Volume I Part 13 (2/2)

”Well, well,” said Mrs. Plumfield, smiling; ”run away down home now, and I'll come to-morrow, and I guess we'll fix it.

But who is it that grandpa has asked?”

Fleda and Cynthy both opened at once.

”One of them is my cousin, aunt Miriam, that was at West Point, and the other is the nicest English gentleman you ever saw; you will like him very much; he has been with me getting nuts all to-day.”

”They're a smart enough couple of chaps,” said Cynthia; ”they look as if they lived where money was plenty.”

”Well, I'll come to-morrow,” repeated Mrs. Plumfield, ”and we'll see about it. Good night, dear!”

She took Fleda's head in both her hands, and gave her a most affectionate kiss; and the two pet.i.tioners set off homewards again.

Aunt Miriam was not at all like her brother, in feature, though the moral characteristics suited the relations.h.i.+p sufficiently well. There was the expression of strong sense and great benevolence; the unbending uprightness of mind and body at once; and the dignity of an essentially n.o.ble character, not the same as Mr. Ringgan's, but such as well became his sister. She had been brought up among the Quakers, and though now, and for many years, a staunch Presbyterian, she still retained a tincture of the calm efficient gentleness of mind and manner that belongs so inexplicably to them. More womanly sweetness than was in Mr. Ringgan's blue eye, a woman need not wish to have; and perhaps his sister's had not so much. There was no want of it in her heart, nor in her manner, but the many and singular excellences of her character were a little overshadowed by super-excellent housekeeping. Not a taint of the littleness that sometimes grows therefrom, ? not a trace of the narrowness of mind that over-attention to such pursuits is too apt to bring; ? on every important occasion aunt Miriam would come out, free and unshackled, from all the cobweb entanglements of housewifery; she would have tossed housewifery to the winds, if need were, (but it never was, for in a new sense she always contrived to make both ends meet).

It was only in the unbroken everyday course of affairs that aunt Miriam's face showed any tokens of that incessant train of _small cares_ which had never left their impertinent footprints upon the broad high brow of her brother. Mr.

Ringgan had no affinity with small cares; deep serious matters received his deep and serious consideration; but he had as dignified a disdain of trifling annoyances or concernments as any great mastiff or Newfoundlander ever had for the yelping of a little cur.

CHAPTER V.

Ynne London citye was I borne, Of parents of grete note; My fadre dydd a n.o.bile arms Emblazon onne hys cote.

CHATTERTON.

In the snuggest and best private room of the House at Montepoole, a party of ladies and gentlemen were gathered, awaiting the return of the sportsmen. The room had been made as comfortable as any place could be in a house built for ”the season,” after the season was past. A splendid fire of hickory logs was burning brilliantly and making amends for many deficiencies; the closed wooden shutters gave the reality if not the look of warmth, for though the days might be fine and mild, the mornings and evenings were always very cool up there among the mountains; and a table stood at the last point of readiness for having dinner served. They only waited for the lingering woodc.o.c.k hunters.

It was rather an elderly party, with the exception of one young man whose age might match that of the absent two. He was walking up and down the room with somewhat the air of having nothing to do with himself. Another gentleman, much older, stood warming his back at the fire, feeling about his jaws and chin with one hand, and looking at the dinner-table in a sort of expectant reverie. The rest, three ladies, sat quietly chatting. All these persons were extremely different from one another in individual characteristics, and all had the unmistakable mark of the habit of good society; as difficult to locate, and as easy to recognise, as the sense of _freshness_ which some ladies have the secret of diffusing around themselves; ? no definable sweetness, nothing in particular, but making a very agreeable impression.

One of these ladies, the mother of the perambulating young officer, (he was a cla.s.s-mate of Rossitur's,) was extremely plain in feature, even more than _ordinary_. This plainness was not, however, devoid of sense, and it was relieved by an uncommon amount of good-nature and kindness of heart. In her son the sense deepened into acuteness, and the kindness of heart retreated, it is to be hoped, into some hidden recess of his nature; for it very rarely showed itself in open expression; that is, to an eye keen in reading the natural signs of emotion; for it cannot be said that his manner had any want of amenity or politeness.

The second lady, the wife of the gentleman on the hearth-rug, or rather on the spot where the hearth-rug should have been, was a strong contrast to this mother and son; remarkably pretty, delicate, and even lovely; with a black eye, however, that though in general soft, could show a mischievous sparkle upon occasion; still young, and one of those women who always were and always will be pretty and delicate at any age.

The third had been very handsome, and was still a very elegant woman, but her face had seen more of the world's wear and tear. It had never known placidity of expression, beyond what the habitual command of good-breeding imposed. She looked exactly what she was, a perfect woman of the world. A very good specimen, ? for Mrs. Carleton had sense and cultivation, and even feeling enough, to play the part very gracefully; yet her mind was bound in the shackles of ”the world's” tyrannical forging, and had never been free; and her heart bowed submissively to the same authority.

”Here they are! Welcome home,” exclaimed this lady, as her son and his friend at length made their appearance; ? ”Welcome home ? we are all famis.h.i.+ng; and I don't know why in the world we waited for you, for I am sure you don't deserve it. What success? What success, Mr. Rossitur?”

”Faith, Ma'am, there's little enough to boast of, as far as I am concerned. Mr. Carleton may speak for himself.”

”I am very sorry, Ma'am, you waited for me,” said that gentleman. ”I am a delinquent, I acknowledge. The day came to an end before I was at all aware of it.”

”It would not do to flatter you so far as to tell you why we waited,” said Mrs. Evelyn's soft voice. And then perceiving that the gentleman at whom she was looking gave her no answer, she turned to the other. ”How many woodc.o.c.k, Mr. Rossitur?”

”Nothing to show, Ma'am,” he replied. ”Didn't see a solitary one. I heard some partridges, but I didn't mean to have room in my bag for them.”

”Did you find the right ground, Rossitur?”

”I had a confounded long tramp after it if I didn't,” said the discomfited sportsman, who did not seem to have yet recovered his good humour.

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