He never again rose to his feet; but twice again he
made violent efforts to do so. Elections in
East Barsetshire, from various causes, came quick
upon each other in those days, and before he was eight-and-twenty
years of age Mr Gresham had three times contested the
county and been three times beaten. To speak the
truth of him, his own spirit would have been satisfied
with the loss of the first ten thousand pounds; but
Lady Arabella was made of higher mettle. She
had married a man with a fine place and a fine fortune;
but she had nevertheless married a commoner and had
in so far derogated from her high birth. She
felt that her husband should be by rights a member
of the House of Lords; but, if not, that it was at
least essential that he should have a seat in the
lower chamber. She would by degrees sink into
nothing if she allowed herself to sit down, the mere
wife of a mere county squire.
Thus instigated, Mr Gresham repeated the useless contest
three times, and repeated it each time at a serious
cost. He lost his money, Lady Arabella lost
her temper, and things at Greshamsbury went on by no
means as prosperously as they had done in the days
of the old squire.
In the first twelve years of their marriage, children
came fast into the nursery at Greshamsbury.
The first that was born was a boy; and in those happy
halcyon days, when the old squire was still alive,
great was the joy at the birth of an heir to Greshamsbury;
bonfires gleamed through the country-side, oxen were
roasted whole, and the customary paraphernalia of
joy, usual to rich Britons on such occasions were gone
through with wondrous eclat. But when the tenth
baby, and the ninth little girl, was brought into
the world, the outward show of joy was not so great.
Then other troubles came. Some of these little
girls were sickly, some very sickly. Lady Arabella
had her faults, and they were such as were extremely
detrimental to her husband’s happiness and her
own; but that of being an indifferent mother was not
among them. She had worried her husband daily
for years because he was not in Parliament, she had
worried him because he would not furnish his house
in Portman Square, she had worried him because he
objected to have more people carried every winter
at Greshamsbury Park than the house would hold; but
now she changed her tune and worried him because Selina
coughed, because Helena was hectic, because poor Sophy’s
spine was weak, and Matilda’s appetite was gone.
Worrying from such causes was pardonable it will be
said. So it was; but the manner was hardly pardonable.
Selina’s cough was certainly not fairly attributable
to the old-fashioned furniture in Portman Square;
nor would Sophy’s spine have been materially
benefited by her father having a seat in Parliament;
and yet, to have heard Lady Arabella discussing those
matters in family conclave, one would have thought
that she would have expected such results.
