“Qu’allait-il faire dans cette galère?”
FRENCH COMEDY.
VERA’S first thorough awakening the next morning was to hear outside the
door, “Are you up, Fly?”
“I shall be in a minute or two. Do you want me?”
“You are a dab at _parlez-vous_. I want you to come ashore with me and
cater for the starving crew.”
“What fun! Anon, anon, Sir!”
Vera then perceived that she had been bestowed in Lady Phyllis’ cabin,
and that the proper owner was dressing herself in haste before the little
shelf of a toilette table. So great had been the confusion of last
night’s discovery that the poor silly child had only thought of hurrying
out of sight and tumbling into bed without speaking to any one, and she
had not distinctly known, when Lady Phyllis came down a good deal later
and disposed of herself on the sofa, that Mrs. Griggs had made ready for
her. And now the only thing she could think of was to say, “Oh! Lady
Phyllis, I didn’t know.”
“Take care! Don’t knock your head! We ought to have remembered that
Boreas, or whichever it was, was hardly a sufficient introduction. Are
you all right now? You had better go to sleep again till I bring
something to eat. We are lying to off some little Breton fishing
village, and I am going with my brother to get some provisions, and
telegraph if we can.”
It was long before they came back. Vera had another nap, dressed
herself, grew very hungry, and came out to find Lord Rotherwood fishing,
and his daughter-in-law watching for the boat to put out from the white
houses with grey roofs, which, clustered round their church-tower, seemed
descending to the water’s edge. They were equally famished, though Mrs.
Griggs stewed up the poor remnants of last night’s banquet; but at last
the little boat appeared, gaily dancing over the waves, and Phyllis
making signals of success.
“Oh, yes, you may be thankful, you poor starving beings! Here, Mrs.
Griggs! Accept, and do all you can! Here are eggs, and some milk and
fresh water, four _poulets_, such as they are, and a huge monster of a
crab; but all the bread is leavened, and you little guess what Ivy and I
had to go through before we were allowed to buy anything. We were had up
to the Mayor, and had to _constater_ all manner of things about our ship,
to prove that we were no smugglers.”
“I thought the fat old rogue would have come out to visit the yacht
before he would have allowed us a morsel,” said Lord Ivinghoe.
“In which case you might have been found a skeleton, father, like Sir
Hugh Willoughby! And as to our telegrams, they won’t go till the
diligence gets to St. Malo, and what they will make of them there is
another question. I did not dare to send more than one, for fear they
should get mixed up.”
Vera heard the joyous chaff as it fluttered round her, not half
understanding it any more than if it had been a strange tongue, and not
always guessing the cause of the fits of laughter, chiefly at Lord
Ivinghoe’s misadventures, over which his little sister and his father
were well pleased to tease his correctness, and his young wife looked a
little hurt at his being tormented. He could not remember that
_braconnier_ was a poacher by land, not by sea, and very unnecessarily
disclaimed to the Maire being such a thing. His father, he said, “was
_gentilhomme anglais en_—what’s a yacht?—_yac_. (Nonsense! that’s a
long-haired ox. No!) _Non point contrabandiste_, _mais galérien dans
galère_.” “And there I interposed,” said Phyllis, “for fear we should be
boarded as escaped _galériens_.”
“Why, galley was a pleasure-boat sometimes,” said Ivinghoe, and his wife
supported him with “Cleopatra’s galley.”
“Well done, Francie! To your oars for Ivy’s defence,” said Lord
Rotherwood. “How did you defend us, Fly, from being towed into harbour
at Brest as runaway convicts?”
“She gabbled away most eloquently to the Maire, almost as fluently as a
born French-woman,” said Ivinghoe, “and persuaded him at last that it was
not necessary to come on board to inspect us, nor even to detain us till
he had sent for instructions to St. Malo.”
“As Ivy managed matters, I thought we might be kept as hostages,” said
Phyllis.
“But, thanks to her blandishments, the solemn official vouchsafed to send
off a messenger for us with a telegram.”
“I do not think he sent directions to pursue our suspicious _galère_,”
added Phyllis; “but I own I shall be glad to be under the lee of old
England again.”
“What was your telegram?”
“Brevity was safest, nor had we money enough for two; so all I attempted
was, ‘Delrio to Flight, Rock Quay. Both safe. Picked up by
_Kittiwake_.’ I thought that would be the quickest means of relieving
anxiety, as we were not sure of other addresses; and as to ‘home,’ Mamma
probably hardly was aware of the storm, or, if she were, she knew the
capabilities of yachts and of Griggs.”
“Right!” returned his father. “Poor Miss Prescott! she must have given
you up for lost. Have you been improving your mind with French
telegrams?” he added, turning to Delrio.
“No, my lord, I found my way to the church, a wonderful piece of old
Norman!—if it may so be called.”
“I see you have been sketching.”
Griggs here interposed with tidings that eggs and coffee were ready in
the saloon, the worthy pair having had respect to the general famine, and
prepared what could be made ready in haste. Those who had eaten ashore
sat by, making an amusing account of their reception, and difficulties
with language and peasants, for, this not being an ordinary place of
call, nothing was ready for sale.
Vera, finding herself for the first time in distinguished company, which
desired to set her at ease, began to be at ease, and to desire to shine,
so she giggled whenever she perceived the slightest excuse, even when
Lord Ivinghoe handed her the eggs, and, hoped she had not too British an
appetite for French eggs; and Lady Ivinghoe asked if she had seen the
fowls, and whether their feathers were ruffled up like a hen’s that had
been given to Aunt Cherry. Her little sister Joan, she added, had asked
whether eating the eggs would make her hair curl.
“Or stand on end,” said Phyllis.
“As I am afraid Miss Prescott’s is doing till your telegram reaches her.
Did you say it was to go from St. Malo?”
“Yes. I thought that the safest place to have a comprehensible message
copied.”
“To whom did you say?” asked Lady Ivinghoe.
“‘Delrio to Flight.’ Oh, they will know his name and address fast enough
when it gets to Rock Quay.”
“He is the clergyman at St. Kenelm’s,” put in Vera, in explanation; “very
very advanced Ritualist, you know.”
“Indeed!” was the answer.
“Oh, yes, that he is. My sister Polly is perfectly devoted to him; but
we don’t go to his church, except now and then, because my eldest sister
is just one of those very old-fashioned people, you know, who want
everything horrid and dull.”
“That is hardly what our cousins think of Miss Prescott,” said Phyllis.
“I am so sorry for her anxiety! But I was not sure of the name of her
place.”
“The Goyle! Isn’t it frightful?” said Vera.
“You say she was unprepared for your adventure?”
“Oh, yes, quite. Her notions are so dreadfully proper and old fashioned.
She hasn’t got any sympathy, has she, Hubert?”
“I don’t know,” he said gravely. “I have always had the greatest respect
for her.”
“Respect! So you ought. That’s just the thing one has for a slow dear
old fogey,” she said, laughing, “Oh, Hubert!” There was a silence, and
Lord Rotherwood made an observation upon the wind.
Vera perceived an awkwardness, and, by way of repairing it, afterwards
thought it expedient to communicate to Lady Phyllis that it might be a
pity she had said “Hubert.” It was so awkward, only he was such an old
acquaintance.
“I should have thought the awkwardness was incurred long ago,” said Lady
Phyllis. “Come, you will have no more concealments from Miss Prescott,
will you? You will be ever so much more comfortable, and find out how
kind she is.”
“Oh, but!—” Vera wanted to talk over all her grievances for the pleasure
of talking, saying very much what she had said before, and Phyllis tried
to endure and put in as much sense as she could, without lecturing the
girl, who struck her as the very silliest she had ever encountered; but
she was continually called off to admire the receding French coast, or to
look at the creatures brought up by dredging. She always took care to
call Vera, and not let her feel herself left out; but Vera, if in
solitude for a moment, reflected on the neglect shown of little people by
great ones; and when called up to see uncanny slimy creatures, or even
transparent balls like watery umbrellas, only was disgusted and
horrified.
She began to guess, rather truly, that Lady Phyllis wanted to hinder a
_tête-à-tête_ between her and Hubert Delrio. In fact, Lord Rotherwood,
who was much more of a sympathetic, confidence-inviting personage than
his stiffer, much older seeming son, had said to his daughter, “Don’t let
that poor lad and the girl get together alone, Fly; the boy thinks he is
bound to make her an offer.”
“Oh, father! Surely not!”
“No more than if they had been two babies in a walnut shell. So I told
him, but people don’t see what infants they are themselves, and I want to
hinder him from putting his foot in it before he has seen her
aunt—cousin—sister, or whoever it is that has the charge of her; and she
has depicted to him a Gorgon, with Medusa’s hair, claws and all—a fancy
sketch, isn’t it?”
“Of course, sentimental schoolgirl colours! Mysie thinks her
delightful.”
“At any rate, let him get a dose of common sense before committing
himself. He is a capital fellow, sure to rise; has the soul and head and
hands for it, but he ought not to weight himself with a drag.”
“Do you think he is really in love with her?”
Lord Rotherwood waved his hands. “He thinks so, but nobody knows with
those boys! I had to tell him at last that I would not have any
philandering on board _my_ ship; and whatever he might think it his duty
to say, must be put off for aunt—sister—Gorgon—Medusa or what not. And I
don’t think he’s very bad, Fly, for he modestly asked permission to
sketch Francie’s head for St. Mildred, or Milburg, or somebody; and was
ready to run crazy about the tints on that dogfish. The young fellow is
in the queerest state between the artist and the lover! delight and
shame! I should like to take him north with us; the colours of the
cliffs in the Isles would soon drive out Miss Victoria—what’s her name?”
“You don’t think him like Stephen in the _Mill on the Floss_, who ought
to have married Maggie Tulliver.”
“I believe that is his precedent—but it is sheer stuff—pure accident—as a
respectable old householder like me is ready to testify to the Gorgons
and Chimeras dire—Grundys and all. We must encounter Rock Quay, Fly, if
it is only to rescue this unlucky youth.”
“What is he doing now? Oh, I see; drawing Francie, who sits as stiff as
a Saint of Burne-Jones! Well, I’ll have an eye to them! Vera! Have you
finished _Rudder Grange_?”
“Not quite. I can’t make out who Lord Edward was.”
“Why, the big dog! Did you think he was Pomona’s hero?”
“I don’t know. Wasn’t Pomona very silly?”
“If life was to be taken from story-books,” said Phyllis, in a very
didactic mood; “but you see she imbibed the best side, what they really
taught her of good.”
“I thought, when you gave me the book, it was to be an adventure like
mine, not all standing still in an old river. What do you think Hubert
Delrio ought to do after persuading me into such an awful predicament?”
“Tell your sister he is very sorry that you two foolish children got into
such a scrape, and very thankful that you were saved.”
“We are very thankful to Lord Rotherwood.”
“I didn’t mean to him. To some One else,” said Phyllis, reverently.
“Oh, of course,” said Vera. “But what _do_ you think, Lady Phyllis?”
(Since her discovery of the title she made a liberal use of it.) “What
do you think people will say?”
“That a little girl has had a dangerous adventure and a happy escape.”
“I am seventeen, Lady Phyllis!”
“One is nothing like grown up at seventeen! I declare there’s a big
steamer coming into sight. I wonder if it belongs to the Channel Fleet!”
Nothing more sentimental could be extracted for the rest of the voyage.