"THINK OF IT, MR. SELWYN," she cried, reversing the formula--"WE ARE AT WAR!"
He murmured a.s.sent. "I am afraid, Lady Durwent," he said, "that I must return to London this afternoon."
"Oh, Mr. Selwyn!"
"Yes, I must. I have a great deal of work before me, and only the cordiality of your welcome and the pleasure I have felt in being here would have allowed me to stay so long. You have been wonderfully kind, and perhaps the fact that I was here when war broke out will lend a special significance to our friendship for the future."
"Oh, I shall never forget you," murmured his hostess, whose emotions were so near the surface that almost any remark was sufficient to tap them.
"You have been the truest of friends, and Elise is so fond of you."
"I am very fond of Elise," blurted Selwyn, feeling his cheeks grow red.
"Her companionship and inspiration were something"----
"Ye-es." An instinct of caution plugged the emotional channel. Lady Durwent saw that she had been indiscreet. It was not in her plan of things that her daughter should become enamoured of a commoner. Selwyn was all very well for company, and no doubt his books were very good, but Elise Durwent would have to marry in her own station of life.
"You feel that you must go this afternoon?" said the Ironmonger"s daughter dismally, but with an inflection that made it more a reminder than a question.
"Yes, Lady Durwent," he answered, with a cynical smile creeping into his lips, which seemed thin and almost cruel. "I shall catch the 3.50."
"Then you must come again and see us sometime, Mr. Selwyn," she said, with that vagueness of date used by polite persons when they don"t mean a thing. Lady Durwent rose with great dignity. "Will you excuse me, Mr.
Selwyn? I always meet my housekeeper at ten to discuss domestic matters.
Elise is somewhere around. Is it too damp for tennis?"
She paused at the door. She had to. It is one of the traditions of the stage that a player must stop at the exit and utter one compelling, terrific sentence.
"WE ARE AT WAR," she cried--"TH"----
"Think of it!" he said maliciously, bowing and closing the door after her.
III.
Going to his room, Selwyn packed his own bags, dispensing with the services of the valet, and with more than one sigh of regret glanced about at the luxury which he was soon to quit. The great bed with its snowy billows of comfort; the reading-lamp on the little table with the motley collection of books borrowed from the library with the very best intentions--books which had hardly been opened before sleep would obliterate everything from his sight; that merry picture of the two medieval enthusiasts playing chess, and those jolly d.i.c.kensian paintings of huntsmen at luncheon with grinning waiters and ubiquitous dogs. What a charm they all had! What a merry little spot England had been in those good old days!
A ray of sunshine stole through the curtains as if it were not quite sure of its welcome, and shyly rested against the farthest wall of the room.
With an exclamation of pleasure Selwyn threw open the window and looked out upon the lawns.
The sun had won its battle, and the countryside was cleared of the invading mist, which was ingloriously retreating to its own territory behind the distant hills. There was a sparkle in the air, and the rich colourings of the flowers vied with each other in Beauty"s quarrel. The birds flew from tree to tree, singing their paean of the sun"s victory, and a light summer breeze was scattering perfume over the earth.
As a sick man emerging from a fever, Selwyn let the refreshing vigour of the morning lave his temples with its potency. Looking towards the stables, he saw Mathews, the groom, come out of his domain to cast an approving glance on Nature"s performance. Selwyn decided that he would go and say good-bye to the fellow. There was something both st.u.r.dy and picturesque about him, and the American presumed that even the head-groom of the Durwents would not be averse to a ten-shilling gratuity. He therefore left his room, and reaching the lawn, strolled over to the stables.
"Good-morning, Mr. Selwyn," said the groom cheerily, touching his forehead in a semi-nautical greeting.
"Good-day, Mathews. How are all your family this morning?"
"Meaning the hosses, sir, or opposite-like, my old mare and her colt?
Likewise and sim"lar, and no disrespeck meant, meaning my old woman and little Wellington."
"Well," Selwyn smiled at the worthy man"s ramifications, "I did mean the horses, but I am even more anxious to know how Mrs. Mathews is."
"She"s a-bloomin", Mr. Selwyn, she is. When I sees "er t" other night dancin" at the village, I says to myself, "Criky! If she hain"t got a action like a young filly!" Real proud I was of "er, and "er being no two-year-old neither, but opposite-wise free of the rheumatiz, as is getting into my withers like."
"And how is--did you say his name was Wellington?"
"That"s "is "andle, Mr. Selwyn, conseckens o" "is being born with the largest nose I ever sees on a hoffspring o" his age. He"s only four year and a little better, but--criky!--if "e ain"t the knowingest little colt as ever I raised! When my old woman gives "im "is bath "e goes "Hiss-ss, hiss-ss," just like a proper groom rubbin" down a hoss. But "e"s a hunfeeling wretch, "e is, for when I goes "ome arter feedin"-time o"
nights, and thinks I"ll just smoke a quiet pipe, "e ups and says, "Lincoln Steeplechase, guv"nor, and I"m a-riding you." And there he has everything around the room--"is little table and chairs and toy pianner, and I"ve got to jump over "em on my "ands and knees with that there wicious scoundrel a-sitting on my neck and yelling, "Come on, you d--d old slow-coach! Wot did I give you them oats for?" Now I puts it to you, Mr. Selwyn, if a himp as makes "is fayther jump over a toy pianner is the kind o" child as is like to be a comfort to a feller in "is old age."
With which harrowing query the groom slapped his pipe on his heel and blew violently through it to try to disguise his gratification at the paternal reminiscence.
"I don"t think I"ve seen all the horses," said Selwyn. "Can you spare a few minutes to show them to me?"
"Wi" all the pleasure in life, sir. Come in, sir. I know it ain"t becomin" o" me for to boast," said the groom as they entered the building, "but if there"s a better stable o" hosses than them there, then my name ain"t Mathews, nor is my Christian names William John neither.
There ain"t many in England as knows a hoss quicker "an me, Mr. Selwyn, though I says it that shouldn"t ought to, but I knows a hoss just as soon as I sets eyes on "im. Milord, "e"s just a small bit better, though likewise and sim"lar we usually thinks exac"ly the same. Only once we disergreed on a hoss. I says it were wicious, and "e said as "ow it weren"t. So we bought it."
"And who was right?"
"Well, sir, I sort of estermate as "ow "e was, for just arter we got "im Mas"r d.i.c.k, who ain"t afraid o" any beast as walks on four legs, took "im out for a airing. Well, sir, that hoss--powerful brute "e were, with a eye like Sin--goes along like as if "e "adn"t a evil thought in "is "ead; but all on a sudden "e comes to a ditch, and sort o" rolls Mas"r d.i.c.k into it, and bungs "is "ead against a stone."
"Then he was vicious, after all?"
"No, sir--that"s the extr"ord"nary part of it. He comes right back to the stables to me and pulls up short. I goes up and looks into that there sinful eye. "You hulk o" misery," I says; "you willainous son of a abandoned sire!" You know, sir, I always likes to make a hoss feel real bad by telling him what"s what, for they got intelligence. Mr. Selwyn, I should say, by Criky! a "uman being ain"t in the same stall as a hoss for intelligence."
"I think you may be right," said Selwyn decisively.
"May be? There ain"t no doubt about it nowise."
"And what happened to your horse?"
"Ah yes, sir. Well, sir, I gets on "im, and pullin" "is face around by "is ear, I give "im another look in "is sinful eye. "Where"s Mas"r d.i.c.k?" I says. And--criky!--off "e goes, lickerty-split, like as if we was entered for the Derby, and, sure enough, "e stops right at the ditch where Mas"r d.i.c.k was a-lying all peaceful and muddy like a stiff un.
Well, sir, I gets off and lifts "im up, and then mounts be"ind "im, and that there hoss "e never moved until I tells "im, and then "e goes home so smooth-like that a old lady could "ave rid "im and done "er knitting sim"lar. And arter that "e were as gentle as a lamb, "e were--and there "e is right afore your eyes, Mr. Selwyn. He"s a old hoss now, and ain"t much to look on, but every morning when I comes in "e takes a look with that there bad eye o" hisn and says, just like I says to "im that day, "Where"s Mas"r d.i.c.k?" I sometimes feels so sorry for the old feller that I swears something horrible just to cheer "im up."
With considerable interest, though with a certain doubt as to the strict authenticity of the narrative, the American looked at the horse, which, after a melancholy survey of the visitors, vented its grief in an attempt to bite a large-sized slice from the neck of a neighbour.
"Nah, then, you ---- ---- ----," remarked Mathews unfeelingly, catching the old beast a resounding thump on the rump with a stick he carried.
"That"ll learn you, you old hulk o" misery."
"There"s a beautiful mare, said the American, pausing at the stall of a superb charger whose graceful limbs and shapely neck spoke of speed and spirit.
"Ah! Now that there is a beauty and no mistake. She"s got the spirit of a young pup, but is as amiable and sweet-tempered as a angel. She"s Mister Malcolm"s hunter, she is, and "is favourite in the whole stables.
He never rides anything but "er to hounds; leastways, "e never did but once, and then Nell--that"s "er name--Nell was took so sick with frettin"
that she kicked a groom as "ad come to feed "er clean across the floor agin" that there far wall. Never I see a feller so put out as that there groom--never. Well, sir, she wouldn"t let no one come nigh "er, and just as we was thinkin" as "ow we"d "ave to forcible-feed "er, in comes Mister Malcolm. She "ears "im, but don"t make no sign, and just as "e comes up close she lets fling "er "eels at "is "ead. But "e was watchin" for it, and just says "Nellie" kind o" sorrowful and reproachful, sim"lar to the prodigal son returnin" to "is aged fayther. Well, sir, the mare she just gives in at the knees and rubbed "er nose agin" "im, and says just as plain as Scripter that she was real sorry, and "oped "e "d forget it as one gen"l"man to a lady."
With sundry anecdotes of a like nature, Mathews guided the visitor past the long line of stalls, whose inhabitants kept their stately heads turned to gratify the insatiable curiosity of the equine. To the weary mind of the American there was an agreeable balm in the groom"s fund of anecdote, and even in the odoriferousness of the stable itself.
Reaching the end of that line, Mathews proposed that before they went any farther they should go to an adjoining shed and inspect a litter of little hounds that were blinking in amazement at their second day"s view of the world. From a near-by kennel there was the discordant yelping of a dozen hounds, and between the two places a kitten was performing its toilet with arrogant indifference to the canine threat.
They were just about to retrace their steps, when Selwyn felt Mathews"s hand on his arm.