Vigorous and elastic as I am, I cannot deny that the air and weather
have great dominion over me. It was always so with my own dear father.
Two days spent indoors, without any real exercise, would make him feel
as uneasy as a plant in a cellaret. Crusty and crabbed, nothing could
ever make him--not even gout I believe, if he had lived long enough for
it--but when he had lost his fishing, or shooting, or bit of gardening,
too long, he was quite unlike himself. It was a bad time then to coax
for anything--no song, no whistling, no after-dinner nap.
I too am not of a sedentary nature, though upon due occasion I can sit
writing or drawing for some hours together. But how fine a thing all
the while to see any motion outside--a leaf that can skip, or a cloud
that can run! How we envy a sparrow his little hop, even across the
gutter. It is now a long month since I have been out of doors, except
just to sniff the air, without any bonnet on. I have never been boxed
and pannelled so long since first I crawled out of my cradle. It is a
sharp bright frost--it seems to freeze harder in London than in the west
of Gloucestershire, but not half so cleanly.
Isola comes, like a tea-china rose bedded in poplin and ermine. Her
close-drawn bonnet of velvet, mazarin blue, is freaked with snowdrops,
nod, nod, nodding, not too many of them. I hail the omen of spring, and
my spirits rise already. Idols is up for a lark (as the junior sophists
express it) and she has set her heart upon leading me such a dance.
Shall she ever set that sweet heart upon anything, and not obtain it at
once? Who knows? Never, I am quite sure, when another heart is the
object.
"Come, you grave old Grandmother. You are younger than me, I believe,
in spite of all your stories; and you are old enough in your ways, for
old mother Hubbard that lived in a cupboard. Oh my tippets and
furbelows, if I wore as tall as you, and half as long in the waist, what
a dress I would have. Fifteen guineas at least. Come along, you
bed-ridden dump of a Clara; it's freezing like bricks and silica, and I
am in such spirits, and Giudice is frightening Tom out of his life in
the kitchen."
She danced round my little room, like a leaf when the wind is rising.
The Pixie-king of my gordit could not have been lighter of foot, nor
half so lovely of form. How she managed to spin so between the "sticks,"
none but herself can tell. What would poor Mrs. Shelfer have said? In
spite of her fears for the furniture, she would have laughed, I believe,
and blessed the pretty feet.
"Come along, Clara child. Do you think I am going to stand still here
all day?"
"If you call that standing still, pray give me the senior sophist's
definition of motion."
"Oh I want to skate, so dreadfully. And Pappy and Conrad won't let me.
They say it isn't becoming. But what on earth can be more so? Wouldn't
I skim on one foot? I'll skate, in spite of them, Clara, if you'll only
keep me in countenance."
"Can you imagine me skating?"
"No. I know you won't do it, you are so fearfully grave. But there's
more fun in you, when you like, or when you can't help yourself, as I've
seen you once or twice, than there is in a hundred such Merry-Andrews as
me. At any rate we'll go and see them. On with your bonnet now, I
cannot wait a minute. Have something to cover your eyes. Conny '11 be
there I know."
On went my bonnet, nothing loth to have an airing again. It was fading
in the box.
"Now lots of warm things, darling. You have no idea how cold it is, and
scarcely sun enough to thaw the long frost in your eyes. Let me look at
them, Donna. Oh if mine were half as bright. You can't have got them in
England."
"Now, Idols, don't talk nonsense. Every inch of me is English, and not
an inch of you; although your eyes are so blue. You are Scotch all
over, or else you are all Swiss."
For answer she began singing "the Merry Swiss Boy," and was going to
dance to her song, when I danced her off down stairs. Giudice was in
the kitchen, with Tom, from the top of the coffee-mill, sputtering
anathemas at him. A magnificent dog he was, of the race of Maltese
bloodhounds, now so scarce, fawn-coloured, long in the flank, deep in
the jowl, pouch-eared, and grave of eye. He regarded Tom no more than if
he had been an old hat brushed the wrong way; and the birds, who were
all in a flutter, he took for British butterflies. He came leisurely to
me, walking one side at a time, and solemnly deposited his great moist
nose in my hand. I knew him then as the friend who addressed me, long
since, in the Villa Road.
"Why, you graven images"--a popular person always has fifty nicknames;
Isola had a hundred at least, and she liked them all--"what depth of
secresy and statecraft is this! You know how I love dogs, and you never
even told me of this splendid fellow's existence!"
"Well, Donna dear, don't look so indignant. He doesn't belong to me,
and he won't come with me unless he is told, and then he makes such a
favour of it. See his long supple stride. He walks just like a
leopard--don't you, you pious panther? I wonder he took to you so. He
is not fierce at all, except when he ought to be; but he hardly ever
makes friends."
"Whose dog is he?'
"Conrad's to be sure. And I do believe Conny thinks more of him than he
does of me. Get along, you yellow mammoth! Why he would keep his head
there all day?"
"All dogs love me, Idols. It was so when I was a child. They know how
honest I am."
"Well, I believe you are, Donna; and too honest sometimes. But I am
honest enough, and Giudice does not appreciate it. Come along, Judy.
Are you going to stick there all day?"
Away we went, and the great dog walked behind, keeping his head most
fairly adjusted between us, never shifting its place an inch, whether we
walked or ran--as we did where the street was empty, and when we got
into the Park.
Oh the cold air of heaven, fresh from the clear North Pole, where the
Great Bear stalks round the Little Bear with the vigilance of a mother,
how it tightens the clip of the joints, puts a sting into every step,
flushes the cheeks with Aurora, and sparkles in young eyes! For the
nonce we forget who we are, never think how our clothes blow about, our
spirits are on the north wind, what are we more than snow flakes, let us
glisten and lift on the air.
Crossing the Park (lightly furrowed with snow at the drains, like our
hair when we part it) we came to a broad sheet of ice. We had heard a
long way off a crisp musical hollow sound, like tapping a box with a
hole in it. The ice was not like the old ice at Vaughan Park, but
seamed and channeled, and up and down, and powdered light grey with
scrapings from skates and shoes. Thousands of people were on it, some
skating, some sliding, some rushing about and playing hot game with
crooked sticks, some sweeping away with short brooms, some crying things
for sale and offering skates for hire, many standing still and wistfully
eyeing the land; but all in the height of good humour, laughing,
chaffing, holloaing, drinking, and ordering more. Every now and then
some great performer (in his own eyes) would sail by the women grandly
(like a ship heeling over), with his arms folded and foot over foot, and
a long cigar in his mouth. For these one devoutly desired a fall. The
skaters of real eminence scorned this common show-off, and each had his
special admirers forming a ring around him, where he had cut his own
circus of smoother and greener ice.
Along the brink of firm land, stood nurses and children innumerable; the
maids on the giggle at every challenge borne to them from the glazed
waters, the little ones tugging, and kicking, and frantic to get on.
The background of all the cold scene, whiter as it receded, and broken
by gliding figures, was formed by some low fringed islets, with open
water around them, and crane-necked wild fowl wheeling about, and
warning boards, and icemen pushing flat-bottomed boats along. In the
far distance, to the right, were two or three canvas tents, where they
kept the range of the mercury, and the list of the accidents. The long
vista was closed now and then, as high as hats and bonnets, by scuds of
the drifting ice and snow.
Here as we stood on the bank, Giudice forsook us shamefully, and bounded
over the ice, with a levity quite scandalous for a serious-minded dog,
towards one of the charmed circles, where eminent skaters whirled, like
peg-tops full of steam-engines. Was it likely that we, two girls of
spirit, would halt ignobly there? First on the ice went I, holding
Isola's hand, and tempting her nothing loth. In spite of her boast
about skating, Idols was frightened at first, and held very tightly by
me, and wanted to run back. But the little feet grew braver at every
step, and she ventured even to clap her hands and dance. To me the
thing was no novelty, except from the number of people, and the
puckering of the ice. I had even the courage to slide with one foot,
but never with both at a time. As for the cracking and bending when
some heavy man scoured by, on purpose, I dare say, to frighten us, I
laughed with my heart in my mouth. Isola was amazed. She never could
have conceived that I had so much effrontery. What cared I, if a
hundred people stared at me? I was doing nothing unseemly, and dozens
of ladies were there. The scene, and the air, and the spirits of youth
set my blood all on the bound, and oh, blessing of blessings, my blessed
sight was come back. How manly, and stirring, to feel, that a slip--and
a limb may be broken; a crack--and one may be drowned.
But, as usual, I suffered for my temerity. First we followed Giudice,
and found him in the centre of the ring, where the greatest throng was
gathered, the dog skating with his master, who was one of the very best
skaters in the world. Giudice was graver than ever, but wistfully
glanced as he whirled round, at every point of escape. With his heavy
fore feet on his master's shoulders, and his tongue lolling out, and his
eyes rolling sadly at each reluctant caper, and his poor tail between
his jerked legs, it was impossible not to see that his dignity and
self-respect were suffering. So when Conrad came to speak to us, I
earnestly begged that Giudice might be set free, which was done in a
moment, to the great disappointment of the bystanders, and the boundless
delight of the dog, who came and gratefully kissed my hand.
"Why, Donna," cried Isola in a small pet, "Giudice takes you for his
mistress: he would never do that to me, if I coaxed him a hundred
years."
Through, the colour the north wind had spread on my cheeks, I felt the
warm blood rushing, and bent over the dog to hide it; then much as I
longed to see Isola's brother skate, I dragged her off rather rudely
towards the rougher part of the ice. Conrad looked rather surprised and
hurt, but resumed his figuring with much apparent philosophy.
Idols and I, with the flush in our cheeks, and the flash in our eyes,
and our forms all buoyant with innocent fun, came suddenly round a
corner on a party of low-looking men, who were casting flat stones,
bowling, or curling, or playing at drake, with a great tin can for their
mark. We turned and were off in a moment; but we had been observed by
the sharpest and slyest eyes in London. A man gave chase in
half-skating fashion, having bones tied under his boots, in lieu of
skates. We could easily have escaped, in spite of his bones; but was I
going to run away, like a skittish servant-maid? I drew up Miss Isola
sharply, whether she would or no, and confronted the enemy. It was Mr.
Shelfer himself, the man so modest and bashful, who could never bear to
look at me. Though a dozen more came after him, I felt no alarm at all,
knowing his wonderful shyness and diffidence. But his first address
amazed me.
"Now's your time, lads. At 'em, I say. Here's the two prettiest gals
in London."
The low scoundrel! I saw that he was quite tipsy. But frightened as I
was, for none but they were near, I could hardly help laughing at him.
He had his usual slouch, and the long sly nose, and the pent-house gleam
of the eye, and his gaunt cheeks drawn as if he was always sucking them,
and the chimneypot hat, that had once belonged to some steady going
Churchman, with the crown flapping in, like the gills of a fish. All
this was balanced by the skill and comical courage of Bacchus, upon a
pair of grating marrow-bones. Behind him his countless pockets yawned
and looked brown on the wind. And this was the being bowed down to by
Mrs. Shelfer!
"Clara dear, stop, Clara!" the impudent sot cried out.
I had stopped without that, and was already facing him. For a moment he
was abashed, for my eyes were full upon his; but the others were coming
up.
"Now this is what I calls harmony, dashed if it isn't. Why look at the
trees and the bushes. There's harmony in them trees, ay in every one on
'em. Fine trees and pretty gals, them's the jockeys for me. That's
what I calls natur' and something like. Houses! Lor, there's no
harmony in houses and pantiles. Fine trees is all harmony, and so is
lovely woman. Don't tell the old gal at home. She never would
understand. Why Idols there is a pretty duck as ever swam on the ice.
But Clara's a ---- fine swan, and no mistake. Ducks is all very well,
but a swan is the jockey for me. There's something to lay hold on
there. Give me a swan I say, and the harmony of them trees. Bob
Ridley, I'll lay you a tanner I kisses that there swan. Ever see such
eyes, Bob, and look at the way she stands. Wonder there's a bit of ice
left here."
The low rogue had a long pipe "in his head,"--as Farmer Huxtable
expressed it,--and at every leering sentence blew out a puff of smoke.
"Bet you a tanner, Charley, you don't kiss that stunnin' gal," cried his
friend, as drunk as himself.
"Here goes, neck or nothing;" and the niddering made a dash at me. I
drew my clenched hand from my muff, where it had been tingling in my
glove, and in his tipsy rush, his face came full against it. It was a
very odd thing, and I know not how it happened. He reeled on his bones
from the collision, and staggered in staring amazement. Before he had
time to recover, Conrad dashed up like a hawk at an owl; by some
wonderful back-stroke he stopped in an instant, wrung Shelfer's crooked
stick from his hand, hooked him under the collar, struck out again, and
towed the poor wretch away backward, at the speed of a mile in a minute.
The fire flew from his skates as he dashed towards the open water.
Giudice, at full gallop behind, tried in vain to keep up. Every man and
woman there turned to watch the issue. Shelfer threw out his hands
wildly, and screamed: he was utterly helpless, his teeth rattled more
than the bones on his boots. At the edge of the open water, three
hundred yards away, Conrad stopped suddenly, like an engine in
collision, unhooked Mr. Shelfer, and let him go with full impetus.
Sprawling and yelling in vain, he flung up his arms, and fell backward
into the water headlong. The icemen came running with boats, and ropes,
and grapnels. But before the first splash was over, another was seen;
Giudice, at a sign from his master, plunged in, drew the poor man of
harmony out, and laid him high and wet on the ice. He was taken at once
to the tent; where, as I afterwards heard, he made a fine afternoon of
it with the society's men; most of whom, it is needless to say, he knew.
Be that as it may, the lesson did him good. He never insulted a lady
again, or (what is still worse) a poor honest girl, with no education,
and no one to defend her. As for me, I really believe he never durst
blink his sly eyes in my direction again.
I love good justice, in or out of the pod. The bean is as sweet to me
from the rough air of heaven as from a juryman's pocket. But I thought
Master Conrad had overdone it this time. He had no right to risk the
poor man's life. And so I told him when he came back, as calm as if he
had cut a spread eagle. He assured me that he had not risked the man's
life at all. He knew the depth of the water there by the island. It was
five feet and no more. Then I felt all of a glow and longed to give him
the kiss which had cost Mr. Shelfer so much. The next minute I felt
humiliated, and burst into a passion of tears, to think what my father
would say at his pet of grace and luxury being insulted like that.
Idols and Conrad, not knowing my story, could not understand it at all.
They came home with me at once. Conrad, "under the circumstances,"
ventured to offer his arm, which I, under the circumstances, ventured to
accept. At the door he left me; but Idols came in with Giudice,
commissioned to see her safe home. She came in partly lest I should
feel lonely, partly to arraign Mrs. Shelfer (already condemned by both
of us girls) for daring to have such a reprobate drunken husband.