“But that cannot be,” she objected timidly, yet loved him the more for his delicacy.
“No,” with a sigh. “That cannot be — of course. But for a little space let us keep it untarnished. In ten days or a fortnight, when I have tried the ground—”
“You will tell her?”
“Of course.” He spoke as if there could be no question of that. “We must. To be sure, we must. There is no other course open to us.”
She owned the beauty of his thought; of his conception of a love, wholly and sacredly their own, and guarded from the knowledge of the cold, indifferent world. But her nature, simple and open, might not have consented so easily but for the limit of time that he named. Ten days? It would pass so quickly, so happily, and who at such a moment, could raise scruples or put forward difficulties, as if he were one to be distrusted?
But a ruder blast was presently to penetrate, though it was far from dispersing, the glamour in which Rachel moved. They were within a short distance of the house when from a converging path some hundred yards before them, there issued the shooting party, straggling by twos and threes towards the Folly. Had one of the men looked back as they passed the fork, he must have seen the couple, and quick to perceive this, Girardot drew her out of the path. He could not hide his discomposure.
“This won’t do,” he said hurriedly. “Or all is out, dearest. We must not be seen together, and in any case we must have parted presently. Do you go on. Go, dear!” Gently he stooped and kissed her. Then, as he released her, “Do you go on, and God bless you, my own!”
She disliked the concealment, but what could she do with his kiss still on her lips? She complied and walked on in a tremor of happiness, hardly able, now that she was alone, to believe that this thing, this blessed thing had happened to her — that he was hers, her own, her very own. But she was not long left to her thoughts. She was indeed roughly plucked from them, for at the meeting of the ways she came plump upon Ann — Ann capering along with her hand in her father’s.
Had Rachel been walking in the real world instead of in that rosy dream, she might have heard their voices earlier, and have hung back and avoided them. But as it was, she was taken by surprise, and the conscious blush that crimsoned her face caught my lord’s eye.
“Gad, the girl’s a beauty,” he thought, “of a sort.” Aloud, “Hallo, Miss South!” he cried. “Were you hunting for the truant? If she plagues you,” he continued ruffling Ann’s black mane with his hand, “half as much as she plagues me, I am sorry for you! How do you manage her? Hope you whip her well!”
“No, she don’t!” said Ann stolidly.
“Well, how the deuce does she manage you, Miss Brimstone?”
“I like her,” Ann said dispassionately.
“The devil you do! How’s that, Miss South? Why, I thought this rogue made war on all governesses, tutors, principalities and powers! Can she be good?”
“She can be,” Rachel said demurely. The by-play had given time for her hot cheeks to cool, and she spoke calmly, though her eyes were unusually bright.
“Can she? Then let’s test you, Ann. Run on and tell Felix to make me a hot bath. Show us how fast those thin legs of yours can run.”
Ann, glad to be in motion, flew after the rest of the party, the rearmost of whom were still in sight. My lord turned to his companion. “Gad,” he said, with his gay captivating laugh, “we go down before your charms like ninepins! I this morning, Ann this afternoon! Come now,” with a sly peep under her bonnet, “who is to be your next conquest?”
He meant nothing, but he could no more refrain from making love when he spoke to a pretty woman than he could help breathing; though in nine cases out of ten it was mere sport. And in this case it was certainly innocent, for with all his faults he would have drawn the line at his daughter’s governess almost as sharply as Captain George himself. But when a piquant little thing with shining eyes and lips that trembled into smiles met him at the junction of two paths, to waste the opportunity would have been as impossible for Frederick, Lord Ellingham, as to refrain from oysters in September.
He might have paid a much broader compliment without affecting Rachel in her present mood. “I fear that Lady Ann is but a temporary capture,” she said sedately.
“Well, she’s a deuced difficult one! More difficult I warrant than most of us, eh? Confess, now. Isn’t she?” Then in a lower tone, “I say, are you coming down this evening?”
“To the drawing-room, Lord Ellingham?”
“To be sure.”
“No,” Rachel explained. “I come down only when Lady Ellingham is alone.”
“Oh, come now, that is too bad,” he protested good-naturedly. “And tell me — between you and me, ain’t you confoundedly dull up there, wasting your — you know the rest?”
“No,” Rachel replied, with such a look of conscious happiness that my lord, having no clue to it, felt his interest in her increase. “I am happier in the schoolroom than in the drawing-room.”
“The devil you are! Well, begad, that’s one for us!”
“Oh!” Rachel cried. “I didn’t mean that!”
“But it is true! Begad, it is! I can see it is. But why now?” in his most insinuating tone. “Ain’t we nice to you?”
“Oh, yes,” Rachel protested, colouring. “Of course. But the schoolroom is my proper place. And so I am happier there.”
“In your proper place? I see. You are happier when you are there. By Jove,” he exclaimed with feeling, “I wish we all were. But, lord, what a wise little lady you are! If you teach that to Ann she’ll be a wiser man,” with a momentary gravity in his tone, “than her father. Suppose I come up and take a lesson too, do you think you can teach me that? What do you say, Miss South?”
“That you would not be in your proper place,” Rachel replied demurely, but with a smile hovering on her lips. “And that would not be good for you or for Ann.” Then, “Good day, Lord Ellingham, I turn off here.” And with a gay little nod — for her heart was like a singing bird, rising higher and higher on the swell of the incredible happiness that flooded her — she turned away to the side door, and went up to the schoolroom.
There the fire burned low, glowing like a sulky eye in the twilight, and the room was cold. But what matter? What matter if all was dull and shabby within, and without were winter and east winds and nipping airs? For she brought her own clime with her, and to that room which she had left wretched and despondent she returned in all the glow of an amazing, an overpowering happiness. In the gloom she saw only halcyon days; days of tender reverie and thankful contemplation, days given up to reverencing and cherishing and turning every way the glorious heaven-born gift of his love! The gift that had transfigured and was transfiguring the world for her, that was brightening the long vista of life with fairest flowers and filling the sunlit spaces with nature’s melody! What outer cold was there, what nipping air, that could reach this inner warmth? What loneliness was there that was not welcome — ay, thrice welcome if it left her free to bask in the sunshine of her dreams?
Meanwhile my lord strode into the house, half puzzled and half amused. “What a provoking, prudent little baggage it is!” he thought. “And eyes like stars! I’m hanged if I don’t think that she was laughing at me half the time! Or preaching! In my proper place, eh? Well, she had me there!” And the smile vanished and his face was moody as he entered the hall.
CHAPTER XVII
THE ROASTING OF GEORGE
THE girl had given hardly a thought to the encounter with my lord and less to his gallantry. But more than one of the shooters had looked back, and recognizing her had found something to say about it. Then Ann in her rapid flight had been waylaid by her uncle. She had explained her errand and he too had looked back and frowned. The way in which he had been overruled that morning had not pleased him, and he was jealous, as he was ever jealous on my lady’s account. And possibly there were other grounds for his vexation which he did not understand and certainly did not own. At any r
ate, when my lord strode into the hall the Captain met him with a sombre face. “For God’s sake, Fred,” he blurted out, “let that little girl alone. There is trouble enough without that!”
Now these two, between whom there was an affection rare in their class, had long ago changed places. Success had made the younger independent, for in his day fortunes were rapidly made at sea; and hard service and the habit of command had won for him the elder’s respect. He had become the mentor, and as a rule was heard with patience if with small result. But no man more warmly resents a false accusation than he who is guilty on other counts; and my lord was no exception to the rule. He fired up. “Without what?” he replied sharply. “Confound you, what do you mean, George? Mayn’t I speak to my own governess? Damme, man, what are we coming to?”
“She’s not your governess,” George replied. “She’s Ann’s. And all I say is, just leave her alone. You know what I mean very well.”
“Begad, I’ll tell you what it is!” my lord retorted. “I believe you are taken with her yourself, Master George!” And the idea in a moment restored his good temper. “I suspect I’ve crossed your hawse,” he added, grinning, “as you’d say, and so it’s ‘Hands off!’ That’s it, old chap!”
“Oh, stow that,” the Captain rejoined. “You only say it for the sake of saying something.”
“It’s a hit, anyway!” my lord replied with glee. “Hang me if it isn’t. Now, mind you respect her virtue, George! Remember she’s under my charge. I’m responsible and — ha! ha! Hit between wind and water! Off, are you?” He laughed aloud as the Captain, with an angry oath, turned away and strode up the stairs. “Poor George,” he reflected mischievously. “I beat him there, I guess!”
And after dinner, when the matter came up again, and my lord found himself the object of attack, he smiled at the others’ innuendoes, and craftily waited his time. “So that was why you lagged behind?” Bobbie said. “Ann, indeed, you old sinner!”
“A silly rogue that plagues me,” quoted the Colonel. “A little French — governess! And having some character to lose she met me in the wood!”
“And only two nights ago Fred pretended that he had never seen her!”
“True, ‘pon honour,” my lord laughed.
“Poor girl!” quoted the Colonel gravely — he was an amateur actor of some note. “I really am in the utmost concern for her.”
“For us, for us, you mean,” returned Lord Robert. “Inhospitable dog! Fred asks us here and leaves us only the chambermaids.”
“Out of regard for your innocence,” my lord laughed. “You are too young, Bobbie.”
“And after all,” said Sir Austin Froyle, with the air of one deciding a question on the Bench, “a man has a right to the game in his own warren.”
My lord laughed. “Oh, it’s a free warren for me. You can all go in and win — if you can. You, George, if you like,” pointedly. “She’s a dear little innocent for me.”
“Ay, innocent as Bobbie,” the Colonel contributed. “I warrant she knows how to turn the key in a door.”
“They are all dear little innocents,” lisped Bobbie. “Only just a little less innocent when they have walked home with Fred.”
But the Captain, though he suspected that Fred was laying a trap for him, could stand it no longer. “Oh, let the child alone!” he said with irritation. “You are all talking d — d nonsense! A set of stap-my-vitals Lord Foppingtons, every mother’s son of you.”
“Hallo, George!” Lord Robert stared, genuinely surprised by the attack. “What the devil’s bitten you?”
“As for Fred,” the Captain continued, “he’s a pig to carry on as he does. He knows the girl is a good girl.”
“They are all good girls,” smiled the Colonel. “Didn’t I say so?”
“Yes, but you didn’t mean it, Ould. I’ll wager that Fred never laid a finger on her and never got more than a civil word from her!”
“True as my glove, George,” my lord assented, delighted at his success in “drawing the badger.”
But the Colonel had now caught the idea, and pursued it. “Joseph — I mean George — is indeed what a man should be,” he said solemnly. “A pattern to his brother, Fred. He professes the noblest sentiments, ’tis edification to hear him. But he makes me suspect if he be indeed the man of principle he seems to be. Fred Surface? Nay, my dear Lady Sneerwell, but his brother George is the man. Now after what we have heard I’m open to wager that George knows a deal more about the little French governess than Fred does — and damn his sentiments!”
My lord clapped his hands. “Well, George, what do you say?” he cried. “Begad,” to Ould, “I think you have tailed him.” For the Captain certainly looked a little out of countenance. “I’m hanged if he hasn’t stolen a march upon us, the sly dog!” George answered him sulkily. “All I say is, let the girl alone,” he said. “Let her be. If you do her no more harm than I have she’ll be lucky. But,” viciously, “you are just a crew of waisters, good for nothing but tumbling over one another in pursuit of mischief! As if there weren’t enough women where you come from, and good enough for you!”
Colonel Ould laughed softly. “Odd!” he said. “It’s confounded odd what a change has come over George’s service since Lady Hamilton joined it. They used to be rough sea-dogs, smelling of the tar-bucket and, saving your presence, George, with uncouth manners and coats to match — you might know one at sight as far as from Schomberg House to the Carlton Corner — and as much given to flirtation as a bear in a pit! But since Lord Nelson set the fashion of gallantry—”
“Oh!” the Captain cried impatiently. “For God’s sake, leave Lord Nelson out!”
“There!” The Colonel winked. “He proves my point. You mustn’t touch Lord Nelson. Why?”
“I could soon tell you why!” growled the badger. “No need! No need!” airily. The Colonel was not over-fond of Fred’s brother and had no mind to lose the opportunity of roasting him. “It’s writ large all over the service. He’s done the trick for them! He’s made them all men of fashion, lifted ‘em to the plane of elegance, made ‘em all lady-killers!
They all aspire to a Lady Hamilton now, buy their coats at Stultz’s, go soaked in mille-fleurs, handle a snuff-box instead of a tar-bucket, and chase the ladies! So here’s to Lord Nelson!”
“It’s ‘here to Lord Nelson’ for a very different reason,” snapped the Captain, amid the general laughter.
“He’s an admiral like another,” said old Froyle.
But this was too much for George. “Oh, is he begad?” he retorted. “Like another! I know that is what you fools of landsmen think, fribbling over your dish of catlap! But I wager you he’s not like another! He’s—”
“He’s made you all gentlemen,” sneered Ould, “present company of course excepted,” with an ironical bow.
“He’s made us all fighters!” the Captain continued, too much in earnest to notice the gibe. “He has taught us all to go in to win instead of counting heads and thinking only of coming out with just the best of it! He’s taught us to sink, burn, and destroy, yard-arm to yard-arm, instead of standing off and playing at long bowls! Fashion be d — d! He’s gone back to old Hawke and made Quiberon the fashion, that’s what he has done! There will be no more First of Junes and no more Hothams, thank God! Fashion? Didn’t the Nile set a fashion and set such a fashion as was never known before! Was ever such a victory dreamed of — twelve ships taken out of fourteen — till he won it?”
“Bravo, George!” laughed my lord. “You’ve mouthed it finely. I did not know that you had it in you, begad!”
“At the battle of the Nile, I was there all the while.
I was there all the while at the battle of the Nile,”
hummed the Colonel, slyly. He had not failed to note the Captain’s little weakness.
“But Duncan?” argued Lord Robert. He was still young and capable of catching the spark. “Surely Duncan—”
“Oh, Duncan? A sound man,” the Captain grunted, a little
ashamed of his outburst. “But Nelson taught him the trick at St. Vincent.”
“And you may take it from me,” said the Colonel, sticking to his point, because he saw that it annoyed the Captain, “he taught them the other lesson too — to be heroes of the clouded cane as well as of the spontoon and to bear down on the donnas as stoutly as on the dons! Fred, my boy, you must look to your laurels, and to your governess, or he’ll cut you out under your nose! What are you going to do about it?”
“Go to the ladies!” my lord replied, laughing. “Come, break up, break up! Or we shall be in disgrace again this evening! Someone shake the parson there!” Lord Robert clapped the Captain on the shoulder as they rose.
“Come, Admiral,” he said. “Let’s see you board the little craft! And if you don’t make a leg conformably, hang me if I don’t enter for the filly-stakes myself and cut you out!”
The Captain’s strength did not lie in repartee. “Confounded ass you are, Bobbie!” he said.
“And off the course too, Bobbie,” said my lord. “The young lady won’t be there.”
“Oh, you know, do you, you sly dog! You are in her confidence. Then, gad, let’s have her down.”
“Yes,” said Sir Austin, whose powdered head simulated a wisdom that he did not possess. “Why not? It seems a promising proposal.”
“Then suppose you put it to her ladyship,” my lord said dryly, “and see what she says.”
“Oh!” Sir Austin answered, a little checked. “Well, if you put it that way, I don’t know that I quite—”
Complete Works of Stanley J Weyman Page 724
