_ENGLAND_.
CHAPTER I.
IN WHICH MRS. MACKINTOSH ADMIRES JONAH.
"I think, Matilda, that you must have neglected to put any sugar in my tea," said the Bishop of Blanford, pushing his cup towards his sister, after tasting the first mouthful.
"You"re quite right, Josephus, I did," she replied.
"And," continued his Lordship, who, being near-sighted, was poking about, after the manner of a mole, in the three-storied bra.s.s bird-cage which held the more substantial portion of the repast, "there doesn"t seem to be any cake."
"You forget," said Miss Matilda sternly, "that it"s an ember-day."
Her brother said nothing, and took a mouthful of the tea, which, like the morality of the palace, was strong and bitter. But his ample chest expanded with just the slightest sigh of regret, causing the ma.s.sive episcopal cross of gold filigree, set with a single sapphire, which rested thereon, to rise and fall gently. Miss Matilda"s hawklike eye saw and noted this as the first slight sign of rebellion, and she hastened to mete out justice swift and stern, saying:
"You remember, Josephus, that there"s a special service at the mission church at five, at which I consider you ought to be present."
His Lordship had not forgotten it, or the circ.u.mstance that the afternoon was exceedingly hot, and that the mission church, which was situated in an outlying slum, was made of corrugated tin. The palace garden would have been infinitely preferable, and he knew that had he accepted sugarless tea without a murmur, his chaplain would have sweltered in his place. As it was, he submitted meekly, and his sister gazed at him with a satisfied expression of triumph across her bright green tea-cloth. If Miss Matilda had a weakness, it was for ecclesiastical tea-cloths. White was reserved for Sundays and feast-days; on ordinary occasions, at this time of the year, her ritual prescribed green.
They were seated in the garden of the palace, a peaceful Arcadia which it was difficult to realise was only separated from a dusty and concrete world by a battlemented wall which formed the horizon. The sky overhead was so blue and cloudless that it might have formed the background for an Italian landscape, and framed against it was the ma.s.sive tower of the cathedral, its silver-greys darkening almost to black, as a b.u.t.tress here and there brought it in shadow. Among its pinnacles a few wise old rooks flapped lazily in the still air, as much a part of their surroundings as the stately swans that floated on the stream which lapped the foot of the tower, while on all sides there stretched away a great sweep of that perfect verdure which only England knows.
"It"s nearly two months since I last wrote to Cecil," said the Bishop, judging it wise to change the trend of the conversation, "and I"ve not heard a word."
"I"m sure I should be surprised if you had," snapped Miss Matilda. "And what your sainted Sarah would have felt, had she lived to see her son"s disgraceful career, makes me shudder."
The Bishop started to sigh again. Then, thinking better of it, stopped.
He had returned to Blanford from his rest-cure a week before, and apparently the air of Scotland had not proved as beneficial as he had expected.
"I believe that Cecil will come back to us," he said, ignoring his sister"s last remark. "I told him that his friends would be welcome here in future, and I particularly mentioned that you"d put a copy of his book in your last missionary box."
"I hope you didn"t neglect to say that I tore out all the pictures. A more scandalous collection--"
But she never finished her denunciation of the novel, for just at that moment the Bishop sprang to his feet with a glad cry of "Cecil!"
The young man came running across the lawn to meet his father, seizing him warmly by the hand, and having administered a dutiful peck to his aunt, turned to introduce the little group of strangers who had accompanied him.
"Father," he said, "these are my friends. On the strength of your letter I"ve taken the liberty of asking them to be my guests as well."
"They"re very welcome to the palace," said the Bishop.
Cecil turned, and leading the two ladies forward, presented them to his father and his aunt. Miss Matilda swept them both with a comprehensive glance, and addressing Mrs. Mackintosh, remarked:
"Your daughter, I presume," indicating Miss Arminster. Whereupon the good lady coloured violently and denied the fact.
"Your niece?" insisted Miss Matilda, who was an excellent catechist, as generations of unfortunate children could bear witness.
"A young lady whom I"m chaperoning in Europe," replied Mrs. Mackintosh stiffly, in an effort to be truthful, and at the same time to furnish Violet with a desirable status in the party.
The tragedian was now brought forward.
"Allow me," said Banborough, in pursuance of a prearranged scheme of action--"allow me to introduce my friend Professor Tybalt Smith. You, father, are of course acquainted with his scholarly work on monumental bra.s.ses."
The Bishop naturally was not conversant with the book in question, because it had never been written, but he was entirely too pedantic to admit the fact; so he smiled, and congratulated the Professor most affably on what he termed "his well-known attainments," a.s.suring him that he would find in the cathedral a rich field of research in his particular line of work.
Spotts was now brought up, and introduced as a rising young architect of ecclesiastical tendencies, which delighted his Lordship immensely as there was nothing he liked better than to explain every detail of his cathedral to an appreciative listener.
"I"ve a bit of old dog-tooth I shall want you to look at to-morrow,"
said his host, "and there"s some Roman tiling in the north transept that absolutely demands your attention."
Spotts smiled a.s.sent, but was evidently bewildered, and seizing the first opportunity that offered, asked Cecil in a low voice if his father took him for a dentist or a mason.
"For a dentist or a mason?" queried Banborough. "I don"t understand."
"Well, anyway, he said something about looking after his old dog"s teeth and attending to his tiles."
Cecil exploded in a burst of laughter, saying:
"That"s only the architectural jargon, man. You must play the game."
"Oh, I see," said the actor. "It"s about his ramshackle old church.
Well, I"ll do my best--" But his a.s.surances were cut short by the flow of his Lordship"s conversation.
"As I was saying, Mr. Spotts," he continued, "I should be much interested to hear your American views on the subject of a clerestory."
"Sure," replied the actor, plunging recklessly. "I always believe in having four clear stories at least, and in New York and Chicago we run "em up as high as--" But here a premonitory kick from Cecil brought his speech to an abrupt termination.
"Most astonishing," commented his Lordship. "I"ve never heard of more than one."
"Oh, our Western churches are chock-full of new wrinkles."
"Of new--what? I don"t understand. Another cup" of tea for you, Mrs.
Mackintosh? Certainly. We must pursue this subject at leisure, Mr.
Spotts."
The party now turned their attention to the repast, and the Bishop proceeded to devote himself to Mrs. Mackintosh.
"I"m afraid," he said, when he had seen her sufficiently fortified with tea containing a due allowance of sugar, and supplemented by a plateful of cake which he had ordered to be brought as a practical subst.i.tute for the scriptural calf--"I"m afraid you will find our simple life at Blanford very dull."
"Dear sakes, no!" said that lady, hitching her chair up closer to the Bishop for a confidential chat--an action on her part which elicited a flashing glance of disapproval from Miss Matilda.
"I"ve heard all about you," she went on, "from your son Cecil. You don"t mind if I call him Cecil, do you? for I"m almost old enough to be his mother. Well, as I was saying, when he told me about the cathedral and the beeches and the rooks and you, all being here, hundreds of years old--"
"Excuse me, madam," said his Lordship, "I"m hardly as aged as that."