"And my fern-gardens! Oh, Mrs. Grinstead," cried Mysie, "please don't send them away to the flower place which Miss Simmonds and the gardeners are making like a nursery garden! They'll snub my poor dear pterises."
"Certainly we'll make the most of your pterises. Look here. There's an elegant doll, let her lead the family party to survey them. That's right. Oh no, not that giantess! There's a dainty little Dutch lady."
"Charming. Oh! and here's her boy in a sailor's dress."
"He is big enough to be her husband, my dear. You had better observe proportions, and put that family nearer the eye."
"Those dolls!" cried Valetta, "they were our despair."
"Make them tell a story, don't you see. Where's that fat red cushion?"
"Oh, that cushion! I put it out of sight because it is such a monster."
"Yes; it is just like brick-dust enlivened by half-boiled cauliflowers! Never mind, it will be all the better background. Now, I saw a majestic lady reposing somewhere. There, let her sit against it. Oh, she mustn't flop over. Here, that match-box, is it? I pity the person deluded enough to use it! Prop her up with it. Now then, let us have a presentation of ladies-she's a governor's wife in the colonies, you see. Never mind costumes, they may be queer. All that will stand or kneel-that's right. Those that can only sit must hide behind, like poor Marie Antoinette's ladies on the giggling occasion."
So she went on, full of fun, which made the work doubly delightful to the girls, who darted about while she put the finishing touches, transforming the draperies from the aspect of a rag-and-bone shop, as Jasper had called it, to a wonderful quaint and pretty fairy bower, backed by the Indian scenes sent by Mr. and Mrs. Bernard Underwood, and that other lovely one of Primrose's pasture. There the merry musical laugh of her youth was to be heard, as General Mohun came out with Lancelot to make a raid, order the whole party to come and eat luncheon at Beechcroft Cottage, and not let Mrs. Grinstead come out again.
"Oh, but I must finish up Bernard's clay costume figures. Look at the expression of that delightful dollie! I'm sure he is watching the khitmutgars.
'Above on tallest trees remote Green Ayahs perched alone; And all night long the Mussah moaned In melancholy tone.'
Oh, don't you know Lear's poem? Can't we illustrate it?"
"Cherry, Cherry, you'll be half dead to-morrow."
"Well, if I am, this is the real fun. I shan't see the destruction."
Lance had her arm in his grip to take her over the bridge over the wall, when up rushed Kitty Varley.
"Oh, if Mrs. Grinstead would come and look at our stall and set it right! Miss Vanderkist gave us hopes."
"Perhaps-"
"Now, Cherry, don't you know that you are not to be knocked up! There are the Travises going to bring unlimited Vanderkists."
"Oh yes, I know; but there's renovation in breaths from Vale Leston, and I really am of some use here." Her voice really had a gay ring in it. "It is such fun too! Where's Gerald?"
"Having a smoke with the buccaneer captain. Oh, Miss Mohun, here's my sister, so enamoured of the bazaar I could hardly get her in."
"And oh! she is so clever and delightful. She has made our stall the most enchanting place," cried Primrose, dancing round. "Mamma, you must come and have it all explained to you."
"The very sight is supposed to be worth a shilling extra," said General Mohun, while Lady Merrifield and Miss Mohun, taking possession of her, hoped she was not tired; and Gillian, who had been wont to consider her as her private property, began to reprove her sisters for having engrossed her while she herself was occupied in helping the Hendersons with their art stall.
"The truth is," said Lance, "that this is my sister's first bazaar, and so dear is the work to the female mind, that she can't help being sucked into the vortex."
"Is it really?" demanded Mysie, in a voice that made Mrs. Grinstead laugh and say-
"Such is my woeful lack of experience."
"We have fallen on a bazaar wherever we went," said Lady Merrifield.
"But this is our first grown-up one, mamma," said Valetta. "There was only a sale of work before."
They all laughed, and Lance said-
"To Stoneborough they seem like revenues-at least sales of work, for I can't say I understand the distinction."
"Recurring brigandages," said General Mohun.
"Ah! Uncle Reggie has never forgotten his getting a Noah's ark in a raffle," said Mysie.
So went the merry talk, while one and another came in at Miss Mohun's verandah windows to be sustained with food and rest, and then darted forth again to renew their labours until the evening, Miss Mohun flying about everywhere on all sorts of needs, and her brother the General waiting by the dining-room to do the duties of hospitality to the strays of the families who dropped in, chattering and laughing, and exhausted.
Lady Merrifield was authorized to detain Mrs. Grinstead to the last moment possible to either, and they fell into a talk on the morality of bazaars, which, as Lady Merrifield said, had been a worry to her everywhere, while Geraldine had been out of their reach; since the Underwoods had done everything without begging, and Clement disapproved of them without the most urgent need; but, as Lance had said, his wife had grown up to them, and had gone through all the stages from delighting, acquiescing, and being bored, and they had so advanced since their early days, from being simply sales to the grand period of ornaments, costumes, and anything to attract.
"Clement consents," said Geraldine; "as, first, it is not a church, and then, though it does seem absurd to think that singing through the murdered Tempest should be aiding the cause of the Church, yet anything to keep our children to learning faith and truth is worthy work."
"Alas, it is working against the stream! How things are changed when school was our romance and our domain."
"Yes, you should hear Lance tell the story of his sister-in-law Ethel, how she began at Cocksmoor, with seven children and fifteen shillings, and thought her fortune made when she got ten pounds a year for the school-mistress; and now it is all Mrs. Rivers can do to keep out the School-board, because they had not a separate room for the hat-pegs!"
"We never had those struggles. We had enough to do to live at all in our dear old home days, except that my brother always taught Sunday classes. But anyway, this is very amusing. Those young people's characters come out so much. Ah, Gerald, what is it?"
For Gerald was coming up to the verandah with a very pretty, dark- eyed, modest-looking girl in a sailor hat, who shrank back as he said-
"I am come to ask for some luncheon for my-my Mona. She has had nothing to eat all day, and we still have the grand recognition scene to come."
At which the girl blushed so furiously that the notion crossed Geraldine that he must have been flirting with the poor little tobacconist's daughter; but Lady Merrifield was exclaiming that he too had had nothing to eat, and General Mohun came forth to draw them into the dining-room, where he helped Ludmilla to cold lamb, salad, etc., and she sat down at Gerald's signal, very timidly, so that she gave the idea of only partaking because she was afraid to refuse.
Gerald ate hurriedly and nervously, and drank claret cup. He said they were getting on famously, his uncle's chief strength being expended in drawing out the voice of the buccaneer captain, and mitigating the boatswain. Where were the little boys? Happily disposed of. Little Felix had gone through his part, and then Fergus had carried him and Adrian off together to Clipstone to see his animals, antediluvian and otherwise.
Then in rushed Gillian, followed by Dolores.
"Oh, mother!" cried Gillian, "there's a fresh instalment of pots and pans come in, such horrid things some of them! There's a statue in terra-cotta, half as large as life, of the Dirty Boy. Geraldine, do pray come and see what can be done with him. Kalliope is in utter despair, for they come from Craydon's, and to offend them would be fatal."
"Kalliope and the Dirty Boy," said Mrs. Grinstead, laughing. "A dreadful conjunction; I must go and see if it is po
ssible to establish the line between the sublime and the ridiculous."
"Shall I ask your nephew's leave to let you go," said Lady Merrifield, "after all the orders I have received?"
"Oh, no-" she began, but Gerald had jumped up.
"I'll steer you over the drawbridge, Cherie, if go you must. Yes,"- to the young ladies-"I appreciate your needs. Nobody has the same faculty in her fingers as this aunt of mine. Come along, Mona, it is Mrs. Henderson's stall, you know."
Ludmilla came, chiefly because she was afraid to be left, and Lady Merrifield could not but come too, meeting on the way Anna, come to implore help in arranging the Dirty Boy, before Captain Henderson knocked his head off, as he was much disposed to do.
Gillian had bounded on before with a handful of sandwiches, but Dolores tarried behind, having let the General help her to the leg of a chicken, which she seemed in no haste to dissect. Her uncle went off on some other call before she had finished, eating and drinking with the bitter sauce of reflection on the fleeting nature of young men's attentions and even confidences, and how easily everything was overthrown at sight of a pretty face, especially in the half-and-half class. She had only just come out into the verandah, wearily to return to the preparations, which had lost whatever taste they had for her, when she saw Gerald Underwood springing over the partition wall. Her impulse was to escape him, but it was too late; he came eagerly up to her, saying-
"She is safe with Mrs. Henderson. I am to go back for her when our duet comes on."
Dolores did not want to lower herself by showing jealousy or offence, but she could not help turning decidedly away, saying-
"I am wanted."
"Are you? I wanted to tell you why I am so interested in her. Dolores, can you hear me now?-she is my sister."
"Your sister!" in utter amaze.
"Every one says they see it in the colour of our eyes."
"Every one"-she seemed able to do nothing but repeat his words.
"Well, my uncle Lancelot, and-and my mother. No one else knows yet. They want to spare my aunt till this concern is over."
"But how can it be?"
"It is a horrid business altogether!" he said, taking her down to the unfrequented parts of the lower end of the garden, where they could walk up and down hidden by the bushes and shrubs. "You knew that my father was an artist and musician, who fled from over patronage."
"I think I have heard so."
"He married a singing-woman, and she grew tired of him, and of me, deserted and divorced him in Chicago, when I was ten months old. He was the dearest, most devoted of fathers, till he and I were devoured by the Indians. If they had completed their operations on my scalp, it would have been all the better for me. Instead of which Travis picked me up, brought me home, and they made me as much of an heir of all the traditions as nature would permit, all ignoring that not only was my father Bohemian ingrain, but that my mother was-in short-one of the gipsies of civilization. They never expected to hear of her again, but behold, the rapturous discovery has taken place. She recognised Lance, the only one of the family she had ever seen before, and then the voice of blood-more truly the voice of £ s. d.- -exerted itself."
"How was it she did not find you out before?"
"My father seems to have concealed his full name; I remember his being called Tom Wood. She married in her own line after casting him off, and this pretty little thing is her child-the only tolerable part of it."
"But she cannot have any claim on you," said Dolores, with a more shocked look and tone than the words conveyed.
"Not she-in reason; but the worst of it is, Dolores, that the wretched woman avers that she deceived my father, and had an old rascally tyrant of an Italian husband, who might have been alive when she married."
"Gerald!"
Dolores stood still and looked at him with her eyes opened in horror.
"Yes, you may well say Gerald. 'Tis the only name I have a right to if this is true."
"But you are still yourself," and she held out her hand.
He did not take it, however, only saying-
"You know what this means?"
"Of course I do, but that does not alter you-yourself in yourself."
"If you say that, Dolores, it will only alter me to make me-more- more myself."
She held out her hand again, and this time he did take it and press it, but he started, dropped it, and said-
"It is not fair."
"Oh yes, it is. I know what it means," she repeated, "and it makes no difference," and this time it was she who took his hand.
"It means that unless this marriage is disproved, or the man's death proved, I am an outcast, dependent on myself, instead of the curled darling the Grinsteads-blessings on them!-have brought me up."
"I don't know whether I don't like you better so," exclaimed she, looking into his clear eyes and fine open face, full of resolution, not of shame.
"While you say so-" He broke off. "Yes, thus I can bear it better. The estate is almost an oppression to me. The Bohemian nature is in me, I suppose. I had rather carve out life for myself than have the landlord business loaded on my shoulders. Clement and Lance will make the model parson and squire far better than I. 'The Inspector's Tour' was a success-between that and the Underwood music there's no fear but I shall get an independent career."
"Oh! that is noble! You will be much more than your old self-as you said."
"The breaking of Cherie's heart is all that I care about," said he. "To her I was comfort, almost compensation for those brothers. I don't know how-" He paused. "We'll let her alone till all this is over; so, Dolores, not one word to any one."
"No, no, no!" she exclaimed. "I will-I will be true to you through everything, Gerald; I will wait till you have seen your way, and be proud of you through all."
"Then I can bear it-I have my incentive," he said. "First, you see, I must try to rescue my sister. I do not think it will be hard, for the maternal heart seems to be denied to that woman. Then proofs must be sought, and according as they are found or not-"
Loud calls of "Gerald" and "Mr. Underwood" began to resound. He finished-
"Must be the future."
"Our future," repeated Dolores.
CHAPTER XX. FRENCH LEAVE
She came, she is gone, we have met, And meet perhaps never again.-COWPER.
The evening of that day was a scene of welcomes, dinners, and confusion. The Rotherwoods had arrived that evening at the Cliff Hotel just in time for dinner, of which they considerately partook where they were, to save Jane Mohun trouble; but all four of the party came the instant it was over to hear and see all that was going on, and were fervently received by Gillian and Mysie, who were sleeping at their aunt's to be ready for the morrow, and in spite of all fatigue, had legs wherewith to walk Lord Ivinghoe and Lady Phyllis round the stalls, now closed up by canvas and guarded by police. Phyllis was only mournful not to have assisted in the preparations, and heard all the fun that Mrs. Grinstead had made. But over the wall of Carrara a sight was seen for which no one was prepared-no other than Maura White's pretty classical face!
"Yes," she said, "how could I be away from such an occasion? I made Uncle White bring me to London-he had business there, you know-and then I descended on Kalliope, and wasn't she surprised! But I have a lovely Italian dress!"
Kalliope Henderson looked more alarmed than gratified on the whole. She knew that there had been no idea of Maura's coming till after it had been known that the Rotherwoods were to open the bazaar, and "made Uncle White" was so unlike their former relations that all were startled, Gillian asking in a tone of reproof how Aunt Adeline spared Maura.
"Oh, we shall be back at Gastein in less than a week. I could not miss such an occasion."
"I only had her telegram half-an-hour ago," said Kalliope, in an apologetic tone; and Lord Ivinghoe was to be dimly seen handing Maura over the fence. Moonlight gardens and moonlight sea! What was to be done? And Ivinghoe, who had begun life by being as exclusive as the
Marchioness herself! "People take the bit between their teeth nowadays," as Jane observed to Lady Rotherwood when the news reached her, and neither said, though each felt, that Adeline would not have promoted this expedition, even for the child whom she and Mr. White had conspired to spoil. Each was secretly afraid of the attraction for Ivinghoe.
At St. Andrew's Rock there was a glad meeting with the Travis Underwoods, who had disposed of themselves at the Marine Hotel, while they came up with a select party of three Vanderkists to spend the evening with Clement, Geraldine, and Lancelot, not to mention Adrian, who had been allowed to sit up to dinner to see his sisters, and was almost devoured by them. His growth, and the improved looks of both his uncle and aunt, so delighted Marilda, that Lancelot declared the Rockquay people would do well to have them photographed "Then" and "Now," as an advertisement of the place! But he was not without dread of the effect of the disclosure that had yet to be made, though Gerald had apparently forgotten all about it as he sat chaffing Emilia Vanderkist about the hospital, whither she was really going for a year; Sophy about the engineer who had surveyed the Penbeacon intended works, and Francie about her Miranda-Mona in strange hands.
The Vanderkists all began life as very pretty little girls, but showed more or less of the Hollander ancestry as they grow up. Only Franceska, content with her Dutch name, had shot up into a beautiful figure, together with the fine features and complexion of the Underwood twins, and the profuse golden flax hair of her aunt Angela, so that she took them all by surprise in the pretty dress presented by Cousin Marilda, and chosen by Emilia. Sophy was round and short, as nearly plain as one with the family likeness could be, but bright and joyous, and very proud of her young sister. It was a merry evening.
In fact, Lance himself was so much carried away by the spirit of the thing, and so anxious about the performance, that he made all the rest, including Clement, join in singing Autolycus's song, which was to precede the procession, to a new setting of his own, before they dispersed.
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