The Pillars of the House, V1

by Шарлотта Мэри Йондж

  'Public opinion must be prepared first,' said Lance.

  'And that,' said Gertrude, 'we'd better do by a great example! Here, well show what can be done. Why shouldn't we get out to the end of the Kitten's Tail?'

  'One can't to the end,' said Charlie; 'there's a place big enough for a gig to go through half way out.'

  'And about the tide?' said Lance.

  'Tide,' said Charlie, looking at his watch-'tide wouldn't think of playing us such a dirty trick as turning for an hour and a half.'

  'And the jolliest beasts of all always live in places like that,' added Somerville. 'Come on, President of the Society for the Suppression of Shoeses-to the front!'

  On moved the august Society, now scrambling to a dry flat, now threading a mauvais pas, clinging to festoons of sea-weed; the three little boys climbed like monkeys or sailors; but Lance, agile as he was, had not had the same amount of training, and felt besides that it was requisite to be ready to give a helping hand to Miss Gertrude. She got on very well, being full of lightness and springiness, only she was a little inclined to be adventurous, and to chatter at critical moments.

  'We must have got out a quarter of a mile.'

  'Oh no, not that!'

  'No? I'm sure it is! How small they look on the beach! I wonder if they can see us! Hark! they're singing-'

  '"Drink to me only with thine eyes:" that's Felix's crack glee,' said Lance, 'what fun for him!'

  'This is much better fun!' cried the general voice. 'They'll never see us if we wave now!'

  'No, no; don't let's wave now! Wait till we get to the farthest point.'

  'And there we'll plant our ensign!'

  'What shall we do for a flag? We haven't got the Britisher here!'

  'No; it must be the flag of the SSSS's.'

  'That ought to be a bit of bare skin.'

  'No, no-a pair of feet-motto, "Off, vile lendings!"'

  'I say, I don't think you can get any farther,' interposed Somerville. 'I've been on four rocks farther, and I'm sure you will never get back again if you go on.'

  'Oh, that's base! I'm sure this one isn't so hard.'

  She was creeping along a ledge, holding the sea-weed with one hand and Lance by the other.

  'I really don't think it passable,' he said; 'there's scarcely the width of one's foot beyond.'

  'Hurrah!' shouted Frank. 'Here's the father of all the Daisianas!'

  'Oh! oh! he's my cousin. I must see him!' cried Gertrude, with a scramble and a laugh, which ended in a sudden slip-luckily, not into the open sea, but into a very steep-sided bath-like pool; and Lance, whom of course she gripped hard, was pulled after her, both over head and ears; and though they scrambled on their feet in a moment, there they stood up to their shoulders in water.

  'Get the Daisiana now you are there!' shouted Frank.

  'How are we ever to get out?' said Gertrude, looking up the walls, six feet at least on the lowest side.

  'If we had a rope,' said Charlie.

  'Make signals-call,' said Somerville, all suiting the action to the word. 'No, they don't hear! they are all singing away. You, Franky, you're too little to be any good, make the best of your way to call somebody.'

  'The tide will come in!' said Frank. 'Mamma and Aunt Emmie were once shut in by the tide, and Uncle Edwin. And there was a fellow who was quite drowned-dead-and that was why I was named Francis.'

  'That's what you may call a cheering reminiscence at a happy moment,' said Lance, recollecting that he was far more nearly a man than any one present, and instinctively feeling the need of brightening all into cheerful activity, for the girl looked thoroughly frightened. 'Yes, Lord Frank, the best thing you can do is to go for somebody; but we'll be out long first. Can't we make a rope! Have you a sash or anything Miss Gertrude? Don't fear, we'll soon be out.'

  Happily she had both a sash and a broad ribbon round her hat; and Lance tore off his puggery.

  'I can do it best,' called Charlie. 'I know all the sailors' knots.'

  'It will never bear,' said Gertrude.

  'Oh yes, it will. You'll not trust your whole weight to it. Is it done?'

  'Besides, how can they draw me up?'

  'We'd best get behind that rock, Sum,' suggested Charlie, 'then she won't pull us in.'

  Charlie's sailor experience was very useful; and he shouted advice to Lance, who was tying the extemporary rope round Gertrude, not very easily, owing to the material, and to its being done under water.

  'Now, then, you do your best at climbing-here,' he said. 'They'll pull you; and look! There, first my knee-yes-now my shoulder- now-' And standing for a moment on his shoulder, Gertrude was really able with a desperate grapple to surmount the wall of her prison, and scramble out beside the two cousins, whose pulls had been very helpful.

  Lance's clambering was a harder matter, for he did not venture to trust much to the rope, though the girl's strength was added to that of the two boys; and it was a severe climb up the scarcely indented, slippery, moist, slimy rock, where his hands and feet could hardly find any hold; and when at length he reached the top, he was so panting and dizzy, that Somerville at first held him to hinder his slipping backward into the sea. No one could get at King or Queen Daisiana, so it was left in its glory; while the young people struggled back over rocks that seemed much steeper, and pools far deeper, than in their advance; Lance still trying to be helpful, but with a mazed sense of the same sort of desperate effort with which he had run back with Bill's verses; for not only had his small strength been overtaxed, but the immersion in water was affecting his head.

  Lord Francis had made much quicker progress; and boy as he was, showed his breeding by not rushing open-mouthed on the party with his intelligence, but seeking the Captain, who was smoking the pipe of solitude upon a rock apart. He at once sent Frank to the servants, who were enjoying the relics of the feast, to fetch some wine, and tell the boat's crew to make ready at once, and then went off himself to seek Mrs. Rivers. Felix, who had spied the little messenger speeding up to the Captain, was already on his way to the rocks, and reached the party in good time; for draggled, drenched, and with clinging garments, they were so slow in getting on, that it was no delusion that the water was higher, and the rocks lower; and even Gertrude had neither breath nor spirits to gabble when that grave anxious face met her, and a strong careful hand lifted and helped, first her, then Lance, up and down every difficulty; and when she perceived how the newcomer avoided point-blank looking at the bare ancles that had sometimes to make long stretches, a burning red came up into her face, half of shame, half of indignation at being made ashamed. And after all, when the place where her hose and shoon had been left was reached, the niched shelf in the rock turned out to have been surrounded by the tide, so that they were quite unattainable either by herself or the little boys; and Felix, putting the arm by which Lance had held by him over Somerville's shoulder told them to go on before, and himself made two long strides and a scramble before he could reach the boots and stockings, and give them to the young lady, unable to help looking nearly as grave and vexed as if it had been Angela herself; indeed, he was vexed, for he had an ideal of the young ladyhood of his mother's old native region, and did not like it to be disturbed. He moved away far enough for her to think he had left her to her fate, till she was on her feet and coming on, and then there he was again, in a moment the attentive squire. Revived by her short rest, and on less perilous ground, she glanced at his face in readiness to disperse her discomfort with something saucy, but somehow, it would not do; and she was tamely conducted to terra firma, where her sister saluted her with 'O Daisy! what a child you are to have charge of!'

  That restored her enough to answer, 'I'm quite delighted something should have happened under your keeping! No harm done. Salt water never gives cold.'

  'I don't mind it for you,' said the elder sister; 'you have not been ill.-But indeed, Mr. Underwood, I am very sorry,' she added. 'What will be best for your brother?'

  'Here!' said Cap
tain Audley, taking from Frank a flask of sherry, and overruling the objection made by the brothers that stimulants were forbidden. He further insisted on taking Lance at once to his own berth on board the yacht while Mrs. Rivers meant to conduct her sister to the preventive house.

  'So,' said Lance, rather ruefully, as he shook hands, 'there ends the SSSS.'

  'Not at all! Its use is proved. We should have been cooked by this time in the Daisiana cauldron, if we had had great cumbrous boots on.'

  It was a valiant effort, and she cast a glance out of the corner of her eye at the elder brother, but it had not relaxed a muscle of his grave anxious face, which was in truth chiefly bent on watching Lance's involuntary shiverings; and she again turned crimson, perhaps from her share of the chill, and was dragged off, muttering, 'What intolerable folks guardian brothers are! Henry Ward was a mild specimen compared to this one!'

  About noon on the following day, Mrs. Pettigrew's little girl abruptly opened the parlour door, and with 'Please, ye're wanted,' turned in a tall, thin, grey-haired, spectacled gentleman, who, as Lance started up from the sofa, exclaimed, 'Don't disturb yourself; I came to thank you, and inquire after you after the adventure my mad- cap daughter led you into.'

  'I hope she is all right,' said Lance, solicitously.

  'As right as Daisiana himself; more so than I fear you are. Let me see you comfortable. Lie down again, pray.'

  'Oh, I don't care about lying down, thank you, Sir; I only sleep for want of something to do;' but though he did not put his feet up, he was feeling far too languid not to relax his bolt-upright attitude, and lean back on his pillows.

  'That will do. Bad headache?'

  'It is nearly gone off now, thank you, Sir; it was bad all night, but it is much better since I have been asleep.'

  'Let me see,' laying his left hand on the wrist that hung over the edge of the sofa. 'Ay, I hope that wicked little siren has done no great damage. Pulled you below, true mermaid fashion-eh?'

  'I meant to have pulled her out.'

  'Instead of which she made a lad into a ladder to climb out on.' Which bad pun served the purpose of making the boy laugh enough to be at his ease. 'She is much indebted, and so am I. I like to meet an old friend's son. Are you alone?'

  'My brother is only gone to the post-office. He will be in before long; but it saves a post to take the letters before twelve, and he ought to be out as much as he can.'

  'Is he here on his own account, or yours?'

  'He came down first, before I was ill. It was bother and overwork and a cough. Everything always does come to worry him, whenever he ought to have rest or pleasure.' And Lance who was thoroughly weary and dispirited, was nearly ready to cry.

  'Even when he goes out for a picnic, young ladies must needs drown themselves!'

  This made Lance smile; but he added, with a quivering lip, 'He would not go to bed till I could go to sleep last night, and that was not till past two, and he looks quite done up this morning.'

  'Is any one attending you?'

  'Dr. Manby did at Minsterham-nobody here.'

  'What's been amiss with you-fever?'

  'Plenty of fever, but it was from sun-stroke.'

  'Ah! you boys have thinner skulls than we used to have! How long ago?'

  'Seven weeks yesterday,' said Lance, wearily.

  'And you are sadly weary of weakness?'

  'I don't mind that so much;' and the kindness of face, voice, and gesture made the poor boy's eyes overflow; 'but I'm no good, and I can't tell whether I ever shall be again!'

  'It is a great deal too soon to trouble yourself about that.'

  'That's what they all tell me!' cried Lance impatiently, and the tears rushed forth again. 'Manby only laughs, and tells me I shall be a Solon yet if I don't vex myself; and how can I tell whether he means it?'

  'Well, dear boy, have it all out; I promise to mean whatever I say.'

  'You are a doctor then, Sir?'

  'What!' the boy doesn't know me, as sure as my name's Dick May!'

  'Oh!' cried Lance, 'that was what I heard Felix saying to Captain Audley-that he did so wish Dr. May could look at me!'

  'That's all right, then. Come, then, what is weighing on you- weakness?'

  'Just not weakness,' said Lance. 'I didn't care so much when I could scarcely get about; but now I can walk any distance, and still I have not a bit more sense!'

  'Is your memory gone?'

  'I don't think so; only, if I fix my mind to recollect, and it doesn't come by chance, I'm all abroad, and perfectly senseless and idiotic!'

  'And it brings on pain?'

  'Yes, if I try five minutes together.'

  'You don't try to read or write?'

  'I can't-and-' then came the tears again-'music is just like red-hot hammers to me.' There was a great fight with sobs, rather puzzling to one who did not know what music was to the chorister. 'And what is to be the end of it?'

  'That rest and patience will make you as well as ever.'

  'Do you really think so? But, Sir, I have a little brother seven and a half years old, with no understanding at all-not able to speak; and if there were two of us on Felix's hands like that! If I could only be put away somewhere, so that Felix should not have the burthen of me!'

  'My poor little fellow! Is this what is preying on you all this time?'

  'Not always-only when I am doing nothing, and that is most times,' he said, dejectedly; but the Doctor smiled.

  'Then you may take the very anxiety as a proof that your brain is recovering. You cannot expect to shake off the effects quickly; but if you are only patient with yourself, you will do perfectly well. Are you a son of the clergy?'

  'No, I am a chorister at Minsterham. I have another year there, when I can go back, if ever-'

  'Don't say if ever! You will, if you only will keep from fretting and hurrying, and will accept that beautiful motto of the Underwoods.'

  Lance smiled responsively, and said more cheerfully, 'You are quite sure, Sir.'

  'As sure as any man can be, that there is no reason to anticipate what you dread. It is quite possible that you may be more or less liable to bad headaches, and find it needful to avoid exposure to summer sunshine; but I should think you as likely to do your work in the world as any one I ever saw.'

  The light on Lance's face did not wholly spring from this reply. With 'There's Felix!' he had bounded out of the room the next moment, and his incautious voice could be heard through the window-'Fee, Fee, here's her father! that brick of a Miss Gertrude's, I mean. He's as jolly as he ought to be, and knew all our people. But just-I say- how's Cherry?'

  'All well; here's a note from the dear little thing herself,' said Felix; and in another moment, with his bag strapped over his shoulder, he had brought the bright sedateness of his face into the little parlour. 'Dr. May! how very kind in you!'

  'Not kindness, but common propriety, to come and see how much mischief my naughty child had done.'

  'I don't think there's any real mischief,' said the elder brother, looking at the much-refreshed face.

  'I think not, and so am free to be glad of the catastrophe that has brought me in the way of an old friend. Yes, I may say so, for I must have known you!'

  'Yes,' said Felix, 'we used to watch for you when you came to my uncle. You always had some fun with us.'

  'I remember a pair of twins, who were an irresistible attraction. I hope they have grown up accordingly. You look as if you ought to have pretty sisters.'

  Felix laughed, and said the twins were reckoned as very pretty.

  'How many of you are there-was it not thirteen? Did not those boys get the clergy-orphan?'

  'One did, thank you. He is on a farm in Australia now, and I am thinking whether to try for little Bernard; but I am afraid his case would be a stale one, being of seven years' standing.'

  'If you want it done, my daughter, Mrs. Rivers, is a dragon of diplomacy in canvassing; but why not send him to Stoneborough? Cheviot takes a selection of cleric
's sons at 30 pounds, and we would have an eye to him.'

  'Thank you, if we can only manage it; but I must see what my sister says-our financier.'

  'One of those little apple-blossom twins? Let me look at you. Do you mean to tell me that this fellow has been the whole standby of that long family these seven years?' he added, turning to Lance.

  'To be sure he has!' cried Lance, eagerly.

  'Lance,' said Felix, rather indignantly. 'You forget Wilmet. And Thomas Underwood entirely educated two of us.'

  'And,' said the Doctor, looking oddly but searchingly from one to the other, 'you've been the bundle of sticks in the fable. Never gone together by the ears? Ah!' as both brothers burst out laughing at the question, 'I'd not have asked if I had not seen how you could answer. I've seen what makes me so afraid of brothers in authority that it does me good to look at you two.'

  Felix looked up. The Stoneborough murder case was about two years old, and of course he had to study and condense the details, and had come on the names of Dr. May and his son in the evidence.

  The further words met his sudden conjecture. 'Ay, boys, you little know what you may be spared by home peace and confidence! Well, and what may you be doing, Felix? Your bag looks as if you had turned postman to the district.'

  'There's my chief business, Sir, coupled with bookselling and stationery,' said Felix, as he pushed across a copy of the Pursuivant that lay on the table. 'I have been well paid from the first, and am in partnership now, so we have got along very well.'

  'Ay, ay! Very good trade, I should think? You must send me your paper, Felix; I want one I can trust to lie about the house.'

  'You will find it very stupid and local, Sir.'

  It was curious how what from Mr. Staples was answered with an effort, seemed from Dr. May to draw out confidence. One point was, that Mr. Staples never seemed sure how to treat him, and often betrayed a tear of hurting his feelings; while with Dr. May he was himself and nothing else. The Doctor stayed to share their dinner, such as it was in consideration of their being lodgers as didn't give trouble-i.e. some plain boiled fish, fresh indeed, but of queer name and quality, and without sauce, and some steak not distantly related to an old shoe; but both seemed to think so little about it, that the Doctor, who was always mourning over the daintiness of the present day, approved them all the more.