GENERAL SIR WILFRID ELTON
The General was an intimate friend, who never waited to be announced.
He would come up through the garden, examining its condition
critically, with a view to a report for Mrs. Gregory's benefit, and,
frequently, her gardener's confusion. Then he would poke about the
verandah, where, on these fine evenings, his neighbour was often to be
found, and, failing that, he would look into the drawing-room. If Mrs.
Gregory was not there, he would make up his mind that she was either
dressing, eating, or visiting; and, keeping a careful mental note of
the particulars he had intended to report, would return to his family.
The General was a man of whose friendship anyone might have been
proud. Simple as he was in his speech and manner, it was well known,
even in Surbiton, that, in his own line, he was a brilliant and
distinguished person. Though no longer young, he was a fine man--a
soldier every inch of him--not tall, but spare and muscular. His
hair was plentifully sprinkled with grey; his face was bronzed by
years of exposure to weather; his light blue eyes looked at you keenly
and steadily from beneath finely pencilled brows that gave an air of
refinement to the face; and his mouth, for all that it was half hidden
by a grey moustache, had, in its lines, an expression of firmness and
self-dependence which would have won him respect anywhere. The most
superficial observer saw at once that the General, debonair as he might
be in his manners, was not a person to be trifled with. This evening he
came up the garden, as he was accustomed to do, but rather more rapidly
than usual, and neglecting to take notes.
He was actually in the verandah when Mrs. Gregory threw herself into
her son's arms; and, had not Tom seen him and begged him to come in, he
would certainly have retreated.
'I fear I am intruding,' he said, as Mrs. Gregory, who looked curiously
shaken, turned to greet him. 'Just like me. Lady Elton said to me,
"Much better wait;" but we are such intimate friends; besides--why,
Mrs. Gregory, my good old friend, you have borne so much bad fortune
with resolution, you are surely not going to break down when good
fortune comes knocking at your door? She's a jade we don't generally
find it difficult to welcome. Tom, my boy, I congratulate you. No more
building now--eh! You'll be giving orders instead of taking them--a
very different sort of business. You look surprised--only just know
yourselves? Well, curiously enough, it got wind at the club--how,
heaven only knows. I believe that rumours have wings. I was interested,
of course, having known all the family so well, and I called in at Mr.
Cherry's on my way home to ask him if there was any foundation for the
rumour.'
'And he told you it was true?' said Mrs. Gregory.
'Yes, he was civil enough to answer my questions. The rajah's will,
he says, will be public property to-morrow, so it is no breach of
confidence.'
As he spoke he had settled himself in an armchair and put his cane and
wide-brimmed straw hat on the floor beside him. 'Now, really,' he said,
looking from mother to son, 'you are the very funniest people I ever
met. I expected to find my young friend Tom dancing a war-dance. Why,
young man, do you know what it means to be rich?'
'I think I do, General.'
'Oh! do you? Then all I can say is, wait till you see. It means a good
many things, my boy, that you can't so much as guess at. But come, Mrs.
Gregory, you can't feel it so much! How many years is it since you met
your cousin, the rajah?'
'I am really afraid to think,' said Mrs. Gregory, rousing herself with
an effort. 'Still, a death is a death, and it was so unexpected.'
'You were in correspondence with the rajah?'
'Oh no! And that's what makes it so strange. I might have
thought--expected----'
'Just so. You might have expected to be remembered.'
'I don't know why,' said the poor woman, with a wan smile. 'But,
of course, there was the relationship. Very distant, as you know.
My poor father and the late rajah of Gumilcund's father were only
half-brothers. If it hadn't been for the infatuation of my grandfather,
Sir Anthony--but I am giving you ancient history----'
'On the contrary, you are interesting me very much. Sir Anthony was
always staunch to his Indian connections.'
'Yes; I wondered myself that he married a second time.'
'Oh! he was bound to have an English heir, said the General, smiling,
'a determination to which you may be said to owe your existence. But
about this fortune, are there any particulars? Your cousin, the rajah,
you know, is said to have been phenomenally rich. I heard something of
it when I was in India last, and, if I hadn't been so busy, I should
have got the resident Montgomery to have me invited. A discovery was
made in the state the other day--a ruby mine--think of that! I suppose
it is Tom's now. They say the city is a perfect little model. The rajah
was reviving lost arts and setting a new civilisation going. Will Tom
be expected to take the supervision of it all?'
'Oh, no, no! There are absolutely _no_ conditions. Mr. Cherry says so
expressly,' cried Mrs. Gregory.
'So much the better,' said the General. 'But most probably the state
will lapse to the Company. What is the matter, Tom? Are you waking up
at last?'
'I don't know,' said the boy. 'It is, of course, a little bewildering,
especially as I know nothing whatever of the family history of which
you and my mother have been talking. But this I do know. If I take up
this responsibility I will carry it through to the best of my ability.'
'But there is no responsibility,' said Mrs. Gregory, wringing her
hands. 'General, my old friend, tell the boy so. He needn't surely
become an Indian rajah because a rajah has left him a fortune.'
'Of course he needn't,' said the General lightly; 'though, really,
do you know'--looking at him--'I think he would play the part pretty
well. Tom, take your mother's advice. She has ten times more common
sense than you have. But'--rising with reluctance--'I must be going.
Supper? No, thank you. Uncommonly good smell, though. We have cold
meat. It's always cold meat here. Those young monkeys of mine have such
confoundedly good appetites. Did you see them on the river, by-the-bye?
Look well, don't they, in their boating get-up?'
'Very well indeed, General. Grace looks as well again since she came
down here,' said Mrs. Gregory. 'And Trixy ought to be strong. The
liveliness of that child----'
'Keeps you awake, does she?' said the General, stroking his iron-grey
moustache and looking out before him with a flash of satisfaction in
his keen blue eyes. 'Tell you what, ma'am, that child has the courage
and wit of the family. She is a splendid little creature. You see how
she'll come out if ever she's tried! And that reminds me--the little
witch has persuaded me to let her go back with us this winter.'
'Oh, General!'
'It is very weak I know, but, positively, I can't help it. You see, I
am taking out the other four, and it seems hard to leave her behind,
poor monkey.'
'Yes; but five girls in India!'
'You may well exclaim. I consider that the responsibilities of a
rajah's wealth are nothing to mine. Fortunately they are as good as
gold, and then, you know, I am not like a griff: I know the ropes, and
can make them pretty comfortable. That new bungalow of mine at Meerut
will be in first-rate order by this, and I mean to send them up to
Nainee Tal in the heats. Well, I must really be trotting. I am carver,
you know, and I shall be scolded as it is. Come and see my wife and the
girls when you are a little resigned and can talk it over calmly.'
He was talking when he crossed the verandah, and when he left off
talking he whistled a lively air and then sang lustily an old
barrack-song of his juvenile days, which brought him to his own garden
gate. He had no sooner opened it than he was fallen upon by a troop
of girls with light garments and flowing hair. He flourished his cane
and made a feint of trying to escape, but they took the cane from
him, wound their arms about him and held him fast. Then, as they moved
forward in a troop towards the house, drawing him on with them, they
all began to chatter together.
'You're not at all a good strategist, dad,' said one. 'We heard you a
mile off.'
'And we have been waiting about an hour,' from another.
'Supper's on the table; and I'm as hungry--as hungry--as a bear,' from
a third.
'Oh! never mind Trixy,' cried a fourth silvery voice, 'she's always
hungry. Tell us about _them_.'
'Weren't they frightfully surprised?'
'They must have thought you an angel for going in to see them at once.'
'But how did they look? What did they say?'
'Has Tom put on any airs yet?' This last was from Miss Trixy.
'Girls! girls!' from the highest of the golden heads, 'how is it
possible for dad to answer you if you all speak at once? Come in,
father----'
'No, dear, don't! Stay with us; we're quite as fond of you as Grace.'
'And as fond of gossip, you cupboard-love young women! Come, clear off,
Grace and all. There's not a pin to choose between you.'
He spoke in what was known as his voice of thunder--a voice which had
often made a thousand dusky warriors quake; but these mischievous girls
only chattered the more rapidly, and clustered round him the more
persistently.
'Where is your mother?' said the General.
'In the dining-room,' said Trixy, 'sitting like patience on a monument,
waiting for you.'
'Hear, dear! Am I so very late? I suppose I did forget the time a
little. Well, never mind. Here we are! Mother, my dear,' stooping
to kiss the forehead of a pretty elderly lady who was sitting in an
armchair by a little wood fire, stitching at white work and smiling
placidly, 'you must excuse me. I am afraid I am late.'
'Are you late, dear?' she said, rising and folding up her work, 'I
didn't know. The time slips away so quickly when one is busy. Oh, the
girls!' looking round affectionately. 'But they are always hungry.
River air and strong exercise, I suppose. Trixy, dearest, father would
like to get rid of his coat and see his letters. Call Yaseen Khan.'
Trixy, who was afraid to leave the room lest interesting news should
be given in her absence, went to the door and called out, and in the
next instant an Indian servant, old, but handsome still, and dressed in
gay garments of white and red and gold, a voluminous snow-white turban
crowning his dark eyes and dusky face, appeared upon the threshold.
The General asked him one or two questions in rapid Hindustani; he
answered submissively, and then, going about his business as steadily
as if the issues of life and death hung on its due performance, removed
the General's upper coat, his hat and gloves, and laid before him the
letters which had arrived by the latest post.
The girls and their mother were in the meantime taking their places
round the table, which was plainly furnished with cold meat, bread,
and salad. A dish of exquisite pink and yellow roses occupied the
centre, and there was a handsome tea equipage opposite Lady Elton, and
a large silver bowl, heaped high with snowy rice, at the General's end
of the table. There was certainly nothing luxurious here; but in the
arrangement of the meal, no less than in the appearance of those who
were partaking of it, there was an unmistakable air of distinction and
refinement.
The girls were hungry after their day on the river, and for a few
moments there was little heard but the clatter of knives and forks.
Then there was a little pause. The General, who had glanced over his
letters and laid them aside, was looking across at his wife. 'I saw
Mrs. Gregory and her son,' he said tentatively.
Immediately five pairs of inquisitive eyes were turned upon Lady Elton.
'Well!' she said, smiling. 'They had heard the news, of course?'
'Cherry's letter had just arrived.'
'Only just! I am afraid you were a little in the way, Wilfrid.'
'So I was, at first; but I think now it was as well. They were
curiously upset.'
'Poor dear Mrs. Gregory!' said Lady Elton gently. 'I can well
understand it.'
'I don't think I should be upset if I heard that I had come into a
large fortune,' said a mutinous little voice at the General's end of
the table. 'But Tom--how did he take it?'
'Do be quiet, Trixy; let father speak,' whispered the girl at her elbow.
'Yes,' said Lady Elton, whose kind face had grown curiously soft. 'Tell
us about Tom. The dear fellow is such a favourite of mine! Do you know
it is quite delightful to me to think that he is well off--not, of
course, that riches mean happiness. I hope I am not so foolish as to
imagine that. There are other things'--looking round her with a glow
of happiness in her sweet old eyes--that come far, far before riches.
Still it is pleasant to have a competence. A number of little anxieties
are knocked off at once, and then you can do kind things without
counting the cost.'
'But, my dear wife,' said the General, 'permit me to say that I
don't think you have quite grasped the position. The boy is the
rajah of Gumilcund's heir--his heir, mind you. Why, he will be
ridiculously--phenomenally rich!'
Lady Elton's colour rose, and she gave a little troubled glance round
the table, whence a prolonged 'Oh!' had risen. 'Then I can understand
his mother's uneasiness,' she said in a low voice. 'It is always
troublesome and dangerous to be exceptional.'
'But think of the pleasure and triumph if you can be it well,' said
Maud, the second girl. It was she who had held the rudder-strings in
the boat that evening.
Then came the mutinous little voice in the corner again.
'We are wandering from our point,' it cried discontentedly. 'The point
is Tom. Tom the fortunate man, Tom the handsome man, Tom the heir of
this romantic person in India--what did he say? How did he look? Did
his eyes shine? He has such expressive eyes, you know! Never shake
your head at me, Grace. You said so yourself--I heard you--to mother,
"capable of expressing every shade of feeling"--those were your very
words.'
Upon this Grace blushed, a circumstance which seemed to give the
keenest satisfaction to the mutinous little person in the corner;
the other girls laughed, and Lady Elton called them to order. In a
momentary lull the General was heard to say:
'You young ladies observe pretty minutely, I must confess.'
'Yes, yes!' cried Trixy. 'Girls, do let father speak.'
'I was going to say, Trixy, that my eyes, I am afraid, are not so
clever as yours. As far as I can remember, Tom took it very quietly,
didn't dance, didn't laugh, didn't put on height. His eyes may have
shone; but, as I am not a competent observer, I refuse to pledge
myself. My impression is that when you see him next you will know him.'
'Father, do you know that you are not at all interesting?' cried the
irrepressible Trixy.
'Oh! if you want romance you shall have it. Give me five minutes----'
'You _know_ we don't want romance. We want facts.'
'Which I have given you, Miss Monkey.'
'A very meagre supply, dad.'
'Limited intelligences----'
'Excuse me, dad; people with powers of observation and inference----'
'Take this girl away!' cried the General, laughing. 'Inference, indeed,
you monkey! Why, there will be no living with you soon. You have
finished supper. Go, all of you! Come, I dismiss you with my blessing!
And, Trixy----'
'Yes, dearest,' bleated the little creature. 'May I stay? I'll be as
quiet as a mouse.'
'And drink in every word I say. No, thank you. Tell Yaseen Khan to
bring my hookah, and then make yourself as scarce as you can. I want to
have a talk with mother.'
'I wish I were mother,' said Trixy, looking back discontentedly. But
she obeyed her father.