NEIGHBOURS.
More than a week had passed since the scene in Malakoff Terrace
described in my last chapter--a week spent by Mark in the drudgery of
school work, which had grown more distasteful than ever now he could
indulge in no golden dreams of a glorious deliverance; for he could
not accept his new prospects as an adequate substitute, and was
beginning to regret his abandonment of his true ambitions with a
longing that was almost fierce.
He had gone down to 'The Woodbines,' his uncle's villa at Chigbourne,
in pursuance of the invitation given him; and Mr. Lightowler's
undisguised recovery of the feeling of proprietorship in him, and his
repeated incitements to pursue his studies with unwearying ardour,
only increased Mark's disgust with himself and his future, as he
walked along the lanes with his relative towards the little church
beyond the village on the last Sunday in November.
It was a bright clear frosty day, with a scarlet sun glowing through
dun-coloured clouds, and a pale blue sky beyond the haze above their
heads; the country landscape had suggestions of Christmas cheeriness,
impossible enough to Londoners who cannot hope to share in
country-house revels _à la_ Mr. Caldecott, but vaguely exhilarating
notwithstanding.
Mark knew that his Christmas would be passed in town with his family,
who would keep it, as they observed Sunday, and refrain from any
attempt at seasonable jollity; yet he began to feel elated by its
approach, or the weather, or some instinct of youth and health which
set his blood tingling and drove away his dissatisfaction with every
step he took.
Uncle Solomon had come out in broadcloth, and a large hat with such an
ecclesiastical brim that it influenced his conversation, causing it to
be more appropriate than Sunday talk will sometimes be, even amongst
the best people. He discoursed of Ritualism, and deplored the hold it
had acquired on the vicar, and the secret manoeuvres of the detested
Humpage in the vestry.
'I was brought up a Baptist,' he said, 'and I'd go back to 'em now, if
I didn't know how they'd all crow about it; and they're a poor lot at
Little Bethel, too, not a penny-piece among 'em.'
'When we get into the church,' he continued, 'you give a look left of
the chancel, close by the door where the shelf is with the
poor-loaves. You'll see a painted winder there which that 'Umpage got
put up to his aunt--that's his ostentation, that is. I don't believe
he ever _had_ an aunt; but I don't wish to judge him. Only you look at
that window, and tell me how it strikes you afterwards. He's got the
artist to do him as the Good Samaritan there! I call it
scandalous!--there's no mistake about it; the 'air's not the same
colour, and the Eastern robes hide it a bit; but he's there for all
that. I don't relish seeing 'Umpage figurin' away in painted glass and
a great gaudy turban every time I look up, he's quite aggravating
enough in his pew. If I chose to go to the expense, _I_ could put up a
winder too, and 'ave myself done.'
'As a saint?' suggested Mark.
'Never you mind. If I liked to be a saint on glass I could, I
suppose--I'm a churchwarden, and there's no reason why 'Umpage should
'ave all the painted winders to himself; but I shouldn't care to make
myself so conspicuous. 'Umpage, now, he likes that sort of thing.'
This brought them to the church, a perpendicular building with a
decidedly 'Early English' smell in it, and Uncle Solomon led the way
to his pew, stopping to nudge Mark as they passed the memorial to his
enemy's meretricious aunt; he nudged him again presently, after he had
retired behind the ecclesiastical hat and emerged again to deal out
some very large prayer and hymn books as if they were cards.
'That's him--that's 'Umpage,' he said in a loud whisper.
Mark looked up in time to see an old gentleman advance to the door of
the pew in front of them--a formidable-looking old gentleman, with a
sallow face, long iron-grey locks, full grey eyes, a hook-nose, and
prominent teeth under a yellowish-grey moustache and beard.
He felt a sudden shame, for behind Mr. Humpage came a pretty child
with long floating light hair, with a staid fresh-faced woman in grey,
and last a girl of about nineteen or twenty, who seemed to have caught
the very audible whisper, for she glanced in its direction as she
passed in with the slightest possible gleam of amused surprise in her
eyes and a lifting of her delicate eyebrows.
A loud intoned 'Amen' came from the vestry just then, the organ played
a voluntary, and the vicar and curate marched in at the end of a
procession of little surpliced country boys, whose boots made a very
undevotional clatter over the brasses and flagstones.
As a Low Churchman Mr. Lightowler protested against this processional
pomp by a loud snort, which expression of opinion he repeated at any
tendency to genuflexion on the part of the clergyman during the
service, until the little girl turned round and gazed at him with
large concerned eyes, as if she thought he must be either very devout
or extremely unwell.
Mark heard little of the service; he was dimly aware of his uncle
singing all the psalms and responses with a lusty tunelessness, and
coming to fearful grief in gallant attempts to follow the shrill
little choristers over a difficult country of turns and flourishes. He
explained afterwards that he liked to set an example of 'joining in.'
But Mark saw little else but the soft shining knot of hair against the
dark sables of the hat and tippet of his beautiful neighbour, and a
glimpse of her delicate profile now and then, as she turned to find
the places for her little sister, who invariably disdained assistance
as long as possible. He began to speculate idly on her probable
character. Was she proud?--there was a shade of disdain about her
smile when he first saw her. Self-willed?--the turn of her graceful
head was slightly imperious. She could be tender with it all--he
inferred that from the confidence with which the child nestled against
her as the sermon began, and the gentle protecting hand that drew her
closer still.
Mark had been in and out of love several times in his life; his last
affair had been with a pretty, shallow flirt with a clever manner
picked up at secondhand, and though she had come to the end of her
_répertoire_ and ceased to amuse or interest him long before they
parted by mutual consent, he chose to believe his heart for ever
blighted and proof against all other women, so that he was naturally
in the most favourable condition for falling an easy victim.
He thought he had never seen any one quite like this girl, so
perfectly natural and unaffected, and yet with such an indefinable air
of distinction in her least movement. What poems, what books might not
be written, with such an influence to inspire them, and then Mark
recollected with a pang that he had done with all that for ever now.
That most delicate form of homage would be beyond his power, even if
he ever had the opportunity of paying it, and the thought did not tend
to reconcile him to his lot.
Would chance ever bring him within the sphere of his new-found
divinity? Most probably not. Life has so many of these tantalising
half-glimpses, which are never anything more. 'If she is Humpage's
daughter,' he thought, 'I'm afraid it's hopeless; but she shall not
pass out of my life if I can help it!' and so he dreamed through the
sermon, with the vicar's high cracked voice forming a gentle clacking
accompaniment, which he quite missed when the benediction came upon
him unexpectedly.
They came out of church into bright November sunshine; the sun had
disengaged itself now from the dun clouds, melted the haze, and
tempered the air almost to the warmth of early spring. Mark looked
round for Mr. Humpage and his party, but without success; they had
lingered behind, perhaps, as he could not help fearing, designedly. He
determined, however, to find out what he could about them, and
approached the subject diplomatically.
'I saw the window,' he began; 'that was the Good Samaritan in front,
of course. I recognised him by the likeness at once.'
'He took care it should be like,' said Uncle Solomon, with a
contemptuous sniff.
'That was his family with him, I suppose?' Mark asked carelessly.
''Umpage is a bachelor, or gives himself out for such,' said his
uncle, charitably.
'Then those young ladies--are they residents here?'
'Which young ladies?'
'In his pew,' said Mark, a little impatiently, 'the little girl with
the long hair, and--and the other one?'
'You don't go to church to stare about you, do you? _I_ didn't take
any notice of them; they're strangers here--friends of 'Umpage, I
daresay. That was his sister in grey; she keeps house for him, and
they say he leads her a pretty life with his tempers. Did you see that
old woman behind in a black coalscuttle? That was old widow Barnjum;
keeps a sweetstuff shop down in the village. I've seen her that far in
liquor sometimes she can't find her way about and 'as to be taken 'ome
in a barrow. You wouldn't think it to look at her, would you? I shall
give the vicar the 'int to tell old John Barker he ought to stay away
till he's got over that cough of his; it's enough to make anybody ill
to listen to him. I've a good mind to tell him of it myself; and I
will, too, if I come across him. The Colonel wasn't in church again.
They tell me he's turned Atheist, and loafs about all Sunday with a
gun. I've seen him myself driving a dog-cart Sunday afternoons in a
pot 'at, and I knew then what would come of that. Here we are again!'
he said, as they reached the palings of 'The Woodbines.' 'We'll just
stroll round to get an appetite for dinner before we go in.'
Uncle Solomon led the way into the stables, where he lingered to slap
his mare on the back and brag about her, and then Mark had to be
introduced to the pig. 'What I call a 'andsome pig, yer know,' he
remarked; 'a perfect picture, he is' (a picture that needed cleaning,
Mark thought)--'you come down to me in another three weeks or so, and
we'll try a bit off of that chap'--an observation which seemed to
strike the pig as in very indifferent taste, for he shook his ears,
grunted, and retired to his sty in a pointed manner.
After that there was plenty to do and see before Mark was allowed to
dine: Lassie, the colley, had to be unfastened for a run about the
'grounds,' of which a mechanical mouse might have made the tour in
five minutes; there was a stone obelisk to be inspected that Uncle
Solomon had bought a bargain at a sale and set up at a corner of the
lawn inscribed with the names of his favourites living and dead--a
remarkably scratch team, by the way; then he read out sonorous
versions of the Latin names of most of his shrubs, which occupied a
considerable time until, at last, by way of the kitchen-garden and
strawberry beds, they came to a little pond and rustic summer-house,
near which the boundary fence was unconcealed by any trees or shrubs.
'See that gap?' said Mr. Lightowler, pointing to a paling of which the
lower half was torn away; 'that's where 'Umpage's blathering old
gander gets through. I 'ate the sight of the beast, and I'd sooner
'ave a traction-engine running about my beds than him! I've spoke
about it to 'Umpage till I'm tired, and I shall 'ave to take the law
into my own hands soon, I know I shall. There was Wilcox, my gardener,
said something about some way he had to serve him out--but it's come
to nothing. And now we'll go in for a wash before dinner.'
Uncle Solomon was a widower; a niece of his late wife generally lived
with him and superintended his domestic affairs--an elderly person,
colourless and cold, who, however, had a proper sense of her position
as a decayed relative on the wife's side, and made him negatively
comfortable; she was away just then, which was partly the reason why
Mark had been invited to bear his uncle company.
They dined in a warm little room, furnished plainly but well; and
after dinner Uncle Solomon gave Mark a cigar, and took down a volume
of American Commentaries on the Epistles, which he used to give a
Sunday tone to his nap; but before it could take effect, there were
sounds faintly audible through the closed windows, as of people
talking at the end of the grounds.
Mr. Lightowler opened his drooping eyelids: 'There's some one in my
garden,' he said. 'I must go out and put a stop to that--some of those
urchins out of the village--they're always at it!'
He put on an old garden-hat and sallied out, followed by Mark: 'The
voices seem to come down from 'Umpage's way, but there's no one to be
seen,' he said, as they went along. 'Yes, there is, though; there's
'Umpage himself and his friends looking across the fence at something!
What does he want to go staring on to _my_ land for--like his
confounded impudence!'
When they drew a little nearer, he stopped short and, turning to Mark
with a face purple with anger, said, 'Well, of all the impudence--if
he isn't egging on that infernal gander now--put him through the 'ole
himself, I daresay!'
On arriving at the scene, Mark saw the formidable old gentleman of
that morning glaring angrily over the fence; by his side was the fair
and slender girl he had seen in church, while at intervals her little
sister's wondering face appeared above the top of the palings, a small
dog uttering short sharp barks and yelps behind her.
They were all looking at a large grey gander, which was unquestionably
trespassing at that moment; but it was unjust to say, as Mr.
Lightowler had said, that they were giving it any encouragement; the
prevailing anxiety seemed to be to recover it, but as the fence was
not low, and Mr. Humpage not young enough to care to scale it, they
were obliged to wait the good pleasure of the bird.
And Mark soon observed that the misguided bird was not in a condition
to be easily prevailed upon, being in a very advanced stage of solemn
intoxication; it was tacking about the path with an erratic
stateliness, its neck stretched defiantly, and its choked sleepy
cackle said, 'You lemme 'lone now, I'm all ri', walk shtraight enough
'fiwan'to!' as plainly as bird-language could render it.
As Uncle Solomon bore down on it, it put on an air of elaborate
indifference, meant to conceal a retreat to the gap by which it had
entered, and began to waddle with excessive dignity in that direction,
but from the way in which it repeatedly aimed itself at the intact
portions of the paling, it seemed reasonable to infer that it was
under a not infrequent optical illusion.
Mr. Lightowler gave a short and rather savage laugh. 'Wilcox _has_
done it, then!' he said. Mark threw away his cigar, and slightly
lifted his hat as he came up: he felt somewhat ashamed and strongly
tempted to laugh at the same time; he dared not look at the face of
Mr. Humpage's companion, and kept in the background as a dispassionate
spectator.
Mr. Lightowler evidently had made up his mind to be as offensive as
possible. 'Afternoon, Mr. 'Umpage,' he began; 'I think I've 'ad the
pleasure of seeing this bird of yours before; he's good enough to come
in odd times and assist my gardener; you'll excuse me for making the
remark, however, but when he's like this I think he ought to be kep'
indoors.'
'This is disgraceful, sir,' the other gentleman retorted, galled by
this irony; 'disgraceful!'
'It's not pretty in a gander, I must say,' agreed Uncle Solomon,
wilfully misunderstanding. 'Does it often forget itself in this way,
now?'
'Poor dear goose,' chanted the little girl, reappearing at this
juncture, 'it's _so_ giddy; is it ill, godpa?'
'Run away, Dolly,' said Mr. Humpage; 'it's no sight for you; run
away.'
'Then Frisk mustn't look either; come away, Frisk,' and Dolly vanished
again.
When she had gone, the old gentleman said, with a dangerous smile that
showed all his teeth, 'Now, Mr. Lightowler, I think I'm indebted to
you for the abominable treatment of this bird?'
'Somebody's been treating it, it's very plain,' said the other,
looking at the bird, which was making a feeble attempt to spread out
its wings and screech contemptuously at the universe.
'You're equivocating, sir; do you think I can't see that poison has
been laid in your grounds for this unhappy bird?'
'_It's_ 'appy enough; don't you be uneasy, Mr. 'Umpage, there's been
no worse poison given to it than some of my old Glenlivat,' said Mr.
Lightowler; 'and, let me tell you, it's not every man, let alone every
gander, as gets the luck to taste that. My gardener must have laid
some of it down for--for agricultural purposes, and your bird, comin'
in through the 'ole (as you may p'raps remember I've spoke to you
about before), has bin makin' a little too free with it, that's all.
It's welcome as the flowers in May to it, only don't blame me if your
bird is laid up with a bad 'eadache by-and-by, not that there's an
'eadache in the whole cask.'
At this point Mark could not resist a glance at the fair face across
the fence. In spite of her feminine compassion for the bird and
respect for its proprietor, Mabel had not been able to overcome a
sense of the absurdity of the scene, with the two angry old gentlemen
wrangling across the fence over an intoxicated gander; the face Mark
saw was rippling with subdued amusement, and her dark grey eyes met
his for an instant with an electric flash of understanding; then she
turned away with a slight increase of colour in her cheeks. 'I'm going
in, Uncle Anthony,' she said; 'do come, too, as soon as you can; don't
quarrel about it any more--ask them to give you back the poor goose,
and I'll take it into the yard again; it ought to go at once.'
'Let me manage it my own way,' said Mr. Humpage, testily. 'May I
trouble you, Mr. Lightowler, to kindly hand me over that bird--when
you have quite finished with it?' he added.
'That bird has been taking such a fancy to my manure heap that I'll
ask to be excused,' said Mr. Lightowler. 'If you was to whistle to it
now I might 'ead it through the 'ole; but it always finds it a good
deal easier to come through than it does to come back, even when it's
sober. I'm afraid you'll have to wait till it comes round a bit.'
At this the gander lurched against a half-buried flower pot, and
rolled helplessly over with its eyes closed. 'Oh, the poor thing,'
cried Mabel, 'it's dying!'
'Do you see that?' demanded its owner, furiously; 'it's dying, and
you've had it poisoned, sir; that soaked bread was put there by you or
your orders--and, by the Lord, you shall pay for it!'
'I never ordered or put it there either,' said his enemy doggedly.
'We shall see about that--we shall see,' said Mr. Humpage; 'you can
say that by-and-by.'
'It's no good losing your temper, now--keep cool, can't you?' roared
Uncle Solomon.
'It's likely to make a man cool, isn't it? to come for a quiet stroll
on Sunday afternoon, and find that his gander has been decoyed into a
neighbour's garden and induced to poison itself with whisky?'
'Decoyed? I like that! pretty innercent, that bird of yours! too timid
to come in without a reg'lar invitation, wasn't he?' jeered Mr.
Lightowler; 'quite 'ad to press him to step in and do the garden up a
bit. You and your gander!'
Mabel had already escaped; Mark remained trying to persuade his uncle
to come away before the matter ceased to be farcical.
'I shall take this matter up, sir! I shall take it up!' said Mr.
Humpage, in a white rage; 'and I don't think it will do you credit as
a churchwarden, let me tell you!'
'Don't you go bringing that in here, now!' retorted Uncle Solomon.
'I'll not be spoken to as a churchwarden by you, Mr. 'Umpage, sir, of
all parties!'
'You'll not be spoken to by anybody very soon--at any rate, as a
churchwarden. I mean to bring this affair before the magistrates. I
shall take out a summons against you for unlawfully ill-treating and
abusing my gander, sir!'
'I tell you I never ill-treated him; as for abuse, I don't say. But
that's neither here nor there. He ain't so thin-skinned as all that,
your gander ain't. And if I choose to put whisky, or brandy, or
champagne-cup about my grounds, I'm not obliged to consult your
ridik'lous gander, I _do_ hope. _I_ didn't ask him to sample 'em. I
don't care a brass button for your summonses. You can summon me till
you're black in the face!'
But in spite of these brave words Mr. Lightowler was really not a
little alarmed by the threat.
'We shall see about that,' said the other again, viciously. 'And now,
once more, will you give me back my poor bird?'
Mark thought it had gone far enough. He took up the heavy bird, which
made some maudlin objections, and carried it gingerly to the fence.
'Here's the victim, Mr. Humpage,' he said lightly. 'I think it will be
itself again in a couple of hours or so. And now, perhaps, we can let
the matter drop for the present.'
The old gentleman glared at Mark as he received his bird: 'I don't
know who you may be, young sir, or what share you've had in this
disgraceful business. If I trace it to you, you shall repent of it, I
promise you! I don't wish to have any further communication with you
or your friend, who's old enough to know his duty better as a
neighbour and a Christian. You will let him know, with my compliments,
that he'll hear more of this.'
He retired with the outraged bird under his arm, leaving Uncle
Solomon, who had of course heard his parting words, looking rather
ruefully at his nephew.
'It's all very well for you to laugh,' he said to Mark, as they turned
to go into the house again; 'but let me tell you if that hot-tempered
old idiot goes and brings all this up at Petty Sessions, it may be an
awkward affair for me. He's been a lawyer, has 'Umpage, and he'll do
his worst. A pretty thing to 'ave my name in all the papers about 'ere
as torturing a goose! I dessay they'll try and make out that I poured
the whisky down the brute's throat. It's Wilcox's doings, and none of
mine; but they'll put it all on me. I'll drive over to Green &
Ferret's to-morrow, and see how I stand. You've studied the law. What
do _you_ think about it, come? Can he touch me, eh? But he hasn't got
a leg to stand on, like his gander--it's all nonsense, _ain't_ it?'
If there had ever been a chance, Mark thought bitterly, after
comforting his uncle as well as his very moderate acquaintance with
the law permitted, of anything like intimacy between himself and the
girl whose face had fascinated him so strangely, it was gone now: that
bird of evil omen had baulked his hopes as effectually as its
ancestors frustrated the aspiring Gaul.
The dusk was drawing on as they walked across the lawn, from which the
russet glow of the sunset had almost faded; the commonplace villa
before them was tinted with violet, and in the west the hedges and
trees formed an intricate silhouette against a background of ruddy
gold and pale lemon; one or two flamingo-coloured clouds still floated
languidly higher up in a greenish blue sky; over everything the peace
and calm had settled that mark the close of a perfect autumn day, with
the additional stillness which always makes itself perceptible on a
Sunday.
Mark felt the influence of it all, and was vaguely comforted--he
remembered the passing interchange of glances across the fence, and it
consoled him.
At supper that evening his uncle, too, recovered his spirits: 'If he
brings a summons, they'll dismiss it,' he said confidently; 'but he
knows better than that as a lawyer--if he does, he'll find the laugh
turned against him, hey? I'm not answerable for what Wilcox chooses to
do without my orders. I never told him he wasn't to--but that ain't
like telling him to go and do it, is it now? And where's the cruelty,
either?--a blend like that, too. Just try a glass, now, and say what
you think--he'll be dropping in for more of it if he's the bird _I_
take him for!'
But as they were going upstairs to bed, he stopped at the head of the
staircase and said to Mark, 'Before I forget it, you remind me to get
Wilcox to find out, quietly, the first thing to-morrow, how that
gander is.'