Freddie looked around at his right for Aunt Amanda. There was no Aunt Amanda. In her place, holding an empty hour-gla.s.s in her right hand, was a lady, the fairest whom Freddie had ever seen. She was young; her eyes were of the blue of summer skies; her hair was golden yellow; on her soft white cheek was a tinge of pink; two heavy braids of hair hung almost to her knees; her eyes were sparkling with happiness, and a tender and wistful smile curved her lips. As Freddie gazed at her, he thought that there could not be in the world another so radiantly beautiful. She looked about her as one who sees familiar things after a long absence.
Freddie"s eyes fell to the hand which was nearest him, her left. On the third finger of her left hand was a ruby ring.
"Are you," he faltered, "are you--Aunt Amanda?"
"I think," she said, smiling on him, "I think I was, once. I think I can remember that name. And you are--let me see; what was your name? Ah, yes, your name was Freddie. But we must hurry; we must not keep them waiting."
Freddie turned, and saw beside him four strange men, all gazing at the beautiful lady in amazement. In the right hand of each was an empty hour-gla.s.s.
Freddie looked down on the two men who stood nearest him; he looked _down_ on them; he was suddenly aware that he was not looking up. They were short, for full-grown men, and of precisely the same height; their faces were square, their cheek-bones prominent, and their noses hooked; the head of one was bald, and the hair of the other"s head lay flat down on his forehead where it curved back like a hairpin; except for their heads, they were in all respects twins. There was no hump on the back of either of them.
"Mr. Punch and Mr. Toby!" said Freddie.
"The wery same," said the bald-headed one.
"That"s me," said the other.
Behind Mr. Toby stood a lean man in spectacles. His night-gown hung upon him very loosely, and he was very spare indeed. His smooth-shaven cheeks were somewhat hollow; his eyes behind his gla.s.ses were deep and solemn; his frame was the frame of one who subdues the flesh by fasting; snow-white hair, curling inward at the back of his neck, made a kind of aureole around his thin face; he looked for all the world as he stood barefoot in his long white gown, like one of those saints you see in painted gla.s.s windows in a church.
"Is it," said Freddie, hesitating, "is it--the Churchwarden?"
"I have reason to believe," said the saintly looking man, "that I have been known by that name. But I am in reality, and always have been, in reality, something far more lowly than a churchwarden; I am, and always have been, at heart, a meek and humble follower of the holy Thomas a Kempis, whose life of serene and cloistered sanct.i.ty I have always wished to imitate. Now that I am myself, it is my ambition to be known, if it is not too presumptuous to say so, as Thomas the Inferior. Pax vobisc.u.m."
"I ain"t got the least idea what that means," said Toby, "but anyway it"s the Churchwarden"s voice, whether he calls himself Thomas the Inferior or Daniel the Deleterious. You"re heartily welcome, Warden, and I hope you won"t mind my saying that a good meal wouldn"t do you any harm, from the looks of you. I"m pretty near starved to death myself.
Mr. Punch, we"ve got rid of our humps, as sure as you"re born. We"re as straight in our bodies as we"ve always been in our minds, and that"s as straight as a string. By crackey, I never felt so fine in my life; blamed if I couldn"t lick my weight in wildcats."
"Hi "ave no wish to do so," said Mr. Punch. "Hi do not desire to engage in any conflict whatever; Hi should regard such conduct as wery reprehensible; wery. But one cannot but admit, harfter one"s back "as been so long out of correct proportion, as one may s"y, that one enjoys a wery p.r.o.nounced satisfaction when one feels one"s self restored to one"s rightful position as a hupright person, in common with one"s fellow--"
"What about Mr. Hanlon?" said Toby, turning around.
"Michael Hanlon, prisent!" said a cheerful voice.
Behind the Inferior Thomas stood a tall and handsome man, the picture of an athlete in the prime of condition. Short curling black hair cl.u.s.tered on his head; his eyes were of a humorous dark blue; his cheeks were like red apples; his shoulders were muscular, his back was straight, his figure slim; and he wore his night-gown as a Greek runner in ancient times might have worn his robe after the games.
"What!" said Freddie. "Can you talk?"
"Faith," said Mr. Hanlon, "I"ve a tongue in me head that can wag with anny that iver come off the blarney stone, and it"s no lies I"m tellin"
ye. For an Irish gintleman to have to listen and listen, and kape his tongue still in his head and say niver a worrd at all, at all, "tis a hard life, me frinds, a hard life, and it"s plaised I am to be mesilf at last, and the nate bit of tongue doin" his duty like a thrue son of Erin--I could tell ye a swate little shtory that comes to me mind, of a dumb Irishman that could not spake at all, at all, and the deaf wife of him that could not hear, and their twelve pigs all lyin" down in the mud with wan of thim standing up and crying out that the wolf was comin" in through the gate, and the good wife unable to hear and the good man unable to spake--"
"I reckon you"ve got your tongue, all right," said Toby. "I wish we had time to hear that story, but we haven"t. Now, Freddie, what do you think we"d better--Why, Freddie! What"s that you"ve got on your lip?"
Freddie put his hand to his upper lip. What he felt there was a tiny silken mustache. He blushed.
"And "e"s taller than any of us except Mr. "Anlon!" exclaimed Mr. Punch.
"My word!"
Freddie looked down at Mr. Punch, and realized his own height. He looked at his hands, and they were almost as large as Mr. Hanlon"s. His night-gown came to his ankles, and he realized that he was no longer holding it up.
"Why," he said, "I must be grown up!"
"Grown up is the word," said Toby, "but I"d "a" known you anywhere.
Twenty-one years old, I should say."
"Twenty-two," said Mr. Punch.
Everyone now fell silent. The young and lovely lady, who had said nothing during their talk, was smiling from one to another. She seemed to feel no embarra.s.sment nor concern, nor anything indeed but happiness.
She looked at Toby with a smile, and all the men looked at her.
"Do you know me?" she said to Toby.
"You are changed," said he, "that"s a fact. But I always knew that Aunt Amanda was like that, down deep inside of her. If she could only have looked like what she was, that"s the way she would have looked, and I always knew it. I"m glad you"ve come to look like yourself at last."
"Ah!" said the beautiful lady. "I am glad you don"t feel that I am strange to you. I know you all now, better than I have ever known you.
You have been with me a long while, under disguise. I don"t seem to remember very well what your disguises were, for I seem to have known you always as you are: my loyal knight," (turning to Freddie), "my body-guard," (turning to Mr. Toby and Mr. Punch), "my confessor,"
(turning to Thomas the Inferior), "and my courier," (turning to Mr.
Hanlon). "In my exile you have been with me, and in my homecoming you shall be with me still."
"We hope to be with you always," said the tall young knight who used to be Freddie. "But we are beginning to be noticed. I have seen one or two people stare from the shop windows. We had better hurry to one of those shops and seek refuge until we can find proper clothes."
"Ah, no!" said the lady, with a radiant smile. "I must hasten home. They have been waiting a long time, and I must not lose a moment. I know the way! This street is changed since I was here, but I know it! I know the way! Come with me! I am going home!"
She placed her empty hour-gla.s.s in Freddie"s hand, and led the way up the street. Her bare feet trod the pavement swiftly; she walked as if she had never known what it was to be lame; she went swimmingly, with a motion of infinite grace. The others looked about them, uneasily, as they followed, but she seemed to care nothing for the eyes of the people. The ox-cart stopped as it came to them, and the driver who was walking beside it stopped also, and gazed at them with his mouth open.
Faces appeared at shop-windows as they went by, and figures appeared at shop-doors. Two or three foot-pa.s.sengers pa.s.sed them, and after they had gone, went to the nearest shop-door and stood there for a moment in talk with the shop-keeper. They then began to follow the strange white-clad group up the street. In a few moments others joined them. Freddie looked behind, and wished to run; but the lady who was leading paid no attention.
A little further on she turned a corner, and the party found themselves in a much busier street. The sidewalks were alive with people. In a moment there was a great silence. When the six figures first appeared, some of the people began to laugh. Then they looked at the face of the lady who swept along in advance of her attendants, and they laughed no more. They began to whisper one to another. They fell apart, and made way for her and her attendants. They stopped; they forgot their own affairs; some ran into the shops and called out the persons who were within; they gaped, and whispered, and nodded, and held up their hands, and with one accord began to follow.
Further on, heads appeared from the windows of pleasure-towers and pleasure-domes; doors opened; all who could walk joined themselves to the crowd which was following the wondrous lady and her five strange companions.
Deeper and deeper into the city; on past the region of shops into the region of gardens and mansions; up by a gradual ascent to the place of the largest and tallest towers and domes; on they went, the six white-gowned and bare-footed figures before, and the crowd behind; and the further they went, the greater became the crowd; and still there was no sound from the people, except the sound of an awestruck whispering.
The dark cloud on the mountain-top was now plainly in view before them between the towers and domes, and they could see the great ma.s.s of the King"s Tower where it rose to the cloud and lost itself within it. At the end of the street which they were now following a majestic gateway could be seen, and beyond it a park.
Behind them the street was choked from wall to wall with a vast mult.i.tude. From every house, as the mult.i.tude pa.s.sed, its people poured forth and joined the throng; business was forgotten; shops and houses were deserted; it seemed as if the whole city was in the street, following the lady and her five attendants. She looked not behind her once. She seemed to be unaware of anything in the world about her; her eyes shone like stars; she had forgotten even her companions; she spoke not a word, but looked forward to the stately gateway and the park beyond. Still no sound came from the mult.i.tude, except a sound of whispering.
They reached the gateway. On each side was a great stone pillar, supporting a gate of ma.s.sive bronze. The gates were open. Without an instant"s hesitation she led the way within, and as she did so placed her left hand on her heart. The throng seemed to waver a moment, and then as the six barefoot and white-gowned figures moved swiftly up the driveway into the park, it flowed in silently between the gates, and followed at a respectful distance.
Before them, at a distance, on a knoll from which terraces of velvet gra.s.s descended, stood the palace of the King; white and broad and flat-roofed.
Pa.s.sing a grove of trees, the lady left the roadway and stepped into the smooth gra.s.s of a lawn, and sped across it directly towards the terraces before the palace of the King. She mounted the gentle slope, her five friends following her; and the vast throng, filling the park to the gates, came on behind. She reached the first terrace; her hand was still on her heart. A dog barked.
Windows in the palace front began to go up, and faces to appear. From an archway sprang a pack of beautiful tall white curly-haired dogs, and rushed on the lady, barking. Freddie made as if to protect her, but she waved him back with a smile. The dogs sprang up as if to devour her, but they did no harm; they barked as if their throats would burst; they leaped and gambolled about her; they thrust their noses into her hand; they almost spoke; and in the midst of it there appeared upon the wide steps before the palace door a n.o.ble-looking man, and beside him three children.
At sight of this man and the children, the lady covered her eyes for an instant with her hands, and gave a sob; but she quickly looked up, and sped on more swiftly than before, her hands hanging beside her, and a bright misty look in her eyes.
The man upon the palace steps shaded his eyes with his hands, and gazed upon her and the mult.i.tude spread out across the park behind her. One of the children, a tiny boy, he took by the hand, and another, a girl a little older, he grasped with his other hand; and with the third, a boy of something over nine, beside them, they all four came down the steps and crossed the terrace to meet the radiant lady.
On the next terrace they met. He dropped his children"s hands, and stopped. He was a man of some thirty years, richly clad, and handsome beyond measure. As he stopped, the mult.i.tude found its voice. A mighty shout went up.
"Long live the King! Long live the King!"