After that, when we went back to Annapolis for the winter, there was no
longer any disguise between my tutor and myself. I was not of a mind to
feign a situation that did not exist, nor to permit him to do so. I gave
him to understand that tho' I went to him for instruction, 'twas through
no fault of mine. That I would learn what I pleased and do what pleased
me. And the rector, a curse upon him, seemed well content with that; nor
could I come at his devil's reason far wanting me, save for the money,
as he had declared. There were days when he and I never touched a hook,
both being out of humour for study, when he told me yarns of Frederick
of Prussia and his giant guard, of Florence and of Venice, and of the
court of his Holiness of Rome. For he had drifted about the earth like a
log-end in the Atlantic, before his Lordship gave him his present berth.
We passed, too, whole mornings at picquet, I learning enough of Horace
to quote at the routs we both attended, but a deal more of kings and
deuces. And as I may add, that he got no more of my money than did I of
his.
The wonder of it was that we never became friends. He was two men, this
rector of St. Anne's, half of him as lovable as any I ever encountered.
But trust him I never would, always meeting him on the middle ground;
and there were times, after his talks with Grafton, when his eyes were
like a cat's, and I was conscious of a sinister note in his dealing
which put me on my guard.
You will say, my dears, that some change had come over me, that I was no
longer the same lad I have been telling you of.
Those days were not these, yet I make no show of hiding or of
palliation. Was it Dorothy's conduct that drove me? Not wholly. A wild
red was ever in the Carvel blood, in Captain Jack, in Lionel, in the
ancestor of King Charles's day, who fought and bled and even gambled
for his king. And my grandfather knew this; he warned me, but he paid my
debts. And I thank Heaven he felt that my heart was right.
I was grown now, certainly in stature. And having managed one of the
largest plantations in the province, I felt the man, as lads are wont
after their first responsibilities. I commanded my wine at the Coffee
House with the best of the bucks, and was made a member of the South
River and Jockey clubs. I wore the clothes that came out to me from
London, and vied in fashion with Dr. Courtenay and other macaronies. And
I drove a carriage of mine own, the Carvel arms emblazoned thereon, and
Hugo in the family livery.
After a deal of thought upon the subject, I decided, for a while at
least, to show no political leanings at all. And this was easier of
accomplishment than you may believe, for at that time in Maryland Tory
and Whig were amiable enough, and the young gentlemen of the first
families dressed alike and talked alike at the parties they both
attended. The non-importation association had scarce made itself felt in
the dress of society. Gentlemen of degree discussed differences amicably
over their decanters. And only on such occasions as Mr. Hood's return,
and the procession of the Lower House through the streets, and the
arrival of the Good Intent, did high words arise among the quality. And
it was because class distinctions were so strongly marked that it took
so long to bring loyalists and patriots of high rank to the sword's
point.
I found time to manage such business affairs of Mr. Carvel's as he could
not attend to himself. Grafton and his family dined in Marlboro' Street
twice in the week; my uncle's conduct toward me was the very soul of
consideration, and he compelled that likewise from his wife and his son.
So circumspect was he that he would have fooled one who knew him a
whit less than I. He questioned me closely upon my studies, and in my
grandfather's presence I was forced to answer. And when the rector came
to dine and read to Mr. Carvel, my uncle catechised him so searchingly
on my progress that he was pushed to the last source of his ingenuity
for replies. More than once was I tempted to blurt out the whole
wretched business, for I well understood there was some deep game
between him and Grafton. In my uncle's absence, my aunt never lost a
chance for an ill-natured remark upon Patty, whom she had seen that
winter at the assemblies and elsewhere. And she deplored the state our
people of fashion were coming to, that they allowed young girls without
family to attend their balls.
“But we can expect little else, father,” she would say to Mr. Carvel
nodding in his chair, “when some of our best families openly espouse the
pernicious doctrines of republicanism. They are gone half mad over that
Wilkes who should have been hung before this. Philip, dear, pour the
wine for your grandfather.”
Miss Patty had been well received. I took her to her first assembly,
where her simple and unassuming ways had made her an instant favourite;
and her face, which had the beauty of dignity and repose even so early
in life, gained her ample attention. I think she would have gone but
little had not her father laughed her out of some of her domesticity.
No longer at Sunday night supper in Gloucester Street was the guest seat
empty. There was more than one guest seat now, and the honest barrister
himself was the most pleased at the change. As I took my accustomed
place on the settle cushion,--Patty's first embroidery,--he would cry:
“Heigho, Richard, our little Miss Prim hath become a belle. And I must
have another clerk now to copy out my briefs, and a housekeeper soon, i'
faith.”
Patty would never fail to flush up at the words, and run to perch on her
father's knee and put her hand over his mouth.
“How can you, Mr. Swain?” says she; “how can you, when 'tis you and
mother, and Richard here, who make me go into the world? You know I
would a thousand times rather bake your cakes and clean your silver! But
you will not hear of it.”
“Fie!” says the barrister. “Listen to her, Richard! And yet she will fly
up the stairs to don a fine gown at the first rap of the knocker. Oh,
the wenches, the wenches! Are they not all alike, mother?”
“They have changed none since I was a lass,” replies the quiet invalid,
with a smile. “And you should know what I was, Henry.”
“I know!” cries he; “none better. Well I recall the salmon and white
your mother gave you before I came to Salem.” He sighed and then laughed
at the recollection. “And when this strapping young Singleton comes,
Richard, 'twould do you good to be hiding there in that cupboard,--and
it would hold you,--and count the seconds until Miss Prim has her skirt
in her hand and her foot on the lower step. And yet how innocent is she
now before you and me.”
Here he would invariably be smothered.
“Percy Singleton!” says Patty, with a fine scorn; “'twill be Mr.
Eglinton, the curate, next.”
“This I know,” says her father, slapping me on the shoulder, “this I
know, that you are content to see Richard without primping.”
“But I have known Richard since I was six,” says she. “Richard is one of
the family. There is no need of disguise from him.”
I thought, ruefully enough, that it seemed my fate to be one of the
family everywhere I went.
And just then, as if in judgment, the gate snapped and the knocker
sounded, and Patty leaped down with a blush. “What said I say?” cries
the barrister. “I have not seen human nature in court for naught. Run,
now,” says he, pinching her cheek as she stood hesitating whether to fly
or stay; “run and put on the new dress I have bought you. And Richard
and I will have a cup of ale in the study.”
The visitor chanced to be Will Fotheringay that time. He was not the
only one worn out with the mad chase in Prince George Street, and
preferred a quiet evening with a quiet beauty to the crowded lists of
Miss Manners. Will declared that the other gallants were fools over the
rare touch of blue in the black hair: give him Miss Swain's, quoth he,
lifting his glass,--hers was; the colour of a new sovereign. Will was
not, the only one. But I think Percy Singleton was the best of them all,
tho' Patty ridiculed him--every chance she got, and even to his face.
So will: the best-hearted and soberest of women play the coquette.
Singleton was rather a reserved young Englishman of four and twenty,
who owned a large estate in Talbot which he was laying out with great
success. Of a Whig family in the old country, he had been drawn to that
party in the new, and so, had made Mr. Swain's acquaintance. The next
step in his fortunes was to fall in love with Patty, which was natural
enough. Many a night that winter I walked with him from Gloucester
Street to the Coffee House, to sit an hour over, a battle. And there
Master Tom and Dr. Hamilton, and other gay macaronies would sometimes
join us. Singleton had a greater contempt for Tom than I, but bore with
him for his sister's sake. For Tom, in addition to his other follies,
was become an open loyalist, and never missed his Majesty's health,
though he knew no better than my Hugo the question at issue. 'Twas
not zeal for King George, however, that made him drunk at one of the
assemblies, and forced his sister to leave in the midst of a dance for
very shame.
“Oh, Richard, is, there not something you can do?” she cried, when, I
had got her back in the little parlour in Gloucester Street; “father
has argued and, pleaded and threatened in vain. I thought,--I thought
perhaps you might help him.”
“I think I am not one to preach, or to boast,” I replied soberly.
“Yes,” said she, looking grave; “I know you are wilder than you used to
be; that you play more than you ought, and higher than you ought.”
I was silent.
“And I suspect at whose door it lies,” said she.
“'Tis in the blood, Patty,” I answered.
She glanced at me quickly.
“I know you better than you think,” she said. “But Tom has not your
excuse. And if he had only your faults I would say nothing. He does not
care for those he should, and he is forever in the green-room of the
theatre.”
I made haste to change the subject, and to give her what comfort I
might; for she was sobbing before she finished. And the next day I gave
Tom a round talking-to for having so little regard for his sister, the
hem of whose skirt he was not worthy to touch. He took it meekly enough,
with a barrel of pat excuses to come after. And he asked me to lend
him my phaeton, that he might go a-driving with Miss Crane, of the
theatrical company, to Round Bay!
Meanwhile I saw Miss Manners more frequently than was good for my peace
of mind, and had my turn as her partner at the balls. But I could not
bring myself to take third or fourth rank in the army that attended her.
I, who had been her playmate, would not become her courtier. Besides, I
had not the wit.
Was it strange that Dr. Courtenay should pride himself upon the
discovery of a new beauty? And in the Coffee House, and in every
drawing-room in town, prophesy for her a career of conquest such as few
could boast? She was already launched upon that career. And rumour
had it that Mr. Marmaduke was even then considering taking her home
to London, where the stage was larger and the triumph greater. Was it
surprising that the Gazette should contain a poem with the doctor's
well-known ear-marks upon it? It set the town a-wagging, and left no
room for doubt as to who had inspired it.
“Sweet Pandora, tho' formed of Clay,
Was fairer than the Light of Day.
By Venus learned in Beauty's Arts,
And destined thus to conquer Hearts.
A Goddess of this Town, I ween,
Fair as Pandora, scarce Sixteen,
Is destined, e'en by Jove's Command,
To conquer all of Maryland.
Oh, Bachelors, play have a Care,
For She will all your Hearts ensnare.”
So it ran. I think, if dear Mrs. Manners could have had her way, Dolly
would have passed that year at a certain young ladies' school in New
York. But Mr. Marmaduke's pride in his daughter's beauty got the better
of her. The strut in his gait became more marked the day that poem
appeared, and he went to the Coffee House both morning and evening,
taking snuff to hide his emotions when Miss Manners was spoken of; and
he was perceived by many in Church Street arm in arm with Dr. Courtenay
himself.
As you may have imagined before now, the doctor's profession was
leisure, not medicine. He had known ambition once, it was said, and with
reason, for he had studied surgery in Germany for the mere love of the
science. After which, making the grand tour in France and Italy, he had
taken up that art of being a gentleman in which men became so proficient
in my young days. He had learned to speak French like a Parisian, had
hobnobbed with wit and wickedness from Versailles to Rome, and then had
come back to Annapolis to set the fashions and to spend the fortune
his uncle lately had left him. He was our censor of beauty, and passed
judgment upon all young ladies as they stepped into the arena. To be
noticed by him meant success; to be honoured in the Gazette was to be
crowned at once a reigning belle. The chord of his approval once set
a-vibrating, all minor chords sang in harmony. And it was the doctor who
raised the first public toast to Miss Manners. Alas! I might have known
it would be so!
But Miss Dorothy was not of a nature to remain dependent upon a censor's
favour. The minx deported herself like any London belle of experience,
as tho' she had known the world from her cradle. She was not to
be deceived by the face value of the ladies' praises, nor rebuffed
unmercifully by my Aunt Caroline, who had held the sceptre in the
absence of a younger aspirant. The first time these ladies clashed,
which was not long in coming, my aunt met with a wit as sharp again as
her own, and never afterwards essayed an open tilt. The homage of men
Dolly took as Caesar received tribute, as a matter of course. The doctor
himself rode to the races beside the Manners coach, leaning gallantly
over the door. My lady held court in her father's box, received
and dismissed, smiled and frowned, with Courtenay as her master of
ceremonies. Mr. Dulany was one of the presidents of the Jockey Club
that year, and his horse winning the honours he presented her with his
colours, scarlet and white, which she graciously wore. The doctor swore
he would import a horse the next season on the chance of the privilege.
My aunt was furious. I have never mentioned her beauty because I never
could see it. 'Twas a coarser type than attracted me. She was then not
greatly above six and thirty, appearing young for that age, and she knew
the value of lead in judicious quantity. At that meet gentlemen came to
her box only to tally of Miss Manners, to marvel that one so young could
have the 'bel air', to praise her beauty and addresse, or to remark
how well Mr. Durlany's red and white became her. With all of which Mrs.
Grafton was fain to agree, and must even excel, until her small stock of
patience was exhausted. To add to her chagrin my aunt lost a pretty
sum to the rector by Mr. Dulany's horse. I came upon her after the race
trying to coax her head-dress, through her coach door, Mr. Allen having
tight hold of her hand the while.
“And so he thinks he has found a divinity, does: he?” I overheard her
saying: “I, for one, am heartily sick of Dr. Courtenay's motions. Were
he, to choose, a wench out of the King's passengers I'd warrant
our macaronies to compose odes to her eyebrows.” And at that moment
perceiving me she added, “Why so disconsolate, my dear nephew? Miss
Dolly is the craze now, and will last about as long as another of the
doctor's whims. And then you shall have her to yourself.”
“A pretty woman is ever the fashion, Aunt Caroline,” I said.
“Hoity-toity,” returned my aunt, who had by then succeeded in getting
her head-gear safe within; “the fashion, yes until a prettier comes
along.”
“There is small danger of that for the present,” I said, smiling:
“Surely you can find no fault with this choice!”
“Gadzooks! If I were blind, sir, I think I might!” she cried
unguardedly.
“I will not dispute that, Aunt Caroline,” I answered.
And as I rode off I heard her giving directions in no mild tone to the
coachman through Mr. Allen.
Perchance you did not know, my dears, that Annapolis had the first
theatre in all the colonies. And if you care to search through the heap
of Maryland Gazettes in the garret, I make no doubt you will come across
this announcement for a certain night in the spring of the year 1769:
By Permission of his Excellency, the Governor,
at the New Theatre in Annapolis,
by the American Company of Comedians, on Monday
next, being the 22nd of this Instant, will be performed
ROMEO AND JULIET.
(Romeo by a young Gentleman for his Diversion.)
Likewise the Farce called
MISS IN HER TEENS.
To begin precisely at Seven of the Clock. Tickets
to be had at the Printing Office. Box 10s. Pit 1s 6d.
No Person to be admitted behind the Scenes.
The gentleman to perform Romeo was none other than Dr. Courtenay
himself. He had a gentlemanly passion for the stage, as was the fashion
in those days, and had organized many private theatricals. The town was
in a ferment over the event, boxes being taken a week ahead. The doctor
himself writ the epilogue, to be recited by the beautiful Mrs. Hallam,
who had inspired him the year before to compose that famous poem
beginning:
“Around her see the Graces play,
See Venus' Wanton doves,
And in her Eye's Pellucid Ray
See little Laughing Loves.
Ye gods! 'Tis Cytherea's Face.”
You may find that likewise in Mr. Green's newspaper.
The new theatre was finished in West Street that spring, the old one
having proven too small for our gay capital. 'Twas then the best in
the New World, the censor having pronounced it far above any provincial
playhouse he had seen abroad. The scenes were very fine, the boxes
carved and gilded in excellent good taste, and both pit and gallery
commodious. And we, too, had our “Fops' Alley,” where our macaronies
ogled the fair and passed from box to box.
For that night of nights when the doctor acted I received an invitation
from Dolly to Mr. Marmaduke's box, and to supper afterward in Prince
George Street. When I arrived, the playhouse was lit with myriad
candles,--to be snuffed save the footlights presently,--and the tiers
were all brilliant with the costumes of ladies and gentlemen. Miss
Tayloe and Miss Dulany were of our party, with Fitzhugh and Worthington,
and Mr. Manners for propriety. The little fop spent his evening, by the
way, in a box opposite, where my Aunt Caroline gabbled to him and Mr.
Allen during the whole performance. My lady got more looks than any in
the house. She always drew admiration; indeed, but there had been much
speculation of late whether she favoured Dr. Courtenay or Fitzhugh, and
some had it that the doctor's acting would decide between the two.
When Romeo came upon the stage he was received with loud applause.
But my lady showed no interest,--not she, while the doctor fervently
recited, “Out of her favour, where I am in love.” In the first orchard
scene, with the boldness of a practised lover, he almost ignored Mrs.
Hallam in the balcony. It seemed as though he cast his burning words and
languishing glances at my lady in the box, whereupon there was a deal of
nudging round about. Miss asked for her smelling salts, and declared the
place was stifling. But I think if the doctor had cherished a hope of
her affections he lost it when he arrived at the lines, “She speaks,
yet she says nothing.” At that unhappy moment Miss Dorothy was deep in
conversation with Fitzhugh, the audible titter in the audience arousing
her. How she reddened when she perceived the faces turned her way!
“What was it, Betty?” she demanded quickly.
But Betty was not spiteful, and would not tell. Fitzhugh himself
explained, and to his sorrow, for during the rest of the evening she
would have nothing to do with him. Presently she turned to me. Glancing
upward to where Patty leaned on the rail between Will Fotheringay and
Singleton, she whispered:
“I wonder you can sit here so quiet, Richard. You are showing a deal of
self-denial.”
“I am happy enough,” I answered, surprised.
“I hear you have a rival,” says she.
“I know I have a dozen,” I answered.
“I saw Percy Singleton walking with her in Mr. Galloway's fields but
yesterday,” said Dolly, “and as they came out upon the road they looked
as guilty as if I had surprised them arm in arm.”
Now that she should think I cared for Patty never entered my head. I was
thrown all in a heap.
“You need not be so disturbed,” whispers my lady. “Singleton has a
crooked mouth, and I credit Patty with ample sense to choose between
you. I adore her, Richard. I wish I had her sweet ways.”
“But,” I interrupted, when I was somewhat recovered, “why should you
think me in love with Patty? I have never been accused of that before.”
“Oh, fie! You deny her?” says Dolly. “I did not think that of you,
Richard.”
“You should know better,” I replied, with some bitterness.
We were talking in low tones, Dolly with her head turned from the stage,
whence the doctor was flinging his impassioned speeches in vain. And
though the light fell not upon her face, I seemed to feel her looking me
through and through.
“You do not care for Patty?” she whispered. And I thought a quiver of
earnestness was in her voice. Her face was so close to mine that her
breath fanned my cheek.
“No,” I said. “Why do you ask me? Have I ever been one to make
pretences?”
She turned away.
“But you,” I said, bending to her ear, “is it Fitzhugh, Dorothy?”
I heard her laugh softly.
“No,” said she, “I thought you might divine, sir.”
Was it possible? And yet she had played so much with me that I dared
not risk the fire. She had too many accomplished gallants at her feet
to think of Richard, who had no novelty and no wit. I sat still, barely
conscious of the rising and falling voices beyond the footlights,
feeling only her living presence at my side. She spoke not another word
until the playhouse servants had relighted the chandeliers, and Dr.
Courtenay came in, flushed with triumph, for his mead of praise.
“And how went it, Miss Manners?” says he, very confident.
“Why, you fell over the orchard wall, doctor,” retorts my lady. “La! I
believe I could have climbed it better myself.”
And all he got was a hearty laugh for his pains, Mr. Marmaduke joining
in from the back of the box. And the story was at the Coffee House early
on the morrow.