By the time Maitland had despatched his man Fenton to meet Count
Cafifarelli, and prevent his coming to Lyle Abbey, where his presence
would be sure to occasion much embarrassment, the company had retired to
their rooms, and all was quiet.
Though Mark was curious to know why and how Maitland had disappeared
with his foreign friend, he had grown tired thinking over it, and fallen
sound asleep. Nor did he hear Maitland as he entered the room and drew
nigh his bedside.
“What's wrong,--what has happened?” cried Mark, as he started up
suddenly on his bed.
“Nothing very serious, but still something worth waking you for; but are
you sure you are awake?”
“Yes, yes, perfectly. What is it all about? Who are in it?”
“We are all in it, for the matter of that,” said Maitland, with a quiet
laugh. “Try and listen to me attentively for a couple of minutes. The
man your father brought back with him from Coleraine, believing him to
be my friend Caffarelli, was not Cafifarelli at all!”
“What! And he pretended to be?”
“No such thing: hear me out. Your father spoke to him in French; and
finding out--I don't exactly know how--that he and I were acquaintances,
rushed at once to the conclusion that he must be Caffarelli. I conclude
that the interview was not made more intelligible to either party by
being carried on in French; but the invitation so frankly given was
as freely accepted. The stranger came, dined, and was here in the
drawing-room when we came back.”
“This is unpardonable. Who is he? What is he?”
“He is a gentleman. I believe, as well born as either of us. I know
something--not much--about him, but there are circumstances which, in a
manner, prevent me from talking of him. He came down to this part of the
world to see me, though I never intended it should have been here.”
“Then his intrusion here was not sanctioned by you?”
“No. It was all your father's doing.”
“My father's doing, if you like, Maitland, but concurred in and abetted
by this man, whoever he is.”
“I 'll not even say that; he assures me that he accepted the invitation
in the belief that the arrangement was made by me.”
“And you accept that explanation?”
“Of course I do. I see nothing in it in the smallest degree improbable
or unlikely.”
“Well, who is he? That is the main point; for it is clear you do not
wish us to receive him as a friend of yours.”
“I say I 'd not have presented him here, certainly; but I 'll not go the
length of saying he could n't have been known by any one in this house.
He is one of those adventurous fellows whose lives must not be read with
the same glasses as those of quieter people. He has knocked about the
world for some five-and-twenty years, without apparently having found
his corner in it yet. I wanted him,--what for, I shall probably tell you
one of these days,--and some friends of mine found him out for me!”
“One of your mysteries, Maitland,” said Mark, laughing.
“Yes, 'one of my mysteries!”
“Of what nation is he?”
“There, again, I must balk your curiosity. The fact is, Mark, I can
explain nothing about this man without going into matters which I am
solemnly bound not to reveal. What I have to ask from you is that
you will explain to your father, and of course to Lady Lyle and your
sisters, the mistake that has occurred, and request that they will keep
it a secret. He has already gone, so that your guests will probably not
discuss him after a day or two.”
“Not even so much, for there's a break-up. Old Mrs. Maxwell has suddenly
discovered that her birthday will fall on next Friday, and she insists
upon going back to Tilney Park to entertain the tenantry, and give
a ball to the servants. Most of the people here accompany her, and
Isabella and myself are obliged to go. Each of us expects to be her
heir, and we have to keep out competitors at all hazards.”
“'Why has she never thought of me?” said Maitland.
“She means to invite you, at all events; for I heard her consulting my
mother how so formidable a personage should be approached,--whether she
ought to address you in a despatch, or ask for a conference.”
“If a choice be given me, I 'll stay where I am. The three days I
promised you have grown nearer to three weeks, and I do not see the
remotest chance of your getting rid of me.”
“Will you promise me to stay till I tell you we want your rooms?”
“Ah, my dear fellow, you don't know--you could n't know--what very
tempting words you are uttering. This is such a charming, charming spot,
to compose that novel I am--not--writing--that I never mean to leave
till I have finished it; but, seriously, speaking like an old friend, am
I a bore here? am I occupying the place that is wanted for another? are
they tired of me?”
Mark overwhelmed his friend with assurances, very honest in the main,
that they were only too happy to possess him as their guest, and felt no
common pride in the fact that he could find his life there endurable. “I
will own now,” says he, “that there was a considerable awe of you felt
before you came; but you have lived down the fear, and become a positive
favorite.”
“But who could have given such a version of me as to inspire this?”
“I am afraid I was the culprit,” said Mark. “I was rather boastful about
knowing you at all, and I suppose I frightened them.”
“My dear Lyle, what a narrow escape I had of being positively odious!
and I now see with what consummate courtesy my caprices have been
treated, when really I never so much as suspected they had been
noticed.”
There was a touch of sincerity in his accent as he spoke, that vouched
for the honesty of his meaning; and Mark, as he looked at him, muttered
to himself, “This is the man they call an egotist, and who is only
intent on taking his turn out of all around him.”
“I think I must let you go to sleep again, Mark,” said Maitland, rising.
“I am a wretched sleeper myself, and quite forget that there are happy
fellows who can take their ten hours of oblivion without any help
from the druggist. Without this”--and he drew a small phial from his
waistcoat-pocket--“I get no rest.”
“What a bad habit!”
“Isn't almost everything we do a bad habit? Have we ever a humor that
recurs to us, that is not a bad habit? Are not the simple things
which mean nothing in themselves an evil influence when they grow into
requirements and make slaves of us? I suppose it was a bad habit that
made me a bad sleeper, and I turn to another bad habit to correct it.
The only things which are positively bad habits are those that require
an effort to sustain, or will break down under us without we struggle
to support them. To be morose is not one jot a worse habit than to
be agreeable; for the time will come when you are indisposed to be
pleasant, and the company in which you find yourself are certain to deem
the humor as an offence to themselves; but there is a worse habit than
this, which is to go on talking to a man whose eyes are closing with
sleep. Good-night.”
Maitland said no more than the truth when he declared how happy he found
himself in that quiet unmolested existence which he led at Lyle Abbey.
To be free in every way, to indulge his humor to be alone or in company,
to go and come as he liked, were great boons; but they were even less
than the enjoyment he felt in living amongst total strangers,--persons
who had never known, never heard of him, for whom he was not called on
to make any effort or support any character.
No man ever felt more acutely the slavery that comes of sustaining
a part before the world, and being as strange and as inexplicable as
people required he should be. While a very young man, it amused him to
trifle in this fashion, and to set absurd modes afloat for imitation;
and he took a certain spiteful pleasure in seeing what a host of
followers mere eccentricity could command. As he grew older, he wearied
of this, and, to be free of it, wandered away to distant and unvisited
countries, trying the old and barren experiment whether new sensations
might not make a new nature. _Cælum non animum mutant_, says the adage;
and he came back pretty much as he went, with this only difference, that
he now cared only for quietness and repose. Not the contemplative
repose of one who sought to reflect without disturbance, so much as the
peaceful isolation that suited indolence. He fancied how he would have
liked to be the son of that house, and dream away life in that wild
secluded spot; but, after all, the thought was like the epicure's notion
of how contented he could be with a meal of potatoes!
As the day broke, he was roused from his light sleep by the tumult and
noise of the departing guests. He arose and watched them through the
half-closed jalousies. It was picturesque enough, in that crisp, fresh,
frosty air, to see the groups as they gathered on the long terrace
before the door; while equipages the most varied drew up,--here a
family-coach with long-tailed “blacks;” there a smart britschka, with
spanking grays; a tandem, too, there was for Mark's special handling;
and, conspicuous by its pile of luggage in the “well,” stood Gambier
Graham's outside jaunting-car,--a large basket of vegetables and fruit,
and a hamper of lobsters, showing how such guests are propitiated, even
in the hours of leave-taking.
Maitland watched Isabella in all her little attentive cares to Mrs.
Maxwell, and saw, as he thought, the heir-expectant in every movement.
He fancied that the shawl she carried on her arm was the old lady's,
and was almost vexed when he saw her wrap it around her own shoulders.
“Well, that at least is sycophancy,” muttered he, as he saw her clutch
up a little white Maltese terrier and kiss it; but, alas for his
prescience! the next moment she had given the dog to a servant to carry
back into the house; and so it was her own that she was parting from,
and not Mrs. Maxwell's that she was caressing!
It is strange to say that he was vexed at being disappointed. She was
very pretty, very well-mannered, and very pleasing; but he longed to
find that all the charm and grace about her were conventional; he wished
to believe that “the whole thing,” as he called life, was a mere trick,
where all cheated in proportion to their capacities. Mark had been
honest enough to own that they were fortune-hunting, and Isabella
certainly could not be ignorant of the stake she played for.
One by one the carriages drew up and moved away, and now Gambier
Graham's car stood before the door, alone; for the crowd of footmen who
had thronged to press their services on the others, gradually melted
away, hopeless of exacting a blackmail from the old Commodore. While
Maitland stood watching the driver, who, in a composite sort of costume,
rather more gardener than coachman, amused himself flicking with his
whip imaginary flies off the old mare's neck and withers, a smart tap
came to the door; while a hasty voice called out, “May I come in?”
“Let me first hear who you are?” said Maitland.
“Commodore Graham,” was the answer.
In a moment it flashed across Maitland that the old sailor had come to
reveal his discovery of M'Caskey. Just as quickly did he decide that it
was better to admit him, and, if possible, contrive to make the story
seem a secret between themselves.
“Come in, by all means,--the very man I wanted to see,” said Maitland,
as he opened the door, and gave him a cordial shake-hands. “I was afraid
you were going without seeing me, Commodore; and, early as it was, I got
up and was dressing in hope to catch you.”
“That I call hearty,--downright hearty,--Maitland.”
Maitland actually started at this familiar mention of him by one whom he
had never met till a few days before.
“Rather a rare event in your life to be up at this hour, I 'll be
sworn,--except when you have n't been to bed, eh?” And he laughed
heartily at what he fancied was a most witty conceit. “You see we 're
all off! We 've had springs on our cables these last twenty-four hours,
with this frolicsome old woman, who would insist on being back for her
birthday; but she 's rich, Maitland, immensely rich, and we all worship
her!”
Maitland gave a faint shrug of the shoulders, as though he deplored the
degeneracy, but couldn't help it.
“Yes, yes; I 'm coming,” cried the Commodore, shouting from the open
window to his daughters beneath. “The girls are impatient; they want to
be at Lesliesford when the others are crossing. There's a fresh on the
river, and it 's better to get some stout fellows to guide the carriages
through the water. I wanted greatly to have five minutes alone with
you,--five would do; half of it, perhaps, between men of the world, as
we are. You know about what.”
“I suspect I do,” said Maitland, quietly.
“I saw, too,” resumed Graham, “that you wished to have no talk about it
here, amongst all these gossiping people. Was n't I right?”
“Perfectly right; you appreciated me thoroughly.”
“What I said was this,--Maitland knows the world well. He 'll wait till
he has his opportunity of talking the matter over with myself. He 'll
say, 'Graham and I will understand one another at once.' One minute;
only one,” screamed he out from the window. “Could n't you come down and
just say a word or two to them? They 'd like it so much.”
Maitland muttered something about his costume.
“Ah! there it is. You fellows will never be seen till you are in full
fig. Well, I must be off. Now, then, to finish what we 've been saying.
You 'll come over next week to Port-Graham,--that's my little place,
though there's no port, nor anything like a port, within ten miles of
it,--and we 'll arrange everything. If I 'm an old fellow, Maitland, I
don't forget that I was once a young one,--mind that, my boy.” And the
Commodore had to wipe his eyes, with the laughter at his drollery. “Yes;
here I am,” cried he, again; and then turning to Maitland, shook
his hand in both his own, repeating, “On Wednesday,--Wednesday to
dinner,--not later than five, remember,”--he hastened down the stairs,
and scrambled up on the car beside his eldest daughter, who apparently
had already opened a floodgate of attack on him for his delay.
“Insupportable old bore!” muttered Maitland, as he waved his hand from
the window, and smiled his blandest salutations to the retreating party.
“What a tiresome old fool to fancy that I am going over to Graham-pond,
or port, or whatever it is, to talk over an incident that I desire to
have forgotten! Besides, when once I have left this neighborhood, he may
discuss M'Caskey every day after his dinner; he may write his life, for
anything I care.”
With this parting reflection he went down to the garden, strolling
listlessly along the dew-spangled alleys, and carelessly tossing aside
with his cane the apple-blossoms, which lay thick as snow-flakes on the
walks. While thus lounging, he came suddenly upon Sir Arthur, as, hoe in
hand, he imagined himself doing something useful.
“Oh, by the way, Mr. Maitland,” cried he, “Mark has just told me of the
stupid mistake I made. Will you be generous enough to forgive me?”
“It is from me, sir, that the apologies must come,” began Maitland.
“Nothing of the kind, my dear Mr. Maitland. You will overwhelm me with
shame if you say so. Let us each forget the incident; and, believe me,
I shall feel myself your debtor by the act of oblivion.” He shook
Maitland's hand warmly, and in an easier tone added, “What good news I
have heard! You are not tired of us,--not going!”
“I cannot--I told Mark this morning--I don't believe there is a road out
of this.”
“Well, wait here till I tell you it is fit for travelling,” said Sir
Arthur, pleasantly, and addressed himself once more to his labors as a
gardener.
Meanwhile Maitland threw himself down on a garden-bench, and cried
aloud, “This is the real thing, after all,--this is actual repose. Not a
word of political intrigue, no snares, no tricks, no deceptions, and
no defeats; no waking to hear of our friends arrested, and our private
letters in the hands of a Police Prefect. No horrid memories of the
night before, and that run of ill-luck that has left us almost beggars.
I wonder how long the charm of this tranquillity would endure; or is it
like all other anodynes, which lose their calming power by habit? I 'd
certainly like to try.”
“Well, there is no reason why you shouldn't,” said a voice from the back
of the summer-house, which he knew to be Mrs. Trafford's.
He jumped up to overtake her, but she was gone.