TWO LOVERS.
The boat came round the corner swiftly of the wooded stretch of rock,
within whose creek I lay concealed; and the officer in the stern-sheets
cried, in the short sharp tone of custom, "Easy, stroke; hold all!" I
heard him jerk the rudder-lines, as they passed within biscuit-toss of
me, and with a heavy sheer he sent her, as if he knew every inch of
water, to the steps of Narnton Court: not the handsome balustrade, only
a landing of narrow stone-way nearer to me than the western end, and
where the river-side terrace stopped. Two men sprang ashore and made the
boat fast at the landing, and then some others lifted out what seemed to
be a heavy chest, and placed it on the topmost step, until the officer,
having landed, signed to them to bear it further to a corner of the
parapet. I could see the whole of these doings, and distinguish him by
his uniform, because the boat and the group of sailors were not more
than fifty yards from me, and almost in the track of the moon from the
place where I was hiding. In a minute or two all returned to the boat,
with the exception of the officer, and I heard him give orders from the
shore--
"Round the point, men! Keep close, and wait for me under the Yellow Hook
I showed you."
The coxswain jumped into the stern-sheets; in a second or two they had
put about, and the light gig pulling six good oars shot by me, on the
first of the ebb, as swiftly almost as the wild ducks flew. Meanwhile
the officer stood and gazed until they had rounded the western point,
from which they had spoiled my shot so; and knowing the vigilant
keenness of a British captain's eyes, I feared that he might espy my
punt, which would have disgraced me dreadfully. And even without this I
felt how much I would rather be far away. There could have been no man
more against my taste to keep a watch upon than a captain in the royal
navy, whose father might have been over me. And vigorously as I called
to mind that all I was doing must be for his good, as well as for that
of his relatives, I could not find that satisfaction which ought to flow
from such benevolence. However, it now was too late to back out, even if
my desire to know the end of this matter allowed of it.
The officer stood for a minute or two, as if in brown thoughts and deep
melancholy, and turned to the house once or twice, and seemed to
hesitate as to approaching it. The long great house, with the broad
river-front, looked all dark and desolate; not a servant, a horse, or
even a dog was moving, and the only sign of life I could see was a dull
light in a little window over a narrow doorway. While I was wondering at
all this, and the captain standing gloomily, a little dark figure
crossed the moonlight from the shadowy doorway, and the officer made a
step or two, and held out his arms and received it. They seemed to stay
pretty well satisfied thus, the figure being wholly female, until, with
a sudden change of thought, there seemed to be some sobbing. This led
the captain to try again some soft modes of persuasion, such as I could
not see into, even if I would have deigned to do a thing against my
grain so, because I have been in that way myself, and did not want to be
looked at. However, not to be too long over what every man almost goes
through (some honestly, and some anyhow, but all tending to experience),
my only desire was, finding them at it, to get out of the way very
quickly. For, poor as I am, there were several women of Newton, and
Llaleston, and Ewenny, and even of Bridgend, our market-town, setting
their caps, like springles, at me! Whereas I laboured at nothing else
but to pay respect to my poor wife's memory, and never have a poor woman
after her. And now all these romantic doings made me feel uneasy, and
ready to be infected, so as to settle with nothing more than had been
offered me thrice, and three times refused--a 7-foot-and-6-inch mangle;
and (if she proved a tiger) have to work it myself perhaps!
Be that either way, these two unhappy lovers came along, while I was
wondering at them, yet able to make allowance so, until they must have
seen me, if they had a corner of an eye for anything less than one
another. They stood on a plank that crossed the narrow creek or slot
(wherein I lay, under a willow full of brown leaves), and scarcely ten
yards from me. Here there was a rail across, about as big as a
kidney-bean stick, whereupon they leaned, and looked into the water
under them. Then they sighed, and made such sorrow (streaked somehow
with happiness) that I got myself ready to leap overboard if either or
both of them should jump in. However, they had more sense than that;
though they went on very tenderly, and with a soft strain quite unfit to
belong to a British officer. Being, from ancient though humble birth,
gifted with a deal of delicacy, I pulled out two plugs of tobacco, which
happened to be in my mouth just now, and I spared them both to stop my
ears, though striking inwards painfully. I tried to hear nothing for
ever so long; but I found myself forced to ease out the plugs, they did
smart so confoundedly. And this pair wanted some one now to take a
judicious view of them, for which few men, perhaps, could be found
better qualified than I was. For they carried on in so high a manner,
that it seemed as if they could be cured by nothing short of married
life, of which I had so much experience. And the principal principle of
that state is, that neither party must begin to make too much of the
other side. But being now over that sort of thing, I found myself snug
in a corner, and able to view them with interest and considerable
candour.
"Is there no hope of it, then, after all; after all you have done and
suffered, and the prayers of everybody?" This was the maiden, of course
having right to the first word, and the last of it.
"There is hope enough, my darling; but nothing ever comes of it. And how
can I search out this strange matter, while I am on service always?"
"Throw it up, Drake; my dear heart, for my sake, throw it up, and throw
over all ambition, until you are cleared of this foul shame."
"My ambition is slender now," he answered, "and would be content with
one slender lady." Here he gave her a squeeze, that threatened not only
to make her slenderer, but also to make the rail need more stoutness,
and me to keep ready for plunging. "Nevertheless, you know," he went on,
when the plank and the rail put up with it, "I cannot think of myself
for a moment, while I am thus on duty. We expect orders for America."
"So you said; and it frightens me. If that should be so, what ever, ever
can become of us?"
"My own dear, you are a child; almost a child for a man like me, knocked
about the world so much, and ever so unfortunate."
The rest of his speech was broken into, much to my dissatisfaction, by a
soft caressing comfort, such as women's pity yields without any
consideration. Only they made all sorts of foolish promises, and eternal
pledges, touched up with confidence, and hope, and mutual praise, and
faith, and doubt, and the other ins and outs of love.
"I won't cry any more," she said, with several sobs between it; "I ought
not to be so with you, who are so strong, and good, and kind. Your
honour is cruelly wronged at home: you never shall say that your own,
own love wished you to peril it also abroad."
He took her quietly into his arms; and they seemed to strengthen one
another. And to my eyes came old tears, or at any rate such as had come
long ago. These two people stood a great time, silent, full of one
another, keeping close with reverent longing, gazing yet not looking at
the moonlight and the water. Then the delicate young maiden (for such
her voice and outline showed her, though I could not judge her face)
shivered in the curling fog which the climbing moon had brought.
Hereupon the captain felt that her lungs must be attended to, as well as
her lips, and her waist, and heart; and he said in a soft way, like a
shawl--
"Come away, my lovely darling, from the cold, and fog, and mist. Your
little cloak is damp all through; and time it is for me to go.
Discipline I will have always; and I must have the same with you, until
you take command of me."
"Many, many a weary year, ere I have the chance of it, Captain Drake."
The young thing sighed as she spoke, though perhaps without any sense of
prophecy.
"Isabel, let us not talk like that, even if we think it. The luck must
turn some day, my darling; even I cannot be always on the evil side of
it. How often has my father said so! And what stronger proof can I have
than you? As long as you are true to me----"
They were turning away, when this bright idea, which seems to occur to
lovers always, under some great law of nature, to prolong their
interviews;--this compelled them to repeat pretty much the same forms,
and ceremonies, assurances, pledges, and suchlike, which had passed
between them scarcely more than three or four minutes ago, at the
utmost. And again I looked away, because I would have had others do so
to me; and there was nothing new to learn by it.
"Only one thing more, my own," said the lady, taking his arm again; "one
more thing you must promise me. If you care for me at all, keep out of
the way of that dreadful man."
"Why, how can I meet him at sea, my Bell? Even if he dislikes me, as you
tell me perpetually, though I never gave him cause, that I know of."
"He does not dislike you, Drake Bampfylde; he hates you with all the
venomous, cold, black hatred, such as I fear to think of--oh my dear, oh
my dear!"
"Now, Isabel, try not to be so foolish. I never could believe such a
thing, and I never will, without clearest proof. I never could feel like
that myself, even if any one wronged me deeply. And in spite of all my
bad luck, Bell, I have never wronged any one. At least more than you
know of."
"Then don't wrong me, my own dear love, by taking no heed of yourself.
Here, there, and everywhere seems to be his nature. You may be proud of
your ship and people, and of course they are proud of you. You may be
ordered to Gibraltar, where they have done so gloriously, or to America,
or to India. But wherever you are, you never can be out of the reach of
that terrible man. His ways are so crooked, and so dark, and so
dreadfully cold-blooded."
"Isabel, Isabel, now be quiet. What an imagination you have! A man in
holy orders, a man of a good old family, who have been ancient friends
of ours----"
"A bad old family, you mean--bad for generations. It does not matter, of
course, what I say, because I am so young and stupid. But you are so
frank, and good, and simple, and so very brave and careless, and I know
that you will own some day--oh, it frightens mo so to think of it!--that
you were wrong in this matter, and your Isabel was right."
What his answer was I cannot tell, because they passed beyond my hearing
upon their way towards the house. The young lady, with her long hair
shining like woven gold in the moonlight, tried (so far as I could see)
to persuade him to come in with her. This, however, he would not do,
though grieving to refuse her; and she seemed to know the reason of it,
and to cease to urge him. In and out of many things, which they seemed
to have to talk of, he showed her the great chest in the dark corner;
and perhaps she paid good heed to it. As to that, how can I tell, when
they both were so far off, and river-fogs arising? Yet one thing I well
could tell, or at any rate could have told it in the times when my blood
ran fast, and my habit of life was romantic. Even though the light was
foggy, and there was no time to waste, these two people seemed so to
stay with a great dislike of severing.
However, they managed it at last; and growing so cold in my shoulders
now, as well as my knees uncomfortable, right glad was I to hear what
the maiden listened to with intense despair; that is to say, the
captain's footfall, a yard further off every time of the sound. Ho went
along the Braunton road, to find his boat where the river bends. And
much as I longed to know him better, and understand why he did such
things, and what he meant by hankering so after this young lady, outside
his own father's house, and refusing to go inside when invited, and
speaking of his own bad luck so much, and having a chest put away from
the moonlight, likewise his men in the distance so far, and compelled to
keep round the corner, not to mention his manner of walking, and
swinging his shoulders, almost as if the world was nothing to him;
although I had never been perhaps so thoroughly pushed with desire of
knowledge, and all my best feelings uppermost, there was nothing for me
left except to ponder, and to chow my quid, rowing softly through the
lanes and lines of misty moonlight, to my little cuddy-home across the
tidal river.