THE PONY CARRIAGE
So soon as daylight came, I made a swift cold water toilet, and got out
into the open air, with a solemn resolution to see the hated interior of
that bed-room no more. When I met Lord Chelford in his early walk that
morning, I'm sure I looked myself like a ghost--at all events, very wild
and seedy--for he asked me, more seriously than usual, how I was; and I
think I would have told him the story of my adventure, despite the secret
ridicule with which, I fancied, he would receive it, had it not been for
a certain insurmountable disgust and horror which held me tongue-tied
upon the affair.
I told him, however, that I had dreamed dreams, and was restless and
uncomfortable in my present berth, and begged his interest with the
housekeeper to have my quarters changed to the lower storey--quite
resolved to remove to the 'Brandon Arms,' rather than encounter another
such night as I had passed.
Stanley Lake did not appear that day; Wylder was glowering and
abstracted--worse company than usual; and Rachel seemed to have quite
passed from his recollection.
While Rachel Lake was, as usual, busy in her little garden that day, Lord
Chelford, on his way to the town, by the pretty mill-road, took off his
hat to her with a smiling salutation, and leaning on the paling, he
said--
'I often wonder how you make your flowers grow here--you have so little
sun among the trees--and yet, it is so pretty and flowery; it remains in
my memory as if the sun were always shining specially on this little
garden.'
Miss Lake laughed.
'I am very proud of it. They try not to blow, but I never let them alone
till they do. See all my watering-pots, and pruning-scissors, my sticks,
and bass-mat, and glass covers. Skill and industry conquer churlish
nature--and this is my Versailles.'
'I don't believe in those sticks, and scissors, and watering-pots. You
won't tell your secret; but I'm sure it's an influence--you smile and
whisper to them.'
She smiled--without raising her eyes--on the flower she was tying up;
and, indeed, it was such a smile as must have made it happy--and she
said, gaily--
'You forget that Lord Chelford passes this way sometimes, and shines upon
them, too.'
'No, he's a dull, earthly dog; and if he shines here, it is only in
reflected light'
'Margery, child, fetch me the scissors.'
And a hobble-de-hoy of a girl, with round eyes, and a long white-apron,
and bare arms, came down the little walk, and--eyeing the peer with an
awful curiosity--presented the shears to the charming Atropos, who
clipped off the withered blossoms that had bloomed their hour, and were
to cumber the stalk no more.
'Now, you see what art may do; how _passée_ this creature was till I made
her toilet, and how wonderfully the poor old beauty looks now,' and she
glanced complacently at the plant she had just trimmed.
'Well, it is young again and beautiful; but no--I have no faith in the
scissors; I still believe in the influence--from the tips of your
fingers, your looks, and tones. Flowers, like fairies, have their
favourites, whom they smile on and obey; and I think this is a haunted
glen--trees, flowers, all have an intelligence and a feeling--and I am
sure you see wonderful things, by moonlight, from your window.'
With a strange meaning echo, those words returned to her afterwards--'I'm
sure you see wonderful things, by moonlight, from your window.'
But no matter; the winged words--making pleasant music--flew pleasantly
away, now among transparent leaves and glimmering sun; by-and-by, in
moonlight, they will return to the casement piping the same tune, in
ghostly tones.
And as they chatted in this strain, Rachel paused on a sudden, with
upraised hand, listening pleasantly.
'I hear the pony-carriage; Dorcas is coming,' she said.
And the tinkle of tiny wheels, coming down the road, was audible.
'There's a pleasant sense of adventure, too, in the midst of your
seclusion. Sudden arrivals and passing pilgrims, like me, leaning over
the paling, and refreshed by the glimpse the rogue steals of this
charming oratory. Yes; here comes the fair Brunnisende.'
And he made his salutation. Miss Brandon smiled from under her gipsy-hat
very pleasantly for her.
'Will you come with me for a drive, Radie?' she asked.
'Yes, dear--delighted. Margery, bring my gloves and cloak.' And she
unpinned the faded silk shawl that did duty in the garden, and drew off
her gauntlets, and showed her pretty hands; and Margery popped her cloak
on her shoulders, and the young lady pulled on her gloves. All ready in a
moment, like a young lady of energy; and chatting merrily she sat down
beside her cousin, who held the reins. As there were no more gates to
open, Miss Brandon dismissed the servant, who stood at the ponies' heads,
and who, touching his hat with his white glove, received his _congé_, and
strode with willing steps up the road.
'Will you take me for your footman as far as the town?' asked Lord
Chelford; so, with permission, up he jumped behind, and away they
whirled, close over the ground, on toy wheels ringing merrily on the
shingle, he leaning over the back and chatting pleasantly with the young
ladies as they drove on.
They drew up at the Brandon Arms, and little girls courtesied at doors,
and householders peeped from their windows, not standing close to the
panes, but respectfully back, at the great lady and the nobleman, who was
now taking his leave.
And next they pulled up at that official rendezvous, with white-washed
front--and 'post-office,' in white letters on a brown board over its
door, and its black, hinged window-pane, through which Mr. Driver--or, in
his absence, Miss Anne Driver--answered questions, and transacted affairs
officially.
In the rear of this establishment were kept some dogs of Lawyer Larkin's;
and just as the ladies arrived, that person emerged, looking
overpoweringly gentlemanlike, in a white hat, gray paletot, lavender
trowsers, and white riding gloves. He was in a righteous and dignified
way pleased to present himself in so becoming a costume, and moreover in
good company, for Stanley Lake was going with him to Dutton for a day's
sport, which neither of them cared for. But Stanley hoped to pump the
attorney, and the attorney, I'm afraid, liked being associated with the
fashionable captain; and so they were each pleased in the way that suited
them.
The attorney, being long as well as lank, had to stoop under the doorway,
but drew himself up handsomely on coming out, and assumed his easy,
high-bred style, which, although he was not aware of it, was very nearly
insupportable, and smiled very engagingly, and meant to talk a little
about the weather; but Miss Brandon made him one of her gravest and
slightest bows, and suddenly saw Mrs. Brown at her shop door on the other
side, and had a word to say to her.
And now Stanley Lake drew up in the tax-cart, and greeted the ladies, and
told them how he meant to pass the day; and the dogs being put in, and
the attorney, I'm afraid a little spited at his reception, in possession
of the reins, they drove down the little street at a great pace, and
disappeared round the corner; and in a minute more the young ladies, in
the opposite direction, resumed their drive. The ponies, being grave and
trustworthy, and having the road quite to themselves, needed little
looking after, and Miss Brandon was free to converse with her companion.
'I think, Rachel, you have a lover,' she said.
'Only a bachelor, I'm afraid, as my poor Margery calls the young
gentleman who takes her out for a walk on a Sunday, and I fear means
nothing more.'
'This is the second time I've found Chelford talking to you, Rachel, at
the door of your pretty little garden.'
Rachel laughed.
'Suppose, some fine day, he should put his hand over the paling, and take
yours, and make you a speech.'
'You romantic darling,' she said, 'don't you know that peers and princes
have quite given over marrying simple maidens of low estate for love and
liking, and understand match-making better than you or I; though I could
give a tolerable account of myself, after the manner of the white cat in
the story, which I think is a pattern of frankness and modest dignity.
I'd say with a courtesy--"Think not, prince, that I have always been a
cat, and that my birth is obscure; my father was king of six kingdoms,
and loved my mother tenderly," and so forth.'
'Rachel, I like you,' interrupted the dark beauty, fixing her large eyes,
from which not light, but, as it were, a rich shadow fell softly on her
companion. It was the first time she had made any such confession. Rachel
returned her look as frankly, with an amused smile, and then said, with a
comic little toss of her head--
'Well, Dorcas, I don't see why you should not, though I don't know why
you say so.'
'You're not like other people; you don't complain, and you're not bitter,
although you have had great misfortunes, my poor Rachel.'
There be ladies, young and old, who, the moment they are pitied, though
never so cheerful before, will forthwith dissolve in tears. But that was
not Rachel's way; she only looked at her with a good-humoured but grave
curiosity for a few seconds, and then said, with rather a kindly smile--
'And now, Dorcas, I like you.'
Dorcas made no answer, but put her arm round Rachel's neck, and kissed
her; Dorcas made two kisses of it, and Rachel one, but it was cousinly
and kindly; and Rachel laughed a soft little laugh after it, looking
amused and very lovingly on her cousin; but she was a bold lass, and not
given in anywise to the melting mood, and said gaily, with her open hand
still caressingly on Dorcas's waist--
'I make a very good nun, Dorcas, as I told Stanley the other day. I
sometimes, indeed, receive a male visitor, at the other side of the
paling, which is my grille; but to change my way of life is a dream that
does not trouble me. Happy the girl--and I am one--who cannot like until
she is first beloved. Don't you remember poor, pale Winnie, the maid who
used to take us on our walks all the summer at Dawling; how she used to
pluck the leaves from the flowers, like Faust's Marguerite, saying, "He
loves me a little--passionately, not at all." Now if I were loved
passionately, I might love a little; and if loved a little--it should be
not at all.'
They had the road all to themselves, and were going at a walk up an
ascent, so the reins lay loosely on the ponies' necks and Dorcas looked
with an untold meaning in her proud face, on her cousin, and seemed on
the point of speaking, but she changed her mind.
'And so Dorcas, as swains are seldom passionately in love with so small a
pittance as mine, I think I shall mature into a queer old maid, and take
all the little Wylders, masters and misses, with your leave, for their
walks, and help to make their pinafores.' Whereupon Miss Dorcas put her
ponies into a very quick trot, and became absorbed in her driving.