Ha! master,at my days work, you see:fit for nothing else now. When a musquets halfworn out, schoolboys buy itpop it at sparrows. I be like the musket: but never mindhave not seen the world for nothing. We get reconciled to all things: thats my wayaugh! Now, Sir, you shall watch me catch the finest trout you have seen this summer: know where he liesunder the bush yonder. Whish! Sir, whish!
The Corporal now gave his warrior soul up to the due guidance of the violet-fly: now he shipped it lightly on the wave; now he slid it coquettishly along the surface; now it floated, like an unconscious beauty, carelessly with the tide; and now, like an artful prude, it affected to loiter by the way, or to steal into designing obscurity under the shade of some overhanging bank. But none of these manoeuvres captivated the wary old trout on whose acquisition the Corporal had set his heart; and what was especially provoking, the angler could see distinctly the dark outline of the intended victim, as it lay at the bottom,like some well-regulated bachelor who eyes from afar the charms he has discreetly resolved to neglect.
The Corporal waited till he could no longer blind himself to the displeasing fact, that the violet-fly was wholly inefficacious; he then drew up his line, and replaced the contemned beauty of the violet-fly, with the novel attractions of the yellow-dun.
Now, Sir! whispered he, lifting up his finger, and nodding sagaciously to Walter. Softly dropped the yellow-dun upon the water, and swiftly did it glide before the gaze of the latent trout; and now the trout seemed aroused from his apathy, behold he moved forward, balancing himself on his fins; now he slowly ascended towards the surface; you might see all the speckles of his coat;the Corporals heart stood stillhe is now at a convenient distance from the yellow-dun; lo, he surveys it steadfastly; he ponders, he see-saws himself to and fro. The yellow-dun sails away in affected indifference, that indifference whets the appetite of the hesitating gazer, he darts forward; he is opposite the yellow-dun,he pushes his nose against it with an eager rudeness,heno, he does not bite, he recoils, he gazes again with surprise and suspicion on the little charmer; he fades back slowly into the deeper water, and then suddenly turning his tail towards the disappointed bait, he makes off as fast as he can,yonder,yonder, and disappears! No, thats he leaping yonder from the wave; Jupiter! what a noble fellow! What leaps he at?a real flyDamn his eyes! growled the Corporal.
You might have caught him with a minnow, said Walter, speaking for the first time.
Minnow! repeated the Corporal gruffly, ask your honours pardon. Minnow!I have fished with the yellow-dun these twenty years, and never knew it fail before. Minnow!baugh! But ask pardon; your honour is very welcome to fish with a minnow if you please it.
Thank you, Bunting. And pray what sport have you had to-day?
Oh,good, good, quoth the Corporal, snatching up his basket and closing the cover, lest the young Squire should pry into it. No man is more tenacious of his secrets than your true angler. Sent the best home two hours ago; one weighed three pounds, on the faith of a man; indeed, Im satisfied now; time to give up; and the Corporal began to disjoint his rod.
Ah, Sir! said he, with a half sigh, a pretty river this, dont mean to say it is not; but the river Lea for my money. You know the Lea?not a mornings walk from Lunnun. Mary Gibson, my first sweetheart, lived by the bridge,caught such a trout there by the by!had beautiful eyesblack, round as a cherryfive feet eight without shoesmight have listed in the forty-second.
Who, Bunting! said Walter smiling, the lady or the trout?
Augh!baugh!what? Oh, laughing at me, your honour, youre welcome, Sir. Loves a silly thingknow the world nowhave not fallen in love these ten years. I doubtno offence, Sir, no offenceI doubt whether your honour and Miss Ellinor can say as much.
I and Miss Ellinor!you forge yourself strangely, Bunting, said Walter, colouring with anger.
Beg pardon, Sir, beg pardonrough soldierlived away from the world so long, words slipped out of my mouthabsent without leave.
But why, said Walter, smothering or conquering his vexation,why couple me with Miss Ellinor? Did you imagine that we,we were in love with each other?
Indeed, Sir, and if I did, tis no more than my neighbours imagine too.
Humph! your neighbours are very silly, then, and very wrong.
Beg pardon, Sir, againalways getting askew. Indeed some did say it was Miss Madeline, but I says,says I,No! Im a man of the worldsee through a millstone; Miss Madelines too easy like; Miss Nelly blushes when he speaks; scarlet is loves regimentalsit was ours in the forty-second, edged with yellowpepper and salt pantaloons! For my part I think,but Ive no business to think, howsomeverbaugh!
Pray what do you think, Mr. Bunting? Why do you hesitate?
Fraid of offencebut I do think that Master Aramyour honour understandshowsomever Squires daughter too great a match for such as he!
Walter did not answer; and the garrulous old soldier, who had been the young mans playmate and companion since Walter was a boy; and was therefore accustomed to the familiarity with which he now spoke, continued, mingling with his abrupt prolixity an occasional shrewdness of observation, which shewed that he was no inattentive commentator on the little and quiet world around him.
Free to confess, Squire Walter, that I dont quite like this larned man, as much as the rest of emsomething queer about himcant see to the bottom of himdont think hes quite so meek and lamb-like as he seems:once saw a calm dead pool in foren partspeered down into itby little and little, my eye got used to itsaw something dark at the bottomstared and staredby Jupitera great big alligator!walked off immediatelynever liked quiet pools sinceaugh, no!
An argument against quiet pools, perhaps, Bunting; but scarcely against quiet people.
Dont know as to that, your honourmuch of a muchness. I have seen Master Aram, demure as he looks, start, and bite his lip, and change colour, and frownhe has an ugly frown, I can tell yewhen he thought no one nigh. A man who gets in a passion with himself may be soon out of temper with others. Free to confess, I should not like to see him married to that stately beautiful young ladybut they do gossip about it in the village. If it is not true, better put the Squire on his guardfalse rumours often beget truthsbeg pardon, your honourno business of minebaugh! But Im a lone man, who have seen the world, and I thinks on the things around me, and I turns over the quidnow on this side, now on the othertis my way, Sirandbut I offend your honour.
Not at all; I know you are an honest man, Bunting, and well affected to our family; at the same time it is neither prudent nor charitable to speak harshly of our neighbours without sufficient cause. And really you seem to me to be a little hasty in your judgment of a man so inoffensive in his habits and so justly and generally esteemed as Mr. Aram.
May be, Sirmay be,very right what you say. But I thinks what I thinks all the same; and indeed, it is a thing that puzzles me, how that strange-looking vagabond, as frighted the ladies so, and who, Miss Nelly told me, for she saw them in his pocket, carried pistols about him, as if he had been among cannibals and hottentots, instead of the peaceablest county that man ever set foot in, should boast of his friendship with this larned schollard, and pass a whole night in his house. Birds of a feather flock togetheraugh!Sir!
Not at all; I know you are an honest man, Bunting, and well affected to our family; at the same time it is neither prudent nor charitable to speak harshly of our neighbours without sufficient cause. And really you seem to me to be a little hasty in your judgment of a man so inoffensive in his habits and so justly and generally esteemed as Mr. Aram.
May be, Sirmay be,very right what you say. But I thinks what I thinks all the same; and indeed, it is a thing that puzzles me, how that strange-looking vagabond, as frighted the ladies so, and who, Miss Nelly told me, for she saw them in his pocket, carried pistols about him, as if he had been among cannibals and hottentots, instead of the peaceablest county that man ever set foot in, should boast of his friendship with this larned schollard, and pass a whole night in his house. Birds of a feather flock togetheraugh!Sir!
A man cannot surely be answerable for the respectability of all his acquaintances, even though he feel obliged to offer them the accommodation of a nights shelter.
Baugh! grunted the Corporal. Seen the world, Sirseen the worldyoung gentlemen are always so good-natured; tis a pity, that the more one sees the more suspicious one grows. One does not have gumption till one has been properly cheatedone must be made a fool very often in order not to be fooled at last!
Well, Corporal, I shall now have opportunities enough of profiting by experience. I am going to leave Grassdale in a few days, and learn suspicion and wisdom in the great world.
Augh! baugh!what? cried the Corporal, starting from the contemplative air which he had hitherto assumed. The great world?how?when?going away;who goes with your honour?
My honours self; I have no companion, unless you like to attend me; said Walter, jestinglybut the Corporal affected, with his natural shrewdness, to take the proposition in earnest.
I! your honours too good; and indeed, though I say it, Sir, you might do worse; not but what I should be sorry to leave nice snug home here, and this stream, though the trout have been shy lately,ah! that was a mistake of yours, Sir, recommending the minnow; and neighbour Dealtry, though his ales not so good at twas last year; andandbut, in short, I always loved your honourdandled you on my knees;You recollect the broadsword exercise?one, two, threeaugh! baugh!and if your honour really is going, why rather than you should want a proper person who knows the world, to brush your coat, polish your shoes, give you good adviceon the faith of a man, Ill go with you myself!
This alacrity on the part of the Corporal was far from displeasing to Walter. The proposal he had at first made unthinkingly, he now seriously thought advisable; and at length it was settled that the Corporal should call the next morning at the manor-house, and receive instructions as to the time and method of their departure. Not forgetting, as the sagacious Bunting delicately insinuated, the wee settlements as to wages, and board wages, more a matter of form, like, than any thing elseaugh!
CHAPTER X.
THE LOVERS.THE ENCOUNTER AND QUARREL OF THE RIVALS
Two such I saw, what time the laboured ox
In his loose traces from the furrow came.
Pedro. Now do me noble right.
Rod. Ill satisfy you;
But not by the sword.
While Walter and the Corporal enjoyed the above conversation, Madeline and Aram, whom Lester soon left to themselves, were pursuing their walk along the solitary fields. Their love had passed from the eye to the lip, and now found expression in words.
Observe, said he, as the light touch of one who he felt loved him entirely rested on his arm,Observe, as the later summer now begins to breathe a more various and mellow glory into the landscape, how singularly pure and lucid the atmosphere becomes. When, two months ago, in the full flush of June, I walked through these fields, a grey mist hid yon distant hills and the far forest from my view. Now, with what a transparent stillness the whole expanse of scenery spreads itself before us. And such, Madeline, is the change that has come over myself since that time. Then, if I looked beyond the limited present, all was dim and indistinct. Now, the mist had faded awaythe broad future extends before me, calm and bright with the hope which is borrowed from your love!
We will not tax the patience of the reader, who seldom enters with keen interest into the mere dialogue of love, with the blushing Madelines reply, or with all the soft vows and tender confessions which the rich poetry of Arams mind made yet more delicious to the ear of his dreaming and devoted mistress.
There is one circumstance, said Aram, which casts a momentary shade on the happiness I enjoymy Madeline probably guesses its nature. I regret to see that the blessing of your love must be purchased by the misery of another, and that other, the nephew of my kind friend. You have doubtless observed the melancholy of Walter Lester, and have long since known its origin.
Indeed, Eugene, answered Madeline, it has given me great pain to note what you refer to, for it would be a false delicacy in me to deny that I have observed it. But Walter is young and high-spirited; nor do I think he is of a nature to love long where there is no return!
And what, said Aram, sorrowfully,what deduction from reason can ever apply to love? Love is a very contradiction of all the elements of our ordinary nature,it makes the proud man meek,the cheerful, sad,the high-spirited, tame; our strongest resolutions, our hardiest energy fail before it. Believe me, you cannot prophesy of its future effect in a man from any knowledge of his past character. I grieve to think that the blow falls upon one in early youth, ere the worlds disappointments have blunted the heart, or the worlds numerous interests have multiplied its resources. Mens minds have been turned when they have not well sifted the cause themselves, and their fortunes marred, by one stroke on the affections of their youth. So at least have I read, Madeline, and so marked in others. For myself, I knew nothing of love in its reality till I knew you. But who can know you, and not sympathise with him who has lost you?
Ah, Eugene! you at least overrate the influence which love produces on men. A little resentment and a little absence will soon cure my cousin of an ill-placed and ill-requited attachment. You do not think how easy it is to forget.
Forget! said Aram, stopping abruptly; Ay, forgetit is a strange truth! we do forget! the summer passes over the furrow, and the corn springs up; the sod forgets the flower of the past year; the battle-field forgets the blood that has been spilt upon its turf; the sky forgets the storm; and the water the noon-day sun that slept upon its bosom. All Nature preaches forgetfulness. Its very order is the progress of oblivion. And IIgive me your hand, Madeline,I, ha! ha! I forget too!