Part 59 (1/2)

”Don't you see his intention?” said the Doctor. ”I am very much mistaken if I do not. He is determined to leave the field clear for all comers, unless she herself makes some sort of advances to him. 'If she prefers Mayford,' says Sam to himself, 'in the way she appears to, why, she is welcome to him, and I can go home as soon as I am a.s.sured of it.' And go home he would, too, and never say one word of complaint to any living soul.”

”What a clear, brave, honest soul that lad has!” said the Major.

”Truly,” said the Doctor, ”I only know one man who is his equal.”

”And who is he?”

”His father. Good night; good dreams!”

So Sam kept to his resolution of finding out whether or no Alice was likely to prefer Cecil to him. And, for all his watching and puzzling, he couldn't. He had never confided one word of all this to his mother, and yet she knew it all as well as he.

Meanwhile, Cecil was quite changed. He almost hated Sam, and seldom spoke to him, and at the same time hated himself for it. He grew pale, too, and never could be persuaded to join any sport whatever; while Sam, being content to receive only a few words in the day from My Lady, worked harder than ever, both in the yards and riding. All day he and Jim would be working like horses, with Halbert for their constant companion, and, half an hour before dinner, would run whooping down to the river for their bathe, and then come in clean, happy, hungry--so full of life and youth, that in these sad days of deficient grinders, indigestion, and liver, I can hardly realize that once I myself was as full of blood and as active and hearty as any of them.

There was much to do the week that Alice and Sam had their little tiff.

The Captain was getting in the ”scrubbers” cattle, which had been left, under the not very careful rule of the Donovans, to run wild in the mountains. These beasts had now to be got in, and put through such processes as cattle are born to undergo. The Captain and the Major were both fully stiff for working in the yards, but their places were well supplied by Sam and Jim. The two fathers, with the a.s.sistance of the stockman, and sometimes of the sons, used to get them into the yards, and then the two young men would go to work in a style I have never seen surpa.s.sed by any two of the same age. Halbert would sometimes go into the yard and a.s.sist, or rather hinder; but he had to give up just when he was beginning to be of some use, as the exertion was too violent for an old wound he had.

Meanwhile Cecil despised all these things, and, though a capital hand among cattle, was now grown completely effeminate, hanging about the house all day, making, in fact, ”rather a fool of himself about that girl,” as Halbert thought, and thought, besides, ”What a confounded fool she will make of herself if she takes that little dandy!--not that he isn't a very gentlemanlike little fellow, but that Sam is worth five hundred of him.”

One day, it so happened that every one was out but Cecil and Alice; and Alice, who had been listening to the noises at the stockyard a long while, suddenly proposed to go there.

”I have never been,” she said; ”I should so like to go! I know I am not allowed, but you need not betray me, and I am sure the others won't. I should so like to see what they are about!”

”I a.s.sure you, Miss Brentwood, that it is not a fit place for a lady.”

”Why not?”

Cecil blushed scarlet. If women only knew what awkward questions they ask sometimes! In this instance he made an a.s.s of himself, for he hesitated and stammered.

”Come along!” said she; ”you are going to say that it is dangerous--(nothing was further from his thoughts); I must learn to face a little danger, you know. Come along.”

”I am afraid,” said Cecil, ”that Jim will be very angry with me;” which was undoubtedly very likely.

”Never mind Jim,” she said; ”come along.”

So they went, and in the rush and confusion of the beasts' feet got to the yard unnoticed. Sam and Jim were inside, and Halbert was perched upon the rails; she came close behind him and peeped through.

She was frightened. Close before her was Sam, hatless, in s.h.i.+rt and breeches only, almost unrecognisable, grimed with sweat, dust, and filth beyond description. He had been nearly horned that morning, and his s.h.i.+rt was torn from his armpit downwards, showing rather more of a lean muscular flank than would have been desirable in a drawing-room.

He stood there with his legs wide apart, and a stick about eight feet long and as thick as one's wrist in his hand; while before him, crowded into a corner of the yard, were a mob of infuriated, terrified cattle.

As she watched, one tried to push past him and get out of the yard; he stepped aside and let it go. The next instant a lordly young bull tried the same game, but he was ”wanted;” so, just as he came nearly abreast of Sam, he received a frightful blow on the nose from the stick, which turned him.

But only for a moment. The maddened beast shaking his head with a roar rushed upon Sam like a thunderbolt, driving him towards the side of the yard. He stepped on one side rapidly, and then tumbled himself bodily through the rails, and fell with his fine brown curls in the dust, right at the feet of poor Alice, who would have screamed, but could not find the voice.

Jim and Halbert roared with laughter, and Sam, picking himself up, was beginning to join as loud as anybody, when he saw Alice looking very white and pale, and went towards her.

”I hope you haven't been frightened by that evildisposed bull, Miss Brentwood,” he said pleasantly; ”you must get used to that sort of work.”

”Hallo, sister!” shouted Jim; ”what the deuce brings you here? I thought you were at home at your worsted work. You should have seen what we were at, Cecil, before you brought her up. Now, miss, just mount that rail alongside of Halbert, and keep quiet.”