The Psychology of Attitudes and

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List of Figures and Tables
Figure 1.1 An example of a Likert scale to assess attitudes toward
euthanasia 13
Figure 1.2 A semantic differential measure of attitudes 14
Figure 1.3 A sample procedure sequence for a five-block IAT 18
Figure 2.1 The Multicomponent Model of Attitude 31
Figure 2.2 Open-ended measures of attitudinal components 36
Figure 2.3 Unidimensional and bidimensional views of attitude
structure 43
Figure 3.1 Number of articles read, and time spent looking at articles,
as a function of article congruency 61
Figure 3.2 An illustration of the way in which Roskos-Ewoldsen and
Fazio (1992) presented attitude objects 63
Figure 3.3 Is it a B or a 13? It depends on what you want to see 68
Figure 3.4 Attitudes predicting subsequent behavior and behavior
predicting subsequent attitudes 83
Figure 4.1 The Theory of Reasoned Action 88
Figure 4.2 The Theory of Planned Behavior 91
Figure 4.3 The MODE Model 100
Figure 4.4 The Composite Model of attitude–behavior relations 105
Figure 5.1 Effects of personal relevance, argument strength, and
source expertise on attitudes 126
Figure 5.2 The Meta-Cognitive Model’s predictions for responses
after receiving novel negative information about an attitude object
134
Figure 6.1 The effects of differential exposure on liking toward a
female confederate 143
Figure 6.2 Two-Factor Model of exposure effects 144
Figure 6.3 The effects of negative and positive primes on evaluations
of an unfamiliar target 150
Figure 6.4 The effects of argument strength, affect, and attribution on
evaluations 158
Figure 7.1 Attitudes toward the environment as a function of framing
of past behavior and pre-experimental strength of attitudes toward the
environment 173
Figure 7.2 Kilograms lost by participants as a function of effort
justification 179

8
Figure 7.3 Attitudes toward banning an inflammatory speaker after
arguing in favor of a ban (Zanna & Cooper, 1974): effects of (a) prior
choice in the counter-attitudinal advocacy and (b) the expected effect
of a pill 186
Figure 7.4 A participant’s hypothetical responses to the latitude
measure used by Fazio et al. (1977) 188
Figure 8.1 The effects of caffeine consumption and self-affirmation
on persuasion 202
Figure 8.2 The effects of affective versus cognitive frame and gender
on attitudes 205
Figure 8.3 The effects of thirst/non-thirst and prime on intentions to
drink Lipton Ice 212
Figure 8.4 The effects of a trust prime on evaluations of a persuasive
message 213
Figure 9.1 The effects of a prejudice intervention on IAT D-scores
227
Figure 9.2 The effects of leaning left or right on attitudes toward the
American Democrat and Republican parties 231
Figure 9.3 Amount of attitude change as a function of caffeine
consumption and argument quality 238
Figure 9.4 A depiction of the life-stages hypothesis on the relation
between age and susceptibility to attitude change 247
Figure 10.1 Diagram of an attitude triad involving a person (P), an
attitude object (AO), and another person (OP) 258
Figure 10.2 Effects of experienced power and message strength on
post-message attitudes when power is manipulated before (top panel)
and after (bottom panel) the message 262
Figure 10.3 Effects of outcome relevance, majority versus minority
source, and argument strength on persuasion 270
Figure 10.4 Effects of culture and nature of prior feedback on change
to a more favorable evaluation of chosen CDs 275
Figure 11.1 Three different views of attitude representations 285
Figure 11.2 Effects of friendship with gay men on anxiety toward
gay men, attitudes toward them, and the accessibility and strength of
these attitudes 296
Table 5.1 Postulates of the Elaboration Likelihood Model 123
Table 5.2 Key assumptions of the Heuristic-Systematic Model 124
Table 11.1 Murray’s (1938) 20 psychological needs 288

9
How to Use Your Book and Its Online
Resources

New to This Edition:

The Psychology of Attitudes & Attitude Change has a new author on the
team and updated chapters with exciting developments in the field of
attitudes and attitude change.

On The Website:
Updated online materials. For teachers, more detailed slides and sample
assessment questions. For students, an updated glossary and more
resources to test your own understanding of individual chapters.

https://study.sagepub.com/psychofattitudes3e

In Each Chapter:
Every chapter follows the same basic structure.

Questions to ponder are intended to stimulate thinking about some

of the major themes relevant to the chapter’s content.
The Preview acts as the brief guide of what is covered in the chapter
– a road map of what will be discussed.
Key points describe how our three witches of attitudes play a role in
understanding and guiding research questions.

At the end of each chapter, we offer some other tools to help the reader.

What we have learned reviews the most important points within the
chapter.
What do you think? presents a series of big-picture questions that
are relevant to the chapter’s theme.
Key terms allow the reader to have a firm understanding of core
concepts.

10
 Further reading, where we present some references to papers, both
basic and applied, that we find especially interesting.

Overview
It is difficult to listen to a talk show without getting agitated. Talk shows
love to get our attention with debates on a whole catalogue of issues, with
common topics being war, global warming, discrimination, sexuality,
terrorism, morality, and religion. Debates on these issues can leave us
dumbstruck. We might be left aghast that others vehemently support a
politician that we oppose or that they are opposed to an energy-saving
initiative that we like. We might be particularly perturbed when our friends
or relatives chime in with unexpected views, and we may desperately wish
to change their minds. In these situations, we are all united by a desire to
understand and shape other people’s attitudes.

This desire has long been held by human beings. Some of the attitude
conflicts that puzzle people now (e.g., health care, immigration) are
different from those that perturbed people in prior generations (e.g.,
slavery), but the basic quest to understand attitudes is the same.
Fortunately, there have been exciting advances in this quest. At the
beginning of the previous century, social psychologists began to realize
that scientific methods can be used to better understand attitudes and how
they change. This recognition eventually grew into a conviction that
attitudes are indispensable for understanding social psychological
processes.

Research on attitudes has been at the heart of social psychology for close
to a century. During that time, the field has moved from questions like
“Can attitudes be measured?” to questions like “Which measures are most
useful?” and “Are there specific brain locations in which attitude
judgments are made?” Research now uses complex perspectives to tackle
fascinating theoretical and practical problems in the study of attitudes.

This book looks to provide a thorough and integrative understanding of the

field of attitudes and attitude change. Since its inception this textbook has
sought to provide a novel perspective on this issue, focusing on what
attitudes are and on what they do for us. It covers the essential foundations
that have been garnered from past research, while integrating recent
advances in a simple way. It also integrates basic theory and research with

11
applications and real-life examples. Indeed, in our view, one of the main
attractions of studying attitudes is linked with their application to fields
such as consumer behavior, heath behavior, and politics (to name just
three!).

The text is aimed primarily at upper-year undergraduates and

postgraduates who are studying topics that are relevant to understanding
how people form opinions and how their opinions get translated into
action. This might be psychologists, business students, health practitioners,
political scientists, and sociologists enrolled in courses on attitudes and
attitude change. Because this book is aimed at higher levels of study and
the diverse implications and applications of attitudes, it is important that
the text stimulates critical thinking about the models and evidence that are
presented. Consequently, the book frequently presents questions that
challenge students to think more deeply about the issues. Our hope is that
students who read this text will come away with a better understanding of
what we know and do not know about attitudes.

At the same time, we have done our best to create a text with relevance to
the treatment of attitudes in institutions of higher education around the
world. Although the bulk of the pivotal research on attitudes has emerged
from the United States, key findings have also emerged from studies in
numerous countries, including Australia, Belgium, Canada, China, France,
Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand,
Portugal, and Spain. We have attempted to cover key research from most if
not all of these nations, which helps to integrate diverse perspectives on
the psychology of attitudes and attitude change.

This book includes four sections. The first section looks at what attitudes
are and why they are important. The second section examines the ability of
attitudes to predict behavior. From there, we consider how attitudes are
formed and changed. Finally, we present a variety of major issues for
understanding internal (e.g., neurological) and external (e.g., cultural)
influences on attitude, along with unresolved questions.

Section 1: Why Do Attitudes Matter?

This section outlines some of the issues that galvanized researchers to
begin studying attitudes. In doing so, it introduces core conceptualizations
of attitudes. To illustrate these views, it will be necessary to describe how

12
attitudes are measured. This component of Part I will focus on the most
common and interesting attitude measurement techniques, while showing
how these measures are useful and important.

Within this section of the book, we introduce the metaphor of the “three
witches” of attitudes: content, structure, and function. Put simply,
attitudinal content can include cognitive, affective, and behavioral
information about an object; attitude structure refers to how this
information is organized along dimensions within attitudes; and attitude
function encompasses diverse psychological needs served by attitudes
(e.g., self-esteem, utility enhancement). We label these as three “witches”
because they operate more effectively together than in isolation, in the
same way that three witches in folklore make a better brew together than
separately. This section foreshadows how content, structure, and function
are relevant to each subsequent section of the volume. In later chapters,
their relevance is identified by using “three witches” side-bars to come
back to this theme.

Section 2: What Do Attitudes Do?

This section addresses how attitudes are influential in helping us navigate
our social environment. First, we will consider how our attitudes influence
our interpretation of information. Second, we will consider how our
attitudes guide our behavior. The question of precisely how attitudes
predict behavior has been the focus of several models of attitude–behavior
relations. Thus, the second part of this section will describe and review
important models and evaluate the evidence testing them.

Section 3: What Shapes Attitudes?

This section is the largest portion of the book because a large number of
important models have been developed to explain attitude formation and
change. Most of these models focus on cognitive processes, although other
models have specifically examined affective influences or behavioral
processes. Consequently, this section of the text focuses on cognitive,
affective, and behavioral processes in separate chapters. Nonetheless, these
processes overlap, and we attempt to highlight some common principles in
the fourth chapter of this section.

13
Section 4: What More Is There to Learn?
This section will describe how research on attitudes is being enriched by a
variety of methodological and theoretical developments. One chapter
describes advances in understanding diverse “internal” aspects of attitudes,
including neurological activity, motor actions, and lifespan development.
The next chapter describes advances in understanding diverse “external”
aspects of attitudes, including influences of time, relationships, groups,
and culture. The final chapter highlights themes from across the book by
bringing us back to attitude content, structure, and function. This chapter
also closes with some challenging questions about the nature and
importance of attitudes.

One of our aims is to present an integrated view on attitudes. While the

attitude domain contains a host of interesting, but sometimes seemingly
unrelated, phenomena, we hope we have provided some coherence, for
instance through the use of the “three witches”, but also by referring to
items that are relevant across phenomena, such as dual-process models,
concepts such as attitude strength, or methodological issues such as
implicit versus explicit measures.

How to Use This Book

Every chapter in the book shares the same underlying structure. We start
every chapter by listing some Questions to ponder. These questions are
intended to stimulate thinking about some of the major themes relevant to
the chapter’s content. Next, the Preview acts as a brief guide of what is
covered in the chapter – a road map of what will be discussed. From there,
we move to the “meat” of the chapter. Here, we provide a look at
important research and theories that are relevant to the chapter’s theme. At
various points in each chapter, we review Key points and describe how our
three witches of attitudes play a role in understanding and guiding research
questions. Also, throughout the book we provide some Research highlights
– and our “three witches” of attitudes (described above) appear in side-
bars to indicate where there are interesting questions pertaining to attitude
content, structure, and function.

At the end of each chapter, we offer some other tools to help the reader.
The sections titled What we have learned review the most important points

14
within the chapter. Following from that, the sections titled What do you
think? present a series of big-picture questions that are relevant to the
chapter’s theme. We hope that these are questions that you can begin to
answer having read the chapter. Then we present a set of Key terms,
allowing the reader to have a firm understanding of the core concepts.
Finally, each chapter ends with a Further reading section. Here we present
some references to papers, both basic and applied, that we find especially
interesting.

Acknowledgments
We want to thank several people for their help in bringing this third edition
to fruition. From SAGE, Becky Taylor, Katie Rabot, and the team have
offered much guidance and support. From a professional perspective, we
are extremely grateful for the efforts of our mentors, including Jim Olson,
Mark Zanna, and Vicki Esses, who nurtured our interest in the study of
attitudes. Through the years we have had some fantastic colleagues with
whom we have collaborated, including Dick Eiser, Tony Manstead, Ulrike
Hahn, Ulrich von Hecker, Russell Spears, Frank Fincham, Miles
Hewstone, Ad van Knippenberg, David Trafimow, and Wendy Wood. We
also want to thank Richard Petty and Mark Conner for reading an early
draft of the first edition and providing very helpful feedback.

Last, and certainly not least, our families deserve special mention. Thanks
Audra, Kestrel, and Gabriella. Thanks Maggie, Charlotte, and Ceara.
Thanks Nona.

At SAGE we take sustainability seriously. Most of our products are printed

in the UK using responsibly sourced papers and boards. When we print
overseas we ensure sustainable papers are used as measured by the PREPS
grading system. We undertake an annual audit to monitor our
sustainability.

15
Preface

Welcome to the third edition of The Psychology of Attitudes & Attitude

Change. As you would expect, this edition contains many new
developments. As a starting point, Bas Verplanken has joined the book’s
authorship team. Bas is a leading international scholar on the study of
attitudes and behavior, and it is a pleasure to have him involved in this
project. In terms of content, there has been a series of exciting
developments in the field of attitudes and attitude change since the
publication of the last edition. As you would expect, much attention is
devoted to highlighting these new developments and discussing how they
build upon and extend existing knowledge. Also, we received valuable
feedback from academics, students, and practitioners who adopted and
read previous editions. This feedback has been beneficial in offering new
ideas and suggestions. For teachers, we have provided even more detailed
materials for presentation notes and sample assessment questions. For
students, we have updated the glossary as well as offering more resources
for you to test your understanding of individual chapters. Some of these
developments are available via the website
study.sagepub.com/maiohaddock that accompanies the book, others are
contained within the book itself. We hope that these will be beneficial in
optimizing your learning experience.

16
Section 1 Introduction: Why Do Attitudes
Matter?

In our daily lives, we often use the term attitude to mean different things.
Have you ever met someone with a “bad attitude?” We might say that a
person has a “bad attitude” because he has a negative outlook on life. From
a social psychological perspective, the term attitude has a somewhat
different meaning. In this section of the book, we want to tell you what
social psychologists mean when they use the term attitude.

In Chapter 1, we will begin by introducing past and present

conceptualizations of attitudes. This discussion will highlight the basic
characteristic of an attitude – an association in memory between an
attitude object and an evaluation of it. Basically, an attitude refers to how
much we like (and/or dislike) something. After showing how social
psychologists define the concept of attitude, we will describe some of the
issues that motivated researchers to begin investigating attitudes and how
the empirical study of attitudes has evolved over time. We will see that
scientists who study attitudes seek to discover how people’s opinions are
shaped and how their attitudes influence their behavior. Chapter 1 also
deals with how we measure attitudes. Through the years, attitudes have
been assessed using a variety of techniques. In the last half of the opening
chapter, we will introduce you to some of the more prominent ways of
measuring people’s opinions.

The primary aim of Chapter 2 is to introduce the metaphor of the three

witches of attitudes: content, structure, and function. We label these as
three “witches” because we believe that they operate more effectively
together than in isolation, in the same way that three witches combine in
folklore to make a potent brew. Attitude content refers to the cognitive,
affective, and behavioral information that people associate with attitude
objects. Attitude structure refers to whether attitudes are best
conceptualized as unidimensional (e.g., like/dislike as a single continuum)
or bidimensional (e.g., like and dislike as separate continuums). Attitude
function refers to the psychological needs that are served by attitudes.
Chapter 2 will introduce some basic insights regarding each of the witches
and foreshadow how attitude content, structure, and function are relevant

17
to each section of the book.

18
1 What Are Attitudes and How Are They
Measured?

Questions to Ponder
1. What do we mean by the term “attitude”?
2. Why are attitudes important?
3. Why did social psychologists first start studying attitudes?
4. How do we measure attitudes?

Preview

Within this chapter we consider what attitudes are and how they are
measured. We see how common definitions emphasize that attitudes are
summary evaluations (e.g., like/dislike) of objects. We provide a brief
history of research on the attitude construct, explaining why social
psychologists first started studying attitudes, how research interests
have changed over the past century, and why attitudes are important.
We also discuss how attitudes are measured. We will see that a person’s
attitudes can be assessed in many different ways.

What Is an Attitude?
Do you remember the last great party you attended? What did you talk
about? Who did you talk about? Chances are you talked about things and
people that you like or dislike. You might have expressed the view that
you disliked your country’s President or Prime Minister, had mixed
feelings about the latest Meryl Streep film, or that you really liked your
social psychology class. In every case, you were talking about your
attitudes – your likes and dislikes. Attitudes are important. They influence
how we view the world, what we think, and what we do. Even from an
early age, our attitudes are vital because they help us understand what we
like (and should approach) and what we dislike (and should avoid).
Because attitudes are vital in understanding human thought and behavior,

19
social psychologists have devoted a lot of attention to understanding how
we form attitudes, how our attitudes influence our daily life, and how our
attitudes change over time. In this book, we want to tell you about what
social psychologists call an attitude.

In thinking about these questions, it makes sense to start by defining the

term attitude. Like most constructs in psychology, the attitude concept has
been defined in many ways. In their influential text The Psychology of
Attitudes, Alice Eagly and Shelly Chaiken (1993, p. 1) define attitude as “a
psychological tendency that is expressed by evaluating a particular entity
with some degree of favor or disfavor.” Russell Fazio (1995, p. 247)
defines attitude as “an association in memory between a given object and a
given summary evaluation of the object.” Richard Petty and John
Cacioppo (1981, p. 7) define attitude as “a general and enduring positive
or negative feeling about some person, object, or issue.” Finally, Mark
Zanna and John Rempel (1988, p. 319) define attitude as “the
categorization of a stimulus object along an evaluative dimension.”

Notice that all of these definitions emphasize evaluative judgments about

an object. Indeed, most attitude theorists would argue that evaluation is the
predominant aspect of the attitude concept (see Eagly & Chaiken, 2007).
In other words, reporting an attitude involves making a decision of liking
versus disliking, or favoring versus disfavoring a particular issue, object,
or person. As such, our attitudes serve to summarize different types of
thoughts, feelings, and behavioral experiences we associate with an issue,
object, or person. As we will see in Chapter 2, thoughts, feelings, and past
behaviors are important sources of information for attitudes. Thus, we
define attitude as an overall evaluation of an object that is based on
cognitive, affective, and behavioral information.

An attitude, when conceptualized as an evaluative judgment, can vary in

two important ways (see Eagly & Chaiken, 1993, 1998). First, attitudes
differ in valence, or positive versus negative direction of evaluation. For
instance, the three authors of this text hold some positive attitudes (we all
like the music of The Police), negative attitudes (two of the three authors
dislike liver), and neutral attitudes (at least one author feels average toward
tomato juice). Second, attitudes differ in strength, which is a term
encompassing their stability over time, ability to withstand persuasive
appeals, capacity to influence how we process information, and ability to
guide behavior (see Petty & Krosnick, 1995). For example, while one of us

20
really hates liver, the other feels less strongly negative. While valence is
the defining characteristic of an attitude, throughout the book (and
especially in Chapter 4), we will see that differences both in valence and
strength play an important role in understanding how attitudes guide our
processing of information and our behavior.

Until now, we have used a number of objects when providing examples of

our own attitudes. This leads to the question “What is an attitude object?”
Basically, attitude objects can be anything that is evaluated along a
dimension of favorability. As others have noted (see Eagly & Chaiken,
1993), some attitude objects are abstract (e.g., liberalism) and others are
concrete (e.g., a red Ferrari car). Other individuals (e.g., a particular
politician) can serve as attitude objects, as can social policy issues (e.g.,
death penalty) and social groups (e.g., people from Canada). And last but
not least, we have attitudes toward ourself (e.g., self-esteem). Throughout
the book, we will use a number of examples when describing research that
social psychologists have carried out on the attitude concept.

Key Points

An attitude is an evaluative judgment about a stimulus object.

Attitudes differ in valence and strength.
Attitude objects can be anything that is liked or disliked.

A Short History of Attitude Research

The study of attitudes has an extensive history within social psychology,
with both emerging at the turn of the 20th century. Indeed, Gordon Allport
(1935, p. 198), a renowned researcher who helped inspire attitude research,
famously noted that “the concept of attitude is probably the most
distinctive and indispensable concept in contemporary American social
psychology.” This view was also shared by experts worldwide and outside
of social psychology, such as sociologists and behavioral psychologists
(see McGuire, 1986). In this section of the chapter, we consider why social
psychologists first started to study attitudes, and why this fascination has
continued. Our aim is to highlight the central role that the study of
attitudes has played, and continues to play, within social psychology. To
achieve this aim, we will time-travel backwards, but, for the sake of

21
brevity, we only present a short history – one that is more like an episode
of Dr Who than a feature-length documentary. Readers who are interested
in learning more are invited to read the work of William McGuire (e.g.,
McGuire, 1985, 1986), as well as Briñol and Petty (2012), who have
produced detailed reviews on the history of attitude research.

A Starting Point
As noted above, empirical research relevant to the psychology of attitudes
can be traced to the early 20th century. In the 1920s, a number of scientists
became interested in measuring subjective mental properties like attitudes.
At that time, such was the importance of work on attitude measurement
that social psychology was often defined as the study of attitudes
(McGuire, 1985). Two significant researchers from that era were Louis
Thurstone and Rensis Likert. Thurstone and Likert developed various
ways for measuring attitudes, most notably the Equal Appearing Interval
method (Thurstone, 1928; Thurstone & Chave, 1929) and the Likert scale
(see Likert, 1932). Thurstone’s and Likert’s research was influential
because it demonstrated that attitudes can be quantifiably measured –
paving the way for the development of the discipline. Indeed, the ability of
scientists to measure attitudes was seen as an enormous breakthrough, as
evidenced by the title of one of Thurstone’s first journal articles on this
topic: “Attitudes can be measured.” Even today, Likert scales remain an
important tool for assessing attitudes and opinions. We will learn about
Thurstone’s and Likert’s contributions later in this chapter.

In addition to developing strategies to measure attitudes, early research

also considered the degree to which individuals’ attitudes influence their
behavior. In a famous paper, Richard LaPiere (1934) reported his
experience traveling across the United States of America with a young
Chinese couple. At the time of their travels, there was widespread anti-
Asian prejudice in the United States. As a result of this prejudice, LaPiere
was concerned whether he and his traveling companions would be refused
service in hotels and restaurants. Much to his surprise, only once (in over
250 establishments) were they not served. A few months after the
completion of the journey, LaPiere sent a letter to each of the visited
establishments and asked whether they would serve Chinese visitors. Of
the establishments that replied, only one indicated that it would serve
them, implying that there can be a gap between attitudes and behavior.
While there were a number of problems with this work (e.g., the measures

22
of attitude and behavior are not suitable by modern standards; LaPiere
himself was critical about the utility of verbal questionnaires, see Chapter
3), the study was seminal in its consideration of whether attitudes predict
behavior. The study of when and how attitudes guide behavior (and how
behavior influences attitudes) remains at the forefront of attitude research.
Indeed, we devote an entire section of this book to this issue.

The Real World

Perhaps not surprisingly, the focus of research in social psychology is
often influenced by real world events. The atrocities of World War II led
social psychologists like Kurt Lewin, who escaped Nazi Germany in the
1930s, and many of social psychology’s progenitors, such as Solomon
Asch, Leon Festinger, Muzafer Sherif, and Henri Tajfel, to study processes
such as conformity, power, group dynamics, and prejudice. Their research
had direct relevance to the study of attitudes and the types of questions that
people began to address. Basically, the study of attitudes picked up
momentum in an attempt to tackle greater societal concerns.

For instance, Theodore Adorno and colleagues (Adorno, Frenkel-

Brunswick, Levinson, & Sanford, 1950) were curious about the processes
that lead individuals to develop authoritarian attitudes. In particular, they
studied the social psychological bases of anti-Semitic attitudes. Their
development of the F-scale (the F stood for Fascism) and their research on
authoritarianism played an important role in understanding the
development of prejudice against minority ethnic groups. Several decades
later, fascinating research by Bob Altemeyer (1996, 2006) further
developed this line of investigation, provoking a resurgence of interest in
the concept of authoritarianism.

World War II affected social psychological research in other ways.

Although attempts to understand the dynamics of persuasion can be traced
back to Greek philosophy, the success of Nazi propaganda campaigns
made Allied powers realize the importance of understanding how to
mobilize and change public opinion. During the war, one of the founders
of attitude research, Carl Hovland, took a leave of absence from Yale to
become Chief Psychologist and Director of Experimental Studies for the
United States War Department. His research during this time attempted to
discover methods for making the United States’ war propaganda more
effective at sustaining public morale.

23
After the war, interest in persuasion remained strong due to the emergence
of the Cold War and developments in telecommunications (such as the
wide availability of television). Consequently, upon returning to Yale,
Hovland, Irving Janis, and others within the “Yale School” continued to
study how individuals respond to persuasive messages. These researchers
instigated scientific research on attitude change examining when and how
attitudes are most likely to change (see, e.g., Hovland, Janis, & Kelley,
1953). As noted by McGuire (1986), the Yale School’s approach was
convergent in that it started with a particular phenomenon (i.e., attitude
change) that needed explanation. The researchers would assess a wide
array of variables in order to determine which ones are important in
explaining the phenomenon. Most important, these researchers addressed
how factors such as characteristics of the message source, message
recipient, and the persuasive message itself determine the likelihood of
attitude change. Their findings were influential in helping social
psychologists begin to understand how and when persuasion is most likely
to occur. Further, their work had an impact on subsequent models of
attitude change (see Chapter 5).

While Hovland and colleagues were developing their research on

persuasion, Leon Festinger and colleagues addressed other issues relevant
to attitude change. As noted by McGuire (1986), Festinger’s approach was
divergent: it started with a particular theory and was applied to a wide
range of attitudinal phenomena. One theory that Festinger applied was
Cognitive Dissonance Theory (Festinger, 1957). Cognitive dissonance
refers to a state of imbalance among beliefs, including the beliefs that
support a person’s attitudes. The theory suggests that holding inconsistent
beliefs produces a negative feeling that we are motivated to reduce. As
applied to attitudes, Cognitive Dissonance Theory suggests that a person
with two inconsistent attitudes would be motivated to change one of these
attitudes to regain a state of consonance (see Chapter 6).

A final key development during this era was a consideration of the reasons
why people hold attitudes – the study of attitude functions – encompassing
the psychological needs served by attitudes. Two groups of researchers
developed taxonomies of attitude functions. M. Brewster Smith and
colleagues (Smith, Bruner, & White, 1956) and Daniel Katz and
colleagues (e.g., Katz, 1960; Katz & Stotland, 1959) both postulated that
attitudes can serve a number of functions or needs for an individual. The
most important of these functions is the object-appraisal function – the

24
capacity of attitudes to serve as energy-saving devices that make
judgments easier and faster to perform. Attitudes can also help us express
our values, identify with people we like, and protect ourselves from
negative feedback. As we show later in the book, knowing the primary
function of an attitude is important, because attempts at attitude change are
more likely to be successful when a persuasive appeal matches the
underlying function of the attitude.

The Growth of a Social Cognition Perspective

In the mid-1960s, there was a change in the zeitgeist of social psychology
(and psychology as a whole). While much of the previous research was
largely grounded in behaviorism, this new perspective – referred to as
social cognition – was grounded in understanding how individuals
elaborate upon and process socially relevant information. This perspective
remains the dominant framework within contemporary social psychology.
From the perspective of attitude research, this framework led attitude
researchers to consider new questions about how attitudes affect
information processing and behavior. For instance, in thinking about how
attitudes influence behavior, Icek Ajzen and Martin Fishbein developed
the Theory of Reasoned Action (Ajzen & Fishbein, 1977, 1980; see
Chapter 4). As its name suggests, the Theory of Reasoned Action was
developed to predict deliberative and thoughtful (i.e., reasoned) behavior
from attitudes. This theory (and subsequent variations) paved the way for
hundreds of studies that shared a common goal – understanding the effects
of attitudes on behavior.

This theory was a factor in a resurgence of research examining the relation

between attitudes and behavior during the 1970s. In 1969, Alan Wicker
had reviewed studies examining the relation between attitudes and
behavior and reached the sobering conclusion that attitudes are relatively
poor predictors of behavior. His findings led a number of social
psychologists to question the value of the attitude concept (see Eagly,
1992; Elms, 1975). It was argued that, if attitudes do not predict actions,
then the construct is of limited use. Fishbein and Ajzen’s theory and
related research (Ajzen & Fishbein, 1977, 1980) showed that these
concerns were overstated and that there needed to be greater attention to
addressing when and how attitudes predict behavior. In the last 40 years,
research findings have led to the conclusion that attitudes do predict
behavior, but in some conditions better than others. In Chapter 3, we

25
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zeal of the true Indian-born domestic, who hails a change, a
“tamasha,” anything in the shape of a “feast,” with a joy and energy
totally unknown to the retainers of the folk in these colder latitudes.
Hospitable Mrs. Brande was to have a house and a house-party.
“P.” was absent on official business; but, under any circumstances,
he would not have been a likely recruit for what he called a “new
outbreak of jungle fever.” The Dashwoods, the Booles, the
Daubenys, the Clovers, were to have a married people’s mess.
There were also one or two chummeries, which made people look at
one another and smile! The bachelors, of course, had their own
mess; moreover, there were tents.
Mrs. Langrishe joined neither mess nor chummery, this clever
woman was merely coming as the Clovers’ guest for two days, and
Lalla was Mrs. Dashwood’s sole charge. Mrs. Sladen, of course,
stayed with Mrs. Brande, who had been relegated to the old
commandant’s house, an important-looking roomy bungalow,
standing in a great wilderness of a garden and peach orchard. Once
or twice during the last twenty years it, and one or two other
bungalows, had been let (to the Persian’s great annoyance) for a few
months in the season to needy families from the plains, who only
wanted air, good hill air, and could afford but little else!
Mrs. Brande and her party arrived a whole day before the general
public, travelling comfortably by easy stages through great forests of
pine, oak, or rhododendron, along the face of bold, bare cliffs, across
shallow river-beds, and through more than one exquisite park-like
glade, dotted with trees and cattle—naturally, Mrs. Brande kept a
suspicious eye on these latter. When the travellers reached their
destination, they found that roads had been repaired, lamp-posts
and oil lamps erected, the old band-stand was renovated—servants
were hurrying to and fro, carrying furniture, shaking carpets, airing
bedding and picketing ponies. There were coolies, syces, soldiers,
and active sahibs galloping about giving directions. In fact, Hawal
Bagh had put back the clock of time, and to a cursory eye was once
more the bustling, populous cantonment of forty years ago!
 And how did the scanty society who dwelt in those parts relish the
resurrection of Hawal Bagh? To the neighbouring poor hill villagers
this event was truly a god-send; they reaped a splendid and totally
unexpected harvest, and were delighted to welcome the invaders,
who purchased their fowl, eggs, grain, milk, and honey.
Mark Jervis beheld the transformation with mingled feelings. He
had broken with his old life; most people, if they thought of him at all,
believed him to be in England—two months is a long time to live in
the memory of a hill station. Honor—she would be at Hawal Bagh—
she had not forgotten him yet. He would hang about the hills, that he
might catch a distant glimpse of her, or even of her dress. Surely he
might afford himself that small consolation.
As for the Persian, she surveyed the troops of gay strangers from
her aerie with a mixture of transports and anguish.
It was a fine moonlight night early in September, the hills loomed
dark, and cast deep shadows into the bright white valley. The air was
languorously soft, the milky way shone conspicuous, and fully
justified its Eastern name, “The Gate of Heaven.”
There was to be a ball in the old mess-house, and Mark took his
stand on the hill and watched the big cooking fires, the lit-up
bungalows, the hurrying figures; listened to the hum of voices, the
neighing of ponies, the tuning of musical instruments. Could this be
really the condemned, deserted cantonment of Hawal Bagh, that
many a night he had seen wrapped in deathlike silence? The dance
commenced briskly, open doorways showed gay decorations, the
band played a lively set of lancers, and a hundred merry figures
seemed to flit round and pass and repass; whilst the jackals and
hyenas, who had been wont to hold their assemblies in the same
quarter, slunk away up the hills in horrified disgust. Presently people
came out into the bright moonlight, and began to stroll up and down.
Mark recognized many well-known figures. There was Honor, in
white, walking with a little man who was conversing and gesticulating
with considerable vivacity. She seemed preoccupied, and held her
head high—gazing straight before her. Lookers on see most of the
game. The man must be a dense idiot not to notice that she was not
listening to one word he said.
There was Miss Paske, escorted by a ponderous companion with
a rolling gait—Sir Gloster, of course—and Miss Lalla was
undoubtedly entertaining him. It almost seemed as if he could hear
his emphatic “excellent” where he stood. Mrs. Merryfeather and
Captain Dorrington, Captain Merryfeather and Miss Fleet, and so on
—and so on—as pair after pair came forth.
Suddenly he became aware of the fact that he was not the only
spectator. Just below him stood a figure, so motionless, that he had
taken it for part of a tree. The figure moved, and he saw the Persian
lady standing gazing with fixed ravenous eyes on the scene below
them. He made a slight movement, and she turned hastily and came
up towards him. They were acquaintances of some standing now,
and met once or twice a week either among the lepers or about the
cantonment. Mark had never ventured to call at the mysterious little
bungalow, but he sent her offerings of flowers, fruit, and hill
partridges, and she in return admitted him to her friendship—to an
entirely unprecedented extent. Whether this was due to the young
man’s handsome face, and chivalrous respect for her privacy and
her sex, or whether it was accorded for the sake of another, who
shall say?
“You are looking on, like myself,” he remarked, as she accosted
him. “Are you interested?”
“Nay, ‘the world is drowned to him who is drowned,’ says the
proverb. I came to Hawal Bagh to retire from the crowd, and lo! a
crowd is at my gates!”
“This, surely, must be quite a novel sight to you?”
She gazed at him questioningly, and made no answer.
“Of course you have never seen this sort of thing before, English
people in evening dress, dancing to a band?”
“I have known phantoms—yea, I have seen such as these,”
pointing, “in a—dream—thousands of years ago.”
 Her companion made no reply, the Persian often uttered dark
sayings that were totally beyond his comprehension. Possibly she
believed in the transmigration of souls, and was alluding to a former
existence.
“Mine are but spirits, whereas to you these people are real flesh
and blood,” she resumed. “You were one of them but three months
ago. Think well ere you break with your past, and kill and bury youth.
Lo, you grow old already! Let me plead for youth, and love. Heaven
has opened to me to-day. She,” lowering her voice to a whisper, “is
among those—I have seen her—she is there below.”
“I know,” he answered, also in a low voice.
“Then why do you not seek her—so young, so fair, so good? Oh!
have you forgotten her sweet smile, her charming eyes? Love, real
love, comes but once! Go now and find her.”
Mark shook his head with emphatic negation.
“What heart of stone!” she cried passionately. “Truly I will go
myself and fetch her here. I——But no—I dare not,” and she covered
her face with her hands.
“Do not add your voice to my own mad inclinations. It is all over
between us. To meet her and to part again would give her needless
pain.”
“Ah! again the music,” murmured the Persian, as the band
suddenly struck up a weird haunting waltz, which her companion well
remembered—they had played it at the bachelors’ ball. “Music,” she
continued, clenching her two hands, “of any kind has a sore effect on
me. It tears my heart from my very body, and yet I love it, yea,
though it transport me to——” She paused, unable to finish the
sentence. Her lips trembled, her great dark eyes dilated, and she
suddenly burst into a storm of tears. The sound of her wild, loud,
despairing sobs, actually floated down and penetrated to the ears of
a merry couple who were strolling at large, and now stood
immediately below, little guessing that another pair on the hillside
were sadly contemplating a scene of once familiar but now lost
delights, like two poor wandering spirits.
 “Surely,” said Mrs. Merryfeather, “I heard a human voice, right up
there above us. It sounded just like a woman weeping—crying as if
her heart was broken.”
“Oh, impossible!” scoffed the man. “Hearts in these days are
warranted unbreakable, like toughened glass.”
“Listen! There it is again!” interrupted the lady excitedly.
“Not a bit of it, my dear Mrs. Merry; and your sex would not feel
flattered if they heard that you had mistaken the cry of a wild beast,
for a woman’s voice! I assure you, on my word of honour, that it is
nothing but a hyena.”
 CHAPTER XLII.
BY THE OLD RIFLE-RANGE.

A powerful and determined temptation, that was deaf to reason or

argument, struggled hourly to drag Mark Jervis to Hawal Bagh. It
changed its fierce wrestlings, and passionate and even frantic
pleadings to soft alluring whispers. It whispered that life was but an
hour in the æons of time—a drop in the ocean of eternity. Why not
taste the drop—enjoy the hour? Snatch the sunshine and live one’s
little day, ere passing for ever into eternal darkness and oblivion! It
even quoted the Scriptures, and vehemently urged him to take no
thought for the morrow—that sufficient unto the day was the evil
thereof. It seized the brush from the hand of memory, and painted
Honor Gordon as an angel. It babbled of a visit to Mrs. Brande—she
had always been his friend. Surely there was no harm in going to
see her! But the young man sternly silenced alike whisperings or
pleadings. He beat the mad tempter to its knees, choked it, and, as
he believed, put it to death. Why undergo the anguish of parting
twice—why walk across red-hot plough-shares a second time?
For four whole days he held aloof, and never visited the
cantonment—save in his thoughts and dreams. On the fifth he
conscientiously set forth in the opposite direction, and after a long
and aimless ride was astonished to find himself—no, not exactly on
the enchanted ground, but close to the old rifle-range, which lay at
the back of its encompassing hills. To the left dipped a long valley, on
the right of the path towered a forest of rhododendrons and ever-
green oaks, carpeted with ferns, and a blaze of delicate autumn
flowers; here and there the Virginia creeper flared, and here and
there a pale passion-flower had flung abroad its eager tendrils and
attached two noble trees. All at once, a fat white puppy came
bustling through the undergrowth; he was chasing a family of
respectable elderly monkeys, with the audacity common to his age
and race. Truly the pup is the father of the dog; and Jervis, who was
walking slowly with his pony following him, recognized this particular
pup at once as an old friend. He had bought him and presented him
to Mrs. Brande, when her grief was as yet too fresh—and this same
rollicking, well-to-do animal had once been indignantly spurned! To
whom did he now belong? Who was his master or his mistress?
There was a sound of light young footsteps, a crashing of small
twigs, a glimpse of a white dress, and an anxious girlish voice
calling, “Tommy, Tommy, Tommy!”
In another second Honor Gordon ran down into the path, about
thirty yards ahead of Tommy’s donor. She was almost breathless,
her hat was in her hand—possibly it had been snatched off by an
inquisitive branch as she struggled after the runaway. The soft little
locks on her forehead were ruffled, and she had an unusually brilliant
colour.
As Mark’s starving eyes devoured her face he thought he had
never seen her look so lovely. He summoned up all his self-
command—there must be no going back to “old days,” no moaning
over “what might have been.” No; he was the stronger, and must set
a stern example.
For quite twenty seconds there was a dead silence, a silence only
broken by the trickling of a snow-born mountain stream, passing
lingeringly through the ferns and orchids—who seemed to stoop and
bend over—listening intently to its timid silvery song.
“How changed he was!” thought Honor, with a queer tight feeling in
her throat, “only three short months, and the bright look of buoyant
youth had faded from his face.”
“Ah!” she exclaimed, with a supreme effort. “I had a presentiment
that I should see you soon—I dreamt it!”
“Dreams sometimes go by contraries,” he answered, with a rather
fixed smile.
“And how clever of Tommy to find you! The dear dog remembered
you.”
 “Well, up to the present he has not shown any symptoms of
recognizing me; on the contrary, he has cut me dead. He is in hot
pursuit of some venerable lumgoors. How long is it since he has
seen me?” asked Mark.
“The day of the bachelors’ ball. I recollect you gave him a
méringue, and very nearly killed him! It was on the eighth of June.
This is the tenth of September; just three months and two days.”
“So it is,” he acquiesced, with forced nonchalance.
“Do you live near here?” she continued.
“About four miles, by a goat path across that hill.”
“Pray are you aware that we are picnicing below, with half
Shirani?”
“Yes, I know; but not another starvation picnic I hope?”
“And yet,” ignoring his ill-timed jest, “you have never come to see
us, and we leave to-morrow!”
He looked down to avoid her questioning eyes, and made no
answer, beyond a faint, half-strangled sigh.
“At least we are still friends,” she urged, swallowing something in
her throat.
“Yes—always; but I thought I had better remain away. The Shirani
folk would take me for a ghost, and I might upset their nerves. What
is the latest station news?”
“Our latest news is, that Mrs. Sladen is to go home at Christmas.
Miss Clover is engaged to Captain Burne, and Miss Paske to Sir
Gloster Sandilands,” she answered stiffly.
“Poor Toby! I suppose my former acquaintances believe me to be
in England—if they ever think of me at all?”
She hesitated, twisted her ring round and round, and then said—
“Your friends,” with emphasis, “know that you are out in this
country, looking after your father. How is he?”
 “Wonderfully better, thank you.”
“And you—you have been ill?” she remarked rather tremulously.
“No, indeed; I never was better in my life. Of course you saw
Waring before he went down?”
“No,” with undeniable embarrassment. “In fact, he copied your
example, and dispensed with all farewells. He—he—left rather
suddenly,” and she coloured.
“Why do you hesitate?” looking at her keenly. “What did he do? He
has been doing something, I can see.”
“It was rather what he did not do,” with a constrained laugh. “Of
course it is no business of mine. He did not pay any of his bills. I am
not sure whether I ought to tell you.”
“And I am quite sure you ought,” he answered with decision.
“But he left such quantities of debts behind him, and no—address
——”
“Debts?” he repeated incredulously.
“Yes, he paid for nothing. Club accounts, card accounts, mess
bills, servants’ wages—not even his bearer’s bill for thread and
buttons and blacking. People,” with a nervous little laugh, “seem to
think that was the greatest enormity of all!”
“No!” cried Mark, his pale face turning to a vivid red, “I will tell you
of a greater. I knew he had spent and muddled away most of our
joint-funds, and the day I was last in Shirani I collected the bills and
gave him all the money I had in the world—a cheque for five hundred
pounds—to settle our affairs. He swore, on his honour, he would pay
them at once and send me the receipts. Now, of course, every one in
Shirani believes me to be as great a swindler and thief as he is! They
must naturally suppose that I—I—bolted from my creditors! I,” with
increasing warmth, “now understand why you stammered and
hesitated when I asked if I was not forgotten. Forgotten! I shall live in
people’s memories for years—on the principle that ‘the evil which
men do lives after them.’”
 “I am sorry I told you——” she began eagerly.
“And I have chiefly myself to blame. I was an idiot to trust Waring. I
had had one lesson; but—I was half mad with my own troubles, and
determined to tear myself away from Shirani at once. I felt that if I
stayed on I might yield to temptation—good resolutions and fresh
impressions might fade—and I might never return here——”
The pup, flouted and evaded by the scornful lumgoors, and
exhausted by his tremendous efforts, now squatted on the path,
apparently listening open-mouthed to every word.
The grey pony had also drawn near, and occasionally rubbed his
handsome head against his master’s shoulder, as much as to say
—“Enough of such fooling; let us move on!”
“This is horrible!” continued Mark. “I hate to owe a penny, and I
have no means of paying our joint-debts, for Waring has wolfed the
cheque.”
“And your uncle?”
“He has never written once. From his point of view I have treated
him atrociously, and I am awfully sorry he should think so, for I am
very fond of him. Of course he has done with me.” And, with a grim
smile, “I am now in sober truth—a real poor relation. I am a pretty
sort of fellow,” he went on, “I have talked of nothing but myself—and
money—money—money, for the last five minutes. Tell me of
yourself. Are you having a good time?”
“A good time!” she echoed, with a flash of her dark grey eyes.
“I beg your pardon, Honor,” he said, humbly. “But it has been one
of my few consolations when I roam about these hills, to think that
you were happier than I am.”
“And had forgotten you?” she added expressively.
“And,” with a slight tremor in his voice—“had forgotten me.”
“Never!” she returned, with passionate energy.
“Yes—you will, in time; perhaps not for two or three years—for you
are not like other girls. I am your first lover—nothing can deprive me
of that memory.”
“No, nothing,” she admitted, almost in a whisper.
“But, you know, they say a woman generally marries her second
love,” with a laborious effort to speak steadily.
“How calmly you can discuss my lovers, and my future!” cried
Honor, indignantly. “Oh, how hard you have become—how cold—
how cruel!”
“Cruel—if I am cruel—only to be kind,” he replied steadily. “For,
years to come, you will thank me—and think——”
“I think,” she interrupted, with a pitiful little gesture, “that when we
meet so—seldom—scarcely ever—that you might be——” here her
voice totally failed her.
She had grown much paler, and her breath came quickly, as she
tried to keep down a sob.
Mark resisted a wild impulse to take her in his arms—and
stooping, picked up the pup instead.
“Your uncle got my letter?” he asked, in a cool formal tone.
“Yes, and was dreadfully concerned; but he said you were a man
of honour, and your views and his were identical—but—I don’t agree
with them.”
“You don’t agree with them! What do you mean?”
“He told auntie, of course—and of course I insisted on her telling
me. After all, it was my affair. I know the obstacle—I am ready to be
your wife, just the same. As for poverty——”
“Poverty,” he interrupted quickly, “is not the question! I have a little
money of my own, and I could put my shoulder to the wheel and
work for you, Honor. It is not that—it is that my future is
overshadowed, my reason stalked, by an hereditary and implacable
enemy. I have no right to drag another into the pit—and, please God,
I never will! When I lived a smooth luxurious sort of life, in those days
that seem years ago, I thirsted for some difficult task, something to
do that would single me out and set me apart from other men. My
task has been allotted to me; it is not what I desired——”
“No!” interposed Honor, whose heart was fighting against her fate
with a frenzy of despair. “Your task is to renounce everything—the
world, and friends, and wealth, and me—and to bury yourself in
these remote hills, with a crazy old gentleman who cannot realize the
sacrifice. Don’t!” with an impatient gesture of her hand, “I know that I
am speaking as if I were mad, and in my old foolish way. I know in
my heart that you are doing what is right—that you could not do
otherwise, and I—I am proud of you.”
Then, as she looked into his haggard, altered face and miserable
eyes, and caught a glimpse of the real Mark beneath his armour of
stoicism—“But, oh, it is hard—it is hard——” she added, as she
covered her face with her hands and wept.
“Honor! for God’s sake don’t—don’t—I implore you! I cannot bear
this. I would go through all I have struggled with over again to save
you one tear. Circumstances—destiny—or whatever they call it—is
too strong for us. You must not let me spoil your life. You know I shall
love you—you only as long as I draw breath.”
“I know that!” raising her wet eyes to his. “And you dare to talk to
me of a good time, of marrying my second love! Oh, Mark, Mark!
how could you?”
“I was a brute to say it. I thought it would make it easier for you—
when——” and his voice broke—“sometimes—when—you think of
me——”
“Which will be every day—and often. And now I must be going. I
was already late enough when Tommy ran away. I was afraid of his
meeting poor Ben’s fate. Will you come with me as far as the brow of
the hill, where our paths part?”
“Yes—part for ever!” he added to himself.
As they turned, she asked him many questions concerning his life,
his associates, and his occupations. He on his side made the best of
everything, painting the Yellow Bungalow, the gardens, the planters
and missionaries with gorgeous colours.
 “And are there no white women near you?” she inquired. “Have
you never met one lady to speak to since you left Shirani?”
“Yes, I have one acquaintance, and one who is a friend of yours.
She is a Persian, I believe. Your little cornelian ring has been a
strong link between us. She is a most mysterious person. No one
can tell who she is, or where she came from. All we know is, that she
spends her present time in doing good, nursing the sick and dying.
She told me that you knew the history of her life—you alone——”
“It is true,” bending her head as she spoke, and fixing her eyes on
the ground.
“She shrinks from all observation, but she does not hide from me
—for your sake; we talk about you constantly, I may say always.”
“Then give her a message from me, please. Tell her that I often
think of her, and ask her if I may write to her, or if she will write to
me?”
“You forget that she is a Persian. How can she possibly write to
you?”
Honor coloured painfully, and twisted her ring round and round
before she spoke, and then she said—
“Please give her the message all the same. I—I—can manage to
get her letter read. I will understand it.”
They were now at the point where their roads diverged—his went
along the hill, hers led down into the valley. She stopped for a
moment, and caressed the grey pony’s sleek hard neck; then she
turned and gave the pony’s master both her hands. They gazed at
one another, with sad white faces, reading their life’s tragedy in each
other’s eyes. Then she suddenly tore her fingers from his clasp, and
ran down the hill with Tommy in pursuit. Jervis stood where she had
left him, until the very last echo of her footsteps had died away.
“And that is a sound I shall never hear again,” he groaned aloud,
and flinging himself down on the root of a tree, he covered his face
with his hands. How long he remained in this attitude the grey pony
alone knew! By-and-by he became tired of waiting—for he was either
too well fed or too sympathetic to graze—he came and rubbed his
soft black muzzle against the man’s short brown locks (his cap lay
on the ground). It was his poor little attempt at consolation, and
effectually roused his owner, though it did not comfort him, for what
could a dumb animal know of the great distresses of the human
heart?

Honor was late for tiffin, in fact it was getting on for afternoon
teatime when she arrived. She discovered the bungalow in a state of
unusual commotion. There was visible excitement on the servants’
faces, an air of extra importance (were that possible) in the bearer’s
barefooted strut—he now appeared to walk almost entirely on his
heels.
Mrs. Brande was seated at a writing-table, beginning and tearing
up dozens of notes; her cap was askew, her fair hair was ruffled, and
her face deeply flushed. What could have happened?
“Oh, Honor, my child, I thought you were never coming back, I
have been longing for you,” rushing at her. “But how white you look,
dearie; you have walked too far. Are you ill?”
“No, no, auntie. What is it? There is something in the air. What has
happened?”
For sole answer, Mrs. Brande cast her unexpected weight upon
her niece’s frail shoulder, and burst into loud hysterical tears.
“Only think, dear girl!”—convulsive sobs—“a coolie has just come
—and brought a letter from P.—They have made him a K.C.B.”—
boisterous sobs—“and your poor old auntie—is—a lady at last!”
 CHAPTER XLIII.
“RAFFLE IT!”

“Major and Mrs. Granby Langrishe request the honour of Mr. and
Mrs. Blanks’s company at St. John’s church at two o’clock on the
afternoon of the 20th inst., to be present at the marriage of their
niece and Sir Gloster Sandilands.”
These invitation cards, richly embossed in silver, were to be seen
in almost every abode in Shirani. The wedding dress was on its way
from Madame Phelps, in Calcutta. The cake and champagne were
actually in the house. There were to be no bridesmaids, only two
little pages—“they were cheaper,” Mrs. Langrishe said to herself; “a
set of girls would be expecting jewellery and bouquets.” Happy Mrs.
Langrishe, who had been overwhelmed with letters and telegrams of
congratulations. She had indeed proved herself to be the clever
woman of the family. It was her triumph—more than Lalla’s—and she
was radiant with pride and satisfaction. Yea, her self-congratulations
were fervent. She was counting the days until her atrocious little
incubus went down the ghaut as Lady Sandilands. A little incubus,
securely fastened on another person’s shoulders—for life!
Lalla was entirely occupied with letters, trousseau, and
preparations. She was to have taken the principal part in a grand
burlesque, written specially for her, by Toby Joy. The burlesque had
been on hand for two months, and was to bring the Shirani season to
a fitting and appropriate close. The piece was called “Sinbad the
Sailor.” Lalla had been rehearsing her songs and dances most
industriously, until she had been called upon to play another part—
the part of Sir Gloster’s fiancée.
Sir Gloster did not care for burlesques; he had never seen Miss
Paske in her true element—never seen her dance. It was not
befitting her future position that she should appear on the boards.
No, no; he assured her that he was somewhat old-fashioned, his
mother would not like it. She must promise him to relinquish the idea,
and never to perform in public again. But Lalla was stubborn; she
would not yield altogether. Urged by Toby Joy, by the theatrical
troupe—who felt that they could not pull through without their own
bright particular star—she held out in a most unreasonable and
astonishing manner. At length she submitted so far as to declare that
“she would wear Turkish trousers, if he liked!” This she reluctantly
announced, as if making an enormous concession.
“He certainly did not wish her to wear Turkish trousers!” he
returned, greatly scandalized. “How could she make such a terrible
suggestion?” He was heavy and inert, but he could oppose a dead,
leaden weight of resistance to any scheme which he disliked. This
he called “manly determination;” but Lalla had another name for it
—“pig-headed obstinacy!” However, she coaxed, promised, flattered,
wept, and worked upon her infatuated lover so successfully, that he
reluctantly permitted her to take a very small part, so as not to have
her name removed from the bills; but this was to be positively “Her
last appearance,” and she might announce it on the placards, if she
so pleased. He himself was summoned to Allahabad on urgent
business—in fact, to arrange about settlements—and he would not
be present, he feared; but he would do his best to return by the end
of the week.
Miss Paske’s part, the dancing, singing peri, was given to a very
inferior performer—who was the stage manager’s despair, and a
most hopeless stick. Toby Joy, who was in woefully low spirits
respecting the certain failure of the burlesque, and—other matters—
came to Lalla on the night but one before the play.
“She has got influenza—so it’s all up,” making a feint of tearing his
hair, “and every place in the house sold for two nights, and—an
awful bill for dresses and properties. What is to become of me? Can’t
you take it? It was your own part—you do it splendidly—no
professional could beat you. Come, Lalla!”
“I promised I would not dance,” she answered with a solemn face.
 “Time enough to tie yourself up with promises after you are
married! Take your fling now—you have only ten days—you’ll never
dance again.”
“No, never,” she groaned.
“He is away, too,” urged this wicked youth; “he is not coming up till
Saturday; he won’t know, till all is over, and then he will be as proud
as a peacock. You have your dresses, you had everything ready until
he came and spoilt the whole ‘box of tricks.’” And Toby looked
unutterable things. “Did he say anything to your aunt?” he asked.
“No—not a word. You don’t suppose that I allow her to mix herself
up in my affairs? It was merely between him and me——”
“Well, you can easily smooth him down—and if you don’t take your
own original part, I must send round a peon this afternoon, to say
that the burlesque has been put off, owing to the illness of the prima-
donna—the ‘incapability’ is the proper word. But you are a brick, and
you won’t let it come to that; you will never leave us in a hole.”
A little dancing devil in each eye eagerly assured him that she
would not fail them! Yes, the combined entreaties of her own set—
their compliments and flattery—her own hungry craving for what
Toby called “one last fling,” carried the point. He would not be back
until Saturday. The piece was for Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday,
and she could (as she believed) easily talk him over. Yes, she made
up her mind that she would play the peri; and she informed her aunt,
with her most off-hand air, “that she had been prevailed on to take
the principal part; that Miss Lane was ill (and any way would have
been a dead failure); that she could not be so shamefully selfish as
to disappoint every one; that the proceeds were for a charity (after
the bills were paid there would not be much margin)”, and Mrs.
Langrishe, in sublime ignorance of Lalla’s promise, acquiesced as
usual. She now subscribed to all her niece’s suggestions with
surprising amiability, assuring herself that the days of her
deliverance from “a girl in a thousand” were close at hand!
The burlesque of Sinbad was beautifully staged, capitally acted,
and a complete success. Miss Paske’s dancing and singing were
pronounced to be worthy of a London theatre—if not of a music-hall.
People discussed her wherever they met, and all the men hastened,
as it were in a body, to book places for the next performance.
The ladies were not altogether so enthusiastic; indeed, some of
them were heard to wonder how Sir Gloster would have liked it?
Sir Gloster, on the wings of love, was already half way through his
return journey. He had transacted his business with unexpected
promptitude, and was breakfasting at a certain dâk bungalow,
encompassed with many parcels and boxes. Here he was joined by
two subalterns, who were hurrying in the opposite direction—that is,
from Shirani to the plains. They were full of the last evening’s
entertainment, and could talk of nothing but the burlesque.
“It was quite A1,” they assured their fellow-traveller. “It could not
be beaten in London—no, not even at the Empire. Miss Paske was
simply ripping!”
“Yes,” returned Sir Gloster, complacently, “I believe there is a good
deal of nice feeling in her acting, but she had only a minor part.”
“Bless your simple, innocent heart!” exclaimed the other, “she was
the principal figure; she was the whole show; she filled the bill.”
“May I ask what you mean?” demanded the baronet, with solemn
white dignity.
“She was the peri—didn’t you know? She dances every bit as well
as Lottie Collins or Sylvia Grey, doesn’t she, Capel?” appealing
eagerly to his comrade.
“Yes; and I’d have gone to see her again to-night, only for this
beastly court-martial. I gave my ticket over to Manders, for he
couldn’t get a place. She draws like a chimney on fire; there is no
squeezing in at the door—even window-sills were at a premium. You
ought to go on, Sir Gloster; of course you will get a seat,” with a
significant laugh. “This is the last performance, and, upon my word,
you should not miss it.”
Sir Gloster remained mute. Was it possible that his little Lalla, who
wrote him such sweet, endearing notes, had deliberately broken her
word, and defied him?
At the very thought of such a crime his white flabby face grew
rigid. Seeing was believing. He would take this crack-brained young
man’s advice, and hurry on. He might manage to be in Shirani by
eight o’clock that evening—just in time to dress and get to the play.
His wrath was hot within him—and the anger of a quiet and
lethargic person, when once roused, is a very deadly thing. His
sturdy hill ponies bore the first brunt of his indignation; and Sir
Gloster, who was naturally a timid horseman, for once threw fear to
the winds, and galloped as recklessly as Toby Joy himself. He
arrived at the club just in time to swallow a few mouthfuls, change
his clothes, and set off to the theatre. He could not get a seat, but
“he might, if he liked, stand near the door, with his back to the wall,”
and for this handsome privilege he paid four rupees—the best-laid-
out money he ever invested, as he subsequently declared. The
curtain had already risen; the scene looked marvellously like
fairyland. Toby Joy had just concluded a capital topical song, when a
large egg was carefully rolled upon the stage. The egg-shell opened
without the application of a spoon, and hatched out a most exquisite
creature, the peri, whose appearance was the signal for a thunder of
hand-clapping. The peri—yes—was Lalla, in very short, fleecy
petticoats, with a twinkling star in her hair—his own present, as Sir
Gloster noted with an additional spasm of indignation.
Presently she began to dance.
Now, be it known, that her performance was perfectly decorous
and delightfully graceful. Lalla’s glancing feet scarcely touched the
ground, and she danced as if from pure happiness and lightness of
heart. (Toby Joy danced as if he had le diable au corps.) After
entrancing the spectators for ten thrilling minutes with several
entirely fresh variations, Lalla finished up with the tee-to-tum spin,
which is to the dancer what the high note, at the end of a song, is to
the singer!
The result of this effort was a hurricane of frantic applause, in
which Sir Gloster took no part; he was not a theatre-goer—he was
provincial. His mother and his surroundings were strictly evangelical;
and whilst his fiancée enchanted the whole station, he stood against
the wall glowering and pale. The only character present to his mind
was the daughter of Herodias! Frankly speaking, the performance
had filled him with horror. That the future Lady Sandilands should
offer herself thus to public contemplation; that any one who chose to
pay four rupees might see this indecorous exhibition—including
soldiers in uniform, at the low price of four annas!
He was actually beside himself with fury, and forced his way out,
with his head down, like a charging animal. Few noticed him or his
hasty exit; every one had eyes for Lalla, and Lalla only. She received
an ovation and a shower of bouquets as she was conducted before
the curtain by Toby Joy, modestly curtseying and kissing her hand.
Miss Paske subsequently remained to enjoy a merry and recherché
supper, chaperoned by the invaluable Mrs. Dashwood; and Mrs.
Langrishe, as was not an unusual occurrence, went home alone.
To that lady’s great amazement, she discovered Sir Gloster
awaiting her in the drawing-room, and she gathered from his strange
and agitated appearance that something terrible had occurred.
“I was thinking of writing to you, Mrs. Langrishe,” he began in a
curiously formal voice, “but I changed my mind, and came to see you
instead. All is over between your niece and myself.”
Mrs. Langrishe turned perfectly livid, and dropped into the nearest
chair.
“Pray, explain!” she faltered at last.
“Miss Paske will doubtless explain to you why she gave me a
solemn promise to renounce dancing on a public stage. I reluctantly
allowed her to appear for the last time in a very small part—that of
an old nurse. I return unexpectedly, and discover her in the character
of a ballet-girl, exhibiting herself—well, I must say it—half naked to
the whole of Shirani. Such a person is not fit to be my wife. She has
broken her word. She has a depraved taste; she has no modesty.”
That Ida Langrishe should live to hear such epithets applied to her
own flesh and blood!