_THE RIVALS_
All the time that Dudley chose to persecute me with his odious society, I
continued to walk at a brisk pace toward home, so that I had nearly reached
the house when Milly met me, with a note which had arrived for me by the
post, in her hand.
'Here, Milly, are more verses. He is a very persevering poet, whoever he
is.' So I broke the seal; but this time it was prose. And the first words
were 'Captain Oakley!'
I confess to an odd sensation as these remarkable words met my eye. It
might possibly be a proposal. I did not wait to speculate, however, but
read these sentences traced in the identical handwriting which had copied
the lines with which I had been twice favoured.
'Captain Oakley presents his compliments to Miss Ruthyn, and trusts she
will excuse his venturing to ask whether, during his short stay in Feltram,
he might be permitted to pay his respects at Bartram-Haugh. He has been
making a short visit to his aunt, and could not find himself so near
without at least attempting to renew an acquaintance which he has never
ceased to cherish in memory. If Miss Ruthyn would be so very good as to
favour him with ever so short a reply to the question he ventures most
respectfully to ask, her decision would reach him at the Hall Hotel,
Feltram.'
'Well, he's a roundabout fellah, anyhow. Couldn't he come up and see you if
he wanted to? They poeters, they do love writing long yarns--don't they?'
And with this reflection, Milly took the note and read it through again.
'It's jolly polite anyhow, isn't it Maud?' said Milly, who had conned it
over, and accepted it as a model composition.
I must have been, I think, naturally a rather shrewd girl; and considering
how very little I had seen of the world--nothing in fact--I often wonder
now at the sage conclusions at which I arrived.
Were I to answer this handsome and cunning fool according to his folly,
in what position should I find myself? No doubt my reply would induce
a rejoinder, and that compel another note from me, and that invite yet
another from him; and however his might improve in warmth, they were sure
not to abate. Was it his impertinent plan, with this show of respect and
ceremony, to drag me into a clandestine correspondence? Inexperienced girl
as I was, I fired at the idea of becoming his dupe, and fancying, perhaps,
that there was more in merely answering his note than it would have
amounted to, I said--
'That kind of thing may answer very well with button-makers, but ladies
don't like it. What would your papa think of it if he found that I had been
writing to him, and seeing him without his permission? If he wanted to
see me he could have'--(I really did not know exactly what he could have
done)--'he could have timed his visit to Lady Knollys differently; at all
events, he has no right to place me in an embarrassing situation, and I am
certain Cousin Knollys would say so; and I think his note both shabby and
impertinent.'
Decision was not with me an intellectual process. When quite cool I was the
most undecided of mortals, but once my feelings were excited I was prompt
and bold.
'I'll give the note to Uncle Silas,' I said, quickening my pace toward
home; 'he'll know what to do.'
But Milly, who, I fancy, had no objection to the little romance which the
young officer proposed, told me that she could not see her father, that he
was ill, and not speaking to anyone.
'And arn't ye making a plaguy row about nothin'? I lay a guinea if ye had
never set eyes on Lord Ilbury you'd a told him to come, and see ye, an'
welcome.'
'Don't talk like a fool, Milly. You never knew me do anything deceitful.
Lord Ilbury has no more to do with it, you know very well, than the man in
the moon.'
I was altogether very indignant. I did not speak another word to Milly. The
proportions of the house are so great, that it is a much longer walk than
you would suppose from the hall-door to Uncle Silas's room. But I did not
cool all that way; and it was not till I had just reached the lobby,
and saw the sour, jealous face, and high caul of old Wyat, and felt the
influence of that neighbourhood, that I paused to reconsider. I fancied
there was a cool consciousness of success behind all the deferential
phraseology of Captain Oakley, which nettled me extremely. No; there could
be no doubt. I tapped softly at the door.
'What is it _now_, Miss?' snarled the querulous old woman, with her
shrivelled fingers on the door-handle.
'Can I see my uncle for a moment?'
'He's tired, and not a word from him all day long.'
'Not ill, though?'
'Awful bad in the night,' said the old crone, with a sudden savage glare in
my face, as if _I_ had brought it about.
'Oh! I'm very sorry. I had not heard a word of it.'
'No one does but old Wyat. There's Milly there never asks neither--his own
child!'
'Weakness, or what?'
'One o' them fits. He'll slide awa' in one o' them some day, and no one but
old Wyat to know nor ask word about it; that's how 'twill be.'
'Will you please hand him this note, if he is well enough to look at it,
and say I am at the door?'
She took it with a peevish nod and a grunt, closing the door in my face,
and in a few minutes returned--
'Come in wi' ye,' said Dame Wyat, and I appeared.
Uncle Silas, who, after his nightly horror or vision, lay extended on a
sofa, with his faded yellow silk dressing-gown about him, his long white
hair hanging toward the ground, and that wild and feeble smile lighting his
face--a glimmer I feared to look upon--his long thin arms lay by his sides,
with hands and fingers that stirred not, except when now and then, with a
feeble motion, he wet his temples and forehead with eau de Cologne from a
glass saucer placed beside him.
'Excellent girl! dutiful ward and niece!' murmured the oracle; 'heaven
reward you--your frank dealing is your own safety and my peace. Sit you
down, and say who is this Captain Oakley, when you made his acquaintance,
what his age, fortune, and expectations, and who the aunt he mentions.'
Upon all these points I satisfied him as fully as I was able.
'Wyat--the white drops,' he called, in a thin, stern tone. 'I'll write a
line presently. I can't see visitors, and, of course, you can't receive
young captains before you've come out. Farewell! God bless you, dear.'
Wyat was dropping the 'white' restorative into a wine-glass and the room
was redolent of ether. I was glad to escape. The figures and whole _mise en
scène_ were unearthly.
'Well, Milly,' I said, as I met her in the hall, 'your papa is going to
write to him.'
I sometimes wonder whether Milly was right, and how I should have acted a
few months earlier.
Next day whom should we meet in the Windmill Wood but Captain Oakley. The
spot where this interesting _rencontre_ occurred was near that ruinous
bridge on my sketch of which I had received so many compliments. It was
so great a surprise that I had not time to recollect my indignation, and,
having received him very affably, I found it impossible, during our brief
interview, to recover my lost altitude.
After our greetings were over, and some compliments neatly made, he said--
'I had such a curious note from Mr. Silas Ruthyn. I am sure he thinks me a
very impertinent fellow, for it was really anything but inviting--extremely
rude, in fact. But I could not quite see that because he does not want
me to invade his bed-room--an incursion I never dreamed of--I was not to
present myself to you, who had already honoured me with your acquaintance,
with the sanction of those who were most interested in your welfare, and
who were just as well qualified as he, I fancy, to say who were qualified
for such an honour.'
'My uncle, Mr. Silas Ruthyn, you are aware, is my guardian; and this is my
cousin, his daughter.'
This was an opportunity of becoming a little lofty, and I improved it. He
raised his hat and bowed to Milly.
'I'm afraid I've been very rude and stupid. Mr. Ruthyn, of course, has a
perfect right to--to--in fact, I was not the least aware that I had the
honour of so near a relation's--a--a--and what exquisite scenery you
have! I think this country round Feltram particularly fine; and this
Bartram-Haugh is, I venture to say, about the very most beautiful spot in
this beautiful region. I do assure you I am tempted beyond measure to make
Feltram and the Hall Hotel my head-quarters for at least a week. I only
regret the foliage; but your trees show wonderfully, even in winter, so
many of them have got that ivy about them. They say it spoils trees, but it
certainly beautifies them. I have just ten days' leave unexpired; I wish
I could induce you to advise me how to apply them. What shall I do, Miss
Ruthyn?'
'I am the worst person in the world to make plans, even for myself, I find
it so troublesome. What do you say? Suppose you try Wales or Scotland, and
climb up some of those fine mountains that look so well in winter?'
'I should much prefer Feltram. I so wish you would recommend _it_. What is
this pretty plant?'
'We call that Maud's myrtle. She planted it, and it's very pretty when it's
full in blow,' said Milly.
Our visit to Elverston had been of immense use to us both.
'Oh! planted by _you?_' he said, very softly, with a momentary
corresponding glance. 'May I--ever so little--just a leaf?'
And without waiting for permission, he held a sprig of it next his
waistcoat.
'Yes, it goes very prettily with those buttons. They are _very_ pretty
buttons; are not they, Milly? A present, a souvenir, I dare say?'
This was a terrible hit at the button-maker, and I thought he looked a
little oddly at me, but my countenance was so 'bewitchingly simple' that I
suppose his suspicions were allayed.
Now, it was very odd of me, I must confess, to talk in this way, and to
receive all those tender allusions from a gentleman about whom I had spoken
and felt so sharply only the evening before. But Bartram was abominably
lonely. A civilised person was a valuable waif or stray in that region of
the picturesque and the brutal; and to my lady reader especially, because
she will probably be hardest upon me, I put it--can you not recollect any
such folly in your own past life? Can you not in as many minutes call to
mind at least six similar inconsistencies of your own practising? For my
part, I really can't see the advantage of being the weaker sex if we are
always to be as strong as our masculine neighbours.
There was, indeed, no revival of the little sentiment which I had once
experienced. When these things once expire, I do believe they are as hard
to revive as our dead lap-dogs, guinea-pigs, and parrots. It was my perfect
coolness which enabled me to chat, I flatter myself, so agreeably with the
refined Captain, who plainly thought me his captive, and was probably
now and then thinking what was to be done to utilise that little bit of
Bartram, or to beautify some other, when he should see fit to become its
master, as we rambled over these wild but beautiful grounds.
It was just about then that Milly nudged me rather vehemently, and
whispered 'Look there!'
I followed with mine the direction of her eyes, and saw my odious cousin,
Dudley, in a flagrant pair of cross-barred peg-tops, and what Milly before
her reformation used to call other 'slops' of corresponding atrocity,
approaching our refined little party with great strides. I really think
that Milly was very nearly ashamed of him. I certainly was. I had no
apprehension, however, of the scene which was imminent.
The charming Captain mistook him probably for some rustic servant of the
place, for he continued his agreeable remarks up to the very moment when
Dudley, whose face was pale with anger, and whose rapid advance had not
served to cool him, without recollecting to salute either Milly or me,
accosted our elegant companion as follows:--
'By your leave, master, baint you summat in the wrong box here, don't you
think?'
He had planted himself directly in his front, and looked unmistakably
menacing.
'May I speak to him? Will you excuse me?' said the Captain blandly.
'Ow--ay, they'll excuse ye ready enough, I dessay; you're to deal wi' me
though. Baint ye in the wrong box now?'
'I'm not conscious, sir, of being in a box at all,' replied the Captain,
with severe disdain. 'It strikes me you are disposed to get up a row. Let
us, if you please, get a little apart from the ladies if that is your
purpose.'
'I mean to turn you out o' this the way ye came. If you make a row, so much
the wuss for you, for I'll lick ye to fits.'
'Tell him not to fight,' whispered Milly; 'he'll a no chance wi' Dudley.'
I saw Dickon Hawkes grinning over the paling on which he leaned.
'Mr. Hawkes,' I said, drawing Milly with me toward that unpromising
mediator, 'pray prevent unpleasantness and go between them.'
'An' git licked o' both sides? Rather not, Miss, thank ye,' grinned Dickon,
tranquilly.
'Who are you, sir?' demanded our romantic acquaintance, with military
sternness.
'I'll tell you who you are--you're Oakley, as stops at the Hall, that
Governor wrote, over-night, not to dare show your nose inside the grounds.
You're a half-starved cappen, come down here to look for a wife, and----'
Before Dudley could finish his sentence, Captain Oakley, than whose face no
regimentals could possibly have been more scarlet, at that moment, struck
with his switch at Dudley's handsome features.
I don't know how it was done--by some 'devilish cantrip slight.' A smack
was heard, and the Captain lay on his back on the ground, with his mouth
full of blood.
'How do ye like the taste o' that?' roared Dickon, from his post of
observation.
In an instant Captain Oakley was on his feet again, hatless, looking quite
frantic, and striking out at Dudley, who was ducking and dipping quite
coolly, and again the same horrid sound, only this time it was double, like
a quick postman's knock, and Captain Oakley was on the grass again.
'Tapped his smeller, by--!' thundered Dickon, with a roar of laughter.
'Come away, Milly--I'm growing ill,' said I.
'Drop it, Dudley, I tell ye; you'll kill him,' screamed Milly.
But the devoted Captain, whose nose, and mouth, and shirt-front formed now
but one great patch of blood, and who was bleeding beside over one eye,
dashed at him again.
I turned away. I felt quite faint, and on the point of crying, with mere
horror.
'Hammer away at his knocker,' bellowed Dickon, in a frenzy of delight.
'He'll break it now, if it ain't already,' cried Milly, alluding, as I
afterwards understood, to the Captain's Grecian nose.
'Brayvo, little un!' The Captain was considerably the taller.
Another smack, and, I suppose, Captain Oakley fell once more.
'Hooray! the dinner-service again, by ----,' roared Dickon. 'Stick to that.
Over the same ground--subsoil, I say. He han't enough yet.'
In a perfect tremor of disgust, I was making as quick a retreat as I could,
and as I did, I heard Captain Oakley shriek hoarsely--
'You're a d---- prizefighter; I can't box you.'
'I told ye I'd lick ye to fits,' hooted Dudley.
'But you're the son of a gentleman, and by ---- you shall fight me _as_ a
gentleman.'
A yell of hooting laughter from Dudley and Dickon followed this sally.
'Gi'e my love to the Colonel, and think o' me when ye look in the
glass--won't ye? An' so you're goin' arter all; well, follow what's left o'
yer nose. Ye forgot some o' yer ivories, didn't ye, on th' grass?'
These and many similar jibes followed the mangled Captain in his retreat.