AUNT MARIA--THE ENEMY ROUTED--LONDON TOWN
Aunt Maria was my father's sister. She was married to a wealthy
gentleman, and had a large family of children. It was from her that we
originally got Nurse Bundle; and anecdotes of her and of my cousins,
and wonderful accounts of London (where they lived), had long figured
conspicuously in Mrs. Bundle's nursery chronicles.
Aunt Maria came, and Uncle Ascott came with her.
It is not altogether without a reason that I speak of them in this
order. Aunt Maria was the active partner of their establishment. She
was a clever, vigorous, well-educated, inartistic, kindly, managing
woman. She was not exactly "meddling," but when she thought it her
duty to interfere in a matter, no delicacy of scruples, and no
nervousness baulked the directness of her proceedings. When she was
most sweeping or uncompromising, Uncle Ascott would say, "My dear
Maria!" But it was generally from a spasm of nervous cowardice, and
not from any deliberate wish to interrupt Aunt Maria's course of
action. He trusted her entirely.
Aunt Maria was very shrewd, and that long interview with Nurse Bundle
in her own room was hardly needed to acquaint her with the condition
of domestic politics in our establishment. She "took in" the Burtons
with one glance. The ladies "fell out" the following evening. The
Burtons left Dacrefield the next morning, and at lunch Aunt Maria
"pulled them to pieces" with as little remorse as a cook would pluck a
partridge. I never saw Miss Eliza Burton again.
Aunt Maria did not fondle or spoil me. She might perhaps have shown
more tenderness to her brother's only and motherless child; but, after
Miss Burton, hers was a fault on the right side. She had a kindly
interest in me, and she showed it by asking me to pay her a visit in
London.
"It will do the child good, Regie," she said to my father. "He will be
with other children, and all our London sights will be new to him. I
will take every care of him, and you must come up and fetch him back.
It will do you good too."
"To be sure!" chimed in Uncle Ascott, patting me good-naturedly on the
head; "Master Reginald will fancy himself in Fairy Land. There are the
Zoological Gardens, and Madame Tussaud's Waxwork Exhibition, and the
Pantomime, and no one knows what besides! We shall make him quite at
home! He and Helen are just the same age, I think, and Polly's a year
or so younger, eh, mamma?"
"Nineteen months," said Aunt Maria, decisively; and she turned once
more to my father, upon whom she was urging certain particulars.
It was with unfeigned joy that I heard my father say,
"Well, thank you, Maria. I do think it will do him good. And I'll
certainly come and look you and Robert up myself."
There was only one drawback to my pleasure, when the much anticipated
time of my first visit to London came. Aunt Maria did not like dogs;
Uncle Ascott too said that "they were very rural and nice for the
country, but that they didn't do in a town house. Besides which,
Regie," he added, "such a pretty dog as Rubens would be sure to be
stolen. And you wouldn't like that."
"I will take good care of Rubens, my boy," added my father; and with
this promise I was obliged to content myself.
The excitement and pleasure of the various preparations for my visit
were in themselves a treat. There had been some domestic discussion as
to a suitable box for my clothes, and the matter was not quickly
settled. There happened to be no box of exactly the convenient size in
the house, and it was proposed to pack my things with Nurse Bundle's
in one of the larger cases. This was a disappointment to my dignity;
and I ventured to hint that I "should like a trunk all to myself, like
a grown-up gentleman," without, however, much hope that my wishes
would be fulfilled. The surprise was all the pleasanter when, on the
day before our departure, there arrived by the carrier's cart from our
nearest town a small, daintily-finished trunk, with a lock and key to
it, and my initials in brass nails upon the outside. It was a parting
gift from my father.
"I like young ladies and gentlemen to have things nice about 'em,"
Nurse Bundle observed, as we prepared to pack my trunk. "Then they
takes a pride in their things, and so it stands to reason they takes
more care of 'em."
To this excellent sentiment I gave my heartiest assent, and proceeded
to illustrate it by the fastidious care with which I selected and
folded the clothes I wished to take. As I examined my socks for signs
of wear and tear, and then folded them by the ingenious process of
grasping the heels and turning them inside out, in imitation of Nurse
Bundle, an idea struck me, based upon my late reading and approaching
prospects of travel.
"Nurse," said I, "I think I should like to learn to darn socks,
because, you know, I might want to know how, if I was cast away on a
desert island."
"If ever you find yourself on a desolate island, Master Reginald,"
said Nurse Bundle, "just you write straight off to me, and I'll come
and do them kind of things for you."
"Well," said I, "only mind you bring Rubens, if I haven't got him."
For I had dim ideas that some Robinson Crusoe adventures might befall
me before I returned home from this present expedition.
My father's place was about sixty miles from London. Mr. and Mrs.
Ascott had come down in their own carriage, and were to return the
same way.
I was to go with them, and Nurse Bundle also. She was to sit in the
rumble of the carriage behind. Every particular of each new
arrangement afforded me great amusement; and I could hardly control my
impatience for the eventful day to arrive.
It came at last. There was very early breakfast for us all in the
dining-room. No appetite, however, had I; and very cruel I thought
Aunt Maria for insisting that I should swallow a certain amount of
food, as a condition of being allowed to go at all. My enforced
breakfast over, I went to look for Rubens. Ever since the day when it
was first settled that I should go, the dear dog had kept close, very
close at my heels. That depressed and aimless wandering about which
always afflicts the dogs of the household when any of the family are
going away from home was strong upon him. After the new trunk came
into my room, Rubens took into his head a fancy for lying upon it; and
though the brass nails must have been very uncomfortable, and though
my bed was always free to him, on the box he was determined to be, and
on the box he lay for hours together.
It was on the box that I found him, in the portico, despite the cords
which now added a fresh discomfort to his self-chosen resting-place. I
called to him, but though he wagged his tail he seemed disinclined to
move, and lay curled up with one eye shut and one fixed on the
carriage at the door.
"He's been trying to get into the carriage, sir," said the butler.
"You want to go too, poor Ruby, don't you?" I said; and I went in
search of meats to console him.
He accepted a good breakfast from my hands with gratitude, and then
curled himself up with one eye watchful as before. The reason of his
proceedings was finally made evident by his determined struggles to
accompany us at the last; and it was not till he had been forcibly
shut up in the coach-house that we were able to start. My grief at
parting with him was lessened by the distraction of another question.
Of all places about our equipage, I should have preferred riding with
the postilion. Short of that, I was most anxious to sit behind in the
rumble with my nurse. This favour was at length conceded, and after a
long farewell from my father, gilded with a sovereign in my pocket, I
was, with a mountain of wraps, consigned to the care of Nurse Bundle
in the back seat.
The dew was still on the ground, the birds sang their loudest, the
morning air was fresh and delicious, and before we had driven five
miles on our way I could have eaten three such breakfasts as the one I
had rejected at six o'clock. In the first two villages through which
we drove people seemed to be only just getting up and beginning the
day's business. In one or two "genteel" houses the blinds were still
down; in reference to which I resolved that when _I_ grew up I would
not waste the best part of the day in bed, with the sun shining, the
birds singing, the flowers opening, and country people going about
their business, all beyond my closed windows.
"Nurse, please, I should like always to have breakfast at six o'clock.
Do you hear, Nursey?" I added, for Mrs. Bundle feigned to be absorbed
in contemplating a flock of sheep which were being driven past us.
"Very well, my dear. We'll see."
That "we'll see" of Nurse Bundle's was a sort of moral soothing-syrup
which she kept to allay inconvenient curiosity and over-pertinacious
projects in the nursery.
I had soon reason to decide that if I had breakfast at six, luncheon
would not be unacceptable at half-past ten, at about which time I lost
sight of the scenery and confined my attention to a worsted workbag in
which Nurse Bundle had a store of most acceptable buns. Halting
shortly after this to water the horses, a glass of milk was got for me
from a wayside inn, over the door of which hung a small gate, on whose
bars the following legend was painted:--
"This gate hangs well
And hinders none.
Refresh and pay,
And travel on."
"Did you put that up?" I inquired of the man who brought my milk.
"No, sir. It's been there long enough," was his reply.
"What does 'hinders none' mean?" I asked.
The man looked back, and considered the question.
"It means as it's not in the way of nothing. It don't hinder nobody,"
he replied at last.
"It couldn't if it wanted to," said I; "for it doesn't reach across
the road. If it did, I suppose it would be a tollbar."
"He's a rum little chap, that!" said the waiter to Nurse Bundle, when
he had taken back my empty glass. And he unmistakably nodded at me.
"What is a rum little chap, Nurse?" I inquired when we had fairly
started once more.
"It's very low language," said Mrs. Bundle, indignantly; and this fact
depressed me for several miles.
At about half-past eleven we rattled into Farnham, and stopped to
lunch at "The Bush." I was delighted to get down from my perch, and to
stretch my cramped legs by running about in the charming garden behind
that celebrated inn. Dim bright memories are with me still of the
long-windowed parlour opening into a garden verdant with grass, and
stately yew hedges, and formal clipped trees; gay, too, with bright
flowers, and mysterious with a walk winding under an arch of the yew
hedge to the more distant bowling-green. On one side of this arch an
admirably-carved stone figure in broadcoat and ruffles played
perpetually upon a stone fiddle to an equally spirited shepherdess in
hoop and high heels, who was for ever posed in dancing posture upon
her pedestal and never danced away. As I wandered round the garden
whilst luncheon was being prepared, I was greatly taken with these
figures, and wondered if it might be that they were an enchanted
prince and princess turned to stone by some wicked witch, envious of
their happiness in the peaceful garden amid the green alleys and
fragrant flowers. As I ate my luncheon I felt as if I were consuming
what was their property, and pondered the supposition that some day
the spell might be broken, and the stone-bound couple came down from
those high pedestals, and go dancing and fiddling into the Farnham
streets.
They showed no symptoms of moving whilst we remained, and, duly
refreshed, we now proceeded on our way. I rejected the offer of a seat
inside the carriage with scorn, and Nurse and I clambered back to our
perch. No easy matter for either of us, by the way!--Nurse Bundle
being so much too large, and I so much too small, to compass the feat
with anything approaching to ease.
I was greatly pleased with the dreary beauties of Bagshot Heath, and
Nurse Bundle (to whom the whole journey was familiar) enlivened this
part of our way by such anecdotes of Dick Turpin, the celebrated
highwayman, as she deemed suitable for my amusement. With what
interest I gazed at the little house by the roadside where Turpin was
wont to lodge, and where, arriving late one night, he demanded
beef-steak for supper in terms so peremptory that, there being none in
the house, the old woman who acted as his housekeeper was obliged to
walk, then and there, to the nearest town to procure it! This and
various other incidents of the robber's career I learned from Nurse
Bundle, who told me that traditions of his exploits and character
were still fresh in the neighbouring villages.
At Virginia Water we dined and changed horses. We stayed here longer
than was necessary, that I might see the lake and the ship; and Uncle
Ascott gave sixpence to an old man with a wooden leg who told us all
about it. And still I declined an inside place, and went back with
Nurse Bundle to the rumble. Early rising and the long drive began to
make me sleepy. The tame beauties of the valley of the Thames drew
little attention from my weary eyes; and I do not remember much about
the place where we next halted, except that the tea tasted of hay, and
that the bread and butter were good.
I gazed dreamily at Hounslow, despite fresh tales of Dick Turpin; and
all the successive "jogs" by which Nurse called my incapable attention
to the lamplighters, the shops, the bottles in the chemists' windows,
and Hyde Park, failed to rouse me to any intelligent appreciation of
the great city, now that I had reached it. After a long weary dream of
rattle and bustle, and dim lamps, and houses stretching upwards like
Jack's beanstalk through the chilly and foggy darkness, the carriage
stopped with one final jolt in a quiet and partially-lighted square;
and I was lifted down, and staggered into a house where the light was
as abundant and overpowering as it was feeble and inefficient without,
and, cramped in my limbs, and smothered with shawls, I could only beg
in my utter weariness to be put to bed.
Aunt Maria was always sensible, and generally kind.
"Bring him at once to his room, Mrs. Bundle," she said, "and get his
clothes off, and I will bring him some hot wine and water and a few
rusks." As in a dream, I was undressed, my face and hands washed, my
prayers said in a somewhat perfunctory fashion, and my evening hymn
commuted in consideration of my fatigues for the beautiful verse, "I
will lay me down in peace, and take my rest," etc.; and by the time
that I sank luxuriously between the clean sheets, I was almost
sufficiently restored to appreciate the dainty appearance of my room.
Then Aunt Maria brought me the hot wine and water flavoured with
sleep-giving cloves, and Nurse folded my clothes, and tucked me up,
and left me, with the friendly reflection of the lamps without to keep
me company.
I do not think I had really been to sleep, but I believe I was dozing,
when I fancied that I heard the familiar sound of Rubens lapping water
from the toilette jug in my room at home. Just conscious that I was
not there, and that Rubens could not be here, the sound began to
trouble me. At first I was too sleepy to care to look round. Then as I
became more awake and the sound not less distinct, I felt fidgety and
frightened, and at last called faintly for Nurse Bundle.
Then the sound stopped. I could hardly breathe, and had just resolved
upon making a brave sally for assistance, when--plump! _something_
alighted on my bed, and, wildly impossible as it seemed, Rubens
himself waggled up to my pillow, and began licking my face as if his
life depended on laying my nose and all other projecting parts of my
countenance flat with my cheeks.
How he had got to London we never knew. As he made an easy escape from
the coach-house at Dacrefield, it was always supposed that he simply
followed the carriage, and had the wit to hide himself when we
stopped on the road. He was terribly tired. He might well be thirsty!
I levied large contributions on the box of rusks which Aunt Maria had
left by my bedside, for his benefit, and he supped well.
Then he curled himself up in his own proper place at my feet. He was
intensely self-satisfied, and expressed his high idea of his own
exploit by self-gratulatory "grumphs," as after describing many mystic
circles, and scraping up the fair Marseilles quilt on some plan of his
own, he brought his nose and tail together in a satisfactory position
in his nest, and we passed our first night in London in dreamless and
profound sleep.