Elizabeth seated herself beside Mrs. Somerton. Hubert delivered the flowers to Margaret, and drew his chair close to hers.
"But what am I to do with all these, Mr. Hubert?" said Margaret.
"You are to wear all these heaths this evening, you know," he said selecting the heaths from the nosegay. "I will make a wreath for you."
"But how very smart I shall be," said Margaret, hesitatingly.
"Oh! you promised--you will not draw back; see this is the way I shall mix them. All the shades, from white to crimson--no, a cl.u.s.ter will be prettier than a wreath. You cannot refuse--your last day. Ah! how beautiful you will look--but that you always do. Come, you will promise to wear them?"
"Will you promise to talk something like sense then Mr. Hubert?" said Margaret archly. "These striped camellias are for you, Harriet."
"Thanks, little one," said Harriet. "Tell Hubert to keep them all in water for us till we go up to dress."
Mr. Gage, by this time, having noticed Blanche"s childish, sparkling face, and pretty figure, condescended to say to her in a haughty tone, "Did you walk here?"
"To be sure!" said Blanche, "such a beautiful morning. I would not have had the carriage out on any account."
There was one slight drawback to her using a carriage, if she wished it; namely, that she did not possess a vehicle of any description. But Mr.
Gage who was very little at home, and who knew nothing of the concerns of his neighbours, was easily imposed upon.
"Yes," he said rather less haughtily, "It was hardly worth while for a short distance."
"And then I am such a walker!" said Blanche, her pretty face kindling and dimpling with smiles; "I am never tired of wandering about this lovely country. I told mamma positively that I never would pa.s.s a season in town. My sister is there now with our relation, Lady K----, in the midst of b.a.l.l.s and gaieties. But I should think them a very poor exchange for the Ashdale woods."
Had Mr. Gage possessed more than the usual amount of penetration, he could not have been expected to guess that Blanche was in a perpetual ill-humour, because her sister was in town this season instead of herself; he merely thought it was odd for so pretty a girl to be contented with retirement, and that there was something rather attractive in the novelty of it.
"I suppose your tastes are quite pastoral," said Mr. Gage, relaxing still more of his dignity. "I dare say, if the truth were told, you have a pet lamb, which you crown with flowers every morning before breakfast."
"Oh, Mr. Gage!" said Blanche shaking her head with a little air of reproach, "the days are gone by when country people were obliged to depend on such childish amus.e.m.e.nts. We can have new books and music now, almost as soon as they appear in town. Indeed, we can bring everything from London, but its smoky atmosphere."
Harriet who had been watching Hubert arranging the flowers in a gla.s.s, now turned round and beheld Mr. Gage actually talking to Blanche Somerton,--bending down and smiling at her. She coloured with anger and contempt.
"Mr. Gage," said she, pointing to a work-box close to him, "shall I trouble you to give me that box?"
Mr. Gage brought it her; she took out of it what she wanted, and then returned him the box. He sat down beside her still holding it.
"I think you don"t often work," he said. "I do not remember to have seen you."
"No. This is not work exactly; this is crochet," said Harriet, holding up a purse of blue and silver twist. "Don"t you think it very handsome?"
"Yes. Only so stiff; you could not draw it through a ring."
"Of course not; it is to have a clasp. See, this will match it very well; silver and turquoise. Now, wrap it up again in the silver paper.
Put it neatly away. Now who do you think it is for?"
Mr. Gage"s brow darkened.
"Uncle Singleton! When he plays at cards, he always likes to have a handsome purse. Would you believe it? I think it is only that he may have the pleasure of saying, "My niece Harriet made this for me.!""
"You are a great favourite there," said Mr. Gage, looking quite comfortable again.
"Can you wonder?" said Harriet, looking very like a coquette into his face.
"No indeed," replied Mr. Gage.
"It was there I first met Lord Raymond," said Harriet, heaving a deep sigh.
Mr. Gage put down her work-box, and rose from the sofa; but he did not return to Blanche, he went to his newspaper.
"Too bad!" said Blanche to herself, swelling with rage and spite. "She does not want him for herself, and yet she must needs interfere with me, when I was getting on so nicely. A malicious creature! I should like to drown her! I don"t think anything in this world so mean as to interrupt another"s flirtation when you have no good reason for doing it."
And Blanche crossed the room and tried very hard to detach Hubert from Margaret.
George Gage did not at all recover this last attack before dinner-time; he was very grand and sullen. Harriet, on the contrary, was in the wildest spirits. In many respects Margaret thought these two very well suited to each other. Kind and cordial as Harriet was to her, nothing could exceed her pride; and she was as haughty and as distant to people, whom she did not consider on a level with herself, as Mr. Gage could be.
Her manners that morning were merely a sample of her general style of behaviour. A cold stare, and a monosyllable were all she vouchsafed to any of the village people who happened to be on visiting terms at Chirke Weston, and the only subject on which she and George Gage were sure to sympathise, was disgust at the intrusion of such persons while they condescended to honour the house with their presence. At such times, their eyes would meet with an expression of endurance very different from the hostile looks they so frequently exchanged.
Harriet came down to dinner looking like an old picture. She wore a high dress of black satin, ornamented with Spanish b.u.t.tons of gold filigree.
Her hair was frizzed out round her head like some of Van Dyck"s early pictures, and the striped camellias put in just behind the ear--she seemed determined to look her best this last evening.
George Gage stared directly. He had a great fancy for seeing women in fine clothes; and clothes that looked as if they cost a great deal of money. He took her into dinner, and tried to command his temper, and keep up a conversation with her.
"You drove out after luncheon, did you not?"
"Yes. Did not you hear Uncle Gage and me planning a secret expedition together?"
"No. Might I ask where you went?"
"We went all the way to S----. Are you not very anxious to learn our object?"
"If it is not a breach of confidence, certainly."
"You could not guess, Mr. Gage?"
"I fear not."
"It was to get pack-thread for garden-nets."
"A very important mission," said Mr. Gage.
"You will think it important when the season comes for fruit; but, perhaps, you will not be here."
"I shall not. I go back to Ireland in about a fortnight."
"Still you know, though you will not be here to steal the plums, other people will be enjoying them; and you can leave word with the gardener to send your friend, little Blanche Somerton, the first basket of ripe cherries."
"I really do not know any person of that name," said Mr. Gage, indignantly.
"Well, after that!" said Harriet lifting up her hands. "Hubert, I hope you saw what was going on this morning."