If we wanted a contrast to the wild desolation of Arran, it wonld be in
the lovely valley of North Wales, where Vyner’s cottage stood. It was a
purchase he had made purely from its picturesque beauty; a spot chanced
upon in a summer’s ramble, and bought at once with that zest which leads
a rich man to secure the gem that has captivated his fancy. It stood
on a little rocky platform that projected from a mountain, and looked
downwards and upwards, through one of those charming valleys which
now widen into luxuriance, and now contract again till they resume the
features of a deep ravine. A river of some size foamed and tumbled over
a rocky bed beneath, and occasionally deepened into some waveless pool,
over which the red-berried ash-trees drooped gracefully, and the dark
copper beeches threw their bronzed shadows. Deep woods clothed the
mountain in front, and over them all rose the rugged summit of Cader
Idris, with its amphitheatre of rock half lost in the clouds.
If as regards loveliness of position, tranquillity, and beauty in all
its details, the cottage of Dinasllyn could scarcely be surpassed. There
was one detracting element which certainly impaired its charm, the “Quid
amarum,” amidst all its excellence. It was a show place. It had been
the scene of some romantic attachment, some half-remembered Abelard and
Heloise, whose pictures yet survived, and of whom there were traditions
of rustic benches where they used to sit; of trees whereon their
initials were carved; of cedars that they had planted. Vyner and his
wife did not at first know, nor estimate, to what a heritage they had
succeeded, nor in the least suspect what an infliction mere purposeless
curiosity, united to plenty of leisure, may become.
The old gardener whom they had taken on with the cottage was not at all
disposed to surrender that perquisite of black mail he had for years
long levied from visitors, nor perhaps did he fancy to abdicate those
functions of “Cicerone” which elevated him in the eyes of his fellows.
If his love-story was not as affecting as Paul and Virginia, it had its
realisms that compensated for some pathos. He could show the dairy where
Chloe made the butter, and the kitchen-garden where Daphnis hoed his
cabbages. There, were the steps cut in the solid rock that led down to
her bath in the river; here the bower she loved so well; here the tree
she planted.
To be obliged to devote a day of every week, or even certain hours of
a day, to the invasion of a set of strangers, induced by ennui, by
curiosity, or, as it may be, by mere imitation, to wander about your
house and stroll through your garden, free to lounge in your easy-chair,
or dispose themselves on your sofas, criticising your pictures, your
prints, your books, and your music, hazarding speculations as to your
tastes and dispositions from the titles of the volumes on your table,
and the names of your newspapers--to feel that, as the clock strikes
a certain hour on a certain morning, all the cherished privacy which
constitutes what we call home, is fled, and that your hall is a public
street, and your drawing-room a piazza, so that you are driven to hide
yourself in your own house, at the peril of being classified among
the curiosities, and perhaps sent off to press with the other details,
satisfactory or the reverse, of the visitors’ experience. These are no
slight evils. They are a heavy tax on all the benefits of possession,
and we have our doubts if even Naboth’s vineyard would be enviable,
if linked with the condition of showing the grounds and displaying the
grapes to vulgar visitors.
When the Vyners purchased the cottage they had been told of the custom,
just as you are told of a certain pathway across the lawn, which was a
mere usurpation, a thing “without a shadow of legality,” “that you have
only to close to-morrow,” but of whose actual torments when you do come
to suppress, no one has ever given the measure. They heard that the
former owner usually set an hour or two apart on a Wednesday or a
Thursday to gratify tourist curiosity; in fact, the celebrity of the
spot had been ingeniously introduced as an element of value--just as the
shade of Pope might be catalogued amongst the merits of Twickenham, and
the memory of Rousseau figure in the inventory of a certain cottage near
Geneva!
Vyner was himself one of those easy, happy natures, which submit without
sacrifice to what affords pleasure to others. His wife saw no hardship
in yielding to a moderate amount of this infliction; the more, since
they only came to the cottage for about six or eight weeks of every
year. It was Georgina Courtenay who resisted the custom as a most
“unwarrantable intrusion, a practical impertinence,” as she called it,
which “reduced a family either to the condition of the cracked china on
the mantelpiece, or the fussy housekeeper who exhibited it.” Georgina
was not a very tolerant nature; with what she disagreed, she made no
compromise, and, like most such people, she found that life gave her
sufficient occasion for conflict.
Vyner’s absence from home, suggested an admirable opportunity “to
suppress this nuisance,” as she phrased it, and she accordingly had a
notice appended to the gate--a copy of which was also duly forwarded
to the village inn--stating that, during the sojourn of the family at
Dinasllyn, the cottage and grounds were not open for the inspection of
strangers. The morning of the famous ordinance was not more anxious to
the household of Charles the Tenth, than was that of the edict to the
family at the cottage. What was to follow the great _coup d’etat_ was
the question. Would each of the vested interests--gardener, gatekeeper,
housekeeper, and butler--submit to see their long-established
perquisites suddenly effaced and extinguished? Would the village folk be
content to lose the profits of strangers, who each year flocked down in
increasing hordes? Would the tourists themselves, who had carried their
romantic sympathies hundreds of miles by land or sea, agree to put up
with a glance at the cottage chimneys by telescope, or a peep through
the iron gate at the trim avenue, whose abrupt turning shut out all
further inspection? If no splashed and booted aides-de-camps rode in
to tell with trembling accents that popular sentiment had taken the
menacing form of a silent and brooding anger, at least there were voices
to declare that at “The Goat” the visitors were highly indignant, and
that one of the strangers at the “Watkin’s Arms” had despatched a copy
of the manifesto, with a commentary, to the _Times_. Indeed, it was in
the public room of this latter establishment that public indignation
found its chief exponent. Visitors from far-off lands, a traveller from
Ireland, a gentleman from the United States, a German naturalist, with
a green tin box and a pair of brown spectacles, were loud in declaring
their sentiments, which amounted to this: that the possessors of any
spot remarkable for its historic associations, of a much-prized marble,
or world-famed picture, were mere trustees for the public, who had
an unimpeachable right to see, gaze on, and admire to their hearts’
content; these being privileges which in no wise detracted from the
positive value of the object so worshipped, since there is no record of
any garden whose perfume could be exhausted by smelling, nor any picture
whose beauties mere sight could have absorbed. These observations, we
are careful to record, were embodied in a very formal-looking document,
signed by about twenty names, and only awaited the selection of a
suitable envoy to be transmitted to the cottage.
It is but a fair tribute to American courage to own that, where so many
held back, reluctant and timid, the Yankee declared his readiness to
go forward. He protested that he would rather like it. “It was just
his grit,” and that he was “main tired of sittin’ there like a wounded
skunk, with his head out of a hole.” Whether from some lurking jealousy
of the stranger, or some ungenerous disbelief in his address, the
company did not accept his offer, or at least show such eagerness in the
acceptance as they might, but broke up into twos and threes, discussing
the event. While these deliberations went forward, a one-horse chaise
drew up to the door, and a writing-desk and a small carpet-bag were
deposited within it by the landlord, who, by a significant look towards
his other guests, seemed to say, “Here’s your opportunity! This is your
man!”
“Who is he? Where is he going?” asked one, calling him aside.
“He’s Mr. M’Kinlay, from London, the family law-agent, going over to the
cottage.”
He had but finished this speech, when a middle-aged man, with a high
complexion, and short grey hair, without whiskers, appeared, conning
over his bill as he came forward.
“You can scarce call it supper, Mr. Pugh,” said he, in an accent
unmistakably Scotch--“the bit of fish, and the leg of a cold
turkey--except that it was eaten at eleven at night. It was just a
snack.”
“It’s only two-and-six, Sir,” said the other, humbly.
“Only! I’d like to know what you’d make it, man. That’s the price of a
right good meal up in town, and not served on a coarse tablecloth, nor
over a sanded floor; and what’s this 1s. 10d.? What’s that?”
“Ale, Sir. Your servant drank it very freely.”
“If it only disagreed with him as it did with me, I’ll make no objection
to his excess. Are these gentlemen waiting to speak to me, for I don’t
think I have the honour--”
[Illustration: 080]
“Yes, Sir,” said a short, apoplectic-looking man, with a bald head;
“we are strangers--strangers casually thrown into acquaintance at
this hotel. We have come here from motives of pleasure, or health, or
indolence---one common object having its attraction for us all--the
far-famed cottage of Dinasllyn. We have learned, however, to our
infinite disappointment, that, by a whim, a mere caprice--for it
is impossible it could be more--of the persons’ who are the present
occupants, the travellers, the tourists I will call them, ate to be
excluded in future, and all access refused to a spot which has its
claims on the sympathies not alone of the Englishman, for I see at my
side a learned professor from Jena, and a distinguished citizen of New
York----”
“Kansas, stranger, Little Rock,” said the Yankee, interrupting, and then
advancing to the front. “Here’s how it is, Sir. Your friends up yonder
ain’t content to have God’s gifts all their own, but they won’t even let
a man look at them. That ain’t nature, and it ain’t sense. We have drawn
up our notions in a brief message. Are you a mindin’ of me, stranger?”
This question was not completely uncalled for, since for some few
seconds Mr. M’Kinlay had turned to the landlord, and was occupied in the
payment of his bill.
“Seventeen shillings and fourpence, leaving eightpence for Thomas, Mr.
Pugh; and remember that your driver is now fully paid, unless I should
stay, to dinner.”
“Are you a mindin’ of _me_, Sir?” said the Yankee, with an energy that
actually made the other start, and sent a deeper crimson to his cheeks.
“I must say, Sir--I will say, that, having no acquaintance with you,
having never seen you till now----
“All your loss, stranger, that’s a fact! You’re not the first man that
regretted he did not know the length of my boot before he put his foot
on my corns. You’ll have to take them papers--do you mind?--you’ll have
to take them papers, and give them to your friends up yonder!”
“I’m neither a postman nor your messenger, Sir,” said M’Kinlay, getting
into the chaise.
“You’ll have to take them papers,” and he laid them on the seat of the
carriage as he spoke, “that’s how it is! And, as sure as my name is
Dodge!--Herodotus Manning Dodge!--you’d better give an account of ‘em
when you drive out of that gate up there, for I’ll wait for you, if it
was till next fall!”
“That’s mighty plain talking, anyhow,” broke in a voice with a very
distinctive accent, “and a man needn’t be much of a gentleman to
understand it.”
“Even a brief visit,” cried out the first speaker.
“Just to see the cedars, or Clorinda’s grotto,” lisped out a female
voice.
But Mr. M’Kinlay did not wait for more, but by an admonitory poke of his
umbrella set his driver off at full speed, and was soon well out of both
eye and earshot.
To say that Mr. M’Kinlay drove away in a towering passion--that he was
excessively angry and indignant, would be the truth, but still not the
whole truth, for he was also terribly frightened. There was in the tall
Yankee’s look, language, and gesture, a something that smacked of the
bush and the hickory-tree--a vague foreshadowing of Lynch law, or no
law--that overpowered him. Such a man, within a reasonable distance of
Scotland Yard, for instance, might not have proved so terrible; but
here he was in the heart of the Welsh mountains, in the very spot of all
others where there was every facility for a deed of violence. “He might
throw me over that cliff, or pitch me into that quarry hole,” muttered
he; and the landscape at the moment offered both the illustrations to
aid his fancy.
It was, then, in a tremor of mingled anger and terror that he drove
up to the gate, and in no patient mood was it that he sat outside the
padlocked portal till a messenger went up to the house with his card
to obtain leave for his admission. The order was speedily given, and he
passed in.
The brief interval of traversing the space between the gate-lodge and
the cottage was passed by Mr. M’Kinlay in arranging his cravat, brushing
the dust from his coat, and, so far as might be, smoothing down any
asperities that should have betrayed themselves in his features; for,
though neither a young man nor a man of the world of fashion, he had his
pretensions, the most cherished one of all which was a design upon the
hand of Miss Georgina Courtenay. Had Miss Courtenay been in the full
blaze of her beauty, as she was some eight or nine years before, Mr.
M’Kinlay would never have dared to lift his eyes to her; had she even
continued to live in town and mingle in that society where she had
always lived and moved, he would not have dreamed of such a presumption.
But Mr. M’Kinlay knew the world. He had seen an exiled Grand-Duke in a
Hansom cab, and had actually met a deposed Prince on a Margate steamer.
In the changeful fortunes of life the “price current” was the only test
of anything. Railroads, and mines, and telegraphic companies rose and
fell with the fluctuations of the market, and marriageable ladies
might come one day to figure in the share list! Miss Georgina, however
ungallant the confession, represented a security at a discount. She had
gone down year by year, and at last ceased to be quoted. And yet “it was
a good thing.” She had, none knew it better--very few so well--she
had eighteen thousand pounds, besides expectations, the latter
very reasonable and promising in their way. Her connexions were
admirable--high enough to give him a very considerable lift socially,
and yet not so elevated as to make his rise that of a mere “parvenu.”
Professionally, the advantage would be great, and lead to much
parliamentary business, the carrying of local bills, and a deal of very
profitable employment. He flattered himself that in most other respects
there was much the world would deem suitable. He was twelve--well, if
you like, fourteen--years her senior, but then neither were very young,
and when a woman had reached we shall not say what of the thirties, her
marrying was not subjected to the criticisms applied to the blushing
bride of eighteen or twenty. Lastly, he was well off, had a capital
business, a good house in a good street, was “well placed” amongst men
of his class, and altogether favourably regarded by his betters. “She
might do worse,” muttered he, at the end of his rumination, as he
descended from the chaise with an amount of activity in his movements
that showed he had detected the flounce of a muslin dress at the
drawing-room window.
“All well, I hope, Rickards?” said he to the stout butler, who bowed his
welcome in most gracious guise.
“Quite well, Mr. M’Kinlay--and, indeed, you look the same, Sir.”
“Nothing the matter with me, Rickards, that a little rest won’t remedy.
Over-work, over-work is my malady!”
Mr. Rickards sighed responsively; he had heard men speak of the
affection, and the symptoms they mentioned were quite appalling. “Her
Ladyship’s not down yet, but Miss Georgina is in the drawing-room,”
added he, with great significance of manner. “Step this way, Sir.”
Miss Courtenay was busily engaged searching for a letter in her
writing-desk when the butler announced, in his most emphatic manner, Mr.
M’Kinlay; but she only turned her head round, and, with a weak smile,
said, “Oh, Mr. M’Kinlay! I trust they did not keep you waiting on the
road. You know we have been obliged to have the gate locked.”
“I heard so. Indeed, I have heard of little else since my arrival, Miss
Conrtenay,” said he, not altogether mastering the anger he felt at his
cool reception. “I hope Lady Vyner is well.”
“Yes; as well as she ever is. What a provoking thing it is to mislay a
letter; but I suppose it is an oversight you have never committed. You
have everything in order, docketed, pigeon-holed, and what not.”
“Pardon me, I am the most careless of men. All about me is a chaos of
confusion.”
“Indeed!” said she, with a faint, very faint show of interest, as though
quite unexpectedly aware of some favourable trait in his character. “Who
would have thought it! It is a letter from my niece’s governess I have
lost, and with it all clue to her address.”
“I can, perhaps, supply that,” said Mr. M’Kinlay; “at least, if it be
the town she stopped at while the yacht is being repaired.”
“Exactly so. What’s the name of it?”
“Here it is,” said he, producing a small clasped note-book, from which,
after a brief search, he read, “Mademoiselle Heinzleman’s address will
meanwhile be, ‘Carrick’s Royal Hotel, Westport, Ireland.’”
“What a blessing is red tapery after all!” said she, in a sort of
soliloquy. “If there were not these routine people, what would become of
us?”
“I am charmed that even my blemishes should have rendered you a
service,” said he, with a tingling cheek.
“I don’t think my sister knows you are here,” said she, ignoring all his
remarks.
“I suspect Rickards must have told her,” said he, half stiffly.
“Just as likely not; he is getting so stupid--_so_ old.”
This was a very cruel speech to be so emphasized, for Rickards was only
one year Mr. M’Kinlay’s senior.
“He looks active, alert, and I’d not guess him above forty-six, or
seven.”
“I don’t care for the number of his years, but he is old enough to be
fussy and officious, and he has that atrocious activity which displays
itself with certain middle-aged people by a quick, short step, abrupt
speech, and a grin when they don’t hear you. Oh, don’t you hate that
deaf-man’s smile?”
Mr. M’Kinlay would fain have smiled too, but he feared the category it
would sentence him to.
“I’m afraid you expected to find my brother here, but he’s away; he is
cruising somewhere along the coast of Ireland.”
“I was aware of that. Indeed, I am on my way to join him, and only
diverged at Crewe to come over here, that I might bring him the latest
advices from home.”
“And are you going yachting?” said she, with a sort of surprise that
sent the blood to M’Kinlay’s face and even his forehead.
“No, Miss Courtenay, I trust not, for I detest the sea; but Sir Gervais
wants my advice about this Irish estate he is so full of.”
“Oh! don’t let him buy anything in Ireland. I entreat of you, Mr.
M’Kinlay, not to sanction this. None of us would ever go there, not even
to look at it.”
“I imagine the mischief is done.”
“What do you mean by being done?”
“That the purchase is already made, the agreement ratified, and
everything completed but the actual payment.”
“Well, then, don’t pay; compromise, contest, make difficulties. You
legal people needn’t be told how to raise obstacles. At all events, do
anything rather than have an Irish property.”
“I wish I had one.”
“Well, I wish you had--that is, if you are so bent upon it. But I must
go and tell my sister this distressing news. I don’t know how she’ll
bear it! By the way,” added she, as she reached the door, “I shall find
you here when I come back--you are not going away?”
“Certainly not without seeing Lady Vyner, if she will accord me that
honour,” said he, stiffly.
“Of course she’ll see you,” cried she, and left the room.
Left alone with his reflections, Mr. M’Kinlay had not the pleasantest
company. Had he mistaken all the relations between Miss Courtenay and
himself, or was she changed to him--totally changed? Was it thus that
they met last? He knew that she always had a certain flippant manner,
and that she was eminently what the French call _inconséquent_; but she
was more, far more, now. The allusion to Rickards’s age was a direct
impertinence, and the question as to his yachting tastes was a palpable
sneer at the habits of his daily life.
“The case does not look well--certainly not well,” murmured he, as he
walked the room with his hands behind his back. “Many would throw up
the brief, and say, ‘Take a nonsuit.’ Yes, most men would; but I’ll do
nothing rashly!” And with this wise resolve he took up a book and began
to read; but still the hours rolled on, and no one came. By the clock
over the mantelpiece it was now four. Could it possibly be that it was
two hours and a half since--since she had left him?