RELATING HOW THE BAND OF THE ROYAL IRISH ARTILLERY PLAYED, AND, WHILE
THE MUSIC WAS GOING ON, HOW VARIOUSLY DIFFERENT PEOPLE WERE MOVED.
Twice a week the band of the Royal Irish Artillery regaled all comers
with their music on the parade-ground by the river; and, as it was
reputed the best in Ireland, and Chapelizod was a fashionable resort,
and a very pretty village, embowered in orchards, people liked to drive
out of town on a fine autumn day like this, by way of listening, and all
the neighbours showed there, and there was quite a little fair for an
hour or two.
Mervyn, among the rest, was there, but for scarce ten minutes, and, as
usual, received little more than a distant salutation, coldly and
gravely returned, from Gertrude Chattesworth, to whom Mr. Beauchamp,
whom she remembered at the Stafford's dinner, addicted himself a good
deal. That demigod appeared in a white surtout, with a crimson cape, a
French waistcoat, his hair _en papillote_, a feather in his hat, a
_couteau de chasse_ by his side, with a small cane hanging to his
button, and a pair of Italian greyhounds at his heels; and he must have
impressed Tresham prodigiously; for I observe no other instance in which
he has noted down costume so carefully. Little Puddock, too, was
hovering near, and his wooing made uncomfortable by Aunt Becky's renewed
severity, as well as by the splendour of 'Mr. Redheels,' who was
expending his small talk and _fleuerets_ upon Gertrude. Cluffe,
moreover, who was pretty well in favour with Aunt Rebecca, and had been
happy and prosperous, had his little jealousies too to plague him, for
Dangerfield, with his fishing-rod and basket, no sooner looked in, with
his stern front and his remarkable smile, than Aunt Becky, seeming
instantaneously to forget Captain Cluffe, and all his winning ways, and
the pleasant story, to the point of which he was just arriving, in his
best manner, left him abruptly, and walked up to the grim pescator del
onda, with an outstretched hand, and a smile of encouragement, and
immediately fell into confidential talk with him.
'The minds of anglers,' says the gentle Colonel Robert Venables, 'be
usually more calm and composed than many others; when he hath the worst
success he loseth but a hook or line, or perhaps what he never
possessed, a fish; and suppose he should take nothing, yet he enjoyeth a
delightful walk by pleasant rivers, in sweet pastures, amongst
odoriferous flowers, which gratify his senses and delight his mind; and
if example, which is the best proof, may sway anything, I know no sort
of men less subject to melancholy than anglers.' It was only natural,
then, that Dangerfield should be serene and sunny.
Aunt Becky led him a little walk twice or thrice up and down. She seemed
grave, earnest, and lofty, and he grinned and chatted after his wont
energetically, to stout Captain Cluffe's considerable uneasiness and
mortification. He had seen Dangerfield the day before, through his
field-glass, from the high wooded grounds in the park, across the river,
walk slowly for a good while under the poplars in the meadow at Belmont,
beside Aunt Becky, in high chat; and there was something particular and
earnest in their manner, which made him uncomfortable then. And fat
Captain Cluffe's gall rose and nearly choked him, and; he cursed
Dangerfield in the bottom of his corpulent, greedy soul, and wondered
what fiend had sent that scheming old land-agent three hundred miles out
of his way, on purpose to interfere with his little interests, as if
there were not plenty of--of--well!--rich old women--in London. And he
bethought him of the price of the cockatoo and the probable cost of the
pelican, rejoinders to Dangerfield's contributions to Aunt Rebecca's
menagerie, for those birds were not to be had for nothing; and Cluffe,
who loved money as well, at least, as any man in his Majesty's service,
would have seen the two tribes as extinct as the dodo, before he would
have expended sixpence upon such tom-foolery, had it not been for
Dangerfield's investments in animated nature. 'The hound! as if two
could not play at that game.' But he had an uneasy and bitter
presentiment that they were birds of paradise, and fifty other cursed
birds beside, and that in this costly competition Dangerfield could take
a flight beyond and above him; and he thought of the flagitious waste of
money, and cursed him for a fool again. Aunt Becky had said, he thought,
something in which 'to-morrow' occurred, on taking leave of Dangerfield.
'To-morrow!' 'What to-morrow? She spoke low and confidentially, and
seemed excited and a little flushed, and very distrait when she came
back. Altogether, he felt as if Aunt Rebecca was slipping through his
fingers, and would have liked to take that selfish old puppy,
Dangerfield, by the neck and drown him out of hand in the river. But,
notwithstanding the state of his temper, he knew it might be his only
chance to shine pre-eminently at that moment in amiability, wit, grace,
and gallantry, and, though it was up-hill work, he did labour
uncommonly.
When Mr. Dangerfield's spectacles gleamed through the crowd upon Dr.
Sturk, who was thinking of other things beside the music, the angler
walked round forthwith, and accosted that universal genius. Mrs. Sturk
felt the doctor's arm, on which she leaned, vibrate for a second with a
slight thrill--an evidence in that hard, fibrous limb of what she used
to call 'a start'--and she heard Dangerfield's voice over his shoulder.
And the surgeon and the grand vizier were soon deep in talk, and Sturk
brightened up, and looked eager and sagacious, and important, and became
very voluble and impressive, and, leaving his lady to her own devices,
with her maid and children, he got to the other side of the street,
where Nutter, with taciturn and black observation, saw them busy
pointing with cane and finger, and talking briskly as they surveyed
together Dick Fisher's and Tom Tresham's tenements, and the Salmon
House; and then beheld them ascend the steps of Tresham's door, and
overlook the wall on the other side toward the river, and point this way
and that along the near bank, as it seemed to Nutter discussing detailed
schemes of alteration and improvement. Sturk actually pulled out his
pocket-book and pencil, and then Dangerfield took the pencil, and made
notes of what he read to him, on the back of a letter; and Sturk looked
eager and elated, and Dangerfield frowned and looked impressed, and
nodded again and again. _Diruit ædificat, mutat quadrata rotundis_,
under his very nose--he unconsulted! It was such an impertinence as
Nutter could ill-digest. It was a studied slight, something like a
public deposition, and Nutter's jealous soul seethed secretly in a
hellbroth of rage and suspicion.
I mentioned that Mistress Sturk felt in that physician's arm the
telegraphic thrill with which the brain will occasionally send an
invisible message of alarm from the seat of government to the
extremities; and as this smallest of all small bits of domestic gossip
did innocently escape me, the idle and good-natured reader will, I hope,
let me say out my little say upon the matter, in the next chapter.