"Is that so?"
"She's wishful," answered he, nodding sulkily.
"Oho!" I thought; "Adam and Eve and the apple, complete. Do you love
each other?" I asked.
"I adore Billy," cried the little maid "he's the stable-boy at the
'Woolpack' in Blea-kirk--"
"So I am beginning to smell," I put in.
--"and we put up there last night--father and I. We travel in a
chaise. And this morning in the stable I saw Billy for the first
time, and to see him is to love. He is far below me in station,
--ain't you, Billy dear? But he rides beautifully, and is ever so
strong, and not so badly ed--educated as you would fancy: he can say
all his 'five-times.' And he worships me,--don't you, Billy?"
"Washups," said Billy, stolidly.
"Do you mean to tell me you have trotted in this sun all the way from
Bleakirk?" I inquired.
The girl nodded. She was a splendid child--dark-haired, proud of
chin, and thoroughbred down to her very toes. And the looks of
fondness she threw at that stable-urchin were as good as a play.
"And what will you do," I asked, "when you are married?"
"Go home and ask my father's forgiveness. He is proud; but very,
very kind."
I told them I was a clergyman, and began to cast round in my mind
what to do next; for the marriage service of the Church isn't exactly
the thing to repeat to two babes, and the girl was quick enough to
detect and resent any attempt at fooling. So at last I persuaded
them to sit together under the gorse-bush, and told them that
matrimony was a serious matter, and that a long exhortation was
necessary. They settled themselves to listen.
Having been twice married, I did not lack materials for a discourse.
Indeed, when I talk of married life, it is a familiar experience with
me to be carried away by my subject. Nor was I altogether surprised,
on looking up after half an hour's oratory, to find the little ones
curled in each other's arms, fast asleep.
So I spread my coat over them, and next (because the fancy took me,
and not a breath of air was stirring) I treated them much as the
robins treated the Babes in the Wood, strewing all my Tracts, pink
and white, over them, till all but their faces was covered. And then
I set off for the "Woolpack."
One spring morning, ten years later, I was standing outside the
"Woolpack," drinking my mug of beer with a tall recruiting sergeant,
and discussing the similarity of our professions, when a post-chaise
appeared at the head of the street, and a bobbing red postillion's
jacket, and a pair of greys that came down the hill with a rattle,
and drew up at the inn-door.
A young lady and a young gentleman sat in the chaise, and the first
glance told they were newly married. They sat in the chaise, and
held each other by the hand, while the horses were changing.
And because I had a bundle of tracts that fitted their condition, and
because the newly married often pay for a thing beyond its worth, I
approached the chaise-door.
The fresh horses were in as I began my apologies; and the post-boy
was settling himself in the saddle. Judge of my astonishment when he
leant back, cut me sharply across the calves with his long whip, and
before I could yell had started his horses up the opposite hill at a
gallop. The hind wheel missed my toes by an inch. In three minutes
the carriage and red coat were but a speck on the road that led up to
the downs.
I returned to my mug, emptied it moodily, broke a fine repartee on
the sergeant's dull head (he was consumed with mirth), and followed
the same road at a slow pace; for my business took me along it.
I was on the downs, and had walked, perhaps, six miles, when again I
saw the red speck ahead of me. It was the post-boy--a post-boy
returning on foot, of all miracles. He came straight up to meet me,
and then stood in the road, barring my path, and tapping his
riding-boot with the butt of his whip--a handsome young fellow, well
proportioned and well set up.
"I want you," he said, "to walk back with me to Bleakirk."
"Upon my word!" I cried out. "Considering that Bleakirk is six miles
away, that I am walking in the other direction, and that, two hours
back, you gave me a cursed cut over the legs with that whip, I fancy
I see myself obliging you!"
He regarded me moodily for about a minute, but did not shift his
position.
"Why are you on foot?" I asked.
"Oh, my God!" he cried out quickly, as a man might that was stabbed;
"I couldn't trust myself to ride; I _couldn't_." He shuddered, and
put a hand over his eyes. "Look here," he said, "you _must_ walk
home with me, or at least see me past the Chalk-pit."
Now the Chalk-pit, when spelt with a capital letter, is an especially
deep and ugly one on the very edge of the Bleakirk road, about two
miles out of the village. A weak fence only separates its lip from
the macadam. It is a nasty place to pass by night with a carriage;
but here it was broad day, and the fellow was walking. So I didn't
take him at all.
"Listen to me," he went on in a dull voice; "do you remember sitting
beside this road, close on ten years back? And a boy and girl who
came along this road together and asked you to marry them?"
"Bless my soul! Were you that boy?"
He nodded. "Yes: and the young lady in the chaise to-day was that
girl. Old man, I know you reckon yourself clever,--I've heard you
talk: but that when I met her to-day, three hours married, and she
didn't know me, I had a hell in my heart as I drove past the
Chalk-pit, is a thing that passes your understanding, perhaps.
They were laughing together, mark you, and yet they weren't a hair's
breadth from death. And, by the Lord, you must help me past that
pit!"
"Young man," I said, musing, "when first I met you, you were ten
years old, and I thought you a fool. To-day you have grown into an
unmitigated ass. But you are dangerous; and therefore I respect you,
and will see you home."
I turned back with him. When we came to the Chalk-pit, I kept him on
the farther side of the road, though it cost me some terror to walk
between him and the edge; for I have too much imagination to be a
thoroughly brave man.
The sun was sinking as we walked down to Bleakirk; and the recruiting
sergeant sat asleep outside the "Woolpack," with his head on the
window-sill. I woke him up; and within half an hour my post-boy wore
a bunch of ribbons on his cap--red, white, and blue.
I believe he has seen some fighting since then; and has risen in the
ranks.