"How so?" said the baronet, glowering at him, his fingers twitching to take this courtly, easy-spoken man by the throat.
"Because you come to propose your son, Mr. George, for the honour of the hand of Miss Aline Minto. Miss Aline can say "No" for herself. But I think you had better not trouble her and content yourself with the indication I give you."
"And what is that?"
"That Miss Aline prefers to remain as she is!"
The baronet, however, insisted on a personal answer. Miss Aline came in and stood shyly while Sir Bunny pointed out the advantages of his proposal--the estates joined, the parish under control, and the family name changed by poll deed to Minto-Bunny-Bunny.
"I am obliged for your thinking of me," said Miss Aline sweetly, "but for the present I have no intention of marrying."
"I warn you," said Sir Bunny Bunny, "that by continuing to act as you are doing, you are exposing yourself to misconstruction--"
Julian Wemyss, who had been looking out of the window, turned suddenly and caught his eye.
Old Sir Bunny was no coward, but he shrank from the look of Julian Wemyss as if it had been a knife at his breast.
"I mean," he said, "that Miss Aline, gracious and youthful as she is, ought to remember that youth does not last for ever!"
He thought he had turned the matter off rather neatly, and was surprised when Julian merely shrugged his shoulders and turned again to the window. Presently Sir Bunny Bunny made his bow and departed, cursing the interference of Julian Wemyss in what had long been the desire of his heart, the union of the Bunny Bunny properties with those of Balmacminto. He had thought about it so long that it had become to his mind an accomplished fact. Indeed, he had only been waiting for his loutish son George to finish his wild-oat sowing before communicating the news of her good fortune to Miss Aline.
He was still more astonished on the way home from Ladykirk. An officer, riding, checked at his approach, and, with a sketched salute, reined his steed long enough to ask, "Do you know where Mr. Julian Wemyss is to be found? He is to go home immediately. His Royal Highness the Duke is at Abbey Burnfoot!"
"What duke?" the baronet fairly gasped.
"The Duke of Lyonesse, of course, on his way from Ireland," said the officer, "he was junior _attache_ to Mr. Wemyss at Vienna!"
"Good G.o.d!" said the baronet, "I wonder if Wemyss will bring him to Bunny House."
And he offered to ride with the officer to where Julian might be found.
The adjutant took one look at the plethoric proportions of the baronet"s mount, and answered that he was in a hurry. A simple indication would be enough for him. Whereupon, with some reluctance, Sir Bunny pointed to the chimneys of Ladykirk quietly reeking through the trees, and with a hasty lift of his reins the officer rode on, leaving the baronet staring after him, wondering whether he ought to tell his wife, or if he should leave her to find out for herself.
His brain wheeled. For Julian Wemyss, whom none of them, except Miss Aline, had chosen to know, was receiving at his house, hitherto the eyesore and scandal of the neighbourhood, a Prince of the blood Royal.
After all, there must have been something in that talk of great ladies heartbroken because of this Julian Wemyss, in whom the county saw nothing, and in whose amba.s.sadorship they had refused to believe, even though his resignation of it so unexpectedly had been commented upon in the _Edinburgh Magazine_, which was taken in by Sir Bunny and pa.s.sed round afterwards from house to house.
What could so great a man find to do there? In a distant and disdainful fashion Sir Bunny knew Abbey Burnfoot. It was not even a mansion--merely a new-fangled sort of cottage at the best--built in Italian fashion, they said, but after all, only two score yards of garden, with a narrow rim of links overgrown with sea pink and ground holly. It was stuck ridiculously in between the white sands and the pour of the Abbey Burn--no drives or pleasances, no cropped hedges and trim parterres--nothing, in short, which Royalty had a right to expect when visiting a real gentleman"s country seat, such as he flattered himself could be found at Bunny House in the shire of Wigton.
It did not occur to Sir Bunny Bunny, with his poor little squireen"s point of view, that His Royal Highness might possibly come to see, not long avenues and close cropped hedges, but his old kind chief of Constantinople and Vienna.
So he was forced to content himself with many shakings of his head, and muttering that the country was going to the dogs when princes consorted with beggars or little better, as he rode off home to Bunny House in desperate fear of what his wife Lady Bunny would say when he got there.
CHAPTER VII
THE LADS IN THE HEATHER
Patsy came into her uncle Julian"s drawing-room in her most tempestuous manner. She had been for a gallop along the sands on Stair Garland"s pony and had beaten Louis de Raincy"s Honeypot by a length. She was in high feather, and as she tramped along the cool parqueted hall she kept calling out, "Uncle Ju--where are you, Uncle Ju?"
When she opened the door and dashed in she disturbed the conference of three men by the window, one of whom was in uniform, and the other two dressed in the latest fashion, of which Patsy had as yet only seen prints at the end of her uncle"s _Town and Country Magazine_--a review which, curiously enough, always lacked some of its pages by the time Patsy was allowed to see it.
"Oh," said Patsy, no ways abashed, "you have come to see my uncle--will you be seated?"
Patsy noticed that the tallest of the young men made a slight sign to his companions, and that they sat down as if in answer to that signal instead of accepting her invitation at once.
"We have indeed come a long distance in order to call on Mr. Julian Wemyss," said the young man of the signal. "I knew him at Vienna, and as I was pa.s.sing through from Ireland, I took this opportunity of paying my respects to him. But it is better still to find such a charming young lady installed in his house to do the honours!"
"Oh," said Patsy, "I do not live here, but with my father at the other end of the glen. I only come every day to cheer him up--Uncle Ju is so apt to get the "pokes"!"
"The "pokes"--what are they?" exclaimed the tall and ruddy young man, who continued to stare at her in a manner which would have discountenanced any other than Patsy.
"The "pokes" are what you get if you are left too long alone with all these shelves, especially if you stop indoors to read them. Then I come and take Uncle Julian out, and he feels better before I have gone a mile with him!"
"So you are a remedy for the "pokes,"" said the young man, drawing his chair nearer to that of Patsy, as if to show his interest. "I often have the disease, though with me it does not come from reading too many books. But I should gladly take the malady that I might taste of the antidote!"
And Patsy felt her face flush with the intensity of his regard. She cast down her eyes, and the young man took advantage of the fact to signal slightly to his friends. One after the other they rose and, with an excuse, left the room.
The tall young man came gradually closer to Patsy till she started to her feet, merely to break the nervous tension. An instinctive repulsion sent her to the window, and, then, though he followed her, she somehow felt safe. There were the familiar sands, and in a moment she could be outside where none could touch her. After all, she thought, as she looked at the white line of the breakers and heard the familiar clatter of the servants in the kitchen below, she was a fool to be so idiotically nervous, like a fine smelling-salts lady. What could happen to her? What if she did not like this very forward young man? He was a guest of her Uncle Julian"s--he might even be his friend. Very likely he meant no harm, and she would treat him just like anybody else. Yes, that would be best.
"Ah," said the young man, leaning over her as she stood looking out, "if only I had been at that cottage on the hills with the officers the other day! I would have given a thousand guineas for their luck. But now that I am fortunate enough to have you to myself for a moment, let me say how much I admire you, Miss Patsy--that is your name, I think?"
Patsy did not answer. She had one hand on the sill and was wondering if the young man were mad or only drunk--also how long it would take for her to be safe among the heather.
"You are far too fine and beautiful," he continued, "too bewitching and original to remain here. You must come to London and take your place among our reigning beauties. Ah, if only you would trust to one who adores you, one who would do anything in the world for you--"
"If you mean yourself, will you help me to wind wool?" said Patsy. "I have a pair of heather-mixture stockings to make for uncle. I promised to make them for him last Christmas and I only began them yesterday."
"Certainly," said the young man, visibly discountenanced, "but can your uncle not wait a little longer? I wish to talk to you. It was solely for that purpose I came here, believe me. I had heard of you from Captain Laurence, and young Everard, one of the officers of the _Britomart_, in which I came from Ireland. I was over there governing the island for my father!"
"Ah, were you?" said Patsy, "well, here is the wool. Can you wind it?
No! Then you had better hold it. That, at least, you can do.--Well, there you are, remember I shall find you out if you are boasting."
"But I have got much to say to you!" the young man objected.
"I can listen better on my feet. I must be doing something. There--sit down on that three-legged "creepie," and, whatever you do, do not tangle the wool."
Patsy was resolved that, whatever she might do in the future, she would now take the matter lightly, and not insult her uncle"s guest in the drawing-room of Abbey Burnfoot.
When Julian Wemyss returned in haste from Miss Aline"s, he found no less a person than H.R.H. the Duke of Lyonesse seated on a stool holding wool for Patsy, who wound a ball with rapid, nimble fingers while she scolded a delighted Great Personage for his mismanagement. Two gentlemen, of whom one was Captain Laurence, stood outside and waited gravely, as indeed became them. But the Duke of Lyonesse was in the highest spirits and really gave himself to his task, knitting his brows and striving to follow Patsy"s instructions to the letter.
"It is a long time since I heard so much truth about myself," said the Duke. "I own I am both stupid and awkward, but then, by gad, I am willing to learn!"
"People who are stupid and awkward ought not to offer," said Patsy. "I am sure that Captain Laurence, whom you sent away, could do it a great deal better."