"Proud to know you, sir,--your servant, sir!"
"How do you do!" said Bellew, and held out his hand with his frank smile. The Sergeant hesitated, then put out his remaining hand.
"My left, sir," said he apologetically, "can"t be helped--left my right--out in India--a good many years ago. Good place for soldiering, India, sir--plenty of active service--chances of promotion--though sun bad!"
"Sergeant," said Miss Priscilla, without seeming to glance up from her sewing, "Sergeant,--your hat!" Hereupon, the Sergeant gave a sudden, sideways jerk of the head, and, in the very nick of time, saved the article in question from tumbling off, and very dexterously brought it to the top of his close-cropped head, whence it immediately began, slowly, and by scarcely perceptible degrees to slide down to his ear again.
"Sergeant," said Miss Priscilla again, "sit down,--do."
"Thank you mam," said he, and proceeded to seat himself at the other end of the rustic bench, where he remained, bolt upright, and with his long legs stretched out straight before him, as is, and has been, the manner of cavalrymen since they first wore straps.
"And now," said he, staring straight in front of him, "how might Miss Anthea be?"
"Oh, very well, thank you," nodded Miss Priscilla.
"Good!" exclaimed the Sergeant, with his eyes still fixed, "very good!"
Here he pa.s.sed his hand two or three times across his shaven chin, regarding an apple-tree, nearby, with an expression of the most profound interest:
"And how," said he again, "how might Master Georgy be?"
"Master Georgy is as well as ever," answered Miss Priscilla, st.i.tching away faster than before, and Bellew thought she kept her rosy cheeks stooped a little lower over her work. Meanwhile the Sergeant continued to regard the tree with the same degree of lively interest, and to rasp his fingers to and fro across his chin. Suddenly, he coughed behind hand, whereupon Miss Priscilla raised her head, and looked at him.
"Well?" she enquired, very softly:
"And pray, mam," said the Sergeant, removing his gaze from the tree with a jerk, "how might--you be feeling, mam?"
"Much the same as usual, thank you," she answered, smiling like a girl, for all her white hair, as the Sergeant"s eyes met hers.
"You look," said he, pausing to cough behind his hand again, "you look--blooming, mam,--if you"ll allow the expression,--blooming,--as you ever do, mam."
"I"m an old woman, Sergeant, as well you know!" sighed Miss Priscilla, shaking her head.
"Old, mam!" repeated the Sergeant, "old, mam!--nothing of the sort, mam!--Age has nothing to do with it.--"Tisn"t the years as count.--We aren"t any older than we feel,--eh, sir?"
"Of course not!" answered Bellew.
"Nor than we look,--eh sir?"
"Certainly not, Sergeant!" answered Bellew.
"And she, sir,--she don"t look--a day older than--"
"Thirty five!" said Bellew.
"Exactly, sir, very true! My own opinion,--thirty five exactly, sir."
"Sergeant," said Miss Priscilla, bending over her work again, "Sergeant,--your hat!" The Sergeant, hereupon, removed the distracting head-gear altogether, and sat with it upon his knee, staring hard at the tree again. Then, all at once, with a sudden gesture he drew a large, silver watch from his pocket,--rather as if it were some weapon of offence,--looked at it, listened to it, and then nodding his head, rose to his feet.
"Must be going," he said, standing very straight, and looking down at little Miss Priscilla, "though sorry, as ever,--must be going, mam,--Miss Priscilla mam--good day to you!" And he stretched out his hand to her with a sudden, jerky movement. Miss Priscilla paused in her sewing, and looked up at him with her youthful smile:
"Must you go--so soon, Sergeant? Then Good-bye,--until to-morrow," and she laid her very small hand in his big palm. The Sergeant stared down at it as though he were greatly minded to raise it to his lips, instead of doing which, he dropped it, suddenly, and turned to Bellew:
"Sir, I am--proud to have met you. Sir, there is a poor crippled soldier as I know,--My cottage is very small, and humble sir, but if you ever feel like--dropping in on him, sir,--by day or night, he will be--honoured, sir, honoured! And that"s me--Sergeant Richard Appleby--late of the Nineteenth Hussars--at your service, sir!" saying which, he put on his hat, stiff-armed, wheeled, and strode away through the orchard, jingling his imaginary spurs louder than ever.
"Well?" enquired Miss Priscilla in her quick, bright way, "Well Mr.
Bellew, what do you think of him?--first impressions are always best,--at least, I think so,--what do you think of Sergeant Appleby?"
"I think he"s a splendid fellow," said Bellew, looking after the Sergeant"s upright figure.
"A very foolish old fellow, I think, and as stiff as one of the ram-rods of one of his own guns!" said Miss Priscilla, but her clear, blue eyes were very soft, and tender as she spoke.
"And as fine a soldier as a man, I"m sure," said Bellew.
"Why yes, he _was_ a good soldier, once upon a time, I believe,--he won the Victoria Cross for doing something or other that was very brave, and he wears it with all his other medals, pinned on the inside of his coat.
Oh yes, he was a fine soldier, once, but he"s a very foolish old soldier, now,--I think, and as stiff as the ram-rod of one of his own guns. But I"m glad you like him, Mr. Bellew, and he will be proud, and happy for you to call and see him at his cottage. And now, I suppose, it is half past eleven, isn"t it?"
"Yes, just half past!" nodded Bellew, glancing at his watch.
"Exact to time, as usual!" said Miss Priscilla, "I don"t think the Sergeant has missed a minute, or varied a minute in the last five years,--you see, he is such a very methodical man, Mr. Bellew!"
"Why then, does he come every day, at the same hour?"
"Every day!" nodded Miss Priscilla, "it has become a matter of habit with him."
"Ah?" said Bellew, smiling.
"If you were to ask me why he comes, I should answer that I fancy it is to--look at the peaches. Dear me, Mr. Bellew! what a very foolish old soldier he is, to be sure!" Saying which, pretty, bright-eyed Miss Priscilla, laughed again, folded up her work, settled it in the basket with a deft little pat, and, rising, took a small, crutch stick from where it had lain concealed, and then, Bellew saw that she was lame.
"Oh yes,--I"m a cripple, you see," she nodded,--"Oh very, very lame! my ankle, you know. That is why I came here, the big world didn"t want a poor, lame, old woman,--that is why Miss Anthea made me her Aunt, G.o.d bless her! No thank you,--I can carry my basket. So you see,--he--has lost an arm,--his right one, and I--am lame in my foot. Perhaps that is why--Heigho! how beautifully the black birds are singing this morning, to be sure!"
CHAPTER IX
_In which may be found some description of Arcadia, and gooseberries_
Anthea, leaning on her rake in a shady corner of the five-acre field, turned to watch Bellew who, stripped to his shirt-sleeves, bare of neck, and arm, and pitch-fork in hand, was busy tossing up great mounds of sweet-smelling hay to Adam who stood upon a waggon to receive it, with Small Porges perched up beside him.
A week had elapsed since Bellew had found his way to Dapplemere, a week which had only served to strengthen the bonds of affection between him and his "nephew," and to win over sharp-eyed, shrewd little Miss Priscilla to the extent of declaring him to be: "First a gentleman, Anthea, my dear, and Secondly,--what is much rarer, now-a-days,--a true man!" A week! and already he was hail-fellow-well-met with everyone about the place, for who was proof against his unaffected gaiety, his simple, easy, good-fellowship? So he laughed, and joked as he swung his pitch-fork, (awkwardly enough, to be sure), and received all hints, and directions as to its use, in the kindly spirit they were tendered. And Anthea, watching him from her shady corner, sighed once or twice, and catching herself, so doing, stamped her foot at herself, and pulled her sunbonnet closer about her face.
"No, Adam," he was saying, "depend upon it, there is nothing like exercise, and, of all exercise,--give me a pitch-fork."
"Why, as to that, Mr. Belloo, sir," Adam retorted, "I say--so be it, so long as I ain"t near the wrong end of it, for the way you do "ave of flourishin" an" a whirlin" that theer fork, is fair as-tonishin", I do declare it be."
"Why you see, Adam, there are some born with a leaning towards pitch-forks, as there are others born to the pen, and the--er--palette, and things, but for me, Adam, the pitch-fork, every time!" said Bellew, mopping his brow.
"If you was to try an" "andle it more as if it _was_ a pitchfork now, Mr. Belloo, sir--" suggested Adam, and, not waiting for Bellew"s laughing rejoinder, he chirrupped to the horses, and the great waggon creaked away with its mountainous load, surmounted by Adam"s grinning visage, and Small Porges" golden curls, and followed by the rest of the merry-voiced hay-makers.