Kitabı oku: «The Bramleighs of Bishop's Folly», sayfa 2

CHAPTER III. “THE EVENING AFTER A HARD RUN.”

It was between eight and nine o’clock of a wintry evening near Christmas; a cold drizzle of rain was falling, which on the mountains might have been snow, as Mr. Drayton, the butler at the great house, as Castello was called in the village, stood austerely with his back to the fire in the dining-room, and, as he surveyed the table, wondered within himself what could possibly have detained the young gentlemen so late. The hounds had met that day about eight miles off, and Colonel Bramleigh had actually put off dinner half an hour for them, but to no avail; and now Mr. Drayton, whose whole personal arrangements for the evening had been so thoughtlessly interfered with, stood there musing over the wayward nature of youth, and inwardly longing for the time when, retiring from active service, he should enjoy the ease and indulgence his long life of fatigue and hardship had earned.

“They’re coming now, Mr. Drayton,” said a livery-servant, entering hastily. “George saw the light of their cigars as they came up the avenue.”

“Bring in the soup, then, at once, and send George here with another log for the fire. There’ll be no dressing for dinner to-day, I ‘ll be bound;” and imparting a sort of sarcastic bitterness to his speech, he filled himself a glass of sherry at the sideboard and tossed it off, – only just in time, for the door opened, and a very noisy, merry party of four entered the room, and made for the fire.

“As soon as you like, Drayton,” said Augustus, the eldest Bramleigh, a tall, good-looking, but somewhat stern-featured man of about eight-and-twenty. The second, Temple Bramleigh, was middle-sized, with a handsome but somewhat over-delicate-looking face, to which a simpering affectation of imperturbable self-conceit gave a sort of puppyism; while the youngest, Jack, was a bronzed, bright-eyed, fine-looking fellow, manly, energetic, and determined, but with a sweetness when he smiled and showed his good teeth that implied a soft and very impressionable nature. They were all in scarlet coats, and presented a group strikingly good-looking and manly. The fourth of the party was, however, so eminently handsome, and so superior in expression as well as lineament, that the others seemed almost vulgar beside him. He was in black coat and cords, a checked cravat seeming to indicate that he was verging, so far as he might, on the limits of hunting costume; for George L’Estrange was in orders, and the curate of the parish in which Castello stood. It is not necessary to detain the reader by any lengthened narrative of the handsome young parson. Enough to say, that it was not all from choice he had entered the Church, – narrow fortune, and the hope of a small family living, deciding him to adopt a career which, to one who had a passion for field-sports, seemed the very last to gratify his tastes. As a horseman he was confessedly the first in the country round; although his one horse – he was unable to keep a second – condemned him to rare appearance at the meets. The sight of the parson and his black mare, Nora Creina, in the field, were treated with a cheer, for he was a universal favorite, and if a general suffrage could have conferred the episcopate, George would have had his mitre many a day ago.

So sure a seat and so perfect a hand needed never to have wanted a mount. There was not a man with a stable who would not have been well pleased to see his horse ridden by such a rider; but L’Estrange declined all such offers, – a sensitive fear of being called a hunting parson deterred him; indeed, it was easy to see by the rarity with which he permitted himself the loved indulgence, what a struggle he maintained between will and temptation, and how keenly he felt the sacrifice he imposed upon himself.

Such, in brief, was the party who were now seated at table, well pleased to find themselves in presence of an admirable dinner, in a room replete with every comfort.

The day’s run, of course, formed the one topic of their talk, and a great deal of merriment went on about the sailor-like performances of Jack, who had been thrown twice, but on the whole acquitted himself creditably, and had taken one high bank so splendidly as to win a cheer from all who saw him.

“I wish you had not asked that poor Frenchman to follow you, Jack,” said Augustus; “he was really riding very nicely till he came to that unlucky fence.”

“I only cried out, ‘Venez donc, monsieur,’ and when I turned my head, after clearing the bank, I saw his horse with his legs in the air and monsieur underneath.”

“When I picked him up,” broke in L’Estrange, “he said, ‘Merci mille fois, monsieur,’ and then fainted off, the poor fellow’s face actually wearing the smile of courtesy he had got up to thank me.”

“Why will Frenchmen try things that are quite out of their beat?” said Jack.

“That’s a most absurd prejudice of yours, Master Jack,” cried the diplomatist. “Frenchmen ride admirably, now-a-days. I’ve seen a steeple-chase in Normandy, over as stiff a course, and as well ridden, as ever Leicestershire witnessed.”

“Yes, yes; I’ve heard all that,” said the sailor, “just as I ‘ve heard that their iron fleet is as good, if not better, than our own.”

“I think our own newspapers rather hint that,” said L’Estrange.

“They do more,” said Temple; “they prove it. They show a numerical superiority in ships, and they give an account of guns and weight of metal dead against us.”

“I ‘ll not say anything of the French; but this much I will say,” cried the sailor; “the question will have to be settled one of these days, and I ‘m right glad to think that it cannot be done by writers in newspapers.”

“May I come in?” cried a soft voice; and a very pretty head, with long fair ringlets, appeared at the door.

“Yes. Come by all means,” said Jack; “perhaps we shall be able, by your help, to talk of something besides fighting Frenchmen.”

While he spoke, L’Estrange had risen, and approached to shake hands with her.

“Sit down with us, Nelly,” said Augustus, “or George will get no dinner.”

“Give me a chair, Drayton,” said she; and, turning to her brother, added, “I only came in to ask some tidings about an unlucky foreigner; the servants have it he was cruelly hurt, some think hopelessly.”

“There’s the culprit who did the mischief,” said Temple, pointing to Jack; “let him recount his feat.”

“I ‘m not to blame in the least, Nelly. I took a smashing high bank, and the little Frenchman tried to follow me and came to grief.”

“Ay, but you challenged him to come on,” said Temple. “Now, Master Jack, people don’t do that sort of thing in the hunting-field.”

“I said, ‘Come along, monsieur,’ to give him pluck. I never thought for a moment he was to suffer for it.”

“But is he seriously hurt?” asked she.

“I think not,” said L’Estrange; “he seemed to me more stunned than actually injured. Fortunately for him they had not far to take him, for the disaster occurred quite close to Duckett’s Wood, where he is stopping.”

“Is he at Longworth’s?” asked Augustus.

“Yes. Longworth met him up the Nile, and they travelled together for some months, and, when they parted, it was agreed they were to meet here at Christmas; and though Longworth had written to apprise his people they were coming, he has not appeared himself, and the Frenchman is waiting patiently for his host’s arrival.”

“And laming his best horse in the mean while. That dark bay will never do another day with hounds,” said Temple.

“She was shaky before, but she is certainly not the better of this day’s work. I ‘d blister her, and turn her out for a full year,” said Augustus.

“I suppose that’s another of those things in which the French are our superiors,” muttered Jack; “but I suspect I ‘d think twice about it before I ‘d install myself in a man’s house, and ride his horses in his absence.”

“It was the host’s duty to be there to receive him,” said Temple, who was always on the watch to make the sailor feel how little he knew of society and its ways.

“I hope when you’ve finished your wine,” said Ellen, “you’ll not steal off to bed, as you did the other night, without ever appearing in the drawing-room.”

“L’Estrange shall go, at all events,” cried Augustus. “The Church shall represent the laity.”

“I ‘m not in trim to enter a drawing-room, Miss Bramleigh,” said the curate, blushing. “I would n’t dare to present myself in such a costume.”

“I declare,” said Jack, “I think it becomes you better than your Sunday rig; don’t you, Nelly?”

“Papa will be greatly disappointed, Mr. L’Estrange, if he should not see you,” said she, rising to leave the room; “he wants to hear all about your day’s sport, and especially about that poor Frenchman. Do you know his name?”

“Yes, here’s his card; – Anatole de Pracontal.”

“A good name,” said Temple, “but the fellow himself looks a snob.”

“I call that very hard,” said Jack, “to say what any fellow looks like when he is covered with slush and dirt, his hat smashed, and his mouth full of mud.”

“Don’t forget that we expect to see you,” said Ellen, with a nod and a smile to the curate, and left the room.

“And who or what is Mr. Longworth?” said Temple.

“I never met him. All I know is, that he owns that very ugly red-brick house, with the three gables in front, on the hill-side as you go towards Newry,” said Augustus.

“I think I can tell you something about him,” said the parson; “his father was my grandfather’s agent. I believe he began as his steward, when we had property in this county; he must have been a shrewd sort of man, for he raised himself from a very humble origin to become a small estated proprietor and justice of the peace; and when he died, about four years ago, he left Philip Longworth something like a thousand a year in landed property, and some ready money besides.”

“And this Longworth, as you call him, – what is he like?”

“A good sort of fellow, who would be better if he was not possessed by a craving ambition to know fine people, and move in their society. Not being able to attain the place he aspires to in his own county, he has gone abroad, and affects to have a horror of English life and ways, the real grievance being his own personal inability to meet acceptance in a certain set. This is what I hear of him; my own knowledge is very slight. I have ever found him well-mannered and polite, and, except a slight sign of condescension, I should say pleasant.”

“I take it,” said the sailor, “he must be an arrant snob.”

“Not necessarily, Jack,” said Temple. “There is nothing ignoble in a man’s desire to live with the best people, if he do nothing mean to reach that goal.”

“Whom do you call the best people, Temple?” asked the other.

“By the best people, I mean the first in rank and station. I am not speaking of their moral excellence, but of their social superiority, and of that pre-eminence which comes of an indisputable position, high name, fortune, and the world’s regards. These I call the best people to live with.”

“And I do not,” said Jack, rising, and throwing his napkin on the table, “not at least for men like myself. I want to associate with my equals. I want to mix with men who cannot overbear me by any accident of their wealth or title.”

“Jack should never have gone into the navy, that ‘s clear,” said Augustus, laughing; “but let us draw round the fire and have a cigar.”

“You’ll have to pay your visit to the drawing-room, L’Estrange,” said Jack, “before we begin to smoke, for the governor hates tobacco, and detects it in an instant.”

“I declare,” said the parson, as he looked at his splashed cords and dirty boots, “I have no courage to present myself in such a trim as this.”

“Report yourself and come back at once,” cried Jack.

“I ‘d say, don’t go in at all,” said Temple.

“That’s what I should do, certainly,” said Augustus.

“Sit down here. What are you drinking? This is Pomare, and better than claret of a cold evening.”

And the curate yielded to the soft persuasion, and, seated around the fire, the young men talked horses, dogs, and field sports, till the butler came to say that tea was served in the drawing-room, when, rising, they declared themselves too tired to stay up longer, and wishing each other good night they sauntered up to their rooms to bed.

CHAPTER IV. ON THE CROQUET LAWN

The day after a hard run, like the day after a battle, is often spent in endeavors to repair the disasters of the struggle. So was it here. The young men passed the morning in the stables, or going back and forward with bandages and liniments. There was a tendon to be cared for, a sore back to be attended to. Benbo, too, would n’t feed; the groom said he had got a surfeit; which malady, in stable parlance, applies to excess of work, as well as excess of diet.

Augustus Bramleigh was, as becomes an eldest son, grandly imperious and dictatorial, and looked at his poor discomfited beast, as he stood with hanging head and heaving flanks, as though to say it was a disgraceful thing for an animal that had the honor to carry him to look so craven and disheartened. Temple, with the instincts of his craft and calling, cared little for the past, and took but small interest in the horse that was not likely to be soon of use to him; while Jack, with all a sailor’s energy, worked away manfully, and assisted the grooms in every way he could. It was at the end of a very active morning, that Jack was returning to the house, when he saw L’Estrange’s pony-chaise at the door, with black Nora in the shafts, as fresh and hearty to all seeming as though she had not carried her heavy owner through one of the stiffest runs of the season only the day before.

“Is your master here, Bill?” asked Jack of the small urchin, who barely reached the bar of the bit.

“No, sir; it’s Miss Julia has druv over. Master ‘s fishing this morning.”

Now Julia L’Estrange was a very pretty girl, and with a captivation of manner which to the young sailor was irresistible. She had been brought up in France, and imbibed that peculiar quiet coquetry which, in its quaint demureness, suggests just enough doubt of its sincerity to be provocative. She was dark enough to be a Spaniard from the south of Spain, and her long black eyelashes were darker even than her eyes. In her walk and her gesture there was that also which reminded one of Spain: the same blended litheness and dignity; and there was a firmness in her tread which took nothing from its elasticity.

When Jack heard that she was in the house, instead of hurrying in to meet her he sat moodily down on the steps of the door and lighted his cigar. “What’s the use?” muttered he, and the same depressing sentence recurred to him again and again. They are very dark moments in life in which we have to confess to ourselves that, fight how we may, fate must beat us; that the very utmost we can do is to maintain a fierce struggle with destiny, but that in the end we must succumb. The more frequently poor Jack saw her, the more hopelessly he felt his lot. What was he – what could he ever be – to aspire to such a girl as Julia? Was not the very presumption a thing to laugh at? He thought of how his elder brother would entertain such a notion; the cold solemnity with which he would ridicule his pretensions; and then Temple would treat him to some profound reflections on the misery of poor marriages; while Marion would chime in with some cutting reproaches on the selfishness with which, to gratify a caprice, – she would call it a caprice, – he ignored the just pretensions of his family, and the imperative necessity that pressed them to secure their position in the world by great alliances. This was Marion’s code: it took three generations to make a family; the first must be wealthy; the second, by the united force of money and ability, secure a certain station of power and social influence; the third must fortify these by marriages, – marriages of distinction, after which mere time would do the rest.

She had hoped much from her father’s second marriage, and was grievously disappointed on finding how her step-mother’s family affected displeasure at the match as a reason for a coldness towards them; while Lady Augusta herself as openly showed that she had stooped to the union merely to secure herself against the accidents of life and raise her above the misery of living on a very small income.

Jack was thinking moodily over all these things as he sat there, and with such depression of spirit that he half resolved, instead of staying out his full leave, to return to his ship at Portsmouth, and so forget shore life and all its fascinations. He heard the sound of a piano, and shortly after the rich, delicious tones of Julia’s voice. It was that mellow quality of sound that musicians call mezzo soprano, whose gift it is to steal softly over the senses and steep them in a sweet rapture of peaceful delight. As the strains floated out, he felt as though the measure of incantation was running over for him, and he arose with a bound, and hurried off into the wood. “I ‘ll start to-morrow. I ‘ll not let this folly master me,” muttered he. “A fellow who can’t stand up against his own fancies is not worth his salt. I ‘ll go on board again and think of my duty,” and he tried to assure himself that of all living men a sailor had least excuse for such weaknesses as these.

He had not much sympathy with the family ambitions. He thought that as they had wealth enough to live well and handsomely, a good station in the world, and not any one detracting element from their good luck, either as regarded character or health, it was downright ingratitude to go in search of disappointments and defeats. It was, to his thinking, like a ship with plenty of sea-room rushing madly on to her ruin amongst the breakers. “I think Nelly is of my own mind,” said he, “but who can say how long she will continue to be so? these stupid notions of being great folk will get hold of her at last. The high-minded Marion and that great genius Temple are certain to prevail in the end, and I shall always be a splendid example to point at and show the melancholy consequences of degenerate tastes and ignoble ambitions.”

The sharp trot of a horse on the gravel road beside him startled him in his musings, and the pony-carriage whisked rapidly by; Augustus driving and Julia at his side. She was laughing. Her merry laugh rang out above the brisk jingle of horse and harness, and to the poor sailor it sounded like the knell of all his hopes. “What a confounded fool I was not to remember I had an elder brother,” said he, bitterly. That he added something inaudible about the perfidious nature of girls is possibly true, but not being in evidence, it is not necessary to record it.

Let us turn from the disconsolate youth to what is certes a prettier picture – the croquet lawn behind the house, where the two sisters, with the accomplished Temple, were engaged at a game.

“I hope, girls,” said he, in one of his very finest drawls, “the future head of house and hopes is not going to make a precious fool of himself.”

“You mean with the curate’s sister,” said Marion, with a saucy toss of her head. “I scarcely think he could be so absurd.”

“I can’t see the absurdity,” broke in Ellen. “I think a duke might make her a duchess, and no great condescension in the act.”

“Quite true, Nelly,” said Temple; “that’s exactly what a duke might do; but Mr. Bramleigh cannot. When you are at the top of the ladder, there’s nothing left for you but to come down again; but the man at the bottom has to try to go up.”

“But why must there be a ladder at all, Temple?” asked she, eagerly.

“Is n’t that speech Nelly all over?” cried Marion, haughtily.

“I hope it is,” said Ellen, “if it serves to convey what I faithfully believe, – that we are great fools in not enjoying a very pleasant lot in life instead of addressing ourselves to ambitions far and away beyond us.”

“And which be they?” asked Temple, crossing his arms over his mallet, and standing like a soldier on guard.

“To be high and titled, or if not titled, to be accepted among that class, and treated as their equals in rank and condition.”

“And why not, Nelly? What is this wonderful ten thousand that we all worship? Whence is it recruited, and how? These double wall-flowers are not of Nature’s making; they all come of culture, of fine mould, careful watering, and good gardening. They were single-petaled once on a time, like ourselves. Mind, it is no radical says this, girls, —moi qui vous parle am no revolutionist, no leveller! I like these grand conditions, because they give existence its best stimulus, its noblest aspirations. The higher one goes in life, – as on a mountain, – the more pure the air and the wider the view.”

“And do you mean to tell me that Augustus would consult his happiness better in marrying some fine lady, like our grand step-mamma for instance, than a charming girl like Julia?” said Ellen.

“If Augustus’ notions of happiness were to be measured by mine, I should say yes, unquestionably yes. Love is a very fleeting sentiment. The cost of the article, too, suggests most uncomfortable reflections. All the more as the memory comes when the acquisition itself is beginning to lose value. My former chief at Munich – the cleverest man of the world I ever met – used to say, as an investment, a pretty wife was a mistake. ‘If,’ said he, ‘you laid out your money on a picture, your venture might turn out a bargain; if you bought a colt, your two-year-old might win a Derby; but your beauty of to-day will be barely good-looking in five years, and will be a positive fright in fifteen.’”

“Your accomplished friend was an odious beast!” said Nelly. “What was his name, Temple?”

“Lord Culduff, one of the first diplomatists in Europe.”

“Culduff? How strange! Papa’s agent, Mr. Harding, mentioned the name at breakfast. He said there was a nobleman come over from Germany to see his estates in the north of Down, where they had some hopes of having discovered coal.”

“Is it possible Lord Culduff could be in our neighborhood? The governor must ask him here at once,” said Temple, with an animation of manner most unusual with him. “There must be no time lost about this. Finish your game without me, girls, for this matter is imminent;” and so saying, he resigned his mallet and hastened away to the house.

“I never saw Temple so eager about anything before,” said Nelly. “It’s quite charming to see how the mere mention of a grand name can call forth all his energy.”

“Temple knows the world very well; and he knows how the whole game of life is conducted by a very few players, and that every one who desires to push his way must secure the intimacy, if he can, or at least the acquaintance, of these.” And Marion delivered this speech with a most oracular and pretentious tone.

“Yes,” said Nelly, with a droll sparkle in her eye; “he declared that profound statement last evening in the very same words. Who shall say it is not an immense advantage to have a brother so full of sage maxims, while his sisters are seen to catch up his words of wisdom, and actually believe them to be their own?”

“Temple may not be a Talleyrand; but he is certainly as brilliant as the charming curate,” said Marion, tartly.

“Oh, poor George!” cried Nelly; and her cheek flushed, while she tried to seem indifferent. “Nobody ever called him a genius. When one says he is very good-looking and very good-humored, tout est dit!”

“He is very much out of place as a parson.”

“Granted. I suspect he thinks so himself.”

“Men usually feel that they cannot take orders without some stronger impulse than a mere desire to gain a livelihood.”

“I have never talked to him on the matter; but perhaps he had no great choice of a career.”

“He might have gone into the army, I suppose? He’d have found scores of creatures there with about his own measure of intelligence.”

“I fancied you liked George, Marion,” said the other. And there was something half tender, half reproachful, in her tone.

“I liked him so far, that it was a boon to find anything so like a gentleman in this wild savagery; but if you mean that I would have endured him in town, or would have noticed him in society, you are strangely mistaken.”

“Poor George!” and there was something comic in her glance as she sighed these words out.

“There; you have won,” said Marion, throwing down her mallet. “I must go and hear what Temple is going to do. It would be a great blessing to see a man of the world and a man of mark in this dreary spot, and I hope papa will not lose the present opportunity to secure him.”

“Are you alone, Nelly?” said her eldest brother, some time after, as he came up, and found her sitting, lost in thought, under a tree.

“Yes. Marion got tired and went in, and Temple went to ask papa about inviting some high and mighty personage who chances to be in our neighborhood.”

“Who is he?”

“Lord Culduff, he called him.”

“Oh! a tremendous swell; an ambassador somewhere. What brings him down here?”

“I forget. Yes! it was something about a mine; he has found tin, or copper, or coal, I don’t remember which, on some property of his here. By the way, Augustus, do you really think George L’Estrange a fool?”

“Think him a fool?”

“I mean,” said she, blushing deeply, “Marion holds his intelligence so cheaply that she is quite shocked at his presuming to be in orders.”

“Well, I don’t think him exactly what Temple calls an esprit fort, but he is a very nice fellow, very companionable, and a thorough gentleman in all respects.”

“How well you have said it, dear Augustus,” said she, with a face beaming with delight. “Where are you off to? Where are you going?”

“I am going to see the yearlings, in the paddock below the river.”

“May I go with you, Gussy?” said she, drawing her arm within his. “I do like a brisk walk with you; and you always go like one with a purpose.”