VIVIAN HAMMERSLEY.
The persistent attentions of Shafto were alternately a source of
amusement and worry to Finella Melfort; and when she found them
become the latter, she had more than once retreated to the residence
of her maternal grandmother, Lady Drumshoddy, though she infinitely
preferred being at Craigengowan, where the general circle was more
refined and of a much better style; for Lady Drumshoddy--natheless
her title--was not quite one of the 'upper ten,' being only the widow
of an advocate, who, having done without scruple the usual amount of
work to please his party and the Lord Advocate, had been rewarded
therefor by an appointment (and knighthood) in Bengal, where he had
gone, at a lucky time, with the old advice and idea--
'They bade me from the Rupee Tree
Pluck India's endless riches,
And then I swore that time should see
Huge pockets in my breeches.'
Thus Sir Duncan Drumshoddy's pockets were so well filled that when he
came home to die, his daughter was heiress enough to be deemed a
'great catch' by the Fettercairn family, though her grandfather had
been--no one knew precisely what.
And now Finella, by education, careful training, and by her own habit
of thought, was naturally so refined that, with all her waggery and
disposition to laughter and merriment, Shafto's clumsy love-speeches
occasionally irritated her.
'I have somewhere read,' said he, 'that a man may get the love of the
girl he wants, even if she cares little for him, if he only asks her
at the right time; but, so far as you are concerned, Finella, the
right moment has not come for me, I suppose.'
'Nor ever will come, I fear, cousin Shafto,' she replied, fanning
herself, and eyeing him with mingled fun and defiance sparkling in
her dark eyes.
Ere Shafto could resume on this occasion Lord Fettercairn came
hurriedly to him, saying,
'Oh, by-the-bye, young Hammersley, from London, will arrive here
to-morrow for a few weeks' grouse-shooting before he leaves for his
regiment in Africa. You will do your best to be attentive to him,
Shafto.'
'Of course,' said the latter, rather sulkily, however, all the more
so that he was quick enough to detect that, at the mention of the
visitor's name, a flush like a wave of colour crossed the cheek of
Finella.
Something in his tone attracted the attention of Lord Fettercairn,
who said,
'After the 12th I hope you will find a legitimate use for your
gun--you know what I mean.'
Shafto coloured deeply with annoyance, as his grandfather referred to
a mischievous act of his, which was deemed a kind of outrage in the
neighbourhood.
In the ruins of Finella's Castle at Fettercairn a pair of majestic
osprey had built their nest, guarded by the morass around them, and
there they bred and reared a pair of beautiful eaglets. No one had
been allowed to approach them, so that nothing should occur to break
the confidence of safety which the pair of osprey acquired in their
lonely summer haunt, till soon after Shafto came to Craigengowan, and
by four rounds from his breech-loader he contrived to shoot them all,
to the indignation of the neighbourhood and even of my Lord
Fettercairn.
Not that the latter cared a straw about these eagles as objects of
natural history; but the fact of their existence formed the subject
of newspaper paragraphs, and his vanity was wounded on finding that
one of his family had acted thus.
So on the morrow, at luncheon, the family circle at Craigengowan had
two or three accessions to its number--friends invited for the 12th
of August--among others Mr. Kippilaw the younger, a spruce and dapper
Edinburgh Writer to the Signet, 'who,' Shafto said, 'thought no small
beer of himself;' and Vivian Hammersley, a captain of the
Warwickshire regiment, a very attractive and, to one who was present,
most decided addition to their society.
His regular features were well tanned by the sun in Natal; his dark
hair was shorn short; his moustaches were pointed well out; and his
dark eyes had a bright and merry yet firm and steady expression, as
those of a man born to command men, who had more than once faced
danger, and was ready to face it again.
He was in his twenty-seventh year, and was every way a courteous and
finished English gentleman, though Shafto, in his secret heart, and
more than once in the stables, pronounced him to be 'a conceited
beast.'
Hammersley had fished in Norway, shot big game in Southern Africa,
hunted in the English shires, taking his fences--even double
ones--like a bird; he had lost and won with a good grace at Ascot and
the Clubs, flirted 'all round,' and, though far from rich, was a good
specimen of a handsome, open-handed, and open-hearted young officer,
a favourite with all women, and particularly with his regiment.
After luncheon he was seated beside Lady Fettercairn; he was too wise
in his generation to have placed himself where he would have wished,
beside Finella, whose little hand, on entering, Shafto thought he
retained in his rather longer than etiquette required; for if
Shafto's eyes were shifty, they were particularly sharp, and he soon
found that though Finella, to a certain extent, had filled up her
time by flirting in a cousinly way with himself, 'now that this
fellow Hammersley had come,' he was 'nowhere' as he thought, with a
very bad word indeed.
We have said that Finella had paid a protracted and--to her--most
enjoyable visit to Tyburnia. There at balls, garden parties, and in
the Row she had met Vivian Hammersley repeatedly; and these meetings
had not been without a deep and tender interest to them both; and
when they were parted finally by her return to Craigengowan, though
no declaration of regard had escaped him, he had been burning to
speak to her in that sweet and untutored language by which the inmost
secrets of the loving heart can be read; and now that they had met
again, they had a thousand London objects to talk about safely in
common, which made them seem to be what they were, quite old friends
in fact, and erelong Lady Fettercairn began, like Shafto, to listen
and look darkly and doubtfully on.
But when they were alone, which was seldom, or merely apart from
others, there was between them a new consciousness now--a secret but
sweet understanding, born of eye speaking to eye--all the sweeter for
its secrecy and being all their own, a conscious emotion that
rendered them at times almost afraid to speak or glance lest curious
eyes or ears might discover what that secret was.
What was to be the sequel to all this? Hammersley was far from rich
according to the standard of wealth formed by Lady Fettercairn, and
the latter had destined her granddaughter with all her accumulated
wealth to be the bride of Shafto. Hammersley knew nothing of this;
he only knew his own shortcoming in the matter of 'pocketability;'
but then youth, we are told, 'is sanguine and full of faith and hope
in an untried future. It looks out over the pathway of life towards
the goal of its ambition, seeing only the end desired, and giving
little or no heed to hills and dales, storms and accidents, that may
be met with on the way.' So, happy in the good fortune that threw
him once more in the sweet society of bright Finella Melfort, Captain
Hammersley gave full swing in secret to the most delightful of
day-dreams.
In all this, however, we are somewhat anticipating our narrative.
But, like a wise man, while the luncheon lasted he was most attentive
to his hostess, from whose old but still handsome face, like that of
Tennyson's Maud, 'so faultily faultless, icily regular, and
splendidly null,' he ever and anon turned to that of Finella--that
_mignonne_ face, which was so full of varying expression, warmth,
light, and colour.
'Try that Madeira, Captain Hammersley,' said Lord Fettercairn. 'You
will scarcely credit how long I have had it in the cellar. I bought
a whole lot of it--when was it, Grapeston?' he asked, turning to the
solemn old butler behind him.
'The year Mr. Lennard left home, my Lord.'
'Everything at Craigengowan seems to take date before or after that
event,' said Lord Fettercairn, with knitted brow. 'Do you mean for
India, Grapeston?'
'Yes, my lord,' replied the butler, who had carried 'Master Lennard'
in his arms as a baby.
'Such a rich flavour it has, and just glance at the colour.'
Hammersley affected to do so, but his eyes were bent on the face of
Finella.
'I hope you won't find Craigengowan dull, but every place is so after
London.'
'True, we live so fast there that we never seem to have time to do
anything.'
And now, understanding that Shafto was to be his chief companion at
the covies on the morrow, Hammersley talked to him of hammerless
guns, of central fire, of the mode of breaking in dogs, training
setters, and so forth; and as these subjects had not been included in
Shafto's education at Lawyer Carlyon's office, he almost yawned as he
listened with irritation to what he could not comprehend.
'If you care for fishing, Hammersley,' said Lord Fettercairn, 'the
Bervie yields capital salmon, sea and yellow trout. Finella has
filled more than one basket with the latter, but Shafto is somewhat
of a duffer with his rod--he breaks many a rod, and has never landed
a salmon yet.'
'And the shootings?' said Hammersley inquiringly.
'Well, the best in the county are Drumtochty, Fasque, Hobseat, and my
own, as I hope you will find to-morrow.'
'Thanks--indeed, I am sure I shall.'
'I have close on 5,000 acres, and the probable bag of grouse and
black game is from 400 to 500 brace.'
After dinner that evening Finella was found singing at the
piano--singing, as she always did, without requiring pressure and
apparently for the mere pleasure of it, as a thrush on a rose bush
sings; but now she sang for Vivian Hammersley, Shafto felt
instinctively that she did so, and his bitterness was roused when he
heard her, in a pause, whisper:
'Please, Captain Hammersley, let Shafto turn the leaves. He likes to
do it, though he can do little else in the way of music.'
This kind of confidence seemed to imply foregone conclusions and a
mutual understanding, however slight; but, to some extent, Finella
had a kind of dread of Shafto.
Hammersley smiled and drew back, after placing a piece of music
before her; but not before remarking:
'This song you are about to sing is not a new one.'
'No--it is old as the days when George IV. was king--it is one you
gave me some weeks ago in London, you remember?'
'Am I likely to forget?'
'Turn the leaves, Shafto, please,' said Finella, adjusting her dress
over the music-stool; 'but don't talk to me.'
'Why?'
'It interrupts one so; but turn the leaves at the proper time.'
'Captain Hammersley will do that better than I,' said Shafto, drawing
almost sulkily away, while the former resumed his place by Finella,
with an unmistakable smile rippling over his face.
This song, which, it would seem, Hammersley had given her, was an old
one, long since forgotten, named the 'Trysting Place,' and jealous
anger gathered in Shafto's heart as he listened and heard
Hammersley's voice blend with Finella's in the last line of each
verse:
'We met not in the sylvan scene
Where lovers wish to meet,
Where skies are bright and woods are green,
And bursting blossoms sweet;
But in the city's busy din,
Where Mammon holds his reign,
Sweet intercourse we sought to win
'Mid fashion, guile, and gain;
Above us was a murky sky,
Around a crowded space,
Yet dear, my love, to thee and me,
Was this, our _trysting place_.'
'They are who say Love only dwells
'Mid sunshine, light, and flowers;
Alike to him are gloomy cells
Or gay and smiling bowers;
Love works not on insensate things
His sweet and magic art;
No outward shrine arrests his wings,
His home is in the heart;
And dearest hearts like _thine_ and _mine_,
With rapture must retrace--
How often Love has deigned to shine
On this our _trysting place_.'
'Miss Melfort, you have sung it more sweetly than ever!' said
Hammersley in a low voice as he bent over her.
'Confound him!' muttered Shafto to himself; 'where was this trysting
place? I feel inclined to put a charge of shot into him to-morrow.
I will, too, if the day is foggy!'
Finella, though pressed, declined to sing more, as the Misses
Kippilaw, who were rather irrepressible young ladies, now proposed a
carpet-dance, and she drew on her gloves; and while she fumbled away,
almost nervously, with the buttoning of one, she knew that
Hammersley's eyes were lovingly and admiringly bent on her, till he
came to the rescue, and did the buttoning required; and to Shafto it
seemed the process was a very protracted one, and was a pretty little
connivance, as in reality it was.
Miss Prim, Lady Fettercairn's companion, was summoned, and she--poor
creature--had to furnish music for the occasion, till at last Finella
good-naturedly relieved her.
So a carpet-dance closed the evening, and then Shafto, though an
indifferent waltzer, thought he might excel in a square dance with
Finella; but he seldom shone in conversation at any time, and on this
occasion his attempts at it proved a great failure, and when he
compared this with the animation of Hammersley and Finella in the
Lancers, he was greatly puzzled and secretly annoyed. The former did
not seem to undergo that agony so often felt by Shafto, of having
out-run all the topics of conversation, or to have to rack his brain
for anecdotes or jokes, but to be able to keep up an easy flow of
well-bred talk on persons, places, and things, which seemed to amuse
Finella excessively, as she smiled brightly and laughed merrily while
fanning herself, and looking more sparkling and piquante than ever.
'What the deuce can he find to say to her?' thought Shafto; but
Hammersley was only finding the links--the threads of a dear old
story begun in London months ago.
So passed the first day of Hammersley's arrival at Craigengowan, and
Finella laid her head on her pillow full of bright and happy
thoughts, in which 'Cousin Shafto' bore no share.
But while these emotions and events were in progress, where, in the
meantime, was Florian? Ay, Shafto Gyle, where?