"To begin with," he went on, "you look like one, for all the world."
This was sailing too close for my liking.
"Old gentleman," said I, "you are wearisomely dull. Possibly I had
better explain at length. To be frank, then, I had counted, in case
of failure, to avoid all scandal to your daughter's name. I had
hoped (you will excuse me) to have carried her off and evaded you
until I could present myself as her husband. If baffled in this, I
proposed to make my escape as a common burglar surprised upon your
premises. It seems to me," I wound up, including the three servants
with an indignant sweep of the arm, "that you might well have
emulated my delicacy! As it is, I must trouble you to recognise it."
"Heaven send," I added to myself, "that the real inamorato keeps his
bungling foot out of this till I get clear!" And I reflected with
much comfort that he was hardly likely to make an attempt upon
premises so brilliantly lit up.
"In justice to my daughter's taste," replied Sir Harry, "I am willing
to believe you looked something less like a jail-bird when she met
you in the Pump Room at Bath. You have fine clothes in your
portmanteau no doubt, and I sincerely trust they make all the
difference to your appearance. But a fine suit is no expensive
outfit for the capture of an heiress. You may be the commonest of
adventurers. How do I know, even, what right you have to the name
you carry?"
If he didn't, it was still more certain that I didn't. Indeed he
had a conspicuous advantage over me in knowing what that name was.
This very painful difficulty had hardly presented itself, however,
before the girl's wit smoothed it away. She spoke up,--looking as
innocent as an angel, too.
"Captain Fitzroy Pilkington could add no lustre to his name, father,
by giving it to me. His family is as good as our own, and his name
is one to be proud of."
"So it is, my dear," thought I, "if I can only remember it. So it's
Captain Fitzroy Pilkington I am--and from Bath. Decidedly I should
have taken some time in guessing it."
"I suppose, sir, I may take it for granted you have not brought your
credentials here to-night?" said the old boy, with a grim smile.
It was lucky he had not thought of searching my pockets for them.
"Scarcely, sir," I answered, smiling too and catching his mood; and
then thought I would play a bold card for freedom. "Come, come,
sir," I said; "I have tried to deceive you, and you have enjoyed a
very adequate revenge. Do not prolong this interview to the point of
inflicting torture on two hearts whose only crime is that of loving
too ardently. You have your daughter. Suffer me to return to the
inn in the village, and in the morning I will call on you with my
credentials and humbly ask for her hand. If, on due examination of
my history and circumstances, you see fit to refuse me--why then you
make two lovers miserable: but I give you my word--the word of a
Fitzroy Pilkington--that I will respect that decision. 'Parcius
junctas quatiam fenestras': or, rather, I will discontinue the
practice altogether."
"William," said Sir Harry, shortly, to the footman, "show Mr.
Pilkington to the door. Will you take your ladder away with you,
sir, or will you call for it to-morrow?"
"To-morrow will do," I said, airily, and stepping across to Mistress
Kate I took her hand and raised it as if for a kiss. Her fingers
gave mine an appreciative squeeze.
"But who in the world are you?" she whispered.
"I think," said I, bending over her hand, "I have fairly earned the
right to withhold that."
Sir Harry bowed a stiff good night to me, and William, the footman,
took a candle and led the way along the gallery and down the great
staircase to the front door. While he undid the chain and bolts I
was thinking that he would be all the better for a kick; and as he
drew aside to let me pass I took him quickly by the collar, spun him
round, and gave him one. A flight of a dozen steps led down from the
front door, and he pitched clean to the bottom. Running down after,
I skipped over his prostrate body and walked briskly away in the
darkness, whistling and feeling better.
I went round the end of the gallery wing, just to satisfy myself that
Jimmy had got away with the ladder, and then I struck across the
plantation in the direction of the village. The June day was
breaking before I turned out of the woods into the high road, and
already the mowers were out and tramping to their work. But in the
porchway of the village inn--called the "Well-diggers' Arms"--
whatever they may be--I surprised a cockneyfied groom in the act of
kissing a maiden who, having a milk-pail in either hand, could not be
expected to resist.
"H'm," said I to the man, "I am sorry to appear inopportunely, but I
have a message for your master."
The maiden fled. "And who the doose may you be?" asked the groom,
eyeing me up and down.
"I think," I answered, "it will be enough for you that I come from
Nanscarne. You were late there. Oh, yes," I went on sharply, for
fellows of this class have a knack of irritating me, "and I have a
message for your master which I'll trouble you to deliver when he
comes down to breakfast. You will tell him, if you please, that Sir
Harry was expecting him last night, and the lights he saw lit in the
long gallery were there for his reception. You won't forget?"
"Who sent you here?" the fellow asked.
"On second thoughts," I continued, "you had better go in and wake
Captain Fitzroy Pilkington up at once. He will pardon you when he
has my message, for Sir Harry's temper is notoriously impatient."
And with that I turned and left him, for it was high time to find
out how Jimmy had been faring. The past night's experience must
have given him a shock, and I reckoned to give him another.
I wasn't disappointed either. I walked leisurably down the village
street, then crossed the hedge and doubled back on the high moors.
At length, drawing near the old gravel-pit, where we had fixed to
meet in case of separation, I dropped on all-fours and so came up to
the edge and gave a whistle.
Jimmy was sitting with his back to me, and about to cut a hunch of
bread to eat with his cold bacon for breakfast. Instead, he cut his
thumb, and jumped up, singing out--
"S'help me, but I never looked to see you again outside o' the dock!"
"No more you did," said I; and climbing down and sitting on a
gravel-heap beside him, I told him all the story.
"And now, Jimmy," I wound up, "you must guess what I'm going to do."
"I don't need to," said he. "I know."
"I wager you don't."
"I wager I do."
"Well, then, I'm going back. Was that what you guessed?"
"I think you will not."
"Ah, but I will," said I. "I swore by the blood of a Fitzroy
Pilkington I'd be back in the morning, and I can't retreat from so
tremendous an oath as that. Back I mean to go. As for the real
Captain--if Captain he is--I fancy I've scared him out of this
neighbourhood for some time to come. And as for the credentials, I
fancy, at my time of life, I should be able to write my own
commendation. I believe the old boy has a sneaking good-will towards
me. I can't answer for the girl; but I can answer that she'll hold
her tongue for a while, at all events. This life doesn't become a
man of my education and natural ability. And the risk is worth
running."
"I wouldn't, if I were you," says he, very drily.
"And why not?"
"Well, you see, when I heard the noise last night, and all the place
grew light as it did, I was just starting to run for dear life, till
it struck me that if the folks meant to go searching for me they
wouldn't begin by lighting the picture-gallery from end to end.
So I drew close under shadow of the wall and waited, ready to run at
any moment. But after a while, finding that nothing happened, I grew
curious and crept up after you and looked in through the window, very
cautious. A nice fix you seemed to be in; but old Jenkins was there.
And while Jenkins was there--"
"Well?"
"Well, I should have thought you might have guessed. The bolt of his
bedroom window wasn't hard to force, nor the lock of the small room.
Being single-handed, I had to pick and choose what to carry off.
But if you'll look under the bracken yonder you'll own I know my way
among silver-ware."
I looked at him for a moment, and then lay gently back on the turf
and laughed till I was tired of laughing.