But I can’t conceive, in this very hot weather,
How I’m ever to bring all these people together.
T. HOOD.
It was not a day when any one could afford to be upset. It was chiefly
spent in welcoming arrivals or in rushing about: on the part of Lance
and Gerald in freshly rehearsing each performer, in superintending their
stage arrangements, reviewing the dresses, and preparing for one grand
final rehearsal; and in the multifarious occupations and anxieties, and
above all in the music, Gerald did really forget, or only now and then
recollect, that a nightmare was hanging on him, and that his little Mona
need not shrink from him in maidenly shyness, but that he might well
return her pretty appealing look of confidence.
The only quiet place in the town apparently was Clement Underwood’s
room, for even Cherry had been whirled off, at first to arrange her
own pictures and drawings; and then her wonderful touch made such a
difference in the whole appearance of the stall, and her dainty devices
were so graceful and effective, that Gillian and Mysie implored her to
come and tell them what to do with theirs, where they were struggling
with cushions, shawls, and bags, with the somewhat futile assistance of
Mr. Armine Brownlow and Captain Armytage, whenever the latter could be
spared from the theatrical arrangements, where, as he said, it was
a case of parmi les borgnes--for his small experience with the
Wills-of-the-Wisp made him valuable.
The stalls were each in what was supposed to represent by turns a
Highland bothie or a cave. The art stall was a cave, that the back
(really a tool-house) might serve the photographers, and the front was
decorated with handsome bits of rock and spar, even ammonites. Poor
Fergus could not recover his horror and contempt when his collection of
specimens, named and arranged, was very nearly seized upon to fill
up interstices, and he was infinitely indebted to Mrs. Grinstead for
finding a place where their scientific merits could be appreciated
without letting his dirty stones, as Valetta called them, disturb the
general effect.
“And my fern-gardens! Oh, Mrs. Grinstead,” cried Mysie, “please don’t
send them away to the flower place which Miss Simmonds and the gardeners
are making like a nursery garden! They’ll snub my poor dear pterises.”
“Certainly we’ll make the most of your pterises. Look here. There’s
an elegant doll, let her lead the family party to survey them. That’s
right. Oh no, not that giantess! There’s a dainty little Dutch lady.”
“Charming. Oh! and here’s her boy in a sailor’s dress.”
“He is big enough to be her husband, my dear. You had better observe
proportions, and put that family nearer the eye.”
“Those dolls!” cried Valetta, “they were our despair.”
“Make them tell a story, don’t you see. Where’s that fat red cushion?”
“Oh, that cushion! I put it out of sight because it is such a monster.”
“Yes; it is just like brick-dust enlivened by half-boiled cauliflowers!
Never mind, it will be all the better background. Now, I saw a majestic
lady reposing somewhere. There, let her sit against it. Oh, she mustn’t
flop over. Here, that match-box, is it? I pity the person deluded enough
to use it! Prop her up with it. Now then, let us have a presentation
of ladies--she’s a governor’s wife in the colonies, you see. Never mind
costumes, they may be queer. All that will stand or kneel--that’s right.
Those that can only sit must hide behind, like poor Marie Antoinette’s
ladies on the giggling occasion.”
So she went on, full of fun, which made the work doubly delightful
to the girls, who darted about while she put the finishing touches,
transforming the draperies from the aspect of a rag-and-bone shop, as
Jasper had called it, to a wonderful quaint and pretty fairy bower,
backed by the Indian scenes sent by Mr. and Mrs. Bernard Underwood, and
that other lovely one of Primrose’s pasture. There the merry musical
laugh of her youth was to be heard, as General Mohun came out with
Lancelot to make a raid, order the whole party to come and eat luncheon
at Beechcroft Cottage, and not let Mrs. Grinstead come out again.
“Oh, but I must finish up Bernard’s clay costume figures. Look at
the expression of that delightful dollie! I’m sure he is watching the
khitmutgars.
‘Above on tallest trees remote
Green Ayahs perched alone;
And all night long the Mussah moaned
In melancholy tone.’
Oh, don’t you know Lear’s poem? Can’t we illustrate it?”
“Cherry, Cherry, you’ll be half dead to-morrow.”
“Well, if I am, this is the real fun. I shan’t see the destruction.”
Lance had her arm in his grip to take her over the bridge over the wall,
when up rushed Kitty Varley.
“Oh, if Mrs. Grinstead would come and look at our stall and set it
right! Miss Vanderkist gave us hopes.”
“Perhaps--”
“Now, Cherry, don’t you know that you are not to be knocked up! There
are the Travises going to bring unlimited Vanderkists.”
“Oh yes, I know; but there’s renovation in breaths from Vale Leston, and
I really am of some use here.” Her voice really had a gay ring in it.
“It is such fun too! Where’s Gerald?”
“Having a smoke with the buccaneer captain. Oh, Miss Mohun, here’s my
sister, so enamoured of the bazaar I could hardly get her in.”
“And oh! she is so clever and delightful. She has made our stall the
most enchanting place,” cried Primrose, dancing round. “Mamma, you must
come and have it all explained to you.”
“The very sight is supposed to be worth a shilling extra,” said General
Mohun, while Lady Merrifield and Miss Mohun, taking possession of her,
hoped she was not tired; and Gillian, who had been wont to consider
her as her private property, began to reprove her sisters for having
engrossed her while she herself was occupied in helping the Hendersons
with their art stall.
“The truth is,” said Lance, “that this is my sister’s first bazaar, and
so dear is the work to the female mind, that she can’t help being sucked
into the vortex.”
“Is it really?” demanded Mysie, in a voice that made Mrs. Grinstead
laugh and say--
“Such is my woeful lack of experience.”
“We have fallen on a bazaar wherever we went,” said Lady Merrifield.
“But this is our first grown-up one, mamma,” said Valetta. “There was
only a sale of work before.”
They all laughed, and Lance said--
“To Stoneborough they seem like revenues--at least sales of work, for I
can’t say I understand the distinction.”
“Recurring brigandages,” said General Mohun.
“Ah! Uncle Reggie has never forgotten his getting a Noah’s ark in a
raffle,” said Mysie.
So went the merry talk, while one and another came in at Miss Mohun’s
verandah windows to be sustained with food and rest, and then darted
forth again to renew their labours until the evening, Miss Mohun flying
about everywhere on all sorts of needs, and her brother the General
waiting by the dining-room to do the duties of hospitality to the strays
of the families who dropped in, chattering and laughing, and exhausted.
Lady Merrifield was authorized to detain Mrs. Grinstead to the last
moment possible to either, and they fell into a talk on the morality
of bazaars, which, as Lady Merrifield said, had been a worry to her
everywhere, while Geraldine had been out of their reach; since the
Underwoods had done everything without begging, and Clement disapproved
of them without the most urgent need; but, as Lance had said, his
wife had grown up to them, and had gone through all the stages from
delighting, acquiescing, and being bored, and they had so advanced
since their early days, from being simply sales to the grand period of
ornaments, costumes, and anything to attract.
“Clement consents,” said Geraldine; “as, first, it is not a church,
and then, though it does seem absurd to think that singing through the
murdered Tempest should be aiding the cause of the Church, yet anything
to keep our children to learning faith and truth is worthy work.”
“Alas, it is working against the stream! How things are changed when
school was our romance and our domain.”
“Yes, you should hear Lance tell the story of his sister-in-law Ethel,
how she began at Cocksmoor, with seven children and fifteen shillings,
and thought her fortune made when she got ten pounds a year for the
school-mistress; and now it is all Mrs. Rivers can do to keep out the
School-board, because they had not a separate room for the hat-pegs!”
“We never had those struggles. We had enough to do to live at all in our
dear old home days, except that my brother always taught Sunday classes.
But anyway, this is very amusing. Those young people’s characters come
out so much. Ah, Gerald, what is it?”
For Gerald was coming up to the verandah with a very pretty, dark-eyed,
modest-looking girl in a sailor hat, who shrank back as he said--
“I am come to ask for some luncheon for my--my Mona. She has had nothing
to eat all day, and we still have the grand recognition scene to come.”
At which the girl blushed so furiously that the notion crossed Geraldine
that he must have been flirting with the poor little tobacconist’s
daughter; but Lady Merrifield was exclaiming that he too had had nothing
to eat, and General Mohun came forth to draw them into the dining-room,
where he helped Ludmilla to cold lamb, salad, etc., and she sat down
at Gerald’s signal, very timidly, so that she gave the idea of only
partaking because she was afraid to refuse.
Gerald ate hurriedly and nervously, and drank claret cup. He said they
were getting on famously, his uncle’s chief strength being expended
in drawing out the voice of the buccaneer captain, and mitigating the
boatswain. Where were the little boys? Happily disposed of. Little Felix
had gone through his part, and then Fergus had carried him and
Adrian off together to Clipstone to see his animals, antediluvian and
otherwise.
Then in rushed Gillian, followed by Dolores.
“Oh, mother!” cried Gillian, “there’s a fresh instalment of pots and
pans come in, such horrid things some of them! There’s a statue in
terra-cotta, half as large as life, of the Dirty Boy. Geraldine, do pray
come and see what can be done with him. Kalliope is in utter despair,
for they come from Craydon’s, and to offend them would be fatal.”
“Kalliope and the Dirty Boy,” said Mrs. Grinstead, laughing. “A dreadful
conjunction; I must go and see if it is possible to establish the line
between the sublime and the ridiculous.”
“Shall I ask your nephew’s leave to let you go,” said Lady Merrifield,
“after all the orders I have received?”
“Oh, no--” she began, but Gerald had jumped up.
“I’ll steer you over the drawbridge, Cherie, if go you must. Yes,”--to
the young ladies--“I appreciate your needs. Nobody has the same faculty
in her fingers as this aunt of mine. Come along, Mona, it is Mrs.
Henderson’s stall, you know.”
Ludmilla came, chiefly because she was afraid to be left, and Lady
Merrifield could not but come too, meeting on the way Anna, come to
implore help in arranging the Dirty Boy, before Captain Henderson
knocked his head off, as he was much disposed to do.
Gillian had bounded on before with a handful of sandwiches, but Dolores
tarried behind, having let the General help her to the leg of a chicken,
which she seemed in no haste to dissect. Her uncle went off on some
other call before she had finished, eating and drinking with the bitter
sauce of reflection on the fleeting nature of young men’s attentions and
even confidences, and how easily everything was overthrown at sight of
a pretty face, especially in the half-and-half class. She had only just
come out into the verandah, wearily to return to the preparations, which
had lost whatever taste they had for her, when she saw Gerald Underwood
springing over the partition wall. Her impulse was to escape him, but it
was too late; he came eagerly up to her, saying--
“She is safe with Mrs. Henderson. I am to go back for her when our duet
comes on.”
Dolores did not want to lower herself by showing jealousy or offence,
but she could not help turning decidedly away, saying--
“I am wanted.”
“Are you? I wanted to tell you why I am so interested in her. Dolores,
can you hear me now?--she is my sister.”
“Your sister!” in utter amaze.
“Every one says they see it in the colour of our eyes.”
“Every one”--she seemed able to do nothing but repeat his words.
“Well, my uncle Lancelot, and--and my mother. No one else knows yet.
They want to spare my aunt till this concern is over.”
“But how can it be?”
“It is a horrid business altogether!” he said, taking her down to the
unfrequented parts of the lower end of the garden, where they could walk
up and down hidden by the bushes and shrubs. “You knew that my father
was an artist and musician, who fled from over patronage.”
“I think I have heard so.”
“He married a singing-woman, and she grew tired of him, and of me,
deserted and divorced him in Chicago, when I was ten months old. He was
the dearest, most devoted of fathers, till he and I were devoured by the
Indians. If they had completed their operations on my scalp, it would
have been all the better for me. Instead of which Travis picked me
up, brought me home, and they made me as much of an heir of all the
traditions as nature would permit, all ignoring that not only was my
father Bohemian ingrain, but that my mother was--in short--one of the
gipsies of civilization. They never expected to hear of her again, but
behold, the rapturous discovery has taken place. She recognised Lance,
the only one of the family she had ever seen before, and then the voice
of blood--more truly the voice of £ s. d.--exerted itself.”
“How was it she did not find you out before?”
“My father seems to have concealed his full name; I remember his being
called Tom Wood. She married in her own line after casting him off, and
this pretty little thing is her child--the only tolerable part of it.”
“But she cannot have any claim on you,” said Dolores, with a more
shocked look and tone than the words conveyed.
“Not she--in reason; but the worst of it is, Dolores, that the wretched
woman avers that she deceived my father, and had an old rascally tyrant
of an Italian husband, who might have been alive when she married.”
“Gerald!”
Dolores stood still and looked at him with her eyes opened in horror.
“Yes, you may well say Gerald. ‘Tis the only name I have a right to if
this is true.”
“But you are still yourself,” and she held out her hand.
He did not take it, however, only saying--
“You know what this means?”
“Of course I do, but that does not alter you--yourself in yourself.”
“If you say that, Dolores, it will only alter me to make me--more--more
myself.”
She held out her hand again, and this time he did take it and press it,
but he started, dropped it, and said--
“It is not fair.”
“Oh yes, it is. I know what it means,” she repeated, “and it makes no
difference,” and this time it was she who took his hand.
“It means that unless this marriage is disproved, or the man’s death
proved, I am an outcast, dependent on myself, instead of the curled
darling the Grinsteads--blessings on them!--have brought me up.”
“I don’t know whether I don’t like you better so,” exclaimed she,
looking into his clear eyes and fine open face, full of resolution, not
of shame.
“While you say so--” He broke off. “Yes, thus I can bear it better. The
estate is almost an oppression to me. The Bohemian nature is in me, I
suppose. I had rather carve out life for myself than have the landlord
business loaded on my shoulders. Clement and Lance will make the model
parson and squire far better than I. ‘The Inspector’s Tour’ was a
success--between that and the Underwood music there’s no fear but I
shall get an independent career.”
“Oh! that is noble! You will be much more than your old self--as you
said.”
“The breaking of Cherie’s heart is all that I care about,” said he. “To
her I was comfort, almost compensation for those brothers. I don’t
know how--” He paused. “We’ll let her alone till all this is over; so,
Dolores, not one word to any one.”
“No, no, no!” she exclaimed. “I will--I will be true to you through
everything, Gerald; I will wait till you have seen your way, and be
proud of you through all.”
“Then I can bear it--I have my incentive,” he said. “First, you see, I
must try to rescue my sister. I do not think it will be hard, for the
maternal heart seems to be denied to that woman. Then proofs must be
sought, and according as they are found or not--”
Loud calls of “Gerald” and “Mr. Underwood” began to resound. He
finished--
“Must be _the_ future.”
“_Our_ future,” repeated Dolores.