Part 33 (2/2)
Lady Scudamore smiled, for she was thinking of her son, who would have jumped over any furze-bush there--and the fir-trees too, according to her conviction; Dolly also showed her very beautiful teeth; but Faith looked at him gratefully.
”It is very kind of you, Lord Dashville, to say the best of us that you can find to say. But I fear that you are laughing to yourself. You know how well they mean; but you think they cannot do much.”
”No, that is not what I think at all. So far as I can judge, which is not much, I believe that they would be of the greatest service, if the Country should unfortunately need them. Man for man, they are as brave as trained troops, and many of them can shoot better. I don't mean to say that they are fit to meet a French army in the open; but for acting on their flanks, or rear, or in a wooded country--However, I have no right to venture an opinion, having never seen active service.”
Miss Darling looked at him with some surprise, and much approval of his modesty. So strongly did most of the young officers who came to her father's house lay down the law, and criticise even Napoleon's tactics.
”How beautiful Springhaven must be looking now!” he said, after Dolly had offered her opinion, which she seldom long withheld. ”The cottages must be quite covered with roses, whenever they are not too near the sea; and the trees at their best, full of leaves and blossoms, by the side of the brook that feeds them. All the rest of the coast is so hard and barren, and covered with chalk instead of gra.s.s, and the sh.o.r.e so straight and staring. But I have never been there at this time of year.
How much you must enjoy it! Surely we ought to be able to see it, from this high ground somewhere.”
”Yes, if you will ride to that shattered tree,” said Faith, ”you will have a very fine view of all the valley. You can see round the corner of Foxhill there, which shuts out most of it just here. I think you have met our Captain Stubbard.”
”Ah, I must not go now; I may be wanted at any moment”--Lord Dashville had very fine taste, but it was not the inanimate beauties of Springhaven that he cared a dash for--”and I fear that I could never see the roses there. I think there is nothing in all nature to compare with a rose--except one thing.”
Faith had a lovely moss-rose in her hat--a rose just peeping through its lattice at mankind, before it should open and blush at them--and she knew what it was that he admired more than the sweetest rose that ever gemmed itself with dew. Lord Dashville had loved her, as she was frightened to remember, for more than a year, because he could not help it, being a young man of great common-sense, as well as fine taste, and some knowledge of the world. ”He knows to which side his bread will be b.u.t.tered,” Mr. Swipes had remarked, as a keen observer. ”If 'a can only get Miss Faith, his bread 'll be b.u.t.tered to both sides for life--his self to one side, and her to do the tother. The same as I told Mother Cloam--a man that knoweth his duty to head gardeners, as his n.o.ble lords.h.i.+p doth, the same know the differ atwixt Miss Faith--as fine a young 'ooman as ever looked into a pink--and that blow-away froth of a thing, Miss Dolly.”
This fine young woman, to use the words of Mr. Swipes, coloured softly, at his n.o.ble lords.h.i.+p's gaze, to the tint of the rose-bud in her hat; and then spoke coldly to countervail her blush.
”There is evidently something to be done directly. All the people are moving towards the middle of the down. We must not be so selfish as to keep you here, Lord Dashville.”
”Why, don't you see what it is?” exclaimed Miss Dolly, hotly resenting the part of second fiddle; ”they are going to have the grand march-past.
These affairs always conclude with that. And we are in the worst part of the whole down for seeing it. Lord Dashville will tell us where we ought to go.”
”You had better not attempt to move now,” he answered, smiling as he always smiled at Dolly, as if she were a charming but impatient child; ”you might cause some confusion, and perhaps see nothing. And now I must discharge my commission, which I am quite ashamed of having left so long. His Majesty hopes, when the march-past is over, to receive a march-up of fair ladies. He has a most wonderful memory, as you know, and his nature is the kindest of the kind. As soon as he heard that Lady Scudamore was here, and Admiral Darling's daughters with her, he said: 'Bring them all to me, every one of them; young Scudamore has done good work, good work. And I want to congratulate his mother about him. And Darling's daughters, I must see them. Why, we owe the security of the coast to him.' And so, if you please, ladies, be quite ready, and allow me the honour of conducting you.”
With a low bow, he set off about his business, leaving the ladies in a state of sweet disturbance. Blyth Scudamore's mother wept a little, for ancient troubles and present pleasure. Lord Dashville could not repeat before her all that the blunt old King had said: ”Monstrous ill-treated woman, shameful, left without a penny, after all her poor husband did for me and the children! Not my fault a bit--fault of the Whigs--always stingy--said he made away with himself--bad example--don't believe a word of it; very cheerful man. Blown by now, at any rate--must see what can be done for her--obliged to go for governess--disgrace to the Crown!”
Faith, with her quiet self-respect, and the largeness learned from sorrow, was almost capable of not weeping that she had left at home her apple-green Poland mantlet and jockey bonnet of lilac satin checked with maroon. But Dolly had no such weight of by-gone sorrow to balance her present woe, and the things she had left at home were infinitely brighter than that dowdy Faith's.
”Is there time to drive back? Is there time to drive home? The King knows father, and he will be astonished to see a pair of frumps, and he won't understand one bit about the dust, or the sun that takes the colour out. He will think we have got all our best things on. Oh, Lady Scudamore, how could you do it? You told us to put on quite plain things, because of the dust, and the sun, and all that; and it might come to rain, you said--as if it was likely, when the King was on the hill! And with all your experience of the King and Queen, that you told us about last evening, you must have known that they would send for us.
Gregory, how long would it take you to go home, at full gallop, allow us half an hour in the house, and be back here again, when all these people are gone by?”
”Well, miss, there be a steepish bit of road, and a many ockard cornders; I should say 'a might do it in two hours and a half, with a fresh pair of nags put in while you ladies be a-cleaning of yourselves, miss. Leastways, if Hadmiral not object.”
”Hadmiral, as you call him, would have nothing to do with it”--Dolly was always free-spoken with the servants, which made her very popular with some of them--”he has heavier duty than he can discharge. But two hours and a half is hopeless; we must even go as we are.”
Coachman Gregory smiled in his sleeve. He knew that the Admiral had that day a duty far beyond his powers--to bring up his Sea-Fencibles to see the King--upon which they had insisted--and then to fetch them all back again, and send them on board of their several craft in a state of strict sobriety. And Gregory meant to bear a hand, and lift it pretty frequently towards the most loyal part of man, in the large festivities of that night. He smacked his lips at the thought of this, and gave a little flick to his horses.
After a long time, long enough for two fair drives to Springhaven and back, and when even the youngest were growing weary of glare, and dust, and clank, and din, and blare, and roar, and screeching music, Lord Dashville rode up through a cloud of roving chalk, and after a little talk with the ladies, ordered the coachman to follow him. Then stopping the carriage at a proper distance, he led the three ladies towards the King, who was thoroughly tired, and had forgotten all about them. His Majesty's sole desire was to get into his carriage and go to sleep; for he was threescore years and six of age, and his health not such as it used to be. Ever since twelve o'clock he had been sitting in a box made of feather-edged boards, which the newspapers called a pavilion, having two little curtains (both of which stuck fast) for his only defence against sun, noise, and dust. Moreover, his seat was a board full of knots, with a strip of thin velvet thrown over it; and Her Majesty sitting towards the other end (that the public might see between them), and weighing more than he did, every time she jumped up, he went down, and every time she plumped down, he went up. But he never complained, and only slowly got tired. ”Thank G.o.d!” he said, gently, ”it's all over now. My dear, you must be monstrous tired; and scarcely a bit to eat all day. But I locked some in the seat-box this morning--no trusting anybody but oneself. Let us get into the coach and have at them.” ”Ja, ja, meinherr,” said the Queen.
”If it please your Majesties”--a clear voice entered between the bonnet-hoods of the curtains--”here are the ladies whose attendance I was ordered to require.”
”Ladies!--what ladies?” asked King George, rubbing his eyes, and yawning. ”Oh yes, to be sure! I mustn't get up so early to-morrow. Won't take a minute, my dear. Let them come. Not much time to spare.”
But as soon as he saw Lady Scudamore, the King's good-nature overcame the weariness of the moment. He took her kindly by the hand, and looked at her face, which bore the mark of many heavy trials; and she, who had often seen him when the world was bright before her, could not smother one low sob, as she thought of all that had been since.
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