Chapter 3
"That reminds me of a capital story," breaks in the irrepressible Cyril, gayly. "By Jove, what a sell it was! One fellow met another fellow----"
"I shall refuse, of course, if you wish it," Guy goes on, addressing his mother, and scorning to notice this brilliant interruption.
"No, no, dear. Write and say you will think about it."
"Won't you listen to my capital story?" asks Cyril, in high disgust.
"Very good. You will both be sorry afterward,--when it is too late."
Even this awful threat takes no effect.
"Unfortunately, I can't do that," says Guy, answering Lady Chetwoode.
"His friend is obliged to leave the place she is now in, immediately, and he wants her to come here next week,--next"--glancing at the letter--"Sat.u.r.day."
"Misfortunes never come single," remarks Cyril; "ours seem to crowd.
First a ward, and then a widow, and all in the same week."
"Not only the same week, but the same day," exclaims Lady Chetwoode, looking at her letter; whereupon they all laugh, though they scarcely know why.
"What! Is she too coming on Sat.u.r.day?" asks Guy. "How ill-timed! I am bound to go to the Bellairs, on that day, whether I like it or not, to dine, and sleep and spend my time generally. The old boy has some young dogs of which he is immensely proud, and has been tormenting me for a month past to go and see them. So yesterday he seized upon me again, and I didn't quite like to refuse, he seemed so bent on getting my opinion of the pups."
"Why not go early, and be back in time for dinner?"
"Can't, unfortunately. There is to be a dinner there in the evening for some cousin who is coming to pay them a visit; and I promised Harry, who doesn't s.h.i.+ne in conversation, to stay and make myself agreeable to her.
It's a bore rather, as I fear it will look slightly heathenish my not being at the station to meet Miss Chesney."
"Don't put yourself out about that: I'll do all I can to make up for your loss," says Cyril, who is eminently good-natured. "I'll meet her if you wish it, and bring her home."
"Thanks, old man: you're awfully good. It would look inhospitable neither of us being on the spot to bid her welcome. Take the carriage and----"
"Oh, by Jove, I didn't bargain for the carriage. To be smothered alive in July is not a fascinating idea. Don't you think, mother,"--in an insinuating voice,--"Miss Chesney would prefer the dogcart or the----"
"My dear Cyril! Of course you must meet her in the carriage," says his mother, in the shocked tone that usually ends all disputes.
"So be it. I give in. Though when I arrive here in the last stage of exhaustion, reclining in Miss Chesney's arms, you will be to blame,"
says Cyril, amiably. "But to return to your widow, Guy; who is to receive her?"
"I dare say by this time she has learned to take care of herself,"
laughing. "At all events, she does not weigh upon my conscience, even should I consent to oblige Trant,"--looking at his mother--"by having her at The Cottage as a tenant."
"It looks very suspicious, her being turned out of her last place,"
Cyril says, in an uncomfortable tone. "Perhaps----" Here he pauses somewhat mysteriously.
"Perhaps what?" asks his mother, struck by his manner.
"Perhaps she is mad," suggests Cyril, in an awesome whisper. "An escaped lunatic!--a maniac!"
"I know no one who borders so much on lunacy as yourself," says Guy.
"After all, what does it matter whether our tenant is fat, fair, and forty, or a lean old maid! It will oblige Trant, and it will keep the place together. Mother, tell me to say yes."
Thus desired, Lady Chetwoode gives the required permission.
"A new tenant at The Cottage and a young lady visitor,--a permanent visitor! It only requires some one to leave us a legacy in the shape of a new-born babe, to make up the sum of our calamities," says
CHAPTER III.
"She was beautiful as the lily-bosomed Houri that gladdens the visions of the poet when, soothed to dreams of pleasantness and peace, the downy pinions of Sleep wave over his turbulent soul!"--_From the Arabic._
All the flowers at Chetwoode are rejoicing; their heads are high uplifted, their sweetest perfumes are making still more sweet the soft, coquettish wind that, stealing past them, s.n.a.t.c.hes their kisses ere they know.
It is a glorious day, full of life, and happy suns.h.i.+ne, and music from the throats of many birds. All the tenors and sopranos and contraltos of the air seem to be having one vast concert, and are filling the woods with melody.
In the morning a little laughing, loving shower came tumbling down into the earth's embrace, where it was caught gladly and kept forever,--a little baby shower, on which the sunbeams smiled, knowing that it had neither power nor wish to kill them.
But now the greedy earth has grasped it, and others, knowing its fate, fear to follow, and only the pretty sparkling jewels that tremble on the gra.s.s tell of its having been.
In the very centre of the great lawn that stretches beyond the pleasure-grounds stands a mighty oak. Its huge branches throw their arms far and wide, making a shelter beneath them for all who may choose to come and seek there for shade. Around its base pretty rustic chairs are standing in somewhat dissipated order, while on its topmost bough a crow is swaying and swinging as the soft wind rushes by, making an inky blot upon the brilliant green, as it were a patch upon the cheek of a court belle.
Over all the land from his lofty perch this crow can see,--can mark the smiling fields, the yellowing corn, the many antlered deer in the Park, the laughing brooklets, the gurgling streams that now in the great heat go lazily and stumble sleepily over every pebble in their way.
He can see his neighbors' houses, perhaps his own snug nest, and all the beauty and richness and warmth of an English landscape.
But presently--being a bird of unformed tastes or unappreciative, or perhaps fickle--he tires of looking, and flapping heavily his black wings, rises slowly and sails away.
Toward the east he goes, the sound of his harsh but homely croak growing fainter as he flies. Over the trees in their gorgeous clothing, across the murmuring brooks, through the uplands, over the heads of the deer that gaze at him with their mournful, gentle eyes, he travels, never ceasing in his flight until he comes to a small belt of firs, evidently set apart, in the centre of which stands "The Cottage."
It is considerably larger than one would expect from its name. A long, low, straggling house, about three miles from Chetwoode entrance-gate, going by the road, but only one mile, taking a short cut through the Park. A very pretty house,--with a garden in front, carefully hedged round, and another garden at the back,--situated in a lovely spot,--perhaps the most enviable in all Chetwoode,--silent, dreamy, where one might, indeed, live forever, "the world forgetting, by the world forgot."
In the garden all sorts of the sweetest old-world flowers are blooming,--pinks and carnations, late lilies and sweet-williams; the velvety heartsease, breathing comfort to the poor love-that-lies-a-bleeding; the modest forget-me-not, the fragrant mignonette (whose qualities, they rudely say surpa.s.s its charms), the starry jessamine, the frail woodbine; while here and there from every nook and corner s.h.i.+nes out the fairest, loveliest, queenliest flower of all,--the rose.
Every bush is rich with them; the air is heavy with their odor. Roses of every hue, of every size, from the grand old cabbage to the smallest Scotch, are here. One gazes round in silent admiration, until the great love of them swells within the heart and a desire for possession arises, when, growing murderous, one wishes, like Nero, they had but one neck, that they might all be gathered at a blow.
Upon the house only snow-white roses grow. In great ma.s.ses they uprear their heads, peeping curiously in at the windows, trailing lovingly round the porches, nestling under the eaves, drooping coquettishly at the angles. To-day a raindrop has fallen into each scented heart, has lingered there all the morning, and is still loath to leave. Above the flowers the birds hover twittering; beneath them the ground is as a snowy carpet from their fallen petals. Poor petals! How sad it is that they must fall! Yet, even in death, how sweet!
It is Sat.u.r.day. In the morning the new tenant was expected; the evening is to bring the new ward. Lady Chetwoode, in consequence, is a little trouble-minded. Guy has gone to the Bellairs'. Cyril is in radiant spirits. Not that this latter fact need be recorded, as Cyril belongs to those favored ones who at their birth receive a dowry from their fairy G.o.dparents of unlimited good-humor.
He is at all times an easy-going young man, healthy, happy, whose path in life up to this has been strewn with roses. To him the world isn't "half a bad place," which he is content to take as he finds it, never looking too closely into what doesn't concern him,--a treatment the world evidently likes, as it regards him (especially the gentler portion of it) with the utmost affection.
Even with that rare cla.s.s, mothers blessed with handsome daughters, he finds favor, either through his face or his manner, or because of the fact that though a younger son, he has nine hundred pounds a year of his own and a pretty place called Moorlands, about six miles from Chetwoode.
It was his mother's portion and is now his.
He is tall, broad-shouldered, and rather handsome, with perhaps more mouth than usually goes to one man's share; but, as he has laughed straight through from his cradle to his twenty-sixth year, this is scarcely to be wondered at. His eyes are gray and frank, his hair is brown, his skin a good deal tanned. He is very far from being an Adonis, but he is good to look at, and to know him is to like him.
Just now, luncheon being over, and nothing else left to do, he is feeling rather bored than otherwise, and lounges into his mother's morning-room, being filled with a desire to have speech with somebody.
The somebody nearest to him at the moment being Lady Chetwoode, he elects to seek her presence and inflict his society upon her.