"I didn"t manage it at all. I am a stupid ninny. Why, I"ve thrown her into a fit. Do you think it"s safe to leave her alone?"
"Nonsense! a joy fit does not hurt, when a person is well and strong.
Oh! isn"t it delightful! and you have enjoyed it, too, Jack, haven"t you? I am sure you have. And--why, you have a new hat! and your necktie is straight. You look really very nice, _mon cousin_!"
"_Mille remerciments, ma cousine_!" replied Jack, with a low bow, which, Hildegarde noticed, was not nearly so like the shutting-up of a jackknife as it would have been a few weeks ago. "Am I really improving?
You have no idea what I go through with, looking in the gla.s.s. It is a humiliating practice. Have some chocolates?" He pulled out a box, and they crunched in silent contentment.
"Now I think we may go back," said Hildegarde, after her third bonbon.
"But I must tell you first what Hugh said. I told him the whole story as we walked along; first as if it were about some one else, you know, and then when he had taken it all in, I told him that he himself was the little boy. He was silent at first, reflecting, as he always does. Then he said: "I am like an enchanted prince, I think. Generally it is fair ones with golden locks that take them out of prison, but at my age a great-aunt is better. Don"t you think so, Beloved?" and I did think so."
"But it _was_ a fair one with golden locks who planned it all!" Jack said, with a shy look at his cousin"s fair hair.
"Jack, you are learning to pay compliments!" cried Hildegarde, clapping her hands. "I believe you will go to Harvard after all, and be a cla.s.sical scholar."
"I would never pay another," said Jack seriously, "if I thought it would have that effect."
When they returned to the wagon, they found Mrs. Beadle still wiping away joyful tears, while Hugh was apparently making plans for the future. His voice rang out loud and clear. "And we will dwell in a corner of the house-top, and have a dinner of herbs!" said the child.
"They may have _all_ the stalled oxes themselves, mayn"t they, great-aunt? And you will clothe us in scarlet and fine wool, won"t you, great-aunt?"
"Bless your dear heart!" cried Mrs. Beadle. "Is it red flannel you mean?
Don"t tell me those heathen haven"t put you into flannels!" And she wept again.
CHAPTER XII.
THE SECOND ACT.
COLONEL FERRERS was taking his afternoon stroll in the garden. Dinner was over; for at Roseholme, as at Braeside, country hours were kept, with early dinner, and seven o"clock tea, the pleasantest of all meals.
With a fragrant Manilla cigar between his lips, and his good stick in his hand, the Colonel paced up and down the well-kept gravel paths, at peace with all mankind. The garden was all ablaze with geranium and verbena, heliotrope and larkspur. The pansies spread a gold and purple mantle in their own corner, while poppies were scattered all about in well-planned confusion. All this was Giuseppe"s work,--good, faithful Giuseppe, who never rested, and never spoke, save to say "Subito, Signor!" when his master called him. He was at work now in a corner of the garden, setting out chrysanthemums; but no one would have known it, so noiseless were his motions, so silent his coming and going.
The Colonel, though pleasantly conscious of the lovely pomp spread out for his delight, was thinking of other things than flowers. He was thinking how his nephew Jack had improved in the last two months.
Positively, thought the Colonel, the boy was developing, was coming out of the animal kingdom, and becoming quite human. Partly due to the Indian clubs, no doubt, and to his, the Colonel"s, wholesome discipline and instructions; but largely, sir, largely to feminine influence. Daily intercourse with women like Mrs. Grahame and her daughter would civilise a gorilla, let alone a well-intentioned giraffe who played the fiddle.
He puffed meditatively at his cigar, and dwelt on a pleasant picture that his mind called up: Hildegarde as he had seen her yesterday, sitting with a dozen little girls about her, and telling them stories while they sewed, under her careful supervision, at patchwork and dolls"
clothes. How sweet she looked! how bright her face was, as she told the merry tale of the "Midsummer Night"s Dream." "Harry Monmouth, sir! she was telling "em Shakespeare! And they were drinking it in as if it had been Mother Goose." The Colonel paused, and sighed heavily. "If Hester had lived," he said, "if my little Hester had lived--" and then he drew a long whiff of the fragrant Manilla, and walked on.
As he turned the corner by the great canna plant, he came suddenly upon Mrs. Beadle, who was apparently waiting to speak to him. The good housekeeper was in her state dress of black silk, with embroidered ap.r.o.n and lace mitts, and a truly wonderful cap; and Colonel Ferrers, if he had been observant of details, might have known that this portended something of a serious nature. Being such as he was, he merely raised his hat with his grave courtesy, and said: "Good-afternoon, Mrs. Beadle.
Is it about the yellow pickles? The same quant.i.ty as usual, ma"am, or perhaps a few more jars, as I wish to send some to Mrs. Grahame at Braeside."
Mrs. Beadle shivered a little. She had made the yellow pickles at Roseholme for five and twenty years; and now,--"No, sir," she said faintly. "It is not the pickles." She plucked at the fringe of her shawl, and Colonel Ferrers waited, though with a kindling eye. Women were admirable, but some of their ways were hard to bear.
Finally Mrs. Beadle made a desperate effort, and said, "Do you think, sir, that you could find some one to take my place?"
Colonel Ferrers fixed a look of keen inquiry on her, and instantly felt her pulse. "Rapid!" he said, "and fluttering; Elizabeth Beadle, are you losing your mind?"
"I have found my little boy, sir," cried Mrs. Beadle, bursting into tears. "My dear niece Martha"s own child, Colonel Ferrers. He is in the hands of heathen reprobates, if I do say it, and it is my duty to make a home for him. I never thought to leave Roseholme while work I could, but you see how it is, sir."
"I--see how it is?" cried the Colonel, with a sudden explosion. Then controlling himself by a great effort, he said with forced calmness, "I will walk over to the end of the garden, Elizabeth Beadle, and when I return I shall expect a sensible and coherent--do you understand?--_coherent_ account of this folderol. See how it is, indeed!"
The Colonel strode off, muttering to himself, and poor Mrs. Beadle wiped her eyes, and smoothed down her ap.r.o.n with trembling hands, and made up her mind that she would not cry, if she should die for it.
When the grim-frowning Colonel returned, she told her story with tolerable plainness, and concluded by begging that her kind friend and master would not be angry, but would allow her to retire to a cottage, where she could "see to" her niece"s child, and bring him up in a Christian way.
"Pooh! pooh! my good Beadle!" cried the Colonel. "Stuff and nonsense, my good soul! I am delighted that you have found the child; delighted, I a.s.sure you. We will get him away from those people, never fear for that!
and we will send him to school. A good school, ma"am, is the place for the boy. None of your Hardhacks, but a school where he will be happy and well-treated. In vacation time--hum! ha!--you might take a little trip with him now and then, perhaps. But as to disturbing your position here-- Pooh! pooh! stuff and nonsense! Don"t let me hear of it again!"
Mrs. Beadle trembled, but remained firm. "No school, sir!" she said.
"What the child needs is a home, Colonel Ferrers; and there"s n.o.body but me to make one for him. No, sir! never, if I gave my life to it, could I thank you as should be for your kindness since first I set foot in this dear house, as no other place will ever be home to me! but go I must, Colonel, and the sooner the better."
Then the Colonel exploded. His face became purple; his eyes flashed fire, and, leaning upon his stick, he poured out volley upon volley of reproach, exhortation, argument. Higher and higher rose his voice, till the very leaves quivered upon the trees; till the object of his wrath shook like an aspen, and even Giuseppe, in the north corner of the garden, quailed, and murmured "Santa Maria!" over his chrysanthemums.
How much more frightened, since theirs was the blame of all the mischief, were two guilty creatures who at this moment crouched, concealed behind a great laurel-bush, listening with all their ears!
Jack and Hildegarde exchanged terrified glances. They had known that the Colonel would be angry, but they had no idea of anything like this. He was in a white heat of rage, and was hurling polysyllabic wrath at the devoted woman before him, who stood speechless but unshaken, meekly receiving the torrent of invective.
Suddenly, there was a movement among the bushes; and the next moment a small form emerged from the shade, and stood in front of the furious old gentleman. "Is your name Saul?" asked Hugh quietly.
The two conspirators had forgotten the child. They had brought him with them, with some faint idea of letting the Colonel see him as if by accident, hoping that his quaint grace might make a favourable impression; but in the stress of the occasion they had wholly forgotten his presence, and now--now matters were taken out of their hands.
Hildegarde clutched her parasol tight; Jack clasped his violin, and both listened and looked with all their souls.
"Is your name Saul?" repeated the boy, as the Colonel, astonishment choking for an instant the torrent of his rage, paused speechless.
"Because if it is, the evil spirit from G.o.d is upon you, and you should have some one play with his hand."
"What--what is this?" gasped the Colonel. "Who are you, boy?"
"I am my great-aunt"s little nephew," said Hugh. "But no matter for me.
You must sit down when the evil spirit is upon you. You might hurt some one. Why do you look so at me, great-aunt? Why don"t you help Mr. Saul?"
"Come away, Hughie, love!" cried Mrs. Beadle, in an agony of terror.
"Come, dear, and don"t ever speak to the Colonel so again. He"s only a babe, sir, as doesn"t know what he is saying."
"Go away yourself!" roared the Colonel, recovering the power of speech.
"Depart, do you hear? Remove yourself from my presence, or--" he moved forward. Mrs. Beadle turned and fled. "Now," he said, turning to the child, "what do you mean, child, by what you said just now? I--I will sit down."
He sank heavily on a garden seat and motioned the child before him.
"What do you mean, about Saul--eh?"
"But you know," said Hugh, opening wide eyes of wonder,--"are you so old that you forget?--how the evil spirit from G.o.d came upon King Saul, and they sent for David, and he played with his hand till the evil spirit went away. Now you remember?" He nodded confidently, and sat down beside the Colonel, who, though still heaving and panting from his recent outburst, made no motion to repel him. "I said _Mr._ Saul," Hugh continued, "because you are not a king, you see, and I suppose just "Saul" would not be polite when a person is as old as you are. And _what_ do you think?" he cried joyously, as a sudden thought struck him.
"The ostrich gentleman plays most _beautifully_ with his hand. His name isn"t David, but that doesn"t matter. I am going to find him."
"Play, Jack," whispered Hildegarde. "Play, _quick_! Something old and simple. Play "Annie Laurie.""
Obeying the girl"s fleeting look, Jack laid fiddle to bow, and the old love tune rose from behind the laurel-bush and floated over the garden, so sweet, so sweet, the very air seemed to thrill with tenderness and gentle melody.
Colonel Ferrers sank back on the seat. "Hester"s song," he murmured.