"I am going with you to your birthday festival, Richard. Could we wish for more? I am as happy as you."
"That may well be, for I might be happier."
Again her eyes met mine, and she hummed an air. So we came to the gate, beside which stood Diomedes and Hugo in the family claret-red. A coach was drawn up, and another behind it, and we went down the leafy walk in the midst of a bevy of guests.
We have no such places nowadays, my dears, as was my grandfather"s. The ground between the street and the brick wall in the rear was a great stretch, as ample in acreage as many a small country-place we have in these times. The house was on the high land in front, hedged in by old trees, and thence you descended by stately tiers until you came to the level which held the dancers. Beyond that, and lower still, a lilied pond widened out of the sluggish brook with a cool and rustic spring-house at one end. The spring-house was thatched, with windows looking out upon the water. Long after, when I went to France, I was reminded of the shy beauty of this part of my old home by the secluded pond of the Little Trianon. So was it that King Louis"s Versailles had spread its influence a thousand leagues to our youthful continent.
My grandfather sat in his great chair on the sward beside the fiddlers, his old friends gathering around him, as in former years.
"And this is the miss that hath already broken half the bachelor hearts in town!" said he, gayly. "What was my prediction, Miss Dolly, when you stepped your first dance at Carvel Hall?"
"Indeed, you do me wrong, Mr. Carvel!"
"And I were a buck, you would not break mine, I warrant, unless it were t.i.t for tat," said my grandfather; thereby putting me to more confusion than Dolly, who laughed with the rest.
""Tis well to boast, Mr. Carvel, when we are out of the battle," cried Mr. Lloyd.
Dolly was carried off immediately, as I expected. The doctor and Worthington and Fitzhugh were already there, and waiting. I stood by Mr.
Carvel"s chair, receiving the guests, and presently came Mr. Swain and Patty.
"Heigho!" called Mr. Carvel, when he saw her; "here is the young lady that hath my old affections. You are right welcome, Mr. Swain. Scipio, another chair! "Tis not over the wall any more, Miss Patty, with our flowered India silk. But I vow I love you best with your etui."
Patty, too, was carried off, for you may be sure that Will Fotheringay and Singleton were standing on one foot and then the other, waiting for Mr. Carvel to have done. Next arrived my aunt, in a wide calash and a wider hoop, her stays laced so that she limped, and her hair wonderfully and fearfully arranged by her Frenchman. Neither she nor Grafton was slow to shower congratulations upon my grandfather and myself. Mr.
Marmaduke went through the ceremony after them. Dorothy"s mother drew me aside. As long as I could remember her face had been one that revealed a life"s disappointment. But to-day I thought it bore a trace of a deeper anxiety.
"How well I recall this day, eighteen years ago, Richard," she said.
"And how proud your dear mother was that she had given a son to Captain Jack. She had prayed for a son. I hope you will always do your parents credit, my dear boy. They were both dear, dear friends of mine."
My Aunt Caroline"s harsher voice interrupted her.
"Gadzooks, ma"am!" she cried, as she approached us, "I have never in my life laid eyes upon such beauty as your daughter"s. You will have to take her home, Mrs. Manners, to do her justice. You owe it her, ma"am.
Come, nephew, off with you, and head the minuet with Miss Dolly!"
My grandfather was giving the word to the fiddlers. But whether a desire to cross my aunt held me back, or a sense of duty to greet the guests not already come, or a vague intuition of some impending news drawn from Mrs. Manners and Dorothy, I know not. Mr. Fitzhugh was easily persuaded to take my place, and presently I slipped unnoticed into a shaded seat on the side of the upper terrace, whence I could see the changing figures on the green. And I thought of the birthday festivals Dolly and I had spent here, almost since we were of an age to walk. Wet June days, when the broad wings of the house rang with the sound of silver laughter and pattering feet, and echoed with music from the hall; and merry June days, when the laughter rippled among the lilacs, and pansies and poppies and sweet peas were outshone by bright gowns and brighter faces.
And then, as if to complete the picture of the past, my eye fell upon our mammies modestly seated behind the group of older people, Aunt Hester and Aunt Lucy, their honest, black faces aglow with such unselfish enjoyment as they alone could feel.
How easily I marked Dorothy among the throng!
Other girls found it hard to compress the spirits of youth within the dignity of a minuet, and thought of the childish romp of former years.
Not so my lady. Long afterwards I saw her lead a ball with the first soldier and gentleman of the land, but on that Tuesday she carried herself full as well, so well that his Excellency and the gentlemen about him applauded heartily. As the strains died away and the couples moved off among the privet-lined paths, I went slowly down the terrace.
Dorothy had come up to speak to her mother, Dr. Courtenay lingering impatient at her side. And though her colour glowed deeper, and the wind had loosed a wisp of her hair, she took his Excellency"s compliments undisturbed. Colonel Sharpe, our former governor, who now made his home in the province, sat beside him.
"Now where a-deuce were you, Richard?" said he. "You have missed as pleasing a sight as comes to a man in a lifetime. Why were you not here to see Miss Manners tread a minuet? My word! Terpsich.o.r.e herself could scarce have made it go better."
"I saw the dance, sir, from a safe distance," I replied.
"I"ll warrant!" said he, laughing, while Dolly shot me a wayward glance from under her long lashes. "I"ll warrant your eyes were fast on her from beginning to end. Come, sir, confess!"
His big frame shook with the fun of it, for none in the colony could be jollier than he on holiday occasions: and the group of ladies and gentlemen beside him caught the infection, so that I was sore put to it.
"Will your Excellency confess likewise?" I demanded.
"So I will, Richard, and make patent to all the world that she hath the remains of that shuttlec.o.c.k, my heart."
Up gets his Excellency (for so we still called him) and makes Dolly a low reverence, kissing the tips of her white fingers. My lady drops a mock curtsey in return.
"Your Excellency can do no less than sue for a dance," drawled Dr.
Courtenay.
"And no more, I fear, sir, not being so nimble as I once was. I resign in your favour, doctor," said Colonel Sharpe.
Dr. Courtenay made his bow, his hat tucked under his arm. But he had much to learn of Miss Manners if he thought that even one who had been governor of the province could command her. The music was just begun again, and I making off in the direction of Patty Swain, when I was brought up as suddenly as by a rope. A curl was upon Dorothy"s lips.
"The dance belongs to Richard, doctor," she said.
"Egad, Courtenay, there you have a buffer!" cried Colonel Sharpe, as the much-discomfited doctor bowed with a very ill grace; while I, in no small bewilderment, walked off with Dorothy. And a parting shot of the delighted colonel brought the crimson to my face. Like the wind or April weather was my lady, and her ways far beyond such a great simpleton as I.
"So I am ever forced to ask you to dance!" said Dolly.
"What were you about, moping off alone, with a party in your honour, sir?"
"I was watching you, as I told his Excellency."
"Oh, fie!" she cried. "Why don"t you a.s.sert yourself, Richard? There was a time when you gave me no peace."
"And then you rebuked me for dangling," I retorted.
Up started the music, the fiddlers bending over their bows with flushed faces, having dipped into the cool punch in the interval. Away flung my lady to meet Singleton, while I swung Patty, who squeezed my hand in return. And soon we were in the heat of it,--sober minuet no longer, but romp and riot, the screams of the la.s.ses a-mingle with our own laughter, as we spun them until they were dizzy. My brain was a-whirl as well, and presently I awoke to find Dolly pinching my arm.
"Have you forgotten me, Richard?" she whispered. "My other hand, sir. It is I down the middle."
Down we flew between the laughing lines, Dolly tripping with her head high, and then back under the clasped hands in the midst of a fire of raillery. Then the music stopped. Some strange exhilaration was in Dorothy.
"Do you remember the place where I used to play fairy G.o.dmother, and wind the flowers into my hair?" said she.
What need to ask?
"Come!" she commanded decisively.
"With all my heart!" I exclaimed, wondering at this new caprice.
"If we can but slip away unnoticed, they will never find us there," she said. And led the way herself, silent. At length we came to the damp shade where the brook dived under the corner of the wall. I stooped to gather the lilies of the valley, and she wove them into her hair as of old. Suddenly she stopped, the bunch poised in her hand.
"Would you miss me if I went away, Richard?" she asked, in a low voice.
"What do you mean, Dolly?" I cried, my voice failing. "Just that," said she.
"I would miss you, and sorely, tho" you give me trouble enough."