Part 40 (1/2)
The old man spoke with earnestness, and drew the particular attention of his master to a review of his attire. After reflecting that no gentleman in the house had been attended by any servitor in such a garb, Mr.
Benfield thought it time to give his sentiments on the subject.
”Why I remember that my Lord Gosford's gentleman never wore a livery, nor can I say that he dressed exactly after the manner of Johnson. Every member had his body servant, and they were not unfrequently taken for their masters. Lady Juliana, too, after the death of her nephew, had one or two attendants out of livery, and in a different fas.h.i.+on from your attire. Peter, I think with John Moseley there, we must alter you a little for the sake of appearances.”
”Your honor!” stammered out Peter, in increased terror; ”for Mr. John Moseley and Sir Edward, and youngerly gentlemen like, dress may do. Now, your honor, if--” and Peter, turning to Grace, bowed nearly to the floor--”I had such a sweet, most beautiful young lady to smile on me, I might wish to change; but, sir, my day has gone by.” Peter sighed as the recollection of Patty Steele and his youthful love floated across his brain. Grace blushed and thanked him for the compliment, and gave her opinion that his gallantry merited a better costume.
”Peter,” said his master, decidedly, ”I think Mrs. Moseley is right. If I should call on the viscountess (the Lady Juliana, who yet survived an ancient dowager of seventy), I shall want your attendance, and in your present garb you cannot fail to shock her delicate feelings. You remind me now I think, every time I look at you, of old Harry, the earl's gamekeeper, one of the most cruel men T ever knew.”
This decided the matter. Peter well knew that his master's antipathy to old Harry arose from his having pursued a poacher one day, in place of helping the Lady Juliana over a stile, in her flight from a bull that was playing his gambols in the same field; and not for the world would the faithful steward retain even a feature, if it brought unpleasant recollections to his kind master. He at one time thought of closing his innovations on his wardrobe, however, with a change of his nether garment; as after a great deal of study he could only make out the resemblance between himself and the obnoxious gamekeeper to consist in the leathern breeches. But fearful of some points escaping his memory in forty years, he tamely acquiesced in all John's alterations, and appeared at his station three days afterwards newly decked from head to foot in a more modern suit of snuff-color.
The change once made, Peter greatly admired himself in a gla.s.s, and thought, could he have had the taste of Mr. John Moseley in his youth to direct his toilet, that the hard heart of Patty Steele would not always have continued so obdurate.
Sir Edward wished to collect his neighbors round him once more before he left them for another four months; and accordingly the rector and his wife, Francis and Clara, the Haughtons, with a few others, dined at the Hall by invitation, the last day of their stay in Northamptons.h.i.+re. The company had left the table to join the ladies, when Grace came into the drawing-room with a face covered with smiles and beaming with pleasure.
”You look like the bearer of good news, Mrs. Moseley,” cried the rector, catching a glimpse of her countenance as she pa.s.sed.
”Good! I sincerely hope and believe,” replied Grace. ”My letters from my brother announce that his marriage took place last week, and give us hopes of seeing them all in town within the month.”
”Married!” exclaimed Mr. Haughton, casting his eyes unconsciously on Emily, ”my Lord Chatterton married! May I ask the name of the bride, my dear Mrs. Moseley?”
”To Lady Harriet Denbigh--and at Denbigh Castle in Westmoreland; but very privately, as you may suppose from seeing Moseley and myself here,”
answered Grace, her cheeks yet glowing with surprise and pleasure at the intelligence.
”Lady Harriet Denbigh?” echoed Mr. Haughton; ”what! a kinswoman of our old friend? _your_ friend, Miss Emily?” The recollection of the service he had performed at the arbor still-fresh in his memory.
Emily commanded herself sufficiently to reply, ”Brothers' children, I believe, sir.”
”But a _lady_--how came she my lady?” continued the good man, anxious to know the whole, and ignorant of any reasons for delicacy where so great a favorite as Denbigh was in the question.
”She is the daughter of the late Duke of Derwent,” said Mrs. Moseley, as willing as himself to talk of her new sister.
”How happens it that the death of old Mr. Denbigh was announced as plain Geo. Denbigh, Esq., if he was the brother of a duke?” said Jane, forgetting for a moment the presence of Dr. and Mrs. Ives, in her surviving pa.s.sion for genealogy: ”should he not have been called Lord George, or honorable?”
This was the first time any allusion had been made to the sudden death in the church by any of the Moseleys in the hearing of the rector's family; and the speaker sat in breathless terror at her own inadvertency. But Dr.
Ives, observing that a profound silence prevailed as soon as Jane ended, answered, mildly, though in a way to prevent any further comments--
”The late Duke's succeeding a cousin-german in the t.i.tle, was the reason, I presume, Emily, I am to hear from you by letter I hope, after you enter into the gaieties of the metropolis?”
This Emily cheerfully promised, and the conversation took another turn.
Mrs. Wilson had carefully avoided all communications with the rector concerning his youthful friend, and the Doctor appeared unwilling to commence anything which might lead to his name being mentioned. ”He is disappointed in him as well as ourselves,” thought the widow, ”and it must be unpleasant to have his image recalled. He saw his attentions to Emily, and he knows of his marriage to Lady Laura of course, and he loves us all, and Emily in particular, too well not to feel hurt by his conduct.”
”Sir Edward!” cried Mr. Haughton, with a laugh, ”Baronets are likely to be plenty. Have you heard how near we were to have another in the neighborhood lately?” Sir Edward answered in the negative, and his neighbor continued--
”Why no less a man than Captain Jarvis, promoted to the b.l.o.o.d.y hand.”
”Captain Jarvis!” exclaimed five or six at once; ”explain yourself, Mr.