There was a pause of the kind that may be called cold for a few moments
in Sir Hampton's drawing-room. Then Trevor spoke--
"I beg pardon, I'm sure," he said, frankly; "I hope my name is not
unknown to you."
"I think I have heard my brother mention it," said Aunt Matty, stiffly.
"Hush, Pepine I don't bark!" when, as a matter of course, the dog barked
more furiously than before.
"I've just come back from sea," said Trevor, to break the chill.
"Indeed," said Aunt Matty, freezing a little harder; and added to
herself, "A most objectionable person." Then aloud, "Pepine must not
bark so, hush! hush!"
"Oh, for goodness' sake, Matty, do send that cross little wretch away,"
cried Lady Rea, bursting into the room. "Mr Richard Trevor, is it?"
she said, her plump countenance breaking into a pleasant smile as she
gazed up at her visitor. "I'm very glad to see you," she continued,
holding out both hands, "and I hope we shall be very good neighbours."
"I hope we shall, indeed," said Trevor, shaking the little lady's hands
very heartily, and thinking what a homely, pleasant face it was.
"And aren't you glad to get back? Did you enjoy yourself at sea? I
hope you didn't get wrecked!" said Lady Rea, in a breath.
"No; I reached home safe and sound," said Trevor.
"We do have such storms on this coast sometimes. I've told Edward to
look for his master. Hampy's always about his grounds."
"My sister means she has sent for Sir Hampton," said Miss Matilda,
frigidly. In fact, the cold was intense, and showed in her nose.
"Yes, I've sent for Sir Hampton," said Lady Rea, feeling that she had
made a slip. "The girls will be here, too, directly. You have met
them?"
Miss Matilda darted a look of horror at her sister; but it missed her,
and the little lady prattled on.
"They told me about meeting you twice; and, oh!--here, darlings!--Mr
Trevor's come to give us a neighbourly call."
They came forward--Tiny to offer her hand in a quiet, unaffected manner,
though a little blush would make its way into her cheek as her eyes met
Trevor's, and she felt the gentle pressure of his hand; Fin to screw up
her face into a very prim expression, shake hands, and then retire,
after the fashion taught by the mistress of deportment at her last
school.
"I wish that old griffin would go," thought Trevor, as the conversation
went on about the sea, the country and its pursuits--a conversation
which Aunt Matty thought to be flighty, and wanting in ballast--which
she supplied.
But Aunt Matty did not mean to go, and dealt out more than one snub keen
enough to have given offence to the young sailor, but for the genial
looks of Lady Rea and the efforts of Fin, who, to her sister's trouble,
grew spiteful as soon as her aunt snubbed her ladyship, and became
reckless in her speech.
Aunt Matty thought it was quite time for "the seafaring person," as she
mentally termed him, to go. She had never known a visit of ceremony
last so long. On the contrary side, Trevor forgot all about its being a
visit of ceremony: he was near his deity--for a warm attachment for the
sweet, gentle girl was growing fast--and he liked the merry laughing
eyes of Fin.
"By the way, Mr Trevor," said Lady Rea. "I hear you've got beautiful
horses."
"Oh, I don't know," said Trevor. "I tried to get good ones."
"I'm told they are lovely. The girls are just beginning riding--papa
has had horses sent down for them."
"I hope they are quiet and well broken," said Trevor, with an anxious
glance at Tiny.
"I don't think, Fanny, that Mr Trevor can care to know about our simple
domestic matters--our horses, for instance," said Miss Matilda, now
solid ice.
"Oh, sailors always love horses, aunty," said Fin, colouring a little;
and then mischievously, as she sent an arrow at Trevor, "because they
can't ride them."
Aunt Matty's lips parted, but no words came; and to calm her ruffled
feelings she took a little dog--in strokes.
"Your daughter is right," said Trevor, "I do love horses; and," he said,
laughing at Fin, "I do try to ride them."
"I hope you'll look at the girls' horses, then, Mr Trevor," said Lady
Rea. "As you understand them, you'd be able to tell whether they are
safe. I don't half like the idea of the girls mounting such wild beasts
as horses often are. As for me, I wouldn't ride on one for the world."
The idea of plump little Lady Rea in a riding-habit, mounted on a horse,
like a long-draped pincushion, was too much. Tiny coloured. Aunt Matty
looked horrified. Trevor grew hot and bit his lip, caught Fin's eye,
and then that young lady, who had held her handkerchief to her mouth,
burst out laughing.
"Dear me!" exclaimed Lady Rea, good-humouredly. "What have I said
now?--something very stupid, I'm sure. But you must not mind me, Mr
Trevor, for I do make such foolish mistakes."
Miss Matilda took hold of the two sides of the light shawl thrown over
her angular shoulders, and gave it a sawing motion to work it higher up
towards her neck, a shuddering sensation, like that caused by a cold
current of air, having evidently attacked her spine.
"I think it was a foolish mistake, Fanny," she said, in a voice acid
enough to corrode any person's temper, "to doubt Sir Hampton's Judgment
with respect to the horses he would choose for his daughters' use."
Fin began to bristle on the instant; her bright eyes flashed, and the
laughing dimples fled as if in dismay, as she threw down her challenge
to her aunt.
"Why, aunt," said the girl, quickly, "one of the grooms said pa didn't
hardly know a horse's head from its tail."
"Oh, Fin, my dear!" cried mamma.
"Which of the grooms made use of that insolent remark?" cried Aunt
Matty. "If I have any influence with your papa, that man will be
discharged on the instant."
"I think it was Thomas, aunt, who makes so much fuss over Pepine," said
Fin, maliciously.
"I'm quite sure that Thomas is too respectable and well-conducted a
servant to say such a thing," said Aunt Matty. "It was my doing that
your papa engaged him; for he came with a letter of introduction from
the Reverend Caius Carney, who spoke very highly indeed of his honesty
and pious ways."
"Oh, aunty," cried Fin, "and he swears like a trooper!"
Aunt Matilda went into a semi-cataleptic state, so rigid did she grow;
and her hand, with which she was taking a little more dog by friction,
closed so sharply on the scruff of the little terrier's neck, that it
yelped aloud.
"You mustn't say so, my dear, if he does," said Lady Rea, rather sadly.
And to turn the conversation, Trevor asked her if she liked flowers.
"Oh yes, Mr Trevor," she exclaimed, beaming once more. "And you've got
some lovely gladioluses--li--oli," she added, correcting herself, and
glancing from one to the other like a tutored child, "in your grounds,
of a colour we can't get. May I beg a few?"
"The gardener shall send in as many as you wish for, Lady Rea--anything
in my place is at your service."
Poor Tiny! His eager, earnest words began to wake up such a curious
little tremor in her breast. It was all so new--so strange. Now she
told herself she was foolish, childish, and that she was giving way to
silly, romantic fancies; only Fin was evidently thinking something too,
and gave her all sorts of malicious looks. As for Aunt Matty, she sat
now with her eyes closed, sucking a mental lozenge about patience; and
Fin's championship was in abeyance for the rest of the visit--the
conversation being principally between Lady Rea and their visitor.
"It's very kind of you to say so, I'm sure," said Lady Rea. "We saw
them, you know, when we went over your place, once or twice, for Mrs
Lloyd was good enough to say we might. And a very beautiful place it
is."
"It's a dear old home, Lady Rea, indeed," said Trevor, enthusiastically.
"Though you must have found it very _sad_," said Lady Rea.
"No," said Trevor, frankly; "it would be mockery in me to say so. My
parents died when I was so very young, that I never could feel their
loss: I hardly knew what it was to have any one to love."
"Let him look at her now, if he dare," thought Fin, with her eyes
sparkling.
But Trevor did not dare; he only gazed in Lady Rea's pleasant face, and
she made Aunt Matty shiver--firstly, by laying her hand in a soothing
way upon the young man's arm; secondly, by saying she would put herself
under an obligation to this dreadful seafaring person, by accepting his
offer of flowers; and thirdly, by the following terribly imprudent
speech--
"I'm sure I don't know where dear papa can be gone; but as he's not
here, Mr Trevor, you must let me say that whenever you feel dull and
lonely, you must come up here and have a chat, and some music, or
something of that sort. We shall always be delighted to see you."
"Er-rum! Er-rum!" came from the garden.
"Oh! here's papa!" cried Lady Rea. "I'm glad he's come!"
"Er-rum!" came again, and then steps and voices were heard in the
conservatory--voices which made Trevor rise and look annoyed.
The next moment Sir Hampton ushered two gentlemen into the drawing-room
through the conservatory.
"Lady Rea--Tiny dear," he said, loudly--"er-rum, let me make you known
to my friends--Sir Felix Landells and Captain Vanleigh."
Volume 2, Chapter VII.