XXV

Original R. MAFFERTON frequently expressed his regret that almost immediately after my arrival in London--in fact, during the time of my disappearance from the Métropole, and just as he became aware of my being with Lady Torquilin--his mother and two sisters bad been obliged to go to the Riviera on account of one of the Misses Mafferton's health. One afternoon--the day before they left, I believe--Lady Torquilin and I, coming in, found a large assortment of cards belonging to the family, which were to be divided between us, apparently. But, as Mr. Charles Mafferton was the only one of them left in town, my acquaintance with the Maffertons had made very little progress, except, of course, with the portly old cousin I have mentioned before, who was a lord, and who stayed in London through the entire session of Parliament. This cousin and I became so well acquainted, in spite of his being a lord, that we used to ask each other conundrums. 'What do they call a black cat in London?' was a favourite one of his. But I had the advantage of Lord Mafferton here, for he always forgot that he had asked the same conundrum the last time we met, and thought me tremendously clever when I answered, 'Puss, puss!' But, as I have said before, there were very few particulars in which this nobleman gratified my inherited idea of what a lord ought to be.

One of the Misses Mafferton--the one who enjoyed good health--had very

kindly taken the trouble to write to me from the Riviera a nice friendly

letter, saying how sorry they all were that we did not meet before they

left Town, and asking me to make them a visit as soon as they returned

in June. The letter went on to say that they had shared their brother's

anxiety about me for some time, but felt quite comfortable in the

thought of leaving me so happily situated with Lady Torquilin, an old

friend of their own, and was it not singular? Miss Mafferton exclaimed,

in her pointed handwriting, signing herself mine ever affectionately, E.

F. Mafferton. I thought it was certainly singularly nice of her to write

to me like that, a perfect stranger; and while I composed an answer in

the most cordial terms I could, I thought of all I had heard about the

hearty hospitality of the English--'when once you know them.'

When I told Mr. Mafferton I had heard from his sister, and how much

pleasure the letter had given me, he blushed in the most violent and

unaccountable manner, but seemed pleased nevertheless. It was odd to

see Mr. Mafferton discomposed, and it discomposed me. I could not in the

least understand why his sister's politeness to a friend of his should

embarrass Mr. Mafferton, and was glad when he said he had no doubt

Eleanor and I would be great friends, and changed the subject. But

it was about this time that another invitation from relatives of Mr.

Mafferton's living in Berkshire gave me my one always-to-be-remembered

experience of the country in England. Lady Torquilin was invited too,

but the invitation was for a Tuesday and Wednesday particularly full of

engagements for her.

'Couldn't we write and say we'd rather come next week?' I suggested.

Lady Torquilin looked severely horrified. 'I should think not!' she

replied. 'You're not in America, child. I hardly know these people at

all; moreover, it's you they want to see, and not me in the least. So

I'll just send my apologies, and tell Mrs. Stacy you're an able-bodied

young woman who gets about wonderfully by herself, and that she may

expect you by the train she proposes--and see that you don't outstay

your invitation, young lady, or I shall be in a fidget!' And Lady

Torquilin gave me her cheek to kiss, and went away and wrote to Mrs.

Stacy as she had said.

An hour or two beyond London the parallel tracks of the main line

stretched away in the wrong direction for me, and my train sped down

them, leaving me for a few minutes undecided how to proceed. The little

station seemed to have nothing whatever to do with anything but the main

line. It sat there in the sun and cultivated its flower-beds, and waited

for the big trains to come thundering by, and had no concern but that.

Presently, however, I observed, standing all by itself beside a row

of tulips under a clay bank on the other side of the bridge, the most

diminutive thing in railway transport I had ever seen. It was quite

complete, engine and cab, and luggage-van and all, with its passenger

accommodation properly divided into first, second, and third class, and

it stood there placidly, apparently waiting for somebody. And I followed

my luggage over the bridge with the quiet conviction that this was the

train for Pinbury, and that it was waiting for me.

There was nobody else. And after the porter had stowed my effects

carefully away in the van he also departed, leaving the Pinbury train in

my charge. I sat in it for a while and admired the tulips, and wondered

how soon it would rain, and fixed my veil, and looked over the 'Daily

Graphic' again, but nothing happened. It occurred to me that possibly

the little Pinbury train had been forgotten, and I got out. There was

no one on the platform, but just outside the station I saw a rusty old

coachman seated on the box of an open landau, so I spoke to him. 'Does

that train go to Pinbury?'I asked. He said it did. 'Does it go to-day?'

I inquired further. He looked amused at my ignorance. 'Oh yes, lady,'

he replied; 'she goes every day--twice. But she 'as to wait for two

hup trains yet. She'll be hoff in about 'alf an hour now!'--this

reassuringly.

When we did start it took us exactly six minutes to get to Pinbury, and

I was sorry I had not tipped the engine-driver and got him to run down

with me and back again while he was waiting. Whatever they may say to

the contrary, there are few things in England that please Americans more

than the omnipotence of the tip.

Two of the Stacy young ladies met me on the Pinbury platform, and gave

me quite the most charming welcome I have had in England. With the

exception of Peter Corke--and Peter would be exceptional anywhere--I had

nearly always failed to reach any sympathetic relation with the young

ladies I had come in contact with in London. Perhaps this was because

I did not see any of them very often or very long together, and seldom

without the presence of some middle-aged lady who controlled the

conversation; but the occasions of my meeting with the London girl had

never sufficed to overcome the natural curiosity with which she usually

regarded me. I rejoiced when I saw that it would be different with Miss

Stacy and Miss Dorothy Stacy, and probably with the other Misses Stacy

at home. They regarded me with outspoken interest, but not at all

with fear. They were very polite, but their politeness was of the

gay, unconscious sort, which only impresses you when you think of it

afterwards. Delightfully pretty, though lacking that supreme inertia of

expression that struck me so often as the finishing touch upon London

beauty, and gracefully tall, without that impressiveness of development

I had observed in town, Miss Dorothy Stacy's personality gave me quite a

new pleasure. It was invested in round pink cheeks and clear grey eyes,

among other things that made it most agreeable to look at her; and

yellow hair that went rippling down her back; and the perfect freshness

and unconsciousness of her beauty, with her height and her gentle

muscularity, reminded one of an immature goddess of Olympia, if such

a person could be imagined growing up. Miss Dorothy Stacy was sixteen

past, and in a later moment of confidence she told me that she lived in

dread of being obliged to turn up her hair and wear irretrievably long

'frocks.' I found this unreasonable, but charming. In America all joys

are grown up, and the brief period of pinafores is one of probation.

We drove away in a little brown dogcart behind a little brown pony into

the English country, talking a great deal. Miss Stacy drove, and I sat

beside her, while Miss Dorothy Stacy occupied the seat in the rear when

she was not alighting in the middle of the road to pick up the Pinbury

commissions, which did not travel well, or the pony's foot, to see if he

had a stone in it. The pony objected with mild viciousness to having his

foot picked up; but Miss Dorothy did not take his views into account at

all; up came the foot and out came the stone. The average American girl

would have driven helplessly along until she overtook a man, I think.

I never saw a finer quality of mercy anywhere than the Stacy young

ladies exhibited toward their beast. When we came to a rising bit of

road Miss Dorothy invariably leaped down and walked as well as the pony,

to save him fatigue; when a slight declivity presented itself he walked

again solemnly to the bottom, occasionally being led. He expected this

attention always at such times, pausing at the top and looking round for

it, and when it was withheld his hind-quarters assumed an aggrieved

air of irresponsibility. When Miss Stacy wished to increase his rate of

going by a decimal point, she flicked him gently, selecting a spot where

communication might be made with his brain at least inconvenience to

himself; but she never did anything that would really interfere with his

enjoyment of the drive.

Of course, Miss Stacy wanted to know what I thought of England in a

large general way, but before I had time to do more than mention a few

heads under which I had gathered my impressions she particularised with

reference to the scenery. Miss Stacy asked me what I thought of English

scenery, with a sweet and ladylike confidence, including most of what we

were driving through, with a graceful flourish of her whip. She said

I might as well confess that we hadn't such nice scenery in America.

'Grander, you know--more mountains and lakes and things,' said

Miss Stacy, 'but not really so nice, now, have you?' No, I said;

unfortunately it was about the only thing we couldn't manage to take

back with us; at which Miss Stacy astonished; me with the fact that she

knew I was going to be a treat to her--so original--and I must be simply

craving my tea, and it was good of me to come, and flicked the pony

severely, so that he trotted for almost half a mile without a pause.

But we returned to the scenery, for I did not wish to be thought

unappreciative, and the Misses Stacy were good enough to be interested

in the points that I found particularly novel and pleasing--the

flowering hedges that leaned up against the fields by the wayside, and

the quantities of little birds that chirruped in and out of them, and

the trees, all twisted round with ivy, and especially the rabbits, that

bobbed about in the meadows and turned up their little white tails with

as much naivete as if the world were a kitchen-garden closed to the

public. The 'bunnies,' as Miss Dorothy Stacy called them, were a source

of continual delight to me. I could never refrain from exclaiming,

'There's another!' much to the young ladies' amusement. 'You see,'

explained Miss Dorothy in apology, 'they're not new to us, the dear

sweet things! One might say one has been brought up with them, one knows

all their little ways. But they are loves, and it is nice of you to like

them.'

The pony stopped altogether on one little rise, as if he were accustomed

to it, to allow us to take a side-look across the grey-green fields to

where they lost themselves in the blue distance, in an effort to climb.

It was a lovely landscape, full of pleasant thoughts, ideally still and

gently conscious. There was the glint of a river in it, white in the

sun, with twisting lines of round-headed willows marking which way it

went; and other trees in groups and rows threw soft shadows across the

contented fields. These trees never blocked the view; one could always

see over and beyond them into other peaceful stretches, with other

clumps and lines, greyer and smaller as they neared the line where the

low, blue sky thickened softly into clouds and came closer down. An

occasional spire, here and there a farmhouse, queer, old-fashioned

hayricks gossiping in the corners of the fields, cows, horses, crows.

All as if it had been painted by a tenderly conscientious artist, who

economised his carmines and allowed himself no caprices except in the

tattered hedge, full of May, in the foreground; all as if Nature-had

understood a woman's chief duty to be tidy and delectable, except for

this ragged hem of her embroidered petticoat. I dare say it would not

seem so to you; but the country as I had known it in America had been

an expanse of glowing colour, diversified by a striking pattern of

snake-fences, relieved by woods that nobody had ever planted, and

adorned by the bare, commanding brick residences of the agricultural

population. Consequently, delightful as I found this glimpse of English

scenery, I could not combat the idea that it had all been carefully

and beautifully made, and was usually kept under cottonwool. You would

understand this if you knew the important part played in our rural

districts by the American stump.

'Isn't it lovely?' asked Miss Stacy, with enthusiasm. Two cows in the

middle distance suddenly disappeared behind a hayrick, and for a moment

the values of the landscape became confused. Still, I was able to say

that it was lovely, and so neat--which opinion I was obliged to

explain to Miss Stacy, as I have to you, while the brown pony took us

thoughtfully on.