IN A ROCKY BOWER.
I never hear of a man's impatience without sagely reflecting upon the
rapid flight of time, when age draws on, and business thickens, and all
the glory of this world must soon be left behind us. From the date of my
great catch of fish and landing of Bardie at Pool Tavan, to the day of
my guiding the British fleet betwixt the shoals of Syracuse, more than
sixteen years had passed, and scarce left time to count them.
Therefore it was but a natural thing that the two little maidens with
whom I began should now be grown up, and creating a stir in the minds of
young men of the neighbourhood. Early in this present month of July,
that north-west breeze, which was baffling our fleet off the coast of
Anatolia, was playing among the rocks of Sker with the curls and skirts
and ribbons of these two fair young damsels.
Or rather with the ribbons of one, for Bunny alone wore streamers,
wherein her heart delighted; while the maid of Sker was dressed as
plainly as if she had been her servant. Not that her inborn love of
brightness ever had abandoned her, but that her vanities were put down
quite arrogantly by Master Berkrolles whenever she came back from
Candleston; and but for her lessons in music there--which were beyond
Roger's compass--he would have raised his voice against her visits to
the good Colonel.
For the old man's heart was entirely fixed upon the graceful maiden, and
his chief anxiety was to keep her out of the way of harm. He knew that
the Colonel loved nothing better (as behoved his lineage) than true and
free hospitality; and he feared that the simple and nameless girl might
set her affections on some grand guest, who would scorn her derelict
origin.
Now she led Bunny into a cave, or rather a snug little cove of rock,
which she always called her cradle, and where she had spent many lonely
hours, in singing pure Welsh melodies of the sweetest sadness, feeling a
love of the desert places from her own desertion. Then down she sate in
her chair of stone, with limpets and barnacles studding it; while Bunny
in the established manner bounced down on a pebble and gazed at her.
My son's daughter was a solid girl, very well built as our family is,
and raking most handsomely fore and aft. Her fine black eyes, and
abiding colour, and the modesty inherited from her grandfather, and some
reflection perhaps of his fame, made her a favourite everywhere. And any
grandfather might well have been proud to see how she carried her dress
off.
The younger maid sate right above her, quite as if Nature had ordered it
so; and drew her skirt of home-spun camlet over her dainty feet, because
the place was wet and chilly. And anybody looking must have said that
she was born to grace. The clear outlines of oval face and delicate
strength of forehead were moulded as by Nature only can such dainty work
be done. Gentle pride and quiet moods of lonely meditation had deepened
and subdued the radiance of the large grey eyes, and changed the dancing
mirth of childhood into soft intelligence. And it must have been a fine
affair, with the sunshine glancing on the breezy sea, to take a look at
the lights and shadows of so clear a countenance.
Bunny, like a frigate riding, doused her head and all her outworks
forward of the bends; and then hung fluttering and doubtful, just as if
she had missed stays.
"It is not your engagement, my dear Bunny," began Delushy, as if she
were ten years the senior officer; "you must not suppose for a moment
that I object to your engagement. It is time, of course, for you to
think, among so many suitors, of some one to put up with, especially
after what you told me about having toothache. And Watkin is thoroughly
good and kind, and able to read quite respectably. But what I blame you
for is this, that you have not been straightforward, Bunny. Why have you
kept me in the dark about this one of your many 'sweetheartings,' as you
always call them?"
"And for sure, miss, then I never did no such thing; unless it was that
I thought you was wanting him."
"I! You surely cannot have thought it! I want Watkin Thomas!"
"Well, miss, you need not fly out like that. All the girls in Newton was
after him. And if it wasn't you as wanted him, it might be him as wanted
you, which comes to the same thing always."
"I don't quite think that it does, dear Bunny, though you may have made
it do so. Now look up and kiss me, dear: you know that I love you very
much, though I have a way of saying things. And then I am longing to beg
pardon when I have vexed any one. It comes of my 'noble birth,' I
suppose, which the girls of Newton laugh about. How I wish that I were
but the child of the poorest good man in the parish! But now I am tired
of thinking of it. What good ever comes of it? And what can one poor
atom matter?"
"You are not a poor atom; you are the best, and the cleverest, and most
learnedest, and most beautifullest lady as ever was seen in the whole of
the land."
After or rather in the middle of which words, our Bunny, with her usual
vigour and true national ardour, leaped into the arms of Delushy, so
that they had a good cry together. "You will wait, of course, for your
Granny to come, before you settle anything."
"Will I, indeed?" cried that wicked Bunny, and lucky for her that I was
not there: "I shall do nothing of the sort. If he chooses to be always
away at sea, conquering the French for ever, and never coming home when
he can help it, he must make up his mind to be surprised when he happens
to come home again. For sure then, that is right enough."
"Well, it does seem almost reasonable," answered the young lady: "and I
think sometimes that we have no right to expect so much as that of
things. It is not what they often do; and so they lose the habit of it."
"I do not quite understand," said Bunny.
"And I don't half understand," said Bardie:--"but--oh my dear, what
shall I do? He is coming this way, I am sure. And I would not have you
know anything of it--and of course you must feel that it is all
nonsense. And I did not mean any harm about 'courting;' only you ought
to be out of the way, and yet at the same time in it."
Our Bunny was such a slow-witted girl, and at the same time so
particular (inheriting slowness from her good mother, and conscience
from third generation), that really she could make no hand at meeting
such a crisis. For now she began to perceive gold-lace, which alone
discomfits the woman-race, and sets their minds going upon what they
love. And so she did very little else but stare.
"I did think you would have helped me, Bunny," Delushy cried, with
aggrievement. "I wanted to hear your own affairs, of course; but I would
not have brought you here----"
"Young ladies, well met!" cried as solid a voice as the chops of the
Channel had ever tautened: "I knew that you were here, and so I came
down to look after you."
"Sure then, sir, and I do think that it is very kind of you. We was just
awanting looking after. Oh what a fish I do see in that pool! Please
only you now both to keep back. I shall be back again, now just, sir."
With these words away flew Bunny, as if her life were set on it.
"What a fine creature, to be sure!" said Commander Bluett, thoughtfully;
"she reminds me so much of her grandfather. There is something so
strongly alike between them, in their reckless outspoken honour, as well
as in the turn of the nose they have."
"Let us follow, and admire her a little more," cried Delushy: "she
deserves it, as you say; and perhaps--well perhaps she likes it."
Young Rodney looked at her a little while, and then at the ground a
little while; because he was a stupid fellow as concerns young women. He
thought this one such a perfect wonder, as may well be said of all of
them. Then those two fenced about a little, out of shot of each other's
eyes.
There was no doubt between them as to the meaning of each other. But
they both seemed to think it wise to have a little bit of vexing before
doing any more. And thus they looked at one another as if there was
nothing between them. And all the time, how they were longing!
"I must have yes or no:" for Rodney could not outlast the young lady:
"yes or no; you know what I mean. I am almost always at sea; and
to-morrow I start to join Nelson. With him there is no play-work. I hope
to satisfy him, though I know what he is to satisfy. But I hope to do
it."
"Of course you will," Delushy answered. "You seem to give great
satisfaction; almost everywhere, I am sure."
"Do I give it, you proud creature, where I long to give it most?"
"How can I pretend to say, without being told in what latitude even--as
I think your expression is--this amiable desire lies?"
"As if you did not know, Delushy!"
"As if I did know, Captain Bluett! And another thing--I am not to be
called 'Delushy,' much, in that way."
"Very well, then; much in another way. Delushy, Delushy, delicious
Delushy, what makes you so unkind to me? To-morrow I go away, and
perhaps we shall never meet again, Delushy: and then how you would
reproach yourself. Don't you think you would now?"
"When never and then come together--yes. I suppose all sailors talk so."
"If I cannot even talk to please you, there is nothing more to say. I
think that the bards have turned your head with their harpings, and
their fiddle-strings, and ballads (in very bad Welsh, no doubt) about
'the charming maid of Sker;' and so on. When you are old enough to know
better, and the young conceit wears out of you, you may be sorry, Miss
Andalusia, for your wonderful cleverness."
He made her a bow with his handsome hat, and her warm young heart was
chilled by it. Surely he ought to have shaken hands. She tried to keep
her own meaning at home, and bid him farewell with a curtsy, while he
tried not to look back again; but fortune or nature was too much for
them, and their eyes met wistfully.
These things are out of my line so much, that I cannot pretend to say
now for a moment what these very young people did; and everybody else
having done the same, with more or less unwisdom, according to
constitution, may admire the power of charity which restrains me from
describing them. My favourite writer of Scripture is St Paul, who was
afraid of nobody, and who spent his time in making sails when the thorn
in the flesh permitted him. And this great writer describes the quick
manners of maidens far better than I can. Wherefore I keep myself up
aloft until they have had a good spell of it.
"I have no opinion, now. What can you expect of me? Rodney, I must stop
and think for nearly a quarter of a century before I have an opinion."
"Then stay, just so; and let me admire you, till I have to swim with
you."
"Rodney, you are reckless. Here comes the tide; and you know I have got
my very best Candleston side-lace boots on!"
"Then come out of this rocky bower, which suits your fate so, darling;
and let us talk most sensibly."
"By all means; if you think we can. There, you need not touch me,
Rodney;--I can get out very well indeed. I know these rocks better than
you do perhaps. Now sit on this rock where old David first hooked me, as
I have heard that old chatterbox tell fifty times, as if he had done
some great great thing."
"He did indeed a grand grand thing. No wonder that he is proud of it.
And he has so much to be proud of that you may take it for your highest
compliment. Perhaps there is no other man in the service--or I might say
in all the civilised world----" But it hurts me to tell what this
excellent officer said or even thought of me. He was such a first-rate
judge by this time that I must leave his opinion blank.
Over the sea they began to look, in a discontented quietude; as the
manner of young mortals is before they begin to know better, and with
great ideas moving them. Bunny, with the very kindest discretion, had
run away entirely, and might now be seen at the far end of the sands,
and springing up the rocks, on her way to Newton. So those two sate side
by side, with their hearts full of one another, and their minds made up
to face the world together, whatever might come of it. For as yet they
could see nothing clearly through the warm haze of loving, being wrapped
up in an atmosphere which generally leads to a hurricane. But to them,
for a few short minutes, earth and sea and sky were all one universal
heaven.
"It will not do," cried the maid of Sker, suddenly awaking with a short
deep sigh, and drawing back her delicate hand from the broad palm of
young Rodney: "it will never, never do. We must both be mad to think of
it."
"Who could fail to be mad," he answered, "if you set the example?"
"Now, don't be so dreadfully stupid, Rodney. What I say is most serious.
Of course you know the world better than I do, as you told me yesterday,
after sailing a dozen times round it. But I am thinking of other things.
Not of what the world will say, but of what I myself must feel. And the
first of these things is that I cannot be cruelly ungrateful. It would
be the deepest ingratitude to the Colonel if I went on with it."
"Went on with it! What a way to speak! As if you could be off with it
when you pleased! And my good uncle loves you like his own daughter; and
so does my mother. Now what can you mean?"
"As if you did not know indeed! Now, Rodney, do talk sensibly. I ought
to know, if any one does, what your uncle and your mother are. And I
know that they would rather see your death in the Gazette than your
marriage with an unknown, nameless nobody like me, sir."
"Well, of course, we must take the chance of that," said Captain Bluett,
carelessly. "The Colonel is the best soul in the world, and my dear
mother a most excellent creature, whenever she listens to reason. But as
to my asking their permission--it is the last thing I should dream of. I
am old enough to know my own mind, and to get my own living, I should
hope, as well as that of my family. And if I am only in time with
Nelson, of course we shall do wonders."
For a minute or two the poor young maid had not a word to say to him.
She longed to throw her arms around him, when he spoke so proudly, and
to indulge her own pride in him, as against all the world beside. But
having been brought up in so much trouble, she had learned to check
herself. So that she did nothing more than wait for him to go on again.
And this he did with sparkling eyes and the confidence of a young
British tar.
"There is another thing, my beauty, which they are bound to consider, as
well as all the prize-money I shall earn. And that is, that they have
nobody except themselves to thank for it. They must have known what was
sure to happen, if they chose to have you there whenever I was home from
sea. And my mother is so clever too--to my mind it is plain enough that
they meant me to do what I have done."
"And pray what is that?"
"As if you did not know! Come now, you must pay the penalty of asking
for a compliment. Talk about breeding and good birth, and that stuff!
Why, look at your hands and then look at mine. Put your fingers between
mine--both hands, both hands--that's the way. Now just feel my great
clumsy things, and then see how lovely yours are--as clear as
wax-tapers, and just touched with rose, and every nail with a fairy
gift, and pointed like an almond. A 'nameless nobody' indeed! What
nameless nobody ever had such nails? By way of contrast examine mine."
"Oh but you bite yours shockingly, Rodney. I am sure that you do, though
I never saw you. You must be cured of that dreadful trick."
"That shall be your first job, Delushy, when you are Mrs Rodney. Now for
another great sign of birth. Do you see any peak to my upper lip?"
"No, I can't say I do. But how foolish you are! I ought to be crying,
and you make me laugh."
"Then just let me show you the peak to yours. Honour bright--and no mean
advantages--that is to say if I can help it. Oh, here's that blessed
Moxy coming! May the Frenchmen rob her hen-roost! Now just one promise,
darling, darling; just one little promise. To-morrow I go to most
desperate battles, and lucky to come home with one arm and one leg.
Therefore, promise a solemn promise to have no one in the world but me."
"I think," said the maid, with her lips to his ear, in the true old
coaxing fashion, "that I may very well promise that. But I will promise
another thing too. And that is, not to have even you, until your dear
mother and good uncle come to me and ask me. And that can never never
be."