CHAPTER XIII.
AMONG THE ARROWS.
The invited to the archery meeting have nearly all arrived, and the shooting has commenced; half a dozen arrows in the air at a time, making for as many targets.
Only a limited number of ladies compete for the first score, each having a little coterie of acquaintances at her back.
Gwen Wynn herself is in this opening contest. Good with the bow, as at the oar--indeed with county celebrity as an archer--carrying the champion badge of her club--it is almost a foregone conclusion she will come off victorious.
Soon, however, those who are backing her begin to antic.i.p.ate disappointment. She is not shooting with her usual skill, nor yet earnestness. Instead, negligently, and, to all appearance, with thoughts abstracted; her eyes every now and then straying over the ground, scanning the various groups, as if in search of a particular individual.
The gathering is large--nearly a hundred people present--and one might come or go without attracting observation. She evidently expects one to come who is not yet there; and oftener than elsewhere her glances go towards the boat-dock, as if the personage expected should appear in that direction. There is a nervous restlessness in her manner, and after each reconnaissance of this kind, an expression of disappointment on her countenance.
It is not un.o.bserved. A gentleman by her side notes it, and with some suspicion of its cause--a suspicion that pains him. It is George Shenstone; who is attending on her, handing the arrows--in short acting as her _aide-de-camp_. Neither is he adroit in the exercise of his duty; instead performs it bunglingly; his thoughts preoccupied, and eyes wandering about. His glances, however, are sent in the opposite direction--to the gate entrance of the park, visible from the place where the targets are set up.
They are both "prospecting" for the self-same individual, but with very different ideas--one eagerly antic.i.p.ating his arrival, the other as earnestly hoping he may not come. For the expected one is a gentleman--no other than Vivian Ryecroft.
Shenstone knows the Hussar officer has been invited, and, however hoping or wishing it, has but little faith he will fail. Were it himself, no ordinary obstacle could prevent his being present at that archery meeting, any more than would five-barred gate, or bullfinch, hinder him from keeping up with hounds.
As time pa.s.ses without any further arrivals, and the tardy guest has not yet put in appearance, Shenstone begins to think he will this day have Miss Wynn to himself, or at least without any very formidable compet.i.tor. There are others present who seek her smiles--some aspiring to her hand--but none he fears so much as the one still absent.
Just as he is becoming calm and confident, he is saluted by a gentleman of the genus "swell," who, approaching, drawls out the interrogatory:--
"Who is that fella, Shenstone?"
"What fellow?"
"He with the vewy peculya head gear. Indian affair--_topee_, I bewieve they call it."
"Where?" asks Shenstone, starting and staring to all sides.
"Yondaw! Appwoaching from the diwection of the rivaw. Looks a fwesh awival. I take it he must have come by bawt! Knaw him?"
George Shenstone, strong man though he be, visibly trembles. Were Gwen Wynn at that moment to face about, and aim one of her arrows at his breast, it would not bring more pallor upon his cheeks, nor pain to his heart. For he wearing the "peculya head gear" is the man he most fears, and whom he had hoped not to see this day.
So much is he affected, he does not answer the question put to him; nor indeed has he opportunity, as just then Miss Wynn, sighting the _topee_ too, suddenly turning, says to him:--
"George! be good enough to take charge of these things." She holds her bow with an arrow she had been affixing to the string. "Yonder"s a gentleman just arrived; who you know is a stranger. Aunt will expect me to receive him. I"ll be back soon as I"ve discharged my duty."
Delivering the bow and unspent shaft, she glides off without further speech or ceremony.
He stands looking after; in his eyes anything but a pleased expression.
Indeed sullen, almost angry, as watching her every movement he notes the manner of her reception--greeting the new comer with a warmth and cordiality he, Shenstone, thinks uncalled for, however much stranger the man may be. Little irksome to her seems the discharge of that so-called duty; but so exasperating to the baronet"s son, he feels like crushing the bow stick between his fingers, or snapping it in twain across his knee!
As he stands with eyes glaring upon them, he is again accosted by his inquisitive acquaintance, who asks:
"What"s the matter, Jawge? Yaw haven"t answered my intewogatowy!"
"What was it? I forget."
"Aw, indeed! That"s stw.a.n.ge. I merely wished to knaw who Mr. White Cap is?"
"Just what I"d like to know myself. All I can tell you is, that he"s an army fellow--in the Cavalry I believe--by name Ryecroft."
"Aw yas; Cavalwy. That"s evident by the bend of his legs.
Wyquoft--Wyquoft, you say?"
"So he calls himself--a captain of Hussars--his own story."
This in a tone and with a shrug of insinuation.
"But yaw don"t think he"s an adventuwer?"
"Can"t say whether he is, or not."
"Who"s his endawser? How came he intwoduced at Llangowen?"
"That I can"t tell you."
He could though; for Miss Wynn, true to her promise, has made him acquainted with the circ.u.mstances of the river adventure, though not those leading to it; and he, true to his, has kept them a secret. In a sense therefore, he could not tell, and the subterfuge is excusable.
"By Jawve! The Light Bob appears to have made good use of his time--however intwoduced. Miss Gwen seems quite familiaw with him; and yondaw the little Lees shaking hands, as though the two had been acquainted evaw since coming out of their cwadles! See! They"re dwagging him up to the ancient spinster, who sits enthawned in her chair like a queen of the Tawnament times. Vewy mediaeval the whole affair--vewy!"
"Instead, very modern; in my opinion disgustingly so!"
"Why d"yaw say that, Jawge?"
"Why! Because in either olden or mediaeval times such a thing couldn"t have occurred--here in Herefordshire."
"What thing, pway?"
"A man admitted into good society without endors.e.m.e.nt or introduction.
Now-a-days any one may be so; claim acquaintance with a lady, and force his company upon her, simply from having had the chance to pick up a dropped pocket-handkerchief, or offer his umbrella in a skiff of a shower!"
"But, shawly, that isn"t how the gentleman yondaw made acquaintance with the fair Gwendoline?"
"Oh! I don"t say that," rejoins Shenstone, with forced attempt at a smile--more natural, as he sees Miss Wynn separate from the group they are gazing at, and come back to reclaim her bow. Better satisfied, now, he is rather worried by his importunate friend, and to get rid of him adds:
"If you are really desirous to know how Miss Wynn became acquainted with him, you can ask the lady herself."
Not for all the world would the swell put that question to Gwen Wynn. It would not be safe; and thus snubbed he saunters away, before she is up to the spot.
Ryecroft, left with Miss Linton, remains in conversation with her. It is not his first interview; for several times already has he been a visitor at Llangorren--introduced by the young ladies as the gentleman who, when the pleasure-boat was caught in a dangerous whirl, out of which old Joseph was unable to extricate it, came to their rescue--possibly to the saving of their lives! Thus, the version of the adventure vouchsafed to the aunt--sufficient to sanction his being received at the Court.
And the ancient toast of Cheltenham has been charmed with him. In the handsome Hussar officer she beholds the typical hero of her romance reading; so much like it, that Lord Lutestring has long ago gone out of her thoughts--pa.s.sed from her memory as though he had been but a musical sound. Of all who bend before her this day, the worship of none is so welcome as that of the martial stranger.