Things came to a crisis on one of the dog-days. Young Dr. Drake had brought his bride to show to his old friend, and they were staying at the Folly, while a college friend of Mr. Ogilvies, a London curate, had come to see him in the course of a cathedral tour, and had stayed on, under the attraction of the place, taking the duty for a few Sundays.
The weather was very sultry, forbidding exertion on the part of all save cricketers; but there was a match at Redford, and Kenminster was eager about it, so that all the boys, grown up or otherwise, walked over to see it, accompanied by Nita Ray with her inseparable Janet, meaning to study village groups and rustic sports. The other ladies walked in the cool to meet them at the Actons farmhouse, chiefly, it was alleged, in deference to the feelings of the bride, who could not brave the heat, but had never yet been so long separated from her bridegroom.
The little boys, however, were alone to be found at the farm, reporting that their elders had joined the cricket supper. So Mrs. Acton made them welcome, and spread her cloth in the greensward, whence could be seen the evening glow on the harvest fields. Then there was a feast of cherries, and delicious farmhouse bread and butter, and inexhaustible tea, which was renewed when the cricketers joined them, and called for their share.
Thus they did not set out on their homeward walk, over fragrant heath and dewy lanes, till just as the stars were coming out, and a magnificent red moon, scarcely past the full, was rising in the east, and the long rest, and fresh dewiness after the days heat, gave a delightful feeling of exhilaration.
Babie went skipping about in the silvery flood of light, quite wild with delight as they came out on the heath, and, darting up to Mr. Ogilvie, asked if now he did not think they might really see a fairy.
Perhaps I do, he said.
Oh where, where, show me?
Ah! youre the one that cant see her.
What, not if I did my eyes with that Euphrasia and Verbena officinalis? catching tight hold of his hand, as a bright red light went rapidly moving in a straight line in the valley beneath their feet.
Robin Goodfellow, said Mr. Hughes, overhearing her, and immediately began to sing
I know a bank
Then the curate, as he finished, began to sing some other appropriate song, and Nita Ray and others joined in. It was very pretty, very charming in the moonlight, very like Midsummer Nights Dream; but Mary Ogilvie, who was a good way behind, felt a start of dismay as the clear notes pealed back to her. She longed to suggest a little expediency; but she was impeded; for poor Miss Ray, entirely unused to long country walks and nocturnal expeditions, and further tormented by tight boots, was panting up the hill far in the rear, half-frightened, and a good deal distressed, and could not, for very humanitys sake, be left behind.
And after all, thought Mary, as peals of the boys merry laughter came to her, and then again echoes of spotted snakes with double tongue awoke the night echoes; this is such a solitary place that it cannot signify, if they will only have the sense to stop when we get into the roads.
But they hadnt. Mary heard a chorus from Der Freischutz, beginning just as she was dragging her companion over a stile, which had been formidable enough by day, but was ten times worse in the confusing shadows. That brought them into a lane darkened by its high hedges, where there was nothing for it but to let Miss Ray tightly grapple her arm, while the songs came further and further on the wind, and Mary felt the conviction that middle-aged spinsters must reckon on being forgotten, and left behind alike by brothers, sisters, and friends.
Nor did they come up with the party till they found them waiting in the road, close to the Rays lodgings, having evidently just missed them, for Mr. Ogilvie and the clergyman were turning back to look for them when they were gladly hailed, half apologised to, half laughed at by a babel of voices, among which Nitas was the loudest, informing her sister that she had lost the best bit of all, for just at the turn of the lane there had come on them Babies fiery-eyed monster, which had burst on the path, when they were in mid song, flashing over them, and revealing, first a horse, and then a brougham, wherein there sat the august forms of Colonel and Mrs. Brownlow, going home from a state dinner, the ladys very marabouts quivering with horror.
Mary stepped up to Nita, and gave her a sharp, severe grasp.
Hush! remember their boys are here, she whispered; and, with an exaggerated gesture, Nita looked about her in affected alarm, and, seeing that none were near, added
Thank you; I was just going to say it would be a study for Punch
O do send it up, theyll never know it, cried Janet; but there Caroline interfered
Hush, Janet, we ought to be at home. Dont stand here, Armine is tired to death! 11.5 at the station to-morrow. Good-night.
They parted, and Mary and her brother turned away to their own home. If it had not been for the presence of the curate, Mary would have said a good deal on the way home. As it was, she was so silent as to inspire her brother with enough compunction for having deserted her, to make him follow her, when she went to her own room. Mary, I am sorry we missed you, he said; I ought to have looked about for you more, but I thought
Nonsense, David; of course I do not mind that, if only I could have stopped all that singing.
That singing; why it was very pretty, wasnt it?
Pretty indeed! Did it never occur to you what a scrape you may be getting that poor little thing into with her relations, and yourself, too?
David looked more than half-amused, and she proceeded more resolutely
Well! what do you think must be Mrs. Brownlows opinion of what she saw and heard to-night? I blame myself exceedingly for not having urged the setting off sooner; but you must remember that what is all very well for holiday people, only here for a time, may do infinite mischief to residents.
David only observed, I didnt want all those men, if thats what you mean. They made the noise, not I.
No, nor I; but we swelled the party, and I am much disposed to believe that the best thing we can do is to take ourselves off, or do anything to break up this set.
He looked for a moment much disconcerted; but then with a little masculine superiority, answered
Well, well, well think over it, Mary. See how it appears to you to-morrow when you arent tired, and then, with a smile and a kiss, bade her good-night.
So thats what we get, said Mary, to herself, half amused, half annoyed; those men think it is all because one is left behind in the dark! David is the best boy in the world, but theres not a man of them all who has a notion of what gets a woman into trouble! I believe he was rather gratified than otherwise to be found out on a lark. Well, Ill talk to Clara; she will have some sense!
They were all to meet at the station the next morning, to go to an old castle, about an hour from Kenminster by railway; and they filled the platform, armed with sketching tools, sandwich baskets, botanical tins, and all other appliances; but when Mr. Ogilvie accosted Mrs. Joseph Brownlow, saying, You have only half your boys, she looked up, with a drolly guilty air, saying, No, theres an embargo on the other poor fellows.
They had just taken their seats, and the train was in motion, when a heated headlong boy came dashing over the platform, and clung to the door of the carriage, standing on the step. It was Johnny. Orlando Hughes, who was next the window, grasped his hands, and, in answer to the cries of dismay and blame that greeted him, he called out, Yes, here I am; Rob and Joe couldnt run so fast.
Then youve got leave? asked his aunt.
Johnnys grin said No.
She looked up at Mr. Ogilvie in much vexation and anxiety.
Dont say any more to him now. It might put him in great danger. Wait till the next station, he said.
It was a stopping train, and ten minutes brought a halt, when the guard came up in a fury, and Johnny found no sympathy for his bold attempt. Carey had no notion of fostering flat disobedience, and she told Johnny that unless he would promise to go home by himself and beg his fathers pardon, she should stay behind and go back with him, for she could have no pleasure in an expedition with him when he was behaving so outrageously.
The boy looked both surprised and abashed. His affection for his aunt was very great, as for one who had opened to him the gates of a new world, both within himself and beyond himself. He would not hear of her giving up the expedition, and promised her with all his heart to walk home, and confess, Though twasnt papa, but mamma! were his last words, as they left him on the platform, crestfallen, but with a twinkle in his eye, and with the station-master keeping watch over him as a dangerous subject.
Mr. Ogilvie said it would do the boy good for life; Caroline mourned over him a little, and wondered how his mother would treat him; and Mary sat and thought till the arrival at their destination, when they had to walk to the castle, dragging their appurtenances, and then to rouse their energies to spread out the luncheon.
Then, when there had been the usual amount of mirth, mischief, and mishap, and the party had dispersed, some to sketch, some to scramble, some to botanize, the Duck and Drake to spoon,as said the boys, Mary Ogilvie found a turfy nook where she could hold council with Mrs. Acton about their poor little friend, for whose welfare she was seriously uneasy.
But Clara did not sympathise as much as she expected, having been much galled by Mrs. Robert Brownlows supercilious manner, and thinking the attempt to conciliate her both unworthy and useless.
Of course I do not mean that poor Carey should truckle to her, said Mary, rather nettled at the implication; but I dont think these irregular hours, and all this roaming about the country at all times, can be well in themselves for her or the children.
My dear Mary, did you never take a party of children into the country in the spring for the first time? If not, you never saw the prettiest and most innocent of intoxications. I had once to take the little Pyrtons to their place in the country one April and May, months that they had always spent in London; and I assure you they were perfectly mad, only with the air, the sight of the hawthorns, and all the smells. I was obliged to be content with what they could do, not what ought to be done, of lessons. There was no sitting still on a fine morning. I was as bad myself; the blood seemed to dance in ones veins, and a room to be a prison.
This is not spring, said Mary.
No, but she began in spring, and habits were formed.
No doubt, but they cannot be good. They keep up flightiness and excitability.
Oh, thats grief, poor dear!
We baint carousing, we be dissembling grief, as the farmer told the clergyman who objected to merry-making after a funeral, said Mary, rather severely. Then she added, seeing Clara looked annoyed, You think me hard on poor dear Carey, but indeed I am not doubting her affection or her grief.
Remember, a woman with children cannot give herself entirely up to sorrow without doing them harm.
Poor Carey, I am sure I do not want to see her given up to sorrow, only to have her a little more moderate, and perhaps selectso as not to do herself harm with her relationswho after all must be more important to her than any outsiders.
The artists wife could not but see things a little differently from the schoolmasters sister, who moreover knew nothing of Careys former life; and Clara made answer
Sending her down to these people was the greatest error of dear good Dr. Brownlows life.
I am not sure of that. Blood is thicker than water.
But between sisters-in-law it is apt to be only ill-blood, and very turbid.
For shame, Clara.
Well, Mary, you must allow something for human natures reluctance to be treated as something not quite worthy of a handshake from a little country town Serene Highness! I may be allowed to doubt whether Dr. Brownlow would not have done better to leave her unbound to those who can never be congenial.
Granting that (not that I do grant it, for the Colonel is worthy), should not she be persuaded to conform herself.
To purr and lay eggs? My dear, that did not succeed with the ugly duckling, even in early life.
Not after it had been among the swans? You vain Clara!
I only lay claim to having seen the swansnot to having brought many specimens down here.
Such as that Nita, or Mr. Hughes?
More like the other bird, certainly, said Clara, smiling; but Mary, if you had but seen what that house was. Joe Brownlow was one of those men who make themselves esteemed and noted above their actual position. He was much thought of as a lecturer, and would have had a much larger practice but for his appointment at the hospital. It was in the course of the work he had taken for a friend gone out of town that he caught the illness that killed him. His lectures brought men of science about him, and his practice had made him acquainted with us poor Bohemians, as you seem to think us. Old Mrs. Brownlow had means of her own, and theirs was quite a wealthy house among our set. Any of us were welcome to drop into five oclock tea, or at nine at night, and the pleasantness and good influence were wonderful. The motherliness and yet the enthusiasm of Mrs. Brownlow made her the most delightful old lady I ever saw. I cant describe how good she was about my marriage, and many more would say they owed all that was brightest and best in them to that house. And there was Carey, like a little sunshiny fairy, the darling of everyone. No, not spoiltI see what you are going to say.
Only as we all spoilt her at school. Nobody but her Serene Highness ever could help making a pet of her.
Thats more reasonable, Mary, said Mrs. Acton, in a more placable voice; she did plenty of hard work, and did not spare herself, or have what would seem indulgences to most women; but nobody could see the light of her eyes and smile without trying to make it sparkle up; and she was just the first thought in life to her husband and his mother. I am sure in my governess days I used to think that house paradise, and her the undoubted queen of it. And now, that you should turn against her, Mary, when she is uncrowned, and unappreciated, and brow-beaten.
She had worked herself up, and had tears in her eyes.
Mary laughed a little.
It is hard, when I only want to keep her from making herself be unappreciated.
And I say it is in vain! cried Clara, for it is not in the nature of the people to appreciate her, and nothing will make them get on together.
Poor Mary! she had expected her friend to be more reasonable and less defensive; but she remembered that even at school Clara had always protected Caroline whenever she had attempted to lecture her. All she further tried to say was
Then you wont help me to advise her to be more guarded, and not shock them?
I will not tease the poor little thing, when she has enough to torment her already. If you had known her husband, and watched her last winter, you would be only too thankful to see her a little more like herself.