It"s no use making excuses, pleading that you misunderstood this or mistook that, Boyd," said I. "If it occurs again, I go." And then, as if this was not enough, I "ve had to talk French all the way out. By the way, where"s Maitland?"
"Talk French! what do you mean by that?"
"Where"s Maitland, I say?"
"He"s gone off with Mark to Larne. They said they "d not be back to dinner."
"Here"s more of it; we shall have this foreign fellow on our hands till he comes,--this Italian Count. I found him at M"Grotty"s, and brought him back with me."
"And what is he like? is he as captivating as his portrait bespeaks?"
"He is, to my mind, as vulgar a dog as ever I met: he smoked beside me all the road, though he saw how his vile tobacco set me a-coughing; and he stretched his legs over the front seat of the carriage, where, I promise you, his boots have left their impress on the silk lining; and he poked his cane at Crattle"s wig, and made some impertinent remark which I could n"t catch. I never was very enthusiastic about foreigners, and the present specimen has not made a convert of me."
"Maitland likes him," said she, languidly.
"Well, then, it is an excellent reason not to like Maitland. There"s the second bell already. By the way, this Count, I suppose, takes you in to dinner?"
"I suppose so, and it is very unpleasant, for I am out of the habit of talking French. I "ll make Alice sit on the other side of him and entertain him."
The news that the distinguished Italian friend of Mr. Norman Maitland had arrived created a sort of sensation in the house; and as the guests dropped into the drawing-room before dinner, there was no other topic than the Count. The door at last opened for his _entree_; and he came in unannounced, the servant being probably unable to catch the name he gave. In the absence of her father and mother, Mrs. Trafford did the honors, and received him most courteously, presenting the other guests to him, or him to them, as it might be. When it came to the turn of the Commodore, he started, and muttered, "Eh, very like, the born image of him!" and coloring deeply at his own awkwardness, mumbled out a few unmeaning commonplaces. As for the Major, he eyed him with one of his steadiest stares,--unflinching, un-blenching; and even said to Mrs.
Trafford in a whisper, "I didn"t catch the name; was it Green you said?"
Seated between Lady Lyle and Mrs. Trafford, M"Caskey felt that he was the honored guest of the evening: Maitland"s absence, so feelingly deplored by the others, gave him little regret; indeed, instinct told him that they were not men to like each other, and he was all the happier that he had the field for a while his own. It was not a very easy task to be the pleasant man of an Irish country-house, in a foreign tongue; but if any man could have success, it was M"Caskey.
The incessant play of his features, the varied tones of his voice, his extraordinary gestures, appealed to those who could not follow his words, and led them very often to join in the laughter which his sallies provoked from others. He was, it is true, the exact opposite to all they had been led to expect,--he was neither well-looking, nor distinguished, nor conciliatory in manner,--there was not a trace of that insinuating softness and gentleness Maitland had spoken of,--he was, even to those who could not follow his speech, one of the most coolly unabashed fellows they had ever met, and made himself at home with a readiness that said much more for his boldness than for his breeding; and yet, withal, each was pleased in turn to see how he out-talked some heretofore tyrant of conversation, how impudently he interrupted a bore, and how mercilessly he pursued an antagonist whom he had vanquished. It is not at all improbable, too, that he owed something of bis success to that unconquerable objection people feel at confessing that they do not understand a foreign language,--the more when that language is such a cognate one as French. What a deal of ecstasy does not the polite world expend upon German drama and Italian tragedy, and how frequently are people moved to every imaginable emotion, without the slightest clew to the intention of the charmer! If he was great at the dinner-table, he was greater in the drawing-room. Scarcely was coffee served than he was tw.a.n.king away with a guitar, and singing a Spanish muleteer song, with a jingling imitation of bells for the accompaniment; or seated at the piano, he carolled out a French canzonette descriptive of soldier life, far more picturesque than it was proper; and all this time there was the old Commodore cruising above and below him, eying and watching him,--growing perfectly feverish with the anxiety of his doubts, and yet unable to confirm or refute them. It was a suspicious craft; he felt that he had seen it before, and knew the rig well, and yet he was afraid to board and say, "Let me look at your papers."
"I say, Beck, just go slyly up and say something accidentally about Barbadoes; don"t ask any questions, but remark that the evening is close, or the sky threatening, or the air oppressive, just as it used to be before a tornado there." The old sailor watched her, as he might have watched a boat-party on a cutting-out expedition; he saw her draw nigh the piano; he thought he could trace all the ingenious steps by which she neared her object; and he was convinced that she had at last thrown the sh.e.l.l on board him; but what was his grievous disappointment, as he saw that the little fellow had turned to her with a look of warmest admiration, and actually addressed a very ardent love-song to the eyes that were then bent upon him. The Commodore made signals to cease firing and fall back, but in vain. She was too deeply engaged to think of orders; and there she stood to be admired and worshipped and adored, in all the moods and tenses of a French "romance." But Miss Rebecca Graham was not the only victim of the Major"s captivations; gradually the whole company of the drawing-room had gathered round the piano, some to wonder, some to laugh at, some to feel amused by, and not a few to feel angry with, that little fiery-eyed, impertinent-looking fellow, who eyed the ladies so languishingly, and stared at the men as if asking, "Who"ll quarrel with me?" You might not like, but it was impossible to ignore him. There was, too, in his whole air and bearing a conscious sense of power,--a sort of bold self-reliance,--that dignifies even impudence; and as he sat in his chair with head up and hands vigorously striking the chords of the piano, he looked, as it is by no means improbable that he felt, "M"Caskey against the field." It was in the midst of hearty applause at a song he had just completed, that Maitland entered the room. In the hall he had learned from the servants that his foreign friend had arrived, and he hurried forward to greet him. Rather puzzled at the vociferous gayety of the company, he made his way through the crowd and approached the piano, and then stood staring on every side, to find out his friend. Though he saw the Major, his eye only rested pa.s.singly on him, as it ranged eagerly to catch the features of another.
"He"s very amusing, though not in the least what you led us to expect,"
whispered Mrs. Trafford. "Who is it of whom you are speaking?" "Your friend yonder, the Count Caffarelli." "What--that man?" cried Maitland, as he grew pale with pa.s.sion; and now, pushing forward, he leaned over the back of the music-stool, and whispered, "Who are you that call yourself Count Caffarelli?"
"Is your name Maitland?" said the other, with perfect coolness.
"Yes."
"Mine is M"Caskey, sir."
"And by what presumption do I find you here?"
"This is not the place nor the moment for explanations; but if you want or prefer exposures, don"t balk your fancy. I "m as ready as you are."
Maitland reeled back as if from a blow, and looked positively ill; and then laughingly turning to the company, he said some common-place words about his ill luck in being late to hear the last song.
"Well, it must be the last for to-night," said Mr. M"Caskey, rising. "I have really imposed too much upon every one"s forbearance."
After a little of the usual skirmishing,--the entreaties and the coy refusals, the recollection of that charming thing you sang for us at Woodpark, and the doubts lest they had brought no music with them,--the Misses Graham sat down to one, of those duets which every one in England seems able to compose and to sing; lackadaisical ditties adapted to the humblest musical proficiency, and unfortunately, too, the very narrowest intelligences. While the remainder of the company, after a brief moment of silence, resumed conversation, Major M"Caskey stepped un.o.bserved from the room,--by all, at least, but by Maitland, who speedily followed him, and, led by the sound of his footsteps along the corridor, tracked him through the great hall. M"Caskey was standing on the lawn, and in the act of lighting his cigar, as Maitland came up.
"Explain this intrusion here, sir, now, if you can," cried Maitland, as he walked straight towards him.
"If you want any explanations from me, you "ll have to ask for them more suitably," said the other, coldly.
"I desire to know, under what pretence you a.s.sume a name and rank you have no right to, to obtain admission to this house?"
"Your question is easily answered: your instructions to me were, on my arrival at Coleraine, to give myself out for a foreigner, and not to speak English with any one. I have your note in my desk, and think there can be no mistake about its meaning."
"Well, well; I know all that: go on," cried Maitland, impatiently.
M"Caskey smiled, half insolently, at this show of temper, and continued: "It was, then, in my a.s.sumed character of Frenchman, Spaniard, Italian, or whatever you wish,--for they are pretty much alike to me,--I was standing at the door of the inn, when a rather pompous old fellow, with two footmen after him, came up, and in some execrable French endeavored to accost me, mingling your name in his jargon, and inviting me, as well as his language would permit, to return with him to his house. What was I to conclude but that the arrangement was yours? indeed, I never gave a doubt to it."
"When he addressed you as the Count Caffarelli, you might have had such a doubt," said Maitland, sneeringly.
"He called me simply Count," was the reply.
"Well; so far well: there was no a.s.sumption of a name, at least."
"None whatever; and if there had been, would the offence have seemed to you so very--very unpardonable?" It is not easy to convey the intense impertinence given to the delivery of this speech by the graduated slowness of every word, and the insolent composure with which it was spoken.
"What do you mean, sir, by this--this insinuation?" cried Maitland.
"Insinuation!--it"s none. It is a mere question as to a matter of good taste or good morals."
"I have no time for such discussions, sir," said Maitland, hotly. "I am glad to find that the blunder by which you came here was not of your own provoking, though I cannot see how it makes the explanation less difficult to myself."
"What is your difficulty, may I ask?" cried M"Caskey, coolly.
"Is it no difficulty that I must explain how I know--" and he stopped suddenly, just as a man might stop on the verge of a precipice, and look horror-struck down into the depth below him. "I mean," said he, recovering himself, "that to enter upon the question of our relations to each other would open the discussion of matters essentially secret. When I have said I know you, the next question will be, "Who is he?""
"Well, what is the difficulty there? I am Graf M"Caskey, in Bavaria; Count of Serra-major, in Sicily; Commander of the Order of St. Peter and St. Paul, and a Knight of Malta. I mention these, for I have the "brevets" with me."
"Very true," said Maitland; "but you are also the same Lieutenant Miles M"Caskey, who served in the 2d West Indian Regiment, and who left a few unsettled matters between him and the Government there, when he quitted Barbadoes."
"And which they won"t rake up, I promise you, if they don"t want to hang an ex-governor," said he, laughing. "But none of us, Mr. Maitland, will stand such investigations as these. There"s a statute of limitations for morals as well as for small debts."
Maitland winced under the insolent look of the other, and in a tone somewhat shaken, continued, "At all events it will not suit me to open these inquiries. The only piece of good fortune in the whole is that there was none here who knew you."
"I am not so very sure of that, though," said the Major, with a quiet laugh.
"How so? what do you mean?"
"Why; that there is an old fellow whom I remember to have met on the West Indian Station; he was a lieutenant, I think, on board the "Dwarf,"
and he looked as if he were puzzled about me."
"Gambier Graham?"
"That"s the man; he followed me about all night, till some one carried him off to play cribbage; but he "d leave his game every now and then to come and stare at me, till I gave him a look that said, "If you do that again, we "ll have a talk over it in the morning.""
"To prevent which you must leave this to-night, sir," said Maitland.
"I am not in the habit of carrying followers about with me to the country-houses where I visit."
A very prolonged whistle was M"Caskey"s first reply to this speech, and then he said: "They told me you were one of the cleverest fellows in Europe, but I don"t believe a word of it; for if you were, you would never try to play the game of bully with a man of my stamp. Bigger men than Mr. Norman Maitland have tried that, and did n"t come so well out of it."