daring, nay, even impudent it was of him to write to her. It was
mean of him to take such advantage of her weakness that Sunday
morning, she thought. True, that in one fatal moment she had let
him discover the secret she was most anxious to hide; but she had
given him no right over her. She had made him no promise. Her love
had been admitted hypothetically. 'If we lived in a different world. If
I had myself only to consider,' she had said to him; which meant
that she would have nothing to do with him under existing
circumstances.
She glanced at Viola, that fragile Sèvres china beauty, with her
air of being unfitted for the vulgar uses of life.
'Poor child! For her sake I ought to marry Mr. Balecroft, that
pompous Manchester merchant; or that vapid young fop, Sir Henry
Featherstone,' she thought, with a sigh.
'Read your letter, my dear love,' said Lady Cheshunt, leaning
over the tray to put an extra lump of sugar into her cup, and
scrutinizing the address of that epistle which had brought the warm
crimson blood to Madge Bellingham's cheeks and brow. The good-
natured dowager permitted herself this breach of good breeding, in
the warmth of her affection for Madge. The handwriting was
masculine, evidently. That was all Lady Cheshunt could discover.
Miss Bellingham broke the seal, trying to look composed and
indifferent, but after hurriedly reading Churchill's brief letter, gave a
little cry of horror.
'Good heavens! it is too dreadful!' she exclaimed.
'What is too dreadful, child?'
'You remember what we were talking about last Saturday night,
when you took so much trouble to warn me against allowing myself
to—to entangle myself—I think that's what you called it—with Mr.
Penwyn.'
'With the poor Mr. Penwyn. I remember, perfectly; and that letter
is from him—the man has had the audacity to propose to you? You
may well say it is too dreadful.'
'His cousin has been murdered, Lady Cheshunt—his cousin, Mr.
James Penwyn.'
'And your man comes into the Penwyn estate,' cried the
energetic dowager. 'My dearest Madge, I congratulate you! Poor
young Penwyn! A boy at school, or a lad at the University, I believe.
Nobody seems to know much about him.'
'He has been murdered. Shot from behind a hedge by some
midnight assassin. Isn't that dreadful?' said Madge, too much
shocked by the tidings in her lover's letter to consider the difference
this event might make in her own fortunes. She could not be glad all
at once, though that one man whom her heart had chosen for its
master was raised from poverty to opulence. For a little while at
least, she could only think of the victim.
'Very dreadful!' echoed Lady Cheshunt. 'The police ought to
prevent such things. One pays highway rates, and sewer rates, and
so forth, till one is positively ruined, and yet one can be murdered
on the very high road one pays for, with impunity. There must be
something wrong in the legislature. I hope things will be better
when our party comes in. Look at that child Viola, she's as white as
a sheet of paper—just as if she were going to faint. You shouldn't
blurt out your murders in that abrupt way, Madge.'
Viola gave a little hysterical sob, and promised not to faint this
time. She was but a fragile piece of human porcelain, given to
swooning at the slightest provocation. She went round to Madge,
and knelt down by her, and kissed her fondly, knowing enough of
her sister's feelings to comprehend that this fatal event was likely to
benefit Madge.
'Odd that I did not see anything of this business in the papers,'
exclaimed Lady Cheshunt. 'But then I only read the Post, and that
does not make a feature of murders.'
'Papa is at Newmarket,' said Viola, 'and Madge and I never look
at the papers, or hear any news while he is away.'
Madge sat silent, looking at Churchill's letter till every word
seemed to burn itself into her brain. The firm, straight hand, the
letters long and narrow, and a little pointed—something like that
wonderful writing of Joseph Addison's—how well she knew it!
'And yet he must have been agitated,' thought Madge. 'Even his
quiet force of character could not stand against such a shock as this.
After what he said to me, too, last Sunday—to think that wealth and
position should have come to him so suddenly. There seems
something awful in it.'
Lady Cheshunt had quite recovered her habitual gaiety by this
time, and dismissed James Penwyn's death as a subject that was
done with for the moment, merely expressing her intention of
reading the details of the event in the newspapers at her leisure.
'And so, my dear Madge, Mr. Penwyn wrote to you immediately,'
she said. 'Doesn't that look rather as if there were some kind of
understanding between you?'
'There was no understanding between us, Lady Cheshunt,
except that I could never be Mr. Penwyn's wife while he was a poor
man. He understood that perfectly. I told him in the plainest, hardest
words, like a woman of the world as I am.'
'You needn't say that so contemptuously, Madge. I'm a woman
of the world, and I own it without a blush. What's the use of living in
the world if you don't acquire worldly wisdom? It's like living ever so
long in a foreign country without learning the language, and implies
egregious stupidity. And so you told Churchill Penwyn that you
couldn't marry him on account of his poverty! and you pledged
yourself to wait ten or twenty years for him, I suppose, and refuse
every decent offer for his sake?'
'No, Lady Cheshunt, I promised nothing.'
'Well, my dear, Providence has been very good to you: for, no
doubt, if Mr. Penwyn had remained poor you'd have made a fool of
yourself sooner or later for his sake, and gone to live in Bloomsbury,
where even I couldn't have visited you, on account of my servants.
One might get over that sort of thing one's self, but coachmen are
so particular where they wait.'
Her ladyship rattled on for another quarter of an hour, promised
Madge to come and stay at Penwyn Manor with her by and by,
congratulated Viola on her sister's good fortune, hoped that her dear
Madge would make a point of spending the season in London when
she became Mrs. Penwyn; while Madge sat unresponsive, hardly
listening to this flow of commonplace, but thinking how awful
fortune was when it came thus suddenly, and had death for its
herald. She felt relieved when Lady Cheshunt gathered up her silken
train for the last time, and went rustling downstairs to the elegant
Victoria which appeared far too fairy-like a vehicle to contain that
bulky matron.
'Thank Heaven she's gone!' cried Madge. 'How she does talk!'
'Yes, dear, but she is always kind,' pleaded Viola, 'and so fond of
you.'
Madge put her arms round the girl and kissed her passionately.
That sisterly love of hers was almost the strongest feeling in her
breast, and all Madge's affections were strong. She had no milk-and-
water love.
'Dearest!' she said softly, 'how happy we can be now! I hope it
isn't wicked to be happy when fortune comes to us in such a
dreadful manner.'
'You do care a little for Mr. Penwyn, then, dear?' said Viola,
without entering upon this somewhat obscure question.
'I love him with all my heart and soul.'
'Oh, Madge, and you never told me!'
'Why tell you something that might make you unhappy? I should
never have dreamt of marrying Churchill but for this turn in
Fortune's wheel. I wanted to make what is called a good marriage,
for your sake, darling, more than for my own. I wanted to win a
happy home for you, so that when your time came to marry you
might not be pressed or harassed by worldly people as I have been,
and might follow the dictates of your own heart.'
'Oh, Madge, you are quite too good,' cried Viola, with
enthusiasm.
'And we may be very happy, mayn't we, my pet?' continued the
elder, 'living together at a picturesque old place in Cornwall, with the
great waves of the Atlantic rolling up to the edge of our grounds—
and in London sometimes, if Churchill likes—and knowing no more of
debt and difficulty, or cutting and contriving so as to look like ladies
upon the income of ladies' maids. Life will begin afresh for us, Viola.'
'Poor papa!' sighed Viola, 'you'll be kind to him, won't you,
Madge?'
'My dearest, you know that I love him. Papa will be very glad,
depend upon it, and he will like to go back to his old bachelor ways,
I dare say, now that he will not be burthened with two marriageable
daughters.'
'When will you be married, Madge?'
'Oh, not for ever so long, dear; not for a twelvemonth, I should
think. Churchill will be in mourning for his cousin, and it wouldn't
look well for him to marry soon after such a dreadful event.'
'I suppose not. Are you to see him soon?'
'Very soon, love. Here is his postscript. 'Madge read the last lines
of her lover's letter: '"I shall come back to town directly the inquest
is over, and all arrangements made, and my first visit shall be to
you."'
'Of course. And you really, really love him, Madge?' asked Viola,
anxiously.
'Really, really. But why ask that question, Viola, after what I told
you just now?'
'Only because you've taken me by surprise, dear; and—don't be
angry with me, Madge—because Churchill Penwyn has never been a
favourite of mine. But of course now I shall begin to like him
immensely. You're so much better a judge of character than I am,
you see, Madge, and if you think him good and true——'
'I have never thought of his goodness or his truth,' said Madge,
with rather a gloomy look. 'I only know that I love him.'
CHAPTER XVI.
'THERE IS A HISTORY IN ALL MEN'S LIVES.'
Upon his return to London, Churchill lost very little time before
presenting himself in Cavendish Row. He did not go there on the day
of his cousin's funeral. That gloomy ceremonial had unfitted him for
social pleasures, above all for commune with so bright a spirit as
Madge Bellingham. He felt as if to go to her straight from that place
of tombs would be to carry the atmosphere of the grave into her
home. The funeral seemed to affect him more than such a solemnity
might have been supposed to affect a man of his philosophical
temper. But then these quiet, reserved men—men who hold
themselves in check, as it were—are sometimes men of deepest
feeling. So Mr. Pergament thought as he stood opposite the new
master of Penwyn in the vault at Kensal Green, and observed his
pallid face, and the settled gloom of his brow.
Churchill drove straight back to the Temple with Mr. Pergament
for his companion, that gentleman being anxious to return to New
Square for his afternoon letters, before going down to his luxurious
villa at Beckenham, where he lived sumptuously, or—as his enemies
averred—battened, ghoul-like, on the rotten carcasses of the defunct
chancery suits which he had lost. From Kensal Green to Fleet Street
seemed an interminable pilgrimage in that gloomy vehicle. Mr.
Pergament and his client had exhausted their conversational powers
on the way to the cemetery, and now on the return home had but
little to say for themselves. It was a blazing summer afternoon—an
August day which had slipped unawares into June through an error
in the calendar. The mourning coach was like a locomotive oven; the
shabby suburban thoroughfares seemed baking under the pitiless
sky. Never had the Harrow Road looked dustier; never had the
Edgware Road looked untidier or more out at elbows than to-day.
'How I detest the ragged fringe of shabby suburbs that hangs
round London!' said Mr. Penwyn. It was the first remark he had
made after half an hour's thoughtful silence.
His only reply from the solicitor was a gentle snore, a snore
which sounded full of placid enjoyment. Perhaps there is nothing
more dreamily delightful than a stolen doze on a sultry afternoon,
lulled by the movement of wheels.
'How the fellow sleeps!' muttered Mr. Penwyn, almost savagely. 'I
wish I had the knack of sleeping like that.'
It is the curse of these hyper-active intellects to be strangers to
rest.
The carriage drew up at one of the Temple gates at last, and Mr.
Pergament woke with a start, jerked into the waking world again by
that sudden pull-up.
'Bless my soul!' exclaimed the lawyer. 'I was asleep!'
'Didn't you know it?' asked Churchill, rather fretfully.
'Not the least idea. Weather very oppressive. Here we are at
your place. Dear me! By the way, when do you think of going down
to Penwyn?'
'The day after to-morrow. I should like you to go with me and
put me in formal possession. And you may as well take the title-
deeds down with you. I like to have those things in my own
possession. The leases you can of course retain.'
Mr. Pergament, hardly quite awake as yet, was somewhat taken
aback by this request. The title-deeds of the Penwyn estate had
been in the offices of Pergament and Pergament for half a century.
This new lord of the manor promised to be sharper even than the
old squire, Nicholas Penwyn, who among some ribald tenants of the
estate had been known as Old Nick.
'If you wish it, of course—yes—assuredly,' said Mr. Pergament;
and on this, with a curt good day from Churchill, they parted.
'How property changes a man!' thought the solicitor, as the
coach carried him to New Square. 'That young man looks as if he
had the cares of a nation on his shoulders already. Odd notion his,
wanting to keep the title-deeds in his own custody However, I
suppose he won't take his business out of our hands,—and if he
should, we can do without it.'
* * * * *
Churchill went up to his chambers, on a third floor. They had a
sombre and chilly look in their spotless propriety, even on this warm
summer afternoon. The rooms were on the shady side of the way,
and saw not the sun after nine o'clock in the morning.
Very neatly kept and furnished were those bachelor apartments,
the sitting-room, at once office and living-room, the goods and
chattels in it perhaps worth five-and-twenty pounds. An ancient and
faded Turkey carpet, carefully darned by the deft fingers of a jobbing
upholstress, whom Churchill sometimes employed to keep things in
order; faded green cloth curtains; an old oak knee-hole desk, solid,
substantial, shabby, with all the papers upon it neatly sorted—the
inkstand stainless, and well supplied; a horsehair-covered arm-chair,
high backed, square, brass-nailed, of a remote era, but comfortable
withal; armless chairs of the same period, with an unknown crest
emblazoned on their mahogany backs; a battered old bookcase,
filled with law books, only one shelf reserved for that lighter
literature which soothes the weariness of the student; every object
as bright as labour and furniture polish could make it, everything in
its place; a room in which no ancient spinster, skilled in the
government of her one domestic, could have discovered ground for
a complaint.
Churchill looked round the room with a thoughtful smile—not
altogether joyous—as he seated himself in his arm-chair, and opened
a neat cigar-box on the table at his side.
'How plain the stamp of poverty shows upon everything!' he said
to himself, 'the furniture the mere refuse of an auction-room,
furbished and polished into decency; the faded curtains, where there
is hardly any colour visible except the neutral tints of decay; the
darned carpet—premeditated poverty, as Sheridan calls it—the mark
of the beast shows itself on all. And yet I have known some not all
unhappy hours in this room—patient nights of study—the fire of
ambition—the sunlight of hope—hours in which I deemed that fame
and fortune were waiting for me down the long vista of industrious
years—hours when I felt myself strong in patience and resolve! I
shall think of these rooms sometimes in my new life—dream of them
perhaps—fancy myself back again.'
He sat musing for a long time—so lost in thought that he forgot
to light the cigar which he had taken from his case just now. He
woke from that long reverie with a sigh, gave his shoulders an
impatient shrug, as if he would have shaken off ideas that troubled
him, and took a volume at random from a neat little bookstand on
his table—where about half a dozen favourite volumes stood ranged,
all of the cynical school—Rabelais, Sterne, Goethe's 'Faust,' a volume
of Voltaire,—not books that make a man better—if one excepts
Goethe, whose master-work is the Gospel of a great teacher. Under
that outer husk of bitterness how much sweetness! With that
cynicism, what depth of tenderness!
Churchill's hand lighted unawares upon 'Faust.' He opened the
volume at the opening of that mightiest drama, and read on—read
until the wearied student stood before him, tempting destiny with
his discontent—read until the book dropped from his hand, and he
sat, fixed as a statue, staring at the ground, in a gloomy reverie.
'After all, discontent is your true tempter—the fiend whose
whisper for ever assails man's ear. Who could be wiser than Faust?
and yet how easy a dupe! Well, I have my Margaret, at least; and
neither man nor any evil spirit that walks the earth in shape
impalpable to man shall ever come between us two.'
Churchill lighted his cigar, and left his quiet room, which seemed
to him just now to be unpleasantly occupied by that uncanny poodle
which the German doctor brought home with him. He went to the
Temple Gardens, and walked up and down by the cool river, over
which the mists of evening were gently creeping, like a veil of
faintest grey. It was before the days of the embankment, and the
Templars still possessed their peaceful walk on the brink of the river.
Here Churchill walked till late, thinking,—always thinking,—
property has so many cares; and then, when other people were
meditating supper, went out into Fleet Street to a restaurant that
was just about closing, and ordered his tardy dinner. Even when it
came he seemed to have but a sorry appetite, and only took his pint
of claret with relish. He was looking forward eagerly to the morrow,
when he should see Madge Bellingham, and verily begin his new life.
Hitherto he had known only the disagreeables of his position—the
inquest—the funeral. To-morrow he was to taste the sweets of
prosperity.
CHAPTER XVII.
'DEATH COULD NOT SEVER MY SOUL AND
YOU.'
Churchill Penwyn lost little of that morrow to which he had
looked forward so eagerly. He was in Cavendish Row at eleven
o'clock, in the pretty drawing-room, among brightly bound books
and music, and flowers, surrounded by colour, life, and sunshine,
and with Madge Bellingham in his arms.
For the first few moments neither of them could speak, they
stood silent, the girl's dark head upon her lover's breast, her cheek
pale with deepest feeling, his strong arms encircling her.
'My own dear love!' he murmured, after a kiss that brought the
warm blood back to that pale cheek. 'My very own at last! Who
would have thought when we parted that I should come back to you
so soon, with altered fortunes?'
'So strangely soon,' said Madge. 'Oh, Churchill, there is
something awful in it.'
'Destiny is always awful, dearest. She is that goddess who ever
was, and ever will be, and whose veil no man's hand has ever lifted.
We are blind worshippers in her temple, and must take the lots she
deals from her inscrutable hand. We are among her favoured
children, dearest, for she has given us happiness.'
'I refused to be your wife, Churchill, because you were poor. Can
you quite forgive that? Must I not seem to you selfish and
mercenary, almost contemptible, if I accept you now?'
'My beloved, you are truth itself. Be as nobly frank to-day as you
were that day I promised to win fame and fortune for your sake.
Fortune has come without labour of mine. It shall go hard with me if
fame does not follow in the future. Only tell me once more that you
love me, that you rejoice in my good fortune, and will share it, and—
bless it?'
He made a little pause before the last two words, as if some
passing thought had troubled him.
'You know that I love you, Churchill,' she answered, shyly. 'I
could not keep that secret from you the other day, though I would
have given so much to hide the truth.'
'And you will be my wife, darling, the fair young mistress of
Penwyn?'
'By and by, Churchill. It seems almost wrong to talk of our
marriage yet awhile. That poor young fellow, your cousin, he may
have been asking some happy girl to share his fortune and his home
—to be mistress of Penwyn—only a little while ago.'
'Very sad,' said Churchill, 'but the natural law. You remember
what the father of poets has said—"The race of man is like the
leaves on the trees."'
'Yes, Churchill, but the leaves fall in their season. This poor
young fellow has been snatched away in the blossom of his youth—
and by a murderer's hand.'
'I have heard a good deal of that sort of talk since his death,'
remarked Mr. Penwyn, with a cloudy look. 'I thought you would have
a warmer greeting for me than lamentations about my cousin. But
for his death I should not have the right to hold you in my arms, to
claim you for my wife. You rejected me on account of my property;
yet you bewail the event that has made me rich.'
Miss Bellingham withdrew herself from her lover's arms with an
offended look.
'I would rather have waited for you ten years than that fortune
should have come to you under such painful circumstances,' she
said.
'Yes, you think so, I dare say. But I know what a woman's
waiting generally comes to—above all when she is one of the most
beautiful women in London. Madge, don't sting me with cold words,
or cold looks. You do not know how I have yearned for this hour.'
She had seated herself by one of the little tables, and was idly
turning the leaves of an ivory-bound volume. Churchill knelt down
beside her, and took the white ringed hand away from the book, and
covered it with kisses—and put his arm round her as she sat—
leaning his head against her shoulder, as if he had found rest there,
after long weariness.
'Have some compassion upon me, darling,' he pleaded. 'Pity
nerves that have been strained, a mind that has been overtaxed. Do
not think that I have not felt this business. I have felt it God alone
knows how intensely. But I come here for happiness. Time enough
for troublous thoughts when you and I are apart. Here I would
remember nothing—know nothing but the joy of being with you, to
touch your hand, to hear your voice, to look into those deep, dark
eyes.'
There was nothing but love in the eyes that met his gaze now—
love unquestioning and unmeasured.
'Dearest, I will never speak of your cousin again if it pains you,'
Madge said, earnestly. 'I ought to have been more considerate.'
She pushed back a loose lock from the broad forehead where
the hair grew thinly, with a gentle caressing hand; timidly, for it was
the first time she had touched her lover's brow, and there was
something of a wife's tenderness in the action.
'Churchill,' she exclaimed, 'your forehead burns as if you were in
a fever. You are not ill, I hope?'
'No, dear, not ill. But I have been over-anxious, over-excited,
perhaps. I am calm now, happy now, Madge. When shall I speak to
your father? I want to feel myself your acknowledged lover.'
'You can speak to papa whenever you like, Churchill. He came
home last night from Newmarket. I know he will be glad to see you
either here or at his club.'
'And our marriage, Madge, how soon shall that be?'
'Oh, Churchill, you cannot wish it to be soon, after——'
'But I do wish it to be soon; as soon as it may be with decency. I
am not going to pretend exaggerated grief for the death of a
kinsman of whom I hardly knew anything. I am not going to sit in
sackcloth and ashes because I have inherited an estate I never
expected to own, in order that the world may look on approvingly,
and say, "What fine feelings! what tenderness of heart!" Society
offers a premium for hypocrisy. No, Madge, I will wear crape on my
hat for just three months, and wait just three months for the
crowning happiness of my life; and then we will be married, as
quietly as you please, and slip away by some untrodden track to a
Paradise of our own, some one fair scene among the many lovely
spots of earth which has not yet come into fashion for honeymoons.'
'You do not ask my terms—but dictate your own,' said Madge,
smiling.
'Dear love, are we not one in heart and hope from this hour?
and must we not have the same wishes, the same thoughts?'
'You have no trousseau to think about, Churchill.'
'No, a man hardly considers matrimony an occasion for laying in
an unlimited stock of clothes, though I may indulge in a new suit or
two in honour of my promotion. Seriously, dearest, do not trouble
yourself to provide a mountain of millinery. Mrs. Penwyn shall have
an open account with as many milliners and silk-mercers as she
pleases.'
'You may be sure that I shall not have too expensive a
trousseau, and that I shall not run into debt,' said Madge, blushing.
And so it was settled between them that they were to be
married before the end of September, in time to begin their new life
in some romantic corner of Italy, and to establish themselves at
Penwyn before Christmas and the hunting season. Churchill had
boasted friends innumerable as a penniless barrister, and this circle
was hardly likely to become contracted by the change in his
fortunes. Everybody would want to visit him during that first winter
at Penwyn.
The lovers sat together for hours, talking of their future, opening
their hearts to each other, as they had never dared to do before that
day. They sat, hand clasped in hand, on that very sofa which Lady
Cheshunt's portly form had occupied when she read Madge her
lecture.
Viola was out riding with some good-natured friends who had a
large stable, and gave the Miss Bellinghams a mount as often as
they chose to accept that favour. It was much too early for callers.
Sir Nugent never came upstairs in the morning. So Madge and her
lover had the cool, shadowy rooms to themselves, and sat amidst
the perfume of flowers, talking of their happy life to come. All the
small-talk of days gone by, those many conversations at evening
parties, flower shows, picture galleries, seemed as nothing
compared with these hours of earnest talk; heart to heart, soul to
soul; on one side, at least, without a thought of reserve.
Time flew on his swiftest wing for these two. Madge started up
with a little cry of surprise when Viola dashed into the room, looking
like a lovely piece of waxwork in a riding habit and chimney-pot hat.
'Oh, Madge, we have had such a round; Ealing, Willesden,
Hendon, and home by Finchley.—I beg your pardon, Mr. Penwyn, I
didn't see you till this moment. This room is so dark after the blazing
sunshine. Aren't you coming down to luncheon? The bell rang half
an hour ago, and poor Rickson looks the picture of gloom. I dare say
he wants to clear the table and compose himself for his afternoon
siesta.'
Madge blushed, conscious of having been too deep in bliss for
life's common sounds to penetrate her Paradise—in a region where
luncheon bells are not.
'You'll stay to luncheon, Churchill, won't you?' she said—and
Viola knew it was all settled.
Miss Bellingham would not have called a gentleman by his
Christian name unless she had been engaged to be married to him.
Viola got hold of her sister's hand as they went downstairs, and
squeezed it tremendously.
'I shall sit down to luncheon in my habit,' she said, 'if you don't
mind, for I'm absolutely famishing.'
That luncheon was the pleasantest meal Churchill Penwyn had
eaten for a long time. Not an aldermanic banquet by any means, for
Sir Nugent seldom lunched at home, and the young ladies fared but
simply in his absence. There was a cold chicken left from yesterday's
dinner, minus the liver-wing, a tongue, also cut, a salad, a jar of
apricot jam, some dainty little loaves from a German bakery, and a
small glass dish of Roquefort cheese. The wines were Medoc and
sherry.
The three sat a long time over this simple feast, still talking of
their future;—the future which Viola was to share with the married
people.
'Have you ever seen Penwyn Manor?' she asked, after having
declared her acceptance of the destiny that had been arranged for
her.
'Never,' answered Churchill. 'It was always a sore subject with
my father. His father had not treated him well, you see; he married
when he was little more than a boy, and was supposed to have
married badly, though my mother was as good a woman as ever
bore the name of Penwyn. My grandfather chose to take offence at
the marriage, and my father resented the slight put upon his wife so
deeply that he never crossed the threshold of Penwyn Manor House
again. Thus it happened that I was brought up with very little
knowledge of my kindred, or the birthplace of my ancestors. I have
often thought of going down to Cornwall to have a look at the old
place, without letting anybody know who I was; but I have been too
busy to put the idea into execution.'
'How different you will feel going there as master!' said Viola.
'Yes, it will be a more agreeable sensation, no doubt.'
It was between three and four o'clock when Churchill left that
snug little dining-room to go down to Sir Nugent's club in St. James's
Street, in the hope of seeing that gentleman and making all things
straight without delay.
'Come back to afternoon tea, if you can,' said Viola, who
appeared particularly friendly to her future brother-in-law.
'If possible, my dear Viola—I may call you Viola, I suppose,
now?'
'Of course. Are we not brother and sister henceforward?'
'Well, dear, have you been trying to like him?' asked Madge,
when her lover had departed.
'Yes, and I found it quite easy, you darling Madge! He seemed to
me much nicer to-day. Perhaps it was because I could see how he
worships you. I never saw two people so intensely devoted.
Prosperity suits him wonderfully; though that cloudy look which I
have often noticed in him still comes over his face by fits and starts.'
'He feels his cousin's awful death very deeply.'
'Does he? That's very good of him when he profits so largely by
the calamity. Well, dearest, I mean to like him very much; to be as
fond of him as if he really were my brother.'
'And he will be all that a brother could be to you, dear.'
'I don't quite know that I should care about that,' returned Viola,
doubtfully; 'brothers are sometimes nuisances. A brother-in-law
would be more likely to be on his good behaviour, for fear of
offending his wife.'
* * * * *
Churchill succeeded in lighting upon Sir Nugent at his club. He
was yawning behind an evening paper in the reading-room when Mr.
Penwyn found him. His greeting was just a shade more cordial than
it had always been, but only a shade, for it was Sir Nugent's rule to
be civil to everybody. 'One never knows when a man may get a
step,' he said; and, in a world largely composed of younger sons and
heirs presumptive, this was a golden rule.
Sir Nugent expressed himself profoundly sympathetic upon the
subject of James Penwyn's death. He was perfectly aware of
Churchill's business with him that afternoon, but affected the most
Arcadian innocence.
Happily Churchill came speedily to the point.
'Sir Nugent,' he began, gravely, 'while I was a struggling man I
felt it would be at once presumption and folly to aspire to your
daughter's hand; but to be her husband has been my secret hope
ever since I first knew her. My cousin's death has made a total
change in my fortune.'
'Of course, my dear fellow. It has transformed you from a
briefless barrister into a prosperous country gentleman. Pardon me if
I remark that I might look higher for my eldest daughter than that.
Madge is a woman in a thousand. If it had been her sister, now—a
good little thing, and uncommonly pretty—but I have no lofty
aspirations for her.'
'Unhappily for your ambitious dreams, Sir Nugent, Madge is the
lady of my choice, and we love each other. I do not think you ought
to object to my present position—the Penwyn estate is worth seven
thousand a year.'
'Not bad,' said the baronet, blandly, 'for a commoner. But Madge
could win a coronet if she chose; and I confess that I have looked
forward to seeing her take her place in the peerage. However, if she
really likes you, and has made up her mind about it, any objections
of mine would be useless, no doubt; and as far as personal feeling
goes there is no one I should like better for a son-in-law than
yourself.'
The two gentlemen shook hands upon this, and Sir Nugent felt
that he had not let his handsome daughter go too cheap, and had
paved the way for a liberal settlement. He asked his future son-in-
law to dinner, and Churchill, who would not have foregone that
promised afternoon tea for worlds, chartered the swiftest hansom he
could find, drove back to Cavendish Row, spent an hour with the two
girls and a little bevy of feminine droppers-in, then drove to the
Temple to dress, and reappeared at Sir Nugent's street door just as
the neighbouring clocks chimed the first stroke of eight.
'Bless the young man, how he do come backwards and forwards
since he's come into his estates!' said the butler, who had read all
about James Penwyn's death in the papers. 'I always suspected that
he had a sneaking kindness for our eldest young lady, and now it's
clear they're going to keep company. If he's coming in and out like
this every day, I hope he'll have consideration enough to make it
worth my while to open the door for him.'
* * * * *
'I hope you are not angry with me, papa,' said Madge, by and
by, after her lover had bid them good night and departed, and when
father and daughter were alone together.
'Angry with you? no, my love, but just a trifle disappointed. This
seems to me quite a poor match for a girl with your advantages.'
'Oh, papa, Churchill has seven thousand a year: and think of our
income.'
'My love, that is not the question in point. What I have to think
of is the match you might have made, had it not been for this
unlucky infatuation. There is Mr. Balecroft, with his palace in
Belgravia, a picture gallery worth a quarter of a million, and a superb
place at Windermere——'
'A man who drops his h's, papa—complains of being 'ot!'
'Or Sir Henry Featherstone, one of the oldest families in
Yorkshire, with twelve thousand a year.'
'And not an idea which he has not learnt from his trainer or his
jockey! Oh, papa, don't forget Tennyson's noble line,—
"Cursed be the gold that gilds the straightened forehead of the
fool!"'
'All very well for poets to write that sort of stuff, but a man in my
position doesn't like to see his daughter throw away her chances.
However, I suppose I mustn't complain. Penwyn Manor is a nice
enough place, I dare say.
'You must come to stay with me, papa, every year.'
'My love, that kind of place would be the death of me, except for
a week in October. I suppose there are plenty of pheasants?'
'I dare say, papa. If not, we'll order some.'
'Well, it might have been worse,' sighed Sir Nugent.
'You'll let Viola live with me when I am married, papa, won't
you?' pleaded Madge, coaxingly, as if she were asking a tremendous
favour.
'My dear child, with all my heart,' replied her father, with amiable
promptitude. 'Where could she be so well off? In that case I shall
give up housekeeping as soon as you are married. This house has
always been a plague to me, taxes, repairs, no end of worry. I used
to pay a hundred and fifty pounds a year for my rooms in Jermyn
Street, and the business was settled. Bless you, my darling. You
have always been a comfort to your poor old father.'
And thus blandly, with an air of self-sacrifice, did Sir Nugent
Bellingham wash his hands of his two daughters.
CHAPTER XVIII.
'WHAT GREAT ONES DO, THE LESS WILL
PRATTLE OF.'
A year had gone by since James Penwyn met his death by the
lonely river at Eborsham, and again Maurice Clissold spent his
summer holiday in a walking tour. This time he was quite alone.
Pleasant and social though he was, he did not make friendships
lightly or quickly. In the year that was gone he had found no friend
to replace James Penwyn. He had plenty of agreeable
acquaintances, knew plenty of men who were glad to dine with him
or to give him a dinner. He was famous already, in a small way, at
the literary club where he spent many of his evenings when he was
in London, and men liked to hear him talk, and prophesied fair
things for his future as a man of letters, all the more surely because
he was not called upon to write for bread, but could follow the
impulse that moved him, and wait, were it ever so long, for the
moment of inspiration; never forced to spur the jaded steed, or work
the too willing horse to death.
Not one among the comrades he liked well enough for a jovial
evening, or a cosy dinner, had crept into his heart like the lad he had
sworn to cherish in the ears of a dying woman five years ago. So
when the roses were in bloom, and London began to look warm and
dusty, and the parks had faded a little from their vernal green,
Maurice Clissold set forth alone upon a voyage of adventure, with a
pocket Shakespeare and a quire or so of paper in his battered, old
leathern knapsack, and just so much clothing and linen as might
serve him for his travels.
Needless to say that he avoided that northern city of Eborsham,
where such sudden grief had come upon him, and all that route
which he had trodden only a year ago with the light-hearted, hopeful
lad who now slept his sweetest sleep in one of the vaults at Kensal
Green, beside the mother he had loved and mourned.
Instead of northward, to the land of lakes and mountains,
Maurice went due west. Many a time had he and James Penwyn
talked of the days they were to spend together down at the old
place in Cornwall, and behold! that visit to Penwyn Manor, deferred
in order that James should see the Lake country, was destined never
to be paid. Never were those two to walk together by the Atlantic,
never to scale Tintagel's rugged height, or ramble among the rocks
of Bude.
Maurice had a curious fancy for seeing the old home from which
death had ousted James Penwyn. He might have gone as a visitor to
the Manor House had he pleased, for Churchill had been extremely
civil to him when they last met at the funeral, and had promised him
a hearty welcome to Penwyn whenever he liked to come there; but
Mr. Clissold infinitely preferred to go as an unknown pedestrian—
knapsack on shoulder—having first taken the trouble to ascertain
that Churchill Penwyn and his beautiful young wife were in London,
where they had, for this season, a furnished house in Upper Brook
Street. He saw their names in the list of guests at a fashionable
reception, and knew that the coast would be clear, and that he could
roam about the neighbourhood of his dead friend's ancestral home
without let or hindrance. He went straight to Plymouth by an express
train, crossed the Tamar, and pursued his journey on foot, at a
leisurely pace, lingering at all the prettiest spots—now spending a
day or two at some rustic wayside inn—sketching a little, reading a
little, writing a little, thinking and dreaming a great deal.
It was an idle fancy that had brought him here, and he gave a
free rein to all other idle fancies that seized him by the way. It was a
morbid fancy, perhaps, for it must needs be but a melancholy
pleasure, at best, to visit the domain which his friend had never
enjoyed, to remember so many boyish schemes unfulfilled, so many
bright hopes snapped short off by the shears of Atropos.
The long blue line of sea, and the wide moorland were steeped
in the golden light of a midsummer afternoon when Maurice drew
near Penwyn Manor. The scene was far more lonely than he had
imagined it. Measureless ocean stretched before him, melting into
the hazy summer sky—sea and heaven so near of a colour that it
was hard to tell where the water ended and the sky began—
measureless hills around him—and, except the white sheep yonder,
making fleecy dots upon the side of the topmost hill, no sign of life.
He had left the village of Penwyn behind him by a good two miles,
but had not yet come in sight of the Manor House, though he had
religiously followed the track pointed out to him by the hostess of
the little inn—a mere cottage—where he left his knapsack, and
where he had been respectfully informed that he could not have a
bed.
'At the worst I can sleep on the lee side of one of these hills,' he
said to himself. 'It can hardly be very cold, even at night, in this
western climate.'
He walked a little further on, upon a narrow footpath high above
the sea level. On his right hand there were wide corn-fields, with
here and there an open tract of turnip or mangold; on his left only
the wild moorland pastures, undulating like a sea of verdure. The
ground had dipped a little while ago, and as it rose again, with a
gentle ascent, Maurice Clissold saw the chimney-stacks of the Manor
House between him and the sea.
It was a substantial-looking house, built of greyish stone, a long
low building, with grounds that stretched to the edge of the cliff,
sheltered by a belt of fir and evergreen oak. The blue sea showed in
little patches of gleaming colour through the dark foliage, and the
spicy odour of the pines perfumed the warm, still air. In its utter
loneliness the house had a gloomy look, despite the grandeur of its
situation, on this bold height above the sea. The grounds were
extensive, but to Maurice Clissold they seemed somewhat barren;
orderly, beyond doubt, and well timbered, but lacking the smiling
fertility, the richness of ornament, which a student of Horace and
Pliny desired in his ideal garden.
But Mr. Clissold did not make acquaintance with the inside of the
shrubbery or gardens without some little difficulty. His footpath led
him ultimately into a villanous high road, just in front of the gates of
Penwyn, so the landlady of the village inn had not sent him astray.
There was a lodge beside the gate, a square stone cottage, covered
with myrtle, honeysuckle, and roses, from which emerged an elderly
female, swarthy of aspect, her strongly marked countenance framed
in a frill cap, which gave an almost grotesque look to that tawny
visage.
'Can I see the house and grounds, ma'am?' asked Maurice,
approaching this somewhat grim-looking personage with infinite
civility.
He had a vague idea that he must have seen that face before, or
imagined it in a dream, so curiously did it remind him of some past
occasion in his life—what, he knew not.
'The house is never shown to strangers,' answered the woman.
'I know Mr. Penwyn, and will leave my card for him.'
'You'd better apply to the housekeeper. As to the grounds, my
granddaughter will take you round, if you like.—Elspeth,' called the
woman, and a black-eyed girl of twelve appeared at the cottage
door, like a sprite at a witch's summons.
'Take this gentleman round the gardens,' said the old woman,
and vanished, before Maurice could quite make up his mind as to
whether he had seen a face like that in actual flesh and blood or
only on a painter's canvas.
The girl, who had an impish look, he thought, with her loose
black locks, scarlet petticoat, and scanty scarlet shawl pinned tightly
across her bony shoulders, led the way through a wild-looking
shrubbery, where huge blocks of granite lay among the ferns, which
grew with rank luxuriance between the straight pine-stems. A sandy
path wound in and out among trees and shrubs, till Maurice and his
guide emerged upon a spacious lawn at the back of the house,
whose many windows blinked at them, shining in the western sun.
There were no flower-beds on the lawn, but there was a small
square garden, in the Dutch style, on one side of the house, and a
bowling-green on the other. A terraced walk stretched in front of the
windows, raised three or four feet above the level of the lawn, and
guarded by a stone balustrade somewhat defaced by time. A fine old
sun-dial marked the centre of the Dutch garden, where the
geometrical flower-beds were neatly kept, and where Maurice found
a couple of gardeners, elderly men both, at work, weeding and
watering in a comfortable, leisurely manner.
'What a paradise for the aged!' thought Maurice; 'the woman at
the lodge was old, the gardeners are old, everything about the place
is old, except this impish girl, who looks the oldest of all, with her
evil black eyes and vinegar voice.'
Mr. Clissold had not come so far without entering into
conversation with the damsel. He had asked her a good many
questions about the place, and the people to whom it belonged. But
her answers were of the briefest, and she affected the profoundest
ignorance about everything and everybody.
'You've not been here very long, I suppose, my girl,' he said at
last, with some slight sense of irritation, 'or you'd know a little more
about the place.'
'I haven't been here much above six months.'
'Oh! But your grandmother has lived here all her life, I dare say?'
'No, she hasn't. Grandmother came when I did.'
'And where did you both come from?'
'Foreign parts,' answered the girl.
'Indeed! you both speak very good English for people who come
from abroad.'
'I didn't say we were foreigners, did I?' asked the girl, pertly. 'If
you want to ask any more questions about the place or the people,
you'd better ask 'em of the housekeeper, Mrs. Darvis; and if you
want to see the house you must ask lief of her; and this is the door
you'd better ring at, if you want to see her.'
They were at one end of the terrace, and opposite a half-glass
door which opened into a small and darksome lobby, where the
effigies of a couple of ill-used ancestors frowned from the dusky
walls, as if indignant at being placed in so obscure a corner. Maurice
rang the bell, and after repeating that operation more than once,
and waiting with consummate patience for the result, he was
rewarded by the appearance of an elderly female, homely, fresh-
coloured, comfortable-looking, affording altogether an agreeable
contrast to the tawny visage of the lodge-keeper, whose
countenance had given the traveller an unpleasant feeling about
Penwyn Manor.
Mr. Clissold stated his business, and after spelling over his card
and deliberating a little, Mrs. Darvis consented to admit him, and to
show him the house.
'We used to show it to strangers pretty freely till the new Squire
came into possession,' she said, 'but he's rather particular. However,
if you're a friend of his——'
'I know him very well; and poor James Penwyn was my most
intimate friend.'
'Poor Mr. James! I never saw him but once, when he came down
to see the place soon after the old Squire's death. Such a frank,
open-hearted young gentleman, and so free-spoken. It was a
terrible blow to all of us down here when we read about the murder.
Not but what the present Mr. Penwyn is a liberal master and a kind
landlord, and a good friend to the poor. There couldn't be a better
gentleman for Penwyn.'
'I am glad to hear you give him so good a character,' said
Maurice.
The girl Elspeth had followed him into the house, uninvited, and
stood in the background, open-eyed, with her thin lips drawn tightly
together, listening intently.
'As for Mrs. Penwyn,' said the housekeeper, 'why, she's a lady in
a thousand! She might be a queen, there's something so grand
about her. Yet she's so affable that she couldn't pass one of the little
children at the poor school without saying a kind word; and so
thoughtful for the poor that they've no need to tell her their wants,
she provides for them beforehand.'
'A model Lady Bountiful,' exclaimed Maurice.
'You may run home to your grandmother, Elspeth,' said Mrs.
Darvis.
'I was to show the gentleman the grounds,' answered the
damsel, 'he hasn't half seen 'em yet.'
In her devotion to the service she had undertaken, the girl
followed at their heels through the house, absorbing every word that
was said by Mrs. Darvis or the stranger.
The house was old, and somewhat gloomy, belonging to the
Tudor school of architecture. The heavy stonework of the window-
frames, the lozenge-shaped mullions, the massive cross-bars, were
eminently adapted to exclude light. Even what light the windows did
admit was in many places tempered by stained glass emblazoned
with the arms and mottoes of the Penwyn family, in all its
ramifications, showing how it had become entangled with other
families, and bore the arms of heiresses on its shield, until that
original badge, which Sir Thomas Penwyn, the crusader, had first
carried atop of his helmet, was almost lost among the various
devices in a barry of eight.
The rooms were spacious, but far from lofty, the chimney-pieces
of carved oak and elaborate workmanship, the paneling between
mantel-board and ceiling richly embellished, and over all the
principal chimney-pieces appeared the Penwyn arms and motto,
'J'attends.'
There was much old tapestry, considerably the worse for wear,
for the house had been sorely neglected during that dreary interval
between the revolution and the days of George the Third, when the
Penwyn family had fallen into comparative poverty, and the fine old
mansion had been little better than a farmhouse. Indeed, brawny
agricultural labourers had eaten their bacon and beans and potato
pasty in the banqueting hall, now the state dining-room, handsomely
furnished with plain and massive oaken furniture by the old Squire,
Churchill's grandfather.
This room was one of the largest in the house, and looked
towards the sea. Drawing-room, music-room, library, and boudoir
were on the garden side, with windows opening on the terrace. The
drawing-room and boudoir had been refurnished by Churchill, since
his marriage.
'The old Squire kept very little company, and hardly ever went
inside any of those rooms,' said Mrs. Darvis. 'In summer he used to
sit in the yew-tree bower, on the bowling-green, after dinner; and in
winter he used to smoke his pipe in the steward's room, mostly, and
talk to his bailiff. The dining-room was the only large room he ever
used, so when Mr. Churchill Penwyn came he found the drawing-
room very bare of furniture, and what there was was too shabby for
his taste, so he had that and the boudoir furnished, after the old
style, by a London upholsterer, and put a grand piano and a
harmonium in the music-room; and the drawing-room tapestry is all
new, made by the Goblins, Mrs. Penwyn told me, which, I suppose,
was only her fanciful way of putting it.'
The dame opened the door as she spoke, and admitted Maurice
into this sacred apartment, where the chairs and sofas were
shrouded with holland.
The tapestry was an exquisite specimen of that patient art. Its
subject was the story of Arion. The friendly dolphin, and the blue
summer sea, the Greek sailors, Periander's white-walled palace, lived
upon the work. Triangular cabinets of carved ebony adorned the
corners of the room, and were richly furnished with the Bellingham
bric-a-brac, the only dower Sir Nugent had been able to give his
daughter. The chairs and sofas, from which Mrs. Darvis lifted a
corner of the holland covering for the visitor's gratification, were of
the same dark wood, upholstered with richest olive-green damask,
of mediæval diaper pattern. Window-curtains of the same sombre
hue harmonized admirably with the brighter colours of the tapestry.
The floor was darkest oak, only covered in the centre with a Persian
carpet. The boudoir, which opened out of the drawing-room, was
furnished in exactly the same style, only here the tapestried walls
told the story of Hero and Leander.
'I believe it was all Mrs. Penwyn's taste,' said the housekeeper,
when Maurice had admired everything. '"Her rooms upstairs are a
picture—nothing of character with the house," the head upholsterer
said. "There's so few ladies have got any notion of character," he
says. "They'll furnish an old manor-house with flimsy white and gold
of the Lewis Quince style, only fit for a drawing-room in the Shamps
Eliza; and if you ask them why, they'll say because it's fashionable,
and they like it. Mrs. Penwyn is an artist," says the upholsterer's
foreman.'
Maurice did not hurry his inspection, finding the housekeeper
communicative, and the place full of interest. He heard a great deal
about the old Squire, Nicholas Penwyn, who had reigned for forty
years, and for whom his dependants had evidently felt a curious
mixture of fear, respect, and affection.
'He was a just man,' said Mrs. Darvis, 'but stern; and it was but
rarely he forgave any one that once offended him. It took a good
deal to offend him, you know, sir; but when he did take offence, the
wound rankled deep. I've heard our old doctor say the Squire had
bad flesh for healing. He never got on very well with his eldest son,
Mr. George, though he was the handsomest of the three brothers,
and the best of them too, to my mind.'
'What made them disagree?' asked Maurice. They had made the
round of the house by this time, and the traveller had seated himself
comfortably on a broad window-seat in the entrance hall, a window
Welcome to our website – the perfect destination for book lovers and
knowledge seekers. We believe that every book holds a new world,
offering opportunities for learning, discovery, and personal growth.
That’s why we are dedicated to bringing you a diverse collection of
books, ranging from classic literature and specialized publications to
self-development guides and children's books.
More than just a book-buying platform, we strive to be a bridge
connecting you with timeless cultural and intellectual values. With an
elegant, user-friendly interface and a smart search system, you can
quickly find the books that best suit your interests. Additionally,
our special promotions and home delivery services help you save time
and fully enjoy the joy of reading.
Join us on a journey of knowledge exploration, passion nurturing, and
personal growth every day!
testbankdeal.com

Applied Social Psychology Understanding and Addressing Social and Practical Problems 3rd Edition Gruman Test Bank

  • 1.
    Applied Social PsychologyUnderstanding and Addressing Social and Practical Problems 3rd Edition Gruman Test Bank download https://testbankdeal.com/product/applied-social-psychology- understanding-and-addressing-social-and-practical-problems-3rd- edition-gruman-test-bank/ Explore and download more test bank or solution manual at testbankdeal.com
  • 2.
    Here are somerecommended products for you. Click the link to download, or explore more at testbankdeal.com Understanding Social Problems Canadian 4th Edition Mooney Test Bank https://testbankdeal.com/product/understanding-social-problems- canadian-4th-edition-mooney-test-bank/ Understanding Social Problems Canadian 5th Edition Holmes Test Bank https://testbankdeal.com/product/understanding-social-problems- canadian-5th-edition-holmes-test-bank/ Social Problems 3rd Edition Best Test Bank https://testbankdeal.com/product/social-problems-3rd-edition-best- test-bank/ Finite Mathematics for Business Economics Life Sciences and Social Sciences 14th Edition Barnett Solutions Manual https://testbankdeal.com/product/finite-mathematics-for-business- economics-life-sciences-and-social-sciences-14th-edition-barnett- solutions-manual/
  • 3.
    Economics 1st EditionAcemoglu Solutions Manual https://testbankdeal.com/product/economics-1st-edition-acemoglu- solutions-manual/ Calculus An Applied Approach Brief International Metric Edition 10th Edition Larson Solutions Manual https://testbankdeal.com/product/calculus-an-applied-approach-brief- international-metric-edition-10th-edition-larson-solutions-manual/ Global Economics 13th Edition Robert Carbaugh Test Bank https://testbankdeal.com/product/global-economics-13th-edition-robert- carbaugh-test-bank/ Understanding Our Universe 2nd Edition Palen Test Bank https://testbankdeal.com/product/understanding-our-universe-2nd- edition-palen-test-bank/ Cryptography and Network Security Principles and Practice 7th Edition Stallings Test Bank https://testbankdeal.com/product/cryptography-and-network-security- principles-and-practice-7th-edition-stallings-test-bank/
  • 4.
    Abnormal Psychology 7thEdition Nolen-Hoeksema Test Bank https://testbankdeal.com/product/abnormal-psychology-7th-edition- nolen-hoeksema-test-bank/
  • 5.
    Chapter 6: ApplyingSocial Psychology to Sports Teams Multiple Choice 1. Which of the following is NOT a key feature of groups, as characterized by Forsythe (1999)? a. structured patterns of communication b. interdependence between members c. appropriate collegiality d. identifiable roles and structures Ans: C Cognitive Domain: Comprehension Answer Location: Team Dynamics Difficulty Level: Medium 2. According to the textbook, the most significant of the topics examined in sports teams include ______. a. team cohesion b. groupthink c. team success d. team satisfaction Ans: A Cognitive Domain: Knowledge Answer Location: Team Dynamics Difficulty Level: Easy 3. “A dynamic process which is reflected in the tendency for a group to stick together and remain united in the pursuit of its instrumental objectives and/or for the satisfaction of member affective needs” is the definition of which of the following constructs? a. motivation b. satisfaction c. morale d. cohesion Ans: D Cognitive Domain: Comprehension Answer Location: Team Dynamics Difficulty Level: Medium 4. Which of the following is NOT a component of team cohesion? a. permanence b. affectivity c. multidimensionality d. instrumentality Ans: A Cognitive Domain: Comprehension Answer Location: Team Cohesion Difficulty Level: Easy
  • 6.
    5. Saying thatteam cohesion is instrumental means that teams a. enlist players with different sets of skills b. have goals and objectives c. are meaningful to the players and coaches d. teach players how to play the trumpet Ans: B Cognitive Domain: Comprehension Answer Location: Team Cohesion Difficulty Level: Easy 6. A casual Friday night pick-up hockey league is likely to have teams that possess high ______ and low ______. a. instrumentality; social cohesion b. task cohesion; affectivity c. social cohesion; task cohesion d. affectivity; instrumentality Ans: C Cognitive Domain: Application Answer Location: Team Cohesion Difficulty Level: Easy 7. A team member who claims, “This team doesn’t try hard enough to win, and I’m not happy about it,” would be discussing which form of cohesion? a. attraction to group–task b. group integration–social c. attraction to group–social d. group integration–task Ans: A Cognitive Domain: Comprehension Answer Location: Team Cohesion Difficulty Level: Medium 8. Which of the following characteristics would have the greatest impact on the cohesion of teammates? a. being about the same age b. being of the same race c. having similar attitudes d. being from the same social class Ans: C Cognitive Domain: Comprehension Answer Location: Team Cohesion Difficulty Level: Medium 9. Which of the following teams is likely to have the highest level of task cohesion? a. a three-person beach volleyball team
  • 7.
    b. a footballteam c. a 17-person hockey team d. a soccer team Ans: A Cognitive Domain: Application Answer Location: Team Cohesion Difficulty Level: Medium 10. Which of the following is likely to have the highest level of social cohesion? a. a two-man rowing team b. a football team c. a three-person beach volleyball team d. a doubles tennis pair Ans: B Cognitive Domain: Application Answer Location: Team Cohesion Difficulty Level: Medium 11. The authors of Chapter 6 (“Sports”) suggest that the difficulties encountered by the rowing team profiled in the opening vignette were due primarily to issues related to ______. a. role clarity b. role performance c. role ambiguity d. role acceptance Ans: D Cognitive Domain: Knowledge Answer Location: Team Cohesion Difficulty Level: Easy 12. Which of the following has the greatest influence on team cohesion? a. role clarity b. role performance c. role ambiguity d. role acceptance Ans: D Cognitive Domain: Comprehension Answer Location: Team Cohesion Difficulty Level: Easy 13. Which of the following is synonymous with collective efficacy? a. team success b. team confidence c. team winning streak d. team cohesion Ans: B Cognitive Domain: Knowledge
  • 8.
    Answer Location: TeamCohesion Difficulty Level: Easy 14. Which of the following is most accurate? a. Task cohesion correlates more strongly with team confidence than does social cohesion. b. Social cohesion correlates more strongly with team confidence than does task cohesion. c. Task cohesion and social cohesion correlate approximately equally with team confidence. d. Neither task cohesion nor social cohesion correlates with team confidence. Ans: A Cognitive Domain: Comprehension Answer Location: Team Confidence Difficulty Level: Medium 15. In the “Focus on Research” in Chapter 6 (“Sports”), it was reported that providing teams with false feedback that they were stronger than their competitors led to which of the following outcomes? a. higher expectations of success and increasingly better performance following failure on a subsequent task b. lower expectations of success but increasingly better performance following failure on a subsequent task c. higher expectations of success but worsening performance following failure on a subsequent task d. lower expectations of success and worsening performance following failure on a subsequent task Ans: A Cognitive Domain: Comprehension Answer Location: Focus on Research Difficulty Level: Medium 16. In the sports chapter, it is suggested that wins and losses may affect collective efficacy but not individual efficacy because a. task cohesion is the factor that affects collective efficacy b. wins and losses are contingent on the strength of the opposing teams, so individual efficacy is not affected c. team accomplishments are more salient to team members than individual accomplishments d. team accomplishments are less salient to team members than individual accomplishments Ans: C Cognitive Domain: Comprehension Answer Location: Team Confidence Difficulty Level: Medium 17. Social exchange theory fundamentally focuses on the exchange of ______. a. nonverbal communication gestures b. resources c. respect d. social behaviors
  • 9.
    Ans: B Cognitive Domain:Knowledge Answer Location: Effective Communication Difficulty Level: Easy 18. Which of the following is NOT one of the four main styles of communication identified by Hanin (1992)? a. focused messages b. evaluation messages c. task-irrelevant messages d. stimulation messages Ans: A Cognitive Domain: Analysis Answer Location: Effective Communication Difficulty Level: Easy 19. Team members are likely to display ______ messages before a game, ______ messages during the game, and ______ messages after the game. a. orientation; stimulation; evaluation b. stimulation; orientation; evaluation c. evaluation; orientation; focused d. stimulation; focused; evaluation Ans: A Cognitive Domain: Knowledge Answer Location: Effective Communication Difficulty Level: Easy 20. Which of the following is the most accurate statement regarding team communication and performance? a. Team communication is not related to performance. b. Task communication is not related to team performance. c. Social communication is related to team performance. d. Social communication is not related to team performance. Ans: C Cognitive Domain: Comprehension Answer Location: Effective Communication Difficulty Level: Easy 21. When Tom plays rugby, his primary concern is to beat the other team. However, his teammate Rich is more concerned about giving his all during the game and trying to always play better than he played in the previous game. Tom has a(n) ______ goal orientation, and Rich has a(n) ______ goal orientation. a. process; outcome b. performance; outcome c. performance; process d. outcome; performance
  • 10.
    Ans: D Cognitive Domain:Application Answer Location: Team Goal Setting Difficulty Level: Easy 22. Which of the following is NOT an aspect of effective goal setting? a. setting specific goals in order to reduce ambiguity b. setting realistic goals so that they are viewed as achievable c. setting challenging goals so that effort is exerted d. setting general goals to maintain motivation Ans: D Cognitive Domain: Comprehension Answer Location: Team Goal Setting Difficulty Level: Easy 23. ______ focus on achieving success based on self-comparison. a. Outcome goals b. Process goals c. Performance goals d. Comparison goals Ans: C Cognitive Domain: Knowledge Answer Location: Team Goal Setting Difficulty Level: Easy 24. Research has shown that intervening in the problems experienced by sports teams by using family psychology interventions a. has little effect because teams are not families b. has little effect because families usually have children but high-level sports teams are composed mainly of adults c. can help to remediate the problems teams face d. has sometimes resulted in a decrease in team performance Ans: C Cognitive Domain: Comprehension Answer Location: Team Building (Family Psychology Intervention) Difficulty Level: Medium 25. In the communication training intervention developed by Sullivan (1993) for sports teams (Chapter 6, “Sports”), which of the following was NOT one of the objectives in her intervention program? a. effective listening b. effective speaking c. self-assessment d. identification of problems Ans: B Cognitive Domain: Application
  • 11.
    Answer Location: TeamBuilding (Communication Training Intervention) Difficulty Level: Medium 26. In their qualitative study of choking in team sports, Hill and Shaw (2013) found that the main reason athletes choked was ______. a. fear b. distraction c. lack of confidence d. overconfidence Ans: B Cognitive Domain: Knowledge Answer Location: Effective Communication Difficulty Level: Easy 27. According to Eccles and Tenenbaum (2007), an alternative way of conceptualizing intrateam communication in sport is as a ______. a. social outcome b. social cognitive exchange c. social performance d. social evaluation Ans: B Cognitive Domain: Knowledge Answer Location: Effective Communication Difficulty Level: Easy 28. In the example provided by Eccles and Tenenbaum (2007), they suggest two strategies for optimizing communication among teams. These include a. developing a shared language and cross-training b. cross-training and increased communication c. developing a shared language and silent training sessions d. silent training sessions and cross-training Ans: A Cognitive Domain: Comprehension Answer Location: Effective Communication Difficulty Level: Medium 29. In the ______ framework, messages between teammates are part of a larger process that contributes to the development and functioning of a team mental model. a. social comparison b. fundamental attribution c. social cognitive exchange d. social learning theory Ans: C Cognitive Domain: Comprehension Answer Location: Effective Communication Difficulty Level: Medium
  • 12.
    30. Eccles andTenenbaum (2007) describe cross-training as a. a process by which individuals train for some time in the roles of their teammates b. a process by which individuals train using different activities than normal c. a process by which individuals train with different teams d. a process by which individuals train with their opponents Ans: A Cognitive Domain: Comprehension Answer Location: Effective Communication Difficulty Level: Medium 31. Eccles and Tenenbaum (2007) refer to team mental models that facilitate communication in sport. Team mental models are a. the sharing and manipulation of information among team members b. verbal and nonverbal cues known only to team members c. images teams use to help understand set plays d. gestures that promote cohesion Ans: A Cognitive Domain: Comprehension Answer Location: Effective Communication Difficulty Level: Medium True or False 1. Team performance, coach satisfaction, and motivation are three important consequences or outcomes of chemistry. Ans: T Cognitive Domain: Knowledge Answer Location: Introduction Difficulty Level: Easy 2. Research highlights that a unique approach to team communication is the use of family therapy for sports teams. Ans: F Cognitive Domain: Comprehension Answer Location: Effective Communication Difficulty Level: Easy 3. The construct of cohesion reflects four key characteristics. Specifically, cohesion is one- dimensional, affective, instrumental, and stable. Ans: F Cognitive Domain: Comprehension Answer Location: Team Cohesion Difficulty Level: Medium
  • 13.
    4. Groups arebest characterized by certain key features. These features include structured patterns of communication, interdependence among members, shared identity, and identifiable roles and structures. Ans: T Cognitive Domain: Comprehension Answer Location: Team Dynamics Difficulty Level: Medium 5. Examples of social factors that influence cohesion are group size, leadership style, and member roles. Ans: T Cognitive Domain: Knowledge Answer Location: Team Cohesion Difficulty Level: Easy 6. Anecdotal and research evidence suggests that teams low in cohesion perform better than teams high in cohesion. Ans: F Cognitive Domain: Knowledge Answer Location: Team Cohesion Difficulty Level: Easy 7. Research suggests that social cohesion may be more important than task cohesion with respect to team performance. Ans: F Cognitive Domain: Comprehension Answer Location: Team Performance Difficulty Level: Easy 8. As it relates to the social understanding of teams, another term for the notion of team confidence is collective efficacy. Ans: T Cognitive Domain: Comprehension Answer Location: Team Confidence Difficulty Level: Easy 9. Two important principles of team goal setting are (1) selecting the team goals and (2) evaluating, providing feedback, and reevaluating the team goals for effectiveness. Ans: T Cognitive Domain: Knowledge Answer Location: Team Goal Setting Difficulty Level: Medium 10. As outlined in the text, performance goals focus strictly on the competitive result of an event. Ans: F Cognitive Domain: Knowledge
  • 14.
    Answer Location: TeamGoal Setting Difficulty Level: Medium Short Answer 1. Team cohesion plays an important role in sports teams. Describe two antecedents that shape and influence team unity. (p. 135) Ans: a. Individual antecedents—Individual factors typically involve personalities and demographic characteristics of teammates. Nondemographic individual attributes, such as personality and attitudes, may have a greater impact on cohesion. Research has found that teammates who are compatible with respect to attributes such as friendliness, dominance, and acceptance of authority normally do well on task cohesion and are more effective at conflict management within the group. b.Social antecedents—Examples of social factors include group size, leadership style, and member roles. For example, as it relates to leadership style, research has shown that autocratic leadership (i.e., the coach as leader makes all decisions and refrains from delegating any power) is associated with lower levels of task cohesion, as measured by the GEQ, whereas democratic leadership (i.e., the coach involves his or her athletes in making decisions that affect the team) is related to higher levels of task cohesion. With respect to task cohesion, the most appropriate method of leadership would appear to be one that empowers the group and allows team members to have input into decisions and policies. Cognitive Domain: Analysis Answer Location: Team Cohesion Difficulty Level: Medium 2. Team confidence and team goal setting are two core aspects of team dynamics. Describe these features in detail. Ans: Team confidence and team goal setting play integral roles in team performance, unity and overall dynamics. Team confidence refers to the level of self-confidence among sports team members. Some teams are composed of members who, on an individual level, have high self-confidence but have little confidence in the team as a whole. Team confidence encompasses both self-efficacy as well as collective efficacy. Collective efficacy was coined by Bandura (1997) to refer to a group’s shared belief in its ability to organize and execute the courses of action required to obtain a certain outcome. Team goal setting refers to the different goal orientation subscribed to by team members. Three different types of goal orientation are discussed; these include outcome goals, performance goals, and process goals. Cognitive Domain: Comprehension Answer Location: Team Confidence Difficulty Level: Medium 3. Effective communication among teams is often understood within the framework of social exchange theory. Describe this theory, and list two key characteristics in a social exchange interaction.
  • 15.
    Visit https://testbankdead.com now toexplore a rich collection of testbank, solution manual and enjoy exciting offers!
  • 16.
    Ans: Social exchangetheory refers to a school of theories of interpersonal interaction. These theories assume that all interactions are a form of negotiation and an exchange of resources that are valued by the actors. The various social exchange theories tend to offer different classifications of these resources, but they may be said to include both tangible and intangible resources. Two key characteristics in a social exchange interaction are (1) people are assumed to be interdependent—that is, their actions and decisions rely, in part, on the actions and reactions of the other people in the situation (these relationships work best if, in the long run, they are reciprocal and mutually beneficial)—and (2) people are assumed to be rational actors. People not only evaluate the costs and benefits of their current relationships but also evaluate the ratio of costs and benefits in other possible relationships. Cognitive Domain: Analysis Answer Location: Effective Communication Difficulty Level: Medium 4. Communication among team members is an important part of team sports. Outlined in the text are four main styles of communication (kinds of messages). Describe three of them in detail. (p. 145) Ans: Four main styles of communication include (1) orientation messages, (2) stimulation messages, (3) evaluation messages, and (4) task-irrelevant messages. Orientation messages are those that deal with planning strategy or technique. Stimulation messages are those between teammates that serve to motivate or energize team members. Evaluation messages are those that are focused on assessments of play, ability, or effort. Lastly, task-irrelevant messages are all other forms of communication. Cognitive Domain: Analysis Answer Location: Effective Communication Difficulty Level: Medium 5. Research on sports teams suggests that team goal setting plays a key role in performance outcomes. Three types of goal orientation are noted in the text. Name and describe two types. (p. 147) Ans: The three types of goal orientation are (1) outcome goals, (2) performance goals, and (3) process goals. Outcome goals focus strictly on the competitive result of an event. These goals are based on social comparison—that is, how one does relative to others. With outcome goals, individuals focus on winning and achieving their goals (by any means). Performance goals focus on achieving success based on self-comparison. The objective is to improve one’s own performance; the actual outcome of the competitive event might not be considered important at all. Process goals are focused on the skills to be performed during competition, such as trying to complete all passes during a hockey game. Cognitive Domain: Analysis Answer Location: Team Goal Setting Difficulty Level: Medium 6. Based on research by Eys, Patterson, Loughead, and Carron (2006), the text outlines four main principles of team goal setting. List these principles, and outline the stages. (p. 148)
  • 17.
    Ans: The fourmain principles of team goal setting include (1) selecting the team goals, (2) establishing the target for the team goals, (3) coaches reminding players of the team’s goals, and (4) evaluating, providing feedback, and reevaluating the team. In the first stage of the protocol, the rationale for the goal-setting program and the setting of team goals are discussed and carried out with the team. The coaches then remind their players of the team’s goals in the second stage. This can be done verbally or by posting the team goals in a visible location in the locker room. The third stage is when the goal evaluation and feedback occurs. Cognitive Domain: Analysis Answer Location: Team Goal Setting Difficulty Level: Medium 7. Sullivan (1993) developed an extensive communication training program for sports teams designed to optimize the interpersonal communication skills of the athletes. Name the seven stages, and describe the activities of two. Ans: Stage 1. Effective listening—Teammates generate a list of good listening skills and guidelines for implementing them. Stage 2. Self-assessment—Teammates share and comment on self-completed personality assessments. Stage 3. Identification of problems—Pairs of teammates generate a list of problems facing the team; team consensus is reached on the total list of problems. Stage 4. Self-disclosure—Each athlete participates in an exercise involving completing a sentence (e.g., “On the team, I need to improve my ability to . . .”) in front of the team. Stage 5. Concerns about the current season—Team members write down one fear and one hope for the season; these comments are reported (anonymously) to the team. Stage 6. Norm of acceptance—Small groups within the team share personal stories about mistakes made and lessons learned. Stage 7. Self-evaluation—Each player evaluates the team’s progress on team members’ being genuine with one another, communicating in an understanding fashion, valuing each other as individuals, and accepting one another. Cognitive Domain: Analysis Answer Location: Communication Training Intervention Difficulty Level: Medium 8. As discussed in the text, self-confidence is an important factor in sports teams. Researchers have distinguished between self-efficacy and collective efficacy. Differentiate between the two. (p. 139) Ans: Self-efficacy refers to the belief that one can act to successfully produce a given outcome under a given set of circumstances. It is essentially a situation-specific form of self-confidence, whereas collective efficacy refers to a group’s shared belief in its ability to organize and execute the courses of action required to obtain a certain outcome. Cognitive Domain: Analysis Answer Location: Team Confidence Difficulty Level: Medium
  • 18.
    9. Individual roleshave been found to affect team cohesion. The text highlights that there are several different aspects of how roles may affect cohesion. Differentiate between role clarity, role acceptance, and role performance. (p. 136) Ans: Role clarity refers to the extent to which one’s role has been clearly defined. This is distinct from role acceptance—that is, the degree to which the person expected to fill a role agrees to comply with the requirements of the role. Finally, role performance refers to how well the individual actually completes the responsibilities of the role. To maximize cohesiveness, each of these aspects of one’s role must be satisfied. Cognitive Domain: Comprehension Answer Location: Team Cohesion Difficulty Level: Medium 10. The text discusses four main characteristics of cohesion. Name all four, and describe two in detail. Ans: 1. Multidimensional 2. Dynamic 3. Affective 4. Instrumental Multidimensional means that cohesion is not one simple factor but rather the sum of several interrelated factors. Dynamic means that although it is relatively stable, cohesion does tend to fluctuate over time. Affectivity refers to the emotional state of the athletes. Understanding what keeps a team united and how the players feel about one another is imperative in understanding team cohesion. Likewise, another big part of how cohesive a team is has to do with its goals and objectives. Goals and objectives are the most obvious features that help a team of players remain united; this is the instrumental nature of cohesion. Cognitive Domain: Analysis Answer Location: Team Cohesion Difficulty Level: Medium
  • 19.
    Other documents randomlyhave different content
  • 20.
    'The handkerchief withwhich the murderer wiped those blood- stains off his hands!' 'Pshaw!' exclaimed Churchill, contemptuously. 'There are a hundred ways in which you might come possessed of a man's handkerchief. Your tribe lives by such petty plunder. Do you suppose that you, a gipsy and a vagabond, would ever persuade a British jury to believe your evidence, against a gentleman?' 'What!' cried the woman eagerly, 'then you know it was a gentleman who murdered your cousin?' 'Didn't you say so just this minute?' 'Not I, my noble gentleman. I told you he was tall, and wore an overcoat. That's all I told you about him.' 'Well, what next?' 'He wiped the blood off his hand, then put the handkerchief back in his pocket, as he thought; but I suppose he wasn't quite used to the work he was doing, for in his confusion he missed the pocket and let the handkerchief fall into the road. I didn't give him time to find out his mistake, for while he was stooping over the dead man, emptying his pockets, I crept across the road, got hold of the handkerchief, and slipped back to my hiding-place in the ditch again. I'm light of foot, you see, your honour, though an old woman.' 'What next?' 'He opened the dead man's purse, emptied it, and put the contents in his own waistcoat pocket. Then he crammed watch and purse down into the ditch—the same ditch where I was hiding, but a little way off,—took a stick which he had broken off the hedge, and thrust it down into the mud under the weeds, making sure, I suppose, that no one could ever find it there. When he had done this, he pulled himself together, as you may say, and hurried off as fast as he could go, panting like a hunted deer, across the swampy ground and towards the river, where they found his footsteps afterwards. I think it would have been cleverer of him if he'd left his victim's pockets alone, and let those that found the body rob it, as
  • 21.
    they'd have beenpretty sure to do. Yet it was artful of him to clean the pockets out, so as to make it seem a common case of highway robbery with violence.' 'What did you do with the handkerchief?' 'Took it home with me, to that tent yonder, that's what we call home, and lighted an end of candle, and smoothed out the handkerchief to see if there was any mark upon it. Gentlemen are so particular about their things, you see, and don't like to get 'em changed at the wash. Yes, there the mark was, sure enough. The name in full—Christian and surname. It was as much as I could do to read 'em, for the blood-stains.' 'What was the name?' 'That's my secret. Every secret has its price, and I've put a price on mine. If I was sure of getting the reward, and not having the police turn against me, I might be more ready to tell what I know.' 'You're a curious woman,' said Churchill, after a longish pause. 'But I suppose you've some plan of your own?' 'Yes, your honour, I have my views.' 'As to this story of yours, even supported by the evidence of this handkerchief which you pretend to have found, I doubt very much if it would have the smallest weight with a jury. I do not, therefore, press you to bring forward your information; though as my cousin's next of kin, it is of course my duty to do my best to bring his assassin to justice.' 'That's just what I thought, your honour.' 'Precisely. And you did quite right in bringing the subject before me. It will be necessary for me to know when and where I can find you in future, so that when the right time comes you may be at hand to make your statement.' 'We are but wanderers on the face of the earth kind gentleman,' whined the gipsy. 'It isn't very easy to find us when you want us.'
  • 22.
    'That's what I'vebeen thinking,' returned Churchill, musingly. 'If you had some settled home, now? You're getting old, and must be tired of roving, I fancy. Sleeping upon straw, under canvas, in a climate in which east winds are the rule rather than the exception. That sort of thing must be rather trying at your time of life, I should imagine.' 'Trying? I'm racked with the rheumatics every winter, your honour. My bones are not so much bones as gnawing wolves—they torment me so. Sometimes I feel as if I could chop off my limbs willingly, to be quit of the pain in 'em. A settled home—a warm bed —a fireside—that would be heaven to me.' 'Well, I'll think about it, and see what can be done for you. In the meantime I'll give you a trifle to ward off the rheumatism.' He opened his purse, and gave the woman a bank note, part of an advance made him by Mr. Pergament that morning. The gipsy uttered her usual torrent of blessings—the gratitude wherewith she was wont to salute her benefactors. 'Have you ever been in Cornwall?' asked Churchill. 'Lord love your honour! there isn't a nook or a corner in all England where I haven't been!' 'Good. If you happen to be in Cornwall any time during the next three months, you may look me up at Penwyn Manor.' 'Bless you, my generous gentleman, it won't be very long before you see me.' 'Whenever you please,' returned Churchill, with that air of well- bred indifference which he wore as a badge of his class. 'Good afternoon.' He turned to go back to the city, leaving the woman standing alone by the river brink, looking after him; lost in thought, or lost in wonder.
  • 24.
    CHAPTER XV. 'THEY SHALLPASS, AND THEIR PLACES BE TAKEN?' The letter which told Miss Bellingham that her lover was master of Penwyn seemed to her almost like the end of a fairy tale. Lady Cheshunt had dropped in to afternoon tea only a quarter of an hour before the letter arrived, and Madge was busy with the old Battersea cups and saucers, and the quaint little Wedgwood teapot, when the accomplished serving man, who never abated one iota of his professional solemnity because his wages were doubtful, presented Churchill's letter on an antique salver. 'Put it on the table, please,' said Madge, busy with the tea- service, and painfully conscious that the dowager's eye was upon her. She had recognised Churchill's hand at a glance, and thought how daring, nay, even impudent it was of him to write to her. It was mean of him to take such advantage of her weakness that Sunday morning, she thought. True, that in one fatal moment she had let him discover the secret she was most anxious to hide; but she had given him no right over her. She had made him no promise. Her love had been admitted hypothetically. 'If we lived in a different world. If I had myself only to consider,' she had said to him; which meant that she would have nothing to do with him under existing circumstances. She glanced at Viola, that fragile Sèvres china beauty, with her air of being unfitted for the vulgar uses of life. 'Poor child! For her sake I ought to marry Mr. Balecroft, that pompous Manchester merchant; or that vapid young fop, Sir Henry Featherstone,' she thought, with a sigh.
  • 25.
    'Read your letter,my dear love,' said Lady Cheshunt, leaning over the tray to put an extra lump of sugar into her cup, and scrutinizing the address of that epistle which had brought the warm crimson blood to Madge Bellingham's cheeks and brow. The good- natured dowager permitted herself this breach of good breeding, in the warmth of her affection for Madge. The handwriting was masculine, evidently. That was all Lady Cheshunt could discover. Miss Bellingham broke the seal, trying to look composed and indifferent, but after hurriedly reading Churchill's brief letter, gave a little cry of horror. 'Good heavens! it is too dreadful!' she exclaimed. 'What is too dreadful, child?' 'You remember what we were talking about last Saturday night, when you took so much trouble to warn me against allowing myself to—to entangle myself—I think that's what you called it—with Mr. Penwyn.' 'With the poor Mr. Penwyn. I remember, perfectly; and that letter is from him—the man has had the audacity to propose to you? You may well say it is too dreadful.' 'His cousin has been murdered, Lady Cheshunt—his cousin, Mr. James Penwyn.' 'And your man comes into the Penwyn estate,' cried the energetic dowager. 'My dearest Madge, I congratulate you! Poor young Penwyn! A boy at school, or a lad at the University, I believe. Nobody seems to know much about him.' 'He has been murdered. Shot from behind a hedge by some midnight assassin. Isn't that dreadful?' said Madge, too much shocked by the tidings in her lover's letter to consider the difference this event might make in her own fortunes. She could not be glad all at once, though that one man whom her heart had chosen for its master was raised from poverty to opulence. For a little while at least, she could only think of the victim.
  • 26.
    'Very dreadful!' echoedLady Cheshunt. 'The police ought to prevent such things. One pays highway rates, and sewer rates, and so forth, till one is positively ruined, and yet one can be murdered on the very high road one pays for, with impunity. There must be something wrong in the legislature. I hope things will be better when our party comes in. Look at that child Viola, she's as white as a sheet of paper—just as if she were going to faint. You shouldn't blurt out your murders in that abrupt way, Madge.' Viola gave a little hysterical sob, and promised not to faint this time. She was but a fragile piece of human porcelain, given to swooning at the slightest provocation. She went round to Madge, and knelt down by her, and kissed her fondly, knowing enough of her sister's feelings to comprehend that this fatal event was likely to benefit Madge. 'Odd that I did not see anything of this business in the papers,' exclaimed Lady Cheshunt. 'But then I only read the Post, and that does not make a feature of murders.' 'Papa is at Newmarket,' said Viola, 'and Madge and I never look at the papers, or hear any news while he is away.' Madge sat silent, looking at Churchill's letter till every word seemed to burn itself into her brain. The firm, straight hand, the letters long and narrow, and a little pointed—something like that wonderful writing of Joseph Addison's—how well she knew it! 'And yet he must have been agitated,' thought Madge. 'Even his quiet force of character could not stand against such a shock as this. After what he said to me, too, last Sunday—to think that wealth and position should have come to him so suddenly. There seems something awful in it.' Lady Cheshunt had quite recovered her habitual gaiety by this time, and dismissed James Penwyn's death as a subject that was done with for the moment, merely expressing her intention of reading the details of the event in the newspapers at her leisure.
  • 27.
    'And so, mydear Madge, Mr. Penwyn wrote to you immediately,' she said. 'Doesn't that look rather as if there were some kind of understanding between you?' 'There was no understanding between us, Lady Cheshunt, except that I could never be Mr. Penwyn's wife while he was a poor man. He understood that perfectly. I told him in the plainest, hardest words, like a woman of the world as I am.' 'You needn't say that so contemptuously, Madge. I'm a woman of the world, and I own it without a blush. What's the use of living in the world if you don't acquire worldly wisdom? It's like living ever so long in a foreign country without learning the language, and implies egregious stupidity. And so you told Churchill Penwyn that you couldn't marry him on account of his poverty! and you pledged yourself to wait ten or twenty years for him, I suppose, and refuse every decent offer for his sake?' 'No, Lady Cheshunt, I promised nothing.' 'Well, my dear, Providence has been very good to you: for, no doubt, if Mr. Penwyn had remained poor you'd have made a fool of yourself sooner or later for his sake, and gone to live in Bloomsbury, where even I couldn't have visited you, on account of my servants. One might get over that sort of thing one's self, but coachmen are so particular where they wait.' Her ladyship rattled on for another quarter of an hour, promised Madge to come and stay at Penwyn Manor with her by and by, congratulated Viola on her sister's good fortune, hoped that her dear Madge would make a point of spending the season in London when she became Mrs. Penwyn; while Madge sat unresponsive, hardly listening to this flow of commonplace, but thinking how awful fortune was when it came thus suddenly, and had death for its herald. She felt relieved when Lady Cheshunt gathered up her silken train for the last time, and went rustling downstairs to the elegant Victoria which appeared far too fairy-like a vehicle to contain that bulky matron.
  • 28.
    'Thank Heaven she'sgone!' cried Madge. 'How she does talk!' 'Yes, dear, but she is always kind,' pleaded Viola, 'and so fond of you.' Madge put her arms round the girl and kissed her passionately. That sisterly love of hers was almost the strongest feeling in her breast, and all Madge's affections were strong. She had no milk-and- water love. 'Dearest!' she said softly, 'how happy we can be now! I hope it isn't wicked to be happy when fortune comes to us in such a dreadful manner.' 'You do care a little for Mr. Penwyn, then, dear?' said Viola, without entering upon this somewhat obscure question. 'I love him with all my heart and soul.' 'Oh, Madge, and you never told me!' 'Why tell you something that might make you unhappy? I should never have dreamt of marrying Churchill but for this turn in Fortune's wheel. I wanted to make what is called a good marriage, for your sake, darling, more than for my own. I wanted to win a happy home for you, so that when your time came to marry you might not be pressed or harassed by worldly people as I have been, and might follow the dictates of your own heart.' 'Oh, Madge, you are quite too good,' cried Viola, with enthusiasm. 'And we may be very happy, mayn't we, my pet?' continued the elder, 'living together at a picturesque old place in Cornwall, with the great waves of the Atlantic rolling up to the edge of our grounds— and in London sometimes, if Churchill likes—and knowing no more of debt and difficulty, or cutting and contriving so as to look like ladies upon the income of ladies' maids. Life will begin afresh for us, Viola.' 'Poor papa!' sighed Viola, 'you'll be kind to him, won't you, Madge?'
  • 29.
    'My dearest, youknow that I love him. Papa will be very glad, depend upon it, and he will like to go back to his old bachelor ways, I dare say, now that he will not be burthened with two marriageable daughters.' 'When will you be married, Madge?' 'Oh, not for ever so long, dear; not for a twelvemonth, I should think. Churchill will be in mourning for his cousin, and it wouldn't look well for him to marry soon after such a dreadful event.' 'I suppose not. Are you to see him soon?' 'Very soon, love. Here is his postscript. 'Madge read the last lines of her lover's letter: '"I shall come back to town directly the inquest is over, and all arrangements made, and my first visit shall be to you."' 'Of course. And you really, really love him, Madge?' asked Viola, anxiously. 'Really, really. But why ask that question, Viola, after what I told you just now?' 'Only because you've taken me by surprise, dear; and—don't be angry with me, Madge—because Churchill Penwyn has never been a favourite of mine. But of course now I shall begin to like him immensely. You're so much better a judge of character than I am, you see, Madge, and if you think him good and true——' 'I have never thought of his goodness or his truth,' said Madge, with rather a gloomy look. 'I only know that I love him.'
  • 30.
    CHAPTER XVI. 'THERE ISA HISTORY IN ALL MEN'S LIVES.' Upon his return to London, Churchill lost very little time before presenting himself in Cavendish Row. He did not go there on the day of his cousin's funeral. That gloomy ceremonial had unfitted him for social pleasures, above all for commune with so bright a spirit as Madge Bellingham. He felt as if to go to her straight from that place of tombs would be to carry the atmosphere of the grave into her home. The funeral seemed to affect him more than such a solemnity might have been supposed to affect a man of his philosophical temper. But then these quiet, reserved men—men who hold themselves in check, as it were—are sometimes men of deepest feeling. So Mr. Pergament thought as he stood opposite the new master of Penwyn in the vault at Kensal Green, and observed his pallid face, and the settled gloom of his brow. Churchill drove straight back to the Temple with Mr. Pergament for his companion, that gentleman being anxious to return to New Square for his afternoon letters, before going down to his luxurious villa at Beckenham, where he lived sumptuously, or—as his enemies averred—battened, ghoul-like, on the rotten carcasses of the defunct chancery suits which he had lost. From Kensal Green to Fleet Street seemed an interminable pilgrimage in that gloomy vehicle. Mr. Pergament and his client had exhausted their conversational powers on the way to the cemetery, and now on the return home had but little to say for themselves. It was a blazing summer afternoon—an August day which had slipped unawares into June through an error in the calendar. The mourning coach was like a locomotive oven; the shabby suburban thoroughfares seemed baking under the pitiless sky. Never had the Harrow Road looked dustier; never had the Edgware Road looked untidier or more out at elbows than to-day.
  • 31.
    'How I detestthe ragged fringe of shabby suburbs that hangs round London!' said Mr. Penwyn. It was the first remark he had made after half an hour's thoughtful silence. His only reply from the solicitor was a gentle snore, a snore which sounded full of placid enjoyment. Perhaps there is nothing more dreamily delightful than a stolen doze on a sultry afternoon, lulled by the movement of wheels. 'How the fellow sleeps!' muttered Mr. Penwyn, almost savagely. 'I wish I had the knack of sleeping like that.' It is the curse of these hyper-active intellects to be strangers to rest. The carriage drew up at one of the Temple gates at last, and Mr. Pergament woke with a start, jerked into the waking world again by that sudden pull-up. 'Bless my soul!' exclaimed the lawyer. 'I was asleep!' 'Didn't you know it?' asked Churchill, rather fretfully. 'Not the least idea. Weather very oppressive. Here we are at your place. Dear me! By the way, when do you think of going down to Penwyn?' 'The day after to-morrow. I should like you to go with me and put me in formal possession. And you may as well take the title- deeds down with you. I like to have those things in my own possession. The leases you can of course retain.' Mr. Pergament, hardly quite awake as yet, was somewhat taken aback by this request. The title-deeds of the Penwyn estate had been in the offices of Pergament and Pergament for half a century. This new lord of the manor promised to be sharper even than the old squire, Nicholas Penwyn, who among some ribald tenants of the estate had been known as Old Nick. 'If you wish it, of course—yes—assuredly,' said Mr. Pergament; and on this, with a curt good day from Churchill, they parted.
  • 32.
    'How property changesa man!' thought the solicitor, as the coach carried him to New Square. 'That young man looks as if he had the cares of a nation on his shoulders already. Odd notion his, wanting to keep the title-deeds in his own custody However, I suppose he won't take his business out of our hands,—and if he should, we can do without it.' * * * * * Churchill went up to his chambers, on a third floor. They had a sombre and chilly look in their spotless propriety, even on this warm summer afternoon. The rooms were on the shady side of the way, and saw not the sun after nine o'clock in the morning. Very neatly kept and furnished were those bachelor apartments, the sitting-room, at once office and living-room, the goods and chattels in it perhaps worth five-and-twenty pounds. An ancient and faded Turkey carpet, carefully darned by the deft fingers of a jobbing upholstress, whom Churchill sometimes employed to keep things in order; faded green cloth curtains; an old oak knee-hole desk, solid, substantial, shabby, with all the papers upon it neatly sorted—the inkstand stainless, and well supplied; a horsehair-covered arm-chair, high backed, square, brass-nailed, of a remote era, but comfortable withal; armless chairs of the same period, with an unknown crest emblazoned on their mahogany backs; a battered old bookcase, filled with law books, only one shelf reserved for that lighter literature which soothes the weariness of the student; every object as bright as labour and furniture polish could make it, everything in its place; a room in which no ancient spinster, skilled in the government of her one domestic, could have discovered ground for a complaint. Churchill looked round the room with a thoughtful smile—not altogether joyous—as he seated himself in his arm-chair, and opened a neat cigar-box on the table at his side. 'How plain the stamp of poverty shows upon everything!' he said to himself, 'the furniture the mere refuse of an auction-room,
  • 33.
    furbished and polishedinto decency; the faded curtains, where there is hardly any colour visible except the neutral tints of decay; the darned carpet—premeditated poverty, as Sheridan calls it—the mark of the beast shows itself on all. And yet I have known some not all unhappy hours in this room—patient nights of study—the fire of ambition—the sunlight of hope—hours in which I deemed that fame and fortune were waiting for me down the long vista of industrious years—hours when I felt myself strong in patience and resolve! I shall think of these rooms sometimes in my new life—dream of them perhaps—fancy myself back again.' He sat musing for a long time—so lost in thought that he forgot to light the cigar which he had taken from his case just now. He woke from that long reverie with a sigh, gave his shoulders an impatient shrug, as if he would have shaken off ideas that troubled him, and took a volume at random from a neat little bookstand on his table—where about half a dozen favourite volumes stood ranged, all of the cynical school—Rabelais, Sterne, Goethe's 'Faust,' a volume of Voltaire,—not books that make a man better—if one excepts Goethe, whose master-work is the Gospel of a great teacher. Under that outer husk of bitterness how much sweetness! With that cynicism, what depth of tenderness! Churchill's hand lighted unawares upon 'Faust.' He opened the volume at the opening of that mightiest drama, and read on—read until the wearied student stood before him, tempting destiny with his discontent—read until the book dropped from his hand, and he sat, fixed as a statue, staring at the ground, in a gloomy reverie. 'After all, discontent is your true tempter—the fiend whose whisper for ever assails man's ear. Who could be wiser than Faust? and yet how easy a dupe! Well, I have my Margaret, at least; and neither man nor any evil spirit that walks the earth in shape impalpable to man shall ever come between us two.' Churchill lighted his cigar, and left his quiet room, which seemed to him just now to be unpleasantly occupied by that uncanny poodle which the German doctor brought home with him. He went to the
  • 34.
    Temple Gardens, andwalked up and down by the cool river, over which the mists of evening were gently creeping, like a veil of faintest grey. It was before the days of the embankment, and the Templars still possessed their peaceful walk on the brink of the river. Here Churchill walked till late, thinking,—always thinking,— property has so many cares; and then, when other people were meditating supper, went out into Fleet Street to a restaurant that was just about closing, and ordered his tardy dinner. Even when it came he seemed to have but a sorry appetite, and only took his pint of claret with relish. He was looking forward eagerly to the morrow, when he should see Madge Bellingham, and verily begin his new life. Hitherto he had known only the disagreeables of his position—the inquest—the funeral. To-morrow he was to taste the sweets of prosperity.
  • 35.
    CHAPTER XVII. 'DEATH COULDNOT SEVER MY SOUL AND YOU.' Churchill Penwyn lost little of that morrow to which he had looked forward so eagerly. He was in Cavendish Row at eleven o'clock, in the pretty drawing-room, among brightly bound books and music, and flowers, surrounded by colour, life, and sunshine, and with Madge Bellingham in his arms. For the first few moments neither of them could speak, they stood silent, the girl's dark head upon her lover's breast, her cheek pale with deepest feeling, his strong arms encircling her. 'My own dear love!' he murmured, after a kiss that brought the warm blood back to that pale cheek. 'My very own at last! Who would have thought when we parted that I should come back to you so soon, with altered fortunes?' 'So strangely soon,' said Madge. 'Oh, Churchill, there is something awful in it.' 'Destiny is always awful, dearest. She is that goddess who ever was, and ever will be, and whose veil no man's hand has ever lifted. We are blind worshippers in her temple, and must take the lots she deals from her inscrutable hand. We are among her favoured children, dearest, for she has given us happiness.' 'I refused to be your wife, Churchill, because you were poor. Can you quite forgive that? Must I not seem to you selfish and mercenary, almost contemptible, if I accept you now?' 'My beloved, you are truth itself. Be as nobly frank to-day as you were that day I promised to win fame and fortune for your sake.
  • 36.
    Fortune has comewithout labour of mine. It shall go hard with me if fame does not follow in the future. Only tell me once more that you love me, that you rejoice in my good fortune, and will share it, and— bless it?' He made a little pause before the last two words, as if some passing thought had troubled him. 'You know that I love you, Churchill,' she answered, shyly. 'I could not keep that secret from you the other day, though I would have given so much to hide the truth.' 'And you will be my wife, darling, the fair young mistress of Penwyn?' 'By and by, Churchill. It seems almost wrong to talk of our marriage yet awhile. That poor young fellow, your cousin, he may have been asking some happy girl to share his fortune and his home —to be mistress of Penwyn—only a little while ago.' 'Very sad,' said Churchill, 'but the natural law. You remember what the father of poets has said—"The race of man is like the leaves on the trees."' 'Yes, Churchill, but the leaves fall in their season. This poor young fellow has been snatched away in the blossom of his youth— and by a murderer's hand.' 'I have heard a good deal of that sort of talk since his death,' remarked Mr. Penwyn, with a cloudy look. 'I thought you would have a warmer greeting for me than lamentations about my cousin. But for his death I should not have the right to hold you in my arms, to claim you for my wife. You rejected me on account of my property; yet you bewail the event that has made me rich.' Miss Bellingham withdrew herself from her lover's arms with an offended look. 'I would rather have waited for you ten years than that fortune should have come to you under such painful circumstances,' she said.
  • 37.
    'Yes, you thinkso, I dare say. But I know what a woman's waiting generally comes to—above all when she is one of the most beautiful women in London. Madge, don't sting me with cold words, or cold looks. You do not know how I have yearned for this hour.' She had seated herself by one of the little tables, and was idly turning the leaves of an ivory-bound volume. Churchill knelt down beside her, and took the white ringed hand away from the book, and covered it with kisses—and put his arm round her as she sat— leaning his head against her shoulder, as if he had found rest there, after long weariness. 'Have some compassion upon me, darling,' he pleaded. 'Pity nerves that have been strained, a mind that has been overtaxed. Do not think that I have not felt this business. I have felt it God alone knows how intensely. But I come here for happiness. Time enough for troublous thoughts when you and I are apart. Here I would remember nothing—know nothing but the joy of being with you, to touch your hand, to hear your voice, to look into those deep, dark eyes.' There was nothing but love in the eyes that met his gaze now— love unquestioning and unmeasured. 'Dearest, I will never speak of your cousin again if it pains you,' Madge said, earnestly. 'I ought to have been more considerate.' She pushed back a loose lock from the broad forehead where the hair grew thinly, with a gentle caressing hand; timidly, for it was the first time she had touched her lover's brow, and there was something of a wife's tenderness in the action. 'Churchill,' she exclaimed, 'your forehead burns as if you were in a fever. You are not ill, I hope?' 'No, dear, not ill. But I have been over-anxious, over-excited, perhaps. I am calm now, happy now, Madge. When shall I speak to your father? I want to feel myself your acknowledged lover.'
  • 38.
    'You can speakto papa whenever you like, Churchill. He came home last night from Newmarket. I know he will be glad to see you either here or at his club.' 'And our marriage, Madge, how soon shall that be?' 'Oh, Churchill, you cannot wish it to be soon, after——' 'But I do wish it to be soon; as soon as it may be with decency. I am not going to pretend exaggerated grief for the death of a kinsman of whom I hardly knew anything. I am not going to sit in sackcloth and ashes because I have inherited an estate I never expected to own, in order that the world may look on approvingly, and say, "What fine feelings! what tenderness of heart!" Society offers a premium for hypocrisy. No, Madge, I will wear crape on my hat for just three months, and wait just three months for the crowning happiness of my life; and then we will be married, as quietly as you please, and slip away by some untrodden track to a Paradise of our own, some one fair scene among the many lovely spots of earth which has not yet come into fashion for honeymoons.' 'You do not ask my terms—but dictate your own,' said Madge, smiling. 'Dear love, are we not one in heart and hope from this hour? and must we not have the same wishes, the same thoughts?' 'You have no trousseau to think about, Churchill.' 'No, a man hardly considers matrimony an occasion for laying in an unlimited stock of clothes, though I may indulge in a new suit or two in honour of my promotion. Seriously, dearest, do not trouble yourself to provide a mountain of millinery. Mrs. Penwyn shall have an open account with as many milliners and silk-mercers as she pleases.' 'You may be sure that I shall not have too expensive a trousseau, and that I shall not run into debt,' said Madge, blushing. And so it was settled between them that they were to be married before the end of September, in time to begin their new life
  • 39.
    in some romanticcorner of Italy, and to establish themselves at Penwyn before Christmas and the hunting season. Churchill had boasted friends innumerable as a penniless barrister, and this circle was hardly likely to become contracted by the change in his fortunes. Everybody would want to visit him during that first winter at Penwyn. The lovers sat together for hours, talking of their future, opening their hearts to each other, as they had never dared to do before that day. They sat, hand clasped in hand, on that very sofa which Lady Cheshunt's portly form had occupied when she read Madge her lecture. Viola was out riding with some good-natured friends who had a large stable, and gave the Miss Bellinghams a mount as often as they chose to accept that favour. It was much too early for callers. Sir Nugent never came upstairs in the morning. So Madge and her lover had the cool, shadowy rooms to themselves, and sat amidst the perfume of flowers, talking of their happy life to come. All the small-talk of days gone by, those many conversations at evening parties, flower shows, picture galleries, seemed as nothing compared with these hours of earnest talk; heart to heart, soul to soul; on one side, at least, without a thought of reserve. Time flew on his swiftest wing for these two. Madge started up with a little cry of surprise when Viola dashed into the room, looking like a lovely piece of waxwork in a riding habit and chimney-pot hat. 'Oh, Madge, we have had such a round; Ealing, Willesden, Hendon, and home by Finchley.—I beg your pardon, Mr. Penwyn, I didn't see you till this moment. This room is so dark after the blazing sunshine. Aren't you coming down to luncheon? The bell rang half an hour ago, and poor Rickson looks the picture of gloom. I dare say he wants to clear the table and compose himself for his afternoon siesta.' Madge blushed, conscious of having been too deep in bliss for life's common sounds to penetrate her Paradise—in a region where
  • 40.
    luncheon bells arenot. 'You'll stay to luncheon, Churchill, won't you?' she said—and Viola knew it was all settled. Miss Bellingham would not have called a gentleman by his Christian name unless she had been engaged to be married to him. Viola got hold of her sister's hand as they went downstairs, and squeezed it tremendously. 'I shall sit down to luncheon in my habit,' she said, 'if you don't mind, for I'm absolutely famishing.' That luncheon was the pleasantest meal Churchill Penwyn had eaten for a long time. Not an aldermanic banquet by any means, for Sir Nugent seldom lunched at home, and the young ladies fared but simply in his absence. There was a cold chicken left from yesterday's dinner, minus the liver-wing, a tongue, also cut, a salad, a jar of apricot jam, some dainty little loaves from a German bakery, and a small glass dish of Roquefort cheese. The wines were Medoc and sherry. The three sat a long time over this simple feast, still talking of their future;—the future which Viola was to share with the married people. 'Have you ever seen Penwyn Manor?' she asked, after having declared her acceptance of the destiny that had been arranged for her. 'Never,' answered Churchill. 'It was always a sore subject with my father. His father had not treated him well, you see; he married when he was little more than a boy, and was supposed to have married badly, though my mother was as good a woman as ever bore the name of Penwyn. My grandfather chose to take offence at the marriage, and my father resented the slight put upon his wife so deeply that he never crossed the threshold of Penwyn Manor House again. Thus it happened that I was brought up with very little knowledge of my kindred, or the birthplace of my ancestors. I have
  • 41.
    often thought ofgoing down to Cornwall to have a look at the old place, without letting anybody know who I was; but I have been too busy to put the idea into execution.' 'How different you will feel going there as master!' said Viola. 'Yes, it will be a more agreeable sensation, no doubt.' It was between three and four o'clock when Churchill left that snug little dining-room to go down to Sir Nugent's club in St. James's Street, in the hope of seeing that gentleman and making all things straight without delay. 'Come back to afternoon tea, if you can,' said Viola, who appeared particularly friendly to her future brother-in-law. 'If possible, my dear Viola—I may call you Viola, I suppose, now?' 'Of course. Are we not brother and sister henceforward?' 'Well, dear, have you been trying to like him?' asked Madge, when her lover had departed. 'Yes, and I found it quite easy, you darling Madge! He seemed to me much nicer to-day. Perhaps it was because I could see how he worships you. I never saw two people so intensely devoted. Prosperity suits him wonderfully; though that cloudy look which I have often noticed in him still comes over his face by fits and starts.' 'He feels his cousin's awful death very deeply.' 'Does he? That's very good of him when he profits so largely by the calamity. Well, dearest, I mean to like him very much; to be as fond of him as if he really were my brother.' 'And he will be all that a brother could be to you, dear.' 'I don't quite know that I should care about that,' returned Viola, doubtfully; 'brothers are sometimes nuisances. A brother-in-law would be more likely to be on his good behaviour, for fear of offending his wife.'
  • 42.
    * * ** * Churchill succeeded in lighting upon Sir Nugent at his club. He was yawning behind an evening paper in the reading-room when Mr. Penwyn found him. His greeting was just a shade more cordial than it had always been, but only a shade, for it was Sir Nugent's rule to be civil to everybody. 'One never knows when a man may get a step,' he said; and, in a world largely composed of younger sons and heirs presumptive, this was a golden rule. Sir Nugent expressed himself profoundly sympathetic upon the subject of James Penwyn's death. He was perfectly aware of Churchill's business with him that afternoon, but affected the most Arcadian innocence. Happily Churchill came speedily to the point. 'Sir Nugent,' he began, gravely, 'while I was a struggling man I felt it would be at once presumption and folly to aspire to your daughter's hand; but to be her husband has been my secret hope ever since I first knew her. My cousin's death has made a total change in my fortune.' 'Of course, my dear fellow. It has transformed you from a briefless barrister into a prosperous country gentleman. Pardon me if I remark that I might look higher for my eldest daughter than that. Madge is a woman in a thousand. If it had been her sister, now—a good little thing, and uncommonly pretty—but I have no lofty aspirations for her.' 'Unhappily for your ambitious dreams, Sir Nugent, Madge is the lady of my choice, and we love each other. I do not think you ought to object to my present position—the Penwyn estate is worth seven thousand a year.' 'Not bad,' said the baronet, blandly, 'for a commoner. But Madge could win a coronet if she chose; and I confess that I have looked forward to seeing her take her place in the peerage. However, if she really likes you, and has made up her mind about it, any objections
  • 43.
    of mine wouldbe useless, no doubt; and as far as personal feeling goes there is no one I should like better for a son-in-law than yourself.' The two gentlemen shook hands upon this, and Sir Nugent felt that he had not let his handsome daughter go too cheap, and had paved the way for a liberal settlement. He asked his future son-in- law to dinner, and Churchill, who would not have foregone that promised afternoon tea for worlds, chartered the swiftest hansom he could find, drove back to Cavendish Row, spent an hour with the two girls and a little bevy of feminine droppers-in, then drove to the Temple to dress, and reappeared at Sir Nugent's street door just as the neighbouring clocks chimed the first stroke of eight. 'Bless the young man, how he do come backwards and forwards since he's come into his estates!' said the butler, who had read all about James Penwyn's death in the papers. 'I always suspected that he had a sneaking kindness for our eldest young lady, and now it's clear they're going to keep company. If he's coming in and out like this every day, I hope he'll have consideration enough to make it worth my while to open the door for him.' * * * * * 'I hope you are not angry with me, papa,' said Madge, by and by, after her lover had bid them good night and departed, and when father and daughter were alone together. 'Angry with you? no, my love, but just a trifle disappointed. This seems to me quite a poor match for a girl with your advantages.' 'Oh, papa, Churchill has seven thousand a year: and think of our income.' 'My love, that is not the question in point. What I have to think of is the match you might have made, had it not been for this unlucky infatuation. There is Mr. Balecroft, with his palace in Belgravia, a picture gallery worth a quarter of a million, and a superb place at Windermere——'
  • 44.
    'A man whodrops his h's, papa—complains of being 'ot!' 'Or Sir Henry Featherstone, one of the oldest families in Yorkshire, with twelve thousand a year.' 'And not an idea which he has not learnt from his trainer or his jockey! Oh, papa, don't forget Tennyson's noble line,— "Cursed be the gold that gilds the straightened forehead of the fool!"' 'All very well for poets to write that sort of stuff, but a man in my position doesn't like to see his daughter throw away her chances. However, I suppose I mustn't complain. Penwyn Manor is a nice enough place, I dare say. 'You must come to stay with me, papa, every year.' 'My love, that kind of place would be the death of me, except for a week in October. I suppose there are plenty of pheasants?' 'I dare say, papa. If not, we'll order some.' 'Well, it might have been worse,' sighed Sir Nugent. 'You'll let Viola live with me when I am married, papa, won't you?' pleaded Madge, coaxingly, as if she were asking a tremendous favour. 'My dear child, with all my heart,' replied her father, with amiable promptitude. 'Where could she be so well off? In that case I shall give up housekeeping as soon as you are married. This house has always been a plague to me, taxes, repairs, no end of worry. I used to pay a hundred and fifty pounds a year for my rooms in Jermyn Street, and the business was settled. Bless you, my darling. You have always been a comfort to your poor old father.' And thus blandly, with an air of self-sacrifice, did Sir Nugent Bellingham wash his hands of his two daughters.
  • 46.
    CHAPTER XVIII. 'WHAT GREATONES DO, THE LESS WILL PRATTLE OF.' A year had gone by since James Penwyn met his death by the lonely river at Eborsham, and again Maurice Clissold spent his summer holiday in a walking tour. This time he was quite alone. Pleasant and social though he was, he did not make friendships lightly or quickly. In the year that was gone he had found no friend to replace James Penwyn. He had plenty of agreeable acquaintances, knew plenty of men who were glad to dine with him or to give him a dinner. He was famous already, in a small way, at the literary club where he spent many of his evenings when he was in London, and men liked to hear him talk, and prophesied fair things for his future as a man of letters, all the more surely because he was not called upon to write for bread, but could follow the impulse that moved him, and wait, were it ever so long, for the moment of inspiration; never forced to spur the jaded steed, or work the too willing horse to death. Not one among the comrades he liked well enough for a jovial evening, or a cosy dinner, had crept into his heart like the lad he had sworn to cherish in the ears of a dying woman five years ago. So when the roses were in bloom, and London began to look warm and dusty, and the parks had faded a little from their vernal green, Maurice Clissold set forth alone upon a voyage of adventure, with a pocket Shakespeare and a quire or so of paper in his battered, old leathern knapsack, and just so much clothing and linen as might serve him for his travels.
  • 47.
    Needless to saythat he avoided that northern city of Eborsham, where such sudden grief had come upon him, and all that route which he had trodden only a year ago with the light-hearted, hopeful lad who now slept his sweetest sleep in one of the vaults at Kensal Green, beside the mother he had loved and mourned. Instead of northward, to the land of lakes and mountains, Maurice went due west. Many a time had he and James Penwyn talked of the days they were to spend together down at the old place in Cornwall, and behold! that visit to Penwyn Manor, deferred in order that James should see the Lake country, was destined never to be paid. Never were those two to walk together by the Atlantic, never to scale Tintagel's rugged height, or ramble among the rocks of Bude. Maurice had a curious fancy for seeing the old home from which death had ousted James Penwyn. He might have gone as a visitor to the Manor House had he pleased, for Churchill had been extremely civil to him when they last met at the funeral, and had promised him a hearty welcome to Penwyn whenever he liked to come there; but Mr. Clissold infinitely preferred to go as an unknown pedestrian— knapsack on shoulder—having first taken the trouble to ascertain that Churchill Penwyn and his beautiful young wife were in London, where they had, for this season, a furnished house in Upper Brook Street. He saw their names in the list of guests at a fashionable reception, and knew that the coast would be clear, and that he could roam about the neighbourhood of his dead friend's ancestral home without let or hindrance. He went straight to Plymouth by an express train, crossed the Tamar, and pursued his journey on foot, at a leisurely pace, lingering at all the prettiest spots—now spending a day or two at some rustic wayside inn—sketching a little, reading a little, writing a little, thinking and dreaming a great deal. It was an idle fancy that had brought him here, and he gave a free rein to all other idle fancies that seized him by the way. It was a morbid fancy, perhaps, for it must needs be but a melancholy pleasure, at best, to visit the domain which his friend had never
  • 48.
    enjoyed, to rememberso many boyish schemes unfulfilled, so many bright hopes snapped short off by the shears of Atropos. The long blue line of sea, and the wide moorland were steeped in the golden light of a midsummer afternoon when Maurice drew near Penwyn Manor. The scene was far more lonely than he had imagined it. Measureless ocean stretched before him, melting into the hazy summer sky—sea and heaven so near of a colour that it was hard to tell where the water ended and the sky began— measureless hills around him—and, except the white sheep yonder, making fleecy dots upon the side of the topmost hill, no sign of life. He had left the village of Penwyn behind him by a good two miles, but had not yet come in sight of the Manor House, though he had religiously followed the track pointed out to him by the hostess of the little inn—a mere cottage—where he left his knapsack, and where he had been respectfully informed that he could not have a bed. 'At the worst I can sleep on the lee side of one of these hills,' he said to himself. 'It can hardly be very cold, even at night, in this western climate.' He walked a little further on, upon a narrow footpath high above the sea level. On his right hand there were wide corn-fields, with here and there an open tract of turnip or mangold; on his left only the wild moorland pastures, undulating like a sea of verdure. The ground had dipped a little while ago, and as it rose again, with a gentle ascent, Maurice Clissold saw the chimney-stacks of the Manor House between him and the sea. It was a substantial-looking house, built of greyish stone, a long low building, with grounds that stretched to the edge of the cliff, sheltered by a belt of fir and evergreen oak. The blue sea showed in little patches of gleaming colour through the dark foliage, and the spicy odour of the pines perfumed the warm, still air. In its utter loneliness the house had a gloomy look, despite the grandeur of its situation, on this bold height above the sea. The grounds were extensive, but to Maurice Clissold they seemed somewhat barren;
  • 49.
    orderly, beyond doubt,and well timbered, but lacking the smiling fertility, the richness of ornament, which a student of Horace and Pliny desired in his ideal garden. But Mr. Clissold did not make acquaintance with the inside of the shrubbery or gardens without some little difficulty. His footpath led him ultimately into a villanous high road, just in front of the gates of Penwyn, so the landlady of the village inn had not sent him astray. There was a lodge beside the gate, a square stone cottage, covered with myrtle, honeysuckle, and roses, from which emerged an elderly female, swarthy of aspect, her strongly marked countenance framed in a frill cap, which gave an almost grotesque look to that tawny visage. 'Can I see the house and grounds, ma'am?' asked Maurice, approaching this somewhat grim-looking personage with infinite civility. He had a vague idea that he must have seen that face before, or imagined it in a dream, so curiously did it remind him of some past occasion in his life—what, he knew not. 'The house is never shown to strangers,' answered the woman. 'I know Mr. Penwyn, and will leave my card for him.' 'You'd better apply to the housekeeper. As to the grounds, my granddaughter will take you round, if you like.—Elspeth,' called the woman, and a black-eyed girl of twelve appeared at the cottage door, like a sprite at a witch's summons. 'Take this gentleman round the gardens,' said the old woman, and vanished, before Maurice could quite make up his mind as to whether he had seen a face like that in actual flesh and blood or only on a painter's canvas. The girl, who had an impish look, he thought, with her loose black locks, scarlet petticoat, and scanty scarlet shawl pinned tightly across her bony shoulders, led the way through a wild-looking shrubbery, where huge blocks of granite lay among the ferns, which
  • 50.
    grew with rankluxuriance between the straight pine-stems. A sandy path wound in and out among trees and shrubs, till Maurice and his guide emerged upon a spacious lawn at the back of the house, whose many windows blinked at them, shining in the western sun. There were no flower-beds on the lawn, but there was a small square garden, in the Dutch style, on one side of the house, and a bowling-green on the other. A terraced walk stretched in front of the windows, raised three or four feet above the level of the lawn, and guarded by a stone balustrade somewhat defaced by time. A fine old sun-dial marked the centre of the Dutch garden, where the geometrical flower-beds were neatly kept, and where Maurice found a couple of gardeners, elderly men both, at work, weeding and watering in a comfortable, leisurely manner. 'What a paradise for the aged!' thought Maurice; 'the woman at the lodge was old, the gardeners are old, everything about the place is old, except this impish girl, who looks the oldest of all, with her evil black eyes and vinegar voice.' Mr. Clissold had not come so far without entering into conversation with the damsel. He had asked her a good many questions about the place, and the people to whom it belonged. But her answers were of the briefest, and she affected the profoundest ignorance about everything and everybody. 'You've not been here very long, I suppose, my girl,' he said at last, with some slight sense of irritation, 'or you'd know a little more about the place.' 'I haven't been here much above six months.' 'Oh! But your grandmother has lived here all her life, I dare say?' 'No, she hasn't. Grandmother came when I did.' 'And where did you both come from?' 'Foreign parts,' answered the girl. 'Indeed! you both speak very good English for people who come from abroad.'
  • 51.
    'I didn't saywe were foreigners, did I?' asked the girl, pertly. 'If you want to ask any more questions about the place or the people, you'd better ask 'em of the housekeeper, Mrs. Darvis; and if you want to see the house you must ask lief of her; and this is the door you'd better ring at, if you want to see her.' They were at one end of the terrace, and opposite a half-glass door which opened into a small and darksome lobby, where the effigies of a couple of ill-used ancestors frowned from the dusky walls, as if indignant at being placed in so obscure a corner. Maurice rang the bell, and after repeating that operation more than once, and waiting with consummate patience for the result, he was rewarded by the appearance of an elderly female, homely, fresh- coloured, comfortable-looking, affording altogether an agreeable contrast to the tawny visage of the lodge-keeper, whose countenance had given the traveller an unpleasant feeling about Penwyn Manor. Mr. Clissold stated his business, and after spelling over his card and deliberating a little, Mrs. Darvis consented to admit him, and to show him the house. 'We used to show it to strangers pretty freely till the new Squire came into possession,' she said, 'but he's rather particular. However, if you're a friend of his——' 'I know him very well; and poor James Penwyn was my most intimate friend.' 'Poor Mr. James! I never saw him but once, when he came down to see the place soon after the old Squire's death. Such a frank, open-hearted young gentleman, and so free-spoken. It was a terrible blow to all of us down here when we read about the murder. Not but what the present Mr. Penwyn is a liberal master and a kind landlord, and a good friend to the poor. There couldn't be a better gentleman for Penwyn.' 'I am glad to hear you give him so good a character,' said Maurice.
  • 52.
    The girl Elspethhad followed him into the house, uninvited, and stood in the background, open-eyed, with her thin lips drawn tightly together, listening intently. 'As for Mrs. Penwyn,' said the housekeeper, 'why, she's a lady in a thousand! She might be a queen, there's something so grand about her. Yet she's so affable that she couldn't pass one of the little children at the poor school without saying a kind word; and so thoughtful for the poor that they've no need to tell her their wants, she provides for them beforehand.' 'A model Lady Bountiful,' exclaimed Maurice. 'You may run home to your grandmother, Elspeth,' said Mrs. Darvis. 'I was to show the gentleman the grounds,' answered the damsel, 'he hasn't half seen 'em yet.' In her devotion to the service she had undertaken, the girl followed at their heels through the house, absorbing every word that was said by Mrs. Darvis or the stranger. The house was old, and somewhat gloomy, belonging to the Tudor school of architecture. The heavy stonework of the window- frames, the lozenge-shaped mullions, the massive cross-bars, were eminently adapted to exclude light. Even what light the windows did admit was in many places tempered by stained glass emblazoned with the arms and mottoes of the Penwyn family, in all its ramifications, showing how it had become entangled with other families, and bore the arms of heiresses on its shield, until that original badge, which Sir Thomas Penwyn, the crusader, had first carried atop of his helmet, was almost lost among the various devices in a barry of eight. The rooms were spacious, but far from lofty, the chimney-pieces of carved oak and elaborate workmanship, the paneling between mantel-board and ceiling richly embellished, and over all the principal chimney-pieces appeared the Penwyn arms and motto, 'J'attends.'
  • 53.
    There was muchold tapestry, considerably the worse for wear, for the house had been sorely neglected during that dreary interval between the revolution and the days of George the Third, when the Penwyn family had fallen into comparative poverty, and the fine old mansion had been little better than a farmhouse. Indeed, brawny agricultural labourers had eaten their bacon and beans and potato pasty in the banqueting hall, now the state dining-room, handsomely furnished with plain and massive oaken furniture by the old Squire, Churchill's grandfather. This room was one of the largest in the house, and looked towards the sea. Drawing-room, music-room, library, and boudoir were on the garden side, with windows opening on the terrace. The drawing-room and boudoir had been refurnished by Churchill, since his marriage. 'The old Squire kept very little company, and hardly ever went inside any of those rooms,' said Mrs. Darvis. 'In summer he used to sit in the yew-tree bower, on the bowling-green, after dinner; and in winter he used to smoke his pipe in the steward's room, mostly, and talk to his bailiff. The dining-room was the only large room he ever used, so when Mr. Churchill Penwyn came he found the drawing- room very bare of furniture, and what there was was too shabby for his taste, so he had that and the boudoir furnished, after the old style, by a London upholsterer, and put a grand piano and a harmonium in the music-room; and the drawing-room tapestry is all new, made by the Goblins, Mrs. Penwyn told me, which, I suppose, was only her fanciful way of putting it.' The dame opened the door as she spoke, and admitted Maurice into this sacred apartment, where the chairs and sofas were shrouded with holland. The tapestry was an exquisite specimen of that patient art. Its subject was the story of Arion. The friendly dolphin, and the blue summer sea, the Greek sailors, Periander's white-walled palace, lived upon the work. Triangular cabinets of carved ebony adorned the corners of the room, and were richly furnished with the Bellingham
  • 54.
    bric-a-brac, the onlydower Sir Nugent had been able to give his daughter. The chairs and sofas, from which Mrs. Darvis lifted a corner of the holland covering for the visitor's gratification, were of the same dark wood, upholstered with richest olive-green damask, of mediæval diaper pattern. Window-curtains of the same sombre hue harmonized admirably with the brighter colours of the tapestry. The floor was darkest oak, only covered in the centre with a Persian carpet. The boudoir, which opened out of the drawing-room, was furnished in exactly the same style, only here the tapestried walls told the story of Hero and Leander. 'I believe it was all Mrs. Penwyn's taste,' said the housekeeper, when Maurice had admired everything. '"Her rooms upstairs are a picture—nothing of character with the house," the head upholsterer said. "There's so few ladies have got any notion of character," he says. "They'll furnish an old manor-house with flimsy white and gold of the Lewis Quince style, only fit for a drawing-room in the Shamps Eliza; and if you ask them why, they'll say because it's fashionable, and they like it. Mrs. Penwyn is an artist," says the upholsterer's foreman.' Maurice did not hurry his inspection, finding the housekeeper communicative, and the place full of interest. He heard a great deal about the old Squire, Nicholas Penwyn, who had reigned for forty years, and for whom his dependants had evidently felt a curious mixture of fear, respect, and affection. 'He was a just man,' said Mrs. Darvis, 'but stern; and it was but rarely he forgave any one that once offended him. It took a good deal to offend him, you know, sir; but when he did take offence, the wound rankled deep. I've heard our old doctor say the Squire had bad flesh for healing. He never got on very well with his eldest son, Mr. George, though he was the handsomest of the three brothers, and the best of them too, to my mind.' 'What made them disagree?' asked Maurice. They had made the round of the house by this time, and the traveller had seated himself comfortably on a broad window-seat in the entrance hall, a window
  • 55.
    Welcome to ourwebsite – the perfect destination for book lovers and knowledge seekers. We believe that every book holds a new world, offering opportunities for learning, discovery, and personal growth. That’s why we are dedicated to bringing you a diverse collection of books, ranging from classic literature and specialized publications to self-development guides and children's books. More than just a book-buying platform, we strive to be a bridge connecting you with timeless cultural and intellectual values. With an elegant, user-friendly interface and a smart search system, you can quickly find the books that best suit your interests. Additionally, our special promotions and home delivery services help you save time and fully enjoy the joy of reading. Join us on a journey of knowledge exploration, passion nurturing, and personal growth every day! testbankdeal.com