"I could hand buns," suggested Charles. "You take a gloomy view of your fellow-creatures, Miss Deyncourt. I see you underrate my powers with plates of buns."
"Far from it. I only wished to keep you from quitting your proper sphere."
"What, may I ask, is my proper sphere?"
"Not to come to school-feasts at all; or, if you feel that is beyond you, only to arrive when you are too late to be of any use; to stand about with a hunting-crop in your hand--for, of course, you will come on horseback--and then, after refreshing all of us workers by a few well-chosen remarks, to go away again at an easy canter."
"I think I could do that, if it would give pleasure; and I am most grateful to you for pointing out my proper course to me. I have observed it is the prerogative of woman in general not only to be absolutely convinced as to her own line of action, but also to be able to point out that of man to his obtuser perceptions."
"I believe you are perfectly right," said Ruth, becoming serious. "If men, especially prime-ministers, were to apply to almost any woman I know (except, of course, myself) for advice as to the administration of the realm or their own family affairs, I have not the slightest doubt that not one of them would be sent empty away, but would be furnished instantly with a complete guide-book as to his future movements on this side the grave."
"Oh, some people don"t stop there," said Charles. "Aunt Mary, in my young days, used to think nothing of the grave if I had displeased her.
She still revels in a future court of justice, and an eternal cat-o"-nine tails beyond the tomb. Well, Molly, so here you are, back again! What"s the last news?"
The news was the extraordinary arrival of five new kittens, which, according to Molly, the old stable cat had just discovered in a loft, and took the keenest personal interest in. Charles was dragged away, only half acquiescent, to help in a decision that must instantly be come to, as to which of the two spotted or the three plain ones should be kept.
It was a day of delight to Molly. She had the responsibility and honor of driving Ruth and the dolls in her own donkey-cart to the scene of action, where the school children, and some of the idlest or most good-natured of Mrs. Alwynn"s friends, were even then a.s.sembling, and where Mrs. Alwynn herself was already dashing from point to point, buzzing like a large "b.u.mble" bee.
As the donkey-cart crawled up a gray figure darted out of the tent, and flew to meet them from afar. Dare, who had been on the lookout for them for some time, offered to lift out Molly, helped out Ruth, held the baskets, wished to unharness the donkey, let the wheel go over his patent leather shoe, and in short made himself excessively agreeable, if not in Ruth"s, at least in Molly"s eyes, who straightway entered into conversation with him, and invited him to call upon herself and the guinea-pigs at Atherstone at an early date.
Then ensued the usual scene at festivities of this description. Tea was poured out like water (very like warm water), buns, cakes, and bread and b.u.t.ter were eaten, were crumbled, were put in pockets, were stamped underfoot. Large open tarts, covered with thin sticks of pastry, called by the boys "the tarts with the grubs on "em," disappeared apace, being constantly replaced by others made in the same image, from which the protecting but adhesive newspaper had to be judiciously peeled. When the last limit of the last child had been reached, the real work of the day began--the games. Under a blazing sun, for the s.p.a.ce of two hours, "Sally Water" or "Nuts in May" must be played, with an occasional change to "Oranges and Lemons."
Ruth, who had before been staying with the Alwynns at the time of their school-feast, hardened her heart, and began that immoral but popular game of "Sally Water."
"Sally, Sally Water, come sprinkle your pan; Rise up a husband, a handsome young man.
Rise, Sally, rise, and don"t look sad, You shall have a husband, good or bad."
The last line showing how closely the state of feeling of village society, as regards the wedded state, resembles the view taken of it in the highest circles.
Other games were already in full swing. Mrs. Alwynn, flushed and shrill, was organizing an infant troop. A good-natured curate was laying up for himself treasure elsewhere, by a present expenditure of half-pence secreted in a tub of bran. Dare, not to be behind-hand, took to swinging little girls with desperate and heated good-nature. His bright smile and genial brown face soon gained the confidence of the children; and then he swung them as they had never been swung before. It was positively the first time that some of the girls had ever seen their heels above their heads. And his powers of endurance were so great. First his coat and then his waistcoat were cast aside as he warmed to his work, until at last he dragged the sleeve of his shirt out of the socket, and had to retire into private life behind a tree, in company with Mrs. Eccles and a needle and thread. But he reappeared again, and was soon swept into a game of cricket that was being got up among the elder boys; bowled the school-master; batted brilliantly and with considerable flourish for a few moments, only to knock his own wickets down with what seemed singular want of care; and then fielded with cat-like activity and an entire oblivion of the game, receiving a swift ball on his own person, only to choke, coil himself up, and recover his equanimity and the ball in a moment.
All things come to an end, and at last the Slumberleigh church clock struck four, and Ruth could sink giddily onto a bench, and push back the few remaining hair-pins that were left to her, and feebly endeavor, with a pin eagerly extracted by Dare from the back of his neck, to join the gaping ruin of torn gathers in her dress, so daintily fresh two hours ago, so dilapidated now.
"There they come!" said Mrs. Alwynn, indignantly, who was fanning herself with her pocket-handkerchief, which stout women ought to be forbidden by law to do. "There are Mrs. Thursby and Mabel. Just like them, arriving when the games are all over! And, dear me! who is that with them? Why, it is Sir Charles Danvers. I had no idea he was staying with them. Brown particularly told me they had not brought back any friend with them yesterday. Dear me! How odd! And Brown--"
"Sir Charles Danvers is staying at Atherstone," said Ruth.
"At Atherstone, is he? Well, my dear, this is the first I have heard of it, if he is. I don"t see what there is to make a secret of in _that_.
Most natural he should be staying there, I should have thought. And, if that"s one of Mabel"s new gowns, all I can say is that yours is quite as nice, Ruth, though I know it is from last year, and those full fronts as fashionable as ever."
As Mr. and Mrs. Alwynn went forward to meet the Thursbys, Charles strolled up to Ruth, and planted himself deliberately in front of her.
"You observe that I am here?" he said.
"I do."
"At the proper time?"
"At the proper time."
"And in my sphere? I have tampered with no buns, you will remark, and teapots have been far from me."
"I am exceedingly rejoiced my little word in season has been of such use."
"It has, Miss Deyncourt. The remark you made this morning I considered honest, though poor, and I laid it to heart accordingly. But," with a change of tone, "you look tired to death. You have been out in the sun too long. I am going off now. I only came because I met the Thursbys, and they dragged me here. Come home with me through the woods. You have no idea how agreeable I am in the open air. It will be shady all the way, and not half so fatiguing as being shaken in Molly"s donkey-cart."
"In the donkey-cart I must return, however, if I die on the way," said Ruth, with a tired smile. "I can"t leave Molly. Besides, all is not over yet. The races and prizes take time; and when at last they are dismissed, a slice of--"
"No, Miss Deyncourt, _no_! Not more food!"
"A slice of cake will be applied _externally_ to each of the children, which rite brings the festivities to a close. There! I see the dolls are being carried out. I must go;" and a moment later Ruth and Molly and Dare, who had been hovering near, were busily unpacking and shaking out the dolls; and Charles, after a little desultory conversation with Mabel Thursby, strolled away, with his hands behind his back and his nose in the air in the manner habitual to him.
And so the day wore itself out at last; and after a hymn had been shrieked the children were dismissed, and Ruth and Molly at length drove away.
"Hasn"t it been delicious?" said Molly. "And my doll was chosen first.
Lucy Bigg, with the rash on her face, got it. I wish little Sarah had had it. I do love Sarah so very much; but Sarah had yours, Ruth, with the real pocket and the handkerchief in it. That will be a surprise for her when she gets home. And that new gentleman was so kind about the teapots, wasn"t he? He always filled mine first. He"s coming to see me very soon, and to bring a curious black dog that he has of his very own, called--"
"Stop, Molly," said Ruth, as the donkey"s head was being sawed round towards the blazing high-road; "let us go home through the woods. I know it is longer, but I can"t stand any more sun and dust to-day."
"You do look tired," said Molly, "and your lips are quite white. My lips turned white once, before I had the measles, and I felt very curious inside, and then spots came all over. You don"t feel like spots, do you, Cousin Ruth? We will go back by the woods, and I"ll open the gates, and you shall hold the reins. I dare say Balaam will like it better too."
Molly had called her donkey Balaam, partly owing to a misapprehension of Scripture narrative, and partly owing to the a.s.surance of Charles, when in sudden misgiving she had consulted him on the point, that Balaam _had_ been an a.s.s.
Balaam"s reluctant underjaw was accordingly turned in the direction of the woods, and, little thinking the drive might prove an eventful one, Ruth and Molly set off at that easy amble which a well-fed pampered donkey will occasionally indulge in.
CHAPTER VI.
After the glare and the noise, the shrill blasts of penny trumpets, and the sustained beating of penny drums, the silence of the Slumberleigh woods was delightful to Ruth; the comparative silence, that is to say, for where Molly was, absolute silence need never be feared.
Long before the first gate had been reached Balaam had, of course, returned to the mode of procedure which suited him and his race best, and it was only when the road inclined to be downhill that he could be urged into anything like a trot.
"Never mind," said Molly, consolingly to Ruth, as he finally settled into a slow lounge, gracefully waving his ears and tail at the army of flies which accompanied him, "when we get to the place where the firs are, and the road goes between the rocks, it"s downhill all the way, and we"ll gallop down."
But it was a long way to the firs, and Ruth was in no hurry. It was an ideal afternoon, verging towards evening; an afternoon of golden lights and broken shadows, of vivid greens in shady places. It must have been on such a day as this, Ruth thought, that the Almighty walked in the garden of Eden when the sun was low, while as yet the tree of knowledge was but in blossom, while as yet autumn and its apples were far off, long before fig-leaves and millinery were thought of.
On either side the bracken and the lady-fern grew thick and high, almost overlapping the broad moss-grown path, across which the young rabbits popped away in their new brown coats, showing their little white linings in their lazy haste. A dog-rose had hung out a whole constellation of pale stars for Molly to catch at as they pa.s.sed. A family of honeysuckles clung, faint and sweet, just beyond the reach of the little hand that stretched after them in turn.
They had reached the top of an ascent that would have been level to anything but the mean spirit of a donkey, when Molly gave a start.
"Cousin Ruth, there"s something creeping among the trees--don"t you hear it? Oh-h-h!"
There really was a movement in the bracken, which grew too thick and high to allow of anything being easily seen at a little distance.
"If it"s a lion," said Molly, in a faint whisper, "and I feel in my heart it is, he must have Balaam."