THE GOLDEN PLEDGE.
One fine May morning, while Rosamund was churning in the dairy-room of
the Brindled Cow, she heard some one walk into the bar. The step was
not that of any one of her familiar suitors. It was neither short
plump Armand, nor tall bulky Osmund, nor red-haired broad-cheeked
Phillimund, nor short-legged thick-necked Sigismund, who drank six
quarts of milk last Saturday; nor short-breathed apoplectic Dorimund,
who sang sentimental songs with a voice like a year-old heifer's.
No, none of these had a step like this step--sauntering, light, and
meditative. Nevertheless, it was a step which Rosamund loved to hear.
She stopped churning, and moved softly to where a brightly-polished
tin pan was set up on the shelf. It was Rosamund's looking-glass.
Before this she smoothed her rumpled hair, straightened the pink bow
at her throat, and snatched off her dirty apron. She was provoked to
see how red the churning had made her cheeks, and she wished she were
paler; but the wish only seemed to make her rosier than before. She
told herself that she was a coarse-looking ugly girl; and yet when,
only that morning, Dorimund had told her that she was as beautiful
as a fairy, she had taken it quite as a matter of course. It was
tiresome--the way people could grow ugly all in a moment--and in the
wrong moment too!
All this happened during the two or three minutes after the
light-stepping visitor had come into the bar; and now this person
tapped twice or thrice on the counter. Rosamund, on hearing the tap,
began to hum a little song, in an unconcerned sort of way, and walked
up and down the dairy a few times, as if she were putting things in
order; and when, at last, she came out to the bar, it was with the air
of a very busy young woman, who does not like to be disturbed at her
churning.
'Oh, is it you?' she said to the person who was leaning on the
counter. 'How do you do? I hope you're thirsty?'
The person smiled. He was a handsome young fellow, with dark hair and
a pale face, and he looked at Rosamund with a pair of thoughtful eyes.
His dress was plain and rather the worse for wear; but round his neck
a bright spade guinea was hung by a silken string. It did not seem
different from any other spade guinea, yet there must have been
something peculiar about it. For it gave a kind of dignity to the
young man's aspect, so that if you fixed your eyes upon the coin you
forgot the wearer's shabbiness, and almost fancied him to be a noble
and opulent personage. Whether the owner were aware of this or not is
another question; but, as a general thing, young people seldom know
what it is about them that makes them attractive.
'I hope you are thirsty?' Rosamund repeated, in a business-like tone,
as she leaned against the other side of the counter, and looked up at
the young man with her lovely blue eyes.
'I am not thirsty, Rosamund,' he replied, 'but I am tired.'
'I've always heard that doing nothing was tiresome. Perhaps you'd like
to take a chair and sit down? I really must go on with my churning.'
'It isn't that kind of tired that I mean,' said he; 'but if you'll let
me sit down in the dairy I don't mind.' Rosamund made no objection, so
he vaulted over the counter and they went into the dairy together.
'I'm so tired waiting!' he added, with a sigh.
'And what are you waiting for, may I ask?'
'For something great to happen!'
'Oh! Then why don't you make it happen?'
'I wish I could!' sighed the young man.
Rosamund tied her apron on again, and laid hold of the churn-handle.
'What do you call great?' she asked, beginning to work it up and down.
The young man took his gold coin meditatively between his thumb and
forefinger and twisted it on its silken string.
'Greatness is everything that I have not, and want to have,' he said.
'Such as what?'
'Oh, power and wealth, and to be above other men, and to have them
look up to me and obey me. That is greatness.'
'Pooh!' exclaimed Rosamund, working her churn vigorously. 'I shouldn't
care about such greatness as that.'
'Not care about it, Rosamund?'
'Not so much as a pat of butter, Raymond. What do you want of wealth?
Are you hungry, pray, or thirsty? I will give you as much of the best
milk, fresh from the cow, as you can drink; and all the wealth in the
world couldn't help you to drink more. As for power--however high it
brought you, it couldn't make you yourself higher by so much as a
single inch: you would still be the same Raymond you are now, even if
you were an emperor--yes, or that Appanage of Royalty you've been
thinking and talking about all these dozen years or more. Why do you
want people to look up to you and obey you, I should like to know?
Can't you see that it's not you they would look up to, but your ermine
robe and silk stockings----'
'Ah! my mother once washed one of the King's silk stockings--the left
one,' murmured Raymond; 'and the Appanage of Royalty said that some
day, perhaps, he would give me his yellow cap----'
'And golden crown,' continued Rosamund, not noticing the interruption.
'You silly boy! they would obey the crown, not you, though you might
happen to be wearing it. If you think it would be yourself they cared
for, just go to London as you are now and order them about! But if I
were you I'd rather be truly loved by one--person than be obeyed by
one hundred thousand.'
'But if you were I, Rosamund, you'd be a man; and men are different.'
'So it seems.'
'What a noise that churn makes! Rosamund, I've felt all my life long
that I was destined to be great. Why else did my mother wash the
King's stocking; or the Appanage of Royalty promise me the cap?'
'You've been dreaming, you silly boy!'
'But can a dream that I've been dreaming all my life fail to come
true? I don't say that to sit on a throne and rule a kingdom would be
the happiest lot in the world; but, just as an experience, it would be
good fun; and if one is predestined to it, you know----Besides----'
'Well, your majesty--besides what?'
'Well, for instance, how would you like to be a queen?'
Rosamund stopped churning, wiped her hands on her apron, and tossed up
her pretty chin with a saucy air.
'A queen, indeed! I beg to inform you, Master Raymond, that I am a
queen already, and I have reigned longer and more despotically than
ever you will, I fancy. Pray, has the Queen of England any subjects
more devoted to her than my Osmund and Dorimund and Phillimund and
Sigismund and Armand, and twenty others, are to me? Honeymead is my
kingdom, and I do really reign, because my power is in myself; and
fifty giants to march before me, and a hundred dwarfs to carry my
train, wouldn't make me a bit more of a queen than I am now. So--thank
you for nothing, Master Raymond!'
Raymond sat erect, with a great deal more animation in his look than
he had yet shown.
'Listen to me, Rosamund,' he cried. 'It is true you are Queen of
Honeymead. But what is Honeymead compared with London? And why should
not you be as much a queen in London as you are here? You would be
none the worse for a crown, and dwarfs and giants, though you might
not need them: because no man could look at you and not be your
faithful subject ever afterwards. And--Rosamund----'
He hesitated, and his cheeks were quite red. Rosamund glanced up at
him and thought, 'How handsome he is!'
'Rosamund, I ask you this: if I become king will you sit beside me on
the throne, and rule over Great Britain, France, and Ireland?'
Rosamund looked very grave.
'Do you mean to ask me to be your wife, Raymond?' she asked.
'I would have asked you long before, dearest Rosamund, but I waited
hoping to be able to offer you a kingdom along with my love.'
'Well, it is a very kind offer,' said she, with a little smile and a
sigh, 'and I thank you. But I must say no.'
'Rosamund!'
'If I were your wife I should have no time to attend to the duties of
the Court; and if I were your queen I should have no time to attend to
you. And I am so jealous that I could not let you neglect me for your
kingdom; and yet I'm so ambitious that I couldn't let you neglect your
kingdom for me. So it would not do either way; and, if you please, we
won't talk any more about it.'
But as she said this her voice trembled, and tears were in her eyes.
Then Raymond's heart overflowed with tenderness, and he went to her
and took her hand.
'I could not be happy on a throne without you, Rosamund,' said he;
'but I could be happy, if you would marry me, without a throne.'
And because it cost him a good deal to make this sacrifice (even of
something he had not got) his voice trembled a little too.
When Rosamund heard that she could resist no longer. She smiled such a
smile as Dorimund and the rest would have given their farms to win
from her; and said she--
'Oh, Raymond! I am a greater queen in having your love than----'
And then Raymond kissed her just on the place that the next word was
coming out of, so the rest of the sentence was lost.
'But are you quite sure, dear Raymond, that you will be content to
live here always?' she asked, when they had had a little more
conversation of this kind.
Raymond smiled down on her, but he said nothing. Perhaps, in his
secret heart, he was thinking that Destiny (which had appeared to him
in the shape of the Appanage of Royalty so long ago) might still have
some splendid gift in store for him and Rosamund, whereof the yellow
cap would be but the symbol. And, if so, it would be foolish in them
to bind themselves beforehand not to take advantage of it. So Raymond
smiled at Rosamund in a way to show that, at all events, he loved her.
And he did love her, no doubt.
'Poor boy!' said Rosamund, after another pause, smiling back rather
mischievously, 'to think that you have been wearing this spade guinea
all these years, and it has brought you nothing better than me at
last!'
'If guineas could buy girls like you, my dear,' replied Raymond, 'the
Mint would be kept working day and night. But I'll tell you what use
we will make of this--we'll chop it in two, and each of us will wear
a half, in token that we belong to one another. And then, no matter
how long we may be separated, or what changes come over us, we should
always recognise each other by these bits of gold.'
'But you don't think that changes will come over us, or that we shall
be separated, Raymond?'
'Certainly not; but we may as well be on the safe side. For instance,
if I were to go out and meet with an enchanter, and he were to turn me
into a dwarf, and then I were to come back to you, how would you know
me except by my half of the guinea?'
'I should trust my heart for that,' said Rosamund, softly. 'Still, we
will wear the halves, so that everyone may see that we are but half
ourselves when we are not together.'
This being settled, Rosamund fetched a hatchet, and Raymond put the
guinea on a stool, and, with one strong blow, made it fly into two
exact halves. Then he drilled a hole through Rosamund's half, and hung
it round her neck by a piece of pink ribbon; and as for his own half,
he strung it on the silken cord that he had always worn. So their
betrothal was confirmed.
Just at this moment half a dozen of Rosamund's old suitors came
trooping into the bar, and began calling for milk like a herd of
calves. Then the lovers looked in each other's faces and smiled, and
bade each other farewell very tenderly. Raymond went out through the
cowyard; and Rosamund returned to the bar, where she served out fresh
milk and thought about the half-guinea that was hidden in her bosom.