As for spending a whole morning in the drawing-room with the ladies it
is what I cannot and will not submit to. Working and scandal, scandal
and working, from half-past ten till two is more than I can stand, so
the very first morning I was at Dangerfield I resolved to break the
chain at once, and do as I always meant to do for the future.
Accordingly, immediately after breakfast I popped my bonnet on--the
lavender one, that had done a good deal of London work, but was still
quite good enough for the country--and started off for a walk by
myself, confiding my intentions to no one; as I well knew if I did I
should have Aunt Deborah's "Kate, _pray_ don't overheat yourself, my
dear. Do wrap yourself up, and take care not to catch cold;" and Lady
Horsingham's sarcastic smile, and "In _my_ time, Miss Coventry, young
ladies were not in the habit of trailing all over the country by
themselves; but I expect soon to hear of their farming and fishing and
shooting, I shouldn't wonder--not worse than _hunting_, at any rate.
However, I say nothing;" and Cousin Amelia with her lackadaisical
sneer, and her avowal that "she was not _equal_ to walking," and her
offer to "go as far as the garden with me in the afternoon." So I
tripped down the back staircase and away to the stables with a bit of
sugar for Brilliant, who had arrived safely by the train in company
with White Stockings, and on through the kitchen-garden and the
home-farm up to the free, fresh, breezy down.
I do enjoy a walk by myself, and it was the last chance I should have
of one; for Cousin John was expected that very day, and when Cousin
John and I are anywhere, of course we are inseparable. But I am sure
an occasional stroll quite by oneself does one more good than
anything. I think of such quantities of things that never occur to me
at other times--fairies, brigands, knights, and damsels, and all sorts
of wild adventures; and I feel so brave and determined, as if I could
face anything in a right cause, and so _good_, and I make such
excellent resolutions, and walk faster and faster, and get more and
more romantic, like a goose, as I know I am.
Well, it was a beautiful morning, early in autumn--blue sky, light
fleecy clouds, a sharp, clear air from the north, the low country
studded with corn-ricks, and alive with reapers and cart-teams and
cattle. A green valley below me, rich in fine old timber, and clothed
with high, thick hedgerows, concealing the sluggish river that stole
softly away, and only gleamed out here and there to light up the
distance; whilst above and around me stretched far and wide the vast
expanse of down, cutting sharply against the sky, and dwarfing to mere
shrubs the clumps of old fir trees that relieved its magnificent
monotony. I was deep in a daydream and an imaginary conversation with
Frank Lovell--in which I was running over with much mental eloquence
what _I_ should say, and what _he_ would say, and what _I_ should
reply to _that_--when a shrill whistle caused me to start and turn
suddenly round; whilst at the same instant a great black retriever
bounced up against my legs, and two handsome pointers raced by me as
if just emancipated from the kennel. The consequence of all this was
that I stepped hastily on a loose stone, turned my foot the wrong way
under me, and came down with a slightly-sprained ankle, and the black
retriever, an animal of exceedingly noisome breath, affectionately
licking my face.
"Down, Juno!--I beg your pardon a million times; get down, you bitch!
How shall I ever apologize? Confound you, get down," said an agitated
voice above me; and looking up I espied the red-haired stranger of the
railway, dressed in a most conspicuous shooting-costume, white hat and
all, whose dogs had been the means of bringing me thus suddenly to the
earth, and on whom I was now dependent for succour and support till I
should be able to reach home.
In such an emergency my new friend was not half so confused and shy as
I should have expected. He seemed to summon all his energies to
consider what was best to be done; and as my foot pained me
considerably when I tried to walk (particularly down hill), he made no
more ado, but lifted me carefully in his arms, and proceeded
incontinently to carry me off in the direction of Dangerfield Hall,
where he seemed intuitively to know I was at present residing.
It was, to say the least of it, an unusual situation. A man I had
never seen but once before in my life--and here was I lying in his
arms (precious weight he must have found me!) and looking up in his
face like a child in its nurse's, and the usages of society making it
incumbent on us both to attempt a sort of indifferent conversation
about the weather and the country and the beauty of the scenery, which
the juxtaposition of our respective faces rendered ludicrous in the
extreme.
"A tempting day for a walk, Miss--ah--ah" (he didn't know my name--how
should he?--and was now beginning to get very red, partly from the
return of his constitutional shyness and partly from the severity of
his exertions). "I hope your foot does not pain you quite so much; be
good enough to lean a little more this way." Poor man, how his arms
must have ached! Whilst I replied somewhat in this fashion, "Thank
you, I'm better; I shall soon be able to walk, I think; this is indeed
a lovely country. Don't you find me very heavy?" "I think I could
carry you a good many miles," he said quietly; and then seemed so
shocked at such an avowal that he hardly opened his lips again, and
put me down the very first time I asked him, and offered me his arm
with an accession of confusion that made me feel quite awkward myself.
Truth to tell, my ankle was not sprained, only _twisted_; and when the
immediate pain wore off I was pretty sound again, and managed, with
the assistance of my new acquaintance's arm, to make a very good walk
of it. So we plodded on quite sociably towards the Hall, and my friend
took leave of me at the farm with a polite bow and a sort of
hesitating manner that most shy men possess, and which would lead one
to infer they have always got something more to say that never is
said. I knew I should be well scolded if I avowed my accident to any
of the family; besides, I did not quite fancy facing all the inquiries
as to how I got home, and Cousin Amelia's sneers about errant damsels
and wandering knights; so I stole quietly up to my room, bathed my
foot in eau-de-Cologne, and remained _perdue_ till dinner-time, in
despite of repeated messages from my aunts and the arrival of Cousin
John.
People may talk about country pleasures and country duties and all the
charms of country life; but it appears to me that a good many things are
done under the titles of pleasure and duty which belong in reality to
neither; and that those who live entirely in the country inflict on
themselves a great variety of unnecessary disagreeables, as they lose a
great many of its chief delights. Of all receipts for weariness commend
me to a dinner-party of country neighbours by _daylight_--people who know
each other just well enough to have opposite interests and secret
jealousies--who arrive ill at ease in their smart dresses, to sit through
a protracted meal with hot servants and forced conversation, till one
young lady on her promotion being victimized at the pianoforte enables
them to yawn unobserved; and welcome ten o'clock brings round the
carriage and tipsy coachman, in order that they may enter on their long,
dark, dreary drive home through lanes and by-ways, which is only
endurable from the consideration that the annual ordeal has been
accomplished, and that they need not do it again till this time next
year.
There was a dinner-party at Dangerfield regularly once a month, and
this was the day. Aunt Horsingham was great on these occasions,
astonishing the neighbours as much with her London dresses as did
Cousin Amelia with her London manners. We all assembled a few minutes
earlier than usual in the drawing-room, so as to be ready to receive
our guests, and great was the infliction on poor Aunt Deborah and my
humble self. How they trooped in, one after another! Sir Brian and
Lady Banneret and Master Banneret and two Misses Banneret; these were
the great cards of the party; so Lady Horsingham kissed Lady Banneret
and the young ladies, and opined Master Banneret was _grown_, much to
the indignation of that young gentleman, who, being an Oxonian, of
course considered himself _a man_. Sir Brian was a good-humoured jolly
old boy, with a loud laugh, and stood with his coat-tails lifted and
his back to the empty fireplace in perfect ease and contentment. Not
so his lady; first she scrutinized everything Lady Horsingham had got
on, then she took a review of the furniture, and specially marked one
faded place in the carpet. Lastly, she turned a curious and
disappointed glance on myself. I accounted for the latter mark of
displeasure by the becoming shade of my gown; I knew it was a pretty
one, and would meet with feminine censure accordingly. The Bannerets
were soon followed by Mr. and Mrs. Plumridge, a newly-married couple,
who were _fêted_ accordingly. Mr. Plumridge was a light-haired,
unmeaning-looking individual, partially bald, with a blue coat and
white satin neckcloth; his bride a lively, sarcastic, black-eyed
little woman, who must have married him for her own convenience--they
said afterwards she was once a governess; but at all events she held
her own handsomely when alone with the ladies after dinner, and partly
from good-humour, partly from an exceedingly off-hand natural manner,
forced even Lady Banneret to be civil to her. Then came the Marmadukes
and the Marygolds, and old Miss Finch in a sedan-chair from the
adjoining village, and a goodish-looking man whose name I never made
out, and Mr. Sprigges the curate; and lastly, in a white heat and a
state of utter confusion, my shy acquaintance of the railway and the
pointers, who was ushered in by Lady Horsingham's pompous butler under
the style and title of Mr. Haycock. He appeared to be a great friend
of the family; and, much to his own discomfiture, was immediately laid
violent hands on by my aunt and cousin--the former not thinking it
necessary to present him to me, till he offered me his arm to take me
in to dinner, when her face of reproval, on his stammering out he "had
met Miss Coventry before," was worth anything, expressive as it was of
shocked propriety and puzzled astonishment.
When you have a secret only known to your two selves, even with a shy
man, it is wonderful how it brings him on. Before the soup was off the
table Squire Haycock and I had become wonderfully good friends. He had
hoped "my ankle did not pain me," and I had trusted "his arms did not
ache." He had even gone the length of "vowing" that he would have shot
his clumsy retriever for being the cause of the accident, only he let
him off because "if it hadn't been for the dog----" and here, seeing
Cousin Amelia's eye fixed upon us, my companion stopped dead short,
and concealed his blushes in a glass of champagne. Taking courage from
that well-iced stimulant, he reverted to our railway journey in
company.
"I knew you again this morning, Miss Coventry, I assure you, a long
way off; in fact, I was going the other way, only, seeing you walking
in that lonely part of the down, I feared you might be frightened" (he
was getting bright scarlet again), "and I determined to watch you at a
little distance, and be ready to assist you if you were alarmed by
tramps or sheep-dogs or----"
I thought he was getting on too fast, so I stopped him at once by
replying,--
"I am well able to take care of myself, Mr. Haycock, I assure you, and
I like best walking _quite_ alone;" after which I turned my shoulder a
little towards him, and completely discomfited him for the rest of
dinner. One great advantage of diffidence in a man is that one can so
easily reduce him to the lowest depths of despondency; but then, on
the other hand, he is apt to think one means to be more cruel than one
does, and one is obliged to be kind in proportion to previous
coldness, or the stupid creature breaks away altogether. When the
ladies got up to leave the dining-room, I dropped my handkerchief well
under the table, and when it was returned to me by the Squire, I gave
him such a look of gratitude as I knew would bring him back to me in
the evening. Nobody hates flirting so much as myself, but what is one
to do shut up in a country-house, with no earthly thing to occupy or
amuse one?
Tea and coffee served but little to produce cordiality amongst the
female portion of the guests after their flight to the drawing-room.
Lady Horsingham and Lady Banneret talked apart on a sofa; they were
deep in the merits of their respective preachers and the failings of
their respective maids. Mrs. Marmaduke and Mrs. Marygold, having had a
"Book-Club" feud, did not speak to each other, but communicated
through the medium of Miss Finch, whose deafness rendered this a
somewhat unsatisfactory process. Aunt Deborah went to sleep as usual;
and I tried the two Miss Bannerets consecutively, but ascertained that
neither would open her lips, at least in the presence of mamma. At
last I found a vacant place by the side of Mrs. Plumridge, and
discovered immediately, with the peculiar freemasonry which I believe
men do not possess, that she was _one of my sort_. She liked walking,
riding, driving, dancing--all that I liked, in short; and she hated
scandal-gossiping, _sensible_ women, morning visits, and worsted-work,
for all of which I confess to an unqualified aversion. We were getting
fast friends when the gentlemen came in from their wine, honest Sir
Brian's voice sounding long before he entered the room, and the worthy
gentleman himself rolling in with an unsteady step, partly from
incipient gout, and partly, I fancy, from a good deal of port wine. He
took a vacant seat by me almost immediately, chiefly, I think, because
it was the nearest seat; and avowing openly his great regard and
admiration for my neighbour, Mrs. Plumridge, proceeded to make himself
agreeable to both of us in his own way--though I am concerned to state
that he trod heavily on my _sprained_ foot, and spilt the greater part
of a cup of coffee over _her_ satin gown. The Squire, whose nerves for
the present were strung above blushing pitch, soon joined our little
party; and whilst the two Miss Bannerets performed an endless duet on
Aunt Horsingham's luckless pianoforte, and their brother, choking in
his stiff white neckcloth, turned over the leaves, Sir Brian bantered
Mr. Haycock gracefully on his abstemiousness after dinner, an effort
of self-denial of which no one could accuse him, and vowed, with much
laughter, that "Haycock must be in love! in love, Miss Coventry, don't
you think so? A man that always used to take his two bottles as
regularly as myself--I am a foe to excess, ladies, but Haycock's an
anchorite, d---- me--a monk! Haycock! monks mustn't marry, you
know!--wouldn't he look well with his feet shaved, Miss Coventry, and
his head bare and a rope round his neck?" Sir Brian was getting
confused, and had slightly transposed the clerical costume to which he
alluded; but was quite satisfied that his little badinage was witty
and amusing in the extreme. Indeed, Mrs. Plumridge and I couldn't help
laughing; but poor Squire Haycock's embarrassment was so intense that
he ordered his carriage immediately, and took leave, venturing,
however, at the very last, to shake me by the hand, and braving once
again the banter of the inebriated Baronet.
"Stole away," said Sir Brian; "a shy man, Miss Coventry--a shy,
diffident man, my friend Haycock, but true as steel--not a better
landlord in the county--excellent neighbour--useful magistrate--good
house--beautiful garden--lots of poultry, and a glass beehive--wants
nothing but a wife--order the carriage, my lady.--Mrs. Plumridge, you
must come and see us at Slopperly, and don't forget to bring
Plumridge.--Miss Coventry, you're a charming young lady; mind you come
too." So jolly Sir Brian wished us both a most affectionate
good-night, and, shaking Aunt Horsingham violently by both hands,
packed himself into his carriage in a state of high good-humour and
confusion. I have since heard that on his arrival at Slopperly he
stoutly refused to get out, declaring that he preferred to "sit in the
carriage whilst they changed horses," and avowing, much to his old
butler's astonishment, his resolution to go "at least one more stage
that night."