We plunged into the dishes without ceremony, each one according to his taste, and the lunch progressed. I may as well mention one thing--that there was nothing in Mrs. Everty"s manners at any time to take exception to: never a word was heard from her, never a look seen, that could offend even an old dowager. She made the most of her charms and her general fascinations, and flirted quietly; but all in a lady-like way.
"Thank you, yes; I think I will take a little more salad, Mr.
Richardson," she said to him with a beaming smile. "It is my dinner, you know. I have not a hall to dine in to-night, as you gentlemen have. I am sorry to trouble you, Mr. Johnny."
I was holding her plate for Richardson. There happened at that moment to be a lull in the talking, and we heard a carriage of some kind stop at the door, and a loud peal at the house-bell.
"It"s that brother of mine," said Fred Temple. "He bothered me to drive out to some confounded place with him, but I told him I wouldn"t. What"s he b.u.mping up the stairs in that fashion for?"
The room-door was flung open, and Fred Temple put on a savage face, for his brother looked after him more than he liked; when, instead of Temple major, there appeared a shining big brown satin bonnet, and an old lady"s face under it, who stood there with a walking-stick.
"Yes, you see I was right, grandmamma; I said she was not gone," piped a shrill voice behind; and Mabel Smith, in an old-fashioned black silk frock and tippet, came into view. They had driven up to look after Sophie.
Sophie was equal to the occasion. She rose gracefully and held out both her hands, as though they had been welcome as is the sun in harvest. The old lady leaned on her stick, and stared around: the many faces seemed to confuse her.
"Dear me! I did not know you had a luncheon-party, ma"am."
"Just two or three friends who have dropped in, Mrs. Golding," said Sophie, airily. "Let me take your stick."
The old lady, who looked like a very amiable old lady, sat down in the nearest chair, but kept the stick in her hand. Mabel Smith was regarding everything with her shrewd eyes and compressing her thin lips.
"This is Johnny Ludlow, grandmamma; you have heard me speak of _him_: I don"t know the others."
"How do you do, sir," said the old lady, politely nodding her brown bonnet at me. "I hope you are in good health, sir?"
"Yes, ma"am, thank you." For she put it as a question, and seemed to await an answer. Tod and the rest, who had risen, began to sit down again.
"I"m sure I am sorry to disturb you at luncheon, ma"am," said the old lady to Mrs. Everty. "We came in to see whether you had gone home or not. I said you of course had gone; that you wouldn"t stay away from your husband so long as this; and also because we had not heard of you for a month past. But Mabel thought you were here still."
"I am intending to return shortly," said Sophie.
"That"s well: for I want to send up Mabel. And I brought in a letter that came to my house this morning, addressed to you," continued the old lady, lugging out of her pocket a small collection of articles before she found the letter. "Mabel says it is your husband"s handwriting, ma"am; if so, he must be thinking you are staying with me."
"Thanks," said Sophie, slipping the letter away unopened.
"Had you not better see what it says?" suggested Mrs. Golding to her.
"Not at all: it can wait. May I offer you some luncheon?"
"Much obleeged, ma"am, but I and Mabel took an early dinner before setting out. And on which day, Mrs. Everty, do you purpose going?"
"I"ll let you know," said Sophie.
"What can have kept you so long here?" continued the old lady, wonderingly. "Mabel said you did not know any of the inhabitants."
"I have found it of service to my health," replied Sophie with charming simplicity. "Will you take a gla.s.s of sherry, Mrs. Golding?"
"I don"t mind if I do. Just half a gla.s.s. Thank you, sir; not much more than half"--to me, as I went forward with the gla.s.s and decanter. "I"m sure, sir, it is good of you to be attentive to an old lady like me. If you had a mind for a brisk walk at any time, of three miles, or so, and would come over to my house, I"d make you welcome. Mabel, write down the address."
"And I wish you had come while I was there, Johnny Ludlow," said the girl, giving me the paper. "I like you. You don"t say smiling words to people with your lips and mock at them in your heart, as some do."
I remembered that she had not been asked to take any wine, and I offered it.
"_No_, thank you," she said with emphasis. "None for me." And it struck me that she refused because the wine belonged to Sophie.
The old lady, after nodding a farewell around and shaking hands with Mrs. Everty, stood leaning on her stick between the doorway and the stairs. "My servant"s not here," she said, looking back, "and these stairs are steep: would any one be good enough to help me down?"
Tod went forward to give her his arm; and we heard the fly drive away with her and Mabel. Somehow the interlude had damped the free go of the banquet, and we soon prepared to depart also. Sophie made no attempt to hinder it, but said she should expect us in to take some tea with her in the evening: and the lot of us filed out together, some going one way, some another. I and Fred Temple kept together.
There was a good-natured fellow at Oxford that term, who had come up from Wales to take his degree, and had brought his wife with him, a nice kind of young girl who put me in mind of Anna Whitney. They had become acquainted with Sophie Chalk, and liked her; she fascinated both. She meant to do it too: for the companionship of staid irreproachable people like Mr. and Mrs. Ap-Jenkyns, reflected credit on herself in the eyes of Oxford.
"I thought we should have met the Ap-Jenkynses, at lunch," remarked Temple. "What a droll old party that was with the stick! She puts me in mind of--I say, here"s another old party!" he broke off. "Seems to be a friend of yours."
It was Mrs. Cann. She had stopped, evidently wanting to speak to me.
"I have just been to put little Nanny Ta.s.son in the train for London, sir," she said; "I thought you might like to know it. Her eldest brother, the one that"s settled there, has taken to her. His wife wrote a nice letter and sent the fare."
"All right, Mrs. Cann. I hope they"ll take good care of her.
Good-afternoon."
"Who the wonder is Nanny Ta.s.son?" cried Temple as we went on.
"Only a little friendless child. Her brother was our scout when we first came, and he died."
"Oh, by Jove, Ludlow! Look there!"
I turned at Temple"s words. A gig was dashing by as large as life; Tod in it, driving Sophie Chalk. Behind it dashed another gig, containing Mr. and Mrs. Ap-Jenkyns. Fred Temple laughed.
"Mrs. Everty"s unmistakably charming," said he, "and we don"t know any real harm of her, but if I were Ap-Jenkyns I should not let my wife be quite her bosom companion. As to Todhetley, I think he"s a gone calf."
Whitney came to our room as I got in. He had been invited to the luncheon by Mrs. Everty, but excused himself, and she asked Fred Temple in his place.
"Well, Johnny, how did it go off?"
"Oh, pretty well. Lobster-salad and other good things. Why did not you go?"
"Where"s Tod?" he rejoined, not answering the question.
"Out on a driving-party. Sophie Chalk and the Ap-Jenkynses."
Whitney whistled through the verse of an old song: "Froggy would a-wooing go." "I say, Johnny," he said presently, "you had better give Tod a hint to take care of himself. That thing will go too far if he does not look out."
"As if Tod would mind me! Give him the hint yourself, Bill."
"I said half a word to him this morning after chapel: he turned on me and accused me of being jealous."
We both laughed.
"I had a letter from home yesterday," Bill went on, "ordering me to keep clear of Madam Sophie."