A VISIT TO LYTTON LODGE.
Early the next morning Miss Cavendish's snug little pony-carriage, with
a pretty pair of grays, stood before the front door waiting for Laura
Lytton.
Old Jerome sat on the front seat to drive.
Taters, with his own horse and the now useless led horse, was in
attendance.
Laura Lytton, dressed for her journey and with traveling-bag in hand,
stood with Emma Cavendish in the hall waiting for Mrs. Grey, to whom
they had sent a message inviting her to come down and see the traveler
off.
But presently the messenger returned with Miss Grey's love and good
wishes, and requested that they would excuse her from coming down, as
her cold was so severe that she did not dare to leave her room.
"I must go up and bid her good-bye then," said Laura, as she dropped her
traveling-bag and ran upstairs.
She found Mary Grey in a fine white merino dressing-gown playing the
interesting invalid.
She hastily kissed her, expressed a hope that she might find her better
on returning to Blue Cliffs, and then ran out of the room and
down-stairs as fast as she could go.
She had already taken leave of every member of the family except Emma
Cavendish, who went out with her to the carriage, saw her comfortably
seated in it, and kissed her good-bye.
The little cavalcade then set forward.
It was a lovely spring morning. The woods and fields were clothed with
the freshest green; the mountain tops beamed in the most beautiful opal
tints, and the blue sky was without a cloud.
Laura enjoyed her drive very much.
At Wendover they stopped to rest and water the horses, and then they
resumed their journey and went on to Lytton Lodge, where they arrived
just about noon.
John Lytton was evidently on the lookout for his niece, for as the
pony-carriage drove up, amid the barking of all the dogs and the
shouting of all the little negroes, he rushed out of the house, throwing
up his arms; and he caught Laura and lifted her bodily from her seat,
roaring his welcome.
And Laura, as she returned his honest, hearty greeting, felt a twinge of
self-reproach in remembering with what reluctance she had come.
Uncle John took her into the house and set her down in the hall in the
midst of all her relations, who had crowded there to welcome here.
"Lor-lor-lor', John! How dare you ma-ma-make so free as that with Laura,
and she a young 'oman?" exclaimed old Mrs. Lytton, as, in her well-known
faded calico gown and long-eared muslin cap, she came up and kissed her
granddaughter.
"Why, because she _is_ a young 'oman, of course, and not an old man!"
said John, saucily.
"Why, how much you have improved, child!" said Miss Molly Moss, smiling
blandly.
"Oh, a'n't she though, neither?" exclaimed Octy and Ulky in a breath, as
they seized her hands, the one clinging to her right and the other to
her left.
"Come, now, I think you had better let Laura go upstairs and take off
her bonnet and things. Dinner's all ready to go on the table. And I
reckon her appetite is ready also. And, Jacky, you had better go out and
tell John Brooks to put up and feed them horses," said practical Aunt
Kitty, as she took and faced Laura about toward the spare bed-room that
was on the first floor.
"Uncle wrote me that my brother was here. But I don't see him," said
Laura as she laid off her bonnet.
"No; he and Charley went to Perch Point fishing yesterday, intending to
stay all night and come back this morning. I reckon they'll soon be
here," said Aunt Kitty.
Laura washed her face and hands and brushed her hair, put on clean
collar and cuffs, and declared herself ready to join the family.
Even as she spoke there was the hilarious bustle of an arrival in the
hall outside.
And as Laura emerged from the room she was caught in the arms of her
brother Alden.
"My darling sister, I am so delighted to see you!" said the young man,
kissing her joyously.
"So am I to see you, Alden, dear. But why didn't you accept Mrs.
Cavendish's invitation to come and join our Easter party at Blue
Cliffs?" inquired Laura.
"My dear, because I thought my duty called me here," gravely replied
Alden.
"But for a day or two you might have joined us," persisted Laura.
"No," said Alden. Then turning toward his red-headed fishing comrade he
said: "Here's Cousin Charley waiting to welcome you, Laura."
And Charley Lytton, blushing and stammering, held out his hand and said:
"How do you do? I am very glad to see you."
"And now come to dinner," said Aunt Kitty, opening the dining-room door.
They all went in and sat down to as fine a dinner as was ever served in
Blue Cliff Hall, or even at the Government House, although this was laid
on a rough pine table, covered with a coarse, though clean linen
table-cloth, and in a room where the walls were whitewashed and the
floors were bare.
"And now," said Uncle Jacky, as soon as he had served the turtle soup
around to everybody, "I want you to tell me why you couldn't ride the
gray mare, and why you came in a pony-carriage with a slap-up pair of
bloods?"
"Why, you know, I am a good-for-nothing city-bred girl, Uncle John, and
Miss Cavendish knew it and doubted my ability to ride eighteen or twenty
miles on horseback, and so insisted on my having the pony-carriage,"
explained Laura, soothingly.
"Well, I'm glad it was no worse. I was thinking may be as you despised
the old family mare," said John, somewhat mollified.
"Oh, no, uncle! Quite the contrary. I did not feel equal to her,"
laughed Laura.
"Well, when must we send that fine equipage back--to-night or tomorrow?"
"Neither, Uncle John. It is not wanted at Blue Cliffs just at present.
They have the barouche, the brougham and the gig. They can easily spare
the pony-chaise. And Emma insisted on my keeping it here until I should
be ready to return. And I promised her that I would do it."
"Now I don't like that. That is a patternizing of us a great deal too
much. We've got a carriage of our own, I reckon," said John, sitting
back in his chair and lifting his red head pompously.
"Now-now-now, John Lytton, don't you be a foo-foo-fool! Carriage! Why,
our carriage is all to pieces! A'n't been fit to use for this six
months! And sin-sin-since the Caverndishers have been so obleeging as to
lend the loan of the pony-shay to Laura, I say let her keep it till she
goes back. And while it's a staying here idle I can use it to go and see
some of my neighbors," said old Mrs. Lytton, in that peremptory way of
hers that did not brook contradiction from any one--even from the master
of the house.