THE DANCE
Reggie Peel was not quite sure whether he liked Mary with her hair up
or not. The putting up of the hair necessitated a readjustment of his
whole conception of her, and . . . he was very conservative.
With Mary the tom-boy child, with Mary the long-legged flapper and good
chum, he was affectionately at his ease. He had petted and tormented
her by turns, ever since as a boy of ten he had first seen her, a baby
a year old, in his Aunt Marjory's arms. Throughout her turbulent but
very cheerful childhood he had been her firm, if patronising, friend.
Then as she developed into what Ger had described to Eloquent as "a bit
of a gawk," he became more than ever her friend and champion. "Uncle
Hilary was so beastly down on Mary;" and Mary, though she did knock
things over and say quite extraordinarily stupid things on occasion,
was "such a good old sort."
He had never considered the question of her appearance till this
Christmas. He supposed she was good-looking--all the Ffolliots were
good-looking--but it really didn't matter much one way or another. She
was part of Redmarley, and Redmarley as a whole counted for a good deal
in Reginald Peel's life. He, too, had fallen under its mysterious
charm. The manor-house mothered him, and the little Cotswold village
cradled him in kindly keeping arms. His own mother had died when he
was seven, his father married again a couple of years later; but, as Mr
Peel was in the Indian Forest Department, and Reggie's young stepmother
a faithful and devoted wife, he saw little of either of them, except on
their somewhat infrequent leaves when they paid so many visits and had
to see so many people, that he never really got to know either them or
his half-brother and sister.
The love of Redmarley had grown with his growth till it became part of
him; so far he had looked upon Mary as merely one of the many pleasant
circumstances that went to the making of Redmarley. Now, somehow, she
seemed to have detached herself from the general design and to have
taken the centre of the picture. He was not sure that he approved of
such prominence.
She startled him that first evening when, with the others, she met him
in the hall. She was unexpected, she was different, and he hated that
anything at Redmarley should be different.
"Mary's grown up since yesterday," Uz remarked ironically, "she's like
you when you first managed to pull your moustache."
Of course Reggie suitably chastised Uz for his cheek, but all the same
there was a difference.
To be sure she still wore her skirts well above her ankles, but
nowadays quite elderly ladies wore short skirts, so that in no way
accentuated her youth; and after all was she so very young?
Mary would be eighteen on Valentine's day.
Arrayed in Elizabethan doublet and hose for Lady Campion's dance,
Reggie stood before his looking-glass and grinned at himself
sardonically.
"Ugly devil," he called himself, and then wondered how Mary would look
as Phyllida the ideal milkmaid.
Ugly he might be, but his type was not unsuited to the period he had
chosen. A smallish head, wide across the brows, well-shaped and
poised, with straight, smooth hair that grew far back on the temples
and would recede even further as the years went on; humorous bright
grey eyes, not large, but set wide apart under slightly marked
eyebrows; a pugnacious, rather sharply-pointed nose with a ripple in
it. Reggie declared that his nose had really meant well, but changed
its mind half way down. His mouth under the fair moustache was not in
the least beautiful, but it was trustworthy, neither weak nor sensual,
and the chin was square and dogged. His face looked long with the
pointed beard he had stuck on with such care, and above the wide white
ruff, might well have belonged to some gentleman adventurer who
followed the fortunes of Raleigh or Drake. For in spite of its
insignificant irregularity of feature there was alert resolve in its
expression; a curious light-hearted fixity of purpose that was
arresting.
Reggie had never been popular or distinguished at Wellington; yet those
masters who knew most about boys always prophecied that "he would make
his mark."
It was the same at the "Shop"; although he never rose above a corporal,
there were those among the instructors who foretold great things of his
future. His pass-out place was a surprise to everyone, himself most of
all. He was reserved and did not make friends easily; he got on quite
pleasantly with such men as he was thrown with; but he was not a
_persona grata_ in his profession. He got through such a thundering
lot of work with such apparent ease.
"A decent chap, but a terrible beggar to swat," was the general verdict
upon Reginald Peel.
To Mrs Ffolliot and the children he showed a side of his character that
was rigidly concealed from outsiders, the truth being that as a little
boy he had been very hungry for affection. The Redmarley folk loved
him, and his very sincere affection for them was leavened by such
passionate gratitude as they never dreamed of.
His face grew very gentle as he gazed unseeingly into the glass. He
was thinking of loyal little Ger.
The clock on the mantelpiece struck the quarter. He blew out the
candles on his dressing-table and fled.
Few gongs or dinner bells were sounded at the Manor House. Mr Ffolliot
disliked loud noises. As he ran down the wide shallow staircase into
the hall he saw that Mary was standing in the very centre of it, while
her father slowly revolved round her in appreciative criticism, quoting
the while:--
"The ladies of St James's!
They're painted to the eyes;
Their white it stays for ever,
Their red it never dies;
But Phyllida, my Phyllida!
Her colour comes and goes;
It trembles to a lily,--
It warms to a rose--"
This was strictly true, for Mary flushed and paled under her father's
gaze, standing there tall and slender in russet gown and white bodice,
a milking stool under her arm. She wore "buckled shoon" and a white
sunbonnet, and was as fair a maid as a man could see between
Christmases.
She was surprised that her father should express his approval thus
graciously, but she was not uplifted. It was Mr Ffolliot's way. He
had been detestable all day, and now he was going to be charming. His
compliments counted for little with Mary. Yesterday he had told her
she moved like a Flanders mare, and hurt her feelings very much. Her
dress was made in the house and cost about half the price of her shoes
and stockings, but Mary was not greatly concerned about her dress. She
wanted to go to the dance, to dance all night and see other people.
Mrs Ffolliot, looking tired and pale, was sitting with Ger on an oak
settle by the hearth. Ger had been allowed to stay up till dinner time
to see his family dressed. The twins were sitting on the floor in
front of the fire. Reggie paused on the staircase four steps up, and
behind him came Grantly in smock frock (borrowed from the oldest
labourer in Redmarley) and neat gaiters as the typical Georgian
"farmer's boy" to match Mary's milk-maid.
"Aren't you coming, Aunt Marjory?" Reggie asked. "I thought you were
to appear as one of the Ladies of St James's as a foil for Mary."
Mrs Ffolliot shook her head. "I did think of it, but I've got a bad
headache. Mary doesn't really need me as a chaperon, it's only a boy
and girl dance; besides, you and Grantly can look after her."
Mr Ffolliot went and sat down on the settle beside his wife. "You're
much better at home," he said tenderly, "you'd only get tired out
sitting up so late."
Grantly and Mary exchanged glances. They knew well enough that Mrs
Ffolliot had decided at the last moment that she had better stay at
home to look after the twins, who were certain, if left to their own
devices, to get into mischief during her absence.
"That rumpus with Ger upset her awfully," Mary whispered to Reggie as
they went into dinner, "and she won't risk anything fresh. It is a
shame, for she'd have loved it, and she always looks so ripping."
The three young people left directly after dinner. Grantly stopped the
carriage at an old Ephraim Teakle's cottage in the village, and they
all went in to let him have a look at them, for it was his smock, a
marvel of elaborate stitching, that Grantly was wearing.
Ephraim was eighty-seven years old and usually went to bed very early,
but to-night he sat up a full hour to see "them childer," as he called
the Ffolliots. He was very deaf, but had the excellent sight of a
generation that had never learned to read. He stood up as the young
people came in, and joined in the chorus of "laws," of "did you evers,"
indulged in by his granddaughter and her family.
"'Er wouldn' go far seekin' sarvice at mop, not Miss Mary wouldn't," he
said; "an' as for you, Master Grantly, you be the very moral of me when
I did work for Farmer Gayner over to Winson. Maids did look just like
that when I wer a young chap--pretty as pins, they was."
But Mrs Rouse, his granddaughter, thought "Mr Peel did look far an'
away the best, something out o' the common 'e were, like what a body
sees in the theatre over to Marlehouse . . . but there, I suppose 'tis
dressin' up for the likes o' Master Grantly, an' I must say
laundry-maid, she done up grandfather's smock something beautiful."
Abinghall, Sir George Campion's place, was just outside Marlehouse
town. The house, large and square and comfortable, was built by the
first baronet early in the nineteenth century. The Campions always did
things well, and "the boy and girl dance" had grown very considerably
since its first inception. Indeed, had Mrs Ffolliot realised what
proportions it had assumed since she received the friendly informal
invitation some five weeks before, she would have risked the
recklessness of the twins, and made a point of chaperoning Mary herself.
For the last three generations the Campions had been strong Liberals,
therefore it was quite natural that with an election due in a fortnight
there should be bidden to the dance many who were not included in Lady
Campion's rather exclusive visiting list.
It is extraordinary how levelling an election is, especially at
Christmas time, when peace and goodwill are acknowledged to be the
prevailing and suitable sentiments.
Even the large drawing-room at Abinghall wouldn't hold the dancers, so
a floor and a huge tent had been imported from London, and joined to
the house by a covered way. A famous Viennese band played on a stage
at one end, and around the sides were raised red baize seats for those
who wanted to watch the dancing. Lady Campion received her guests at
the door of the large drawing-room; she caught Mary by the arm and held
her to whisper rapidly, "I don't know half the people, Mary, do help
me, and if you see anyone looking neglected, say a kind word, and get
partners, like a dear. I depended on your mother, and now she has
failed me."
Naturally the Liberal candidate was bidden to the dance, and Eloquent
arrayed in the likeness of one of Cromwell's soldiers, a dress he had
worn in a pageant last summer, was standing exactly opposite the
entrance to the tent, when at the second dance on the programme
Phyllida and the Farmer's Boy came in, and with the greatest good-will
in the world proceeded to Boston with all the latest and dreadful
variations of that singularly unbeautiful dance. Grantly had imported
the very newest thing from Woolwich, Mary was an apt pupil, and the two
of them made a point always of dancing the first dance together
wherever they were. They were singularly well-matched, and tonight
their height, their quaint dress, their remarkable good looks and
their, to Marlehouse eyes, extraordinary evolutions, made them
immediately conspicuous.
Eloquent, stiff, solemn, and uncomfortable in his wide-leaved hat and
flapping collar, watched the smock-frock and russet gown as they bobbed
and glided, and twirled and crouched in the mazes of that mysterious
dance, and the moment they stopped, shouldered his way through the
usual throng of pierrots, flower-girls, Juliets, Carmens, Sikhs, and
Chinamen to Lady Campion, who was standing in the entrance quite near
the milk-maid who was already surrounded by would-be partners.
"Lady Campion, will you present me to Miss Ffolliot," Eloquent asked in
a stand-and-deliver sort of voice, the result of the tremendous effort
it had been to approach her at all.
She looked rather surprised, but long apprenticeship to politics had
taught her that you must bear all things for the sake of your party, so
she smiled graciously on the stiff, rosy-faced Cromwellian, and duly
made the presentation.
"May I," Eloquent asked, with quite awful solemnity, "have the pleasure
of a dance?"
"I've got twelve or fourteen and an extra, but I can't promise to dance
any one of them if other people are sitting out, because I've promised
Lady Campion to help see to people. I'll give you one if you'll
promise to dance it with someone else--if necessary----"
Eloquent looked blue. "Isn't that rather hard?" he asked meekly.
"Everyone's in the same box," Mary said shortly, "and you, of all
people, ought simply to dance till your feet drop off. Let me see your
card--What? no dances at all down? Oh, that's absurd--come with me."
And before poor Eloquent could protest he found himself being whisked
from one young lady to another, and his card was full all except
twelve, fourteen, and the second extra--which he rigidly reserved.
"There," said Mary, smiling upon him graciously, "that's well over.
I've been most careful; you are dancing with just about an equal number
of Liberal and Tory young ladies, and you ought to take at least five
mamas into supper; don't forget; look pleased and eager, and be careful
what you say to the pretty girl in pink, she's a niece of our present
member."
Here a partner claimed Mary, and Eloquent, feeling much as the White
King must have felt when Alice lifted him from the hearth to the table
(he certainly felt dusted), went to seek one Miss Jessie Bond whose
name figured opposite the number on his programme that was just
displayed on the bandstand.
He really worked hard. He danced carefully and laboriously--he had had
lessons during his last year in London--and entirely without any
pleasure. So far, he had fulfilled Mary's instructions to the very
letter, except in the matter of looking "pleased and eager." His
round, fresh-coloured face maintained its habitual expression of rather
prim gravity. The Liberal young ladies, while gratified that he should
have danced with them, thought him distinctly dull, the Tory young
ladies declared him an insufferable oaf; but Phyllida the tall
milk-maid, when she came across him in the dance, nodded and smiled at
him in kindly approval. He noticed that she danced several times with
the plain young man in the Elizabethan ruff, and that they seemed very
good friends.
At last number twelve showed on the bandstand. Eloquent was not very
clear as to whether Mary had given him this dance or not, but he went
to her to claim it. It came just before the supper dances.
"Yes, this is our dance," said Mary, "shall we one-step for a change?"
"It seems to me," said Eloquent mournfully, "that one does nothing but
change all the time. Now this is a waltz, how can you one-step to a
waltz?"
"Poor man," Mary remarked pityingly. "It _is_ muddling if you're not
used to it. Let us waltz then, that will be a change."
Once round the room they went, and Eloquent felt that never before had
he realised the true delight of dancing. He was very careful, very
accurate, and his partner set herself to imitate exactly his archaic
style of dancing, so that they were a model of deportment to the whole
room. But it was only for a brief space that this poetry of motion was
vouchsafed to him.
Mary stopped.
"Do you see," she asked, "that old lady near the band. She has been
sitting there quite alone all the evening and she must be dying for
something to eat. Don't you think you'd better take her to have some
refreshment?"
"No," said Eloquent decidedly, "not just now. I've been dancing with
all sorts of people with whom I didn't in the least desire to dance
solely because you said I ought, and now I'm dancing with you and I'm
not going to give it up. May we go on again?"
Again they waltzed solemnly round. Again Eloquent felt the thrill that
always accompanies a perfect achievement. Again Mary stopped.
"That old lady is really very much on my conscience," she said; "if you
won't take her in to have some supper, I must get Reggie, he'd do it."
"But why now?" Eloquent pleaded. "If, as you say, she has sat there
all night, a few minutes more or less can make no difference--why
should we spoil our dance by worrying about her? Do you know her?"
"I don't think I know her," Mary said vaguely, "but I have an idea she
has something to do with coal. She's probably one of your
constituents, and I think it's rather unkind of you to be so
uninterested; besides, what does it matter whether one knows her or
not, she's here to enjoy herself, it's our business to see that she
does it. . . ."
"Why our business?" In a flash Eloquent saw he had made a mistake.
Mary looked genuinely surprised this time.
"Why, don't you think in any sort of gathering it's everybody's
business . . . if you see anyone lonely . . . left out . . . one
tries. . . ."
"I've been lonely and left out at dozens of parties in London, where I
didn't know a soul, and I never discovered that anyone was in the least
concerned about me. At all events no one ever tried to ameliorate my
lot."
"But you're a man, you know. . . ."
"A man can feel just as out of it as a woman. It's worse for him in
fact, for it's nobody's business to look after him."
Eloquent spoke bitterly.
"But surely since you, yourself, have suffered, you ought to be the
more sympathetic with that stout lady----"
"I will go, since you wish it; but I don't know her and she may think
it impertinent. . . ."
"I'll come too," said Mary. "_I_ don't know her but I can introduce
you . . . we'll both go."
The lady in question was stout and rubicund, with smooth,
tightly-braided brown hair, worn very flat and close to the head, and
bright observant black eyes. She wore a high black satin dress, and
had apparently been poured into it, so tight was it, so absolutely
moulded to her form. A double gold chain was arranged over her ample
bosom, and many bracelets decorated her fat wrists. She was quite
alone on the raised red seat. For the last two hours Mary had noticed
her sitting there, and that no one, apparently, ever spoke to, or came
to sit by her.
There she remained placidly watching the dancers, her plump ungloved
hands folded in her lap. She appeared rather cold for she wore no
wrap, and what with draughts and the breeze created by the dancers, the
tent was a chilly place to sit in.
Mary mounted the red baize step and sat down beside the solitary one.
"Don't you think it's time you had something to eat?" she shouted . . .
they were _so_ near the band, which at that moment was braying the
waltz song from the "Quaker Girl." The old lady beamed, but shook her
head:
"I'm very well where I am, my dear, I can see nicely and I'm glad I
came."
"But you can come back," Mary persisted. "This gentleman"--indicating
Eloquent--"will take you to have some supper, and then he'll bring you
back again just here if you like. . . . May I introduce Mr Gallup?
Mrs . . . I fear I don't know your name. . . ."
Eloquent stood below bowing stiffly, and offered his arm. The lady
stood up, chuckled, winked cheerfully at Mary, and stepped down on to
the floor.
"Well, since you _are_ so obliging," she said, and took the proffered
arm. "You don't know me, Mr Gallup," she continued, "but you will do
before the election's over. Don't look so down in the mouth, I shan't
keep you long, just a snack's all I want, and to stamp my feet a bit,
which they're uncommonly cold, and then you can go back to the sweet
pretty thing that fetched you to do the civil--oh, I saw it all! what a
pity she's the other side, isn't it? what a canvasser she'd make with
that smile . . . well, well, there's many a pretty Tory lady married a
Radical before this _and_ changed her politics, so don't you lose
heart . . . soup, yes, I'd fancy some soup . . . well, what a sight to
be sure . . . and how do you feel things are going in the
constituency? . . ."
But Eloquent had no need to answer. His charge kept up a continual
flow of conversation, only punctuated by mouthfuls of food. When at
last he took her back to the seat near the band, Mary had gone to
supper and was nowhere to be seen.
"I'm much obliged to you, Mr Gallup," said the lady, "though you
wouldn't have done it if you hadn't been forced. Now let an old woman
give you a bit of advice. . . . _Look_ willin' whether you are or not."
Poor Eloquent felt very much as though she had boxed his ears. A few
minutes later he saw that the Elizabethan gentleman and Mary were
seated on either side of his recent partner and were apparently well
amused.
How did they do it?
And presently when Reggie Peel and Mary passed him in the Boston he
heard Peel say, "Quite the most amusing person here to-night. I shall
sit out the next two dances with her, I'm tired."
"I was tired too, that's why . . ." they went out of earshot, and he
never caught the end of the sentence.
Eloquent danced no more with Mary, nor did he sit out at all with the
indomitable old lady, who, bright-eyed and vigilant, still watched from
her post near the band. The end was really near, and he stood against
the wall gloomily regarding Mary as she flew about in the arms--very
closely in the arms as ruled by the new dancing--of a young barrister.
He was staying with the Campions and had, all the previous week, been
helping heartily in the Liberal cause. He had come down from London
especially to do so, but during Christmas week there was a truce on
both sides, and he remained to enjoy himself.
Just then Eloquent hated him. He hated all these people who seemed to
find it so easy to be amusing and amused. Yet he stayed till the very
last dance watching Phyllida, the milkmaid, with intense disapproval,
as, her sun-bonnet hanging round her neck, she tore through the Post
Horn Gallop with that detestable barrister. He decided that the
manners of the upper classes, if easy and pleasant, were certainly much
too free.
It was a fine clear night and he walked to his rooms in Marlehouse. He
felt that he had not been a social success. He was much more at home
on the platform than in the ball-room, yet he was shrewd enough to see
that his lack of adaptability stood in his way politically.
How could he learn these things?
And as if in answer to his question, there suddenly sounded in his ears
the fat chuckling voice of the black satin lady:
"Well, well, there's many a pretty Tory lady married a Radical before
this, _and_ changed her politics, so don't you lose heart."