Chapter 30
Mr. Musgrave on acquaintance proves as great a success as his cousin: indeed, to like one is to like the other, as no twins could be more similar. He takes very kindly to the house and all its inmates, and is, after one day's a.s.sociation, as much at home with them as though they had been his chosen intimates all his life.
His disposition is certainly sweeter than Lilian's,--bad temper of any sort being quite unknown to him; whereas Miss Chesney possesses a will of her own, and a very quick temper indeed. He is bright, sunny, lovable in disposition, and almost "without guile." So irresistible is he that even Miss Beauchamp smiles upon him, and is singularly gracious to him, considering he is not only a youngster but--far worse--a detrimental.
He has one very princ.i.p.al charm. Unlike all the youthful soldiers it has been my misfortune to meet, he does not spend his days wearying his friends with a vivid description of his rooms, his daily duties when on parade, his colonel, and his brother officers. For this grace alone his familiars should love him and be grateful to him.
Nevertheless, he is so far human that, the evening after his arrival, he whispers to Lilian how he has brought his uniform with him, for her inspection only. Whereupon Lilian, delighted, desires him to go up that instant and put it on, that she may pa.s.s judgment upon him without delay. No, she will not wait another second; she cannot know peace or happiness until she beholds him in all his grandeur.
After a faint demur, and the suggestion that as it is late he could scarcely get it on and have time afterward to dress for dinner, he gives in, and, binding her to secrecy, runs up-stairs, having named a certain time for her to follow him.
Half an hour later, Miss Beauchamp, sweeping slowly along the corridor up-stairs, hears the sound of merriment coming from young Musgrave's room, and stops short.
Is that Lilian's voice? surely it is; and in her cousin's room! The door is almost closed,--not quite; and, overcome by curiosity, she lays her hand against it, and, pus.h.i.+ng it gently open, glances in.
Before the dressing-table, clothed in military garments of the most _recherche_ description, is Taffy, while opposite to him, full of open admiration, stands Miss Chesney. Taffy is struggling with some part of his dress that declines to fall into a right position, and Lilian is flouting him merrily for the evident inexperience he betrays.
Florence, astonished--nay, electrified--by this scene, stands motionless. A young woman in a young man's bedroom! Oh, shocking! To her carefully educated mind, the whole thing borders on the improper, while to have it occur in such a well-regulated household as Chetwoode fills her with genuine horror.
So struck is she by the criminality of it all that she might have stayed there until now, but that a well-known step coming up the stairs warns her that eavesdropping is not the most honorable position to be caught in. She moves away, and presently finds herself face to face with Guy.
He is coming lazily along the corridor, but stops as he sees her.
"What is it, Florence? You look frightened," he says, half jestingly.
"No, not frightened," Florence answers, coldly, "though I confess I am a good deal amazed,"--her tone says "disgusted," and Guy knows the tone.
"Really, that girl seems absolutely ignorant of the common decencies of society!"
"Of whom are you speaking?" asks Guy, coloring.
"Of whom can I say such things but Lilian? She is the only one of my acquaintance deserving of such a remark, and it is not my fault that we are acquainted. I think it is clearly Aunt Anne's duty to speak to her, or yours. There are moments when one positively blushes for her."
"Why, what has she been doing?" asks Guy, overcome with astonishment at this outburst on the part of the
"Doing! Do you not hear her in her cousin's room? Is that the proper place for a young lady?"
At this instant a sound of laughter coming from Mr. Musgrave's apartment gives truth to her accusations, and with a slight but expressive shrug of her white shoulders, Florence sails majestically down the stairs, while Sir Guy instinctively moves on toward Taffy's quarters.
Miss Beauchamp's touch has left the door quite open, so that, standing on the threshold, he can see clearly all that is within.
By this time Taffy is quite arrayed, having finally resorted to his cousin's help.
"There!" says Lilian, triumphantly, "now you are ready. Oh! I say, Taffy, how nice you do look!"
"No; do I?" returns Mr. Musgrave, with admirable modesty, regarding himself bashfully though complacently in a full-length mirror. His tall young figure is well drawn up, his head erect; unconsciously he has a.s.sumed all the full-blown, starchy airs of a military swell. "Does the coat fit well, do you think?" he asks, turning to await her answer with doubtful anxiety.
"It is simply perfection," returns she rea.s.suringly, "not a wrinkle in it. Certainly you owe your tailor something for turning you out so well."
"I do," says Taffy, feelingly.
"I had no idea it would make such a difference in you," goes on Lilian; "you look quite grown up."
"Grown up,--nonsense," somewhat indignantly; "I should think I was indeed. Just twenty, and six feet one. There are very few fellows in the service as good a height as I am. 'Grown up,' indeed!"
"I beg your pardon," Lilian says, meekly. "Remember I am only a little rustic, hardly aware of what a man really means. Talking of fitting, however, do you know," thoughtfully, and turning her head to one side, the better to mark the effect, "I think--I fancy--there is just a little pucker in your trousers, just at the knee."
"No; is there?" says Taffy, immediately sinking into the deepest melancholy as he again refers to the gla.s.s.
Here Sir Guy comes forward and creates a diversion. He is immensely amused, but still sore and angry at Florence's remarks, while wis.h.i.+ng Lilian would not place herself in such positions as to lay her open to unkind criticism.
"Oh, here is Sir Guy," says that young lady, quite unembarra.s.sed; "he will decide. Sir Guy, do you think his trousers fit very well? Look here, now, is there not the faintest pucker here?"
"I think they fit uncommonly well," says Guy, gravely. Taffy has turned a warm crimson and is silent; but his confusion arises not from Miss Chesney's presence in his room, but because Chetwoode has discovered him trying on his new clothes like a school-boy.
"Lilian wanted so much to see me in my uniform," he says, meanly, considering how anxious he himself has been to show himself to her in it.
"Yes, and doesn't he look well in it?" asks Lilian, proudly; "I had no idea he could look so handsome. Most men appear perfect fools in uniform, but it suits Taffy. Don't you think so?"
"I do; and I think something else, too; your auntie is coming up-stairs, and if she catches you in Taffy's room she will give you a small lecture on the proprieties."
This is the mildest rebuke he can think of. Not that he thinks her at all worthy of rebuke, but because he is afraid of Florence's tongue for her sake.
"Why?" asks Lilian, opening large eyes of utter amazement, after which the truth dawns upon her, and as it dawns amuses her intensely. "Do you mean to say," blus.h.i.+ng slightly, but evidently struck with the comicality of the thought,--"what would auntie say, then, if she knew Taffy had been in mine? Yes; he was,--this afternoon,--just before lunch," nodding defiantly at Sir Guy, "actually in mine; and he stole my eau de Cologne, which I thought mean of him. When I found it was all gone, I was very near running across to your room to replenish my bottle. Was it not well I didn't? Had I done so I should of course have earned two lectures, one from auntie and one from--you!" provokingly.
"Why, Guardy, how stupid you are! Taffy is just the same as my brother."
"But he is not your brother," says Guy, beginning to feel bewildered.
"Yes, he is, and better than most brothers: aren't you, Taffy?"
"Are you angry with Lil for being in my room?" asks Mr. Musgrave, surprised; "she thinks nothing of it: and why should she? Bless you, all last year, when we were at home--at the Park--she used to come in and settle my ties when we were going out anywhere to dinner, or that."
"Sir Guy never had a sister, so of course he doesn't understand," says Lilian, disdainfully, whereupon Guy gives up the point. "I wish you would come down and show yourself to auntie. Do now, Taffy,"--coaxingly: "you can't think how well you look. Come, if only to please me."
"Oh, I couldn't," says Taffy. "I really couldn't, you know. She would think me such an awful fool, and Miss Beauchamp would laugh at me, and altogether it wouldn't be form. I only meant to show myself to you, but----"
"Guy, my dear," says Lady Chetwoode from the doorway, "why, what is going on here?" advancing and smiling gently.
"Oh, auntie, I am so glad you have come!" says Lilian, going forward to welcome her: "he would not go down-stairs to you, though I did my best to persuade him. Is he not charming in uniform?"
"He is, indeed. Quite charming! He reminds me very much of what Guy was when first he joined his regiment." Not for a moment does Lady Chetwoode--dear soul--think of improprieties, or wrong-doing, or the "decencies of society." And, watching her, Guy grows gradually ashamed of himself. "It was really selfish of you, my dear Taffy, to deny me a glimpse of you."
"Well, I didn't think you'd care, you know," says Mr. Musgrave, who is positively consumed with pride, and who is blus.h.i.+ng like a demoiselle.
"I couldn't resist coming in when I saw you from the doorway. All my people were in the army: so I have quite an affection for it. But Lilian, darling, dinner is almost ready, and you have not yet changed your dress."
"I shan't be a minute," says Lilian; and Guy, lighting a candle, escorts her to her own room, while Lady Chetwoode goes down-stairs.
"Shall I get you the eau de Cologne now?" he asks, pausing on her threshold for a moment.
"If," says Miss Chesney, lowering her eyes with affected shyness, "you are _quite_ sure there would be nothing reprehensible in my accepting it, I should like it very much, thank you. By the bye, that reminds me,"