With a hurried shake of the hand, and as though nervously irritable at being stared at by the sailors, Luttrell moved away, and Vyner gazed after him for a moment, and stepped into the boat.
"Mr. Crab says, Sir, that the weather looks dirty outside," said the c.o.xswain; but Vyner did not heed the remark, and sat deeply buried in his own thoughts.
CHAPTER VII. A COTTAGE IN WALES.
If we wanted a contrast to the wild desolation of Arran, it wonld be in the lovely valley of North Wales, where Vyner"s cottage stood. It was a purchase he had made purely from its picturesque beauty; a spot chanced upon in a summer"s ramble, and bought at once with that zest which leads a rich man to secure the gem that has captivated his fancy. It stood on a little rocky platform that projected from a mountain, and looked downwards and upwards, through one of those charming valleys which now widen into luxuriance, and now contract again till they resume the features of a deep ravine. A river of some size foamed and tumbled over a rocky bed beneath, and occasionally deepened into some waveless pool, over which the red-berried ash-trees drooped gracefully, and the dark copper beeches threw their bronzed shadows. Deep woods clothed the mountain in front, and over them all rose the rugged summit of Cader Idris, with its amphitheatre of rock half lost in the clouds.
If as regards loveliness of position, tranquillity, and beauty in all its details, the cottage of Dinasllyn could scarcely be surpa.s.sed. There was one detracting element which certainly impaired its charm, the "Quid amarum," amidst all its excellence. It was a show place. It had been the scene of some romantic attachment, some half-remembered Abelard and Heloise, whose pictures yet survived, and of whom there were traditions of rustic benches where they used to sit; of trees whereon their initials were carved; of cedars that they had planted. Vyner and his wife did not at first know, nor estimate, to what a heritage they had succeeded, nor in the least suspect what an infliction mere purposeless curiosity, united to plenty of leisure, may become.
The old gardener whom they had taken on with the cottage was not at all disposed to surrender that perquisite of black mail he had for years long levied from visitors, nor perhaps did he fancy to abdicate those functions of "Cicerone" which elevated him in the eyes of his fellows.
If his love-story was not as affecting as Paul and Virginia, it had its realisms that compensated for some pathos. He could show the dairy where Chloe made the b.u.t.ter, and the kitchen-garden where Daphnis hoed his cabbages. There, were the steps cut in the solid rock that led down to her bath in the river; here the bower she loved so well; here the tree she planted.
To be obliged to devote a day of every week, or even certain hours of a day, to the invasion of a set of strangers, induced by ennui, by curiosity, or, as it may be, by mere imitation, to wander about your house and stroll through your garden, free to lounge in your easy-chair, or dispose themselves on your sofas, criticising your pictures, your prints, your books, and your music, hazarding speculations as to your tastes and dispositions from the t.i.tles of the volumes on your table, and the names of your newspapers--to feel that, as the clock strikes a certain hour on a certain morning, all the cherished privacy which const.i.tutes what we call home, is fled, and that your hall is a public street, and your drawing-room a piazza, so that you are driven to hide yourself in your own house, at the peril of being cla.s.sified among the curiosities, and perhaps sent off to press with the other details, satisfactory or the reverse, of the visitors" experience. These are no slight evils. They are a heavy tax on all the benefits of possession, and we have our doubts if even Naboth"s vineyard would be enviable, if linked with the condition of showing the grounds and displaying the grapes to vulgar visitors.
When the Vyners purchased the cottage they had been told of the custom, just as you are told of a certain pathway across the lawn, which was a mere usurpation, a thing "without a shadow of legality," "that you have only to close to-morrow," but of whose actual torments when you do come to suppress, no one has ever given the measure. They heard that the former owner usually set an hour or two apart on a Wednesday or a Thursday to gratify tourist curiosity; in fact, the celebrity of the spot had been ingeniously introduced as an element of value--just as the shade of Pope might be catalogued amongst the merits of Twickenham, and the memory of Rousseau figure in the inventory of a certain cottage near Geneva!
Vyner was himself one of those easy, happy natures, which submit without sacrifice to what affords pleasure to others. His wife saw no hardship in yielding to a moderate amount of this infliction; the more, since they only came to the cottage for about six or eight weeks of every year. It was Georgina Courtenay who resisted the custom as a most "unwarrantable intrusion, a practical impertinence," as she called it, which "reduced a family either to the condition of the cracked china on the mantelpiece, or the fussy housekeeper who exhibited it." Georgina was not a very tolerant nature; with what she disagreed, she made no compromise, and, like most such people, she found that life gave her sufficient occasion for conflict.
Vyner"s absence from home, suggested an admirable opportunity "to suppress this nuisance," as she phrased it, and she accordingly had a notice appended to the gate--a copy of which was also duly forwarded to the village inn--stating that, during the sojourn of the family at Dinasllyn, the cottage and grounds were not open for the inspection of strangers. The morning of the famous ordinance was not more anxious to the household of Charles the Tenth, than was that of the edict to the family at the cottage. What was to follow the great _coup d"etat_ was the question. Would each of the vested interests--gardener, gatekeeper, housekeeper, and butler--submit to see their long-established perquisites suddenly effaced and extinguished? Would the village folk be content to lose the profits of strangers, who each year flocked down in increasing hordes? Would the tourists themselves, who had carried their romantic sympathies hundreds of miles by land or sea, agree to put up with a glance at the cottage chimneys by telescope, or a peep through the iron gate at the trim avenue, whose abrupt turning shut out all further inspection? If no splashed and booted aides-de-camps rode in to tell with trembling accents that popular sentiment had taken the menacing form of a silent and brooding anger, at least there were voices to declare that at "The Goat" the visitors were highly indignant, and that one of the strangers at the "Watkin"s Arms" had despatched a copy of the manifesto, with a commentary, to the _Times_. Indeed, it was in the public room of this latter establishment that public indignation found its chief exponent. Visitors from far-off lands, a traveller from Ireland, a gentleman from the United States, a German naturalist, with a green tin box and a pair of brown spectacles, were loud in declaring their sentiments, which amounted to this: that the possessors of any spot remarkable for its historic a.s.sociations, of a much-prized marble, or world-famed picture, were mere trustees for the public, who had an unimpeachable right to see, gaze on, and admire to their hearts"
content; these being privileges which in no wise detracted from the positive value of the object so worshipped, since there is no record of any garden whose perfume could be exhausted by smelling, nor any picture whose beauties mere sight could have absorbed. These observations, we are careful to record, were embodied in a very formal-looking doc.u.ment, signed by about twenty names, and only awaited the selection of a suitable envoy to be transmitted to the cottage.
It is but a fair tribute to American courage to own that, where so many held back, reluctant and timid, the Yankee declared his readiness to go forward. He protested that he would rather like it. "It was just his grit," and that he was "main tired of sittin" there like a wounded skunk, with his head out of a hole." Whether from some lurking jealousy of the stranger, or some ungenerous disbelief in his address, the company did not accept his offer, or at least show such eagerness in the acceptance as they might, but broke up into twos and threes, discussing the event. While these deliberations went forward, a one-horse chaise drew up to the door, and a writing-desk and a small carpet-bag were deposited within it by the landlord, who, by a significant look towards his other guests, seemed to say, "Here"s your opportunity! This is your man!"
"Who is he? Where is he going?" asked one, calling him aside.
"He"s Mr. M"Kinlay, from London, the family law-agent, going over to the cottage."
He had but finished this speech, when a middle-aged man, with a high complexion, and short grey hair, without whiskers, appeared, conning over his bill as he came forward.
"You can scarce call it supper, Mr. Pugh," said he, in an accent unmistakably Scotch--"the bit of fish, and the leg of a cold turkey--except that it was eaten at eleven at night. It was just a snack."
"It"s only two-and-six, Sir," said the other, humbly.
"Only! I"d like to know what you"d make it, man. That"s the price of a right good meal up in town, and not served on a coa.r.s.e tablecloth, nor over a sanded floor; and what"s this 1s. 10d.? What"s that?"
"Ale, Sir. Your servant drank it very freely."
"If it only disagreed with him as it did with me, I"ll make no objection to his excess. Are these gentlemen waiting to speak to me, for I don"t think I have the honour--"
[Ill.u.s.tration: 080]
"Yes, Sir," said a short, apoplectic-looking man, with a bald head; "we are strangers--strangers casually thrown into acquaintance at this hotel. We have come here from motives of pleasure, or health, or indolence---one common object having its attraction for us all--the far-famed cottage of Dinasllyn. We have learned, however, to our infinite disappointment, that, by a whim, a mere caprice--for it is impossible it could be more--of the persons" who are the present occupants, the travellers, the tourists I will call them, ate to be excluded in future, and all access refused to a spot which has its claims on the sympathies not alone of the Englishman, for I see at my side a learned professor from Jena, and a distinguished citizen of New York----"
"Kansas, stranger, Little Rock," said the Yankee, interrupting, and then advancing to the front. "Here"s how it is, Sir. Your friends up yonder ain"t content to have G.o.d"s gifts all their own, but they won"t even let a man look at them. That ain"t nature, and it ain"t sense. We have drawn up our notions in a brief message. Are you a mindin" of me, stranger?"
This question was not completely uncalled for, since for some few seconds Mr. M"Kinlay had turned to the landlord, and was occupied in the payment of his bill.
"Seventeen shillings and fourpence, leaving eightpence for Thomas, Mr.
Pugh; and remember that your driver is now fully paid, unless I should stay, to dinner."
"Are you a mindin" of _me_, Sir?" said the Yankee, with an energy that actually made the other start, and sent a deeper crimson to his cheeks.
"I must say, Sir--I will say, that, having no acquaintance with you, having never seen you till now----
"All your loss, stranger, that"s a fact! You"re not the first man that regretted he did not know the length of my boot before he put his foot on my corns. You"ll have to take them papers--do you mind?--you"ll have to take them papers, and give them to your friends up yonder!"
"I"m neither a postman nor your messenger, Sir," said M"Kinlay, getting into the chaise.
"You"ll have to take them papers," and he laid them on the seat of the carriage as he spoke, "that"s how it is! And, as sure as my name is Dodge!--Herodotus Manning Dodge!--you"d better give an account of "em when you drive out of that gate up there, for I"ll wait for you, if it was till next fall!"
"That"s mighty plain talking, anyhow," broke in a voice with a very distinctive accent, "and a man needn"t be much of a gentleman to understand it."
"Even a brief visit," cried out the first speaker.
"Just to see the cedars, or Clorinda"s grotto," lisped out a female voice.
But Mr. M"Kinlay did not wait for more, but by an admonitory poke of his umbrella set his driver off at full speed, and was soon well out of both eye and earshot.
To say that Mr. M"Kinlay drove away in a towering pa.s.sion--that he was excessively angry and indignant, would be the truth, but still not the whole truth, for he was also terribly frightened. There was in the tall Yankee"s look, language, and gesture, a something that smacked of the bush and the hickory-tree--a vague foreshadowing of Lynch law, or no law--that overpowered him. Such a man, within a reasonable distance of Scotland Yard, for instance, might not have proved so terrible; but here he was in the heart of the Welsh mountains, in the very spot of all others where there was every facility for a deed of violence. "He might throw me over that cliff, or pitch me into that quarry hole," muttered he; and the landscape at the moment offered both the ill.u.s.trations to aid his fancy.
It was, then, in a tremor of mingled anger and terror that he drove up to the gate, and in no patient mood was it that he sat outside the padlocked portal till a messenger went up to the house with his card to obtain leave for his admission. The order was speedily given, and he pa.s.sed in.
The brief interval of traversing the s.p.a.ce between the gate-lodge and the cottage was pa.s.sed by Mr. M"Kinlay in arranging his cravat, brushing the dust from his coat, and, so far as might be, smoothing down any asperities that should have betrayed themselves in his features; for, though neither a young man nor a man of the world of fashion, he had his pretensions, the most cherished one of all which was a design upon the hand of Miss Georgina Courtenay. Had Miss Courtenay been in the full blaze of her beauty, as she was some eight or nine years before, Mr.
M"Kinlay would never have dared to lift his eyes to her; had she even continued to live in town and mingle in that society where she had always lived and moved, he would not have dreamed of such a presumption.
But Mr. M"Kinlay knew the world. He had seen an exiled Grand-Duke in a Hansom cab, and had actually met a deposed Prince on a Margate steamer.
In the changeful fortunes of life the "price current" was the only test of anything. Railroads, and mines, and telegraphic companies rose and fell with the fluctuations of the market, and marriageable ladies might come one day to figure in the share list! Miss Georgina, however ungallant the confession, represented a security at a discount. She had gone down year by year, and at last ceased to be quoted. And yet "it was a good thing." She had, none knew it better--very few so well--she had eighteen thousand pounds, besides expectations, the latter very reasonable and promising in their way. Her connexions were admirable--high enough to give him a very considerable lift socially, and yet not so elevated as to make his rise that of a mere "parvenu."
Professionally, the advantage would be great, and lead to much parliamentary business, the carrying of local bills, and a deal of very profitable employment. He flattered himself that in most other respects there was much the world would deem suitable. He was twelve--well, if you like, fourteen--years her senior, but then neither were very young, and when a woman had reached we shall not say what of the thirties, her marrying was not subjected to the criticisms applied to the blushing bride of eighteen or twenty. Lastly, he was well off, had a capital business, a good house in a good street, was "well placed" amongst men of his cla.s.s, and altogether favourably regarded by his betters. "She might do worse," muttered he, at the end of his rumination, as he descended from the chaise with an amount of activity in his movements that showed he had detected the flounce of a muslin dress at the drawing-room window.
"All well, I hope, Rickards?" said he to the stout butler, who bowed his welcome in most gracious guise.
"Quite well, Mr. M"Kinlay--and, indeed, you look the same, Sir."
"Nothing the matter with me, Rickards, that a little rest won"t remedy.
Over-work, over-work is my malady!"
Mr. Rickards sighed responsively; he had heard men speak of the affection, and the symptoms they mentioned were quite appalling. "Her Ladyship"s not down yet, but Miss Georgina is in the drawing-room,"
added he, with great significance of manner. "Step this way, Sir."
Miss Courtenay was busily engaged searching for a letter in her writing-desk when the butler announced, in his most emphatic manner, Mr.
M"Kinlay; but she only turned her head round, and, with a weak smile, said, "Oh, Mr. M"Kinlay! I trust they did not keep you waiting on the road. You know we have been obliged to have the gate locked."
"I heard so. Indeed, I have heard of little else since my arrival, Miss Conrtenay," said he, not altogether mastering the anger he felt at his cool reception. "I hope Lady Vyner is well."
"Yes; as well as she ever is. What a provoking thing it is to mislay a letter; but I suppose it is an oversight you have never committed. You have everything in order, docketed, pigeon-holed, and what not."
"Pardon me, I am the most careless of men. All about me is a chaos of confusion."