Part 36 (1/2)

[252 ADVENTURES OF MR. VERDANT GREEN]

was standing with her sister), seized Miss Kitty by the hand, and placed his moustache under her nose, and then seized Miss Patty by ~her~ hand, and removed the moustache to beneath ~her~ nose! And all this unblus.h.i.+ngly and as a matter of course, out in the suns.h.i.+ne, and before the servants! Mr. Verdant Green retreated without having been seen, and, plunging into the shrubbery, told his woes to the evergreens, and while he listened to

”The dry-tongued laurel's pattering talk,”

he thought, ”It is as I feared! I am nothing more to her than a simple friend.” Though, why he so morosely arrived at this idea it would be hard to say. Perhaps other jealous lovers have been similarly unreasonable and unreasoning in their conclusions, and, of their own accord, run to the dark side of the cloud, when they might have pleasantly remained within its silver lining.

But when Frank Delaval had been seen, and heard, and made acquaintance with, Verdant, who was much too simple-hearted to dislike any one without just grounds for so doing, entered (even after half an hour's knowledge) into the band of his <vg252.jpg> admirers; and that same evening, in the drawing-room, while Miss Kitty was playing one of Schulhoff's mazurkas, with her moustached cousin standing by her side, and turning over the music-leaves, Verdant privately declared, over a chessboard, to Miss Patty, that Mr. Frank Delaval was the handsomest and most delightful man he had ever met. And when Miss Patty's eyes sparkled at this proof of his truth and disinterestedness, Verdant mistook the bright signals; and further misconstruing

[AN OXFORD FRESHMAN 253]

the cause why (as they continued to speak of her cousin) she made a most egregious blunder, that caused her opponent to p.r.o.nounce the word ”Mated!” he regarded it as a fatal omen, more especially as Mr.

Frank came to her side at that very moment; and when the young lady laughed, and said, ”What a goose I am! whatever could I have been thinking of?” he thought within himself (persisting in his illogical and perverse conclusions), ”It is very plain what she is thinking about! I was afraid that she loved him, and now I know it.” So he put up the chess-men, while she went to the piano with her cousin; and he even wished that Mr. Bouncer had interrupted their apple-tree conversation at its commencement; but was thankful to him for coming in time to save him from the pain of being rejected in favour of another. Then, in five minutes, he changed his mind, and had decided that it would have spared him much misery if he could have heard his fate from his Patty's own lips. Then he wished that he had never come to Northumberland at all, and began to think how he should spend his time in the purgatory that Honeywood Hall would now be to him.

When they separated for the night, HE again placed his moustache beneath HER nose. Mr. Verdant Green turned away his head at such a sickly exhibition. It was a presumption upon cousins.h.i.+p. Charles Larkyns did not kiss her; and he was equally as much her cousin as Frank Delaval.

And yet, when the young men went into the back kitchen for a pipe and a chat before going to bed, Verdant was so delighted with that handsome cousin Frank, that he thought, ”If I was a girl, I should think as ~she~ does.”

”And why should she not love him?” meditated the poor fellow, when he was lying awake in his bed that self-same night, rendered sleepless by the pain of his new wound; ”why should she not love him? how could she do otherwise? thrown together as they have been from children - speaking to each other as 'Patty' and 'Fred'- kissing each other - and being as brother and sister. Would that they were so! How he kept near her all the evening - coming to her even when she was playing chess with ~me~, then singing with her, and playing her accompaniments. She said that no one could play her accompaniments like ~he~ could - he had such good taste, and such a firm, delicate touch. Then, when they talked about sketching, she said how she had missed him, and that she had been reserving the view from Brankham Law, in order that they might sketch it together. Then he showed her his last drawings - and they were beautiful. What can I do against this?” groaned poor Verdant, from under the bed-clothes; ”he has accomplishments, and I have none; he has good looks, and I haven't;

[254 ADVENTURES OF MR. VERDANT GREEN]

he has a moustache and a pair of whiskers, - and I have only a pair of spectacles! I cannot s.h.i.+ne in society, and win admiration, like he does; I have nothing to offer her but my love. Lucky fellow! he is worthier of her than I am - and I hope they will be very happy.” At which thought, Verdant felt highly the reverse, and went off into dismal dreams.

In the morning, when Miss Patty and her cousin were setting out for the hill called Brankham Law, Verdant, who had retreated to a garden-seat beneath a fine old cedar, was roused from a very abstracted perusal of ”The Dream of Fair Women,” by the apparition of one who, in his eyes, was fairer than them all.

”I have been searching for you everywhere,” said Miss Patty. ”Mamma said that you were not riding with the others, so I knew that you must be somewhere about. I think I shall lock up my ~Tennyson~, if it takes you so much out of our society. Won't you come up Brankham Law with Frank and me?”

”Willingly if you wish it,” answered Verdant, though with an unwilling air; ”but of what use can I be? - Oth.e.l.lo's occupation is gone. Your cousin can fill my place much better than if I were there.” ”How very ungrateful you are!” said Miss Patty; ”you really deserve a good scolding! I allow you to watch me when I am painting, in order that you may gain a lesson, and just when you are beginning to learn something, then you give up. But, at any rate, take Fred for your master, and come and watch ~him~; he ~can~ draw. If you were to go to any of the great men to have a lesson of them, all that they would do would be to paint before you, and leave you to look on and pick up what knowledge you could. I know that ~I~ cannot draw anything worth looking at, -”

”Indeed, but -”

”But Fred,” continued Miss Patty, who was going at too great a pace to be stopped, ”but Fred is as good as many masters that you would meet with; so it will be an advantage to you to come and look over him.”

”I think I should prefer to look over you.”

”Now you are paying compliments, and I don't like them. But, if you will come, you will really be useful. You see I am mercenary in my wishes, after all. Here is Fred with a load of sketching materials; won't you take pity on him, and relieve him of my share of his burden?”

If I could take ~you~ off his hands, thought Verdant, I should be better pleased. But Miss Patty won the day; and Verdant took possession of her sketching-block and drawing materials, and set off with them to Brankham Law.

Frederick Delaval was a yachtsman, and owner of the ~Fleur-

[AN OXFORD FRESHMAN 255]

de-lys~, a cutter yacht, of fifty tons. Besides being inclined to amateur nautical pursuits, he was also partial to an amateur nautical costume; and he further dressed the character of a yachtsman by slinging round him his telescope, which was protected from storms and salt water by a leathern case. This telescope was, in a moment, uncased and brought to bear upon everybody and everything, at every opportunity, in proper nautical fas.h.i.+on, being used by him for distant objects as other people would use an eyegla.s.s for nearer things. And no sooner had they arrived at the gra.s.sy ~plateau~ that marked the summit of Brankham Law, than the telescope was unslung, and its proprietor swept the horizon - for there was a distant view of the ocean - in search of the ~Fleur-de-lys~.

”I am afraid,” he said, ”that we shall not be able to make <vg255.jpg> her out; the distance is almost too great to distinguish her from other vessels, although the whiteness of her sails would a.s.sist us to a recognition. If the skipper got under way at the hour I told him, he ought about this time to be rounding the headland that you see stretching out yonder.”