Sir Jasper brought a reassuring account of the poor little steed, which would be usable again after a short rest, and the blemish was the less important as there was no intention of selling him. Mrs. Halfpenny, too, reported that her patient was as quiet as a lamb. 'She wasn't one to fash herself for nothing and go into screaming cries, but kenned better what was fitting for one born under Her Majesty's colours.'
So there was nothing to hinder amusement when at dinner Sir Jasper comically described the procession as he met it. Kalliope White, looking only too like Minerva, or some of those Greek goddess statues they used to draw about, sitting straight and upright in her triumphal car, drawn by her votary; while poor Gillian came behind with the pony on one side and the bicycle on the other, very much as if she were conducting the wheel on which she was to be broken, as an offering to the idol.
'I think,' said Mysie, 'Captain Henderson was like the two happy sons in Solon's story, who dragged their mother to the temple.'
'Only they died of it,' said Gillian.
'And nobody asked how the poor mother felt afterwards,' added Lady Merrifield.
'I thought they all had an apotheosis together,' said Sir Jasper. 'Let us hope that devotion may have its reward.'
There was a little lawn outside the drawing-room windows at Il Lido. Lady Merrifield was sitting just within, and her husband had just brought her a letter to read, when they heard Wilfred's impish voice.
'Jack-no, not Jack-Fangs!'
'But Fangs's name is Jack, so it will do as well,' said Valetta's voice.
'Hurrah-so it is! Jack-'
'Hush, Wilfred-this is too foolish!' came Gillian's tones in remonstrance.
'Jack and Jill went up the hill
To draw-'
'To draw! Oh, that's lovely!' interrupted Valetta.
'He is always drawing,' said Gillian, with an odd laugh.
'He was brought up to it. First teeth, and then "picturs," and then- -oh, my-ladies home from the wash!' went on Wilfred.
'But go on, Will!' entreated Valetta.
'Jack and Jill went up the hill
To draw a piece of water-'
'No, no,' put in Wilfred-'that's wrong!
'To draw the sergeant's daughter;
Fangs dragged down unto the town,
And Jill came moaning after!'
'I didn't moan-'
'Oh, you don't know how disconsolate you looked! Moaning, you know, because her Fangs had to draw the other young woman-eh, Gill? Fangs always leave an aching void, you know.'
'You ridiculous boy! I'm sure I wish Fangs would leave a void. It wouldn't ache!'
The two parents had been exchanging glances of something very like consternation, and of the mute inquiry on one side, 'Were you aware of this sort of thing? and an emphatic shake of the head on the other. Then Sir Jasper's voice exclaimed aloud-
'Children, we hear every word you say, and are shocked at your impertinence and bad taste!'
There was a scatter. Wilfred and Valetta, who had been pinioning Gillian on either side by her dress, released her, and fled into the laurels that veiled the guinea-pigs; but their father's long strides pursued them, and he gravely said-
'I am very sorry to find this is your style of so-called wit!'
'It was only chaff,' said Valetta, the boldest in right of her girlhood.
'Very improper chaff! I am the last person to object to harmless merriment; but you are both old enough to know that on these subjects such merriment is not harmless.'
'Everybody does it,' whined Valetta, beginning one of her crying fits.
'I am sorry you have been among people who have led you to think so. No nicely-minded girl will do so, nor any brother who wishes to see his sisters refined, right-feeling women. Go in, Valetta-I can't suffer this howling! Go, I say! Your mother will talk to you. Now, Wilfred, do you wish to see your sisters like your mother?'
'They'll never be that, if they live to a hundred!'
'Do not you hinder it, then; and never let that insulting nickname pass your lips again.'
Wilfred's defence as to universal use in the family was inaudible, and he was allowed to slouch away.
Gillian had fled to her mother, entreating her to explain to her father that such jests were abhorrent to her.
'But you know, mamma, if I was cross and dignified, Wilfred would enjoy it all the more, and be ten times worse.'
'Quite true, my dear. Papa will understand; but we are sorry to hear that nickname.
'It was an old Royal Wardour name, mamma. Harry and Claude both used it, and-oh, lots of the young officers!'
'That does not make it more becoming in you.'
'N-no. But oh, mamma, he was very kind to-day! But I do wish it had been anybody else!'
And her colour rose so as to startle her mother.
'Why, my dear, I thought you would have been glad that a stranger did not find you in that plight!'
'But it makes it all the worse. He does beset us, mamma; and it is hard on me, after all the other nonsense!'
Lady Merrifield burst out laughing.
'My dear child, he thinks as much of you as of old Halfpenny!'
'Oh, mamma, are you sure?' said Gillian, still hiding her face. 'It was not silliness of my own; but Kitty Varley told Val that everybody said it-her sister, and Miss Mohun, and all. Why can't he go away, and not be always bothering about this horrid place with nothing to do?'
'How thankful I shall be to have you all safe at Clipston!'
'But, mamma, can't you keep him off us?'
Valetta's sobbing entrance here prevented more; but while explaining to her the causes of her father's displeasure, her mother extracted a good deal more of the gossip, to which she finally returned answer-
'There is no telling the harm that is done by chattering gossip in this way. You might have learnt by what happened before what mistakes are made. What am I to do, Valetta? I don't want to hinder you from having friends and companions; but if you bring home such mischievous stories, I shall have to keep you entirely among ourselves till you are older and wiser.'
'I never-never will believe-anybody who says anybody is going to marry anybody!' sobbed Valetta desperately and incoherently.
'Certainly no one who knows nothing about the matter. There is nothing papa and I dislike much more than such foolish talk; and to tease your sister about it is even worse; but I will say no more about that, as I believe it was chiefly Wilfred's doing.'
'I-told-Will,' murmured Valetta. 'Mysie begged me not, but I had done it.'
'How much you would have saved yourself and everybody else if you had let the foolish word die with you! Now, good-night, my dear. Bathe your eyes well, or they will be very uncomfortable to-morrow; and do try to cure yourself of roaring when you cry. It vexes papa so much more.'
Another small scene had to follow with the boy, who was quite willing to go off to bed, having no desire to face his father again, though his mother had her fears that he was not particularly penitent for 'what fellows always did when people were spooning.' He could only be assured that he would experience unpleasant consequences if he recurred to the practice; but Wilfred had always been the problem in the family.
The summer twilight was just darkening completely, and Lady Merrifield had returned to the drawing-room, and was about to ring for lights, when Sir Jasper came in through the window, saying-
'No question now about renewal. Angelic features, more than angelic calmness and dignity. Ha! you there, young ladies!' he added in some dismay as two white dresses struck his eye.
'There's no harm done,' said Lady Merrifield, laughing. 'I was thinking whether to relieve Gillian's mind by telling her the state of the case, and Mysie is to be trusted.'
'Oh, mamma, then it is Kalliope!' exclaimed Gillian, already relieved, for even love could not have perceived calmness and dignity in her sitting upon Bruno's head.
'Has she ever talked about him?' asked Lady Merrifield.
'No; except to-day,
when I said I hoped she was safe from him on that road. She said he had always been very kind to her, and taught her to draw when she was quite a little girl.'
'Just so,' said Lady Merrifield. 'Well, when she was a little older, poor Mr. White, who was one of the most honourable and scrupulous of men, took alarm, and saw that it would never do to have the young officers running after her.'
'It was an uncommonly awkward position,' added Sir Jasper, 'with such a remarkable-looking girl, and a foolish unmanageable mother. It made poor White's retirement the more reasonable when the girl was growing too old to be kept at school any longer.'
'And has he been constant to her all these years? How nice!' cried Mysie.
'After a fashion,' said Lady Merrifield. 'He made me the receptacle of a good deal of youthful despair.'
'All the lads did,' said her husband.
'But he got over it, and it seemed to have passed out of his life. However, he asked after the Whites as soon as we met him in London; and now he tells me that he never forgot Kalliope-her face always came between him and any one whom his mother threw in his way; and he came down here, knowing her history, and with the object of seeing her again.'
'And he has not, till now?'
'No. Besides the absolute need of keeping her quiet, it would not exactly do for him to visit her while she is alone with Maura at Cliff House, and I wished him first to see her casually amongst us, for I dreaded her not fulfilling his ideal.'
'Oh!'
'When I think of her at fourteen or fifteen, with that exquisite bloom and the floating wavy hair, I see a very different creature from what she is now.'
'Peach or ivory carving,' said Sir Jasper.
'Yes; she is nobler, finer altogether, and has gained in countenance greatly; but he may not think so, and I should like her to be looking a little less ill.'
'Well, I can't help hoping he will be disappointed, and be too stupid to care for her!' exclaimed Gillian.
'Indeed?' said her father in a tone of displeased surprise.
'He is so insignificant; he does not seem to suit with her,' said Gillian in a tone of defence;' and there does not seem to be anything in him.'
'That only shows the effect of nursing prejudice by using foolish opprobrious nicknames. Henderson was a good officer, he has shown himself an excellent son, always sacrificing his own predilections for the sake of duty. He is a right-minded, religious, sensible man, his own master, and with no connections to take umbrage at Miss White's position. It is no commonplace man who knows how to honour her for it. Nothing could be a happier fate for her; and you will be no friend to her if you use any foolish terms of disparagement of him because he does not happen to please your fancy.'
'I am sure Gillian will do no such thing, now that she understands the case' said her mother.
'Oh no, indeed! said Gillian. 'It was only a first feeling.'
'And you will allow for a little annoyance, papa,' added Lady Merrifield. 'We really have had a great deal of him, and he does spoil the children's walks with you.'
Sir Jasper laughed.
'I agree that the sooner this is over the better. You need have no doubts as to the first view, now that Gillian has effected the introduction. No words can do justice to her beauty, though, by the bye, he must have contemplated her through the back of his head!'
'Well, won't that do! Can't he be sent off for the present, for as to love-making now, with all the doubts and scruples in the way, it would be the way to kill her outright.'
'You must take that in hand, my lady-it is past me! Come, girls, give us some music!'
The two girls went up at bed-time to their room, Mysie capering and declaring that here was real, true, nice love, like people in stories, and Gillian still bemoaning a little that, whatever papa might say, Fa-Captain Henderson would always be too poor a creature for Kalliope.
'If I was quite sure it was not only her beauty,' added Gillian philosophically.
Lady Merrifield went up to Cliff House as early as she could the next day. She found her patient there very white and shaken, but not so much by the adventure of yesterday as by a beautiful bouquet of the choicest roses which lay on the table before her sofa, left by Captain Henderson when he had called to inquire after her.
'What ought I to do, dear Lady Merrifield?' she asked. 'They came while I was dressing, and I did not know.'
'You mean about a message of thanks?'
'Yes; my dear father was so terribly displeased when I wore a rose that he gave me before the great review at Belfast that I feel as if I ought not to touch these; and yet it is so kind, and after all his wonderful kindness yesterday.'
The hand on the side and the trembling lip showed the painful fluttering of heart, and the voice died away.
'My dear, things are very different now. Take my word for it, your father could not be displeased for a moment at any kindness between you and Captain Henderson. Ten years ago he was a very young man, and his parents were living, and your father was bound in honour, and for your sake too, to prevent attentions from the young officers.'
'Oh yes, I know it would have been shocking to have got into that sort of thing!'
'But now he is entirely at his own disposal, and a man of four or five-and-thirty, who has gone through a great deal, and I do not think that to send him a friendly message of thanks for a bunch of flowers to his old fellow-soldier's daughter would be anything but what Captain White would think his due.'
'Oh,'-a sigh of relief,-'please tell him, dear Lady Merrifield!' And she stretched out her hand for the flowers, and lovingly cooled her cheek with their petals, and tenderly admired them singly, venturing now to enjoy them and even caress them.
Lady Merrifield ventured on no more; but she carried off ultimately hopeful auguries for the gentleman who had been watching for her, very anxious to hear her report. She was, however, determined on persuading him to patience, reinforcing her assurances with Dr. Dagger's opinion, that though Kalliope's constitution needed only quiet and rest entirely to shake off the effects of the overstrain of that terrible half-year, yet that renewed agitation would probably entail chronic heart-complaint; and she insisted that without making any sign the lover should go out of reach for several months, making, for instance, the expedition to Norway of which he had been talking. He could not understand at first that what he meant to propose would not be the best means of setting that anxious heart at rest; and Lady Merrifield had to dwell on the swarm of conscientious scruples and questions that would arise about saddling him with such a family, and should not be put to rest as easily as he imagined. At last, by the further representation that she would regard her mother's death as far too recent for such matters to occupy her, and by the assertion of the now fixed conviction that attentions from him at present could only agitate and distress her harmfully, and bring on her malicious remarks, the Captain was induced to believe that Rocca Marina or Florence would be a far better scene for his courtship, and to defer it till he could find her there in better health.
He was brought at last to promise to leave Rockquay at once, and dispose of himself in Norway, if only Lady Merrifield would procure him one meeting with Kalliope, in which he solemnly promised to do nothing that could startle her or betray his intentions.
Lady Merrifield managed it cunningly. It had been already fixed that Kalliope should come down to a brief twelve-o'clock service held at St. Kenelm's for invalids, there to return thanks for her recovery, in what she felt as her own church; and she was to come to Il Lido and rest there afterwards. Resolving to have no spectators, Lady Merrifield sent off the entire family for a picnic at Clipston, promising them with some confidence that they would not be haunted by Captain Henderson, and that she would come in the waggonette, bringing Fergus as soon as he was out of school, drink tea, and fetch home the tired.
Sir Jasper went too, telling her, with a smile, that he was far too shy to assist her in acting chaperon.
'Dragon, you had better say-I mean to put
on all my teeth and claws.'
These were not, however, very visible at the church door when she met Kalliope, who had come down in a bath-chair, but was able afterwards to walk slowly to Il Lido. Perhaps Captain Henderson was, however, aware of them; for Kalliope had no knowledge of his presence in the church or in the street, somewhat in the rear, nor did he venture to present himself till there had been time for luncheon and for rest, and till Kalliope had been settled in the cool eastern window under the verandah, with an Indian cushion behind her that threw out her profile like a cameo.
Then, as if to call on Lady Merrifield, Captain Henderson appeared armed, according to a wise suggestion, with his portfolio; and there was a very quiet and natural overlooking of his drawings, which evidently gave Kalliope immense pleasure, quite unsuspiciously. Precautions had been taken against other visitors, and all went off so well and happily that Lady Merrifield felt quite triumphant when the waggonette came round, and, after picking up Fergus, she set Kalliope down at her own door, with something like a colour in her cheeks and lips, and thanks for a happy afternoon, and the great pleasure in seeing one of the dear old Royal Wardours again.
But, oh mamma,' said Gillian, feeling as if the thorn in her thoughts must be extracted, 'are you sure it is not all her beauty?'
'Her beauty, no doubt, began it, and gratifies the artist eye; but I am sure his perseverance is due to appreciation of her noble character,' said Lady Merrifield.
'Oh, mamma, would he if she had been ever so good, and no prettier than other people?'
'Don't pick motives so, my child; her beauty helps to make up the sum and substance of his adoration, and she would not have the countenance she has without the goodness. Let that satisfy you.'
Beechcroft at Rockstone Page 35
