Lady Good-for-Nothing: A Man's Portrait of a Woman

by Arthur Quiller-Couch

  Chapter VI.

  CAPTAIN HARRY AND MR. HANMER.

  "Guests, has he?--Out of my road, you rascal! Guests? I'll warrantthere's none so welcome--"

  A good cheery voice--a voice the curtain could not muffle--rang it downthe corridor as on the note of a cornet.

  The wine was at Ruth's lip, scarcely wetting it. She lowered the glasssteadily and turned half-about in her chair at the moment when, asbefore a whirlwind, the curtain flew wide and a stranger burst in on therun with Manasseh at his heels.

  "Oliver!" The stranger drew himself up in the doorway--a well-knitfigure of a man, clear of eye, bronzed of hue, clad in blue sea-clothfaced with scarlet, and wearing a short sword at the hip. "Where's myOliver?" he shouted. "You'll forgive my voice, gentlemen. I'm HarryVyell, at your service, fresh from shipboard, and not hoarse withanthems like old what-d'ye-call-him." Running his gaze along the table,he sighted the Collector and broke into a view-halloo.

  "Oliver! Brother Noll!" Captain Harry made a second run of it, caughthis foot on the prostrate toper whom Langton had dragged out of MissQuiney's way, and fell on his brother's neck. Recovering himself with a"damn," he clapped his left hand on Sir Oliver's shoulder, seized SirOliver's right in his grip and started pump-handling--"as though"murmured Langton, "the room were sinking with ten feet of liquor in thehold."

  "Harry--is it Harry?" Sir Oliver stammered, and made a weak effort torise.

  "Lord! You're drunk!" Captain Harry crowed the cheerful discovery."Well, and I'll join you--but in moderation, mind! Newly married man--if some one will be good enough to pass the decanter? . . . My dearfellow! . . . Cast anchor half an hour ago--got myself rowed ashorehot-foot to shake my Noll by the hand. Lord, brother, you can't thinkhow good it feels to be married! Sally won't be coming ashoreto-night; the hour's too late, she says; so I'm allowed an hour'sliberty." Here the uxorious fellow paused on a laugh, indicating thathe found irony in the word. "But Sally--capital name, Sally, for asailor's wife; she's Sarah to all her family, Sal to me--Sally iscunning. Sally gives me leave ashore, but on condition I take Hanmer tolook after me. He's my first lieutenant--first-rate officer, too--butno ladies' man. Gad!" chuckled Captain Harry, "I believe he'd run amile from a petticoat. But where is he? Hi, Hanmer! step aft-alonghere and be introduced!"

  A tall grave man, who had entered unnoticed, walked past the line ofguests and up to his captain. He too wore a suit of blue with scarletfacings, and carried a short sword or hanger at his belt. He stoodstiffly, awaiting command. The candle-light showed, beneath his rightcheek bone, the cicatrix of a recent wound.

  But Captain Harry, slewing round to him, was for the moment bereft ofspeech. His gaze had happened, for the first time, on little MissQuiney.

  "Eh?" he stammered, recovering himself. "Your pardon, ma'am. I wasn'taware that a lady--" Here his eyes, travelling to the end of the table,were arrested by the vision of Ruth Josselin. "Wh-e-ew!" he whistled,under his breath.

  "Sir Oliver--" Batty Langton stood up.

  "Hey?" The name gave Captain Harry yet another shock. He spun aboutagain upon his brother. "'Sir Oliver'? _Whats_ he saying?"

  "You've not heard?" said the Collector, gripping his words slowly, oneby one. "No, of course you've not. Harry, our uncle is dead."

  There was a pause. "Poor old boy!" he muttered. "Used to be kind tous, Noll, after his lights. If it hadn't been for his womenkind."

  "They're coming across to visit me, damn 'em!"

  "What? Aunt Carrie and Di'? . . . Good Lord!"

  "They're on the seas at this moment--may be here within the week."

  "Good Lord!" Captain Harry repeated, and his eyes wandered again to RuthJosselin. "Awkward, hey? . . . But I say, Noll--you really _are_ SirOliver! Dear lad, I give you joy, and with all my heart. . . .Gad, here's a piece of news for Sally!"

  Again he came to a doubtful halt, and again with his eyes on RuthJosselin. He was not a quick-witted man, outside of his calling, nor aman apt to think evil; but he had been married a month, and this hadbeen long enough to teach him that women and men judge by differentstandards.

  "Sir Oliver," repeated Langton, "Miss Josselin craves your leave toretire."

  "Yes, dear"--Miss Quiney launched an approving nod towards her--"I wasabout to suggest it, with Sir Oliver's leave. The hour is late, and bythe time the sedan-chair returns for me--"

  "There is no reason, Tatty, why we should not return together," saidRuth quietly. "The night is fine; and, with Manasseh for escort, I canwalk beside your chair."

  "Pardon me, ladies," put in Mr. Silk. "Once in the upper town, you maybe safe enough; but down here by the quay the sh--sailors--I know 'em--it's my buishness. 'Low me--join the eshcort."

  But here, perceived by few in the room, a somewhat remarkable thinghappened. Mr. Hanmer, who had stood hitherto like a statue, put out ahand and laid it on Mr. Silk's shoulder; and there must have been somepower in that grip, for Mr. Silk dropped into his seat without anotherword.

  Captain Harry saw it, and broke into a laugh.

  "Why, to be sure! Hanmer's the very man! The rest of ye too drunk--meaning no offence; and, for me,--well, for me, you see there's Sallyto be reckoned with." He laughed aloud at this simple jocularity."Hanmer!"

  "Yes, sir."

  "Convoy."

  "If you wish it, sir." The lieutenant bowed stiffly; but it was to benoted that the scar, which had hitherto showed white on a bronzed cheek,now reddened on a pale one.

  Miss Quiney hesitated. "The gentleman, as a stranger to Boston--"

  "I'll answer for Hanmer, ma'am. You'll get little talk out of him; but,be there lions at large in Boston, Jack Hanmer'll lead you past 'em."

  "Like Mr. Greatheart in the parable," spoke up Ruth, whose eyes had beentaking stock of the proposed escort, though he stood in the penumbra andat half the room's length away. "Tatty--if my lord permit andLieutenant Hanmer be willing--"

  She stood up, and with a curtsy to Sir Oliver, swept to the door.Miss Quiney pattered after; and Mr. Hanmer, with a bow and hand liftedto the salute, stalked out at their heels.

  "I'll warrant Jack Hanmer 'd liefer walk up to a gun," swore CaptainHarry as the curtain fell behind them. "He bolts from the sight ofSally. I'll make Sally laugh over this." But here he pulled himself upand added beneath his voice, "I can't tell her, though."

  The road as it climbed above the town toward Sabines grew rough and fullof pitfalls. Even by the light of the full moon shining between theelms Miss Quiney's chairmen were forced to pick their way warily, sothat the couple on the side-walk--which in comparison was well paved--easily kept abreast of them.

  Ruth walked with the free grace of a Dryad. The moonlight shone now andagain on her face beneath the arch of her wimple; and once, as sheglanced up at the heavens, Mr. Hanmer--interpreting that she lifted herhead to a scent of danger, and shooting a sidelong look despitehimself--surprised a lustre as of tears in her eyes; whereupon he feltashamed, as one who had intruded on a secret.

  "Mr. Hanmer."

  "Ma'am?"

  "I have a favour to beg. . . . Is it true, by the way," she askedmischievously, "that to talk with a woman distresses you?"

  "Ma'am--"

  "My name is Ruth Josselin."

  Mr. Hanmer either missed to hear the correction or heard and put itaside. "Been at sea all my life," he explained. "They caught meyoung."

  Ruth looked sideways at him and laughed--a liquid little laugh, muchlike the bubbling note of a thrush. "You could not have given an answermore pat, sir. I want to speak to you about a child, caught young andabout to be taken to sea. You are less shy with children, I hope?"

  "Not a bit," confessed Mr. Hanmer. He added, "They take to me, though--the few I've met.

  "Dick will take to you, for certain. Dicky is Sir Oliver's child."

  "I didn't know--" Mr. Hanmer came to a full stop.

  "No," said Ruth, as though she echoed him. "He is eight years oldalmost."
Her eyes looked straight ahead, but she was aware that his hadscanned her face for a moment, and almost she felt his start ofreassurance.

  "So, the child being a friend of mine, and his father having promisedhim a cruise in the _Venus_, you see that I very much want to know whatmanner of lady is Captain Harry's wife; and that I could not ask youpoint-blank because you would have set the question down to idlecuriosity. . . . It might make all the difference to him," she added,getting no answer.

  "A child of eight, and the country at war!" Mr. Hanmer muttered."His father must know that we cruise ready for action."

  "I tell you, sir, what Dicky told me this morning."

  "But it's impossible!"

  "To that, sir, I might find you half a dozen answers. To begin with, weall know--and Sir Oliver perhaps, from private information, knows betterthan any of us--that peace is in sight. Here in the northern Coloniesit has arrived already; the enemy has no fleet on this side of theworld, and on this coast no single ship to give you any concern."

  "Guarda-costas? There may be a few left on the prowl, even in theselatitudes. I don't believe it for my part; we've accounted for most of'em. Still--"

  "And Captain Harry thinks so much of them that he sails from Carolina toBoston with his bride on board!"

  "You are right, Miss Josselin, and you are wrong. . . . Mistress Vyellhas come to Boston in the _Venus_; and by reason that her husband, whenhe started, had as little acquaintance with fear for others as forhimself. But if she return to Carolina it will be by land or when peaceis signed. Love has made the Captain think; and thought has made him--well, with madam on board, I am thankful--" He checked himself.

  "You are thankful he did not sight a guarda-costa." She concluded thesentence for him, and walked some way in silence, while he at her sidewas silent, being angry at having said so much.

  "Yet Captain Harry is recklessly brave?" she mused.

  "To the last degree, Miss Josselin," Mr. Hanmer agreed eagerly. "To thelast degree within the right military rules. Fighting a ship's an art,you see."

  It seemed that she did not hear him. "It runs in the blood," she said.She was thinking, fearfully yet exultantly, of this wonderful power ofwomen, for whose sake cowards will behave as heroes and heroes turn tocowards.

  They had outstripped the chairmen, and were at the gate of Sabines.He held it open for her. She bethought her that his last two or threesentences had been firmly spoken, that his voice had shaken off itshusky stammer, and on the impulse of realised power she took a fancy tohear it tremble again.

  "But if madam will not be on board to look after Dicky, the more will heneed a friend. Mr. Hanmer, will you be that friend?"

  "You are choosing a rough sort of nurse-maid."

  "But will you?" She faced him, wonderful in the moonlight.

  His eyes dropped. His voice stammered, "I--I will do my best, MissJosselin."

  She held out a hand. He took it perforce in his rope-roughened paw,held it awkwardly for a moment, and released it as one lets a birdescape.

  Ruth smiled. "The best of women," ran a saying of Batty Langton's,"if you watch 'em, are always practising; even the youngest, as a kittenplays with a leaf."

  They stood in silence, waiting for the chair to overtake them.

  "Tatty, you are a heroine!"

  Miss Quiney, unwinding a shawl from her head under the hall-lamp,released herself from Ruth's embrace. Her nerve had been strained andneeded a recoil.

  "Maybe," she answered snappishly. "For my part, I'd take more comfort,just now, to be called a respectable woman."

  Ruth laughed, kissed her again, and stood listening to the footsteps asthey retreated down the gravelled way. Among them her eardistinguished easily the firm tread of Mr. Hanmer.