THE RUSTIC LOVER
Despairing beside a clear stream
A shepherd forsaken was laid.
The next morning, after a comfortable breakfast, the doctor set out on
his walk home. His young friend accompanied him part of the way, and did
not part with him till he had obtained a promise of another and longer
visit.
The doctor, as usual, soliloquised as he walked. 'No doubt these are
Vestals. The purity of the establishment is past question. This young
gentleman has every requisite which her dearest friends would desire in
a husband for Miss Gryll.
And she is in every way suited to him. But these seven damsels interpose
themselves, like the sevenfold shield of Ajax. There is something very
attractive in these damsels:
Faciès non omnibus una,
Nec diversa tamen: qualem decet esse sororum.{1}
1 Though various features did the sisters grace,
A sister's likeness was in every face.
Addison: Ovid. Met. 1. ii.
If I had such an establishment, I should be loath to break it up. It is
original, in these days of monotony. It is satisfactory, in these days
of uncongenial relations between master and servant It is effective,
in the admirable arrangements of the household. It is graceful, in the
personal beauty and tasteful apparel of the maidens. It is agreeable, in
their manners, in their accomplishments, in their musical skill. It is
like an enchanted palace. Mr. Gryll, who talks so much of Circe, would
find himself at home; he might fancy himself waited on by her handmaids,
the daughters of fountains, groves, and rivers. Miss Gryll might fancy
herself in the dwelling of her namesake, Morgana. But I fear she
would be for dealing with it as Orlando did with Morgana, breaking the
talisman and dissolving the enchantment This would be a pity; but it
would also be a pity that these two young persons should not come
together. But why should I trouble myself with matchmaking? It is
always a thankless office. If it turns out well, your good service is
forgotten. If it turns out ill, you are abused by both parties.'
The doctor's soliloquy was cut short by a sound of lamentation, which,
as he went on, came to him in louder and louder bursts. He was attracted
to the spot whence the sounds proceeded, and had some difficulty in
discovering a doleful swain, who was ensconced in a mass of fern, taller
than himself if he had been upright; and but that, by rolling over and
over in the turbulence of his grief, he had flattened a large space down
to the edge of the forest brook near which he reclined, he would
have remained invisible in his lair. The tears in his eyes, and the
passionate utterances of his voice, contrasted strangely with a round
russetin face, which seemed fortified by beef and ale against all
possible furrows of care; but against love, even beef and ale, mighty
talismans as they are, are feeble barriers. Cupid's arrows had pierced
through the _os triplex_ of treble X, and the stricken deer lay mourning
by the stream.
[Illustration: A doleful swain. 071-41]
The doctor approaching kindly inquired, 'What is the matter?' but was
answered only by a redoubled burst of sorrow, and an emphatic rejection
of all sympathy.
'You can't do me any good.'
'You do not know that,' said the doctor. 'No man knows what good another
can do him till he communicates his trouble.'
For some time the doctor could obtain no other answer than the
repetition of 'You can't do me any good.' But at length the patience and
kind face of the inquirer had their effect on the sad shepherd, and he
brought out with a desperate effort and a more clamorous explosion of
grief--
'She won't have me!'
'Who won't have you?'
'Well, if you must know,' said the swain, 'you must. It's one of the
young ladies up at the Folly.'
'Young ladies?' said the doctor.
'Servants they call themselves,' said the other; 'but they are more like
ladies, and hold their heads high enough, when one of them won't have
me. Father's is one of the best farms for miles round, and it's all his
own. He's a true old yeoman, father is. And there's nobody but him and
me. And if I had a nice wife, that would be a good housekeeper for him,
and play and sing to him of an evening--for she can do anything, she
can--read, write, and keep accounts, and play and sing--I've heard
her--and make a plum-pudding--I've seen her--we should be as happy as
three crickets--four, perhaps, at the year's end: and she won't have
me!'
'You have put the question?' said the doctor.
'Plump,' said the other. 'And she looked at first as if she was going
to laugh. She didn't, though. Then she looked serious, and said she was
sorry for me. She said she saw I was in earnest She knew I was a good
son, and deserved a good wife; but she couldn't have me. Miss, said I,
do you like anybody better? No, she said very heartily.'
'That is one comfort,' said the doctor.
'What comfort,' said the other, 'when she won't have me?'
'She may alter her mind,' said the doctor, 'if she does not prefer any
one else. Besides, she only says she can't.'
'Can't,' said the other, 'is civil for won't. That's all.'
'Does she say why she can't?' said the doctor.
'Yes,' said the other. 'She says she and her sisters won't part with
each other and their young master.'
'Now,' said the doctor, 'you have not told me which of the seven sisters
is the one in question.'
'It's the third,' said the other. 'What they call the second cook.
There's a housekeeper and two cooks, and two housemaids and two waiting
maids. But they only manage for the young master. There are others that
wait on them.
'And what is her name?' said the doctor.
'Dorothy,' said the other; 'her name is Dorothy. Their names follow,
like ABC, only that A comes last. Betsey, Catherine, Dorothy, Eleanor,
Fanny, Grace, Anna. But they told me it was not the alphabet they
were christened from; it was the key of A minor, if you know what that
means.'
'I think I do,' said the doctor, laughing. 'They were christened from
the Greek diatonic scale, and make up two conjunct tetrachords, if you
know what that means.'
'I can't say I do,' said the other, looking bewildered.
'And so,' said the doctor, 'the young gentleman, whose name is Algernon,
is the Proslambanomenos, or key-note, and makes up the octave. His
parents must have designed it as a foretelling that he and his seven
foster-sisters were to live in harmony all their lives. But how did you
become acquainted?'
'Why,' said the other, 'I take a great many things to the house from our
farm, and it's generally she that takes them in.'
'I know the house well,' said the doctor, 'and the master, and the
maids. Perhaps he may marry, and they may follow the example. Live in
hope. Tell me your name.'
'Hedgerow,' said the other; 'Harry Hedgerow. And if you know her, ain't
she a beauty?'
'Why, yes,' said the doctor; 'they are all good-looking.'
'And she won't have me,' cried the other, but with a more subdued
expression. The doctor had consoled him, and given him a ray of hope.
And they went on their several ways.
The doctor resumed his soliloquy.
'Here is the semblance of something towards a solution of the
difficulty. If one of the damsels should marry, it would break the
combination. One will not by herself. But what if seven apple-faced
Hedgerows should propose simultaneously, seven notes in the key of A
minor, an octave below? Stranger things have happened. I have read of
six brothers who had the civility to break their necks in succession,
that the seventh, who was the hero of the story, might inherit
an estate. But, again and again, why should I trouble myself with
matchmaking? I had better leave things to take their own course.'
Still in his interior _speculum_ the doctor could not help seeing a dim
reflection of himself pronouncing the nuptial benediction on his two
young friends.