Part 9 (1/2)
Lascelles. Altogether everybody's movements seemed dependent on the baronet, who walked coolly up the lawn to the drawing-room windows, pinning the gauze veil more carefully round his hat.
”What time are we to start?” said he, taking it for granted, as he wished to go himself, that everybody else did. ”I'm afraid I _must_ be on the Course early; but that need not hurry the others. Nelly and I can go in my carriage, and I'll order it at once. Or I can take Mr.
Goldthred, or do anything anybody likes. Who wants to come with me? You mustn't all speak at once!”
”I don't care about going at all, papa,” said Helen, but intercepting a glance from their hostess, which ordered Goldthred, as plainly as eyes could speak, to remain and keep her company, added hastily, ”unless there's plenty of room.”
”_Plenty_ of room!” echoed Mrs. Lascelles, with her own arrangements in view. ”We shall only want one carriage if we take mine. Four of us inside, and Mr. Goldthred, for so short a distance, won't mind sitting on the box. No, that won't do; where are we to put Jin?”
”Jin's not going!” interrupted a voice from the open window of an upper room. ”Jin's got a headache, and some letters to write. You won't get her to Ascot to-day unless you drag her with wild horses, so you needn't distress yourselves about Jin!”
Uncle Joseph's face turned from yellow to its normal tint of mottled brown. What a trump of a girl he thought her after all! And, fully convinced she was scheming to pa.s.s the whole morning with himself, sorely repented he should have so misjudged her a quarter-of-an-hour ago.
His difficulty now was to avoid joining the rest of the party; but bethinking him of a certain substantial pony in the stable, called ”Punch,” he declared he thought a thorough shaking would do him good, and expressed his intention of riding that animal to the Course.
”Once they're off,” argued Uncle Joseph, ”they'll never trouble their heads about their host, and then, my pretty Jin, you and I can come to an understanding at last!”
Even with a party of four, however, it takes time to get pleasure-goers under weigh. Mrs. Lascelles forgot her smelling-bottle, Helen mislaid her shawl; Sir Henry, on whose account they had all hurried themselves, was ten minutes behind everybody else. The carriage stood a good half-hour at the door before it was fairly started, and Uncle Joseph spent that time in his own dressing-room, with his heart beating like a boy's.
At last the welcome sound of wheels announced that the coast was clear.
He sallied forth eagerly, and, considering his years, with no little alacrity, in pursuit of his ladye-love. Not in her bedroom, certainly, for the door stood wide open! Not in the drawing-room--the dining-room--the billiard-room, nor the boudoir! Zounds! not in the conservatory, nor on the lawn! Beads of perspiration broke out on Uncle Joseph's bald head, and he couldn't tell whether it was anger or anxiety that made him feel as if he was going to choke. Panting, protesting, under a burning sun, he followed the shrubbery walk that brought him to the hay-field, through which a thoroughfare for foot people led to the high road. Here he ran into the very arms of Goldthred, coming back by this short cut for his race-gla.s.ses, which he had forgotten, while the carriage waited at the nearest angle of the fragrant meadow, flecked and rippled with its new-mown hay.
Uncle Joseph was without his hat. He must have lost his head also, when, thinking it necessary to account for his disturbed appearance, he inquired vehemently:
”Have you seen Miss Ross? I--I forgot to order dinner before starting. I want to find Miss Ross.”
”You won't overtake her,” answered Goldthred coolly. ”She was half way across the next field when I came into this. She must be at the turnpike by now.”
Uncle Joseph waited to hear no more. Breaking wildly from his informant, he dashed off towards the stable, while the latter, recovering his gla.s.ses, walked solemnly back to the carriage, and jumped in, as if nothing had happened.
There is, at least, this good quality belonging to a man in love, that he is not easily astonished, nor does he occupy himself with the affairs of others. Goldthred had forgotten his meeting with Uncle Joseph, and dismissed the whole subject from his mind, before the carriage had got twenty yards or Mrs. Lascelles had spoken as many words.
Now Punch was a good stout cob, of that cla.s.s and calibre which is so prized by gentlemen who have left off reckoning up their age and weight.
After fifty, and over fifteen stone, it is needless to be continually balancing the account. Punch possessed capital legs and feet, sloping shoulders, an intelligent head with very small ears, a strong neck, and an exceedingly round stomach. Such an animal, I confess, I cannot but admire, and have no objection to ride, unless I am in a hurry. Even when time presses I bear the creature no malice, but I fear he hates _me_!
Punch could scuttle along at his own pace for a good many miles, safely and perseveringly enough; but against yours, if you were in the habit of riding a thorough-bred hack, he would protest in a very few furlongs.
Obviously, to such a quadruped, time was of the utmost importance, and it seemed hard so much of it had to be wasted daily in preparing him for a start.
Docile in his general character, perfectly free from nervousness and vice, he had yet a provoking trick of puffing himself out during the operation of saddling to a size that rendered the roomiest girths in the stable too scanty for his swelling carcase. Ten minutes at least Uncle Joseph and the stable boy b.u.t.ted and tugged and swore, ere, to use the expression of the latter, they could ”make tongue and buckle meet.” Ten minutes more were wasted in water brus.h.i.+ng the pony's mane and blacking his round, well-shaped feet; for the urchin, true to the traditions of his craft, would forego not the smallest rite of that stable discipline in which he had been trained. Altogether, by the time Uncle Joseph was fairly in the saddle for pursuit, Miss Ross had got such a start as, with her light step and agile figure, precluded the possibility of being caught against her will.
Four miles an hour, heel and toe, gracefully and without effort, as if she was dancing, this active young person flitted across the hay-fields, till she reached a humble little cottage standing between the highway and the river's brink. Here she disappeared from Uncle Joseph's sight, who had just viewed her, having bustled Punch along the hot, hard road at a pace which put them both in a white lather.
The rider's first idea was to secure his steed and follow up the chase; but few men act on impulse after--what shall we say?--fifty; and Punch, who had his own opinion about waiting in the sun, might very probably slip his bridle in order to trot home! Reflecting with dismay on such a contingency, in such weather for walking, Uncle Joseph ”concluded,” as the Americans say, that he would wait where he was, and watch.
Miss Ross, in the mean time, happily unconscious that she was observed, tapped at the cottage-door, which was opened by a dark-eyed urchin of five years or so, whom, to his intense astonishment, she smothered in kisses on the spot. Mrs. Mole, the owner of the cottage, emerging from the gloom of her back kitchen, was aware of a toss of black curls, and a pair of st.u.r.dy, struggling legs, not over clean, in the embrace of a radiant being who had dropped, to all appearance, from the clouds.
”Your servant, miss,” said the old woman, drying her arms on her ap.r.o.n, while she performed a defiant curtsy. ”You've--a--taken quite a fancy to my little lad, seemingly. Yet I don't remember to have ever seen you afore.”
I often think the poor resent a liberty with so much more dignity than their betters.
For answer, Jin, whose French education had afforded her many useful little hints, slipped a packet of tea into the old woman's hand. It was what they drank at The Lilies, strong, fragrant, and five s.h.i.+llings a pound.