Courtesy and Contempt

Chapter 6

Chapter 6Sir Walter Hightower of Kellynch Hall in Somersetshire was a man who, for his own pleasure, never picked up a book other than the Baronetage; there he found employment for an idle hour and comfort in a sorrowful one; there his abilities were awakened in admiration and respect by looking at the limited remnant of the earliest patents; there, of course, all the unwanted sensations that arose from domestic affairs turned into pity and contempt as he turned the almost endless creations of the last century; and there, if every other paper were powerless, he could read his own story with an interest that never dried up. That was the side where the favorite band always hit:

FROM KELLYNCH HALL.

"Walter Hightower, born March 1, 1760, married July 15, 1784, Elizabeth, daughter of James Stevenson, Esq. of South Park, in the county of Gloucester, of which lady (who died in 1800) he gave birth to Elizabeth June 1, 1785; Anne, born on August 9, 1787; a stillborn son, November 5, 1789; Mary, born november 20, 1791."

This is exactly how the sales had originally come from the hands of the printer; but Sir Walter had improved it by adding these words to Mary's date of birth for information to himself and his family: "Married on December 16, 1810, Charles, son and heir of Charles Cumberland, Esq. of Uppercross , in the county of Somerset", and by inserting as accurately as possible the day of the month on which he lost his wife.

Then followed the history and rise of the old and respectable family in the usual terms; as it had first been settled in Cheshire; as mentioned in Dugdale, holds the office of High Sheriff, represents a district in three successive legislatures, in the first year of Charles II represented loyalty and dignity of a baronet with all the Marys and Elizabeths they had married; forming a total of two pretty duodecimal pages and concluding with the coat of arms and motto: "Principal seat, Kellynch Hall, in the county of Somerset," and Sir Walter's handwriting in this finale once again: –

"Presumed heir, William Walter Hightower, Esq., great-grandson of the second Sir Walter."

Vanity was the beginning and end of Sir Walter Hightower's character; Vanity of the person and the situation. He had been remarkably handsome in his youth; and at fifty-four was still a very fine man. Few women could pay more attention to their personal appearance than he could, and the valet of a newly minted lord could no longer rejoice in his place in society. He regarded the blessing of beauty as inferior only to the blessing of a baronet; and Sir Walter Hightower, who united these gifts, was the constant object of his warmest esteem and devotion.

His good looks and rank had a fair claim to his attachment; for to them he must owe a woman of very superior character, which is due to him. Lady Hightower had been an excellent woman, reasonable and gracious; whose judgment and behavior, when forgiven for the youthful infatuation that made them Lady Hightower, never required leniency afterwards. It had mitigated, mitigated or concealed his weaknesses and promoted his real respectability for seventeen years; and although she herself was not the happiest being in the world, she had found enough in her duties, her friends and her children to bind them to life and make her indifferent when she was asked to give them up. Three girls, the two elders sixteen and fourteen, was a terrible legacy for a mother, rather a terrible burden to entrust herself to the authority and guidance of an imaginary, stupid father. However, she had a very intimate girlfriend, a reasonable, meritorious woman who had been made to settle near her in the village of Kellynch through a strong attachment to herself; and on her kindness and advice, Lady Hightower relied mainly to get the best help and maintenance of the good principles and instructions she had fearfully given to her daughters.

This friend and Sir Walter did not marry, whatever their acquaintance could have expected in this regard. Thirteen years had passed since Lady Hightower's death, and they were still close neighbors and close friends, and one remained a widower, the other a widow.

That Lady Russell, of good age and character and extremely well cared for, should not think of a second marriage needs no excuse from the public, who tend to be unreasonably dissatisfied when a woman remarries than if she does not; but the continued existence of Sir Walter as a single needs an explanation. So be aware that Sir Walter, like a good father (after experiencing one or two private disappointments with very unreasonable applications), was proud to remain single for the sake of his dear daughters. For a daughter, his eldest, he really would have given up everything he hadn't been very irritable to do. Elizabeth, at sixteen, had taken over everything that was possible from her mother's rights and consequences; and since she was very handsome and very similar to him, her influence had always been great, and they had gone on happiest together. His other two children were of very little value. Mary had gained a little artificial meaning by becoming Mrs. Charles Cumberland; but Anne, with an elegant spirit and a sweet character that must have placed her high among truly understanding people, was not a nobody with either father or sister; her word had no weight, her comfort should always give way – she was just Anne.

For Lady Russell, she was indeed a very dear and highly esteemed goddaughter, darling and friend. Lady Russell loved them all; but only in Anne could she imagine that her mother would revive.

A few years ago, Anne Hightower had been a very pretty girl, but her blossom had disappeared early; and since her father, even in her size, had found little admirable in her (so completely different were her delicate facial features and mild dark eyes from his own), nothing could be wrong with her, now that she was pale and thin, arouse his appreciation. He had never had much hope, he now had no more to ever read her name on any other page of his favorite work. All equality of the covenant must remain with Elizabeth, for Mary had only connected with an old rural family of prestige and great fortune and had therefore given all honor and received none: Elizabeth would one day marry appropriately.

It sometimes happens that a woman looks more beautiful at twenty-nine than ten years ago; and in general, when there is neither illness nor fear, it is a time of life when hardly anything is lost in its appeal. So it was with Elizabeth, still the same pretty Miss Hightower she had begun to be thirteen years ago, and Sir Walter could therefore be excused if he forgot her age, or at least be considered half stupid when he thought of him and Elizabeth as flourishing as ever, in the midst of the wreck of everyone else's good looks; for he could clearly see how old the rest of his family and acquaintance became. Anne hager, Mary coarse, all faces in the neighborhood poor, and the rapid increase in crow's feet around Lady Russell's temples had long embarrassed him.

Elizabeth was not quite the same as her father in terms of personal satisfaction. For thirteen years, her mistress of Kellynch Hall had presided over and led with a self-control and determination that could never give the impression that she was younger than she was. For thirteen years she had done the honor and relinquished the domiciliary right at home and led the way to Chaise and Four, following Lady Russell directly from all the salons and dining rooms in the country. In thirteen winters, with changing frosts, she had opened every credit ball that a meagre neighborhood allowed, and thirteen springs showed their blossoms as she traveled to London with her father to enjoy the big world annually for a few weeks. She had the memory of all this, she had the consciousness of being twenty-nine to give her some remorse and some fears; She was completely content to still be as handsome as ever, but she felt her approaching the years of danger and would have been happy to be sure to be adequately courted by Baronet blood within the next month or two. Then she would resume the Book of Books with as much joy as she did in her early youth, but now she didn't like it. Always being confronted with the date of her own birth and not seeing a wedding follow, except that of a youngest sister, made the book an evil; and more than once, when her father had left it open on the table next to her, she had closed it with her eyes turned away and pushed it away. but she felt her approaching the years of danger and would have been happy to be sure to be adequately courted by Baronet blood within the next month or two. Then she would resume the Book of Books with as much joy as she did in her early youth, but now she didn't like it. Always being confronted with the date of her own birth and not seeing a wedding follow, except that of a youngest sister, made the book an evil; and more than once, when her father had left it open on the table next to her, she had closed it with her eyes turned away and pushed it away. but she felt her approaching the years of danger and would have been happy to be sure to be adequately courted by Baronet blood within the next month or two. Then she would resume the Book of Books with as much joy as she did in her early youth, but now she didn't like it. Always being confronted with the date of her own birth and not seeing a wedding follow, except that of a youngest sister, made the book an evil; and more than once, when her father had left it open on the table next to her, she had closed it with her eyes turned away and pushed it away. Always being confronted with the date of her own birth and not seeing a wedding follow, except that of a youngest sister, made the book an evil; and more than once, when her father had left it open on the table next to her, she had closed it with her eyes turned away and pushed it away. Always being confronted with the date of her own birth and not seeing a wedding follow, except that of a youngest sister, made the book an evil; and more than once, when her father had left it open on the table next to her, she had closed it with her eyes turned away and pushed it away.

In addition, she had experienced a disappointment that this book and especially the story of her own family must always remember. The alleged heir, this very William Walter Hightower, Esq., whose rights had been so generously supported by her father, had disappointed her.

As a very young girl, as soon as she met him as a future baronet, she had planned to marry him, and her father had always intended that she should do it. He had not been known to them as a boy; but soon after the death of Lady Hightower, Sir Walter had sought acquaintanceship, and although his advances had not met with warmth, he had persistently sought it, accepting the modest retreat of his youth; and on one of her spring trips to London, when Elizabeth was in her first bloom, Mr. Hightower had been forced to perform.

He was a very young man at the time, busy studying the law; and Elizabeth found him extremely pleasant, and every plan in his favor was confirmed. He was invited to Kellynch Hall; he was spoken of and awaited for the rest of the year; but he never came. The following spring he was seen again in the city, found to be just as pleasant, again encouraged, invited and expected, and again he did not come; and the next news was that he was married. Instead of putting his fortune in the line laid out for the heir to the House of Hightower, he had bought his independence by uniting with a rich woman of inferior origin.

Sir Walter had resented it. As the landlord, he felt he should have been consulted, especially after taking the young man by the hand so publicly; "Because they must have been seen together," he noted, "once at Tattersall and twice in the lobby of the House of Commons." His disapproval was expressed, but apparently very little noticed. Mr. Hightower had not tried to apologize and had shown himself so unsolicited that he would no longer be noticed by the family, as Sir Walter considered him unworthy of it: any acquaintance between them had ceased.

This very unpleasant story of Mr. Hightower was still, after a break of several years, felt with anger by Elizabeth, who had liked the man because of himself, and even more because he was her father's heir and whose strong family pride could only see in him a fitting role for the eldest daughter of Sir Walter Hightower. There was no baronet from A to Z that their feelings had so readily acknowledged as equals. And yet he had behaved so miserably that even though she was wearing black ribbons for his wife at the time (in the summer of 1814), she could not admit that he was worth thinking about him again. The shame of his first marriage, since there was no reason to believe that it would continue through descendants, might have been overcome if he had not fared worse; but he had been informed, as by the usual intervention of friendly friends, spoke most disrespectfully of all, most contemptuous and contemptuous of the blood to which he belonged and the honors that would later be his own. That was unforgivable.

These were Elizabeth Hightower's feelings and sensations; so to combine the care, the excitement to vary, the equality and elegance, the prosperity and the nothingness of their life scene; such feelings to give interest to a long, uneventful stay in a county, to fill the vacancies that there were no habits of usefulness abroad, no talents or achievements for home.

But now another occupation and concern began to come along. Her father became more and more desperate for money. She knew that when he entered the baronial post, he was to drive the heavy bills of his merchants and the unwelcome hints of Mr. Shepherd, his agent, out of his mind. The Kellynch property was good, but not Sir Walter's view of the state demanded of its owner. While Lady Hightower lived, there had been method, moderation and thrift that had kept him just within his income; but with her all this righteousness had died, and since that time he had constantly exceeded it. He could not have spent less; he had done nothing but what Sir Walter Hightower had been commandingly asked to do; but blameless as he was, he not only got into terrible debt, but he heard so often about it that it became vain to hide it from his daughter for longer, even partially. He had given her some clues about this in the city last spring; He had even gone so far as to say, "Can we cut? and Elizabeth, in order to do justice to it, had seriously considered what could be done in the first embers of female anxiety, and finally proposed to eliminate these two industries, cut off some unnecessary charities and forego new furniture in the salon; To these makeshift remedies, she later added the happy thought of not taking a gift to Anne, as had been the usual annual custom. But these measures, as good as they may be in themselves, were not enough for the true extent of the evil, the whole thing that Sir Walter soon felt compelled to confess to it. Elizabeth had nothing to suggest of greater effectiveness. She felt abused and unhappy, as did her father; and none of them were able to find ways and means to reduce their spending without compromising their dignity, or to give up their comforts in an unbearable way.

There was only a small part of his estate that Sir Walter could dispose of; but if every morning had been alienable, it would have made no difference. As far as he was able to do so, he had lowered himself to a mortgage, but he would never condescend to a sale. No; he would never let his name fall out of favor. The Kellynch estate was to be transmitted in full and in full as he had received it.

Her two trusted friends, Mr. Shepherd, who lived in the neighboring market town, and Lady Russell were called in to advise them; and both father and daughter seemed to expect that something should be deleted from one or the other in order to eliminate their embarrassment and reduce their expenses without losing taste or pride.