A breath of air, A bullock's low, A bunch of flowers, Hath power to call from everywhere The spirit of forgotten hours-- Hours when the heart was fresh and young, When every string in freedom sung, Ere life had shed one leaf of green. JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL.
There had been some curiosity as to who would be thought worthy to bringthe precious little baronet to Rockquay, and there was some diversion,as well as joy, when it proved that no one was to be entrusted withhim but his eldest aunt, Mrs. Harewood, who was to bring him in Whitsunweek, so that he might begin with a half-term.
The arrival was a pretty sight, as the aunt rejoiced at seeing both herhosts at the front door to greet her, and as Anna held out her glad armsto the little brother who was the pride of the family.
"Ha, Adrian, boy!" said the Vicar, only greeting with the hand, at sightof the impatient wriggle out of the embrace.
It was an open, sunburnt, ruddy face, and wide, fearless grey eyes thatlooked up to him, the bullet head in stiff, curly flaxen hair held aloftwith an air of "I am monarch of all I survey," and there was a toneof equality in the "Holloa, Uncle Clement," to the tall clergyman whotowered so far above the sturdy little figure.
Presently on the family inquiries there broke--
"I say, Annie, where's the school?"
"At the foot of this hill."
"I want to see it" (imperiously).
"You must have some tea first."
"Then you are glad to come, Adrian?" said Mrs. Grinstead.
"Yes, Aunt Cherry. It is high time I was away from such a lot ofwomen-folk," he replied, with his hands in his pockets, and his legs setlike a little colossus.
Anna had no peace till, after the boy had swallowed a tolerable amountof bread-and-butter and cake, she took him out, and then Mrs. Harewoodhad to explain his mother's urgent entreaties that the regime at ValeLeston should be followed up, and the boy see only such habits as wouldbe those of total abstainers.
Poor woman! as her brother and sisters knew, there was reason to believethat the vice which had been fatal to her happiness and her husband'slife, had descended to him from Dutch forefathers, and there was theless cause for wonder at the passionate desire to guard her son from it.Almost all her family had been water-drinkers from infancy, and thoughMajor Harewood called teetotalism a superstitious contempt of Heaven'sgood gifts, and disapproved of supplementing the baptismal vow, hisbrother the Rector had found it expedient, for the sake of the parish,to embrace formally the temperance movement, and thus there hadbeen little difficulty in giving way to Alda's desire that, at theluncheon-table, Adrian should never see wine or beer, and she insistedthat the same rule should prevail at Rockquay.
Clement had taken the pledge when a lad of sixteen, and there were thosewho thought that, save for his persistence under warnings of failingstrength, much of his present illness might have been averted, with allthe consequent treatment. He believed in total abstinence as safer forhis ward, but he thought that the time had come for training, in seeingwithout partaking. Wilmet agreed, and said she had tried to persuadeher sister; but she had only caused an hysterical agitation, so thatweakness as usual gained the victory, and she had all but promised tobring the boy home again unless she could exact an engagement.
"To follow the Vale Leston practice at his early dinner," saidGeraldine.
"That may be," said Clement; "but I do not engage not to have the matterout with him if I see that it is expedient."
"I am only doubtful how Gerald will take it," said his sister.
"Gerald has always been used to it at Vale Leston," said Wilmet.
"True, but there he is your guest. Here he will regard himself as athome. However, he is a good boy, and will only grumble a little forappearance sake."
"I should hope so," said Wilmet severely.
"How is the Penbeacon affair going on?" asked Clement.
"Oh, Clem, I did not think you had heard of it."
"I had a letter in the middle of the mission, but I could not answer itthen, and it seems to have been lost."
Geraldine pronounced it the straw that broke the camel's back, when sheheard of the company that only waited to dig china clay out of Penbeaconand wash it in the Ewe till they could purchase a slice of the hillpertaining to the Vale Leston estate. Major Harewood had replied thathis fellow-trustee was too ill to attend to business, and that thematter had better be let alone till the heir attained his majority.
"Shelved for the present," said Mrs. Grinstead. "Fancy Ewe and Lestoncontaminated!"
"John talks to the young engineer, Mr. Bramshaw, and thinks that may beprevented; but that is not the worst," said Wilmet; "it would change thewhole face of the parish, and bring an influx of new people."
"Break up Penbeacon and cover it with horrible little new houses. Menlike Walsh never see a beautiful place but they begin to think how todestroy it."
"Well, Cherry, you have the most influence with Gerald, but he talks tothe girls of our having no right to keep the treasures of the hills forour exclusive pleasure."
"It is not exclusive. Half the country disports itself there. It is thegreat place for excursions."
"Then he declares that it is a grave matter to hinder an industry thatwould put bread into so many mouths, and that fresh outlets would begood for the place; something too about being an obstruction, and therights of labour."
"Oh, I know what that means. It is only teasing the cousinhood when theyfall on him open-mouthed," said Geraldine, with a laugh, though witha qualm of misgiving at her heart, while Clement sat listening andthinking.
Mrs. Harewood farther explained, that she hoped either that Gerald wouldmarry, or that her sister would make a home for him at the Priory. Itthen appeared that Major Harewood thought it would be wise to leave theyoung man to manage the property for himself without interference; andthat the uncle to whom the Major had become heir was anxious to have thefamily at hand, even offering to arrange a house for Lady Vanderkist.
"A year of changes," sighed Geraldine; "but this waiting time seemsintended to let one gather one's breath."
But Wilmet looked careworn, partly, no doubt, with the harass ofcontinual attention to her sister Alda, who, though subdued and improvedin many important ways, was unavoidably fretful from ill-health, anddisposed to be very miserable over her straitened means, and the futurelot of her eight daughters, especially as the two of the most favourableage seemed to resign their immediate chances of marrying. Moreover,though all began life as pretty little girls, they had a propensity toturn into Dutchwomen as they grew up, and Franceska, the fifth in age,was the only one who renewed the beauty of the twin sisters.
Alda was not, however, Wilmet's chief care, though of that she didnot speak. She was not happy at heart about her two boys. Kester was asoldier in India, not actually unsteady, but not what her own brothershad been, and Edward was a midshipman, too much of the careless,wild sailor. Easy-going John Harewood's lax discipline had not beensuccessful with them in early youth, and still less had later severityand indignation been effectual.
"I am glad you kept Anna," said Mrs. Harewood, "though Alda is very muchdisappointed that she is not having a season in London."
"She will not take it," said Geraldine. "She insists that she prefersUncle Clem to all the fine folk she might meet; and after all, poorMarilda's acquaintance are not exactly the upper ten thousand."
"Poor Marilda! You know that she is greatly vexed that Emilia is bent onbeing a hospital nurse, or something like it, and only half yields to goout with her this summer in very unwilling obedience."
"Yes, I know. She wants to come here, and I mean to have her before thelong vacation for a little while. We heard various outpourings, and Icannot quite think Miss Emilia a grateful person, though I can believethat she does not find it lively at home."
"She seems to be allowed plenty of slum work, as it is the fashion tocall it, and no one can be more good and useful than Fernan and Marilda,so th
at I call it sheer discontent and ingratitude not to put up withthem!"
"Only modernishness, my dear Wilmet. It is the spirit of the times, andthe young things can't help it."
"You don't seem to suffer in that way--at least with Anna."
"No; Anna is a dear good girl, and Uncle Clem is her hero, but I am veryglad she has nice young companions in the Merrifields, and an excitementin prospect in this bazaar."
"I thought a bazaar quite out of your line."
"There seems to be no other chance of saving this place from boardschools. Two thousand pounds have to be raised, and though LordRotherwood and Mr. White, the chief owners of property, have done,and will do, much, there still remains greater need than a fleetingpopulation like this can be expected to supply, and Clement thinks thata bazaar is quite justifiable in such a case."
"If there is nothing undesirable," said Mrs. Harewood, in her original"what it may lead to" voice.
"Trust Lady Merrifield and Jane Mohun for that! I am going to take youto call upon Lilias Merrifield."
"Yea; I shall wish to see the mother of Bernard's wife."
Clement, who went with them, explained to his somewhat wondering eldersister that he thought safeguards to Christian education so needful,that he was quite willing that, even in this brief stay, all the aidin their power should be given to the cause at Rockquay. Nay, ashe afterwards added to Wilmet, he was very glad to see how much itinterested Geraldine, and that the work for the Church and the congenialfriends were rousing her from her listless state of dejection.
Lady Merrifield and Mrs. Harewood were mutually charmed, perhaps all themore because the former was not impassioned about the bazaar. She saidshe had been importuned on such subjects wherever she had gone, and hadlearnt to be passive; but her sister Jane was all eagerness, and heryounger young people, as she called the present half of her family, werein the greatest excitement over their first experience of the kind.
"Well is it for all undertakings that there should always be somebody towhom all is new, and who can be zealous and full of delight."
"By no means surtout point de zele," returned Geraldine.
"As well say no fermentation," said Lady Merrifield.
"A dangerous thing," said Clement.
"But sourness comes without it, or at least deadness," returned hissister.
Wherewith they returned to talk of their common relations.
It was like a joke to the brother and sisters, that their Bernard shouldbe a responsible husband and father, whereas Lady Merrifield's notion ofhim was as a grave, grand-looking man with a splendid beard.
Fergus Merrifield was asked to become the protector of Adrian, whereathe looked sheepish; but after the round of pets had been made heinformed his two youngest sisters, Valetta and Primrose, that it was thecheekiest little fellow he had ever seen, who would never know if he wasbullied within an inch of his life; not that he (Fergus) should let thefellows do it.
So though until Monday morning Anna was the slave of her brother, doingher best to supply the place of the six devoted sisters at home, theyoung gentleman ungratefully announced at breakfast--
"I don't want gy-arls after me," with a peculiarly contemptuous twirl atthe beginning of the word; "Merrifield is to call for me."
Anna, who had brought down her hat, looked mortified.
"Never mind, Annie," said her uncle, "he will know better one of thesedays."
"No, I shan't," said Adrian, turning round defiantly. "If she comesbothering after me at dinner-time I shall throw my books at her--that'sall! There's Merrifield," and he banged out of the room.
"Never mind," again said his uncle, "he has had a large dose of thefeminine element, and this is his swing out of it."
Hopes, which Anna thought cruel, were entertained by her elders thatthe varlet would return somewhat crestfallen, but there were no suchsymptoms; the boy re-appeared in high spirits, having been placed wellfor his years, but not too well for popularity, and in the playgroundhe had found himself in his natural element. The boys were mostly of hisown size, or a little bigger, and bullying was not the fashion. He hadheard enough school stories to be wary of boasting of his title, andas long as he did not flaunt it before their eyes, it was regarded asrather a credit to the school.
Merrifield was elated at the success of his protege, and patronizedhim more than he knew, accepting his devotion in a droll, contemptuousmanner, so that the pair were never willingly apart. As Fergus slept athis aunt's during the week, the long summer evenings afforded splendidopportunities for what Fergus called scientific researches in thequarries and cliffs. It was as well for Lady Vanderkist's peace of mindthat she did not realize them, though Fergus was certified by his familyto be cautious and experienced enough to be a safe guide. Perhaps peoplewere less nervous about sixth sons than only ones.
There was, indeed, a certain undeveloped idea held out that some of theduplicates of Fergus's precious collection might be arranged as asample of the specimens of minerals and fossils of Rockquay at thelong-talked-of sale of work.
CHAPTER VIII. -- THE MOUSE-TRAP
The Long Vacation Page 8
