"I HAVE fulfilled my mission," said Kenelm, on rejoining his
travelling companion. "Mr. Compton said he would be here in half an
hour."
"You saw him?"
"Of course: I promised to give your letter into his own hands."
"Was he alone?"
"No; at supper with his wife."
"His wife! what do you mean, sir?--wife! he has no wife."
"Appearances are deceitful. At least he was with a lady who called
him 'dear' and 'love' in as spiteful a tone of voice as if she had
been his wife; and as I was coming out of his street-door a lad who
ran against me asked me to give a band-box to Mrs. Compton."
The boy turned as white as death, staggered back a few steps, and
dropped into a chair.
A suspicion which during his absence had suggested itself to Kenelm's
inquiring mind now took strong confirmation. He approached softly,
drew a chair close to the companion whom fate had forced upon him, and
said in a gentle whisper,--
"This is no boy's agitation. If you have been deceived or misled, and
I can in any way advise or aid you, count on me as women under the
circumstances count on men and gentlemen."
The boy started to his feet, and paced the room with disordered steps,
and a countenance working with passions which he attempted vainly to
suppress. Suddenly arresting his steps, he seized Kenelm's hand,
pressed it convulsively, and said, in a voice struggling against a
sob,--
"I thank you,--I bless you. Leave me now: I would be alone. Alone,
too, I must face this man. There may be some mistake yet; go."
"You will promise not to leave the house till I return?"
"Yes, I promise that."
"And if it be as I fear, you will then let me counsel with and advise
you?"
"Heaven help me, if so! Whom else should I trust to? Go, go!"
Kenelm once more found himself in the streets, beneath the mingled
light of gas-lamps and the midsummer moon. He walked on mechanically
till he reached the extremity of the town. There he halted, and
seating himself on a milestone, indulged in these meditations:--
"Kenelm, my friend, you are in a still worse scrape than I thought you
were an hour ago. You have evidently now got a woman on your hands.
What on earth are you to do with her? A runaway woman, who, meaning
to run off with somebody else--such are the crosses and contradictions
in human destiny--has run off with you instead. What mortal can hope
to be safe? The last thing I thought could befall me when I got up
this morning was that I should have any trouble about the other sex
before the day was over. If I were of an amatory temperament, the
Fates might have some justification for leading me into this snare,
but, as it is, those meddling old maids have none. Kenelm, my friend,
do you think you ever can be in love? and, if you were in love, do you
think you could be a greater fool than you are now?"
Kenelm had not decided this knotty question in the conference held
with himself, when a light and soft strain of music came upon his ear.
It was but from a stringed instrument, and might have sounded thin and
tinkling but for the stillness of the night, and that peculiar
addition of fulness which music acquires when it is borne along a
tranquil air. Presently a voice in song was heard from the distance
accompanying the instrument. It was a man's voice, a mellow and a
rich voice, but Kenelm's ear could not catch the words. Mechanically
he moved on towards the quarter from which the sounds came, for Kenelm
Chillingly had music in his soul, though he was not quite aware of it
himself. He saw before him a patch of greensward, on which grew a
solitary elm with a seat for wayfarers beneath it. From this sward
the ground receded in a wide semicircle bordered partly by shops,
partly by the tea-gardens of a pretty cottage-like tavern. Round the
tables scattered throughout the gardens were grouped quiet customers,
evidently belonging to the class of small tradespeople or superior
artisans. They had an appearance of decorous respectability, and were
listening intently to the music. So were many persons at the
shop-doors and at the windows of upper rooms. On the sward, a little
in advance of the tree, but beneath its shadow, stood the musician,
and in that musician Kenelm recognized the wanderer from whose talk he
had conceived the idea of the pedestrian excursion which had already
brought him into a very awkward position. The instrument on which the
singer accompanied himself was a guitar, and his song was evidently a
love-song, though, as it was now drawing near to its close, Kenelm
could but imperfectly guess at its general meaning. He heard enough
to perceive that its words were at least free from the vulgarity which
generally characterizes street ballads, and were yet simple enough to
please a very homely audience.
When the singer ended there was no applause; but there was evident
sensation among the audience,--a feeling as if something that had
given a common enjoyment had ceased. Presently the white Pomeranian
dog, who had hitherto kept himself out of sight under the seat of the
elm-tree, advanced, with a small metal tray between his teeth, and,
after looking round him deliberately, as if to select whom of the
audience should be honoured with the commencement of a general
subscription, gravely approached Kenelm, stood on his hind legs,
stared at him, and presented the tray.
Kenelm dropped a shilling into that depository, and the dog, looking
gratified, took his way towards the tea-gardens. Lifting his hat, for
he was, in his way, a very polite man, Kenelm approached the singer,
and, trusting to the alteration in his dress for not being recognized
by a stranger who had only once before encountered him he said,--
"Judging by the little I heard, you sing very well, sir. May I ask
who composed the words?"
"They are mine," replied the singer.
"And the air?"
"Mine too."
"Accept my compliments. I hope you find these manifestations of
genius lucrative?"
The singer, who had not hitherto vouchsafed more than a careless
glance at the rustic garb of the questioner, now fixed his eyes full
upon Kenelm, and said, with a smile, "Your voice betrays you, sir. We
have met before."
"True; but I did not then notice your guitar, nor, though acquainted
with your poetical gifts, suppose that you selected this primitive
method of making them publicly known."
"Nor did I anticipate the pleasure of meeting you again in the
character of Hobnail. Hist! let us keep each other's secret. I am
known hereabouts by no other designation than that of the 'Wandering
Minstrel.'"
"It is in the capacity of minstrel that I address you. If it be not
an impertinent question, do you know any songs which take the other
side of the case?"
"What case? I don't understand you, sir."
"The song I heard seemed in praise of that sham called love. Don't
you think you could say something more new and more true, treating
that aberration from reason with the contempt it deserves?"
"Not if I am to get my travelling expenses paid."
"What! the folly is so popular?"
"Does not your own heart tell you so?"
"Not a bit of it,--rather the contrary. Your audience at present seem
folks who live by work, and can have little time for such idle
phantasies; for, as it is well observed by Ovid, a poet who wrote much
on that subject, and professed the most intimate acquaintance with it,
'Idleness is the parent of love.' Can't you sing something in praise
of a good dinner? Everybody who works hard has an appetite for food."
The singer again fixed on Kenelm his inquiring eye, but not detecting
a vestige of humour in the grave face he contemplated, was rather
puzzled how to reply, and therefore remained silent.
"I perceive," resumed Kenelm, "that my observations surprise you: the
surprise will vanish on reflection. It has been said by another poet,
more reflective than Ovid, that 'the world is governed by love and
hunger.' But hunger certainly has the lion's share of the government;
and if a poet is really to do what he pretends to do,--namely,
represent nature,--the greater part of his lays should be addressed to
the stomach." Here, warming with his subject, Kenelm familiarly laid
his band on the musician's shoulder, and his voice took a tone
bordering on enthusiasm. "You will allow that a man in the normal
condition of health does not fall in love every day. But in the
normal condition of health he is hungry every day. Nay, in those
early years when you poets say he is most prone to love, he is so
especially disposed to hunger that less than three meals a day can
scarcely satisfy his appetite. You may imprison a man for months, for
years, nay, for his whole life,--from infancy to any age which Sir
Cornewall Lewis may allow him to attain,--without letting him be in
love at all. But if you shut him up for a week without putting
something into his stomach, you will find him at the end of it as dead
as a door-nail."
Here the singer, who had gradually retreated before the energetic
advance of the orator, sank into the seat by the elm-tree and said
pathetically, "Sir, you have fairly argued me down. Will you please
to come to the conclusion which you deduce from your premises?"
"Simply this, that where you find one human being who cares about
love, you will find a thousand susceptible to the charms of a dinner;
and if you wish to be the popular minne-singer or troubadour of the
age, appeal to nature, sir,--appeal to nature; drop all hackneyed
rhapsodies about a rosy cheek, and strike your lyre to the theme of a
beefsteak."
The dog had for some minutes regained his master's side, standing on
his hind legs, with the tray, tolerably well filled with copper coins,
between his teeth; and now, justly aggrieved by the inattention which
detained him in that artificial attitude, dropped the tray and growled
at Kenelm.
At the same time there came an impatient sound from the audience in
the tea-garden. They wanted another song for their money.
The singer rose, obedient to the summons. "Excuse me, sir; but I am
called upon to--"
"To sing again?"
"Yes."
"And on the subject I suggest?"
"No, indeed."
"What! love, again?"
"I am afraid so."
"I wish you good evening then. You seem a well-educated man,--more
shame to you. Perhaps we may meet once more in our rambles, when the
question can be properly argued out."
Kenelm lifted his hat, and turned on his heel. Before he reached the
street, the sweet voice of the singer again smote his ears; but the
only word distinguishable in the distance, ringing out at the close of
the refrain, was "love."
"Fiddle-de-dee," said Kenelm.