A picnic is a very doubtful pleasure to people out of their teens, or at
least out of their twenties; and yet it remains a very popular
amusement. The grass is often damp, and it is a very forced and
uncomfortable position to sit with your plate on your knees and nothing
within your reach which you may reasonably want in the course of the
awkward meal. Mrs. Seton and the younger ladies, who were sedulously
attended upon, did not perhaps feel this so much; but then smart young
men, especially when themselves guests and attached to one particular
party, do not wait upon “the old cats” as they do upon the ladies of the
feast. Why Mrs. Shanks and Miss Mildmay should have continued to partake
in these banquets, and spend their money on the midge to convey them
there, I am unable so much as to guess, for they would certainly have
been much more comfortable at home. But they did do so, in defiance of
any persuasion. They were not entirely ignorant that they were
considered old cats. The jibes which were current on the subject did not
always fly over their heads. They knew more or less why they were asked,
and how little any one cared for their presence. And yet they went to
every entertainment of the kind to which they were asked with a
steadiness worthy of a better cause. They were less considered even than
usual in this company, which was chiefly made up of strangers. They had
to scramble for the salad and help themselves to the ham. Cold chicken
was supposed to be quite enough for them without any accompaniment. The
_pâté de foie gras_ was quite exhausted before it came their length, and
Miss Mildmay had to pluck at Mr. Seton’s coat and call his attention
half a dozen times before they got any champagne; and yet they were
always ready to accept the most careless invitation, I cannot tell why.
They talked chiefly to each other, and took their little walks together
when the young ones dispersed or betook themselves to some foolish game.
“Oh, here are the old cats!” they could almost hear the girls say, when
the two ancient figures came in sight at the turn of the path; and
Stella would turn round and walk off in the opposite direction without
an attempt at concealment. But they did not take offence, and next time
were always ready to come again.
That Mrs. Seton should have been ready to come was less wonderful, for
though she was old enough to be a little afraid of her complexion, and
was aware that damp was very bad for her neuralgia, it was indispensable
for her to have something to do, and the heavy blank of a day without
entertainment was dreadful to bear. And this was not for herself only
but for her court, or her tail, or whatever it may be called--the
retinue of young men whom she led about, and who had to be amused
whatever happened. Think of the expenditure of energy that is necessary
to amuse so many young active human creatures in a sitting-room in a
hotel for a whole morning, before lunch comes to relieve the intolerable
strain; or even in an afternoon before and after the blessed relief of
tea! They sprawl about upon the chairs, they block up the windows, they
gape for something to do, they expect to have funny things said to them
and to be made to laugh. What hard work for any woman whose whole
faculty consists in a capacity for saying every folly that comes into
her head with an audacity which is not accompanied by wit! “What a fool
you do look, Algy, with your mouth open like a little chick in a nest!
Do you expect me to pop a worm into it?” This speech made them all roar,
but it was not in itself amusing, the reader will perceive. And to go on
in that strain for hours is extremely fatiguing, more so than the
hardest work. Many people wondered why she should take the trouble to
have all these men about her, and to undertake the Herculean task of
entertaining them, which was a mystery quite as great as the
persistence of the elder ladies in going to feasts where they are
called old cats and receive no attention. The lightest of social
entertainments _donnent à penser_ in this way. You would have thought
that Mrs. Seton would have welcomed the moment of relief which ensued
when the boys and girls ran off together in a sort of hide-and-seek
among the tufted slopes. But when she found that she was actually left
alone for a moment with only her husband to attend upon her, the lady
was not pleased at all.
“Where have they all gone?” she cried. “What do they mean leaving me all
alone? Where’s Algy--and where’s Sir Charles--and all of them?”
“There’s nobody but me, I’m afraid, Lottie,” said little Seton, who was
strengthening himself with another glass of champagne; “they’ve all gone
off with the young ones.”
“The young ones!” Mrs. Seton cried, with a sort of suppressed shriek.
The eldest of the Stanley girls was seated at a little distance,
sedately employed in making a drawing, and Mrs. Shanks and Miss Mildmay
sat resting upon a pile of carriage cushions which they had collected
together when the others went away. The old ladies were much occupied in
seeing that Perkins, the driver of the midge, had his share with the
other servants of the relics of the feast. And was she, the brilliant,
the gay, the lovely Lottie, left with these _débris_ of humanity,
deserted by her kind? She rose up hastily and flourished her parasol
with an energy which nearly broke the ivory stick. “Have you no spirit
at all,” she cried, “to let your wife be neglected like this?” Katherine
was the one who met her in full career as she went down the winding
slopes--Katherine enjoying herself very moderately with none of the
stolen goods about her, in sole company of Evelyn Stanley and Gerrard,
her brother. “Where are all my party?” cried Mrs. Seton. “They will
never forgive me for deserting them. You stole a march upon me, Miss
Tredgold.” But certainly it was not Katherine who had stolen the march.
At this moment Stella appeared out of the bushes, flushed with fun and
laughter, her pretty hat pushed back upon her head, her pretty hair in a
little confusion.
“Oh, come along, come along!” she cried, seizing Mrs. Seton by the arm,
“here’s such a beautiful place to hide in; they are all after us, full
cry. Come, come, we must have you on our side.” Thus, again, it was
Stella that was on the amusing side where all the fun and the pleasure
was. Evelyn Stanley cast wistful eyes after the pair.
“Oh, Katherine, do you mind me going, too? Hide-and-seek is such fun,
and we can walk here every day.”
“Do you want to go, too, Gerrard?” Katherine said.
“Not if I may walk with you,” said the youth, who was at the University
and felt himself superior. He was only a year younger than she was, and
he thought that a _grande passion_ for a woman advanced in life was a
fine thing for a young man. He had made up his mind to keep by
Katherine’s side whatever happened. “I don’t care for that silly
nonsense,” he said; “it’s very well for these military fellows that have
not an idea in their heads. I always liked conversation best, and your
conversation, dear Katherine----”
“Why, I cannot talk a bit,” she said with a laugh.
It was on Gerrard’s lips to say, “But I can.” He had the grace, however,
not to utter that sentiment. “There are some people whose silence is
more eloquent than other people’s talk,” he said, which was a much
prettier thing to say.
“Oh, why didn’t you come at first?” cried Stella in Mrs. Seton’s ear.
“They all think you are with me, only that you’ve got some very cunning
place to hide in: and here it is. I am sure they’ll never find us here.”
“I hope they will, though,” said the elder lady, speaking in tones that
were not at all subdued. “You need not be so clever with your cunning
places. Of course we want them to find us; there is no fun in it if they
don’t.”
Stella stared a little with widely opened eyes at her experienced
companion. She was still schoolgirl enough to rejoice in baffling the
other side, and liked the fun simply as Evelyn Stanley did, who was only
sixteen, and who came crowding in upon them whispering in her delight:
“They’ve run down the other way, the whole lot of them like sheep; they
have no sense. Oh, hush! hush! speak low! they’ll never think of a
place like this.”
“I shall make them think,” cried Mrs. Seton, and then she began to sing
snatches of songs, and whistled through the thicket to the astonishment
of the girls.
“Oh, that is no fun at all,” said Evelyn.
“Hush!” cried Stella, already better informed, “it isn’t any fun if they
don’t find us, after all.”
And then the train of young men came rushing back with shouts, and the
romp went on. It was so far different from other romps that when the fun
flagged for a moment the faces of the players all grew blank again, as
if they had at once relapsed into the heavy dulness which lay behind,
which was rather astonishing to the younger ones, who loved the game for
its own sake. Stella, for her part, was much impressed by this recurring
relapse. How exquisite must be the fun to which they were accustomed,
which kept them going! She was painfully aware that she flagged too,
that her invention was not quick enough to think of something new before
the old was quite exhausted. She had thought of nothing better than to
go on, to hide again, when Mrs. Seton, yawning, sat down to fan herself,
and said what Stella thought the rudest things to her cavaliers.
“Why does Charlie Somers look so like an ass?” she said. “Do you give it
up? Because he’s got thistles all round him and can’t get at ’em.”
Stella stared while the young men burst into noisy laughter.
“Is that a conundrum?” Stella said.
They thought this was wit too, and roared again. And then once more all
the faces grew blank. It was her first experience of a kind of society
decidedly above her level, and it was impressive as well as alarming to
the inexperienced young woman. It had been her habit to amuse herself,
not doubting that in doing so she would best promote the amusement of
her guests. But Stella now began to feel the responsibilities of an
entertainer. It was not all plain sailing. She began to understand the
rush of reckless talk, the excited tones, the startling devices of her
new friend. In lack of anything better, the acceptance of a cigar on
Mrs. Seton’s part, and the attempt to induce Stella to try one too,
answered for a moment to the necessities of the situation. They were not
very particular as to the selection of things to amuse them, so long as
there was always something going on.
Sir Charles Somers sat with her on the box as she drove home, and gave
her a number of instructions which at first Stella was disposed to
resent.
“I have driven papa’s horses ever since I was born,” she said.
“But you might drive much better,” said the young man, calmly putting
his hand on hers, moulding her fingers into a better grasp upon the
reins, as composedly as if he were touching the springs of an instrument
instead of a girl’s hand. She blushed, but he showed no sense of being
aware that this touch was too much. He was the one of the strangers whom
she liked best, probably because he was Sir Charles, which gave him a
distinction over the others, or at least it did so to Stella. This was
not, however, because she was unaccustomed to meet persons who shared
the distinction, for the island people were very tolerant of such
_nouveaux riches_ as the Tredgolds, who were so very ready to add to
their neighbours’ entertainment. Two pretty girls with money are seldom
disdained in any community, and the father, especially as he was so well
advised as to keep himself out of society, was forgiven them, so that
the girls were sometimes so favoured as to go to a ball under Lady
Jane’s wing, and knew all “the best people.” But even to those who are
still more accustomed to rank than Stella, Sir Charles sounds better
than Mr. So-and-so; and he had his share of good looks, and of that ease
in society which even she felt herself to be a little wanting in. He did
not defer to the girl, or pay her compliments in any old-fashioned way.
He spoke to her very much as he spoke to the other young men, and
gripped her fingers to give them the proper grasp of the reins with as
much force of grip and as perfect calm as if she had been a boy instead
of a girl. This rudeness has, it appears, its charm.
“I shouldn’t have wondered if he had called me Tredgold,” Stella said
with a pretence at displeasure.
“What a horrid man!” Katherine replied, to whom this statement was made.
“Horrid yourself for thinking so,” cried her sister. “He is not a horrid
man at all, he is very nice. We are going to be great--pals. Why
shouldn’t we be great pals? He is a little tired of Lottie Seton and her
airs, he said. He likes nice honest girls that say what they mean, and
are not always bullying a fellow. Well, that is what he said. It is his
language, it is not mine. You know very well that is how men speak, and
Lottie Seton does just the same. I told him little thanks to him to like
girls better than an old married woman, and you should have seen how he
tugged his moustache and rolled in his seat with laughing. Lottie Seton
must have suspected something, for she called out to us what was the
joke?”
“I did not know you were on such terms with Mrs. Seton, Stella, as to
call her by her Christian name.”
“Oh, we call them all by their names. Life’s too short for Missis That
and Mr. This. Charlie asked me----”
“Charlie! why, you never saw him till to-day.”
“When you get to know a man you don’t count the days you’ve been
acquainted with him,” said Stella, tossing her head, but with a flush on
her face. She added: “I asked him to come over to lunch to-morrow and to
see the garden. He said it would be rare fun to see something of the
neighbourhood without Lottie Seton, who was always dragging a lot of
fellows about.”
“Stella, what a very, very unpleasant man, to talk like that about the
lady who is his friend, and who brought him here!”
“Oh, his friend!” cried Stella, “that is only your old-fashioned way.
She is no more his friend! She likes to have a lot of men following her
about everywhere, and they have got nothing to do, and are thankful to
go out anywhere to spend the time; so it is just about as broad as it
is long. They do it to please themselves, and there is not a bit of love
lost.”
“I don’t like those kind of people,” said Katherine.
“They are the only kind of people,” Stella replied.
This conversation took place from one room to another, the door standing
open while the girls performed a hasty toilette. All the picnic people
had been parted with at the gate with much demonstration of friendship
and a thousand thanks for a delightful day. Only the midge had deposited
its occupants at the door. The two old cats were never to be got rid of.
They were at that moment in another room, making themselves tidy, as
they said, with the supercilious aid of Katherine’s maid. Stella did not
part with hers in any circumstances, though she was about to dine in
something very like a dressing-gown with her hair upon her shoulders.
Mr. Tredgold liked to see Stella with her hair down, and she was not
herself averse to the spectacle of the long rippled locks falling over
her shoulders. Stella was one of the girls who find a certain enjoyment
in their own beauty even when there is nobody to see.
“It was a very pleasant party on the whole to be such an impromptu,”
said Mrs. Shanks; “your girls, Mr. Tredgold, put such a spirit in
everything. Dear girls! Stella is always the most active and full of
fun, and Katherine the one that looks after one’s comfort. Don’t you
find the Stanleys, Kate, a little heavy in hand?--excellent good people,
don’t you know, always a stand-by, but five of them, fancy! Marion that
is always at her drawing, and Edith that can talk of nothing but the
parish, and that little romp Evelyn who is really too young and too
childish! Poor Mr. Stanley has his quiver too full, poor man, like so
many clergymen.”
“If ever there was a man out of place--the Rector at a picnic!” said
Miss Mildmay, “with nobody for him to talk to. I’ll tell you what it is,
Mr. Tredgold, he thinks Kate is such a steady creature, he wants her for
a mother to his children; now see if I am not a true prophet before the
summer is out.”
Mr. Tredgold’s laugh, which was like the tinkling of a tin vessel,
reached Katherine’s ear at the other end of the table, but not the
speech which had called it forth.
“Papa, the officers are coming here to-morrow to lunch--you don’t mind,
do you?--that is, Charlie Somers and Algy Scott. Oh, they are nice
enough; they are dreadfully dull at Newport. They want to see the garden
and anything there is to see. You know you’re one of the sights of the
island, papa.”
“That is their fun,” said the old man. “I don’t know what they take me
for, these young fellows that are after the girls. Oh, they’re all after
the girls; they know they’ve got a good bit of money and so forth, and
think their father’s an easy-going old fool as soft as--Wait till we
come to the question of settlements, my good ladies, wait till then;
they’ll not find me so soft when we get there.”
“It is sudden to think of settlements yet, Mr. Tredgold. The Rector,
poor man, has got nothing to settle, and as for those boys in the
garrison, they never saw the dear girls till to-day.”
“Ah, I know what they are after,” said Mr. Tredgold. “My money, that is
what they are all after. Talk to me about coming to see over the garden
and so forth! Fudge! it is my money they are after; but they’ll find I
know a thing or two before it comes to that.”
“Papa,” said Stella, “you are just an old suspicious absurd--What do
they know about your money? They never heard your name before. Of course
they had heard of _me_. The other battalion were all at the Ryde ball,
and took notes. They thought I was an American, that shows how little
they know about you.”
“That means, Stella,” said Miss Mildmay, “everything that is fast and
fly-away. I wouldn’t brag of it if I were you.”
“It means the fashion,” said Mrs. Shanks. “Dear Stella _is_ like that,
with her nice clothes, and her way of rushing at everything, and never
minding. Now Katherine is English, no mistake about her--a good
daughter, don’t you know--and she’ll make an excellent wife.”
“But the man will have to put down his money, piece for piece, before he
shall have her, I can tell you,” said the master of the house. “Oh, I’m
soft if you like it, and over-indulgent, and let them have all their own
way; but there’s not a man in England that stands faster when it comes
to that.”
Stella gave her sister a look, and a little nod of her head; her eyes
danced and her hair waved a little, so light and fluffy it was, with
that slight gesture. It seemed to say, We shall see! It said to
Katherine, “You might stand that, but it will not happen with me.” The
look and the gesture were full of a triumphant defiance. Stella was not
afraid that she would ever feel the restraining grip of her father’s
hand; and then she thought of that other grip upon her fingers, and
shook her shiny hair about her ears more triumphant still.