The best actors in the world, either for tragedy, comedy, history, pastoral, pastoral-comical, historical-pastoral. --Hamlet.
The Matrons, otherwise denominated lady patronesses, met in committee,Miss Mohun being of course the soul and spirit of all, though Mrs.Ellesmere, as the wife of the rector of old Rockstone Church, was thepresident, Lady Flight, one of the most interested, was there, alsoLady Merrifield, dragged in to secure that there was nothing decided oncontrary to old-world instincts, Mrs. Grinstead, in right of the musicalelement that her brother promised, the beautiful Mrs. Henderson, torepresent the marble works, Mrs. Simmonds of the Cliff Hotel, theMayoress, and other notables.
The time was fixed for the first week in August, the only one whenengagements would permit the Rotherwood family to be present for theopening, and when the regatta was apt to fill Rockquay with visitors.The place was to be the top of the cliffs of Rockstone, where thegardens of the Cliff Hotel, of Beechcroft Cottage, Rocca Marina, andCarrara, belonging respectively to Miss Mohun, Mr. White, and CaptainHenderson, lay close together separated by low walls, and each with aprivate door opening on a path along the top of the cliffs. Theycould easily be made to communicate together, by planks laid over theboundaries, and they had lawns adapted for tents, etc., and RoccaMarina rejoiced in a shrubbery and conservatories that were a showin themselves, and would be kindly lent by Mr. and Mrs. White, thoughhealth compelled them to be absent and to resort to Gastein. The hotellikewise had a large well-kept garden, where what Mrs. Simmonds calleda pavilion, "quite mediaeval," was in course of erection, and could bethrown open on the great day.
It was rather "tea-gardenish," but it could be made available for therepresentation of The Outlaw's Isle. Lancelot made a hurried visitto study the place, and review the forces, and decided that it waspracticable. There could be a gallery at one end for the spectators,and the outer end toward the bay could be transformed into a stage, withroom for the orchestra, and if the weather were favourable the real seacould be shown in the background. The scenes had been painted by theclever fingers at Vale Leston. It remained to cast the parts. Lancelothimself would be Prospero, otherwise Alaster Maclan, and likewiseconductor, bringing with him the school-master of Vale Leston, who couldsupply his part as conductor when he was on the stage. His littleboy Felix would be Ariel, the other elves could be selected from theschool-children, and the local Choral Society would supply the wreckersand the wrecked. But the demur was over Briggs, a retired purser, whohad always had a monopoly of sea-songs, and who looked on the boatswainas his right, and was likely to roar every one down. Ferdinand wouldbe Gerald, under the name of Angus, but the difficulty was hisMiranda--Mona as she was called. The Vanderkists could not be asked toperform in public, nor would Sir Jasper Merrifield have consented tohis daughters doing so, even if they could have sung, and it had beenprivately agreed that none of the other young ladies of Rockquay couldbe brought forward, especially as there was no other grown-up femalecharacter.
"My wife might undertake it," said Lancelot, "but her voice is not herstrong point, and she would be rather substantial for a Miranda."
"It would be rather like finding a mother instead of a wife--with allrespect to my Aunt Daisy," laughed Gerald.
"By the bye, I'm sure I once heard a voice, somewhere down by the sea,that would be perfect," exclaimed Lance. "Sweet and powerful, fresh andyoung, just what is essential. I heard it when I was in quest of crabswith my boy."
"I know!" exclaimed Gerald, "the Little Butterfly, as they call her!"
"At a cigar-shop," said Lance.
"Mrs. Schnetterling's. Not very respectable," put in Lady Flight.
"Decidedly attractive to the little boys, though," said Gerald. "Sweets,fishing-tackle, foreign stamps, cigars. I went in once to see whetherAdrian was up to mischief there, and the Mother Butterfly looked at meas if I had seven heads; but I just got a glimpse of the girl, and, asmy uncle says, she would make an ideal Mona, or Miranda."
"Lydia Schnetterling," exclaimed Mr. Flight. "She is a very pretty girlwith a nice voice. You remember her, Miss Mohun, at our concerts? Alovely fairy."
"I remember her well. I thought she was foreign, and a Roman Catholic."
"So her mother professes--a Hungarian. The school officer sent her toschool, and she did very well there, Sunday-school and all, and was amonitor. She was even confirmed. Her name is really Ludmilla, and Lidais the correct contraction. But when I wanted her to be apprenticed asa pupil-teacher, the mother suddenly objected that she is a RomanCatholic, but I very much doubt the woman's having any religion at all.I wrote to the priest about her, but I believe he could make nothingof her. Still, Lydia is a very nice girl--comes to church, and has notgiven up the Choral Society."
"She is a remarkably nice good girl," added Mrs. Henderson. "She cameto me, and entreated that I would speak for her to be taken on at themarble works."
"You have her there?"
"Yes; but I am much afraid that her talents do not lie in the way ofhigh promotion, and I think if she does not get wages enough to satisfyher mother, she is in dread of being made to sing at public-houses andmusic-halls."
"That nice refined girl!"
"Yes; I am sure the idea is dreadful to her."
"Could you not put her in the way of getting trained?" asked Gerald ofhis uncle.
"I must hear her first."
"I will bring her up to the Choral Society tonight," said Mr. Flight.
"What did you call her?" said Geraldine.
"Some German or foreign name, Schnetterling, and the school calls herLydia."
At that moment the council was invaded, as it sat in Miss Mohun'sdrawing-room, upon rugs and wicker chairs, to be refreshed with tea. Inburst a whole army of Merrifields, headed by little Primrose, now a tallgirl of twelve years old, more the pet of the family than any of herelders had been allowed to be. Her cry was--
"Oh, mamma, mamma, here's the very one for the captain of thebuccaneers!"
The startling announcement was followed by the appearance of a tall,stalwart, handsome young man of a certain naval aspect, whom LadyMerrifield introduced as Captain Armytage.
"We must congratulate him, Gillian," she said. "I see you are gazettedas commander."
Primrose, who had something of the licence of the youngest, observed--
"We have been telling him all about it. He used to be Oliver Cromwell in'How Do You Like It?' and now he will be a buccaneer!"
"Oliver Cromwell, you silly child!" burst out Gillian, with a littleshake, while the rest fell into fits of laughing.
"I fear it was a less distinguished part," said Captain Armytage.
"May I understand that you will help us?" said Lancelot. "I heard of youat Devereux Castle."
"I don't think you heard much of my capabilities, especially musicalones. I was the stick of the party," said Captain Armytage.
It was explained that Captain Armytage had actually arrived thatafternoon at the Cliff Hotel, and had walked over to call at Clipstone,whence he found the young ladies setting out to walk to Rockstone.He could not deny that he had acted and sung, though, as he said,his performance in both cases was vile. Little Miss Primrose had mostcomically taken upon her to patronize him, and to offer him as buccaneercaptain had been a freak of her own, hardly to be accounted for, exceptthat Purser Briggs's unsuitableness had been discussed in her presence.
"Primrose is getting to be a horrid little forward thing," observedGillian to her aunt.
"A child of the present," said Miss Mohun. "Infant England! But hersuggestion seems to be highly opportune."
"I don't believe he can sing," growled Gillian, "and it will be just anexcuse for his hanging about here."
There was something in Gillian's "savagery" which gave Aunt Jane acurious impression, but she kept it to herself.
Late in the evening Lance appeared in his sister's drawing-room with--
"I have more hopes of it. I did not think it was feasible when Annawrote to me, but I see my way b
etter now. That parson, Flight, has agood notion of drilling, and that recruit of the little Merrifield girl,Captain Armytage, is worth having."
"If he roared like a sucking dove we would have him, only to silencethat awful boatswain," said Gerald; "and as to the little Cigaretta, sheis a born prima donna."
"Your Miranda? Are you content with her?" said his aunt.
"She is to the manner born. Lovely voice, acts like a dragon, and has aninstinct how to stand and how to hold her hands."
"Coming in drolly with her prim dress and bearing. Though she wasdreadfully frightened," said Lance. "Being half-foreign accounts forsomething, I suppose, but it is odd how she reminds me of some one.No doubt it is of some singer at a concert. What did they say was hername?"
"Ludmilla Schnetterling, the Little Butterfly they call her. Foreignon both sides apparently," said Gerald. "Those dainty ankles never werebred on English clods."
"I wonder what her mother is," said Mrs. Grinstead.
"By the bye, I think it must have been her mother that I saw thatmorning when little Felix dragged me to a cigar-shop in quest of anornamental crab--a handsome, slatternly hag sort of woman, who mighthave been on the stage," said Lance.
"Sells fishing-tackle, twine, all sorts," came from Adrian.
"Have you been there?" asked his sister, rather disturbed.
"Of course! All the fellows go! It is the jolliest place for"--he pauseda moment--"candies and ginger-beer."
"I should have thought there were nicer places!" sighed Anna.
"You have yet to learn that there is a period of life when it is a joyto slip out of as much civilization as possible," said Lance, puttinghis sentence in involved form so as to be the less understood by theboys.
"Did you say that Flight had got hold of them?" asked Clement.
"Hardly. They are R.C.'s, it seems; and as to the Mother Butterfly,I should think there was not much to get hold of in her; but Mrs.Henderson takes interest in her marble-workers, and the girl is the sortof refined, impressible creature that one longs to save, if possible.To-morrow I am going to put you all through your parts, Master Gerald,so don't you be out of the way."
"One submits to one's fate," said Gerald, "hoping that virtue may be itsown reward, as it is in the matter of 'The Inspector's Tour', whichthe 'Censor' accepts, really enthusiastically for a paper, though theMouse-trap would have found it--what shall I say?--a weasel in theirsnare."
"Does it indeed?" cried Anna, delighted. "I saw there was a letter bythis last post."
"Aye--invites more from the same pen," he replied lazily.
"Too much of weasel for the 'Pursuivant' even?" said Geraldine.
"Yes," said Lance; "these young things are apt to tear our old traps andflags to pieces. By the bye, who is this Captain Armytage, who happilywill limit Purser Briggs to 'We split, we split, we split,' or somethinganalogous?"
"I believe," said Gerald, "that he joined the Wills-of-the-Wisp, thatcompany which was got up by Sir Lewis Willingham, and played at DevereuxCastle a year or two ago. Some one told me they were wonderfullyeffective for amateurs."
"That explains the acquaintance with Lady Merrifield," said Mrs.Grinstead.
"Oh, yes," said Anna. "Mysie told me all about it; and how Mr. DavidMerrifield married the nicest of them all, and how much they liked thisCaptain Armytage."
"Was not Mysie there when he arrived?"
"No, she was gone to see the Henderson children, but Gillian looked awhole sheaf of daggers at him. You know what black brows Gillian has,and she drew them down like thunder," and Anna imitated as well as herfair open brows would permit, "turning as red as fire all the time."
"That certainly means something," said Geraldine, laughing.
"I should like to see Gillian in love," laughed Anna; "and I reallythink she is afraid of it, she looked so fierce."
The next evening there was time for a grand review in the parishschool-room of all possible performers on the spot. In the midst,however, a sudden fancy flashed across Lancelot that there was somethingcuriously similar between those two young people who occupied thestage, or what was meant to be such. Their gestures corresponded to oneanother, their voices had the same ring, and their eyes wore almost ofthe same dark colour. Now Gerald's eyes had always been the only part ofhim that was not Underwood, and had never quite accorded with his faircomplexion.
"Hungarian, I suppose," said Lance to himself, but he was not quitesatisfied.
What struck him as strange was that though dreadfully shy and frightenedwhen off the stage, as soon as she appeared upon it, though not yet incostume, she seemed to lose all consciousness that she was not Mona.
Perhaps Mrs. Henderson could have told him. Her husband being managerand partner at Mr. White's marble works, she had always taken greatinterest in the young women employed, had actually attended to theirinstruction, assisted in judging of their designs, and used thesebusiness relations to bring them into inner contact with her, so thather influence had become very valuable. She was at the little room whichshe still kept at the office, when there was a knock at the door, and"Miss Schnetterling" begged to speak to her. She felt particularlytender towards the girl, who was evidently doing her best in a tryingand dangerous position, and after the first words it came out--
"Oh, Mrs. Henderson, do you think I must be Mona?"
"Have you any real objection, Lydia? Mr. Flight and all of them seem towish it."
"Yes, and I can't bear not to oblige Mr. Flight, who has been so good,so good!" cried Lydia, with a foreign gesture, clasping her hands."Indeed, perhaps my mother would not let me off. That is what frightensme. But if you or some real lady could put me aside they could notobject."
"I do not understand you, my dear. You would meet with no unpleasantnessfrom any one concerned, and you can be with the fairy children. Are youshy? You were not so in the fairy scenes last winter--you acted verynicely."
"Oh yes, I liked it then. It carries me away; but--oh! I am afraid!"
"Please tell me, my dear."
Lydia lowered her voice.
"I must tell you, Mrs. Henderson, mother was a singer in public once,and a dancer; and oh! they were so cruel to her, beat her, and starvedher, and ill-used her. She used to tell me about it when I was verylittle, but now I have grown older, and the people like my voice, sheis quite changed. She wants me to go and sing at the Herring-and-a-Half,but I won't, I won't--among all the tipsy men. That was why she wouldnot let me be a pupil-teacher, and why she will not see a priest. Andnow--now I am sure she has a plan in her head. If I do well at thisoperetta, and people like me, I am sure she will get the man at thecircus to take me, by force perhaps, and then it would be all her lifeover again, and I know that was terrible."
Poor Ludmilla burst into tears.
"Nay, if she suffered so much she would not wish to expose you to thesame."
"I don't know. She is in trouble about the shop--the cigars. Oh! Ishould not have told! You won't--you won't--Mrs. Henderson?"
"No, you need not fear, I have nothing to do with that."
"I don't think," Lydia whispered again, "that she cares for me as sheused to do when I was a little thing. Now that I care for my duty, andall that you and Mr. Flight have taught me, she is angry, and laughsat English notions. I was in hopes when I came to work here that myearnings would have satisfied her, but they don't, and I don't seem toget on."
Mrs. Henderson could not say that her success was great, but sheventured as much as to tell her that Captain Henderson could prevent anyattempt to send her away without her consent.
"Oh! but if my mother went too you could not hinder it."
"Are you sixteen, my dear? Then you could not be taken against yourwill."
"Not till December. And oh! that gentleman, the conductor, he knew allabout it, I could see, and by and by I saw him lingering about the shop,as if he wanted to watch me."
"Mr. Lancelot Underwood! Oh, my dear, you need not be afraid of him,he is a brother of Mrs. Grinstead's, a conn
ection of Miss Mohun's; andthough he is such a musician, it is quite as an amateur. But, Lydia, Ido think that if you sing your best, he may very likely be able to putyou in a way to make your talent available so as to satisfy your mother,without leading to anything so undesirable and dangerous as a circus."
"Then you think I ought--"
"It is a dangerous thing to give advice, but really, my dear, I do thinkmore good is likely to come of this than harm."
CHAPTER XIII. -- TWO SIDES OF A SHIELD AGAIN
The Long Vacation Page 13
