One of Our Conquerors - World eBook Library

George Meredith
something Hungarian. And in the Second Part, Schubert’s Ave
Maria—Oh! when we hear that, we dissolve. She was a singer
before he married her, they say: a lady by birth one of the first
County families. But it was a gift, and she could not be kept
from it, and was going, when they met—and it was love! the
most perfect duet. For him she abandoned the Stage. You must
remember, that in their young days the Stage was many stages
beneath the esteem entertained for it now. Domestic Concerts
are got up to gratify her: a Miss Fredericks: good old
English name. Mr. Radnor calls his daughter, Freddy; so Mr.
Taplow, the architect, says. They are for modern music and
ancient. Tannhauser, Wagner, you see. Pergolese.
Flute-duet, Mercadante. Here we have him! O—
Durandarte: Air Basque, variations—his own. Again, Senor
Durandarte, Mendelssohn. Encore him, and he plays you a
national piece. A dark little creature a Life-guardsman could
hold-up on his outstretched hand for the fifteen minutes of
the performance; but he fills the hall and thrills the heart,
wafts you to heaven; and does it as though he were conversing
with his Andalusian lady-love in easy whispers about their
mutual passion for Spanish chocolate all the while: so the
musical critic of the Tirra-Lirra says. Express trains every half
hour from London; all the big people of the city. Mr. Radnor
commands them, like Royalty. Totally different from that
old figure of the wealthy City merchant; young, vigorous,
elegant, a man of taste, highest culture, speaks the languages
of Europe, patron of the Arts, a perfect gentleman. His
mother was one of the Montgomerys, Mr. Taplow says.
And it was General Radnor, a most distinguished officer,
dying knighted. But Mr. Victor Radnor would not take less
than a Barony—and then only with descent of title to his
daughter, in her own right.
Mr. Taplow had said as much as Victor Radnor chose that
he should say.
Carriages were in flow for an hour: pedestrians formed a
wavy coil. Judgeing by numbers, the entertainment was a
success; would the hall contain them? Marvels were told of
the hall. Every ticket entered and was enfolded; almost all
had a seat. Chivalry stood. It is a breeched abstraction,
sacrificeing voluntarily and genially to the Fair, for a restoring
of the balance between the sexes, that the division of
good things be rather in the fair ones’ favour, as they are to
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