Mine is an inn that sets back from the river with a rose-garden in front the like of which you never saw nor smelt of: millions of roses in a never-ending bloom. An inn with low ceilings, a cubby-hole of a bar next the side entrance on the village street; two barmaids--three on holidays; old furniture; a big fireplace in the hall; red-shaded lamps at night; plenty of easy-chairs and cushions. An inn all dimity and cretonne and bra.s.s bedsteads upstairs and unlimited tubs--one fastened to the wall painted white, and about eight feet long, to fit the largest pattern of Englishman. Out under the portico facing the rose-garden and the river stand tables for two or four, with snow-white cloths made gay with field-flowers, and the whole shaded by big, movable j.a.panese umbrellas, regular circus-tent umbrellas, their staffs stuck in the ground wherever they are needed. Along the sides of this garden on the gravel-walk loll go-to-sleep straw chairs, with little wicker tables within reach of your hand for B.& S., or tea and toast, or a pint in a mug, and down at the water"s edge seafaring men like Fin and me find a boathouse with half a score of punts, skiffs, and rowboats, together with a steam-launch with fires banked ready for instant service.
And the people in and about this White Hart inn!
There are a bride and groom, of course. No well-regulated Thames inn can exist a week without a bride and groom. He is a handsome, well-knit, brown-skinned young fellow, who wears white flannel trousers, chalked shoes, a shrimp-colored flannel jacket and a shrimp-colored cap (Leander"s colors) during the day, and a faultlessly cut dress-suit at night.
She has a collection of hats, some as big as small tea-tables; fluffy gowns for mornings; short frocks for boating; and a gold belt, two shoulder-straps, and a bunch of roses for dinner. They have three dogs between them--one four inches long--well, perhaps six, to be exact--another a bull terrier, and a third a St. Bernard as big as a Spanish burro. They have also a maid, a valet, and a dog-cart, besides no end of blankets, whips, rugs, canes, umbrellas, golf-sticks, and tennis-bats. They have stolen up here, no doubt, to get away from their friends, and they are having the happiest hours of their lives.
"Them two, sor," volunteers Fin, as we pa.s.s them lying under the willows near my morning subject, "is as chuck-full of happiness as a hive"s full of bees. They was out in their boat yisterday, sor, in all that pour, and it rolled off "em same as a duck sheds water, and they laughin" so ye"d think they"d split. What"s dresses to them, sor, and her father?
Why, sor, he could buy and sell half Sonnin". He"s jist home from Africa that chap is--or he was the week he was married--wid more lead inside him than would sink a corpse. You kin see for yerself that he"s made for fightin". Look at the eye on him!"
Then there is the solitary Englishman, who breakfasts by himself, and has the morning paper laid beside his plate the moment the post-cart arrives. Fin and I find him half the time on a bench in a cool place on the path to the Lock, his nose in his book, his tightly furled umbrella by his side. No dogs nor punts nor spins up the river for him. He is taking his holiday and doesn"t want to be meddled with or spoken to.
There are, too, the customary maiden sisters--the unattended and forlorn--up for a week; and the young fellow down from London, all flannels and fishing-rods--three or four of them in fact, who sit round in front of the little sliding wicket facing the row of bottles and pump-handles--divining-rods for the beer below, these pump-handles--chaffing the barmaids and getting as good as they send; and always, at night, one or more of the country gentry in for their papers, and who can be found in the cosey hall discussing the crops, the coming regatta, the chance of Leander"s winning the race, or the latest reports of yesterday"s cricket-match.
Now and then the village doctor or miller--quite an important man is the miller--you would think so if you could see the mill--drops in, draws up a chair, and ventures an opinion on the price of wheat in the States or the coal strike or some kindred topic, the coming country fair, or perhaps the sermon of the previous Sunday.
"I hope you "eard our Vicar, sir--No? Sorry you didn"t, sir. I tell yer "e"s a nailer."
And so much for the company at the White Hart Inn.
II
You perhaps think that you know the Thames. You have been at Henley, no doubt, during regatta week, when both banks were flower-beds of blossoming parasols and full-blown picture-hats, the river a stretch of silver, crowded with boats, their occupants cheering like mad. Or you know Marlowe with its wide stream bordered with stately trees and statelier mansions, and Oxford with its grim buildings, and Windsor dominated by its huge pile of stone, the flag of the Empires floating from its top; and Maidenhead with its boats and launches, and lovely Cookham with its back water and quaint mill and quainter lock. You have rowed down beside them all in a sh.e.l.l, or have had glimpses of them from the train, or sat under the awnings of the launch or regular packet and watched the procession go by. All very charming and interesting, and, if you had but forty-eight hours in which to see all England, a profitable way of spending eight of them. And yet you have only skimmed the beautiful river"s surface as a swallow skims a lake.
Try a punt once.
Pole in and out of the little back waters, lying away from the river, smothered in trees; float over the shallows dotted with pond-lilies; creep under drooping branches swaying with the current; stop at any one of a hundred landings, draw your boat up on the gravel, spring out and plunge into the thickets, flushing the blackbirds from their nests, or unpack your luncheon, spread your mattress, and watch the clouds sail over your head. Don"t be in a hurry. Keep up this idling day in and day out, up and down, over and across, for a month or more, and you will get some faint idea of how picturesque, how lovely, and how restful this rarest of all the sylvan streams of England can be.
If, like me, you can"t pole a punt its length without running into a mud-bank or afoul of the bushes, then send for Fin. If he isn"t at Sonning you will hear of him at Cookham or Marlowe or London--but find him wherever he is. He will prolong your life and loosen every b.u.t.ton on your waistcoat. Fin is the unexpected, the ever-bubbling, and the ever-joyous; restless as a school-boy ten minutes before recess, quick as a gra.s.shopper and lively as a cricket. He is, besides, brimful and spilling over with a quality of fun that is geyserlike in its spontaneity and intermittent flow. When he laughs, which he does every other minute, the man ploughing across the river, or the boy fishing, or the girl driving the cow, turn their heads and smile. They can"t help it. In this respect he is better than a dozen farmers each with his two blades of gra.s.s. Fin plants a whole acre of laughs at once.
On one of my joyous days--they were all joyous days, this one most of all--I was up the backwater, the "Mud Lark" (Fin"s name for the punt) anch.o.r.ed in her element by two poles, one at each end, to keep her steady, when Fin broke through a new aperture and became reminiscent.
I had dotted in the outlines of the old footpath with the meadows beyond, the cotton-wool clouds sailing overhead--only in England do I find these clouds--and was calling to the restless Irishman to sit still or I would send him ash.o.r.e ... wet, when he answered with one of his bubbling outbreaks:
"I don"t wonder yer hot, sor, but I git that fidgety. I been so long doin" nothin"; two months now, sor, since I been on a box."
I worked on for a minute without answering. Hanging wall-paper by standing on a box was probably the way they did it in the country, the ceilings being low.
"No work?" I said, aimlessly. As long as he kept still I didn"t care what he talked or laughed about.
"Plinty, sor--an" summer"s the time to do it. So many strangers comin"
an" goin", but they won"t let me at it. I"m laid off for a month yet; that"s why your job come in handy, sor."
"Row with your Union?" I remarked, listlessly, my mind still intent on watching a sky tint above the foreground trees.
"No--wid the perlice. A little bit of a scrimmage wan night in Trafalgar Square. It was me own fault, sor, for I oughter a-knowed better. It was about three o"clock in the mornin", sor, and I was outside one o" them clubs just below Piccadilly, when one o" them young chaps come out wid three or four others, all b"ilin" drunk--one was Lord Bentig--jumps into a four-wheeler standin" by the steps an" hollers out to the rest of us: "A guinea to the man that gits to Trafalgar Square fust; three minutes"
start," and off he wint and we after him, leavin" wan of the others behind wid his watch in his hand."
I laid down my palette and looked up. Paper-hanging evidently had its lively side.
"Afoot?"
"All four of "em, sor--lickety-split and h.e.l.l"s loose. I come near runnin" over a bobbie as I turned into Pall Mall, but I dodged him and kep" on and landed second, with the mare doubled up in a heap and the rig a-top of her and one shaft broke. Lord Bentig and the other chaps that was wid him was standin" waitin", and when we all fell in a heap he nigh bu"st himself a-laughin". He went bail for us, of course, and give the three of us ten bob apiece, but I got laid off for three months, and come up here, where me old mother lives and I kin pick up a job."
"Hanging paper?" I suggested with a smile.
"Yes, or anything else. Ye see, sor, I"m handy carpenterin", or puttin"
on locks, or the likes o" that, or paintin", or paper-hangin", or mendin" stoves or tinware. So when they told me a painter chap wanted me, I looked over me perfessions and picked out the wan I tho"t would suit him best. But it"s drivin" a cab I"m good at; been on the box fourteen year come next Christmas. Ye don"t mind, do ye, sor, my not tellin" ye before? Lord Bentig"ll tell ye all about me next time ye see him in Lunnon." This touch was truly Finian. "He"s cousin, ye know, sor, to this young chap what"s here at the inn wid his bride. They wouldn"t know me, sor, nor don"t, but I"ve driv her father many a time. My rank used to be near his house on Bolton Terrace. I had a thing happen there one night that--more water? Yes, sor--and the other brush--the big one?
Yes, sor--thank ye, sor. I don"t shake, do I, sor?"
"No, Fin; go on."
"Well, I was tellin" ye about the night Sir Henry"s man--that"s the lady"s father, sor--come to the rank where I sat on me box. It was about ten o"clock--rainin" hard and bad goin", it was that slippery.
""His Lordship wants ye in a hurry, Fin," and he jumped inside.
"When I got there I see something was goin" on--a party or something--the lights was lit clear up to the roof.
""His Lordship"s waitin" in the hall for ye," said his man, and I jumped off me box and wint inside.
""Fin," said His Lordship, speakin" low, "there"s a lady dinin" wid me and the wine"s gone to her head, and she"s that full that if she waits until her own carriage comes for her she won"t git home at all! Go back and get on yer cab wid yer fingers to yer hat, and I"ll bring her out and put her in meself. It"s dark and she won"t know the difference. Take her down to Cadogan Square--I don"t know the number, but ye can"t miss it, for it"s the fust white house wid geraniums in the winders. When ye git there ye"re to git down, help her up the steps, keepin" yer mouth shut, unlock the door, and set her down on the sofa. You"ll find the sofa in the parlor on the right, and can"t miss it. Then lay the key on the mantel--here it is. After she"s down, step out softly, close the door behind ye, ring the bell, and some of her servants will come and put her to bed. She"s often took that way and they know what to do."
Then he says, lookin" at me straight, "I sent for you, Fin, for I know I kin trust ye. Come here tomorrow and let me know how she got through and I"ll give ye five bob."
"Well, sor, in a few minutes out she come, leanin" on His Lordship"s arm, steppin" loike she had spring-halt, and takin" half the sidewalk to turn in.
""Good-night, Your Ladyship," says His Lordship.
""Good-night, Sir Henry," she called back, her head out of the winder, and off I driv.
"I turned into the Square, found the white house wid the geraniums, helps her out of me cab and steadied her up the steps, pulled the key out, and was just goin" to put it in the lock when she fell up agin the door and open it went. The gas was turned low in the hall, so that she wouldn"t know me if she looked at me.
"I found the parlor, but the lights were out; so widout lookin" for the sofa--I was afraid somebody"d come and catch me--I slid her into a rockin"-chair, laid the key on the hall-table, shut the door softlike, rang the bell as if there was a fire next door, jumped on me box, and driv off.
"The next mornin" I went to see His Lordship.
""Did ye land her all right, Fin?"
""I did, sor," I says.
""Had ye any trouble wid the key?"
""No, sor," I says, "the door was open."
""That"s queer," he says; "maybe her husband came in earlier and forgot to shut it. And ye put her on the sofa----"
""No, sor, in a big chair."