said Miss Limpenny when they were outside in the open air.
She looked at the ground as she said so, for she could forget neither the Nightcap nor the Telescope.
The Admiral was silent.
"She is very lovely," remarked Mrs. Buzza, "and did you remark how the Vicar paused in the Litany when he came to "all the n.o.bility"?"
"I was particularly careful to pray for Lord Sinkport," said Calypso, innocently.
Still the Admiral was silent. That afternoon Mrs. Buzza, stealing softly into the back parlour lest she should disturb her lord, was amazed, in place of the usual rec.u.mbent form with a bandanna over its face, to find him sitting up, wide awake, and staring gloomily.
"My dear--" she began in her confusion.
The Admiral turned a Gorgon stare upon her, but made no answer.
Under its petrifying influence she backed out without another word, to communicate with the girls upon the portent.
This mood of the Admiral"s lasted all day. Next morning, at breakfast, he looked up from his bacon, and observed, with the air of a man whose mind is made up--
"Emily, see that the girls have on their best gowns by eleven o"clock sharp. I am going to pay a call."
Consternation sat on every face. Sam Buzza paused in the act of breaking an egg.
"At "The Bower"?" he asked.
"At "The Bower.""
Mrs. Buzza clasped her hands nervously. The girls turned pale.
"Oh, very well," said Sam, tapping his egg. "I shouldn"t wonder if I turned up while you were there."
He was a light-haired, ungainly youth, of about twenty, with a reputation for singing a comic song. It was understood that the Admiral designed him for College and Holy Orders, but meanwhile time was pa.s.sing, and Sam sat "with idle hands at home," or more frequently, in the bar of the "Man-o"-War."
"You!" exclaimed his father.
"Well, I don"t see what there is in that to be surprised about,"
replied the youth, with an aggrieved air. "I met the Honourable Frederic smoking a cigar out on the Rope-walk last night. His cigars are very good; and he asked me to drop in soon and try another.
He isn"t a bit stuck-up."
The Admiral"s feelings were divided between annoyance at the easy success of his son, and elation at finding the stranger so unexpectedly affable. He rose.
"Girls, remember to be punctual. I will show this town of Troy that I am not the man to be laughed at."
CHAPTER VII.
OF A LADY THAT HAD A MUSICAL VOICE, BUT USED IT TO DECEIVE.
Many of the advantages that wait upon the readers of this history are, I should hope, by this time obvious. Among them must be reckoned the privilege of taking precedence of Admiral Buzza--of paying a visit to "The Bower" not only several minutes in advance of that great man, but moreover on terms of the utmost intimacy.
Shortly before eleven on Monday morning the Honourable Frederic Augustus Hythe Goodwyn-Sandys was shaving contemplatively. He was a tall, thin man, with light, closely cropped hair, a drooping moustache that hid his mouth, and a nose of the order aquiline, and species "chiselled." For the present the lower half of his face was obscured with lather. His dress--I put it thus in case Miss Limpenny should read these lines--was that usually worn by gentlemen under similar circ.u.mstances.
Mr. Goodwyn-Sandys was just taking his first stroke with the razor, when the creaking of the garden gate caused him to glance out of window. The effect of this was to make him cut his cheek; whereupon he both bled and swore simultaneously and profusely.
On the gravel walk stood Admiral Buzza with his three daughters.
Again the great man was in full dress. Behind him in Indian file advanced Sophia, Jane, Calypso, each in a straight frock of vivid yellow surmounted by a straw hat of such enormous brim as to lend them a fearful likeness to three gigantic fungi. As far as the hats allowed one to see from above, each wore sandal-shoes, and carried a small green parasol, neatly folded.
At the sight of this regiment of visitors, Mr. Goodwyn-Sandys paused with razor in air and blood trickling down his chin. The Admiral marched resolutely up the path and struck three distinct knocks upon the door.
It was opened by the youth in b.u.t.tons.
The Admiral produced a sheaf of visiting cards and handed them to the page, as if inviting him to select one, note it carefully, and restore it to the pack.
"Is the Honourable Frederic Goodwyn-Sandys or the Honourable Mrs.
Goodwyn-Sandys at home?"
Words cannot do justice to the Admiral"s tone.
The regiment was marched into the drawing-room, where Mrs.
Goodwyn-Sandys rose to receive them.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Mrs. Goodwyn-Sandys rose to receive them.]
She was undeniably beautiful; not young, but rather in that St.
Martin"s Summer when a woman learns for the first time the value of her charms. Her hair was of a glossy black, her lips red and full, her figure and grey morning gown two miracles. But on her eyes and voice you shall hear Mr. Moggridge, who subsequently wasted a deal of Her Majesty"s time and his own paper upon this subject. From a note-book of his, the early pages of which are constant to a certain Sophia, I select the following--
"TO GRACIOSA, WALKING AND TALKING."
Whenas abroad, to greet the morn, I mark my Graciosa walk, In homage bends the whisp"ring corn; Yet, to confess Its awkwardness, Must hang its head upon the stalk.
And when she talks, her lips do heal The wound her lightest glances give.
In pity, then, be harsh and deal Such wounds, that I May hourly die And, by a word revived, live!
All this was very shocking of Mr. Moggridge; for Mrs. Goodwyn-Sandys was not _his_ Graciosa at all. But it was what we were fated to come to, in Troy. And Graciosa"s voice and smile were certainly inspiring.
Let us return to "The Bower." The Admiral having presented his daughters, and arranged them in line again, cleared his throat and began--
"Though aware that, as judged by the standard of the best society, this visit may be condemned as premature, I have thought right to stifle such apprehensions in my anxiety to a.s.sure you of a welcome in Troy--I may say, an open-armed welcome."
Here the Admiral actually spread his arms abroad. His hostess retreated a step.
"My daughters,--Calypso, I perceive an errant curl--my daughters, madam, will bear me out when I say that only excess of feeling prevents their mother from joining in this--may I call it so?--this ovation."
(In point of fact, Mrs. Buzza had been judged too red in the eyes to accompany the Admiral.)