Part 21 (1/2)
”Yes. You see I'm training you to play your part as an English landowner,” replied Everard. ”You ought to know something about your estate.”
Carmel shook her head emphatically.
”Don't call it _my_ estate, please! I've told you again and again that I don't mean to take it from you. How could a girl like I am manage it properly? You know all about it, and I don't. People can't be made to take things they don't want. As soon as I'm twenty-one, I shall hand it straight over to you. I'd like to see you master of the Chase!”
It was Everard's turn to shake his head.
”That can never be, Carmel! Please let us consider that matter perfectly settled, and don't let us open the question again. It's an utter impossibility for me ever to be master of the Chase. That's final! I may have my faults, but I'm not a sneak or a fortune-hunter.”
”You're not cross with me, Everard?” Carmel was looking at him anxiously.
”No, dear, but you're such a child! You can't understand things properly yet. You will when you're older.”
”Then what are you going to do, Everard, after you leave college?”
”Study for the Bar, I hope. It's the kind of career that would suit me, I think.”
Carmel's dark eyes shone.
”Then I shall come to court, and hear you plead a case! And when you get into Parliament--oh yes! you _are_ going to get into Parliament, I _know_ you are!--I shall sit in the Ladies' Gallery and listen to your first speech. If you won't be Squire of Cheverley, you must become famous in some other way! In Sicily we think a tremendous amount about being the head of the family. You'll be the head of the Ingletons, and you've got to make a name for the sake of the others.”
”I know I ought to take my father's place to the younger ones,” answered Everard gravely. ”I'll do what I can in that line, though I'm not much to boast of myself, I'm afraid. I'm not the good sort you think me, Carmel. But there, you little witch, you've cast your glamour over me, somehow! I suppose I've got to try to be all you want me. Princess Carmel gives her orders here, it seems!”
”Yes, and in things like this she expects to be obeyed!” laughed Carmel.
”I told you once before that you hadn't got the same shape of forehead as the Emperor Augustus for nothing!”
It was after the girls had returned to school, during some bitter weather at the end of January, that Lilias caught a severe cold, and was kept in bed. Dr. Martin, sent for from Glazebrook, took a serious view of the case, and asked to consult with Dr. Hill of Balderton, the family physician at Cheverley Chase. They sounded the patient's chest, examined the temperature charts kept by Miss Walters, and decided that the climate of Chilcombe was too damp for her at present, and that she would benefit by spending the trying spring months in a warmer and drier atmosphere. The result of this ultimatum was a large amount of writing and telegraphing between England and Sicily, several confabulations among Mr. Bowden, Cousin Clare, Mr. Stacey, and Miss Walters, and then the remarkable and delightful announcement that the invalid, escorted by a detachment of her family, was to be taken to Casa Bianca at Montalesso on a visit to Mr. and Mrs. Greville.
It was, of course, Carmel who had engineered the whole business.
”It's nearly a year since I left home,” she explained, ”so it's time they let me go and see them. I couldn't take Lilias without Dulcie, it wouldn't be kind, and even Miss Walters saw that, though she held out at first. Then Everard has been working very hard, and needs a change, but, if Mr. Stacey goes with us, they can use Daddy's gun-room for a study, and read for three or four hours every morning. And Cousin Clare must come too, to take care of us all; we couldn't leave her behind. Mother loved her when she came over to fetch me last year. I don't believe she'd have let anybody else take me away. Oh, how I want to show Sicily to you all! Won't we have absolutely the time of our lives? To think of going home and taking you with me!”
It was wonderful how Princess Carmel seemed to manage to get her own way. Mr. Bowden and Miss Walters, who were the natural obstacles to the plan, yielded quite amicably after only a short opposition. Cousin Clare had encouraged the scheme from the first, and Mr. Stacey and Everard were all enthusiasm.
”You'll need us men to look after the luggage,” declared Everard, oblivious of the fact that Cousin Clare had successfully piloted Carmel and her boxes across the continent without any masculine a.s.sistance, and was quite capable of traveling round the world on her own account.
As Mr. Greville was one of the directors of a line of Mediterranean steamers running from Liverpool to Alexandria, it was decided that the party should book pa.s.sages in the _Clytie_, and go by sea as far as Malta, crossing from there in a local vessel to Sicily. The doctors thought that a sea voyage would be better for Lilias than a long tiring train journey across France and Italy, and as it was a novel experience, the idea was attractive to most of the party. Fortunately they were able to engage the accommodation they needed, and set out without further loss of time.
I will not describe the journey to Liverpool, or the wearisome drive through drab streets and along miles of docks till they reached the _Clytie_. She was a steamer of about 6,000 tons, and, considering the crowded condition of all sea traffic at the time, they might think themselves very lucky to be able to secure cabins without waiting months for the privilege. It was indeed only owing to Mr. Greville's influence that they had been able to do so. With much curiosity they looked round the floating castle which was to be their home for perhaps a fortnight.
All seemed new and strange to their wondering eyes--the dining-saloon, with its long table and fixed, crimson plush-covered chairs, that swivelled round like music-stools to allow their owners to sit down on them; the small saloon, with mirrors, piano, and books, specially reserved for the ladies instead of a drawing-room; the smoke-room for the gentlemen, and the steward's pantry. The cramped sleeping accommodation rather appalled the girls, though Cousin Clare, who was a seasoned traveler, a.s.sured them it was far more roomy than that given on many other vessels. As a matter of fact, the captain had turned out of his own cabin for them, and was sleeping next to the chart-house on the bridge, so that at any rate they had the best accommodation which the _Clytie_ afforded. Four berths in a s.p.a.ce about nine feet square certainly does not allow much elbow room; the girls planned to go to bed in relays, and wondered how they could possibly have managed in the still smaller quarters at which Cousin Clare had hinted. Neatness and order seemed an absolute essential. There was no place except their berths on which to lay anything down, and their possessions had to remain inside their cabin trunks. Each had brought a linen case with pockets, and tacked it on to the wall beside her berth, to hold hairbrush, comb, handkerchiefs, and a few other immediate necessities, but when anything else was wanted, the trunks must be pulled from under the bunks and their contents turned over.
They had hardly arranged their luggage in their cabin, when Everard came in to tell them that the vessel was getting under way, and they all rushed on deck to witness the start. Out from the dock they steamed into the wide estuary of the Mersey, where s.h.i.+ps of many nations might be seen, and the pale February suns.h.i.+ne was gleaming upon the gray tidal waters that lay in front, and on the roofs and chimneys of the great city they were leaving behind.
”I can understand emigrants feeling it a wrench to say good-by to England!” said Dulcie, leaning on the rail and fluttering her handkerchief as a parting tribute to her country. ”I'd be sorry if I were never coming back any more! Home's home!”
”Yes, and Sicily is mine!” said Carmel with s.h.i.+ning eyes. ”I can't forget that every day is taking me nearer to Mother! Only a fortnight more, and we shall be at Casa Bianca! How I hope we shall have a smooth voyage, and perhaps we shall get there even sooner. Now we have once started off, I feel as if I can't wait! I didn't know till to-day that I was so homesick!”
The first twenty-four hours on board the _Clytie_ pa.s.sed very successfully. The Ingletons dined, spent an evening in the saloon, made the acquaintance of other pa.s.sengers, and next morning amused themselves with deck games. They began to congratulate the captain on the calmness of the pa.s.sage, but he laughed and told them not to count up their blessings too soon.