Lilly Vernon had been for some weeks at Clavering Hall. She had been
kindly received by her uncle and aunt, had completely got over the
timidity she felt on her arrival, and had found herself perfectly at
home. Not so Biddy O'Reardon, her former nurse, who had accompanied her
from Ireland, and was desired to remain as her personal attendant.
Biddy did not comprehend all that was said, and thought that the other
servants were laughing at her, and declared that though Clavering Hall
was a fine place, its ways were not those to which she had been
accustomed, and she heartily wished herself back at Ballyshannon in the
dear ould country. Still, for the love of the young mistress, she would
stay wherever she stayed, though it was a pity she had so
ill-conditioned a spalpeen of a cousin to be her companion. These
remarks reached Ralph's ears, and he and Biddy became on far from good
terms. He revenged himself by playing her all sorts of tricks. One day
he came into the little sitting-room in which she sat with Lilly and
begged her to sew a button on his coat. Poor Biddy good-naturedly
assented, but on opening her workbox found that her thimble had been
trodden flat, her scissors divided, and all her reels of cotton
exchanged for small pebbles! Enjoying her anger and vexation, Ralph ran
laughing away, while Lilly gently, though indignantly, reproved him for
his unkind and ungenerous conduct.
No one thought that a governess was necessary for Lilly; but happily her
education had been carefully attended to by her parents, and she had
formed the resolution of continuing the studies she had commenced with
them. As soon as she could get her books unpacked, she set to work, and
with steady perseverance performed her daily task, to the unbounded
astonishment of her cousin, who could not comprehend why she should take
so much trouble when there was no one "to make her," as he expressed
himself.
It was a fine bright day in the winter when Ralph burst into the study
which Lilly had very much to herself. "Come along, Lilly!" he
exclaimed. "I have ordered out Apple-blossom for you, and I will ride
Sugar-plum. Throw those stupid books away. What can make you drone
over them as you do?"
Lilly looked up at her cousin with a serious expression in her calm
eyes, and said, "Papa and mamma wished me to learn my lessons, and I
want to do exactly as if they were alive. They always made me do my
lessons before I went out, and so, Ralph, I cannot come."
Ralph Clavering looked very much astonished, and with a contemptuous
curl of his lip and a frown on his brow left the room, exclaiming, "What
can Lilly mean? She doesn't care for me, that's very positive." He
threw himself on his pony, and switching it with more than his usual
impetuosity, galloped off down the avenue. Lilly bent forward again to
her self-imposed studies. Now and then she got up from her seat, and
putting the book on one side and placing her hands behind her, repeated
her lesson through with an expression of awe in her countenance, as if
she thought her mother was looking over the book and listening to her.
Lilly had just finished her work when Ralph returned. "What, old
bookworm, have you really finished your stupid lessons?" he exclaimed.
"You've lost a capital gallop, that I can tell you. However, you shall
have one in the afternoon, though you don't deserve it. I've ordered
Sugar-plum round to the stable to get a feed of corn while we are at
luncheon, and in an hour he'll be ready again. Apple-blossom will be
ready for you, and we'll have a capital ride after all."
Lilly said that she should like to ride, and soon afterwards luncheon
was announced. The young people took it by themselves, for Mr
Clavering was from home, and there were no guests in the house. Ralph
tossed off a couple of glasses of sherry, scolding the butler for not
quite filling them. "Good stuff after a gallop this cold weather," he
observed.
Lilly shook her head. "You could do very well without that," she
remarked.
"Oh, you girls know nothing," he answered contemptuously. "I could
drink twice as much, and not be the worse for it."
In spite of Lilly's entreaties he took one or two more glasses,
evidently for the sake of teasing her. Lilly found it difficult not to
show her vexation. Ralph was in one of his obstinate humours. He had
never been restrained when a child, and every day he found the task of
restraining his temper become harder and harder. He owned this to his
cousin. "Try, Ralph, what you can do," she answered. "Unless you try
you cannot hope to succeed."
"Impossible," he answered petulantly. "It is absurd to suppose that I'm
not to get into a rage every now and then. It is gentlemanly, it is
manly."
"Oh, Ralph, what nonsense!" exclaimed Lilly. "Which is the most manly,
to guide your pony along the road, or let it run away with you, flinging
out at everybody it meets, and throwing you at last?"
"That's nothing to do with my getting into a rage if I please," said
Ralph. But he looked as if he fully comprehended the simile; and as
Lilly saw that he did so, and had no wish to irritate him, she changed
the subject. Soon after this the ponies were brought to the door.
Lilly, who had got on her riding-skirt, sprang lightly on Apple-blossom,
Ralph not even offering to assist her, and away the two cousins galloped
down the avenue. Ralph's good humour did not return for some time, in
spite of all Lilly could do. At length her lively remarks and the fine
fresh air gradually brought it back, and this encouraged her to talk on.
They had a delightful and a very long ride. Sometimes they galloped
over the level sward through a fine extensive forest in the
neighbourhood, and through the deciduous trees, now destitute of leaves.
There were many hollies and firs and other evergreens, which gave a
cheerful aspect to the scene, and with the blue sky overhead they
scarcely remembered that it was winter. Sometimes they got on a hard
piece of road, and had a good trot for a couple of miles, and then they
reached some fine open downs, when, giving their little steeds the rein,
away they galloped as hard as hoof could be laid to the ground, with the
fresh pure air circulating freely round them. Now they had to descend
and to pass along lanes full of ruts and holes, where they had carefully
to pick their way, and then they crossed some ploughed fields till they
once more reached a piece of turf by the road-side. On the turf, Ralph
was again able to make his pony go at the pace which best suited his
taste, Lilly easily keeping up with him. Once more in the forest, they
galloped as fast as ever along its open glades.
"This is first-rate," cried Ralph. "There never was a finer day for
riding."
"Oh, indeed it is," responded Lilly. "This is a beautiful world, and I
always think each season as it comes round the most delightful."
"I don't trouble my head about that," said Ralph, giving his pony a
switch. "I know when it is a fine day, and I enjoy it."
Lilly had discovered that Ralph always carefully fenced off from any
subject which he thought might lead to serious reflection. She waited
her time to speak to him, hoping it might come. Soon after this they
again reached the high road. Several times Ralph's pony, which had gone
through a good deal of work that morning, attempted to stop, and when
Ralph urged him on he stumbled.
"Sugar-plum must be tired," observed Lilly.
"Let us walk our ponies home."
"No, I hate everything slow," cried Ralph, hastening on the pony. "If
the beast can't go he won't suit me, and so he shall soon find who is
master."
Lilly again entreated him to pull up, but he would not listen to her.
At some distance before them appeared a figure in a red cloak. Lilly
perceived that it was an old gipsy woman with a child at her back. In a
copse by the road-side there was a cart with a tent and a fire before
it, from which ascended into the clear calm air a thin column of smoke.
The old woman was making her way towards the camp, not hearing
apparently the tramp of the pony's hoofs.
"Take care, take care, Ralph," cried Lilly; "you will ride over that
poor old woman if you gallop on."
"I don't care if I do," said Ralph, angry at being spoken to. "She's
only a wretched old gipsy woman."
"A fellow-creature," answered Lilly. "Oh, Ralph, take care."
Ralph galloped on till his pony was close up to the old woman, at a spot
where the ground was rough, and there was a somewhat steep descent. He
could scarcely have intended actually to ride over the old woman. Just
then she heard the pony's hoofs strike the ground close behind her. She
started on one side, and the pony dashed on, shying as he did so. The
animal's foot at that moment struck against a piece of hard clay, and
already almost exhausted, down he came, throwing his rider to a
considerable distance over his head on the ground. Lilly slipped off
her well-trained little pony, which stood perfectly still while she ran
to her cousin's assistance. Ralph's countenance was pale as death. He
groaned heavily, and was evidently much hurt. His pony, as soon as it
got up, trotted off to a distance to avoid the beating its young master
might have bestowed.
Lilly cried out to the old gipsy woman, who, although she could not
hear, saw and understood her gestures. The old woman stood at a
distance gazing at the scene, and then slowly and unwillingly came back.
Lilly, as she watched Ralph's countenance, became more and more
alarmed. She endeavoured, by every gesture she could make use of, to
intimate that she wanted assistance. The old woman knelt down by the
lad, and putting her hand on his brow, and then on his arm, gave a
grunt, and rising with more agility than could have been expected,
hobbled off towards the gipsy camp. Lilly would have run on herself for
help, but she dared not leave her cousin on the ground, lest a carriage
coming rapidly down the hill might run over him. She anxiously watched
the old woman as she approached the tent. No one came forth, and she
feared that all the gipsies might be absent, and that no help could be
procured. She was herself, in the meantime, not idle. She placed
Ralph's head on her lap, loosened his neckerchief, and chafed his
temples, but her efforts were vain; he still remained unconscious, and
she fancied that he was growing rather worse than better. Lilly knew
that she could not lift him, though she longed to be able to carry him
even as far as the green bank by the road-side. She was in despair, and
could not refrain from bursting into tears. At last a thin dark man,
with long elf-locks, accompanied by two boys as wild-looking as he was,
and still more ragged, came running up.
"Ah! my pretty lady, don't take on; your brother has still life in him,"
he exclaimed when he saw Ralph. "Here, you Seth, lift up the young
master's legs; and Tim, you be off after his pony. Be quick, like
lightning, in a hurry."
Without more ado he raised Ralph from the ground, and bore him in his
arms towards the tent. Lilly followed, leading Apple-blossom. They
soon reached the gipsy tents. In one of them was a heap of straw.
Ralph was placed on it. Lilly saw that the sooner medical aid could be
procured the better. Still she did not like to leave him in charge of
such doubtful characters as the gipsies.
"You will take care of him, and I will hurry home to bring assistance,"
she said to the gipsy.
"Whatever you like, pretty mistress, for your sake we will do," was the
gallant answer.
Lilly mounted Apple-blossom, and galloped on to the Hall. Great was the
consternation her news caused. Mrs Clavering was so ill that no one
ventured to tell her of the accident. Mr Clavering was away from home,
and the butler and housekeeper were out on a visit. Lilly found that
she must decide what was to be done. She ordered the carriage to be got
ready, and then she sat down and wrote a note to the doctor, which she
sent off by a groom. By that time the carriage was at the door, and,
with Biddy as her companion, she drove back to the gipsy encampment.
They considerately took with them some food, and all sorts of things
which they thought might be required. Just as they reached the camp
they found the doctor, whom the groom had happily met. There, on a heap
of dirty straw, under cover of a tattered tent, lay the heir of
Clavering Hall. Lilly had hoped to take Ralph home; but directly Doctor
Morison saw him, he said that he must on no account be carried to such a
distance, although he might be moved on a litter to a neighbouring
cottage, as the gipsy tent afforded neither warmth nor shelter from rain
or snow. A door was accordingly procured, and Ralph was carried by the
gipsy and his two sons to a cottage about a quarter of a mile off, while
the carriage was sent back for some bedding and clothes. No sooner had
the gipsies performed the office they had undertaken than they hurried
away; and when, some time afterwards Doctor Morison, at Miss Vernon's
request, sent to call them back that they might receive a reward, they
had moved their ground: the black spot caused by their fire, and some
patches of straw, alone showed where their camp had been pitched.
"I fear, Miss Vernon, that your cousin is in a very dangerous state,"
said Doctor Morison, after again examining Ralph. "I think that it will
be well if you return in the carriage, and break the news to his father.
Remember, however, that I do not despair of his life."
This information made Lilly's heart very sad.
"He may die, and so unprepared," she whispered to herself. "Oh, may he
be graciously preserved!"
How many, young as Ralph Clavering, have been cut off in the midst of
their evil doings! An old woman and her daughter, the occupants of the
cottage, gladly consented to give up the best accommodation their small
abode offered to their wealthy neighbours. Mr Clavering, who had just
reached the Hall, scarcely comprehended at first what had happened.
Lilly had to repeat her tale. At length, when he really understood what
had occurred, like a frantic person he threw himself into the carriage,
and ordered the coachman to drive on as fast as the horses could go.
"What a wretched, miserable hole for my boy!" he exclaimed as he entered
the cottage.
"Poor young master bean't accustomed to cottage rooms," observed the old
woman, Dame Harvey, to her daughter. She could not forget that, humble
as was her cottage, it was her own, and that she was bestowing a favour
on those she had admitted within it. She was conscious at the same time
that she was doing her duty towards them as a Christian, and this made
her overlook, without complaint, many other slights she received. It
was an anxious night to all concerned in Ralph's welfare. Doctor
Morison feared that he had received a concussion of the brain, but could
not decide whether it would prove serious till the next day. Mr
Clavering scarcely left his son's bedside, nor would Lilly, had not
Biddy filled her place, and she then consented to lie down on some
chairs in a back room, where a large fire had been made up, a cart with
fuel having arrived from the Hall. Ralph breathed painfully, it was
evident that his life hung by a thread.