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diff --git a/40879-0.txt b/40879-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6868a7d --- /dev/null +++ b/40879-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3755 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 40879 *** + +Transcriber's Note: + + Inconsistent hyphenation and spelling in the original document have + been preserved. Obvious typographical errors have been corrected. + + Italic text is denoted by _underscores_. + + + The + Affair at the Inn + + by + Kate Douglas Wiggin + Mary Findlater + Jane Findlater + Allan McAulay + + Gay and Hancock, Ltd. + 12 and 13 Henrietta Street, Covent Garden + LONDON + 1910 + + _All rights reserved_ + + + + +An account of certain events which are supposed to have occurred in +the month of May 19--, at a quiet inn on Dartmoor, in Devonshire; the +events being recorded by the persons most interested in the unfolding +of the little international comedy. + +The story is written by four authors, each author being responsible +for one character, as follows:-- + + MISS VIRGINIA POMEROY, of Richmond, Virginia, U.S.A., _by + Kate Douglas Wiggin_, Author of 'Penelope's Experiences,' + etc. + + MRS. MACGILL, of Tunbridge Wells, _by Mary Findlater_, + Author of 'The Rose of Joy,' etc. + + MISS CECILIA EVESHAM, Mrs. MacGill's companion, _by Jane + Findlater_, Author of 'The Green Graves of Balgowrie,' etc. + + SIR ARCHIBALD MAXWELL MACKENZIE, of Kindarroch, N.B., _by + Allan McAulay_, Author of 'The Rhymer,' etc. + + + + +THE AFFAIR AT THE INN + + + + +I + + +VIRGINIA POMEROY + + DARTMOOR, DEVONSHIRE, + THE GREY TOR INN, + _Tuesday, May 18th, 19--_ + +When my poor father died five years ago, the doctor told my mother +that she must have an entire change. We left America at once, and we +have been travelling ever since, always in the British Isles, as the +sound of foreign languages makes mamma more nervous. As a matter of +fact, the doctor did not advise eternal change, but that is the +interpretation mamma has placed upon his command, and so we are for +ever moving on, like What's-his-name in _Bleak House_. It is not so +extraordinary, then, that we are in the Devonshire moorlands, because +one cannot travel incessantly for four years in the British Isles +without being everywhere, in course of time. That is what I said to a +disagreeable, frumpy Englishwoman in the railway carriage yesterday. + +'I have no fault to find with Great Britain,' I said, 'except that it +is so circumscribed! I have outgrown my first feeling, which was a +fear of falling off the edge; but I still have a sensation of being +cabined, cribbed, confined.' + +She remarked that she had always preferred a small, perfectly +finished, and well-managed estate to a large, rank, wild, and +overgrown one, and I am bound to say that I think the retort was a +good one. It must have been, for it silenced me. + +We have done Scotland, Ireland, and Wales, and having begun at the top +of the map, have gone as far as Devon in England. We have been +travelling by counties during the last year, because it seemed tidier +and more thorough and businesslike; less confusing too, for the +places look so alike after a while that I can never remember where we +have been without looking in my diary. I don't know what will come +after England,--perhaps Australia and New Zealand. I suppose they +speak English there, of a sort. + +If complete ignorance of a place, combined with great power of +appreciation when one is introduced to it,--if these constitute a +favourable mental attitude, then I have achieved it. That Devonshire +produces Lanes, Dumplings, Cider, Monoliths, Clouted Cream, and Moors +I know, but all else in the way of knowledge or experience is to be +the captive of my bow and spear. + +It is one of the accidents of travel that one can never explain, our +being here on this desolate moor, caged, with half a dozen strange +people, in a little inn at the world's end. + +In the hotel at Exeter mamma met in the drawing-room a certain Mrs. +MacGill, who like herself was just recovering from the influenza. Our +paths have crossed before; I hope they'll not do so too often. Huddled +in their shawls, and seated as near to the chilling hotel fire as was +possible, they discussed their symptoms, while I read _Lorna Doone_. +Mrs. MacGill slept ill at night and found a glass of milk-arrowroot +with a teaspoon of brandy and a Bath Oliver biscuit a panacea; mamma +would not allow that any one could sleep worse than she, but +recommended a peppermint lozenge, as being simple, convenient, and +efficacious. Mrs. MacGill had a slight cough, so had mamma; Mrs. +MacGill's chest was naturally weak, so was mamma's. Startlingly +similar as were the paths by which they were travelling to the grave, +they both looked in average health, mamma being only prettily delicate +and Mrs. MacGill being fat and dumpy, with cap ribbons and shoulder +capes and bugles and brooches that bespoke at least a languid interest +in life. The nice English girl who was Mrs. MacGill's companion in the +railway train, sat in the background knitting and reading,--the kind +of girl who ought to look young and doesn't, because her youth has +been feeding somebody's selfish old age. I could see her quiet history +written all over her face,--her aged father, vicar of some remote +parish; her weary mother, harassed with the cares of a large family; +and the dull little vicarage from whose windows she had taken her +narrow peeps at life. We exchanged glances at some of Mrs. MacGill's +reminiscences, and I was grateful to see that she has a sense of +humour. That will help her considerably if she is a paid companion, as +I judge she is; one would hardly travel with Mrs. MacGill for +pleasure. This lady at length crowded mamma to the wall and began on +the details of an attack of brain fever from which she had suffered at +the Bridge of Allan thirty years ago, and I left the room to seek a +breath of fresh air. + +There is never anything amusing going on in an English hotel. When I +remember the life one lives during a week at the Waldorf-Astoria or +the Holland House in New York, it fairly makes me yearn with +homesickness. It goes like this with a girl whose friends are all +anxious to make the time pass merrily. + +_Monday noon._--Luncheon at the University Club with H. L. and mamma. + +_Monday afternoon._--Drive with G. P. in a hansom. Tea at Maillard's. +Violets from A. B., American Beauty roses from C. D. waiting in my +room. Dinner and the play arranged for me by E. F. + +_Tuesday._--One love-letter and one proposal by the morning mail; the +proposal from a Harvard Freshman who wishes me to wait until he +finishes his course. No one but a Freshman would ever have thought of +that! G. H. from Chicago and B. C. from Richmond arrive early and join +us at breakfast. B. C. thinks G. H. might have remained at home to +good advantage. G. H. wonders why B. C. couldn't have stayed where he +was less in the way. Luncheon party given by G. H. at one. Dinner by +B. C. at seven. + +_Wednesday._--Last fitting for three lovely dresses. + +_Thursday._--Wear them all. The result of one of them attention with +intention from the fastidious A. B. + +And so on. It would doubtless spoil one in time, but I have only had +two weeks of it, all put together. + +The hall of the hotel at Exeter was like all other English hotel +halls; so damp, dismal, dull, and dreary, that it is a wonder English +travellers are not all sleeping in suicides' graves. Were my eyes +deceiving me or was there a motor at the door, and still more +wonderful, was there a young, good-looking man directly in my path,--a +healthy young man with no symptoms, a well-to-do young man with a +perfectly appointed motor, a well-bred, presentable young man with an +air of the world about him? How my heart, starving for amusement, +rushed out to him after these last weary months of nursing at +Leamington! I didn't want to marry him, of course, but I wanted to +talk to him, to ride in his motor, to have him, in short, for a +masculine safety valve. He showed no symptom of requiring me for any +purpose whatever. That is the trouble with the men over here,--so +oblivious, so rigid, so frigid, so conventional; so afraid of being +chloroformed and led unconscious to the altar! He was smoking a pipe, +and he looked at me in a vague sort of way. I confess I don't like to +be looked at vaguely, and I am not accustomed to it. He couldn't know +that, of course, but I should like to teach him if only I had the +chance and time. I don't suppose he knew that I was wearing a Redfern +gown and hat, but the consciousness supported me in the casual +encounter. Naturally he could not seek an introduction to me in a +hotel hall, nor could we speak to each other without one. + +His chauffeur went up to him presently, touched his hat, and I thought +he said, 'Quite ready, Sir--Something'; I didn't catch the name. + +Well, he bowled off, and I comforted myself with the thought that +mamma and I were at least on our way to pastures new, if they were +only Dawlish or Torquay pastures; or perhaps something bracing in the +shape of Dartmoor forests, if mamma listens to Mrs. MacGill. + +The owner of the motor appeared again at our dinner-table, a long +affair set in the middle of the room, all the small tables being +occupied by uninteresting nobodies who ate and drank as much, and took +up as much room, as if they had been somebodies. + +It is needless to say that the young Britisher did not, like the busy +bee, improve the shining hour--that sort of bee doesn't know honey +when he sees it. He didn't even pass me the salt, which in a Christian +country is not considered a compromising attention. I think that too +many of Great Britain's young men must have been killed off in South +Africa, and those remaining have risen to an altogether fictitious +value. I suppose this Sir Somebody thinks my eyes are fixed on his +coronet, if he has one rusting in his upper drawer awaiting its +supreme moment of presentation. He is mistaken; I am thinking only of +his motor. Heigh ho! If marriage as an institution could be retained, +and all thought of marriage banished from the minds of the young of +both sexes, how delightful society could be made for all parties! I +can see that such a state of things would be quite impossible, but it +presents many advantages. + + +MRS. MACGILL + + EXETER, DEVONSHIRE, + ROUGEMONT CASTLE HOTEL, + _Sunday, May 16th, 19--_ + +I have made out my journey from Tunbridge wells in safety, although +there has been a breakdown upon the Scotch Express, which is a cause +of thankfulness. There were two American women in the same carriage +part of the time. The mother was, like myself, an invalid, and the +daughter I suppose would be considered pretty. She was not exactly +painted, but must have done something to her skin, I think, probably +prejudicial like the advertisements; it was really waxen, and her hair +decidedly dark--and such a veil! It reminded me of the expression +about 'power on the head' in Corinthians--not that she seemed to +require it, for she rang no less than eight times for the guard, each +time about some different whimsey. The boy only grinned, yet he was +quite rude to me when I asked him, only for the second time, where we +changed carriages next. Cecilia spoke a good deal to the girl, who +made her laugh constantly, in spite of her neuralgia, which was very +inconsistent and provoking to me, as she had not uttered a word for +hours after we left Tunbridge Wells. The mother seemed a very +delicate, sensible person, suffering from exactly the same form of +influenza as myself--indeed many of our symptoms are identical. They +happened to be going to this hotel, too, so we met again in the +afternoon. I had a bad night. Exeter is small, but the Cathedral +chimes are very tiresome; they kept me awake as if on purpose; Cecilia +slept, as neuralgic people seem often able to do. + +Somehow I do not fancy the idea of Dartmoor at all. It may brace +Cecilia, but it will be too cold for me, I'm sure. I must send for my +black velvet mantle--the one with the beads at the neck, as it will be +the very thing for the moor. At present I have nothing quite suitable +to wear. There is a great deal of skirt about Americans, I see. Even +the mother rustled; all silk, yet the dresses on the top were plain +enough. As I had nothing to read in the train, I bought a sixpenny +copy of a book called _The Forest Lovers_, but could not get on with +it at all, and what I did make out seemed scarcely proper, so I took +up a novel which Mrs. Pomeroy (the American) lent me, by a man with a +curious Scriptural name--something like Phillpotts. It was entirely +about Dartmoor, and gave a most alarming account of the scenery and +inhabitants. I'm sure I hope we shall be safe at Grey Tor Inn. Some of +the wilder parts must be quite dangerous--storms--wild cattle roaming +about, and Tors everywhere. + + * * * * * + + +MRS. MACGILL + + DARTMOOR, DEVONSHIRE, + THE GREY TOR INN, + _Tuesday, May 18th, 19--_ + +I wish I had brought winter flannels with me. It is all very well to +call it the middle of May on Dartmoor, but it is as cold as the middle +of winter in Aberdeen. There may be something odd about the red soil +that accounts for flowers coming out in spite of it, for certainly +there are primroses and violets on the banks, a good many,--very like +flowers in a hat. + +We met Miss Pomeroy, the American girl, in the lobby of the hotel. She +said that her mother was resting in the drawing-room. Like me, she +seems to suffer from shivering fits. 'I can't imagine,' I said, 'why +any doctor should have ordered me to such a place as this to recover +from influenza, which is just another form of cold.' The windows look +straight out on Grey Tor. It is, of course, as the guide-books say, 'a +scene of great sublimity and grandeur,' but very dreary; it is not +mountain, and not what we would call moor, either, in Scotland--just a +crumpled country, with boulders here and there. Grey Tor is the +highest point we can see--not very lonely, I am glad to say, for +little black people are always walking up and down it, like flies on a +confectioner's window, and there is a railing on the top. + +There is a young man here, who, I was surprised to find, is a nephew +of the uncle of my poor brother-in-law, Colonel Forsyth, who died in a +moment at Agra. Sir William Maxwell Mackenzie used to be often at the +Forsyths, before his death. This young man's name is Archibald, and he +drives a motor. I sat next him at dinner, and we had quite a pleasant +little chat about my poor brother-in-law's sudden death and funeral. +Miss Pomeroy ate everything on the table and talked a great deal. +Cecilia said she wasn't able to come down to dinner, but, as usual, +ate more than I could, upstairs. Like me, Mrs. Pomeroy finds the +Devonshire cream very heavy. The daughter and Sir Archibald finished +nearly the whole dish, although it was a large china basin. + + +SIR ARCHIBALD MAXWELL MACKENZIE, BART. + + GREY TOR INN + +I must get away from these women at all costs. People may say what +they like, but there's no question that nothing is more destructive to +comfort than the society of ladies. A man cannot smoke, nor wear the +clothes nor use the language that he wants to when they are +present,--so what is the use of pretending, as some fellows do, that +they add to the pleasantness of life? I certainly thought that by +coming to these out-of-the-way parts in the motor, with no one but my +servant, I should be free of the women; but no such luck! In the hotel +at Exeter there was a batch of them,--some Americans, of course, +particularly a girl, so deuced lively she could not be ignored. I +dislike the whole girl-tribe with all my heart, and I dislike the +kittenish ones most: they're a positive pest. + +This is a rum sort of country,--a sort of inferior Scotland, I should +call it; but if you were to say that to the artist chaps and writing +fellows you meet about here, they would murder you. There is a lot of +rot talked about everything in this world, but there's more and worse +rot talked about scenery than anything else. For instance, people will +yarn away about 'the blue Mediterranean,' but it's not a bit bluer +than any other sea,--the English Channel, for example; any sea will be +blue if the sky is blue. I suppose it earns somebody's living to talk +and write all this sort of stuff, and get idiots to believe it. Here +they are always jawing away about 'giant monoliths' and wonderful +colossal stone-formations on the moor, till you really think there's +something rather fine to be seen. And what are the giant monoliths? +Two or three ordinary sorts of stones set up on end on a mound! What +rot! + +This is a goodish hotel, and the roads so far have been all right for +the motor; we have come along fairly well; Johnson can drive a bit +now, and understands the machine. + +The country was pretty decent for a while, before reaching this; +plenty of trees, no good for timber, though, and there was a lot of +that rotten holly--I'd have it all up if it grew on Kindarroch. And +the gorse, too, was very bad. There was a fellow at Exeter--a sort of +artist, I conclude, from the nonsense he talked--who said he was +coming up here to see the gorse,--came every year, he said. To see the +gorse! To see a lot of dirty weeds that every sensible man wants to +root up and burn! O Lord! + +This morning it was rather fine, and I was having a smoke after +breakfast in the hall, when that American girl--the one I saw at +Exeter--came down the staircase, singing at the top of her voice. I +knew she was here, with a mother in the background; she had been +fooling around the motor already, asking a lot of silly questions, +and touching the handles and the wheels--a thing I can't bear--so we +had made acquaintance in a kind of way. The artist at Exeter, I +remember, asked me if I didn't think this girl remarkably pretty, and +I told him I hadn't looked to see, which was perfectly true. But you +can't help seeing a girl if she's standing plump in front of you. Of +course these Americans dress well--no end of money to do it on. This +one had a sort of Tam o' Shanter thing on her head, and a lot of dark +hair came out under it, falling over her ears, and almost over her +cheeks--untidy, I call it. She wore a grey dress, with a bit of +scarlet near her neck, and a knot to match it under the brim of her +cap. I can notice these things when I like. She has black eyes, and +knows how to use them. I don't like dark women; if you must have a +woman about, I prefer pink and white--it looks clean, at any rate. The +name of these people is Pomeroy, Johnson told me; they appear to have +got the hang of mine at Exeter; trust women for that sort of thing. + +'Good morning, Sir Archibald,' said Miss Pomeroy now, as pat as you +please. 'It's a mighty pretty morning, isn't it? Don't you long for a +walk? I do! I'm going right up to that stone on the slope there. Won't +you come along too?' A man can hardly refuse outright, I suppose, when +a thing is put to him point blank like this, and we started together, +I pretty glum, for I made up my mind I must give up my after-breakfast +pipe, a thing which puts me out of temper for the day. However, Miss +Pomeroy said she liked smoke, so there was a kind of mitigation in the +boredom which I felt was before me. + +Grey Tor, as the guide-books call it, is just above the hotel, a sort +of knob of rock that is thought a lot of in these parts. (We make road +metal of the same kind of thing in Scotland; I'd like to tell the +chaps that who write all the drivel about Dartmoor.) There's an iron +railing round the top of this Tor, to keep the tourists from falling +off, though they'd be no loss if they did. Coach loads of them come +every day, and sit on the top and eat sandwiches, and leave the paper +about, along with orange and banana skins--same as they do at the +Trossachs at home. There's a grassy track up to this blessed Tor, and +Miss Pomeroy and I followed it; American women are no good at walking, +and, in spite of her slight figure, she was puffing like a grampus in +no time, and begging me to stop. We sat down on a rock, and soon she +had breath enough to talk. The subject of names came up, I forget for +what reason. + +'I like your kind of name,' Miss Pomeroy was good enough to say. 'I +call it downright sensible and clear, for it tells what you're called, +and gives your background immediately, don't you see? Now, you +couldn't tell what my Christian name is without asking--could you?' + +'No, I couldn't,' I agreed, and was silent. I am no hand at small +talk. She gave me rather a funny look out of her black eyes, but I +took no notice. She seemed to want to laugh--I don't know why; there's +nothing funny on Dartmoor that _I_ can see. We got on to the Tor +presently, and nothing would satisfy a woman, naturally, but climbing +all over the beastly thing. She had to be helped up and down, of +course. Her hands are very white and slim; they were not at all hot, I +am glad to say, as she wore no gloves, and I had to clutch them so +often. There was a very high wind up there, and I'm blessed if her +hair didn't come down and blow about. It only made her laugh, but I +considered it would be indecent to walk back to the hotel with a woman +in such a dishevelled state. + +'I will pick up the hairpins,' I said seriously, 'if you will--will do +the rest.' She laughed and put up her arms to her head, but brought +them down with a flop. + +'I'm afraid my waist is too tight in the sleeves for me to do my hair +up here; it'll have to wait till I get down to the hotel,' she said +gaily. I suppose she meant that she tight-laced, though I couldn't see +how her waist could be tight in the sleeves. I was quite determined +she should not walk to the hotel in my company with her hair in that +state. + +'I will stick these in,' I said firmly, indicating the hairpins, of +which I had picked up about a bushel, 'if you will do the rolling up.' +It got done somehow, and I stuck in the pins. I never touched a +woman's hair before; how beastly it must be to have all that on one's +head--unhealthy, too. I dare say it accounts for the feebleness of +women's brains. Miss Pomeroy's cheeks got pinker and pinker during +this operation--a sort of rush of blood, I suppose; it is all right as +long as it does not go to the nose. She is not a bad-looking girl, +certainly. + +We got back to the hotel without any further disagreeables. + + +CECILIA EVESHAM + + GREY TOR INN, DARTMOOR + +If a policeman's 'lot is not a happy one,' neither is a companion's: I +lay this down as an axiom. I have lived now for two years with Mrs. +MacGill, and know her every frailty of character only too well. She +has not a bad temper; but oh! she is a terrible, terrible bore! Not +content with being stupid herself, she desires to make me stupid along +with her, and has well-nigh succeeded, for life with her in furnished +apartments at Tunbridge Wells would dull a more brilliant woman than I +have ever been. + +Mrs. MacGill has lately had the influenza; it came almost as a +providential sending, for it meant change of air. We were ordered to +Dartmoor, and to Dartmoor we have come. Now I have become interested +in three new people; and that, after the life I have lived of late in +Mrs. MacGill's sickroom, is like a draught of nectar to my tired +fancy. We met these three persons for the first time in the train, and +at the hotel at Exeter where we stopped for the night; or rather, I +should say that we met two of them and sighted the third. The two were +a mother and her daughter, Mrs. Pomeroy and Virginia Pomeroy by name, +and Americans by nation; the third person was a young man, Sir +Archibald Maxwell Mackenzie, of Kindarroch, N.B. The Americans were +extremely friendly, after the manner of their nation; the young man +extremely unfriendly, after the manner of his. We found that the +Pomeroys were coming on to this inn, but the Scotchman whizzed off in +his motor car, giving us no hint of where he intended to go. I thought +we had seen the last of him, but it was to be otherwise. + +The morning after our arrival at the Grey Tor Inn Mrs. MacGill assumed +a Shetland shawl, closed the window of the sitting-room, and sat down +to do a bit of knitting. I sat by the window answering her little +vapid remarks and looking out. As I sat thus, I heard a puffing noise +and saw a scarlet motor steam up to the door of the inn. It was, of +course, Sir Archibald. + +'What is that noise, Cecilia?' asked Mrs. MacGill. + +'It's a motor car,' I replied. + +'Oh, how curious! I never can understand how they are worked,' said +she. + +I was beginning to try to explain some of the mysteries of motoring +when the door of the sitting-room opened, and Miss Virginia Pomeroy +came in. Her appearance was a delight to the eyes; tall and full +grown, yet graceful, and dressed to perfection. She had none of that +meek look that even the prettiest English girls are getting nowadays, +as if they would say, 'I'm pretty, but I know I'm a drug in the +market, though I can't help it!' No, no, Virginia Pomeroy came into +the room with an air of possession, mastery, conquest, that no English +girl can assume. She walked straight up to the window and threw it +open. 'How perfectly lovely!' she exclaimed. 'Why, there's a motor; I +must have a ride in it before very long.' She turned pleasantly to me +as she spoke, and asked me if I didn't adore motoring. + +'I've never tried,' I said. + +'Well, the sooner you begin the better,' she said. 'Never miss a joy +in a world of trouble; that's my theory.' + +I smiled, but if she had known it, I more nearly cried at her words; +she didn't know how many joys _I_ had missed in life! + +'I'll go right downstairs and make love to the chauffeur,' she went +on, and at this Mrs. MacGill coughed, moved the fire-irons, and told +me to close the window. Miss Pomeroy turned to her with a laugh. + +'Why!' she said, 'are you two going to sit in this hotel parlour all +the morning? You won't have much of a time if you do!' + +'I have had the influenza, like Mrs. Pomeroy,' announced Mrs. MacGill +solemnly, 'but if Miss Evesham wishes some fresh air she can go out at +any time. I'm sure I never object to anything that you choose to do, +Cecilia, do I?' + +I hastened to assure her that she did not, while the American girl +stood looking from one of us to the other with her bright, clever +eyes. + +'Suppose you come down to the hall door with me then, Miss Evesham,' +Miss Pomeroy suggested, 'and we'll taste the air.' + +'Shall I, Mrs. MacGill?' I asked, for a companion must always ask +leave even to breathe. Mrs. MacGill answered petulantly that of course +I might do as I liked. + +The motor stood alone and unattended by the front door, both owner and +chauffeur having deserted it. It rested there like a redhot panting +monster fatigued by climbing the long hill that leads up to Grey Tor +Inn. + +'Isn't it out of breath?' cried Virginia. 'I want to pat it and give +it a drink of water.' The next minute she skipped into the car and +laid her white hand on the steering-wheel. + +'Oh, don't! Do take care!' I cried. The thing may run away with you or +burst, or something, and the owner may come out at any moment--it +belongs to that young man who was at Exeter, Sir Archibald Maxwell +Mackenzie.' + +'I should like it very much if he did come out,' said Virginia, +looking over her shoulder at me with the most bewitching ogle I ever +saw, and I soon saw that she intended to conquer Sir Archibald as she +had conquered many another man, and meant to drive all over Dartmoor +in his motor. Well, youth and high spirits are two good things. Let +her do what she likes with the young man, so long as she enjoys +herself; they will both be old soon enough! + + + + +II + + +VIRGINIA POMEROY + + DARTMOOR, DEVONSHIRE, + GREY TOR INN + +The plot thickens; well, goodness knows it was thin enough before, and +it is now only of the innocent consistency of cream sauce. For myself +I like a plot that will stand quite stiff and firm; still the Exeter +motor is here and the Exeter motor-man is here. I don't mean the +chauffeur, but the owner. He doesn't intend staying more than a day or +two, but he may like it better as time goes on,--they often do, even +these British icebergs. It is, however, a poor climate for thawing +purposes. There are only six people in the inn all told, and two, we +hear, are leaving to-night. + +I was glad to see the English girl standing at the window when we +arrived. She brightened, as much as to say that we two might make life +more cheerful by putting our heads together. Mrs. MacGill is a good +companion for mamma, but could not otherwise be endured for a moment. +I find it very difficult to account for her on any ordinary basis; I +mean of climate or nationality or the like. The only way I can explain +her to my satisfaction is, that some sixty years ago her father, a +very dull gentleman, met her mother, a lady of feeble mind and waspish +disposition; met her, loved her, married her,--and Mrs. MacGill is the +result of the union. + +Her conversation at table is aimless beyond description, often causing +Miss Evesham to blush, and Sir Archibald to raise his eyebrows. It +doesn't take much to produce this effect on Sir Archibald's part; when +he was born they must have been slightly lifted. + +Mrs. MacGill asked me, at dinner, my Christian name, not having heard +it, as mamma often calls me 'Jinny.' Here is the colloquy. + +_Jinny._ My name is Virginia; it is one of the Southern States, you +know. + +_Mrs. Mac._ Oh, I see! how curious! Is that a common habit of naming +children in America? + +_Jinny._ Oh yes; you see it is such an enormous country, and there are +such a number of children to be named that we simply had to extend the +supply of names in some way. My mother's middle name, which is my own +also, is something really quaint--'Secessia.' + +_Mrs. Mac._ Secessia! What an extraordinary name! Has it any +significance? + +_Jinny._ Yes, indeedy! My mother was born in the early days of the +Civil War, at the time of the secession, and her father, an ardent +Southerner, named her Gloria Secessia. + +_Mrs. Mac._ Let me see, I don't seem to remember any secession; were +we mixed up in what you call your Civil War? + +(Here Sir Archibald caught my eye and smiled, almost a human smile it +was.) + +_Jinny._ No, but you had a good deal to do with the War of +Independence. That was nearly a century before. (Sir Archibald was +honestly amused here. He must know American history.) + +_Mrs. Mac._ I thought your last war was called the War of +Independence, because it made the negroes independent, but I must have +got the two confused; and you've just had another small one, haven't +you, though now I remember that we were engaged in only one of them, +and that was before my time. It seems strange we should have gone +across the ocean to help a younger country to fight its battles, but +after all, blood is thicker than water. I had a nephew who went to +America--Brazil, I think, was the name of the town--a barrister, Mr. +George Forsyth; you may have met him? + +_Jinny._ I think not; I seldom go so far from home. + +_Mrs. Mac._ But you live in South America, do you not? + +_Jinny._ I live in the south, but that is merely to say in the +southern part of the United States. + +_Mrs. Mac._ How confusing! I fear I can't make it out without the +globes; I was always very good at the globes when I was a child. +Cecilia, suppose after dinner you see if there is a globe in the inn. + +Poor Miss Evesham! She is so pale, so likeable, so downtrodden, and +she has been so pretty! Think of what is involved when one uses the +past tense with a woman of thirty. She has fine hair and eyes and a +sweet manner. As to the rest, she is about my height, and she is not +dressed; she is simply clothed. Height is her only visible dimension, +the village mantua-maker having shrouded the others in hopeless +ambiguity. She has confessed to me that she dresses on fifteen pounds +a year! If she had told me that her father was dead, her mother a +kleptomaniac, and she the sole support of a large family, I should +have pitied her, but a dress allowance of fifteen pounds a year calls +for more than pity; it belongs to the realm of tragedy. She looks at +thirty as if she never had had, nor ever expected to have, a good +time. How I should like to brighten her up a bit, and get her into my +room to try on Paris hats! + +She and I, aided by Sir Archibald, have been to Stoke Babbage to try +to secure a pony, sound, kind, and fleet, that will drag Mrs. MacGill +up and down the hills. She refused the steeds proffered by the Grey +Tor stables, and sent Miss Evesham to procure something so hopelessly +ideal in the shape of horseflesh that I confess we had no expectation +of ever finding it. + +The groom at the Unicorn produced a nice pony chaise, well padded and +well braked, with small low wheels, and a pony originally black, but +worn grey by age, as well as by battling with the elements in this +region of bare hills and bleak winds. Miss Evesham liked its looks +particularly. I, too, was pleased by its sturdy build, and remarked +that its somewhat wild eye might be only a sign of ambition. Sir +Archibald took an entirely humorous view of the animal, and indeed, as +compared with a motor, the little creature seemed somewhat inadequate. +We agreed that for Mrs. MacGill (and here we exchanged wicked glances) +it would do admirably, and we all became better acquainted in +discussing its points. + +Miss Evesham and I offered to drive the pony back to Grey Tor, and Sir +Archibald saw us depart with something that approached hilarity. He is +awfully nice when he unbends in this way, and quite makes one wish to +see him do it oftener. From all our previous conversations I have come +away with the sort of feeling you have when you visit the grave of +your grandmother on a Sunday afternoon. + +I don't know the number of miles between Stoke Babbage and Grey Tor. +The distance covered cuts no actual figure in describing the time +required for a drive with the new pony, whom I have christened +Greytoria. The word 'drive' is not altogether descriptive, since we +walked most of the way home. I hardly think this method of progression +would have occurred to us, but it did occur to Greytoria, and she +communicated the idea by stopping short at the slightest elevation, +and turning her head in a manner which could only mean, 'Suppose you +get out, if you don't mind!' + +Having walked up all the hills, we imagined we could perhaps drive +down. Not at all. Greytoria dislikes holding back more, if anything, +than climbing up. We kept our seats at first, applied the brake, and +attempted a very gentle trot. 'Don't let us spoil the pony,' I said. +'We must begin as we mean to go on.' Miss Evesham agreed, but in a +moment or two each issued from her side of the chaise, and that +without argument. Greytoria's supports are both stiff and weak--groggy +is Sir Archibald's word. She takes trembling little steps with her +forelegs, while the hind ones slide automatically down any declivity. +The hills between Stoke Babbage and Grey Tor being particularly long +and steep, we found that I was obliged to lead Greytoria by the +bridle, while Miss Evesham held the chaise by the back of the seat, +and attempted to keep it from falling on the pony's legs; the thing, +we finally discovered, that was the ruling terror of her life. + +Naturally we were late at luncheon, but we did not describe our drive +in detail. The groom at the stables says that the pony can drag Mrs. +MacGill quite safely, if Miss Evesham is firm in her management. Of +course she will have to walk up and down all the hills, but she +doesn't mind that, and Mrs. MacGill will love it. It is bliss to her +to lie in slippered ease, so to speak, and see all the people in her +vicinity working like galley slaves. We shall be delightfully situated +now, with Greytoria, Sir Archibald's motor, and an occasional trap +from the stables, if we need other vehicles. + +Sir Archibald as yet does not look upon a motor as a philanthropic +institution. There are moments when he seems simply to regard it as a +means of selfish pleasure, but that must be changed. + +Item. Miss Evesham looked only twenty-nine at luncheon. + + +MRS. MACGILL + +Last night I slept so badly that I could not go down to the +dining-room this morning. Cecilia, in spite of her neuralgia yesterday +seemed well and bright. I asked her to send me up some breakfast, but +could scarcely eat it when it came; the tea was cold, the bread damp +and tough, and the egg fresh enough, but curious. Cecilia never came +near me after breakfast. When I came down about eleven o'clock, very +cold, I found no one in the sitting-rooms. Hearing voices, I went to +the door and found Cecilia talking to the American girl, who had a +great deal of colour for that hour in the morning. Sir Archibald came +up, grinding round the drive in his motor. It is quite unnecessary to +have brought a motor here at all, for I observe that the hillsides are +covered with ponies. There must have been a herd of twenty-five of +them outside my window this morning, so a motor is quite out of place. +The doctor here recommends me to try driving exercise, but some of the +animals are so very small that I scarcely think they could pull me up +these hills. Cecilia says the smaller ones are foals. Many of them +kick, I see, so we must select with care. I wish we could procure a +donkey. The feeling of confidence I have when in a donkey-chair more +than makes up for the slowness of motion. + +Like me, Mrs. Pomeroy was kept awake by the wind--it never stops here. +When I remarked on this, Cecilia said in her patronising way, 'Don't +you remember Borrow's famous line,-- + + 'There's always the wind on the heath'? + +'I see nothing clever in that,' I said; 'there _is_ always wind on the +heath here, and I particularly dislike it.' + +When we came into the drawing-room Miss Pomeroy was saying, 'I've +discovered a piano!' The piano, to my mind, was the largest object in +the room, so she must be short-sighted, if she had not seen it before; +pride probably prevents her wearing glasses. She sat there singing for +quite a long time. She wouldn't finish her songs, but just sang scraps +of a number of things. Sir Archibald came into the room and stood +about for some time. I asked him several questions about his father's +sister, whom I used to know. He replied so absently that I could make +nothing of it. Miss Pomeroy has a clear voice. She sang what I suppose +were translations of negro songs--very noisy. When she afterwards +tried one of Moore's exquisite melodies, I confess to admiring it. It +was a great favourite with Mr. MacGill, who used to sing it with much +feeling:-- + + 'Around the dear ruin, each wish of my heart.' + +What a touching expression that is for a middle-aged woman--'the dear +ruin'! + +Grey Tor is certainly very bleak. The guide-books speak of 'huge +monoliths' (I suppose they mean the rocks on the moor), 'seeming to +have been reared by some awful cataclysm of nature in primordial +times.' I hope there will be no cataclysms during our stay on the +moor; the accounts of tempests of which I read in some of the novels +quite frighten me, yet I can scarcely think there is much danger about +this tor--'a giant, the biggest tor of all,' the guide-books say. It +is so fully peopled by tourists with luncheon-baskets that one loses +the feeling of desolation. Miss Pomeroy has been up to the top +already--twice, once alone. Cecilia means to go too, though nothing +can be worse for neuralgia than cold wind. She will always say that +nothing hurts her like sitting in hot rooms. I should be very glad to +have a hot room to sit in! She has got a nice, quiet-looking animal at +last, and a low pony chaise, so I hope to have some drives. + +Neuralgia is one of those things one cannot calculate on. Cecilia will +be ill all day, and then suddenly able to come down to dinner. I have +suffered a good deal from tic douloureux myself, but was never able to +eat during the paroxysms, as Cecilia seems to be. After having five +teeth pulled, I once lived exclusively on soup for three days. + +Miss Pomeroy, I suppose, is what most people would call a pretty girl. +Hot bread and dyspepsia will soon do for her, though, as for all +American women. The bread here is tough and very damp. She is dark, +very dark in hair and eyes, in spite of her white skin, and she +describes herself as a 'Southerner.' I should be inclined to suspect a +strain of negro or Indian blood. I heard her discussing what she +called 'the colour problem' with Cecilia, and she seemed to speak with +a good deal of bitterness. Yet Mrs. Pomeroy is evidently a lady. The +girl dresses well in the American style, which I never attempt. She +has, I suppose, what would be called a fine figure, though the waist +seems of no importance just now. Her feet, in shoes, look small +enough, though the heels she wears astonish me; it is years since I +have worn anything but a simple cloth boot, neat but roomy. I have +seen her glance at my feet several times, as if she observed something +odd about them. + + +SIR ARCHIBALD MAXWELL MACKENZIE + + GREY TOR INN + +Isn't it a most extraordinary thing that when people are in a +comfortable house, with a good roof over their heads, solid meals +served at regular intervals three or four times a day, and every +possible comfort, they instantly want to go outside and make +themselves not only thoroughly uncomfortable, but generally ill +besides, by having a picnic in the open? Ever since I had that walk +with Miss Pomeroy, she has done nothing but talk about a picnic at +some beastly little village in the vicinity where there is a church +that the guide-books tell the usual lies about. As to churches--a +church to my mind is a place to go to on Sundays with the rest of the +congregation. It is plainly not constructed for week-days, when it is +empty, cold, and damp, and you have to take your hat off in the +draughts all the same, and talk in whispers. As to picnics--there's a +kind of folly about _them_ that it is altogether beyond me to +understand. Why such things ever take place outside the grounds of a +lunatic asylum, goodness only knows; they ought to be forbidden by +law, and the people who organise them shut up as dangerous. However, I +see I am in for this one. Miss Pomeroy wants the motor, but she won't +get the motor without me. Heaven be praised, the weather has broken up +in the meantime, which is the reason I am staying on here. Motoring on +Dartmoor in a tearing nor'easter is no catch. My quarters are +comfortable, and but for the women I should be doing very well. + +The worst of it is, there is a whole batch of them now. A Mrs. MacGill +and her companion are here, and these two and the Americans seem to +have met before. The two old women are as thick as thieves, and the +fair Virginia (she told me her name, though she might have seen, I am +sure, that I was simply dying not to know it) seems to have a good +deal to say to the companion, though the latter doesn't appear to me +much in the line of such a lively young person. There's no rule, of +course, for women's likes and dislikes, any more than for anything +else that has to do with them. The unlucky part of it is that Mrs. +MacGill seemed to spot me the moment she heard my name. She says my +father was her brother-in-law's first cousin, and her brother-in-law +died in Agra in a fit; though what that has to do with it, goodness +knows. It means I have got to be civil and to get mixed up with the +rest of the party. A man can never be as rude as he feels, which is +one of the drawbacks of civilisation. So I have to sit at their table +now, and talk the whole time--can't even have a meal in peace. The old +woman MacGill is on one side, the American girl on the other. The +companion sits opposite. _She_ keeps quiet, which is one mercy; +generally has neuralgia,--a pale, rather lady-like young woman with a +seen-better-days-and-once-was-decidedly-pretty air about her. The +American girl's clothes take the cake, of course--a new frock every +night and such ribbons and laces--my stars! I'd rather not be the man +who has to pay for them. I'm surprised at her talking so much to the +humble companion--thought this sort of girl never found it worth while +to be civil to her own sex; but I conclude this is not invariably the +case. + +'I'm afraid your neuralgia is very bad up here,' I heard her say to +Miss Evesham (that's the companion's name) after dinner last night. +'You come right along to my room, and I'll rub menthol on your poor +temples.' And they went off together and disappeared for the night. + +The weather has cleared up to-day, though it is still too cold and +windy, thank the Lord, for the picnic to Widdington-in-the-Wolds. I +took the motor to a little town about four miles off, and overtook +the fair Virginia and Miss Evesham, footing it there on some errand of +Mrs. MacGill's. I slowed down as I got near, but I soon saw Miss +Pomeroy intended me to stop; there's no uncertainty about any of _her_ +desires. + +'Now, Sir Archibald,' said she with a straight look which made me +understand that obedience was my _rôle_, 'I know what you're going to +do this very minute. Miss Evesham's neuralgia is so bad that she can +scarcely see, and you've got to take her right along in your motor to +the Unicorn Inn, and help choose a pony for Mrs. MacGill. Just a man's +job--you'd love doing it, I should think.' + +I wanted to hum and haw a bit, but she didn't give me the chance. She +pulled open the door behind. 'Get in quick!' she said to the +companion. 'Quick, quick! a motor puff-puffing this way always makes +me think it's in a desperate hurry and won't wait!' + +_I_, however, was not in such a hurry this time, though there's +nothing I hate more, as a rule, than wasting motor power standing +still. + +'What are _you_ going to do, Miss Pomeroy?' I shouted above the +throbbing and shaking of the machine. + +'Going right home to my mother,' she replied. 'It's about time, too.' + +'No, you don't,' thought I, 'and leave me saddled with the companion.' +For if you _must_ have female society, you may as well have it +good-looking when you are about it. + +'Won't you do me the pleasure of taking a ride too?' I asked politely. +I knew perfectly well she was dying for a ride in the motor, and I had +turned a deaf ear to dozens of hints. But now that she wanted to do +the other woman a good turn and walk home herself, nothing would +content me but to have her in the motor. I know how inconvenient it is +to be good-natured and unselfish. I am obliged to be both so often, +against my natural inclinations. + +Miss Virginia's eyes gave a sparkle, but she hesitated a moment. + +'The front seat's much the jolliest,' I remarked, 'and it's very good +going--no end of a surface.' She gave a jump and was up beside me in +half a second, and we were off. + +By Jove--that was a good bit of going! The road was clear, the surface +like velvet. I took every bit out of the motor that was in it, and we +went the pace and no mistake. Miss Virginia was as pleased as Punch, I +could see. She had to hold on her hat with both hands, and her cheeks +and lips were as red as roses; the ribbons flew out from her neck, and +flapped across my face, which was a nuisance, of course; they had the +faint scent of some flower or other; I hate smells, as a rule, but +this was not strong enough to be bad. We got down at the Unicorn, and +though I said I knew nothing whatever about ponies, I had to look +through the stables with the hostler, and choose a beast and a trap +for Mrs. MacGill. There was only one of each, so the choice was not +difficult. The two girls drove home in the turnout. I thought it was +time to disappear. + + +CECILIA EVESHAM + + GREY TOR INN, + _Thursday_ + +I have had a miserable thirty-six hours. Mrs. MacGill has been ill +again--or has believed that she is ill again. I do not think there is +much wrong with her, but the over-sympathetic Mrs. Pomeroy went on +describing symptoms to her till she became quite nervous and went to +bed, demanding that a doctor be sent for. This was no easy matter, but +at last a callow medical fledgling was dug out somewhere, who was +ready to agree with all I said to him. + +'Suggest fresh air and exercise to Mrs. MacGill,' I said, 'for she +considers the one poisonous, the other almost a crime, and knitting +the only legitimate form of amusement.' + +So he recommended air and exercise--driving exercise by preference. + +'I used to like the donkey-chairs at Tunbridge Wells,' Mrs. MacGill +responded, 'but horses go so rapidly.' + +However, after the doctor had gone she began to consider his advice. + +'Shall I go to the stables and arrange for you to have a drive this +afternoon?' I asked. + +She demurred, for she never can make up her mind about anything. + +'I can't decide just now,' she hesitated. 'I'll think it over.' + +I took up the guide-book, and was allowed to read its thrilling pages +for some ten minutes. Then Mrs. MacGill called me again. + +'Perhaps if you go and select a _very_ quiet horse we might have a +drive in the afternoon,' she said. + +I went and saw the horse, and arranged for the drive, then returned to +tell Mrs. MacGill of the arrangement. She was not pleased. Had I said +that _perhaps_ we would drive out at three o'clock, it would have been +more to her mind. + +'Go back and tell the man that perhaps we'll go,' she said. + +'But perhaps some one else will take out the horse, in that case,' I +suggested, cross and weary with her fidgeting. All the rest of the +forenoon was one long vacillation: she would go, or she would not go; +it would rain, or it would not rain; she would countermand the +carriage or she would order it. But by three o'clock the sun was +shining, so I got her bonneted and cloaked and led her down to the +hall. The motor had come round at the same moment with our carriage. +Its owner was looking it over before he made a start, and I was not +surprised to see that Miss Virginia Pomeroy was also at the door, and +that she showed great interest in the tires of the motor. Had I been +that young man I must have asked her to drive with me there and then, +she looked so delightful; but he is rather a phlegmatic creature, +surely, for he didn't seem to think of it. Just as we were preparing +to step into the carriage, the motor gave out a great puff of steam, +and the horse in our vehicle sprang up in the shafts and took a shy to +one side. It was easily quieted down, but of course the incident was +more than enough for Mrs. MacGill. + +'Take it away,' she said to the driver. 'I won't endanger my life with +such an animal--brown horses are always wild, and so are black ones.' + +It was vain for me to argue; she just turned away and walked upstairs +again, I following to take off her bonnet and cloak, and supply her +again with her knitting. So there was an end of the carriage exercise, +it seemed. + +But there's a curious boring pertinacity in the creature, for after we +had sat in silence for about ten minutes she remarked:-- + +'Cecilia, the doctor _said_ I was to have carriage exercise--Don't you +think I could get a donkey-chair?' + +'No,' I replied quite curtly. 'Donkey-chairs do not grow on Dartmoor.' + +She never saw that I was provoked, and perhaps it was just as well. + +'No,' she said after a pause for reflection. 'No, I dare say they do +not, but don't you think if you walked to Stoke Babbage you might be +able to get one for me?' + +'I might be able to get a pony chaise and a quiet pony,' I answered, +scenting the possibility of a five-mile walk that would give me an +hour or two of peace. + +'Well, will you go and try if you can get one?' she asked. + +'If you don't mind being left alone for a few hours, I'll do what I +can,' I said. She was beginning to object, when Virginia appeared, +leading in her mother. + +'Here's my mother come to keep you company, Mrs. MacGill,' she +explained. 'She wishes to hear all about your chill, from the first +shiver right on to the last cough.' She placed Mrs. Pomeroy in an +armchair, and fairly drove me out of the room before her, pushing me +with both hands. + +'Come! Run! Fly! Escape!' she cried. 'You are as white as butter with +waiting on that woman's fads. I won't let you come in again under +three hours. My mother's symptoms are good to last for two and a half +hours, and then Mrs. MacGill can fill up the rest of the time with +hers.' + +Gaiety like Virginia's is infectious. I ran, yes, really ran +downstairs along with her, quite forgetting my headache and weariness. +I almost turned traitor to Mrs. MacGill, and was ready to laugh at her +with this girl. + +'She wants a pony chaise, and I'm to go down to Stoke Babbage to +choose it,' I said. + +'Why, that's five miles away, isn't it?' she asked. 'You're not half +equal to a walk like that.' + +'Anything--anything for a respite from Mrs. MacGill!' I cried. + +'Well, if you are fit for it, I reckon I am,' Virginia said, and with +that we set off together down the road.... + + + + +III + + +VIRGINIA POMEROY + + GREY TOR INN + +'The inn at the world's end. The inn at the world's end.' These words +come into my mind every morning when I look out of my window at the +barren moor with its clumps of blazing whin, the misty distance, and +the outline of Grey Tor against the sky. That 'giant among rocks +rising in sombre and sinister majesty athwart the blue' looks to my +eye like an interesting stone on a nice, middle-sized hill. If only +they would dwell more upon the strange sense of desolation and mystery +it seems to put into the landscape, instead of being awed by its +so-called size! I am fascinated by it, but refuse to be astounded. + +This naughty conception of the colossus of the moor is the one link +between Sir Archibald and me, for he has seen Ben Nevis and I the +Yosemite crags. Geologically speaking, I admit that these moor rocks +must be fascinating to the student, and certainly we at home are +painfully destitute of 'clapper-bridges,' 'hut-circles,' and +'monoliths'; although I heard an imaginative fellow-countryman declare +yesterday to a party of English trippers that we had so many we became +tired to death of the sight of them, and the government ordered +hundreds of them to be pulled down. + +Every inn, even one at the world's end, is a little picture of life, +and we have under our roof all sorts of dramas in process of +unfolding. + +Shall I always be travelling, I wonder, picking up acquaintances here +and there, sometimes friends, now and then a lover perhaps! Imagine a +hotel lover, a lodging-house suitor, a husband, whom one would +remember afterwards was rented with an apartment! But if I had found +only Cecilia Evesham in this bleak spot I could be thankful for +coming. She is like a white thornbush in a barren field, and she is +not plain either, as they all persist in thinking her. Life, Mrs. +MacGill, and the village dressmaker have for the moment placed her +under a total eclipse; but she will shine yet, this poor little sunny +beam, all put out of countenance by fierce lights and heavy shadows. +To-day is her birthday, and mamma, who has taken a great fancy to her, +gave her a long, wide scarf of creamy tambour lace. I presented a +little violet brooch and belt-buckle of purple enamel, and by hard +labour extracted from Mrs. MacGill a hideous little jug of Aller Vale +pottery with 'Think of Me' printed on it. Think of her, indeed! One +can always do that without having one's memory jogged, or jugged. Sir +Archibald joined in the affair most amiably, and offered a red-bound +Dartmoor Guide which he chanced to have with him. When we made our +little gifts and I draped Miss Evesham in her tambour scarf, she +looked only twenty-seven and a half by the clock! I wanted to put a +flower in her hair, but she shook her head, saying, 'Roses are for +young and lovely people like you, Virginia, who have other roses to +match in their cheeks.' I was pleased that Sir Archibald was so +friendly about the simple birthday festivities. I can forgive being +snubbed a little myself, or if not exactly snubbed, treated as a +mysterious (and inferior) being from another planet; but if he had +been condescending or disagreeable with Miss Evesham I should have +hated him. As it is I am quite grateful for him as a distinct addition +to our dull feminine party. He is a new type to me, I confess it, and +I had not till to-day made much headway in understanding him. When a +man has positively no shallows one always credits him (I dare say +falsely) with immeasurable depths. His unlikeness to all the men I've +known increases his charm. He seems to attach such undue importance to +small attentions, as if they meant not only a loss of dignity to the +man, but an unwise feeding of the woman's vanity as well. He gave me +the Black Watch ribbon for my banjo with as much inward hesitation and +fear as Breck Calhoun would feel in asking me to share his future on +nothing a year. He didn't grudge the ribbon, not he! but he was +awfully afraid it might prove too encouraging a symptom for me to bear +humbly and modestly. + +Then that little affair of yesterday--was there ever anything more +characteristic or more unexpected! I am certain he followed me into +the lane for a walk, and would have joined me if Madam Spoil-Sport had +not been my companion. Then came the stampede of the hill ponies, +which may or may not have been a frightful and dangerous episode. I +can only say it seemed so terrifying that I should have fainted if I +hadn't been so surprised at Sir Archibald's behaviour; and I'm not at +all a fainting sort of person, either. + +Mrs. MacGill never looked more shapeless and stupid, and having been +uncommonly selfish and peevish that day, was even less worth +preserving than usual. I don't know what the etiquette is in regard to +life-saving. No doubt the (worthy) aged should always have the first +chance, but in any event I should think a man would evince some slight +regret at seeing a young and lovely creature, just on the threshold of +life, stamped into jelly by a herd of snorting ponies! But Sir +Archibald apparently did not care what happened to me so long as he +could rescue his countrywoman. I waited quite still in that awful +moment when the clattering herd was charging down upon us, confident +that a man of his strength and coolness would look out for us both. +But he snatched the sacred person of the Killjoy, threw her against a +gate, stood in front of her, and with out-stretched arms defied the +oncoming foe. His gesture, his courage, the look in his eye, would +have made the wildest pony quail. It did more,--it made me quail; but +in the same instant he shouted to me, 'Look out for yourself and be +sharp! Shin up that bank! Look alive!' + +Shinning was not my customary attitude, but it was not mine 'to make +reply.' I shinned; that is all there is to say about the matter. I +_was_ 'sharp' and I _did_ 'look alive,' being deserted by my natural +protector. I, Virginia Pomeroy, aged twenty-two, native of Richmond, +U.S.A., clambered up one of those steep banks found only in Devonshire +lanes,--a ten or twelve foot bank, crowned with a straggling, ragged +hedge of thorn. I dug my fingers and toes into the earth and clutched +at grass tufts, roots, or anything clutchable, and ended by tumbling +into a thicket of freshly cut beechen twigs. I was as angry as I had +breath to be, but somehow I was awed by the situation: by Mrs. +MacGill's trembling gratitude; by Sir Archibald's presence of mind; by +his imperious suggestion as to my way of escape, for I could never +have climbed that sheer wall of earth unless I had been ordered to in +good set terms. Coming down from my heights a few minutes later, +looking like an intoxicated lady who has resisted the well-meant +advice of a policeman, I put Mrs. MacGill together and shook Sir +Archibald's hand. I am sure I don't know why; he did precious little +for me, but he had been something of a hero, nevertheless. + +'_Shin up that bank and look alive!_' I was never spoken to in that +way before, in all my life. I wish Breck Calhoun could have heard him! + + * * * * * + + +MRS. MACGILL + + _Saturday afternoon_ + +I have had a terrible experience, which has upset me completely and +damaged my right knee, besides agitating me so much that I can +scarcely remember how it happened. I have read that a drowning man +sees his whole life before him in a flash of time. It is different +with women perhaps. I saw no flash of anything, and thought only of +myself,--remembering a horrible story I read somewhere about a horse +in the Crimea that bit the faces of the enemy. Sir Archibald _flung_ +me against a gate. The intention was kind, I dare say, but even then I +could just hear the beads ripping off my mantle as I fell against the +bars. The lane seemed full of ponies, all screaming, as I didn't know +horses could scream, and kicking like so many grasshoppers. + +'It's all right! Nothing has happened!' he called to the girl, when +the herd receded. + +'I don't know what you two call happened,' I said, as soon as I could +speak. 'We have been nearly killed--all of us, especially me.' + +I looked at Miss Pomeroy; so did Sir Archibald. She is an active girl, +and at the first suggestion of danger she had scrambled headlong up a +steep bank, where she clung to the roots of the hedge, entirely +forgetting all about me. She now came down, and required some +assistance in descending, although she had climbed up, which is more +difficult, all in a moment. She was certainly pale--really pale for +the first time since she came here, and did not seem to think about +her hat, which was hanging half-way down her back by this time. Poor +Mr. MacGill used always to say that when a pretty girl forgot her +appearance there was something really serious in the air. She seemed +to have forgotten, but I dare say she really was thinking that she +looked nicer that way. She came up to the young man, and held out her +hand to him, saying, 'Thank you, Sir Archibald.' Americans are very +forward, certainly. If I had said 'Thank you,' and offered to shake +hands with him, there might have been some reason for it, although I +never thought of doing so; it was decidedly Me that Sir Archibald had +rescued. This did not seem to make a bit of difference to them, +however. He took her hand and shook it, and then I must say had the +civility to give Me his arm, and we all walked back to the hotel. I +felt so shattered that I went to bed for the rest of the afternoon. + + +SIR ARCHIBALD MAXWELL MACKENZIE + + GREY TOR INN + +Mrs. MacGill is not the kind of person you'd associate with +danger,--being an armchair-and-feather-bed sort of character,--yet, by +Jingo, the old girl has had a narrow squeak to-day. She and Miss +Virginia went out for a walk together, the companion being invisible +with the usual headache. I thought I would follow them a little way. +Mrs. MacGill is an interfering old person, and I have noticed of late +that she scents a flirtation between the fair American and me. Whether +there is a flirtation or not, I don't know (_I_ am not learned in such +things); but if there were, she is not the person to stop it, nor any +other old cat on earth. She has merely succeeded--I wish she knew--in +putting it into my head that American girls are apt to be exceedingly +attractive as well as eligible in the matrimonial market. I should +think Miss Virginia was as eligible as any of them, and better looking +than most. + +I kept the pair in sight, and it was lucky that I did. A tremendous +explosion from a quarry where some men are blasting made me stop +short, and as to the old girl in front, she leaped about a foot into +the air, and I could hear Miss Virginia laugh and say something funny +about ankles and white stockings. Just then a most extraordinary noise +began at the top of the lane, a pounding of hoofs and grinding of +gravel and flying of stones; and in another minute, round the corner +of this lane, which was of the narrowest sort and nearly roofed in +with trees and banks, as these beastly Devonshire lanes always are, +came a herd of moor ponies--about twenty or thirty of them--squeaking +and biting and kicking, in a regular stampede. The report of the +blasting had startled them, I don't doubt, and part terror, part +vice, made them kick up a shindy and set off at full gallop. There +wasn't a moment to lose. I ran for the women, with a shout, thinking +only of the young one, of course. But when I saw the two together, +there wasn't a question of which I must help. Miss Virginia had legs +of her own; if Mrs. MacGill had any, they were past helping her now. +There was a sort of hurdle to the right; I managed to jam the old +woman against it and shout to the girl, 'Shin up that bank! Look +alive!' while I stood in front, waving my arms and carrying on like a +madman to frighten the ponies. They bore down on us in a swelter of +dust; but just when they were within about a yard of our position they +swerved to the left, stopped half a second, looking at us out of the +corners of their eyes, snuffed the air, snorted, gave a squeal or two +more, and galloped off down the lane. It was a pretty narrow +shave,--nothing, of course, if the women hadn't been there. Miss +Virginia and I shook hands over it, and between us we got the old lady +back to the hotel, nearly melted with fright. + +That night after dinner I was smoking on the verandah in front of the +hotel. I heard Miss Virginia singing as she crossed the hall, and +looked in. + +'It's rather a jolly night, Miss Pomeroy,' I said, 'not at all cold.' + +'Isn't it?' she asked, and came to the door. + +'There's a comfortable seat here,' I added, 'and the verandah keeps +off the wind from the moor.' + +She came out. It was quite dark, for the sky was cloudy and there was +no moon, but there was a splash of light where we sat, from the hall +window, so that I could see Miss Virginia and she could see me. She +was dressed in a very pretty frock, all pink and white, and I have +certainly now come round to the artist's opinion that she is an +uncommonly pretty girl; not that I care for pretty girls,--of course +they are the worst kind, and I have always avoided them so far. + +'Well,' said Miss Virginia, 'you've done a fairly good day's work, I +should think, and can go to bed with an easy conscience and sleep the +sleep of the just!' + +'Why, particularly?' I inquired bashfully. + +'Why?' cried Miss Virginia. 'Haven't you rescued Age and Scotland from +a cruel death? I suppose it didn't matter to you what became of Youth +and America. But I forgive you, you managed the other so well.' + +I couldn't help laughing and getting rather red, and Miss Virginia +gave me a wicked look out of her black eyes. + +'Why, Miss Pomeroy,' I said in a confused way, 'don't you see how it +was? I argued to myself you had your own legs to save yourself on, +while'-- + +But here Miss Virginia jumped up with a little scream. + +'We don't talk about legs that way, where I come from!' she said, but +I saw she was not really shocked, only laughing, with the rum little +dimples coming out in her cheeks. + +'Won't you shake hands again,' I suggested, 'to show you have quite +forgiven me?' + +Miss Virginia's hand was in mine, I was holding it, when who should +come to the door and look out but Mrs. MacGill. + +'I think it is very cold and damp for you to be out at this hour, Miss +Pomeroy,' she remarked pointedly. + +'Well, I suppose it is, Mrs. MacGill,' said Miss Virginia, as cool as +you please, lifting up the long tail of her dress and making a little +face at me over her shoulder. + +Mrs. MacGill gave a loud sniff and never budged till Miss Virginia was +safely inside. The old harridan--I'll teach her a lesson if she +doesn't mend her manners! + + +CECILIA EVESHAM + + _Friday evening_ + +Here I was interrupted, and now something new has happened that +requires telling, so I'll skip our adventures of Thursday afternoon, +and go on to Friday.... + +Well, this morning I came down to breakfast, almost blind with +neuralgia. I struggled on till luncheon, when it became unbearable. +Virginia (I call her that already) looked at me in the kindest way +during the meal. + +'You're ill,' she said. 'You need putting to bed.' + +Mrs. MacGill looked surprised. 'Cecilia is never very ill,' she +observed tepidly. + +'She's ill now, no mistake,' Virginia persisted, and rose and came +round to my side of the table. 'Come and let me help you upstairs and +put you to bed.' + +I was too ill to resist, and she led me to my room and tucked me up +comfortably. + +'Now,' she said, 'this headache wants peace of mind to cure it; I know +the kind. You can't get peace for thinking about Mrs. MacGill. I'm +going to take her off your mind for the afternoon--it's time I tried +companioning--no girl knows when she may need to earn a living. You +won't know your Mrs. MacGill when you get her again! I'll dress her up +and walk her out, and humour her.' + +She bent down and kissed me as she spoke. It was the sweetest kiss! +Her face is like a peach to feel, and her clothes have a delicious +scent of violets. Somehow all my troubles seemed to smooth out. She +rustled away in her silk-lined skirts, and I fell into a much-needed +sleep, feeling that all would be well. + +I was mistaken, however. All did not go well, but on the contrary +something very unfortunate happened while I was sleeping so quietly. +It must have been about four o'clock when I was wakened by Virginia +coming into my room again. She looked a little ruffled and pale. + +'I've brought Mrs. MacGill back to you, Miss Evesham,' she said, 'but +it's thanks to Sir Archibald, not to me. She will tell you all about +it.' With that Mrs. MacGill came tottering into the room, plumped down +upon the edge of my bed, and began a breathless, incoherent story in +which wild ponies, stampedes, lanes, Sir Archibald, and herself were +all mixed up together. + +'Did he really save you from a bad accident?' I asked Virginia, for it +was impossible to make out anything from Mrs. MacGill. + +Virginia nodded. 'He did, Cecilia, and I like him,' she said. + +'Oh ho!' I thought. 'Is it possible that I am going to be mixed up in +a romance? She likes him, does she? Very good; we shall see.' + +And then, because the world always appears a neutral-tinted place to +me, without high lights of any kind, I rebuked myself for imagining +that anything lively could ever come my way. 'I couldn't even look on +at anything romantic nowadays,' I thought, 'I doubt if there _is_ such +a thing as romance; it's just a figment of youth. Come, Mrs. MacGill, +I'll find your knitting for you,' I said; 'that will compose you +better than anything else.' + + + + +IV + + +VIRGINIA POMEROY + + THE GREY TOR INN + +We had rather a nice half-hour at Little Widger to-day, Sir Archibald +and I. Of course we were walking. It is still incomprehensible to me, +the comfort, the pleasure even, these people get out of the simple use +of their legs. We passed Wishtcot and Wildycombe and then came upon +Little Widger, not having known of its existence. The tiny hamlet +straggles down a side hill and turns a corner, to terminate in the +village inn, quaintly named 'The Mug o' Cider.' An acacia laden with +yellow tassels hangs over the stone gate, purple and white lilacs +burst through the hedges, and there is a cob-and-thatch cottage, with +a dazzling white hawthorn in front of it and a black pig nosing at +the gate. + +O the loveliness of that May noon, a sunny noon for once; the +freshness of the beeches; the golden brown of the oaks; above all, the +shimmering beauty of the young birches! It was as if the sap had just +brimmed and trembled into leaves; as if each drop had thinned itself +into a transparent oval of liquid green. + +The sight of Mrs. MacGill being dragged by Greytoria over a very +distant hill was soothing in itself, or it would have been if I hadn't +known Miss Evesham was toiling up beside her. We were hungry and +certain of being late to luncheon, so Sir Archibald proposed food of +some sort at the inn. He had cold meat, bread and cheese, and a +tankard of Devonshire cider, while I had delicious junket, clouted +cream, and stewed apple. Before starting on our long homeward stroll +we had a cosy chat, the accessories being a fire, a black cat, and a +pipe, with occasional incursions by a small maid-servant who looked +exactly like a Devonshire hill pony,--strong, sturdy, stocky, +heavy-footed, and tangled as to mane. + +We were discussing our common lack of relatives. 'I have no one but my +mother and two distant cousins,' I said. + +The sympathetic man would have murmured, 'Poor little soul!' and the +too sentimental one would have seized the opportunity to exclaim, +'Then let me be all in all to you!' But Sir Archibald removed his pipe +and remarked, 'Good thing too, I dare say'; and then in a moment +continued with graceful tact and frankness, 'They say you can't tell +anything about an American family by seeing one of 'em.' + +Upon my word, the hopeless candour of these our brethren of the +British Isles is astonishing. Sometimes after a prolonged conversation +with two or three of them I feel like going about the drawing-room +with a small broom and dust-pan and sweeping up the home truths that +should lie in scattered profusion on the floor; and which do, no +doubt, were my eyes as keen in seeing as my ears in hearing. + +However, I responded meekly, 'I suppose that is true; but I doubt if +the peculiarity is our exclusive possession. None of my relatives +belonged to the criminal classes, and they could all read and write, +but I dare say some of them were more desirable than others from a +social point of view. It must be so delicious to belong to an order of +things that never questions itself! Breckenridge Calhoun says that is +the one reason he can never quite get on with the men over here at +first; which always makes me laugh, for in his way, as a rabid +Southerner, he is just as bad.' + +There was quite an interval here in which the fire crackled, the black +cat purred, and the pipe puffed. Sir Archibald broke the cosy silence +by asking, 'Who is this Mr. Calhoun whom you and your mother mention +so often?' + +The conversation that ensued was quite a lengthy one, but I will +report as much of it as I can remember. It was like this:-- + +_Jinny._ Breckenridge Calhoun is my 'childhood's friend,' the kind of +man whose estates join yours, who has known you ever since you were +born; liked you, quarrelled with you, forgotten you, and been sweet +upon you by turns; and who finally marries you, when you have both +given up hope of finding anybody more original and startling.--By the +way, am I the first American girl you've met? + +_Sir A._ Not the first I've met, but the first I've known. There was a +jolly sort of schoolgirl from Indiana whom I saw at my old aunt's +house in Edinburgh. There were half a dozen elderly tabbies pressing +tea and scones on her, and she cried, just as I was coming in at the +door, 'Oh, no more tea, please! I could hear my last scone splash!' + +_Jinny (shaking with laughter)._ Oh, how lovely! I am so glad you had +such a picturesque and fearless young person as a first experience; +but as she has been your only instructress, you have much to learn, +and I might as well begin my duty to you at once. + +_Sir A._ You're taking a deal of trouble. + +_Jinny._ Oh, it's no trouble, but a pleasure rather, to put a +fellow-being on the right track. You must first disabuse your mind of +the American girl as you find her in books. + +_Sir A._ Don't have to; never read 'em. + +_Jinny._ Very well, then,--the American girl of the drama and casual +conversation; that's worse. You must forget her supposed freedom of +thought and speech, her rustling silk skirts, her jingling side bag or +chatelaine, her middle initial, her small feet and hands, her high +heels, her extravagant dress, her fortune,--which only one in ten +thousand possesses,--her overworked father and weakly indulgent +mother, called respectively poppa and momma. These are but +accessories,--the frame, not the picture. They exist, that is quite +true, but no girl has the whole list, thank goodness! I, for example, +have only one or two of the entire lot. + +_Sir A._ Which ones? I was just thinking you had 'em all. + +_Jinny._ You must find out something for yourself! The foundation idea +of modern education is to make the pupil the discoverer of his own +knowledge. As I was saying when interrupted, if you remove these +occasional accompaniments of the American girl you find simply the +same old 'eternal feminine.' Of course there is a wide range of +choice. You seem to think over here that there is only one kind of +American girl; but if you would only go into the subject deeply you +would find fat and lean, bright and dull, pert and meek, some that +could only have been discovered by Columbus, others that might have +been brought up in the rocky fastnesses of a pious Scottish home. + +_Sir A._ I don't get on with girls particularly well. + +_Jinny._ I can quite fancy that! Not one American girl in a hundred +would take the trouble to understand you. You need such a lot of +understanding that an indolent girl or a reserved one or a spoiled one +or a busy one would keep thinking, 'Does it pay?' + +_Sir A. (reddening and removing his pipe thoughtfully, pressing down +the tobacco in the bowl)._ Hullo, you can hit out when you like. + +_Jinny._ I am not 'hitting out'; I get on delightfully well with you +because I have lots of leisure just now to devote to your case. Of +course it would be a great economy of time and strength if you chose +to meet people half-way, or perhaps an eighth! It's only the amenities +of the public street, after all, that casual acquaintances need, in +order to have a pleasant time along the way. The private path is quite +another thing; even I put out the sign, 'No thoroughfare,' over that; +but I don't see why you need build bramble hedges across the common +roads of travel.--Do you know what a 'scare-cat' is? + +_Sir A._ Can't say I do. + +_Jinny._ It's a nice expressive word belonging to the infants' +vocabulary of slang. I think you are regular 'scare-cats' over here, +when it comes to the treatment of casual acquaintances. You must be +clever enough to know a lady or a gentleman when you see one, and you +don't take such frightful risks with ladies and gentlemen. + +During this entire colloquy Sir Archibald Maxwell Mackenzie, Baronet, +of Kindarroch, eyed me precisely as if he had been a dignified mastiff +observing the incomprehensible friskings of a playful, foolish puppy +of quite another species. 'Good Heavens,' thinks the mastiff, raising +his eyes in devout astonishment, 'can I ever at any age have disported +myself like that? The creature seems to have positively none of my +qualities; I wonder if it really _is_ a dog?' + +'Do you approve of marriage,--go in for it?' queried Sir Archibald in +a somewhat startling manner, after a long pause, and puffing steadily +the while. + +'I approve of it entirely,' I answered, 'especially for men; women are +terribly hampered by it, to be sure.' + +'I should have put that in exactly the opposite way,' he said +thoughtfully. + +'I know you would,' I retorted, 'and that's precisely the reason I +phrased it as I did. One must keep your attention alive by some means +or other, else it would go on strike and quit work altogether.' + +Sir Archibald threw back his head and broke into an unexpected peal of +laughter at this. 'Come along out of doors, Miss Virginia Pomeroy,' he +said, standing up and putting his pipe in his pocket. 'You're an +awfully good chap, American or not!' + + +MRS. MACGILL + + _Sunday evening_ + +This day has been very wet. I had fully intended to go to church, +because I always make a point of doing so unless too ill to move, as I +consider it fully more a duty than a privilege, and example is +everything. However, after the fright I had yesterday, and the +shaking, I had such a pain in my right knee that devotion was out of +the question, even had my mantle been fit to put on (which it won't be +until Cecilia has mended all the trimming), so I resolved to stay +quietly in bed. After luncheon I could get no sleep, for Miss Pomeroy +was singing things which Cecilia says are camp meeting hymns. They +sounded to me like a circus, but they may introduce dance music at +church services in New York, and make horses dance to it, too. +Anything is possible to a people that can produce girls like Virginia +Pomeroy. One can hardly believe in looking at her that she belongs to +the nation of Longfellow, who wrote that lovely poem on 'Maidenhood.' +Poor Mr. MacGill used to be very fond of it:-- + + 'Standing, with reluctant feet, + Where the brook and river meet.' + +Even if there were a river here (we can see nothing of the Dart from +this hotel), one could never connect Miss Pomeroy with 'reluctant +feet' in any way. She has quite got hold of that unfortunate young +man. With my poor health, and sleeping so badly, it is very difficult +for me to interfere, but justice to the son of my old friend will make +me do what I can. + +About half-past five I came down and could see nobody. Mrs. Pomeroy +suffers from the same tickling cough as I do, after drinking tea, and +had gone to her own room. Cecilia was nowhere to be seen. I asked the +waiter, who is red-faced, but a Methodist, to tell me where she was, +and he told me in the Billiard Room. Of course I didn't know where I +was going, or I should never have entered it, especially on a wet +Sunday afternoon; but when I opened the door I stood horrified by what +I saw. + +Miss Pomeroy may be accustomed to such a place (I have read that they +are called 'brandy saloons' in America), but I never saw anything like +it. There was a great deal of tobacco, which at once set up my +tickling cough. Sir Archibald was holding what gamblers call a cue, +and rubbing it with chalk, I suppose to deaden the sound. On a +table--there were several chairs in the room, so it cannot have been +by mistake--sat Miss Pomeroy and Cecilia. The American was strumming +on a be-ribboned banjo. + +'O Mrs. MacGill, I thought you were asleep,' said Cecilia. + +'I wish I were; but I fear that what I see is only too true. Pray, +Cecilia, come away with me at once,' I exclaimed. + +Sir Archibald had placed a chair for me, but I took no notice of it, +except to say, 'I'm surprised that you don't offer _me_ a seat on the +table.' + +We left the room at once, and I spoke to Cecilia with some severity, +saying that I could never countenance such on-goings, and that Miss +Pomeroy was leading her all wrong. 'If she is determined to marry a +baronet,' I said, 'let her do it; but even an American might think it +more necessary that a baronet should be determined to marry her, and +might shrink from such a form of pursuit. Well, if you are determined +to laugh at me,' I went on, 'there must be some other arrangement +between us, but you cannot leave me at present, alone on a hillside +like this, just after influenza, amongst herds of wild ponies.' + +Cecilia cried at last, and upset me so much that I had another bad +night, suffering much from my knee, and obliged to have a cup of cocoa +at 2.30 A.M. Cecilia appeared half asleep as she made it, although +the day before she could spring out of bed the moment the light came +in, to look at the sunrise. These so-called poetic natures are very +puzzling and inconsistent. + + +SIR ARCHIBALD MAXWELL MACKENZIE + +There is no doubt, alas! that the weather is improving and that we +shall soon be in for that picnic. I have promised the motor and +promised my society. There is something about that girl which makes me +feel and act in a way I hardly think is quite normal. She forces me to +do things I don't want to do, and the things don't seem so bad in +themselves, at least as long as she is there. The artist I saw at +Exeter has turned up here, the one who comes to look at the gorse; at +any rate he makes a man to speak to, which is a merciful variety. He +talks a lot of rot of course,--raves about the 'blue distance' here, +as if it mattered what colour the distance is. But I think he is off +his chump in other ways besides; for instance, he was saying to-day he +was sick of landscape and pining to try his hand at a portrait. + +'There's your model quite ready,' said I, indicating Miss Virginia, +all in white, with a scarlet parasol, looking as pretty as a rose. + +'Bah!' said the artist, 'who wants to paint "the young person" whose +eyes show you a blank past, a delightful present, and a prosperous +future! Eyes that have cried are the only ones to paint. I should +prefer the old lady's companion.' + +I felt positively disgusted at this, but of course there is no +accounting for tastes, and if a man is as blind as a bat, he can't +help it; only I wonder he elects to gain his livelihood as an artist. + +I walked with Miss Virginia to-day down to the little village about a +mile away. It was all through the lanes, and I could hardly get her +along because of the flowers. The banks were certainly quite blue with +violets, and Miss Virginia would pick them, though I explained it was +waste of time, for they would all be dead in half an hour and have to +be thrown away. + +'But if I make up a nice little bunch for your buttonhole,' said she, +'will that be waste of time?' Of course I was obliged to say +'No,'--you have to tell such lies to women, one of the reasons I +dislike their society. + +'But of course you will throw them away as soon as they are faded, +poor dears!' continued Miss Virginia. + +I didn't see what else a sensible man could do with decaying +vegetation, though it was plain that this was not what she expected me +to say. Luckily, the village came in sight at this moment, so I was +able to change the subject. + +Miss Virginia seems very keen on villages, and went on about the +thatched cottages and the church tower and the lych-gate in such a way +that I conclude they don't have these things in America, where people +are really up to date. It was in vain for me to tell her that thatch +is earwiggy, as well as damp, and that every sensible landowner is +substituting slate roofs as fast as he can. We went into the church, +which was as cold and dark as a vault, and Miss Virginia was intensely +pleased with that too, and I could hardly get her away. In the +meantime, the sun had come out tremendously strong, and as it had +rained for some days previously, the whole place was steaming like a +caldron, and we both suddenly felt most awfully slack. + +'Let's take a bite here,' I suggested. 'There is sure to be a pothouse +of sorts, and we shall be late for the hotel luncheon anyway.' + +The idea seemed to please Miss Virginia, and we hunted for the +pothouse and found it in a corner. + +'Oh, what a dear little inn!' cried she. 'I shall love anything they +serve here!' + +I was thinking of the luncheon, not the inn, myself, and did not +expect great things from the look of the place, which was low and +poky, with thatched eaves and windows all buried in clematis and ivy. +A little cobbled path led up to the door, with lots of wallflower +growing in the crannies of the wall on each side. There was nobody but +a lass to attend to us, and she gave us bread and cheese, and clouted +cream and plum jam. It wasn't bad. Virginia talked ten to the dozen +all the time, and the funny thing was, she made me talk too. For the +first time in my life I felt that it might not be a bad thing to be +friends with a girl as you can be with a man, but such a thing is not +possible, of course. After a while Virginia went off to make friends +with the landlady and pick flowers in the garden. How beastly dingy +and dark the inn parlour seemed then, when I had time to look about! I +felt, all of a sudden, most tremendously down on my luck. Why? I have +had these fits of the blues lately; I think it must be the Devonshire +cream; I must stop it. + +We got home all right. I carried all Miss Virginia's flowers which the +old woman had given her,--about a stack of daffodils, lilies, and +clematis. + + +CECILIA EVESHAM + + _Sunday evening_ + +I begin to think I am what is called a psychical person, for I woke +this morning with a strong presentiment of things happening or about +to happen. The day did not seem to lend itself to events; it had +broken with rain lashing the window panes and a gale of wind blowing +through every crevice of the hotel. Mrs. MacGill did not feel able to +rise for breakfast. As a matter of fact she was more able to do so +than I was, but she didn't think so, which settled the matter. +Therefore I went down to the breakfast-room alone. + +If the outer air was dreary, the scene indoors was very cheerful. A +large fire blazed in the grate, and in front of the rain-lashed +windows a table was laid for three. Virginia and Sir Archibald were +already seated at it, and he rose, as I came in, and showed me that my +place was with them. + +'We felt sure that Mrs. MacGill would not appear this morning,' he +said, 'so we thought we might all breakfast together.' + +What a gay little meal that was! Virginia was at her brightest; she +would have made an owl laugh. I found myself forgetting headache and +unhappiness, as I listened to her; and as for Sir Archibald, he seemed +another man altogether from the rigid young Scotchman of our first +acquaintance. + +'Well, now, Sir Archibald,' said Virginia, as she rose from the table, +'the question is what a well-brought-up young man like you is going to +do with himself all this wet day. I know what we are to be about, Miss +Evesham and I,--we are going to look at all my new Paris gowns, and +try on all my best hats.' + +'There's always the motor,' he said. + +Virginia had none of that way of hanging about with young men that +English girls have. There could be no doubt that she was interested in +Sir Archibald, and wished him to be interested in her, but apparently +for that very reason she would not let him see too much of her that +morning. She carried me off to her room, and kept me there so long, +looking at her clothes, that Mrs. MacGill found sharp fault with me +when at last I returned to her. What had I been doing? I might have +known that she would want me, etc.; she had decided not to get up +until tea-time. 'It is impossible to go to church, and it is much +easier to employ one's time well in bed,' she said. So in bed she +remained, and I in attendance upon her until it was time for luncheon. + +When I went downstairs, Virginia had also appeared again, and I saw +the wisdom and skill of her tactics; she was far more pleasing to the +young man now, because he had seen nothing of her all morning, and she +knew it. Sir Archibald, it appeared, had passed his time in the +motor-shed, presumably either examining the machinery of the motor or +polishing it up. Virginia seemed to have been writing letters; she +brought a bundle of them down with her, and laid one, address +uppermost, on the table beside her. It was addressed to 'Breckenridge +Calhoun, Esq., Richmond, Virginia, U.S.A.' + +I saw Sir Archibald's eyes rest on it for a second, but the moment he +realised the name he almost consciously averted his glance from the +envelope for the remainder of the meal. + +Virginia was very lively. + +'Well, now, Sir Archibald, I'm going to hear your catechism after +lunch; it's a good occupation for Sunday afternoon,' she said. 'You'll +come right into the coffee-room, and recite it to me, and Miss Evesham +shall correct your mistakes.' + +'I'll try to acquit myself well,' he answered, following her meekly +into the coffee-room. + +'What is your name?' she began. + +'Archibald George,' he replied, and Virginia went on:-- + +'I'll invent the rest of the questions, I think, so please answer +them well. How old are you?' + +'Thirty-one years and two months.' + +'Have you any profession?' + +'None.' + +'Pursuits?' + +'Various.' + +'Name these.' + +'Motoring, bicycling, shooting, fishing.' + +'That will do; you may sit down,' observed Virginia gravely, and then, +turning to me, 'I think the young man has acquitted himself very +creditably in this difficult exam. Miss Evesham, shall we give him a +certificate?' + +'Yes,' I replied, laughing at her nonsense. Virginia wrote out on a +sheet of paper:-- + + This is to certify that Sir Archibald Maxwell Mackenzie + passed a creditable examination in Pedigree and Pursuits. + + (Signed) VIRGINIA S. POMEROY. + +'Here,' she said, folding it up and giving it to the young man, 'you +should keep this among the proudest archives of your house.' + +Sir Archibald put it into his pocket with a funny little smile. 'It +shall have the greatest care always,' he assured her. 'And now, Miss +Pomeroy, won't you and Miss Evesham come and have a game of billiards +with me? I must relax my mind after all this effort.' + +I knew that I should not consent to this proposition; Virginia knew +that she should not; we both hesitated for a moment, and then +Virginia, with a glance at the storm outside, made a compromise in +favour of decorum. + +'Well, there doesn't seem to be much else to do this wet afternoon,' +she said. 'I don't care if I do come and see how well you play, Sir +Archibald, and perhaps Miss Evesham will come and applaud also.' + +I didn't see much difference between playing ourselves and seeing him +play, but perhaps there was a little. + +'I'll fetch my banjo,' proposed Virginia, 'and I can sing while you +have your game.' + +So to the billiard-room we went, and Virginia perched herself in a +window niche. From this point of vantage she watched Sir Archibald's +strokes, while she strummed away on the instrument, and sang delicious +little songs in her clear, bird-like voice. I watched them both +closely. Sir Archibald was not attending to his play; I saw that he +was thinking far more about her. + +'Won't you even chalk my cue for me?' he asked her, holding out the +chalk. + +She received it daintily between her finger and thumb. He stood beside +us, looking down at her in the unmistakable way; he was falling in +love, but he scarcely knew it. + +'There's your nasty chalk! See, I've whited all my sleeve,' she said, +making a distracting little grimace. She held out her sleeve for him +to see, and of course he brushed the chalk gently off it, and looked +into her eyes for a moment. I almost felt myself in the way, but I knew +that I was necessary to them just then. They had not advanced far +enough in their flirtation to be left alone yet, so I contented +myself. They both, I thought, were taking me into their confidence. +'You understand--you won't betray us--we mean no harm,' they seemed to +say to me; and I determined that this should be my attitude. I would +play gooseberry obligingly for just so long as I was wanted, and when +the right moment came, would equally obligingly leave them. + +The afternoon went merrily on. Sir Archibald sent for a whisky and +soda, and Virginia fetched a huge box of French bonbons, and we +refreshed ourselves according to our tastes. Virginia had just slipped +a very large piece of nougat into her mouth, and I was just going to +put a bit into mine, but happily hadn't done so, when the door opened, +and Mrs. MacGill came walking in, with an air of angry bewilderment +on her face. A billiard cue to her means nothing but dissipation, a +whisky and soda nothing short of sodden drunkenness, so the whole +scene appeared to her a sort of wild orgy. If she had only known how +innocent it all was! + +'Cecilia,' she exclaimed, 'the waiter told me that you were here, but +I could scarcely believe him!' + +I affected not to see that she was shocked. + +'I dare say it is nearly tea-time,' I said. 'Shall we go into the +dining-room?' + +Mrs. MacGill had a right to be angry with me, but I do not think any +indiscretion could deserve the torrent of stupid upbraiding that fell +upon me now. Many of her reproaches were deserved. I was too old to +have given countenance to this afternoon in the billiard-room; I +should have known better. + +But when all is said and done, life is short; short, and for most of +us disappointing. We cannot afford to put a bar across the difficult +road to happiness. I saw two young creatures, who seemed very well +suited to each other, in need of my friendly countenance, and I +determined to give it. Was I altogether wrong? Well, Mrs. MacGill +thought so at any rate, and told me so with wearisome iteration. I +shrugged my shoulders, and took the scolding as a necessary corrective +to a very happy afternoon. + + + + +V + + +VIRGINIA POMEROY + + GREY TOR INN, + AT THE WORLD'S END, + _Monday, May_-- + +Mrs. MacGill, inspired by the zeal with which the rest are re-reading +Hardy, Blackmore, Baring-Gould, and Phillpotts, has finished a book of +each of these novelists who play the 'pipes of the misty moorlands.' +She dislikes them all, but her liveliest disapproval is reserved for +the first and last named. She finds them most immoral, and says that +if she could have believed that such ill-conducted persons resided in +Dartmoor or anywhere in Devonshire, she would not have encouraged the +Grey Tor Inn by her presence. As to the language spoken by some of the +characters, she is inclined to think no one could ever have heard it. +'There would be no sense in their using such words,' she explains +triumphantly, 'for no one would understand them'; continuing the +argument by stating that she once heard the Duke of Devonshire open a +public meeting and he spoke in exceptionally good English. + +All this makes me rather wicked, so when I went down to breakfast +to-day I said cheerfully, 'Good marnin' to you! Marnin', Mrs. MacGill! +How do 'e like my new gown, Cecilia?--it's flam-new! Marnin', Sir +Archibald! I didn't know 'e in the dimpsey light; bide where you be, +I'll take this seat.... Will I have bacon and eggs? Ess fay; there'll +be nought else, us all knows that. There's many matters I want to put +afore 'e to-day.... Do 'e see thickly li'l piece of bread 'pon the +plate, Cecilia? Pass it to me, will 'e? I know I be chitterin' like a +guinea-fowl, but I be a sort o' public merryman bringin' folks the +blessing o' honest laughter.... Can us have blind up if 'tis all the +same to you, Mrs. MacGill? I doan't like eatin' in the dark.' + +Then when mamma said, '_Jinny!_' in italics, and looked at me +beseechingly, I exclaimed, 'Gaw your ways, mother! I ban't feared o' +you, an' I doan't mind tellin' 'e 't is so.' When Sir Archibald, +bursting with laughter, remarked it was a fine day, I replied, 'You'm +right theer; did 'e ever see ought like un? Theer's been a wonnerful +change in the weather; us be called 'pon to go downlong to +Widdington-in-the-Wolds to-day to see the roundy poundies. + + "Along by the river we'll ram'le about + A-drowin' th' line and a-ketchin' o' trout; + An' when we've got plenty we'll start ver our huomes, + An' tull all our doings while pickin' ther buones."' + +By this time Mrs. MacGill, thoroughly incensed, remarked that there +was no accounting for taste in jokes, whereupon I responded genially, +'You'm right theer! it's a wonnerful coorious rackety world; in fact, +in the language of Eden, 'I'll be gormed if it ban't a 'mazin' world!' + +Mamma at this juncture said, with some heat, that if this were the +language of Eden she judged it was after the advent of the serpent; at +which Sir Archibald and Miss Evesham and I screamed with laughter and +explained that I meant Eden Phillpotts, not the garden of Eden. + +The day was heavenly, as I said, and seemed intended by Providence for +our long-deferred picnic to Widdington-in-the-Wolds. Mamma and Mrs. +MacGill wanted to see the church, Cecilia and I wanted any sort of +outing. Sir Archibald had not viewed the plan with any warmth from the +first, but I was determined that he should go, for I thought he needed +chastening. Goodness knows he got it, and for that matter so did I, +which was not in the bargain. + +I refuse to dwell on the minor incidents of that interminable day. +Mrs. MacGill, for general troublesomeness, outdid her proudest +previous record; no picnic polluted by her presence could be an +enjoyable occasion, but this one was frowned upon by all the Fates. +There is a Dartmoor saying that 'God looks arter his own chosen +fules,' which proves only that we were 'fules,' but not chosen ones. +The luncheon was eaten in a sort of grassy gutter, the only place the +party could agree upon. It was begun in attempted jocularity and +finished in unconcealed gloom. Mrs. MacGill, on perceiving that we +were eating American tongue, declined it, saying she had no confidence +in American foods. I buried my face in my napkin and wept +ostentatiously. She became frightened and apologised, whereupon I said +I would willingly concede that we were not always poetic and were +sometimes too rich, but that when it came to tinning meats it was +cruel to deny our superiority. This delightful repast over and its +remains packed in our baskets, we sought the inn. + +Mrs. MacGill sank upon a feather-bed in one of the upstairs rooms, +and my mother extended herself on two chairs in the same apartment, +adding to my depression by the remark she reserves for her most +melancholy moments: 'If your poor father had lived, he would never +have allowed me to undertake this.' + +I didn't dare face Sir Archibald until he had digested his +indigestible meal, so Miss Evesham and I went for a walk. Naturally it +rained before we had been out a half-hour, and unnaturally we met Mr. +Willoughby, the artist, again. I ran back to the inn while they took +shelter under a sycamore. I said I didn't want my dress spoiled, and I +spoke the truth, but I did also want to give Miss Evesham the tonic of +male society and conversation, of which she stands in abject need. By +the time she is forty, if this sort of conventual life goes on, she +will be as timorous as the lady in Captain Marryat's novel who, +whenever a gentleman shook hands with her, felt cold chills running up +and down her back. + +I took a wrong turning and arrived at the inn soaked as to outer +garments. After a minute or two in the motor-shed with Sir Archibald, +I had a fire kindled in the bedroom; but before I could fully dry +myself they were clamouring for me to come down and add my cheerful +note to the general cackle, for mamma and Mrs. MacGill had ordered +early tea. There was a cosy time for a few minutes when Miss Evesham +gaily toasted bread on a fork and Mr. Willoughby buttered it, and Sir +Archibald opened a quaint instrument in a corner by the fire. I struck +the yellow keys of the thing absently. It was a tiny Broadwood of a +bygone century, fashioned like a writing-desk with a sort of bookcase +top to it. I tried 'Loch Lomond' for Mr. Willoughby, and then, as a +surprise to Cecilia, sang my little setting of the verses she gave me +the other day. The words brought tears to her eyes, and Sir Archibald +came closer. 'More, more!' he pleaded, but I said, 'I don't feel a bit +like it, Sir Archibald; if you'll let me off now I'll sing nicely for +you when they've gone.' He looked unmistakably pleased. 'That's good +of you,' he whispered, 'and I've ordered fresh tea made after the mob +disperses.' + +'Don't forget that my mother is one of your so-called "mob,"' I said +severely. + +'Oh, you know what I mean,' he responded (he always blushes when he is +chaffed). 'I get on famously with your mother, but three or four women +in a little low-ceiled room like this always look like such a bunch, +you know!' + +Then there was a dreadful interval of planning, in which Mrs. MacGill, +who appeared to think it necessary that she should be returned to the +Grey Tor Inn in safety whatever happened to anybody else, was finally +despatched in the motor with mamma, Miss Evesham, and Johnson; while +Sir Archibald and I confronted, with such courage as we might, the +dismal prospect of a three hours' tussle with Greytoria. + + +MRS. MACGILL + +This has been a terrible day of fatigue and discomfort. I was a woman +of sixty in the morning, but I felt like a woman of eighty-six by +night. Danger, especially when combined with want of proper food, ages +one in a short time. My sister Isabella, who knew Baden-Powell, +declares that she would scarcely have recognised him to be the same +man after as before the siege of Mafeking, particularly about the +mouth. + +My velvet mantle, after all it has suffered, will never be as good +again, and I have reason to be thankful if I escape a severe illness +on my own account after the mad rashness of this day's proceedings. + +The young people (I include Cecilia, though considerably over thirty) +had been talking a great deal about an expedition to a distant hamlet +called Widdington-in-the-Wolds. Miss Pomeroy had, of course, +persuaded that misguided young man to take her in the motor, although +there can be little conversation of a tender nature in a machine that +makes such awful noises; still young people now can doubtless shout +anything. Poor Mr. MacGill used always to say that he could scarcely +catch _my_ replies. + +Cecilia assured me that it was a short drive, so I consented to allow +her to take me in a pony chaise. Certainly I never saw a +quieter-looking animal than that pony at first sight; she had, indeed, +an air of extreme gentleness. People say that is frequently combined +with great strength--at least in dogs, and I think in men too; in +horses it does not seem to be the case, for this poor animal had a +very dangerous habit of putting her hind feet together and sliding +down a descent. Several times at small declivities she seemed to slide +forwards, and the carriage slid after her, so that I thought we should +both be thrown out. At last, having driven many miles, meeting +several droves of the wild ponies, which happily did us no harm, we +came to the top of a quite precipitous hill, which Cecilia declared we +must descend before we could arrive at Widdington. + +I had already warned her that I felt no confidence in her driving, but +she is sadly obstinate, and made some almost impertinent retort, so we +began to descend the hill. We had gone only a short distance, however, +when the pony, curiously enough, sat down. + +'Is this a common action with horses, Cecilia?' I gasped. + +Then came a cracking noise. 'It's the shafts breaking, I'm afraid,' +she said quite coolly, and jumped out. I got out too, of course, as +fast as I could, and Cecilia began to undo the straps of the animal's +harness. Again I felt I had had a narrow escape. I am not able now for +these nervous shocks--they take too much out of me. I had been reading +some of those alarming books about the neighbourhood, and felt I +should be quite afraid to ask for assistance from any passer-by. +There were none, as we had seen nothing but ponies since we left Grey +Tor, but in several books the violent passions of the natives had been +described. + +Cecilia said that she would lead the animal, so we started to go down +the long hill, which was so very steep I thought I should never reach +the bottom. Cecilia seemed to think nothing of it. 'You can do it +quite well, Mrs. MacGill,' she said. 'Well,' I replied, 'if a creature +with four feet, like that pony, can tumble so, how do you suppose that +I, on two, can do it easily?' My velvet mantle, though warm, is very +heavy, and my right knee was still extremely painful. It now began to +rain a little, and the sky got very dark, which, I remember, the books +say is always a prelude to one of those terrific storms which +apparently sweep across Dartmoor in a moment. 'If it rains,' I said, +'the river always rises. "Dart is up," as they say, and we shall +never reach home alive.' Cecilia declared in her stupid way that we +were nowhere near the Dart. 'Why are we on Dartmoor, then?' I asked. +'I have read everywhere that the river runs with appalling velocity, +and sweeps on in an angry torrent, carrying away trees and houses like +straw; there are no trees, but those small houses down there would be +swept away in no time. If we can only get down to the village, and get +something to eat, and a carriage to take us home in, I shall be +thankful!' + +Cecilia appeared uncertain as to whether we could get any means of +conveyance at the inn, so I suggested that we should just walk on. +'Nothing,' I said,'shall make me try to go back with that animal. Our +lives were in danger when she sat down. I am sure that they must have +a quieter horse of some kind, in such a lonely place.' + +Somehow or other we did get down, and were standing by the wayside +when Sir Archibald's motor drove towards us, seeming to have descended +the hills in perfect safety. Miss Pomeroy, of course, was on the box. +She _looked_ rouged. I cannot be quite certain, as I am unaware of +ever having seen any one whom I absolutely knew to be addicted to the +habit, but Mr. MacGill had a cousin whom he used to speak of with +considerable asperity, who used to be known as 'the damask rose,' and +that was because she painted, I am sure. Miss Pomeroy's cheeks were +startling. Her poor mother looked like leather, but was calm enough, +in the back seat. She is a sensible woman, and when the young people +(I include Cecilia for convenience) all began to exclaim in their +silly way about Widdington, calling it 'lovely' and 'picturesque' (I +must say that Sir Archibald had too much good sense to join in this), +she remarked aside to me with a quiet smile, 'You and I, Mrs. MacGill, +are too old to care about the picturesque upon an empty stomach.' To +stand in a damp church with a stiff knee is even worse, as I told +Cecilia, when she had insisted on dragging me into the building, +which smells of mildew. The sacred edifice should always, I hope, +suggest thoughts of death to all of us, but Miss Pomeroy appeared more +cheerful than usual, and stood talking with Cecilia about pillars till +I was chilled through. The cold is more penetrating in these old +churches than anywhere else--I suppose because so many people used to +be buried there. It seems hideous to relate that on coming out we sat +down to lunch in a ditch. + +Mrs. Pomeroy is so infatuated about her daughter that she would do +anything to please her. I insisted at first that Cecilia was to +accompany me into the inn, but Mrs. Pomeroy gave me such an account of +the scene of carousal going on there that, rather than sit in the bar, +I consented to eat out of doors. + +The others called it a fine day, and even spoke of enjoyment. It +showed good sense on the part of our cavalier that he, at least, +never made any pretence of enjoying himself. He is thoroughly sick of +that girl, but she will run after him. It makes me ashamed of my sex. +When I was a girl I always affected not to see Mr. MacGill until he +absolutely spoke to me; and even when he had made me a distinct +offer--which girls like Virginia Pomeroy do not seem to consider +necessary--I appeared to hesitate, and told him to ask papa. Of course +if Mr. Pomeroy is dead (and her mother always wears black, though not +the full costume--she may be only divorced, one hears such things +about Americans), why then one can't expect her to do _that_, but I +very much doubt if she will ever consult Mrs. Pomeroy for a +moment--that is to say, if she can squeeze anything at all like a +proposal from Sir Archibald. + +I have tried in vain to put the young man upon his guard. Give them +hair and complexion, and they are deaf adders all; yet what is that +compared to principle, and some notion of cooking? Miss Pomeroy asks +for nothing if she has a box of sweets; yet only the other day I heard +her confess to eating bread and cheese in an inn, along with that +unfortunate young man, who probably considered it a proof of +simplicity. He is sadly mistaken. Ten courses at dinner is the +ordinary thing in New York, I believe, one of them canvas-back ducks +upon ice! + +By three o'clock, when this horrid meal was over, Mrs. Pomeroy and I +were both so chilled and fatigued that I sent Cecilia to entreat that +the woman of the inn would allow us to rest for an hour in a room +where there were no drunkards. We were conducted to a small +bedchamber, where I lay down on the bed, while Mrs. Pomeroy had a nap +upon two chairs. Like myself, she is always troubled by a tendency to +breathlessness after eating--and even lunch in a ditch is a meal, of +course. She also talked a little about her daughter in perhaps a +pardonable strain for a mother, who can scarcely be expected to +realise what the girl really is. + +A Mr. Calhoun of Richmond, a suburb of New York, appears to have paid +her some attentions. She must have greatly exaggerated them to her +mother, for Mrs. Pomeroy evidently believes that it is fully in her +power to marry the young man if she likes. It will be a merciful +escape for Sir Archibald for a while, even though they can be divorced +so easily in New York. + + +SIR ARCHIBALD MAXWELL MACKENZIE + +I knew the moment I opened my eyes that morning that the day of the +picnic had come. The sun was shining brightly, the birds were singing. +Even before breakfast there were tourists sitting on Grey Tor and +holding on to the rails. I could see them against the sky. When we +were all at breakfast, even the old women were excited about the +picnic, and as to Miss Virginia, there was no holding her at all. She +pointed out that she had dressed for the picnic in a brand-new frock +especially built by one of the smart court dressmakers for such +occasions, for which it was about as well suited (I pointed out) as a +ball-dress would have been. It was no good my saying anything, that +these brilliant mornings were not to be trusted, that the road to +Widdington-in-the-Wolds was the worst in the country, that there was +nothing to do or see when you got there; I was overruled on every +point, and all the arrangements were made. I must own I was not in a +good temper anyway. A man has his ups and downs; I had had a worrying +letter from the steward at Kindarroch. My tobacco was done and the +fresh packet hadn't arrived with the morning post, so that my pouch +was filled with a filthy weed from the hotel. Had our party been +composed of only Miss Virginia and her mother, it would not have been +so bad, for then I should have insisted on giving them lunch at a +pothouse, and all the horrors of an _al fresco_ entertainment would +have been avoided. But Mrs. MacGill and her companion were a part of +the show, and the old woman actually hinted that I was to drive her in +the pony-shay, while Johnson conducted the rest of the party in the +motor! I showed her her mistake both clearly and promptly, and had her +packed off about an hour before we started; except for the companion, +who is a decent sort of girl, I could have wished her to capsize on +the way. + +We got off in the motor all right--Miss Virginia on the box seat with +me, and the mother behind with Johnson. The going was all right for +the first few miles. Virginia did most of the talking, which was +lucky, for I was not brilliant. It seems odd how a fellow's mood can +be stronger than circumstances. Here was I, on a lovely day, with a +pretty girl on the box beside me, nothing so very much as yet to have +put me out, as black as a thundercloud. Of course the idiocy of a +picnic (on which I have dwelt before) always puts my back up; I didn't +want to come, and yet on this occasion, for some reason or other, I +could not stay away. I really think that feeling more than anything +else made me so devilish ill-tempered. I had soon good cause enough +for ill temper, however. The road was all right at first, as I said, +but presently it gave a dip, and then without the slightest warning we +found ourselves on a hill as steep as the sides of a well, and about +as comfortable for a motor as the precipices of Mont Blanc. It was +dangerous. I hate being in unnecessary danger myself--it is silly; and +as to being in danger with women in charge, it is the very devil. I +jammed on the brakes, and we went skidding and scraping down, showers +of grit and gravel being thrown up in our faces, the whole machine +shaking to bits with the strain. It was a miracle nothing happened +worse than the loss of my temper. The hill got easier after about a +mile. Miss Virginia, who had been frightened to death but had kept +quiet and held on tight, began to laugh and talk again; but I showed +pretty plainly I was in no laughing or talking mood. I kept a grim +silence and looked ahead. I saw her turn and look at me, once or +twice, in a surprised way, and then she suddenly became quite quiet +too. In this significant silence, we drew up at the village inn, where +Mrs. MacGill and Miss Evesham had already arrived. + +Guide-books and artists talk yards about this place, +Widdington-in-the-Wolds, but as usual there is nothing to see but a +church, a particularly insanitary churchyard, a few thatched cottages, +two or three big sycamore trees, and an inn, so very small as to be +hardly visible to the naked eye. + +We found the Exeter artist here before us, and I walked off with him +at once, leaving the women to themselves. Otherwise I should certainly +have burst, I believe; it is not healthy to refrain from bad language +too long. However, all the agonies of picnic had to be gone +through,--lunch in a ditch, cold, clammy food, forced conversation, +and all the rest of it. Certainly that picnic was a failure; even Miss +Virginia was subdued. When the feeding was done, I went off with +Willoughby, the artist, again. I don't know what the women did with +themselves, I am sure. As I had foretold, the weather had changed; +there had been one cold shower already, and the clouds were piling up +in the sky, threatening a wet, bleak, and windy afternoon. I knew how +it would be, perfectly well, before we started, but no one would heed +me. + + +CECILIA EVESHAM + + _Tuesday evening_ + +This will be a long story to tell. On Monday morning Mrs. MacGill was +very lively, perhaps wakened up by the explosion of the previous +night. She came down to breakfast, and was persuaded by the Pomeroys +to undertake an expedition to Widdington-in-the-Wolds, an outlying +hamlet famous for an old church. + +'It is long since I have lunched out of doors, Mrs. Pomeroy,' she +said, 'but the doctor has so strongly recommended carriage exercise +and fresh air to me, that I dare say on such a very fine morning I +might make the attempt, if you are thinking of it.' + +Mrs. Pomeroy had been made to think of it by the fair Virginia, as I +well knew; for the expedition was to be carried out in Sir Archibald's +motor. + +'One should always make an effort to see all places of interest in a +neighbourhood,' Mrs. Pomeroy observed, with the sigh of the +conscientious American sightseer, and Mrs. MacGill assented. My heart +sank. Fancy visiting places of interest in the company of Mrs. +MacGill! But, as Browning has it, 'Never the hour and the place and +the loved one all together!' I have noticed the curious, indomitable +tendency of tiresome people to collect and reappear in these exquisite +places most favoured by nature; more suited, it would seem, for angel +visitants than for the flat-footed multitude: but I digress. + +The fact remained that it was in close company with Mrs. MacGill that +I was to visit the solitudes of Dartmoor,--Mrs. MacGill in a +bead-trimmed mantle, a bonnet ornamented with purple velvet pansies, +and an eis-wool shawl tied round her throat. + +I was to drive her in the pony cart; even her fears were not aroused +by the dejected appearance of Greytoria as that noble animal was led +up to the door. + +'I am glad to see that the horse does not look spirited,' she said; +'for though you say you are so well accustomed to driving, I always +prefer a coachman.' + +With a quick twitch of the reins I raised Greytoria's drooping nose +from the dust. She seemed surprised, but ambled off in the indicated +direction. + +'The road'--to quote Christina Rossetti--'wound uphill all the way,' +and a long way it was. We crawled along at about the rate of a mile an +hour over that rough and stony track. The lines I have just quoted +haunted my memory with their dismal significance--Life, life! your +long uphill road has little promise of rest for me. + +We toiled on. Then the summit was gained at last, and down below us, +in a little nest-like green valley, huddled between the swelling brown +moors, lay Widdington-in-the-Wolds, the Mecca of our pilgrimage. + +'There it is at last!' I cried. 'See the quaint old church tower!' I +actually appealed to Mrs. MacGill for sympathy, so great was my +enthusiasm. It was a mistake. + +'I see little to admire, Cecilia,' she said, 'and do look after the +pony.' + +Her admonition was not unnecessary. In my delight I had risen in my +seat and let the reins slip out of my inattentive fingers. Greytoria, +in a manner peculiar to herself, had begun the descent of the +terrifying hill which leads down to Widdington. Clapping her heels +together like a bowing Frenchman, she let herself slide down the +decline. I realised this in a moment, but it was rather too late. +There was a long, scraping slither; I put on the drag hard, and tried +to hold up Greytoria's head. The attempt was vain; she turned round +and looked at me, and then, without making any farther effort, quite +simply sat down in the traces, the chaise resting gracefully on her +back. + +Mrs. MacGill cried out with terror, and, indeed, I felt ready to do +the same. Not a soul was anywhere in sight. Only far down below us, +at the foot of the terrible Widdington hill, could help be procured. + +'O Cecilia, this is what comes of trusting you to drive,' cried Mrs. +MacGill. + +This stiffened me up a little, and I determined to unharness +Greytoria. + +'Come and sit by the roadside,' I said. 'I'll get her unharnessed, and +once on her legs again there won't be any harm done; it's not as if +she had broken her knees.' + +'I didn't know that horses _could_ sit down,' wailed Mrs. MacGill. + +'Well, it is an uncommon accomplishment,' I admitted, tugging at the +harness buckles. + +Greytoria turned a mild old eye upon me; she seemed accustomed to the +process of being unharnessed, but did not make any attempt to rise. + +I thought as I tugged at that buckle that the whole thing was +symbolical of life for me. Wasn't I for ever tugging at obstinate +buckles of one sort or another? I dare say such morbid thoughts should +have had no place in my fancy at a moment of practical difficulty, but +there are some people made in this way; their thoughts flow on in an +undercurrent to events. So I tugged away, and my thoughts worked on +also. + +It was no easy task, this, of getting Greytoria on her legs again; but +I achieved it at last, and she stood up, abject, trembling, with +drooping head and bowed knees, regarding the hill before her. + +'We must walk down to the Inn, I'm afraid, Mrs. MacGill,' I said. +'I've got Greytoria into the chaise again, but if we add our weight to +it she will just sit down a second time.' + +'Oh, what a hill to go down on foot!' cried Mrs. MacGill, but she saw +that it was inevitable, so we began the long descent, I leading +Greytoria, Mrs. MacGill trailing behind. Down below us the green +valley smiled and beckoned us forward, yet like every peaceful oasis, +it had to be gained with toil and difficulty. As we plodded down that +weary hill, shall I confess that my thoughts turned a little bitterly +to Virginia's side of the day's pleasuring? Why should she, young, +rich, and beautiful, have the pleasant half of the expedition,--a ride +in a motor with a nice young man who was falling in love with her, +while I was doomed to trail along with Mrs. MacGill? Why did some +women get everything? Surely I needed amusement and relaxation more +than Virginia did, but it isn't those who need relaxation who ever get +it; 'to him that hath shall be given,' as the Bible cynically and +truly observes. + +Every few yards Mrs. MacGill would call out to me to stop: she was +getting too tired; it was so cold; the road was so rough. But at last +the foot of the hill was gained, and with a sigh of relief she bundled +into the chaise again. She had, however, no eyes for the interest or +beauty of the place we had reached with such difficulty. All her +faculties, such as they are, were concentrated on wondering where and +when we would get some food. As we passed the church, she looked the +other way. I was almost glad. I flicked Greytoria, her flagging pace +quickened, and attempting a trot, we drove up to the inn door. + +'I suppose we must wait for the others,' Mrs. MacGill sighed +peevishly, 'but really after all I have gone through, I feel much in +want of food.' + +'They will soon be here,' I said, 'and on the way home Greytoria will +go better.' + +'Well, as she goes badly up hill, and won't go down at all, I scarcely +see how we are to get home so well,' she retorted, with a measure of +truth. + +As I looked at the hill that we should need to reclimb before we +reached home, my heart misgave me too; but just then the motor hove in +sight, a scarlet blot at the top of the hill, and we became +interested in watching its descent. How it spun down! Almost before we +could believe it possible, it dashed up to the inn door, and Virginia +jumped out. She was in exuberant spirits. The drive had been just +lovely; she adored Widdington; the hill only gave her delicious +creeps; she wasn't a bit tired or cold. + +'Yes,' thought I, 'it's easy to be neither cold nor tired when you are +happy and amused and young and rich! Try to drive with Mrs. MacGill +when you are feeling ill, and can't afford to buy warm clothes, and +see how you like it!' + +Mrs. Pomeroy was less enthusiastic, and Sir Archibald was dumbly +regarding the tires of the motor, which had suffered strange things. + +'Hello,' he said, as he glanced up at the window of the inn, 'there's +that artist fellow who was at Exeter. Suppose he's come to "see the +gorse."' + +He nodded up at the window, took out his pipe, and began to fill it, +directing Johnson to take the luncheon-basket out of the motor. + +Then the artist, Mr. Willoughby, came sauntering out of the door. I +dare say he had had enough of gorse and solitude, for he seemed glad +to greet even a casual acquaintance like Sir Archibald. The position +of being the one man in a party of women had palled upon Sir Archibald +only too apparently, for he met Mr. Willoughby with--for him--quite +unwonted geniality, and they strolled off together down the road. +Virginia put her hand through my arm, and drew me in the direction of +the church. + +'We're not going on very well this morning, Cecilia,' she confided to +me. 'He's so Scotch, Sir Archibald is, what they call "canny," and +I've made him very cross by dragging him off on this expedition. All +the tires of the motor are cut, and he hates eating out of doors. I +can see that I've vexed him to madness.' + +I laughed, and so did she. + +'Why did you make him do it?' I asked. + +'I wanted to put him to some sort of test,' she replied. 'Unless a man +will do what he dislikes for you, he isn't worth much.' + +'I'm afraid you are going to play with this young man's affections,' I +said very severely, for her tone was frivolous. + +'Am I?' she murmured. 'I wonder!' + +There was a moment of silence between us. I felt all manner of thrills +of interest and sympathy. If you can't be happy yourself, the next +best thing is to see other people happy. If, as I now suspected, +Virginia was not playing with Sir Archibald's affections, then I was +eagerly on her side. Words are not necessary, however, and Virginia +must have divined my sympathy. + +We had reached the lych-gate, and there, under the solemn little roof +that had sheltered so many a coffin on its way to the grave, Virginia +turned and gave me a kiss. + +'You dear!' she said. That was all. + + + + +VI + + +VIRGINIA POMEROY + + GREY TOR INN + +Here beginneth the chronicle of the dreadfullest drive that ever was +driven. I pitied Sir Archibald with my whole heart to be left behind +with Greytoria and me, but what else could be done? There was a mist +when we started which degenerated after a bit into an intermittent +drizzle, and at intervals the wind blew a young tornado. The road was +dreary, but fascinating in its broad stretches of loneliness. We +passed green field and brown moor in turn, with all the trees looking +grey in the mist, and here and there the brawling of a stream to break +the silence. Sometimes there was a woodman working in a roadside +copse, sometimes a goggled stone-breaker pursuing his monotonous +task, sometimes a carrier bending beneath his weight of faggots. If it +had not been for the flaming gorse and the groups of red cattle, there +would have been no colour in the landscape. My spirits kept their +normal height for the first six or eight miles, but they sank little +by little as the hills grew in number and increased in height. Sir +Archibald refused to let me walk, and it made me wretched to see him +stalking beside the pony chaise, appealing to Greytoria's pride, +courage, conscience, ambition, and sense of decency, in turn, and +mostly without avail. We kept the best-travelled road, but it seemed +to lead us farther and farther from Grey Tor, which had quite +disappeared from the horizon and could not be used as a landmark. +There could be no conversation either going up or down hill, as Sir +Archibald was too breathless and busy. I, sitting in state, punctuated +the ascents and descents, as long as I had strength, with agreeable +persiflage something in this wise:-- + +'The guide-book says, "Pedestrianism is doubtless the ideal manner of +touring in Devonshire. Only on foot is it possible to view the more +romantic scenery. Motors are not advised and bicycles discouraged."' + +Sir Archibald would smile, say something under his breath, and whack +Greytoria. + +'Sir Archibald, there is a place in these parts where the devil is +said to have died of cold; it must be just here.' + +'Sir Archibald, do 'e knaw I think we'm pixy-led? When Devonshire folk +miss the path home at night and go astray, they'm "pixy-led."' + +If we two poor wayfarers could have sat quietly beside each other and +chatted in 'e dimpsey light, it would not have been a bit bad, but +there was something eternally doing. When the drag wasn't being put on +or off, the whip was being agitated, or Sir Archibald was looking for +a house to ask the way. Never was there such a route from one spot to +another as the one we took from Widdington-in-the-Wolds to the Grey +Tor Inn. If it was seven miles as the swallow flies, it was +twenty-seven as Greytoria flew. The dinner-hour passed, and the +luncheon baskets, with all other luggage, were in the motor. Sir +Archibald's last information, obtained from an unintelligible boy +driving a cow, was to the effect that we were only two miles from +home. + +'She may manage it and she may not,' said my squire, looking savagely +at Greytoria. 'If I only knew whether she can't or she won't, I should +deal with her differently.' + +The rain now came down in earnest. Part of my mind was for ever +toiling up or creeping down a hill with the pony, and another part was +spent in keeping my umbrella away from Sir Archibald's hat, on those +rare occasions when he was by my side. A woman may have the charms of +Cleopatra or Helen of Troy, but if she cannot keep her parasol or +umbrella away from a man's hat, her doom is sealed. + +How I hate this British climate! How I hate to wear always and always +stout shoes, sensible clothes, serviceable hats, short skirts, looking +like a frump in the intervals of sunshine, that I may be properly +attired when it rains! I shed a few secret tears now and then for +sheer down-heartedness and discouragement. I was desperately cold, and +my wetting had given me a feverish, teeth-chattering sort of feeling. +Hungry I was, too, and in such a rage with the beastly pony that I +wished she had been eaten in the French Revolution; she was too old to +be tender, even then. + +Now ensued a brief, all too brief, season of content on a fairly level +bit of road. It was not over an eighth of a mile in length, and must +have been an accident on the part of Nature. I was so numb and so +sleepy that I just heard Sir Archibald's sigh of gratitude as he took +his seat for a moment beside me, and then I subsided into a +semi-comatose state, too tired to make even one more expiring effort +to be agreeable. I am not clear as to the next few moments, in which I +felt a sudden sense of warmth and well-being and companionship. I must +have dropped off into a sort of dream, and in the dream I felt the +merest touch, just the brush of something on my cheek, or I thought I +did. Slight as it was, there was something unaccustomed about it that +made me come hastily into the conscious world, and my waking was made +the more speedy by a sudden stir and noise and ejaculation. We had +come to another hill, and Sir Archibald had evidently wished for once +to omit the walking-up process. Greytoria, outraged in her deepest +sensibilities by the unwonted addition of Sir Archibald's weight to +her burdens, braced her hind legs firmly and proceeded to achieve the +impossible by slithering backward down the hill. Sir Archibald leaped +out on the one side; I put the drag on, or off, whichever is wrong, +and leaped out on the other. + +He adjusted the drag and gave Greytoria a clip that she will describe +to her grandchildren on future winter evenings. I, with matchless +presence of mind, got behind the pony chaise and put my shoulder under +the back to break its descent. And so we wound wearily up the hill, +and on reaching the top saw the lighted hotel just ahead of us. + +In silence we traversed the few remaining yards, each busy with his +own thought. Silently we entered the gate and gave Greytoria to the +waiting groom. Silently and stiffly I alighted from the chaise, helped +by Sir Archibald's supporting arm. He held my hand a second longer +than was necessary; held it, half dropped it, and held it again; or +did something unusual with it that was widely separated from an +ordinary good-night 'shake.' + +There was no harm in that, for the most unsentimental man feels a sort +of brotherly sympathy for a damp, cold, hungry, tired, nice girl. + +But about that other--episode?... Of course if he did, I should +resent it bitterly; but if it were only a dream I must not blame him +even in thought.... There is always the risk that a man might +misunderstand the frank good-fellowship in which we American girls are +brought up, and fail to realise that with all our nonsense we draw the +line just as heavily, and in precisely the same place as our British +cousins.... But why do I think about it any more?... It wouldn't be a +bit like him, so probably he didn't.... In fact it is so entirely out +of character that he simply couldn't.... And yet I suppose the number +of men who actually couldn't is comparatively small. + + +MRS. MACGILL + +Well, we spent the day till five o'clock in that dreary spot, cold and +wretched. Then Sir Archibald proposed that I should go home with Mrs. +Pomeroy in the motor; they said we should get there quicker that way! +He meant to drive Miss Pomeroy in the pony chaise, not being at all +afraid, he said, of any pony, however spirited. Of course nothing +would induce me to enter a pony carriage drawn by that animal again. A +motor is more dangerous in some ways, but at any rate it cannot sit +down like that pony, and they all assured us that it was both safe and +speedy. Mrs. Pomeroy had been quite at ease in it, she said, so at +last I consented to go. Cecilia tied on my bonnet with my grey wool +shawl, and we set out. It surprises me that motoring should have +become a favourite pastime with so-called fashionable people, for +certainly one does not appear to advantage in motoring garments. The +cold was intense, and at first everything whizzed past me at such a +rate that I could remember nothing except two lines that Cecilia read +to me last evening, about 'the void car hurled abroad by reinless +steeds.' + +There were no steeds, of course, nor reins, and the car was not void, +but that was quite the motion. My bonnet, in spite of the shawl and +string, was instantly torn from my head. I begged Johnson, a very +civil Scotchman who could understand what I said, to stop the machine +for a few moments and let me breathe. Cecilia advised me to remove the +bonnet and trust wholly to the shawl. My hair is not thick, especially +on the top, and I soon had all the sensation of the head being padded +in ice, which we read of as a treatment for brain fever. + +It was now beginning to get dark. Johnson drew up suddenly, and +declared that he must have taken the wrong road. There were no +sign-posts anywhere, and it had begun to rain heavily. We were +standing just at the foot of a steep hill where the road lay through a +thick wood. Above us was a tower of rock,--another 'tor,' I suppose, +if not a 'monolith.' + +Johnson proposed to drive the machine on into the wood, and leave us +under shelter whilst he went to a cottage that we saw farther up, to +inquire about the road. This I decidedly objected to. Mrs. Pomeroy and +Cecilia seemed to think me foolish, and could not understand my being +afraid. + +'But,' I said, 'I have good reason to refuse to enter that wood. +Indeed it will not be safe for Johnson to leave us there alone: I +recognise the place perfectly. In one of the books by that Mr. +Phillpotts, who, you have all told me, is most accurate in his +descriptions, I read about this place, and he said, 'The Wolf suckled +her young there yesterday.' Yes, Cecilia, laugh if you like; those +were the very words, and I examined the date of the publication, which +was not a year ago. _Yesterday_ was the word used.' + +'Then the cubs will still be too small to attack us,' observed +Cecilia, who has no tact and is constantly trying to be facetious when +she should be endeavouring to allay my nervous terrors. + +'He would be meaning foxes, ma'am,' said Johnson, who had been +listening whilst fright compelled me to quote the exact expression I +had read. + +'It is possible that he meant foxes, Johnson,' allowed I, 'but three +ladies alone in a motor, in the dark, attacked even by wild foxes, +would be in some danger; so I hope that you will drive on directly, +and get us out of this horrid place as soon as possible.' + +They tried to smooth over the situation, but I would listen to none of +them, and Johnson at last drove on. Half-way up the hill the motor +stuck. Something had gone wrong with it inside, and I felt that we +might stay there in the wilderness all night, which would have been +impossible, as I had taken very few remedies of any kind with me, and +cannot sleep sitting up. These stoppages occurred several times. How +we at length got home I scarcely remember. My velvet mantle was like a +sponge, my feet so cold that it was all I could do to dismount from +the motor when it ground up to the hotel door. There was Sir Archibald +standing smoking as if nothing extraordinary had occurred. + +'Why, Mrs. MacGill,' he cried, 'you are even later than we were, and I +thought that blessed pony was going to her own funeral.' + +I thought that in spite of his tone he looked rather pale and +agitated; he was of course anxious, and rightly so, about my safety. + +'Sir Archibald,' I said, as soon as I could speak,'I trust that I +never again may have to enter one of those motors. Human life, +especially mine, is too precious to be thrown away in such a fashion. +Another half-hour of it would have killed me outright. Had Mr. MacGill +been alive he would never have consented to my going into it for a +moment. As it is, I can scarcely hear or see owing to the frightful +noises and the rain lashing on my face; every hair on my head feels +pulled the wrong way, and I'm sure I shall have another bad relapse of +influenza by to-morrow morning. Your uncle was a friend of my poor +brother-in-law who died at Agra in a moment, and unless you take a +warning you will have an end quite as sudden and much more frightful, +for his was heart complaint, and you will be smashed to pieces by the +wheels of that hideous machine.' + +I left them downstairs and went to bed. Cecilia tried to make me +believe there was nothing wrong with me, as she always does when she +has neuralgia, or _says_ she has neuralgia, herself, but I know that +there is. What is the matter I can't exactly say, only I am certain +that I am going to suffer in some way from this horrible expedition. + + +SIR ARCHIBALD MAXWELL MACKENZIE + +There is something soothing even in hotel tobacco, I suppose, so I was +better, though still feeling decidedly blue, later in the day at +Widdington, when I came up to the inn door and began overhauling the +motor as it stood in the yard. There was nothing particularly cheering +in finding several long cuts in the tires, and I was probing them to +get the grit out, when I heard a little cough behind me. I turned to +see Miss Virginia standing in the doorway, looking at me rather +doubtfully. Now of course I had been rather short, not to say nasty, +but somehow it's a fact that you cannot be sharp with a woman without +at once being put in the wrong, though she may really have been the +sinner all the time. It was Miss Virginia who had brought me out on +this show, who had cost me about forty pounds in tires, and Heaven +knows how much in other ways, but it was I who felt a beast now. Yet +she looked at me in a way which seemed to say she was sorry I was +vexed. She was rubbing her hands together and shivering a little. Of +course she was cold in that ridiculous dress. + +'A nice day it has turned out, hasn't it!' I said rather spitefully. + +'Oh, I'll never, never ask for a picnic again!' cried she, with a +comical look. She came and began to look at the cuts in the tires +herself. + +'Oh, they _are_ bad,' she exclaimed, 'and I suppose you love that old +motor better than anything on earth, don't you?' she inquired. + +'I get a good deal more pleasure out of it,' I truthfully replied, +'than I do out of the society of most human beings.' She gave a little +laugh. + +'I expect I had better go inside after that!' she said, and of course +I felt rather a brute. I hadn't really meant to be rude or send her +away. I hunted under the tarpaulin that covered the motor for my +fur-lined coat, and then I followed her into the inn. + +'Look here,' I said, 'better put this on; you're horribly cold.' She +seemed half inclined to refuse, but finally let me put the coat over +her shoulders and run her arms into the sleeves. + +'You're pretty damp,' I observed. + +''Deed I am!' she shivered. 'Miss Evesham and I went for a walk and +got caught in the rain as usual. My hair's all wet too!' + +'Better dry it,' I suggested. + +She ran off to some room or other, and when she reappeared she had two +plaits of dark hair, as thick as bellropes, hanging down her back. +With that and my motor coat, Miss Virginia cut a pretty queer figure. +I cannot say she looked plain, however; her spirits had come back, and +so had mine, strange to say, for the day was far from finished. + +There was a parlour in the inn, so low in the ceiling that I could +not stand up straight in it, and was for ever knocking my head against +the rafters. When we went in, this place was as full of women as it +could hold, all fighting like cats,--Mrs. MacGill, Mrs. Pomeroy, Miss +Evesham,--and all wondering how they were to get home. The place was +simply steaming with tea. + +Mrs. MacGill, it appeared, utterly refused to go home in the pony trap +unless it were driven by me. Needless to say I declined this honour +with a firmness equal to hers. Finally it was arranged, chiefly by +Miss Evesham's management, that the two old ladies and herself were to +go home in the motor with Johnson, while Miss Virginia and I +negotiated the pony and trap. This was pretty thick, considering I had +refused point-blank to drive Mrs. MacGill, but Miss Evesham seemed to +make it sound all right,--clever sort of young woman in her way. As +the weather threatened to get worse immediately, the motor party was +packed off without loss of time, and Miss Virginia and I had a +comfortable tea by ourselves before starting for home. + +It was not late in the afternoon, but the little inn parlour was +almost dark, chiefly because the church tower overshadowed the house, +and the window was so small. Presently the bells began ringing (it was +a saint's day, Miss Virginia said), and my word, what a din they made! +The whole house shook and the very teacups rattled. Miss Virginia +seemed to like it, however, and sat listening with her chin on her +hand. She had been strumming on an old spinet sort of thing that stood +in the corner of the room, and I asked her if she would sing a little +before we set off. + +'I will,' said she, 'if you'll smoke a little,' an invitation I +accepted with alacrity. + +'You deserve something,' she remarked, 'to make up for the wretched +time you've been having to-day. It was partly my fault. I am sorry.' + +'Oh, don't mention it!' was all I could say, of course, and Miss +Virginia began to sing before I could speak another word. + +There is a tremendous charm in her singing: her style is so simple; +her voice is so fresh; you can hear every word she says, and she +always sings the right songs. How this sort of singing makes a man +think! I can't describe the effect it had upon me. As Miss Virginia +touched the tinny, stringy old notes and went from song to song,--now +an Irish melody, now a nigger one, now an English ballad,--I forgot +all about the day's worries; I forgot the motor and the cut tires and +the bad weather and the beastly picnic--it was a kind of heaven. If I +marry, it must be some one who can sing like this. I have been +changing my preferences for blonde women lately. No doubt they look +very nice when young, but they don't wear well, I feel sure, and get +purple and chilblainy in cold weather. Of course the dark ones are apt +to turn drab and mottled, but not when they have as much colour as +Miss Virginia. All sorts of scraps of thoughts and ideas chased each +other through my mind as she sang. She had got on to a thing she had +sung in the hotel several times,--a plantation Christmas carol she +called it, the sort of thing you cannot forget once you have heard it, +either the words or the music. + + 'Oh, dat star's still shinin' dis Chrismus Day, + Rise, O sinner, and foller! + Wid an eye o' faith you c'n see its ray, + Rise, O sinner, and foller! + Leave yo' fader, + Leave yo' mudder, + Leave yo' sister, + Leave yo' brudder, + An' rise, O sinner, and foller!' + +And there was a bit about a shepherd too:-- + + 'Leave yo' sheep, an' + Leave yo' lamb, an' + Leave yo' ewe, an' + Leave yo' ram, an' + Rise up, shepherd, and foller!' + +I asked her to sing it over again. I had forgotten all about the time +and the drive home and the beastly weather. Luckily I happened to +look at my watch. It was nearly six o'clock! + +'We've got to look sharp,' I said, 'if we want any dinner at the +hotel.' + +Look sharp, indeed! The woman at the inn must have been mad or drunk +when she told us that the low road home was only two miles longer than +the way we came. We may have missed the right turning, for Miss +Virginia was talking and laughing at such a rate when we began the +drive, that I confess I hadn't much attention to spare. We gradually +emerged from the valley where the village lay, and were soon on the +open moor and fairly lost on it before you could say Jack Robinson. + +I never saw such a dismal, howling, God-forsaken country, without a +house or a hut or so much as a heap of stones to mark the way,--a +wilderness of stubby heath and endless, endless roads, crossing and +recrossing in a way that is simply maddening and perfectly senseless, +for they lead to nowhere. We were three mortal hours crawling along on +those confounded roads. It rained, of course, and a wind got up, and +at the end of that time we were apparently no nearer Grey Tor than +when we left Widdington. + +Miss Virginia kept up very pluckily for a long time, but she was dead +tired and very cold and became more and more silent. It was about the +most uncomfortable predicament I ever was in,--and with a girl on my +hands, too, a thing I have hitherto always managed to avoid. + +And then a thing happened that really I can't account for, and yet I +suppose it has changed the whole affair, as far as I am concerned. I +feel a perfect beast whenever I think of it, and I hope to goodness +Miss Virginia knows nothing about it. We had come to an interminable +hill, and I had been walking for about half an hour. Miss Virginia was +totally silent now, and suddenly I saw that the reins had slipped from +her hands. She was actually asleep, huddled up in my coat against the +back of the chaise. It was beginning to rain again, and the incline +being very gentle at that point, I felt I had to get in and hold an +umbrella over the girl. I did, and a sudden jerk of the wheels sent +her almost into my arms without waking her. Her head was on my +shoulder, her cheek so close to mine. Of course I have heard fellows +talk about kissing: I have always thought it a disgusting habit +myself, and discouraged it, even in near relations. But now--now it +seemed suddenly different--she seemed meant to be kissed--and by +me--and well, I kissed her--that's the naked truth, and the moment I +had done it I would have given worlds not to have done it, or else to +have the right to do it again. A man is a man firstly, I suppose; but +secondly, at least, he ought to be a gentleman. That's the thought +that has been spinning in my head all night. Does Virginia suspect? I +hope not--and yet I don't know. + +We got home, of course, all right in the end, for the hotel turned up +quite unexpectedly round a corner, with all the lights shining out +across the moor. + +_N.B._--There has been the devil to pay with the motor and the old +women. + + +CECILIA EVESHAM + +I have always had an idea that events need a propelling hand every now +and then. Somehow it seemed to me that afternoon at Widdington that +Virginia and Sir Archibald were in need of my assistance, and I took a +desperate resolution and helped them to the best of my power. This is +what I did: I undertook to look after Mrs. MacGill and Mrs. Pomeroy in +the motor if Sir Archibald drove Virginia home in the pony chaise; but +not content with this, I deliberately sent them round by a road some +five miles longer than the one we had come by. I happened to be +speaking with the landlady about the roads, and she told me that there +was another way back to Grey Tor, only that it was longer. The idea +struck me, as the saying goes, 'all of a heap.' + +'Sir Archibald,' I said, returning to the parlour, where they all sat, +'if you had seen the business I had to get Greytoria _down_ that +hill, you would hesitate more about getting her up it. But the +landlady here tells us that if you go round by the lower road you +avoid the hill, and it is only a little longer.' + +'I don't believe in country people's distances,' he said, 'but I'll +inquire.' + +I turned back, as if by accident, into the bar, and leaned across the +counter towards the landlady. She was a genial-looking old woman with +a rollicking eye. + +'The young people wish to go round by the low road,' I said, 'but I'm +afraid there may be some difficulties made about it.' I hesitated and +smiled at her, adding, 'It's not _much_ farther, is it?' + +'Happen four mile or so, ma'am,' she said, looking hard at me. + +'Four? As much as that?' I asked. + +'Happen three mile, maybe,' she corrected; 'no, two and a half.' + +Here Sir Archibald came out to inquire about the distance. He looked +up at the grey skies first, and seemed uncertain. + +'How much farther do you call it by the low road to Grey Tor?' he +asked. + +'Close on two mile, sir,' she mumbled shamelessly, and Sir Archibald +hesitated no longer. + +'Two miles of level are better than half a mile of precipice. I vote +for the longer road, Miss Pomeroy,' he said, on going back into the +parlour. + +Virginia nodded and smiled. She was sitting at the old, tinny-sounding +spinet, singing the most beautiful little wandering airs that might +have been learned in fairyland. + +Suddenly she drifted into a plaintive melody we had not heard before, +and when we had succumbed to its spell she began singing some words I +had found in my dear mother's diary. I had given the verses to +Virginia, and she had set them to an air of her own. It is a part of +her charm that she sings sad songs as if she had never felt joy, and +gay ones as if she had never known care or sorrow. + + ''Tis I am a lady, now that I'm old; + I'm sheltered from hunger and want and cold, + In a wonderful country that's rich in gold, + (And life to the last is sweet). + Now in the doorway I sit at my ease, + And my son's son he plays at my knees + On little stumbling feet. + But my heart goes back to the days of old, + To a barren country where gorse is gold, + For oh! it was there that my love was told, + 'Twas there we used to meet! + + 'They may think I've forgotten the land forlorn, + In the happy valleys covered with corn; + They may lay me down with my face to the morn, + A stone at my head and feet; + But I know that before the break o' the day + My soul will arise and be far away + (The spirits travel fleet),-- + Away from the valleys covered with corn, + Back again to the land forlorn, + For oh! it was there that my Love was born, + 'Twas there we used to meet!'[1] + + +Sir Archibald, Mr. Willoughby, and I could have listened for an hour, +but I felt that it was time to hurry off the elders of the party, so +made dark allusions to the weather. These were sufficient to rouse +Mrs. MacGill and Mrs. Pomeroy, who were in a semi-comatose condition +induced by copious draughts of tea. + +We all went to the door of the inn, and Mr. Willoughby came and helped +me to my seat in the motor. + +'I am coming across to Grey Tor on Saturday,' he said. 'I have some +sketches to take over that way. Shall you still be at the inn?' + +'Probably,' I answered evasively. + +'I hope so,' said he; 'perhaps we may have another talk such as we +have had this afternoon.' + +'Who knows? Talk is a fugitive pleasure,' I replied. 'Some days it +will be good, and others it can't be captured at any price.' + +'I'll come in the chance of catching some,' he whispered. And at this +moment Mrs. MacGill interrupted us and insisted that I should tie on +her shawl. The homeward drive was begun, but it would be too long a +story to describe its miseries. Imagination must do its work here. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[1] Mary Findlater. + + + + +VII + + +VIRGINIA POMEROY + +I woke this morning neither rested nor refreshed. I was determined not +to stay in bed, for I wanted to show Sir Archibald by my calm and +natural demeanour that I was unconscious of anything embarrassing in +our relations. For that matter I am not sure that there is. I wore my +pink linen, and looked paler instead of gayer, as I intended. +Breakfast was quiet, though mamma had borne the picnic wonderfully and +Miss Evesham was brighter than usual. Sir Archibald was baffling. He +met my eye as seldom as possible, but I am glad to say, though he was +absent-minded, he was not grumpy. Why do I care whether he is grumpy +or not? Why do I like to see him come out sunny and warm and genial, +and relax his severe face into an unexpected laugh? And why do I feel +pleased when he melts under my particular coaxing? I have deliberately +tried to disparage him to myself and compare him with other men, +especially with Breck Calhoun, always to his disadvantage. He is not a +bit handsomer than Breck, though mere beauty after all counts for +almost nothing in a man. He hasn't, on the whole, as good manners as +Breck, and doesn't begin to understand me as well. He is an ordinary, +straight, simple, intelligent but not intellectual Anglo-Saxon. I have +assured myself of this dozens of times, and having treated him as a +kind of snow image, merely for the satisfaction of throwing +disparaging epithets at him, and demolishing his outline, I look at +him next morning only to find that he has put himself together again +and made himself, somehow, into the semblance of the man I love. + +There are plenty of men who can manage their own moods, without a +woman's kind offices, so why should I bother about his? If it were +Breck Calhoun, now, he would be bothering about mine! It is just the +time of year when dear old Breck makes the annual offer of his heart +and hand--more, as he says, as a matter of habit than anything else, +and simply to remind me that there is an excellent husband waiting for +me at home when I cease running after strange hearts. That is his +expression. + +I think some of the marriages between persons of different nationality +must come off because of the fascination and mystery that each has for +the other,--the same sort of fascination, but a still stronger one, +that is exerted by an opposite temperament. In the friendship of a man +of Sir Archibald's type I feel a sense of being steadied and +strengthened, simplified and balanced. And there ought to be something +in the vivacity of the American girl--the result of climate and +circumstances and condition, I suppose--which should enliven and +stimulate these grave 'children of the mist.' The feeling I have +lately had for Archibald Mackenzie (he would frown if he could hear me +leave out the Maxwell and the Kindarroch) is just the basis I need for +love, but my liking would never go so far as that, unless it were +compelled by a still stronger feeling on the man's part. I am not +going to do any of the wooing, that is certain. If a man chose to give +me his very best I would try to deserve it and keep it and cherish it, +but I have no desire to fan his inward fires beforehand. After he is +once kindled, if he hasn't heat enough to burn of his own free will, +then let him go out! Sir Archibald is afraid of himself and afraid of +love. Well, he need not worry about me! I might like to see the +delightfully incongruous spectacle of a man of his type honestly and +heartily in love, and (in passing) it would be of inestimable benefit +to his character; but I want no panic-stricken lovers in my company. +Haven't I enough fears of my own, about wet climates and cold houses +and monarchical governments and tin bath-tubs and porridge and my +mother's preference for American husbands? But I should despise myself +if I didn't feel capable of throwing all these, and more, overboard if +the right time ever comes. + + * * * * * + +I haven't been downstairs either to luncheon or tea, but I looked from +mamma's window and chanced to see Johnson putting Sir Archibald's +portmanteau into the motor. I thought this morning that he intended to +run away. And that is the stuff they make soldiers of in Scotland! +Afraid of love! Fie! Sir Archibald! + +I cannot succeed in feeling like the 'maiden all forlorn.' It +impresses me somehow that he has gone away to think it over. Well, +that is reasonable; I don't suppose to a man of Sir Archibald's +temperament two weeks seems an extreme length of time in which to +choose a wife; and as I need considerable reflection on my part I'll +go away too, presently, and take mamma to Torquay, as was our original +intention. Torquay is relaxing, and I think I have been a trifle too +much stimulated by this bracing moorland air. I hope for his own +comfort that Sir Archibald will do his thinking in a warmer clime; and +when (or if) he returns to acquaint Virginia with the result of his +meditations, he will learn that she also is thinking--but in a place +unknown! + + +MRS. MACGILL + +It is just as I feared. The trouble is in my right knee, so stiff that +I can scarcely bend it, and exceedingly painful. Cecilia calls it 'a +touch of rheumatism.' + +'Indeed,' I said, 'it's a pretty secure grasp, not a touch; were I +what is called a _danseuse_, my livelihood would be gone, but +mercifully I don't need to dance.' + +Cecilia laughed; she thinks nothing of any illness but neuralgia. + +'We must leave this place very soon,' said I, 'and return to Tunbridge +Wells; life here is fit only for cannibals.' + +In the morning it was impossible for me to come down to breakfast, but +with great difficulty I dragged myself downstairs about eleven. I felt +it my duty to the son of an old friend to seek an opportunity for +quietly speaking my mind to Sir Archibald about Miss Pomeroy, so +decided to do it at once. I found them together, as usual, in the +coffee-room. The girl was looking pale; she is beginning to be afraid +that her arts are in vain. + +Sir Archibald was standing beside her, looking very much bored. She +made some excuse, and left the room soon after I had come in. + +'I hope you are not the worse of your adventure in the motor, Mrs. +MacGill,' Sir Archibald began. + +'Thank you,' said I, sitting down close to him. 'I am, a good deal. My +right knee is excessively painful, and I have a very strange buzzing +in the head.' + +'Ah, you are not accustomed to the motor; it's all habit.' + +'I am _not_ accustomed to a motor, Sir Archibald,' said I, 'nor am I +accustomed to the ways of young women nowadays,--_young ladies_ we +used to be called when I was a girl, but I feel that the phrase is +quite inapplicable to a person like Miss Pomeroy.' + +'"Young woman" is better, perhaps,' he said, I thought with a smile. + +'No lady,' I continued, 'when _I_ was young, would talk like that or +act like that.' 'A sweet face shrinking under a cottage bonnet' (as +Mr. MacGill used to say) 'is better than any tulip.' + +Sir Archibald smiled again, and seemed about to leave the room, but I +asked him to be so good as to hold a skein of wool for me. I had +brought down my knitting, so he sat down to hold it, looking rather +annoyed. + +I continued firmly, 'There is a freedom--I should almost say a +licence--about American women and their ways--' + +'You have dropped your ball,' he said; and when he had returned it to +me, he began to try to change the subject by remarking about the +weather. + +'It is,' I said, 'extremely cold, as it has always been ever since I +came here, but, as I was saying, there is something about Miss +Pomeroy's singing--' + +Here he bent his head so low that I was unable to see his face, and +stretched my wool so tight that I fear my next socks will be spoiled; +it was three-ply merino, and very soft. + +'She sings,' I went on without taking any notice of the wool, 'in a +way that I feel sure poor Mr. MacGill would have considered +indecorous. I was a musician myself as a girl, and used to sing with +much expression. "She Wore a Wreath of Roses" was a great favourite. I +always expected to be asked to repeat it. I remember on one occasion +when I came to-- + + "A sombre widow's cap adorns + Her once luxuriant hair," + +a gentleman who stood by the piano--he was a widower--was obliged to +turn away. But that was quite a different matter from the kind of +expression that Miss Pomeroy puts into things. It's not proper. I +must speak plainly to you, and say it is almost passionate, though I +dislike to use the word. + + "When I am dead, my dearest--" + +Are these words for the drawing-room? You are pulling my skein rather +tight, Sir Archibald. It stretches so easily, and these light wools +require such care. + + "And dreaming through the twilight + Haply I may remember, and haply may forget." + +Remember _what_? forget _what_? The inquiry rises unbidden. Just ask +yourself if these are words for the lips of any young woman--far less +a young _lady_.' + +Here Sir Archibald coughed so violently that he had to let go my wool +(which got all tangled) and stand up. + +'Excuse me,' he interrupted, 'but I have promised to speak with +Johnson about something--' + +'I won't detain you more than a minute,' I interrupted, 'only just to +say a word of warning to the son of an old friend. Foreigners who +speak our own language are the worst of all. O Sir Archibald, your +grandmother was Scotch, your mother was Scotch before you were born, +and all your good aunts too. I must warn you that if you let this +American girl, this Miss Pomeroy, succeed in her attempt--' + +'Mrs. MacGill,' he exclaimed, 'I cannot allow you to use Miss +Pomeroy's name to me in this way.' + +'Very well,' said I, 'but if you do not take my advice and beware, +Miss Pomeroy will have no name to mention, for she will be Lady +Maxwell Mackenzie, and you will be a miserable man with an American +wife.' + +He muttered something, I couldn't say what; the word 'Jove' was +mentioned, and there was some allusion to 'an old cat.' I failed to +see the connection, for no one could call Miss Pomeroy 'old,' whatever +she is; then without a word of apology he left the room. Young men, +even baronets, have no manners nowadays. Mr. MacGill's were courtly; +he never used one word where two would do, and bowed frequently to +every lady, often apologising most profusely when there was no +occasion for it. + + +SIR ARCHIBALD MAXWELL MACKENZIE + + CARLETON HOTEL, LONDON + +I came down late, the morning after that drive, having spent a bad +night. In spite of the fact that Johnson had been out with the motor +and the old ladies till nearly midnight, I never thought of going down +to look at the car. It had lost interest in a way I didn't like. To +tell the truth, I was thinking of nothing at all except of that girl. +I had made up my mind that this was not to be endured. Since I kissed +her--it is awful to confess it--I have wished for nothing so much as +to kiss her again, and before I become the sort of blithering idiot +that a man is when in love, I must and shall be off. It is not the +girl I funk; she is a nice girl; I never wish to see a nicer, and I +know I never shall. It is the feeling I am beginning to have about +her. When she is not there I feel as if something necessary to my +existence were wanting,--as if I had come off without a +pocket-handkerchief or gone out in a top-hat and frock-coat without an +umbrella on a showery day in town. When a man gets to feel this about +another human being it is time he was off. I have sent orders to +Johnson to be ready to start at any moment. + +I wish I had not seen Miss Virginia, though, before going. She looked +so pale and done up. Mrs. MacGill came into the room before I had time +to speak to her, even to tell her I was going away, though I somehow +think she guessed it. As to that old frump, that harpy in black velvet +and beads, Mrs. MacGill, I will not write down the things she elected +to say to me about Virginia, when she had got me tied to her +apron-string with her confounded skein of wool. I wish I had chucked +it in her face and told her to go to the devil. If I'd had the spirit +of half a man, I would have done it, and gone straight to Virginia. +Virginia! This gave me a feeling about her that I can't +describe,--much, much worse than the handkerchief-and-umbrella +feeling,--a feeling that seemed to tweak and pull at something inside +me that I had never been conscious of before. But I had an obstinate +fit on, that I'm subject to, like other men, I suppose. I had said I +would go, and I have gone, leaving a card of good-bye for the +Pomeroys, and making straight for town. + + * * * * * + +It is no use; for after a few days of struggle and doubt and misery, I +have got to go back to that girl--if I can find her. What a wretched +time I have had! If this is being in love I hope it won't last. I'm +told it doesn't usually, after marriage. Perhaps it settles down into +something more comfortable, that does not interfere with a man's meals +or destroy his sleep. It is awful to think that your whole life may or +may not be changed, according to the fancy of a girl whose existence +you weren't aware of a fortnight ago! I have told Johnson we are going +straight back to Dartmoor, and he grinned--the wretch! Of course he +knows why. + + +CECILIA EVESHAM + + GREY TOR INN + _Thursday morning_ + +Ended the Dartmoor drama! Gone Sir Archibald! Vanished the motor! Gone +too, dear Virginia and Mrs. Pomeroy! only Mrs. MacGill and I are left! +He went on Wednesday, the Pomeroys on Thursday, and I now await +events. Virginia tells me she has taken her mother to Torquay, but +that is a wide word! + + _Saturday_ + +I thought it would be so: a week without her was enough. Yesterday Sir +Archibald, or what used to be Sir Archibald, appeared at the inn +again. + +But what a change was here! Shall I put down our conversation without +comment? + +_Cecilia._ So you have come back, Sir Archibald? + +_Sir A._ Yes. + +_Cecilia._ I hope you had a pleasant run to town, or wherever you +went. + +_Sir A._ Beastly. + +_Cecilia._ What? Did the motor break down, or the weather? + +_Sir A._ Neither. + +_Cecilia._ What was wrong, then? + +_Sir A._ Everything. (Then suddenly) Where have the Pomeroys gone to, +Miss Evesham? + +_Cecilia._ To Torquay, I understand. + +_Sir A._ Do you know their address? + +_Cecilia._ I do not. I suppose they will be at one of the hotels. + +_Sir A._ You are making fun of me. Tell me where they are. I am in +earnest. + +_Cecilia._ So am I. I do not know their address. + +He started up, wrung my hand without a word, and hurried out of the +room. I looked after him in the hall, but he was so intent on the +Torquay Guide that he never noticed me. + +He steamed off Torquay-wards half an hour later. + +I have had a pleasant chat with Mr. Willoughby, who appeared this +afternoon. He looks at life and all things much as I do. He is a +distinct relief from Mrs. MacGill, a distinct relief; and though he +has made no special reputation as yet, he is bound to succeed, for he +has decided talent. + + + + +VIII + + +MRS. MACGILL + +My words have taken effect; it is often disagreeable to have to give +unasked advice, but one should always do it. Sir Archibald has gone. +It is a pleasant thought that any simple words of mine may have been +the means of saving the young man from that designing person. + +She conceals her disappointment as well as she can, and is doing her +best to look as if nothing had happened in one way or another; but I +can see below the surface of that new hat. She has taken her mother +off to Torquay for a few days. It is a large town seemingly, though I +have heard that there are no men there; but as the guide-book says the +population is twenty-five thousand, that is probably an exaggeration. +However, Miss Pomeroy won't stay long in Torquay in that case, but +will return to New York, where she would fain make us believe they are +as plentiful as in a harem. They cannot all be millionaires at least, +for she says that many American writers live on what they make by +their books. + +Cecilia would like to stay on here, I think. She has been up to the +top of a quarry looking at gorse along with that so-called artist, Mr. +Willoughby. + +Miss Pomeroy has infected her, I am afraid, and the bad example is +telling, even at that age. + + * * * * * + +We have had several nice quiet days here alone since the Pomeroys +left. There has scarcely been a sound in the hotel, except when the +wind pounces upon the window-frames in the sudden, annoying way that +it has here. Twice I have got up, to endeavour to fasten the window, +and each time have lost a toothbrush. It shakes my nerves completely +when the windows clatter suddenly through the night. Yesterday as we +sat in the dining-room I heard a crunching noise. + +'Can that be another motor?' I exclaimed. 'I hope not. It is a class +of people I do not wish to associate with any further.' + +'It is a motor,' called Cecilia, who sat next the window. 'A scarlet +motor, too.' + +In another moment the door opened, and Sir Archibald Maxwell Mackenzie +came in. + +'Dear me, Sir Archibald,' said I, 'what has brought you back again so +soon? You will have a nice quiet time here now, for we are the only +people in the hotel.' + +He seemed strangely put out and unlike himself, and passed my chair +without even replying to my speech. I could see that he was thoroughly +unnerved, very much in the same state that I was when we came back +from that terrible drive. It is no wonder; motoring must tell on the +strongest nerves in time. + +Later in the day Cecilia came in smiling. 'Sir Archibald has gone away +again,' she said. 'He has not made a long stay this time!' + +'No,' I observed, 'that sort of nervous excitement grows on people. I +know myself that if I once begin to get excited over a bazaar, for +instance, I get off my sleep, and worn out in no time. I suppose he +has rushed off farther into the moor.' + +'He has gone to Torquay,' remarked Cecilia, 'quite an easy run from +here.' + +I was much annoyed. It seemed probable that he would meet Miss Pomeroy +again there, though possible that among twenty-five thousand women he +might fail to recognise her. I think Cecilia and I must take a day or +two at Torquay on our way home. It would soothe me after this mountain +air and the desolation of Grey Tor, and I could get some fresh bead +trimming for my velvet mantle, which has been much destroyed by all +that I have come through in this place. Our packing will be very +easily done. Poor Mr. MacGill used always to say, in his playful +manner, that he could stand anything except a woman's luggage, which +is the reason that I always try to travel with as little as possible. +So there will be only our two large boxes and the holdall and my black +bag and the split cane basket and the Holland umbrella-case, with two +straps of rugs and the small brown box, and the two hat-boxes, and a +basket with some food. Miss Pomeroy's boxes were like arks. I'm sure +if she succeeds in her design, I pity the man that has to take them +back to Scotland; they would never go in the motor. I think Greytoria +and the pony chaise will manage all our little things quite nicely. +She seems the quietest animal in the stables, so I must just trust +myself in it once more. + +There goes Cecilia again, walking on the gravel at the door with that +Mr. Willoughby. We must certainly leave to-morrow morning. + +One affair such as that of Miss Pomeroy and Sir Archibald is enough +for me to endure without being witness of another. + +One would suppose common modesty would prevent a young gentleman and +lady from indulging in a love-affair whilst inhabiting an ordinary +country inn; but there is no limit to the boldness of these Americans. +I sometimes think it is a pity that they were discovered, for they +have been a bad example to more retiring and respectable nations. + + +SIR ARCHIBALD MAXWELL MACKENZIE + + TORQUAY + +That dreary week of uncertainty in London seemed more foolish than +ever, when Johnson and I struck the familiar road from Stoke Babbage +to the moor. What a silly ass I was, I thought, to kick my heels at +the Carleton all those tiresome days when I might have been with +Virginia! + +It all looked exactly the same as we came up the hill from the little +town,--the bare walls of the hotel, Grey Tor with a row of tourists on +the top, moor ponies feeding all over the place, with their tiny foals +running after them. It was a lovely, cloudless day, with 'blue +distances' enough to please all the artists in creation, and the hot +air quivered over the heath as I've seen it do at home on an August +afternoon. I seemed to hear Virginia's voice already, to see her +standing on the step in one of her pretty new frocks, and my spirits +went up with a bound. But when I got to the door there was no one +there. I went into the dining-room; the tables were changed; the one +at which we all used to sit together in the window was pushed into the +middle of the room. At a small table on the side were seated Mrs. +MacGill and Miss Evesham, while the Exeter artist was at another one +not far off. Miss Evesham and he seemed to be having a pretty lively +conversation, while Mrs. MacGill looked thoroughly out of it and +decidedly sulky. + +'What!' cried Miss Evesham, seeing me, 'you are back, Sir Archibald! +Had London no attractions?' + +'I hate town in the heat,' I replied. + +Of course I wanted to ask where the Pomeroys were, but couldn't bring +myself to do it,--especially before Mrs. MacGill. I had pointedly +ignored her, and had every intention of continuing to do so. After +lunch, at the bureau, I found that the Pomeroys had left some days +ago. I couldn't bring myself to ask for their address, with about a +dozen people listening, so I had to hang about and wait for a chance +of seeing Miss Evesham alone. It was after dinner before I got it. I +could see that she was laughing at me, under the rose--confound her +impudence!--and that she seemed to take a kind of pleasure in keeping +me waiting. She and the artist chap appeared to be as thick as +thieves, but at last she sent him off and began teasing me in her +quiet way. + +'Are you a good sailor, Sir Archibald?' she asked irrelevantly. + +'Not particularly. Why?' was my reply. + +'The Atlantic is a wide ocean, and generally very rough, I have +heard,' said she, with a queer look at my face. + +'Oh!' cried I involuntarily. 'Have they crossed?' + +She burst out laughing. + +'You're fairly caught!' she said. 'Am I supposed to know who "they" +are?' + +Then of course I had to let on. I could see Miss Evesham knew all +about it, though she did not say much, being more inclined to laugh; +I'm sure I don't know why. The Pomeroys had gone to Torquay, but she +either could not or would not tell me their address, or how long they +were going to stay, or where they were going next. + +'Torquay is a big place,' I said, discouraged, 'all hotels and +lodgings. How the deuce shall I find them?' + +'Oh,' she replied coolly, 'people generally find what they want very +much--if they are really in earnest.' + +With that she nodded me good night, still laughing. I did not see her +again, for of course I made an early morning start for Torquay next +day. + +And the devil of a hunt I had, when I got there! What silly idiots +women are! (Of course I mean Miss Evesham.) There are about one +hundred hotels, three hundred boarding-houses, and one thousand +furnished apartments in Torquay, and search as I might, I could not +find the Pomeroys' name on any of their lists, or discover a trace of +them anywhere. It was a broiling hot day, the sun beat down without +mercy, and the glare beat up from the beastly white roads and +pavements till I was nearly blind. I was never so nearly used up in my +life as at the end of that day, and it was not only with bodily +fatigue, but with utter and most cruel disappointment; for I was +convinced that the Pomeroys had left Torquay, and that, like an utter +fool, I had missed my only chance of being happy with a woman. + +At last between six and seven of the evening, I found myself sitting +on the edge of a little sort of wood, below a garden overhanging the +sea. The trees were cut away, here and there, to show the view, and to +the right you looked along the coast and saw some red rocks and a +green headland jutting out into the water. It was sunset; I was +watching a little yawl in fall sail slipping round the headland, and +when it was out of sight, I looked at the headland itself. There was +one figure on the piece of green downs at the top,--a tall, slight +figure, a woman's, all in white, with a red parasol. + +My heart jumped into my throat. I knew it was Virginia. There was a +piece of white scarf or veil floating out behind her as she walked, +and there is no woman in the world but Virginia who stands like that +or wears a scarf like that!--O Virginia, so dear and so distant, how, +how could I reach her, not having the wings of a bird? Long before I +could get there she would be gone,--lost again in that howling +wilderness of hotels and lodging-houses. + +A man came along the path where I was standing. + +'How do you get to that place?' I inquired, pointing to the headland, +'and what is it called?' + +'It's called Daddy Hole Plain,' said the man, 'and you get there by +the road. I can't direct you from here; you must inquire as you go +along.' + +'Is there no short cut?' I inquired impatiently. + +'Not unless you can swim or fly!' said the man, with a grin. + +I never wished before to be a bird or a fish; mere feet seemed a most +inadequate means of getting me to Virginia. But I set off, very nearly +at a run. The wrong turns that I took, the hills that I went up, the +hills that I went down, the people that I asked, the wrong directions +they gave me,--they seemed quite innumerable. Daddy Hole Plain was +about as difficult to get to as heaven, and when I got there the angel +would be flown! + +But she wasn't.... For when at last I saw before me the bit of green +downs with the seats facing the bay, the white figure was there. +Virginia was sitting looking out to sea where the sun was setting, +making a red path on the water, and the white-sailed yawl was drifting +to the west!... I was so hot and tired, so travel-stained and dusty! +Virginia looked so cool and sweet!... To see her there after all my +wandering and disappointment was too much.... I could not speak. She +heard my step, looked up and saw me coming--looked glad, I think.... +Her little feet were crossed in front of her upon the turf, and I just +flung myself beside them, and something--so like a lump of ice, that I +had always carried in my breast until I saw Virginia--melted entirely +at that moment, and began to beat. + + +VIRGINIA POMEROY + + TORQUAY, SOUTH DEVON + BELLA VISTA HOTEL + _June 19--_ + +If he had come the next day, or even the same week, he would have had +a cold welcome, for on the whole I did not understand, nor did I +fancy, his methods. + +But I had had time to think, time to talk it over with mamma, time to +write Breck Calhoun that there was no use in our discussing the old +subject, for I feared, though I was not absolutely sure, that there +was 'some one else.' Always dear old Breck has finished by saying, +'Jinny, there is no one else?' And there never was till now. + +Now there is not only some one else, but there is also in very truth +'no one else' who counts! All is absolutely different from, and yet +precisely like, everything that I have imagined ever since the +foundation of the earth. In love, he is, what all good men and good +women ought to be, something quite unlike his former self, or the +outer self he shows to the world. He has lost himself and found +himself again in me, and I have gone through the same mysterious +operation. He has place for no troublesome uncertainty of mind now, +although mamma and I have decreed a year of waiting, in which we shall +have ample time to change if we choose. But we shall not choose; we +were made for each other, as we have both known ever since the day we +had luncheon together at the Mug o' Cider in Little Widger. + +What chapters, what books, we talked sitting in the gorse bushes on +Daddy Hole Plain! In the evening of my days I shall doubtless be glad +that I climbed those heights, remembering that Archibald had to exert +himself somewhat arduously in order to ask me to marry him. I wanted +to be alone and feast my eyes on the dazzling blue of the sea, one +broad expanse of sapphire, stretching off, off, into eternity; a blue +all be-diamonded with sunlit sparkles; a blue touched with foam-flecks +wherever it broke on the rocks or the islets. Granted that any view +has charms when one is young and in love, the view from Daddy Hole +Plain would inspire an octogenarian, or even a misogynist. + +'It was in Exeter we really met, you remember,' I reminded Archibald. + +'I am not likely to forget it.' + +'Do you chance to know the motto that your virgin queen, Elizabeth, +bestowed upon Exeter? It was _Semper fidelis_.' + +'That's a good omen, isn't it,' he said. 'You always do find out the +cleverest things, Virginia! How am I ever to keep up with you?' + +'Don't try!' I answered, quite too happy to be anything but +vainglorious. 'Gaze at me on my superior intellectual height, and when +I meet your admiring eyes you can trust me to remember that though you +are voluntarily standing on a step below, your head is higher than +mine after all! Archibald, do you know what I am to give you for a +wedding present?' + +'No,' he answered gravely; 'is it your mother?' + +'No, I am going to lend mamma to Miss Evesham for a little, until her +turn comes,--dear old Cecilia!' + +'Do you think it will ever come?' + +'It's only just round the corner; Cupid is even now sharpening his +arrows and painting little pictures on the shafts.' + +'Oh, I see! Well, is it Greytoria? for I don't mind saying that I'm +quite ready to give her a stall in my stables at Kindarroch; though of +all the ill-conducted and lazy little brutes--' + +'Be careful, Archibald,' I exclaimed warningly; 'you owe some few +hours of martyrdom, but many a debt of gratitude, to that same +Greytoria.' + +'I remember only one,' he said, looking at me in a very embarrassing +way, 'and by George, she cut that one short! But I give it up--the +wedding present; I can't guess, and I don't care specially, so long as +you come along with it.' + +'I shall come with it, and in it, if the faithful Johnson will steer +me,--it's going to be a new motor!' + +'Well, you owe it to me, Virginia,' he cried with enthusiasm, 'for +mine isn't worth a brass farthing at this moment. I knew before I had +been at Grey Tor twenty-four hours that it was going to be knocked +into smithereens, but I hadn't the pluck to take it or myself out of +harm's way. Now we are both done for!' + +'Which do you prefer?' I asked,'your old motor or me?' + +'You, with a new one,' he answered unblushingly. 'We'll take our +wedding journey in it, shall we? Early this autumn would be a good +time.' + +'And mamma and Cecilia and Mrs. MacGill can follow behind with +Greytoria.' + +'I don't mind their trying to follow,' Archibald responded genially, +as he lighted his pipe, 'so long as they never catch up; and they +never will--not with that little brute!' + + + Printed by T. and A. CONSTABLE, Printers to His Majesty + at the Edinburgh University Press + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Affair at the Inn, by +Kate Douglas Wiggin and Mary Findlater and Jane Findlater and Allan McAulay + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 40879 *** |