HISTORY REPEATS ITSELF.
He was talking to Patty and Eleanor in the garden when Elizabeth went
out to him, looking cool and colonial in a silk coat and a solar
topee. The girls were chatting gaily; the old lawyer was sketching a
programme of the day's proceedings, and generally doing the honours
of his neighbourhood with polite vivacity. Two buggies, one single
and one double, in charge of a groom from the hotel, were drawn up by
the gate, and Mrs. Harris and "the gal" were busily packing them with
luncheon baskets and rugs. There was a cloudless summer sky overhead--a
miracle of loveliness spread out before them in the shining plain of
the sea; and the delicate, fresh, salt air, tremulous with the boom of
subterranean breakers, was more potent than any wine to make glad the
heart of man and to give him a cheerful countenance.
Very cheerfully did Mr. Yelverton come forward to greet his beloved,
albeit a little moved with the sentiment of the occasion. He had parted
from her in a ball-room, with a half-spoken confession of--something
that she knew all about quite as well as he did--on his lips; and he
had followed her now to say the rest, and to hear what she had to reply
to it. This was perfectly understood by both of them, as they shook
hands, with a little conventional air of unexpectedness, and he told
her that he had come at Mrs. Duff-Scott's orders.
"She could not rest," he said, gravely, "until she was sure that you
had found pleasant quarters, and were comfortable. She worried about
you--and so she sent me up."
"It was troubling you too much," Elizabeth murmured, evading his direct
eyes, but quite unable to hide her agitation from him.
"You say that from politeness, I suppose? No, it was not troubling
me at all--quite the contrary. I am delighted with my trip. And I am
glad," he concluded, dropping his voice, "to see the place where you
were brought up. This was your home, was it not?" He looked all round
him.
"It was not like this when we were here," she replied. "The house was
old then--now it is new. They have done it up."
"I see. Have you a sketch of it as it used to be? You draw, I know.
Mrs. Duff-Scott has been showing me your drawings."
"Yes, I have one. It hangs in the Melbourne sitting-room."
Mr. Brion broke in upon this dialogue. "Now, my dears, I think we are
all ready," he said. "Elizabeth, you and I will go in the little buggy
and lead the way. Perhaps Mr. Yelverton will be good enough to take
charge of the two young ladies. Will you prefer to drive yourself, Mr.
Yelverton?"
Mr. Yelverton said he preferred to be driven, as he was not acquainted
with the road; and Elizabeth, throned in the seat of honour in the
little buggy, looked back with envious eyes to watch his arrangements
for her sisters' comfort. He put Patty beside the groom on the front
seat, and carefully tucked her up from the dust; and then he placed
Eleanor at the back, climbed to her side, and opened a large umbrella
which he held so that it protected both of them. In this order the
two vehicles set forth, and for the greater part of the way, owing to
the superior lightness of the smaller one, they were not within sight
of each other; during which time Elizabeth was a silent listener to
her host's amiable prattle, and reproaching herself for not feeling
interested in it. She kept looking through the pane of glass behind
her, and round the side of the hood, and wondering where the others
were, and whether they were keeping the road.
"Oh, they can't miss it," was Mr. Brion's invariable comment. "They
will follow our tracks. If not, the man knows our destination."
For the old lawyer was making those short cuts which are so dear to
all Jehus of the bush; preferring a straight mile of heavy sand to a
devious mile and a quarter of metal, and ploughing through the stiff
scrub that covered the waste moors of the district rather by the sun's
than by the surveyor's direction. It made the drive more interesting,
of course. The bushes that rustled through the wheels and scratched the
horses' legs were wonderful with wild flowers of every hue, and the
orchids that were trampled into the sand, and gathered by handfuls to
die in the buggy, were remarkable for their fantastic variety. And then
there were lizards and butterflies, and other common objects of the
country, not so easily discerned on a beaten track. But Elizabeth could
not bring herself to care much for these things to-day.
They reached high land after a while, whence, looking back, they saw
the other buggy crawling towards them a mile or two away, and, looking
forward, saw, beyond a green and wild foreground, the brilliant sea
again, with a rocky cape jutting out into it, sprinkled with a few
white houses on its landward shoulder--a scene that was too beautiful,
on such a morning, to be disregarded. Here the girl sat at ease, while
the horses took breath, thoroughly appreciating her opportunities;
wondering, not what Mr. Yelverton was doing or was going to do, but how
it was that she had never been this way before. Then Mr. Brion turned
and drove down the other side of the hill, and exclaimed "Here we are!"
in triumph.
It was a shallow basin of a dell, in the midst of romantic glens,
sandy, and full of bushes and wild flowers, and bracken and tussocky
grass, and shady with tall-stemmed gum trees. As the buggy bumped
and bounced into the hollow, shaving the dead logs that lay about in
a manner which reflected great credit upon the lawyer's navigation,
Elizabeth, feeling the cool shadows close over her head, and aware
that they had reached their destination, looked all round her for the
yawning cavern that she had specially come to see.
"Where are the caves?" she inquired--to Mr. Brion's intense
gratification.
"Ah, where are they?" he retorted, enjoying his little joke. "Well, we
have just been driving over them."
"But the mouth, I mean?"
"Oh, the mouth--the mouth is here. We were very nearly driving over
that too. But we'll have lunch first, my dear, before we investigate
the caves--if it's agreeable to you. I will take the horses out, and
we'll find a nice place to camp before they come."
Presently the other buggy climbed over the ridge and down into the
hollow; and Mr. Yelverton beheld Elizabeth kneeling amongst the bracken
fronds, with the dappled sun and shade on her bare head and her blue
cotton gown, busily trying to spread a table-cloth on the least uneven
piece of ground that she could find, where it lay like a miniature
snow-clad landscape, all hills except where the dishes weighed it to
the earth. He hastened to help her as soon as he had lifted Patty and
Eleanor from their seats.
"You are making yourself hot," he said, with his quiet air of authority
and proprietorship. "You sit down, and let me do it. I am quite used
to commissariat business, and can set a table beautifully." He took
some tumblers from her hand, and, looking into her agitated face, said
suddenly, "I could not help coming, Elizabeth--I could not leave it
broken off like that--I wanted to know why you ran away from me--and
Mrs. Duff-Scott gave me leave. You will let me talk to you presently?"
"Oh, not now--not now!" she replied, in a hurried, low tone, turning
her head from side to side. "I must have time to think--"
"Time to think!" he repeated, with just a touch of reproach in his
grave surprise. And he put down the tumblers carefully, got up, and
walked away. Upon which, Elizabeth, reacting violently from the mood
in which she had received him, had an agonising fear that he would
impute her indecision to want of love for him, or insensibility to his
love for her--though, till now, that had seemed an impossibility. In
a few minutes he returned with her sisters and Mr. Brion, all bearing
dishes and bottles, and buggy cushions and rugs; and, when the luncheon
was ready, and the groom had retired to feed and water his horses, she
lifted her eyes to her tall lover's face with a look that he understood
far better than she did. He quietly came round from the log on which he
had been about to seat himself, and laid his long limbs on the sand and
bracken at her side.
"What will you have?" he asked carelessly; "roast beef and salad, or
chicken pie? I can recommend the salad, which has travelled remarkably
well." And all the time he was looking at her with happy contentment, a
little smile under his red moustache; and her heart was beating so that
she could not answer him.
The luncheon was discussed at leisure, and, as far as Mr. Brion could
judge, was a highly successful entertainment. The younger girls,
whatever might be going to happen to-morrow, could not help enjoying
themselves to-day--could not help getting a little intoxicated with the
sweetness of the summer air and the influences of the scene generally,
and breaking out in fun and laughter; even Elizabeth, with her
desperate anxieties, was not proof against the contagion of their good
spirits now and then. The travelled stranger, who talked a great deal,
was the most entertaining of guests, and the host congratulated himself
continually on having added him to the party. "We only want Paul now
to make it all complete," said the happy old man, as he gave Patty,
who had a dreadful appetite after her long drive, a second helping of
chicken pie.
When the sylvan meal was ended, and the unsightly remnants cleared
away, the two men smoked a soothing cigarette under the trees, while
the girls tucked up their clean gowns a little and tied handkerchiefs
over their heads, and then Mr. Brion, armed with matches and a pound
of candles, marched them off to see the caves. He took them but a
little way from where they had camped, and disclosed in the hillside
what looked like a good-sized wombat or rabbit hole. "Now, you stay
here while I go and light up a bit," he said, impressively, and he
straightway slid down and disappeared into the hole. They stooped and
peered after him, and saw a rather muddy narrow shaft slanting down
into the earth, through which the human adult could only pass "end on."
The girls were rather dismayed at the prospect.
"It is a case of faith," said Mr. Yelverton. "We must trust ourselves
to Mr. Brion entirely or give it up."
"We will trust Mr. Brion," said Elizabeth.
A few minutes later the old man's voice was heard from below. "Now,
come along! Just creep down for a step or two, and I will reach your
hand. Who is coming first?"
They looked at each other for a moment, and Patty's quick eye caught
something from Mr. Yelverton's. "I will go first," she said; "and you
can follow me, Nelly." And down she went, half sliding, half sitting,
and when nearly out of sight stretched up her arm to steady her sister.
"It's all right," she cried; "there's plenty of room. Come along!"
When they had both disappeared, Mr. Yelverton took Elizabeth's
unlighted candle from her hand and put it into his pocket. "There is no
need for you to be bothered with that," he said: "one will do for us."
And he let himself a little way down the shaft, and put up his hand to
draw her after him.
In a few seconds they stood upright, and were able, by the light of
the three candles just dispersing into the interior, to see what
kind of place they had come to. They were limestone caves, ramifying
underground for a quarter of a mile or so in direct length, and
spreading wide on either side in a labyrinth of chambers and passages.
The roof was hung with a few stalactites, but mostly crusted with soft
bosses, like enormous cauliflowers, that yielded to the touch; lofty
in places, so that the candle-light scarcely reached it, and in places
so low that one could not pass under it. The floor, if floor it could
be called, was a confusion of hills and vales and black abysses, stony
here, and dusty there, and wet and slippery elsewhere--altogether an
uncanny place, full of weird suggestions. The enterprising and fearless
Patty was far ahead, exploring on her own account, and Mr. Brion,
escorting Eleanor, dwindling away visibly into a mere pin's point,
before Mr. Yelverton and Elizabeth had got their candle lighted and
begun their investigations. A voice came floating back to them through
the immense darkness, duplicated in ever so many echoes: "Are you all
right, Elizabeth?"
"Yes," shouted Mr. Yelverton instantly, like a soldier answering to the
roll-call. Then he took her hand, and, holding the candle high, led her
carefully in the direction of the voice. She was terribly nervous and
excited by the situation, which had come upon her unawares, and she
had an impulse to move on hastily, as if to join her sisters. Bat her
lover held her back with a turn of his strong wrist.
"Don't hurry," he said, in a tone that revealed to her how he
appreciated his opportunity, and how he would certainly turn it to
account; "it is not safe in such a place as this. And you can trust
_me_ to take care of you as well as Mr. Brion, can't you?"
She did not answer, and he did not press the question. They crept
up, and slid down, and leapt over, the dark obstructions in their
devious course for a little while in silence--two lonely atoms in the
vast and lifeless gloom. Fainter and fainter grew the voices in the
distance--fainter and fainter the three tiny specks of light, which
seemed as far away as the stars in heaven. There was something dreadful
in their isolation in the black bowels of the earth, but an unspeakably
poignant bliss in being thus cast away together. There was no room for
thought of anything outside that.
Groping along hand in hand, they came to a chasm that yawned,
bridgeless, across their path. It was about three feet wide, and
perhaps it was not much deeper, but it looked like the bottomless pit,
and was very terrifying. Bidding Elizabeth to wait where she was,
Mr. Yelverton leaped over by himself, and, dropping some tallow on a
boulder near him, fixed his candle to the rock. Then he held out his
arms and called her to come to him.
For a moment she hesitated, knowing what awaited her, and then she
leaped blindly, fell a little short, and knocked the candle from its
insecure socket into the gulf beneath her. She uttered a sharp cry as
she felt herself falling, and the next instant found herself dragged up
in her lover's strong arms, and folded with a savage tenderness to his
breast. _This_ time he held her as if he did not mean to let her go.
"Hush!--you are quite safe," he whispered to her in the pitch darkness.