Since you have praised my hair,
'Tis proper to be choice in what I wear.
_In a Gondola._
When Miss Allonby and Mr. Cranmer emerged into the garden, they found a
pleasing group awaiting their arrival.
Lady Mabel was sitting in a wicker chair, her gloves were removed, and
lay rolled up in her lap, her firm white hands were employed with
tea-cups and cream jug.
On the grass near sat Elsa, her hat off, her eyes dilated with wonder
and enjoyment. Mr. Fowler stood near her ladyship, cutting
bread-and-butter.
"Come along, Claud," she cried, as they appeared. "That good Mrs.
Battishill provides an _al fresco_ tea for us! Sit down and take the
gifts the gods provide you. Did you ever see such a view?"
"Never," said Claud, with conviction. "Of all the lovely bits of rural
England, I do think this is the loveliest. What makes its charm so
peculiar is that it's unique. Half a mile along the high-road either
towards Philmouth or Stanton, you would never guess at the existence of
such an out-of-the-way spot of beauty. It really does remind one of what
your brother called it," he went on, turning to Wynifred, "The 'Island
Valley of Avilion.'"
"That's in Tennyson, I think," said Mr. Fowler. "I am ashamed to say how
little poetry I read; we are behind the times here in the Combe, I'm
afraid--eh, Elsie?"
"I don't know," said the monosyllabic beauty, confused.
Her large eyes were resting on Miss Allonby, drinking her in as she had
drunk in Lady Mabel. They were not alike, most assuredly, yet from
Elaine's standpoint there was a similarity. Both of them were evidently
at ease. Each knew how to sit in her chair, what to do with her hands,
and, above all, what to say.
When her aunts received company they were excited, disordered. They ran
here and there, for this and that--they fidgetted, they were flurried.
Wynifred Allonby looked as if she did not know what to be flurried
meant.
She wore the simplest of grey linen gowns, with an antique silver buckle
at her waist. Into her belt she had fastened three or four of the big
dark red carnations which grew in profusion in the farm-house garden,
and were just beginning to blossom. She was in the presence of an earl's
sister, whom she had never seen before, yet her calm was unruffled, and
her manner perfectly quiet. In Elsa's untutored eyes, this was
inimitable.
Though she herself had now met Mr. Cranmer several times, yet she found
herself blushing more and more every time she met his eye. Consciousness
was awake--her quick feminine eye told her that her clothes did not
resemble those of either of the women beside her.
Both were most simply attired, for it was the whim of Lady Mabel, when
in the country, to wear short woollen skirts, leaving visible her
shapely ankles, and otherwise to cast away the conventions of Bond
Street by the use of wash-leather gloves and a stout walking stick.
To-day, under a short covert coat of dark blue cloth, she wore a loose
scarlet shirt, the effect of which was coquettish and telling. Her
well-looped skirts were also of dark blue, and there was a rough and
ready suitableness to the occasion about her which was most effective.
The poor little watching, unfledged Elsa felt a soreness, an intolerable
jealousy. Why was she so unlike others? Why could she not have different
gowns? She almost thought she could sit and talk as easily as Miss
Allonby, if only her dress fitted, and she could wear buckles on her
shoes.
There was Mr. Fowler, who had always been her own especial property, her
godfather, the one human being who had ever dared to say, "Let the child
have a holiday." "Let the child stay up another hour this evening."
There he was, talking to Miss Allonby in his gentle way, looking at her
with his honest eyes, laying himself out to entertain her, and not so
much as throwing a glance at his forlorn Elsa.
Nobody knew what purely feminine sorrows were vexing the young heart.
Lady Mabel was in a frame of mind inclined to be very regretful. She,
like her brother, had taken a vehement fancy to Edge Combe, and she knew
she must leave it, and return to London. She wanted to make the most of
these sunshiny, peaceful hours, these interesting people, this lovely
landscape.
Her fine eyes gazed down the valley, at the mysterious deeps below them,
thick with foliage, and the deep glowing sea which formed the horizon.
"What a color that ocean is!" she said. "Do look, Claud, it's quite
tropical!"
Mrs. Battishill was placing a big dish of clotted cream on the table.
"Eh, for all the world like a great basin of hot starch, isn't it? I've
often thought so," said she, good-humoredly.
Her prompt exit into the farm-house allowed the smiles to broaden at
will on the countenances of four of her five auditors.
"Oh, Mab," said Claud, with tears in his eyes, "what a slap in the face
for your sentiment!"
"I'm not sure that it's not a very apt illustration," cried Wyn, when
she could speak. "It is really just the same color, and the dip of the
valley holds it like a basin! Imaginative Mrs. Battishill!"
"You draw, I think, Miss Allonby?" said Mr. Fowler.
"Yes, I am very fond of it," she answered.
"You will be able to do some sketching, now that your mind is at ease
about your brother."
"Yes; but I am a poor hand at landscape. That is Osmond's province. I
prefer heads. I should like," she paused, and fixed her eyes on Elsa, "I
should like to paint Miss Brabourne."
Elsa started as if she had been shot. Up rushed the ungoverned color to
face, throat, and neck. She could not believe the hearing of her ears.
"To paint me?" she cried. The water swam in her glorious eyes. "Are you
making game of me?" she passionately asked.
"Making game of you? No!" said Wyn, in some surprise. "I am very
sorry--I beg your pardon--I am afraid I have distressed you."
Lady Mabel reached out her hand towards the girl as she sat on the
grass; and, placing it under her chin, turned up the flashing,
quivering, carmine face and smiled into the eyes.
"Should you dislike to sit for your portrait, Elsa?"
"I don't know--I never tried--I know nothing about it!" cried she,
enduring the touch, as it seemed, with difficulty, and ready to shrink
back into herself.
"You would try to sit still, if it would be a help to Miss Allonby, I am
sure?"
"I don't think she means it," cried the tortured Elsa, with a sob.
"I meant it, of course," said Wynifred, very sorry to have been so
unintentionally distressing. "But I am ashamed of having asked so much.
Sitting is very tedious, and takes up a great deal of time."
"I should be very anxious to see what you would make of her," said Mr.
Fowler, with interest. "Elsa, little woman, you must see if you can't
keep still, if Miss Allonby is so kind as to take so much trouble about
you."
"Trouble! It would be both pleasure and education," said Wyn, with a
smile; "she will make a delicious study, if----"
"If?" said Lady Mabel, turning swiftly as she hesitated.
"If I might do her hair," said Wyn, laughing, and throwing a look of
such arch and friendly confidence towards Elaine that the shy girl
smiled back at her with a sudden glow.
"Oh, you may do as you like with my hair, if the aunts will only let me
sit to you!" she said, with eager change of feeling.
"Leave the aunts to me, Elsie--I'll manage them," said Mr. Fowler,
reassuringly.
"To think that I must go home and lose all this interest and enjoyment,"
cried Lady Mabel, in some feigned, and a good deal of real regret.
"Why need you go, Mab?" asked Claud.
"Oh, my dear boy, I must! Edward is coming down to fetch me, and there
are my darlings to see after. My holiday is over. But I shall comfort
myself with hoping to have Elsa to stay with me when I am settled.
Edward writes me word that we shall be obliged to have a house in town
this winter--my husband has been so ill-advised as to get into
Parliament," explained she to Mr. Fowler.
"Oh, yes; I remember hearing very gladly of his success," was the
cordial response. "Also that his electioneering was most ably assisted
by Lady Mabel Wynch-Frere, who was received with an ovation whenever she
appeared in public."
He was bending over her as he spoke, handing her the strawberries, and
she smiled up at him with sudden passion of Irish eyes.
"Any effort in the good cause," she said, with fervency.
"Exactly, in the good cause," he responded. "You may speak out--we are
all friends here."
"How do you know?" asked Claud. "You don't suppose I sympathize with
Mab's political delusions, do you? A younger son must be a Radical, as
far as I can see. The idea of plunder is the only idea likely to appeal
to his feelings with any force."
Mr. Fowler laughed pleasantly.
"You put me in a difficulty," said he. "I was going to try to persuade
you to come and take up your quarters in my bachelor diggings in the
Lower House for awhile and try my shooting; but if you are going to vote
against the government----"
"You'll have to drive me out of the Lower House--stop my mouth with a
peerage, eh?" cried Claud.
"Miss Allonby doesn't see the joke," said Mr. Fowler; "my dwelling is
called the Lower House," he proceeded to explain, "receiving that title
merely because it happens to be further down the valley than Edge
Willoughby."
"I see," said the girl, laughing. "Well! as a representative of law and
order, I'm shocked to hear you advocating shooting, Mr. Fowler!"
"To an Irishman, eh? Yes, it's risky, I own. But what say you, Mr.
Cranmer, seriously? Come and try my covers?"
It was exactly the invitation Claud wanted. He had no compunction in
becoming the guest of a well-to-do bachelor, whose birds were probably
pining to be killed; and it would keep him in this lovely part of the
country, and within reach of Allonby and his mystery, not to mention
Elsa Brabourne.
His face lighted up with pleasure.
"But----" he began.
"But it's not the 12th, yet--no, you're right. I can offer you a
trout-stream to begin with, and a horse if you care about riding. If you
are bored, you can run up to town, and come down again for the
shooting."
"I shan't be bored," said Claud.
In point of fact, the whole thing promised most favorably.
A visit to a house with no mistress--where doubtless you might smoke in
your bed-room, and need never exert yourself to get off the sofa, or put
on a decent coat, or make yourself entertaining, or go to church twice
on Sundays.
His bachelor soul rejoiced.
All this, with the ladies within reach if by chance he wanted them or
their society, why, it was the acme of luxury!
"I was wondering how you were going to begin shooting so soon," said
Lady Mabel; "but I assure you, Claud will be perfectly happy if only you
let him loaf about and dream by himself. He likes a contemplative
existence."
"Yes," said Claud, modestly and even cheerfully accepting this
description of himself. "I like leisure to congratulate myself that I
have none of the vices, and few of the failings, of my fellow-creatures
in this imperfect world."
"_Few_ of the failings--have you _any_?" asked Miss Allonby, with
innocent surprise, holding a strawberry ready poised for devouring. "Do
you really admit so much? I am curious to know to what human weakness
you are free to confess?"
"Would you really like to know? Well--it is a very interesting subject
to me, so doubtless it must be interesting to other people," said Claud,
in his debonair way. "Know, then, that I have a fault. Yes, I know it,
self-deception was never a vice of mine; I see clearly that I am not
without a defect; and I deeply fear that time will not eradicate it,
though haply indigestion may do so. This weakness is--strawberries." He
heaved a deep sigh, and helped himself to his fourth plateful with
melancholy brow.
"Only one consolation have I," he went on, placing a thick lump of cream
on the fruit. "It is that the period of degradation is transient. A few
short weeks in each year, and I recover my self-respect until next June.
Peaches smile on me in vain, dusky grapes besiege my constancy. My
friends tempt me with pine-apples, and wave netted melons before my
dazzled vision; but I remain temperate. Strawberries are my one
vulnerable point; which, being the case, I know you'll excuse my further
conversation."
"Say no more," said Wyn, in solemn accents. "A confidence so touching
will be respected by all."
"Ah! sympathy is very sweet," sighed he. "Have you a failing, by chance,
Miss Allonby?"
"I am sure I do not know," she answered, with great appearance of
reflective candor. "My self-knowledge is evidently not so complete as
yours. If I were conscious of one, I fear I should not have your courage
to avow it; perhaps because my defect would most likely be chronic, and
not a mere passing weakness like yours."
During this passage, Lady Mabel had been abundantly occupied in studying
Elsa's face. Its expression of incredulity and dismay was strange to
behold. That, two grown-up persons should deliberately set to work to
talk the greatest nonsense that occurred to them at the moment had never
struck her as in any way a possibility. What made them do it? Were they
in earnest? Their faces were as grave as judges, but Mr. Fowler was
laughing. She hoped that nobody would ever speak to her like that, and
expect her to reply in the same vein. It overwhelmed, it oppressed her.
Involuntarily she drew near Lady Mabel, and shrank almost behind her, as
if for protection from the two who were, like Cicero, speaking Greek.
Lady Mabel amused herself in thinking what Miss Charlotte Willoughby's
verdict would have been, had she been present.
"I am sure you both have a pretty good opinion of yourselves," she might
have remarked, or more probably still, "Strawberries are wholesome
enough when eaten in moderation, but I am sure such excessive indulgence
must be bad for anybody."
"I don't wonder," said Mr. Fowler, with sly playfulness, "that Miss
Allonby is unwilling to follow Mr. Cranmer's fearless example, and
proclaim herself uninteresting for eleven months out of twelve."
"Uninteresting!" cried Claud.
"What so uninteresting as perfection? I am glad I first made your
acquaintance when you were under the influence of your one defect. I
doubt I shouldn't have invited you to Lower House if I had met you a
month later."
"Ah! you have invited me now, and you must hold to it," cried Claud, in
triumph; "but, as I must admit I have deceived you, and owe you
reparation, why--to oblige you--I will try to hatch up a special defect
for August."
"I don't think you'll find it very difficult, dear boy," said Lady
Mabel, sweetly.
"Difficult to make myself interesting? No, Mab, that has always come
easily to me; you and I were never considered much alike," was the
impudent answer.
"His desire to have the last word is really quite--lady-like, isn't it?"
said his sister to Mr. Fowler; and all four burst out laughing. "Claud,
I am ashamed of you--get up and put down those strawberries. Here is
Elsa looking at you in horror and amazement! Do mind your manners."
"As I have devoured my last mouthful, I obey at once. I am like the
ancient mariner after telling his story. The feverish desire for
strawberries has passed from me for a while. I become rational once
more."
"Such moments are rare; let us make the most of them," retorted she,
"and tell me seriously what your plans are."
"If you'll allow me, I'll walk back with you and Miss Brabourne, and
expound them on the way. Oh, look, Mr. Fowler, there's that ass Dickens;
I must go and speak to him a minute, and tell him we're more in the dark
than ever."
He rose hurriedly, his nonsense disappearing at once, and went down to
the gate, followed by Henry Fowler.
"We can never be grateful enough to your brother, Lady Mabel," said Wyn,
gently, when they were out of hearing.
"I am sure he is only too pleased to have had a chance of being of use.
He is as kind a fellow as ever breathed, and hardly ever does himself
justice," said Claud's sister, warmly. "He is a real comfort to me, and
always has been; so thoughtful and considerate, and never fusses about
anything."
"No, he does everything so simply, and as if it were all in the day's
work," said Wynifred, as if absently. "It is the kind of nature which
would composedly perform an act of wild heroism, and then wonder what
all the applause was for."
Lady Mabel looked swiftly at the speaker. It seemed to her that it was
the most un-girlish comment on a young man that she had ever heard.
Perhaps the strangeness of it lay more in manner than in words. Wynifred
leaned one elbow on the table, her chin rested in her hand; her pale
face and tranquil eyes studied Mr. Cranmer, as he stood pulling the gate
to and fro, and eagerly talking to the detective. Her expression was
that of cool, critical attention. Something in Lady Mabel's surprised
silence seemed to strike on her sensitive nerves. She looked hurriedly
up, and colored warmly.
"I beg your pardon," she said, confusedly, "I am afraid I am
blundering" ... and then broke short off, and pushed back her chair from
the table. "We have a bad habit at home," she said, "of studying real
people as if they were characters in fiction; but we don't, as a rule,
forget ourselves so far as to discuss them with their own relations."
Lady Mabel smiled; it was a pretty and an adequate apology. She thought
Miss Allonby an interesting girl, and was inspired with a desire to see
more of her.
"You must come and see me when I am settled in London, Miss Allonby,"
she said, kindly, "I should like to know your sisters."
"I should like you to know them," was the eager response. "Osmond and I
are very proud of them."
"They are both younger than you?"
"Yes; Hilda is three years younger, and Jacqueline four. There is only
just a year between them."
"And you are orphans?"
"Yes."
At this moment Claud approached.
"Miss Allonby," he said, "I wonder if you would get your brother's
permission for Mr. Dickens to rifle the things he left behind him at the
'Fountain Head'with Mrs. Clapp?"
"Oh, certainly, I am sure he would have no objection. Perhaps I had
better come myself," said Wynifred. "I have been wanting to fetch up
some paints."
"It would be far the best plan," said Claud, with alacrity. "I am going
to walk down with my sister and Miss Brabourne. Will you come to? I will
see you safely home again."
"You are very kind," she answered, simply. "I will go and tell Osmond,
and see whether nurse has given him his tea."
"We shall have to set out soon," said Lady Mabel, "or we shall be late
for tea at Edge Willoughby."
"The amount of meals one can get through in this climate!" observed
Claud, pensively. "Why, you have this moment finished one tea, Mab,--I'm
ashamed of you! Mr. Fowler, how many meals a day am I to have at the
Lower House?"
"Oh, I think I can promise you as many as you can eat, without taxing my
cook or my larder too far. We are used to appetites here."
"A fellow-feeling makes us wondrous kind," mused Mr. Cranmer. "The fact
that King Henry died of a surfeit used to impress me, I remember, with
an unfavorable view of that monarch's character. But"--he heaved a sigh,
and, with a side-glance of fun at Elsa, took another strawberry--"_nous
avons change tout cela_! _Vive_ Devonshire and the Devon air!"