Part 2 (1/2)
If there were any more ant.i.theses in her character, they had better speak for themselves hereafter; nor is there much that need be told about her companions.
Mrs. Danvers, or ”Bessie,” as she liked to be called, had been Cecil's last governess, and was retired on full-pay, which, she flattered herself, she earned in the capacity of traveling chaperone and censor; but, inasmuch as when she really held some tutelar authority, her pupil had never taken the slightest notice of her prohibitions, she could hardly be expected now to exercise any very salutary influence or control.
d.i.c.k Tresilyan was absurdly proud and fond of his sister, and performed all her behests with a blind obedience; but when he heard that he was to attend her during a whole winter's residence abroad, he did think that it was stretching her prerogative to the verge of tyranny. No wonder. A dragoon who has lost his horse, a goose on a turnpike-road, or any other popular type of helplessness, does not present so lamentable a picture as a Briton in a foreign land, without resources in himself, and with a rooted aversion to the use of any language except his own. In this case, the victim actually attempted some feeble remonstrance and argument on the subject. Cecil was almost as much astonished as the Prophet was under similar circ.u.mstances; but she considered that habits of discussion in beasts of burden and the lower order of animals generally were inconvenient, and rather to be discouraged; so she cut it short, now, somewhat imperiously. Thereupon, d.i.c.k Tresilyan slid into a slough of despond, in which he had been wallowing ever since. A faint gleam of suns.h.i.+ne broke in when one of his intimates, hearing he was going to France, suggested ”that's where the brandy comes from;” but it was instantly overclouded by the remark which followed. ”I suppose, though, you won't be able to drink much more of it than you do here:” on realizing which crus.h.i.+ng fact, his melancholy became, if possible, more profound than ever. Indeed, since he crossed the Channel, he had spent most of his leisure moments in a sort of chronic blasphemy, which, it is to be hoped, afforded him some slight relief and consolation, as it was wholly unintelligible to his audience; for, to do d.i.c.k justice, in his sister's presence the door of his lips was always strictly guarded.
However, to Dorade they came--hours after their time, of course, but perfectly safe: no accident ever does happen in France to any thing properly booked, except to luggage sent by _roulage_, to which there attaches the romantic uncertainty of Vanderdecken's correspondence.
Cecil rather liked traveling; it never tired her; so, by midnight she had seen Mrs. Danvers, weary and querulous, to bed--gone through a variety of gymnastics in the way of _accolades_, with f.a.n.n.y Molyneux--taken some trouble in inquiring about shooting and other amus.e.m.e.nts likely to divert her brother from his sorrows--and yet did not feel very sleepy.
They ignore shutters in these climes; and her reflection was still flitting backward and forward across the white window-blinds as Royston Keene came home from the Cercle. He knew the room, or guessed who the shadow belonged to; and as he moved away, after pausing a minute or two, he waved his hand toward it, with a gesture so unwarrantably like a salute that, were _silhouettes_ sensitive or prudish, it might have proved an offense not easily forgiven.
CHAPTER V.
The next morning was so soft and sunny that it tempted Miss Tresilyan out on the terrace of their hotel very soon after breakfast. She was waiting for her brother on the top of the steps leading down into the road, when Major Keene pa.s.sed by again. If he had never heard of her before, the smooth sweeping outline of her magnificent form, and the careless grace of her att.i.tude, as she stood leaning against the stone bal.u.s.trade, were not likely to escape an eye that was wont to light on every point of feminine perfection, as a poacher's does on a sitting hare. But he never got so far as her face then; and hardly had time to criticise her figure; for at that moment a brisk gust of the _mistral_ swept round the corner, and revealed a foot and ankle so marvelously exquisite, that they attracted his eyes, as long as he dared to fix them without risking a stare; and kept his thoughts busy till he saw her again. ”_Caramba!_” he muttered, half aloud. ”I don't wonder at any one who has seen _that_ not looking at a nautch-girl afterward.” And he quickened his pace toward Mr. Molyneux's house. He met them before he reached their door.
”I am going to Miss Tresilyan,” f.a.n.n.y said. ”Isn't it lucky, her first morning here being such a delicious one?”
”Ah! I thought that was your point,” answered Keene. ”There must be a tremendous amount of 'gus.h.i.+ng' to be got through still: the acc.u.mulation of--how many months? I suppose you only took the rough edge off last night. Don't hurt her, please, that's all. And, Hal, you were actually going to preside over the meeting of two young hearts, and gloat over their emotions, and spoil their innocent amus.e.m.e.nts? I wonder at you.
Means well, Mrs. Molyneux; but he's _so_ thoughtless.”
f.a.n.n.y laughed. ”I think I could do without him. But we mean to walk this afternoon, and he may come then; and you too, Major Keene, if you are good.”
”I'll enter into all sorts of recognizances to keep the peace,” was the reply; ”but I should have thought you might trust me by this time. It's that excitable husband of yours that wants disciplining. I'll give him some soda-water by way of a precaution. Then, when you have sacrificed to friends.h.i.+p sufficiently, you will lionize Miss Tresilyan? The Castle first, of course. Shall we meet you there at two?”
Harry did not quite see the thing in this light, and looked slightly disappointed; but he yielded the point, as he always did, and went away dutifully with his superior officer.
”Describe the brother,” the latter said, abruptly, when they had gone a few steps.
”Well, I believe he's the most ignorant man in Great Britain,” answered Molyneux: ”that's his _specialite_. He never had much education; and he has been trying to forget that little, 'hard all,' ever since he was eighteen. You remember how our fellows used to laugh at me about my epistles? I could give him 21lb., and a beating any day. They say, two men have to stand over him whenever he tries to write a letter, for no _one_ is strong enough to keep him straight in his spelling and grammar.
If he tries it on alone, he gets bewildered in the second sentence, and wanders up and down, knocking his head against particles and parts of speech, like the man in the Maze; and throws up the sponge at last, utterly beat. Helplessly devoted to his sister, but rather obstinate with other people, and apt to be sulky sometimes; but good-natured on the whole; and drinks _very_ fair.”
”Oh, he drinks fair, does he?” Royston said, meditatively. ”Has that any thing to do with his brotherly affection? Every body who is fond of Miss Tresilyan seems to take to liquor. Annesley was pretty sober till he knew her. It's rather odd. I don't suppose she encourages them?”
”Certainly not; at least, I know she has tried to stint d.i.c.k in his brandy very often. It's the only point she has never been able to carry.”
”A man must be firm about some one thing,” the other remarked, ”or there's an end of free-agency altogether. He has no intellects to be affected by it apparently; and I dare say his health does not suffer much yet. It's a question of const.i.tution, after all.”
He dropped the subject then, and was very silent all the rest of the morning, till they came to the place of meeting. Somehow or another, it did not occur to him to mention to Harry what he had seen on the terrace.
They had not waited long before the three women came slowly up the zigzags of the path that wound round the Castle-hill. d.i.c.k Tresilyan had ”got his pa.s.s signed” for the day, and had started off, with his courier, to make the lives of several natives a burden to them, on the subject of _beca.s.ses_ and _beca.s.sines_.
Cecil might have been known by her walk among ten thousand. She seemed to float along without any visible exertion, as if her dress were buoyant, and bore her up in some mysterious fas.h.i.+on; but, looking closer, and marking how straight and firmly and lightly every footfall was planted, you gave the narrow arched instep, and the slender rounded ankle, the credit they well deserved; marveling only that so delicate a symmetry could conceal so much sinewy power. Upon this occasion, she was evidently accommodating her pace to that of Mrs. Danvers; and no racing man could have seen the two, without thinking of one of the Flyers of the turf walking down by the side of the trainer's pony.
Miss Tresilyan's hat, of a soft black felt, shaded by a black c.o.c.k's feather, was decidedly in advance of her age: for that very provocative head-gear, with the many-colored _panaches_, had not then become so common; and even the Pa.s.sionate Pilgrim might hope (with luck) to walk along a pier or a parade, without meeting a succession of Red Rovers--each capable of boarding him at a minute's notice, and making all his affections walk the plank. Her tunic of iron-gray velvet, without fitting tightly to her figure, still did it fair justice; and, from the tie of her neck-ribbon, down to the wonderful boots that slid in and out from under the striped scarlet kirtle over which her dress was looped up, there was not the minutest detail that might not have challenged and baffled criticism.
Royston Keene appreciated all this thoroughly. No man alive held the stale old adage of ”Beauty when unadorned,” etc., in profounder scorn. A pair of badly-fitting gloves, a soiled _collerette_, or a tumbled dress, had cured more than one of the fever fits of his younger days; and he was ten times as fastidious now.
He drew a long, slow breath of intense enjoyment, as a thirsty cricketer may do after the first deep draught of claret-cup that rewards a two hours' innings. ”It's very refres.h.i.+ng, after weeks of total abstinence, to see a woman who goes in for dress, and does it thoroughly well.” He had no time for more, for the others were almost within hearing.
When the introductions were over, Mrs. Danvers said she was tired, and must rest a little. Very few words will do justice to her personal appearance. Brevity, and breadth, and bluntness were her chief characteristics, which applied equally to her figure, her face, and her extremities, and, not unfrequently, to her speech too. Her health was really infirm, but she never could attain the object of many an invalid's harmless ambition--looking interesting. Illness made her cheeks look pasty, but not pale; it could not fine down the coa.r.s.ely moulded features, or purify their ign.o.ble outline. Her voice was against her, certainly; perhaps this was the reason why, when she bemoaned herself, so many irreverent and hard-hearted reprobates called it ”whining.” It was very unfortunate; for few could be found, even in the somewhat exacting cla.s.s to which she belonged, more anxious and active in enlisting sympathy. She was looking especially ill-tempered just then, but Major Keene was not easily daunted, and he went in at her straight and gallantly--about the weather, it is needless to say, both being English. While Mrs. Danvers was disagreeing with him, Cecil took her turn at inspection. Royston's name was familiar to her, of course, for no one ever talked to Mrs. Molyneux for ten minutes without hearing it. Though she had scarcely glanced at him in the morning, she had decided that the tall, erect figure and the enormous mustache, with its _crocs a la mousquetaire_, could only belong to f.a.n.n.y's Household Word.