That Stick by Charlotte M Yonge
published 1892
This is a later work from Charlotte M Yonge, and not one of
her better-known ones.
I am reading as much as I can of her (no-one can read all
of them, she wrote a phenomenal number of works) for a project coming this
autumn, involving
The
Charlotte M. Yonge Fellowship – Victorian novelist
- More
to follow on that subject.
I have done several posts on her on the blog, she is
frequently mentioned, and I did a post on her place in the world:
The
Interesting Case of Charlotte M Yonge
Most recently I mentioned this book in my post on Dower
Houses in literature:
Do you
even know what a Dower House is?
- Because
it features one. I said then
The oddly-named That Stick has a complicated
family, where an outsider unexpectedly inherits a title (similar to the plot of
Georgette Heyer’s Unknown Ajax, which it does not otherwise
resemble – except for the lesson that people should not judge the heir before
they meet him). The new heir, Frank, is ‘That Stick’ – he is seen as a dull and
unexciting fellow, and not up the mark for his new place in life. His earlier
life is straight out of the film ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ if you can imagine
that – he has always looked after others and sacrificed his own plans and
dreams and life generally to others. He has long been engaged to an orphan
schoolteacher, Mary, as they could never afford to marry. Everyone assumes he
will ditch her now, unfit as she is for her new position, but they think wrong,
buddy.
…Instead of being terrified at
the great garden-party and dinner-party to be held at Coles Kenton, [she] eagerly
availed herself of instruction in the details of their management. She
had accepted her fate, and when the two were seen moving about among the people
of the party they neither of them looked incongruous with the county
aristocracy.
Frank’s worth does shine through, though he never becomes a
glittering hero, he always is that stick. It is more that everyone can
see there is something to be said for being dull and straightforward.
He is not in great health, and goes off to the Dolomites
with his wife and niece, where more problems turn up. There is a health ‘secret’ and I thought Mary was going
to die, - and not just me, niece ‘Constance had begun to grow alarmed, and
watched for an opportunity of imploring Mrs. Bury to tell her whether Aunt Mary
were really very ill’. but as often with Yonge, it is actually an unexpected
(to me) baby – they turn up without warning, and very frequently, in the oeuvre.
Because of the distance from home, some people affect to
believe that the baby is an impostor: obtained somehow in the Dolomites to push
Herbert (Frank’s nephew) out of the succession. This foolishness will have
long-felt consequence.
There is a young woman who will try to ensure a change in
the inheritance: somewhat reminiscent of Vera in Agatha Christie’s And Then
Were None. She has no real understanding of how wicked this is, but she’ll
get her true Yonge come-uppance. (Bad health: ‘She was pretty, with a hectic
prettiness of bright eyes and cheeks’. When you’ve read a few, you know what
this means)
Meanwhile, there is another weird plotline.
The widow of the previous heir lives in the Dower House
- she is one of those characters that CMY seems to admire, but not
that appealing to a modern reader. Her name is Adela. She has lost husband and
son, and position. Her husband (the
original heir) was killed in an accident. His sister, Bertha, was engaged to
one Captain Alder, a friend to her brother.
The Captain took his future
brother-in-law out ‘in his dog-cart with a fiery horse that was sure to run
away, …though they begged and prayed him not, and the horse ran away and Mr.
Morton was thrown out and killed.’
‘On purpose?’
‘Miss Bertha was sure it was,
so that she might have all the fortune, and so she told him, and flung the
betrothal ring in his face, and he went right off, and never has been heard of
since.’
‘Well, that is
interesting. Do you think he shot himself?’
‘No, he was too mean. Most likely he
married a hideous millionaire.’
Patricia Wentworth’s Miss Silver greatly admires Charlotte
M Yonge, and no wonder: her books are full of engaged (or newly-wed) couples
who have broken up in dramatic or secret circumstances. Though this is a
particularly choice one: in case it isn’t clear (it is hard to keep all this in
your head) Bertha thinks her fiancé killed her brother in order that she would
inherit more money and be a wealthier bride for him.
Mind you, Bertha is nicely off anyway, and the New Heir Frank has inherited the rest.
Bertha has stayed single – she has quite a nice unmarried life in London with good works and plenty of money. She has adopted a child with the splendid name ‘a jolly little mortal, in spite of her name—Boadicea Ethelind Davidina Jones. She is two years old, and quite delicious—the darling of all the house!’
There is going to be endless trouble arising from this too.
As with all her books, That Stick is full of plot and snappy dialogue: I am very much enjoying reading them.
Fashions of the 1890s from – of course – NYPL.
Woman in cloak, England, 1890s - NYPL Digital Collections
Toilettes de ville - NYPL Digital Collections
Women
indoors, England, 1890s - NYPL Digital Collections
Oh yes, "hectic prettiness" - as you say, this always means TB. Like poor Ruby Gillis in Anne of the Island: "her blue eyes were too bright and lustrous, and the color of her cheeks was hectically brilliant". I didn't know till recently that a "hectic fever" is one that varies dramatically and was associated with TB.
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