A KETTLE OF FISH.
'Our Pursuivant at arms will show
Both why we came and when we go.'
_Scott._
The place of the pic-nic was a good way off, being the point of the
promontory that shut in the mouth of the river, a great crag, with
a long reef of rocks running out into the sea, playfully called the
Kitten's Tail; though the antiquarians always deposed that the head
had nothing to do with cats or kits, but with the disposition to erect
chapels to St. Christopher on the points of land where they might first
greet the mariners' eyes. Beneath this crag, sheltered by the first
and larger joints of the Kitten's Tail, was a delightful sandy nook,
where appeared a multitude of smart hats, male and female, a great many
strangers even to Captain Audley, who would fain have recognised none
of them. In a strong access of his almost morbid silence, he devoted
himself to Felix, and kept aloof from almost every one. Even at the
dinner, spread on a very sloping bit of beach, pic-nic exigencies
enabled him to be nearly _tête-à-tête_ with Felix, who found himself
almost back to back to a lady in a brilliant foreign pheasant's plume,
with glass dew-drops at the points.
In a pause of their own conversation, they heard the inquiry, 'Do you
know who that boy is--that fair delicate-looking lad just opposite,
with the white muslin round his hat?'
'Oh--that!' answered the pheasant lady; 'that is young Lord Somerville,
son to the Marquess of Liddesdale. He and his brother, Lord Francis,
have been out yachting with Captain Audley.'
The Captain smiled as he looked at the boys. 'Ay,' he observed, with a
flash of his bright dark eyes,' he has the advantage over Sum.'
For Lance had resumed his lark-like air, and it was perhaps the more
striking from the fragility and transparency that remained about his
looks; and he was full of animation, as he, with a reinforcement of
boys, clustered round a merry sunny-faced girl, full of joyous drollery.
'Very queer and eccentric--quite a bear,' was the next thing they
heard; whereat Captain Audley nodded and smiled to Felix. After the
general turmoil caused by the change of courses had subsided, that
penetrating voice was heard again. 'Yes, we came home sooner than we
had intended. The fact was, we found that old Mr. Underwood was being
beset by some of those relations. You remember? Oh, yes; they have sunk
very low--got into trade, absolutely got into trade! One of them a mere
common singing-boy. Mr. Underwood is getting aged--quite past--and we
did not know what advantage might be taken of him.'
'Your turn now,' murmured Captain Audley, with a look of diversion
calculated to allay the wounded flush on his neighbour's cheek.
'Do you mean Mr. Edward Underwood's sons?' said a voice on the other
side. 'I always understood them to be very respectable and well
conducted.'
'Oh, very likely! Only I do happen to know that one of them has been
a great trouble and vexation to Tom Underwood; and we didn't want the
same over again with the poor old Squire.'
'Did I understand you that any of them were here?' added the other
voice; 'for I had just been struck by the likeness of that boy
opposite, talking to my sister, to poor Mr. Edward Underwood, as I
remember him.'
'Oh no, Mrs. Rivers; I assure you that's young Lord Somerville!'
Captain Audley made an effort, rather difficult in his Turkish
position, to crane his head beyond the interposing figures, recognised
and bowed to the speaker, who greeted him by name, and thus diminished
the flow of Mrs. Fulbert Underwood's conversation by her awe of the
high and mighty bear whom she scarcely knew by sight. He had no taste
for scenes, and did not put either her or Felix to pain by mentioning
his name; but when the last act of the meal was over, and people began
to move, he made his way in the direction of the inquiring voice. 'Mrs.
Rivers, let me introduce Mr. Felix Underwood.'
'I am very happy--' and there was a cordial smile and a hand held out.
'Are you here for long? My father would be so much pleased to see you.'
It was a rather worn pale face; but the ease and sweetness of manner,
and the perfect fitness of the dress, made a whole that gave Felix a
sense of the most perfect lady he had met with, except his mother and
Sister Constance.
'I am at Ewmouth, with one of my brothers who has been ill.'
'Lord Somerville?' and all three burst out laughing. 'My sister has
found him out, I see. She and your little boy are old friends, Captain
Audley.'
'Yes, you have been very kind to him. But I am as much surprised to see
you here as you can be to see my friend. Are you from home?'
'We go back this evening. We slept at the Crewes' last night. My
husband had business there; and when they asked us to this pic-nic,
it was a good opportunity for Gertrude to learn the beauties of her
county.'
'Which she seems to be doing under full escort,' laughed Captain
Audley, as the young lady and the young boy flock were seen descending
to the rocks.
'She has a strong taste for little boys,' said the elder sister. 'You
have the Somerville boys here, haven't you, though?'
'Yes; there had been scarlatina or something or other in their school,
and their mother was afraid of them among their sisters, till I had
purified them by a sea voyage.'
Probably Mrs. Fulbert never found out her mistake; for Lord Somerville
reported that he had never been so pitched into in his life as by an
old girl in a 'stunning tile,' who found him washing out an empty
pie-dish for the benefit of some maritime monsters that he wanted to
carry home to his sisters; but that when Lance came up, she was as meek
as a mouse. Certainly, the two boys were little sturdy fellows, burnt
lobster-like up to the roots of their bleached and rough hair; and
their costumes were more adapted to the deck of the Kittiwake in all
weathers, than to genteel society. Their sisters were in an aquarium
fever, and their sport all through their expedition had been researches
for what they had learnt in Scotland to call 'beasts;' and now the
collection was to be completed from the mouth of the Ewe, and the
scrambling and tumbling it involved were enchanting.
Kate Staples, who usually considered Lance her charge, was not sorry
to see a croquet player disposed of among his own congeners; for the
game seemed such a necessary of life, that it was actually prepared for
on the sands, to the extreme contempt of the anemone hunters. 'Play at
croquet, forsooth, when rocks aren't to be had to scramble on every
day!' And scramble ecstatically they did, up and over slippery stone
and rock festooned with olive weed, peeping into pools of crystal
clearness, and admiring rosy fans of weed, and jewel-like actinias
embellished by the magic beauty of intense clear brightness. The boys
took off shoes and stockings, turned up trousers, and scrambled and
paddled like creatures to the manner born.
'O dear! I wish I might!' sighed the young lady.
'Why don't you?' said Charlie Audley. 'Kate and Em and Annie always
do--don't they, Frank?'
'Of course they do, or how would they ever get on!'
'Come along then, Miss Gertrude,' said Charlie. 'You can't think how
jolly it is!'
And soon another pair of little white feet were dancing on the rocks.
'Oh dear! what a blunder of civilisation it is to wear shoes at all!
How delicious a hold one gets!'
'I can't think why people do wear them! They never are anything but a
bother,' said Lance.
'To play at foot-ball with,' suggested Somerville from the top of a
rock.
'But women don't,' said Gertrude.
'_I_ think women do it, and make us, that they may have something to
worrit about,' said Frank. 'Damp stockings are the bother of creation
till one goes to school; and then, isn't it jolly!'
'Except the chilblains,' called out Charlie.
'I believe,' said Lance, 'chilblains come of shoes.'
'No, they can't,' argued Charlie, 'for one has them on one's hands.'
'Well,' said Gertrude, 'let's form ourselves into a society for the
suppression of shoes and stockings!'
'Hurrah!' cried Lance. 'I know one person at least that it would be a
blessing to.'
The question was, how the five bold reformers were to begin. Frank
suggested drowning all the present stock, and pretended to be about to
begin, but was of course prevented by a scream.
'Public opinion must be prepared first,' said Lance.
'And that,' said Gertrude, 'we'd better do by a great example! Here,
we'll show what can be done. Why shouldn't we get out to the end of the
Kitten's Tail?'
'One can't to the end,' said Charlie; 'there's a place big enough for a
gig to go through, half way out.'
'And about the tide?' said Lance.
'Tide,' said Charlie, looking at his watch--'tide wouldn't think of
playing us such a dirty trick as turning for an hour and a half.'
'And the jolliest beasts of all always live in places like that,' added
Somerville. 'Come on, President of the Society for the Suppression of
Shoeses--to the front!'
On moved the august Society, now scrambling to a dry flat, now
threading a _mauvais pas_, clinging to festoons of sea-weed; the three
little boys climbed like monkeys or sailors; but Lance, agile as he
was, had not had the same amount of training, and felt besides that it
was requisite to be ready to give a helping hand to Miss Gertrude. She
got on very well, being full of lightness and springiness, only she was
a little inclined to be adventurous, and to chatter at critical moments.
'We must have got out a quarter of a mile.'
'Oh no, not that!'
'No? I'm sure it is! How small they look on the beach! I wonder if they
can see us! Hark! they're singing--'
'"Drink to me only with thine eyes;" that's Felix's crack glee,' said
Lance; 'what fun for him!'
'This is much better fun!' cried the general voice. 'They'll never see
us if we wave now!'
'No, no; don't let's wave now! Wait till we get to the farthest point.'
'And there we'll plant our ensign!'
'What shall we do for a flag? We haven't got the Britisher here!'
'No; it must be the flag of the SSSS's.'
'That ought to be a bit of bare skin.'
'No, no--a pair of feet--motto, "Off, vile lendings!"'
'I say, I don't think you can get any farther,' interposed Somerville.
'I've been on four rocks farther, and I'm sure you will never get back
again if you go on.'
'Oh, that's base! I'm sure this one isn't so hard.'
She was creeping along a ledge, holding the sea-weed with one hand and
Lance by the other.
'I really don't think it passable,' he said; 'there's scarcely the
width of one's foot beyond.'
'Hurrah!' shouted Frank. 'Here's the father of all the Daisianas!'
'Oh! oh! he's my cousin. I must see him!' cried Gertrude, with a
scramble and a laugh, which ended in a sudden slip--luckily, not into
the open sea, but into a very steep-sided bath-like pool; and Lance,
whom of course she gripped hard, was pulled after her, both over head
and ears; and though they scrambled on their feet in a moment, there
they stood up to their shoulders in water.
'Get the Daisiana now you are there!' shouted Frank.
'How are we ever to get out?' said Gertrude, looking up the walls, six
feet at least on the lowest side.
'If we had a rope,' said Charlie.
'Make signals--call,' said Somerville, all suiting the action to the
word. 'No, they don't hear! they are all singing away. You, Franky,
you're too little to be any good, make the best of your way to call
somebody.'
'The tide will come in!' said Frank. 'Mamma and Aunt Emmie were once
shut in by the tide, and Uncle Edwin. And there was a fellow who was
quite drowned--dead--and that was why I was named Francis.'
'That's what you may call a cheering reminiscence at a happy moment,'
said Lance, recollecting that he was far more nearly a man than any one
present, and instinctively feeling the need of brightening all into
cheerful activity, for the girl looked thoroughly frightened. 'Yes,
Lord Frank, the best thing you can do is to go for somebody; but we'll
be out long first. Can't we make a rope? Have you a sash or anything,
Miss Gertrude? Don't fear, we'll soon be out.'
Happily she had both a sash and a broad ribbon round her hat; and Lance
tore off his puggery.
'I can do it best,' called Charlie. 'I know all the sailors' knots.'
'It will never bear,' said Gertrude.
'Oh yes, it will. You'll not trust your whole weight to it. Is it done?'
'Besides, how can they draw me up?'
'We'd best get behind that rock, Sum,' suggested Charlie, 'then she
won't pull us in.'
Charlie's sailor experience was very useful; and he shouted advice to
Lance, who was tying the extemporary rope round Gertrude, not very
easily, owing to the material, and to its being done under water.
'Now, then, you do your best at climbing--here,' he said. 'They'll pull
you; and look! There, first my knee--yes--now my shoulder--now--' And
standing for a moment on his shoulder, Gertrude was really able with a
desperate grapple to surmount the wall of her prison, and scramble out
beside the two cousins, whose pulls had been very helpful.
Lance's clambering was a harder matter, for he did not venture to trust
much to the rope, though the girl's strength was added to that of the
two boys; and it was a severe climb up the scarcely indented, slippery,
moist, slimy rock, where his hands and feet could hardly find any hold;
and when at length he reached the top, he was so panting and dizzy,
that Somerville at first held him to hinder his slipping backward into
the sea. No one could get at King or Queen Daisiana, so it was left
in its glory; while the young people struggled back over rocks that
seemed much steeper, and pools far deeper, than in their advance; Lance
still trying to be helpful, but with a mazed sense of the same sort of
desperate effort with which he had run back with Bill's verses; for not
only had his small strength been overtaxed, but the immersion in water
was affecting his head.
Lord Francis had made much quicker progress; and boy as he was,
showed his breeding by not rushing open-mouthed on the party with his
intelligence, but seeking the Captain, who was smoking the pipe of
solitude upon a rock apart. He at once sent Frank to the servants, who
were enjoying the relics of the feast, to fetch some wine, and tell
the boat's crew to make ready at once, and then went off himself to
seek Mrs. Rivers. Felix, who had spied the little messenger speeding
up to the Captain, was already on his way to the rocks, and reached
the party in good time; for draggled, drenched, and with clinging
garments, they were so slow in getting on, that it was no delusion
that the water was higher, and the rocks lower; and even Gertrude had
neither breath nor spirits to gabble when that grave anxious face met
her, and a strong careful hand lifted and helped, first her, then
Lance, up and down every difficulty; and when she perceived how the
new-comer avoided point-blank looking at the bare ankles that had
sometimes to make long stretches, a burning red came up into her face,
half of shame, half of indignation at being made ashamed. And after
all, when the place where her hose and shoon had been left was reached,
the niched shelf in the rock turned out to have been surrounded by the
tide, so that they were quite unattainable either by herself or the
little boys; and Felix, putting the arm by which Lance had held by
him over Somerville's shoulder told them to go on before, and himself
made two long strides and a scramble before he could reach the boots
and stockings, and give them to the young lady, unable to help looking
nearly as grave and vexed as if it had been Angela herself; indeed, he
was vexed, for he had an ideal of the young ladyhood of his mother's
old native region, and did not like it to be disturbed. He moved away
far enough for her to think he had left her to her fate, till she was
on her feet and coming on, and then there he was again, in a moment
the attentive squire. Revived by her short rest, and on less perilous
ground, she glanced at his face in readiness to disperse her discomfort
with something saucy, but somehow it would not do; and she was tamely
conducted to terra firma, where her sister saluted her with 'O Daisy!
what a child you are to have charge of!'
That restored her enough to answer, 'I'm quite delighted something
should have happened under your keeping! No harm done. Salt water never
gives cold.'
'I don't mind it for you,' said the elder sister; 'you have not been
ill.--But indeed, Mr. Underwood, I am very sorry,' she added. 'What
will be best for your brother?'
'Here!' said Captain Audley, taking from Frank a flask of sherry, and
over-ruling the objection made by the brothers that stimulants were
forbidden. He further insisted on taking Lance at once to his own berth
on board the yacht while Mrs. Rivers meant to conduct her sister to the
preventive house.
'So,' said Lance, rather ruefully, as he shook hands, 'there ends the
SSSS.'
'Not at all! Its use is proved. We should have been cooked by this time
in the Daisiana cauldron, if we had had great cumbrous boots on.'
It was a valiant effort, and she cast a glance out of the corner of
her eye at the elder brother, but it had not relaxed a muscle of his
grave anxious face, which was in truth chiefly bent on watching Lance's
involuntary shiverings; and she again turned crimson, perhaps from her
share of the chill, and was dragged off, muttering, 'What intolerable
folks guardian brothers are! Henry Ward was a mild specimen compared to
this one!'
About noon on the following day, Mrs. Pettigrew's little girl abruptly
opened the parlour door, and with 'Please, ye're wanted,' turned in a
tall, thin, grey-haired, spectacled gentleman, who, as Lance started up
from the sofa, exclaimed, 'Don't disturb yourself; I came to thank you,
and inquire after you after the adventure my mad-cap daughter led you
into.'
'I hope she is all right,' said Lance, solicitously.
'As right as Daisiana himself; more so than I fear you are. Let me see
you comfortable. Lie down again, pray.'
'Oh, I don't care about lying down, thank you, Sir; I only sleep for
want of something to do;' but though he did not put his feet up, he was
feeling far too languid not to relax his bolt-upright attitude, and
lean back on his pillows.
'That will do. Bad head-ache?'
'It is nearly gone off now, thank you, Sir; it was bad all night, but
it is much better since I have been asleep.'
'Let me see,' laying his left hand on the wrist that hung over the edge
of the sofa. 'Ay, I hope that wicked little siren has done no great
damage. Pulled you below, true mermaid fashion--eh?'
'I meant to have pulled her out.'
'Instead of which she made a lad into a ladder to climb out on.' Which
bad pun served the purpose of making the boy laugh enough to be at
his ease. 'She is much indebted, and so am I. I like to meet an old
friend's son. Are you alone?'
'My brother is only gone to the post-office. He will be in before long;
but it saves a post to take the letters before twelve, and he ought to
be out as much as he can.'
'Is he here on his own account, or yours?'
'He came down first, before I was ill. It was bother and overwork and
a cough. Everything always does come to worry him, whenever he ought
to have rest or pleasure.' And Lance, who was thoroughly weary and
dispirited, was nearly ready to cry.
'Even when he goes out for a pic-nic, young ladies must needs drown
themselves!'
This made Lance smile; but he added, with a quivering lip, 'He would
not go to bed till I could go to sleep last night, and that was not
till past two, and he looks quite done up this morning.'
'Is any one attending you?'
'Dr. Manby did at Minsterham--nobody here.'
'What's been amiss with you--fever?'
'Plenty of fever, but it was from sun-stroke.'
'Ah! you boys have thinner skulls than we used to have! How long ago?'
'Seven weeks yesterday,' said Lance, wearily.
'And you are sadly weary of weakness?'
'I don't mind that so much;' and the kindness of face, voice, and
gesture, made the poor boy's eyes overflow; 'but I'm no good, and I
can't tell whether I ever shall be again!'
'It is a great deal too soon to trouble yourself about that.'
'That's what they all tell me!' cried Lance, impatiently, and the tears
rushed forth again. 'Manby only laughs, and tells me I shall be a Solon
yet if I don't vex myself; and how can I tell whether he means it?'
'Well, dear boy, have it all out; I promise to mean whatever I say.'
'You are a doctor then, Sir?'
'What! the boy doesn't know me, as sure as my name's Dick May!'
'Oh!' cried Lance, 'that was what I heard Felix saying to Captain
Audley--that he did so wish Dr. May could look at me!'
'That's all right, then. Come, then, what is weighing on you--weakness?'
'Just not weakness,' said Lance. 'I didn't care so much when I could
scarcely get about; but now I can walk any distance, and still I have
not a bit more sense!'
'Is your memory gone?'
'I don't think so; only, if I fix my mind to recollect, and it doesn't
come by chance, I'm all abroad, and perfectly senseless and idiotic!'
'And it brings on pain?'
'Yes, if I try five minutes together.'
'You don't try to read or write?'
'I can't--and--' then came the tears again--'music is just like red-hot
hammers to me.' There was a great fight with sobs, rather puzzling to
one who did not know what music was to the chorister. 'And what is to
be the end of it?'
'That rest and patience will make you as well as ever.'
'Do you really think so? But, Sir, I have a little brother seven and a
half years old, with no understanding at all--not able to speak; and if
there were two of us on Felix's hands like _that!_ If I could only be
put away somewhere, so that Felix should not have the burthen of me!'
'My poor little fellow! Is this what is preying on you all this time?'
'Not always--only when I am doing nothing, and that is most times,' he
said, dejectedly; but the Doctor smiled.
'Then you may take the very anxiety as a proof that your brain is
recovering. You cannot expect to shake off the effects quickly; but if
you are only patient with yourself, you will do perfectly well. Are you
a son of the clergy?'
'No, I am a chorister at Minsterham. I have another year there, when I
can go back, if ever--'
'Don't say _if_ ever! You will, if you only will keep from fretting and
hurrying, and will accept that beautiful motto of the Underwoods.'
Lance smiled responsively, and said more cheerfully, 'You are quite
sure, Sir?'
'As sure as any man can be, that there is no reason to anticipate what
you dread. It is quite possible that you may be more or less liable
to bad head-aches, and find it needful to avoid exposure to summer
sunshine; but I should think you as likely to do your work in the world
as any one I ever saw.'
The light on Lance's face did not wholly spring from this reply. With
'There's Felix!' he had bounded out of the room the next moment, and
his incautious voice could be heard through the window--'Fee, Fee,
here's her father! that brick of a Miss Gertrude's, I mean. He's
as jolly as he ought to be, and knew all our people. But just--I
say--how's Cherry?'
'All well; here's a note from the dear little thing herself,' said
Felix; and in another moment, with his bag strapped over his shoulder,
he had brought the bright sedateness of his face into the little
parlour. 'Dr. May! how very kind in you!'
'Not kindness, but common propriety, to come and see how much mischief
my naughty child had done.'
'I don't think there's any real mischief,' said the elder brother,
looking at the much-refreshed face.
'I think not, and so am free to be glad of the catastrophe that has
brought me in the way of an old friend. Yes, I may say so, for I must
have known you!'
'Yes,' said Felix, 'we used to watch for you when you came to my uncle.
You always had some fun with us.'
'I remember a pair of twins, who were an irresistible attraction. I
hope they have grown up accordingly. You look as if you ought to have
pretty sisters.'
Felix laughed, and said the twins were reckoned as very pretty.
'How many of you are there--was it not thirteen? Did not those boys get
the clergy-orphan?'
'One did, thank you. He is on a farm in Australia now, and I am
thinking whether to try for little Bernard; but I am afraid his case
would be a stale one, being of seven years' standing.'
'If you want it done, my daughter, Mrs. Rivers, is a dragon of
diplomacy in canvassing; but why not send him to Stoneborough? Cheviot
takes a selection of cleric's sons at £30, and we would have an eye to
him.'
'Thank you, if we can only manage it; but I must see what my sister
says--our financier.'
'One of those little apple-blossom twins? Let me look at you. Do you
mean to tell me that this fellow has been the whole stand-by of that
long family these seven years?' he added, turning to Lance.
'To be sure he has!' cried Lance, eagerly.
'Lance!' said Felix, rather indignantly. 'You forget Wilmet. And Thomas
Underwood entirely educated two of us.'
'And,' said the Doctor, looking oddly but searchingly from one to the
other, 'you've been the bundle of sticks in the fable. Never gone
together by the ears? Ah!' as both brothers burst out laughing at the
question, 'I'd not have asked if I had not seen how you could answer.
I've seen what makes me so afraid of brothers in authority that it does
me good to look at you two.'
Felix looked up. The Stoneborough murder case was about two years old,
and of course he had to study and condense the details, and had come on
the names of Dr. May and his son in the evidence.
The further words met his sudden conjecture. 'Ay, boys, you little know
what you may be spared by home peace and confidence! Well, and what may
you be doing, Felix? Your bag looks as if you had turned postman to the
district.'
'There's my chief business, Sir, coupled with bookselling and
stationery,' said Felix, as he pushed across a copy of the Pursuivant
that lay on the table. 'I have been well paid from the first, and am in
partnership now, so we have got along very well.'
'Ay, ay! Very good trade, I should think? You must send me your paper,
Felix; I want one I can trust to lie about the house.'
'You will find it very stupid and local, Sir.'
It was curious how what from Mr. Staples was answered with an effort,
seemed from Dr. May to draw out confidence. One point was, that Mr.
Staples never seemed sure how to treat him, and often betrayed a fear
of hurting his feelings; while with Dr. May he was himself and nothing
else. The Doctor stayed to share their dinner, such as it was in
consideration of their being lodgers as didn't give trouble--_i.e._
some plain boiled fish, fresh indeed, but of queer name and quality,
and without sauce, and some steak not distantly related to an old shoe;
but both seemed to think so little about it, that the Doctor, who was
always mourning over the daintiness of the present day, approved them
all the more.
Just as they had finished, Captain Audley came in with his boys, on
their way to start off the Somervilles by the train, and it was agreed
that when he took his son back to school at Stoneborough, Felix and
Lance should come with him and spend the day.
And a pleasant day it was, as pleasant as the unsettled wanderings of
a long day in a strange place could be, and memorable for one curious
fact--namely, that for the first time in her life Gertrude May was shy!
Not with Lance. She had a good deal of pastime with him in the cool
garden, while Felix was being walked over the school-yards in the
sun; and they were excellent friends, though Ethel certainly had a
certain repugnance to the discovery of how big a boy it was with whom
Gertrude had danced bare-footed on the rocks. Of course Ethel was the
kindly mistress of the house as usual, but she was worn and strained
in spirits just then, and disinclined to exert herself beyond the
needful welcome to her father's guests. So she let them all go out,
and went on with her own occupations, thinking that it was well that
Daisy should take her part in entertaining guests, since 'that boy' was
evidently a thorough little gentleman; and then shrinking a little as
she heard their voices over Aubrey's museum, including the Coombe Hole
curiosities.
No, it was not towards Lance that Daisy was shy; but when all sat
round the dinner-table, she was unusually silent, and listened to
the conversation far more than was her wont, though it was chiefly
political. When Felix spoke to her, she absolutely coloured rosy red
and faltered, unable to conquer the shamefacedness that their encounter
had left her; and when the party had taken leave, and she was standing
in the twilight, Ethel, to her great surprise, found the child quietly
crying.
'Nothing!' she said, angry at being detected.
'It can't be nothing.'
'Yes, it is. Only I do so hate--hate myself for being a tom-boy!'
'One often does go on with that a little too long; and then comes the
horrible feel.'
'And that it should have happened with him of all people in the world!'
'Ah, Daisy, I wish I had come out with you!'
'Fudge, Ethel! Not to-day. Do you think I care about that boy? I should
think not! But--but--I wanted to think him a nasty prig, but I can't!'
'Who?'
'Why, that eldest brother. When he found me scrambling about with
my stockings off, he didn't speak, but he looked, as Richard might,
surprised and sorry. I thought it was impertinent--at least I wanted
to, but-- And now he'll always think me--nasty!'
'My dear, if one must have a lesson of that kind, it is as well it
should be from some one that one is never likely to see or hear of
again.'
'Oh! but not from the very best and noblest of people one ever will
hear of. Yes, Ethel, I'm not gone mad! That boy has been telling me
all about his brother; and indeed I never did hear or know about any
one who was a real hero in a quiet way! No; whenever I hear of a hero,
I shall think of Mr. Underwood. And, oh dear, that I should have made
such a goose of myself!'
It was quite unaffected--a spark of real reverence had lighted at last
on Gertrude's mind. 'To turn tradesman for the sake of one's brothers
and sisters, that I do call heroic!' she said; and maintained his
cause, even to putting down F.U. as her 'favourite hero' in lists of
likes and dislikes.
But there was no great chance of Gertrude again encountering her hero;
for the morning after their day at Stoneborough, Lance was beginning
to experiment on his powers by skimming newspapers, especially the
Pursuivant, because he knew it before, all but the last local items,
that could only be added at the moment of going to press. Suddenly he
broke out, 'Holloa! you never told me this! Mowbray Smith _has_ put his
foot in it this time.'
'What?' said Felix, pausing in the act of opening an envelope from Mr.
Froggatt.
'Pocketing the coal and school money--ay, and the alms.'
'Eh? Impossible! Let me look.'
'There. A letter signed "Scrutator." There's a great deal more than
I can read, all about under-paid curates and sycophants. My Lady is
catching it, I should say! It must be true, or Froggy would not have
put it in.'
'He never admitted that!' said Felix, tearing open his letter. 'He is
in utter dismay, asks whether I could have seen the thing, tells me to
telegraph yes or no, that he may know whether to speak to Redstone.
What's this about tribute to my father?'
'Here! "Once it was deemed well that the ecclesiastical staff should be
by birth and character, if not by pecuniary fortune, above suspicion;
but the universal application of the general screw system has warned
off all who had a predilection for an unfettered tongue, and we all
know what hands accompany one in chains."'
'Libellous!' cried Felix, running his eye over the article. 'It looks
as if it had strayed out of the Dearport Hermes. I'd not have had this
happen for ten thousand pounds! Clap-trap about fat rectors and starved
curates! Jackman's writing, I'd lay any wager!'
'You don't think he did it?'
'Smith? Muddled his accounts! Nothing more likely; charges like this
are not got up without some grounds of some sort; but as to intentional
fraud, that's utter nonsense. Well, I'm off to the station, and I hope
in half an hour's time Master Redstone will be quaking.'
Ten days of the holiday still remained; and Captain Audley, with boat
and yacht, greatly added to its pleasures, which both brothers were
able thoroughly to enjoy, living almost entirely out of doors, and
valuing each hour as they became fewer.
This matter, however, made Felix very uneasy. He wrote to the curate,
offering all the amends in his power, and undertaking that if Mr. Smith
would send him an explanatory letter, he would back it up with a strong
leading-article; and he waited anxiously for further intelligence.
Mr. Froggatt's letter came first. Redstone, fond of dabbling in
editorship, had taken reproof in great dudgeon, affecting great
surprise at being blamed for inserting a letter from a respectable
gentleman without submitting it to Mr. Froggatt, who had entirely
dropped the editorship, or delaying it to another issue by sending
it to Ewmouth. The respectable gentleman was young Jackman, who was
no doubt delighted to have such a firebrand to cast. It was a great
grief and annoyance to Mr. Froggatt, who had always steered clear of
personalities, and been inoffensive if sometimes dull; and both assault
and defence were distressing to him--_i.e._ if defence were possible,
for he seemed doubtful whether silence would not lead to the least
scandal. Even Wilmet wrote: 'Every one seems to think Mr. Smith is to
blame; and he is so huffy, that it looks only too much as if he were
afraid of inquiry.'
This was too true a character of his replies. That intended for the
paper had not a line of real defence, but was a mere tirade on the
dignity of his office, and the impudence of the charges. Felix dashed
it away, enraged at its useless folly; nor was the private one more
satisfactory. It was but a half acceptance of Felix's total disclaimer;
and the resentful wording made it difficult to discern whether the
imputation were _bonâ fide_, regarded as not worth refuting, or whether
indignation were made an excuse for denial instead of proof. A separate
sheet seemed to have been added. 'The whole is to be subjected to
the scrutiny of a parish meeting on Tuesday, when, though the minute
accuracy of a professional accountant is not to be expected of one
whose province is not to serve tables, it will be evident that only
malignity to the Church could have devised the attack to which your
paper has given currency.'
'Well,' broke out Lance, as Felix with a voice of ineffable disgust
read the final sentence, 'if that is not being a knave, it is very like
a long-eared animal!'
'I'll tell you what, Lance, they'll take him between their teeth, and
worry him till there's not an inch left whole of him. Jackman and his
pack will tear him down; and even Bruce and Jones, and our own good old
Froggy, will give him up when they see his books won't balance.'
'Serve him right!' cried Lance. 'What fun to see his airs taken down,
when he's served with the sauce he's so fond of for other people! I
only wish they'd got my Lady too!'
'I must go home, that's all,' said Felix. 'If I got there on Wednesday,
I might see if I could not get his accounts into presentable order.'
'What?'
'If I don't, I am afraid no one else will.'
'He will not let you.'
'I think I can make him.'
'But such a cur as he has always been to you!'
'I don't think he will object now. I know he can't do the thing
himself; and if little Bisset could, depend upon it his mother would
not let him stir a finger for fear of being implicated. Now I do know
the ways of those accounts. I've done them with my father and with Mr.
Audley. Any way, I must be at home for the meeting. Imagine Redstone
reporting it! But you can stay out the week, and come home in the
yacht.'
For Captain Audley had promised to take the brothers round to Dearport;
but Lance could not bear to be left behind; and it ended in their
walking up to the Tudor cottage to make their excuses, when the
good-natured captain declared that he could put to sea that very night
and land them at Dearport in good time.
So after a hurried grateful farewell to the Staples family, the holiday
closed with a voyage that both were able to enjoy to the utmost before
they sailed into the harbour at Dearport, and walked up to St. Faith's.
Captain Audley, who had not seen Sister Constance since her husband's
death, had an access of shyness and would not encounter the 'Lady
Abbess,' as he called her; but his last words to Felix were a promise
that if Bernard went to Stoneborough, he would have him out now and
then for a holiday with his own boy.
There had been time to send notice to Geraldine, and her brothers had
hoped to have taken her home with them; but though she looked clear and
bright, she was not out of the doctor's hands, and was under orders to
stay another week. The sight of her brothers made her very homesick,
in spite of being the spoilt child of the Sisterhood, in the pleasant
matted room, with its sea view, its prints, and photographs; but then
she wanted to have her way prepared with Wilmet. Her vision had been
to walk in imposingly, and take them all by surprise; but that notion
had vanished as the time drew nearer, and she found that her new art
required practice, while the dread of making a sensation grew upon her.
She was ashamed of having even thought of compensating for Wilmet's
absence, and entreated Felix to communicate the fact, without a word of
the presumption that had nerved her courage.
The three looked over one another, as if each had undergone much since
the last meeting; but the sight of Felix greatly relieved Cherry. He
was sunburnt and vigorous, and his voice had resumed its depth of quiet
content, instead of having that unconsciously weary sound of patience
and exertion that had often gone to her heart. Lance, whom she had not
seen since Easter, had assumed a look of rapid growth; his features had
lost their childish form, and were disproportionate; and his complexion
still had the fitful colouring of convalescence; but his eyes were
dancing, and his talk ecstatic as to Vale Leston and the Kittiwake,
where he was ready, at that moment, to become a cabin-boy.
'O Cherry! Cherry! you never dreamt of anything so delicious as that
night's fishing!'
'That, I will answer for, she never did,' said Felix. 'When I saw the
exquisite delight it afforded, not only to this Lance but to Captain
Audley, to fill the boat with slimy, flapping, uncomfortable, dying
fishes, I felt that I was never made for a gentleman.'
'Do you mean that you didn't like it?' exclaimed Lance, turning round
aghast.
'I should have been much happier balancing the books.'
'And he wasn't even sick!' said Lance, holding up his hands.
'He hadn't that excuse,' laughed Cherry. 'However, midnight fishing is
not indispensable! I should like to have seen how he looked at Vale
Leston.'
Lance was in great hopes that Felix would betray the possibilities, and
mayhap but for his presence, prudence might have evaporated beneath the
warm breath of Cherry's sympathy; but the answer was only a discreet
laugh and reply, 'Like a man who wanted his sister! I wish I could just
fill your eyes with the loveliness of it, Cherry;' and in the midst of
his description, in came Sister Constance, bringing with her Sister
Emmeline (sister in blood as well as religion,) wanting to hear about
the nephews, and the Kitten's Tail adventure, and amused to find Lance
a little shy about it--certainly not disposed to dwell on it with his
usual unceremonious drollery of narrative. They would not let Felix
go without an inspection by Dr. Lee, which was perfectly satisfactory
as to the rally of the constitution from the depression that had
threatened disease, though it was impressed both on him and on Cherry
that he must be careful next winter, and never neglect a cold; and with
this promise the brothers took the train, and in half an hour were
at home--rather an empty home, for the schools were all in operation
again, and Wilmet was not at liberty for some little time after their
arrival.
When she did come in, she was disappointed not to find Geraldine, and
that Felix had become so absorbed in the business that had brought
him home, that he only sent in word that he was obliged to go into
the town, and tea must not wait for him. Lance remained, but the
burthen of two secrets rendered him uncommunicative, when Wilmet tried
to understand the cause of Cherry's delay at St. Faith's; and Alda
was curious about Vale Leston and Mrs. Fulbert, whom she had seen at
Kensington Palace Gardens. It did not take much acumen to exclaim,
'Still no children! Then there must be a chance for us!'
'That is not likely,' said Wilmet: 'it must be all in their own power;
and the Vicar must be quite a young man. Is he not, Lance?'
'How should I know?'
'Didn't you see him?'
'I saw his wife, and that was enough.'
'About five-and-thirty,' said Alda. 'Of course it will all go to Uncle
Tom. Money always goes to money.'
'How flushed you are, Lance!' said Wilmet. 'Are you tired?'
'Rather. I am going out into the garden.'
There, however, he was pursued by Bernard with a war-whoop, and by
Theodore with his concertina; and Stella presently reported that he was
gone up to bed.
'And I am afraid his room is very hot and noisy,' sighed Wilmet.
'He is only tired and cross after his two nights at sea,' said Alda.
'Lance cross!'
'My dear Wilmet, it is very bad taste in families always to maintain
each other's impeccability!'
Alda was still the only person capable of defeating Wilmet, and she
managed to render her very uncomfortable before the end of the evening,
when hours passed and still Felix did not come in; and Alda suggested,
in the intervals of yawning, that Wilmet would soon learn how green it
was to sit up, now that Felix had got out of leading-strings, and set
up bachelor habits.
At first, Wilmet was highly indignant; but when Alda persisted that
she was rather glad to see Felix like other young men, and that Wilmet
would know better when she was married, and then yawned herself off to
bed, there was a sense of great discomfort to accompany the solitary
vigil, which not only involved fancies of possible accidents, but was
harassed by this assault on faith in the virtue and sincerity of man.
Could it really be the part of a wise woman to wink at being deceived
as an inferior creature, with impossible expectations of truth and
purity? Yet Alda knew the world!
How much heart-sickness was darned into Lance's impossible heel before
the clock chimed two! A step, and not a policeman's, came along the
pavement and paused at the door, as, while the bell was cautiously
pulled, down she flew!
'My dear Mettie, I am so sorry, so ashamed, of not having sent home
to tell you; but if I had made the least move, it might have upset
everything!'
'What _have_ you been about?'
'Going over Mowbray Smith's accounts.'
'Oh!'
'I am very sorry! How tired you must be! I was vexed not to be able to
give you notice, but you know what poor Smith is.'
'I don't know why you had to do it all, and at this time of night,'
said Wilmet, still a little hurt.
'It is the only chance for him to-morrow at the meeting to have his
accounts clear; so I called under the plea of seeing about the letter
in Pur, and with much ado got him to realise a little more of his
position, and let me look at the books. That was at five.'
'And you have been at it ever since? O Felix!' as he stretched his arms
and gave a vast yawn.
'Ay! If I had shown any consciousness of the time, he would have shut
up at once; and he would not let me take them home to do to-morrow
morning.'
'It _is_ to-morrow morning!'
'So it is! I must make haste, for I must try to see Mr. Ryder and Jones
before the meeting. Good-night, dear old W. W. I meant to have had
other talk.'
'But oh! you must have some supper!'
'I've had it--sumptuous! Stilton cheese!'
So Wilmet's faith in masculine nature rebounded as high as Alda had
striven to sink it!
Patience was a good deal needed the next day; for Felix had to rush
away from breakfast, and never appeared at all at dinner. He had to
be present at the very stormy meeting, though only to take notes, and
thus had the annoyance of seeing Mr. Smith destroying his own cause
by his incapacity to understand the statement so carefully drawn up,
until Mr. Ryder (on whom the enemy had reckoned as a champion) took
the papers out of the helpless hand, comprehended Felix's figures at a
glance, and set them lucidly forth, such as they were; but even then
there were blots which there were plenty of persons ready to hit. The
truth was, that between Lady Price's economies, and the unwillingness
to call vestry-meetings, moneys intended for one purpose had been used
for another, and articles not within the denomination of charities had
been charged on funds raised for that exclusive object.
The assembly comprised the usual variety: the malicious foes of
religion, headed by Jackman; the more numerous enemies, not of what
they supposed religion, but of the Church; the adversaries, not of
the Church, but of the Curate; and the few loyally unwilling to
condemn a clergyman, but disgusted at the affair, and staggered by his
management. Perhaps the rabid and ribald violence of the hostile party
did Mr. Smith good with the respectable; and there were many, too,
whose dictum was--'Felix Underwood says it is all right!' At any rate,
though the Bishop was memorialized, it was in a much better spirit than
had been likely at first; and it was not to be done without notice to
the Rector. And when this was over, every one, as usual, went to their
rendezvous at 'Froggatt's,' either to discuss or inquire; and the
release of both partners on that summer evening was later than ever it
had been before.
But then what a welcome upstairs! what a clamour of happy tongues!
what an ecstatic humming of The Hardy Norseman! what a clinging to
and climbing on him! If he had the cares, he had much of the joys, of
the goodman of the house! But presently he missed the voice usually
blithest of all, and asked for Lance.
'He was here a little while ago,' said Wilmet, 'drinking his tea. He
must have gone up to bed.'
'No,' said Bernard; 'I've just been up to the barrack, and he isn't
there.'
'You've not let him sleep in the attic!' exclaimed Felix. 'Why, under
the leads it is like an oven!'
'I am very sorry,' said Wilmet, 'but I could not see how to help it.
Your room is worse, with the glare of the setting sun; and so is
Cherry's at this time of the evening.'
'Then he must have Mr. Froggatt's.'
'I thought,' said Alda, 'that you never took liberties with Mr.
Froggatt?'
'Nonsense!' said Felix. 'There are only two bedrooms in this house fit
for that boy in his present state--yours and Mr. Froggatt's. Which
shall we have, Wilmet?'
'Mr. Froggatt's,' she answered at once. 'If you will not have another
cup, I'll get it ready for him at once.'
'I've just done. I'll come and help you. But where can the boy be? In
the garden?'
'No,' said Wilmet, taking a survey from the window.
'I have hardly seen him all day,' added Alda. 'I suppose he has
pursuits of his own.'
'Pursuits!' said Felix, looking really anxious; 'poor little chap, he
can't do without constant care and quiet!'
Wilmet made no answer, but rose and left the room; Alda muttered
something about his looking quite well, which Felix did not stay to
hear, following his sister out with a word about looking for him. At
the same moment a little soft hand was thrust into his, and Stella, as
soon as the door was shut, said, 'Please, I know where Lance is, but
it's a secret.'
'Not from me, I hope?' said Felix, catching her up in his arms.
'I _think_ not,' said Stella meditatively. 'He only told me not to let
Bear and Tedo know, because they make a row. He is only up over the
back warehouse, where he used to play the fiddle to us last Easter.'
'The only cool quiet place he could find!' said Felix, with more of a
look of reproach than he had ever given Wilmet.
It went to her heart. 'I did not know what to do,' she said meekly. 'I
wanted very much to go into the barrack ourselves, but Alda said it
would kill her; and you know it has always been a sore subject that we
would not let her have Mr. Froggatt's room. I ought not to have given
way.'
'Alda's selfishness is a great power,' muttered Felix; and Wilmet was
too much ashamed to contradict him, except by 'She is vexed because she
has not heard from Ferdinand,' as they hastily made their way to the
warehouse, which, being on the north side of higher buildings, never
did get scorched through.
Felix went up a step-ladder, Wilmet following; and there, sure enough,
was Lance, lying in a nest of paper shavings, with head on his
air-pillow. 'Oh, you've unearthed me, have you? I wish you'd let me
stay here all night!' he said, with some weary fretfulness; but the
next moment burst into a peal of laughter, as Wilmet's head appeared
above the floor. 'Pallas Athene ascends! Oh! what a place it would be
to act a play--only then all the fry would find it out! I hope they
haven't! I told the Star not to tell!'
'My poor dear Lance, is this the only quiet place you could find? and
you let us all neglect you, and never complained!' exclaimed Wilmet,
kissing his hot forehead.
'Why, it's only my stupidity,' said Lance, wearily but gratefully; 'and
you can't make places quiet or cool! If you would just let me sleep
here!'
'No; but you shall have Mr. Froggatt's room. He will not want it now.
Come along, Lance, we'll bring your things down. The barrack is a great
deal too hot for you to go into!'
He did not make any resistance; but as they landed from the ladder,
threw his arm round Wilmet, and leant against her with a sort of
lazy mischievous tenderness, as he said, 'Isn't the Froggery wanted
for--somebody else?' and tried to look up in her face.
'Ferdinand always goes to the Fortinbras Arms,' answered Wilmet, with
admirable composure.
'Oh! that's a precedent,' said Lance, ostentatiously winking at Felix,
who was very glad the ice was broken. 'When is he coming, Mettie?'
'I think Alda hoped he might have run down to-night, on hearing of your
return.'
There they paused while entering the house and going upstairs; but no
sooner were they in the barrack, which was certainly insufferably hot,
than Lance returned to the charge.
'But when is _he_ coming? Not Fernan--he's an old story!'
'Yes,' said Felix, walking up to Wilmet to fold together the corners
of the sheets they were stripping from Lance's bed, and looking into
her eyes so archly as to bring up an incarnadine blush, 'I want
particularly to improve my acquaintance, if you don't.--What shall we
do, Lance?'
'Advertise in Pur,' suggested Lance. 'The editor returned. Young men
may apply!'
'Don't, boys!' exclaimed Wilmet, in tones belonging to bygone days,
when neither she nor Felix had been too serious to tease or be teased.
'He is much better than you,' she added, with a pretty confused
petulance, when Felix put on a pleading inquisitive face. 'When he
found we didn't like it, he went away to visit his uncle.'
'Better than we! There, Lance!' said Felix, in a gratified provoking
tone of discovery.
'In one sense,' said Wilmet, walking down before him.
'I am very glad you have found it out,' added Felix, as they entered
Mr. Froggatt's cool well-blinded bedroom, the only well-furnished one
in the house.
'It is no laughing matter,' said Wilmet seriously.
'That's well,' was the dry answer.
But there Felix perceived that she was on the verge of tears, and he
kindly and quietly helped her to despatch her arrangements for Lance
before any more was said; only as they turned to bid the tired boy
good-night, he said, 'Where does the uncle live? I shall telegraph
to-morrow, you cruel person!'
'Hush! silly boy--good-night,' said Wilmet, with a quivering voice;
then, as she shut the door, 'Please don't go on this way, Felix--I
wouldn't have had it happen for any consideration.'
'I suppose not,' said Felix, as they returned to the twilight garden;
'but as it has--Why, my Mettie, dear!' as she pressed close to him, and
hid her face on his shoulder, with a strong craving for the help and
sympathy from which the motherless girl had hitherto been debarred.
'O Felix! I wish he would not be so good and kind! I wish you would not
try to make me give in!'
'My dear girl!' said Felix, with his arm round her. 'You know I would
not if I did not see that you had given in!'
'No, I haven't!' she cried. 'Why should you want to persuade me? Isn't
it very cruel and hard to let him give all himself to one that can't
come to him? He will have to go out and live all dreary and lonely
for years and years, and come home to find nothing but a stupid old
worn-out drudge, with all these pretty looks gone off! Felix, be
reasonable, _please!_ Can't you see that I ought not to let things go
that way?'
'Do you mean,' said Felix, 'that you would be quite content to put an
end to all this--let Harewood go away believing you indifferent, and
never see him again?'
'Felix, why do you--?' with tears in her eyes.
'Because I am quite sure that the consideration you want to show him
would be no kindness. The pain of having his affection thrown over'
(he spoke with a spasm in the throat) 'would be greater than you would
_like_ to inflict, if you were forced by truth to own you did not care
for him; and if he be what I think, the carrying away security of your
feeling for him will be gladness enough. And as for the looks, I have
a better opinion of yours than to think they won't wear! Any way,
dearest, it seems to me that you have won the heart of a good man,
and that if you like him, it is your duty to give him the comfort of
knowing it without thinking about to-morrows.'
'But I know so much more would come if I did just allow that much! And
I might get to wish to leave you all,' she said in an appalled voice.
'And there seems to me not the slightest chance. You see Alda and
Cherry never will get on together; and Cherry seems glad of an excuse
to stay from home. I thought she would have cared to come back when you
did.'
'Poor Cherry!' said Felix, hesitating, with a little of her own nervous
awe of broaching the subject.
'You don't mean that there is anything seriously amiss?' she cried,
startled.
'Wilmet, do you remember what Rugg said would be the very best thing
for that poor child?'
She stood still, dismayed and angered. 'They aren't tormenting the poor
little thing about that?'
'It is not their doing.'
'It can't have become necessary! Sister Constance would have told me!
Felix say she is not worse!'
'No, much better. But, Wilmet, what we could not bear to think of, she
thought of for herself, and begged to have it done.'
'Then I must go to her.'
'There is no occasion. She knew you could not be spared. It was done
on the 10th, and she will soon walk better than she has done all these
years.'
'Done! without our knowledge?'
'She wished to spare us all, but that was not allowed. I was written
to, and told that her strong desire was such a favourable condition,
that I had better consent, so as not to protract the strain of spirits.
She made a point of no one else knowing except Clement.'
'Ah!' Wilmet spoke as if under a weight, 'that was the day Clement went
down to Dearport, and came home so late! How could Sister Constance
consent not to tell me?'
'You must forgive her, for it was the little one's desire. Of course we
should have been fetched if anything had gone wrong; but she has done
perfectly well; and there she is, very happy, and so full of fun, that
the Sisters say she keeps them all alive.'
'Done? I cannot fancy it!' said Wilmet. 'Do you know, I believe it has
been my bugbear for years past to think I might have to persuade her to
this?'
'To tell you the truth, so it has to me.'
'Little nervous timid thing, I can't even understand her thinking of
it!'
'She wanted me not to tell you, but I would not promise. She could not
rest without trying not to be an obstacle to--'
Wilmet interrupted with a cry of pain.
'Isn't it a noble little thing?'
'But it is so silly!' broke out Wilmet, not choosing her words amid her
tears.
'So she thinks now, poor child: she is quite ashamed of the
presumptuous notion that _did_ brace and carry her through.'
'I don't like her to be disappointed,' said Wilmet; 'but it is quite
ridiculous.'
'Only comfort her a little, Mettie dear, for she is very much afraid
you will think she has taken a great liberty with your property.'
'I only wish I could kiss her this moment!'
'Well, run down by the train to-morrow. They would all be delighted.'
'No, no, Felix, impossible. Think of the cost!'
'Half a crown! Sinful waste!' said Felix, in a tone of alarming levity.
'Felix, if you only knew what the housekeeping mounted up in that
unhappy month that I was away! I did not like to tell you before, but--'
'Well!' at the dreadful pause.
'I had to get fifteen pounds from Mr. Froggatt's; and Alda finds, after
all, that she cannot advance the money for Lance's journey.'
'So you are pinching it out by pence, my poor W. W.!'
'Nothing extra must be done till this is made up.'
'Yet it seems needful that Bernard should go to school. I wrote about--'
'No,' she resolutely interrupted. 'Bernard must wait over this year.
Thirty pounds. Utterly out of the question!'
Her tone gave Felix an unusual sense of chill penury, and brought Vale
Leston before his eyes. He laughed rather bitterly, saying, 'Perhaps
some day neither thirty pence nor thirty pounds may have so direful a
sound!'
'I never mean to learn to waste.'
'You may have to learn to spend.'
'That's enough to set me against it!' she exclaimed, with a good deal
of pain; and he found how nearly he had broken his resolution, and how
her application of his words to herself had saved him. He followed the
lead.
'Nay; you were glad of Alda's prosperity?'
'Oh yes; but poor Alda has been hindered from being like one of us,'
she said. 'We have fought it out together. And I should not mind so
much if _he_ were poor, like us, and had to wait on his own account.'
'I appreciate that,' said Felix; 'but at least you will let the poor
fellow come and judge for himself?'
'If--if only, Felix, you will promise not to try to tempt me into
deserting you all, when I know it would be wrong.'
'If I will promise you not to cut my own throat, eh? Come, W. W., put
out of your head "what it may lead to," confess that you are afraid of
getting connected with such a mad harum-scarum set!'
'It isn't,' broke out Wilmet. 'I never saw any one so thoughtful and
considerate. They are all so kind and warm-hearted, that I grew quite
ashamed of my own fidgetiness; and he--he always knew the right thing
at the right time. You can't think how his look seemed to hold me up,
when poor Lance was moaning and talking nonsense!'
Having thus let herself out as she had never dared, nor indeed been
tempted to do, since the first dawn of the courtship, Wilmet at last
relieved herself of some of the vast sense of emotion that she had been
forcing back for the last month. Hitherto the mistress of the house
had seemed older than the master; but now the elder brother took the
place of both parents--ay, and of sister--as, all her fencing over,
she poured out her heart, and let him sympathize, cheer, soothe, and
encourage, more by kind tones than actual words. The harvest-moon
shone over the house-tops, as a month before she had shone by the
river-side; and the Pillars of the House walked up and down till Alda
grew desperate, and sallied out to tell them that it was past eleven.
It was only such snatches of time that Felix could give to home
affairs, for his hands were full of arrears of business, and the
excitement respecting Mr. Smith necessarily occupied him. Pending the
arrival of letters from the Rector, every tongue was in commotion, and
the reading-room was a focus of debate and centre of intelligence.
So many letters, either in assault or defence, were addressed to the
editor of the Pursuivant, that only a supplement as big as the _Times_
could have contained them. Every poor person who had not had every
demand supplied from the charities was running about, adding to the
grievance at every encounter with tender-hearted lady or justice-loving
gentleman, whose blood boiled over into a letter for the Pursuivant,
which, when sifted and refused, was transferred to the Dearport Hermes,
or Erms, as most of its supporters termed it.