CHAPTER XLIII
_NEWS AT BARTRAM GATE_
Milly and I, thanks to our early Bartram hours, were first down next morning; and so soon as Cousin Monica appeared we attacked her.
"So Lady Mary is the _fiancee_ of Mr. Carysbroke," said I, very cleverly; "and I think it was very wicked of you to try and involve me in a flirtation with him yesterday."
"And who told you that, pray?" asked Lady Knollys, with a pleasant little laugh.
"Milly and I discovered it, simple as we stand here," I answered.
"But you did not flirt with Mr. Carysbroke, Maud, did you?" she asked.
"No, certainly not; but that was not your doing, wicked woman, but my discretion. And now that we know your secret, you must tell us all about her, and all about him; and in the first place, what is her name--Lady Mary what?" I demanded.
"Who would have thought you so cunning? Two country misses--two little nuns from the cloisters of Bartram! Well, I suppose I must answer. It is vain trying to hide anything from you; but how on earth did you find it out?"
"We"ll tell you that presently, but you shall first tell us who she is," I persisted.
"Well, that I will, of course, without compulsion. She is Lady Mary Carysbroke," said Lady Knollys.
"A relation of Mr. Carysbroke"s," I a.s.serted.
"Yes, a relation; but who told you he was Mr. Carysbroke?" asked Cousin Monica.
"Milly told me, when we saw him in the Windmill Wood."
"And who told you, Milly?"
"It was L"Amour," answered Milly, with her blue eyes very wide open.
"What does the child mean? L"Amour! You don"t mean _love_?" exclaimed Lady Knollys, puzzled in her turn.
"I mean old Wyat; _she_ told me and the Governor."
"You"re _not_ to say that," I interposed.
"You mean your father?" suggested Lady Knollys.
"Well, yes; father told her, and so I knew him."
"What could he mean?" exclaimed Lady Knollys, laughing, as it were, in soliloquy; "and I did not mention his name, I recollect now. He recognised you, and you him, when you came into the room yesterday; and now you must tell me how you discovered that he and Lady Mary were to be married."
So Milly restated her evidence, and Lady Knollys laughed unaccountably heartily; and she said--
"They _will_ be _so_ confounded! but they deserve it; and, remember, _I_ did not say so."
"Oh! we acquit you."
"All I say is, such a deceitful, dangerous pair of girls--all things considered--I never heard of before," exclaimed Lady Knollys. "There"s no such thing as conspiring in your presence."
"Good morning. I hope you slept well." She was addressing the lady and gentleman who were just entering the room from the conservatory. "You"ll hardly sleep so well to-night, when you have learned what eyes are upon you. Here are two very pretty detectives who have found out your secret, and entirely by your imprudence and their own cleverness have discovered that you are a pair of betrothed lovers, about to ratify your vows at the hymeneal altar. I a.s.sure you I did not tell of you; you betrayed yourselves. If you will talk in that confidential way on sofas, and call one another stealthily by your Christian names, and actually kiss at the foot of the stairs, while a clever detective is scaling them, apparently with her back toward you, you must only take the consequences, and be known prematurely as the hero and heroine of the forthcoming paragraph in the "Morning Post.""
Milly and I were horribly confounded, but Cousin Monica was resolved to place us all upon the least formal terms possible, and I believe she had set about it in the right way.
"And now, girls, I am going to make a counter-discovery, which, I fear, a little conflicts with yours. This Mr. Carysbroke is Lord Ilbury, brother of this Lady Mary; and it is all my fault for not having done my honours better; but you see what clever match-making little creatures they are."
"You can"t think how flattered I am at being made the subject of a theory, even a mistaken one, by Miss Ruthyn."
And so, after our modest fit was over, Milly and I were very merry, like the rest, and we all grew a great deal more intimate that morning.
I think altogether those were the pleasantest and happiest days of my life: gay, intelligent, and kindly society at home; charming excursions--sometimes riding--sometimes by carriage--to distant points of beauty in the county. Evenings varied with music, reading, and spirited conversation. Now and then a visitor for a day or two, and constantly some neighbour from the town, or its dependencies, dropt in. Of these I but remember tall old Miss Wintletop, most entertaining of rustic old maids, with her nice lace and thick satin, and her small, kindly round face--pretty, I dare say, in other days, and now frosty, but kindly--who told us such delightful old stories of the county in her father"s and grandfather"s time; who knew the lineage of every family in it, and could recount all its duels and elopements; give us ill.u.s.trative s.n.a.t.c.hes from old election squibs, and lines from epitaphs, and tell exactly where all the old-world highway robberies had been committed: how it fared with the chief delinquents after the a.s.sizes; and, above all, where, and of what sort, the goblins and elves of the county had made themselves seen, from the phantom post-boy, who every third night crossed Windale Moor, by the old coach-road, to the fat old ghost, in mulberry velvet, who showed his great face, crutch, and ruffles, by moonlight, at the bow window of the old court-house that was taken down in 1803.
You cannot imagine what agreeable evenings we pa.s.sed in this society, or how rapidly my good Cousin Milly improved in it. I remember well the intense suspense in which she and I awaited the answer from Bartram-Haugh to kind Cousin Monica"s application for an extension of our leave of absence.
It came, and with it a note from Uncle Silas, which was curious, and, therefore, is printed here:--
"MY DEAR LADY KNOLLYS,--To your kind letter I say yes (that is, for another week, not a fortnight), with all my heart. I am glad to hear that my starlings chatter so pleasantly; at all events the refrain is not that of Sterne"s. They can get out; and do get out; and shall get out as much as they please. I am no gaoler, and shut up n.o.body but myself. I have always thought that young people have too little liberty. My principle has been to make little free men and women of them from the first. In morals, altogether--in intellect, more than we allow--_self_-education is that which abides; and _it_ only begins where constraint ends. Such is my theory. My practice is consistent. Let them remain for a week longer, as you say. The horses shall be at Elverston on Tuesday, the 7th. I shall be more than usually sad and solitary till their return; so pray, I selfishly entreat, do not extend their absence. You will smile, remembering how little my health will allow me to see of them, even when at home; but as Chaulieu so prettily says--I stupidly forget the words, but the sentiment is this--"although concealed by a sylvan wall of leaves, impenetrable--(he is pursuing his favourite nymphs through the alleys and intricacies of a rustic labyrinth)--yet, your songs, your prattle, and your laughter, faint and far away, inspire my fancy; and, through my ears, I see your unseen smiles, your blushes, your floating tresses, and your ivory feet; and so, though sad, am happy; though alone, in company;"--and such is my case.
"One only request, and I have done. Pray remind them of a promise made to me. The Book of Life--the fountain of life--it must be drunk of, night and morning, or their spiritual life expires.
"And now, Heaven bless and keep you, my dear cousin; and with all a.s.surances of affection to my beloved niece and my child, believe me ever yours affectionately.
"SILAS RUTHYN."
Said Cousin Monica, with a waggish smile--
"And so, girls, you have Chaulieu and the evangelists; the French rhymester in his alley, and Silas in the valley of the shadow of death; perfect liberty, and a peremptory order to return in a week;--all ill.u.s.trating one another. Poor Silas! old as he is, I don"t think his religion fits him."
_I_ really rather liked his letter. I was struggling hard to think well of him, and Cousin Monica knew it; and I really think if I had not been by, she would often have been less severe on him.
As we were all sitting pleasantly about the breakfast table a day or two after, the sun shining on the pleasant wintry landscape, Cousin Monica suddenly exclaimed--
"I quite forgot to tell you that Charles Oakley has written to say he is coming on Wednesday. I really don"t want him. Poor Charlie! I wonder how they manage those doctors" certificates. I know nothing ails him, and he"d be much better with his regiment."
Wednesday!--how odd. Exactly the day after my departure. I tried to look perfectly unconcerned. Lady Knollys had addressed herself more to Lady Mary and Milly than to me, and n.o.body in particular was looking at me.
Notwithstanding, with my usual perversity, I felt myself blushing with a brilliancy that may have been very becoming, but which was so intolerably provoking that I would have risen and left the room but that matters would have been so infinitely worse. I could have boxed my odious ears. I could almost have jumped from the window.
I felt that Lord Ilbury saw it. I saw Lady Mary"s eyes for a moment resting gravely on my tell-tale--my lying cheeks--for I really had begun to think much less celestially of Captain Oakley. I was angry with Cousin Monica, who, knowing my blushing infirmity, had mentioned her nephew so suddenly while I was strapped by etiquette in my chair, with my face to the window, and two pair of most disconcerting eyes, at least, opposite. I was angry with myself--generally angry--refused more tea rather dryly, and was laconic to Lord Ilbury, all which, of course, was very cross and foolish; and afterwards, from my bed-room window, I saw Cousin Monica and Lady Mary among the flowers, under the drawing-room window, talking, as I instinctively knew, of that little incident. I was standing at the gla.s.s.
"My odious, stupid, _perjured_ face" I whispered, furiously, at the same time stamping on the floor, and giving myself quite a smart slap on the cheek. "I _can"t_ go down--I"m ready to cry--I"ve a mind to return to Bartram to-day; I am _always_ blushing; and I wish that impudent Captain Oakley was at the bottom of the sea."
I was, perhaps, thinking more of Lord Ilbury than I was aware; and I am sure if Captain Oakley had arrived that day, I should have treated him with most unjustifiable rudeness.
Notwithstanding this unfortunate blush, the remainder of our visit pa.s.sed very happily for me. No one who has not experienced it can have an idea how intimate a small party, such as ours, will grow in a short time in a country house.
Of course, a young lady of a well-regulated mind cannot possibly care a pin about any one of the opposite s.e.x until she is well a.s.sured that he is beginning, at least, to like her better than all the world beside; but I could not deny to myself that I was rather anxious to know more about Lord Ilbury than I actually did know.