CHAPTER XL.
A K T STROPHE.
'When shall we three meet again, In thunder, lightning, or in rain?' _Shakespeare._
Lance did not appear on the evening before the picnic, and announced byletter, the next morning, that he could not get away. Felix regrettednot having as usual changed places with him, but could hardly haveabsented himself from such a guest as the present without discourtesy;and Cherry, looking at the blunt brevity of the postal-card, fearedthat the high-sounding title of their new friend was adding toLance's almost morbid sense of being in a different sphere from theirsurroundings. However, she had little time to think; for their onlyother guest, Gertrude May, had come by long promise to sleep at thePriory the night before; and the party were collecting in the hall,while the waggonet, a farm companion being allotted to the chestnut forthe nonce, the Harewood phaeton, and Master Ratton with his basket,were marshalled at the door.
'The Vicar says there is going to be a thunder-storm,' said LadyCaergwent, in rather a solemn voice.
'The Vicar always has a thunder-storm coming whenever it isn't a fallof snow,' returned Bernard.
'Hush, Bear! Kate won't have the Vicar's name taken in vain,' laughedAngela.
'Angela! Is not that expression a rebuke to itself?' whispered Cherry.
'There's not a symptom of a cloud,' added Gertrude, 'but the heat isoverpowering.'
'Yes!' said Cherry. 'Lance could hardly have gone in such scorching asthis.'
'We shall find mountain-air at the top,' said Robina, 'when once we canget there.'
'And the storms there are magnificent,' added the deep voice ofClement, as he strode out in broad hat and alpaca coat, pausing to puthis despatches into the letter-box, and inspect the barometer.
'Let that poor thing alone, Clem,' called out his eldest brother. 'Wemean to enjoy ourselves.'
'Are you affected by thunder?' the Vicar asked, seeing that LadyCaergwent did not look very happy.
'Not affected really, but I don't like it at night, or out of doors,'she answered; 'but I don't think there can be a storm to-day.'
'Never saw weather less like it,' added Bernard decisively, gazing upat the sky, as if to dare it to thunder. 'Hollo, Charlie! what have youannexed!'
For Charles Audley appeared walking up from the river, very hot,and holding upon its back, like a baby, a huge blue lobster, whichimpotently flapped its fringed tail, brandished its claws, and wavedits whiskers.
'What do you propose to do with that marine monster?' asked Cherry.
'Eat him, to be sure! He's my contribution. I bought him of old Jennyas I came up. Take care, Kester! he'll grab you as tight as the Mayorof Plymouth. Have you a basket, or anything to put him in?'
'He's alive,' said Cherry, recoiling.
'Of course. In civilian costume, you see. Of course the natives upthere have some sort of kettle. I've done dozens of lobsters in theyacht.'
'What fun!' cried Angela. 'He shall go on the driving-box, tobe made lobster-salad of. Get a basket; Kester, let his whiskersalone--ridiculous creature!'
'Oh!'
It was a soft little breath, but Charles turned round. 'You're notafraid of him, Stella! See! his claw is tied. Don't you like it?'
'I'm not afraid; but I don't like it.'
'Like Kate's thunder-storm,' laughed Angela; 'not afraid, but shedoesn't like it.'
Stella stood her ground: 'I don't like keeping the poor thing inmisery.'
'Nay!' said Angela. 'Why don't you send that cruel boy to restore it toits native element?'
'That would be nonsense,' steadily said Stella; 'but I think it wouldbe kinder to have it killed at once, than to jolt it all the way upthere.'
'Now, Charlie, it is absurd to yield to that child'stender-heartedness. She is a perfect Brahmin, and can't believe thatthose cold-blooded fishy things don't feel.'
'I believe the sentiment is general,' said Lady Caergwent, eagerly butnervously: 'though I had not the resolution of Princess Fair-Star,' sheadded, aside to Cherry; who rejoined, 'Not being sure whether it mightnot be the native custom to consume raw lobsters. Oh! here come Wilmetand Eddy; so let us pack. Lady Caergwent, do you prefer dignity orlandscape? for that perch by my brother is the best for the latter.'
'Landskip, to be sure. You delightful person!' cried her Ladyship,springing to the driving-seat.
'May I invite you, not to our skip, but our springs, Cherry?' asked theMajor.
'No, thank you,' said Cherry, who had seen a pair of wistful eyes loseone spark at the Countess's ascent, and another at this invitation. 'Mysprings rival yours; and Gertrude and I mean to be snug behind MasterRatton.'
Gertrude's face beamed delight as she took the other place; and theVicar ingeniously coiled his length into the out-rigger at the backready to spring out on any emergency of gate or hill, in spite of hisapparent absorption in the newest and most strongly-flavoured of Churchjournals.
In consideration of Ratton's small capacities, he had the start, Cherryleaving the rest to pack as they chose; and when, on the first longascent, she was overtaken, it was first by the Harewoods, the Majorleading his horse, and Wilmet and her youngest son in front, Stellaand Kester behind; and the foremost of the waggonet-load was walkingbeside, with his hand upon the back-seat.
The larger vehicle was empty, all but the driving-seat, where LadyCaergwent and Felix were talking so eagerly, that Cherry laughed, andsaid, 'I wonder what nut they are cracking?'
'Is she not dreadfully clever?'
'Most curiously simple. Whatever is in her head, out it all comes.'
'Your brother likes it!'
'There's a great deal of it, to be sure, but it is so original, andgenuine, and funny; and besides, she is easily daunted. Robin says heruncle kept her in great order, but she was devotedly fond of him; andwhenever she catches herself going too fast, she starts and stops, asif he were looking at her.'
'In order? Not a spoilt child and heiress--a Lady Clara Vere de Vere?'
'No, indeed! Lady Clara took Tennyson's advice, and began teaching theorphan boy to read, and the orphan girl to sew--operations she muchprefers to entangling simple yeomen. Eh, Daisy! did you think she had asimple yeoman there?' said Geraldine, in an amused but rather indignantvoice, as she perceived symptoms of confusion.
'Oh no, never really! but when one's brother has a sister-in-law whoassimilates all the gossip of the place, one can't help hearing. Ifmouths could but be stopped!'
'Which they can't; but they can be confuted.'
'How, by her marrying?'
'Certainly not,' said Clement, from behind, much disconcerting Gertrude.
'I thought him lost in his ecclesiastical organ,' said Cherry,laughing. 'I believe nothing would have roused him but such an enormitywith regard to his live Countess Marilda.'
'I merely think,' he protested, 'that Lady Caergwent perceives how muchmore she can do for the Church as a single woman.'
'I agree,' said Cherry, 'to the unlikelihood of her marrying--mostespecially, I know whom it won't be, let them have their heads togetheras much as they will. See them now--not a bit of the view will theysee! That's right! prod them with your parasols! Make them look round,or they will miss the great view of the castle and the estuary.'
'Felix will never do that,' said Clement, 'He seems to me to valuepeople according as they appreciate the scenery of the Ewe.'
'He never got over Marilda's knitting all the way up the river.'
'Or Mr. Bruce's saying, "You've a snug little box here, Mr. Underwood,if it wasn't so close to the river." Felix's face was a sight--just ashe had got to the turn down the hill, which he says comes as a freshdelight to him whenever he comes home.'
'No wonder, there's nothing like it!' said Gertrude. 'Ah! they havestopped to look.'
'Click, click! gee-up, Ratton! we'll pass them again.'
So they did, Lady Caergwent calling out, 'Ah! I pity you. You are toolow to see this glorious sight.'
'All v
ery well talking,' called back Cherry; 'but who had to be pokedto make them look at all?'
'Ay! What do you think they were doing!' shouted Angela. 'Soundsreached us about Casuistry and Jeremy Taylor.'
'You could hear nothing in the din that came up to us,' retorted Felix,looking round.
Indeed, Lady Caergwent was in her element. She liked nothing so well asa kind of discussion on character, a sort of fitful Friends in Council,plentifully interlarded with historical or fictitious allusions; butshe did not often get the opportunity, for her historical tastes wereso much more vivid than most of her contemporaries, that she alwayshad to guard against seeming pedantic; but, thanks to Felix's habit ofkeeping a solid book in hand, and always thoroughly getting up whateverhe had to write about, he was a man of great range of information, andcould reply to her bright crude fancies with depth or sportiveness asoccasion served, enjoying the tete-a-tete as much as she did.
Meantime, the horses climbed higher still and higher, rougher stilland rougher, till the final gate was opened; the wheels emitted onlyan occasional creak on the soft bent-grass, and the breeze refreshedthe travellers, who were soon hailed by all the pupils and all thedogs, and conducted to the Penbeacon saloon. This was a desertedslate-quarry, where the mounds of rubbish were old enough to be coveredwith hawthorn, mountain-ash, travellers-joy, and exquisite wreaths ofbramble, so as to afford shade at any period of the day; and around wasa delicious carpet of soft grass, thyme, eye-bright, ladies'-fingers,and rock-rose. Beneath lay the whole panorama of the Ewe valley andthe estuary, the bridge spanning it, and the Castle jutting out intothe sparkling sea, where here and there a sail, white or umber, orpuff of steam, glided along the blue. The intense clearness of the airrendered the scene a fresh joy to those who knew it best, and entrancedthe new-comers, though they were told they would see it still betterwhen they had climbed to the top of Penbeacon, which, with tracking thesource of the Leston, was a regular part of the programme.
Operations could, however, only begin with preparations for the meal;and while Felix, Clement, and Major Harewood drove on to deposit horsesand carriages at the farm, there was a general unpacking of hampers,Cherry securing that which was to be untouched till dinner-time, bysitting upon it.
'I say,' observed Will to Robina, as he opened one of the letters thatthey had brought up to this unpostal region, 'here's a go! He maybe coming to-day!' and he signed towards Lady Caergwent, who, withBernard, was compounding a salad.
'Impossible! To-day?'
'That depends.'
'Knowingly?'
'Not unless it be through you.'
'I have not written since she came.'
'So the daily fire has slackened.'
'Mr. Pemberton enjoys that.'
'And once a week is deemed enough for me!'
'Old stagers such as we are! But, seriously, Willie, what can bringhim?'
'The scent of Penbeacon!'
'I thought he was in Scotland.'
'Yes, but his two months' holiday was up on Monday; and when he cameto London, his office was painting, or white-washing, or something, sohe got a week's grace; and London being a desert, he said he shouldlook in at Lady Mary's, and then run on here; but when he left,doubtful.'
'Then it depends on how he likes it at Lady Mary's? Have you mentionedit?'
'No, I knew I should catch it from you if I did.'
'Discreet boy! I have hopes of you. In the uncertainty we had betterkeep it to ourselves. It would only put her into a tremor, and spoilher day.'
'Poor girl! I hoped it had gone off, for I see small prospect forher. He is getting on well, likes his work, and will hardly run intothraldom again, since he broke loose in time to make a man of himself.'
'Don't you envy him?'
'Yes, when you fiddle for an hour over every knot in that string! Letme cut it and have done with it.'
'Remember holy poverty, Sire, as the Lady Abbess said to Louis XV. overthe jam-pot; or rather, remember that this has to be packed up again insix hours' time.'
'Don't make me remember six hours hence. This is my prime day of allthe year, and I can't recollect any end to it.'
'There then, can you carry that pile of plates without a catastrophe?'
'A K T strophe is what is apprehended.'
'Come, you two,' called Angela, 'affection is misplaced over thecrockery. Here are plates wanted to weigh down the table-cloth; there'sa ruffling gusty wind that gets under it.'
'Illustrating the earthquake theory,' said pupil No. 1, who was keepingit down with his knee.
'Or thunder-storm practice,' responded Pupil No. 2.
'Not a word more about thunder!' cried Angela. 'Lady Caergwent hatesit; and as she views our Vicar as a mild embodiment of all the GeneralCouncils, the regular Clementine prediction has upset her already. Isay! what are you doing? Apricot-tart at first course!'
'Apricot-tart, you don't say so! Three cheers for Miss Underwood!'
'Don't let blind enthusiasm put its foot into it.'
'Or you'll have to eat it all.'
'What a temptation!'
'Wasn't he already a greedy beggar, who stuck at no trifles! Don'tyou remember his tucking in the apples at the fair that the elephantwouldn't have?'
'And swallowing nineteen fresh eggs to clear his voice for the concert!'
'I say, Miss Underwood, what songs have you brought?'
'And what's to become of the Der Freischuetz song without your brotherLance?'
'Can't the Squire take his part? His voice is a capital one.'
'Oh yes--he is thrush to Lance's nightingale--not so high--fuller inthe lower notes--and he can't play such tricks with it,' said Angela;'but whether you'll get him is another thing. That Countess of ours hasno more music in her than an owl!'
'Can't she be suppressed? Whoever heard of a Penbeacon picnic without asong?'
The feast took place with all the merriment produced by the combinedforces of seventeen people, not one of whom had reached the middlepoint of life; but when it was over, the sun was still so powerful, andthe air so sultry, as to bring to mind that this festival had takenplace earlier in the year than usual. No one was willing to quit theluxurious nests in the bracken, and the ceremony of mountain-scalingwas deferred till after the songs for which the pupils clamoured, andLady Caergwent heartily said how unlike fine old songs in the openair would be from the tiresome drawing-room performances, that seemedto her an invention for interrupting interesting conversation. In thepause of preparation, she made, however, some inquiries whether thearrow-head she had been told about grew on the intended path, and ifnot, how it could be reached.
'I'll show you the way,' cried Bernard eagerly. 'It is only downthere,' when he heard the place.
'_Only!_--my dear Kate! I don't let him inveigle you--it is nearer twomiles than a mile and a half,' said Robina; 'and all through stonythickets and bogs--and in this heat! We will try to drive you there, orsend for it.'
'I'll go; I'll be back long before they've done singing,' said Bernard.'What is it like?'
Lady Caergwent hesitated; but he would take no refusal, and having beentold it was white, had three roundish sort of petals, and arrow leaves,and grew in the water, the lazy youth, who would seldom move an inchin a sister's service, went striding down the hill side, with his coatover his shoulder, and his pugaree streaming behind him. Cherry wasafraid he would incur Lance's fate; but Felix laughed, and said he wasglad to see he could do anything for anybody; and besides, the sun wasbecoming less fierce.
So Cherry hastily sketched his retreating figure as a feature in thedrawing she annually made of the group at the quarry during the music.Gertrude May had a fair ear, and good though not much trained voice,and she was exceedingly happy, for even without Lance the Underwoods'singing was a remarkable and beautiful thing. To make William intoPolyphemus, and hear him thunder out 'Ruddier than the cherry,' whileFelix and Angela served as his Acis and Galatea, was always a partof the programme, and it was all Wilmet enjoyed, for we
re not herboys--even though they were hers--boys of the period? Had not her sonEdward come, against her better judgment, because his papa wished it?and had not his combined fatigue and restlessness come to a pitch wherethere was nothing for it but to take him away to the farm-house, andlet him have the sleep he had missed in the forenoon?
Then, even in her first outline, Cherry missed three figures; andwhen, after completing her general sketch, she returned to touch upthe individuals, Kester, who had been portrayed running up and downa mound with the dogs, was asleep against his father; nothing was tobe seen of Will but a pair of black knees peeping out of the bracken,and the head of Scamp's brother Chaff, who was sitting on his breast;and Lady Caergwent had vanished altogether. She was further becomingsensible that the shadows were less sharp, the light less clear, theheat heavier, and presently that a great black cloud had mounted farinto the sky behind the quarry and the hill; and beginning to thinkthat Clement's prognostications might be justified she was waiting forthe end of Lance's setting of 'Mont Blanc is the King of Mountains,'to call attention to the fact that Penbeacon was borrowing his vest ofcloud, when the announcement was made by a vivid flash of lightning,followed with appalling rapidity by a peal of thunder. No one stirredtill the thunder had rolled itself away. Then everybody said, 'There!'and started up, just as a few big rain-drops splashed down. Kester wokewith a scream of fright; and his father, throwing a plaid round him,ran off with him towards the farm. Felix and Clement had both sprung toGeraldine, and were helping her up. There was a mile of open hill andstony road to the farm--a long walk for her under any circumstances;and no one had any protection bigger than a sun-shade. There wasanother terrific flash and burst of thunder, and the hail-stones camerattling down, so large as to give sharp blows.
'She can never walk it,' said both brothers at once. 'Cherry, you mustride!'
'Oh!' gasping, 'you can't.'
'Can't we? Haven't we often? There!' and in a moment the hands wereclasped, queen's-cushion fashion, beneath her, the necks were bent forthe arms to be thrown round them, even as had been done many a time inchildhood before, only then Edgar had generally been one supporter.She hardly felt the beating of the pitiless storm; and when the wind,hail and roar of the tempest came with a terrific deafening whirl,she felt a strange sense of security; and even when the most fearfulof all the flashes seemed to burst into the ground close before themsimultaneously with the discharge like a thousand cannon overhead, andshe heard Clement's whispered ejaculation, her first feeling was, 'Alltogether--together!'
The others all darted past them in the general _sauve qui peut._Wilmet, watching in anxiety at the farm-house porch, received first,half laughing, half panting 'Oh! isn't it jolly?' Angela and thelongest-legged pupil; secondly, her husband, with their little son inhis arms. 'This is like an Indian storm,' he said, and sat down, a gooddeal spent, and breathing hard.
Then came, dashing in together, the main body--Gertrude May, fourpupils, Stella with Charles Audley; and they had no sooner recoveredbreath, than in came William and Robina, who had been delayed byRobina's attempt to secure the table-cloth, which had been blown soentirely over her, that Will had had some difficulty in releasing herfrom the flappings. They satisfied Wilmet that Cherry and her bearerswere quite safe, and at the entrance of the lane; and John thereuponstarted up, and declared he should go and relieve them, but at thatmoment they were seen at the gate, Cherry on her own legs, and Felixand Clement, all in a glow, on each side of her. 'It was so nice,' shesaid, as her sister anxiously met her. 'Only think of having two suchbrothers! Oh no, I'm not frightened--no, nor in the least wet!'
Nobody was wet, for the hail-stones had rebounded, and one or twothat had been captured were wonders worth preserving, had that beenpossible, looking like nitre-balls. Felix was drawing a pencil lineround one on a piece of paper, when Robina exclaimed, 'Where's LadyCaergwent?'
'Didn't she come first?'
'I thought she was up-stairs.'
'No--no one came in before Angela,' testified Wilmet. 'Is every oneelse here?--Bernard?'
'He must be sheltering down by Lang's pool. Never mind him! But she! Soafraid of thunder too!'
'Unpardonable!' burst out Felix, in dismayed self-condemnation, as heagain pushed his head as deep as it would go into his hat, and hurriedout again, Clement and William after him; John was going too, buthis wife caught him--'No, no, there are quite enough! Remember theneuralgia. See, it has turned to pouring rain!'
And John submitted, for three strong men could do all that could availone young girl, even under possibilities terrible to think, not onlyfrom the lightning, but among those dangerous places, steep slopes,and sharp precipices, where a stranger, blinded by hail and lightning,might so easily stumble. The farmer was at market, and his wife couldonly offer her 'odd man' when he should have done milking; but Mr.Harewood knew the place thoroughly by this time.
It rained in torrents as they set out, the thunder-cloud blottingout all but the path under their feet, though the lightning was moredistant. They searched the quarry, and shouted, 'Any one here? LadyCaergwent!' But the mocking echoes only answered, 'Here!' and 'Gwent!'while they searched in vain--till 'Holloa.' Was it a response? Felixshouted. Another 'Holloa!' but hardly from feminine lungs--certainlynot from any one suffering any damage. No--there was something tallstruggling up the hill through the rain. 'Bear! you've not seen her?'
'Who? Why in the name of wonder are you getting a shower-bathgratis out here?' said he, panting up to them, his arms full ofsomething shiny, and battered, and green; and, as a word or twoexplained--'Looking for Lady Caergwent! Every one missed her'--theboy's eyes flashed so that Felix really thought he was going to knockhim down. 'Left her out here? Why, savages wouldn't have done it! If Ihad but been there! Dear, sweet girl!'
Just then, something dark was seen lying under a rock, and slightlymoving; Clement silently pointed in horror, Bernard gave a sort ofhowl, waved them all back as unworthy to touch her, and leapt forward.He soon came to a stand-still. It was one of the rugs on which they hadbeen sitting, which had drifted there, rolled up by the wind.
'I begin to hope she may be in the cart-shed,' said Will. 'Let us go onthere.'
Bernard strode with a certain tragic authority in advance, as theyproceeded, scrambling over a low stone wall into a steep sloping field,scattered with stones and sheep, not easily discernible from oneanother in the downpour, save for some getting up and running away,while the others remained motionless. At length appeared a fabric ofrough stones, rougher piles, and roughest slates, a kind of shelterthrown over the angle of the wall. Through all the rush and roar came amurmur of voices, and through the drifting streams of rain, two figureswere discernible, one heather-coloured, the other grey. So much theothers had seen, when Bernard, with a sort of tiger-bound forward,shouted, 'You rascal!--Never mind, Lady Caergwent, I am here!'
'Holloa, Bernard!' said a cool voice.
'De la Poer!' and Bernard stood transfixed, not even joining at firstin the general clamour of, 'So shocked!' 'You here!' 'How could we missyou?' 'I never was so sorry!' 'It was all my own fault!' 'Oh, nevermind,' &c.; but when his voice was heard again, 'Lady Caergwent, if Ihad been there, this should never have been! These brothers of mine!'
'Not a word more till she is safely housed,' interposed Felix. 'Don'tyou see how drenched she is?--Will you trust yourself to me after thisinexcusable neglect, Lady Caergwent?'
'I told you it was I who lost myself,' she said, with a most forgivingradiance in her eyes, glancing through the dark hair that flew abouther hatless head.
They wrapped her in the cloak they had brought, and tied the hooddown over her hair with a handkerchief; but when Bernard would haveproffered his arm on the side unengrossed by Felix, he found himselfforestalled, and could only fume in the rear--such of his denunciationsof the general barbarous carelessness as were not blown down his throatagain by the wind being received by Will Harewood, with comical littlesounds that nettled him exceedingly.
The co
ntention with wind, rain, stones, and torrents, was far toosevere for any one else to attempt speaking, while the blast sweptround the hill side as if trying to whirl them off their feet; andeven when the lee side of the barn was reached, Lady Caergwent was toobreathless to do anything but gasp out that Mr. Underwood must notblame himself--it was her own fault, and all right.
A whole cluster of anxious faces crowded the deep porch, to receive thedripping figures that came in, looking, as the delighted Kester said,like the cats that became pools in Strewelpeter. Some used their firstbreath for laughter, others for the long pent-up apologies, which werecut short by Wilmet and Robina bearing the young lady up-stairs to bedried.
The room was homely, for their hostess was not of the advanced order,and had no fine daughters. She appealed to Mrs. Harewood on theexpediency of bed, warm water, and something hot; but the Countess, hereyes dancing through her plastered elf-locks, laughed all to scorn,only begging for the loan of some clothes. However--will she, nillshe--while struggling with the soaked adhesive sleeves of her jacket,a foot-bath and big ewer, and a tray of various beverages, made theirappearance, putting her into fresh fits of mirth, as Robina tugged atthe refractory garment, and Mrs. Hodnet endeavoured to add lumps ofsugar at every polite refusal of the negus.
'Lady Caergwent, the bed or the negus?' said Wilmet, at last, with fullauthority.
'The dagger or the bowl? The bowl then, if you please, when my handcomes out. I'm like Agamemnon now. Oh!--there!--thanks, Copsey. I hopethe rest of the coats of the onion will come off easier. Thank you! oh,so much, Mrs. Hodnet! That will be beautiful!'
Herself of the squarest proportions, Mrs. Hodnet was bustling about tofind something wearable by the tall slim girl. At last, after her bestviolet silk had been found impracticable, a linsey skirt and a softsilk shawl seemed possible materials; and she withdrew to superintendthe preparations for tea; and Wilmet departed likewise, from themixed motives of believing that the two girls wanted to be left toa _tete-a-tete_, of uneasiness as to the whereabouts of her sons,and desire to secure the swallowing of the like portion by Felix andClement.
The moment the door was shut, Lady Caergwent threw both arms roundRobin, and hugged her tight, with a long sob-like sound of 'O Copsey,Copsey!'
'Then it was--'
'Yes--yes--yes! Did you know?'
'Willie told me he might possibly come; but it was too uncertain tomention. We thought Lady Mary would be sure to keep him.'
'Mary was from home.'
Robina longed to ask more, but did not quite know how, and appliedherself to make the best of Mrs. Hodnet's toilette apparatus, indealing with the hair, which the tempest had deprived of every fragmentof head-gear. 'Shall I twist it, or do it up in long plaits?'
'Any way for me to get down again! Oh, how little I thought it!'
'Felix was in despair when he found you were missing; but you see thefirst thought of all my brothers has always been Cherry.'
'Quite right--and you see I wasn't there at all. You know my earsare stupid, and though there's more sense in your music than in mostpeople's, it did not put out of my head some marsh-cinquefoil I thoughtI had spied as we went by; and I fancied, while you were singing,I could creep off after it, without all the fuss of the gentlemenwanting to get it for me. No one saw me, and I did find some deliciousthings, only I'm afraid I lost them. On I went, from one to another,like the bad folks in an allegory, away from the rocks and the singing,lured by the flowers in the bog--till, sure enough, I lost my way, andthe sharp wall of rock above me, which I thought part of the quarry,turned out to be no such a thing. There, to bring in the demoniacalelement, a horrid little black cow came up and stared at me. You knowwhat a goose I am about horned monsters; and I thought the whole herdwould be coming home to be milked, so I didn't stare the beast out ofcountenance, as I am aware is the correct thing; but as there was ahigh ledge, a sort of shelf in the precipice, I scrambled up out ofthe way. I suppose the animal had never seen a young woman in such aposition, for not only did it stand in contemplation, but two or threeof its congeners came up and stood gazing at me, out of their spiteful,curly, shaggy faces, with white pointed horns, like the imps of thepiece. Then it struck me that these were not quiet christianable kinegoing home to be milked, but horrid Scottish cattle at pasture, keepingno hours at all, but free to stand staring till I dropped on theirhorns. So I put whatever dignity I had in my pocket, and squalled,fancying you were all round the corner, but the only effect was to makethe brutes toss their heads and stare the harder.'
'Did you see the storm gathering? Behind the hill, as we were, weneither saw nor thought of it till that first grand peal; I was sosorry for you.'
'Somehow, I minded it less than I should have thought. The grandeurand the solitude took some of the nonsense out of me; but the hailwas very bad; it knocked me about so; and the wind tore at me likea human fury. After my hat was carried off, those hail-stones wouldhave been quite dangerous, but that there was a good thick bower oftraveller's joy (well-named) up above; and one comfort was, the demonsdidn't like it, stuck up their tails, and galloped off. I thought noneof them could have the face to run at me in a thunder-storm, and Itried to come down, but I found it was a Martinswand on a small scale;and I could get neither up nor down. So I remained, the butt of theelements, waiting to make another effort till the wind would let mealone. At last, I saw a human being in the distance, battling withthe wind. I thought it was Bernard coming back, or if not, I was pastcaring; so I called, and it came. I only thought of Bernard, and itmust have thought itself in for an adventure with an escaped lunatic,or wild woman of the woods. "Trust yourself to me," he said; and thenI knew the voice. But it was like a dream, for I didn't seem surprisedat first. At least, I don't know; I think I must have made a fool ofmyself somehow, for he was coaxing and comforting me, till somehow hegot me to the shed, and I came to my senses a little, and thought hewas only pacifying me; so I asked whether I had really been in sucha dreadful state, and said I was all right, and that he need not goon. "Why should I not go on?" he said. Oh, I dare say it was verynonsensical--but don't you and Mr. Harewood talk nonsense sometimes?'
'Egregious!' said Robin, laughing, and kissing her. 'Oh, I am so veryvery glad, dearest!'
'He said, the longer he went on, the more he found he really did carefor me in spite of it all, horrid and disgusting as I had been.'
'Was that the nonsense?'
'No, you thorny Copse, but his pretending I was all right!'
'Ah, he has thought so this long time! I have been sure it wanted verylittle to come right.'
'Oh, tell me! for while they were dragging me through the storm, itcame over me that maybe he was just surprised into it, and that Iought--I ought not--'
'Who is talking nonsense now, Kate? No--if you had been at Repworth youwould have seen how altered he has been--ill at ease, as if somethinghad gone out of his life--only able to bear his restlessness by hardwork.'
'Ah! is it not a pity to spoil him for his work?'
'You will find him work enough.'
'Make him a land-agent!'
'A good deal more. You will give him power that he is much fitter touse now.'
'Well, there's plenty to come before that. Dear Aunt Emily! I say,Robina, nobody ought to be told before them all, you know. There,thank you! what a deliciously queer figure,' as she looked in theglass, 'and what a pair of cheeks! The farm-house port has flown intothem! Am I to put on these stockings? That dear woman's legs must be asbig as her bed-posts! I wish people wore peasant costumes here! A pairof horse-hair butterfly's-wings now on my head, a striped petticoat,and orange stockings! At least it is better than when I jumped into apond out of the way of the thunder, and Lady de la Poer put me to bed!Dear people! I could jump, but for these elephant-slippers, to think ofgetting back to them.'
'Oh, please--let me get that skirt straight.'
'Very well! Do I fidget horribly? I beg your pardon, Robin; but how canone stand still when one is all fizzing with glad
ness! When I think ofthe old ache, when he came here--and when I found it was not you, Ithought it must be Angel--I really came, hoping to find out, and--'
'Throw the ring at her feet!'
'You witch! only I never had the ring to throw! Oh, this is much betterthan being magnanimous! Is that your ring? His hair? How charming!Ernest shall give me nothing else!'
'Ah, there will not be time for yours to wear out! Mine has had tworenewals, though I always keep part of the old foundation.'
'Dear Robina! I wish--no, it's not right to wish that; besides, it's ahorrid place. I suppose Mr. Pemberton must have the first living thatis going at Repworth.'
'Yes. We think of a grammar-school, or a mastership, somewhere, whenWillie's five years at Christchurch are up, and we have made up enoughfor a nest-egg.'
'That's what I should like! Ah! am I talking of what I know nothingabout?' and she gave an earnest kiss. 'There, I'm presentable now! MayErnest only be in the farmer's leathern gaiters!'
'No chance of that, with so many gentlemen to equip him. But for yourfeet, you would do very well.'
For the fault of Kate Caergwent's face was want of glow, and this wasfully supplied. The two plaits were picturesque, and Mrs. Hodnet'sshawl of crimson silk, and the dark skirt, made a becoming garb; butwalking was not easy, and the descent of the stair was a series offlaps, as she came into a sort of vestibule, containing staircase andbig clock.
'Hermione descends to the sound of soft music!' exclaimed Lord Ernest,springing up to meet her; and they both stood still to laugh.
'Hail, hail, all hail! was the music,' she said.
'Yes, Miss Underwood,' grasping her hand mightily. 'I give you infinitecredit for the _mise en scene_.'
'Undeserved!'
'Nay, stage-effect could not have been exceeded, though perhaps thingswent rather to the verge of sensation.--Katie, you are flushed still!Ought she not to be put between blankets, and dosed with water-gruel?'
'Then we ought "all to have a little water-gruel!"'
'There's a sumptuous tea-fight preparing in there. They've fetched thehamper, and Mrs. Hodnet is producing all the delicacies of the season!'
'Is Lady Caergwent there?' and Bernard came forward to meet her; whileLord Ernest paused to answer Robina's congratulating eyes. 'Yes, when Ifound that it was her own self, there was no helping it. I forgot allabout earning her better opinion. I could only ask her forgiveness. Ishall tell my father I owe it all to you.'
'Nonsense!'
'I do, though. If you hadn't all been what you are, I should have madean irrevocable ass of myself.'
'As--oh dear!--some one else is doing,' said Robina to herself, as shecaught the words Bernard was addressing to the Countess, standing inthe door-way of the great farm kitchen. 'I am only sorry for what youwere exposed to in my absence.--My brothers are dreadfully cut up aboutit, but I know you'll overlook it. They are excellent fellows, but yousee they have never had any advantages.'
An ineffably funny glance passed between Lord Ernest and Robina, whohad a strong desire to take Mr. Bear by the shoulders and shake him,only unluckily her head was only on a level with those same broadshoulders.
'I never could have overlooked it, if they had left Geraldine to lookafter any one else,' said Lady Caergwent, with some of the hauteur shecould assume, and very decidedly moving forward, but with the flowersin her hand that Bernard had brought her.
The party far exceeded the capacities of Mrs. Hodnet's parlour, wherethe lodgers usually sat, and were much more happily disposed of inthe great kitchen, one of those still flourishing in old farm-houses,spacious though low, with a stone floor, a long oak table, and benchesand a dresser glittering with metal and fine old earthenware, a greathearth with a lively fire, and a deep latticed window making quite alittle chamber, where stood the small round table and two chairs, theleisure resort of Mr. and Mrs. Hodnet, the one with pipe and paper, theother with work-basket of socks. A door opening into the serviceablekitchen revealed a vista of garments hung up, a red glow behind them,a girl of the farm-servant type scuttling about, and the more activespirits of the party darting to and fro. In the room the long table waslaid for tea; Cherry and Will were chatting on either side of the fire,Major and Mrs. Harewood were enjoying the delight of their offspringin an oft-renewed fiction of being shut into the hamper, lost, anddiscovered; and Felix was amusing Gertrude May with the mysteries ofMoore's Almanac on the wall, and the account of his own fruitlessendeavours to promote a taste for something less oracular.
He came up as the Countess scurried in, and said, with a frankness notquite answering to Bernard's description of his despair, 'I am verysorry for our neglect, Lady Caergwent, I am afraid it caused you to bein a very unpleasant predicament; but my sister is so far from strong,that she is apt to be our first care.'
'It would be a horrid shame if she were not,' said Lady Caergwentbrightly. 'I should not have been and gone and lost myself!--You've notcaught cold, Geraldine!'
'Oh no, I was best off of all, riding home in state. It comes, you see,of taking such poor shiftless beings up to the top of mountains.'
'It was a grand adventure,' said Lady Caergwent, rather hastily; 'I'dnot have missed it for the world!' And then suddenly conscious of whatthat might convey, her colour deepened still more, and she made herway to the Darby and Joan nook by the window, sat down, looking out,and murmuring something undeveloped about the weather. Lord Ernestcame to help her study it; Felix thought it expedient to continue hiselucidations of Francis Moore; Robina came up to the fire, and slidher hand into Will's, and a look and smile passed between them thatCherry comprehended as well as they did. Only Bernard came forward witha footstool he had routed out from under the dresser. 'Won't you havethis, Lady Caergwent? the floor is cold.'
'Thank you very much.--Yes; and Addie finds her hands full?'
'She's the jolliest little lady of the house!' and Lord Ernest foundhimself a perch on the round table, with one foot on the other chair.
Bernard returned to the charge. 'Here's one other flower not beaten topieces,' he said, after applying to the green things he had left in theporch.
'Thank you,' but hardly turning her head from Lord Ernest, who wasdescribing some one as 'Yards high, of course; three inches beyond whatany one need be in reason,' meaning of course the Scottish chief; butBernard was not quite sure whether this was not personal, for conceitin a state of irritation can make strange appropriations.
While he was standing just so far away as his sense of good breedingrequired, grim and discomforted, Angela darted in, crying, 'Mrs. Hodnetis teaching us to make furmenty. Come and see.'
'Too many cooks may spoil furmenty as well as broth, Angel,' said John,as no one seemed disposed to move.
'How stupid you all are!' she exclaimed. 'Come, Kate, don't you want tostudy furmenty?'
'I can't study anything but sitting still till I get my boots,' saidthe Countess, with languid decision.
'Bootless toil,' murmured her cavalier.
'You'd better come, Lord Ernest,' persisted Angela, 'Enlarge your mind!'Tis a classical dish, always made on wake days.'
'Thank you, I never presume to enter those penetralia,' he answered,likewise with unconscious distance in his tone--excited, perhaps, bythe familiar abbreviation of the young lady's name.
'If you are so curious about it, Angela,' said Felix gravely, 'I wonderyou do not attend to it!'
'Oh, it is stirring! I left Charlie at it, to console him for the lossof his lobster. I only came out of pure and unrequited philanthropy.'
And she sprang back to the outer kitchen, philosophizing, 'What a queerthing it is that when two swells get together they must be on theirdignity, and act as if they came out of some other planet.'
'Better be a swell than a cinder,' said Charlie. 'Mrs. Hodnet, is thisstuff stirred enough? I've been at it like a galley-slave till my armsare ready to drop.'
'I'll stir the infirmary!' loudly declared Kester, intercepted on hisway by his uncle Will, who hoist
ed him up, in an ecstasy of amusement,as a 'true grandson of his grandmother, which he wasn't.' The two roomsresounded with merriment, and Felix regaled Gertrude with a few of Mrs.Harewood's proverbial malapropisms; but the pair in the window remainedutterly unconscious of all that was passing.
'The odd thing is,' said Angela confidentially to Charles Audley, 'thatI know those two regularly hate each other.'
'It looks very like it!'
'Oh, that is to keep up appearances before the outer barbarians. I knowwhat each thinks of the other. You clumsy boy! those plates will all bedown, then what will you say to Cherry?'
'That I am overcome by appearances. What hollowness do you not revealto me! I say, Bear must be overcome too! What makes him stand therelike a grisly monument?'
Kester and Edward were, at that moment, permitted to summon the companyby a performance with the bright warming-pan, as if they were hivingbees; and as Lord Ernest jumped off the table, with a look of fury anddismay Bernard pounced on Stella, who happened to be near him, andalmost dragged her out into the porch. 'I can't stand it any longer,Stel. Say I'm gone home.'
'Are you ill, Bear?'
'Ill? no; but that confounded puppy--'
'He isn't lost, Bear, he is fast asleep under Cherry's chair. You neednot go after him!'
'Hang it! Didn't you see? That brute of a fellow has been and squashedall the flowers! I'm sure he did it out of spite, and be hanged to him!'
'Hush, Bernard, don't!'
'A man can't mince his words when he's driven distracted! When Iwent through fire and water to get them for her, and it was all hisjealousy, because he saw her pleased.'
'But I don't think those were your flowers.'
'Weren't they, though!'
'I thought you went to get arrow-head?'
'Well--'
'And that is great water-plantain on the table. There are quantities ofit by the churchyard.'
'She never said it was not right.'
'Perhaps she would not vex you.'
'Bosh! You don't know anything about it, Stella; I'll soon find out.'
So Bernard stalked back, followed by his little sister, just as seatswere being taken, with no further exclusiveness, but with the Countesson one side of Felix, and Gertrude on the other, and Lord Ernest byGeraldine's side. They had tried to get Mrs. Hodnet's company, but shewould not consent to do anything but fry rashers for them.
'Lady Caergwent,' said Bernard's voice, 'were those the wrong flowers?'
A silence. 'You were very kind to get them for me.'
'Then they weren't arrowhead?'
A still more awful silence. 'Oh! let me see, where are they? Perhaps--'
'Lord Ernest de la Poer sat down upon them,' returned Bernard, insuch a tragic voice, that convulsions of suppressed laughter began toprevail; 'but here are the remains, such as they are.'
'I am very sorry,' said the Countess, more than half choked as thefaded, squeezed, limp water-plant was extended to her; 'but I can'tflatter you that it is--no--it is not arrowhead.'
'Arrowing, isn't it?' of course muttered the witty pupil.
'But it was just as kind in you,' proceeded Lady Caergwent, conqueringher paroxysm, and looking up with great sweetness in her hazel eyes.'You went all the way for it, and were caught in the storm, and I amjust as grateful to you.'
'You shall have some before I sleep!' and he was off like a shot.
'Oh! he isn't really gone!--Stop him, Mr. Underwood!--Stop him,Ernest!--How can you all sit there laughing!'
'It will do him a great deal of good.'
'Felix!' cried Cherry reproachfully from the other end of the table;'when the poor boy has had nothing to eat!'
'And he's got my new boots on,' ejaculated Pupil Number 2. 'They'llpunish him.'
'It's a great deal too bad,' said Lady Caergwent, flushing up. 'Cherry,what can I do? Indeed, it wasn't on purpose.'
'Don't you think he could be stopped, Felix!' entreated Cherry, tenderover her boy. 'Is not there some short way to the garden?--Willie!'
'Impossible, Cherry,' said Will. 'No doubt he will go home instead ofcoming back here.' And to his neighbour--'Don't distress yourself.It is the first time I ever saw Bernard stirred out of the grandsimplicity of his _self_-devotion.'
'Where's the Vicar?' broke in Lord Ernest, while Lady Caergwent lookedfar from consoled. 'You've not sent him after any water-weeds, haveyou?'
'No, a vicar never gets a clear holiday in his own precincts.' saidWill. 'I've rigged him out to go to some cottagers up here--and if theyknow him for their shepherd, it's a pity.'
For besides being a shorter and more loosely-built man, the Oxfordtutor, though not unclerical, had not the peculiar ecclesiastical lookof the Vicar of Vale Leston.
'What have you done to Bernard?' said the voice of Clement himself, ashe came in, certainly a good deal transformed. 'I met him gallopingdown the lane, and saying he should walk home, and you were not to waitfor him.'
'You didn't turn him back? O Clement!'
'He hasn't quarrelled with any one?' said Clement, anxiously surveyingthe ranks; 'he wouldn't tell me.'
'Only with humanity in general,' said Felix. 'He brought LadyCaergwent the wrong plant, and has rushed headlong to repair themistake, without knowing a bit better what the right one was. It ishis first essay in chivalry, and he is having it strong,' he added,smiling, as he turned to the lady.
'Never mind, Kate,' added Angela, with her usual questionable taste,'it's only a bog and not a whirlpool that you've made him plunge into;besides, it isn't the Ewe, so he isn't due to it!'
'Will you take his place in the waggonette, Lord Ernest?' asked Cherry.'Where's your bag?'
'My bag--I declare it must be at the bottom of the Lady's Rock! We'llcharter a boy to go and look for it.'
'We will stop as we go by. There are plenty of relics to pick up.'
'For hospitality's sake,' said Will, 'I might mention that the roomnext the Apple-chamber is at your service.'
'Thank you, since you are so kind, Miss Underwood, I'll come. I want tosee your picture. What are you doing now?'
'A little portrait work,' said Cherry, smiling and blushing, andlooking towards her subject.
'There,' quoth Lord Ernest, to Robina. 'Did not I tell you it was aKit-Cat-astrophe!'
'Oh!' said Gertrude, little aware of the by-play, 'I forgot to ask ifyou had been going on with Edith of Lorn?'
'The maiden all for-lorn,' was another aspiration of the witty pupil.
'That's just the usual aspect of the Maid of Lorn,' said John, 'onlyGeraldine hasn't done her at all, only the last flutter of her cloak.'
'Quite right,' said Lord Ernest; 'that young person always struck me astaking the oddest way of reclaiming her young man, by charging down thehill at the head of all the stable-boys, grooms, and helpers.'
'I confess,' said Felix, 'I should have been harder to seek after thatexploit than when all the bridesmaids were singing.'
'No doubt,' said Will, 'he knew best. How often had she scratched hisface in Artornish Hall?!'
In the midst of the laughter a low silvery voice was heard saying toher neighbour, 'Please read it. You really ought.'
'Only one does get it so thrust down one's throat in the Hebrides,'returned Charles; 'but I'll try.'
'I agree with you, Stella, it is almost profane of them,' said LadyCaergwent; 'only one plays with what one loves best.'
'The maiden all forlorn got the best of it at last,' said Angela.
Which made some of them blush, and others make a move to recover theremnants of the feast. Wilmet wanted to take her boys home to bed,since the rain had ceased, and the carriages were brought out.
'Shall I offer Master Ratton to those two?' asked Felix of Robina, 'oris it too barefaced?'
'As yet, till the elders know.'
'Then you must come with me in the basket, Bob. I shall make Clem drivethe waggonette home; he knows the ground better than I do.'
There was a good deal of summer lig
htning all the way home: but LadyCaergwent, tightly packed into the waggonette, never started at theshimmering sheets of pale light. Nay, she loved them all the rest ofher life.
And the arrowhead, which she found in a jug outside her door in themorning, received full justice, and was in fact the last botanicalspecimen ever added to her collection.
The proverbial 'dull elf' alone could fail to figure the ensuing days,with the semi-concealment of what everybody knew, but no one wassupposed to know before the authorities. How Lady Caergwent sat up atuntimely hours, pouring her heart out to Robina; how Bernard becamemelancholy and misanthropical, when cruelly snubbed by Lord Ernest--'Icould have had some pity on him,' was the reply to a remonstrance,'but for that speech about his brothers.' Angela, on the other hand,made such endeavours to rescue poor Lord Ernest from being bored, thatCherry, in constant fear of her exposing herself, told her how mattersstood, when she became furious and scornful at his supposed wearinessof toil, and the succumbing of his resolution. Clement endured it muchbetter, being quite willing that any one but the clergy should marry,and knowing Lord Ernest well enough to believe that he would only makethe lady a stronger pillar of the Church.
After a few fresh touches had given a new and different reading to theportrait, and after a Sunday of bliss that cost Will and Robina somegulps of envious philosophy, there was a return to the Hammonds, and atremendous croquet party to kill off all the neighbourhood before Mrs.Umfraville's return.
That lady's thankful comfort was only alloyed by sorrow that herColonel could not see the fulfilment of his chief wish, while she feltthat the four years' estrangement had improved both in manliness andwomanliness, in forbearance and humility, and the matrimonial balancewould be far easier of adjustment.
Of course invitations and promises to attend the wedding were made inthe heat of the moment, and these were kept in October by Felix andGeraldine as well as Robina, who a second time dazzled Lady Vanderkistby her appearance in the list of bridesmaids. It was the last thingbefore she, with the whole De la Poer party, went abroad for the winterfor the sake of her little delicate pupil, Susan, who had been orderedto spend the winter in the Riviera; and ever considerate, when Lord Dela Poer asked his daughter Grace's Mr. Pemberton to join the travellersat Christmas, he also asked William Harewood; and Robina was the bestoff, for the curate could not come when the tutor could.
Mrs. Umfraville made a great deal of Mr. and Miss Underwood atCaergwent, and they much enjoyed their visit; but it was always asubject of regret that these outer interests seemed to make Lance feelat a greater distance from them. Something was amiss, though it wasnot easy to make out what it was, and he never allowed that he wasuncomfortable, nor weary of his bicycle or of Mrs. Froggatt.
The Pillars of the House; Or, Under Wode, Under Rode, Vol. 2 (of 2) Page 17
