"An excellent tennis court already exists," I informed him. "I have also purchased the adjoining paddock. We shall be able to keep our own cow.
Maybe we"ll breed horses."
"We might have a croquet lawn," suggested Robin.
"We might easily have a croquet lawn," I agreed. "On a full-sized lawn I believe Veronica might be taught to play. There are natures that demand s.p.a.ce. On a full-sized lawn, protected by a stout iron border, less time might be wasted exploring the surrounding scenery for Veronica"s lost ball."
"No chance of a golf links anywhere in the neighbourhood?" feared d.i.c.k.
"I am not so sure," I answered. "Barely a mile away there is a pretty piece of gorse land that appears to be no good to anyone. I daresay for a reasonable offer-"
"I say, when will this show be ready?" interrupted d.i.c.k.
"I propose beginning the alterations at once," I explained. "By luck there happens to be a gamekeeper"s cottage vacant and within distance.
The agent is going to get me the use of it for a year-a primitive little place, but charmingly situate on the edge of a wood. I shall furnish a couple of rooms; and for part of every week I shall make a point of being down there, superintending. I have always been considered good at superintending. My poor father used to say it was the only work I seemed to take an interest in. By being on the spot to hurry everybody on I hope to have the "show," as you term it, ready by the spring."
"I shall never marry," said Robin.
"Don"t be so easily discouraged," advised d.i.c.k; "you are still young."
"I don"t ever want to get married," continued Robin. "I should only quarrel with my husband, if I did. And d.i.c.k will never do anything-not with his head."
"Forgive me if I am dull," I pleaded, "but what is the connection between this house, your quarrels with your husband if you ever get one, and d.i.c.k"s head?"
By way of explanation, Robin sprang to the ground, and before he could stop her had flung her arms around d.i.c.k"s neck.
"We can"t help it, d.i.c.k dear," she told him. "Clever parents always have duffing children. But we"ll be of some use in the world after all, you and I."
The idea was that d.i.c.k, when he had finished failing in examinations, should go out to Canada and start a farm, taking Robin with him. They would breed cattle, and gallop over the prairies, and camp out in the primeval forest, and slide about on snow-shoes, and carry canoes on their backs, and shoot rapids, and stalk things-so far as I could gather, have a sort of everlasting Buffalo-Bill"s show all to themselves. How and when the farm work was to get itself done was not at all clear. The Little Mother and myself were to end our days with them. We were to sit about in the sun for a time, and then pa.s.s peacefully away. Robin shed a few tears at this point, but regained her spirits, thinking of Veronica, who was to be lured out on a visit and married to some true-hearted yeoman: which is not at present Veronica"s ambition. Veronica"s conviction is that she would look well in a coronet: her own idea is something in the ducal line. Robina talked for about ten minutes. By the time she had done she had persuaded d.i.c.k that life in the backwoods of Canada had been his dream from infancy. She is that sort of girl.
I tried talking reason, but talking to Robin when she has got a notion in her head is like trying to fix a halter on a two-year-old colt. This tumble-down, six-roomed cottage was to be the saving of the family. An ecstatic look transfigured Robina"s face even as she spoke of it. You might have fancied it a shrine. Robina would do the cooking. Robina would rise early and milk the cow, and gather the morning egg. We would lead the simple life, learn to fend for ourselves. It would be so good for Veronica. The higher education could wait; let the higher ideals have a chance. Veronica would make the beds, dust the rooms. In the evening Veronica, her little basket by her side, would sit and sew while I talked, telling them things, and Robina moved softly to and fro about her work, the household fairy. The Little Mother, whenever strong enough, would come to us. We would hover round her, tending her with loving hands. The English farmer must know something, in spite of all that is said. d.i.c.k could arrange for lessons in practical farming. She did not say it crudely; but hinted that, surrounded by example, even I might come to take an interest in honest labour, might end by learning to do something useful.
Robina talked, I should say, for a quarter of an hour. By the time she had done, it appeared to me rather a beautiful idea. d.i.c.k"s vacation had just commenced. For the next three months there would be nothing else for him to do but-to employ his own expressive phrase-"rot round." In any event, it would be keeping him out of mischief. Veronica"s governess was leaving. Veronica"s governess generally does leave at the end of about a year. I think sometimes of advertising for a lady without a conscience. At the end of a year, they explain to me that their conscience will not allow them to remain longer; they do not feel they are earning their salary. It is not that the child is not a dear child, it is not that she is stupid. Simply it is-as a German lady to whom d.i.c.k had been giving what he called finishing lessons in English, once put it-that she does not seem to be "taking any." Her mother"s idea is that it is "sinking in." Perhaps if we allowed Veronica to lie fallow for awhile, something might show itself. Robina, speaking for herself, held that a period of quiet usefulness, away from the society of other silly girls and sillier boys, would result in her becoming a sensible woman.
It is not often that Robina"s yearnings take this direction: to thwart them, when they did, seemed wrong.
We had some difficulty with the Little Mother. That these three babies of hers will ever be men and women capable of running a six-roomed cottage appears to the Little Mother in the light of a fantastic dream.
I explained to her that I should be there, at all events for two or three days in every week, to give an eye to things. Even that did not content her. She gave way eventually on Robina"s solemn undertaking that she should be telegraphed for the first time Veronica coughed.
On Monday we packed a one-horse van with what we deemed essential. d.i.c.k and Robina rode their bicycles. Veronica, supported by a.s.sorted bedding, made herself comfortable upon the tailboard. I followed down by train on the Wednesday afternoon.
CHAPTER III
IT was the cow that woke me the first morning. I did not know it was our cow-not at the time. I didn"t know we had a cow. I looked at my watch; it was half-past two. I thought maybe she would go to sleep again, but her idea was that the day had begun. I went to the window, the moon was at the full. She was standing by the gate, her head inside the garden; I took it her anxiety was lest we might miss any of it. Her neck was stretched out straight, her eyes towards the sky; which gave to her the appearance of a long-eared alligator. I have never had much to do with cows. I don"t know how you talk to them. I told her to "be quiet," and to "lie down"; and made pretence to throw a boot at her. It seemed to cheer her, having an audience; she added half a dozen extra notes. I never knew before a cow had so much in her. There is a thing one sometimes meets with in the suburbs-or one used to; I do not know whether it is still extant, but when I was a boy it was quite common. It has a hurdy-gurdy fixed to its waist and a drum strapped on behind, a row of pipes hanging from its face, and bells and clappers from most of its other joints. It plays them all at once, and smiles. This cow reminded me of it-with organ effects added. She didn"t smile; there was that to be said in her favour.
I hoped that if I made believe to be asleep she would get discouraged.
So I closed the window ostentatiously, and went back to bed. But it only had the effect of putting her on her mettle. "He did not care for that last," I imagined her saying to herself, "I wasn"t at my best. There wasn"t feeling enough in it." She kept it up for about half an hour, and then the gate against which, I suppose, she had been leaning, gave way with a crash. That frightened her, and I heard her gallop off across the field. I was on the point of dozing off again when a pair of pigeons settled on the window-sill and began to coo. It is a pretty sound when you are in the mood for it. I wrote a poem once-a simple thing, but instinct with longing-while sitting under a tree and listening to the cooing of a pigeon. But that was in the afternoon. My only longing now was for a gun. Three times I got out of bed and "shoo"d" them away. The third time I remained by the window till I had got it firmly into their heads that I really did not want them. My behaviour on the former two occasions they had evidently judged to be mere playfulness. I had just got back to bed again when an owl began to screech. That is another sound I used to think attractive-so weird, so mysterious. It is Swinburne, I think, who says that you never get the desired one and the time and the place all right together. If the beloved one is with you, it is the wrong place or at the wrong time; and if the time and the place happen to be right, then it is the party that is wrong. The owl was all right: I like owls. The place was all right. He had struck the wrong time, that was all. Eleven o"clock at night, when you can"t see him, and naturally feel that you want to, is the proper time for an owl. Perched on the roof of a cow-shed in the early dawn he looks silly. He clung there, flapping his wings and screeching at the top of his voice. What it was he wanted I am sure I don"t know; and anyhow it didn"t seem the way to get it. He came to this conclusion himself at the end of twenty minutes, and shut himself up and went home. I thought I was going to have at last some peace, when a corncrake-a creature upon whom Nature has bestowed a song like to the tearing of calico-sheets mingled with the sharpening of saws-settled somewhere in the garden and set to work to praise its Maker according to its lights. I have a friend, a poet, who lives just off the Strand, and spends his evenings at the Garrick Club.
He writes occasional verse for the evening papers, and talks about the "silent country, drowsy with the weight of languors." One of these times I"ll lure him down for a Sat.u.r.day to Monday and let him find out what the country really is-let him hear it. He is becoming too much of a dreamer: it will do him good, wake him up a bit. The corncrake after awhile stopped quite suddenly with a jerk, and for quite five minutes there was silence.
"If this continues for another five," I said to myself, "I"ll be asleep."
I felt it coming over me. I had hardly murmured the words when the cow turned up again. I should say she had been somewhere and had had a drink. She was in better voice than ever.
It occurred to me that this would be an opportunity to make a few notes on the sunrise. The literary man is looked to for occasional description of the sunrise. The earnest reader who has heard about this sunrise thirsts for full particulars. Myself, for purposes of observation, I have generally chosen December or the early part of January. But one never knows. Maybe one of these days I"ll want a summer sunrise, with birds and dew-besprinkled flowers: it goes well with the rustic heroine, the miller"s daughter, or the girl who brings up chickens and has dreams.
I met a brother author once at seven o"clock in the morning in Kensington Gardens. He looked half asleep and so disagreeable that I hesitated for awhile to speak to him: he is a man that as a rule breakfasts at eleven.
But I summoned my courage and accosted him.
"This is early for you," I said.
"It"s early for anyone but a born fool," he answered.
"What"s the matter?" I asked. "Can"t you sleep?"
"Can"t I sleep?" he retorted indignantly. "Why, I daren"t sit down upon a seat, I daren"t lean up against a tree. If I did I"d be asleep in half a second."
"What"s the idea?" I persisted. "Been reading Smiles"s "Self Help and the Secret of Success"? Don"t be absurd," I advised him. "You"ll be going to Sunday school next and keeping a diary. You have left it too late: we don"t reform at forty. Go home and go to bed." I could see he was doing himself no good.
"I"m going to bed," he answered, "I"m going to bed for a month when I"ve finished this confounded novel that I"m on. Take my advice," he said-he laid his hand upon my shoulder-"Never choose a colonial girl for your heroine. At our age it is simple madness."
"She"s a fine girl," he continued, "and good. Has a heart of gold.
She"s wearing me to a shadow. I wanted something fresh and unconventional. I didn"t grasp what it was going to do. She"s the girl that gets up early in the morning and rides bare-back-the horse, I mean, of course; don"t be so silly. Over in New South Wales it didn"t matter.
I threw in the usual local colour-the eucalyptus-tree and the kangaroo-and let her ride. It is now that she is over here in London that I wish I had never thought of her. She gets up at five and wanders about the silent city. That means, of course, that I have to get up at five in order to record her impressions. I have walked six miles this morning. First to St. Paul"s Cathedral; she likes it when there"s n.o.body about. You"d think it wasn"t big enough for her to see if anybody else was in the street. She thinks of it as of a mother watching over her sleeping children; she"s full of all that sort of thing. And from there to Westminster Bridge. She sits on the parapet and reads Wordsworth, till the policeman turns her off. This is another of her favourite spots." He indicated with a look of concentrated disgust the avenue where we were standing. "This is where she likes to finish up. She comes here to listen to a blackbird."
"Well, you are through with it now," I said to console him. "You"ve done it; and it"s over."
"Through with it!" he laughed bitterly. "I"m just beginning it. There"s the entire East End to be done yet: she"s got to meet a fellow there as big a crank as herself. And walking isn"t the worst. She"s going to have a horse; you can guess what that means.-Hyde Park will be no good to her. She"ll find out Richmond and Ham Common. I"ve got to describe the scenery and the mad joy of the thing."
"Can"t you imagine it?" I suggested.
"I"m going to imagine all the enjoyable part of it," he answered. "I must have a groundwork to go upon. She"s got to have feelings come to her upon this horse. You can"t enter into a rider"s feelings when you"ve almost forgotten which side of the horse you get up."
I walked with him to the Serpentine. I had been wondering how it was he had grown stout so suddenly. He had a bath towel round him underneath his coat.
"It"ll give me my death of cold, I know it will," he chattered while unlacing his boots.
"Can"t you leave it till the summer-time," I suggested, "and take her to Ostend?"
"It wouldn"t be unconventional," he growled. "She wouldn"t take an interest in it."
"But do they allow ladies to bathe in the Serpentine?" I persisted.
"It won"t be the Serpentine," he explained. "It"s going to be the Thames at Greenwich. But it must be the same sort of feeling. She"s got to tell them all about it during a lunch in Queen"s Gate, and shock them all. That"s all she does it for, in my opinion."
He emerged a mottled blue. I helped him into his clothes, and he was fortunate enough to find an early cab. The book appeared at Christmas.
The critics agreed that the heroine was a delightful creation. Some of them said they would like to have known her.
Remembering my poor friend, it occurred to me that by going out now and making a few notes about the morning, I might be saving myself trouble later on. I slipped on a few things-nothing elaborate-put a notebook in my pocket, opened the door and went down.