POSSESSION.
'And while the wings of fancy still are free,
And I can view this mimic show of thee,
Time has but half succeeded in his theft--
Thyself removed, thy power to soothe me left.'
_Cowper._
Though Felix had gone to town both in going to Vale Leston and coming
from it, a much shorter way was feasible, only necessitating a couple
of hours' delay at a junction.
This was not so entirely inconvenient, on Felix's twenty-ninth
birthday, which had been fixed for the general migration to the new
home, since Robina was to meet the others there from a country house
of Lord de la Poer's, seven or eight miles off, and Major and Mrs.
Harewood, and their two sons, would be in the down-train that was
to pick the party up. Not only were they to assist in the taking
possession, but they had secured lodgings for three months at the Glebe
Farm. 'It will be such a good thing,' had Wilmet said, 'to settle them
all in, and put Cherry and her housekeeping on the right tack.'
'My dear Wilmet, I am perfectly sensible of the admirable monarchical
constitution Kit and I live under; but my principles are against
annexation, and if you extend it to Cherry's house, I shall carry you
off at once to Buckinghamshire, or to the Hebrides!'
'I only meant to help,' said Wilmet, with a little dignity; then
changing her tone as she saw a smile twitch his moustache, 'and you
shall be judge what is help!'
Clement was already at Vale Leston; and Bernard, declaring that no
one should catch him again at that filthy hole, Bexley, had repaired
thither as soon as his holidays began. Martha, Amelia Lightfoot, and a
superior housemaid of Wilmet's selection, were gone on to make ready;
also a young gardener, whose face had pleased Felix when he came to
advertise: and half the Underwood family were at the station, together
with Willie Harewood, Sibby, and Scamp--the latter chiefly in the
service of Theodore. Sibby was useful in other ways; but she was, as
ever, to have the chief charge of the boy by day, be his refuge from
strangers, and attend to his meals, it being one of his peculiarities
that he never could or would eat at the family table. And Scamp, though
Lance's property, was so much Theodore's delight, that separation would
have been cruelty; and Lance had resigned him with free good nature,
and not without hopes of Scamp's brother as an inmate, for Dick Graeme
himself had been articled to a surveyor, and was to live and board
with Lance, his mother declaring her conviction that this was the best
security both for his moral, and his rather fragile physical, health.
One of the 'everlasting Lightfoots,' as Angela called them, had married
a nice young wife, and was to occupy the lower rooms, and _do_ for them.
So there were nine individuals seeking what pastime the junction
afforded. The Squire--Felix's present nickname--was, to every one's
amusement, seated at the table in the waiting-room, writing a leader
with the rapidity and abstraction peculiar to himself. A leather couch
was occupied by everybody's hand-bags, umbrellas, and parasols; a cage
of doves, a basket of the more precious flower-roots, and another with
a kitten, under Geraldine's protection; while she endeavoured to keep
Theodore happy and not troublesome by a judicious dole of biscuits
to be shared with Scamp, whom he held in a string--until, at Lance's
step on the platform, the dog rushed out after him, dragging Theodore
after him--Cherry limped after Theodore, Felix hurried after them all,
and Lance took Theodore by the hand, and led boy and dog wherever it
pleased them to go, and they could go safely, while Stella rushed to
satisfy herself of the welfare of her kitten and birds.
Except for such interruptions, the public was mostly concerned to find
a place whence to behold Robina's arrival. 'What will she come in!'
said Stella. 'A carriage like the Centry one?'
'Rattling up in an old fly,' said Will, gruffly.
'Will is jealous of the swells that have proved so attractive!' said
Angela. 'Aren't you burning with curiosity to see them?'
'Not in the least! I know quite enough of them.'
'Know them?'
'A couple of tufts at Christ Church. Not a bad oar--but a regular
stuck-up fellow!'
'Which? or is the description collective?'
'Look, Angel!' cried Stella, as an open waggonette, drawn by two
handsome black horses and full of a merry party of young people, came
dashing up; a cockaded servant opened the door, and a youth in summer
costume sprang out.
'That's him!' quoth Will.
'Lord Ernest!' responded Angela.
Then the well-known figure of their own Robin was handed out by him,
and lastly one of the other damsels, whom Angel identified as Lady
Grace.
'They are not coming in here!' exclaimed Bill, grimly.
Nevertheless they were; the waggonette drove off amid nods and smiles,
and Robin and her two companions were the next moment in presence, and
Will was forced to shake hands with Lord Ernest, while Lady Grace went
through the same ceremony with Felix and Angela, indeed with every one.
'I know you all, already,' she said; 'I'm so glad to have seen you, if
only to warn you not to keep _her_.'
'Are you going our way?' asked Cherry, feeling the bright charm of
manner.
'No; we only came to see her safe into your hands. Come, Ernest!' But
he was enthusiastically admiring Scamp, and inquiring how to procure
the like; and it was some minutes before he shook hands with Robina,
saying, 'Then you'll let Gracie know whether one is to be had for love
or money?'
'I thought you were to have one of the brown setters?'
'Well, why not?'
'One can't have more than one dog of one's heart,' said Angela.
'They must compete for that honour, then. Dogs, as well as other
beings, must earn their place by their qualities. Eh, Gracie?'
'You foolish boy!' was his sister's reply. 'Come along. Good-bye,
my dear little Copsey. If I don't get a letter every day I shall be
convinced that your sisters are putting onions in their eyes.'
'What bright creatures!' exclaimed Cherry.
'What did she call you?' said Will
'Copsey. Oh, Copse, Underwood--the children all call me so. It is my
pet name.'
'Insufferable impudence!' muttered Will. 'And what were you thinking
of, Lance, to talk of getting him a dog of that breed, when you know
Graeme would as soon sell his children?'
'Was not he very proud of the Richborough keeper coming over after
them?'
'Those weren't sold.'
'I beg your pardon. Dick told me what he got for them.'
'One may do a thing for a neighbour, that one wouldn't for a chance
stranger at a station.'
'You Red Republican!' said Angela.
'It is enough to make one a republican in earnest.'
'In _earnest_, indeed!' mischievously echoed Angela.
'To see a shallow young tuft expecting to get whatever he chooses to
ask for, and every one else encouraging him in it--even those who
should have more sense!'
'Meaning me!' said Lance, putting an arm in his and walking him off to
the end of the ticket-taker's little platform; but they had no sooner
turned back than he exclaimed, 'There's that fellow again!'
There indeed he was, with 'Here's your parasol, Miss Underwood. Of
course you know the guilty person?'
'Mine was almost exactly like Lady Caergwent's, thank you!' said
Robina, comparing the plain blue sun-shade with the one she held.
'Except that hers is minus the tassel,' said Lord Ernest. 'You plainly
don't understand the principle of barter and exchange.'
'What? Always to take the least scratchy slate, and longest slate
pencil!' said Angel.
'That's an essentially school illustration that _I_ should not have
dared to make,' said Lord Ernest.
'Nor I,' said Angela, 'but for the blissful fact that I'm no longer a
schoolgirl.'
'I envy you,' he said, with something like a sigh. 'Your wings are
grown!'
But there Robina uneasily said, 'You are keeping Lady Caergwent all
this time without her parasol.'
'There, you see!' he returned, in a half pathetic tone of appeal,
which made Angela laugh excessively. 'But, indeed, there's no fear;
she and my sisters are in Long's shop, and will spend the next two
hours in debating whether print in spots or stripes best conduces to
the morality of their old women. That's the next stage after leaving
school is it not?' turning to Angela; 'the first use to be made of your
liberty!'
'To wear stars and stripes?' she asked, with a little wilful gloss.
And so with desultory nonsense they went on; Robina more than once
interfering, and trying to send Lord Ernest off, but always hovering
about them, in a certain ill-at-ease condition. Felix, having posted
his leader, and taken his tickets, came out on the platform, and
watched the group with a shade of perplexity.
There stood Angela, the bloom of seventeen brightening her pale
colouring, and her play of feature and beautiful mischievous dark
grey eyes making her face full of attraction. A knowing little black
Tyrolese hat, with a single peacock's feather, was tipped over her
forehead; her mass of flaxen hair was in huge loops, tied with crisp
streamers; and her tall figure, in the same silver-grey as all the
sisters had agreed on, looked dashing, where Robina's--with the
adjuncts of a shady hat and a good deal of falling black lace--was
quietness itself. Robina's face, still round, honest, and rosy, had
grown more womanly, and had a distressed uneasy aspect, as she stood
a little aloof, not quite mingling in the conversation, but yet not
separating herself from it. The youth who was talking to Angela was
dark haired, with rather aquiline features, but with that peculiar
whiteness of complexion which is one of the characteristics of old
nobility, and though not exactly handsome, with a very pleasing
countenance, and an air of birth and breeding, a decided contrast to
the figure who regarded them from a little distance. William Harewood
had developed into a much bigger man than his brother, but he had not
the advantage of John's neatness of figure and soldierly bearing.
He had his mother's odd looseness of make, as if his limbs had got
together by accident, and his clothes ditto. John's hair was of the
pale sandy hue; but his, including long whiskers, was of the darker,
more fiery tint, which Lance, at his politest, termed cinnamon. To
be sure, he had a huge massive forehead, under which his yellow
green-flecked eyes could twinkle and sparkle; and his wide mouth, when
grinning from ear to ear, was an engine of fascinating drollery, while
a few deep thoughts or words instantly gave majesty to the whole face,
and extinguished all sense of its grotesqueness; but at present, as
he leant against one of the posts of the platform, a heavy ill-humour
had settled upon his countenance, which made his whole look and air
more befitting a surly navvy than a first-class prizeman, tutor of a
distinguished college, and able to get more aristocratic pupils than he
wanted for his intended reading-party on the hills of the upper Ewe.
Felix had stood for some moments, looking on, wondering what it all
meant, when the bell rang, the train swept up, the doors flew open, and
John Harewood sprang out among them.
'A crowded train!' he said. 'There's only room for three in there,
with Wilmet; Krishnu and the nurse have been keeping the places. Here,
Cherry!--Here, Robin!--What, Stella! all this live-stock?'
'Oh, yes, please, _please_, Robina, take the doves; I can't trust them
or my pussy with any one else.'
And past various self-concentrated people, intensely aggravated at
exchanging the companionship of one baby for that of two doves and a
kitten, the sisters were bundled, to find Wilmet watching for them,
with her elder boy asleep on her knee, a great serene good-tempered
fellow, with her features and clear skin, and though with true Harewood
hair, a Kit to be proud of.
'But where's Angela?'
'There--running after Lance.'
'In that hat! Angel? I saw her as the train came up, and never thought
of her belonging to us. How could you let her make such a figure of
herself?'
'Nature is partly accountable,' said Cherry, in an odd sort of voice.
'And--Well, she brought home the hat, and it does become her. She can
be very picturesque!'
'I'm no artist,' said Wilmet, remembering her husband's caution, and
abstaining; then, as the train began to move, 'Ah! Willie will be left
behind! No; he made a rush! How foolish! What's the matter with him? He
seemed in a brown study.'
'He is out of sorts,' said Cherry. 'I believe he is very much put out
with Lance for not going to Oxford.'
Robina looked up eagerly. 'He must have wished it very much!' she said,
catching gladly at this explanation of his ill-humour.
'Yes,' said Cherry; 'nothing would have so relieved him from the
sense that Lance blighted his prospects in his service. He came down
persuaded, I believe, that he and his big head could shove Lance
through all the passes, just as he could put him over a gap.'
'Everything comes so easy to him, that he has no notion how hard it is
to Lance,' said Robina. 'John says Lance is right, but I am sorry--'
'So Felix wrote,' said Wilmet, 'and one can only acquiesce. Oh, and
before this good little traveller wakes, tell me all about the dinner.'
'There's more that you have not heard about,' said Cherry, triumphantly.
'The inkstand!' said Stella. 'O sister! they have given him the most
splendid inkstand!'
'Who? The Bexley people?'
'Yes,' said Cherry, 'a regular testimonial. They kept it a great
secret; only Mr. Lamb came blushing in one day and borrowed one of the
old books with the coat-of-arms in it, so that I thought something was
brewing. Half the town subscribed--all Felix's young men's class, and
quantities of his old scholars; and there's a little silver knight on
the top, with a frosty silver pennon with the Rood upon it.'
'The Pursuivant himself?' said Robin.
'Yes, standing on a pedestal--a match-box, I believe, with such an
inscription on it that Felix is ashamed of it; and we have had such a
fight about its standing in the drawing-room or being suppressed in his
study, that Felix said at last that we were like Joseph's brothers in
prosperity, and wanted the warning, "See that ye fall not out by the
way."'
But the quarrel had not been a serious one, to judge by her happy face.
'It is very nice, very nice,' said Wilmet, 'and I am not at all
surprised. I thought they must do something of the kind. Was it given
at the dinner?'
'Yes; it was brought in when Mr. Postlethwayte began his speech. He
is Mayor this year, and he was so kind--he came and asked us whether
we should _object_ to go with Mrs. Froggatt, to sit in the gallery.
_Object_, indeed! I wouldn't have missed it for anything in the world;
and we were just above our dear old fellow's head, where he could not
see us, which was all the better for him.'
'Was he nervous?'
'No; he said there was a reality of kindness about it all that made
him feel it as friend to friend. So the Minsterham reporter said too.
Felix brought him in to tea, because we are to have his report for Pur.
He said he had never seen such genuine feeling on all sides. He wanted
to call it an ovation. And Felix puzzled him so by declaring that
inapplicable, unless it had all been mutton.'
'And Mr. Bolton did send ever so much venison,' put in Stella; 'and a
letter besides, because he could not come himself. Mr. Postlethwayte
began by reading it.'
'Yes; that was all the right and proper thing,' said Cherry; 'all
civility about his valuable supporter. As well might he say, for hasn't
Pur fought for him through thick and thin--and suffered too! But it was
Mr. Postlethwayte who had his heart in it. There, Stella, you can say
it all off by heart like a little live page of Pur. Tell Wilmet what he
said about example.'
'He said,' rehearsed Stella, 'that Felix had set a noble example of
considering no means of independence derogatory, and only manifesting
his birth in the high sense of honour which, in the name of his
fellow-citizens, he confessed to have been no slight stimulus.'
'Well done! That was much for Mr. Postlethwayte to say.'
'Oh! everybody said everything!' answered Cherry. 'Mr. Bruce went on
about the paper. Poor dear old Pur, he never had so much good said of
him before, and every word true; but the real beauty of the thing was
the Frogs.'
'I am so glad Mr. Froggatt could go.'
'He said he would not have missed if he had had one foot in the grave.
I really was afraid, once or twice, Mrs. Froggatt would have embraced
us then and there in the gallery, before all the people. How she did
cry, dear old lady!'
'She was thinking of her own sons, poor dear!'
'Partly; but I do think half was pride and pleasure, and that sort of
feeling that grows up of unanimity. I can't describe, but it is like a
spirit mastering all. You will read in the report; but it does not give
a notion of the kind of glow, and the ecstasy of the cheer, when Mr.
Underwood of Vale Leston was given out--the looks of all the faces! Oh!
I can't describe it--one seemed obliged to sob for gratitude! And then,
in the lull at last came his voice, so clear and sweet and strong, and
taking them all by surprise. Now, Stella, go on!'
'Felix stood up,' said Stella, with a pretty little tone of
enthusiastic imitation in her low sweet voice, 'and said perhaps it
was not regular to criticise the manner of such an honour as they had
done him, but he must say that he had rather they had proposed him as
Underwood of 14 High Street. For if his good friends thought they were
disposing of him with a long farewell, he must tell them they would not
be rid of him so soon. For he said that for the means of fulfilling
his new duties he must look in great measure to his old sphere, and
their unvarying friendliness. What a noise they did make then! and when
he went on to thank them for their kindness in treating him as one of
themselves, though without any claim of long standing. And then wasn't
it nice when he went on about Mr. Froggatt!'
'Can't you see, Wilmet,' continued Geraldine, 'how being altogether
moved and excited, all sorts of things came out that he never could
have said in cold blood? About the gentleman he said it was all owing
to--his accepting him when he was a raw friendless lad, giving him an
opening for exertion--patience--kindness. You'll read it, but if you
could only have seen and heard when he said he should always esteem the
connecting of their names among the dearest honours of his life, as it
had certainly been the proudest. He told us afterwards that he saw a
face looking as if it sounded like humbug; so he added louder, "Yes,
as much the proudest and dearest, as what one may hope is personal
is better than what comes by the accident of birth." And he could
not believe that any honour could bestow on him the pleasure he had
felt when he first saw the names of Froggatt and Underwood together.
Whatever he had done or hoped to do, he felt to be due not only to
the first start, but to the long thorough training in diligent habits
of business. As Mr. Bevan said afterwards, it was the most beautiful
outpouring of gratitude without false shame. And Mr. Froggatt, who
had not the least expected it, was quite past speaking. "Gentlemen,
my feelings--" he said, and broke down, and every one cheered, and he
tried again, but only got as far as "Gentlemen, my feelings--" and
put his hand on Mr. Ryder's arm, and begged him to say it for him,
something about "a thousandfold repaid." Mr. Ryder made a set speech
of it, all very true and good, really the best of all, looking so in
the Pursuivant, but nothing to "Gentlemen, my feelings--" and the great
sob.'
'Dear old gentleman! is he more reconciled to the losing you all?'
'Yes, he is so much pleased to keep Lance, and that Felix does not
throw it all up. Indeed, if we could have given up Bexley it would have
been a great difficulty, for Felix feels that he took the duties of a
son upon him.'
'It does to a certain degree qualify one's regret,' said Wilmet. 'As
John says, one would not take the responsibility of saying a word of
remonstrance; he is no fanciful lad, but a man well used to practical
questions; but I still am sorry he should so cripple himself by acting
on scruples Papa never entertained.'
'We can hardly be sure of that,' said Cherry. 'That old letter to Mr.
Staples looked as if he were doubtful. When I told Sister Constance--I
could not help it, though Felix had not given me leave--she seemed
quite overcome, and then she pointed out how right it had all come, for
in the ordinary course of things most likely this restitution would
not have been possible. If he had been brought up as an eldest son,
and we had all had an expensive education like other people, not only
should we all have grown into acquiescence in an unavoidable sort of
abuse, but there would have been none of the power of independence that
enables him to do this; and there would have been settlements and all
manner of things to tie it up. Remember, too, that dear Papa was always
thankful that he did not have the trial of unmixed prosperity.'
Those were the last words before there was a slackening of speed;
Wilmet resumed the one Kit, Stella the other, Robina wielded the doves,
and gathered the parcels, a tall fair head under a big black hat
nodded and smiled welcome, and the little station seemed to flash with
greeting, as in another moment the halt was made, Clement wrenched open
the door, swung out Stella, holding fast by the basket, and set her
down with a kiss, next putting forth a long tender pair of arms to lift
Cherry down, and then receiving his nephew and holding him while Wilmet
and Robina extracted the other impedimenta, and the other two-thirds of
the party hurried up, amid touching of hats and services of porters,
Bernard and Angela flying upon one another, and luggage pouring out of
the van.
'I hope there's room,' said Clement, surveying the numbers. 'I brought
everything on wheels that I could get beasts for.'
And making Kit over to his father's hand, he conveyed Cherry to a
corner of the big barouche with post-horses, and then hurried back
to pack in Wilmet and her boy. He would have put in Robina and Major
Harewood, but they both cried out that this was the place for Squire
himself. Clement and John dragged him from some selection of boxes in a
recusant but passive state, and deposited him opposite to Geraldine, as
she merrily called him 'to enjoy the novel sensation of riding in one's
own coach.'
'Theodore!' he remonstrated; but Wilmet's eyes grew uneasy, and Clement
said, 'Better let Lance and me take him. You'll have a noisy welcome,
and he had better not have the first brunt. Here, Tedo, jump up by
Lance; see my big horse! Ha! I see Angel and Bear have climbed to the
box. Now then, Robin, in with you! Can you make room for Stella?'
So having packed the barouche, Clement sent it off with a dash, taking
John and Will Harewood as well as his two brothers in that dog-cart
that fitted him so oddly, while Sibby, Krishnu, the nurse and baby,
and the luggage, were disposed of in a sort of break which would hold
everything, and came soberly behind with a farm-horse.
It had been well done of the brothers to relieve Felix from the charge
of keeping the peace between Theodore and Kit, and leave him free to
enjoy the arrival with his sisters, and to be happy in having Wilmet
with him, the sharer in all his earlier exertions, and the best able to
enter into his recollections, though at first she failed to recognise
the old landmarks he pointed out, and Cherry sat dreamily smiling,
owning that she recollected nothing in particular, but all was lovely
and delicious, and not like a strange place, but as if she belonged to
it.
Then came the summit of the hill, the church tower, and the river, and
the rich valley stretched before them; and as there was a halt to put
on the drag, up came on the breeze a clash and peal. 'The bells! the
bells!' cried Stella; and Wilmet held up the finger to her boy, 'The
bells, Kit, the bells for Uncle Felix! Listen!'
'Don't you ever forget,' cried Cherry, bending to kiss the wondering
child; and grasping Felix's hand in irrepressible agitation, 'Oh! how
often I have wondered whether we should live to see this day!'
'Thank Heaven that you share it, Sweetheart,' fervently whispered
Felix; while Bernard and Angela turned round, and screamed to them to
look.
And there was a big arch all across the road, all greenery, big
white and orange lilies, and 'Welcome' and 'F.C.U.'s, and a flag
on the church tower, and a tremendous onset of drums and trumpets,
obstreperously hailing the conquering hero, who had to take off his
hat and bow to the mounted array of some dozen tenants and their
sons, all the cavalry of the estate turned out to meet him. 'Master
Kistopher' was hardened enough to military bands not to mind this at
all; but it was well that Theodore was a little behind, for the lungs
of all Vale Leston Abbas, and more too, united in the cheer as the
arch was reached. 'Oh! I hope they won't take out the horses!' cried
Cherry, more than half frightened, while Bernard and Angel danced up
and down with ecstatic cries of 'Jolly! jolly! Here's the whole place
turned out! They'll draw us up to the house! Hurrah! hurrah!' bowing so
graciously, that Cherry, in a counter paroxysm of diversion, called to
them that they would be taken for the man and maid if they appropriated
all the enthusiasm.
Happily no one was venturesome enough to meddle with the horses, but
the whole population attended the carriage up to the house, making so
much discordant uproar, that the reception was a very questionable
pleasure to the nervous; Cherry was between laughter and sobs, and
Wilmet had to spend much pains in persuading her boy that it was all
excellent fun.
At last, upon the stone steps stood Felix, with Cherry on his arm,
Theodore in his hand, nine altogether out of his twelve brothers
and sisters round him, on this the threshold of the home of his
forefathers. There he stood, bare-headed, moist-eyed, thanks to Heaven
swelling his heart, thanks to man fluttering on his lip, as he heard
the fresh shout of welcome, and the old men's 'There he is! God bless
him!'
'Well may they say so!' whispered John Harewood to his wife. 'Here, at
twenty-nine, he stands a stainless knight, with a stainless shield, as
though he had not had to fight his way, and bear up all these around
him!'
Felix meantime, withstanding Theodore's terrified tugs at his hand, put
him into Sibby's care, to be taken as far as possible from the human
greeting, and to enjoy that of the bells; Clement, with a prevision
of the welcome, had provided a supply of cider, wherewith he and the
other gentlemen proceeded to administer draughts to the health of the
new master, who was allowed to do nothing but stand on the step to
make a tableau, as Bill said, with his sisters, and return by look and
gesture the tokens of welcome and the cheer, which Clement, gathering
his choir, contrived to render considerably less inharmonious.
Then Felix, feeling that some words were due, and trained a little by
town-council exigencies, spoke forth. 'Thanks, thanks with all our
hearts, my good friends and neighbours. We did not expect so hearty a
welcome, and I am sure we shall never forget it. As far as an earnest
wish and purpose to do my best will carry me, I will try to deserve
it; but you must bear with me if I often unavoidably disappoint you,
and do not come up to the old golden age of this house. Any way, let
us do our best, one and all, to live here to the glory of God, and in
friendliness to one another. Then it will go hard if we are not very
happy together.'
The bright smile and joyous hope in his face awoke a shout of 'Yes,
yes!' and another cheer, followed by a farmer's voice proposing the
health of the ladies, with the homely addition from another quarter,
'Bless their sweet faces!' and an observation which the Major delighted
to overhear--'That there tall one, with the child by her side, was a
right-down comely one, just such as our ladies up here did used to was.'
Health to 'Mr. Eddard' followed, surprising the new comers who had not
learnt to accept the Vicar's parish name. It drained his provision of
liquor, and gave him the opportunity of saying, 'Thank you sincerely,
dear friends. We are old friends, you know, and I need say no more,
only that now we have seen the good time coming, you had better wish
the travellers good-night, and let my sisters rest. You will all be
better acquainted soon.'
'Well managed, Mr. Edward,' said Felix, smiling, as Clement, for the
first time able to speak to him after dismissing his flock, ran up the
steps looking heated and radiant.
'There's another thing I've done, Felix,' he said, rather breathlessly.
'I've got a supper for the ringers in the long room. Martha is much
displeased about it, but it is the only chance of breaking the neck of
the drinking at the Rood without making you unpopular.'
'All right, Clem, thank you. Well! you look better than when I saw you
last!'
'I'm quite jolly, thank you;' and indeed, the fagged air of depression
had changed to hope and sunshine; he had grown quite sunburnt, and as
Cherry followed up the compliment, had turned into a vigorous country
parson instead of a white town-bred one. He was acting as a sort of
host. 'This way, Wilmet. You must settle about the rooms, Cherry. It
was all guess-work between Martha and me. There's some tea in the
drawing-room by this time.'
He led them quickly through a large hall, paved with black and white
lozenges, into a sort of conservatory passage, glazed on one side,
and containing old orange-trees in tubs, and more recent fuchsias and
geraniums, a great curtain of lilac Bougainvillia drooping at one
end--making the girls shriek with ecstasy, and reproach Felix with
never having told them of it.
'I am afraid I had forgotten it,' said he. 'I never went into this part
of the house on my last two visits.'
'It was Jane's territory (Mrs. Fulbert),' said Clement, 'and I am
afraid she has dismantled the room a good deal. The one hundred pounds
you allowed her to choose as her own furniture came chiefly out of
that, and the valuable things poor Fulbert had in his smoking-room.
It was an odd choice, but I thought you would not mind that, and the
valuation man looked sharp after her. I kept out of the way of the
squabble.'
'I know where I am now,' said Wilmet. 'There's the garden-door at the
end. And here is the drawing-room door. Ah! it does look empty.'
'Oh, never mind tables and chairs. The window!' cried Angela, flying
forward to the eastern one, a deep bay, cushioned round, and looking
out on the sloping lawn, gay with flower-beds, in pleasant evening
shadow, the river sparkling beyond, and with a sidelong view of the
bridge on the one hand and the church on the other. Two other windows
looked to the south, also into the garden.
'At least she has left the piano,' said Lance.
'It was valued at eighty pounds, which would have made too large a
hole,' said Clement. 'Also she has left a chair for you to sit on,
Cherry. Are you tired?'
'I haven't time! I can't grasp it! Home! So exquisite, and all ours.
Oh! the pictures! That lady, with the bent head over the rose, and the
arch pensive eyes! She can't choose but be a Sir Joshua.'
'Right, Cherry,' said Lance, mounting a chair and turning to the back;
'"Lady Geraldine Underwood, 1770. J. Reynolds."'
'The Irishwoman that gave you eyes and mischief. Your best
possessions,' said Will.
He looked at Angela. Did he forget that neither Irish eyes nor mischief
were Robina's portion?
At that moment Stella, who had gone up to the hearth, exclaimed,
'Edgar!' then checked herself, at the sound of the seldom uttered name;
but Felix and Wilmet had both sprung to look.
'I remember,' said the latter.
'Is it my father?' whispered Stella.
It was one of a pair of the largest size of miniatures in Ross's
most exquisite style of finish, thirty years back, just before the
marriage of Edward and Mary Underwood. He, still a layman, was in a
shooting-coat, with a dog by his side, and with the look of life and
light, youth and sunshine, that had never left him--indeed, none but
the little ones who had never really seen him could have hesitated for
a moment; but it was different with the fellow-portrait. If Felix and
Wilmet had not remembered 'Mamma's picture,' they would hardly have
connected the bright soft smiling rose-tinted girl with the toil-worn
faded image on their memories. Wilmet's tears gathered; and Felix
murmured to Cherry, 'One feels that the life was killed out of her! She
looks as if one would have died to save her a breath of care! Oh! to
have brought her back!'
And with a wistful sigh he looked at Stella, the most like the
portrait, though none of the sisters really reproduced it; indeed,
the peculiar caressing and relying expression could hardly have been
brought out, except by a petted shielded life, free from all care or
hardness. Wilmet was on a more majestic and commanding scale; something
of the darling child expression was in Geraldine, but intellect and
illness had changed both the mould and colouring of the features.
Robina was of the round-faced, round-eyed type, only refined; Angela
like no one but Clement; and even Stella was not only too small, but
too thoughtful, to recall that flower-like careless loveliness of Mary
Underwood's maiden bloom.
'It was hard on you not to have had these,' said John.
'I suppose,' said Felix, 'that they were done for my uncle, and that my
father thought them too valuable to take away.'
'Better so,' said Cherry, quietly.
'Yes,' said Lance; 'to have had these before one's eyes would have made
one ready to fly at that man's throat,' glancing at the old squire in
uniform.
'And now,' said Cherry, 'they are smiling their greeting to us.'
'You'll turn out the Squire, won't you, Felix?' added Lance. 'You won't
keep him here, gloating on his victims?'
'Certainly not, if he suggests such ideas,' said Felix. 'It is Cherry's
domain, though, and she must decide whether to banish him.'
'Oh! oh!' screamed Angela, who had meanwhile followed Bernard out of
the room. 'Come here, all of you! Felix, we must have a ball! Nature
and fate decree it.'
Felix laughed, gave Cherry his arm, and the procession moved on. 'Tripp
says this conservatory was glazed for a surprise to my mother while
she was on her wedding tour,' said Clement. 'You know this wing is the
recent part of the house, built by my old great-uncle, when people had
come to have large notions as to drawing and dining rooms. Here's the
dining-room, but we shall go in there for severe tea presently. This
is the middle period, the Stewart style part,' as they came back into
the wainscotted hall, rising to the top of the house, with a staircase
opposite to the front-door, and a handsome balustraded gallery running
round the first floor.
But Angela's discovery was a great arched doorway, mantled only by a
curtain, and leading into the only really ancient part of the building
(except one turret). It was a very long room, with dark oak floor, six
arched and cusped windows looking into as many arches of the cloister
that ran along it, and black wainscot panelled walls, and oak beams,
painted with coats-of-arms. So long was it, that the billiard table at
one end, and at the other Clement's table laid out for the ringers'
supper, made little show in it; and Angela, pouncing on Will Harewood,
waltzed wildly with him up and down the shining floor, while Bernard
learnedly expounded to Stella the games at billiards he had enjoyed
with Mr. Somers there, and Lance went straight to the organ at the
farther end.
'Ah! if you can do any good with that!' said Clement. 'I have been
trying, but have only driven it and myself distracted!'
'How well I know the place!' cried Wilmet. 'Oh, if Alda could see it!
I remember your driving us all in a team here, Fee!--Yes, Kit, trot,
trot, all along. It is as if I saw you, Cherry, taking your first run
alone there.'
'Better than now, I fear,' said Felix. 'Why, Cherry, woman, we must lay
down bridges of matting for you,' as he felt her clutch his arm.
'Are all the floors so dreadful?' she sighed, as Clement next opened
from the hall door into the library, with only a bit of carpet as an
island in the middle. The library ranged with the drawing and dining
rooms, though older. It had a window and a door into the cloister, and
two windows to the east, and was surrounded with caged book-shelves.
Here stood an harmonium, and the table and deep window-seats were piled
with the miscellaneous parish appurtenances of the nineteenth-century
pastor.
'You had better have this room, Felix,' said Clement; 'there was so
much to do that I could not get my traps moved after Somers went.'
To which Felix replied by insisting that Clement should retain it. The
door into the cloister, communicating with the church and churchyard,
made it particularly eligible for the Vicar; and the study, on the
opposite side of the hall, the Squire's favourite sitting-room, with
the two south windows, would suit him and Pur,--the better that the
adjoining room, where old Fulbert had slept in his infirm days, would
serve as a housekeeper's room for Sibby and a retreat and home for
Theodore. It opened into a passage leading to the offices.
'Never mind them now,' said Clement. 'Let Martha recover before we face
her. I don't know which she resents most, the supper, or my sending
in Kerenhappuch to help her. You all will be glad to find your nests,
ladies,' he added, as poor Cherry surmounted each slippery shallow
step, clinging hard to Felix's arm, while Angela and Stella had flown
all round the upper story, and were helping Bill to laugh at the
round-eyed range of ancestors in the corridor.
'Here I put you, our grand company, Mettie,' said Clement, opening the
door of the handsome bedroom of the drawing-room wing; 'the nursery is
up over, as I daresay you remember.'
'As if I did not!'
And up to it with one accord they all went, Cherry and all--for the
stairs were close by, and of deal. At the moment of entrance, Felix,
Wilmet, and Cherry, broke into a simultaneous shout of delight, as they
beheld, staring at them in open-nostrilled pride, the rocking-horse of
their youth. In one moment Cherry's arms were round its neck, Wilmet
had her boy on the saddle, Felix was gently moving it, and patting its
dappled sides with the tenderness of ancient love.
'This at least is unprofaned! I suppose no child has mounted it since
we five hung rocking on it altogether that last morning!'
'I should like a ride now, dear old Gee-gee,' said Cherry, half
sentimentally, as Kit insisted on being taken down to go to his Emma
and his tea; and to her surprise and fright, her brothers snatched her
up, and deposited her on its back, between screaming and laughing; and
hardly was she lifted down, before Wilmet was on her knees, as Lance
said, worshipping the doll's house over which she and Alda had broken
their hearts, and setting all the the chairs and tables on their legs
again.
The very cribs in the inner nursery were all in their old places; and
to the great amusement of the rest, the four who had the honour of
being natives, each sat down upon his or her own; and Felix and Wilmet
had quite a little quarrel which owned the favoured cane-sided one,
where one could poke one's fingers through.
'One's fingers--or rather two's fingers--are rather too big to decide
that question now,' said Felix. 'However, you can take possession by
deputy, Mettie, and some day Alda shall fill them all.'
'Ah! to meet her here!'
But there was one more sadly missed--the King Oberon of the nursery,
whose star of cracked glass still marked one of the panes. Kit was
the first to see it, trot up to point, and say 'Naughty!' but no one
answered him, and Felix struggled back to a cheerful tone to say,
'After all, cane crib and all, I was not here to the last; I slept in
Papa's dressing-room after Clem came to the fore.'
'Mamma's room was the one over the library,' said Cherry, as they
descended.
'Here it is!' with transomed windows, trailed over with vine and
Virginia creeper, one towards the river, and two towards the church,
and Cherry's own particular boxes were in it. 'Oh! my dear Lord
Chamberlain,' she cried, 'this is the place the master ought to have!'
'I had rather be on the other side, Cherry,' said Felix. 'It is better
for Theodore that Clem and I should have rooms opening into one
another, as he will look to him when I sleep out.'
'And I thought the dressing-room would serve for Stella,' added
Clement. 'Why, she is quite pink!'
'Have I really a room to myself?'
'There are enough in the house for that, my little Star,' said Felix.
'I suppose you will hardly make a further progress now, Whiteheart?'
'Only let me show her the Prior's room,' said Clement, taking her to
the floor above the billiard-room. It had been a smoking-room in the
last reign; the windows were hung with heavy curtains; there was both
a stove and a cheerful grate in it, a thick carpet and cushions in the
windows, and a high screen, to cut off the draught from the little
window into the south transept, where the Prior of old used to hear
Mass, if indisposed.
'I have been purifying this room, literally and metaphorically,' said
Clement, thinking of the pictures he had removed, and the air he had
let in. 'It will make Cherry a capital painting-room.'
'Oh! but it is too much! You must not give me all the best rooms in the
house.'
'Who should have them but our lady of the house?' cried both brothers.
'And after all, there are conveniences in not painting in the
drawing-room,' said Cherry. 'May I tell, Lance?' as they both fell into
a transport of laughter. 'You must know, Willie there insisted that I
should do Cleomenes after the battle, when he would not go into his
deserted house. He used so much moral compulsion, that though I knew
that a Greek warrior was as much beyond me as an archangel, I only
feebly objected the want of a model; and Lance, in a spirit of classic
friendship, said he would sit. So one afternoon--there he stood, with
his trousers turned up to his knees, and his shirt-sleeves up to his
shoulders, no shoes or stockings--the table-cover gracefully disposed
with a big shawl-brooch on one shoulder for a chlamys--leaning on
Sibby's long broom-stick by way of a spear, endeavouring to compose his
face as if his wife were dead, and his children in captivity, and he
just beaten horse and foot, and going after them.'
[Illustration: Vale Leston house floor plans]
[Illustration: Vale Leston area map]
'Cleomenes is no laughing matter,' sternly interposed Bill.
'Cleomenes was not, but Lance was. Well, I was just making a study of
his foot, never dreaming of anybody getting in but by the street-door,
when of all things in the world, up comes Miss Pearson herself--Miss
Pearson, senior! and three girls! They had met a mad ox in the street,
or some trifle of that sort, had bolted into the shop nearly in fits,
and this unthinking Felix had popped them through the office to be
still more scandalized upstairs.'
'Poor Miss Pearson!' said Lance; 'I shall never forget her gentle "Do
I intrude?" going off into the wildest scream. And I couldn't escape
by the other door, for Cherry had her easel up against it. She could
only shriek "He's sitting!" technically, you see, like an old hen, or a
schoolmaster, for I wasn't sitting at all.'
'Well, you need have no such catastrophes here,' said Felix, when the
laughter began to subside; 'but your progress has been long enough; now
we have landed you. You younger fry, you must shake into your rooms as
you choose.'
'I secure the octagon turret-room at the end of the corridor,' cried
Angela.
'And I shall hold to my room with the rum ceiling,' said Bernard. 'It
is as good as the barrack at home! Come and see, Lance.'
'I ordered tea at seven,' said Clement, 'that Felix might be ready to
speak to the ringers after it. You must take us in hand, now, Cherry;
that is my last domestic order.'
So Cherry was left with her little sister. There was a little bustle
of unpacking at first; but by the time Cherry was ready, she missed all
sounds of Stella, and looking into her room, saw the child standing
by the window, gazing intently out in a kind of dream, which ended
in her running up to Cherry with a gasp of ecstasy, and hiding her
face against her. 'O Cherry!' she said, 'I did not know it could be
so--so--so exquisite!' and her bosom heaved with the struggle of new
emotion--she who had seen nothing but Bexley suburbs in her little life.
'It does seem almost impossible to believe we are really always to live
with these lovely sights,' said Cherry. 'It is like getting into the
Promised Land! Why, my Star, it quite overcomes you!'
'Oh! if Tedo could--could--' It was a sort of moan that burst from
Stella, followed by a shower of tears.
'Ah! Stella, sweet! We all of us miss somebody. It is not the Promised
Land yet, for there you know there will be Ephphatha indeed!' and
Cherry strangled her own sob, as her supplication went up that all
might be as well there with her heart's grief as with Stella's.
'Besides,' she added, cheerfully, 'Theodore will be happier here; he
will have more liberty and more pets.'
'And he likes the bells,' said Stella; but there was a wistful yearning
look on the sweet face, as if the excess of pleasure increased the
longing for companionship in her twin.
Cherry took her hand to encounter the dread waste of slipperiness
before her; but in further proof who was the lady and the darling of
the house, no sooner did her door open, than Felix hastened across from
his room, Clement strode up from the library, John Harewood's head
emerged from his dressing-room door; but Lance was beforehand with all,
for he was close by, helping Golightly the gardener to carry the boxes
as near as possible to their destinations.
He bore her off in triumph, with so much laughter, that the consequence
was a slip, and a shout of warning displeasure from the elder brothers.
'No fault of his,' cried back Cherry, holding tight to him. 'Only if
four brothers at once will make me so proud, I can but have a fall.'
'Aren't you prouder now?' said Lance, as they trooped into the
dining-room. 'There's a table to sit down at the head of!'
What a glittering array it was of glass and silver and
brightly-coloured china; and the profusion of country fare--roast fowl,
green pease, yellow butter in ice, virgin combs of transparent liquid
golden honey, mountains of strawberries, great jugs of milk and cream.
There was no formality indeed in the Amen that responded to their
chaplain's grace.
'Good creatures verily,' ejaculated Felix, as he took up carving-knife
and fork.
'Is it a feast for his birthday?' whispered Stella, 'or is it to be
always like this?'
'You see,' said Cherry to her neighbour, the Major, 'we remember when
we used to have a quart of blue milk, and save for the babies.'
'I say, Felix,' cried Angela, 'have we got a farm, with cows, and
turkey-cocks, and turnips, and all sorts of jolly things?'
'Stunning!' said Bernard; 'and an old bull with a ring in his nose,
that would toss you as soon as look at you!'
'That home farm is a difficulty,' said Felix. 'I believe I ought to get
rid of it, for I know nothing of farming, and have no time to learn.'
'Oh, let me manage it, if that's all!' said Angel. 'I'll get a
smock-frock and big shoes, and a long whip, and get up at four in the
morning.'
'Seriously, I hope you can keep it in your own hands,' said Clement.
'There's no getting milk otherwise. You might as well ask the farmers'
wives for their hearts' blood. There's a child that I baptized soon
after I came; the mother is sickly, and had lost two before. I found
her feeding it with some mess of pounded acorns, and recommended milk,
but found I might as well have talked of melted gold. Even when I
offered to pay, it could not be done--would break up the cheese-making.
I thought of buying a cow and some hay, and putting her in the
Vicarage; but when I saw a great jug of hot milk come in with my coffee
every morning, I ended by getting a mug and carrying it down every day;
and really the child has lived.'
'But, Clem,' said Angel, with a sort of affectation of solemnity,
'wasn't that a difficult case of conscience? Weren't you stealing Mr.
Underwood's milk?'
'No; for our old _régime_--not to say St. Matthew's--had taught him to
go without,' said Felix, smiling, for he had seen the mug in force.
'Till the new Squire came, and I could unblushingly prey on him,'
rejoined Clement.
'Whereby I propose,' said Major Harewood, 'that we drink the health of
the said new Squire--with all birthday wishes--and long may he reign!'
'All birthday wishes, Felix,' responded Wilmet, who, like some of the
others, had begun tea with a glass of claret. 'Do you remember this day
thirteen years, when Robin did not know what a cold chicken was?'
'I remember it well,' said Felix, gravely. 'It seems to me to have
been the last day that I was a boy. Thank you,' as each bright face
nodded at him. 'Haven't I made speeches enough? Well, then, Ladies and
Gentlemen, many thanks to you for coming here to-day. It's little good
this place would be to me without you. And--' from the playfulness a
sudden emotion came over and thrilled his voice--'may God grant we may
still be all as happy together as we have been these thirteen years!'
'I would not have missed this for anything!' was John's very warm
aside; but a little afraid of emotion, he added, 'Yes, you are worth
looking at. You certainly are a right goodly family.'
'Seen in the light of prosperity,' said Cherry.
'He need not be accused of that,' said Wilmet. 'He never saw so many of
us together before.'
'Except the first time,' said John, 'when I thought you would never
have done coming into the room.'
'Poor John!' said Felix, 'I pity your blushes. I wonder you were not
frightened away at once!'
'And it was not Robin's fault,' said Cherry. 'Do you remember, Bobbie,
the agony you were in, till you grew desperate, and stopped Clem and me
by speaking out?'
'Robin could have had nothing to speak about,' said Wilmet, with a
resumption of her old manner that tickled the others exceedingly.
'_In_deed!' quoth Lance. 'Bill remembers his confidences by the river.'
'Moonshine!' growled Bill, but scarce heeded, for John had turned to
his wife with a droll injured air of condolence, saying, 'Ah! my dear,
these little secrets will come out; but we must make the best of it!'
'And talking of rivers and moonshine,' cried Angela, 'we'll have a turn
in the boat. Hurrah for the boat! Come, Bear--come, Bill--I want my
first lesson in rowing.'
'Stay,' said Felix; 'that eddy where the Leston comes down makes
the river not safe when you do not know it. Now, girls, all of you,
remember once for all that I desire you will never go in the boat
without some one who can swim, nor take Theodore without me.'
He seldom gave a direct command, but there was enforcement in his tone;
and John added, 'Quite right. I see it is a stream not to be trusted.'
'It is just a device to hinder our going at all,' pouted Angela.
'And swimming is a mere hindrance to drowning aisy, if you are to be
drownded,' added Bill.
'Do you know,' added Clement, 'that
"To Leston and Ewe
Underwood pays due,"
in every generation?'
'Where did you pick up that adage?' asked Felix.
'A prophecy, a prophecy!' cried Angela. 'What fun! I shall hold up my
head more than ever, now we have a saw of our own! What fun!'
'Where did you hear it?' repeated Cherry, who as well as Stella looked
discomfited.
'I did not hear it,' said Clement, 'the people were far too polite to
tell me; but it was administered to Somers by way of warning, after
some eccentric proceedings in the boat with Bear. They say an Underwood
is drowned in every generation--I suppose since the sacrilege.'
'Prove the fact,' said Felix.
'Somers and I did try to make out,' said Clement, 'between registers
and monuments. We found one Lancelot in 1750, with a note
"Drowned" attached to his name, and a conglomeration of urns and
water-nymphs--Leston and Ewe, I presume--scrambling about his monument
in the south transept; and the old Squire had told me that the crayon
young lady in a cap in the library was our old great-uncle's intended,
but was drowned in crossing the ferry at Ewmouth, before the bridge was
built. She is not very pretty; and I was going to have put a photograph
in her place, but it seemed to me profane, when she had hung there so
many years for the poor old faithful lover to look at.'
'The Ewe seems to have been in overhaste to claim its due, before she
was an Underwood,' said Angela.
'Quite enough for an adage,' said John; 'one real Underwood, and one
intended.'
'However, as I do not mean the rivers to get their due through any
fool-hardiness,' said Felix, 'you must attend to my rule.'
'And I think it renders boating reasonably safe,' added Clement. 'There
are no holes, and the only danger is when there has been a good deal
of rain to make the currents strong; otherwise it is quite safe for a
tolerable swimmer. I learnt at Cambridge, and Bear is a perfect cork;
but I did not know you could swim, Fee.'
'I improved my opportunities at Ewmouth five years ago, when unluckily
Lance could not.'
'I should try again if I were to be much here,' said Lance; but the
general voice dissuaded him; and at the same time Tripp knocked at the
door--the summons to the Vicar and Squire to visit the ringers at their
banquet.
'You had better go to bed, Cherry,' said Felix, as he rose; 'you look
like a white rag.'
'Triumphs are tiring processes, to say nothing of making tea,' said
Cherry; 'but I don't want to disturb Sibby just yet.'
'I'll put you to bed, if you like,' said Wilmet 'I want to send Emma
down, and keep within hearing of the children.'
'Oh, that will be most delicious of all! So like old times!' And the
two sisters went off, to be happy together, and coo a little delight
in their Squire and his beautiful home, mingled with a domestic
consultation how the bared drawing-room could be inexpensively rendered
a pleasant family gathering place.
'A little chintz will do a great deal,' said Wilmet; 'we will see about
it.'
Which assurance set Cherry's mind at rest on that score, for her belief
in Wilmet's notable abilities was boundless. 'But what is the matter
with Robina?' she added after a few minutes, recalling the events of
the day. 'She is so silent, and has a distressed anxious look I never
saw about her before. I wonder whether she regrets the not coming home
for good.'
'I am not sure,' said Wilmet; 'I am inclined to think she is sorry to
be away from Repworth Towers.'
'O Wilmet! impossible, unnatural!'
'I never do quite understand Robin,' said Wilmet. 'She seems the
simplest, soberest girl in the world; and yet I suppose that folly of
Alice's put things into her head, for she has a strange propensity to
think people are paying her attention. Even at Barèges I saw symptoms
of it, which I put a stop to at once.'
'I can't think it of any one so honest and sensible as the Robin.'
'I know it, unfortunately; and it is the more curious that she has only
moderate good looks, and no other tokens of vanity. It is particularly
unlucky in her position.'
'You don't imagine there's anything going on!'
'I hope not.'
'I have a great deal too much confidence in the Robin to suspect her.'
'Not of consciously doing wrong, but of having been flattered, and now
perhaps in a difficulty. However, I shall say nothing till we have seen
more. She may be only tired.'
Felix--with all that was on his hands--had likewise noted the absence
of the Robin's chirp, and looked for her when he came back from the
ringers' supper, to which Clement and Lance had followed him. They then
went off to Clement's library for a consultation about some music; and
Felix, repairing to the drawing-room, found nothing there but a lonely
cockchafer, knocking his head against a lonely lamp on the lonely round
table in the centre--not an enlivening spectacle; but hearing steps on
the gravel, he went out, and found John pacing under the wall with a
cigar, and Bernard emulously following in his wake.
'Where are all the others?' he asked; 'it is not far from ten.'
'Wilmet went up to the babies,' said John; 'the others are about
somewhere.'
'Larking about,' added Bernard, with superior wisdom. 'Well, John, you
were saying--'
Felix was too thankful to have Bernard doing anything so sensible as to
talk to John to interrupt them further, and turned away. He stood for a
few minutes to enjoy the strange repose of the exquisite loveliness of
the scene--the summer sunset, not yet entirely died away, but tingeing
the northern sky with pure light, while the great moon, still low,
silvered the river, and defined the grand outline of the church.
And this, not only a scene to be gazed at, but the home he had reached
at last--the home so long withheld!
'Entering into rest,' he said to himself, for the repose of mind was
great. 'And yet--
"Your rest must be no rest below."
No, home duties--higher duties, still more--forbid me to make this more
than a resting-place--not rest. "There remaineth yet a rest for the
people of God"--yet a home, but its shadow here is very sweet. Let it
not beguile me!'
Just then Angela's laugh, a very musical and yet a very giddy one, like
a rapid peal of silver bells, caught his ear; and in the moonlight in
the churchyard he saw her tall light figure, and what could be none
other than Will beside her. He was vexed. She was bare-headed, and the
churchyard was open to the village on the other side, and had a public
pathway through it. He walked quickly towards them, and called as soon
as he could do so in a low voice, 'Come in directly, Angela. You know
this is not private ground.'
'O Felix, we have found such a delicious ghost! Don't you see its white
wings?'
'Angel thinks it is her own kin, a fossil cherub,' said Will. 'Why
aren't you all out? 'tis not a scene to be wasted, especially with
Angels and Ministers of Grace to defend us.'
'Minister of _Grace_--that's Robin,' laughed Angela.
'Hush, Angela! come in,' said Felix, severely; 'this is no place for
nonsense--especially unkind nonsense,' he added in a lower voice.
She did not answer, but the church clock began its chimes--sweet,
mysterious, tender--given by some musical Underwood long ago, and
sounding in the dark quite unearthly, while the long deep tones of the
ten o'clock that followed came with awe upon the ear. Will was heard
to give a long sigh, but no one spoke as they all came back to the
drawing-room, which was full enough by this time--four gentlemen, hotly
discussing a cricket-match by the chimney-piece; Wilmet knitting on a
stiff chair in the corner; and Robina, under the lamp, hard at work on
some point-lace on a green roll.
'Putting out your eyes, Bob,' said Felix, feeling the need of saying
something kind to her. 'What are you doing that for?'
'Lady de la Poer has some point de Venise that she can't use because
one ruffle is wanting,' said Robina, 'and I have made out the pattern.
I want to take it back with me and surprise her.'
'It is all willing sacrifice when one puts out one's eyes in a
marchioness's service,' said Will's voice from the window.
Robina looked up resolutely. 'Very willing when one is grateful for a
great deal of motherly kindness,' she said, steadily, and yet with a
certain sadness in her voice.
'Oh yes! a handle to one's name makes a little civility go a great way.'
'You know nothing about it.' The voice was steady but indignant, and
there was a flush of deep colour on the cheeks.
'It is quite true, Robina,' said John. 'It is one of the trials of
life, that when we live in two different worlds, the inhabitants of the
one are apt to resent and misunderstand our feelings for the other.'
They were all grateful for this generalization; and Felix now spoke of
the household prayers. 'I had not begun them,' said Clement; 'I thought
the real master of the house should take the initiative.'
'Set up the domestic halter, as Mrs. Shapcote says,' added Lance.
'We might make that organ available,' said Felix, 'and screen off the
end part of the long room where it stands, for a permanency.'
'Yes, there's rather a nice window down there with our Rood in
it--nothing incongruous,' said Clement, 'if Lance can only cure the
organ.'
'Meantime, I suppose we had better have the servants in here, and use
the piano.'
'They will be all dispersed, and not like to come in,' said Wilmet.
'Possibly,' said Felix, 'but I shall go and see. I have a feeling
against beginning our first night in our new home without some
collective commendation of ourselves.'
'If we had but an authorized form for dedicating a new home, like the
Russian Church,' said Clement.
'You have not thought of anything in especial. Well, see.' And he
pointed to some marks in the prayer-book he left in Clement's hand,
while he left the room for a word or two, which he thought would better
prepare the household than a peremptory bell.
Clement was struck, as indeed they all were, with his selection. There
was the Psalm, 'Except the Lord build the house;' a short lesson (the
reading of which Felix reserved to himself), namely, the words from
Deuteronomy, against the presumption of prosperity; and the Collects,
'Prevent us O Lord in all our doings,' 'Charity,' 'the sundry and
manifold changes of the world,' and 'things temporal and things
eternal;' and then came the hymn--it was, 'Lead Thou me on.' Felix
believed he had heard its echoes in his little bed that last Sunday
night, and therefore wished for it, though it seemed a strange choice
for the new house. How Edward and Mary must have felt that 'one step
enough for me,' when they went forth with their little ones into the
moor and fen! But in this hour of restoration, was it still to be a
looking forth into mist and fog, led only by the kindly Light,
'Till through the dawn the Angel faces smile.'
Some who looked at those pictures felt as if they had had a foretaste
of those angel faces.
'And,' said Kerenhappuch to her father, 'to see Miss Mary's sons, those
dear young gentlemen, all a standing singing together like so many
lambs--it was just a picture like the three chorister boys. I says to
myself, "Keren, this 'ill be a blessed place. If this isn't the angels
come down after all!"'