Chapter 10
"Does this lady live in the wood, where I met you?" asks Lilian, addressing Guy, and apparently deeply interested.
"Yes, about a mile from that particular spot. She is a new tenant we took to oblige a friend, but we know nothing about her."
"How very romantic!" says Lilian; "it is just like a story."
"Yes; the image of the 'Children of the Abbey,' or 'The Castle of Otranto,'" says Cyril. "Has she any one living with her, Guy?"
carelessly.
"Yes, two servants, and a small ill-tempered terrier."
"I mean any friends. It must be dull to be by one's self."
"I don't know. I saw no one. She don't seem ambitious about making acquaintances, as, when I said I hoped she would not find it lonely, and that my mother would have much pleasure in calling on her, she blushed painfully, and said she was never lonely, and that she would esteem it a kindness if we would try to forget she was at the cottage."
"That was rather rude, my dear, wasn't it?" says Lady Chetwoode mildly.
"It sounds so, but, as she said it, it wasn't rude. She appeared nervous, I thought, and as though she had but lately recovered from a severe illness. When the blush died away, she was as white as death."
"Well, I shan't distress her by calling," says Lady Chetwoode, who is naturally a little offended by the unknown's remark. Unconsciously she has been viewing her coming with distrust, and now this unpleasing message--for as a message directly addressed to herself she regards it--has had the effect of changing a smouldering doubt into an acknowledged dislike.
"I wonder how she means to employ her time down here," says Cyril.
"Scenery abounds, but lovely views don't go a long way with most people.
After a while they are apt to pall."
"Is there pretty scenery round Truston?" asks Lilian.
"Any amount of it. Like 'Auburn,' it is the 'loveliest village of the plain.' But I can't say we are a very enterprising people. Sometimes it occurs to one of us to give a dinner-party, but no sooner do we issue the invitations than we sit down and repent bitterly; and on rare occasions we may have a ball, which means a drive of fourteen miles on a freezing night, and universal depression and sneezing for a week afterward. Perhaps the widow is wise in declining to have anything to do with our festive gatherings. I begin to think there is method in her madness."
"Miss Chesney doesn't agree with you," says Guy, casting a quick glance at Lilian: "she would go any distance to a ball, and dance from night till morning, and never know depression next day."
"Is that true, Miss Chesney?"
"Sir Guy says it is," replies Lilian, demurely.
"When I was young," says Lady Chetwoode, "I felt just like that. So long as the band played, so long I could dance, and without ever feeling
how long ago it seems!"
"Not at all," says Cyril; "a mere reminiscence of yesterday. When I am an old gentleman, I shall make a point of never remembering anything that happened long ago, no matter how good it may have been."
"Perhaps you won't have anything good to remember," says Miss Lilian, provokingly.
"Guy, give Miss Chesney another gla.s.s of wine," says Cyril, promptly: "she is evidently feeling low."
"Sir Guy," says Miss Chesney, with equal prompt.i.tude, and a treacherous display of innocent curiosity, "when you were at Belmont last evening did you hear Miss Bellair say anything of a rather rude attack made upon her yesterday at the station by an ill-bred young man?"
"No," says Sir Guy, rather amazed.
"Did she not speak of it? How strange! Why, I fancied----"
"Miss Chesney," interposes Cyril, "if you have any regard for your personal safety, you will refrain from further speech."
"But why?"--opening her great eyes in affected surprise. "Why may I not tell Sir Guy about it? Poor Miss Bellair! although a stranger to me, I felt most genuine pity for her. Just fancy, Sir Guy, a poor girl alone upon a platform, without a soul to take care of her, what she must have endured, when a young man--_apparently_ a gentleman--walked up to her, and taking advantage of her isolated position, bowed to her, simpered impertinently, and was actually on the very point of addressing her, when fortunately her cousin came up and rescued her from her unhappy situation. Was it not shameful? Now, what do you think that rude young man deserved?"
"Extinction," replies Guy, without hesitation.
"I think so too. Don't you, Lady Chetwoode?"
Lady Chetwoode laughs.
"Now, I shall give my version of the story," says Cyril. "I too was present----"
"And didn't fly to her a.s.sistance? Oh, fie!" says Lilian.
"There was once an unhappy young man, who was sent to a station to meet a young woman, without having been told beforehand whether she was like Juno, tall enough to 'snuff the moon,' or whether she was so insignificant as to require a strong binocular to enable you to see her at all."
"I am not insignificant," says Lilian, her indignation getting the better of her judgment.
"Am I speaking of you, Miss Chesney?"
"Well, go on."
"Now, it came to pa.s.s that as this wretched young man was glaring wildly round to see where his charge might be, he espied a tall young woman, apparently in the last stage of exhaustion, looking about for some one to a.s.sist her, and seeing no one else, for the one he sought had meanly, and with a view to his discomfiture, crept silently behind his back----"
"Oh, Cyril!"
"Yes, I maintain it; she crept silently behind his back, and bribed her maid to keep silence. So this wretched young man walked up to Juno, and pulled his forelock, and made his very best Sunday bow, and generally put his foot in it. Juno was so frightened by the best bow that she gave way to a stifled scream, and instantly sank back unconscious into the arms of her betrothed, who just then ran frantically upon the scene.
Upon this the deluded young man----"
"That will do," interrupts Lilian, severely. "I am certain I have read it somewhere before; and--people should always tell the truth."
"By the bye," says Guy, "I believe Miss Bellair did say something last night about an unpleasant adventure at the station,--something about a very low person who had got himself up like a gentleman, but was without doubt one of the swell mob, and who----"
"You needn't go any further. I feel my position keenly. Nevertheless, Miss Bellair made a mistake when she rejected my proffered services. She little knows what a delightful companion I can be. Can't I, Miss Chesney?"
"Can he, Lady Chetwoode? I am not in a position to judge."
"If a perpetual, never-ceasing flow of conversation has anything to do with it, I believe he must be acknowledged the most charming of his s.e.x," says his mother, laughing, and rising, bears away Lilian with her to the drawing-room.
CHAPTER VII.
"A dancing shape, an image gay, To haunt, to startle, and waylay."
--WORDSWORTH.
When seven long uneventful days have pa.s.sed away, every one at Chetwoode is ready to acknowledge that the coming of Lilian Chesney is an occurrence for which they ought to be devoutly thankful. She is a boon, a blessing, a merry sunbeam, darting hither and thither about the old place, lighting up the shadows, dancing through the dark rooms, casting a little of her own inborn joyousness upon all that comes within her reach.