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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/16371-8.txt b/16371-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b5b5a76 --- /dev/null +++ b/16371-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,13268 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Bluebell, by Mrs. George Croft Huddleston + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Bluebell + A Novel + +Author: Mrs. George Croft Huddleston + +Release Date: July 27, 2005 [EBook #16371] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BLUEBELL *** + + + + +Produced by Early Canadiana Online, Robert Cicconetti, +Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team +at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + + BLUEBELL + + _A Novel_ + + BY MRS. G.C. HUDDLESTON + + 1875 + +[Transcriber's note: These images were taken from Early Canadian Online +and there are several pages where the text is missing on the images. +These have been marked "unreadable."] + + + + + Yet we shall one day gain, life part, + Clear prospect o'er our being's whole, + Shall see ourselves, and learn at last + Our true affinities of soul. + + + + +_Acknowledgment_ + + +The Publishers have to acknowledge their great indebtedness to MR. +DAVISON, President, and MR. DAVY, Secretary, of the Toronto Mechanics' +Institute, who, on being applied to, kindly gave to them for publication +the only copy of this Work, which, so far as they knew, was in Canada at +the time, and which the Directors of the Institute, with a commendable +spirit of enterprise, had secured for their Library. + + + + +CONTENTS. + +CHAP. + + I. SWEET SEVENTEEN + + II. BERTIE + + III. GENTLE ANNIE + + IV. SATURDAY AT HOME + + V. A WOODLAND WALK + + VI. VISITORS + + VII. THE GARRISON SLEIGH CLUB + + VIII. FIXING UP A PRANCE + + IX. CROSS PURPOSES + + X. TOBOGGINING + + XI. EFFECTS OF TOBOGGINING + + XII. THE LAKE SHORE ROAD + + XIII. NORTHERN LIGHTS + + XIV. THE TRYST + + XV. AN ENIGMATICAL LETTER + + XVI. DETECTED + + XVII. DID YOU PROPOSE THEN? + + XVIII. LYNDON'S LANDING + + XIX. CALF LOVE + + XX. THE PRINCE PHILANDER + + XXI. A PERILOUS SAIL + + XXII. AT LAST + + XXIII. LOLA'S BIRTHDAY + + XXIV. LITTLE PITCHERS + + XXV. CHANGES + + XXVI. CROSSING THE HERRING POND + + XXVII. HARRY DUTTON + + XXVIII. ROUGH WEATHER + + XXIX. BLUEBELL'S DEBUT IN THE OLD COUNTRY + + XXX. NO CARDS + + XXXI. BROMLEY TOWERS + + XXXII. THE SPRING WOODS + + XXXIII. LORD BROMLEY INTERVIEWS DUTTON + + XXXIV. HARRY GOES TO THE BALTIC + + XXXV. A DISCOVERY + + XXXVI. IN DEATH THEY WERE NOT DIVIDED + + XXXVII. AN UNEXPECTED RENCONTRE + +XXXVIII. OLD HEAD ON YOUNG SHOULDERS + + XXXIX. THE LOAN OF A LOVER + + XL. THE MINIATURE + + XLI. A LOCK OF HAIR + + + + +BLUEBELL + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +SWEET SEVENTEEN. + + I see her now--the vision fair, + Of candour, innocence, and truth, + Stand tiptoe on the verge of air, + 'Twixt childhood and unstable youth. + + +It was the "fall" in Canada, and the leaves were dying royally in purple, +crimson and gold. On the edge of a common, skirting a well-known city of +Ontario, stood a small, rough-cast cottage, behind which the sun was +setting with a red promise of frost, his flaming tints repeated in the +fervid hue of the Virginian creeper that clothed it. + +This modest tenement was the retreat of three unprotected females, two of +whom were seated in silent occupation close to a black stove, which +imparted heat, but denied cheerfulness. The elder was grey and tintless +as her life,--harsh wisdom wrung from sad experience ever on lips thin +and tight, as though from habitually repressing every desire. The +younger, a widow, was scarcely passed middle age, small of stature, but +wizened beyond her years by privation and sorrow. + +A smell of coal-oil, that most unbearable of odours, pervaded the +interior of the cottage, revealing that the general servant below in +lighting the lamp had, as usual, upset some, and was retaining the aroma +by smearing it off with her apron. + +Presently a quick, light step tripped over the wooden side-walk, a shadow +darkened the window, and a vision of youth and freshness burst into the +dingy little parlour. + +A rather tall, full-formed young Hebe was Theodora Leigh, of that pure +pink and white complexion that goes farther to make a beauty than even +regularity of feature; her long, sleepy eyes were just the shade of the +wild hyacinth; indeed, her English father always called her "Bluebell," +after a flower that does not grow on Transatlantic soil. + +But they were Irish-eyes, "put in with a dirty finger," and varying with +every mood. Gooseberry eyes may disguise more soul, but they get no +credit for it. Humour seemed to dance in that soft, blue fire; poetry +dreamed in their clear depths; love--but that we have not come to yet; +they were more eloquent than her tongue, for she was neither witty nor +wise, only rich in the exuberant life of seventeen, and as expectant of +good will and innocent of knowledge of the world as a retriever puppy. + +Apparently, Miss Bluebell was not in the suavest of humours, for she +flung her hat on to one crazy chair, and herself on another, with a +vehemence that caused a sensible concussion. + +"My dear, how brusque you are," said Mrs. Leigh, plaintively. + +"So provoking," muttered Bluebell. + +"What's gone wrong with the child now?" said Miss Opie, the elder +proprietress of the domicile. + +"Why," said Bluebell, "I met the Rollestons, and they asked: me to their +picnic at the Humber on Friday; but how _can_ I go? Look here!" and she +pointed to a pair of boots evidently requiring patching. "Oh, mother! +could you manage another pair now? Miss Scrag has sent home my new +'waist,' and I can do up my hat, but these buckets are only fit for the +dusthole." + +Mrs. Leigh sighed,--"A new pair, with side-springs, would cost three +dollars. No, Bluebell, I can't indeed." + +"I might as well be a nun, then, at once," said the girl, with tears in +her voice; and a sympathetic dew rose in Mrs. Leigh's weary eyes at the +disappointment she could not avert from her spoiled darling. + +"Bluebell," said Miss Opie, "if you read more and scampered about less, +your mind would be better fortified to bear these little reverses." + +"Shut up!" muttered Bluebell, in the artless vernacular of a school-girl, +half turning her shoulder with an impatient gesture. + +The entrance of the tea-things created a diversion, but the discontented +girl sat apart, while the hideousness of her surroundings came upon her +as a new revelation. Certainly, in Canada, in a poverty-stricken abode, +taste seems more completely starved than in any other country. + +Bluebell, in her critical mood, noted the ugly delf tea-things, so badly +arranged; the black stove, four feet into the room, with its pipe running +through a hole in the wall; the ricketty horsehair chairs and wire blind +for the window, "gave" on the street, where gasping geese were diving in +the gutters for the nearest approach to water they could find. + +Scarcely less repugnant were the many-coloured crotchet-mats and +anti-macassars with which Miss Opie loved to decorate the apartment; nor +was a paper frill adorning a paltry green flower-vase wanting to complete +the tasteless _tout ensemble_. + +The evening wore on; Mrs. Leigh proceeded with the turning of an old +merino dress; Miss Opie adjusted her spectacles, and read _Good Words_. +Bluebell sat down to the piano and executed a selection from Rossini's +'Messe Solennelle' with force and fervour. + +"You play very well, child," said Miss Opie. + +"That is fortunate," said Bluebell, "for I mean to be a governess." + +"You mean you want a governess," retorted the other. "Why, what in the +world do you know?" + +"More than most children of ten years old. I might get a hundred dollars +a year. Mamma, I could buy myself new boots then." + +"You are nothing but a self-willed child yourself, unable to bear the +slightest disappointment," said Miss Opie. + +"Never mind," said Mrs. Leigh, coaxingly; "I'll see if I cannot get you +the boots. They will give me credit at the store." + +"No, no; I know you can't afford it; they were new last April. Mamma is +oil to your vinegar, Aunt Jane." + +"And you the green young mustard in the domestic salad--hot enough, and, +like all ill weeds, growing apace." + +"Then it is field mustard, and not used for salad," said Bluebell, +anxious for the last word. And, escaping from the room, went to place +some bones in the shed, for a casual in the shape of a starving cur, who +called occasionally for food and a night's lodging. + +About twenty years ago, when this melancholy Mrs. Leigh was a lovely +young Canadian of rather humble origin, Theodore Leigh, a graceless +subaltern in the Artillery, had just returned from leave, and, going one +day to the Rink, was "regularly flumocksed," as he expressed it, by the +vision of Miss Lesbia Jones skimming over the ice like a swallow on the +wing. And when she proceeded to cut a figure of 8 backwards, and execute +another intricate movement called "the rose," his admiration became +vehement, and, seizing on a brother-officer he had observed speaking to +her, demanded an introduction. + +"To the 'Tee-to-tum'? Oh, certainly." + +Miss Lesbia was very small, and wore the shortest of petticoats, which +probably suggested the appellation. + +Fatigued with her evolutions, she had sunk with a pretty little air of +_abandon_ on the platform, and her destiny, in a beaver coat and cap, was +presented by Mr. Wingfield. + +After this, a common object at the Rink was a tall young man, in all the +agonies of a _début_ on skates, and a bewitching little attendant sprite +shooting before and around him, occasionally righting him with a fairy +touch when he evinced too wild a desire to dash his brains against the +wall. + +At all the sleighing parties, also, Miss Lesbia's form was invariably +observed in Mr. Leigh's cutter, with a violet and white "cloud" matching +the robe borders and ribbons on the bells; and he and the "Tee-to-tum" +spun round together in half the valses of every ball during the winter. + +Perhaps, after all, the attachment might have lived and died without +exceeding the "muffin" phase, had not the "beauty," Captain of the +battery cut in, and made rather strong running, too, partly because he +considered her "fetching," and partly, he said, "from regard to Leigh, +who was making an ass of himself." + +Jealousy turned philandering into earnest. Theodore went straight to the +maiden aunt, with whom Miss Jones resided, and, after most vehement +badgering, got her consent to a private marriage within three days. The +poor spinster, though much flustered, knowing his attentions to Lesbia +had been a good deal talked about, felt almost relieved to have it +settled respectably, though so abruptly. + +On the appointed day, having obtained a week's leave, Theodore, with his +best man, the last joined subaltern, dashed up to the church-door in a +cutter, just in time to receive Lesbia and her bewildered chaperone. + +After the ceremony, they started off for their week's honeymoon to the +Falls; and the best man, absolved from secrecy, spread the news through +the regiment. + +Theodore had scribbled off the intelligence in reckless desperation to +his father, of whom he was the only child, and Sir Timothy Leigh, a proud +and ambitious man, never forgave the irrevocable piece of folly so +cavalierly announced to him. + +Theodore received a letter from the family lawyer, couched in the terms +of sorrowful reprehension such functionaries usually assume on similar +occasions. + +"It was Mr. Vellum's painful duty to inform him that Sir Timothy would +decline to receive him on his return to England; that two hundred a year +would be placed annually to his credit at Cox's; but the estates not +being entailed, that was the utmost farthing he need ever expect from +him." + +Such was the gist of the communication, and Theodore, hardened by his +father's severity, and unable to bear the privations of a narrow income, +absented himself more and more from their wretched lodgings, and tried to +drown his cares by drinking himself into a state of semi-idiocy. + +There is little more to relate of this ill-starred marriage, of which +Bluebell was the fruit; for soon after her birth young Leigh was killed +by being upset out of a dog-cart. + +Driving home with unsteady hands from mess one night, he collided with +a street car, which inevitably turned over the two-wheeled vehicle. +Theodore was pitched out, his head striking on the iron rails, and never +breathed again. + +Whatever grief Sir Timothy may have felt at his son being snatched from +him, unreconciled and unforgiven, did not show itself in mercy to the +widow. + +Mr. Vellum was again in requisition, and proposed, on behalf of Sir +Timothy, to make Mrs. Leigh a suitable allowance on condition that she +remained in Canada, and delivered over the child to her grandfather, to +be brought up and educated as his heiress. In case these terms were +refused, she would continue to receive annually two hundred a-year; but +no farther assistance would be granted. + +Lesbia, in her loneliness and bereavement, was heart-broken at this +unfeeling proposition, and Bluebell being too young for a choice, she +consulted the voice of Nature alone, and refused to part with her child. + +The maiden aunt, Miss Opie, willingly received them. She had a mere +pittance, and lived in a boarding house; but, by joining their slender +purses, they took the cottage in which we find them. + +Thus in extreme poverty was Bluebell reared until her seventeenth year, +though by personal privation Mrs. Leigh sent her to _the_ school _par +excellence_; attended by most of the girls in the city, whether their +parents were "in" or "out" of society. Bluebell having the _prestige_ of +an English father, own son of a baronet, and military into the bargain, +was considered in the former class, and included at an early age in the +gaieties of the winter. + +A new friend, who had been particularly kind to her, was Mrs. Rolleston, +wife of the Colonel of a regiment quartered there, and to her Bluebell +repaired to make sorrowful excuses for the projected picnic, and also to +confide the scheme that possessed her mind of earning money as a musical +teacher or nursery governess. + +Mrs. Rolleston felt half inclined to laugh at the unformed impulsive +child, who was such a pet in their household, but seemed far too babyish +and unmethodical to be recommended for any situation; yet remembering her +mother's straitened circumstances, and that the girl probably wanted some +pocket-money, she listened sympathetically, and promised to turn it over +in her mind. + +Music she knew Bluebell thoroughly understood and excelled in. She had +for years received instruction gratis from the organist at the Cathedral, +who, originally attracted by her lovely voice singing in the choir, took +her up with enthusiasm, and taught her harmony and thorough bass. Thus, +instead of only practising a desultory accomplishment, she was able to +compose and arrange her tuneful ideas correctly. + +A dark striking-looking girl interrupted them. This was Cecil Rolleston, +the eldest daughter of the house, or rather she stood in that relation to +the Colonel, being the offspring of his first wife. + +"Come out and play croquet, Bluebell," said she; "the children are having +a game; they only let me go on condition of bringing you,"--and she led +the way through the window into a charming garden, with large shady +maple-trees just beginning to drop their deep-dyed, variegated leaves on +the turf; the bluebirds were already gone, but the red and ashen-hued +robin, nearly the size of a jay, still rustled through the boughs. + +A little white dog, with a ribbon on, was holding a ball within its +feathery toes, and playing with it as a cat does a mouse; a gardener was +refreshing the thirsty flowers, which had outgrown their strength; and +Fleda, Estelle, and Lola, twelve, eleven, and nine, were playing croquet +with the zest of recent emancipation from lessons. + +The governess, a dark, sallow expositor of the arts and sciences, also +wielded a mallet, and Cecil and Bluebell completed the six. + +The sides were pretty equally cast, and the combatants were in a most +interesting crisis of the game, when Colonel Rolleston entered the +garden. + +He was a very handsome man, and as is often the case with the only male +in a family of women, so studied and given in to by all his female +_entourage_, that he would not have been pleased, whatever their +occupations, if he were not immediately rallied round by a little court +of flatterers. + +"Estelle," said the governess, "offer your papa your mallet, and ask him +to be so kind as to play with us." The child's face lengthened; she had +not much hope of his refusing it, but advanced with her request. + +"Must I?" said the Colonel. + +"Oh, yes!" said the chorus of voices; "be my partner--be mine." + +"Don't tear me to pieces among you," said he, with a deprecating gesture. + +"Take Bluebell on your side, papa," cried Cecil; "she is very good, and +we'll keep Miss Prosody, who is equally so." + +And thus they proceeded, the Colonel radiant with every successful +stroke, and blaming mallet, ball, and ground when otherwise, reiterating, +"I can't make a stroke to-day." + +Bluebell was very fond of the Colonel, who liked pretty faces about him, +and had been kind to her; but she could not resist a slight feeling of +repulsion at what she considered an abject maneuver of Miss Prosody's. +His ball, by an unskilful miss, was left in her power; her duty to her +side required her to crack it to the other end of the ground, but a +glance at the irritable gloom of his countenance induced her to discover +it to be more to her advantage to attack one rather beyond, and, +judiciously missing it left her own blue one an easy stroke for him. + +The shadows dispersed, and, all playfulness, the Colonel apostrophized +his prize, which he succeeded in hitting. "Here is my little friend in +blue; shall I hurt it? no, I will not harm it." By-play of relief and +gratitude on the governess's part, as he requited her amiability by +merely taking two off, leaving his interesting friend in blue unmoved. + +This naturally did not enhance the interest of the children who felt it +was not the game of croquet that was being played. Cecil, replying with a +laughing glance to the indignant eye-telegraphy of Fleda, began to play +at random; and Bluebell and Lola, not finding much antagonism from the +other side, soon pulled the Colonel through his hoops and won the game. +After which, Bluebell retraced her steps across the common, accompanied +part of the way by Miss Rolleston, to whom she also confided her +governess's projects. + +Cecil was very fond of her; she had few companions, and her sisters were +mere children. All the time the younger girl was talking, she was +silently revolving a plan. It so happened this Cecil was in rather +independent circumstances for a young lady, maternal relative having left +her a legacy at twelve years old which, by the time she was twenty-one, +would bring in a thousand a year. + +In the mean time, she drew half that sum annually, and, of course, +contributed to the domestic expenses. How much pleasanter it would be for +Bluebell to live with them than with strangers. She might be _her_ +musical teacher; singing duets even brought out her own voice +surprisingly; it would be delightful to practise together; the children +had no taste for music, neither did Mrs. Rolleston care for it. Besides, +she felt a generous pleasure in the prospect of assisting her friend, +poor Bluebell, who often had to deny herself a mere bit of ribbon from +want of a shilling to pay for it. It might require a little management at +home, so she would not hint at it yet, and, with a warm caress and a gay +farewell nod, they separated. + +Next morning, Mrs. Leigh, still engaged in the resuscitation of the +merino dress, was surprised by a visit from Mrs. Rolleston. That lady, +for a wonder, considering her errand, had come alone, for it was seldom +that any little domestic arrangement was entered on without the personal +supervision of the Colonel. + +However, there was a counter-attraction at barracks this morning, and +having, so to speak, held a board on Cecil's proposition, and opposed, +argued, and thoroughly talked it over, Mrs. Rolleston was empowered to +suggest to Mrs. Leigh a plan for taking Bluebell into their family as +musical companion to Cecil and nursery governess to Freddy, the heir +apparent, aetat. four. The poor little lady did not seem much elated at +the proposal. "I know my child will wish it," she said. "I can give her +no variety, no indulgences, and she is of an age when occupation and +society are a necessity to her. I sometimes feel," she murmured, with +a sigh, "that I have stood in her light by not agreeing to her +grandfather's conditions." + +A look of curiosity from Mrs. Rolleston elicited an explanation, and she +heard for the first time the whole history of Bluebell's antecedents. + +"Why," cried she, much excited, "I remember that Sir Timothy before I +married; there are so many Leighs, it never struck me he might be your +father-in-law. I recollect hearing he had disinherited his son, but he +has adopted a grandnephew, which, I am afraid, looks bad for Bluebell." +And she listened with renewed interest to Mrs. Leigh's diffuse +reminiscences, while her _protégé_ appeared to her in a new and romantic +light, and she pictured half-a-dozen possibilities for her future. + +From a miniature of the graceless Theodore which Mrs. Leigh produced, +there could be no doubt of the resemblance to his daughter in air and +feature; the long sleepy eyes were identical, though the slightly +insolent expression of Theodore's was, happily, wanting. + +"He was the best of husbands," whimpered the widow, on whose placid +mind the shortcomings of the dissipated youth seemed to have left no +impression; "but he was hardly treated in this world, and so he was taken +to a better." + +Before Mrs. Rolleston left, it was arranged that Bluebell was to make her +first essay in governessing on Freddy Rolleston, her Sundays to be spent +as often as possible with her mother; and ere another week had passed, +she and her effects were transferred to the Maples. + +A bed was made up for her in a little room of Cecil's and the tuition of +Freddy carried on in the nursery; for Mrs. Rolleston having some doubts +as how the amateur and professional governess might amalgamate, avoided +letting her entrench on Miss Prosody's premises. + +That lady, indeed, was disposed to look upon her with suspicion +and incipient dislike. She had always been treated with great +consideration--quite one of the family, and cared not for "a rival near +her throne." Who was Bluebell that she should be made so much of?--a +little nursery governess with no attainments, and yet Cecil's inseparable +companion! She was a prime favourite with the Colonel, whose "ways" she +had made a judicious study of, and treated with considerable tact. He +always mentioned her as "that dear invaluable creature, Miss Prosody." +She could occasionally put an idea into his mind which he mistook for his +own, as, for instance, when he observed to his wife,--"What a pity that +girl has such a preposterous name, and that you all have the habit of +calling her by it. The other evening that idiot, young Halkett must needs +say, 'What a lovely pet name!' I can tell you I took him up pretty short. +You really must not have her down so much, if these boys think they may +talk nonsense to her." + +Mrs. Rolleston was rather surprised at the irritation with which this was +said; to be sure she had heard Miss Prosody, previous to young Halkett's +foolish remark, lamenting that Bluebell "did not show more reserve with +gentlemen guests, and that she put herself so much on an equality with +Cecil." The Colonel was a domestic man, and liked cheerfulness at his +fireside, of which he himself was to be the centre and inspiration; +anything approaching bad spirits, silence, or headaches he always +resented. + +Bluebell was well enough as contributing to the liveliness of the little +society--a pretty smiling young girl is seldom _de trop_; but then she +must be satisfied without lovers, whose presence the Colonel considered +subversive of all rational comfort. + +Good-natured Mrs. Rolleston pursued the even tenor of her way, the +Colonel's fidgets had a soporific effect on her nerves and created +no corresponding alarms; her idol, Freddy, was satisfied with the new +administration, and ceased to wage internecine warfare with his nurse; +and certainly the unwonted tranquillity consequent was a decided boon to +the rest of the household. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +BERTIE. + + In the greenest growth of the Maytime + We rode where the roads were wet; + Between the dawn and the daytime + The spring was glad that we met. + --Swinburne. + + +Two or three months passed, the bluebirds and robins had all +disappeared, and the snow-birds, hardy scions of the feathered tribe +capable of withstanding the rigours of a Canadian winter, were alone to +be seen. The Rinks had been flooded, and skating was going on with +vigour; the snow was not quite in a satisfactory state as yet; but a few +sleighs jingled merrily about with their bright bits of colour, the +edging of fur robes and ribbon on the sleigh bells. A general impulse of +joyful anticipation ran through all the young people as winter unlocked +her stores of amusement, and the keen sabre-like air, so bracing and +exhilarating, stirred the life in young veins, and set their spirits +dancing with exuberant vitality. + +The Rollestons, who had only come out in the spring, were attracted with +everything. Not a sleigh passed but there was a rush from the children to +the window, and Colonel Rolleston, who was building one, received fresh +suggestions about it most days from his excited family. + +Every morning Cecil, under Bluebell's tuition, practised skating at the +Rink, and had devised an original and becoming costume to be assumed as +soon as she had attained sufficient command of her limbs not to object to +a share of public attention. In the afternoon the Rink was generally +crowded, and many of the Colonel's regiment evinced an eagerness to help +Cecil along, and pretend to receive instruction from the skilful and +blooming Bluebell; so poor Mrs. Rolleston was then invariably detailed by +the Colonel for chaperone duty, and sat shivering on the platform while +Cecil was being initiated in the mysteries of "Dutch rolls" and "outside +edge." On one of these occasions she was roused by a well-known voice +calling her by name, and turned round in joyful surprise to greet a young +man just come in. + +"My dear Bertie, were have you sprung from? Have you been to our house?" + +"Just left it and my traps. Lascelles suddenly gave up his leave, which +I applied for, and have got a week certain, and most likely all of it, +for there are plenty of Captains down there; so I thought I would look +you up to begin with." + +"To begin with! You must stay here all the time--make it head quarters, +at any rate. You have been travelling all the summer, and there's nothing +to do now." + +"Moose," murmured Bertie. "Ah! there's Cecil." + +Cecil, skating hand-in-hand to the tune of "Paddle your own canoe," +was not sufficiently disengaged to remark her mother's companion. His +eyes followed her with a keen, comprehensive glance, which Mrs. Rolleston +observed complacently. + +"Don't you think her much improved?--much prettier?" asked she. + +"Skating always suits a well-made girl. That black and scarlet get-up, +too, is very becoming, but pretty--hardly." + +"She is, however, very much admired," said Mrs. Rolleston, warmly, for a +step-mother. + +"Ah!" cried Bertie, with a slight accent of bitterness, "reasons enough +for that. How well some of these girls skate! Who is that shooting-star?" + +The planet in question gyrated towards them, dropped on one knee on the +platform for the relief of strained ankles, and, as she addressed Mrs. +Rolleston, caught a look of decided admiration on Bertie's face. + +A Canadian girl is nothing if not self-possessed; she sustained the gaze +with the most perfect calmness. + +"Bluebell, this is my brother, Captain Du Meresq. Cecil ought to rest; +will you go and tell her to come here?" + +"Who is that young beauty whom you addressed in the language of flowers?" +asked he. + +"Nonsense, Bertie! she is Freddy's governess. You must not begin to talk +absurdity to her; you will annoy Edward." + +"He don't object to fair faces on his own account." + +"Well, this particular one is more bother than pleasure to him. You +know his horror of 'danglers'; he is afraid of aimless flirtations +with Bluebell, who, being also Cecil's companion, is constantly in the +drawing-room." + +"Ah, my beloved niece," said Captain Du Meresq, as he gave Cecil +considerable support from the ice to the platform. + +"What has given us this unexpected treat?" said she, with a warmer hue +than usual in her clear, pale cheek. + +"My anxiety to see your new companion." + +"Whose existence, I suppose, you have just heard of." + +"It has been my loss," retorted he. "Fascinating young creature! The name +Bluebell just describes those wild hyacinth eyes." + +"Oh! Bertie," said his sister and Cecil together, "how absurd you are +about girls." + +"And then," persisted he, "that charming tawny hair and milk white skin." + +"One might think you were describing an Alderney cow. It's a pity she is +not called 'Daisy' or 'Cowslip.'" + +"Girls are all alike," said Captain Du Meresq, sententiously. "Even you, +my beloved Cecil, who are a woman of mind, can't stand my wild admiration +of--Cowslip." + +Cecil raised her eyebrows, and a scornful beam shot from the dark eyes +that were her chief attraction. + +"Nor could the 'dairy flower' herself, I should think. It's no use +rhapsodizing before me, Bertie; _I_ shall not tell her in any +confidential communication, whatever you may think." + +"Ah, well," said Captain Du Meresq, with a sigh, "let us hope the +ingenious child may understand the universal language of the eyes, for +I hear papa would not approve of my speaking to her." + +Mrs. Rolleston was becoming fidgetty. To some women, as they advance +in years, an inability of separating chaff from earnest becomes more +pronounced, and the uppermost wish of her mind at present was to see a +real attachment between Bertie and Cecil. Albert Du Meresq was only her +half-brother; but he had become her charge in infancy under terrible +circumstances, which we will briefly relate. + +When Mr. Du Meresq married his mother, a wilful Irish beauty, Mrs. +Rolleston was a shy, reserved girl of thirteen, and became very jealous +of her father's exclusive devotion to his bride and neglect of herself. + +Lady Inez looked upon her as rather a nuisance, and was coldly critical +upon her appearance and manner. She was an unsparing mimic, and +frequently exercised the faculty on her step-daughter, whose nervousness +became awkwardness in the constant expectation of being turned into +ridicule. Consequently, she cordially disliked not only Lady Inez, but +the little step-brother, who was made of so much importance, till one +ghastly day changed the aspect of events. + +Like a fearful dream it had seemed--a strange carriage rolling to the +door, from which emerged her father and another gentleman carrying a +terrible burden, looking supernaturally long in a riding-habit. White +scared faces flitted about; but life was extinct, and there was no +frantic riding for doctors. + +There had been a hunt-breakfast that morning, and she well remembered the +envy she had felt at seeing Lady Inez ride gaily forth with the rest on a +favourite horse. + +"She has everything," thought Bella, "'Reindeer' was promised to me when +he was a foal, and I have never been on his back." + +But Lady Inez was lying there, with the mark of "Reindeer's" iron hoof on +her temple. They had come down together at a blind fence; the horse, +entangled in her habit, struck out _once_, as thorough-breds will, but it +was a death-blow. + +The voice of the child, crying alone and neglected in the nursery, +aroused Bella from a horror stricken stupor. Her father's despair made +him unapproachable, but she might comfort Bertie, forgotten by his +attendants. + +From this time she became almost a mother to him, for Mr. Du Meresq went +abroad, and they were left alone in the deserted house for some years. + +Bertie had left Eton, and just obtained a commission in the ---- Hussars, +when his father died, leaving him a moderate fortune, which steadily +decreased as years went by. It had approached attenuation by this time, +and Mrs. Rolleston felt as distracted and perplexed as a duckling's hen +foster-mother, at the vagaries of the happy-go-lucky, reckless Irish +blood in Bertie, which did not flow in her own veins. + +She looked forward to marrying him to Cecil, as the best chance of +relieving his pecuniary difficulties and reforming his unsteadiness. + +Captain Du Meresq had stayed with them for six weeks some time ago, +when he and Cecil became inseparable companions, and it was then that +the idea had dawned upon her. She would not openly discuss it with her +brother--that would have too much the appearance of a plot: but her +lively satisfaction at the prospect was apparent enough, and Bertie knew +her co-operation would not be wanting. + +He had thought of it more than once. What chance had he not calculated +to get him through his sea of difficulties; but a thousand a year alone +seemed scarcely sufficient temptation to matrimony, to which he did not +seriously incline. Indeed, his warm impressionable nature was not the +temperament of a fortune-hunter. + +He was attracted with Cecil, and got rather fond of her in the six weeks +he had been trying to make her in love with him, not with any mercenary +view, but because such was his usual custom with girls. + +But he was afflicted with a keen eye for beauty, and Cecil was plain to +most eyes, and too colourless for his taste, though she possessed a +lovely figure, thorough-bred little head, and a pale, intelligent, +expressive face. + +Bluebell's lilies and roses and Hebe-like contour caught his eye in a +moment, of which Cecil felt an instinctive conviction; but though, with a +woman's keenness, underrating no point of attraction in her friend, she +considered her wanting in style, which deficiency she dwelt on now with +secret satisfaction. For though not in the least anxious to monopolize +general admiration, that of Bertie Du Meresq was unfortunately a +sensitive point with Cecil, for that six weeks had been the intensest +period of her life--the dawning of "love's young dream." + +She had never met him since childhood till then, when they were thrown +together with the intimacy of near connexions. There was not, of course, +the slightest real relationship, but Bertie jestingly called her his +niece, perhaps, to establish a right of chaperonage. + +He used to make her come down to breakfast _en Amazone_, and took her the +most enchanting rides in that Seductive April weather. Her equestrian +experience previously had been limited to steady macadamizing on the +roads. Bertie took her as the crow flies, never pulled a fence, but +merely gave her a lead, and Cecil, who had plenty of nerve, exulted in +the new excitement. The farmers might not have thought it a very orthodox +month for this amusement; but hunting was scarcely over, though the +copses were filled with primroses, and violets scented the hedgerows; the +birds sang as they only do when the great business of their year is +commencing. And then she had such a mount, a perfect hunter of her +_quasi_-uncle's. It never refused, and took its fences with such ease a +child might have sat it. + +Or they would ride dreamily on in woody glades, both alike susceptible +to the shafts of sunlight, quivering on the leaves, the sudden gush +of fragrance after a shower, and all the myriad appeals of spring to +those who have that touch of poetry in their clay which is the key of +fairy-land, their horses meantime snatching at the young green boughs as +they sauntered lazily on; and Du Meresq, who had travelled in all sorts +of strange out-of-the way places, described weirder scenes in other +lands, and pictured a fuller, more vivid life than she in her routine +existence had dreamed of. + +Bertie was always all in all to the woman he was with, provided no other +was present; and Cecil, young, and full of sympathy and intelligence, was +a delightful companion. His appreciation, felt and expressed, of her +quickness of comprehension was most agreeable flattery; the more so as he +confided in her so fully, even consulting her about his own private +affairs, for he was very hard pressed at this time, and she, who had +never known the want of money, took the deepest interest in it all. + +He seemed never able to bear her out of his sight. If she played, he +was hanging over the piano; if he had letters to write, Cecil must do +it from his dictation; and yet he would avow sometimes before her such +extravagant adoration for some pretty girl, that Cecil, chilled and +surprised, would feel more than ever doubtful of her own influence; +and the honeyed words she had treasured up, faded away as void of +significance. And then one day,--suddenly,--on her return from a +croquet-party, she heard he had received a telegram, and gone, leaving +a careless message of adieu. + +Poor Cecil! with the instinct of the wounded animal to its lair, she +rushed to her own room, locked the door, and walked about in a tearless +abandonment of grief, disappointment, and surprise. How could he leave +her without one word? She felt half stunned, and her brain seemed capable +of only the dull reiteration that "Bertie was gone." Tears welled up to +her eyes then, when the sound of the first dinner-bell drove them back. +She felt she must battle alone with this strange affliction; and trying +to efface from her features all evidence of the shock she had sustained, +descended to dinner, looking rather more stately than usual. + +It annoyed her to observe that her step-mother glanced deprecatingly at +her, and was inclined to be extra affectionate. This would never do. Like +most young girls, she was generally rather silent when not interested in +the discussions of her elders. But now she never let conversation drop. +The incidents of the croquet-party furnished a safe topic. Colonel +Rolleston thought the gentle dissipation had made his daughter quite +lively. Afterwards she took refuge at the piano, which was imprudent, for +music only too surely touches the chord of feeling, and every piece was +associated with Bertie. Cecil shut the instrument, and effected a +strategical retreat to her bed-room, where, in the luxury of solitude, +she might worry and torment herself to her heart's content. His absence +was trial enough, but the sting lay in the way it was done, which was +such a proof of indifference, that shame urged her to crush out all +thoughts of him, and suffer anything rather than let him see the +impression his careless affection had made on her. + +And so Cecil passed through her first "baptism of fire" alone and +unsuspected; but time had softened much of her resentment ere they met +again. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +GENTLE ANNIE. + + The time I've lost in wooing, + In watching and pursuing + The light that lies + In woman's eyes, + Has been my heart's undoing. + --Moore. + + +"Bluebell," said little Lola, bursting into the nursery, where Freddy, +rather a tyrant in his affections, had insisted on her singing him to +sleep, "Ma says you have got to dine down to-night, and Miss Prosody, + +too. Won't she be in a way, for her white muslin never came home from the +wash, and she had begun altering the _barčge_; so I asked Felda to tell +her," said Lola, diplomatically. "Do you know Bertie has come?" (His +nieces never prefaced his name with the formality of uncle.) "Oh of +course, you must have seen him at the Rink. Do you like him? He is sure +to like you, at first, at any rate," said Lola, who apparently, like +other lookers-on saw most of the game. "And don't tell, but I believe he +hates Miss Prosody." + +"Why?" asked Bluebell, absently. + +"Well, one day he was whispering to Cecil, with their heads very near +together. Miss Prosody was looking for a book in a recess behind the +door, close to them; but they never saw her till she moved away, and I +heard Bertie mutter something about an 'inquisitive old devil.' But don't +tell, mind. There's the bell; I must go to tea," _Exit_ Lola, and +Bluebell flew off with some alacrity to her bed-room to prepare. + +"Bluebell," cried Cecil, opening the intervening door, "can I lend you +anything?" It pleased her to supply her friend's deficiencies of toilet +when a sudden summons to a domestic field-day had been issued. + +"Is it a party?" said the other. "I have only my eternal black-net +dress." + +"Just Mr. Vavasour and Captain Deveril," both in her father's regiment; +they never either of them alluded to Bertie. "Here are some fixings for +it," returning with a lapful of silver acorns and oak leaves, "unless you +would prefer butter-cups. What a thing it is to have a complexion like +yours, that everything goes with,"--and Cecil looked with half envy at +the girl, whose blue eyes were bluer, and hair and cheeks brighter, than +usual, as she chattered away with a vivacity, of which, perhaps, the +nattering glances of Captain Du Meresq may have been the secret spring. + +Bluebell hadn't the slightest idea of assuming the demure demeanour of +a governess in society; the Rollestons had been her great friends before, +and did not treat her as if she was in any altered position; not so, +however, Miss Prosody, who would have reduced her to the _status_ of a +nursery-maid had it been in her power. + +That austere virgin was talking, or rather listening, in a sympathetic +manner to Colonel Rolleston as the girls entered the room; but her eye +had taken in every detail of Miss Leigh's costume, and disapprovingly +remarked the silver oak leaves that festooned the black-net dress, and +Maltese cross and bracelets that accompanied it, all of which she well +knew belonged to Cecil. + +The three young men were talking together. + +"Du Meresq," said Captain Deveril, "you get more leave than any other +fellow. You were in the Prairies in July, England in the spring, and now +here you are at large again in January." + +"You must have a rattling good chief," said Mr. Vavasour, "I don't think, +Mrs. Rolleston, the Colonel is ever able to spare us quite so often." + +"You see," said Bertie, "there's no demand for leave among our fellows +just now; they are all in love at Montreal, and there's so much going on +there. Lascelles most imprudently gave up his to drive Miss Ellery about +a little longer." + +"Oh, ah, I know her," said young Vavasour; "girl with grey eyes, and head +always on one side when she's valsing; looks as if she was kissing her +own shoulder." + +"Will she land him, do you think?" said Deveril. + +"Not she," said Bertie. "I have known him in as bad a scrape before; +he'll get away to England soon; he always bolts when the family becomes +affectionate." + +A discordant gong resounding through the house was followed by the +announcement of dinner. + +"Come, my dear Miss Prosody," said the Colonel, complacently, leading her +forth; he hadn't near done his recital of the morning's field-day, which +required that delicate tact and judicious prompting to extort from him +that, though not really Brigadier on the occasion, his opinion and +authority had actually directed the proceedings. + +Generally any amount of this affectionate incense was forthcoming from +his wife and daughter; but to-night they both seemed a little _distrait_ +and occupied with Bertie, which, however, was a loss little felt with +Miss Prosody present, whose motto seemed that of the volunteers, "Always +ready," and her "soothing treatment" was certainly equal to that of +either of the others. + +"It's you and I, Miss Bluebell," said young Vavasour, hastily offering +his arm, while Bertie who had hesitated an instant, gave his to Cecil. +The momentary reluctance was not lost upon her, she become rather silent, +ditto Captain Du Meresq; but their opposite neighbours were in a full +flow of chatter. + +"I saw you on the Rink, Miss Leigh, I wish I could skate like you. What +is that thing you do with a broom??" + +"The rose." + +"Take a good deal of cultivating to produce. I should think? Are you +going to the M'Nab's ball?" + +"No; I am not asked. The others are." + +"But you do go to balls sometimes?" + +"Oh, yes; Mrs. Rolleston promised I should; but I can't go without an +invitation, and I very seldom get one." + +"I daresay not," said Jack hotly; "they don't want their daughters cut +out." + +"Stuff," cried Bluebell, with a sudden blush, which was not occasioned by +the remark, but by the expression of Bertie Du Meresq's eyes that she had +caught for about the third time since dinner began. It was very +provoking; they had a sort of magnetic power, that forced her to look +that way, and she fancied she detected a half-pleased smile in +recognition of the involuntary suffusion. + +"We are going; to 'fix up a prance' after the garrison sleigh drive on +the 10th," continued young Vavasour; "will you come my sleigh, Miss +Leigh?" + +Bluebell's face brightened with anticipation; then she looked down, and +demurred,--"I don't know that I shall be able to go." + +"That's only a put off, I am sure; you came out last garrison +sleigh-drive." + +"Yes, because Colonel Rolleston took me in his, but I mustn't expect +to go every time; and you see there's Freddy; but I _should_ like it +awfully, Mr. Vavasour." + +"Well, I know they will make you come," said he confidently. "Promise me +you won't drive with any other fellow." + +"No fear of that; I don't suppose any one else will ask me." + +"Wouldn't they," thought Vavasour. "I know two or three of our fellows +are death on driving her." + +"Cecil," said Bertie, suddenly, "I think you have grown much quieter." + +"I am sure I might make the same remark, and for the purposes of +conversation it requires two to talk." + +"You are so stiff, or something," murmured he; "not like the jolly little +girl who used to ride with me in the Farwoods. Those were pleasant days, +Cecil--at least, I thought so." + +"You got very suddenly tired of them, however." + +"That I didn't," exclaimed he. "I was obliged to go." + +"It was a yachting excursion, wasn't it?" carelessly. + +"Yes, ostensibly; I had business too. Do you know Cecil very nearly wrote +to you. But then, I thought you wouldn't care to hear from me, and might +think it a bore answering." + +Cecil was silent. "Did you miss me, my child?" + +She forgot her resolves, and met his eyes with a dark, soft look. + +Bertie pressed her hand under the table, and for a moment they were +oblivious of anything passing around. + +"Sweet or dry, sir?" said the deep voice of the liveried [unreadable], +for the second time of asking. + +Du Meresq darted a searching glance at the man, who looked as stolid as +the Serjeant in 'Our's.' No one could have guessed he was thinking what +a _piquante_ anecdote it would be to relate to his inamorata, the cook, +over their supper-beer. Bertie gave a laughing but relieved glance at +his neighbour, whose eyes were fixed on her plate. They both began +simultaneously talking louder, with an exaggerated openness, on general +topics. Mrs. Rolleston joined in. + +"You must stay over the sleighing-party, Bertie." + +"I hate driving a hired sleigh," said he. "I wish I could get mine up; +but the Grand Trunk would be sure to deliver it the day after the fair." + +"But you have your musk-ox robes here; they would dress up the shabbiest +sleigh. I only saw one set like them on New Year's Day, when we had at +least sixty sleighs up here." + +"How did you enjoy that celebration?" + +"I think," said Cecil, "it is rather tiresome for ladies to have to stay +in all day and receive, while the gentlemen go out calling. We had a +spread, of course--luncheon, tea, coffee, everything. One man, who had a +large acquaintance, came before breakfast, and they were rushing in all +day. It would have been well enough if they were not in such a hurry; but +they just swallowed a glass of wine, and the burden of all their remarks +was, 'I have been to a dozen places already, and have about thirty or +forty more to do.'" + +"Could not you two young ladies make them linger over smiles and wine?" +laughed Bertie. "We are not such duffers at Montreal." + +"No, indeed. I saw Bluebell give a man a scalding cup of coffee, with the +most engaging smile. There was a nervous glance at the clock. 'Oh, thank +you, Miss Leigh, how hot it is! I shall never have time to drink it,' +just as if he had a train to catch." + +"They have an arrear of balls and dinners to call for; that is the only +day in the year a good many ever can pay visits--the civilians, I mean." + +The Colonel, who had now exhausted conversation with Miss Prosody, had +leisure to observe the determined flirtation of young Vavasour with +Bluebell. That unformidable young person being only seventeen, of course +looked upon him as a mere boy, and her chaffing manner was not at all to +the Colonel's taste, whose attention was drawn to it by an expressive +glance from Miss Prosody; so he telegraphed to his wife, who soon +signalled her female following from the room. + +Bertie got to the door, and as Bluebell passed through last of the +ladies, she again met that look of interest and admiration Du Meresq had +practised so often. + +Shyness hitherto had been no infirmity of this young Canadian; but Bertie +somehow had mesmerized her into a state of consciousness--it was a +cobwebby kind of fetter, but the first she had worn. + +"Come and talk to me Bluebell," said Mrs. Rolleston, "as Cecil is so +studious." + +The former glanced at her friend, and involuntarily whispered--"_How_ +well she looks to-night!" + +Cecil was sitting apart, utterly absent as it seemed, but her eyes were +shining, and there was a soft brightness about her as she turned over the +pages of a book. It was "The Wanderer,"--one that Bertie had brought with +him. + +Mrs. Rolleston agreed and interpreted it her own way. Bluebell drew a +long rocking-chair by her side, and they fell into a pleasant little +talk. Mrs. Rolleston always made a pet of this child; she was the best of +step-mothers, but stood a little in awe of Cecil. + +Du Meresq came in shortly before the rest; the elder girl did not even +look up, but her face again lit. He stood _ŕ l'Anglais_, with his back to +the fire, talking to his sister, and occasionally, though without any +particular _empressement_, addressing Bluebell, who thought his voice +sweeter than any man's she had ever heard. It made her unconsciously +modulate her own, which as yet had the untuned accents of early girlhood; +but the spell was on her, and she felt, for the first time, at a loss for +words. Yet when Mrs. Rolleston shortly after sent her to the piano, it +was more of disappointment than a relief. Some one was following to turn +the leaves--only Mr. Vavasour--odious, officious boy! Who wanted him? + +"Pray, don't," cried she, pettishly. "You are sure to do it all wrong." + +"Let me try," pleaded Jack. "If you just look at me I shall know when to +turn." + +"Well, see if you can bring that book" (indicating a very heavy one at +the bottom of a pile) "without spilling the rest, or dropping it on your +toes. Thank you. Now you had better go away; this is not at all the sort +of music you would understand." + +"Classical, I suppose. I am afraid my taste is too uncultivated." + +"Come, Miss Leigh," said the Colonel, half-impatiently, "we are all +expectation." + +Bertie had approached Cecil, and taken up the book she was reading. It +was open at "Aux Italiens," and he murmured low some of the verses:-- + + "I thought of the dress she wore last time, + When we stood 'neath the cypress trees together, + In that lost land, in that soft clime, + In the crimson evening weather. + Of her muslin dress, for the eve was hot, + And her warm white neck in its golden chain. + And her full soft hair, just tied in a knot, + And falling loose again." + +Mrs. Rolleston thought they looked very like lovers bending over the same +book, and their eyes speaking to each other, and in harmony with it went +rippling on one of the wildest and most plaintive of the Lieders under +Bluebell's sympathetic and brilliant fingers. + +"What a magnificent touch that child has!" said Du Meresq, pausing to +listen. + +"She has quite a genius for music;" and, mentally, she commented, "I +never heard her play better." + +"She plays," said Bertie, "as if she were desperately in love." + +"With Mr. Vavasour?" laughed Cecil. + +"With no one, I dare say. It indicates, however, a _besoin d'aimer_." + +Cecil took up "The Wanderer" again, but she soon found they were not _en +rapport_. The captain's temperament was now, ear and fancy, under the +spell of the fair musician. + +Bertie was soon by the piano, but Bluebell ceased almost directly after. +He had brought from Montreal [unreadable] Minstrel Melodies, then just +out, and asked her to try one. She excused herself on the plea that it +was a man's song, so he began it himself. Who has not suffered from the +male amateur, who comes forward with bashful fatuity to favour the +company with a strain tame and inaudible as a nervous school girl's? +Bertie was no musician, and his songs were all picked up by ear, but +there was a passion and _timbre_ in the tenor voice, fascinating if +unskilful, and the refrain of "Gentle Annie," + + "Shall we never more behold her, + Never hear that winning voice again, + Till the spring time comes, gentle Annie, + Till the wild flowers are scattered o'er the plain?" + +lingered with its mournful, tender inflection in more than one ear +that night. + +Afterwards the two young men from the barracks, muffled to the chin in +buffalo robes, lit the inevitable cigar, and jingled merrily off to the +music of the bells. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +SATURDAY AT HOME. + + Unhasp the lock--like elves set free, + Flit out old memories; + A strange glow gathers round my heart. + Strange moisture dims mine eyes. + --Lawrance. + + +Cecil woke the next morning with the feeling that something pleasant had +happened; and then she remembered that Bertie Du Meresq was actually in +the house, and the old folly as likely as ever to begin again; but, not +possessing the self-examining powers of Anthony Trolloppe's heroines, she +made no attempt to argue herself out of her unreasonable happiness, and, +indeed, dwelt far more than necessary on the warm, sudden hand-clasp so +inopportunely witnessed by full private Bowers. She came down radiant, +and looking positively handsome; but when did a too sunny dawn escape a +cloud ere noon? Bertie seemed different somehow,--was not certain he +could get more leave,--was even doubtful about asking for it; and Cecil's +mental Mercury, which had been "set fair," went down to "change." In +reality, Du Meresq not being so etherealized by love, felt out of sorts, +and not up to the mark that morning, and, therefore, probably opined with +Moore-- + + "Thus should woman's heart and looks, + At noon be cold as winter brooks, + Nor kindle till the night returning + Brings their genial hour for burning." + +At any rate, he actually went to the barracks with the Colonel, "as if he +couldn't get enough of that," thought Cecil, "when he is not on leave." + +But after severe reflections on herself for caring a straw about it, +Cecil had forgiven him, and a deceitful sunbeam peeped through in the +prospect of meeting at luncheon, only to be again overcast, as the +Colonel returned without the recreant Bertie. + +This second reverse overthrew her afternoon arrangements, for she had +reckoned on Du Meresq's escort to the Rink. This being Saturday, Bluebell +always went home till the following day, and Mrs. Rolleston would not be +available even for a drive, for she hated sleighing, and was looking +forward to writing her English letters in the cozy drawing-room, and +sociably imbibing afternoon tea with any visitors hardy enough to face +the bitter northwester, happily so rare a visitant in that sufficiently +inclement climate. + +But Cecil preferred facing any weather to her own thoughts, and, +encountering three Astrakhan-jacketed and fur-capped sisters under convoy +of Miss Prosody, was carried off by them to enliven their dismal +constitutional. + +In the meantime, Captain Du Meresq, having lunched at the barracks, drove +with Mr. Vavasour to the Rink, expecting to find both girls there: but +speculating rather the most on the chance of having a more unrestrained +conversation with Bluebell than he cared for under the eyes of her +responsible guardians. His projects also were to prove futile, for that +young person was speeding over the frozen tract on the common at the +time. The snow was as dry and hard as powdered sugar, and her cloud was +stiff with her frozen breath; her ears felt as though she had thrust them +into a holly-bush, and the razor-like wind in that unsheltered spot must +have arrested the circulation of any less healthy and youthful +pedestrian. The morning had dawned prosperously for her, as Mrs. +Rolleston had accorded permission to join the sleigh-party, the _summum +bonum_ of her hopes; and the gratification was rendered more complete by +a charming present from Cecil of an ermine cap, muff lined with scarlet, +and ermine neck-tie, fastened by its cunning little head and tail. + +Bluebell was picturing their effect on the velveteen jacket hitherto +so coldly furnished forth, and thinking that Cecil must have ordered +them from Montreal with a view to this party, as they had arrived so +opportunely. She remembered now that Lola had, apparently, been +struggling with a secret for some days; and yet, when she, Bluebell, had +been so ecstatic, Cecil had seemed more thoughtful than sympathetic and +merely acknowledging her thanks by a quiet kiss, had escaped from the +room. + +Two expectant faces were peering over the blind at the cottage, watching +the gay footsteps battling across the common. Even Aunt Jane looked +forward to seeing this weekly messenger from the outer world, which, +needless to say, kept well aloof from these poor and insignificant +ladies. + +Bluebell always brought every piece of gossip she could collect to feed +Miss Opie's inquisitive mind who was in no way exempt from the sin +supposed to most easily beset spinsterhood and her girlish spirits +brightened the quiet cottage and left their echo behind through the dull +week. She was by no means an unmixed good when she lived there. Her +vivacity, having nothing to expend itself on, often turned to desperate +fits of discontent and _ennui_, but now, coming home was a holiday and +change. + +All the inhabitants, old ladies, and new girl (for each successive one +went away to better herself after a few weeks residence), assembled +simultaneously at the hall door, and drew their visitor from the bitter +blast into the stove lit parlour. One yet more humble welcomer was there +of the vagabond tribe--petty larceny in every curve of his ungainly form, +and his spirit so broken by adversity that he only ventured to wag his +shabby tail in recognition of his benefactress. + +This was Bluebell's casual--one of a too common race in Canada of +homeless, starved animals there being no Refuge or dog tax to compel them +to live under protection or not at all. + +This reclaimed cur after overcoming his strong suspicion of poison, had +supported himself for sometime on the food Bluebell placed for him in the +shed and when emboldened by hunger and the handsome treatment he had +received he ventured into the house, he was authorized to remain as watch +dog and protector. + +In the summer, too, horses were added to her pensioners and invited in to +graze on the patch of enclosed grass at the back of the cottage, till it +fell short from being burned up or eaten, for the common was haunted with +gaunt, famished quadrupeds, who, in the drought of summer, were still +left to look for the mockery of subsistence on the bare, parched ground. + +It was a cheerful party gathered round the tea-table, quite lavishly set +forth in honour of the guest. Scones and tea cakes were plenteously +saturated with butter, regardless of its winter price (the old ladies +would breakfast on bread and scrape the rest of the week with +uncomplaining self-denial), and a heavy plum cake formed the _pięce de +resistance_. + +Trove, for olfactory reasons, was accommodated with his share on a rug +in the passage. Bluebell was the chief talker, with her week's arrears +of news. Captain du Meresq's arrival created a little buzz of interest. + +"Is he handsome?" asked Mrs. Leigh, sentimentally, whose thoughts had +flown back to earlier days. + +Bluebell looked up with an odd, perplexed glance. "Upon my word, I don't +know." + +"Ah! there were more good-looking people in my day," said her mother. +"There was Captain Fletcher, in your poor father's regiment, the +handsomest man that was ever seen,--fresh-coloured, with golden whiskers, +and long, drooping moustache. All we girls were wild about him. Is +Captain Du Meresq at all like that?" + +"Not in the least. I can't describe him--fine-shaped head, such strange +eyes. Oh! I dare say you would think him hideous," with a conscious +laugh. + +Miss Opie coughed suspiciously. "It is unfortunate," said she, "when you +are in such a pleasant situation, that any disturbing element should +enter. I hope, Bluebell, you will be very circumspect in your demeanour +towards this gentleman." + +"What," said Bluebell, in demure imitation of her manner, "would you +consider an appropriate attitude for me to assume towards him?" + +"These fine Captains are too fond of turning young girls' heads," said +Miss Opie, shaking her own; "'leading captive silly women,' as we read. +If he attempt any foolish, trifling conversation, you should check it +with cold civility." + +Bluebell burst into an irreverent fit of laughter, and even Mrs. Leigh +said,--"Oh, those are your English ideas, Aunt Jane; we are not so stiff +in Canada." + +Mrs. Opie having been a governess for ten years in the mother country, +was looked upon as a naturalized Briton. + +"I think the old country must be very dull," said Bluebell. "Miss Prosody +is always pursing up her mouth and bridling if I laugh and talk with any +of the officers; and one day I distinctly overheard her whisper to the +Colonel,--'very forward,' and nod towards me." + +"It is, however, well to profit by such remarks," returned Miss Opie; +"there is doubtless some truth in them, however unpalatable." + +"But," urged the girl, "Colonel Rolleston can't _bear_ one to be silent +or dull; he always asks if one isn't well; and I shouldn't think you +could call Captain Du Meresq a flirt. Why, he has hardly spoken ten words +to me yet,"--but a sudden glow came to her cheeks as she remembered how +many he had looked. + +"Well, well, I was only warning you. Fetch the backgammon board; your +mother has won seven games and I nine since you went." + +Bluebell complied, and, settling the ladies on either side of a +papier-maché table, opened the piano, and began dreamily playing through +the music of the night before. Trove, finding the door ajar, had pushed +in, and lay near the instrument, listening in that strange way some dogs +do if the tones come from the heart, and not merely the fingers. + +Having got through the last evening's _répertoire,_ she sat musing on the +music-stool, and then crooned rather low an old song of her mother's, +beginning,-- + + "They tell me thou art the favoured guest + In many a gay and brilliant throng; + No wit like thine to wake the jest, + No voice like thine to raise the song." + +"Oh! that is too old-fashioned," said Mrs. Leigh, and Miss Opie coughed +dryly. But why need Bluebell have blushed so consciously, as she dashed +into Lightning galops and Tom Tiddler quadrilles, till Trove, like a dog +of taste, took his offended ears and outraged nerves off to his lair in +the lobby? + +His fair mistress soon after sought her bower, a scantily furnished +retreat, but, like most girls' rooms, taking a certain amount of +individuality from its occupier. Everything in the little room was blue, +and each article a present. Photographs of school friends were suspended +from the wall with ribbons of her name-sake colour. It was in the earlier +days of the art, when a stony stare, pursed lips, and general rigidity +were considered essential to the production of the portrait. + +Blue, also, were the pincushion and glass toilet implements on the +dressing-table, and a rocking-chair had its cushion embroidered in +bluebells--a tribute of affection from a late schoolfellow. + +The bed was curtainless, and neutral except as to its blue valance, and +the carpet only cocoa-nut matting, which, however, harmonized fairly with +the prevailing cerulean effect. + +Bluebell was writing in a book, guarded by a Bramah, some profound +reflections on "First Impressions." She never lost the key nor forgot to +lock this volume--a saving clause of common-sense protecting a farrago of +nonsence. + +"Ces beaux jours, quand j'étais si malheureux." Have you ever, reader, +taken up an old journal written in early youth, and thought how those +intensely black and white days have now mingled into unnoticeable grey, +half-thankful that the old ghosts are laid, half-regretful for that +keener susceptibility to joy and sorrow gone by? Then, as "the hand +that has written it lays it aside," there is, perhaps, a pang at the +reflection of how the paths now diverge of those who once walked together +as-- + + "Time turns the old days to derision, + Our loves into corpses--or wives; + And marriage, and death, and division, + Make barren our lives." + +But Bluebell knows nothing of that. She is at the scribbling age, and can +actually endure to describe, as if they were new and entirely original, +the dawning follies of seventeen. + +In England a heroine might have wound up such sentimental exercises with +gazing out on the moonlit scene; but nine degrees below zero was +unfavourable for the wooing of Diana. The "cold light of stars" was no +poetical figure, and Bluebell, frozen back to the prosaic, piled up the +stove, and crept into bed, where her waking dreams soon merged into +sleeping ones. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +A WOODLAND WALK. + + I hope, pretty maid, you won't take it amiss, + If I tell you my reason for asking you this, + I would see you safe home (now the swain was in love), + Of such a companion if you would approve. + Your offer, kind shepherd, is civil, I own, + But I see no great danger in going alone; + Nor yet can I hinder, the road being free + For one as another, for you as for me. + + +It was Sunday afternoon. Bluebell was on her way to the Maples, and had +not proceeded far when she observed a Robinson Crusoe-looking figure in +one of those grotesque fur caps and impossible hooded blankets that the +fashionable Briton in Canada so fondly affects. She was speculating idly +upon whom it could be. + +"Not Mr. Gordon, though the 'Fool's-cap' is like his; and Major Simeon +has one of those. Oh, Captain Du Meresq!" + +She bowed rather undecidedly, and then moved on abruptly. + +But Bertie did not pass by. + +"Are you returning?" asked he. "They can't get on without you. Freddy has +dropped a cinder into his nurse's tea, and set fire to the straw in the +cat's basket." + +Bluebell laughed shyly. + +"I have been to see mamma. Do not let me bring you out of your way, +Captain Du Meresq,"--for he had turned back with her. + +"Oh, I was only going for a walk," said Bertie, innocently,--a harmless +amusement that, without any other object, he was simply incapable of +undertaking. "Hadn't I better see you home; there's a brute of a dog down +there who sprang out at me! I broke my stick across his head, and then, +of course, I had to apologize, being disarmed." + +"I know that fierce dog. He belongs to a cabman; but I always speak to +him, and he never attacks me." + +"Even a lion itself would flee from a maid in the pride of her purity," +laughed Bertie. "But, Miss Leigh, must we positively go shivering across +this bleak desert again?--isn't there some sheltered way through the +wood?" + +"There certainly is; but it is three miles round, and, I dare say, full +of drifts." + +"Never mind, all the better fun. Up this way?" + +"Oh, but isn't it late? I think they will be expecting me before." + +"There's nobody at home, if that's all," said Bertie. "They have gone to +the Cathedral, and most likely will turn into tea at the Van Calmonts." + +The scrambling walk was a temptation, the common hideous and cold. + +"We must walk very quick, then." + +"Run, if you like. Come along, there's a dear child." + +Bluebell coloured furiously. + +"Maybe I won't go at all now!" + +"That is so like a girl," said Bertie impatiently; "standing coquetting +in the cold. Now, you are offended. What did I say? Only called you a +child." + +"You had no business to speak so," said Bluebell, angry at his familiar +manner, but rather at a loss for words. "Why can't you call me Miss +Leigh, like everybody else?" and the indignant little beauty paused, +with hot cheeks, and feeling desperately awkward. + +Du Meresq bit his lip to hide a smile. He was half afraid she would dash +off and terminate the interview. + +"Dear me!" said he. "When you are a little older you will think youth a +very good fault. Will you forgive me this once, Miss Leigh, and I will +not call you anything else?--for the present" (_sotto voce_). + +Bluebell was mollified, and rather proud of the good effects of her +reproof, notwithstanding the half-inaudible rider. Du Meresq, also, +was satisfied, for, without further opposition, they had struck into +the wood. Unused to the Britannic hamper of a chaperone, Bluebell saw +nothing singular in the proceeding. So they crunched over the snow, +keeping, as far as possible, the dazzling track marked by the wheels +of the sleigh-waggons, and plentifully powdered by the snow-laden trees; +now up to their knees in a drift, from which Bertie had the pleasure of +extricating his companion, who forgot her shyness in the difficulties of +the path, and, not being given to silence, was laughing and talking away +unreservedly. + +"What a strange girl she is!" thought Bertie. "Who would think, to hear +her chattering now, she _could_ have made that prim little speech? I must +not go on too fast; it reminds me of that Irish girl who said, the first +time I squeezed her hand, 'Ah, Captain Du Meresq, but you are such a +bould flirt!'" + +Sheltered from the bleak wind the walk on the crisp track was enjoyable +enough; the "strange eyes," being now on a line with and not confronting +her, were less embarrassing, and the slight awe she still felt of him +only gave a piquancy to the companionship. + +"Are you not very glad we came this way?" Bertie was saying. + +"If we had only snow-shoes," cried the breathless Bluebell, for the third +time slipping into a drift, but struggling out before Du Meresq could do +more than catch her hand. + +"Poor little fingers! how cold they are," trying to put them in with his +own into his large beaver gloves. + +"Oh, I wish you would be sensible," stammered Bluebell, much confused. + +"What's the use of being sensible," retorted he, "when it is so much +pleasanter being otherwise? Time enough for that when anybody's by." + +But Bluebell wrenched her hand away, bringing off the glove, which she +threw on the snow. + +"Is that a challenge, Miss Bluebell? Must take up the gauntlet? Good +gracious, my dear child, you are not really annoyed? Well, we will be +sensible, as you call it. Only you must begin; I don't know how." + +"Evidently," said Bluebell, very tartly, drawing as far away as the +exigencies of the track would admit. She could hold her own well enough +with the young subalterns she had hitherto flirted with, but this man was +older, and had a bewildering effect on her. + +"Are you and Cecil great friends?" asked Bertie, presently, with the air +of having forgotten the fracas. + +"I hope so," coming out of her offended silence at this neutral topic. "I +know I like her well enough." + +"And do you tell each other everything, after the manner of young +ladies?" + +"No-o," said Bluebell, reflectively; "not like the girls at school. You +see Cecil is older than I, and cleverer, I suppose, and doesn't talk much +nonsense." + +"Did she ever speak of me?" asked Bertie. + +"Hardly ever; the others have mentioned you often." + +"Cecil is a very sensible girl," with a re-assured countenance; "and as +you never talk nonsense, I suppose you won't mention the trivial fact of +our having taken this walk?" + +"Why in the world not?" opening her large violet eyes full upon him. + +"'Speech is silver, but silence is golden,' you unsophisticated child," +returned he, enigmatically. + +Bluebell considered. "Why, of course, I shall tell Mrs. Rolleston what +made me so late." + +"But not if she doesn't ask you?" + +"But why not? There is _no harm_ in it," said the girl, persistently. + +"No, no; but if you had lived as long as I, you would know that people +_always_ try and interfere with anything pleasant. I should so like to +take this walk with you every week, Bluebell." + +Bluebell looked down; she was vaguely flattered by his caring to repeat +the walk which she thought must be so unimportant to him,--it would be +something to look forward to, for she _had_ enjoyed it, though she could +not tell why. + +"But, Captain Du Meresq--" she began. + +"Call me Bertie, when we are alone," said he. + +They had entered on the street, Bluebell was wavering, but the last +sentence, "when we are alone," struck her ear unpleasantly. + +"How can I?" said she; "I do not know you well enough." + +"Walk with me sometimes," whispered Bertie, "and that reason will +disappear, but don't say a word about it to-day, there's a dear girl. +I had better make tracks for the club; you will be at home in five +minutes,"--and Du Meresq ceremoniously lifted his cap, for many eyes were +about, and disappeared down another block. + +Bluebell on finding herself alone, went through a disagreeable reaction. +It was certainly only a few yards to her destination; but it was annoying +to be left so abruptly, and an air of secrecy thrown over her actions +too. Did she like him, or hate him? She could not determine; her fancy +and her vanity were both touched, doubtless; then, remembering Miss +Opie's exhortations, a gleam of fun twinkled in her eyes as she thought +of what her horror would have been at Bertie's affectionate ease of +manner. + +All the same she crept into the house, feeling very underhand and +uncomfortable. None of the party had returned, so reprieved for the +present she went up to the nursery. + +Freddy was roaring on his back, he had just thrown "Peep-of-Day" at the +nurse's head, which had been unwisely offered to him as a substitute for +his favourite trumpet, when its excruciating blasts become too +unbearable. + +"Oh, I'm sure I'm glad you have come back, miss, for I don't know how to +abide that wearyin' child, as don't know what a whipping is. Here's your +governess, sir, as will put you in the corner." + +"Hold your tongue, you fool!" cried Freddy with supreme contempt. + +The _suaviter in modo_ was, indeed, the only treatment allowed in that +nursery. Bluebell retreated with a highly-coloured scrap-book to the +window, which she feigned complete absorption in. Freddy glanced at it +out of the tail of his eye. + +"Show me that, Boobell." + +"I don't know, Freddy," said the girl, feeling some slight moral coercion +incumbent on her. "Do you _think_ you will call nurse a fool again?" + +"She shouldn't bother," said the infant, confidentially, climbing into +her lap, but declining to commit himself to any pledges of good +behaviour. "Show me the book." + +Half-an-hour after, Mrs. Rolleston looking in, saw a pretty little +picture--the old nurse was nodding in a rocking-chair. Bluebell's fair +young face was bending over Freddy, seated on her lap, with as arm round +her neck, his cherubic visage beaming with interest as he listened to the +classic tale of "Three Wishes." It was easier to her to continue the +recital, while a dread of being questioned prevented her looking up. + +"Bluebell is telling Freddy such a beautiful fairy story," said Mrs. +Rolleston, to some one who had followed her to the nursery. + +"I wish she would tell fairy stories to me," said Bertie. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +VISITORS. + + In aught that from me lures thine eyes + My jealousy has trial; + The lightest cloud across the skies + Has darkness for the dial. + --Lord Lytton. + + +Bluebell had no difficulty in preserving silence about the Sunday's +escapade. It never occurred to Mrs. Rolleston to enquire what time she +had returned, and an evasive answer to Cecil was all that it entailed. +But she was very much perplexed by the change in Captain Du Meresq's +manner. The cold civility recommended by Miss Opie seemed all on his +side. Nothing but good-humoured indifference was apparent in his manner. +Their acquaintance did not seem to have progressed further than the first +evening; indeed, it had rather retrograded; and she could almost imagine +she had _dreamt_ the tender speeches he had lavished on her in the Humber +woods. + +Cecil and he were out sleighing most afternoons, and Bluebell was thrown +on nursery and school-room for companionship--insipid pabulum to the +vanity of a young lady in her first glimpse of conquest, and who believed +she had stricken down a quarry worthy of her bow. Having nothing to +distract her, she considered the problem exhaustively from morning till +night, and, if she were not in love with him before, she had got him into +her head now, if not into her heart. His being so much with Cecil did not +strike her as any clue to the mystery. They were relations, of course, or +nearly the same thing; there was no flirting in their matter-of-fact +intercourse. + +Cecil found her one afternoon reading over the bed-room fire, in a +somewhat desponding attitude. Miss Rolleston had just come in from a +drive, her slight form shrouded in sealskins, an air of brightness and +vivacity replacing her usual rather languid manner. + +"You wouldn't think it was snowing from my cloak," cried she. "It is +though--quite a heavy fall, if you can call anything so light heavy. We +were quite white when we came in, but it shakes off without wetting." + +"It won't be very good sleighing, then, to-morrow, and the wind is +getting up, too." + +"And what have you been doing, Bluebell?" + +"I walked with the children and Miss Prosody in the Queen's Park," said +the latter, rather dolefully. + +"And it was very cold and stupid, I suppose?" said Cecil, kindly. "Come +down to the drawing-room and try some duets." + +There were two or three visitors below and Bertie, and some tea was +coming in. They were looking at a picture of Cecil's just returned from +being mounted as a screen. It was a group of brilliant autumn leaves--the +gorgeous maple, with its capricious hues, an arrow-shaped leaf, half red, +half green, like a parrot's feather, contrasting with another "spotted +like the pard," and then one blood-red. The collecting of them had been +an interest to the children in their daily walks, and Cecil had arranged +them with artistic effect. + +One of the visitors was a rather pretty girl, whom Bluebell had known +formerly. She gave her, however, only a distant bow, while she answered +with the greatest animation any observation of Captain Du Meresq's. This +young lady was to be one of the sleighing party next day, and, as far as +she could admit such a humiliating fact, was trying to convey to him, +that she was as yet unappropriated for any particular sleigh. + +"Who is to drive you, Miss Rolleston?" asked she, suspecting, from his +backwardness in coming forward, that the object of her intentions might +be engaged there. + +"I am going in the last sleigh, with Major Fane. We take the luncheon and +pay the turnpikes. He is Vice-President this time." + +"By-the-bye, Du Meresq," said the Colonel, rather exercised to find a +lady of the party without a swain, "whom have you asked?" + +"Oh, everybody is engaged," said Bertie, mendaciously ignoring Miss +Kendal's half-admission of being open to an offer. "I shall not join the +drive at all, unless," he added, in a hesitating manner, as if it was a +sudden thought, "Miss Leigh will compassionate me, and allow me to take +charge of her." + +Bluebell, confused by this unexpected proposition, and by feeling so +many eyes turned upon her, did not immediately make any answer; then a +vexatious remembrance intruded itself, and she replied, with what that +individual would have thought most unnecessary concern,-- + +"I am very sorry--I mean--I believe I am half-engaged to Mr. Vavasour." + +"I should think you were," said Mrs. Rolleston. "I don't know what he +would say if you threw him over." + +"Oh!" said Bertie, plaintively, "if that insinuating youth has been +beforehand, of course there's no chance for me. Well, I am out of the +hunt,"--and he carelessly whistled a bar of "Not for Joseph" in reply to +a suggestive motion of his sister's towards Miss Kendal. + +"I should think it so dull," said that young lady, tossing her head, "to +be engaged so long before. _I_ do not intend to decide till the day." + +"What shall you keep all your admirers in suspense till the last moment?" +said Bertie, with a covert sneer, for he was angry at her slighting +behaviour to Bluebell. "What a scramble there will be!" + +Miss Kendal was not altogether satisfied with the tone of the remark, so +she commenced tying on her cloud, observing sharply, "Well, mamma, we +shall be benighted if we stay any longer." + +Bertie dutifully attended them to the sleigh, and won the elder lady's +heart by the skill with which he tucked round her the fur robes and the +parting grace of his bow. + +She was about to purr out some commendation, when--"What a bear that man +is!" burst with startling vehemence from Miss Kendal's coral lips. + +"Oh! my dear, what can you mean? I thought he seemed so agreeable." + +"I as good as told him," muttered the ruffled fair, too angry to be +reticent, "that I had no one to drive me to-morrow; and I think it was +real rude asking that Bluebell Leigh before my face,--a mere nursery +governess--and not giving me so much as the chance of refusing him." + +"But you said," urged Mrs. Kendal, who did not see beyond the proverbial +nasal tip, "that you would not decide on your sleigh till the day." + +"I only know," said the daughter, with dark emphasis, "I wouldn't drive +with him now, if he went on his bended knees to ask me." + +"Thank you, Bella," said Bertie, returning. "Nice little game you had cut +out for me! What an odious girl!" + +Cecil's jealous instinct detected the root of this animosity, more +especially guided thereto by his attempt to secure Bluebell as a +companion, which had surprised her not too agreeably. + +"What is her crime," said she, sarcastically, "beyond a rather +transparent design of driving with you Bertie?" + +"She is hung with bangles like an Indian squaw, and has a Yankee twang in +her voice." + +"She pretended to scarcely remember me," said Bluebell, "though we were +at school together." + +"Jealous, I dare say," laughed Bertie. "Is she an admirer of Jack +Vavasour's?" + +"Fancy any one admiring a boy like that!" said Bluebell, who did not feel +in charity with her allotted charioteer. + +Bertie had advanced to take her cup, and as she said this, it seemed to +Cecil he touched her hand caressingly under cover of it. + +"I dare say," said she sharply, "Alice Kendal has as many admirers as +other people, and, perhaps, can dispense with counting Captain Du Meresq +among them." + +Bluebell looked up, astonished at her manner; but Bertie perceived it +with more intelligence, and the thought, "What a bore it will be if +she is jealous," afterwards passed through his mind,--by which may be +inferred he had had in contemplation the acquisition of "Heaven's last +best gift." + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +THE GARRISON SLEIGH CLUB. + + 'T were a pity when flowers around us rise, + To make light of the rest, if the rose be not there; + And the world is so rich in resplendent eyes, + 'T were a pity to limit one's love to a pair. + --Moore. + + +"I never saw a prettier sight in my life," cried Cecil, as she stood with +a motley group in the verandah of "The Maples," the rendezvous of the +sleighing party. As each sleigh turned in at the gate and deposited its +freight, it fell into rank which extended all round the lawn, till +scarcely a space was left on the drive that encircled it, and the air +rang with the bells on the nodding horses' heads. + +"What the--blazes!" ejaculated Bertie, as Mr. Vavasour rounded the +corner at a trot in a red-wheeled tandem, scarlet plumes on the horses, +and the robes a combination of black bear-skins and scarlet trimming. The +leader, a recent importation from England, better acquainted with the +hunting-field than the traces, reared straight on end; but a judicious +flick on her ear sent her with a bound almost into the next sleigh, and +the tandem drew up at the hall door to an inch. + +"Post? mail-cart? nonsense!" said Jack, shaking hands all round 'mid an +avalanche of chaff. "Nice cheerful colour for a cold day; that's all." + +"Quite scorching," said Major Fane. "Well, Miss Rolleston, if they leave +us behind at the turnpikes, we shall never lose sight of them with Jack's +flames for a beacon." + +"How do you like your tandem, Bluebell?" asked Cecil, "and how far do you +expect to get before Mr. Vavasour upsets you?" added she, _sotto voce_. + +"I don't care if he chooses a good place," laughed Bluebell. + +"Why, I thought Bertie wasn't going," said, Mrs. Rolleston, as that +individual drove up in a modest cutter with a gentleman companion. + +"I think he changed his mind when he heard Miss Kendal was going with +papa," said Cecil. + +"I believe we are all here," said Colonel Rolleston, who was to lead the +procession, coming out with the great lady of the party, an eccentric +dowager peeress, who having "tired her wing" with flying through the +States, was now perching awhile before re-crossing the Herring-pond. Miss +Kendal and a subaltern, pressed into the service, placed themselves in +the back seat, well smothered in wolf-skins, and the first sleigh moved +off to the admiration of the school-room party at the window, who, with +the partiality of childhood, thought their papa's the most beautiful +turn-out in the city. + +"Mr. Vavasour's horse is up the bank," screamed Fleda. "How much better +papa drives; he went off so quickly and quietly. I wouldn't be Bluebell! +Mr. Vavasour can hardly get out at the gate." + +"If papa had to drive one horse before another, perhaps he couldn't +either," said Lola, who had been watching with great interest the erratic +course of Jack's leader. + +Twenty sleighs were off in a string, the crowd cheering them to the echo +as they dashed through Queen's Park; but on gaining Carleton Street they +were obliged carefully to keep the track, as the sides of the road were +deep and treacherous. + +"The Colonel is making the pace very slow," remarked Mr. Vavasour; "like +to drive, Miss Leigh? they are going very smoothly." + +Bluebell, whose knowledge of horses was about equal to her opportunities +of instruction, unhesitatingly assented. Jack's gratification thereat was +somewhat tempered, when he saw the bewilderment apparent in his flighty +pair at the very original manner in which she handled her "lines." + +"I suppose," said that young lady, with the composure of ignorance, "we +are all right as long as this bald-face horse keeps its nose pointing at +Captain Delamere's back." + +"Quite so," said Jack, cheerily; "don't take the whip, you are only +winding it round your own neck. I'll give Dahlia a lick in the face if +she turns out of the rank." + +They were winding down a hill, and took a road at the bottom at right +angles to it. Colonel Rolleston, in the first sleigh, was blandly +pointing out to Lady Hampshire the _coup d'oeil_ of the whole procession +as they described two sides of a triangle. + +"Do you like my plumes?" asked Jack, relaxing his surveillance on Dahlia, +as her left ear, which had been laid back in a suggestive manner, resumed +its accustomed position. + +"Like them," echoed Bluebell; "it's just like a hearse, bar the colour, +which is frightful. I wouldn't have come if I had known I was to be +driven in such a fire-engine." + +"There now," rather crest-fallen. "I chose them because you said you were +_fond_ of scarlet, otherwise I should have preferred blue, except that I +might have been taken for one of the 10th, who mount their regimental +colours on everything." + +"I like the 10th," said Bluebell, perversely; "they are all good-looking +except the Adjutant, who got his nose sliced off by a Sikh, and +the.... goodness what's that?" as a fearful shout, followed by a +sudden checking of horses, brought the whole line to a stand-still. + +"What's the matter?" was passed from one sleigh to another up to the +front: the return message, shouted and taken up as each one interpreted +it, became soon about as intelligible as it does in the game of Russian +scandal, and for the next few minutes everybody was conjecturing at once. + +"Here's Du Meresq," cried Jack, as Bertie came ploughing through the +snow. + +"Halloa, guard! what's wrong on the line?" + +"Run into a goods' train," said he, keeping on his course to the +Vice-President's sleigh. + +"Du Meresq never tells one anything," said Jack; "I hate a mysterious +fellow; somebody's capsized, I suppose, and he's gone for some brandy." + +"Perhaps for a shovel," suggested Bluebell. "Colonel Rolleston may have +come to a drift." + +"Don't see how we are to reverse our engine," replied Jack, looking each +side of the road, where the snow was piled four or five feet. + +Bertie, however, had not gone for a shovel, which would have been +perfectly useless, but to explain the situation and assist in turning +round the sleighs. In front of Colonel Rolleston was a huge rampart of +snow, extending for some distance. The wind setting dead in that +direction, had drifted it across, and buried the track several feet. This +road had been clear the day before, for Bertie and Cecil had driven it to +ascertain, but the wind had changed and snow fallen during the night. + +Major Fane's sleigh was successfully turned, after a great deal of +assistance to the horses, who floundered up to their shoulders; and to +this haven of refuge Du Meresq was conducting several young ladies, for +each sleigh having to turn on the spot where their progress was arrested, +a certain number of upsets was inevitable. + +"Come, Miss Leigh," said a voice beneath her, "you mustn't stick to the +ship any longer. Why, this is the worst bit of all. You can't jump; trust +to me." And to Jack's indignation, Bertie lifted her from the wheel and +carried her through some deep snow to a dry place. There was a certain +amount of excuse for it, as he couldn't have deposited her in the drift, +and turning the tandem took up its owner's whole attention, and the +services of three or four volunteers; but he fancied Du Meresq had +squeezed the little hand before he relinquished it, and ere the tell-tale +blush had passed from Bluebell's face, Jack had turned, jumped out and +replaced her in the tandem with quiet decision. + +Bluebell, confused by the powerless way she had been handed about between +her two admirers, could not rally directly, and sat meditating an early +snubbing for Jack, but a ridiculous incident soon distracted her +attention. + +"Get out? No, thank you, Captain Du Meresq," cried Lilla Tremaine, a +tall, handsome girl in the sleigh behind; "you'd find me a precious +weight to carry, and I am very comfortable where I am. Turn away, Captain +Delamere, we'll sink or swim together." + +Thus urged, the individual called on made his effort; the sleigh turned, +indeed, but on its side, and the adventurous Miss Tremaine, summarily +ejected, sank to her waist in the deep snow, her crinoline rising as she +descended, spread out under her arms, looking like an inverted umbrella. +Jack and Bluebell were suffocating with the laughter they vainly tried to +hide, and Bertie, who was on foot, took in the situation at once, and +rushed to the rescue. + +"Put your arms round my neck, Miss Tremaine," cried he, peremptorily. + +The poor girl, half crying with shame and cold, did so, and Du Meresq, +grasping her firmly round the waist, endeavoured to drag her forth. + +"It's even betting she pulls him in," cried Jack, in a most unfeeling +ecstasy, for Miss Tremaine was no pocket Venus--rather answered the +Irishman's description of "an armful of joy." + +"Oh, dear!" said poor Lilla, trembling with cold, as she found herself on +_terra firma_, "I never can go on; the snow has made me quite wet +through." + +"Of course you can't," said Bertie, decidedly; "you'd catch your death of +cold. Delamere, you drive on with the other Miss Tremaine," for they had +both been in his sleigh, "and I'll take Miss Lilla home in my cutter, +where she can get dry clothes. You must all pass their house on your way +back, when we can fall in again; so that's all settled. Oh, Meredith, I +forgot you. Hitch on to some other sleigh, there's a good fellow. I am on +ambulance duty; somebody tell Colonel Rolleston--presently." + +Then Bertie, who had his own reasons for hurrying, placed Miss Tremaine, +still shivering from her snow bath, in the cutter, and drove rapidly off. + +"Well, I am d----d," muttered Captain Delamere to Vavasour; "she has +never seen the fellow before!" + +"Hush, pray," said Jack, affectedly; "he _is_ an officious young man. But +be thankful for small mercies, old boy; you have got one left." + +"That's the wrong one," growled Delamere. + +After a brief consultation about the route, a unanimous vote for luncheon +was passed, so they drove on till they came to an open space, the +contrary side of the wood in which Du Meresq and Bluebell had walked on +Sunday. Here all the sleighs formed up together, and Major Fane's larder +was ransacked. + +Curaçoa, mulled claret, hot coffee, etc., kept warm in a blanket, were +passed round, with mutton pies, croquettes, cakes and other edibles; and +circulation being restored, all was mirth and hilarity. + +Colonel Rolleston alone remained dark and moody. He had just discovered +the defection of Du Meresq and Lilla, and, having his own opinion of his +brother-in-law, disapproved of it entirely. Miss Tremaine also was much +too flighty for his taste, and he was very hard on Captain Delamere for +not applying to him to get her decorously out of her delicate dilemma. + +He made up his mind to curtail the drive, and call at Mr. Tremaine's at +his earliest convenience. + +Bertie, in the meantime, delighted at getting a _tęte-ŕ-tęte_ with +a handsome girl, instead of driving in a monotonous string with Mr. +Meredith, proceeded to improve the occasion with such success that his +fair companion forgot her wet stockings, and even omitted to observe that +they had passed the turn leading to the paternal abode. + +When she did remark it, Bertie easily persuaded her that she must be +quite dry now, and that, as they had missed the garrison drive, they had +better take one on their own account. Miss Lilla, unrestrained by the +detective eyes of her elder sister, was ripe for any frolic, and Bertie +certainly did not find so many obstacles in the way of an affectionate +flirtation as he had with Bluebell. + +But our business is with the trans-Atlantic picnic in the snow, not with +the "cutting out" expedition of this reprobate pair. Having distributed +the remainder of the luncheon to the servants, a start was again +effected. Lilla's adventure had left its impression one way or another on +two or three of the party. Jack was delighted that Du Meresq was off on a +fresh pursuit, and so not likely to be hanging about Bluebell; and that +damsel was trying, by a reckless flirtation with Vavasour, to stifle the +vexatious conviction that Bertie had only been making a fool of her on +Sunday, and was now probably repeating the same game with Miss Tremaine. +Yet at this period her vanity was more wounded than her heart; very +different from poor Cecil, whose infatuation was of older date, and not +the mere result of a few flattering speeches. + +For a girl of her disposition to set her affections on a man like Bertie +was certain misery. She had no rivals in those days when she learnt to +care so intensely for the sympathetic companion who understood her so +much better than any one else. He understood her; therein was the potent +charm; her mind awoke and her ideas vivified from contact with his, as +two happily-contrasted colours become brighter in hue in juxtaposition. +No companion had ever suited her so perfectly, and yet Bertie had +scarcely made direct love to her. It seemed a matter of course that they +should care most for each other, and Cecil's young and ardent heart had +drifted beyond recall ere she had done more than suspect another side to +his character. + +Now she perceived that Bertie's affection for her by no means made him +insensible to the bright eyes of the fair Canadians; yet the more she +cared for his philandering interludes with other girls the less she +showed it, except that her manner grew colder, though, unfortunately, her +heart did not. + +Major Fane was disappointed with Cecil's preoccupied mood. He had taken +some pains to secure her for this drive, and she hadn't a word to say to +him. He certainly admired her, but, perhaps, it was more his horror of +Canadian girls that had made her his choice for the day. He always said +their only idea of conversation was chaff, and rudeness under cover of +it; and as he had been the victim of many such "smart" speeches, he +looked upon them with nervous aversion. + +The quiet repose of a lady-like English girl gained by the contrast. +There was rather too much tranquillity to-day, perhaps; so he exerted +some tact to draw Cecil from her reserve, the cause of which he was +unable to guess. He agreed with her in reviling the monotony and +stupidity of sleighing picnics, having to follow one by one like a string +of geese, long after one was perished with cold, though he failed to +detect in her weariness that she was wishing for her father to stop at +the Tremaines', and annex the truant sleigh to the rest. + +Her discontent somewhat relieved by expression, she became ashamed of her +unsociability, and Major Fane's next topic was not uncongenial. He was +airing his cherished grudge, and pronouncing a severe philippic on the +belles of the Dominion. Cecil was incapable of detraction, or envy at +another's greater success; but in the face of Bertie's abduction of Lilla +before her eyes, she did not feel particularly in charity with any +daughter of Canada. + +In the meantime Bluebell, in the strangest of spirits, refused to +relinquish the reins, even in difficult places, and conducted herself +generally with a mixture of recklessness and ignorance that gave Jack +enough to do to look out. + +He rather took advantage of this mood to make more decided love than he +had hitherto done; but while he thought her wild with fun and spirits, +she was really goaded on by vexation and bitterness of heart; and perhaps +her most immediate wish was for solitude to drop the mask and be +miserable in peace. + +That was impossible, at present. Jack was tiresome. He was giving +her directions how to steer up a hill, formidable from its narrow +track and deep drop on either side. Dahlia, it seemed, jibbed sometimes, +she must--Bluebell was paying no attention. Good Heavens! what was +happening?--the leader backing and sliding! Jack's stinging whip and +clutch at the reins could not arrest the catastrophe. Dahlia rears and +falls over the edge, pulling sleigh and wheeler after her into a trough +of snow. + +Bluebell blinded and half suffocated--no wonder, for three bear-skins and +two cushions were a-top of her (not to mention Jack, who had caught his +leg in the reins, and was unable immediately to rise),--made vain efforts +to extricate himself; the horses were struggling on their sides; and +altogether, as the Americans say, it was rather "mixed." + +Somehow or another, no one ever does get hurt out of a sleigh, even after +an _impromptu_ header of a dozen feet. Ten minutes later the party were +_en route_ again, Bluebell transferred, _en pénitence_, to Colonel +Rolleston's sleigh, _vice_ the subaltern; and by this time nearly every +one was discontented and anxious to return. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +FIXING UP A PRANCE. + + "'Tis over, + The valse, the quadrille, and the song, + The whispered farewell of the lover; + The heartless adieu of the throng, + The heart that was throbbing with pleasure; + The eyelid that longed for repose, + The beaux that were dreaming of treasure. + The girls that were dreaming of beaux." + --Edward Firzgerald. + + +Before they got to the Tremaines' house, Bertie drove up with Miss Lilla, +who was "quite dry now, thank you; not worth while bringing all the +sleighs up to the door." More than one curious observer noticed the +panting flanks of the horse, who scarcely looked as if he had been +resting in a stable. To be sure, the delinquents _had_ done that last +mile rather fast, to nick in and meet the party before they should make +inconvenient inquiries at Mr. Tremaine's,--Bertie, who was as good a +mimic as his mother, enhancing the fright of his fair companion by an +improvisation of the scene that would probably take place supposing +they were too late to prevent it, and further convulsing her with a +travesty of his brother-in-law in his most imposing attitude of stately +displeasure. + +Lilla nearly had a relapse when they met the rest, as Colonel Rolleston's +face was the faithful reproduction of Bertie's five minutes before; but +the ironical silence with which he received her speech, rather diminished +their triumph at having escaped detection. The girls were all to return +to "The Maples," dress there, and go to the dinner and dance at the +barracks, under Mrs. Rolleston's sole chaperonage. + +The scrambling toilette was got through with much noise and merriment. + +"Oh, has any one seen my 'waist'?" and "Do smooth my waterfall," were +enigmatical exclamations of frequent occurrence. Cecil's dormitory +resembled a milliner's show-room from the variety of dresses spread on +the bed. + +These were not of a very extravagant description; papery pink or green +silk seemed most in vogue, completed with rows of beads round the throat; +but when viewed in connexion with the apple-blossom complexions, abundant +hair and dancing eyes of the Canadian belles, the adventitious aids of +dress might well be deemed as superfluous as painting the lily. + +Half-a dozen covered sleighs, going and returning, transported the party +to the barracks, where, escorted by their military hosts, they ascended +the staircase, banked with evergreens, and lined by motionless soldiers +to the ante-room, which, of course, looked as unattractive as the cordial +but mistaken exertions of its proprietors could make it--all the +_laissez-aller_ comfort primly tidied away, and such a roasting fire as +speedily drove every one to remote corners of the room. + +The _mauvais quart d'heure_ before dinner had the usual sobering effect, +and young people, who later on would be valsing together on the easiest +of terms, now shyly looked over photograph books, and discoursed with an +edifying amount of diffidence and respect. Each one was to go in to +dinner with his companion of the sleigh--an arrangement of questionable +wisdom, and, as Bertie said, "It behoved one to be doubly careful whom +one drove." Captain Delamere was furious, for, when he claimed Lilla, she +calmly replied, "That having taken them both, she of course supposed he +would ask her elder sister, and, therefore, had promised Captain Du +Meresq." + +Before Delamere had done anathematizing his folly in giving the saucy +Lilla such a loop-hole to throw him over, the trumpet sounded, folding +doors opened, and fifty people sat down to the cheery repast. + +The table was bright with regimental plate, racing cups, and hot-house +flowers. The band commenced playing "Selections," somewhat deafening, +perhaps, but then it was too cold to put them out of doors. + +Cecil and Bluebell were neither of them too much gratified at witnessing +the furious flirtation going on at dinner between Captain Du Meresq and +Miss Tremaine; but Cecil, who never looked at them, and therefore, of +course, saw everything, fancied the admiration most on the lady's side, +and even some of her _oeillades_, bravado. To be sure Bertie never did +flirt seriously _en évidence_, if he could help it. + +Bluebell, completely out of sorts, was acquiring a painful experience. +Du Meresq's conduct seemed inexplicable and provoking as she pondered +indignantly on her walk at the Humber, and mentally ejaculated with Miss +Squeers, "Is this the hend?" + +Jack, temporarily discouraged by her indifference to himself, which came +on rather rapidly at dinner, gave his next neighbour the benefit of his +conversation. + +But this unsatisfactory repast to our heroines was not unnecessarily +prolonged, the mess-room having to be cleared for the great business of +the evening, which, let us hope will prove what it is sure to be called +in next day's discussion "a very good ball." + +Why this undescriptive phrase should be applied to every well-attended +dance, with a supper, has always perplexed us; for, of course, every one +really judges it by his or her own personal success and enjoyment, not +unfrequently incompatible with that of some one else. Yet it is all +summed up next morning in the summary verdict "good," or "bad." If there +is a deficiency of gentlemen, space, supper, or _ton_, the latter; but +given these indispensables, you may have been jilted for your bosom +friend by your latest conquest, yet you must come up smiling, and endorse +the public panegyric on the hated evening till the subject be superseded. + +Bluebell, a few weeks ago, would have looked upon this ball as the acme +of delight. She was in great request, and, indeed, attained that highest +object of young lady ambition, being belle of the evening; but now her +happiness did not depend on the many--dance after dance passed, and the +only partner she cared for had not once engaged her. + +Bertie had been sitting out half the evening with Lilla in a +conservatory, and when they did emerge, was seized on by his +brother-in-law with very black looks, and introduced to a somewhat +unappreciated young lady. + +Bertie had the happy knack of appearing equally charmed, whether +presented to a beauty or the reverse; but he inscribed himself very low +down on her card, remorselessly ignoring the intervening blanks, and then +approached Cecil, who, in black and amber, was the most striking-looking +girl in the room. Though inferior in beauty to many, her fine figure and +expressive eyes could never pass unnoticed. + +"Dear little Cecil, how well she is looking!" thought he, facilely +forgetting his latest flame, and just becoming sensible of her "altered +eye." + +"My niece," said Bertie, in a theatrical tone, intended to disguise his +perception of it, "shall we tread a measure? Let me lead you forth into +the mazy dance." + +"Excuse me, Bertie," said Cecil, languidly; "I am only going to dance the +two or three round ones I am engaged for, and I know you do not care for +square." + +"I should think not," said he angrily, "when you are going to dance round +ones with other fellows." + +"You see you asked too late," said she, indifferently. + +"Will you go in to supper with me then?" + +"That was all arranged and written down ages ago. Let me see, I am +ticketed for the Major again." + +"As you have been all day. I never saw such a cut and-dried, monotonous +programme for a party: all done by rule--no freedom of action." + +"Really, Bertie, you and Miss Tremaine can't complain." + +"That's why you are so cold to me to-night, Cecil," said Du Meresq, +quietly. + +"What can it signify to me?" retorted she, freezingly, vexed at having +permitted the adversary, so to speak, to discover the joint in her +harness. Her partner, who had been hovering near, now claimed and bore +her unwillingly away, for next to being friends with Bertie was the +pleasure of "riling" him by smiling icyness. It was the only weapon she +permitted herself, as she would not condescend to any visible sign of +jealousy or pique. + +Bertie was simply _gęné_ by her determination to be all or nothing; there +was no satisfying such an unreasonable girl. Like the immortal Lilyvick, +"he loved them all," yet her thoughtful mind and gentle companionship +were becoming more to him than he was himself aware of. + +Cecil, valsing round, looked at each turn for his tall figure leaning +against the wall. It was an abstracted attitude, and he seemed graver +than usual. + +"Had she made him unhappy?"--she trusted so--would give the world to read +his thoughts. + +Some one said, "There is no punishment equal to a granted prayer." Du +Meresq was wrapt in speculation as to whether they had really succeeded +in getting a wild turkey for supper, which the Mess President was in +maddening doubt about the day before. + +That blissful moment was at hand, and the room thinned with a celerity +born of _ennui_, I suppose, for very few people are really hungry, yet it +is the invariable signal for as simultaneous a rush as of starving +paupers when the door of a soup kitchen is opened. To be sure, there are +the chaperones, poor things, round whom no "lovers are sighing," and, +perhaps, supper _is_ the liveliest time to them--old gentlemen, too, +might be allowed some indulgence; but what can be said for dancing men, +wasting the precious moments of their partners, while they linger +congregated together among the _débris_ and champagne-corks? + +"What a clearance," said Bluebell, subsiding, with a fagged air, on to a +sofa, as her partner bowed himself off with an eye to business. + +"Forward the heavy brigade," said Bertie, motioning to his brother-in-law +bearing off Lady Hampshire; "only room for thirty at a time. _We_ must +wait, Miss Leigh." + +"I am ready to wait. But what have 'we' got to say to it?" said Bluebell, +with her Canadian directness. + +"Don't speak so unkindly," said Bertie, sentimentally, flinging himself +on the sofa by her side. "You don't know all I have suffered this week." + +"You certainly disguised it very well," said the girl, with total +disbelief in her eyes. + +"Do you think I felt nothing when I saw you all day with Vavasour, +who every one knows is madly in love with you; and then dancing every +dance--not leaving a corner in your programme for me?" + +"You didn't ask me," said Bluebell, less austerely. + +"No, for you never so much as looked my way. Besides, Bluebell, I told +you we must be careful. If Colonel Rolleston guessed my feelings for +you--he is so selfish, he forgets he has been young himself--I should be +no longer welcome here." + +"Then, I am sure," said Bluebell, the tears rushing to her eyes, "I wish +you had never come. I have been _miserable_ ever since I took that stupid +walk, which you prevented my mentioning; and--and--" + +"Let's be miserable again next Sunday, Bluebell," whispered Bertie. + +"I shall not go home; or, if I do, I'll stop there. I'll _never_ walk +with you again, Captain Du Meresq." + +"'Quoth the raven, "never more!"' I know what it is, you are tired to +death. Sit still on the sofa and I will bring you some supper; sleighing +all day and dancing all night have distorted your mental vision,"--and +Bertie dashed off, passing the young lady he was engaged to on his way to +the supper room, with an inward conviction that their dance must be about +due. Having possessed himself of a modicum of prairie hen, he intercepted +a tumbler of champagne cup just being handed across the table to Captain +Delamere. + +"Confound it, that's mine!" said the aggrieved individual. + +"I want it for a lady," urged Bertie. + +"So do I," said Delamere. + +"My dear fellow," said Bertie, chaffingly, nodding towards a gorgeous +American, "it is for Mrs. Commissioner Duloe. She must not be kept +waiting." + +"I won't allow my lady to be second to any lady in the room," cried +Delamere who was elevated. + +Bertie was in too great a hurry to chaff Delamere any longer, for, +perceiving that his relatives were safely at supper, he resolved to +make the most of the few minutes at his disposal, and, as he would +have expressed it, "lay it on thick." + +Bluebell was leaning languidly back on the sofa, watching the forms +of the dancers, ever revolving past the open door to the strains of +a heart-broken valse. (_En passant_, why are the prettiest valses all +plaintive and despairing, quadrilles and lancers cheerful and jiggy, +and galops reckless, not to say tipsy?) + +Bertie, with his spoils, was by her side, and, having restored her nerves +with champagne, proceeded to agitate them again with the warmest +protestations of affection. The child with the day's experience before +her, only half-believed him, but the spirit of coquetry woke up, and she +resolved to try and make him care for her as much as he pretended to do. + +But Bluebell was trying her 'prentice hand with a veteran in such +warfare. + +They were alone in the little room, in one adjoining a few people were +sitting. + +"I wish that girl would not watch us so," said Bluebell, indicating one +apparently deep in a photograph book, under cover of which she was +furtively observing them. + +"Oh," said Bertie, with a groan, "she's been following me about ever +since I asked her for a dance six off. I hope it is over." + +"I dare say she's very angry at being left sitting out," said Bluebell. +"I am sure I should be." + +"Ah," said Bertie, "your experience will be all the other way--it's us +poor fellows who will be thrown over, besides, she shouldn't have got +introduced to me. I saw her going on the wrong leg and all out of step, +and Jack Vavasour says she's a regular stick-in-the-mud to talk to." + +A stream now issued from the supper room, and Mr. Vavasour, bowing +himself free from a "comfortable" looking matron, hurried up. + +"Our dance, Miss Leigh. I thought I should never be in time. She was +twenty minutes at the chicken and lobster-salad, and then went in for +sweets." + +"I must go and give my girl a turn, I suppose," whispered Bertie. "She's +guarding the outposts so no chance of giving her the slip. She'd go +raging off to the Colonel. Just like him, letting one in for such a real +bad thing." + +A few sleighs were beginning to jingle up, but most of the girls assumed +moccasins, clouds, and furs, and kilting their petticoats as deftly and +mysteriously as only Canadians can, set out in parties, escorted by their +partners, and stepped briskly over the moon lit snow to their respective +dwellings. + +Bertie saw his party off in their sleigh, tenderly squeezing Bluebell's +hand, who fell to his share, but did not return with them. Indeed, he was +walking soon in quite an opposite direction, by the side of a shrouded +figure in a rose-coloured cloud, out of which laughed the mischievous +eyes of the second Miss Tremaine. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +CROSS PURPOSES. + + Trifles, light as air, +Are to the jealous confirmation strong +As proofs of holy writ. + --Shakespeare. + + +Bluebell had not visited her mother for three weeks. One Saturday Freddy +had a sore throat and would not let her out of his sight, keeping up an +incessant demand for black-currant jelly and fairy tales, and the next +week a heavy fall of snow made walking impossible. She now very often +shared the gaieties of the others. Mrs. Rolleston took great interest in +Bluebell's career. She thought it by no means improbable that Sir Timothy +should have provided for her in his will, or, indeed, that he might any +day acknowledge her; and though she took her out, and let her dance to +her heart's content, kept faithful watch to prevent any undesirable +flirtation. + +So the kind-hearted lady was a good deal disturbed at seeing Jack +Vavasour, who came of an extravagant and far from wealthy family, first +in the field. After the manner of love-lorn subalterns, he haunted and +persecuted the fair object of his affections, who cared nothing about +him, and treated him as a child does its toys, sometimes pleased with +them, and at others casting them indifferently aside. + +And all the time Bertie was gaining greater influence over her. But even +Cecil, whose eyes were keen, was never able to detect any evidence of a +secret understanding between them. + +He regularly asked her for one valse only when they went to balls; +indeed, he could not do less. Cecil, of course, could not hear what they +talked about _then_. + +There is a dreamy, intoxicating valse of Gung'l's, which he always made +her keep for him when it was played. It was a small piece of selfish +romance, for well he knew that charmed air would ever hereafter be +haunted with associations of him. How many more "stolen sweet moments" he +found in the day must be left to the reader's imagination. But stolen +they were; for Du Meresq knew Cecil's disposition, and was far from +wishing to break with her, though "why should he spare this little girl +with the chestnut hair, and the love in her deep-blue eyes?" And Bluebell +no longer shrank from being underhand. It did not strike her in that +light now. She thought of nothing but Bertie, who was so different before +the others, that she learnt to look forward to their brief chances of +being alone as much as he did. And Du Meresq, with ingenious sophistry, +expatiated on the charm of keeping their delicious secret to themselves, +uncommented on by the cold and unsympathetic. + +Thus Bluebell, from being a lively, ingenuous, outspoken child, altered +into a dreamy maiden, living a hidden life of repressed excitement, whose +whole interest was the fugitive, uncertain interviews with Bertie, and an +interchanged glance, touch of the hand, or few fond words, ventured on +when the others were not attending. + +"Bluebell," laughed Cecil, as a cutter drove to the door, "here is your +Lubin again." The girls had just returned from the Rink, and were +disrobing upstairs. + +"Oh, he is so tiresome," said the other. "I declare I won't come down." + +"That you must; we should never get rid of him; he would sit on waiting +for you. You have made such a goose of him, Bluebell, and he used to be +such fun." + +"I shouldn't mind him if he was fun now; but he just sits glowering at +one, and stays so long. Why can't a person see when he is not wanted?" + +"But you do want him sometimes," said Cecil. "You are always 'off' and +'on' with poor Jack. I believe, if he proposed, you would say 'No' one +day and retract the next." + +They entered the drawing-room, where was young Vavasour, as usual, making +conversation to Mrs. Rolleston, who was at once bored and disproving. +Cecil shook hands pleasantly enough, but Bluebell, not even looking at +him, extended a lifeless hand in passing, and, picking up some work, +appeared absorbed in counting stitches. + +Jack turned over in his own mind every possible cause of offence. He +couldn't perceive that it was he himself that was not wanted, and that +she cared not a button for anything he had done or left undone. + +He talked on perseveringly with the others, glancing stealthily at +Bluebell tatting, till Cecil got up to make tea, when he moved to a seat +nearer. + +"I wasn't out of uniform till four o'clock, Miss Leigh, or I should have +been at the Rink." + +"So I suppose. You always go there, don't you?" + +"When I expect to meet any one," trying to throw a sentimental look in +his generally laughing brown eyes. + +"It isn't usually empty: but, of course, you don't go for the skating. +You'll never make anything of that." + +"Any more than you will be of driving," retorted Jack. "Shall you ever +forget that crumpler down the bank? Dahlia hasn't recovered the fright +yet." + +"Stupid thing; what did she jump over for? I was nearly suffocated. I am +sure there must have been a cast of me on the snow." + +"It wasn't altogether unpleasant," said Jack. "We were covered up very +snug and warm, like babes in the wood. I shouldn't mind doing it again in +the same company." + +"Shouldn't you?" said Bluebell, indignantly. "Then you may omit the +company." And so they went on whispering, to Mrs. Rolleston's annoyance, +till the Colonel's voice was heard bringing in a visitor--a lady of +unfashionable appearance, chiefly remarkable for the variety of knitted +articles, described in work-books as "winter comforts," displayed on her +person. + +"_Ma tante_!" ejaculated Jack, incautiously; "who is this old Quiz?" + +"Here is Mrs. Leigh," said Colonel Rolleston, "who says she has not seen +her daughter for three weeks. Where are you Bluebell?" + +Jack felt ready to sink into the earth, while his boyish face became the +colour of a peony; and Bluebell, vexed and hurt, advanced to the maternal +embrace. + +Their mutual confusion was so evident, that the Colonel put another +interpretation on it, and remarked, in a tone the reverse of +congratulatory,--"You have not been long getting out of harness, +Vavasour." + +Jack muttered something, and tried to catch Bluebell's eye, agonies of +contrition in his own. + +"Well, my dear, and how well you are looking," said Mrs. Leigh. "But we +have missed you at home, Aunt Jane and I. No, thank you, Mrs. Rolleston; +not at all tired. I caught the street-car at the corner, which brought +me all the way for five cents. Very respectable people in it; only one +soldier; he was not at all tipsy. I don't think your men ever are, +Colonel. Thank you, Miss Rolleston," as Cecil brought her some tea. "I'll +just unbutton my Sontag, or I shan't feel the good of it when I go out +again, shall I?" + +"I have been thinking," said Mrs. Rolleston, to whom it had just occurred +that this would be a good break in Jack's attentions, "that it would be +very nice if Bluebell went home for a few days, as you have seen so +little of her." + +"I'm sure I'm most grateful," said the little lady. "There, my dear, Aunt +Jane was saying only yesterday how dull it was without the child. But are +you sure she can be spared, Mrs. Rolleston?" + +"Only to you," said the lady, kindly, but smiling a little, for certainly +her _duties_ were not very onerous. + +Bluebell, an anxious listener, felt her heart sink at this proposal. +What, go away and leave Bertie, whose daily presence had become a +necessity to her! Besides, dreadful thought! his leave might be over ere +she returned. In desperation she said, imploringly, "Mamma will not want +me for more than a day or two," and gazed anxiously at Mrs. Rolleston, +with a world of unspoken entreaty in her eyes. + +The appeal was injudicious, only confirming her impression that it was +a separation from Jack Bluebell dreaded, and she mentally put on another +week to her banishment. + +"There's no hurry," said the lady, decidedly; "a change will do you good. +She shall walk over to-morrow, Mrs. Leigh; and I am very glad I thought +of it." + +Bluebell, thinking all was lost, tried not to show her dismay, which +would have grieved her mother and done no good; but she remembered, with +a sinking heart, that Du Meresq was to dine out that night, and she might +get no opportunity of speaking to him alone before changing her quarters. + +"I must be off home," said Mrs. Leigh. "Several little things to be done +in your room, Bluebell. The stove-pipe has got choked at the elbow, and I +must have the sweep in." + +Her daughter longed to suggest that it might be more convenient to +postpone her appearance for a day; but as Mrs. Rolleston said nothing, +she could not either. + +Jack, who had been all this time writhing with vexation at his +_mal-ŕ-propos_ remark, here saw a chance of propitiating Bluebell and +putting himself on visiting terms at her home. + +"My cutter is at the door," said he, addressing Mrs. Rolleston. "If Mrs. +Leigh will allow me, I shall be too happy to drive her home." + +"Oh, he must be going to propose," thought the former lady, "and they +won't have twopence between them;" but she could only reply,-- + +"Well, Mrs. Leigh, what do you say? Will you trust yourself to Mr. +Vavasour?" + +"I'm sure," said the little lady, flutteringly, "the gentleman is most +kind; but I am so timid with horses unless they are quite old. Does your +horse kick, sir?" + +"Only if the rein gets under her tail." + +"Ah, I should be sure to scream and snatch it--the reins, I mean, and +they say that isn't safe driving. I had better walk; and yet it is +getting dark, and I shall miss the car. What _shall_ I do, Colonel +Rolleston?" + +"Drive, to be sure," said he, who wanted to get rid of them both. +"Vavasour only upsets when he gives the reins to young ladies," with +a glance at Bluebell. + +"Well, I _should_ like a ride in a sleigh, if my poor nerves will let me +enjoy it," toddling to the door with Colonel Rolleston. + +"I'll take the greatest care of you, Mrs. Leigh," said Jack, heartily, +grateful for a re-assuring nod from Bluebell in recognition of his +contrite gallantry. The mare, tired of waiting, became fidgety to be off. + +"Oh, he is going to prance. Have you got good hold of his head, sir?" to +the groom. + +"Quite correct, 'm," grinned that official. "Quiet, 'Nancy,'" that being +the stable version of "Banshee." + +"Let her go," said Jack, who had just tucked Mrs. Leigh in. A couple of +bounds, a smothering scream, and they disappeared in the evening gloom. + +"That there old party ain't the guvener's usual form," meditated that +bât-man, as he walked back, for the cutter only carried two. "He seems to +set a deal of store by her, though. There's some young 'ooman at home, +where she lives, I'd take my dying dick." + +Cecil and her father, who had seen them off, stopped laughing together +at Mrs. Leigh's peculiarities; and Bluebell, finding herself alone with +Mrs. Rolleston, felt impelled to try if she could not curtail her +sentence of banishment. Of course, her words were intended to conceal +her thoughts--love's first lesson is always hypocrisy. + +"I know I am not very much use here," she began, "but still I shouldn't +like to think I was of none, and, therefore, I really don't want to stay +away more than a day or two." + +A sudden look of penetration came into Mrs. Rolleston's face, and, with +more sarcasm in her voice than Bluebell's little speech appeared to +justify, she said,-- + +"My dear, scrupulous child, we _can_ get on without you longer than that, +so you may, with a clear conscience, think of your mother, who is dull +this dreadful weather." + +Bluebell felt caught in a mesh and incapable of extricating herself, but +she made no attempt to conceal her reluctance to going. + +"How long must I stay away?" said she, dolefully. + +"Just till the days get a little longer--a fortnight or three weeks, +perhaps." + +Bluebell made a gesture of despair (Bertie would be gone to a certainty +by then), and looked the picture of misery. Mrs. Rolleston's suspicions +were now convictions. + +"My dear Bluebell," she began, impulsively, "I know there's some reason +for your dislike to going," and she gazed fixedly at her. No denial. +Bluebell hoped Mrs. Rolleston _had_ some inkling of how things were with +her and Bertie, and had she then persisted might easily have forced her +confidence; which would have considerably enlightened and dismayed the +elder lady, whose mind, being full of Jack, had never dreamed of Bertie. + +Mrs. Rolleston, however, rapidly decided it would never do to encourage +her to talk of the matter, and that she had better put her foot on it at +once. + +"I have guessed your little _penchant_, dear, for some one we won't talk +about, for indeed, Bluebell, it never can come to any thing; you are both +too young and too poor. It would be a most undesirable connexion." + +"She doesn't think me grand enough for her brother," suggested Bluebell's +wounded pride. + +"And, therefore," pursued her Mentor, "absence is the best thing in these +cases; and when you come back I trust you will have got rid of such +hopeless fancies." + +Bluebell was deeply mortified,--she lost all expectation of sympathy, and +with a touch of pride, said,--"You must know best, Mrs. Rolleston, but I +shall never care for any one else; and I must tell you honestly, _I_ +can't give it up if he doesn't." + +"You will not see him at home?" said the elder lady, hastily. Such a +gleam of hope irradiated Bluebell's face; she had never thought of that. + +"Dear me, this is too bad!" continued the other, quite disheartened. "I +shall take care you have no more opportunities of meeting here. Bluebell, +do be warned. I only speak for your good." + +"How self-interest deceives one," moralized the girl; "it is only because +I am, as she says, 'a most undesirable connexion for her brother!'" + +Cecil entered at this juncture, and Bluebell, hearing the Colonel's step +also approaching, made a hasty escape from the room. + +"What is the matter with her?" asked Cecil. "She brushed by me so +suddenly, and looked so strange." + +"Nearly knocked me over," said the Colonel, who had caught the last +words. + +"Don't notice it; I am afraid Bluebell has lost her heart to young +Vavasour; and she is miserable at going home, because she thinks she will +not see him." + +"I am delighted you have put a stop to that folly," said the Colonel; +"that boy dawdles over here every afternoon. I can't have Miss Bluebell's +'followers' everlastingly caterwauling in my house." + +An expression of extreme astonishment came over Cecil's face. + +"Bluebell doesn't care _in the least_ for Jack Vavasour," said she. + +"You are evidently not in her confidence. She told me 'she should never +care for any one else'--her very words, the little goose." + +Cecil seemed lost in perplexity. "And she doesn't want to go home?" asked +she in a bewildered manner. + +"Crying her eyes out at this moment I dare say." + +"Then for goodness sake let her go home, and stay there till she +is better," said the Colonel, irritably. "A love lorn young lady +perpetually before me I cannot and will not endure." + +His daughter's brow was knitted with thought. Bluebell was evidently in +distress at going, but that it had any reference to Jack she totally +disbelieved. A latent suspicion revived, and her face grew pained and +hard. It was near dinner time, but, instead of going up to dress, she +turned into a little smoking room to ponder it out. What motive could +Bluebell have had to avow a perfectly fictitious love affair with +Vavasour, unless it was to throw dust in Mrs. Rolleston's eyes and blind +her to, perhaps, some underhand flirtation with Bertie? Cecil's +affection for her friend received a severe wrench directly she admitted +such a possibility, and then, as she meditated, two or three incidents, +too slight to be noticed at the time, rose up to confirm it. + +"Forewarned, forearmed, if that is your game, Miss Bluebell," thought +she, resolving for the future to watch narrowly. At this moment Du +Meresq, whistling 'Ah, che la morte,' burst into the room. + +"Cecil here, all in the dark? Light a candle, there's a good girl, I want +my cigar case. I'm awfully late". + +"Who is the Leonore you are whistling _addio_ to?" said she complying. + +"I don't know, the air is running in my head." + +"I thought it might be Bluebell, she is going to-morrow." + +The match went out, so she could not see the expression of Bertie's face. + +"How do you mean?" said he quietly. + +"They think Lubin destructive to her peace of mind, so she is to go home +for a fortnight. Singular idea, isn't it." + +"Bosh!" said Du Meresq, emphatically. "Well, I'm off. Good-night, Cecil." + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +TOBOGGINING. + + We are in love's land to-day. + Where shall we go? + Love, shall we start or stay? + Or sail--or row? + --Swinburne. + + +Bluebell thought that now Mrs. Rolleston had detected her secret, there +was no necessity to keep it from Cecil. They were in the habit of sitting +awhile, talking over their bed-room fire at night; and, though, of late, +they had scarcely been so intimate, the practice had not been +discontinued. So that evening she resolved to approach the subject with +Cecil. No doubt she would stand her friend, and be, as ever, generous and +sympathetic. + +But, at the first outset, no icicle could be brighter and colder than +Miss Rolleston's manner, who kept her communication at arm's-length, as +it were, and refused to see any hardship in paying a filial visit for a +week or two. + +"My dear Bluebell, you are really too childish. One would think it was to +be an eternal separation." + +"It is evident you will not miss me much," said poor Bluebell, wounded, +and thankful she had not committed herself further. + +"I should if Bertie were not here," answered Cecil, with heartless +intention. "But I really think this is the best time for you to be away, +for I am out so much with him, I see nothing of you. When he is gone, +Bluebell, and you have returned, we must begin to sing and read together, +as we used to do." This agreeable speech effectually quenched all +revelations on Bluebell's side, who, hurt and offended, took up a candle +and retired to her inner apartment. + +"They are all alike," she thought; "and Bertie understood the matter +better than I did. Now, I suppose, they will try and prevent me ever +seeing him again. Girls in novels think it necessary to give up their +lovers if the family disapprove; the book always gets very dull then; but +Bertie has never yet given me the chance to act the high-minded heroine." +And then she fell to wondering why he had not said something really +definite, he seemed near it so often. And yet he was his own master; no +stern father loomed in the background--_that_ Bluebell would have +considered a possible obstacle,--for had she not seen such malign +influence destroy more than one promising love affair among her +companions. Of course there was no solution to such an inscrutable +mystery, though Bluebell tossed awake half the night in the effort to +find one. + +Next morning they all met at breakfast as usual. No allusion was made to +her approaching departure. Afterwards, she attended to Freddy's nominal +lessons, packed her slender wardrobe, and then remained in her own room, +for the first time unwilling to go downstairs without an invitation. And +yet she grudged every hour that passed and brought the separation nearer. +She heard Bertie whistling about the house, so she would most likely see +him before starting--probably only at luncheon, though, which was the +children's dinner. A minute before the bell rang Bluebell descended, and +came full on Du Meresq in an angle of the staircase. She stopped +involuntarily. He was beside her with a smothered exclamation of +endearment, and an eager hand seeking hers. Had she dreamt it? The face +was impassive, the hand dropped, and a careless voice was saying,-- + +"Are you really going home this afternoon, Miss Leigh?" + +At the same instant she observed Cecil's upturned eyes in the hall below +them. So she had the felicity of eating a cutlet in the presence of her +love, but received no aliment for her heart-hunger. Du Meresq was teazing +his nieces, and did not add much to the general conversation, but the +others made up for it, and, when they addressed Bluebell, did so in a +particularly cheery tone, as to a nervous, fanciful girl, not to be +encouraged or noticed in her blue fits. She had thought of walking home +late in the afternoon, still hoping that something might bring about some +last words with Du Meresq, or that he might even contrive to join her on +the road; but Mrs. Rolleston, in the tone of one proposing a pleasure, +said she would drive her back herself, and that the sleigh was ordered in +half-an-hour. + +Bluebell, goaded to mild exasperation, glanced hastily to where Bertie +had been sitting, but he had left the room unperceived. + +The sleigh was at the door, so also was Captain Du Meresq, smoking an +after-luncheon cigar. I grieve to say my heroine displayed not a particle +of self-respect as, pale and dejected, she seated herself by Mrs. +Rolleston. Indeed, the blue eyes were beginning to swim, when they were +dried by a flash of indignation at the parting words of Du Meresq. He +merely raised his hat, without attempting to shake hands, and said, in a +jesting tone,--"_Au revoir_, Miss Bluebell. I hope you will be a comfort +to your mamma." + +As the jingle of the bells died away in the distance, Cecil felt a load +removed from her heart. Bluebell had become an object of uncomfortable +surmises, and her absence was an inexpressible relief. + +She had a fair field now, and Bertie all to herself, and did not intend +to spoil the present with tormenting suspicions of the past. + +"Probably he _may_ have flattered Bluebell at odd times, and turned her +head; but Bertie, though he will talk nonsense to anybody who will listen +to him, cares for something more than a pretty face. He will forget her +directly she is out of sight, for there really is nothing in her." + +Thus severely did Cecil reflect on the friend she had been the means of +bringing into the house, and had loved all the more for the kindnesses +she had been able to show her. But, then, who could have foreseen that +the _protégéé_ would turn into a rival? + +Her meditations were interrupted by the chief subject of them. + +"What do you intend doing, Cecil, this afternoon?" + +"It is very unsettling, people going away," said she, serenely. No +occasion to let him see the satisfaction it gave her. "Shall we go and +skate at the Rink, presently?" + +"Oh, ain't you sick of that place? Let us order your cutter, and look in +on the Armstrongs' toboggining party?" + +"Enchanting!" said Cecil, brightening. "But, dear me! it will be nearly +over." + +"Not if you look sharp. 'Wings' will take us there in half-an-hour; it +isn't five miles to the hill. Don't forget to leave your crinoline +behind." + +Du Meresq rang the bell, and Cecil re-appeared in a few minutes, innocent +of her "_sans reflectum_," and in a clinging black velveteen suit, with a +golden oriole in her cap, and a scarf of the same hue knotted about her +waist. + +"None so dusty," said Bertie, approvingly. "You look best in daring +colours, Cecil." + +Personal praise from Du Meresq, however expressed, was not unwelcome to +Cecil, who was sensitively alive to her want of beauty. But she answered, +carelessly,--"Just a refuge for the destitute. I can't wear pale shades, +or blue or green." + +"No, my bright brunette; but that Satanic mixture does not misbecome +you,"--and he murmured the words in "May Janet,"-- + + "The first town they came to there was a blue bride chamber, + He clothed her on with silk, and belted her with amber." + +"Come and help me down with the toboggin, Bertie. It is a-top of the +book-shelf,"--and they dragged down a mysterious structure of maple wood, +having the appearance of a plank six feet long by two wide, and turned up +at one end. It had red cord reins, and Cecil's monogram, neatly painted, +on the outside. + +"We must show off our smart toboggin, I suppose; though where on earth we +can put it in the cutter I can't think," said Du Meresq. + +"I had rather hold it on my lap than not take it. Here comes +'Wings,'"--and a high-stepping American horse, bought out of a sulky, +as not sufficiently justifying his name for racing purposes, dashed up +to the door with the smallest and prettiest cutter in the city. The robes +were white wolf-skins, bordered with black bear. The one hanging from the +back exhibited a bear's head and claws on the white ground. Both robes +and bells were mounted in scarlet and white; and the masks of two owls +occupied the place of rosettes on "Wings'" head-stall. + +"Well," said Bertie, "we are, luckily, not in Hyde Park; and I suppose a +sleigh can't be too bizarre. Is this the creation of your festive fancy, +Cecil?" + +"Yes; I don't disown it. I sent a coloured sketch of what I wanted to +Gaines, and he found fur and everything. 'Wings' was bought in an auction +last month. He went cheap, because they never could teach him the correct +'racking' action. Papa advised me to have him, as he thought he would +carry me in the summer, and I have no other horse." + +"I'll tell you what, Cecil; we must extend our wings if we are to be in +time. Canter him across the common, there's a capital track." + +"Can't he go!" said she, exultingly, as on a hard, frozen surface they +sped along. "We rush through the air so silently that if it were not for +the bells one might fancy oneself flying." + +"Yes," said Bertie; "I have known more unpleasant sensations than being +driven ten miles an hour by a fair lady--a dark one, I should say." + +"Given the lady. I don't think you much care whom it may chance to be, +Bertie." + + "If a woman is pretty, to me it's no matter + Be she blonde or brunette, so she let me look at her." + +"Were you thinking of those lines in 'Lucille'?" + +"Them's your sentiments to a T, I should say." + +"And you ought to have lived in the days when the knight had 'Une seule' +embroidered on his banner. I'll never believe that his loves were so +limited; doubtless each appropriated the invidious distinction to +herself." + +"I know one knight," said Cecil, "who would give them plenty of reason to +do so." + +"Fancy," continued Bertie "riding in full armour to a crossroad, and +challenging every one to single combat who declined to acknowledge his +particular fair to be queen of love and beauty, and that no one else +should hold a candle to her! Now we should think it great impertinence in +a fellow to offer his opinion about her at all." + +"No," laughed Cecil, "such public proclamation would never suit these +inconsistent days." + +"Can you not believe yourself 'Une seule,' Cecil, even in these days?" +returned he, meaningly and tenderly. + +"That would depend on my knight," said she, blushing, and uncertain how +to take it. "I should not care to live in a Fool's Paradise." + +"If it were Paradise, why analyze the wisdom of it?" said Bertie, gazing +with surprised admiration at her radiant face, that kindled as with some +hidden fire. + +"I could do without him," answered she, "but if he were worth caring for +I wouldn't share him with any one." + +"I hope Fane isn't 'Un seul,' Cecil. For a young lady with such severe +ideas of constancy, you were pretty thick at the sleighing-party." + +There was something in this speech that annoyed Cecil, who turned it off +with a short answer. It might have been that she did not like him so +composedly contemplating such a possibility. + +Du Meresq said no more, perhaps because they were approaching the +toboggin hill, or perhaps, like Dr. Johnson, he had nothing ready. + +Cecil was sorry they were so near. She felt more interested in the +conversation than in the party, and gazed wistfully down a by road that +would have led them in an opposite direction. + +"I wish I dare turn sharp off," thought she. "But, no! we are +conventional beings. This idiotic performance is the goal and object +of our expedition. I am driving, and must do nothing so indecently +eccentric." + +So she gave "Wings" a flick with her whip, that sent him up to his bit +with his knees in his mouth, and they drew rein on the edge of the snow +mountain. + +Miss Tremaine's bright face was just on a level with the top, drawing up +her own toboggin. + +"Here's this dear little Lily," said Bertie. + +"Your diminutives are curiously applied," said Cecil. "That is a very +substantial _petite_." + +"How late you are," cried Miss Tremaine, rushing up to them. 'Wings,' who +couldn't bear waiting, began to rear. "Gracious, Cecil, does he feed on +yeast-powder to make him 'rise' so? How do you do, Captain Du Meresq? +Come along; there's some capital jumps. Here's my little brother will +hang on to the horse's head till we find some one else, if you are sure +'Wings' will not soar away with him, like an eagle with a lamb." + +"I'd better billet him on that farm," said Du Meresq, driving off. + +"And I must go and speak to Mrs. Armstrong," said Cecil. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +EFFECTS OF TOBOGGINING. + + With a slow and noiseless footstep + + Takes the vacant chair beside me, + Lays her gentle hand in mine. + --Longfellow. + + +A little further on, by a blazing fire, was seated the hostess and about +a dozen other people on benches and rugs; a table spread with +refreshments and hot liquids attracted as many more. The grey sky and +white ground threw out the figures solidly, the only patches of colour +being the bright petticoats of the ladies as they flashed down or toiled +up the snow mountain. + +"Have a 'cock-tail,' Miss Rolleston?" said Captain Wilmot, of the +Fusiliers. "I have just made a capital one; and then may I steer you down +on my toboggin?" + +Cecil accepted both propositions. "But do take mine, for I have never +tried it yet." + +"What a beauty," said Lilla, enviously. "It doesn't look over strong, +though; I shouldn't wonder if it broke in two. You'll have to mind the +hole at the bottom; there have been a lot in already." + +For the information of the uninitiated, I may as well describe how this +hilarious amusement is conducted. Having first selected the highest hill +the neighbourhood affords, well covered with slippery frozen snow, two +individuals who purpose forming the freight of the toboggin pose +themselves, the foremost holding the reins, which, however, are more for +effect than use, sitting between the feet of the hindmost traveller, who +steers with his hands. + +As a finger on the snow alters the course of the toboggin, and a nervous +push makes it slue round, scattering the inmates, it is needless to say +the tyro in front is admonished to preserve the most absolute immobility. +Then the vehicle receives a shove off the top of the hill, and shoots +down the smooth precipice, and the novice, with shut eyes to escape +the blinding snow that flies like hailstones about him, listens to the +wind whistling behind, and with bated breath--the first time at any +rate--wishes it were over. + +"Captain Du Meresq," cried Lilla, "come along; I am going to take you +down the big jump." + +"Off Niagara, if you like." + +"It _is_ a tidy drop, the first shelf, so please I'd rather steer. +I never trust my neck to any one but myself." + +Bertie craned over. "Let me go down first, and see what it is like; it +will give you an awful shake." + +"Bosh! I have been down before; sit tight," said Lilla, adjusting +herself. + +It was a series of snow terraces, half natural, half artificial. The +ridge they started from was very steep, and jutting out a little way +down, yawned over a perpendicular drop to the next ledge, which sloped +off again to ever recurring but lesser falls. + +Receiving the necessary impetus from above, Bertie and Lilla slithered +down at a terrific pace, and shot over the jutting ridge--a good twenty +feet drop. As they touched the ground, the toboggin ploughed up the snow, +recovered without upsetting, and tore on, jumping down the lesser falls +the same way, and continuing a considerable distance along the level at +the bottom before its impetus was exhausted. + +Bertie, blind, breathless, and half-choked with snow, heard a voice +behind, jerking in quick grasps-- + +"Did you e-ver feel such a de-light-ful--sensation in your life before?" + +"Never," said he with a profound air of conviction, shaking off the snow +like a Newfoundland dog. "I wonder if I could have steered as well!" + +"If you are going to try, you may take some young woman who is tired of +her life," said Lilla. + +"I'll take myself down, anyhow," said Du Meresq, rather nettled; and, +having dragged her toboggin up the hill, ran off to get another; but, in +passing Cecil, found a moment to say-- + +"Don't let that young lunatic delude you down the jump. It is unfit for +any girl but such a glutton as Lilla." + +"I haven't the slightest wish to try," said she, laughing. "Lilla's a +witch. Just look at her now." + +Miss Tremaine, standing poised on her toboggin, was in the act of gliding +down the hill. A light pole held in one hand served as a rudder, the +other retained the cord reins. + +"It is like a fairy in a pantomime let down from above," ejaculated Du +Meresq. "That is uncommonly tall toboggining!" + +A slight commotion was now apparent in the valley below. A brook ran +through it, frozen except is one place, where was a large hole. Mr. +Tremaine and Captain Delamere, slithering down together, ran into a +runaway toboggin that had upset its occupant. This knocked them out of +their course, and upset them into the rotten ice of the brook. + +Mr. Tremaine was precipitated head foremost into the hole, with his heels +in the air, and Lilla at the same moment coming to a halt in her +acrobatic descent, beheld the apparition of a pair of legs, feet upwards, +and a coarse pair of knickerbocker stockings dragged over the boots. + +"Who has muffed in now? Gracious goodness, _I_ knit those stockings; it +is the Governor! Pull him out--quick, quick, Captain Delamere; he'll have +a fit!" + +That individual, who had just scrambled out, was standing rather dazed, +ruefully stanching the cuts on his face. Between them they soon dragged +out Mr. Tremaine, half suffocated, and puffing and panting like a +demented steam-engine, but by the time he had recovered his breath not +much the worse. + +The toboggining was getting fast and furious, and several casualties +occurred. The toiler up the hill, too, had need of all his alertness to +dodge the numerous erratic cars tearing down in every direction. + +An adventurous group were tying a dozen or more toboggins together, which +they called an omnibus; and Jack Vavasour, in the character of conductor, +was holding up his hand, and cadging for passengers. + +"Any more for the Brook or Gore Vale? Room for two still in the +'Lightning' 'bus! No more?--then we are off. Link arms, ladies and +gentlemen;" and the unwieldy apparatus was started. The couplings divided +half-way down. About seven reached the bottom, the remaining five were +upset, and were left there. Cecil was in the latter division, and having +extricated herself from the _débris_, slowly ascended the hill. + +She was rather tired now, and slightly bored; and began wondering what +had become of her escort. He had not been in the coach, nor was he among +the noisy, chattering party approaching her. + +"Has anyone seen Captain Du Meresq?" asked she. + +"Ten minutes ago he was death on the big jump," said Jack. "He took +Delamere to start him; and I think Miss Tremaine went too." + +A shade passed over Cecil's face. "Would you ask him, Mr. Vavasour, to +get the sleigh? It is quite time we were going." + +Another quarter of an hour passed, but no signs of Jack or Bertie. +Cecil kept up a desultory conversation with Mrs. Anderson; but a vague +impatience and restlessness came over her. She looked in the direction of +the big jump, and it seemed to her a point of attraction that gathered up +the stragglers, who all converged towards it. There was quite a crowd +there now. Mrs. Anderson's platitudes became maddening. Then she observed +Lilla coming from the same direction, and beckoning. She sprang to meet +her. + +"Cecil," cried Lilla, "don't be frightened." Why do people always use +this agitating formula? "But the fact is poor Bertie has had an awful +cropper. Good gracious, Cecil! don't look like that! Are you going to +faint! He is not so very much hurt,--stunned a bit at first." + +"How was it?" said the other, breathing again, and pressing forward. + +"He was going down the drop. Captain Delamere was to push him off, +which he did with a vengeance. He didn't mean any harm, though he don't +like a bone in poor Bertie's body. However, the toboggin snapped in two +from the concussion in landing. Bertie was shot out and rolled to the +bottom, which would not have mattered, only he struck his head against +some snag or stone hidden by the snow. We looked down, but he didn't seem +to move, and we got frightened. I had had nearly enough jumping, but I +took Captain Delamere on my toboggin--didn't trust him to steer, I can +tell you, my dear--and bumped down quite safe. Bertie was insensible, +with a queer cut on his forehead; so I extracted the solitaire out of +his shirt-collar, and Captain Delamere gave him a nip out of his +pocket-pistol, and then he seemed to pull himself together and sat up. A +lot of people had collected round, and Mr. Vavasour asked me to come and +tell you. Oh, here he is." + +"Miss Rolleston," said Jack, "Du Meresq is nearly all right again. But he +has twisted his ankle, and can't walk up the hill; so they are going to +pull him up on a toboggin. I'll go and get your sleigh." + +"Are you _sure_ it is nothing worse?" said Cecil, who could scarcely +abandon her first impression that his neck was broken. + +"Quite. There he is, to answer for himself," as Bertie and his bearers +crested the hill. + +She walked to meet them. Du Meresq looked in pain, but cut short all +enquiries. "Wrenched my foot that's all. You want to go, don't you, +Cecil?" + +"Oh, yes; as soon as possible. Lilla, Mrs. Armstrong is so far off, will +you make our adieux?" _Sotto voce._ "She is a tiresome old goose; but I +left her so abruptly just now." + +"Miss Rolleston," whispered Jack, who had just brought up the cutter, "I +think I'll send up the doctor from the barracks. Du Meresq did get a +baddish cut on the head, and, if he doesn't stay in a day or two, it +might turn to erysipelas in this climate." + +"Pray do. Oh, Mr. Vavasour! just tell me honestly, is not that +sometimes--fatal when it gets to the head?" + +Cecil's eyes, dilated with terror, betrayed her to Jack, over whose +honest face came an expression of sympathy and intelligence. + +"Of course; but we will take care of that. That's why I am sending up the +doctor, to prevent him exposing himself out of doors just yet." + +Cecil did not find the drive back so agreeable as the previous one. Du +Meresq, chafing at the confinement his fast swelling foot would probably +entail, and provoked at coming to grief after Lilla's taunt was in +remarkably bad humour. + +Cecil saw the state of the case, and drove on fast, philosophically +allowing him to grumble and growl without much concerning herself; but +it was almost dark before they drew up at "The Maples." + +In the meantime, Colonel Rolleston, having heard from Miss Prosody that +his daughter and Du Meresq had gone off to a toboggining party, chose to +be highly scandalized, and poured into the placid ear of his wife a +torrent of disapprobation. + +In vain did Mrs. Rolleston represent that they were out sleighing and +skating together most days without his objecting. + +"This was quite different--this was a public party--people would say they +were engaged. He never had seen the good of their being so inseparable, +but of course, his opinion on the subject had never been considered," +etc.,--which last remark was rather uncalled for, as few heads of +families have their womankind in better order than Colonel Rolleston. + +A straw will show which way the wind blows. His wife listened with some +uneasiness, for she had always hoped the Colonel tacitly approved the +attachment between their respective relatives, which to her appeared so +evident. She could only trust this was but a pettish effusion from their +prolonged absence, and determined to guard against such causes of offence +for the future. + +But still they did not come. It was dark--it was dinner-time--it really +was too bad. At last a faint tinkle of sleigh-bells was followed by a +slight commotion in the hall. The servant was assisting Bertie into the +smoking-room, for he elected to lie on the sofa there, and thus avoid the +worry of questions and alarms. + +Colonel Rolleston was too grand and angry to evince any curiosity by +coming out, and Mrs. Rolleston, after receiving a hasty explanation from +Cecil, sent her back to the drawing-room, and took charge of her brother, +who was having his boot cut off, and in considerable pain. + +There was not much resemblance in character or sympathy between the +brothers-in-law; but they had hitherto avoided clashing. Now, however, +the Colonel's outraged feelings of propriety wound him up to the +determination of administering a solemn rebuke to Du Meresq, and he stood +on that coign of advantage, the hearthrug, waiting to deliver it. + +Cecil came in for the first tide of wrath, somewhat to her surprise; but, +dreading her companionship with Bertie being prohibited, exerted +considerable tact to smooth her father down, and especially made light of +the accident, which she perceived was an aggravation of the offence. + +"Not content with making my daughter conspicuous, he hadn't even the +sense to keep out of scrapes himself," etc. + +Mrs. Rolleston glanced interrogatively at Cecil as they met on the +stairs. I don't know what answer her countenance conveyed, but they made +simultaneously the same suggestion,--"Let us get Miss Prosody to dine +down." They both knew that without the addition of an unoffending third +the subject would be harped on all the evening. + +Mrs. Rolleston was an excellent housekeeper; and the well-served repast, +aided by the judicious conversation of the ladies, exercised a most +soothing influence on the Colonel, who was rapidly attaining that +harmless frame of mind in which, as the saying goes, "a child might play +with him." + +But a sudden ring at the door-bell, followed by the announcement of the +surgeon of the regiment, brought on a relapse. What man does not hate +being interrupted at dinner? And the doctor's report was sufficiently +vague to re-kindle Cecil's fears, and create uncomfortable misgivings in +the mind of her step-mother. + +Du Meresq, he said, was suffering intense pain in the head, and a small +bone in the ankle was broken, which he had set; but he could not be +certain there was no internal injury, etc. + +Mrs. Rolleston hastened away to Bertie, and did not return; and poor +Cecil, not daring to show her anxiety, remained to entertain her father, +or rather to listen to his irritable remarks on this unlucky expedition +for the rest of the evening. + +Never was there a more fractious patient than Du Meresq as he lay +listlessly on the sofa, while the bone reunited. He had speculated on +many a stolen walk with Bluebell in that unfrequented wood, where they +would be far less liable to interruption than at "The Maples." He thought +of his cavalier parting with her,--a bracing tonic,--necessitated by the +self-betrayal of her dejected air, but which he expected to have +explained away in a most agreeable manner before now. It would never do +to write from this house. What a shame it was sending her away--for a +mistake, too, for they had got the saddle on the wrong horse. "Still," he +thought, "it is a bore when girls take things _au grand serieux_. Lilla +Tremaine is quite different, as jolly as possible, but never expects +impossibilities. Now Cecil and Bluebell are never satisfied without one's +swearing one cares for nobody else. At least, Cecil isn't, though I don't +think I ever quite said that to her yet. It doesn't matter telling +Bluebell so, and she looks so pleased, and believes every word of it. I +would marry that child if I could afford it." And then visions of debt, +ever pressing, harassed his mind. "Well, it could not last much longer; +there would be something left out of the fire when he sold out, and he +could try Australia, or the Gold Coast, or--he didn't care what." + +But such subjects were not exhilarating, lying alone in the smoking-room, +and at last he rang a hand-bell, and told the servant to ask Miss +Rolleston to come and sit with him. + +Cecil complied at once, but brought with her a colour-box and +sketch-book. Drawing was her great occupation, and she was now filling +in from memory a sketch of the toboggining party. + +"You never come near me, Cecil, unless I send for you!" said Du Meresq, +complainingly. + +"Poor Bertie! are you very much bored?" said she, without looking up from +her painting. + +"Horribly; and my thoughts and occupations are none of the pleasantest." + +"Those horrid duns again," glancing at some blue looking envelopes lying +near. "But you haven't opened one of them." + +"Never do, nor answer them either. They keep up a pretty close +correspondence considering it is one-sided." + +"Bertie," said Cecil, drawing on diligently, "Can't something be done? +You never seem to look into your affairs. Perhaps they wouldn't be so bad +if you did. I shall be of age in August, and," colouring slightly, "I +will lend you as much as you want. You can give me an I.O.U. for the +amount," continued she, rather proud of her knowledge of business. + +"You dear, romantic girl" (Cecil was chilled in a moment), "how could I +take your money? I shouldn't have a chance of repaying it. No, I shall +last as long as I can, and then try the Colonies. It is only my rascally +self, after all, to think of. Thank goodness, I don't draw any delicate, +fragile life after me into privation and discomfort." + +Cecil bent more closely over her drawing. + +"What are you doing?" said Bertie, impatiently. "I can't see your face. +Come and sit by me, Cecil. I like a 'gentle hand in mine.'" + +Cecil moved as if in a dream, and sat in a low chair near his couch. + +"You have always been so kind and true to me," stroking her hair +caressingly. + +A slight movement of the handle of the door made them involuntarily +separate, and Mrs. Rolleston entered. + +"Cecil, your father is looking for you. He wants you to drive with him, +and call on the Learmonths." + +"What an infernal bore!" said Du Meresq, energetically; "and I must lie +in this confounded room, with nothing to do the whole afternoon. Can't +you get out of it, Cecil?" + +"No, no!" said Mrs. Rolleston, hastily meeting her daughter's eye. There +was unspoken sympathy between them. Her half eager look of inquiry passed +into intelligent acquiescence, and, with a regretful glance at Bertie, +she left the room. + +The next day and the one after the Colonel required his daughter's +companionship; the third day, they all went out in the afternoon, as Du +Meresq seemed better, and said he had letters to write. No sooner, +however, was the house quiet and deserted, than he rang the bell, and +sent for a sleigh, hobbling out with the assistance of a stick and the +servant's arm. For the information of that lingering and curious +functionary, he ordered the driver to go to the Club, which address, +however, was altered after proceeding a short distance. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +THE LAKE SHORE ROAD. + + But all that I care for, + And all that I know, + Is that, without wherefore, + I worship thee so. + --Lord Lytton. + + +"I suppose, Bluebell, you keep all your fine spirits for company?" said +Miss Opie, tauntingly; and, indeed, she had some reason to be aggrieved. +Few things are more trying than living with a person in the persistent +enjoyment of the blues; and the old, saddened by failing health and the +memory of heavy sorrows, are apt to look upon gloom in youth as +entrenching on their own prescriptive rights. + +Bluebell was always now taking long, aimless walks, bringing home neither +news nor gossip, and then sitting silent, absorbed in her own thoughts, +or else feverishly expectant; while each evening she sank into deeper +despondency after the day's disappointment. + +"Spirits can't be made to order," answered she, shortly. "I have got +nothing to talk about." + +"I am afraid you are ill, my dear," said Mrs. Leigh; "outgrowing your +strength, perhaps. You are such a great girl, Bluebell--so different to +me; and you scarcely touched the baked mutton at dinner, which was a +little frozen and red yesterday, but so nice to-day." + +Bluebell shivered. She was not at a very critical age, but the culinary +triumphs of the "general servant" made her practice a good deal of +enforced abstinence since she had been accustomed to properly prepared +cookery at "The Maples." + +"People who do nothing all day can't expect to be hungry," said Miss +Opie, sententiously. "If a man will not work neither may he eat." + +"Then it is all right," retorted Bluebell, "as it seems I do neither." + +"Not work!" cried Mrs. Leigh. "Why she has earned already more than I +ever did in my life, and brought me ten dollars to get a dress with, only +I shan't, for I shall keep it for her. I must say, Aunt Jane, you are +always blaming the child; and, if her mother is satisfied, I think you +may be." + +Aunt Jane was silenced, but she wondered what Bluebell could do that her +shortsighted mother would not be satisfied with. Meantime the object of +the discussion had escaped from the room. She had no wish to spend the +afternoon in the dim parlour, stuffy with stove heat and the lingering +aroma of baked mutton; and a fancy had occurred to her to wander through +the wood she had last traversed with the sole occupant of her +ill-regulated mind. + +Trove, now a well-to-do and unabashed dog, rolled and kicked on his back +in puppy-like ecstacy as he watched her dress, and officiously brought +her her muff, which, however, he objected to resigning. Trove was +Bluebell's confidant and the repository of her woes, and perhaps as safe +a one as young ladies generally choose. + +Not a sign of the Rollestons had she seen since her arrival at the +cottage ten days ago. Bluebell thought she could not have been more cut +off from them if she had crossed the Atlantic instead of the Common. +Going to the Rink would have too much the appearance of seeking Du +Meresq, so she rigorously avoided that; but even in King Street, where +Cecil's cutter flashed most days, she never caught sight of "Wings'" +owl-decorated head. + +There was a great deal of her father's disposition in Bluebell, and she +chafed at the monotony of days so grey and eventless, and longed for she +knew not what; so that it was life, movement, _pain_ even, to exhaust +those new springs of thought and feeling that the awakening touch of a +first love had called forth, and would not now be laid. + +Bluebell, like most Canadians, had had plenty of early admiration from +hobbledehoys, who made honest, though ungainly, love to her; but her +heart would as soon have been touched by an amorous Orson as by these +youthful tyros in the art. Du Meresq had that deceptive countenance +apparently created for the shipwreck of female hearts. Sometimes men +called him an ugly fellow, but no woman ever thought so. There was +expression enough in those luminous eyes to have set up three beauty men. +They could look both demoniacal and seraphic,--tender often, but scarcely +ever true; add to this a magnificent _physique_, a soft manner, a winning +voice, and, what gave him an almost superstitious interest to women, that +_fey_ look attributed to the Stewarts. He had read and studied hard by +fits and starts, for whatever possessed his mind he always pursued with +ardour, and to Cecil was fond of inveighing against his useless, +unsatisfying life. In spite of her infatuation, though, she judged him +more truly than most people, and perceived that his fitful remorse was +chiefly occasioned by pressure of money matters, and seldom lasted over +pecuniary relief. + +In the most secret flights of her imagination, she pictured herself in +some new country with Bertie. An adventurous, reckless nature such as +his, she thought, turned every gift to evil in the commonplace life +where his idiosyncrasy had no play; but detached from his idle mess-room +habits, and launched into a new career, when to live at all involved +exertion of mind and body, would metamorphosize her hero into all she +could wish. + +Such was the ideal, in her conventual bringing up, of the rich and well +placed Cecil; while Bluebell, to whom luxury was unknown, longed for +wealth to take her into a sphere where taste was not starved by economy, +nor all her horizon bounded by weekly bills. But in both cases their air +castles were to be occupied with Du Meresq. + +The girl and the dog sped along on their desolate walk--it was too cold +to linger. Bluebell carefully followed the route she had taken with +Bertie, that memory might be added by association. + +"Ah, Trove," said she to the dog, who bounced up against her, "I am as +much a waif and stray as you are--disowned by my grandfather, who might +have made us rich, and taken up by people one day and forgotten the next; +but you have drifted into harbour now, my dog, and who knows--" + +A smothered growl interrupted this monologue, and then a sharp bark. +Bluebell looked round to see what was exciting him; she heard a distant +tinkle of bells, and listened keenly; laughing voices were apparently +approaching. From an impulse that she could not have explained, Bluebell +darted into an empty woodshed, dragging Trove in after her, and holding +him firmly by the muzzle to stifle his growling. Through an aperture in +the boards she could observe, unseen herself. + +The sounds grew louder, and a score of sleighs defiled past her +hiding-place. Bluebell scanned each carefully. There were the usual +members of the Sleigh Club. She recognized the Tremaines, and several +others of her little world. Jack in his tandem; but, faithful Lubin! no +"cloud-capped" Muffin sat by his side; his companion was of the sterner +sex, or, as he would have described him, "a dog." But where were the +Rollestons? No representative of "The Maples" was present, not even Du +Meresq. They had flashed past within a minute; but, like a fresh breeze +over still water, the little incident had awakened and roused up Bluebell +from her lethargy. + +Her thoughts became more lively as she speculated why Bertie and Cecil +were absent from the sleighing party. It was some consolation, at any +rate, not to see him enjoying himself quite as much without her. The sun +was setting redly as she neared the cottage, and a young moon gaining +brightness. Bluebell, remembering a childish superstition, paused to +wish. The passage was dark as she entered, and her mother's tones, +talking with great volubility, struck her ear. "Mamma has her company +voice on," thought she, which, being interpreted, meant an increase of +nervousness and consequent garrulity. + +She opened the door, and her heart gave a sudden leap as she became aware +of, rather than saw in the dusk, the tall, broad-shouldered form of Du +Meresq. Bluebell came stiffly forward, and offered a cold hand, utterly +belying her heart, to Bertie, who bent over it as if sorely tempted, in +spite of Mrs. Leigh's presence, to carry it to his lips. But she withdrew +it abruptly, and sat down, seized with more overpowering shyness than she +had ever experienced. + +Miss Opie's keen, attentive eyes were taking in the situation. + +"Captain Du Meresq has been kind enough to call," said Mrs. Leigh, "to +say there is no immediate hurry for your return, my dear." + +Bluebell raised disappointed, questioning eyes; but something in his face +conveyed to her that the message was coined as an excuse for his +appearance. + +"I hope Cecil is well?" said she, trying to speak unconcernedly; "but I +saw she was not out with the Club to-day." + +"I think she is tired of it. Where did you fall in with them?" asked he. + +"In the Humber," very consciously. + +"Were you there?" asked Bertie, with a tender inflection in his voice, +that Bluebell knew well. But she would not look up, and Miss Opie did, so +he proceeded carelessly,--"I suppose they were coming from the Lake Shore +Road, up the serpentine drive in the wood?" + +"Oh! that is such a pretty walk in summer!" said Mrs. Leigh. + +"I dare say," said Bertie, looking straight down his nose. "I went round +that way once, and even in winter found it the pleasantest walk I ever +took in my life." + +"Ah, then," said Mrs. Leigh, knowingly, "I dare say some pretty young +lady was with you." + +"No such happiness," said Bertie, with an imperceptible glance at +Bluebell. "The fact is, Mrs. Leigh, women detest me! I suppose it is my +deep respect, making me so fearful of offending, that bores them; but I +fear I am a social failure." + +"In my day," said Miss Opie, ironically, "young ladies _expected_ to be +treated with respect." + +"And that could not have been so long ago; yet now they are beyond a +bashful man's comprehension," said Bertie, with an air of simplicity, +slightly scanning Miss Opie's wakeful face. He had got on so well with +the mamma, who was this old maid, who appeared so objectionably on the +alert? + +"Well, I am sure," said Mrs. Leigh, "some girls here _are_ that pert and +forward, I can't bear it myself; and yet the gentlemen all encourage it, +and think it real smart. Lilla Tremaine, you know, Aunt Jane." + +"Ah!" said Bertie, shaking his head, "a very unsteady young person." + +While Du Meresq was making conversation, Bluebell sat incapable of +contributing to it. She would not have believed that his presence should +afford her so little pleasure; but he seemed incongruous here, and was +apparently amusing himself with the simplicity of her relatives. A +clatter of tea-things filled her mind with dismay. The ideas of the +"help" on the subject of cleanliness were in a very rudimentary stage, +and that the cloth would be in anything but its first freshness, was a +moral certainty. Impossible, however, to avert the catastrophe, and the +general servant, actuated by a determination to get another look at Miss +Bluebell's "young man," undauntedly bore in the tray. + +"Dear me, is it not rather early?" said Mrs. Leigh. "Oh, Captain Du +Meresq,"--seeing him rise,--"you must stay and have a cup with us." + +"Another day, if you will allow me," said Bertie, trying to disguise +his extreme lameness. "I hope, having found my way here, I may be +permitted to call again in this sociable manner, and have a little +agreeable conversation, so preferable to gaiety, which I abhor." + +"If you will take us as you find us," said the little lady, graciously, +"we shall look upon it as a great favour, I am sure. Dear me, Captain Du +Meresq, have you hit your foot? You seem quite lame." + +"I am, rather. I had an accident. Is there not some shorter way back than +the road I came?" + +"Oh, yes, by Barker's Row. You know the Link House?" + +"No--a," said Bertie, looking expressively at Bluebell, as a hint that +she might offer to point out the road. + +"Oh, surely you _must_; keep straight on King Street, and then you come +to--" + +"Wolfe Street?" suggested Du Meresq. + +"Gracious, no! that would be quite out of your way! Go to--I'll tell you +what, Bluebell shall show you where you turn off--it isn't ten minutes +from here." + +Bertie murmured a profusion of thanks, and, distrustful of Miss Opie, +protested against being so troublesome. But Bluebell, scarce able to +believe in such luck, sprang up with a sudden illumination of +countenance, and the next minute the lovers were alone under the light +of the moon. + +"Bluebell," said Du Meresq, "I have got a sleigh here. I thought I +_might_ get you out of it if I pretended I was walking, and didn't know +the way; but the fact is, my child, I can hardly limp a hundred yards. +Come a little drive with me." + +"Oh! I dare not. It is so late, and they expect me back again directly." + +"Then you are going to run away the first moment we have been alone for +so long!" + +"Whose fault is that," said she, reproachfully. + +"Not mine. I have been laid up ten days with a broken ankle. But I +suppose you have been seeing Jack Vavasour every day, and forgotten all +about me?" + +"Bertie," said Bluebell, hesitatingly, "did they say anything to you +about--" + +"About Jack? Yes, they said he was spoons on you. And also, Miss +Bluebell, that you were awfully in love with him." + +"No, no, nonsense," said she, blushing. "I meant about yourself." + +"They know nothing of that?" said he, inquiringly. + +"They do, though. I don't know what you will say, Bertie, but I told Mrs. +Rolleston." + +"What can you mean, Bluebell? Bella told me that you cared for nobody but +Jack Vavasour; and I was deuced angry, I can tell you; at first, though I +thought it uncommon 'cute of you saying so." + +Bluebell, utterly confounded by this extraordinary assertion, had no time +to reply, for she found herself close to a covered sleigh, and the man +had got down and opened the door. She drew back. + +"Jump in," said Bertie, impatiently. + +Bluebell shook her head. + +"What do you propose?" said he, in an angry whisper. "We can't sit out in +the snow, and I can't walk another yard." + +She hesitated, and he gently impelled her into the vehicle, following +himself, to the anguish of his injured foot, that he had struck in his +haste. + +"Where to, sir?" said the man, whom Bertie, in his momentary pain, had +forgotten. + +"Go to the Don Bridge." + +"Can't, sir. I am ordered at the College by six o'clock." + +"Drive to the devil, then. I mean, drive about as long as you can. I like +driving." + +"Hush, Bertie! how can you? What will he think?" + +"How much 'old rye' he will get out of the job. Come, Bluebell; the hour +is ours, don't spoil it fidgetting about trivialities. I have scarcely +dared to look at you yet, my beautiful pet," trying to steal an arm round +her waist. But she drew herself away, irresponsive and rigid, being +uneasy and frightened at the escapade she had been led into. + +"You haven't a spark of moral courage, Bluebell," said Bertie, +impatiently. "You are as prim and unlike yourself as possible, just +because you are wondering what that man on the box will think. Or, +perhaps, you are afraid of that thin, sour old duenna at home." + +"She will be inquisitive enough," said Bluebell, resignedly. "And, +Bertie, I wanted to tell you, but, perhaps, you know, that they will +never have me again at the 'Maples' while you are there,--Mrs. Rolleston +so utterly disapproves of it." + +"What _is_ this hallucination that you have got hold of?" said Du Meresq. +"What did you tell, or fancy you told, Bella?" + +"We got on the subject. Your name wasn't actually mentioned; but she +quite understood, and said something," said Bluebell, reddening as she +felt the awkwardness of her words, "very strong against it." + +Bertie looked relieved. He began to understand the mistake, which he +considered a fortunate one. + +"And did you promise to give me up?" + +She turned her large, innocent eyes upon him. "How could I, when I care +more for you than anything in the world?" + +"My poor little Bluebell!" said Du Meresq, crushing her in his arms. But +the sleigh stopped; the man was getting down. + +"My time is up, sir." + +"Well, drive to where you took us up," said Bertie. "Bluebell, tell me +quick, where shall I see you again?" + +"I can't risk driving," said she, hurriedly. "When will you be able to +walk?" + +"Can't I see you alone at home sometimes? When are your people likely to +be out?" + +"They don't go out for days together, except on Sunday, to church; and +Aunt Jane would suspect something directly if I didn't go with them." + +"Let her, meddling old idiot! I shall come then, Bluebell." + +"No, no, Bertie; pray don't! Could you walk in a week?" + +"What an eternity! Well, meet me in the Avenue in the Queen's Park, at +three o'clock on Wednesday. Here's this brute getting down again. Only +just time to kiss those dear blue eyes. _Addio_ Leonore. How the deuce +am I to get home, I wonder?" + +"Bertie, you'll never be able to walk." + +"Never mind me. Run back, my dearest, and throw dust in the eyes of that +misguided old female, who presumes to open them on what doesn't concern +her." + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +NORTHERN LIGHTS. + + Do you remember + Those evenings in the bleak December, + Curtained warm from the snowy weather, + When you and I played chess together, + Checkmated by each other's eyes? + --The Wanderer. + + +Bluebell sped home, and, to evade remarks, hung up her hat in the +passage, as the least embarrassing way of reporting herself, then +remained, perdu, in her own room, transfigured into fairy-land by her +happy thoughts. Bertie was acquitted of intentional neglect. It was only +the malignity of Fate that had divided them; and there was the positive +anticipation of meeting again in six days. To be sure, it involved +entering on a course of deceit. Aunt Jane would, probably, be shocked, as +she was at everything; mamma would not think much of it; and as for Mrs. +Rolleston, she need not consider her wishes, after telling Bertie such a +bare-faced fib about Jack Vavasour, evidently in the hope of making +mischief between them. She was very much astonished at such unscrupulous +conduct in her friend, but what other conclusion could she come to? + +To be sure, common-sense whispered that looks and language such as Du +Meresq had permitted himself, ought to be followed by an offer of +marriage; but with common-sense Bluebell had little to do at this period, +and first love cares not to concern itself with the prosaic. The mystery +and romance of interviews with her love, "undreamt-of by the world in its +primness," appeared far more enchanting than any authorized attachment +provided with a regulation gooseberry picker. + +So she came down with a slightly defiant air; but meeting with nothing +worse than a gravely knowing glance from Miss Opie, sat down to the piano +to escape questioning. + +Mrs. Leigh's thoughts were complacently occupied with the visitor. She +only wanted further confirmation to place him in the light of a future +son-in-law. Adversity had not given her the wisdom of the serpent, and +she never dreamed of possible danger in the attentions of this unknown +young man to her beautiful, but portionless, child. + +However, her mind became unsettled again by the appearance of another +suitor, in dog-skin gloves of a brilliant tan, and his usual air of +cheerful confidence. No guile was there in Jack Vavasour, whose prostrate +adoration of her daughter was so undisguised, that she mentally deposed +Bertie (whose devotion was more problematical) in his favour. Still she +thought, "I should never think of influencing dear Bluebell one way or +the other, and we shall see which proposes first." + +Jack's visit, as usual, was a lengthy one. His fair enslaver had +recovered her spirits, and no longer metaphorically turned her face to +the wall. She was glad of distraction, and not ungratified by his +allegiance, though without the slightest idea of returning it. + +Like the boys and the frogs, she did not consider that what was sport to +the one was hard on the other, and probably would not have cared if it +had struck her; for, whatever poets may say, there is no more thoroughly +heartless age than sweet seventeen. When he sat on till the arrival of +the unappetizing meal they called a meat-tea, Bluebell did not wince at +her mother inviting him to join it, simply because his opinion was a +matter of indifference to her, though she carelessly recommended him not +to be late for mess. + +Jack, however, with magnanimous disregard of that usually important +period of his day, stayed his healthy young appetite with the cold joint +from dinner; and he and Bluebell amused themselves frying eggs and +roasting chestnuts, which further assuaged its keen demands. + +Many times during the evening did Mrs. Leigh leave the room, on the +principle that young people like to be alone together. But all her +tactics failed to uproot Miss Opie, who clung to her book and her seat +by the fire, partly from the contrary conviction that young persons +should _never_ be alone together, and partly because, save in the +kitchen, there was no other fire in the house. + +"What shall we do?" cried Bluebell, with the faintest of yawns, tired +of consuming their culinary labours. "You don't care for music, I know. +There's an old chess-board somewhere; and I can't think of anything but +cat's-cradle, if you don't like that." + +"I can play," said Jack, stoutly, who had not attempted it since his +childhood, but only wanted an excuse to remain on. So they sat down at +the spidery table, saying little; Jack quite well entertained with his +hand frequently coming in contact with Bluebell's on the board. He would +have liked to crush up that little member in his own, and meditated the +bold _coup_ more than once, but was always discouraged by that far away, +unconscious look in her eyes. + +In this squalid parlour, where she was the only soft-hued thing in the +room, he thought her more beautiful than ever. Perhaps she was, for the +love-light burned steadily in her Irish eyes, and he could not tell it +was not for him. + +Never were more lenient or careless adversaries. Twice Jack's queen was +in Bluebell's grasp uncaptured, and he could at any time have checkmated +her, had he been as attentive to the variations of the game as to those +of her countenance. Suddenly Bluebell swept her hand over the board, +crying,--"I never saw such men, they don't fight. We have been playing +half-an-hour, and have hardly taken any prisoners." + +"It is a slow game," said Jack, equably; "let us try cat's-cradle. Or, +perhaps," he continued, meeting with no response, "I ought to be saying +good-night." + +Bluebell was secretly tired of him, and could not conceive on what +principle her mother began pressing him to stay. + +"There's the nicest bit of toasted cheese coming up for supper," said +she. "I know all officers like a Welsh rabbit. My poor late husband did, +though he used to say, in his funny way, he only ate it because there was +nothing else fit to touch." + +"I fear I must go; but I hope you'll ask me to tea again, Mrs. Leigh, +it is so jolly getting away from mess sometimes," said the young +diplomatist. + +"That I will," said she, highly flattered, "and I shall be very much +offended if you don't come. I am only sorry you can't sit a little longer +now." + +Jack was not quite sure he couldn't, but Bluebell, pretending not to see +his hesitation, held out her hand and said "good-night," so he had +nothing for it but to go. In two minutes, though, his head re-appeared. +"Come and look at the Northern Lights, Miss Leigh; regular tip-top +fireworks. Here's a shawl; make haste." But when she come out, only a few +weak-coloured pink clouds were floating about. + +"Is that all?" ejaculated Bluebell. + +"Not quite," said Jack; "it was a western light I was trying to invoke, +or, rather, the light of my eyes. When may I come and see you, Bluebell?" + +"I came out to look at meteors," said she, laughing at his unwonted +flowers of speech; "and I don't know who gave you leave to call me by +my Christian name." + +"It isn't your Christian," urged Jack. + +"It will be my _nom de guerre_, then, if you say it again." + +"Change it if you like," quoth he, "if you will let me change your +surname too." + +A startled stare of blue eyes, a smothered laugh, and Bluebell had darted +into the house, clapping the door after her. + +"Confound it," thought Jack, "just my luck. In another moment I should +have kissed her--I _think_ I should; but, hang it, when a girl looks you +straight in the face and talks to you as if you were her grandmother, it +puts one off. Well, I have kissed lots of girls without proposing and now +it's _vice versa_, for it was as good as an offer, and all I got by it +was her nipping in just when I thought I had her to myself." + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +THE TRYST. + + Twas full of love--to rhyme with dove, + And all that tender sort of thing, + Of sweet and meet--and heart and dart, + But not a word about a ring! + --Hood. + + +Time flew much lighter with our heroine as she counted the days to +the next rendezvous with Du Meresq; anticipation is ever sweeter than +reality. The cottage was no longer dull, nor existence empty, even the +unrenewed and diminishing snow, dusky as a goose in a manufacturing town, +was the symptoms of approaching spring and verdure. Who need think of the +torrents of rain which must precede it? The little episode with Jack +outside the door afforded her secret entertainment, and although she +did not look upon it as a _bona-fide_ proposal, that did not bias her +intention of relating the anecdote for Bertie's delectation. It might be +just as well to let him see if he couldn't speak out, others could, and +if he were jealous, why so much the better. + +Clouds were chasing each other in the sky, and the increased mildness +of the atmosphere inspired Bluebell with the dread that rain was +approaching, for a rendezvous under dripping umbrellas, if feasible, +was not the most desirable _pose_ for a romantic interview. + +However, the morning rose clear and sunny, the snow was thawing, and in +many places the runners of the sleighs grated on bare ground. + +Bluebell was exultant. The elements evidently didn't mean to oppose her, +but she was somewhat disconcerted at dinner by Miss Opie's remarks on her +Sunday dress, which, being of a becoming hue, she had rashly donned. + +"Are you going visiting, Bluebell, that you are so smart?" + +"Oh, dear no; only for a walk." + +"How foolish to draggle that mazarin blue poplinette in sloppy snow! Once +let it get any snow stains on, and it will look quite shabby on bright +spring days." + +"It's no use having things, if one doesn't wear them," returned the girl, +evasively. But when she came down ten minutes later equipped for her +walk, she encountered Miss Opie again in full marching order. + +"My, dear, as you are dressed so nicely, I dare say you are going 'on +King,' and so am I; so we can walk together." + +Consternation in Bluebell's face--it was only a quarter to three. + +"I am going quite in the opposite direction," cried she, hurriedly, and, +without waiting to see the effect of her words, abruptly fled. + +"Just Canadian independence," muttered Miss Opie; "It makes all the girls +such thoroughly bad style." + +Bluebell began to feel very nervous; two or three young friends that she +met on the way, she passed with a quick nod and averted face, dreading +their joining her. Her eye swept the broad walk of the Avenue in an +instant; no familiar figure arrested her vision, and the seats placed at +regular intervals on each side were also vacant of interest. + +So she was first--the Cathedral clock had struck three some minutes +before, she was perplexed to know what to do with herself, and began +walking slowly to the other end. Of all possible _contretemps_, the +non-appearance of Du Meresq had never suggested itself; but after a +couple of turns the unwelcome misgiving strengthened, and there would +be only one at the tryst that day. + +In a tumult of disappointment and indignation, conjecture after +conjecture chased each other; while ever and anon her fancy was mocked +by some one turning in at the gates bearing a general resemblance to Du +Meresq, only to be dispelled by a nearer and more accurate view. + +A simple explanation suddenly dawned; Bertie might have written to warn +her of an unavoidable absence. The possibility of such a letter, which, +had she had received it in the morning, would have been the bitterest +disappointment, now seemed a resurrection from despair to hope, and with +relaxed features and brightening eyes, Bluebell walked rapidly through +the gates to the Post-office. + +Letters were so rare and unlooked for at the cottage, that the postman +never included it in his rounds; and the contents of the pigeon-hole +appropriated to them at the office was seldom inquired for, except on +mail-days, when there might be an off-chance of an English letter for +Miss Opie. Even Bluebell, who for the first fortnight after her +banishment from "The Maples" had been a regular applicant, had not been +near it since Bertie's visit to the cottage. + +"Two letters for Miss Theodora Leigh." One she scarcely looked at; the +other instinct told her must be Bertie's handwriting; it had been lying +two days at the Post-office. + + "My dearest Bluebell," ran this note, "I can't come to the Avenue + on Wednesday, being now entirely confined to the sofa with my ankle, + which has gone to the bad. I am only staying on now with sick leave, + and the Chief very sulky at that. When shall I again see those beloved, + angel-like, soft blue eyes? Don't write to me here, for, as you may + remember, the orderly fetches the letters, and my august brother-in-law + sometimes deals them round. + + "Your ever devotedly attached, + "A. Du M." + +Poor Bluebell, as she read these few and rather cavalier lines, felt for +the moment as if she had never suffered till now; his hinted at +departure, and apparent resignation to absence from her, was a severe +shock, and, in the first hot feeling of grief, the scales fell from her +eyes, and she began to see Bertie as he was, but she could not yet endure +the light of reason, so resumed her voluntary blindness, and re-read the +letter, and though very little of it could satisfy her expectations, she +dwelt more on the few words that did. After a while, she remembered the +other letter, and found, with awakening interest, it was from Mrs. +Rolleston. This was written in a pleasant chit-chat style, giving an +account of their every-day life since she left, and not at all avoiding +Bertie's name, the tedious effect of his toboggining accident being +one of the chief incidents mentioned. It wound up with saying that they +expected her back as soon as she liked. + +Bluebell felt rather mystified at the tone of this epistle; but was much +comforted by the thought that the ban was removed, and she might go to +"The Maples" and judge for herself. This was dated prior to the other +letter, but Bertie appeared to have been ignorant of it. + +The following day, our heroine, in a hired sleigh, was jingling back to +"The Maples," and curiosity and interest all centred on one question--"Is +he there still?" + +As she passed through the hall, her eye glanced searchingly round on the +chance of seeing some familiar property of Bertie's. There was only a +pair of his moccasins; but they might so easily have been left behind as +useless, now the snow was evaporating. + +Mrs. Rolleston and Cecil received her very cordially, but, knowing their +sentiments, that was rather an unfavourable omen, and Freddy and Lola, +who had come down to see her, kept up such an incessant chatter, that +there seemed no chance of obtaining the information she dreaded. + +At last, in a momentary pause, she faltered out a leading remark in +such a low voice that no one attended to it. A minute later, she tried +again,--"I hope Captain Du Meresq is better." + +"How red you have got, 'Boobell!'" said Freddy. "Look, mamma!" + +"What did you say, my dear--Bertie? Oh, yes, he is very lame still; but +he was obliged to go yesterday." + +The sudden colour left Bluebell's cheek, and she sat for some minutes in +a relaxed, drooping attitude, oblivious of all around, till becoming +sensible of Cecil's gaze rivetted on her. It was a cold satirical +expression, at the same time inquiring. Bluebell was very unhappy; but +this roused her, and, raising her head, she looked her enemy steadily in +the eyes, with a bitter smile. + +She never, strange to say, suspected Cecil of being a rival, merely +supposing she was carrying on the family politics; and wounded by her +officiously hostile demeanour, as she considered it, resolved no trace of +her sufferings should ever be witnessed by this cold friend. + +And thus it happened that the topic was jealously avoided by each; +though, with mutual occupation and amusements, they became friendly +again, now the disturber of their amicability was removed. + +Bertie and Cecil had been inseparable the last week. His premature +exertion in calling at the cottage had thrown him back; and really ill, +and, in enforced inaction, he could not bear her out of his sight. + +So day after day Cecil passed in the smoking-room, only hurrying out for +a short drive or constitutional; and half-repaid by the gloomy complaint, +"How long yon have been!" when she re-entered. + +Du Meresq's correspondence, too, as we have before hinted, was not +calming. A half-indignant letter from a friend whose temporary +accommodation had not been repaid, a bill at three months wanting +renewing, a tailor threatening the extremest rigours of the law, and +similar literature, familiar to a distressed man, was punctually brought +by the Post-office orderly for his delectation. + +"You seem interested, Cecil," said he, as, with the uncerimoniousness of +a trusted _confidante_, she glanced through the variations of the same +text. "Do you young ladies ever get up behind each other, and back each +other's bills?" + +"You haven't opened some, Bertie; and they are not all bills." + +"You can, if it amuses you," hobbling across the room. "Why, Cecil, my +foot is almost sound again. We'll drive somewhere this afternoon, +anyhow." + +"See what the doctor says. Look here, Bertie, here's a letter marked +private, so I didn't go on." + +"Where did you find that? I never saw it." As he read, his brow grew +dark, and he pondered several minutes; while Cecil, devoured with +curiosity, and half-apprehensive of evil, remained silent. + +"Will you get me a railway-guide, Cecil? There's one in the dining-room." + +She complied, most unwillingly. + +"Are you really going, Bertie?" + +"I must, to-night." + +"Why?" she more looked than asked. + +He glanced through the letter again, and tossed it to her. "You see I +have no secrets from you, Cecil, though I should not care for any one +else in the house to be acquainted with its contents." + +It was a confidential letter from his Colonel, saying, if absolutely +necessary, he would give him more sick leave; but advising him, if +possible, to return at once and settle some of his most urgent +liabilities, which, having repeatedly come to his ears, he could no +longer avoid taking notice of, unless he took steps to get the more +serious ones shortly arranged. + +"What _will_ you do, Bertie?" + +"I don't know that anything but jumping into the Lachine Rapids would +solve the difficulty," returned he, lightly; "and even that must be +deferred till the river is open." + +"How much is it?" impatiently. + +"I dare say six hundred might soothe the chief's sense of propriety, and +give one a little breathing-time. But I can't get that, so the smash must +come a little sooner than it otherwise would." + +"You tell me that, and tie my hands by refusing to let me help you. +Bertie, if you could just hold on till August, when I might draw any +cheques I pleased--" + +"You dearest little angel!" interrupted Du Meresq, warmly; "what have I +done that you should be so kind to me? But all women are alike--generous +and true-hearted when a fellow is down in the world; and--" + +"Then you promise? You will count on the money?" said Cecil, not much +flattered at being supposed only to act up to the inevitable instincts +of her sex. + +"Good heavens, Cecil! no; I am not such an unprincipled brute as to rob +you of a penny. Under no possible circumstances could I touch--" + +"Under _no possible_ circumstances?" leapt out before she could restrain +her speech. Had the meaning escaped him, the eloquent blood which rushed +over neck and brow must have betrayed it completely. + +Bertie, who had been speaking without motive, was taken by surprise as +the sense of her impulsive words flashed on his brain. + +"My darling Cecil!" + +Cecil, the colour of a carnation, and expiring with embarrassment, raised +her eyes, and encountered his fixed on her with a fond, sad, but _not_ +responsive expression. If shame could kill, she had received her _coup de +grâce_ that moment. He had understood, and yet said nothing. + +The most rapturous gratitude on his part would hardly have reconciled +her to herself; not to be met half-way was ignominious rejection. + +It had all been the work of one moment, and relief came in the next with +the entrance of Colonel Rolleston. Cecil, feeling as if delivered from a +spell, got out of the room, and entrenched herself in her own, where her +thoughts became almost unendurable. + +In horror at what she had done, her first wish was never to see Bertie +again. Every particle of pleasure in his society must now be over since +that one mad, unguarded sentence. + +"I might have known," thought she, bitterly, "that that false, +caressing manner of his never meant anything. I have seen it with a dozen +girls--even Bluebell,"--here she winced; "and yet in the face of all +probability I must needs believe myself more to him than any one, because +it suits him to make me the receptacle of his worries. Well, he is +disinterested, at any rate, since all my money has no more attractions +for him than myself." + +A stormy hour did poor Cecil pass with her wounded pride, when she was +interrupted by Lola, the Mercury of the establishment, who came to tell +her that "dinner would be an hour earlier, because Bertie was going +away." + +Cecil received the intelligence very shortly, and nipped in the bud her +evident intention of lingering by declaring herself "busy," which that +astute young person, seeing no signs of employment, interpreted as +"cross." + +"I must face it," thought she, as the last peal of the gong jarred on her +nerves. She descended just in time to see Colonel and Mrs. Rolleston +disappear into the dining-room. Du Meresq, who had waited, eagerly placed +her hand under his arm, and drew her back a moment. + +"Cecil, where have you been hiding all this afternoon?" + +I suppose he had the key to the answer, for the changing hues of her +complexion, in which pride struggled with confusion, was the only one he +got. + +"You utter little goose!" said Bertie, emphatically, crushing the hand +under his arm as they entered the dining-room. Curious to relate, Cecil +scarcely felt so ashamed as she had an hour ago. Not a chance would she +give him, though, of speaking a syllable in private; and very soon after +dinner he departed, taking leave of Cecil before all the rest, with no +more distinguishing mark of affection than a long hand-clasp, which +seemed as if it would never unlock. + +"Only his odious flirting manner!" said Cecil to herself; but she did not +think so, and felt a good deal less self-contempt than she had before. + +Next day, when Mrs. Rolleston announced Bluebell's expected return, Cecil +felt quite in charity with her, and resolved to make things pleasanter +than they had been, though this relenting mood was nearly dissipated by +her unconscious rival presuming to look miserable at the tidings of Du +Meresq's departure. + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + +AN ENIGMATICAL LETTER. + + 'Tis Spring, bright Spring, and bluebirds sing. + + I was monarch supreme in my cloudland. + I was master of fate in that proud land; + I would not endure + That a grief without cure, + A love that could end, + Or a false hearted friend, + Should dwell for an instant in cloudland. + --Mackay. + + +Nothing but rain, pouring rain, for the next few days, washing the walls +of snow down the unmetaled streets, a very slough of despond to all +beasts of burden. Once more the sight of green grass relieved the eye, +weary of the one monotonous hue it had rested on for weeks, and still it +rained as if determined not to stop till it had fulfilled its mission, +and dissolved every sooty patch that in chilly spots still obstinately +lingered. + +At last the clouds parted, the sun came out, and Cecil, regardless of +mud, and impatient of long confinement, started off for a gallop on +"Wings." + +On her way she met the Post-office orderly with letters, who stopped and +gave her one. It isn't such a very easy thing to read your correspondence +on horseback, with the wind catching the sheets, and the sun shining +through the paper, mixing the writing on the other side with the one you +are reading. Still less feasible is it in a crowded street; so, though +Cecil at once recognised the handwriting of Du Meresq, it had to be +consigned to the saddle-pocket till the traffic was threaded, and she had +entered on a quiet corduroy road by the lake. Then she opened it with a +flattering feeling of expectation, and was half-disappointed at its calm +commencement. + +Bertie, with his usual dependence on her sympathy, began by telling her +that he had been able to make a temporary arrangement, which had squared +things for the present. "But," he continued, "the evil day must be no +longer deferred. I will try and find out every shilling I owe. It will be +more than I expect, I dare say, yet my commission ought to cover it, and, +altogether, I shall probably save enough out of the fire to be a small +capitalist in Australia. Much as I hate it, I must cut the service, for +if my debts were paid to-morrow I should have just as many in two years. +Dearest Cecil, I know you do not exactly hate me; I wish I were more +worthy of the affection of such a dear, true-hearted girl. Will you trust +me, Cecil, and believe in me a little longer, even if I say no more at +present? I don't think your father likes me; I wish now he did. Let me +see your dear handwriting soon. I believe you have more head than any +girl I know, and more heart, too; and no one can appreciate your sense +and affection more than yours, ever devotedly, + +"A. Du MERESQ." + +Cecil rode thoughtfully on, as she turned the letter over in her mind, +trying to penetrate Bertie's meaning. + +"Why does he not speak out more plainly?" thought she. "He will never be +any richer unless he marries me, so it is useless waiting for that. I +will not, any how, be in too great a hurry to understand him this time. +If his debts are paid, and he leaves the army soon, he must say more--or +nothing." And at that chance Cecil turned rather pale, and giving Wings +his head, who had been fretting some time, started off at a good +refreshing galop. They were on the race course now, and, excited by the +turf, he gave her quite enough to do to hold him. + +"What fun station-life must be," thought she. "Always riding in a wild, +strange country,--birds, animals, plants, scenery, and ideas, all +different and unhackneyed. Canada is well enough, but it mimics England +too much, and is fifty years behind it." Before she got home, she had +composed a clear-headed and sympathetic, but not at all lover-like, +letter to Bertie, who was disappointed at the tone of it; and--"as the +nymph flies, the swain pursues"--he wrote a much more affectionate one +back, and then Cecil suffered her thoughts to take a more decided shape, +and they dwelt especially on a "lodge in some vast wilderness" of her +colonial paradise,--picturesque, but not luxurious--an exquisite climate, +and Bertie combining the life of a happy hunter and enterprising +colonist, returning to sup on a kangaroo steak, and to wake up to another +day of movement and adventure. + +Cecil passed a great deal of her time in this ideal log-house, sometimes +garrisoning and defending it, during Bertie's absence, against a war +party of savages, for danger was by no means excluded from her scheme of +felicity, except perhaps one, like St. Senaun's isle, her-- + + "Sacred sod, + Should ne'er by Woman's feet be trod." + +In such dreams and the companionship of Bluebell, who gave no further +offence, now that she had learnt self-command and the necessity of +keeping her feelings to herself, the spring advanced apace, and the first +bluebird, alighting on the garden rails, was descried with a shriek of +ecstacy by Lola. + +The children, who unlike their elders, had had no gaieties, or sleighing +and skating parties, to wile away the rigours of the snow king's reign, +were emancipated from dulness by the approach of summer. Their lessons +could be carried on in the garden; and, one day, Lola, who had shut her +eyes while repeating to herself an irregular verb, saw, on opening them, +a jewelled humming-bird balancing itself in the air on a level with her +hat, and apparently inspecting that head-dress with wonder and curiosity, +after which it flashed off and dived into a flower. + +The garden was alive with fairy wonders; wild canaries came to it--pure +saffron, except their black-flecked wings,--the soldier-bird, so bold and +scarlet,--robins were a drug in the market, and only tolerated for their +tameness and vocal powers. But none could weary of the bluebirds, whose +azure took so vivid a hue in flight, from the sun shining through their +wings. + +Then there were excursions to the Humber woods in search of wild flowers, +all new, rare, and delicate,--too much so to bear the pressure of eager +hands, for they seldom survived the transit home. Often Cecil, Bluebell, +Miss Prosody, and the children drove there in a waggonette, with a +luncheon-basket, and spent the whole day in the golden woods, or rowing +on the Humber river. Cecil's craze at this time was to paddle her own +canoe; and occasionally Lilla Tremaine, who had become pretty intimate +with her, joined the aquatic party. + +The Colonel had rather demurred at first, thinking there was a _soupçon_ +of fastness and independence in it. Visions of possible anglers and +unchaperoned river flirtations disturbed his mind; but eventually he +satisfied himself, by requiring Miss Prosody to be always of the party, +who followed with the children and a boatman in a flat-bottomed tub. + +On one of these occasions they had been pulling about the beautiful bends +of the river. Cecil, paddling her canoe, with a trolling-line out at the +end of it, and Bluebell rowing a boat, while Lilla fished with a very +especial spoon-bait of her own devising. Despite, however, the seductions +of the gaudy red cloth and tassel of long hair from a deer's tail, not a +fish impaled itself on the circle of formidable hooks prepared for its +reception, and the mid-day sun began to dart fiercely on them. + +"All nature speaks of luncheon and repose," cried Lilla, beginning to +wind up her line, after the frequent weed had repeatedly mocked her hopes +with its dull, dead pull. "Let us moor the fleet under this overhanging +fir-tree, Cecil; it makes quite a bower." + +"It feels like thunder, the fish don't bite, and the mosquitoes do," +assented Cecil. "We must signal for the Infantry, though, who are also +the Commissariat." + +Bluebell tied a silk handkerchief to her oar, and waved it wildly. + +"I wonder if that old nuisance enjoys herself," speculated Miss Tremaine, +as Miss Prosody's prim visage appeared in the stern of the other boat. +"So like you English, always carrying your propriety about in the shape +of a foil." + +"Don't abuse our treasure," said Cecil, demurely. "Ask papa what he +thinks of Miss Prosody." + +"I should get a more impartial opinion from Estelle and Fleda, who are +always being kept in and bullied." + +"Well, I really think the other children are enough for to-day," said +Cecil. "What a fuss Freddy made to get after Bluebell into that tituppy +little boat of yours." + +"Yes, and you would all have been beseeching him not to till now, if I +had not taken him by the scruff of the neck and dropped him into the +other!" + +"Well, dear," said Cecil, languidly; "we don't all possess your strength +of mind and biceps. What have you got there, Lola?" as the boatman deftly +shot the other boat under the overhanging branches. + +"Water-lily leaves for plates! See now stiff and shining they are, and +washed up so clean." + +"Then, I suppose we must not use these wooden ones, my fanciful fairy?" + +"Don't be so foolish, Lola!" snapped in Miss Prosody. "You'll spoil your +frock; throw them away!" + +"We can put them over the platters," said Cecil. "Hand out the edibles, +Bluebell. What have you got?" + +"Here's a pie, a cake, a tart, croquettes; no knives, about a pound of +salt, and some butter in the last stage of dissolution." + +"No knives!" cried Miss Prosody. "There must be!" plunging desperately +into the basket. + +"That is more untidy than a lily-leaf plate," remarked Lilla. + +"No, positively not," said the governess. "How very remiss of Bowers, +particularly as I observe he has provided forks!" + +The children looked disappointed. They had been reckoning on the +phenomenon of Miss Prosody, subjugated by hunger, eating pie with her +fingers. + +"Here be a knife!" said the boatman, wiping on his trousers the blade of +his clasp-knife. + +"Let as put a polish on," said Lilla, laughing at Cecil's face; and, +jumping on to the bank, thrust it several times into the earth. The +children, tired of their cramped position in the boat, wished to dine on +shore; but it was thickly wooded, and there was no clear space; so Freddy +was wedged into a fork of the tree, and Lola swung on another bough, +where they chattered like two pies, handing down a basket on a string +when they required fresh supplies. + +Cecil lay on the bear-skin in her canoe, with her hat over her face, +declaring it too hot to eat, but consuming, under protest, a croquette +occasionally tossed in for her sustenance. Miss Prosody, quite genial and +urbane after luncheon, was deep in consultation with the boatman as to +the locality of certain ferns she proposed spudding up for her pet +rockery at "The Maples," where her lighter hours were diurnally spent in +washing and tending her spoils. + +"I suppose this is all very sylvan and jolly," said Lilla, handing the +remnants of the refection to the boatman; "yet somehow, candidly, it's +slow." + +"Possibly," said Cecil, "it is the absence of the other sex that makes +you find it so?" + +"Perhaps," said Lilla, frankly, with furtive enjoyment of Miss Prosody's +stiffening face. "Well, ladies, I should like my little smoke; can I +offer anybody one? You will find them very mild,"--and she drew forth a +neat case of Latakia cigarettes, selected one, and, striking a match on +the heel of her boot, lit it. + +"Of course, if you choose to be so unlady-like, we cannot prevent you," +said the governess, icily. + +"Dear me!" said Lilla, innocently, "I never dreamt of your objecting; for +I have heard you tell Colonel Rolleston, when he has been smoking, how +fond you were of it in the open air." + +"Colonel Rolleston would most decidedly disapprove of _your_ doing it." + +"He does, I believe, of most of my actions; but he is very kind to me all +the same. Look at this wretch of a mosquito actually stinging through my +glove. I'll just touch him up with the red ash of my cigar." + +Miss Prosody knew of old that Lilla was incorrigible, and, having no +hope of support from Cecil in any attempt to snub her, resolved to +discountenance the proceeding by going away, and summoned the children +from their tree, who were quite ready for a fresh start. The girls +declared it was too hot to move. Lilla continued to puff away lazily, the +zest rather gone now there was nobody to be shocked at it. Bluebell, +mingling her voice with the birds, was singing the "Danube River," +while Cecil, with shut eyes, lay in her canoe, and gave herself up to the +dreamy music, till, aroused by its sudden cessation, she looked up, and +saw a boat half checked in its speed, and Major Fane and Jack Vavasour +doffing their billy-cock hats. + +Cecil's return bow was freezing, and Major Fane, who had rested +irresolutely a moment on his oars, shot the boat on with vigorous pulls. +She felt half penitent as she saw his discomfited face, but her coldness +arose from having become alive to a possible danger. + +Colonel Rolleston had lately very frequently asked him to dinner, even +when there was no one else, and he always fell to her share to entertain. +Now Major Fane was a very good match in every way,--quite what parents +and guardians would approve; so, thought Cecil,--"I can't have any +mistakes about that, or it will only settle papa against Bertie." + +"Did you summon those two from this vasty deep, Lilla?" cried she. "But, +I forgot; I don't think either of them sail under your flag." + +"My colours are too rakish and privateerish for Major Fane; and as for +Jack, I am afraid he has the bad taste to prefer Bluebells to Lilies." + +"If you think him worth your acceptance," said Bluebell "I will make you +a present of him." + +"He may be yours to keep, my dear, but not to give away. At present I am +not 'on for matrimony,' and, to flirt with, I don't know any one better +fun than Bertie Du Meresq." + +The other girls were both too conscious to reply to this audacious +remark, and after awhile they resumed fishing, Lilla's gaudy bait still +unsuccessful, though Cecil had landed one or two pike. Bluebell grew +tired of rowing steadily to keep her companion's line extended, and +persuaded her to wind it up; then Lilla took the sculls, and they fell +into conversation. + +"Were you at that tobogganing party where Captain Du Meresq hurt his +ankle?" asked Bluebell, diligently examining the corolla of a water-lily. + +"Why?" was the counter inquiry. + +"Because I never heard how it happened." + +"How was that?" said Lilla, launching into narrative. At the close of it +she said,--"Cecil pulled him through that time. I shouldn't have thought +nursing much in her line; but she was very hard hit, you know, and I +rather wondered Bertie didn't propose before he left so suddenly. Very +likely he did though." + +Bluebell's eyes opened in horror at this unpalatable suggestion. "What +_are_ you dreaming of, Lilla?" gasped she. "Cecil! why she looks upon him +as an uncle or something." + +"Oh, Bluebell, you blind little bat, it would be as well if you looked +upon him 'as an uncle or something.'" + +But the other sat aghast and speechless. Lily glanced at her +sympathetically. + +"Well, perhaps he mayn't care for Cecil. He has been talking nonsense to +you, too, I see, as he has to us all three, for that matter. I feel so +angry about it, I have a great mind to tell you all he said to _me_." + +"I don't want to hear," said her companion, coldly; "nor do I at all +agree with you about Cecil" + +"All right," returned the other. "Only remember he can't afford to marry, +whatever he may have pretended to you--not but what that subject is about +the last it ever occurs to him to enter upon." + +Bluebell at first utterly refused to receive this intolerable suggestion +into her mind. Lilla must be inventing--in love with him herself, and +trying to make mischief. Nothing should induce her to believe it. How +irritating she was, too, with that knowing, quizzing expression in her +face! + +So when Cecil, tired of solitude, proposed coming into their boat, +Bluebell eagerly took possession of the canoe, and went off on an +independent paddle, ostensibly to look for Miss Prosody. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + +DETECTED. + + His passion is not, he declares, the mere fever + Of a rapturous moment. It knows no control; + It will burn in his breast thro' existence for ever, + Immutably fixed in the deeps of the soul. + --The Wanderer. + + +"Why did you shoot on so quick, Major?" said Vavasour, in an injured +tone, after the dumb scene before referred to. "We might as well have +stayed and discoursed those young women." + +Fane growled something about not choosing to intrude. + +"I don't suppose they would have minded. That spicy little party, Lily +Tremaine, was smoking. I wonder who finds her in cigars?" + +"I hate Canadian girls!" said Fane. "And when they pretend to be fast +they are more unbearable still." + +"Oh, come," said Jack, warmly, for was not Bluebell of that maligned +nationality? "they must have used you badly, Major. They are far more +unaffected and natural than English girls, who always ride to orders; and +as for beauty--" + +"You have only got to look at Bluebell Leigh. Well, slope back to them, +Jack. You shan't have the boat, because I should never get it again. But +if you like to plough through that long grass to their bivouac, I daresay +the mosquitoes will receive you warmly if the young ladies don't." + +In the meantime, Bluebell, tempted by a shady creek, abandoned her canoe, +and, flinging herself down on a bed of wild flowers, remained a prey to +the consideration of this new view of Lilla's, which would account, in +the most unwelcome manner, for the inconsistency of Du Meresq's conduct +with his professions. + +Cecil a rival! Much as she wished to disbelieve it, corroborative +evidence, unheeded at the time, now recurred with such startling +distinctness that she marvelled at her own previous blindness. Still, +Bluebell was not cured. That he cared most for herself she continued to +believe, though Cecil's fortune might have tempted him away. Plan after +plan for obtaining an explanation was discarded as unfeasible; and, at +last, Bluebell, in despair, hid her face in her hands, and burst into the +unrestrained grief of the young. + +She was disturbed by a slight rustling in the bushes, and, looking up, +beheld Jack Vavasour in an attitude of confusion and consternation, +apparently meditating flight. + +"I beg your pardon, Miss Leigh; I was going away before you saw me. I'll +go at once. My darling Bluebell, what _is_ the matter?" + +"I don't know," said she, relieved to see it was "only Jack." "I am very +hot and--miserable." + +Vavasour sat down, and tried in his honest and unsophisticated way to +console her. "Was there any one he could pitch into for her? He would do +anything she wished, etc., if she would only say what was vexing her." + +Bluebell could hardly help laughing, but was so unaccustomed of late to +sympathy, that she felt half tempted to take him into council, and +confide her misplaced attachment and perplexities. + +It was rather heartless, knowing his sentiments; but callousness to the +pangs of a lightly won and unvalued heart is not uncommon in Love's +annals. + +However, he was too precipitate for her. + +"Bluebell," he began, blushing rather, and looking, as she thought, +almost handsome in his eagerness, "do you remember what I said to you the +other night when we were looking at the Northern Lights?" + +"I remember some absurd chaff." + +"It wasn't," said Jack, with emphasis suited to the solemnity of the +declaration. "I meant every word of it; and now I say, like the Beast in +the fairy tale--'Beauty, will you marry me?'" + +"And she always said,--'No, Beast,'" said Bluebell, laughing; "and then +he went away, 'very sorrowful.'" + +"Yes, but that's the difference. I shan't go away, or let you, till you +say 'Yes.'" + +"I couldn't, really," said she, treating it as a joke. "So we shall be +starved to death, and covered up by birds, like the babes in the wood." + +"No; we will live happy ever afterwards," passing an arm round her waist +with an air of proprietorship. "Shall I tell Colonel Rolleston to-night?" + +"Oh, this is too serious," cried Bluebell, energetically freeing herself. +"If you really want an answer to such stuff, most decidedly 'No.'" + +Jack, in furious mortification, for he saw she was now thoroughly in +earnest, poured forth reproaches, accusing her of coquetry and purposely +deceiving him, caring not if his words were just or unjust; and +Bluebell's conscience was not altogether guiltless. Perhaps her own +disappointment made her better understand his; for she waited patiently +till the torrent of words had a little subsided, and then, laying her +hand persuasively on his arm, said with gentle archness,-- + +"Don't be angry, Jack. What should we live on? _I_ haven't a penny, _you_ +can't always pay your mess bill, and I am afraid an officer's wife +couldn't go on the strength of the regiment, and take in washing." + +"I didn't think you were so mercenary," said he, looking into her liquid +eyes, that were fast quenching the angry light in his. + +"I suppose I must be," said Bluebell, _naively_; "for I hate poverty so. +You know my father married--just as you want to do--a pretty girl without +a dollar to her name." + +"You are pretty, my darling, and you know it," said Jack, bitterly. + +"I don't know why people care for me if I am not, for I'm afraid there +isn't much in me; and at the age of seventeen one may at least lay claim +to _la beauté du diable_. Well, as I was going to say, my father married +just as imprudently, and got disinherited for his pains." + +"No fear of that with me," said Jack. "I am number seven, and they have +all good constitutions. Destiny has decreed that I must live by my wits, +without even providing me with any." + +"So you see," continued she, "as we have neither money nor brains, it is +no use thinking of it!" + +"You are wise in your generation," said Jack, darkly. "You are pretty +enough to get a rich husband any day; but whoever it is, for Heaven's +sake, don't let it be Du Meresq!" + +Bluebell's fair brow contracted, and her dark lashes swept her cheek, as +she said, in a low, pained voice,--"No fear of that." + +"I trust not," said Jack, severely, and quite unconvinced. "You are but a +child, Bluebell; and, though you won't take me, I shall watch over you, +and see that you do not throw yourself away; though if any good fellow +wants you, I suppose I must grin and bear it." + +"Thanks, my stern guardian. I hope you won't die of old age in the mean +time. And now, do go, dear Jack. I must paddle after the others." + +"Say good-bye first. May I, Bluebell? Only this once,"--and, without +waiting for consent, he imprinted a kiss, grave as an officiating +priest's to a new made bride. Touched by his love and resignation she +voluntarily returned it, and, turning away, encountered the two +mischievous eyes of Miss Tremaine in the stern of her boat, which had +glided up unobserved. + +I suppose there is no dereliction from the Eleventh Commandment, in which +people would more joyfully welcome an earthquake than being taken at a +similar disadvantage. No explanation or extenuating circumstances can be +attempted in that deep confusion. + +Lilla raised her eyes to heaven with a most edifying expression of pious +horror, and shook her head disapprovingly. + +"Jack," muttered Bluebell, in a tone of concentrated anguish, "I shall +die of it!" + +Vavasour suppressed an expletive more forcible than parliamentary, and +strode down to pull the boat in. + +"Oh, here you are," cried Cecil, innocent of the foregoing pantomime, for +she was rowing, and had her back to them. "Mr. Vavasour, where do you +spring from?" She noted, as she spoke, his strange expression and +Bluebell's heightened colour with quickening curiosity and pleasure. + +"I left Fane further down the river," said he; "and Miss Leigh and I sat +listening to the--bull-frogs." Here Jack cast a look half-imploring, +half-furious, at Lilla, who had assumed a most Quakerish expression, and +hummed the air, "A frog he would a wooing go." + +"Well, get in Bluebell," said Cecil, smiling; "we are going home now. +Come and see us soon, Mr. Vavasour." + +Jack liked Cecil very much; but he only bowed gloomily, and placing +Bluebell in her canoe, disappeared, as might be inferred, to Fane; though +afterwards that gentleman bitterly complained that he had, on returning +home,--after waiting, to his great inconvenience, an hour or more, +anathematizing Jack,--found that he had walked back to barracks totally +oblivious of his companion. + +Bluebell's return drive was far from a peaceful one. Lilla, it is true, +abstained from remarks before the children; but there was no escaping her +provokingly wicked glances, which argued ill for her future discretion. + +Cecil, on the contrary, was unusually suave and considerate to Bluebell, +and had rather the air of shielding her from Lilla; which would have been +less incomprehensible had she known that in the interval of disembarking +and entering the waggonette, Cecil had been made a participator in that +malicious damsel's discovery. + +At bed-time, Miss Rolleston, contrary to her wont, entered Bluebell's +room, hair-brush in hand, as if disposed for a cozy confab. But that +employment, so provocative of feminine disclosures, appeared futile this +night, and the raven and chestnut coils were brushed to the sheen of a +bird's wing ere Cecil had discovered what she had come for. + +At last, under cover of lighting her candle, she said, with a disarming +smile,--"You are very reserved, Bluebell. May I guess what Lubin said to +you in the Humber, to-day?" + +"I dare say you can," said the other, simply. "He will forget all about +it soon, I trust." + +"Do you mean you gave him no hope?" a suspicion of Lilla's veracity +mingling with her disappointment. + +"Certainly not," with great energy. + +"But why?" asked Cecil, with asperity. + +Bluebell turned her melancholy eyes full upon her, and the two rivals +gazed steadily at each other. Then Cecil's head was impatiently flung +back, her level eyebrows went down, and, without further remark, she +rose and left the room. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + +DID YOU PROPOSE THEN? + + A lover came riding by a while; + A wealthy lover was he, whose smile + Some maids would value greatly. + --More Bad Ballads. + + +The summer had not been a very gay one. The heat was so intense as to +throw languour on the garden and croquet-parties, which replaced the +winter balls and sleigh drives. Thunder was in the air, and growled and +muttered around; but the joyfully-hailed clouds floated away without +affording a drop of rain; or if one black flying monster poured itself +like a water-spout on the parched city, laying the flowers with its +violence, the thirsty earth licked it up, scarce leaving a trace. Summer +lightning quaked in long sheets over the horizon; the geese were lying +dead on the common from drought; and the restless night was haunted by +the tramp of straying horses on the wooden side-walks. + +"Round trips" were advertised in all the papers, and brackish +bathing-places on the St. Lawrence were already crowded. The Saguenay and +Marguerite rivers had carried off their fishing votaries, the black fly +worked its wicked will at Tadousac, where the "property" whale of +the ---- hotel had already been seen spouting, according to the waiter, +as he attended at the matitudinal _table-d'hôte_. At any rate, seals +might be seen with the naked eye, and shot, too, by a wary seal-slayer in +a boat. Two such trophies were already in the hotel, affording unlimited +excitement to the visitors, who, indeed, were somewhat in need of +extraneous amusement, for the only resource the place could boast was +pulling a boat against the strong tide of the two rivers meeting, with +the alternative of a garment-rending scramble in the woods, a prey to the +nipping fly, and coming sometimes in undesired proximity to a wild cat. + +Twice a week the Quebec boats, with Saguenay trippers, chiefly Americans, +halted at the hotel for an hour or two, and turned in their freight, who +invariably commenced dancing to the more amiable than tuneful strains of +an amateur performer in the public drawing-room. + +This pleasure was partaken of quite as "sadly" as if they were our own +unfrisky compatriots; but it passed the time, and the males still further +diversified it by "smiling" at the bar. + +The Rollestons, vacillating between Tadousac, the Falls, a trip in the +"Algoma," and a journey to Boston, their large party being an objection +to each and all, were finally attracted by an advertisement of a +fishing-lodge to be let or sold on Rice Lake. + +This would be a _pied ŕ terre_ for disposing of the impedimenta of the +family--governess and children--during the hot months, leaving the others +at liberty for flying excursions. The price was so ridiculous that +Colonel Rolleston bought it outright, jestingly saying to Lola that it +should be her marriage portion. + +There had been a croquet party at "The Maples," but nearly every one was +gone except two or three who were remaining for dinner. Among these, with +a movement of vexation, Cecil observed Major Fane, her father's +persistent encouragement of whom began to cause her serious uneasiness. +Why, this was the second time within four days he had been asked to dine! +"Can he possibly have spoken to papa first?" thought she. "It is just the +sort of matter-of-fact thing he would do." Revolving it over, she walked +slowly towards her step-mother, who was revelling in a packet of English +letters just received, and began reading out portions to Cecil, who +listened absently at first, till a passage in one of them, from +circumstances, arrested her attention. + +It was from a cousin of Mrs. Rolleston's, and chiefly related to her +only daughter, who was heiress to a considerable property. This child +had always been backward and excitable, and apparently incapable of the +fatigue of study. The letter went on to say that Evelyn was developing +a passion for music, even attempting to compose, and that the writer +desired to find a good musician to reside with them, who should be also +young and cheerful, and likely to tempt her on in other branches of +education as well. + +"Mrs. Leighton is exactly describing Bluebell," said Cecil, quietly. + +"Oh! and she would suit them so perfectly. I _wonder_ if it would do! +Bluebell will be crazy with delight, she has such a wish to see England; +but I doubt if her mother would part with her to such a distance." + +Cecil despised herself for saying,--"If you were to put it very strongly +to Mrs. Leigh, and show her the advantages to her daughter,--for they are +rich as Croesus, and would pay anything for a fancy,--surely she would +not stand in her way." + +Mrs. Rolleston was meditating, and answered, rather inconsequently,--"I +feel greatly interested in Bluebell. I think she is very conscientious +and right-minded. Mr. Vavasour never comes here now; and I am sure she +has never encouraged him since I gave her a hint on the subject." + +Cecil remembered the scene in the Humber, and Bluebell's +suggestively-conscious face that evening, so did not rate so highly the +heroism of her friend. But the stragglers now drew round them, and they +went in to prepare for dinner. + +Cecil had also kept Lilla Tremaine, for latterly she had shrunk from a +_tętę-ŕ-tętę_ with Bluebell, who, sensible of their estrangement, yet +sadly acquiesced in it, as her new-born suspicions had been strengthened +by seeing Cecil receive a letter in Bertie's handwriting. + +Lilla, who could not forget the _tableau vivant_ she had witnessed, was +continually persecuting her hapless victim with inuendoes and allusions, +whose anger and powerlessness to exculpate herself gave an additional +zest to the amusement. Therefore, finding this young lady was to remain +the evening, Bluebell took refuge in the school-room tea, and did not +appear at dinner. + +Conversation fell on the new purchase, and their approaching departure +for Rice Lake; and, observing this did not appear to have a very +exhilarating effect on the Major, Colonel Rolleston continued,--"When +will you come down and see us, Fane? We shall get very tired of our +recluse life, and want some one to bring us the news." + +The Major's face brightened, but, stealing a glance at Cecil's, which +only expressed consternation, it was speedily overcast, and he returned +an evasive answer. Looking gloomily for the relief he expected to discern +in her countenance, he received a swift glance of gratitude, which +uncomplimentary graciousness completed his discomfiture. + +Soon after dinner some garrison duty summoned away Colonel Rolleston, +and the others returned to the garden, where daylight struggled with the +newly-risen moon. A soft breeze came up from the lake, reviving after +the glaring day. Cecil was _distraite_ and silent, so Lilla's vivacious +tongue attracted around her the gentlemen of the group, and, without +any effort of his, Major Fane found himself somewhat apart with Miss +Rolleston. + +Though heart-whole when we first introduced him, he was now really in +love with Cecil,--that is to say, he approved of and wished to marry her. + +As an eligible, many determined efforts had been made for his capture, +and the absence of any desire on her part to attract him gave first the +feeling of security which soon led to a stronger one. If not pretty, she +was graceful, especially so just now, he thought, in that unconscious, +reflective attitude. + +Fane became nervous: it wasn't often he got the chance of being alone +with her, and she might immediately rejoin the others; but just then +Cecil, coming out of her reverie, looked up, and said,--"Don't you want +to smoke? Not here, but come over to the summer-house where the children +do their lessons." + +This proposal from the reserved Cecil, who had lately been so +conspicuously repellent? He thought the change too good so be believed, +and, without another asking, accompanied her to the arbour; but she +insisted on the ostensible motive of their going there being carried out. + +"Do you think, Cecil," said he, darting on his opportunity, "I want +anything else when I am alone with you?" + +Fane had, as he thought, broken the ice; but the next instant he was +uncertain if she had heard or understood. A moonbeam showed him her +face,--it was very pale with a look of determination on it, and her eyes +were bright and steady. + +"Yes," said she, after a pause, "I am glad we are alone. Major Fane, I +have known you such a long time, I want to ask a favour of you, and tell +you a secret." + +The most confident lover might have found something ominous in these +words. Fane felt as if he had made a false step; but he answered, +stiffly, perhaps,--"You must have known me to very little purpose, Miss +Rolleston, if you are not assured how gladly I would help or be of use to +you in any way." + +"Don't think me mad," cried the girl, impulsively; "but could you stay +away--I mean, not come here quite so often." + +Fane was too much astonished to speak, and Cecil plunged desperately +on. "You have been so kind to me," she faltered, "I am afraid of its +misleading papa, and his thinking that you have wishes and intentions--" + +"That I might wish to marry you, Cecil? Is that the misconception you are +afraid of?" + +"Pray don't imagine _I_ think so, but _he_, might; and, oh! Major Fane, +I care most deeply for some one whom I know would not be acceptable to +papa. You, on the contrary, would be everything he could wish--don't you +see? the disappointment would make the other all the more objectionable +to him." + +"I do see my unenviable position," said Fane, shortly, for it was bad +enough to be thrown over himself without being expected to be interested +in a rival. "What do you wish me to do, Miss Rolleston?" + +"To forget, if you can, every word I have said," cried Cecil, in an +_accčs_ of embarrassment now that she had done it, and the excitement was +over. "What _must_ you think of me!" + +Fane was silent for some time, for he was struggling with mortification. +Fortunately for Cecil, he was a gentleman, or he might have revenged +himself by assuring her she had totally mistaken his intentions. + +"I can't under-value the sacrifice you ask of me," said he, presently. "I +do not blame you, for you have never pretended to spare me any affection +from the lover you are so true to. I hope he is worthy of it." + +A pang seized her, as the doubt whether she was not throwing away true +gold for counterfeit obtruded itself. "We are good enough for each +other," said she, simply, "but, at present, his prospects are so +discouraging, that we are not even engaged." A curious expression passed +over Fane's face. "But I have money enough for both," pursued Cecil, "and +if papa is not dazzled and attracted by more brilliant--by you, in short, +he must see there is sufficient, and, if I remain firm, eventually +consent." + +Her extreme eagerness infected Fane too, and relieved the awkwardness of +her strange appeal. + +"Still afraid of me!" said he, sadly. "My poor child! I fear there is +trouble before you. Will it satisfy you if I get six months' leave, and +go to England? By that time, perhaps, your complications may have +arranged themselves." + +Cecil's dark eyes beamed on him with the most speaking gratitude. "You +_are_ a true friend," cried she, warmly, "but how selfish and exacting of +me to banish you!" + +"Oh, as to that," said he, with a short laugh, "I shall not dislike it. +I should have got away long ago if I had known what I do now." + +Nothing a woman detests so much as friendship from the man she cares for, +and yet she always offers it to the suitor she rejects. + +"I never thought you would care really," said she softly "I hope I have +not lost my friend by putting too much confidence in him." + +"I ought to thank you for your honesty," said he, with a reaction to +bitterness, and they rose and returned to the others, met by many a +significant look and shrug. Fane observed it, and determined to go. He +was in no humour to be watched and commented on as a suitor of Cecil's. +His dog-cart hadn't come, but he lit a cigar, and walked to meet it. "So +that's settled," thought he. "And now the sooner I get out of this horrid +country the better. I wish I hadn't refused a share of that moor; I +should have been just in time for it. Well, she is a nice girl--far too +good for that scamp, Du Meresq. I might have suspected what was going on +there. Poor child! what a life he will lead her if it comes off, but most +likely it won't. It _must_ be Du Meresq; for, though I was evidently +meant by the Colonel, I remember that Madame never seemed especially +pleased to see me." + +How unfeeling women are! Cecil forgot her remorse at Fane's +disappointment in exultation at having so successfully removed a serious +obstacle from her path, and her eye sparkled with wicked amusement as she +noticed the marked coldness of Mrs. Rolleston's manner, due to her +supposed flirtation with the Major. + +The Colonel, too, who returned shortly afterwards, glanced round and +inquired for Fane. + +"Gone, I think," said Cecil, innocently; and he also threw upon her a +look of gloom and reproach. No engaged young lady could be gayer than +Cecil the rest of the evening. She became the life of the party, would +keep everybody as late as possible: and certainly more than one shared +the opinion of Mrs. Rolleston, whom her daughter mischievously tried to +confirm in it, that the arbour had been the scene of a proposal and +acceptance. + +As the elder lady was slowly undressing that night, Cecil, still with the +same provoking brightness on her face, peeped in. + +"Are you sleepy, mamma?" + +There was something in her manner that brought Mrs. Rolleston's +annoyance to the culminating point. She thought the faithless damsel had +come to announce her engagement, and demand sympathy and congratulations. +So, with a view to arrest any aggressive gush, she said, with some +asperity,--"I am glad you have come, for I wanted to tell you, Cecil, +how bad it looked your walking off in that way with Major Fane." + +"I suppose it was rather strong," said the girl coolly; "but I like him +so much. I had no idea he was so nice." + +Mrs. Rolleston took refuge in the ill-assumed dignity of rising anger. + +"I suppose, mamma, he is very well off? Papa often wonders that he goes +soldiering on." + +"Really, Cecil, whatever your speculations may be, it was not a delicate +act, sitting apart with him for half-an-hour in a dark arbour." + +"I thought he might propose,"--Mrs. Rolleston's face expressed, "Are you +mad?"--"or give me a chance somehow of saying what I wanted to. And +what's more," she continued, "I am not certain whether he meant to, or +not. To be sure, I didn't give him much time." + +"Did _you_, propose, then? Cecil, if you don't wish me to disbelieve my +own senses, tell me at once what you were about in the summer-house." + +"Refusing eight thousand a year," was the short reply. + +A puzzled, not unpleased expression, was dawning. "I thought you said he +did not propose?" + +"Well, no; honestly, he didn't. We had a little conversation, and the +upshot was, he has promised to go to England for six months." + +Mrs. Rolleston was not a proud woman, and the relief was so great, that +she folded Cecil in a silent embrace. + +"Perhaps, mamma," continued the girl, demurely, "you won't think it +necessary to mention this to papa. It wouldn't be fair to betray Major +Fane!" + +Mrs. Rolleston was only too convinced, and replied, "that she should +consider it Cecil's secret, and say nothing about it." Whereupon the +damsel ran merrily off, humming the air, "I told them they needn't come +wooing to me." But, arrived in her own room, her evanescent high spirits +vanished, and a bitter and clear-sighted mood succeeded. "Bertie," she +thought, "your evil influence is over us all. Mamma, till now the truest +of step-mothers, is only thinking of ensuring you my fortune. I disoblige +papa, send away a true love, hate Bluebell for her too attractive soft +eyes, am harassed by doubts even of you--is it worth it? I might yet +recall Lucian Fane; he is very calm, and would not expect too much. What +folly! No, if I am to be miserable, it must be my own way, with the only +man who interests me heart and soul. I suppose, if we marry, I may reckon +on one year of happiness, though hardly any one who knew Bertie would +expect him to be constant even for that time. But by then I should have +got immense influence, for, though I am not clever and attractive like +him, I have far more will, and, in the long run, it is character more +than talent that shapes our life. If Bluebell would only go to England!" + +Then she detached from the wall and began to pack up a little possession +that always travelled with her. It was only an old print of a cavalier, +and no one but Cecil had observed that a twin soul to Bertie's looked out +of its dreaming eyes. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + +LYNDON'S LANDING. + + All the fairy crowds + Of islands that together lie + As quietly as spots of sky + Among the evening clouds. + --Unknown. + + +Bluebell had begun to feel herself in a false position. Freddy's lessons +were, of course, a farce; and Cecil now seemed never to care to practise +with her. Miss Prosody, with every hour of the day marked out for herself +and pupils, made sarcastic reflections on her want of occupation; but, +unhappy though she was, she could not make up her mind to leave the +Rollestons, and thus dissever the chief link with Bertie. Besides, she +had heard (a piece of information derived from Fleda) that he was shortly +expected to join them at Rice Lake. Therefore, when Mrs. Rolleston +unfolded the project of sending her to England to cultivate the musical +predilections of Evelyn Leighton, Bluebell showed such repugnance to the +scheme, that Mrs. Rolleston did not press it further; and, though +surprised, being personally indifferent, soon dismissed it from her +thoughts, with an inward comment that girls never knew their own minds +a month together. + +Cecil, however, marvelled at her mother's want of penetration and could +not refrain from increased coolness to Bluebell. + +White horses were curling the broad waters of Ontario, as the huge +river-steamer "St. Michael" was getting up the steam for its run to +Quebec; and, from the crowd on the wharf waiting to embark, it might be +surmised that even the sofas in the saloon would be at a premium for +sleeping berths. The Rollestons were surrounded with acquaintances, +either going themselves or seeing others off, till the bell rang, when +there was a rush to the tug, and the big paddle-wheels got in motion. +The children ran up and down the long, narrow saloon on to the decks at +each end, while Miss Prosody was vainly trying to wrest the key of a +sleeping-berth from the purser, who, the supply not being equal to the +demand, was having rather a hot time of it. + +"Two double cabins," cried Colonel Rolleston, presently; "the rest must +have berths in the ladies' cabin, and trouble enough to secure that. +However, here are the keys. How shall we divide?" + +"Shall Estelle and Lola sleep in the wide lower berth of one cabin, and I +in the upper?" said Cecil. + +"And we must take Freddy, I suppose?" said Mrs. Rolleston; "and Miss +Prosody, Bluebell, and Fleda, go to the ladies' cabin." + +"Oh, Cecil!" cried Lola, as they unlocked their domicile off the saloon, +"what a little--little bed! If you turn, you'll tumble into ours; and how +will you get up? Won't I catch your foot!" + +"No bath!" exclaimed Estelle; "only two small basins! And what a +looking-glass! it makes one squint!" + +"It is better than the ladies' cabin," said Fleda, dolefully, "with the +stewardess sitting there, and two or three sick-looking people, and the +berths all open like the shelves of a bookcase." + +"It is only for one night," said Cecil. "We land at Cobourg to-morrow +afternoon. Look! the waiters are laying the long tables for luncheon, or +dinner I suppose it is. Come out on the deck till it is ready. Oh, dear! +there is not a patch of shade left for us. How they over-crowd these +boats!" + +"There's a gentleman holding his umbrella over Bluebell," said Lola. + +Cecil's eyes opened in some amazement. She would have thought it rather +impertinent in a stranger offering such familiar accommodation, but +Bluebell availed herself of it with the frankest _nonchalance_, and, in +the conversation that ensued, lost her place in the first rush of diners, +who, at the ringing of the bell, instantly occupied every vacant chair. + +"They seem to be having a very good time," observed Fleda, who had picked +up some Americanisms. + +Somewhat aghast at his daughter's precocity, the Colonel stepped out on +the deck, and, with grave dignity, offered Bluebell his arm to conduct +her to his seat, which, quite unconscious of his disapprobation, she +accepted with civil indifference. + +And the young subaltern lit a cigar to console himself for the withdrawal +of the clear blue eyes that looked so deep under the shadow of the +umbrella, and tried to find as much piquancy in the "funny book" he had +recently purchased at the St. Michael's book-stall, while the good ship +went ploughing on, past wooden villages, brown houses picked out with +white, and perhaps here and there a little orange-frocked child giving a +characteristic dash of colour. + +Then, as the sun sank lower, the most gorgeous hues came into the sky. +But, while every one was on deck gazing on its almost tropical vividness, +a film stole between, a shivering dampness pervaded the air, and soon a +dense fog drove the chagrined passengers back into the saloon. + +The captain went to his bridge, and the tea-bell rang soon after. People +were beginning to talk sociably to their neighbours, and a mild hilarity +reigned, when a violent concussion, followed by a sudden cessation of the +paddles, caused a general rush from the table. + +Bluebell, in the act of receiving the second supply of coffee, was +aroused from her immediate bewilderment by a scalding _douche_ down her +neck--the waiter, a young German with heart disease painted on his livid +lips and pasty complexion, having held the coffee-pot suspended +topsy-turvy for an instant, and then fallen in a fit on the floor. + +All the men had crowded on deck, and it soon became known that they had +run into a log raft, which, though no lives were lost had been nearly +swamped, and much injured by the collision. The "St. Michael," too, had +received a bulge, which rendered a little tinkering at the first port +desirable. + +The first alarm of the passengers being lulled, and the panic having +subsided into the excitement of a danger passed, public interest became +concentrated on the young waiter, who still lay in a death like swoon, +till, eventually resuscitated by means of one of the numerous little +brandy-flasks that popped out from sympathetic female bags, he was borne +off by his napkin flapping fraternity to their crystal cave of tumblers. + +Little sleep did Cecil get on her narrow perch that night, for her +sisters, in their dreams, were ever in a sinking ship, or struggling +in the foam-driven rapids. Even her heart beat quicker when the +paddle-wheels suddenly ceased, and ominous voices, indistinctly heard, +appeared in agonized consultation. A familiar sound of knocking and +hammering, however, suggested that they must have put into port for the +repairs determined on; and, grasping her scanty complement of bed-clothes +that were slipping to the floor, Cecil conveyed the re-assuring +intelligence to her sisters, and they composed themselves to sleep at +last. + +Another day's progress down the beautiful river,--narrow enough at +intervals to see both shores, the Stars and Stripes in American villages, +as well as the Union Jack in those of the "Dominion," as it is now +called,--and then they entered among the thousand islands of the great +St. Lawrence. + +Everybody was on deck watching their changing shapes, some apparently all +rock, and others a bower of greenery, and admiring the skilful steering +of the large vessel among them. Soon after noon the first rapid was shot, +a bubbling, seething whirlpool, with clouds of white foam beaten up by +the jagged teeth of the sunken rocks. + +Winding in and out among the islands till late in the afternoon, they +reached their port, and repaired to the hotel, to pursue the rest of +their journey by land. + +A ricketty waggon--not an English hay-cart, but a spidery trap, with high +wheels, so called--and a dilapidated buggy were placed at their disposal. +Two children and the old nurse remained to follow in the coach, and the +advance guard started, after an anxious consultation as to whether the +wheel of the buggy could be trusted to revolve the twelve miles without +dislocation. + +The corduroy roads were in their usual inefficient state,--whole planks +had disappeared in places, and were loose in others,--so locomotion +became a series of jolts and bumps. The drivers wished to save two miles +by crossing a river, and spoke confidently of a bridge, which, on +arriving at, proved to be only some pieces of timber cast wholesale into +it, some of them negligently nailed together. + +Mrs. Rolleston, who was not of an adventurous nature, though much +advanced in that direction since her residence in Canada, wished to +return, and go round; but four miles lost was too serious a +consideration; so she shut her eyes, clutched her husband, and prayed +audibly, as the driver, with a screech of encouragement to his cattle, +after a few struggles and flounders, landed the waggon on the opposite +side. + +But Miss Prosody declared that the wheel of the buggy would certainly be +torn off in the attempt, and, losing her usual prudery in terror, whipped +off her stockings, and proceeded to wade, to the exposure of a very +attenuated pair of calves. + +Freddy and Lola hung upon Cecil, powerless with laughter, comparing her +to the thin-legged aquatic birds in the Zoo; but the Colonel, with rather +a suspicious guffaw, rushed to her aid, relieving her from her hose, and, +as she afterwards recollected in deep confusion, a pair of knitted +garters. + +The buggy bumped over somehow, and they got _en route_ again, the road +winding through woods golden in the setting sun. Occasionally a raccoon, +playing about the trunks of trees, beguiled the loneliness of the way; or +a strange bird, with harsh note, but gay plumage, flashed across their +track. Colonel Rolleston, however, was not so much entranced as his +children at discovering that the road stopped at the hotel on the lake, +not coming within half-a-mile of his new property, and that they must +embark and cross over in boats to Lyndon's Landing, as it was called, +after the former occupants. + +The evening was calm, and the sunset dyed their sail redly as it +floated the barque lazily across the slumbering lake to their port at +the bottom of a sloping lawn. The path, winding up hill, led them to a +sylvan-looking lodge, where, instead of a bell, hung a hunting-horn. + +Cecil executed a sonorous blast, but dropped it hastily, it being +answered almost simultaneously by an ancient menial left in charge. Their +own servants were coming on by coach, and they were much comforted by +perceiving that this provident person had prepared a substantial repast, +combining supper and tea, in a small, snug room. + +The young people rushed about on a tour of inspection, and found plenty +to satisfy their curiosity. The hall, to begin with was filled with +trophies of the chase--antlers of moose, stuffed aquatic birds, Indian +spears, and strange carving. A long, low, narrow room opened on it, in +which were chairs of the weirdest description, fashioned out of boughs of +the forest nailed together almost in their natural shapes. The late owner +was a man of eccentric and various accomplishments, and his handiwork +appeared in every detail of the house. + +Pictures from his brush were on the walls; of the lake in every +mood--stormy and slumbering, golden sunsets, and tempest-torn clouds, a +canoe stealing through the rice, a flight of wild ducks overhead, and one +swirling down to the gun of its occupant; again, the lake frozen over, +and a sleighing party careering upon it. + +There was a screen of his carving, and two or three couches, the latter +more comfortable than the rest of the furniture, being covered with moose +and seal skins. Other skins were stretched on the floor. The table-legs, +like the chairs, were made of fantastic branches of wood, having rather +the effect of antlers when visible under the embroidered cloths, probably +the production of the squaws in the Indian village. Mr. Lyndon was the +architect of the villa itself, and his whimsical fancy came out in every +detail. Long, rambling passages squandered space, while queer-shaped +rooms appeared up and down steps, and in unexpected places and corners, +as if squeezed in by an afterthought, yet the humblest commanded a pretty +view. Many of the ceilings were decorated with Cupids, Mermaids, and +Dryads carelessly painted in, apparently the resource of wet afternoons. + +Colonel Rolleston's voice summoned them from these attractive rooms to +supper, and certainly the _menu_ was varied enough to suit all tastes. + +Prairie-hens and snipe were flanked with Indian corn, salsify, maple +sugar, and cocoa-nut cakes; tea at one end, and a disipated-looking +bottle of "old rye" at the other. But hasty justice was done to this +repast by Lola and Freddy, who were dying to go down to the landing, and +witness the disembarkation of their sisters, and introduce them to their +discoveries; so soon as the boat was descried, they flew down with +Colonel Rolleston, waving a flag hastily caught up in the hall. + +Mrs. Rolleston and Cecil went to arrange the distribution of bed-rooms, +the latter choosing for herself a queer little triangular nook in a +gable. Perhaps she perceived that a room of less modest proportions would +inevitably have to be shared with Bluebell. It might have been a +watchtower from the extent of its view, which swept the lake up to the +Indian village. + +The children below were full of the stories the boatman had told them. +That black island there was called "Long Island," and the other, with +scarcely any trees, "Spate" or "Spirit Island," because it was the +burying-ground of the Indians. Another was "Sheepback," from its shape, +and full of poisoned ivy, which, if accidentally touched, infected the +blood, and caused swelling like erysipelas. + +The younger ones, with Cecil and Bluebell, were too restless to stay +in the lamp-lit room they had supped in, but wandered about, finally +settling in the long drawing-room, where they could watch from the +windows the moon silvering the lake, and the antlered furniture throwing +strange shadows on the floor. + +Then Bluebell sang the "Lorelei," and Cecil invented legends for the +lake, till, their rooms being at last prepared, the old nurse swooped +down on her charges, and bore them away from the domain of Undines to +that of Nod. + +Colonel Rolleston had soon exhausted the resources of his new purchase, +and duck-shooting having not yet begun, he went down to Quebec, taking +Cecil with him, for an excursion up the Saguenay. She was rather +unwilling to go, for, though the elders got tired of a place without +roads, she was perfectly content to be all day long in her canoe, +fishing, sketching, reading, or picnicing with the children on the +island. But perhaps her strongest reason for not wishing to absent +herself was the continual expectation of Du Meresq's appearance. + +They had had no tidings of him since they had settled at the lake; but +nearly all Bertie's advents were sudden and without warning. From her +nook in the gable she commanded the hotel landing, and few boats left it +without being reconnoitred through Cecil's binocular. + +But then the Colonel wanted a companion, and was convinced it would be +delightful for Cecil; so she prepared to go with well-assumed expressions +of pleasure, devoutly hoping that no such _contretemps_ as Bertie wasting +any days of his leave by coming in her absence might befall. + +To be sure, as she was in correspondence with him, nothing, apparently, +was easier than to mention her intended trip, which, of course, would +prevent his choosing that time to come to the lake; but it happened that +Cecil had written last, and since a certain fatal speech, which even now +maddened her to remember, she had been very particularly careful to let +him make all the running. Still, not wishing to be left in the dark +should he arrive during her absence, she said, carelessly,--"I hope, +mamma, you will write now and then, and let us know how you are getting +on in this dear little place." + +"Really," returned Mrs. Rolleston, smiling, no _arričre pensée_ having +struck her,--"I more depend on hearing from you. Bluebell can write her +fishing experiences, and how often they have tea on the islands; but all +I expect to do is to travel over a good deal of my point-lace flounce +before you return." + +While Cecil went away to put on her travelling dress, as sometimes +happens, the true bearing of the speech flashed on her; and when her +step-daughter returned, arrayed _en voyageuse_, Mrs. Rolleston +considerately remarked,--"How dull I shall be without you! I think I'll +write to Bertie;" and the quick, grateful glance of intelligence in +Cecil's eyes encouraged her to say much more in that letter than she +would otherwise have done. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + +CALF LOVE. + + I gat my death frae twa sweet een, + Twa lovely een o' bonnie blue; + 'Twas not her golden ringlets bright, + Her lips like roses wet wi' dew-- + Her graceful bosom lily white-- + It was her een sae bonnie blue. + --Scotch Song. + + +The arrival of the Rolleston family created a good deal of interest in +the limited society of the lake, and not entirely of a friendly nature. +Needless to say, the adolescent members of it were all more or less +engaged to each other, which, being rather the result of propinquity than +uncontrollable preference, the maidens noticed with angry surprise the +admiration excited in the bosoms of their swains by the apparition of +Bluebell on their hitherto uninvaded waters. Alec Gough and Bernard +Lumley, both morally placarded "engaged," having, as a matter of course, +plighted their troth to two neighbouring fledglings, were wild for an +introduction; and no sooner did Bluebell's canoe leave Lyndon's Landing, +than two corresponding ones were sure to shoot out, apparently actuated +by the same persuasion that there was no more likely place for a fish +than the snag round which she was trolling, and ready to gaff a +maskinonge, or help to land an obdurate bass, if occasion offered. + +Any such incident might have commenced an acquaintance, were it not that +Miss Prosody, with a boatful of children, was never far off, and had a +scaring and terrifying effect. + +Bluebell rather despised very young men. Still, she was not insensible to +admiration, and was quite aware of these two young aborigines following +in her wake as surely as a gull in that of a vessel. + +One day Alec Gough was able to render her some slight assistance, her +line being obstinately entangled in the snag; but Miss Prosody sternly +brought up the boatman to complete the service, and bowed off the +interloper with such extreme severity, that Bluebell could not resist +bestowing a coquettish and dangerously grateful glance, which set his +heart bumping, and instantaneously obliterated the image of his +sandy-haired little love. + +It was too bad of Alec, for he had been engaged a year, and had already +cleared (he was a lumberer) space enough in the backwoods to start a +farm, and he was now on a short visit to his betrothed to report progress +and pursue his suit. So he had no business to get his heart entangled +with the line, and his legitimate affections disengaged with the string +he was clearing, under Circe's azure eyes; and why need he, in that +tactless manner, talk of her at tea as "The Lady of the Lake"? which, if +such a senseless _sobriquet_ was worth having at all, Miss Janet Cameron +considered she had an indisputable right to, for could she not row, swim, +dive, and paddle with the best? + +Then again, after tea, he actually stole out in his canoe, muttering +something about "looking for ducks," to which Bernard Lumley gallantly +remarked that he "needn't leave home to find them." He certainly _did_ +take a gun, but was also provided with a little flageolet, the companion +of his lonely life in the woods; and waiting till nightfall, by the light +of a waning moon, this absurd and reprehensible young lumberer paddled +himself off to Lyndon's Landing. + +There he carefully reconnoitred the house, wondering which could be +Bluebell's casement. The insensible building afforded no hint, so he +pulled out his "howling stick," as Bernard called it, and timorously +breathed forth a lay of love, which certainly must have been first cousin +to the one that encompassed the extinction of the cow. + +The inmates were apparently asleep, and Alec, getting bolder, played +every suggestive air he could think of. I don't know whether he expected +Bluebell would open the window and enter into conversation; but, in point +of fact, the lattice under which he was serenading was Mrs. Rolleston's, +who not particularly expecting any lovers, was sleeping the sleep of the +just far too soundly to be disturbed by it. + +There being no policeman to direct him to "move on," Alec continued his +dismal repertory till he was tired, and then paddled off, not wholly +discouraged, as he hoped that Bluebell, though she would make no sign, +might have been secretly listening to, even watching him, and conscious +of the admiration he sought to convey. + +The Lake families called within the next few days. Bluebell did not +appear when the Camerons, mother and daughter, came; and, as Mrs. +Rolleston happened to say _her_ daughter was away, they were quite +mystified as to whom the dangerous stranger could be. Then Coey and +Crickey Palmer came with their mother's cards; and as at that time +Bluebell was present, reading to Mrs. Rolleston, they naturally took her +for one of the daughters, and made acquaintance after the manner of +girls; and, I have no doubt, had Bluebell committed a murder and +absconded next day, either of these young ladies could have given a more +complete and accurate description of her person than detectives are +generally furnished with. Notwithstanding the reluctant admiration that +the inspection resulted in, Coey (Bernard's affianced) heroically hoped, +as she rose to take leave, that Miss Rolleston would spend the afternoon +and stay to tea the following day. + +Mrs. Rolleston glanced at Bluebell, who was rather dimpling at the +prospect of a change, and carelessly replied that "her daughter was at +Tadousac, but that her young friend Miss Leigh would be very happy." + +I suppose she was, for she certainly was rather solicitous about her +toilette for the occasion--only an innocent brown-holland dress; but two +hours were spent in knotting up some wicked blue bows for throat and +hair, and re-trimming her gipsy hat with the same shade. It is, of +course, an undoubted fact that women dress for their own satisfaction +only, and in accordance with their instincts of "the true and the +beautiful;" so it would be mere hypercritical carping to suspect coquetry +of lurking in the deft folds of that unpretending blue ribbon, or that, +in the face of her _grande passion_ for Du Meresq, she could for a moment +occupy herself with the foolish admiration of Alec and Bernard. + +Well, Bluebell is our heroine, and we must make the best of her,--to some +people admiration never does come amiss; and if a demure _oeillade_ can +play the mischief with the too inflammable of the rougher sex, I don't +know who is to be held accountable except the father of lies. + +"Palmer's Landing" was a less original building than Lyndon's but on a +more accessible side of the lake. The establishment and furniture were of +the rough-and-ready order. When a too independent help, finding her +mistress didn't suit, gave herself an hour's warning, and went up North, +Coey or Crickey would resignedly cook the family meals till an +opportunity arrived to get another, and as, in addition to those +occasional calls upon them, they were their own dressmakers, they had +less time to get discontented with the monotony of the lake than might +otherwise have been the case. + +Bluebell was taken round by the two girls to visit their garden and +poultry-yard. The latter was a source of profit, as they supplied the +house, and drove hard bargains with their mother for the chickens and +eggs. She also was shown their own room, and the rose-wreathed, green +tarlatane, which Miss Crickey explained with conscious pride she was to +wear at a city assembly next week. "I am to stay with my uncle--he has a +large dry-good-store at ----, but he lives on Brock." She was also warned +off trespassing by the full account of Coey's engagement, and by that +time Bernard had arrived to escort the girls for a ramble in the woods. + +Crickey, on the principle of doing as she would be done by, marched +Bluebell on in front, so that the others might linger behind, and make +love upon the usual pattern. It was customary at the lake for to tuck +their _fiancées_ under their arm, and cast incessant sheep's eyes at +them, much conversation was not _de rigueur_. + +Bernard, however, was somewhat discontented: he thought there were +innumerable opportunities for that kind of thing; so his eyes wandered +from the face of his love to Bluebell's round waist and waving hair. +Instead of incessantly squeezing her arm, he barely held it, and finally +dropped it to remove a briar from the skirt of his distractor. + +Bluebell smiled with her big blue eyes, perhaps more gratefully than the +service demanded, which encouraged the youth to commence conversation. +The few platitudes he attempted might have been the most sparkling wit +from the animation with which they were received. Surprised to find +himself so agreeable, he lingered by her side. Crickey, expecting him +every minute to fall back, remained by Bluebell, so poor Coey trudged +behind, and began to experience what jealousy was. + +After a while, the others tried to bring her into the conversation by +appeals to her opinion, but Coey was not to be so easily propitiated, and +returned austere answers. + +Then Bernard, thinking he might as well be hung for a sheep as a lamb, +became all the more engrossed with his captivator, and it was in at one +of strong discontent that he exclaimed, as they were returning,--"Why, +there's Alec and Janet Cameron coming down to the house!" + +Their unexpected arrival was rather a relief to the Palmer girls, +Bluebell only saw more mischief before her, but Bernard's impatience at +the sight of Alec whose motive for coming he easily guessed, was quite +undisguised. + +The latter accounted for himself by saying "that Janet wished to make +Miss Rolleston's acquaintance, and, therefore, he had accompanied her." + +"Oh, I am not Miss Rolleston," said Bluebell, "I am the governess." + +"I have had the advantage of seeing the governess," said Alec, demurely, +"and she is old enough to be your mother." + +"But I am the musical one and Freddy is my pupil entirely." + +"Are you really?" said he, brightening "Then you _like_ music?" + +"I am sure that is not a necessary consequence," said Bluebell, rather +mystified by the meaning tone of his voice, but Alec, believing she had +heard his nocturnal serenade and assuming a secret understanding on the +strength of it, lingered by her side talking in an undertone--really +about nothing in particular, for, like most spoony boys, he trusted more +to his eyes than his tongue. Still it had all the effect of a flirtation, +and when the girls went upstairs to prepare for tea, Bluebell found +herself quite out of court without the support of the other sex. Coey was +already turned into a very belligerent little ring-dove, and Janet +watched her askance, for she had never before known Alec so keen about +partaking of tea at Palmer's Landing. Crickey, whose feelings were not +so powerfully engaged, supplied her with toilette requisites, and such +conversation as hospitality demanded. + +Bluebell was rather flattered by the apprehension she excited, and, with +mischievous ostentation, produced from her pocket a weapon of war in the +shape of a blue ribbon, and began weaving it into her chestnut fuzz, too +naturally wavy and long to require frizettes. Coey, who was rather pretty +in the white kitten style, had sparse pale hair, never properly combed +over her "water fall," as she called it, which obtruded itself like a +crow's nest. This attractive peculiarity was more apparent than ever +to-day, the frizette having been caught by a bough in the woods. + +Bluebell observed that her decorative preparations were restricted to a +dab of violet-powder on her nose, and a slight application of lip-salve. +"I can't let her go down such a figure," thought she, "though she is +dreadfully angry with me," and, seizing a comb, began silently to effect +a reformation in Coey's _chevelure_. + +"Oh, thank you," said the other distantly. "Isn't it right? Never mind. +Dressing is such a waste of time." + +"Hugger-muggering with Bernard is not, I suppose?" thought Bluebell, +resolutely continuing her task. + +But it was Janet's turn to be angry, when, at tea that evening, utterly +oblivious of the vacant chair next herself, her faithless swain +manoeuvred into one next Bluebell. + +"Are you fond of music by moonlight?" he took the first opportunity of +whispering. + +"I like it anywhere," replied she, innocently. "I can't say I ever heard +it by moonlight." + +Much discomfited, Alec gazed incredulously, and then burst out laughing. + +Bluebell naturally inquired what she had said to amuse him; but he evaded +the question, as Janet was evidently listening. Later on, when the former +was at the piano, and he pretending to turn over, he whispered,--"I +wonder under whose window I was making such a lovely noise the other +night?" + +"How should I know? And why did you do it?" + +"I wanted to give you a welcome to the Lake; but perhaps I serenaded that +vinegar-faced governess instead." + +Bluebell was playing rather a pathetic sonata; but the time got decidedly +erratic, as she stared bewildered at Alec, and then went off into a fit +of laughing. "How could you be such a goose? If Colonel Rolleston had +been at home, he would have fired his ten-shooter at you." + +"Tell me which is your window," he whispered, "and I'll give you plenty +of music by moonlight. I hope it is the one with the balcony." + +"Why?" + +"Because," said Alec, audaciously, "you would look so beautiful stepping +out on it, like Julia in 'Guy Mannering.' And we could talk, you know." + +"Very well," said Bluebell, who opined it was about time to shut him up. +"Suppose we refer it to Miss Cameron. I understand your heart and +accomplishments are all made over to her. Perhaps she would assist at +the balcony scene!" + +Alec bit his lip, and looked rather ashamed. Such a rebuff would not have +embarrassed Bertie, nor awakened in him a slumbering conscience, as it +did in this young lumberer, who was ridiculous enough to be in earnest in +his infidelity. + +But Bluebell, knowing she had no quarter to expect from the girls if she +returned to them now, was far from wishing to bring him to a sense of his +duty before the evening was over, so smiled as engagingly as ever, and +continued to accept his attentions, till Janet, fizzing in high dudgeon, +announced her intention of going home, which, of course, involved the +escort of her recreant young man. + +"Wait here a quarter of an hour," whispered Alec to Bluebell, "and I will +run back and row you home." + +"Gracious, no!" said she, with rather the sensation of a child who has +been sent out to spend the afternoon and has misbehaved. "Here is Mrs. +Rolleston's servant come for me. Go back with Miss Janet and make it up, +for I am never going to speak to you again,"--and she turned away to make +her adieux to Mrs. Palmer, a motherly-looking old lady, who had been +nodding half asleep on the sofa all the time. + +"Such a charming musical evening--such a treat!" said she, brisking up, +and quite unaware of what had been passing round her the last two hours. + +"Miss Leigh was quite untireable," sneered Janet. "One could not have +_asked_ her to exert herself so much." + +"Must you really go?" interposed Crickey, fearing now the music was over +the harmony might cease also. + +Bluebell pleaded a promise to return early. + +"I am sorry to be the means of taking away any attraction that might have +induced you to stay," put in Janet, determined to give her "one" before +she went. + +"Thank you," said Bluebell, sweetly, declining to understand; "but I +could scarcely expect you to stay to amuse me." + +"That, I feel sure, would be quite out of my power!" said the other, bent +on provocation; and Crickey nervously dragged Bluebell away to get her +hat. + +Alec lingered till she was fairly off, fearing that Bernard would try and +escort her home. He, however, was thoroughly sulky at the way Gough had +monopolized her the whole evening, and was quite as ready as Coey to +pronounce her an arrant flirt; which so mollified the latter, that when, +a few days later, she and her sister were asked to return Bluebell's +visit at Lyndon's Landing, she accepted without the slightest hesitation, +in a perfectly charitable frame of mind. + +Alec and Janet, of course, quarrelled going home; but it being not the +first time by a good many, it blew over without a rupture, the gentleman, +for the future, cautiously avoiding Bluebell's name, though he tried all +he knew to meet her alone, in which respect Fortune did not favour him; +and there being no more efficient chaperons than children, with their +sharp observation and fatal habit of repetition, they might meet every +day on the blue water without his obtaining more than a saucy glance or a +few commonplace words, which he would try and put as much meaning into as +he could. + + + + +CHAPTER XX. + +THE PRINCE PHILANDER. + + A division of souls may take place without a word being exchanged. One + reminded of those mists that rise into a cool stratum of air soon to + redescend in flakes of snow.... + --Human Sadness. + + +The day that the Misses Palmer were to spend at Lyndon's Landing turned +to rain in the afternoon. The children had a half-holiday, and so the +weather was a double misfortune; and after "What shall we do?" had been +asked in every minor key of querulous despondency, they eventually +grouped themselves, some sitting, some lying on buffalo robes scattered +on the floor, and demanded stories from the elder girls. From the +darkness of the sky, twilight had come earlier, and Freddy had closed the +curtains, to give greater mystery to the fairy lore they were invoking. + +Previous to this they had had a grand dressing up and a fancy ball. +Crickey retained the turban and Indian table-cloth which had been her +"make-up" as an "Eastern Princess." Freddy was a wild beast; and Lola, by +dint of a long pair of military boots, seal-skin gloves, and "pretending +very much," was "Puss in Boots." The old nurse's cap and spectacles were, +with a peaked hat, the salient points of a "Mother Hubbard." But they +were tired of it now, and no sound was heard except the sullen moan of +the storm on the lake, and the voice of Bluebell, half-inventing and +half-relating from memory. + +"And so the Princess remained in the strong tower of the Giant Jealousy; +for though the doors were all open, and you would suppose she had nothing +to do but walk out and be free, yet if she did get a little way some +invisible power always drew her back again, after which the Giant seemed +more tormenting than ever. For no one could really release her but the +Prince Philander, whom she loved, and he only by remaining true to her +alone (which, perhaps, was not always the case, and that was how she had +strayed into Castle Jealousy), and coming himself and overthrowing the +Giant, who would then be instantly dissolved into smoke, and--" + +But the ultimate fate of the bewitched Princess was never known, the +story being arrested by a shout from the children as they caught sight +of a tall, dark figure, half-concealed by a carved screen, and even in +the dusk Bluebell discerned the expression of amused attention and +half-satirical smile on his lips. + +"I saw him first!" cried Lola, jumping up exultingly. "He has been +standing there ever so long, but he made me a sign not to tell." + +"I wanted to hear Miss Leigh's story," interposed Bertie; "but it is +only the plain Princesses _that_ Giant gets hold of, and then the fairy +Princes are too busy with the beauties ever to come and rescue them!" + +Bluebell was almost unnerved by the surprise of his unlooked-for +appearance. A real Prince Philander had come at her invocation; whether +he was to overthrow the Giant, or strengthen his hands, remained to be +proved. + +She had a dim impression of presenting him to the Misses Palmer with a +mortified recollection of her own absurd "make-up," and then sat down, +quite faint from the uncontrollable beating of her heart. + +Perhaps it was to relieve her he was so amiably making conversation with +Coey and Crickey; and exceedingly well they were getting on, she began to +think, recovering rather rapidly when not the object of any particular +attention. + +"And you have been shut up here all day without any exercise?" she heard +him say. "That's very bad. Suppose we play hide-and-seek and run about +all over the house;" and, clamorously supported by the children, the +motion was carried, and the game commenced. + +Bluebell, who was under the influence of strong feeling, thought it most +sickening folly, and wished that Mrs. Rolleston would come in and stop +it; but she was charitably reading to a sick fisherman close by, and, +perhaps, weather bound. Miss Prosody was taking a peaceful afternoon +snooze; and if she did hear the scampering about the house, they were not +unaccustomed sounds on a wet day. + +It had struck Bluebell that the game might have been a _ruse_ of Du +Meresq's to get a word with her in private; but Estelle came up in fits +of laughing, to tell her that Bertie and Crickey were hid together in the +cupboard. This was too much, and she walked coldly downstairs and out of +the game. + +Coey went in search of her sister, who bounded down directly after with a +very red face; and soon Mrs. Rolleston came in, full of exclamations and +inquiries. + +Du Meresq said,--"He and Lascelles had got a week's leave, and had come +to the hotel for some duck-shooting." + +"And Cecil won't be back till Thursday," said Mrs. Rolleston, +regretfully. + +The significance of this remark was not lost upon Bluebell, who stole a +furtive glance at Bertie's face. + +"I thought I had got to an enchanted hall," said he. "I daren't wind the +horn lest I should fall under the spell. The portal yielded to my touch, +and I entered the first room, where conceive my surprise to see, +fantastically dressed, and reclining in Eastern fashion on skins and +cushions, a galaxy of beauty. They were silent, too, except one, who, in +a hushed, mysterious, voice, was improvising an allegory." + +"In short," said Mrs. Rolleston, in a matter-of-fact tone, "the children +were dressed up and telling stories." She began to wonder where Miss +Prosody could be. It was no use Bertie prejudicing his chance with Cecil +by getting up an idle flirtation with these Lake young ladies, who were +already blushing so ridiculously at him; and would have been further +confirmed in this conviction had she guessed that ten minutes ago he had +tried to kiss one of them in a cupboard. + +She offered him a bed, but willingly accepted his excuse that Lascelles +was all alone, and he had promised to go back, but would bring him to +dinner next night. And then he went away through the rain, and Bluebell +was left with her thoughts. + +Well she had never pictured such a meeting as that! And how disagreeable +it had all been. Of course she did not mind his not having paid her much +attention before the children, who repeated everything, but to go on in +that silly romping away with Crickey was ineffably disgusting. She did +not at all recognise it as a poetical justice on her for tampering with +other people's lovers a few days before, but mentally denounced that +young person as bold and unlady like to the last degree. + +The evening continued so stormy, that Mrs. Rolleston kept the girls all +night, and Bluebell, much against her will, had to entertain them, which +was the more irksome as they were both expiring with curiosity about +Bertie, and could talk of nothing but his extraordinary behaviour. +Crickey hadn't even the sense to keep his impertinence in the cupboard to +herself, and Bluebell, who had only suspected before, was provoked into +the most trenchant expressions of condemnation. + +"How could I help it?" asked Crickey, indignantly. "How should I know he +would be so impudent?" + +"Why need you have got into the cupboard with him?" said Bluebell. "It is +just what you might have expected, in fact, it was inviting it." + +"It wasn't," said Crickey, almost crying, for she had previously been +inclined to take it as a tribute to her charms. "Freddy and Estelle had +hid there before, and Captain Du Meresq said it was the best place in the +house." + +"For that, no doubt," began the other. But Coey came to her sister's +assistance with a Biblical allusion to the mote and the beam, and +Bluebell saw that if personalities were to be avoided, they had better +go downstairs at once. So the party of ladies passed a quiet sleepy +evening,--Mrs. Rolleston mentally resolving not to encourage those girls +about the house while Du Meresq was at the lake, and wishing she could +expedite Cecil's return. How much more danger there was from Bluebell she +never suspected, Bertie had been so very cautious. + +As they went up to bed, Crickey, who had become rather sobered by the +dull evening, entreated Bluebell not to mention the cupboard scene in +hide-and-seek, which was impatiently promised. To think that she should +be asked to keep any girl's secret about Bertie! "And now," thought the +poor bewildered child, "it will be almost more difficult than ever to see +him alone, and I must ask him if there _is_ anything between him and +Cecil." For that seed of bitterness sown by Lilla had borne "Dead Sea +fruit"; and, much as she struggled against the hateful idea, it really +seemed the only clue to Bertie's inconsistencies. + +The next day Mrs. Rolleston had some letters, and reading one +attentively, she threw it over to Bluebell. "You didn't seem to care for +this some weeks ago, but you see you can think twice of it. I _did_ write +rather enthusiastically about your music, which, really, is too good to +be wasted on my children, and the result is Mrs. Leighton is quite wild +to have you." + +A singular expression flitted over the girl's face as she mechanically +took the letter--it was only to gain time, she wasn't reading it; and the +large salary and kind promises of a happy home took no effect on her +mind. + +She was thinking of Du Meresq. Suppose he was only trifling with her, and +all those warm protestations of affection were really to end in nothing! +She might even have to see him married to Cecil! The thought was +unendurable, yet it was possible; and, if so, how could she remain with +the Rollestons? And it would be almost as bad as returning to the +cottage, once "so rich with thoughts of him." Chance had thrown Du Meresq +again in her path, and she was determined to find out the truth. Chance +also offered her this retreat, which would put the ocean between them if +he failed her, and then no distance could be too great for her wishes. + +"Can you give me till the mail after next to decide?" said she, as she +arrived at this point of decision. + +"Oh, of course," said Mrs. Rolleston, smiling at the almost tragic tone +of resolution in which it was uttered. "You will have to consult your +mother, and she might not wish you to go to England. Why child, how pale +you are!" + +Bluebell forced a wintry smile and escaped, for a lump was rising in her +throat, and she could not but remember that she must expect no sympathy +or support from Mrs. Rolleston, who had once said, "It would be a most +unsuitable connection." She passed the day in reviewing the situation. +This was the first time she had ever been called on to think seriously +and painfully, and act for herself without a friendly word to support +her. Perhaps Du Meresq's behaviour the day before had not a little braced +her to the energetic course she had determined on. It was, indeed, no +easy task to extort from a man who professed so much the simple question +in black and white which could alone give value to his addresses. With no +witnesses present, she had little doubt that he would be as ardent a +lover as ever; but that would no longer satisfy her. She had arranged her +plan, and relied on two feelers to settle the matter one way or the +other. + +The first was to repeat to Bertie what Lilla had said about himself and +Cecil, and then judge of the effect of her words. If unsatisfactory, she +might tell him she was going to take a situation in England, "and if he +makes no effort to stop _that_, it will, indeed, be over, and I will go," +was the necessary conclusion. + +Du Meresq and his friend, Captain Lascelles, came to dinner. Were +either to die, exchange, or marry, the other would doubtless feel much +inconvenienced, not to say injured. In England, their hunters, rooms at +Newmarket, stall at the Opera, or whatever would bear division, were all +joint-stock affairs; and either would, with perfect cordiality, have lent +the other money, which a long unpaid tradesman would have found +exceedingly hard to extract from him. + +Both were unquiet spirits in the regiment, abhorring the monotony of +drill and stables, and insatiable for leave. Yet on field-days, even +their most pipe clay of colonels admitted that there was no smarter +turned out troop than Lascelles', and no better squadron leader than Du +Meresq. + +The party was so small at dinner that conversation became pretty general. +Captain Lascelles at first tried to be _au mieux_ with the only young +lady present; but he didn't make much way, and began to think her rather +stupid, and to wish that those lively girls his friend Bertie had told +him of would swim or paddle themselves across. To Bluebell the evening +was little short of purgatory. Never had she known Du Meresq so altered. +Scarcely a sentence had passed between them, and his manner was +conventional and guarded. Formerly he had been equally cautious in +public, yet they were always _en rapport_, and some slight glance was +certain to be exchanged in assurance of it. + +This night she knew from internal consciousness that they were not, +and that a palpable change had taken place. Her heroic resolutions of +the morning passed away in inconsistent and impotent longing for one +word or gesture to break down this impenetrable wall that seemed to have +arisen between them, and to recall the old happy love-making days. Mrs. +Rolleston asked her to sing. A bird robbed of its nest could not have +felt more disinclined, yet she would try, though her voice sounded +strange to herself, and was harsh and wiry. + +Du Meresq wondered what had jarred those silvery tones, and stolen the +melody from the voice he had once thought almost seraphic. Music, and +especially Bluebell's, had ever a potent charm for him. She had abandoned +the song at the end of the verse, and glided without stopping, into an +instrumental piece. There was a subdued hum of voices, but Bertie's was +not among them, and Bluebell knew he was listening as of old. She had +arranged some variations to their favourite valse, and some impulse made +her select that. Keeping the subject cautiously back, and only allowing +suggestions of it to steal into the modulations, it seemed like fugitive +snatches of an air borne on a gust of wind, and overcome by nearer +sounds,--the breeze in the trees, the tinkle of sheep-bells, the brawling +of a brook. + +Bertie listened curiously, thought he had caught the air, lost it, and +doubted, till he recognised, in the mocking melody that continually +eluded him, the valse he had so often danced with Bluebell. He shot one +glance of intelligence at her as she finished, but Lascelles, who could +not bear the piece, was so loud in admiration, and found so much to say +about it, that Du Meresq could not have got in a word had he wished it. + +Bluebell turned impatiently away, and snatching up some work, went to a +secluded part of the room, under cover of requiring a shaded lamp there. +"If there is any truth in magnetic attraction," thought she, "Captain +Lascelles shall not come near me, and Bertie shall." She excluded every +other thought from her mind, and _willed_ steadily. Du Meresq became +restless, rose from his chair, and stood aimlessly looking at something +on a table. Bluebell continued her mesmeric efforts, every fibre +quivering. He was coasting in her direction; in another instant he would +be close, and have sat down on the sofa by her. Then she looked up, and +their eyes met and mingled. It might have been for half-an-hour to her +overwrought sensations; the past was forgotten,--she was gazing in a +trance. What impelled Mrs. Rolleston at that moment to say,--"I heard +from Cecil this afternoon, Bertie, and if they catch the boat at ----, +they will be here to-morrow evening?" + +The passionate eyes drowning themselves in the love light of Bluebell's +became thoughtful and colder. The spell was broken. Du Meresq turned +away, and began talking to his sister about the expected travellers. + +The reaction was painful as the killing of a nerve, and the cause of it +so cruel, that she made no attempt to endure it. A swift glance round +showed her she was unobserved, and springing to the door, she fled from +the room, to weep out her blue eyes in senseless, hopeless repining. + +No one noticed her exit but Lascelles, who, going through his social +_devoirs_ with mechanical propriety, had his powers of observation quite +disengaged. + +"I can't make the girl out," he soliloquized. "She is aggravatingly +pretty, plays very uncanny, unpleasant music, and looks at me with about +as much interest as if I had called to tune the piano or regulate the +clocks. I wonder if she is expected to go to bed at ten! I fancy there is +a very stringent code of rules for a companion. She was sitting in such a +nice inviting corner, to. Du Meresq seemed sloping off for a spoon; but +when he doubled back, and I was just ready to bear down, she shot out of +the room, like Cinderella when she had 'exceeded her pass.'" + +The two friends looked in next morning. They were going in a yacht as far +as the Indian village, and Bertie said if the Colonel and Cecil would be +likely to have arrived, he would come in on his way back. There was some +discussion about trains and connecting boats, and a guide-book was +fruitlessly hunted for. + +"Oh, I recollect," said Mrs. Rolleston, suddenly; "I put it in the +table-drawer in the next room,--right-hand drawer, Bertie," as he went to +fetch it. He found a little more than he sought, for there, alone, with +every appearance of being caught, was Bluebell. Du Meresq would, perhaps, +have avoided the _contretemps_, had he been prepared for it. As it was +he advanced towards her, and, clasping her in his arms, kissed the cheek +from which every ray of colour had vanished, and said, tenderly,--"What +has turned my Bluebell into a Lily?" + +"I have heard something. I want to ask you a question," came out almost +mechanically. + +Du Meresq had not expected so serious an answer to a _banalite_, and his +countenance altered. + +"Why are you so grave, Bluebell? You take life too seriously, my child. +A young beauty like you need never be unhappy--only make other people +so." + +But his theories were no longer taken as gospel. + +"Oh, I am quite happy," said she, with an involuntary ironical infusion +in her voice, "but I don't often see you alone, Bertie, and there are one +or two things I want to ask you." + +"We'll soon square that", said Du Meresq carelessly, "What do you think +of Lascelles?" + +"Think of him?" repeated Bluebell, with passion "What should I think of +him? I don't care if he dies to morrow!" + +"What, a good looking fellow like that?" said Du Meresq, jestingly, "and +he admires you awfully." What a flash of those violet eyes--regular blue +lightning! But a sudden gush of tears extinguished it, and, breaking from +him, Bluebell rushed out of the room. + +A look of extreme annoyance came over his face and he whistled +thoughtfully. Lascelles shouting his name, burst into the room. + +"Where is that book? 'His only books were women's looks, and folly all +they taught him.' Oh Bertie I fear me you are a sly dog." + +"What the devil do you mean?" said Du Meresq with much irritation. + +"What do you? Keeping me here all day, while you are spooning the pretty +companion. She bolted out of this so quick,--nearly ran into my arms, and +seemed taking on shocking. Oh, you strangely ammoral young man!" + +"By Jove!" said Du Meresq, "it is lucky it was only you. Well, let us be +off now, and shut up, there's a good fellow." + + + + +CHAPTER XXI. + +A PERILOUS SAIL. + + Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting, + The Soul that rises with us, our life's Star + Hath had elsewhere its setting, + And cometh from afar. + --Wordsworth. + + By this the storm grew loud apace, + The water wraith was shrieking, + And in the scowl of heaven each face + Grew dark as they were speaking. + --Campbell. + + +There was a bright moon that evening, and Colonel Rolleston and his +daughter were crossing the lake. A yacht passed them, sailing rapidly +before the wind. Some one on board took his hat off. + +"Who was that?" asked Cecil. + +"It was very like Lascelles," said the Colonel. "I wonder what he is +doing up here." + +Cecil's colour rose. The name of Lascelles suggested Bertie. She knew +they usually hunted in couples, and her busy mind was alive with +conjecture. She wondered if the same idea had occurred to her father. She +thought he looked a shade grimmer; but he smoked his cigar in silence, +and a few more pulls from the sinewy arm of the boatman shot them into +Lyndon's Landing. And then it all seemed to Cecil as if the same scene +had been enacted in a previous state of existence. Where before had she +seen his dark figure thrown out just so by the moonlight? Certainly not +in a dream. Could one's life be repeated? She almost felt, by an exertion +of _memory_, she might tell what was coining next. + +A deep, calm satisfaction stole over her as Bertie helped her from the +boat, and his eyes sought hers under the stars. She heeded not that +Colonel Rolleston's greeting was apparently cool and formal, nothing +signified--life had suddenly become intense again. What could ruffle the +golden content of the present? Happiness is a great beautifier, and as +she sprang to shore, her graceful figure so undulating and spirited, and +her soul beaming warm in her radiant eyes, he wondered that he could ever +have thought Bluebell more beautiful. She often recurred to him hereafter +just as she stood that night, shrouded in a crimson Colleen Bawn, under +cover of which her hand remained so long in his. + +Du Meresq did not stay very late. Both he and Cecil were quiet and +dreamy. To be in the same room again was quite happiness enough for the +present. Mrs. Rolleston also was entirely satisfied, diverted her +husband's attention with creature comforts, and made no effort to detain +Bertie. Given a love affair, and a certain interest in it, the most +unscheming nature becomes Macchiavellian in tact and policy. + +And Du Meresq unmoored a canoe and paddled himself off, unwitting of a +young, desolate face pressed against an upper casement. From thence she +had watched him waiting for Cecil at the landing, and, with eyes +sharpened by anxiety, had detected their happiness in meeting. She could +not go down to receive confirmation of what required none. Better receive +the _coup de grâce_ from his own lips than to undergo gradual vivisection +while looking helplessly on. + +Bluebell was young and credulous, her heart had been flattered away by +this man, who had had so many before and did not want it now, and yet, +poor child, could she have looked beyond, she might have seen cause for +thankfulness that the thing most hotly desired was withheld for this +early love had not root enough for the wear and tear of life. It was a +hob day romance, born of the senses, the bewildering fascination of a +graceful presence and winning voice, and well for her if her guardian +angel stood with even a flaming sword in the way. + +The two girls did not meet till the morning, when Cecil, preoccupied as +she was, could not but notice the blanched weariness of Bluebell's face +which, owing a great deal of its beauty to colouring, appeared by +contrast almost plain. + +"You should have come up the Saguenay with us. I am sure Rice Lake +cannot agree with you," said she, launching into a glowing and graphic +description of their adventures. In reality, Cecil had detested the whole +expedition, having been in a continual fever to return; but, now that her +mind was at ease, memory brought out the notable points in a surprising +way, and she quite talked herself into believing that she had enjoyed it +immensely, and had witnessed everything with the utmost relish and +curiosity. + +They were sitting in the garden over-looking the lake, and a tiny +sail shot out from the hotel landing and stood towards them. A light +stole over the face of the brunette, but the features of the blonde +became rigid as they marked its progress. Neither alluded to the +circumstance--Cecil continued her narrative, and Bluebell made the +requisite replies; but when the boat had made Lyndon's Landing, and Du +Meresq and Lascelles jumped out, Cecil found she was receiving them +alone. + +The latter was come on a farewell call. The two friends meant to sail to +a railway station five miles up the lake, where Lascelles would take the +car, and Du Meresq bring the canoe back. After a short visit, Mrs. +Rolleston and Cecil strolled down to see them off. + +"I have never tried the canoe with a sail up," remarked the latter. "With +this wind it must be absolutely flying." + +"Not quite so dry," said Lascelles, laughing. "Du Meresq is such a +duffer; he ships a lot of water." + +"Cecil," said Bertie, giving a pre-conceived idea the air of an +_impromptu_, "come up to Coonwood with us; it's lovely scenery all the +way, and I should have a companion back." + +"What do you say, mamma; may I go?" dropping her eyes and speaking in an +indifferent voice, to disguise her delight in the anticipation. + +"May I go?" mimicked Lascelles to himself. "Bertie is always sacrificing +me to some girl or other. She will swamp the boat,--it's within an inch +of the water already with my portmanteau,--and very likely make me miss +my train, or get wet through pulling her out." This in soliloquy, but he +looked courteous and smiling. + +Mrs. Rolleston hesitated; in her heart she acquiesced; but what would the +Colonel say? The younger ones took silence for consent, and Cecil was +reclining on a bear-skin at the bottom of the canoe, Lascelles kneeling +in a cramped attitude, with the steering paddle, in the bow, and Bertie +in charge of the sail, before words of prohibition could come from her. + +"Dear me! I don't half like it," said she, nervously. "How stormy it +looks in the west. How long will it take you?" + +"We shall have the wind back," said Bertie. "About two hours and a +half--three at the outside. I'll bring her home in good time for +dinner,"--and Cecil kissed her hand in laughing defiance while he spread +the sail to the wind, and, catching the light breeze after a flap or two, +they glided gaily on their course. + +"Don't move about, Cecil," said Du Meresq; "we are rather low down in the +water." + +No one knew better than Cecil, who had quite appreciated the small spice +of risk in weighting the frail bark with an additional person; but then +it was worth it to sail back alone with Bertie. + +"You are getting dreadfully wet, I am afraid, Miss Rolleston," said +Lascelles. "Ease the sail a bit, Bertie." + +"You shouldn't keep her head to the waves," argued the other, "as if it +were a boat. Keep her broadside to them, and we shan't ship half so +many." + +There was a fresh breeze when they left the landing, but, after getting +three miles or so on their way, the wind rose almost into a squall; white +horses raced on the lake, and, in spite of every effort of the two young +men, about one wave in ten flung a curl of spray over Cecil. Bertie threw +off his coat, and made her thrust her arms into it as well as she could, +and Lascelles followed suit by spreading his over her knees. The sky +became stormier, and the wind howled ominously. They had started full of +spirits, and gay talk and chaff had been bandied among them. No one could +quite tell when it dropped, for it had been kept up with an effort after +the threatening appearance of things had sobered them. + +Cecil was drenched to the skin, but they ceased to express solicitude on +that account, for a more pressing apprehension filled each mind, that the +canoe so weighted could not live through it much longer. + +The girl was stiffening in the rigidity of her reclining attitude. The +least movement would have capsized them, and each wave larger than the +rest she expected to swamp the canoe. Suddenly she remembered Du Meresq +having once said he could not swim, and then, for the first time, her +heart sunk, and a sickening horror came over her. + +Lascelles, she supposed, in the event of their being upset, would +endeavour to save her. But Bertie! He would drown before her eyes, for +the water was deep, and the shore for some time had been only a nearly +perpendicular rock. Probably Lascelles so laden might be unable to land +even her. Looking upon Du Meresq as doomed, that contingency did not +disturb her. Drowning, she had heard, was a pleasant death. It didn't +look so though, with that cruel steel water lapping thirstily for its +prey. After the one supreme moment when she sunk with her love, would +they rise again in the land where there is neither marrying nor giving in +marriage, with the Platonic serenity of spirits, all earthly passion +etherealized away? + +She looked up; Lascelles was baling out the water with his hat. "Du +Meresq, you had better haul down the sail and take the paddle," said he +significantly. + +"Our only chance is to make Coonwood," returned the other; "there's no +landing nearer. We should never get there paddling. I must keep up the +sail and run for it." + +He glanced at Cecil as he spoke, who met his eyes with a calm, strange +smile. + +A muttered consultation between Du Meresq and Lascelles alone broke the +silence for some time. The latter continued to bale, rejecting Cecil's +offer of assistance, only entreating her to continue perfectly still. The +canoe was almost level with the water. "It must come very soon now," she +thought, and, shutting her eyes, tried to realize the great change +approaching. + +Her favourite day-dream of sailing away to a new strange country with +Bertie recurred to her. What if this was to be the fulfilment of it, and +they were to explore for ever an unknown land beyond the skies! But would +it be so? No sooner should the frail bark sink from under them than she +would feel Lascelles clutch her in a desperate grip, and be dragged +through the water, and placed alive, though half-suffocated, on the +shore. But Du Meresq would be sucked down in the blue lake, and travel to +that bourn alone. + +Cecil shuddered, and formed a rapid resolve. "Who was Lascelles that he +should separate them? Let him save himself if he thought it worth while. +Whatever was Bertie's fate should be hers also." + +Thus determined, Cecil waited for the end. She had only to elude +Lascelle's grasp at the critical moment, and her fate was as certain as +Du Meresq's. She gave a regretful thought to her father; but he had other +children, and Cecil had no strong family ties. + +As she waited in a state of half exaltation, a quiet little thought crept +in,--how was it, after all this time, the boat still lived? Why they +could not be far from Coonwood! Lascelles was still baling, but Bertie, +from improved dexterity in the management of the sail, evaded the waves +more successfully. + +Cecil continued to watch, and the tension of her mind yielded to a +flutter of hope as she saw the water no longer gained on them. + +"We should be pretty near now," observed Lascelles. + +"Yes, here we are!" rose in almost a shout of triumph from both, as, on +rounding the point, the wished-for harbour appeared in view. With one +last effort the envious waves dashed over, drenching them through and +through as they landed. + +"A drop more or less doesn't much matter now," cried Cecil, gaily, +wringing her dripping garments. And they all shook hands in their elation +of spirits, with short expressions of relief, and congratulations at +their escape, which all confessed to have been in doubt of at one time. + +"You are a regular heroine, Miss Rolleston," said Lascelles, heartily. +"If you had jumped up, or gone into hysterics, as some girls would, we +should have gone under pretty soon. As it was, I thought I had my work +cut out, for do you know that Du Meresq can't swim?" + +"Yes, I know," grudgingly, for she could not bear Bertie to be at a +disadvantage. "But I am sure it is quite miraculous how he managed the +sail through that squall." + +"Only if we had swamped, Lascelles must have saved you," whispered he, +regretfully; "and I would never have forgiven him!" + +Cecil did not make any verbal answer, but, as usual, her face was +not so reticent. Lascelles felt himself rather _de trop_ as he +concluded,--"Well, if they are on for a spoon already, I may as well +be looking after my car." + +"There's your Bullgine," cried Du Meresq, with some alacrity. "I daresay +it has been there an hour: no fear of losing a train in this leisurely +country!" + +"Well, adieu, Miss Rolleston; I trust you will not suffer from your +soaking. You will have an hour or two to wait, I am afraid, before the +gale goes down, and Du Meresq will hardly fulfil his promise of getting +you home in good time for dinner." + +"We are only too lucky to require another dinner; but I suppose we shall +be in an awful scrape," answered Cecil, speaking quickly and nervously, +for somehow she began to half dread being alone with Bertie. "Good-bye, +Captain Lascelles. Here's your coat, which you were so good as to spare +me; I am afraid it is not a valuable acquisition in its present spongy +state;" and "Good-bye, old man," from the two friends as Lascelles ran +off; shooting a momentary humorous glance of intelligence at Du Meresq. + +The former, as he settled himself in the locomotive, thought rather +seriously of the "situation" he had left his friend in. He rather +wondered at Bertie, who appeared dangerously in earnest this time. To be +sure, she was a nice enough girl, and very "coiny," he believed; but +though convinced that such a marriage would be a piece of good fortune +for his friend, remembering the convenience of their mutual partnership, +he sincerely hoped he would "behave badly," and get out of the scrape +somehow. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII. + +AT LAST. + + The breeze was dead, + The leaf lay without whispering in the tree; + We were together. + How, where, what matter? Somewhere in a dream, + Drifting, slow drifting down a wizard stream. + --The Wanderer. + + +"It is just as well," said Du Meresq, laughing, "we have not got to take +him back again. The experiment of three in that birchen bark is too +expensive to repeat; and we could not throw him over as a Jonah, since he +is the only one of us who can swim." + +"I ought never to have come! And, now we can think of wordly things +again, only fancy what a rage papa will be in about it all. It is a +curious fact, Bertie, the very last time we were out together, an +accident made us late--at the tobogganing party, you know." + +They had entered the station, which appeared perfectly deserted. The last +official had gone up with Lascelles' train. A fire, however, was still +burning, and the coal-box only half empty. + +Du Meresq threw the coals on the waning embers, which responded with a +cheerful fizz to the needed aliment, and then began unlacing Cecil's wet +boots as she sat before the fire. + +These two had often been alone together without the slightest +embarrassment, but now, perhaps from the reaction, and being a little +unstrung, she felt a most distressing sensation of it, besides which the +anti-climax of his occupation after her overwrought anticipations of +their mutual fate, gave her an hysterical inclination to a peal of +laughter. + +He did not speak, and silence was too oppressive to be endured, so she +cast about desperately for a topic of conversation. The _entourage_ was +not particularly suggestive,--four white-washed walls and the chair she +was sitting on comprised the furniture. Clearly she could not take in +ideas with her eyes, which, indeed, were fixed with a magnetic +persistence on the mathematically straight parting of Bertie's back hair, +which would scarcely furnish subject for remark. + +"There go a ruined pair of Balmorals," said he, placing them in the +fender. "Your stockings are wet through, too; why don't you take them +off?" + +"I prefer them wet," said Cecil, rather scandalized. + +"Shall I go and walk about outside while you dry them?" asked he, with a +smile. + +"Yes, do. Walk away altogether if you like." + +"But you might drown yourself going home alone, and haunt my remaining +days. + + 'They made her a grave too cold and damp + For a soul so warm and true, + And all night long, by a fire-fly lamp, + She paddles her white canoe,'"-- + +quoted Bertie, jestingly. + +Cecil disliked his manner, and felt irritated; but there she was, +imprisoned, bootless, in her chair, while those appendages smoked damply +in the fender. + +"Dear me," she said, impatiently, "will that wind never drop! When shall +we be able to start, I wonder?" + +"Don't you think we are more comfortable here?" said he, lazily. +"Remember what a row there'll be when we get home." + +"Yes, you always get me into scrapes. Why did you bother me into this +idiotic expedition?" + +"Didn't you ask me to take you?" provokingly. "I am sure I understood you +wished to come." + +Cecil coloured angrily, and then burst out laughing. + +"I can't afford to quarrel with you in this disgusting desolation, it +would be like the two men in the lighthouse; but remember, sir, it goes +down to your account when I am restored to my friends." + +"The captive should not use threats. I am not intimidated. What should +now forbid that I whirl you away on the next car to _Ne Yock_, and marry +you right off? and then you would have to obey me ever afterwards." + +"Bertie, you forget yourself," with great dignity and rising colour. + +"I can't help my unselfish nature. I never do think of myself. Seriously, +Cecil, would it not be a good plan?" + +"I hardly understand how you would effect it in broad daylight against my +will." + +"Nothing more easy. I shouldn't put you into the train till it was just +going, and I am sure you would have too much self-respect to make a +disturbance. If you did, I would point to my forehead, and shake my head +expressively. Then, probably, the guard would assist me. After we were +married, I should shut you up for a time to reconcile you to the +situation, and by degrees, if you pleased me, I would allow you more +liberty." + +"Suppose I ran away and never returned." + +"Oh, you would always be watched, I should, perhaps, let you get a little +distance to encourage you, and then bring you back again." + +Cecil would not vouchsafe a retort. She thought Bertie's behaviour in the +very worst taste, and had never known him so little agreeable. But there +they were incarcerated, and the wind still howled. "How was it they were +so little in tune," she wondered, "wasting time with this tactless +badinage?" Bertie, too, whose greatest charm was his lightning perception +of all her thoughts and feelings, could he possibly think--and here a hot +glow mounted to her cheeks, which were not cooled by feeling her hand +suddenly captured by Du Meresq, as he whispered in her ear,-- + +"As we always get into scrapes together, don't you think, Cecil, for the +future we had better only be responsible to each other?" + +"I think," said she, flaming up at last, and her bright eyes flashing +indignantly upon him, "that your conduct is idiotic and ungentlemanly: +What right have you to make me the subject of your silly jokes?" + +"I have made you look at me at last," cried he, "though I am almost +'blasted with excess of light.' Dearest Cecil, you must know what I have +come to Rice Lake for, and that you can make me the happiest or most +miserable fellow breathing." + +Bertie's eyes were glowing with earnestness, and his whole manner was +as eager as it had before been inert. Cecil was dumb from contending +emotions, love, pride, and doubt, all at war; yet a small voice in her +heart kept repeating "At last!" + +"You must have known my wishes ever since we parted at Montreal," pleaded +Bertie. ("I was by no means so certain," thought Cecil.) "I could not +speak then; your father will, perhaps, think I oughtn't to now. Yet, at +least I can say honestly, will you marry me, my dearest little Cecil?" + +At the asseveration, "I can say honestly," a sudden illumination came +over her face, as if every cloud had been instantaneously swept away. + +Persons conversant with such subjects maintain that the plain words, "I +will," are generally first used by the bride in church, when she promises +to worship M. or N. with her body. No doubt, Bertie was answered somehow; +but as there are no reporters in Paradise, so happiness requires no +chronicler, and we drop the curtain while Cecil becomes engaged to her +ideal and only love--a fate sufficiently uncommon in this world of +contradictions. + +The wind was lulled to a whisper, and a golden sunset was reddening the +lake, ere our lovers remembered, with a start, that they had to get home. + +"Now comes the rude awakening," cried Du Meresq. "Dinner spoiled, and a +very stern expression of paternal opinion to you, my poor Cecil. Very +grumpy to me. By Jove, I won't tell him to-night! Here's your half-baked +boots. We shall never get them on. Shall I carry you to the boat, and +roll your feet in the bear-skin?" + +"I feel as if a hundred years had passed since we were last in the +canoe," said Cecil, evading this obliging proposal. "But how the lake has +calmed itself down; it seems sleeping, and the shore and the islands cast +long shadows on it." + + "'Tis one of those ambrosial eves + A day of storm so often leaves," + +began Bertie, with his incurable propensity for quoting. "What made you +so shy at the station, Cecil? I was obliged to put you in a rage to get +you natural again." + +"After the pleasing picture you draw of our domestic felicity, I can't +think how I ever accepted you." + +"I was just going to begin when I was unlacing your boots, but the idea +struck me that to propose holding a lady's foot instead of her hand, +would be too ludicrous a variation from all precedent. What a sensitive +girl you are, Cecil! I am sure you knew what was coming, for I felt you +drawing into a shell of consciousness, that would have made me nervous +too, if I had not been impertinent instead" + +Cecil was not far from a relapse, for dreamily happy as she was, she +had already begun to torment herself. She had accepted Du Meresq so +readily,--good Heavens! she might almost say thankfully,--and, disguise +it as he might, he must know it. Could a thing be really valued that was +so easy of attainment? When Cecil was shy she was usually dumb, it never +revealed itself by hasty, foolish speech, or an artificial laugh. Her +countenance, however, was not so silent; and Bertie, as he watched her +changing hues and varying expression, thought how much more he admired +that mobile, sensitive face, than the pink and white of a soul-less +beauty. + +"Where is your hand, Cecil?" stretching out a long arm to feel for it. "I +am sure a dragon of propriety might trust a loving pair in this wabbly +little craft, which an attempt at osculation would upset." + +There was just breeze enough to fill the little sail, which bore them +swiftly and gently along. A pale star came out in the sky. Though dusk, +it was far from dark, night in a Canadian summer being of very +abbreviated duration. The lovers had relapsed into dreamy reverie, but, +as they began to approach more familiar objects, stern reality resumed +its sway. Cecil was the first to give evidence of it, by saying, in +rather a subdued voice,-- + +"Don't you think, Bertie, as you must go away to-morrow, you had better +get _it_ over to night?" + +"Heaven forbid!" cried he, rousing up, "let us have this evening in +peace. You see, my dearest little Cecil, _he_ will hate it anyhow, and +to-night will be awfully put out at my bringing you home so late; so this +would be the very worst opportunity to choose. To-morrow, after dinner, +I'll try what I can do with him. I am a shocking bad match for you, +Cecil, and that's the fact. But when I went back to Montreal, thinking +of nothing but you, I considered and pondered over every possibility +of putting my prospects in a fair light to your father. To the amazement +of my creditors, I _asked_ for their accounts. Then I made a little +arrangement with Green, the senior lieutenant. He is the son of a +money-lender, and very sick of being a subaltern; so he paid the +over-regulation down on account for my troop, and will shell out +the rest, with an extra thousand, directly my papers are in. The +over-regulation money, with a little stretching, covered my debts. To be +sure, Green had to part pretty freely, but his pater will get it out of +some one else. Now, my idea is to realize what remains of my slender +fortune, and try my luck in Australia. You see, my darling, you are all +right, for all your money will be settled on yourself; so that if I smash +up there, the worst that can happen will be your having to maintain me +till I can 'strike ile,' or bring out a patent horse-medicine, or become +riding-master to young ladies." + +"I put my veto on the last," laughed Cecil. "But really, Bertie, I can +hardly believe such good news as your being actually cleared up at last; +indeed, I almost feel a sentimental attachment to your debts, for it was +about them you first got confidential that Spring you stayed with us in +England." + +"That visit did my business for life," said Bertie, with a wooer's usual +disregard of veracity. "But you are far more beautiful now, Cecil, than +you were then." + +Not even Du Meresq could persuade Cecil that she had any claims to boast +of on that score; indeed, she had once overheard him say that he hardly +ever admired dark women, so she passed it by with a half smile of +incredulity, as she observed,-- + +"I really begin to have some faint hope of papa consenting. Your being +out of debt will weigh tremendously with him." + +"And I am sure you will like Australia," cried he, enthusiastically. "It +is the most charming climate, and the life delightful. I will send you up +a lot of books on the subject." + +Cecil was ashamed to confess how many she had read already. "You _must_ +go by that boat to-morrow night, I suppose?" said she, meditatively. + +"Yes; no help for it. But as I shall send my papers in at once, most +probably I can get leave till I am gazetted out." + +"Oh! I wish that _mauvais quart-d'heure_ with papa were over," sighed +Cecil. "All to-morrow in suspense!" + +"Cecil," said Du Meresq, in his most persuasive tones, "it is better to +be prepared for the worst. I know you are true as steel, and far firmer +than most girls. Promise that you _will_ marry me,--with his consent, if +possible; if not, without." + +They had landed just before, and were walking up to the house. What +presentiment checked the unqualified pledge he would have imposed on her? + +"I promise," she cried, "to marry no one else while you are alive." + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII. + +LOLA'S BIRTHDAY. + + She is not fair to outward view, + As many maidens be; + Her loveliness I never knew + Until she smiled on me. + Oh! then I saw her eye was bright, + A well of love--a spring of light + --Hartley Coleridge. + + +Mrs. Rolleston had passed a terrible day of anxiety. The sudden rising of +the wind so soon after their departure first aroused her alarm, which, as +the utmost limit of the time they were to be away passed, became +augmented tenfold. The absence of the Colonel, who had gone inland, at +first a relief, now increased her desperation, for there was no one to +make an effort for their preservation or to ascertain their fate. She and +Bluebell, who suffered scarcely less, could only rush to the boatmen for +either consolation or assistance. They got little of the former, for with +the usual propensity of the lower classes to make the worst of +everything, they expressed a decided opinion that the canoe so overladen +could not have weathered the squall. + +"But they might have put in somewhere," cried Bluebell, seeing Mrs. +Rolleston speechless with consternation. + +"How far would they be got, ma'am?" + +"They must have been gone nearly an hour before the wind began to howl." + +"Then they'd be nigh the black rocks, and no place to land closer than +Coonwood, unless they turned back and got on to Sheep Island." + +"Oh! go and see!" cried Mrs. Rolleston, beside herself with terror, +palling out her purse in answer to the mute unwillingness on the man's +face. + +"It won't be no manner of use; but if it will be a satisfaction to you, +ma'am," looking expressively at the purse, "and my mate will come with +me, I'll go out for them. They ought to come down 'ansome," he muttered, +"if I finds the bodies." + +The two ladies waited to see him off, fretting inwardly at the delay of +repairing a plank in the boat and fetching his mate. It was a good +substantial old tub, very different from the fairy canoe freighted with +those precious human lives. Then they returned to their weary watch in +Cecil's bird's-nest of a room, which commanded the most extensive view of +the lake. Bluebell's young eyes were the first to discern the tiny white +bunting, and hope battled with suspense till they could be sure it was +the sail they sought. With the field glass they made out two forms. + +"Cecil is safe!" cried Mrs. Rolleston, recognising her large, shady hat. +"But still," she thought, "Bertie might be drowned, and Captain Lascelles +bringing her home. Oh, Bluebell! can you recognise him?" for the girl had +the glasses. They were very strong ones, and her vision keen. A spasm +passed over her face. + +"Captain Du Meresq is quite safe," said she, bitterly. She had looked at +the moment when Bertie stretched out his arm for Cecil's hand, and was +carrying it to his lips. + +Mrs. Rolleston's raptures were too oppressive just then. Bluebell felt +thankful to hear a slight disturbance, which betokened that the Colonel +had returned. His wife, quite unnerved by the transition from despair to +joy, could conceal nothing, and, rushing down, poured into his ear all +the dread and relief of the past hours. The Colonel hearing it thus +abruptly, and unsoftened by previous anxiety, only felt intense anger at +Cecil's having gone alone with these two men; and the danger and exposure +to the storm that she had undergone aggravated the offence considerably. +He felt too strongly to say much to his wife, who, indeed, had suffered +quite enough already; and the sting of it all--his growing fear of Du +Meresq's influence over Cecil--he was not disposed to confide to her. + +"I have been too careless," he reflected, "and I cannot trust Bella, +who will never see a fault in her brother. However, he will be gone +to-morrow, and I will take care they never meet again till Cecil is +married." + +Mrs. Rolleston, in the restless activity of a lightened heart, had +hurried away to order large fires to be lit in their rooms, and hot +cordials and everything imagination could suggest placed ready. Indeed +she racked her brains to remember what restoratives were usually applied +to drowned persons. Holding them up by the heels or _not_ doing so +(whichever it was), and hot blankets, were the only prescriptions she +could recollect; and then the culprits themselves came in, looking +particularly fresh and pleased with themselves. + +Cecil she proposed instantly to consign to a warm bed, but the girl +laughed her to scorn, and would not hear of being shelved in that manner; +and, finally, they all came down to dinner, talkative from a delightful +sense of reaction. This superfluous effervescence, however, was soon +flattened by the unsympathetic gloom of the head of the family. It was +very unlike his usual manner, and not a good augury, thought two of the +party, who ascribed it to the right cause. + +Cecil, however, was determined to resist the damping influence as long +as she could. She rattled off lively French airs at the piano, and +challenged her father to chess; but he only drily remarked "that after +having passed the day in wet clothes, she had better take some ordinary +precautions and go to bed." Indeed, her slightly feverish manner perhaps +warranted the advice. + +"Good night, then, Bertie, and mind you are here early to-morrow for +Lola's picnic." + +It was the child's birthday, and she had written roundhand invitations to +all of them, to spend the day on Long Island and lunch there. + +"Tell Lola," said Bertie, smiling, "I would not miss it for the world. +She will think me very shabby, but I can't get her a present at Rice +Lake." + +He went away himself a few minutes after, half hoping to obtain from +Cecil a second and more affectionate farewell, but could see nothing of +her. Just as he stepped out, though, a casement shot open, and her bright +face appeared for an instant as she threw down a rose, round the stalk of +which was a slip of paper with the word "_Courage?_" scratched upon it. +She put a finger on her lips warningly, then kissed her hand, and +vanished. + +Bertie picked up the rose. It was one she had plucked as they entered the +garden, and worn in her dress that evening. + +As he got into one of the various canoes at the landing, another one +passed, paddled by a good-looking youth, who half stopped, and gazed +intently at Du Meresq, then catching sight of the flower in his +button-hole, an expression of baffled rage came over his boyish face, +and he shot away. + +It was Alec Gough prowling around with his flageolet, intent upon +addressing some minstrelsy to Bluebell, and much disconcerted by the +sight of Du Meresq coming from that house with a trophy in the shape of +a faded rose. + +About two hours after, Cecil, too feverish from the exciting events of +the day to sleep, became sensible of some strains of music, apparently +from the lake. She sat up to listen. Could it possibly be Bertie? No; he +was too good a musician for that barrel-organ style; some wandering +person from the hotel it must be. The air was familiar to her, though she +could not immediately recall the name. At last she recollected it was +one of Moore's melodies, and a verse of it, really intended by Alec for +an indignant expostulation to Bluebell, came into her head.-- + + "Fare thee well, thou lovely one, + Lovely still, but dear no more; + Once the soul of truth is gone, + Love's sweet life is o'er." + +One is more prone to fancies and superstitions in the night-time, and +something in the sentiment saddened her. The unknown musician did not +weaken the effect by playing another air; and Cecil towards morning fell +into an unrefreshing slumber, in which her dreams seemed to parody the +day's adventures. + +Sometimes she was struggling in the water; and then the scene +changed--she was being married in a small church, or rather it more +resembled the white-washed room at the station. Bertie was presenting her +with a rose instead of a ring, while she was trying to conceal 'neath the +folds of her bridal dress her feet encased in shapeless Balmorals. Then +Colonel Rolleston suddenly appeared and forbade the ceremony to proceed, +while the bridegroom seemed to have changed into Fane, and Bertie, as +best-man, slowly chanted-- + + "Fare thee well, thou lovely one. + Lovely still, but dear no more." + +"Cecil," cried a gay voice, "are you singing in your sleep? Get up. It's +my birthday," said Lola, energetically shaking her shoulder. + +"Oh, Lola, is it you? I am so glad you woke me! Many happy returns, my +child. Have you had any presents?" + +"Oh, yes, pretty good ones. I put my stocking out last night, and it was +stuffed. A white mouse from Fred in it, too. It ran away and up the +bell-rope, and we have been catching it ever since; but," hanging her +head, "there was nothing from you, Cecil." + +"Well, Lola," remorsefully, "it is never too late to mend. Would you like +a locket? Fetch my dressing-case and you shall choose one." + +Cecil was too happy herself that morning not to be amiable to others, and +Lola was her favourite; so she would not hurry her, and waited patiently +the child's indecision and chatter as she turned over the trinkets. + +"Actually Miss Prosody gave me a dictionary; horrid of her, wasn't it? +Perhaps she'll ask me to say a column a morning. I think I'll leave it by +accident on one of the islands." + +"I'll buy it of you," said Cecil, smiling. "I don't think I learned +columns enough when I was a child." + +"Likely you'd do it now, though, as you are not obliged! Well, Cecil, I +think I'll take this dear little blue one with a pearl cross on. It is +such a hot day! What dress are you going to wear? It must be a pretty +one, because it is my birthday." + +Cecil smiled contentedly. It was the birthday of something besides +Lola--the dawn of a new life to herself. "Here, miss will this do?" asked +she, holding up a fresh grey muslin for her sister's inspection. + +"Middling," discontentedly, "Bluebell looks well in those cool, simple +dresses; but you are never really pretty, Cecil, except in a grand velvet +dress, and then you are splendid." + +"Fine feathers make fine birds," replied the other, rather hurt. It was +not a morning on which she could bear to be told that her attractions +must depend on her toilette; but, half-an-hour afterwards, as she knotted +some carnation ribbon on the grey dress and in her dusky hair, a shy +smile came over her face, for she saw she was beautiful with the light of +love. A warm tinge coloured the usually pale cheek, the lips had taken +a deeper red, and were parted with a rare _fin_ smile--the velvet +eyes were softer and of liquid brightness. + +So thought Bertie, as his expressive glance but too well revealed when +they met at breakfast. He made no attempt to conceal his devotion; his +eyes scarcely left her face, and his voice took a different tone in +addressing her. Fortunately for Bluebell's peace of mind, she was not +present. Mrs. Rolleston noticed it, and rejoiced; the Colonel was equally +perceptive, and made an inward resolve. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV. + +LITTLE PITCHERS. + + If aught in nature be unnatural, + It is the slaying, by a spring-tide frost, + Of Spring's own children; cheated blossoms all + Betrayed i' the birth, and born for burial, + Of budding promise; scarce beloved ere lost. + --Fables In Song. + + +The whole party were gathered on the lawn after breakfast, preparing for +the start, and continually running backwards and forwards for something +forgotten. Du Meresq and Cecil were talking apart: the Colonel was to be +told that evening after dinner; and Bertie had to get to Cobourg, and +catch the night steamer there. + +"If we are late back, there will be hardly any time," said the girl. + +"Long enough to explain my magnificent prospects, or rather projects. Oh, +Cecil, you will be firm, anyhow!" + +Her answer was prevented by a clinging sister rushing up. She hummed the +words of a favourite air. "Loyal je serai durant ma vie." + +Bertie picked a rose and gave it to her. "It exactly matches your +ribbons," said he. + +It reminded Cecil of her dream, when he gave her a rose instead of a +ring, and turned into Fane, and a superstitious chill came over her. At +this moment Colonel Rolleston stepped out. + +"It is time you people were off. I am only coming with you as far as the +hotel to get a trap. I find I must go to Cobourg for letters. I wish, +Cecil you would drive with me." + +What? give up all those hours with Bertie! His last day, too, and the +first of their happiness! + +In utter consternation, Cecil cast a most imploring glance at her father; +but he, appearing not to see it, continued nonchalantly,-- + +"It is a long, dull drive, and I shall really be glad of your company." + +Du Meresq ground his heel into the gravel with vexation, and Mrs. +Rolleston attempted a feeble remonstrance. "The children will be +disappointed if Cecil goes away,"--which sentiment they eagerly +chorussed. + +"Well, you must spare her to-day," said their father, "for I want her +too. It will be much better for Cecil to take a quiet drive after her +exposure yesterday, than to grill on those islands all day." + +It was quite evident opposition would be useless. In sullen resignation +she entered a boat with the Colonel, and, taking the rudder lines, +steered a course away from Long Island, which the picnic party were now +making for. She had seen Bertie standing angry and irresolute, and, +apparently, not going; and then he must have changed his mind, for as +they were just pulling off, he stepped into the vacant place of a boat +containing Mrs. Rolleston, Freddy and Bluebell. Not for a moment was +she deceived as to the Colonel's motive in causing her to forego her +day's amusement. It was not her society that he wanted--it was to +separate her from Du Meresq; and who could tell that he might not intend +to bring her back too late to see him before he went? + +This she determined to resist to the utmost. She did not feel as if +she could endure the suspense, if Du Meresq lost this opportunity of +speaking, however doubtful might be the result. + +Revolving the difficulties in her path only made Cecil more resolute. She +would never give Bertie up, neither would she wait to grow prematurely +old with the sickness of hope deferred. + +If her father refused consent, would a long secret engagement, promising +to remain faithful to each other, be their only resource? Cecil smiled at +the idea. She did not forget she was an heiress and of age. Love is for +the young, and she was far too proud to meditate bestowing herself upon +Bertie when years should have quenched hope and spirit, and stealthily +abstracted every charm of youth. And as to him? Well, his antecedents had +certainly given no promise of the long suffering fidelity of a Jacob. + +Colonel Rolleston was pretty well aware of what was passing in his +daughter's mind, for his eyes were now fully opened; but he did not +choose to show it. + +They arrived at Cobourg, where he found his letters; and then the horses +were put up to bait, and they went to the hotel for luncheon. + +Cecil expressed a hope that they would be able to return when the horses +were rested. + +"Certainly," said her father; "we will drive back to dinner." + +And, much relieved, she brightened up considerably. + +Now the Colonel would rather have detained her long enough there to +ensure passing Du Meresq on the road; but the _ennui_ of spending so +many hours in so uninteresting a place, and the absence of any excuse +for waiting, favoured Cecil's wishes. + +Still the time seemed interminable to her in that dusty inn parlour, with +its obsolete Annuals, cracked pianoforte, and ugly prints on the walls. +Surely no horses ever required so long a rest, and when her father +suggested ordering her some tea, it seemed almost like _malice prepense_ +to occasion a further delay. + +However, they were off at last, and as they rattled along in their shaky +conveyance, she became painfully conscious of its discomfort. Every jolt +was anguish, and her head and all her limbs were aching. Was it the +ducking yesterday, or only this dreadful springless buggy? + +They reached the landing before any of the party had returned, and Cecil +sought her gable and threw herself on the bed, trusting to rest to remove +some of her unpleasant sensations. + +As she closed her eyes, she fell into a not unhappy reverie. True, there +were opposition and difficulties to contend with, but Bertie was her own, +and she would never doubt him more. How disinterested and straightforward +he had been in freeing himself from debt before he spoke at all? Even her +father must acknowledge that; also that he had sufficient money for the +career he had chosen, and only valued her fortune as a security and +comfort to herself. + +The unutterable luxury of being able to think of him unrestrained only +dated from yesterday; for before there was always the humiliating dread +that her idolatry was only returned in the same measure in which it was +distributed among his somewhat numerous loves. But now distrust had all +melted away, and she cared not for the many who had hooked, and lost, +since she had landed him. + +Aroused by the splash of oars on the lake, Cecil tried to spring from +the bed, but her limbs were stiff and heavy, and she dragged herself +languidly to the window. They were all on the landing but Du Meresq, and +the quick pulsation stilled again. + +"I suppose he went first to the hotel," thought she, and began arranging +her hair, disordered by the pillow. She heard Lola running upstairs, and +called her as she passed. + +"I am coming, Cecil. I have got a message for you from Bertie, which is, +that he has only gone up to the hotel, and will be here in ten minutes." + +Cecil kissed the welcome Mercury, and drew her into the room shutting the +door. + +"Well, dear, and did you have a pleasant day? What did you do?" + +"Oh, yes," said Lola, whose eyes were glittering with excitement, and who +had altogether rather a strange manner. "That is to say, pretty well. We +didn't do much." + +"How was that?" + +"Why, Bertie and Bluebell were so stupid. They went away by themselves +for ever so long." + +Cecil felt as if a hand had suddenly clutched her heart and frozen the +blood in her veins. Could that pale face, with wildly gleaming eyes, be +the same so sweet and tranquil, that was carelessly smiling at the child +an instant before? + +"And do you know, Cecil," pursued Lola, warming with her subject, and +speaking with intense excitement, "Bertie kissed Bluebell. I saw him do +it." + +A pause, and the child, apparently gratified by the interest she had +awakened, continued,-- + +"I think Bluebell was crying, and he trying to console her; at any rate, +I heard him say he 'loved her very much.'" + +One has noticed some years warm weather set in delusively early, and +blossoms of fruit and flowers nursed in its smiles peep prematurely +forth; and then a biting frost and northeast wind will spring up, the sun +all the while treacherously shining, and in one hour destroy the bud and +promise for ever. No less swift was the scathing power wielded by that +innocent executioner. Every word, fraught with conviction and crushing +evidence, sank deep down into her heart. She sat so still that Lola got +frightened, and entreated her to say what was the matter; but Cecil +appeared unconscious of her presence, and, scared and bewildered, the +child shrank away. + +Then the girl rose up, and with rapid, uneven steps paced the room. After +a while, first bolting the door, she unlocked a sandal-wood box, where, +tied with a ribbon and carefully dated, was a packet of Bertie's letters. +One by one she patiently read them through, noting and comparing +passages, then tying them up, wrote the day of the month and the hour on +a slip of paper, and finally enclosed all in an outer cover, which she +sealed with her signet-ring, and directed to Du Meresq. This done, the +restless walk was resumed. Her head was burning, and throbbed almost too +wildly to think. One line seemed ceaselessly to ring in it, that had +mingled with her dreams last night, and recurred with hateful +appropriateness,-- + + "Once the soul of truth is gone, love's sweet life is o'er." + +Contempt of herself for having been so duped added bitterness to these +thoughts. How long and easily had Bertie and Bluebell hoodwinked her to +be on the terms they were, and doubtless had often laughed over her +simplicity and short-sightedness! But Lola had described her in tears, +not smiles; and then Bertie appeared baser than ever. He loved Bluebell, +yet would sacrifice her for Cecil's fortune; for the unhappy girl no +longer believed in his disinterested professions of the day before. No! +she was dark and unlovely, and her rival beautiful, in his favourite +style! And Du Meresq was black and treacherous, as a smothered instinct +had sometimes warned her. + +Mrs. Rolleston came to the door and begged her to come down. Lola's +account had startled her. Cecil entreated to be left alone; "she had a +splitting headache, and wished to be quiet;" and on her step-mother +effecting an entrance, the sight of her face left no doubt of the +validity of the excuse. + +"Bertie will be so disappointed if he does not see you to-night," cried +she regretfully. A bitter smile, and the reiteration, "I cannot come +down." + +"Your hand is burning, child. You are in a fever. What _is_ the matter?" + +Cecil coldly withdrew it, in the same somnambulistic manner, and said +she would lie down; and Mrs. Rolleston went out, hurt by her want of +confidence, and much bewildered by many events of that day. + +Lola next invaded her, sent by Bertie to entreat for admission. "He only +just wants to come in for a minute, and see how you are." + +"I can't see _any one_, my head is too bad; tell Bertie so. I am going to +lock the door, and go to bed." + +But she only threw herself on it. The light waned and darkened, and the +moon arose. Then Cecil stole cautiously to the window and watched. +Presently Du Meresq came out alone, and she knew he was on his way to the +boat. He would look up, she was sure, and she entrenched herself behind +the curtain. By the light of the moon she saw his gaze rivet itself on +her window, as though it would pierce the gloom. His face was strangely +pale, and even sad, and her rebellious heart throbbed wildly as she felt +how perilously dear he still was to her. He turned away. Whatever he wore +or did, there was a picturesque grace about him, thought Cecil; and as +his boat became smaller and smaller in the distance, she wished, in the +bitterness of her heart, they had both sunk in the squall of yesterday, +e'er she had discovered how falsely he had lied to her. + +Lola again disturbed her. "Papa says he is coming up in ten minutes to +see you. Bertie told me to tell you he was very sorry you would not speak +to him, or say good-bye." + +Lola had dined late, it being her birthday, and wore Cecil's locket on a +ribbon, but she looked scared and depressed. "It was so dull downstairs," +she said. "Mamma had gone away after dinner, and talked a long time to +Bluebell. Bertie had not come out of the dining room till it was time to +go, and she had had no one to speak to but Miss Prosody--not a bit like a +birthday." + +"Lola," said Cecil, much too preoccupied to attend to her complaints, +"has the letter bag gone down to the boat yet?" + +"I saw it still open in the passage." + +"Then run down quick with this big letter--you understand? Don't stop to +speak to any one, but put it in the bag and come back and tell me when it +is done." + +The child looked at the address "Why, Cecil," said she, curiously, "this +is for Bertie! What a pity I couldn't have given it to him before he +went! What a lot of postage stamps it takes!" + +"Never mind, dear, run away with it," anxiously. + +Lola was but just in time before the Colonel came out, locked the bag, +and went upstairs to his daughter. + +Pre-occupied as he was, he was startled at her changed appearance. A +shawl was thrown around her, and she appeared shivering, while a fever +spot burned on either cheek. The Colonel was alarmed and irritated. "It +is all that folly yesterday. Have your fire lit, and go to bed, but I +must say a word or two first." + +No assistance from Cecil, he took a turn or two about the room, surprised +at her apathy. It was very difficult to begin, he wished to be kind, but +was determined to be firm. How indifferent she seemed. Perhaps she would +not care so very much. + +"Cecil," he began, "you will guess what I wish to speak about. I don't +know whether I was more surprised or annoyed at Du Meresq's preposterous +proposal for you to-night." + +"What did he say, papa?" + +"Why," perplexed at her unusual manner, which exhibited no surprise and +little curiosity, "all he had to say was, that he wished to abandon his +profession, and take you on a wild goose chase to the Antipodes. That in +itself would have been quite sufficient, but there are other reasons, I +have not a good opinion of Du Meresq, and I had almost rather see you in +your grave than married to him." Cecil made no sign, and the Colonel +continued,--"It may seem hard now, but you will live to thank me. I wish +you, Cecil, since he will not be satisfied with less, to write a few +lines and tell him all must be at an end between you." + +She rose mechanically, brought her writing-desk, and took out pen and +paper. + +"What shall I say?" she asked, tranquilly. + +The Colonel, who was prepared for determined opposition from his strong +willed daughter, knew not whether to be most relieved or confounded by +this apathetic submission. "I will leave the composition to you," said +he, gently. + +"Thank you," said Cecil "I should prefer writing it from your dictation." + +"Say, then," returned her father, not ill pleased to get it expressed +strongly "that you find I am so irrevocably opposed to your marriage with +him, that you have no alternative but to give up all thoughts of it for +the future, and that he must understand this decision to be final." + +Deliberately, and with the same stony indifference, she wrote it word for +word, handed it to her father to read then sealed the letter with her own +signet-ring, and returned it to him. + +"It will be Fane yet," thought the bewildered Colonel, with a secret glow +of hope. "I was mistaken, her heart is not in this business--if she has +one," was the irrepressible doubt, for though Bertie's ardent suit had +left him inflexible, his daughter's insensibility almost disgusted him. + +Muttering to himself, "That job's over," with a lightened heart he sought +his wife, and directed her to go to Cecil, whom he thought far from well. +But an interview with Bertie's sister just then was too distasteful to +the unhappy girl, and she only answered Mrs. Rolleston's request, that +she would open the door, by entreaties to be left in peace and allowed to +sleep. + +It would have been better had she admitted her not only into her room, +but her confidence for the kind lady knew what even Cecil might have +acknowledged to be extenuating circumstances, but she now felt completely +alienated and distanced by the forbidding reserve of her step daughter, +of whom she was not altogether devoid of awe. + +The next day an express was on its way to Peterboro' for a doctor. Cecil +was down with rheumatic fever, and delirious. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV. + +CHANGES. + + I remember the way we parted. + The day and the way we met; + You hoped we were both broken hearted; + I knew we should both forget. + + A hand like a white wood-blossom + You lifted, and waved and passed + With head hung down to the bosom, + And pale, as it seemed at last. + --Swinburne. + + +Du Meresq in indignant dismay at the abduction of Cecil on the day of the +picnic stood awhile silent and bitter, deaf to the impatience of the +children, who wanted to be off. While thus irresolute, he chanced to +glance at Bluebell, whose countenance betrayed an agony of suspense. The +entreating look in her eyes she was probably unconscious of, for the +child had not yet learned to command her face. Bertie yielded to it by a +sort of magnetism, and flung himself into the boat where she and Mrs. +Rolleston were already seated, but remained silent and thoughtful as they +floated monotonously along. His sister was equally occupied with uneasy +reflections, and Bluebell seemed as spell-bound as the rest. For one soul +deeply moved and agitated often affects by electricity another in a +receptive condition. Does not the atmosphere in a tempestuous mood thrill +and disturb our nervous system? + +She was next to Bertie, and noted that, though concealed by rugs and +waterproofs, his hand did not seek hers as of yore. + +They were joined on Long Island by the rest of the party, and all kept +pretty much together at first. There was luncheon to be unpacked, the +fire to be made and some fish to be grilled in a frying-pan. Du Meresq +partially shook off his gloom, and assisted the children in their +preparations; and, from the noise that ensued, a stranger would not have +suspected the mental disquietude of three of the number. + +After luncheon, Bluebell wandered away in search of wild flowers, the +children hunted for cray-fish, Miss Prosody spudded up ferns, and Mrs. +Rolleston drew from her pocket her favourite point-lace. + +Du Meresq, hungering for that exclusively masculine solace, tenderly +brought forth the pipe of his affections, nestling next his heart. There +was too much air on the beach, and he sauntered away in search of a more +sheltered situation in which to woo his divinity. + +Some "spirit in his feet" must have led him "who knows how," for ere long +he found himself seated on a log beside Bluebell. I cannot tell what +spell that syren had used to attract his footsteps so unerringly, for, +little accustomed as he was to resist female influence, in thought at +least Du Meresq was loyal enough to Cecil. + +He made no attempt to kiss her, as he would have done before in a similar +situation, but talked a while in that half-fond, half-bantering manner +that had misled the inexperienced child. The sun poured its level rays +upon them, and a little brown snake, with a litter of young, crawled from +beneath the log. This occasioned a hasty change of quarters, and they +found another seat o'ershadowed by a tangle of blackberries. It was very +secluded and still, and here, with her whole soul, in her eyes, Bluebell +abruptly asked Bertie her dreaded question. + +Rather taken back, he answered evasively. But the ice once broken, she +was not to be turned from her purpose, and repeated, as if it were a +stereotyped form of words she had been practising, "I only wish to ask +one single thing, are you engaged to Cecil?" + +Du Meresq was no coxcomb. He was distressed at the repressed agitation in +Bluebell's voice, her hueless face, and the hopeless look in eyes he +remembered so beaming, and for the moment heartily wished he had never +seen her. + +"How young she looks, with her lap full of flowers. Like an unhappy +child," thought he remorsefully. "I must tell her the truth; she'll soon +get over it." + +Very gently he took her hand, and said, gravely,--"I asked Cecil +yesterday to marry me, and she said yes." + +Bluebell staggered to her feet, with perhaps a sudden impulse of flight, +but so unsteadily that Du Meresq involuntarily threw a supporting arm +round her. At that moment Lola, in search of blackberries, and herself +concealed by the bush she was rifling, peeped through the brambles, and +remained a petrified and curious observer. + +Bluebell, struggling for composure, tried to speak, but the effort only +precipitated an irrepressible flood of tears, and Du Meresq, grieved and +self-reproachful, in his attempts to console her, used the fatal words +that Lola afterwards repeated to Cecil. The child escaped without her +presence being detected. + +Bluebell's emotion had passed over like a storm that clears the +atmosphere. It left her calm and cold, and only anxious to be away +from Du Meresq. + +There is a bracing power in knowing the worst. He had gained her +affections without the most distant intention of matrimony, and +resentment and shame restored her to composure. + +She turned her large child-like eyes on him with mute reproach. + +"You should have told me before," were her first articulate words. "No +wonder Cecil hated me when you were pretending to care for me behind her +back." + +Bertie murmured,--"There was no pretence in the matter." + +"Then why do you marry Cecil?" asked Bluebell, with the most +uncompromising directness. "Is it because she is rich?" + +"Confound it," thought Du Meresq; "I trust she won't suggest that to +Cecil." + +"Can't I love you both?" cried he, somewhat irritated; and just then Miss +Prosody and her brood appeared in sight. + +"I return you my share," exclaimed Bluebell, breaking abruptly from him, +and, running down the path, joined the governess and children. + +Du Meresq had rather a bad quarter of an hour over the pipe which this +sentimental episode had extinguished; but he could not regret, in the +face of his new engagement, the _finale_ of a past and now inopportune +love-affair. + +Bluebell did not come down to dinner that day nor see Du Meresq again; +but afterwards, Mrs. Rolleston, who was in nobody's confidence, and had +the uneasy conviction that something was going desperately wrong, came +into her room. + +Bluebell's state of repression could endure no longer. She began by +entreating Mrs. Rolleston to accept Mrs. Leighton's situation, and let +her go to England at once; and after that it did not take much pressing +to induce her to make full confession of all that had passed. + +It must be remembered that Bluebell was under the impression that her +friend had always known of the flirtation between herself and Bertie; but +now for the first time the horror-stricken Mrs. Rolleston had her eyes +opened to what had been passing before them. + +Everything burst on her at once. Recollection and perception awoke +together. To keep it from Cecil seemed the most urgent necessity, and the +removal of Bluebell the thing most to be wished for. + +Bluebell was disposed to keep back nothing, and answered every question +with frank recklessness. She told of their first walk in the wood, their +frequent interviews at "The Maples," and Bertie's visit to the cottage, +laughing at the idea of having ever seriously cared for Jack Vavasour. + +Mrs. Rolleston remembered that Cecil had not shared her delusion on that +subject, and anxiously inquired if she had ever acknowledged to her her +_penchant_ for Bertie. + +Bluebell answered in the negative, giving as a reason that, though unable +to guess the cause, her manner had always repelled any approach to +confidence on that subject. + +Mrs. Rolleston remembered Cecil's strange behaviour that afternoon, +but she had not even seen Bluebell since the picnic. It remained +unaccountable. + +She reflected with vexation on the fatality that had made her refuse the +child's confidence so many months before; but yet she hoped no harm was +done, since Bluebell averred that Bertie and Cecil were engaged. + +The letter to Mrs. Leighton was written that night ready for the morning +mail; another was also despatched to Mrs. Leigh at Bluebell's request, +who was anxious that Mrs. Rolleston should break the rather summary +measures to her--not that the latter anticipated much difficulty there. +All Canadians have a great idea of a visit to England, which they +tenaciously speak of as "home," and "the old country." And she would +probably be glad that Bluebell should see her father's birthplace. + +At the child's express wish, it was also arranged for her to go home at +once, as companionship with Cecil could now be agreeable to neither of +them. + +Mrs. Rolleston had only seen Du Meresq for a moment before he went away, +yet his manner, no less than her step-daughter's, clearly indicated that +something was wrong. Even Colonel Rolleston had taken up an attitude of +impenetrable reserve, and his wife was completely at fault. Next day, +however, the shock and terror of Cecil's illness fell upon them, turning +her mind to a more immediate subject of anxiety. + +Bluebell could not do less than offer to remain, and share the vigils in +the sick room; but even in delirium Cecil became palpably worse when her +rival approached, so, in a few days, with much sadness, she bade farewell +to those who had made the world of her "most memorial year." + +While Cecil was hovering on the borderland of mental darkness, a note +came for her from Bertie, written on receipt of the packet that Lola had +posted and was as follows:-- + + "What can I imagine, Cecil, from this parcel of my letters returned + without a word beyond the date and hour? You must have packed them up + at the very time I, as we had agreed, was asking for you from your + father. I shall not speak of the almost insulting way in which he + received my proposals, for that we had anticipated; but you had + promised in any event to be true to me. You could not have changed in + a summer day, I know your nature, my dearest little Cecil, and you + would not have deserted me in this crisis unless your vulnerable side, + jealousy, had been awakened. Indeed you have no cause for it. I cannot + come back to the Lake, for your father would not receive me, but shall + make no plans till I hear from you. + + "Yours, as ever, devotedly, + + "B." + +It was three weeks before Cecil could read this letter, and the following +day Du Meresq got hers, written at her father's dictation. + +It was not a soothing one for an ardent lover to receive, and Bertie was +at first furious, and considered himself very ill used. With it all, +though, he never believed that Cecil had really changed. He thought very +probably his unfortunate flirtation with Bluebell had come out; returning +his letters looked like an _accčs_ of jealousy, and the one she had +written was probably prompted by the same cause. + +Any way, though, he was at a dead lock. Her father, of course, would not +allow her to see him, and while she was in this mood writing was useless. +His papers were in, and tired of inaction at Montreal, he obtained leave +to go to England. He lingered time enough to have received an answer to +his letter, and, none coming, he took the first steamer homeward-bound. + +Du Meresq had not acquainted his sister of his engagement to Cecil; for +being aware of the Colonel's inimical disposition, he did not wish to +draw her into any difficulty about it. She did not even know that he had +written to Cecil since he left, as the letter had fallen into her +husband's hands, who, though not intending to withhold it altogether, +considered it a document that might very well wait her convalescence. + +Mrs. Rolleston wished to apprise Bertie of Cecil's dangerous illness, but +she had allowed one mail to pass, and they only recurred once a week, so +that Du Meresq was embarking at Quebec the day her letter arrived at +Montreal. + +Cecil made a slow recovery. The rheumatic fever, caused by sitting so +many hours in wet clothes, and aggravated by the shock she had since +received, hung about her many weeks, and as soon as she could be moved +they took her back to Toronto. Then her father most unwillingly gave her +Du Meresq's letter. He was too honourable to destroy it; but, looking +upon him as the frustrator of his plans for Cecil, and the indirect cause +of her illness, viewed with impatience any chance of a renewal of +intercourse. + +Cecil read it repeatedly; but though her heart longed to believe, her +mind remained unconvinced. She shrank from all mention of the subject +with her step-mother, knowing how one-sided a partisan she would be, but +could not deny herself the self-torture of questioning Lola again. The +child relentlessly stuck to her text, painting the scene with a vividness +that did credit to her descriptive powers; and being one of those +vivacious and ubiquitous children never to be sufficiently guarded +against, was able to mention one or two other occasions on which she had +"popped on them." + +And all that time Bertie had apparently been devoted to herself! This was +decisive. Lola could have no interest in deceiving her. She must not +answer his letter or be his dupe again. + +Bluebell's approaching departure to England still further corroborated +Lola's story. At that picnic on Long Island, Bertie had evidently +acknowledged his engagement to herself, which she now fully believed to +be a mercenary one, as, doubtless, he had also assured her rival. But +perpetual lonely walks and rides were unfavourable to oblivion, and had +Du Meresq been but on the spot, I think even then the mists between these +two lovers would soon have been drawn aside. + +Mrs. Rolleston wondered that she had not heard from Bertie, but imagined +he was somewhere on leave. Cecil would not speak on the subject, but she +mentioned it sometimes to Bluebell with surprise, who was much perplexed +to guess what could have divided them. Her own conscience was easy; she +had told Cecil nothing--indeed, they had never met since the latter's +illness. Bluebell was now with her mother, preparing for her journey to +England, and had persistently avoided going to "The Maples." + +A very cordial acceptance had come from Mrs. Leighton, who said Evelyn +was all impatience for her musical friend. Mrs. Rolleston, who was now a +frequent visitor at the cottage, laughed a little at the letter, which +was very gushing, and told Bluebell they were an emotional pair. Evelyn +was strangely brought up,--every fancy, however extravagant, gratified, +partly on account of her delicate health, and partly from the sentimental +sympathy of her mother. One whim was, she would never learn from ugly +people, and the supply of beautiful governesses being limited, her +education was proportionably so also. + +Mrs. Leighton sent minute directions. She would pay Miss Leigh's +passage-money, giving her rather less salary the first year. Of course +she was to come under protection of the captain, to whom the _rôle_ of +heavy father to unchaperoned girls is usually relegated; and on arriving +at Liverpool the railway journey to Leighton Court would be only a few +hours. + +Mrs. Rolleston gave her a pretty travelling dress, and otherwise +replenished her slender wardrobe. She also contributed a little good +advice as to abstention from flirting, explaining that in her unprotected +situation she could not be too sceptical of the honest intentions of +would-be wooers. + +Bluebell indignantly repudiated the possibility of thinking of such a +thing for the present, if, indeed, ever, and professed the most ascetic +sentiments. + +It was rather hard on Mrs. Leigh, this far-away separation from her only +child--indeed, she could not understand why she was not engaged to one or +other of the whilom visitors at the cottage, but comforted herself with +the reflection that there were doubtless many rich husbands in England. +Bluebell, like her father, seemed of a roving disposition, and she must +let her fledgling try her wings. + +Mrs. Leigh was romantically inclined, and thought a heroine setting out +on her adventures should be provided with some talisman, and, in this +case, proof of her origin. So she disinterred from the old hair-trunk, +where it was usually entombed, the miniature of Theodore Leigh. How young +he looked! more like Bluebell's brother. "You must never lose it," said +she to her daughter; "for if your grandfather left his money to you after +all, I dare say the lawyers would try and prove you were some one else; +so it is as well to have your father's portrait to show, and your +eyebrows are brown and arched just like his." + +Though at a loss to comprehend why lawyers should display such unprovoked +enmity, Bluebell gladly received the miniature. Her unknown father +represented to her another and more brilliant life; and when most +discontented at the penury of the cottage, she was fond of picturing to +herself her paternal relations, whom she imagined very grand people, and +in a very different position to that in which she had been brought up. In +these last days, Bluebell thought a good deal of Cecil with some return +of her old affection. She remembered how generous and dear a friend she +had been till Bertie came between, and thought how ungrateful she must +consider her to have clandestinely stolen away the only treasure she +would have been unwilling to share with her. Still, even were they to +meet, nothing she could say would do any good, for Bluebell knew of old +how difficult it was to speak to Cecil on any subject she was determined +to avoid, and it was not likely she would be particularly approachable on +this one. + +So, upon the whole, it would be a relief to get away, and break new +ground, leaving painful associations behind; and the bustle of +preparation for the voyage was not without interest. + +Miss Opie presented her with a brown-holland bag, divided off for +brushes, slippers, etc., which she enjoined her to hang up in the +cabin. "Habits of neatness are always of great importance in a confined +space; and I have put in a paper of peppermint lozenges in case of +sea-sickness," she added. + +It was the last evening at home, and every bit of furniture in the once +despised house seemed instinct with a meaning no other place could have +for her. + +There was the old piano, on which she used to dream away so many hours; +and that arm-chair seemed still haunted by the vision of her handsome, +faithless lover, as she had seen him in the gloaming. + +How long they had lived there! The little china dog on the shelf was the +same she used to play with on the floor before she could walk. Dull and +trite, and only too well known as these objects might be, a sentimental +interest seemed now to hallow them. Youth is selfish, and takes all +affection as its due; but even the slight brush with the world Bluebell +had already sustained, gave her the consciousness that, tired as she +might be of her limited life at home, never need she expect to meet +elsewhere such unselfish tenderness as a mother's. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI. + +CROSSING THE HERRING POND. + + A few short hours, the sun will rise + To give the morrow birth; + And I shall hail the main and skies, + But not my mother earth. + --Childe Harold. + + +The morning rose clear and brilliant. The partings were over, and +Bluebell, on the deck of the river steamer, was gazing her last on the +long flat shore, with its high elevators, and waving adieu to the +diminishing forms of Mrs. Leigh and Miss Opie, who had seen her on +board,--the latter with many injunctions to ascertain that two +old-fashioned hirsute trunks containing her wardrobe were really put into +the steamer at Quebec. Bluebell had treated herself to a smart little +portmanteau for the cabin, being rather ashamed of her antediluvian +luggage. She had ten sovereigns in her purse, that had been scraped +together among them as a provision for any emergency. The Rolleston +children had sent her a travelling-bag; but not even a message came from +Cecil, which saddened Bluebell, but did not make her resentful, for she +could not but suspect that the former's engagement to Bertie had come to +an end, and that, in some way or other, she herself had been the cause of +it. + +A touch of frost during the last fortnight had worked a transformation +on the foliage. The thousand islands were changed from green bowers to +the semblance of shrubberies of rhododendron, so brilliant were the +crimson and red of their leaves. They were associated in her mind with +Cecil, whose artistic eye revelled in the autumn tints, and was +perpetually painting and grouping them during the last fall. + +It was rather lonely and monotonous in the river steamer. There was no +one on board that she knew, and, as each hour increased the distance from +all familiar places, a feeling of friendlessness stole over her. + +Arrived at Quebec, every one seemed to push before and jostle her away; +but patiently following in the stream, she found herself, with a +sensation of relief on board the huge Leviathan steamer that was to be +her home across the broad Atlantic. + +Some misgivings respecting luggage obtruded themselves. A porter had put +her portmanteau and bag on board, but the two trunks she had never seen. +No one seemed to attend to her till one man gruffly replied,--"That if +they were properly addressed, they would be put into the hold all right." +And Bluebell took comfort in the remembrance of the labels plentifully +nailed on by Aunt Jane, that she had then thought looked so nervously +ridiculous. + +She sat for some time alone in the saloon, waiting till the rush for +state rooms should have a little subsided before making a timid request +for her own. + +Several people were now returning, apparently with disburdened minds, for +anxious wrinkles were smoothed out into complacent curiosity. Bluebell +made an incoherent attack on the stewardess, who swept by, without +attending, and after being passed on from one official to the other, she +found herself half-proprietess of a dark confined den, with two berths, +two wash-hand-stands, and a sofa. Her partner in these luxuries had +apparently taken possession and gone, for rather a queer shawl lay on one +berth, and a singularly tasteless hat hung on a peg. + +These significant articles deprived the little dungeon of all charms of +privacy, and, feeling as if it belonged so much more to the other lodger, +and she herself were somewhat of an intruder, Bluebell left her small +effects in the portmanteau, which she stowed away in the most +unobstrusive manner, not even venturing to hang up the brown-holland +contrivance of Aunt Jane. + +Then she found her way on deck, where most of the passengers were +congregated, and, sitting down on a centre bench, in rather inconvenient +proximity to a skylight, was sufficiently amused in speculating on her +fellow travellers. + +"My comrade can't be among them," she thought, "for she has left her hat +below." + +Most noticeable were a young officer and his bride, as Bluebell +immediately decided the latter to be, partly from her helpless +_exigeante_ demeanour, and partly from the extreme newness of her +fashionable get up. + +The minuteness and height of her heels were more conducive to the Grecian +bend than preserving a balance on a sloping deck, and her fanciful +aquatic costume of pale-blue serge more adapted to a nautical scene in +private theatricals than for contact with the drenching spray of the +rough Atlantic. + +But ere the anchor weighed she shone pre-eminent, and had the +gratification of making a dozen other women feel shabby and dissatisfied. + +In contrast to these was a sickly-looking, middle-class person, with two +children tastefully arrayed in purple frocks, red stockings, and magenta +comforters. They were clinging to a coarse-looking girl, also with a +preference for cheerfulness of hue, who carried a felt donkey, and seemed +to be the nursery-maid. + +The head of this household, apparently, was not going to accompany them, +and, indeed, appeared in rather a more elevated condition than could be +wished. He addressed Bluebell, and inquired if her cabin was near his +wife's, and, on professing ignorance, said he trusted it might prove so, +as "he naturally felt great anxiety at her travelling so lone and +unprotected like,"--a slight unsteadiness of gait showing how irreparable +was the loss of her legitimate defender. The people around stared and +smiled, but he continued to gaze, in a mournful and approving way, at +Bluebell, while his wife sat in a state of repressed endurance, +calculating how many more minutes he would have for exposing himself +before the tug separated friends from passengers. + +After a playful feint to throw one of his children overboard, he became +calmer, and relapsed into a maudlin monologue till the bell rang, when he +was hustled off, much to Bluebell's relief as well as his wife's, whose +set mouth relaxed as if a care had rolled away. + +Two or three officers on leave were pacing up and down, and with them +another young man, but, whether he were civil or military, Bluebell +could not decide. He was not exactly like either; there was a slight +oddness about his dress, which, though well cut, was carelessly put +on, and rather incongruous in different parts. The neck-tie was a +little awry, and not the right colour for the coat; still he seemed +gentlemanly--rather distinguished-looking than not. + +These were all the portraits she took in till the bell rang for luncheon, +and there was a general desertion of the deck. Being, by this time, very +hungry, Bluebell followed in the string, but felt dubious where to seat +herself, as she found people had already appropriated their places by +pinning their cards on the table-cloth. + +The captain, who had just come in, observing her, asked if she were Miss +Leigh, and then took her to a seat next but one to himself. + +"You must look upon me _in loco parentis_," said he, good-naturedly, with +a strong Scotch accent. + +Being the first friendly word she had heard, Bluebell thanked him with a +heartiness of gratitude that caused her neighbour on the left to glance +at her with furtive interest. It was the young man with the deranged +neck-tie. On her right was a haughty dame, who evidently considered +herself a person of position. Next the captain, on the opposite side, +was an elderly widow lady, with weak eyes and rather methodistical +appearance; and on her left a fussy, brisk-looking little woman, of about +thirty-five. Then came the bride and bridegroom, a doctor, an aunt and +niece, and the rest were out of range of our heroine. + +Days at sea are very long, and this first one seemed nearly interminable +to Bluebell. She walked on deck till she was tired, and read a book till +she shivered, and then retreated to her cabin, to find the fussy little +lady of five-and-thirty extended on the sofa. "Ah!" cried she, "I have +been wondering all day who my fellow-lodger was to be; let me introduce +myself, as we are to have such close companionship. I am Mrs. Oliphant, +of the 44th; you are Miss Leigh, I heard the captain say. I am lying +down, you see, for I have such a dread of sea-sickness, and it is such +a good thing for it." + +They were not out of the river and it was like glass. Bluebell, feeling +particularly well, laughed inwardly, as she inquired if Mrs. Oliphant was +a bad sailor. + +"Middling; very much like the rest. You see I have been settling +everything conveniently--while I can." + +She spoke as if she had just made her last will and testament, and +certainly everything was very commodiously arranged--for Mrs. Oliphant. +Not a peg or a corner was left for any properties of Bluebell's, who +perceived she would have to keep all her effects in the portmanteau, and +drag it out for everything she wanted. + +"But I always try and cheer up other people," said the little lady, +complacently. "I have a bad bout, and then I go and visit others, and +keep up their spirits--going round the wards I call it. When I came out, +Mrs. Kite, of our regiment, and Mrs. Dove, of the 100th 'Scatterers,' +would have laid themselves down and died if it hadn't been for me; but I +roused them--Mrs. Kite, at least--for poor Mrs. Dove gave way so, she +wasn't out of her berth for a week, and could keep down nothing but a +peppermint, and the stewardess never came near her." + +"But surely everybody won't be ill!" said Bluebell, somewhat appalled by +these statistics, and, with the close air of the cabin, feeling her head +swim a little. "I believe it is better not to think about it." + +"Certainly; let us change the subject. Will you hand me my +eau-de-Cologne? And so you have never been to England before." + +"Never," responded Bluebell, not inveigled into giving any further +information by Mrs. Oliphant's look of curiosity. + +"Perhaps you are going out now to be married?" (archly.) + +"No," said the girl, composedly; "if that were the case I should hope my +intended husband would come and fetch me." + +"Well," said the lady, finding she was to extract nothing, "I suppose we +must be getting ready for dinner. In the P. and O. it used to be full +evening costume, but one soon has to give that up on the Atlantic; so you +see I just change my body for a white Garibaldi, and put a coloured net +on. I have four nets, mauve, magenta, green, and blue; these make a nice +change." + +But in spite of her extreme satisfaction in her own arrangements, she +felt secretly disgusted at the freshness of Bluebell's appearance in an +uncrushable soft _barége_ trimmed with blue. It was also rather a blow to +observe those thick shining coils of chestnut hair were not supplemented +from the stores of any Translantic _coiffeur_. + +When they came to dinner, a little more motion was perceivable as they +were entering the Gulf, and the table was mapped out with ominous-looking +frames of wood for the confinement of plates and glasses. The bride came +down gorgeously attired in a Parisian garb of mauve silk, cut square, but +looking slightly white and less secure of admiration than she had in the +morning. + +"That is not a very serviceable dress for a sea voyage," whispered +Bluebell's neighbour, seriously. A few remarks had already passed between +them, and she had discovered him to have large, demure, brown eyes, that +never appeared to notice anything except for the gleams of secret +amusement that occasionally danced in them. "It quite sets my teeth on +edge seeing those stewards tilting the soup close to and trampling on +it." + +"She must be a bride, I suppose," returned Bluebell, "and has so many new +dresses, she doesn't care about spoiling one or two." + +"Heavens! what a view of matrimony! And these are the reckless opinions +of young ladies of the present day! Why, Miss Leigh, the greater part of +my great-grandmother's _trousseau_ still exists in an old trunk; and my +cousin Kate went to a fancy ball in her tabinet paduasoy, which was as +good as new." + +"How tired they must have got of their things! I should like to have a +new dress every day of my life, and a maid to take away the old ones," +cried Bluebell recklessly. + +"How much does a dress cost--making, trimming, and all." + +"Oh, some would be simple and inexpensive, of course--say, on an average, +Ł6 all round." + +"That would be more than Ł1,800 a year, without counting Sundays. You'll +have to marry in the city, Miss Leigh." + +"I shall have to make Ł30 a year supply my wardrobe--and earn it," +returned she, lightly. + +This admission did not lower her in the estimation of the chivalrous +young sailor, for such he was, though it cooled the already slight +interest taken in her by the portly lady on the other side. + +Mrs. Oliphant, who had made acquaintance with everybody, was gabbling +away with her accustomed volubility. + +"Oh, my dear Mrs. Rideout, have you tasted this _vol-au-vent_? You really +_should_. I have got the bill of fare" (with girlish elation). "There's +fricandeau of veal, calf's-head collops, tripe _ŕ_--" here she stopped +short, confused at the shocking word. + +Bluebell and the young lieutenant had arrived at sufficient intimacy to +exchange a merry glance. + +In the mean time, the bride was enacting the pretty spoiled child, and +resisting the solicitations of her husband--a spoony-looking infantry +captain--that she would endeavour to eat something. "Every one says it +is so much better," reiterated he. + +"But I am not hungry," said the baby, with most interesting _naiveté_. + +"Try a _rawst_ potato, ma'am," said the captain, in his broad accent. +"There's many a one will eat a _rawst_ potato who can't care for anything +else." + +The bride made a little _moue_, and shook her head, then admitted that +she fancied a piece of raspberry tart, though the captain protested that +if she would eat anything so injudicious, a gentle nip of whisky would be +advisable to correct it. + +Captain Butler, the happy bridegroom, was evidently still in the adoring +stage, so he listened complacently to his wife's silly badinage with the +skipper, whom she informed, apparently for the information of the +company, that she was just nineteen, but winced a little at her further +admission that they had only been married a week. + +A slight but monotonous roll and general chilliness, seemed to portend +they were getting into a more open sea, and, as the motion increased, the +saloon began to thin a little. The bride's prattle deepened into moanings +and complaints; she was laid on the sofa, covered with shawls, and +supplied with sal-volatile and smelling-bottles by her devoted spouse, +who began to look deadly pale himself. + +Mr. Dutton, Bluebell's neighbour, had gone for a smoke with the skipper. +Mrs. Oliphant was also an absentee; she had tottered from the saloon the +instant the wind freshened, with a contortion of countenance that +betokened her dallyings with the _vol-au-vent_ would be severely visited. +Mrs. Rideout, the lady of position, went off on the arm of her maid, who +had not yet succumbed. + +Bluebell, determined to resist the whirling in her head, took out some +work on which she tried to fix her attention. The elderly widow was +looking over a missionary book with woodcuts, and they occasionally +exchanged sentences. + +The discomposing rocking of the vessel continued, and the moan of the +winds mingled with the incessant complaints of Mrs. Butler on a distant +sofa, who was as communicative respecting her anguish as her age. + +Tea and the return of some of the gentlemen a little relieved the +monotony. Bluebell was languidly experimenting on a piece of dry toast, +when the loud crying of a child attracted her attention, and, the steward +leaving the door open, a little girl of four plunged in. She recognised +her as one of the children with the tipsy father. The mother had dined in +the ladies' cabin, and retired to her berth to lie down, and this lost +lamb was searching for her. + +"Come here, my dear," said Mrs. Jackson, the widow lady. "Don't cry, +what's the matter?" + +But "I want mamma," was the only reply, without any cessation of shrieks. + +"Oh, hush! look at these pretty pictures; here's Moses in the +bull-rushes." + +A momentary glance, and then the cries redoubled. + +"Phoebus, what lungs!" ejaculated Mr. Dutton. "Come here, child," +authoritatively, holding up a lump of sugar. + +A slight lull, and a hesitating zig-zag movement in his direction. He +made a grab as she came within reach, placed her on his knee, and pushed +a bit of sugar into the month opened for a roar. + +"I am quite ashamed of you, making such a noise. Don't choke, there's +more sugar in the basin. Wipe your eyes, and see if you can possibly look +pretty." + +Bewildered, but distracted by the sugar, the tears ceased. + +"What is your name? Mary, I suppose." + +"No, no," indignantly, "H'Emma." + +"H'Emma! You little cad, what is the H for? Say Emma. You can't? Then no +more sugar." + +"Emma," repeated the astonished child. + +"That's right; here is another lump. Miss Leigh, may I ask you to reach +me a very pretty book of coloured animals I saw behind you? Now, Emma, +there is a tabby cat, just like you have at home." + +"No, mamma drove it away;" and, the grief returning, "Oh! where's mamma?" + +"She isn't coming while you make that noise, and I fear she must be a +wicked woman to drive a poor cat away,--she will never have any luck. +Now, what's that?" + +"A 'orse," triumphantly. + +"Where _were_ you riz! Say horse. That's right; don't forget. A pig, a +sow, a goose," and so on, half through the book. "Now I'll shut it, and +you can go to bed." + +"No, no; see the rest," said the now excited child. + +"Which would you rather have, mamma or pictures?" + +"Pictures. Show them quick." + +"Very well; then mamma may go to blazes. We don't want her bothering here +till we have done. What did you say was the name of that animal?" + +"A 'orse." + +"What did I tell you? You will never be a lady if you leave out your +h's." + +At this moment the mamma appeared. "Oh," said Mrs. Jackson, "your little +girl was crying so for you, till that gentleman succeeded in amusing +her." + +"I 'ope, sir, she 'asn't been very troublesome? The baby, 'e 'as been so +fretful with 'is teeth, or I should 'ave come for H'Emma sooner." + +"The gentleman said H'Emma was vulgar." + +"Don't you tell stories, miss. The gentleman wouldn't 'ave you called +hout of your name." + +Bluebell laughed at Mr. Dutton's slightly confused appearance, and asked +if he thought his corrections would survive the force of example. + +"I might have known whom she had learnt it from." + +Then, after a moment's hesitation, he asked Bluebell if she could +play chess; and, on her replying in the affirmative, he produced a +pocket-board. + +"I always take it to sea with me," said he, "and make out problems." + +Bluebell was beaten, and he tried to teach her a more scientific game. +And the evening passed away pleasantly to those two at any rate. + +On retiring to her cabin, she perceived a strong smell of brandy, and +found Mrs. Oliphant ensconced in the lower berth. Evidently the time for +"cheering other people" had not arrived, for her complaints were +incessant. The ship was rolling considerable, and Bluebell found some +difficulty in undressing, and more in clambering into her berth. She had +not been there many minutes when she was startled by the apparition of +a man walking straight into the cabin, who explained his errand by +unceremoniously putting out their lamp. + +Then she fell into a dreamless slumber, but was not long allowed a +refreshment denied to her companion, who, in all her wakeful moments, +insisted on keeping up a querulous conversation, till Bluebell, in +despair, feigned sleep, and would no longer reply. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII. + +HARRY DUTTON. + + But hapless one! I cannot ride--there's something in a horse + That I could always honour, but never could indorse. + To speak still more commercially, in riding I am quite + Averse to running long, and apt to be paid off at sight. + In legal phrase, for every class to understand me still, + I never was in stirrups yet a tenant but at will; + Or, if you please, in artist's terms, I never went a-straddle + On any horse without "a want of keeping" in the saddle. + --Hood. + + +The next morning was rougher than ever. The stewardess brought Mrs. +Oliphant's breakfast; but Bluebell, eager for more congenial +companionship, dressed, and went down to the saloon, where she received +a cheery welcome from the captain, who said he had hardly hoped to have +his breakfast-table graced by the presence of any ladies on so wild a +morning. + +The widow was also stout-hearted, and, evidently considering it right +to take the only young lady under her chaperonage, advised her after +breakfast to remain below and work with her. Bluebell was of a grateful +disposition, and acquiesced, but secretly thought it rather dismal, so, +when Mr. Dutton came down and begged her to go on deck, as they were +passing through some magnificent icebergs, she willingly pocketed her +tatting and went up. The young lieutenant got a couple of rugs and +arranged her comfortably. Certainly the roll of the ship was much more +bearable on deck. + +Mr. Dutton remained to amuse her, and, both being young, they speedily +became confidentially communicative. She learnt from him that he had just +been promoted out of his ship, and was going home till he got another. +"At least," he amended, "it is more my home than any other. I am going to +stay with my uncle, who would like me to give up the service, and remain +with him altogether." + +"Is he so very fond of you?" + +"Why, yes, in a sort of way. You see he has got no one else. He never +wished me to go to sea, but when I was at school a brother of one of the +fellows came, who had just passed as naval cadet, and he had such a lot +of tuck, and tin, and presents, that we were all wild to go too. My +governor had some interest, and I never ceased tormenting him, till at +last he got me appointed to the 'Sorceress.' After I had been a month +at sea I had had quite enough of it; but we were on a five years' cruise, +and by the end of that time I liked the life as well as any other." + +"Then why should your uncle want you to give up your profession?" + +"Because," blushing slightly, "he always says I shall be his heir, and he +wishes me to take an interest in the estate, and learn to be a country +gentleman. But after I have been on shore a month or so the monotony of +it is awful, and I feel as if I must do something desperate if I stop +quiet longer." + +"I thought English country gentlemen found plenty of excitement in +hunting and shooting." + +"Not all the year round," with a smile; "and, besides, I can't ride! Now, +Miss Leigh, if you were an English girl, you would never speak to me +again! I don't fear the obstacle, and would ride anything anybody likes +to trust me with; but I know, and the _horse_ knows, he could get rid of +me at any minute. I hunt sometimes, and go straight if the quad. I am +on is fond of jumping; but I cut a voluntary as often as not, and then +some fool is sure to come up and say,--'You had no business to have +parted at that fence, Dutton; the horse took it well enough!' Then I have +no 'hands,' I am told. Certainly, whenever I take up the rudder-lines to +put his head for any particular course the brute takes it as a personal +affront, and begins to fret, go sideways, and bore and all but tell me +what a duffer he thinks me. There's my cousin Kate, who will spoon with +me by the hour in a greenhouse, and dance as often as I like to ask her, +but at the cover-side she is so ashamed of me she shuns me like the +plague; and then, of course, next ball it is, 'Dear Harry, _do_ introduce +me to Major Rattletrap,' or some such soldier officer, 'I like the look +of him _so_ much.'--'I just offered to,' says I, 'but he didn't seem to +rise; said his card was full. Seems sweet on that girl in pink, with +black eyes.' That's a school friend of Kate's, whom she is mortal jealous +of." + +"As if she believed a word of it!" + +"Oh, didn't she, though! She bit her lip, and looked shut up. I have +great moral influence over Kate that way." + +"There's a grand iceberg!" cried Bluebell, after an amused pause, in +which she had been trying to picture Cousin Kate: "What a strange shape; +it must be hundreds of feet high. How cold it makes the air, though." + +"And you are shivering; I'll run and fetch another rug. It is warmer by +the funnel, only there are a lot of fellows smoking there." + +"But, Mr. Dutton," said she, hesitatingly, "why don't you join them? You +have given me all your warm things, and must be cold yourself." + +"I'll go if you tell me to," said the lieutenant, looking full into +Bluebell's eyes. She was silent, and the long eye-lashes came into play +while she considered. She had promised Mrs. Rolleston not to flirt, but +there had been no question of that hitherto. Why should she throw away a +little pleasant companionship when she was so lonely? "I only spoke on +your account." But she had flirting eyes, which said, only too plainly, +"Go, if you can." + +"I don't think any one could feel cold near you," he whispered,--and +then they both blushed. A minute after he ran off for the rug, and +Bluebell was left--to repent. "Oh, dear!" thought she, with very hot +cheeks, "we must _not_ begin this sort of thing already, or there will be +an end to all comfort--and as if I could ever forget!" + +She received the rug with matter-of-course indifference, and looked up +at him with the serenity of a nun; the young lieutenant was quick to +perceive the change. He thought it wiser to follow suit, and they were +at ease again, though each remembered the other's blush. + +"I came upon a very touching tableau in the saloon," said he; "the bride +was reluctantly pecking at some chicken, and that ass, Butler, feeding +her with a fork." + +"Ah! those are your nationalities," laughed Bluebell; "we don't do such +silly things in Canada." + +"No, you are very stiff and stand-offish there, I know; that is why you +don't require chaperones." + +"What are the duties of a chaperone in England, beyond sitting up against +a wall all night, like an old barn-door hen?" + +"But they mustn't roost," said Mr. Dutton; "they have to guard their +charges from the insidious approaches of ineligible youths, and assist +them to entwine in their meshes the sons of Mammon." + +"But it must be rather difficult at a ball to distinguish who are +eligible as you call them." + +"Oh, an astute and practised chaperone knows pretty well who everybody +is. They have books of reference, too,--the 'Peerage' and 'Landed +Gentry.' I believe now, though, a good deal of matrimonial business +is done in the city." + +"And men have no objection to heiresses either," said Bluebell, darkly, +as a memory came over her. "There's the dinner bell." He collected her +rugs, and helped her down to the saloon, where they were betting how many +knots the steamer had made that day, and raffling for the successful +number. Mrs. Oliphant was present, almost as brisk as usual, for the wind +had moderated, and the steamer laboured far less. After dinner some of +the ladies joined in a game of shovel-board on deck. The bride, now quite +bright again, insisted upon being instructed by Mr. Dutton, and became, +with a view to his fascination, more helpless and infantine than ever, +for she was one of those women who cannot bear any one to be an object +of attention but themselves. + +However, as she was not successful in detaching him entirely from +Bluebell, she conceived a dislike to her, in which Mrs. Oliphant +cordially participated, and they afterwards whiled away many an hour in +the dear delight of detraction. Bluebell was pronounced an unprincipled +adventuress, determined to use every art to entrap this unsophisticated +young man, and each act and look on her part was treasured up by the two +censors for private analysis and discussion. + +Mrs. Butler, it is true, had less provocation to be spiteful than the +elder lady; for being young and silly, she _was_ a certain object of +attraction to some of the officers; but the very indifference of Mr. +Dutton gave a value to his admiration, and made her more eager to obtain +it than that of the rest. Besides, the vacuity of mind and employment +at sea, a brisk flirtation is sure to attract lookers-on, and become a +fruitful incentive to malice and envy. Bluebell could not account for the +unfriendly interest she excited, as her Canadian education had taught her +to regard fraternizing _pro tem_. with any sympathetic masculinity a very +unimportant matter, and about as much a precursor to matrimony as if her +companion were of the same sex; and she had been far too hard hit to bear +any down-right love-making from another man so soon after. Mr. Dutton +was, perhaps, as inflammable as most sailors, but he could not make +Bluebell out. She evidently liked his society, and became pleasant and +animated when they were together, which they were pretty constantly; yet +if ever he ventured on anything tender she had a way of putting it by in +the most unembarrassed manner possible, which piqued while it perplexed +him. + +On one occasion, when she had let some warmer speech than usual glance +off, he chose to take it as a snub, and, pretending to be offended, +betook himself to masculine society and smoking. Bluebell was alone all +day, a prey to the ill-natured watchfulness of her two enemies, whose +quickened observation and exultant faces proved they had noticed the +cessation of his attentions. Once or twice he passed her without a word +or look, regardless of the innocent surprise in her eyes. "Perhaps he is +trying to gain 'moral influence over me,' as well as his cousin Kate," +thought she, with a little laugh. At dinner he dropped into a seat next +Mrs. Butler instead of his usual one by herself, and, from the bride's +incessant giggle, was apparently devoting himself to her entertainment. +Bluebell had no one to speak to except the kind old captain, with whom +she was rather a favourite, and who chatted away willingly enough, till +she ceased to hear that disagreeable and affected laughter. + +"Miss Leigh," said a penitent voice in her ear, "will you come on deck? +There's a little land bird in the rigging." + +"No, no," said the captain. "I won't have this young lady disturbed; it +is very cold on deck, and she is better here." + +"I thought you would like to see it," said the lieutenant, gloomily. "It +is very tired--blown off shore, I should think." + +"Indeed, I'd like to give it some crumbs," said she, hesitatingly. "Will +you take it some, Mr. Dutton?" + +"Certainly not," seeing his advantage, "unless you come too--in fact, +I thought of shooting it. It would be pretty in your hat--or Mrs. +Butler's." + +"That would be, indeed, a feather in your cap," said Mrs. Oliphant with +an unpleasant sneer. + +"Quite right, my dear," said the captain, as Mr. Dutton walked away, "not +to do everything a young man asks you;" and he assured Bluebell, who was +still solicitous about the bird, that it would not venture down for +crumbs. + +Our heroine was vexed at Mr. Dutton's disagreeable manner, and began +moralizing on the inevitable way in which she succeeded in estranging her +female companions, and offending those of the other sex. + +The old captain was just going off to his bridge, when by some +afterthought, he stepped back, and asked Miss Leigh if she would like +to sit awhile in his cabin. "You'll find no one there but the cat and +the parrot," he said; and, on her gratefully assenting, led the way to +a small oasis of comfort. + +The cat, a great brindled Tom, arched his back a yard high, and made a +sort of back jump up to his Master's hand, where he rubbed his head with +a sociable miaw. Bluebell soon had him on her lap in a cozy arm-chair. + +"I think Master Dutton will be rather puzzled where to find you," +observed the old skipper, with a twinkle, as he was leaving the cabin. + +"Dear me," said Bluebell, with a conscious blush, "I hope you don't +think--that there's anything--of that sort--" + +"I think you have been letting that young man keep you all to himself up +in a corner quite long enough," retorted he, "and you may as well show +him you can do without him;" with which he left her to her meditations. + +"How disagreeable good advice is!" thought the girl. "Dear old thing! But +it is so dull at sea--one must do something. I do wish though Mr. Dutton +wouldn't try to spoon--he was awfully nice before he thought of it." + +Of course these two drew together again next day, and, though Bluebell +still evaded with Madonna eyes all approach to love-making, the +lieutenant accepted the situation, and contented himself with flirting +_sous le nom d'amitié_. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII. + +ROUGH WEATHER. + + I would be a mermaid fair, + I would sing to myself the whole of the day; + With a comb of pearl I would comb my hair, + And still as I comb'd, I would sing and say, + "Who is it loves me? who loves not me?" + --Tennyson. + + +One day there was a gale. It came up suddenly, and some ladies sitting on +a bench were swept off by a roll and sudden lurch. The deck was soon +cleared of the feminine element, with the exception of Bluebell, who +enjoyed an immunity from _malheur de mer_, and knew she would not be much +better off in her cabin, where Mrs. Oliphant had gradually ousted her +from everything but sleeping accommodation. + +A huge roller had hurled itself over the steerage, and broken a man's +arm; but the part of the vessel she was on kept pretty dry. Stormy +petrels were hovering in flocks; the ship, plunging head foremost into +deep troughs, seemed as if it must break its back or be swallowed up, but +always borne on the crest of a wave only to repeat the header next +minute. + +Bluebell was lying (for no other position could be preserved) on some +rigs by the wheel, and holding on by a rope to prevent sliding about. She +felt excited by the grandeur of the situation, and, in the pauses of the +wind, sang low some wild German Volkslied. + +"Are you a Lorelei?" asked Mr. Dutton, who was never far off. "What do +you intend to do with the steamer?" + +"I don't mean any harm to the ship, but I shan't lull the winds yet. How +delightful and magnificent it is!" + +"If you really don't mean to engulf us, and won't comb your golden hair, +pray go on singing. I'll risk it." + +Bluebell nodded, and gave full play to her magnificent voice in the +wildest Lieder she could remember. The man at the wheel, if he had ever +heard of a Lorelei, might have been excused for mistaking her for one. A +lady to sit and sing in such a gale was not an every-day experience. Her +bright hair was only covered by the hood of a deep-blue cloak, from which +her large eyes seemed to have caught a reflection, so dark were the +pupils dilated with enthusiasm. + +"You might be a corsair's bride," said Mr. Dutton, admiringly, "you are +so indifferent to discomfort and danger. I can't fancy you shut up in a +poky school-room, taking regular walks, and teaching Dr. Watts to +tiresome children." + +"I have only one pupil of a musical and romantic turn. You are altogether +wrong in thinking me indifferent to luxury; I am quite longing to be in a +comfortable house again." + +"Your penance will be over in a day or two. Why do you stay out to be +drenched with spray and perished with cold?" very discontentedly. + +"How can I be either with all these wraps? and, when you are not sulky, +your society _is_ preferable to Mrs. Oliphant's!" + +"Yes; that is about my place in your--what shall I call it? Regard is a +nice, proper word,--just more acceptable than the plainest and most +spiteful woman on board." + +"Rather more than that," said Bluebell, gently. "It would have been far +worse without you; but after this voyage we are not likely to meet again, +though I shall never think of it without remembering my friend." + +"What a nice word!" savagely. "Why don't you add,-- + + 'Others may woo me--thou art my friend?' + +Do you know that song, Miss Leigh?" + +"Yes," laughing. + + "'Lonely and sadly his young life did end; + Pause by my tombstone, and pity thy friend.' + +It's enough to draw tears from one's eyes." + +"Well!" said the lieutenant, "I never met a Canadian girl before, but I +see now they are the coldest, most insensible--oh! of course, you only +laugh. How do you know we shall never meet again? Suppose I call on you +in your new--situation." + +"Governesses are not allowed 'followers.' I mean, male visitors would be +considered as such." + +"Couldn't I get a tutorship in the same family?" + +"There are no boys. Gracious! what a wave. Surely it is getting rougher, +Mr. Dutton?" + +"Well, yes. I think I must take you down. The next roller may wash over +you. Lean all your weight on me, or you'll be blown off your feet." + +In a most incoherent manner she reached the gangway, and, clinging to the +banisters, reeled into her cabin, where was Mrs. Oliphant in hysterics. +The stewardess was in attendance, and she was insisting on her +immediately fetching the captain, as, without his assurance that there +was no danger, she declined to be calm. + +"As if the captain could leave his bridge!" said Bluebell, laughing. "And +I am sure the ship would go down if he did." + +Another shriek from Mrs. Oliphant, who, with a desperate effort, seized +on a life-belt, and called to the stewardess to assist in its adjustment. + +"Oh, dear!" cried Bluebell. "And what is to become of me? However, you +are quite welcome to it. I had sooner be drowned at once than bob about +on a wave, with sharks nibbling at my toes for an hour or two +previously." + +"Perhaps, ma'am, now this young lady be come, who seems to have a good +heart," said the stewardess, "you will let me go to Mrs. Preston and Mrs. +Butler, who have been wanting me ever so long." + +"No; I will not be deserted. Mrs. Butler has her husband and Mrs. Preston +has her maid." + +"Oh, she is worse than all! She sent down for Mrs. Preston to come up and +speak to her, as she was dying as fast as she could, and the poor lady +couldn't as much as lift her own 'ead." + +"And you are not so very bad," said Bluebell, encouragingly. "Think of +Mrs. Dove, of the 100th 'Scatterers,' and don't give way." + +So, partly by laughing and partly by gentle determination, she brought +her round, and favoured the escape of the stewardess. + +It was not a very agreeable task soothing this selfish and cowardly +woman; and she was by no means assured that there was no cause for +anxiety. Her thoughts reverted to Bertie. Suppose they were all drowned. +In theory she hoped Cecil would be happy with him. Still there was a +_soupçon_ of gratification in imagining him mourning in secret anguish +and remorse over her untimely end. She remembered his favourite poem in +the "Wanderer" that Cecil used to read, and the lines,-- + + "I thought were she only living still, + How I could forgive her and love her." + +Only in this instance forgiveness was more due from her. + +Mr. Dutton here knocked at the door, to offer to help them up stairs to +dinner; but Mrs. Oliphant had dropped asleep, exhausted by her emotions, +so they went up alone. Only a few gentlemen were in the saloon, and the +widow lady, whom everybody had begun to like, she was so unselfish and +contented. + +Dinner was consumed in a picnic fashion. Bluebell's modicum of sherry had +to be tossed off at once in a tumbler, for the glasses were dancing a +hornpipe on the table, plates required a restraining hand, and their +contents to be conveyed to the mouth with as much accuracy of aim as was +attainable. + +She thought compassionately of the careworn mother of H'Emma, who +probably would have been quite neglected during the gale, and determined +to take her something, and get Mr. Dutton to carry it and steady her own +footsteps. Nothing could exceed the discomfort in which they found them. +The nursery-maid was imbecile from terror and prostrate with sickness, +and the harassed mother doing the best she could. + +To begin with, H'Emma had received a whipping, which, however undeserved, +was probably the most judicious course, by inspiring fortitude, and +cutting off all hopes of undue indulgence. + +The poor woman was very grateful for the visit. "No one had been near +them," she said; "and the girl was so frightened, and H'Emma had screamed +so, she was at her wits' end." + +"I am surprised at you, Emma!" said Mr. Dutton. "When, you are grown +up you may be as frightened as you please; but if you don't practise +self-command as a child, you'll be very properly whipped." + +At this allusion to her misfortunes another howl seemed impending, only +that her attention was arrested by an orange tossed carelessly in the +air. + +"Whoever catches it may have it. Don't look at mamma; she has abdicated +for the present, and we are here to put the kingdom to rights. Don't you +think, Emma," in a whisper, "it would be a very good thing if that +squalling, bald-headed young fraternity of yours were slapped?" + +"Mammy says it is his teeth." + +"No reason he should set ours on edge. I'd compose him if I had the +chance! Well, Miss Leigh, if I can't fetch anything else for this lady, +I'll go on deck, and return presently to report progress and help you +back again." + +The storm raged for many hours more, and struck terror into the hearts of +the women and children. Mr. Dutton and some of the other gentlemen were +up all night, as well as the captain and officers; but the morning rose +calm and delicious over a sleeping sea, and cheerfulness and high spirits +reigned in the ship. They were within a day of land, too--a more welcome +prospect than ever, after the perils and dangers of the night. The +dinner-table had scarcely an absentee, and was far more lively than it +had ever been yet. + +"One can sleep comfortably to-night, being so near land," cried the +thoughtless Mrs. Butler. + +"There have been more shipwrecks off the coast of Ireland than any +other," said Mr. Dutton, sardonically. He was the only one who did not +display unmixed delight at reaching England; and, when other people are +exuberantly rejoicing at the very thing that is annoying ourselves, to +moderate their transports a little is a satisfaction. + +"Oh, how can you be so shocking! But I don't believe you. Once we are in +sight of land, if there were any danger, what would prevent us getting +into boats and rowing to it?" + +And then Mr. Dutton plunged into a ghastly tale of a steamer that had +struck on the Irish coast at night, and the passengers had to take to the +boats in their bed-clothes. One poor mother, with a baby tied on her back +with a shawl, and another child in her arms, found the shawl empty, the +infant having slipped out into the sea; and how they remained beating +about for hours before they could land, nearly perished with cold from +insufficient clothing. + +Everybody seemed provided with similar anecdotes, and yarn succeeded yarn +till late in the evening, when a message from the captain that Ireland +was in sight brought them all on deck. The moon was shining softly over +the beautiful mountains and valleys of ----. A more exquisite little +picture could hardly have been presented to the eye wearied of perpetual +gazing on the pathless ocean. Exclamations of delight were heard on all +sides, while some prosaically remarked it was almost as fine as scenes in +"Peep o' Day" or "The Colleen Bawn." To Bluebell it was fairy-land. To +begin with, she had never seen a mountain, and the picturesque in Canada +is on too large a scale for the little details that give beauty to +scenery. Her conception of the Emerald Isle, founded on Lover's ballads +and Lever's romances, was completely realized. + +"How haunting!" said she, in a hushed whisper. "What a pity to go any +further, and be disenchanted, perhaps!" + +"I wish," said Mr. Dutton, "you would think you might go further and fare +worse in another case,"--which ambiguous speech, it must be supposed, was +not intended to be taken literally; for, though youthful susceptibility +and propinquity had given birth to a hasty passion, and he was savage +enough at the prospect of parting, to a young man dependent on an uncle +and residing chiefly at sea a penniless wife might have its +embarrassments. + +Bluebell had glided down the companion again. The mails were landed, the +pilot came on board, and next morning they were steaming into the Mersey. +Many of the passengers had got letters, and were talking of their plans +and fussing about luggage. + +"How refreshing it is to see some one without that business look!" cried +Mr. Dutton to Bluebell, who was leisurely reading in the saloon. "But +have you no goods or chattels, Miss Leigh? And ought not you to have a +letter with sailing orders?" + +"I have two boxes somewhere in the hold. No, I didn't expect a letter, I +was to telegraph at Liverpool, and come right off. This is the address:-- + + "Mrs. Leighton, + "Leighton Court + "Calmshire." + +"Why, that is my line!" said the sailor, mendaciously. "I can travel with +you as far as Calmshire." + +"Can you really? How very strange! But I suppose England _is_ a small +place," said Bluebell, _naively_. + +"Oh, extremely insignificant! I shall be able to see you safely to your +journey's end. So that's all settled. Now I will go and look if your +luggage is coming up, for I suppose we shall land in an hour or two." + +Bluebell's curiosity was excited by the _Times_ newspaper, which a +gentleman had just laid down. It was only the advertisement sheet, for +some one else had immediately snapped up the rest, and she glanced +vaguely down the first columns, puzzling over such enigmatical insertions +as "Our tree, our bridge, our walk," "What shall we do with the Tusk?" +and that "John is entreated to write and send remittances to his +afflicted Teapot,"--when her eye lit upon the following name among the +deaths:-- + + "On the 22nd inst., at Leighton Court, of scarlet fever, Evelyn Cora, + only child of Mrs. and the late Henry Leighton, Esq., aged eleven + years." + +Bluebell sat petrified,--the ground cut beneath her feet,--she could only +be shocked for the poor child whom she had never known. But what was to +become of herself in a strange land, with no place to go to? Besides +Leighton Court there was not a place in all England, except an inn, that +she would have a right to enter; and in a few minutes more the shelter +of the ship would be withdrawn,--even now she could see the smoke of the +tug coming to disembark them. Perfectly appalled and unnerved, she pushed +the paragraph towards Mr. Dutton, who had just entered, and gazed +helplessly at him with large frightened eyes. + +He took in the situation at a glance, and the thought that had struck him +before of the strangeness of sending this beautiful girl, like a bale of +goods, to an unknown country, where she had no connections, returned with +confirmed force. How friendless she was! But slenderly supplied with +money, of course. A daring possibility had darted into his mind. It was +an irresistible temptation,--and sailors are proverbially reckless. +Matrimony hitherto had never entered into his views. It would entail +leaving the navy and living with his uncle, who, though kind, was +arbitrary enough, and would have very decided opinions upon whom his +choice should fall. Connection, money, he knew would be a _sine qua non_. +More than one well-born and tochered _débutante_ had successively been +indicated to him as a bride that would in all respects suit Lord +Bromley's views; and Bluebell, as far as he knew, fulfilled none of these +conditions. All the same the struggle in his mind was in combatting the +difficulties that opposed his resolution to marry her. + +Bluebell, of course, could not guess his thoughts, and she only felt very +desponding that he seemed unable to suggest anything. + +"Oh, Mr. Dutton," she cried, "do go and tell the captain, and ask him +what I had better do! He is sure to think of something,--for a day or +two, at any rate." + +The young man looked up with a strange smile, but there were other +persons present. "Certainly," he said, with rather a constrained manner. +"I will go and tell him,"--and Bluebell, mistaking his reserve for +coolness, felt disappointed. + +The captain was very busy, and not too well pleased at being interrupted, +but when he had mastered the intelligence he gave it his whole attention +directly. + +"Eh, the puir lassie!" he ejaculated, "wha's to become of her!" + +"There's only one thing that I can do," said the lieutenant, briefly. + +"You!" said the skipper, whose remark had been an exclamation, not an +interrogation. "What the mischief could you do? I am doubting what the +guidwife will say, but I am thinking I must _jeest_ take her home." + +"Oh, how good of you, sir!" said the young man, seizing his hand, +unobservant of the dry cynical look in his eyes. "But I trust it will not +be for long, as I must tell you, in confidence, if she will only consent, +I intend--I hope to marry Miss Leigh immediately." + +"You be d--d! I will have no such goings on. If the lassie comes to me, +she will act conformable; and, if you think you are in a position to +maintain a wife, you may consult your _feymily_; I'll have no such +responsibility." + +"You are, of course omnipotent in your own ship," said the young sailor, +angrily, "but you need not forget you are speaking to a gentleman." + +"As far as I can see they are no honester than other people. I only +belong to the respectable class myself, and I'll no have it." + +"What a fool I was to tell you! But surely," half laughing, "matrimony is +an honourable institution." + +"I kenna--I kenna. I'll give the bairn shelter till she hears from her +kin, but I'll have no marrying or such like, to be called to account for +mayhap afterwards." + +But Mr. Dutton, only made more eager by opposition, sprang away to the +saloon, where Bluebell was sitting. + +"Yes, I have a message for you," said he, in answer to her inquiring +look. "Will you come on deck? Here are your cloak and hood." + +He led her away, with rather a pale face, to the most secluded part of +it. + +"What did the captain say?" she asked. + +"The captain is a canny, suspicious, pigheaded old Scottish-man!" + +"Of course, of course," very despondingly, "no one can do anything for +me. I must go to a lodging, and advertise for another situation." + +"They will want a recommendation from your last place." + +"Well, I can get it from Canada." + +"And that will take a month. Bluebell, listen to me; for there's no time +to beat about the bush. I love you, my sweet child; but that you know +already. Will you marry me? Don't start. I know it is sudden, but it +will be all easy. Directly we land we can drive to a register office; +they will ask no questions, but marry us right off, and we can have it +done over again in a church, if you like." + +Bluebell began to wonder how many more sensational minutes this hour was +to contain. + +"Mr. Dutton," she gasped, in a horrified tone, "what _are_ you saying? +You must know it is impossible." + +"Summon all your moral courage, Bluebell. You were not afraid in the +storm. Why do you shrink from acting a little out of the common?" + +This speech was so like what Bertie would have said, that it nearly +brought the tears to her eyes. + +"Pray say no more," said she, shrinking away from him. "How could I ever +_dream_ of such a thing!" + +"_Can't_ you care for me, Bluebell--ever so little?" pleaded Harry +Dutton. + +"But that would be so _very_ much!" + +Her strange wooer grew more eager, for the moments were passing, and +Bluebell was at her wit's end, when the skipper came rolling up to them. +The delight and relief with which his proposal of taking her home was +received was far from pleasing to Mr. Dutton, and Bluebell, in her +lightened heart, felt some self-reproach at the sight of his gloomy +countenance. + +The captain was hurrying her away, but she lingered a moment, and, with +one of those speaking glances he had learnt to look for and love, put out +her hand to the young sailor. + +"Stay with me," he whispered; "it is not yet too late." She shook her +head, "I believe you hate me!" he muttered, savagely. + +"No," said Bluebell, impulsively saying more than she felt. "I like you +only too well--but not enough for that." + +"Any more last words?" said the skipper, who had stood aside +good-humouredly, master of the situation. + +"I have nothing further to say," said the young man, stiffly, making way +for her to pass. + +A minute more, and she was rowing to shore in the captain's boat, who +then put her into a cab to drive to his home. + +Now, the good skipper, such an autocrat on board his vessel, was by no +means so under his own roof-tree, and sundry misgivings obtruded +themselves as to the welcome he might receive from the wife of his bosom +when a comely young lady was to be included in it. + +"She'll no jeest like it at first," he muttered, half aloud; and as the +moment approached and apprehension intensified, he repeated the remark +still louder. + +This moderate expectation was amply justified by the event. The good lady +received the explanatory introduction with a snort, and a countenance +expressive of contempt and disbelief, while she ironically "feared there +would be nothing in the house good enough for her." + +Bluebell endeavoured to excuse her unlucky presence, the best argument +she could think of being that she would advertise for another situation +immediately. Only for the fear of offending the captain, she would have +added that she was prepared to pay for her board, which, by putting it on +a business footing, would doubtless have commended itself to the dominant +passion of her hostess's mind, and dispersed the misgivings she at +present entertained of this "fine madam." + +The general stiffness was relieved by the boisterous greetings of the +captain's boys, who had just rushed in from school; but it was a terrible +evening to Bluebell, feeling _de trop_, and unable to calculate how soon +she should be released. + +"Ye'll jeest put her in Phemie's room," the skipper had said. (Phemie was +a daughter lately married.) "How will I do that," was the responding +retort, "when the carpet is up, and the iron bedstead was broke by Rab a +week syne?" + +"Well, then, Rab will jeest let her have his bed," said the captain, +equably brewing himself some whiskey-and-water,--and so on through the +evening, during which Mrs. Davidson by no means softened the trouble and +inconvenience Bluebell's presence occasioned, whose spirits fell to their +lowest depth. + +Was it to be wondered at that Harry Dutton recurred pretty constantly to +her mind? She could think calmly now of the proposal that had so startled +her before. It was, at any rate, a sincere, straightforward offer of +marriage, and so far he contrasted favourably with Bertie, whom she had +determined to forget. But, then, she had dismissed him--he had gone away +to his uncle's, and they would probably never meet again; and as when a +thing is out of reach it becomes immediately enhanced in value, she began +to regret her lost lover, and to think that there, perhaps, might have +been a short cut out of her difficulties. We are aware that this unlucky +admission must depose her at once from the rank of a heroine, as it is +well known a heroine never for an instant suffers interest to enter into +the sacred claims of love. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX. + +BLUEBELL'S DEBUT IN THE OLD COUNTRY. + + Says "Be content my lovely May, + For thou shalt be my bride." + With her yellow hair, that glittered fair, + She dried the trickling tear, + And sighed the name of Branxholm's heir, + The youth that she loved dear. + --Scott. + + +Next morning Bluebell rose early, and wrote out an advertisement, in +which she described herself, more truthfully, than diplomatically, as a +young person of eighteen, proficient in music, but not skilled enough in +other branches of education for advanced pupils. + +The captain promised to write to Mrs. Leighton, reporting her arrival, +and explaining that "Miss Leigh would not think of intruding on her in +her bereavement, but only requested permission to be allowed to apply to +her as a reference when she heard of another situation." He added, "That +in the meantime Miss Leigh was remaining in his family." + +Armed with the advertisement, Bluebell pensively walked off to get it +inserted in the _Liverpool Mercury_. The captain lived in a suburb of the +town, and had given her clear directions how to find the office. It was a +disagreeable walk, and she was obliged to concentrate all her attention +on not losing the way, so her thoughts could not well stray to Harry +Dutton; but ere she had proceeded many streets--she met him! He was +looking very haggard, but eagerness and triumph lighted up his large +brown eyes as he perceived her. Bluebell was in a state of half terror, +half delight, and whole bewilderment. + +"How is it you are still in Liverpool?" she gasped. + +"I have been walking about all day in hopes of meeting you!" cried he, +disregarding her question. + +Bluebell felt as if she had recovered an old friend. She told him of her +rough reception by Mrs. Davidson, and how annoyed she was at being forced +to remain there an unwelcome guest. + +The answer to this was obvious, but the lieutenant would say nothing now +to scare her. + +"Why we have got to the river," she said, after some unheeded period of +eager conversation, "and my advertisement! It must be miles from the +office!" + +"Much too far to go back," said the sailor "Give it me, I will insert it +for you." + +"Thank you," said the heedless Bluebell. "That will be so much +pleasanter, and we need not thread those horrid streets again!" + +There was nothing more to do but to go home, and yet she didn't directly. +There would be only Mrs. Davidson in, who was so ungracious and +disagreeable, and she lingered half an hour or so, talking to Harry +Dutton, who would, perhaps, be gone by to-morrow, but he wasn't, nor the +next day, nor the next. They never made any assignations, yet day after +day Bluebell met him, and for a brief space they were together. + +Harry Dutton was only twenty-two, he had been at sea all his life, and +had never been seriously in love before. But now he had completely lost +his head, and all considerations were swept away by this overmastering +passion, which his knowledge that Bluebell did not fully return only +seemed to augment. His uncle was a selfish, exacting old man, but he had +been kind enough to this boy who, with the usual ingratitude of human +nature, forgot everything to gratify the fancy of the moment. + +Dutton had never been thrown in contact with so pretty a creature, and, +notwithstanding the apparent aberration of mind displayed in thus +jeopardizing his prospects, laid his plans coolly and cleverly enough. +Bluebell still talked of her impending governess life, and he kept his +own council, though firmly resolved never to lose sight of her again. + +She was beginning to wonder that her advertisements had elicited no +replies, and Mrs. Davidson had been especially unpleasant about it, when +one day the wished-for letter arrived. + +"Mrs. Giles Johnson, having seen 'B.L.'s' advertisement in the _Liverpool +Mercury_, is requiring such a person to instruct and to take entire +charge of the wardrobes of five little girls, one of whom, being nervous, +she would be required to sleep with. Mrs. G. J. trusts she is obliging, +and would have no objection, when the lady's-maid has a press of work, to +assist her with it, or make herself generally useful in any other way. +'B.L.'s' attainments being apparently limited, and Mrs. Giles Johnson +having an abhorrence of music, she can only offer a salary of eighteen +pounds a year." + +Bluebell alternated between tears and laughter on the perusal of this +letter. + +"Why, at the Rollestons'," she cried, "I had thirty pounds a year, only +Freddy to teach, and did what I liked! But they were friends,"--and a +home-sick feeling came over her. + +"If ye just turn up your nose at every situation, ye'll never be placed," +said Mrs. Davidson. + +"Oh, perhaps I shall get another letter to-morrow. I would go back to +Canada if I had money enough." + +Bluebell put on her hat. Whichever way she went she was quite certain +of meeting Mr. Dutton, to whom she wished to display this wonderful +document. It was all very well to laugh, but it certainly was most +discouraging and vexatious. Yet Mr. Dutton, when she saw him, gravely +affirmed it to be "quite as good an offer as he had expected, and was +only surprised at her getting any answers at all,"--which well indeed he +might be, considering that the advertisement never appeared in any paper, +and that the liberal proposals of Mrs. Giles Johnson were an emanation +from his own brain. + +He proceeded to relate the most uncomfortable anecdotes of governess life +in England, making it appear that they were treated like white slaves, +and expected to know everything. + +Bluebell, though only half believing it, began seriously to question +whether her small attainments were saleable at all. Her friend the +captain would go to sea again shortly, and having prevailed on Mrs. +Davidson to receive a small contribution towards her board, the ten +pounds were dwindling away. + +Then, when she was reduced to the depths of perplexity and depression, +Harry Dutton cautiously pleaded his cause, and, as a strong will bent on +one object will always sway an irresolute mind, Bluebell listened, and +for once tried to realize what it would be. She had been frightened at +Dutton's precipitancy in the first instance; but now he had become in a +manner necessary to her, and she certainly liked him,--immensely. Still, +of course, after her experience of the _grande passion_, this mere +_entente cordiale_ could not be mistaken for the real article. But there +was another question: had she not, by meeting him so often, given him a +right so to speak, with fair expectation of success? She had heedlessly +walked into the snare with her eyes open, and felt no resisting power to +break through the mesh of circumstances that environed her. + +Bluebell wavered and hesitated. Harry followed up his advantage. Ere a +few stars twinkled out, "single spies" on their colloquy, the struggle +was over, and the bold wooer had extorted from his _fiancée_ a promise +to marry him the following morning but one at a register office in +Liverpool. + +The very next day they would probably not meet, as he had everything to +arrange, and also to prepare a lodging for her, for they had determined +to leave Liverpool immediately afterwards. + +One thing only Bluebell retained her firmness sufficiently to stipulate +for, which was, that the kind old captain should be told of it. Mr. +Dutton agreed, on condition that she did not breathe a syllable till +after their marriage, when he promised to write himself and acquaint the +skipper. + +Bluebell could scarcely trust herself to think as she walked slowly home. +She felt quite reckless, and as though she were fated to do this act, +that seemed so desperate. What would all her friends in Canada say? +Somehow she did not look forward to telling the news to Mrs. Rolleston. +She supposed Cecil would be pleased, and it might clear up matters +between her and Bertie. Ah! if it were only him she was going to be +married to! Why does one always like the wicked ones best? She wished to +imagine him desperate, remorseful, beside himself with jealousy. But she +knew that would not be so. At the utmost he would, perhaps, toss off a +brandy-and-soda, give a tremendous sigh, and ejaculate, "Ah! poor, dear +little Bluebell!" and then reflect that he would rather like to meet her +again, when there would be no question of marrying--the only thing he was +unprepared to do for her. + +From which tolerably accurate surmise our reader will perceive that our +heroine has rather come on in penetration since we first presented her +fresh and verdant in these pages. + +Then she thought of her mother, and how disappointed she would be at not +being present at the marriage. She had written to her on landing, but +this letter had been posted in Ireland. Since then she had acquainted her +with the facts of Evelyn's death, and of her own exertions to obtain +another situation, lodging in the mean time with Mrs. Davidson. + +On her re-appearance Bluebell was received somewhat coldly by the old +captain, who asked her where she could find to walk so long every day. It +was very disagreeable having to answer evasively, and he did not appear +satisfied--on the contrary, eyed her askance all the evening. + +The reason was, he had accidentally observed Mr. Dutton coming out of an +hotel, and was unable to conjecture what kept him in Liverpool, unless he +were lingering there on Bluebell's account. Connecting this with her +frequent absence from home, he began to think it time to be relieved from +the responsibility of this dangerous young guest. He did not reveal his +suspicions to his wife, but the following day kept something of a watch +over her, and proposed himself to accompany her out. + +Somewhat surprised by the placid gratitude of her reply, his suspicions +were still further allayed by seeing no sign of the lieutenant, for whom +he kept a sharp look-out. He told the girl--narrowly watching her all the +time--that there were many snares in Liverpool, and that unless he could +see her safely placed in a _feymily_ before the next trip of the +"Hyperion," he must arrange with the owners for the passage-money, and +take her back to her friends, trusting to them to, repay him. + +"How generous you are, dear Captain Davidson!" was all she said. But he +noticed she turned deadly pale, and two bright drops stood in her eyes. + +The idea was so tempting for a moment, with the irrevocable step of the +morrow hanging over her like a troubled dream. What if she could return +to the old, happy, careless days, and leave this smoky, foggy England, +where care and anxiety rose up at every step! But there is no going back +in life. What should she do in Canada? Her connection with the Rollestons +was played out, and for every one's happiness it was better severed. +There was scarcely any demand for governesses in the Dominion, as the +children commonly went to school; so she would encumber her mother with +the expenses of the voyage, with no prospect of contributing anything to +her very slender fund. + +All this passed rapidly through Bluebell's mind; but it soon settled into +an acceptance of what appeared the inevitable, while the good captain +talked on, hoping to induce her to place some confidence in him, if she +did know of her admirer's presence in Liverpool. + +The girl fathomed the old man's drift, and most heartily wished she had +not promised to conceal it from him. It would be an unspeakable relief if +this fatherly captain could only countenance and witness her marriage, to +say nothing of being spared the treachery of deceiving him after all his +kindness. But, there!--she had promised Harry, and must abide by her +word. + +Only, that evening at bed-time, observing Mrs. Davidson buried head and +shoulders in a cupboard she was straightening, Bluebell suddenly threw +her arms round the old skipper's neck, gave him a silent hug, and glided +from the room, and in the solitude of her own wrote, as fast as pen could +scribble, an impulsive, affectionate letter of adieu, confessing what she +was to do on the morrow, which her husband (she did not mention his name) +would then write and announce to him. + +"Eh! is the lassie daft?" had half murmured the not ill-pleased captain; +then, perceiving that the salute had been bestowed without the detection +of his partner, a large slow smile expanded itself all over his broad +face. + +"Wha are ye girning for like an auld Cheshire cat?" inquired the +unsuspicious lady. + +"Nonsense, my dear; nonsense!" complacently stirring his grog and looking +rather foolish. His Scotch head had disapproved of what his good heart, +of no nationality, had decided with regard to Bluebell. I am not sure +now, though, that he did not think the money might be worse risked than +in taking this personable lassie another trip across the Atlantic. + + + + +CHAPTER XXX. + +NO CARDS. + + Love will make oar cottage pleasant, + And I love thee more than life. + --Tennyson. + + +A dense November fog ushered in the dawn of the following day. Bluebell +had been awake for hours. Some men were mending the streets, and, as she +listened to the monotonous blows of their pickaxes and hammers, a +lugubrious fancy crossed her that just such sounds would a criminal hear +when workmen were erecting the gallows that was to close his mortal +career. By ten o'clock a new page of her life would be turned over, if, +nervous and unstrung as she was, she were able to carry out the first +part of the drama. Suppose the captain should object to her walking +abroad, or offer again to accompany her! And even if she effected a +start, might he not, his suspicions awakened, quickly follow! The eight +o'clock breakfast bell rang, and Bluebell came down with a white, scared +face and dark rims to her eyes. The captain appeared unobservant. To tell +the truth, the stolen kiss, which he probably considered "naughty, but +nice," had made him somewhat conscious. So he looked demure and rather +sly; but the girl had forgotten the circumstance. + +The old Dutch clock ticked louder than ever, and, as usual, recorded +the quarters with an internal convulsion. At half-past nine the boys +would go to school, and, in the commotion of their departure, Bluebell +resolved to pass from the threshold and go forth to her fate. She got her +hat,--unnoticed and unquestioned was in the street, and groping her way +through the fog with swift, unsteady steps. In two turnings from the door +Dutton met her, a relieved, triumphant smile lighting his features as he +placed her in a cab. The man, previously instructed, drove rapidly off to +the register office. Bluebell, now the die was cast, felt almost +fainting; but Harry's strong arm was round her, and in less than a +quarter of an hour these two youthful lunatics were as securely and +irrevocably married as though the ceremony had been performed by an +archbishop in full canonicals. The gold circlet was on her finger, with a +pearl one to guard it--of no great value, for Harry was aware there would +be sundry demands on his ready money. Bluebell, of course, could have no +luggage, and he had put himself in the hands of a patronizing lady in an +outfitting establishment, and procured her a small stock of necessaries. +He had received his pay, and not long since a liberal cheque from Lord +Bromley; so the "sinews of war" were not wanting for the present. They +drove straight from the register office to the station, and were in the +train and far on their journey before Bluebell had the least idea where +they were going to; indeed, if she had known, she would scarcely have +been wiser, all places in England being equally strange to her. + +Dutton, rapturously in love, now that his schemes were successful, was in +a state of exulting happiness almost overwhelming to Bluebell, secretly +oppressed with a sense of the irrevocable. She even caught herself, when +they stopped at stations, wishing that some one would get in. Very +different was the first-class carriage from the long cars, containing +sixty or seventy persons, that she had previously travelled in. But yet +there were four vacant seats, which in spite of the rush for places, +continued unoccupied. Now and then their door was hastily clutched by +some passenger, but a guard seemed invariably to turn up and bear the +individual away to another carriage. About three o'clock they stopped at +a very small station, where only one or two persons got out. + +"Here we are, Bluebell," cried Harry, grasping rugs, sticks, and +umbrellas, and throwing them to the porter. + +She sprang up and looked around with intense interest. They were nearing +her first _pied-ŕ-terre_ as a married woman. But the journey was not yet +ended, and they transferred themselves to a fly, in which an old grey +horse waited sleepily. + +"Lucky I thought of ordering it," said Harry; "it is the only one here, +of course." + +"Harry!" cried Bluebell, rubbing her eyes, as if only just thoroughly +awake, "have you got a house? Where in the world are we going to?" + +"I couldn't think why you didn't ask that before, you little fatalist, +taking it all in such a predestined way. I hope you don't think it a case +of the Lord of Burleigh over again? It is only a cottage, Bluebell; but I +think it is comfortable, and one mercy is no one will be able to find us +here!" + +The extreme advantage of this isolation scarcely seemed so apparent to +her; and as the above sentence was the only connected or rational one +Harry gave utterance to, conversation, properly so called, was _nil_ +during the drive. After skirting a hanging wood, and passing some water +meadows, where red Herefordshire cows with white faces grazed under the +low wintry sky, they drove through a primitive village, and, turning down +a bye-road, drew up at a queer gabled cottage. It was very picturesque +and odd-looking, and Harry, during his last leave home, had spent a night +there on a visit to an artist friend, who was making sketches in the +neighbourhood. + +Its proprietor, a carpenter, sometimes lived in it, and sometimes was +able to let it to gentlemen coming down to fish in the river. On +receiving Dutton's telegram, he and his wife, who had given up all hopes +of letting it for the winter, gladly laid down their best carpets, +brought out their summer chintzes, and arranged everything in apple-pie +order, for the cottage was taken for a month certain. + +Harry had not forgotten to order a piano to be hired from the nearest +town. After their long journey it all looked very home-like and +attractive. They ran about the house like two children, examining +everything. The sitting-room was the prettiest, with its two bay-windows +at right-angles, low roof and rafters. The artist had gone abroad, and +had left some of his pictures on the wall in charge of the carpenter--a +bewitched Greuze, copied in the Louvre; the inevitable study of a +bird's-nest and primroses; a girl standing at a wash-tub by an open +window, on the sill of which outside leaned an Irish peasant, with his +handsome, blarneying face. Then there were sketches taken in the +neighbourhood. "I remember this one half finished on his easel," said +Harry. It was a glade of a forest; in the fore-ground a huge oak, +knee-deep in bracken, and tall blue hyacinths. "Look Bluebell, here is +your name-sake flower." + +"Oh, that is it! Well, I never saw one before; we have none in Canada." + +"I wish it were June now," said Harry; "summer weather is what this place +wants;" and he glanced out of the bay-window looking on a lawn, with a +spreading cedar encircled by a seat. Some pinched chrysanthemums--those +flowers that always look born in adverse circumstances--and one or two +hardy roses still lingered. The clematis made a bold show on the porch, +though the north wind had begun to detach its clinging embrace from the +masonry, and make wild work in its tangled masses. + +"It must be lovely in summer," said Bluebell, shivering, and feeling a +slightly depressing influence creeping over her. They wandered out by the +banks of the river to a ruined abbey, which always attracted tourists +during the season. It was especially sketchable, and "bits" of it were +carried away in many an artist's portfolio. But it was desolate now, and +flocks of jackdaws came screaming out of holes in the walls. + +I am painting from Bluebell's point of view, who could not shake off the +weird feeling that possessed her, to which, perhaps, fatigue, mental and +physical, not a little contributed. Yet when they came in no depression +could withstand the cheery look of the lamp-lit room, with its snowy +cloth laid for dinner, blazing fire, and closely-drawn curtains; and they +both were unmistakably hungry, for the breakfast they had been too +nervous to eat had been their only previous meal. + +The carpenter waited. Bluebell felt desperately conscious. His manner +was so benign and protecting, and he coughed so ostentatiously before +entering the room, she was perfectly sure he had guessed that they had +run away that morning. He imparted shreds of local information to Harry +while changing the plates, who answered good-humouredly, but would have +preferred to hear that the whole neighbourhood was wintering in Jericho. +A sociable Skye terrier, who strolled in with the first dish, was rather +a resource to the new-made bride, who found it easier to bend over +Archie, sitting up for bones, than to sustain with imperturbability the +curious if furtive observation of the carpenter. + +A day or two after this evening, Harry, coming in from a smoke, saw +Bluebell, with a pleased, intent face, writing, as fast as the pen could +scratch, over some foreign paper. + +"Oh, Harry," cried she without looking up, "we must not forget to walk +into the town this afternoon. It is mail-day, I have no stamps." + +Dutton's face became suddenly overcast. He jerked the end of his cigar +into the fire, and threw down his hat. + +"Whom are you writing to?" he asked. + +"To my mother, and everybody," said Bluebell, gleefully. "I am telling +them all about it." + +"The devil! My dear child, stop a little." + +"Why?" looking up surprised. "Oh, do you want to put something in? It +would be nicer. I'll leave half a sheet." + +Harry looked the picture of vexation and perplexity. He had never +realized Bluebell's relations, and here it seemed she was in regular +correspondence with her mother and other friends. + +"My dear girl, for goodness' sake stop! My uncle does not know it yet, +and you mustn't say a word to any one." + +Bluebell seemed rather bewildered. "Why don't you tell your uncle, then? +And surely my mother would be equally interested!" + +Dutton sat down for a long explanation, "I shouldn't so much have cared +about offending him before, but now I have you, Bluebell, it would be +ruin. I have nothing but my profession and what he allows me; and he +disinherited his only son for a marriage that displeased him." + +She gave a half start here. "What is your uncle's name." + +"Lord Bromley." + +"Oh, of course; you told me so before. Well, go on." + +"I shall run down to 'The Towers' presently, sound the old man, and break +it to him, if possible. If I could only take you, my darling, it ought to +do the business! By Jove, I have a great mind to try!" + +"But," said Bluebell, reverting to her own immediate anxiety, "I must +tell them at home what has become of me. Fancy, Harry, what a state they +would be in, not hearing! Let me, at any rate, say I am married, but +cannot tell my name for a few weeks." + +"Well, mind you don't say more," very gloomily. "I dare say there will be +no end of a row, and they will be sending people to try and trace us. +Impossible for a month, though," he reflected. + +"And, Harry, did you write to Captain Davidson?" + +He shook his head. + +"Oh, do, pray, or let me!" + +"Now, my dear Bluebell, haven't we just agreed the fewer people who know +it the better? You say you left a letter telling him you were to be +married, and it is no further business of his. Besides, he is a +suspicious old nuisance, and would very likely come boring down here; and +then I should be sure to quarrel with him. Come along, put on your hat, +and let us go out." + +"I must re-write my letter," said she. It was much shorter than the other +one, and a sober look had dawned on her fair face when it was finished. + +More than once she resumed the subject, but never got any satisfaction +from Dutton. "What did she want more? Could anything be jollier than the +life they were leading, with no one to bother them? Every one was alone +in the honeymoon; and, once their marriage was confessed, it would be the +beginning of ceaseless annoyance, disagreeable advice from relations, +shindies without end." + +Harry was still in the seventh heaven--more ardent in love with his wife +than ever; and this sweet little quiet home, with "the mystery and +romance of it," he was unwilling to tear himself from. To Bluebell it +bore a different aspect. Marriage had deprived her of all her friends, +and raised a barrier between the present and the past. There had been no +time to grow to Harry, and he demanded so much. She was never alone, +never free from this all-pervading passionate love that she felt quite +powerless to equal. Sometimes Bluebell marvelled he did not perceive +this, though nothing she dreaded more, for, since the discovery of how +much he had risked for her, she was always blaming herself for not +feeling the exclusive devotion that could alone recompense him. + +To be suddenly deprived of all occupation, and sent to some unfamiliar +place to be absolutely happy for a month, is an ordeal custom imposes +on most newly-wedded pairs; but a runaway match has severer conditions +still, since no letters of affectionate interest can be expected from +friends, and the bride has not even a trousseau to fall back upon. + +One morning after they had been married three weeks, a batch of letters +was forwarded to Dutton by his agent, to whom he had only lately given +his address. One was from Lord Bromley, and had lain there some time. On +coming in from a walk that same afternoon, they found cards on the table. + +"Just impertinent curiosity," growled Harry. + +"Why?" cried Bluebell. "For my part, I think it is rather fun to have a +visitor. Dear me, though, _I_ have no cards;"--and she coloured deeply as +she remembered that her marriage was still unacknowledged, even on +pasteboard. + +"Bluebell," cried Harry, impulsively, "I'll go to-morrow and make it all +right with my uncle at once." + +"Oh, I _wish_ you would," with deep energy. + +"And you don't mind being left?" he asked tenderly. + +"Oh, anything to have the secret at an end!" + +"Bluebell, for goodness' sake don't expect too much! What if my uncle +disinherited me? It is not at all unlikely." + +"Ah, Harry," said Bluebell, softly, "that comes of marrying me. Why did +you not think of it first? I should be no worse off," continued she, +musingly; "I could give music lessons. It's hard on you, of course; but, +Harry, do, pray, whatever are the consequences, tell him." + +"But you don't realize the consequences. I should be obliged to go to +sea, leave you alone, and have scarcely any money to send you. But if he +took it pleasantly, he could make it worth my while to leave the navy, +which he has always wished me to do, or let us have sufficient coin for +you to come to any port I am stationed at. As long as it was only myself, +I didn't care so much; yet Bromley Towers _is_ worth saving, if +possible." A pause. "But I can't think what you will do while I am away." + +"Shall I cultivate our visitors, Mr. and Mrs. Stevens?" + +"Not for the world; we must let them slide quietly, and then people will +begin to understand we don't wish to be called on." + +"I daresay you are right; this house must be an _oubliette_ till your +awful uncle is confessed to." Bluebell spoke with some asperity; the +concealment had become so unbearable. What would the Rollestons think if +her mother imparted to them her improbable story of being married to a +man who could not acknowledge her? And that dear old captain would most +likely imagine the worst without her being able to undeceive him. But +Harry was deep in _Bradshaw_, and unobservant. + +"I shall sleep in London, I think, and go down next morning. Let me see, +I shan't be able to get away till after the new year. Lord Bromley has +the usual family gathering on for Christmas." + +"Won't the time of your return somewhat depend on the way your +communication is received?" asked Bluebell, demurely. + +"Well, rather," laughing. "It won't do to bring it in head and shoulders. +I must stay a little while first and watch my opportunity." + +Bluebell walked with him to the station next day. It was freezing hard--a +bright, bracing morning; and when he had taken his place, and the train +had whistled off, she was shocked to find how her spirits rose. Of +course, she told herself it was because there would soon be no occasion +for concealment; but there was a sensation of present relief not quite to +be accounted for by that. + +Young people care quite as much as their elders for occasional +solitude--more, perhaps, for they have generally brighter thoughts to +fill it. Bluebell, from the reasons before mentioned, in her anxious +compliance with his every whim, had become quite a slave to Harry, and a +little breathing-time was far from unwelcome. After all, she had a good +deal exaggerated his sacrifice, which was made entirely to please +himself! + +Leaving the road, Bluebell struck a path across some fields leading to +the river, and amused herself throwing sticks for Archie to fetch off +its half-frozen surface--a diversion which soon palled on the Skye, +who was not fond of water; so Bluebell wandered on, soliloquizing, +as usual. Suppose this uncle, who loomed in her imagination like some +dread Genie in his disposition over their fate should receive the +intelligence by cutting off the supplies and hurling maledictions at +Harry's head, what on earth would they do? She had always been very +fond of acting,--indeed, had been quite an authority in drawing-room +theatricals and charades at "The Maples," and with her magnificent +powerful voice, what a pity she could not go on the stage! She had read +in novels of girls offering themselves to a manager and realizing +fabulous sums, and eighteen pounds a year seemed to be her net value in +the governess market. Then Harry might go to sea for a year or two,--they +were both so young,--and by that time things might look brighter, or the +Genie relent. + +She and Archie had a good time that bright winter day, and tired +themselves out completely. He could pass from the immediate enjoyment of +a meal to a snooze on the rug before the fire; but after Bluebell had had +some tea, there remained many hours at her disposal before bed-time. She +would have liked to have written a long letter to her mother; but if it +must be worded so guardedly, where was the good? So she flew to her +unfailing friend, the piano, and interpreted Schumann and Beethoven to +a late hour, while the carpenter and his wife, listening in the kitchen, +"wished that the lady would play something with a bit of tune in it, and +not be always practising them exercises." + + + + +CHAPTER XXXI. + +BROMLEY TOWERS. + + Had yon ever a cousin, Tom' + And did that cousin happen to sing' + Sisters we have by the dozen, + But a cousin's a different thing + --Hon. Mrs. Norton. + + +Harry had stayed the night in London, and rather wished, for the present, +it might be inferred that he had been there all the time. It was some +distance from Bromley Towers, and quite dusk as he drove through the +park. Snow was on the ground, and still falling slowly, the two roaring +fires in the hall, as the doors were thrown open, flung a red light on +the holly berries and gigantic bunch of mistletoe suspended from the +chandelier, and flickered on dark oil paintings let into the panels. The +footmen were unfamiliar, but the old butler beamed on the young heir he +had known from a boy. + +Harry shook him heartily by the hand, and asked a dozen questions in a +breath. There was a sprinkling of visitors already in the house, so, +shirking the reception rooms, he made straight for a private passage, +where in a certain study, he knew he should find his uncle. + +Lord Bromley seldom had his large house empty and there were ample means +of entertainment for guests, but, like a good general, he had a secure +retreat from the perils of boredom in a sacred suite of rooms, to which +no one but his nephew had access. To Harry himself this particular study +was invested with a certain amount of solemnity, he had been summoned +there on so many notable occasions,--once to be sentenced to a thrashing +from a malevolent tutor who had reported him, afterwards, before going to +school, to receive good advice, not unsweetened by a tip. Cheques had +been dealt out there, and his uncle's views for his future guidance +inculcated on him. Dutton entered now with somewhat of the feelings of a +truant schoolboy, for had he not been on shore a month without coming +near the place or even writing? + +He murmured something about London and business, which the old peer +received with the merest elevation of the eyebrows, and was evidently not +going to be unpleasant about it. He knew his nephew was just off a voyage +and in possession of a handsome cheque, and was not ill pleased that he +should have had his fling, and have done with it before coming down. + +Besides, if some plans of his succeeded, he would soon have to _range_ +himself. + +Finding it was all right, and Lord Bromley disposed to be sociable, Harry +made himself as entertaining as possible, and was communicative enough +about everything but the proceedings of the last few weeks. + +"I think you know most of the people in the house," said his uncle, as +Dutton was retiring to dress, "except, perhaps, one or two men. Lady +Calvert has brought her daughter here. She was not out, you know, when +you last went to sea." + +"I remember her, though; projecting teeth and--" + +"She will probably drop into all that Durnford property now Lionel is +dead." + +When he came down to dinner, Lord Bromley introduced him very +particularly to the few strangers present, who all thought how fond his +uncle seemed of him, and that he would surely be the heir. + +Dutton, like most careless dressing men, looked best in the regulation +simplicity of evening clothes, in which the despotism of fashion curbs +all vagaries of fancy. More than one feminine critic smiled involuntary +approval of the handsome young sailor, whose easy, slightly +unconventional manner, though singular, was not unattractive. + +He had been told off to take Lady Geraldine Vane in to dinner, and went +to renew acquaintance with her at once. She was dressed in a cloud of +blue tulle, and wore a heavy white wreath on her hair, which was very +light. Complexion she had none. She was pale without being fair. Her +features were irregular, lips thin, with projecting teeth, and eyebrows +scarcely apparent at all. Yet these defects were partly redeemed by one +sole attraction, a pair of large, light eyes, with a great deal of heart +in them. They could glisten with affection and brighten with interest, +and were the faithful mirrors of a modest, sensitive, and naturally +amiable disposition. But Harry thought her, dress and all, the most +colourless object, and longed to offer even a damask rose to break the +cold, sickly effect. + +There was another young lady present, of a very different type to Lady +Geraldine,--not exactly pretty, but evidently aiming at being _chic_. Her +dress was of the latest fashion, and in a slightly audacious style, +likewise the arrangement of her hair. She had a pretty, neat figure, and +a way of seeing everything through half-shut eyes. This was Harry's +cousin Kate. + +Perhaps it would be too much to say he was very fond of this young +damsel; but, at any rate, he was delighted to find her there. "She is +such a jolly girl in a house!" he said to himself. + +Kate, then a finished coquette of ten, used to try her hand at flirting +with the big schoolboy; and when she had him in a state of helpless +adoration, and all his pocket-money was gone in presents to her, would +turn him off in favour of his particular friend, who was spending the +holidays at Bromley Towers. The two boys blacked each other's eyes in +consequence; but the capricious fair only remarked that "they had made +such frights of themselves, the sooner they went back to school the +better." + +As they grew up the intimacy continued. Kate would make use of him as an +escort, and allow him to kiss her as a cousin. She also confided to him +her love affairs, which at first made him very angry, but afterwards he +sometimes suspected their veracity. + +Harry could not help watching her at dinner. He saw the amused face of +her neighbour, Colonel Dashwood, and sometimes caught her lively +repartees. + +Lady Geraldine was rather tame, and not even pretty; it was up hill work +talking to her, and he was just in the humour for a chaffing match with +cousin Kate. After dinner it was just the same: she was surrounded by +men, and Lady Geraldine, the only other girl, sat apart, with rather a +plaintive, neglected look. + +"Why can't she talk to some of those old women?" thought Harry. But he +felt bound to try and amuse her, and, after a little desultory +conversation, ingeniously evaded the necessity of boring himself further +by asking her to sing. She complied very amiably, and, as he stationed +himself near to turn over, saw it was one of Bluebell's songs. Lady +Geraldine had been well taught, and sang accurately; but, oh! the +contrast of the thin, piping voice and expressionless delivery to the +rich tones and almost dramatic fervour with which Bluebell poured forth +her "native wood-notes wild"! Then Kate came to the front, followed by a +devoted cavalier, who took her gloves and fan, and was forthwith +despatched in search of a very particular manuscript book somewhere in +the half. + +_En attendant_ she rattled off a sparkling French _chansonnette_ with +such _élan_ that every man in the room, musical or otherwise, was soon +round the piano. Her voice was harsh and wiry; but there was an oddity +and originality in her style, while she pronounced the words with a +vehement clearness, that drove their meaning home to the dullest ear. Mr. +Hornby returned with the manuscript book, fastened by a patent lock, +and ornamented with an elaborate monogram. + +"I never keep any songs that other people have, so I am obliged to guard +my _spécialités_ under lock and key,"--and she held out her arm to +Colonel Dashwood to unclasp a bracelet, the medallion of which opened on +touching a spring, and disclosed a gold key. + +Colonel Dashwood retained the wrist while pretending to examine this +miracle, and Kate shot one of her dangerous glances out of half-closed +eyes. + +A personal assault upon Dashwood would have been consonant to Harry's +feelings at the moment. He was not yet quite proof against twinges of +jealousy about cousin Kate, who was now turning over the leaves of her +book with an unconscious air. + +"This song Mr. Forsyth brought me from Mexico. Such crabbed copying, only +an expert could read it; so I merely scribbled down the words, and made +him sing the air till I had caught it. That Charley Dacre got from a +boatman at Venice; and this little Troubadour thing" (sentimentally) "was +composed by a friend of mine, who has promised never to let any one +possess it but myself." + +"I hope you bought up the whole edition," put in Harry. + +"And here--even you, you dear, unmusical boy, are represented. Do you +remember it, Harry?" (playing a few bars.) "The air you were always +whistling, and said the sailors sang at watch." + +"Yes, that was it," said he, with brightening eyes. "How could you +recollect?" + +"Well, when you went to sea I got somewhat plaintive and dull; used to +hum it about the house, and set down the notes." + +"But these are not the right words." + +"Oh, no," said Kate, casting down her eyes with modest candour; "they are +my own." + +Now Harry at the same moment felt almost certain he had seen the lines +somewhere before; and, being rather apt to stick to a point, turned it +over in his mind, while his cousin poured forth a flood of song like a +skylark soaring. Ere she desisted, Dutton had left the room, and +discovered the words in an old Annual on a top shelf in the library. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXII. + +THE SPRING WOODS. + + But, Tom, you'll soon find, for I happen to know, + That such walks often lead into straying; + And the voices of cousins are sometimes so low, + Heaven only knows what you'll be saying. + And long ere the walk is half over those strings + Of your heart are all put into play + By the voice of those fair demi-sisterly things, + In not quite the most brotherly way. + --Hon. Mrs. Norton. + + +More snow fell that night, and Lord Bromley's gardeners were sweeping the +walks from an early hour next morning. Robins lingered about with bright +eyes, soliciting crumbs, and shaking off showers of snow as they flew +from yew-hedge to holly-bush. Breakfast was over at "The Towers," except +for a few late individuals; and Harry Dutton, in a pair of long boots, +and, I am afraid, a pipe in his mouth, was taking a quarter-deck walk in +front of the ball-room windows. He was thinking pretty hard, and the +subject was evidently not pleasing, as it was with a sensation of relief +he observed a deft figure crossing the ball-room, in a fur-trimmed cloth +costume, remarkably well kilted up over a resolute-looking pair of small +boots. She signed to him to open the windows and let her out. Harry made +a feint of emptying his pipe, but received gracious permission to "puff +away." + +"That killing get-up can't be for me," thought he. "I'll give her the tip +she wants." + +"A certain good-looking Colonel of Hussars has gone to play a match at +billiards till luncheon." + +"Why that blunt and abrupt observation, _ŕ propos_ to nothing?" + +"You must excuse my sea manners. I should have used more circumlocution, +but they don't put much polish on us on board." + +"No, they don't, and you boast of it, hence that phrase. You never hear a +soldier apologizing for his 'army manners'!" + +"Speaks well for their modesty! Well, Kate, where are you bound for? You +are not rigged up in that way merely to coast about here." + +"I meant to walk round the spring woods." + +"And as Dashwood has sloped perhaps I may sail in consort. The walks +won't be swept, of course, and that dainty scarlet petticoat will look +like an old hunting-coat." + +But a gardener asserting that the men had been at work since daylight, +the cousins departed on their ramble. + +A gravel walk a mile round encircled the inner ring of a wood left wild, +except where rides were cut, showing vistas into the park beyond. Here +and there it was cleared into a rosary, with a summer-house, a Dutch +garden with a fountain, a glade with a fish-pond, etc. The trees were +magnificent, and many a foreign specimen was represented, while the +shimmering tints of grey-green, from their great variety, were of shades +innumerable. Sometimes the bordering turf became wider, and flowering +shrubs grew each side of the walk,--an intoxicating spot in spring, when +the wild flowers carpeted the woods, and the bird _artistes_, returning +from starring in other lands, recommenced their "popular concerts." + +Even now, in winter dress, its attractions were but changed. The +lichen-covered kings of the forest revealed their bold limbs undisguised +by foliage, the feathery birch showed its delicate tracery against the +clear winter sky, and Dutton sighed as he gazed on that fair demesne, and +thought how hard it would be to give it up. + +Kate's thoughts had apparently wandered in the same direction, for she +said abruptly,--"What a happy fellow you are, Harry, to be heir to all +this!" But she was thinking more of the first-rate style in which it was +kept up, and the magnificent, comfortable house, than of its picturesque +features. + +"There's many a slip," said Harry, moodily, between the whiffs of his +pipe. "We all know Uncle Bromley, Kate." + +"Do you know," said she, mysteriously, "I hear he actually keeps his +eyes, so to speak, on that grand-daughter in Canada. The agent who pays +the annuity reports to him." + +"The deuce!--you make me quite hot, Kate. Are you inventing just out of +chaff?" + +"No, honour bright. Mamma was talking about it; and seems he heard rather +an unpleasant rumour the other day." + +"Come, that's better. What has the young woman been a-doing of?" + +"Run away, or something. I overheard mamma telling old Lady Calvert; but +they nodded and winked and interjected I couldn't clearly make it out. I +was writing a letter at the davenport, and in the glass opposite observed +them. I don't generally burden my mind much with the conversation of my +elders, but something in the alertness of their attitudes and flutter of +their caps made me contemplatively bite my pen and--attend. A breach of +confidence on the maternal side, I should surmise, for she declined +satisfying my laudable curiosity when I pumped her afterwards, and seemed +alarmed at my having heard anything." + +"I had no idea," exclaimed Harry, "that he took the slightest interest in +that girl; and, hang it all, Kate, she _is_ the rightful heir. Perhaps he +looks on her as a second string in case I don't carry out all his +arbitrary wishes." + +"Yes, I shouldn't recommend your running counter to him gratuitously. To +tell you the truth, I thought you rather a lunatic keeping away so long +after coming on shore,"--and Kate gazed searchingly into Harry's face, +who blushed, and then frowned under the scrutiny. + +"Ah!" murmured the fair inquisitor, "then there _was_ something--a woman +in the case, of course: there always is." + +"I tell you what," cried Dutton, recovering himself, "if you begin +supposing improbabilities about me, I'll turn detective on you and +Dashwood." + +"Sea manners again! and when I was so kind--putting you on your guard. +But, never mind, Harry, though I _think_ what I please, I shan't peach +_if you don't_." + +"Let us seal the treaty," passing one arm round her waist. "Give me a +kiss, Kate--you haven't yet." + +"Anything in reason, which sealing treaties in a vista opposite Uncle +Bromley's study windows is _not_." + +A few paces rectified that objection; but Dutton relapsed into a brown +study, and Kate fell to thinking of Colonel Dashwood; and so they +wandered on till the girl spoke again. + +"What port have you left your heart in, Harry?" + +"My dear, I have none. I left it in your charge when I went to sea, and +have never asked for it back again." + +"I expect I shall have to return it now, as I think my uncle has some +views as to its disposal, and may inquire for it." + +"He always has chimeras of that sort. I say, Kate, how perilously plain +Geraldine has grown up." + +"You discern the finger of Fate there. She has, indeed. I wonder she is +not ashamed of herself." + +"Speak not thus harshly of a misfortune." + +"It's just as much a fault. Do you think _I'd_ submit to be plain? Never. +Give me only one good feature, I'd pose up to it, and make it beautify +the rest. Large goggle eyes like hers might be thrown up with a heavenly +expression--so--(but I am afraid mine are rather earthly). A bad figure +even could be rectified. She need not indulge much in the poetry of +motion. _I_ am not pretty, but I dare say you never found it out. No, you +haven't, so you needn't assume that look of regretful dissent; and I +repeat, that any girl so spiritless as to give in to being ugly +_deserves_ to be left out in the cold." + +"That, my dear, you can never be. You carry brimstone enough to set every +one in flames about you. But to return to our--sheep. Don't say, Kate, I +am expected to range alongside such a figure-head as that!" + +"She will have a very valuable consignment of--timber, however, when she +comes into Forest Hill." + +"Which adjoins 'The Towers!' The Avuncular will be death on it! What an +unfortunate idea to take up!" + +"Can't you do it?" asked the girl, looking askance. + +"I don't want to offend his Lordship. I'd ride for a _fall_. Any chance +of a refusal, Kate?" + +"That wouldn't satisfy him. He thinks a man ought never to be beat; and +that + + 'It isn't so much the gallant who woos + As the gallant's way of wooing.' + +But I do hope, Harry, you won't have to marry Geraldine. Fancy _her_ +mistress of 'The Towers!'--no go!--no fun! and she would collect the +stupidest people in the county." + +"What a brilliant little chatelaine some one else would make!" quoth +wicked Harry. + +A glance--one of Kate's own--which few men could stand and feel perfectly +cool. With all her flirtations,--and at present she was most in love with +Colonel Dashwood,--she never forgot that if bereaved of their uncle by an +opportune fit of the gout, few better matches could fall in her way than +cousin Harry; so that a little quiet love-making with him was a useful +investment in view of such a contingency; though, of course, she could +not wait, if this dear uncle, as, indeed, was sadly probable, lived on +indefinitely with Harry's future still unassured. + +Dutton blushed a little under Kate's gaze, which affixed a serious +meaning to his insincere words; but his eyes returned the challenge in +hers, though the girl saw in an instant that the expression was not +spontaneous, and Harry felt equally sure that the passion latent in his +cousin's was more for "The Towers" than himself; and then he laughed +inwardly as he thought how different it would be if she knew he was +married. + +Several days passed, and the object of Harry's visit was still +unfulfilled. Indeed, a good opportunity for the disclosure seemed more +remote than ever. Kate monopolized all the men in the house, and, being +at home, Dutton, in common decency, could not suffer Lady Geraldine to be +neglected. There were only those two girls staying at "The Towers." +Others sometimes came to dinner with their parents, and an _impromptu_ +dance was often got up. Geraldine had begun to listen for Harry's step, +seat herself near a vacant chair, and thrill with delight when he took +it. No man dislikes such unconscious flattery, and Dutton, ill at ease in +mind, felt himself soothed by her kindness. + +On these occasions, Lord Bromley appeared bland and agreeable, Lady +Calvert voluble and unobserving, and there was a sense of _bien-ętre_ +over every one, Kate, perhaps, excepted. + +Dutton had received one letter from his wife. He had had a five mile-walk +to get it from the post town he had bidden her address to, and opened it +with a strange mixture of curiosity and yearning. It was a very bright +letter, made no complaints of loneliness, and was rather divertingly +written, considering the limited topics at her command; and yet Harry +crunched it up in his hand with a sensation of half anger and whole +disappointment. It was their first separation,--they had not been married +seven weeks,--and there was scarcely an expression of affection in it! + +He felt like a schoolboy who has coveted and caught some pretty wild +animal for a pet, yet cannot succeed in making it fond of him. + +He laughed rather bitterly as he retraced his steps. It was scarcely +worth the cold, companionless walk, or the pains he had taken to evade +the rest. + +Why should he risk offending his uncle to please her? If that, indeed, +were all, he did not know that he should. But new considerations came in. +We were on the eve of drifting into the Crimean War; the papers were +getting more and more threatening; and, in the event of hostilities being +declared, he had applied for a ship on active service. + +Could he, then, when he might never return, leave Bluebell with their +marriage unacknowledged? "Though," thought he, in his moody reverie, "if +_that_ were all right, I don't believe she would care a pin if _I_ were +knocked over by a round shot." + +Some curiosity and a good deal of chaff greeted Dutton on his return; +but Kate did not fail to remark how little he entered into, and how +quickly turned it off. That cousin Harry had some mystery of his own, the +astute damsel was pretty well convinced, though to the rest he appeared +light-hearted and hilarious, and enjoying to the full his enviable +position. + +"What a lucky young fellow that is?" had been remarked at different times +by nearly every guest in the house. And the days slipped by, Harry very +much "made of" by Lady Calvert, while Lady Geraldine's preference was of +an unobtrusive and reticent nature--impalpable, yet grateful to the +senses as the fragrance of an invisible, leaf-hidden violet. + +And Bluebell, all alone in her retreat, and each day passing without +tidings, began to think she had over-estimated Harry's once troublesome +adoration, and almost to doubt if he would ever return. + +In truth, he was ashamed to write. The longer the confession was +deferred, the harder it became; and he had now assigned himself a date. +On receiving sailing orders to the Baltic, he would tell all, and make +it, perhaps, a last request to his uncle to acknowledge his wife. In the +mean time why plague himself about it? Things must take their course. + +They were sitting one day in a pretty breakfast-room. Kate rather angry +with her Colonel, who lingered on, always apparently at boiling point, +yet never so far bubbling over as to commit himself in words. Harry, too, +was looking actually interested in Geraldine, whose large, honest eyes +were beaming with a sort of tender happiness. Lord Bromley was not in the +room. Clearly he must be detached. + +"Doesn't this dear old room remind you of childish days?" cried the +artless damsel. "It used always to be summer or Christmas then; and we +had tea here in such beautiful china, so different from the horrid +school-room crockery." + +"And sometimes we were so long over it, they couldn't clear away before +the company passed through to dinner, and we got under the table to watch +them," said Harry. + +"And we used to put out the little sofas and jump over them, King +Charles's beauties looking down on us from the wall so grand and +gracious. And there was always mignonette and nemophila in window-boxes, +so sweet in the evening air? And the honey? Oh, Harry, do you remember +the honey?" + +Her reminiscences succeeded in breaking up the _tęte-ŕ-tęte_, and, lo! +the wicked little dominant spirit who pulled the wires had indirectly +influenced every one in the room. Harry, mesmerized by eye artillery, had +dropped into confidential converse with Kate; Geraldine was suffering a +_serrement de coeur_ at being so lightly left; and the Colonel, his +occupation gone, was reduced to twisting those tried friends in +perplexity--his pendulous whiskers and moustache. + +"How silly a hairy man looks drinking tea," Kate had whispered; "like a +thirsty rat dipping its whiskers and tail in!" + +A rather pleased expression pervaded Harry's countenance, which was +as smooth as a billiard-ball. His cousin soon had him beautifully in +hand, and then extorted a promise to do the thing he hated most, _i.e._, +to escort her out hunting the following Friday. She hadn't the smallest +intention of remaining with him after they found. Then she would +ride with her Colonel, who acquitted himself more creditably in a +hunting-field; but, as she was not allowed to start with him alone, +it was necessary to impress Harry into her service. + +"That's all settled," cried she, rising. "Remember, honour bright! And +now go and talk to dear Geraldine, who looks as if she were going to +cry." For Kate had heard Lord Bromley's step in the passage. He came in +with Mr. Hobart, who had just returned from London. "Have you heard the +news?" said the latter; "war is declared; the army, Guards and all, are +ordered to the East, and the fleet is to go to the Baltic." + +How these few words went straight to their mark, contrasting with the +frivolities that had amused them all day! It had come at last. Chances of +distinction, redemption from stagnation, the much-coveted active service. +They were all brave men in that house--soldiers or sailors, most of them; +but the "bitter sweet first shock" and rush of new ideas kept them, at +first, rather pale and silent. + +After dinner though, when the wine had circulated and the first +strangeness worn off, chaff and jest flew lightly about, for a general +excitement pervaded the whole party. + +"Shall you order those new clothes now Dashwood, you had so many patterns +for this morning?" + +"No! they would be out of fashion, perhaps, when we return. I was just +going to order a new tunic, too! That sinful extravagance may be cut +off." + +Harry, who, perhaps, had most cause for anxious thoughts, was foremost +in the fun. If his spirits were forced, that was his own affair; and, to +avoid Kate's over-keen eyes, he (the last thing he ought to have done) +devoted himself the whole evening to the more restful society of +Geraldine. + +Pre-occupied as he was, he began to be sensible of a change in her +manner--she seemed struggling with some indefinable agitation; her voice +shook, and sounded strange when she spoke. + +And when he laughingly hoped "he should be covered with medals next +time they met," uncoquettish Lady Geraldine looked a moment in his face +with a glance he could not misunderstand, while a large, unavoidable +tear fell on her hand. To capture and press it tenderly was but obeying +a remorseful impulse. Geraldine immediately became composed, and her +sensitive face brightened. The embarrassment that had left her seemed to +have passed into Harry, who felt the greatest relief when a flutter of +skirts and general rising betokened that the ladies were about to retire. + +But the little incident had forced resolution on Dutton's vacillating +mind. "That settles it," he soliloquised. "She is far too nice to be +deceived. I know Kate won't let me off to-morrow, but I will have it out +with my uncle directly I come back, and go to London by the 8.30." + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIII. + +LORD BROMLEY INTERVIEWS DUTTON. + + Ere long a challenge and a cheer + Came floating down the wind; + 'Twas Mermaid's note, and the huntsman's voice + We knew it was a find. + The dull air woke us from a trance + As sixty hounds joined chorus, + And away we went, with a stout dog fox + Not a furlong's length before us. + --Lawrence. + + +Nearly every one was going by a late train the following day, intending +to hunt in the morning; for it was a favourite meet in some of the best +country of ----shire. Kate was the only fair equestrian, and Harry was to +escort her. + +There was one old hunter in the stables who loyally carried the young man +without taking advantage of his maladroitness. Kate always insisted, when +he accompanied her, on his being committed--I may say to the _care_ of +this faithful equine, who knew its business far better than its rider, +and, if it did not lead him to glory, at least avoided disgrace. + +Whatever she might have felt about the approaching departure of Colonel +Dashwood certainly did not appear, for Kate was in glorious spirits,--her +pretty figure, always well on horseback, set off still more by the +elastic action of her beautiful dark chestnut. + +Where is the thorough-bred without "opinions?"--and when of that +excitable colour, you may generally reckon on a handful! "Childe Harold" +was vexed at galloping on a different strip of turf to his companions, +and delivered himself of seven buck-jumps successively. Kate, quite at +her ease, was repressing his efforts to get his head down, with the same +smile on her face that some absurdity of Harry's had provoked; but just +as she began to tire a bit, and fancy her hat was loosening, "Childe +Harold," who might then, perhaps, have had one conquering buck, as +suddenly gave it up, in the fatuous way a horse will, when he is nearest +success, if he only knew it. + +"Two or three of those would have settled me," said Harry, +good-humouredly coming to her side. "What an ass a fellow looks +who can't ride!" + +"Well, I will say for you you don't funk," said Kate consolingly; "and I +suppose all sailors ride like monkeys.--There are the hounds going on; we +are only just in time." + +Coquettish Kate was soon surrounded. If she rode fair and didn't +cross men at their fences, still less did she want assistance at any +practicable leap. "Childe Harold," too, was indifferent to a lead; so, +beholden to none, she rode her own line, and, with her merry smile +and gay tongue, with the whole field, from the gallant master to the +hard-riding farmer, there were few greater favourites than Harry's cousin +Kate. + +The universal theme at the cover-side was, of course, the declaration of +war; but even that absorbing subject sunk to silence as the first low +whimper, taken up more confidently by hound after hound, proclaimed that +poor Reynard was being bustled through the underwood. + +A relieved smile played over the features of the owner of the cover, and +"Always a fox in Beechwood" came approvingly from the master's lips as he +crashed out of the spinny. Kate's gauntleted hand was held up warningly, +for the "Childe" was apt to let out one hind leg in excitement. Then +there was a screech from an urchin in a tree, and they were away with a +straight running fox pointing to Redbank Bushes, eight miles off as the +crow flies. + +Not much of the run was Harry Dutton destined to see that day; his +presumed mission was to stick on and follow Kate, who thought no more +about him once they were away. He had flopped over the first fence +without a mistake; but coming on a bit of road the old horse faltered, a +few yards more he was dead lame. Harry jumped off, and found a shoe gone. +Dashwood had a spare one he remembered, and there was a blacksmith, not +half a mile distant. He looked round--no sign of him of course; he was +sailing away with a good start, fields ahead, in that contented ecstasy +that stops not for friend or foe. There was nothing for it but to plod on +to the forge, trusting to nick in later in the day. As the shoe had to be +made, delay was inevitable. Dutton lit a cigar to while away the term of +durance, and was disconsolately looking out at the door of the smithy, +when he observed one of the Bromley grooms trotting smartly down the +road. + +He hailed the man, who touched his hat with alacrity. "I was riding to +find you, sir; his Lordship has sent your letters." + +The train was late, and the post had not arrived before they had been +obliged to start that morning. He tore open a large blue official +envelope, "On Her Majesty's Service," and read his appointment to H.M.S. +"Druid," one of the Baltic fleet. + +Harry stood intent a minute, with compressed lips, then signed to the +groom to give him his horse. + +"I have got letters for Colonel Dashwood and Mr. Hobart, too, sir." + +"Well, 'Figaro' will be shod in five minutes. But you won't catch them +this side of the Bushes; they were going straight for them half an hour +ago." + +And he galloped away with his loose sailor seat in the direction of "The +Towers." The hour had come. That letter was the self-imposed signal for +the acknowledgment of his marriage, and, perhaps, extinction of all hope +of inheritance. One watchful figure at the library window perceived his +red coat winding through the trees on his way to the stables. Lady +Geraldine had caught sight of the blue envelope, and, with the prescience +of love, had divined the whole. She had not wandered far from the window +that morning, being too restless and miserable for anything else. Now, as +she perceived him, her heart stood still. He must be going that very day. + +"Well, she would see him once more, at any rate. Adieux must be spoken, +and, after last night, surely something more, something to dwell on +when they were apart." The carriage was rolling up to the door for the +daily drive. Lady Calvert and Kate's mother came down well muffled up. +"Geraldine, my dear, are you not ready! Oh, you had much better come, +or you will be left alone in the house." + +Geraldine, hitherto all transparent candour, shook her head dissentingly. +"Oh, no, thank you; much too cold. I am going for a walk presently." + +She forbore to inflame the maternal curiosity by mentioning Dutton's +return, and the elder ladies drove off on a shopping expedition to the +market town. + +Harry, in the meanwhile, had entered the dining-room, and, eliciting from +a footman that his uncle was in, poured out something from a decanter on +the side table, and, without waiting to refresh himself further, went +down the passage leading to Lord Bromley's sanctum. + +"'The lion in his den, the Douglas in his hall,'" muttered he to himself. +"I shall be a man or a mouse when I come out." + +We need not go through the whole interview of the uncle and nephew. The +latter's appointment was, of course, the first subject of discussion; and +never had Harry known Lord Bromley show more cordiality and warmth of +manner. He himself was becoming confused and tongue-tied with the +importance of the confession at hand. + +"I think of going to London this afternoon," said Dutton, still fencing. +"There's a few things to arrange, as I am to join on Monday." + +Lord Bromley coughed, poked the fire, and then observed,--"That brings me +to a subject that I wish to explain to you. I have brought you up in the +expectation of succeeding me at 'The Towers,' and, naturally, I expect +you to make a suitable marriage,--as well you may with such prospects +before you. I have noticed with great pleasure that your inclinations +seem to have forestalled my wishes. The young lady, too, does not appear +averse. But before you go, if you would like to explain yourself to +her--in short, bring it to an engagement, you would have my most cordial +approbation--in fact, I think it's the best thing you could do." + +Harry grew a shade paler as the opportunity he wanted appeared. + +"I am very sorry, sir," said he, shortly, "but I can never marry Lady +Geraldine." + +"Why, the devil not?" + +"Because," faltered he, "I have a prior attachment. Indeed, am bound--" + +"Prior attachment! d--d stuff!" cried the angry peer. "Whom have you +seen, I should like to know, except some garrison hack at the ports you +have stopped at! By ----, it is not Kate, I hope?" + +Dutton shook his head. He would have been amused at any other moment. + +"No, much worse, no doubt. Listen, Harry. It is bad enough your having +made a fool of that very nice girl; but, if ever you wish to be master of +this house, the sooner you get rid of all disgraceful entanglements, the +better." + +Dutton's good angel battled hard with the tempter, but the latter held +him silent. + +Lord Bromley spoke again, but his voice, though stern, was broken. + +"I disinherited my only son for a marriage that displeased me, by which +you have benefited. He died unreconciled to me. You may judge what +quarter _you_ would get in a similar offence!" + +The old peer's face had turned to granite. A variety of expressions +shifted across Harry's while his uncle continued,--"Yes, you had better +go to town, as you have raised expectations here you seem to have no +intention of fulfilling--_at present_," and he rose from his chair and +held out his hand to his nephew. "Good-bye, Harry. You have something +else to think of now; and when you return I hope you will have more +sense." + +It was not manly--it was not heroic--but with the wisdom of the children +of this world, Dutton passed from his uncle's presence with his secret +still unrevealed. + +The watcher at the library window saw another carriage drive round. This +time it was a double dog-cart, and two or three leather portmanteaus were +being disposed on it at a side door. + +Already! Geraldine grew nervous. He might come in at any moment, or +perhaps would not know any of the ladies had remained at home. + +"Still, he could _ask_," whispered her heart. She had not long to remain +in suspense. Harry came out, jumped into the dog-cart, and gathered up +the reins; then he looked up and saw Geraldine's stricken face. He +blushed hotly as he took off his hat, and shot one sorrowful glance from +his eyes ere he drove off, at headlong speed, to the station. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIV. + +HARRY GOES TO THE BALTIC. + + Is this my lord of Leicester's love, + That he so oft have swore to me? + To leave me in this lonely grove? + Immured in shameful privity? + --Unknown. + + +Bluebell, a lonely little recluse at the cottage, seemed to have passed +a lifetime there, so long were the uneventful days. She was not exactly +unhappy, being too young and healthy to be a prey to low spirits. Still, +her life could hardly be called satisfactory. In the first days of their +marriage she would exclaim in her heart. "Oh, to be sometimes alone;" +then, with the suddenness of a transformation-scence, her wish had been +but too abundantly accomplished. + +It was weeks since she had heard from Dutton, whose first letter had +never been repeated, and she begun to believe that the headlong passion +that had led him to force her, almost against her will, into marriage +with him was as short-lived as it had been quickly kindled. + +She remembered Bertie Du Meresq, who had appeared quite as desperate at +first, and then had quietly transferred his affections to Cecil. Like the +Psalmist, she could have "said in her heart, all men are liars." + +Harry near--adoring--_exigeant_, could be an evil; but Harry away, +engaged every thought; and if thinking of a person is the first step +to love, he ought to have been satisfied with the way Bluebell was +employing herself. + +One evening she was sitting in her bed-room with the window open. There +was a light breath of spring in the air though the nights were frosty. It +was near midnight, and starlight, which has ever attractions for the +young; later on, a warm fireside and creature comforts are more +congenial. Archie, the dog, with his nose on his paws, bore her company; +presently he gave a low growl, and pricked his ears--a moment after, +Bluebell fancied she could hear the sound of wheels on the frosty ground. +It became clearer and clearer; presently she could distinguish the red +lights of a fly, and then she knew that Harry was come. + +That his mission had been unsuccessful, she read at once in avoidance +of her questioning eyes, yet, strange to say, it seemed of secondary +importance. Dutton himself, for the first time, was of all-absorbing +interest to Bluebell. His presence seemed to break the lethargic spell +that had bound her, while no small detail of appearance and dress escaped +her, even that his hair was parted differently. Dutton, who had dreaded +the first meeting, was relieved by Bluebell's manner, and saw at once +they were more _en rapport_. He was only too willing to procrastinate +bad tidings, so it was not till the next day that she realized the whole +fatal truth. Harry was going to the war with their marriage still +unacknowledged. + +He related, truthfully enough, his conversation with Lord Bromley. Even +then, in her deep interest as to its result, Bluebell vaguely noticed the +curious coincidence of his uncle also having disinherited a son, but, +having a more dominant idea in her mind, that was left in a vacant +corner, to crop up at some future time. + +Dutton was vexed that she could not see he had no other alternative +but silence. + +"It would have been simply giving away 'The Towers' to have blurted it +all out then." + +To Bluebell's unsophisticated mind, honesty seemed more importunate than +expediency. + +"Then, if you do get 'The Towers' now, it will be on false pretences." + +Harry reddened. He had all along been goaded by a vague sense of +dishonour. "It's useless crying over spilt milk," exclaimed he, +impatiently. "Now would have been the very worst time--just as he +wants me to marry some one else. But when I come back--" + +"Then he may be dead." + +"By Jove! I think he has quite as good a chance of surviving me--not a +shade of odds either way. Look here, Bluebell, I will write a letter +containing a full confession, enclose our marriage certificate, and seal +it with this ring he gave me. If anything happens, send it to him, and I +believe he will take care of you, but not while I am alive." + +"Send it to him at once, Harry." + +"You used not to be so indifferent to poverty, Bluebell. You told me, in +the steamer, that you had a longing for luxury and riches." + +"Luxury and riches," echoed Bluebell, "seem as improbable as ever. I +should like to be able to look my friends in the face." + +But it was all in vain. Dutton, though remorseful, was obdurate; there +was much to arrange, and he had only twenty-four hours to remain. Lord +Bromley had omitted the accustomed parting cheque, which Harry had +reckoned on, and money was scarce with the two young people. + +"Will you go back to Canada, Bluebell, till the war is over, and I will +send you all the money I can?" + +"What, as Miss Leigh?" + +And he could say no more. The same difficulty prevented her writing to +the Rollestons, or any one else. Long and anxiously they talked over +their dilemma; Dutton had only money enough to pay his bill at the +cottage, and Bluebell was resolute to earn something for herself. + +She answered an advertisement in the _Times_ he had brought with him, +naming, as reference, the mother of Evelyn Leighton. To her she also +wrote, begging that any applicant might have the recommendation she had +received of her from Mrs. Rolleston. + +Dutton had gone, but expected to be able to return for a day or two +before the fleet sailed, and Bluebell was left alone with her +thoughts--too full of horrors for solitude to be endurable. Each night +she dreamed of Harry, dying, and mangled by shot or shell, only to renew +the vision in her waking hours; and, as she pictured such a termination +to their brief married life, a vague tenderness took the place of her +former apathy. The very weakness he had shown in concealing their +marriage made him more a reality to her by giving her an insight into his +nature--not an endearing trait, perhaps; yet sometimes the failing that +one tries to counteract in the very effort it arouses awakens an +interest. + +Bluebell felt thankful that her hours at the cottage were numbered, for +lately she had begun to fancy people looked askance at her, and the +carpenter's wife had developed an inquisitiveness akin to impertinence. + +Mrs. Leighton sent a very kind answer, assuring her of the recommendation +as she had received it from Mrs. Rolleston. It was addressed to "Miss +Leigh," and a crimson flush rose to her temples at the unpleasant smile +with which the postmistress handed it across the counter. Harry, when he +wrote, having posted it himself, ventured to address his letter to "Mrs. +Dutton"; the only other she had received was from her mother, directed, +as requested, to B. D. This letter had been rather distressing--filled +with vague fears, inspired, she was sure, by Miss Opie, and conjuring +her, with promises of inviolable secrecy, to reveal her name. + +The lady whose advertisement she had answered, apparently attracted by +her musical professions, replied immediately, and, the reference to Mrs. +Leighton being satisfactory, she was shortly engaged at a fair salary. + +Then Bluebell, writing the account to Canada, could not refrain from +slipping in a private scrap to her mother, on which, in the strictest +confidence, she acknowledged her wedded name. This circumstance, however, +she did not mention to Harry when he returned on two days' leave, knowing +he would be sceptical as to Mrs. Leigh's power of secrecy. + +Of course he was relieved that she had an asylum provided, and equally, +of course, raged inwardly at his wife's having to support herself in her +maiden name. He was the more remorseful as Bluebell made no further +allusion to it, and seemed more occupied with making the most of his last +days. + +But he only called himself a confounded rascal, and trusted things would +come right in the end. + +Bluebell was to remain one more night at the cottage after her +husband left. Her wardrobe, though slender, was new, as it consisted +of what Harry had bought at Liverpool. None of it was marked, as she +remembered with satisfaction; so there was nothing to betray her but her +wedding-ring. She removed and suspended it round her neck on a piece of +ribbon. The miniature of Theodore Leigh, which had not been forgotten the +day she eloped, was also carefully secreted in a trunk. + +The bill was paid, the fly at the door. One tender parting only remained; +this was with Archie, who had sprung into it after her, for he and +Bluebell had become inseparable. They could scarcely drag him away, and +she buried her face a minute in his rough coat with almost equal regret. + +"Would you like to keep him, ma'am?" said the carpenter's wife. + +"I cannot now, but when Mr. Dutton comes back, and we are settled, will +you let me have him?" + +"Ah, well," said the woman, half disappointed, for she did not care for +Archie, "ye'll have forgotten all about it by then." + + + + +CHAPTER XXXV. + +A DISCOVERY. + + There woman's voice flows forth in song, + Or childhood's tale is told; + Or lips move tunefully along + Some glorious page of old. + --Hemans. + + +Bluebell was settled in her new abode, about fifteen miles from London: +and certainly few governesses have the luck to drop into a more sunshiny +home. Only two little girls, pleasantly disposed; no banishment to the +school-room. They all mingled sociably together after lessons were +over,--walked, drove in an Irish car, or played croquet and gardened +as the spring advanced. + +Mr. Markham was a barrister in London, and came down to dinner most +days--not always, though; and his wife, still a young woman, was glad +enough to find a companion in Bluebell. Beauty, too, unless it excites +jealousy, is agreeable to look at, and she soon became interested in the +young Canadian. But after a while she was puzzled by her. There was a +far-off, touching look in her eyes that had come there since marriage, +and she was reserved about herself, though the stiffness of first +acquaintance had long ago given way to affectionate intimacy. For a girl +apparently so frank to be at the same time so guarded suggested something +to be concealed. Mrs. Markham, being a woman, could not refrain from +speculating about it. She had elicited many lively descriptions of +Bluebell's life in Canada, and the children were never weary of sleighing +and toboggining stories. But these were general subjects; her narratives +were never personal ones. + +"By-the-bye," observed Mrs. Markham, one day, "how strange it was that +poor child, Evelyn Leighton, dying just as you were going there! Her +mother told me of it when she enclosed Mrs. Rolleston's letter. But you +arrived in October, I think. Where were you those few months?" + +"I was staying with a friend," replied Bluebell; but her hand shook and +she became crimson. + +Mrs. Markham did not fail to note this, and suspected that during +that friendly visit some love passages might have arisen. "She seems +very sensitive about it," thought the kind lady. "I will get her to +tell me some day. It is such a shame ignoring that sort of thing with +governesses, just as if it were a crime! And if there is really anything, +he might come and see her here sometimes." + +But Bluebell remained nervous and out of spirits the rest of that day. + +One morning they were sitting together in the pleasant drawing-room; the +children had a holiday, and were playing with their dogs out of doors; +Mrs. Markham was colouring a design for her flower-beds, and lamenting +the non-arrival of some seeds the postman was to have brought. "The year +is getting on," murmured the aggrieved lady; "they really ought to be +sown, and it is such a lovely day for gardening." + +"Let me go to Barton and fetch them," cried Bluebell, who was always +ready for a walk. "I shall be there and back before luncheon." + +"Would you really?" said Mrs. Markham. "But it looks so hot! Are you sure +you don't mind?" And declaring it was the thing of all others she should +enjoy, Bluebell set off. + +It was one of those glorious, sultry days that sometimes occur early in +the year, when summer seems actually to have arrived for the season--a +delusion invariably dispelled by the biting blasts of the blackthorn +winter. Lovely as it appeared it was a very oppressive day for a long +walk; the white, glaring road seemed endless, and she half repented her +offer. + +Bluebell was scarcely so strong as she had been, and, having to hurry a +good deal to be back in time for luncheon, was quite pale and exhausted +on re-entering the drawing-room, prize in hand. + +The second post was on the table, and the girl stopped short in the +midst of a message from the seedsman, for a deep black-edged envelope, +addressed to herself, caught her eye. Mrs. Markham observed her with +furtive anxiety. It is terrible to watch the opening of a letter +evidently containing sad tidings, yet she was hardly prepared to see +Bluebell, after perusing it drop prone on the ground as though she were +shot, her forehead striking against the table in the fall. Ringing the +bell, Mrs. Markham flew to her assistance, and, unfastening the collar of +her dress, something was disclosed to view which gave that lady a second +sensational shock, more thrilling than the first. Hurriedly she closed +the dress again, despatching for water a sympathetic servant who had just +entered, then swiftly, dexterously, possessed herself of a ribbon +encircling the girl's throat, on which hung a wedding-ring. + +Bluebell recovered only to fall from one fainting fit into another. Her +strength had been exhausted by the walk, and she had none to bear up +against the shock that awaited her. The letter was from Miss Opie, +announcing Mrs. Leigh's sudden death, after a few hours' illness. Inside, +and unopened, was returned Bluebell's private enclosure revealing her +married name. + +A year ago this child had been innocent of the existence of nerves, but, +from the trying scenes she had lately gone through, they were now so +shattered that she was unable to rally. The doctor kept her in bed at +first, recommended absolute quiet, and exhausted his formula with as +beneficial a result as could be expected considering it attacked the +secondary cause only, and was impotent to heal the suffering mind +reacting upon the body. Bluebell continued in a torpid condition, +scarcely giving any signs of life. One day, Mrs. Markham, who nursed her +with unremitting zeal, quickened, perhaps, by the interest of her +discovery, observed the patient's hand steal to her neck, and then she +glanced uneasily about, as if seeking for something. + +They were alone, so Mrs. Markham whispered in a low, cautious tone, "I +have it quite safe, locked up in my desk. No one knows of it but myself." +An apprehensive look dilated the large, sad eyes, succeeded by an +expression of contented resignation. She did not perceptibly improve, her +mind was incessantly trying to realize what had happened, and was haunted +by a morbid conviction that the anxiety induced by her own strange +marriage might have precipitated the sad event, for Miss Opie's letter +did not soften the fact that Mrs. Leigh had fretted greatly about it. +Still she expressly said that she had succumbed to an epidemic that had +already gleaned many victims. + +It was, after all, many days before Mrs. Markham remembered the seeds she +had been so anxious to obtain, but one favourable afternoon, she set +diligently to work to lay the foundation for summer flowers. Though the +"even tenour" of her life did not afford much scope for its indulgence, +this lady was not devoid of a certain spice of romance. She was also of +an independent character, and in the habit of judging for herself on most +matters, and had decided not to betray Bluebell's secret to her spouse. + +"Men are prejudiced and unpracticable on some points," she soliloquized, +"and though I am quite satisfied that the poor girl is married, he may +choose to doubt it, or think we had better get out of her. Her illness +was entirely occasioned by the shock, so there really is no necessity to +explain my little accidental discovery." + +But the plot was thickening, for that morning there arrived a letter from +Mrs. Leighton written in great perturbation, to the effect that she had +heard some very uncomfortable reports about Miss Leigh. Her information +was derived from the captain's wife at Liverpool, to whom she had written +on Bluebell's obtaining a situation, supposing that, as they had shown +her so much kindness, they would feel interested in the fact. But she had +received in return a most extraordinary letter from Mrs. Davidson, +stating that Miss Leigh had eloped from their house, leaving only a +letter containing an improbable story about going to be married, without +even mentioning to whom. Her husband, to be sure, had his suspicions as +to the lover, but the name had escaped her memory, and Captain Davidson +was at sea. + +Now Mrs. Markham began to feel her innocent complicity becoming a little +embarrassing. It was rather awkward keeping a suspected person about the +children. Her husband would be in fits if he knew it, but, however +imprudent of Bluebell to elope, she still saw no reason to doubt the +marriage. Had she not the wedding-ring in proof of it? + +So as she worked and planted, unavoidably decimating a worm here and +turning up an ants nest there, she conned it all over. + +"The child must really tell me her secrets, or I can do nothing. I will +get her out for a drive; sitting alone in one room, as that demented old +Chivers prescribes, is the worst thing for a nervous complaint." + +So the next fine morning she ordered the car, and, going to the +governess's room, asked her, in a matter-of-course manner, to put on +her hat and come out. + +Bluebell had just received a visit from the local practitioner, who had +reiterated his assurances that "we wanted tone, and had better adhere to +the iron mixture; that we must not exert ourselves, and must be sure to +lie down a great deal," etc.; but she assented to Mrs. Markham's proposal +with the same indifference with which she had listened to Esculapius. + +They drove on for some distance through a straggling village, with its +ivied church guarded by sentinel cypresses, children were playing about +with hands full of cowslips, and lilac bushes blossomed within cottage +palings. A little beyond they turned into Sir Thomas Farquhar's park, +where young rooks were cawing, unwitting of their predestined pastried +tomb. On entering a long, shady avenue, Mrs. Markham pulled the horse up +to a walk, and said quietly,--"When were you married, Miss Leigh?" + +Perhaps this question had not been unexpected since the little episode of +the ring, for, with equal calmness, Bluebell replied,--"The last week in +November, at Liverpool." + +Mrs. Markham felt a triumphant thrill. She would now hear the solution +of the mystery that had been exercising her imaginative powers for some +weeks. She poured forth question after question. Yet, at the end of +half-an-hour, not only had she failed to extort Dutton's name, but had +even entangled herself in a promise of inviolable silence as to the only +admitted fact. + +She had insisted, threatened, got angry; Bluebell sorrowfully offered to +go, but remained firm. + +"Well, keep your secret, then," cried Mrs. Markham, at last, abandoning +the contest; "but I shall find it out if I can. And I must take care that +Walter doesn't," thought she, with a mischievous chuckle, for that +gentleman, many years older than his wife, was a servile worshipper of +Mrs. Grundy, and his hair would have stood on end had he known that he +was harbouring a young lady with such suspicious antecedents. Besides her +personal liking for Bluebell, Mrs. Markham recollected that if dismissed +at this juncture she could scarcely recommend her to any other situation, +and then what would become of the poor thing? But what puzzled her most +was the total disappearance of the husband to whom she had been so very +lately married. + +A clue to this, however, she believed herself to have obtained on +observing that Bluebell never failed to study the daily papers with +an avidity unusual at her age. + +"He must be in the army and gone to the Crimea," thought she. "Poor +thing! how dreadful! Some day she will see him in the list of killed and +wounded." + +Some little time after, Bluebell, who had in a great measure recovered +her strength, came to her room, and said, with frank, open eyes,--"May I +go to Barton and post a letter to my husband?" + +A very warm assent drew forth the heartfelt exclamation,--"How I wish I +could tell you all, my dear Mrs. Markham." + +Without that information, it was not so easy to answer Mrs. Leighton's +letter, which she did eventually in very guarded terms, stating that she +had proof of the marriage having taken place, but could say no more, +except that, "being much pleased with Miss Leigh, she intended to keep +her, especially as the children were very much under her own eye, and +seldom alone with their governess." + +Mr. Markham was generally the first down, and was rather addicted to a +curious inspection of the post-mark on the family correspondence, neatly +placed by each recipient's plate. + +His wife one morning found him standing over a large ship letter directed +to the governess, with somewhat the expression of distrustful pugnacity +with which a dog walks round a hedgehog. + +"Is that for Miss Leigh?" said she, carelessly. + +"Yes," with much solemnity. "Apparently she has a correspondent in the +Navy. It is not a sort of thing I like, and I must say I have often +thought Miss Leigh too young and flighty for me." + +"Oh, I believe she is engaged, poor girl!" said Mrs. Markham, slipping +out a white one. "And she gets the children on beautifully. You thought +Emma already so improved in playing." + +"Well if you know all about it, that's another thing. I trust she doesn't +put nonsense in the children's heads. Emma is getting very forward and +inquisitive." + +His wife felt secretly excited, for she was sure this letter must be from +the errant husband, especially as the governess would not read it in +public, but pocketed it with a slight nervousness of manner. + +Time passed on, and Mrs. Markham had discovered nothing. + +Bluebell, in her diligent revision of the papers, found much of personal +interest. Colonel Rolleston's regiment had been ordered home to proceed +to the Crimea, and she well knew the anxiety his family must be enduring. + +It seemed cold and ungrateful to be unable to write one word of sympathy +to Mrs. Rolleston, but any renewal of intercourse must lead to +explanations, and it was her cruel fate to be able to give none. One +other name, too, she saw in the public print that ought no longer to have +had the power to thrill her as it did. Well, it was not so long ago, +after all: but, however mentally disquieted we leave our heroine, as she +has now drifted, outwardly, into a peaceful haven, we must return to +others in the narrative who have more to do. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVI. + +IN DEATH THEY WERE NOT DIVIDED. + + My love he stood at my right hand, + His eyes were grave and sweet; + Methought he said, "In this far land, + Oh, is it thus we meet! + Ah, maid most dear, I am not here, + I have no place--no part + No dwelling more by sea or shore, + But only in thine heart!" + --Jean Ingelow. + + +Bertie Du Meresq, after lingering a while in London, without any tidings +of Cecil, began to weary of inaction, and turn his thoughts again to +Australia. But just then warlike rumours were becoming rife, and forced +his mind into another channel. Good heavens! with such a prospect, +possibility even, how could he let his papers be sent in? There was just +time to recall them. He rushed to the Horse Guards, despatched a letter +to his Colonel, and his retirement, not having yet been gazetted, was +cancelled. + +But how appease the injured Green, who had advanced the over regulation +money for the troop? That must be returned, however expensive it might be +to raise the necessary sum. One possible resource remained. He possessed +a maiden aunt--of means, whose patience and purse he had completely +exhausted some years ago; added to which she had become "serious," and +a gentleman of the Stiggens order now diverted her spare cash into the +coffers of little Bethlehem. + +Du Meresq was aware that he had been predestined to doom by the Rev. Mr. +Jackson, and that his aunt had been assured she could not touch pitch +without being defiled. "Nevertheless," he thought, "I must try and carry +her by a _coup de main_, if I have to pitch her clerical friend out of +the window first." + +Lady Susan had abandoned the more fashionable precincts of London to be +nearer her chapel and districts, and the Hansom cabman who drove Bertie +to Hammersmith had quartered nearly every yard of it before their +combined intelligence hit off a square stone house on a bit of a common. + +Lady Susan was within, and Du Meresq followed the depressed-looking +footman upstairs with as much ease as if he had not been particularly +forbidden the house five years ago. He embraced his aunt affectionately +before she had collected herself sufficiently to prevent him, and bowed +with the utmost grace to a rather vulgar-looking, self-sufficient lady to +whom he was presented. This person, however, he contrived to sit out in +spite of her curiosity. + +"And now, Bertie," said Lady Susan, austerely, "what is it you want? I +know from past experience it is not I alone you come to see. I warn you +though your hopes are vain. I have, happily, now a more edifying way of +spending my poor income than in aiding you in your godless courses." + +"I have come to you, my dear aunt, as the kindest-hearted person I know. +I am in an awful hole. But let me explain." And then he told how he had +sold his troop to pay his debts, but had now, war being eminent, recalled +his papers, and so owed all the over regulation money obtained in +advance. + +For once Du Meresq had a good case. Against her principles almost, Lady +Susan listened, and, though pre-determined not to believe a thing he +said, his words were making an impression. + +"Of course I can get the money; but, going on active service, I should +have to pay enormously for it. And, anyhow," he continued, "I thought I +should like to say good-bye to you, whether you can let me have it or +not." + +Bertie's Irish blarney always peeped out in his dealings with women, +and Lady Susan of late had been so unaccustomed to anything of the sort, +that her heart began to warm to her scape-grace nephew. He was so +distinguished-looking, too, with the beauty which comes of air and +expression, and a certain winning manner, none of which were conspicuous +attributes of the disciples of little Bethlehem. She made him stay to +dinner, and Du Meresq, who thought things were looking up, gladly +dismissed his Hansom, which had been imparting an unwonted appearance of +dissipation to the locality for the last hour. He could make himself +quite as agreeable to an old lady as a young one, and this one was a +soldier's daughter, and Irish into the bargain. What wonder that her +heart beat responsively and her blood fired at the idea of another of her +race lending his life to his country! Bertie, to be sure, would have +preferred not having to make capital of that, and objected strongly to +being treated as a hero in advance. However, it was no use quarrelling +with the means that had brought his aunt into so promising a frame of +mind; and, before he left that evening, he had actually received the +promise of a cheque to the amount of Mr. Green's claims in a few days. + +Soon after this, he heard the welcome news that his regiment was ordered +home immediately, evidently in consequence of the disturbances in the +East. This caused Du Meresq great delight. His corps was, then, certain +to be in it, and he would go into action with Lascelles and all his old +friends, instead of exchanging into a strange regiment, as he had +determined to do if his own were not for service. + +With all this other thoughts were associated. Somehow he had never looked +upon his rupture with Cecil Rolleston as final, having pretty well +fathomed the _motif_ of her renunciation of him, which he considered +would bear explanation when occasion offered; but now, rather sadly +reviewing the past, he said to himself that, after all, it was well for +her they had not married. + +I do not know that Cecil would have been of the same opinion. She had a +brave spirit, that could bear up against known evils, but fretted and +suffered in suspense. She was much altered since her illness. Once the +most attentive and docile of daughters, she became irritable and +uncertain in temper-_difficile_, as the French call it, or, according to +a Scotch expression, "There was no doing with her" some days; and Mrs. +Rolleston, unhappy about both Cecil and Bertie, looked upon her husband's +prejudice against the latter as the cause of all this unsatisfactory +state of things. + +As to Colonel Rolleston, he was in the condition of a man whose "foes are +those of his own household." No one appreciated more the "pillow of a +woman's mind"; but really now the pillow might have been stuffed with +stones, so many corners and angularities had developed themselves in his +feminalities. + +The regiment had been ordered to Quebec almost immediately after Bluebell +had gone to England; and, as Mrs. Rolleston there heard of Evelyn +Leighton's death, the fate of their _protegée_ became naturally a subject +of anxious speculation. Yet not a line had been received from her; and, +after a time, the subject was avoided, for all felt that Bluebell had +been ungrateful. + +Then Mrs. Leighton wrote out the strange story of her elopement, and +having since entered a family as governess in her maiden name. Mrs. +Rolleston was painfully shocked; for, coupling it with the girl's +silence, she could not but imagine the worst, especially when, as they +gazed at each other in mute dismay, she read in Cecil's face a suspicion +that Bertie had had some hand in her disappearance, he had not written +either; but, unless he were in correspondence with Bluebell, could not +have been aware that she was in England. Of course, therefore, it was +only the wildest conjecture. Yet how could Cecil believe that a girl who +had once cared for Bertie should so utterly have forgotten him as to +sacrifice herself to any one else within a few weeks? But a letter from +Du Meresq himself did much to banish these gathering doubts and +suspicions. It appeared quite open and above-board, and was written to +Mrs. Rolleston on the eve of embarking with his regiment for the Crimea. +He mentioned one or two houses he had been staying in, related the +successful visit to his aunt and wound up in a postcript with the +words,--"Give my dearest love to Cecil, if she cares to have it." + +Mrs. Rolleston silently put the letter into her hand, and left the room. +But the privacy of four walls was insufficient for Cecil while permitting +herself the dear fascination of perusing Bertie's handwriting. She was +missing for the next two hours, which Lela was able to account for, +having observed her going downstairs dressed for walking. + +She did not remember to return Du Meresq's letter, nor did Mrs. Rolleston +ask for it. Very soon afterwards they also went to England, though the +Colonel's regiment was not sent to the Crimea for some months later. It +was quartered near London, and he took a house for his family in +Kensington. And now a strange fancy possessed Cecil. It happened one day, +when they were out driving, that a little boy drifting across the street +with the suicidal _insouciance_ of his kind, got knocked down by their +horses, and, of course, had to be driven straight to the hospital to have +his injuries investigated. It was necessary to detain the child, and +Cecil walked down most days to bring him toys and inquire into his +progress. There she became acquainted with some members of a sisterhood, +who were employed in nursing in the accident ward, and, after the boy +had been dismissed, convalescent, and ready to be run over again, she +still continued her visits. + +What the attraction was, neither of her parents could conceive, for, +although the sisterhood was of the High Church order, they observed no +particular religious enthusiasm or ritualistic tendencies in their +daughter. "Cecil's mystery" it was called in the family, for she never +spoke of what she had been doing all day, though it was apparently +satisfactory, as her spirits were far more even than they had been of +late. It was generally supposed that a charitable fervour had seized her, +and that she was visiting among the poor; indeed Mrs. Rolleston had +little curiosity to spare at present. She was living in dread and daily +expectation of Colonel Rolleston being sent to the East; and he was +engaged, as a calm, brave man might, in arranging his affairs to provide +for his family in any event. + +The order came at last; it was almost a relief from the continual +suspense, and there were a few days for preparation. On one of these last +evenings some of the officers were dining at the Colonel's, and among +them--which was unusual now--Fane, who, though believing that Cecil's +love affair with Du Meresq must have been broken off, still honourably +abstained from her society till she should, by some sign, absolve him +from his promise. On this occasion though, to her dread, he appeared +sentimentally inclined, and Cecil, to whom a Sir Lancelot even would have +been intolerable had he attempted to take the place of the lover she had +outwardly discarded and inwardly enshrined, took refuge with Jack +Vavasour, who regarded the approaching campaign in about the same light +as a steeple-chase--a delightful piece of excitement, with a spice of +danger in it. + +His cheerful chatter amused and relieved the tension of her mind. + +"I shall be sure to come across Du Meresq," he observed, with simple +directness. "I shall tell him I saw you the last thing. How glad he will +be to hear of any one at home! Have you any message, Miss Rolleston?" +looking straight in her face, which was glowing as he spoke. + +"Tell him," said Cecil, who liked Jack, and trusted him more than any +one, "to be sure and write very often to his sister, who is dreadfully +anxious, as, indeed, we _all_ are." + +"Oh, yes, of course," cried Vavasour; "but is that all? Let me give him +that glove," which Cecil had been absently pulling off and on. + +"Certainly-not!" flaming up in a moment. "Give it to me back directly, +Mr. Vavasour!" + +Jack thought she was offended. "I didn't mean to be impertinent, Miss +Rolleston. You know this is not like an ordinary occasion; and I am sure +I didn't think there would be much in it." + +"I know, I know. But don't invent anything from me to Bertie Du Meresq." +Then, with a softer manner, and most cordial squeeze of the hand as she +saw the other men rising to go,--"Good-bye, and come back safe, you dear, +true-hearted boy!" + +Next day the mystery came out. She had been qualifying as a hospital +nurse, with the view of joining Miss Nightingale's staff at Scutari. + +Cecil had quite anticipated the antagonism and ridicule with which this +announcement would assuredly be met. A craze to go out to the East +possessed many romantic young ladies of the period, too adventurous +to be satisfied with merely knitting socks and comforters for their +frost-bitten heroes. Colonel Rolleston had frequently expressed a +profound contempt for this mania, refusing to perceive any more exalted +motive for it than a desire to follow their partners. So his horror may +be imagined when his own daughter, whom he had always credited with a +certain amount of sense, thus enrolled herself in the ranks of these fair +enthusiasts. + +Cecil allowed the first torrent of words to expend itself, but, in reply +to the contemptuous query of "What earthly use could she be?" reiterated +the fact of her having received a certificate of competency from the +hospital, and adding, that as five of the sisterhood were shortly to be +taken out to Scutari, it would be easy for her to accompany them as a +volunteer. Then, evading further discussion by leaving the room, she +calmly left the idea to work. + +It was not certainly innate love of the occupation that had made Cecil so +diligent an attendant of the accident ward. At first she shuddered and +faltered at the simplest operation in which her assistance was called +for, but it was essential to test her own nerve before dressing gun-shot +wounds, besides which, a certificate from the hospital would much +facilitate her chance of being taken out to Scutari. And, moreover, she +was desperately unhappy, and rushed into anything to escape from herself. + +I don't know how it was that Cecil prevailed in the end. A year ago, if +she had proposed such a thing, Colonel Rolleston would have a considered +her a fit subject for a _maison de sante_, but he had been thinking for +some time that his daughter was "odd." She was evidently turning out one +of those unmanageable beings, an eccentric woman. Of age, and with an +independent income, if baulked in this, she might only do something else +equally perverse, and, though a most extraordinary fancy for a girl so +brought up, he would not oppose it further. + +And then Cecil, when she had got her wish, with a strange inconsistency +seemed almost inclined to give it up again. But the Colonel, being in +ignorance of her vacillating purpose, took her passage in the same ship +as the other nurses. + +Work enough was there for every one when that vessel reached its +destination. The battle of the Alma had just been fought, and the wounded +were being brought in daily to Scutari. + +In the mean time, Colonel Rolleston had sailed with his regiment, and +Mrs. Rolleston fell into such a state of nervous depression, that Cecil +saw it would be cruel to abandon her--another opportunity for going out +would soon occur, and defering her journey till then, she remained at +home to fulfil the more obvious duty of supporting the sinking spirits +of her step-mother. + +And so passed many weary weeks. The battle of the Alma had been won, and +none of their belongings had appeared in the long list of killed and +wounded. Mrs. Rolleston, becoming more accustomed to suspense, bore up +with greater fortitude. Letters from the seat of war were, of course, +waited for with fearful anxiety, and on the few and far between occasions +when these arrived, they were all comparatively happy. + +One evening Cecil was sitting alone in her own room, and, being very +tired after a long day at the hospital, dropped asleep in her chair. She +awoke with a feeling of deadly chilliness. The moon was shining into the +room, and the figure of Bertie Du Meresq, keen clearly by its rays, was +standing quietly gazing at her. + +"Bertie!" shrieked Cecil "Oh, when did you come?"--and she tried to rush +forward to greet him, but her limbs seemed paralyzed, and he did not move +either, though a sad, sweet smile seemed to pass over his face. _Was_ it +himself, or only a quivering moonbeam? for when she was able to move +there was nothing else to be seen. + +A ghost itself could not have been whiter than Cecil, as she fled to the +drawing room, and almost inarticulately described what she had beheld. + +The very horror it inspired made Mrs. Rolleston repel the ghastly idea +almost angrily. + +"Good heavens, Cecil, why do you frighten me so! You had fallen asleep, +and were dreaming. You say yourself," and she shuddered, "_it_ was gone +when you awoke." + +"You know," said the girl, not apparently attending, "I have never seen +Bertie in uniform, but this is what he wore," (describing the dress of +the ---- Hussars), "and his tunic was torn." + +"That is too absurd, Cecil. All Hussar uniforms are more or less alike, +and you must have seen many. It _is_ this dreadful idea of going to +Scutari that has filled your mind with horrors, and hospital work here +has been too much for you, and told on your nerves." + +But Cecil sat unheeding, as if turned to stone, with such a grey look of +despair on her face, that Mrs. Rolleston longed to rouse her in any way. + +"Forgive me, Cecil," she cried; "you _do_ care for poor Bertie, I see." + +She looked up with a vague, uncomprehending glance. + +"Who was so brilliant--who so brave--with that sympathetic voice, and +warm, endearing manner? He was wicked, I dare say!--he was not cold +enough for a saint." + +Mrs. Rolleston listened painfully. + +"How every one adored him!" pursued Cecil. "I don't mean women--of course +_they_ did: but all his friends would have done anything for him. I have +seen his letters; and who could touch him in countenance, manner, grace? +And such a poetic, original mind! But he cared for me _most_,--he must, +don't you think?" (looking up with dry, tearless eyes), "or he would not +have come to me to-night." + +"Then _why_, oh, why, Cecil, did you give him up?" + +Her brow contracted for an instant. "I could not bear my sun to shine on +any one else," she cried, passionately "I grudged every glance of his +eye, every tone of his voice given to another." + +"Then, Bluebell _was_ the cause--" began Mrs. Rolleston. + +"'My eyes were blinded;' he cared no more for her than the rest. Had I +believed him, we might have been happy five months, for we should have +married the day I came of age." + +"It will happen yet!" cried Mrs. Rolleston. "Shake off this fearful +dream, my dearest child. I know that Bertie cares only for you." + +"We have met to-night, we never shall again." + +"She will have a brain-fever," thought Mrs. Rolleston, distractedly, "if +tears do not come to her relief." They did eventually, convulsively and +exhaustingly, till she dropped into a death-like sleep far into the next +morning. + +The sun had been shining for hours. Mrs. Rolleston did not disturb her, +but the superstitious terror she had battled against the night before +returned daring that long day, in an agony of impatience for news. + +But no submarine telegraph then existing, nothing was heard for a time. +Mrs. Rolleston might have shaken off the gruesome impression, but for the +immovable conviction of Bertie's death that actuated Cecil. She assumed +the deepest mourning, and passed whole hours alone with her grief, +perfectly indifferent to the opinion of any one. Indeed, since his +spiritual presence had, as she believed, appeared to her, he seemed +nearer than before, when they were parted and unreconciled. + +One day, late in the afternoon, Mrs. Rolleston was agitated by that weird +sound to anxious ears, the shouting voices of men and boys hawking +evening papers, and proclaiming startling news. She saw from the balcony +her servant dart down the street for the gratification of his curiosity. +He bought a paper, and perused it as he slowly returned. He got "quite a +turn," as he afterwards described it, when his mistress, pale as a sheet, +met him at the door, and, without a word, snatched the evening journal +from his astonished hands. + +No occasion to seek far. The sensational paragraph was in capital +letters, and contained the intelligence of the battle of Balaklava, and +famous charge of the six hundred, with its fearful losses. The cavalry +regiments engaged were named. Among them was Bertie Du Meresq's, and +mentioned as one that had suffered heavily. The returns of killed and +wounded did not appear. + +Mrs. Rolleston had a friend at the Horse Guards, and instantly despatched +the servant there, with a letter requesting further particulars as early +as possible. Ill news does not lag. A letter from General--soon arrived, +with its warning black seal. Captain Du Meresq was among the casualties. +He had been shot through the heart during the charge. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVII. + +AN UNEXPECTED RENCONTRE. + + Into a ward of the white-washed walls, + Where the dead and the dying lay, + Wounded by bayonets, shells, and balls, + Somebody's darling was borne one day. + --Song. + + +Mrs. Rolleston completely sank under this dreadful blow. Bertie had been +her darling and pride from his infancy, and her own misery was redoubled, +in anticipation of the even greater anguish of Cecil. + +Strange to say, though, _she_ experienced no new shock. That Du Meresq +was dead, she had never doubted, or that his spirit, in the moment of +departure, had hovered for an instant near the one who loved him best. It +seemed to connect her with that other world whither he had gone. It did +not appear so far away, now Bertie was there, and her thoughts were ever +in communion with her spirit love. + +The hour in which he had, as she believed, appeared to her, she regularly +passed alone in the same room, and even prayed for another sign of his +presence. + +But if such prayers were answered, what mourners would remain unvisited +by their dead? + +This room became her "temple and her shrine," in which Bertie, all his +sins forgotten, was canonized. How incessantly she regretted having +parted with those letters, so impulsively affectionate and so entirely +confidential! To be sure, they were chiefly about himself; but what +subject could be so interesting to Cecil? His normal condition of +picturesque insolvency was only a proof of generosity of disposition and +absence of meanness. Now she had nothing but a letter not her own, and +that one last message, "Give my dearest love to Cecil." + +Whether or no the vision was really but a dream, we leave to the decision +of our readers. It was not unnatural that the dominant idea should +impress that unreasoning moment between sleeping and waking; but Cecil's +fervent faith knew no doubts, and thus it was that Du Meresq dead +influenced her as much as when living. + +They soon heard from Colonel Rolleston. Part of his regiment had been +sent to seek and bring in the wounded; his brother-in-law's body had been +found and brought back by Vavasour, and he sent his wife Bertie's watch. +The newspapers were full of the disastrous but glorious charge of the +cavalry, and of their immense loss. + +In Du Meresq's regiment all the senior had been cut off. Had he lived, he +would have been Colonel of it, a position which Lascelles survived to +fill. + +There appeared no respite from anxiety for those who had relatives in the +East. Within two months the battles of the Alma, Balaklava, and Inkermann +had been fought. Colonel Rolleston seemed to bear a charmed life; for, +though repeatedly under fire, he had come out unscathed. Many of his +officers were killed, Fane slightly wounded, and Jack Vavasour had +lost an arm. + +In the ensuing spring Cecil roused herself. Though all her hopes were +dead, the native energy of her character asserted itself, and rebelled +against utter stagnation. Some letters she had received from the nurses +in the Crimea rekindled her former enthusiasm, and she determined to +execute her original project, and go out to the aid of her suffering +countrymen. + +Mrs. Rolleston was now more hopeful, and, far from opposing Cecil's +wishes, cheerfully forwarded them. She looked upon hers as so cruelly +exceptional a lot, that any absorbing occupation capable of distracting +her mind was only too welcome. And so when + + Spring + Came forth, her work of gladness to contrive, + With all her reckless birds upon the wing, + +Cecil, turning "from all she brought," was far on her way to the East, +and wishing, as she assumed the black serge hospital dress, that she +could as easily transform her internal consciousness as her outward +identity. + +Hers was not a nature to do anything by halves, and every faculty of mind +and body became absorbed in these new duties. The patient who fell into +Cecil's hands had little to complain of. She struggled for his life when +even the shadow of death had fallen on him, and sometimes, by arduous +exertions and devoted nursing, saved one in whom the vital flame had +wasted almost to the socket. And then a nearly divine content came to her +as she imagined she might have spared some distant heart the pangs that +had almost broken her own. + +But to follow her through the daily routine of duties, often painful, +often touching, would be too long for the present history, so we pass +abruptly to one event, a necessary link in it. + +Cecil was attending a fever case, and looking anxiously for the doctor, +as she fancied her patient was sinking. He was a young man, and had been +more or less unconscious ever since he was brought in. + +The surgeon came, and shook his head as he felt the feeble pulse. + +"Is there no hope?" asked Cecil, sorrowfully. + +"Scarcely any. Give him this stimulant whenever you can get him to +swallow it; but there seems no reserve of strength." And he passed on +to others. + +She lost no time in attending to his directions, and a large pair of +melancholy brown eyes opened on her. They watched her about persistently, +and seeing their gaze, though languid, was rational, she asked "if there +was anything she could do for him." + +His voice was so inaudible she could but just catch the sentence, "So he +gives me over!" + +"I don't think he would if he could see you now. Indeed, you seem +better." + +"I don't think I shall die; but, in case of accidents, will you write +something for me?" + +Cecil nodded, while holding rapid communion with herself. Ought she to +let him exhaust his little strength in dictating probably an agitating +letter? + +"Will you wait till you are a little stronger?" she said doubtfully. + +"If I ever am, it will not be necessary to write; if otherwise I cannot +do it too soon." + +Cecil, judging by her own feelings that opposition to any strong wish +would be more injurious than even imprudent indulgence, glided from the +room, and soon returned with writing materials. + +She sat down by the bed, and casually felt the attenuated wrist as she +did so. The sick man gazed gratefully at her, but waited some minutes for +breath to commence. His first words made her almost bound from her chair, +and, as he continued in low feeble tones, with long pauses between, Cecil +was wrought into an agony of suspense and interest. + +The communication was to be addressed to an uncle, and began abruptly:-- + + "I was married to Theodora Leigh at a register office at Liverpool in + November, 1853, and I make it a dying request to you to acknowledge my + widow, who will otherwise be destitute both of money and friends. + Forgive, if you can, my deception, and the poor return made for all the + benefits lavished on your, notwithstanding, grateful nephew, + + "HARRY DUTTON. + + "P.S.--My wife is a governess in the family of Mr. Markham, + Heatherbrae, Wimbledon." + +It was sealed, directed, and the patient had sunk into a heavy stupor; +but Cecil felt her heart stirred as she had never expected to do again. + +Here, if she had required it, was complete exoneration of any subsequent +intercourse having taken place between Du Meresq and Bluebell. The latter +evidently had been far otherwise engaged, and, for the first time, she +felt her long-cherished resentment melting away. + +She gazed with some curiosity at the man who could so soon supplant +Bertie, and smiled with irrepressible bitterness at the singular +coincidence that she should be striving to preserve a husband to +Bluebell, who had deprived her of her own early love. + +But where could she have met this man, whom she had married almost +immediately on landing in England? Cecil looked again at the +address--"Right Honourable Lord Bromley." She had heard that name +somewhere, but could not recall any connecting associations. + +Harry lingered some time, his life frequently despaired of; and he would +probably have succumbed had it not been for the untiring energy and care +of the hospital nurse. Her anxiety could not have been exceeded by +Bluebell herself, for Cecil's disposition was generous, and she never +more truly forgave her _ci-devant_ enemy than when thus labouring to +return good for evil. + +At last the turning-point was reached and Dutton lifted from the very +gates of the grave. A wound in his leg was now the chief retarding +circumstance; and as it seemed incapable of healing at Scutari, he was +ordered on sick leave to England. + +In the mean time, a lively friendship had arisen between him and Cecil. +Directly she admitted her name and former intimacy with Bluebell, Harry +took her entirely into his confidence, and, encouraged by the evident +interest with which she listened, related how he had first met and fallen +in love with Bluebell on the steamer, and subsequently persuaded her to +elope with him. + +He did not deny the interested motives which had afterwards induced him +to conceal the marriage; but Cecil's upright mind recoiled at the +unworthy deception, and the strong view she took of it made short work +of the extenuating circumstances advanced by Harry. + +The dying appeal to Lord Bromley had, of course, been burnt since its +writer's recovery; but Dutton, now thoroughly ashamed of his shabby +policy, vowed to Cecil that he would abandon all thoughts of inheritance, +and boldly acknowledge his marriage to Lord Bromley as soon as he should +set foot in England. + +This was their last interview; for, as he had now approached +convalescence, she had no further excuse for ministering to Harry. + +It was some time since he had received tidings from his wife, having +purposely kept her in ignorance when he volunteered into Peel's brigade. +Then he was wounded and laid up at Scutari, so whatever letters she might +have written would be on board the "Druid." + +Now he must apprise her of his approaching return and explain his long +silence. As it happened, a homeward-bound steamer sailed within a few +days of the one which carried this letter, and Dutton, obtaining a +passage in the former, which happened to the faster of the two, arrived +in England almost simultaneously. + +Without further notice, he rushed down to Wimbledon, and, had she been +there, would speedily have solved the mystery that had so exercised Mrs. +Markham. But, lo! on reaching Heatherbrae, he beheld with a sinking heart +a conspicuous board on the garden-gate, with the words, "To be let, +furnished," legibly inscribed thereon. + +Weak from his illness and the disappointment, Harry leant against the +railings to consider and recover. He had been so secure of finding +Bluebell there, and during the whole hurried journey was picturing the +meeting. How would she look? He knew so well the fluttering colour that +changed in any emotion, pleasurable or otherwise: but would he see a true +loving welcome in those transparent eyes? He had considered every +probability or improbability of this sort, but not how he should act +in such a dead lock as the present. + +Repeated rings at the bell at last brought out the woman in charge, her +arms covered with soap-suds, and gown drawn through a placket-hole. + +"The family had gone abroad," she said. "No, she did not know where. The +agent might, perhaps. She was only there to show visitors the house." + +Harry turned away in listless perplexity; it was quite evident this +person could tell him nothing. Doubtless their change of plans had been +communicated to him by post, but he had not waited to send for letters. +There was nothing for it but to obtain from the woman the address of the +house-agent, get Mr. Markham's from him, and send another letter to +Bluebell. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVIII. + +OLD HEAD ON YOUNG SHOULDERS. + + How could I tell I should love thee to-day, + Whom that day I held not dear? + How could I know I should love thee away, + When I did not love thee a near? + --Jean Ingelow. + + +We must now see whither the vicissitudes of fortune have conducted Mrs. +Dutton. Her pleasant home at the Markhams' was gone. They had lost +heavily in the failure of a bank, and were living abroad to retrench, +while Mr. Markham pursued his profession in London. + +Bluebell was the first luxury to be cut off, though, as a home during +Harry's absence was what she chiefly required, she would willingly have +remained for nothing. It was unspeakable grief to part with Mrs. Markham, +who alone understood how oppressively her secret weighed on her, and her +incessant anxiety for news from the seat of war. + +One day,--it was after the battle of Balaklava,--when shuddering over, in +the _Times_, the ghastly "butcher's bill," Bluebell came upon Du Meresq's +name among the killed, and the shock to nerves that had scarcely yet +recovered their equilibrium nearly brought on a relapse of her former +illness. + +Yet, as her mind cleared from its first horror, she was amazed to find it +was not Cecil she was most feeling for, and that the cry, "Thank Heaven, +it is not Harry!" had arisen spontaneously to her heart. I suppose +Bertie's neglect had effected its own cure; but certainly some secret +influence was turning the tide of her affections into its legitimate +channel. + +Yet their correspondence was not only desultory, but constrained. Dutton, +never convinced of possessing her heart, and angry with himself at the +part he had acted, had no pleasure in writing; and Bluebell was as shy of +her new-found feelings as though he were still an unacknowledged lover. + +But whenever a ship came in without bringing a letter, she was filled +with foreboding and dread. Still, there was always the consolation that +he was public property, and as long as she did not see his death +reported, might conclude him to be safe. + +And he never did write anything to excite alarm. No more perils or +hair-breadth escapes could be inferred from his letters than if he were +merely residing abroad from choice. + +Mrs. Markham obtained her another situation. She had never succeeded in +discovering to whom Bluebell was married; but having persuaded herself it +was unnecessary to let that stand in the way, simply recommended her in +her maiden name. + +"I look upon your governessing as a farce, you know, Bluebell, though any +one would gladly snap you up for your music alone. But when this war is +over, the mysterious husband will return, and you will pay me a visit in +your true colours." + +And so they parted, with many promises of correspondence. + +Bluebell's next venture was at Brighton, and she drove to Brunswick +Square one chilly afternoon in March, rather dejected at the prospect of +being again thrown among strangers. + +"Not at home," said the servant. "Mrs. Barrington is hout-driving." + +"Oh, it's all right," said a pert maid, tripping downstairs. "This way, +miss. I was to show you your room, and the children's tea will be ready +directly." + +So saying, she preceded Bluebell upstairs to a chilly, fireless +apartment. Houses in Brighton are not generally very substantially built, +and the room was furnished on the most approved governess pattern,--just +what was barely necessary, no more. Bluebell was impressionable, perhaps +fanciful, for hitherto her "lines had fallen in pleasant places," and +she shivered a little at the forbidding exterior, but was somewhat +cheered by a suggestion of welcome conveyed by a bunch of violets on the +dressing-table. "There's some kind person in this house," thought she, +yet lingering awhile in a purposeless manner, unwilling to walk alone +into the school-room and face the strange children. While thus +hesitating, a demure little person came to fetch her, with tight plaited +hair, irreproachable pinafore, and stockings well drawn up. Two younger +duplicates were in the school-room. The table was laid for the evening +meal,--thick wedges of bread-and-butter, calculated to appease but not to +allure the appetite, and a large Britannia-metal teapot, with not +injuriously strong tea. + +There were a couple of globes, an old piano, and book-cases well stocked +with grammars and histories, and the fire was guarded by a high fender, +effectually dissipating any frivolous notion of sitting with the feet on +it. There was neither dog nor cat, nor even a stray doll, to distract +attention from the serious business of education. + +Such was the impression conveyed to Bluebell, who was instantly filled +with well-grounded misgivings as to whether her qualifications might be +quite up to the standard expected. Good gracious! those children looked +capable of obtaining female scholarships, as they sat, with their keen +impassive faces, calmly adding her up, so to speak. + +Mrs. Barrington and her eldest daughter had just come in. "Oh, so Miss +Leigh has arrived!" cried the former, observing Bluebell's box in the +hall. "Dear me, what a bore new people are! I really must rest, as we +dine out. Couldn't you go up, Kate, and say I hope she is comfortable, +and will ring for the school-room maid whenever she wants anything, and +all that?" + +"That would console her immensely, I should think," said Miss Barrington, +laughing. "Well, I will go and look her over, mamma, and report the +result." + +As Kate entered, her little set speech, that "mamma was lying down, but +hoped," etc., was almost suspended on her lips, as she gazed with +unfeigned curiosity at the new governess. Seated pensively behind the urn +was a fair girl, dressed in black, with an Elizabethan ruff round a long +white throat. Shining chestnut hair contrasted with a complexion of the +purest pink and white, while a pair of dewy violet eyes looked shyly up +at her. "Good heavens!" thought Kate, "she is the loveliest creature in +Brighton at this moment." + +"I have also come to ask for a cup of tea. No, thank you, Adela, none of +that! What buttered bricks! Goodness, children! don't you ever have cake, +or jam, or anything?" + +"Miss Steele used to say it would give us muddy complexions, and spoil +our digestion." + +"Poor little victims! Never mind, you'll come out some day. I must make +haste and get married, Mabel, if you grow like that. But Miss Leigh must +be starved. Do you like eggs and bacon?" with her hand on the bell. + +"Very much," said Bluebell, smiling back, more in gratitude for the good +intentions than anything else. + +"Poor thing!" cried Kate, impulsively, quite vanquished by the smile; +"you will be so dull when the children go to bed. I wish we were not +going out to-night. I'll collect the newspapers, and send you up a +capital novel I got yesterday from the library." + +Bluebell was cheered in a moment. "I am sure it was you whom I have to +thank too, for those violets," said she, touching a few transferred to +her waist-belt, and beaming up at her new acquaintance. + +Kate nodded pleasantly. "Do you like flowers? I bought them in the King's +Road this morning." A few minutes later she burst into her mother's room. + +"Where does this _rara avis_ hail from? I never clapped eyes on such a +beauty--Miss Seraphin is not a patch on her!" + +"Don't be so noisy, dear--Miss Leigh? Yes I heard she was nice-looking." + +"Nice-looking!" echoed Kate, contemptuously. "Just wait till you see her. +She will be focused by every eye-glass in Brighton when she takes the +children out for their constitutional." + +"Dear me! I hope she is a proper kind of person." + +"She looks rather in the Lady Audley style--and such a complexion! I +could have sworn it was painted if it had not varied so. Now I think of +it," said Kate, with _malice prepense_, "she is not at all unlike the +photographs, of--,"--naming some one of whose existence she had no +business to have been aware. + +"It really is too bad of Mrs. Markham not having mentioned this," cried +Mrs. Barrington, as if Bluebell had been convicted of a crime. "It is +most unpleasant having so _voyante_ a person about the children!" + +"Oh, what does it matter," said Kate, heedlessly; "you have no grown up +sons. And she seems awfully nice. She has a face with a history in it, +though. I shall try and make her out to-morrow. No one is ever so +innocent as she looks." + +Kate's admiration was still further excited next day as she listened to +Bluebell's singing. + +"You never heard anything like it, mamma--she could fill Covent Garden; +and she composes too. I wonder if she has ever been on the stage?" + +Less appreciative was the judgment of the erudite Mabel, who reported +Miss Leigh unable to continue her arithmetic beyond the decimal fractions +she had attained to with Miss Steele. "In fact," said the child, with +deep contempt, "I don't believe she has ever-gone beyond the rule of +three herself." + +Indeed, the exact sciences were not Bluebell's _spécialite_, who now +employed many a perplexed hour trying with Sievier's Arithmetic to work +herself up a little ahead of this precocious pupil. Fortunately she was +tolerably strong in history, having gone through a regular course with +the little Markhams; but it was evident, notwithstanding, that Mabel and +Adela pretty accurately gauged her acquirements, and held them +proportionably cheap. + +Kate, too, had become somewhat of a tease. I don't know what led her to +suspect that the governess had something to conceal, but she was +perpetually putting questions most difficult for her to answer; the +incitement being the pleasure of watching, from an artistic point of +view, the beauty of Bluebell's ever-ready blushes while essaying to parry +her tormentor's inquisitorial efforts. + +This cat-and-mouse game would go on till the victim, turning to bay, was +on the point of desperately asking, "What she wished to find out?" Then +Kate would veil her eyes, and look all innocent indifference. Observing +the avidity with which she pounced on newspapers, Miss Barrington one day +secreted them, much entertained by watching the governess circling round +the room, glancing on every table or couch they were likely to have been +thrown on. + +"Try behind the sofa cushion, Miss Leigh." + +Bluebell started, vexed at being observed, and also at this proof of +_espionnage_ on her actions, but a little later she fell into more +serious self betrayal. They were trying over songs in a locked manuscript +book. + +"Dear me, what is this air? I know it so well," she cried, incautiously +humming it. + +"A sea song of my cousin, Harry Dutton's. I had no idea any one else +possessed a copy." + +There was no answer. She looked up, the blood had rushed over Bluebell's +cheek and brow, her lips were apart, and eyes wide open and bright with +wonder. Before she could drop a mask over the too eloquent face, Kate's +keen eyes were reading her off. + +"You know him, I see," with emphasis. + +Bluebell, recovering presence of mind, with a desperate effort, replied +calmly,--"There was a Mr. Dutton, who came home in the same steamer. +Probably I may have heard him whistling the air."--then sat down, and +plunged into an instrumental piece, feeling quite unequal to endure +further questioning. + +But the notes all the time seemed incessantly repeating, "So this is the +Cousin Kate he was always talking about."' + +Miss Barrington's mind was equally busy. + +"I bet Harry flirted with her all the way across, and he never told me a +word of it--never so much as mentioned that there was a pretty girl in +the ship, and yet she admitted knowing his favourite air 'so well.'" + +Then Kate remembered the many unaccounted for weeks between his landing +in England and arrival at "The Towers," and her former suspicion that +some love affair had intervened. + +At first she had only been provoked to curiosity by Bluebell's reserve, +but now there really was food for imagination to work on, and perhaps the +clue to much that was perplexing in Harry. How curiously it had come +out! + +The artless Kate smiled re-assuringly at her victim. She was on the track +now, and the rabbit might have as much chance of ultimately evading the +weasel hunting him by scent. + +"What perverse fate has brought me here?" sighed Bluebell, laying her +tormented head on the pillow that night. "Miss Barrington will be sure to +find out everything. She was so friendly at first; but Harry always said +he never trusted her. Then those children! I am sure they are more +capable of teaching me. Whenever shall I be extricated from this false +position?" + +A night's rest did not allay Bluebell's perplexities; on the contrary, +more and more complications suggested themselves. Harry must know where +she was by this time, and would be frantic at her having dropped into +such an ants'-nest. They would recognise his handwriting, too, if a +letter came. To be sure that would also strike him. Nevertheless she got +into the habit of calling for her letters at the post-office,--a +proceeding which the children did not fail to mention, with the rider, +"That they wondered at Miss Leigh taking the trouble when she never got +any." + +Kate was rather inclined to patronize Bluebell. She persuaded her mother +to give a musical party for the exhibition of her wonderful voice, and +was, on that occasion, quite as solicitous about the young artiste's +toilette as her own; and, being not averse to having a girl of her own +age to chatter to, bestowed a good deal of her society on Bluebell out of +school-hours, which might have been more appreciated were it not for the +excessive caution it entailed on the latter. + +One day she heard that Mrs. and Miss Barrington were going to Bromley +Towers for some theatricals and other gaieties. After her discovery of +whose house she was in, that was only a matter of course, and she had +only to conceal all interest in it. + +Kate was to take a part in one of the plays, and passed the intervening +time in getting it by heart, and rehearsing with Bluebell, while the +necessary costume was animatedly discussed between them. The latter +fancied she had attained sufficient self-command to listen unconcernedly +to any conversation about Lord Bromley or "The Towers," but she could +not quench the beaming delight in her eyes when Kate one day observed, +carelessly,-- + +"I believe you will see the play, after all, Miss Leigh, as mamma has +decided to take Mabel and Adela, which means you also; for Uncle Bromley +has rather a horror of children, and would no more have any of the +juveniles of the family without a keeper, than he would admit a pack of +hounds into the house. Why, Miss Leigh, you look delightful! Do you +really care to go?" Then her suspicions awakening, she set a trap like +lightning. + +"I wonder" (carelessly) "if poor Harry Dutton will get back in time. He +is invalided home from Scutari." + +Self-command--everything--vanished. + +"How did you hear that?" with crimson cheeks and suspiciously dimmed +eyes. + +"How?" with marked emphasis. "Would it not be stranger if one had not +heard it? Uncle Bromley named it in his letter. He was wounded," +bringing out the words slowly, "and almost died in the hospital. I hope +he will survive the voyage home." + +"That girl's a fiend," thought Bluebell, rushing off to her own room in a +paroxysm of terror. Then, as she tried to think it out, it became quite +evident Harry could not be aware of her change of residence, perhaps had +received no letters at the hospital, and would not even know where to +find her when he returned. Still, she would be in the right direction, +for no doubt he would go to Bromley Towers. But what a place to meet in! +And, being ignorant of his address, she could not even send a line of +warning. + +Romantic notions of fascinating Lord Bromley, and thus facilitating +confession when Harry returned, stole through her brain. Kate's play +paled in dramatic interest to the possible "situations" that seemed +impending. One drawback to taming the lion was the probability of +scarcely being on speaking terms with him. Her mission, indeed, seemed to +be to keep the children _out_ of his way. But there were the theatricals; +children, servants, governesses even, would be privileged to look on that +one night. The coquette nature, dormant from want of practice, awoke +again. Lord Bromley was only a man! Why couldn't she make him like her? + +Kate observed renewed smiles and animation, and set it down to the hope +of seeing Dutton at "The Towers," especially as she also detected her +doing what maids call "a little work for myself," and effecting wonders +with a few yards of muslin and ruffling. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIX. + +THE LOAN OF A LOVER. + + Parks with oak and chestnut shady, + Parks and ordered gardens great, + Ancient homes of lord and lady, + Built for pleasure and for state. + --Tennyson. + + +This was Bluebell's first acquaintance with a really grand English park, +and, during the long drive through it, she gazed in wondering delight at +the stately trees, heavy with summer foliage, the herds of deer, the calm +lake, with kingly swans gliding over it. Perhaps her greatest surprise +was that all this fair domain belonged to one individual. Why, the +richest "boss" in Canada possessed no more than a few acres of lawn and +pleasure ground, with ornamental trees and shrubs,--all looking new,--the +production of a self made man, grown rich within a few years. These +stately oaks and beeches must have seen generations live and die, lords +of the manor, and she began better to understand Harry's reluctance to +risk such an inheritance. + +"Oh, they are exercising 'Hobbie,'" cried the children "Then we shall +have some rides." + +Lord Bromley seldom presented himself to his guests till dinner-time. +Polite grooms of the chamber offered tea, etc., the housekeeper showed +visitors to their rooms. But on this occasion Mrs. Barrington was +virtually lady of the house, and, being too late to receive, was in +voluble conversation with a few persons already arrived. + +Bluebell was not introduced to any one, and, her first sensations of +excited curiosity having subsided, began to feel as if she must stiffen +to her chair if no one would speak to her and break the spell. It was a +welcome relief when Adela exclaimed,-- + +"Mamma, may we go up to the nursery?" + +"With all my heart, and take Miss Leigh." + +The children darted off across a slippery oak hall, up a flight of stone +stairs with a velvety carpet, then along a passage leading to a private +staircase with a red baize door shutting it off. It opened into a long +low room, still keeping the name of nursery, and at each end were +bed-rooms, one for the two girls, the smaller for Bluebell. + +"This is such a jolly place," cried Adela, who seemed to have left all +her primness at Brighton. "You have never seen the spring woods, nor the +amphitheatre, nor the waterfall!" + +"Nor the terraces and gardens, nor the menagerie, nor dry pond," added +Mabel. "Oh, we could not show you everything in a fortnight. Shall we +come out now or after tea? It isn't laid yet. Let us have it out of +doors." + +Bluebell was almost as eager as the children; and they spent the hot June +evening under the trees, listening to bird choruses and the rich solo of +a lingering nightingale. + +Next morning she was conducted by her pupils round the spring woods, the +same walk that Dutton and his cousin had perambulated eighteen months +ago. It took just twenty-five minutes to make the circuit, returning to +the starting point, marked by a summer-house. + +When they had got about half way round, they were met by an old, spare +gentlemen, slightly bent. He nodded to the children, spoke a casual word, +and mechanically raised his hat to Bluebell. The intensity of her +interest gave animation to her countenance. + +"That's a pretty girl," thought his Lordship, continuing on his way. + +He was in the habit of taking this constitutional every morning before +breakfast, sometimes twice round, sometimes once. This day it was twice, +and, walking at about an equal pace, the school-room party were passing +him nearly on the same spot. + +Lord Bromley paused again, said something to the children, and took a +second glance at Bluebell. + +"You are a young mistress of the ceremonies, Mabel; but why don't you +present me to this young lady?" + +Mabel looked up in astonishment, then said promptly, "Miss Leigh, Lord +Bromley." + +A slight tremor passed over his face, and he leant a little more on his +stick, giving Bluebell an impression of extreme feebleness. After a +mechanical observation or two, rather to her disappointment he walked +away, without further improving the introduction. + +Mrs. Barrington wished lessons to be proceeded with in the forenoon, so +they did not leave the nursery. In the evening the children were desired +to dress and come down with Bluebell till bed-time. It seems rather a +_triste_ pleasure for a governess to have the trouble and expense of an +evening toilette, with no expectation of entertainment beyond a cup of +coffee if the servants remember to offer it, and the enforced +conversation of some good-hearted guest, who, in the absence of any +subject in common, can think of no more suggestive topic than inquiries +into her daily walks, with threadbare remarks on the scenery. If she is +lively, and strikes out into fresh fields and pastures new, "she is +forward, and a flirt." If otherwise, she mounts the stereotyped smile, +and gushes about the singing in church and picturesqueness of the +neighbourhood, which, probably, by this time she loathes every feature +of. Then come long pauses; the philanthropic guest mingles in general +conversation, and edges away, leaving her to retreat upon a photograph +book. + +Little of all this did Bluebell dread,--she only longed to get downstairs +on any terms. Immured in the nursery, how could her little plot proceed? +Her simple toilette was carefully considered while brushing out and +arranging the shining coils of chestnut hair. Yet it was only a black +muslin dress, cut _en coeur_, and relieved with her favourite ruffles. +The children had brought handfuls of roses from the rosary--yellow, +crimson, white, blush, pink. A York and Lancaster in her hair, a tea-rose +in her bosom, and she was ready. + +Only the ladies were in the large saloon, which again dazzled the +unsophisticated Bluebell with its magnificence. She found herself, as +before, little noticed; but, the pictures, which she might study +uninterruptedly from a secluded corner, entertained her for some time. +There were full-length portraits of Court ladies, by Lely, with wonderful +lace on brocaded gowns. One had a little dog half hidden in the folds. +The arch face of Nell Gwynne smiled over a door, a life-sized +Gainsborough of a lady with a straw hat, reclining on a bank of flowers, +was conspicuous over one fire-place. There were cavaliers with long, +curled hair, gentlemen of a later date in pig-tails; but the most modern +of all was a portrait of a boy playing with a large dog. On this one her +eye lingered longest. Whom could it be? It was not in the least like +Harry, and yet she fancied something about it familiar to her. There was +a look of Lord Bromley, certainly--perhaps it was a portrait of him in +childhood. + +Mabel and Adela, meantime, were performing an elaborate duet. It was one +of her most irksome duties instructing these children in music, who would +never attain to more than mechanical excellence. When they had arrived at +the final crash, with not more than half a bar between them, Bluebell was +summoned to sing. The gentlemen came in from the dining-room at the last +verse, and, after a slight pause, she began another unasked. Mrs. +Barrington thought this rather forward, but there was a suppressed murmur +of applause when she had finished. + +One of the ladies addressed a few words to her, and then Kate carelessly +brought up a gentleman who had been tormenting her for an introduction. + +Bluebell had hoped that Lord Bromley would have spoken to her, after +their encounter in the morning. But he did not, though sometimes she felt +sure he was looking at her. + +The undercurrent of excitement gave a feverish vivacity to her manner, +which Sir Robert Lowther imputed to gratified vanity at his attentions +and he continued complacently by her side, till Mrs. Barrington said,--"I +think, Miss Leigh, the children should go to bed," and Bluebell +understood she was expected to accompany them. + +It was very mortifying. Apparently she had been too much at her ease, and +perhaps the _empressement_ with which Sir Robert had rushed to open the +door might exclude her from coming down for the future. Then she +reflected, with a little pardonable spite, that, if things turned out +according to her hopes, Mrs. Barrington might, perhaps, repent having +marched her off with the children like a nursery-maid. + +The following morning, at the same hour, Bluebell circulated the spring +woods with her pupils, and, had he been a young lover approaching, her +heart could not have beat higher than on again perceiving the bent form +of Lord Bromley. + +Would he pass them with a courteous lifting of the hat to her? Of course; +what else would he do? Her fervent aspiration had apparently a magnetic +effect; or was it her face that was so tell-tale a mirror? Lord Bromley +stopped, spoke a few words, and actually turned back with them! + +Bluebell was in the seventh heaven. She had not yet learnt how little +even personal liking weighs against ambition when the object of it is +unsupported by the merit of being well placed in the world. If +well-tochered Lady Geraldine, pale and plain, had married the heir, every +door in Bromley Towers would have been hospitably thrown open to her +while the loveliest Peri, whose face was her fortune, might have stood +knocking at the portal-gate unnoticed. + +"Yet everything will go right if he only likes me!" To be liked, to be +loved, that comprises all else with a girl. This one was not quite a +fool, only had not outlived her youthful illusions. + +An ardent desire to attain anything goes far towards success. Fearful of +being thought forward, yet longing to please, she seemed to awaken an +interest in Lord Bromley; though he talked playfully to all three, his +indulgent smile was for Bluebell. Another expression appeared sometimes +on his face, the same that had perplexed her the previous evening--an +investigating, speculating glance: and once, when becoming more at ease, +her features resumed their play, his were suddenly contorted, as if a +sharp pang had seized him. + +The walk seemed all too short, for Lord Bromley did not take the second, +but retraced his steps to the house. Bluebell fell into a reverie, till +something in the children's chatter attracted her attention. + +"Wasn't he nice this morning? Never saw him in such a good humour! Why, +he hardly ever speaks to us!--hates children, mamma says. Do you know, +Miss Leigh, Uncle Bromley never walked with us so far before." + +"Perhaps he thinks you are getting to a more companionable age," said +Bluebell, blushing; but her heart bounded triumphantly. + +It was an intensely hot afternoon. The ladies and some of the gentlemen +were grouped under the lime-trees near the house. Kate, standing by a +gipsy table, was pouring out tea, and keeping up a running fire of merry +nonsense, her usual staff of danglers hovering near. The elder ladies +seemed equally content, knitting shawls and weaving scandal. The bees +were humming in the limes, "the rich music of a summer bird" overhead. +The very air seemed green in the shadow of the trees. + +"There," cried Kate, petulantly, "as sure as ever one is innocently happy +in this wicked world, some species of amateur police obliges one to 'move +on.'" And she glanced over her shoulder at a gentleman approaching. + +He walked straight up to the group with a business-like, uncompromising +manner, very different to the _dolce far niente_ attitudes; yet four of +the number rose at once to join him. + +"Do have a cup of tea," cried Kate, enticingly, with the view to a +reprieve. + +"No, thank you; never touch it. There is not _too_ much time, Miss +Barrington." + +"I know, I know," with a resigned air, and a shrug to the four who had +risen. And without another word they all mysteriously followed their +summoner to the house. + +"What can they be going to do with Mr. Barton?" asked one of the ladies. + +"Oh, it's a great secret," said Mrs. Barrington, laughing affectedly, +"if they can only keep it." + +In fact, it was a rehearsal. Mr. Barton was stage-manager, and ruled them +with a rod of iron. He made the timid "speak up," the giddy, practise +over and over again which side of the stage they were to enter and leave +by; threw more spirit in here, checked ranting there, and ventured to +object to the key in which Kate, as heroine, sang her song. He permitted +"gagging" as a proof of presence of mind, provided the cue was +forthcoming; but now his great soul was perturbed by the absence of a +prompter. + +"We really cannot do without one any longer," cried he, in urgent appeal +to Kate, who rang the bell with an air of conviction. + +"I will send for Miss Leigh, with whom I have been rehearsing. She almost +knows the play by heart, and set my song to music." + +Bluebell was starting out with the children, but came very willingly. +Acting always had a charm for her, and, the play being pretty well in her +head, she could prompt and watch at the same time. + +Kate was too clever not to act well; but the _rôle_ of the simple, +ingenuous heroine was scarcely suited to her. She did not _look_ it. The +other girl, Miss Heneage, said her part like a lesson, but could not act +it. The men were imperfect--incapable of getting through a sentence +without the prompter. Sir Robert was the most inattentive of all, being +more interested in trying to set up a flirtation with Bluebell, who +demurely repressed him. + +Such were the elements Mr. Barton was preparing to appear before an +indulgent public in two days' time. All the neighbourhood was invited to +the theatricals, and the evening was to close with a dance. + +This night Bluebell received no invitation to join the party below. The +children went down without her, and came up about nine, apparently in a +great state of amusement. + +"You'll get down to-morrow, I think, Miss Leigh. Uncle Bromley said to +mamma, 'Where is your pretty governess, Lydia? Surely she is coming down +to sing to us?' And Sir Robert muttered something about 'a beautiful +syren,' and wanted to go up and fetch you." + +Bluebell was more gratified by the first part of this speech; that silly +Sir Robert would spoil everything. + +Next day, according to Mabel's prognostications, the ban was removed, and +Bluebell made free of the saloon in the evening, continuing, however, +rigorously to retire when her pupils did. Somewhat to her discomposure, +she found they had been chattering to Kate about Lord Bromley joining +their morning walks. Miss Barrington had turned this little circumstance +over in her mind rather curiously. Bluebell was apparently so wonderfully +discreet with young men, it was strange she should go out early to flirt +with an old one. + +"Next time say you would rather walk in the Park, Mabel," said she. + +And when the children rather confusedly acted on this advice, Bluebell, +detecting Kate's hand in it, immediately assented, determined that no +reluctance should be reported. + +The day of the theatricals arrived, and with it a great reverse of +fortune to Miss Barrington. She had driven early into the market-town in +a small pony carriage for some essential no one but herself could choose. +Now, though a good rider, Kate was a remarkably careless whip; and +rattling through the town, the ponies shied at something, or nothing, +swerved into a cart, and upset the tittuppy little trap in a moment. The +immediate result to the fair driver was a sprained ankle, contused face, +and fast blackening eye. Any amount of pain she would have cheerfully +endured sooner than give up her evening's excitement; but the unfortunate +eye swelled, and got blacker and blacker, and nothing could be done. Her +despair was communicated to the whole corps, till Mr. Barton suggested a +substitute in Bluebell. It was carried _nem. con._, with the chilling +consent of Mrs. Barrington, who, though she would not hear of Kate +appearing thus disfigured, had tried in vain to persuade Lord Bromley to +put off the play. But he maintained it was now "too late for +postponement; Barton had said the girl could act; and Kate deserved the +disappointment, for she had no business to have upset herself," etc. In +the meantime Mr. Barton had carried off Bluebell for a severe rehearsal. +The play was "The Loan of a Lover," and as Peter Spyk he was interested +in his Gertrude. Sir Robert also, as Captain Amesfort, threw considerably +more animus into his scene since the change of heroines. + +Bluebell had tea with her pupils as usual, and joined in the _dramatis +persona_ in the green room at nine. The company was arriving. The front +benches were soon filled with ladies, while the men stood about in the +doorway, or looked over their heads. + +Among the latter was Harry Dutton. He had come without notice, too late +to join the party at dinner, and, thinking the whole thing rather a bore, +scarcely glanced at the stage. + +"Mynheer Swizel! Mynheer Swizel!" Dutton started as if he had been shot. +In a peasant's dress, and running on to the stage greeted by a round of +applause, he recognises Bluebell! Here, at Bromley Towers! + +Transfixed to the spot, his moonstruck gaze rivetted on the actors, +people spoke to him, and he never heard. Conjecture, wonder, doubts of +his own sanity, were whirling his brain. How did she get _here_, of all +places in the world? With whom?--and under what name? Heavens, if she +should suddenly perceive him, and stop short or scream! He moved behind a +pillar, where he could observe unseen. Peter Spyk was singing:-- + + "To-morrow will be market-day, + The streets all thronged with lasses gay; + And from a crowd so great, no doubt, + Sweethearts enough I may pick out. + In verity, verity, verity aye," etc + +And then Gertrude, in a mocking voice, coquettishly sang,-- + + "Be not too bold, for hearts fresh caught, + Are ne'er, I am told, to market brought + The best, they say, are _given_ away, + And are not _sold_, on market-day. + In verity, verity, verity aye," etc + +A round of applause and an encore followed. It was long since Harry had +heard Bluebell's voice, but he alone did not applaud. The play proceeded, +and then Sir Robert came in as Amesfort. It hung a little here. He +floundered, gagged, forgot the cue, and the voice of the prompter became +distinctly audible. Happily, conceit bore him along. Harry winced as he +drawled to Gertrude, "Why, you are very pretty!" But when he proceeded to +catch her round the waist and offered to kiss her, he mattered an oath, +and half-started forward. Warned by a look of curiosity in a bystander, +Dutton fiercely controlled himself, but a burning desire to quarrel with +Sir Robert took possession of him. + +In the last scene, when she comes on as a bride, Harry remembered, with +a curious laugh, she had never been so attired for him. Bluebell was +warming to her part. She and Peter Spyk were pulling the whole coach, and +when the play was ended they were both loudly called for before the +curtains. + +Happy and delighted at her success, it was hard to fall from triumph +to insignificance; but, in the first flush of the former, Bluebell was +left in solitude. Her fellow actors had flown away to exchange their +theatrical costume for ball dress, and she had received no _carte +blanche_ to mingle with the dancers. + +Lingering listlessly alone in the greenroom, wishing to join the rest, +and hoping some one might think of sending for her, she had thrown +herself into an easy-chair, back to the door, which was half-open. There +was a slight sound of a rapid, stealthy footstep, and, before she had +time to look round, a twisted note was tossed into her lap. + +Bluebell started to her feet. Her heart gave one great jump, and her +cheeks were blanched. + +She rushed to the door. Too late,--the passage was empty. After reading +the note, she walked backwards and forwards, in an incoherent state of +excitement, pondering its contents, and was returning to the deserted +school-room, when she was met and stopped by Lord Bromley. + +"Not dressed yet!" he exclaimed. "Or is Gertrude going to dance in this +pretty bridal array?" + +"This dress is Miss Barrington's. Good-night, Lord Bromley," said +Bluebell, trying to pass. + +"What! you poor child, are you sent to bed? Come along with me. I'll make +it right with Mrs. Barrington." + +"I cannot, indeed. I am ill--I am tired," said Bluebell, desperately. + +Lord Bromley's eyes were fixed inquiringly upon her; but people were +coming along the passage, and, escaping from him, she darted off. + +No one was in the nursery. Bluebell hastily changed her dress, wrapped +herself in a dark cloak, and drew the hood over her head; then, +descending the staircase, listened a moment at the foot. No one seemed +about. She flew down a dark passage into the billiard-room, threw open +the French window, and stepped out. It was as dark as a summer's night +ever is, and a soft shower was falling; but Bluebell took no heed. +Avoiding the front of the house, she threaded her way by the back +settlements. A dog barked, and a poaching cat was marauding about. The +grass felt damp and clinging as she struck into what was called "The West +Drive." It was not kept exactly in lawn order there. A hundred yards +further on was a summer-house, thatched inside and out with moss, from +which, long ere she reached it, Harry Dutton emerged, and, folding her in +his arms, drew her within its shelter. + +In the meantime, the ball was in full swing; every now and then inquiries +were made for the missing heir. "Did not Mr. Dutton come to-night? I +wonder what has become of him!" Lord Bromley wondered too; but, before he +had time to be really offended at his absence. Mr. Dutton was observed +valsing with Lady Geraldine. The young sailor was no whit less +interesting for his Crimean campaign, to which his wound lent an +additional _prestige_; and it was astonishing what severe remarks were +made on the unloveliness of the partner with whom he most frequently +danced that night. + +And yet such criticism was more undeserved than usual, for a look of +gentle happiness softened and inspired her naturally plain features, and +lent an unwonted tender grace to a somewhat inexpressive figure. + +Lord Bromley did not observe their frequent contiguity with the same +satisfaction as of yore. On the contrary, his eye rested on Harry with a +somewhat sarcastic expression, and he remained thoughtful and _distrait_. + + + + +CHAPTER XL. + +THE MINIATURE. + + True, I have married her. + The very head and front of my offending + Hath this extent, no more. + --Shakespeare. + + +Lord Bromley did not suffer the nocturnal festivities to interfere with +his morning walk, during which he came upon the governess and her pupils +looking as fresh as the dawn. + +"I need not ask if you have recovered from last night, Miss Leigh," +observed he, dryly, as he bowed demurely, with a somewhat conscious air. + +"Did you dance?" asked Mabel; "for I heard you come up just after the +stable clock struck one, and the music had been going on for ever so +long." + +Now, it might have been half-past eleven when Miss Leigh had professed +herself to Lord Bromley as too ill and tired to dream of dancing. Looking +the consternation she felt at this contradictory piece of evidence, she +remained silent, not daring to raise her eyes. + +"Who would have taken you for such an actress!" said the peer, in rather +ambiguous accents. + +Bluebell looked up desperately; her expression was ingenuous, but half +imploring. + +"Such nerve and command of countenance!" rhapsodized his Lordship, with +the same odd fixed look and sarcastic inflection of voice. "The idea of +the plot so perfectly conceived and played out! Had you much practice--in +Canada." + +"I have played in charades and small pieces," wondering how he knew she +had been in Canada. + +"But you never _really_ acted till you came to England? How long was that +ago?" + +"Some time now," confusedly. + +"Nearly two years, perhaps?" + +"About that--no, not quite so much," more and more perplexed by his +manner. + +"I hope you'll come down, and sing to us to-night. Miss Leigh. I am not +sure I don't prefer that accomplishment for young ladies--it is _safer_." +He turned away, leaving Bluebell in bewilderment. + +Kate, recovered by a night's rest, would consent to no more seclusion; +the blow was not much of a disfigurement now, and she was making an +immense fuss over Harry, which suited him well enough to encourage, as he +rather repented the imprudently frequent dances with Geraldine, and felt +embarrassed in her society this morning. + +The cousins were sitting on an ottoman, in half-teazing, +half-affectionate discourse, when Bluebell, feeling like a conspirator +of the deepest dye, entered demurely with her pupils. Kate watched Harry +narrowly, who did not appear to have observed their entrance. + +"You seem to have forgotten Miss Leigh," she remarked. "Did you not +travel together from Quebec?" + +Dutton, somewhat staggered by her correct information, shot a swift +inquiring glance at his cousin. + +"To be sure--so it is Miss Leigh. I thought last night I knew the face--" + +"Why don't you go and speak to her?" + +"I am shy--perhaps she won't remember me." + +"Miss Leigh, Mr. Dutton thinks you have forgotten him." + +Bluebell bowed stiffly, very much on her guard; for she saw that Lord +Bromley was an attentive observer, and his strange behaviour in the +morning had given rise to an uncomfortable suspicion that he might +(though how, she could not imagine) be cognizant of the tryst in the West +Wood. Harry moved to a seat near, and began an indifferent conversation +with her, that the whole room might have heard. + +"Can it be all--kid," thought Kate, "or was there really nothing between +them?" + +At that instant Sir Robert lounged up, and threw himself in a familiar +manner on the other side of Bluebell. + +Dutton's face darkened. He had taken an antipathy to this man, who +commenced a sort of condescending flirtation with his wife. He called +her "Gertrude," too, and poured out compliments on her acting, describing +his despair at being unable to find her among the dancers afterwards. + +Harry was boiling, Kate exultant. "I knew I was right," she thought. + +Bluebell was summoned to the piano. Sir Robert followed. It was a +semi-grand, and he leant on the other end, opposite to her. + +"Where is the music? Oh! you play without. So much the better. One sees +the eyes flashing." + +It was not the only pair, for Dutton's were fixed upon Sir Robert with a +ferocious expression, apparent even to his obtuseness, and somewhat +surprised, he returned it with a slight stare and elevation of the +eyebrows. That night, in the smoking-room, the antagonism between the two +was more pronounced than ever. Sir Robert explained it by a conjecture +that "Dutton was sweet on the little governess, and d--d jealous." He was +not particularly popular among the other men: but all agreed that Dutton +"had been very rough on Lowther, and was not half such a cheery, pleasant +fellow as he used to be." + +What would not Kate have given for an incident that befell Lady Geraldine +one day! She had been much puzzled by Harry's manner since his return: +for, though his appreciation of her was more heartily manifested than +before, she was conscious of a difference,--or rather, perhaps, analyzed +it more truly now. Her adorers had not been so numerous as to disturb the +impression of the first man who had ever appeared to care about her; but +she could scarcely deceive herself longer--there was evidently now +nothing warmer than liking left. + +Poor girl! she was easily discouraged, and felt no resentment; she did +not even think it necessary to conjure up a rival to account for the +discontinuation of his attentions, till a slight incident revealed one to +her. She was sitting alone in the morning-room, and, being somewhat of a +china fancier, turned a cup on a bracket upside down, to examine the mark +at the bottom. In doing so, a bit of paper fluttered out, and as she +picked it up, the words, "West Wood, four o'clock," met her startled +gaze. She was convinced that the writing was Harry's, but whom could the +assignation be intended for? Soon after Bluebell came into the room as it +seemed to her with no very apparent purpose Lady Geraldine, not without +design, seated herself at a small writing-table, with her back to the +bracket, and almost immediately heard a slight clatter. Miss Leigh had +vanished, and so had the paper from the teacup. + +"I wish I dare go to the West Wood," thought Geraldine, for she was not +all perfect, and the indignation in her heart inspired a deep desire to +expose the underhand behaviour of the designing governess. That evening +Harry had been talking to her longer than usual. Bluebell was singing at +the piano, and finally began the Persian song of "The May Rose to the +Nightingale." Geraldine listened, attracted by the sentiment. One verse +was unfortunately suggestive-- + + Moonlight, moonlight, think'st thou he'd leave me + For one so pale--for one so pale + But moonlight, moonlight, if he deceive me, + Tell not the tale--tell not the tale + +Then Geraldine's pallid complexion was flushed with resentment, for she +imagined the words levelled at herself. Next day--unable to resist again +examining the cup--she found another fold of paper, but this time in a +female handwriting. Harry, of course, would come for it and she +determined to remain till he did so. The room was then tolerably full. +Some time after Dutton dropped in with another man, and, all unconscious +of _surveillance_, lingered till only he and Lady Geraldine remained in +the room. + +"Mr. Dutton," she said, in her somewhat reedy voice, "I understand a +little about china, but cannot make out the date of that little yellow +cup, the mark at the bottom is so defaced." + +It was said meaningly, and Harry understood that he was discovered. To +throw himself upon her generosity seemed an obvious necessity. With a +conscious yet penetrating glance, closing the half open door, he +exclaimed, impulsively, "Dear Lady Geraldine, may I tell you something +about myself?" + +Geraldine flushed hotly. This was somewhat more than she had bargained +for. With the slightest _soupçon_ of stateliness, dreading what was to +follow, she managed to say, that "Whatever he liked to tell her should go +no further." + +"It will all be known soon enough," cried he. "But I fancy Lady +Geraldine, you have some suspicion I know I can trust you, and you have +been always so kind and sympathetic to me, it is a much greater comfort +telling you than Kate." + +Geraldine bowed her head. She was determined not to betray herself, and +even felt some little curiosity, though how abundantly that faculty was +to be gratified ere she left the room, she certainly had not foreseen. +One result was, it had an immediately bracing effect, for, with all her +humility, Geraldine had the pride of self respect, and the confession +completely disabused her of the idea that Harry had ever aspired to being +suitor of hers. It was a pang, no doubt. Even his confidence might have a +double meaning. Had she any of the fury of a woman scorned, what an +amount of mischief would be in her power. But Harry's instinct was right, +and he never regretted his reliance on Geraldine's honour and pride. + +Dutton and his wife continued to meet daily in secret. They had agreed to +confess to Lord Bromley directly the visitors should have left, but I +think were still young enough to enjoy the stratagems necessary for those +stolen interviews. How many narrow escapes they were to laugh at +afterwards and, in society, when they appeared on such conventional terms +as respectful youth and prudent governess, how many _doubles entendres_ +Harry hazarded, to see Bluebell struggling with alarmed risibility. + +But the rash pair were outwitted at last, and run to earth by Kate in the +moss arbour. How much of their conversation had been overheard, or how +long she had stood there before springing out, of course could be only +conjecture. A violent start had been irrepressible, and, as they both +were speechless from the shock, Kate remained mistress of the situation, +and evidently not disposed to be merciful. A few sarcastic expressions to +her cousin, some cutting remarks on Bluebell's deceitful and designing +conduct, and she was gone--apparently for the purpose of exposing the +intrigue she imagined herself to have discovered. Dutton sprang after +her, and Bluebell, in much vexation and alarm, returned to the house. + +Not much breathing time was to be obtained in the nursery, whither she +had hurried. The door was half open, and, entering unperceived, she +beheld a sight that gave her almost as genuine a start as Kate's +inopportune appearance. Yet it was only Lord Bromley sitting by the +table, looking pale and shaken, and gazing intently on--could she believe +her eyes?--the miniature of Theodore Leigh. The case was broken. +Bluebell had been gumming it, and had left it on the table to dry. But +why should he be studying it with such absorbing interest? + +Lord Bromley raised his eyes, and fixed them sternly on the beautiful +girl. "Come here _Theodora_."--and she started. "Whose portrait is this?" + +"My father's." + +"Exactly. And, such being the case, your presence in this house requires +some little explanation." + +Unable to see the connexion between the miniature and this attack; +Bluebell remained silent and confounded; but, as he continued to gaze +severely at her, she roused herself to reply. + +"I came here because Mrs. Barrington brought me, and I went to her by the +purest accident. Did you _know_ my father, my Lord?" + +"Simplicity may be rather overdone! Do you think, child, I have not +seen through your evident desire to ingratiate yourself?--and scheming +yourself into this house will, I assure you, not further your designs!" + +Bluebell could not deny the former charge, though guiltless of the latter +insinuation. But who could have betrayed their marriage, and why did he +only blame her? + +"I do not know who may have prompted you, but if he thought duplicity and +cunning a recommendation in a grand-child--" + +"Grandchild!" echoed Bluebell. "What can you mean, Lord Bromley! Sir +Timothy Leigh was _my_ grandfather!" + +"Which, as you probably very well know, I have not been called for +fifteen years!" + +Still the intense perplexity of her face was staggering his impression +that this adventurous daughter of his disinherited son was trying by a +_coup de main_ to cancel the edict of banishment, and to obtain favour +and fortune at his hands. + +"_You_ my grandfather!" she reiterated, mechanically, her eyes, wonder +wide, staring at the old man with child-like directness, that produced a +more convincing effect on his mind than any words. After all, it was +quite possible she might not have heard of his succession to a remote +peerage, and this amazement was certainly not assumed. Moreover, the +expression of her face was conjuring from a dim past a host of memories. +He became strangely moved, and could scarcely bear the gaze which +recalled so forcibly Theodore in his youth. + +Which made the first movement neither knew. "My dearest little girl!" he +murmured, and folded her in his arms. + +Bluebell was weak and silent from surprise mingled with extreme +happiness, and Lord Bromley had gone back in thought to former years, and +dare not trust himself to speak; so they were both too absorbed to notice +the entrance of Harry Dutton, who remained rooted to the spot (like a +stuck pig, as he afterwards elegantly described it), and a smothered +exclamation burst from his lips. + +Lord Bromley hurriedly withdrew himself from Bluebell, not particularly +gratified at being surprized in so romantic a _pose_ at his time of life. + +"What the d----l are you doing here, sir?" he angrily demanded. + +Harry, considering he had quite as good a right to ask that question, +turned inquiringly and gloomily to Bluebell, who, feeling if she +attempted to open her lips she must either go off into a hysterical fit +of laughter or burst into tears, said nothing; and the uncle and nephew +continued to glare at each other. + +She signed to Dutton to speak; but he was too mystified and sulky; so +Bluebell, in desperation, plunged _in medias res_. + +"Harry!" she cried, "this is my grandfather as well as your uncle! Why, +we must be cousins!" Then, after an instant's pause, with downcast eyes +and crimson cheeks, she penitently kissed the old man's hand, and +whispered,--"He is my husband too; we meant to have told you to-morrow!" + +So the dread secret was out at last! Silence, that could be felt, ensued, +and seemed endless to the two culprits, who, with drooping eyes, waited +anxiously for him to speak. + +Now, this announcement was hardly so unexpected as they supposed, and far +more welcome than their wildest dreams could have anticipated. Lord +Bromley's agent, who paid the annuity to Mrs. Leigh, was also in the +habit of giving him periodical information of the well-being of his +grand-daughter. When, however, she eloped from Captain Davidson's house, +he had lost sight of her for a time, but afterwards picked up the clue at +Mrs. Markham's. When they also disappeared so suddenly, the agent was +again at fault, Bluebell having changed her situation in the interval. + +Advancing years had softened Lord Bromley. The tidings of her elopement +without any positive proof of a _bona fide_ marriage preceding it, had +shocked him into bitter remorse for having left her, an unprotected waif +and stray, to the tender mercies of the world, and now she had passed out +of his ken, and he could not but fear the worst. + +In this frame of mind he came accidentally upon Bluebell in the spring +woods, and the likeness to her father, which was singularly obvious, +seemed the reflection of the thoughts that haunted him. Then, when Mabel +mentioned her by name, it flashed upon him that what he had taken for a +trick of imagination might be, indeed, a sober reality. Lord Bromley +sought Mrs. Barrington, and elicited, in reply to his careless inquiries, +the fact that the fair governess was a Canadian, and had come into her +family from the Markhams'. This was conclusive, and he took every +opportunity of observing Bluebell with an almost hungry interest. The +elopement rankled unpleasantly in his mind. He watched her conduct +narrowly, and was pleased to see that she seemed prudent and careful; +but his suspicions received a new direction by the mutual disappearance +of Dutton and herself on the night of his return. It was a coincidence, +at any rate, for had not Mabel asserted she had not come upstairs till +one, before which hour Harry had not entered the ball-room? He also +detected two or three looks of intelligence passing between them, then, +when Kate remarked that they had returned in the same steamer from +Quebec, the mystery began to take a definite shape. He remembered his +nephew's confession of an attachment, and his absence for many weeks +after landing. At this stage a terrible possibility obtruded itself, and +Bluebell's inviting manner, which before had pleased him, seemed all an +artful attempt to get into favour. + +The accidental sight of Theodore's miniature, which stirred poignantly +the stern heart of the father, precipitated the _denouement_, and the +artless bewilderment of Bluebell under his reproaches lulled the +suspicions which her subsequent avowal of a marriage with Harry nearly +set at rest. There only remained those unaccounted for weeks, so that the +first sentence he spoke to the peccant pair, whom we left in agitated +suspense, surprised them by its calmness. + +"When did this happen?" And they could not guess how anxiously he waited +for a reply. + +Now Dutton had come there expressly to bring Bluebell into Lord Bromley's +presence, having resolved to be beforehand with Kate, and make immediate +confession. Therefore he was provided with their marriage certificate, +which he now produced, and silently presented to his uncle. + +The date was satisfactory, and Lord Bromley was relieved from the most +harrowing anxiety. Yet his brow did not relax as he turned gravely to his +nephew. "What was your motive, Harry, in concealing this marriage?" + +Dutton was silent. + +"You may well be unwilling to express it. It was because you feared to +lose the inheritance I have foolishly brought you up to expect." + +Harry looked up frankly, though writhing under his words. + +"I cannot wholly deny it, uncle, and if you now change your intentions +towards me, it is only what I expect. Bluebell and I were married hastily +at Liverpool, she is my best excuse for that. Afterwards, when I came to +'The Towers,' I meant to have told you, but--don't you recollect?--you +positively refused to hear what I had to say. Of course I ought to have +persisted." + +"And did Theodora also see the expediency of concealing her marriage till +my death?" + +"No, indeed," cried Harry, warmly. "She would have risked everything to +have it acknowledged. It puts my conduct in an awfully cold-blooded +light, but I hope you don't think me utterly ungrateful." + +"As to that, the less said the better," returned Lord Bromley, coolly. + +Dutton turned away abashed and deeply wounded, for he really was attached +to the relative who had been his best friend and benefactor from infancy +to manhood. Lord Bromley slowly left the room, and, sending for his +niece, endeavoured to explain to her the astounding facts that Bluebell +was the daughter of his disinherited son, and had been married to Dutton +for nearly two years. + +There was scarcely room in Mrs. Barrington's mind to grasp this new +aspect of affairs, it being already taken up with Kate's shocking +discovery of the heir, flirting in a secluded summer-house with the +treacherous governess. Very earnestly, therefore, she tried to convince +her uncle that he must be deceived, and that Bluebell was an impostor and +an adventuress. + +"There's not a shade of doubt about her identity," contested Lord Bromley +"I have known for some time whom she was. Indeed, Lydia, you were my +first informant when you told me where you had taken her from. Parker had +reported that Theodore's daughter was with some people of the name of +Markham, and immediately found out accidentally that she was no longer +there and here is further proof"--and he placed before her the portrait +that he had carried away. It was difficult to [unreadable]. Convinced +against her will, and deprived of the power of giving Bluebell immediate +warning, Mrs. Barrington [unreadable] fall back upon her own room, pull +down the blinds and take refuge in _petite sante_, till prepared to face +her emminent dependent in so new and unwelcome a position. + +Certainly this day of elucidation was not a pleasant one. Everybody +appeared in a changed point of view, and was feeling its awkwardness. +Harry and Bluebell, hardly knowing if they had a right to remain there, +wandering disconsolately about, like a modern Adam and Eve awaiting +expulsion from Paradise. + +Kate felt baffled and dangerous,--angry at her cousin having slipped so +smoothly through her fingers, and jealous of his wife. + +Lord Bromley, though deeply incensed with Harry, was longing to keep +Bluebell, whose every glance and gesture recalled his secretly lamented +son. Lady Calvert was on the point of departure with her daughter; and +the facts having percolated through the household, all the maids got sick +headaches from sympathetic excitement. + +Dutton had had a very stormy interview with his cousin when he rushed +after her from the arbour. Kate was determined to betray them, and he +vainly tried to induce her to be silent. On one condition only would she +promise secrecy--that Bluebell should give immediate warning, and that he +should never speak to her again. But Harry only laughed, while Kate urged +everything she could think of--ruin to his prospects, his uncle's anger, +etc. + +"It is no business of yours," reiterated Dutton. "If you say anything +about it, you'll soon see you have made a fool of yourself, and the +little you do know is by prying and listening." + +But Kate broke from him and darted into the house, past Lady Geraldine, +who was just coming out, and who noticed with surprise the disturbed +appearance of the two cousins. To Dutton she seemed a good angel sent to +invalidate the spells of an evil one. As the reader knows, she alone had +been entrusted with the secret of his marriage, and he now briefly +explained that Kate was bent upon betraying his meetings with Bluebell, +and entreated her, if possible, by any stratagem, to detain her for +awhile. + +Geraldine, fully alive to the importance of the request, exclaimed with +a gesture of impatience-- + +"_How_ provoking! when you were to have told your own story to-morrow! Be +quick, Mr. Dutton, don't lose a moment, and I will undertake to keep Kate +and Mrs. Barrington quiet till they can do no further mischief." + +A very grateful glance from Harry as he sprang away; and how he fared in +the dreaded interview is already known to the reader. + + + + +CHAPTER XLI. + +A LOCK OF HAIR. + + For which they be that hold apart + The promise of the golden hours; + First love, first friendship, equal powers, + That many with the virgin heart. + --In Memoriam. + + +Another year had gone by since the _denouement_ at Bromley Towers. The +war was over, peace proclaimed, and what remained of our armies had +returned from the East. + +General Rolleston then retired from the service, and bought a very nice +property near Leamington. He still saw a good deal of his old officers; +Fane especially, who now commanded the regiment, spent much of his leave +at Pyott's Hill. He retained all his old admiration for Cecil, receiving +as little encouragement as ever. Possibly that may have been the secret +of his constancy, for certainly, as a Crimean hero, with seven thousand a +year to gild the romance of it, he did not find young ladies in general +very hard-hearted. + +But Fane was ever ungrateful, and, after being petted and feted, sang at, +ridden at, and generally made much of, only returned with fresh zest to +Cecil's unaffected and pleasant companionship. Yet, after each visit, in +spite of manifold opportunities, being alone with her for hours, her +constant companion in rides and rambles, and given to her by every one in +the neighbourhood, he always found he had never really advanced an inch, +and that nothing Cecil expected less than a proposal from him. + +So he always went away in despair, to return again at the faintest hint +of an invitation from her father. + +General Rolleston was by no means displeased to observe this eagerness to +avail himself of his hospitality, being quite as alive as heretofore to +the advantages of the match--he only wondered why Fane and his daughter +were so tardy in coming to an understanding. + +Cecil was very much liked in the neighbourhood. Everybody said she was +the most unaffected girl in the world. But with all her admirers, she had +no flirtations--bright and cold was the verdict pronounced. Some said she +was strong-minded, for she was known to read a great deal, and had even +had a picture admitted into the Female Artists' Exhibition. She was +further convicted of preferring long, solitary rides to joining the +numerous equestrian parties got up in the summer; but as public opinion +had unanimously agreed that she must be engaged to Fane, the unsocial +trait was excused on that hypothesis. + +About this period, he having just discovered her whereabouts, Cecil +received a long letter from Harry Dutton, relating what he knew would +interest her--the strange events and transformations at "The Towers." A +similar one came to Mrs. Rolleston from Bluebell, who, now that she was +at liberty to speak, wrote something like a volume of narrative and +explanation to her friend. The latter, agitated and excited, flew to +Cecil with the wonderful news, unaware that she had heard it already from +Dutton, or, indeed, of her acquaintance with him: for, considering that +all he had told her was in the strictest confidence. Cecil, as the +simplest way of keeping it secret, had never mentioned anything at all +about him. She must now, however, confess, for her step-mother was in an +effusive mood, and bent upon instantly inviting the Duttons to pay them a +visit. + +Mrs. Rolleston received the information with some coldness and little +curiosity, being naturally hurt at her step-daughter's concealment of a +fact of so much interest to her; and though she probably told the +General, he never afterwards alluded to the episode. Indeed, Cecil's +labours at Scutari were rather a tabooed subject, as Harry speedily +discovered when one day he attempted to blunder out his gratitude to her +father. + +The Duttons were invited for a week; also Colonel Fane and Captain +Vavasour. Cecil became restless and excited as the day approached. The +sight of Bluebell would cruelly re-open old wounds, and she had never met +Vavasour (who had brought back the slain body of her lover) since the +Crimea. And he would talk to her about it, she was sure, for Jack had +long ago fathomed their ill fated attachment. Altogether, it was a relief +that other guests were coming to dinner, for they were all too intimate +in one way and too far apart in another--a connecting thread seeming to +run through all their lives. Jack, an old love of Bluebell's, Dutton, +whom she had nursed through deadly peril, and Fane, only prevented being +a declared suitor by systematic absence of reciprocity on her side. Well +it was a mercy they all came in owl-light, scarcely dusk enough for +candles, but pleasantly veiling countenances not too much under command. + +Bluebell and Cecil had determined beforehand that they must embrace, and +mutually dreaded it. It was not, however, such _a blanc-mange_ affair as +osculation among ladies often is, for they were both agitated by too +vivid memories. Bluebell's feelings were pleasantly diverted by +recognising Jack--blushing with delight like the boy he still was. +Somehow, he was the only one of the party she felt entirely at ease with, +and found herself, as of old, chattering and laughing at as much as with +him, just as if three sorrow-laden years had never intervened. + +Dutton contrived to get by Cecil at dinner, though he had not taken her +down, and their conversation was sufficiently interesting to make them +forget their appointed partners. + +"And you _are_ quite restored to favour?" Cecil was saying, "and the +uncle not half so implacable as you expected?" + +"I don't know about that," cried Harry. "He has altered to _me_, I think. +Bluebell is all the rage now, she actually is admitted into his sanctum +every morning, to read him the papers. I shouldn't wonder if she turned +out Queen Regnante and I were only Prince Consort!" + +Cecil, I think, liked Dutton much better than his wife, with whom it was +hard to resume old relations. Besides, she seemed now quite the favourite +of Fortune, with every difficulty and hardship smoothed away, and to +those who have suffered, it is harder to rejoice with those who do +rejoice than to weep with those who weep. + +So Bluebell was happier alone with Mrs. Rolleston when the men were +hunting or out of the way. Dutton once ventured to question Cecil about +Fane, whose hopeless passion was evident to every one in the house. She +looked vexed, disconsolate, and gave her usual answer, that there was +nothing in it, and never would be. + +Dutton gently tried to combat this assertion. He had heard all about +Bertie, but of course thought it was useless grieving over spilt milk; +that time enough had passed since then; and that she had far better marry +and forget. + +Cecil smiled with a sort of sad amusement at all this and his slight +assumption of marital experience. Harry and Bluebell seemed years younger +than herself,--a giddy, happy young couple, the very sunshine of whose +lives dazzled them too much to see into the depths of hers. + +One afternoon she had started for a lonely walk. The rest of the party +were pretty well disposed of--Bluebell driving with Mrs. Rolleston, and +the others, she thought were with the General; but it did not much +matter. It was a blustering February afternoon--Cecil long remembered it; +the north wind had strewn the ground with dead branches, and cawing +rooks, on the eve of wedlock, were drifting about incoherently on the +breeze. She was following the course of a brook where the grounds +widened into a wild, brambly park, and looking over her shoulder she +perceived Jack Vavasour some distance off, coming along with rapid +strides as if bent on overtaking her. + +Cecil sauntered slowly on, not ill pleased at the opportunity of an +unreserved conversation with Jack. She noticed, with furtive amusement, +that he slackened his pace considerably as he neared her, probably to +give an accidental aspect to the encounter. She turned round with a +contented smile of expectation, and they wandered on together, Cecil +instinctively choosing the most unfrequented and far-off boundary of the +park. It was impossible to keep up long a commonplace conversation, and +they became more and more _distrait_ and nervous, each wishing to +approach one subject, and neither liking to begin. In such a case, it is +always the woman who breaks the ice. An allusion to the war was +sufficient in this instance, and Jack responded so eagerly, she was +confirmed in her impression that he had something to tell her. Without +waiting for further questioning, he plunged into Crimean reminiscences of +Bertie Du Meresq, whom he had seen nearly every day till his death, to +all of which poor Cecil listened with breathless interest, and yet she +_knew_ there was something more to come. + +"You know," continued Vavasour, "his watch and things were sent back to +England; but when we cut open his tunic, to see if he was breathing, +something dropped out that he had worn through the action. I kept _that_, +for I thought I would restore it only to the rightful owner." + +What intuitive feeling was it that made her wish he would say no more! +Jack was opening his pocket-book, and drew out a piece of folded paper. + +"I knew it in a moment," he cried, as a long coil of soft, dark hair +appeared, so closely resembling Cecil's own as fully to justify his +conviction that it was so. + +He had expected to see her greatly moved; but the sudden pallor of her +face puzzled him, which sensation was still more intensified when her +large eyes flashed a moment upon him with an expression he never forgot, +and, turning abruptly away, she walked towards the house. + +Of all the trouble Cecil had gone through of late, I think for +concentrated bitterness this moment was the worst. Though the colour was +identical, by feel and texture she knew the tress was not her own, added +to which, no such token had ever passed between herself and Bertie. + +Well, there was no temptation to linger over the dead past now, which had +received its _coup de grace_ that wintry afternoon; almost every one felt +that some subtle change had passed over Cecil. Perhaps the one who least +felt its uncannyness was, Fane, who hovered near her with a brighter air. +No doubt some of the party were surprised when, just before it broke up, +the engagement of Cecil and Fane was announced; but no one guessed the +truth except Jack Vavasour, who, anxious and remorseful, only cursed +himself for a blundering idiot. + +They were married on her twenty-fourth birthday, much to the relief of +her bridesmaid-sisters, who had begun to fear Cecil would be an old maid. +Fane sold out, and took his wife abroad, while the old Elizabethan +manor-house, which, since his succession to, he had never lived in, was +painted and luxuriously refurnished for the reception of the bride. + +'Twas a pity Cecil married a rich man. Her best chance would have been +having to think, work, deny herself for another, who might thus have +become dear from the very sacrifices entailed by him. It was hard on +Fane, who had been constant so long, and found he had grasped nothing but +fairy gold. The old manor house was generally full, for somehow both +dreaded a _tęte-ŕ-tęte_, and equally, in early days especially, a +betrayal of the feeling. + +Cecil left her guests pretty much to their own devices in the morning, +and read and painted in her own peculiar den, fitted up half as a +library, half as a studio. The winter she devoted to hunting, and +scarcely any meet was too distant or country too intricate for her. +Bertie's riding lessons, at any rate, had not been forgotten, and +carelessness of life is certainly conducive to steadiness of nerve. Jack +Vavasour, who was out one day, was under the impression she wished to +break her neck. Mrs. Fane became noted in her county for going with the +most unflinching straightness, but so little did she care for the +reputation, that sometimes she would stick unambitiously to the roads and +never take a fence. + +She had a separate stud of hunters, and rode independently of her +husband, who followed the amusement in a less erratic style than his +wife, and in more moderation. + +Cecil often thought of her dream, when Du Meresq was transformed into +Fane, and how singularly it had been realized. Certainly adventitious +circumstances were averse to that first love of hers, for, however much +appearances were against him, the lock of hair which had decided her +destiny was no love token of Du Meresq's. It had been consigned to him by +a dying friend, who besought him to write the news to his betrothed, and +restore to her the lock of hair she had given him. + +When Du Meresq had sent this letter off, he found he had omitted +enclosing the tress, but they were then just going into action, and he +had placed it inside his tunic. + +After long years Cecil met this girl, who had been faithful to the memory +of her Crimean hero. Once she spoke of him to Mrs. Fane, mentioning the +circumstance of the omission of the lock when Du Meresq's letter had +conveyed to her the fatal news. Little did she think how her companion +had guarded and hated this _souvenir_. Cecil glanced sharply at the +other's hair, harsher and more wiry now, and intersected with silvery +threads, still it was like enough to satisfy her of the identity without +the confirmatory cry of surprise with which the poor woman received it +from her hands. Had she known this earlier, I think Cecil would have +clung to her ideal, and never married, but by this time Fane and herself +were--well as happy together as other people. Time's "effacing finger" +had prepared the way, and since the birth of her only son, Cecil's heart +was vitalized by a second passion, as strong though different to the +first. So we may leave her, and see how our other heroine ultimately +fares before dropping the curtain. + +Dutton went to sea once again, but, as his ship was only cruising in the +Mediterranean, Bluebell was able to meet him at the different ports they +stopped at, and did not at all dislike the changeful variety of the life. +However, Lord Bromley found he could not do without her, so, after that +one cruise, Harry retired from the navy, and they lived chiefly at "The +Towers," where a numerous family was born. + +At last Lord Bromley died at a great age, and it was found that he had +left Bromley Towers to their eldest boy, Theodore. To the Duttons was +bequeathed a small estate worth three thousand a year. So after all Harry +never inherited "The Towers," nor Bluebell either. + + +THE END + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Bluebell, by Mrs. George Croft Huddleston + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BLUEBELL *** + +***** This file should be named 16371-8.txt or 16371-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/3/7/16371/ + +Produced by Early Canadiana Online, Robert Cicconetti, +Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team +at https://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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Huddleston. + </title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- + p { margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; + } + hr { width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; + } + + table {margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;} + + body{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + + .linenum {position: absolute; top: auto; left: 4%;} /* poetry number */ + .blockquot{margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 10%;} + .pagenum {position: absolute; left: 92%; font-size: smaller; text-align: right;} /* page numbers */ + .sidenote {width: 20%; padding-bottom: .5em; padding-top: .5em; + padding-left: .5em; padding-right: .5em; margin-left: 1em; + float: right; clear: right; margin-top: 1em; + font-size: smaller; background: #eeeeee; border: dashed 1px;} + + .bb {border-bottom: solid 2px;} + .bl {border-left: solid 2px;} + .bt {border-top: solid 2px;} + .br {border-right: solid 2px;} + .bbox {border: solid 2px;} + + .center {text-align: center;} + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + .u {text-decoration: underline;} + + .caption {font-weight: bold;} + + .figcenter {margin: auto; text-align: center;} + + .figleft {float: left; clear: left; margin-left: 0; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: + 1em; margin-right: 1em; padding: 0; text-align: center;} + + .figright {float: right; clear: right; margin-left: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em; + margin-top: 1em; margin-right: 0; padding: 0; text-align: center;} + + .footnotes {border: dashed 1px;} + .footnote {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 0.9em;} + .footnote .label {position: absolute; right: 84%; text-align: right;} + .fnanchor {vertical-align: super; font-size: .8em; text-decoration: none;} + + .poem {margin-left:10%; margin-right:10%; text-align: left;} + .poem br {display: none;} + .poem .stanza {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;} + .poem span.i0 {display: block; margin-left: 0em;} + .poem span.i2 {display: block; margin-left: 2em;} + .poem span.i4 {display: block; margin-left: 4em;} + .poem span.i1 {display: block; margin-left: 1em;} + .poem span.i10 {display: block; margin-left: 10em;} + .poem span.i12 {display: block; margin-left: 12em;} + .poem span.i34 {display: block; margin-left: 34em;} + .poem span.i6 {display: block; margin-left: 6em;} + // --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Bluebell, by Mrs. George Croft Huddleston + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Bluebell + A Novel + +Author: Mrs. George Croft Huddleston + +Release Date: July 27, 2005 [EBook #16371] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BLUEBELL *** + + + + +Produced by Early Canadiana Online, Robert Cicconetti, +Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team +at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + + + + +<h1>BLUEBELL</h1> + +<h3><i>A Novel</i></h3> + +<h2>BY MRS. G.C. HUDDLESTON</h2> + +<h3>1875</h3> + +<p>[Transcriber's note: These images were taken from Early Canadian Online +and there are several pages where the text is missing on the images. +These have been marked "unreadable."]</p> + + + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Yet we shall one day gain, life part,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Clear prospect o'er our being's whole,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shall see ourselves, and learn at last<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Our true affinities of soul.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><i>Acknowledgment</i></h3> + + +<p>The Publishers have to acknowledge their great indebtedness to MR. +DAVISON, President, and MR. DAVY, Secretary, of the Toronto Mechanics' +Institute, who, on being applied to, kindly gave to them for publication +the only copy of this Work, which, so far as they knew, was in Canada at +the time, and which the Directors of the Institute, with a commendable +spirit of enterprise, had secured for their Library.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3>CONTENTS.</h3> + +<!-- Autogenerated TOC. Modify or delete as required. --> +<p> +<a href="#CHAPTER_I">CHAPTER I. SWEET SEVENTEEN</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_II">CHAPTER II. BERTIE</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_III">CHAPTER III. GENTLE ANNIE</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_IV">CHAPTER IV. SATURDAY AT HOME</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_V">CHAPTER V. A WOODLAND WALK</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_VI">CHAPTER VI. VISITORS</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_VII">CHAPTER VII. THE GARRISON SLEIGH CLUB</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">CHAPTER VIII. FIXING UP A PRANCE</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_IX">CHAPTER IX. CROSS PURPOSES</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_X">CHAPTER X. TOBOGGINING</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XI">CHAPTER XI. EFFECTS OF TOBOGGINING</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XII">CHAPTER XII. THE LAKE SHORE ROAD</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XIII">CHAPTER XIII. NORTHERN LIGHTS</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XIV">CHAPTER XIV. THE TRYST</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XV">CHAPTER XV. AN ENIGMATICAL LETTER</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XVI">CHAPTER XVI. DETECTED</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XVII">CHAPTER XVII. DID YOU PROPOSE THEN?</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XVIII">CHAPTER XVIII. LYNDON'S LANDING</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XIX">CHAPTER XIX. CALF LOVE</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XX">CHAPTER XX. THE PRINCE PHILANDER</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXI">CHAPTER XXI. A PERILOUS SAIL</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXII">CHAPTER XXII. AT LAST</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXIII">CHAPTER XXIII. LOLA'S BIRTHDAY</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXIV">CHAPTER XXIV. LITTLE PITCHERS</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXV">CHAPTER XXV. CHANGES</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXVI">CHAPTER XXVI. CROSSING THE HERRING POND</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXVII">CHAPTER XXVII. HARRY DUTTON</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXVIII">CHAPTER XXVIII. ROUGH WEATHER</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXIX">CHAPTER XXIX. BLUEBELL'S DEBUT IN THE OLD COUNTRY</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXX">CHAPTER XXX. NO CARDS</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXXI">CHAPTER XXXI. BROMLEY TOWERS</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXXII">CHAPTER XXXII. THE SPRING WOODS</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXXIII">CHAPTER XXXIII. LORD BROMLEY INTERVIEWS DUTTON</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXXIV">CHAPTER XXXIV. HARRY GOES TO THE BALTIC</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXXV">CHAPTER XXXV. A DISCOVERY</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXXVI">CHAPTER XXXVI. IN DEATH THEY WERE NOT DIVIDED</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXXVII">CHAPTER XXXVII. AN UNEXPECTED RENCONTRE</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXXVIII">CHAPTER XXXVIII. OLD HEAD ON YOUNG SHOULDERS</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXXIX">CHAPTER XXXIX. THE LOAN OF A LOVER</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XL">CHAPTER XL. THE MINIATURE</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XLI">CHAPTER XLI. A LOCK OF HAIR</a><br /> +</p> +<!-- End Autogenerated TOC. --> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h1><a name="BLUEBELL" id="BLUEBELL"></a>BLUEBELL</h1> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I.</h2> + +<h3>SWEET SEVENTEEN.</h3> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I see her now—the vision fair,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of candour, innocence, and truth,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Stand tiptoe on the verge of air,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">'Twixt childhood and unstable youth.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p>It was the "fall" in Canada, and the leaves were dying royally in purple, +crimson and gold. On the edge of a common, skirting a well-known city of +Ontario, stood a small, rough-cast cottage, behind which the sun was +setting with a red promise of frost, his flaming tints repeated in the +fervid hue of the Virginian creeper that clothed it.</p> + +<p>This modest tenement was the retreat of three unprotected females, two of +whom were seated in silent occupation close to a black stove, which +imparted heat, but denied cheerfulness. The elder was grey and tintless +as her life,—harsh wisdom wrung from sad experience ever on lips thin +and tight, as though from habitually repressing every desire. The +younger, a widow, was scarcely passed middle age, small of stature, but +wizened beyond her years by privation and sorrow.</p> + +<p>A smell of coal-oil, that most unbearable of odours, pervaded the +interior of the cottage, revealing that the general servant below in +lighting the lamp had, as usual, upset some, and was retaining the aroma +by smearing it off with her apron.</p> + +<p>Presently a quick, light step tripped over the wooden side-walk, a shadow +darkened the window, and a vision of youth and freshness burst into the +dingy little parlour.</p> + +<p>A rather tall, full-formed young Hebe was Theodora Leigh, of that pure +pink and white complexion that goes farther to make a beauty than even +regularity of feature; her long, sleepy eyes were just the shade of the +wild hyacinth; indeed, her English father always called her "Bluebell," +after a flower that does not grow on Transatlantic soil.</p> + +<p>But they were Irish-eyes, "put in with a dirty finger," and varying with +every mood. Gooseberry eyes may disguise more soul, but they get no +credit for it. Humour seemed to dance in that soft, blue fire; poetry +dreamed in their clear depths; love—but that we have not come to yet; +they were more eloquent than her tongue, for she was neither witty nor +wise, only rich in the exuberant life of seventeen, and as expectant of +good will and innocent of knowledge of the world as a retriever puppy.</p> + +<p>Apparently, Miss Bluebell was not in the suavest of humours, for she +flung her hat on to one crazy chair, and herself on another, with a +vehemence that caused a sensible concussion.</p> + +<p>"My dear, how brusque you are," said Mrs. Leigh, plaintively.</p> + +<p>"So provoking," muttered Bluebell.</p> + +<p>"What's gone wrong with the child now?" said Miss Opie, the elder +proprietress of the domicile.</p> + +<p>"Why," said Bluebell, "I met the Rollestons, and they asked: me to their +picnic at the Humber on Friday; but how <i>can</i> I go? Look here!" and she +pointed to a pair of boots evidently requiring patching. "Oh, mother! +could you manage another pair now? Miss Scrag has sent home my new +'waist,' and I can do up my hat, but these buckets are only fit for the +dusthole."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Leigh sighed,—"A new pair, with side-springs, would cost three +dollars. No, Bluebell, I can't indeed."</p> + +<p>"I might as well be a nun, then, at once," said the girl, with tears in +her voice; and a sympathetic dew rose in Mrs. Leigh's weary eyes at the +disappointment she could not avert from her spoiled darling.</p> + +<p>"Bluebell," said Miss Opie, "if you read more and scampered about less, +your mind would be better fortified to bear these little reverses."</p> + +<p>"Shut up!" muttered Bluebell, in the artless vernacular of a school-girl, +half turning her shoulder with an impatient gesture.</p> + +<p>The entrance of the tea-things created a diversion, but the discontented +girl sat apart, while the hideousness of her surroundings came upon her +as a new revelation. Certainly, in Canada, in a poverty-stricken abode, +taste seems more completely starved than in any other country.</p> + +<p>Bluebell, in her critical mood, noted the ugly delf tea-things, so badly +arranged; the black stove, four feet into the room, with its pipe running +through a hole in the wall; the ricketty horsehair chairs and wire blind +for the window, "gave" on the street, where gasping geese were diving in +the gutters for the nearest approach to water they could find.</p> + +<p>Scarcely less repugnant were the many-coloured crotchet-mats and +anti-macassars with which Miss Opie loved to decorate the apartment; nor +was a paper frill adorning a paltry green flower-vase wanting to complete +the tasteless <i>tout ensemble</i>.</p> + +<p>The evening wore on; Mrs. Leigh proceeded with the turning of an old +merino dress; Miss Opie adjusted her spectacles, and read <i>Good Words</i>. +Bluebell sat down to the piano and executed a selection from Rossini's +'Messe Solennelle' with force and fervour.</p> + +<p>"You play very well, child," said Miss Opie.</p> + +<p>"That is fortunate," said Bluebell, "for I mean to be a governess."</p> + +<p>"You mean you want a governess," retorted the other. "Why, what in the +world do you know?"</p> + +<p>"More than most children of ten years old. I might get a hundred dollars +a year. Mamma, I could buy myself new boots then."</p> + +<p>"You are nothing but a self-willed child yourself, unable to bear the +slightest disappointment," said Miss Opie.</p> + +<p>"Never mind," said Mrs. Leigh, coaxingly; "I'll see if I cannot get you +the boots. They will give me credit at the store."</p> + +<p>"No, no; I know you can't afford it; they were new last April. Mamma is +oil to your vinegar, Aunt Jane."</p> + +<p>"And you the green young mustard in the domestic salad—hot enough, and, +like all ill weeds, growing apace."</p> + +<p>"Then it is field mustard, and not used for salad," said Bluebell, +anxious for the last word. And, escaping from the room, went to place +some bones in the shed, for a casual in the shape of a starving cur, who +called occasionally for food and a night's lodging.</p> + +<p>About twenty years ago, when this melancholy Mrs. Leigh was a lovely +young Canadian of rather humble origin, Theodore Leigh, a graceless +subaltern in the Artillery, had just returned from leave, and, going one +day to the Rink, was "regularly flumocksed," as he expressed it, by the +vision of Miss Lesbia Jones skimming over the ice like a swallow on the +wing. And when she proceeded to cut a figure of 8 backwards, and execute +another intricate movement called "the rose," his admiration became +vehement, and, seizing on a brother-officer he had observed speaking to +her, demanded an introduction.</p> + +<p>"To the 'Tee-to-tum'? Oh, certainly."</p> + +<p>Miss Lesbia was very small, and wore the shortest of petticoats, which +probably suggested the appellation.</p> + +<p>Fatigued with her evolutions, she had sunk with a pretty little air of +<i>abandon</i> on the platform, and her destiny, in a beaver coat and cap, was +presented by Mr. Wingfield.</p> + +<p>After this, a common object at the Rink was a tall young man, in all the +agonies of a <i>début</i> on skates, and a bewitching little attendant sprite +shooting before and around him, occasionally righting him with a fairy +touch when he evinced too wild a desire to dash his brains against the +wall.</p> + +<p>At all the sleighing parties, also, Miss Lesbia's form was invariably +observed in Mr. Leigh's cutter, with a violet and white "cloud" matching +the robe borders and ribbons on the bells; and he and the "Tee-to-tum" +spun round together in half the valses of every ball during the winter.</p> + +<p>Perhaps, after all, the attachment might have lived and died without +exceeding the "muffin" phase, had not the "beauty," Captain of the +battery cut in, and made rather strong running, too, partly because he +considered her "fetching," and partly, he said, "from regard to Leigh, +who was making an ass of himself."</p> + +<p>Jealousy turned philandering into earnest. Theodore went straight to the +maiden aunt, with whom Miss Jones resided, and, after most vehement +badgering, got her consent to a private marriage within three days. The +poor spinster, though much flustered, knowing his attentions to Lesbia +had been a good deal talked about, felt almost relieved to have it +settled respectably, though so abruptly.</p> + +<p>On the appointed day, having obtained a week's leave, Theodore, with his +best man, the last joined subaltern, dashed up to the church-door in a +cutter, just in time to receive Lesbia and her bewildered chaperone.</p> + +<p>After the ceremony, they started off for their week's honeymoon to the +Falls; and the best man, absolved from secrecy, spread the news through +the regiment.</p> + +<p>Theodore had scribbled off the intelligence in reckless desperation to +his father, of whom he was the only child, and Sir Timothy Leigh, a proud +and ambitious man, never forgave the irrevocable piece of folly so +cavalierly announced to him.</p> + +<p>Theodore received a letter from the family lawyer, couched in the terms +of sorrowful reprehension such functionaries usually assume on similar +occasions.</p> + +<p>"It was Mr. Vellum's painful duty to inform him that Sir Timothy would +decline to receive him on his return to England; that two hundred a year +would be placed annually to his credit at Cox's; but the estates not +being entailed, that was the utmost farthing he need ever expect from +him."</p> + +<p>Such was the gist of the communication, and Theodore, hardened by his +father's severity, and unable to bear the privations of a narrow income, +absented himself more and more from their wretched lodgings, and tried to +drown his cares by drinking himself into a state of semi-idiocy.</p> + +<p>There is little more to relate of this ill-starred marriage, of which +Bluebell was the fruit; for soon after her birth young Leigh was killed +by being upset out of a dog-cart.</p> + +<p>Driving home with unsteady hands from mess one night, he collided with +a street car, which inevitably turned over the two-wheeled vehicle. +Theodore was pitched out, his head striking on the iron rails, and never +breathed again.</p> + +<p>Whatever grief Sir Timothy may have felt at his son being snatched from +him, unreconciled and unforgiven, did not show itself in mercy to the +widow.</p> + +<p>Mr. Vellum was again in requisition, and proposed, on behalf of Sir +Timothy, to make Mrs. Leigh a suitable allowance on condition that she +remained in Canada, and delivered over the child to her grandfather, to +be brought up and educated as his heiress. In case these terms were +refused, she would continue to receive annually two hundred a-year; but +no farther assistance would be granted.</p> + +<p>Lesbia, in her loneliness and bereavement, was heart-broken at this +unfeeling proposition, and Bluebell being too young for a choice, she +consulted the voice of Nature alone, and refused to part with her child.</p> + +<p>The maiden aunt, Miss Opie, willingly received them. She had a mere +pittance, and lived in a boarding house; but, by joining their slender +purses, they took the cottage in which we find them.</p> + +<p>Thus in extreme poverty was Bluebell reared until her seventeenth year, +though by personal privation Mrs. Leigh sent her to <i>the</i> school <i>par +excellence</i>; attended by most of the girls in the city, whether their +parents were "in" or "out" of society. Bluebell having the <i>prestige</i> of +an English father, own son of a baronet, and military into the bargain, +was considered in the former class, and included at an early age in the +gaieties of the winter.</p> + +<p>A new friend, who had been particularly kind to her, was Mrs. Rolleston, +wife of the Colonel of a regiment quartered there, and to her Bluebell +repaired to make sorrowful excuses for the projected picnic, and also to +confide the scheme that possessed her mind of earning money as a musical +teacher or nursery governess.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Rolleston felt half inclined to laugh at the unformed impulsive +child, who was such a pet in their household, but seemed far too babyish +and unmethodical to be recommended for any situation; yet remembering her +mother's straitened circumstances, and that the girl probably wanted some +pocket-money, she listened sympathetically, and promised to turn it over +in her mind.</p> + +<p>Music she knew Bluebell thoroughly understood and excelled in. She had +for years received instruction gratis from the organist at the Cathedral, +who, originally attracted by her lovely voice singing in the choir, took +her up with enthusiasm, and taught her harmony and thorough bass. Thus, +instead of only practising a desultory accomplishment, she was able to +compose and arrange her tuneful ideas correctly.</p> + +<p>A dark striking-looking girl interrupted them. This was Cecil Rolleston, +the eldest daughter of the house, or rather she stood in that relation to +the Colonel, being the offspring of his first wife.</p> + +<p>"Come out and play croquet, Bluebell," said she; "the children are having +a game; they only let me go on condition of bringing you,"—and she led +the way through the window into a charming garden, with large shady +maple-trees just beginning to drop their deep-dyed, variegated leaves on +the turf; the bluebirds were already gone, but the red and ashen-hued +robin, nearly the size of a jay, still rustled through the boughs.</p> + +<p>A little white dog, with a ribbon on, was holding a ball within its +feathery toes, and playing with it as a cat does a mouse; a gardener was +refreshing the thirsty flowers, which had outgrown their strength; and +Fleda, Estelle, and Lola, twelve, eleven, and nine, were playing croquet +with the zest of recent emancipation from lessons.</p> + +<p>The governess, a dark, sallow expositor of the arts and sciences, also +wielded a mallet, and Cecil and Bluebell completed the six.</p> + +<p>The sides were pretty equally cast, and the combatants were in a most +interesting crisis of the game, when Colonel Rolleston entered the +garden.</p> + +<p>He was a very handsome man, and as is often the case with the only male +in a family of women, so studied and given in to by all his female +<i>entourage</i>, that he would not have been pleased, whatever their +occupations, if he were not immediately rallied round by a little court +of flatterers.</p> + +<p>"Estelle," said the governess, "offer your papa your mallet, and ask him +to be so kind as to play with us." The child's face lengthened; she had +not much hope of his refusing it, but advanced with her request.</p> + +<p>"Must I?" said the Colonel.</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes!" said the chorus of voices; "be my partner—be mine."</p> + +<p>"Don't tear me to pieces among you," said he, with a deprecating gesture.</p> + +<p>"Take Bluebell on your side, papa," cried Cecil; "she is very good, and +we'll keep Miss Prosody, who is equally so."</p> + +<p>And thus they proceeded, the Colonel radiant with every successful +stroke, and blaming mallet, ball, and ground when otherwise, reiterating, +"I can't make a stroke to-day."</p> + +<p>Bluebell was very fond of the Colonel, who liked pretty faces about him, +and had been kind to her; but she could not resist a slight feeling of +repulsion at what she considered an abject maneuver of Miss Prosody's. +His ball, by an unskilful miss, was left in her power; her duty to her +side required her to crack it to the other end of the ground, but a +glance at the irritable gloom of his countenance induced her to discover +it to be more to her advantage to attack one rather beyond, and, +judiciously missing it left her own blue one an easy stroke for him.</p> + +<p>The shadows dispersed, and, all playfulness, the Colonel apostrophized +his prize, which he succeeded in hitting. "Here is my little friend in +blue; shall I hurt it? no, I will not harm it." By-play of relief and +gratitude on the governess's part, as he requited her amiability by +merely taking two off, leaving his interesting friend in blue unmoved.</p> + +<p>This naturally did not enhance the interest of the children who felt it +was not the game of croquet that was being played. Cecil, replying with a +laughing glance to the indignant eye-telegraphy of Fleda, began to play +at random; and Bluebell and Lola, not finding much antagonism from the +other side, soon pulled the Colonel through his hoops and won the game. +After which, Bluebell retraced her steps across the common, accompanied +part of the way by Miss Rolleston, to whom she also confided her +governess's projects.</p> + +<p>Cecil was very fond of her; she had few companions, and her sisters were +mere children. All the time the younger girl was talking, she was +silently revolving a plan. It so happened this Cecil was in rather +independent circumstances for a young lady, maternal relative having left +her a legacy at twelve years old which, by the time she was twenty-one, +would bring in a thousand a year.</p> + +<p>In the mean time, she drew half that sum annually, and, of course, +contributed to the domestic expenses. How much pleasanter it would be for +Bluebell to live with them than with strangers. She might be <i>her</i> +musical teacher; singing duets even brought out her own voice +surprisingly; it would be delightful to practise together; the children +had no taste for music, neither did Mrs. Rolleston care for it. Besides, +she felt a generous pleasure in the prospect of assisting her friend, +poor Bluebell, who often had to deny herself a mere bit of ribbon from +want of a shilling to pay for it. It might require a little management at +home, so she would not hint at it yet, and, with a warm caress and a gay +farewell nod, they separated.</p> + +<p>Next morning, Mrs. Leigh, still engaged in the resuscitation of the +merino dress, was surprised by a visit from Mrs. Rolleston. That lady, +for a wonder, considering her errand, had come alone, for it was seldom +that any little domestic arrangement was entered on without the personal +supervision of the Colonel.</p> + +<p>However, there was a counter-attraction at barracks this morning, and +having, so to speak, held a board on Cecil's proposition, and opposed, +argued, and thoroughly talked it over, Mrs. Rolleston was empowered to +suggest to Mrs. Leigh a plan for taking Bluebell into their family as +musical companion to Cecil and nursery governess to Freddy, the heir +apparent, aetat. four. The poor little lady did not seem much elated at +the proposal. "I know my child will wish it," she said. "I can give her +no variety, no indulgences, and she is of an age when occupation and +society are a necessity to her. I sometimes feel," she murmured, with +a sigh, "that I have stood in her light by not agreeing to her +grandfather's conditions."</p> + +<p>A look of curiosity from Mrs. Rolleston elicited an explanation, and she +heard for the first time the whole history of Bluebell's antecedents.</p> + +<p>"Why," cried she, much excited, "I remember that Sir Timothy before I +married; there are so many Leighs, it never struck me he might be your +father-in-law. I recollect hearing he had disinherited his son, but he +has adopted a grandnephew, which, I am afraid, looks bad for Bluebell." +And she listened with renewed interest to Mrs. Leigh's diffuse +reminiscences, while her <i>protégé</i> appeared to her in a new and romantic +light, and she pictured half-a-dozen possibilities for her future.</p> + +<p>From a miniature of the graceless Theodore which Mrs. Leigh produced, +there could be no doubt of the resemblance to his daughter in air and +feature; the long sleepy eyes were identical, though the slightly +insolent expression of Theodore's was, happily, wanting.</p> + +<p>"He was the best of husbands," whimpered the widow, on whose placid +mind the shortcomings of the dissipated youth seemed to have left no +impression; "but he was hardly treated in this world, and so he was taken +to a better."</p> + +<p>Before Mrs. Rolleston left, it was arranged that Bluebell was to make her +first essay in governessing on Freddy Rolleston, her Sundays to be spent +as often as possible with her mother; and ere another week had passed, +she and her effects were transferred to the Maples.</p> + +<p>A bed was made up for her in a little room of Cecil's and the tuition of +Freddy carried on in the nursery; for Mrs. Rolleston having some doubts +as how the amateur and professional governess might amalgamate, avoided +letting her entrench on Miss Prosody's premises.</p> + +<p>That lady, indeed, was disposed to look upon her with suspicion +and incipient dislike. She had always been treated with great +consideration—quite one of the family, and cared not for "a rival near +her throne." Who was Bluebell that she should be made so much of?—a +little nursery governess with no attainments, and yet Cecil's inseparable +companion! She was a prime favourite with the Colonel, whose "ways" she +had made a judicious study of, and treated with considerable tact. He +always mentioned her as "that dear invaluable creature, Miss Prosody." +She could occasionally put an idea into his mind which he mistook for his +own, as, for instance, when he observed to his wife,—"What a pity that +girl has such a preposterous name, and that you all have the habit of +calling her by it. The other evening that idiot, young Halkett must needs +say, 'What a lovely pet name!' I can tell you I took him up pretty short. +You really must not have her down so much, if these boys think they may +talk nonsense to her."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Rolleston was rather surprised at the irritation with which this was +said; to be sure she had heard Miss Prosody, previous to young Halkett's +foolish remark, lamenting that Bluebell "did not show more reserve with +gentlemen guests, and that she put herself so much on an equality with +Cecil." The Colonel was a domestic man, and liked cheerfulness at his +fireside, of which he himself was to be the centre and inspiration; +anything approaching bad spirits, silence, or headaches he always +resented.</p> + +<p>Bluebell was well enough as contributing to the liveliness of the little +society—a pretty smiling young girl is seldom <i>de trop</i>; but then she +must be satisfied without lovers, whose presence the Colonel considered +subversive of all rational comfort.</p> + +<p>Good-natured Mrs. Rolleston pursued the even tenor of her way, the +Colonel's fidgets had a soporific effect on her nerves and created +no corresponding alarms; her idol, Freddy, was satisfied with the new +administration, and ceased to wage internecine warfare with his nurse; +and certainly the unwonted tranquillity consequent was a decided boon to +the rest of the household.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II.</h2> + +<h3>BERTIE.</h3> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">In the greenest growth of the Maytime<br /></span> +<span class="i0">We rode where the roads were wet;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Between the dawn and the daytime<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The spring was glad that we met.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">Swinburne.</span><br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p>Two or three months passed, the bluebirds and robins had all +disappeared, and the snow-birds, hardy scions of the feathered tribe +capable of withstanding the rigours of a Canadian winter, were alone to +be seen. The Rinks had been flooded, and skating was going on with +vigour; the snow was not quite in a satisfactory state as yet; but a few +sleighs jingled merrily about with their bright bits of colour, the +edging of fur robes and ribbon on the sleigh bells. A general impulse of +joyful anticipation ran through all the young people as winter unlocked +her stores of amusement, and the keen sabre-like air, so bracing and +exhilarating, stirred the life in young veins, and set their spirits +dancing with exuberant vitality.</p> + +<p>The Rollestons, who had only come out in the spring, were attracted with +everything. Not a sleigh passed but there was a rush from the children to +the window, and Colonel Rolleston, who was building one, received fresh +suggestions about it most days from his excited family.</p> + +<p>Every morning Cecil, under Bluebell's tuition, practised skating at the +Rink, and had devised an original and becoming costume to be assumed as +soon as she had attained sufficient command of her limbs not to object to +a share of public attention. In the afternoon the Rink was generally +crowded, and many of the Colonel's regiment evinced an eagerness to help +Cecil along, and pretend to receive instruction from the skilful and +blooming Bluebell; so poor Mrs. Rolleston was then invariably detailed by +the Colonel for chaperone duty, and sat shivering on the platform while +Cecil was being initiated in the mysteries of "Dutch rolls" and "outside +edge." On one of these occasions she was roused by a well-known voice +calling her by name, and turned round in joyful surprise to greet a young +man just come in.</p> + +<p>"My dear Bertie, were have you sprung from? Have you been to our house?"</p> + +<p>"Just left it and my traps. Lascelles suddenly gave up his leave, which +I applied for, and have got a week certain, and most likely all of it, +for there are plenty of Captains down there; so I thought I would look +you up to begin with."</p> + +<p>"To begin with! You must stay here all the time—make it head quarters, +at any rate. You have been travelling all the summer, and there's nothing +to do now."</p> + +<p>"Moose," murmured Bertie. "Ah! there's Cecil."</p> + +<p>Cecil, skating hand-in-hand to the tune of "Paddle your own canoe," +was not sufficiently disengaged to remark her mother's companion. His +eyes followed her with a keen, comprehensive glance, which Mrs. Rolleston +observed complacently.</p> + +<p>"Don't you think her much improved?—much prettier?" asked she.</p> + +<p>"Skating always suits a well-made girl. That black and scarlet get-up, +too, is very becoming, but pretty—hardly."</p> + +<p>"She is, however, very much admired," said Mrs. Rolleston, warmly, for a +step-mother.</p> + +<p>"Ah!" cried Bertie, with a slight accent of bitterness, "reasons enough +for that. How well some of these girls skate! Who is that shooting-star?"</p> + +<p>The planet in question gyrated towards them, dropped on one knee on the +platform for the relief of strained ankles, and, as she addressed Mrs. +Rolleston, caught a look of decided admiration on Bertie's face.</p> + +<p>A Canadian girl is nothing if not self-possessed; she sustained the gaze +with the most perfect calmness.</p> + +<p>"Bluebell, this is my brother, Captain Du Meresq. Cecil ought to rest; +will you go and tell her to come here?"</p> + +<p>"Who is that young beauty whom you addressed in the language of flowers?" +asked he.</p> + +<p>"Nonsense, Bertie! she is Freddy's governess. You must not begin to talk +absurdity to her; you will annoy Edward."</p> + +<p>"He don't object to fair faces on his own account."</p> + +<p>"Well, this particular one is more bother than pleasure to him. You +know his horror of 'danglers'; he is afraid of aimless flirtations +with Bluebell, who, being also Cecil's companion, is constantly in the +drawing-room."</p> + +<p>"Ah, my beloved niece," said Captain Du Meresq, as he gave Cecil +considerable support from the ice to the platform.</p> + +<p>"What has given us this unexpected treat?" said she, with a warmer hue +than usual in her clear, pale cheek.</p> + +<p>"My anxiety to see your new companion."</p> + +<p>"Whose existence, I suppose, you have just heard of."</p> + +<p>"It has been my loss," retorted he. "Fascinating young creature! The name +Bluebell just describes those wild hyacinth eyes."</p> + +<p>"Oh! Bertie," said his sister and Cecil together, "how absurd you are +about girls."</p> + +<p>"And then," persisted he, "that charming tawny hair and milk white skin."</p> + +<p>"One might think you were describing an Alderney cow. It's a pity she is +not called 'Daisy' or 'Cowslip.'"</p> + +<p>"Girls are all alike," said Captain Du Meresq, sententiously. "Even you, +my beloved Cecil, who are a woman of mind, can't stand my wild admiration +of—Cowslip."</p> + +<p>Cecil raised her eyebrows, and a scornful beam shot from the dark eyes +that were her chief attraction.</p> + +<p>"Nor could the 'dairy flower' herself, I should think. It's no use +rhapsodizing before me, Bertie; <i>I</i> shall not tell her in any +confidential communication, whatever you may think."</p> + +<p>"Ah, well," said Captain Du Meresq, with a sigh, "let us hope the +ingenious child may understand the universal language of the eyes, for +I hear papa would not approve of my speaking to her."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Rolleston was becoming fidgetty. To some women, as they advance +in years, an inability of separating chaff from earnest becomes more +pronounced, and the uppermost wish of her mind at present was to see a +real attachment between Bertie and Cecil. Albert Du Meresq was only her +half-brother; but he had become her charge in infancy under terrible +circumstances, which we will briefly relate.</p> + +<p>When Mr. Du Meresq married his mother, a wilful Irish beauty, Mrs. +Rolleston was a shy, reserved girl of thirteen, and became very jealous +of her father's exclusive devotion to his bride and neglect of herself.</p> + +<p>Lady Inez looked upon her as rather a nuisance, and was coldly critical +upon her appearance and manner. She was an unsparing mimic, and +frequently exercised the faculty on her step-daughter, whose nervousness +became awkwardness in the constant expectation of being turned into +ridicule. Consequently, she cordially disliked not only Lady Inez, but +the little step-brother, who was made of so much importance, till one +ghastly day changed the aspect of events.</p> + +<p>Like a fearful dream it had seemed—a strange carriage rolling to the +door, from which emerged her father and another gentleman carrying a +terrible burden, looking supernaturally long in a riding-habit. White +scared faces flitted about; but life was extinct, and there was no +frantic riding for doctors.</p> + +<p>There had been a hunt-breakfast that morning, and she well remembered the +envy she had felt at seeing Lady Inez ride gaily forth with the rest on a +favourite horse.</p> + +<p>"She has everything," thought Bella, "'Reindeer' was promised to me when +he was a foal, and I have never been on his back."</p> + +<p>But Lady Inez was lying there, with the mark of "Reindeer's" iron hoof on +her temple. They had come down together at a blind fence; the horse, +entangled in her habit, struck out <i>once</i>, as thorough-breds will, but it +was a death-blow.</p> + +<p>The voice of the child, crying alone and neglected in the nursery, +aroused Bella from a horror stricken stupor. Her father's despair made +him unapproachable, but she might comfort Bertie, forgotten by his +attendants.</p> + +<p>From this time she became almost a mother to him, for Mr. Du Meresq went +abroad, and they were left alone in the deserted house for some years.</p> + +<p>Bertie had left Eton, and just obtained a commission in the —— Hussars, +when his father died, leaving him a moderate fortune, which steadily +decreased as years went by. It had approached attenuation by this time, +and Mrs. Rolleston felt as distracted and perplexed as a duckling's hen +foster-mother, at the vagaries of the happy-go-lucky, reckless Irish +blood in Bertie, which did not flow in her own veins.</p> + +<p>She looked forward to marrying him to Cecil, as the best chance of +relieving his pecuniary difficulties and reforming his unsteadiness.</p> + +<p>Captain Du Meresq had stayed with them for six weeks some time ago, +when he and Cecil became inseparable companions, and it was then that +the idea had dawned upon her. She would not openly discuss it with her +brother—that would have too much the appearance of a plot: but her +lively satisfaction at the prospect was apparent enough, and Bertie knew +her co-operation would not be wanting.</p> + +<p>He had thought of it more than once. What chance had he not calculated +to get him through his sea of difficulties; but a thousand a year alone +seemed scarcely sufficient temptation to matrimony, to which he did not +seriously incline. Indeed, his warm impressionable nature was not the +temperament of a fortune-hunter.</p> + +<p>He was attracted with Cecil, and got rather fond of her in the six weeks +he had been trying to make her in love with him, not with any mercenary +view, but because such was his usual custom with girls.</p> + +<p>But he was afflicted with a keen eye for beauty, and Cecil was plain to +most eyes, and too colourless for his taste, though she possessed a +lovely figure, thorough-bred little head, and a pale, intelligent, +expressive face.</p> + +<p>Bluebell's lilies and roses and Hebe-like contour caught his eye in a +moment, of which Cecil felt an instinctive conviction; but though, with a +woman's keenness, underrating no point of attraction in her friend, she +considered her wanting in style, which deficiency she dwelt on now with +secret satisfaction. For though not in the least anxious to monopolize +general admiration, that of Bertie Du Meresq was unfortunately a +sensitive point with Cecil, for that six weeks had been the intensest +period of her life—the dawning of "love's young dream."</p> + +<p>She had never met him since childhood till then, when they were thrown +together with the intimacy of near connexions. There was not, of course, +the slightest real relationship, but Bertie jestingly called her his +niece, perhaps, to establish a right of chaperonage.</p> + +<p>He used to make her come down to breakfast <i>en Amazone</i>, and took her the +most enchanting rides in that Seductive April weather. Her equestrian +experience previously had been limited to steady macadamizing on the +roads. Bertie took her as the crow flies, never pulled a fence, but +merely gave her a lead, and Cecil, who had plenty of nerve, exulted in +the new excitement. The farmers might not have thought it a very orthodox +month for this amusement; but hunting was scarcely over, though the +copses were filled with primroses, and violets scented the hedgerows; the +birds sang as they only do when the great business of their year is +commencing. And then she had such a mount, a perfect hunter of her +<i>quasi</i>-uncle's. It never refused, and took its fences with such ease a +child might have sat it.</p> + +<p>Or they would ride dreamily on in woody glades, both alike susceptible +to the shafts of sunlight, quivering on the leaves, the sudden gush +of fragrance after a shower, and all the myriad appeals of spring to +those who have that touch of poetry in their clay which is the key of +fairy-land, their horses meantime snatching at the young green boughs as +they sauntered lazily on; and Du Meresq, who had travelled in all sorts +of strange out-of-the way places, described weirder scenes in other +lands, and pictured a fuller, more vivid life than she in her routine +existence had dreamed of.</p> + +<p>Bertie was always all in all to the woman he was with, provided no other +was present; and Cecil, young, and full of sympathy and intelligence, was +a delightful companion. His appreciation, felt and expressed, of her +quickness of comprehension was most agreeable flattery; the more so as he +confided in her so fully, even consulting her about his own private +affairs, for he was very hard pressed at this time, and she, who had +never known the want of money, took the deepest interest in it all.</p> + +<p>He seemed never able to bear her out of his sight. If she played, he +was hanging over the piano; if he had letters to write, Cecil must do +it from his dictation; and yet he would avow sometimes before her such +extravagant adoration for some pretty girl, that Cecil, chilled and +surprised, would feel more than ever doubtful of her own influence; +and the honeyed words she had treasured up, faded away as void of +significance. And then one day,—suddenly,—on her return from a +croquet-party, she heard he had received a telegram, and gone, leaving +a careless message of adieu.</p> + +<p>Poor Cecil! with the instinct of the wounded animal to its lair, she +rushed to her own room, locked the door, and walked about in a tearless +abandonment of grief, disappointment, and surprise. How could he leave +her without one word? She felt half stunned, and her brain seemed capable +of only the dull reiteration that "Bertie was gone." Tears welled up to +her eyes then, when the sound of the first dinner-bell drove them back. +She felt she must battle alone with this strange affliction; and trying +to efface from her features all evidence of the shock she had sustained, +descended to dinner, looking rather more stately than usual.</p> + +<p>It annoyed her to observe that her step-mother glanced deprecatingly at +her, and was inclined to be extra affectionate. This would never do. Like +most young girls, she was generally rather silent when not interested in +the discussions of her elders. But now she never let conversation drop. +The incidents of the croquet-party furnished a safe topic. Colonel +Rolleston thought the gentle dissipation had made his daughter quite +lively. Afterwards she took refuge at the piano, which was imprudent, for +music only too surely touches the chord of feeling, and every piece was +associated with Bertie. Cecil shut the instrument, and effected a +strategical retreat to her bed-room, where, in the luxury of solitude, +she might worry and torment herself to her heart's content. His absence +was trial enough, but the sting lay in the way it was done, which was +such a proof of indifference, that shame urged her to crush out all +thoughts of him, and suffer anything rather than let him see the +impression his careless affection had made on her.</p> + +<p>And so Cecil passed through her first "baptism of fire" alone and +unsuspected; but time had softened much of her resentment ere they met +again.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III.</h2> + +<h3>GENTLE ANNIE.</h3> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The time I've lost in wooing,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In watching and pursuing<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The light that lies<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In woman's eyes,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Has been my heart's undoing.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">Moore.</span><br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p>"Bluebell," said little Lola, bursting into the nursery, where Freddy, +rather a tyrant in his affections, had insisted on her singing him to +sleep, "Ma says you have got to dine down to-night, and Miss Prosody, +too. Won't she be in a way, for her white muslin never came home from the +wash, and she had begun altering the <i>barège</i>; so I asked Felda to tell +her," said Lola, diplomatically. "Do you know Bertie has come?" (His +nieces never prefaced his name with the formality of uncle.) "Oh of +course, you must have seen him at the Rink. Do you like him? He is sure +to like you, at first, at any rate," said Lola, who apparently, like +other lookers-on saw most of the game. "And don't tell, but I believe he +hates Miss Prosody."</p> + +<p>"Why?" asked Bluebell, absently.</p> + +<p>"Well, one day he was whispering to Cecil, with their heads very near +together. Miss Prosody was looking for a book in a recess behind the +door, close to them; but they never saw her till she moved away, and I +heard Bertie mutter something about an 'inquisitive old devil.' But don't +tell, mind. There's the bell; I must go to tea," <i>Exit</i> Lola, and +Bluebell flew off with some alacrity to her bed-room to prepare.</p> + +<p>"Bluebell," cried Cecil, opening the intervening door, "can I lend you +anything?" It pleased her to supply her friend's deficiencies of toilet +when a sudden summons to a domestic field-day had been issued.</p> + +<p>"Is it a party?" said the other. "I have only my eternal black-net +dress."</p> + +<p>"Just Mr. Vavasour and Captain Deveril," both in her father's regiment; +they never either of them alluded to Bertie. "Here are some fixings for +it," returning with a lapful of silver acorns and oak leaves, "unless you +would prefer butter-cups. What a thing it is to have a complexion like +yours, that everything goes with,"—and Cecil looked with half envy at +the girl, whose blue eyes were bluer, and hair and cheeks brighter, than +usual, as she chattered away with a vivacity, of which, perhaps, the +nattering glances of Captain Du Meresq may have been the secret spring.</p> + +<p>Bluebell hadn't the slightest idea of assuming the demure demeanour of +a governess in society; the Rollestons had been her great friends before, +and did not treat her as if she was in any altered position; not so, +however, Miss Prosody, who would have reduced her to the <i>status</i> of a +nursery-maid had it been in her power.</p> + +<p>That austere virgin was talking, or rather listening, in a sympathetic +manner to Colonel Rolleston as the girls entered the room; but her eye +had taken in every detail of Miss Leigh's costume, and disapprovingly +remarked the silver oak leaves that festooned the black-net dress, and +Maltese cross and bracelets that accompanied it, all of which she well +knew belonged to Cecil.</p> + +<p>The three young men were talking together.</p> + +<p>"Du Meresq," said Captain Deveril, "you get more leave than any other +fellow. You were in the Prairies in July, England in the spring, and now +here you are at large again in January."</p> + +<p>"You must have a rattling good chief," said Mr. Vavasour, "I don't think, +Mrs. Rolleston, the Colonel is ever able to spare us quite so often."</p> + +<p>"You see," said Bertie, "there's no demand for leave among our fellows +just now; they are all in love at Montreal, and there's so much going on +there. Lascelles most imprudently gave up his to drive Miss Ellery about +a little longer."</p> + +<p>"Oh, ah, I know her," said young Vavasour; "girl with grey eyes, and head +always on one side when she's valsing; looks as if she was kissing her +own shoulder."</p> + +<p>"Will she land him, do you think?" said Deveril.</p> + +<p>"Not she," said Bertie. "I have known him in as bad a scrape before; +he'll get away to England soon; he always bolts when the family becomes +affectionate."</p> + +<p>A discordant gong resounding through the house was followed by the +announcement of dinner.</p> + +<p>"Come, my dear Miss Prosody," said the Colonel, complacently, leading her +forth; he hadn't near done his recital of the morning's field-day, which +required that delicate tact and judicious prompting to extort from him +that, though not really Brigadier on the occasion, his opinion and +authority had actually directed the proceedings.</p> + +<p>Generally any amount of this affectionate incense was forthcoming from +his wife and daughter; but to-night they both seemed a little <i>distrait</i> +and occupied with Bertie, which, however, was a loss little felt with +Miss Prosody present, whose motto seemed that of the volunteers, "Always +ready," and her "soothing treatment" was certainly equal to that of +either of the others.</p> + +<p>"It's you and I, Miss Bluebell," said young Vavasour, hastily offering +his arm, while Bertie who had hesitated an instant, gave his to Cecil. +The momentary reluctance was not lost upon her, she become rather silent, +ditto Captain Du Meresq; but their opposite neighbours were in a full +flow of chatter.</p> + +<p>"I saw you on the Rink, Miss Leigh, I wish I could skate like you. What +is that thing you do with a broom??"</p> + +<p>"The rose."</p> + +<p>"Take a good deal of cultivating to produce. I should think? Are you +going to the M'Nab's ball?"</p> + +<p>"No; I am not asked. The others are."</p> + +<p>"But you do go to balls sometimes?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes; Mrs. Rolleston promised I should; but I can't go without an +invitation, and I very seldom get one."</p> + +<p>"I daresay not," said Jack hotly; "they don't want their daughters cut +out."</p> + +<p>"Stuff," cried Bluebell, with a sudden blush, which was not occasioned by +the remark, but by the expression of Bertie Du Meresq's eyes that she had +caught for about the third time since dinner began. It was very +provoking; they had a sort of magnetic power, that forced her to look +that way, and she fancied she detected a half-pleased smile in +recognition of the involuntary suffusion.</p> + +<p>"We are going; to 'fix up a prance' after the garrison sleigh drive on +the 10th," continued young Vavasour; "will you come my sleigh, Miss +Leigh?"</p> + +<p>Bluebell's face brightened with anticipation; then she looked down, and +demurred,—"I don't know that I shall be able to go."</p> + +<p>"That's only a put off, I am sure; you came out last garrison +sleigh-drive."</p> + +<p>"Yes, because Colonel Rolleston took me in his, but I mustn't expect +to go every time; and you see there's Freddy; but I <i>should</i> like it +awfully, Mr. Vavasour."</p> + +<p>"Well, I know they will make you come," said he confidently. "Promise me +you won't drive with any other fellow."</p> + +<p>"No fear of that; I don't suppose any one else will ask me."</p> + +<p>"Wouldn't they," thought Vavasour. "I know two or three of our fellows +are death on driving her."</p> + +<p>"Cecil," said Bertie, suddenly, "I think you have grown much quieter."</p> + +<p>"I am sure I might make the same remark, and for the purposes of +conversation it requires two to talk."</p> + +<p>"You are so stiff, or something," murmured he; "not like the jolly little +girl who used to ride with me in the Farwoods. Those were pleasant days, +Cecil—at least, I thought so."</p> + +<p>"You got very suddenly tired of them, however."</p> + +<p>"That I didn't," exclaimed he. "I was obliged to go."</p> + +<p>"It was a yachting excursion, wasn't it?" carelessly.</p> + +<p>"Yes, ostensibly; I had business too. Do you know Cecil very nearly wrote +to you. But then, I thought you wouldn't care to hear from me, and might +think it a bore answering."</p> + +<p>Cecil was silent. "Did you miss me, my child?"</p> + +<p>She forgot her resolves, and met his eyes with a dark, soft look.</p> + +<p>Bertie pressed her hand under the table, and for a moment they were +oblivious of anything passing around.</p> + +<p>"Sweet or dry, sir?" said the deep voice of the liveried [unreadable], +for the second time of asking.</p> + +<p>Du Meresq darted a searching glance at the man, who looked as stolid as +the Serjeant in 'Our's.' No one could have guessed he was thinking what +a <i>piquante</i> anecdote it would be to relate to his inamorata, the cook, +over their supper-beer. Bertie gave a laughing but relieved glance at +his neighbour, whose eyes were fixed on her plate. They both began +simultaneously talking louder, with an exaggerated openness, on general +topics. Mrs. Rolleston joined in.</p> + +<p>"You must stay over the sleighing-party, Bertie."</p> + +<p>"I hate driving a hired sleigh," said he. "I wish I could get mine up; +but the Grand Trunk would be sure to deliver it the day after the fair."</p> + +<p>"But you have your musk-ox robes here; they would dress up the shabbiest +sleigh. I only saw one set like them on New Year's Day, when we had at +least sixty sleighs up here."</p> + +<p>"How did you enjoy that celebration?"</p> + +<p>"I think," said Cecil, "it is rather tiresome for ladies to have to stay +in all day and receive, while the gentlemen go out calling. We had a +spread, of course—luncheon, tea, coffee, everything. One man, who had a +large acquaintance, came before breakfast, and they were rushing in all +day. It would have been well enough if they were not in such a hurry; but +they just swallowed a glass of wine, and the burden of all their remarks +was, 'I have been to a dozen places already, and have about thirty or +forty more to do.'"</p> + +<p>"Could not you two young ladies make them linger over smiles and wine?" +laughed Bertie. "We are not such duffers at Montreal."</p> + +<p>"No, indeed. I saw Bluebell give a man a scalding cup of coffee, with the +most engaging smile. There was a nervous glance at the clock. 'Oh, thank +you, Miss Leigh, how hot it is! I shall never have time to drink it,' +just as if he had a train to catch."</p> + +<p>"They have an arrear of balls and dinners to call for; that is the only +day in the year a good many ever can pay visits—the civilians, I mean."</p> + +<p>The Colonel, who had now exhausted conversation with Miss Prosody, had +leisure to observe the determined flirtation of young Vavasour with +Bluebell. That unformidable young person being only seventeen, of course +looked upon him as a mere boy, and her chaffing manner was not at all to +the Colonel's taste, whose attention was drawn to it by an expressive +glance from Miss Prosody; so he telegraphed to his wife, who soon +signalled her female following from the room.</p> + +<p>Bertie got to the door, and as Bluebell passed through last of the +ladies, she again met that look of interest and admiration Du Meresq had +practised so often.</p> + +<p>Shyness hitherto had been no infirmity of this young Canadian; but Bertie +somehow had mesmerized her into a state of consciousness—it was a +cobwebby kind of fetter, but the first she had worn.</p> + +<p>"Come and talk to me Bluebell," said Mrs. Rolleston, "as Cecil is so +studious."</p> + +<p>The former glanced at her friend, and involuntarily whispered—"<i>How</i> +well she looks to-night!"</p> + +<p>Cecil was sitting apart, utterly absent as it seemed, but her eyes were +shining, and there was a soft brightness about her as she turned over the +pages of a book. It was "The Wanderer,"—one that Bertie had brought with +him.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Rolleston agreed and interpreted it her own way. Bluebell drew a +long rocking-chair by her side, and they fell into a pleasant little +talk. Mrs. Rolleston always made a pet of this child; she was the best of +step-mothers, but stood a little in awe of Cecil.</p> + +<p>Du Meresq came in shortly before the rest; the elder girl did not even +look up, but her face again lit. He stood <i>à l'Anglais</i>, with his back to +the fire, talking to his sister, and occasionally, though without any +particular <i>empressement</i>, addressing Bluebell, who thought his voice +sweeter than any man's she had ever heard. It made her unconsciously +modulate her own, which as yet had the untuned accents of early girlhood; +but the spell was on her, and she felt, for the first time, at a loss for +words. Yet when Mrs. Rolleston shortly after sent her to the piano, it +was more of disappointment than a relief. Some one was following to turn +the leaves—only Mr. Vavasour—odious, officious boy! Who wanted him?</p> + +<p>"Pray, don't," cried she, pettishly. "You are sure to do it all wrong."</p> + +<p>"Let me try," pleaded Jack. "If you just look at me I shall know when to +turn."</p> + +<p>"Well, see if you can bring that book" (indicating a very heavy one at +the bottom of a pile) "without spilling the rest, or dropping it on your +toes. Thank you. Now you had better go away; this is not at all the sort +of music you would understand."</p> + +<p>"Classical, I suppose. I am afraid my taste is too uncultivated."</p> + +<p>"Come, Miss Leigh," said the Colonel, half-impatiently, "we are all +expectation."</p> + +<p>Bertie had approached Cecil, and taken up the book she was reading. It +was open at "Aux Italiens," and he murmured low some of the verses:—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"I thought of the dress she wore last time,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When we stood 'neath the cypress trees together,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In that lost land, in that soft clime,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In the crimson evening weather.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of her muslin dress, for the eve was hot,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And her warm white neck in its golden chain.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And her full soft hair, just tied in a knot,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And falling loose again."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Mrs. Rolleston thought they looked very like lovers bending over the same +book, and their eyes speaking to each other, and in harmony with it went +rippling on one of the wildest and most plaintive of the Lieders under +Bluebell's sympathetic and brilliant fingers.</p> + +<p>"What a magnificent touch that child has!" said Du Meresq, pausing to +listen.</p> + +<p>"She has quite a genius for music;" and, mentally, she commented, "I +never heard her play better."</p> + +<p>"She plays," said Bertie, "as if she were desperately in love."</p> + +<p>"With Mr. Vavasour?" laughed Cecil.</p> + +<p>"With no one, I dare say. It indicates, however, a <i>besoin d'aimer</i>."</p> + +<p>Cecil took up "The Wanderer" again, but she soon found they were not <i>en +rapport</i>. The captain's temperament was now, ear and fancy, under the +spell of the fair musician.</p> + +<p>Bertie was soon by the piano, but Bluebell ceased almost directly after. +He had brought from Montreal [unreadable] Minstrel Melodies, then just +out, and asked her to try one. She excused herself on the plea that it +was a man's song, so he began it himself. Who has not suffered from the +male amateur, who comes forward with bashful fatuity to favour the +company with a strain tame and inaudible as a nervous school girl's? +Bertie was no musician, and his songs were all picked up by ear, but +there was a passion and <i>timbre</i> in the tenor voice, fascinating if +unskilful, and the refrain of "Gentle Annie,"</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Shall we never more behold her,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Never hear that winning voice again,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Till the spring time comes, gentle Annie,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Till the wild flowers are scattered o'er the plain?"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>lingered with its mournful, tender inflection in more than one ear +that night.</p> + +<p>Afterwards the two young men from the barracks, muffled to the chin in +buffalo robes, lit the inevitable cigar, and jingled merrily off to the +music of the bells.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV.</h2> + +<h3>SATURDAY AT HOME.</h3> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Unhasp the lock—like elves set free,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Flit out old memories;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A strange glow gathers round my heart.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Strange moisture dims mine eyes.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">Lawrance.</span><br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p>Cecil woke the next morning with the feeling that something pleasant had +happened; and then she remembered that Bertie Du Meresq was actually in +the house, and the old folly as likely as ever to begin again; but, not +possessing the self-examining powers of Anthony Trolloppe's heroines, she +made no attempt to argue herself out of her unreasonable happiness, and, +indeed, dwelt far more than necessary on the warm, sudden hand-clasp so +inopportunely witnessed by full private Bowers. She came down radiant, +and looking positively handsome; but when did a too sunny dawn escape a +cloud ere noon? Bertie seemed different somehow,—was not certain he +could get more leave,—was even doubtful about asking for it; and Cecil's +mental Mercury, which had been "set fair," went down to "change." In +reality, Du Meresq not being so etherealized by love, felt out of sorts, +and not up to the mark that morning, and, therefore, probably opined with +Moore—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Thus should woman's heart and looks,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">At noon be cold as winter brooks,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor kindle till the night returning<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Brings their genial hour for burning."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>At any rate, he actually went to the barracks with the Colonel, "as if he +couldn't get enough of that," thought Cecil, "when he is not on leave."</p> + +<p>But after severe reflections on herself for caring a straw about it, +Cecil had forgiven him, and a deceitful sunbeam peeped through in the +prospect of meeting at luncheon, only to be again overcast, as the +Colonel returned without the recreant Bertie.</p> + +<p>This second reverse overthrew her afternoon arrangements, for she had +reckoned on Du Meresq's escort to the Rink. This being Saturday, Bluebell +always went home till the following day, and Mrs. Rolleston would not be +available even for a drive, for she hated sleighing, and was looking +forward to writing her English letters in the cozy drawing-room, and +sociably imbibing afternoon tea with any visitors hardy enough to face +the bitter northwester, happily so rare a visitant in that sufficiently +inclement climate.</p> + +<p>But Cecil preferred facing any weather to her own thoughts, and, +encountering three Astrakhan-jacketed and fur-capped sisters under convoy +of Miss Prosody, was carried off by them to enliven their dismal +constitutional.</p> + +<p>In the meantime, Captain Du Meresq, having lunched at the barracks, drove +with Mr. Vavasour to the Rink, expecting to find both girls there: but +speculating rather the most on the chance of having a more unrestrained +conversation with Bluebell than he cared for under the eyes of her +responsible guardians. His projects also were to prove futile, for that +young person was speeding over the frozen tract on the common at the +time. The snow was as dry and hard as powdered sugar, and her cloud was +stiff with her frozen breath; her ears felt as though she had thrust them +into a holly-bush, and the razor-like wind in that unsheltered spot must +have arrested the circulation of any less healthy and youthful +pedestrian. The morning had dawned prosperously for her, as Mrs. +Rolleston had accorded permission to join the sleigh-party, the <i>summum +bonum</i> of her hopes; and the gratification was rendered more complete by +a charming present from Cecil of an ermine cap, muff lined with scarlet, +and ermine neck-tie, fastened by its cunning little head and tail.</p> + +<p>Bluebell was picturing their effect on the velveteen jacket hitherto +so coldly furnished forth, and thinking that Cecil must have ordered +them from Montreal with a view to this party, as they had arrived so +opportunely. She remembered now that Lola had, apparently, been +struggling with a secret for some days; and yet, when she, Bluebell, had +been so ecstatic, Cecil had seemed more thoughtful than sympathetic and +merely acknowledging her thanks by a quiet kiss, had escaped from the +room.</p> + +<p>Two expectant faces were peering over the blind at the cottage, watching +the gay footsteps battling across the common. Even Aunt Jane looked +forward to seeing this weekly messenger from the outer world, which, +needless to say, kept well aloof from these poor and insignificant +ladies.</p> + +<p>Bluebell always brought every piece of gossip she could collect to feed +Miss Opie's inquisitive mind who was in no way exempt from the sin +supposed to most easily beset spinsterhood and her girlish spirits +brightened the quiet cottage and left their echo behind through the dull +week. She was by no means an unmixed good when she lived there. Her +vivacity, having nothing to expend itself on, often turned to desperate +fits of discontent and <i>ennui</i>, but now, coming home was a holiday and +change.</p> + +<p>All the inhabitants, old ladies, and new girl (for each successive one +went away to better herself after a few weeks residence), assembled +simultaneously at the hall door, and drew their visitor from the bitter +blast into the stove lit parlour. One yet more humble welcomer was there +of the vagabond tribe—petty larceny in every curve of his ungainly form, +and his spirit so broken by adversity that he only ventured to wag his +shabby tail in recognition of his benefactress.</p> + +<p>This was Bluebell's casual—one of a too common race in Canada of +homeless, starved animals there being no Refuge or dog tax to compel them +to live under protection or not at all.</p> + +<p>This reclaimed cur after overcoming his strong suspicion of poison, had +supported himself for sometime on the food Bluebell placed for him in the +shed and when emboldened by hunger and the handsome treatment he had +received he ventured into the house, he was authorized to remain as watch +dog and protector.</p> + +<p>In the summer, too, horses were added to her pensioners and invited in to +graze on the patch of enclosed grass at the back of the cottage, till it +fell short from being burned up or eaten, for the common was haunted with +gaunt, famished quadrupeds, who, in the drought of summer, were still +left to look for the mockery of subsistence on the bare, parched ground.</p> + +<p>It was a cheerful party gathered round the tea-table, quite lavishly set +forth in honour of the guest. Scones and tea cakes were plenteously +saturated with butter, regardless of its winter price (the old ladies +would breakfast on bread and scrape the rest of the week with +uncomplaining self-denial), and a heavy plum cake formed the <i>piêce de +resistance</i>.</p> + +<p>Trove, for olfactory reasons, was accommodated with his share on a rug +in the passage. Bluebell was the chief talker, with her week's arrears +of news. Captain du Meresq's arrival created a little buzz of interest.</p> + +<p>"Is he handsome?" asked Mrs. Leigh, sentimentally, whose thoughts had +flown back to earlier days.</p> + +<p>Bluebell looked up with an odd, perplexed glance. "Upon my word, I don't +know."</p> + +<p>"Ah! there were more good-looking people in my day," said her mother. +"There was Captain Fletcher, in your poor father's regiment, the +handsomest man that was ever seen,—fresh-coloured, with golden whiskers, +and long, drooping moustache. All we girls were wild about him. Is +Captain Du Meresq at all like that?"</p> + +<p>"Not in the least. I can't describe him—fine-shaped head, such strange +eyes. Oh! I dare say you would think him hideous," with a conscious +laugh.</p> + +<p>Miss Opie coughed suspiciously. "It is unfortunate," said she, "when you +are in such a pleasant situation, that any disturbing element should +enter. I hope, Bluebell, you will be very circumspect in your demeanour +towards this gentleman."</p> + +<p>"What," said Bluebell, in demure imitation of her manner, "would you +consider an appropriate attitude for me to assume towards him?"</p> + +<p>"These fine Captains are too fond of turning young girls' heads," said +Miss Opie, shaking her own; "'leading captive silly women,' as we read. +If he attempt any foolish, trifling conversation, you should check it +with cold civility."</p> + +<p>Bluebell burst into an irreverent fit of laughter, and even Mrs. Leigh +said,—"Oh, those are your English ideas, Aunt Jane; we are not so stiff +in Canada."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Opie having been a governess for ten years in the mother country, +was looked upon as a naturalized Briton.</p> + +<p>"I think the old country must be very dull," said Bluebell. "Miss Prosody +is always pursing up her mouth and bridling if I laugh and talk with any +of the officers; and one day I distinctly overheard her whisper to the +Colonel,—'very forward,' and nod towards me."</p> + +<p>"It is, however, well to profit by such remarks," returned Miss Opie; +"there is doubtless some truth in them, however unpalatable."</p> + +<p>"But," urged the girl, "Colonel Rolleston can't <i>bear</i> one to be silent +or dull; he always asks if one isn't well; and I shouldn't think you +could call Captain Du Meresq a flirt. Why, he has hardly spoken ten words +to me yet,"—but a sudden glow came to her cheeks as she remembered how +many he had looked.</p> + +<p>"Well, well, I was only warning you. Fetch the backgammon board; your +mother has won seven games and I nine since you went."</p> + +<p>Bluebell complied, and, settling the ladies on either side of a +papier-maché table, opened the piano, and began dreamily playing through +the music of the night before. Trove, finding the door ajar, had pushed +in, and lay near the instrument, listening in that strange way some dogs +do if the tones come from the heart, and not merely the fingers.</p> + +<p>Having got through the last evening's <i>répertoire,</i> she sat musing on the +music-stool, and then crooned rather low an old song of her mother's, +beginning,—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"They tell me thou art the favoured guest<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In many a gay and brilliant throng;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">No wit like thine to wake the jest,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">No voice like thine to raise the song."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>"Oh! that is too old-fashioned," said Mrs. Leigh, and Miss Opie coughed +dryly. But why need Bluebell have blushed so consciously, as she dashed +into Lightning galops and Tom Tiddler quadrilles, till Trove, like a dog +of taste, took his offended ears and outraged nerves off to his lair in +the lobby?</p> + +<p>His fair mistress soon after sought her bower, a scantily furnished +retreat, but, like most girls' rooms, taking a certain amount of +individuality from its occupier. Everything in the little room was blue, +and each article a present. Photographs of school friends were suspended +from the wall with ribbons of her name-sake colour. It was in the earlier +days of the art, when a stony stare, pursed lips, and general rigidity +were considered essential to the production of the portrait.</p> + +<p>Blue, also, were the pincushion and glass toilet implements on the +dressing-table, and a rocking-chair had its cushion embroidered in +bluebells—a tribute of affection from a late schoolfellow.</p> + +<p>The bed was curtainless, and neutral except as to its blue valance, and +the carpet only cocoa-nut matting, which, however, harmonized fairly with +the prevailing cerulean effect.</p> + +<p>Bluebell was writing in a book, guarded by a Bramah, some profound +reflections on "First Impressions." She never lost the key nor forgot to +lock this volume—a saving clause of common-sense protecting a farrago of +nonsence.</p> + +<p>"Ces beaux jours, quand j'étais si malheureux." Have you ever, reader, +taken up an old journal written in early youth, and thought how those +intensely black and white days have now mingled into unnoticeable grey, +half-thankful that the old ghosts are laid, half-regretful for that +keener susceptibility to joy and sorrow gone by? Then, as "the hand +that has written it lays it aside," there is, perhaps, a pang at the +reflection of how the paths now diverge of those who once walked together +as—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Time turns the old days to derision,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Our loves into corpses—or wives;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And marriage, and death, and division,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Make barren our lives."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>But Bluebell knows nothing of that. She is at the scribbling age, and can +actually endure to describe, as if they were new and entirely original, +the dawning follies of seventeen.</p> + +<p>In England a heroine might have wound up such sentimental exercises with +gazing out on the moonlit scene; but nine degrees below zero was +unfavourable for the wooing of Diana. The "cold light of stars" was no +poetical figure, and Bluebell, frozen back to the prosaic, piled up the +stove, and crept into bed, where her waking dreams soon merged into +sleeping ones.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V.</h2> + +<h3>A WOODLAND WALK.</h3> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I hope, pretty maid, you won't take it amiss,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">If I tell you my reason for asking you this,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I would see you safe home (now the swain was in love),<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of such a companion if you would approve.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Your offer, kind shepherd, is civil, I own,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But I see no great danger in going alone;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor yet can I hinder, the road being free<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For one as another, for you as for me.<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p>It was Sunday afternoon. Bluebell was on her way to the Maples, and had +not proceeded far when she observed a Robinson Crusoe-looking figure in +one of those grotesque fur caps and impossible hooded blankets that the +fashionable Briton in Canada so fondly affects. She was speculating idly +upon whom it could be.</p> + +<p>"Not Mr. Gordon, though the 'Fool's-cap' is like his; and Major Simeon +has one of those. Oh, Captain Du Meresq!"</p> + +<p>She bowed rather undecidedly, and then moved on abruptly.</p> + +<p>But Bertie did not pass by.</p> + +<p>"Are you returning?" asked he. "They can't get on without you. Freddy has +dropped a cinder into his nurse's tea, and set fire to the straw in the +cat's basket."</p> + +<p>Bluebell laughed shyly.</p> + +<p>"I have been to see mamma. Do not let me bring you out of your way, +Captain Du Meresq,"—for he had turned back with her.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I was only going for a walk," said Bertie, innocently,—a harmless +amusement that, without any other object, he was simply incapable of +undertaking. "Hadn't I better see you home; there's a brute of a dog down +there who sprang out at me! I broke my stick across his head, and then, +of course, I had to apologize, being disarmed."</p> + +<p>"I know that fierce dog. He belongs to a cabman; but I always speak to +him, and he never attacks me."</p> + +<p>"Even a lion itself would flee from a maid in the pride of her purity," +laughed Bertie. "But, Miss Leigh, must we positively go shivering across +this bleak desert again?—isn't there some sheltered way through the +wood?"</p> + +<p>"There certainly is; but it is three miles round, and, I dare say, full +of drifts."</p> + +<p>"Never mind, all the better fun. Up this way?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, but isn't it late? I think they will be expecting me before."</p> + +<p>"There's nobody at home, if that's all," said Bertie. "They have gone to +the Cathedral, and most likely will turn into tea at the Van Calmonts."</p> + +<p>The scrambling walk was a temptation, the common hideous and cold.</p> + +<p>"We must walk very quick, then."</p> + +<p>"Run, if you like. Come along, there's a dear child."</p> + +<p>Bluebell coloured furiously.</p> + +<p>"Maybe I won't go at all now!"</p> + +<p>"That is so like a girl," said Bertie impatiently; "standing coquetting +in the cold. Now, you are offended. What did I say? Only called you a +child."</p> + +<p>"You had no business to speak so," said Bluebell, angry at his familiar +manner, but rather at a loss for words. "Why can't you call me Miss +Leigh, like everybody else?" and the indignant little beauty paused, +with hot cheeks, and feeling desperately awkward.</p> + +<p>Du Meresq bit his lip to hide a smile. He was half afraid she would dash +off and terminate the interview.</p> + +<p>"Dear me!" said he. "When you are a little older you will think youth a +very good fault. Will you forgive me this once, Miss Leigh, and I will +not call you anything else?—for the present" (<i>sotto voce</i>).</p> + +<p>Bluebell was mollified, and rather proud of the good effects of her +reproof, notwithstanding the half-inaudible rider. Du Meresq, also, +was satisfied, for, without further opposition, they had struck into +the wood. Unused to the Britannic hamper of a chaperone, Bluebell saw +nothing singular in the proceeding. So they crunched over the snow, +keeping, as far as possible, the dazzling track marked by the wheels +of the sleigh-waggons, and plentifully powdered by the snow-laden trees; +now up to their knees in a drift, from which Bertie had the pleasure of +extricating his companion, who forgot her shyness in the difficulties of +the path, and, not being given to silence, was laughing and talking away +unreservedly.</p> + +<p>"What a strange girl she is!" thought Bertie. "Who would think, to hear +her chattering now, she <i>could</i> have made that prim little speech? I must +not go on too fast; it reminds me of that Irish girl who said, the first +time I squeezed her hand, 'Ah, Captain Du Meresq, but you are such a +bould flirt!'"</p> + +<p>Sheltered from the bleak wind the walk on the crisp track was enjoyable +enough; the "strange eyes," being now on a line with and not confronting +her, were less embarrassing, and the slight awe she still felt of him +only gave a piquancy to the companionship.</p> + +<p>"Are you not very glad we came this way?" Bertie was saying.</p> + +<p>"If we had only snow-shoes," cried the breathless Bluebell, for the third +time slipping into a drift, but struggling out before Du Meresq could do +more than catch her hand.</p> + +<p>"Poor little fingers! how cold they are," trying to put them in with his +own into his large beaver gloves.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I wish you would be sensible," stammered Bluebell, much confused.</p> + +<p>"What's the use of being sensible," retorted he, "when it is so much +pleasanter being otherwise? Time enough for that when anybody's by."</p> + +<p>But Bluebell wrenched her hand away, bringing off the glove, which she +threw on the snow.</p> + +<p>"Is that a challenge, Miss Bluebell? Must take up the gauntlet? Good +gracious, my dear child, you are not really annoyed? Well, we will be +sensible, as you call it. Only you must begin; I don't know how."</p> + +<p>"Evidently," said Bluebell, very tartly, drawing as far away as the +exigencies of the track would admit. She could hold her own well enough +with the young subalterns she had hitherto flirted with, but this man was +older, and had a bewildering effect on her.</p> + +<p>"Are you and Cecil great friends?" asked Bertie, presently, with the air +of having forgotten the fracas.</p> + +<p>"I hope so," coming out of her offended silence at this neutral topic. "I +know I like her well enough."</p> + +<p>"And do you tell each other everything, after the manner of young +ladies?"</p> + +<p>"No-o," said Bluebell, reflectively; "not like the girls at school. You +see Cecil is older than I, and cleverer, I suppose, and doesn't talk much +nonsense."</p> + +<p>"Did she ever speak of me?" asked Bertie.</p> + +<p>"Hardly ever; the others have mentioned you often."</p> + +<p>"Cecil is a very sensible girl," with a re-assured countenance; "and as +you never talk nonsense, I suppose you won't mention the trivial fact of +our having taken this walk?"</p> + +<p>"Why in the world not?" opening her large violet eyes full upon him.</p> + +<p>"'Speech is silver, but silence is golden,' you unsophisticated child," +returned he, enigmatically.</p> + +<p>Bluebell considered. "Why, of course, I shall tell Mrs. Rolleston what +made me so late."</p> + +<p>"But not if she doesn't ask you?"</p> + +<p>"But why not? There is <i>no harm</i> in it," said the girl, persistently.</p> + +<p>"No, no; but if you had lived as long as I, you would know that people +<i>always</i> try and interfere with anything pleasant. I should so like to +take this walk with you every week, Bluebell."</p> + +<p>Bluebell looked down; she was vaguely flattered by his caring to repeat +the walk which she thought must be so unimportant to him,—it would be +something to look forward to, for she <i>had</i> enjoyed it, though she could +not tell why.</p> + +<p>"But, Captain Du Meresq—" she began.</p> + +<p>"Call me Bertie, when we are alone," said he.</p> + +<p>They had entered on the street, Bluebell was wavering, but the last +sentence, "when we are alone," struck her ear unpleasantly.</p> + +<p>"How can I?" said she; "I do not know you well enough."</p> + +<p>"Walk with me sometimes," whispered Bertie, "and that reason will +disappear, but don't say a word about it to-day, there's a dear girl. +I had better make tracks for the club; you will be at home in five +minutes,"—and Du Meresq ceremoniously lifted his cap, for many eyes were +about, and disappeared down another block.</p> + +<p>Bluebell on finding herself alone, went through a disagreeable reaction. +It was certainly only a few yards to her destination; but it was annoying +to be left so abruptly, and an air of secrecy thrown over her actions +too. Did she like him, or hate him? She could not determine; her fancy +and her vanity were both touched, doubtless; then, remembering Miss +Opie's exhortations, a gleam of fun twinkled in her eyes as she thought +of what her horror would have been at Bertie's affectionate ease of +manner.</p> + +<p>All the same she crept into the house, feeling very underhand and +uncomfortable. None of the party had returned, so reprieved for the +present she went up to the nursery.</p> + +<p>Freddy was roaring on his back, he had just thrown "Peep-of-Day" at the +nurse's head, which had been unwisely offered to him as a substitute for +his favourite trumpet, when its excruciating blasts become too +unbearable.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I'm sure I'm glad you have come back, miss, for I don't know how to +abide that wearyin' child, as don't know what a whipping is. Here's your +governess, sir, as will put you in the corner."</p> + +<p>"Hold your tongue, you fool!" cried Freddy with supreme contempt.</p> + +<p>The <i>suaviter in modo</i> was, indeed, the only treatment allowed in that +nursery. Bluebell retreated with a highly-coloured scrap-book to the +window, which she feigned complete absorption in. Freddy glanced at it +out of the tail of his eye.</p> + +<p>"Show me that, Boobell."</p> + +<p>"I don't know, Freddy," said the girl, feeling some slight moral coercion +incumbent on her. "Do you <i>think</i> you will call nurse a fool again?"</p> + +<p>"She shouldn't bother," said the infant, confidentially, climbing into +her lap, but declining to commit himself to any pledges of good +behaviour. "Show me the book."</p> + +<p>Half-an-hour after, Mrs. Rolleston looking in, saw a pretty little +picture—the old nurse was nodding in a rocking-chair. Bluebell's fair +young face was bending over Freddy, seated on her lap, with as arm round +her neck, his cherubic visage beaming with interest as he listened to the +classic tale of "Three Wishes." It was easier to her to continue the +recital, while a dread of being questioned prevented her looking up.</p> + +<p>"Bluebell is telling Freddy such a beautiful fairy story," said Mrs. +Rolleston, to some one who had followed her to the nursery.</p> + +<p>"I wish she would tell fairy stories to me," said Bertie.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI.</h2> + +<h3>VISITORS.</h3> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">In aught that from me lures thine eyes<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My jealousy has trial;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The lightest cloud across the skies<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Has darkness for the dial.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">Lord Lytton.</span><br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p>Bluebell had no difficulty in preserving silence about the Sunday's +escapade. It never occurred to Mrs. Rolleston to enquire what time she +had returned, and an evasive answer to Cecil was all that it entailed. +But she was very much perplexed by the change in Captain Du Meresq's +manner. The cold civility recommended by Miss Opie seemed all on his +side. Nothing but good-humoured indifference was apparent in his manner. +Their acquaintance did not seem to have progressed further than the first +evening; indeed, it had rather retrograded; and she could almost imagine +she had <i>dreamt</i> the tender speeches he had lavished on her in the Humber +woods.</p> + +<p>Cecil and he were out sleighing most afternoons, and Bluebell was thrown +on nursery and school-room for companionship—insipid pabulum to the +vanity of a young lady in her first glimpse of conquest, and who believed +she had stricken down a quarry worthy of her bow. Having nothing to +distract her, she considered the problem exhaustively from morning till +night, and, if she were not in love with him before, she had got him into +her head now, if not into her heart. His being so much with Cecil did not +strike her as any clue to the mystery. They were relations, of course, or +nearly the same thing; there was no flirting in their matter-of-fact +intercourse.</p> + +<p>Cecil found her one afternoon reading over the bed-room fire, in a +somewhat desponding attitude. Miss Rolleston had just come in from a +drive, her slight form shrouded in sealskins, an air of brightness and +vivacity replacing her usual rather languid manner.</p> + +<p>"You wouldn't think it was snowing from my cloak," cried she. "It is +though—quite a heavy fall, if you can call anything so light heavy. We +were quite white when we came in, but it shakes off without wetting."</p> + +<p>"It won't be very good sleighing, then, to-morrow, and the wind is +getting up, too."</p> + +<p>"And what have you been doing, Bluebell?"</p> + +<p>"I walked with the children and Miss Prosody in the Queen's Park," said +the latter, rather dolefully.</p> + +<p>"And it was very cold and stupid, I suppose?" said Cecil, kindly. "Come +down to the drawing-room and try some duets."</p> + +<p>There were two or three visitors below and Bertie, and some tea was +coming in. They were looking at a picture of Cecil's just returned from +being mounted as a screen. It was a group of brilliant autumn leaves—the +gorgeous maple, with its capricious hues, an arrow-shaped leaf, half red, +half green, like a parrot's feather, contrasting with another "spotted +like the pard," and then one blood-red. The collecting of them had been +an interest to the children in their daily walks, and Cecil had arranged +them with artistic effect.</p> + +<p>One of the visitors was a rather pretty girl, whom Bluebell had known +formerly. She gave her, however, only a distant bow, while she answered +with the greatest animation any observation of Captain Du Meresq's. This +young lady was to be one of the sleighing party next day, and, as far as +she could admit such a humiliating fact, was trying to convey to him, +that she was as yet unappropriated for any particular sleigh.</p> + +<p>"Who is to drive you, Miss Rolleston?" asked she, suspecting, from his +backwardness in coming forward, that the object of her intentions might +be engaged there.</p> + +<p>"I am going in the last sleigh, with Major Fane. We take the luncheon and +pay the turnpikes. He is Vice-President this time."</p> + +<p>"By-the-bye, Du Meresq," said the Colonel, rather exercised to find a +lady of the party without a swain, "whom have you asked?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, everybody is engaged," said Bertie, mendaciously ignoring Miss +Kendal's half-admission of being open to an offer. "I shall not join the +drive at all, unless," he added, in a hesitating manner, as if it was a +sudden thought, "Miss Leigh will compassionate me, and allow me to take +charge of her."</p> + +<p>Bluebell, confused by this unexpected proposition, and by feeling so +many eyes turned upon her, did not immediately make any answer; then a +vexatious remembrance intruded itself, and she replied, with what that +individual would have thought most unnecessary concern,—</p> + +<p>"I am very sorry—I mean—I believe I am half-engaged to Mr. Vavasour."</p> + +<p>"I should think you were," said Mrs. Rolleston. "I don't know what he +would say if you threw him over."</p> + +<p>"Oh!" said Bertie, plaintively, "if that insinuating youth has been +beforehand, of course there's no chance for me. Well, I am out of the +hunt,"—and he carelessly whistled a bar of "Not for Joseph" in reply to +a suggestive motion of his sister's towards Miss Kendal.</p> + +<p>"I should think it so dull," said that young lady, tossing her head, "to +be engaged so long before. <i>I</i> do not intend to decide till the day."</p> + +<p>"What shall you keep all your admirers in suspense till the last moment?" +said Bertie, with a covert sneer, for he was angry at her slighting +behaviour to Bluebell. "What a scramble there will be!"</p> + +<p>Miss Kendal was not altogether satisfied with the tone of the remark, so +she commenced tying on her cloud, observing sharply, "Well, mamma, we +shall be benighted if we stay any longer."</p> + +<p>Bertie dutifully attended them to the sleigh, and won the elder lady's +heart by the skill with which he tucked round her the fur robes and the +parting grace of his bow.</p> + +<p>She was about to purr out some commendation, when—"What a bear that man +is!" burst with startling vehemence from Miss Kendal's coral lips.</p> + +<p>"Oh! my dear, what can you mean? I thought he seemed so agreeable."</p> + +<p>"I as good as told him," muttered the ruffled fair, too angry to be +reticent, "that I had no one to drive me to-morrow; and I think it was +real rude asking that Bluebell Leigh before my face,—a mere nursery +governess—and not giving me so much as the chance of refusing him."</p> + +<p>"But you said," urged Mrs. Kendal, who did not see beyond the proverbial +nasal tip, "that you would not decide on your sleigh till the day."</p> + +<p>"I only know," said the daughter, with dark emphasis, "I wouldn't drive +with him now, if he went on his bended knees to ask me."</p> + +<p>"Thank you, Bella," said Bertie, returning. "Nice little game you had cut +out for me! What an odious girl!"</p> + +<p>Cecil's jealous instinct detected the root of this animosity, more +especially guided thereto by his attempt to secure Bluebell as a +companion, which had surprised her not too agreeably.</p> + +<p>"What is her crime," said she, sarcastically, "beyond a rather +transparent design of driving with you Bertie?"</p> + +<p>"She is hung with bangles like an Indian squaw, and has a Yankee twang in +her voice."</p> + +<p>"She pretended to scarcely remember me," said Bluebell, "though we were +at school together."</p> + +<p>"Jealous, I dare say," laughed Bertie. "Is she an admirer of Jack +Vavasour's?"</p> + +<p>"Fancy any one admiring a boy like that!" said Bluebell, who did not feel +in charity with her allotted charioteer.</p> + +<p>Bertie had advanced to take her cup, and as she said this, it seemed to +Cecil he touched her hand caressingly under cover of it.</p> + +<p>"I dare say," said she sharply, "Alice Kendal has as many admirers as +other people, and, perhaps, can dispense with counting Captain Du Meresq +among them."</p> + +<p>Bluebell looked up, astonished at her manner; but Bertie perceived it +with more intelligence, and the thought, "What a bore it will be if +she is jealous," afterwards passed through his mind,—by which may be +inferred he had had in contemplation the acquisition of "Heaven's last +best gift."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII.</h2> + +<h3>THE GARRISON SLEIGH CLUB.</h3> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'T were a pity when flowers around us rise,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To make light of the rest, if the rose be not there;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the world is so rich in resplendent eyes,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">'T were a pity to limit one's love to a pair.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">Moore.</span><br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p>"I never saw a prettier sight in my life," cried Cecil, as she stood with +a motley group in the verandah of "The Maples," the rendezvous of the +sleighing party. As each sleigh turned in at the gate and deposited its +freight, it fell into rank which extended all round the lawn, till +scarcely a space was left on the drive that encircled it, and the air +rang with the bells on the nodding horses' heads.</p> + +<p>"What the—blazes!" ejaculated Bertie, as Mr. Vavasour rounded the +corner at a trot in a red-wheeled tandem, scarlet plumes on the horses, +and the robes a combination of black bear-skins and scarlet trimming. The +leader, a recent importation from England, better acquainted with the +hunting-field than the traces, reared straight on end; but a judicious +flick on her ear sent her with a bound almost into the next sleigh, and +the tandem drew up at the hall door to an inch.</p> + +<p>"Post? mail-cart? nonsense!" said Jack, shaking hands all round 'mid an +avalanche of chaff. "Nice cheerful colour for a cold day; that's all."</p> + +<p>"Quite scorching," said Major Fane. "Well, Miss Rolleston, if they leave +us behind at the turnpikes, we shall never lose sight of them with Jack's +flames for a beacon."</p> + +<p>"How do you like your tandem, Bluebell?" asked Cecil, "and how far do you +expect to get before Mr. Vavasour upsets you?" added she, <i>sotto voce</i>.</p> + +<p>"I don't care if he chooses a good place," laughed Bluebell.</p> + +<p>"Why, I thought Bertie wasn't going," said, Mrs. Rolleston, as that +individual drove up in a modest cutter with a gentleman companion.</p> + +<p>"I think he changed his mind when he heard Miss Kendal was going with +papa," said Cecil.</p> + +<p>"I believe we are all here," said Colonel Rolleston, who was to lead the +procession, coming out with the great lady of the party, an eccentric +dowager peeress, who having "tired her wing" with flying through the +States, was now perching awhile before re-crossing the Herring-pond. Miss +Kendal and a subaltern, pressed into the service, placed themselves in +the back seat, well smothered in wolf-skins, and the first sleigh moved +off to the admiration of the school-room party at the window, who, with +the partiality of childhood, thought their papa's the most beautiful +turn-out in the city.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Vavasour's horse is up the bank," screamed Fleda. "How much better +papa drives; he went off so quickly and quietly. I wouldn't be Bluebell! +Mr. Vavasour can hardly get out at the gate."</p> + +<p>"If papa had to drive one horse before another, perhaps he couldn't +either," said Lola, who had been watching with great interest the erratic +course of Jack's leader.</p> + +<p>Twenty sleighs were off in a string, the crowd cheering them to the echo +as they dashed through Queen's Park; but on gaining Carleton Street they +were obliged carefully to keep the track, as the sides of the road were +deep and treacherous.</p> + +<p>"The Colonel is making the pace very slow," remarked Mr. Vavasour; "like +to drive, Miss Leigh? they are going very smoothly."</p> + +<p>Bluebell, whose knowledge of horses was about equal to her opportunities +of instruction, unhesitatingly assented. Jack's gratification thereat was +somewhat tempered, when he saw the bewilderment apparent in his flighty +pair at the very original manner in which she handled her "lines."</p> + +<p>"I suppose," said that young lady, with the composure of ignorance, "we +are all right as long as this bald-face horse keeps its nose pointing at +Captain Delamere's back."</p> + +<p>"Quite so," said Jack, cheerily; "don't take the whip, you are only +winding it round your own neck. I'll give Dahlia a lick in the face if +she turns out of the rank."</p> + +<p>They were winding down a hill, and took a road at the bottom at right +angles to it. Colonel Rolleston, in the first sleigh, was blandly +pointing out to Lady Hampshire the <i>coup d'oeil</i> of the whole procession +as they described two sides of a triangle.</p> + +<p>"Do you like my plumes?" asked Jack, relaxing his surveillance on Dahlia, +as her left ear, which had been laid back in a suggestive manner, resumed +its accustomed position.</p> + +<p>"Like them," echoed Bluebell; "it's just like a hearse, bar the colour, +which is frightful. I wouldn't have come if I had known I was to be +driven in such a fire-engine."</p> + +<p>"There now," rather crest-fallen. "I chose them because you said you were +<i>fond</i> of scarlet, otherwise I should have preferred blue, except that I +might have been taken for one of the 10th, who mount their regimental +colours on everything."</p> + +<p>"I like the 10th," said Bluebell, perversely; "they are all good-looking +except the Adjutant, who got his nose sliced off by a Sikh, and +the.... goodness what's that?" as a fearful shout, followed by a +sudden checking of horses, brought the whole line to a stand-still.</p> + +<p>"What's the matter?" was passed from one sleigh to another up to the +front: the return message, shouted and taken up as each one interpreted +it, became soon about as intelligible as it does in the game of Russian +scandal, and for the next few minutes everybody was conjecturing at once.</p> + +<p>"Here's Du Meresq," cried Jack, as Bertie came ploughing through the +snow.</p> + +<p>"Halloa, guard! what's wrong on the line?"</p> + +<p>"Run into a goods' train," said he, keeping on his course to the +Vice-President's sleigh.</p> + +<p>"Du Meresq never tells one anything," said Jack; "I hate a mysterious +fellow; somebody's capsized, I suppose, and he's gone for some brandy."</p> + +<p>"Perhaps for a shovel," suggested Bluebell. "Colonel Rolleston may have +come to a drift."</p> + +<p>"Don't see how we are to reverse our engine," replied Jack, looking each +side of the road, where the snow was piled four or five feet.</p> + +<p>Bertie, however, had not gone for a shovel, which would have been +perfectly useless, but to explain the situation and assist in turning +round the sleighs. In front of Colonel Rolleston was a huge rampart of +snow, extending for some distance. The wind setting dead in that +direction, had drifted it across, and buried the track several feet. This +road had been clear the day before, for Bertie and Cecil had driven it to +ascertain, but the wind had changed and snow fallen during the night.</p> + +<p>Major Fane's sleigh was successfully turned, after a great deal of +assistance to the horses, who floundered up to their shoulders; and to +this haven of refuge Du Meresq was conducting several young ladies, for +each sleigh having to turn on the spot where their progress was arrested, +a certain number of upsets was inevitable.</p> + +<p>"Come, Miss Leigh," said a voice beneath her, "you mustn't stick to the +ship any longer. Why, this is the worst bit of all. You can't jump; trust +to me." And to Jack's indignation, Bertie lifted her from the wheel and +carried her through some deep snow to a dry place. There was a certain +amount of excuse for it, as he couldn't have deposited her in the drift, +and turning the tandem took up its owner's whole attention, and the +services of three or four volunteers; but he fancied Du Meresq had +squeezed the little hand before he relinquished it, and ere the tell-tale +blush had passed from Bluebell's face, Jack had turned, jumped out and +replaced her in the tandem with quiet decision.</p> + +<p>Bluebell, confused by the powerless way she had been handed about between +her two admirers, could not rally directly, and sat meditating an early +snubbing for Jack, but a ridiculous incident soon distracted her +attention.</p> + +<p>"Get out? No, thank you, Captain Du Meresq," cried Lilla Tremaine, a +tall, handsome girl in the sleigh behind; "you'd find me a precious +weight to carry, and I am very comfortable where I am. Turn away, Captain +Delamere, we'll sink or swim together."</p> + +<p>Thus urged, the individual called on made his effort; the sleigh turned, +indeed, but on its side, and the adventurous Miss Tremaine, summarily +ejected, sank to her waist in the deep snow, her crinoline rising as she +descended, spread out under her arms, looking like an inverted umbrella. +Jack and Bluebell were suffocating with the laughter they vainly tried to +hide, and Bertie, who was on foot, took in the situation at once, and +rushed to the rescue.</p> + +<p>"Put your arms round my neck, Miss Tremaine," cried he, peremptorily.</p> + +<p>The poor girl, half crying with shame and cold, did so, and Du Meresq, +grasping her firmly round the waist, endeavoured to drag her forth.</p> + +<p>"It's even betting she pulls him in," cried Jack, in a most unfeeling +ecstasy, for Miss Tremaine was no pocket Venus—rather answered the +Irishman's description of "an armful of joy."</p> + +<p>"Oh, dear!" said poor Lilla, trembling with cold, as she found herself on +<i>terra firma</i>, "I never can go on; the snow has made me quite wet +through."</p> + +<p>"Of course you can't," said Bertie, decidedly; "you'd catch your death of +cold. Delamere, you drive on with the other Miss Tremaine," for they had +both been in his sleigh, "and I'll take Miss Lilla home in my cutter, +where she can get dry clothes. You must all pass their house on your way +back, when we can fall in again; so that's all settled. Oh, Meredith, I +forgot you. Hitch on to some other sleigh, there's a good fellow. I am on +ambulance duty; somebody tell Colonel Rolleston—presently."</p> + +<p>Then Bertie, who had his own reasons for hurrying, placed Miss Tremaine, +still shivering from her snow bath, in the cutter, and drove rapidly off.</p> + +<p>"Well, I am d——d," muttered Captain Delamere to Vavasour; "she has +never seen the fellow before!"</p> + +<p>"Hush, pray," said Jack, affectedly; "he <i>is</i> an officious young man. But +be thankful for small mercies, old boy; you have got one left."</p> + +<p>"That's the wrong one," growled Delamere.</p> + +<p>After a brief consultation about the route, a unanimous vote for luncheon +was passed, so they drove on till they came to an open space, the +contrary side of the wood in which Du Meresq and Bluebell had walked on +Sunday. Here all the sleighs formed up together, and Major Fane's larder +was ransacked.</p> + +<p>Curaçoa, mulled claret, hot coffee, etc., kept warm in a blanket, were +passed round, with mutton pies, croquettes, cakes and other edibles; and +circulation being restored, all was mirth and hilarity.</p> + +<p>Colonel Rolleston alone remained dark and moody. He had just discovered +the defection of Du Meresq and Lilla, and, having his own opinion of his +brother-in-law, disapproved of it entirely. Miss Tremaine also was much +too flighty for his taste, and he was very hard on Captain Delamere for +not applying to him to get her decorously out of her delicate dilemma.</p> + +<p>He made up his mind to curtail the drive, and call at Mr. Tremaine's at +his earliest convenience.</p> + +<p>Bertie, in the meantime, delighted at getting a <i>tête-à-tête</i> with +a handsome girl, instead of driving in a monotonous string with Mr. +Meredith, proceeded to improve the occasion with such success that his +fair companion forgot her wet stockings, and even omitted to observe that +they had passed the turn leading to the paternal abode.</p> + +<p>When she did remark it, Bertie easily persuaded her that she must be +quite dry now, and that, as they had missed the garrison drive, they had +better take one on their own account. Miss Lilla, unrestrained by the +detective eyes of her elder sister, was ripe for any frolic, and Bertie +certainly did not find so many obstacles in the way of an affectionate +flirtation as he had with Bluebell.</p> + +<p>But our business is with the trans-Atlantic picnic in the snow, not with +the "cutting out" expedition of this reprobate pair. Having distributed +the remainder of the luncheon to the servants, a start was again +effected. Lilla's adventure had left its impression one way or another on +two or three of the party. Jack was delighted that Du Meresq was off on a +fresh pursuit, and so not likely to be hanging about Bluebell; and that +damsel was trying, by a reckless flirtation with Vavasour, to stifle the +vexatious conviction that Bertie had only been making a fool of her on +Sunday, and was now probably repeating the same game with Miss Tremaine. +Yet at this period her vanity was more wounded than her heart; very +different from poor Cecil, whose infatuation was of older date, and not +the mere result of a few flattering speeches.</p> + +<p>For a girl of her disposition to set her affections on a man like Bertie +was certain misery. She had no rivals in those days when she learnt to +care so intensely for the sympathetic companion who understood her so +much better than any one else. He understood her; therein was the potent +charm; her mind awoke and her ideas vivified from contact with his, as +two happily-contrasted colours become brighter in hue in juxtaposition. +No companion had ever suited her so perfectly, and yet Bertie had +scarcely made direct love to her. It seemed a matter of course that they +should care most for each other, and Cecil's young and ardent heart had +drifted beyond recall ere she had done more than suspect another side to +his character.</p> + +<p>Now she perceived that Bertie's affection for her by no means made him +insensible to the bright eyes of the fair Canadians; yet the more she +cared for his philandering interludes with other girls the less she +showed it, except that her manner grew colder, though, unfortunately, her +heart did not.</p> + +<p>Major Fane was disappointed with Cecil's preoccupied mood. He had taken +some pains to secure her for this drive, and she hadn't a word to say to +him. He certainly admired her, but, perhaps, it was more his horror of +Canadian girls that had made her his choice for the day. He always said +their only idea of conversation was chaff, and rudeness under cover of +it; and as he had been the victim of many such "smart" speeches, he +looked upon them with nervous aversion.</p> + +<p>The quiet repose of a lady-like English girl gained by the contrast. +There was rather too much tranquillity to-day, perhaps; so he exerted +some tact to draw Cecil from her reserve, the cause of which he was +unable to guess. He agreed with her in reviling the monotony and +stupidity of sleighing picnics, having to follow one by one like a string +of geese, long after one was perished with cold, though he failed to +detect in her weariness that she was wishing for her father to stop at +the Tremaines', and annex the truant sleigh to the rest.</p> + +<p>Her discontent somewhat relieved by expression, she became ashamed of her +unsociability, and Major Fane's next topic was not uncongenial. He was +airing his cherished grudge, and pronouncing a severe philippic on the +belles of the Dominion. Cecil was incapable of detraction, or envy at +another's greater success; but in the face of Bertie's abduction of Lilla +before her eyes, she did not feel particularly in charity with any +daughter of Canada.</p> + +<p>In the meantime Bluebell, in the strangest of spirits, refused to +relinquish the reins, even in difficult places, and conducted herself +generally with a mixture of recklessness and ignorance that gave Jack +enough to do to look out.</p> + +<p>He rather took advantage of this mood to make more decided love than he +had hitherto done; but while he thought her wild with fun and spirits, +she was really goaded on by vexation and bitterness of heart; and perhaps +her most immediate wish was for solitude to drop the mask and be +miserable in peace.</p> + +<p>That was impossible, at present. Jack was tiresome. He was giving +her directions how to steer up a hill, formidable from its narrow +track and deep drop on either side. Dahlia, it seemed, jibbed sometimes, +she must—Bluebell was paying no attention. Good Heavens! what was +happening?—the leader backing and sliding! Jack's stinging whip and +clutch at the reins could not arrest the catastrophe. Dahlia rears and +falls over the edge, pulling sleigh and wheeler after her into a trough +of snow.</p> + +<p>Bluebell blinded and half suffocated—no wonder, for three bear-skins and +two cushions were a-top of her (not to mention Jack, who had caught his +leg in the reins, and was unable immediately to rise),—made vain efforts +to extricate himself; the horses were struggling on their sides; and +altogether, as the Americans say, it was rather "mixed."</p> + +<p>Somehow or another, no one ever does get hurt out of a sleigh, even after +an <i>impromptu</i> header of a dozen feet. Ten minutes later the party were +<i>en route</i> again, Bluebell transferred, <i>en pénitence</i>, to Colonel +Rolleston's sleigh, <i>vice</i> the subaltern; and by this time nearly every +one was discontented and anxious to return.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII.</h2> + +<h3>FIXING UP A PRANCE.</h3> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i12">"'Tis over,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The valse, the quadrille, and the song,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The whispered farewell of the lover;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The heartless adieu of the throng,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The heart that was throbbing with pleasure;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The eyelid that longed for repose,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The beaux that were dreaming of treasure.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The girls that were dreaming of beaux."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">Edward Firzgerald.</span><br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p>Before they got to the Tremaines' house, Bertie drove up with Miss Lilla, +who was "quite dry now, thank you; not worth while bringing all the +sleighs up to the door." More than one curious observer noticed the +panting flanks of the horse, who scarcely looked as if he had been +resting in a stable. To be sure, the delinquents <i>had</i> done that last +mile rather fast, to nick in and meet the party before they should make +inconvenient inquiries at Mr. Tremaine's,—Bertie, who was as good a +mimic as his mother, enhancing the fright of his fair companion by an +improvisation of the scene that would probably take place supposing +they were too late to prevent it, and further convulsing her with a +travesty of his brother-in-law in his most imposing attitude of stately +displeasure.</p> + +<p>Lilla nearly had a relapse when they met the rest, as Colonel Rolleston's +face was the faithful reproduction of Bertie's five minutes before; but +the ironical silence with which he received her speech, rather diminished +their triumph at having escaped detection. The girls were all to return +to "The Maples," dress there, and go to the dinner and dance at the +barracks, under Mrs. Rolleston's sole chaperonage.</p> + +<p>The scrambling toilette was got through with much noise and merriment.</p> + +<p>"Oh, has any one seen my 'waist'?" and "Do smooth my waterfall," were +enigmatical exclamations of frequent occurrence. Cecil's dormitory +resembled a milliner's show-room from the variety of dresses spread on +the bed.</p> + +<p>These were not of a very extravagant description; papery pink or green +silk seemed most in vogue, completed with rows of beads round the throat; +but when viewed in connexion with the apple-blossom complexions, abundant +hair and dancing eyes of the Canadian belles, the adventitious aids of +dress might well be deemed as superfluous as painting the lily.</p> + +<p>Half-a dozen covered sleighs, going and returning, transported the party +to the barracks, where, escorted by their military hosts, they ascended +the staircase, banked with evergreens, and lined by motionless soldiers +to the ante-room, which, of course, looked as unattractive as the cordial +but mistaken exertions of its proprietors could make it—all the +<i>laissez-aller</i> comfort primly tidied away, and such a roasting fire as +speedily drove every one to remote corners of the room.</p> + +<p>The <i>mauvais quart d'heure</i> before dinner had the usual sobering effect, +and young people, who later on would be valsing together on the easiest +of terms, now shyly looked over photograph books, and discoursed with an +edifying amount of diffidence and respect. Each one was to go in to +dinner with his companion of the sleigh—an arrangement of questionable +wisdom, and, as Bertie said, "It behoved one to be doubly careful whom +one drove." Captain Delamere was furious, for, when he claimed Lilla, she +calmly replied, "That having taken them both, she of course supposed he +would ask her elder sister, and, therefore, had promised Captain Du +Meresq."</p> + +<p>Before Delamere had done anathematizing his folly in giving the saucy +Lilla such a loop-hole to throw him over, the trumpet sounded, folding +doors opened, and fifty people sat down to the cheery repast.</p> + +<p>The table was bright with regimental plate, racing cups, and hot-house +flowers. The band commenced playing "Selections," somewhat deafening, +perhaps, but then it was too cold to put them out of doors.</p> + +<p>Cecil and Bluebell were neither of them too much gratified at witnessing +the furious flirtation going on at dinner between Captain Du Meresq and +Miss Tremaine; but Cecil, who never looked at them, and therefore, of +course, saw everything, fancied the admiration most on the lady's side, +and even some of her <i>oeillades</i>, bravado. To be sure Bertie never did +flirt seriously <i>en évidence</i>, if he could help it.</p> + +<p>Bluebell, completely out of sorts, was acquiring a painful experience. +Du Meresq's conduct seemed inexplicable and provoking as she pondered +indignantly on her walk at the Humber, and mentally ejaculated with Miss +Squeers, "Is this the hend?"</p> + +<p>Jack, temporarily discouraged by her indifference to himself, which came +on rather rapidly at dinner, gave his next neighbour the benefit of his +conversation.</p> + +<p>But this unsatisfactory repast to our heroines was not unnecessarily +prolonged, the mess-room having to be cleared for the great business of +the evening, which, let us hope will prove what it is sure to be called +in next day's discussion "a very good ball."</p> + +<p>Why this undescriptive phrase should be applied to every well-attended +dance, with a supper, has always perplexed us; for, of course, every one +really judges it by his or her own personal success and enjoyment, not +unfrequently incompatible with that of some one else. Yet it is all +summed up next morning in the summary verdict "good," or "bad." If there +is a deficiency of gentlemen, space, supper, or <i>ton</i>, the latter; but +given these indispensables, you may have been jilted for your bosom +friend by your latest conquest, yet you must come up smiling, and endorse +the public panegyric on the hated evening till the subject be superseded.</p> + +<p>Bluebell, a few weeks ago, would have looked upon this ball as the acme +of delight. She was in great request, and, indeed, attained that highest +object of young lady ambition, being belle of the evening; but now her +happiness did not depend on the many—dance after dance passed, and the +only partner she cared for had not once engaged her.</p> + +<p>Bertie had been sitting out half the evening with Lilla in a +conservatory, and when they did emerge, was seized on by his +brother-in-law with very black looks, and introduced to a somewhat +unappreciated young lady.</p> + +<p>Bertie had the happy knack of appearing equally charmed, whether +presented to a beauty or the reverse; but he inscribed himself very low +down on her card, remorselessly ignoring the intervening blanks, and then +approached Cecil, who, in black and amber, was the most striking-looking +girl in the room. Though inferior in beauty to many, her fine figure and +expressive eyes could never pass unnoticed.</p> + +<p>"Dear little Cecil, how well she is looking!" thought he, facilely +forgetting his latest flame, and just becoming sensible of her "altered +eye."</p> + +<p>"My niece," said Bertie, in a theatrical tone, intended to disguise his +perception of it, "shall we tread a measure? Let me lead you forth into +the mazy dance."</p> + +<p>"Excuse me, Bertie," said Cecil, languidly; "I am only going to dance the +two or three round ones I am engaged for, and I know you do not care for +square."</p> + +<p>"I should think not," said he angrily, "when you are going to dance round +ones with other fellows."</p> + +<p>"You see you asked too late," said she, indifferently.</p> + +<p>"Will you go in to supper with me then?"</p> + +<p>"That was all arranged and written down ages ago. Let me see, I am +ticketed for the Major again."</p> + +<p>"As you have been all day. I never saw such a cut and-dried, monotonous +programme for a party: all done by rule—no freedom of action."</p> + +<p>"Really, Bertie, you and Miss Tremaine can't complain."</p> + +<p>"That's why you are so cold to me to-night, Cecil," said Du Meresq, +quietly.</p> + +<p>"What can it signify to me?" retorted she, freezingly, vexed at having +permitted the adversary, so to speak, to discover the joint in her +harness. Her partner, who had been hovering near, now claimed and bore +her unwillingly away, for next to being friends with Bertie was the +pleasure of "riling" him by smiling icyness. It was the only weapon she +permitted herself, as she would not condescend to any visible sign of +jealousy or pique.</p> + +<p>Bertie was simply <i>gêné</i> by her determination to be all or nothing; there +was no satisfying such an unreasonable girl. Like the immortal Lilyvick, +"he loved them all," yet her thoughtful mind and gentle companionship +were becoming more to him than he was himself aware of.</p> + +<p>Cecil, valsing round, looked at each turn for his tall figure leaning +against the wall. It was an abstracted attitude, and he seemed graver +than usual.</p> + +<p>"Had she made him unhappy?"—she trusted so—would give the world to read +his thoughts.</p> + +<p>Some one said, "There is no punishment equal to a granted prayer." Du +Meresq was wrapt in speculation as to whether they had really succeeded +in getting a wild turkey for supper, which the Mess President was in +maddening doubt about the day before.</p> + +<p>That blissful moment was at hand, and the room thinned with a celerity +born of <i>ennui</i>, I suppose, for very few people are really hungry, yet it +is the invariable signal for as simultaneous a rush as of starving +paupers when the door of a soup kitchen is opened. To be sure, there are +the chaperones, poor things, round whom no "lovers are sighing," and, +perhaps, supper <i>is</i> the liveliest time to them—old gentlemen, too, +might be allowed some indulgence; but what can be said for dancing men, +wasting the precious moments of their partners, while they linger +congregated together among the <i>débris</i> and champagne-corks?</p> + +<p>"What a clearance," said Bluebell, subsiding, with a fagged air, on to a +sofa, as her partner bowed himself off with an eye to business.</p> + +<p>"Forward the heavy brigade," said Bertie, motioning to his brother-in-law +bearing off Lady Hampshire; "only room for thirty at a time. <i>We</i> must +wait, Miss Leigh."</p> + +<p>"I am ready to wait. But what have 'we' got to say to it?" said Bluebell, +with her Canadian directness.</p> + +<p>"Don't speak so unkindly," said Bertie, sentimentally, flinging himself +on the sofa by her side. "You don't know all I have suffered this week."</p> + +<p>"You certainly disguised it very well," said the girl, with total +disbelief in her eyes.</p> + +<p>"Do you think I felt nothing when I saw you all day with Vavasour, +who every one knows is madly in love with you; and then dancing every +dance—not leaving a corner in your programme for me?"</p> + +<p>"You didn't ask me," said Bluebell, less austerely.</p> + +<p>"No, for you never so much as looked my way. Besides, Bluebell, I told +you we must be careful. If Colonel Rolleston guessed my feelings for +you—he is so selfish, he forgets he has been young himself—I should be +no longer welcome here."</p> + +<p>"Then, I am sure," said Bluebell, the tears rushing to her eyes, "I wish +you had never come. I have been <i>miserable</i> ever since I took that stupid +walk, which you prevented my mentioning; and—and—"</p> + +<p>"Let's be miserable again next Sunday, Bluebell," whispered Bertie.</p> + +<p>"I shall not go home; or, if I do, I'll stop there. I'll <i>never</i> walk +with you again, Captain Du Meresq."</p> + +<p>"'Quoth the raven, "never more!"' I know what it is, you are tired to +death. Sit still on the sofa and I will bring you some supper; sleighing +all day and dancing all night have distorted your mental vision,"—and +Bertie dashed off, passing the young lady he was engaged to on his way to +the supper room, with an inward conviction that their dance must be about +due. Having possessed himself of a modicum of prairie hen, he intercepted +a tumbler of champagne cup just being handed across the table to Captain +Delamere.</p> + +<p>"Confound it, that's mine!" said the aggrieved individual.</p> + +<p>"I want it for a lady," urged Bertie.</p> + +<p>"So do I," said Delamere.</p> + +<p>"My dear fellow," said Bertie, chaffingly, nodding towards a gorgeous +American, "it is for Mrs. Commissioner Duloe. She must not be kept +waiting."</p> + +<p>"I won't allow my lady to be second to any lady in the room," cried +Delamere who was elevated.</p> + +<p>Bertie was in too great a hurry to chaff Delamere any longer, for, +perceiving that his relatives were safely at supper, he resolved to +make the most of the few minutes at his disposal, and, as he would +have expressed it, "lay it on thick."</p> + +<p>Bluebell was leaning languidly back on the sofa, watching the forms +of the dancers, ever revolving past the open door to the strains of +a heart-broken valse. (<i>En passant</i>, why are the prettiest valses all +plaintive and despairing, quadrilles and lancers cheerful and jiggy, +and galops reckless, not to say tipsy?)</p> + +<p>Bertie, with his spoils, was by her side, and, having restored her nerves +with champagne, proceeded to agitate them again with the warmest +protestations of affection. The child with the day's experience before +her, only half-believed him, but the spirit of coquetry woke up, and she +resolved to try and make him care for her as much as he pretended to do.</p> + +<p>But Bluebell was trying her 'prentice hand with a veteran in such +warfare.</p> + +<p>They were alone in the little room, in one adjoining a few people were +sitting.</p> + +<p>"I wish that girl would not watch us so," said Bluebell, indicating one +apparently deep in a photograph book, under cover of which she was +furtively observing them.</p> + +<p>"Oh," said Bertie, with a groan, "she's been following me about ever +since I asked her for a dance six off. I hope it is over."</p> + +<p>"I dare say she's very angry at being left sitting out," said Bluebell. +"I am sure I should be."</p> + +<p>"Ah," said Bertie, "your experience will be all the other way—it's us +poor fellows who will be thrown over, besides, she shouldn't have got +introduced to me. I saw her going on the wrong leg and all out of step, +and Jack Vavasour says she's a regular stick-in-the-mud to talk to."</p> + +<p>A stream now issued from the supper room, and Mr. Vavasour, bowing +himself free from a "comfortable" looking matron, hurried up.</p> + +<p>"Our dance, Miss Leigh. I thought I should never be in time. She was +twenty minutes at the chicken and lobster-salad, and then went in for +sweets."</p> + +<p>"I must go and give my girl a turn, I suppose," whispered Bertie. "She's +guarding the outposts so no chance of giving her the slip. She'd go +raging off to the Colonel. Just like him, letting one in for such a real +bad thing."</p> + +<p>A few sleighs were beginning to jingle up, but most of the girls assumed +moccasins, clouds, and furs, and kilting their petticoats as deftly and +mysteriously as only Canadians can, set out in parties, escorted by their +partners, and stepped briskly over the moon lit snow to their respective +dwellings.</p> + +<p>Bertie saw his party off in their sleigh, tenderly squeezing Bluebell's +hand, who fell to his share, but did not return with them. Indeed, he was +walking soon in quite an opposite direction, by the side of a shrouded +figure in a rose-coloured cloud, out of which laughed the mischievous +eyes of the second Miss Tremaine.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX.</h2> + +<h3>CROSS PURPOSES.</h3> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i2">Trifles, light as air,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Are to the jealous confirmation strong<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As proofs of holy writ.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">Shakespeare.</span><br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p>Bluebell had not visited her mother for three weeks. One Saturday Freddy +had a sore throat and would not let her out of his sight, keeping up an +incessant demand for black-currant jelly and fairy tales, and the next +week a heavy fall of snow made walking impossible. She now very often +shared the gaieties of the others. Mrs. Rolleston took great interest in +Bluebell's career. She thought it by no means improbable that Sir Timothy +should have provided for her in his will, or, indeed, that he might any +day acknowledge her; and though she took her out, and let her dance to +her heart's content, kept faithful watch to prevent any undesirable +flirtation.</p> + +<p>So the kind-hearted lady was a good deal disturbed at seeing Jack +Vavasour, who came of an extravagant and far from wealthy family, first +in the field. After the manner of love-lorn subalterns, he haunted and +persecuted the fair object of his affections, who cared nothing about +him, and treated him as a child does its toys, sometimes pleased with +them, and at others casting them indifferently aside.</p> + +<p>And all the time Bertie was gaining greater influence over her. But even +Cecil, whose eyes were keen, was never able to detect any evidence of a +secret understanding between them.</p> + +<p>He regularly asked her for one valse only when they went to balls; +indeed, he could not do less. Cecil, of course, could not hear what they +talked about <i>then</i>.</p> + +<p>There is a dreamy, intoxicating valse of Gung'l's, which he always made +her keep for him when it was played. It was a small piece of selfish +romance, for well he knew that charmed air would ever hereafter be +haunted with associations of him. How many more "stolen sweet moments" he +found in the day must be left to the reader's imagination. But stolen +they were; for Du Meresq knew Cecil's disposition, and was far from +wishing to break with her, though "why should he spare this little girl +with the chestnut hair, and the love in her deep-blue eyes?" And Bluebell +no longer shrank from being underhand. It did not strike her in that +light now. She thought of nothing but Bertie, who was so different before +the others, that she learnt to look forward to their brief chances of +being alone as much as he did. And Du Meresq, with ingenious sophistry, +expatiated on the charm of keeping their delicious secret to themselves, +uncommented on by the cold and unsympathetic.</p> + +<p>Thus Bluebell, from being a lively, ingenuous, outspoken child, altered +into a dreamy maiden, living a hidden life of repressed excitement, whose +whole interest was the fugitive, uncertain interviews with Bertie, and an +interchanged glance, touch of the hand, or few fond words, ventured on +when the others were not attending.</p> + +<p>"Bluebell," laughed Cecil, as a cutter drove to the door, "here is your +Lubin again." The girls had just returned from the Rink, and were +disrobing upstairs.</p> + +<p>"Oh, he is so tiresome," said the other. "I declare I won't come down."</p> + +<p>"That you must; we should never get rid of him; he would sit on waiting +for you. You have made such a goose of him, Bluebell, and he used to be +such fun."</p> + +<p>"I shouldn't mind him if he was fun now; but he just sits glowering at +one, and stays so long. Why can't a person see when he is not wanted?"</p> + +<p>"But you do want him sometimes," said Cecil. "You are always 'off' and +'on' with poor Jack. I believe, if he proposed, you would say 'No' one +day and retract the next."</p> + +<p>They entered the drawing-room, where was young Vavasour, as usual, making +conversation to Mrs. Rolleston, who was at once bored and disproving. +Cecil shook hands pleasantly enough, but Bluebell, not even looking at +him, extended a lifeless hand in passing, and, picking up some work, +appeared absorbed in counting stitches.</p> + +<p>Jack turned over in his own mind every possible cause of offence. He +couldn't perceive that it was he himself that was not wanted, and that +she cared not a button for anything he had done or left undone.</p> + +<p>He talked on perseveringly with the others, glancing stealthily at +Bluebell tatting, till Cecil got up to make tea, when he moved to a seat +nearer.</p> + +<p>"I wasn't out of uniform till four o'clock, Miss Leigh, or I should have +been at the Rink."</p> + +<p>"So I suppose. You always go there, don't you?"</p> + +<p>"When I expect to meet any one," trying to throw a sentimental look in +his generally laughing brown eyes.</p> + +<p>"It isn't usually empty: but, of course, you don't go for the skating. +You'll never make anything of that."</p> + +<p>"Any more than you will be of driving," retorted Jack. "Shall you ever +forget that crumpler down the bank? Dahlia hasn't recovered the fright +yet."</p> + +<p>"Stupid thing; what did she jump over for? I was nearly suffocated. I am +sure there must have been a cast of me on the snow."</p> + +<p>"It wasn't altogether unpleasant," said Jack. "We were covered up very +snug and warm, like babes in the wood. I shouldn't mind doing it again in +the same company."</p> + +<p>"Shouldn't you?" said Bluebell, indignantly. "Then you may omit the +company." And so they went on whispering, to Mrs. Rolleston's annoyance, +till the Colonel's voice was heard bringing in a visitor—a lady of +unfashionable appearance, chiefly remarkable for the variety of knitted +articles, described in work-books as "winter comforts," displayed on her +person.</p> + +<p>"<i>Ma tante</i>!" ejaculated Jack, incautiously; "who is this old Quiz?"</p> + +<p>"Here is Mrs. Leigh," said Colonel Rolleston, "who says she has not seen +her daughter for three weeks. Where are you Bluebell?"</p> + +<p>Jack felt ready to sink into the earth, while his boyish face became the +colour of a peony; and Bluebell, vexed and hurt, advanced to the maternal +embrace.</p> + +<p>Their mutual confusion was so evident, that the Colonel put another +interpretation on it, and remarked, in a tone the reverse of +congratulatory,—"You have not been long getting out of harness, +Vavasour."</p> + +<p>Jack muttered something, and tried to catch Bluebell's eye, agonies of +contrition in his own.</p> + +<p>"Well, my dear, and how well you are looking," said Mrs. Leigh. "But we +have missed you at home, Aunt Jane and I. No, thank you, Mrs. Rolleston; +not at all tired. I caught the street-car at the corner, which brought +me all the way for five cents. Very respectable people in it; only one +soldier; he was not at all tipsy. I don't think your men ever are, +Colonel. Thank you, Miss Rolleston," as Cecil brought her some tea. "I'll +just unbutton my Sontag, or I shan't feel the good of it when I go out +again, shall I?"</p> + +<p>"I have been thinking," said Mrs. Rolleston, to whom it had just occurred +that this would be a good break in Jack's attentions, "that it would be +very nice if Bluebell went home for a few days, as you have seen so +little of her."</p> + +<p>"I'm sure I'm most grateful," said the little lady. "There, my dear, Aunt +Jane was saying only yesterday how dull it was without the child. But are +you sure she can be spared, Mrs. Rolleston?"</p> + +<p>"Only to you," said the lady, kindly, but smiling a little, for certainly +her <i>duties</i> were not very onerous.</p> + +<p>Bluebell, an anxious listener, felt her heart sink at this proposal. +What, go away and leave Bertie, whose daily presence had become a +necessity to her! Besides, dreadful thought! his leave might be over ere +she returned. In desperation she said, imploringly, "Mamma will not want +me for more than a day or two," and gazed anxiously at Mrs. Rolleston, +with a world of unspoken entreaty in her eyes.</p> + +<p>The appeal was injudicious, only confirming her impression that it was +a separation from Jack Bluebell dreaded, and she mentally put on another +week to her banishment.</p> + +<p>"There's no hurry," said the lady, decidedly; "a change will do you good. +She shall walk over to-morrow, Mrs. Leigh; and I am very glad I thought +of it."</p> + +<p>Bluebell, thinking all was lost, tried not to show her dismay, which +would have grieved her mother and done no good; but she remembered, with +a sinking heart, that Du Meresq was to dine out that night, and she might +get no opportunity of speaking to him alone before changing her quarters.</p> + +<p>"I must be off home," said Mrs. Leigh. "Several little things to be done +in your room, Bluebell. The stove-pipe has got choked at the elbow, and I +must have the sweep in."</p> + +<p>Her daughter longed to suggest that it might be more convenient to +postpone her appearance for a day; but as Mrs. Rolleston said nothing, +she could not either.</p> + +<p>Jack, who had been all this time writhing with vexation at his +<i>mal-à-propos</i> remark, here saw a chance of propitiating Bluebell and +putting himself on visiting terms at her home.</p> + +<p>"My cutter is at the door," said he, addressing Mrs. Rolleston. "If Mrs. +Leigh will allow me, I shall be too happy to drive her home."</p> + +<p>"Oh, he must be going to propose," thought the former lady, "and they +won't have twopence between them;" but she could only reply,—</p> + +<p>"Well, Mrs. Leigh, what do you say? Will you trust yourself to Mr. +Vavasour?"</p> + +<p>"I'm sure," said the little lady, flutteringly, "the gentleman is most +kind; but I am so timid with horses unless they are quite old. Does your +horse kick, sir?"</p> + +<p>"Only if the rein gets under her tail."</p> + +<p>"Ah, I should be sure to scream and snatch it—the reins, I mean, and +they say that isn't safe driving. I had better walk; and yet it is +getting dark, and I shall miss the car. What <i>shall</i> I do, Colonel +Rolleston?"</p> + +<p>"Drive, to be sure," said he, who wanted to get rid of them both. +"Vavasour only upsets when he gives the reins to young ladies," with +a glance at Bluebell.</p> + +<p>"Well, I <i>should</i> like a ride in a sleigh, if my poor nerves will let me +enjoy it," toddling to the door with Colonel Rolleston.</p> + +<p>"I'll take the greatest care of you, Mrs. Leigh," said Jack, heartily, +grateful for a re-assuring nod from Bluebell in recognition of his +contrite gallantry. The mare, tired of waiting, became fidgety to be off.</p> + +<p>"Oh, he is going to prance. Have you got good hold of his head, sir?" to +the groom.</p> + +<p>"Quite correct, 'm," grinned that official. "Quiet, 'Nancy,'" that being +the stable version of "Banshee."</p> + +<p>"Let her go," said Jack, who had just tucked Mrs. Leigh in. A couple of +bounds, a smothering scream, and they disappeared in the evening gloom.</p> + +<p>"That there old party ain't the guvener's usual form," meditated that +bât-man, as he walked back, for the cutter only carried two. "He seems to +set a deal of store by her, though. There's some young 'ooman at home, +where she lives, I'd take my dying dick."</p> + +<p>Cecil and her father, who had seen them off, stopped laughing together +at Mrs. Leigh's peculiarities; and Bluebell, finding herself alone with +Mrs. Rolleston, felt impelled to try if she could not curtail her +sentence of banishment. Of course, her words were intended to conceal +her thoughts—love's first lesson is always hypocrisy.</p> + +<p>"I know I am not very much use here," she began, "but still I shouldn't +like to think I was of none, and, therefore, I really don't want to stay +away more than a day or two."</p> + +<p>A sudden look of penetration came into Mrs. Rolleston's face, and, with +more sarcasm in her voice than Bluebell's little speech appeared to +justify, she said,—</p> + +<p>"My dear, scrupulous child, we <i>can</i> get on without you longer than that, +so you may, with a clear conscience, think of your mother, who is dull +this dreadful weather."</p> + +<p>Bluebell felt caught in a mesh and incapable of extricating herself, but +she made no attempt to conceal her reluctance to going.</p> + +<p>"How long must I stay away?" said she, dolefully.</p> + +<p>"Just till the days get a little longer—a fortnight or three weeks, +perhaps."</p> + +<p>Bluebell made a gesture of despair (Bertie would be gone to a certainty +by then), and looked the picture of misery. Mrs. Rolleston's suspicions +were now convictions.</p> + +<p>"My dear Bluebell," she began, impulsively, "I know there's some reason +for your dislike to going," and she gazed fixedly at her. No denial. +Bluebell hoped Mrs. Rolleston <i>had</i> some inkling of how things were with +her and Bertie, and had she then persisted might easily have forced her +confidence; which would have considerably enlightened and dismayed the +elder lady, whose mind, being full of Jack, had never dreamed of Bertie.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Rolleston, however, rapidly decided it would never do to encourage +her to talk of the matter, and that she had better put her foot on it at +once.</p> + +<p>"I have guessed your little <i>penchant</i>, dear, for some one we won't talk +about, for indeed, Bluebell, it never can come to any thing; you are both +too young and too poor. It would be a most undesirable connexion."</p> + +<p>"She doesn't think me grand enough for her brother," suggested Bluebell's +wounded pride.</p> + +<p>"And, therefore," pursued her Mentor, "absence is the best thing in these +cases; and when you come back I trust you will have got rid of such +hopeless fancies."</p> + +<p>Bluebell was deeply mortified,—she lost all expectation of sympathy, and +with a touch of pride, said,—"You must know best, Mrs. Rolleston, but I +shall never care for any one else; and I must tell you honestly, <i>I</i> +can't give it up if he doesn't."</p> + +<p>"You will not see him at home?" said the elder lady, hastily. Such a +gleam of hope irradiated Bluebell's face; she had never thought of that.</p> + +<p>"Dear me, this is too bad!" continued the other, quite disheartened. "I +shall take care you have no more opportunities of meeting here. Bluebell, +do be warned. I only speak for your good."</p> + +<p>"How self-interest deceives one," moralized the girl; "it is only because +I am, as she says, 'a most undesirable connexion for her brother!'"</p> + +<p>Cecil entered at this juncture, and Bluebell, hearing the Colonel's step +also approaching, made a hasty escape from the room.</p> + +<p>"What is the matter with her?" asked Cecil. "She brushed by me so +suddenly, and looked so strange."</p> + +<p>"Nearly knocked me over," said the Colonel, who had caught the last +words.</p> + +<p>"Don't notice it; I am afraid Bluebell has lost her heart to young +Vavasour; and she is miserable at going home, because she thinks she will +not see him."</p> + +<p>"I am delighted you have put a stop to that folly," said the Colonel; +"that boy dawdles over here every afternoon. I can't have Miss Bluebell's +'followers' everlastingly caterwauling in my house."</p> + +<p>An expression of extreme astonishment came over Cecil's face.</p> + +<p>"Bluebell doesn't care <i>in the least</i> for Jack Vavasour," said she.</p> + +<p>"You are evidently not in her confidence. She told me 'she should never +care for any one else'—her very words, the little goose."</p> + +<p>Cecil seemed lost in perplexity. "And she doesn't want to go home?" asked +she in a bewildered manner.</p> + +<p>"Crying her eyes out at this moment I dare say."</p> + +<p>"Then for goodness sake let her go home, and stay there till she +is better," said the Colonel, irritably. "A love lorn young lady +perpetually before me I cannot and will not endure."</p> + +<p>His daughter's brow was knitted with thought. Bluebell was evidently in +distress at going, but that it had any reference to Jack she totally +disbelieved. A latent suspicion revived, and her face grew pained and +hard. It was near dinner time, but, instead of going up to dress, she +turned into a little smoking room to ponder it out. What motive could +Bluebell have had to avow a perfectly fictitious love affair with +Vavasour, unless it was to throw dust in Mrs. Rolleston's eyes and blind +her to, perhaps, some underhand flirtation with Bertie? Cecil's +affection for her friend received a severe wrench directly she admitted +such a possibility, and then, as she meditated, two or three incidents, +too slight to be noticed at the time, rose up to confirm it.</p> + +<p>"Forewarned, forearmed, if that is your game, Miss Bluebell," thought +she, resolving for the future to watch narrowly. At this moment Du +Meresq, whistling 'Ah, che la morte,' burst into the room.</p> + +<p>"Cecil here, all in the dark? Light a candle, there's a good girl, I want +my cigar case. I'm awfully late".</p> + +<p>"Who is the Leonore you are whistling <i>addio</i> to?" said she complying.</p> + +<p>"I don't know, the air is running in my head."</p> + +<p>"I thought it might be Bluebell, she is going to-morrow."</p> + +<p>The match went out, so she could not see the expression of Bertie's face.</p> + +<p>"How do you mean?" said he quietly.</p> + +<p>"They think Lubin destructive to her peace of mind, so she is to go home +for a fortnight. Singular idea, isn't it."</p> + +<p>"Bosh!" said Du Meresq, emphatically. "Well, I'm off. Good-night, Cecil."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X.</h2> + +<h3>TOBOGGINING.</h3> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">We are in love's land to-day.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where shall we go?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Love, shall we start or stay?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or sail—or row?<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">Swinburne.</span><br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p>Bluebell thought that now Mrs. Rolleston had detected her secret, there +was no necessity to keep it from Cecil. They were in the habit of sitting +awhile, talking over their bed-room fire at night; and, though, of late, +they had scarcely been so intimate, the practice had not been +discontinued. So that evening she resolved to approach the subject with +Cecil. No doubt she would stand her friend, and be, as ever, generous and +sympathetic.</p> + +<p>But, at the first outset, no icicle could be brighter and colder than +Miss Rolleston's manner, who kept her communication at arm's-length, as +it were, and refused to see any hardship in paying a filial visit for a +week or two.</p> + +<p>"My dear Bluebell, you are really too childish. One would think it was to +be an eternal separation."</p> + +<p>"It is evident you will not miss me much," said poor Bluebell, wounded, +and thankful she had not committed herself further.</p> + +<p>"I should if Bertie were not here," answered Cecil, with heartless +intention. "But I really think this is the best time for you to be away, +for I am out so much with him, I see nothing of you. When he is gone, +Bluebell, and you have returned, we must begin to sing and read together, +as we used to do." This agreeable speech effectually quenched all +revelations on Bluebell's side, who, hurt and offended, took up a candle +and retired to her inner apartment.</p> + +<p>"They are all alike," she thought; "and Bertie understood the matter +better than I did. Now, I suppose, they will try and prevent me ever +seeing him again. Girls in novels think it necessary to give up their +lovers if the family disapprove; the book always gets very dull then; but +Bertie has never yet given me the chance to act the high-minded heroine." +And then she fell to wondering why he had not said something really +definite, he seemed near it so often. And yet he was his own master; no +stern father loomed in the background—<i>that</i> Bluebell would have +considered a possible obstacle,—for had she not seen such malign +influence destroy more than one promising love affair among her +companions. Of course there was no solution to such an inscrutable +mystery, though Bluebell tossed awake half the night in the effort to +find one.</p> + +<p>Next morning they all met at breakfast as usual. No allusion was made to +her approaching departure. Afterwards, she attended to Freddy's nominal +lessons, packed her slender wardrobe, and then remained in her own room, +for the first time unwilling to go downstairs without an invitation. And +yet she grudged every hour that passed and brought the separation nearer. +She heard Bertie whistling about the house, so she would most likely see +him before starting—probably only at luncheon, though, which was the +children's dinner. A minute before the bell rang Bluebell descended, and +came full on Du Meresq in an angle of the staircase. She stopped +involuntarily. He was beside her with a smothered exclamation of +endearment, and an eager hand seeking hers. Had she dreamt it? The face +was impassive, the hand dropped, and a careless voice was saying,—</p> + +<p>"Are you really going home this afternoon, Miss Leigh?"</p> + +<p>At the same instant she observed Cecil's upturned eyes in the hall below +them. So she had the felicity of eating a cutlet in the presence of her +love, but received no aliment for her heart-hunger. Du Meresq was teazing +his nieces, and did not add much to the general conversation, but the +others made up for it, and, when they addressed Bluebell, did so in a +particularly cheery tone, as to a nervous, fanciful girl, not to be +encouraged or noticed in her blue fits. She had thought of walking home +late in the afternoon, still hoping that something might bring about some +last words with Du Meresq, or that he might even contrive to join her on +the road; but Mrs. Rolleston, in the tone of one proposing a pleasure, +said she would drive her back herself, and that the sleigh was ordered in +half-an-hour.</p> + +<p>Bluebell, goaded to mild exasperation, glanced hastily to where Bertie +had been sitting, but he had left the room unperceived.</p> + +<p>The sleigh was at the door, so also was Captain Du Meresq, smoking an +after-luncheon cigar. I grieve to say my heroine displayed not a particle +of self-respect as, pale and dejected, she seated herself by Mrs. +Rolleston. Indeed, the blue eyes were beginning to swim, when they were +dried by a flash of indignation at the parting words of Du Meresq. He +merely raised his hat, without attempting to shake hands, and said, in a +jesting tone,—"<i>Au revoir</i>, Miss Bluebell. I hope you will be a comfort +to your mamma."</p> + +<p>As the jingle of the bells died away in the distance, Cecil felt a load +removed from her heart. Bluebell had become an object of uncomfortable +surmises, and her absence was an inexpressible relief.</p> + +<p>She had a fair field now, and Bertie all to herself, and did not intend +to spoil the present with tormenting suspicions of the past.</p> + +<p>"Probably he <i>may</i> have flattered Bluebell at odd times, and turned her +head; but Bertie, though he will talk nonsense to anybody who will listen +to him, cares for something more than a pretty face. He will forget her +directly she is out of sight, for there really is nothing in her."</p> + +<p>Thus severely did Cecil reflect on the friend she had been the means of +bringing into the house, and had loved all the more for the kindnesses +she had been able to show her. But, then, who could have foreseen that +the <i>protégéé</i> would turn into a rival?</p> + +<p>Her meditations were interrupted by the chief subject of them.</p> + +<p>"What do you intend doing, Cecil, this afternoon?"</p> + +<p>"It is very unsettling, people going away," said she, serenely. No +occasion to let him see the satisfaction it gave her. "Shall we go and +skate at the Rink, presently?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, ain't you sick of that place? Let us order your cutter, and look in +on the Armstrongs' toboggining party?"</p> + +<p>"Enchanting!" said Cecil, brightening. "But, dear me! it will be nearly +over."</p> + +<p>"Not if you look sharp. 'Wings' will take us there in half-an-hour; it +isn't five miles to the hill. Don't forget to leave your crinoline +behind."</p> + +<p>Du Meresq rang the bell, and Cecil re-appeared in a few minutes, innocent +of her "<i>sans reflectum</i>," and in a clinging black velveteen suit, with a +golden oriole in her cap, and a scarf of the same hue knotted about her +waist.</p> + +<p>"None so dusty," said Bertie, approvingly. "You look best in daring +colours, Cecil."</p> + +<p>Personal praise from Du Meresq, however expressed, was not unwelcome to +Cecil, who was sensitively alive to her want of beauty. But she answered, +carelessly,—"Just a refuge for the destitute. I can't wear pale shades, +or blue or green."</p> + +<p>"No, my bright brunette; but that Satanic mixture does not misbecome +you,"—and he murmured the words in "May Janet,"—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"The first town they came to there was a blue bride chamber,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He clothed her on with silk, and belted her with amber."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>"Come and help me down with the toboggin, Bertie. It is a-top of the +book-shelf,"—and they dragged down a mysterious structure of maple wood, +having the appearance of a plank six feet long by two wide, and turned up +at one end. It had red cord reins, and Cecil's monogram, neatly painted, +on the outside.</p> + +<p>"We must show off our smart toboggin, I suppose; though where on earth we +can put it in the cutter I can't think," said Du Meresq.</p> + +<p>"I had rather hold it on my lap than not take it. Here comes +'Wings,'"—and a high-stepping American horse, bought out of a sulky, +as not sufficiently justifying his name for racing purposes, dashed up +to the door with the smallest and prettiest cutter in the city. The robes +were white wolf-skins, bordered with black bear. The one hanging from the +back exhibited a bear's head and claws on the white ground. Both robes +and bells were mounted in scarlet and white; and the masks of two owls +occupied the place of rosettes on "Wings'" head-stall.</p> + +<p>"Well," said Bertie, "we are, luckily, not in Hyde Park; and I suppose a +sleigh can't be too bizarre. Is this the creation of your festive fancy, +Cecil?"</p> + +<p>"Yes; I don't disown it. I sent a coloured sketch of what I wanted to +Gaines, and he found fur and everything. 'Wings' was bought in an auction +last month. He went cheap, because they never could teach him the correct +'racking' action. Papa advised me to have him, as he thought he would +carry me in the summer, and I have no other horse."</p> + +<p>"I'll tell you what, Cecil; we must extend our wings if we are to be in +time. Canter him across the common, there's a capital track."</p> + +<p>"Can't he go!" said she, exultingly, as on a hard, frozen surface they +sped along. "We rush through the air so silently that if it were not for +the bells one might fancy oneself flying."</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Bertie; "I have known more unpleasant sensations than being +driven ten miles an hour by a fair lady—a dark one, I should say."</p> + +<p>"Given the lady. I don't think you much care whom it may chance to be, +Bertie."</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"If a woman is pretty, to me it's no matter<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Be she blonde or brunette, so she let me look at her."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>"Were you thinking of those lines in 'Lucille'?"</p> + +<p>"Them's your sentiments to a T, I should say."</p> + +<p>"And you ought to have lived in the days when the knight had 'Une seule' +embroidered on his banner. I'll never believe that his loves were so +limited; doubtless each appropriated the invidious distinction to +herself."</p> + +<p>"I know one knight," said Cecil, "who would give them plenty of reason to +do so."</p> + +<p>"Fancy," continued Bertie "riding in full armour to a crossroad, and +challenging every one to single combat who declined to acknowledge his +particular fair to be queen of love and beauty, and that no one else +should hold a candle to her! Now we should think it great impertinence in +a fellow to offer his opinion about her at all."</p> + +<p>"No," laughed Cecil, "such public proclamation would never suit these +inconsistent days."</p> + +<p>"Can you not believe yourself 'Une seule,' Cecil, even in these days?" +returned he, meaningly and tenderly.</p> + +<p>"That would depend on my knight," said she, blushing, and uncertain how +to take it. "I should not care to live in a Fool's Paradise."</p> + +<p>"If it were Paradise, why analyze the wisdom of it?" said Bertie, gazing +with surprised admiration at her radiant face, that kindled as with some +hidden fire.</p> + +<p>"I could do without him," answered she, "but if he were worth caring for +I wouldn't share him with any one."</p> + +<p>"I hope Fane isn't 'Un seul,' Cecil. For a young lady with such severe +ideas of constancy, you were pretty thick at the sleighing-party."</p> + +<p>There was something in this speech that annoyed Cecil, who turned it off +with a short answer. It might have been that she did not like him so +composedly contemplating such a possibility.</p> + +<p>Du Meresq said no more, perhaps because they were approaching the +toboggin hill, or perhaps, like Dr. Johnson, he had nothing ready.</p> + +<p>Cecil was sorry they were so near. She felt more interested in the +conversation than in the party, and gazed wistfully down a by road that +would have led them in an opposite direction.</p> + +<p>"I wish I dare turn sharp off," thought she. "But, no! we are +conventional beings. This idiotic performance is the goal and object +of our expedition. I am driving, and must do nothing so indecently +eccentric."</p> + +<p>So she gave "Wings" a flick with her whip, that sent him up to his bit +with his knees in his mouth, and they drew rein on the edge of the snow +mountain.</p> + +<p>Miss Tremaine's bright face was just on a level with the top, drawing up +her own toboggin.</p> + +<p>"Here's this dear little Lily," said Bertie.</p> + +<p>"Your diminutives are curiously applied," said Cecil. "That is a very +substantial <i>petite</i>."</p> + +<p>"How late you are," cried Miss Tremaine, rushing up to them. 'Wings,' who +couldn't bear waiting, began to rear. "Gracious, Cecil, does he feed on +yeast-powder to make him 'rise' so? How do you do, Captain Du Meresq? +Come along; there's some capital jumps. Here's my little brother will +hang on to the horse's head till we find some one else, if you are sure +'Wings' will not soar away with him, like an eagle with a lamb."</p> + +<p>"I'd better billet him on that farm," said Du Meresq, driving off.</p> + +<p>"And I must go and speak to Mrs. Armstrong," said Cecil.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI"></a>CHAPTER XI.</h2> + +<h3>EFFECTS OF TOBOGGINING.</h3> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">With a slow and noiseless footstep<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Takes the vacant chair beside me,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lays her gentle hand in mine.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">Longfellow.</span><br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p>A little further on, by a blazing fire, was seated the hostess and about +a dozen other people on benches and rugs; a table spread with +refreshments and hot liquids attracted as many more. The grey sky and +white ground threw out the figures solidly, the only patches of colour +being the bright petticoats of the ladies as they flashed down or toiled +up the snow mountain.</p> + +<p>"Have a 'cock-tail,' Miss Rolleston?" said Captain Wilmot, of the +Fusiliers. "I have just made a capital one; and then may I steer you down +on my toboggin?"</p> + +<p>Cecil accepted both propositions. "But do take mine, for I have never +tried it yet."</p> + +<p>"What a beauty," said Lilla, enviously. "It doesn't look over strong, +though; I shouldn't wonder if it broke in two. You'll have to mind the +hole at the bottom; there have been a lot in already."</p> + +<p>For the information of the uninitiated, I may as well describe how this +hilarious amusement is conducted. Having first selected the highest hill +the neighbourhood affords, well covered with slippery frozen snow, two +individuals who purpose forming the freight of the toboggin pose +themselves, the foremost holding the reins, which, however, are more for +effect than use, sitting between the feet of the hindmost traveller, who +steers with his hands.</p> + +<p>As a finger on the snow alters the course of the toboggin, and a nervous +push makes it slue round, scattering the inmates, it is needless to say +the tyro in front is admonished to preserve the most absolute immobility. +Then the vehicle receives a shove off the top of the hill, and shoots +down the smooth precipice, and the novice, with shut eyes to escape +the blinding snow that flies like hailstones about him, listens to the +wind whistling behind, and with bated breath—the first time at any +rate—wishes it were over.</p> + +<p>"Captain Du Meresq," cried Lilla, "come along; I am going to take you +down the big jump."</p> + +<p>"Off Niagara, if you like."</p> + +<p>"It <i>is</i> a tidy drop, the first shelf, so please I'd rather steer. +I never trust my neck to any one but myself."</p> + +<p>Bertie craned over. "Let me go down first, and see what it is like; it +will give you an awful shake."</p> + +<p>"Bosh! I have been down before; sit tight," said Lilla, adjusting +herself.</p> + +<p>It was a series of snow terraces, half natural, half artificial. The +ridge they started from was very steep, and jutting out a little way +down, yawned over a perpendicular drop to the next ledge, which sloped +off again to ever recurring but lesser falls.</p> + +<p>Receiving the necessary impetus from above, Bertie and Lilla slithered +down at a terrific pace, and shot over the jutting ridge—a good twenty +feet drop. As they touched the ground, the toboggin ploughed up the snow, +recovered without upsetting, and tore on, jumping down the lesser falls +the same way, and continuing a considerable distance along the level at +the bottom before its impetus was exhausted.</p> + +<p>Bertie, blind, breathless, and half-choked with snow, heard a voice +behind, jerking in quick grasps—</p> + +<p>"Did you e-ver feel such a de-light-ful—sensation in your life before?"</p> + +<p>"Never," said he with a profound air of conviction, shaking off the snow +like a Newfoundland dog. "I wonder if I could have steered as well!"</p> + +<p>"If you are going to try, you may take some young woman who is tired of +her life," said Lilla.</p> + +<p>"I'll take myself down, anyhow," said Du Meresq, rather nettled; and, +having dragged her toboggin up the hill, ran off to get another; but, in +passing Cecil, found a moment to say—</p> + +<p>"Don't let that young lunatic delude you down the jump. It is unfit for +any girl but such a glutton as Lilla."</p> + +<p>"I haven't the slightest wish to try," said she, laughing. "Lilla's a +witch. Just look at her now."</p> + +<p>Miss Tremaine, standing poised on her toboggin, was in the act of gliding +down the hill. A light pole held in one hand served as a rudder, the +other retained the cord reins.</p> + +<p>"It is like a fairy in a pantomime let down from above," ejaculated Du +Meresq. "That is uncommonly tall toboggining!"</p> + +<p>A slight commotion was now apparent in the valley below. A brook ran +through it, frozen except is one place, where was a large hole. Mr. +Tremaine and Captain Delamere, slithering down together, ran into a +runaway toboggin that had upset its occupant. This knocked them out of +their course, and upset them into the rotten ice of the brook.</p> + +<p>Mr. Tremaine was precipitated head foremost into the hole, with his heels +in the air, and Lilla at the same moment coming to a halt in her +acrobatic descent, beheld the apparition of a pair of legs, feet upwards, +and a coarse pair of knickerbocker stockings dragged over the boots.</p> + +<p>"Who has muffed in now? Gracious goodness, <i>I</i> knit those stockings; it +is the Governor! Pull him out—quick, quick, Captain Delamere; he'll have +a fit!"</p> + +<p>That individual, who had just scrambled out, was standing rather dazed, +ruefully stanching the cuts on his face. Between them they soon dragged +out Mr. Tremaine, half suffocated, and puffing and panting like a +demented steam-engine, but by the time he had recovered his breath not +much the worse.</p> + +<p>The toboggining was getting fast and furious, and several casualties +occurred. The toiler up the hill, too, had need of all his alertness to +dodge the numerous erratic cars tearing down in every direction.</p> + +<p>An adventurous group were tying a dozen or more toboggins together, which +they called an omnibus; and Jack Vavasour, in the character of conductor, +was holding up his hand, and cadging for passengers.</p> + +<p>"Any more for the Brook or Gore Vale? Room for two still in the +'Lightning' 'bus! No more?—then we are off. Link arms, ladies and +gentlemen;" and the unwieldy apparatus was started. The couplings divided +half-way down. About seven reached the bottom, the remaining five were +upset, and were left there. Cecil was in the latter division, and having +extricated herself from the <i>débris</i>, slowly ascended the hill.</p> + +<p>She was rather tired now, and slightly bored; and began wondering what +had become of her escort. He had not been in the coach, nor was he among +the noisy, chattering party approaching her.</p> + +<p>"Has anyone seen Captain Du Meresq?" asked she.</p> + +<p>"Ten minutes ago he was death on the big jump," said Jack. "He took +Delamere to start him; and I think Miss Tremaine went too."</p> + +<p>A shade passed over Cecil's face. "Would you ask him, Mr. Vavasour, to +get the sleigh? It is quite time we were going."</p> + +<p>Another quarter of an hour passed, but no signs of Jack or Bertie. +Cecil kept up a desultory conversation with Mrs. Anderson; but a vague +impatience and restlessness came over her. She looked in the direction of +the big jump, and it seemed to her a point of attraction that gathered up +the stragglers, who all converged towards it. There was quite a crowd +there now. Mrs. Anderson's platitudes became maddening. Then she observed +Lilla coming from the same direction, and beckoning. She sprang to meet +her.</p> + +<p>"Cecil," cried Lilla, "don't be frightened." Why do people always use +this agitating formula? "But the fact is poor Bertie has had an awful +cropper. Good gracious, Cecil! don't look like that! Are you going to +faint! He is not so very much hurt,—stunned a bit at first."</p> + +<p>"How was it?" said the other, breathing again, and pressing forward.</p> + +<p>"He was going down the drop. Captain Delamere was to push him off, +which he did with a vengeance. He didn't mean any harm, though he don't +like a bone in poor Bertie's body. However, the toboggin snapped in two +from the concussion in landing. Bertie was shot out and rolled to the +bottom, which would not have mattered, only he struck his head against +some snag or stone hidden by the snow. We looked down, but he didn't seem +to move, and we got frightened. I had had nearly enough jumping, but I +took Captain Delamere on my toboggin—didn't trust him to steer, I can +tell you, my dear—and bumped down quite safe. Bertie was insensible, +with a queer cut on his forehead; so I extracted the solitaire out of +his shirt-collar, and Captain Delamere gave him a nip out of his +pocket-pistol, and then he seemed to pull himself together and sat up. A +lot of people had collected round, and Mr. Vavasour asked me to come and +tell you. Oh, here he is."</p> + +<p>"Miss Rolleston," said Jack, "Du Meresq is nearly all right again. But he +has twisted his ankle, and can't walk up the hill; so they are going to +pull him up on a toboggin. I'll go and get your sleigh."</p> + +<p>"Are you <i>sure</i> it is nothing worse?" said Cecil, who could scarcely +abandon her first impression that his neck was broken.</p> + +<p>"Quite. There he is, to answer for himself," as Bertie and his bearers +crested the hill.</p> + +<p>She walked to meet them. Du Meresq looked in pain, but cut short all +enquiries. "Wrenched my foot that's all. You want to go, don't you, +Cecil?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes; as soon as possible. Lilla, Mrs. Armstrong is so far off, will +you make our adieux?" <i>Sotto voce.</i> "She is a tiresome old goose; but I +left her so abruptly just now."</p> + +<p>"Miss Rolleston," whispered Jack, who had just brought up the cutter, "I +think I'll send up the doctor from the barracks. Du Meresq did get a +baddish cut on the head, and, if he doesn't stay in a day or two, it +might turn to erysipelas in this climate."</p> + +<p>"Pray do. Oh, Mr. Vavasour! just tell me honestly, is not that +sometimes—fatal when it gets to the head?"</p> + +<p>Cecil's eyes, dilated with terror, betrayed her to Jack, over whose +honest face came an expression of sympathy and intelligence.</p> + +<p>"Of course; but we will take care of that. That's why I am sending up the +doctor, to prevent him exposing himself out of doors just yet."</p> + +<p>Cecil did not find the drive back so agreeable as the previous one. Du +Meresq, chafing at the confinement his fast swelling foot would probably +entail, and provoked at coming to grief after Lilla's taunt was in +remarkably bad humour.</p> + +<p>Cecil saw the state of the case, and drove on fast, philosophically +allowing him to grumble and growl without much concerning herself; but +it was almost dark before they drew up at "The Maples."</p> + +<p>In the meantime, Colonel Rolleston, having heard from Miss Prosody that +his daughter and Du Meresq had gone off to a toboggining party, chose to +be highly scandalized, and poured into the placid ear of his wife a +torrent of disapprobation.</p> + +<p>In vain did Mrs. Rolleston represent that they were out sleighing and +skating together most days without his objecting.</p> + +<p>"This was quite different—this was a public party—people would say they +were engaged. He never had seen the good of their being so inseparable, +but of course, his opinion on the subject had never been considered," +etc.,—which last remark was rather uncalled for, as few heads of +families have their womankind in better order than Colonel Rolleston.</p> + +<p>A straw will show which way the wind blows. His wife listened with some +uneasiness, for she had always hoped the Colonel tacitly approved the +attachment between their respective relatives, which to her appeared so +evident. She could only trust this was but a pettish effusion from their +prolonged absence, and determined to guard against such causes of offence +for the future.</p> + +<p>But still they did not come. It was dark—it was dinner-time—it really +was too bad. At last a faint tinkle of sleigh-bells was followed by a +slight commotion in the hall. The servant was assisting Bertie into the +smoking-room, for he elected to lie on the sofa there, and thus avoid the +worry of questions and alarms.</p> + +<p>Colonel Rolleston was too grand and angry to evince any curiosity by +coming out, and Mrs. Rolleston, after receiving a hasty explanation from +Cecil, sent her back to the drawing-room, and took charge of her brother, +who was having his boot cut off, and in considerable pain.</p> + +<p>There was not much resemblance in character or sympathy between the +brothers-in-law; but they had hitherto avoided clashing. Now, however, +the Colonel's outraged feelings of propriety wound him up to the +determination of administering a solemn rebuke to Du Meresq, and he stood +on that coign of advantage, the hearthrug, waiting to deliver it.</p> + +<p>Cecil came in for the first tide of wrath, somewhat to her surprise; but, +dreading her companionship with Bertie being prohibited, exerted +considerable tact to smooth her father down, and especially made light of +the accident, which she perceived was an aggravation of the offence.</p> + +<p>"Not content with making my daughter conspicuous, he hadn't even the +sense to keep out of scrapes himself," etc.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Rolleston glanced interrogatively at Cecil as they met on the +stairs. I don't know what answer her countenance conveyed, but they made +simultaneously the same suggestion,—"Let us get Miss Prosody to dine +down." They both knew that without the addition of an unoffending third +the subject would be harped on all the evening.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Rolleston was an excellent housekeeper; and the well-served repast, +aided by the judicious conversation of the ladies, exercised a most +soothing influence on the Colonel, who was rapidly attaining that +harmless frame of mind in which, as the saying goes, "a child might play +with him."</p> + +<p>But a sudden ring at the door-bell, followed by the announcement of the +surgeon of the regiment, brought on a relapse. What man does not hate +being interrupted at dinner? And the doctor's report was sufficiently +vague to re-kindle Cecil's fears, and create uncomfortable misgivings in +the mind of her step-mother.</p> + +<p>Du Meresq, he said, was suffering intense pain in the head, and a small +bone in the ankle was broken, which he had set; but he could not be +certain there was no internal injury, etc.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Rolleston hastened away to Bertie, and did not return; and poor +Cecil, not daring to show her anxiety, remained to entertain her father, +or rather to listen to his irritable remarks on this unlucky expedition +for the rest of the evening.</p> + +<p>Never was there a more fractious patient than Du Meresq as he lay +listlessly on the sofa, while the bone reunited. He had speculated on +many a stolen walk with Bluebell in that unfrequented wood, where they +would be far less liable to interruption than at "The Maples." He thought +of his cavalier parting with her,—a bracing tonic,—necessitated by the +self-betrayal of her dejected air, but which he expected to have +explained away in a most agreeable manner before now. It would never do +to write from this house. What a shame it was sending her away—for a +mistake, too, for they had got the saddle on the wrong horse. "Still," he +thought, "it is a bore when girls take things <i>au grand serieux</i>. Lilla +Tremaine is quite different, as jolly as possible, but never expects +impossibilities. Now Cecil and Bluebell are never satisfied without one's +swearing one cares for nobody else. At least, Cecil isn't, though I don't +think I ever quite said that to her yet. It doesn't matter telling +Bluebell so, and she looks so pleased, and believes every word of it. I +would marry that child if I could afford it." And then visions of debt, +ever pressing, harassed his mind. "Well, it could not last much longer; +there would be something left out of the fire when he sold out, and he +could try Australia, or the Gold Coast, or—he didn't care what."</p> + +<p>But such subjects were not exhilarating, lying alone in the smoking-room, +and at last he rang a hand-bell, and told the servant to ask Miss +Rolleston to come and sit with him.</p> + +<p>Cecil complied at once, but brought with her a colour-box and +sketch-book. Drawing was her great occupation, and she was now filling +in from memory a sketch of the toboggining party.</p> + +<p>"You never come near me, Cecil, unless I send for you!" said Du Meresq, +complainingly.</p> + +<p>"Poor Bertie! are you very much bored?" said she, without looking up from +her painting.</p> + +<p>"Horribly; and my thoughts and occupations are none of the pleasantest."</p> + +<p>"Those horrid duns again," glancing at some blue looking envelopes lying +near. "But you haven't opened one of them."</p> + +<p>"Never do, nor answer them either. They keep up a pretty close +correspondence considering it is one-sided."</p> + +<p>"Bertie," said Cecil, drawing on diligently, "Can't something be done? +You never seem to look into your affairs. Perhaps they wouldn't be so bad +if you did. I shall be of age in August, and," colouring slightly, "I +will lend you as much as you want. You can give me an I.O.U. for the +amount," continued she, rather proud of her knowledge of business.</p> + +<p>"You dear, romantic girl" (Cecil was chilled in a moment), "how could I +take your money? I shouldn't have a chance of repaying it. No, I shall +last as long as I can, and then try the Colonies. It is only my rascally +self, after all, to think of. Thank goodness, I don't draw any delicate, +fragile life after me into privation and discomfort."</p> + +<p>Cecil bent more closely over her drawing.</p> + +<p>"What are you doing?" said Bertie, impatiently. "I can't see your face. +Come and sit by me, Cecil. I like a 'gentle hand in mine.'"</p> + +<p>Cecil moved as if in a dream, and sat in a low chair near his couch.</p> + +<p>"You have always been so kind and true to me," stroking her hair +caressingly.</p> + +<p>A slight movement of the handle of the door made them involuntarily +separate, and Mrs. Rolleston entered.</p> + +<p>"Cecil, your father is looking for you. He wants you to drive with him, +and call on the Learmonths."</p> + +<p>"What an infernal bore!" said Du Meresq, energetically; "and I must lie +in this confounded room, with nothing to do the whole afternoon. Can't +you get out of it, Cecil?"</p> + +<p>"No, no!" said Mrs. Rolleston, hastily meeting her daughter's eye. There +was unspoken sympathy between them. Her half eager look of inquiry passed +into intelligent acquiescence, and, with a regretful glance at Bertie, +she left the room.</p> + +<p>The next day and the one after the Colonel required his daughter's +companionship; the third day, they all went out in the afternoon, as Du +Meresq seemed better, and said he had letters to write. No sooner, +however, was the house quiet and deserted, than he rang the bell, and +sent for a sleigh, hobbling out with the assistance of a stick and the +servant's arm. For the information of that lingering and curious +functionary, he ordered the driver to go to the Club, which address, +however, was altered after proceeding a short distance.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII"></a>CHAPTER XII.</h2> + +<h3>THE LAKE SHORE ROAD.</h3> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But all that I care for,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And all that I know,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Is that, without wherefore,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I worship thee so.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">Lord Lytton.</span><br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p>"I suppose, Bluebell, you keep all your fine spirits for company?" said +Miss Opie, tauntingly; and, indeed, she had some reason to be aggrieved. +Few things are more trying than living with a person in the persistent +enjoyment of the blues; and the old, saddened by failing health and the +memory of heavy sorrows, are apt to look upon gloom in youth as +entrenching on their own prescriptive rights.</p> + +<p>Bluebell was always now taking long, aimless walks, bringing home neither +news nor gossip, and then sitting silent, absorbed in her own thoughts, +or else feverishly expectant; while each evening she sank into deeper +despondency after the day's disappointment.</p> + +<p>"Spirits can't be made to order," answered she, shortly. "I have got +nothing to talk about."</p> + +<p>"I am afraid you are ill, my dear," said Mrs. Leigh; "outgrowing your +strength, perhaps. You are such a great girl, Bluebell—so different to +me; and you scarcely touched the baked mutton at dinner, which was a +little frozen and red yesterday, but so nice to-day."</p> + +<p>Bluebell shivered. She was not at a very critical age, but the culinary +triumphs of the "general servant" made her practice a good deal of +enforced abstinence since she had been accustomed to properly prepared +cookery at "The Maples."</p> + +<p>"People who do nothing all day can't expect to be hungry," said Miss +Opie, sententiously. "If a man will not work neither may he eat."</p> + +<p>"Then it is all right," retorted Bluebell, "as it seems I do neither."</p> + +<p>"Not work!" cried Mrs. Leigh. "Why she has earned already more than I +ever did in my life, and brought me ten dollars to get a dress with, only +I shan't, for I shall keep it for her. I must say, Aunt Jane, you are +always blaming the child; and, if her mother is satisfied, I think you +may be."</p> + +<p>Aunt Jane was silenced, but she wondered what Bluebell could do that her +shortsighted mother would not be satisfied with. Meantime the object of +the discussion had escaped from the room. She had no wish to spend the +afternoon in the dim parlour, stuffy with stove heat and the lingering +aroma of baked mutton; and a fancy had occurred to her to wander through +the wood she had last traversed with the sole occupant of her +ill-regulated mind.</p> + +<p>Trove, now a well-to-do and unabashed dog, rolled and kicked on his back +in puppy-like ecstacy as he watched her dress, and officiously brought +her her muff, which, however, he objected to resigning. Trove was +Bluebell's confidant and the repository of her woes, and perhaps as safe +a one as young ladies generally choose.</p> + +<p>Not a sign of the Rollestons had she seen since her arrival at the +cottage ten days ago. Bluebell thought she could not have been more cut +off from them if she had crossed the Atlantic instead of the Common. +Going to the Rink would have too much the appearance of seeking Du +Meresq, so she rigorously avoided that; but even in King Street, where +Cecil's cutter flashed most days, she never caught sight of "Wings'" +owl-decorated head.</p> + +<p>There was a great deal of her father's disposition in Bluebell, and she +chafed at the monotony of days so grey and eventless, and longed for she +knew not what; so that it was life, movement, <i>pain</i> even, to exhaust +those new springs of thought and feeling that the awakening touch of a +first love had called forth, and would not now be laid.</p> + +<p>Bluebell, like most Canadians, had had plenty of early admiration from +hobbledehoys, who made honest, though ungainly, love to her; but her +heart would as soon have been touched by an amorous Orson as by these +youthful tyros in the art. Du Meresq had that deceptive countenance +apparently created for the shipwreck of female hearts. Sometimes men +called him an ugly fellow, but no woman ever thought so. There was +expression enough in those luminous eyes to have set up three beauty men. +They could look both demoniacal and seraphic,—tender often, but scarcely +ever true; add to this a magnificent <i>physique</i>, a soft manner, a winning +voice, and, what gave him an almost superstitious interest to women, that +<i>fey</i> look attributed to the Stewarts. He had read and studied hard by +fits and starts, for whatever possessed his mind he always pursued with +ardour, and to Cecil was fond of inveighing against his useless, +unsatisfying life. In spite of her infatuation, though, she judged him +more truly than most people, and perceived that his fitful remorse was +chiefly occasioned by pressure of money matters, and seldom lasted over +pecuniary relief.</p> + +<p>In the most secret flights of her imagination, she pictured herself in +some new country with Bertie. An adventurous, reckless nature such as +his, she thought, turned every gift to evil in the commonplace life +where his idiosyncrasy had no play; but detached from his idle mess-room +habits, and launched into a new career, when to live at all involved +exertion of mind and body, would metamorphosize her hero into all she +could wish.</p> + +<p>Such was the ideal, in her conventual bringing up, of the rich and well +placed Cecil; while Bluebell, to whom luxury was unknown, longed for +wealth to take her into a sphere where taste was not starved by economy, +nor all her horizon bounded by weekly bills. But in both cases their air +castles were to be occupied with Du Meresq.</p> + +<p>The girl and the dog sped along on their desolate walk—it was too cold +to linger. Bluebell carefully followed the route she had taken with +Bertie, that memory might be added by association.</p> + +<p>"Ah, Trove," said she to the dog, who bounced up against her, "I am as +much a waif and stray as you are—disowned by my grandfather, who might +have made us rich, and taken up by people one day and forgotten the next; +but you have drifted into harbour now, my dog, and who knows—"</p> + +<p>A smothered growl interrupted this monologue, and then a sharp bark. +Bluebell looked round to see what was exciting him; she heard a distant +tinkle of bells, and listened keenly; laughing voices were apparently +approaching. From an impulse that she could not have explained, Bluebell +darted into an empty woodshed, dragging Trove in after her, and holding +him firmly by the muzzle to stifle his growling. Through an aperture in +the boards she could observe, unseen herself.</p> + +<p>The sounds grew louder, and a score of sleighs defiled past her +hiding-place. Bluebell scanned each carefully. There were the usual +members of the Sleigh Club. She recognized the Tremaines, and several +others of her little world. Jack in his tandem; but, faithful Lubin! no +"cloud-capped" Muffin sat by his side; his companion was of the sterner +sex, or, as he would have described him, "a dog." But where were the +Rollestons? No representative of "The Maples" was present, not even Du +Meresq. They had flashed past within a minute; but, like a fresh breeze +over still water, the little incident had awakened and roused up Bluebell +from her lethargy.</p> + +<p>Her thoughts became more lively as she speculated why Bertie and Cecil +were absent from the sleighing party. It was some consolation, at any +rate, not to see him enjoying himself quite as much without her. The sun +was setting redly as she neared the cottage, and a young moon gaining +brightness. Bluebell, remembering a childish superstition, paused to +wish. The passage was dark as she entered, and her mother's tones, +talking with great volubility, struck her ear. "Mamma has her company +voice on," thought she, which, being interpreted, meant an increase of +nervousness and consequent garrulity.</p> + +<p>She opened the door, and her heart gave a sudden leap as she became aware +of, rather than saw in the dusk, the tall, broad-shouldered form of Du +Meresq. Bluebell came stiffly forward, and offered a cold hand, utterly +belying her heart, to Bertie, who bent over it as if sorely tempted, in +spite of Mrs. Leigh's presence, to carry it to his lips. But she withdrew +it abruptly, and sat down, seized with more overpowering shyness than she +had ever experienced.</p> + +<p>Miss Opie's keen, attentive eyes were taking in the situation.</p> + +<p>"Captain Du Meresq has been kind enough to call," said Mrs. Leigh, "to +say there is no immediate hurry for your return, my dear."</p> + +<p>Bluebell raised disappointed, questioning eyes; but something in his face +conveyed to her that the message was coined as an excuse for his +appearance.</p> + +<p>"I hope Cecil is well?" said she, trying to speak unconcernedly; "but I +saw she was not out with the Club to-day."</p> + +<p>"I think she is tired of it. Where did you fall in with them?" asked he.</p> + +<p>"In the Humber," very consciously.</p> + +<p>"Were you there?" asked Bertie, with a tender inflection in his voice, +that Bluebell knew well. But she would not look up, and Miss Opie did, so +he proceeded carelessly,—"I suppose they were coming from the Lake Shore +Road, up the serpentine drive in the wood?"</p> + +<p>"Oh! that is such a pretty walk in summer!" said Mrs. Leigh.</p> + +<p>"I dare say," said Bertie, looking straight down his nose. "I went round +that way once, and even in winter found it the pleasantest walk I ever +took in my life."</p> + +<p>"Ah, then," said Mrs. Leigh, knowingly, "I dare say some pretty young +lady was with you."</p> + +<p>"No such happiness," said Bertie, with an imperceptible glance at +Bluebell. "The fact is, Mrs. Leigh, women detest me! I suppose it is my +deep respect, making me so fearful of offending, that bores them; but I +fear I am a social failure."</p> + +<p>"In my day," said Miss Opie, ironically, "young ladies <i>expected</i> to be +treated with respect."</p> + +<p>"And that could not have been so long ago; yet now they are beyond a +bashful man's comprehension," said Bertie, with an air of simplicity, +slightly scanning Miss Opie's wakeful face. He had got on so well with +the mamma, who was this old maid, who appeared so objectionably on the +alert?</p> + +<p>"Well, I am sure," said Mrs. Leigh, "some girls here <i>are</i> that pert and +forward, I can't bear it myself; and yet the gentlemen all encourage it, +and think it real smart. Lilla Tremaine, you know, Aunt Jane."</p> + +<p>"Ah!" said Bertie, shaking his head, "a very unsteady young person."</p> + +<p>While Du Meresq was making conversation, Bluebell sat incapable of +contributing to it. She would not have believed that his presence should +afford her so little pleasure; but he seemed incongruous here, and was +apparently amusing himself with the simplicity of her relatives. A +clatter of tea-things filled her mind with dismay. The ideas of the +"help" on the subject of cleanliness were in a very rudimentary stage, +and that the cloth would be in anything but its first freshness, was a +moral certainty. Impossible, however, to avert the catastrophe, and the +general servant, actuated by a determination to get another look at Miss +Bluebell's "young man," undauntedly bore in the tray.</p> + +<p>"Dear me, is it not rather early?" said Mrs. Leigh. "Oh, Captain Du +Meresq,"—seeing him rise,—"you must stay and have a cup with us."</p> + +<p>"Another day, if you will allow me," said Bertie, trying to disguise +his extreme lameness. "I hope, having found my way here, I may be +permitted to call again in this sociable manner, and have a little +agreeable conversation, so preferable to gaiety, which I abhor."</p> + +<p>"If you will take us as you find us," said the little lady, graciously, +"we shall look upon it as a great favour, I am sure. Dear me, Captain Du +Meresq, have you hit your foot? You seem quite lame."</p> + +<p>"I am, rather. I had an accident. Is there not some shorter way back than +the road I came?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes, by Barker's Row. You know the Link House?"</p> + +<p>"No—a," said Bertie, looking expressively at Bluebell, as a hint that +she might offer to point out the road.</p> + +<p>"Oh, surely you <i>must</i>; keep straight on King Street, and then you come +to—"</p> + +<p>"Wolfe Street?" suggested Du Meresq.</p> + +<p>"Gracious, no! that would be quite out of your way! Go to—I'll tell you +what, Bluebell shall show you where you turn off—it isn't ten minutes +from here."</p> + +<p>Bertie murmured a profusion of thanks, and, distrustful of Miss Opie, +protested against being so troublesome. But Bluebell, scarce able to +believe in such luck, sprang up with a sudden illumination of +countenance, and the next minute the lovers were alone under the light +of the moon.</p> + +<p>"Bluebell," said Du Meresq, "I have got a sleigh here. I thought I +<i>might</i> get you out of it if I pretended I was walking, and didn't know +the way; but the fact is, my child, I can hardly limp a hundred yards. +Come a little drive with me."</p> + +<p>"Oh! I dare not. It is so late, and they expect me back again directly."</p> + +<p>"Then you are going to run away the first moment we have been alone for +so long!"</p> + +<p>"Whose fault is that," said she, reproachfully.</p> + +<p>"Not mine. I have been laid up ten days with a broken ankle. But I +suppose you have been seeing Jack Vavasour every day, and forgotten all +about me?"</p> + +<p>"Bertie," said Bluebell, hesitatingly, "did they say anything to you +about—"</p> + +<p>"About Jack? Yes, they said he was spoons on you. And also, Miss +Bluebell, that you were awfully in love with him."</p> + +<p>"No, no, nonsense," said she, blushing. "I meant about yourself."</p> + +<p>"They know nothing of that?" said he, inquiringly.</p> + +<p>"They do, though. I don't know what you will say, Bertie, but I told Mrs. +Rolleston."</p> + +<p>"What can you mean, Bluebell? Bella told me that you cared for nobody but +Jack Vavasour; and I was deuced angry, I can tell you; at first, though I +thought it uncommon 'cute of you saying so."</p> + +<p>Bluebell, utterly confounded by this extraordinary assertion, had no time +to reply, for she found herself close to a covered sleigh, and the man +had got down and opened the door. She drew back.</p> + +<p>"Jump in," said Bertie, impatiently.</p> + +<p>Bluebell shook her head.</p> + +<p>"What do you propose?" said he, in an angry whisper. "We can't sit out in +the snow, and I can't walk another yard."</p> + +<p>She hesitated, and he gently impelled her into the vehicle, following +himself, to the anguish of his injured foot, that he had struck in his +haste.</p> + +<p>"Where to, sir?" said the man, whom Bertie, in his momentary pain, had +forgotten.</p> + +<p>"Go to the Don Bridge."</p> + +<p>"Can't, sir. I am ordered at the College by six o'clock."</p> + +<p>"Drive to the devil, then. I mean, drive about as long as you can. I like +driving."</p> + +<p>"Hush, Bertie! how can you? What will he think?"</p> + +<p>"How much 'old rye' he will get out of the job. Come, Bluebell; the hour +is ours, don't spoil it fidgetting about trivialities. I have scarcely +dared to look at you yet, my beautiful pet," trying to steal an arm round +her waist. But she drew herself away, irresponsive and rigid, being +uneasy and frightened at the escapade she had been led into.</p> + +<p>"You haven't a spark of moral courage, Bluebell," said Bertie, +impatiently. "You are as prim and unlike yourself as possible, just +because you are wondering what that man on the box will think. Or, +perhaps, you are afraid of that thin, sour old duenna at home."</p> + +<p>"She will be inquisitive enough," said Bluebell, resignedly. "And, +Bertie, I wanted to tell you, but, perhaps, you know, that they will +never have me again at the 'Maples' while you are there,—Mrs. Rolleston +so utterly disapproves of it."</p> + +<p>"What <i>is</i> this hallucination that you have got hold of?" said Du Meresq. +"What did you tell, or fancy you told, Bella?"</p> + +<p>"We got on the subject. Your name wasn't actually mentioned; but she +quite understood, and said something," said Bluebell, reddening as she +felt the awkwardness of her words, "very strong against it."</p> + +<p>Bertie looked relieved. He began to understand the mistake, which he +considered a fortunate one.</p> + +<p>"And did you promise to give me up?"</p> + +<p>She turned her large, innocent eyes upon him. "How could I, when I care +more for you than anything in the world?"</p> + +<p>"My poor little Bluebell!" said Du Meresq, crushing her in his arms. But +the sleigh stopped; the man was getting down.</p> + +<p>"My time is up, sir."</p> + +<p>"Well, drive to where you took us up," said Bertie. "Bluebell, tell me +quick, where shall I see you again?"</p> + +<p>"I can't risk driving," said she, hurriedly. "When will you be able to +walk?"</p> + +<p>"Can't I see you alone at home sometimes? When are your people likely to +be out?"</p> + +<p>"They don't go out for days together, except on Sunday, to church; and +Aunt Jane would suspect something directly if I didn't go with them."</p> + +<p>"Let her, meddling old idiot! I shall come then, Bluebell."</p> + +<p>"No, no, Bertie; pray don't! Could you walk in a week?"</p> + +<p>"What an eternity! Well, meet me in the Avenue in the Queen's Park, at +three o'clock on Wednesday. Here's this brute getting down again. Only +just time to kiss those dear blue eyes. <i>Addio</i> Leonore. How the deuce +am I to get home, I wonder?"</p> + +<p>"Bertie, you'll never be able to walk."</p> + +<p>"Never mind me. Run back, my dearest, and throw dust in the eyes of that +misguided old female, who presumes to open them on what doesn't concern +her."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIII" id="CHAPTER_XIII"></a>CHAPTER XIII.</h2> + +<h3>NORTHERN LIGHTS.</h3> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i1">Do you remember<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Those evenings in the bleak December,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Curtained warm from the snowy weather,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When you and I played chess together,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Checkmated by each other's eyes?<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">The Wanderer.</span><br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p>Bluebell sped home, and, to evade remarks, hung up her hat in the +passage, as the least embarrassing way of reporting herself, then +remained, perdu, in her own room, transfigured into fairy-land by her +happy thoughts. Bertie was acquitted of intentional neglect. It was only +the malignity of Fate that had divided them; and there was the positive +anticipation of meeting again in six days. To be sure, it involved +entering on a course of deceit. Aunt Jane would, probably, be shocked, as +she was at everything; mamma would not think much of it; and as for Mrs. +Rolleston, she need not consider her wishes, after telling Bertie such a +bare-faced fib about Jack Vavasour, evidently in the hope of making +mischief between them. She was very much astonished at such unscrupulous +conduct in her friend, but what other conclusion could she come to?</p> + +<p>To be sure, common-sense whispered that looks and language such as Du +Meresq had permitted himself, ought to be followed by an offer of +marriage; but with common-sense Bluebell had little to do at this period, +and first love cares not to concern itself with the prosaic. The mystery +and romance of interviews with her love, "undreamt-of by the world in its +primness," appeared far more enchanting than any authorized attachment +provided with a regulation gooseberry picker.</p> + +<p>So she came down with a slightly defiant air; but meeting with nothing +worse than a gravely knowing glance from Miss Opie, sat down to the piano +to escape questioning.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Leigh's thoughts were complacently occupied with the visitor. She +only wanted further confirmation to place him in the light of a future +son-in-law. Adversity had not given her the wisdom of the serpent, and +she never dreamed of possible danger in the attentions of this unknown +young man to her beautiful, but portionless, child.</p> + +<p>However, her mind became unsettled again by the appearance of another +suitor, in dog-skin gloves of a brilliant tan, and his usual air of +cheerful confidence. No guile was there in Jack Vavasour, whose prostrate +adoration of her daughter was so undisguised, that she mentally deposed +Bertie (whose devotion was more problematical) in his favour. Still she +thought, "I should never think of influencing dear Bluebell one way or +the other, and we shall see which proposes first."</p> + +<p>Jack's visit, as usual, was a lengthy one. His fair enslaver had +recovered her spirits, and no longer metaphorically turned her face to +the wall. She was glad of distraction, and not ungratified by his +allegiance, though without the slightest idea of returning it.</p> + +<p>Like the boys and the frogs, she did not consider that what was sport to +the one was hard on the other, and probably would not have cared if it +had struck her; for, whatever poets may say, there is no more thoroughly +heartless age than sweet seventeen. When he sat on till the arrival of +the unappetizing meal they called a meat-tea, Bluebell did not wince at +her mother inviting him to join it, simply because his opinion was a +matter of indifference to her, though she carelessly recommended him not +to be late for mess.</p> + +<p>Jack, however, with magnanimous disregard of that usually important +period of his day, stayed his healthy young appetite with the cold joint +from dinner; and he and Bluebell amused themselves frying eggs and +roasting chestnuts, which further assuaged its keen demands.</p> + +<p>Many times during the evening did Mrs. Leigh leave the room, on the +principle that young people like to be alone together. But all her +tactics failed to uproot Miss Opie, who clung to her book and her seat +by the fire, partly from the contrary conviction that young persons +should <i>never</i> be alone together, and partly because, save in the +kitchen, there was no other fire in the house.</p> + +<p>"What shall we do?" cried Bluebell, with the faintest of yawns, tired +of consuming their culinary labours. "You don't care for music, I know. +There's an old chess-board somewhere; and I can't think of anything but +cat's-cradle, if you don't like that."</p> + +<p>"I can play," said Jack, stoutly, who had not attempted it since his +childhood, but only wanted an excuse to remain on. So they sat down at +the spidery table, saying little; Jack quite well entertained with his +hand frequently coming in contact with Bluebell's on the board. He would +have liked to crush up that little member in his own, and meditated the +bold <i>coup</i> more than once, but was always discouraged by that far away, +unconscious look in her eyes.</p> + +<p>In this squalid parlour, where she was the only soft-hued thing in the +room, he thought her more beautiful than ever. Perhaps she was, for the +love-light burned steadily in her Irish eyes, and he could not tell it +was not for him.</p> + +<p>Never were more lenient or careless adversaries. Twice Jack's queen was +in Bluebell's grasp uncaptured, and he could at any time have checkmated +her, had he been as attentive to the variations of the game as to those +of her countenance. Suddenly Bluebell swept her hand over the board, +crying,—"I never saw such men, they don't fight. We have been playing +half-an-hour, and have hardly taken any prisoners."</p> + +<p>"It is a slow game," said Jack, equably; "let us try cat's-cradle. Or, +perhaps," he continued, meeting with no response, "I ought to be saying +good-night."</p> + +<p>Bluebell was secretly tired of him, and could not conceive on what +principle her mother began pressing him to stay.</p> + +<p>"There's the nicest bit of toasted cheese coming up for supper," said +she. "I know all officers like a Welsh rabbit. My poor late husband did, +though he used to say, in his funny way, he only ate it because there was +nothing else fit to touch."</p> + +<p>"I fear I must go; but I hope you'll ask me to tea again, Mrs. Leigh, +it is so jolly getting away from mess sometimes," said the young +diplomatist.</p> + +<p>"That I will," said she, highly flattered, "and I shall be very much +offended if you don't come. I am only sorry you can't sit a little longer +now."</p> + +<p>Jack was not quite sure he couldn't, but Bluebell, pretending not to see +his hesitation, held out her hand and said "good-night," so he had +nothing for it but to go. In two minutes, though, his head re-appeared. +"Come and look at the Northern Lights, Miss Leigh; regular tip-top +fireworks. Here's a shawl; make haste." But when she come out, only a few +weak-coloured pink clouds were floating about.</p> + +<p>"Is that all?" ejaculated Bluebell.</p> + +<p>"Not quite," said Jack; "it was a western light I was trying to invoke, +or, rather, the light of my eyes. When may I come and see you, Bluebell?"</p> + +<p>"I came out to look at meteors," said she, laughing at his unwonted +flowers of speech; "and I don't know who gave you leave to call me by +my Christian name."</p> + +<p>"It isn't your Christian," urged Jack.</p> + +<p>"It will be my <i>nom de guerre</i>, then, if you say it again."</p> + +<p>"Change it if you like," quoth he, "if you will let me change your +surname too."</p> + +<p>A startled stare of blue eyes, a smothered laugh, and Bluebell had darted +into the house, clapping the door after her.</p> + +<p>"Confound it," thought Jack, "just my luck. In another moment I should +have kissed her—I <i>think</i> I should; but, hang it, when a girl looks you +straight in the face and talks to you as if you were her grandmother, it +puts one off. Well, I have kissed lots of girls without proposing and now +it's <i>vice versa</i>, for it was as good as an offer, and all I got by it +was her nipping in just when I thought I had her to myself."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIV" id="CHAPTER_XIV"></a>CHAPTER XIV.</h2> + +<h3>THE TRYST.</h3> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Twas full of love—to rhyme with dove,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And all that tender sort of thing,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of sweet and meet—and heart and dart,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But not a word about a ring!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">Hood.</span><br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p>Time flew much lighter with our heroine as she counted the days to +the next rendezvous with Du Meresq; anticipation is ever sweeter than +reality. The cottage was no longer dull, nor existence empty, even the +unrenewed and diminishing snow, dusky as a goose in a manufacturing town, +was the symptoms of approaching spring and verdure. Who need think of the +torrents of rain which must precede it? The little episode with Jack +outside the door afforded her secret entertainment, and although she +did not look upon it as a <i>bona-fide</i> proposal, that did not bias her +intention of relating the anecdote for Bertie's delectation. It might be +just as well to let him see if he couldn't speak out, others could, and +if he were jealous, why so much the better.</p> + +<p>Clouds were chasing each other in the sky, and the increased mildness +of the atmosphere inspired Bluebell with the dread that rain was +approaching, for a rendezvous under dripping umbrellas, if feasible, +was not the most desirable <i>pose</i> for a romantic interview.</p> + +<p>However, the morning rose clear and sunny, the snow was thawing, and in +many places the runners of the sleighs grated on bare ground.</p> + +<p>Bluebell was exultant. The elements evidently didn't mean to oppose her, +but she was somewhat disconcerted at dinner by Miss Opie's remarks on her +Sunday dress, which, being of a becoming hue, she had rashly donned.</p> + +<p>"Are you going visiting, Bluebell, that you are so smart?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, dear no; only for a walk."</p> + +<p>"How foolish to draggle that mazarin blue poplinette in sloppy snow! Once +let it get any snow stains on, and it will look quite shabby on bright +spring days."</p> + +<p>"It's no use having things, if one doesn't wear them," returned the girl, +evasively. But when she came down ten minutes later equipped for her +walk, she encountered Miss Opie again in full marching order.</p> + +<p>"My, dear, as you are dressed so nicely, I dare say you are going 'on +King,' and so am I; so we can walk together."</p> + +<p>Consternation in Bluebell's face—it was only a quarter to three.</p> + +<p>"I am going quite in the opposite direction," cried she, hurriedly, and, +without waiting to see the effect of her words, abruptly fled.</p> + +<p>"Just Canadian independence," muttered Miss Opie; "It makes all the girls +such thoroughly bad style."</p> + +<p>Bluebell began to feel very nervous; two or three young friends that she +met on the way, she passed with a quick nod and averted face, dreading +their joining her. Her eye swept the broad walk of the Avenue in an +instant; no familiar figure arrested her vision, and the seats placed at +regular intervals on each side were also vacant of interest.</p> + +<p>So she was first—the Cathedral clock had struck three some minutes +before, she was perplexed to know what to do with herself, and began +walking slowly to the other end. Of all possible <i>contretemps</i>, the +non-appearance of Du Meresq had never suggested itself; but after a +couple of turns the unwelcome misgiving strengthened, and there would +be only one at the tryst that day.</p> + +<p>In a tumult of disappointment and indignation, conjecture after +conjecture chased each other; while ever and anon her fancy was mocked +by some one turning in at the gates bearing a general resemblance to Du +Meresq, only to be dispelled by a nearer and more accurate view.</p> + +<p>A simple explanation suddenly dawned; Bertie might have written to warn +her of an unavoidable absence. The possibility of such a letter, which, +had she had received it in the morning, would have been the bitterest +disappointment, now seemed a resurrection from despair to hope, and with +relaxed features and brightening eyes, Bluebell walked rapidly through +the gates to the Post-office.</p> + +<p>Letters were so rare and unlooked for at the cottage, that the postman +never included it in his rounds; and the contents of the pigeon-hole +appropriated to them at the office was seldom inquired for, except on +mail-days, when there might be an off-chance of an English letter for +Miss Opie. Even Bluebell, who for the first fortnight after her +banishment from "The Maples" had been a regular applicant, had not been +near it since Bertie's visit to the cottage.</p> + +<p>"Two letters for Miss Theodora Leigh." One she scarcely looked at; the +other instinct told her must be Bertie's handwriting; it had been lying +two days at the Post-office.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"My dearest Bluebell," ran this note, "I can't come to the Avenue +on Wednesday, being now entirely confined to the sofa with my ankle, +which has gone to the bad. I am only staying on now with sick leave, +and the Chief very sulky at that. When shall I again see those beloved, +angel-like, soft blue eyes? Don't write to me here, for, as you may +remember, the orderly fetches the letters, and my august brother-in-law +sometimes deals them round.</p> + +<p>"Your ever devotedly attached, +"A. Du M."</p></div> + +<p>Poor Bluebell, as she read these few and rather cavalier lines, felt for +the moment as if she had never suffered till now; his hinted at +departure, and apparent resignation to absence from her, was a severe +shock, and, in the first hot feeling of grief, the scales fell from her +eyes, and she began to see Bertie as he was, but she could not yet endure +the light of reason, so resumed her voluntary blindness, and re-read the +letter, and though very little of it could satisfy her expectations, she +dwelt more on the few words that did. After a while, she remembered the +other letter, and found, with awakening interest, it was from Mrs. +Rolleston. This was written in a pleasant chit-chat style, giving an +account of their every-day life since she left, and not at all avoiding +Bertie's name, the tedious effect of his toboggining accident being +one of the chief incidents mentioned. It wound up with saying that they +expected her back as soon as she liked.</p> + +<p>Bluebell felt rather mystified at the tone of this epistle; but was much +comforted by the thought that the ban was removed, and she might go to +"The Maples" and judge for herself. This was dated prior to the other +letter, but Bertie appeared to have been ignorant of it.</p> + +<p>The following day, our heroine, in a hired sleigh, was jingling back to +"The Maples," and curiosity and interest all centred on one question—"Is +he there still?"</p> + +<p>As she passed through the hall, her eye glanced searchingly round on the +chance of seeing some familiar property of Bertie's. There was only a +pair of his moccasins; but they might so easily have been left behind as +useless, now the snow was evaporating.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Rolleston and Cecil received her very cordially, but, knowing their +sentiments, that was rather an unfavourable omen, and Freddy and Lola, +who had come down to see her, kept up such an incessant chatter, that +there seemed no chance of obtaining the information she dreaded.</p> + +<p>At last, in a momentary pause, she faltered out a leading remark in +such a low voice that no one attended to it. A minute later, she tried +again,—"I hope Captain Du Meresq is better."</p> + +<p>"How red you have got, 'Boobell!'" said Freddy. "Look, mamma!"</p> + +<p>"What did you say, my dear—Bertie? Oh, yes, he is very lame still; but +he was obliged to go yesterday."</p> + +<p>The sudden colour left Bluebell's cheek, and she sat for some minutes in +a relaxed, drooping attitude, oblivious of all around, till becoming +sensible of Cecil's gaze rivetted on her. It was a cold satirical +expression, at the same time inquiring. Bluebell was very unhappy; but +this roused her, and, raising her head, she looked her enemy steadily in +the eyes, with a bitter smile.</p> + +<p>She never, strange to say, suspected Cecil of being a rival, merely +supposing she was carrying on the family politics; and wounded by her +officiously hostile demeanour, as she considered it, resolved no trace of +her sufferings should ever be witnessed by this cold friend.</p> + +<p>And thus it happened that the topic was jealously avoided by each; +though, with mutual occupation and amusements, they became friendly +again, now the disturber of their amicability was removed.</p> + +<p>Bertie and Cecil had been inseparable the last week. His premature +exertion in calling at the cottage had thrown him back; and really ill, +and, in enforced inaction, he could not bear her out of his sight.</p> + +<p>So day after day Cecil passed in the smoking-room, only hurrying out for +a short drive or constitutional; and half-repaid by the gloomy complaint, +"How long yon have been!" when she re-entered.</p> + +<p>Du Meresq's correspondence, too, as we have before hinted, was not +calming. A half-indignant letter from a friend whose temporary +accommodation had not been repaid, a bill at three months wanting +renewing, a tailor threatening the extremest rigours of the law, and +similar literature, familiar to a distressed man, was punctually brought +by the Post-office orderly for his delectation.</p> + +<p>"You seem interested, Cecil," said he, as, with the uncerimoniousness of +a trusted <i>confidante</i>, she glanced through the variations of the same +text. "Do you young ladies ever get up behind each other, and back each +other's bills?"</p> + +<p>"You haven't opened some, Bertie; and they are not all bills."</p> + +<p>"You can, if it amuses you," hobbling across the room. "Why, Cecil, my +foot is almost sound again. We'll drive somewhere this afternoon, +anyhow."</p> + +<p>"See what the doctor says. Look here, Bertie, here's a letter marked +private, so I didn't go on."</p> + +<p>"Where did you find that? I never saw it." As he read, his brow grew +dark, and he pondered several minutes; while Cecil, devoured with +curiosity, and half-apprehensive of evil, remained silent.</p> + +<p>"Will you get me a railway-guide, Cecil? There's one in the dining-room."</p> + +<p>She complied, most unwillingly.</p> + +<p>"Are you really going, Bertie?"</p> + +<p>"I must, to-night."</p> + +<p>"Why?" she more looked than asked.</p> + +<p>He glanced through the letter again, and tossed it to her. "You see I +have no secrets from you, Cecil, though I should not care for any one +else in the house to be acquainted with its contents."</p> + +<p>It was a confidential letter from his Colonel, saying, if absolutely +necessary, he would give him more sick leave; but advising him, if +possible, to return at once and settle some of his most urgent +liabilities, which, having repeatedly come to his ears, he could no +longer avoid taking notice of, unless he took steps to get the more +serious ones shortly arranged.</p> + +<p>"What <i>will</i> you do, Bertie?"</p> + +<p>"I don't know that anything but jumping into the Lachine Rapids would +solve the difficulty," returned he, lightly; "and even that must be +deferred till the river is open."</p> + +<p>"How much is it?" impatiently.</p> + +<p>"I dare say six hundred might soothe the chief's sense of propriety, and +give one a little breathing-time. But I can't get that, so the smash must +come a little sooner than it otherwise would."</p> + +<p>"You tell me that, and tie my hands by refusing to let me help you. +Bertie, if you could just hold on till August, when I might draw any +cheques I pleased—"</p> + +<p>"You dearest little angel!" interrupted Du Meresq, warmly; "what have I +done that you should be so kind to me? But all women are alike—generous +and true-hearted when a fellow is down in the world; and—"</p> + +<p>"Then you promise? You will count on the money?" said Cecil, not much +flattered at being supposed only to act up to the inevitable instincts +of her sex.</p> + +<p>"Good heavens, Cecil! no; I am not such an unprincipled brute as to rob +you of a penny. Under no possible circumstances could I touch—"</p> + +<p>"Under <i>no possible</i> circumstances?" leapt out before she could restrain +her speech. Had the meaning escaped him, the eloquent blood which rushed +over neck and brow must have betrayed it completely.</p> + +<p>Bertie, who had been speaking without motive, was taken by surprise as +the sense of her impulsive words flashed on his brain.</p> + +<p>"My darling Cecil!"</p> + +<p>Cecil, the colour of a carnation, and expiring with embarrassment, raised +her eyes, and encountered his fixed on her with a fond, sad, but <i>not</i> +responsive expression. If shame could kill, she had received her <i>coup de +grâce</i> that moment. He had understood, and yet said nothing.</p> + +<p>The most rapturous gratitude on his part would hardly have reconciled +her to herself; not to be met half-way was ignominious rejection.</p> + +<p>It had all been the work of one moment, and relief came in the next with +the entrance of Colonel Rolleston. Cecil, feeling as if delivered from a +spell, got out of the room, and entrenched herself in her own, where her +thoughts became almost unendurable.</p> + +<p>In horror at what she had done, her first wish was never to see Bertie +again. Every particle of pleasure in his society must now be over since +that one mad, unguarded sentence.</p> + +<p>"I might have known," thought she, bitterly, "that that false, +caressing manner of his never meant anything. I have seen it with a dozen +girls—even Bluebell,"—here she winced; "and yet in the face of all +probability I must needs believe myself more to him than any one, because +it suits him to make me the receptacle of his worries. Well, he is +disinterested, at any rate, since all my money has no more attractions +for him than myself."</p> + +<p>A stormy hour did poor Cecil pass with her wounded pride, when she was +interrupted by Lola, the Mercury of the establishment, who came to tell +her that "dinner would be an hour earlier, because Bertie was going +away."</p> + +<p>Cecil received the intelligence very shortly, and nipped in the bud her +evident intention of lingering by declaring herself "busy," which that +astute young person, seeing no signs of employment, interpreted as +"cross."</p> + +<p>"I must face it," thought she, as the last peal of the gong jarred on her +nerves. She descended just in time to see Colonel and Mrs. Rolleston +disappear into the dining-room. Du Meresq, who had waited, eagerly placed +her hand under his arm, and drew her back a moment.</p> + +<p>"Cecil, where have you been hiding all this afternoon?"</p> + +<p>I suppose he had the key to the answer, for the changing hues of her +complexion, in which pride struggled with confusion, was the only one he +got.</p> + +<p>"You utter little goose!" said Bertie, emphatically, crushing the hand +under his arm as they entered the dining-room. Curious to relate, Cecil +scarcely felt so ashamed as she had an hour ago. Not a chance would she +give him, though, of speaking a syllable in private; and very soon after +dinner he departed, taking leave of Cecil before all the rest, with no +more distinguishing mark of affection than a long hand-clasp, which +seemed as if it would never unlock.</p> + +<p>"Only his odious flirting manner!" said Cecil to herself; but she did not +think so, and felt a good deal less self-contempt than she had before.</p> + +<p>Next day, when Mrs. Rolleston announced Bluebell's expected return, Cecil +felt quite in charity with her, and resolved to make things pleasanter +than they had been, though this relenting mood was nearly dissipated by +her unconscious rival presuming to look miserable at the tidings of Du +Meresq's departure.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XV" id="CHAPTER_XV"></a>CHAPTER XV.</h2> + +<h3>AN ENIGMATICAL LETTER.</h3> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'Tis Spring, bright Spring, and bluebirds sing.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I was monarch supreme in my cloudland.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I was master of fate in that proud land;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I would not endure<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That a grief without cure,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A love that could end,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or a false hearted friend,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Should dwell for an instant in cloudland.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">Mackay.</span><br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p>Nothing but rain, pouring rain, for the next few days, washing the walls +of snow down the unmetaled streets, a very slough of despond to all +beasts of burden. Once more the sight of green grass relieved the eye, +weary of the one monotonous hue it had rested on for weeks, and still it +rained as if determined not to stop till it had fulfilled its mission, +and dissolved every sooty patch that in chilly spots still obstinately +lingered.</p> + +<p>At last the clouds parted, the sun came out, and Cecil, regardless of +mud, and impatient of long confinement, started off for a gallop on +"Wings."</p> + +<p>On her way she met the Post-office orderly with letters, who stopped and +gave her one. It isn't such a very easy thing to read your correspondence +on horseback, with the wind catching the sheets, and the sun shining +through the paper, mixing the writing on the other side with the one you +are reading. Still less feasible is it in a crowded street; so, though +Cecil at once recognised the handwriting of Du Meresq, it had to be +consigned to the saddle-pocket till the traffic was threaded, and she had +entered on a quiet corduroy road by the lake. Then she opened it with a +flattering feeling of expectation, and was half-disappointed at its calm +commencement.</p> + +<p>Bertie, with his usual dependence on her sympathy, began by telling her +that he had been able to make a temporary arrangement, which had squared +things for the present. "But," he continued, "the evil day must be no +longer deferred. I will try and find out every shilling I owe. It will be +more than I expect, I dare say, yet my commission ought to cover it, and, +altogether, I shall probably save enough out of the fire to be a small +capitalist in Australia. Much as I hate it, I must cut the service, for +if my debts were paid to-morrow I should have just as many in two years. +Dearest Cecil, I know you do not exactly hate me; I wish I were more +worthy of the affection of such a dear, true-hearted girl. Will you trust +me, Cecil, and believe in me a little longer, even if I say no more at +present? I don't think your father likes me; I wish now he did. Let me +see your dear handwriting soon. I believe you have more head than any +girl I know, and more heart, too; and no one can appreciate your sense +and affection more than yours, ever devotedly,</p> + +<p>"A. Du MERESQ."</p> + +<p>Cecil rode thoughtfully on, as she turned the letter over in her mind, +trying to penetrate Bertie's meaning.</p> + +<p>"Why does he not speak out more plainly?" thought she. "He will never be +any richer unless he marries me, so it is useless waiting for that. I +will not, any how, be in too great a hurry to understand him this time. +If his debts are paid, and he leaves the army soon, he must say more—or +nothing." And at that chance Cecil turned rather pale, and giving Wings +his head, who had been fretting some time, started off at a good +refreshing galop. They were on the race course now, and, excited by the +turf, he gave her quite enough to do to hold him.</p> + +<p>"What fun station-life must be," thought she. "Always riding in a wild, +strange country,—birds, animals, plants, scenery, and ideas, all +different and unhackneyed. Canada is well enough, but it mimics England +too much, and is fifty years behind it." Before she got home, she had +composed a clear-headed and sympathetic, but not at all lover-like, +letter to Bertie, who was disappointed at the tone of it; and—"as the +nymph flies, the swain pursues"—he wrote a much more affectionate one +back, and then Cecil suffered her thoughts to take a more decided shape, +and they dwelt especially on a "lodge in some vast wilderness" of her +colonial paradise,—picturesque, but not luxurious—an exquisite climate, +and Bertie combining the life of a happy hunter and enterprising +colonist, returning to sup on a kangaroo steak, and to wake up to another +day of movement and adventure.</p> + +<p>Cecil passed a great deal of her time in this ideal log-house, sometimes +garrisoning and defending it, during Bertie's absence, against a war +party of savages, for danger was by no means excluded from her scheme of +felicity, except perhaps one, like St. Senaun's isle, her—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Sacred sod,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Should ne'er by Woman's feet be trod."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>In such dreams and the companionship of Bluebell, who gave no further +offence, now that she had learnt self-command and the necessity of +keeping her feelings to herself, the spring advanced apace, and the first +bluebird, alighting on the garden rails, was descried with a shriek of +ecstacy by Lola.</p> + +<p>The children, who unlike their elders, had had no gaieties, or sleighing +and skating parties, to wile away the rigours of the snow king's reign, +were emancipated from dulness by the approach of summer. Their lessons +could be carried on in the garden; and, one day, Lola, who had shut her +eyes while repeating to herself an irregular verb, saw, on opening them, +a jewelled humming-bird balancing itself in the air on a level with her +hat, and apparently inspecting that head-dress with wonder and curiosity, +after which it flashed off and dived into a flower.</p> + +<p>The garden was alive with fairy wonders; wild canaries came to it—pure +saffron, except their black-flecked wings,—the soldier-bird, so bold and +scarlet,—robins were a drug in the market, and only tolerated for their +tameness and vocal powers. But none could weary of the bluebirds, whose +azure took so vivid a hue in flight, from the sun shining through their +wings.</p> + +<p>Then there were excursions to the Humber woods in search of wild flowers, +all new, rare, and delicate,—too much so to bear the pressure of eager +hands, for they seldom survived the transit home. Often Cecil, Bluebell, +Miss Prosody, and the children drove there in a waggonette, with a +luncheon-basket, and spent the whole day in the golden woods, or rowing +on the Humber river. Cecil's craze at this time was to paddle her own +canoe; and occasionally Lilla Tremaine, who had become pretty intimate +with her, joined the aquatic party.</p> + +<p>The Colonel had rather demurred at first, thinking there was a <i>soupçon</i> +of fastness and independence in it. Visions of possible anglers and +unchaperoned river flirtations disturbed his mind; but eventually he +satisfied himself, by requiring Miss Prosody to be always of the party, +who followed with the children and a boatman in a flat-bottomed tub.</p> + +<p>On one of these occasions they had been pulling about the beautiful bends +of the river. Cecil, paddling her canoe, with a trolling-line out at the +end of it, and Bluebell rowing a boat, while Lilla fished with a very +especial spoon-bait of her own devising. Despite, however, the seductions +of the gaudy red cloth and tassel of long hair from a deer's tail, not a +fish impaled itself on the circle of formidable hooks prepared for its +reception, and the mid-day sun began to dart fiercely on them.</p> + +<p>"All nature speaks of luncheon and repose," cried Lilla, beginning to +wind up her line, after the frequent weed had repeatedly mocked her hopes +with its dull, dead pull. "Let us moor the fleet under this overhanging +fir-tree, Cecil; it makes quite a bower."</p> + +<p>"It feels like thunder, the fish don't bite, and the mosquitoes do," +assented Cecil. "We must signal for the Infantry, though, who are also +the Commissariat."</p> + +<p>Bluebell tied a silk handkerchief to her oar, and waved it wildly.</p> + +<p>"I wonder if that old nuisance enjoys herself," speculated Miss Tremaine, +as Miss Prosody's prim visage appeared in the stern of the other boat. +"So like you English, always carrying your propriety about in the shape +of a foil."</p> + +<p>"Don't abuse our treasure," said Cecil, demurely. "Ask papa what he +thinks of Miss Prosody."</p> + +<p>"I should get a more impartial opinion from Estelle and Fleda, who are +always being kept in and bullied."</p> + +<p>"Well, I really think the other children are enough for to-day," said +Cecil. "What a fuss Freddy made to get after Bluebell into that tituppy +little boat of yours."</p> + +<p>"Yes, and you would all have been beseeching him not to till now, if I +had not taken him by the scruff of the neck and dropped him into the +other!"</p> + +<p>"Well, dear," said Cecil, languidly; "we don't all possess your strength +of mind and biceps. What have you got there, Lola?" as the boatman deftly +shot the other boat under the overhanging branches.</p> + +<p>"Water-lily leaves for plates! See now stiff and shining they are, and +washed up so clean."</p> + +<p>"Then, I suppose we must not use these wooden ones, my fanciful fairy?"</p> + +<p>"Don't be so foolish, Lola!" snapped in Miss Prosody. "You'll spoil your +frock; throw them away!"</p> + +<p>"We can put them over the platters," said Cecil. "Hand out the edibles, +Bluebell. What have you got?"</p> + +<p>"Here's a pie, a cake, a tart, croquettes; no knives, about a pound of +salt, and some butter in the last stage of dissolution."</p> + +<p>"No knives!" cried Miss Prosody. "There must be!" plunging desperately +into the basket.</p> + +<p>"That is more untidy than a lily-leaf plate," remarked Lilla.</p> + +<p>"No, positively not," said the governess. "How very remiss of Bowers, +particularly as I observe he has provided forks!"</p> + +<p>The children looked disappointed. They had been reckoning on the +phenomenon of Miss Prosody, subjugated by hunger, eating pie with her +fingers.</p> + +<p>"Here be a knife!" said the boatman, wiping on his trousers the blade of +his clasp-knife.</p> + +<p>"Let as put a polish on," said Lilla, laughing at Cecil's face; and, +jumping on to the bank, thrust it several times into the earth. The +children, tired of their cramped position in the boat, wished to dine on +shore; but it was thickly wooded, and there was no clear space; so Freddy +was wedged into a fork of the tree, and Lola swung on another bough, +where they chattered like two pies, handing down a basket on a string +when they required fresh supplies.</p> + +<p>Cecil lay on the bear-skin in her canoe, with her hat over her face, +declaring it too hot to eat, but consuming, under protest, a croquette +occasionally tossed in for her sustenance. Miss Prosody, quite genial and +urbane after luncheon, was deep in consultation with the boatman as to +the locality of certain ferns she proposed spudding up for her pet +rockery at "The Maples," where her lighter hours were diurnally spent in +washing and tending her spoils.</p> + +<p>"I suppose this is all very sylvan and jolly," said Lilla, handing the +remnants of the refection to the boatman; "yet somehow, candidly, it's +slow."</p> + +<p>"Possibly," said Cecil, "it is the absence of the other sex that makes +you find it so?"</p> + +<p>"Perhaps," said Lilla, frankly, with furtive enjoyment of Miss Prosody's +stiffening face. "Well, ladies, I should like my little smoke; can I +offer anybody one? You will find them very mild,"—and she drew forth a +neat case of Latakia cigarettes, selected one, and, striking a match on +the heel of her boot, lit it.</p> + +<p>"Of course, if you choose to be so unlady-like, we cannot prevent you," +said the governess, icily.</p> + +<p>"Dear me!" said Lilla, innocently, "I never dreamt of your objecting; for +I have heard you tell Colonel Rolleston, when he has been smoking, how +fond you were of it in the open air."</p> + +<p>"Colonel Rolleston would most decidedly disapprove of <i>your</i> doing it."</p> + +<p>"He does, I believe, of most of my actions; but he is very kind to me all +the same. Look at this wretch of a mosquito actually stinging through my +glove. I'll just touch him up with the red ash of my cigar."</p> + +<p>Miss Prosody knew of old that Lilla was incorrigible, and, having no +hope of support from Cecil in any attempt to snub her, resolved to +discountenance the proceeding by going away, and summoned the children +from their tree, who were quite ready for a fresh start. The girls +declared it was too hot to move. Lilla continued to puff away lazily, the +zest rather gone now there was nobody to be shocked at it. Bluebell, +mingling her voice with the birds, was singing the "Danube River," +while Cecil, with shut eyes, lay in her canoe, and gave herself up to the +dreamy music, till, aroused by its sudden cessation, she looked up, and +saw a boat half checked in its speed, and Major Fane and Jack Vavasour +doffing their billy-cock hats.</p> + +<p>Cecil's return bow was freezing, and Major Fane, who had rested +irresolutely a moment on his oars, shot the boat on with vigorous pulls. +She felt half penitent as she saw his discomfited face, but her coldness +arose from having become alive to a possible danger.</p> + +<p>Colonel Rolleston had lately very frequently asked him to dinner, even +when there was no one else, and he always fell to her share to entertain. +Now Major Fane was a very good match in every way,—quite what parents +and guardians would approve; so, thought Cecil,—"I can't have any +mistakes about that, or it will only settle papa against Bertie."</p> + +<p>"Did you summon those two from this vasty deep, Lilla?" cried she. "But, +I forgot; I don't think either of them sail under your flag."</p> + +<p>"My colours are too rakish and privateerish for Major Fane; and as for +Jack, I am afraid he has the bad taste to prefer Bluebells to Lilies."</p> + +<p>"If you think him worth your acceptance," said Bluebell "I will make you +a present of him."</p> + +<p>"He may be yours to keep, my dear, but not to give away. At present I am +not 'on for matrimony,' and, to flirt with, I don't know any one better +fun than Bertie Du Meresq."</p> + +<p>The other girls were both too conscious to reply to this audacious +remark, and after awhile they resumed fishing, Lilla's gaudy bait still +unsuccessful, though Cecil had landed one or two pike. Bluebell grew +tired of rowing steadily to keep her companion's line extended, and +persuaded her to wind it up; then Lilla took the sculls, and they fell +into conversation.</p> + +<p>"Were you at that tobogganing party where Captain Du Meresq hurt his +ankle?" asked Bluebell, diligently examining the corolla of a water-lily.</p> + +<p>"Why?" was the counter inquiry.</p> + +<p>"Because I never heard how it happened."</p> + +<p>"How was that?" said Lilla, launching into narrative. At the close of it +she said,—"Cecil pulled him through that time. I shouldn't have thought +nursing much in her line; but she was very hard hit, you know, and I +rather wondered Bertie didn't propose before he left so suddenly. Very +likely he did though."</p> + +<p>Bluebell's eyes opened in horror at this unpalatable suggestion. "What +<i>are</i> you dreaming of, Lilla?" gasped she. "Cecil! why she looks upon him +as an uncle or something."</p> + +<p>"Oh, Bluebell, you blind little bat, it would be as well if you looked +upon him 'as an uncle or something.'"</p> + +<p>But the other sat aghast and speechless. Lily glanced at her +sympathetically.</p> + +<p>"Well, perhaps he mayn't care for Cecil. He has been talking nonsense to +you, too, I see, as he has to us all three, for that matter. I feel so +angry about it, I have a great mind to tell you all he said to <i>me</i>."</p> + +<p>"I don't want to hear," said her companion, coldly; "nor do I at all +agree with you about Cecil"</p> + +<p>"All right," returned the other. "Only remember he can't afford to marry, +whatever he may have pretended to you—not but what that subject is about +the last it ever occurs to him to enter upon."</p> + +<p>Bluebell at first utterly refused to receive this intolerable suggestion +into her mind. Lilla must be inventing—in love with him herself, and +trying to make mischief. Nothing should induce her to believe it. How +irritating she was, too, with that knowing, quizzing expression in her +face!</p> + +<p>So when Cecil, tired of solitude, proposed coming into their boat, +Bluebell eagerly took possession of the canoe, and went off on an +independent paddle, ostensibly to look for Miss Prosody.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVI" id="CHAPTER_XVI"></a>CHAPTER XVI.</h2> + +<h3>DETECTED.</h3> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">His passion is not, he declares, the mere fever<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of a rapturous moment. It knows no control;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">It will burn in his breast thro' existence for ever,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Immutably fixed in the deeps of the soul.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">The Wanderer.</span><br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p>"Why did you shoot on so quick, Major?" said Vavasour, in an injured +tone, after the dumb scene before referred to. "We might as well have +stayed and discoursed those young women."</p> + +<p>Fane growled something about not choosing to intrude.</p> + +<p>"I don't suppose they would have minded. That spicy little party, Lily +Tremaine, was smoking. I wonder who finds her in cigars?"</p> + +<p>"I hate Canadian girls!" said Fane. "And when they pretend to be fast +they are more unbearable still."</p> + +<p>"Oh, come," said Jack, warmly, for was not Bluebell of that maligned +nationality? "they must have used you badly, Major. They are far more +unaffected and natural than English girls, who always ride to orders; and +as for beauty—"</p> + +<p>"You have only got to look at Bluebell Leigh. Well, slope back to them, +Jack. You shan't have the boat, because I should never get it again. But +if you like to plough through that long grass to their bivouac, I daresay +the mosquitoes will receive you warmly if the young ladies don't."</p> + +<p>In the meantime, Bluebell, tempted by a shady creek, abandoned her canoe, +and, flinging herself down on a bed of wild flowers, remained a prey to +the consideration of this new view of Lilla's, which would account, in +the most unwelcome manner, for the inconsistency of Du Meresq's conduct +with his professions.</p> + +<p>Cecil a rival! Much as she wished to disbelieve it, corroborative +evidence, unheeded at the time, now recurred with such startling +distinctness that she marvelled at her own previous blindness. Still, +Bluebell was not cured. That he cared most for herself she continued to +believe, though Cecil's fortune might have tempted him away. Plan after +plan for obtaining an explanation was discarded as unfeasible; and, at +last, Bluebell, in despair, hid her face in her hands, and burst into the +unrestrained grief of the young.</p> + +<p>She was disturbed by a slight rustling in the bushes, and, looking up, +beheld Jack Vavasour in an attitude of confusion and consternation, +apparently meditating flight.</p> + +<p>"I beg your pardon, Miss Leigh; I was going away before you saw me. I'll +go at once. My darling Bluebell, what <i>is</i> the matter?"</p> + +<p>"I don't know," said she, relieved to see it was "only Jack." "I am very +hot and—miserable."</p> + +<p>Vavasour sat down, and tried in his honest and unsophisticated way to +console her. "Was there any one he could pitch into for her? He would do +anything she wished, etc., if she would only say what was vexing her."</p> + +<p>Bluebell could hardly help laughing, but was so unaccustomed of late to +sympathy, that she felt half tempted to take him into council, and +confide her misplaced attachment and perplexities.</p> + +<p>It was rather heartless, knowing his sentiments; but callousness to the +pangs of a lightly won and unvalued heart is not uncommon in Love's +annals.</p> + +<p>However, he was too precipitate for her.</p> + +<p>"Bluebell," he began, blushing rather, and looking, as she thought, +almost handsome in his eagerness, "do you remember what I said to you the +other night when we were looking at the Northern Lights?"</p> + +<p>"I remember some absurd chaff."</p> + +<p>"It wasn't," said Jack, with emphasis suited to the solemnity of the +declaration. "I meant every word of it; and now I say, like the Beast in +the fairy tale—'Beauty, will you marry me?'"</p> + +<p>"And she always said,—'No, Beast,'" said Bluebell, laughing; "and then +he went away, 'very sorrowful.'"</p> + +<p>"Yes, but that's the difference. I shan't go away, or let you, till you +say 'Yes.'"</p> + +<p>"I couldn't, really," said she, treating it as a joke. "So we shall be +starved to death, and covered up by birds, like the babes in the wood."</p> + +<p>"No; we will live happy ever afterwards," passing an arm round her waist +with an air of proprietorship. "Shall I tell Colonel Rolleston to-night?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, this is too serious," cried Bluebell, energetically freeing herself. +"If you really want an answer to such stuff, most decidedly 'No.'"</p> + +<p>Jack, in furious mortification, for he saw she was now thoroughly in +earnest, poured forth reproaches, accusing her of coquetry and purposely +deceiving him, caring not if his words were just or unjust; and +Bluebell's conscience was not altogether guiltless. Perhaps her own +disappointment made her better understand his; for she waited patiently +till the torrent of words had a little subsided, and then, laying her +hand persuasively on his arm, said with gentle archness,—</p> + +<p>"Don't be angry, Jack. What should we live on? <i>I</i> haven't a penny, <i>you</i> +can't always pay your mess bill, and I am afraid an officer's wife +couldn't go on the strength of the regiment, and take in washing."</p> + +<p>"I didn't think you were so mercenary," said he, looking into her liquid +eyes, that were fast quenching the angry light in his.</p> + +<p>"I suppose I must be," said Bluebell, <i>naively</i>; "for I hate poverty so. +You know my father married—just as you want to do—a pretty girl without +a dollar to her name."</p> + +<p>"You are pretty, my darling, and you know it," said Jack, bitterly.</p> + +<p>"I don't know why people care for me if I am not, for I'm afraid there +isn't much in me; and at the age of seventeen one may at least lay claim +to <i>la beauté du diable</i>. Well, as I was going to say, my father married +just as imprudently, and got disinherited for his pains."</p> + +<p>"No fear of that with me," said Jack. "I am number seven, and they have +all good constitutions. Destiny has decreed that I must live by my wits, +without even providing me with any."</p> + +<p>"So you see," continued she, "as we have neither money nor brains, it is +no use thinking of it!"</p> + +<p>"You are wise in your generation," said Jack, darkly. "You are pretty +enough to get a rich husband any day; but whoever it is, for Heaven's +sake, don't let it be Du Meresq!"</p> + +<p>Bluebell's fair brow contracted, and her dark lashes swept her cheek, as +she said, in a low, pained voice,—"No fear of that."</p> + +<p>"I trust not," said Jack, severely, and quite unconvinced. "You are but a +child, Bluebell; and, though you won't take me, I shall watch over you, +and see that you do not throw yourself away; though if any good fellow +wants you, I suppose I must grin and bear it."</p> + +<p>"Thanks, my stern guardian. I hope you won't die of old age in the mean +time. And now, do go, dear Jack. I must paddle after the others."</p> + +<p>"Say good-bye first. May I, Bluebell? Only this once,"—and, without +waiting for consent, he imprinted a kiss, grave as an officiating +priest's to a new made bride. Touched by his love and resignation she +voluntarily returned it, and, turning away, encountered the two +mischievous eyes of Miss Tremaine in the stern of her boat, which had +glided up unobserved.</p> + +<p>I suppose there is no dereliction from the Eleventh Commandment, in which +people would more joyfully welcome an earthquake than being taken at a +similar disadvantage. No explanation or extenuating circumstances can be +attempted in that deep confusion.</p> + +<p>Lilla raised her eyes to heaven with a most edifying expression of pious +horror, and shook her head disapprovingly.</p> + +<p>"Jack," muttered Bluebell, in a tone of concentrated anguish, "I shall +die of it!"</p> + +<p>Vavasour suppressed an expletive more forcible than parliamentary, and +strode down to pull the boat in.</p> + +<p>"Oh, here you are," cried Cecil, innocent of the foregoing pantomime, for +she was rowing, and had her back to them. "Mr. Vavasour, where do you +spring from?" She noted, as she spoke, his strange expression and +Bluebell's heightened colour with quickening curiosity and pleasure.</p> + +<p>"I left Fane further down the river," said he; "and Miss Leigh and I sat +listening to the—bull-frogs." Here Jack cast a look half-imploring, +half-furious, at Lilla, who had assumed a most Quakerish expression, and +hummed the air, "A frog he would a wooing go."</p> + +<p>"Well, get in Bluebell," said Cecil, smiling; "we are going home now. +Come and see us soon, Mr. Vavasour."</p> + +<p>Jack liked Cecil very much; but he only bowed gloomily, and placing +Bluebell in her canoe, disappeared, as might be inferred, to Fane; though +afterwards that gentleman bitterly complained that he had, on returning +home,—after waiting, to his great inconvenience, an hour or more, +anathematizing Jack,—found that he had walked back to barracks totally +oblivious of his companion.</p> + +<p>Bluebell's return drive was far from a peaceful one. Lilla, it is true, +abstained from remarks before the children; but there was no escaping her +provokingly wicked glances, which argued ill for her future discretion.</p> + +<p>Cecil, on the contrary, was unusually suave and considerate to Bluebell, +and had rather the air of shielding her from Lilla; which would have been +less incomprehensible had she known that in the interval of disembarking +and entering the waggonette, Cecil had been made a participator in that +malicious damsel's discovery.</p> + +<p>At bed-time, Miss Rolleston, contrary to her wont, entered Bluebell's +room, hair-brush in hand, as if disposed for a cozy confab. But that +employment, so provocative of feminine disclosures, appeared futile this +night, and the raven and chestnut coils were brushed to the sheen of a +bird's wing ere Cecil had discovered what she had come for.</p> + +<p>At last, under cover of lighting her candle, she said, with a disarming +smile,—"You are very reserved, Bluebell. May I guess what Lubin said to +you in the Humber, to-day?"</p> + +<p>"I dare say you can," said the other, simply. "He will forget all about +it soon, I trust."</p> + +<p>"Do you mean you gave him no hope?" a suspicion of Lilla's veracity +mingling with her disappointment.</p> + +<p>"Certainly not," with great energy.</p> + +<p>"But why?" asked Cecil, with asperity.</p> + +<p>Bluebell turned her melancholy eyes full upon her, and the two rivals +gazed steadily at each other. Then Cecil's head was impatiently flung +back, her level eyebrows went down, and, without further remark, she +rose and left the room.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVII" id="CHAPTER_XVII"></a>CHAPTER XVII.</h2> + +<h3>DID YOU PROPOSE THEN?</h3> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">A lover came riding by a while;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A wealthy lover was he, whose smile<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Some maids would value greatly.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">More Bad Ballads.</span><br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p>The summer had not been a very gay one. The heat was so intense as to +throw languour on the garden and croquet-parties, which replaced the +winter balls and sleigh drives. Thunder was in the air, and growled and +muttered around; but the joyfully-hailed clouds floated away without +affording a drop of rain; or if one black flying monster poured itself +like a water-spout on the parched city, laying the flowers with its +violence, the thirsty earth licked it up, scarce leaving a trace. Summer +lightning quaked in long sheets over the horizon; the geese were lying +dead on the common from drought; and the restless night was haunted by +the tramp of straying horses on the wooden side-walks.</p> + +<p>"Round trips" were advertised in all the papers, and brackish +bathing-places on the St. Lawrence were already crowded. The Saguenay and +Marguerite rivers had carried off their fishing votaries, the black fly +worked its wicked will at Tadousac, where the "property" whale of +the —— hotel had already been seen spouting, according to the waiter, +as he attended at the matitudinal <i>table-d'hôte</i>. At any rate, seals +might be seen with the naked eye, and shot, too, by a wary seal-slayer in +a boat. Two such trophies were already in the hotel, affording unlimited +excitement to the visitors, who, indeed, were somewhat in need of +extraneous amusement, for the only resource the place could boast was +pulling a boat against the strong tide of the two rivers meeting, with +the alternative of a garment-rending scramble in the woods, a prey to the +nipping fly, and coming sometimes in undesired proximity to a wild cat.</p> + +<p>Twice a week the Quebec boats, with Saguenay trippers, chiefly Americans, +halted at the hotel for an hour or two, and turned in their freight, who +invariably commenced dancing to the more amiable than tuneful strains of +an amateur performer in the public drawing-room.</p> + +<p>This pleasure was partaken of quite as "sadly" as if they were our own +unfrisky compatriots; but it passed the time, and the males still further +diversified it by "smiling" at the bar.</p> + +<p>The Rollestons, vacillating between Tadousac, the Falls, a trip in the +"Algoma," and a journey to Boston, their large party being an objection +to each and all, were finally attracted by an advertisement of a +fishing-lodge to be let or sold on Rice Lake.</p> + +<p>This would be a <i>pied à terre</i> for disposing of the impedimenta of the +family—governess and children—during the hot months, leaving the others +at liberty for flying excursions. The price was so ridiculous that +Colonel Rolleston bought it outright, jestingly saying to Lola that it +should be her marriage portion.</p> + +<p>There had been a croquet party at "The Maples," but nearly every one was +gone except two or three who were remaining for dinner. Among these, with +a movement of vexation, Cecil observed Major Fane, her father's +persistent encouragement of whom began to cause her serious uneasiness. +Why, this was the second time within four days he had been asked to dine! +"Can he possibly have spoken to papa first?" thought she. "It is just the +sort of matter-of-fact thing he would do." Revolving it over, she walked +slowly towards her step-mother, who was revelling in a packet of English +letters just received, and began reading out portions to Cecil, who +listened absently at first, till a passage in one of them, from +circumstances, arrested her attention.</p> + +<p>It was from a cousin of Mrs. Rolleston's, and chiefly related to her +only daughter, who was heiress to a considerable property. This child +had always been backward and excitable, and apparently incapable of the +fatigue of study. The letter went on to say that Evelyn was developing +a passion for music, even attempting to compose, and that the writer +desired to find a good musician to reside with them, who should be also +young and cheerful, and likely to tempt her on in other branches of +education as well.</p> + +<p>"Mrs. Leighton is exactly describing Bluebell," said Cecil, quietly.</p> + +<p>"Oh! and she would suit them so perfectly. I <i>wonder</i> if it would do! +Bluebell will be crazy with delight, she has such a wish to see England; +but I doubt if her mother would part with her to such a distance."</p> + +<p>Cecil despised herself for saying,—"If you were to put it very strongly +to Mrs. Leigh, and show her the advantages to her daughter,—for they are +rich as Croesus, and would pay anything for a fancy,—surely she would +not stand in her way."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Rolleston was meditating, and answered, rather inconsequently,—"I +feel greatly interested in Bluebell. I think she is very conscientious +and right-minded. Mr. Vavasour never comes here now; and I am sure she +has never encouraged him since I gave her a hint on the subject."</p> + +<p>Cecil remembered the scene in the Humber, and Bluebell's +suggestively-conscious face that evening, so did not rate so highly the +heroism of her friend. But the stragglers now drew round them, and they +went in to prepare for dinner.</p> + +<p>Cecil had also kept Lilla Tremaine, for latterly she had shrunk from a +<i>têtê-à-têtê</i> with Bluebell, who, sensible of their estrangement, yet +sadly acquiesced in it, as her new-born suspicions had been strengthened +by seeing Cecil receive a letter in Bertie's handwriting.</p> + +<p>Lilla, who could not forget the <i>tableau vivant</i> she had witnessed, was +continually persecuting her hapless victim with inuendoes and allusions, +whose anger and powerlessness to exculpate herself gave an additional +zest to the amusement. Therefore, finding this young lady was to remain +the evening, Bluebell took refuge in the school-room tea, and did not +appear at dinner.</p> + +<p>Conversation fell on the new purchase, and their approaching departure +for Rice Lake; and, observing this did not appear to have a very +exhilarating effect on the Major, Colonel Rolleston continued,—"When +will you come down and see us, Fane? We shall get very tired of our +recluse life, and want some one to bring us the news."</p> + +<p>The Major's face brightened, but, stealing a glance at Cecil's, which +only expressed consternation, it was speedily overcast, and he returned +an evasive answer. Looking gloomily for the relief he expected to discern +in her countenance, he received a swift glance of gratitude, which +uncomplimentary graciousness completed his discomfiture.</p> + +<p>Soon after dinner some garrison duty summoned away Colonel Rolleston, +and the others returned to the garden, where daylight struggled with the +newly-risen moon. A soft breeze came up from the lake, reviving after +the glaring day. Cecil was <i>distraite</i> and silent, so Lilla's vivacious +tongue attracted around her the gentlemen of the group, and, without +any effort of his, Major Fane found himself somewhat apart with Miss +Rolleston.</p> + +<p>Though heart-whole when we first introduced him, he was now really in +love with Cecil,—that is to say, he approved of and wished to marry her.</p> + +<p>As an eligible, many determined efforts had been made for his capture, +and the absence of any desire on her part to attract him gave first the +feeling of security which soon led to a stronger one. If not pretty, she +was graceful, especially so just now, he thought, in that unconscious, +reflective attitude.</p> + +<p>Fane became nervous: it wasn't often he got the chance of being alone +with her, and she might immediately rejoin the others; but just then +Cecil, coming out of her reverie, looked up, and said,—"Don't you want +to smoke? Not here, but come over to the summer-house where the children +do their lessons."</p> + +<p>This proposal from the reserved Cecil, who had lately been so +conspicuously repellent? He thought the change too good so be believed, +and, without another asking, accompanied her to the arbour; but she +insisted on the ostensible motive of their going there being carried out.</p> + +<p>"Do you think, Cecil," said he, darting on his opportunity, "I want +anything else when I am alone with you?"</p> + +<p>Fane had, as he thought, broken the ice; but the next instant he was +uncertain if she had heard or understood. A moonbeam showed him her +face,—it was very pale with a look of determination on it, and her eyes +were bright and steady.</p> + +<p>"Yes," said she, after a pause, "I am glad we are alone. Major Fane, I +have known you such a long time, I want to ask a favour of you, and tell +you a secret."</p> + +<p>The most confident lover might have found something ominous in these +words. Fane felt as if he had made a false step; but he answered, +stiffly, perhaps,—"You must have known me to very little purpose, Miss +Rolleston, if you are not assured how gladly I would help or be of use to +you in any way."</p> + +<p>"Don't think me mad," cried the girl, impulsively; "but could you stay +away—I mean, not come here quite so often."</p> + +<p>Fane was too much astonished to speak, and Cecil plunged desperately +on. "You have been so kind to me," she faltered, "I am afraid of its +misleading papa, and his thinking that you have wishes and intentions—"</p> + +<p>"That I might wish to marry you, Cecil? Is that the misconception you are +afraid of?"</p> + +<p>"Pray don't imagine <i>I</i> think so, but <i>he</i>, might; and, oh! Major Fane, +I care most deeply for some one whom I know would not be acceptable to +papa. You, on the contrary, would be everything he could wish—don't you +see? the disappointment would make the other all the more objectionable +to him."</p> + +<p>"I do see my unenviable position," said Fane, shortly, for it was bad +enough to be thrown over himself without being expected to be interested +in a rival. "What do you wish me to do, Miss Rolleston?"</p> + +<p>"To forget, if you can, every word I have said," cried Cecil, in an +<i>accès</i> of embarrassment now that she had done it, and the excitement was +over. "What <i>must</i> you think of me!"</p> + +<p>Fane was silent for some time, for he was struggling with mortification. +Fortunately for Cecil, he was a gentleman, or he might have revenged +himself by assuring her she had totally mistaken his intentions.</p> + +<p>"I can't under-value the sacrifice you ask of me," said he, presently. "I +do not blame you, for you have never pretended to spare me any affection +from the lover you are so true to. I hope he is worthy of it."</p> + +<p>A pang seized her, as the doubt whether she was not throwing away true +gold for counterfeit obtruded itself. "We are good enough for each +other," said she, simply, "but, at present, his prospects are so +discouraging, that we are not even engaged." A curious expression passed +over Fane's face. "But I have money enough for both," pursued Cecil, "and +if papa is not dazzled and attracted by more brilliant—by you, in short, +he must see there is sufficient, and, if I remain firm, eventually +consent."</p> + +<p>Her extreme eagerness infected Fane too, and relieved the awkwardness of +her strange appeal.</p> + +<p>"Still afraid of me!" said he, sadly. "My poor child! I fear there is +trouble before you. Will it satisfy you if I get six months' leave, and +go to England? By that time, perhaps, your complications may have +arranged themselves."</p> + +<p>Cecil's dark eyes beamed on him with the most speaking gratitude. "You +<i>are</i> a true friend," cried she, warmly, "but how selfish and exacting of +me to banish you!"</p> + +<p>"Oh, as to that," said he, with a short laugh, "I shall not dislike it. +I should have got away long ago if I had known what I do now."</p> + +<p>Nothing a woman detests so much as friendship from the man she cares for, +and yet she always offers it to the suitor she rejects.</p> + +<p>"I never thought you would care really," said she softly "I hope I have +not lost my friend by putting too much confidence in him."</p> + +<p>"I ought to thank you for your honesty," said he, with a reaction to +bitterness, and they rose and returned to the others, met by many a +significant look and shrug. Fane observed it, and determined to go. He +was in no humour to be watched and commented on as a suitor of Cecil's. +His dog-cart hadn't come, but he lit a cigar, and walked to meet it. "So +that's settled," thought he. "And now the sooner I get out of this horrid +country the better. I wish I hadn't refused a share of that moor; I +should have been just in time for it. Well, she is a nice girl—far too +good for that scamp, Du Meresq. I might have suspected what was going on +there. Poor child! what a life he will lead her if it comes off, but most +likely it won't. It <i>must</i> be Du Meresq; for, though I was evidently +meant by the Colonel, I remember that Madame never seemed especially +pleased to see me."</p> + +<p>How unfeeling women are! Cecil forgot her remorse at Fane's +disappointment in exultation at having so successfully removed a serious +obstacle from her path, and her eye sparkled with wicked amusement as she +noticed the marked coldness of Mrs. Rolleston's manner, due to her +supposed flirtation with the Major.</p> + +<p>The Colonel, too, who returned shortly afterwards, glanced round and +inquired for Fane.</p> + +<p>"Gone, I think," said Cecil, innocently; and he also threw upon her a +look of gloom and reproach. No engaged young lady could be gayer than +Cecil the rest of the evening. She became the life of the party, would +keep everybody as late as possible: and certainly more than one shared +the opinion of Mrs. Rolleston, whom her daughter mischievously tried to +confirm in it, that the arbour had been the scene of a proposal and +acceptance.</p> + +<p>As the elder lady was slowly undressing that night, Cecil, still with the +same provoking brightness on her face, peeped in.</p> + +<p>"Are you sleepy, mamma?"</p> + +<p>There was something in her manner that brought Mrs. Rolleston's +annoyance to the culminating point. She thought the faithless damsel had +come to announce her engagement, and demand sympathy and congratulations. +So, with a view to arrest any aggressive gush, she said, with some +asperity,—"I am glad you have come, for I wanted to tell you, Cecil, +how bad it looked your walking off in that way with Major Fane."</p> + +<p>"I suppose it was rather strong," said the girl coolly; "but I like him +so much. I had no idea he was so nice."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Rolleston took refuge in the ill-assumed dignity of rising anger.</p> + +<p>"I suppose, mamma, he is very well off? Papa often wonders that he goes +soldiering on."</p> + +<p>"Really, Cecil, whatever your speculations may be, it was not a delicate +act, sitting apart with him for half-an-hour in a dark arbour."</p> + +<p>"I thought he might propose,"—Mrs. Rolleston's face expressed, "Are you +mad?"—"or give me a chance somehow of saying what I wanted to. And +what's more," she continued, "I am not certain whether he meant to, or +not. To be sure, I didn't give him much time."</p> + +<p>"Did <i>you</i>, propose, then? Cecil, if you don't wish me to disbelieve my +own senses, tell me at once what you were about in the summer-house."</p> + +<p>"Refusing eight thousand a year," was the short reply.</p> + +<p>A puzzled, not unpleased expression, was dawning. "I thought you said he +did not propose?"</p> + +<p>"Well, no; honestly, he didn't. We had a little conversation, and the +upshot was, he has promised to go to England for six months."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Rolleston was not a proud woman, and the relief was so great, that +she folded Cecil in a silent embrace.</p> + +<p>"Perhaps, mamma," continued the girl, demurely, "you won't think it +necessary to mention this to papa. It wouldn't be fair to betray Major +Fane!"</p> + +<p>Mrs. Rolleston was only too convinced, and replied, "that she should +consider it Cecil's secret, and say nothing about it." Whereupon the +damsel ran merrily off, humming the air, "I told them they needn't come +wooing to me." But, arrived in her own room, her evanescent high spirits +vanished, and a bitter and clear-sighted mood succeeded. "Bertie," she +thought, "your evil influence is over us all. Mamma, till now the truest +of step-mothers, is only thinking of ensuring you my fortune. I disoblige +papa, send away a true love, hate Bluebell for her too attractive soft +eyes, am harassed by doubts even of you—is it worth it? I might yet +recall Lucian Fane; he is very calm, and would not expect too much. What +folly! No, if I am to be miserable, it must be my own way, with the only +man who interests me heart and soul. I suppose, if we marry, I may reckon +on one year of happiness, though hardly any one who knew Bertie would +expect him to be constant even for that time. But by then I should have +got immense influence, for, though I am not clever and attractive like +him, I have far more will, and, in the long run, it is character more +than talent that shapes our life. If Bluebell would only go to England!"</p> + +<p>Then she detached from the wall and began to pack up a little possession +that always travelled with her. It was only an old print of a cavalier, +and no one but Cecil had observed that a twin soul to Bertie's looked out +of its dreaming eyes.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVIII" id="CHAPTER_XVIII"></a>CHAPTER XVIII.</h2> + +<h3>LYNDON'S LANDING.</h3> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">All the fairy crowds<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of islands that together lie<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As quietly as spots of sky<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Among the evening clouds.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">Unknown.</span><br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p>Bluebell had begun to feel herself in a false position. Freddy's lessons +were, of course, a farce; and Cecil now seemed never to care to practise +with her. Miss Prosody, with every hour of the day marked out for herself +and pupils, made sarcastic reflections on her want of occupation; but, +unhappy though she was, she could not make up her mind to leave the +Rollestons, and thus dissever the chief link with Bertie. Besides, she +had heard (a piece of information derived from Fleda) that he was shortly +expected to join them at Rice Lake. Therefore, when Mrs. Rolleston +unfolded the project of sending her to England to cultivate the musical +predilections of Evelyn Leighton, Bluebell showed such repugnance to the +scheme, that Mrs. Rolleston did not press it further; and, though +surprised, being personally indifferent, soon dismissed it from her +thoughts, with an inward comment that girls never knew their own minds +a month together.</p> + +<p>Cecil, however, marvelled at her mother's want of penetration and could +not refrain from increased coolness to Bluebell.</p> + +<p>White horses were curling the broad waters of Ontario, as the huge +river-steamer "St. Michael" was getting up the steam for its run to +Quebec; and, from the crowd on the wharf waiting to embark, it might be +surmised that even the sofas in the saloon would be at a premium for +sleeping berths. The Rollestons were surrounded with acquaintances, +either going themselves or seeing others off, till the bell rang, when +there was a rush to the tug, and the big paddle-wheels got in motion. +The children ran up and down the long, narrow saloon on to the decks at +each end, while Miss Prosody was vainly trying to wrest the key of a +sleeping-berth from the purser, who, the supply not being equal to the +demand, was having rather a hot time of it.</p> + +<p>"Two double cabins," cried Colonel Rolleston, presently; "the rest must +have berths in the ladies' cabin, and trouble enough to secure that. +However, here are the keys. How shall we divide?"</p> + +<p>"Shall Estelle and Lola sleep in the wide lower berth of one cabin, and I +in the upper?" said Cecil.</p> + +<p>"And we must take Freddy, I suppose?" said Mrs. Rolleston; "and Miss +Prosody, Bluebell, and Fleda, go to the ladies' cabin."</p> + +<p>"Oh, Cecil!" cried Lola, as they unlocked their domicile off the saloon, +"what a little—little bed! If you turn, you'll tumble into ours; and how +will you get up? Won't I catch your foot!"</p> + +<p>"No bath!" exclaimed Estelle; "only two small basins! And what a +looking-glass! it makes one squint!"</p> + +<p>"It is better than the ladies' cabin," said Fleda, dolefully, "with the +stewardess sitting there, and two or three sick-looking people, and the +berths all open like the shelves of a bookcase."</p> + +<p>"It is only for one night," said Cecil. "We land at Cobourg to-morrow +afternoon. Look! the waiters are laying the long tables for luncheon, or +dinner I suppose it is. Come out on the deck till it is ready. Oh, dear! +there is not a patch of shade left for us. How they over-crowd these +boats!"</p> + +<p>"There's a gentleman holding his umbrella over Bluebell," said Lola.</p> + +<p>Cecil's eyes opened in some amazement. She would have thought it rather +impertinent in a stranger offering such familiar accommodation, but +Bluebell availed herself of it with the frankest <i>nonchalance</i>, and, in +the conversation that ensued, lost her place in the first rush of diners, +who, at the ringing of the bell, instantly occupied every vacant chair.</p> + +<p>"They seem to be having a very good time," observed Fleda, who had picked +up some Americanisms.</p> + +<p>Somewhat aghast at his daughter's precocity, the Colonel stepped out on +the deck, and, with grave dignity, offered Bluebell his arm to conduct +her to his seat, which, quite unconscious of his disapprobation, she +accepted with civil indifference.</p> + +<p>And the young subaltern lit a cigar to console himself for the withdrawal +of the clear blue eyes that looked so deep under the shadow of the +umbrella, and tried to find as much piquancy in the "funny book" he had +recently purchased at the St. Michael's book-stall, while the good ship +went ploughing on, past wooden villages, brown houses picked out with +white, and perhaps here and there a little orange-frocked child giving a +characteristic dash of colour.</p> + +<p>Then, as the sun sank lower, the most gorgeous hues came into the sky. +But, while every one was on deck gazing on its almost tropical vividness, +a film stole between, a shivering dampness pervaded the air, and soon a +dense fog drove the chagrined passengers back into the saloon.</p> + +<p>The captain went to his bridge, and the tea-bell rang soon after. People +were beginning to talk sociably to their neighbours, and a mild hilarity +reigned, when a violent concussion, followed by a sudden cessation of the +paddles, caused a general rush from the table.</p> + +<p>Bluebell, in the act of receiving the second supply of coffee, was +aroused from her immediate bewilderment by a scalding <i>douche</i> down her +neck—the waiter, a young German with heart disease painted on his livid +lips and pasty complexion, having held the coffee-pot suspended +topsy-turvy for an instant, and then fallen in a fit on the floor.</p> + +<p>All the men had crowded on deck, and it soon became known that they had +run into a log raft, which, though no lives were lost had been nearly +swamped, and much injured by the collision. The "St. Michael," too, had +received a bulge, which rendered a little tinkering at the first port +desirable.</p> + +<p>The first alarm of the passengers being lulled, and the panic having +subsided into the excitement of a danger passed, public interest became +concentrated on the young waiter, who still lay in a death like swoon, +till, eventually resuscitated by means of one of the numerous little +brandy-flasks that popped out from sympathetic female bags, he was borne +off by his napkin flapping fraternity to their crystal cave of tumblers.</p> + +<p>Little sleep did Cecil get on her narrow perch that night, for her +sisters, in their dreams, were ever in a sinking ship, or struggling +in the foam-driven rapids. Even her heart beat quicker when the +paddle-wheels suddenly ceased, and ominous voices, indistinctly heard, +appeared in agonized consultation. A familiar sound of knocking and +hammering, however, suggested that they must have put into port for the +repairs determined on; and, grasping her scanty complement of bed-clothes +that were slipping to the floor, Cecil conveyed the re-assuring +intelligence to her sisters, and they composed themselves to sleep at +last.</p> + +<p>Another day's progress down the beautiful river,—narrow enough at +intervals to see both shores, the Stars and Stripes in American villages, +as well as the Union Jack in those of the "Dominion," as it is now +called,—and then they entered among the thousand islands of the great +St. Lawrence.</p> + +<p>Everybody was on deck watching their changing shapes, some apparently all +rock, and others a bower of greenery, and admiring the skilful steering +of the large vessel among them. Soon after noon the first rapid was shot, +a bubbling, seething whirlpool, with clouds of white foam beaten up by +the jagged teeth of the sunken rocks.</p> + +<p>Winding in and out among the islands till late in the afternoon, they +reached their port, and repaired to the hotel, to pursue the rest of +their journey by land.</p> + +<p>A ricketty waggon—not an English hay-cart, but a spidery trap, with high +wheels, so called—and a dilapidated buggy were placed at their disposal. +Two children and the old nurse remained to follow in the coach, and the +advance guard started, after an anxious consultation as to whether the +wheel of the buggy could be trusted to revolve the twelve miles without +dislocation.</p> + +<p>The corduroy roads were in their usual inefficient state,—whole planks +had disappeared in places, and were loose in others,—so locomotion +became a series of jolts and bumps. The drivers wished to save two miles +by crossing a river, and spoke confidently of a bridge, which, on +arriving at, proved to be only some pieces of timber cast wholesale into +it, some of them negligently nailed together.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Rolleston, who was not of an adventurous nature, though much +advanced in that direction since her residence in Canada, wished to +return, and go round; but four miles lost was too serious a +consideration; so she shut her eyes, clutched her husband, and prayed +audibly, as the driver, with a screech of encouragement to his cattle, +after a few struggles and flounders, landed the waggon on the opposite +side.</p> + +<p>But Miss Prosody declared that the wheel of the buggy would certainly be +torn off in the attempt, and, losing her usual prudery in terror, whipped +off her stockings, and proceeded to wade, to the exposure of a very +attenuated pair of calves.</p> + +<p>Freddy and Lola hung upon Cecil, powerless with laughter, comparing her +to the thin-legged aquatic birds in the Zoo; but the Colonel, with rather +a suspicious guffaw, rushed to her aid, relieving her from her hose, and, +as she afterwards recollected in deep confusion, a pair of knitted +garters.</p> + +<p>The buggy bumped over somehow, and they got <i>en route</i> again, the road +winding through woods golden in the setting sun. Occasionally a raccoon, +playing about the trunks of trees, beguiled the loneliness of the way; or +a strange bird, with harsh note, but gay plumage, flashed across their +track. Colonel Rolleston, however, was not so much entranced as his +children at discovering that the road stopped at the hotel on the lake, +not coming within half-a-mile of his new property, and that they must +embark and cross over in boats to Lyndon's Landing, as it was called, +after the former occupants.</p> + +<p>The evening was calm, and the sunset dyed their sail redly as it +floated the barque lazily across the slumbering lake to their port at +the bottom of a sloping lawn. The path, winding up hill, led them to a +sylvan-looking lodge, where, instead of a bell, hung a hunting-horn.</p> + +<p>Cecil executed a sonorous blast, but dropped it hastily, it being +answered almost simultaneously by an ancient menial left in charge. Their +own servants were coming on by coach, and they were much comforted by +perceiving that this provident person had prepared a substantial repast, +combining supper and tea, in a small, snug room.</p> + +<p>The young people rushed about on a tour of inspection, and found plenty +to satisfy their curiosity. The hall, to begin with was filled with +trophies of the chase—antlers of moose, stuffed aquatic birds, Indian +spears, and strange carving. A long, low, narrow room opened on it, in +which were chairs of the weirdest description, fashioned out of boughs of +the forest nailed together almost in their natural shapes. The late owner +was a man of eccentric and various accomplishments, and his handiwork +appeared in every detail of the house.</p> + +<p>Pictures from his brush were on the walls; of the lake in every +mood—stormy and slumbering, golden sunsets, and tempest-torn clouds, a +canoe stealing through the rice, a flight of wild ducks overhead, and one +swirling down to the gun of its occupant; again, the lake frozen over, +and a sleighing party careering upon it.</p> + +<p>There was a screen of his carving, and two or three couches, the latter +more comfortable than the rest of the furniture, being covered with moose +and seal skins. Other skins were stretched on the floor. The table-legs, +like the chairs, were made of fantastic branches of wood, having rather +the effect of antlers when visible under the embroidered cloths, probably +the production of the squaws in the Indian village. Mr. Lyndon was the +architect of the villa itself, and his whimsical fancy came out in every +detail. Long, rambling passages squandered space, while queer-shaped +rooms appeared up and down steps, and in unexpected places and corners, +as if squeezed in by an afterthought, yet the humblest commanded a pretty +view. Many of the ceilings were decorated with Cupids, Mermaids, and +Dryads carelessly painted in, apparently the resource of wet afternoons.</p> + +<p>Colonel Rolleston's voice summoned them from these attractive rooms to +supper, and certainly the <i>menu</i> was varied enough to suit all tastes.</p> + +<p>Prairie-hens and snipe were flanked with Indian corn, salsify, maple +sugar, and cocoa-nut cakes; tea at one end, and a disipated-looking +bottle of "old rye" at the other. But hasty justice was done to this +repast by Lola and Freddy, who were dying to go down to the landing, and +witness the disembarkation of their sisters, and introduce them to their +discoveries; so soon as the boat was descried, they flew down with +Colonel Rolleston, waving a flag hastily caught up in the hall.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Rolleston and Cecil went to arrange the distribution of bed-rooms, +the latter choosing for herself a queer little triangular nook in a +gable. Perhaps she perceived that a room of less modest proportions would +inevitably have to be shared with Bluebell. It might have been a +watchtower from the extent of its view, which swept the lake up to the +Indian village.</p> + +<p>The children below were full of the stories the boatman had told them. +That black island there was called "Long Island," and the other, with +scarcely any trees, "Spate" or "Spirit Island," because it was the +burying-ground of the Indians. Another was "Sheepback," from its shape, +and full of poisoned ivy, which, if accidentally touched, infected the +blood, and caused swelling like erysipelas.</p> + +<p>The younger ones, with Cecil and Bluebell, were too restless to stay +in the lamp-lit room they had supped in, but wandered about, finally +settling in the long drawing-room, where they could watch from the +windows the moon silvering the lake, and the antlered furniture throwing +strange shadows on the floor.</p> + +<p>Then Bluebell sang the "Lorelei," and Cecil invented legends for the +lake, till, their rooms being at last prepared, the old nurse swooped +down on her charges, and bore them away from the domain of Undines to +that of Nod.</p> + +<p>Colonel Rolleston had soon exhausted the resources of his new purchase, +and duck-shooting having not yet begun, he went down to Quebec, taking +Cecil with him, for an excursion up the Saguenay. She was rather +unwilling to go, for, though the elders got tired of a place without +roads, she was perfectly content to be all day long in her canoe, +fishing, sketching, reading, or picnicing with the children on the +island. But perhaps her strongest reason for not wishing to absent +herself was the continual expectation of Du Meresq's appearance.</p> + +<p>They had had no tidings of him since they had settled at the lake; but +nearly all Bertie's advents were sudden and without warning. From her +nook in the gable she commanded the hotel landing, and few boats left it +without being reconnoitred through Cecil's binocular.</p> + +<p>But then the Colonel wanted a companion, and was convinced it would be +delightful for Cecil; so she prepared to go with well-assumed expressions +of pleasure, devoutly hoping that no such <i>contretemps</i> as Bertie wasting +any days of his leave by coming in her absence might befall.</p> + +<p>To be sure, as she was in correspondence with him, nothing, apparently, +was easier than to mention her intended trip, which, of course, would +prevent his choosing that time to come to the lake; but it happened that +Cecil had written last, and since a certain fatal speech, which even now +maddened her to remember, she had been very particularly careful to let +him make all the running. Still, not wishing to be left in the dark +should he arrive during her absence, she said, carelessly,—"I hope, +mamma, you will write now and then, and let us know how you are getting +on in this dear little place."</p> + +<p>"Really," returned Mrs. Rolleston, smiling, no <i>arrière pensée</i> having +struck her,—"I more depend on hearing from you. Bluebell can write her +fishing experiences, and how often they have tea on the islands; but all +I expect to do is to travel over a good deal of my point-lace flounce +before you return."</p> + +<p>While Cecil went away to put on her travelling dress, as sometimes +happens, the true bearing of the speech flashed on her; and when her +step-daughter returned, arrayed <i>en voyageuse</i>, Mrs. Rolleston +considerately remarked,—"How dull I shall be without you! I think I'll +write to Bertie;" and the quick, grateful glance of intelligence in +Cecil's eyes encouraged her to say much more in that letter than she +would otherwise have done.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIX" id="CHAPTER_XIX"></a>CHAPTER XIX.</h2> + +<h3>CALF LOVE.</h3> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I gat my death frae twa sweet een,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Twa lovely een o' bonnie blue;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">'Twas not her golden ringlets bright,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Her lips like roses wet wi' dew—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Her graceful bosom lily white—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">It was her een sae bonnie blue.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">Scotch Song.</span><br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p>The arrival of the Rolleston family created a good deal of interest in +the limited society of the lake, and not entirely of a friendly nature. +Needless to say, the adolescent members of it were all more or less +engaged to each other, which, being rather the result of propinquity than +uncontrollable preference, the maidens noticed with angry surprise the +admiration excited in the bosoms of their swains by the apparition of +Bluebell on their hitherto uninvaded waters. Alec Gough and Bernard +Lumley, both morally placarded "engaged," having, as a matter of course, +plighted their troth to two neighbouring fledglings, were wild for an +introduction; and no sooner did Bluebell's canoe leave Lyndon's Landing, +than two corresponding ones were sure to shoot out, apparently actuated +by the same persuasion that there was no more likely place for a fish +than the snag round which she was trolling, and ready to gaff a +maskinonge, or help to land an obdurate bass, if occasion offered.</p> + +<p>Any such incident might have commenced an acquaintance, were it not that +Miss Prosody, with a boatful of children, was never far off, and had a +scaring and terrifying effect.</p> + +<p>Bluebell rather despised very young men. Still, she was not insensible to +admiration, and was quite aware of these two young aborigines following +in her wake as surely as a gull in that of a vessel.</p> + +<p>One day Alec Gough was able to render her some slight assistance, her +line being obstinately entangled in the snag; but Miss Prosody sternly +brought up the boatman to complete the service, and bowed off the +interloper with such extreme severity, that Bluebell could not resist +bestowing a coquettish and dangerously grateful glance, which set his +heart bumping, and instantaneously obliterated the image of his +sandy-haired little love.</p> + +<p>It was too bad of Alec, for he had been engaged a year, and had already +cleared (he was a lumberer) space enough in the backwoods to start a +farm, and he was now on a short visit to his betrothed to report progress +and pursue his suit. So he had no business to get his heart entangled +with the line, and his legitimate affections disengaged with the string +he was clearing, under Circe's azure eyes; and why need he, in that +tactless manner, talk of her at tea as "The Lady of the Lake"? which, if +such a senseless <i>sobriquet</i> was worth having at all, Miss Janet Cameron +considered she had an indisputable right to, for could she not row, swim, +dive, and paddle with the best?</p> + +<p>Then again, after tea, he actually stole out in his canoe, muttering +something about "looking for ducks," to which Bernard Lumley gallantly +remarked that he "needn't leave home to find them." He certainly <i>did</i> +take a gun, but was also provided with a little flageolet, the companion +of his lonely life in the woods; and waiting till nightfall, by the light +of a waning moon, this absurd and reprehensible young lumberer paddled +himself off to Lyndon's Landing.</p> + +<p>There he carefully reconnoitred the house, wondering which could be +Bluebell's casement. The insensible building afforded no hint, so he +pulled out his "howling stick," as Bernard called it, and timorously +breathed forth a lay of love, which certainly must have been first cousin +to the one that encompassed the extinction of the cow.</p> + +<p>The inmates were apparently asleep, and Alec, getting bolder, played +every suggestive air he could think of. I don't know whether he expected +Bluebell would open the window and enter into conversation; but, in point +of fact, the lattice under which he was serenading was Mrs. Rolleston's, +who not particularly expecting any lovers, was sleeping the sleep of the +just far too soundly to be disturbed by it.</p> + +<p>There being no policeman to direct him to "move on," Alec continued his +dismal repertory till he was tired, and then paddled off, not wholly +discouraged, as he hoped that Bluebell, though she would make no sign, +might have been secretly listening to, even watching him, and conscious +of the admiration he sought to convey.</p> + +<p>The Lake families called within the next few days. Bluebell did not +appear when the Camerons, mother and daughter, came; and, as Mrs. +Rolleston happened to say <i>her</i> daughter was away, they were quite +mystified as to whom the dangerous stranger could be. Then Coey and +Crickey Palmer came with their mother's cards; and as at that time +Bluebell was present, reading to Mrs. Rolleston, they naturally took her +for one of the daughters, and made acquaintance after the manner of +girls; and, I have no doubt, had Bluebell committed a murder and +absconded next day, either of these young ladies could have given a more +complete and accurate description of her person than detectives are +generally furnished with. Notwithstanding the reluctant admiration that +the inspection resulted in, Coey (Bernard's affianced) heroically hoped, +as she rose to take leave, that Miss Rolleston would spend the afternoon +and stay to tea the following day.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Rolleston glanced at Bluebell, who was rather dimpling at the +prospect of a change, and carelessly replied that "her daughter was at +Tadousac, but that her young friend Miss Leigh would be very happy."</p> + +<p>I suppose she was, for she certainly was rather solicitous about her +toilette for the occasion—only an innocent brown-holland dress; but two +hours were spent in knotting up some wicked blue bows for throat and +hair, and re-trimming her gipsy hat with the same shade. It is, of +course, an undoubted fact that women dress for their own satisfaction +only, and in accordance with their instincts of "the true and the +beautiful;" so it would be mere hypercritical carping to suspect coquetry +of lurking in the deft folds of that unpretending blue ribbon, or that, +in the face of her <i>grande passion</i> for Du Meresq, she could for a moment +occupy herself with the foolish admiration of Alec and Bernard.</p> + +<p>Well, Bluebell is our heroine, and we must make the best of her,—to some +people admiration never does come amiss; and if a demure <i>oeillade</i> can +play the mischief with the too inflammable of the rougher sex, I don't +know who is to be held accountable except the father of lies.</p> + +<p>"Palmer's Landing" was a less original building than Lyndon's but on a +more accessible side of the lake. The establishment and furniture were of +the rough-and-ready order. When a too independent help, finding her +mistress didn't suit, gave herself an hour's warning, and went up North, +Coey or Crickey would resignedly cook the family meals till an +opportunity arrived to get another, and as, in addition to those +occasional calls upon them, they were their own dressmakers, they had +less time to get discontented with the monotony of the lake than might +otherwise have been the case.</p> + +<p>Bluebell was taken round by the two girls to visit their garden and +poultry-yard. The latter was a source of profit, as they supplied the +house, and drove hard bargains with their mother for the chickens and +eggs. She also was shown their own room, and the rose-wreathed, green +tarlatane, which Miss Crickey explained with conscious pride she was to +wear at a city assembly next week. "I am to stay with my uncle—he has a +large dry-good-store at ——, but he lives on Brock." She was also warned +off trespassing by the full account of Coey's engagement, and by that +time Bernard had arrived to escort the girls for a ramble in the woods.</p> + +<p>Crickey, on the principle of doing as she would be done by, marched +Bluebell on in front, so that the others might linger behind, and make +love upon the usual pattern. It was customary at the lake for to tuck +their <i>fiancées</i> under their arm, and cast incessant sheep's eyes at +them, much conversation was not <i>de rigueur</i>.</p> + +<p>Bernard, however, was somewhat discontented: he thought there were +innumerable opportunities for that kind of thing; so his eyes wandered +from the face of his love to Bluebell's round waist and waving hair. +Instead of incessantly squeezing her arm, he barely held it, and finally +dropped it to remove a briar from the skirt of his distractor.</p> + +<p>Bluebell smiled with her big blue eyes, perhaps more gratefully than the +service demanded, which encouraged the youth to commence conversation. +The few platitudes he attempted might have been the most sparkling wit +from the animation with which they were received. Surprised to find +himself so agreeable, he lingered by her side. Crickey, expecting him +every minute to fall back, remained by Bluebell, so poor Coey trudged +behind, and began to experience what jealousy was.</p> + +<p>After a while, the others tried to bring her into the conversation by +appeals to her opinion, but Coey was not to be so easily propitiated, and +returned austere answers.</p> + +<p>Then Bernard, thinking he might as well be hung for a sheep as a lamb, +became all the more engrossed with his captivator, and it was in at one +of strong discontent that he exclaimed, as they were returning,—"Why, +there's Alec and Janet Cameron coming down to the house!"</p> + +<p>Their unexpected arrival was rather a relief to the Palmer girls, +Bluebell only saw more mischief before her, but Bernard's impatience at +the sight of Alec whose motive for coming he easily guessed, was quite +undisguised.</p> + +<p>The latter accounted for himself by saying "that Janet wished to make +Miss Rolleston's acquaintance, and, therefore, he had accompanied her."</p> + +<p>"Oh, I am not Miss Rolleston," said Bluebell, "I am the governess."</p> + +<p>"I have had the advantage of seeing the governess," said Alec, demurely, +"and she is old enough to be your mother."</p> + +<p>"But I am the musical one and Freddy is my pupil entirely."</p> + +<p>"Are you really?" said he, brightening "Then you <i>like</i> music?"</p> + +<p>"I am sure that is not a necessary consequence," said Bluebell, rather +mystified by the meaning tone of his voice, but Alec, believing she had +heard his nocturnal serenade and assuming a secret understanding on the +strength of it, lingered by her side talking in an undertone—really +about nothing in particular, for, like most spoony boys, he trusted more +to his eyes than his tongue. Still it had all the effect of a flirtation, +and when the girls went upstairs to prepare for tea, Bluebell found +herself quite out of court without the support of the other sex. Coey was +already turned into a very belligerent little ring-dove, and Janet +watched her askance, for she had never before known Alec so keen about +partaking of tea at Palmer's Landing. Crickey, whose feelings were not +so powerfully engaged, supplied her with toilette requisites, and such +conversation as hospitality demanded.</p> + +<p>Bluebell was rather flattered by the apprehension she excited, and, with +mischievous ostentation, produced from her pocket a weapon of war in the +shape of a blue ribbon, and began weaving it into her chestnut fuzz, too +naturally wavy and long to require frizettes. Coey, who was rather pretty +in the white kitten style, had sparse pale hair, never properly combed +over her "water fall," as she called it, which obtruded itself like a +crow's nest. This attractive peculiarity was more apparent than ever +to-day, the frizette having been caught by a bough in the woods.</p> + +<p>Bluebell observed that her decorative preparations were restricted to a +dab of violet-powder on her nose, and a slight application of lip-salve. +"I can't let her go down such a figure," thought she, "though she is +dreadfully angry with me," and, seizing a comb, began silently to effect +a reformation in Coey's <i>chevelure</i>.</p> + +<p>"Oh, thank you," said the other distantly. "Isn't it right? Never mind. +Dressing is such a waste of time."</p> + +<p>"Hugger-muggering with Bernard is not, I suppose?" thought Bluebell, +resolutely continuing her task.</p> + +<p>But it was Janet's turn to be angry, when, at tea that evening, utterly +oblivious of the vacant chair next herself, her faithless swain +manoeuvred into one next Bluebell.</p> + +<p>"Are you fond of music by moonlight?" he took the first opportunity of +whispering.</p> + +<p>"I like it anywhere," replied she, innocently. "I can't say I ever heard +it by moonlight."</p> + +<p>Much discomfited, Alec gazed incredulously, and then burst out laughing.</p> + +<p>Bluebell naturally inquired what she had said to amuse him; but he evaded +the question, as Janet was evidently listening. Later on, when the former +was at the piano, and he pretending to turn over, he whispered,—"I +wonder under whose window I was making such a lovely noise the other +night?"</p> + +<p>"How should I know? And why did you do it?"</p> + +<p>"I wanted to give you a welcome to the Lake; but perhaps I serenaded that +vinegar-faced governess instead."</p> + +<p>Bluebell was playing rather a pathetic sonata; but the time got decidedly +erratic, as she stared bewildered at Alec, and then went off into a fit +of laughing. "How could you be such a goose? If Colonel Rolleston had +been at home, he would have fired his ten-shooter at you."</p> + +<p>"Tell me which is your window," he whispered, "and I'll give you plenty +of music by moonlight. I hope it is the one with the balcony."</p> + +<p>"Why?"</p> + +<p>"Because," said Alec, audaciously, "you would look so beautiful stepping +out on it, like Julia in 'Guy Mannering.' And we could talk, you know."</p> + +<p>"Very well," said Bluebell, who opined it was about time to shut him up. +"Suppose we refer it to Miss Cameron. I understand your heart and +accomplishments are all made over to her. Perhaps she would assist at +the balcony scene!"</p> + +<p>Alec bit his lip, and looked rather ashamed. Such a rebuff would not have +embarrassed Bertie, nor awakened in him a slumbering conscience, as it +did in this young lumberer, who was ridiculous enough to be in earnest in +his infidelity.</p> + +<p>But Bluebell, knowing she had no quarter to expect from the girls if she +returned to them now, was far from wishing to bring him to a sense of his +duty before the evening was over, so smiled as engagingly as ever, and +continued to accept his attentions, till Janet, fizzing in high dudgeon, +announced her intention of going home, which, of course, involved the +escort of her recreant young man.</p> + +<p>"Wait here a quarter of an hour," whispered Alec to Bluebell, "and I will +run back and row you home."</p> + +<p>"Gracious, no!" said she, with rather the sensation of a child who has +been sent out to spend the afternoon and has misbehaved. "Here is Mrs. +Rolleston's servant come for me. Go back with Miss Janet and make it up, +for I am never going to speak to you again,"—and she turned away to make +her adieux to Mrs. Palmer, a motherly-looking old lady, who had been +nodding half asleep on the sofa all the time.</p> + +<p>"Such a charming musical evening—such a treat!" said she, brisking up, +and quite unaware of what had been passing round her the last two hours.</p> + +<p>"Miss Leigh was quite untireable," sneered Janet. "One could not have +<i>asked</i> her to exert herself so much."</p> + +<p>"Must you really go?" interposed Crickey, fearing now the music was over +the harmony might cease also.</p> + +<p>Bluebell pleaded a promise to return early.</p> + +<p>"I am sorry to be the means of taking away any attraction that might have +induced you to stay," put in Janet, determined to give her "one" before +she went.</p> + +<p>"Thank you," said Bluebell, sweetly, declining to understand; "but I +could scarcely expect you to stay to amuse me."</p> + +<p>"That, I feel sure, would be quite out of my power!" said the other, bent +on provocation; and Crickey nervously dragged Bluebell away to get her +hat.</p> + +<p>Alec lingered till she was fairly off, fearing that Bernard would try and +escort her home. He, however, was thoroughly sulky at the way Gough had +monopolized her the whole evening, and was quite as ready as Coey to +pronounce her an arrant flirt; which so mollified the latter, that when, +a few days later, she and her sister were asked to return Bluebell's +visit at Lyndon's Landing, she accepted without the slightest hesitation, +in a perfectly charitable frame of mind.</p> + +<p>Alec and Janet, of course, quarrelled going home; but it being not the +first time by a good many, it blew over without a rupture, the gentleman, +for the future, cautiously avoiding Bluebell's name, though he tried all +he knew to meet her alone, in which respect Fortune did not favour him; +and there being no more efficient chaperons than children, with their +sharp observation and fatal habit of repetition, they might meet every +day on the blue water without his obtaining more than a saucy glance or a +few commonplace words, which he would try and put as much meaning into as +he could.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XX" id="CHAPTER_XX"></a>CHAPTER XX.</h2> + +<h3>THE PRINCE PHILANDER.</h3> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>A division of souls may take place without a word being exchanged. One +reminded of those mists that rise into a cool stratum of air soon to +redescend in flakes of snow....</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Human Sadness.</span></p></div> + + +<p>The day that the Misses Palmer were to spend at Lyndon's Landing turned +to rain in the afternoon. The children had a half-holiday, and so the +weather was a double misfortune; and after "What shall we do?" had been +asked in every minor key of querulous despondency, they eventually +grouped themselves, some sitting, some lying on buffalo robes scattered +on the floor, and demanded stories from the elder girls. From the +darkness of the sky, twilight had come earlier, and Freddy had closed the +curtains, to give greater mystery to the fairy lore they were invoking.</p> + +<p>Previous to this they had had a grand dressing up and a fancy ball. +Crickey retained the turban and Indian table-cloth which had been her +"make-up" as an "Eastern Princess." Freddy was a wild beast; and Lola, by +dint of a long pair of military boots, seal-skin gloves, and "pretending +very much," was "Puss in Boots." The old nurse's cap and spectacles were, +with a peaked hat, the salient points of a "Mother Hubbard." But they +were tired of it now, and no sound was heard except the sullen moan of +the storm on the lake, and the voice of Bluebell, half-inventing and +half-relating from memory.</p> + +<p>"And so the Princess remained in the strong tower of the Giant Jealousy; +for though the doors were all open, and you would suppose she had nothing +to do but walk out and be free, yet if she did get a little way some +invisible power always drew her back again, after which the Giant seemed +more tormenting than ever. For no one could really release her but the +Prince Philander, whom she loved, and he only by remaining true to her +alone (which, perhaps, was not always the case, and that was how she had +strayed into Castle Jealousy), and coming himself and overthrowing the +Giant, who would then be instantly dissolved into smoke, and—"</p> + +<p>But the ultimate fate of the bewitched Princess was never known, the +story being arrested by a shout from the children as they caught sight +of a tall, dark figure, half-concealed by a carved screen, and even in +the dusk Bluebell discerned the expression of amused attention and +half-satirical smile on his lips.</p> + +<p>"I saw him first!" cried Lola, jumping up exultingly. "He has been +standing there ever so long, but he made me a sign not to tell."</p> + +<p>"I wanted to hear Miss Leigh's story," interposed Bertie; "but it is +only the plain Princesses <i>that</i> Giant gets hold of, and then the fairy +Princes are too busy with the beauties ever to come and rescue them!"</p> + +<p>Bluebell was almost unnerved by the surprise of his unlooked-for +appearance. A real Prince Philander had come at her invocation; whether +he was to overthrow the Giant, or strengthen his hands, remained to be +proved.</p> + +<p>She had a dim impression of presenting him to the Misses Palmer with a +mortified recollection of her own absurd "make-up," and then sat down, +quite faint from the uncontrollable beating of her heart.</p> + +<p>Perhaps it was to relieve her he was so amiably making conversation with +Coey and Crickey; and exceedingly well they were getting on, she began to +think, recovering rather rapidly when not the object of any particular +attention.</p> + +<p>"And you have been shut up here all day without any exercise?" she heard +him say. "That's very bad. Suppose we play hide-and-seek and run about +all over the house;" and, clamorously supported by the children, the +motion was carried, and the game commenced.</p> + +<p>Bluebell, who was under the influence of strong feeling, thought it most +sickening folly, and wished that Mrs. Rolleston would come in and stop +it; but she was charitably reading to a sick fisherman close by, and, +perhaps, weather bound. Miss Prosody was taking a peaceful afternoon +snooze; and if she did hear the scampering about the house, they were not +unaccustomed sounds on a wet day.</p> + +<p>It had struck Bluebell that the game might have been a <i>ruse</i> of Du +Meresq's to get a word with her in private; but Estelle came up in fits +of laughing, to tell her that Bertie and Crickey were hid together in the +cupboard. This was too much, and she walked coldly downstairs and out of +the game.</p> + +<p>Coey went in search of her sister, who bounded down directly after with a +very red face; and soon Mrs. Rolleston came in, full of exclamations and +inquiries.</p> + +<p>Du Meresq said,—"He and Lascelles had got a week's leave, and had come +to the hotel for some duck-shooting."</p> + +<p>"And Cecil won't be back till Thursday," said Mrs. Rolleston, +regretfully.</p> + +<p>The significance of this remark was not lost upon Bluebell, who stole a +furtive glance at Bertie's face.</p> + +<p>"I thought I had got to an enchanted hall," said he. "I daren't wind the +horn lest I should fall under the spell. The portal yielded to my touch, +and I entered the first room, where conceive my surprise to see, +fantastically dressed, and reclining in Eastern fashion on skins and +cushions, a galaxy of beauty. They were silent, too, except one, who, in +a hushed, mysterious, voice, was improvising an allegory."</p> + +<p>"In short," said Mrs. Rolleston, in a matter-of-fact tone, "the children +were dressed up and telling stories." She began to wonder where Miss +Prosody could be. It was no use Bertie prejudicing his chance with Cecil +by getting up an idle flirtation with these Lake young ladies, who were +already blushing so ridiculously at him; and would have been further +confirmed in this conviction had she guessed that ten minutes ago he had +tried to kiss one of them in a cupboard.</p> + +<p>She offered him a bed, but willingly accepted his excuse that Lascelles +was all alone, and he had promised to go back, but would bring him to +dinner next night. And then he went away through the rain, and Bluebell +was left with her thoughts.</p> + +<p>Well she had never pictured such a meeting as that! And how disagreeable +it had all been. Of course she did not mind his not having paid her much +attention before the children, who repeated everything, but to go on in +that silly romping away with Crickey was ineffably disgusting. She did +not at all recognise it as a poetical justice on her for tampering with +other people's lovers a few days before, but mentally denounced that +young person as bold and unlady like to the last degree.</p> + +<p>The evening continued so stormy, that Mrs. Rolleston kept the girls all +night, and Bluebell, much against her will, had to entertain them, which +was the more irksome as they were both expiring with curiosity about +Bertie, and could talk of nothing but his extraordinary behaviour. +Crickey hadn't even the sense to keep his impertinence in the cupboard to +herself, and Bluebell, who had only suspected before, was provoked into +the most trenchant expressions of condemnation.</p> + +<p>"How could I help it?" asked Crickey, indignantly. "How should I know he +would be so impudent?"</p> + +<p>"Why need you have got into the cupboard with him?" said Bluebell. "It is +just what you might have expected, in fact, it was inviting it."</p> + +<p>"It wasn't," said Crickey, almost crying, for she had previously been +inclined to take it as a tribute to her charms. "Freddy and Estelle had +hid there before, and Captain Du Meresq said it was the best place in the +house."</p> + +<p>"For that, no doubt," began the other. But Coey came to her sister's +assistance with a Biblical allusion to the mote and the beam, and +Bluebell saw that if personalities were to be avoided, they had better +go downstairs at once. So the party of ladies passed a quiet sleepy +evening,—Mrs. Rolleston mentally resolving not to encourage those girls +about the house while Du Meresq was at the lake, and wishing she could +expedite Cecil's return. How much more danger there was from Bluebell she +never suspected, Bertie had been so very cautious.</p> + +<p>As they went up to bed, Crickey, who had become rather sobered by the +dull evening, entreated Bluebell not to mention the cupboard scene in +hide-and-seek, which was impatiently promised. To think that she should +be asked to keep any girl's secret about Bertie! "And now," thought the +poor bewildered child, "it will be almost more difficult than ever to see +him alone, and I must ask him if there <i>is</i> anything between him and +Cecil." For that seed of bitterness sown by Lilla had borne "Dead Sea +fruit"; and, much as she struggled against the hateful idea, it really +seemed the only clue to Bertie's inconsistencies.</p> + +<p>The next day Mrs. Rolleston had some letters, and reading one +attentively, she threw it over to Bluebell. "You didn't seem to care for +this some weeks ago, but you see you can think twice of it. I <i>did</i> write +rather enthusiastically about your music, which, really, is too good to +be wasted on my children, and the result is Mrs. Leighton is quite wild +to have you."</p> + +<p>A singular expression flitted over the girl's face as she mechanically +took the letter—it was only to gain time, she wasn't reading it; and the +large salary and kind promises of a happy home took no effect on her +mind.</p> + +<p>She was thinking of Du Meresq. Suppose he was only trifling with her, and +all those warm protestations of affection were really to end in nothing! +She might even have to see him married to Cecil! The thought was +unendurable, yet it was possible; and, if so, how could she remain with +the Rollestons? And it would be almost as bad as returning to the +cottage, once "so rich with thoughts of him." Chance had thrown Du Meresq +again in her path, and she was determined to find out the truth. Chance +also offered her this retreat, which would put the ocean between them if +he failed her, and then no distance could be too great for her wishes.</p> + +<p>"Can you give me till the mail after next to decide?" said she, as she +arrived at this point of decision.</p> + +<p>"Oh, of course," said Mrs. Rolleston, smiling at the almost tragic tone +of resolution in which it was uttered. "You will have to consult your +mother, and she might not wish you to go to England. Why child, how pale +you are!"</p> + +<p>Bluebell forced a wintry smile and escaped, for a lump was rising in her +throat, and she could not but remember that she must expect no sympathy +or support from Mrs. Rolleston, who had once said, "It would be a most +unsuitable connection." She passed the day in reviewing the situation. +This was the first time she had ever been called on to think seriously +and painfully, and act for herself without a friendly word to support +her. Perhaps Du Meresq's behaviour the day before had not a little braced +her to the energetic course she had determined on. It was, indeed, no +easy task to extort from a man who professed so much the simple question +in black and white which could alone give value to his addresses. With no +witnesses present, she had little doubt that he would be as ardent a +lover as ever; but that would no longer satisfy her. She had arranged her +plan, and relied on two feelers to settle the matter one way or the +other.</p> + +<p>The first was to repeat to Bertie what Lilla had said about himself and +Cecil, and then judge of the effect of her words. If unsatisfactory, she +might tell him she was going to take a situation in England, "and if he +makes no effort to stop <i>that</i>, it will, indeed, be over, and I will go," +was the necessary conclusion.</p> + +<p>Du Meresq and his friend, Captain Lascelles, came to dinner. Were +either to die, exchange, or marry, the other would doubtless feel much +inconvenienced, not to say injured. In England, their hunters, rooms at +Newmarket, stall at the Opera, or whatever would bear division, were all +joint-stock affairs; and either would, with perfect cordiality, have lent +the other money, which a long unpaid tradesman would have found +exceedingly hard to extract from him.</p> + +<p>Both were unquiet spirits in the regiment, abhorring the monotony of +drill and stables, and insatiable for leave. Yet on field-days, even +their most pipe clay of colonels admitted that there was no smarter +turned out troop than Lascelles', and no better squadron leader than Du +Meresq.</p> + +<p>The party was so small at dinner that conversation became pretty general. +Captain Lascelles at first tried to be <i>au mieux</i> with the only young +lady present; but he didn't make much way, and began to think her rather +stupid, and to wish that those lively girls his friend Bertie had told +him of would swim or paddle themselves across. To Bluebell the evening +was little short of purgatory. Never had she known Du Meresq so altered. +Scarcely a sentence had passed between them, and his manner was +conventional and guarded. Formerly he had been equally cautious in +public, yet they were always <i>en rapport</i>, and some slight glance was +certain to be exchanged in assurance of it.</p> + +<p>This night she knew from internal consciousness that they were not, +and that a palpable change had taken place. Her heroic resolutions of +the morning passed away in inconsistent and impotent longing for one +word or gesture to break down this impenetrable wall that seemed to have +arisen between them, and to recall the old happy love-making days. Mrs. +Rolleston asked her to sing. A bird robbed of its nest could not have +felt more disinclined, yet she would try, though her voice sounded +strange to herself, and was harsh and wiry.</p> + +<p>Du Meresq wondered what had jarred those silvery tones, and stolen the +melody from the voice he had once thought almost seraphic. Music, and +especially Bluebell's, had ever a potent charm for him. She had abandoned +the song at the end of the verse, and glided without stopping, into an +instrumental piece. There was a subdued hum of voices, but Bertie's was +not among them, and Bluebell knew he was listening as of old. She had +arranged some variations to their favourite valse, and some impulse made +her select that. Keeping the subject cautiously back, and only allowing +suggestions of it to steal into the modulations, it seemed like fugitive +snatches of an air borne on a gust of wind, and overcome by nearer +sounds,—the breeze in the trees, the tinkle of sheep-bells, the brawling +of a brook.</p> + +<p>Bertie listened curiously, thought he had caught the air, lost it, and +doubted, till he recognised, in the mocking melody that continually +eluded him, the valse he had so often danced with Bluebell. He shot one +glance of intelligence at her as she finished, but Lascelles, who could +not bear the piece, was so loud in admiration, and found so much to say +about it, that Du Meresq could not have got in a word had he wished it.</p> + +<p>Bluebell turned impatiently away, and snatching up some work, went to a +secluded part of the room, under cover of requiring a shaded lamp there. +"If there is any truth in magnetic attraction," thought she, "Captain +Lascelles shall not come near me, and Bertie shall." She excluded every +other thought from her mind, and <i>willed</i> steadily. Du Meresq became +restless, rose from his chair, and stood aimlessly looking at something +on a table. Bluebell continued her mesmeric efforts, every fibre +quivering. He was coasting in her direction; in another instant he would +be close, and have sat down on the sofa by her. Then she looked up, and +their eyes met and mingled. It might have been for half-an-hour to her +overwrought sensations; the past was forgotten,—she was gazing in a +trance. What impelled Mrs. Rolleston at that moment to say,—"I heard +from Cecil this afternoon, Bertie, and if they catch the boat at ——, +they will be here to-morrow evening?"</p> + +<p>The passionate eyes drowning themselves in the love light of Bluebell's +became thoughtful and colder. The spell was broken. Du Meresq turned +away, and began talking to his sister about the expected travellers.</p> + +<p>The reaction was painful as the killing of a nerve, and the cause of it +so cruel, that she made no attempt to endure it. A swift glance round +showed her she was unobserved, and springing to the door, she fled from +the room, to weep out her blue eyes in senseless, hopeless repining.</p> + +<p>No one noticed her exit but Lascelles, who, going through his social +<i>devoirs</i> with mechanical propriety, had his powers of observation quite +disengaged.</p> + +<p>"I can't make the girl out," he soliloquized. "She is aggravatingly +pretty, plays very uncanny, unpleasant music, and looks at me with about +as much interest as if I had called to tune the piano or regulate the +clocks. I wonder if she is expected to go to bed at ten! I fancy there is +a very stringent code of rules for a companion. She was sitting in such a +nice inviting corner, to. Du Meresq seemed sloping off for a spoon; but +when he doubled back, and I was just ready to bear down, she shot out of +the room, like Cinderella when she had 'exceeded her pass.'"</p> + +<p>The two friends looked in next morning. They were going in a yacht as far +as the Indian village, and Bertie said if the Colonel and Cecil would be +likely to have arrived, he would come in on his way back. There was some +discussion about trains and connecting boats, and a guide-book was +fruitlessly hunted for.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I recollect," said Mrs. Rolleston, suddenly; "I put it in the +table-drawer in the next room,—right-hand drawer, Bertie," as he went to +fetch it. He found a little more than he sought, for there, alone, with +every appearance of being caught, was Bluebell. Du Meresq would, perhaps, +have avoided the <i>contretemps</i>, had he been prepared for it. As it was +he advanced towards her, and, clasping her in his arms, kissed the cheek +from which every ray of colour had vanished, and said, tenderly,—"What +has turned my Bluebell into a Lily?"</p> + +<p>"I have heard something. I want to ask you a question," came out almost +mechanically.</p> + +<p>Du Meresq had not expected so serious an answer to a <i>banalite</i>, and his +countenance altered.</p> + +<p>"Why are you so grave, Bluebell? You take life too seriously, my child. +A young beauty like you need never be unhappy—only make other people +so."</p> + +<p>But his theories were no longer taken as gospel.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I am quite happy," said she, with an involuntary ironical infusion +in her voice, "but I don't often see you alone, Bertie, and there are one +or two things I want to ask you."</p> + +<p>"We'll soon square that", said Du Meresq carelessly, "What do you think +of Lascelles?"</p> + +<p>"Think of him?" repeated Bluebell, with passion "What should I think of +him? I don't care if he dies to morrow!"</p> + +<p>"What, a good looking fellow like that?" said Du Meresq, jestingly, "and +he admires you awfully." What a flash of those violet eyes—regular blue +lightning! But a sudden gush of tears extinguished it, and, breaking from +him, Bluebell rushed out of the room.</p> + +<p>A look of extreme annoyance came over his face and he whistled +thoughtfully. Lascelles shouting his name, burst into the room.</p> + +<p>"Where is that book? 'His only books were women's looks, and folly all +they taught him.' Oh Bertie I fear me you are a sly dog."</p> + +<p>"What the devil do you mean?" said Du Meresq with much irritation.</p> + +<p>"What do you? Keeping me here all day, while you are spooning the pretty +companion. She bolted out of this so quick,—nearly ran into my arms, and +seemed taking on shocking. Oh, you strangely ammoral young man!"</p> + +<p>"By Jove!" said Du Meresq, "it is lucky it was only you. Well, let us be +off now, and shut up, there's a good fellow."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXI" id="CHAPTER_XXI"></a>CHAPTER XXI.</h2> + +<h3>A PERILOUS SAIL.</h3> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The Soul that rises with us, our life's Star<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hath had elsewhere its setting,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And cometh from afar.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">Wordsworth.</span><br /></span> +</div></div> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">By this the storm grew loud apace,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The water wraith was shrieking,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And in the scowl of heaven each face<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Grew dark as they were speaking.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">Campbell.</span><br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p>There was a bright moon that evening, and Colonel Rolleston and his +daughter were crossing the lake. A yacht passed them, sailing rapidly +before the wind. Some one on board took his hat off.</p> + +<p>"Who was that?" asked Cecil.</p> + +<p>"It was very like Lascelles," said the Colonel. "I wonder what he is +doing up here."</p> + +<p>Cecil's colour rose. The name of Lascelles suggested Bertie. She knew +they usually hunted in couples, and her busy mind was alive with +conjecture. She wondered if the same idea had occurred to her father. She +thought he looked a shade grimmer; but he smoked his cigar in silence, +and a few more pulls from the sinewy arm of the boatman shot them into +Lyndon's Landing. And then it all seemed to Cecil as if the same scene +had been enacted in a previous state of existence. Where before had she +seen his dark figure thrown out just so by the moonlight? Certainly not +in a dream. Could one's life be repeated? She almost felt, by an exertion +of <i>memory</i>, she might tell what was coining next.</p> + +<p>A deep, calm satisfaction stole over her as Bertie helped her from the +boat, and his eyes sought hers under the stars. She heeded not that +Colonel Rolleston's greeting was apparently cool and formal, nothing +signified—life had suddenly become intense again. What could ruffle the +golden content of the present? Happiness is a great beautifier, and as +she sprang to shore, her graceful figure so undulating and spirited, and +her soul beaming warm in her radiant eyes, he wondered that he could ever +have thought Bluebell more beautiful. She often recurred to him hereafter +just as she stood that night, shrouded in a crimson Colleen Bawn, under +cover of which her hand remained so long in his.</p> + +<p>Du Meresq did not stay very late. Both he and Cecil were quiet and +dreamy. To be in the same room again was quite happiness enough for the +present. Mrs. Rolleston also was entirely satisfied, diverted her +husband's attention with creature comforts, and made no effort to detain +Bertie. Given a love affair, and a certain interest in it, the most +unscheming nature becomes Macchiavellian in tact and policy.</p> + +<p>And Du Meresq unmoored a canoe and paddled himself off, unwitting of a +young, desolate face pressed against an upper casement. From thence she +had watched him waiting for Cecil at the landing, and, with eyes +sharpened by anxiety, had detected their happiness in meeting. She could +not go down to receive confirmation of what required none. Better receive +the <i>coup de grâce</i> from his own lips than to undergo gradual vivisection +while looking helplessly on.</p> + +<p>Bluebell was young and credulous, her heart had been flattered away by +this man, who had had so many before and did not want it now, and yet, +poor child, could she have looked beyond, she might have seen cause for +thankfulness that the thing most hotly desired was withheld for this +early love had not root enough for the wear and tear of life. It was a +hob day romance, born of the senses, the bewildering fascination of a +graceful presence and winning voice, and well for her if her guardian +angel stood with even a flaming sword in the way.</p> + +<p>The two girls did not meet till the morning, when Cecil, preoccupied as +she was, could not but notice the blanched weariness of Bluebell's face +which, owing a great deal of its beauty to colouring, appeared by +contrast almost plain.</p> + +<p>"You should have come up the Saguenay with us. I am sure Rice Lake +cannot agree with you," said she, launching into a glowing and graphic +description of their adventures. In reality, Cecil had detested the whole +expedition, having been in a continual fever to return; but, now that her +mind was at ease, memory brought out the notable points in a surprising +way, and she quite talked herself into believing that she had enjoyed it +immensely, and had witnessed everything with the utmost relish and +curiosity.</p> + +<p>They were sitting in the garden over-looking the lake, and a tiny +sail shot out from the hotel landing and stood towards them. A light +stole over the face of the brunette, but the features of the blonde +became rigid as they marked its progress. Neither alluded to the +circumstance—Cecil continued her narrative, and Bluebell made the +requisite replies; but when the boat had made Lyndon's Landing, and Du +Meresq and Lascelles jumped out, Cecil found she was receiving them +alone.</p> + +<p>The latter was come on a farewell call. The two friends meant to sail to +a railway station five miles up the lake, where Lascelles would take the +car, and Du Meresq bring the canoe back. After a short visit, Mrs. +Rolleston and Cecil strolled down to see them off.</p> + +<p>"I have never tried the canoe with a sail up," remarked the latter. "With +this wind it must be absolutely flying."</p> + +<p>"Not quite so dry," said Lascelles, laughing. "Du Meresq is such a +duffer; he ships a lot of water."</p> + +<p>"Cecil," said Bertie, giving a pre-conceived idea the air of an +<i>impromptu</i>, "come up to Coonwood with us; it's lovely scenery all the +way, and I should have a companion back."</p> + +<p>"What do you say, mamma; may I go?" dropping her eyes and speaking in an +indifferent voice, to disguise her delight in the anticipation.</p> + +<p>"May I go?" mimicked Lascelles to himself. "Bertie is always sacrificing +me to some girl or other. She will swamp the boat,—it's within an inch +of the water already with my portmanteau,—and very likely make me miss +my train, or get wet through pulling her out." This in soliloquy, but he +looked courteous and smiling.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Rolleston hesitated; in her heart she acquiesced; but what would the +Colonel say? The younger ones took silence for consent, and Cecil was +reclining on a bear-skin at the bottom of the canoe, Lascelles kneeling +in a cramped attitude, with the steering paddle, in the bow, and Bertie +in charge of the sail, before words of prohibition could come from her.</p> + +<p>"Dear me! I don't half like it," said she, nervously. "How stormy it +looks in the west. How long will it take you?"</p> + +<p>"We shall have the wind back," said Bertie. "About two hours and a +half—three at the outside. I'll bring her home in good time for +dinner,"—and Cecil kissed her hand in laughing defiance while he spread +the sail to the wind, and, catching the light breeze after a flap or two, +they glided gaily on their course.</p> + +<p>"Don't move about, Cecil," said Du Meresq; "we are rather low down in the +water."</p> + +<p>No one knew better than Cecil, who had quite appreciated the small spice +of risk in weighting the frail bark with an additional person; but then +it was worth it to sail back alone with Bertie.</p> + +<p>"You are getting dreadfully wet, I am afraid, Miss Rolleston," said +Lascelles. "Ease the sail a bit, Bertie."</p> + +<p>"You shouldn't keep her head to the waves," argued the other, "as if it +were a boat. Keep her broadside to them, and we shan't ship half so +many."</p> + +<p>There was a fresh breeze when they left the landing, but, after getting +three miles or so on their way, the wind rose almost into a squall; white +horses raced on the lake, and, in spite of every effort of the two young +men, about one wave in ten flung a curl of spray over Cecil. Bertie threw +off his coat, and made her thrust her arms into it as well as she could, +and Lascelles followed suit by spreading his over her knees. The sky +became stormier, and the wind howled ominously. They had started full of +spirits, and gay talk and chaff had been bandied among them. No one could +quite tell when it dropped, for it had been kept up with an effort after +the threatening appearance of things had sobered them.</p> + +<p>Cecil was drenched to the skin, but they ceased to express solicitude on +that account, for a more pressing apprehension filled each mind, that the +canoe so weighted could not live through it much longer.</p> + +<p>The girl was stiffening in the rigidity of her reclining attitude. The +least movement would have capsized them, and each wave larger than the +rest she expected to swamp the canoe. Suddenly she remembered Du Meresq +having once said he could not swim, and then, for the first time, her +heart sunk, and a sickening horror came over her.</p> + +<p>Lascelles, she supposed, in the event of their being upset, would +endeavour to save her. But Bertie! He would drown before her eyes, for +the water was deep, and the shore for some time had been only a nearly +perpendicular rock. Probably Lascelles so laden might be unable to land +even her. Looking upon Du Meresq as doomed, that contingency did not +disturb her. Drowning, she had heard, was a pleasant death. It didn't +look so though, with that cruel steel water lapping thirstily for its +prey. After the one supreme moment when she sunk with her love, would +they rise again in the land where there is neither marrying nor giving in +marriage, with the Platonic serenity of spirits, all earthly passion +etherealized away?</p> + +<p>She looked up; Lascelles was baling out the water with his hat. "Du +Meresq, you had better haul down the sail and take the paddle," said he +significantly.</p> + +<p>"Our only chance is to make Coonwood," returned the other; "there's no +landing nearer. We should never get there paddling. I must keep up the +sail and run for it."</p> + +<p>He glanced at Cecil as he spoke, who met his eyes with a calm, strange +smile.</p> + +<p>A muttered consultation between Du Meresq and Lascelles alone broke the +silence for some time. The latter continued to bale, rejecting Cecil's +offer of assistance, only entreating her to continue perfectly still. The +canoe was almost level with the water. "It must come very soon now," she +thought, and, shutting her eyes, tried to realize the great change +approaching.</p> + +<p>Her favourite day-dream of sailing away to a new strange country with +Bertie recurred to her. What if this was to be the fulfilment of it, and +they were to explore for ever an unknown land beyond the skies! But would +it be so? No sooner should the frail bark sink from under them than she +would feel Lascelles clutch her in a desperate grip, and be dragged +through the water, and placed alive, though half-suffocated, on the +shore. But Du Meresq would be sucked down in the blue lake, and travel to +that bourn alone.</p> + +<p>Cecil shuddered, and formed a rapid resolve. "Who was Lascelles that he +should separate them? Let him save himself if he thought it worth while. +Whatever was Bertie's fate should be hers also."</p> + +<p>Thus determined, Cecil waited for the end. She had only to elude +Lascelle's grasp at the critical moment, and her fate was as certain as +Du Meresq's. She gave a regretful thought to her father; but he had other +children, and Cecil had no strong family ties.</p> + +<p>As she waited in a state of half exaltation, a quiet little thought crept +in,—how was it, after all this time, the boat still lived? Why they +could not be far from Coonwood! Lascelles was still baling, but Bertie, +from improved dexterity in the management of the sail, evaded the waves +more successfully.</p> + +<p>Cecil continued to watch, and the tension of her mind yielded to a +flutter of hope as she saw the water no longer gained on them.</p> + +<p>"We should be pretty near now," observed Lascelles.</p> + +<p>"Yes, here we are!" rose in almost a shout of triumph from both, as, on +rounding the point, the wished-for harbour appeared in view. With one +last effort the envious waves dashed over, drenching them through and +through as they landed.</p> + +<p>"A drop more or less doesn't much matter now," cried Cecil, gaily, +wringing her dripping garments. And they all shook hands in their elation +of spirits, with short expressions of relief, and congratulations at +their escape, which all confessed to have been in doubt of at one time.</p> + +<p>"You are a regular heroine, Miss Rolleston," said Lascelles, heartily. +"If you had jumped up, or gone into hysterics, as some girls would, we +should have gone under pretty soon. As it was, I thought I had my work +cut out, for do you know that Du Meresq can't swim?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I know," grudgingly, for she could not bear Bertie to be at a +disadvantage. "But I am sure it is quite miraculous how he managed the +sail through that squall."</p> + +<p>"Only if we had swamped, Lascelles must have saved you," whispered he, +regretfully; "and I would never have forgiven him!"</p> + +<p>Cecil did not make any verbal answer, but, as usual, her face was +not so reticent. Lascelles felt himself rather <i>de trop</i> as he +concluded,—"Well, if they are on for a spoon already, I may as well +be looking after my car."</p> + +<p>"There's your Bullgine," cried Du Meresq, with some alacrity. "I daresay +it has been there an hour: no fear of losing a train in this leisurely +country!"</p> + +<p>"Well, adieu, Miss Rolleston; I trust you will not suffer from your +soaking. You will have an hour or two to wait, I am afraid, before the +gale goes down, and Du Meresq will hardly fulfil his promise of getting +you home in good time for dinner."</p> + +<p>"We are only too lucky to require another dinner; but I suppose we shall +be in an awful scrape," answered Cecil, speaking quickly and nervously, +for somehow she began to half dread being alone with Bertie. "Good-bye, +Captain Lascelles. Here's your coat, which you were so good as to spare +me; I am afraid it is not a valuable acquisition in its present spongy +state;" and "Good-bye, old man," from the two friends as Lascelles ran +off; shooting a momentary humorous glance of intelligence at Du Meresq.</p> + +<p>The former, as he settled himself in the locomotive, thought rather +seriously of the "situation" he had left his friend in. He rather +wondered at Bertie, who appeared dangerously in earnest this time. To be +sure, she was a nice enough girl, and very "coiny," he believed; but +though convinced that such a marriage would be a piece of good fortune +for his friend, remembering the convenience of their mutual partnership, +he sincerely hoped he would "behave badly," and get out of the scrape +somehow.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXII" id="CHAPTER_XXII"></a>CHAPTER XXII.</h2> + +<h3>AT LAST.</h3> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i10">The breeze was dead,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The leaf lay without whispering in the tree;<br /></span> +<span class="i10">We were together.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">How, where, what matter? Somewhere in a dream,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Drifting, slow drifting down a wizard stream.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">The Wanderer.</span><br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p>"It is just as well," said Du Meresq, laughing, "we have not got to take +him back again. The experiment of three in that birchen bark is too +expensive to repeat; and we could not throw him over as a Jonah, since he +is the only one of us who can swim."</p> + +<p>"I ought never to have come! And, now we can think of wordly things +again, only fancy what a rage papa will be in about it all. It is a +curious fact, Bertie, the very last time we were out together, an +accident made us late—at the tobogganing party, you know."</p> + +<p>They had entered the station, which appeared perfectly deserted. The last +official had gone up with Lascelles' train. A fire, however, was still +burning, and the coal-box only half empty.</p> + +<p>Du Meresq threw the coals on the waning embers, which responded with a +cheerful fizz to the needed aliment, and then began unlacing Cecil's wet +boots as she sat before the fire.</p> + +<p>These two had often been alone together without the slightest +embarrassment, but now, perhaps from the reaction, and being a little +unstrung, she felt a most distressing sensation of it, besides which the +anti-climax of his occupation after her overwrought anticipations of +their mutual fate, gave her an hysterical inclination to a peal of +laughter.</p> + +<p>He did not speak, and silence was too oppressive to be endured, so she +cast about desperately for a topic of conversation. The <i>entourage</i> was +not particularly suggestive,—four white-washed walls and the chair she +was sitting on comprised the furniture. Clearly she could not take in +ideas with her eyes, which, indeed, were fixed with a magnetic +persistence on the mathematically straight parting of Bertie's back hair, +which would scarcely furnish subject for remark.</p> + +<p>"There go a ruined pair of Balmorals," said he, placing them in the +fender. "Your stockings are wet through, too; why don't you take them +off?"</p> + +<p>"I prefer them wet," said Cecil, rather scandalized.</p> + +<p>"Shall I go and walk about outside while you dry them?" asked he, with a +smile.</p> + +<p>"Yes, do. Walk away altogether if you like."</p> + +<p>"But you might drown yourself going home alone, and haunt my remaining +days.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'They made her a grave too cold and damp<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For a soul so warm and true,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And all night long, by a fire-fly lamp,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She paddles her white canoe,'"—<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>quoted Bertie, jestingly.</p> + +<p>Cecil disliked his manner, and felt irritated; but there she was, +imprisoned, bootless, in her chair, while those appendages smoked damply +in the fender.</p> + +<p>"Dear me," she said, impatiently, "will that wind never drop! When shall +we be able to start, I wonder?"</p> + +<p>"Don't you think we are more comfortable here?" said he, lazily. +"Remember what a row there'll be when we get home."</p> + +<p>"Yes, you always get me into scrapes. Why did you bother me into this +idiotic expedition?"</p> + +<p>"Didn't you ask me to take you?" provokingly. "I am sure I understood you +wished to come."</p> + +<p>Cecil coloured angrily, and then burst out laughing.</p> + +<p>"I can't afford to quarrel with you in this disgusting desolation, it +would be like the two men in the lighthouse; but remember, sir, it goes +down to your account when I am restored to my friends."</p> + +<p>"The captive should not use threats. I am not intimidated. What should +now forbid that I whirl you away on the next car to <i>Ne Yock</i>, and marry +you right off? and then you would have to obey me ever afterwards."</p> + +<p>"Bertie, you forget yourself," with great dignity and rising colour.</p> + +<p>"I can't help my unselfish nature. I never do think of myself. Seriously, +Cecil, would it not be a good plan?"</p> + +<p>"I hardly understand how you would effect it in broad daylight against my +will."</p> + +<p>"Nothing more easy. I shouldn't put you into the train till it was just +going, and I am sure you would have too much self-respect to make a +disturbance. If you did, I would point to my forehead, and shake my head +expressively. Then, probably, the guard would assist me. After we were +married, I should shut you up for a time to reconcile you to the +situation, and by degrees, if you pleased me, I would allow you more +liberty."</p> + +<p>"Suppose I ran away and never returned."</p> + +<p>"Oh, you would always be watched, I should, perhaps, let you get a little +distance to encourage you, and then bring you back again."</p> + +<p>Cecil would not vouchsafe a retort. She thought Bertie's behaviour in the +very worst taste, and had never known him so little agreeable. But there +they were incarcerated, and the wind still howled. "How was it they were +so little in tune," she wondered, "wasting time with this tactless +badinage?" Bertie, too, whose greatest charm was his lightning perception +of all her thoughts and feelings, could he possibly think—and here a hot +glow mounted to her cheeks, which were not cooled by feeling her hand +suddenly captured by Du Meresq, as he whispered in her ear,—</p> + +<p>"As we always get into scrapes together, don't you think, Cecil, for the +future we had better only be responsible to each other?"</p> + +<p>"I think," said she, flaming up at last, and her bright eyes flashing +indignantly upon him, "that your conduct is idiotic and ungentlemanly: +What right have you to make me the subject of your silly jokes?"</p> + +<p>"I have made you look at me at last," cried he, "though I am almost +'blasted with excess of light.' Dearest Cecil, you must know what I have +come to Rice Lake for, and that you can make me the happiest or most +miserable fellow breathing."</p> + +<p>Bertie's eyes were glowing with earnestness, and his whole manner was +as eager as it had before been inert. Cecil was dumb from contending +emotions, love, pride, and doubt, all at war; yet a small voice in her +heart kept repeating "At last!"</p> + +<p>"You must have known my wishes ever since we parted at Montreal," pleaded +Bertie. ("I was by no means so certain," thought Cecil.) "I could not +speak then; your father will, perhaps, think I oughtn't to now. Yet, at +least I can say honestly, will you marry me, my dearest little Cecil?"</p> + +<p>At the asseveration, "I can say honestly," a sudden illumination came +over her face, as if every cloud had been instantaneously swept away.</p> + +<p>Persons conversant with such subjects maintain that the plain words, "I +will," are generally first used by the bride in church, when she promises +to worship M. or N. with her body. No doubt, Bertie was answered somehow; +but as there are no reporters in Paradise, so happiness requires no +chronicler, and we drop the curtain while Cecil becomes engaged to her +ideal and only love—a fate sufficiently uncommon in this world of +contradictions.</p> + +<p>The wind was lulled to a whisper, and a golden sunset was reddening the +lake, ere our lovers remembered, with a start, that they had to get home.</p> + +<p>"Now comes the rude awakening," cried Du Meresq. "Dinner spoiled, and a +very stern expression of paternal opinion to you, my poor Cecil. Very +grumpy to me. By Jove, I won't tell him to-night! Here's your half-baked +boots. We shall never get them on. Shall I carry you to the boat, and +roll your feet in the bear-skin?"</p> + +<p>"I feel as if a hundred years had passed since we were last in the +canoe," said Cecil, evading this obliging proposal. "But how the lake has +calmed itself down; it seems sleeping, and the shore and the islands cast +long shadows on it."</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"'Tis one of those ambrosial eves<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A day of storm so often leaves,"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>began Bertie, with his incurable propensity for quoting. "What made you +so shy at the station, Cecil? I was obliged to put you in a rage to get +you natural again."</p> + +<p>"After the pleasing picture you draw of our domestic felicity, I can't +think how I ever accepted you."</p> + +<p>"I was just going to begin when I was unlacing your boots, but the idea +struck me that to propose holding a lady's foot instead of her hand, +would be too ludicrous a variation from all precedent. What a sensitive +girl you are, Cecil! I am sure you knew what was coming, for I felt you +drawing into a shell of consciousness, that would have made me nervous +too, if I had not been impertinent instead"</p> + +<p>Cecil was not far from a relapse, for dreamily happy as she was, she +had already begun to torment herself. She had accepted Du Meresq so +readily,—good Heavens! she might almost say thankfully,—and, disguise +it as he might, he must know it. Could a thing be really valued that was +so easy of attainment? When Cecil was shy she was usually dumb, it never +revealed itself by hasty, foolish speech, or an artificial laugh. Her +countenance, however, was not so silent; and Bertie, as he watched her +changing hues and varying expression, thought how much more he admired +that mobile, sensitive face, than the pink and white of a soul-less +beauty.</p> + +<p>"Where is your hand, Cecil?" stretching out a long arm to feel for it. "I +am sure a dragon of propriety might trust a loving pair in this wabbly +little craft, which an attempt at osculation would upset."</p> + +<p>There was just breeze enough to fill the little sail, which bore them +swiftly and gently along. A pale star came out in the sky. Though dusk, +it was far from dark, night in a Canadian summer being of very +abbreviated duration. The lovers had relapsed into dreamy reverie, but, +as they began to approach more familiar objects, stern reality resumed +its sway. Cecil was the first to give evidence of it, by saying, in +rather a subdued voice,—</p> + +<p>"Don't you think, Bertie, as you must go away to-morrow, you had better +get <i>it</i> over to night?"</p> + +<p>"Heaven forbid!" cried he, rousing up, "let us have this evening in +peace. You see, my dearest little Cecil, <i>he</i> will hate it anyhow, and +to-night will be awfully put out at my bringing you home so late; so this +would be the very worst opportunity to choose. To-morrow, after dinner, +I'll try what I can do with him. I am a shocking bad match for you, +Cecil, and that's the fact. But when I went back to Montreal, thinking +of nothing but you, I considered and pondered over every possibility +of putting my prospects in a fair light to your father. To the amazement +of my creditors, I <i>asked</i> for their accounts. Then I made a little +arrangement with Green, the senior lieutenant. He is the son of a +money-lender, and very sick of being a subaltern; so he paid the +over-regulation down on account for my troop, and will shell out +the rest, with an extra thousand, directly my papers are in. The +over-regulation money, with a little stretching, covered my debts. To be +sure, Green had to part pretty freely, but his pater will get it out of +some one else. Now, my idea is to realize what remains of my slender +fortune, and try my luck in Australia. You see, my darling, you are all +right, for all your money will be settled on yourself; so that if I smash +up there, the worst that can happen will be your having to maintain me +till I can 'strike ile,' or bring out a patent horse-medicine, or become +riding-master to young ladies."</p> + +<p>"I put my veto on the last," laughed Cecil. "But really, Bertie, I can +hardly believe such good news as your being actually cleared up at last; +indeed, I almost feel a sentimental attachment to your debts, for it was +about them you first got confidential that Spring you stayed with us in +England."</p> + +<p>"That visit did my business for life," said Bertie, with a wooer's usual +disregard of veracity. "But you are far more beautiful now, Cecil, than +you were then."</p> + +<p>Not even Du Meresq could persuade Cecil that she had any claims to boast +of on that score; indeed, she had once overheard him say that he hardly +ever admired dark women, so she passed it by with a half smile of +incredulity, as she observed,—</p> + +<p>"I really begin to have some faint hope of papa consenting. Your being +out of debt will weigh tremendously with him."</p> + +<p>"And I am sure you will like Australia," cried he, enthusiastically. "It +is the most charming climate, and the life delightful. I will send you up +a lot of books on the subject."</p> + +<p>Cecil was ashamed to confess how many she had read already. "You <i>must</i> +go by that boat to-morrow night, I suppose?" said she, meditatively.</p> + +<p>"Yes; no help for it. But as I shall send my papers in at once, most +probably I can get leave till I am gazetted out."</p> + +<p>"Oh! I wish that <i>mauvais quart-d'heure</i> with papa were over," sighed +Cecil. "All to-morrow in suspense!"</p> + +<p>"Cecil," said Du Meresq, in his most persuasive tones, "it is better to +be prepared for the worst. I know you are true as steel, and far firmer +than most girls. Promise that you <i>will</i> marry me,—with his consent, if +possible; if not, without."</p> + +<p>They had landed just before, and were walking up to the house. What +presentiment checked the unqualified pledge he would have imposed on her?</p> + +<p>"I promise," she cried, "to marry no one else while you are alive."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIII" id="CHAPTER_XXIII"></a>CHAPTER XXIII.</h2> + +<h3>LOLA'S BIRTHDAY.</h3> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">She is not fair to outward view,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As many maidens be;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Her loveliness I never knew<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Until she smiled on me.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Oh! then I saw her eye was bright,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A well of love—a spring of light<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">Hartley Coleridge.</span><br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p>Mrs. Rolleston had passed a terrible day of anxiety. The sudden rising of +the wind so soon after their departure first aroused her alarm, which, as +the utmost limit of the time they were to be away passed, became +augmented tenfold. The absence of the Colonel, who had gone inland, at +first a relief, now increased her desperation, for there was no one to +make an effort for their preservation or to ascertain their fate. She and +Bluebell, who suffered scarcely less, could only rush to the boatmen for +either consolation or assistance. They got little of the former, for with +the usual propensity of the lower classes to make the worst of +everything, they expressed a decided opinion that the canoe so overladen +could not have weathered the squall.</p> + +<p>"But they might have put in somewhere," cried Bluebell, seeing Mrs. +Rolleston speechless with consternation.</p> + +<p>"How far would they be got, ma'am?"</p> + +<p>"They must have been gone nearly an hour before the wind began to howl."</p> + +<p>"Then they'd be nigh the black rocks, and no place to land closer than +Coonwood, unless they turned back and got on to Sheep Island."</p> + +<p>"Oh! go and see!" cried Mrs. Rolleston, beside herself with terror, +palling out her purse in answer to the mute unwillingness on the man's +face.</p> + +<p>"It won't be no manner of use; but if it will be a satisfaction to you, +ma'am," looking expressively at the purse, "and my mate will come with +me, I'll go out for them. They ought to come down 'ansome," he muttered, +"if I finds the bodies."</p> + +<p>The two ladies waited to see him off, fretting inwardly at the delay of +repairing a plank in the boat and fetching his mate. It was a good +substantial old tub, very different from the fairy canoe freighted with +those precious human lives. Then they returned to their weary watch in +Cecil's bird's-nest of a room, which commanded the most extensive view of +the lake. Bluebell's young eyes were the first to discern the tiny white +bunting, and hope battled with suspense till they could be sure it was +the sail they sought. With the field glass they made out two forms.</p> + +<p>"Cecil is safe!" cried Mrs. Rolleston, recognising her large, shady hat. +"But still," she thought, "Bertie might be drowned, and Captain Lascelles +bringing her home. Oh, Bluebell! can you recognise him?" for the girl had +the glasses. They were very strong ones, and her vision keen. A spasm +passed over her face.</p> + +<p>"Captain Du Meresq is quite safe," said she, bitterly. She had looked at +the moment when Bertie stretched out his arm for Cecil's hand, and was +carrying it to his lips.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Rolleston's raptures were too oppressive just then. Bluebell felt +thankful to hear a slight disturbance, which betokened that the Colonel +had returned. His wife, quite unnerved by the transition from despair to +joy, could conceal nothing, and, rushing down, poured into his ear all +the dread and relief of the past hours. The Colonel hearing it thus +abruptly, and unsoftened by previous anxiety, only felt intense anger at +Cecil's having gone alone with these two men; and the danger and exposure +to the storm that she had undergone aggravated the offence considerably. +He felt too strongly to say much to his wife, who, indeed, had suffered +quite enough already; and the sting of it all—his growing fear of Du +Meresq's influence over Cecil—he was not disposed to confide to her.</p> + +<p>"I have been too careless," he reflected, "and I cannot trust Bella, +who will never see a fault in her brother. However, he will be gone +to-morrow, and I will take care they never meet again till Cecil is +married."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Rolleston, in the restless activity of a lightened heart, had +hurried away to order large fires to be lit in their rooms, and hot +cordials and everything imagination could suggest placed ready. Indeed +she racked her brains to remember what restoratives were usually applied +to drowned persons. Holding them up by the heels or <i>not</i> doing so +(whichever it was), and hot blankets, were the only prescriptions she +could recollect; and then the culprits themselves came in, looking +particularly fresh and pleased with themselves.</p> + +<p>Cecil she proposed instantly to consign to a warm bed, but the girl +laughed her to scorn, and would not hear of being shelved in that manner; +and, finally, they all came down to dinner, talkative from a delightful +sense of reaction. This superfluous effervescence, however, was soon +flattened by the unsympathetic gloom of the head of the family. It was +very unlike his usual manner, and not a good augury, thought two of the +party, who ascribed it to the right cause.</p> + +<p>Cecil, however, was determined to resist the damping influence as long +as she could. She rattled off lively French airs at the piano, and +challenged her father to chess; but he only drily remarked "that after +having passed the day in wet clothes, she had better take some ordinary +precautions and go to bed." Indeed, her slightly feverish manner perhaps +warranted the advice.</p> + +<p>"Good night, then, Bertie, and mind you are here early to-morrow for +Lola's picnic."</p> + +<p>It was the child's birthday, and she had written roundhand invitations to +all of them, to spend the day on Long Island and lunch there.</p> + +<p>"Tell Lola," said Bertie, smiling, "I would not miss it for the world. +She will think me very shabby, but I can't get her a present at Rice +Lake."</p> + +<p>He went away himself a few minutes after, half hoping to obtain from +Cecil a second and more affectionate farewell, but could see nothing of +her. Just as he stepped out, though, a casement shot open, and her bright +face appeared for an instant as she threw down a rose, round the stalk of +which was a slip of paper with the word "<i>Courage?</i>" scratched upon it. +She put a finger on her lips warningly, then kissed her hand, and +vanished.</p> + +<p>Bertie picked up the rose. It was one she had plucked as they entered the +garden, and worn in her dress that evening.</p> + +<p>As he got into one of the various canoes at the landing, another one +passed, paddled by a good-looking youth, who half stopped, and gazed +intently at Du Meresq, then catching sight of the flower in his +button-hole, an expression of baffled rage came over his boyish face, +and he shot away.</p> + +<p>It was Alec Gough prowling around with his flageolet, intent upon +addressing some minstrelsy to Bluebell, and much disconcerted by the +sight of Du Meresq coming from that house with a trophy in the shape of +a faded rose.</p> + +<p>About two hours after, Cecil, too feverish from the exciting events of +the day to sleep, became sensible of some strains of music, apparently +from the lake. She sat up to listen. Could it possibly be Bertie? No; he +was too good a musician for that barrel-organ style; some wandering +person from the hotel it must be. The air was familiar to her, though she +could not immediately recall the name. At last she recollected it was +one of Moore's melodies, and a verse of it, really intended by Alec for +an indignant expostulation to Bluebell, came into her head.—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Fare thee well, thou lovely one,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lovely still, but dear no more;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Once the soul of truth is gone,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Love's sweet life is o'er."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>One is more prone to fancies and superstitions in the night-time, and +something in the sentiment saddened her. The unknown musician did not +weaken the effect by playing another air; and Cecil towards morning fell +into an unrefreshing slumber, in which her dreams seemed to parody the +day's adventures.</p> + +<p>Sometimes she was struggling in the water; and then the scene +changed—she was being married in a small church, or rather it more +resembled the white-washed room at the station. Bertie was presenting her +with a rose instead of a ring, while she was trying to conceal 'neath the +folds of her bridal dress her feet encased in shapeless Balmorals. Then +Colonel Rolleston suddenly appeared and forbade the ceremony to proceed, +while the bridegroom seemed to have changed into Fane, and Bertie, as +best-man, slowly chanted—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Fare thee well, thou lovely one.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lovely still, but dear no more."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>"Cecil," cried a gay voice, "are you singing in your sleep? Get up. It's +my birthday," said Lola, energetically shaking her shoulder.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Lola, is it you? I am so glad you woke me! Many happy returns, my +child. Have you had any presents?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes, pretty good ones. I put my stocking out last night, and it was +stuffed. A white mouse from Fred in it, too. It ran away and up the +bell-rope, and we have been catching it ever since; but," hanging her +head, "there was nothing from you, Cecil."</p> + +<p>"Well, Lola," remorsefully, "it is never too late to mend. Would you like +a locket? Fetch my dressing-case and you shall choose one."</p> + +<p>Cecil was too happy herself that morning not to be amiable to others, and +Lola was her favourite; so she would not hurry her, and waited patiently +the child's indecision and chatter as she turned over the trinkets.</p> + +<p>"Actually Miss Prosody gave me a dictionary; horrid of her, wasn't it? +Perhaps she'll ask me to say a column a morning. I think I'll leave it by +accident on one of the islands."</p> + +<p>"I'll buy it of you," said Cecil, smiling. "I don't think I learned +columns enough when I was a child."</p> + +<p>"Likely you'd do it now, though, as you are not obliged! Well, Cecil, I +think I'll take this dear little blue one with a pearl cross on. It is +such a hot day! What dress are you going to wear? It must be a pretty +one, because it is my birthday."</p> + +<p>Cecil smiled contentedly. It was the birthday of something besides +Lola—the dawn of a new life to herself. "Here, miss will this do?" asked +she, holding up a fresh grey muslin for her sister's inspection.</p> + +<p>"Middling," discontentedly, "Bluebell looks well in those cool, simple +dresses; but you are never really pretty, Cecil, except in a grand velvet +dress, and then you are splendid."</p> + +<p>"Fine feathers make fine birds," replied the other, rather hurt. It was +not a morning on which she could bear to be told that her attractions +must depend on her toilette; but, half-an-hour afterwards, as she knotted +some carnation ribbon on the grey dress and in her dusky hair, a shy +smile came over her face, for she saw she was beautiful with the light of +love. A warm tinge coloured the usually pale cheek, the lips had taken +a deeper red, and were parted with a rare <i>fin</i> smile—the velvet +eyes were softer and of liquid brightness.</p> + +<p>So thought Bertie, as his expressive glance but too well revealed when +they met at breakfast. He made no attempt to conceal his devotion; his +eyes scarcely left her face, and his voice took a different tone in +addressing her. Fortunately for Bluebell's peace of mind, she was not +present. Mrs. Rolleston noticed it, and rejoiced; the Colonel was equally +perceptive, and made an inward resolve.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIV" id="CHAPTER_XXIV"></a>CHAPTER XXIV.</h2> + +<h3>LITTLE PITCHERS.</h3> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">If aught in nature be unnatural,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">It is the slaying, by a spring-tide frost,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of Spring's own children; cheated blossoms all<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Betrayed i' the birth, and born for burial,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of budding promise; scarce beloved ere lost.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">Fables In Song.</span><br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p>The whole party were gathered on the lawn after breakfast, preparing for +the start, and continually running backwards and forwards for something +forgotten. Du Meresq and Cecil were talking apart: the Colonel was to be +told that evening after dinner; and Bertie had to get to Cobourg, and +catch the night steamer there.</p> + +<p>"If we are late back, there will be hardly any time," said the girl.</p> + +<p>"Long enough to explain my magnificent prospects, or rather projects. Oh, +Cecil, you will be firm, anyhow!"</p> + +<p>Her answer was prevented by a clinging sister rushing up. She hummed the +words of a favourite air. "Loyal je serai durant ma vie."</p> + +<p>Bertie picked a rose and gave it to her. "It exactly matches your +ribbons," said he.</p> + +<p>It reminded Cecil of her dream, when he gave her a rose instead of a +ring, and turned into Fane, and a superstitious chill came over her. At +this moment Colonel Rolleston stepped out.</p> + +<p>"It is time you people were off. I am only coming with you as far as the +hotel to get a trap. I find I must go to Cobourg for letters. I wish, +Cecil you would drive with me."</p> + +<p>What? give up all those hours with Bertie! His last day, too, and the +first of their happiness!</p> + +<p>In utter consternation, Cecil cast a most imploring glance at her father; +but he, appearing not to see it, continued nonchalantly,—</p> + +<p>"It is a long, dull drive, and I shall really be glad of your company."</p> + +<p>Du Meresq ground his heel into the gravel with vexation, and Mrs. +Rolleston attempted a feeble remonstrance. "The children will be +disappointed if Cecil goes away,"—which sentiment they eagerly +chorussed.</p> + +<p>"Well, you must spare her to-day," said their father, "for I want her +too. It will be much better for Cecil to take a quiet drive after her +exposure yesterday, than to grill on those islands all day."</p> + +<p>It was quite evident opposition would be useless. In sullen resignation +she entered a boat with the Colonel, and, taking the rudder lines, +steered a course away from Long Island, which the picnic party were now +making for. She had seen Bertie standing angry and irresolute, and, +apparently, not going; and then he must have changed his mind, for as +they were just pulling off, he stepped into the vacant place of a boat +containing Mrs. Rolleston, Freddy and Bluebell. Not for a moment was +she deceived as to the Colonel's motive in causing her to forego her +day's amusement. It was not her society that he wanted—it was to +separate her from Du Meresq; and who could tell that he might not intend +to bring her back too late to see him before he went?</p> + +<p>This she determined to resist to the utmost. She did not feel as if +she could endure the suspense, if Du Meresq lost this opportunity of +speaking, however doubtful might be the result.</p> + +<p>Revolving the difficulties in her path only made Cecil more resolute. She +would never give Bertie up, neither would she wait to grow prematurely +old with the sickness of hope deferred.</p> + +<p>If her father refused consent, would a long secret engagement, promising +to remain faithful to each other, be their only resource? Cecil smiled at +the idea. She did not forget she was an heiress and of age. Love is for +the young, and she was far too proud to meditate bestowing herself upon +Bertie when years should have quenched hope and spirit, and stealthily +abstracted every charm of youth. And as to him? Well, his antecedents had +certainly given no promise of the long suffering fidelity of a Jacob.</p> + +<p>Colonel Rolleston was pretty well aware of what was passing in his +daughter's mind, for his eyes were now fully opened; but he did not +choose to show it.</p> + +<p>They arrived at Cobourg, where he found his letters; and then the horses +were put up to bait, and they went to the hotel for luncheon.</p> + +<p>Cecil expressed a hope that they would be able to return when the horses +were rested.</p> + +<p>"Certainly," said her father; "we will drive back to dinner."</p> + +<p>And, much relieved, she brightened up considerably.</p> + +<p>Now the Colonel would rather have detained her long enough there to +ensure passing Du Meresq on the road; but the <i>ennui</i> of spending so +many hours in so uninteresting a place, and the absence of any excuse +for waiting, favoured Cecil's wishes.</p> + +<p>Still the time seemed interminable to her in that dusty inn parlour, with +its obsolete Annuals, cracked pianoforte, and ugly prints on the walls. +Surely no horses ever required so long a rest, and when her father +suggested ordering her some tea, it seemed almost like <i>malice prepense</i> +to occasion a further delay.</p> + +<p>However, they were off at last, and as they rattled along in their shaky +conveyance, she became painfully conscious of its discomfort. Every jolt +was anguish, and her head and all her limbs were aching. Was it the +ducking yesterday, or only this dreadful springless buggy?</p> + +<p>They reached the landing before any of the party had returned, and Cecil +sought her gable and threw herself on the bed, trusting to rest to remove +some of her unpleasant sensations.</p> + +<p>As she closed her eyes, she fell into a not unhappy reverie. True, there +were opposition and difficulties to contend with, but Bertie was her own, +and she would never doubt him more. How disinterested and straightforward +he had been in freeing himself from debt before he spoke at all? Even her +father must acknowledge that; also that he had sufficient money for the +career he had chosen, and only valued her fortune as a security and +comfort to herself.</p> + +<p>The unutterable luxury of being able to think of him unrestrained only +dated from yesterday; for before there was always the humiliating dread +that her idolatry was only returned in the same measure in which it was +distributed among his somewhat numerous loves. But now distrust had all +melted away, and she cared not for the many who had hooked, and lost, +since she had landed him.</p> + +<p>Aroused by the splash of oars on the lake, Cecil tried to spring from +the bed, but her limbs were stiff and heavy, and she dragged herself +languidly to the window. They were all on the landing but Du Meresq, and +the quick pulsation stilled again.</p> + +<p>"I suppose he went first to the hotel," thought she, and began arranging +her hair, disordered by the pillow. She heard Lola running upstairs, and +called her as she passed.</p> + +<p>"I am coming, Cecil. I have got a message for you from Bertie, which is, +that he has only gone up to the hotel, and will be here in ten minutes."</p> + +<p>Cecil kissed the welcome Mercury, and drew her into the room shutting the +door.</p> + +<p>"Well, dear, and did you have a pleasant day? What did you do?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes," said Lola, whose eyes were glittering with excitement, and who +had altogether rather a strange manner. "That is to say, pretty well. We +didn't do much."</p> + +<p>"How was that?"</p> + +<p>"Why, Bertie and Bluebell were so stupid. They went away by themselves +for ever so long."</p> + +<p>Cecil felt as if a hand had suddenly clutched her heart and frozen the +blood in her veins. Could that pale face, with wildly gleaming eyes, be +the same so sweet and tranquil, that was carelessly smiling at the child +an instant before?</p> + +<p>"And do you know, Cecil," pursued Lola, warming with her subject, and +speaking with intense excitement, "Bertie kissed Bluebell. I saw him do +it."</p> + +<p>A pause, and the child, apparently gratified by the interest she had +awakened, continued,—</p> + +<p>"I think Bluebell was crying, and he trying to console her; at any rate, +I heard him say he 'loved her very much.'"</p> + +<p>One has noticed some years warm weather set in delusively early, and +blossoms of fruit and flowers nursed in its smiles peep prematurely +forth; and then a biting frost and northeast wind will spring up, the sun +all the while treacherously shining, and in one hour destroy the bud and +promise for ever. No less swift was the scathing power wielded by that +innocent executioner. Every word, fraught with conviction and crushing +evidence, sank deep down into her heart. She sat so still that Lola got +frightened, and entreated her to say what was the matter; but Cecil +appeared unconscious of her presence, and, scared and bewildered, the +child shrank away.</p> + +<p>Then the girl rose up, and with rapid, uneven steps paced the room. After +a while, first bolting the door, she unlocked a sandal-wood box, where, +tied with a ribbon and carefully dated, was a packet of Bertie's letters. +One by one she patiently read them through, noting and comparing +passages, then tying them up, wrote the day of the month and the hour on +a slip of paper, and finally enclosed all in an outer cover, which she +sealed with her signet-ring, and directed to Du Meresq. This done, the +restless walk was resumed. Her head was burning, and throbbed almost too +wildly to think. One line seemed ceaselessly to ring in it, that had +mingled with her dreams last night, and recurred with hateful +appropriateness,—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Once the soul of truth is gone, love's sweet life is o'er."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Contempt of herself for having been so duped added bitterness to these +thoughts. How long and easily had Bertie and Bluebell hoodwinked her to +be on the terms they were, and doubtless had often laughed over her +simplicity and short-sightedness! But Lola had described her in tears, +not smiles; and then Bertie appeared baser than ever. He loved Bluebell, +yet would sacrifice her for Cecil's fortune; for the unhappy girl no +longer believed in his disinterested professions of the day before. No! +she was dark and unlovely, and her rival beautiful, in his favourite +style! And Du Meresq was black and treacherous, as a smothered instinct +had sometimes warned her.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Rolleston came to the door and begged her to come down. Lola's +account had startled her. Cecil entreated to be left alone; "she had a +splitting headache, and wished to be quiet;" and on her step-mother +effecting an entrance, the sight of her face left no doubt of the +validity of the excuse.</p> + +<p>"Bertie will be so disappointed if he does not see you to-night," cried +she regretfully. A bitter smile, and the reiteration, "I cannot come +down."</p> + +<p>"Your hand is burning, child. You are in a fever. What <i>is</i> the matter?"</p> + +<p>Cecil coldly withdrew it, in the same somnambulistic manner, and said +she would lie down; and Mrs. Rolleston went out, hurt by her want of +confidence, and much bewildered by many events of that day.</p> + +<p>Lola next invaded her, sent by Bertie to entreat for admission. "He only +just wants to come in for a minute, and see how you are."</p> + +<p>"I can't see <i>any one</i>, my head is too bad; tell Bertie so. I am going to +lock the door, and go to bed."</p> + +<p>But she only threw herself on it. The light waned and darkened, and the +moon arose. Then Cecil stole cautiously to the window and watched. +Presently Du Meresq came out alone, and she knew he was on his way to the +boat. He would look up, she was sure, and she entrenched herself behind +the curtain. By the light of the moon she saw his gaze rivet itself on +her window, as though it would pierce the gloom. His face was strangely +pale, and even sad, and her rebellious heart throbbed wildly as she felt +how perilously dear he still was to her. He turned away. Whatever he wore +or did, there was a picturesque grace about him, thought Cecil; and as +his boat became smaller and smaller in the distance, she wished, in the +bitterness of her heart, they had both sunk in the squall of yesterday, +e'er she had discovered how falsely he had lied to her.</p> + +<p>Lola again disturbed her. "Papa says he is coming up in ten minutes to +see you. Bertie told me to tell you he was very sorry you would not speak +to him, or say good-bye."</p> + +<p>Lola had dined late, it being her birthday, and wore Cecil's locket on a +ribbon, but she looked scared and depressed. "It was so dull downstairs," +she said. "Mamma had gone away after dinner, and talked a long time to +Bluebell. Bertie had not come out of the dining room till it was time to +go, and she had had no one to speak to but Miss Prosody—not a bit like a +birthday."</p> + +<p>"Lola," said Cecil, much too preoccupied to attend to her complaints, +"has the letter bag gone down to the boat yet?"</p> + +<p>"I saw it still open in the passage."</p> + +<p>"Then run down quick with this big letter—you understand? Don't stop to +speak to any one, but put it in the bag and come back and tell me when it +is done."</p> + +<p>The child looked at the address "Why, Cecil," said she, curiously, "this +is for Bertie! What a pity I couldn't have given it to him before he +went! What a lot of postage stamps it takes!"</p> + +<p>"Never mind, dear, run away with it," anxiously.</p> + +<p>Lola was but just in time before the Colonel came out, locked the bag, +and went upstairs to his daughter.</p> + +<p>Pre-occupied as he was, he was startled at her changed appearance. A +shawl was thrown around her, and she appeared shivering, while a fever +spot burned on either cheek. The Colonel was alarmed and irritated. "It +is all that folly yesterday. Have your fire lit, and go to bed, but I +must say a word or two first."</p> + +<p>No assistance from Cecil, he took a turn or two about the room, surprised +at her apathy. It was very difficult to begin, he wished to be kind, but +was determined to be firm. How indifferent she seemed. Perhaps she would +not care so very much.</p> + +<p>"Cecil," he began, "you will guess what I wish to speak about. I don't +know whether I was more surprised or annoyed at Du Meresq's preposterous +proposal for you to-night."</p> + +<p>"What did he say, papa?"</p> + +<p>"Why," perplexed at her unusual manner, which exhibited no surprise and +little curiosity, "all he had to say was, that he wished to abandon his +profession, and take you on a wild goose chase to the Antipodes. That in +itself would have been quite sufficient, but there are other reasons, I +have not a good opinion of Du Meresq, and I had almost rather see you in +your grave than married to him." Cecil made no sign, and the Colonel +continued,—"It may seem hard now, but you will live to thank me. I wish +you, Cecil, since he will not be satisfied with less, to write a few +lines and tell him all must be at an end between you."</p> + +<p>She rose mechanically, brought her writing-desk, and took out pen and +paper.</p> + +<p>"What shall I say?" she asked, tranquilly.</p> + +<p>The Colonel, who was prepared for determined opposition from his strong +willed daughter, knew not whether to be most relieved or confounded by +this apathetic submission. "I will leave the composition to you," said +he, gently.</p> + +<p>"Thank you," said Cecil "I should prefer writing it from your dictation."</p> + +<p>"Say, then," returned her father, not ill pleased to get it expressed +strongly "that you find I am so irrevocably opposed to your marriage with +him, that you have no alternative but to give up all thoughts of it for +the future, and that he must understand this decision to be final."</p> + +<p>Deliberately, and with the same stony indifference, she wrote it word for +word, handed it to her father to read then sealed the letter with her own +signet-ring, and returned it to him.</p> + +<p>"It will be Fane yet," thought the bewildered Colonel, with a secret glow +of hope. "I was mistaken, her heart is not in this business—if she has +one," was the irrepressible doubt, for though Bertie's ardent suit had +left him inflexible, his daughter's insensibility almost disgusted him.</p> + +<p>Muttering to himself, "That job's over," with a lightened heart he sought +his wife, and directed her to go to Cecil, whom he thought far from well. +But an interview with Bertie's sister just then was too distasteful to +the unhappy girl, and she only answered Mrs. Rolleston's request, that +she would open the door, by entreaties to be left in peace and allowed to +sleep.</p> + +<p>It would have been better had she admitted her not only into her room, +but her confidence for the kind lady knew what even Cecil might have +acknowledged to be extenuating circumstances, but she now felt completely +alienated and distanced by the forbidding reserve of her step daughter, +of whom she was not altogether devoid of awe.</p> + +<p>The next day an express was on its way to Peterboro' for a doctor. Cecil +was down with rheumatic fever, and delirious.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXV" id="CHAPTER_XXV"></a>CHAPTER XXV.</h2> + +<h3>CHANGES.</h3> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I remember the way we parted.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The day and the way we met;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">You hoped we were both broken hearted;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I knew we should both forget.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">A hand like a white wood-blossom<br /></span> +<span class="i0">You lifted, and waved and passed<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With head hung down to the bosom,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And pale, as it seemed at last.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">Swinburne.</span><br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p>Du Meresq in indignant dismay at the abduction of Cecil on the day of the +picnic stood awhile silent and bitter, deaf to the impatience of the +children, who wanted to be off. While thus irresolute, he chanced to +glance at Bluebell, whose countenance betrayed an agony of suspense. The +entreating look in her eyes she was probably unconscious of, for the +child had not yet learned to command her face. Bertie yielded to it by a +sort of magnetism, and flung himself into the boat where she and Mrs. +Rolleston were already seated, but remained silent and thoughtful as they +floated monotonously along. His sister was equally occupied with uneasy +reflections, and Bluebell seemed as spell-bound as the rest. For one soul +deeply moved and agitated often affects by electricity another in a +receptive condition. Does not the atmosphere in a tempestuous mood thrill +and disturb our nervous system?</p> + +<p>She was next to Bertie, and noted that, though concealed by rugs and +waterproofs, his hand did not seek hers as of yore.</p> + +<p>They were joined on Long Island by the rest of the party, and all kept +pretty much together at first. There was luncheon to be unpacked, the +fire to be made and some fish to be grilled in a frying-pan. Du Meresq +partially shook off his gloom, and assisted the children in their +preparations; and, from the noise that ensued, a stranger would not have +suspected the mental disquietude of three of the number.</p> + +<p>After luncheon, Bluebell wandered away in search of wild flowers, the +children hunted for cray-fish, Miss Prosody spudded up ferns, and Mrs. +Rolleston drew from her pocket her favourite point-lace.</p> + +<p>Du Meresq, hungering for that exclusively masculine solace, tenderly +brought forth the pipe of his affections, nestling next his heart. There +was too much air on the beach, and he sauntered away in search of a more +sheltered situation in which to woo his divinity.</p> + +<p>Some "spirit in his feet" must have led him "who knows how," for ere long +he found himself seated on a log beside Bluebell. I cannot tell what +spell that syren had used to attract his footsteps so unerringly, for, +little accustomed as he was to resist female influence, in thought at +least Du Meresq was loyal enough to Cecil.</p> + +<p>He made no attempt to kiss her, as he would have done before in a similar +situation, but talked a while in that half-fond, half-bantering manner +that had misled the inexperienced child. The sun poured its level rays +upon them, and a little brown snake, with a litter of young, crawled from +beneath the log. This occasioned a hasty change of quarters, and they +found another seat o'ershadowed by a tangle of blackberries. It was very +secluded and still, and here, with her whole soul, in her eyes, Bluebell +abruptly asked Bertie her dreaded question.</p> + +<p>Rather taken back, he answered evasively. But the ice once broken, she +was not to be turned from her purpose, and repeated, as if it were a +stereotyped form of words she had been practising, "I only wish to ask +one single thing, are you engaged to Cecil?"</p> + +<p>Du Meresq was no coxcomb. He was distressed at the repressed agitation in +Bluebell's voice, her hueless face, and the hopeless look in eyes he +remembered so beaming, and for the moment heartily wished he had never +seen her.</p> + +<p>"How young she looks, with her lap full of flowers. Like an unhappy +child," thought he remorsefully. "I must tell her the truth; she'll soon +get over it."</p> + +<p>Very gently he took her hand, and said, gravely,—"I asked Cecil +yesterday to marry me, and she said yes."</p> + +<p>Bluebell staggered to her feet, with perhaps a sudden impulse of flight, +but so unsteadily that Du Meresq involuntarily threw a supporting arm +round her. At that moment Lola, in search of blackberries, and herself +concealed by the bush she was rifling, peeped through the brambles, and +remained a petrified and curious observer.</p> + +<p>Bluebell, struggling for composure, tried to speak, but the effort only +precipitated an irrepressible flood of tears, and Du Meresq, grieved and +self-reproachful, in his attempts to console her, used the fatal words +that Lola afterwards repeated to Cecil. The child escaped without her +presence being detected.</p> + +<p>Bluebell's emotion had passed over like a storm that clears the +atmosphere. It left her calm and cold, and only anxious to be away +from Du Meresq.</p> + +<p>There is a bracing power in knowing the worst. He had gained her +affections without the most distant intention of matrimony, and +resentment and shame restored her to composure.</p> + +<p>She turned her large child-like eyes on him with mute reproach.</p> + +<p>"You should have told me before," were her first articulate words. "No +wonder Cecil hated me when you were pretending to care for me behind her +back."</p> + +<p>Bertie murmured,—"There was no pretence in the matter."</p> + +<p>"Then why do you marry Cecil?" asked Bluebell, with the most +uncompromising directness. "Is it because she is rich?"</p> + +<p>"Confound it," thought Du Meresq; "I trust she won't suggest that to +Cecil."</p> + +<p>"Can't I love you both?" cried he, somewhat irritated; and just then Miss +Prosody and her brood appeared in sight.</p> + +<p>"I return you my share," exclaimed Bluebell, breaking abruptly from him, +and, running down the path, joined the governess and children.</p> + +<p>Du Meresq had rather a bad quarter of an hour over the pipe which this +sentimental episode had extinguished; but he could not regret, in the +face of his new engagement, the <i>finale</i> of a past and now inopportune +love-affair.</p> + +<p>Bluebell did not come down to dinner that day nor see Du Meresq again; +but afterwards, Mrs. Rolleston, who was in nobody's confidence, and had +the uneasy conviction that something was going desperately wrong, came +into her room.</p> + +<p>Bluebell's state of repression could endure no longer. She began by +entreating Mrs. Rolleston to accept Mrs. Leighton's situation, and let +her go to England at once; and after that it did not take much pressing +to induce her to make full confession of all that had passed.</p> + +<p>It must be remembered that Bluebell was under the impression that her +friend had always known of the flirtation between herself and Bertie; but +now for the first time the horror-stricken Mrs. Rolleston had her eyes +opened to what had been passing before them.</p> + +<p>Everything burst on her at once. Recollection and perception awoke +together. To keep it from Cecil seemed the most urgent necessity, and the +removal of Bluebell the thing most to be wished for.</p> + +<p>Bluebell was disposed to keep back nothing, and answered every question +with frank recklessness. She told of their first walk in the wood, their +frequent interviews at "The Maples," and Bertie's visit to the cottage, +laughing at the idea of having ever seriously cared for Jack Vavasour.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Rolleston remembered that Cecil had not shared her delusion on that +subject, and anxiously inquired if she had ever acknowledged to her her +<i>penchant</i> for Bertie.</p> + +<p>Bluebell answered in the negative, giving as a reason that, though unable +to guess the cause, her manner had always repelled any approach to +confidence on that subject.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Rolleston remembered Cecil's strange behaviour that afternoon, +but she had not even seen Bluebell since the picnic. It remained +unaccountable.</p> + +<p>She reflected with vexation on the fatality that had made her refuse the +child's confidence so many months before; but yet she hoped no harm was +done, since Bluebell averred that Bertie and Cecil were engaged.</p> + +<p>The letter to Mrs. Leighton was written that night ready for the morning +mail; another was also despatched to Mrs. Leigh at Bluebell's request, +who was anxious that Mrs. Rolleston should break the rather summary +measures to her—not that the latter anticipated much difficulty there. +All Canadians have a great idea of a visit to England, which they +tenaciously speak of as "home," and "the old country." And she would +probably be glad that Bluebell should see her father's birthplace.</p> + +<p>At the child's express wish, it was also arranged for her to go home at +once, as companionship with Cecil could now be agreeable to neither of +them.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Rolleston had only seen Du Meresq for a moment before he went away, +yet his manner, no less than her step-daughter's, clearly indicated that +something was wrong. Even Colonel Rolleston had taken up an attitude of +impenetrable reserve, and his wife was completely at fault. Next day, +however, the shock and terror of Cecil's illness fell upon them, turning +her mind to a more immediate subject of anxiety.</p> + +<p>Bluebell could not do less than offer to remain, and share the vigils in +the sick room; but even in delirium Cecil became palpably worse when her +rival approached, so, in a few days, with much sadness, she bade farewell +to those who had made the world of her "most memorial year."</p> + +<p>While Cecil was hovering on the borderland of mental darkness, a note +came for her from Bertie, written on receipt of the packet that Lola had +posted and was as follows:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"What can I imagine, Cecil, from this parcel of my letters returned +without a word beyond the date and hour? You must have packed them up at +the very time I, as we had agreed, was asking for you from your father. +I shall not speak of the almost insulting way in which he received my +proposals, for that we had anticipated; but you had promised in any event +to be true to me. You could not have changed in a summer day, I know your +nature, my dearest little Cecil, and you would not have deserted me in +this crisis unless your vulnerable side, jealousy, had been awakened. +Indeed you have no cause for it. I cannot come back to the Lake, for your +father would not receive me, but shall make no plans till I hear from +you.</p> + +<p>"Yours, as ever, devotedly,</p> + +<p>"B."</p></div> + +<p>It was three weeks before Cecil could read this letter, and the following +day Du Meresq got hers, written at her father's dictation.</p> + +<p>It was not a soothing one for an ardent lover to receive, and Bertie was +at first furious, and considered himself very ill used. With it all, +though, he never believed that Cecil had really changed. He thought very +probably his unfortunate flirtation with Bluebell had come out; returning +his letters looked like an <i>accès</i> of jealousy, and the one she had +written was probably prompted by the same cause.</p> + +<p>Any way, though, he was at a dead lock. Her father, of course, would not +allow her to see him, and while she was in this mood writing was useless. +His papers were in, and tired of inaction at Montreal, he obtained leave +to go to England. He lingered time enough to have received an answer to +his letter, and, none coming, he took the first steamer homeward-bound.</p> + +<p>Du Meresq had not acquainted his sister of his engagement to Cecil; for +being aware of the Colonel's inimical disposition, he did not wish to +draw her into any difficulty about it. She did not even know that he had +written to Cecil since he left, as the letter had fallen into her +husband's hands, who, though not intending to withhold it altogether, +considered it a document that might very well wait her convalescence.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Rolleston wished to apprise Bertie of Cecil's dangerous illness, but +she had allowed one mail to pass, and they only recurred once a week, so +that Du Meresq was embarking at Quebec the day her letter arrived at +Montreal.</p> + +<p>Cecil made a slow recovery. The rheumatic fever, caused by sitting so +many hours in wet clothes, and aggravated by the shock she had since +received, hung about her many weeks, and as soon as she could be moved +they took her back to Toronto. Then her father most unwillingly gave her +Du Meresq's letter. He was too honourable to destroy it; but, looking +upon him as the frustrator of his plans for Cecil, and the indirect cause +of her illness, viewed with impatience any chance of a renewal of +intercourse.</p> + +<p>Cecil read it repeatedly; but though her heart longed to believe, her +mind remained unconvinced. She shrank from all mention of the subject +with her step-mother, knowing how one-sided a partisan she would be, but +could not deny herself the self-torture of questioning Lola again. The +child relentlessly stuck to her text, painting the scene with a vividness +that did credit to her descriptive powers; and being one of those +vivacious and ubiquitous children never to be sufficiently guarded +against, was able to mention one or two other occasions on which she had +"popped on them."</p> + +<p>And all that time Bertie had apparently been devoted to herself! This was +decisive. Lola could have no interest in deceiving her. She must not +answer his letter or be his dupe again.</p> + +<p>Bluebell's approaching departure to England still further corroborated +Lola's story. At that picnic on Long Island, Bertie had evidently +acknowledged his engagement to herself, which she now fully believed to +be a mercenary one, as, doubtless, he had also assured her rival. But +perpetual lonely walks and rides were unfavourable to oblivion, and had +Du Meresq been but on the spot, I think even then the mists between these +two lovers would soon have been drawn aside.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Rolleston wondered that she had not heard from Bertie, but imagined +he was somewhere on leave. Cecil would not speak on the subject, but she +mentioned it sometimes to Bluebell with surprise, who was much perplexed +to guess what could have divided them. Her own conscience was easy; she +had told Cecil nothing—indeed, they had never met since the latter's +illness. Bluebell was now with her mother, preparing for her journey to +England, and had persistently avoided going to "The Maples."</p> + +<p>A very cordial acceptance had come from Mrs. Leighton, who said Evelyn +was all impatience for her musical friend. Mrs. Rolleston, who was now a +frequent visitor at the cottage, laughed a little at the letter, which +was very gushing, and told Bluebell they were an emotional pair. Evelyn +was strangely brought up,—every fancy, however extravagant, gratified, +partly on account of her delicate health, and partly from the sentimental +sympathy of her mother. One whim was, she would never learn from ugly +people, and the supply of beautiful governesses being limited, her +education was proportionably so also.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Leighton sent minute directions. She would pay Miss Leigh's +passage-money, giving her rather less salary the first year. Of course +she was to come under protection of the captain, to whom the <i>rôle</i> of +heavy father to unchaperoned girls is usually relegated; and on arriving +at Liverpool the railway journey to Leighton Court would be only a few +hours.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Rolleston gave her a pretty travelling dress, and otherwise +replenished her slender wardrobe. She also contributed a little good +advice as to abstention from flirting, explaining that in her unprotected +situation she could not be too sceptical of the honest intentions of +would-be wooers.</p> + +<p>Bluebell indignantly repudiated the possibility of thinking of such a +thing for the present, if, indeed, ever, and professed the most ascetic +sentiments.</p> + +<p>It was rather hard on Mrs. Leigh, this far-away separation from her only +child—indeed, she could not understand why she was not engaged to one or +other of the whilom visitors at the cottage, but comforted herself with +the reflection that there were doubtless many rich husbands in England. +Bluebell, like her father, seemed of a roving disposition, and she must +let her fledgling try her wings.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Leigh was romantically inclined, and thought a heroine setting out +on her adventures should be provided with some talisman, and, in this +case, proof of her origin. So she disinterred from the old hair-trunk, +where it was usually entombed, the miniature of Theodore Leigh. How young +he looked! more like Bluebell's brother. "You must never lose it," said +she to her daughter; "for if your grandfather left his money to you after +all, I dare say the lawyers would try and prove you were some one else; +so it is as well to have your father's portrait to show, and your +eyebrows are brown and arched just like his."</p> + +<p>Though at a loss to comprehend why lawyers should display such unprovoked +enmity, Bluebell gladly received the miniature. Her unknown father +represented to her another and more brilliant life; and when most +discontented at the penury of the cottage, she was fond of picturing to +herself her paternal relations, whom she imagined very grand people, and +in a very different position to that in which she had been brought up. In +these last days, Bluebell thought a good deal of Cecil with some return +of her old affection. She remembered how generous and dear a friend she +had been till Bertie came between, and thought how ungrateful she must +consider her to have clandestinely stolen away the only treasure she +would have been unwilling to share with her. Still, even were they to +meet, nothing she could say would do any good, for Bluebell knew of old +how difficult it was to speak to Cecil on any subject she was determined +to avoid, and it was not likely she would be particularly approachable on +this one.</p> + +<p>So, upon the whole, it would be a relief to get away, and break new +ground, leaving painful associations behind; and the bustle of +preparation for the voyage was not without interest.</p> + +<p>Miss Opie presented her with a brown-holland bag, divided off for +brushes, slippers, etc., which she enjoined her to hang up in the +cabin. "Habits of neatness are always of great importance in a confined +space; and I have put in a paper of peppermint lozenges in case of +sea-sickness," she added.</p> + +<p>It was the last evening at home, and every bit of furniture in the once +despised house seemed instinct with a meaning no other place could have +for her.</p> + +<p>There was the old piano, on which she used to dream away so many hours; +and that arm-chair seemed still haunted by the vision of her handsome, +faithless lover, as she had seen him in the gloaming.</p> + +<p>How long they had lived there! The little china dog on the shelf was the +same she used to play with on the floor before she could walk. Dull and +trite, and only too well known as these objects might be, a sentimental +interest seemed now to hallow them. Youth is selfish, and takes all +affection as its due; but even the slight brush with the world Bluebell +had already sustained, gave her the consciousness that, tired as she +might be of her limited life at home, never need she expect to meet +elsewhere such unselfish tenderness as a mother's.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXVI" id="CHAPTER_XXVI"></a>CHAPTER XXVI.</h2> + +<h3>CROSSING THE HERRING POND.</h3> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">A few short hours, the sun will rise<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To give the morrow birth;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And I shall hail the main and skies,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But not my mother earth.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">Childe Harold.</span><br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p>The morning rose clear and brilliant. The partings were over, and +Bluebell, on the deck of the river steamer, was gazing her last on the +long flat shore, with its high elevators, and waving adieu to the +diminishing forms of Mrs. Leigh and Miss Opie, who had seen her on +board,—the latter with many injunctions to ascertain that two +old-fashioned hirsute trunks containing her wardrobe were really put into +the steamer at Quebec. Bluebell had treated herself to a smart little +portmanteau for the cabin, being rather ashamed of her antediluvian +luggage. She had ten sovereigns in her purse, that had been scraped +together among them as a provision for any emergency. The Rolleston +children had sent her a travelling-bag; but not even a message came from +Cecil, which saddened Bluebell, but did not make her resentful, for she +could not but suspect that the former's engagement to Bertie had come to +an end, and that, in some way or other, she herself had been the cause of +it.</p> + +<p>A touch of frost during the last fortnight had worked a transformation +on the foliage. The thousand islands were changed from green bowers to +the semblance of shrubberies of rhododendron, so brilliant were the +crimson and red of their leaves. They were associated in her mind with +Cecil, whose artistic eye revelled in the autumn tints, and was +perpetually painting and grouping them during the last fall.</p> + +<p>It was rather lonely and monotonous in the river steamer. There was no +one on board that she knew, and, as each hour increased the distance from +all familiar places, a feeling of friendlessness stole over her.</p> + +<p>Arrived at Quebec, every one seemed to push before and jostle her away; +but patiently following in the stream, she found herself, with a +sensation of relief on board the huge Leviathan steamer that was to be +her home across the broad Atlantic.</p> + +<p>Some misgivings respecting luggage obtruded themselves. A porter had put +her portmanteau and bag on board, but the two trunks she had never seen. +No one seemed to attend to her till one man gruffly replied,—"That if +they were properly addressed, they would be put into the hold all right." +And Bluebell took comfort in the remembrance of the labels plentifully +nailed on by Aunt Jane, that she had then thought looked so nervously +ridiculous.</p> + +<p>She sat for some time alone in the saloon, waiting till the rush for +state rooms should have a little subsided before making a timid request +for her own.</p> + +<p>Several people were now returning, apparently with disburdened minds, for +anxious wrinkles were smoothed out into complacent curiosity. Bluebell +made an incoherent attack on the stewardess, who swept by, without +attending, and after being passed on from one official to the other, she +found herself half-proprietess of a dark confined den, with two berths, +two wash-hand-stands, and a sofa. Her partner in these luxuries had +apparently taken possession and gone, for rather a queer shawl lay on one +berth, and a singularly tasteless hat hung on a peg.</p> + +<p>These significant articles deprived the little dungeon of all charms of +privacy, and, feeling as if it belonged so much more to the other lodger, +and she herself were somewhat of an intruder, Bluebell left her small +effects in the portmanteau, which she stowed away in the most +unobstrusive manner, not even venturing to hang up the brown-holland +contrivance of Aunt Jane.</p> + +<p>Then she found her way on deck, where most of the passengers were +congregated, and, sitting down on a centre bench, in rather inconvenient +proximity to a skylight, was sufficiently amused in speculating on her +fellow travellers.</p> + +<p>"My comrade can't be among them," she thought, "for she has left her hat +below."</p> + +<p>Most noticeable were a young officer and his bride, as Bluebell +immediately decided the latter to be, partly from her helpless +<i>exigeante</i> demeanour, and partly from the extreme newness of her +fashionable get up.</p> + +<p>The minuteness and height of her heels were more conducive to the Grecian +bend than preserving a balance on a sloping deck, and her fanciful +aquatic costume of pale-blue serge more adapted to a nautical scene in +private theatricals than for contact with the drenching spray of the +rough Atlantic.</p> + +<p>But ere the anchor weighed she shone pre-eminent, and had the +gratification of making a dozen other women feel shabby and dissatisfied.</p> + +<p>In contrast to these was a sickly-looking, middle-class person, with two +children tastefully arrayed in purple frocks, red stockings, and magenta +comforters. They were clinging to a coarse-looking girl, also with a +preference for cheerfulness of hue, who carried a felt donkey, and seemed +to be the nursery-maid.</p> + +<p>The head of this household, apparently, was not going to accompany them, +and, indeed, appeared in rather a more elevated condition than could be +wished. He addressed Bluebell, and inquired if her cabin was near his +wife's, and, on professing ignorance, said he trusted it might prove so, +as "he naturally felt great anxiety at her travelling so lone and +unprotected like,"—a slight unsteadiness of gait showing how irreparable +was the loss of her legitimate defender. The people around stared and +smiled, but he continued to gaze, in a mournful and approving way, at +Bluebell, while his wife sat in a state of repressed endurance, +calculating how many more minutes he would have for exposing himself +before the tug separated friends from passengers.</p> + +<p>After a playful feint to throw one of his children overboard, he became +calmer, and relapsed into a maudlin monologue till the bell rang, when he +was hustled off, much to Bluebell's relief as well as his wife's, whose +set mouth relaxed as if a care had rolled away.</p> + +<p>Two or three officers on leave were pacing up and down, and with them +another young man, but, whether he were civil or military, Bluebell +could not decide. He was not exactly like either; there was a slight +oddness about his dress, which, though well cut, was carelessly put +on, and rather incongruous in different parts. The neck-tie was a +little awry, and not the right colour for the coat; still he seemed +gentlemanly—rather distinguished-looking than not.</p> + +<p>These were all the portraits she took in till the bell rang for luncheon, +and there was a general desertion of the deck. Being, by this time, very +hungry, Bluebell followed in the string, but felt dubious where to seat +herself, as she found people had already appropriated their places by +pinning their cards on the table-cloth.</p> + +<p>The captain, who had just come in, observing her, asked if she were Miss +Leigh, and then took her to a seat next but one to himself.</p> + +<p>"You must look upon me <i>in loco parentis</i>," said he, good-naturedly, with +a strong Scotch accent.</p> + +<p>Being the first friendly word she had heard, Bluebell thanked him with a +heartiness of gratitude that caused her neighbour on the left to glance +at her with furtive interest. It was the young man with the deranged +neck-tie. On her right was a haughty dame, who evidently considered +herself a person of position. Next the captain, on the opposite side, +was an elderly widow lady, with weak eyes and rather methodistical +appearance; and on her left a fussy, brisk-looking little woman, of about +thirty-five. Then came the bride and bridegroom, a doctor, an aunt and +niece, and the rest were out of range of our heroine.</p> + +<p>Days at sea are very long, and this first one seemed nearly interminable +to Bluebell. She walked on deck till she was tired, and read a book till +she shivered, and then retreated to her cabin, to find the fussy little +lady of five-and-thirty extended on the sofa. "Ah!" cried she, "I have +been wondering all day who my fellow-lodger was to be; let me introduce +myself, as we are to have such close companionship. I am Mrs. Oliphant, +of the 44th; you are Miss Leigh, I heard the captain say. I am lying +down, you see, for I have such a dread of sea-sickness, and it is such +a good thing for it."</p> + +<p>They were not out of the river and it was like glass. Bluebell, feeling +particularly well, laughed inwardly, as she inquired if Mrs. Oliphant was +a bad sailor.</p> + +<p>"Middling; very much like the rest. You see I have been settling +everything conveniently—while I can."</p> + +<p>She spoke as if she had just made her last will and testament, and +certainly everything was very commodiously arranged—for Mrs. Oliphant. +Not a peg or a corner was left for any properties of Bluebell's, who +perceived she would have to keep all her effects in the portmanteau, and +drag it out for everything she wanted.</p> + +<p>"But I always try and cheer up other people," said the little lady, +complacently. "I have a bad bout, and then I go and visit others, and +keep up their spirits—going round the wards I call it. When I came out, +Mrs. Kite, of our regiment, and Mrs. Dove, of the 100th 'Scatterers,' +would have laid themselves down and died if it hadn't been for me; but I +roused them—Mrs. Kite, at least—for poor Mrs. Dove gave way so, she +wasn't out of her berth for a week, and could keep down nothing but a +peppermint, and the stewardess never came near her."</p> + +<p>"But surely everybody won't be ill!" said Bluebell, somewhat appalled by +these statistics, and, with the close air of the cabin, feeling her head +swim a little. "I believe it is better not to think about it."</p> + +<p>"Certainly; let us change the subject. Will you hand me my +eau-de-Cologne? And so you have never been to England before."</p> + +<p>"Never," responded Bluebell, not inveigled into giving any further +information by Mrs. Oliphant's look of curiosity.</p> + +<p>"Perhaps you are going out now to be married?" (archly.)</p> + +<p>"No," said the girl, composedly; "if that were the case I should hope my +intended husband would come and fetch me."</p> + +<p>"Well," said the lady, finding she was to extract nothing, "I suppose we +must be getting ready for dinner. In the P. and O. it used to be full +evening costume, but one soon has to give that up on the Atlantic; so you +see I just change my body for a white Garibaldi, and put a coloured net +on. I have four nets, mauve, magenta, green, and blue; these make a nice +change."</p> + +<p>But in spite of her extreme satisfaction in her own arrangements, she +felt secretly disgusted at the freshness of Bluebell's appearance in an +uncrushable soft <i>barége</i> trimmed with blue. It was also rather a blow to +observe those thick shining coils of chestnut hair were not supplemented +from the stores of any Translantic <i>coiffeur</i>.</p> + +<p>When they came to dinner, a little more motion was perceivable as they +were entering the Gulf, and the table was mapped out with ominous-looking +frames of wood for the confinement of plates and glasses. The bride came +down gorgeously attired in a Parisian garb of mauve silk, cut square, but +looking slightly white and less secure of admiration than she had in the +morning.</p> + +<p>"That is not a very serviceable dress for a sea voyage," whispered +Bluebell's neighbour, seriously. A few remarks had already passed between +them, and she had discovered him to have large, demure, brown eyes, that +never appeared to notice anything except for the gleams of secret +amusement that occasionally danced in them. "It quite sets my teeth on +edge seeing those stewards tilting the soup close to and trampling on +it."</p> + +<p>"She must be a bride, I suppose," returned Bluebell, "and has so many new +dresses, she doesn't care about spoiling one or two."</p> + +<p>"Heavens! what a view of matrimony! And these are the reckless opinions +of young ladies of the present day! Why, Miss Leigh, the greater part of +my great-grandmother's <i>trousseau</i> still exists in an old trunk; and my +cousin Kate went to a fancy ball in her tabinet paduasoy, which was as +good as new."</p> + +<p>"How tired they must have got of their things! I should like to have a +new dress every day of my life, and a maid to take away the old ones," +cried Bluebell recklessly.</p> + +<p>"How much does a dress cost—making, trimming, and all."</p> + +<p>"Oh, some would be simple and inexpensive, of course—say, on an average, +£6 all round."</p> + +<p>"That would be more than £1,800 a year, without counting Sundays. You'll +have to marry in the city, Miss Leigh."</p> + +<p>"I shall have to make £30 a year supply my wardrobe—and earn it," +returned she, lightly.</p> + +<p>This admission did not lower her in the estimation of the chivalrous +young sailor, for such he was, though it cooled the already slight +interest taken in her by the portly lady on the other side.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Oliphant, who had made acquaintance with everybody, was gabbling +away with her accustomed volubility.</p> + +<p>"Oh, my dear Mrs. Rideout, have you tasted this <i>vol-au-vent</i>? You really +<i>should</i>. I have got the bill of fare" (with girlish elation). "There's +fricandeau of veal, calf's-head collops, tripe <i>à</i>—" here she stopped +short, confused at the shocking word.</p> + +<p>Bluebell and the young lieutenant had arrived at sufficient intimacy to +exchange a merry glance.</p> + +<p>In the mean time, the bride was enacting the pretty spoiled child, and +resisting the solicitations of her husband—a spoony-looking infantry +captain—that she would endeavour to eat something. "Every one says it +is so much better," reiterated he.</p> + +<p>"But I am not hungry," said the baby, with most interesting <i>naiveté</i>.</p> + +<p>"Try a <i>rawst</i> potato, ma'am," said the captain, in his broad accent. +"There's many a one will eat a <i>rawst</i> potato who can't care for anything +else."</p> + +<p>The bride made a little <i>moue</i>, and shook her head, then admitted that +she fancied a piece of raspberry tart, though the captain protested that +if she would eat anything so injudicious, a gentle nip of whisky would be +advisable to correct it.</p> + +<p>Captain Butler, the happy bridegroom, was evidently still in the adoring +stage, so he listened complacently to his wife's silly badinage with the +skipper, whom she informed, apparently for the information of the +company, that she was just nineteen, but winced a little at her further +admission that they had only been married a week.</p> + +<p>A slight but monotonous roll and general chilliness, seemed to portend +they were getting into a more open sea, and, as the motion increased, the +saloon began to thin a little. The bride's prattle deepened into moanings +and complaints; she was laid on the sofa, covered with shawls, and +supplied with sal-volatile and smelling-bottles by her devoted spouse, +who began to look deadly pale himself.</p> + +<p>Mr. Dutton, Bluebell's neighbour, had gone for a smoke with the skipper. +Mrs. Oliphant was also an absentee; she had tottered from the saloon the +instant the wind freshened, with a contortion of countenance that +betokened her dallyings with the <i>vol-au-vent</i> would be severely visited. +Mrs. Rideout, the lady of position, went off on the arm of her maid, who +had not yet succumbed.</p> + +<p>Bluebell, determined to resist the whirling in her head, took out some +work on which she tried to fix her attention. The elderly widow was +looking over a missionary book with woodcuts, and they occasionally +exchanged sentences.</p> + +<p>The discomposing rocking of the vessel continued, and the moan of the +winds mingled with the incessant complaints of Mrs. Butler on a distant +sofa, who was as communicative respecting her anguish as her age.</p> + +<p>Tea and the return of some of the gentlemen a little relieved the +monotony. Bluebell was languidly experimenting on a piece of dry toast, +when the loud crying of a child attracted her attention, and, the steward +leaving the door open, a little girl of four plunged in. She recognised +her as one of the children with the tipsy father. The mother had dined in +the ladies' cabin, and retired to her berth to lie down, and this lost +lamb was searching for her.</p> + +<p>"Come here, my dear," said Mrs. Jackson, the widow lady. "Don't cry, +what's the matter?"</p> + +<p>But "I want mamma," was the only reply, without any cessation of shrieks.</p> + +<p>"Oh, hush! look at these pretty pictures; here's Moses in the +bull-rushes."</p> + +<p>A momentary glance, and then the cries redoubled.</p> + +<p>"Phoebus, what lungs!" ejaculated Mr. Dutton. "Come here, child," +authoritatively, holding up a lump of sugar.</p> + +<p>A slight lull, and a hesitating zig-zag movement in his direction. He +made a grab as she came within reach, placed her on his knee, and pushed +a bit of sugar into the month opened for a roar.</p> + +<p>"I am quite ashamed of you, making such a noise. Don't choke, there's +more sugar in the basin. Wipe your eyes, and see if you can possibly look +pretty."</p> + +<p>Bewildered, but distracted by the sugar, the tears ceased.</p> + +<p>"What is your name? Mary, I suppose."</p> + +<p>"No, no," indignantly, "H'Emma."</p> + +<p>"H'Emma! You little cad, what is the H for? Say Emma. You can't? Then no +more sugar."</p> + +<p>"Emma," repeated the astonished child.</p> + +<p>"That's right; here is another lump. Miss Leigh, may I ask you to reach +me a very pretty book of coloured animals I saw behind you? Now, Emma, +there is a tabby cat, just like you have at home."</p> + +<p>"No, mamma drove it away;" and, the grief returning, "Oh! where's mamma?"</p> + +<p>"She isn't coming while you make that noise, and I fear she must be a +wicked woman to drive a poor cat away,—she will never have any luck. +Now, what's that?"</p> + +<p>"A 'orse," triumphantly.</p> + +<p>"Where <i>were</i> you riz! Say horse. That's right; don't forget. A pig, a +sow, a goose," and so on, half through the book. "Now I'll shut it, and +you can go to bed."</p> + +<p>"No, no; see the rest," said the now excited child.</p> + +<p>"Which would you rather have, mamma or pictures?"</p> + +<p>"Pictures. Show them quick."</p> + +<p>"Very well; then mamma may go to blazes. We don't want her bothering here +till we have done. What did you say was the name of that animal?"</p> + +<p>"A 'orse."</p> + +<p>"What did I tell you? You will never be a lady if you leave out your +h's."</p> + +<p>At this moment the mamma appeared. "Oh," said Mrs. Jackson, "your little +girl was crying so for you, till that gentleman succeeded in amusing +her."</p> + +<p>"I 'ope, sir, she 'asn't been very troublesome? The baby, 'e 'as been so +fretful with 'is teeth, or I should 'ave come for H'Emma sooner."</p> + +<p>"The gentleman said H'Emma was vulgar."</p> + +<p>"Don't you tell stories, miss. The gentleman wouldn't 'ave you called +hout of your name."</p> + +<p>Bluebell laughed at Mr. Dutton's slightly confused appearance, and asked +if he thought his corrections would survive the force of example.</p> + +<p>"I might have known whom she had learnt it from."</p> + +<p>Then, after a moment's hesitation, he asked Bluebell if she could +play chess; and, on her replying in the affirmative, he produced a +pocket-board.</p> + +<p>"I always take it to sea with me," said he, "and make out problems."</p> + +<p>Bluebell was beaten, and he tried to teach her a more scientific game. +And the evening passed away pleasantly to those two at any rate.</p> + +<p>On retiring to her cabin, she perceived a strong smell of brandy, and +found Mrs. Oliphant ensconced in the lower berth. Evidently the time for +"cheering other people" had not arrived, for her complaints were +incessant. The ship was rolling considerable, and Bluebell found some +difficulty in undressing, and more in clambering into her berth. She had +not been there many minutes when she was startled by the apparition of +a man walking straight into the cabin, who explained his errand by +unceremoniously putting out their lamp.</p> + +<p>Then she fell into a dreamless slumber, but was not long allowed a +refreshment denied to her companion, who, in all her wakeful moments, +insisted on keeping up a querulous conversation, till Bluebell, in +despair, feigned sleep, and would no longer reply.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXVII" id="CHAPTER_XXVII"></a>CHAPTER XXVII.</h2> + +<h3>HARRY DUTTON.</h3> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But hapless one! I cannot ride—there's something in a horse<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That I could always honour, but never could indorse.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To speak still more commercially, in riding I am quite<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Averse to running long, and apt to be paid off at sight.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In legal phrase, for every class to understand me still,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I never was in stirrups yet a tenant but at will;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or, if you please, in artist's terms, I never went a-straddle<br /></span> +<span class="i0">On any horse without "a want of keeping" in the saddle.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">Hood.</span><br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p>The next morning was rougher than ever. The stewardess brought Mrs. +Oliphant's breakfast; but Bluebell, eager for more congenial +companionship, dressed, and went down to the saloon, where she received +a cheery welcome from the captain, who said he had hardly hoped to have +his breakfast-table graced by the presence of any ladies on so wild a +morning.</p> + +<p>The widow was also stout-hearted, and, evidently considering it right +to take the only young lady under her chaperonage, advised her after +breakfast to remain below and work with her. Bluebell was of a grateful +disposition, and acquiesced, but secretly thought it rather dismal, so, +when Mr. Dutton came down and begged her to go on deck, as they were +passing through some magnificent icebergs, she willingly pocketed her +tatting and went up. The young lieutenant got a couple of rugs and +arranged her comfortably. Certainly the roll of the ship was much more +bearable on deck.</p> + +<p>Mr. Dutton remained to amuse her, and, both being young, they speedily +became confidentially communicative. She learnt from him that he had just +been promoted out of his ship, and was going home till he got another. +"At least," he amended, "it is more my home than any other. I am going to +stay with my uncle, who would like me to give up the service, and remain +with him altogether."</p> + +<p>"Is he so very fond of you?"</p> + +<p>"Why, yes, in a sort of way. You see he has got no one else. He never +wished me to go to sea, but when I was at school a brother of one of the +fellows came, who had just passed as naval cadet, and he had such a lot +of tuck, and tin, and presents, that we were all wild to go too. My +governor had some interest, and I never ceased tormenting him, till at +last he got me appointed to the 'Sorceress.' After I had been a month +at sea I had had quite enough of it; but we were on a five years' cruise, +and by the end of that time I liked the life as well as any other."</p> + +<p>"Then why should your uncle want you to give up your profession?"</p> + +<p>"Because," blushing slightly, "he always says I shall be his heir, and he +wishes me to take an interest in the estate, and learn to be a country +gentleman. But after I have been on shore a month or so the monotony of +it is awful, and I feel as if I must do something desperate if I stop +quiet longer."</p> + +<p>"I thought English country gentlemen found plenty of excitement in +hunting and shooting."</p> + +<p>"Not all the year round," with a smile; "and, besides, I can't ride! Now, +Miss Leigh, if you were an English girl, you would never speak to me +again! I don't fear the obstacle, and would ride anything anybody likes +to trust me with; but I know, and the <i>horse</i> knows, he could get rid of +me at any minute. I hunt sometimes, and go straight if the quad. I am +on is fond of jumping; but I cut a voluntary as often as not, and then +some fool is sure to come up and say,—'You had no business to have +parted at that fence, Dutton; the horse took it well enough!' Then I have +no 'hands,' I am told. Certainly, whenever I take up the rudder-lines to +put his head for any particular course the brute takes it as a personal +affront, and begins to fret, go sideways, and bore and all but tell me +what a duffer he thinks me. There's my cousin Kate, who will spoon with +me by the hour in a greenhouse, and dance as often as I like to ask her, +but at the cover-side she is so ashamed of me she shuns me like the +plague; and then, of course, next ball it is, 'Dear Harry, <i>do</i> introduce +me to Major Rattletrap,' or some such soldier officer, 'I like the look +of him <i>so</i> much.'—'I just offered to,' says I, 'but he didn't seem to +rise; said his card was full. Seems sweet on that girl in pink, with +black eyes.' That's a school friend of Kate's, whom she is mortal jealous +of."</p> + +<p>"As if she believed a word of it!"</p> + +<p>"Oh, didn't she, though! She bit her lip, and looked shut up. I have +great moral influence over Kate that way."</p> + +<p>"There's a grand iceberg!" cried Bluebell, after an amused pause, in +which she had been trying to picture Cousin Kate: "What a strange shape; +it must be hundreds of feet high. How cold it makes the air, though."</p> + +<p>"And you are shivering; I'll run and fetch another rug. It is warmer by +the funnel, only there are a lot of fellows smoking there."</p> + +<p>"But, Mr. Dutton," said she, hesitatingly, "why don't you join them? You +have given me all your warm things, and must be cold yourself."</p> + +<p>"I'll go if you tell me to," said the lieutenant, looking full into +Bluebell's eyes. She was silent, and the long eye-lashes came into play +while she considered. She had promised Mrs. Rolleston not to flirt, but +there had been no question of that hitherto. Why should she throw away a +little pleasant companionship when she was so lonely? "I only spoke on +your account." But she had flirting eyes, which said, only too plainly, +"Go, if you can."</p> + +<p>"I don't think any one could feel cold near you," he whispered,—and +then they both blushed. A minute after he ran off for the rug, and +Bluebell was left—to repent. "Oh, dear!" thought she, with very hot +cheeks, "we must <i>not</i> begin this sort of thing already, or there will be +an end to all comfort—and as if I could ever forget!"</p> + +<p>She received the rug with matter-of-course indifference, and looked up +at him with the serenity of a nun; the young lieutenant was quick to +perceive the change. He thought it wiser to follow suit, and they were +at ease again, though each remembered the other's blush.</p> + +<p>"I came upon a very touching tableau in the saloon," said he; "the bride +was reluctantly pecking at some chicken, and that ass, Butler, feeding +her with a fork."</p> + +<p>"Ah! those are your nationalities," laughed Bluebell; "we don't do such +silly things in Canada."</p> + +<p>"No, you are very stiff and stand-offish there, I know; that is why you +don't require chaperones."</p> + +<p>"What are the duties of a chaperone in England, beyond sitting up against +a wall all night, like an old barn-door hen?"</p> + +<p>"But they mustn't roost," said Mr. Dutton; "they have to guard their +charges from the insidious approaches of ineligible youths, and assist +them to entwine in their meshes the sons of Mammon."</p> + +<p>"But it must be rather difficult at a ball to distinguish who are +eligible as you call them."</p> + +<p>"Oh, an astute and practised chaperone knows pretty well who everybody +is. They have books of reference, too,—the 'Peerage' and 'Landed +Gentry.' I believe now, though, a good deal of matrimonial business +is done in the city."</p> + +<p>"And men have no objection to heiresses either," said Bluebell, darkly, +as a memory came over her. "There's the dinner bell." He collected her +rugs, and helped her down to the saloon, where they were betting how many +knots the steamer had made that day, and raffling for the successful +number. Mrs. Oliphant was present, almost as brisk as usual, for the wind +had moderated, and the steamer laboured far less. After dinner some of +the ladies joined in a game of shovel-board on deck. The bride, now quite +bright again, insisted upon being instructed by Mr. Dutton, and became, +with a view to his fascination, more helpless and infantine than ever, +for she was one of those women who cannot bear any one to be an object +of attention but themselves.</p> + +<p>However, as she was not successful in detaching him entirely from +Bluebell, she conceived a dislike to her, in which Mrs. Oliphant +cordially participated, and they afterwards whiled away many an hour in +the dear delight of detraction. Bluebell was pronounced an unprincipled +adventuress, determined to use every art to entrap this unsophisticated +young man, and each act and look on her part was treasured up by the two +censors for private analysis and discussion.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Butler, it is true, had less provocation to be spiteful than the +elder lady; for being young and silly, she <i>was</i> a certain object of +attraction to some of the officers; but the very indifference of Mr. +Dutton gave a value to his admiration, and made her more eager to obtain +it than that of the rest. Besides, the vacuity of mind and employment +at sea, a brisk flirtation is sure to attract lookers-on, and become a +fruitful incentive to malice and envy. Bluebell could not account for the +unfriendly interest she excited, as her Canadian education had taught her +to regard fraternizing <i>pro tem</i>. with any sympathetic masculinity a very +unimportant matter, and about as much a precursor to matrimony as if her +companion were of the same sex; and she had been far too hard hit to bear +any down-right love-making from another man so soon after. Mr. Dutton +was, perhaps, as inflammable as most sailors, but he could not make +Bluebell out. She evidently liked his society, and became pleasant and +animated when they were together, which they were pretty constantly; yet +if ever he ventured on anything tender she had a way of putting it by in +the most unembarrassed manner possible, which piqued while it perplexed +him.</p> + +<p>On one occasion, when she had let some warmer speech than usual glance +off, he chose to take it as a snub, and, pretending to be offended, +betook himself to masculine society and smoking. Bluebell was alone all +day, a prey to the ill-natured watchfulness of her two enemies, whose +quickened observation and exultant faces proved they had noticed the +cessation of his attentions. Once or twice he passed her without a word +or look, regardless of the innocent surprise in her eyes. "Perhaps he is +trying to gain 'moral influence over me,' as well as his cousin Kate," +thought she, with a little laugh. At dinner he dropped into a seat next +Mrs. Butler instead of his usual one by herself, and, from the bride's +incessant giggle, was apparently devoting himself to her entertainment. +Bluebell had no one to speak to except the kind old captain, with whom +she was rather a favourite, and who chatted away willingly enough, till +she ceased to hear that disagreeable and affected laughter.</p> + +<p>"Miss Leigh," said a penitent voice in her ear, "will you come on deck? +There's a little land bird in the rigging."</p> + +<p>"No, no," said the captain. "I won't have this young lady disturbed; it +is very cold on deck, and she is better here."</p> + +<p>"I thought you would like to see it," said the lieutenant, gloomily. "It +is very tired—blown off shore, I should think."</p> + +<p>"Indeed, I'd like to give it some crumbs," said she, hesitatingly. "Will +you take it some, Mr. Dutton?"</p> + +<p>"Certainly not," seeing his advantage, "unless you come too—in fact, +I thought of shooting it. It would be pretty in your hat—or Mrs. +Butler's."</p> + +<p>"That would be, indeed, a feather in your cap," said Mrs. Oliphant with +an unpleasant sneer.</p> + +<p>"Quite right, my dear," said the captain, as Mr. Dutton walked away, "not +to do everything a young man asks you;" and he assured Bluebell, who was +still solicitous about the bird, that it would not venture down for +crumbs.</p> + +<p>Our heroine was vexed at Mr. Dutton's disagreeable manner, and began +moralizing on the inevitable way in which she succeeded in estranging her +female companions, and offending those of the other sex.</p> + +<p>The old captain was just going off to his bridge, when by some +afterthought, he stepped back, and asked Miss Leigh if she would like +to sit awhile in his cabin. "You'll find no one there but the cat and +the parrot," he said; and, on her gratefully assenting, led the way to +a small oasis of comfort.</p> + +<p>The cat, a great brindled Tom, arched his back a yard high, and made a +sort of back jump up to his Master's hand, where he rubbed his head with +a sociable miaw. Bluebell soon had him on her lap in a cozy arm-chair.</p> + +<p>"I think Master Dutton will be rather puzzled where to find you," +observed the old skipper, with a twinkle, as he was leaving the cabin.</p> + +<p>"Dear me," said Bluebell, with a conscious blush, "I hope you don't +think—that there's anything—of that sort—"</p> + +<p>"I think you have been letting that young man keep you all to himself up +in a corner quite long enough," retorted he, "and you may as well show +him you can do without him;" with which he left her to her meditations.</p> + +<p>"How disagreeable good advice is!" thought the girl. "Dear old thing! But +it is so dull at sea—one must do something. I do wish though Mr. Dutton +wouldn't try to spoon—he was awfully nice before he thought of it."</p> + +<p>Of course these two drew together again next day, and, though Bluebell +still evaded with Madonna eyes all approach to love-making, the +lieutenant accepted the situation, and contented himself with flirting +<i>sous le nom d'amitié</i>.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXVIII" id="CHAPTER_XXVIII"></a>CHAPTER XXVIII.</h2> + +<h3>ROUGH WEATHER.</h3> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I would be a mermaid fair,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I would sing to myself the whole of the day;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With a comb of pearl I would comb my hair,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And still as I comb'd, I would sing and say,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"Who is it loves me? who loves not me?"<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">Tennyson.</span><br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p>One day there was a gale. It came up suddenly, and some ladies sitting on +a bench were swept off by a roll and sudden lurch. The deck was soon +cleared of the feminine element, with the exception of Bluebell, who +enjoyed an immunity from <i>malheur de mer</i>, and knew she would not be much +better off in her cabin, where Mrs. Oliphant had gradually ousted her +from everything but sleeping accommodation.</p> + +<p>A huge roller had hurled itself over the steerage, and broken a man's +arm; but the part of the vessel she was on kept pretty dry. Stormy +petrels were hovering in flocks; the ship, plunging head foremost into +deep troughs, seemed as if it must break its back or be swallowed up, but +always borne on the crest of a wave only to repeat the header next +minute.</p> + +<p>Bluebell was lying (for no other position could be preserved) on some +rigs by the wheel, and holding on by a rope to prevent sliding about. She +felt excited by the grandeur of the situation, and, in the pauses of the +wind, sang low some wild German Volkslied.</p> + +<p>"Are you a Lorelei?" asked Mr. Dutton, who was never far off. "What do +you intend to do with the steamer?"</p> + +<p>"I don't mean any harm to the ship, but I shan't lull the winds yet. How +delightful and magnificent it is!"</p> + +<p>"If you really don't mean to engulf us, and won't comb your golden hair, +pray go on singing. I'll risk it."</p> + +<p>Bluebell nodded, and gave full play to her magnificent voice in the +wildest Lieder she could remember. The man at the wheel, if he had ever +heard of a Lorelei, might have been excused for mistaking her for one. A +lady to sit and sing in such a gale was not an every-day experience. Her +bright hair was only covered by the hood of a deep-blue cloak, from which +her large eyes seemed to have caught a reflection, so dark were the +pupils dilated with enthusiasm.</p> + +<p>"You might be a corsair's bride," said Mr. Dutton, admiringly, "you are +so indifferent to discomfort and danger. I can't fancy you shut up in a +poky school-room, taking regular walks, and teaching Dr. Watts to +tiresome children."</p> + +<p>"I have only one pupil of a musical and romantic turn. You are altogether +wrong in thinking me indifferent to luxury; I am quite longing to be in a +comfortable house again."</p> + +<p>"Your penance will be over in a day or two. Why do you stay out to be +drenched with spray and perished with cold?" very discontentedly.</p> + +<p>"How can I be either with all these wraps? and, when you are not sulky, +your society <i>is</i> preferable to Mrs. Oliphant's!"</p> + +<p>"Yes; that is about my place in your—what shall I call it? Regard is a +nice, proper word,—just more acceptable than the plainest and most +spiteful woman on board."</p> + +<p>"Rather more than that," said Bluebell, gently. "It would have been far +worse without you; but after this voyage we are not likely to meet again, +though I shall never think of it without remembering my friend."</p> + +<p>"What a nice word!" savagely. "Why don't you add,—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'Others may woo me—thou art my friend?'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Do you know that song, Miss Leigh?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," laughing.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"'Lonely and sadly his young life did end;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Pause by my tombstone, and pity thy friend.'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>It's enough to draw tears from one's eyes."</p> + +<p>"Well!" said the lieutenant, "I never met a Canadian girl before, but I +see now they are the coldest, most insensible—oh! of course, you only +laugh. How do you know we shall never meet again? Suppose I call on you +in your new—situation."</p> + +<p>"Governesses are not allowed 'followers.' I mean, male visitors would be +considered as such."</p> + +<p>"Couldn't I get a tutorship in the same family?"</p> + +<p>"There are no boys. Gracious! what a wave. Surely it is getting rougher, +Mr. Dutton?"</p> + +<p>"Well, yes. I think I must take you down. The next roller may wash over +you. Lean all your weight on me, or you'll be blown off your feet."</p> + +<p>In a most incoherent manner she reached the gangway, and, clinging to the +banisters, reeled into her cabin, where was Mrs. Oliphant in hysterics. +The stewardess was in attendance, and she was insisting on her +immediately fetching the captain, as, without his assurance that there +was no danger, she declined to be calm.</p> + +<p>"As if the captain could leave his bridge!" said Bluebell, laughing. "And +I am sure the ship would go down if he did."</p> + +<p>Another shriek from Mrs. Oliphant, who, with a desperate effort, seized +on a life-belt, and called to the stewardess to assist in its adjustment.</p> + +<p>"Oh, dear!" cried Bluebell. "And what is to become of me? However, you +are quite welcome to it. I had sooner be drowned at once than bob about +on a wave, with sharks nibbling at my toes for an hour or two +previously."</p> + +<p>"Perhaps, ma'am, now this young lady be come, who seems to have a good +heart," said the stewardess, "you will let me go to Mrs. Preston and Mrs. +Butler, who have been wanting me ever so long."</p> + +<p>"No; I will not be deserted. Mrs. Butler has her husband and Mrs. Preston +has her maid."</p> + +<p>"Oh, she is worse than all! She sent down for Mrs. Preston to come up and +speak to her, as she was dying as fast as she could, and the poor lady +couldn't as much as lift her own 'ead."</p> + +<p>"And you are not so very bad," said Bluebell, encouragingly. "Think of +Mrs. Dove, of the 100th 'Scatterers,' and don't give way."</p> + +<p>So, partly by laughing and partly by gentle determination, she brought +her round, and favoured the escape of the stewardess.</p> + +<p>It was not a very agreeable task soothing this selfish and cowardly +woman; and she was by no means assured that there was no cause for +anxiety. Her thoughts reverted to Bertie. Suppose they were all drowned. +In theory she hoped Cecil would be happy with him. Still there was a +<i>soupçon</i> of gratification in imagining him mourning in secret anguish +and remorse over her untimely end. She remembered his favourite poem in +the "Wanderer" that Cecil used to read, and the lines,—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"I thought were she only living still,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">How I could forgive her and love her."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Only in this instance forgiveness was more due from her.</p> + +<p>Mr. Dutton here knocked at the door, to offer to help them up stairs to +dinner; but Mrs. Oliphant had dropped asleep, exhausted by her emotions, +so they went up alone. Only a few gentlemen were in the saloon, and the +widow lady, whom everybody had begun to like, she was so unselfish and +contented.</p> + +<p>Dinner was consumed in a picnic fashion. Bluebell's modicum of sherry had +to be tossed off at once in a tumbler, for the glasses were dancing a +hornpipe on the table, plates required a restraining hand, and their +contents to be conveyed to the mouth with as much accuracy of aim as was +attainable.</p> + +<p>She thought compassionately of the careworn mother of H'Emma, who +probably would have been quite neglected during the gale, and determined +to take her something, and get Mr. Dutton to carry it and steady her own +footsteps. Nothing could exceed the discomfort in which they found them. +The nursery-maid was imbecile from terror and prostrate with sickness, +and the harassed mother doing the best she could.</p> + +<p>To begin with, H'Emma had received a whipping, which, however undeserved, +was probably the most judicious course, by inspiring fortitude, and +cutting off all hopes of undue indulgence.</p> + +<p>The poor woman was very grateful for the visit. "No one had been near +them," she said; "and the girl was so frightened, and H'Emma had screamed +so, she was at her wits' end."</p> + +<p>"I am surprised at you, Emma!" said Mr. Dutton. "When, you are grown +up you may be as frightened as you please; but if you don't practise +self-command as a child, you'll be very properly whipped."</p> + +<p>At this allusion to her misfortunes another howl seemed impending, only +that her attention was arrested by an orange tossed carelessly in the +air.</p> + +<p>"Whoever catches it may have it. Don't look at mamma; she has abdicated +for the present, and we are here to put the kingdom to rights. Don't you +think, Emma," in a whisper, "it would be a very good thing if that +squalling, bald-headed young fraternity of yours were slapped?"</p> + +<p>"Mammy says it is his teeth."</p> + +<p>"No reason he should set ours on edge. I'd compose him if I had the +chance! Well, Miss Leigh, if I can't fetch anything else for this lady, +I'll go on deck, and return presently to report progress and help you +back again."</p> + +<p>The storm raged for many hours more, and struck terror into the hearts of +the women and children. Mr. Dutton and some of the other gentlemen were +up all night, as well as the captain and officers; but the morning rose +calm and delicious over a sleeping sea, and cheerfulness and high spirits +reigned in the ship. They were within a day of land, too—a more welcome +prospect than ever, after the perils and dangers of the night. The +dinner-table had scarcely an absentee, and was far more lively than it +had ever been yet.</p> + +<p>"One can sleep comfortably to-night, being so near land," cried the +thoughtless Mrs. Butler.</p> + +<p>"There have been more shipwrecks off the coast of Ireland than any +other," said Mr. Dutton, sardonically. He was the only one who did not +display unmixed delight at reaching England; and, when other people are +exuberantly rejoicing at the very thing that is annoying ourselves, to +moderate their transports a little is a satisfaction.</p> + +<p>"Oh, how can you be so shocking! But I don't believe you. Once we are in +sight of land, if there were any danger, what would prevent us getting +into boats and rowing to it?"</p> + +<p>And then Mr. Dutton plunged into a ghastly tale of a steamer that had +struck on the Irish coast at night, and the passengers had to take to the +boats in their bed-clothes. One poor mother, with a baby tied on her back +with a shawl, and another child in her arms, found the shawl empty, the +infant having slipped out into the sea; and how they remained beating +about for hours before they could land, nearly perished with cold from +insufficient clothing.</p> + +<p>Everybody seemed provided with similar anecdotes, and yarn succeeded yarn +till late in the evening, when a message from the captain that Ireland +was in sight brought them all on deck. The moon was shining softly over +the beautiful mountains and valleys of ——. A more exquisite little +picture could hardly have been presented to the eye wearied of perpetual +gazing on the pathless ocean. Exclamations of delight were heard on all +sides, while some prosaically remarked it was almost as fine as scenes in +"Peep o' Day" or "The Colleen Bawn." To Bluebell it was fairy-land. To +begin with, she had never seen a mountain, and the picturesque in Canada +is on too large a scale for the little details that give beauty to +scenery. Her conception of the Emerald Isle, founded on Lover's ballads +and Lever's romances, was completely realized.</p> + +<p>"How haunting!" said she, in a hushed whisper. "What a pity to go any +further, and be disenchanted, perhaps!"</p> + +<p>"I wish," said Mr. Dutton, "you would think you might go further and fare +worse in another case,"—which ambiguous speech, it must be supposed, was +not intended to be taken literally; for, though youthful susceptibility +and propinquity had given birth to a hasty passion, and he was savage +enough at the prospect of parting, to a young man dependent on an uncle +and residing chiefly at sea a penniless wife might have its +embarrassments.</p> + +<p>Bluebell had glided down the companion again. The mails were landed, the +pilot came on board, and next morning they were steaming into the Mersey. +Many of the passengers had got letters, and were talking of their plans +and fussing about luggage.</p> + +<p>"How refreshing it is to see some one without that business look!" cried +Mr. Dutton to Bluebell, who was leisurely reading in the saloon. "But +have you no goods or chattels, Miss Leigh? And ought not you to have a +letter with sailing orders?"</p> + +<p>"I have two boxes somewhere in the hold. No, I didn't expect a letter, I +was to telegraph at Liverpool, and come right off. This is the address:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"<span class="smcap">Mrs. Leighton</span>, +"Leighton Court, +"Calmshire."</p></div> + +<p>"Why, that is my line!" said the sailor, mendaciously. "I can travel with +you as far as Calmshire."</p> + +<p>"Can you really? How very strange! But I suppose England <i>is</i> a small +place," said Bluebell, <i>naively</i>.</p> + +<p>"Oh, extremely insignificant! I shall be able to see you safely to your +journey's end. So that's all settled. Now I will go and look if your +luggage is coming up, for I suppose we shall land in an hour or two."</p> + +<p>Bluebell's curiosity was excited by the <i>Times</i> newspaper, which a +gentleman had just laid down. It was only the advertisement sheet, for +some one else had immediately snapped up the rest, and she glanced +vaguely down the first columns, puzzling over such enigmatical insertions +as "Our tree, our bridge, our walk," "What shall we do with the Tusk?" +and that "John is entreated to write and send remittances to his +afflicted Teapot,"—when her eye lit upon the following name among the +deaths:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"On the 22nd inst., at Leighton Court, of scarlet fever, Evelyn Cora, +only child of Mrs. and the late Henry Leighton, Esq., aged eleven years."</p></div> + +<p>Bluebell sat petrified,—the ground cut beneath her feet,—she could only +be shocked for the poor child whom she had never known. But what was to +become of herself in a strange land, with no place to go to? Besides +Leighton Court there was not a place in all England, except an inn, that +she would have a right to enter; and in a few minutes more the shelter +of the ship would be withdrawn,—even now she could see the smoke of the +tug coming to disembark them. Perfectly appalled and unnerved, she pushed +the paragraph towards Mr. Dutton, who had just entered, and gazed +helplessly at him with large frightened eyes.</p> + +<p>He took in the situation at a glance, and the thought that had struck him +before of the strangeness of sending this beautiful girl, like a bale of +goods, to an unknown country, where she had no connections, returned with +confirmed force. How friendless she was! But slenderly supplied with +money, of course. A daring possibility had darted into his mind. It was +an irresistible temptation,—and sailors are proverbially reckless. +Matrimony hitherto had never entered into his views. It would entail +leaving the navy and living with his uncle, who, though kind, was +arbitrary enough, and would have very decided opinions upon whom his +choice should fall. Connection, money, he knew would be a <i>sine qua non</i>. +More than one well-born and tochered <i>débutante</i> had successively been +indicated to him as a bride that would in all respects suit Lord +Bromley's views; and Bluebell, as far as he knew, fulfilled none of these +conditions. All the same the struggle in his mind was in combatting the +difficulties that opposed his resolution to marry her.</p> + +<p>Bluebell, of course, could not guess his thoughts, and she only felt very +desponding that he seemed unable to suggest anything.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Mr. Dutton," she cried, "do go and tell the captain, and ask him +what I had better do! He is sure to think of something,—for a day or +two, at any rate."</p> + +<p>The young man looked up with a strange smile, but there were other +persons present. "Certainly," he said, with rather a constrained manner. +"I will go and tell him,"—and Bluebell, mistaking his reserve for +coolness, felt disappointed.</p> + +<p>The captain was very busy, and not too well pleased at being interrupted, +but when he had mastered the intelligence he gave it his whole attention +directly.</p> + +<p>"Eh, the puir lassie!" he ejaculated, "wha's to become of her!"</p> + +<p>"There's only one thing that I can do," said the lieutenant, briefly.</p> + +<p>"You!" said the skipper, whose remark had been an exclamation, not an +interrogation. "What the mischief could you do? I am doubting what the +guidwife will say, but I am thinking I must <i>jeest</i> take her home."</p> + +<p>"Oh, how good of you, sir!" said the young man, seizing his hand, +unobservant of the dry cynical look in his eyes. "But I trust it will not +be for long, as I must tell you, in confidence, if she will only consent, +I intend—I hope to marry Miss Leigh immediately."</p> + +<p>"You be d—d! I will have no such goings on. If the lassie comes to me, +she will act conformable; and, if you think you are in a position to +maintain a wife, you may consult your <i>feymily</i>; I'll have no such +responsibility."</p> + +<p>"You are, of course omnipotent in your own ship," said the young sailor, +angrily, "but you need not forget you are speaking to a gentleman."</p> + +<p>"As far as I can see they are no honester than other people. I only +belong to the respectable class myself, and I'll no have it."</p> + +<p>"What a fool I was to tell you! But surely," half laughing, "matrimony is +an honourable institution."</p> + +<p>"I kenna—I kenna. I'll give the bairn shelter till she hears from her +kin, but I'll have no marrying or such like, to be called to account for +mayhap afterwards."</p> + +<p>But Mr. Dutton, only made more eager by opposition, sprang away to the +saloon, where Bluebell was sitting.</p> + +<p>"Yes, I have a message for you," said he, in answer to her inquiring +look. "Will you come on deck? Here are your cloak and hood."</p> + +<p>He led her away, with rather a pale face, to the most secluded part of +it.</p> + +<p>"What did the captain say?" she asked.</p> + +<p>"The captain is a canny, suspicious, pigheaded old Scottish-man!"</p> + +<p>"Of course, of course," very despondingly, "no one can do anything for +me. I must go to a lodging, and advertise for another situation."</p> + +<p>"They will want a recommendation from your last place."</p> + +<p>"Well, I can get it from Canada."</p> + +<p>"And that will take a month. Bluebell, listen to me; for there's no time +to beat about the bush. I love you, my sweet child; but that you know +already. Will you marry me? Don't start. I know it is sudden, but it +will be all easy. Directly we land we can drive to a register office; +they will ask no questions, but marry us right off, and we can have it +done over again in a church, if you like."</p> + +<p>Bluebell began to wonder how many more sensational minutes this hour was +to contain.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Dutton," she gasped, in a horrified tone, "what <i>are</i> you saying? +You must know it is impossible."</p> + +<p>"Summon all your moral courage, Bluebell. You were not afraid in the +storm. Why do you shrink from acting a little out of the common?"</p> + +<p>This speech was so like what Bertie would have said, that it nearly +brought the tears to her eyes.</p> + +<p>"Pray say no more," said she, shrinking away from him. "How could I ever +<i>dream</i> of such a thing!"</p> + +<p>"<i>Can't</i> you care for me, Bluebell—ever so little?" pleaded Harry +Dutton.</p> + +<p>"But that would be so <i>very</i> much!"</p> + +<p>Her strange wooer grew more eager, for the moments were passing, and +Bluebell was at her wit's end, when the skipper came rolling up to them. +The delight and relief with which his proposal of taking her home was +received was far from pleasing to Mr. Dutton, and Bluebell, in her +lightened heart, felt some self-reproach at the sight of his gloomy +countenance.</p> + +<p>The captain was hurrying her away, but she lingered a moment, and, with +one of those speaking glances he had learnt to look for and love, put out +her hand to the young sailor.</p> + +<p>"Stay with me," he whispered; "it is not yet too late." She shook her +head, "I believe you hate me!" he muttered, savagely.</p> + +<p>"No," said Bluebell, impulsively saying more than she felt. "I like you +only too well—but not enough for that."</p> + +<p>"Any more last words?" said the skipper, who had stood aside +good-humouredly, master of the situation.</p> + +<p>"I have nothing further to say," said the young man, stiffly, making way +for her to pass.</p> + +<p>A minute more, and she was rowing to shore in the captain's boat, who +then put her into a cab to drive to his home.</p> + +<p>Now, the good skipper, such an autocrat on board his vessel, was by no +means so under his own roof-tree, and sundry misgivings obtruded +themselves as to the welcome he might receive from the wife of his bosom +when a comely young lady was to be included in it.</p> + +<p>"She'll no jeest like it at first," he muttered, half aloud; and as the +moment approached and apprehension intensified, he repeated the remark +still louder.</p> + +<p>This moderate expectation was amply justified by the event. The good lady +received the explanatory introduction with a snort, and a countenance +expressive of contempt and disbelief, while she ironically "feared there +would be nothing in the house good enough for her."</p> + +<p>Bluebell endeavoured to excuse her unlucky presence, the best argument +she could think of being that she would advertise for another situation +immediately. Only for the fear of offending the captain, she would have +added that she was prepared to pay for her board, which, by putting it on +a business footing, would doubtless have commended itself to the dominant +passion of her hostess's mind, and dispersed the misgivings she at +present entertained of this "fine madam."</p> + +<p>The general stiffness was relieved by the boisterous greetings of the +captain's boys, who had just rushed in from school; but it was a terrible +evening to Bluebell, feeling <i>de trop</i>, and unable to calculate how soon +she should be released.</p> + +<p>"Ye'll jeest put her in Phemie's room," the skipper had said. (Phemie was +a daughter lately married.) "How will I do that," was the responding +retort, "when the carpet is up, and the iron bedstead was broke by Rab a +week syne?"</p> + +<p>"Well, then, Rab will jeest let her have his bed," said the captain, +equably brewing himself some whiskey-and-water,—and so on through the +evening, during which Mrs. Davidson by no means softened the trouble and +inconvenience Bluebell's presence occasioned, whose spirits fell to their +lowest depth.</p> + +<p>Was it to be wondered at that Harry Dutton recurred pretty constantly to +her mind? She could think calmly now of the proposal that had so startled +her before. It was, at any rate, a sincere, straightforward offer of +marriage, and so far he contrasted favourably with Bertie, whom she had +determined to forget. But, then, she had dismissed him—he had gone away +to his uncle's, and they would probably never meet again; and as when a +thing is out of reach it becomes immediately enhanced in value, she began +to regret her lost lover, and to think that there, perhaps, might have +been a short cut out of her difficulties. We are aware that this unlucky +admission must depose her at once from the rank of a heroine, as it is +well known a heroine never for an instant suffers interest to enter into +the sacred claims of love.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIX" id="CHAPTER_XXIX"></a>CHAPTER XXIX.</h2> + +<h3>BLUEBELL'S DEBUT IN THE OLD COUNTRY.</h3> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Says "Be content my lovely May,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For" thou shalt be my bride.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With her yellow hair, that glittered fair,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She dried the trickling tear,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And sighed the name of Branxholm's heir,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The youth that she loved dear.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">Scott.</span><br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p>Next morning Bluebell rose early, and wrote out an advertisement, in +which she described herself, more truthfully, than diplomatically, as a +young person of eighteen, proficient in music, but not skilled enough in +other branches of education for advanced pupils.</p> + +<p>The captain promised to write to Mrs. Leighton, reporting her arrival, +and explaining that "Miss Leigh would not think of intruding on her in +her bereavement, but only requested permission to be allowed to apply to +her as a reference when she heard of another situation." He added, "That +in the meantime Miss Leigh was remaining in his family."</p> + +<p>Armed with the advertisement, Bluebell pensively walked off to get it +inserted in the <i>Liverpool Mercury</i>. The captain lived in a suburb of the +town, and had given her clear directions how to find the office. It was a +disagreeable walk, and she was obliged to concentrate all her attention +on not losing the way, so her thoughts could not well stray to Harry +Dutton; but ere she had proceeded many streets—she met him! He was +looking very haggard, but eagerness and triumph lighted up his large +brown eyes as he perceived her. Bluebell was in a state of half terror, +half delight, and whole bewilderment.</p> + +<p>"How is it you are still in Liverpool?" she gasped.</p> + +<p>"I have been walking about all day in hopes of meeting you!" cried he, +disregarding her question.</p> + +<p>Bluebell felt as if she had recovered an old friend. She told him of her +rough reception by Mrs. Davidson, and how annoyed she was at being forced +to remain there an unwelcome guest.</p> + +<p>The answer to this was obvious, but the lieutenant would say nothing now +to scare her.</p> + +<p>"Why we have got to the river," she said, after some unheeded period of +eager conversation, "and my advertisement! It must be miles from the +office!"</p> + +<p>"Much too far to go back," said the sailor "Give it me, I will insert it +for you."</p> + +<p>"Thank you," said the heedless Bluebell. "That will be so much +pleasanter, and we need not thread those horrid streets again!"</p> + +<p>There was nothing more to do but to go home, and yet she didn't directly. +There would be only Mrs. Davidson in, who was so ungracious and +disagreeable, and she lingered half an hour or so, talking to Harry +Dutton, who would, perhaps, be gone by to-morrow, but he wasn't, nor the +next day, nor the next. They never made any assignations, yet day after +day Bluebell met him, and for a brief space they were together.</p> + +<p>Harry Dutton was only twenty-two, he had been at sea all his life, and +had never been seriously in love before. But now he had completely lost +his head, and all considerations were swept away by this overmastering +passion, which his knowledge that Bluebell did not fully return only +seemed to augment. His uncle was a selfish, exacting old man, but he had +been kind enough to this boy who, with the usual ingratitude of human +nature, forgot everything to gratify the fancy of the moment.</p> + +<p>Dutton had never been thrown in contact with so pretty a creature, and, +notwithstanding the apparent aberration of mind displayed in thus +jeopardizing his prospects, laid his plans coolly and cleverly enough. +Bluebell still talked of her impending governess life, and he kept his +own council, though firmly resolved never to lose sight of her again.</p> + +<p>She was beginning to wonder that her advertisements had elicited no +replies, and Mrs. Davidson had been especially unpleasant about it, when +one day the wished-for letter arrived.</p> + +<p>"Mrs. Giles Johnson, having seen 'B.L.'s' advertisement in the <i>Liverpool +Mercury</i>, is requiring such a person to instruct and to take entire +charge of the wardrobes of five little girls, one of whom, being nervous, +she would be required to sleep with. Mrs. G. J. trusts she is obliging, +and would have no objection, when the lady's-maid has a press of work, to +assist her with it, or make herself generally useful in any other way. +'B.L.'s' attainments being apparently limited, and Mrs. Giles Johnson +having an abhorrence of music, she can only offer a salary of eighteen +pounds a year."</p> + +<p>Bluebell alternated between tears and laughter on the perusal of this +letter.</p> + +<p>"Why, at the Rollestons'," she cried, "I had thirty pounds a year, only +Freddy to teach, and did what I liked! But they were friends,"—and a +home-sick feeling came over her.</p> + +<p>"If ye just turn up your nose at every situation, ye'll never be placed," +said Mrs. Davidson.</p> + +<p>"Oh, perhaps I shall get another letter to-morrow. I would go back to +Canada if I had money enough."</p> + +<p>Bluebell put on her hat. Whichever way she went she was quite certain +of meeting Mr. Dutton, to whom she wished to display this wonderful +document. It was all very well to laugh, but it certainly was most +discouraging and vexatious. Yet Mr. Dutton, when she saw him, gravely +affirmed it to be "quite as good an offer as he had expected, and was +only surprised at her getting any answers at all,"—which well indeed he +might be, considering that the advertisement never appeared in any paper, +and that the liberal proposals of Mrs. Giles Johnson were an emanation +from his own brain.</p> + +<p>He proceeded to relate the most uncomfortable anecdotes of governess life +in England, making it appear that they were treated like white slaves, +and expected to know everything.</p> + +<p>Bluebell, though only half believing it, began seriously to question +whether her small attainments were saleable at all. Her friend the +captain would go to sea again shortly, and having prevailed on Mrs. +Davidson to receive a small contribution towards her board, the ten +pounds were dwindling away.</p> + +<p>Then, when she was reduced to the depths of perplexity and depression, +Harry Dutton cautiously pleaded his cause, and, as a strong will bent on +one object will always sway an irresolute mind, Bluebell listened, and +for once tried to realize what it would be. She had been frightened at +Dutton's precipitancy in the first instance; but now he had become in a +manner necessary to her, and she certainly liked him,—immensely. Still, +of course, after her experience of the <i>grande passion</i>, this mere +<i>entente cordiale</i> could not be mistaken for the real article. But there +was another question: had she not, by meeting him so often, given him a +right so to speak, with fair expectation of success? She had heedlessly +walked into the snare with her eyes open, and felt no resisting power to +break through the mesh of circumstances that environed her.</p> + +<p>Bluebell wavered and hesitated. Harry followed up his advantage. Ere a +few stars twinkled out, "single spies" on their colloquy, the struggle +was over, and the bold wooer had extorted from his <i>fiancée</i> a promise +to marry him the following morning but one at a register office in +Liverpool.</p> + +<p>The very next day they would probably not meet, as he had everything to +arrange, and also to prepare a lodging for her, for they had determined +to leave Liverpool immediately afterwards.</p> + +<p>One thing only Bluebell retained her firmness sufficiently to stipulate +for, which was, that the kind old captain should be told of it. Mr. +Dutton agreed, on condition that she did not breathe a syllable till +after their marriage, when he promised to write himself and acquaint the +skipper.</p> + +<p>Bluebell could scarcely trust herself to think as she walked slowly home. +She felt quite reckless, and as though she were fated to do this act, +that seemed so desperate. What would all her friends in Canada say? +Somehow she did not look forward to telling the news to Mrs. Rolleston. +She supposed Cecil would be pleased, and it might clear up matters +between her and Bertie. Ah! if it were only him she was going to be +married to! Why does one always like the wicked ones best? She wished to +imagine him desperate, remorseful, beside himself with jealousy. But she +knew that would not be so. At the utmost he would, perhaps, toss off a +brandy-and-soda, give a tremendous sigh, and ejaculate, "Ah! poor, dear +little Bluebell!" and then reflect that he would rather like to meet her +again, when there would be no question of marrying—the only thing he was +unprepared to do for her.</p> + +<p>From which tolerably accurate surmise our reader will perceive that our +heroine has rather come on in penetration since we first presented her +fresh and verdant in these pages.</p> + +<p>Then she thought of her mother, and how disappointed she would be at not +being present at the marriage. She had written to her on landing, but +this letter had been posted in Ireland. Since then she had acquainted her +with the facts of Evelyn's death, and of her own exertions to obtain +another situation, lodging in the mean time with Mrs. Davidson.</p> + +<p>On her re-appearance Bluebell was received somewhat coldly by the old +captain, who asked her where she could find to walk so long every day. It +was very disagreeable having to answer evasively, and he did not appear +satisfied—on the contrary, eyed her askance all the evening.</p> + +<p>The reason was, he had accidentally observed Mr. Dutton coming out of an +hotel, and was unable to conjecture what kept him in Liverpool, unless he +were lingering there on Bluebell's account. Connecting this with her +frequent absence from home, he began to think it time to be relieved from +the responsibility of this dangerous young guest. He did not reveal his +suspicions to his wife, but the following day kept something of a watch +over her, and proposed himself to accompany her out.</p> + +<p>Somewhat surprised by the placid gratitude of her reply, his suspicions +were still further allayed by seeing no sign of the lieutenant, for whom +he kept a sharp look-out. He told the girl—narrowly watching her all the +time—that there were many snares in Liverpool, and that unless he could +see her safely placed in a <i>feymily</i> before the next trip of the +"Hyperion," he must arrange with the owners for the passage-money, and +take her back to her friends, trusting to them to, repay him.</p> + +<p>"How generous you are, dear Captain Davidson!" was all she said. But he +noticed she turned deadly pale, and two bright drops stood in her eyes.</p> + +<p>The idea was so tempting for a moment, with the irrevocable step of the +morrow hanging over her like a troubled dream. What if she could return +to the old, happy, careless days, and leave this smoky, foggy England, +where care and anxiety rose up at every step! But there is no going back +in life. What should she do in Canada? Her connection with the Rollestons +was played out, and for every one's happiness it was better severed. +There was scarcely any demand for governesses in the Dominion, as the +children commonly went to school; so she would encumber her mother with +the expenses of the voyage, with no prospect of contributing anything to +her very slender fund.</p> + +<p>All this passed rapidly through Bluebell's mind; but it soon settled into +an acceptance of what appeared the inevitable, while the good captain +talked on, hoping to induce her to place some confidence in him, if she +did know of her admirer's presence in Liverpool.</p> + +<p>The girl fathomed the old man's drift, and most heartily wished she had +not promised to conceal it from him. It would be an unspeakable relief if +this fatherly captain could only countenance and witness her marriage, to +say nothing of being spared the treachery of deceiving him after all his +kindness. But, there!—she had promised Harry, and must abide by her +word.</p> + +<p>Only, that evening at bed-time, observing Mrs. Davidson buried head and +shoulders in a cupboard she was straightening, Bluebell suddenly threw +her arms round the old skipper's neck, gave him a silent hug, and glided +from the room, and in the solitude of her own wrote, as fast as pen could +scribble, an impulsive, affectionate letter of adieu, confessing what she +was to do on the morrow, which her husband (she did not mention his name) +would then write and announce to him.</p> + +<p>"Eh! is the lassie daft?" had half murmured the not ill-pleased captain; +then, perceiving that the salute had been bestowed without the detection +of his partner, a large slow smile expanded itself all over his broad +face.</p> + +<p>"Wha are ye girning for like an auld Cheshire cat?" inquired the +unsuspicious lady.</p> + +<p>"Nonsense, my dear; nonsense!" complacently stirring his grog and looking +rather foolish. His Scotch head had disapproved of what his good heart, +of no nationality, had decided with regard to Bluebell. I am not sure +now, though, that he did not think the money might be worse risked than +in taking this personable lassie another trip across the Atlantic.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXX" id="CHAPTER_XXX"></a>CHAPTER XXX.</h2> + +<h3>NO CARDS.</h3> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Love will make oar cottage pleasant,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And I love thee more than life.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">Tennyson.</span><br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p>A dense November fog ushered in the dawn of the following day. Bluebell +had been awake for hours. Some men were mending the streets, and, as she +listened to the monotonous blows of their pickaxes and hammers, a +lugubrious fancy crossed her that just such sounds would a criminal hear +when workmen were erecting the gallows that was to close his mortal +career. By ten o'clock a new page of her life would be turned over, if, +nervous and unstrung as she was, she were able to carry out the first +part of the drama. Suppose the captain should object to her walking +abroad, or offer again to accompany her! And even if she effected a +start, might he not, his suspicions awakened, quickly follow! The eight +o'clock breakfast bell rang, and Bluebell came down with a white, scared +face and dark rims to her eyes. The captain appeared unobservant. To tell +the truth, the stolen kiss, which he probably considered "naughty, but +nice," had made him somewhat conscious. So he looked demure and rather +sly; but the girl had forgotten the circumstance.</p> + +<p>The old Dutch clock ticked louder than ever, and, as usual, recorded +the quarters with an internal convulsion. At half-past nine the boys +would go to school, and, in the commotion of their departure, Bluebell +resolved to pass from the threshold and go forth to her fate. She got her +hat,—unnoticed and unquestioned was in the street, and groping her way +through the fog with swift, unsteady steps. In two turnings from the door +Dutton met her, a relieved, triumphant smile lighting his features as he +placed her in a cab. The man, previously instructed, drove rapidly off to +the register office. Bluebell, now the die was cast, felt almost +fainting; but Harry's strong arm was round her, and in less than a +quarter of an hour these two youthful lunatics were as securely and +irrevocably married as though the ceremony had been performed by an +archbishop in full canonicals. The gold circlet was on her finger, with a +pearl one to guard it—of no great value, for Harry was aware there would +be sundry demands on his ready money. Bluebell, of course, could have no +luggage, and he had put himself in the hands of a patronizing lady in an +outfitting establishment, and procured her a small stock of necessaries. +He had received his pay, and not long since a liberal cheque from Lord +Bromley; so the "sinews of war" were not wanting for the present. They +drove straight from the register office to the station, and were in the +train and far on their journey before Bluebell had the least idea where +they were going to; indeed, if she had known, she would scarcely have +been wiser, all places in England being equally strange to her.</p> + +<p>Dutton, rapturously in love, now that his schemes were successful, was in +a state of exulting happiness almost overwhelming to Bluebell, secretly +oppressed with a sense of the irrevocable. She even caught herself, when +they stopped at stations, wishing that some one would get in. Very +different was the first-class carriage from the long cars, containing +sixty or seventy persons, that she had previously travelled in. But yet +there were four vacant seats, which in spite of the rush for places, +continued unoccupied. Now and then their door was hastily clutched by +some passenger, but a guard seemed invariably to turn up and bear the +individual away to another carriage. About three o'clock they stopped at +a very small station, where only one or two persons got out.</p> + +<p>"Here we are, Bluebell," cried Harry, grasping rugs, sticks, and +umbrellas, and throwing them to the porter.</p> + +<p>She sprang up and looked around with intense interest. They were nearing +her first <i>pied-à-terre</i> as a married woman. But the journey was not yet +ended, and they transferred themselves to a fly, in which an old grey +horse waited sleepily.</p> + +<p>"Lucky I thought of ordering it," said Harry; "it is the only one here, +of course."</p> + +<p>"Harry!" cried Bluebell, rubbing her eyes, as if only just thoroughly +awake, "have you got a house? Where in the world are we going to?"</p> + +<p>"I couldn't think why you didn't ask that before, you little fatalist, +taking it all in such a predestined way. I hope you don't think it a case +of the Lord of Burleigh over again? It is only a cottage, Bluebell; but I +think it is comfortable, and one mercy is no one will be able to find us +here!"</p> + +<p>The extreme advantage of this isolation scarcely seemed so apparent to +her; and as the above sentence was the only connected or rational one +Harry gave utterance to, conversation, properly so called, was <i>nil</i> +during the drive. After skirting a hanging wood, and passing some water +meadows, where red Herefordshire cows with white faces grazed under the +low wintry sky, they drove through a primitive village, and, turning down +a bye-road, drew up at a queer gabled cottage. It was very picturesque +and odd-looking, and Harry, during his last leave home, had spent a night +there on a visit to an artist friend, who was making sketches in the +neighbourhood.</p> + +<p>Its proprietor, a carpenter, sometimes lived in it, and sometimes was +able to let it to gentlemen coming down to fish in the river. On +receiving Dutton's telegram, he and his wife, who had given up all hopes +of letting it for the winter, gladly laid down their best carpets, +brought out their summer chintzes, and arranged everything in apple-pie +order, for the cottage was taken for a month certain.</p> + +<p>Harry had not forgotten to order a piano to be hired from the nearest +town. After their long journey it all looked very home-like and +attractive. They ran about the house like two children, examining +everything. The sitting-room was the prettiest, with its two bay-windows +at right-angles, low roof and rafters. The artist had gone abroad, and +had left some of his pictures on the wall in charge of the carpenter—a +bewitched Greuze, copied in the Louvre; the inevitable study of a +bird's-nest and primroses; a girl standing at a wash-tub by an open +window, on the sill of which outside leaned an Irish peasant, with his +handsome, blarneying face. Then there were sketches taken in the +neighbourhood. "I remember this one half finished on his easel," said +Harry. It was a glade of a forest; in the fore-ground a huge oak, +knee-deep in bracken, and tall blue hyacinths. "Look Bluebell, here is +your name-sake flower."</p> + +<p>"Oh, that is it! Well, I never saw one before; we have none in Canada."</p> + +<p>"I wish it were June now," said Harry; "summer weather is what this place +wants;" and he glanced out of the bay-window looking on a lawn, with a +spreading cedar encircled by a seat. Some pinched chrysanthemums—those +flowers that always look born in adverse circumstances—and one or two +hardy roses still lingered. The clematis made a bold show on the porch, +though the north wind had begun to detach its clinging embrace from the +masonry, and make wild work in its tangled masses.</p> + +<p>"It must be lovely in summer," said Bluebell, shivering, and feeling a +slightly depressing influence creeping over her. They wandered out by the +banks of the river to a ruined abbey, which always attracted tourists +during the season. It was especially sketchable, and "bits" of it were +carried away in many an artist's portfolio. But it was desolate now, and +flocks of jackdaws came screaming out of holes in the walls.</p> + +<p>I am painting from Bluebell's point of view, who could not shake off the +weird feeling that possessed her, to which, perhaps, fatigue, mental and +physical, not a little contributed. Yet when they came in no depression +could withstand the cheery look of the lamp-lit room, with its snowy +cloth laid for dinner, blazing fire, and closely-drawn curtains; and they +both were unmistakably hungry, for the breakfast they had been too +nervous to eat had been their only previous meal.</p> + +<p>The carpenter waited. Bluebell felt desperately conscious. His manner +was so benign and protecting, and he coughed so ostentatiously before +entering the room, she was perfectly sure he had guessed that they had +run away that morning. He imparted shreds of local information to Harry +while changing the plates, who answered good-humouredly, but would have +preferred to hear that the whole neighbourhood was wintering in Jericho. +A sociable Skye terrier, who strolled in with the first dish, was rather +a resource to the new-made bride, who found it easier to bend over +Archie, sitting up for bones, than to sustain with imperturbability the +curious if furtive observation of the carpenter.</p> + +<p>A day or two after this evening, Harry, coming in from a smoke, saw +Bluebell, with a pleased, intent face, writing, as fast as the pen could +scratch, over some foreign paper.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Harry," cried she without looking up, "we must not forget to walk +into the town this afternoon. It is mail-day, I have no stamps."</p> + +<p>Dutton's face became suddenly overcast. He jerked the end of his cigar +into the fire, and threw down his hat.</p> + +<p>"Whom are you writing to?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"To my mother, and everybody," said Bluebell, gleefully. "I am telling +them all about it."</p> + +<p>"The devil! My dear child, stop a little."</p> + +<p>"Why?" looking up surprised. "Oh, do you want to put something in? It +would be nicer. I'll leave half a sheet."</p> + +<p>Harry looked the picture of vexation and perplexity. He had never +realized Bluebell's relations, and here it seemed she was in regular +correspondence with her mother and other friends.</p> + +<p>"My dear girl, for goodness' sake stop! My uncle does not know it yet, +and you mustn't say a word to any one."</p> + +<p>Bluebell seemed rather bewildered. "Why don't you tell your uncle, then? +And surely my mother would be equally interested!"</p> + +<p>Dutton sat down for a long explanation, "I shouldn't so much have cared +about offending him before, but now I have you, Bluebell, it would be +ruin. I have nothing but my profession and what he allows me; and he +disinherited his only son for a marriage that displeased him."</p> + +<p>She gave a half start here. "What is your uncle's name."</p> + +<p>"Lord Bromley."</p> + +<p>"Oh, of course; you told me so before. Well, go on."</p> + +<p>"I shall run down to 'The Towers' presently, sound the old man, and break +it to him, if possible. If I could only take you, my darling, it ought to +do the business! By Jove, I have a great mind to try!"</p> + +<p>"But," said Bluebell, reverting to her own immediate anxiety, "I must +tell them at home what has become of me. Fancy, Harry, what a state they +would be in, not hearing! Let me, at any rate, say I am married, but +cannot tell my name for a few weeks."</p> + +<p>"Well, mind you don't say more," very gloomily. "I dare say there will be +no end of a row, and they will be sending people to try and trace us. +Impossible for a month, though," he reflected.</p> + +<p>"And, Harry, did you write to Captain Davidson?"</p> + +<p>He shook his head.</p> + +<p>"Oh, do, pray, or let me!"</p> + +<p>"Now, my dear Bluebell, haven't we just agreed the fewer people who know +it the better? You say you left a letter telling him you were to be +married, and it is no further business of his. Besides, he is a +suspicious old nuisance, and would very likely come boring down here; and +then I should be sure to quarrel with him. Come along, put on your hat, +and let us go out."</p> + +<p>"I must re-write my letter," said she. It was much shorter than the other +one, and a sober look had dawned on her fair face when it was finished.</p> + +<p>More than once she resumed the subject, but never got any satisfaction +from Dutton. "What did she want more? Could anything be jollier than the +life they were leading, with no one to bother them? Every one was alone +in the honeymoon; and, once their marriage was confessed, it would be the +beginning of ceaseless annoyance, disagreeable advice from relations, +shindies without end."</p> + +<p>Harry was still in the seventh heaven—more ardent in love with his wife +than ever; and this sweet little quiet home, with "the mystery and +romance of it," he was unwilling to tear himself from. To Bluebell it +bore a different aspect. Marriage had deprived her of all her friends, +and raised a barrier between the present and the past. There had been no +time to grow to Harry, and he demanded so much. She was never alone, +never free from this all-pervading passionate love that she felt quite +powerless to equal. Sometimes Bluebell marvelled he did not perceive +this, though nothing she dreaded more, for, since the discovery of how +much he had risked for her, she was always blaming herself for not +feeling the exclusive devotion that could alone recompense him.</p> + +<p>To be suddenly deprived of all occupation, and sent to some unfamiliar +place to be absolutely happy for a month, is an ordeal custom imposes +on most newly-wedded pairs; but a runaway match has severer conditions +still, since no letters of affectionate interest can be expected from +friends, and the bride has not even a trousseau to fall back upon.</p> + +<p>One morning after they had been married three weeks, a batch of letters +was forwarded to Dutton by his agent, to whom he had only lately given +his address. One was from Lord Bromley, and had lain there some time. On +coming in from a walk that same afternoon, they found cards on the table.</p> + +<p>"Just impertinent curiosity," growled Harry.</p> + +<p>"Why?" cried Bluebell. "For my part, I think it is rather fun to have a +visitor. Dear me, though, <i>I</i> have no cards;"—and she coloured deeply as +she remembered that her marriage was still unacknowledged, even on +pasteboard.</p> + +<p>"Bluebell," cried Harry, impulsively, "I'll go to-morrow and make it all +right with my uncle at once."</p> + +<p>"Oh, I <i>wish</i> you would," with deep energy.</p> + +<p>"And you don't mind being left?" he asked tenderly.</p> + +<p>"Oh, anything to have the secret at an end!"</p> + +<p>"Bluebell, for goodness' sake don't expect too much! What if my uncle +disinherited me? It is not at all unlikely."</p> + +<p>"Ah, Harry," said Bluebell, softly, "that comes of marrying me. Why did +you not think of it first? I should be no worse off," continued she, +musingly; "I could give music lessons. It's hard on you, of course; but, +Harry, do, pray, whatever are the consequences, tell him."</p> + +<p>"But you don't realize the consequences. I should be obliged to go to +sea, leave you alone, and have scarcely any money to send you. But if he +took it pleasantly, he could make it worth my while to leave the navy, +which he has always wished me to do, or let us have sufficient coin for +you to come to any port I am stationed at. As long as it was only myself, +I didn't care so much; yet Bromley Towers <i>is</i> worth saving, if +possible." A pause. "But I can't think what you will do while I am away."</p> + +<p>"Shall I cultivate our visitors, Mr. and Mrs. Stevens?"</p> + +<p>"Not for the world; we must let them slide quietly, and then people will +begin to understand we don't wish to be called on."</p> + +<p>"I daresay you are right; this house must be an <i>oubliette</i> till your +awful uncle is confessed to." Bluebell spoke with some asperity; the +concealment had become so unbearable. What would the Rollestons think if +her mother imparted to them her improbable story of being married to a +man who could not acknowledge her? And that dear old captain would most +likely imagine the worst without her being able to undeceive him. But +Harry was deep in <i>Bradshaw</i>, and unobservant.</p> + +<p>"I shall sleep in London, I think, and go down next morning. Let me see, +I shan't be able to get away till after the new year. Lord Bromley has +the usual family gathering on for Christmas."</p> + +<p>"Won't the time of your return somewhat depend on the way your +communication is received?" asked Bluebell, demurely.</p> + +<p>"Well, rather," laughing. "It won't do to bring it in head and shoulders. +I must stay a little while first and watch my opportunity."</p> + +<p>Bluebell walked with him to the station next day. It was freezing hard—a +bright, bracing morning; and when he had taken his place, and the train +had whistled off, she was shocked to find how her spirits rose. Of +course, she told herself it was because there would soon be no occasion +for concealment; but there was a sensation of present relief not quite to +be accounted for by that.</p> + +<p>Young people care quite as much as their elders for occasional +solitude—more, perhaps, for they have generally brighter thoughts to +fill it. Bluebell, from the reasons before mentioned, in her anxious +compliance with his every whim, had become quite a slave to Harry, and a +little breathing-time was far from unwelcome. After all, she had a good +deal exaggerated his sacrifice, which was made entirely to please +himself!</p> + +<p>Leaving the road, Bluebell struck a path across some fields leading to +the river, and amused herself throwing sticks for Archie to fetch off +its half-frozen surface—a diversion which soon palled on the Skye, +who was not fond of water; so Bluebell wandered on, soliloquizing, +as usual. Suppose this uncle, who loomed in her imagination like some +dread Genie in his disposition over their fate should receive the +intelligence by cutting off the supplies and hurling maledictions at +Harry's head, what on earth would they do? She had always been very +fond of acting,—indeed, had been quite an authority in drawing-room +theatricals and charades at "The Maples," and with her magnificent +powerful voice, what a pity she could not go on the stage! She had read +in novels of girls offering themselves to a manager and realizing +fabulous sums, and eighteen pounds a year seemed to be her net value in +the governess market. Then Harry might go to sea for a year or two,—they +were both so young,—and by that time things might look brighter, or the +Genie relent.</p> + +<p>She and Archie had a good time that bright winter day, and tired +themselves out completely. He could pass from the immediate enjoyment of +a meal to a snooze on the rug before the fire; but after Bluebell had had +some tea, there remained many hours at her disposal before bed-time. She +would have liked to have written a long letter to her mother; but if it +must be worded so guardedly, where was the good? So she flew to her +unfailing friend, the piano, and interpreted Schumann and Beethoven to +a late hour, while the carpenter and his wife, listening in the kitchen, +"wished that the lady would play something with a bit of tune in it, and +not be always practising them exercises."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXI" id="CHAPTER_XXXI"></a>CHAPTER XXXI.</h2> + +<h3>BROMLEY TOWERS.</h3> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Had yon ever a cousin, Tom'<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And did that cousin happen to sing'<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sisters we have by the dozen,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But a cousin's a different thing<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">Hon. Mrs. Norton.</span><br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p>Harry had stayed the night in London, and rather wished, for the present, +it might be inferred that he had been there all the time. It was some +distance from Bromley Towers, and quite dusk as he drove through the +park. Snow was on the ground, and still falling slowly, the two roaring +fires in the hall, as the doors were thrown open, flung a red light on +the holly berries and gigantic bunch of mistletoe suspended from the +chandelier, and flickered on dark oil paintings let into the panels. The +footmen were unfamiliar, but the old butler beamed on the young heir he +had known from a boy.</p> + +<p>Harry shook him heartily by the hand, and asked a dozen questions in a +breath. There was a sprinkling of visitors already in the house, so, +shirking the reception rooms, he made straight for a private passage, +where in a certain study, he knew he should find his uncle.</p> + +<p>Lord Bromley seldom had his large house empty and there were ample means +of entertainment for guests, but, like a good general, he had a secure +retreat from the perils of boredom in a sacred suite of rooms, to which +no one but his nephew had access. To Harry himself this particular study +was invested with a certain amount of solemnity, he had been summoned +there on so many notable occasions,—once to be sentenced to a thrashing +from a malevolent tutor who had reported him, afterwards, before going to +school, to receive good advice, not unsweetened by a tip. Cheques had +been dealt out there, and his uncle's views for his future guidance +inculcated on him. Dutton entered now with somewhat of the feelings of a +truant schoolboy, for had he not been on shore a month without coming +near the place or even writing?</p> + +<p>He murmured something about London and business, which the old peer +received with the merest elevation of the eyebrows, and was evidently not +going to be unpleasant about it. He knew his nephew was just off a voyage +and in possession of a handsome cheque, and was not ill pleased that he +should have had his fling, and have done with it before coming down.</p> + +<p>Besides, if some plans of his succeeded, he would soon have to <i>range</i> +himself.</p> + +<p>Finding it was all right, and Lord Bromley disposed to be sociable, Harry +made himself as entertaining as possible, and was communicative enough +about everything but the proceedings of the last few weeks.</p> + +<p>"I think you know most of the people in the house," said his uncle, as +Dutton was retiring to dress, "except, perhaps, one or two men. Lady +Calvert has brought her daughter here. She was not out, you know, when +you last went to sea."</p> + +<p>"I remember her, though; projecting teeth and—"</p> + +<p>"She will probably drop into all that Durnford property now Lionel is +dead."</p> + +<p>When he came down to dinner, Lord Bromley introduced him very +particularly to the few strangers present, who all thought how fond his +uncle seemed of him, and that he would surely be the heir.</p> + +<p>Dutton, like most careless dressing men, looked best in the regulation +simplicity of evening clothes, in which the despotism of fashion curbs +all vagaries of fancy. More than one feminine critic smiled involuntary +approval of the handsome young sailor, whose easy, slightly +unconventional manner, though singular, was not unattractive.</p> + +<p>He had been told off to take Lady Geraldine Vane in to dinner, and went +to renew acquaintance with her at once. She was dressed in a cloud of +blue tulle, and wore a heavy white wreath on her hair, which was very +light. Complexion she had none. She was pale without being fair. Her +features were irregular, lips thin, with projecting teeth, and eyebrows +scarcely apparent at all. Yet these defects were partly redeemed by one +sole attraction, a pair of large, light eyes, with a great deal of heart +in them. They could glisten with affection and brighten with interest, +and were the faithful mirrors of a modest, sensitive, and naturally +amiable disposition. But Harry thought her, dress and all, the most +colourless object, and longed to offer even a damask rose to break the +cold, sickly effect.</p> + +<p>There was another young lady present, of a very different type to Lady +Geraldine,—not exactly pretty, but evidently aiming at being <i>chic</i>. Her +dress was of the latest fashion, and in a slightly audacious style, +likewise the arrangement of her hair. She had a pretty, neat figure, and +a way of seeing everything through half-shut eyes. This was Harry's +cousin Kate.</p> + +<p>Perhaps it would be too much to say he was very fond of this young +damsel; but, at any rate, he was delighted to find her there. "She is +such a jolly girl in a house!" he said to himself.</p> + +<p>Kate, then a finished coquette of ten, used to try her hand at flirting +with the big schoolboy; and when she had him in a state of helpless +adoration, and all his pocket-money was gone in presents to her, would +turn him off in favour of his particular friend, who was spending the +holidays at Bromley Towers. The two boys blacked each other's eyes in +consequence; but the capricious fair only remarked that "they had made +such frights of themselves, the sooner they went back to school the +better."</p> + +<p>As they grew up the intimacy continued. Kate would make use of him as an +escort, and allow him to kiss her as a cousin. She also confided to him +her love affairs, which at first made him very angry, but afterwards he +sometimes suspected their veracity.</p> + +<p>Harry could not help watching her at dinner. He saw the amused face of +her neighbour, Colonel Dashwood, and sometimes caught her lively +repartees.</p> + +<p>Lady Geraldine was rather tame, and not even pretty; it was up hill work +talking to her, and he was just in the humour for a chaffing match with +cousin Kate. After dinner it was just the same: she was surrounded by +men, and Lady Geraldine, the only other girl, sat apart, with rather a +plaintive, neglected look.</p> + +<p>"Why can't she talk to some of those old women?" thought Harry. But he +felt bound to try and amuse her, and, after a little desultory +conversation, ingeniously evaded the necessity of boring himself further +by asking her to sing. She complied very amiably, and, as he stationed +himself near to turn over, saw it was one of Bluebell's songs. Lady +Geraldine had been well taught, and sang accurately; but, oh! the +contrast of the thin, piping voice and expressionless delivery to the +rich tones and almost dramatic fervour with which Bluebell poured forth +her "native wood-notes wild"! Then Kate came to the front, followed by a +devoted cavalier, who took her gloves and fan, and was forthwith +despatched in search of a very particular manuscript book somewhere in +the half.</p> + +<p><i>En attendant</i> she rattled off a sparkling French <i>chansonnette</i> with +such <i>élan</i> that every man in the room, musical or otherwise, was soon +round the piano. Her voice was harsh and wiry; but there was an oddity +and originality in her style, while she pronounced the words with a +vehement clearness, that drove their meaning home to the dullest ear. Mr. +Hornby returned with the manuscript book, fastened by a patent lock, +and ornamented with an elaborate monogram.</p> + +<p>"I never keep any songs that other people have, so I am obliged to guard +my <i>spécialités</i> under lock and key,"—and she held out her arm to +Colonel Dashwood to unclasp a bracelet, the medallion of which opened on +touching a spring, and disclosed a gold key.</p> + +<p>Colonel Dashwood retained the wrist while pretending to examine this +miracle, and Kate shot one of her dangerous glances out of half-closed +eyes.</p> + +<p>A personal assault upon Dashwood would have been consonant to Harry's +feelings at the moment. He was not yet quite proof against twinges of +jealousy about cousin Kate, who was now turning over the leaves of her +book with an unconscious air.</p> + +<p>"This song Mr. Forsyth brought me from Mexico. Such crabbed copying, only +an expert could read it; so I merely scribbled down the words, and made +him sing the air till I had caught it. That Charley Dacre got from a +boatman at Venice; and this little Troubadour thing" (sentimentally) "was +composed by a friend of mine, who has promised never to let any one +possess it but myself."</p> + +<p>"I hope you bought up the whole edition," put in Harry.</p> + +<p>"And here—even you, you dear, unmusical boy, are represented. Do you +remember it, Harry?" (playing a few bars.) "The air you were always +whistling, and said the sailors sang at watch."</p> + +<p>"Yes, that was it," said he, with brightening eyes. "How could you +recollect?"</p> + +<p>"Well, when you went to sea I got somewhat plaintive and dull; used to +hum it about the house, and set down the notes."</p> + +<p>"But these are not the right words."</p> + +<p>"Oh, no," said Kate, casting down her eyes with modest candour; "they are +my own."</p> + +<p>Now Harry at the same moment felt almost certain he had seen the lines +somewhere before; and, being rather apt to stick to a point, turned it +over in his mind, while his cousin poured forth a flood of song like a +skylark soaring. Ere she desisted, Dutton had left the room, and +discovered the words in an old Annual on a top shelf in the library.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXII" id="CHAPTER_XXXII"></a>CHAPTER XXXII.</h2> + +<h3>THE SPRING WOODS.</h3> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But, Tom, you'll soon find, for I happen to know,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That such walks often lead into straying;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the voices of cousins are sometimes so low,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Heaven only knows what you'll be saying.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And long ere the walk is half over those strings<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of your heart are all put into play<br /></span> +<span class="i0">By the voice of those fair demi-sisterly things,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In not quite the most brotherly way.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">Hon. Mrs. Norton.</span><br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p>More snow fell that night, and Lord Bromley's gardeners were sweeping the +walks from an early hour next morning. Robins lingered about with bright +eyes, soliciting crumbs, and shaking off showers of snow as they flew +from yew-hedge to holly-bush. Breakfast was over at "The Towers," except +for a few late individuals; and Harry Dutton, in a pair of long boots, +and, I am afraid, a pipe in his mouth, was taking a quarter-deck walk in +front of the ball-room windows. He was thinking pretty hard, and the +subject was evidently not pleasing, as it was with a sensation of relief +he observed a deft figure crossing the ball-room, in a fur-trimmed cloth +costume, remarkably well kilted up over a resolute-looking pair of small +boots. She signed to him to open the windows and let her out. Harry made +a feint of emptying his pipe, but received gracious permission to "puff +away."</p> + +<p>"That killing get-up can't be for me," thought he. "I'll give her the tip +she wants."</p> + +<p>"A certain good-looking Colonel of Hussars has gone to play a match at +billiards till luncheon."</p> + +<p>"Why that blunt and abrupt observation, <i>à propos</i> to nothing?"</p> + +<p>"You must excuse my sea manners. I should have used more circumlocution, +but they don't put much polish on us on board."</p> + +<p>"No, they don't, and you boast of it, hence that phrase. You never hear a +soldier apologizing for his 'army manners'!"</p> + +<p>"Speaks well for their modesty! Well, Kate, where are you bound for? You +are not rigged up in that way merely to coast about here."</p> + +<p>"I meant to walk round the spring woods."</p> + +<p>"And as Dashwood has sloped perhaps I may sail in consort. The walks +won't be swept, of course, and that dainty scarlet petticoat will look +like an old hunting-coat."</p> + +<p>But a gardener asserting that the men had been at work since daylight, +the cousins departed on their ramble.</p> + +<p>A gravel walk a mile round encircled the inner ring of a wood left wild, +except where rides were cut, showing vistas into the park beyond. Here +and there it was cleared into a rosary, with a summer-house, a Dutch +garden with a fountain, a glade with a fish-pond, etc. The trees were +magnificent, and many a foreign specimen was represented, while the +shimmering tints of grey-green, from their great variety, were of shades +innumerable. Sometimes the bordering turf became wider, and flowering +shrubs grew each side of the walk,—an intoxicating spot in spring, when +the wild flowers carpeted the woods, and the bird <i>artistes</i>, returning +from starring in other lands, recommenced their "popular concerts."</p> + +<p>Even now, in winter dress, its attractions were but changed. The +lichen-covered kings of the forest revealed their bold limbs undisguised +by foliage, the feathery birch showed its delicate tracery against the +clear winter sky, and Dutton sighed as he gazed on that fair demesne, and +thought how hard it would be to give it up.</p> + +<p>Kate's thoughts had apparently wandered in the same direction, for she +said abruptly,—"What a happy fellow you are, Harry, to be heir to all +this!" But she was thinking more of the first-rate style in which it was +kept up, and the magnificent, comfortable house, than of its picturesque +features.</p> + +<p>"There's many a slip," said Harry, moodily, between the whiffs of his +pipe. "We all know Uncle Bromley, Kate."</p> + +<p>"Do you know," said she, mysteriously, "I hear he actually keeps his +eyes, so to speak, on that grand-daughter in Canada. The agent who pays +the annuity reports to him."</p> + +<p>"The deuce!—you make me quite hot, Kate. Are you inventing just out of +chaff?"</p> + +<p>"No, honour bright. Mamma was talking about it; and seems he heard rather +an unpleasant rumour the other day."</p> + +<p>"Come, that's better. What has the young woman been a-doing of?"</p> + +<p>"Run away, or something. I overheard mamma telling old Lady Calvert; but +they nodded and winked and interjected I couldn't clearly make it out. I +was writing a letter at the davenport, and in the glass opposite observed +them. I don't generally burden my mind much with the conversation of my +elders, but something in the alertness of their attitudes and flutter of +their caps made me contemplatively bite my pen and—attend. A breach of +confidence on the maternal side, I should surmise, for she declined +satisfying my laudable curiosity when I pumped her afterwards, and seemed +alarmed at my having heard anything."</p> + +<p>"I had no idea," exclaimed Harry, "that he took the slightest interest in +that girl; and, hang it all, Kate, she <i>is</i> the rightful heir. Perhaps he +looks on her as a second string in case I don't carry out all his +arbitrary wishes."</p> + +<p>"Yes, I shouldn't recommend your running counter to him gratuitously. To +tell you the truth, I thought you rather a lunatic keeping away so long +after coming on shore,"—and Kate gazed searchingly into Harry's face, +who blushed, and then frowned under the scrutiny.</p> + +<p>"Ah!" murmured the fair inquisitor, "then there <i>was</i> something—a woman +in the case, of course: there always is."</p> + +<p>"I tell you what," cried Dutton, recovering himself, "if you begin +supposing improbabilities about me, I'll turn detective on you and +Dashwood."</p> + +<p>"Sea manners again! and when I was so kind—putting you on your guard. +But, never mind, Harry, though I <i>think</i> what I please, I shan't peach +<i>if you don't</i>."</p> + +<p>"Let us seal the treaty," passing one arm round her waist. "Give me a +kiss, Kate—you haven't yet."</p> + +<p>"Anything in reason, which sealing treaties in a vista opposite Uncle +Bromley's study windows is <i>not</i>."</p> + +<p>A few paces rectified that objection; but Dutton relapsed into a brown +study, and Kate fell to thinking of Colonel Dashwood; and so they +wandered on till the girl spoke again.</p> + +<p>"What port have you left your heart in, Harry?"</p> + +<p>"My dear, I have none. I left it in your charge when I went to sea, and +have never asked for it back again."</p> + +<p>"I expect I shall have to return it now, as I think my uncle has some +views as to its disposal, and may inquire for it."</p> + +<p>"He always has chimeras of that sort. I say, Kate, how perilously plain +Geraldine has grown up."</p> + +<p>"You discern the finger of Fate there. She has, indeed. I wonder she is +not ashamed of herself."</p> + +<p>"Speak not thus harshly of a misfortune."</p> + +<p>"It's just as much a fault. Do you think <i>I'd</i> submit to be plain? Never. +Give me only one good feature, I'd pose up to it, and make it beautify +the rest. Large goggle eyes like hers might be thrown up with a heavenly +expression—so—(but I am afraid mine are rather earthly). A bad figure +even could be rectified. She need not indulge much in the poetry of +motion. <i>I</i> am not pretty, but I dare say you never found it out. No, you +haven't, so you needn't assume that look of regretful dissent; and I +repeat, that any girl so spiritless as to give in to being ugly +<i>deserves</i> to be left out in the cold."</p> + +<p>"That, my dear, you can never be. You carry brimstone enough to set every +one in flames about you. But to return to our—sheep. Don't say, Kate, I +am expected to range alongside such a figure-head as that!"</p> + +<p>"She will have a very valuable consignment of—timber, however, when she +comes into Forest Hill."</p> + +<p>"Which adjoins 'The Towers!' The Avuncular will be death on it! What an +unfortunate idea to take up!"</p> + +<p>"Can't you do it?" asked the girl, looking askance.</p> + +<p>"I don't want to offend his Lordship. I'd ride for a <i>fall</i>. Any chance +of a refusal, Kate?"</p> + +<p>"That wouldn't satisfy him. He thinks a man ought never to be beat; and +that</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'It isn't so much the gallant who woos<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As the gallant's way of wooing.'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>But I do hope, Harry, you won't have to marry Geraldine. Fancy <i>her</i> +mistress of 'The Towers!'—no go!—no fun! and she would collect the +stupidest people in the county."</p> + +<p>"What a brilliant little chatelaine some one else would make!" quoth +wicked Harry.</p> + +<p>A glance—one of Kate's own—which few men could stand and feel perfectly +cool. With all her flirtations,—and at present she was most in love with +Colonel Dashwood,—she never forgot that if bereaved of their uncle by an +opportune fit of the gout, few better matches could fall in her way than +cousin Harry; so that a little quiet love-making with him was a useful +investment in view of such a contingency; though, of course, she could +not wait, if this dear uncle, as, indeed, was sadly probable, lived on +indefinitely with Harry's future still unassured.</p> + +<p>Dutton blushed a little under Kate's gaze, which affixed a serious +meaning to his insincere words; but his eyes returned the challenge in +hers, though the girl saw in an instant that the expression was not +spontaneous, and Harry felt equally sure that the passion latent in his +cousin's was more for "The Towers" than himself; and then he laughed +inwardly as he thought how different it would be if she knew he was +married.</p> + +<p>Several days passed, and the object of Harry's visit was still +unfulfilled. Indeed, a good opportunity for the disclosure seemed more +remote than ever. Kate monopolized all the men in the house, and, being +at home, Dutton, in common decency, could not suffer Lady Geraldine to be +neglected. There were only those two girls staying at "The Towers." +Others sometimes came to dinner with their parents, and an <i>impromptu</i> +dance was often got up. Geraldine had begun to listen for Harry's step, +seat herself near a vacant chair, and thrill with delight when he took +it. No man dislikes such unconscious flattery, and Dutton, ill at ease in +mind, felt himself soothed by her kindness.</p> + +<p>On these occasions, Lord Bromley appeared bland and agreeable, Lady +Calvert voluble and unobserving, and there was a sense of <i>bien-être</i> +over every one, Kate, perhaps, excepted.</p> + +<p>Dutton had received one letter from his wife. He had had a five mile-walk +to get it from the post town he had bidden her address to, and opened it +with a strange mixture of curiosity and yearning. It was a very bright +letter, made no complaints of loneliness, and was rather divertingly +written, considering the limited topics at her command; and yet Harry +crunched it up in his hand with a sensation of half anger and whole +disappointment. It was their first separation,—they had not been married +seven weeks,—and there was scarcely an expression of affection in it!</p> + +<p>He felt like a schoolboy who has coveted and caught some pretty wild +animal for a pet, yet cannot succeed in making it fond of him.</p> + +<p>He laughed rather bitterly as he retraced his steps. It was scarcely +worth the cold, companionless walk, or the pains he had taken to evade +the rest.</p> + +<p>Why should he risk offending his uncle to please her? If that, indeed, +were all, he did not know that he should. But new considerations came in. +We were on the eve of drifting into the Crimean War; the papers were +getting more and more threatening; and, in the event of hostilities being +declared, he had applied for a ship on active service.</p> + +<p>Could he, then, when he might never return, leave Bluebell with their +marriage unacknowledged? "Though," thought he, in his moody reverie, "if +<i>that</i> were all right, I don't believe she would care a pin if <i>I</i> were +knocked over by a round shot."</p> + +<p>Some curiosity and a good deal of chaff greeted Dutton on his return; +but Kate did not fail to remark how little he entered into, and how +quickly turned it off. That cousin Harry had some mystery of his own, the +astute damsel was pretty well convinced, though to the rest he appeared +light-hearted and hilarious, and enjoying to the full his enviable +position.</p> + +<p>"What a lucky young fellow that is?" had been remarked at different times +by nearly every guest in the house. And the days slipped by, Harry very +much "made of" by Lady Calvert, while Lady Geraldine's preference was of +an unobtrusive and reticent nature—impalpable, yet grateful to the +senses as the fragrance of an invisible, leaf-hidden violet.</p> + +<p>And Bluebell, all alone in her retreat, and each day passing without +tidings, began to think she had over-estimated Harry's once troublesome +adoration, and almost to doubt if he would ever return.</p> + +<p>In truth, he was ashamed to write. The longer the confession was +deferred, the harder it became; and he had now assigned himself a date. +On receiving sailing orders to the Baltic, he would tell all, and make +it, perhaps, a last request to his uncle to acknowledge his wife. In the +mean time why plague himself about it? Things must take their course.</p> + +<p>They were sitting one day in a pretty breakfast-room. Kate rather angry +with her Colonel, who lingered on, always apparently at boiling point, +yet never so far bubbling over as to commit himself in words. Harry, too, +was looking actually interested in Geraldine, whose large, honest eyes +were beaming with a sort of tender happiness. Lord Bromley was not in the +room. Clearly he must be detached.</p> + +<p>"Doesn't this dear old room remind you of childish days?" cried the +artless damsel. "It used always to be summer or Christmas then; and we +had tea here in such beautiful china, so different from the horrid +school-room crockery."</p> + +<p>"And sometimes we were so long over it, they couldn't clear away before +the company passed through to dinner, and we got under the table to watch +them," said Harry.</p> + +<p>"And we used to put out the little sofas and jump over them, King +Charles's beauties looking down on us from the wall so grand and +gracious. And there was always mignonette and nemophila in window-boxes, +so sweet in the evening air? And the honey? Oh, Harry, do you remember +the honey?"</p> + +<p>Her reminiscences succeeded in breaking up the <i>tête-à-tête</i>, and, lo! +the wicked little dominant spirit who pulled the wires had indirectly +influenced every one in the room. Harry, mesmerized by eye artillery, had +dropped into confidential converse with Kate; Geraldine was suffering a +<i>serrement de coeur</i> at being so lightly left; and the Colonel, his +occupation gone, was reduced to twisting those tried friends in +perplexity—his pendulous whiskers and moustache.</p> + +<p>"How silly a hairy man looks drinking tea," Kate had whispered; "like a +thirsty rat dipping its whiskers and tail in!"</p> + +<p>A rather pleased expression pervaded Harry's countenance, which was +as smooth as a billiard-ball. His cousin soon had him beautifully in +hand, and then extorted a promise to do the thing he hated most, <i>i.e.</i>, +to escort her out hunting the following Friday. She hadn't the smallest +intention of remaining with him after they found. Then she would +ride with her Colonel, who acquitted himself more creditably in a +hunting-field; but, as she was not allowed to start with him alone, +it was necessary to impress Harry into her service.</p> + +<p>"That's all settled," cried she, rising. "Remember, honour bright! And +now go and talk to dear Geraldine, who looks as if she were going to +cry." For Kate had heard Lord Bromley's step in the passage. He came in +with Mr. Hobart, who had just returned from London. "Have you heard the +news?" said the latter; "war is declared; the army, Guards and all, are +ordered to the East, and the fleet is to go to the Baltic."</p> + +<p>How these few words went straight to their mark, contrasting with the +frivolities that had amused them all day! It had come at last. Chances of +distinction, redemption from stagnation, the much-coveted active service. +They were all brave men in that house—soldiers or sailors, most of them; +but the "bitter sweet first shock" and rush of new ideas kept them, at +first, rather pale and silent.</p> + +<p>After dinner though, when the wine had circulated and the first +strangeness worn off, chaff and jest flew lightly about, for a general +excitement pervaded the whole party.</p> + +<p>"Shall you order those new clothes now Dashwood, you had so many patterns +for this morning?"</p> + +<p>"No! they would be out of fashion, perhaps, when we return. I was just +going to order a new tunic, too! That sinful extravagance may be cut +off."</p> + +<p>Harry, who, perhaps, had most cause for anxious thoughts, was foremost +in the fun. If his spirits were forced, that was his own affair; and, to +avoid Kate's over-keen eyes, he (the last thing he ought to have done) +devoted himself the whole evening to the more restful society of +Geraldine.</p> + +<p>Pre-occupied as he was, he began to be sensible of a change in her +manner—she seemed struggling with some indefinable agitation; her voice +shook, and sounded strange when she spoke.</p> + +<p>And when he laughingly hoped "he should be covered with medals next +time they met," uncoquettish Lady Geraldine looked a moment in his face +with a glance he could not misunderstand, while a large, unavoidable +tear fell on her hand. To capture and press it tenderly was but obeying +a remorseful impulse. Geraldine immediately became composed, and her +sensitive face brightened. The embarrassment that had left her seemed to +have passed into Harry, who felt the greatest relief when a flutter of +skirts and general rising betokened that the ladies were about to retire.</p> + +<p>But the little incident had forced resolution on Dutton's vacillating +mind. "That settles it," he soliloquised. "She is far too nice to be +deceived. I know Kate won't let me off to-morrow, but I will have it out +with my uncle directly I come back, and go to London by the 8.30."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXIII" id="CHAPTER_XXXIII"></a>CHAPTER XXXIII.</h2> + +<h3>LORD BROMLEY INTERVIEWS DUTTON.</h3> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Ere long a challenge and a cheer<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Came floating down the wind;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">'Twas Mermaid's note, and the huntsman's voice<br /></span> +<span class="i0">We knew it was a find.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The dull air woke us from a trance<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As sixty hounds joined chorus,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And away we went, with a stout dog fox<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Not a furlong's length before us.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">Lawrence.</span><br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p>Nearly every one was going by a late train the following day, intending +to hunt in the morning; for it was a favourite meet in some of the best +country of ——shire. Kate was the only fair equestrian, and Harry was to +escort her.</p> + +<p>There was one old hunter in the stables who loyally carried the young man +without taking advantage of his maladroitness. Kate always insisted, when +he accompanied her, on his being committed—I may say to the <i>care</i> of +this faithful equine, who knew its business far better than its rider, +and, if it did not lead him to glory, at least avoided disgrace.</p> + +<p>Whatever she might have felt about the approaching departure of Colonel +Dashwood certainly did not appear, for Kate was in glorious spirits,—her +pretty figure, always well on horseback, set off still more by the +elastic action of her beautiful dark chestnut.</p> + +<p>Where is the thorough-bred without "opinions?"—and when of that +excitable colour, you may generally reckon on a handful! "Childe Harold" +was vexed at galloping on a different strip of turf to his companions, +and delivered himself of seven buck-jumps successively. Kate, quite at +her ease, was repressing his efforts to get his head down, with the same +smile on her face that some absurdity of Harry's had provoked; but just +as she began to tire a bit, and fancy her hat was loosening, "Childe +Harold," who might then, perhaps, have had one conquering buck, as +suddenly gave it up, in the fatuous way a horse will, when he is nearest +success, if he only knew it.</p> + +<p>"Two or three of those would have settled me," said Harry, +good-humouredly coming to her side. "What an ass a fellow looks +who can't ride!"</p> + +<p>"Well, I will say for you you don't funk," said Kate consolingly; "and I +suppose all sailors ride like monkeys.—There are the hounds going on; we +are only just in time."</p> + +<p>Coquettish Kate was soon surrounded. If she rode fair and didn't +cross men at their fences, still less did she want assistance at any +practicable leap. "Childe Harold," too, was indifferent to a lead; so, +beholden to none, she rode her own line, and, with her merry smile +and gay tongue, with the whole field, from the gallant master to the +hard-riding farmer, there were few greater favourites than Harry's cousin +Kate.</p> + +<p>The universal theme at the cover-side was, of course, the declaration of +war; but even that absorbing subject sunk to silence as the first low +whimper, taken up more confidently by hound after hound, proclaimed that +poor Reynard was being bustled through the underwood.</p> + +<p>A relieved smile played over the features of the owner of the cover, and +"Always a fox in Beechwood" came approvingly from the master's lips as he +crashed out of the spinny. Kate's gauntleted hand was held up warningly, +for the "Childe" was apt to let out one hind leg in excitement. Then +there was a screech from an urchin in a tree, and they were away with a +straight running fox pointing to Redbank Bushes, eight miles off as the +crow flies.</p> + +<p>Not much of the run was Harry Dutton destined to see that day; his +presumed mission was to stick on and follow Kate, who thought no more +about him once they were away. He had flopped over the first fence +without a mistake; but coming on a bit of road the old horse faltered, a +few yards more he was dead lame. Harry jumped off, and found a shoe gone. +Dashwood had a spare one he remembered, and there was a blacksmith, not +half a mile distant. He looked round—no sign of him of course; he was +sailing away with a good start, fields ahead, in that contented ecstasy +that stops not for friend or foe. There was nothing for it but to plod on +to the forge, trusting to nick in later in the day. As the shoe had to be +made, delay was inevitable. Dutton lit a cigar to while away the term of +durance, and was disconsolately looking out at the door of the smithy, +when he observed one of the Bromley grooms trotting smartly down the +road.</p> + +<p>He hailed the man, who touched his hat with alacrity. "I was riding to +find you, sir; his Lordship has sent your letters."</p> + +<p>The train was late, and the post had not arrived before they had been +obliged to start that morning. He tore open a large blue official +envelope, "On Her Majesty's Service," and read his appointment to H.M.S. +"Druid," one of the Baltic fleet.</p> + +<p>Harry stood intent a minute, with compressed lips, then signed to the +groom to give him his horse.</p> + +<p>"I have got letters for Colonel Dashwood and Mr. Hobart, too, sir."</p> + +<p>"Well, 'Figaro' will be shod in five minutes. But you won't catch them +this side of the Bushes; they were going straight for them half an hour +ago."</p> + +<p>And he galloped away with his loose sailor seat in the direction of "The +Towers." The hour had come. That letter was the self-imposed signal for +the acknowledgment of his marriage, and, perhaps, extinction of all hope +of inheritance. One watchful figure at the library window perceived his +red coat winding through the trees on his way to the stables. Lady +Geraldine had caught sight of the blue envelope, and, with the prescience +of love, had divined the whole. She had not wandered far from the window +that morning, being too restless and miserable for anything else. Now, as +she perceived him, her heart stood still. He must be going that very day.</p> + +<p>"Well, she would see him once more, at any rate. Adieux must be spoken, +and, after last night, surely something more, something to dwell on +when they were apart." The carriage was rolling up to the door for the +daily drive. Lady Calvert and Kate's mother came down well muffled up. +"Geraldine, my dear, are you not ready! Oh, you had much better come, +or you will be left alone in the house."</p> + +<p>Geraldine, hitherto all transparent candour, shook her head dissentingly. +"Oh, no, thank you; much too cold. I am going for a walk presently."</p> + +<p>She forbore to inflame the maternal curiosity by mentioning Dutton's +return, and the elder ladies drove off on a shopping expedition to the +market town.</p> + +<p>Harry, in the meanwhile, had entered the dining-room, and, eliciting from +a footman that his uncle was in, poured out something from a decanter on +the side table, and, without waiting to refresh himself further, went +down the passage leading to Lord Bromley's sanctum.</p> + +<p>"'The lion in his den, the Douglas in his hall,'" muttered he to himself. +"I shall be a man or a mouse when I come out."</p> + +<p>We need not go through the whole interview of the uncle and nephew. The +latter's appointment was, of course, the first subject of discussion; and +never had Harry known Lord Bromley show more cordiality and warmth of +manner. He himself was becoming confused and tongue-tied with the +importance of the confession at hand.</p> + +<p>"I think of going to London this afternoon," said Dutton, still fencing. +"There's a few things to arrange, as I am to join on Monday."</p> + +<p>Lord Bromley coughed, poked the fire, and then observed,—"That brings me +to a subject that I wish to explain to you. I have brought you up in the +expectation of succeeding me at 'The Towers,' and, naturally, I expect +you to make a suitable marriage,—as well you may with such prospects +before you. I have noticed with great pleasure that your inclinations +seem to have forestalled my wishes. The young lady, too, does not appear +averse. But before you go, if you would like to explain yourself to +her—in short, bring it to an engagement, you would have my most cordial +approbation—in fact, I think it's the best thing you could do."</p> + +<p>Harry grew a shade paler as the opportunity he wanted appeared.</p> + +<p>"I am very sorry, sir," said he, shortly, "but I can never marry Lady +Geraldine."</p> + +<p>"Why, the devil not?"</p> + +<p>"Because," faltered he, "I have a prior attachment. Indeed, am bound—"</p> + +<p>"Prior attachment! d—d stuff!" cried the angry peer. "Whom have you +seen, I should like to know, except some garrison hack at the ports you +have stopped at! By ——, it is not Kate, I hope?"</p> + +<p>Dutton shook his head. He would have been amused at any other moment.</p> + +<p>"No, much worse, no doubt. Listen, Harry. It is bad enough your having +made a fool of that very nice girl; but, if ever you wish to be master of +this house, the sooner you get rid of all disgraceful entanglements, the +better."</p> + +<p>Dutton's good angel battled hard with the tempter, but the latter held +him silent.</p> + +<p>Lord Bromley spoke again, but his voice, though stern, was broken.</p> + +<p>"I disinherited my only son for a marriage that displeased me, by which +you have benefited. He died unreconciled to me. You may judge what +quarter <i>you</i> would get in a similar offence!"</p> + +<p>The old peer's face had turned to granite. A variety of expressions +shifted across Harry's while his uncle continued,—"Yes, you had better +go to town, as you have raised expectations here you seem to have no +intention of fulfilling—<i>at present</i>," and he rose from his chair and +held out his hand to his nephew. "Good-bye, Harry. You have something +else to think of now; and when you return I hope you will have more +sense."</p> + +<p>It was not manly—it was not heroic—but with the wisdom of the children +of this world, Dutton passed from his uncle's presence with his secret +still unrevealed.</p> + +<p>The watcher at the library window saw another carriage drive round. This +time it was a double dog-cart, and two or three leather portmanteaus were +being disposed on it at a side door.</p> + +<p>Already! Geraldine grew nervous. He might come in at any moment, or +perhaps would not know any of the ladies had remained at home.</p> + +<p>"Still, he could <i>ask</i>," whispered her heart. She had not long to remain +in suspense. Harry came out, jumped into the dog-cart, and gathered up +the reins; then he looked up and saw Geraldine's stricken face. He +blushed hotly as he took off his hat, and shot one sorrowful glance from +his eyes ere he drove off, at headlong speed, to the station.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXIV" id="CHAPTER_XXXIV"></a>CHAPTER XXXIV.</h2> + +<h3>HARRY GOES TO THE BALTIC.</h3> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Is this my lord of Leicester's love,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That he so oft have swore to me?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To leave me in this lonely grove?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Immured in shameful privity?<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">Unknown.</span><br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p>Bluebell, a lonely little recluse at the cottage, seemed to have passed +a lifetime there, so long were the uneventful days. She was not exactly +unhappy, being too young and healthy to be a prey to low spirits. Still, +her life could hardly be called satisfactory. In the first days of their +marriage she would exclaim in her heart. "Oh, to be sometimes alone;" +then, with the suddenness of a transformation-scence, her wish had been +but too abundantly accomplished.</p> + +<p>It was weeks since she had heard from Dutton, whose first letter had +never been repeated, and she begun to believe that the headlong passion +that had led him to force her, almost against her will, into marriage +with him was as short-lived as it had been quickly kindled.</p> + +<p>She remembered Bertie Du Meresq, who had appeared quite as desperate at +first, and then had quietly transferred his affections to Cecil. Like the +Psalmist, she could have "said in her heart, all men are liars."</p> + +<p>Harry near—adoring—<i>exigeant</i>, could be an evil; but Harry away, +engaged every thought; and if thinking of a person is the first step +to love, he ought to have been satisfied with the way Bluebell was +employing herself.</p> + +<p>One evening she was sitting in her bed-room with the window open. There +was a light breath of spring in the air though the nights were frosty. It +was near midnight, and starlight, which has ever attractions for the +young; later on, a warm fireside and creature comforts are more +congenial. Archie, the dog, with his nose on his paws, bore her company; +presently he gave a low growl, and pricked his ears—a moment after, +Bluebell fancied she could hear the sound of wheels on the frosty ground. +It became clearer and clearer; presently she could distinguish the red +lights of a fly, and then she knew that Harry was come.</p> + +<p>That his mission had been unsuccessful, she read at once in avoidance +of her questioning eyes, yet, strange to say, it seemed of secondary +importance. Dutton himself, for the first time, was of all-absorbing +interest to Bluebell. His presence seemed to break the lethargic spell +that had bound her, while no small detail of appearance and dress escaped +her, even that his hair was parted differently. Dutton, who had dreaded +the first meeting, was relieved by Bluebell's manner, and saw at once +they were more <i>en rapport</i>. He was only too willing to procrastinate +bad tidings, so it was not till the next day that she realized the whole +fatal truth. Harry was going to the war with their marriage still +unacknowledged.</p> + +<p>He related, truthfully enough, his conversation with Lord Bromley. Even +then, in her deep interest as to its result, Bluebell vaguely noticed the +curious coincidence of his uncle also having disinherited a son, but, +having a more dominant idea in her mind, that was left in a vacant +corner, to crop up at some future time.</p> + +<p>Dutton was vexed that she could not see he had no other alternative +but silence.</p> + +<p>"It would have been simply giving away 'The Towers' to have blurted it +all out then."</p> + +<p>To Bluebell's unsophisticated mind, honesty seemed more importunate than +expediency.</p> + +<p>"Then, if you do get 'The Towers' now, it will be on false pretences."</p> + +<p>Harry reddened. He had all along been goaded by a vague sense of +dishonour. "It's useless crying over spilt milk," exclaimed he, +impatiently. "Now would have been the very worst time—just as he +wants me to marry some one else. But when I come back—"</p> + +<p>"Then he may be dead."</p> + +<p>"By Jove! I think he has quite as good a chance of surviving me—not a +shade of odds either way. Look here, Bluebell, I will write a letter +containing a full confession, enclose our marriage certificate, and seal +it with this ring he gave me. If anything happens, send it to him, and I +believe he will take care of you, but not while I am alive."</p> + +<p>"Send it to him at once, Harry."</p> + +<p>"You used not to be so indifferent to poverty, Bluebell. You told me, in +the steamer, that you had a longing for luxury and riches."</p> + +<p>"Luxury and riches," echoed Bluebell, "seem as improbable as ever. I +should like to be able to look my friends in the face."</p> + +<p>But it was all in vain. Dutton, though remorseful, was obdurate; there +was much to arrange, and he had only twenty-four hours to remain. Lord +Bromley had omitted the accustomed parting cheque, which Harry had +reckoned on, and money was scarce with the two young people.</p> + +<p>"Will you go back to Canada, Bluebell, till the war is over, and I will +send you all the money I can?"</p> + +<p>"What, as Miss Leigh?"</p> + +<p>And he could say no more. The same difficulty prevented her writing to +the Rollestons, or any one else. Long and anxiously they talked over +their dilemma; Dutton had only money enough to pay his bill at the +cottage, and Bluebell was resolute to earn something for herself.</p> + +<p>She answered an advertisement in the <i>Times</i> he had brought with him, +naming, as reference, the mother of Evelyn Leighton. To her she also +wrote, begging that any applicant might have the recommendation she had +received of her from Mrs. Rolleston.</p> + +<p>Dutton had gone, but expected to be able to return for a day or two +before the fleet sailed, and Bluebell was left alone with her +thoughts—too full of horrors for solitude to be endurable. Each night +she dreamed of Harry, dying, and mangled by shot or shell, only to renew +the vision in her waking hours; and, as she pictured such a termination +to their brief married life, a vague tenderness took the place of her +former apathy. The very weakness he had shown in concealing their +marriage made him more a reality to her by giving her an insight into his +nature—not an endearing trait, perhaps; yet sometimes the failing that +one tries to counteract in the very effort it arouses awakens an +interest.</p> + +<p>Bluebell felt thankful that her hours at the cottage were numbered, for +lately she had begun to fancy people looked askance at her, and the +carpenter's wife had developed an inquisitiveness akin to impertinence.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Leighton sent a very kind answer, assuring her of the recommendation +as she had received it from Mrs. Rolleston. It was addressed to "Miss +Leigh," and a crimson flush rose to her temples at the unpleasant smile +with which the postmistress handed it across the counter. Harry, when he +wrote, having posted it himself, ventured to address his letter to "Mrs. +Dutton"; the only other she had received was from her mother, directed, +as requested, to B. D. This letter had been rather distressing—filled +with vague fears, inspired, she was sure, by Miss Opie, and conjuring +her, with promises of inviolable secrecy, to reveal her name.</p> + +<p>The lady whose advertisement she had answered, apparently attracted by +her musical professions, replied immediately, and, the reference to Mrs. +Leighton being satisfactory, she was shortly engaged at a fair salary.</p> + +<p>Then Bluebell, writing the account to Canada, could not refrain from +slipping in a private scrap to her mother, on which, in the strictest +confidence, she acknowledged her wedded name. This circumstance, however, +she did not mention to Harry when he returned on two days' leave, knowing +he would be sceptical as to Mrs. Leigh's power of secrecy.</p> + +<p>Of course he was relieved that she had an asylum provided, and equally, +of course, raged inwardly at his wife's having to support herself in her +maiden name. He was the more remorseful as Bluebell made no further +allusion to it, and seemed more occupied with making the most of his last +days.</p> + +<p>But he only called himself a confounded rascal, and trusted things would +come right in the end.</p> + +<p>Bluebell was to remain one more night at the cottage after her +husband left. Her wardrobe, though slender, was new, as it consisted +of what Harry had bought at Liverpool. None of it was marked, as she +remembered with satisfaction; so there was nothing to betray her but her +wedding-ring. She removed and suspended it round her neck on a piece of +ribbon. The miniature of Theodore Leigh, which had not been forgotten the +day she eloped, was also carefully secreted in a trunk.</p> + +<p>The bill was paid, the fly at the door. One tender parting only remained; +this was with Archie, who had sprung into it after her, for he and +Bluebell had become inseparable. They could scarcely drag him away, and +she buried her face a minute in his rough coat with almost equal regret.</p> + +<p>"Would you like to keep him, ma'am?" said the carpenter's wife.</p> + +<p>"I cannot now, but when Mr. Dutton comes back, and we are settled, will +you let me have him?"</p> + +<p>"Ah, well," said the woman, half disappointed, for she did not care for +Archie, "ye'll have forgotten all about it by then."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXV" id="CHAPTER_XXXV"></a>CHAPTER XXXV.</h2> + +<h3>A DISCOVERY.</h3> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">There woman's voice flows forth in song,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or childhood's tale is told;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or lips move tunefully along<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Some glorious page of old.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">Hemans.</span><br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p>Bluebell was settled in her new abode, about fifteen miles from London: +and certainly few governesses have the luck to drop into a more sunshiny +home. Only two little girls, pleasantly disposed; no banishment to the +school-room. They all mingled sociably together after lessons were +over,—walked, drove in an Irish car, or played croquet and gardened +as the spring advanced.</p> + +<p>Mr. Markham was a barrister in London, and came down to dinner most +days—not always, though; and his wife, still a young woman, was glad +enough to find a companion in Bluebell. Beauty, too, unless it excites +jealousy, is agreeable to look at, and she soon became interested in the +young Canadian. But after a while she was puzzled by her. There was a +far-off, touching look in her eyes that had come there since marriage, +and she was reserved about herself, though the stiffness of first +acquaintance had long ago given way to affectionate intimacy. For a girl +apparently so frank to be at the same time so guarded suggested something +to be concealed. Mrs. Markham, being a woman, could not refrain from +speculating about it. She had elicited many lively descriptions of +Bluebell's life in Canada, and the children were never weary of sleighing +and toboggining stories. But these were general subjects; her narratives +were never personal ones.</p> + +<p>"By-the-bye," observed Mrs. Markham, one day, "how strange it was that +poor child, Evelyn Leighton, dying just as you were going there! Her +mother told me of it when she enclosed Mrs. Rolleston's letter. But you +arrived in October, I think. Where were you those few months?"</p> + +<p>"I was staying with a friend," replied Bluebell; but her hand shook and +she became crimson.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Markham did not fail to note this, and suspected that during +that friendly visit some love passages might have arisen. "She seems +very sensitive about it," thought the kind lady. "I will get her to +tell me some day. It is such a shame ignoring that sort of thing with +governesses, just as if it were a crime! And if there is really anything, +he might come and see her here sometimes."</p> + +<p>But Bluebell remained nervous and out of spirits the rest of that day.</p> + +<p>One morning they were sitting together in the pleasant drawing-room; the +children had a holiday, and were playing with their dogs out of doors; +Mrs. Markham was colouring a design for her flower-beds, and lamenting +the non-arrival of some seeds the postman was to have brought. "The year +is getting on," murmured the aggrieved lady; "they really ought to be +sown, and it is such a lovely day for gardening."</p> + +<p>"Let me go to Barton and fetch them," cried Bluebell, who was always +ready for a walk. "I shall be there and back before luncheon."</p> + +<p>"Would you really?" said Mrs. Markham. "But it looks so hot! Are you sure +you don't mind?" And declaring it was the thing of all others she should +enjoy, Bluebell set off.</p> + +<p>It was one of those glorious, sultry days that sometimes occur early in +the year, when summer seems actually to have arrived for the season—a +delusion invariably dispelled by the biting blasts of the blackthorn +winter. Lovely as it appeared it was a very oppressive day for a long +walk; the white, glaring road seemed endless, and she half repented her +offer.</p> + +<p>Bluebell was scarcely so strong as she had been, and, having to hurry a +good deal to be back in time for luncheon, was quite pale and exhausted +on re-entering the drawing-room, prize in hand.</p> + +<p>The second post was on the table, and the girl stopped short in the +midst of a message from the seedsman, for a deep black-edged envelope, +addressed to herself, caught her eye. Mrs. Markham observed her with +furtive anxiety. It is terrible to watch the opening of a letter +evidently containing sad tidings, yet she was hardly prepared to see +Bluebell, after perusing it drop prone on the ground as though she were +shot, her forehead striking against the table in the fall. Ringing the +bell, Mrs. Markham flew to her assistance, and, unfastening the collar of +her dress, something was disclosed to view which gave that lady a second +sensational shock, more thrilling than the first. Hurriedly she closed +the dress again, despatching for water a sympathetic servant who had just +entered, then swiftly, dexterously, possessed herself of a ribbon +encircling the girl's throat, on which hung a wedding-ring.</p> + +<p>Bluebell recovered only to fall from one fainting fit into another. Her +strength had been exhausted by the walk, and she had none to bear up +against the shock that awaited her. The letter was from Miss Opie, +announcing Mrs. Leigh's sudden death, after a few hours' illness. Inside, +and unopened, was returned Bluebell's private enclosure revealing her +married name.</p> + +<p>A year ago this child had been innocent of the existence of nerves, but, +from the trying scenes she had lately gone through, they were now so +shattered that she was unable to rally. The doctor kept her in bed at +first, recommended absolute quiet, and exhausted his formula with as +beneficial a result as could be expected considering it attacked the +secondary cause only, and was impotent to heal the suffering mind +reacting upon the body. Bluebell continued in a torpid condition, +scarcely giving any signs of life. One day, Mrs. Markham, who nursed her +with unremitting zeal, quickened, perhaps, by the interest of her +discovery, observed the patient's hand steal to her neck, and then she +glanced uneasily about, as if seeking for something.</p> + +<p>They were alone, so Mrs. Markham whispered in a low, cautious tone, "I +have it quite safe, locked up in my desk. No one knows of it but myself." +An apprehensive look dilated the large, sad eyes, succeeded by an +expression of contented resignation. She did not perceptibly improve, her +mind was incessantly trying to realize what had happened, and was haunted +by a morbid conviction that the anxiety induced by her own strange +marriage might have precipitated the sad event, for Miss Opie's letter +did not soften the fact that Mrs. Leigh had fretted greatly about it. +Still she expressly said that she had succumbed to an epidemic that had +already gleaned many victims.</p> + +<p>It was, after all, many days before Mrs. Markham remembered the seeds she +had been so anxious to obtain, but one favourable afternoon, she set +diligently to work to lay the foundation for summer flowers. Though the +"even tenour" of her life did not afford much scope for its indulgence, +this lady was not devoid of a certain spice of romance. She was also of +an independent character, and in the habit of judging for herself on most +matters, and had decided not to betray Bluebell's secret to her spouse.</p> + +<p>"Men are prejudiced and unpracticable on some points," she soliloquized, +"and though I am quite satisfied that the poor girl is married, he may +choose to doubt it, or think we had better get out of her. Her illness +was entirely occasioned by the shock, so there really is no necessity to +explain my little accidental discovery."</p> + +<p>But the plot was thickening, for that morning there arrived a letter from +Mrs. Leighton written in great perturbation, to the effect that she had +heard some very uncomfortable reports about Miss Leigh. Her information +was derived from the captain's wife at Liverpool, to whom she had written +on Bluebell's obtaining a situation, supposing that, as they had shown +her so much kindness, they would feel interested in the fact. But she had +received in return a most extraordinary letter from Mrs. Davidson, +stating that Miss Leigh had eloped from their house, leaving only a +letter containing an improbable story about going to be married, without +even mentioning to whom. Her husband, to be sure, had his suspicions as +to the lover, but the name had escaped her memory, and Captain Davidson +was at sea.</p> + +<p>Now Mrs. Markham began to feel her innocent complicity becoming a little +embarrassing. It was rather awkward keeping a suspected person about the +children. Her husband would be in fits if he knew it, but, however +imprudent of Bluebell to elope, she still saw no reason to doubt the +marriage. Had she not the wedding-ring in proof of it?</p> + +<p>So as she worked and planted, unavoidably decimating a worm here and +turning up an ants nest there, she conned it all over.</p> + +<p>"The child must really tell me her secrets, or I can do nothing. I will +get her out for a drive; sitting alone in one room, as that demented old +Chivers prescribes, is the worst thing for a nervous complaint."</p> + +<p>So the next fine morning she ordered the car, and, going to the +governess's room, asked her, in a matter-of-course manner, to put on +her hat and come out.</p> + +<p>Bluebell had just received a visit from the local practitioner, who had +reiterated his assurances that "we wanted tone, and had better adhere to +the iron mixture; that we must not exert ourselves, and must be sure to +lie down a great deal," etc.; but she assented to Mrs. Markham's proposal +with the same indifference with which she had listened to Esculapius.</p> + +<p>They drove on for some distance through a straggling village, with its +ivied church guarded by sentinel cypresses, children were playing about +with hands full of cowslips, and lilac bushes blossomed within cottage +palings. A little beyond they turned into Sir Thomas Farquhar's park, +where young rooks were cawing, unwitting of their predestined pastried +tomb. On entering a long, shady avenue, Mrs. Markham pulled the horse up +to a walk, and said quietly,—"When were you married, Miss Leigh?"</p> + +<p>Perhaps this question had not been unexpected since the little episode of +the ring, for, with equal calmness, Bluebell replied,—"The last week in +November, at Liverpool."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Markham felt a triumphant thrill. She would now hear the solution +of the mystery that had been exercising her imaginative powers for some +weeks. She poured forth question after question. Yet, at the end of +half-an-hour, not only had she failed to extort Dutton's name, but had +even entangled herself in a promise of inviolable silence as to the only +admitted fact.</p> + +<p>She had insisted, threatened, got angry; Bluebell sorrowfully offered to +go, but remained firm.</p> + +<p>"Well, keep your secret, then," cried Mrs. Markham, at last, abandoning +the contest; "but I shall find it out if I can. And I must take care that +Walter doesn't," thought she, with a mischievous chuckle, for that +gentleman, many years older than his wife, was a servile worshipper of +Mrs. Grundy, and his hair would have stood on end had he known that he +was harbouring a young lady with such suspicious antecedents. Besides her +personal liking for Bluebell, Mrs. Markham recollected that if dismissed +at this juncture she could scarcely recommend her to any other situation, +and then what would become of the poor thing? But what puzzled her most +was the total disappearance of the husband to whom she had been so very +lately married.</p> + +<p>A clue to this, however, she believed herself to have obtained on +observing that Bluebell never failed to study the daily papers with +an avidity unusual at her age.</p> + +<p>"He must be in the army and gone to the Crimea," thought she. "Poor +thing! how dreadful! Some day she will see him in the list of killed and +wounded."</p> + +<p>Some little time after, Bluebell, who had in a great measure recovered +her strength, came to her room, and said, with frank, open eyes,—"May I +go to Barton and post a letter to my husband?"</p> + +<p>A very warm assent drew forth the heartfelt exclamation,—"How I wish I +could tell you all, my dear Mrs. Markham."</p> + +<p>Without that information, it was not so easy to answer Mrs. Leighton's +letter, which she did eventually in very guarded terms, stating that she +had proof of the marriage having taken place, but could say no more, +except that, "being much pleased with Miss Leigh, she intended to keep +her, especially as the children were very much under her own eye, and +seldom alone with their governess."</p> + +<p>Mr. Markham was generally the first down, and was rather addicted to a +curious inspection of the post-mark on the family correspondence, neatly +placed by each recipient's plate.</p> + +<p>His wife one morning found him standing over a large ship letter directed +to the governess, with somewhat the expression of distrustful pugnacity +with which a dog walks round a hedgehog.</p> + +<p>"Is that for Miss Leigh?" said she, carelessly.</p> + +<p>"Yes," with much solemnity. "Apparently she has a correspondent in the +Navy. It is not a sort of thing I like, and I must say I have often +thought Miss Leigh too young and flighty for me."</p> + +<p>"Oh, I believe she is engaged, poor girl!" said Mrs. Markham, slipping +out a white one. "And she gets the children on beautifully. You thought +Emma already so improved in playing."</p> + +<p>"Well if you know all about it, that's another thing. I trust she doesn't +put nonsense in the children's heads. Emma is getting very forward and +inquisitive."</p> + +<p>His wife felt secretly excited, for she was sure this letter must be from +the errant husband, especially as the governess would not read it in +public, but pocketed it with a slight nervousness of manner.</p> + +<p>Time passed on, and Mrs. Markham had discovered nothing.</p> + +<p>Bluebell, in her diligent revision of the papers, found much of personal +interest. Colonel Rolleston's regiment had been ordered home to proceed +to the Crimea, and she well knew the anxiety his family must be enduring.</p> + +<p>It seemed cold and ungrateful to be unable to write one word of sympathy +to Mrs. Rolleston, but any renewal of intercourse must lead to +explanations, and it was her cruel fate to be able to give none. One +other name, too, she saw in the public print that ought no longer to have +had the power to thrill her as it did. Well, it was not so long ago, +after all: but, however mentally disquieted we leave our heroine, as she +has now drifted, outwardly, into a peaceful haven, we must return to +others in the narrative who have more to do.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXVI" id="CHAPTER_XXXVI"></a>CHAPTER XXXVI.</h2> + +<h3>IN DEATH THEY WERE NOT DIVIDED.</h3> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">My love he stood at my right hand,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His eyes were grave and sweet;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Methought he said, "In this far land,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Oh, is it thus we meet!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ah, maid most dear, I am not here,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I have no place—no part<br /></span> +<span class="i0">No dwelling more by sea or shore,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But only in thine heart!"<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">Jean Ingelow.</span><br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p>Bertie Du Meresq, after lingering a while in London, without any tidings +of Cecil, began to weary of inaction, and turn his thoughts again to +Australia. But just then warlike rumours were becoming rife, and forced +his mind into another channel. Good heavens! with such a prospect, +possibility even, how could he let his papers be sent in? There was just +time to recall them. He rushed to the Horse Guards, despatched a letter +to his Colonel, and his retirement, not having yet been gazetted, was +cancelled.</p> + +<p>But how appease the injured Green, who had advanced the over regulation +money for the troop? That must be returned, however expensive it might be +to raise the necessary sum. One possible resource remained. He possessed +a maiden aunt—of means, whose patience and purse he had completely +exhausted some years ago; added to which she had become "serious," and +a gentleman of the Stiggens order now diverted her spare cash into the +coffers of little Bethlehem.</p> + +<p>Du Meresq was aware that he had been predestined to doom by the Rev. Mr. +Jackson, and that his aunt had been assured she could not touch pitch +without being defiled. "Nevertheless," he thought, "I must try and carry +her by a <i>coup de main</i>, if I have to pitch her clerical friend out of +the window first."</p> + +<p>Lady Susan had abandoned the more fashionable precincts of London to be +nearer her chapel and districts, and the Hansom cabman who drove Bertie +to Hammersmith had quartered nearly every yard of it before their +combined intelligence hit off a square stone house on a bit of a common.</p> + +<p>Lady Susan was within, and Du Meresq followed the depressed-looking +footman upstairs with as much ease as if he had not been particularly +forbidden the house five years ago. He embraced his aunt affectionately +before she had collected herself sufficiently to prevent him, and bowed +with the utmost grace to a rather vulgar-looking, self-sufficient lady to +whom he was presented. This person, however, he contrived to sit out in +spite of her curiosity.</p> + +<p>"And now, Bertie," said Lady Susan, austerely, "what is it you want? I +know from past experience it is not I alone you come to see. I warn you +though your hopes are vain. I have, happily, now a more edifying way of +spending my poor income than in aiding you in your godless courses."</p> + +<p>"I have come to you, my dear aunt, as the kindest-hearted person I know. +I am in an awful hole. But let me explain." And then he told how he had +sold his troop to pay his debts, but had now, war being eminent, recalled +his papers, and so owed all the over regulation money obtained in +advance.</p> + +<p>For once Du Meresq had a good case. Against her principles almost, Lady +Susan listened, and, though pre-determined not to believe a thing he +said, his words were making an impression.</p> + +<p>"Of course I can get the money; but, going on active service, I should +have to pay enormously for it. And, anyhow," he continued, "I thought I +should like to say good-bye to you, whether you can let me have it or +not."</p> + +<p>Bertie's Irish blarney always peeped out in his dealings with women, +and Lady Susan of late had been so unaccustomed to anything of the sort, +that her heart began to warm to her scape-grace nephew. He was so +distinguished-looking, too, with the beauty which comes of air and +expression, and a certain winning manner, none of which were conspicuous +attributes of the disciples of little Bethlehem. She made him stay to +dinner, and Du Meresq, who thought things were looking up, gladly +dismissed his Hansom, which had been imparting an unwonted appearance of +dissipation to the locality for the last hour. He could make himself +quite as agreeable to an old lady as a young one, and this one was a +soldier's daughter, and Irish into the bargain. What wonder that her +heart beat responsively and her blood fired at the idea of another of her +race lending his life to his country! Bertie, to be sure, would have +preferred not having to make capital of that, and objected strongly to +being treated as a hero in advance. However, it was no use quarrelling +with the means that had brought his aunt into so promising a frame of +mind; and, before he left that evening, he had actually received the +promise of a cheque to the amount of Mr. Green's claims in a few days.</p> + +<p>Soon after this, he heard the welcome news that his regiment was ordered +home immediately, evidently in consequence of the disturbances in the +East. This caused Du Meresq great delight. His corps was, then, certain +to be in it, and he would go into action with Lascelles and all his old +friends, instead of exchanging into a strange regiment, as he had +determined to do if his own were not for service.</p> + +<p>With all this other thoughts were associated. Somehow he had never looked +upon his rupture with Cecil Rolleston as final, having pretty well +fathomed the <i>motif</i> of her renunciation of him, which he considered +would bear explanation when occasion offered; but now, rather sadly +reviewing the past, he said to himself that, after all, it was well for +her they had not married.</p> + +<p>I do not know that Cecil would have been of the same opinion. She had a +brave spirit, that could bear up against known evils, but fretted and +suffered in suspense. She was much altered since her illness. Once the +most attentive and docile of daughters, she became irritable and +uncertain in temper-<i>difficile</i>, as the French call it, or, according to +a Scotch expression, "There was no doing with her" some days; and Mrs. +Rolleston, unhappy about both Cecil and Bertie, looked upon her husband's +prejudice against the latter as the cause of all this unsatisfactory +state of things.</p> + +<p>As to Colonel Rolleston, he was in the condition of a man whose "foes are +those of his own household." No one appreciated more the "pillow of a +woman's mind"; but really now the pillow might have been stuffed with +stones, so many corners and angularities had developed themselves in his +feminalities.</p> + +<p>The regiment had been ordered to Quebec almost immediately after Bluebell +had gone to England; and, as Mrs. Rolleston there heard of Evelyn +Leighton's death, the fate of their <i>protegée</i> became naturally a subject +of anxious speculation. Yet not a line had been received from her; and, +after a time, the subject was avoided, for all felt that Bluebell had +been ungrateful.</p> + +<p>Then Mrs. Leighton wrote out the strange story of her elopement, and +having since entered a family as governess in her maiden name. Mrs. +Rolleston was painfully shocked; for, coupling it with the girl's +silence, she could not but imagine the worst, especially when, as they +gazed at each other in mute dismay, she read in Cecil's face a suspicion +that Bertie had had some hand in her disappearance, he had not written +either; but, unless he were in correspondence with Bluebell, could not +have been aware that she was in England. Of course, therefore, it was +only the wildest conjecture. Yet how could Cecil believe that a girl who +had once cared for Bertie should so utterly have forgotten him as to +sacrifice herself to any one else within a few weeks? But a letter from +Du Meresq himself did much to banish these gathering doubts and +suspicions. It appeared quite open and above-board, and was written to +Mrs. Rolleston on the eve of embarking with his regiment for the Crimea. +He mentioned one or two houses he had been staying in, related the +successful visit to his aunt and wound up in a postcript with the +words,—"Give my dearest love to Cecil, if she cares to have it."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Rolleston silently put the letter into her hand, and left the room. +But the privacy of four walls was insufficient for Cecil while permitting +herself the dear fascination of perusing Bertie's handwriting. She was +missing for the next two hours, which Lela was able to account for, +having observed her going downstairs dressed for walking.</p> + +<p>She did not remember to return Du Meresq's letter, nor did Mrs. Rolleston +ask for it. Very soon afterwards they also went to England, though the +Colonel's regiment was not sent to the Crimea for some months later. It +was quartered near London, and he took a house for his family in +Kensington. And now a strange fancy possessed Cecil. It happened one day, +when they were out driving, that a little boy drifting across the street +with the suicidal <i>insouciance</i> of his kind, got knocked down by their +horses, and, of course, had to be driven straight to the hospital to have +his injuries investigated. It was necessary to detain the child, and +Cecil walked down most days to bring him toys and inquire into his +progress. There she became acquainted with some members of a sisterhood, +who were employed in nursing in the accident ward, and, after the boy +had been dismissed, convalescent, and ready to be run over again, she +still continued her visits.</p> + +<p>What the attraction was, neither of her parents could conceive, for, +although the sisterhood was of the High Church order, they observed no +particular religious enthusiasm or ritualistic tendencies in their +daughter. "Cecil's mystery" it was called in the family, for she never +spoke of what she had been doing all day, though it was apparently +satisfactory, as her spirits were far more even than they had been of +late. It was generally supposed that a charitable fervour had seized her, +and that she was visiting among the poor; indeed Mrs. Rolleston had +little curiosity to spare at present. She was living in dread and daily +expectation of Colonel Rolleston being sent to the East; and he was +engaged, as a calm, brave man might, in arranging his affairs to provide +for his family in any event.</p> + +<p>The order came at last; it was almost a relief from the continual +suspense, and there were a few days for preparation. On one of these last +evenings some of the officers were dining at the Colonel's, and among +them—which was unusual now—Fane, who, though believing that Cecil's +love affair with Du Meresq must have been broken off, still honourably +abstained from her society till she should, by some sign, absolve him +from his promise. On this occasion though, to her dread, he appeared +sentimentally inclined, and Cecil, to whom a Sir Lancelot even would have +been intolerable had he attempted to take the place of the lover she had +outwardly discarded and inwardly enshrined, took refuge with Jack +Vavasour, who regarded the approaching campaign in about the same light +as a steeple-chase—a delightful piece of excitement, with a spice of +danger in it.</p> + +<p>His cheerful chatter amused and relieved the tension of her mind.</p> + +<p>"I shall be sure to come across Du Meresq," he observed, with simple +directness. "I shall tell him I saw you the last thing. How glad he will +be to hear of any one at home! Have you any message, Miss Rolleston?" +looking straight in her face, which was glowing as he spoke.</p> + +<p>"Tell him," said Cecil, who liked Jack, and trusted him more than any +one, "to be sure and write very often to his sister, who is dreadfully +anxious, as, indeed, we <i>all</i> are."</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes, of course," cried Vavasour; "but is that all? Let me give him +that glove," which Cecil had been absently pulling off and on.</p> + +<p>"Certainly-not!" flaming up in a moment. "Give it to me back directly, +Mr. Vavasour!"</p> + +<p>Jack thought she was offended. "I didn't mean to be impertinent, Miss +Rolleston. You know this is not like an ordinary occasion; and I am sure +I didn't think there would be much in it."</p> + +<p>"I know, I know. But don't invent anything from me to Bertie Du Meresq." +Then, with a softer manner, and most cordial squeeze of the hand as she +saw the other men rising to go,—"Good-bye, and come back safe, you dear, +true-hearted boy!"</p> + +<p>Next day the mystery came out. She had been qualifying as a hospital +nurse, with the view of joining Miss Nightingale's staff at Scutari.</p> + +<p>Cecil had quite anticipated the antagonism and ridicule with which this +announcement would assuredly be met. A craze to go out to the East +possessed many romantic young ladies of the period, too adventurous +to be satisfied with merely knitting socks and comforters for their +frost-bitten heroes. Colonel Rolleston had frequently expressed a +profound contempt for this mania, refusing to perceive any more exalted +motive for it than a desire to follow their partners. So his horror may +be imagined when his own daughter, whom he had always credited with a +certain amount of sense, thus enrolled herself in the ranks of these fair +enthusiasts.</p> + +<p>Cecil allowed the first torrent of words to expend itself, but, in reply +to the contemptuous query of "What earthly use could she be?" reiterated +the fact of her having received a certificate of competency from the +hospital, and adding, that as five of the sisterhood were shortly to be +taken out to Scutari, it would be easy for her to accompany them as a +volunteer. Then, evading further discussion by leaving the room, she +calmly left the idea to work.</p> + +<p>It was not certainly innate love of the occupation that had made Cecil so +diligent an attendant of the accident ward. At first she shuddered and +faltered at the simplest operation in which her assistance was called +for, but it was essential to test her own nerve before dressing gun-shot +wounds, besides which, a certificate from the hospital would much +facilitate her chance of being taken out to Scutari. And, moreover, she +was desperately unhappy, and rushed into anything to escape from herself.</p> + +<p>I don't know how it was that Cecil prevailed in the end. A year ago, if +she had proposed such a thing, Colonel Rolleston would have a considered +her a fit subject for a <i>maison de sante</i>, but he had been thinking for +some time that his daughter was "odd." She was evidently turning out one +of those unmanageable beings, an eccentric woman. Of age, and with an +independent income, if baulked in this, she might only do something else +equally perverse, and, though a most extraordinary fancy for a girl so +brought up, he would not oppose it further.</p> + +<p>And then Cecil, when she had got her wish, with a strange inconsistency +seemed almost inclined to give it up again. But the Colonel, being in +ignorance of her vacillating purpose, took her passage in the same ship +as the other nurses.</p> + +<p>Work enough was there for every one when that vessel reached its +destination. The battle of the Alma had just been fought, and the wounded +were being brought in daily to Scutari.</p> + +<p>In the mean time, Colonel Rolleston had sailed with his regiment, and +Mrs. Rolleston fell into such a state of nervous depression, that Cecil +saw it would be cruel to abandon her—another opportunity for going out +would soon occur, and defering her journey till then, she remained at +home to fulfil the more obvious duty of supporting the sinking spirits +of her step-mother.</p> + +<p>And so passed many weary weeks. The battle of the Alma had been won, and +none of their belongings had appeared in the long list of killed and +wounded. Mrs. Rolleston, becoming more accustomed to suspense, bore up +with greater fortitude. Letters from the seat of war were, of course, +waited for with fearful anxiety, and on the few and far between occasions +when these arrived, they were all comparatively happy.</p> + +<p>One evening Cecil was sitting alone in her own room, and, being very +tired after a long day at the hospital, dropped asleep in her chair. She +awoke with a feeling of deadly chilliness. The moon was shining into the +room, and the figure of Bertie Du Meresq, keen clearly by its rays, was +standing quietly gazing at her.</p> + +<p>"Bertie!" shrieked Cecil "Oh, when did you come?"—and she tried to rush +forward to greet him, but her limbs seemed paralyzed, and he did not move +either, though a sad, sweet smile seemed to pass over his face. <i>Was</i> it +himself, or only a quivering moonbeam? for when she was able to move +there was nothing else to be seen.</p> + +<p>A ghost itself could not have been whiter than Cecil, as she fled to the +drawing room, and almost inarticulately described what she had beheld.</p> + +<p>The very horror it inspired made Mrs. Rolleston repel the ghastly idea +almost angrily.</p> + +<p>"Good heavens, Cecil, why do you frighten me so! You had fallen asleep, +and were dreaming. You say yourself," and she shuddered, "<i>it</i> was gone +when you awoke."</p> + +<p>"You know," said the girl, not apparently attending, "I have never seen +Bertie in uniform, but this is what he wore," (describing the dress of +the —— Hussars), "and his tunic was torn."</p> + +<p>"That is too absurd, Cecil. All Hussar uniforms are more or less alike, +and you must have seen many. It <i>is</i> this dreadful idea of going to +Scutari that has filled your mind with horrors, and hospital work here +has been too much for you, and told on your nerves."</p> + +<p>But Cecil sat unheeding, as if turned to stone, with such a grey look of +despair on her face, that Mrs. Rolleston longed to rouse her in any way.</p> + +<p>"Forgive me, Cecil," she cried; "you <i>do</i> care for poor Bertie, I see."</p> + +<p>She looked up with a vague, uncomprehending glance.</p> + +<p>"Who was so brilliant—who so brave—with that sympathetic voice, and +warm, endearing manner? He was wicked, I dare say!—he was not cold +enough for a saint."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Rolleston listened painfully.</p> + +<p>"How every one adored him!" pursued Cecil. "I don't mean women—of course +<i>they</i> did: but all his friends would have done anything for him. I have +seen his letters; and who could touch him in countenance, manner, grace? +And such a poetic, original mind! But he cared for me <i>most</i>,—he must, +don't you think?" (looking up with dry, tearless eyes), "or he would not +have come to me to-night."</p> + +<p>"Then <i>why</i>, oh, why, Cecil, did you give him up?"</p> + +<p>Her brow contracted for an instant. "I could not bear my sun to shine on +any one else," she cried, passionately "I grudged every glance of his +eye, every tone of his voice given to another."</p> + +<p>"Then, Bluebell <i>was</i> the cause—" began Mrs. Rolleston.</p> + +<p>"'My eyes were blinded;' he cared no more for her than the rest. Had I +believed him, we might have been happy five months, for we should have +married the day I came of age."</p> + +<p>"It will happen yet!" cried Mrs. Rolleston. "Shake off this fearful +dream, my dearest child. I know that Bertie cares only for you."</p> + +<p>"We have met to-night, we never shall again."</p> + +<p>"She will have a brain-fever," thought Mrs. Rolleston, distractedly, "if +tears do not come to her relief." They did eventually, convulsively and +exhaustingly, till she dropped into a death-like sleep far into the next +morning.</p> + +<p>The sun had been shining for hours. Mrs. Rolleston did not disturb her, +but the superstitious terror she had battled against the night before +returned daring that long day, in an agony of impatience for news.</p> + +<p>But no submarine telegraph then existing, nothing was heard for a time. +Mrs. Rolleston might have shaken off the gruesome impression, but for the +immovable conviction of Bertie's death that actuated Cecil. She assumed +the deepest mourning, and passed whole hours alone with her grief, +perfectly indifferent to the opinion of any one. Indeed, since his +spiritual presence had, as she believed, appeared to her, he seemed +nearer than before, when they were parted and unreconciled.</p> + +<p>One day, late in the afternoon, Mrs. Rolleston was agitated by that weird +sound to anxious ears, the shouting voices of men and boys hawking +evening papers, and proclaiming startling news. She saw from the balcony +her servant dart down the street for the gratification of his curiosity. +He bought a paper, and perused it as he slowly returned. He got "quite a +turn," as he afterwards described it, when his mistress, pale as a sheet, +met him at the door, and, without a word, snatched the evening journal +from his astonished hands.</p> + +<p>No occasion to seek far. The sensational paragraph was in capital +letters, and contained the intelligence of the battle of Balaklava, and +famous charge of the six hundred, with its fearful losses. The cavalry +regiments engaged were named. Among them was Bertie Du Meresq's, and +mentioned as one that had suffered heavily. The returns of killed and +wounded did not appear.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Rolleston had a friend at the Horse Guards, and instantly despatched +the servant there, with a letter requesting further particulars as early +as possible. Ill news does not lag. A letter from General—soon arrived, +with its warning black seal. Captain Du Meresq was among the casualties. +He had been shot through the heart during the charge.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXVII" id="CHAPTER_XXXVII"></a>CHAPTER XXXVII.</h2> + +<h3>AN UNEXPECTED RENCONTRE.</h3> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Into a ward of the white-washed walls,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where the dead and the dying lay,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Wounded by bayonets, shells, and balls,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Somebody's darling was borne one day.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">Song.</span><br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p>Mrs. Rolleston completely sank under this dreadful blow. Bertie had been +her darling and pride from his infancy, and her own misery was redoubled, +in anticipation of the even greater anguish of Cecil.</p> + +<p>Strange to say, though, <i>she</i> experienced no new shock. That Du Meresq +was dead, she had never doubted, or that his spirit, in the moment of +departure, had hovered for an instant near the one who loved him best. It +seemed to connect her with that other world whither he had gone. It did +not appear so far away, now Bertie was there, and her thoughts were ever +in communion with her spirit love.</p> + +<p>The hour in which he had, as she believed, appeared to her, she regularly +passed alone in the same room, and even prayed for another sign of his +presence.</p> + +<p>But if such prayers were answered, what mourners would remain unvisited +by their dead?</p> + +<p>This room became her "temple and her shrine," in which Bertie, all his +sins forgotten, was canonized. How incessantly she regretted having +parted with those letters, so impulsively affectionate and so entirely +confidential! To be sure, they were chiefly about himself; but what +subject could be so interesting to Cecil? His normal condition of +picturesque insolvency was only a proof of generosity of disposition and +absence of meanness. Now she had nothing but a letter not her own, and +that one last message, "Give my dearest love to Cecil."</p> + +<p>Whether or no the vision was really but a dream, we leave to the decision +of our readers. It was not unnatural that the dominant idea should +impress that unreasoning moment between sleeping and waking; but Cecil's +fervent faith knew no doubts, and thus it was that Du Meresq dead +influenced her as much as when living.</p> + +<p>They soon heard from Colonel Rolleston. Part of his regiment had been +sent to seek and bring in the wounded; his brother-in-law's body had been +found and brought back by Vavasour, and he sent his wife Bertie's watch. +The newspapers were full of the disastrous but glorious charge of the +cavalry, and of their immense loss.</p> + +<p>In Du Meresq's regiment all the senior had been cut off. Had he lived, he +would have been Colonel of it, a position which Lascelles survived to +fill.</p> + +<p>There appeared no respite from anxiety for those who had relatives in the +East. Within two months the battles of the Alma, Balaklava, and Inkermann +had been fought. Colonel Rolleston seemed to bear a charmed life; for, +though repeatedly under fire, he had come out unscathed. Many of his +officers were killed, Fane slightly wounded, and Jack Vavasour had +lost an arm.</p> + +<p>In the ensuing spring Cecil roused herself. Though all her hopes were +dead, the native energy of her character asserted itself, and rebelled +against utter stagnation. Some letters she had received from the nurses +in the Crimea rekindled her former enthusiasm, and she determined to +execute her original project, and go out to the aid of her suffering +countrymen.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Rolleston was now more hopeful, and, far from opposing Cecil's +wishes, cheerfully forwarded them. She looked upon hers as so cruelly +exceptional a lot, that any absorbing occupation capable of distracting +her mind was only too welcome. And so when</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i34">Spring<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Came forth, her work of gladness to contrive,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With all her reckless birds upon the wing,<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Cecil, turning "from all she brought," was far on her way to the East, +and wishing, as she assumed the black serge hospital dress, that she +could as easily transform her internal consciousness as her outward +identity.</p> + +<p>Hers was not a nature to do anything by halves, and every faculty of mind +and body became absorbed in these new duties. The patient who fell into +Cecil's hands had little to complain of. She struggled for his life when +even the shadow of death had fallen on him, and sometimes, by arduous +exertions and devoted nursing, saved one in whom the vital flame had +wasted almost to the socket. And then a nearly divine content came to her +as she imagined she might have spared some distant heart the pangs that +had almost broken her own.</p> + +<p>But to follow her through the daily routine of duties, often painful, +often touching, would be too long for the present history, so we pass +abruptly to one event, a necessary link in it.</p> + +<p>Cecil was attending a fever case, and looking anxiously for the doctor, +as she fancied her patient was sinking. He was a young man, and had been +more or less unconscious ever since he was brought in.</p> + +<p>The surgeon came, and shook his head as he felt the feeble pulse.</p> + +<p>"Is there no hope?" asked Cecil, sorrowfully.</p> + +<p>"Scarcely any. Give him this stimulant whenever you can get him to +swallow it; but there seems no reserve of strength." And he passed on +to others.</p> + +<p>She lost no time in attending to his directions, and a large pair of +melancholy brown eyes opened on her. They watched her about persistently, +and seeing their gaze, though languid, was rational, she asked "if there +was anything she could do for him."</p> + +<p>His voice was so inaudible she could but just catch the sentence, "So he +gives me over!"</p> + +<p>"I don't think he would if he could see you now. Indeed, you seem +better."</p> + +<p>"I don't think I shall die; but, in case of accidents, will you write +something for me?"</p> + +<p>Cecil nodded, while holding rapid communion with herself. Ought she to +let him exhaust his little strength in dictating probably an agitating +letter?</p> + +<p>"Will you wait till you are a little stronger?" she said doubtfully.</p> + +<p>"If I ever am, it will not be necessary to write; if otherwise I cannot +do it too soon."</p> + +<p>Cecil, judging by her own feelings that opposition to any strong wish +would be more injurious than even imprudent indulgence, glided from the +room, and soon returned with writing materials.</p> + +<p>She sat down by the bed, and casually felt the attenuated wrist as she +did so. The sick man gazed gratefully at her, but waited some minutes for +breath to commence. His first words made her almost bound from her chair, +and, as he continued in low feeble tones, with long pauses between, Cecil +was wrought into an agony of suspense and interest.</p> + +<p>The communication was to be addressed to an uncle, and began abruptly:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"I was married to Theodora Leigh at a register office at Liverpool in +November, 1853, and I make it a dying request to you to acknowledge my +widow, who will otherwise be destitute both of money and friends. +Forgive, if you can, my deception, and the poor return made for all the +benefits lavished on your, notwithstanding, grateful nephew,</p> + +<p>"HARRY DUTTON.</p> + +<p>"P.S.—My wife is a governess in the family of Mr. Markham, Heatherbrae, +Wimbledon."</p></div> + +<p>It was sealed, directed, and the patient had sunk into a heavy stupor; +but Cecil felt her heart stirred as she had never expected to do again.</p> + +<p>Here, if she had required it, was complete exoneration of any subsequent +intercourse having taken place between Du Meresq and Bluebell. The latter +evidently had been far otherwise engaged, and, for the first time, she +felt her long-cherished resentment melting away.</p> + +<p>She gazed with some curiosity at the man who could so soon supplant +Bertie, and smiled with irrepressible bitterness at the singular +coincidence that she should be striving to preserve a husband to +Bluebell, who had deprived her of her own early love.</p> + +<p>But where could she have met this man, whom she had married almost +immediately on landing in England? Cecil looked again at the +address—"Right Honourable Lord Bromley." She had heard that name +somewhere, but could not recall any connecting associations.</p> + +<p>Harry lingered some time, his life frequently despaired of; and he would +probably have succumbed had it not been for the untiring energy and care +of the hospital nurse. Her anxiety could not have been exceeded by +Bluebell herself, for Cecil's disposition was generous, and she never +more truly forgave her <i>ci-devant</i> enemy than when thus labouring to +return good for evil.</p> + +<p>At last the turning-point was reached and Dutton lifted from the very +gates of the grave. A wound in his leg was now the chief retarding +circumstance; and as it seemed incapable of healing at Scutari, he was +ordered on sick leave to England.</p> + +<p>In the mean time, a lively friendship had arisen between him and Cecil. +Directly she admitted her name and former intimacy with Bluebell, Harry +took her entirely into his confidence, and, encouraged by the evident +interest with which she listened, related how he had first met and fallen +in love with Bluebell on the steamer, and subsequently persuaded her to +elope with him.</p> + +<p>He did not deny the interested motives which had afterwards induced him +to conceal the marriage; but Cecil's upright mind recoiled at the +unworthy deception, and the strong view she took of it made short work +of the extenuating circumstances advanced by Harry.</p> + +<p>The dying appeal to Lord Bromley had, of course, been burnt since its +writer's recovery; but Dutton, now thoroughly ashamed of his shabby +policy, vowed to Cecil that he would abandon all thoughts of inheritance, +and boldly acknowledge his marriage to Lord Bromley as soon as he should +set foot in England.</p> + +<p>This was their last interview; for, as he had now approached +convalescence, she had no further excuse for ministering to Harry.</p> + +<p>It was some time since he had received tidings from his wife, having +purposely kept her in ignorance when he volunteered into Peel's brigade. +Then he was wounded and laid up at Scutari, so whatever letters she might +have written would be on board the "Druid."</p> + +<p>Now he must apprise her of his approaching return and explain his long +silence. As it happened, a homeward-bound steamer sailed within a few +days of the one which carried this letter, and Dutton, obtaining a +passage in the former, which happened to the faster of the two, arrived +in England almost simultaneously.</p> + +<p>Without further notice, he rushed down to Wimbledon, and, had she been +there, would speedily have solved the mystery that had so exercised Mrs. +Markham. But, lo! on reaching Heatherbrae, he beheld with a sinking heart +a conspicuous board on the garden-gate, with the words, "To be let, +furnished," legibly inscribed thereon.</p> + +<p>Weak from his illness and the disappointment, Harry leant against the +railings to consider and recover. He had been so secure of finding +Bluebell there, and during the whole hurried journey was picturing the +meeting. How would she look? He knew so well the fluttering colour that +changed in any emotion, pleasurable or otherwise: but would he see a true +loving welcome in those transparent eyes? He had considered every +probability or improbability of this sort, but not how he should act +in such a dead lock as the present.</p> + +<p>Repeated rings at the bell at last brought out the woman in charge, her +arms covered with soap-suds, and gown drawn through a placket-hole.</p> + +<p>"The family had gone abroad," she said. "No, she did not know where. The +agent might, perhaps. She was only there to show visitors the house."</p> + +<p>Harry turned away in listless perplexity; it was quite evident this +person could tell him nothing. Doubtless their change of plans had been +communicated to him by post, but he had not waited to send for letters. +There was nothing for it but to obtain from the woman the address of the +house-agent, get Mr. Markham's from him, and send another letter to +Bluebell.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXVIII" id="CHAPTER_XXXVIII"></a>CHAPTER XXXVIII.</h2> + +<h3>OLD HEAD ON YOUNG SHOULDERS.</h3> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">How could I tell I should love thee to-day,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whom that day I held not dear?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">How could I know I should love thee away,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When I did not love thee a near?<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">Jean Ingelow.</span><br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p>We must now see whither the vicissitudes of fortune have conducted Mrs. +Dutton. Her pleasant home at the Markhams' was gone. They had lost +heavily in the failure of a bank, and were living abroad to retrench, +while Mr. Markham pursued his profession in London.</p> + +<p>Bluebell was the first luxury to be cut off, though, as a home during +Harry's absence was what she chiefly required, she would willingly have +remained for nothing. It was unspeakable grief to part with Mrs. Markham, +who alone understood how oppressively her secret weighed on her, and her +incessant anxiety for news from the seat of war.</p> + +<p>One day,—it was after the battle of Balaklava,—when shuddering over, in +the <i>Times</i>, the ghastly "butcher's bill," Bluebell came upon Du Meresq's +name among the killed, and the shock to nerves that had scarcely yet +recovered their equilibrium nearly brought on a relapse of her former +illness.</p> + +<p>Yet, as her mind cleared from its first horror, she was amazed to find it +was not Cecil she was most feeling for, and that the cry, "Thank Heaven, +it is not Harry!" had arisen spontaneously to her heart. I suppose +Bertie's neglect had effected its own cure; but certainly some secret +influence was turning the tide of her affections into its legitimate +channel.</p> + +<p>Yet their correspondence was not only desultory, but constrained. Dutton, +never convinced of possessing her heart, and angry with himself at the +part he had acted, had no pleasure in writing; and Bluebell was as shy of +her new-found feelings as though he were still an unacknowledged lover.</p> + +<p>But whenever a ship came in without bringing a letter, she was filled +with foreboding and dread. Still, there was always the consolation that +he was public property, and as long as she did not see his death +reported, might conclude him to be safe.</p> + +<p>And he never did write anything to excite alarm. No more perils or +hair-breadth escapes could be inferred from his letters than if he were +merely residing abroad from choice.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Markham obtained her another situation. She had never succeeded in +discovering to whom Bluebell was married; but having persuaded herself it +was unnecessary to let that stand in the way, simply recommended her in +her maiden name.</p> + +<p>"I look upon your governessing as a farce, you know, Bluebell, though any +one would gladly snap you up for your music alone. But when this war is +over, the mysterious husband will return, and you will pay me a visit in +your true colours."</p> + +<p>And so they parted, with many promises of correspondence.</p> + +<p>Bluebell's next venture was at Brighton, and she drove to Brunswick +Square one chilly afternoon in March, rather dejected at the prospect of +being again thrown among strangers.</p> + +<p>"Not at home," said the servant. "Mrs. Barrington is hout-driving."</p> + +<p>"Oh, it's all right," said a pert maid, tripping downstairs. "This way, +miss. I was to show you your room, and the children's tea will be ready +directly."</p> + +<p>So saying, she preceded Bluebell upstairs to a chilly, fireless +apartment. Houses in Brighton are not generally very substantially built, +and the room was furnished on the most approved governess pattern,—just +what was barely necessary, no more. Bluebell was impressionable, perhaps +fanciful, for hitherto her "lines had fallen in pleasant places," and +she shivered a little at the forbidding exterior, but was somewhat +cheered by a suggestion of welcome conveyed by a bunch of violets on the +dressing-table. "There's some kind person in this house," thought she, +yet lingering awhile in a purposeless manner, unwilling to walk alone +into the school-room and face the strange children. While thus +hesitating, a demure little person came to fetch her, with tight plaited +hair, irreproachable pinafore, and stockings well drawn up. Two younger +duplicates were in the school-room. The table was laid for the evening +meal,—thick wedges of bread-and-butter, calculated to appease but not to +allure the appetite, and a large Britannia-metal teapot, with not +injuriously strong tea.</p> + +<p>There were a couple of globes, an old piano, and book-cases well stocked +with grammars and histories, and the fire was guarded by a high fender, +effectually dissipating any frivolous notion of sitting with the feet on +it. There was neither dog nor cat, nor even a stray doll, to distract +attention from the serious business of education.</p> + +<p>Such was the impression conveyed to Bluebell, who was instantly filled +with well-grounded misgivings as to whether her qualifications might be +quite up to the standard expected. Good gracious! those children looked +capable of obtaining female scholarships, as they sat, with their keen +impassive faces, calmly adding her up, so to speak.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Barrington and her eldest daughter had just come in. "Oh, so Miss +Leigh has arrived!" cried the former, observing Bluebell's box in the +hall. "Dear me, what a bore new people are! I really must rest, as we +dine out. Couldn't you go up, Kate, and say I hope she is comfortable, +and will ring for the school-room maid whenever she wants anything, and +all that?"</p> + +<p>"That would console her immensely, I should think," said Miss Barrington, +laughing. "Well, I will go and look her over, mamma, and report the +result."</p> + +<p>As Kate entered, her little set speech, that "mamma was lying down, but +hoped," etc., was almost suspended on her lips, as she gazed with +unfeigned curiosity at the new governess. Seated pensively behind the urn +was a fair girl, dressed in black, with an Elizabethan ruff round a long +white throat. Shining chestnut hair contrasted with a complexion of the +purest pink and white, while a pair of dewy violet eyes looked shyly up +at her. "Good heavens!" thought Kate, "she is the loveliest creature in +Brighton at this moment."</p> + +<p>"I have also come to ask for a cup of tea. No, thank you, Adela, none of +that! What buttered bricks! Goodness, children! don't you ever have cake, +or jam, or anything?"</p> + +<p>"Miss Steele used to say it would give us muddy complexions, and spoil +our digestion."</p> + +<p>"Poor little victims! Never mind, you'll come out some day. I must make +haste and get married, Mabel, if you grow like that. But Miss Leigh must +be starved. Do you like eggs and bacon?" with her hand on the bell.</p> + +<p>"Very much," said Bluebell, smiling back, more in gratitude for the good +intentions than anything else.</p> + +<p>"Poor thing!" cried Kate, impulsively, quite vanquished by the smile; +"you will be so dull when the children go to bed. I wish we were not +going out to-night. I'll collect the newspapers, and send you up a +capital novel I got yesterday from the library."</p> + +<p>Bluebell was cheered in a moment. "I am sure it was you whom I have to +thank too, for those violets," said she, touching a few transferred to +her waist-belt, and beaming up at her new acquaintance.</p> + +<p>Kate nodded pleasantly. "Do you like flowers? I bought them in the King's +Road this morning." A few minutes later she burst into her mother's room.</p> + +<p>"Where does this <i>rara avis</i> hail from? I never clapped eyes on such a +beauty—Miss Seraphin is not a patch on her!"</p> + +<p>"Don't be so noisy, dear—Miss Leigh? Yes I heard she was nice-looking."</p> + +<p>"Nice-looking!" echoed Kate, contemptuously. "Just wait till you see her. +She will be focused by every eye-glass in Brighton when she takes the +children out for their constitutional."</p> + +<p>"Dear me! I hope she is a proper kind of person."</p> + +<p>"She looks rather in the Lady Audley style—and such a complexion! I +could have sworn it was painted if it had not varied so. Now I think of +it," said Kate, with <i>malice prepense</i>, "she is not at all unlike the +photographs, of—,"—naming some one of whose existence she had no +business to have been aware.</p> + +<p>"It really is too bad of Mrs. Markham not having mentioned this," cried +Mrs. Barrington, as if Bluebell had been convicted of a crime. "It is +most unpleasant having so <i>voyante</i> a person about the children!"</p> + +<p>"Oh, what does it matter," said Kate, heedlessly; "you have no grown up +sons. And she seems awfully nice. She has a face with a history in it, +though. I shall try and make her out to-morrow. No one is ever so +innocent as she looks."</p> + +<p>Kate's admiration was still further excited next day as she listened to +Bluebell's singing.</p> + +<p>"You never heard anything like it, mamma—she could fill Covent Garden; +and she composes too. I wonder if she has ever been on the stage?"</p> + +<p>Less appreciative was the judgment of the erudite Mabel, who reported +Miss Leigh unable to continue her arithmetic beyond the decimal fractions +she had attained to with Miss Steele. "In fact," said the child, with +deep contempt, "I don't believe she has ever-gone beyond the rule of +three herself."</p> + +<p>Indeed, the exact sciences were not Bluebell's <i>spécialite</i>, who now +employed many a perplexed hour trying with Sievier's Arithmetic to work +herself up a little ahead of this precocious pupil. Fortunately she was +tolerably strong in history, having gone through a regular course with +the little Markhams; but it was evident, notwithstanding, that Mabel and +Adela pretty accurately gauged her acquirements, and held them +proportionably cheap.</p> + +<p>Kate, too, had become somewhat of a tease. I don't know what led her to +suspect that the governess had something to conceal, but she was +perpetually putting questions most difficult for her to answer; the +incitement being the pleasure of watching, from an artistic point of +view, the beauty of Bluebell's ever-ready blushes while essaying to parry +her tormentor's inquisitorial efforts.</p> + +<p>This cat-and-mouse game would go on till the victim, turning to bay, was +on the point of desperately asking, "What she wished to find out?" Then +Kate would veil her eyes, and look all innocent indifference. Observing +the avidity with which she pounced on newspapers, Miss Barrington one day +secreted them, much entertained by watching the governess circling round +the room, glancing on every table or couch they were likely to have been +thrown on.</p> + +<p>"Try behind the sofa cushion, Miss Leigh."</p> + +<p>Bluebell started, vexed at being observed, and also at this proof of +<i>espionnage</i> on her actions, but a little later she fell into more +serious self betrayal. They were trying over songs in a locked manuscript +book.</p> + +<p>"Dear me, what is this air? I know it so well," she cried, incautiously +humming it.</p> + +<p>"A sea song of my cousin, Harry Dutton's. I had no idea any one else +possessed a copy."</p> + +<p>There was no answer. She looked up, the blood had rushed over Bluebell's +cheek and brow, her lips were apart, and eyes wide open and bright with +wonder. Before she could drop a mask over the too eloquent face, Kate's +keen eyes were reading her off.</p> + +<p>"You know him, I see," with emphasis.</p> + +<p>Bluebell, recovering presence of mind, with a desperate effort, replied +calmly,—"There was a Mr. Dutton, who came home in the same steamer. +Probably I may have heard him whistling the air."—then sat down, and +plunged into an instrumental piece, feeling quite unequal to endure +further questioning.</p> + +<p>But the notes all the time seemed incessantly repeating, "So this is the +Cousin Kate he was always talking about."'</p> + +<p>Miss Barrington's mind was equally busy.</p> + +<p>"I bet Harry flirted with her all the way across, and he never told me a +word of it—never so much as mentioned that there was a pretty girl in +the ship, and yet she admitted knowing his favourite air 'so well.'"</p> + +<p>Then Kate remembered the many unaccounted for weeks between his landing +in England and arrival at "The Towers," and her former suspicion that +some love affair had intervened.</p> + +<p>At first she had only been provoked to curiosity by Bluebell's reserve, +but now there really was food for imagination to work on, and perhaps the +clue to much that was perplexing in Harry. How curiously it had come +out!</p> + +<p>The artless Kate smiled re-assuringly at her victim. She was on the track +now, and the rabbit might have as much chance of ultimately evading the +weasel hunting him by scent.</p> + +<p>"What perverse fate has brought me here?" sighed Bluebell, laying her +tormented head on the pillow that night. "Miss Barrington will be sure to +find out everything. She was so friendly at first; but Harry always said +he never trusted her. Then those children! I am sure they are more +capable of teaching me. Whenever shall I be extricated from this false +position?"</p> + +<p>A night's rest did not allay Bluebell's perplexities; on the contrary, +more and more complications suggested themselves. Harry must know where +she was by this time, and would be frantic at her having dropped into +such an ants'-nest. They would recognise his handwriting, too, if a +letter came. To be sure that would also strike him. Nevertheless she got +into the habit of calling for her letters at the post-office,—a +proceeding which the children did not fail to mention, with the rider, +"That they wondered at Miss Leigh taking the trouble when she never got +any."</p> + +<p>Kate was rather inclined to patronize Bluebell. She persuaded her mother +to give a musical party for the exhibition of her wonderful voice, and +was, on that occasion, quite as solicitous about the young artiste's +toilette as her own; and, being not averse to having a girl of her own +age to chatter to, bestowed a good deal of her society on Bluebell out of +school-hours, which might have been more appreciated were it not for the +excessive caution it entailed on the latter.</p> + +<p>One day she heard that Mrs. and Miss Barrington were going to Bromley +Towers for some theatricals and other gaieties. After her discovery of +whose house she was in, that was only a matter of course, and she had +only to conceal all interest in it.</p> + +<p>Kate was to take a part in one of the plays, and passed the intervening +time in getting it by heart, and rehearsing with Bluebell, while the +necessary costume was animatedly discussed between them. The latter +fancied she had attained sufficient self-command to listen unconcernedly +to any conversation about Lord Bromley or "The Towers," but she could +not quench the beaming delight in her eyes when Kate one day observed, +carelessly,—</p> + +<p>"I believe you will see the play, after all, Miss Leigh, as mamma has +decided to take Mabel and Adela, which means you also; for Uncle Bromley +has rather a horror of children, and would no more have any of the +juveniles of the family without a keeper, than he would admit a pack of +hounds into the house. Why, Miss Leigh, you look delightful! Do you +really care to go?" Then her suspicions awakening, she set a trap like +lightning.</p> + +<p>"I wonder" (carelessly) "if poor Harry Dutton will get back in time. He +is invalided home from Scutari."</p> + +<p>Self-command—everything—vanished.</p> + +<p>"How did you hear that?" with crimson cheeks and suspiciously dimmed +eyes.</p> + +<p>"How?" with marked emphasis. "Would it not be stranger if one had not +heard it? Uncle Bromley named it in his letter. He was wounded," +bringing out the words slowly, "and almost died in the hospital. I hope +he will survive the voyage home."</p> + +<p>"That girl's a fiend," thought Bluebell, rushing off to her own room in a +paroxysm of terror. Then, as she tried to think it out, it became quite +evident Harry could not be aware of her change of residence, perhaps had +received no letters at the hospital, and would not even know where to +find her when he returned. Still, she would be in the right direction, +for no doubt he would go to Bromley Towers. But what a place to meet in! +And, being ignorant of his address, she could not even send a line of +warning.</p> + +<p>Romantic notions of fascinating Lord Bromley, and thus facilitating +confession when Harry returned, stole through her brain. Kate's play +paled in dramatic interest to the possible "situations" that seemed +impending. One drawback to taming the lion was the probability of +scarcely being on speaking terms with him. Her mission, indeed, seemed to +be to keep the children <i>out</i> of his way. But there were the theatricals; +children, servants, governesses even, would be privileged to look on that +one night. The coquette nature, dormant from want of practice, awoke +again. Lord Bromley was only a man! Why couldn't she make him like her?</p> + +<p>Kate observed renewed smiles and animation, and set it down to the hope +of seeing Dutton at "The Towers," especially as she also detected her +doing what maids call "a little work for myself," and effecting wonders +with a few yards of muslin and ruffling.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXIX" id="CHAPTER_XXXIX"></a>CHAPTER XXXIX.</h2> + +<h3>THE LOAN OF A LOVER.</h3> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Parks with oak and chestnut shady,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Parks and ordered gardens great,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ancient homes of lord and lady,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Built for pleasure and for state.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">Tennyson.</span><br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p>This was Bluebell's first acquaintance with a really grand English park, +and, during the long drive through it, she gazed in wondering delight at +the stately trees, heavy with summer foliage, the herds of deer, the calm +lake, with kingly swans gliding over it. Perhaps her greatest surprise +was that all this fair domain belonged to one individual. Why, the +richest "boss" in Canada possessed no more than a few acres of lawn and +pleasure ground, with ornamental trees and shrubs,—all looking new,—the +production of a self made man, grown rich within a few years. These +stately oaks and beeches must have seen generations live and die, lords +of the manor, and she began better to understand Harry's reluctance to +risk such an inheritance.</p> + +<p>"Oh, they are exercising 'Hobbie,'" cried the children "Then we shall +have some rides."</p> + +<p>Lord Bromley seldom presented himself to his guests till dinner-time. +Polite grooms of the chamber offered tea, etc., the housekeeper showed +visitors to their rooms. But on this occasion Mrs. Barrington was +virtually lady of the house, and, being too late to receive, was in +voluble conversation with a few persons already arrived.</p> + +<p>Bluebell was not introduced to any one, and, her first sensations of +excited curiosity having subsided, began to feel as if she must stiffen +to her chair if no one would speak to her and break the spell. It was a +welcome relief when Adela exclaimed,—</p> + +<p>"Mamma, may we go up to the nursery?"</p> + +<p>"With all my heart, and take Miss Leigh."</p> + +<p>The children darted off across a slippery oak hall, up a flight of stone +stairs with a velvety carpet, then along a passage leading to a private +staircase with a red baize door shutting it off. It opened into a long +low room, still keeping the name of nursery, and at each end were +bed-rooms, one for the two girls, the smaller for Bluebell.</p> + +<p>"This is such a jolly place," cried Adela, who seemed to have left all +her primness at Brighton. "You have never seen the spring woods, nor the +amphitheatre, nor the waterfall!"</p> + +<p>"Nor the terraces and gardens, nor the menagerie, nor dry pond," added +Mabel. "Oh, we could not show you everything in a fortnight. Shall we +come out now or after tea? It isn't laid yet. Let us have it out of +doors."</p> + +<p>Bluebell was almost as eager as the children; and they spent the hot June +evening under the trees, listening to bird choruses and the rich solo of +a lingering nightingale.</p> + +<p>Next morning she was conducted by her pupils round the spring woods, the +same walk that Dutton and his cousin had perambulated eighteen months +ago. It took just twenty-five minutes to make the circuit, returning to +the starting point, marked by a summer-house.</p> + +<p>When they had got about half way round, they were met by an old, spare +gentlemen, slightly bent. He nodded to the children, spoke a casual word, +and mechanically raised his hat to Bluebell. The intensity of her +interest gave animation to her countenance.</p> + +<p>"That's a pretty girl," thought his Lordship, continuing on his way.</p> + +<p>He was in the habit of taking this constitutional every morning before +breakfast, sometimes twice round, sometimes once. This day it was twice, +and, walking at about an equal pace, the school-room party were passing +him nearly on the same spot.</p> + +<p>Lord Bromley paused again, said something to the children, and took a +second glance at Bluebell.</p> + +<p>"You are a young mistress of the ceremonies, Mabel; but why don't you +present me to this young lady?"</p> + +<p>Mabel looked up in astonishment, then said promptly, "Miss Leigh, Lord +Bromley."</p> + +<p>A slight tremor passed over his face, and he leant a little more on his +stick, giving Bluebell an impression of extreme feebleness. After a +mechanical observation or two, rather to her disappointment he walked +away, without further improving the introduction.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Barrington wished lessons to be proceeded with in the forenoon, so +they did not leave the nursery. In the evening the children were desired +to dress and come down with Bluebell till bed-time. It seems rather a +<i>triste</i> pleasure for a governess to have the trouble and expense of an +evening toilette, with no expectation of entertainment beyond a cup of +coffee if the servants remember to offer it, and the enforced +conversation of some good-hearted guest, who, in the absence of any +subject in common, can think of no more suggestive topic than inquiries +into her daily walks, with threadbare remarks on the scenery. If she is +lively, and strikes out into fresh fields and pastures new, "she is +forward, and a flirt." If otherwise, she mounts the stereotyped smile, +and gushes about the singing in church and picturesqueness of the +neighbourhood, which, probably, by this time she loathes every feature +of. Then come long pauses; the philanthropic guest mingles in general +conversation, and edges away, leaving her to retreat upon a photograph +book.</p> + +<p>Little of all this did Bluebell dread,—she only longed to get downstairs +on any terms. Immured in the nursery, how could her little plot proceed? +Her simple toilette was carefully considered while brushing out and +arranging the shining coils of chestnut hair. Yet it was only a black +muslin dress, cut <i>en coeur</i>, and relieved with her favourite ruffles. +The children had brought handfuls of roses from the rosary—yellow, +crimson, white, blush, pink. A York and Lancaster in her hair, a tea-rose +in her bosom, and she was ready.</p> + +<p>Only the ladies were in the large saloon, which again dazzled the +unsophisticated Bluebell with its magnificence. She found herself, as +before, little noticed; but, the pictures, which she might study +uninterruptedly from a secluded corner, entertained her for some time. +There were full-length portraits of Court ladies, by Lely, with wonderful +lace on brocaded gowns. One had a little dog half hidden in the folds. +The arch face of Nell Gwynne smiled over a door, a life-sized +Gainsborough of a lady with a straw hat, reclining on a bank of flowers, +was conspicuous over one fire-place. There were cavaliers with long, +curled hair, gentlemen of a later date in pig-tails; but the most modern +of all was a portrait of a boy playing with a large dog. On this one her +eye lingered longest. Whom could it be? It was not in the least like +Harry, and yet she fancied something about it familiar to her. There was +a look of Lord Bromley, certainly—perhaps it was a portrait of him in +childhood.</p> + +<p>Mabel and Adela, meantime, were performing an elaborate duet. It was one +of her most irksome duties instructing these children in music, who would +never attain to more than mechanical excellence. When they had arrived at +the final crash, with not more than half a bar between them, Bluebell was +summoned to sing. The gentlemen came in from the dining-room at the last +verse, and, after a slight pause, she began another unasked. Mrs. +Barrington thought this rather forward, but there was a suppressed murmur +of applause when she had finished.</p> + +<p>One of the ladies addressed a few words to her, and then Kate carelessly +brought up a gentleman who had been tormenting her for an introduction.</p> + +<p>Bluebell had hoped that Lord Bromley would have spoken to her, after +their encounter in the morning. But he did not, though sometimes she felt +sure he was looking at her.</p> + +<p>The undercurrent of excitement gave a feverish vivacity to her manner, +which Sir Robert Lowther imputed to gratified vanity at his attentions +and he continued complacently by her side, till Mrs. Barrington said,—"I +think, Miss Leigh, the children should go to bed," and Bluebell +understood she was expected to accompany them.</p> + +<p>It was very mortifying. Apparently she had been too much at her ease, and +perhaps the <i>empressement</i> with which Sir Robert had rushed to open the +door might exclude her from coming down for the future. Then she +reflected, with a little pardonable spite, that, if things turned out +according to her hopes, Mrs. Barrington might, perhaps, repent having +marched her off with the children like a nursery-maid.</p> + +<p>The following morning, at the same hour, Bluebell circulated the spring +woods with her pupils, and, had he been a young lover approaching, her +heart could not have beat higher than on again perceiving the bent form +of Lord Bromley.</p> + +<p>Would he pass them with a courteous lifting of the hat to her? Of course; +what else would he do? Her fervent aspiration had apparently a magnetic +effect; or was it her face that was so tell-tale a mirror? Lord Bromley +stopped, spoke a few words, and actually turned back with them!</p> + +<p>Bluebell was in the seventh heaven. She had not yet learnt how little +even personal liking weighs against ambition when the object of it is +unsupported by the merit of being well placed in the world. If +well-tochered Lady Geraldine, pale and plain, had married the heir, every +door in Bromley Towers would have been hospitably thrown open to her +while the loveliest Peri, whose face was her fortune, might have stood +knocking at the portal-gate unnoticed.</p> + +<p>"Yet everything will go right if he only likes me!" To be liked, to be +loved, that comprises all else with a girl. This one was not quite a +fool, only had not outlived her youthful illusions.</p> + +<p>An ardent desire to attain anything goes far towards success. Fearful of +being thought forward, yet longing to please, she seemed to awaken an +interest in Lord Bromley; though he talked playfully to all three, his +indulgent smile was for Bluebell. Another expression appeared sometimes +on his face, the same that had perplexed her the previous evening—an +investigating, speculating glance: and once, when becoming more at ease, +her features resumed their play, his were suddenly contorted, as if a +sharp pang had seized him.</p> + +<p>The walk seemed all too short, for Lord Bromley did not take the second, +but retraced his steps to the house. Bluebell fell into a reverie, till +something in the children's chatter attracted her attention.</p> + +<p>"Wasn't he nice this morning? Never saw him in such a good humour! Why, +he hardly ever speaks to us!—hates children, mamma says. Do you know, +Miss Leigh, Uncle Bromley never walked with us so far before."</p> + +<p>"Perhaps he thinks you are getting to a more companionable age," said +Bluebell, blushing; but her heart bounded triumphantly.</p> + +<p>It was an intensely hot afternoon. The ladies and some of the gentlemen +were grouped under the lime-trees near the house. Kate, standing by a +gipsy table, was pouring out tea, and keeping up a running fire of merry +nonsense, her usual staff of danglers hovering near. The elder ladies +seemed equally content, knitting shawls and weaving scandal. The bees +were humming in the limes, "the rich music of a summer bird" overhead. +The very air seemed green in the shadow of the trees.</p> + +<p>"There," cried Kate, petulantly, "as sure as ever one is innocently happy +in this wicked world, some species of amateur police obliges one to 'move +on.'" And she glanced over her shoulder at a gentleman approaching.</p> + +<p>He walked straight up to the group with a business-like, uncompromising +manner, very different to the <i>dolce far niente</i> attitudes; yet four of +the number rose at once to join him.</p> + +<p>"Do have a cup of tea," cried Kate, enticingly, with the view to a +reprieve.</p> + +<p>"No, thank you; never touch it. There is not <i>too</i> much time, Miss +Barrington."</p> + +<p>"I know, I know," with a resigned air, and a shrug to the four who had +risen. And without another word they all mysteriously followed their +summoner to the house.</p> + +<p>"What can they be going to do with Mr. Barton?" asked one of the ladies.</p> + +<p>"Oh, it's a great secret," said Mrs. Barrington, laughing affectedly, +"if they can only keep it."</p> + +<p>In fact, it was a rehearsal. Mr. Barton was stage-manager, and ruled them +with a rod of iron. He made the timid "speak up," the giddy, practise +over and over again which side of the stage they were to enter and leave +by; threw more spirit in here, checked ranting there, and ventured to +object to the key in which Kate, as heroine, sang her song. He permitted +"gagging" as a proof of presence of mind, provided the cue was +forthcoming; but now his great soul was perturbed by the absence of a +prompter.</p> + +<p>"We really cannot do without one any longer," cried he, in urgent appeal +to Kate, who rang the bell with an air of conviction.</p> + +<p>"I will send for Miss Leigh, with whom I have been rehearsing. She almost +knows the play by heart, and set my song to music."</p> + +<p>Bluebell was starting out with the children, but came very willingly. +Acting always had a charm for her, and, the play being pretty well in her +head, she could prompt and watch at the same time.</p> + +<p>Kate was too clever not to act well; but the <i>rôle</i> of the simple, +ingenuous heroine was scarcely suited to her. She did not <i>look</i> it. The +other girl, Miss Heneage, said her part like a lesson, but could not act +it. The men were imperfect—incapable of getting through a sentence +without the prompter. Sir Robert was the most inattentive of all, being +more interested in trying to set up a flirtation with Bluebell, who +demurely repressed him.</p> + +<p>Such were the elements Mr. Barton was preparing to appear before an +indulgent public in two days' time. All the neighbourhood was invited to +the theatricals, and the evening was to close with a dance.</p> + +<p>This night Bluebell received no invitation to join the party below. The +children went down without her, and came up about nine, apparently in a +great state of amusement.</p> + +<p>"You'll get down to-morrow, I think, Miss Leigh. Uncle Bromley said to +mamma, 'Where is your pretty governess, Lydia? Surely she is coming down +to sing to us?' And Sir Robert muttered something about 'a beautiful +syren,' and wanted to go up and fetch you."</p> + +<p>Bluebell was more gratified by the first part of this speech; that silly +Sir Robert would spoil everything.</p> + +<p>Next day, according to Mabel's prognostications, the ban was removed, and +Bluebell made free of the saloon in the evening, continuing, however, +rigorously to retire when her pupils did. Somewhat to her discomposure, +she found they had been chattering to Kate about Lord Bromley joining +their morning walks. Miss Barrington had turned this little circumstance +over in her mind rather curiously. Bluebell was apparently so wonderfully +discreet with young men, it was strange she should go out early to flirt +with an old one.</p> + +<p>"Next time say you would rather walk in the Park, Mabel," said she.</p> + +<p>And when the children rather confusedly acted on this advice, Bluebell, +detecting Kate's hand in it, immediately assented, determined that no +reluctance should be reported.</p> + +<p>The day of the theatricals arrived, and with it a great reverse of +fortune to Miss Barrington. She had driven early into the market-town in +a small pony carriage for some essential no one but herself could choose. +Now, though a good rider, Kate was a remarkably careless whip; and +rattling through the town, the ponies shied at something, or nothing, +swerved into a cart, and upset the tittuppy little trap in a moment. The +immediate result to the fair driver was a sprained ankle, contused face, +and fast blackening eye. Any amount of pain she would have cheerfully +endured sooner than give up her evening's excitement; but the unfortunate +eye swelled, and got blacker and blacker, and nothing could be done. Her +despair was communicated to the whole corps, till Mr. Barton suggested a +substitute in Bluebell. It was carried <i>nem. con.</i>, with the chilling +consent of Mrs. Barrington, who, though she would not hear of Kate +appearing thus disfigured, had tried in vain to persuade Lord Bromley to +put off the play. But he maintained it was now "too late for +postponement; Barton had said the girl could act; and Kate deserved the +disappointment, for she had no business to have upset herself," etc. In +the meantime Mr. Barton had carried off Bluebell for a severe rehearsal. +The play was "The Loan of a Lover," and as Peter Spyk he was interested +in his Gertrude. Sir Robert also, as Captain Amesfort, threw considerably +more animus into his scene since the change of heroines.</p> + +<p>Bluebell had tea with her pupils as usual, and joined in the <i>dramatis +persona</i> in the green room at nine. The company was arriving. The front +benches were soon filled with ladies, while the men stood about in the +doorway, or looked over their heads.</p> + +<p>Among the latter was Harry Dutton. He had come without notice, too late +to join the party at dinner, and, thinking the whole thing rather a bore, +scarcely glanced at the stage.</p> + +<p>"Mynheer Swizel! Mynheer Swizel!" Dutton started as if he had been shot. +In a peasant's dress, and running on to the stage greeted by a round of +applause, he recognises Bluebell! Here, at Bromley Towers!</p> + +<p>Transfixed to the spot, his moonstruck gaze rivetted on the actors, +people spoke to him, and he never heard. Conjecture, wonder, doubts of +his own sanity, were whirling his brain. How did she get <i>here</i>, of all +places in the world? With whom?—and under what name? Heavens, if she +should suddenly perceive him, and stop short or scream! He moved behind a +pillar, where he could observe unseen. Peter Spyk was singing:—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"To-morrow will be market-day,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The streets all thronged with lasses gay;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And from a crowd so great, no doubt,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sweethearts enough I may pick out.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In verity, verity, verity aye," etc<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>And then Gertrude, in a mocking voice, coquettishly sang,—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Be not too bold, for hearts fresh caught,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Are ne'er, I am told, to market brought<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The best, they say, are <i>given</i> away,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And are not <i>sold</i>, on market-day.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In verity, verity, verity aye," etc<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>A round of applause and an encore followed. It was long since Harry had +heard Bluebell's voice, but he alone did not applaud. The play proceeded, +and then Sir Robert came in as Amesfort. It hung a little here. He +floundered, gagged, forgot the cue, and the voice of the prompter became +distinctly audible. Happily, conceit bore him along. Harry winced as he +drawled to Gertrude, "Why, you are very pretty!" But when he proceeded to +catch her round the waist and offered to kiss her, he mattered an oath, +and half-started forward. Warned by a look of curiosity in a bystander, +Dutton fiercely controlled himself, but a burning desire to quarrel with +Sir Robert took possession of him.</p> + +<p>In the last scene, when she comes on as a bride, Harry remembered, with +a curious laugh, she had never been so attired for him. Bluebell was +warming to her part. She and Peter Spyk were pulling the whole coach, and +when the play was ended they were both loudly called for before the +curtains.</p> + +<p>Happy and delighted at her success, it was hard to fall from triumph +to insignificance; but, in the first flush of the former, Bluebell was +left in solitude. Her fellow actors had flown away to exchange their +theatrical costume for ball dress, and she had received no <i>carte +blanche</i> to mingle with the dancers.</p> + +<p>Lingering listlessly alone in the greenroom, wishing to join the rest, +and hoping some one might think of sending for her, she had thrown +herself into an easy-chair, back to the door, which was half-open. There +was a slight sound of a rapid, stealthy footstep, and, before she had +time to look round, a twisted note was tossed into her lap.</p> + +<p>Bluebell started to her feet. Her heart gave one great jump, and her +cheeks were blanched.</p> + +<p>She rushed to the door. Too late,—the passage was empty. After reading +the note, she walked backwards and forwards, in an incoherent state of +excitement, pondering its contents, and was returning to the deserted +school-room, when she was met and stopped by Lord Bromley.</p> + +<p>"Not dressed yet!" he exclaimed. "Or is Gertrude going to dance in this +pretty bridal array?"</p> + +<p>"This dress is Miss Barrington's. Good-night, Lord Bromley," said +Bluebell, trying to pass.</p> + +<p>"What! you poor child, are you sent to bed? Come along with me. I'll make +it right with Mrs. Barrington."</p> + +<p>"I cannot, indeed. I am ill—I am tired," said Bluebell, desperately.</p> + +<p>Lord Bromley's eyes were fixed inquiringly upon her; but people were +coming along the passage, and, escaping from him, she darted off.</p> + +<p>No one was in the nursery. Bluebell hastily changed her dress, wrapped +herself in a dark cloak, and drew the hood over her head; then, +descending the staircase, listened a moment at the foot. No one seemed +about. She flew down a dark passage into the billiard-room, threw open +the French window, and stepped out. It was as dark as a summer's night +ever is, and a soft shower was falling; but Bluebell took no heed. +Avoiding the front of the house, she threaded her way by the back +settlements. A dog barked, and a poaching cat was marauding about. The +grass felt damp and clinging as she struck into what was called "The West +Drive." It was not kept exactly in lawn order there. A hundred yards +further on was a summer-house, thatched inside and out with moss, from +which, long ere she reached it, Harry Dutton emerged, and, folding her in +his arms, drew her within its shelter.</p> + +<p>In the meantime, the ball was in full swing; every now and then inquiries +were made for the missing heir. "Did not Mr. Dutton come to-night? I +wonder what has become of him!" Lord Bromley wondered too; but, before he +had time to be really offended at his absence. Mr. Dutton was observed +valsing with Lady Geraldine. The young sailor was no whit less +interesting for his Crimean campaign, to which his wound lent an +additional <i>prestige</i>; and it was astonishing what severe remarks were +made on the unloveliness of the partner with whom he most frequently +danced that night.</p> + +<p>And yet such criticism was more undeserved than usual, for a look of +gentle happiness softened and inspired her naturally plain features, and +lent an unwonted tender grace to a somewhat inexpressive figure.</p> + +<p>Lord Bromley did not observe their frequent contiguity with the same +satisfaction as of yore. On the contrary, his eye rested on Harry with a +somewhat sarcastic expression, and he remained thoughtful and <i>distrait</i>.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XL" id="CHAPTER_XL"></a>CHAPTER XL.</h2> + +<h3>THE MINIATURE.</h3> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i6">True, I have married her.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The very head and front of my offending<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hath this extent, no more.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">Shakespeare.</span><br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p>Lord Bromley did not suffer the nocturnal festivities to interfere with +his morning walk, during which he came upon the governess and her pupils +looking as fresh as the dawn.</p> + +<p>"I need not ask if you have recovered from last night, Miss Leigh," +observed he, dryly, as he bowed demurely, with a somewhat conscious air.</p> + +<p>"Did you dance?" asked Mabel; "for I heard you come up just after the +stable clock struck one, and the music had been going on for ever so +long."</p> + +<p>Now, it might have been half-past eleven when Miss Leigh had professed +herself to Lord Bromley as too ill and tired to dream of dancing. Looking +the consternation she felt at this contradictory piece of evidence, she +remained silent, not daring to raise her eyes.</p> + +<p>"Who would have taken you for such an actress!" said the peer, in rather +ambiguous accents.</p> + +<p>Bluebell looked up desperately; her expression was ingenuous, but half +imploring.</p> + +<p>"Such nerve and command of countenance!" rhapsodized his Lordship, with +the same odd fixed look and sarcastic inflection of voice. "The idea of +the plot so perfectly conceived and played out! Had you much practice—in +Canada."</p> + +<p>"I have played in charades and small pieces," wondering how he knew she +had been in Canada.</p> + +<p>"But you never <i>really</i> acted till you came to England? How long was that +ago?"</p> + +<p>"Some time now," confusedly.</p> + +<p>"Nearly two years, perhaps?"</p> + +<p>"About that—no, not quite so much," more and more perplexed by his +manner.</p> + +<p>"I hope you'll come down, and sing to us to-night. Miss Leigh. I am not +sure I don't prefer that accomplishment for young ladies—it is <i>safer</i>." +He turned away, leaving Bluebell in bewilderment.</p> + +<p>Kate, recovered by a night's rest, would consent to no more seclusion; +the blow was not much of a disfigurement now, and she was making an +immense fuss over Harry, which suited him well enough to encourage, as he +rather repented the imprudently frequent dances with Geraldine, and felt +embarrassed in her society this morning.</p> + +<p>The cousins were sitting on an ottoman, in half-teazing, +half-affectionate discourse, when Bluebell, feeling like a conspirator +of the deepest dye, entered demurely with her pupils. Kate watched Harry +narrowly, who did not appear to have observed their entrance.</p> + +<p>"You seem to have forgotten Miss Leigh," she remarked. "Did you not +travel together from Quebec?"</p> + +<p>Dutton, somewhat staggered by her correct information, shot a swift +inquiring glance at his cousin.</p> + +<p>"To be sure—so it is Miss Leigh. I thought last night I knew the face—"</p> + +<p>"Why don't you go and speak to her?"</p> + +<p>"I am shy—perhaps she won't remember me."</p> + +<p>"Miss Leigh, Mr. Dutton thinks you have forgotten him."</p> + +<p>Bluebell bowed stiffly, very much on her guard; for she saw that Lord +Bromley was an attentive observer, and his strange behaviour in the +morning had given rise to an uncomfortable suspicion that he might +(though how, she could not imagine) be cognizant of the tryst in the West +Wood. Harry moved to a seat near, and began an indifferent conversation +with her, that the whole room might have heard.</p> + +<p>"Can it be all—kid," thought Kate, "or was there really nothing between +them?"</p> + +<p>At that instant Sir Robert lounged up, and threw himself in a familiar +manner on the other side of Bluebell.</p> + +<p>Dutton's face darkened. He had taken an antipathy to this man, who +commenced a sort of condescending flirtation with his wife. He called +her "Gertrude," too, and poured out compliments on her acting, describing +his despair at being unable to find her among the dancers afterwards.</p> + +<p>Harry was boiling, Kate exultant. "I knew I was right," she thought.</p> + +<p>Bluebell was summoned to the piano. Sir Robert followed. It was a +semi-grand, and he leant on the other end, opposite to her.</p> + +<p>"Where is the music? Oh! you play without. So much the better. One sees +the eyes flashing."</p> + +<p>It was not the only pair, for Dutton's were fixed upon Sir Robert with a +ferocious expression, apparent even to his obtuseness, and somewhat +surprised, he returned it with a slight stare and elevation of the +eyebrows. That night, in the smoking-room, the antagonism between the two +was more pronounced than ever. Sir Robert explained it by a conjecture +that "Dutton was sweet on the little governess, and d—d jealous." He was +not particularly popular among the other men: but all agreed that Dutton +"had been very rough on Lowther, and was not half such a cheery, pleasant +fellow as he used to be."</p> + +<p>What would not Kate have given for an incident that befell Lady Geraldine +one day! She had been much puzzled by Harry's manner since his return: +for, though his appreciation of her was more heartily manifested than +before, she was conscious of a difference,—or rather, perhaps, analyzed +it more truly now. Her adorers had not been so numerous as to disturb the +impression of the first man who had ever appeared to care about her; but +she could scarcely deceive herself longer—there was evidently now +nothing warmer than liking left.</p> + +<p>Poor girl! she was easily discouraged, and felt no resentment; she did +not even think it necessary to conjure up a rival to account for the +discontinuation of his attentions, till a slight incident revealed one to +her. She was sitting alone in the morning-room, and, being somewhat of a +china fancier, turned a cup on a bracket upside down, to examine the mark +at the bottom. In doing so, a bit of paper fluttered out, and as she +picked it up, the words, "West Wood, four o'clock," met her startled +gaze. She was convinced that the writing was Harry's, but whom could the +assignation be intended for? Soon after Bluebell came into the room as it +seemed to her with no very apparent purpose Lady Geraldine, not without +design, seated herself at a small writing-table, with her back to the +bracket, and almost immediately heard a slight clatter. Miss Leigh had +vanished, and so had the paper from the teacup.</p> + +<p>"I wish I dare go to the West Wood," thought Geraldine, for she was not +all perfect, and the indignation in her heart inspired a deep desire to +expose the underhand behaviour of the designing governess. That evening +Harry had been talking to her longer than usual. Bluebell was singing at +the piano, and finally began the Persian song of "The May Rose to the +Nightingale." Geraldine listened, attracted by the sentiment. One verse +was unfortunately suggestive—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Moonlight, moonlight, think'st thou he'd leave me<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For one so pale—for one so pale<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But moonlight, moonlight, if he deceive me,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Tell not the tale—tell not the tale<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Then Geraldine's pallid complexion was flushed with resentment, for she +imagined the words levelled at herself. Next day—unable to resist again +examining the cup—she found another fold of paper, but this time in a +female handwriting. Harry, of course, would come for it and she +determined to remain till he did so. The room was then tolerably full. +Some time after Dutton dropped in with another man, and, all unconscious +of <i>surveillance</i>, lingered till only he and Lady Geraldine remained in +the room.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Dutton," she said, in her somewhat reedy voice, "I understand a +little about china, but cannot make out the date of that little yellow +cup, the mark at the bottom is so defaced."</p> + +<p>It was said meaningly, and Harry understood that he was discovered. To +throw himself upon her generosity seemed an obvious necessity. With a +conscious yet penetrating glance, closing the half open door, he +exclaimed, impulsively, "Dear Lady Geraldine, may I tell you something +about myself?"</p> + +<p>Geraldine flushed hotly. This was somewhat more than she had bargained +for. With the slightest <i>soupçon</i> of stateliness, dreading what was to +follow, she managed to say, that "Whatever he liked to tell her should go +no further."</p> + +<p>"It will all be known soon enough," cried he. "But I fancy Lady +Geraldine, you have some suspicion I know I can trust you, and you have +been always so kind and sympathetic to me, it is a much greater comfort +telling you than Kate."</p> + +<p>Geraldine bowed her head. She was determined not to betray herself, and +even felt some little curiosity, though how abundantly that faculty was +to be gratified ere she left the room, she certainly had not foreseen. +One result was, it had an immediately bracing effect, for, with all her +humility, Geraldine had the pride of self respect, and the confession +completely disabused her of the idea that Harry had ever aspired to being +suitor of hers. It was a pang, no doubt. Even his confidence might have a +double meaning. Had she any of the fury of a woman scorned, what an +amount of mischief would be in her power. But Harry's instinct was right, +and he never regretted his reliance on Geraldine's honour and pride.</p> + +<p>Dutton and his wife continued to meet daily in secret. They had agreed to +confess to Lord Bromley directly the visitors should have left, but I +think were still young enough to enjoy the stratagems necessary for those +stolen interviews. How many narrow escapes they were to laugh at +afterwards and, in society, when they appeared on such conventional terms +as respectful youth and prudent governess, how many <i>doubles entendres</i> +Harry hazarded, to see Bluebell struggling with alarmed risibility.</p> + +<p>But the rash pair were outwitted at last, and run to earth by Kate in the +moss arbour. How much of their conversation had been overheard, or how +long she had stood there before springing out, of course could be only +conjecture. A violent start had been irrepressible, and, as they both +were speechless from the shock, Kate remained mistress of the situation, +and evidently not disposed to be merciful. A few sarcastic expressions to +her cousin, some cutting remarks on Bluebell's deceitful and designing +conduct, and she was gone—apparently for the purpose of exposing the +intrigue she imagined herself to have discovered. Dutton sprang after +her, and Bluebell, in much vexation and alarm, returned to the house.</p> + +<p>Not much breathing time was to be obtained in the nursery, whither she +had hurried. The door was half open, and, entering unperceived, she +beheld a sight that gave her almost as genuine a start as Kate's +inopportune appearance. Yet it was only Lord Bromley sitting by the +table, looking pale and shaken, and gazing intently on—could she believe +her eyes?—the miniature of Theodore Leigh. The case was broken. +Bluebell had been gumming it, and had left it on the table to dry. But +why should he be studying it with such absorbing interest?</p> + +<p>Lord Bromley raised his eyes, and fixed them sternly on the beautiful +girl. "Come here <i>Theodora</i>."—and she started. "Whose portrait is this?"</p> + +<p>"My father's."</p> + +<p>"Exactly. And, such being the case, your presence in this house requires +some little explanation."</p> + +<p>Unable to see the connexion between the miniature and this attack; +Bluebell remained silent and confounded; but, as he continued to gaze +severely at her, she roused herself to reply.</p> + +<p>"I came here because Mrs. Barrington brought me, and I went to her by the +purest accident. Did you <i>know</i> my father, my Lord?"</p> + +<p>"Simplicity may be rather overdone! Do you think, child, I have not +seen through your evident desire to ingratiate yourself?—and scheming +yourself into this house will, I assure you, not further your designs!"</p> + +<p>Bluebell could not deny the former charge, though guiltless of the latter +insinuation. But who could have betrayed their marriage, and why did he +only blame her?</p> + +<p>"I do not know who may have prompted you, but if he thought duplicity and +cunning a recommendation in a grand-child—"</p> + +<p>"Grandchild!" echoed Bluebell. "What can you mean, Lord Bromley! Sir +Timothy Leigh was <i>my</i> grandfather!"</p> + +<p>"Which, as you probably very well know, I have not been called for +fifteen years!"</p> + +<p>Still the intense perplexity of her face was staggering his impression +that this adventurous daughter of his disinherited son was trying by a +<i>coup de main</i> to cancel the edict of banishment, and to obtain favour +and fortune at his hands.</p> + +<p>"<i>You</i> my grandfather!" she reiterated, mechanically, her eyes, wonder +wide, staring at the old man with child-like directness, that produced a +more convincing effect on his mind than any words. After all, it was +quite possible she might not have heard of his succession to a remote +peerage, and this amazement was certainly not assumed. Moreover, the +expression of her face was conjuring from a dim past a host of memories. +He became strangely moved, and could scarcely bear the gaze which +recalled so forcibly Theodore in his youth.</p> + +<p>Which made the first movement neither knew. "My dearest little girl!" he +murmured, and folded her in his arms.</p> + +<p>Bluebell was weak and silent from surprise mingled with extreme +happiness, and Lord Bromley had gone back in thought to former years, and +dare not trust himself to speak; so they were both too absorbed to notice +the entrance of Harry Dutton, who remained rooted to the spot (like a +stuck pig, as he afterwards elegantly described it), and a smothered +exclamation burst from his lips.</p> + +<p>Lord Bromley hurriedly withdrew himself from Bluebell, not particularly +gratified at being surprized in so romantic a <i>pose</i> at his time of life.</p> + +<p>"What the d——l are you doing here, sir?" he angrily demanded.</p> + +<p>Harry, considering he had quite as good a right to ask that question, +turned inquiringly and gloomily to Bluebell, who, feeling if she +attempted to open her lips she must either go off into a hysterical fit +of laughter or burst into tears, said nothing; and the uncle and nephew +continued to glare at each other.</p> + +<p>She signed to Dutton to speak; but he was too mystified and sulky; so +Bluebell, in desperation, plunged <i>in medias res</i>.</p> + +<p>"Harry!" she cried, "this is my grandfather as well as your uncle! Why, +we must be cousins!" Then, after an instant's pause, with downcast eyes +and crimson cheeks, she penitently kissed the old man's hand, and +whispered,—"He is my husband too; we meant to have told you to-morrow!"</p> + +<p>So the dread secret was out at last! Silence, that could be felt, ensued, +and seemed endless to the two culprits, who, with drooping eyes, waited +anxiously for him to speak.</p> + +<p>Now, this announcement was hardly so unexpected as they supposed, and far +more welcome than their wildest dreams could have anticipated. Lord +Bromley's agent, who paid the annuity to Mrs. Leigh, was also in the +habit of giving him periodical information of the well-being of his +grand-daughter. When, however, she eloped from Captain Davidson's house, +he had lost sight of her for a time, but afterwards picked up the clue at +Mrs. Markham's. When they also disappeared so suddenly, the agent was +again at fault, Bluebell having changed her situation in the interval.</p> + +<p>Advancing years had softened Lord Bromley. The tidings of her elopement +without any positive proof of a <i>bona fide</i> marriage preceding it, had +shocked him into bitter remorse for having left her, an unprotected waif +and stray, to the tender mercies of the world, and now she had passed out +of his ken, and he could not but fear the worst.</p> + +<p>In this frame of mind he came accidentally upon Bluebell in the spring +woods, and the likeness to her father, which was singularly obvious, +seemed the reflection of the thoughts that haunted him. Then, when Mabel +mentioned her by name, it flashed upon him that what he had taken for a +trick of imagination might be, indeed, a sober reality. Lord Bromley +sought Mrs. Barrington, and elicited, in reply to his careless inquiries, +the fact that the fair governess was a Canadian, and had come into her +family from the Markhams'. This was conclusive, and he took every +opportunity of observing Bluebell with an almost hungry interest. The +elopement rankled unpleasantly in his mind. He watched her conduct +narrowly, and was pleased to see that she seemed prudent and careful; +but his suspicions received a new direction by the mutual disappearance +of Dutton and herself on the night of his return. It was a coincidence, +at any rate, for had not Mabel asserted she had not come upstairs till +one, before which hour Harry had not entered the ball-room? He also +detected two or three looks of intelligence passing between them, then, +when Kate remarked that they had returned in the same steamer from +Quebec, the mystery began to take a definite shape. He remembered his +nephew's confession of an attachment, and his absence for many weeks +after landing. At this stage a terrible possibility obtruded itself, and +Bluebell's inviting manner, which before had pleased him, seemed all an +artful attempt to get into favour.</p> + +<p>The accidental sight of Theodore's miniature, which stirred poignantly +the stern heart of the father, precipitated the <i>denouement</i>, and the +artless bewilderment of Bluebell under his reproaches lulled the +suspicions which her subsequent avowal of a marriage with Harry nearly +set at rest. There only remained those unaccounted for weeks, so that the +first sentence he spoke to the peccant pair, whom we left in agitated +suspense, surprised them by its calmness.</p> + +<p>"When did this happen?" And they could not guess how anxiously he waited +for a reply.</p> + +<p>Now Dutton had come there expressly to bring Bluebell into Lord Bromley's +presence, having resolved to be beforehand with Kate, and make immediate +confession. Therefore he was provided with their marriage certificate, +which he now produced, and silently presented to his uncle.</p> + +<p>The date was satisfactory, and Lord Bromley was relieved from the most +harrowing anxiety. Yet his brow did not relax as he turned gravely to his +nephew. "What was your motive, Harry, in concealing this marriage?"</p> + +<p>Dutton was silent.</p> + +<p>"You may well be unwilling to express it. It was because you feared to +lose the inheritance I have foolishly brought you up to expect."</p> + +<p>Harry looked up frankly, though writhing under his words.</p> + +<p>"I cannot wholly deny it, uncle, and if you now change your intentions +towards me, it is only what I expect. Bluebell and I were married hastily +at Liverpool, she is my best excuse for that. Afterwards, when I came to +'The Towers,' I meant to have told you, but—don't you recollect?—you +positively refused to hear what I had to say. Of course I ought to have +persisted."</p> + +<p>"And did Theodora also see the expediency of concealing her marriage till +my death?"</p> + +<p>"No, indeed," cried Harry, warmly. "She would have risked everything to +have it acknowledged. It puts my conduct in an awfully cold-blooded +light, but I hope you don't think me utterly ungrateful."</p> + +<p>"As to that, the less said the better," returned Lord Bromley, coolly.</p> + +<p>Dutton turned away abashed and deeply wounded, for he really was attached +to the relative who had been his best friend and benefactor from infancy +to manhood. Lord Bromley slowly left the room, and, sending for his +niece, endeavoured to explain to her the astounding facts that Bluebell +was the daughter of his disinherited son, and had been married to Dutton +for nearly two years.</p> + +<p>There was scarcely room in Mrs. Barrington's mind to grasp this new +aspect of affairs, it being already taken up with Kate's shocking +discovery of the heir, flirting in a secluded summer-house with the +treacherous governess. Very earnestly, therefore, she tried to convince +her uncle that he must be deceived, and that Bluebell was an impostor and +an adventuress.</p> + +<p>"There's not a shade of doubt about her identity," contested Lord Bromley +"I have known for some time whom she was. Indeed, Lydia, you were my +first informant when you told me where you had taken her from. Parker had +reported that Theodore's daughter was with some people of the name of +Markham, and immediately found out accidentally that she was no longer +there and here is further proof"—and he placed before her the portrait +that he had carried away. It was difficult to [unreadable]. Convinced +against her will, and deprived of the power of giving Bluebell immediate +warning, Mrs. Barrington [unreadable] fall back upon her own room, pull +down the blinds and take refuge in <i>petite sante</i>, till prepared to face +her emminent dependent in so new and unwelcome a position.</p> + +<p>Certainly this day of elucidation was not a pleasant one. Everybody +appeared in a changed point of view, and was feeling its awkwardness. +Harry and Bluebell, hardly knowing if they had a right to remain there, +wandering disconsolately about, like a modern Adam and Eve awaiting +expulsion from Paradise.</p> + +<p>Kate felt baffled and dangerous,—angry at her cousin having slipped so +smoothly through her fingers, and jealous of his wife.</p> + +<p>Lord Bromley, though deeply incensed with Harry, was longing to keep +Bluebell, whose every glance and gesture recalled his secretly lamented +son. Lady Calvert was on the point of departure with her daughter; and +the facts having percolated through the household, all the maids got sick +headaches from sympathetic excitement.</p> + +<p>Dutton had had a very stormy interview with his cousin when he rushed +after her from the arbour. Kate was determined to betray them, and he +vainly tried to induce her to be silent. On one condition only would she +promise secrecy—that Bluebell should give immediate warning, and that he +should never speak to her again. But Harry only laughed, while Kate urged +everything she could think of—ruin to his prospects, his uncle's anger, +etc.</p> + +<p>"It is no business of yours," reiterated Dutton. "If you say anything +about it, you'll soon see you have made a fool of yourself, and the +little you do know is by prying and listening."</p> + +<p>But Kate broke from him and darted into the house, past Lady Geraldine, +who was just coming out, and who noticed with surprise the disturbed +appearance of the two cousins. To Dutton she seemed a good angel sent to +invalidate the spells of an evil one. As the reader knows, she alone had +been entrusted with the secret of his marriage, and he now briefly +explained that Kate was bent upon betraying his meetings with Bluebell, +and entreated her, if possible, by any stratagem, to detain her for +awhile.</p> + +<p>Geraldine, fully alive to the importance of the request, exclaimed with +a gesture of impatience—</p> + +<p>"<i>How</i> provoking! when you were to have told your own story to-morrow! Be +quick, Mr. Dutton, don't lose a moment, and I will undertake to keep Kate +and Mrs. Barrington quiet till they can do no further mischief."</p> + +<p>A very grateful glance from Harry as he sprang away; and how he fared in +the dreaded interview is already known to the reader.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XLI" id="CHAPTER_XLI"></a>CHAPTER XLI.</h2> + +<h3>A LOCK OF HAIR.</h3> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">For which they be that hold apart<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The promise of the golden hours;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">First love, first friendship, equal powers,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That many with the virgin heart.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">In Memoriam.</span><br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p>Another year had gone by since the <i>denouement</i> at Bromley Towers. The +war was over, peace proclaimed, and what remained of our armies had +returned from the East.</p> + +<p>General Rolleston then retired from the service, and bought a very nice +property near Leamington. He still saw a good deal of his old officers; +Fane especially, who now commanded the regiment, spent much of his leave +at Pyott's Hill. He retained all his old admiration for Cecil, receiving +as little encouragement as ever. Possibly that may have been the secret +of his constancy, for certainly, as a Crimean hero, with seven thousand a +year to gild the romance of it, he did not find young ladies in general +very hard-hearted.</p> + +<p>But Fane was ever ungrateful, and, after being petted and feted, sang at, +ridden at, and generally made much of, only returned with fresh zest to +Cecil's unaffected and pleasant companionship. Yet, after each visit, in +spite of manifold opportunities, being alone with her for hours, her +constant companion in rides and rambles, and given to her by every one in +the neighbourhood, he always found he had never really advanced an inch, +and that nothing Cecil expected less than a proposal from him.</p> + +<p>So he always went away in despair, to return again at the faintest hint +of an invitation from her father.</p> + +<p>General Rolleston was by no means displeased to observe this eagerness to +avail himself of his hospitality, being quite as alive as heretofore to +the advantages of the match—he only wondered why Fane and his daughter +were so tardy in coming to an understanding.</p> + +<p>Cecil was very much liked in the neighbourhood. Everybody said she was +the most unaffected girl in the world. But with all her admirers, she had +no flirtations—bright and cold was the verdict pronounced. Some said she +was strong-minded, for she was known to read a great deal, and had even +had a picture admitted into the Female Artists' Exhibition. She was +further convicted of preferring long, solitary rides to joining the +numerous equestrian parties got up in the summer; but as public opinion +had unanimously agreed that she must be engaged to Fane, the unsocial +trait was excused on that hypothesis.</p> + +<p>About this period, he having just discovered her whereabouts, Cecil +received a long letter from Harry Dutton, relating what he knew would +interest her—the strange events and transformations at "The Towers." A +similar one came to Mrs. Rolleston from Bluebell, who, now that she was +at liberty to speak, wrote something like a volume of narrative and +explanation to her friend. The latter, agitated and excited, flew to +Cecil with the wonderful news, unaware that she had heard it already from +Dutton, or, indeed, of her acquaintance with him: for, considering that +all he had told her was in the strictest confidence. Cecil, as the +simplest way of keeping it secret, had never mentioned anything at all +about him. She must now, however, confess, for her step-mother was in an +effusive mood, and bent upon instantly inviting the Duttons to pay them a +visit.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Rolleston received the information with some coldness and little +curiosity, being naturally hurt at her step-daughter's concealment of a +fact of so much interest to her; and though she probably told the +General, he never afterwards alluded to the episode. Indeed, Cecil's +labours at Scutari were rather a tabooed subject, as Harry speedily +discovered when one day he attempted to blunder out his gratitude to her +father.</p> + +<p>The Duttons were invited for a week; also Colonel Fane and Captain +Vavasour. Cecil became restless and excited as the day approached. The +sight of Bluebell would cruelly re-open old wounds, and she had never met +Vavasour (who had brought back the slain body of her lover) since the +Crimea. And he would talk to her about it, she was sure, for Jack had +long ago fathomed their ill fated attachment. Altogether, it was a relief +that other guests were coming to dinner, for they were all too intimate +in one way and too far apart in another—a connecting thread seeming to +run through all their lives. Jack, an old love of Bluebell's, Dutton, +whom she had nursed through deadly peril, and Fane, only prevented being +a declared suitor by systematic absence of reciprocity on her side. Well +it was a mercy they all came in owl-light, scarcely dusk enough for +candles, but pleasantly veiling countenances not too much under command.</p> + +<p>Bluebell and Cecil had determined beforehand that they must embrace, and +mutually dreaded it. It was not, however, such <i>a blanc-mange</i> affair as +osculation among ladies often is, for they were both agitated by too +vivid memories. Bluebell's feelings were pleasantly diverted by +recognising Jack—blushing with delight like the boy he still was. +Somehow, he was the only one of the party she felt entirely at ease with, +and found herself, as of old, chattering and laughing at as much as with +him, just as if three sorrow-laden years had never intervened.</p> + +<p>Dutton contrived to get by Cecil at dinner, though he had not taken her +down, and their conversation was sufficiently interesting to make them +forget their appointed partners.</p> + +<p>"And you <i>are</i> quite restored to favour?" Cecil was saying, "and the +uncle not half so implacable as you expected?"</p> + +<p>"I don't know about that," cried Harry. "He has altered to <i>me</i>, I think. +Bluebell is all the rage now, she actually is admitted into his sanctum +every morning, to read him the papers. I shouldn't wonder if she turned +out Queen Regnante and I were only Prince Consort!"</p> + +<p>Cecil, I think, liked Dutton much better than his wife, with whom it was +hard to resume old relations. Besides, she seemed now quite the favourite +of Fortune, with every difficulty and hardship smoothed away, and to +those who have suffered, it is harder to rejoice with those who do +rejoice than to weep with those who weep.</p> + +<p>So Bluebell was happier alone with Mrs. Rolleston when the men were +hunting or out of the way. Dutton once ventured to question Cecil about +Fane, whose hopeless passion was evident to every one in the house. She +looked vexed, disconsolate, and gave her usual answer, that there was +nothing in it, and never would be.</p> + +<p>Dutton gently tried to combat this assertion. He had heard all about +Bertie, but of course thought it was useless grieving over spilt milk; +that time enough had passed since then; and that she had far better marry +and forget.</p> + +<p>Cecil smiled with a sort of sad amusement at all this and his slight +assumption of marital experience. Harry and Bluebell seemed years younger +than herself,—a giddy, happy young couple, the very sunshine of whose +lives dazzled them too much to see into the depths of hers.</p> + +<p>One afternoon she had started for a lonely walk. The rest of the party +were pretty well disposed of—Bluebell driving with Mrs. Rolleston, and +the others, she thought were with the General; but it did not much +matter. It was a blustering February afternoon—Cecil long remembered it; +the north wind had strewn the ground with dead branches, and cawing +rooks, on the eve of wedlock, were drifting about incoherently on the +breeze. She was following the course of a brook where the grounds +widened into a wild, brambly park, and looking over her shoulder she +perceived Jack Vavasour some distance off, coming along with rapid +strides as if bent on overtaking her.</p> + +<p>Cecil sauntered slowly on, not ill pleased at the opportunity of an +unreserved conversation with Jack. She noticed, with furtive amusement, +that he slackened his pace considerably as he neared her, probably to +give an accidental aspect to the encounter. She turned round with a +contented smile of expectation, and they wandered on together, Cecil +instinctively choosing the most unfrequented and far-off boundary of the +park. It was impossible to keep up long a commonplace conversation, and +they became more and more <i>distrait</i> and nervous, each wishing to +approach one subject, and neither liking to begin. In such a case, it is +always the woman who breaks the ice. An allusion to the war was +sufficient in this instance, and Jack responded so eagerly, she was +confirmed in her impression that he had something to tell her. Without +waiting for further questioning, he plunged into Crimean reminiscences of +Bertie Du Meresq, whom he had seen nearly every day till his death, to +all of which poor Cecil listened with breathless interest, and yet she +<i>knew</i> there was something more to come.</p> + +<p>"You know," continued Vavasour, "his watch and things were sent back to +England; but when we cut open his tunic, to see if he was breathing, +something dropped out that he had worn through the action. I kept <i>that</i>, +for I thought I would restore it only to the rightful owner."</p> + +<p>What intuitive feeling was it that made her wish he would say no more! +Jack was opening his pocket-book, and drew out a piece of folded paper.</p> + +<p>"I knew it in a moment," he cried, as a long coil of soft, dark hair +appeared, so closely resembling Cecil's own as fully to justify his +conviction that it was so.</p> + +<p>He had expected to see her greatly moved; but the sudden pallor of her +face puzzled him, which sensation was still more intensified when her +large eyes flashed a moment upon him with an expression he never forgot, +and, turning abruptly away, she walked towards the house.</p> + +<p>Of all the trouble Cecil had gone through of late, I think for +concentrated bitterness this moment was the worst. Though the colour was +identical, by feel and texture she knew the tress was not her own, added +to which, no such token had ever passed between herself and Bertie.</p> + +<p>Well, there was no temptation to linger over the dead past now, which had +received its <i>coup de grace</i> that wintry afternoon; almost every one felt +that some subtle change had passed over Cecil. Perhaps the one who least +felt its uncannyness was, Fane, who hovered near her with a brighter air. +No doubt some of the party were surprised when, just before it broke up, +the engagement of Cecil and Fane was announced; but no one guessed the +truth except Jack Vavasour, who, anxious and remorseful, only cursed +himself for a blundering idiot.</p> + +<p>They were married on her twenty-fourth birthday, much to the relief of +her bridesmaid-sisters, who had begun to fear Cecil would be an old maid. +Fane sold out, and took his wife abroad, while the old Elizabethan +manor-house, which, since his succession to, he had never lived in, was +painted and luxuriously refurnished for the reception of the bride.</p> + +<p>'Twas a pity Cecil married a rich man. Her best chance would have been +having to think, work, deny herself for another, who might thus have +become dear from the very sacrifices entailed by him. It was hard on +Fane, who had been constant so long, and found he had grasped nothing but +fairy gold. The old manor house was generally full, for somehow both +dreaded a <i>tête-à-tête</i>, and equally, in early days especially, a +betrayal of the feeling.</p> + +<p>Cecil left her guests pretty much to their own devices in the morning, +and read and painted in her own peculiar den, fitted up half as a +library, half as a studio. The winter she devoted to hunting, and +scarcely any meet was too distant or country too intricate for her. +Bertie's riding lessons, at any rate, had not been forgotten, and +carelessness of life is certainly conducive to steadiness of nerve. Jack +Vavasour, who was out one day, was under the impression she wished to +break her neck. Mrs. Fane became noted in her county for going with the +most unflinching straightness, but so little did she care for the +reputation, that sometimes she would stick unambitiously to the roads and +never take a fence.</p> + +<p>She had a separate stud of hunters, and rode independently of her +husband, who followed the amusement in a less erratic style than his +wife, and in more moderation.</p> + +<p>Cecil often thought of her dream, when Du Meresq was transformed into +Fane, and how singularly it had been realized. Certainly adventitious +circumstances were averse to that first love of hers, for, however much +appearances were against him, the lock of hair which had decided her +destiny was no love token of Du Meresq's. It had been consigned to him by +a dying friend, who besought him to write the news to his betrothed, and +restore to her the lock of hair she had given him.</p> + +<p>When Du Meresq had sent this letter off, he found he had omitted +enclosing the tress, but they were then just going into action, and he +had placed it inside his tunic.</p> + +<p>After long years Cecil met this girl, who had been faithful to the memory +of her Crimean hero. Once she spoke of him to Mrs. Fane, mentioning the +circumstance of the omission of the lock when Du Meresq's letter had +conveyed to her the fatal news. Little did she think how her companion +had guarded and hated this <i>souvenir</i>. Cecil glanced sharply at the +other's hair, harsher and more wiry now, and intersected with silvery +threads, still it was like enough to satisfy her of the identity without +the confirmatory cry of surprise with which the poor woman received it +from her hands. Had she known this earlier, I think Cecil would have +clung to her ideal, and never married, but by this time Fane and herself +were—well as happy together as other people. Time's "effacing finger" +had prepared the way, and since the birth of her only son, Cecil's heart +was vitalized by a second passion, as strong though different to the +first. So we may leave her, and see how our other heroine ultimately +fares before dropping the curtain.</p> + +<p>Dutton went to sea once again, but, as his ship was only cruising in the +Mediterranean, Bluebell was able to meet him at the different ports they +stopped at, and did not at all dislike the changeful variety of the life. +However, Lord Bromley found he could not do without her, so, after that +one cruise, Harry retired from the navy, and they lived chiefly at "The +Towers," where a numerous family was born.</p> + +<p>At last Lord Bromley died at a great age, and it was found that he had +left Bromley Towers to their eldest boy, Theodore. To the Duttons was +bequeathed a small estate worth three thousand a year. So after all Harry +never inherited "The Towers," nor Bluebell either.</p> + + +<p>THE END</p> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Bluebell, by Mrs. George Croft Huddleston + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BLUEBELL *** + +***** This file should be named 16371-h.htm or 16371-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/3/7/16371/ + +Produced by Early Canadiana Online, Robert Cicconetti, +Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team +at https://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Bluebell + A Novel + +Author: Mrs. George Croft Huddleston + +Release Date: July 27, 2005 [EBook #16371] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BLUEBELL *** + + + + +Produced by Early Canadiana Online, Robert Cicconetti, +Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team +at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + + BLUEBELL + + _A Novel_ + + BY MRS. G.C. HUDDLESTON + + 1875 + +[Transcriber's note: These images were taken from Early Canadian Online +and there are several pages where the text is missing on the images. +These have been marked "unreadable."] + + + + + Yet we shall one day gain, life part, + Clear prospect o'er our being's whole, + Shall see ourselves, and learn at last + Our true affinities of soul. + + + + +_Acknowledgment_ + + +The Publishers have to acknowledge their great indebtedness to MR. +DAVISON, President, and MR. DAVY, Secretary, of the Toronto Mechanics' +Institute, who, on being applied to, kindly gave to them for publication +the only copy of this Work, which, so far as they knew, was in Canada at +the time, and which the Directors of the Institute, with a commendable +spirit of enterprise, had secured for their Library. + + + + +CONTENTS. + +CHAP. + + I. SWEET SEVENTEEN + + II. BERTIE + + III. GENTLE ANNIE + + IV. SATURDAY AT HOME + + V. A WOODLAND WALK + + VI. VISITORS + + VII. THE GARRISON SLEIGH CLUB + + VIII. FIXING UP A PRANCE + + IX. CROSS PURPOSES + + X. TOBOGGINING + + XI. EFFECTS OF TOBOGGINING + + XII. THE LAKE SHORE ROAD + + XIII. NORTHERN LIGHTS + + XIV. THE TRYST + + XV. AN ENIGMATICAL LETTER + + XVI. DETECTED + + XVII. DID YOU PROPOSE THEN? + + XVIII. LYNDON'S LANDING + + XIX. CALF LOVE + + XX. THE PRINCE PHILANDER + + XXI. A PERILOUS SAIL + + XXII. AT LAST + + XXIII. LOLA'S BIRTHDAY + + XXIV. LITTLE PITCHERS + + XXV. CHANGES + + XXVI. CROSSING THE HERRING POND + + XXVII. HARRY DUTTON + + XXVIII. ROUGH WEATHER + + XXIX. BLUEBELL'S DEBUT IN THE OLD COUNTRY + + XXX. NO CARDS + + XXXI. BROMLEY TOWERS + + XXXII. THE SPRING WOODS + + XXXIII. LORD BROMLEY INTERVIEWS DUTTON + + XXXIV. HARRY GOES TO THE BALTIC + + XXXV. A DISCOVERY + + XXXVI. IN DEATH THEY WERE NOT DIVIDED + + XXXVII. AN UNEXPECTED RENCONTRE + +XXXVIII. OLD HEAD ON YOUNG SHOULDERS + + XXXIX. THE LOAN OF A LOVER + + XL. THE MINIATURE + + XLI. A LOCK OF HAIR + + + + +BLUEBELL + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +SWEET SEVENTEEN. + + I see her now--the vision fair, + Of candour, innocence, and truth, + Stand tiptoe on the verge of air, + 'Twixt childhood and unstable youth. + + +It was the "fall" in Canada, and the leaves were dying royally in purple, +crimson and gold. On the edge of a common, skirting a well-known city of +Ontario, stood a small, rough-cast cottage, behind which the sun was +setting with a red promise of frost, his flaming tints repeated in the +fervid hue of the Virginian creeper that clothed it. + +This modest tenement was the retreat of three unprotected females, two of +whom were seated in silent occupation close to a black stove, which +imparted heat, but denied cheerfulness. The elder was grey and tintless +as her life,--harsh wisdom wrung from sad experience ever on lips thin +and tight, as though from habitually repressing every desire. The +younger, a widow, was scarcely passed middle age, small of stature, but +wizened beyond her years by privation and sorrow. + +A smell of coal-oil, that most unbearable of odours, pervaded the +interior of the cottage, revealing that the general servant below in +lighting the lamp had, as usual, upset some, and was retaining the aroma +by smearing it off with her apron. + +Presently a quick, light step tripped over the wooden side-walk, a shadow +darkened the window, and a vision of youth and freshness burst into the +dingy little parlour. + +A rather tall, full-formed young Hebe was Theodora Leigh, of that pure +pink and white complexion that goes farther to make a beauty than even +regularity of feature; her long, sleepy eyes were just the shade of the +wild hyacinth; indeed, her English father always called her "Bluebell," +after a flower that does not grow on Transatlantic soil. + +But they were Irish-eyes, "put in with a dirty finger," and varying with +every mood. Gooseberry eyes may disguise more soul, but they get no +credit for it. Humour seemed to dance in that soft, blue fire; poetry +dreamed in their clear depths; love--but that we have not come to yet; +they were more eloquent than her tongue, for she was neither witty nor +wise, only rich in the exuberant life of seventeen, and as expectant of +good will and innocent of knowledge of the world as a retriever puppy. + +Apparently, Miss Bluebell was not in the suavest of humours, for she +flung her hat on to one crazy chair, and herself on another, with a +vehemence that caused a sensible concussion. + +"My dear, how brusque you are," said Mrs. Leigh, plaintively. + +"So provoking," muttered Bluebell. + +"What's gone wrong with the child now?" said Miss Opie, the elder +proprietress of the domicile. + +"Why," said Bluebell, "I met the Rollestons, and they asked: me to their +picnic at the Humber on Friday; but how _can_ I go? Look here!" and she +pointed to a pair of boots evidently requiring patching. "Oh, mother! +could you manage another pair now? Miss Scrag has sent home my new +'waist,' and I can do up my hat, but these buckets are only fit for the +dusthole." + +Mrs. Leigh sighed,--"A new pair, with side-springs, would cost three +dollars. No, Bluebell, I can't indeed." + +"I might as well be a nun, then, at once," said the girl, with tears in +her voice; and a sympathetic dew rose in Mrs. Leigh's weary eyes at the +disappointment she could not avert from her spoiled darling. + +"Bluebell," said Miss Opie, "if you read more and scampered about less, +your mind would be better fortified to bear these little reverses." + +"Shut up!" muttered Bluebell, in the artless vernacular of a school-girl, +half turning her shoulder with an impatient gesture. + +The entrance of the tea-things created a diversion, but the discontented +girl sat apart, while the hideousness of her surroundings came upon her +as a new revelation. Certainly, in Canada, in a poverty-stricken abode, +taste seems more completely starved than in any other country. + +Bluebell, in her critical mood, noted the ugly delf tea-things, so badly +arranged; the black stove, four feet into the room, with its pipe running +through a hole in the wall; the ricketty horsehair chairs and wire blind +for the window, "gave" on the street, where gasping geese were diving in +the gutters for the nearest approach to water they could find. + +Scarcely less repugnant were the many-coloured crotchet-mats and +anti-macassars with which Miss Opie loved to decorate the apartment; nor +was a paper frill adorning a paltry green flower-vase wanting to complete +the tasteless _tout ensemble_. + +The evening wore on; Mrs. Leigh proceeded with the turning of an old +merino dress; Miss Opie adjusted her spectacles, and read _Good Words_. +Bluebell sat down to the piano and executed a selection from Rossini's +'Messe Solennelle' with force and fervour. + +"You play very well, child," said Miss Opie. + +"That is fortunate," said Bluebell, "for I mean to be a governess." + +"You mean you want a governess," retorted the other. "Why, what in the +world do you know?" + +"More than most children of ten years old. I might get a hundred dollars +a year. Mamma, I could buy myself new boots then." + +"You are nothing but a self-willed child yourself, unable to bear the +slightest disappointment," said Miss Opie. + +"Never mind," said Mrs. Leigh, coaxingly; "I'll see if I cannot get you +the boots. They will give me credit at the store." + +"No, no; I know you can't afford it; they were new last April. Mamma is +oil to your vinegar, Aunt Jane." + +"And you the green young mustard in the domestic salad--hot enough, and, +like all ill weeds, growing apace." + +"Then it is field mustard, and not used for salad," said Bluebell, +anxious for the last word. And, escaping from the room, went to place +some bones in the shed, for a casual in the shape of a starving cur, who +called occasionally for food and a night's lodging. + +About twenty years ago, when this melancholy Mrs. Leigh was a lovely +young Canadian of rather humble origin, Theodore Leigh, a graceless +subaltern in the Artillery, had just returned from leave, and, going one +day to the Rink, was "regularly flumocksed," as he expressed it, by the +vision of Miss Lesbia Jones skimming over the ice like a swallow on the +wing. And when she proceeded to cut a figure of 8 backwards, and execute +another intricate movement called "the rose," his admiration became +vehement, and, seizing on a brother-officer he had observed speaking to +her, demanded an introduction. + +"To the 'Tee-to-tum'? Oh, certainly." + +Miss Lesbia was very small, and wore the shortest of petticoats, which +probably suggested the appellation. + +Fatigued with her evolutions, she had sunk with a pretty little air of +_abandon_ on the platform, and her destiny, in a beaver coat and cap, was +presented by Mr. Wingfield. + +After this, a common object at the Rink was a tall young man, in all the +agonies of a _debut_ on skates, and a bewitching little attendant sprite +shooting before and around him, occasionally righting him with a fairy +touch when he evinced too wild a desire to dash his brains against the +wall. + +At all the sleighing parties, also, Miss Lesbia's form was invariably +observed in Mr. Leigh's cutter, with a violet and white "cloud" matching +the robe borders and ribbons on the bells; and he and the "Tee-to-tum" +spun round together in half the valses of every ball during the winter. + +Perhaps, after all, the attachment might have lived and died without +exceeding the "muffin" phase, had not the "beauty," Captain of the +battery cut in, and made rather strong running, too, partly because he +considered her "fetching," and partly, he said, "from regard to Leigh, +who was making an ass of himself." + +Jealousy turned philandering into earnest. Theodore went straight to the +maiden aunt, with whom Miss Jones resided, and, after most vehement +badgering, got her consent to a private marriage within three days. The +poor spinster, though much flustered, knowing his attentions to Lesbia +had been a good deal talked about, felt almost relieved to have it +settled respectably, though so abruptly. + +On the appointed day, having obtained a week's leave, Theodore, with his +best man, the last joined subaltern, dashed up to the church-door in a +cutter, just in time to receive Lesbia and her bewildered chaperone. + +After the ceremony, they started off for their week's honeymoon to the +Falls; and the best man, absolved from secrecy, spread the news through +the regiment. + +Theodore had scribbled off the intelligence in reckless desperation to +his father, of whom he was the only child, and Sir Timothy Leigh, a proud +and ambitious man, never forgave the irrevocable piece of folly so +cavalierly announced to him. + +Theodore received a letter from the family lawyer, couched in the terms +of sorrowful reprehension such functionaries usually assume on similar +occasions. + +"It was Mr. Vellum's painful duty to inform him that Sir Timothy would +decline to receive him on his return to England; that two hundred a year +would be placed annually to his credit at Cox's; but the estates not +being entailed, that was the utmost farthing he need ever expect from +him." + +Such was the gist of the communication, and Theodore, hardened by his +father's severity, and unable to bear the privations of a narrow income, +absented himself more and more from their wretched lodgings, and tried to +drown his cares by drinking himself into a state of semi-idiocy. + +There is little more to relate of this ill-starred marriage, of which +Bluebell was the fruit; for soon after her birth young Leigh was killed +by being upset out of a dog-cart. + +Driving home with unsteady hands from mess one night, he collided with +a street car, which inevitably turned over the two-wheeled vehicle. +Theodore was pitched out, his head striking on the iron rails, and never +breathed again. + +Whatever grief Sir Timothy may have felt at his son being snatched from +him, unreconciled and unforgiven, did not show itself in mercy to the +widow. + +Mr. Vellum was again in requisition, and proposed, on behalf of Sir +Timothy, to make Mrs. Leigh a suitable allowance on condition that she +remained in Canada, and delivered over the child to her grandfather, to +be brought up and educated as his heiress. In case these terms were +refused, she would continue to receive annually two hundred a-year; but +no farther assistance would be granted. + +Lesbia, in her loneliness and bereavement, was heart-broken at this +unfeeling proposition, and Bluebell being too young for a choice, she +consulted the voice of Nature alone, and refused to part with her child. + +The maiden aunt, Miss Opie, willingly received them. She had a mere +pittance, and lived in a boarding house; but, by joining their slender +purses, they took the cottage in which we find them. + +Thus in extreme poverty was Bluebell reared until her seventeenth year, +though by personal privation Mrs. Leigh sent her to _the_ school _par +excellence_; attended by most of the girls in the city, whether their +parents were "in" or "out" of society. Bluebell having the _prestige_ of +an English father, own son of a baronet, and military into the bargain, +was considered in the former class, and included at an early age in the +gaieties of the winter. + +A new friend, who had been particularly kind to her, was Mrs. Rolleston, +wife of the Colonel of a regiment quartered there, and to her Bluebell +repaired to make sorrowful excuses for the projected picnic, and also to +confide the scheme that possessed her mind of earning money as a musical +teacher or nursery governess. + +Mrs. Rolleston felt half inclined to laugh at the unformed impulsive +child, who was such a pet in their household, but seemed far too babyish +and unmethodical to be recommended for any situation; yet remembering her +mother's straitened circumstances, and that the girl probably wanted some +pocket-money, she listened sympathetically, and promised to turn it over +in her mind. + +Music she knew Bluebell thoroughly understood and excelled in. She had +for years received instruction gratis from the organist at the Cathedral, +who, originally attracted by her lovely voice singing in the choir, took +her up with enthusiasm, and taught her harmony and thorough bass. Thus, +instead of only practising a desultory accomplishment, she was able to +compose and arrange her tuneful ideas correctly. + +A dark striking-looking girl interrupted them. This was Cecil Rolleston, +the eldest daughter of the house, or rather she stood in that relation to +the Colonel, being the offspring of his first wife. + +"Come out and play croquet, Bluebell," said she; "the children are having +a game; they only let me go on condition of bringing you,"--and she led +the way through the window into a charming garden, with large shady +maple-trees just beginning to drop their deep-dyed, variegated leaves on +the turf; the bluebirds were already gone, but the red and ashen-hued +robin, nearly the size of a jay, still rustled through the boughs. + +A little white dog, with a ribbon on, was holding a ball within its +feathery toes, and playing with it as a cat does a mouse; a gardener was +refreshing the thirsty flowers, which had outgrown their strength; and +Fleda, Estelle, and Lola, twelve, eleven, and nine, were playing croquet +with the zest of recent emancipation from lessons. + +The governess, a dark, sallow expositor of the arts and sciences, also +wielded a mallet, and Cecil and Bluebell completed the six. + +The sides were pretty equally cast, and the combatants were in a most +interesting crisis of the game, when Colonel Rolleston entered the +garden. + +He was a very handsome man, and as is often the case with the only male +in a family of women, so studied and given in to by all his female +_entourage_, that he would not have been pleased, whatever their +occupations, if he were not immediately rallied round by a little court +of flatterers. + +"Estelle," said the governess, "offer your papa your mallet, and ask him +to be so kind as to play with us." The child's face lengthened; she had +not much hope of his refusing it, but advanced with her request. + +"Must I?" said the Colonel. + +"Oh, yes!" said the chorus of voices; "be my partner--be mine." + +"Don't tear me to pieces among you," said he, with a deprecating gesture. + +"Take Bluebell on your side, papa," cried Cecil; "she is very good, and +we'll keep Miss Prosody, who is equally so." + +And thus they proceeded, the Colonel radiant with every successful +stroke, and blaming mallet, ball, and ground when otherwise, reiterating, +"I can't make a stroke to-day." + +Bluebell was very fond of the Colonel, who liked pretty faces about him, +and had been kind to her; but she could not resist a slight feeling of +repulsion at what she considered an abject maneuver of Miss Prosody's. +His ball, by an unskilful miss, was left in her power; her duty to her +side required her to crack it to the other end of the ground, but a +glance at the irritable gloom of his countenance induced her to discover +it to be more to her advantage to attack one rather beyond, and, +judiciously missing it left her own blue one an easy stroke for him. + +The shadows dispersed, and, all playfulness, the Colonel apostrophized +his prize, which he succeeded in hitting. "Here is my little friend in +blue; shall I hurt it? no, I will not harm it." By-play of relief and +gratitude on the governess's part, as he requited her amiability by +merely taking two off, leaving his interesting friend in blue unmoved. + +This naturally did not enhance the interest of the children who felt it +was not the game of croquet that was being played. Cecil, replying with a +laughing glance to the indignant eye-telegraphy of Fleda, began to play +at random; and Bluebell and Lola, not finding much antagonism from the +other side, soon pulled the Colonel through his hoops and won the game. +After which, Bluebell retraced her steps across the common, accompanied +part of the way by Miss Rolleston, to whom she also confided her +governess's projects. + +Cecil was very fond of her; she had few companions, and her sisters were +mere children. All the time the younger girl was talking, she was +silently revolving a plan. It so happened this Cecil was in rather +independent circumstances for a young lady, maternal relative having left +her a legacy at twelve years old which, by the time she was twenty-one, +would bring in a thousand a year. + +In the mean time, she drew half that sum annually, and, of course, +contributed to the domestic expenses. How much pleasanter it would be for +Bluebell to live with them than with strangers. She might be _her_ +musical teacher; singing duets even brought out her own voice +surprisingly; it would be delightful to practise together; the children +had no taste for music, neither did Mrs. Rolleston care for it. Besides, +she felt a generous pleasure in the prospect of assisting her friend, +poor Bluebell, who often had to deny herself a mere bit of ribbon from +want of a shilling to pay for it. It might require a little management at +home, so she would not hint at it yet, and, with a warm caress and a gay +farewell nod, they separated. + +Next morning, Mrs. Leigh, still engaged in the resuscitation of the +merino dress, was surprised by a visit from Mrs. Rolleston. That lady, +for a wonder, considering her errand, had come alone, for it was seldom +that any little domestic arrangement was entered on without the personal +supervision of the Colonel. + +However, there was a counter-attraction at barracks this morning, and +having, so to speak, held a board on Cecil's proposition, and opposed, +argued, and thoroughly talked it over, Mrs. Rolleston was empowered to +suggest to Mrs. Leigh a plan for taking Bluebell into their family as +musical companion to Cecil and nursery governess to Freddy, the heir +apparent, aetat. four. The poor little lady did not seem much elated at +the proposal. "I know my child will wish it," she said. "I can give her +no variety, no indulgences, and she is of an age when occupation and +society are a necessity to her. I sometimes feel," she murmured, with +a sigh, "that I have stood in her light by not agreeing to her +grandfather's conditions." + +A look of curiosity from Mrs. Rolleston elicited an explanation, and she +heard for the first time the whole history of Bluebell's antecedents. + +"Why," cried she, much excited, "I remember that Sir Timothy before I +married; there are so many Leighs, it never struck me he might be your +father-in-law. I recollect hearing he had disinherited his son, but he +has adopted a grandnephew, which, I am afraid, looks bad for Bluebell." +And she listened with renewed interest to Mrs. Leigh's diffuse +reminiscences, while her _protege_ appeared to her in a new and romantic +light, and she pictured half-a-dozen possibilities for her future. + +From a miniature of the graceless Theodore which Mrs. Leigh produced, +there could be no doubt of the resemblance to his daughter in air and +feature; the long sleepy eyes were identical, though the slightly +insolent expression of Theodore's was, happily, wanting. + +"He was the best of husbands," whimpered the widow, on whose placid +mind the shortcomings of the dissipated youth seemed to have left no +impression; "but he was hardly treated in this world, and so he was taken +to a better." + +Before Mrs. Rolleston left, it was arranged that Bluebell was to make her +first essay in governessing on Freddy Rolleston, her Sundays to be spent +as often as possible with her mother; and ere another week had passed, +she and her effects were transferred to the Maples. + +A bed was made up for her in a little room of Cecil's and the tuition of +Freddy carried on in the nursery; for Mrs. Rolleston having some doubts +as how the amateur and professional governess might amalgamate, avoided +letting her entrench on Miss Prosody's premises. + +That lady, indeed, was disposed to look upon her with suspicion +and incipient dislike. She had always been treated with great +consideration--quite one of the family, and cared not for "a rival near +her throne." Who was Bluebell that she should be made so much of?--a +little nursery governess with no attainments, and yet Cecil's inseparable +companion! She was a prime favourite with the Colonel, whose "ways" she +had made a judicious study of, and treated with considerable tact. He +always mentioned her as "that dear invaluable creature, Miss Prosody." +She could occasionally put an idea into his mind which he mistook for his +own, as, for instance, when he observed to his wife,--"What a pity that +girl has such a preposterous name, and that you all have the habit of +calling her by it. The other evening that idiot, young Halkett must needs +say, 'What a lovely pet name!' I can tell you I took him up pretty short. +You really must not have her down so much, if these boys think they may +talk nonsense to her." + +Mrs. Rolleston was rather surprised at the irritation with which this was +said; to be sure she had heard Miss Prosody, previous to young Halkett's +foolish remark, lamenting that Bluebell "did not show more reserve with +gentlemen guests, and that she put herself so much on an equality with +Cecil." The Colonel was a domestic man, and liked cheerfulness at his +fireside, of which he himself was to be the centre and inspiration; +anything approaching bad spirits, silence, or headaches he always +resented. + +Bluebell was well enough as contributing to the liveliness of the little +society--a pretty smiling young girl is seldom _de trop_; but then she +must be satisfied without lovers, whose presence the Colonel considered +subversive of all rational comfort. + +Good-natured Mrs. Rolleston pursued the even tenor of her way, the +Colonel's fidgets had a soporific effect on her nerves and created +no corresponding alarms; her idol, Freddy, was satisfied with the new +administration, and ceased to wage internecine warfare with his nurse; +and certainly the unwonted tranquillity consequent was a decided boon to +the rest of the household. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +BERTIE. + + In the greenest growth of the Maytime + We rode where the roads were wet; + Between the dawn and the daytime + The spring was glad that we met. + --Swinburne. + + +Two or three months passed, the bluebirds and robins had all +disappeared, and the snow-birds, hardy scions of the feathered tribe +capable of withstanding the rigours of a Canadian winter, were alone to +be seen. The Rinks had been flooded, and skating was going on with +vigour; the snow was not quite in a satisfactory state as yet; but a few +sleighs jingled merrily about with their bright bits of colour, the +edging of fur robes and ribbon on the sleigh bells. A general impulse of +joyful anticipation ran through all the young people as winter unlocked +her stores of amusement, and the keen sabre-like air, so bracing and +exhilarating, stirred the life in young veins, and set their spirits +dancing with exuberant vitality. + +The Rollestons, who had only come out in the spring, were attracted with +everything. Not a sleigh passed but there was a rush from the children to +the window, and Colonel Rolleston, who was building one, received fresh +suggestions about it most days from his excited family. + +Every morning Cecil, under Bluebell's tuition, practised skating at the +Rink, and had devised an original and becoming costume to be assumed as +soon as she had attained sufficient command of her limbs not to object to +a share of public attention. In the afternoon the Rink was generally +crowded, and many of the Colonel's regiment evinced an eagerness to help +Cecil along, and pretend to receive instruction from the skilful and +blooming Bluebell; so poor Mrs. Rolleston was then invariably detailed by +the Colonel for chaperone duty, and sat shivering on the platform while +Cecil was being initiated in the mysteries of "Dutch rolls" and "outside +edge." On one of these occasions she was roused by a well-known voice +calling her by name, and turned round in joyful surprise to greet a young +man just come in. + +"My dear Bertie, were have you sprung from? Have you been to our house?" + +"Just left it and my traps. Lascelles suddenly gave up his leave, which +I applied for, and have got a week certain, and most likely all of it, +for there are plenty of Captains down there; so I thought I would look +you up to begin with." + +"To begin with! You must stay here all the time--make it head quarters, +at any rate. You have been travelling all the summer, and there's nothing +to do now." + +"Moose," murmured Bertie. "Ah! there's Cecil." + +Cecil, skating hand-in-hand to the tune of "Paddle your own canoe," +was not sufficiently disengaged to remark her mother's companion. His +eyes followed her with a keen, comprehensive glance, which Mrs. Rolleston +observed complacently. + +"Don't you think her much improved?--much prettier?" asked she. + +"Skating always suits a well-made girl. That black and scarlet get-up, +too, is very becoming, but pretty--hardly." + +"She is, however, very much admired," said Mrs. Rolleston, warmly, for a +step-mother. + +"Ah!" cried Bertie, with a slight accent of bitterness, "reasons enough +for that. How well some of these girls skate! Who is that shooting-star?" + +The planet in question gyrated towards them, dropped on one knee on the +platform for the relief of strained ankles, and, as she addressed Mrs. +Rolleston, caught a look of decided admiration on Bertie's face. + +A Canadian girl is nothing if not self-possessed; she sustained the gaze +with the most perfect calmness. + +"Bluebell, this is my brother, Captain Du Meresq. Cecil ought to rest; +will you go and tell her to come here?" + +"Who is that young beauty whom you addressed in the language of flowers?" +asked he. + +"Nonsense, Bertie! she is Freddy's governess. You must not begin to talk +absurdity to her; you will annoy Edward." + +"He don't object to fair faces on his own account." + +"Well, this particular one is more bother than pleasure to him. You +know his horror of 'danglers'; he is afraid of aimless flirtations +with Bluebell, who, being also Cecil's companion, is constantly in the +drawing-room." + +"Ah, my beloved niece," said Captain Du Meresq, as he gave Cecil +considerable support from the ice to the platform. + +"What has given us this unexpected treat?" said she, with a warmer hue +than usual in her clear, pale cheek. + +"My anxiety to see your new companion." + +"Whose existence, I suppose, you have just heard of." + +"It has been my loss," retorted he. "Fascinating young creature! The name +Bluebell just describes those wild hyacinth eyes." + +"Oh! Bertie," said his sister and Cecil together, "how absurd you are +about girls." + +"And then," persisted he, "that charming tawny hair and milk white skin." + +"One might think you were describing an Alderney cow. It's a pity she is +not called 'Daisy' or 'Cowslip.'" + +"Girls are all alike," said Captain Du Meresq, sententiously. "Even you, +my beloved Cecil, who are a woman of mind, can't stand my wild admiration +of--Cowslip." + +Cecil raised her eyebrows, and a scornful beam shot from the dark eyes +that were her chief attraction. + +"Nor could the 'dairy flower' herself, I should think. It's no use +rhapsodizing before me, Bertie; _I_ shall not tell her in any +confidential communication, whatever you may think." + +"Ah, well," said Captain Du Meresq, with a sigh, "let us hope the +ingenious child may understand the universal language of the eyes, for +I hear papa would not approve of my speaking to her." + +Mrs. Rolleston was becoming fidgetty. To some women, as they advance +in years, an inability of separating chaff from earnest becomes more +pronounced, and the uppermost wish of her mind at present was to see a +real attachment between Bertie and Cecil. Albert Du Meresq was only her +half-brother; but he had become her charge in infancy under terrible +circumstances, which we will briefly relate. + +When Mr. Du Meresq married his mother, a wilful Irish beauty, Mrs. +Rolleston was a shy, reserved girl of thirteen, and became very jealous +of her father's exclusive devotion to his bride and neglect of herself. + +Lady Inez looked upon her as rather a nuisance, and was coldly critical +upon her appearance and manner. She was an unsparing mimic, and +frequently exercised the faculty on her step-daughter, whose nervousness +became awkwardness in the constant expectation of being turned into +ridicule. Consequently, she cordially disliked not only Lady Inez, but +the little step-brother, who was made of so much importance, till one +ghastly day changed the aspect of events. + +Like a fearful dream it had seemed--a strange carriage rolling to the +door, from which emerged her father and another gentleman carrying a +terrible burden, looking supernaturally long in a riding-habit. White +scared faces flitted about; but life was extinct, and there was no +frantic riding for doctors. + +There had been a hunt-breakfast that morning, and she well remembered the +envy she had felt at seeing Lady Inez ride gaily forth with the rest on a +favourite horse. + +"She has everything," thought Bella, "'Reindeer' was promised to me when +he was a foal, and I have never been on his back." + +But Lady Inez was lying there, with the mark of "Reindeer's" iron hoof on +her temple. They had come down together at a blind fence; the horse, +entangled in her habit, struck out _once_, as thorough-breds will, but it +was a death-blow. + +The voice of the child, crying alone and neglected in the nursery, +aroused Bella from a horror stricken stupor. Her father's despair made +him unapproachable, but she might comfort Bertie, forgotten by his +attendants. + +From this time she became almost a mother to him, for Mr. Du Meresq went +abroad, and they were left alone in the deserted house for some years. + +Bertie had left Eton, and just obtained a commission in the ---- Hussars, +when his father died, leaving him a moderate fortune, which steadily +decreased as years went by. It had approached attenuation by this time, +and Mrs. Rolleston felt as distracted and perplexed as a duckling's hen +foster-mother, at the vagaries of the happy-go-lucky, reckless Irish +blood in Bertie, which did not flow in her own veins. + +She looked forward to marrying him to Cecil, as the best chance of +relieving his pecuniary difficulties and reforming his unsteadiness. + +Captain Du Meresq had stayed with them for six weeks some time ago, +when he and Cecil became inseparable companions, and it was then that +the idea had dawned upon her. She would not openly discuss it with her +brother--that would have too much the appearance of a plot: but her +lively satisfaction at the prospect was apparent enough, and Bertie knew +her co-operation would not be wanting. + +He had thought of it more than once. What chance had he not calculated +to get him through his sea of difficulties; but a thousand a year alone +seemed scarcely sufficient temptation to matrimony, to which he did not +seriously incline. Indeed, his warm impressionable nature was not the +temperament of a fortune-hunter. + +He was attracted with Cecil, and got rather fond of her in the six weeks +he had been trying to make her in love with him, not with any mercenary +view, but because such was his usual custom with girls. + +But he was afflicted with a keen eye for beauty, and Cecil was plain to +most eyes, and too colourless for his taste, though she possessed a +lovely figure, thorough-bred little head, and a pale, intelligent, +expressive face. + +Bluebell's lilies and roses and Hebe-like contour caught his eye in a +moment, of which Cecil felt an instinctive conviction; but though, with a +woman's keenness, underrating no point of attraction in her friend, she +considered her wanting in style, which deficiency she dwelt on now with +secret satisfaction. For though not in the least anxious to monopolize +general admiration, that of Bertie Du Meresq was unfortunately a +sensitive point with Cecil, for that six weeks had been the intensest +period of her life--the dawning of "love's young dream." + +She had never met him since childhood till then, when they were thrown +together with the intimacy of near connexions. There was not, of course, +the slightest real relationship, but Bertie jestingly called her his +niece, perhaps, to establish a right of chaperonage. + +He used to make her come down to breakfast _en Amazone_, and took her the +most enchanting rides in that Seductive April weather. Her equestrian +experience previously had been limited to steady macadamizing on the +roads. Bertie took her as the crow flies, never pulled a fence, but +merely gave her a lead, and Cecil, who had plenty of nerve, exulted in +the new excitement. The farmers might not have thought it a very orthodox +month for this amusement; but hunting was scarcely over, though the +copses were filled with primroses, and violets scented the hedgerows; the +birds sang as they only do when the great business of their year is +commencing. And then she had such a mount, a perfect hunter of her +_quasi_-uncle's. It never refused, and took its fences with such ease a +child might have sat it. + +Or they would ride dreamily on in woody glades, both alike susceptible +to the shafts of sunlight, quivering on the leaves, the sudden gush +of fragrance after a shower, and all the myriad appeals of spring to +those who have that touch of poetry in their clay which is the key of +fairy-land, their horses meantime snatching at the young green boughs as +they sauntered lazily on; and Du Meresq, who had travelled in all sorts +of strange out-of-the way places, described weirder scenes in other +lands, and pictured a fuller, more vivid life than she in her routine +existence had dreamed of. + +Bertie was always all in all to the woman he was with, provided no other +was present; and Cecil, young, and full of sympathy and intelligence, was +a delightful companion. His appreciation, felt and expressed, of her +quickness of comprehension was most agreeable flattery; the more so as he +confided in her so fully, even consulting her about his own private +affairs, for he was very hard pressed at this time, and she, who had +never known the want of money, took the deepest interest in it all. + +He seemed never able to bear her out of his sight. If she played, he +was hanging over the piano; if he had letters to write, Cecil must do +it from his dictation; and yet he would avow sometimes before her such +extravagant adoration for some pretty girl, that Cecil, chilled and +surprised, would feel more than ever doubtful of her own influence; +and the honeyed words she had treasured up, faded away as void of +significance. And then one day,--suddenly,--on her return from a +croquet-party, she heard he had received a telegram, and gone, leaving +a careless message of adieu. + +Poor Cecil! with the instinct of the wounded animal to its lair, she +rushed to her own room, locked the door, and walked about in a tearless +abandonment of grief, disappointment, and surprise. How could he leave +her without one word? She felt half stunned, and her brain seemed capable +of only the dull reiteration that "Bertie was gone." Tears welled up to +her eyes then, when the sound of the first dinner-bell drove them back. +She felt she must battle alone with this strange affliction; and trying +to efface from her features all evidence of the shock she had sustained, +descended to dinner, looking rather more stately than usual. + +It annoyed her to observe that her step-mother glanced deprecatingly at +her, and was inclined to be extra affectionate. This would never do. Like +most young girls, she was generally rather silent when not interested in +the discussions of her elders. But now she never let conversation drop. +The incidents of the croquet-party furnished a safe topic. Colonel +Rolleston thought the gentle dissipation had made his daughter quite +lively. Afterwards she took refuge at the piano, which was imprudent, for +music only too surely touches the chord of feeling, and every piece was +associated with Bertie. Cecil shut the instrument, and effected a +strategical retreat to her bed-room, where, in the luxury of solitude, +she might worry and torment herself to her heart's content. His absence +was trial enough, but the sting lay in the way it was done, which was +such a proof of indifference, that shame urged her to crush out all +thoughts of him, and suffer anything rather than let him see the +impression his careless affection had made on her. + +And so Cecil passed through her first "baptism of fire" alone and +unsuspected; but time had softened much of her resentment ere they met +again. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +GENTLE ANNIE. + + The time I've lost in wooing, + In watching and pursuing + The light that lies + In woman's eyes, + Has been my heart's undoing. + --Moore. + + +"Bluebell," said little Lola, bursting into the nursery, where Freddy, +rather a tyrant in his affections, had insisted on her singing him to +sleep, "Ma says you have got to dine down to-night, and Miss Prosody, + +too. Won't she be in a way, for her white muslin never came home from the +wash, and she had begun altering the _barege_; so I asked Felda to tell +her," said Lola, diplomatically. "Do you know Bertie has come?" (His +nieces never prefaced his name with the formality of uncle.) "Oh of +course, you must have seen him at the Rink. Do you like him? He is sure +to like you, at first, at any rate," said Lola, who apparently, like +other lookers-on saw most of the game. "And don't tell, but I believe he +hates Miss Prosody." + +"Why?" asked Bluebell, absently. + +"Well, one day he was whispering to Cecil, with their heads very near +together. Miss Prosody was looking for a book in a recess behind the +door, close to them; but they never saw her till she moved away, and I +heard Bertie mutter something about an 'inquisitive old devil.' But don't +tell, mind. There's the bell; I must go to tea," _Exit_ Lola, and +Bluebell flew off with some alacrity to her bed-room to prepare. + +"Bluebell," cried Cecil, opening the intervening door, "can I lend you +anything?" It pleased her to supply her friend's deficiencies of toilet +when a sudden summons to a domestic field-day had been issued. + +"Is it a party?" said the other. "I have only my eternal black-net +dress." + +"Just Mr. Vavasour and Captain Deveril," both in her father's regiment; +they never either of them alluded to Bertie. "Here are some fixings for +it," returning with a lapful of silver acorns and oak leaves, "unless you +would prefer butter-cups. What a thing it is to have a complexion like +yours, that everything goes with,"--and Cecil looked with half envy at +the girl, whose blue eyes were bluer, and hair and cheeks brighter, than +usual, as she chattered away with a vivacity, of which, perhaps, the +nattering glances of Captain Du Meresq may have been the secret spring. + +Bluebell hadn't the slightest idea of assuming the demure demeanour of +a governess in society; the Rollestons had been her great friends before, +and did not treat her as if she was in any altered position; not so, +however, Miss Prosody, who would have reduced her to the _status_ of a +nursery-maid had it been in her power. + +That austere virgin was talking, or rather listening, in a sympathetic +manner to Colonel Rolleston as the girls entered the room; but her eye +had taken in every detail of Miss Leigh's costume, and disapprovingly +remarked the silver oak leaves that festooned the black-net dress, and +Maltese cross and bracelets that accompanied it, all of which she well +knew belonged to Cecil. + +The three young men were talking together. + +"Du Meresq," said Captain Deveril, "you get more leave than any other +fellow. You were in the Prairies in July, England in the spring, and now +here you are at large again in January." + +"You must have a rattling good chief," said Mr. Vavasour, "I don't think, +Mrs. Rolleston, the Colonel is ever able to spare us quite so often." + +"You see," said Bertie, "there's no demand for leave among our fellows +just now; they are all in love at Montreal, and there's so much going on +there. Lascelles most imprudently gave up his to drive Miss Ellery about +a little longer." + +"Oh, ah, I know her," said young Vavasour; "girl with grey eyes, and head +always on one side when she's valsing; looks as if she was kissing her +own shoulder." + +"Will she land him, do you think?" said Deveril. + +"Not she," said Bertie. "I have known him in as bad a scrape before; +he'll get away to England soon; he always bolts when the family becomes +affectionate." + +A discordant gong resounding through the house was followed by the +announcement of dinner. + +"Come, my dear Miss Prosody," said the Colonel, complacently, leading her +forth; he hadn't near done his recital of the morning's field-day, which +required that delicate tact and judicious prompting to extort from him +that, though not really Brigadier on the occasion, his opinion and +authority had actually directed the proceedings. + +Generally any amount of this affectionate incense was forthcoming from +his wife and daughter; but to-night they both seemed a little _distrait_ +and occupied with Bertie, which, however, was a loss little felt with +Miss Prosody present, whose motto seemed that of the volunteers, "Always +ready," and her "soothing treatment" was certainly equal to that of +either of the others. + +"It's you and I, Miss Bluebell," said young Vavasour, hastily offering +his arm, while Bertie who had hesitated an instant, gave his to Cecil. +The momentary reluctance was not lost upon her, she become rather silent, +ditto Captain Du Meresq; but their opposite neighbours were in a full +flow of chatter. + +"I saw you on the Rink, Miss Leigh, I wish I could skate like you. What +is that thing you do with a broom??" + +"The rose." + +"Take a good deal of cultivating to produce. I should think? Are you +going to the M'Nab's ball?" + +"No; I am not asked. The others are." + +"But you do go to balls sometimes?" + +"Oh, yes; Mrs. Rolleston promised I should; but I can't go without an +invitation, and I very seldom get one." + +"I daresay not," said Jack hotly; "they don't want their daughters cut +out." + +"Stuff," cried Bluebell, with a sudden blush, which was not occasioned by +the remark, but by the expression of Bertie Du Meresq's eyes that she had +caught for about the third time since dinner began. It was very +provoking; they had a sort of magnetic power, that forced her to look +that way, and she fancied she detected a half-pleased smile in +recognition of the involuntary suffusion. + +"We are going; to 'fix up a prance' after the garrison sleigh drive on +the 10th," continued young Vavasour; "will you come my sleigh, Miss +Leigh?" + +Bluebell's face brightened with anticipation; then she looked down, and +demurred,--"I don't know that I shall be able to go." + +"That's only a put off, I am sure; you came out last garrison +sleigh-drive." + +"Yes, because Colonel Rolleston took me in his, but I mustn't expect +to go every time; and you see there's Freddy; but I _should_ like it +awfully, Mr. Vavasour." + +"Well, I know they will make you come," said he confidently. "Promise me +you won't drive with any other fellow." + +"No fear of that; I don't suppose any one else will ask me." + +"Wouldn't they," thought Vavasour. "I know two or three of our fellows +are death on driving her." + +"Cecil," said Bertie, suddenly, "I think you have grown much quieter." + +"I am sure I might make the same remark, and for the purposes of +conversation it requires two to talk." + +"You are so stiff, or something," murmured he; "not like the jolly little +girl who used to ride with me in the Farwoods. Those were pleasant days, +Cecil--at least, I thought so." + +"You got very suddenly tired of them, however." + +"That I didn't," exclaimed he. "I was obliged to go." + +"It was a yachting excursion, wasn't it?" carelessly. + +"Yes, ostensibly; I had business too. Do you know Cecil very nearly wrote +to you. But then, I thought you wouldn't care to hear from me, and might +think it a bore answering." + +Cecil was silent. "Did you miss me, my child?" + +She forgot her resolves, and met his eyes with a dark, soft look. + +Bertie pressed her hand under the table, and for a moment they were +oblivious of anything passing around. + +"Sweet or dry, sir?" said the deep voice of the liveried [unreadable], +for the second time of asking. + +Du Meresq darted a searching glance at the man, who looked as stolid as +the Serjeant in 'Our's.' No one could have guessed he was thinking what +a _piquante_ anecdote it would be to relate to his inamorata, the cook, +over their supper-beer. Bertie gave a laughing but relieved glance at +his neighbour, whose eyes were fixed on her plate. They both began +simultaneously talking louder, with an exaggerated openness, on general +topics. Mrs. Rolleston joined in. + +"You must stay over the sleighing-party, Bertie." + +"I hate driving a hired sleigh," said he. "I wish I could get mine up; +but the Grand Trunk would be sure to deliver it the day after the fair." + +"But you have your musk-ox robes here; they would dress up the shabbiest +sleigh. I only saw one set like them on New Year's Day, when we had at +least sixty sleighs up here." + +"How did you enjoy that celebration?" + +"I think," said Cecil, "it is rather tiresome for ladies to have to stay +in all day and receive, while the gentlemen go out calling. We had a +spread, of course--luncheon, tea, coffee, everything. One man, who had a +large acquaintance, came before breakfast, and they were rushing in all +day. It would have been well enough if they were not in such a hurry; but +they just swallowed a glass of wine, and the burden of all their remarks +was, 'I have been to a dozen places already, and have about thirty or +forty more to do.'" + +"Could not you two young ladies make them linger over smiles and wine?" +laughed Bertie. "We are not such duffers at Montreal." + +"No, indeed. I saw Bluebell give a man a scalding cup of coffee, with the +most engaging smile. There was a nervous glance at the clock. 'Oh, thank +you, Miss Leigh, how hot it is! I shall never have time to drink it,' +just as if he had a train to catch." + +"They have an arrear of balls and dinners to call for; that is the only +day in the year a good many ever can pay visits--the civilians, I mean." + +The Colonel, who had now exhausted conversation with Miss Prosody, had +leisure to observe the determined flirtation of young Vavasour with +Bluebell. That unformidable young person being only seventeen, of course +looked upon him as a mere boy, and her chaffing manner was not at all to +the Colonel's taste, whose attention was drawn to it by an expressive +glance from Miss Prosody; so he telegraphed to his wife, who soon +signalled her female following from the room. + +Bertie got to the door, and as Bluebell passed through last of the +ladies, she again met that look of interest and admiration Du Meresq had +practised so often. + +Shyness hitherto had been no infirmity of this young Canadian; but Bertie +somehow had mesmerized her into a state of consciousness--it was a +cobwebby kind of fetter, but the first she had worn. + +"Come and talk to me Bluebell," said Mrs. Rolleston, "as Cecil is so +studious." + +The former glanced at her friend, and involuntarily whispered--"_How_ +well she looks to-night!" + +Cecil was sitting apart, utterly absent as it seemed, but her eyes were +shining, and there was a soft brightness about her as she turned over the +pages of a book. It was "The Wanderer,"--one that Bertie had brought with +him. + +Mrs. Rolleston agreed and interpreted it her own way. Bluebell drew a +long rocking-chair by her side, and they fell into a pleasant little +talk. Mrs. Rolleston always made a pet of this child; she was the best of +step-mothers, but stood a little in awe of Cecil. + +Du Meresq came in shortly before the rest; the elder girl did not even +look up, but her face again lit. He stood _a l'Anglais_, with his back to +the fire, talking to his sister, and occasionally, though without any +particular _empressement_, addressing Bluebell, who thought his voice +sweeter than any man's she had ever heard. It made her unconsciously +modulate her own, which as yet had the untuned accents of early girlhood; +but the spell was on her, and she felt, for the first time, at a loss for +words. Yet when Mrs. Rolleston shortly after sent her to the piano, it +was more of disappointment than a relief. Some one was following to turn +the leaves--only Mr. Vavasour--odious, officious boy! Who wanted him? + +"Pray, don't," cried she, pettishly. "You are sure to do it all wrong." + +"Let me try," pleaded Jack. "If you just look at me I shall know when to +turn." + +"Well, see if you can bring that book" (indicating a very heavy one at +the bottom of a pile) "without spilling the rest, or dropping it on your +toes. Thank you. Now you had better go away; this is not at all the sort +of music you would understand." + +"Classical, I suppose. I am afraid my taste is too uncultivated." + +"Come, Miss Leigh," said the Colonel, half-impatiently, "we are all +expectation." + +Bertie had approached Cecil, and taken up the book she was reading. It +was open at "Aux Italiens," and he murmured low some of the verses:-- + + "I thought of the dress she wore last time, + When we stood 'neath the cypress trees together, + In that lost land, in that soft clime, + In the crimson evening weather. + Of her muslin dress, for the eve was hot, + And her warm white neck in its golden chain. + And her full soft hair, just tied in a knot, + And falling loose again." + +Mrs. Rolleston thought they looked very like lovers bending over the same +book, and their eyes speaking to each other, and in harmony with it went +rippling on one of the wildest and most plaintive of the Lieders under +Bluebell's sympathetic and brilliant fingers. + +"What a magnificent touch that child has!" said Du Meresq, pausing to +listen. + +"She has quite a genius for music;" and, mentally, she commented, "I +never heard her play better." + +"She plays," said Bertie, "as if she were desperately in love." + +"With Mr. Vavasour?" laughed Cecil. + +"With no one, I dare say. It indicates, however, a _besoin d'aimer_." + +Cecil took up "The Wanderer" again, but she soon found they were not _en +rapport_. The captain's temperament was now, ear and fancy, under the +spell of the fair musician. + +Bertie was soon by the piano, but Bluebell ceased almost directly after. +He had brought from Montreal [unreadable] Minstrel Melodies, then just +out, and asked her to try one. She excused herself on the plea that it +was a man's song, so he began it himself. Who has not suffered from the +male amateur, who comes forward with bashful fatuity to favour the +company with a strain tame and inaudible as a nervous school girl's? +Bertie was no musician, and his songs were all picked up by ear, but +there was a passion and _timbre_ in the tenor voice, fascinating if +unskilful, and the refrain of "Gentle Annie," + + "Shall we never more behold her, + Never hear that winning voice again, + Till the spring time comes, gentle Annie, + Till the wild flowers are scattered o'er the plain?" + +lingered with its mournful, tender inflection in more than one ear +that night. + +Afterwards the two young men from the barracks, muffled to the chin in +buffalo robes, lit the inevitable cigar, and jingled merrily off to the +music of the bells. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +SATURDAY AT HOME. + + Unhasp the lock--like elves set free, + Flit out old memories; + A strange glow gathers round my heart. + Strange moisture dims mine eyes. + --Lawrance. + + +Cecil woke the next morning with the feeling that something pleasant had +happened; and then she remembered that Bertie Du Meresq was actually in +the house, and the old folly as likely as ever to begin again; but, not +possessing the self-examining powers of Anthony Trolloppe's heroines, she +made no attempt to argue herself out of her unreasonable happiness, and, +indeed, dwelt far more than necessary on the warm, sudden hand-clasp so +inopportunely witnessed by full private Bowers. She came down radiant, +and looking positively handsome; but when did a too sunny dawn escape a +cloud ere noon? Bertie seemed different somehow,--was not certain he +could get more leave,--was even doubtful about asking for it; and Cecil's +mental Mercury, which had been "set fair," went down to "change." In +reality, Du Meresq not being so etherealized by love, felt out of sorts, +and not up to the mark that morning, and, therefore, probably opined with +Moore-- + + "Thus should woman's heart and looks, + At noon be cold as winter brooks, + Nor kindle till the night returning + Brings their genial hour for burning." + +At any rate, he actually went to the barracks with the Colonel, "as if he +couldn't get enough of that," thought Cecil, "when he is not on leave." + +But after severe reflections on herself for caring a straw about it, +Cecil had forgiven him, and a deceitful sunbeam peeped through in the +prospect of meeting at luncheon, only to be again overcast, as the +Colonel returned without the recreant Bertie. + +This second reverse overthrew her afternoon arrangements, for she had +reckoned on Du Meresq's escort to the Rink. This being Saturday, Bluebell +always went home till the following day, and Mrs. Rolleston would not be +available even for a drive, for she hated sleighing, and was looking +forward to writing her English letters in the cozy drawing-room, and +sociably imbibing afternoon tea with any visitors hardy enough to face +the bitter northwester, happily so rare a visitant in that sufficiently +inclement climate. + +But Cecil preferred facing any weather to her own thoughts, and, +encountering three Astrakhan-jacketed and fur-capped sisters under convoy +of Miss Prosody, was carried off by them to enliven their dismal +constitutional. + +In the meantime, Captain Du Meresq, having lunched at the barracks, drove +with Mr. Vavasour to the Rink, expecting to find both girls there: but +speculating rather the most on the chance of having a more unrestrained +conversation with Bluebell than he cared for under the eyes of her +responsible guardians. His projects also were to prove futile, for that +young person was speeding over the frozen tract on the common at the +time. The snow was as dry and hard as powdered sugar, and her cloud was +stiff with her frozen breath; her ears felt as though she had thrust them +into a holly-bush, and the razor-like wind in that unsheltered spot must +have arrested the circulation of any less healthy and youthful +pedestrian. The morning had dawned prosperously for her, as Mrs. +Rolleston had accorded permission to join the sleigh-party, the _summum +bonum_ of her hopes; and the gratification was rendered more complete by +a charming present from Cecil of an ermine cap, muff lined with scarlet, +and ermine neck-tie, fastened by its cunning little head and tail. + +Bluebell was picturing their effect on the velveteen jacket hitherto +so coldly furnished forth, and thinking that Cecil must have ordered +them from Montreal with a view to this party, as they had arrived so +opportunely. She remembered now that Lola had, apparently, been +struggling with a secret for some days; and yet, when she, Bluebell, had +been so ecstatic, Cecil had seemed more thoughtful than sympathetic and +merely acknowledging her thanks by a quiet kiss, had escaped from the +room. + +Two expectant faces were peering over the blind at the cottage, watching +the gay footsteps battling across the common. Even Aunt Jane looked +forward to seeing this weekly messenger from the outer world, which, +needless to say, kept well aloof from these poor and insignificant +ladies. + +Bluebell always brought every piece of gossip she could collect to feed +Miss Opie's inquisitive mind who was in no way exempt from the sin +supposed to most easily beset spinsterhood and her girlish spirits +brightened the quiet cottage and left their echo behind through the dull +week. She was by no means an unmixed good when she lived there. Her +vivacity, having nothing to expend itself on, often turned to desperate +fits of discontent and _ennui_, but now, coming home was a holiday and +change. + +All the inhabitants, old ladies, and new girl (for each successive one +went away to better herself after a few weeks residence), assembled +simultaneously at the hall door, and drew their visitor from the bitter +blast into the stove lit parlour. One yet more humble welcomer was there +of the vagabond tribe--petty larceny in every curve of his ungainly form, +and his spirit so broken by adversity that he only ventured to wag his +shabby tail in recognition of his benefactress. + +This was Bluebell's casual--one of a too common race in Canada of +homeless, starved animals there being no Refuge or dog tax to compel them +to live under protection or not at all. + +This reclaimed cur after overcoming his strong suspicion of poison, had +supported himself for sometime on the food Bluebell placed for him in the +shed and when emboldened by hunger and the handsome treatment he had +received he ventured into the house, he was authorized to remain as watch +dog and protector. + +In the summer, too, horses were added to her pensioners and invited in to +graze on the patch of enclosed grass at the back of the cottage, till it +fell short from being burned up or eaten, for the common was haunted with +gaunt, famished quadrupeds, who, in the drought of summer, were still +left to look for the mockery of subsistence on the bare, parched ground. + +It was a cheerful party gathered round the tea-table, quite lavishly set +forth in honour of the guest. Scones and tea cakes were plenteously +saturated with butter, regardless of its winter price (the old ladies +would breakfast on bread and scrape the rest of the week with +uncomplaining self-denial), and a heavy plum cake formed the _piece de +resistance_. + +Trove, for olfactory reasons, was accommodated with his share on a rug +in the passage. Bluebell was the chief talker, with her week's arrears +of news. Captain du Meresq's arrival created a little buzz of interest. + +"Is he handsome?" asked Mrs. Leigh, sentimentally, whose thoughts had +flown back to earlier days. + +Bluebell looked up with an odd, perplexed glance. "Upon my word, I don't +know." + +"Ah! there were more good-looking people in my day," said her mother. +"There was Captain Fletcher, in your poor father's regiment, the +handsomest man that was ever seen,--fresh-coloured, with golden whiskers, +and long, drooping moustache. All we girls were wild about him. Is +Captain Du Meresq at all like that?" + +"Not in the least. I can't describe him--fine-shaped head, such strange +eyes. Oh! I dare say you would think him hideous," with a conscious +laugh. + +Miss Opie coughed suspiciously. "It is unfortunate," said she, "when you +are in such a pleasant situation, that any disturbing element should +enter. I hope, Bluebell, you will be very circumspect in your demeanour +towards this gentleman." + +"What," said Bluebell, in demure imitation of her manner, "would you +consider an appropriate attitude for me to assume towards him?" + +"These fine Captains are too fond of turning young girls' heads," said +Miss Opie, shaking her own; "'leading captive silly women,' as we read. +If he attempt any foolish, trifling conversation, you should check it +with cold civility." + +Bluebell burst into an irreverent fit of laughter, and even Mrs. Leigh +said,--"Oh, those are your English ideas, Aunt Jane; we are not so stiff +in Canada." + +Mrs. Opie having been a governess for ten years in the mother country, +was looked upon as a naturalized Briton. + +"I think the old country must be very dull," said Bluebell. "Miss Prosody +is always pursing up her mouth and bridling if I laugh and talk with any +of the officers; and one day I distinctly overheard her whisper to the +Colonel,--'very forward,' and nod towards me." + +"It is, however, well to profit by such remarks," returned Miss Opie; +"there is doubtless some truth in them, however unpalatable." + +"But," urged the girl, "Colonel Rolleston can't _bear_ one to be silent +or dull; he always asks if one isn't well; and I shouldn't think you +could call Captain Du Meresq a flirt. Why, he has hardly spoken ten words +to me yet,"--but a sudden glow came to her cheeks as she remembered how +many he had looked. + +"Well, well, I was only warning you. Fetch the backgammon board; your +mother has won seven games and I nine since you went." + +Bluebell complied, and, settling the ladies on either side of a +papier-mache table, opened the piano, and began dreamily playing through +the music of the night before. Trove, finding the door ajar, had pushed +in, and lay near the instrument, listening in that strange way some dogs +do if the tones come from the heart, and not merely the fingers. + +Having got through the last evening's _repertoire,_ she sat musing on the +music-stool, and then crooned rather low an old song of her mother's, +beginning,-- + + "They tell me thou art the favoured guest + In many a gay and brilliant throng; + No wit like thine to wake the jest, + No voice like thine to raise the song." + +"Oh! that is too old-fashioned," said Mrs. Leigh, and Miss Opie coughed +dryly. But why need Bluebell have blushed so consciously, as she dashed +into Lightning galops and Tom Tiddler quadrilles, till Trove, like a dog +of taste, took his offended ears and outraged nerves off to his lair in +the lobby? + +His fair mistress soon after sought her bower, a scantily furnished +retreat, but, like most girls' rooms, taking a certain amount of +individuality from its occupier. Everything in the little room was blue, +and each article a present. Photographs of school friends were suspended +from the wall with ribbons of her name-sake colour. It was in the earlier +days of the art, when a stony stare, pursed lips, and general rigidity +were considered essential to the production of the portrait. + +Blue, also, were the pincushion and glass toilet implements on the +dressing-table, and a rocking-chair had its cushion embroidered in +bluebells--a tribute of affection from a late schoolfellow. + +The bed was curtainless, and neutral except as to its blue valance, and +the carpet only cocoa-nut matting, which, however, harmonized fairly with +the prevailing cerulean effect. + +Bluebell was writing in a book, guarded by a Bramah, some profound +reflections on "First Impressions." She never lost the key nor forgot to +lock this volume--a saving clause of common-sense protecting a farrago of +nonsence. + +"Ces beaux jours, quand j'etais si malheureux." Have you ever, reader, +taken up an old journal written in early youth, and thought how those +intensely black and white days have now mingled into unnoticeable grey, +half-thankful that the old ghosts are laid, half-regretful for that +keener susceptibility to joy and sorrow gone by? Then, as "the hand +that has written it lays it aside," there is, perhaps, a pang at the +reflection of how the paths now diverge of those who once walked together +as-- + + "Time turns the old days to derision, + Our loves into corpses--or wives; + And marriage, and death, and division, + Make barren our lives." + +But Bluebell knows nothing of that. She is at the scribbling age, and can +actually endure to describe, as if they were new and entirely original, +the dawning follies of seventeen. + +In England a heroine might have wound up such sentimental exercises with +gazing out on the moonlit scene; but nine degrees below zero was +unfavourable for the wooing of Diana. The "cold light of stars" was no +poetical figure, and Bluebell, frozen back to the prosaic, piled up the +stove, and crept into bed, where her waking dreams soon merged into +sleeping ones. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +A WOODLAND WALK. + + I hope, pretty maid, you won't take it amiss, + If I tell you my reason for asking you this, + I would see you safe home (now the swain was in love), + Of such a companion if you would approve. + Your offer, kind shepherd, is civil, I own, + But I see no great danger in going alone; + Nor yet can I hinder, the road being free + For one as another, for you as for me. + + +It was Sunday afternoon. Bluebell was on her way to the Maples, and had +not proceeded far when she observed a Robinson Crusoe-looking figure in +one of those grotesque fur caps and impossible hooded blankets that the +fashionable Briton in Canada so fondly affects. She was speculating idly +upon whom it could be. + +"Not Mr. Gordon, though the 'Fool's-cap' is like his; and Major Simeon +has one of those. Oh, Captain Du Meresq!" + +She bowed rather undecidedly, and then moved on abruptly. + +But Bertie did not pass by. + +"Are you returning?" asked he. "They can't get on without you. Freddy has +dropped a cinder into his nurse's tea, and set fire to the straw in the +cat's basket." + +Bluebell laughed shyly. + +"I have been to see mamma. Do not let me bring you out of your way, +Captain Du Meresq,"--for he had turned back with her. + +"Oh, I was only going for a walk," said Bertie, innocently,--a harmless +amusement that, without any other object, he was simply incapable of +undertaking. "Hadn't I better see you home; there's a brute of a dog down +there who sprang out at me! I broke my stick across his head, and then, +of course, I had to apologize, being disarmed." + +"I know that fierce dog. He belongs to a cabman; but I always speak to +him, and he never attacks me." + +"Even a lion itself would flee from a maid in the pride of her purity," +laughed Bertie. "But, Miss Leigh, must we positively go shivering across +this bleak desert again?--isn't there some sheltered way through the +wood?" + +"There certainly is; but it is three miles round, and, I dare say, full +of drifts." + +"Never mind, all the better fun. Up this way?" + +"Oh, but isn't it late? I think they will be expecting me before." + +"There's nobody at home, if that's all," said Bertie. "They have gone to +the Cathedral, and most likely will turn into tea at the Van Calmonts." + +The scrambling walk was a temptation, the common hideous and cold. + +"We must walk very quick, then." + +"Run, if you like. Come along, there's a dear child." + +Bluebell coloured furiously. + +"Maybe I won't go at all now!" + +"That is so like a girl," said Bertie impatiently; "standing coquetting +in the cold. Now, you are offended. What did I say? Only called you a +child." + +"You had no business to speak so," said Bluebell, angry at his familiar +manner, but rather at a loss for words. "Why can't you call me Miss +Leigh, like everybody else?" and the indignant little beauty paused, +with hot cheeks, and feeling desperately awkward. + +Du Meresq bit his lip to hide a smile. He was half afraid she would dash +off and terminate the interview. + +"Dear me!" said he. "When you are a little older you will think youth a +very good fault. Will you forgive me this once, Miss Leigh, and I will +not call you anything else?--for the present" (_sotto voce_). + +Bluebell was mollified, and rather proud of the good effects of her +reproof, notwithstanding the half-inaudible rider. Du Meresq, also, +was satisfied, for, without further opposition, they had struck into +the wood. Unused to the Britannic hamper of a chaperone, Bluebell saw +nothing singular in the proceeding. So they crunched over the snow, +keeping, as far as possible, the dazzling track marked by the wheels +of the sleigh-waggons, and plentifully powdered by the snow-laden trees; +now up to their knees in a drift, from which Bertie had the pleasure of +extricating his companion, who forgot her shyness in the difficulties of +the path, and, not being given to silence, was laughing and talking away +unreservedly. + +"What a strange girl she is!" thought Bertie. "Who would think, to hear +her chattering now, she _could_ have made that prim little speech? I must +not go on too fast; it reminds me of that Irish girl who said, the first +time I squeezed her hand, 'Ah, Captain Du Meresq, but you are such a +bould flirt!'" + +Sheltered from the bleak wind the walk on the crisp track was enjoyable +enough; the "strange eyes," being now on a line with and not confronting +her, were less embarrassing, and the slight awe she still felt of him +only gave a piquancy to the companionship. + +"Are you not very glad we came this way?" Bertie was saying. + +"If we had only snow-shoes," cried the breathless Bluebell, for the third +time slipping into a drift, but struggling out before Du Meresq could do +more than catch her hand. + +"Poor little fingers! how cold they are," trying to put them in with his +own into his large beaver gloves. + +"Oh, I wish you would be sensible," stammered Bluebell, much confused. + +"What's the use of being sensible," retorted he, "when it is so much +pleasanter being otherwise? Time enough for that when anybody's by." + +But Bluebell wrenched her hand away, bringing off the glove, which she +threw on the snow. + +"Is that a challenge, Miss Bluebell? Must take up the gauntlet? Good +gracious, my dear child, you are not really annoyed? Well, we will be +sensible, as you call it. Only you must begin; I don't know how." + +"Evidently," said Bluebell, very tartly, drawing as far away as the +exigencies of the track would admit. She could hold her own well enough +with the young subalterns she had hitherto flirted with, but this man was +older, and had a bewildering effect on her. + +"Are you and Cecil great friends?" asked Bertie, presently, with the air +of having forgotten the fracas. + +"I hope so," coming out of her offended silence at this neutral topic. "I +know I like her well enough." + +"And do you tell each other everything, after the manner of young +ladies?" + +"No-o," said Bluebell, reflectively; "not like the girls at school. You +see Cecil is older than I, and cleverer, I suppose, and doesn't talk much +nonsense." + +"Did she ever speak of me?" asked Bertie. + +"Hardly ever; the others have mentioned you often." + +"Cecil is a very sensible girl," with a re-assured countenance; "and as +you never talk nonsense, I suppose you won't mention the trivial fact of +our having taken this walk?" + +"Why in the world not?" opening her large violet eyes full upon him. + +"'Speech is silver, but silence is golden,' you unsophisticated child," +returned he, enigmatically. + +Bluebell considered. "Why, of course, I shall tell Mrs. Rolleston what +made me so late." + +"But not if she doesn't ask you?" + +"But why not? There is _no harm_ in it," said the girl, persistently. + +"No, no; but if you had lived as long as I, you would know that people +_always_ try and interfere with anything pleasant. I should so like to +take this walk with you every week, Bluebell." + +Bluebell looked down; she was vaguely flattered by his caring to repeat +the walk which she thought must be so unimportant to him,--it would be +something to look forward to, for she _had_ enjoyed it, though she could +not tell why. + +"But, Captain Du Meresq--" she began. + +"Call me Bertie, when we are alone," said he. + +They had entered on the street, Bluebell was wavering, but the last +sentence, "when we are alone," struck her ear unpleasantly. + +"How can I?" said she; "I do not know you well enough." + +"Walk with me sometimes," whispered Bertie, "and that reason will +disappear, but don't say a word about it to-day, there's a dear girl. +I had better make tracks for the club; you will be at home in five +minutes,"--and Du Meresq ceremoniously lifted his cap, for many eyes were +about, and disappeared down another block. + +Bluebell on finding herself alone, went through a disagreeable reaction. +It was certainly only a few yards to her destination; but it was annoying +to be left so abruptly, and an air of secrecy thrown over her actions +too. Did she like him, or hate him? She could not determine; her fancy +and her vanity were both touched, doubtless; then, remembering Miss +Opie's exhortations, a gleam of fun twinkled in her eyes as she thought +of what her horror would have been at Bertie's affectionate ease of +manner. + +All the same she crept into the house, feeling very underhand and +uncomfortable. None of the party had returned, so reprieved for the +present she went up to the nursery. + +Freddy was roaring on his back, he had just thrown "Peep-of-Day" at the +nurse's head, which had been unwisely offered to him as a substitute for +his favourite trumpet, when its excruciating blasts become too +unbearable. + +"Oh, I'm sure I'm glad you have come back, miss, for I don't know how to +abide that wearyin' child, as don't know what a whipping is. Here's your +governess, sir, as will put you in the corner." + +"Hold your tongue, you fool!" cried Freddy with supreme contempt. + +The _suaviter in modo_ was, indeed, the only treatment allowed in that +nursery. Bluebell retreated with a highly-coloured scrap-book to the +window, which she feigned complete absorption in. Freddy glanced at it +out of the tail of his eye. + +"Show me that, Boobell." + +"I don't know, Freddy," said the girl, feeling some slight moral coercion +incumbent on her. "Do you _think_ you will call nurse a fool again?" + +"She shouldn't bother," said the infant, confidentially, climbing into +her lap, but declining to commit himself to any pledges of good +behaviour. "Show me the book." + +Half-an-hour after, Mrs. Rolleston looking in, saw a pretty little +picture--the old nurse was nodding in a rocking-chair. Bluebell's fair +young face was bending over Freddy, seated on her lap, with as arm round +her neck, his cherubic visage beaming with interest as he listened to the +classic tale of "Three Wishes." It was easier to her to continue the +recital, while a dread of being questioned prevented her looking up. + +"Bluebell is telling Freddy such a beautiful fairy story," said Mrs. +Rolleston, to some one who had followed her to the nursery. + +"I wish she would tell fairy stories to me," said Bertie. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +VISITORS. + + In aught that from me lures thine eyes + My jealousy has trial; + The lightest cloud across the skies + Has darkness for the dial. + --Lord Lytton. + + +Bluebell had no difficulty in preserving silence about the Sunday's +escapade. It never occurred to Mrs. Rolleston to enquire what time she +had returned, and an evasive answer to Cecil was all that it entailed. +But she was very much perplexed by the change in Captain Du Meresq's +manner. The cold civility recommended by Miss Opie seemed all on his +side. Nothing but good-humoured indifference was apparent in his manner. +Their acquaintance did not seem to have progressed further than the first +evening; indeed, it had rather retrograded; and she could almost imagine +she had _dreamt_ the tender speeches he had lavished on her in the Humber +woods. + +Cecil and he were out sleighing most afternoons, and Bluebell was thrown +on nursery and school-room for companionship--insipid pabulum to the +vanity of a young lady in her first glimpse of conquest, and who believed +she had stricken down a quarry worthy of her bow. Having nothing to +distract her, she considered the problem exhaustively from morning till +night, and, if she were not in love with him before, she had got him into +her head now, if not into her heart. His being so much with Cecil did not +strike her as any clue to the mystery. They were relations, of course, or +nearly the same thing; there was no flirting in their matter-of-fact +intercourse. + +Cecil found her one afternoon reading over the bed-room fire, in a +somewhat desponding attitude. Miss Rolleston had just come in from a +drive, her slight form shrouded in sealskins, an air of brightness and +vivacity replacing her usual rather languid manner. + +"You wouldn't think it was snowing from my cloak," cried she. "It is +though--quite a heavy fall, if you can call anything so light heavy. We +were quite white when we came in, but it shakes off without wetting." + +"It won't be very good sleighing, then, to-morrow, and the wind is +getting up, too." + +"And what have you been doing, Bluebell?" + +"I walked with the children and Miss Prosody in the Queen's Park," said +the latter, rather dolefully. + +"And it was very cold and stupid, I suppose?" said Cecil, kindly. "Come +down to the drawing-room and try some duets." + +There were two or three visitors below and Bertie, and some tea was +coming in. They were looking at a picture of Cecil's just returned from +being mounted as a screen. It was a group of brilliant autumn leaves--the +gorgeous maple, with its capricious hues, an arrow-shaped leaf, half red, +half green, like a parrot's feather, contrasting with another "spotted +like the pard," and then one blood-red. The collecting of them had been +an interest to the children in their daily walks, and Cecil had arranged +them with artistic effect. + +One of the visitors was a rather pretty girl, whom Bluebell had known +formerly. She gave her, however, only a distant bow, while she answered +with the greatest animation any observation of Captain Du Meresq's. This +young lady was to be one of the sleighing party next day, and, as far as +she could admit such a humiliating fact, was trying to convey to him, +that she was as yet unappropriated for any particular sleigh. + +"Who is to drive you, Miss Rolleston?" asked she, suspecting, from his +backwardness in coming forward, that the object of her intentions might +be engaged there. + +"I am going in the last sleigh, with Major Fane. We take the luncheon and +pay the turnpikes. He is Vice-President this time." + +"By-the-bye, Du Meresq," said the Colonel, rather exercised to find a +lady of the party without a swain, "whom have you asked?" + +"Oh, everybody is engaged," said Bertie, mendaciously ignoring Miss +Kendal's half-admission of being open to an offer. "I shall not join the +drive at all, unless," he added, in a hesitating manner, as if it was a +sudden thought, "Miss Leigh will compassionate me, and allow me to take +charge of her." + +Bluebell, confused by this unexpected proposition, and by feeling so +many eyes turned upon her, did not immediately make any answer; then a +vexatious remembrance intruded itself, and she replied, with what that +individual would have thought most unnecessary concern,-- + +"I am very sorry--I mean--I believe I am half-engaged to Mr. Vavasour." + +"I should think you were," said Mrs. Rolleston. "I don't know what he +would say if you threw him over." + +"Oh!" said Bertie, plaintively, "if that insinuating youth has been +beforehand, of course there's no chance for me. Well, I am out of the +hunt,"--and he carelessly whistled a bar of "Not for Joseph" in reply to +a suggestive motion of his sister's towards Miss Kendal. + +"I should think it so dull," said that young lady, tossing her head, "to +be engaged so long before. _I_ do not intend to decide till the day." + +"What shall you keep all your admirers in suspense till the last moment?" +said Bertie, with a covert sneer, for he was angry at her slighting +behaviour to Bluebell. "What a scramble there will be!" + +Miss Kendal was not altogether satisfied with the tone of the remark, so +she commenced tying on her cloud, observing sharply, "Well, mamma, we +shall be benighted if we stay any longer." + +Bertie dutifully attended them to the sleigh, and won the elder lady's +heart by the skill with which he tucked round her the fur robes and the +parting grace of his bow. + +She was about to purr out some commendation, when--"What a bear that man +is!" burst with startling vehemence from Miss Kendal's coral lips. + +"Oh! my dear, what can you mean? I thought he seemed so agreeable." + +"I as good as told him," muttered the ruffled fair, too angry to be +reticent, "that I had no one to drive me to-morrow; and I think it was +real rude asking that Bluebell Leigh before my face,--a mere nursery +governess--and not giving me so much as the chance of refusing him." + +"But you said," urged Mrs. Kendal, who did not see beyond the proverbial +nasal tip, "that you would not decide on your sleigh till the day." + +"I only know," said the daughter, with dark emphasis, "I wouldn't drive +with him now, if he went on his bended knees to ask me." + +"Thank you, Bella," said Bertie, returning. "Nice little game you had cut +out for me! What an odious girl!" + +Cecil's jealous instinct detected the root of this animosity, more +especially guided thereto by his attempt to secure Bluebell as a +companion, which had surprised her not too agreeably. + +"What is her crime," said she, sarcastically, "beyond a rather +transparent design of driving with you Bertie?" + +"She is hung with bangles like an Indian squaw, and has a Yankee twang in +her voice." + +"She pretended to scarcely remember me," said Bluebell, "though we were +at school together." + +"Jealous, I dare say," laughed Bertie. "Is she an admirer of Jack +Vavasour's?" + +"Fancy any one admiring a boy like that!" said Bluebell, who did not feel +in charity with her allotted charioteer. + +Bertie had advanced to take her cup, and as she said this, it seemed to +Cecil he touched her hand caressingly under cover of it. + +"I dare say," said she sharply, "Alice Kendal has as many admirers as +other people, and, perhaps, can dispense with counting Captain Du Meresq +among them." + +Bluebell looked up, astonished at her manner; but Bertie perceived it +with more intelligence, and the thought, "What a bore it will be if +she is jealous," afterwards passed through his mind,--by which may be +inferred he had had in contemplation the acquisition of "Heaven's last +best gift." + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +THE GARRISON SLEIGH CLUB. + + 'T were a pity when flowers around us rise, + To make light of the rest, if the rose be not there; + And the world is so rich in resplendent eyes, + 'T were a pity to limit one's love to a pair. + --Moore. + + +"I never saw a prettier sight in my life," cried Cecil, as she stood with +a motley group in the verandah of "The Maples," the rendezvous of the +sleighing party. As each sleigh turned in at the gate and deposited its +freight, it fell into rank which extended all round the lawn, till +scarcely a space was left on the drive that encircled it, and the air +rang with the bells on the nodding horses' heads. + +"What the--blazes!" ejaculated Bertie, as Mr. Vavasour rounded the +corner at a trot in a red-wheeled tandem, scarlet plumes on the horses, +and the robes a combination of black bear-skins and scarlet trimming. The +leader, a recent importation from England, better acquainted with the +hunting-field than the traces, reared straight on end; but a judicious +flick on her ear sent her with a bound almost into the next sleigh, and +the tandem drew up at the hall door to an inch. + +"Post? mail-cart? nonsense!" said Jack, shaking hands all round 'mid an +avalanche of chaff. "Nice cheerful colour for a cold day; that's all." + +"Quite scorching," said Major Fane. "Well, Miss Rolleston, if they leave +us behind at the turnpikes, we shall never lose sight of them with Jack's +flames for a beacon." + +"How do you like your tandem, Bluebell?" asked Cecil, "and how far do you +expect to get before Mr. Vavasour upsets you?" added she, _sotto voce_. + +"I don't care if he chooses a good place," laughed Bluebell. + +"Why, I thought Bertie wasn't going," said, Mrs. Rolleston, as that +individual drove up in a modest cutter with a gentleman companion. + +"I think he changed his mind when he heard Miss Kendal was going with +papa," said Cecil. + +"I believe we are all here," said Colonel Rolleston, who was to lead the +procession, coming out with the great lady of the party, an eccentric +dowager peeress, who having "tired her wing" with flying through the +States, was now perching awhile before re-crossing the Herring-pond. Miss +Kendal and a subaltern, pressed into the service, placed themselves in +the back seat, well smothered in wolf-skins, and the first sleigh moved +off to the admiration of the school-room party at the window, who, with +the partiality of childhood, thought their papa's the most beautiful +turn-out in the city. + +"Mr. Vavasour's horse is up the bank," screamed Fleda. "How much better +papa drives; he went off so quickly and quietly. I wouldn't be Bluebell! +Mr. Vavasour can hardly get out at the gate." + +"If papa had to drive one horse before another, perhaps he couldn't +either," said Lola, who had been watching with great interest the erratic +course of Jack's leader. + +Twenty sleighs were off in a string, the crowd cheering them to the echo +as they dashed through Queen's Park; but on gaining Carleton Street they +were obliged carefully to keep the track, as the sides of the road were +deep and treacherous. + +"The Colonel is making the pace very slow," remarked Mr. Vavasour; "like +to drive, Miss Leigh? they are going very smoothly." + +Bluebell, whose knowledge of horses was about equal to her opportunities +of instruction, unhesitatingly assented. Jack's gratification thereat was +somewhat tempered, when he saw the bewilderment apparent in his flighty +pair at the very original manner in which she handled her "lines." + +"I suppose," said that young lady, with the composure of ignorance, "we +are all right as long as this bald-face horse keeps its nose pointing at +Captain Delamere's back." + +"Quite so," said Jack, cheerily; "don't take the whip, you are only +winding it round your own neck. I'll give Dahlia a lick in the face if +she turns out of the rank." + +They were winding down a hill, and took a road at the bottom at right +angles to it. Colonel Rolleston, in the first sleigh, was blandly +pointing out to Lady Hampshire the _coup d'oeil_ of the whole procession +as they described two sides of a triangle. + +"Do you like my plumes?" asked Jack, relaxing his surveillance on Dahlia, +as her left ear, which had been laid back in a suggestive manner, resumed +its accustomed position. + +"Like them," echoed Bluebell; "it's just like a hearse, bar the colour, +which is frightful. I wouldn't have come if I had known I was to be +driven in such a fire-engine." + +"There now," rather crest-fallen. "I chose them because you said you were +_fond_ of scarlet, otherwise I should have preferred blue, except that I +might have been taken for one of the 10th, who mount their regimental +colours on everything." + +"I like the 10th," said Bluebell, perversely; "they are all good-looking +except the Adjutant, who got his nose sliced off by a Sikh, and +the.... goodness what's that?" as a fearful shout, followed by a +sudden checking of horses, brought the whole line to a stand-still. + +"What's the matter?" was passed from one sleigh to another up to the +front: the return message, shouted and taken up as each one interpreted +it, became soon about as intelligible as it does in the game of Russian +scandal, and for the next few minutes everybody was conjecturing at once. + +"Here's Du Meresq," cried Jack, as Bertie came ploughing through the +snow. + +"Halloa, guard! what's wrong on the line?" + +"Run into a goods' train," said he, keeping on his course to the +Vice-President's sleigh. + +"Du Meresq never tells one anything," said Jack; "I hate a mysterious +fellow; somebody's capsized, I suppose, and he's gone for some brandy." + +"Perhaps for a shovel," suggested Bluebell. "Colonel Rolleston may have +come to a drift." + +"Don't see how we are to reverse our engine," replied Jack, looking each +side of the road, where the snow was piled four or five feet. + +Bertie, however, had not gone for a shovel, which would have been +perfectly useless, but to explain the situation and assist in turning +round the sleighs. In front of Colonel Rolleston was a huge rampart of +snow, extending for some distance. The wind setting dead in that +direction, had drifted it across, and buried the track several feet. This +road had been clear the day before, for Bertie and Cecil had driven it to +ascertain, but the wind had changed and snow fallen during the night. + +Major Fane's sleigh was successfully turned, after a great deal of +assistance to the horses, who floundered up to their shoulders; and to +this haven of refuge Du Meresq was conducting several young ladies, for +each sleigh having to turn on the spot where their progress was arrested, +a certain number of upsets was inevitable. + +"Come, Miss Leigh," said a voice beneath her, "you mustn't stick to the +ship any longer. Why, this is the worst bit of all. You can't jump; trust +to me." And to Jack's indignation, Bertie lifted her from the wheel and +carried her through some deep snow to a dry place. There was a certain +amount of excuse for it, as he couldn't have deposited her in the drift, +and turning the tandem took up its owner's whole attention, and the +services of three or four volunteers; but he fancied Du Meresq had +squeezed the little hand before he relinquished it, and ere the tell-tale +blush had passed from Bluebell's face, Jack had turned, jumped out and +replaced her in the tandem with quiet decision. + +Bluebell, confused by the powerless way she had been handed about between +her two admirers, could not rally directly, and sat meditating an early +snubbing for Jack, but a ridiculous incident soon distracted her +attention. + +"Get out? No, thank you, Captain Du Meresq," cried Lilla Tremaine, a +tall, handsome girl in the sleigh behind; "you'd find me a precious +weight to carry, and I am very comfortable where I am. Turn away, Captain +Delamere, we'll sink or swim together." + +Thus urged, the individual called on made his effort; the sleigh turned, +indeed, but on its side, and the adventurous Miss Tremaine, summarily +ejected, sank to her waist in the deep snow, her crinoline rising as she +descended, spread out under her arms, looking like an inverted umbrella. +Jack and Bluebell were suffocating with the laughter they vainly tried to +hide, and Bertie, who was on foot, took in the situation at once, and +rushed to the rescue. + +"Put your arms round my neck, Miss Tremaine," cried he, peremptorily. + +The poor girl, half crying with shame and cold, did so, and Du Meresq, +grasping her firmly round the waist, endeavoured to drag her forth. + +"It's even betting she pulls him in," cried Jack, in a most unfeeling +ecstasy, for Miss Tremaine was no pocket Venus--rather answered the +Irishman's description of "an armful of joy." + +"Oh, dear!" said poor Lilla, trembling with cold, as she found herself on +_terra firma_, "I never can go on; the snow has made me quite wet +through." + +"Of course you can't," said Bertie, decidedly; "you'd catch your death of +cold. Delamere, you drive on with the other Miss Tremaine," for they had +both been in his sleigh, "and I'll take Miss Lilla home in my cutter, +where she can get dry clothes. You must all pass their house on your way +back, when we can fall in again; so that's all settled. Oh, Meredith, I +forgot you. Hitch on to some other sleigh, there's a good fellow. I am on +ambulance duty; somebody tell Colonel Rolleston--presently." + +Then Bertie, who had his own reasons for hurrying, placed Miss Tremaine, +still shivering from her snow bath, in the cutter, and drove rapidly off. + +"Well, I am d----d," muttered Captain Delamere to Vavasour; "she has +never seen the fellow before!" + +"Hush, pray," said Jack, affectedly; "he _is_ an officious young man. But +be thankful for small mercies, old boy; you have got one left." + +"That's the wrong one," growled Delamere. + +After a brief consultation about the route, a unanimous vote for luncheon +was passed, so they drove on till they came to an open space, the +contrary side of the wood in which Du Meresq and Bluebell had walked on +Sunday. Here all the sleighs formed up together, and Major Fane's larder +was ransacked. + +Curacoa, mulled claret, hot coffee, etc., kept warm in a blanket, were +passed round, with mutton pies, croquettes, cakes and other edibles; and +circulation being restored, all was mirth and hilarity. + +Colonel Rolleston alone remained dark and moody. He had just discovered +the defection of Du Meresq and Lilla, and, having his own opinion of his +brother-in-law, disapproved of it entirely. Miss Tremaine also was much +too flighty for his taste, and he was very hard on Captain Delamere for +not applying to him to get her decorously out of her delicate dilemma. + +He made up his mind to curtail the drive, and call at Mr. Tremaine's at +his earliest convenience. + +Bertie, in the meantime, delighted at getting a _tete-a-tete_ with +a handsome girl, instead of driving in a monotonous string with Mr. +Meredith, proceeded to improve the occasion with such success that his +fair companion forgot her wet stockings, and even omitted to observe that +they had passed the turn leading to the paternal abode. + +When she did remark it, Bertie easily persuaded her that she must be +quite dry now, and that, as they had missed the garrison drive, they had +better take one on their own account. Miss Lilla, unrestrained by the +detective eyes of her elder sister, was ripe for any frolic, and Bertie +certainly did not find so many obstacles in the way of an affectionate +flirtation as he had with Bluebell. + +But our business is with the trans-Atlantic picnic in the snow, not with +the "cutting out" expedition of this reprobate pair. Having distributed +the remainder of the luncheon to the servants, a start was again +effected. Lilla's adventure had left its impression one way or another on +two or three of the party. Jack was delighted that Du Meresq was off on a +fresh pursuit, and so not likely to be hanging about Bluebell; and that +damsel was trying, by a reckless flirtation with Vavasour, to stifle the +vexatious conviction that Bertie had only been making a fool of her on +Sunday, and was now probably repeating the same game with Miss Tremaine. +Yet at this period her vanity was more wounded than her heart; very +different from poor Cecil, whose infatuation was of older date, and not +the mere result of a few flattering speeches. + +For a girl of her disposition to set her affections on a man like Bertie +was certain misery. She had no rivals in those days when she learnt to +care so intensely for the sympathetic companion who understood her so +much better than any one else. He understood her; therein was the potent +charm; her mind awoke and her ideas vivified from contact with his, as +two happily-contrasted colours become brighter in hue in juxtaposition. +No companion had ever suited her so perfectly, and yet Bertie had +scarcely made direct love to her. It seemed a matter of course that they +should care most for each other, and Cecil's young and ardent heart had +drifted beyond recall ere she had done more than suspect another side to +his character. + +Now she perceived that Bertie's affection for her by no means made him +insensible to the bright eyes of the fair Canadians; yet the more she +cared for his philandering interludes with other girls the less she +showed it, except that her manner grew colder, though, unfortunately, her +heart did not. + +Major Fane was disappointed with Cecil's preoccupied mood. He had taken +some pains to secure her for this drive, and she hadn't a word to say to +him. He certainly admired her, but, perhaps, it was more his horror of +Canadian girls that had made her his choice for the day. He always said +their only idea of conversation was chaff, and rudeness under cover of +it; and as he had been the victim of many such "smart" speeches, he +looked upon them with nervous aversion. + +The quiet repose of a lady-like English girl gained by the contrast. +There was rather too much tranquillity to-day, perhaps; so he exerted +some tact to draw Cecil from her reserve, the cause of which he was +unable to guess. He agreed with her in reviling the monotony and +stupidity of sleighing picnics, having to follow one by one like a string +of geese, long after one was perished with cold, though he failed to +detect in her weariness that she was wishing for her father to stop at +the Tremaines', and annex the truant sleigh to the rest. + +Her discontent somewhat relieved by expression, she became ashamed of her +unsociability, and Major Fane's next topic was not uncongenial. He was +airing his cherished grudge, and pronouncing a severe philippic on the +belles of the Dominion. Cecil was incapable of detraction, or envy at +another's greater success; but in the face of Bertie's abduction of Lilla +before her eyes, she did not feel particularly in charity with any +daughter of Canada. + +In the meantime Bluebell, in the strangest of spirits, refused to +relinquish the reins, even in difficult places, and conducted herself +generally with a mixture of recklessness and ignorance that gave Jack +enough to do to look out. + +He rather took advantage of this mood to make more decided love than he +had hitherto done; but while he thought her wild with fun and spirits, +she was really goaded on by vexation and bitterness of heart; and perhaps +her most immediate wish was for solitude to drop the mask and be +miserable in peace. + +That was impossible, at present. Jack was tiresome. He was giving +her directions how to steer up a hill, formidable from its narrow +track and deep drop on either side. Dahlia, it seemed, jibbed sometimes, +she must--Bluebell was paying no attention. Good Heavens! what was +happening?--the leader backing and sliding! Jack's stinging whip and +clutch at the reins could not arrest the catastrophe. Dahlia rears and +falls over the edge, pulling sleigh and wheeler after her into a trough +of snow. + +Bluebell blinded and half suffocated--no wonder, for three bear-skins and +two cushions were a-top of her (not to mention Jack, who had caught his +leg in the reins, and was unable immediately to rise),--made vain efforts +to extricate himself; the horses were struggling on their sides; and +altogether, as the Americans say, it was rather "mixed." + +Somehow or another, no one ever does get hurt out of a sleigh, even after +an _impromptu_ header of a dozen feet. Ten minutes later the party were +_en route_ again, Bluebell transferred, _en penitence_, to Colonel +Rolleston's sleigh, _vice_ the subaltern; and by this time nearly every +one was discontented and anxious to return. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +FIXING UP A PRANCE. + + "'Tis over, + The valse, the quadrille, and the song, + The whispered farewell of the lover; + The heartless adieu of the throng, + The heart that was throbbing with pleasure; + The eyelid that longed for repose, + The beaux that were dreaming of treasure. + The girls that were dreaming of beaux." + --Edward Firzgerald. + + +Before they got to the Tremaines' house, Bertie drove up with Miss Lilla, +who was "quite dry now, thank you; not worth while bringing all the +sleighs up to the door." More than one curious observer noticed the +panting flanks of the horse, who scarcely looked as if he had been +resting in a stable. To be sure, the delinquents _had_ done that last +mile rather fast, to nick in and meet the party before they should make +inconvenient inquiries at Mr. Tremaine's,--Bertie, who was as good a +mimic as his mother, enhancing the fright of his fair companion by an +improvisation of the scene that would probably take place supposing +they were too late to prevent it, and further convulsing her with a +travesty of his brother-in-law in his most imposing attitude of stately +displeasure. + +Lilla nearly had a relapse when they met the rest, as Colonel Rolleston's +face was the faithful reproduction of Bertie's five minutes before; but +the ironical silence with which he received her speech, rather diminished +their triumph at having escaped detection. The girls were all to return +to "The Maples," dress there, and go to the dinner and dance at the +barracks, under Mrs. Rolleston's sole chaperonage. + +The scrambling toilette was got through with much noise and merriment. + +"Oh, has any one seen my 'waist'?" and "Do smooth my waterfall," were +enigmatical exclamations of frequent occurrence. Cecil's dormitory +resembled a milliner's show-room from the variety of dresses spread on +the bed. + +These were not of a very extravagant description; papery pink or green +silk seemed most in vogue, completed with rows of beads round the throat; +but when viewed in connexion with the apple-blossom complexions, abundant +hair and dancing eyes of the Canadian belles, the adventitious aids of +dress might well be deemed as superfluous as painting the lily. + +Half-a dozen covered sleighs, going and returning, transported the party +to the barracks, where, escorted by their military hosts, they ascended +the staircase, banked with evergreens, and lined by motionless soldiers +to the ante-room, which, of course, looked as unattractive as the cordial +but mistaken exertions of its proprietors could make it--all the +_laissez-aller_ comfort primly tidied away, and such a roasting fire as +speedily drove every one to remote corners of the room. + +The _mauvais quart d'heure_ before dinner had the usual sobering effect, +and young people, who later on would be valsing together on the easiest +of terms, now shyly looked over photograph books, and discoursed with an +edifying amount of diffidence and respect. Each one was to go in to +dinner with his companion of the sleigh--an arrangement of questionable +wisdom, and, as Bertie said, "It behoved one to be doubly careful whom +one drove." Captain Delamere was furious, for, when he claimed Lilla, she +calmly replied, "That having taken them both, she of course supposed he +would ask her elder sister, and, therefore, had promised Captain Du +Meresq." + +Before Delamere had done anathematizing his folly in giving the saucy +Lilla such a loop-hole to throw him over, the trumpet sounded, folding +doors opened, and fifty people sat down to the cheery repast. + +The table was bright with regimental plate, racing cups, and hot-house +flowers. The band commenced playing "Selections," somewhat deafening, +perhaps, but then it was too cold to put them out of doors. + +Cecil and Bluebell were neither of them too much gratified at witnessing +the furious flirtation going on at dinner between Captain Du Meresq and +Miss Tremaine; but Cecil, who never looked at them, and therefore, of +course, saw everything, fancied the admiration most on the lady's side, +and even some of her _oeillades_, bravado. To be sure Bertie never did +flirt seriously _en evidence_, if he could help it. + +Bluebell, completely out of sorts, was acquiring a painful experience. +Du Meresq's conduct seemed inexplicable and provoking as she pondered +indignantly on her walk at the Humber, and mentally ejaculated with Miss +Squeers, "Is this the hend?" + +Jack, temporarily discouraged by her indifference to himself, which came +on rather rapidly at dinner, gave his next neighbour the benefit of his +conversation. + +But this unsatisfactory repast to our heroines was not unnecessarily +prolonged, the mess-room having to be cleared for the great business of +the evening, which, let us hope will prove what it is sure to be called +in next day's discussion "a very good ball." + +Why this undescriptive phrase should be applied to every well-attended +dance, with a supper, has always perplexed us; for, of course, every one +really judges it by his or her own personal success and enjoyment, not +unfrequently incompatible with that of some one else. Yet it is all +summed up next morning in the summary verdict "good," or "bad." If there +is a deficiency of gentlemen, space, supper, or _ton_, the latter; but +given these indispensables, you may have been jilted for your bosom +friend by your latest conquest, yet you must come up smiling, and endorse +the public panegyric on the hated evening till the subject be superseded. + +Bluebell, a few weeks ago, would have looked upon this ball as the acme +of delight. She was in great request, and, indeed, attained that highest +object of young lady ambition, being belle of the evening; but now her +happiness did not depend on the many--dance after dance passed, and the +only partner she cared for had not once engaged her. + +Bertie had been sitting out half the evening with Lilla in a +conservatory, and when they did emerge, was seized on by his +brother-in-law with very black looks, and introduced to a somewhat +unappreciated young lady. + +Bertie had the happy knack of appearing equally charmed, whether +presented to a beauty or the reverse; but he inscribed himself very low +down on her card, remorselessly ignoring the intervening blanks, and then +approached Cecil, who, in black and amber, was the most striking-looking +girl in the room. Though inferior in beauty to many, her fine figure and +expressive eyes could never pass unnoticed. + +"Dear little Cecil, how well she is looking!" thought he, facilely +forgetting his latest flame, and just becoming sensible of her "altered +eye." + +"My niece," said Bertie, in a theatrical tone, intended to disguise his +perception of it, "shall we tread a measure? Let me lead you forth into +the mazy dance." + +"Excuse me, Bertie," said Cecil, languidly; "I am only going to dance the +two or three round ones I am engaged for, and I know you do not care for +square." + +"I should think not," said he angrily, "when you are going to dance round +ones with other fellows." + +"You see you asked too late," said she, indifferently. + +"Will you go in to supper with me then?" + +"That was all arranged and written down ages ago. Let me see, I am +ticketed for the Major again." + +"As you have been all day. I never saw such a cut and-dried, monotonous +programme for a party: all done by rule--no freedom of action." + +"Really, Bertie, you and Miss Tremaine can't complain." + +"That's why you are so cold to me to-night, Cecil," said Du Meresq, +quietly. + +"What can it signify to me?" retorted she, freezingly, vexed at having +permitted the adversary, so to speak, to discover the joint in her +harness. Her partner, who had been hovering near, now claimed and bore +her unwillingly away, for next to being friends with Bertie was the +pleasure of "riling" him by smiling icyness. It was the only weapon she +permitted herself, as she would not condescend to any visible sign of +jealousy or pique. + +Bertie was simply _gene_ by her determination to be all or nothing; there +was no satisfying such an unreasonable girl. Like the immortal Lilyvick, +"he loved them all," yet her thoughtful mind and gentle companionship +were becoming more to him than he was himself aware of. + +Cecil, valsing round, looked at each turn for his tall figure leaning +against the wall. It was an abstracted attitude, and he seemed graver +than usual. + +"Had she made him unhappy?"--she trusted so--would give the world to read +his thoughts. + +Some one said, "There is no punishment equal to a granted prayer." Du +Meresq was wrapt in speculation as to whether they had really succeeded +in getting a wild turkey for supper, which the Mess President was in +maddening doubt about the day before. + +That blissful moment was at hand, and the room thinned with a celerity +born of _ennui_, I suppose, for very few people are really hungry, yet it +is the invariable signal for as simultaneous a rush as of starving +paupers when the door of a soup kitchen is opened. To be sure, there are +the chaperones, poor things, round whom no "lovers are sighing," and, +perhaps, supper _is_ the liveliest time to them--old gentlemen, too, +might be allowed some indulgence; but what can be said for dancing men, +wasting the precious moments of their partners, while they linger +congregated together among the _debris_ and champagne-corks? + +"What a clearance," said Bluebell, subsiding, with a fagged air, on to a +sofa, as her partner bowed himself off with an eye to business. + +"Forward the heavy brigade," said Bertie, motioning to his brother-in-law +bearing off Lady Hampshire; "only room for thirty at a time. _We_ must +wait, Miss Leigh." + +"I am ready to wait. But what have 'we' got to say to it?" said Bluebell, +with her Canadian directness. + +"Don't speak so unkindly," said Bertie, sentimentally, flinging himself +on the sofa by her side. "You don't know all I have suffered this week." + +"You certainly disguised it very well," said the girl, with total +disbelief in her eyes. + +"Do you think I felt nothing when I saw you all day with Vavasour, +who every one knows is madly in love with you; and then dancing every +dance--not leaving a corner in your programme for me?" + +"You didn't ask me," said Bluebell, less austerely. + +"No, for you never so much as looked my way. Besides, Bluebell, I told +you we must be careful. If Colonel Rolleston guessed my feelings for +you--he is so selfish, he forgets he has been young himself--I should be +no longer welcome here." + +"Then, I am sure," said Bluebell, the tears rushing to her eyes, "I wish +you had never come. I have been _miserable_ ever since I took that stupid +walk, which you prevented my mentioning; and--and--" + +"Let's be miserable again next Sunday, Bluebell," whispered Bertie. + +"I shall not go home; or, if I do, I'll stop there. I'll _never_ walk +with you again, Captain Du Meresq." + +"'Quoth the raven, "never more!"' I know what it is, you are tired to +death. Sit still on the sofa and I will bring you some supper; sleighing +all day and dancing all night have distorted your mental vision,"--and +Bertie dashed off, passing the young lady he was engaged to on his way to +the supper room, with an inward conviction that their dance must be about +due. Having possessed himself of a modicum of prairie hen, he intercepted +a tumbler of champagne cup just being handed across the table to Captain +Delamere. + +"Confound it, that's mine!" said the aggrieved individual. + +"I want it for a lady," urged Bertie. + +"So do I," said Delamere. + +"My dear fellow," said Bertie, chaffingly, nodding towards a gorgeous +American, "it is for Mrs. Commissioner Duloe. She must not be kept +waiting." + +"I won't allow my lady to be second to any lady in the room," cried +Delamere who was elevated. + +Bertie was in too great a hurry to chaff Delamere any longer, for, +perceiving that his relatives were safely at supper, he resolved to +make the most of the few minutes at his disposal, and, as he would +have expressed it, "lay it on thick." + +Bluebell was leaning languidly back on the sofa, watching the forms +of the dancers, ever revolving past the open door to the strains of +a heart-broken valse. (_En passant_, why are the prettiest valses all +plaintive and despairing, quadrilles and lancers cheerful and jiggy, +and galops reckless, not to say tipsy?) + +Bertie, with his spoils, was by her side, and, having restored her nerves +with champagne, proceeded to agitate them again with the warmest +protestations of affection. The child with the day's experience before +her, only half-believed him, but the spirit of coquetry woke up, and she +resolved to try and make him care for her as much as he pretended to do. + +But Bluebell was trying her 'prentice hand with a veteran in such +warfare. + +They were alone in the little room, in one adjoining a few people were +sitting. + +"I wish that girl would not watch us so," said Bluebell, indicating one +apparently deep in a photograph book, under cover of which she was +furtively observing them. + +"Oh," said Bertie, with a groan, "she's been following me about ever +since I asked her for a dance six off. I hope it is over." + +"I dare say she's very angry at being left sitting out," said Bluebell. +"I am sure I should be." + +"Ah," said Bertie, "your experience will be all the other way--it's us +poor fellows who will be thrown over, besides, she shouldn't have got +introduced to me. I saw her going on the wrong leg and all out of step, +and Jack Vavasour says she's a regular stick-in-the-mud to talk to." + +A stream now issued from the supper room, and Mr. Vavasour, bowing +himself free from a "comfortable" looking matron, hurried up. + +"Our dance, Miss Leigh. I thought I should never be in time. She was +twenty minutes at the chicken and lobster-salad, and then went in for +sweets." + +"I must go and give my girl a turn, I suppose," whispered Bertie. "She's +guarding the outposts so no chance of giving her the slip. She'd go +raging off to the Colonel. Just like him, letting one in for such a real +bad thing." + +A few sleighs were beginning to jingle up, but most of the girls assumed +moccasins, clouds, and furs, and kilting their petticoats as deftly and +mysteriously as only Canadians can, set out in parties, escorted by their +partners, and stepped briskly over the moon lit snow to their respective +dwellings. + +Bertie saw his party off in their sleigh, tenderly squeezing Bluebell's +hand, who fell to his share, but did not return with them. Indeed, he was +walking soon in quite an opposite direction, by the side of a shrouded +figure in a rose-coloured cloud, out of which laughed the mischievous +eyes of the second Miss Tremaine. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +CROSS PURPOSES. + + Trifles, light as air, +Are to the jealous confirmation strong +As proofs of holy writ. + --Shakespeare. + + +Bluebell had not visited her mother for three weeks. One Saturday Freddy +had a sore throat and would not let her out of his sight, keeping up an +incessant demand for black-currant jelly and fairy tales, and the next +week a heavy fall of snow made walking impossible. She now very often +shared the gaieties of the others. Mrs. Rolleston took great interest in +Bluebell's career. She thought it by no means improbable that Sir Timothy +should have provided for her in his will, or, indeed, that he might any +day acknowledge her; and though she took her out, and let her dance to +her heart's content, kept faithful watch to prevent any undesirable +flirtation. + +So the kind-hearted lady was a good deal disturbed at seeing Jack +Vavasour, who came of an extravagant and far from wealthy family, first +in the field. After the manner of love-lorn subalterns, he haunted and +persecuted the fair object of his affections, who cared nothing about +him, and treated him as a child does its toys, sometimes pleased with +them, and at others casting them indifferently aside. + +And all the time Bertie was gaining greater influence over her. But even +Cecil, whose eyes were keen, was never able to detect any evidence of a +secret understanding between them. + +He regularly asked her for one valse only when they went to balls; +indeed, he could not do less. Cecil, of course, could not hear what they +talked about _then_. + +There is a dreamy, intoxicating valse of Gung'l's, which he always made +her keep for him when it was played. It was a small piece of selfish +romance, for well he knew that charmed air would ever hereafter be +haunted with associations of him. How many more "stolen sweet moments" he +found in the day must be left to the reader's imagination. But stolen +they were; for Du Meresq knew Cecil's disposition, and was far from +wishing to break with her, though "why should he spare this little girl +with the chestnut hair, and the love in her deep-blue eyes?" And Bluebell +no longer shrank from being underhand. It did not strike her in that +light now. She thought of nothing but Bertie, who was so different before +the others, that she learnt to look forward to their brief chances of +being alone as much as he did. And Du Meresq, with ingenious sophistry, +expatiated on the charm of keeping their delicious secret to themselves, +uncommented on by the cold and unsympathetic. + +Thus Bluebell, from being a lively, ingenuous, outspoken child, altered +into a dreamy maiden, living a hidden life of repressed excitement, whose +whole interest was the fugitive, uncertain interviews with Bertie, and an +interchanged glance, touch of the hand, or few fond words, ventured on +when the others were not attending. + +"Bluebell," laughed Cecil, as a cutter drove to the door, "here is your +Lubin again." The girls had just returned from the Rink, and were +disrobing upstairs. + +"Oh, he is so tiresome," said the other. "I declare I won't come down." + +"That you must; we should never get rid of him; he would sit on waiting +for you. You have made such a goose of him, Bluebell, and he used to be +such fun." + +"I shouldn't mind him if he was fun now; but he just sits glowering at +one, and stays so long. Why can't a person see when he is not wanted?" + +"But you do want him sometimes," said Cecil. "You are always 'off' and +'on' with poor Jack. I believe, if he proposed, you would say 'No' one +day and retract the next." + +They entered the drawing-room, where was young Vavasour, as usual, making +conversation to Mrs. Rolleston, who was at once bored and disproving. +Cecil shook hands pleasantly enough, but Bluebell, not even looking at +him, extended a lifeless hand in passing, and, picking up some work, +appeared absorbed in counting stitches. + +Jack turned over in his own mind every possible cause of offence. He +couldn't perceive that it was he himself that was not wanted, and that +she cared not a button for anything he had done or left undone. + +He talked on perseveringly with the others, glancing stealthily at +Bluebell tatting, till Cecil got up to make tea, when he moved to a seat +nearer. + +"I wasn't out of uniform till four o'clock, Miss Leigh, or I should have +been at the Rink." + +"So I suppose. You always go there, don't you?" + +"When I expect to meet any one," trying to throw a sentimental look in +his generally laughing brown eyes. + +"It isn't usually empty: but, of course, you don't go for the skating. +You'll never make anything of that." + +"Any more than you will be of driving," retorted Jack. "Shall you ever +forget that crumpler down the bank? Dahlia hasn't recovered the fright +yet." + +"Stupid thing; what did she jump over for? I was nearly suffocated. I am +sure there must have been a cast of me on the snow." + +"It wasn't altogether unpleasant," said Jack. "We were covered up very +snug and warm, like babes in the wood. I shouldn't mind doing it again in +the same company." + +"Shouldn't you?" said Bluebell, indignantly. "Then you may omit the +company." And so they went on whispering, to Mrs. Rolleston's annoyance, +till the Colonel's voice was heard bringing in a visitor--a lady of +unfashionable appearance, chiefly remarkable for the variety of knitted +articles, described in work-books as "winter comforts," displayed on her +person. + +"_Ma tante_!" ejaculated Jack, incautiously; "who is this old Quiz?" + +"Here is Mrs. Leigh," said Colonel Rolleston, "who says she has not seen +her daughter for three weeks. Where are you Bluebell?" + +Jack felt ready to sink into the earth, while his boyish face became the +colour of a peony; and Bluebell, vexed and hurt, advanced to the maternal +embrace. + +Their mutual confusion was so evident, that the Colonel put another +interpretation on it, and remarked, in a tone the reverse of +congratulatory,--"You have not been long getting out of harness, +Vavasour." + +Jack muttered something, and tried to catch Bluebell's eye, agonies of +contrition in his own. + +"Well, my dear, and how well you are looking," said Mrs. Leigh. "But we +have missed you at home, Aunt Jane and I. No, thank you, Mrs. Rolleston; +not at all tired. I caught the street-car at the corner, which brought +me all the way for five cents. Very respectable people in it; only one +soldier; he was not at all tipsy. I don't think your men ever are, +Colonel. Thank you, Miss Rolleston," as Cecil brought her some tea. "I'll +just unbutton my Sontag, or I shan't feel the good of it when I go out +again, shall I?" + +"I have been thinking," said Mrs. Rolleston, to whom it had just occurred +that this would be a good break in Jack's attentions, "that it would be +very nice if Bluebell went home for a few days, as you have seen so +little of her." + +"I'm sure I'm most grateful," said the little lady. "There, my dear, Aunt +Jane was saying only yesterday how dull it was without the child. But are +you sure she can be spared, Mrs. Rolleston?" + +"Only to you," said the lady, kindly, but smiling a little, for certainly +her _duties_ were not very onerous. + +Bluebell, an anxious listener, felt her heart sink at this proposal. +What, go away and leave Bertie, whose daily presence had become a +necessity to her! Besides, dreadful thought! his leave might be over ere +she returned. In desperation she said, imploringly, "Mamma will not want +me for more than a day or two," and gazed anxiously at Mrs. Rolleston, +with a world of unspoken entreaty in her eyes. + +The appeal was injudicious, only confirming her impression that it was +a separation from Jack Bluebell dreaded, and she mentally put on another +week to her banishment. + +"There's no hurry," said the lady, decidedly; "a change will do you good. +She shall walk over to-morrow, Mrs. Leigh; and I am very glad I thought +of it." + +Bluebell, thinking all was lost, tried not to show her dismay, which +would have grieved her mother and done no good; but she remembered, with +a sinking heart, that Du Meresq was to dine out that night, and she might +get no opportunity of speaking to him alone before changing her quarters. + +"I must be off home," said Mrs. Leigh. "Several little things to be done +in your room, Bluebell. The stove-pipe has got choked at the elbow, and I +must have the sweep in." + +Her daughter longed to suggest that it might be more convenient to +postpone her appearance for a day; but as Mrs. Rolleston said nothing, +she could not either. + +Jack, who had been all this time writhing with vexation at his +_mal-a-propos_ remark, here saw a chance of propitiating Bluebell and +putting himself on visiting terms at her home. + +"My cutter is at the door," said he, addressing Mrs. Rolleston. "If Mrs. +Leigh will allow me, I shall be too happy to drive her home." + +"Oh, he must be going to propose," thought the former lady, "and they +won't have twopence between them;" but she could only reply,-- + +"Well, Mrs. Leigh, what do you say? Will you trust yourself to Mr. +Vavasour?" + +"I'm sure," said the little lady, flutteringly, "the gentleman is most +kind; but I am so timid with horses unless they are quite old. Does your +horse kick, sir?" + +"Only if the rein gets under her tail." + +"Ah, I should be sure to scream and snatch it--the reins, I mean, and +they say that isn't safe driving. I had better walk; and yet it is +getting dark, and I shall miss the car. What _shall_ I do, Colonel +Rolleston?" + +"Drive, to be sure," said he, who wanted to get rid of them both. +"Vavasour only upsets when he gives the reins to young ladies," with +a glance at Bluebell. + +"Well, I _should_ like a ride in a sleigh, if my poor nerves will let me +enjoy it," toddling to the door with Colonel Rolleston. + +"I'll take the greatest care of you, Mrs. Leigh," said Jack, heartily, +grateful for a re-assuring nod from Bluebell in recognition of his +contrite gallantry. The mare, tired of waiting, became fidgety to be off. + +"Oh, he is going to prance. Have you got good hold of his head, sir?" to +the groom. + +"Quite correct, 'm," grinned that official. "Quiet, 'Nancy,'" that being +the stable version of "Banshee." + +"Let her go," said Jack, who had just tucked Mrs. Leigh in. A couple of +bounds, a smothering scream, and they disappeared in the evening gloom. + +"That there old party ain't the guvener's usual form," meditated that +bat-man, as he walked back, for the cutter only carried two. "He seems to +set a deal of store by her, though. There's some young 'ooman at home, +where she lives, I'd take my dying dick." + +Cecil and her father, who had seen them off, stopped laughing together +at Mrs. Leigh's peculiarities; and Bluebell, finding herself alone with +Mrs. Rolleston, felt impelled to try if she could not curtail her +sentence of banishment. Of course, her words were intended to conceal +her thoughts--love's first lesson is always hypocrisy. + +"I know I am not very much use here," she began, "but still I shouldn't +like to think I was of none, and, therefore, I really don't want to stay +away more than a day or two." + +A sudden look of penetration came into Mrs. Rolleston's face, and, with +more sarcasm in her voice than Bluebell's little speech appeared to +justify, she said,-- + +"My dear, scrupulous child, we _can_ get on without you longer than that, +so you may, with a clear conscience, think of your mother, who is dull +this dreadful weather." + +Bluebell felt caught in a mesh and incapable of extricating herself, but +she made no attempt to conceal her reluctance to going. + +"How long must I stay away?" said she, dolefully. + +"Just till the days get a little longer--a fortnight or three weeks, +perhaps." + +Bluebell made a gesture of despair (Bertie would be gone to a certainty +by then), and looked the picture of misery. Mrs. Rolleston's suspicions +were now convictions. + +"My dear Bluebell," she began, impulsively, "I know there's some reason +for your dislike to going," and she gazed fixedly at her. No denial. +Bluebell hoped Mrs. Rolleston _had_ some inkling of how things were with +her and Bertie, and had she then persisted might easily have forced her +confidence; which would have considerably enlightened and dismayed the +elder lady, whose mind, being full of Jack, had never dreamed of Bertie. + +Mrs. Rolleston, however, rapidly decided it would never do to encourage +her to talk of the matter, and that she had better put her foot on it at +once. + +"I have guessed your little _penchant_, dear, for some one we won't talk +about, for indeed, Bluebell, it never can come to any thing; you are both +too young and too poor. It would be a most undesirable connexion." + +"She doesn't think me grand enough for her brother," suggested Bluebell's +wounded pride. + +"And, therefore," pursued her Mentor, "absence is the best thing in these +cases; and when you come back I trust you will have got rid of such +hopeless fancies." + +Bluebell was deeply mortified,--she lost all expectation of sympathy, and +with a touch of pride, said,--"You must know best, Mrs. Rolleston, but I +shall never care for any one else; and I must tell you honestly, _I_ +can't give it up if he doesn't." + +"You will not see him at home?" said the elder lady, hastily. Such a +gleam of hope irradiated Bluebell's face; she had never thought of that. + +"Dear me, this is too bad!" continued the other, quite disheartened. "I +shall take care you have no more opportunities of meeting here. Bluebell, +do be warned. I only speak for your good." + +"How self-interest deceives one," moralized the girl; "it is only because +I am, as she says, 'a most undesirable connexion for her brother!'" + +Cecil entered at this juncture, and Bluebell, hearing the Colonel's step +also approaching, made a hasty escape from the room. + +"What is the matter with her?" asked Cecil. "She brushed by me so +suddenly, and looked so strange." + +"Nearly knocked me over," said the Colonel, who had caught the last +words. + +"Don't notice it; I am afraid Bluebell has lost her heart to young +Vavasour; and she is miserable at going home, because she thinks she will +not see him." + +"I am delighted you have put a stop to that folly," said the Colonel; +"that boy dawdles over here every afternoon. I can't have Miss Bluebell's +'followers' everlastingly caterwauling in my house." + +An expression of extreme astonishment came over Cecil's face. + +"Bluebell doesn't care _in the least_ for Jack Vavasour," said she. + +"You are evidently not in her confidence. She told me 'she should never +care for any one else'--her very words, the little goose." + +Cecil seemed lost in perplexity. "And she doesn't want to go home?" asked +she in a bewildered manner. + +"Crying her eyes out at this moment I dare say." + +"Then for goodness sake let her go home, and stay there till she +is better," said the Colonel, irritably. "A love lorn young lady +perpetually before me I cannot and will not endure." + +His daughter's brow was knitted with thought. Bluebell was evidently in +distress at going, but that it had any reference to Jack she totally +disbelieved. A latent suspicion revived, and her face grew pained and +hard. It was near dinner time, but, instead of going up to dress, she +turned into a little smoking room to ponder it out. What motive could +Bluebell have had to avow a perfectly fictitious love affair with +Vavasour, unless it was to throw dust in Mrs. Rolleston's eyes and blind +her to, perhaps, some underhand flirtation with Bertie? Cecil's +affection for her friend received a severe wrench directly she admitted +such a possibility, and then, as she meditated, two or three incidents, +too slight to be noticed at the time, rose up to confirm it. + +"Forewarned, forearmed, if that is your game, Miss Bluebell," thought +she, resolving for the future to watch narrowly. At this moment Du +Meresq, whistling 'Ah, che la morte,' burst into the room. + +"Cecil here, all in the dark? Light a candle, there's a good girl, I want +my cigar case. I'm awfully late". + +"Who is the Leonore you are whistling _addio_ to?" said she complying. + +"I don't know, the air is running in my head." + +"I thought it might be Bluebell, she is going to-morrow." + +The match went out, so she could not see the expression of Bertie's face. + +"How do you mean?" said he quietly. + +"They think Lubin destructive to her peace of mind, so she is to go home +for a fortnight. Singular idea, isn't it." + +"Bosh!" said Du Meresq, emphatically. "Well, I'm off. Good-night, Cecil." + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +TOBOGGINING. + + We are in love's land to-day. + Where shall we go? + Love, shall we start or stay? + Or sail--or row? + --Swinburne. + + +Bluebell thought that now Mrs. Rolleston had detected her secret, there +was no necessity to keep it from Cecil. They were in the habit of sitting +awhile, talking over their bed-room fire at night; and, though, of late, +they had scarcely been so intimate, the practice had not been +discontinued. So that evening she resolved to approach the subject with +Cecil. No doubt she would stand her friend, and be, as ever, generous and +sympathetic. + +But, at the first outset, no icicle could be brighter and colder than +Miss Rolleston's manner, who kept her communication at arm's-length, as +it were, and refused to see any hardship in paying a filial visit for a +week or two. + +"My dear Bluebell, you are really too childish. One would think it was to +be an eternal separation." + +"It is evident you will not miss me much," said poor Bluebell, wounded, +and thankful she had not committed herself further. + +"I should if Bertie were not here," answered Cecil, with heartless +intention. "But I really think this is the best time for you to be away, +for I am out so much with him, I see nothing of you. When he is gone, +Bluebell, and you have returned, we must begin to sing and read together, +as we used to do." This agreeable speech effectually quenched all +revelations on Bluebell's side, who, hurt and offended, took up a candle +and retired to her inner apartment. + +"They are all alike," she thought; "and Bertie understood the matter +better than I did. Now, I suppose, they will try and prevent me ever +seeing him again. Girls in novels think it necessary to give up their +lovers if the family disapprove; the book always gets very dull then; but +Bertie has never yet given me the chance to act the high-minded heroine." +And then she fell to wondering why he had not said something really +definite, he seemed near it so often. And yet he was his own master; no +stern father loomed in the background--_that_ Bluebell would have +considered a possible obstacle,--for had she not seen such malign +influence destroy more than one promising love affair among her +companions. Of course there was no solution to such an inscrutable +mystery, though Bluebell tossed awake half the night in the effort to +find one. + +Next morning they all met at breakfast as usual. No allusion was made to +her approaching departure. Afterwards, she attended to Freddy's nominal +lessons, packed her slender wardrobe, and then remained in her own room, +for the first time unwilling to go downstairs without an invitation. And +yet she grudged every hour that passed and brought the separation nearer. +She heard Bertie whistling about the house, so she would most likely see +him before starting--probably only at luncheon, though, which was the +children's dinner. A minute before the bell rang Bluebell descended, and +came full on Du Meresq in an angle of the staircase. She stopped +involuntarily. He was beside her with a smothered exclamation of +endearment, and an eager hand seeking hers. Had she dreamt it? The face +was impassive, the hand dropped, and a careless voice was saying,-- + +"Are you really going home this afternoon, Miss Leigh?" + +At the same instant she observed Cecil's upturned eyes in the hall below +them. So she had the felicity of eating a cutlet in the presence of her +love, but received no aliment for her heart-hunger. Du Meresq was teazing +his nieces, and did not add much to the general conversation, but the +others made up for it, and, when they addressed Bluebell, did so in a +particularly cheery tone, as to a nervous, fanciful girl, not to be +encouraged or noticed in her blue fits. She had thought of walking home +late in the afternoon, still hoping that something might bring about some +last words with Du Meresq, or that he might even contrive to join her on +the road; but Mrs. Rolleston, in the tone of one proposing a pleasure, +said she would drive her back herself, and that the sleigh was ordered in +half-an-hour. + +Bluebell, goaded to mild exasperation, glanced hastily to where Bertie +had been sitting, but he had left the room unperceived. + +The sleigh was at the door, so also was Captain Du Meresq, smoking an +after-luncheon cigar. I grieve to say my heroine displayed not a particle +of self-respect as, pale and dejected, she seated herself by Mrs. +Rolleston. Indeed, the blue eyes were beginning to swim, when they were +dried by a flash of indignation at the parting words of Du Meresq. He +merely raised his hat, without attempting to shake hands, and said, in a +jesting tone,--"_Au revoir_, Miss Bluebell. I hope you will be a comfort +to your mamma." + +As the jingle of the bells died away in the distance, Cecil felt a load +removed from her heart. Bluebell had become an object of uncomfortable +surmises, and her absence was an inexpressible relief. + +She had a fair field now, and Bertie all to herself, and did not intend +to spoil the present with tormenting suspicions of the past. + +"Probably he _may_ have flattered Bluebell at odd times, and turned her +head; but Bertie, though he will talk nonsense to anybody who will listen +to him, cares for something more than a pretty face. He will forget her +directly she is out of sight, for there really is nothing in her." + +Thus severely did Cecil reflect on the friend she had been the means of +bringing into the house, and had loved all the more for the kindnesses +she had been able to show her. But, then, who could have foreseen that +the _protegee_ would turn into a rival? + +Her meditations were interrupted by the chief subject of them. + +"What do you intend doing, Cecil, this afternoon?" + +"It is very unsettling, people going away," said she, serenely. No +occasion to let him see the satisfaction it gave her. "Shall we go and +skate at the Rink, presently?" + +"Oh, ain't you sick of that place? Let us order your cutter, and look in +on the Armstrongs' toboggining party?" + +"Enchanting!" said Cecil, brightening. "But, dear me! it will be nearly +over." + +"Not if you look sharp. 'Wings' will take us there in half-an-hour; it +isn't five miles to the hill. Don't forget to leave your crinoline +behind." + +Du Meresq rang the bell, and Cecil re-appeared in a few minutes, innocent +of her "_sans reflectum_," and in a clinging black velveteen suit, with a +golden oriole in her cap, and a scarf of the same hue knotted about her +waist. + +"None so dusty," said Bertie, approvingly. "You look best in daring +colours, Cecil." + +Personal praise from Du Meresq, however expressed, was not unwelcome to +Cecil, who was sensitively alive to her want of beauty. But she answered, +carelessly,--"Just a refuge for the destitute. I can't wear pale shades, +or blue or green." + +"No, my bright brunette; but that Satanic mixture does not misbecome +you,"--and he murmured the words in "May Janet,"-- + + "The first town they came to there was a blue bride chamber, + He clothed her on with silk, and belted her with amber." + +"Come and help me down with the toboggin, Bertie. It is a-top of the +book-shelf,"--and they dragged down a mysterious structure of maple wood, +having the appearance of a plank six feet long by two wide, and turned up +at one end. It had red cord reins, and Cecil's monogram, neatly painted, +on the outside. + +"We must show off our smart toboggin, I suppose; though where on earth we +can put it in the cutter I can't think," said Du Meresq. + +"I had rather hold it on my lap than not take it. Here comes +'Wings,'"--and a high-stepping American horse, bought out of a sulky, +as not sufficiently justifying his name for racing purposes, dashed up +to the door with the smallest and prettiest cutter in the city. The robes +were white wolf-skins, bordered with black bear. The one hanging from the +back exhibited a bear's head and claws on the white ground. Both robes +and bells were mounted in scarlet and white; and the masks of two owls +occupied the place of rosettes on "Wings'" head-stall. + +"Well," said Bertie, "we are, luckily, not in Hyde Park; and I suppose a +sleigh can't be too bizarre. Is this the creation of your festive fancy, +Cecil?" + +"Yes; I don't disown it. I sent a coloured sketch of what I wanted to +Gaines, and he found fur and everything. 'Wings' was bought in an auction +last month. He went cheap, because they never could teach him the correct +'racking' action. Papa advised me to have him, as he thought he would +carry me in the summer, and I have no other horse." + +"I'll tell you what, Cecil; we must extend our wings if we are to be in +time. Canter him across the common, there's a capital track." + +"Can't he go!" said she, exultingly, as on a hard, frozen surface they +sped along. "We rush through the air so silently that if it were not for +the bells one might fancy oneself flying." + +"Yes," said Bertie; "I have known more unpleasant sensations than being +driven ten miles an hour by a fair lady--a dark one, I should say." + +"Given the lady. I don't think you much care whom it may chance to be, +Bertie." + + "If a woman is pretty, to me it's no matter + Be she blonde or brunette, so she let me look at her." + +"Were you thinking of those lines in 'Lucille'?" + +"Them's your sentiments to a T, I should say." + +"And you ought to have lived in the days when the knight had 'Une seule' +embroidered on his banner. I'll never believe that his loves were so +limited; doubtless each appropriated the invidious distinction to +herself." + +"I know one knight," said Cecil, "who would give them plenty of reason to +do so." + +"Fancy," continued Bertie "riding in full armour to a crossroad, and +challenging every one to single combat who declined to acknowledge his +particular fair to be queen of love and beauty, and that no one else +should hold a candle to her! Now we should think it great impertinence in +a fellow to offer his opinion about her at all." + +"No," laughed Cecil, "such public proclamation would never suit these +inconsistent days." + +"Can you not believe yourself 'Une seule,' Cecil, even in these days?" +returned he, meaningly and tenderly. + +"That would depend on my knight," said she, blushing, and uncertain how +to take it. "I should not care to live in a Fool's Paradise." + +"If it were Paradise, why analyze the wisdom of it?" said Bertie, gazing +with surprised admiration at her radiant face, that kindled as with some +hidden fire. + +"I could do without him," answered she, "but if he were worth caring for +I wouldn't share him with any one." + +"I hope Fane isn't 'Un seul,' Cecil. For a young lady with such severe +ideas of constancy, you were pretty thick at the sleighing-party." + +There was something in this speech that annoyed Cecil, who turned it off +with a short answer. It might have been that she did not like him so +composedly contemplating such a possibility. + +Du Meresq said no more, perhaps because they were approaching the +toboggin hill, or perhaps, like Dr. Johnson, he had nothing ready. + +Cecil was sorry they were so near. She felt more interested in the +conversation than in the party, and gazed wistfully down a by road that +would have led them in an opposite direction. + +"I wish I dare turn sharp off," thought she. "But, no! we are +conventional beings. This idiotic performance is the goal and object +of our expedition. I am driving, and must do nothing so indecently +eccentric." + +So she gave "Wings" a flick with her whip, that sent him up to his bit +with his knees in his mouth, and they drew rein on the edge of the snow +mountain. + +Miss Tremaine's bright face was just on a level with the top, drawing up +her own toboggin. + +"Here's this dear little Lily," said Bertie. + +"Your diminutives are curiously applied," said Cecil. "That is a very +substantial _petite_." + +"How late you are," cried Miss Tremaine, rushing up to them. 'Wings,' who +couldn't bear waiting, began to rear. "Gracious, Cecil, does he feed on +yeast-powder to make him 'rise' so? How do you do, Captain Du Meresq? +Come along; there's some capital jumps. Here's my little brother will +hang on to the horse's head till we find some one else, if you are sure +'Wings' will not soar away with him, like an eagle with a lamb." + +"I'd better billet him on that farm," said Du Meresq, driving off. + +"And I must go and speak to Mrs. Armstrong," said Cecil. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +EFFECTS OF TOBOGGINING. + + With a slow and noiseless footstep + + Takes the vacant chair beside me, + Lays her gentle hand in mine. + --Longfellow. + + +A little further on, by a blazing fire, was seated the hostess and about +a dozen other people on benches and rugs; a table spread with +refreshments and hot liquids attracted as many more. The grey sky and +white ground threw out the figures solidly, the only patches of colour +being the bright petticoats of the ladies as they flashed down or toiled +up the snow mountain. + +"Have a 'cock-tail,' Miss Rolleston?" said Captain Wilmot, of the +Fusiliers. "I have just made a capital one; and then may I steer you down +on my toboggin?" + +Cecil accepted both propositions. "But do take mine, for I have never +tried it yet." + +"What a beauty," said Lilla, enviously. "It doesn't look over strong, +though; I shouldn't wonder if it broke in two. You'll have to mind the +hole at the bottom; there have been a lot in already." + +For the information of the uninitiated, I may as well describe how this +hilarious amusement is conducted. Having first selected the highest hill +the neighbourhood affords, well covered with slippery frozen snow, two +individuals who purpose forming the freight of the toboggin pose +themselves, the foremost holding the reins, which, however, are more for +effect than use, sitting between the feet of the hindmost traveller, who +steers with his hands. + +As a finger on the snow alters the course of the toboggin, and a nervous +push makes it slue round, scattering the inmates, it is needless to say +the tyro in front is admonished to preserve the most absolute immobility. +Then the vehicle receives a shove off the top of the hill, and shoots +down the smooth precipice, and the novice, with shut eyes to escape +the blinding snow that flies like hailstones about him, listens to the +wind whistling behind, and with bated breath--the first time at any +rate--wishes it were over. + +"Captain Du Meresq," cried Lilla, "come along; I am going to take you +down the big jump." + +"Off Niagara, if you like." + +"It _is_ a tidy drop, the first shelf, so please I'd rather steer. +I never trust my neck to any one but myself." + +Bertie craned over. "Let me go down first, and see what it is like; it +will give you an awful shake." + +"Bosh! I have been down before; sit tight," said Lilla, adjusting +herself. + +It was a series of snow terraces, half natural, half artificial. The +ridge they started from was very steep, and jutting out a little way +down, yawned over a perpendicular drop to the next ledge, which sloped +off again to ever recurring but lesser falls. + +Receiving the necessary impetus from above, Bertie and Lilla slithered +down at a terrific pace, and shot over the jutting ridge--a good twenty +feet drop. As they touched the ground, the toboggin ploughed up the snow, +recovered without upsetting, and tore on, jumping down the lesser falls +the same way, and continuing a considerable distance along the level at +the bottom before its impetus was exhausted. + +Bertie, blind, breathless, and half-choked with snow, heard a voice +behind, jerking in quick grasps-- + +"Did you e-ver feel such a de-light-ful--sensation in your life before?" + +"Never," said he with a profound air of conviction, shaking off the snow +like a Newfoundland dog. "I wonder if I could have steered as well!" + +"If you are going to try, you may take some young woman who is tired of +her life," said Lilla. + +"I'll take myself down, anyhow," said Du Meresq, rather nettled; and, +having dragged her toboggin up the hill, ran off to get another; but, in +passing Cecil, found a moment to say-- + +"Don't let that young lunatic delude you down the jump. It is unfit for +any girl but such a glutton as Lilla." + +"I haven't the slightest wish to try," said she, laughing. "Lilla's a +witch. Just look at her now." + +Miss Tremaine, standing poised on her toboggin, was in the act of gliding +down the hill. A light pole held in one hand served as a rudder, the +other retained the cord reins. + +"It is like a fairy in a pantomime let down from above," ejaculated Du +Meresq. "That is uncommonly tall toboggining!" + +A slight commotion was now apparent in the valley below. A brook ran +through it, frozen except is one place, where was a large hole. Mr. +Tremaine and Captain Delamere, slithering down together, ran into a +runaway toboggin that had upset its occupant. This knocked them out of +their course, and upset them into the rotten ice of the brook. + +Mr. Tremaine was precipitated head foremost into the hole, with his heels +in the air, and Lilla at the same moment coming to a halt in her +acrobatic descent, beheld the apparition of a pair of legs, feet upwards, +and a coarse pair of knickerbocker stockings dragged over the boots. + +"Who has muffed in now? Gracious goodness, _I_ knit those stockings; it +is the Governor! Pull him out--quick, quick, Captain Delamere; he'll have +a fit!" + +That individual, who had just scrambled out, was standing rather dazed, +ruefully stanching the cuts on his face. Between them they soon dragged +out Mr. Tremaine, half suffocated, and puffing and panting like a +demented steam-engine, but by the time he had recovered his breath not +much the worse. + +The toboggining was getting fast and furious, and several casualties +occurred. The toiler up the hill, too, had need of all his alertness to +dodge the numerous erratic cars tearing down in every direction. + +An adventurous group were tying a dozen or more toboggins together, which +they called an omnibus; and Jack Vavasour, in the character of conductor, +was holding up his hand, and cadging for passengers. + +"Any more for the Brook or Gore Vale? Room for two still in the +'Lightning' 'bus! No more?--then we are off. Link arms, ladies and +gentlemen;" and the unwieldy apparatus was started. The couplings divided +half-way down. About seven reached the bottom, the remaining five were +upset, and were left there. Cecil was in the latter division, and having +extricated herself from the _debris_, slowly ascended the hill. + +She was rather tired now, and slightly bored; and began wondering what +had become of her escort. He had not been in the coach, nor was he among +the noisy, chattering party approaching her. + +"Has anyone seen Captain Du Meresq?" asked she. + +"Ten minutes ago he was death on the big jump," said Jack. "He took +Delamere to start him; and I think Miss Tremaine went too." + +A shade passed over Cecil's face. "Would you ask him, Mr. Vavasour, to +get the sleigh? It is quite time we were going." + +Another quarter of an hour passed, but no signs of Jack or Bertie. +Cecil kept up a desultory conversation with Mrs. Anderson; but a vague +impatience and restlessness came over her. She looked in the direction of +the big jump, and it seemed to her a point of attraction that gathered up +the stragglers, who all converged towards it. There was quite a crowd +there now. Mrs. Anderson's platitudes became maddening. Then she observed +Lilla coming from the same direction, and beckoning. She sprang to meet +her. + +"Cecil," cried Lilla, "don't be frightened." Why do people always use +this agitating formula? "But the fact is poor Bertie has had an awful +cropper. Good gracious, Cecil! don't look like that! Are you going to +faint! He is not so very much hurt,--stunned a bit at first." + +"How was it?" said the other, breathing again, and pressing forward. + +"He was going down the drop. Captain Delamere was to push him off, +which he did with a vengeance. He didn't mean any harm, though he don't +like a bone in poor Bertie's body. However, the toboggin snapped in two +from the concussion in landing. Bertie was shot out and rolled to the +bottom, which would not have mattered, only he struck his head against +some snag or stone hidden by the snow. We looked down, but he didn't seem +to move, and we got frightened. I had had nearly enough jumping, but I +took Captain Delamere on my toboggin--didn't trust him to steer, I can +tell you, my dear--and bumped down quite safe. Bertie was insensible, +with a queer cut on his forehead; so I extracted the solitaire out of +his shirt-collar, and Captain Delamere gave him a nip out of his +pocket-pistol, and then he seemed to pull himself together and sat up. A +lot of people had collected round, and Mr. Vavasour asked me to come and +tell you. Oh, here he is." + +"Miss Rolleston," said Jack, "Du Meresq is nearly all right again. But he +has twisted his ankle, and can't walk up the hill; so they are going to +pull him up on a toboggin. I'll go and get your sleigh." + +"Are you _sure_ it is nothing worse?" said Cecil, who could scarcely +abandon her first impression that his neck was broken. + +"Quite. There he is, to answer for himself," as Bertie and his bearers +crested the hill. + +She walked to meet them. Du Meresq looked in pain, but cut short all +enquiries. "Wrenched my foot that's all. You want to go, don't you, +Cecil?" + +"Oh, yes; as soon as possible. Lilla, Mrs. Armstrong is so far off, will +you make our adieux?" _Sotto voce._ "She is a tiresome old goose; but I +left her so abruptly just now." + +"Miss Rolleston," whispered Jack, who had just brought up the cutter, "I +think I'll send up the doctor from the barracks. Du Meresq did get a +baddish cut on the head, and, if he doesn't stay in a day or two, it +might turn to erysipelas in this climate." + +"Pray do. Oh, Mr. Vavasour! just tell me honestly, is not that +sometimes--fatal when it gets to the head?" + +Cecil's eyes, dilated with terror, betrayed her to Jack, over whose +honest face came an expression of sympathy and intelligence. + +"Of course; but we will take care of that. That's why I am sending up the +doctor, to prevent him exposing himself out of doors just yet." + +Cecil did not find the drive back so agreeable as the previous one. Du +Meresq, chafing at the confinement his fast swelling foot would probably +entail, and provoked at coming to grief after Lilla's taunt was in +remarkably bad humour. + +Cecil saw the state of the case, and drove on fast, philosophically +allowing him to grumble and growl without much concerning herself; but +it was almost dark before they drew up at "The Maples." + +In the meantime, Colonel Rolleston, having heard from Miss Prosody that +his daughter and Du Meresq had gone off to a toboggining party, chose to +be highly scandalized, and poured into the placid ear of his wife a +torrent of disapprobation. + +In vain did Mrs. Rolleston represent that they were out sleighing and +skating together most days without his objecting. + +"This was quite different--this was a public party--people would say they +were engaged. He never had seen the good of their being so inseparable, +but of course, his opinion on the subject had never been considered," +etc.,--which last remark was rather uncalled for, as few heads of +families have their womankind in better order than Colonel Rolleston. + +A straw will show which way the wind blows. His wife listened with some +uneasiness, for she had always hoped the Colonel tacitly approved the +attachment between their respective relatives, which to her appeared so +evident. She could only trust this was but a pettish effusion from their +prolonged absence, and determined to guard against such causes of offence +for the future. + +But still they did not come. It was dark--it was dinner-time--it really +was too bad. At last a faint tinkle of sleigh-bells was followed by a +slight commotion in the hall. The servant was assisting Bertie into the +smoking-room, for he elected to lie on the sofa there, and thus avoid the +worry of questions and alarms. + +Colonel Rolleston was too grand and angry to evince any curiosity by +coming out, and Mrs. Rolleston, after receiving a hasty explanation from +Cecil, sent her back to the drawing-room, and took charge of her brother, +who was having his boot cut off, and in considerable pain. + +There was not much resemblance in character or sympathy between the +brothers-in-law; but they had hitherto avoided clashing. Now, however, +the Colonel's outraged feelings of propriety wound him up to the +determination of administering a solemn rebuke to Du Meresq, and he stood +on that coign of advantage, the hearthrug, waiting to deliver it. + +Cecil came in for the first tide of wrath, somewhat to her surprise; but, +dreading her companionship with Bertie being prohibited, exerted +considerable tact to smooth her father down, and especially made light of +the accident, which she perceived was an aggravation of the offence. + +"Not content with making my daughter conspicuous, he hadn't even the +sense to keep out of scrapes himself," etc. + +Mrs. Rolleston glanced interrogatively at Cecil as they met on the +stairs. I don't know what answer her countenance conveyed, but they made +simultaneously the same suggestion,--"Let us get Miss Prosody to dine +down." They both knew that without the addition of an unoffending third +the subject would be harped on all the evening. + +Mrs. Rolleston was an excellent housekeeper; and the well-served repast, +aided by the judicious conversation of the ladies, exercised a most +soothing influence on the Colonel, who was rapidly attaining that +harmless frame of mind in which, as the saying goes, "a child might play +with him." + +But a sudden ring at the door-bell, followed by the announcement of the +surgeon of the regiment, brought on a relapse. What man does not hate +being interrupted at dinner? And the doctor's report was sufficiently +vague to re-kindle Cecil's fears, and create uncomfortable misgivings in +the mind of her step-mother. + +Du Meresq, he said, was suffering intense pain in the head, and a small +bone in the ankle was broken, which he had set; but he could not be +certain there was no internal injury, etc. + +Mrs. Rolleston hastened away to Bertie, and did not return; and poor +Cecil, not daring to show her anxiety, remained to entertain her father, +or rather to listen to his irritable remarks on this unlucky expedition +for the rest of the evening. + +Never was there a more fractious patient than Du Meresq as he lay +listlessly on the sofa, while the bone reunited. He had speculated on +many a stolen walk with Bluebell in that unfrequented wood, where they +would be far less liable to interruption than at "The Maples." He thought +of his cavalier parting with her,--a bracing tonic,--necessitated by the +self-betrayal of her dejected air, but which he expected to have +explained away in a most agreeable manner before now. It would never do +to write from this house. What a shame it was sending her away--for a +mistake, too, for they had got the saddle on the wrong horse. "Still," he +thought, "it is a bore when girls take things _au grand serieux_. Lilla +Tremaine is quite different, as jolly as possible, but never expects +impossibilities. Now Cecil and Bluebell are never satisfied without one's +swearing one cares for nobody else. At least, Cecil isn't, though I don't +think I ever quite said that to her yet. It doesn't matter telling +Bluebell so, and she looks so pleased, and believes every word of it. I +would marry that child if I could afford it." And then visions of debt, +ever pressing, harassed his mind. "Well, it could not last much longer; +there would be something left out of the fire when he sold out, and he +could try Australia, or the Gold Coast, or--he didn't care what." + +But such subjects were not exhilarating, lying alone in the smoking-room, +and at last he rang a hand-bell, and told the servant to ask Miss +Rolleston to come and sit with him. + +Cecil complied at once, but brought with her a colour-box and +sketch-book. Drawing was her great occupation, and she was now filling +in from memory a sketch of the toboggining party. + +"You never come near me, Cecil, unless I send for you!" said Du Meresq, +complainingly. + +"Poor Bertie! are you very much bored?" said she, without looking up from +her painting. + +"Horribly; and my thoughts and occupations are none of the pleasantest." + +"Those horrid duns again," glancing at some blue looking envelopes lying +near. "But you haven't opened one of them." + +"Never do, nor answer them either. They keep up a pretty close +correspondence considering it is one-sided." + +"Bertie," said Cecil, drawing on diligently, "Can't something be done? +You never seem to look into your affairs. Perhaps they wouldn't be so bad +if you did. I shall be of age in August, and," colouring slightly, "I +will lend you as much as you want. You can give me an I.O.U. for the +amount," continued she, rather proud of her knowledge of business. + +"You dear, romantic girl" (Cecil was chilled in a moment), "how could I +take your money? I shouldn't have a chance of repaying it. No, I shall +last as long as I can, and then try the Colonies. It is only my rascally +self, after all, to think of. Thank goodness, I don't draw any delicate, +fragile life after me into privation and discomfort." + +Cecil bent more closely over her drawing. + +"What are you doing?" said Bertie, impatiently. "I can't see your face. +Come and sit by me, Cecil. I like a 'gentle hand in mine.'" + +Cecil moved as if in a dream, and sat in a low chair near his couch. + +"You have always been so kind and true to me," stroking her hair +caressingly. + +A slight movement of the handle of the door made them involuntarily +separate, and Mrs. Rolleston entered. + +"Cecil, your father is looking for you. He wants you to drive with him, +and call on the Learmonths." + +"What an infernal bore!" said Du Meresq, energetically; "and I must lie +in this confounded room, with nothing to do the whole afternoon. Can't +you get out of it, Cecil?" + +"No, no!" said Mrs. Rolleston, hastily meeting her daughter's eye. There +was unspoken sympathy between them. Her half eager look of inquiry passed +into intelligent acquiescence, and, with a regretful glance at Bertie, +she left the room. + +The next day and the one after the Colonel required his daughter's +companionship; the third day, they all went out in the afternoon, as Du +Meresq seemed better, and said he had letters to write. No sooner, +however, was the house quiet and deserted, than he rang the bell, and +sent for a sleigh, hobbling out with the assistance of a stick and the +servant's arm. For the information of that lingering and curious +functionary, he ordered the driver to go to the Club, which address, +however, was altered after proceeding a short distance. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +THE LAKE SHORE ROAD. + + But all that I care for, + And all that I know, + Is that, without wherefore, + I worship thee so. + --Lord Lytton. + + +"I suppose, Bluebell, you keep all your fine spirits for company?" said +Miss Opie, tauntingly; and, indeed, she had some reason to be aggrieved. +Few things are more trying than living with a person in the persistent +enjoyment of the blues; and the old, saddened by failing health and the +memory of heavy sorrows, are apt to look upon gloom in youth as +entrenching on their own prescriptive rights. + +Bluebell was always now taking long, aimless walks, bringing home neither +news nor gossip, and then sitting silent, absorbed in her own thoughts, +or else feverishly expectant; while each evening she sank into deeper +despondency after the day's disappointment. + +"Spirits can't be made to order," answered she, shortly. "I have got +nothing to talk about." + +"I am afraid you are ill, my dear," said Mrs. Leigh; "outgrowing your +strength, perhaps. You are such a great girl, Bluebell--so different to +me; and you scarcely touched the baked mutton at dinner, which was a +little frozen and red yesterday, but so nice to-day." + +Bluebell shivered. She was not at a very critical age, but the culinary +triumphs of the "general servant" made her practice a good deal of +enforced abstinence since she had been accustomed to properly prepared +cookery at "The Maples." + +"People who do nothing all day can't expect to be hungry," said Miss +Opie, sententiously. "If a man will not work neither may he eat." + +"Then it is all right," retorted Bluebell, "as it seems I do neither." + +"Not work!" cried Mrs. Leigh. "Why she has earned already more than I +ever did in my life, and brought me ten dollars to get a dress with, only +I shan't, for I shall keep it for her. I must say, Aunt Jane, you are +always blaming the child; and, if her mother is satisfied, I think you +may be." + +Aunt Jane was silenced, but she wondered what Bluebell could do that her +shortsighted mother would not be satisfied with. Meantime the object of +the discussion had escaped from the room. She had no wish to spend the +afternoon in the dim parlour, stuffy with stove heat and the lingering +aroma of baked mutton; and a fancy had occurred to her to wander through +the wood she had last traversed with the sole occupant of her +ill-regulated mind. + +Trove, now a well-to-do and unabashed dog, rolled and kicked on his back +in puppy-like ecstacy as he watched her dress, and officiously brought +her her muff, which, however, he objected to resigning. Trove was +Bluebell's confidant and the repository of her woes, and perhaps as safe +a one as young ladies generally choose. + +Not a sign of the Rollestons had she seen since her arrival at the +cottage ten days ago. Bluebell thought she could not have been more cut +off from them if she had crossed the Atlantic instead of the Common. +Going to the Rink would have too much the appearance of seeking Du +Meresq, so she rigorously avoided that; but even in King Street, where +Cecil's cutter flashed most days, she never caught sight of "Wings'" +owl-decorated head. + +There was a great deal of her father's disposition in Bluebell, and she +chafed at the monotony of days so grey and eventless, and longed for she +knew not what; so that it was life, movement, _pain_ even, to exhaust +those new springs of thought and feeling that the awakening touch of a +first love had called forth, and would not now be laid. + +Bluebell, like most Canadians, had had plenty of early admiration from +hobbledehoys, who made honest, though ungainly, love to her; but her +heart would as soon have been touched by an amorous Orson as by these +youthful tyros in the art. Du Meresq had that deceptive countenance +apparently created for the shipwreck of female hearts. Sometimes men +called him an ugly fellow, but no woman ever thought so. There was +expression enough in those luminous eyes to have set up three beauty men. +They could look both demoniacal and seraphic,--tender often, but scarcely +ever true; add to this a magnificent _physique_, a soft manner, a winning +voice, and, what gave him an almost superstitious interest to women, that +_fey_ look attributed to the Stewarts. He had read and studied hard by +fits and starts, for whatever possessed his mind he always pursued with +ardour, and to Cecil was fond of inveighing against his useless, +unsatisfying life. In spite of her infatuation, though, she judged him +more truly than most people, and perceived that his fitful remorse was +chiefly occasioned by pressure of money matters, and seldom lasted over +pecuniary relief. + +In the most secret flights of her imagination, she pictured herself in +some new country with Bertie. An adventurous, reckless nature such as +his, she thought, turned every gift to evil in the commonplace life +where his idiosyncrasy had no play; but detached from his idle mess-room +habits, and launched into a new career, when to live at all involved +exertion of mind and body, would metamorphosize her hero into all she +could wish. + +Such was the ideal, in her conventual bringing up, of the rich and well +placed Cecil; while Bluebell, to whom luxury was unknown, longed for +wealth to take her into a sphere where taste was not starved by economy, +nor all her horizon bounded by weekly bills. But in both cases their air +castles were to be occupied with Du Meresq. + +The girl and the dog sped along on their desolate walk--it was too cold +to linger. Bluebell carefully followed the route she had taken with +Bertie, that memory might be added by association. + +"Ah, Trove," said she to the dog, who bounced up against her, "I am as +much a waif and stray as you are--disowned by my grandfather, who might +have made us rich, and taken up by people one day and forgotten the next; +but you have drifted into harbour now, my dog, and who knows--" + +A smothered growl interrupted this monologue, and then a sharp bark. +Bluebell looked round to see what was exciting him; she heard a distant +tinkle of bells, and listened keenly; laughing voices were apparently +approaching. From an impulse that she could not have explained, Bluebell +darted into an empty woodshed, dragging Trove in after her, and holding +him firmly by the muzzle to stifle his growling. Through an aperture in +the boards she could observe, unseen herself. + +The sounds grew louder, and a score of sleighs defiled past her +hiding-place. Bluebell scanned each carefully. There were the usual +members of the Sleigh Club. She recognized the Tremaines, and several +others of her little world. Jack in his tandem; but, faithful Lubin! no +"cloud-capped" Muffin sat by his side; his companion was of the sterner +sex, or, as he would have described him, "a dog." But where were the +Rollestons? No representative of "The Maples" was present, not even Du +Meresq. They had flashed past within a minute; but, like a fresh breeze +over still water, the little incident had awakened and roused up Bluebell +from her lethargy. + +Her thoughts became more lively as she speculated why Bertie and Cecil +were absent from the sleighing party. It was some consolation, at any +rate, not to see him enjoying himself quite as much without her. The sun +was setting redly as she neared the cottage, and a young moon gaining +brightness. Bluebell, remembering a childish superstition, paused to +wish. The passage was dark as she entered, and her mother's tones, +talking with great volubility, struck her ear. "Mamma has her company +voice on," thought she, which, being interpreted, meant an increase of +nervousness and consequent garrulity. + +She opened the door, and her heart gave a sudden leap as she became aware +of, rather than saw in the dusk, the tall, broad-shouldered form of Du +Meresq. Bluebell came stiffly forward, and offered a cold hand, utterly +belying her heart, to Bertie, who bent over it as if sorely tempted, in +spite of Mrs. Leigh's presence, to carry it to his lips. But she withdrew +it abruptly, and sat down, seized with more overpowering shyness than she +had ever experienced. + +Miss Opie's keen, attentive eyes were taking in the situation. + +"Captain Du Meresq has been kind enough to call," said Mrs. Leigh, "to +say there is no immediate hurry for your return, my dear." + +Bluebell raised disappointed, questioning eyes; but something in his face +conveyed to her that the message was coined as an excuse for his +appearance. + +"I hope Cecil is well?" said she, trying to speak unconcernedly; "but I +saw she was not out with the Club to-day." + +"I think she is tired of it. Where did you fall in with them?" asked he. + +"In the Humber," very consciously. + +"Were you there?" asked Bertie, with a tender inflection in his voice, +that Bluebell knew well. But she would not look up, and Miss Opie did, so +he proceeded carelessly,--"I suppose they were coming from the Lake Shore +Road, up the serpentine drive in the wood?" + +"Oh! that is such a pretty walk in summer!" said Mrs. Leigh. + +"I dare say," said Bertie, looking straight down his nose. "I went round +that way once, and even in winter found it the pleasantest walk I ever +took in my life." + +"Ah, then," said Mrs. Leigh, knowingly, "I dare say some pretty young +lady was with you." + +"No such happiness," said Bertie, with an imperceptible glance at +Bluebell. "The fact is, Mrs. Leigh, women detest me! I suppose it is my +deep respect, making me so fearful of offending, that bores them; but I +fear I am a social failure." + +"In my day," said Miss Opie, ironically, "young ladies _expected_ to be +treated with respect." + +"And that could not have been so long ago; yet now they are beyond a +bashful man's comprehension," said Bertie, with an air of simplicity, +slightly scanning Miss Opie's wakeful face. He had got on so well with +the mamma, who was this old maid, who appeared so objectionably on the +alert? + +"Well, I am sure," said Mrs. Leigh, "some girls here _are_ that pert and +forward, I can't bear it myself; and yet the gentlemen all encourage it, +and think it real smart. Lilla Tremaine, you know, Aunt Jane." + +"Ah!" said Bertie, shaking his head, "a very unsteady young person." + +While Du Meresq was making conversation, Bluebell sat incapable of +contributing to it. She would not have believed that his presence should +afford her so little pleasure; but he seemed incongruous here, and was +apparently amusing himself with the simplicity of her relatives. A +clatter of tea-things filled her mind with dismay. The ideas of the +"help" on the subject of cleanliness were in a very rudimentary stage, +and that the cloth would be in anything but its first freshness, was a +moral certainty. Impossible, however, to avert the catastrophe, and the +general servant, actuated by a determination to get another look at Miss +Bluebell's "young man," undauntedly bore in the tray. + +"Dear me, is it not rather early?" said Mrs. Leigh. "Oh, Captain Du +Meresq,"--seeing him rise,--"you must stay and have a cup with us." + +"Another day, if you will allow me," said Bertie, trying to disguise +his extreme lameness. "I hope, having found my way here, I may be +permitted to call again in this sociable manner, and have a little +agreeable conversation, so preferable to gaiety, which I abhor." + +"If you will take us as you find us," said the little lady, graciously, +"we shall look upon it as a great favour, I am sure. Dear me, Captain Du +Meresq, have you hit your foot? You seem quite lame." + +"I am, rather. I had an accident. Is there not some shorter way back than +the road I came?" + +"Oh, yes, by Barker's Row. You know the Link House?" + +"No--a," said Bertie, looking expressively at Bluebell, as a hint that +she might offer to point out the road. + +"Oh, surely you _must_; keep straight on King Street, and then you come +to--" + +"Wolfe Street?" suggested Du Meresq. + +"Gracious, no! that would be quite out of your way! Go to--I'll tell you +what, Bluebell shall show you where you turn off--it isn't ten minutes +from here." + +Bertie murmured a profusion of thanks, and, distrustful of Miss Opie, +protested against being so troublesome. But Bluebell, scarce able to +believe in such luck, sprang up with a sudden illumination of +countenance, and the next minute the lovers were alone under the light +of the moon. + +"Bluebell," said Du Meresq, "I have got a sleigh here. I thought I +_might_ get you out of it if I pretended I was walking, and didn't know +the way; but the fact is, my child, I can hardly limp a hundred yards. +Come a little drive with me." + +"Oh! I dare not. It is so late, and they expect me back again directly." + +"Then you are going to run away the first moment we have been alone for +so long!" + +"Whose fault is that," said she, reproachfully. + +"Not mine. I have been laid up ten days with a broken ankle. But I +suppose you have been seeing Jack Vavasour every day, and forgotten all +about me?" + +"Bertie," said Bluebell, hesitatingly, "did they say anything to you +about--" + +"About Jack? Yes, they said he was spoons on you. And also, Miss +Bluebell, that you were awfully in love with him." + +"No, no, nonsense," said she, blushing. "I meant about yourself." + +"They know nothing of that?" said he, inquiringly. + +"They do, though. I don't know what you will say, Bertie, but I told Mrs. +Rolleston." + +"What can you mean, Bluebell? Bella told me that you cared for nobody but +Jack Vavasour; and I was deuced angry, I can tell you; at first, though I +thought it uncommon 'cute of you saying so." + +Bluebell, utterly confounded by this extraordinary assertion, had no time +to reply, for she found herself close to a covered sleigh, and the man +had got down and opened the door. She drew back. + +"Jump in," said Bertie, impatiently. + +Bluebell shook her head. + +"What do you propose?" said he, in an angry whisper. "We can't sit out in +the snow, and I can't walk another yard." + +She hesitated, and he gently impelled her into the vehicle, following +himself, to the anguish of his injured foot, that he had struck in his +haste. + +"Where to, sir?" said the man, whom Bertie, in his momentary pain, had +forgotten. + +"Go to the Don Bridge." + +"Can't, sir. I am ordered at the College by six o'clock." + +"Drive to the devil, then. I mean, drive about as long as you can. I like +driving." + +"Hush, Bertie! how can you? What will he think?" + +"How much 'old rye' he will get out of the job. Come, Bluebell; the hour +is ours, don't spoil it fidgetting about trivialities. I have scarcely +dared to look at you yet, my beautiful pet," trying to steal an arm round +her waist. But she drew herself away, irresponsive and rigid, being +uneasy and frightened at the escapade she had been led into. + +"You haven't a spark of moral courage, Bluebell," said Bertie, +impatiently. "You are as prim and unlike yourself as possible, just +because you are wondering what that man on the box will think. Or, +perhaps, you are afraid of that thin, sour old duenna at home." + +"She will be inquisitive enough," said Bluebell, resignedly. "And, +Bertie, I wanted to tell you, but, perhaps, you know, that they will +never have me again at the 'Maples' while you are there,--Mrs. Rolleston +so utterly disapproves of it." + +"What _is_ this hallucination that you have got hold of?" said Du Meresq. +"What did you tell, or fancy you told, Bella?" + +"We got on the subject. Your name wasn't actually mentioned; but she +quite understood, and said something," said Bluebell, reddening as she +felt the awkwardness of her words, "very strong against it." + +Bertie looked relieved. He began to understand the mistake, which he +considered a fortunate one. + +"And did you promise to give me up?" + +She turned her large, innocent eyes upon him. "How could I, when I care +more for you than anything in the world?" + +"My poor little Bluebell!" said Du Meresq, crushing her in his arms. But +the sleigh stopped; the man was getting down. + +"My time is up, sir." + +"Well, drive to where you took us up," said Bertie. "Bluebell, tell me +quick, where shall I see you again?" + +"I can't risk driving," said she, hurriedly. "When will you be able to +walk?" + +"Can't I see you alone at home sometimes? When are your people likely to +be out?" + +"They don't go out for days together, except on Sunday, to church; and +Aunt Jane would suspect something directly if I didn't go with them." + +"Let her, meddling old idiot! I shall come then, Bluebell." + +"No, no, Bertie; pray don't! Could you walk in a week?" + +"What an eternity! Well, meet me in the Avenue in the Queen's Park, at +three o'clock on Wednesday. Here's this brute getting down again. Only +just time to kiss those dear blue eyes. _Addio_ Leonore. How the deuce +am I to get home, I wonder?" + +"Bertie, you'll never be able to walk." + +"Never mind me. Run back, my dearest, and throw dust in the eyes of that +misguided old female, who presumes to open them on what doesn't concern +her." + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +NORTHERN LIGHTS. + + Do you remember + Those evenings in the bleak December, + Curtained warm from the snowy weather, + When you and I played chess together, + Checkmated by each other's eyes? + --The Wanderer. + + +Bluebell sped home, and, to evade remarks, hung up her hat in the +passage, as the least embarrassing way of reporting herself, then +remained, perdu, in her own room, transfigured into fairy-land by her +happy thoughts. Bertie was acquitted of intentional neglect. It was only +the malignity of Fate that had divided them; and there was the positive +anticipation of meeting again in six days. To be sure, it involved +entering on a course of deceit. Aunt Jane would, probably, be shocked, as +she was at everything; mamma would not think much of it; and as for Mrs. +Rolleston, she need not consider her wishes, after telling Bertie such a +bare-faced fib about Jack Vavasour, evidently in the hope of making +mischief between them. She was very much astonished at such unscrupulous +conduct in her friend, but what other conclusion could she come to? + +To be sure, common-sense whispered that looks and language such as Du +Meresq had permitted himself, ought to be followed by an offer of +marriage; but with common-sense Bluebell had little to do at this period, +and first love cares not to concern itself with the prosaic. The mystery +and romance of interviews with her love, "undreamt-of by the world in its +primness," appeared far more enchanting than any authorized attachment +provided with a regulation gooseberry picker. + +So she came down with a slightly defiant air; but meeting with nothing +worse than a gravely knowing glance from Miss Opie, sat down to the piano +to escape questioning. + +Mrs. Leigh's thoughts were complacently occupied with the visitor. She +only wanted further confirmation to place him in the light of a future +son-in-law. Adversity had not given her the wisdom of the serpent, and +she never dreamed of possible danger in the attentions of this unknown +young man to her beautiful, but portionless, child. + +However, her mind became unsettled again by the appearance of another +suitor, in dog-skin gloves of a brilliant tan, and his usual air of +cheerful confidence. No guile was there in Jack Vavasour, whose prostrate +adoration of her daughter was so undisguised, that she mentally deposed +Bertie (whose devotion was more problematical) in his favour. Still she +thought, "I should never think of influencing dear Bluebell one way or +the other, and we shall see which proposes first." + +Jack's visit, as usual, was a lengthy one. His fair enslaver had +recovered her spirits, and no longer metaphorically turned her face to +the wall. She was glad of distraction, and not ungratified by his +allegiance, though without the slightest idea of returning it. + +Like the boys and the frogs, she did not consider that what was sport to +the one was hard on the other, and probably would not have cared if it +had struck her; for, whatever poets may say, there is no more thoroughly +heartless age than sweet seventeen. When he sat on till the arrival of +the unappetizing meal they called a meat-tea, Bluebell did not wince at +her mother inviting him to join it, simply because his opinion was a +matter of indifference to her, though she carelessly recommended him not +to be late for mess. + +Jack, however, with magnanimous disregard of that usually important +period of his day, stayed his healthy young appetite with the cold joint +from dinner; and he and Bluebell amused themselves frying eggs and +roasting chestnuts, which further assuaged its keen demands. + +Many times during the evening did Mrs. Leigh leave the room, on the +principle that young people like to be alone together. But all her +tactics failed to uproot Miss Opie, who clung to her book and her seat +by the fire, partly from the contrary conviction that young persons +should _never_ be alone together, and partly because, save in the +kitchen, there was no other fire in the house. + +"What shall we do?" cried Bluebell, with the faintest of yawns, tired +of consuming their culinary labours. "You don't care for music, I know. +There's an old chess-board somewhere; and I can't think of anything but +cat's-cradle, if you don't like that." + +"I can play," said Jack, stoutly, who had not attempted it since his +childhood, but only wanted an excuse to remain on. So they sat down at +the spidery table, saying little; Jack quite well entertained with his +hand frequently coming in contact with Bluebell's on the board. He would +have liked to crush up that little member in his own, and meditated the +bold _coup_ more than once, but was always discouraged by that far away, +unconscious look in her eyes. + +In this squalid parlour, where she was the only soft-hued thing in the +room, he thought her more beautiful than ever. Perhaps she was, for the +love-light burned steadily in her Irish eyes, and he could not tell it +was not for him. + +Never were more lenient or careless adversaries. Twice Jack's queen was +in Bluebell's grasp uncaptured, and he could at any time have checkmated +her, had he been as attentive to the variations of the game as to those +of her countenance. Suddenly Bluebell swept her hand over the board, +crying,--"I never saw such men, they don't fight. We have been playing +half-an-hour, and have hardly taken any prisoners." + +"It is a slow game," said Jack, equably; "let us try cat's-cradle. Or, +perhaps," he continued, meeting with no response, "I ought to be saying +good-night." + +Bluebell was secretly tired of him, and could not conceive on what +principle her mother began pressing him to stay. + +"There's the nicest bit of toasted cheese coming up for supper," said +she. "I know all officers like a Welsh rabbit. My poor late husband did, +though he used to say, in his funny way, he only ate it because there was +nothing else fit to touch." + +"I fear I must go; but I hope you'll ask me to tea again, Mrs. Leigh, +it is so jolly getting away from mess sometimes," said the young +diplomatist. + +"That I will," said she, highly flattered, "and I shall be very much +offended if you don't come. I am only sorry you can't sit a little longer +now." + +Jack was not quite sure he couldn't, but Bluebell, pretending not to see +his hesitation, held out her hand and said "good-night," so he had +nothing for it but to go. In two minutes, though, his head re-appeared. +"Come and look at the Northern Lights, Miss Leigh; regular tip-top +fireworks. Here's a shawl; make haste." But when she come out, only a few +weak-coloured pink clouds were floating about. + +"Is that all?" ejaculated Bluebell. + +"Not quite," said Jack; "it was a western light I was trying to invoke, +or, rather, the light of my eyes. When may I come and see you, Bluebell?" + +"I came out to look at meteors," said she, laughing at his unwonted +flowers of speech; "and I don't know who gave you leave to call me by +my Christian name." + +"It isn't your Christian," urged Jack. + +"It will be my _nom de guerre_, then, if you say it again." + +"Change it if you like," quoth he, "if you will let me change your +surname too." + +A startled stare of blue eyes, a smothered laugh, and Bluebell had darted +into the house, clapping the door after her. + +"Confound it," thought Jack, "just my luck. In another moment I should +have kissed her--I _think_ I should; but, hang it, when a girl looks you +straight in the face and talks to you as if you were her grandmother, it +puts one off. Well, I have kissed lots of girls without proposing and now +it's _vice versa_, for it was as good as an offer, and all I got by it +was her nipping in just when I thought I had her to myself." + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +THE TRYST. + + Twas full of love--to rhyme with dove, + And all that tender sort of thing, + Of sweet and meet--and heart and dart, + But not a word about a ring! + --Hood. + + +Time flew much lighter with our heroine as she counted the days to +the next rendezvous with Du Meresq; anticipation is ever sweeter than +reality. The cottage was no longer dull, nor existence empty, even the +unrenewed and diminishing snow, dusky as a goose in a manufacturing town, +was the symptoms of approaching spring and verdure. Who need think of the +torrents of rain which must precede it? The little episode with Jack +outside the door afforded her secret entertainment, and although she +did not look upon it as a _bona-fide_ proposal, that did not bias her +intention of relating the anecdote for Bertie's delectation. It might be +just as well to let him see if he couldn't speak out, others could, and +if he were jealous, why so much the better. + +Clouds were chasing each other in the sky, and the increased mildness +of the atmosphere inspired Bluebell with the dread that rain was +approaching, for a rendezvous under dripping umbrellas, if feasible, +was not the most desirable _pose_ for a romantic interview. + +However, the morning rose clear and sunny, the snow was thawing, and in +many places the runners of the sleighs grated on bare ground. + +Bluebell was exultant. The elements evidently didn't mean to oppose her, +but she was somewhat disconcerted at dinner by Miss Opie's remarks on her +Sunday dress, which, being of a becoming hue, she had rashly donned. + +"Are you going visiting, Bluebell, that you are so smart?" + +"Oh, dear no; only for a walk." + +"How foolish to draggle that mazarin blue poplinette in sloppy snow! Once +let it get any snow stains on, and it will look quite shabby on bright +spring days." + +"It's no use having things, if one doesn't wear them," returned the girl, +evasively. But when she came down ten minutes later equipped for her +walk, she encountered Miss Opie again in full marching order. + +"My, dear, as you are dressed so nicely, I dare say you are going 'on +King,' and so am I; so we can walk together." + +Consternation in Bluebell's face--it was only a quarter to three. + +"I am going quite in the opposite direction," cried she, hurriedly, and, +without waiting to see the effect of her words, abruptly fled. + +"Just Canadian independence," muttered Miss Opie; "It makes all the girls +such thoroughly bad style." + +Bluebell began to feel very nervous; two or three young friends that she +met on the way, she passed with a quick nod and averted face, dreading +their joining her. Her eye swept the broad walk of the Avenue in an +instant; no familiar figure arrested her vision, and the seats placed at +regular intervals on each side were also vacant of interest. + +So she was first--the Cathedral clock had struck three some minutes +before, she was perplexed to know what to do with herself, and began +walking slowly to the other end. Of all possible _contretemps_, the +non-appearance of Du Meresq had never suggested itself; but after a +couple of turns the unwelcome misgiving strengthened, and there would +be only one at the tryst that day. + +In a tumult of disappointment and indignation, conjecture after +conjecture chased each other; while ever and anon her fancy was mocked +by some one turning in at the gates bearing a general resemblance to Du +Meresq, only to be dispelled by a nearer and more accurate view. + +A simple explanation suddenly dawned; Bertie might have written to warn +her of an unavoidable absence. The possibility of such a letter, which, +had she had received it in the morning, would have been the bitterest +disappointment, now seemed a resurrection from despair to hope, and with +relaxed features and brightening eyes, Bluebell walked rapidly through +the gates to the Post-office. + +Letters were so rare and unlooked for at the cottage, that the postman +never included it in his rounds; and the contents of the pigeon-hole +appropriated to them at the office was seldom inquired for, except on +mail-days, when there might be an off-chance of an English letter for +Miss Opie. Even Bluebell, who for the first fortnight after her +banishment from "The Maples" had been a regular applicant, had not been +near it since Bertie's visit to the cottage. + +"Two letters for Miss Theodora Leigh." One she scarcely looked at; the +other instinct told her must be Bertie's handwriting; it had been lying +two days at the Post-office. + + "My dearest Bluebell," ran this note, "I can't come to the Avenue + on Wednesday, being now entirely confined to the sofa with my ankle, + which has gone to the bad. I am only staying on now with sick leave, + and the Chief very sulky at that. When shall I again see those beloved, + angel-like, soft blue eyes? Don't write to me here, for, as you may + remember, the orderly fetches the letters, and my august brother-in-law + sometimes deals them round. + + "Your ever devotedly attached, + "A. Du M." + +Poor Bluebell, as she read these few and rather cavalier lines, felt for +the moment as if she had never suffered till now; his hinted at +departure, and apparent resignation to absence from her, was a severe +shock, and, in the first hot feeling of grief, the scales fell from her +eyes, and she began to see Bertie as he was, but she could not yet endure +the light of reason, so resumed her voluntary blindness, and re-read the +letter, and though very little of it could satisfy her expectations, she +dwelt more on the few words that did. After a while, she remembered the +other letter, and found, with awakening interest, it was from Mrs. +Rolleston. This was written in a pleasant chit-chat style, giving an +account of their every-day life since she left, and not at all avoiding +Bertie's name, the tedious effect of his toboggining accident being +one of the chief incidents mentioned. It wound up with saying that they +expected her back as soon as she liked. + +Bluebell felt rather mystified at the tone of this epistle; but was much +comforted by the thought that the ban was removed, and she might go to +"The Maples" and judge for herself. This was dated prior to the other +letter, but Bertie appeared to have been ignorant of it. + +The following day, our heroine, in a hired sleigh, was jingling back to +"The Maples," and curiosity and interest all centred on one question--"Is +he there still?" + +As she passed through the hall, her eye glanced searchingly round on the +chance of seeing some familiar property of Bertie's. There was only a +pair of his moccasins; but they might so easily have been left behind as +useless, now the snow was evaporating. + +Mrs. Rolleston and Cecil received her very cordially, but, knowing their +sentiments, that was rather an unfavourable omen, and Freddy and Lola, +who had come down to see her, kept up such an incessant chatter, that +there seemed no chance of obtaining the information she dreaded. + +At last, in a momentary pause, she faltered out a leading remark in +such a low voice that no one attended to it. A minute later, she tried +again,--"I hope Captain Du Meresq is better." + +"How red you have got, 'Boobell!'" said Freddy. "Look, mamma!" + +"What did you say, my dear--Bertie? Oh, yes, he is very lame still; but +he was obliged to go yesterday." + +The sudden colour left Bluebell's cheek, and she sat for some minutes in +a relaxed, drooping attitude, oblivious of all around, till becoming +sensible of Cecil's gaze rivetted on her. It was a cold satirical +expression, at the same time inquiring. Bluebell was very unhappy; but +this roused her, and, raising her head, she looked her enemy steadily in +the eyes, with a bitter smile. + +She never, strange to say, suspected Cecil of being a rival, merely +supposing she was carrying on the family politics; and wounded by her +officiously hostile demeanour, as she considered it, resolved no trace of +her sufferings should ever be witnessed by this cold friend. + +And thus it happened that the topic was jealously avoided by each; +though, with mutual occupation and amusements, they became friendly +again, now the disturber of their amicability was removed. + +Bertie and Cecil had been inseparable the last week. His premature +exertion in calling at the cottage had thrown him back; and really ill, +and, in enforced inaction, he could not bear her out of his sight. + +So day after day Cecil passed in the smoking-room, only hurrying out for +a short drive or constitutional; and half-repaid by the gloomy complaint, +"How long yon have been!" when she re-entered. + +Du Meresq's correspondence, too, as we have before hinted, was not +calming. A half-indignant letter from a friend whose temporary +accommodation had not been repaid, a bill at three months wanting +renewing, a tailor threatening the extremest rigours of the law, and +similar literature, familiar to a distressed man, was punctually brought +by the Post-office orderly for his delectation. + +"You seem interested, Cecil," said he, as, with the uncerimoniousness of +a trusted _confidante_, she glanced through the variations of the same +text. "Do you young ladies ever get up behind each other, and back each +other's bills?" + +"You haven't opened some, Bertie; and they are not all bills." + +"You can, if it amuses you," hobbling across the room. "Why, Cecil, my +foot is almost sound again. We'll drive somewhere this afternoon, +anyhow." + +"See what the doctor says. Look here, Bertie, here's a letter marked +private, so I didn't go on." + +"Where did you find that? I never saw it." As he read, his brow grew +dark, and he pondered several minutes; while Cecil, devoured with +curiosity, and half-apprehensive of evil, remained silent. + +"Will you get me a railway-guide, Cecil? There's one in the dining-room." + +She complied, most unwillingly. + +"Are you really going, Bertie?" + +"I must, to-night." + +"Why?" she more looked than asked. + +He glanced through the letter again, and tossed it to her. "You see I +have no secrets from you, Cecil, though I should not care for any one +else in the house to be acquainted with its contents." + +It was a confidential letter from his Colonel, saying, if absolutely +necessary, he would give him more sick leave; but advising him, if +possible, to return at once and settle some of his most urgent +liabilities, which, having repeatedly come to his ears, he could no +longer avoid taking notice of, unless he took steps to get the more +serious ones shortly arranged. + +"What _will_ you do, Bertie?" + +"I don't know that anything but jumping into the Lachine Rapids would +solve the difficulty," returned he, lightly; "and even that must be +deferred till the river is open." + +"How much is it?" impatiently. + +"I dare say six hundred might soothe the chief's sense of propriety, and +give one a little breathing-time. But I can't get that, so the smash must +come a little sooner than it otherwise would." + +"You tell me that, and tie my hands by refusing to let me help you. +Bertie, if you could just hold on till August, when I might draw any +cheques I pleased--" + +"You dearest little angel!" interrupted Du Meresq, warmly; "what have I +done that you should be so kind to me? But all women are alike--generous +and true-hearted when a fellow is down in the world; and--" + +"Then you promise? You will count on the money?" said Cecil, not much +flattered at being supposed only to act up to the inevitable instincts +of her sex. + +"Good heavens, Cecil! no; I am not such an unprincipled brute as to rob +you of a penny. Under no possible circumstances could I touch--" + +"Under _no possible_ circumstances?" leapt out before she could restrain +her speech. Had the meaning escaped him, the eloquent blood which rushed +over neck and brow must have betrayed it completely. + +Bertie, who had been speaking without motive, was taken by surprise as +the sense of her impulsive words flashed on his brain. + +"My darling Cecil!" + +Cecil, the colour of a carnation, and expiring with embarrassment, raised +her eyes, and encountered his fixed on her with a fond, sad, but _not_ +responsive expression. If shame could kill, she had received her _coup de +grace_ that moment. He had understood, and yet said nothing. + +The most rapturous gratitude on his part would hardly have reconciled +her to herself; not to be met half-way was ignominious rejection. + +It had all been the work of one moment, and relief came in the next with +the entrance of Colonel Rolleston. Cecil, feeling as if delivered from a +spell, got out of the room, and entrenched herself in her own, where her +thoughts became almost unendurable. + +In horror at what she had done, her first wish was never to see Bertie +again. Every particle of pleasure in his society must now be over since +that one mad, unguarded sentence. + +"I might have known," thought she, bitterly, "that that false, +caressing manner of his never meant anything. I have seen it with a dozen +girls--even Bluebell,"--here she winced; "and yet in the face of all +probability I must needs believe myself more to him than any one, because +it suits him to make me the receptacle of his worries. Well, he is +disinterested, at any rate, since all my money has no more attractions +for him than myself." + +A stormy hour did poor Cecil pass with her wounded pride, when she was +interrupted by Lola, the Mercury of the establishment, who came to tell +her that "dinner would be an hour earlier, because Bertie was going +away." + +Cecil received the intelligence very shortly, and nipped in the bud her +evident intention of lingering by declaring herself "busy," which that +astute young person, seeing no signs of employment, interpreted as +"cross." + +"I must face it," thought she, as the last peal of the gong jarred on her +nerves. She descended just in time to see Colonel and Mrs. Rolleston +disappear into the dining-room. Du Meresq, who had waited, eagerly placed +her hand under his arm, and drew her back a moment. + +"Cecil, where have you been hiding all this afternoon?" + +I suppose he had the key to the answer, for the changing hues of her +complexion, in which pride struggled with confusion, was the only one he +got. + +"You utter little goose!" said Bertie, emphatically, crushing the hand +under his arm as they entered the dining-room. Curious to relate, Cecil +scarcely felt so ashamed as she had an hour ago. Not a chance would she +give him, though, of speaking a syllable in private; and very soon after +dinner he departed, taking leave of Cecil before all the rest, with no +more distinguishing mark of affection than a long hand-clasp, which +seemed as if it would never unlock. + +"Only his odious flirting manner!" said Cecil to herself; but she did not +think so, and felt a good deal less self-contempt than she had before. + +Next day, when Mrs. Rolleston announced Bluebell's expected return, Cecil +felt quite in charity with her, and resolved to make things pleasanter +than they had been, though this relenting mood was nearly dissipated by +her unconscious rival presuming to look miserable at the tidings of Du +Meresq's departure. + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + +AN ENIGMATICAL LETTER. + + 'Tis Spring, bright Spring, and bluebirds sing. + + I was monarch supreme in my cloudland. + I was master of fate in that proud land; + I would not endure + That a grief without cure, + A love that could end, + Or a false hearted friend, + Should dwell for an instant in cloudland. + --Mackay. + + +Nothing but rain, pouring rain, for the next few days, washing the walls +of snow down the unmetaled streets, a very slough of despond to all +beasts of burden. Once more the sight of green grass relieved the eye, +weary of the one monotonous hue it had rested on for weeks, and still it +rained as if determined not to stop till it had fulfilled its mission, +and dissolved every sooty patch that in chilly spots still obstinately +lingered. + +At last the clouds parted, the sun came out, and Cecil, regardless of +mud, and impatient of long confinement, started off for a gallop on +"Wings." + +On her way she met the Post-office orderly with letters, who stopped and +gave her one. It isn't such a very easy thing to read your correspondence +on horseback, with the wind catching the sheets, and the sun shining +through the paper, mixing the writing on the other side with the one you +are reading. Still less feasible is it in a crowded street; so, though +Cecil at once recognised the handwriting of Du Meresq, it had to be +consigned to the saddle-pocket till the traffic was threaded, and she had +entered on a quiet corduroy road by the lake. Then she opened it with a +flattering feeling of expectation, and was half-disappointed at its calm +commencement. + +Bertie, with his usual dependence on her sympathy, began by telling her +that he had been able to make a temporary arrangement, which had squared +things for the present. "But," he continued, "the evil day must be no +longer deferred. I will try and find out every shilling I owe. It will be +more than I expect, I dare say, yet my commission ought to cover it, and, +altogether, I shall probably save enough out of the fire to be a small +capitalist in Australia. Much as I hate it, I must cut the service, for +if my debts were paid to-morrow I should have just as many in two years. +Dearest Cecil, I know you do not exactly hate me; I wish I were more +worthy of the affection of such a dear, true-hearted girl. Will you trust +me, Cecil, and believe in me a little longer, even if I say no more at +present? I don't think your father likes me; I wish now he did. Let me +see your dear handwriting soon. I believe you have more head than any +girl I know, and more heart, too; and no one can appreciate your sense +and affection more than yours, ever devotedly, + +"A. Du MERESQ." + +Cecil rode thoughtfully on, as she turned the letter over in her mind, +trying to penetrate Bertie's meaning. + +"Why does he not speak out more plainly?" thought she. "He will never be +any richer unless he marries me, so it is useless waiting for that. I +will not, any how, be in too great a hurry to understand him this time. +If his debts are paid, and he leaves the army soon, he must say more--or +nothing." And at that chance Cecil turned rather pale, and giving Wings +his head, who had been fretting some time, started off at a good +refreshing galop. They were on the race course now, and, excited by the +turf, he gave her quite enough to do to hold him. + +"What fun station-life must be," thought she. "Always riding in a wild, +strange country,--birds, animals, plants, scenery, and ideas, all +different and unhackneyed. Canada is well enough, but it mimics England +too much, and is fifty years behind it." Before she got home, she had +composed a clear-headed and sympathetic, but not at all lover-like, +letter to Bertie, who was disappointed at the tone of it; and--"as the +nymph flies, the swain pursues"--he wrote a much more affectionate one +back, and then Cecil suffered her thoughts to take a more decided shape, +and they dwelt especially on a "lodge in some vast wilderness" of her +colonial paradise,--picturesque, but not luxurious--an exquisite climate, +and Bertie combining the life of a happy hunter and enterprising +colonist, returning to sup on a kangaroo steak, and to wake up to another +day of movement and adventure. + +Cecil passed a great deal of her time in this ideal log-house, sometimes +garrisoning and defending it, during Bertie's absence, against a war +party of savages, for danger was by no means excluded from her scheme of +felicity, except perhaps one, like St. Senaun's isle, her-- + + "Sacred sod, + Should ne'er by Woman's feet be trod." + +In such dreams and the companionship of Bluebell, who gave no further +offence, now that she had learnt self-command and the necessity of +keeping her feelings to herself, the spring advanced apace, and the first +bluebird, alighting on the garden rails, was descried with a shriek of +ecstacy by Lola. + +The children, who unlike their elders, had had no gaieties, or sleighing +and skating parties, to wile away the rigours of the snow king's reign, +were emancipated from dulness by the approach of summer. Their lessons +could be carried on in the garden; and, one day, Lola, who had shut her +eyes while repeating to herself an irregular verb, saw, on opening them, +a jewelled humming-bird balancing itself in the air on a level with her +hat, and apparently inspecting that head-dress with wonder and curiosity, +after which it flashed off and dived into a flower. + +The garden was alive with fairy wonders; wild canaries came to it--pure +saffron, except their black-flecked wings,--the soldier-bird, so bold and +scarlet,--robins were a drug in the market, and only tolerated for their +tameness and vocal powers. But none could weary of the bluebirds, whose +azure took so vivid a hue in flight, from the sun shining through their +wings. + +Then there were excursions to the Humber woods in search of wild flowers, +all new, rare, and delicate,--too much so to bear the pressure of eager +hands, for they seldom survived the transit home. Often Cecil, Bluebell, +Miss Prosody, and the children drove there in a waggonette, with a +luncheon-basket, and spent the whole day in the golden woods, or rowing +on the Humber river. Cecil's craze at this time was to paddle her own +canoe; and occasionally Lilla Tremaine, who had become pretty intimate +with her, joined the aquatic party. + +The Colonel had rather demurred at first, thinking there was a _soupcon_ +of fastness and independence in it. Visions of possible anglers and +unchaperoned river flirtations disturbed his mind; but eventually he +satisfied himself, by requiring Miss Prosody to be always of the party, +who followed with the children and a boatman in a flat-bottomed tub. + +On one of these occasions they had been pulling about the beautiful bends +of the river. Cecil, paddling her canoe, with a trolling-line out at the +end of it, and Bluebell rowing a boat, while Lilla fished with a very +especial spoon-bait of her own devising. Despite, however, the seductions +of the gaudy red cloth and tassel of long hair from a deer's tail, not a +fish impaled itself on the circle of formidable hooks prepared for its +reception, and the mid-day sun began to dart fiercely on them. + +"All nature speaks of luncheon and repose," cried Lilla, beginning to +wind up her line, after the frequent weed had repeatedly mocked her hopes +with its dull, dead pull. "Let us moor the fleet under this overhanging +fir-tree, Cecil; it makes quite a bower." + +"It feels like thunder, the fish don't bite, and the mosquitoes do," +assented Cecil. "We must signal for the Infantry, though, who are also +the Commissariat." + +Bluebell tied a silk handkerchief to her oar, and waved it wildly. + +"I wonder if that old nuisance enjoys herself," speculated Miss Tremaine, +as Miss Prosody's prim visage appeared in the stern of the other boat. +"So like you English, always carrying your propriety about in the shape +of a foil." + +"Don't abuse our treasure," said Cecil, demurely. "Ask papa what he +thinks of Miss Prosody." + +"I should get a more impartial opinion from Estelle and Fleda, who are +always being kept in and bullied." + +"Well, I really think the other children are enough for to-day," said +Cecil. "What a fuss Freddy made to get after Bluebell into that tituppy +little boat of yours." + +"Yes, and you would all have been beseeching him not to till now, if I +had not taken him by the scruff of the neck and dropped him into the +other!" + +"Well, dear," said Cecil, languidly; "we don't all possess your strength +of mind and biceps. What have you got there, Lola?" as the boatman deftly +shot the other boat under the overhanging branches. + +"Water-lily leaves for plates! See now stiff and shining they are, and +washed up so clean." + +"Then, I suppose we must not use these wooden ones, my fanciful fairy?" + +"Don't be so foolish, Lola!" snapped in Miss Prosody. "You'll spoil your +frock; throw them away!" + +"We can put them over the platters," said Cecil. "Hand out the edibles, +Bluebell. What have you got?" + +"Here's a pie, a cake, a tart, croquettes; no knives, about a pound of +salt, and some butter in the last stage of dissolution." + +"No knives!" cried Miss Prosody. "There must be!" plunging desperately +into the basket. + +"That is more untidy than a lily-leaf plate," remarked Lilla. + +"No, positively not," said the governess. "How very remiss of Bowers, +particularly as I observe he has provided forks!" + +The children looked disappointed. They had been reckoning on the +phenomenon of Miss Prosody, subjugated by hunger, eating pie with her +fingers. + +"Here be a knife!" said the boatman, wiping on his trousers the blade of +his clasp-knife. + +"Let as put a polish on," said Lilla, laughing at Cecil's face; and, +jumping on to the bank, thrust it several times into the earth. The +children, tired of their cramped position in the boat, wished to dine on +shore; but it was thickly wooded, and there was no clear space; so Freddy +was wedged into a fork of the tree, and Lola swung on another bough, +where they chattered like two pies, handing down a basket on a string +when they required fresh supplies. + +Cecil lay on the bear-skin in her canoe, with her hat over her face, +declaring it too hot to eat, but consuming, under protest, a croquette +occasionally tossed in for her sustenance. Miss Prosody, quite genial and +urbane after luncheon, was deep in consultation with the boatman as to +the locality of certain ferns she proposed spudding up for her pet +rockery at "The Maples," where her lighter hours were diurnally spent in +washing and tending her spoils. + +"I suppose this is all very sylvan and jolly," said Lilla, handing the +remnants of the refection to the boatman; "yet somehow, candidly, it's +slow." + +"Possibly," said Cecil, "it is the absence of the other sex that makes +you find it so?" + +"Perhaps," said Lilla, frankly, with furtive enjoyment of Miss Prosody's +stiffening face. "Well, ladies, I should like my little smoke; can I +offer anybody one? You will find them very mild,"--and she drew forth a +neat case of Latakia cigarettes, selected one, and, striking a match on +the heel of her boot, lit it. + +"Of course, if you choose to be so unlady-like, we cannot prevent you," +said the governess, icily. + +"Dear me!" said Lilla, innocently, "I never dreamt of your objecting; for +I have heard you tell Colonel Rolleston, when he has been smoking, how +fond you were of it in the open air." + +"Colonel Rolleston would most decidedly disapprove of _your_ doing it." + +"He does, I believe, of most of my actions; but he is very kind to me all +the same. Look at this wretch of a mosquito actually stinging through my +glove. I'll just touch him up with the red ash of my cigar." + +Miss Prosody knew of old that Lilla was incorrigible, and, having no +hope of support from Cecil in any attempt to snub her, resolved to +discountenance the proceeding by going away, and summoned the children +from their tree, who were quite ready for a fresh start. The girls +declared it was too hot to move. Lilla continued to puff away lazily, the +zest rather gone now there was nobody to be shocked at it. Bluebell, +mingling her voice with the birds, was singing the "Danube River," +while Cecil, with shut eyes, lay in her canoe, and gave herself up to the +dreamy music, till, aroused by its sudden cessation, she looked up, and +saw a boat half checked in its speed, and Major Fane and Jack Vavasour +doffing their billy-cock hats. + +Cecil's return bow was freezing, and Major Fane, who had rested +irresolutely a moment on his oars, shot the boat on with vigorous pulls. +She felt half penitent as she saw his discomfited face, but her coldness +arose from having become alive to a possible danger. + +Colonel Rolleston had lately very frequently asked him to dinner, even +when there was no one else, and he always fell to her share to entertain. +Now Major Fane was a very good match in every way,--quite what parents +and guardians would approve; so, thought Cecil,--"I can't have any +mistakes about that, or it will only settle papa against Bertie." + +"Did you summon those two from this vasty deep, Lilla?" cried she. "But, +I forgot; I don't think either of them sail under your flag." + +"My colours are too rakish and privateerish for Major Fane; and as for +Jack, I am afraid he has the bad taste to prefer Bluebells to Lilies." + +"If you think him worth your acceptance," said Bluebell "I will make you +a present of him." + +"He may be yours to keep, my dear, but not to give away. At present I am +not 'on for matrimony,' and, to flirt with, I don't know any one better +fun than Bertie Du Meresq." + +The other girls were both too conscious to reply to this audacious +remark, and after awhile they resumed fishing, Lilla's gaudy bait still +unsuccessful, though Cecil had landed one or two pike. Bluebell grew +tired of rowing steadily to keep her companion's line extended, and +persuaded her to wind it up; then Lilla took the sculls, and they fell +into conversation. + +"Were you at that tobogganing party where Captain Du Meresq hurt his +ankle?" asked Bluebell, diligently examining the corolla of a water-lily. + +"Why?" was the counter inquiry. + +"Because I never heard how it happened." + +"How was that?" said Lilla, launching into narrative. At the close of it +she said,--"Cecil pulled him through that time. I shouldn't have thought +nursing much in her line; but she was very hard hit, you know, and I +rather wondered Bertie didn't propose before he left so suddenly. Very +likely he did though." + +Bluebell's eyes opened in horror at this unpalatable suggestion. "What +_are_ you dreaming of, Lilla?" gasped she. "Cecil! why she looks upon him +as an uncle or something." + +"Oh, Bluebell, you blind little bat, it would be as well if you looked +upon him 'as an uncle or something.'" + +But the other sat aghast and speechless. Lily glanced at her +sympathetically. + +"Well, perhaps he mayn't care for Cecil. He has been talking nonsense to +you, too, I see, as he has to us all three, for that matter. I feel so +angry about it, I have a great mind to tell you all he said to _me_." + +"I don't want to hear," said her companion, coldly; "nor do I at all +agree with you about Cecil" + +"All right," returned the other. "Only remember he can't afford to marry, +whatever he may have pretended to you--not but what that subject is about +the last it ever occurs to him to enter upon." + +Bluebell at first utterly refused to receive this intolerable suggestion +into her mind. Lilla must be inventing--in love with him herself, and +trying to make mischief. Nothing should induce her to believe it. How +irritating she was, too, with that knowing, quizzing expression in her +face! + +So when Cecil, tired of solitude, proposed coming into their boat, +Bluebell eagerly took possession of the canoe, and went off on an +independent paddle, ostensibly to look for Miss Prosody. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + +DETECTED. + + His passion is not, he declares, the mere fever + Of a rapturous moment. It knows no control; + It will burn in his breast thro' existence for ever, + Immutably fixed in the deeps of the soul. + --The Wanderer. + + +"Why did you shoot on so quick, Major?" said Vavasour, in an injured +tone, after the dumb scene before referred to. "We might as well have +stayed and discoursed those young women." + +Fane growled something about not choosing to intrude. + +"I don't suppose they would have minded. That spicy little party, Lily +Tremaine, was smoking. I wonder who finds her in cigars?" + +"I hate Canadian girls!" said Fane. "And when they pretend to be fast +they are more unbearable still." + +"Oh, come," said Jack, warmly, for was not Bluebell of that maligned +nationality? "they must have used you badly, Major. They are far more +unaffected and natural than English girls, who always ride to orders; and +as for beauty--" + +"You have only got to look at Bluebell Leigh. Well, slope back to them, +Jack. You shan't have the boat, because I should never get it again. But +if you like to plough through that long grass to their bivouac, I daresay +the mosquitoes will receive you warmly if the young ladies don't." + +In the meantime, Bluebell, tempted by a shady creek, abandoned her canoe, +and, flinging herself down on a bed of wild flowers, remained a prey to +the consideration of this new view of Lilla's, which would account, in +the most unwelcome manner, for the inconsistency of Du Meresq's conduct +with his professions. + +Cecil a rival! Much as she wished to disbelieve it, corroborative +evidence, unheeded at the time, now recurred with such startling +distinctness that she marvelled at her own previous blindness. Still, +Bluebell was not cured. That he cared most for herself she continued to +believe, though Cecil's fortune might have tempted him away. Plan after +plan for obtaining an explanation was discarded as unfeasible; and, at +last, Bluebell, in despair, hid her face in her hands, and burst into the +unrestrained grief of the young. + +She was disturbed by a slight rustling in the bushes, and, looking up, +beheld Jack Vavasour in an attitude of confusion and consternation, +apparently meditating flight. + +"I beg your pardon, Miss Leigh; I was going away before you saw me. I'll +go at once. My darling Bluebell, what _is_ the matter?" + +"I don't know," said she, relieved to see it was "only Jack." "I am very +hot and--miserable." + +Vavasour sat down, and tried in his honest and unsophisticated way to +console her. "Was there any one he could pitch into for her? He would do +anything she wished, etc., if she would only say what was vexing her." + +Bluebell could hardly help laughing, but was so unaccustomed of late to +sympathy, that she felt half tempted to take him into council, and +confide her misplaced attachment and perplexities. + +It was rather heartless, knowing his sentiments; but callousness to the +pangs of a lightly won and unvalued heart is not uncommon in Love's +annals. + +However, he was too precipitate for her. + +"Bluebell," he began, blushing rather, and looking, as she thought, +almost handsome in his eagerness, "do you remember what I said to you the +other night when we were looking at the Northern Lights?" + +"I remember some absurd chaff." + +"It wasn't," said Jack, with emphasis suited to the solemnity of the +declaration. "I meant every word of it; and now I say, like the Beast in +the fairy tale--'Beauty, will you marry me?'" + +"And she always said,--'No, Beast,'" said Bluebell, laughing; "and then +he went away, 'very sorrowful.'" + +"Yes, but that's the difference. I shan't go away, or let you, till you +say 'Yes.'" + +"I couldn't, really," said she, treating it as a joke. "So we shall be +starved to death, and covered up by birds, like the babes in the wood." + +"No; we will live happy ever afterwards," passing an arm round her waist +with an air of proprietorship. "Shall I tell Colonel Rolleston to-night?" + +"Oh, this is too serious," cried Bluebell, energetically freeing herself. +"If you really want an answer to such stuff, most decidedly 'No.'" + +Jack, in furious mortification, for he saw she was now thoroughly in +earnest, poured forth reproaches, accusing her of coquetry and purposely +deceiving him, caring not if his words were just or unjust; and +Bluebell's conscience was not altogether guiltless. Perhaps her own +disappointment made her better understand his; for she waited patiently +till the torrent of words had a little subsided, and then, laying her +hand persuasively on his arm, said with gentle archness,-- + +"Don't be angry, Jack. What should we live on? _I_ haven't a penny, _you_ +can't always pay your mess bill, and I am afraid an officer's wife +couldn't go on the strength of the regiment, and take in washing." + +"I didn't think you were so mercenary," said he, looking into her liquid +eyes, that were fast quenching the angry light in his. + +"I suppose I must be," said Bluebell, _naively_; "for I hate poverty so. +You know my father married--just as you want to do--a pretty girl without +a dollar to her name." + +"You are pretty, my darling, and you know it," said Jack, bitterly. + +"I don't know why people care for me if I am not, for I'm afraid there +isn't much in me; and at the age of seventeen one may at least lay claim +to _la beaute du diable_. Well, as I was going to say, my father married +just as imprudently, and got disinherited for his pains." + +"No fear of that with me," said Jack. "I am number seven, and they have +all good constitutions. Destiny has decreed that I must live by my wits, +without even providing me with any." + +"So you see," continued she, "as we have neither money nor brains, it is +no use thinking of it!" + +"You are wise in your generation," said Jack, darkly. "You are pretty +enough to get a rich husband any day; but whoever it is, for Heaven's +sake, don't let it be Du Meresq!" + +Bluebell's fair brow contracted, and her dark lashes swept her cheek, as +she said, in a low, pained voice,--"No fear of that." + +"I trust not," said Jack, severely, and quite unconvinced. "You are but a +child, Bluebell; and, though you won't take me, I shall watch over you, +and see that you do not throw yourself away; though if any good fellow +wants you, I suppose I must grin and bear it." + +"Thanks, my stern guardian. I hope you won't die of old age in the mean +time. And now, do go, dear Jack. I must paddle after the others." + +"Say good-bye first. May I, Bluebell? Only this once,"--and, without +waiting for consent, he imprinted a kiss, grave as an officiating +priest's to a new made bride. Touched by his love and resignation she +voluntarily returned it, and, turning away, encountered the two +mischievous eyes of Miss Tremaine in the stern of her boat, which had +glided up unobserved. + +I suppose there is no dereliction from the Eleventh Commandment, in which +people would more joyfully welcome an earthquake than being taken at a +similar disadvantage. No explanation or extenuating circumstances can be +attempted in that deep confusion. + +Lilla raised her eyes to heaven with a most edifying expression of pious +horror, and shook her head disapprovingly. + +"Jack," muttered Bluebell, in a tone of concentrated anguish, "I shall +die of it!" + +Vavasour suppressed an expletive more forcible than parliamentary, and +strode down to pull the boat in. + +"Oh, here you are," cried Cecil, innocent of the foregoing pantomime, for +she was rowing, and had her back to them. "Mr. Vavasour, where do you +spring from?" She noted, as she spoke, his strange expression and +Bluebell's heightened colour with quickening curiosity and pleasure. + +"I left Fane further down the river," said he; "and Miss Leigh and I sat +listening to the--bull-frogs." Here Jack cast a look half-imploring, +half-furious, at Lilla, who had assumed a most Quakerish expression, and +hummed the air, "A frog he would a wooing go." + +"Well, get in Bluebell," said Cecil, smiling; "we are going home now. +Come and see us soon, Mr. Vavasour." + +Jack liked Cecil very much; but he only bowed gloomily, and placing +Bluebell in her canoe, disappeared, as might be inferred, to Fane; though +afterwards that gentleman bitterly complained that he had, on returning +home,--after waiting, to his great inconvenience, an hour or more, +anathematizing Jack,--found that he had walked back to barracks totally +oblivious of his companion. + +Bluebell's return drive was far from a peaceful one. Lilla, it is true, +abstained from remarks before the children; but there was no escaping her +provokingly wicked glances, which argued ill for her future discretion. + +Cecil, on the contrary, was unusually suave and considerate to Bluebell, +and had rather the air of shielding her from Lilla; which would have been +less incomprehensible had she known that in the interval of disembarking +and entering the waggonette, Cecil had been made a participator in that +malicious damsel's discovery. + +At bed-time, Miss Rolleston, contrary to her wont, entered Bluebell's +room, hair-brush in hand, as if disposed for a cozy confab. But that +employment, so provocative of feminine disclosures, appeared futile this +night, and the raven and chestnut coils were brushed to the sheen of a +bird's wing ere Cecil had discovered what she had come for. + +At last, under cover of lighting her candle, she said, with a disarming +smile,--"You are very reserved, Bluebell. May I guess what Lubin said to +you in the Humber, to-day?" + +"I dare say you can," said the other, simply. "He will forget all about +it soon, I trust." + +"Do you mean you gave him no hope?" a suspicion of Lilla's veracity +mingling with her disappointment. + +"Certainly not," with great energy. + +"But why?" asked Cecil, with asperity. + +Bluebell turned her melancholy eyes full upon her, and the two rivals +gazed steadily at each other. Then Cecil's head was impatiently flung +back, her level eyebrows went down, and, without further remark, she +rose and left the room. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + +DID YOU PROPOSE THEN? + + A lover came riding by a while; + A wealthy lover was he, whose smile + Some maids would value greatly. + --More Bad Ballads. + + +The summer had not been a very gay one. The heat was so intense as to +throw languour on the garden and croquet-parties, which replaced the +winter balls and sleigh drives. Thunder was in the air, and growled and +muttered around; but the joyfully-hailed clouds floated away without +affording a drop of rain; or if one black flying monster poured itself +like a water-spout on the parched city, laying the flowers with its +violence, the thirsty earth licked it up, scarce leaving a trace. Summer +lightning quaked in long sheets over the horizon; the geese were lying +dead on the common from drought; and the restless night was haunted by +the tramp of straying horses on the wooden side-walks. + +"Round trips" were advertised in all the papers, and brackish +bathing-places on the St. Lawrence were already crowded. The Saguenay and +Marguerite rivers had carried off their fishing votaries, the black fly +worked its wicked will at Tadousac, where the "property" whale of +the ---- hotel had already been seen spouting, according to the waiter, +as he attended at the matitudinal _table-d'hote_. At any rate, seals +might be seen with the naked eye, and shot, too, by a wary seal-slayer in +a boat. Two such trophies were already in the hotel, affording unlimited +excitement to the visitors, who, indeed, were somewhat in need of +extraneous amusement, for the only resource the place could boast was +pulling a boat against the strong tide of the two rivers meeting, with +the alternative of a garment-rending scramble in the woods, a prey to the +nipping fly, and coming sometimes in undesired proximity to a wild cat. + +Twice a week the Quebec boats, with Saguenay trippers, chiefly Americans, +halted at the hotel for an hour or two, and turned in their freight, who +invariably commenced dancing to the more amiable than tuneful strains of +an amateur performer in the public drawing-room. + +This pleasure was partaken of quite as "sadly" as if they were our own +unfrisky compatriots; but it passed the time, and the males still further +diversified it by "smiling" at the bar. + +The Rollestons, vacillating between Tadousac, the Falls, a trip in the +"Algoma," and a journey to Boston, their large party being an objection +to each and all, were finally attracted by an advertisement of a +fishing-lodge to be let or sold on Rice Lake. + +This would be a _pied a terre_ for disposing of the impedimenta of the +family--governess and children--during the hot months, leaving the others +at liberty for flying excursions. The price was so ridiculous that +Colonel Rolleston bought it outright, jestingly saying to Lola that it +should be her marriage portion. + +There had been a croquet party at "The Maples," but nearly every one was +gone except two or three who were remaining for dinner. Among these, with +a movement of vexation, Cecil observed Major Fane, her father's +persistent encouragement of whom began to cause her serious uneasiness. +Why, this was the second time within four days he had been asked to dine! +"Can he possibly have spoken to papa first?" thought she. "It is just the +sort of matter-of-fact thing he would do." Revolving it over, she walked +slowly towards her step-mother, who was revelling in a packet of English +letters just received, and began reading out portions to Cecil, who +listened absently at first, till a passage in one of them, from +circumstances, arrested her attention. + +It was from a cousin of Mrs. Rolleston's, and chiefly related to her +only daughter, who was heiress to a considerable property. This child +had always been backward and excitable, and apparently incapable of the +fatigue of study. The letter went on to say that Evelyn was developing +a passion for music, even attempting to compose, and that the writer +desired to find a good musician to reside with them, who should be also +young and cheerful, and likely to tempt her on in other branches of +education as well. + +"Mrs. Leighton is exactly describing Bluebell," said Cecil, quietly. + +"Oh! and she would suit them so perfectly. I _wonder_ if it would do! +Bluebell will be crazy with delight, she has such a wish to see England; +but I doubt if her mother would part with her to such a distance." + +Cecil despised herself for saying,--"If you were to put it very strongly +to Mrs. Leigh, and show her the advantages to her daughter,--for they are +rich as Croesus, and would pay anything for a fancy,--surely she would +not stand in her way." + +Mrs. Rolleston was meditating, and answered, rather inconsequently,--"I +feel greatly interested in Bluebell. I think she is very conscientious +and right-minded. Mr. Vavasour never comes here now; and I am sure she +has never encouraged him since I gave her a hint on the subject." + +Cecil remembered the scene in the Humber, and Bluebell's +suggestively-conscious face that evening, so did not rate so highly the +heroism of her friend. But the stragglers now drew round them, and they +went in to prepare for dinner. + +Cecil had also kept Lilla Tremaine, for latterly she had shrunk from a +_tete-a-tete_ with Bluebell, who, sensible of their estrangement, yet +sadly acquiesced in it, as her new-born suspicions had been strengthened +by seeing Cecil receive a letter in Bertie's handwriting. + +Lilla, who could not forget the _tableau vivant_ she had witnessed, was +continually persecuting her hapless victim with inuendoes and allusions, +whose anger and powerlessness to exculpate herself gave an additional +zest to the amusement. Therefore, finding this young lady was to remain +the evening, Bluebell took refuge in the school-room tea, and did not +appear at dinner. + +Conversation fell on the new purchase, and their approaching departure +for Rice Lake; and, observing this did not appear to have a very +exhilarating effect on the Major, Colonel Rolleston continued,--"When +will you come down and see us, Fane? We shall get very tired of our +recluse life, and want some one to bring us the news." + +The Major's face brightened, but, stealing a glance at Cecil's, which +only expressed consternation, it was speedily overcast, and he returned +an evasive answer. Looking gloomily for the relief he expected to discern +in her countenance, he received a swift glance of gratitude, which +uncomplimentary graciousness completed his discomfiture. + +Soon after dinner some garrison duty summoned away Colonel Rolleston, +and the others returned to the garden, where daylight struggled with the +newly-risen moon. A soft breeze came up from the lake, reviving after +the glaring day. Cecil was _distraite_ and silent, so Lilla's vivacious +tongue attracted around her the gentlemen of the group, and, without +any effort of his, Major Fane found himself somewhat apart with Miss +Rolleston. + +Though heart-whole when we first introduced him, he was now really in +love with Cecil,--that is to say, he approved of and wished to marry her. + +As an eligible, many determined efforts had been made for his capture, +and the absence of any desire on her part to attract him gave first the +feeling of security which soon led to a stronger one. If not pretty, she +was graceful, especially so just now, he thought, in that unconscious, +reflective attitude. + +Fane became nervous: it wasn't often he got the chance of being alone +with her, and she might immediately rejoin the others; but just then +Cecil, coming out of her reverie, looked up, and said,--"Don't you want +to smoke? Not here, but come over to the summer-house where the children +do their lessons." + +This proposal from the reserved Cecil, who had lately been so +conspicuously repellent? He thought the change too good so be believed, +and, without another asking, accompanied her to the arbour; but she +insisted on the ostensible motive of their going there being carried out. + +"Do you think, Cecil," said he, darting on his opportunity, "I want +anything else when I am alone with you?" + +Fane had, as he thought, broken the ice; but the next instant he was +uncertain if she had heard or understood. A moonbeam showed him her +face,--it was very pale with a look of determination on it, and her eyes +were bright and steady. + +"Yes," said she, after a pause, "I am glad we are alone. Major Fane, I +have known you such a long time, I want to ask a favour of you, and tell +you a secret." + +The most confident lover might have found something ominous in these +words. Fane felt as if he had made a false step; but he answered, +stiffly, perhaps,--"You must have known me to very little purpose, Miss +Rolleston, if you are not assured how gladly I would help or be of use to +you in any way." + +"Don't think me mad," cried the girl, impulsively; "but could you stay +away--I mean, not come here quite so often." + +Fane was too much astonished to speak, and Cecil plunged desperately +on. "You have been so kind to me," she faltered, "I am afraid of its +misleading papa, and his thinking that you have wishes and intentions--" + +"That I might wish to marry you, Cecil? Is that the misconception you are +afraid of?" + +"Pray don't imagine _I_ think so, but _he_, might; and, oh! Major Fane, +I care most deeply for some one whom I know would not be acceptable to +papa. You, on the contrary, would be everything he could wish--don't you +see? the disappointment would make the other all the more objectionable +to him." + +"I do see my unenviable position," said Fane, shortly, for it was bad +enough to be thrown over himself without being expected to be interested +in a rival. "What do you wish me to do, Miss Rolleston?" + +"To forget, if you can, every word I have said," cried Cecil, in an +_acces_ of embarrassment now that she had done it, and the excitement was +over. "What _must_ you think of me!" + +Fane was silent for some time, for he was struggling with mortification. +Fortunately for Cecil, he was a gentleman, or he might have revenged +himself by assuring her she had totally mistaken his intentions. + +"I can't under-value the sacrifice you ask of me," said he, presently. "I +do not blame you, for you have never pretended to spare me any affection +from the lover you are so true to. I hope he is worthy of it." + +A pang seized her, as the doubt whether she was not throwing away true +gold for counterfeit obtruded itself. "We are good enough for each +other," said she, simply, "but, at present, his prospects are so +discouraging, that we are not even engaged." A curious expression passed +over Fane's face. "But I have money enough for both," pursued Cecil, "and +if papa is not dazzled and attracted by more brilliant--by you, in short, +he must see there is sufficient, and, if I remain firm, eventually +consent." + +Her extreme eagerness infected Fane too, and relieved the awkwardness of +her strange appeal. + +"Still afraid of me!" said he, sadly. "My poor child! I fear there is +trouble before you. Will it satisfy you if I get six months' leave, and +go to England? By that time, perhaps, your complications may have +arranged themselves." + +Cecil's dark eyes beamed on him with the most speaking gratitude. "You +_are_ a true friend," cried she, warmly, "but how selfish and exacting of +me to banish you!" + +"Oh, as to that," said he, with a short laugh, "I shall not dislike it. +I should have got away long ago if I had known what I do now." + +Nothing a woman detests so much as friendship from the man she cares for, +and yet she always offers it to the suitor she rejects. + +"I never thought you would care really," said she softly "I hope I have +not lost my friend by putting too much confidence in him." + +"I ought to thank you for your honesty," said he, with a reaction to +bitterness, and they rose and returned to the others, met by many a +significant look and shrug. Fane observed it, and determined to go. He +was in no humour to be watched and commented on as a suitor of Cecil's. +His dog-cart hadn't come, but he lit a cigar, and walked to meet it. "So +that's settled," thought he. "And now the sooner I get out of this horrid +country the better. I wish I hadn't refused a share of that moor; I +should have been just in time for it. Well, she is a nice girl--far too +good for that scamp, Du Meresq. I might have suspected what was going on +there. Poor child! what a life he will lead her if it comes off, but most +likely it won't. It _must_ be Du Meresq; for, though I was evidently +meant by the Colonel, I remember that Madame never seemed especially +pleased to see me." + +How unfeeling women are! Cecil forgot her remorse at Fane's +disappointment in exultation at having so successfully removed a serious +obstacle from her path, and her eye sparkled with wicked amusement as she +noticed the marked coldness of Mrs. Rolleston's manner, due to her +supposed flirtation with the Major. + +The Colonel, too, who returned shortly afterwards, glanced round and +inquired for Fane. + +"Gone, I think," said Cecil, innocently; and he also threw upon her a +look of gloom and reproach. No engaged young lady could be gayer than +Cecil the rest of the evening. She became the life of the party, would +keep everybody as late as possible: and certainly more than one shared +the opinion of Mrs. Rolleston, whom her daughter mischievously tried to +confirm in it, that the arbour had been the scene of a proposal and +acceptance. + +As the elder lady was slowly undressing that night, Cecil, still with the +same provoking brightness on her face, peeped in. + +"Are you sleepy, mamma?" + +There was something in her manner that brought Mrs. Rolleston's +annoyance to the culminating point. She thought the faithless damsel had +come to announce her engagement, and demand sympathy and congratulations. +So, with a view to arrest any aggressive gush, she said, with some +asperity,--"I am glad you have come, for I wanted to tell you, Cecil, +how bad it looked your walking off in that way with Major Fane." + +"I suppose it was rather strong," said the girl coolly; "but I like him +so much. I had no idea he was so nice." + +Mrs. Rolleston took refuge in the ill-assumed dignity of rising anger. + +"I suppose, mamma, he is very well off? Papa often wonders that he goes +soldiering on." + +"Really, Cecil, whatever your speculations may be, it was not a delicate +act, sitting apart with him for half-an-hour in a dark arbour." + +"I thought he might propose,"--Mrs. Rolleston's face expressed, "Are you +mad?"--"or give me a chance somehow of saying what I wanted to. And +what's more," she continued, "I am not certain whether he meant to, or +not. To be sure, I didn't give him much time." + +"Did _you_, propose, then? Cecil, if you don't wish me to disbelieve my +own senses, tell me at once what you were about in the summer-house." + +"Refusing eight thousand a year," was the short reply. + +A puzzled, not unpleased expression, was dawning. "I thought you said he +did not propose?" + +"Well, no; honestly, he didn't. We had a little conversation, and the +upshot was, he has promised to go to England for six months." + +Mrs. Rolleston was not a proud woman, and the relief was so great, that +she folded Cecil in a silent embrace. + +"Perhaps, mamma," continued the girl, demurely, "you won't think it +necessary to mention this to papa. It wouldn't be fair to betray Major +Fane!" + +Mrs. Rolleston was only too convinced, and replied, "that she should +consider it Cecil's secret, and say nothing about it." Whereupon the +damsel ran merrily off, humming the air, "I told them they needn't come +wooing to me." But, arrived in her own room, her evanescent high spirits +vanished, and a bitter and clear-sighted mood succeeded. "Bertie," she +thought, "your evil influence is over us all. Mamma, till now the truest +of step-mothers, is only thinking of ensuring you my fortune. I disoblige +papa, send away a true love, hate Bluebell for her too attractive soft +eyes, am harassed by doubts even of you--is it worth it? I might yet +recall Lucian Fane; he is very calm, and would not expect too much. What +folly! No, if I am to be miserable, it must be my own way, with the only +man who interests me heart and soul. I suppose, if we marry, I may reckon +on one year of happiness, though hardly any one who knew Bertie would +expect him to be constant even for that time. But by then I should have +got immense influence, for, though I am not clever and attractive like +him, I have far more will, and, in the long run, it is character more +than talent that shapes our life. If Bluebell would only go to England!" + +Then she detached from the wall and began to pack up a little possession +that always travelled with her. It was only an old print of a cavalier, +and no one but Cecil had observed that a twin soul to Bertie's looked out +of its dreaming eyes. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + +LYNDON'S LANDING. + + All the fairy crowds + Of islands that together lie + As quietly as spots of sky + Among the evening clouds. + --Unknown. + + +Bluebell had begun to feel herself in a false position. Freddy's lessons +were, of course, a farce; and Cecil now seemed never to care to practise +with her. Miss Prosody, with every hour of the day marked out for herself +and pupils, made sarcastic reflections on her want of occupation; but, +unhappy though she was, she could not make up her mind to leave the +Rollestons, and thus dissever the chief link with Bertie. Besides, she +had heard (a piece of information derived from Fleda) that he was shortly +expected to join them at Rice Lake. Therefore, when Mrs. Rolleston +unfolded the project of sending her to England to cultivate the musical +predilections of Evelyn Leighton, Bluebell showed such repugnance to the +scheme, that Mrs. Rolleston did not press it further; and, though +surprised, being personally indifferent, soon dismissed it from her +thoughts, with an inward comment that girls never knew their own minds +a month together. + +Cecil, however, marvelled at her mother's want of penetration and could +not refrain from increased coolness to Bluebell. + +White horses were curling the broad waters of Ontario, as the huge +river-steamer "St. Michael" was getting up the steam for its run to +Quebec; and, from the crowd on the wharf waiting to embark, it might be +surmised that even the sofas in the saloon would be at a premium for +sleeping berths. The Rollestons were surrounded with acquaintances, +either going themselves or seeing others off, till the bell rang, when +there was a rush to the tug, and the big paddle-wheels got in motion. +The children ran up and down the long, narrow saloon on to the decks at +each end, while Miss Prosody was vainly trying to wrest the key of a +sleeping-berth from the purser, who, the supply not being equal to the +demand, was having rather a hot time of it. + +"Two double cabins," cried Colonel Rolleston, presently; "the rest must +have berths in the ladies' cabin, and trouble enough to secure that. +However, here are the keys. How shall we divide?" + +"Shall Estelle and Lola sleep in the wide lower berth of one cabin, and I +in the upper?" said Cecil. + +"And we must take Freddy, I suppose?" said Mrs. Rolleston; "and Miss +Prosody, Bluebell, and Fleda, go to the ladies' cabin." + +"Oh, Cecil!" cried Lola, as they unlocked their domicile off the saloon, +"what a little--little bed! If you turn, you'll tumble into ours; and how +will you get up? Won't I catch your foot!" + +"No bath!" exclaimed Estelle; "only two small basins! And what a +looking-glass! it makes one squint!" + +"It is better than the ladies' cabin," said Fleda, dolefully, "with the +stewardess sitting there, and two or three sick-looking people, and the +berths all open like the shelves of a bookcase." + +"It is only for one night," said Cecil. "We land at Cobourg to-morrow +afternoon. Look! the waiters are laying the long tables for luncheon, or +dinner I suppose it is. Come out on the deck till it is ready. Oh, dear! +there is not a patch of shade left for us. How they over-crowd these +boats!" + +"There's a gentleman holding his umbrella over Bluebell," said Lola. + +Cecil's eyes opened in some amazement. She would have thought it rather +impertinent in a stranger offering such familiar accommodation, but +Bluebell availed herself of it with the frankest _nonchalance_, and, in +the conversation that ensued, lost her place in the first rush of diners, +who, at the ringing of the bell, instantly occupied every vacant chair. + +"They seem to be having a very good time," observed Fleda, who had picked +up some Americanisms. + +Somewhat aghast at his daughter's precocity, the Colonel stepped out on +the deck, and, with grave dignity, offered Bluebell his arm to conduct +her to his seat, which, quite unconscious of his disapprobation, she +accepted with civil indifference. + +And the young subaltern lit a cigar to console himself for the withdrawal +of the clear blue eyes that looked so deep under the shadow of the +umbrella, and tried to find as much piquancy in the "funny book" he had +recently purchased at the St. Michael's book-stall, while the good ship +went ploughing on, past wooden villages, brown houses picked out with +white, and perhaps here and there a little orange-frocked child giving a +characteristic dash of colour. + +Then, as the sun sank lower, the most gorgeous hues came into the sky. +But, while every one was on deck gazing on its almost tropical vividness, +a film stole between, a shivering dampness pervaded the air, and soon a +dense fog drove the chagrined passengers back into the saloon. + +The captain went to his bridge, and the tea-bell rang soon after. People +were beginning to talk sociably to their neighbours, and a mild hilarity +reigned, when a violent concussion, followed by a sudden cessation of the +paddles, caused a general rush from the table. + +Bluebell, in the act of receiving the second supply of coffee, was +aroused from her immediate bewilderment by a scalding _douche_ down her +neck--the waiter, a young German with heart disease painted on his livid +lips and pasty complexion, having held the coffee-pot suspended +topsy-turvy for an instant, and then fallen in a fit on the floor. + +All the men had crowded on deck, and it soon became known that they had +run into a log raft, which, though no lives were lost had been nearly +swamped, and much injured by the collision. The "St. Michael," too, had +received a bulge, which rendered a little tinkering at the first port +desirable. + +The first alarm of the passengers being lulled, and the panic having +subsided into the excitement of a danger passed, public interest became +concentrated on the young waiter, who still lay in a death like swoon, +till, eventually resuscitated by means of one of the numerous little +brandy-flasks that popped out from sympathetic female bags, he was borne +off by his napkin flapping fraternity to their crystal cave of tumblers. + +Little sleep did Cecil get on her narrow perch that night, for her +sisters, in their dreams, were ever in a sinking ship, or struggling +in the foam-driven rapids. Even her heart beat quicker when the +paddle-wheels suddenly ceased, and ominous voices, indistinctly heard, +appeared in agonized consultation. A familiar sound of knocking and +hammering, however, suggested that they must have put into port for the +repairs determined on; and, grasping her scanty complement of bed-clothes +that were slipping to the floor, Cecil conveyed the re-assuring +intelligence to her sisters, and they composed themselves to sleep at +last. + +Another day's progress down the beautiful river,--narrow enough at +intervals to see both shores, the Stars and Stripes in American villages, +as well as the Union Jack in those of the "Dominion," as it is now +called,--and then they entered among the thousand islands of the great +St. Lawrence. + +Everybody was on deck watching their changing shapes, some apparently all +rock, and others a bower of greenery, and admiring the skilful steering +of the large vessel among them. Soon after noon the first rapid was shot, +a bubbling, seething whirlpool, with clouds of white foam beaten up by +the jagged teeth of the sunken rocks. + +Winding in and out among the islands till late in the afternoon, they +reached their port, and repaired to the hotel, to pursue the rest of +their journey by land. + +A ricketty waggon--not an English hay-cart, but a spidery trap, with high +wheels, so called--and a dilapidated buggy were placed at their disposal. +Two children and the old nurse remained to follow in the coach, and the +advance guard started, after an anxious consultation as to whether the +wheel of the buggy could be trusted to revolve the twelve miles without +dislocation. + +The corduroy roads were in their usual inefficient state,--whole planks +had disappeared in places, and were loose in others,--so locomotion +became a series of jolts and bumps. The drivers wished to save two miles +by crossing a river, and spoke confidently of a bridge, which, on +arriving at, proved to be only some pieces of timber cast wholesale into +it, some of them negligently nailed together. + +Mrs. Rolleston, who was not of an adventurous nature, though much +advanced in that direction since her residence in Canada, wished to +return, and go round; but four miles lost was too serious a +consideration; so she shut her eyes, clutched her husband, and prayed +audibly, as the driver, with a screech of encouragement to his cattle, +after a few struggles and flounders, landed the waggon on the opposite +side. + +But Miss Prosody declared that the wheel of the buggy would certainly be +torn off in the attempt, and, losing her usual prudery in terror, whipped +off her stockings, and proceeded to wade, to the exposure of a very +attenuated pair of calves. + +Freddy and Lola hung upon Cecil, powerless with laughter, comparing her +to the thin-legged aquatic birds in the Zoo; but the Colonel, with rather +a suspicious guffaw, rushed to her aid, relieving her from her hose, and, +as she afterwards recollected in deep confusion, a pair of knitted +garters. + +The buggy bumped over somehow, and they got _en route_ again, the road +winding through woods golden in the setting sun. Occasionally a raccoon, +playing about the trunks of trees, beguiled the loneliness of the way; or +a strange bird, with harsh note, but gay plumage, flashed across their +track. Colonel Rolleston, however, was not so much entranced as his +children at discovering that the road stopped at the hotel on the lake, +not coming within half-a-mile of his new property, and that they must +embark and cross over in boats to Lyndon's Landing, as it was called, +after the former occupants. + +The evening was calm, and the sunset dyed their sail redly as it +floated the barque lazily across the slumbering lake to their port at +the bottom of a sloping lawn. The path, winding up hill, led them to a +sylvan-looking lodge, where, instead of a bell, hung a hunting-horn. + +Cecil executed a sonorous blast, but dropped it hastily, it being +answered almost simultaneously by an ancient menial left in charge. Their +own servants were coming on by coach, and they were much comforted by +perceiving that this provident person had prepared a substantial repast, +combining supper and tea, in a small, snug room. + +The young people rushed about on a tour of inspection, and found plenty +to satisfy their curiosity. The hall, to begin with was filled with +trophies of the chase--antlers of moose, stuffed aquatic birds, Indian +spears, and strange carving. A long, low, narrow room opened on it, in +which were chairs of the weirdest description, fashioned out of boughs of +the forest nailed together almost in their natural shapes. The late owner +was a man of eccentric and various accomplishments, and his handiwork +appeared in every detail of the house. + +Pictures from his brush were on the walls; of the lake in every +mood--stormy and slumbering, golden sunsets, and tempest-torn clouds, a +canoe stealing through the rice, a flight of wild ducks overhead, and one +swirling down to the gun of its occupant; again, the lake frozen over, +and a sleighing party careering upon it. + +There was a screen of his carving, and two or three couches, the latter +more comfortable than the rest of the furniture, being covered with moose +and seal skins. Other skins were stretched on the floor. The table-legs, +like the chairs, were made of fantastic branches of wood, having rather +the effect of antlers when visible under the embroidered cloths, probably +the production of the squaws in the Indian village. Mr. Lyndon was the +architect of the villa itself, and his whimsical fancy came out in every +detail. Long, rambling passages squandered space, while queer-shaped +rooms appeared up and down steps, and in unexpected places and corners, +as if squeezed in by an afterthought, yet the humblest commanded a pretty +view. Many of the ceilings were decorated with Cupids, Mermaids, and +Dryads carelessly painted in, apparently the resource of wet afternoons. + +Colonel Rolleston's voice summoned them from these attractive rooms to +supper, and certainly the _menu_ was varied enough to suit all tastes. + +Prairie-hens and snipe were flanked with Indian corn, salsify, maple +sugar, and cocoa-nut cakes; tea at one end, and a disipated-looking +bottle of "old rye" at the other. But hasty justice was done to this +repast by Lola and Freddy, who were dying to go down to the landing, and +witness the disembarkation of their sisters, and introduce them to their +discoveries; so soon as the boat was descried, they flew down with +Colonel Rolleston, waving a flag hastily caught up in the hall. + +Mrs. Rolleston and Cecil went to arrange the distribution of bed-rooms, +the latter choosing for herself a queer little triangular nook in a +gable. Perhaps she perceived that a room of less modest proportions would +inevitably have to be shared with Bluebell. It might have been a +watchtower from the extent of its view, which swept the lake up to the +Indian village. + +The children below were full of the stories the boatman had told them. +That black island there was called "Long Island," and the other, with +scarcely any trees, "Spate" or "Spirit Island," because it was the +burying-ground of the Indians. Another was "Sheepback," from its shape, +and full of poisoned ivy, which, if accidentally touched, infected the +blood, and caused swelling like erysipelas. + +The younger ones, with Cecil and Bluebell, were too restless to stay +in the lamp-lit room they had supped in, but wandered about, finally +settling in the long drawing-room, where they could watch from the +windows the moon silvering the lake, and the antlered furniture throwing +strange shadows on the floor. + +Then Bluebell sang the "Lorelei," and Cecil invented legends for the +lake, till, their rooms being at last prepared, the old nurse swooped +down on her charges, and bore them away from the domain of Undines to +that of Nod. + +Colonel Rolleston had soon exhausted the resources of his new purchase, +and duck-shooting having not yet begun, he went down to Quebec, taking +Cecil with him, for an excursion up the Saguenay. She was rather +unwilling to go, for, though the elders got tired of a place without +roads, she was perfectly content to be all day long in her canoe, +fishing, sketching, reading, or picnicing with the children on the +island. But perhaps her strongest reason for not wishing to absent +herself was the continual expectation of Du Meresq's appearance. + +They had had no tidings of him since they had settled at the lake; but +nearly all Bertie's advents were sudden and without warning. From her +nook in the gable she commanded the hotel landing, and few boats left it +without being reconnoitred through Cecil's binocular. + +But then the Colonel wanted a companion, and was convinced it would be +delightful for Cecil; so she prepared to go with well-assumed expressions +of pleasure, devoutly hoping that no such _contretemps_ as Bertie wasting +any days of his leave by coming in her absence might befall. + +To be sure, as she was in correspondence with him, nothing, apparently, +was easier than to mention her intended trip, which, of course, would +prevent his choosing that time to come to the lake; but it happened that +Cecil had written last, and since a certain fatal speech, which even now +maddened her to remember, she had been very particularly careful to let +him make all the running. Still, not wishing to be left in the dark +should he arrive during her absence, she said, carelessly,--"I hope, +mamma, you will write now and then, and let us know how you are getting +on in this dear little place." + +"Really," returned Mrs. Rolleston, smiling, no _arriere pensee_ having +struck her,--"I more depend on hearing from you. Bluebell can write her +fishing experiences, and how often they have tea on the islands; but all +I expect to do is to travel over a good deal of my point-lace flounce +before you return." + +While Cecil went away to put on her travelling dress, as sometimes +happens, the true bearing of the speech flashed on her; and when her +step-daughter returned, arrayed _en voyageuse_, Mrs. Rolleston +considerately remarked,--"How dull I shall be without you! I think I'll +write to Bertie;" and the quick, grateful glance of intelligence in +Cecil's eyes encouraged her to say much more in that letter than she +would otherwise have done. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + +CALF LOVE. + + I gat my death frae twa sweet een, + Twa lovely een o' bonnie blue; + 'Twas not her golden ringlets bright, + Her lips like roses wet wi' dew-- + Her graceful bosom lily white-- + It was her een sae bonnie blue. + --Scotch Song. + + +The arrival of the Rolleston family created a good deal of interest in +the limited society of the lake, and not entirely of a friendly nature. +Needless to say, the adolescent members of it were all more or less +engaged to each other, which, being rather the result of propinquity than +uncontrollable preference, the maidens noticed with angry surprise the +admiration excited in the bosoms of their swains by the apparition of +Bluebell on their hitherto uninvaded waters. Alec Gough and Bernard +Lumley, both morally placarded "engaged," having, as a matter of course, +plighted their troth to two neighbouring fledglings, were wild for an +introduction; and no sooner did Bluebell's canoe leave Lyndon's Landing, +than two corresponding ones were sure to shoot out, apparently actuated +by the same persuasion that there was no more likely place for a fish +than the snag round which she was trolling, and ready to gaff a +maskinonge, or help to land an obdurate bass, if occasion offered. + +Any such incident might have commenced an acquaintance, were it not that +Miss Prosody, with a boatful of children, was never far off, and had a +scaring and terrifying effect. + +Bluebell rather despised very young men. Still, she was not insensible to +admiration, and was quite aware of these two young aborigines following +in her wake as surely as a gull in that of a vessel. + +One day Alec Gough was able to render her some slight assistance, her +line being obstinately entangled in the snag; but Miss Prosody sternly +brought up the boatman to complete the service, and bowed off the +interloper with such extreme severity, that Bluebell could not resist +bestowing a coquettish and dangerously grateful glance, which set his +heart bumping, and instantaneously obliterated the image of his +sandy-haired little love. + +It was too bad of Alec, for he had been engaged a year, and had already +cleared (he was a lumberer) space enough in the backwoods to start a +farm, and he was now on a short visit to his betrothed to report progress +and pursue his suit. So he had no business to get his heart entangled +with the line, and his legitimate affections disengaged with the string +he was clearing, under Circe's azure eyes; and why need he, in that +tactless manner, talk of her at tea as "The Lady of the Lake"? which, if +such a senseless _sobriquet_ was worth having at all, Miss Janet Cameron +considered she had an indisputable right to, for could she not row, swim, +dive, and paddle with the best? + +Then again, after tea, he actually stole out in his canoe, muttering +something about "looking for ducks," to which Bernard Lumley gallantly +remarked that he "needn't leave home to find them." He certainly _did_ +take a gun, but was also provided with a little flageolet, the companion +of his lonely life in the woods; and waiting till nightfall, by the light +of a waning moon, this absurd and reprehensible young lumberer paddled +himself off to Lyndon's Landing. + +There he carefully reconnoitred the house, wondering which could be +Bluebell's casement. The insensible building afforded no hint, so he +pulled out his "howling stick," as Bernard called it, and timorously +breathed forth a lay of love, which certainly must have been first cousin +to the one that encompassed the extinction of the cow. + +The inmates were apparently asleep, and Alec, getting bolder, played +every suggestive air he could think of. I don't know whether he expected +Bluebell would open the window and enter into conversation; but, in point +of fact, the lattice under which he was serenading was Mrs. Rolleston's, +who not particularly expecting any lovers, was sleeping the sleep of the +just far too soundly to be disturbed by it. + +There being no policeman to direct him to "move on," Alec continued his +dismal repertory till he was tired, and then paddled off, not wholly +discouraged, as he hoped that Bluebell, though she would make no sign, +might have been secretly listening to, even watching him, and conscious +of the admiration he sought to convey. + +The Lake families called within the next few days. Bluebell did not +appear when the Camerons, mother and daughter, came; and, as Mrs. +Rolleston happened to say _her_ daughter was away, they were quite +mystified as to whom the dangerous stranger could be. Then Coey and +Crickey Palmer came with their mother's cards; and as at that time +Bluebell was present, reading to Mrs. Rolleston, they naturally took her +for one of the daughters, and made acquaintance after the manner of +girls; and, I have no doubt, had Bluebell committed a murder and +absconded next day, either of these young ladies could have given a more +complete and accurate description of her person than detectives are +generally furnished with. Notwithstanding the reluctant admiration that +the inspection resulted in, Coey (Bernard's affianced) heroically hoped, +as she rose to take leave, that Miss Rolleston would spend the afternoon +and stay to tea the following day. + +Mrs. Rolleston glanced at Bluebell, who was rather dimpling at the +prospect of a change, and carelessly replied that "her daughter was at +Tadousac, but that her young friend Miss Leigh would be very happy." + +I suppose she was, for she certainly was rather solicitous about her +toilette for the occasion--only an innocent brown-holland dress; but two +hours were spent in knotting up some wicked blue bows for throat and +hair, and re-trimming her gipsy hat with the same shade. It is, of +course, an undoubted fact that women dress for their own satisfaction +only, and in accordance with their instincts of "the true and the +beautiful;" so it would be mere hypercritical carping to suspect coquetry +of lurking in the deft folds of that unpretending blue ribbon, or that, +in the face of her _grande passion_ for Du Meresq, she could for a moment +occupy herself with the foolish admiration of Alec and Bernard. + +Well, Bluebell is our heroine, and we must make the best of her,--to some +people admiration never does come amiss; and if a demure _oeillade_ can +play the mischief with the too inflammable of the rougher sex, I don't +know who is to be held accountable except the father of lies. + +"Palmer's Landing" was a less original building than Lyndon's but on a +more accessible side of the lake. The establishment and furniture were of +the rough-and-ready order. When a too independent help, finding her +mistress didn't suit, gave herself an hour's warning, and went up North, +Coey or Crickey would resignedly cook the family meals till an +opportunity arrived to get another, and as, in addition to those +occasional calls upon them, they were their own dressmakers, they had +less time to get discontented with the monotony of the lake than might +otherwise have been the case. + +Bluebell was taken round by the two girls to visit their garden and +poultry-yard. The latter was a source of profit, as they supplied the +house, and drove hard bargains with their mother for the chickens and +eggs. She also was shown their own room, and the rose-wreathed, green +tarlatane, which Miss Crickey explained with conscious pride she was to +wear at a city assembly next week. "I am to stay with my uncle--he has a +large dry-good-store at ----, but he lives on Brock." She was also warned +off trespassing by the full account of Coey's engagement, and by that +time Bernard had arrived to escort the girls for a ramble in the woods. + +Crickey, on the principle of doing as she would be done by, marched +Bluebell on in front, so that the others might linger behind, and make +love upon the usual pattern. It was customary at the lake for to tuck +their _fiancees_ under their arm, and cast incessant sheep's eyes at +them, much conversation was not _de rigueur_. + +Bernard, however, was somewhat discontented: he thought there were +innumerable opportunities for that kind of thing; so his eyes wandered +from the face of his love to Bluebell's round waist and waving hair. +Instead of incessantly squeezing her arm, he barely held it, and finally +dropped it to remove a briar from the skirt of his distractor. + +Bluebell smiled with her big blue eyes, perhaps more gratefully than the +service demanded, which encouraged the youth to commence conversation. +The few platitudes he attempted might have been the most sparkling wit +from the animation with which they were received. Surprised to find +himself so agreeable, he lingered by her side. Crickey, expecting him +every minute to fall back, remained by Bluebell, so poor Coey trudged +behind, and began to experience what jealousy was. + +After a while, the others tried to bring her into the conversation by +appeals to her opinion, but Coey was not to be so easily propitiated, and +returned austere answers. + +Then Bernard, thinking he might as well be hung for a sheep as a lamb, +became all the more engrossed with his captivator, and it was in at one +of strong discontent that he exclaimed, as they were returning,--"Why, +there's Alec and Janet Cameron coming down to the house!" + +Their unexpected arrival was rather a relief to the Palmer girls, +Bluebell only saw more mischief before her, but Bernard's impatience at +the sight of Alec whose motive for coming he easily guessed, was quite +undisguised. + +The latter accounted for himself by saying "that Janet wished to make +Miss Rolleston's acquaintance, and, therefore, he had accompanied her." + +"Oh, I am not Miss Rolleston," said Bluebell, "I am the governess." + +"I have had the advantage of seeing the governess," said Alec, demurely, +"and she is old enough to be your mother." + +"But I am the musical one and Freddy is my pupil entirely." + +"Are you really?" said he, brightening "Then you _like_ music?" + +"I am sure that is not a necessary consequence," said Bluebell, rather +mystified by the meaning tone of his voice, but Alec, believing she had +heard his nocturnal serenade and assuming a secret understanding on the +strength of it, lingered by her side talking in an undertone--really +about nothing in particular, for, like most spoony boys, he trusted more +to his eyes than his tongue. Still it had all the effect of a flirtation, +and when the girls went upstairs to prepare for tea, Bluebell found +herself quite out of court without the support of the other sex. Coey was +already turned into a very belligerent little ring-dove, and Janet +watched her askance, for she had never before known Alec so keen about +partaking of tea at Palmer's Landing. Crickey, whose feelings were not +so powerfully engaged, supplied her with toilette requisites, and such +conversation as hospitality demanded. + +Bluebell was rather flattered by the apprehension she excited, and, with +mischievous ostentation, produced from her pocket a weapon of war in the +shape of a blue ribbon, and began weaving it into her chestnut fuzz, too +naturally wavy and long to require frizettes. Coey, who was rather pretty +in the white kitten style, had sparse pale hair, never properly combed +over her "water fall," as she called it, which obtruded itself like a +crow's nest. This attractive peculiarity was more apparent than ever +to-day, the frizette having been caught by a bough in the woods. + +Bluebell observed that her decorative preparations were restricted to a +dab of violet-powder on her nose, and a slight application of lip-salve. +"I can't let her go down such a figure," thought she, "though she is +dreadfully angry with me," and, seizing a comb, began silently to effect +a reformation in Coey's _chevelure_. + +"Oh, thank you," said the other distantly. "Isn't it right? Never mind. +Dressing is such a waste of time." + +"Hugger-muggering with Bernard is not, I suppose?" thought Bluebell, +resolutely continuing her task. + +But it was Janet's turn to be angry, when, at tea that evening, utterly +oblivious of the vacant chair next herself, her faithless swain +manoeuvred into one next Bluebell. + +"Are you fond of music by moonlight?" he took the first opportunity of +whispering. + +"I like it anywhere," replied she, innocently. "I can't say I ever heard +it by moonlight." + +Much discomfited, Alec gazed incredulously, and then burst out laughing. + +Bluebell naturally inquired what she had said to amuse him; but he evaded +the question, as Janet was evidently listening. Later on, when the former +was at the piano, and he pretending to turn over, he whispered,--"I +wonder under whose window I was making such a lovely noise the other +night?" + +"How should I know? And why did you do it?" + +"I wanted to give you a welcome to the Lake; but perhaps I serenaded that +vinegar-faced governess instead." + +Bluebell was playing rather a pathetic sonata; but the time got decidedly +erratic, as she stared bewildered at Alec, and then went off into a fit +of laughing. "How could you be such a goose? If Colonel Rolleston had +been at home, he would have fired his ten-shooter at you." + +"Tell me which is your window," he whispered, "and I'll give you plenty +of music by moonlight. I hope it is the one with the balcony." + +"Why?" + +"Because," said Alec, audaciously, "you would look so beautiful stepping +out on it, like Julia in 'Guy Mannering.' And we could talk, you know." + +"Very well," said Bluebell, who opined it was about time to shut him up. +"Suppose we refer it to Miss Cameron. I understand your heart and +accomplishments are all made over to her. Perhaps she would assist at +the balcony scene!" + +Alec bit his lip, and looked rather ashamed. Such a rebuff would not have +embarrassed Bertie, nor awakened in him a slumbering conscience, as it +did in this young lumberer, who was ridiculous enough to be in earnest in +his infidelity. + +But Bluebell, knowing she had no quarter to expect from the girls if she +returned to them now, was far from wishing to bring him to a sense of his +duty before the evening was over, so smiled as engagingly as ever, and +continued to accept his attentions, till Janet, fizzing in high dudgeon, +announced her intention of going home, which, of course, involved the +escort of her recreant young man. + +"Wait here a quarter of an hour," whispered Alec to Bluebell, "and I will +run back and row you home." + +"Gracious, no!" said she, with rather the sensation of a child who has +been sent out to spend the afternoon and has misbehaved. "Here is Mrs. +Rolleston's servant come for me. Go back with Miss Janet and make it up, +for I am never going to speak to you again,"--and she turned away to make +her adieux to Mrs. Palmer, a motherly-looking old lady, who had been +nodding half asleep on the sofa all the time. + +"Such a charming musical evening--such a treat!" said she, brisking up, +and quite unaware of what had been passing round her the last two hours. + +"Miss Leigh was quite untireable," sneered Janet. "One could not have +_asked_ her to exert herself so much." + +"Must you really go?" interposed Crickey, fearing now the music was over +the harmony might cease also. + +Bluebell pleaded a promise to return early. + +"I am sorry to be the means of taking away any attraction that might have +induced you to stay," put in Janet, determined to give her "one" before +she went. + +"Thank you," said Bluebell, sweetly, declining to understand; "but I +could scarcely expect you to stay to amuse me." + +"That, I feel sure, would be quite out of my power!" said the other, bent +on provocation; and Crickey nervously dragged Bluebell away to get her +hat. + +Alec lingered till she was fairly off, fearing that Bernard would try and +escort her home. He, however, was thoroughly sulky at the way Gough had +monopolized her the whole evening, and was quite as ready as Coey to +pronounce her an arrant flirt; which so mollified the latter, that when, +a few days later, she and her sister were asked to return Bluebell's +visit at Lyndon's Landing, she accepted without the slightest hesitation, +in a perfectly charitable frame of mind. + +Alec and Janet, of course, quarrelled going home; but it being not the +first time by a good many, it blew over without a rupture, the gentleman, +for the future, cautiously avoiding Bluebell's name, though he tried all +he knew to meet her alone, in which respect Fortune did not favour him; +and there being no more efficient chaperons than children, with their +sharp observation and fatal habit of repetition, they might meet every +day on the blue water without his obtaining more than a saucy glance or a +few commonplace words, which he would try and put as much meaning into as +he could. + + + + +CHAPTER XX. + +THE PRINCE PHILANDER. + + A division of souls may take place without a word being exchanged. One + reminded of those mists that rise into a cool stratum of air soon to + redescend in flakes of snow.... + --Human Sadness. + + +The day that the Misses Palmer were to spend at Lyndon's Landing turned +to rain in the afternoon. The children had a half-holiday, and so the +weather was a double misfortune; and after "What shall we do?" had been +asked in every minor key of querulous despondency, they eventually +grouped themselves, some sitting, some lying on buffalo robes scattered +on the floor, and demanded stories from the elder girls. From the +darkness of the sky, twilight had come earlier, and Freddy had closed the +curtains, to give greater mystery to the fairy lore they were invoking. + +Previous to this they had had a grand dressing up and a fancy ball. +Crickey retained the turban and Indian table-cloth which had been her +"make-up" as an "Eastern Princess." Freddy was a wild beast; and Lola, by +dint of a long pair of military boots, seal-skin gloves, and "pretending +very much," was "Puss in Boots." The old nurse's cap and spectacles were, +with a peaked hat, the salient points of a "Mother Hubbard." But they +were tired of it now, and no sound was heard except the sullen moan of +the storm on the lake, and the voice of Bluebell, half-inventing and +half-relating from memory. + +"And so the Princess remained in the strong tower of the Giant Jealousy; +for though the doors were all open, and you would suppose she had nothing +to do but walk out and be free, yet if she did get a little way some +invisible power always drew her back again, after which the Giant seemed +more tormenting than ever. For no one could really release her but the +Prince Philander, whom she loved, and he only by remaining true to her +alone (which, perhaps, was not always the case, and that was how she had +strayed into Castle Jealousy), and coming himself and overthrowing the +Giant, who would then be instantly dissolved into smoke, and--" + +But the ultimate fate of the bewitched Princess was never known, the +story being arrested by a shout from the children as they caught sight +of a tall, dark figure, half-concealed by a carved screen, and even in +the dusk Bluebell discerned the expression of amused attention and +half-satirical smile on his lips. + +"I saw him first!" cried Lola, jumping up exultingly. "He has been +standing there ever so long, but he made me a sign not to tell." + +"I wanted to hear Miss Leigh's story," interposed Bertie; "but it is +only the plain Princesses _that_ Giant gets hold of, and then the fairy +Princes are too busy with the beauties ever to come and rescue them!" + +Bluebell was almost unnerved by the surprise of his unlooked-for +appearance. A real Prince Philander had come at her invocation; whether +he was to overthrow the Giant, or strengthen his hands, remained to be +proved. + +She had a dim impression of presenting him to the Misses Palmer with a +mortified recollection of her own absurd "make-up," and then sat down, +quite faint from the uncontrollable beating of her heart. + +Perhaps it was to relieve her he was so amiably making conversation with +Coey and Crickey; and exceedingly well they were getting on, she began to +think, recovering rather rapidly when not the object of any particular +attention. + +"And you have been shut up here all day without any exercise?" she heard +him say. "That's very bad. Suppose we play hide-and-seek and run about +all over the house;" and, clamorously supported by the children, the +motion was carried, and the game commenced. + +Bluebell, who was under the influence of strong feeling, thought it most +sickening folly, and wished that Mrs. Rolleston would come in and stop +it; but she was charitably reading to a sick fisherman close by, and, +perhaps, weather bound. Miss Prosody was taking a peaceful afternoon +snooze; and if she did hear the scampering about the house, they were not +unaccustomed sounds on a wet day. + +It had struck Bluebell that the game might have been a _ruse_ of Du +Meresq's to get a word with her in private; but Estelle came up in fits +of laughing, to tell her that Bertie and Crickey were hid together in the +cupboard. This was too much, and she walked coldly downstairs and out of +the game. + +Coey went in search of her sister, who bounded down directly after with a +very red face; and soon Mrs. Rolleston came in, full of exclamations and +inquiries. + +Du Meresq said,--"He and Lascelles had got a week's leave, and had come +to the hotel for some duck-shooting." + +"And Cecil won't be back till Thursday," said Mrs. Rolleston, +regretfully. + +The significance of this remark was not lost upon Bluebell, who stole a +furtive glance at Bertie's face. + +"I thought I had got to an enchanted hall," said he. "I daren't wind the +horn lest I should fall under the spell. The portal yielded to my touch, +and I entered the first room, where conceive my surprise to see, +fantastically dressed, and reclining in Eastern fashion on skins and +cushions, a galaxy of beauty. They were silent, too, except one, who, in +a hushed, mysterious, voice, was improvising an allegory." + +"In short," said Mrs. Rolleston, in a matter-of-fact tone, "the children +were dressed up and telling stories." She began to wonder where Miss +Prosody could be. It was no use Bertie prejudicing his chance with Cecil +by getting up an idle flirtation with these Lake young ladies, who were +already blushing so ridiculously at him; and would have been further +confirmed in this conviction had she guessed that ten minutes ago he had +tried to kiss one of them in a cupboard. + +She offered him a bed, but willingly accepted his excuse that Lascelles +was all alone, and he had promised to go back, but would bring him to +dinner next night. And then he went away through the rain, and Bluebell +was left with her thoughts. + +Well she had never pictured such a meeting as that! And how disagreeable +it had all been. Of course she did not mind his not having paid her much +attention before the children, who repeated everything, but to go on in +that silly romping away with Crickey was ineffably disgusting. She did +not at all recognise it as a poetical justice on her for tampering with +other people's lovers a few days before, but mentally denounced that +young person as bold and unlady like to the last degree. + +The evening continued so stormy, that Mrs. Rolleston kept the girls all +night, and Bluebell, much against her will, had to entertain them, which +was the more irksome as they were both expiring with curiosity about +Bertie, and could talk of nothing but his extraordinary behaviour. +Crickey hadn't even the sense to keep his impertinence in the cupboard to +herself, and Bluebell, who had only suspected before, was provoked into +the most trenchant expressions of condemnation. + +"How could I help it?" asked Crickey, indignantly. "How should I know he +would be so impudent?" + +"Why need you have got into the cupboard with him?" said Bluebell. "It is +just what you might have expected, in fact, it was inviting it." + +"It wasn't," said Crickey, almost crying, for she had previously been +inclined to take it as a tribute to her charms. "Freddy and Estelle had +hid there before, and Captain Du Meresq said it was the best place in the +house." + +"For that, no doubt," began the other. But Coey came to her sister's +assistance with a Biblical allusion to the mote and the beam, and +Bluebell saw that if personalities were to be avoided, they had better +go downstairs at once. So the party of ladies passed a quiet sleepy +evening,--Mrs. Rolleston mentally resolving not to encourage those girls +about the house while Du Meresq was at the lake, and wishing she could +expedite Cecil's return. How much more danger there was from Bluebell she +never suspected, Bertie had been so very cautious. + +As they went up to bed, Crickey, who had become rather sobered by the +dull evening, entreated Bluebell not to mention the cupboard scene in +hide-and-seek, which was impatiently promised. To think that she should +be asked to keep any girl's secret about Bertie! "And now," thought the +poor bewildered child, "it will be almost more difficult than ever to see +him alone, and I must ask him if there _is_ anything between him and +Cecil." For that seed of bitterness sown by Lilla had borne "Dead Sea +fruit"; and, much as she struggled against the hateful idea, it really +seemed the only clue to Bertie's inconsistencies. + +The next day Mrs. Rolleston had some letters, and reading one +attentively, she threw it over to Bluebell. "You didn't seem to care for +this some weeks ago, but you see you can think twice of it. I _did_ write +rather enthusiastically about your music, which, really, is too good to +be wasted on my children, and the result is Mrs. Leighton is quite wild +to have you." + +A singular expression flitted over the girl's face as she mechanically +took the letter--it was only to gain time, she wasn't reading it; and the +large salary and kind promises of a happy home took no effect on her +mind. + +She was thinking of Du Meresq. Suppose he was only trifling with her, and +all those warm protestations of affection were really to end in nothing! +She might even have to see him married to Cecil! The thought was +unendurable, yet it was possible; and, if so, how could she remain with +the Rollestons? And it would be almost as bad as returning to the +cottage, once "so rich with thoughts of him." Chance had thrown Du Meresq +again in her path, and she was determined to find out the truth. Chance +also offered her this retreat, which would put the ocean between them if +he failed her, and then no distance could be too great for her wishes. + +"Can you give me till the mail after next to decide?" said she, as she +arrived at this point of decision. + +"Oh, of course," said Mrs. Rolleston, smiling at the almost tragic tone +of resolution in which it was uttered. "You will have to consult your +mother, and she might not wish you to go to England. Why child, how pale +you are!" + +Bluebell forced a wintry smile and escaped, for a lump was rising in her +throat, and she could not but remember that she must expect no sympathy +or support from Mrs. Rolleston, who had once said, "It would be a most +unsuitable connection." She passed the day in reviewing the situation. +This was the first time she had ever been called on to think seriously +and painfully, and act for herself without a friendly word to support +her. Perhaps Du Meresq's behaviour the day before had not a little braced +her to the energetic course she had determined on. It was, indeed, no +easy task to extort from a man who professed so much the simple question +in black and white which could alone give value to his addresses. With no +witnesses present, she had little doubt that he would be as ardent a +lover as ever; but that would no longer satisfy her. She had arranged her +plan, and relied on two feelers to settle the matter one way or the +other. + +The first was to repeat to Bertie what Lilla had said about himself and +Cecil, and then judge of the effect of her words. If unsatisfactory, she +might tell him she was going to take a situation in England, "and if he +makes no effort to stop _that_, it will, indeed, be over, and I will go," +was the necessary conclusion. + +Du Meresq and his friend, Captain Lascelles, came to dinner. Were +either to die, exchange, or marry, the other would doubtless feel much +inconvenienced, not to say injured. In England, their hunters, rooms at +Newmarket, stall at the Opera, or whatever would bear division, were all +joint-stock affairs; and either would, with perfect cordiality, have lent +the other money, which a long unpaid tradesman would have found +exceedingly hard to extract from him. + +Both were unquiet spirits in the regiment, abhorring the monotony of +drill and stables, and insatiable for leave. Yet on field-days, even +their most pipe clay of colonels admitted that there was no smarter +turned out troop than Lascelles', and no better squadron leader than Du +Meresq. + +The party was so small at dinner that conversation became pretty general. +Captain Lascelles at first tried to be _au mieux_ with the only young +lady present; but he didn't make much way, and began to think her rather +stupid, and to wish that those lively girls his friend Bertie had told +him of would swim or paddle themselves across. To Bluebell the evening +was little short of purgatory. Never had she known Du Meresq so altered. +Scarcely a sentence had passed between them, and his manner was +conventional and guarded. Formerly he had been equally cautious in +public, yet they were always _en rapport_, and some slight glance was +certain to be exchanged in assurance of it. + +This night she knew from internal consciousness that they were not, +and that a palpable change had taken place. Her heroic resolutions of +the morning passed away in inconsistent and impotent longing for one +word or gesture to break down this impenetrable wall that seemed to have +arisen between them, and to recall the old happy love-making days. Mrs. +Rolleston asked her to sing. A bird robbed of its nest could not have +felt more disinclined, yet she would try, though her voice sounded +strange to herself, and was harsh and wiry. + +Du Meresq wondered what had jarred those silvery tones, and stolen the +melody from the voice he had once thought almost seraphic. Music, and +especially Bluebell's, had ever a potent charm for him. She had abandoned +the song at the end of the verse, and glided without stopping, into an +instrumental piece. There was a subdued hum of voices, but Bertie's was +not among them, and Bluebell knew he was listening as of old. She had +arranged some variations to their favourite valse, and some impulse made +her select that. Keeping the subject cautiously back, and only allowing +suggestions of it to steal into the modulations, it seemed like fugitive +snatches of an air borne on a gust of wind, and overcome by nearer +sounds,--the breeze in the trees, the tinkle of sheep-bells, the brawling +of a brook. + +Bertie listened curiously, thought he had caught the air, lost it, and +doubted, till he recognised, in the mocking melody that continually +eluded him, the valse he had so often danced with Bluebell. He shot one +glance of intelligence at her as she finished, but Lascelles, who could +not bear the piece, was so loud in admiration, and found so much to say +about it, that Du Meresq could not have got in a word had he wished it. + +Bluebell turned impatiently away, and snatching up some work, went to a +secluded part of the room, under cover of requiring a shaded lamp there. +"If there is any truth in magnetic attraction," thought she, "Captain +Lascelles shall not come near me, and Bertie shall." She excluded every +other thought from her mind, and _willed_ steadily. Du Meresq became +restless, rose from his chair, and stood aimlessly looking at something +on a table. Bluebell continued her mesmeric efforts, every fibre +quivering. He was coasting in her direction; in another instant he would +be close, and have sat down on the sofa by her. Then she looked up, and +their eyes met and mingled. It might have been for half-an-hour to her +overwrought sensations; the past was forgotten,--she was gazing in a +trance. What impelled Mrs. Rolleston at that moment to say,--"I heard +from Cecil this afternoon, Bertie, and if they catch the boat at ----, +they will be here to-morrow evening?" + +The passionate eyes drowning themselves in the love light of Bluebell's +became thoughtful and colder. The spell was broken. Du Meresq turned +away, and began talking to his sister about the expected travellers. + +The reaction was painful as the killing of a nerve, and the cause of it +so cruel, that she made no attempt to endure it. A swift glance round +showed her she was unobserved, and springing to the door, she fled from +the room, to weep out her blue eyes in senseless, hopeless repining. + +No one noticed her exit but Lascelles, who, going through his social +_devoirs_ with mechanical propriety, had his powers of observation quite +disengaged. + +"I can't make the girl out," he soliloquized. "She is aggravatingly +pretty, plays very uncanny, unpleasant music, and looks at me with about +as much interest as if I had called to tune the piano or regulate the +clocks. I wonder if she is expected to go to bed at ten! I fancy there is +a very stringent code of rules for a companion. She was sitting in such a +nice inviting corner, to. Du Meresq seemed sloping off for a spoon; but +when he doubled back, and I was just ready to bear down, she shot out of +the room, like Cinderella when she had 'exceeded her pass.'" + +The two friends looked in next morning. They were going in a yacht as far +as the Indian village, and Bertie said if the Colonel and Cecil would be +likely to have arrived, he would come in on his way back. There was some +discussion about trains and connecting boats, and a guide-book was +fruitlessly hunted for. + +"Oh, I recollect," said Mrs. Rolleston, suddenly; "I put it in the +table-drawer in the next room,--right-hand drawer, Bertie," as he went to +fetch it. He found a little more than he sought, for there, alone, with +every appearance of being caught, was Bluebell. Du Meresq would, perhaps, +have avoided the _contretemps_, had he been prepared for it. As it was +he advanced towards her, and, clasping her in his arms, kissed the cheek +from which every ray of colour had vanished, and said, tenderly,--"What +has turned my Bluebell into a Lily?" + +"I have heard something. I want to ask you a question," came out almost +mechanically. + +Du Meresq had not expected so serious an answer to a _banalite_, and his +countenance altered. + +"Why are you so grave, Bluebell? You take life too seriously, my child. +A young beauty like you need never be unhappy--only make other people +so." + +But his theories were no longer taken as gospel. + +"Oh, I am quite happy," said she, with an involuntary ironical infusion +in her voice, "but I don't often see you alone, Bertie, and there are one +or two things I want to ask you." + +"We'll soon square that", said Du Meresq carelessly, "What do you think +of Lascelles?" + +"Think of him?" repeated Bluebell, with passion "What should I think of +him? I don't care if he dies to morrow!" + +"What, a good looking fellow like that?" said Du Meresq, jestingly, "and +he admires you awfully." What a flash of those violet eyes--regular blue +lightning! But a sudden gush of tears extinguished it, and, breaking from +him, Bluebell rushed out of the room. + +A look of extreme annoyance came over his face and he whistled +thoughtfully. Lascelles shouting his name, burst into the room. + +"Where is that book? 'His only books were women's looks, and folly all +they taught him.' Oh Bertie I fear me you are a sly dog." + +"What the devil do you mean?" said Du Meresq with much irritation. + +"What do you? Keeping me here all day, while you are spooning the pretty +companion. She bolted out of this so quick,--nearly ran into my arms, and +seemed taking on shocking. Oh, you strangely ammoral young man!" + +"By Jove!" said Du Meresq, "it is lucky it was only you. Well, let us be +off now, and shut up, there's a good fellow." + + + + +CHAPTER XXI. + +A PERILOUS SAIL. + + Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting, + The Soul that rises with us, our life's Star + Hath had elsewhere its setting, + And cometh from afar. + --Wordsworth. + + By this the storm grew loud apace, + The water wraith was shrieking, + And in the scowl of heaven each face + Grew dark as they were speaking. + --Campbell. + + +There was a bright moon that evening, and Colonel Rolleston and his +daughter were crossing the lake. A yacht passed them, sailing rapidly +before the wind. Some one on board took his hat off. + +"Who was that?" asked Cecil. + +"It was very like Lascelles," said the Colonel. "I wonder what he is +doing up here." + +Cecil's colour rose. The name of Lascelles suggested Bertie. She knew +they usually hunted in couples, and her busy mind was alive with +conjecture. She wondered if the same idea had occurred to her father. She +thought he looked a shade grimmer; but he smoked his cigar in silence, +and a few more pulls from the sinewy arm of the boatman shot them into +Lyndon's Landing. And then it all seemed to Cecil as if the same scene +had been enacted in a previous state of existence. Where before had she +seen his dark figure thrown out just so by the moonlight? Certainly not +in a dream. Could one's life be repeated? She almost felt, by an exertion +of _memory_, she might tell what was coining next. + +A deep, calm satisfaction stole over her as Bertie helped her from the +boat, and his eyes sought hers under the stars. She heeded not that +Colonel Rolleston's greeting was apparently cool and formal, nothing +signified--life had suddenly become intense again. What could ruffle the +golden content of the present? Happiness is a great beautifier, and as +she sprang to shore, her graceful figure so undulating and spirited, and +her soul beaming warm in her radiant eyes, he wondered that he could ever +have thought Bluebell more beautiful. She often recurred to him hereafter +just as she stood that night, shrouded in a crimson Colleen Bawn, under +cover of which her hand remained so long in his. + +Du Meresq did not stay very late. Both he and Cecil were quiet and +dreamy. To be in the same room again was quite happiness enough for the +present. Mrs. Rolleston also was entirely satisfied, diverted her +husband's attention with creature comforts, and made no effort to detain +Bertie. Given a love affair, and a certain interest in it, the most +unscheming nature becomes Macchiavellian in tact and policy. + +And Du Meresq unmoored a canoe and paddled himself off, unwitting of a +young, desolate face pressed against an upper casement. From thence she +had watched him waiting for Cecil at the landing, and, with eyes +sharpened by anxiety, had detected their happiness in meeting. She could +not go down to receive confirmation of what required none. Better receive +the _coup de grace_ from his own lips than to undergo gradual vivisection +while looking helplessly on. + +Bluebell was young and credulous, her heart had been flattered away by +this man, who had had so many before and did not want it now, and yet, +poor child, could she have looked beyond, she might have seen cause for +thankfulness that the thing most hotly desired was withheld for this +early love had not root enough for the wear and tear of life. It was a +hob day romance, born of the senses, the bewildering fascination of a +graceful presence and winning voice, and well for her if her guardian +angel stood with even a flaming sword in the way. + +The two girls did not meet till the morning, when Cecil, preoccupied as +she was, could not but notice the blanched weariness of Bluebell's face +which, owing a great deal of its beauty to colouring, appeared by +contrast almost plain. + +"You should have come up the Saguenay with us. I am sure Rice Lake +cannot agree with you," said she, launching into a glowing and graphic +description of their adventures. In reality, Cecil had detested the whole +expedition, having been in a continual fever to return; but, now that her +mind was at ease, memory brought out the notable points in a surprising +way, and she quite talked herself into believing that she had enjoyed it +immensely, and had witnessed everything with the utmost relish and +curiosity. + +They were sitting in the garden over-looking the lake, and a tiny +sail shot out from the hotel landing and stood towards them. A light +stole over the face of the brunette, but the features of the blonde +became rigid as they marked its progress. Neither alluded to the +circumstance--Cecil continued her narrative, and Bluebell made the +requisite replies; but when the boat had made Lyndon's Landing, and Du +Meresq and Lascelles jumped out, Cecil found she was receiving them +alone. + +The latter was come on a farewell call. The two friends meant to sail to +a railway station five miles up the lake, where Lascelles would take the +car, and Du Meresq bring the canoe back. After a short visit, Mrs. +Rolleston and Cecil strolled down to see them off. + +"I have never tried the canoe with a sail up," remarked the latter. "With +this wind it must be absolutely flying." + +"Not quite so dry," said Lascelles, laughing. "Du Meresq is such a +duffer; he ships a lot of water." + +"Cecil," said Bertie, giving a pre-conceived idea the air of an +_impromptu_, "come up to Coonwood with us; it's lovely scenery all the +way, and I should have a companion back." + +"What do you say, mamma; may I go?" dropping her eyes and speaking in an +indifferent voice, to disguise her delight in the anticipation. + +"May I go?" mimicked Lascelles to himself. "Bertie is always sacrificing +me to some girl or other. She will swamp the boat,--it's within an inch +of the water already with my portmanteau,--and very likely make me miss +my train, or get wet through pulling her out." This in soliloquy, but he +looked courteous and smiling. + +Mrs. Rolleston hesitated; in her heart she acquiesced; but what would the +Colonel say? The younger ones took silence for consent, and Cecil was +reclining on a bear-skin at the bottom of the canoe, Lascelles kneeling +in a cramped attitude, with the steering paddle, in the bow, and Bertie +in charge of the sail, before words of prohibition could come from her. + +"Dear me! I don't half like it," said she, nervously. "How stormy it +looks in the west. How long will it take you?" + +"We shall have the wind back," said Bertie. "About two hours and a +half--three at the outside. I'll bring her home in good time for +dinner,"--and Cecil kissed her hand in laughing defiance while he spread +the sail to the wind, and, catching the light breeze after a flap or two, +they glided gaily on their course. + +"Don't move about, Cecil," said Du Meresq; "we are rather low down in the +water." + +No one knew better than Cecil, who had quite appreciated the small spice +of risk in weighting the frail bark with an additional person; but then +it was worth it to sail back alone with Bertie. + +"You are getting dreadfully wet, I am afraid, Miss Rolleston," said +Lascelles. "Ease the sail a bit, Bertie." + +"You shouldn't keep her head to the waves," argued the other, "as if it +were a boat. Keep her broadside to them, and we shan't ship half so +many." + +There was a fresh breeze when they left the landing, but, after getting +three miles or so on their way, the wind rose almost into a squall; white +horses raced on the lake, and, in spite of every effort of the two young +men, about one wave in ten flung a curl of spray over Cecil. Bertie threw +off his coat, and made her thrust her arms into it as well as she could, +and Lascelles followed suit by spreading his over her knees. The sky +became stormier, and the wind howled ominously. They had started full of +spirits, and gay talk and chaff had been bandied among them. No one could +quite tell when it dropped, for it had been kept up with an effort after +the threatening appearance of things had sobered them. + +Cecil was drenched to the skin, but they ceased to express solicitude on +that account, for a more pressing apprehension filled each mind, that the +canoe so weighted could not live through it much longer. + +The girl was stiffening in the rigidity of her reclining attitude. The +least movement would have capsized them, and each wave larger than the +rest she expected to swamp the canoe. Suddenly she remembered Du Meresq +having once said he could not swim, and then, for the first time, her +heart sunk, and a sickening horror came over her. + +Lascelles, she supposed, in the event of their being upset, would +endeavour to save her. But Bertie! He would drown before her eyes, for +the water was deep, and the shore for some time had been only a nearly +perpendicular rock. Probably Lascelles so laden might be unable to land +even her. Looking upon Du Meresq as doomed, that contingency did not +disturb her. Drowning, she had heard, was a pleasant death. It didn't +look so though, with that cruel steel water lapping thirstily for its +prey. After the one supreme moment when she sunk with her love, would +they rise again in the land where there is neither marrying nor giving in +marriage, with the Platonic serenity of spirits, all earthly passion +etherealized away? + +She looked up; Lascelles was baling out the water with his hat. "Du +Meresq, you had better haul down the sail and take the paddle," said he +significantly. + +"Our only chance is to make Coonwood," returned the other; "there's no +landing nearer. We should never get there paddling. I must keep up the +sail and run for it." + +He glanced at Cecil as he spoke, who met his eyes with a calm, strange +smile. + +A muttered consultation between Du Meresq and Lascelles alone broke the +silence for some time. The latter continued to bale, rejecting Cecil's +offer of assistance, only entreating her to continue perfectly still. The +canoe was almost level with the water. "It must come very soon now," she +thought, and, shutting her eyes, tried to realize the great change +approaching. + +Her favourite day-dream of sailing away to a new strange country with +Bertie recurred to her. What if this was to be the fulfilment of it, and +they were to explore for ever an unknown land beyond the skies! But would +it be so? No sooner should the frail bark sink from under them than she +would feel Lascelles clutch her in a desperate grip, and be dragged +through the water, and placed alive, though half-suffocated, on the +shore. But Du Meresq would be sucked down in the blue lake, and travel to +that bourn alone. + +Cecil shuddered, and formed a rapid resolve. "Who was Lascelles that he +should separate them? Let him save himself if he thought it worth while. +Whatever was Bertie's fate should be hers also." + +Thus determined, Cecil waited for the end. She had only to elude +Lascelle's grasp at the critical moment, and her fate was as certain as +Du Meresq's. She gave a regretful thought to her father; but he had other +children, and Cecil had no strong family ties. + +As she waited in a state of half exaltation, a quiet little thought crept +in,--how was it, after all this time, the boat still lived? Why they +could not be far from Coonwood! Lascelles was still baling, but Bertie, +from improved dexterity in the management of the sail, evaded the waves +more successfully. + +Cecil continued to watch, and the tension of her mind yielded to a +flutter of hope as she saw the water no longer gained on them. + +"We should be pretty near now," observed Lascelles. + +"Yes, here we are!" rose in almost a shout of triumph from both, as, on +rounding the point, the wished-for harbour appeared in view. With one +last effort the envious waves dashed over, drenching them through and +through as they landed. + +"A drop more or less doesn't much matter now," cried Cecil, gaily, +wringing her dripping garments. And they all shook hands in their elation +of spirits, with short expressions of relief, and congratulations at +their escape, which all confessed to have been in doubt of at one time. + +"You are a regular heroine, Miss Rolleston," said Lascelles, heartily. +"If you had jumped up, or gone into hysterics, as some girls would, we +should have gone under pretty soon. As it was, I thought I had my work +cut out, for do you know that Du Meresq can't swim?" + +"Yes, I know," grudgingly, for she could not bear Bertie to be at a +disadvantage. "But I am sure it is quite miraculous how he managed the +sail through that squall." + +"Only if we had swamped, Lascelles must have saved you," whispered he, +regretfully; "and I would never have forgiven him!" + +Cecil did not make any verbal answer, but, as usual, her face was +not so reticent. Lascelles felt himself rather _de trop_ as he +concluded,--"Well, if they are on for a spoon already, I may as well +be looking after my car." + +"There's your Bullgine," cried Du Meresq, with some alacrity. "I daresay +it has been there an hour: no fear of losing a train in this leisurely +country!" + +"Well, adieu, Miss Rolleston; I trust you will not suffer from your +soaking. You will have an hour or two to wait, I am afraid, before the +gale goes down, and Du Meresq will hardly fulfil his promise of getting +you home in good time for dinner." + +"We are only too lucky to require another dinner; but I suppose we shall +be in an awful scrape," answered Cecil, speaking quickly and nervously, +for somehow she began to half dread being alone with Bertie. "Good-bye, +Captain Lascelles. Here's your coat, which you were so good as to spare +me; I am afraid it is not a valuable acquisition in its present spongy +state;" and "Good-bye, old man," from the two friends as Lascelles ran +off; shooting a momentary humorous glance of intelligence at Du Meresq. + +The former, as he settled himself in the locomotive, thought rather +seriously of the "situation" he had left his friend in. He rather +wondered at Bertie, who appeared dangerously in earnest this time. To be +sure, she was a nice enough girl, and very "coiny," he believed; but +though convinced that such a marriage would be a piece of good fortune +for his friend, remembering the convenience of their mutual partnership, +he sincerely hoped he would "behave badly," and get out of the scrape +somehow. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII. + +AT LAST. + + The breeze was dead, + The leaf lay without whispering in the tree; + We were together. + How, where, what matter? Somewhere in a dream, + Drifting, slow drifting down a wizard stream. + --The Wanderer. + + +"It is just as well," said Du Meresq, laughing, "we have not got to take +him back again. The experiment of three in that birchen bark is too +expensive to repeat; and we could not throw him over as a Jonah, since he +is the only one of us who can swim." + +"I ought never to have come! And, now we can think of wordly things +again, only fancy what a rage papa will be in about it all. It is a +curious fact, Bertie, the very last time we were out together, an +accident made us late--at the tobogganing party, you know." + +They had entered the station, which appeared perfectly deserted. The last +official had gone up with Lascelles' train. A fire, however, was still +burning, and the coal-box only half empty. + +Du Meresq threw the coals on the waning embers, which responded with a +cheerful fizz to the needed aliment, and then began unlacing Cecil's wet +boots as she sat before the fire. + +These two had often been alone together without the slightest +embarrassment, but now, perhaps from the reaction, and being a little +unstrung, she felt a most distressing sensation of it, besides which the +anti-climax of his occupation after her overwrought anticipations of +their mutual fate, gave her an hysterical inclination to a peal of +laughter. + +He did not speak, and silence was too oppressive to be endured, so she +cast about desperately for a topic of conversation. The _entourage_ was +not particularly suggestive,--four white-washed walls and the chair she +was sitting on comprised the furniture. Clearly she could not take in +ideas with her eyes, which, indeed, were fixed with a magnetic +persistence on the mathematically straight parting of Bertie's back hair, +which would scarcely furnish subject for remark. + +"There go a ruined pair of Balmorals," said he, placing them in the +fender. "Your stockings are wet through, too; why don't you take them +off?" + +"I prefer them wet," said Cecil, rather scandalized. + +"Shall I go and walk about outside while you dry them?" asked he, with a +smile. + +"Yes, do. Walk away altogether if you like." + +"But you might drown yourself going home alone, and haunt my remaining +days. + + 'They made her a grave too cold and damp + For a soul so warm and true, + And all night long, by a fire-fly lamp, + She paddles her white canoe,'"-- + +quoted Bertie, jestingly. + +Cecil disliked his manner, and felt irritated; but there she was, +imprisoned, bootless, in her chair, while those appendages smoked damply +in the fender. + +"Dear me," she said, impatiently, "will that wind never drop! When shall +we be able to start, I wonder?" + +"Don't you think we are more comfortable here?" said he, lazily. +"Remember what a row there'll be when we get home." + +"Yes, you always get me into scrapes. Why did you bother me into this +idiotic expedition?" + +"Didn't you ask me to take you?" provokingly. "I am sure I understood you +wished to come." + +Cecil coloured angrily, and then burst out laughing. + +"I can't afford to quarrel with you in this disgusting desolation, it +would be like the two men in the lighthouse; but remember, sir, it goes +down to your account when I am restored to my friends." + +"The captive should not use threats. I am not intimidated. What should +now forbid that I whirl you away on the next car to _Ne Yock_, and marry +you right off? and then you would have to obey me ever afterwards." + +"Bertie, you forget yourself," with great dignity and rising colour. + +"I can't help my unselfish nature. I never do think of myself. Seriously, +Cecil, would it not be a good plan?" + +"I hardly understand how you would effect it in broad daylight against my +will." + +"Nothing more easy. I shouldn't put you into the train till it was just +going, and I am sure you would have too much self-respect to make a +disturbance. If you did, I would point to my forehead, and shake my head +expressively. Then, probably, the guard would assist me. After we were +married, I should shut you up for a time to reconcile you to the +situation, and by degrees, if you pleased me, I would allow you more +liberty." + +"Suppose I ran away and never returned." + +"Oh, you would always be watched, I should, perhaps, let you get a little +distance to encourage you, and then bring you back again." + +Cecil would not vouchsafe a retort. She thought Bertie's behaviour in the +very worst taste, and had never known him so little agreeable. But there +they were incarcerated, and the wind still howled. "How was it they were +so little in tune," she wondered, "wasting time with this tactless +badinage?" Bertie, too, whose greatest charm was his lightning perception +of all her thoughts and feelings, could he possibly think--and here a hot +glow mounted to her cheeks, which were not cooled by feeling her hand +suddenly captured by Du Meresq, as he whispered in her ear,-- + +"As we always get into scrapes together, don't you think, Cecil, for the +future we had better only be responsible to each other?" + +"I think," said she, flaming up at last, and her bright eyes flashing +indignantly upon him, "that your conduct is idiotic and ungentlemanly: +What right have you to make me the subject of your silly jokes?" + +"I have made you look at me at last," cried he, "though I am almost +'blasted with excess of light.' Dearest Cecil, you must know what I have +come to Rice Lake for, and that you can make me the happiest or most +miserable fellow breathing." + +Bertie's eyes were glowing with earnestness, and his whole manner was +as eager as it had before been inert. Cecil was dumb from contending +emotions, love, pride, and doubt, all at war; yet a small voice in her +heart kept repeating "At last!" + +"You must have known my wishes ever since we parted at Montreal," pleaded +Bertie. ("I was by no means so certain," thought Cecil.) "I could not +speak then; your father will, perhaps, think I oughtn't to now. Yet, at +least I can say honestly, will you marry me, my dearest little Cecil?" + +At the asseveration, "I can say honestly," a sudden illumination came +over her face, as if every cloud had been instantaneously swept away. + +Persons conversant with such subjects maintain that the plain words, "I +will," are generally first used by the bride in church, when she promises +to worship M. or N. with her body. No doubt, Bertie was answered somehow; +but as there are no reporters in Paradise, so happiness requires no +chronicler, and we drop the curtain while Cecil becomes engaged to her +ideal and only love--a fate sufficiently uncommon in this world of +contradictions. + +The wind was lulled to a whisper, and a golden sunset was reddening the +lake, ere our lovers remembered, with a start, that they had to get home. + +"Now comes the rude awakening," cried Du Meresq. "Dinner spoiled, and a +very stern expression of paternal opinion to you, my poor Cecil. Very +grumpy to me. By Jove, I won't tell him to-night! Here's your half-baked +boots. We shall never get them on. Shall I carry you to the boat, and +roll your feet in the bear-skin?" + +"I feel as if a hundred years had passed since we were last in the +canoe," said Cecil, evading this obliging proposal. "But how the lake has +calmed itself down; it seems sleeping, and the shore and the islands cast +long shadows on it." + + "'Tis one of those ambrosial eves + A day of storm so often leaves," + +began Bertie, with his incurable propensity for quoting. "What made you +so shy at the station, Cecil? I was obliged to put you in a rage to get +you natural again." + +"After the pleasing picture you draw of our domestic felicity, I can't +think how I ever accepted you." + +"I was just going to begin when I was unlacing your boots, but the idea +struck me that to propose holding a lady's foot instead of her hand, +would be too ludicrous a variation from all precedent. What a sensitive +girl you are, Cecil! I am sure you knew what was coming, for I felt you +drawing into a shell of consciousness, that would have made me nervous +too, if I had not been impertinent instead" + +Cecil was not far from a relapse, for dreamily happy as she was, she +had already begun to torment herself. She had accepted Du Meresq so +readily,--good Heavens! she might almost say thankfully,--and, disguise +it as he might, he must know it. Could a thing be really valued that was +so easy of attainment? When Cecil was shy she was usually dumb, it never +revealed itself by hasty, foolish speech, or an artificial laugh. Her +countenance, however, was not so silent; and Bertie, as he watched her +changing hues and varying expression, thought how much more he admired +that mobile, sensitive face, than the pink and white of a soul-less +beauty. + +"Where is your hand, Cecil?" stretching out a long arm to feel for it. "I +am sure a dragon of propriety might trust a loving pair in this wabbly +little craft, which an attempt at osculation would upset." + +There was just breeze enough to fill the little sail, which bore them +swiftly and gently along. A pale star came out in the sky. Though dusk, +it was far from dark, night in a Canadian summer being of very +abbreviated duration. The lovers had relapsed into dreamy reverie, but, +as they began to approach more familiar objects, stern reality resumed +its sway. Cecil was the first to give evidence of it, by saying, in +rather a subdued voice,-- + +"Don't you think, Bertie, as you must go away to-morrow, you had better +get _it_ over to night?" + +"Heaven forbid!" cried he, rousing up, "let us have this evening in +peace. You see, my dearest little Cecil, _he_ will hate it anyhow, and +to-night will be awfully put out at my bringing you home so late; so this +would be the very worst opportunity to choose. To-morrow, after dinner, +I'll try what I can do with him. I am a shocking bad match for you, +Cecil, and that's the fact. But when I went back to Montreal, thinking +of nothing but you, I considered and pondered over every possibility +of putting my prospects in a fair light to your father. To the amazement +of my creditors, I _asked_ for their accounts. Then I made a little +arrangement with Green, the senior lieutenant. He is the son of a +money-lender, and very sick of being a subaltern; so he paid the +over-regulation down on account for my troop, and will shell out +the rest, with an extra thousand, directly my papers are in. The +over-regulation money, with a little stretching, covered my debts. To be +sure, Green had to part pretty freely, but his pater will get it out of +some one else. Now, my idea is to realize what remains of my slender +fortune, and try my luck in Australia. You see, my darling, you are all +right, for all your money will be settled on yourself; so that if I smash +up there, the worst that can happen will be your having to maintain me +till I can 'strike ile,' or bring out a patent horse-medicine, or become +riding-master to young ladies." + +"I put my veto on the last," laughed Cecil. "But really, Bertie, I can +hardly believe such good news as your being actually cleared up at last; +indeed, I almost feel a sentimental attachment to your debts, for it was +about them you first got confidential that Spring you stayed with us in +England." + +"That visit did my business for life," said Bertie, with a wooer's usual +disregard of veracity. "But you are far more beautiful now, Cecil, than +you were then." + +Not even Du Meresq could persuade Cecil that she had any claims to boast +of on that score; indeed, she had once overheard him say that he hardly +ever admired dark women, so she passed it by with a half smile of +incredulity, as she observed,-- + +"I really begin to have some faint hope of papa consenting. Your being +out of debt will weigh tremendously with him." + +"And I am sure you will like Australia," cried he, enthusiastically. "It +is the most charming climate, and the life delightful. I will send you up +a lot of books on the subject." + +Cecil was ashamed to confess how many she had read already. "You _must_ +go by that boat to-morrow night, I suppose?" said she, meditatively. + +"Yes; no help for it. But as I shall send my papers in at once, most +probably I can get leave till I am gazetted out." + +"Oh! I wish that _mauvais quart-d'heure_ with papa were over," sighed +Cecil. "All to-morrow in suspense!" + +"Cecil," said Du Meresq, in his most persuasive tones, "it is better to +be prepared for the worst. I know you are true as steel, and far firmer +than most girls. Promise that you _will_ marry me,--with his consent, if +possible; if not, without." + +They had landed just before, and were walking up to the house. What +presentiment checked the unqualified pledge he would have imposed on her? + +"I promise," she cried, "to marry no one else while you are alive." + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII. + +LOLA'S BIRTHDAY. + + She is not fair to outward view, + As many maidens be; + Her loveliness I never knew + Until she smiled on me. + Oh! then I saw her eye was bright, + A well of love--a spring of light + --Hartley Coleridge. + + +Mrs. Rolleston had passed a terrible day of anxiety. The sudden rising of +the wind so soon after their departure first aroused her alarm, which, as +the utmost limit of the time they were to be away passed, became +augmented tenfold. The absence of the Colonel, who had gone inland, at +first a relief, now increased her desperation, for there was no one to +make an effort for their preservation or to ascertain their fate. She and +Bluebell, who suffered scarcely less, could only rush to the boatmen for +either consolation or assistance. They got little of the former, for with +the usual propensity of the lower classes to make the worst of +everything, they expressed a decided opinion that the canoe so overladen +could not have weathered the squall. + +"But they might have put in somewhere," cried Bluebell, seeing Mrs. +Rolleston speechless with consternation. + +"How far would they be got, ma'am?" + +"They must have been gone nearly an hour before the wind began to howl." + +"Then they'd be nigh the black rocks, and no place to land closer than +Coonwood, unless they turned back and got on to Sheep Island." + +"Oh! go and see!" cried Mrs. Rolleston, beside herself with terror, +palling out her purse in answer to the mute unwillingness on the man's +face. + +"It won't be no manner of use; but if it will be a satisfaction to you, +ma'am," looking expressively at the purse, "and my mate will come with +me, I'll go out for them. They ought to come down 'ansome," he muttered, +"if I finds the bodies." + +The two ladies waited to see him off, fretting inwardly at the delay of +repairing a plank in the boat and fetching his mate. It was a good +substantial old tub, very different from the fairy canoe freighted with +those precious human lives. Then they returned to their weary watch in +Cecil's bird's-nest of a room, which commanded the most extensive view of +the lake. Bluebell's young eyes were the first to discern the tiny white +bunting, and hope battled with suspense till they could be sure it was +the sail they sought. With the field glass they made out two forms. + +"Cecil is safe!" cried Mrs. Rolleston, recognising her large, shady hat. +"But still," she thought, "Bertie might be drowned, and Captain Lascelles +bringing her home. Oh, Bluebell! can you recognise him?" for the girl had +the glasses. They were very strong ones, and her vision keen. A spasm +passed over her face. + +"Captain Du Meresq is quite safe," said she, bitterly. She had looked at +the moment when Bertie stretched out his arm for Cecil's hand, and was +carrying it to his lips. + +Mrs. Rolleston's raptures were too oppressive just then. Bluebell felt +thankful to hear a slight disturbance, which betokened that the Colonel +had returned. His wife, quite unnerved by the transition from despair to +joy, could conceal nothing, and, rushing down, poured into his ear all +the dread and relief of the past hours. The Colonel hearing it thus +abruptly, and unsoftened by previous anxiety, only felt intense anger at +Cecil's having gone alone with these two men; and the danger and exposure +to the storm that she had undergone aggravated the offence considerably. +He felt too strongly to say much to his wife, who, indeed, had suffered +quite enough already; and the sting of it all--his growing fear of Du +Meresq's influence over Cecil--he was not disposed to confide to her. + +"I have been too careless," he reflected, "and I cannot trust Bella, +who will never see a fault in her brother. However, he will be gone +to-morrow, and I will take care they never meet again till Cecil is +married." + +Mrs. Rolleston, in the restless activity of a lightened heart, had +hurried away to order large fires to be lit in their rooms, and hot +cordials and everything imagination could suggest placed ready. Indeed +she racked her brains to remember what restoratives were usually applied +to drowned persons. Holding them up by the heels or _not_ doing so +(whichever it was), and hot blankets, were the only prescriptions she +could recollect; and then the culprits themselves came in, looking +particularly fresh and pleased with themselves. + +Cecil she proposed instantly to consign to a warm bed, but the girl +laughed her to scorn, and would not hear of being shelved in that manner; +and, finally, they all came down to dinner, talkative from a delightful +sense of reaction. This superfluous effervescence, however, was soon +flattened by the unsympathetic gloom of the head of the family. It was +very unlike his usual manner, and not a good augury, thought two of the +party, who ascribed it to the right cause. + +Cecil, however, was determined to resist the damping influence as long +as she could. She rattled off lively French airs at the piano, and +challenged her father to chess; but he only drily remarked "that after +having passed the day in wet clothes, she had better take some ordinary +precautions and go to bed." Indeed, her slightly feverish manner perhaps +warranted the advice. + +"Good night, then, Bertie, and mind you are here early to-morrow for +Lola's picnic." + +It was the child's birthday, and she had written roundhand invitations to +all of them, to spend the day on Long Island and lunch there. + +"Tell Lola," said Bertie, smiling, "I would not miss it for the world. +She will think me very shabby, but I can't get her a present at Rice +Lake." + +He went away himself a few minutes after, half hoping to obtain from +Cecil a second and more affectionate farewell, but could see nothing of +her. Just as he stepped out, though, a casement shot open, and her bright +face appeared for an instant as she threw down a rose, round the stalk of +which was a slip of paper with the word "_Courage?_" scratched upon it. +She put a finger on her lips warningly, then kissed her hand, and +vanished. + +Bertie picked up the rose. It was one she had plucked as they entered the +garden, and worn in her dress that evening. + +As he got into one of the various canoes at the landing, another one +passed, paddled by a good-looking youth, who half stopped, and gazed +intently at Du Meresq, then catching sight of the flower in his +button-hole, an expression of baffled rage came over his boyish face, +and he shot away. + +It was Alec Gough prowling around with his flageolet, intent upon +addressing some minstrelsy to Bluebell, and much disconcerted by the +sight of Du Meresq coming from that house with a trophy in the shape of +a faded rose. + +About two hours after, Cecil, too feverish from the exciting events of +the day to sleep, became sensible of some strains of music, apparently +from the lake. She sat up to listen. Could it possibly be Bertie? No; he +was too good a musician for that barrel-organ style; some wandering +person from the hotel it must be. The air was familiar to her, though she +could not immediately recall the name. At last she recollected it was +one of Moore's melodies, and a verse of it, really intended by Alec for +an indignant expostulation to Bluebell, came into her head.-- + + "Fare thee well, thou lovely one, + Lovely still, but dear no more; + Once the soul of truth is gone, + Love's sweet life is o'er." + +One is more prone to fancies and superstitions in the night-time, and +something in the sentiment saddened her. The unknown musician did not +weaken the effect by playing another air; and Cecil towards morning fell +into an unrefreshing slumber, in which her dreams seemed to parody the +day's adventures. + +Sometimes she was struggling in the water; and then the scene +changed--she was being married in a small church, or rather it more +resembled the white-washed room at the station. Bertie was presenting her +with a rose instead of a ring, while she was trying to conceal 'neath the +folds of her bridal dress her feet encased in shapeless Balmorals. Then +Colonel Rolleston suddenly appeared and forbade the ceremony to proceed, +while the bridegroom seemed to have changed into Fane, and Bertie, as +best-man, slowly chanted-- + + "Fare thee well, thou lovely one. + Lovely still, but dear no more." + +"Cecil," cried a gay voice, "are you singing in your sleep? Get up. It's +my birthday," said Lola, energetically shaking her shoulder. + +"Oh, Lola, is it you? I am so glad you woke me! Many happy returns, my +child. Have you had any presents?" + +"Oh, yes, pretty good ones. I put my stocking out last night, and it was +stuffed. A white mouse from Fred in it, too. It ran away and up the +bell-rope, and we have been catching it ever since; but," hanging her +head, "there was nothing from you, Cecil." + +"Well, Lola," remorsefully, "it is never too late to mend. Would you like +a locket? Fetch my dressing-case and you shall choose one." + +Cecil was too happy herself that morning not to be amiable to others, and +Lola was her favourite; so she would not hurry her, and waited patiently +the child's indecision and chatter as she turned over the trinkets. + +"Actually Miss Prosody gave me a dictionary; horrid of her, wasn't it? +Perhaps she'll ask me to say a column a morning. I think I'll leave it by +accident on one of the islands." + +"I'll buy it of you," said Cecil, smiling. "I don't think I learned +columns enough when I was a child." + +"Likely you'd do it now, though, as you are not obliged! Well, Cecil, I +think I'll take this dear little blue one with a pearl cross on. It is +such a hot day! What dress are you going to wear? It must be a pretty +one, because it is my birthday." + +Cecil smiled contentedly. It was the birthday of something besides +Lola--the dawn of a new life to herself. "Here, miss will this do?" asked +she, holding up a fresh grey muslin for her sister's inspection. + +"Middling," discontentedly, "Bluebell looks well in those cool, simple +dresses; but you are never really pretty, Cecil, except in a grand velvet +dress, and then you are splendid." + +"Fine feathers make fine birds," replied the other, rather hurt. It was +not a morning on which she could bear to be told that her attractions +must depend on her toilette; but, half-an-hour afterwards, as she knotted +some carnation ribbon on the grey dress and in her dusky hair, a shy +smile came over her face, for she saw she was beautiful with the light of +love. A warm tinge coloured the usually pale cheek, the lips had taken +a deeper red, and were parted with a rare _fin_ smile--the velvet +eyes were softer and of liquid brightness. + +So thought Bertie, as his expressive glance but too well revealed when +they met at breakfast. He made no attempt to conceal his devotion; his +eyes scarcely left her face, and his voice took a different tone in +addressing her. Fortunately for Bluebell's peace of mind, she was not +present. Mrs. Rolleston noticed it, and rejoiced; the Colonel was equally +perceptive, and made an inward resolve. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV. + +LITTLE PITCHERS. + + If aught in nature be unnatural, + It is the slaying, by a spring-tide frost, + Of Spring's own children; cheated blossoms all + Betrayed i' the birth, and born for burial, + Of budding promise; scarce beloved ere lost. + --Fables In Song. + + +The whole party were gathered on the lawn after breakfast, preparing for +the start, and continually running backwards and forwards for something +forgotten. Du Meresq and Cecil were talking apart: the Colonel was to be +told that evening after dinner; and Bertie had to get to Cobourg, and +catch the night steamer there. + +"If we are late back, there will be hardly any time," said the girl. + +"Long enough to explain my magnificent prospects, or rather projects. Oh, +Cecil, you will be firm, anyhow!" + +Her answer was prevented by a clinging sister rushing up. She hummed the +words of a favourite air. "Loyal je serai durant ma vie." + +Bertie picked a rose and gave it to her. "It exactly matches your +ribbons," said he. + +It reminded Cecil of her dream, when he gave her a rose instead of a +ring, and turned into Fane, and a superstitious chill came over her. At +this moment Colonel Rolleston stepped out. + +"It is time you people were off. I am only coming with you as far as the +hotel to get a trap. I find I must go to Cobourg for letters. I wish, +Cecil you would drive with me." + +What? give up all those hours with Bertie! His last day, too, and the +first of their happiness! + +In utter consternation, Cecil cast a most imploring glance at her father; +but he, appearing not to see it, continued nonchalantly,-- + +"It is a long, dull drive, and I shall really be glad of your company." + +Du Meresq ground his heel into the gravel with vexation, and Mrs. +Rolleston attempted a feeble remonstrance. "The children will be +disappointed if Cecil goes away,"--which sentiment they eagerly +chorussed. + +"Well, you must spare her to-day," said their father, "for I want her +too. It will be much better for Cecil to take a quiet drive after her +exposure yesterday, than to grill on those islands all day." + +It was quite evident opposition would be useless. In sullen resignation +she entered a boat with the Colonel, and, taking the rudder lines, +steered a course away from Long Island, which the picnic party were now +making for. She had seen Bertie standing angry and irresolute, and, +apparently, not going; and then he must have changed his mind, for as +they were just pulling off, he stepped into the vacant place of a boat +containing Mrs. Rolleston, Freddy and Bluebell. Not for a moment was +she deceived as to the Colonel's motive in causing her to forego her +day's amusement. It was not her society that he wanted--it was to +separate her from Du Meresq; and who could tell that he might not intend +to bring her back too late to see him before he went? + +This she determined to resist to the utmost. She did not feel as if +she could endure the suspense, if Du Meresq lost this opportunity of +speaking, however doubtful might be the result. + +Revolving the difficulties in her path only made Cecil more resolute. She +would never give Bertie up, neither would she wait to grow prematurely +old with the sickness of hope deferred. + +If her father refused consent, would a long secret engagement, promising +to remain faithful to each other, be their only resource? Cecil smiled at +the idea. She did not forget she was an heiress and of age. Love is for +the young, and she was far too proud to meditate bestowing herself upon +Bertie when years should have quenched hope and spirit, and stealthily +abstracted every charm of youth. And as to him? Well, his antecedents had +certainly given no promise of the long suffering fidelity of a Jacob. + +Colonel Rolleston was pretty well aware of what was passing in his +daughter's mind, for his eyes were now fully opened; but he did not +choose to show it. + +They arrived at Cobourg, where he found his letters; and then the horses +were put up to bait, and they went to the hotel for luncheon. + +Cecil expressed a hope that they would be able to return when the horses +were rested. + +"Certainly," said her father; "we will drive back to dinner." + +And, much relieved, she brightened up considerably. + +Now the Colonel would rather have detained her long enough there to +ensure passing Du Meresq on the road; but the _ennui_ of spending so +many hours in so uninteresting a place, and the absence of any excuse +for waiting, favoured Cecil's wishes. + +Still the time seemed interminable to her in that dusty inn parlour, with +its obsolete Annuals, cracked pianoforte, and ugly prints on the walls. +Surely no horses ever required so long a rest, and when her father +suggested ordering her some tea, it seemed almost like _malice prepense_ +to occasion a further delay. + +However, they were off at last, and as they rattled along in their shaky +conveyance, she became painfully conscious of its discomfort. Every jolt +was anguish, and her head and all her limbs were aching. Was it the +ducking yesterday, or only this dreadful springless buggy? + +They reached the landing before any of the party had returned, and Cecil +sought her gable and threw herself on the bed, trusting to rest to remove +some of her unpleasant sensations. + +As she closed her eyes, she fell into a not unhappy reverie. True, there +were opposition and difficulties to contend with, but Bertie was her own, +and she would never doubt him more. How disinterested and straightforward +he had been in freeing himself from debt before he spoke at all? Even her +father must acknowledge that; also that he had sufficient money for the +career he had chosen, and only valued her fortune as a security and +comfort to herself. + +The unutterable luxury of being able to think of him unrestrained only +dated from yesterday; for before there was always the humiliating dread +that her idolatry was only returned in the same measure in which it was +distributed among his somewhat numerous loves. But now distrust had all +melted away, and she cared not for the many who had hooked, and lost, +since she had landed him. + +Aroused by the splash of oars on the lake, Cecil tried to spring from +the bed, but her limbs were stiff and heavy, and she dragged herself +languidly to the window. They were all on the landing but Du Meresq, and +the quick pulsation stilled again. + +"I suppose he went first to the hotel," thought she, and began arranging +her hair, disordered by the pillow. She heard Lola running upstairs, and +called her as she passed. + +"I am coming, Cecil. I have got a message for you from Bertie, which is, +that he has only gone up to the hotel, and will be here in ten minutes." + +Cecil kissed the welcome Mercury, and drew her into the room shutting the +door. + +"Well, dear, and did you have a pleasant day? What did you do?" + +"Oh, yes," said Lola, whose eyes were glittering with excitement, and who +had altogether rather a strange manner. "That is to say, pretty well. We +didn't do much." + +"How was that?" + +"Why, Bertie and Bluebell were so stupid. They went away by themselves +for ever so long." + +Cecil felt as if a hand had suddenly clutched her heart and frozen the +blood in her veins. Could that pale face, with wildly gleaming eyes, be +the same so sweet and tranquil, that was carelessly smiling at the child +an instant before? + +"And do you know, Cecil," pursued Lola, warming with her subject, and +speaking with intense excitement, "Bertie kissed Bluebell. I saw him do +it." + +A pause, and the child, apparently gratified by the interest she had +awakened, continued,-- + +"I think Bluebell was crying, and he trying to console her; at any rate, +I heard him say he 'loved her very much.'" + +One has noticed some years warm weather set in delusively early, and +blossoms of fruit and flowers nursed in its smiles peep prematurely +forth; and then a biting frost and northeast wind will spring up, the sun +all the while treacherously shining, and in one hour destroy the bud and +promise for ever. No less swift was the scathing power wielded by that +innocent executioner. Every word, fraught with conviction and crushing +evidence, sank deep down into her heart. She sat so still that Lola got +frightened, and entreated her to say what was the matter; but Cecil +appeared unconscious of her presence, and, scared and bewildered, the +child shrank away. + +Then the girl rose up, and with rapid, uneven steps paced the room. After +a while, first bolting the door, she unlocked a sandal-wood box, where, +tied with a ribbon and carefully dated, was a packet of Bertie's letters. +One by one she patiently read them through, noting and comparing +passages, then tying them up, wrote the day of the month and the hour on +a slip of paper, and finally enclosed all in an outer cover, which she +sealed with her signet-ring, and directed to Du Meresq. This done, the +restless walk was resumed. Her head was burning, and throbbed almost too +wildly to think. One line seemed ceaselessly to ring in it, that had +mingled with her dreams last night, and recurred with hateful +appropriateness,-- + + "Once the soul of truth is gone, love's sweet life is o'er." + +Contempt of herself for having been so duped added bitterness to these +thoughts. How long and easily had Bertie and Bluebell hoodwinked her to +be on the terms they were, and doubtless had often laughed over her +simplicity and short-sightedness! But Lola had described her in tears, +not smiles; and then Bertie appeared baser than ever. He loved Bluebell, +yet would sacrifice her for Cecil's fortune; for the unhappy girl no +longer believed in his disinterested professions of the day before. No! +she was dark and unlovely, and her rival beautiful, in his favourite +style! And Du Meresq was black and treacherous, as a smothered instinct +had sometimes warned her. + +Mrs. Rolleston came to the door and begged her to come down. Lola's +account had startled her. Cecil entreated to be left alone; "she had a +splitting headache, and wished to be quiet;" and on her step-mother +effecting an entrance, the sight of her face left no doubt of the +validity of the excuse. + +"Bertie will be so disappointed if he does not see you to-night," cried +she regretfully. A bitter smile, and the reiteration, "I cannot come +down." + +"Your hand is burning, child. You are in a fever. What _is_ the matter?" + +Cecil coldly withdrew it, in the same somnambulistic manner, and said +she would lie down; and Mrs. Rolleston went out, hurt by her want of +confidence, and much bewildered by many events of that day. + +Lola next invaded her, sent by Bertie to entreat for admission. "He only +just wants to come in for a minute, and see how you are." + +"I can't see _any one_, my head is too bad; tell Bertie so. I am going to +lock the door, and go to bed." + +But she only threw herself on it. The light waned and darkened, and the +moon arose. Then Cecil stole cautiously to the window and watched. +Presently Du Meresq came out alone, and she knew he was on his way to the +boat. He would look up, she was sure, and she entrenched herself behind +the curtain. By the light of the moon she saw his gaze rivet itself on +her window, as though it would pierce the gloom. His face was strangely +pale, and even sad, and her rebellious heart throbbed wildly as she felt +how perilously dear he still was to her. He turned away. Whatever he wore +or did, there was a picturesque grace about him, thought Cecil; and as +his boat became smaller and smaller in the distance, she wished, in the +bitterness of her heart, they had both sunk in the squall of yesterday, +e'er she had discovered how falsely he had lied to her. + +Lola again disturbed her. "Papa says he is coming up in ten minutes to +see you. Bertie told me to tell you he was very sorry you would not speak +to him, or say good-bye." + +Lola had dined late, it being her birthday, and wore Cecil's locket on a +ribbon, but she looked scared and depressed. "It was so dull downstairs," +she said. "Mamma had gone away after dinner, and talked a long time to +Bluebell. Bertie had not come out of the dining room till it was time to +go, and she had had no one to speak to but Miss Prosody--not a bit like a +birthday." + +"Lola," said Cecil, much too preoccupied to attend to her complaints, +"has the letter bag gone down to the boat yet?" + +"I saw it still open in the passage." + +"Then run down quick with this big letter--you understand? Don't stop to +speak to any one, but put it in the bag and come back and tell me when it +is done." + +The child looked at the address "Why, Cecil," said she, curiously, "this +is for Bertie! What a pity I couldn't have given it to him before he +went! What a lot of postage stamps it takes!" + +"Never mind, dear, run away with it," anxiously. + +Lola was but just in time before the Colonel came out, locked the bag, +and went upstairs to his daughter. + +Pre-occupied as he was, he was startled at her changed appearance. A +shawl was thrown around her, and she appeared shivering, while a fever +spot burned on either cheek. The Colonel was alarmed and irritated. "It +is all that folly yesterday. Have your fire lit, and go to bed, but I +must say a word or two first." + +No assistance from Cecil, he took a turn or two about the room, surprised +at her apathy. It was very difficult to begin, he wished to be kind, but +was determined to be firm. How indifferent she seemed. Perhaps she would +not care so very much. + +"Cecil," he began, "you will guess what I wish to speak about. I don't +know whether I was more surprised or annoyed at Du Meresq's preposterous +proposal for you to-night." + +"What did he say, papa?" + +"Why," perplexed at her unusual manner, which exhibited no surprise and +little curiosity, "all he had to say was, that he wished to abandon his +profession, and take you on a wild goose chase to the Antipodes. That in +itself would have been quite sufficient, but there are other reasons, I +have not a good opinion of Du Meresq, and I had almost rather see you in +your grave than married to him." Cecil made no sign, and the Colonel +continued,--"It may seem hard now, but you will live to thank me. I wish +you, Cecil, since he will not be satisfied with less, to write a few +lines and tell him all must be at an end between you." + +She rose mechanically, brought her writing-desk, and took out pen and +paper. + +"What shall I say?" she asked, tranquilly. + +The Colonel, who was prepared for determined opposition from his strong +willed daughter, knew not whether to be most relieved or confounded by +this apathetic submission. "I will leave the composition to you," said +he, gently. + +"Thank you," said Cecil "I should prefer writing it from your dictation." + +"Say, then," returned her father, not ill pleased to get it expressed +strongly "that you find I am so irrevocably opposed to your marriage with +him, that you have no alternative but to give up all thoughts of it for +the future, and that he must understand this decision to be final." + +Deliberately, and with the same stony indifference, she wrote it word for +word, handed it to her father to read then sealed the letter with her own +signet-ring, and returned it to him. + +"It will be Fane yet," thought the bewildered Colonel, with a secret glow +of hope. "I was mistaken, her heart is not in this business--if she has +one," was the irrepressible doubt, for though Bertie's ardent suit had +left him inflexible, his daughter's insensibility almost disgusted him. + +Muttering to himself, "That job's over," with a lightened heart he sought +his wife, and directed her to go to Cecil, whom he thought far from well. +But an interview with Bertie's sister just then was too distasteful to +the unhappy girl, and she only answered Mrs. Rolleston's request, that +she would open the door, by entreaties to be left in peace and allowed to +sleep. + +It would have been better had she admitted her not only into her room, +but her confidence for the kind lady knew what even Cecil might have +acknowledged to be extenuating circumstances, but she now felt completely +alienated and distanced by the forbidding reserve of her step daughter, +of whom she was not altogether devoid of awe. + +The next day an express was on its way to Peterboro' for a doctor. Cecil +was down with rheumatic fever, and delirious. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV. + +CHANGES. + + I remember the way we parted. + The day and the way we met; + You hoped we were both broken hearted; + I knew we should both forget. + + A hand like a white wood-blossom + You lifted, and waved and passed + With head hung down to the bosom, + And pale, as it seemed at last. + --Swinburne. + + +Du Meresq in indignant dismay at the abduction of Cecil on the day of the +picnic stood awhile silent and bitter, deaf to the impatience of the +children, who wanted to be off. While thus irresolute, he chanced to +glance at Bluebell, whose countenance betrayed an agony of suspense. The +entreating look in her eyes she was probably unconscious of, for the +child had not yet learned to command her face. Bertie yielded to it by a +sort of magnetism, and flung himself into the boat where she and Mrs. +Rolleston were already seated, but remained silent and thoughtful as they +floated monotonously along. His sister was equally occupied with uneasy +reflections, and Bluebell seemed as spell-bound as the rest. For one soul +deeply moved and agitated often affects by electricity another in a +receptive condition. Does not the atmosphere in a tempestuous mood thrill +and disturb our nervous system? + +She was next to Bertie, and noted that, though concealed by rugs and +waterproofs, his hand did not seek hers as of yore. + +They were joined on Long Island by the rest of the party, and all kept +pretty much together at first. There was luncheon to be unpacked, the +fire to be made and some fish to be grilled in a frying-pan. Du Meresq +partially shook off his gloom, and assisted the children in their +preparations; and, from the noise that ensued, a stranger would not have +suspected the mental disquietude of three of the number. + +After luncheon, Bluebell wandered away in search of wild flowers, the +children hunted for cray-fish, Miss Prosody spudded up ferns, and Mrs. +Rolleston drew from her pocket her favourite point-lace. + +Du Meresq, hungering for that exclusively masculine solace, tenderly +brought forth the pipe of his affections, nestling next his heart. There +was too much air on the beach, and he sauntered away in search of a more +sheltered situation in which to woo his divinity. + +Some "spirit in his feet" must have led him "who knows how," for ere long +he found himself seated on a log beside Bluebell. I cannot tell what +spell that syren had used to attract his footsteps so unerringly, for, +little accustomed as he was to resist female influence, in thought at +least Du Meresq was loyal enough to Cecil. + +He made no attempt to kiss her, as he would have done before in a similar +situation, but talked a while in that half-fond, half-bantering manner +that had misled the inexperienced child. The sun poured its level rays +upon them, and a little brown snake, with a litter of young, crawled from +beneath the log. This occasioned a hasty change of quarters, and they +found another seat o'ershadowed by a tangle of blackberries. It was very +secluded and still, and here, with her whole soul, in her eyes, Bluebell +abruptly asked Bertie her dreaded question. + +Rather taken back, he answered evasively. But the ice once broken, she +was not to be turned from her purpose, and repeated, as if it were a +stereotyped form of words she had been practising, "I only wish to ask +one single thing, are you engaged to Cecil?" + +Du Meresq was no coxcomb. He was distressed at the repressed agitation in +Bluebell's voice, her hueless face, and the hopeless look in eyes he +remembered so beaming, and for the moment heartily wished he had never +seen her. + +"How young she looks, with her lap full of flowers. Like an unhappy +child," thought he remorsefully. "I must tell her the truth; she'll soon +get over it." + +Very gently he took her hand, and said, gravely,--"I asked Cecil +yesterday to marry me, and she said yes." + +Bluebell staggered to her feet, with perhaps a sudden impulse of flight, +but so unsteadily that Du Meresq involuntarily threw a supporting arm +round her. At that moment Lola, in search of blackberries, and herself +concealed by the bush she was rifling, peeped through the brambles, and +remained a petrified and curious observer. + +Bluebell, struggling for composure, tried to speak, but the effort only +precipitated an irrepressible flood of tears, and Du Meresq, grieved and +self-reproachful, in his attempts to console her, used the fatal words +that Lola afterwards repeated to Cecil. The child escaped without her +presence being detected. + +Bluebell's emotion had passed over like a storm that clears the +atmosphere. It left her calm and cold, and only anxious to be away +from Du Meresq. + +There is a bracing power in knowing the worst. He had gained her +affections without the most distant intention of matrimony, and +resentment and shame restored her to composure. + +She turned her large child-like eyes on him with mute reproach. + +"You should have told me before," were her first articulate words. "No +wonder Cecil hated me when you were pretending to care for me behind her +back." + +Bertie murmured,--"There was no pretence in the matter." + +"Then why do you marry Cecil?" asked Bluebell, with the most +uncompromising directness. "Is it because she is rich?" + +"Confound it," thought Du Meresq; "I trust she won't suggest that to +Cecil." + +"Can't I love you both?" cried he, somewhat irritated; and just then Miss +Prosody and her brood appeared in sight. + +"I return you my share," exclaimed Bluebell, breaking abruptly from him, +and, running down the path, joined the governess and children. + +Du Meresq had rather a bad quarter of an hour over the pipe which this +sentimental episode had extinguished; but he could not regret, in the +face of his new engagement, the _finale_ of a past and now inopportune +love-affair. + +Bluebell did not come down to dinner that day nor see Du Meresq again; +but afterwards, Mrs. Rolleston, who was in nobody's confidence, and had +the uneasy conviction that something was going desperately wrong, came +into her room. + +Bluebell's state of repression could endure no longer. She began by +entreating Mrs. Rolleston to accept Mrs. Leighton's situation, and let +her go to England at once; and after that it did not take much pressing +to induce her to make full confession of all that had passed. + +It must be remembered that Bluebell was under the impression that her +friend had always known of the flirtation between herself and Bertie; but +now for the first time the horror-stricken Mrs. Rolleston had her eyes +opened to what had been passing before them. + +Everything burst on her at once. Recollection and perception awoke +together. To keep it from Cecil seemed the most urgent necessity, and the +removal of Bluebell the thing most to be wished for. + +Bluebell was disposed to keep back nothing, and answered every question +with frank recklessness. She told of their first walk in the wood, their +frequent interviews at "The Maples," and Bertie's visit to the cottage, +laughing at the idea of having ever seriously cared for Jack Vavasour. + +Mrs. Rolleston remembered that Cecil had not shared her delusion on that +subject, and anxiously inquired if she had ever acknowledged to her her +_penchant_ for Bertie. + +Bluebell answered in the negative, giving as a reason that, though unable +to guess the cause, her manner had always repelled any approach to +confidence on that subject. + +Mrs. Rolleston remembered Cecil's strange behaviour that afternoon, +but she had not even seen Bluebell since the picnic. It remained +unaccountable. + +She reflected with vexation on the fatality that had made her refuse the +child's confidence so many months before; but yet she hoped no harm was +done, since Bluebell averred that Bertie and Cecil were engaged. + +The letter to Mrs. Leighton was written that night ready for the morning +mail; another was also despatched to Mrs. Leigh at Bluebell's request, +who was anxious that Mrs. Rolleston should break the rather summary +measures to her--not that the latter anticipated much difficulty there. +All Canadians have a great idea of a visit to England, which they +tenaciously speak of as "home," and "the old country." And she would +probably be glad that Bluebell should see her father's birthplace. + +At the child's express wish, it was also arranged for her to go home at +once, as companionship with Cecil could now be agreeable to neither of +them. + +Mrs. Rolleston had only seen Du Meresq for a moment before he went away, +yet his manner, no less than her step-daughter's, clearly indicated that +something was wrong. Even Colonel Rolleston had taken up an attitude of +impenetrable reserve, and his wife was completely at fault. Next day, +however, the shock and terror of Cecil's illness fell upon them, turning +her mind to a more immediate subject of anxiety. + +Bluebell could not do less than offer to remain, and share the vigils in +the sick room; but even in delirium Cecil became palpably worse when her +rival approached, so, in a few days, with much sadness, she bade farewell +to those who had made the world of her "most memorial year." + +While Cecil was hovering on the borderland of mental darkness, a note +came for her from Bertie, written on receipt of the packet that Lola had +posted and was as follows:-- + + "What can I imagine, Cecil, from this parcel of my letters returned + without a word beyond the date and hour? You must have packed them up + at the very time I, as we had agreed, was asking for you from your + father. I shall not speak of the almost insulting way in which he + received my proposals, for that we had anticipated; but you had + promised in any event to be true to me. You could not have changed in + a summer day, I know your nature, my dearest little Cecil, and you + would not have deserted me in this crisis unless your vulnerable side, + jealousy, had been awakened. Indeed you have no cause for it. I cannot + come back to the Lake, for your father would not receive me, but shall + make no plans till I hear from you. + + "Yours, as ever, devotedly, + + "B." + +It was three weeks before Cecil could read this letter, and the following +day Du Meresq got hers, written at her father's dictation. + +It was not a soothing one for an ardent lover to receive, and Bertie was +at first furious, and considered himself very ill used. With it all, +though, he never believed that Cecil had really changed. He thought very +probably his unfortunate flirtation with Bluebell had come out; returning +his letters looked like an _acces_ of jealousy, and the one she had +written was probably prompted by the same cause. + +Any way, though, he was at a dead lock. Her father, of course, would not +allow her to see him, and while she was in this mood writing was useless. +His papers were in, and tired of inaction at Montreal, he obtained leave +to go to England. He lingered time enough to have received an answer to +his letter, and, none coming, he took the first steamer homeward-bound. + +Du Meresq had not acquainted his sister of his engagement to Cecil; for +being aware of the Colonel's inimical disposition, he did not wish to +draw her into any difficulty about it. She did not even know that he had +written to Cecil since he left, as the letter had fallen into her +husband's hands, who, though not intending to withhold it altogether, +considered it a document that might very well wait her convalescence. + +Mrs. Rolleston wished to apprise Bertie of Cecil's dangerous illness, but +she had allowed one mail to pass, and they only recurred once a week, so +that Du Meresq was embarking at Quebec the day her letter arrived at +Montreal. + +Cecil made a slow recovery. The rheumatic fever, caused by sitting so +many hours in wet clothes, and aggravated by the shock she had since +received, hung about her many weeks, and as soon as she could be moved +they took her back to Toronto. Then her father most unwillingly gave her +Du Meresq's letter. He was too honourable to destroy it; but, looking +upon him as the frustrator of his plans for Cecil, and the indirect cause +of her illness, viewed with impatience any chance of a renewal of +intercourse. + +Cecil read it repeatedly; but though her heart longed to believe, her +mind remained unconvinced. She shrank from all mention of the subject +with her step-mother, knowing how one-sided a partisan she would be, but +could not deny herself the self-torture of questioning Lola again. The +child relentlessly stuck to her text, painting the scene with a vividness +that did credit to her descriptive powers; and being one of those +vivacious and ubiquitous children never to be sufficiently guarded +against, was able to mention one or two other occasions on which she had +"popped on them." + +And all that time Bertie had apparently been devoted to herself! This was +decisive. Lola could have no interest in deceiving her. She must not +answer his letter or be his dupe again. + +Bluebell's approaching departure to England still further corroborated +Lola's story. At that picnic on Long Island, Bertie had evidently +acknowledged his engagement to herself, which she now fully believed to +be a mercenary one, as, doubtless, he had also assured her rival. But +perpetual lonely walks and rides were unfavourable to oblivion, and had +Du Meresq been but on the spot, I think even then the mists between these +two lovers would soon have been drawn aside. + +Mrs. Rolleston wondered that she had not heard from Bertie, but imagined +he was somewhere on leave. Cecil would not speak on the subject, but she +mentioned it sometimes to Bluebell with surprise, who was much perplexed +to guess what could have divided them. Her own conscience was easy; she +had told Cecil nothing--indeed, they had never met since the latter's +illness. Bluebell was now with her mother, preparing for her journey to +England, and had persistently avoided going to "The Maples." + +A very cordial acceptance had come from Mrs. Leighton, who said Evelyn +was all impatience for her musical friend. Mrs. Rolleston, who was now a +frequent visitor at the cottage, laughed a little at the letter, which +was very gushing, and told Bluebell they were an emotional pair. Evelyn +was strangely brought up,--every fancy, however extravagant, gratified, +partly on account of her delicate health, and partly from the sentimental +sympathy of her mother. One whim was, she would never learn from ugly +people, and the supply of beautiful governesses being limited, her +education was proportionably so also. + +Mrs. Leighton sent minute directions. She would pay Miss Leigh's +passage-money, giving her rather less salary the first year. Of course +she was to come under protection of the captain, to whom the _role_ of +heavy father to unchaperoned girls is usually relegated; and on arriving +at Liverpool the railway journey to Leighton Court would be only a few +hours. + +Mrs. Rolleston gave her a pretty travelling dress, and otherwise +replenished her slender wardrobe. She also contributed a little good +advice as to abstention from flirting, explaining that in her unprotected +situation she could not be too sceptical of the honest intentions of +would-be wooers. + +Bluebell indignantly repudiated the possibility of thinking of such a +thing for the present, if, indeed, ever, and professed the most ascetic +sentiments. + +It was rather hard on Mrs. Leigh, this far-away separation from her only +child--indeed, she could not understand why she was not engaged to one or +other of the whilom visitors at the cottage, but comforted herself with +the reflection that there were doubtless many rich husbands in England. +Bluebell, like her father, seemed of a roving disposition, and she must +let her fledgling try her wings. + +Mrs. Leigh was romantically inclined, and thought a heroine setting out +on her adventures should be provided with some talisman, and, in this +case, proof of her origin. So she disinterred from the old hair-trunk, +where it was usually entombed, the miniature of Theodore Leigh. How young +he looked! more like Bluebell's brother. "You must never lose it," said +she to her daughter; "for if your grandfather left his money to you after +all, I dare say the lawyers would try and prove you were some one else; +so it is as well to have your father's portrait to show, and your +eyebrows are brown and arched just like his." + +Though at a loss to comprehend why lawyers should display such unprovoked +enmity, Bluebell gladly received the miniature. Her unknown father +represented to her another and more brilliant life; and when most +discontented at the penury of the cottage, she was fond of picturing to +herself her paternal relations, whom she imagined very grand people, and +in a very different position to that in which she had been brought up. In +these last days, Bluebell thought a good deal of Cecil with some return +of her old affection. She remembered how generous and dear a friend she +had been till Bertie came between, and thought how ungrateful she must +consider her to have clandestinely stolen away the only treasure she +would have been unwilling to share with her. Still, even were they to +meet, nothing she could say would do any good, for Bluebell knew of old +how difficult it was to speak to Cecil on any subject she was determined +to avoid, and it was not likely she would be particularly approachable on +this one. + +So, upon the whole, it would be a relief to get away, and break new +ground, leaving painful associations behind; and the bustle of +preparation for the voyage was not without interest. + +Miss Opie presented her with a brown-holland bag, divided off for +brushes, slippers, etc., which she enjoined her to hang up in the +cabin. "Habits of neatness are always of great importance in a confined +space; and I have put in a paper of peppermint lozenges in case of +sea-sickness," she added. + +It was the last evening at home, and every bit of furniture in the once +despised house seemed instinct with a meaning no other place could have +for her. + +There was the old piano, on which she used to dream away so many hours; +and that arm-chair seemed still haunted by the vision of her handsome, +faithless lover, as she had seen him in the gloaming. + +How long they had lived there! The little china dog on the shelf was the +same she used to play with on the floor before she could walk. Dull and +trite, and only too well known as these objects might be, a sentimental +interest seemed now to hallow them. Youth is selfish, and takes all +affection as its due; but even the slight brush with the world Bluebell +had already sustained, gave her the consciousness that, tired as she +might be of her limited life at home, never need she expect to meet +elsewhere such unselfish tenderness as a mother's. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI. + +CROSSING THE HERRING POND. + + A few short hours, the sun will rise + To give the morrow birth; + And I shall hail the main and skies, + But not my mother earth. + --Childe Harold. + + +The morning rose clear and brilliant. The partings were over, and +Bluebell, on the deck of the river steamer, was gazing her last on the +long flat shore, with its high elevators, and waving adieu to the +diminishing forms of Mrs. Leigh and Miss Opie, who had seen her on +board,--the latter with many injunctions to ascertain that two +old-fashioned hirsute trunks containing her wardrobe were really put into +the steamer at Quebec. Bluebell had treated herself to a smart little +portmanteau for the cabin, being rather ashamed of her antediluvian +luggage. She had ten sovereigns in her purse, that had been scraped +together among them as a provision for any emergency. The Rolleston +children had sent her a travelling-bag; but not even a message came from +Cecil, which saddened Bluebell, but did not make her resentful, for she +could not but suspect that the former's engagement to Bertie had come to +an end, and that, in some way or other, she herself had been the cause of +it. + +A touch of frost during the last fortnight had worked a transformation +on the foliage. The thousand islands were changed from green bowers to +the semblance of shrubberies of rhododendron, so brilliant were the +crimson and red of their leaves. They were associated in her mind with +Cecil, whose artistic eye revelled in the autumn tints, and was +perpetually painting and grouping them during the last fall. + +It was rather lonely and monotonous in the river steamer. There was no +one on board that she knew, and, as each hour increased the distance from +all familiar places, a feeling of friendlessness stole over her. + +Arrived at Quebec, every one seemed to push before and jostle her away; +but patiently following in the stream, she found herself, with a +sensation of relief on board the huge Leviathan steamer that was to be +her home across the broad Atlantic. + +Some misgivings respecting luggage obtruded themselves. A porter had put +her portmanteau and bag on board, but the two trunks she had never seen. +No one seemed to attend to her till one man gruffly replied,--"That if +they were properly addressed, they would be put into the hold all right." +And Bluebell took comfort in the remembrance of the labels plentifully +nailed on by Aunt Jane, that she had then thought looked so nervously +ridiculous. + +She sat for some time alone in the saloon, waiting till the rush for +state rooms should have a little subsided before making a timid request +for her own. + +Several people were now returning, apparently with disburdened minds, for +anxious wrinkles were smoothed out into complacent curiosity. Bluebell +made an incoherent attack on the stewardess, who swept by, without +attending, and after being passed on from one official to the other, she +found herself half-proprietess of a dark confined den, with two berths, +two wash-hand-stands, and a sofa. Her partner in these luxuries had +apparently taken possession and gone, for rather a queer shawl lay on one +berth, and a singularly tasteless hat hung on a peg. + +These significant articles deprived the little dungeon of all charms of +privacy, and, feeling as if it belonged so much more to the other lodger, +and she herself were somewhat of an intruder, Bluebell left her small +effects in the portmanteau, which she stowed away in the most +unobstrusive manner, not even venturing to hang up the brown-holland +contrivance of Aunt Jane. + +Then she found her way on deck, where most of the passengers were +congregated, and, sitting down on a centre bench, in rather inconvenient +proximity to a skylight, was sufficiently amused in speculating on her +fellow travellers. + +"My comrade can't be among them," she thought, "for she has left her hat +below." + +Most noticeable were a young officer and his bride, as Bluebell +immediately decided the latter to be, partly from her helpless +_exigeante_ demeanour, and partly from the extreme newness of her +fashionable get up. + +The minuteness and height of her heels were more conducive to the Grecian +bend than preserving a balance on a sloping deck, and her fanciful +aquatic costume of pale-blue serge more adapted to a nautical scene in +private theatricals than for contact with the drenching spray of the +rough Atlantic. + +But ere the anchor weighed she shone pre-eminent, and had the +gratification of making a dozen other women feel shabby and dissatisfied. + +In contrast to these was a sickly-looking, middle-class person, with two +children tastefully arrayed in purple frocks, red stockings, and magenta +comforters. They were clinging to a coarse-looking girl, also with a +preference for cheerfulness of hue, who carried a felt donkey, and seemed +to be the nursery-maid. + +The head of this household, apparently, was not going to accompany them, +and, indeed, appeared in rather a more elevated condition than could be +wished. He addressed Bluebell, and inquired if her cabin was near his +wife's, and, on professing ignorance, said he trusted it might prove so, +as "he naturally felt great anxiety at her travelling so lone and +unprotected like,"--a slight unsteadiness of gait showing how irreparable +was the loss of her legitimate defender. The people around stared and +smiled, but he continued to gaze, in a mournful and approving way, at +Bluebell, while his wife sat in a state of repressed endurance, +calculating how many more minutes he would have for exposing himself +before the tug separated friends from passengers. + +After a playful feint to throw one of his children overboard, he became +calmer, and relapsed into a maudlin monologue till the bell rang, when he +was hustled off, much to Bluebell's relief as well as his wife's, whose +set mouth relaxed as if a care had rolled away. + +Two or three officers on leave were pacing up and down, and with them +another young man, but, whether he were civil or military, Bluebell +could not decide. He was not exactly like either; there was a slight +oddness about his dress, which, though well cut, was carelessly put +on, and rather incongruous in different parts. The neck-tie was a +little awry, and not the right colour for the coat; still he seemed +gentlemanly--rather distinguished-looking than not. + +These were all the portraits she took in till the bell rang for luncheon, +and there was a general desertion of the deck. Being, by this time, very +hungry, Bluebell followed in the string, but felt dubious where to seat +herself, as she found people had already appropriated their places by +pinning their cards on the table-cloth. + +The captain, who had just come in, observing her, asked if she were Miss +Leigh, and then took her to a seat next but one to himself. + +"You must look upon me _in loco parentis_," said he, good-naturedly, with +a strong Scotch accent. + +Being the first friendly word she had heard, Bluebell thanked him with a +heartiness of gratitude that caused her neighbour on the left to glance +at her with furtive interest. It was the young man with the deranged +neck-tie. On her right was a haughty dame, who evidently considered +herself a person of position. Next the captain, on the opposite side, +was an elderly widow lady, with weak eyes and rather methodistical +appearance; and on her left a fussy, brisk-looking little woman, of about +thirty-five. Then came the bride and bridegroom, a doctor, an aunt and +niece, and the rest were out of range of our heroine. + +Days at sea are very long, and this first one seemed nearly interminable +to Bluebell. She walked on deck till she was tired, and read a book till +she shivered, and then retreated to her cabin, to find the fussy little +lady of five-and-thirty extended on the sofa. "Ah!" cried she, "I have +been wondering all day who my fellow-lodger was to be; let me introduce +myself, as we are to have such close companionship. I am Mrs. Oliphant, +of the 44th; you are Miss Leigh, I heard the captain say. I am lying +down, you see, for I have such a dread of sea-sickness, and it is such +a good thing for it." + +They were not out of the river and it was like glass. Bluebell, feeling +particularly well, laughed inwardly, as she inquired if Mrs. Oliphant was +a bad sailor. + +"Middling; very much like the rest. You see I have been settling +everything conveniently--while I can." + +She spoke as if she had just made her last will and testament, and +certainly everything was very commodiously arranged--for Mrs. Oliphant. +Not a peg or a corner was left for any properties of Bluebell's, who +perceived she would have to keep all her effects in the portmanteau, and +drag it out for everything she wanted. + +"But I always try and cheer up other people," said the little lady, +complacently. "I have a bad bout, and then I go and visit others, and +keep up their spirits--going round the wards I call it. When I came out, +Mrs. Kite, of our regiment, and Mrs. Dove, of the 100th 'Scatterers,' +would have laid themselves down and died if it hadn't been for me; but I +roused them--Mrs. Kite, at least--for poor Mrs. Dove gave way so, she +wasn't out of her berth for a week, and could keep down nothing but a +peppermint, and the stewardess never came near her." + +"But surely everybody won't be ill!" said Bluebell, somewhat appalled by +these statistics, and, with the close air of the cabin, feeling her head +swim a little. "I believe it is better not to think about it." + +"Certainly; let us change the subject. Will you hand me my +eau-de-Cologne? And so you have never been to England before." + +"Never," responded Bluebell, not inveigled into giving any further +information by Mrs. Oliphant's look of curiosity. + +"Perhaps you are going out now to be married?" (archly.) + +"No," said the girl, composedly; "if that were the case I should hope my +intended husband would come and fetch me." + +"Well," said the lady, finding she was to extract nothing, "I suppose we +must be getting ready for dinner. In the P. and O. it used to be full +evening costume, but one soon has to give that up on the Atlantic; so you +see I just change my body for a white Garibaldi, and put a coloured net +on. I have four nets, mauve, magenta, green, and blue; these make a nice +change." + +But in spite of her extreme satisfaction in her own arrangements, she +felt secretly disgusted at the freshness of Bluebell's appearance in an +uncrushable soft _barege_ trimmed with blue. It was also rather a blow to +observe those thick shining coils of chestnut hair were not supplemented +from the stores of any Translantic _coiffeur_. + +When they came to dinner, a little more motion was perceivable as they +were entering the Gulf, and the table was mapped out with ominous-looking +frames of wood for the confinement of plates and glasses. The bride came +down gorgeously attired in a Parisian garb of mauve silk, cut square, but +looking slightly white and less secure of admiration than she had in the +morning. + +"That is not a very serviceable dress for a sea voyage," whispered +Bluebell's neighbour, seriously. A few remarks had already passed between +them, and she had discovered him to have large, demure, brown eyes, that +never appeared to notice anything except for the gleams of secret +amusement that occasionally danced in them. "It quite sets my teeth on +edge seeing those stewards tilting the soup close to and trampling on +it." + +"She must be a bride, I suppose," returned Bluebell, "and has so many new +dresses, she doesn't care about spoiling one or two." + +"Heavens! what a view of matrimony! And these are the reckless opinions +of young ladies of the present day! Why, Miss Leigh, the greater part of +my great-grandmother's _trousseau_ still exists in an old trunk; and my +cousin Kate went to a fancy ball in her tabinet paduasoy, which was as +good as new." + +"How tired they must have got of their things! I should like to have a +new dress every day of my life, and a maid to take away the old ones," +cried Bluebell recklessly. + +"How much does a dress cost--making, trimming, and all." + +"Oh, some would be simple and inexpensive, of course--say, on an average, +L6 all round." + +"That would be more than L1,800 a year, without counting Sundays. You'll +have to marry in the city, Miss Leigh." + +"I shall have to make L30 a year supply my wardrobe--and earn it," +returned she, lightly. + +This admission did not lower her in the estimation of the chivalrous +young sailor, for such he was, though it cooled the already slight +interest taken in her by the portly lady on the other side. + +Mrs. Oliphant, who had made acquaintance with everybody, was gabbling +away with her accustomed volubility. + +"Oh, my dear Mrs. Rideout, have you tasted this _vol-au-vent_? You really +_should_. I have got the bill of fare" (with girlish elation). "There's +fricandeau of veal, calf's-head collops, tripe _a_--" here she stopped +short, confused at the shocking word. + +Bluebell and the young lieutenant had arrived at sufficient intimacy to +exchange a merry glance. + +In the mean time, the bride was enacting the pretty spoiled child, and +resisting the solicitations of her husband--a spoony-looking infantry +captain--that she would endeavour to eat something. "Every one says it +is so much better," reiterated he. + +"But I am not hungry," said the baby, with most interesting _naivete_. + +"Try a _rawst_ potato, ma'am," said the captain, in his broad accent. +"There's many a one will eat a _rawst_ potato who can't care for anything +else." + +The bride made a little _moue_, and shook her head, then admitted that +she fancied a piece of raspberry tart, though the captain protested that +if she would eat anything so injudicious, a gentle nip of whisky would be +advisable to correct it. + +Captain Butler, the happy bridegroom, was evidently still in the adoring +stage, so he listened complacently to his wife's silly badinage with the +skipper, whom she informed, apparently for the information of the +company, that she was just nineteen, but winced a little at her further +admission that they had only been married a week. + +A slight but monotonous roll and general chilliness, seemed to portend +they were getting into a more open sea, and, as the motion increased, the +saloon began to thin a little. The bride's prattle deepened into moanings +and complaints; she was laid on the sofa, covered with shawls, and +supplied with sal-volatile and smelling-bottles by her devoted spouse, +who began to look deadly pale himself. + +Mr. Dutton, Bluebell's neighbour, had gone for a smoke with the skipper. +Mrs. Oliphant was also an absentee; she had tottered from the saloon the +instant the wind freshened, with a contortion of countenance that +betokened her dallyings with the _vol-au-vent_ would be severely visited. +Mrs. Rideout, the lady of position, went off on the arm of her maid, who +had not yet succumbed. + +Bluebell, determined to resist the whirling in her head, took out some +work on which she tried to fix her attention. The elderly widow was +looking over a missionary book with woodcuts, and they occasionally +exchanged sentences. + +The discomposing rocking of the vessel continued, and the moan of the +winds mingled with the incessant complaints of Mrs. Butler on a distant +sofa, who was as communicative respecting her anguish as her age. + +Tea and the return of some of the gentlemen a little relieved the +monotony. Bluebell was languidly experimenting on a piece of dry toast, +when the loud crying of a child attracted her attention, and, the steward +leaving the door open, a little girl of four plunged in. She recognised +her as one of the children with the tipsy father. The mother had dined in +the ladies' cabin, and retired to her berth to lie down, and this lost +lamb was searching for her. + +"Come here, my dear," said Mrs. Jackson, the widow lady. "Don't cry, +what's the matter?" + +But "I want mamma," was the only reply, without any cessation of shrieks. + +"Oh, hush! look at these pretty pictures; here's Moses in the +bull-rushes." + +A momentary glance, and then the cries redoubled. + +"Phoebus, what lungs!" ejaculated Mr. Dutton. "Come here, child," +authoritatively, holding up a lump of sugar. + +A slight lull, and a hesitating zig-zag movement in his direction. He +made a grab as she came within reach, placed her on his knee, and pushed +a bit of sugar into the month opened for a roar. + +"I am quite ashamed of you, making such a noise. Don't choke, there's +more sugar in the basin. Wipe your eyes, and see if you can possibly look +pretty." + +Bewildered, but distracted by the sugar, the tears ceased. + +"What is your name? Mary, I suppose." + +"No, no," indignantly, "H'Emma." + +"H'Emma! You little cad, what is the H for? Say Emma. You can't? Then no +more sugar." + +"Emma," repeated the astonished child. + +"That's right; here is another lump. Miss Leigh, may I ask you to reach +me a very pretty book of coloured animals I saw behind you? Now, Emma, +there is a tabby cat, just like you have at home." + +"No, mamma drove it away;" and, the grief returning, "Oh! where's mamma?" + +"She isn't coming while you make that noise, and I fear she must be a +wicked woman to drive a poor cat away,--she will never have any luck. +Now, what's that?" + +"A 'orse," triumphantly. + +"Where _were_ you riz! Say horse. That's right; don't forget. A pig, a +sow, a goose," and so on, half through the book. "Now I'll shut it, and +you can go to bed." + +"No, no; see the rest," said the now excited child. + +"Which would you rather have, mamma or pictures?" + +"Pictures. Show them quick." + +"Very well; then mamma may go to blazes. We don't want her bothering here +till we have done. What did you say was the name of that animal?" + +"A 'orse." + +"What did I tell you? You will never be a lady if you leave out your +h's." + +At this moment the mamma appeared. "Oh," said Mrs. Jackson, "your little +girl was crying so for you, till that gentleman succeeded in amusing +her." + +"I 'ope, sir, she 'asn't been very troublesome? The baby, 'e 'as been so +fretful with 'is teeth, or I should 'ave come for H'Emma sooner." + +"The gentleman said H'Emma was vulgar." + +"Don't you tell stories, miss. The gentleman wouldn't 'ave you called +hout of your name." + +Bluebell laughed at Mr. Dutton's slightly confused appearance, and asked +if he thought his corrections would survive the force of example. + +"I might have known whom she had learnt it from." + +Then, after a moment's hesitation, he asked Bluebell if she could +play chess; and, on her replying in the affirmative, he produced a +pocket-board. + +"I always take it to sea with me," said he, "and make out problems." + +Bluebell was beaten, and he tried to teach her a more scientific game. +And the evening passed away pleasantly to those two at any rate. + +On retiring to her cabin, she perceived a strong smell of brandy, and +found Mrs. Oliphant ensconced in the lower berth. Evidently the time for +"cheering other people" had not arrived, for her complaints were +incessant. The ship was rolling considerable, and Bluebell found some +difficulty in undressing, and more in clambering into her berth. She had +not been there many minutes when she was startled by the apparition of +a man walking straight into the cabin, who explained his errand by +unceremoniously putting out their lamp. + +Then she fell into a dreamless slumber, but was not long allowed a +refreshment denied to her companion, who, in all her wakeful moments, +insisted on keeping up a querulous conversation, till Bluebell, in +despair, feigned sleep, and would no longer reply. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII. + +HARRY DUTTON. + + But hapless one! I cannot ride--there's something in a horse + That I could always honour, but never could indorse. + To speak still more commercially, in riding I am quite + Averse to running long, and apt to be paid off at sight. + In legal phrase, for every class to understand me still, + I never was in stirrups yet a tenant but at will; + Or, if you please, in artist's terms, I never went a-straddle + On any horse without "a want of keeping" in the saddle. + --Hood. + + +The next morning was rougher than ever. The stewardess brought Mrs. +Oliphant's breakfast; but Bluebell, eager for more congenial +companionship, dressed, and went down to the saloon, where she received +a cheery welcome from the captain, who said he had hardly hoped to have +his breakfast-table graced by the presence of any ladies on so wild a +morning. + +The widow was also stout-hearted, and, evidently considering it right +to take the only young lady under her chaperonage, advised her after +breakfast to remain below and work with her. Bluebell was of a grateful +disposition, and acquiesced, but secretly thought it rather dismal, so, +when Mr. Dutton came down and begged her to go on deck, as they were +passing through some magnificent icebergs, she willingly pocketed her +tatting and went up. The young lieutenant got a couple of rugs and +arranged her comfortably. Certainly the roll of the ship was much more +bearable on deck. + +Mr. Dutton remained to amuse her, and, both being young, they speedily +became confidentially communicative. She learnt from him that he had just +been promoted out of his ship, and was going home till he got another. +"At least," he amended, "it is more my home than any other. I am going to +stay with my uncle, who would like me to give up the service, and remain +with him altogether." + +"Is he so very fond of you?" + +"Why, yes, in a sort of way. You see he has got no one else. He never +wished me to go to sea, but when I was at school a brother of one of the +fellows came, who had just passed as naval cadet, and he had such a lot +of tuck, and tin, and presents, that we were all wild to go too. My +governor had some interest, and I never ceased tormenting him, till at +last he got me appointed to the 'Sorceress.' After I had been a month +at sea I had had quite enough of it; but we were on a five years' cruise, +and by the end of that time I liked the life as well as any other." + +"Then why should your uncle want you to give up your profession?" + +"Because," blushing slightly, "he always says I shall be his heir, and he +wishes me to take an interest in the estate, and learn to be a country +gentleman. But after I have been on shore a month or so the monotony of +it is awful, and I feel as if I must do something desperate if I stop +quiet longer." + +"I thought English country gentlemen found plenty of excitement in +hunting and shooting." + +"Not all the year round," with a smile; "and, besides, I can't ride! Now, +Miss Leigh, if you were an English girl, you would never speak to me +again! I don't fear the obstacle, and would ride anything anybody likes +to trust me with; but I know, and the _horse_ knows, he could get rid of +me at any minute. I hunt sometimes, and go straight if the quad. I am +on is fond of jumping; but I cut a voluntary as often as not, and then +some fool is sure to come up and say,--'You had no business to have +parted at that fence, Dutton; the horse took it well enough!' Then I have +no 'hands,' I am told. Certainly, whenever I take up the rudder-lines to +put his head for any particular course the brute takes it as a personal +affront, and begins to fret, go sideways, and bore and all but tell me +what a duffer he thinks me. There's my cousin Kate, who will spoon with +me by the hour in a greenhouse, and dance as often as I like to ask her, +but at the cover-side she is so ashamed of me she shuns me like the +plague; and then, of course, next ball it is, 'Dear Harry, _do_ introduce +me to Major Rattletrap,' or some such soldier officer, 'I like the look +of him _so_ much.'--'I just offered to,' says I, 'but he didn't seem to +rise; said his card was full. Seems sweet on that girl in pink, with +black eyes.' That's a school friend of Kate's, whom she is mortal jealous +of." + +"As if she believed a word of it!" + +"Oh, didn't she, though! She bit her lip, and looked shut up. I have +great moral influence over Kate that way." + +"There's a grand iceberg!" cried Bluebell, after an amused pause, in +which she had been trying to picture Cousin Kate: "What a strange shape; +it must be hundreds of feet high. How cold it makes the air, though." + +"And you are shivering; I'll run and fetch another rug. It is warmer by +the funnel, only there are a lot of fellows smoking there." + +"But, Mr. Dutton," said she, hesitatingly, "why don't you join them? You +have given me all your warm things, and must be cold yourself." + +"I'll go if you tell me to," said the lieutenant, looking full into +Bluebell's eyes. She was silent, and the long eye-lashes came into play +while she considered. She had promised Mrs. Rolleston not to flirt, but +there had been no question of that hitherto. Why should she throw away a +little pleasant companionship when she was so lonely? "I only spoke on +your account." But she had flirting eyes, which said, only too plainly, +"Go, if you can." + +"I don't think any one could feel cold near you," he whispered,--and +then they both blushed. A minute after he ran off for the rug, and +Bluebell was left--to repent. "Oh, dear!" thought she, with very hot +cheeks, "we must _not_ begin this sort of thing already, or there will be +an end to all comfort--and as if I could ever forget!" + +She received the rug with matter-of-course indifference, and looked up +at him with the serenity of a nun; the young lieutenant was quick to +perceive the change. He thought it wiser to follow suit, and they were +at ease again, though each remembered the other's blush. + +"I came upon a very touching tableau in the saloon," said he; "the bride +was reluctantly pecking at some chicken, and that ass, Butler, feeding +her with a fork." + +"Ah! those are your nationalities," laughed Bluebell; "we don't do such +silly things in Canada." + +"No, you are very stiff and stand-offish there, I know; that is why you +don't require chaperones." + +"What are the duties of a chaperone in England, beyond sitting up against +a wall all night, like an old barn-door hen?" + +"But they mustn't roost," said Mr. Dutton; "they have to guard their +charges from the insidious approaches of ineligible youths, and assist +them to entwine in their meshes the sons of Mammon." + +"But it must be rather difficult at a ball to distinguish who are +eligible as you call them." + +"Oh, an astute and practised chaperone knows pretty well who everybody +is. They have books of reference, too,--the 'Peerage' and 'Landed +Gentry.' I believe now, though, a good deal of matrimonial business +is done in the city." + +"And men have no objection to heiresses either," said Bluebell, darkly, +as a memory came over her. "There's the dinner bell." He collected her +rugs, and helped her down to the saloon, where they were betting how many +knots the steamer had made that day, and raffling for the successful +number. Mrs. Oliphant was present, almost as brisk as usual, for the wind +had moderated, and the steamer laboured far less. After dinner some of +the ladies joined in a game of shovel-board on deck. The bride, now quite +bright again, insisted upon being instructed by Mr. Dutton, and became, +with a view to his fascination, more helpless and infantine than ever, +for she was one of those women who cannot bear any one to be an object +of attention but themselves. + +However, as she was not successful in detaching him entirely from +Bluebell, she conceived a dislike to her, in which Mrs. Oliphant +cordially participated, and they afterwards whiled away many an hour in +the dear delight of detraction. Bluebell was pronounced an unprincipled +adventuress, determined to use every art to entrap this unsophisticated +young man, and each act and look on her part was treasured up by the two +censors for private analysis and discussion. + +Mrs. Butler, it is true, had less provocation to be spiteful than the +elder lady; for being young and silly, she _was_ a certain object of +attraction to some of the officers; but the very indifference of Mr. +Dutton gave a value to his admiration, and made her more eager to obtain +it than that of the rest. Besides, the vacuity of mind and employment +at sea, a brisk flirtation is sure to attract lookers-on, and become a +fruitful incentive to malice and envy. Bluebell could not account for the +unfriendly interest she excited, as her Canadian education had taught her +to regard fraternizing _pro tem_. with any sympathetic masculinity a very +unimportant matter, and about as much a precursor to matrimony as if her +companion were of the same sex; and she had been far too hard hit to bear +any down-right love-making from another man so soon after. Mr. Dutton +was, perhaps, as inflammable as most sailors, but he could not make +Bluebell out. She evidently liked his society, and became pleasant and +animated when they were together, which they were pretty constantly; yet +if ever he ventured on anything tender she had a way of putting it by in +the most unembarrassed manner possible, which piqued while it perplexed +him. + +On one occasion, when she had let some warmer speech than usual glance +off, he chose to take it as a snub, and, pretending to be offended, +betook himself to masculine society and smoking. Bluebell was alone all +day, a prey to the ill-natured watchfulness of her two enemies, whose +quickened observation and exultant faces proved they had noticed the +cessation of his attentions. Once or twice he passed her without a word +or look, regardless of the innocent surprise in her eyes. "Perhaps he is +trying to gain 'moral influence over me,' as well as his cousin Kate," +thought she, with a little laugh. At dinner he dropped into a seat next +Mrs. Butler instead of his usual one by herself, and, from the bride's +incessant giggle, was apparently devoting himself to her entertainment. +Bluebell had no one to speak to except the kind old captain, with whom +she was rather a favourite, and who chatted away willingly enough, till +she ceased to hear that disagreeable and affected laughter. + +"Miss Leigh," said a penitent voice in her ear, "will you come on deck? +There's a little land bird in the rigging." + +"No, no," said the captain. "I won't have this young lady disturbed; it +is very cold on deck, and she is better here." + +"I thought you would like to see it," said the lieutenant, gloomily. "It +is very tired--blown off shore, I should think." + +"Indeed, I'd like to give it some crumbs," said she, hesitatingly. "Will +you take it some, Mr. Dutton?" + +"Certainly not," seeing his advantage, "unless you come too--in fact, +I thought of shooting it. It would be pretty in your hat--or Mrs. +Butler's." + +"That would be, indeed, a feather in your cap," said Mrs. Oliphant with +an unpleasant sneer. + +"Quite right, my dear," said the captain, as Mr. Dutton walked away, "not +to do everything a young man asks you;" and he assured Bluebell, who was +still solicitous about the bird, that it would not venture down for +crumbs. + +Our heroine was vexed at Mr. Dutton's disagreeable manner, and began +moralizing on the inevitable way in which she succeeded in estranging her +female companions, and offending those of the other sex. + +The old captain was just going off to his bridge, when by some +afterthought, he stepped back, and asked Miss Leigh if she would like +to sit awhile in his cabin. "You'll find no one there but the cat and +the parrot," he said; and, on her gratefully assenting, led the way to +a small oasis of comfort. + +The cat, a great brindled Tom, arched his back a yard high, and made a +sort of back jump up to his Master's hand, where he rubbed his head with +a sociable miaw. Bluebell soon had him on her lap in a cozy arm-chair. + +"I think Master Dutton will be rather puzzled where to find you," +observed the old skipper, with a twinkle, as he was leaving the cabin. + +"Dear me," said Bluebell, with a conscious blush, "I hope you don't +think--that there's anything--of that sort--" + +"I think you have been letting that young man keep you all to himself up +in a corner quite long enough," retorted he, "and you may as well show +him you can do without him;" with which he left her to her meditations. + +"How disagreeable good advice is!" thought the girl. "Dear old thing! But +it is so dull at sea--one must do something. I do wish though Mr. Dutton +wouldn't try to spoon--he was awfully nice before he thought of it." + +Of course these two drew together again next day, and, though Bluebell +still evaded with Madonna eyes all approach to love-making, the +lieutenant accepted the situation, and contented himself with flirting +_sous le nom d'amitie_. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII. + +ROUGH WEATHER. + + I would be a mermaid fair, + I would sing to myself the whole of the day; + With a comb of pearl I would comb my hair, + And still as I comb'd, I would sing and say, + "Who is it loves me? who loves not me?" + --Tennyson. + + +One day there was a gale. It came up suddenly, and some ladies sitting on +a bench were swept off by a roll and sudden lurch. The deck was soon +cleared of the feminine element, with the exception of Bluebell, who +enjoyed an immunity from _malheur de mer_, and knew she would not be much +better off in her cabin, where Mrs. Oliphant had gradually ousted her +from everything but sleeping accommodation. + +A huge roller had hurled itself over the steerage, and broken a man's +arm; but the part of the vessel she was on kept pretty dry. Stormy +petrels were hovering in flocks; the ship, plunging head foremost into +deep troughs, seemed as if it must break its back or be swallowed up, but +always borne on the crest of a wave only to repeat the header next +minute. + +Bluebell was lying (for no other position could be preserved) on some +rigs by the wheel, and holding on by a rope to prevent sliding about. She +felt excited by the grandeur of the situation, and, in the pauses of the +wind, sang low some wild German Volkslied. + +"Are you a Lorelei?" asked Mr. Dutton, who was never far off. "What do +you intend to do with the steamer?" + +"I don't mean any harm to the ship, but I shan't lull the winds yet. How +delightful and magnificent it is!" + +"If you really don't mean to engulf us, and won't comb your golden hair, +pray go on singing. I'll risk it." + +Bluebell nodded, and gave full play to her magnificent voice in the +wildest Lieder she could remember. The man at the wheel, if he had ever +heard of a Lorelei, might have been excused for mistaking her for one. A +lady to sit and sing in such a gale was not an every-day experience. Her +bright hair was only covered by the hood of a deep-blue cloak, from which +her large eyes seemed to have caught a reflection, so dark were the +pupils dilated with enthusiasm. + +"You might be a corsair's bride," said Mr. Dutton, admiringly, "you are +so indifferent to discomfort and danger. I can't fancy you shut up in a +poky school-room, taking regular walks, and teaching Dr. Watts to +tiresome children." + +"I have only one pupil of a musical and romantic turn. You are altogether +wrong in thinking me indifferent to luxury; I am quite longing to be in a +comfortable house again." + +"Your penance will be over in a day or two. Why do you stay out to be +drenched with spray and perished with cold?" very discontentedly. + +"How can I be either with all these wraps? and, when you are not sulky, +your society _is_ preferable to Mrs. Oliphant's!" + +"Yes; that is about my place in your--what shall I call it? Regard is a +nice, proper word,--just more acceptable than the plainest and most +spiteful woman on board." + +"Rather more than that," said Bluebell, gently. "It would have been far +worse without you; but after this voyage we are not likely to meet again, +though I shall never think of it without remembering my friend." + +"What a nice word!" savagely. "Why don't you add,-- + + 'Others may woo me--thou art my friend?' + +Do you know that song, Miss Leigh?" + +"Yes," laughing. + + "'Lonely and sadly his young life did end; + Pause by my tombstone, and pity thy friend.' + +It's enough to draw tears from one's eyes." + +"Well!" said the lieutenant, "I never met a Canadian girl before, but I +see now they are the coldest, most insensible--oh! of course, you only +laugh. How do you know we shall never meet again? Suppose I call on you +in your new--situation." + +"Governesses are not allowed 'followers.' I mean, male visitors would be +considered as such." + +"Couldn't I get a tutorship in the same family?" + +"There are no boys. Gracious! what a wave. Surely it is getting rougher, +Mr. Dutton?" + +"Well, yes. I think I must take you down. The next roller may wash over +you. Lean all your weight on me, or you'll be blown off your feet." + +In a most incoherent manner she reached the gangway, and, clinging to the +banisters, reeled into her cabin, where was Mrs. Oliphant in hysterics. +The stewardess was in attendance, and she was insisting on her +immediately fetching the captain, as, without his assurance that there +was no danger, she declined to be calm. + +"As if the captain could leave his bridge!" said Bluebell, laughing. "And +I am sure the ship would go down if he did." + +Another shriek from Mrs. Oliphant, who, with a desperate effort, seized +on a life-belt, and called to the stewardess to assist in its adjustment. + +"Oh, dear!" cried Bluebell. "And what is to become of me? However, you +are quite welcome to it. I had sooner be drowned at once than bob about +on a wave, with sharks nibbling at my toes for an hour or two +previously." + +"Perhaps, ma'am, now this young lady be come, who seems to have a good +heart," said the stewardess, "you will let me go to Mrs. Preston and Mrs. +Butler, who have been wanting me ever so long." + +"No; I will not be deserted. Mrs. Butler has her husband and Mrs. Preston +has her maid." + +"Oh, she is worse than all! She sent down for Mrs. Preston to come up and +speak to her, as she was dying as fast as she could, and the poor lady +couldn't as much as lift her own 'ead." + +"And you are not so very bad," said Bluebell, encouragingly. "Think of +Mrs. Dove, of the 100th 'Scatterers,' and don't give way." + +So, partly by laughing and partly by gentle determination, she brought +her round, and favoured the escape of the stewardess. + +It was not a very agreeable task soothing this selfish and cowardly +woman; and she was by no means assured that there was no cause for +anxiety. Her thoughts reverted to Bertie. Suppose they were all drowned. +In theory she hoped Cecil would be happy with him. Still there was a +_soupcon_ of gratification in imagining him mourning in secret anguish +and remorse over her untimely end. She remembered his favourite poem in +the "Wanderer" that Cecil used to read, and the lines,-- + + "I thought were she only living still, + How I could forgive her and love her." + +Only in this instance forgiveness was more due from her. + +Mr. Dutton here knocked at the door, to offer to help them up stairs to +dinner; but Mrs. Oliphant had dropped asleep, exhausted by her emotions, +so they went up alone. Only a few gentlemen were in the saloon, and the +widow lady, whom everybody had begun to like, she was so unselfish and +contented. + +Dinner was consumed in a picnic fashion. Bluebell's modicum of sherry had +to be tossed off at once in a tumbler, for the glasses were dancing a +hornpipe on the table, plates required a restraining hand, and their +contents to be conveyed to the mouth with as much accuracy of aim as was +attainable. + +She thought compassionately of the careworn mother of H'Emma, who +probably would have been quite neglected during the gale, and determined +to take her something, and get Mr. Dutton to carry it and steady her own +footsteps. Nothing could exceed the discomfort in which they found them. +The nursery-maid was imbecile from terror and prostrate with sickness, +and the harassed mother doing the best she could. + +To begin with, H'Emma had received a whipping, which, however undeserved, +was probably the most judicious course, by inspiring fortitude, and +cutting off all hopes of undue indulgence. + +The poor woman was very grateful for the visit. "No one had been near +them," she said; "and the girl was so frightened, and H'Emma had screamed +so, she was at her wits' end." + +"I am surprised at you, Emma!" said Mr. Dutton. "When, you are grown +up you may be as frightened as you please; but if you don't practise +self-command as a child, you'll be very properly whipped." + +At this allusion to her misfortunes another howl seemed impending, only +that her attention was arrested by an orange tossed carelessly in the +air. + +"Whoever catches it may have it. Don't look at mamma; she has abdicated +for the present, and we are here to put the kingdom to rights. Don't you +think, Emma," in a whisper, "it would be a very good thing if that +squalling, bald-headed young fraternity of yours were slapped?" + +"Mammy says it is his teeth." + +"No reason he should set ours on edge. I'd compose him if I had the +chance! Well, Miss Leigh, if I can't fetch anything else for this lady, +I'll go on deck, and return presently to report progress and help you +back again." + +The storm raged for many hours more, and struck terror into the hearts of +the women and children. Mr. Dutton and some of the other gentlemen were +up all night, as well as the captain and officers; but the morning rose +calm and delicious over a sleeping sea, and cheerfulness and high spirits +reigned in the ship. They were within a day of land, too--a more welcome +prospect than ever, after the perils and dangers of the night. The +dinner-table had scarcely an absentee, and was far more lively than it +had ever been yet. + +"One can sleep comfortably to-night, being so near land," cried the +thoughtless Mrs. Butler. + +"There have been more shipwrecks off the coast of Ireland than any +other," said Mr. Dutton, sardonically. He was the only one who did not +display unmixed delight at reaching England; and, when other people are +exuberantly rejoicing at the very thing that is annoying ourselves, to +moderate their transports a little is a satisfaction. + +"Oh, how can you be so shocking! But I don't believe you. Once we are in +sight of land, if there were any danger, what would prevent us getting +into boats and rowing to it?" + +And then Mr. Dutton plunged into a ghastly tale of a steamer that had +struck on the Irish coast at night, and the passengers had to take to the +boats in their bed-clothes. One poor mother, with a baby tied on her back +with a shawl, and another child in her arms, found the shawl empty, the +infant having slipped out into the sea; and how they remained beating +about for hours before they could land, nearly perished with cold from +insufficient clothing. + +Everybody seemed provided with similar anecdotes, and yarn succeeded yarn +till late in the evening, when a message from the captain that Ireland +was in sight brought them all on deck. The moon was shining softly over +the beautiful mountains and valleys of ----. A more exquisite little +picture could hardly have been presented to the eye wearied of perpetual +gazing on the pathless ocean. Exclamations of delight were heard on all +sides, while some prosaically remarked it was almost as fine as scenes in +"Peep o' Day" or "The Colleen Bawn." To Bluebell it was fairy-land. To +begin with, she had never seen a mountain, and the picturesque in Canada +is on too large a scale for the little details that give beauty to +scenery. Her conception of the Emerald Isle, founded on Lover's ballads +and Lever's romances, was completely realized. + +"How haunting!" said she, in a hushed whisper. "What a pity to go any +further, and be disenchanted, perhaps!" + +"I wish," said Mr. Dutton, "you would think you might go further and fare +worse in another case,"--which ambiguous speech, it must be supposed, was +not intended to be taken literally; for, though youthful susceptibility +and propinquity had given birth to a hasty passion, and he was savage +enough at the prospect of parting, to a young man dependent on an uncle +and residing chiefly at sea a penniless wife might have its +embarrassments. + +Bluebell had glided down the companion again. The mails were landed, the +pilot came on board, and next morning they were steaming into the Mersey. +Many of the passengers had got letters, and were talking of their plans +and fussing about luggage. + +"How refreshing it is to see some one without that business look!" cried +Mr. Dutton to Bluebell, who was leisurely reading in the saloon. "But +have you no goods or chattels, Miss Leigh? And ought not you to have a +letter with sailing orders?" + +"I have two boxes somewhere in the hold. No, I didn't expect a letter, I +was to telegraph at Liverpool, and come right off. This is the address:-- + + "Mrs. Leighton, + "Leighton Court + "Calmshire." + +"Why, that is my line!" said the sailor, mendaciously. "I can travel with +you as far as Calmshire." + +"Can you really? How very strange! But I suppose England _is_ a small +place," said Bluebell, _naively_. + +"Oh, extremely insignificant! I shall be able to see you safely to your +journey's end. So that's all settled. Now I will go and look if your +luggage is coming up, for I suppose we shall land in an hour or two." + +Bluebell's curiosity was excited by the _Times_ newspaper, which a +gentleman had just laid down. It was only the advertisement sheet, for +some one else had immediately snapped up the rest, and she glanced +vaguely down the first columns, puzzling over such enigmatical insertions +as "Our tree, our bridge, our walk," "What shall we do with the Tusk?" +and that "John is entreated to write and send remittances to his +afflicted Teapot,"--when her eye lit upon the following name among the +deaths:-- + + "On the 22nd inst., at Leighton Court, of scarlet fever, Evelyn Cora, + only child of Mrs. and the late Henry Leighton, Esq., aged eleven + years." + +Bluebell sat petrified,--the ground cut beneath her feet,--she could only +be shocked for the poor child whom she had never known. But what was to +become of herself in a strange land, with no place to go to? Besides +Leighton Court there was not a place in all England, except an inn, that +she would have a right to enter; and in a few minutes more the shelter +of the ship would be withdrawn,--even now she could see the smoke of the +tug coming to disembark them. Perfectly appalled and unnerved, she pushed +the paragraph towards Mr. Dutton, who had just entered, and gazed +helplessly at him with large frightened eyes. + +He took in the situation at a glance, and the thought that had struck him +before of the strangeness of sending this beautiful girl, like a bale of +goods, to an unknown country, where she had no connections, returned with +confirmed force. How friendless she was! But slenderly supplied with +money, of course. A daring possibility had darted into his mind. It was +an irresistible temptation,--and sailors are proverbially reckless. +Matrimony hitherto had never entered into his views. It would entail +leaving the navy and living with his uncle, who, though kind, was +arbitrary enough, and would have very decided opinions upon whom his +choice should fall. Connection, money, he knew would be a _sine qua non_. +More than one well-born and tochered _debutante_ had successively been +indicated to him as a bride that would in all respects suit Lord +Bromley's views; and Bluebell, as far as he knew, fulfilled none of these +conditions. All the same the struggle in his mind was in combatting the +difficulties that opposed his resolution to marry her. + +Bluebell, of course, could not guess his thoughts, and she only felt very +desponding that he seemed unable to suggest anything. + +"Oh, Mr. Dutton," she cried, "do go and tell the captain, and ask him +what I had better do! He is sure to think of something,--for a day or +two, at any rate." + +The young man looked up with a strange smile, but there were other +persons present. "Certainly," he said, with rather a constrained manner. +"I will go and tell him,"--and Bluebell, mistaking his reserve for +coolness, felt disappointed. + +The captain was very busy, and not too well pleased at being interrupted, +but when he had mastered the intelligence he gave it his whole attention +directly. + +"Eh, the puir lassie!" he ejaculated, "wha's to become of her!" + +"There's only one thing that I can do," said the lieutenant, briefly. + +"You!" said the skipper, whose remark had been an exclamation, not an +interrogation. "What the mischief could you do? I am doubting what the +guidwife will say, but I am thinking I must _jeest_ take her home." + +"Oh, how good of you, sir!" said the young man, seizing his hand, +unobservant of the dry cynical look in his eyes. "But I trust it will not +be for long, as I must tell you, in confidence, if she will only consent, +I intend--I hope to marry Miss Leigh immediately." + +"You be d--d! I will have no such goings on. If the lassie comes to me, +she will act conformable; and, if you think you are in a position to +maintain a wife, you may consult your _feymily_; I'll have no such +responsibility." + +"You are, of course omnipotent in your own ship," said the young sailor, +angrily, "but you need not forget you are speaking to a gentleman." + +"As far as I can see they are no honester than other people. I only +belong to the respectable class myself, and I'll no have it." + +"What a fool I was to tell you! But surely," half laughing, "matrimony is +an honourable institution." + +"I kenna--I kenna. I'll give the bairn shelter till she hears from her +kin, but I'll have no marrying or such like, to be called to account for +mayhap afterwards." + +But Mr. Dutton, only made more eager by opposition, sprang away to the +saloon, where Bluebell was sitting. + +"Yes, I have a message for you," said he, in answer to her inquiring +look. "Will you come on deck? Here are your cloak and hood." + +He led her away, with rather a pale face, to the most secluded part of +it. + +"What did the captain say?" she asked. + +"The captain is a canny, suspicious, pigheaded old Scottish-man!" + +"Of course, of course," very despondingly, "no one can do anything for +me. I must go to a lodging, and advertise for another situation." + +"They will want a recommendation from your last place." + +"Well, I can get it from Canada." + +"And that will take a month. Bluebell, listen to me; for there's no time +to beat about the bush. I love you, my sweet child; but that you know +already. Will you marry me? Don't start. I know it is sudden, but it +will be all easy. Directly we land we can drive to a register office; +they will ask no questions, but marry us right off, and we can have it +done over again in a church, if you like." + +Bluebell began to wonder how many more sensational minutes this hour was +to contain. + +"Mr. Dutton," she gasped, in a horrified tone, "what _are_ you saying? +You must know it is impossible." + +"Summon all your moral courage, Bluebell. You were not afraid in the +storm. Why do you shrink from acting a little out of the common?" + +This speech was so like what Bertie would have said, that it nearly +brought the tears to her eyes. + +"Pray say no more," said she, shrinking away from him. "How could I ever +_dream_ of such a thing!" + +"_Can't_ you care for me, Bluebell--ever so little?" pleaded Harry +Dutton. + +"But that would be so _very_ much!" + +Her strange wooer grew more eager, for the moments were passing, and +Bluebell was at her wit's end, when the skipper came rolling up to them. +The delight and relief with which his proposal of taking her home was +received was far from pleasing to Mr. Dutton, and Bluebell, in her +lightened heart, felt some self-reproach at the sight of his gloomy +countenance. + +The captain was hurrying her away, but she lingered a moment, and, with +one of those speaking glances he had learnt to look for and love, put out +her hand to the young sailor. + +"Stay with me," he whispered; "it is not yet too late." She shook her +head, "I believe you hate me!" he muttered, savagely. + +"No," said Bluebell, impulsively saying more than she felt. "I like you +only too well--but not enough for that." + +"Any more last words?" said the skipper, who had stood aside +good-humouredly, master of the situation. + +"I have nothing further to say," said the young man, stiffly, making way +for her to pass. + +A minute more, and she was rowing to shore in the captain's boat, who +then put her into a cab to drive to his home. + +Now, the good skipper, such an autocrat on board his vessel, was by no +means so under his own roof-tree, and sundry misgivings obtruded +themselves as to the welcome he might receive from the wife of his bosom +when a comely young lady was to be included in it. + +"She'll no jeest like it at first," he muttered, half aloud; and as the +moment approached and apprehension intensified, he repeated the remark +still louder. + +This moderate expectation was amply justified by the event. The good lady +received the explanatory introduction with a snort, and a countenance +expressive of contempt and disbelief, while she ironically "feared there +would be nothing in the house good enough for her." + +Bluebell endeavoured to excuse her unlucky presence, the best argument +she could think of being that she would advertise for another situation +immediately. Only for the fear of offending the captain, she would have +added that she was prepared to pay for her board, which, by putting it on +a business footing, would doubtless have commended itself to the dominant +passion of her hostess's mind, and dispersed the misgivings she at +present entertained of this "fine madam." + +The general stiffness was relieved by the boisterous greetings of the +captain's boys, who had just rushed in from school; but it was a terrible +evening to Bluebell, feeling _de trop_, and unable to calculate how soon +she should be released. + +"Ye'll jeest put her in Phemie's room," the skipper had said. (Phemie was +a daughter lately married.) "How will I do that," was the responding +retort, "when the carpet is up, and the iron bedstead was broke by Rab a +week syne?" + +"Well, then, Rab will jeest let her have his bed," said the captain, +equably brewing himself some whiskey-and-water,--and so on through the +evening, during which Mrs. Davidson by no means softened the trouble and +inconvenience Bluebell's presence occasioned, whose spirits fell to their +lowest depth. + +Was it to be wondered at that Harry Dutton recurred pretty constantly to +her mind? She could think calmly now of the proposal that had so startled +her before. It was, at any rate, a sincere, straightforward offer of +marriage, and so far he contrasted favourably with Bertie, whom she had +determined to forget. But, then, she had dismissed him--he had gone away +to his uncle's, and they would probably never meet again; and as when a +thing is out of reach it becomes immediately enhanced in value, she began +to regret her lost lover, and to think that there, perhaps, might have +been a short cut out of her difficulties. We are aware that this unlucky +admission must depose her at once from the rank of a heroine, as it is +well known a heroine never for an instant suffers interest to enter into +the sacred claims of love. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX. + +BLUEBELL'S DEBUT IN THE OLD COUNTRY. + + Says "Be content my lovely May, + For thou shalt be my bride." + With her yellow hair, that glittered fair, + She dried the trickling tear, + And sighed the name of Branxholm's heir, + The youth that she loved dear. + --Scott. + + +Next morning Bluebell rose early, and wrote out an advertisement, in +which she described herself, more truthfully, than diplomatically, as a +young person of eighteen, proficient in music, but not skilled enough in +other branches of education for advanced pupils. + +The captain promised to write to Mrs. Leighton, reporting her arrival, +and explaining that "Miss Leigh would not think of intruding on her in +her bereavement, but only requested permission to be allowed to apply to +her as a reference when she heard of another situation." He added, "That +in the meantime Miss Leigh was remaining in his family." + +Armed with the advertisement, Bluebell pensively walked off to get it +inserted in the _Liverpool Mercury_. The captain lived in a suburb of the +town, and had given her clear directions how to find the office. It was a +disagreeable walk, and she was obliged to concentrate all her attention +on not losing the way, so her thoughts could not well stray to Harry +Dutton; but ere she had proceeded many streets--she met him! He was +looking very haggard, but eagerness and triumph lighted up his large +brown eyes as he perceived her. Bluebell was in a state of half terror, +half delight, and whole bewilderment. + +"How is it you are still in Liverpool?" she gasped. + +"I have been walking about all day in hopes of meeting you!" cried he, +disregarding her question. + +Bluebell felt as if she had recovered an old friend. She told him of her +rough reception by Mrs. Davidson, and how annoyed she was at being forced +to remain there an unwelcome guest. + +The answer to this was obvious, but the lieutenant would say nothing now +to scare her. + +"Why we have got to the river," she said, after some unheeded period of +eager conversation, "and my advertisement! It must be miles from the +office!" + +"Much too far to go back," said the sailor "Give it me, I will insert it +for you." + +"Thank you," said the heedless Bluebell. "That will be so much +pleasanter, and we need not thread those horrid streets again!" + +There was nothing more to do but to go home, and yet she didn't directly. +There would be only Mrs. Davidson in, who was so ungracious and +disagreeable, and she lingered half an hour or so, talking to Harry +Dutton, who would, perhaps, be gone by to-morrow, but he wasn't, nor the +next day, nor the next. They never made any assignations, yet day after +day Bluebell met him, and for a brief space they were together. + +Harry Dutton was only twenty-two, he had been at sea all his life, and +had never been seriously in love before. But now he had completely lost +his head, and all considerations were swept away by this overmastering +passion, which his knowledge that Bluebell did not fully return only +seemed to augment. His uncle was a selfish, exacting old man, but he had +been kind enough to this boy who, with the usual ingratitude of human +nature, forgot everything to gratify the fancy of the moment. + +Dutton had never been thrown in contact with so pretty a creature, and, +notwithstanding the apparent aberration of mind displayed in thus +jeopardizing his prospects, laid his plans coolly and cleverly enough. +Bluebell still talked of her impending governess life, and he kept his +own council, though firmly resolved never to lose sight of her again. + +She was beginning to wonder that her advertisements had elicited no +replies, and Mrs. Davidson had been especially unpleasant about it, when +one day the wished-for letter arrived. + +"Mrs. Giles Johnson, having seen 'B.L.'s' advertisement in the _Liverpool +Mercury_, is requiring such a person to instruct and to take entire +charge of the wardrobes of five little girls, one of whom, being nervous, +she would be required to sleep with. Mrs. G. J. trusts she is obliging, +and would have no objection, when the lady's-maid has a press of work, to +assist her with it, or make herself generally useful in any other way. +'B.L.'s' attainments being apparently limited, and Mrs. Giles Johnson +having an abhorrence of music, she can only offer a salary of eighteen +pounds a year." + +Bluebell alternated between tears and laughter on the perusal of this +letter. + +"Why, at the Rollestons'," she cried, "I had thirty pounds a year, only +Freddy to teach, and did what I liked! But they were friends,"--and a +home-sick feeling came over her. + +"If ye just turn up your nose at every situation, ye'll never be placed," +said Mrs. Davidson. + +"Oh, perhaps I shall get another letter to-morrow. I would go back to +Canada if I had money enough." + +Bluebell put on her hat. Whichever way she went she was quite certain +of meeting Mr. Dutton, to whom she wished to display this wonderful +document. It was all very well to laugh, but it certainly was most +discouraging and vexatious. Yet Mr. Dutton, when she saw him, gravely +affirmed it to be "quite as good an offer as he had expected, and was +only surprised at her getting any answers at all,"--which well indeed he +might be, considering that the advertisement never appeared in any paper, +and that the liberal proposals of Mrs. Giles Johnson were an emanation +from his own brain. + +He proceeded to relate the most uncomfortable anecdotes of governess life +in England, making it appear that they were treated like white slaves, +and expected to know everything. + +Bluebell, though only half believing it, began seriously to question +whether her small attainments were saleable at all. Her friend the +captain would go to sea again shortly, and having prevailed on Mrs. +Davidson to receive a small contribution towards her board, the ten +pounds were dwindling away. + +Then, when she was reduced to the depths of perplexity and depression, +Harry Dutton cautiously pleaded his cause, and, as a strong will bent on +one object will always sway an irresolute mind, Bluebell listened, and +for once tried to realize what it would be. She had been frightened at +Dutton's precipitancy in the first instance; but now he had become in a +manner necessary to her, and she certainly liked him,--immensely. Still, +of course, after her experience of the _grande passion_, this mere +_entente cordiale_ could not be mistaken for the real article. But there +was another question: had she not, by meeting him so often, given him a +right so to speak, with fair expectation of success? She had heedlessly +walked into the snare with her eyes open, and felt no resisting power to +break through the mesh of circumstances that environed her. + +Bluebell wavered and hesitated. Harry followed up his advantage. Ere a +few stars twinkled out, "single spies" on their colloquy, the struggle +was over, and the bold wooer had extorted from his _fiancee_ a promise +to marry him the following morning but one at a register office in +Liverpool. + +The very next day they would probably not meet, as he had everything to +arrange, and also to prepare a lodging for her, for they had determined +to leave Liverpool immediately afterwards. + +One thing only Bluebell retained her firmness sufficiently to stipulate +for, which was, that the kind old captain should be told of it. Mr. +Dutton agreed, on condition that she did not breathe a syllable till +after their marriage, when he promised to write himself and acquaint the +skipper. + +Bluebell could scarcely trust herself to think as she walked slowly home. +She felt quite reckless, and as though she were fated to do this act, +that seemed so desperate. What would all her friends in Canada say? +Somehow she did not look forward to telling the news to Mrs. Rolleston. +She supposed Cecil would be pleased, and it might clear up matters +between her and Bertie. Ah! if it were only him she was going to be +married to! Why does one always like the wicked ones best? She wished to +imagine him desperate, remorseful, beside himself with jealousy. But she +knew that would not be so. At the utmost he would, perhaps, toss off a +brandy-and-soda, give a tremendous sigh, and ejaculate, "Ah! poor, dear +little Bluebell!" and then reflect that he would rather like to meet her +again, when there would be no question of marrying--the only thing he was +unprepared to do for her. + +From which tolerably accurate surmise our reader will perceive that our +heroine has rather come on in penetration since we first presented her +fresh and verdant in these pages. + +Then she thought of her mother, and how disappointed she would be at not +being present at the marriage. She had written to her on landing, but +this letter had been posted in Ireland. Since then she had acquainted her +with the facts of Evelyn's death, and of her own exertions to obtain +another situation, lodging in the mean time with Mrs. Davidson. + +On her re-appearance Bluebell was received somewhat coldly by the old +captain, who asked her where she could find to walk so long every day. It +was very disagreeable having to answer evasively, and he did not appear +satisfied--on the contrary, eyed her askance all the evening. + +The reason was, he had accidentally observed Mr. Dutton coming out of an +hotel, and was unable to conjecture what kept him in Liverpool, unless he +were lingering there on Bluebell's account. Connecting this with her +frequent absence from home, he began to think it time to be relieved from +the responsibility of this dangerous young guest. He did not reveal his +suspicions to his wife, but the following day kept something of a watch +over her, and proposed himself to accompany her out. + +Somewhat surprised by the placid gratitude of her reply, his suspicions +were still further allayed by seeing no sign of the lieutenant, for whom +he kept a sharp look-out. He told the girl--narrowly watching her all the +time--that there were many snares in Liverpool, and that unless he could +see her safely placed in a _feymily_ before the next trip of the +"Hyperion," he must arrange with the owners for the passage-money, and +take her back to her friends, trusting to them to, repay him. + +"How generous you are, dear Captain Davidson!" was all she said. But he +noticed she turned deadly pale, and two bright drops stood in her eyes. + +The idea was so tempting for a moment, with the irrevocable step of the +morrow hanging over her like a troubled dream. What if she could return +to the old, happy, careless days, and leave this smoky, foggy England, +where care and anxiety rose up at every step! But there is no going back +in life. What should she do in Canada? Her connection with the Rollestons +was played out, and for every one's happiness it was better severed. +There was scarcely any demand for governesses in the Dominion, as the +children commonly went to school; so she would encumber her mother with +the expenses of the voyage, with no prospect of contributing anything to +her very slender fund. + +All this passed rapidly through Bluebell's mind; but it soon settled into +an acceptance of what appeared the inevitable, while the good captain +talked on, hoping to induce her to place some confidence in him, if she +did know of her admirer's presence in Liverpool. + +The girl fathomed the old man's drift, and most heartily wished she had +not promised to conceal it from him. It would be an unspeakable relief if +this fatherly captain could only countenance and witness her marriage, to +say nothing of being spared the treachery of deceiving him after all his +kindness. But, there!--she had promised Harry, and must abide by her +word. + +Only, that evening at bed-time, observing Mrs. Davidson buried head and +shoulders in a cupboard she was straightening, Bluebell suddenly threw +her arms round the old skipper's neck, gave him a silent hug, and glided +from the room, and in the solitude of her own wrote, as fast as pen could +scribble, an impulsive, affectionate letter of adieu, confessing what she +was to do on the morrow, which her husband (she did not mention his name) +would then write and announce to him. + +"Eh! is the lassie daft?" had half murmured the not ill-pleased captain; +then, perceiving that the salute had been bestowed without the detection +of his partner, a large slow smile expanded itself all over his broad +face. + +"Wha are ye girning for like an auld Cheshire cat?" inquired the +unsuspicious lady. + +"Nonsense, my dear; nonsense!" complacently stirring his grog and looking +rather foolish. His Scotch head had disapproved of what his good heart, +of no nationality, had decided with regard to Bluebell. I am not sure +now, though, that he did not think the money might be worse risked than +in taking this personable lassie another trip across the Atlantic. + + + + +CHAPTER XXX. + +NO CARDS. + + Love will make oar cottage pleasant, + And I love thee more than life. + --Tennyson. + + +A dense November fog ushered in the dawn of the following day. Bluebell +had been awake for hours. Some men were mending the streets, and, as she +listened to the monotonous blows of their pickaxes and hammers, a +lugubrious fancy crossed her that just such sounds would a criminal hear +when workmen were erecting the gallows that was to close his mortal +career. By ten o'clock a new page of her life would be turned over, if, +nervous and unstrung as she was, she were able to carry out the first +part of the drama. Suppose the captain should object to her walking +abroad, or offer again to accompany her! And even if she effected a +start, might he not, his suspicions awakened, quickly follow! The eight +o'clock breakfast bell rang, and Bluebell came down with a white, scared +face and dark rims to her eyes. The captain appeared unobservant. To tell +the truth, the stolen kiss, which he probably considered "naughty, but +nice," had made him somewhat conscious. So he looked demure and rather +sly; but the girl had forgotten the circumstance. + +The old Dutch clock ticked louder than ever, and, as usual, recorded +the quarters with an internal convulsion. At half-past nine the boys +would go to school, and, in the commotion of their departure, Bluebell +resolved to pass from the threshold and go forth to her fate. She got her +hat,--unnoticed and unquestioned was in the street, and groping her way +through the fog with swift, unsteady steps. In two turnings from the door +Dutton met her, a relieved, triumphant smile lighting his features as he +placed her in a cab. The man, previously instructed, drove rapidly off to +the register office. Bluebell, now the die was cast, felt almost +fainting; but Harry's strong arm was round her, and in less than a +quarter of an hour these two youthful lunatics were as securely and +irrevocably married as though the ceremony had been performed by an +archbishop in full canonicals. The gold circlet was on her finger, with a +pearl one to guard it--of no great value, for Harry was aware there would +be sundry demands on his ready money. Bluebell, of course, could have no +luggage, and he had put himself in the hands of a patronizing lady in an +outfitting establishment, and procured her a small stock of necessaries. +He had received his pay, and not long since a liberal cheque from Lord +Bromley; so the "sinews of war" were not wanting for the present. They +drove straight from the register office to the station, and were in the +train and far on their journey before Bluebell had the least idea where +they were going to; indeed, if she had known, she would scarcely have +been wiser, all places in England being equally strange to her. + +Dutton, rapturously in love, now that his schemes were successful, was in +a state of exulting happiness almost overwhelming to Bluebell, secretly +oppressed with a sense of the irrevocable. She even caught herself, when +they stopped at stations, wishing that some one would get in. Very +different was the first-class carriage from the long cars, containing +sixty or seventy persons, that she had previously travelled in. But yet +there were four vacant seats, which in spite of the rush for places, +continued unoccupied. Now and then their door was hastily clutched by +some passenger, but a guard seemed invariably to turn up and bear the +individual away to another carriage. About three o'clock they stopped at +a very small station, where only one or two persons got out. + +"Here we are, Bluebell," cried Harry, grasping rugs, sticks, and +umbrellas, and throwing them to the porter. + +She sprang up and looked around with intense interest. They were nearing +her first _pied-a-terre_ as a married woman. But the journey was not yet +ended, and they transferred themselves to a fly, in which an old grey +horse waited sleepily. + +"Lucky I thought of ordering it," said Harry; "it is the only one here, +of course." + +"Harry!" cried Bluebell, rubbing her eyes, as if only just thoroughly +awake, "have you got a house? Where in the world are we going to?" + +"I couldn't think why you didn't ask that before, you little fatalist, +taking it all in such a predestined way. I hope you don't think it a case +of the Lord of Burleigh over again? It is only a cottage, Bluebell; but I +think it is comfortable, and one mercy is no one will be able to find us +here!" + +The extreme advantage of this isolation scarcely seemed so apparent to +her; and as the above sentence was the only connected or rational one +Harry gave utterance to, conversation, properly so called, was _nil_ +during the drive. After skirting a hanging wood, and passing some water +meadows, where red Herefordshire cows with white faces grazed under the +low wintry sky, they drove through a primitive village, and, turning down +a bye-road, drew up at a queer gabled cottage. It was very picturesque +and odd-looking, and Harry, during his last leave home, had spent a night +there on a visit to an artist friend, who was making sketches in the +neighbourhood. + +Its proprietor, a carpenter, sometimes lived in it, and sometimes was +able to let it to gentlemen coming down to fish in the river. On +receiving Dutton's telegram, he and his wife, who had given up all hopes +of letting it for the winter, gladly laid down their best carpets, +brought out their summer chintzes, and arranged everything in apple-pie +order, for the cottage was taken for a month certain. + +Harry had not forgotten to order a piano to be hired from the nearest +town. After their long journey it all looked very home-like and +attractive. They ran about the house like two children, examining +everything. The sitting-room was the prettiest, with its two bay-windows +at right-angles, low roof and rafters. The artist had gone abroad, and +had left some of his pictures on the wall in charge of the carpenter--a +bewitched Greuze, copied in the Louvre; the inevitable study of a +bird's-nest and primroses; a girl standing at a wash-tub by an open +window, on the sill of which outside leaned an Irish peasant, with his +handsome, blarneying face. Then there were sketches taken in the +neighbourhood. "I remember this one half finished on his easel," said +Harry. It was a glade of a forest; in the fore-ground a huge oak, +knee-deep in bracken, and tall blue hyacinths. "Look Bluebell, here is +your name-sake flower." + +"Oh, that is it! Well, I never saw one before; we have none in Canada." + +"I wish it were June now," said Harry; "summer weather is what this place +wants;" and he glanced out of the bay-window looking on a lawn, with a +spreading cedar encircled by a seat. Some pinched chrysanthemums--those +flowers that always look born in adverse circumstances--and one or two +hardy roses still lingered. The clematis made a bold show on the porch, +though the north wind had begun to detach its clinging embrace from the +masonry, and make wild work in its tangled masses. + +"It must be lovely in summer," said Bluebell, shivering, and feeling a +slightly depressing influence creeping over her. They wandered out by the +banks of the river to a ruined abbey, which always attracted tourists +during the season. It was especially sketchable, and "bits" of it were +carried away in many an artist's portfolio. But it was desolate now, and +flocks of jackdaws came screaming out of holes in the walls. + +I am painting from Bluebell's point of view, who could not shake off the +weird feeling that possessed her, to which, perhaps, fatigue, mental and +physical, not a little contributed. Yet when they came in no depression +could withstand the cheery look of the lamp-lit room, with its snowy +cloth laid for dinner, blazing fire, and closely-drawn curtains; and they +both were unmistakably hungry, for the breakfast they had been too +nervous to eat had been their only previous meal. + +The carpenter waited. Bluebell felt desperately conscious. His manner +was so benign and protecting, and he coughed so ostentatiously before +entering the room, she was perfectly sure he had guessed that they had +run away that morning. He imparted shreds of local information to Harry +while changing the plates, who answered good-humouredly, but would have +preferred to hear that the whole neighbourhood was wintering in Jericho. +A sociable Skye terrier, who strolled in with the first dish, was rather +a resource to the new-made bride, who found it easier to bend over +Archie, sitting up for bones, than to sustain with imperturbability the +curious if furtive observation of the carpenter. + +A day or two after this evening, Harry, coming in from a smoke, saw +Bluebell, with a pleased, intent face, writing, as fast as the pen could +scratch, over some foreign paper. + +"Oh, Harry," cried she without looking up, "we must not forget to walk +into the town this afternoon. It is mail-day, I have no stamps." + +Dutton's face became suddenly overcast. He jerked the end of his cigar +into the fire, and threw down his hat. + +"Whom are you writing to?" he asked. + +"To my mother, and everybody," said Bluebell, gleefully. "I am telling +them all about it." + +"The devil! My dear child, stop a little." + +"Why?" looking up surprised. "Oh, do you want to put something in? It +would be nicer. I'll leave half a sheet." + +Harry looked the picture of vexation and perplexity. He had never +realized Bluebell's relations, and here it seemed she was in regular +correspondence with her mother and other friends. + +"My dear girl, for goodness' sake stop! My uncle does not know it yet, +and you mustn't say a word to any one." + +Bluebell seemed rather bewildered. "Why don't you tell your uncle, then? +And surely my mother would be equally interested!" + +Dutton sat down for a long explanation, "I shouldn't so much have cared +about offending him before, but now I have you, Bluebell, it would be +ruin. I have nothing but my profession and what he allows me; and he +disinherited his only son for a marriage that displeased him." + +She gave a half start here. "What is your uncle's name." + +"Lord Bromley." + +"Oh, of course; you told me so before. Well, go on." + +"I shall run down to 'The Towers' presently, sound the old man, and break +it to him, if possible. If I could only take you, my darling, it ought to +do the business! By Jove, I have a great mind to try!" + +"But," said Bluebell, reverting to her own immediate anxiety, "I must +tell them at home what has become of me. Fancy, Harry, what a state they +would be in, not hearing! Let me, at any rate, say I am married, but +cannot tell my name for a few weeks." + +"Well, mind you don't say more," very gloomily. "I dare say there will be +no end of a row, and they will be sending people to try and trace us. +Impossible for a month, though," he reflected. + +"And, Harry, did you write to Captain Davidson?" + +He shook his head. + +"Oh, do, pray, or let me!" + +"Now, my dear Bluebell, haven't we just agreed the fewer people who know +it the better? You say you left a letter telling him you were to be +married, and it is no further business of his. Besides, he is a +suspicious old nuisance, and would very likely come boring down here; and +then I should be sure to quarrel with him. Come along, put on your hat, +and let us go out." + +"I must re-write my letter," said she. It was much shorter than the other +one, and a sober look had dawned on her fair face when it was finished. + +More than once she resumed the subject, but never got any satisfaction +from Dutton. "What did she want more? Could anything be jollier than the +life they were leading, with no one to bother them? Every one was alone +in the honeymoon; and, once their marriage was confessed, it would be the +beginning of ceaseless annoyance, disagreeable advice from relations, +shindies without end." + +Harry was still in the seventh heaven--more ardent in love with his wife +than ever; and this sweet little quiet home, with "the mystery and +romance of it," he was unwilling to tear himself from. To Bluebell it +bore a different aspect. Marriage had deprived her of all her friends, +and raised a barrier between the present and the past. There had been no +time to grow to Harry, and he demanded so much. She was never alone, +never free from this all-pervading passionate love that she felt quite +powerless to equal. Sometimes Bluebell marvelled he did not perceive +this, though nothing she dreaded more, for, since the discovery of how +much he had risked for her, she was always blaming herself for not +feeling the exclusive devotion that could alone recompense him. + +To be suddenly deprived of all occupation, and sent to some unfamiliar +place to be absolutely happy for a month, is an ordeal custom imposes +on most newly-wedded pairs; but a runaway match has severer conditions +still, since no letters of affectionate interest can be expected from +friends, and the bride has not even a trousseau to fall back upon. + +One morning after they had been married three weeks, a batch of letters +was forwarded to Dutton by his agent, to whom he had only lately given +his address. One was from Lord Bromley, and had lain there some time. On +coming in from a walk that same afternoon, they found cards on the table. + +"Just impertinent curiosity," growled Harry. + +"Why?" cried Bluebell. "For my part, I think it is rather fun to have a +visitor. Dear me, though, _I_ have no cards;"--and she coloured deeply as +she remembered that her marriage was still unacknowledged, even on +pasteboard. + +"Bluebell," cried Harry, impulsively, "I'll go to-morrow and make it all +right with my uncle at once." + +"Oh, I _wish_ you would," with deep energy. + +"And you don't mind being left?" he asked tenderly. + +"Oh, anything to have the secret at an end!" + +"Bluebell, for goodness' sake don't expect too much! What if my uncle +disinherited me? It is not at all unlikely." + +"Ah, Harry," said Bluebell, softly, "that comes of marrying me. Why did +you not think of it first? I should be no worse off," continued she, +musingly; "I could give music lessons. It's hard on you, of course; but, +Harry, do, pray, whatever are the consequences, tell him." + +"But you don't realize the consequences. I should be obliged to go to +sea, leave you alone, and have scarcely any money to send you. But if he +took it pleasantly, he could make it worth my while to leave the navy, +which he has always wished me to do, or let us have sufficient coin for +you to come to any port I am stationed at. As long as it was only myself, +I didn't care so much; yet Bromley Towers _is_ worth saving, if +possible." A pause. "But I can't think what you will do while I am away." + +"Shall I cultivate our visitors, Mr. and Mrs. Stevens?" + +"Not for the world; we must let them slide quietly, and then people will +begin to understand we don't wish to be called on." + +"I daresay you are right; this house must be an _oubliette_ till your +awful uncle is confessed to." Bluebell spoke with some asperity; the +concealment had become so unbearable. What would the Rollestons think if +her mother imparted to them her improbable story of being married to a +man who could not acknowledge her? And that dear old captain would most +likely imagine the worst without her being able to undeceive him. But +Harry was deep in _Bradshaw_, and unobservant. + +"I shall sleep in London, I think, and go down next morning. Let me see, +I shan't be able to get away till after the new year. Lord Bromley has +the usual family gathering on for Christmas." + +"Won't the time of your return somewhat depend on the way your +communication is received?" asked Bluebell, demurely. + +"Well, rather," laughing. "It won't do to bring it in head and shoulders. +I must stay a little while first and watch my opportunity." + +Bluebell walked with him to the station next day. It was freezing hard--a +bright, bracing morning; and when he had taken his place, and the train +had whistled off, she was shocked to find how her spirits rose. Of +course, she told herself it was because there would soon be no occasion +for concealment; but there was a sensation of present relief not quite to +be accounted for by that. + +Young people care quite as much as their elders for occasional +solitude--more, perhaps, for they have generally brighter thoughts to +fill it. Bluebell, from the reasons before mentioned, in her anxious +compliance with his every whim, had become quite a slave to Harry, and a +little breathing-time was far from unwelcome. After all, she had a good +deal exaggerated his sacrifice, which was made entirely to please +himself! + +Leaving the road, Bluebell struck a path across some fields leading to +the river, and amused herself throwing sticks for Archie to fetch off +its half-frozen surface--a diversion which soon palled on the Skye, +who was not fond of water; so Bluebell wandered on, soliloquizing, +as usual. Suppose this uncle, who loomed in her imagination like some +dread Genie in his disposition over their fate should receive the +intelligence by cutting off the supplies and hurling maledictions at +Harry's head, what on earth would they do? She had always been very +fond of acting,--indeed, had been quite an authority in drawing-room +theatricals and charades at "The Maples," and with her magnificent +powerful voice, what a pity she could not go on the stage! She had read +in novels of girls offering themselves to a manager and realizing +fabulous sums, and eighteen pounds a year seemed to be her net value in +the governess market. Then Harry might go to sea for a year or two,--they +were both so young,--and by that time things might look brighter, or the +Genie relent. + +She and Archie had a good time that bright winter day, and tired +themselves out completely. He could pass from the immediate enjoyment of +a meal to a snooze on the rug before the fire; but after Bluebell had had +some tea, there remained many hours at her disposal before bed-time. She +would have liked to have written a long letter to her mother; but if it +must be worded so guardedly, where was the good? So she flew to her +unfailing friend, the piano, and interpreted Schumann and Beethoven to +a late hour, while the carpenter and his wife, listening in the kitchen, +"wished that the lady would play something with a bit of tune in it, and +not be always practising them exercises." + + + + +CHAPTER XXXI. + +BROMLEY TOWERS. + + Had yon ever a cousin, Tom' + And did that cousin happen to sing' + Sisters we have by the dozen, + But a cousin's a different thing + --Hon. Mrs. Norton. + + +Harry had stayed the night in London, and rather wished, for the present, +it might be inferred that he had been there all the time. It was some +distance from Bromley Towers, and quite dusk as he drove through the +park. Snow was on the ground, and still falling slowly, the two roaring +fires in the hall, as the doors were thrown open, flung a red light on +the holly berries and gigantic bunch of mistletoe suspended from the +chandelier, and flickered on dark oil paintings let into the panels. The +footmen were unfamiliar, but the old butler beamed on the young heir he +had known from a boy. + +Harry shook him heartily by the hand, and asked a dozen questions in a +breath. There was a sprinkling of visitors already in the house, so, +shirking the reception rooms, he made straight for a private passage, +where in a certain study, he knew he should find his uncle. + +Lord Bromley seldom had his large house empty and there were ample means +of entertainment for guests, but, like a good general, he had a secure +retreat from the perils of boredom in a sacred suite of rooms, to which +no one but his nephew had access. To Harry himself this particular study +was invested with a certain amount of solemnity, he had been summoned +there on so many notable occasions,--once to be sentenced to a thrashing +from a malevolent tutor who had reported him, afterwards, before going to +school, to receive good advice, not unsweetened by a tip. Cheques had +been dealt out there, and his uncle's views for his future guidance +inculcated on him. Dutton entered now with somewhat of the feelings of a +truant schoolboy, for had he not been on shore a month without coming +near the place or even writing? + +He murmured something about London and business, which the old peer +received with the merest elevation of the eyebrows, and was evidently not +going to be unpleasant about it. He knew his nephew was just off a voyage +and in possession of a handsome cheque, and was not ill pleased that he +should have had his fling, and have done with it before coming down. + +Besides, if some plans of his succeeded, he would soon have to _range_ +himself. + +Finding it was all right, and Lord Bromley disposed to be sociable, Harry +made himself as entertaining as possible, and was communicative enough +about everything but the proceedings of the last few weeks. + +"I think you know most of the people in the house," said his uncle, as +Dutton was retiring to dress, "except, perhaps, one or two men. Lady +Calvert has brought her daughter here. She was not out, you know, when +you last went to sea." + +"I remember her, though; projecting teeth and--" + +"She will probably drop into all that Durnford property now Lionel is +dead." + +When he came down to dinner, Lord Bromley introduced him very +particularly to the few strangers present, who all thought how fond his +uncle seemed of him, and that he would surely be the heir. + +Dutton, like most careless dressing men, looked best in the regulation +simplicity of evening clothes, in which the despotism of fashion curbs +all vagaries of fancy. More than one feminine critic smiled involuntary +approval of the handsome young sailor, whose easy, slightly +unconventional manner, though singular, was not unattractive. + +He had been told off to take Lady Geraldine Vane in to dinner, and went +to renew acquaintance with her at once. She was dressed in a cloud of +blue tulle, and wore a heavy white wreath on her hair, which was very +light. Complexion she had none. She was pale without being fair. Her +features were irregular, lips thin, with projecting teeth, and eyebrows +scarcely apparent at all. Yet these defects were partly redeemed by one +sole attraction, a pair of large, light eyes, with a great deal of heart +in them. They could glisten with affection and brighten with interest, +and were the faithful mirrors of a modest, sensitive, and naturally +amiable disposition. But Harry thought her, dress and all, the most +colourless object, and longed to offer even a damask rose to break the +cold, sickly effect. + +There was another young lady present, of a very different type to Lady +Geraldine,--not exactly pretty, but evidently aiming at being _chic_. Her +dress was of the latest fashion, and in a slightly audacious style, +likewise the arrangement of her hair. She had a pretty, neat figure, and +a way of seeing everything through half-shut eyes. This was Harry's +cousin Kate. + +Perhaps it would be too much to say he was very fond of this young +damsel; but, at any rate, he was delighted to find her there. "She is +such a jolly girl in a house!" he said to himself. + +Kate, then a finished coquette of ten, used to try her hand at flirting +with the big schoolboy; and when she had him in a state of helpless +adoration, and all his pocket-money was gone in presents to her, would +turn him off in favour of his particular friend, who was spending the +holidays at Bromley Towers. The two boys blacked each other's eyes in +consequence; but the capricious fair only remarked that "they had made +such frights of themselves, the sooner they went back to school the +better." + +As they grew up the intimacy continued. Kate would make use of him as an +escort, and allow him to kiss her as a cousin. She also confided to him +her love affairs, which at first made him very angry, but afterwards he +sometimes suspected their veracity. + +Harry could not help watching her at dinner. He saw the amused face of +her neighbour, Colonel Dashwood, and sometimes caught her lively +repartees. + +Lady Geraldine was rather tame, and not even pretty; it was up hill work +talking to her, and he was just in the humour for a chaffing match with +cousin Kate. After dinner it was just the same: she was surrounded by +men, and Lady Geraldine, the only other girl, sat apart, with rather a +plaintive, neglected look. + +"Why can't she talk to some of those old women?" thought Harry. But he +felt bound to try and amuse her, and, after a little desultory +conversation, ingeniously evaded the necessity of boring himself further +by asking her to sing. She complied very amiably, and, as he stationed +himself near to turn over, saw it was one of Bluebell's songs. Lady +Geraldine had been well taught, and sang accurately; but, oh! the +contrast of the thin, piping voice and expressionless delivery to the +rich tones and almost dramatic fervour with which Bluebell poured forth +her "native wood-notes wild"! Then Kate came to the front, followed by a +devoted cavalier, who took her gloves and fan, and was forthwith +despatched in search of a very particular manuscript book somewhere in +the half. + +_En attendant_ she rattled off a sparkling French _chansonnette_ with +such _elan_ that every man in the room, musical or otherwise, was soon +round the piano. Her voice was harsh and wiry; but there was an oddity +and originality in her style, while she pronounced the words with a +vehement clearness, that drove their meaning home to the dullest ear. Mr. +Hornby returned with the manuscript book, fastened by a patent lock, +and ornamented with an elaborate monogram. + +"I never keep any songs that other people have, so I am obliged to guard +my _specialites_ under lock and key,"--and she held out her arm to +Colonel Dashwood to unclasp a bracelet, the medallion of which opened on +touching a spring, and disclosed a gold key. + +Colonel Dashwood retained the wrist while pretending to examine this +miracle, and Kate shot one of her dangerous glances out of half-closed +eyes. + +A personal assault upon Dashwood would have been consonant to Harry's +feelings at the moment. He was not yet quite proof against twinges of +jealousy about cousin Kate, who was now turning over the leaves of her +book with an unconscious air. + +"This song Mr. Forsyth brought me from Mexico. Such crabbed copying, only +an expert could read it; so I merely scribbled down the words, and made +him sing the air till I had caught it. That Charley Dacre got from a +boatman at Venice; and this little Troubadour thing" (sentimentally) "was +composed by a friend of mine, who has promised never to let any one +possess it but myself." + +"I hope you bought up the whole edition," put in Harry. + +"And here--even you, you dear, unmusical boy, are represented. Do you +remember it, Harry?" (playing a few bars.) "The air you were always +whistling, and said the sailors sang at watch." + +"Yes, that was it," said he, with brightening eyes. "How could you +recollect?" + +"Well, when you went to sea I got somewhat plaintive and dull; used to +hum it about the house, and set down the notes." + +"But these are not the right words." + +"Oh, no," said Kate, casting down her eyes with modest candour; "they are +my own." + +Now Harry at the same moment felt almost certain he had seen the lines +somewhere before; and, being rather apt to stick to a point, turned it +over in his mind, while his cousin poured forth a flood of song like a +skylark soaring. Ere she desisted, Dutton had left the room, and +discovered the words in an old Annual on a top shelf in the library. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXII. + +THE SPRING WOODS. + + But, Tom, you'll soon find, for I happen to know, + That such walks often lead into straying; + And the voices of cousins are sometimes so low, + Heaven only knows what you'll be saying. + And long ere the walk is half over those strings + Of your heart are all put into play + By the voice of those fair demi-sisterly things, + In not quite the most brotherly way. + --Hon. Mrs. Norton. + + +More snow fell that night, and Lord Bromley's gardeners were sweeping the +walks from an early hour next morning. Robins lingered about with bright +eyes, soliciting crumbs, and shaking off showers of snow as they flew +from yew-hedge to holly-bush. Breakfast was over at "The Towers," except +for a few late individuals; and Harry Dutton, in a pair of long boots, +and, I am afraid, a pipe in his mouth, was taking a quarter-deck walk in +front of the ball-room windows. He was thinking pretty hard, and the +subject was evidently not pleasing, as it was with a sensation of relief +he observed a deft figure crossing the ball-room, in a fur-trimmed cloth +costume, remarkably well kilted up over a resolute-looking pair of small +boots. She signed to him to open the windows and let her out. Harry made +a feint of emptying his pipe, but received gracious permission to "puff +away." + +"That killing get-up can't be for me," thought he. "I'll give her the tip +she wants." + +"A certain good-looking Colonel of Hussars has gone to play a match at +billiards till luncheon." + +"Why that blunt and abrupt observation, _a propos_ to nothing?" + +"You must excuse my sea manners. I should have used more circumlocution, +but they don't put much polish on us on board." + +"No, they don't, and you boast of it, hence that phrase. You never hear a +soldier apologizing for his 'army manners'!" + +"Speaks well for their modesty! Well, Kate, where are you bound for? You +are not rigged up in that way merely to coast about here." + +"I meant to walk round the spring woods." + +"And as Dashwood has sloped perhaps I may sail in consort. The walks +won't be swept, of course, and that dainty scarlet petticoat will look +like an old hunting-coat." + +But a gardener asserting that the men had been at work since daylight, +the cousins departed on their ramble. + +A gravel walk a mile round encircled the inner ring of a wood left wild, +except where rides were cut, showing vistas into the park beyond. Here +and there it was cleared into a rosary, with a summer-house, a Dutch +garden with a fountain, a glade with a fish-pond, etc. The trees were +magnificent, and many a foreign specimen was represented, while the +shimmering tints of grey-green, from their great variety, were of shades +innumerable. Sometimes the bordering turf became wider, and flowering +shrubs grew each side of the walk,--an intoxicating spot in spring, when +the wild flowers carpeted the woods, and the bird _artistes_, returning +from starring in other lands, recommenced their "popular concerts." + +Even now, in winter dress, its attractions were but changed. The +lichen-covered kings of the forest revealed their bold limbs undisguised +by foliage, the feathery birch showed its delicate tracery against the +clear winter sky, and Dutton sighed as he gazed on that fair demesne, and +thought how hard it would be to give it up. + +Kate's thoughts had apparently wandered in the same direction, for she +said abruptly,--"What a happy fellow you are, Harry, to be heir to all +this!" But she was thinking more of the first-rate style in which it was +kept up, and the magnificent, comfortable house, than of its picturesque +features. + +"There's many a slip," said Harry, moodily, between the whiffs of his +pipe. "We all know Uncle Bromley, Kate." + +"Do you know," said she, mysteriously, "I hear he actually keeps his +eyes, so to speak, on that grand-daughter in Canada. The agent who pays +the annuity reports to him." + +"The deuce!--you make me quite hot, Kate. Are you inventing just out of +chaff?" + +"No, honour bright. Mamma was talking about it; and seems he heard rather +an unpleasant rumour the other day." + +"Come, that's better. What has the young woman been a-doing of?" + +"Run away, or something. I overheard mamma telling old Lady Calvert; but +they nodded and winked and interjected I couldn't clearly make it out. I +was writing a letter at the davenport, and in the glass opposite observed +them. I don't generally burden my mind much with the conversation of my +elders, but something in the alertness of their attitudes and flutter of +their caps made me contemplatively bite my pen and--attend. A breach of +confidence on the maternal side, I should surmise, for she declined +satisfying my laudable curiosity when I pumped her afterwards, and seemed +alarmed at my having heard anything." + +"I had no idea," exclaimed Harry, "that he took the slightest interest in +that girl; and, hang it all, Kate, she _is_ the rightful heir. Perhaps he +looks on her as a second string in case I don't carry out all his +arbitrary wishes." + +"Yes, I shouldn't recommend your running counter to him gratuitously. To +tell you the truth, I thought you rather a lunatic keeping away so long +after coming on shore,"--and Kate gazed searchingly into Harry's face, +who blushed, and then frowned under the scrutiny. + +"Ah!" murmured the fair inquisitor, "then there _was_ something--a woman +in the case, of course: there always is." + +"I tell you what," cried Dutton, recovering himself, "if you begin +supposing improbabilities about me, I'll turn detective on you and +Dashwood." + +"Sea manners again! and when I was so kind--putting you on your guard. +But, never mind, Harry, though I _think_ what I please, I shan't peach +_if you don't_." + +"Let us seal the treaty," passing one arm round her waist. "Give me a +kiss, Kate--you haven't yet." + +"Anything in reason, which sealing treaties in a vista opposite Uncle +Bromley's study windows is _not_." + +A few paces rectified that objection; but Dutton relapsed into a brown +study, and Kate fell to thinking of Colonel Dashwood; and so they +wandered on till the girl spoke again. + +"What port have you left your heart in, Harry?" + +"My dear, I have none. I left it in your charge when I went to sea, and +have never asked for it back again." + +"I expect I shall have to return it now, as I think my uncle has some +views as to its disposal, and may inquire for it." + +"He always has chimeras of that sort. I say, Kate, how perilously plain +Geraldine has grown up." + +"You discern the finger of Fate there. She has, indeed. I wonder she is +not ashamed of herself." + +"Speak not thus harshly of a misfortune." + +"It's just as much a fault. Do you think _I'd_ submit to be plain? Never. +Give me only one good feature, I'd pose up to it, and make it beautify +the rest. Large goggle eyes like hers might be thrown up with a heavenly +expression--so--(but I am afraid mine are rather earthly). A bad figure +even could be rectified. She need not indulge much in the poetry of +motion. _I_ am not pretty, but I dare say you never found it out. No, you +haven't, so you needn't assume that look of regretful dissent; and I +repeat, that any girl so spiritless as to give in to being ugly +_deserves_ to be left out in the cold." + +"That, my dear, you can never be. You carry brimstone enough to set every +one in flames about you. But to return to our--sheep. Don't say, Kate, I +am expected to range alongside such a figure-head as that!" + +"She will have a very valuable consignment of--timber, however, when she +comes into Forest Hill." + +"Which adjoins 'The Towers!' The Avuncular will be death on it! What an +unfortunate idea to take up!" + +"Can't you do it?" asked the girl, looking askance. + +"I don't want to offend his Lordship. I'd ride for a _fall_. Any chance +of a refusal, Kate?" + +"That wouldn't satisfy him. He thinks a man ought never to be beat; and +that + + 'It isn't so much the gallant who woos + As the gallant's way of wooing.' + +But I do hope, Harry, you won't have to marry Geraldine. Fancy _her_ +mistress of 'The Towers!'--no go!--no fun! and she would collect the +stupidest people in the county." + +"What a brilliant little chatelaine some one else would make!" quoth +wicked Harry. + +A glance--one of Kate's own--which few men could stand and feel perfectly +cool. With all her flirtations,--and at present she was most in love with +Colonel Dashwood,--she never forgot that if bereaved of their uncle by an +opportune fit of the gout, few better matches could fall in her way than +cousin Harry; so that a little quiet love-making with him was a useful +investment in view of such a contingency; though, of course, she could +not wait, if this dear uncle, as, indeed, was sadly probable, lived on +indefinitely with Harry's future still unassured. + +Dutton blushed a little under Kate's gaze, which affixed a serious +meaning to his insincere words; but his eyes returned the challenge in +hers, though the girl saw in an instant that the expression was not +spontaneous, and Harry felt equally sure that the passion latent in his +cousin's was more for "The Towers" than himself; and then he laughed +inwardly as he thought how different it would be if she knew he was +married. + +Several days passed, and the object of Harry's visit was still +unfulfilled. Indeed, a good opportunity for the disclosure seemed more +remote than ever. Kate monopolized all the men in the house, and, being +at home, Dutton, in common decency, could not suffer Lady Geraldine to be +neglected. There were only those two girls staying at "The Towers." +Others sometimes came to dinner with their parents, and an _impromptu_ +dance was often got up. Geraldine had begun to listen for Harry's step, +seat herself near a vacant chair, and thrill with delight when he took +it. No man dislikes such unconscious flattery, and Dutton, ill at ease in +mind, felt himself soothed by her kindness. + +On these occasions, Lord Bromley appeared bland and agreeable, Lady +Calvert voluble and unobserving, and there was a sense of _bien-etre_ +over every one, Kate, perhaps, excepted. + +Dutton had received one letter from his wife. He had had a five mile-walk +to get it from the post town he had bidden her address to, and opened it +with a strange mixture of curiosity and yearning. It was a very bright +letter, made no complaints of loneliness, and was rather divertingly +written, considering the limited topics at her command; and yet Harry +crunched it up in his hand with a sensation of half anger and whole +disappointment. It was their first separation,--they had not been married +seven weeks,--and there was scarcely an expression of affection in it! + +He felt like a schoolboy who has coveted and caught some pretty wild +animal for a pet, yet cannot succeed in making it fond of him. + +He laughed rather bitterly as he retraced his steps. It was scarcely +worth the cold, companionless walk, or the pains he had taken to evade +the rest. + +Why should he risk offending his uncle to please her? If that, indeed, +were all, he did not know that he should. But new considerations came in. +We were on the eve of drifting into the Crimean War; the papers were +getting more and more threatening; and, in the event of hostilities being +declared, he had applied for a ship on active service. + +Could he, then, when he might never return, leave Bluebell with their +marriage unacknowledged? "Though," thought he, in his moody reverie, "if +_that_ were all right, I don't believe she would care a pin if _I_ were +knocked over by a round shot." + +Some curiosity and a good deal of chaff greeted Dutton on his return; +but Kate did not fail to remark how little he entered into, and how +quickly turned it off. That cousin Harry had some mystery of his own, the +astute damsel was pretty well convinced, though to the rest he appeared +light-hearted and hilarious, and enjoying to the full his enviable +position. + +"What a lucky young fellow that is?" had been remarked at different times +by nearly every guest in the house. And the days slipped by, Harry very +much "made of" by Lady Calvert, while Lady Geraldine's preference was of +an unobtrusive and reticent nature--impalpable, yet grateful to the +senses as the fragrance of an invisible, leaf-hidden violet. + +And Bluebell, all alone in her retreat, and each day passing without +tidings, began to think she had over-estimated Harry's once troublesome +adoration, and almost to doubt if he would ever return. + +In truth, he was ashamed to write. The longer the confession was +deferred, the harder it became; and he had now assigned himself a date. +On receiving sailing orders to the Baltic, he would tell all, and make +it, perhaps, a last request to his uncle to acknowledge his wife. In the +mean time why plague himself about it? Things must take their course. + +They were sitting one day in a pretty breakfast-room. Kate rather angry +with her Colonel, who lingered on, always apparently at boiling point, +yet never so far bubbling over as to commit himself in words. Harry, too, +was looking actually interested in Geraldine, whose large, honest eyes +were beaming with a sort of tender happiness. Lord Bromley was not in the +room. Clearly he must be detached. + +"Doesn't this dear old room remind you of childish days?" cried the +artless damsel. "It used always to be summer or Christmas then; and we +had tea here in such beautiful china, so different from the horrid +school-room crockery." + +"And sometimes we were so long over it, they couldn't clear away before +the company passed through to dinner, and we got under the table to watch +them," said Harry. + +"And we used to put out the little sofas and jump over them, King +Charles's beauties looking down on us from the wall so grand and +gracious. And there was always mignonette and nemophila in window-boxes, +so sweet in the evening air? And the honey? Oh, Harry, do you remember +the honey?" + +Her reminiscences succeeded in breaking up the _tete-a-tete_, and, lo! +the wicked little dominant spirit who pulled the wires had indirectly +influenced every one in the room. Harry, mesmerized by eye artillery, had +dropped into confidential converse with Kate; Geraldine was suffering a +_serrement de coeur_ at being so lightly left; and the Colonel, his +occupation gone, was reduced to twisting those tried friends in +perplexity--his pendulous whiskers and moustache. + +"How silly a hairy man looks drinking tea," Kate had whispered; "like a +thirsty rat dipping its whiskers and tail in!" + +A rather pleased expression pervaded Harry's countenance, which was +as smooth as a billiard-ball. His cousin soon had him beautifully in +hand, and then extorted a promise to do the thing he hated most, _i.e._, +to escort her out hunting the following Friday. She hadn't the smallest +intention of remaining with him after they found. Then she would +ride with her Colonel, who acquitted himself more creditably in a +hunting-field; but, as she was not allowed to start with him alone, +it was necessary to impress Harry into her service. + +"That's all settled," cried she, rising. "Remember, honour bright! And +now go and talk to dear Geraldine, who looks as if she were going to +cry." For Kate had heard Lord Bromley's step in the passage. He came in +with Mr. Hobart, who had just returned from London. "Have you heard the +news?" said the latter; "war is declared; the army, Guards and all, are +ordered to the East, and the fleet is to go to the Baltic." + +How these few words went straight to their mark, contrasting with the +frivolities that had amused them all day! It had come at last. Chances of +distinction, redemption from stagnation, the much-coveted active service. +They were all brave men in that house--soldiers or sailors, most of them; +but the "bitter sweet first shock" and rush of new ideas kept them, at +first, rather pale and silent. + +After dinner though, when the wine had circulated and the first +strangeness worn off, chaff and jest flew lightly about, for a general +excitement pervaded the whole party. + +"Shall you order those new clothes now Dashwood, you had so many patterns +for this morning?" + +"No! they would be out of fashion, perhaps, when we return. I was just +going to order a new tunic, too! That sinful extravagance may be cut +off." + +Harry, who, perhaps, had most cause for anxious thoughts, was foremost +in the fun. If his spirits were forced, that was his own affair; and, to +avoid Kate's over-keen eyes, he (the last thing he ought to have done) +devoted himself the whole evening to the more restful society of +Geraldine. + +Pre-occupied as he was, he began to be sensible of a change in her +manner--she seemed struggling with some indefinable agitation; her voice +shook, and sounded strange when she spoke. + +And when he laughingly hoped "he should be covered with medals next +time they met," uncoquettish Lady Geraldine looked a moment in his face +with a glance he could not misunderstand, while a large, unavoidable +tear fell on her hand. To capture and press it tenderly was but obeying +a remorseful impulse. Geraldine immediately became composed, and her +sensitive face brightened. The embarrassment that had left her seemed to +have passed into Harry, who felt the greatest relief when a flutter of +skirts and general rising betokened that the ladies were about to retire. + +But the little incident had forced resolution on Dutton's vacillating +mind. "That settles it," he soliloquised. "She is far too nice to be +deceived. I know Kate won't let me off to-morrow, but I will have it out +with my uncle directly I come back, and go to London by the 8.30." + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIII. + +LORD BROMLEY INTERVIEWS DUTTON. + + Ere long a challenge and a cheer + Came floating down the wind; + 'Twas Mermaid's note, and the huntsman's voice + We knew it was a find. + The dull air woke us from a trance + As sixty hounds joined chorus, + And away we went, with a stout dog fox + Not a furlong's length before us. + --Lawrence. + + +Nearly every one was going by a late train the following day, intending +to hunt in the morning; for it was a favourite meet in some of the best +country of ----shire. Kate was the only fair equestrian, and Harry was to +escort her. + +There was one old hunter in the stables who loyally carried the young man +without taking advantage of his maladroitness. Kate always insisted, when +he accompanied her, on his being committed--I may say to the _care_ of +this faithful equine, who knew its business far better than its rider, +and, if it did not lead him to glory, at least avoided disgrace. + +Whatever she might have felt about the approaching departure of Colonel +Dashwood certainly did not appear, for Kate was in glorious spirits,--her +pretty figure, always well on horseback, set off still more by the +elastic action of her beautiful dark chestnut. + +Where is the thorough-bred without "opinions?"--and when of that +excitable colour, you may generally reckon on a handful! "Childe Harold" +was vexed at galloping on a different strip of turf to his companions, +and delivered himself of seven buck-jumps successively. Kate, quite at +her ease, was repressing his efforts to get his head down, with the same +smile on her face that some absurdity of Harry's had provoked; but just +as she began to tire a bit, and fancy her hat was loosening, "Childe +Harold," who might then, perhaps, have had one conquering buck, as +suddenly gave it up, in the fatuous way a horse will, when he is nearest +success, if he only knew it. + +"Two or three of those would have settled me," said Harry, +good-humouredly coming to her side. "What an ass a fellow looks +who can't ride!" + +"Well, I will say for you you don't funk," said Kate consolingly; "and I +suppose all sailors ride like monkeys.--There are the hounds going on; we +are only just in time." + +Coquettish Kate was soon surrounded. If she rode fair and didn't +cross men at their fences, still less did she want assistance at any +practicable leap. "Childe Harold," too, was indifferent to a lead; so, +beholden to none, she rode her own line, and, with her merry smile +and gay tongue, with the whole field, from the gallant master to the +hard-riding farmer, there were few greater favourites than Harry's cousin +Kate. + +The universal theme at the cover-side was, of course, the declaration of +war; but even that absorbing subject sunk to silence as the first low +whimper, taken up more confidently by hound after hound, proclaimed that +poor Reynard was being bustled through the underwood. + +A relieved smile played over the features of the owner of the cover, and +"Always a fox in Beechwood" came approvingly from the master's lips as he +crashed out of the spinny. Kate's gauntleted hand was held up warningly, +for the "Childe" was apt to let out one hind leg in excitement. Then +there was a screech from an urchin in a tree, and they were away with a +straight running fox pointing to Redbank Bushes, eight miles off as the +crow flies. + +Not much of the run was Harry Dutton destined to see that day; his +presumed mission was to stick on and follow Kate, who thought no more +about him once they were away. He had flopped over the first fence +without a mistake; but coming on a bit of road the old horse faltered, a +few yards more he was dead lame. Harry jumped off, and found a shoe gone. +Dashwood had a spare one he remembered, and there was a blacksmith, not +half a mile distant. He looked round--no sign of him of course; he was +sailing away with a good start, fields ahead, in that contented ecstasy +that stops not for friend or foe. There was nothing for it but to plod on +to the forge, trusting to nick in later in the day. As the shoe had to be +made, delay was inevitable. Dutton lit a cigar to while away the term of +durance, and was disconsolately looking out at the door of the smithy, +when he observed one of the Bromley grooms trotting smartly down the +road. + +He hailed the man, who touched his hat with alacrity. "I was riding to +find you, sir; his Lordship has sent your letters." + +The train was late, and the post had not arrived before they had been +obliged to start that morning. He tore open a large blue official +envelope, "On Her Majesty's Service," and read his appointment to H.M.S. +"Druid," one of the Baltic fleet. + +Harry stood intent a minute, with compressed lips, then signed to the +groom to give him his horse. + +"I have got letters for Colonel Dashwood and Mr. Hobart, too, sir." + +"Well, 'Figaro' will be shod in five minutes. But you won't catch them +this side of the Bushes; they were going straight for them half an hour +ago." + +And he galloped away with his loose sailor seat in the direction of "The +Towers." The hour had come. That letter was the self-imposed signal for +the acknowledgment of his marriage, and, perhaps, extinction of all hope +of inheritance. One watchful figure at the library window perceived his +red coat winding through the trees on his way to the stables. Lady +Geraldine had caught sight of the blue envelope, and, with the prescience +of love, had divined the whole. She had not wandered far from the window +that morning, being too restless and miserable for anything else. Now, as +she perceived him, her heart stood still. He must be going that very day. + +"Well, she would see him once more, at any rate. Adieux must be spoken, +and, after last night, surely something more, something to dwell on +when they were apart." The carriage was rolling up to the door for the +daily drive. Lady Calvert and Kate's mother came down well muffled up. +"Geraldine, my dear, are you not ready! Oh, you had much better come, +or you will be left alone in the house." + +Geraldine, hitherto all transparent candour, shook her head dissentingly. +"Oh, no, thank you; much too cold. I am going for a walk presently." + +She forbore to inflame the maternal curiosity by mentioning Dutton's +return, and the elder ladies drove off on a shopping expedition to the +market town. + +Harry, in the meanwhile, had entered the dining-room, and, eliciting from +a footman that his uncle was in, poured out something from a decanter on +the side table, and, without waiting to refresh himself further, went +down the passage leading to Lord Bromley's sanctum. + +"'The lion in his den, the Douglas in his hall,'" muttered he to himself. +"I shall be a man or a mouse when I come out." + +We need not go through the whole interview of the uncle and nephew. The +latter's appointment was, of course, the first subject of discussion; and +never had Harry known Lord Bromley show more cordiality and warmth of +manner. He himself was becoming confused and tongue-tied with the +importance of the confession at hand. + +"I think of going to London this afternoon," said Dutton, still fencing. +"There's a few things to arrange, as I am to join on Monday." + +Lord Bromley coughed, poked the fire, and then observed,--"That brings me +to a subject that I wish to explain to you. I have brought you up in the +expectation of succeeding me at 'The Towers,' and, naturally, I expect +you to make a suitable marriage,--as well you may with such prospects +before you. I have noticed with great pleasure that your inclinations +seem to have forestalled my wishes. The young lady, too, does not appear +averse. But before you go, if you would like to explain yourself to +her--in short, bring it to an engagement, you would have my most cordial +approbation--in fact, I think it's the best thing you could do." + +Harry grew a shade paler as the opportunity he wanted appeared. + +"I am very sorry, sir," said he, shortly, "but I can never marry Lady +Geraldine." + +"Why, the devil not?" + +"Because," faltered he, "I have a prior attachment. Indeed, am bound--" + +"Prior attachment! d--d stuff!" cried the angry peer. "Whom have you +seen, I should like to know, except some garrison hack at the ports you +have stopped at! By ----, it is not Kate, I hope?" + +Dutton shook his head. He would have been amused at any other moment. + +"No, much worse, no doubt. Listen, Harry. It is bad enough your having +made a fool of that very nice girl; but, if ever you wish to be master of +this house, the sooner you get rid of all disgraceful entanglements, the +better." + +Dutton's good angel battled hard with the tempter, but the latter held +him silent. + +Lord Bromley spoke again, but his voice, though stern, was broken. + +"I disinherited my only son for a marriage that displeased me, by which +you have benefited. He died unreconciled to me. You may judge what +quarter _you_ would get in a similar offence!" + +The old peer's face had turned to granite. A variety of expressions +shifted across Harry's while his uncle continued,--"Yes, you had better +go to town, as you have raised expectations here you seem to have no +intention of fulfilling--_at present_," and he rose from his chair and +held out his hand to his nephew. "Good-bye, Harry. You have something +else to think of now; and when you return I hope you will have more +sense." + +It was not manly--it was not heroic--but with the wisdom of the children +of this world, Dutton passed from his uncle's presence with his secret +still unrevealed. + +The watcher at the library window saw another carriage drive round. This +time it was a double dog-cart, and two or three leather portmanteaus were +being disposed on it at a side door. + +Already! Geraldine grew nervous. He might come in at any moment, or +perhaps would not know any of the ladies had remained at home. + +"Still, he could _ask_," whispered her heart. She had not long to remain +in suspense. Harry came out, jumped into the dog-cart, and gathered up +the reins; then he looked up and saw Geraldine's stricken face. He +blushed hotly as he took off his hat, and shot one sorrowful glance from +his eyes ere he drove off, at headlong speed, to the station. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIV. + +HARRY GOES TO THE BALTIC. + + Is this my lord of Leicester's love, + That he so oft have swore to me? + To leave me in this lonely grove? + Immured in shameful privity? + --Unknown. + + +Bluebell, a lonely little recluse at the cottage, seemed to have passed +a lifetime there, so long were the uneventful days. She was not exactly +unhappy, being too young and healthy to be a prey to low spirits. Still, +her life could hardly be called satisfactory. In the first days of their +marriage she would exclaim in her heart. "Oh, to be sometimes alone;" +then, with the suddenness of a transformation-scence, her wish had been +but too abundantly accomplished. + +It was weeks since she had heard from Dutton, whose first letter had +never been repeated, and she begun to believe that the headlong passion +that had led him to force her, almost against her will, into marriage +with him was as short-lived as it had been quickly kindled. + +She remembered Bertie Du Meresq, who had appeared quite as desperate at +first, and then had quietly transferred his affections to Cecil. Like the +Psalmist, she could have "said in her heart, all men are liars." + +Harry near--adoring--_exigeant_, could be an evil; but Harry away, +engaged every thought; and if thinking of a person is the first step +to love, he ought to have been satisfied with the way Bluebell was +employing herself. + +One evening she was sitting in her bed-room with the window open. There +was a light breath of spring in the air though the nights were frosty. It +was near midnight, and starlight, which has ever attractions for the +young; later on, a warm fireside and creature comforts are more +congenial. Archie, the dog, with his nose on his paws, bore her company; +presently he gave a low growl, and pricked his ears--a moment after, +Bluebell fancied she could hear the sound of wheels on the frosty ground. +It became clearer and clearer; presently she could distinguish the red +lights of a fly, and then she knew that Harry was come. + +That his mission had been unsuccessful, she read at once in avoidance +of her questioning eyes, yet, strange to say, it seemed of secondary +importance. Dutton himself, for the first time, was of all-absorbing +interest to Bluebell. His presence seemed to break the lethargic spell +that had bound her, while no small detail of appearance and dress escaped +her, even that his hair was parted differently. Dutton, who had dreaded +the first meeting, was relieved by Bluebell's manner, and saw at once +they were more _en rapport_. He was only too willing to procrastinate +bad tidings, so it was not till the next day that she realized the whole +fatal truth. Harry was going to the war with their marriage still +unacknowledged. + +He related, truthfully enough, his conversation with Lord Bromley. Even +then, in her deep interest as to its result, Bluebell vaguely noticed the +curious coincidence of his uncle also having disinherited a son, but, +having a more dominant idea in her mind, that was left in a vacant +corner, to crop up at some future time. + +Dutton was vexed that she could not see he had no other alternative +but silence. + +"It would have been simply giving away 'The Towers' to have blurted it +all out then." + +To Bluebell's unsophisticated mind, honesty seemed more importunate than +expediency. + +"Then, if you do get 'The Towers' now, it will be on false pretences." + +Harry reddened. He had all along been goaded by a vague sense of +dishonour. "It's useless crying over spilt milk," exclaimed he, +impatiently. "Now would have been the very worst time--just as he +wants me to marry some one else. But when I come back--" + +"Then he may be dead." + +"By Jove! I think he has quite as good a chance of surviving me--not a +shade of odds either way. Look here, Bluebell, I will write a letter +containing a full confession, enclose our marriage certificate, and seal +it with this ring he gave me. If anything happens, send it to him, and I +believe he will take care of you, but not while I am alive." + +"Send it to him at once, Harry." + +"You used not to be so indifferent to poverty, Bluebell. You told me, in +the steamer, that you had a longing for luxury and riches." + +"Luxury and riches," echoed Bluebell, "seem as improbable as ever. I +should like to be able to look my friends in the face." + +But it was all in vain. Dutton, though remorseful, was obdurate; there +was much to arrange, and he had only twenty-four hours to remain. Lord +Bromley had omitted the accustomed parting cheque, which Harry had +reckoned on, and money was scarce with the two young people. + +"Will you go back to Canada, Bluebell, till the war is over, and I will +send you all the money I can?" + +"What, as Miss Leigh?" + +And he could say no more. The same difficulty prevented her writing to +the Rollestons, or any one else. Long and anxiously they talked over +their dilemma; Dutton had only money enough to pay his bill at the +cottage, and Bluebell was resolute to earn something for herself. + +She answered an advertisement in the _Times_ he had brought with him, +naming, as reference, the mother of Evelyn Leighton. To her she also +wrote, begging that any applicant might have the recommendation she had +received of her from Mrs. Rolleston. + +Dutton had gone, but expected to be able to return for a day or two +before the fleet sailed, and Bluebell was left alone with her +thoughts--too full of horrors for solitude to be endurable. Each night +she dreamed of Harry, dying, and mangled by shot or shell, only to renew +the vision in her waking hours; and, as she pictured such a termination +to their brief married life, a vague tenderness took the place of her +former apathy. The very weakness he had shown in concealing their +marriage made him more a reality to her by giving her an insight into his +nature--not an endearing trait, perhaps; yet sometimes the failing that +one tries to counteract in the very effort it arouses awakens an +interest. + +Bluebell felt thankful that her hours at the cottage were numbered, for +lately she had begun to fancy people looked askance at her, and the +carpenter's wife had developed an inquisitiveness akin to impertinence. + +Mrs. Leighton sent a very kind answer, assuring her of the recommendation +as she had received it from Mrs. Rolleston. It was addressed to "Miss +Leigh," and a crimson flush rose to her temples at the unpleasant smile +with which the postmistress handed it across the counter. Harry, when he +wrote, having posted it himself, ventured to address his letter to "Mrs. +Dutton"; the only other she had received was from her mother, directed, +as requested, to B. D. This letter had been rather distressing--filled +with vague fears, inspired, she was sure, by Miss Opie, and conjuring +her, with promises of inviolable secrecy, to reveal her name. + +The lady whose advertisement she had answered, apparently attracted by +her musical professions, replied immediately, and, the reference to Mrs. +Leighton being satisfactory, she was shortly engaged at a fair salary. + +Then Bluebell, writing the account to Canada, could not refrain from +slipping in a private scrap to her mother, on which, in the strictest +confidence, she acknowledged her wedded name. This circumstance, however, +she did not mention to Harry when he returned on two days' leave, knowing +he would be sceptical as to Mrs. Leigh's power of secrecy. + +Of course he was relieved that she had an asylum provided, and equally, +of course, raged inwardly at his wife's having to support herself in her +maiden name. He was the more remorseful as Bluebell made no further +allusion to it, and seemed more occupied with making the most of his last +days. + +But he only called himself a confounded rascal, and trusted things would +come right in the end. + +Bluebell was to remain one more night at the cottage after her +husband left. Her wardrobe, though slender, was new, as it consisted +of what Harry had bought at Liverpool. None of it was marked, as she +remembered with satisfaction; so there was nothing to betray her but her +wedding-ring. She removed and suspended it round her neck on a piece of +ribbon. The miniature of Theodore Leigh, which had not been forgotten the +day she eloped, was also carefully secreted in a trunk. + +The bill was paid, the fly at the door. One tender parting only remained; +this was with Archie, who had sprung into it after her, for he and +Bluebell had become inseparable. They could scarcely drag him away, and +she buried her face a minute in his rough coat with almost equal regret. + +"Would you like to keep him, ma'am?" said the carpenter's wife. + +"I cannot now, but when Mr. Dutton comes back, and we are settled, will +you let me have him?" + +"Ah, well," said the woman, half disappointed, for she did not care for +Archie, "ye'll have forgotten all about it by then." + + + + +CHAPTER XXXV. + +A DISCOVERY. + + There woman's voice flows forth in song, + Or childhood's tale is told; + Or lips move tunefully along + Some glorious page of old. + --Hemans. + + +Bluebell was settled in her new abode, about fifteen miles from London: +and certainly few governesses have the luck to drop into a more sunshiny +home. Only two little girls, pleasantly disposed; no banishment to the +school-room. They all mingled sociably together after lessons were +over,--walked, drove in an Irish car, or played croquet and gardened +as the spring advanced. + +Mr. Markham was a barrister in London, and came down to dinner most +days--not always, though; and his wife, still a young woman, was glad +enough to find a companion in Bluebell. Beauty, too, unless it excites +jealousy, is agreeable to look at, and she soon became interested in the +young Canadian. But after a while she was puzzled by her. There was a +far-off, touching look in her eyes that had come there since marriage, +and she was reserved about herself, though the stiffness of first +acquaintance had long ago given way to affectionate intimacy. For a girl +apparently so frank to be at the same time so guarded suggested something +to be concealed. Mrs. Markham, being a woman, could not refrain from +speculating about it. She had elicited many lively descriptions of +Bluebell's life in Canada, and the children were never weary of sleighing +and toboggining stories. But these were general subjects; her narratives +were never personal ones. + +"By-the-bye," observed Mrs. Markham, one day, "how strange it was that +poor child, Evelyn Leighton, dying just as you were going there! Her +mother told me of it when she enclosed Mrs. Rolleston's letter. But you +arrived in October, I think. Where were you those few months?" + +"I was staying with a friend," replied Bluebell; but her hand shook and +she became crimson. + +Mrs. Markham did not fail to note this, and suspected that during +that friendly visit some love passages might have arisen. "She seems +very sensitive about it," thought the kind lady. "I will get her to +tell me some day. It is such a shame ignoring that sort of thing with +governesses, just as if it were a crime! And if there is really anything, +he might come and see her here sometimes." + +But Bluebell remained nervous and out of spirits the rest of that day. + +One morning they were sitting together in the pleasant drawing-room; the +children had a holiday, and were playing with their dogs out of doors; +Mrs. Markham was colouring a design for her flower-beds, and lamenting +the non-arrival of some seeds the postman was to have brought. "The year +is getting on," murmured the aggrieved lady; "they really ought to be +sown, and it is such a lovely day for gardening." + +"Let me go to Barton and fetch them," cried Bluebell, who was always +ready for a walk. "I shall be there and back before luncheon." + +"Would you really?" said Mrs. Markham. "But it looks so hot! Are you sure +you don't mind?" And declaring it was the thing of all others she should +enjoy, Bluebell set off. + +It was one of those glorious, sultry days that sometimes occur early in +the year, when summer seems actually to have arrived for the season--a +delusion invariably dispelled by the biting blasts of the blackthorn +winter. Lovely as it appeared it was a very oppressive day for a long +walk; the white, glaring road seemed endless, and she half repented her +offer. + +Bluebell was scarcely so strong as she had been, and, having to hurry a +good deal to be back in time for luncheon, was quite pale and exhausted +on re-entering the drawing-room, prize in hand. + +The second post was on the table, and the girl stopped short in the +midst of a message from the seedsman, for a deep black-edged envelope, +addressed to herself, caught her eye. Mrs. Markham observed her with +furtive anxiety. It is terrible to watch the opening of a letter +evidently containing sad tidings, yet she was hardly prepared to see +Bluebell, after perusing it drop prone on the ground as though she were +shot, her forehead striking against the table in the fall. Ringing the +bell, Mrs. Markham flew to her assistance, and, unfastening the collar of +her dress, something was disclosed to view which gave that lady a second +sensational shock, more thrilling than the first. Hurriedly she closed +the dress again, despatching for water a sympathetic servant who had just +entered, then swiftly, dexterously, possessed herself of a ribbon +encircling the girl's throat, on which hung a wedding-ring. + +Bluebell recovered only to fall from one fainting fit into another. Her +strength had been exhausted by the walk, and she had none to bear up +against the shock that awaited her. The letter was from Miss Opie, +announcing Mrs. Leigh's sudden death, after a few hours' illness. Inside, +and unopened, was returned Bluebell's private enclosure revealing her +married name. + +A year ago this child had been innocent of the existence of nerves, but, +from the trying scenes she had lately gone through, they were now so +shattered that she was unable to rally. The doctor kept her in bed at +first, recommended absolute quiet, and exhausted his formula with as +beneficial a result as could be expected considering it attacked the +secondary cause only, and was impotent to heal the suffering mind +reacting upon the body. Bluebell continued in a torpid condition, +scarcely giving any signs of life. One day, Mrs. Markham, who nursed her +with unremitting zeal, quickened, perhaps, by the interest of her +discovery, observed the patient's hand steal to her neck, and then she +glanced uneasily about, as if seeking for something. + +They were alone, so Mrs. Markham whispered in a low, cautious tone, "I +have it quite safe, locked up in my desk. No one knows of it but myself." +An apprehensive look dilated the large, sad eyes, succeeded by an +expression of contented resignation. She did not perceptibly improve, her +mind was incessantly trying to realize what had happened, and was haunted +by a morbid conviction that the anxiety induced by her own strange +marriage might have precipitated the sad event, for Miss Opie's letter +did not soften the fact that Mrs. Leigh had fretted greatly about it. +Still she expressly said that she had succumbed to an epidemic that had +already gleaned many victims. + +It was, after all, many days before Mrs. Markham remembered the seeds she +had been so anxious to obtain, but one favourable afternoon, she set +diligently to work to lay the foundation for summer flowers. Though the +"even tenour" of her life did not afford much scope for its indulgence, +this lady was not devoid of a certain spice of romance. She was also of +an independent character, and in the habit of judging for herself on most +matters, and had decided not to betray Bluebell's secret to her spouse. + +"Men are prejudiced and unpracticable on some points," she soliloquized, +"and though I am quite satisfied that the poor girl is married, he may +choose to doubt it, or think we had better get out of her. Her illness +was entirely occasioned by the shock, so there really is no necessity to +explain my little accidental discovery." + +But the plot was thickening, for that morning there arrived a letter from +Mrs. Leighton written in great perturbation, to the effect that she had +heard some very uncomfortable reports about Miss Leigh. Her information +was derived from the captain's wife at Liverpool, to whom she had written +on Bluebell's obtaining a situation, supposing that, as they had shown +her so much kindness, they would feel interested in the fact. But she had +received in return a most extraordinary letter from Mrs. Davidson, +stating that Miss Leigh had eloped from their house, leaving only a +letter containing an improbable story about going to be married, without +even mentioning to whom. Her husband, to be sure, had his suspicions as +to the lover, but the name had escaped her memory, and Captain Davidson +was at sea. + +Now Mrs. Markham began to feel her innocent complicity becoming a little +embarrassing. It was rather awkward keeping a suspected person about the +children. Her husband would be in fits if he knew it, but, however +imprudent of Bluebell to elope, she still saw no reason to doubt the +marriage. Had she not the wedding-ring in proof of it? + +So as she worked and planted, unavoidably decimating a worm here and +turning up an ants nest there, she conned it all over. + +"The child must really tell me her secrets, or I can do nothing. I will +get her out for a drive; sitting alone in one room, as that demented old +Chivers prescribes, is the worst thing for a nervous complaint." + +So the next fine morning she ordered the car, and, going to the +governess's room, asked her, in a matter-of-course manner, to put on +her hat and come out. + +Bluebell had just received a visit from the local practitioner, who had +reiterated his assurances that "we wanted tone, and had better adhere to +the iron mixture; that we must not exert ourselves, and must be sure to +lie down a great deal," etc.; but she assented to Mrs. Markham's proposal +with the same indifference with which she had listened to Esculapius. + +They drove on for some distance through a straggling village, with its +ivied church guarded by sentinel cypresses, children were playing about +with hands full of cowslips, and lilac bushes blossomed within cottage +palings. A little beyond they turned into Sir Thomas Farquhar's park, +where young rooks were cawing, unwitting of their predestined pastried +tomb. On entering a long, shady avenue, Mrs. Markham pulled the horse up +to a walk, and said quietly,--"When were you married, Miss Leigh?" + +Perhaps this question had not been unexpected since the little episode of +the ring, for, with equal calmness, Bluebell replied,--"The last week in +November, at Liverpool." + +Mrs. Markham felt a triumphant thrill. She would now hear the solution +of the mystery that had been exercising her imaginative powers for some +weeks. She poured forth question after question. Yet, at the end of +half-an-hour, not only had she failed to extort Dutton's name, but had +even entangled herself in a promise of inviolable silence as to the only +admitted fact. + +She had insisted, threatened, got angry; Bluebell sorrowfully offered to +go, but remained firm. + +"Well, keep your secret, then," cried Mrs. Markham, at last, abandoning +the contest; "but I shall find it out if I can. And I must take care that +Walter doesn't," thought she, with a mischievous chuckle, for that +gentleman, many years older than his wife, was a servile worshipper of +Mrs. Grundy, and his hair would have stood on end had he known that he +was harbouring a young lady with such suspicious antecedents. Besides her +personal liking for Bluebell, Mrs. Markham recollected that if dismissed +at this juncture she could scarcely recommend her to any other situation, +and then what would become of the poor thing? But what puzzled her most +was the total disappearance of the husband to whom she had been so very +lately married. + +A clue to this, however, she believed herself to have obtained on +observing that Bluebell never failed to study the daily papers with +an avidity unusual at her age. + +"He must be in the army and gone to the Crimea," thought she. "Poor +thing! how dreadful! Some day she will see him in the list of killed and +wounded." + +Some little time after, Bluebell, who had in a great measure recovered +her strength, came to her room, and said, with frank, open eyes,--"May I +go to Barton and post a letter to my husband?" + +A very warm assent drew forth the heartfelt exclamation,--"How I wish I +could tell you all, my dear Mrs. Markham." + +Without that information, it was not so easy to answer Mrs. Leighton's +letter, which she did eventually in very guarded terms, stating that she +had proof of the marriage having taken place, but could say no more, +except that, "being much pleased with Miss Leigh, she intended to keep +her, especially as the children were very much under her own eye, and +seldom alone with their governess." + +Mr. Markham was generally the first down, and was rather addicted to a +curious inspection of the post-mark on the family correspondence, neatly +placed by each recipient's plate. + +His wife one morning found him standing over a large ship letter directed +to the governess, with somewhat the expression of distrustful pugnacity +with which a dog walks round a hedgehog. + +"Is that for Miss Leigh?" said she, carelessly. + +"Yes," with much solemnity. "Apparently she has a correspondent in the +Navy. It is not a sort of thing I like, and I must say I have often +thought Miss Leigh too young and flighty for me." + +"Oh, I believe she is engaged, poor girl!" said Mrs. Markham, slipping +out a white one. "And she gets the children on beautifully. You thought +Emma already so improved in playing." + +"Well if you know all about it, that's another thing. I trust she doesn't +put nonsense in the children's heads. Emma is getting very forward and +inquisitive." + +His wife felt secretly excited, for she was sure this letter must be from +the errant husband, especially as the governess would not read it in +public, but pocketed it with a slight nervousness of manner. + +Time passed on, and Mrs. Markham had discovered nothing. + +Bluebell, in her diligent revision of the papers, found much of personal +interest. Colonel Rolleston's regiment had been ordered home to proceed +to the Crimea, and she well knew the anxiety his family must be enduring. + +It seemed cold and ungrateful to be unable to write one word of sympathy +to Mrs. Rolleston, but any renewal of intercourse must lead to +explanations, and it was her cruel fate to be able to give none. One +other name, too, she saw in the public print that ought no longer to have +had the power to thrill her as it did. Well, it was not so long ago, +after all: but, however mentally disquieted we leave our heroine, as she +has now drifted, outwardly, into a peaceful haven, we must return to +others in the narrative who have more to do. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVI. + +IN DEATH THEY WERE NOT DIVIDED. + + My love he stood at my right hand, + His eyes were grave and sweet; + Methought he said, "In this far land, + Oh, is it thus we meet! + Ah, maid most dear, I am not here, + I have no place--no part + No dwelling more by sea or shore, + But only in thine heart!" + --Jean Ingelow. + + +Bertie Du Meresq, after lingering a while in London, without any tidings +of Cecil, began to weary of inaction, and turn his thoughts again to +Australia. But just then warlike rumours were becoming rife, and forced +his mind into another channel. Good heavens! with such a prospect, +possibility even, how could he let his papers be sent in? There was just +time to recall them. He rushed to the Horse Guards, despatched a letter +to his Colonel, and his retirement, not having yet been gazetted, was +cancelled. + +But how appease the injured Green, who had advanced the over regulation +money for the troop? That must be returned, however expensive it might be +to raise the necessary sum. One possible resource remained. He possessed +a maiden aunt--of means, whose patience and purse he had completely +exhausted some years ago; added to which she had become "serious," and +a gentleman of the Stiggens order now diverted her spare cash into the +coffers of little Bethlehem. + +Du Meresq was aware that he had been predestined to doom by the Rev. Mr. +Jackson, and that his aunt had been assured she could not touch pitch +without being defiled. "Nevertheless," he thought, "I must try and carry +her by a _coup de main_, if I have to pitch her clerical friend out of +the window first." + +Lady Susan had abandoned the more fashionable precincts of London to be +nearer her chapel and districts, and the Hansom cabman who drove Bertie +to Hammersmith had quartered nearly every yard of it before their +combined intelligence hit off a square stone house on a bit of a common. + +Lady Susan was within, and Du Meresq followed the depressed-looking +footman upstairs with as much ease as if he had not been particularly +forbidden the house five years ago. He embraced his aunt affectionately +before she had collected herself sufficiently to prevent him, and bowed +with the utmost grace to a rather vulgar-looking, self-sufficient lady to +whom he was presented. This person, however, he contrived to sit out in +spite of her curiosity. + +"And now, Bertie," said Lady Susan, austerely, "what is it you want? I +know from past experience it is not I alone you come to see. I warn you +though your hopes are vain. I have, happily, now a more edifying way of +spending my poor income than in aiding you in your godless courses." + +"I have come to you, my dear aunt, as the kindest-hearted person I know. +I am in an awful hole. But let me explain." And then he told how he had +sold his troop to pay his debts, but had now, war being eminent, recalled +his papers, and so owed all the over regulation money obtained in +advance. + +For once Du Meresq had a good case. Against her principles almost, Lady +Susan listened, and, though pre-determined not to believe a thing he +said, his words were making an impression. + +"Of course I can get the money; but, going on active service, I should +have to pay enormously for it. And, anyhow," he continued, "I thought I +should like to say good-bye to you, whether you can let me have it or +not." + +Bertie's Irish blarney always peeped out in his dealings with women, +and Lady Susan of late had been so unaccustomed to anything of the sort, +that her heart began to warm to her scape-grace nephew. He was so +distinguished-looking, too, with the beauty which comes of air and +expression, and a certain winning manner, none of which were conspicuous +attributes of the disciples of little Bethlehem. She made him stay to +dinner, and Du Meresq, who thought things were looking up, gladly +dismissed his Hansom, which had been imparting an unwonted appearance of +dissipation to the locality for the last hour. He could make himself +quite as agreeable to an old lady as a young one, and this one was a +soldier's daughter, and Irish into the bargain. What wonder that her +heart beat responsively and her blood fired at the idea of another of her +race lending his life to his country! Bertie, to be sure, would have +preferred not having to make capital of that, and objected strongly to +being treated as a hero in advance. However, it was no use quarrelling +with the means that had brought his aunt into so promising a frame of +mind; and, before he left that evening, he had actually received the +promise of a cheque to the amount of Mr. Green's claims in a few days. + +Soon after this, he heard the welcome news that his regiment was ordered +home immediately, evidently in consequence of the disturbances in the +East. This caused Du Meresq great delight. His corps was, then, certain +to be in it, and he would go into action with Lascelles and all his old +friends, instead of exchanging into a strange regiment, as he had +determined to do if his own were not for service. + +With all this other thoughts were associated. Somehow he had never looked +upon his rupture with Cecil Rolleston as final, having pretty well +fathomed the _motif_ of her renunciation of him, which he considered +would bear explanation when occasion offered; but now, rather sadly +reviewing the past, he said to himself that, after all, it was well for +her they had not married. + +I do not know that Cecil would have been of the same opinion. She had a +brave spirit, that could bear up against known evils, but fretted and +suffered in suspense. She was much altered since her illness. Once the +most attentive and docile of daughters, she became irritable and +uncertain in temper-_difficile_, as the French call it, or, according to +a Scotch expression, "There was no doing with her" some days; and Mrs. +Rolleston, unhappy about both Cecil and Bertie, looked upon her husband's +prejudice against the latter as the cause of all this unsatisfactory +state of things. + +As to Colonel Rolleston, he was in the condition of a man whose "foes are +those of his own household." No one appreciated more the "pillow of a +woman's mind"; but really now the pillow might have been stuffed with +stones, so many corners and angularities had developed themselves in his +feminalities. + +The regiment had been ordered to Quebec almost immediately after Bluebell +had gone to England; and, as Mrs. Rolleston there heard of Evelyn +Leighton's death, the fate of their _protegee_ became naturally a subject +of anxious speculation. Yet not a line had been received from her; and, +after a time, the subject was avoided, for all felt that Bluebell had +been ungrateful. + +Then Mrs. Leighton wrote out the strange story of her elopement, and +having since entered a family as governess in her maiden name. Mrs. +Rolleston was painfully shocked; for, coupling it with the girl's +silence, she could not but imagine the worst, especially when, as they +gazed at each other in mute dismay, she read in Cecil's face a suspicion +that Bertie had had some hand in her disappearance, he had not written +either; but, unless he were in correspondence with Bluebell, could not +have been aware that she was in England. Of course, therefore, it was +only the wildest conjecture. Yet how could Cecil believe that a girl who +had once cared for Bertie should so utterly have forgotten him as to +sacrifice herself to any one else within a few weeks? But a letter from +Du Meresq himself did much to banish these gathering doubts and +suspicions. It appeared quite open and above-board, and was written to +Mrs. Rolleston on the eve of embarking with his regiment for the Crimea. +He mentioned one or two houses he had been staying in, related the +successful visit to his aunt and wound up in a postcript with the +words,--"Give my dearest love to Cecil, if she cares to have it." + +Mrs. Rolleston silently put the letter into her hand, and left the room. +But the privacy of four walls was insufficient for Cecil while permitting +herself the dear fascination of perusing Bertie's handwriting. She was +missing for the next two hours, which Lela was able to account for, +having observed her going downstairs dressed for walking. + +She did not remember to return Du Meresq's letter, nor did Mrs. Rolleston +ask for it. Very soon afterwards they also went to England, though the +Colonel's regiment was not sent to the Crimea for some months later. It +was quartered near London, and he took a house for his family in +Kensington. And now a strange fancy possessed Cecil. It happened one day, +when they were out driving, that a little boy drifting across the street +with the suicidal _insouciance_ of his kind, got knocked down by their +horses, and, of course, had to be driven straight to the hospital to have +his injuries investigated. It was necessary to detain the child, and +Cecil walked down most days to bring him toys and inquire into his +progress. There she became acquainted with some members of a sisterhood, +who were employed in nursing in the accident ward, and, after the boy +had been dismissed, convalescent, and ready to be run over again, she +still continued her visits. + +What the attraction was, neither of her parents could conceive, for, +although the sisterhood was of the High Church order, they observed no +particular religious enthusiasm or ritualistic tendencies in their +daughter. "Cecil's mystery" it was called in the family, for she never +spoke of what she had been doing all day, though it was apparently +satisfactory, as her spirits were far more even than they had been of +late. It was generally supposed that a charitable fervour had seized her, +and that she was visiting among the poor; indeed Mrs. Rolleston had +little curiosity to spare at present. She was living in dread and daily +expectation of Colonel Rolleston being sent to the East; and he was +engaged, as a calm, brave man might, in arranging his affairs to provide +for his family in any event. + +The order came at last; it was almost a relief from the continual +suspense, and there were a few days for preparation. On one of these last +evenings some of the officers were dining at the Colonel's, and among +them--which was unusual now--Fane, who, though believing that Cecil's +love affair with Du Meresq must have been broken off, still honourably +abstained from her society till she should, by some sign, absolve him +from his promise. On this occasion though, to her dread, he appeared +sentimentally inclined, and Cecil, to whom a Sir Lancelot even would have +been intolerable had he attempted to take the place of the lover she had +outwardly discarded and inwardly enshrined, took refuge with Jack +Vavasour, who regarded the approaching campaign in about the same light +as a steeple-chase--a delightful piece of excitement, with a spice of +danger in it. + +His cheerful chatter amused and relieved the tension of her mind. + +"I shall be sure to come across Du Meresq," he observed, with simple +directness. "I shall tell him I saw you the last thing. How glad he will +be to hear of any one at home! Have you any message, Miss Rolleston?" +looking straight in her face, which was glowing as he spoke. + +"Tell him," said Cecil, who liked Jack, and trusted him more than any +one, "to be sure and write very often to his sister, who is dreadfully +anxious, as, indeed, we _all_ are." + +"Oh, yes, of course," cried Vavasour; "but is that all? Let me give him +that glove," which Cecil had been absently pulling off and on. + +"Certainly-not!" flaming up in a moment. "Give it to me back directly, +Mr. Vavasour!" + +Jack thought she was offended. "I didn't mean to be impertinent, Miss +Rolleston. You know this is not like an ordinary occasion; and I am sure +I didn't think there would be much in it." + +"I know, I know. But don't invent anything from me to Bertie Du Meresq." +Then, with a softer manner, and most cordial squeeze of the hand as she +saw the other men rising to go,--"Good-bye, and come back safe, you dear, +true-hearted boy!" + +Next day the mystery came out. She had been qualifying as a hospital +nurse, with the view of joining Miss Nightingale's staff at Scutari. + +Cecil had quite anticipated the antagonism and ridicule with which this +announcement would assuredly be met. A craze to go out to the East +possessed many romantic young ladies of the period, too adventurous +to be satisfied with merely knitting socks and comforters for their +frost-bitten heroes. Colonel Rolleston had frequently expressed a +profound contempt for this mania, refusing to perceive any more exalted +motive for it than a desire to follow their partners. So his horror may +be imagined when his own daughter, whom he had always credited with a +certain amount of sense, thus enrolled herself in the ranks of these fair +enthusiasts. + +Cecil allowed the first torrent of words to expend itself, but, in reply +to the contemptuous query of "What earthly use could she be?" reiterated +the fact of her having received a certificate of competency from the +hospital, and adding, that as five of the sisterhood were shortly to be +taken out to Scutari, it would be easy for her to accompany them as a +volunteer. Then, evading further discussion by leaving the room, she +calmly left the idea to work. + +It was not certainly innate love of the occupation that had made Cecil so +diligent an attendant of the accident ward. At first she shuddered and +faltered at the simplest operation in which her assistance was called +for, but it was essential to test her own nerve before dressing gun-shot +wounds, besides which, a certificate from the hospital would much +facilitate her chance of being taken out to Scutari. And, moreover, she +was desperately unhappy, and rushed into anything to escape from herself. + +I don't know how it was that Cecil prevailed in the end. A year ago, if +she had proposed such a thing, Colonel Rolleston would have a considered +her a fit subject for a _maison de sante_, but he had been thinking for +some time that his daughter was "odd." She was evidently turning out one +of those unmanageable beings, an eccentric woman. Of age, and with an +independent income, if baulked in this, she might only do something else +equally perverse, and, though a most extraordinary fancy for a girl so +brought up, he would not oppose it further. + +And then Cecil, when she had got her wish, with a strange inconsistency +seemed almost inclined to give it up again. But the Colonel, being in +ignorance of her vacillating purpose, took her passage in the same ship +as the other nurses. + +Work enough was there for every one when that vessel reached its +destination. The battle of the Alma had just been fought, and the wounded +were being brought in daily to Scutari. + +In the mean time, Colonel Rolleston had sailed with his regiment, and +Mrs. Rolleston fell into such a state of nervous depression, that Cecil +saw it would be cruel to abandon her--another opportunity for going out +would soon occur, and defering her journey till then, she remained at +home to fulfil the more obvious duty of supporting the sinking spirits +of her step-mother. + +And so passed many weary weeks. The battle of the Alma had been won, and +none of their belongings had appeared in the long list of killed and +wounded. Mrs. Rolleston, becoming more accustomed to suspense, bore up +with greater fortitude. Letters from the seat of war were, of course, +waited for with fearful anxiety, and on the few and far between occasions +when these arrived, they were all comparatively happy. + +One evening Cecil was sitting alone in her own room, and, being very +tired after a long day at the hospital, dropped asleep in her chair. She +awoke with a feeling of deadly chilliness. The moon was shining into the +room, and the figure of Bertie Du Meresq, keen clearly by its rays, was +standing quietly gazing at her. + +"Bertie!" shrieked Cecil "Oh, when did you come?"--and she tried to rush +forward to greet him, but her limbs seemed paralyzed, and he did not move +either, though a sad, sweet smile seemed to pass over his face. _Was_ it +himself, or only a quivering moonbeam? for when she was able to move +there was nothing else to be seen. + +A ghost itself could not have been whiter than Cecil, as she fled to the +drawing room, and almost inarticulately described what she had beheld. + +The very horror it inspired made Mrs. Rolleston repel the ghastly idea +almost angrily. + +"Good heavens, Cecil, why do you frighten me so! You had fallen asleep, +and were dreaming. You say yourself," and she shuddered, "_it_ was gone +when you awoke." + +"You know," said the girl, not apparently attending, "I have never seen +Bertie in uniform, but this is what he wore," (describing the dress of +the ---- Hussars), "and his tunic was torn." + +"That is too absurd, Cecil. All Hussar uniforms are more or less alike, +and you must have seen many. It _is_ this dreadful idea of going to +Scutari that has filled your mind with horrors, and hospital work here +has been too much for you, and told on your nerves." + +But Cecil sat unheeding, as if turned to stone, with such a grey look of +despair on her face, that Mrs. Rolleston longed to rouse her in any way. + +"Forgive me, Cecil," she cried; "you _do_ care for poor Bertie, I see." + +She looked up with a vague, uncomprehending glance. + +"Who was so brilliant--who so brave--with that sympathetic voice, and +warm, endearing manner? He was wicked, I dare say!--he was not cold +enough for a saint." + +Mrs. Rolleston listened painfully. + +"How every one adored him!" pursued Cecil. "I don't mean women--of course +_they_ did: but all his friends would have done anything for him. I have +seen his letters; and who could touch him in countenance, manner, grace? +And such a poetic, original mind! But he cared for me _most_,--he must, +don't you think?" (looking up with dry, tearless eyes), "or he would not +have come to me to-night." + +"Then _why_, oh, why, Cecil, did you give him up?" + +Her brow contracted for an instant. "I could not bear my sun to shine on +any one else," she cried, passionately "I grudged every glance of his +eye, every tone of his voice given to another." + +"Then, Bluebell _was_ the cause--" began Mrs. Rolleston. + +"'My eyes were blinded;' he cared no more for her than the rest. Had I +believed him, we might have been happy five months, for we should have +married the day I came of age." + +"It will happen yet!" cried Mrs. Rolleston. "Shake off this fearful +dream, my dearest child. I know that Bertie cares only for you." + +"We have met to-night, we never shall again." + +"She will have a brain-fever," thought Mrs. Rolleston, distractedly, "if +tears do not come to her relief." They did eventually, convulsively and +exhaustingly, till she dropped into a death-like sleep far into the next +morning. + +The sun had been shining for hours. Mrs. Rolleston did not disturb her, +but the superstitious terror she had battled against the night before +returned daring that long day, in an agony of impatience for news. + +But no submarine telegraph then existing, nothing was heard for a time. +Mrs. Rolleston might have shaken off the gruesome impression, but for the +immovable conviction of Bertie's death that actuated Cecil. She assumed +the deepest mourning, and passed whole hours alone with her grief, +perfectly indifferent to the opinion of any one. Indeed, since his +spiritual presence had, as she believed, appeared to her, he seemed +nearer than before, when they were parted and unreconciled. + +One day, late in the afternoon, Mrs. Rolleston was agitated by that weird +sound to anxious ears, the shouting voices of men and boys hawking +evening papers, and proclaiming startling news. She saw from the balcony +her servant dart down the street for the gratification of his curiosity. +He bought a paper, and perused it as he slowly returned. He got "quite a +turn," as he afterwards described it, when his mistress, pale as a sheet, +met him at the door, and, without a word, snatched the evening journal +from his astonished hands. + +No occasion to seek far. The sensational paragraph was in capital +letters, and contained the intelligence of the battle of Balaklava, and +famous charge of the six hundred, with its fearful losses. The cavalry +regiments engaged were named. Among them was Bertie Du Meresq's, and +mentioned as one that had suffered heavily. The returns of killed and +wounded did not appear. + +Mrs. Rolleston had a friend at the Horse Guards, and instantly despatched +the servant there, with a letter requesting further particulars as early +as possible. Ill news does not lag. A letter from General--soon arrived, +with its warning black seal. Captain Du Meresq was among the casualties. +He had been shot through the heart during the charge. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVII. + +AN UNEXPECTED RENCONTRE. + + Into a ward of the white-washed walls, + Where the dead and the dying lay, + Wounded by bayonets, shells, and balls, + Somebody's darling was borne one day. + --Song. + + +Mrs. Rolleston completely sank under this dreadful blow. Bertie had been +her darling and pride from his infancy, and her own misery was redoubled, +in anticipation of the even greater anguish of Cecil. + +Strange to say, though, _she_ experienced no new shock. That Du Meresq +was dead, she had never doubted, or that his spirit, in the moment of +departure, had hovered for an instant near the one who loved him best. It +seemed to connect her with that other world whither he had gone. It did +not appear so far away, now Bertie was there, and her thoughts were ever +in communion with her spirit love. + +The hour in which he had, as she believed, appeared to her, she regularly +passed alone in the same room, and even prayed for another sign of his +presence. + +But if such prayers were answered, what mourners would remain unvisited +by their dead? + +This room became her "temple and her shrine," in which Bertie, all his +sins forgotten, was canonized. How incessantly she regretted having +parted with those letters, so impulsively affectionate and so entirely +confidential! To be sure, they were chiefly about himself; but what +subject could be so interesting to Cecil? His normal condition of +picturesque insolvency was only a proof of generosity of disposition and +absence of meanness. Now she had nothing but a letter not her own, and +that one last message, "Give my dearest love to Cecil." + +Whether or no the vision was really but a dream, we leave to the decision +of our readers. It was not unnatural that the dominant idea should +impress that unreasoning moment between sleeping and waking; but Cecil's +fervent faith knew no doubts, and thus it was that Du Meresq dead +influenced her as much as when living. + +They soon heard from Colonel Rolleston. Part of his regiment had been +sent to seek and bring in the wounded; his brother-in-law's body had been +found and brought back by Vavasour, and he sent his wife Bertie's watch. +The newspapers were full of the disastrous but glorious charge of the +cavalry, and of their immense loss. + +In Du Meresq's regiment all the senior had been cut off. Had he lived, he +would have been Colonel of it, a position which Lascelles survived to +fill. + +There appeared no respite from anxiety for those who had relatives in the +East. Within two months the battles of the Alma, Balaklava, and Inkermann +had been fought. Colonel Rolleston seemed to bear a charmed life; for, +though repeatedly under fire, he had come out unscathed. Many of his +officers were killed, Fane slightly wounded, and Jack Vavasour had +lost an arm. + +In the ensuing spring Cecil roused herself. Though all her hopes were +dead, the native energy of her character asserted itself, and rebelled +against utter stagnation. Some letters she had received from the nurses +in the Crimea rekindled her former enthusiasm, and she determined to +execute her original project, and go out to the aid of her suffering +countrymen. + +Mrs. Rolleston was now more hopeful, and, far from opposing Cecil's +wishes, cheerfully forwarded them. She looked upon hers as so cruelly +exceptional a lot, that any absorbing occupation capable of distracting +her mind was only too welcome. And so when + + Spring + Came forth, her work of gladness to contrive, + With all her reckless birds upon the wing, + +Cecil, turning "from all she brought," was far on her way to the East, +and wishing, as she assumed the black serge hospital dress, that she +could as easily transform her internal consciousness as her outward +identity. + +Hers was not a nature to do anything by halves, and every faculty of mind +and body became absorbed in these new duties. The patient who fell into +Cecil's hands had little to complain of. She struggled for his life when +even the shadow of death had fallen on him, and sometimes, by arduous +exertions and devoted nursing, saved one in whom the vital flame had +wasted almost to the socket. And then a nearly divine content came to her +as she imagined she might have spared some distant heart the pangs that +had almost broken her own. + +But to follow her through the daily routine of duties, often painful, +often touching, would be too long for the present history, so we pass +abruptly to one event, a necessary link in it. + +Cecil was attending a fever case, and looking anxiously for the doctor, +as she fancied her patient was sinking. He was a young man, and had been +more or less unconscious ever since he was brought in. + +The surgeon came, and shook his head as he felt the feeble pulse. + +"Is there no hope?" asked Cecil, sorrowfully. + +"Scarcely any. Give him this stimulant whenever you can get him to +swallow it; but there seems no reserve of strength." And he passed on +to others. + +She lost no time in attending to his directions, and a large pair of +melancholy brown eyes opened on her. They watched her about persistently, +and seeing their gaze, though languid, was rational, she asked "if there +was anything she could do for him." + +His voice was so inaudible she could but just catch the sentence, "So he +gives me over!" + +"I don't think he would if he could see you now. Indeed, you seem +better." + +"I don't think I shall die; but, in case of accidents, will you write +something for me?" + +Cecil nodded, while holding rapid communion with herself. Ought she to +let him exhaust his little strength in dictating probably an agitating +letter? + +"Will you wait till you are a little stronger?" she said doubtfully. + +"If I ever am, it will not be necessary to write; if otherwise I cannot +do it too soon." + +Cecil, judging by her own feelings that opposition to any strong wish +would be more injurious than even imprudent indulgence, glided from the +room, and soon returned with writing materials. + +She sat down by the bed, and casually felt the attenuated wrist as she +did so. The sick man gazed gratefully at her, but waited some minutes for +breath to commence. His first words made her almost bound from her chair, +and, as he continued in low feeble tones, with long pauses between, Cecil +was wrought into an agony of suspense and interest. + +The communication was to be addressed to an uncle, and began abruptly:-- + + "I was married to Theodora Leigh at a register office at Liverpool in + November, 1853, and I make it a dying request to you to acknowledge my + widow, who will otherwise be destitute both of money and friends. + Forgive, if you can, my deception, and the poor return made for all the + benefits lavished on your, notwithstanding, grateful nephew, + + "HARRY DUTTON. + + "P.S.--My wife is a governess in the family of Mr. Markham, + Heatherbrae, Wimbledon." + +It was sealed, directed, and the patient had sunk into a heavy stupor; +but Cecil felt her heart stirred as she had never expected to do again. + +Here, if she had required it, was complete exoneration of any subsequent +intercourse having taken place between Du Meresq and Bluebell. The latter +evidently had been far otherwise engaged, and, for the first time, she +felt her long-cherished resentment melting away. + +She gazed with some curiosity at the man who could so soon supplant +Bertie, and smiled with irrepressible bitterness at the singular +coincidence that she should be striving to preserve a husband to +Bluebell, who had deprived her of her own early love. + +But where could she have met this man, whom she had married almost +immediately on landing in England? Cecil looked again at the +address--"Right Honourable Lord Bromley." She had heard that name +somewhere, but could not recall any connecting associations. + +Harry lingered some time, his life frequently despaired of; and he would +probably have succumbed had it not been for the untiring energy and care +of the hospital nurse. Her anxiety could not have been exceeded by +Bluebell herself, for Cecil's disposition was generous, and she never +more truly forgave her _ci-devant_ enemy than when thus labouring to +return good for evil. + +At last the turning-point was reached and Dutton lifted from the very +gates of the grave. A wound in his leg was now the chief retarding +circumstance; and as it seemed incapable of healing at Scutari, he was +ordered on sick leave to England. + +In the mean time, a lively friendship had arisen between him and Cecil. +Directly she admitted her name and former intimacy with Bluebell, Harry +took her entirely into his confidence, and, encouraged by the evident +interest with which she listened, related how he had first met and fallen +in love with Bluebell on the steamer, and subsequently persuaded her to +elope with him. + +He did not deny the interested motives which had afterwards induced him +to conceal the marriage; but Cecil's upright mind recoiled at the +unworthy deception, and the strong view she took of it made short work +of the extenuating circumstances advanced by Harry. + +The dying appeal to Lord Bromley had, of course, been burnt since its +writer's recovery; but Dutton, now thoroughly ashamed of his shabby +policy, vowed to Cecil that he would abandon all thoughts of inheritance, +and boldly acknowledge his marriage to Lord Bromley as soon as he should +set foot in England. + +This was their last interview; for, as he had now approached +convalescence, she had no further excuse for ministering to Harry. + +It was some time since he had received tidings from his wife, having +purposely kept her in ignorance when he volunteered into Peel's brigade. +Then he was wounded and laid up at Scutari, so whatever letters she might +have written would be on board the "Druid." + +Now he must apprise her of his approaching return and explain his long +silence. As it happened, a homeward-bound steamer sailed within a few +days of the one which carried this letter, and Dutton, obtaining a +passage in the former, which happened to the faster of the two, arrived +in England almost simultaneously. + +Without further notice, he rushed down to Wimbledon, and, had she been +there, would speedily have solved the mystery that had so exercised Mrs. +Markham. But, lo! on reaching Heatherbrae, he beheld with a sinking heart +a conspicuous board on the garden-gate, with the words, "To be let, +furnished," legibly inscribed thereon. + +Weak from his illness and the disappointment, Harry leant against the +railings to consider and recover. He had been so secure of finding +Bluebell there, and during the whole hurried journey was picturing the +meeting. How would she look? He knew so well the fluttering colour that +changed in any emotion, pleasurable or otherwise: but would he see a true +loving welcome in those transparent eyes? He had considered every +probability or improbability of this sort, but not how he should act +in such a dead lock as the present. + +Repeated rings at the bell at last brought out the woman in charge, her +arms covered with soap-suds, and gown drawn through a placket-hole. + +"The family had gone abroad," she said. "No, she did not know where. The +agent might, perhaps. She was only there to show visitors the house." + +Harry turned away in listless perplexity; it was quite evident this +person could tell him nothing. Doubtless their change of plans had been +communicated to him by post, but he had not waited to send for letters. +There was nothing for it but to obtain from the woman the address of the +house-agent, get Mr. Markham's from him, and send another letter to +Bluebell. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVIII. + +OLD HEAD ON YOUNG SHOULDERS. + + How could I tell I should love thee to-day, + Whom that day I held not dear? + How could I know I should love thee away, + When I did not love thee a near? + --Jean Ingelow. + + +We must now see whither the vicissitudes of fortune have conducted Mrs. +Dutton. Her pleasant home at the Markhams' was gone. They had lost +heavily in the failure of a bank, and were living abroad to retrench, +while Mr. Markham pursued his profession in London. + +Bluebell was the first luxury to be cut off, though, as a home during +Harry's absence was what she chiefly required, she would willingly have +remained for nothing. It was unspeakable grief to part with Mrs. Markham, +who alone understood how oppressively her secret weighed on her, and her +incessant anxiety for news from the seat of war. + +One day,--it was after the battle of Balaklava,--when shuddering over, in +the _Times_, the ghastly "butcher's bill," Bluebell came upon Du Meresq's +name among the killed, and the shock to nerves that had scarcely yet +recovered their equilibrium nearly brought on a relapse of her former +illness. + +Yet, as her mind cleared from its first horror, she was amazed to find it +was not Cecil she was most feeling for, and that the cry, "Thank Heaven, +it is not Harry!" had arisen spontaneously to her heart. I suppose +Bertie's neglect had effected its own cure; but certainly some secret +influence was turning the tide of her affections into its legitimate +channel. + +Yet their correspondence was not only desultory, but constrained. Dutton, +never convinced of possessing her heart, and angry with himself at the +part he had acted, had no pleasure in writing; and Bluebell was as shy of +her new-found feelings as though he were still an unacknowledged lover. + +But whenever a ship came in without bringing a letter, she was filled +with foreboding and dread. Still, there was always the consolation that +he was public property, and as long as she did not see his death +reported, might conclude him to be safe. + +And he never did write anything to excite alarm. No more perils or +hair-breadth escapes could be inferred from his letters than if he were +merely residing abroad from choice. + +Mrs. Markham obtained her another situation. She had never succeeded in +discovering to whom Bluebell was married; but having persuaded herself it +was unnecessary to let that stand in the way, simply recommended her in +her maiden name. + +"I look upon your governessing as a farce, you know, Bluebell, though any +one would gladly snap you up for your music alone. But when this war is +over, the mysterious husband will return, and you will pay me a visit in +your true colours." + +And so they parted, with many promises of correspondence. + +Bluebell's next venture was at Brighton, and she drove to Brunswick +Square one chilly afternoon in March, rather dejected at the prospect of +being again thrown among strangers. + +"Not at home," said the servant. "Mrs. Barrington is hout-driving." + +"Oh, it's all right," said a pert maid, tripping downstairs. "This way, +miss. I was to show you your room, and the children's tea will be ready +directly." + +So saying, she preceded Bluebell upstairs to a chilly, fireless +apartment. Houses in Brighton are not generally very substantially built, +and the room was furnished on the most approved governess pattern,--just +what was barely necessary, no more. Bluebell was impressionable, perhaps +fanciful, for hitherto her "lines had fallen in pleasant places," and +she shivered a little at the forbidding exterior, but was somewhat +cheered by a suggestion of welcome conveyed by a bunch of violets on the +dressing-table. "There's some kind person in this house," thought she, +yet lingering awhile in a purposeless manner, unwilling to walk alone +into the school-room and face the strange children. While thus +hesitating, a demure little person came to fetch her, with tight plaited +hair, irreproachable pinafore, and stockings well drawn up. Two younger +duplicates were in the school-room. The table was laid for the evening +meal,--thick wedges of bread-and-butter, calculated to appease but not to +allure the appetite, and a large Britannia-metal teapot, with not +injuriously strong tea. + +There were a couple of globes, an old piano, and book-cases well stocked +with grammars and histories, and the fire was guarded by a high fender, +effectually dissipating any frivolous notion of sitting with the feet on +it. There was neither dog nor cat, nor even a stray doll, to distract +attention from the serious business of education. + +Such was the impression conveyed to Bluebell, who was instantly filled +with well-grounded misgivings as to whether her qualifications might be +quite up to the standard expected. Good gracious! those children looked +capable of obtaining female scholarships, as they sat, with their keen +impassive faces, calmly adding her up, so to speak. + +Mrs. Barrington and her eldest daughter had just come in. "Oh, so Miss +Leigh has arrived!" cried the former, observing Bluebell's box in the +hall. "Dear me, what a bore new people are! I really must rest, as we +dine out. Couldn't you go up, Kate, and say I hope she is comfortable, +and will ring for the school-room maid whenever she wants anything, and +all that?" + +"That would console her immensely, I should think," said Miss Barrington, +laughing. "Well, I will go and look her over, mamma, and report the +result." + +As Kate entered, her little set speech, that "mamma was lying down, but +hoped," etc., was almost suspended on her lips, as she gazed with +unfeigned curiosity at the new governess. Seated pensively behind the urn +was a fair girl, dressed in black, with an Elizabethan ruff round a long +white throat. Shining chestnut hair contrasted with a complexion of the +purest pink and white, while a pair of dewy violet eyes looked shyly up +at her. "Good heavens!" thought Kate, "she is the loveliest creature in +Brighton at this moment." + +"I have also come to ask for a cup of tea. No, thank you, Adela, none of +that! What buttered bricks! Goodness, children! don't you ever have cake, +or jam, or anything?" + +"Miss Steele used to say it would give us muddy complexions, and spoil +our digestion." + +"Poor little victims! Never mind, you'll come out some day. I must make +haste and get married, Mabel, if you grow like that. But Miss Leigh must +be starved. Do you like eggs and bacon?" with her hand on the bell. + +"Very much," said Bluebell, smiling back, more in gratitude for the good +intentions than anything else. + +"Poor thing!" cried Kate, impulsively, quite vanquished by the smile; +"you will be so dull when the children go to bed. I wish we were not +going out to-night. I'll collect the newspapers, and send you up a +capital novel I got yesterday from the library." + +Bluebell was cheered in a moment. "I am sure it was you whom I have to +thank too, for those violets," said she, touching a few transferred to +her waist-belt, and beaming up at her new acquaintance. + +Kate nodded pleasantly. "Do you like flowers? I bought them in the King's +Road this morning." A few minutes later she burst into her mother's room. + +"Where does this _rara avis_ hail from? I never clapped eyes on such a +beauty--Miss Seraphin is not a patch on her!" + +"Don't be so noisy, dear--Miss Leigh? Yes I heard she was nice-looking." + +"Nice-looking!" echoed Kate, contemptuously. "Just wait till you see her. +She will be focused by every eye-glass in Brighton when she takes the +children out for their constitutional." + +"Dear me! I hope she is a proper kind of person." + +"She looks rather in the Lady Audley style--and such a complexion! I +could have sworn it was painted if it had not varied so. Now I think of +it," said Kate, with _malice prepense_, "she is not at all unlike the +photographs, of--,"--naming some one of whose existence she had no +business to have been aware. + +"It really is too bad of Mrs. Markham not having mentioned this," cried +Mrs. Barrington, as if Bluebell had been convicted of a crime. "It is +most unpleasant having so _voyante_ a person about the children!" + +"Oh, what does it matter," said Kate, heedlessly; "you have no grown up +sons. And she seems awfully nice. She has a face with a history in it, +though. I shall try and make her out to-morrow. No one is ever so +innocent as she looks." + +Kate's admiration was still further excited next day as she listened to +Bluebell's singing. + +"You never heard anything like it, mamma--she could fill Covent Garden; +and she composes too. I wonder if she has ever been on the stage?" + +Less appreciative was the judgment of the erudite Mabel, who reported +Miss Leigh unable to continue her arithmetic beyond the decimal fractions +she had attained to with Miss Steele. "In fact," said the child, with +deep contempt, "I don't believe she has ever-gone beyond the rule of +three herself." + +Indeed, the exact sciences were not Bluebell's _specialite_, who now +employed many a perplexed hour trying with Sievier's Arithmetic to work +herself up a little ahead of this precocious pupil. Fortunately she was +tolerably strong in history, having gone through a regular course with +the little Markhams; but it was evident, notwithstanding, that Mabel and +Adela pretty accurately gauged her acquirements, and held them +proportionably cheap. + +Kate, too, had become somewhat of a tease. I don't know what led her to +suspect that the governess had something to conceal, but she was +perpetually putting questions most difficult for her to answer; the +incitement being the pleasure of watching, from an artistic point of +view, the beauty of Bluebell's ever-ready blushes while essaying to parry +her tormentor's inquisitorial efforts. + +This cat-and-mouse game would go on till the victim, turning to bay, was +on the point of desperately asking, "What she wished to find out?" Then +Kate would veil her eyes, and look all innocent indifference. Observing +the avidity with which she pounced on newspapers, Miss Barrington one day +secreted them, much entertained by watching the governess circling round +the room, glancing on every table or couch they were likely to have been +thrown on. + +"Try behind the sofa cushion, Miss Leigh." + +Bluebell started, vexed at being observed, and also at this proof of +_espionnage_ on her actions, but a little later she fell into more +serious self betrayal. They were trying over songs in a locked manuscript +book. + +"Dear me, what is this air? I know it so well," she cried, incautiously +humming it. + +"A sea song of my cousin, Harry Dutton's. I had no idea any one else +possessed a copy." + +There was no answer. She looked up, the blood had rushed over Bluebell's +cheek and brow, her lips were apart, and eyes wide open and bright with +wonder. Before she could drop a mask over the too eloquent face, Kate's +keen eyes were reading her off. + +"You know him, I see," with emphasis. + +Bluebell, recovering presence of mind, with a desperate effort, replied +calmly,--"There was a Mr. Dutton, who came home in the same steamer. +Probably I may have heard him whistling the air."--then sat down, and +plunged into an instrumental piece, feeling quite unequal to endure +further questioning. + +But the notes all the time seemed incessantly repeating, "So this is the +Cousin Kate he was always talking about."' + +Miss Barrington's mind was equally busy. + +"I bet Harry flirted with her all the way across, and he never told me a +word of it--never so much as mentioned that there was a pretty girl in +the ship, and yet she admitted knowing his favourite air 'so well.'" + +Then Kate remembered the many unaccounted for weeks between his landing +in England and arrival at "The Towers," and her former suspicion that +some love affair had intervened. + +At first she had only been provoked to curiosity by Bluebell's reserve, +but now there really was food for imagination to work on, and perhaps the +clue to much that was perplexing in Harry. How curiously it had come +out! + +The artless Kate smiled re-assuringly at her victim. She was on the track +now, and the rabbit might have as much chance of ultimately evading the +weasel hunting him by scent. + +"What perverse fate has brought me here?" sighed Bluebell, laying her +tormented head on the pillow that night. "Miss Barrington will be sure to +find out everything. She was so friendly at first; but Harry always said +he never trusted her. Then those children! I am sure they are more +capable of teaching me. Whenever shall I be extricated from this false +position?" + +A night's rest did not allay Bluebell's perplexities; on the contrary, +more and more complications suggested themselves. Harry must know where +she was by this time, and would be frantic at her having dropped into +such an ants'-nest. They would recognise his handwriting, too, if a +letter came. To be sure that would also strike him. Nevertheless she got +into the habit of calling for her letters at the post-office,--a +proceeding which the children did not fail to mention, with the rider, +"That they wondered at Miss Leigh taking the trouble when she never got +any." + +Kate was rather inclined to patronize Bluebell. She persuaded her mother +to give a musical party for the exhibition of her wonderful voice, and +was, on that occasion, quite as solicitous about the young artiste's +toilette as her own; and, being not averse to having a girl of her own +age to chatter to, bestowed a good deal of her society on Bluebell out of +school-hours, which might have been more appreciated were it not for the +excessive caution it entailed on the latter. + +One day she heard that Mrs. and Miss Barrington were going to Bromley +Towers for some theatricals and other gaieties. After her discovery of +whose house she was in, that was only a matter of course, and she had +only to conceal all interest in it. + +Kate was to take a part in one of the plays, and passed the intervening +time in getting it by heart, and rehearsing with Bluebell, while the +necessary costume was animatedly discussed between them. The latter +fancied she had attained sufficient self-command to listen unconcernedly +to any conversation about Lord Bromley or "The Towers," but she could +not quench the beaming delight in her eyes when Kate one day observed, +carelessly,-- + +"I believe you will see the play, after all, Miss Leigh, as mamma has +decided to take Mabel and Adela, which means you also; for Uncle Bromley +has rather a horror of children, and would no more have any of the +juveniles of the family without a keeper, than he would admit a pack of +hounds into the house. Why, Miss Leigh, you look delightful! Do you +really care to go?" Then her suspicions awakening, she set a trap like +lightning. + +"I wonder" (carelessly) "if poor Harry Dutton will get back in time. He +is invalided home from Scutari." + +Self-command--everything--vanished. + +"How did you hear that?" with crimson cheeks and suspiciously dimmed +eyes. + +"How?" with marked emphasis. "Would it not be stranger if one had not +heard it? Uncle Bromley named it in his letter. He was wounded," +bringing out the words slowly, "and almost died in the hospital. I hope +he will survive the voyage home." + +"That girl's a fiend," thought Bluebell, rushing off to her own room in a +paroxysm of terror. Then, as she tried to think it out, it became quite +evident Harry could not be aware of her change of residence, perhaps had +received no letters at the hospital, and would not even know where to +find her when he returned. Still, she would be in the right direction, +for no doubt he would go to Bromley Towers. But what a place to meet in! +And, being ignorant of his address, she could not even send a line of +warning. + +Romantic notions of fascinating Lord Bromley, and thus facilitating +confession when Harry returned, stole through her brain. Kate's play +paled in dramatic interest to the possible "situations" that seemed +impending. One drawback to taming the lion was the probability of +scarcely being on speaking terms with him. Her mission, indeed, seemed to +be to keep the children _out_ of his way. But there were the theatricals; +children, servants, governesses even, would be privileged to look on that +one night. The coquette nature, dormant from want of practice, awoke +again. Lord Bromley was only a man! Why couldn't she make him like her? + +Kate observed renewed smiles and animation, and set it down to the hope +of seeing Dutton at "The Towers," especially as she also detected her +doing what maids call "a little work for myself," and effecting wonders +with a few yards of muslin and ruffling. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIX. + +THE LOAN OF A LOVER. + + Parks with oak and chestnut shady, + Parks and ordered gardens great, + Ancient homes of lord and lady, + Built for pleasure and for state. + --Tennyson. + + +This was Bluebell's first acquaintance with a really grand English park, +and, during the long drive through it, she gazed in wondering delight at +the stately trees, heavy with summer foliage, the herds of deer, the calm +lake, with kingly swans gliding over it. Perhaps her greatest surprise +was that all this fair domain belonged to one individual. Why, the +richest "boss" in Canada possessed no more than a few acres of lawn and +pleasure ground, with ornamental trees and shrubs,--all looking new,--the +production of a self made man, grown rich within a few years. These +stately oaks and beeches must have seen generations live and die, lords +of the manor, and she began better to understand Harry's reluctance to +risk such an inheritance. + +"Oh, they are exercising 'Hobbie,'" cried the children "Then we shall +have some rides." + +Lord Bromley seldom presented himself to his guests till dinner-time. +Polite grooms of the chamber offered tea, etc., the housekeeper showed +visitors to their rooms. But on this occasion Mrs. Barrington was +virtually lady of the house, and, being too late to receive, was in +voluble conversation with a few persons already arrived. + +Bluebell was not introduced to any one, and, her first sensations of +excited curiosity having subsided, began to feel as if she must stiffen +to her chair if no one would speak to her and break the spell. It was a +welcome relief when Adela exclaimed,-- + +"Mamma, may we go up to the nursery?" + +"With all my heart, and take Miss Leigh." + +The children darted off across a slippery oak hall, up a flight of stone +stairs with a velvety carpet, then along a passage leading to a private +staircase with a red baize door shutting it off. It opened into a long +low room, still keeping the name of nursery, and at each end were +bed-rooms, one for the two girls, the smaller for Bluebell. + +"This is such a jolly place," cried Adela, who seemed to have left all +her primness at Brighton. "You have never seen the spring woods, nor the +amphitheatre, nor the waterfall!" + +"Nor the terraces and gardens, nor the menagerie, nor dry pond," added +Mabel. "Oh, we could not show you everything in a fortnight. Shall we +come out now or after tea? It isn't laid yet. Let us have it out of +doors." + +Bluebell was almost as eager as the children; and they spent the hot June +evening under the trees, listening to bird choruses and the rich solo of +a lingering nightingale. + +Next morning she was conducted by her pupils round the spring woods, the +same walk that Dutton and his cousin had perambulated eighteen months +ago. It took just twenty-five minutes to make the circuit, returning to +the starting point, marked by a summer-house. + +When they had got about half way round, they were met by an old, spare +gentlemen, slightly bent. He nodded to the children, spoke a casual word, +and mechanically raised his hat to Bluebell. The intensity of her +interest gave animation to her countenance. + +"That's a pretty girl," thought his Lordship, continuing on his way. + +He was in the habit of taking this constitutional every morning before +breakfast, sometimes twice round, sometimes once. This day it was twice, +and, walking at about an equal pace, the school-room party were passing +him nearly on the same spot. + +Lord Bromley paused again, said something to the children, and took a +second glance at Bluebell. + +"You are a young mistress of the ceremonies, Mabel; but why don't you +present me to this young lady?" + +Mabel looked up in astonishment, then said promptly, "Miss Leigh, Lord +Bromley." + +A slight tremor passed over his face, and he leant a little more on his +stick, giving Bluebell an impression of extreme feebleness. After a +mechanical observation or two, rather to her disappointment he walked +away, without further improving the introduction. + +Mrs. Barrington wished lessons to be proceeded with in the forenoon, so +they did not leave the nursery. In the evening the children were desired +to dress and come down with Bluebell till bed-time. It seems rather a +_triste_ pleasure for a governess to have the trouble and expense of an +evening toilette, with no expectation of entertainment beyond a cup of +coffee if the servants remember to offer it, and the enforced +conversation of some good-hearted guest, who, in the absence of any +subject in common, can think of no more suggestive topic than inquiries +into her daily walks, with threadbare remarks on the scenery. If she is +lively, and strikes out into fresh fields and pastures new, "she is +forward, and a flirt." If otherwise, she mounts the stereotyped smile, +and gushes about the singing in church and picturesqueness of the +neighbourhood, which, probably, by this time she loathes every feature +of. Then come long pauses; the philanthropic guest mingles in general +conversation, and edges away, leaving her to retreat upon a photograph +book. + +Little of all this did Bluebell dread,--she only longed to get downstairs +on any terms. Immured in the nursery, how could her little plot proceed? +Her simple toilette was carefully considered while brushing out and +arranging the shining coils of chestnut hair. Yet it was only a black +muslin dress, cut _en coeur_, and relieved with her favourite ruffles. +The children had brought handfuls of roses from the rosary--yellow, +crimson, white, blush, pink. A York and Lancaster in her hair, a tea-rose +in her bosom, and she was ready. + +Only the ladies were in the large saloon, which again dazzled the +unsophisticated Bluebell with its magnificence. She found herself, as +before, little noticed; but, the pictures, which she might study +uninterruptedly from a secluded corner, entertained her for some time. +There were full-length portraits of Court ladies, by Lely, with wonderful +lace on brocaded gowns. One had a little dog half hidden in the folds. +The arch face of Nell Gwynne smiled over a door, a life-sized +Gainsborough of a lady with a straw hat, reclining on a bank of flowers, +was conspicuous over one fire-place. There were cavaliers with long, +curled hair, gentlemen of a later date in pig-tails; but the most modern +of all was a portrait of a boy playing with a large dog. On this one her +eye lingered longest. Whom could it be? It was not in the least like +Harry, and yet she fancied something about it familiar to her. There was +a look of Lord Bromley, certainly--perhaps it was a portrait of him in +childhood. + +Mabel and Adela, meantime, were performing an elaborate duet. It was one +of her most irksome duties instructing these children in music, who would +never attain to more than mechanical excellence. When they had arrived at +the final crash, with not more than half a bar between them, Bluebell was +summoned to sing. The gentlemen came in from the dining-room at the last +verse, and, after a slight pause, she began another unasked. Mrs. +Barrington thought this rather forward, but there was a suppressed murmur +of applause when she had finished. + +One of the ladies addressed a few words to her, and then Kate carelessly +brought up a gentleman who had been tormenting her for an introduction. + +Bluebell had hoped that Lord Bromley would have spoken to her, after +their encounter in the morning. But he did not, though sometimes she felt +sure he was looking at her. + +The undercurrent of excitement gave a feverish vivacity to her manner, +which Sir Robert Lowther imputed to gratified vanity at his attentions +and he continued complacently by her side, till Mrs. Barrington said,--"I +think, Miss Leigh, the children should go to bed," and Bluebell +understood she was expected to accompany them. + +It was very mortifying. Apparently she had been too much at her ease, and +perhaps the _empressement_ with which Sir Robert had rushed to open the +door might exclude her from coming down for the future. Then she +reflected, with a little pardonable spite, that, if things turned out +according to her hopes, Mrs. Barrington might, perhaps, repent having +marched her off with the children like a nursery-maid. + +The following morning, at the same hour, Bluebell circulated the spring +woods with her pupils, and, had he been a young lover approaching, her +heart could not have beat higher than on again perceiving the bent form +of Lord Bromley. + +Would he pass them with a courteous lifting of the hat to her? Of course; +what else would he do? Her fervent aspiration had apparently a magnetic +effect; or was it her face that was so tell-tale a mirror? Lord Bromley +stopped, spoke a few words, and actually turned back with them! + +Bluebell was in the seventh heaven. She had not yet learnt how little +even personal liking weighs against ambition when the object of it is +unsupported by the merit of being well placed in the world. If +well-tochered Lady Geraldine, pale and plain, had married the heir, every +door in Bromley Towers would have been hospitably thrown open to her +while the loveliest Peri, whose face was her fortune, might have stood +knocking at the portal-gate unnoticed. + +"Yet everything will go right if he only likes me!" To be liked, to be +loved, that comprises all else with a girl. This one was not quite a +fool, only had not outlived her youthful illusions. + +An ardent desire to attain anything goes far towards success. Fearful of +being thought forward, yet longing to please, she seemed to awaken an +interest in Lord Bromley; though he talked playfully to all three, his +indulgent smile was for Bluebell. Another expression appeared sometimes +on his face, the same that had perplexed her the previous evening--an +investigating, speculating glance: and once, when becoming more at ease, +her features resumed their play, his were suddenly contorted, as if a +sharp pang had seized him. + +The walk seemed all too short, for Lord Bromley did not take the second, +but retraced his steps to the house. Bluebell fell into a reverie, till +something in the children's chatter attracted her attention. + +"Wasn't he nice this morning? Never saw him in such a good humour! Why, +he hardly ever speaks to us!--hates children, mamma says. Do you know, +Miss Leigh, Uncle Bromley never walked with us so far before." + +"Perhaps he thinks you are getting to a more companionable age," said +Bluebell, blushing; but her heart bounded triumphantly. + +It was an intensely hot afternoon. The ladies and some of the gentlemen +were grouped under the lime-trees near the house. Kate, standing by a +gipsy table, was pouring out tea, and keeping up a running fire of merry +nonsense, her usual staff of danglers hovering near. The elder ladies +seemed equally content, knitting shawls and weaving scandal. The bees +were humming in the limes, "the rich music of a summer bird" overhead. +The very air seemed green in the shadow of the trees. + +"There," cried Kate, petulantly, "as sure as ever one is innocently happy +in this wicked world, some species of amateur police obliges one to 'move +on.'" And she glanced over her shoulder at a gentleman approaching. + +He walked straight up to the group with a business-like, uncompromising +manner, very different to the _dolce far niente_ attitudes; yet four of +the number rose at once to join him. + +"Do have a cup of tea," cried Kate, enticingly, with the view to a +reprieve. + +"No, thank you; never touch it. There is not _too_ much time, Miss +Barrington." + +"I know, I know," with a resigned air, and a shrug to the four who had +risen. And without another word they all mysteriously followed their +summoner to the house. + +"What can they be going to do with Mr. Barton?" asked one of the ladies. + +"Oh, it's a great secret," said Mrs. Barrington, laughing affectedly, +"if they can only keep it." + +In fact, it was a rehearsal. Mr. Barton was stage-manager, and ruled them +with a rod of iron. He made the timid "speak up," the giddy, practise +over and over again which side of the stage they were to enter and leave +by; threw more spirit in here, checked ranting there, and ventured to +object to the key in which Kate, as heroine, sang her song. He permitted +"gagging" as a proof of presence of mind, provided the cue was +forthcoming; but now his great soul was perturbed by the absence of a +prompter. + +"We really cannot do without one any longer," cried he, in urgent appeal +to Kate, who rang the bell with an air of conviction. + +"I will send for Miss Leigh, with whom I have been rehearsing. She almost +knows the play by heart, and set my song to music." + +Bluebell was starting out with the children, but came very willingly. +Acting always had a charm for her, and, the play being pretty well in her +head, she could prompt and watch at the same time. + +Kate was too clever not to act well; but the _role_ of the simple, +ingenuous heroine was scarcely suited to her. She did not _look_ it. The +other girl, Miss Heneage, said her part like a lesson, but could not act +it. The men were imperfect--incapable of getting through a sentence +without the prompter. Sir Robert was the most inattentive of all, being +more interested in trying to set up a flirtation with Bluebell, who +demurely repressed him. + +Such were the elements Mr. Barton was preparing to appear before an +indulgent public in two days' time. All the neighbourhood was invited to +the theatricals, and the evening was to close with a dance. + +This night Bluebell received no invitation to join the party below. The +children went down without her, and came up about nine, apparently in a +great state of amusement. + +"You'll get down to-morrow, I think, Miss Leigh. Uncle Bromley said to +mamma, 'Where is your pretty governess, Lydia? Surely she is coming down +to sing to us?' And Sir Robert muttered something about 'a beautiful +syren,' and wanted to go up and fetch you." + +Bluebell was more gratified by the first part of this speech; that silly +Sir Robert would spoil everything. + +Next day, according to Mabel's prognostications, the ban was removed, and +Bluebell made free of the saloon in the evening, continuing, however, +rigorously to retire when her pupils did. Somewhat to her discomposure, +she found they had been chattering to Kate about Lord Bromley joining +their morning walks. Miss Barrington had turned this little circumstance +over in her mind rather curiously. Bluebell was apparently so wonderfully +discreet with young men, it was strange she should go out early to flirt +with an old one. + +"Next time say you would rather walk in the Park, Mabel," said she. + +And when the children rather confusedly acted on this advice, Bluebell, +detecting Kate's hand in it, immediately assented, determined that no +reluctance should be reported. + +The day of the theatricals arrived, and with it a great reverse of +fortune to Miss Barrington. She had driven early into the market-town in +a small pony carriage for some essential no one but herself could choose. +Now, though a good rider, Kate was a remarkably careless whip; and +rattling through the town, the ponies shied at something, or nothing, +swerved into a cart, and upset the tittuppy little trap in a moment. The +immediate result to the fair driver was a sprained ankle, contused face, +and fast blackening eye. Any amount of pain she would have cheerfully +endured sooner than give up her evening's excitement; but the unfortunate +eye swelled, and got blacker and blacker, and nothing could be done. Her +despair was communicated to the whole corps, till Mr. Barton suggested a +substitute in Bluebell. It was carried _nem. con._, with the chilling +consent of Mrs. Barrington, who, though she would not hear of Kate +appearing thus disfigured, had tried in vain to persuade Lord Bromley to +put off the play. But he maintained it was now "too late for +postponement; Barton had said the girl could act; and Kate deserved the +disappointment, for she had no business to have upset herself," etc. In +the meantime Mr. Barton had carried off Bluebell for a severe rehearsal. +The play was "The Loan of a Lover," and as Peter Spyk he was interested +in his Gertrude. Sir Robert also, as Captain Amesfort, threw considerably +more animus into his scene since the change of heroines. + +Bluebell had tea with her pupils as usual, and joined in the _dramatis +persona_ in the green room at nine. The company was arriving. The front +benches were soon filled with ladies, while the men stood about in the +doorway, or looked over their heads. + +Among the latter was Harry Dutton. He had come without notice, too late +to join the party at dinner, and, thinking the whole thing rather a bore, +scarcely glanced at the stage. + +"Mynheer Swizel! Mynheer Swizel!" Dutton started as if he had been shot. +In a peasant's dress, and running on to the stage greeted by a round of +applause, he recognises Bluebell! Here, at Bromley Towers! + +Transfixed to the spot, his moonstruck gaze rivetted on the actors, +people spoke to him, and he never heard. Conjecture, wonder, doubts of +his own sanity, were whirling his brain. How did she get _here_, of all +places in the world? With whom?--and under what name? Heavens, if she +should suddenly perceive him, and stop short or scream! He moved behind a +pillar, where he could observe unseen. Peter Spyk was singing:-- + + "To-morrow will be market-day, + The streets all thronged with lasses gay; + And from a crowd so great, no doubt, + Sweethearts enough I may pick out. + In verity, verity, verity aye," etc + +And then Gertrude, in a mocking voice, coquettishly sang,-- + + "Be not too bold, for hearts fresh caught, + Are ne'er, I am told, to market brought + The best, they say, are _given_ away, + And are not _sold_, on market-day. + In verity, verity, verity aye," etc + +A round of applause and an encore followed. It was long since Harry had +heard Bluebell's voice, but he alone did not applaud. The play proceeded, +and then Sir Robert came in as Amesfort. It hung a little here. He +floundered, gagged, forgot the cue, and the voice of the prompter became +distinctly audible. Happily, conceit bore him along. Harry winced as he +drawled to Gertrude, "Why, you are very pretty!" But when he proceeded to +catch her round the waist and offered to kiss her, he mattered an oath, +and half-started forward. Warned by a look of curiosity in a bystander, +Dutton fiercely controlled himself, but a burning desire to quarrel with +Sir Robert took possession of him. + +In the last scene, when she comes on as a bride, Harry remembered, with +a curious laugh, she had never been so attired for him. Bluebell was +warming to her part. She and Peter Spyk were pulling the whole coach, and +when the play was ended they were both loudly called for before the +curtains. + +Happy and delighted at her success, it was hard to fall from triumph +to insignificance; but, in the first flush of the former, Bluebell was +left in solitude. Her fellow actors had flown away to exchange their +theatrical costume for ball dress, and she had received no _carte +blanche_ to mingle with the dancers. + +Lingering listlessly alone in the greenroom, wishing to join the rest, +and hoping some one might think of sending for her, she had thrown +herself into an easy-chair, back to the door, which was half-open. There +was a slight sound of a rapid, stealthy footstep, and, before she had +time to look round, a twisted note was tossed into her lap. + +Bluebell started to her feet. Her heart gave one great jump, and her +cheeks were blanched. + +She rushed to the door. Too late,--the passage was empty. After reading +the note, she walked backwards and forwards, in an incoherent state of +excitement, pondering its contents, and was returning to the deserted +school-room, when she was met and stopped by Lord Bromley. + +"Not dressed yet!" he exclaimed. "Or is Gertrude going to dance in this +pretty bridal array?" + +"This dress is Miss Barrington's. Good-night, Lord Bromley," said +Bluebell, trying to pass. + +"What! you poor child, are you sent to bed? Come along with me. I'll make +it right with Mrs. Barrington." + +"I cannot, indeed. I am ill--I am tired," said Bluebell, desperately. + +Lord Bromley's eyes were fixed inquiringly upon her; but people were +coming along the passage, and, escaping from him, she darted off. + +No one was in the nursery. Bluebell hastily changed her dress, wrapped +herself in a dark cloak, and drew the hood over her head; then, +descending the staircase, listened a moment at the foot. No one seemed +about. She flew down a dark passage into the billiard-room, threw open +the French window, and stepped out. It was as dark as a summer's night +ever is, and a soft shower was falling; but Bluebell took no heed. +Avoiding the front of the house, she threaded her way by the back +settlements. A dog barked, and a poaching cat was marauding about. The +grass felt damp and clinging as she struck into what was called "The West +Drive." It was not kept exactly in lawn order there. A hundred yards +further on was a summer-house, thatched inside and out with moss, from +which, long ere she reached it, Harry Dutton emerged, and, folding her in +his arms, drew her within its shelter. + +In the meantime, the ball was in full swing; every now and then inquiries +were made for the missing heir. "Did not Mr. Dutton come to-night? I +wonder what has become of him!" Lord Bromley wondered too; but, before he +had time to be really offended at his absence. Mr. Dutton was observed +valsing with Lady Geraldine. The young sailor was no whit less +interesting for his Crimean campaign, to which his wound lent an +additional _prestige_; and it was astonishing what severe remarks were +made on the unloveliness of the partner with whom he most frequently +danced that night. + +And yet such criticism was more undeserved than usual, for a look of +gentle happiness softened and inspired her naturally plain features, and +lent an unwonted tender grace to a somewhat inexpressive figure. + +Lord Bromley did not observe their frequent contiguity with the same +satisfaction as of yore. On the contrary, his eye rested on Harry with a +somewhat sarcastic expression, and he remained thoughtful and _distrait_. + + + + +CHAPTER XL. + +THE MINIATURE. + + True, I have married her. + The very head and front of my offending + Hath this extent, no more. + --Shakespeare. + + +Lord Bromley did not suffer the nocturnal festivities to interfere with +his morning walk, during which he came upon the governess and her pupils +looking as fresh as the dawn. + +"I need not ask if you have recovered from last night, Miss Leigh," +observed he, dryly, as he bowed demurely, with a somewhat conscious air. + +"Did you dance?" asked Mabel; "for I heard you come up just after the +stable clock struck one, and the music had been going on for ever so +long." + +Now, it might have been half-past eleven when Miss Leigh had professed +herself to Lord Bromley as too ill and tired to dream of dancing. Looking +the consternation she felt at this contradictory piece of evidence, she +remained silent, not daring to raise her eyes. + +"Who would have taken you for such an actress!" said the peer, in rather +ambiguous accents. + +Bluebell looked up desperately; her expression was ingenuous, but half +imploring. + +"Such nerve and command of countenance!" rhapsodized his Lordship, with +the same odd fixed look and sarcastic inflection of voice. "The idea of +the plot so perfectly conceived and played out! Had you much practice--in +Canada." + +"I have played in charades and small pieces," wondering how he knew she +had been in Canada. + +"But you never _really_ acted till you came to England? How long was that +ago?" + +"Some time now," confusedly. + +"Nearly two years, perhaps?" + +"About that--no, not quite so much," more and more perplexed by his +manner. + +"I hope you'll come down, and sing to us to-night. Miss Leigh. I am not +sure I don't prefer that accomplishment for young ladies--it is _safer_." +He turned away, leaving Bluebell in bewilderment. + +Kate, recovered by a night's rest, would consent to no more seclusion; +the blow was not much of a disfigurement now, and she was making an +immense fuss over Harry, which suited him well enough to encourage, as he +rather repented the imprudently frequent dances with Geraldine, and felt +embarrassed in her society this morning. + +The cousins were sitting on an ottoman, in half-teazing, +half-affectionate discourse, when Bluebell, feeling like a conspirator +of the deepest dye, entered demurely with her pupils. Kate watched Harry +narrowly, who did not appear to have observed their entrance. + +"You seem to have forgotten Miss Leigh," she remarked. "Did you not +travel together from Quebec?" + +Dutton, somewhat staggered by her correct information, shot a swift +inquiring glance at his cousin. + +"To be sure--so it is Miss Leigh. I thought last night I knew the face--" + +"Why don't you go and speak to her?" + +"I am shy--perhaps she won't remember me." + +"Miss Leigh, Mr. Dutton thinks you have forgotten him." + +Bluebell bowed stiffly, very much on her guard; for she saw that Lord +Bromley was an attentive observer, and his strange behaviour in the +morning had given rise to an uncomfortable suspicion that he might +(though how, she could not imagine) be cognizant of the tryst in the West +Wood. Harry moved to a seat near, and began an indifferent conversation +with her, that the whole room might have heard. + +"Can it be all--kid," thought Kate, "or was there really nothing between +them?" + +At that instant Sir Robert lounged up, and threw himself in a familiar +manner on the other side of Bluebell. + +Dutton's face darkened. He had taken an antipathy to this man, who +commenced a sort of condescending flirtation with his wife. He called +her "Gertrude," too, and poured out compliments on her acting, describing +his despair at being unable to find her among the dancers afterwards. + +Harry was boiling, Kate exultant. "I knew I was right," she thought. + +Bluebell was summoned to the piano. Sir Robert followed. It was a +semi-grand, and he leant on the other end, opposite to her. + +"Where is the music? Oh! you play without. So much the better. One sees +the eyes flashing." + +It was not the only pair, for Dutton's were fixed upon Sir Robert with a +ferocious expression, apparent even to his obtuseness, and somewhat +surprised, he returned it with a slight stare and elevation of the +eyebrows. That night, in the smoking-room, the antagonism between the two +was more pronounced than ever. Sir Robert explained it by a conjecture +that "Dutton was sweet on the little governess, and d--d jealous." He was +not particularly popular among the other men: but all agreed that Dutton +"had been very rough on Lowther, and was not half such a cheery, pleasant +fellow as he used to be." + +What would not Kate have given for an incident that befell Lady Geraldine +one day! She had been much puzzled by Harry's manner since his return: +for, though his appreciation of her was more heartily manifested than +before, she was conscious of a difference,--or rather, perhaps, analyzed +it more truly now. Her adorers had not been so numerous as to disturb the +impression of the first man who had ever appeared to care about her; but +she could scarcely deceive herself longer--there was evidently now +nothing warmer than liking left. + +Poor girl! she was easily discouraged, and felt no resentment; she did +not even think it necessary to conjure up a rival to account for the +discontinuation of his attentions, till a slight incident revealed one to +her. She was sitting alone in the morning-room, and, being somewhat of a +china fancier, turned a cup on a bracket upside down, to examine the mark +at the bottom. In doing so, a bit of paper fluttered out, and as she +picked it up, the words, "West Wood, four o'clock," met her startled +gaze. She was convinced that the writing was Harry's, but whom could the +assignation be intended for? Soon after Bluebell came into the room as it +seemed to her with no very apparent purpose Lady Geraldine, not without +design, seated herself at a small writing-table, with her back to the +bracket, and almost immediately heard a slight clatter. Miss Leigh had +vanished, and so had the paper from the teacup. + +"I wish I dare go to the West Wood," thought Geraldine, for she was not +all perfect, and the indignation in her heart inspired a deep desire to +expose the underhand behaviour of the designing governess. That evening +Harry had been talking to her longer than usual. Bluebell was singing at +the piano, and finally began the Persian song of "The May Rose to the +Nightingale." Geraldine listened, attracted by the sentiment. One verse +was unfortunately suggestive-- + + Moonlight, moonlight, think'st thou he'd leave me + For one so pale--for one so pale + But moonlight, moonlight, if he deceive me, + Tell not the tale--tell not the tale + +Then Geraldine's pallid complexion was flushed with resentment, for she +imagined the words levelled at herself. Next day--unable to resist again +examining the cup--she found another fold of paper, but this time in a +female handwriting. Harry, of course, would come for it and she +determined to remain till he did so. The room was then tolerably full. +Some time after Dutton dropped in with another man, and, all unconscious +of _surveillance_, lingered till only he and Lady Geraldine remained in +the room. + +"Mr. Dutton," she said, in her somewhat reedy voice, "I understand a +little about china, but cannot make out the date of that little yellow +cup, the mark at the bottom is so defaced." + +It was said meaningly, and Harry understood that he was discovered. To +throw himself upon her generosity seemed an obvious necessity. With a +conscious yet penetrating glance, closing the half open door, he +exclaimed, impulsively, "Dear Lady Geraldine, may I tell you something +about myself?" + +Geraldine flushed hotly. This was somewhat more than she had bargained +for. With the slightest _soupcon_ of stateliness, dreading what was to +follow, she managed to say, that "Whatever he liked to tell her should go +no further." + +"It will all be known soon enough," cried he. "But I fancy Lady +Geraldine, you have some suspicion I know I can trust you, and you have +been always so kind and sympathetic to me, it is a much greater comfort +telling you than Kate." + +Geraldine bowed her head. She was determined not to betray herself, and +even felt some little curiosity, though how abundantly that faculty was +to be gratified ere she left the room, she certainly had not foreseen. +One result was, it had an immediately bracing effect, for, with all her +humility, Geraldine had the pride of self respect, and the confession +completely disabused her of the idea that Harry had ever aspired to being +suitor of hers. It was a pang, no doubt. Even his confidence might have a +double meaning. Had she any of the fury of a woman scorned, what an +amount of mischief would be in her power. But Harry's instinct was right, +and he never regretted his reliance on Geraldine's honour and pride. + +Dutton and his wife continued to meet daily in secret. They had agreed to +confess to Lord Bromley directly the visitors should have left, but I +think were still young enough to enjoy the stratagems necessary for those +stolen interviews. How many narrow escapes they were to laugh at +afterwards and, in society, when they appeared on such conventional terms +as respectful youth and prudent governess, how many _doubles entendres_ +Harry hazarded, to see Bluebell struggling with alarmed risibility. + +But the rash pair were outwitted at last, and run to earth by Kate in the +moss arbour. How much of their conversation had been overheard, or how +long she had stood there before springing out, of course could be only +conjecture. A violent start had been irrepressible, and, as they both +were speechless from the shock, Kate remained mistress of the situation, +and evidently not disposed to be merciful. A few sarcastic expressions to +her cousin, some cutting remarks on Bluebell's deceitful and designing +conduct, and she was gone--apparently for the purpose of exposing the +intrigue she imagined herself to have discovered. Dutton sprang after +her, and Bluebell, in much vexation and alarm, returned to the house. + +Not much breathing time was to be obtained in the nursery, whither she +had hurried. The door was half open, and, entering unperceived, she +beheld a sight that gave her almost as genuine a start as Kate's +inopportune appearance. Yet it was only Lord Bromley sitting by the +table, looking pale and shaken, and gazing intently on--could she believe +her eyes?--the miniature of Theodore Leigh. The case was broken. +Bluebell had been gumming it, and had left it on the table to dry. But +why should he be studying it with such absorbing interest? + +Lord Bromley raised his eyes, and fixed them sternly on the beautiful +girl. "Come here _Theodora_."--and she started. "Whose portrait is this?" + +"My father's." + +"Exactly. And, such being the case, your presence in this house requires +some little explanation." + +Unable to see the connexion between the miniature and this attack; +Bluebell remained silent and confounded; but, as he continued to gaze +severely at her, she roused herself to reply. + +"I came here because Mrs. Barrington brought me, and I went to her by the +purest accident. Did you _know_ my father, my Lord?" + +"Simplicity may be rather overdone! Do you think, child, I have not +seen through your evident desire to ingratiate yourself?--and scheming +yourself into this house will, I assure you, not further your designs!" + +Bluebell could not deny the former charge, though guiltless of the latter +insinuation. But who could have betrayed their marriage, and why did he +only blame her? + +"I do not know who may have prompted you, but if he thought duplicity and +cunning a recommendation in a grand-child--" + +"Grandchild!" echoed Bluebell. "What can you mean, Lord Bromley! Sir +Timothy Leigh was _my_ grandfather!" + +"Which, as you probably very well know, I have not been called for +fifteen years!" + +Still the intense perplexity of her face was staggering his impression +that this adventurous daughter of his disinherited son was trying by a +_coup de main_ to cancel the edict of banishment, and to obtain favour +and fortune at his hands. + +"_You_ my grandfather!" she reiterated, mechanically, her eyes, wonder +wide, staring at the old man with child-like directness, that produced a +more convincing effect on his mind than any words. After all, it was +quite possible she might not have heard of his succession to a remote +peerage, and this amazement was certainly not assumed. Moreover, the +expression of her face was conjuring from a dim past a host of memories. +He became strangely moved, and could scarcely bear the gaze which +recalled so forcibly Theodore in his youth. + +Which made the first movement neither knew. "My dearest little girl!" he +murmured, and folded her in his arms. + +Bluebell was weak and silent from surprise mingled with extreme +happiness, and Lord Bromley had gone back in thought to former years, and +dare not trust himself to speak; so they were both too absorbed to notice +the entrance of Harry Dutton, who remained rooted to the spot (like a +stuck pig, as he afterwards elegantly described it), and a smothered +exclamation burst from his lips. + +Lord Bromley hurriedly withdrew himself from Bluebell, not particularly +gratified at being surprized in so romantic a _pose_ at his time of life. + +"What the d----l are you doing here, sir?" he angrily demanded. + +Harry, considering he had quite as good a right to ask that question, +turned inquiringly and gloomily to Bluebell, who, feeling if she +attempted to open her lips she must either go off into a hysterical fit +of laughter or burst into tears, said nothing; and the uncle and nephew +continued to glare at each other. + +She signed to Dutton to speak; but he was too mystified and sulky; so +Bluebell, in desperation, plunged _in medias res_. + +"Harry!" she cried, "this is my grandfather as well as your uncle! Why, +we must be cousins!" Then, after an instant's pause, with downcast eyes +and crimson cheeks, she penitently kissed the old man's hand, and +whispered,--"He is my husband too; we meant to have told you to-morrow!" + +So the dread secret was out at last! Silence, that could be felt, ensued, +and seemed endless to the two culprits, who, with drooping eyes, waited +anxiously for him to speak. + +Now, this announcement was hardly so unexpected as they supposed, and far +more welcome than their wildest dreams could have anticipated. Lord +Bromley's agent, who paid the annuity to Mrs. Leigh, was also in the +habit of giving him periodical information of the well-being of his +grand-daughter. When, however, she eloped from Captain Davidson's house, +he had lost sight of her for a time, but afterwards picked up the clue at +Mrs. Markham's. When they also disappeared so suddenly, the agent was +again at fault, Bluebell having changed her situation in the interval. + +Advancing years had softened Lord Bromley. The tidings of her elopement +without any positive proof of a _bona fide_ marriage preceding it, had +shocked him into bitter remorse for having left her, an unprotected waif +and stray, to the tender mercies of the world, and now she had passed out +of his ken, and he could not but fear the worst. + +In this frame of mind he came accidentally upon Bluebell in the spring +woods, and the likeness to her father, which was singularly obvious, +seemed the reflection of the thoughts that haunted him. Then, when Mabel +mentioned her by name, it flashed upon him that what he had taken for a +trick of imagination might be, indeed, a sober reality. Lord Bromley +sought Mrs. Barrington, and elicited, in reply to his careless inquiries, +the fact that the fair governess was a Canadian, and had come into her +family from the Markhams'. This was conclusive, and he took every +opportunity of observing Bluebell with an almost hungry interest. The +elopement rankled unpleasantly in his mind. He watched her conduct +narrowly, and was pleased to see that she seemed prudent and careful; +but his suspicions received a new direction by the mutual disappearance +of Dutton and herself on the night of his return. It was a coincidence, +at any rate, for had not Mabel asserted she had not come upstairs till +one, before which hour Harry had not entered the ball-room? He also +detected two or three looks of intelligence passing between them, then, +when Kate remarked that they had returned in the same steamer from +Quebec, the mystery began to take a definite shape. He remembered his +nephew's confession of an attachment, and his absence for many weeks +after landing. At this stage a terrible possibility obtruded itself, and +Bluebell's inviting manner, which before had pleased him, seemed all an +artful attempt to get into favour. + +The accidental sight of Theodore's miniature, which stirred poignantly +the stern heart of the father, precipitated the _denouement_, and the +artless bewilderment of Bluebell under his reproaches lulled the +suspicions which her subsequent avowal of a marriage with Harry nearly +set at rest. There only remained those unaccounted for weeks, so that the +first sentence he spoke to the peccant pair, whom we left in agitated +suspense, surprised them by its calmness. + +"When did this happen?" And they could not guess how anxiously he waited +for a reply. + +Now Dutton had come there expressly to bring Bluebell into Lord Bromley's +presence, having resolved to be beforehand with Kate, and make immediate +confession. Therefore he was provided with their marriage certificate, +which he now produced, and silently presented to his uncle. + +The date was satisfactory, and Lord Bromley was relieved from the most +harrowing anxiety. Yet his brow did not relax as he turned gravely to his +nephew. "What was your motive, Harry, in concealing this marriage?" + +Dutton was silent. + +"You may well be unwilling to express it. It was because you feared to +lose the inheritance I have foolishly brought you up to expect." + +Harry looked up frankly, though writhing under his words. + +"I cannot wholly deny it, uncle, and if you now change your intentions +towards me, it is only what I expect. Bluebell and I were married hastily +at Liverpool, she is my best excuse for that. Afterwards, when I came to +'The Towers,' I meant to have told you, but--don't you recollect?--you +positively refused to hear what I had to say. Of course I ought to have +persisted." + +"And did Theodora also see the expediency of concealing her marriage till +my death?" + +"No, indeed," cried Harry, warmly. "She would have risked everything to +have it acknowledged. It puts my conduct in an awfully cold-blooded +light, but I hope you don't think me utterly ungrateful." + +"As to that, the less said the better," returned Lord Bromley, coolly. + +Dutton turned away abashed and deeply wounded, for he really was attached +to the relative who had been his best friend and benefactor from infancy +to manhood. Lord Bromley slowly left the room, and, sending for his +niece, endeavoured to explain to her the astounding facts that Bluebell +was the daughter of his disinherited son, and had been married to Dutton +for nearly two years. + +There was scarcely room in Mrs. Barrington's mind to grasp this new +aspect of affairs, it being already taken up with Kate's shocking +discovery of the heir, flirting in a secluded summer-house with the +treacherous governess. Very earnestly, therefore, she tried to convince +her uncle that he must be deceived, and that Bluebell was an impostor and +an adventuress. + +"There's not a shade of doubt about her identity," contested Lord Bromley +"I have known for some time whom she was. Indeed, Lydia, you were my +first informant when you told me where you had taken her from. Parker had +reported that Theodore's daughter was with some people of the name of +Markham, and immediately found out accidentally that she was no longer +there and here is further proof"--and he placed before her the portrait +that he had carried away. It was difficult to [unreadable]. Convinced +against her will, and deprived of the power of giving Bluebell immediate +warning, Mrs. Barrington [unreadable] fall back upon her own room, pull +down the blinds and take refuge in _petite sante_, till prepared to face +her emminent dependent in so new and unwelcome a position. + +Certainly this day of elucidation was not a pleasant one. Everybody +appeared in a changed point of view, and was feeling its awkwardness. +Harry and Bluebell, hardly knowing if they had a right to remain there, +wandering disconsolately about, like a modern Adam and Eve awaiting +expulsion from Paradise. + +Kate felt baffled and dangerous,--angry at her cousin having slipped so +smoothly through her fingers, and jealous of his wife. + +Lord Bromley, though deeply incensed with Harry, was longing to keep +Bluebell, whose every glance and gesture recalled his secretly lamented +son. Lady Calvert was on the point of departure with her daughter; and +the facts having percolated through the household, all the maids got sick +headaches from sympathetic excitement. + +Dutton had had a very stormy interview with his cousin when he rushed +after her from the arbour. Kate was determined to betray them, and he +vainly tried to induce her to be silent. On one condition only would she +promise secrecy--that Bluebell should give immediate warning, and that he +should never speak to her again. But Harry only laughed, while Kate urged +everything she could think of--ruin to his prospects, his uncle's anger, +etc. + +"It is no business of yours," reiterated Dutton. "If you say anything +about it, you'll soon see you have made a fool of yourself, and the +little you do know is by prying and listening." + +But Kate broke from him and darted into the house, past Lady Geraldine, +who was just coming out, and who noticed with surprise the disturbed +appearance of the two cousins. To Dutton she seemed a good angel sent to +invalidate the spells of an evil one. As the reader knows, she alone had +been entrusted with the secret of his marriage, and he now briefly +explained that Kate was bent upon betraying his meetings with Bluebell, +and entreated her, if possible, by any stratagem, to detain her for +awhile. + +Geraldine, fully alive to the importance of the request, exclaimed with +a gesture of impatience-- + +"_How_ provoking! when you were to have told your own story to-morrow! Be +quick, Mr. Dutton, don't lose a moment, and I will undertake to keep Kate +and Mrs. Barrington quiet till they can do no further mischief." + +A very grateful glance from Harry as he sprang away; and how he fared in +the dreaded interview is already known to the reader. + + + + +CHAPTER XLI. + +A LOCK OF HAIR. + + For which they be that hold apart + The promise of the golden hours; + First love, first friendship, equal powers, + That many with the virgin heart. + --In Memoriam. + + +Another year had gone by since the _denouement_ at Bromley Towers. The +war was over, peace proclaimed, and what remained of our armies had +returned from the East. + +General Rolleston then retired from the service, and bought a very nice +property near Leamington. He still saw a good deal of his old officers; +Fane especially, who now commanded the regiment, spent much of his leave +at Pyott's Hill. He retained all his old admiration for Cecil, receiving +as little encouragement as ever. Possibly that may have been the secret +of his constancy, for certainly, as a Crimean hero, with seven thousand a +year to gild the romance of it, he did not find young ladies in general +very hard-hearted. + +But Fane was ever ungrateful, and, after being petted and feted, sang at, +ridden at, and generally made much of, only returned with fresh zest to +Cecil's unaffected and pleasant companionship. Yet, after each visit, in +spite of manifold opportunities, being alone with her for hours, her +constant companion in rides and rambles, and given to her by every one in +the neighbourhood, he always found he had never really advanced an inch, +and that nothing Cecil expected less than a proposal from him. + +So he always went away in despair, to return again at the faintest hint +of an invitation from her father. + +General Rolleston was by no means displeased to observe this eagerness to +avail himself of his hospitality, being quite as alive as heretofore to +the advantages of the match--he only wondered why Fane and his daughter +were so tardy in coming to an understanding. + +Cecil was very much liked in the neighbourhood. Everybody said she was +the most unaffected girl in the world. But with all her admirers, she had +no flirtations--bright and cold was the verdict pronounced. Some said she +was strong-minded, for she was known to read a great deal, and had even +had a picture admitted into the Female Artists' Exhibition. She was +further convicted of preferring long, solitary rides to joining the +numerous equestrian parties got up in the summer; but as public opinion +had unanimously agreed that she must be engaged to Fane, the unsocial +trait was excused on that hypothesis. + +About this period, he having just discovered her whereabouts, Cecil +received a long letter from Harry Dutton, relating what he knew would +interest her--the strange events and transformations at "The Towers." A +similar one came to Mrs. Rolleston from Bluebell, who, now that she was +at liberty to speak, wrote something like a volume of narrative and +explanation to her friend. The latter, agitated and excited, flew to +Cecil with the wonderful news, unaware that she had heard it already from +Dutton, or, indeed, of her acquaintance with him: for, considering that +all he had told her was in the strictest confidence. Cecil, as the +simplest way of keeping it secret, had never mentioned anything at all +about him. She must now, however, confess, for her step-mother was in an +effusive mood, and bent upon instantly inviting the Duttons to pay them a +visit. + +Mrs. Rolleston received the information with some coldness and little +curiosity, being naturally hurt at her step-daughter's concealment of a +fact of so much interest to her; and though she probably told the +General, he never afterwards alluded to the episode. Indeed, Cecil's +labours at Scutari were rather a tabooed subject, as Harry speedily +discovered when one day he attempted to blunder out his gratitude to her +father. + +The Duttons were invited for a week; also Colonel Fane and Captain +Vavasour. Cecil became restless and excited as the day approached. The +sight of Bluebell would cruelly re-open old wounds, and she had never met +Vavasour (who had brought back the slain body of her lover) since the +Crimea. And he would talk to her about it, she was sure, for Jack had +long ago fathomed their ill fated attachment. Altogether, it was a relief +that other guests were coming to dinner, for they were all too intimate +in one way and too far apart in another--a connecting thread seeming to +run through all their lives. Jack, an old love of Bluebell's, Dutton, +whom she had nursed through deadly peril, and Fane, only prevented being +a declared suitor by systematic absence of reciprocity on her side. Well +it was a mercy they all came in owl-light, scarcely dusk enough for +candles, but pleasantly veiling countenances not too much under command. + +Bluebell and Cecil had determined beforehand that they must embrace, and +mutually dreaded it. It was not, however, such _a blanc-mange_ affair as +osculation among ladies often is, for they were both agitated by too +vivid memories. Bluebell's feelings were pleasantly diverted by +recognising Jack--blushing with delight like the boy he still was. +Somehow, he was the only one of the party she felt entirely at ease with, +and found herself, as of old, chattering and laughing at as much as with +him, just as if three sorrow-laden years had never intervened. + +Dutton contrived to get by Cecil at dinner, though he had not taken her +down, and their conversation was sufficiently interesting to make them +forget their appointed partners. + +"And you _are_ quite restored to favour?" Cecil was saying, "and the +uncle not half so implacable as you expected?" + +"I don't know about that," cried Harry. "He has altered to _me_, I think. +Bluebell is all the rage now, she actually is admitted into his sanctum +every morning, to read him the papers. I shouldn't wonder if she turned +out Queen Regnante and I were only Prince Consort!" + +Cecil, I think, liked Dutton much better than his wife, with whom it was +hard to resume old relations. Besides, she seemed now quite the favourite +of Fortune, with every difficulty and hardship smoothed away, and to +those who have suffered, it is harder to rejoice with those who do +rejoice than to weep with those who weep. + +So Bluebell was happier alone with Mrs. Rolleston when the men were +hunting or out of the way. Dutton once ventured to question Cecil about +Fane, whose hopeless passion was evident to every one in the house. She +looked vexed, disconsolate, and gave her usual answer, that there was +nothing in it, and never would be. + +Dutton gently tried to combat this assertion. He had heard all about +Bertie, but of course thought it was useless grieving over spilt milk; +that time enough had passed since then; and that she had far better marry +and forget. + +Cecil smiled with a sort of sad amusement at all this and his slight +assumption of marital experience. Harry and Bluebell seemed years younger +than herself,--a giddy, happy young couple, the very sunshine of whose +lives dazzled them too much to see into the depths of hers. + +One afternoon she had started for a lonely walk. The rest of the party +were pretty well disposed of--Bluebell driving with Mrs. Rolleston, and +the others, she thought were with the General; but it did not much +matter. It was a blustering February afternoon--Cecil long remembered it; +the north wind had strewn the ground with dead branches, and cawing +rooks, on the eve of wedlock, were drifting about incoherently on the +breeze. She was following the course of a brook where the grounds +widened into a wild, brambly park, and looking over her shoulder she +perceived Jack Vavasour some distance off, coming along with rapid +strides as if bent on overtaking her. + +Cecil sauntered slowly on, not ill pleased at the opportunity of an +unreserved conversation with Jack. She noticed, with furtive amusement, +that he slackened his pace considerably as he neared her, probably to +give an accidental aspect to the encounter. She turned round with a +contented smile of expectation, and they wandered on together, Cecil +instinctively choosing the most unfrequented and far-off boundary of the +park. It was impossible to keep up long a commonplace conversation, and +they became more and more _distrait_ and nervous, each wishing to +approach one subject, and neither liking to begin. In such a case, it is +always the woman who breaks the ice. An allusion to the war was +sufficient in this instance, and Jack responded so eagerly, she was +confirmed in her impression that he had something to tell her. Without +waiting for further questioning, he plunged into Crimean reminiscences of +Bertie Du Meresq, whom he had seen nearly every day till his death, to +all of which poor Cecil listened with breathless interest, and yet she +_knew_ there was something more to come. + +"You know," continued Vavasour, "his watch and things were sent back to +England; but when we cut open his tunic, to see if he was breathing, +something dropped out that he had worn through the action. I kept _that_, +for I thought I would restore it only to the rightful owner." + +What intuitive feeling was it that made her wish he would say no more! +Jack was opening his pocket-book, and drew out a piece of folded paper. + +"I knew it in a moment," he cried, as a long coil of soft, dark hair +appeared, so closely resembling Cecil's own as fully to justify his +conviction that it was so. + +He had expected to see her greatly moved; but the sudden pallor of her +face puzzled him, which sensation was still more intensified when her +large eyes flashed a moment upon him with an expression he never forgot, +and, turning abruptly away, she walked towards the house. + +Of all the trouble Cecil had gone through of late, I think for +concentrated bitterness this moment was the worst. Though the colour was +identical, by feel and texture she knew the tress was not her own, added +to which, no such token had ever passed between herself and Bertie. + +Well, there was no temptation to linger over the dead past now, which had +received its _coup de grace_ that wintry afternoon; almost every one felt +that some subtle change had passed over Cecil. Perhaps the one who least +felt its uncannyness was, Fane, who hovered near her with a brighter air. +No doubt some of the party were surprised when, just before it broke up, +the engagement of Cecil and Fane was announced; but no one guessed the +truth except Jack Vavasour, who, anxious and remorseful, only cursed +himself for a blundering idiot. + +They were married on her twenty-fourth birthday, much to the relief of +her bridesmaid-sisters, who had begun to fear Cecil would be an old maid. +Fane sold out, and took his wife abroad, while the old Elizabethan +manor-house, which, since his succession to, he had never lived in, was +painted and luxuriously refurnished for the reception of the bride. + +'Twas a pity Cecil married a rich man. Her best chance would have been +having to think, work, deny herself for another, who might thus have +become dear from the very sacrifices entailed by him. It was hard on +Fane, who had been constant so long, and found he had grasped nothing but +fairy gold. The old manor house was generally full, for somehow both +dreaded a _tete-a-tete_, and equally, in early days especially, a +betrayal of the feeling. + +Cecil left her guests pretty much to their own devices in the morning, +and read and painted in her own peculiar den, fitted up half as a +library, half as a studio. The winter she devoted to hunting, and +scarcely any meet was too distant or country too intricate for her. +Bertie's riding lessons, at any rate, had not been forgotten, and +carelessness of life is certainly conducive to steadiness of nerve. Jack +Vavasour, who was out one day, was under the impression she wished to +break her neck. Mrs. Fane became noted in her county for going with the +most unflinching straightness, but so little did she care for the +reputation, that sometimes she would stick unambitiously to the roads and +never take a fence. + +She had a separate stud of hunters, and rode independently of her +husband, who followed the amusement in a less erratic style than his +wife, and in more moderation. + +Cecil often thought of her dream, when Du Meresq was transformed into +Fane, and how singularly it had been realized. Certainly adventitious +circumstances were averse to that first love of hers, for, however much +appearances were against him, the lock of hair which had decided her +destiny was no love token of Du Meresq's. It had been consigned to him by +a dying friend, who besought him to write the news to his betrothed, and +restore to her the lock of hair she had given him. + +When Du Meresq had sent this letter off, he found he had omitted +enclosing the tress, but they were then just going into action, and he +had placed it inside his tunic. + +After long years Cecil met this girl, who had been faithful to the memory +of her Crimean hero. Once she spoke of him to Mrs. Fane, mentioning the +circumstance of the omission of the lock when Du Meresq's letter had +conveyed to her the fatal news. Little did she think how her companion +had guarded and hated this _souvenir_. Cecil glanced sharply at the +other's hair, harsher and more wiry now, and intersected with silvery +threads, still it was like enough to satisfy her of the identity without +the confirmatory cry of surprise with which the poor woman received it +from her hands. Had she known this earlier, I think Cecil would have +clung to her ideal, and never married, but by this time Fane and herself +were--well as happy together as other people. Time's "effacing finger" +had prepared the way, and since the birth of her only son, Cecil's heart +was vitalized by a second passion, as strong though different to the +first. So we may leave her, and see how our other heroine ultimately +fares before dropping the curtain. + +Dutton went to sea once again, but, as his ship was only cruising in the +Mediterranean, Bluebell was able to meet him at the different ports they +stopped at, and did not at all dislike the changeful variety of the life. +However, Lord Bromley found he could not do without her, so, after that +one cruise, Harry retired from the navy, and they lived chiefly at "The +Towers," where a numerous family was born. + +At last Lord Bromley died at a great age, and it was found that he had +left Bromley Towers to their eldest boy, Theodore. To the Duttons was +bequeathed a small estate worth three thousand a year. So after all Harry +never inherited "The Towers," nor Bluebell either. + + +THE END + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Bluebell, by Mrs. George Croft Huddleston + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BLUEBELL *** + +***** This file should be named 16371.txt or 16371.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/3/7/16371/ + +Produced by Early Canadiana Online, Robert Cicconetti, +Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team +at https://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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