THE REAL THING AND NO MISTAKE.
'With asses all his time he spent,
Their club's perpetual president,
He caught their manners, looks, and airs--
An ass in everything but ears.'
_Gay._
The master of the house was unable to contribute much more than his
name to the propriety of the arrival of the suitors, and this made
Wilmet the more determined that Geraldine should precede them. Nor,
since the half-crown must be disbursed on an escort for her, did the
housewifely conscience object to the expedition; for Wilmet could not
but long to thank the Superior and Sister Constance, and to obtain
Dr. Lee's advice as to future management. Her coming was great joy
to Cherry, who had dreaded the meeting almost with a sense of guilt,
though still hoping Felix had been silent on her motive; and Wilmet did
not betray him, but only treated her sister with a mixture of almost
shy tenderness and reverence. Nor did Cherry dare to ask a question
as to Wilmet's own affairs, nor even about Ferdinand Travis, lest she
should seem to be leading in that direction. However, Wilmet, in a
persuasive tone, communicated that Ferdinand had been long without
writing, and though Cherry tried to be sorry for Alda, her spirit
quailed at the state of temper her sister evidently meant to prepare
her for.
But fate was more kind than she expected. That very Saturday brought
both gentlemen, and by the same train. They made each other out as they
were leaving their bags at the Fortinbras Arms, and arrived together
in marked contrast--the tall, dark, regular-featured, soft-eyed
Life-guardsman, and the little sandy freckled sun-dried engineer;
and thus two courtships had to be carried on in the two rooms, only
supplemented by the narrow parallelogram of a garden! For Ferdinand
Travis was back again, rather amused at the family astonishment at the
rapidity of his journey to America, which to his Transatlantic notions
of travel was as nothing, and indeed had been chiefly performed in a
big steamer, where he could smoke to his heart's content.
For the first few days there was a good deal of restraint: Wilmet was
more shy than in the unconscious days of Bexley; while John Harewood
was devoid of his family's assurance and bonhomie, and so thoroughly
modest and diffident as to risk nothing by precipitation in begging
for a decision. Felix, inexperienced, and strongly sensible of his
office as guardian of his sister's dignity, would not hint at the
result of his investigations into Wilmet's sentiments; and it was to
Geraldine that Captain Harewood's attentions were chiefly paid. Knowing
Alda's resolute monopoly of her Cacique, Cherry at first held back,
and restrained her keen enjoyment of real conversation; but she found
Wilmet thankful to have the talk done for her, and content to sit at
work, listening almost in silence, but proud that her Captain should
be interested in her sister, and pleased to see Cherry's expressive
face flash and sparkle all over for him. While Wilmet was at Miss
Pearson's, Cherry was his chief resource; they read, drew, and talked,
and in that half-hour's out-of-door exercise, which Dr. Lee had so
strongly enjoined, his arm was at her service. They were soon on the
borders of confidence, though never quite plunging over them. Perhaps
the broad open-mouthed raillery at his home made the gentle reticence
of the Underwoods the more agreeable to him; at any rate, he did not
try to break through it, nor to presume beyond the step he had gained.
Alda, who could best perhaps have acted as helper, had her own affairs
to attend to; and they were evidently unsatisfactory, for Ferdinand
was more than ever the silent melancholy Don, and she was to domestic
eyes visibly cross, and her half-year at home had rendered her much
less capable of concealing ill-humour. Something was owing to wear and
suspense, together with the effects of the summer heat and confined
monotonous life without change or luxury; but much was chargeable on
the manifestations of temper to which she had given way in the home
circle. She told Wilmet the trouble, which Ferdinand wished to have
kept from open discussion till he had received a final statement of his
means to lay before Felix. He had received no remittances since the
spring, and on demanding his own share of the capital and investments,
had found it, instead of the lion's, a ridiculously small portion. The
whole fortunes of the house of Travis had been built on his mother's
inheritance; but the accounts laid before him represented all the
unprosperous speculations undertaken by his father, William, while the
small ventures of his Uncle Alfred had, alongside of them, swelled into
the huge wealth of which Ferdinand had been bred to believe himself
the heir! So palpably outrageous was this representation, that he
had persuaded himself that personal investigation on the spot would
clear it up, or perhaps more truly, his blood was up, and he could not
bear to be inactive. He had rushed over to New York, and of course he
had been baffled. Exposure was of no use where sympathy was for the
lucky rather than the duped and luckless, and where the Anglicised
Life-guardsman could expect it least of all--at a time, too, when all
business affairs were convulsed by the uncertainties of civil war. Alda
could not believe at first that he had done his utmost, and seemed to
have reproached him with weakness and mismanagement; but by her own
account she had roused the innate lion. He would not tell her what
had passed in the interview with his uncle, but he had shuddered over
the remembrance; and when she upbraided him with not having gone far
enough, he terrified her by the fierceness with which he had turned
upon her, bidding her never recur to what she knew nothing about, and
muttering to himself, 'Far enough--thank God I went no further, or
I should not be here now!' and then falling into deep gloom. He had
certainly made Alda afraid of him, and she burst into tears as she told
Wilmet, declaring herself the most miserable girl in the world.
'No, that you can't be, Alda, while he is so good and true.'
'But he says he must sell out! Think of that! Never was anybody so
taken in as I have been!'
'Don't talk so, Alda. It is just as if you had engaged yourself to a
Life-guardsman and nothing else.'
'I wonder how you would like to be buried in some horrid wild place in
America, where you would never see anybody!'
'One would not want to see anybody but him.'
'That's your nonsense! How tired of it one would be!'
'There would be no time. It would be so nice to do everything for him
oneself!'
'In some horrid uncivilized place, with no servants! I'm not going
to be a drudge. It is all very well for you, who like it, and have
no notion of society, but for me--! And there he is furious to take
me out. Men grow so wild and rough too in such places. You never saw
anything blaze like his eyes!'
'I don't understand you. Could not you trust yourself anywhere with
him?'
'You have no right to say such things,' pouted Alda, 'only because I
have a little common prudence. Some one must have it!'
There was no denying that life in the far west would be a foolish thing
either for or with Alda; and Felix thought so when Ferdinand came to
him for consultation over the letters that made it finally clear that
Alfred Travis had appropriated everything available but half a block
of unreclaimed land on the wrong side of America, and a few thousands
invested in Peter Brown's firm; and what was worse, the sudden failure
of the supplies had occasioned serious debts. Ferdinand's own plan was
to clear these off with the price of his commission, and take Alda out
with him to rule in American luxury over the unbounded resources of the
magnificent land, the very name and scent of which had awakened in him
his old prairie-land instincts, and her absolute refusal and even alarm
at his enjoyment had greatly mortified him. 'She should not even have
to rough it,' he said. 'I could make her like a queen out there, if she
would only believe it.'
Felix could not but think Alda might be wise, though it was not pretty
wisdom. Go out alone and make the fortune? Ferdinand did not seem to
think the separation possible. He said he would rather go to work in
Peter Brown's office, where he had already a hold; and his familiarity
with Spanish would secure him usefulness and promotion, and five or six
years would bring him into a position to marry. He did not look fit for
desk-work in London, but his mind was made up to any privation, so that
he could be in reach of Alda, and hope to give her what he had once
thought easily within his grasp.
Hearing this, Felix propounded an old longing of his--namely, to
make the Pursuivant a daily paper, and use means for promptitude
of intelligence, such as might neutralize the unpopularity it was
incurring on behalf of Mr. Smith. Rumours of a rival paper were afloat;
but if Ferdinand would throw in his capital, and undertake the joint
editorship and proprietorship, the hold that the Pursuivant already
had warranted quite success enough to permit an immediate marriage.
There would be no need to be concerned with the shop; they might take a
cottage in the country, and he need not ride in so often as every day.
In fact, it was his capital rather than his personal assistance that
was wanted. He caught at the notion. He was too Transatlantic to have
any dignities to stand upon, and he said almost with tears in his eyes
that he could never be so happy as in working with Felix; and he went
off to the Fortinbras Arms, only lamenting that it was too late to tell
Alda; while Felix, on his side, could not help knocking at Geraldine's
door. Within he found another auditor, Wilmet, who still always
helped Cherry to bed. 'It will be the making of the Pursuivant,' he
said. How often I have sighed, "If I had but capital, or Mr. Froggatt
enterprise!"'
'Ah, Felicissimo mio, that Pursuivant is as dear to you as any brother
or sister of us all!'
'So it ought to be, for it has been the making of us.--Come Cherry,
confess that you had rather see Pur triumph, than--'
'Than you at Vale Leston,' said Cherry, not knowing what a bolt she
shot. 'It would be grand to steal a march on the enemy!'
'And safe?' asked Wilmet.
Felix demonstrated to the comprehending ears of his sisters the
circulation that he could securely reckon upon.
'There would be an immense deal more to do,' said Cherry; but at that
he smiled, full of vigour.
'True; but we should have a larger staff. There would be Fernan--'
'For the racing articles,' said Cherry dryly.
'And a good deal besides, which only needs application; and that he
has.'
'He has great resolution,' said Cherry, 'but he always seems to me a
sort of Christian panther of the wilderness; and you seem to be getting
him into a cage.'
'Not such a cage as Peter Brown's office; and besides it is only when
he is lashed up that the panther leaps about his den. Generally he is
a quiet determined animal, with the practical Yankee element strong in
him. It may be true, as Edgar says, that he does not see an inch on
either side of his nose, but that only makes him go right away in the
line he does see. I know he will work well.'
'If Alda--' said Cherry.
'Oh, she will be willing. A cottage in the country! Besides, it is the
only reasonable possibility.'
'I should think it would satisfy her,' said Wilmet.
'And then--'
Everybody understood that 'And then.' It was Alda's pretension to be
at the head of the family that was the chief obstacle to Wilmet's
abdicating that post. Without her, Geraldine, stronger and less lame,
might undertake the charge of the comparatively few permanently at
home. _Might_ indeed hardly expressed the amount of uncertainty as to
her capability; and yet but for that 'And then,' Wilmet would hardly
have yielded as she did the next day.
Stella had a blackberry fever. Possibly Wilmet's frugal regimen
engendered a hankering for fruit, or it might have been the mere love
of enterprise that rendered her eagerly desirous of an expedition to a
lane where splendid blackberries were reported to grow. Since the day
she had been lost, she had never been allowed to go out with Bernard;
but in Lance she had acquired a much more complaisant play-fellow,
who not only promised his escort to the lane, but the purchase of the
sugar, and aid in the concoction of the jam; but he durst not venture
till late in the day, and thereupon John Harewood suggested, 'Would not
your sister be at liberty by that time?'
'Lance can take care of me,' said Stella; but in her eyes the whole
romance of the expedition was destroyed by his acquiescence. 'We'll
catch her as she comes out, and make her go with us.'
'Among all the girls?' laughed Cherry; and Captain Harewood coloured,
shook his head, and shuddered.
'The girls won't hurt me,' said Lance, 'not if there were twenty
hundred. I'll bring her from the very teeth of them. Jack may wait
round the corner if he likes.'
The party waited, till their patience was worn to a thread, for the
opening of the tall olive door, until Lance valiantly resolved on a
single-handed assault, and had just mounted the steps, when it suddenly
opened, and he found himself obstructing the path of a swarm of little
girls and big, who all stared, most giggled, and some greeted him. To
the least of these he confided that he wanted his sister, when she
innocently piloted him to the school-room, where Wilmet, with her hat
on, was keeping guard over three victims detained by unfinished tasks.
Every one gazed at him as if he had been a sort of Actæon; but nothing
daunted, he answered his sister's anxious exclamation. 'Nothing is the
matter; but we are going for a walk, and want you.--Miss Maria,' he
cried, as the sound of the unfeminine step and voice brought in one of
the heads, '_please_ do let off these impositions, we do so want her!'
'What, you here! This is an invasion!' she added good-humouredly. 'Am I
to take it as a convalescent's privilege?'
'Thank you, Ma'am,' said Lance, bowing with his audacious sweetness;
'and please let me have Wilmet. I'd do the impositions myself, only I
don't know French.'
The victims tittered uncontrollably, and Miss Maria laughed, as one
who, like her neighbours, descried why Wilmet was in request. 'I will
attend to these exercises, Miss Underwood,' she said. 'You must not
lose this fine evening for the idleness of these young ladies.'
'Indeed, Ma'am!' began Wilmet, in a blaze of colour. 'I never thought
of such a thing.'
'I daresay not, my dear,' said Miss Maria; 'but now you had better do
it. I wish you a pleasant walk.'
'Lance, how could you?' broke out Wilmet, as they descended the steps.
'I never was so ashamed in my life.'
'Never mind. We are going to get blackberries at Mile End Lane, and I
shall lose Stella to a dead certainty if you don't come and look after
her.'
'My dear Lance, I can't go all that way without their knowing it at
home.'
'Oh! that's all settled with Cherry.'
'And where's Alda?'
'Off somewhere with her Don. Come, W. W., or who knows whether Stel and
I shall ever come home?'
By this time they had reached the corner where Captain Harewood and
Stella were lying perdu, and Wilmet made no more resistance, only
keeping the little girl's not altogether willing hand till they came to
the stile leading to the field and woodland, and then Stella's durance
ended, and her adventures with Lance became as free as though no grave
'sister' had been near.
Perhaps, since Wilmet had perceived that surrender was her fate, she
was willing that the summons should be over and a mutual understanding
reached, so as to waste no more of the time already so short. However
that might be, though the talk began with Lance's health and Cherry's
talents, there was a tendency towards topics closer still; nor did she
start aside, but rather listened pensively as to a strain that touched
her quiet soul more deeply than she showed in word or gesture.
The blackberry lane was deep and hollow, the brambles outstretching
their arching wreaths, laden with heavy clusters of shining fruit,
glossy black, scarlet or green, sometimes with a lingering pearly
flower. A step-ladder stile led down into it from the field, and on the
topmost step, her back against the rail, sat Wilmet. On the lowest,
turned at right angles to the first, was John Harewood, looking up to
her; while scrambling on the bank, contending with the brambles, were
the younger ones; Lance, unable to help now and then sending a furtive
glance through the tangle.
It was a pretty sight. Sitting aloft, Wilmet was framed by an archway
of meeting branches, with nothing but the pale opal of the evening
sky behind the beautifully shaped head and shoulders, and the clear
cut features, drooping just enough to enhance her own peculiar modest
dignity, and give it a soft graciousness that had once been wanting.
Her dress was the same in which Captain Harewood had first seen her--a
plain black hat, a pale fawn-coloured skirt, and a loose open jacket
over a white cambric vest and sleeves, only that now there had been
a budding forth of dainty fresh knots of rose-coloured ribbon at the
throat and down the front, as though a slight sensibility to the
vanities as well as the cares of life had begun to dawn on the grave
young house-mother.
Leaning back against the rough rail to assist the hand of the climber,
John Harewood looked up with as much worship in his countenance as ever
good man feels for the being he loves in all her maiden glory. Thus
they had been for some moments, only broken by the children's distant
calls, till the fervent words broke from him, 'May I not speak now?'
No word of reply sounded, but the delicate lips quivered and parted;
the eyes were cast down, and seemed to swim in a soft mist of
brightness; the queenly head bent, and the roseate tint on the cheek
deepened and spread, while something came over the face that caused the
low glad exclamation, 'You sweetest, I do believe you can love me!'
A tremulous smile, a glitter of tears on the eye-lashes--a whisper,
'You won't let me be able to help it!'
Then the hands were clasped, and no words but 'Thank you' would come to
the young man's lips; and then, and the sound reminded him, he bowed
his head, adding, 'Thank God!'
'Thank God!' echoed Wilmet softly. 'For indeed,' she added, as she let
her eyes fully meet his ardent gaze, 'I know you will help me to do
whatever may be His Will.'
'He helping me,' said John Harewood; and there was a reverent silence
of untold peace and bliss, first interrupted by his long sigh of
infinite relief and joy; and then, as he looked and looked with all
his soul in his eyes, an exclamation, almost in spite of himself, 'You
beautiful creature, you are mine indeed!'
Her colour deepened, but her lips moved into an odd little smile, out
of which came the words, 'Isn't that rather foolish?'
'I couldn't help it--I beg your pardon,' said he, reddening. 'You do
look so lovely! but indeed it is not the externals only, but what looks
through.'
'And that is what makes me afraid,' said Wilmet, as the dew gathered on
her eye-lashes. 'I don't think I'm so nice as you take me for.'
'Probably you don't,' he said, smiling.
'But just hear me,' she said, laying her hand on his, as if to silence
him. 'You ought to know what all the others would tell you if they
were not too kind. I know they all feel me strict, and managing, and
domineering! Yes, it makes you laugh, but I really am. I don't think
you would have liked me at all if you had not seen me out of my usual
life, with only Lance--' and as all she said only made him press her
hand the closer--'You see, I've always had to do _things_. Ever since I
was a little girl I have had to keep order, great boys and all, and I
know it has made me disagreeable;' then, in answer to some sound more
incredulously negative than words, 'Yes indeed! Felix and all go to
Cherry with whatever comes very near them. She hasn't been hardened and
sharpened and dried up like me, and wasn't stupid to begin with.'
'Cherry is very clever, but she is--not--'
'Now don't. I know how it is. I know I'm horribly pretty, and I've been
a wonder always for keeping the house going, and doing for them all,
and so you fancy me everything charming; but I do so wish you could
really know, as my brothers do, how it takes out of one all that is
nice and sweet, and that people like.'
'People?' said John, smiling; but seeing that a mirthful even though
a loving answer was not what she wanted, he gravely said, 'I do
understand, dearest, that you have had to be too much of an authority
to be altogether the companion and confidante that Geraldine is free to
be, but perhaps I feel that this renders you more wholly and altogether
my own.'
'Oh!'--a strange half sob--'do you know, I had just begun to know how
solitary I was when Lance was so happy to get Robina, when you--'
'And if I told you all, you would know that I was feeling a certain
loneliness at home, and that if you had asked my sisters, they would
have said that Jack was not the harmonious element he appeared.
There--there's a pleasing prospect!'
'But you'll not let me be masterful?' said Wilmet earnestly.
'Just as much as is good for me--for us,' he said, smiling. Then after
a moment's silence, he took out of his pocket a little box, and making
a table of her lap, took out a ring of twined ruby and diamonds, such
as could not but startle the instincts of Wilmet's soul.
'Oh, it is a great deal too beautiful! Please, I couldn't--'
'You must. It was my mother's.'
'Then she cannot like to part with it.'
'Did you not know that she died when I was five years old? Look!' and
he showed where within the lid of the box was written, 'For my Little
Johnny's Wife. August 1839. L. H.'
'Ought you not to keep it till--' faltered Wilmet, growing crimson as
she found what she was saying.
'No,' he said decidedly, 'not after this. When I spoke to my father
that Sunday evening, he unlocked his desk and gave me this, which I had
not seen since I remember playing with it on my mother's bed. You will
wear it, dearest. You will let me have the pleasure of knowing you have
it on.'
The answer was the drawing off of her glove; and he fitted it on, but
it was rather loose. 'I am afraid it will want a guard,' he said.
'I'll ask Felix whether I may take one of Mamma's,' she said. For the
shapely notable fingers had never worn a ring before this almost sacred
pledge; and the few jewels either too valuable or not valuable enough
for the parents to have parted with in times of need had never been
touched.
'Do,' he said; 'I shall like that. The year 1839. Was not that the year
a certain little girl was born?'
'The month. Our birth-day is on the 19th.' And the coincidence gave all
the foolish delight such facts do under the circumstances.
'Was this long before she died?' asked Wilmet.
'The last day of that August. You never saw her brass in the cloister?'
'No; I never guessed that you were not Mrs. Harewood's son, though I
wondered at your being so unlike the rest.'
'She has been kindness itself,' he warmly said. 'My father did well
both for himself and me in marrying.'
'Tell me of your own mother,' said Wilmet, looking from the sparkling
stones to the initials. 'L.-- What was her name?'
'Lucy. Lucy Oglandby. My father was tutor at Oglandby Hall. There was
a long attachment, through much opposition; and even when he was made
priest-vicar after waiting six years, her father could not consent.
After six years more, when her health was failing, he gave a sort of
sanction on his death-bed. The rest of the family contrived to get her
fortune so tied up that after her death it was of no use to any one
till I came of age. She only lived seven years after her marriage, and
then the Oglandbys wanted to take possession of me, and I fancy that
drove my father into marrying.'
'Was it with them you went to stay?'
'Yes, my father makes a point of it; and they have a turn for
patronizing me, if I would turn my back on home.'
'Now I understand better,' said Wilmet.
'You understand how much you were wanting to me,' he said, rightly
interpreting the words. 'After five years' absence, while my sisters
were growing up, you can perceive that dear, fond, and hearty as
our house is, it did not fulfil all that perhaps I had been rather
unreasonable in expecting. O Wilmet, this time of leave would have been
very different if you had not come to the precincts!'
And so they fell back on the exquisite time present, which neither
wished to disturb by looking beyond; and perhaps John felt as though
his bird had scarcely perched, and any endeavours to hold it might make
it flutter loose, while she was too glad of the calm and repose to
renew the struggle between conflicting claims.
At last, with basket laden with dark fruit, and lips vying with the
babes in the wood, Stella was launched on them by Lance, when his
sense of time overpowered his half shy, half diverted respect for
their bliss. He was very curious, but had to be satisfied with Captain
Harewood's manner of tossing Stella over the stile, and bright look at
himself.
They did not get into the town till the chimes of half-past seven were
pealing. Captain Harewood hurried into the hotel, to prepare for the
evening; and Wilmet was mounting the stairs, still under the spell of
her newly-found joy, when she was startled by Alda's voice in a key of
querulous anger.
'Exactly like you, always laying out for attention.'
'What's this?' said Wilmet, as she saw Alda in her habit, standing
with her back to the open door, and Geraldine leaning on the table,
trembling and tearful, crimson and burning even to passion in her
panting reply, 'I don't know--except that he helped me in from the
garden.'
'That's what I say,' retorted Alda. 'She is always putting herself
forward, to be interesting, and get waited on. All affectation. I don't
know such a flirt anywhere.'
'Hush, Alda! you are insulting Cherry,' said Wilmet, in her tone of
command.
'Take care of yourself, Wilmet,' cried Alda; 'it is the way she goes on
all day with Captain Harewood--reading poetry, and drawing, and all.'
'Captain Harewood knows,' said Wilmet, coming to the support of the
quivering Geraldine, 'that the kinder he is to Cherry the better I like
it.'
'Oh, if you do, it is your own concern. I only spoke for your sake.'
And Alda marched off, while Wilmet's strong tender arms helped
Cherry into her own room, and tended her through one of those gusts,
part repentant, part hysterical, which had belonged to her earlier
girlhood, though the present was now enhanced by the tumult of insulted
maidenliness. Formerly, Wilmet had not treated these attacks on the
soft system, but now all her bracing severity was gone. Greatly
incensed with Alda, she gave her whole self to sympathy with the
victim, showing herself so ineffably sweet and loving, that Cherry felt
a thrill of delicious surprise; and as her eye lit on the glittering
ring, a little ecstatic cry, still slightly hysterical, welcomed the
token.
'O Wilmet, oh! You have! You have--'
'To be sure I have,' answered Wilmet, not in the least heeding what she
said, in her anxiety to calm her sister. 'It is all right, if only you
will not go and be silly about it.'
The woman was so much more than her words, that their odd simplicity,
coming from the grand-looking figure bending over her in tender
solicitude, touched Cherry the more, and she threw her arms round her
sister's neck, whispering, 'Oh! I am so glad!'
Poor Wilmet! At that moment all her gladness had gone into a weight
like lead on her heart, though it only made her more gentle. 'Dear
Cherry,' she softly said, 'don't talk of anything to upset you. Will
you be good and lie quite still while I take off my things, and then
I'll come and dress you? You must not be knocked up to-night.'
'Oh! I had much rather stay here!'
'No indeed! John would be so disappointed. He does like you so much,
and I always depend on you to make it pleasant for him. You can't send
word that Alda has been scolding you.'
'Oh dear! why can't I behave decently to her the moment we are alone
together?'
'Don't begin on that, for pity's sake, or you'll get crying again,'
broke out Wilmet, in her natural voice. ''Tis she can't behave properly
to anybody--that's all; so don't think any more about anything, like a
good child, but lie still till I come back.'
So up went Wilmet, not rejoicing in her room-mate, whom she found, as
usual, all injured innocence and self-justification.
'You have been petting Cherry all this time! She is quite spoilt among
you! It is quite true what I said, though she didn't like it. In
society, I never saw a more arrant flirt, with her pathetic ill-used
airs. Why, Ferdinand actually found fault to-day with my manner to her!'
Save for the effects, Wilmet was glad to hear it. 'Well, Alda, it is
not always kind.'
'I only don't fuss and coax her; I see through her better than you do.
She is the sharp one. As I told Ferdinand, it is I who have reason to
complain of his manner to her, only I know it is not his fault. If
there were no other objection to this preposterous scheme of Felix's,
she would be a reason against it.'
'For shame, Alda! You don't consider what you are saying of your
sister.'
'I do!' said Alda. 'I have been more in the world than you, Wilmet,
and I know what comes of sticking oneself down close to one's family,
especially when there is that sort of spoilt invalid, backed up in all
kinds of unreasonable expectations. I advise you to take care, Wilmet;
you don't know what goes on in your absence. I should not wonder if it
never came to an engagement after all.'
At that moment Felix's step and knock were at the door. Wilmet went to
it, and both her hands were clasped in her brother's. 'My Wilmet, my
dear, this is well!'
Then Alda turned from her glass and understood. 'What? He has spoken? O
Wilmet, and you never told me!'
'I had not time.'
'And what a splendid ring! but it is not a proper engaged-ring. You
can't wear it.'
'I must! He wishes it. It was his mother's.--Felix, may I have one of
Mamma's for a guard?'
'May you!' said Felix, smiling.
'I should like you to give it to me. Come in.'
He came to inspect the unlocking of the ponderous old inlaid
dressing-case, with velvet-lined compartments mostly empty, or only
with little labelled papers of first curls, down as far as 'Edward
Clement, 1842,' after which stern reality had absorbed sentiment--a
sad declension from the blue enamel shrine with a pearl cypher, where
Felix's downy flax reposed.
To do Alda justice, there was no greed in her nature, and she even
offered Wilmet a turquoise hoop of her own, instead of a little
battered ring of three plaited strands of gold, which their mother
had worn till her widowhood, and they believed to be the ring of her
betrothal. And when Wilmet suggested that the locket would delight
Cherry, Alda's ready assent inspired the hope that she felt some
compunction for her jealous unkindness.
The locket did prove a soothing charm, coupled with the little
consultation as to the ribbon, and the capture of a smooth brown lock
of the present to add to the original. And as the manly fingers dealt
with the hasp, and the kind smile welcomed her pleasure, Cherry's heart
felt that while she had her Felix, Alda need little comprehend her
craving for attention from any one.
Yet her greeting to John Harewood was shy, tame, and frightened,
compared with Alda's pretty graceful cordiality, as she told him that
she was delighted, and envied Lance his powers of diplomacy. In fact,
it was Alda who kept up the conversation, and made things pleasant,
with the ease of society; while Felix was shy, Wilmet longed for
silence, and Ferdinand looked like a picture of Spanish melancholy,
such as had almost infected the whole table.
'I believe I must ask you to bestow a little time on me,' he said, as
soon as the meal was over; and Alda made it evident that she meant to
be in the conclave, which took place in the back drawing-room. It was
at once made evident that the Pursuivant proposal was abhorrent to her;
not that she behaved to Felix, nor indeed did she ever do so to any of
his sex, as she permitted herself to do to Geraldine, but she showed
great displeasure at the idea having been started.
'Things are unfortunate enough already,' she said, with something like
Wilmet's dignity; 'but I should never forgive such hopeless ruin to
dear Ferdinand's prospects.'
'Have I not told you that no prospect is anything to me if you can only
be mine?'
'We know all that,' said Alda, drawing herself away rather sharply from
the caressing hand, 'and therefore I must think for you, and I will not
be the means of lowering your position in life.'
'Alda, dearest!' cried Ferdinand, glancing at Felix in such genuine
distress as made him interfere in pity.
'We understand about position, Ferdinand; and you and Alda have been
able to observe how far life is enjoyable in this lowered position.'
'Felix,' said Alda, who had evidently wound herself up for this crisis,
'you know very well that you stand quite out of common rules; but I am
sure you can see that however valuable your work may be, it would be
wrong to draw Ferdinand to the same level.'
'As for that,' said Ferdinand moodily, yet with the air of a banished
prince, 'Felix knows what my father was; and if I knew that my
grandfather was an honest man, it would be well. A stray wanderer, cast
up at your door, has no right to talk of levels.'
'You are not to talk,' said Alda, more affectionately. 'You are too
generous to be allowed to think.'
'In plain English, Alda,' said her brother, 'the objection is yours.'
'I cannot see him sacrifice himself for my sake,' said Alda.
'As though it could be a sacrifice!' exclaimed Ferdinand, 'when it
opens the way to make you my own at once, my peerless beauty! If you--'
'Come, we have had all this over before,' said Alda, shrinking a little
petulantly as he hovered over her, speaking with the fervour of his
Mexican nature, and his eyes glowing with eagerness; 'if you will not
have common sense, I must.'
'Common sense! It is not common sense I want! It is love!'
'If you doubt my affection--' said Alda, with dignity, drawing back.
'No! no! no! I never was so profane. Only it drives me frantic to hear
you so coolly willing to keep us apart for--'
'Because my affection is less selfish and narrow than yours,' said
Alda, raising her voice as his became like a roll of distant thunder.
'I tell you, I will not be the means of binding you to a petty
provincial paper, that may give an immediate pittance, but will lead to
nothing. Would that be love worth having? I appeal to Felix, his scheme
though it was.'
Felix was a very uncomfortable third party, especially as Alda's appeal
implied a certain accusation of himself. 'I own,' he said, 'that
this situation is not likely to lead to promotion, but it would be
competence. Ferdinand would be satisfied, but you--'
'I, who know what he is used to, cannot be satisfied for him.'
'As if you--' gasped the lover; but Alda would not let him go on.
'No,' she said, 'we must be patient. For him to remain in the
Life-guards would be madness; but a few years at Mr. Brown's, with the
interest he already has in the business, will open a career to him.'
'And I can run down every Sunday,' said Ferdinand. 'It is her
determination; I suppose she is right, Felix, but I wish-- If I could
wish her otherwise, she should be less prudent!'
'I cannot see that she has any right to ask it of you,' indignantly
exclaimed Felix.
But he found this was putting his head into a hornet's nest. Ferdinand
would not have contested her right to send him down among the lions,
and would never have given her back her troth, like Knight Des Lorges.
No, he hotly contended that Alda had a perfect right to make her own
terms, and still more hotly, though most inconsistently, that to work
at Peter Brown's was his own free choice.
It was incontestable that a South American merchant's career offered
more possibilities of rising into opulence and consideration than the
proprietorship of a country paper; and though Felix privately doubted
whether desk-work would suit Ferdinand half as well as the work where
he himself could have contributed wits, he could say no more. Ferdinand
was greatly disappointed; but there was no sacrifice that he would not
make, and persist in with his silent Spanish perseverance, for Alda's
sake. Indeed, he could not bear not to begin at once. He would return
at once to his regiment, send in his papers, and dispose of his horses
and equipments, making arrangements with Peter Brown to enter his
house. He seemed to be in a fever till the matter was in train, and was
entirely past remonstrance. And Felix recognised that the lovers must
act for themselves, and could only feel thoroughly vexed with Alda, and
equally vexed with himself for the consternation with which he thought
of having her at home three years longer!
It was the next evening; and not only had Alda's own lover departed,
but Captain Harewood was missing, and with him Lance, and the only
explanation was from Bernard, that they were gone to Minsterham. No
doubt Wilmet was sensible of a blank when she came home, though she
would not allow it, and stoutly defended her Captain's right of going
where and when he pleased without notice. She had to fight his battles,
till late in the evening he walked in. 'Here we are! It is later than I
expected.'
'Where's Lance?'
'He came in with me. Gone to his room, then.--Here, Geraldine, this
little gentleman requests the honour of your leaning on him.'
'Oh, what a beauty! What a dear little ivory monster! Turbaned head,
serpent's tail, and such a fascinating face!'
'Is the cane the right length? I measured yours.'
'You don't mean that he is for me? So smooth and so steady! Where does
he come from?'
'From Benares--I bought him at the great fair; and from the moment I
saw you, it was plain that in the eternal fitness of things he was
destined to you.'
'To make a Pagan of her,' said Felix. 'See her worshipping her little
idol!'
'Not my idol, but my prop and companion for life.'
'Your Lord Gerald,' laughed Felix, as she walked triumphantly round the
room, perhaps her first unnecessary promenade since she was seven years
old.
'This is just the time I didn't expect you,' said Wilmet; 'is the seven
o'clock train put on again?'
'We didn't come by the train.' And Felix and Cherry smiled at one
another as they detected that Wilmet's economical soul was vexed. 'I
wanted Lance to see his doctor again, and the railway seems so bad for
his head, that I drove.'
'How very kind!' exclaimed Wilmet.
'I am afraid I have not managed it well. I would not make an
appointment, lest it should be a glaring day; so Manby was out, and we
could only leave a message before going to the precincts. Lance was in
wild spirits, and the boys gave him such an uproarious welcome, that
old Canon Burley sent in to know what was the matter, and was told it
was only little Underwood come back. He dined with us, but I am afraid
I was off guard, for I never thought of his going and taking a place in
the Cathedral.'
'I should think not!' said Wilmet, 'except that it is in the nature of
boys to be provoking, even about Church-going. Then it has knocked him
up.'
'He was forced to come out in the Psalms; and Poulter, one of the
lay-vicars, got anxious about him, and went after him when the Lesson
began, found him with his head down on the table in the sacristy, and
thought he had fainted, but he was only crying and entirely done up.
Manby came just as Poulter brought him in, and gave him a proper good
lecture.'
'A very good thing,' said Wilmet, 'if one could only get him to believe
there is any need of care when his head is not actually painful. What
did Mr. Manby think of him?'
'He says he is as well as could reasonably be hoped--quite recovered
from the fever; but the sun-stroke was as severe as any he has seen
in England, and coming on the top of all that overwork, both study
and music, it has left an amount of irritability and excitability of
brain that must not be trifled with. He made poor Lance confess all the
little experiments he has been trying on himself, and ordered him to
leave off whatever he is about at the first threatening of dizziness or
pain.'
'Then there's not much chance of his going back?'
'Not before Christmas at soonest. One would think the poor little
fellow must have been aware of that; but the verdict cut him up very
much. I thought he had better be quiet till the heat of the day was
past, so he lay on my bed till six o'clock, and then he said he was
better; but he hardly spoke all the way home.'
Wilmet went at once to see after him, and found him already in bed; but
whether sleepy, suffering, or sorrowful, she could not make out, for
he hid his eyes from the candle, and only muttered 'No, thank you,' in
reply to whatever she offered, till she yielded to his evident longing
for darkness and silence.
He was up and about in the morning; but when at noon Bernard rushed in
from school, he was neither in the drawing-room, garden, nor office,
and the door of his--or rather Mr. Froggatt's--bed-room was locked.
Bernard bounced at it, calling, 'Let me in, I say; I'll not make a row.'
'There aren't any more of you?' parleyed Lance.
'No! Let me in, I say!'--kicking at the panels--'I must speak to you!'
'I'm coming; hold your din!' And Lance revealed himself without coat or
boots.
'Holloa--how dark! You were never asleep? I came, because one can never
catch you without a string of girls and babies after you.'
'Cut on,' said Lance resignedly, shaking up his horse-hair pillow:
while Bernard seated himself on the table, and in the half-light of the
shuttered room, began to disentangle some knotted twine.
'Did you come here to do that?' said Lance, wanting to finish his nap,
and chiefly restrained by the trouble of the thing from kicking the
intruder out.
'Only, I say, Lance, have you any tin?'
'Not the valley of a brass farthing!' (The last pence of the Vale
Leston sovereign had gone into Stella's jam.)
'Wouldn't Felix give you some?'
'I don't know.' (Very gruffly.)
'I wish you'd ask.'
'You have as many tongues as I.'
'Well, you see Felix is not half a bad fellow for one's governor, but
he doesn't know what's what; and Sims says he'll go to him if I don't
come down with something before to-morrow.'
'Sims! Sims in Smoke-jack Alley? Is that your sort?' demanded Lance, in
ineffable disgust.
'He's been keeping a dog for me,' said Bernard sulkily.
'A dog!' Lance sat up in astonishment immeasurable.
'Yes. It's the thing, and no mistake,' said Bernard eagerly. 'His name
is Stingo; only we are not quite sure whether he is a bull-terrier or a
short-haired King Charles.'
Lance dropped back, wriggling in suppressed convulsions, as he
demanded, 'Where did you steal this unmistakeable animal?'
'I bought him,' said Bernard, with a certain magnificence intended to
be overawing.
'Then where did you steal the money?'
'Travis,' said Bernard, who considered Christian names unworthy of
male lips. 'He always used to tip me a sovereign; and Ben Bowyer, the
dog-fancier, said Stingo was worth thirty shillings any day, only he
let me have him for eight and six, because he wanted to sell off his
stock.'
'I thought as much. And Sims keeps him for you?'
'At ninepence a week; but the brute is at me for ever, and says it is
twelve weeks.'
'Pray, how were you to raise ninepence a week? By waiting on Providence
or turning coach-wheels?'
'I had some then; and Froggy sometimes gives one half-a-crown, but the
old beast hasn't lately, just because I wanted it--nor Travis either,
bad luck to him!' quoth this grateful young man. 'I put them all off,
making sure of him; and now he's cut, and never tipped me at all! It's
an abominable sell, and they are all at me.'
'All! what more? Have it out,' grunted Lance, with a sound of bodily
pain in his tone such as would have silenced any one above ten years
old, and a bored contemptuous manner that would have crushed any
attempt at confidence--if he had been the right person to confess to.
Nevertheless, Bernard mumbled, 'Shooting-gallery. And Mother Goldie
vowed she would lug me up to Wilmet if I don't fork out!'
'Mother Goldie! You little disgusting ape! You've been tucking in what
you owed in pies and tarts!' cried Lance, who was too constitutionally
heedless of the palate to have any charity for its temptations.
'It's all Wilmet's fault,' said Bernard. 'She never gives one anything
fit to eat. There was that beastly lamp out there went and got broke,
and what does she do but crib it out of our grub! Now, Lance, was any
living soul served like that before? She gave us only that beastly
stir-about at breakfast,' (Bernard worked his single adjective hard,)
'no butter nor sugar at tea, and no pudding, except when there's that
beastly mess of rice.'
'I'm sure I've seen pudding.'
'Oh! she came round when Felix came home. She knew he wouldn't stand
it. Alda used to buy marmalade and anchovy on her own hook, so I don't
see why I shouldn't.'
'Alda didn't go on tick, I suppose.'
'Serve Wilmet right if we all did. I don't believe there's a beggar so
badly fed. Nares says--'
'You unnatural little sneak, you haven't been and gone and complained
to him!'
'No; but all the town is crying out upon her shabbiness. They say it is
a perfect shame how little butcher's meat she gets. Nares's mother and
sisters do nothing but laugh at it, and Nares says nothing will make us
comfortable but a bankruptcy. Hollo!'
For a well-aimed swing of the bolster laid him sprawling on the floor.
'Take that for mentioning such a word!'
'My eyes, Lance, is it swearing?' said Bernard, with a little
affectation of innocence. 'How you have been and bumped my knees;' and
he sat on the floor, pulling up his trousers to gain a view; 'there'll
be a bruise as big as half-a-crown! Well, but Nares says it was a real
blessing to them; for before it old Nares was always in a rage, and his
mother boohooing; and now it is over they live like fighting-cocks,
on champagne, and lobster-salad, and mulli--what's his name?--first
chop; and the women dress in silks and velvets and feathers, no end of
swells! and they say it is regular stoopid to pinch like that, for no
one will believe we ain't going to smash while she is such a screw!'
'If you weren't nothing but a little donkey,' said Lance, sitting
coiled up with his head on his knee, grimly contemplating him, 'you'd
be a show specimen of precocious depravity.'
'I declare,' persisted Bernard, 'Nares says it is coming as sure as
fate; for his governor, and Jackman, and Collis are going to stump up
the old Pursuivant with their new Bexley Tribune, and Redstone is to be
sub-editor.'
'The black-hearted rascal!' cried Lance, bounding on his feet in a
rage. 'He ought to be kicked out of the shop this instant!'
'Now don't, Lance,' entreated Bernard, 'for Nares will pitch into me
for telling. He says they've got an opening through the Pur backing up
that mean beggar Smith; and Collis and Jackman will find the cash, and
Nares's father is to be editor, and they vow Froggatt and Underwood
will be beat out of the field.'
'Catch them,' said Lance, and he stood leaning against the solid old
carved bed-post in silence, till Bernard returned to the insolvency at
present far more pressing.
'Won't you help me about Stingo?' he said.
'Do you want me to send him to the dog-show, ticketted "The Real Animal
and no mistake"?'
'Don't, Lance,' said the boy peevishly. 'I thought you were
good-natured, and would lend me some tin, or at least stop the
blackguard from being such a baboon. He's found out that Travis has
cut, and he says he'll come to Felix this very day,' ended he, not far
from crying.
'I can't anyhow, to-day, Bear,' said Lance, more kindly. 'My head is
very bad, and you've not mended it.'
'It was well enough when you broke my knees,' grumbled Bernard. 'Come,
Lance, you used to be a fellow to help one.'
'I can't, I tell you,' said Lance, hastily throwing himself back on
the bed, and shutting his eyes. 'It isn't that I won't, but I can't. I
couldn't walk straight down the street for giddiness; and if I did, I
don't suppose I could talk sense.'
Bernard was startled by the tone as well as the words; but he had not
arrived at much pity for any one but himself, and he whined, 'But
what shall I do, then?' repeating it dolefully, as Lance lay for some
moments silent and with closed eyes.
'Bother!' he broke out angrily at last. 'Look here. Tell the
blackguard--let me see--I don't well know what I'm saying. Tell him
you've spoken to me--no, to your brother--mind, you needn't say
which--and that he'll come and see about it. Now give me that bolster,
and take yourself off. Tell them I want no dinner, and don't let any
one come! Get along, and shut the door.'
Bernard could extract no more, and departed as the dinner-bell rang,
leaving him without energy even to lock the door. Presently Felix was
standing anxiously over him; but he reiterated that he could not bear
to think of food, and only wanted to be left alone; but just as his
brother was leaving him, he said, 'Fee, do you know that Redstone is
going over to the enemy?'
'The opposition paper? Nothing more likely. How did you hear?'
'Bear picked it up. I say, wasn't that little beggar to have gone to
Stoneborough?'
'Not possible, Lance; I've gone into it with Wilmet. She is in trouble
about household expenses, as it is; and with this rival paper on our
hands, I can't undertake anything extra. Has he been bothering you? I'm
very sorry, but we must keep him here.'
Lance shut his eyes without reply; but no sooner was he left alone
than he rolled over, gave vent to a heavy groan from the bottom of his
heart, and clenched his hands as he lay. Then followed some heavy sobs,
and a few great tears; but gradually a look of purpose and hope came
over his face, and he slept. He was lying between sleeping and waking,
when a quiet step and cautious knock made him call out, 'Come in, Jack.'
'Your sister wants to know if you are better, and ready for some tea.'
'Thank you, I'm mending. Is Wilmet come home?'
'Yes, but only to become the prey of an ancient female.'
'Mrs. Bisset! Come to inspect you!'
'She won't, then! Shall I get you some tea?'
'No, thank you. But, I say, Jack, do you see my big box that we brought
home yesterday? Would you just dig into it for me?'
John Harewood applied himself to disentangle a frightful knot,
observing, 'This looks like Bill's handiwork.'
'Ay! Bill put all my traps together when our other fellows came back.'
'Together indeed!' said the Captain, looking at the heterogeneous
collection.
'There's nothing to hurt,' said Lance. 'Do you see a green box?'
'A fiddle-case, you boy?'
'A violin-case,' said Lance, with dignity. 'Give it me.' And taking out
his purse, he produced its only contents--namely, the key--tried to
sit up to unlock his treasure, but was forced by giddiness to lie back
again with a gasp, and hold out the key to his friend.
'Come, I should think a fiddle the last thing you could want just now,'
said John.
'Just so. I'm afraid it is. Only, just let me see if she is all right.
Ay!' and then, after a gaze, a fond touch or two, an irrepressible sigh
strangled in the midst, 'lock her up again! You ain't by any chance
going home to-morrow?'
'Do you want anything?'
'Why, when I got her at old Spicer's sale for twenty-two and sixpence,
Poulter was beside himself at my luck, and said she was worth double
that any day, and he would give it me if I got tired of her. Now, if
I'd only known yesterday, I could have done it myself; but I can't go,
and I can't write--but if you could but send or take it to Poulter, and
get the money for me!'
'Do you feel bound to give Poulter the refusal? for if it is really a
good instrument, it ought to be worth more than that.'
'Poulter has been very good to me. He taught me to play on it,' said
Lance; 'that is, he showed me a little; but Robin made me lock it up
and give her the key all last spring, for fear of hindering my mugging;
and I can't touch her now, so she has been very little use to me. I
promised Poulter, and I think he should have her. Besides, I want the
money slick at once. It's no good sticking it in a window to wait for
some one to give what it is worth.'
John marvelled what need of money could have come upon the boy in
the last twenty-four hours, but he was too discreet a friend to take
advantage of necessity to ask questions, and said, 'The fact was, I was
thinking of running up to town to get a sewing-machine for your sister,
but if I start by the earlier train, I can see Poulter on the way, and
if he does not want it himself, he can tell me where to dispose of it
to the best advantage.'
'Only it must be ready money,' said Lance; it must be owned with
scarcely the alacrity of gratitude John deserved. 'If it didn't make
much difference, I wish Poulter could have her, for then I should
sometimes see her and handle her again, and I think he would use her
well.'
'Very well, I'll tell him.'
'And don't tell any one here,' added Lance. 'You don't go and tell W.
W. everything, do you?' he added, wistful and perplexed.
'Not other people's secrets,' said John. 'Now I am going to fetch you
some food; you are looking quite faint, you have had nothing since
yesterday's dinner.'
Poor Lance! when John was gone, he turned with another groan, once more
took the violin in his arms, laid it on his shoulder, and made the
motions of playing, then kissed it, and whispering, 'Poulter will be
good to you, my pretty. It's not for that little beggar of a Bear! It's
for Felix, for Felix--' and then at a sound of steps, hastily replaced
it, shut the box, and fell back again, dizzy and exhausted.
The next day, he betook himself to a refuge more impregnable to Bernard
than even Mr. Froggatt's bed-room, namely the office, which suited his
sociable nature, and where he was always welcome. He found employment
there, too, in cutting out extracts from newspapers, labelling library
books, and packing parcels, and sometimes also, it must be owned, in
drawing caricatures of the figures he spied through the chinks of the
door.