Part 87 (1/2)
”I'll show you, my dear,” said old Mazey, speaking in the high and hollow voice peculiar to the deaf. ”You're the new maid--eh? And a fine-grown girl, too! His honor, the admiral, likes a parlor-maid with a clean run fore and aft. You'll do, my dear--you'll do.”
”You must not mind what Mr. Mazey says to you,” remarked t he housekeeper, opening her door as the old sailor expressed his approval of Magdalen in these terms. ”He is privileged to t alk as he pleases; and he is very tiresome and slovenly in his habits; but he means no harm.”
With that apology for the veteran, Mrs. Drake led Magdalen first to the pantry, and next to the linen-room, installing her, with all due formality, in her own domestic dominions. This ceremony completed, the new parlor-maid was taken upstairs, and was shown the dining-room, which opened out of the corridor on the first floor. Here she was directed to lay the cloth, and to prepare the table for one person only--Mr. George Bartram not having returned with his uncle to St. Crux. Mrs. Drake's sharp eyes watched Magdalen attentively as she performed this introductory duty; and Mrs. Drake's private convictions, when the table was spread, forced her to acknowledge, so far, that the new servant thoroughly understood her work.
An hour later the soup-tureen was placed on the table; and Magdalen stood alone behind the admiral's empty chair, waiting her master's first inspection of her when he entered the dining-room.
A large bell rang in the lower regions--quick, shambling footsteps pattered on the stone corridor outside--the door opened suddenly--and a tall lean yellow old man, sharp as to his eyes, shrewd as to his lips, fussily restless as to all his movements, entered the room, with two huge Labrador dogs at his heels, and took his seat in a violent hurry.
The dogs followed him, and placed themselves, with the utmost gravity and composure, one on each side of his chair. This was Admiral Bartram, and these were the companions of his solitary meal.
”Ay! ay! ay! here's the new parlor-maid, to be sure!” he began, looking sharply, but not at all unkindly, at Magdalen. ”What's your name, my good girl? Louisa, is it? I shall call you Lucy, if you don't mind.
Take off the cover, my dear--I'm a minute or two late to-day. Don't be unpunctual to-morrow on that account; I am as regular as clock-work generally. How are you after your journey? Did my spring-cart b.u.mp you about much in bringing you from the station? Capital soup this--hot as fire--reminds me of the soup we used to have in the West Indies in the year Three. Have you got your half-mourning on? Stand there, and let me see. Ah, yes, very neat, and nice, and tidy. Poor Mrs. Girdlestone! Oh dear, dear, dear, poor Mrs. Girdlestone! You're not afraid of dogs, are you, Lucy? Eh? What? You like dogs? That's right! Always be kind to dumb animals. These two dogs dine with me every day, except when there's company. The dog with the black nose is Brutus, and the dog with the white nose is Ca.s.sius. Did you ever hear who Brutus and Ca.s.sius were?
Ancient Romans? That's right---good girl. Mind your book and your needle, and we'll get you a good husband one of these days. Take away the soup, my dear, take away the soup!”
This was the man whose secret it was now the one interest of Magdalen's life to surprise! This was the man whose name had supplanted hers in Noel Vanstone's will!
The fish and the roast meat followed; and the admiral's talk rambled on--now in soliloquy, now addressed to the parlor-maid, and now directed to the dogs--as familiarly and as discontentedly as ever. Magdalen observed with some surprise that the companions of the admiral's dinner had, thus far, received no sc.r.a.ps from their master's plate. The two magnificent brutes sat squatted on their haunches, with their great heads over the table, watching the progress of the meal, with the profoundest attention, but apparently expecting no share in it. The roast meat was removed, the admiral's plate was changed, and Magdalen took the silver covers off the two made-dishes on either side of the table. As she handed the first of the savory dishes to her master, the dogs suddenly exhibited a breathless personal interest in the proceedings. Brutus gluttonously watered at the mouth; and the tongue of Ca.s.sius, protruding in unutterable expectation, smoked again between his enormous jaws.
The admiral helped himself liberally from the dish; sent Magdalen to the side-table to get him some bread; and, when he thought her eye was off him, furtively tumbled the whole contents of his plate into Brutus's mouth. Ca.s.sius whined faintly as his fortunate comrade swallowed the savory mess at a gulp. ”Hus.h.!.+ you fool,” whispered the admiral. ”Your turn next!”
Magdalen presented the second dish. Once more the old gentleman helped himself largely--once more he sent her away to the side-table--once more he tumbled the entire contents of the plate down the dog's throat, selecting Ca.s.sius this time, as became a considerate master and an impartial man. When the next course followed--consisting of a plain pudding and an unwholesome ”cream”--Magdalen's suspicion of the function of the dogs at the dinner-table was confirmed. While the master took the simple pudding, the dogs swallowed the elaborate cream. The admiral was plainly afraid of offending his cook on the one hand, and of offending his digestion on the other--and Brutus and Ca.s.sius were the two trained accomplices who regularly helped him every day off the horns of his dilemma. ”Very good! very good!” said the old gentleman, with the most transparent duplicity. ”Tell the cook, my dear, a capital cream!”
Having placed the wine and dessert on the table, Magdalen was about to withdraw. Before she could leave the room, her master called her back.
”Stop, stop!” said the admiral; ”you don't know the ways of the house yet, Lucy. Put another wine-gla.s.s here, at my right hand--the largest you can find, my dear. I've got a third dog, who comes in at dessert--a drunken old sea-dog who has followed my fortunes, afloat and ash.o.r.e, for fifty years and more. Yes, yes, that's the sort of gla.s.s we want. You're a good girl--you're a neat, handy girl. Steady, my dear! there's nothing to be frightened at!”
A sudden thump on the outside of the door, followed by one mighty bark from each of the dogs, had made Magdalen start. ”Come in!” shouted the admiral. The door opened; the tails of Brutus and Ca.s.sius cheerfully thumped the floor; and old Mazey marched straight up to the right-hand side of his master's chair. The veteran stood there, with his legs wide apart and his balance carefully adjusted, as if the dining-room had been a cabin, and the house a s.h.i.+p pitching in a sea-way.
The admiral filled the large gla.s.s with port, filled his own gla.s.s with claret, and raised it to his lips.
”G.o.d bless the Queen, Mazey,” said the admiral.
”G.o.d bless the Queen, your honor,” said old Mazey, swallowing his port, as the dogs swallowed the made-dishes, at a gulp.
”How's the wind, Mazey?”
”West and by Noathe, your honor.”
”Any report to-night, Mazey!”
”No report, your honor.”
”Good-evening, Mazey.”
”Good-evening, your honor.”
The after-dinner ceremony thus completed, old Mazey made his bow, and walked out of the room again. Brutus and Ca.s.sius stretched themselves on the rug to digest mushrooms and made gravies in the lubricating heat of the fire. ”For what we have received, the Lord make us truly thankful,”
said the admiral. ”Go downstairs, my good girl, and get your supper. A light meal, Lucy, if you take my advice--a light meal, or you will have the nightmare. Early to bed, my dear, and early to rise, makes a parlor-maid healthy and wealthy and wise. That's the wisdom of your ancestors--you mustn't laugh at it. Good-night.” In those words Magdalen was dismissed; and so her first day's experience of Admiral Bartram came to an end.
After breakfast the next morning, the admiral's directions to the new parlor-maid included among them one particular order which, in Magdalen's situation, it was especially her interest to receive. In the old gentleman's absence from home that day, on local business which took him to Ossory, she was directed to make herself acquainted with the whole inhabited quarter of the house, and to learn the positions of the various rooms, so as to know where the bells called her when the bells rang. Mrs. Drake was charged with the duty of superintending the voyage of domestic discovery, unless she happened to be otherwise engaged--in which case any one of the inferior servants would be equally competent to act as Magdalen's guide.