He is not smooth, and fat, and polished, like most gentlemen who do nothing. He looks like an engine-driver cleaned-and then his great brown moustache and his thick hair-no, I"ll tell you what he"s like; he is precisely the Ancient Briton you see in bronzes, with the thin face and the matted hair--"
"And the scanty dress. I suppose the ancient Britons, like Scotchmen nowadays, wore an indelicate costume, in order to save cloth."
"I _do_ consider him handsome; but _her_! And as for her being a great actress, and a genius, and all that, I don"t consider her to be a bit better than any of us."
"If that is the case, I can quite understand and approve your depreciation of her."
"I will box your ears."
"Don"t. They might tell tales; and you know I"m married."
"_Tant pis pour toi._"
The Ancient Briton had meanwhile recovered his equanimity; and both he and Miss Brunel had joined in an argument Mr. Melton was setting forth about the deliciousness of being without restraint. The grave manager, under the influence of a little champagne, invariably rose into the realm of abstract propositions; and indeed his three companions, all of them in a merry mood, helped him out with a dozen suggestions and confirmations.
"And worst of all," said Miss Brunel, "I dislike being bound down by time. Why must I go home just now, merely because it is late? I should like at this very moment to go straight out into the country, without any object, and without any prospect of return."
"And why not do so?" cried Count Schonstein. "My brougham can be brought round in a few minutes; let us four get in and drive straight away out of London-anywhere."
"A capital idea," said Melton. "What do you say, Miss Brunel?"
"I will go with pleasure," she replied, with bright childish fun in her eyes. "But we must take Mrs. Christmas with us. And that will be five?"
"Then let me go outside and smoke," said Will Anerley.
The supper party now broke up; and the ladies went off to get their bonnets, wrappers, and cloaks. In a few minutes Count Schonstein"s brougham was at the door; and Miss Brunel, having explained to Mrs.
Christmas the position of affairs, introduced her to Will Anerley. She had come forward to the door of the brougham, and Anerley saw a very small bright-eyed woman, with remarkably white hair, who was in an extreme nervous flutter. He was about to go outside, as he had promised, when Count Schonstein made the offer, which his position demanded, to go instead.
"Yes, do," said Miss Brunel, putting her hand lightly on Will Anerley"s arm.
The Count was, therefore, taken at his word; Anerley remained by the young actress"s side; and Mrs. Christmas being dragged in, away rolled the brougham.
"And wherever are you going at this time of night, Miss Annie?" said the old woman in amazement.
"For a drive into the country, mother. Look how bright it is!"
And bright it was. There was no moon as yet, but there was clear starlight; and as they drove past the Green Park, the long rows of ruddy lamps hung in the far darkness like strings of golden points, the counterpart of the gleaming silver points above. And there, away in the north, glimmered the pale jewels of Ca.s.siopeia; the white star on Andromeda"s forehead stood out from the dark sea; Orion coldly burned in the south, and the red eye of Aldebaran throbbed in the strange twilight. The dark grey streets, and the orange lamps, and the tall houses, and the solitary figures of men and women hurried past and disappeared; but the great blue vault, with its twinkling eyes, accompanied the carriage-windows, rolled onward with them, and always glimmered in.
This mad frolic was probably pleasant enough for every one of the merry little party inside the vehicle; but it could scarcely be very fascinating to the victimized Count, who found himself driving through the chill night-air in company with his own coachman. Perhaps, however, he wished to earn the grat.i.tude of Miss Brunel by this dumb obedience to her whim; for he did not seek to arrest or alter the course of the brougham as it was driven blindly out into the country. He could hear the laughter from within the carriage; for they were all in the hest of moods-except, perhaps, Miss Brunel, whom the sight of the stars rather saddened.
At length they came to a toll-bar. Melton put his head out and asked the Count where they were.
"Hounslow."
"Is that the Bell Inn?"
"Yes."
"Then suppose we get out, wake the people up, and give the horses a rest, while we have a little trip on foot to Hounslow Heath?"
"Is not that where all the murders and robberies used to be committed?"
Miss Brunel was heard to say.
"This is the very inn," said Will Anerley, "which the gentlemen of the road used to frequent; but unfortunately, the Heath has been all enclosed. There is no more Heath."
"We shall find something that will do for it," said Melton, as the party left the brougham, and pa.s.sed down the opposite road.
Once out of the glare of the lamp at the toll-bar, they had nothing to guide them but the cold, clear starlight. Black lay the hedges on either side; black stood the tall trees against the sky; blacker still the deep ditch which ran along the side of the path, or disappeared under the gravelled pathway leading up to some roadside cottage. How singularly the light laughter of the little party smote upon the deep, intense silence of the place; and what a strange contrast there was between their gay abandonment and the sombre gloom around them! There was something weird and striking running through the absurdity of this incomprehensible excursion.
"There," said Melton, going up to a gate, and peering over into a vague, dark meadow, "is a bit of the old Heath, I know. Was it here, I wonder, that Claude Duval danced his celebrated dance with the lady?"
"Let us suppose it was," said the Count. "And why should we not have a dance now on the Heath? Mr. Melton, will you give us some music?"
"With pleasure," said the manager, opening the gate, and allowing his merry companions to pa.s.s into the meadow.
They went along until they were within a short distance of a clump of trees; and then, the Count having been ingeniously compelled to take Mrs. Christmas as his partner, Miss Brunel being Anerley"s _vis-a-vis_, the manager proceeded to sing a set of quadrilles in rather an unmelodious manner, varying _la, la, la_, with _tow, row, row_. The great, pompous Count puffed, and blew, and guffawed; the little Mrs.
Christmas danced with a prim and grave precision; while all did their best to help out the figures, and stumbled, and set each other right again, and laughed right heartily over the mad performance.
Then there was a sudden shriek, clear and sharp, that rang through the darkness; the dancing suddenly ceased; and Anerley sprang forward just in time to prevent Miss Brunel from sinking to the ground, her face pale as death.
"Did you not see it?" she gasped, still trembling. "Something white flashed past through the trees there-in a moment-and it seemed to have no shape."
"By Jove, I saw it too!" said Melton, who had abruptly ceased his singing; "and for the life of me I can"t imagine what it was."
"A white cow," suggested Anerley.
"I tell you it flew past like a streak of lightning," said Melton.
"More likely a white doe belonging to the park over there," said the Count, who was inwardly the most terrified person present.
"Let us get away from here," said Miss Brunel, who had recovered her self-composure, but was very grave. "Whatever it was, the gra.s.s is too wet for us to remain."
So they left the meadow, and walked rather silently back to the toll-bar, got into the brougham, and were driven to their respective homes.
CHAPTER V.
ST. MARY-KIRBY.
Champagne has many good qualities, but none more marked than the mild and temporary nature of the stimulus it affords. The bright and cheerful excitement it produces-so long as it is neither Russian champagne, nor one of those highly ingenious products which chemistry and the wit of man have devised-does not last so long as to interfere with any serious occupation, even should that be merely sleep; while it involves none of the gloomy reaction which too often haunts the sparkle of other wines with a warning shadow. When Will Anerley got up on the morning following the wild escapade on Hounslow Heath, it was not indulgence in wine which smote him with a half-conscious remorse. He had neither a throbbing headache nor a feverish pulse. But as he looked out of his bedroom window and saw the pale sun glimmering down on the empty streets, the strange calm of a Sunday morning-touching even in the cramped thoroughfares of London-fell upon him, and he thought of the hectic gaiety of the previous night, and knew that all the evening one tender girlish heart had been wearying for his coming, away down in a quiet Kentish vale.
His absence was the more inexcusable in that it was uncertain how soon he might have to leave England. He was a civil engineer; and from the time he had left the apprentice stool his life had been a series of foreign excursions. He had been two years in Turkey, another year in Canada, six months in Russia, and so on; and at this moment he had been but a short time home from Wallachia, whence he had returned with his face browner his frame tougher than ever. There was little of the young Englishman about him. There was a Celtic intensity in him which had long ago robbed him of the loose fat, the lazy gait, the apathetic indifference which generally fall to the lot of lads born and brought up as he had been; and now-with his big brown moustache, thick hair, and hazel eyes, and with that subdued determination in his look, which had made the little _soubrette_ call him an Ancient Briton-he was a man whom some would call handsome, but whom most people would admire chiefly on account of the intelligence, firmness of character, and determination written upon his face.
He dressed and breakfasted hastily; got a cab, and was just in time to catch the train. After nearly an hour"s drive down through Kent-pleasant enough on that bright Spring morning-he reached Horton, the station nearest to St. Mary-Kirby.
Horton stands on the top of a hill sloping down into the valley in which lies St. Mary-Kirby; and if you climb, as Will Anerley did, to the top of a coal heap which generally stands besides the empty trucks of the station, you will see the long wooded hollow from end to end, with its villages, churches, and breadths of field and meadow. It was not to look again, however, on that pretty bit of scenery which he knew so well that he scrambled to the top of the coals, and stood there, with his hand shading his eyes from the sunlight. It was Dove Anerley he wished to see come along the valley, on her way to church; and he waited there to discover what route she should take, that so he might intercept her.