CHAPTER X
SHE COMES DOWN THE STAIRS
From the hall of the Noble Rose sprang an oak staircase, and at thisinstant a girl began to descend the stairs. She was quite young--a tallslip of a thing, who scarcely seemed nineteen--and she had hair of ayellow that looked as if it loved the sun, and her eyes were of a softerblue than my friend's. I knew that at last I looked on Marjorie,Lancelot's Marjorie, the maid whose very picture had seemed farther fromme than the farthest star. Her face was fresh, as of one who has enjoyedliberally the open air, and not sat mewed within four walls like a townmiss. I noted, too, that her steps as she came down the stairs were nottaken mincingly, as school-girls are wont to walk, but with decision,like a boy.
Indeed, though she was a beautiful girl, and soon to make a beautifulwoman, there was a quality of manliness in her which pleased me muchthen and more thereafter. There is a play I have seen acted in which agirl goes to live in a wood in a man's habit. I have thought since thatshe of the play must have showed like this girl, and indeed I speak butwhat I know when I say that man's apparel became her bravely. Now, asshe came down the stairs she was clad in some kind of flowered gown ofblue and white which set off her fair loveliness divinely. She carriedsome yellow flowers at her girdle; they were Lent lilies, as I believe.
This apparition distracting my attention from the Captain's words, hewheeled round upon his heel and learnt the cause of my inattention.Immediately he smiled and called to the maiden.
'Come here, niece; I have found you a new friend.'
She came forward, smiling to him, and then looked at me with anexpression of the sweetest gravity in the world. Surely there never wassuch a girl in the world since the sun first shone on maidens.
'Lass,' said the Captain, 'this is our new friend. His name is RaphaelCrowninshield, but, because I think he has more of the man in him thanof the archangel, I mean to call him Ralph.'
The girl held out her hand to me in a way that reminded me much ofLancelot.
As I took her hand I felt that my face was flaming like the sun in asea-fog--no less round and no less red. I was timid with girls, for Iknew but few, and after my misfortune I had shunned those few mostcarefully. She was not shy herself, though, and she did not seem to notemy shyness--or, if she did, it gave her no pleasure to note it, as itwould have given many less gracious maidens. Her hand was not verysmall, but it was finely fashioned--a noble hand, like my Captain's andlike Lancelot's; a hand that gave a true grasp; a hand that it was apleasure to hold.
'Shall I call you Ralph or Raphael?' she said.
My face grew hotter, and I stammered foolishly as I answered her that Ibegged she would call me by what name she pleased, but that if itpleased my Captain to call me Ralph, then Ralph I was ready to be.
'Well and good, Ralph,' she said.
We had parted hands by this time, but I was still staring at her, fullof wonder.
'This boy,' said the Captain, 'goes with us in the Royal Christopher. Wewill find our New World together. He is a good fellow, and should make agood sailor in time.'
As the Captain spoke of me and the girl looked at me I felt hotter andmore foolish, and could think of nothing to say. But even if I couldhave thought of anything to say I had no time to say it in, for therecame an interruption which ended my embarrassment; a horn soundedloudly, and every soul in Sendennis knew that the coach was in.
In a moment everything was changed. The Captain took his hand from myshoulder; the girl took her gaze from my face. There was a clatter ofwheels, a trampling of horses' hoofs. The coach had drawn up in front ofthe inn door. We three--my Captain, the girl, and myself--ran across thehall and out on the portico. There was the usual crowd about the newlyarrived coach; but there was only one person in the crowd for whom welooked, and him we soon found.
A lithe figure in a buff travelling coat swung off the box-seat, andLancelot was with us again. He had an arm around the girl's neck, andkissed her with no heed of the people; he had a hand clasped between thetwo hands of the Captain, who squeezed his fingers fondly. Then helooked at me, and leaving his kindred he caught both my hands in bothhis, while his joy shone in his eyes.
'Raphael, my old Raphael, is it you?' he said; 'but my heart is glad ofthis.'
I wrung his hands. I could scarcely speak for happiness at seeing himagain.
'You must not call him Raphael any more,' the girl said demurely. 'He isto be Ralph now, for all of us, so my uncle says.'
'Is that so?' said Lancelot, looking up at the Captain. 'Well, we mustobey orders, and indeed I would rather have Ralph than Raphael. 'Tisless of an outlandish name.'
Then we all laughed, and we all came back into the hall of the inntogether.
I watched Lancelot with wonder and with pride. He had grown amazingly inthe years since I had seen him, and carried himself like a man. He washandsomer than ever I thought, and liker to our island's patron saint.As he stripped off his travelling coat and stood up in the neat habit ofa well-to-do town gentleman, he looked such a cavalier as no woman butwould wish for a lover, no man but desire for a friend.
'Lads and lass,' said Captain Amber, 'it will soon be time to dine. Wehave waited dinner for this scapegrace'--and he pinched Lancelot'sear--'so get the dust of travel off as quickly as may be, and we willsit down with good appetite.'
At these words I made to go away, for I did not dream that I was to beof the party; but the Captain, seeing my action, caught me by the arm.
'Nay, Ralph,' he said, 'you must stay and dine with us. You are one ofus now, and Lancelot must not lose you on this first day of fairmeeting.'
I was indeed glad to accept, for Lancelot's sake. But there was anotherreason in my heart which made me glad also, and that reason was that Ishould see the girl again who was my Captain's darling, the sister whomLancelot had kissed.
So I said that I would come gladly, if so be that I had time to run homeand tell my mother, lest she might be keeping dinner for me.
'That's right, lad, that's right. Ever think of the feelings of others.'
My Captain was always full of moral counsels and maxims of good conduct,but they came from him as naturally as his breath, and his own life wasso honourable that there was nothing sanctimonious in his way or hiswords.
As I was about to start he begged me to assure my mother that if shewould join them at table he would consider it an honour. I thanked himwith tears in my eyes, and saluting them all I left the inn quickly,with the last sweet smile of that girl's burning in my memory.
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