"She means to invite you, at all events; for I heard her consulting my mother how so formidable a personage should be approached,--whether she ought to address you in a despatch, or ask for a conference."
"If a choice be given me, I "ll stay where I am. The three days I promised you have grown nearer to three weeks, and I do not see the remotest chance of your getting rid of me."
"Will you promise me to stay till I tell you we want your rooms?"
"Ah, my dear fellow, you don"t know--you could n"t know--what very tempting words you are uttering. This is such a charming, charming spot, to compose that novel I am--not--writing--that I never mean to leave till I have finished it; but, seriously, speaking like an old friend, am I a bore here? am I occupying the place that is wanted for another? are they tired of me?"
Mark overwhelmed his friend with a.s.surances, very honest in the main, that they were only too happy to possess him as their guest, and felt no common pride in the fact that he could find his life there endurable. "I will own now," says he, "that there was a considerable awe of you felt before you came; but you have lived down the fear, and become a positive favorite."
"But who could have given such a version of me as to inspire this?"
"I am afraid I was the culprit," said Mark. "I was rather boastful about knowing you at all, and I suppose I frightened them."
"My dear Lyle, what a narrow escape I had of being positively odious!
and I now see with what consummate courtesy my caprices have been treated, when really I never so much as suspected they had been noticed."
There was a touch of sincerity in his accent as he spoke, that vouched for the honesty of his meaning; and Mark, as he looked at him, muttered to himself, "This is the man they call an egotist, and who is only intent on taking his turn out of all around him."
"I think I must let you go to sleep again, Mark," said Maitland, rising.
"I am a wretched sleeper myself, and quite forget that there are happy fellows who can take their ten hours of oblivion without any help from the druggist. Without this"--and he drew a small phial from his waistcoat-pocket--"I get no rest."
"What a bad habit!"
"Isn"t almost everything we do a bad habit? Have we ever a humor that recurs to us, that is not a bad habit? Are not the simple things which mean nothing in themselves an evil influence when they grow into requirements and make slaves of us? I suppose it was a bad habit that made me a bad sleeper, and I turn to another bad habit to correct it.
The only things which are positively bad habits are those that require an effort to sustain, or will break down under us without we struggle to support them. To be morose is not one jot a worse habit than to be agreeable; for the time will come when you are indisposed to be pleasant, and the company in which you find yourself are certain to deem the humor as an offence to themselves; but there is a worse habit than this, which is to go on talking to a man whose eyes are closing with sleep. Good-night."
Maitland said no more than the truth when he declared how happy he found himself in that quiet unmolested existence which he led at Lyle Abbey.
To be free in every way, to indulge his humor to be alone or in company, to go and come as he liked, were great boons; but they were even less than the enjoyment he felt in living amongst total strangers,--persons who had never known, never heard of him, for whom he was not called on to make any effort or support any character.
No man ever felt more acutely the slavery that comes of sustaining a part before the world, and being as strange and as inexplicable as people required he should be. While a very young man, it amused him to trifle in this fashion, and to set absurd modes afloat for imitation; and he took a certain spiteful pleasure in seeing what a host of followers mere eccentricity could command. As he grew older, he wearied of this, and, to be free of it, wandered away to distant and unvisited countries, trying the old and barren experiment whether new sensations might not make a new nature. _Caelum non animum mutant_, says the adage; and he came back pretty much as he went, with this only difference, that he now cared only for quietness and repose. Not the contemplative repose of one who sought to reflect without disturbance, so much as the peaceful isolation that suited indolence. He fancied how he would have liked to be the son of that house, and dream away life in that wild secluded spot; but, after all, the thought was like the epicure"s notion of how contented he could be with a meal of potatoes!
As the day broke, he was roused from his light sleep by the tumult and noise of the departing guests. He arose and watched them through the half-closed jalousies. It was picturesque enough, in that crisp, fresh, frosty air, to see the groups as they gathered on the long terrace before the door; while equipages the most varied drew up,--here a family-coach with long-tailed "blacks;" there a smart britschka, with spanking grays; a tandem, too, there was for Mark"s special handling; and, conspicuous by its pile of luggage in the "well," stood Gambier Graham"s outside jaunting-car,--a large basket of vegetables and fruit, and a hamper of lobsters, showing how such guests are propitiated, even in the hours of leave-taking.
Maitland watched Isabella in all her little attentive cares to Mrs.
Maxwell, and saw, as he thought, the heir-expectant in every movement.
He fancied that the shawl she carried on her arm was the old lady"s, and was almost vexed when he saw her wrap it around her own shoulders.
"Well, that at least is sycophancy," muttered he, as he saw her clutch up a little white Maltese terrier and kiss it; but, alas for his prescience! the next moment she had given the dog to a servant to carry back into the house; and so it was her own that she was parting from, and not Mrs. Maxwell"s that she was caressing!
It is strange to say that he was vexed at being disappointed. She was very pretty, very well-mannered, and very pleasing; but he longed to find that all the charm and grace about her were conventional; he wished to believe that "the whole thing," as he called life, was a mere trick, where all cheated in proportion to their capacities. Mark had been honest enough to own that they were fortune-hunting, and Isabella certainly could not be ignorant of the stake she played for.
One by one the carriages drew up and moved away, and now Gambier Graham"s car stood before the door, alone; for the crowd of footmen who had thronged to press their services on the others, gradually melted away, hopeless of exacting a blackmail from the old Commodore. While Maitland stood watching the driver, who, in a composite sort of costume, rather more gardener than coachman, amused himself flicking with his whip imaginary flies off the old mare"s neck and withers, a smart tap came to the door; while a hasty voice called out, "May I come in?"
"Let me first hear who you are?" said Maitland.
"Commodore Graham," was the answer.
In a moment it flashed across Maitland that the old sailor had come to reveal his discovery of M"Caskey. Just as quickly did he decide that it was better to admit him, and, if possible, contrive to make the story seem a secret between themselves.
"Come in, by all means,--the very man I wanted to see," said Maitland, as he opened the door, and gave him a cordial shake-hands. "I was afraid you were going without seeing me, Commodore; and, early as it was, I got up and was dressing in hope to catch you."
"That I call hearty,--downright hearty,--Maitland."
Maitland actually started at this familiar mention of him by one whom he had never met till a few days before.
"Rather a rare event in your life to be up at this hour, I "ll be sworn,--except when you have n"t been to bed, eh?" And he laughed heartily at what he fancied was a most witty conceit. "You see we "re all off! We "ve had springs on our cables these last twenty-four hours, with this frolicsome old woman, who would insist on being back for her birthday; but she "s rich, Maitland, immensely rich, and we all worship her!"
Maitland gave a faint shrug of the shoulders, as though he deplored the degeneracy, but couldn"t help it.
"Yes, yes; I "m coming," cried the Commodore, shouting from the open window to his daughters beneath. "The girls are impatient; they want to be at Lesliesford when the others are crossing. There"s a fresh on the river, and it "s better to get some stout fellows to guide the carriages through the water. I wanted greatly to have five minutes alone with you,--five would do; half of it, perhaps, between men of the world, as we are. You know about what."
"I suspect I do," said Maitland, quietly.
"I saw, too," resumed Graham, "that you wished to have no talk about it here, amongst all these gossiping people. Was n"t I right?"
"Perfectly right; you appreciated me thoroughly."
"What I said was this,--Maitland knows the world well. He "ll wait till he has his opportunity of talking the matter over with myself. He "ll say, "Graham and I will understand one another at once." One minute; only one," screamed he out from the window. "Could n"t you come down and just say a word or two to them? They "d like it so much."
Maitland muttered something about his costume.
"Ah! there it is. You fellows will never be seen till you are in full fig. Well, I must be off. Now, then, to finish what we "ve been saying.
You "ll come over next week to Port-Graham,--that"s my little place, though there"s no port, nor anything like a port, within ten miles of it,--and we "ll arrange everything. If I "m an old fellow, Maitland, I don"t forget that I was once a young one,--mind that, my boy." And the Commodore had to wipe his eyes, with the laughter at his drollery. "Yes; here I am," cried he, again; and then turning to Maitland, shook his hand in both his own, repeating, "On Wednesday,--Wednesday to dinner,--not later than five, remember,"--he hastened down the stairs, and scrambled up on the car beside his eldest daughter, who apparently had already opened a floodgate of attack on him for his delay.
"Insupportable old bore!" muttered Maitland, as he waved his hand from the window, and smiled his blandest salutations to the retreating party.
"What a tiresome old fool to fancy that I am going over to Graham-pond, or port, or whatever it is, to talk over an incident that I desire to have forgotten! Besides, when once I have left this neighborhood, he may discuss M"Caskey every day after his dinner; he may write his life, for anything I care."
With this parting reflection he went down to the garden, strolling listlessly along the dew-spangled alleys, and carelessly tossing aside with his cane the apple-blossoms, which lay thick as snow-flakes on the walks. While thus lounging, he came suddenly upon Sir Arthur, as, hoe in hand, he imagined himself doing something useful.
"Oh, by the way, Mr. Maitland," cried he, "Mark has just told me of the stupid mistake I made. Will you be generous enough to forgive me?"
"It is from me, sir, that the apologies must come," began Maitland.
"Nothing of the kind, my dear Mr. Maitland. You will overwhelm me with shame if you say so. Let us each forget the incident; and, believe me, I shall feel myself your debtor by the act of oblivion." He shook Maitland"s hand warmly, and in an easier tone added, "What good news I have heard! You are not tired of us,--not going!"
"I cannot--I told Mark this morning--I don"t believe there is a road out of this."
"Well, wait here till I tell you it is fit for travelling," said Sir Arthur, pleasantly, and addressed himself once more to his labors as a gardener.
Meanwhile Maitland threw himself down on a garden-bench, and cried aloud, "This is the real thing, after all,--this is actual repose. Not a word of political intrigue, no snares, no tricks, no deceptions, and no defeats; no waking to hear of our friends arrested, and our private letters in the hands of a Police Prefect. No horrid memories of the night before, and that run of ill-luck that has left us almost beggars.
I wonder how long the charm of this tranquillity would endure; or is it like all other anodynes, which lose their calming power by habit? I "d certainly like to try."
"Well, there is no reason why you shouldn"t," said a voice from the back of the summer-house, which he knew to be Mrs. Trafford"s.
He jumped up to overtake her, but she was gone.
CHAPTER XII. MAITLAND"S VISIT