04 Young Renny

by Mazo de La Roche

"Ham and eggs. My face is almost blistered. You do it for me?"

  "A boy cook ham and eggs!" cried Vera. "He'll be sure to ruin them."

  "Not he! He'll fry them better than I could."

  Vera lingered fascinated by his side while he laid slices of ham in the pan, but seeing Philip's contemplative eyes on her, she turned away and began to talk eagerly to Nicholas.

  One by one the golden yokes were discovered in the transparent whites. Renny squatted by the fire, his face intent, his cheeks burning red from the heat. His wet bathing suit clung to his curved lean body.

  The waiting for the meal was becoming intolerable to Adeline. Leaning on her stick, she plodded up and down through the sand, now peering into the bucket where the wine lay cooling, now surveying the cloth on which Mary was arranging plates of bread and butter, thick ginger cookies, the coconut cake in a shroud of white shreds, and a bowl of halved peaches. Beside this stood a large glass jug containing thick cream. At the other end of the cloth she had placed a dish of potato salad on crisp lettuce leaves and a golden wedge of Cheddar cheese.

  Adeline's mouth watered. She set her teeth together and trudged back to the fire.

  "Keep dipping the fat over the tops of the eggs," she instructed Renny. "Mind what you're doing - you'll have the pan upset!"

  He had turned his head aside to avoid a puff of smoke in his eyes. He had just picked up the last egg.

  "Careful!" warned Meg. "That egg is to be boiled for Peep. He wouldn't eat his dinner because of the new tooth that he is cutting. Mother thought he should have an egg for his tea."

  "Look out!" cried Adeline, "you're spilling the fat!" She poked him in the ribs with her stick while the fat, taking fire, flamed menacingly. Renny dropped the egg from his hand. It broke on the stones and slid, sleek as a lizard, into a crevice.

  "Good heavens!" cried Meg. "See what you've done! Whatever will Mother say!"

  "I'll have to tell her," said Renny. "These are done." He handed the pan to Meg and went to Mary, who was tying the baby's bib. If she had been angry about his treatment of Eden, what would she be now?

  "Look here, Mother," he said. "I've broken Peep's egg. What shall we do about it?"

  "Egg - gegg - gegg -" crowed Peep.

  "Oh, how could you be so stupid?"

  "Gran poked me with her stick and the smoke went in my eyes at the same moment. I'm awfully sorry." He looked miserably down on the baby.

  "Well," said Mary, "he'll just have to have bread and milk, poor lamb!"

  But someone had left Peep's bottle of milk in the sun. It was quite sour. It was too much for Mary. She raged to Philip.

  "I've never seen such behaviour with food in my life," she exclaimed. "Your mother simply ravens about the frying pan and makes Renny lose his head so that the baby's egg is broken. Now Meg has left the jar with his milk in the sun. She's so careless. What am I to do? I shall simply have to take him and go home."

  Philip knocked out his pipe on the sand. He said, calmly - "There's a farm near by. Let Renny go and get some milk there for the kid."

  "Mik - mik - mik -" cried Peep, holding out his hands for the milk jar.

  "I'll go with Renny for the milk," said Vera. "He might spill it. I shan't mind at all."

  "Nonsense!" said Adeline, who had just come up. "Thin some of the cream with warm water. I've given that to my children hundreds of times."

  "No," refused Mary. "He must have the milk."

  Renny and Vera set out. Again their chance to be alone! They hurried along the smooth path in their bare feet. While they waited at the door of the farmhouse they looked at each other and smiled. They could not draw away from that gaze, nor yet could they look steadily. Their glances wavered, dipped, and rose again like gulls on the wing. She longed to touch his glistening brown shoulder. They laughed and made foolish remarks about the chickens that gathered round them. They carried the little pail of milk between them along the path.

  In a quiet spot they set down the pail, and now they were in each other's arms.

  "Vera," he breathed, "I do like you!"

  "Oh, Renny, we should not be doing this!"

  "I thought you were hard, but you're a sweet thing."

  "You're adorable!"

  "How much do you like me?"

  "More than you me."

  "You couldn't. I like you this much." He told her by kisses.

  She whispered - "I'm mad for you, Renny!"

  "God - if we didn't have to go back!"

  "We must. "They're waiting." She drew away from him and hurried along the path.

  Once in sight they were greeted by orders to hasten. Ham and eggs had been kept hot for them. The party was now gathered about the cloth. The teasing smell of coffee that bubbled on the fire filled the air. Appetites were enormous except in the two late comers, and they were scarcely noticed once Mary had got Peep's milk from them. He sat serene on her knee, pausing between mouthfuls of bread and milk to gaze in wonder at the expanse of white cloth, at the array of strange food. Once his grandmother popped a bit of ham into his mouth and he beamed at her the long while it lasted him. Nicholas kept the wine circulating, and Malahide, who had seemed enervated and depressed all the afternoon, became animated. "Perfect weather, a lovely scene, good wine, and charming people - what more could one demand?" he exclaimed. Meg murmured, under her breath - "Your removal."

  With the coffee they disposed themselves more indolently. Renny carried a large cup of it to Hodge, who was eating his meal near the tethered horses. He sat down beside Hodge and offered him a cigarette. They began to talk of Gallant. The fact that other horses from the Jalna stables were entered in the Show had sunk to unimportance. All hopes were centred on the colt. When Renny and Hodge talked of him they forgot everything else and brooded only on the beauty of lovely horseflesh.

  Mary went and stood by herself on the shore watching the dark rose bars of the afterglow. It was growing cool and she held her slender body in her arms while an aching sadness made her eyes fill with tears. She was happy and, because of her happiness and the lovely colour of the sky, she wanted to weep. The voices of the others came to her, sweet and sad, like evening bells.

  A small cold hand reached up to touch hers. Her fingers closed over it with tender pressure.

  Eden asked - "Why did you come here, Mummie?"

  "To watch the colours in the sky."

  "And on the lake, too. There are colours deep down in the lake."

  "Yes. Do you like them?"

  "Do you?"

  "Yes. But they make me long for something. You can't understand that."

  "I do. They make me sad too."

  Philip came across the sand that now lay in shadow. "Time to go! The horses are ready. The girls have the baskets packed and Peep is asleep on Mamma's lap."

  Eden put up his arms and tugged at his father's coat. "Oh, I'm so tired! Do you think you could carry me a little way?"

  Philip swung him to his shoulder, Mary put her hand in Philip's arm, but she was reluctant to return, even though she too was tired.

  BONEY

  HE HAD HAD a lonely day. The dullness of the morning had been unbearable. The sun was so hot that Adeline had kept the curtains of her bedroom drawn, and when he had complained to her, demanded her attention by a harsh coughing sound ceaselessly repeated, she had laid a square of dark cloth over his cage, cutting him off from all sight of her, from all movement of air. In her excitement over the picnic she had forgotten to remove the cloth and he had languished the rest of the day in a silent house, his only pastime the tearing of cloth to shreds and the spitting out of his seed shells on to the floor.

  Adeline was contrite when she saw him humped there in his cage, an expression of abysmal gloom on his beak. She uncovered him and spoke to him in comforting Hindoo all the while she changed the black cashmere dress she had worn to the picnic for her second-best black silk. What a relief it was to take off her bonnet and put on a fresh lace cap! She fastened the collar of her bodice with a diamond
brooch set in twists of dull gold.

  She took Boney from his cage and attached to his leg the slender chain of his perch. She took the perch in her hand and, carrying it in front of her, appeared, as though in procession, at the door of the drawing room, where the rest of the family were gathered.

  "Poor old Boney!" she said. "What a day he's had! I left him with his cage covered, a thing I never remember doing before. Now he's coming into the heart of the company." She planted his perch in the middle of the room and sat herself in the chair Malahide placed for her.

  Philip said - "Hadn't we better have something to eat? It seems a long while since the picnic tea."

  His mother looked at him sharply. "What's the matter with supper? We're accustomed to supper, aren't we?"

  "But, Mamma," objected Mary, "when do we eat such a tea as that? For my part I could not touch another mouthful, but of course we can easily have supper for any who want it."

  "Nothing but a whiskey and soda and some biscuits for me," said Nicholas. "What about you, Malahide?"

  Malahide's preoccupation of the afternoon had returned. He was sunk in a deep chair in a dark corner of the room. He held his chin in his hand and his heavy eyes regarded the family with languid indifference behind which a spark of anger burned. He had disliked the day he had spent almost as much as Boney had disliked his, and he was too tired, for once, to conceal his feelings. He answered, in a low voice: -

  "I'll have a whiskey, but no biscuits, thank you."

  Adeline said - "What, losing your appetite, Mally? Now I want a pot of tea and some buttered toast and anchovy paste. You children will sup with your Granny, won't you?"

  Meg and Renny agreed that they would. Philip went for the whiskey and soda, and in a short time Eliza appeared with a silver pot of tea, a pile of toast, so well buttered that golden globules oozed from slice to slice, collecting in a pool on the plate beneath. Adeline's eyes gleamed as she dipped into the anchovy paste.

  "I like things off a tray," said Meg. "I enjoy them more than my regular meals."

  "It's a bad habit," said Renny, thickly spreading a slice for himself.

  "Nothing that you enjoy is a bad habit," observed their grandmother. "It's the food you eat without enjoyment that plays hob with your stomach." With satisfaction she placed her lips to her brimming cup of tea.

  The hiss of the syphon sounded and Nicholas filled his pipe. A steady glow from the ceiling lamp cast a charmed light about the circle, with the exception of the corner where Malahide drooped. He tossed off his whiskey with a desperate air.

  If Boney had expected some rare titbit in compensation for the dullness of his day he was disappointed. No one paid any attention to him. He walked the length of his perch, claw over claw, regarding the company with angry glances. He opened his beak wide and brought it together with a snap. He dropped his wings and, thrusting forward, exclaimed: -

  "To hell with Cousin Malahide!"

  Ripples of pleasure stirred his plumage as he uttered this sentence, for it was the first time he had said it except in solitude.

  "What's that? What does he say?" demanded Nicholas.

  Boney turned to him with an undulation of his supple neck. He repeated ferociously: -

  "To hell with Cousin Malahide! To hell with Malahide! Hell - hell - hell - with Malahide!"

  Was there something in the inflection, in the metallic enunciation of these words, that made all eyes turn to Renny? Malahide set down his glass and went green rather than white.

  Renny burst into loud laughter. He doubled himself over his folded arms. It was more than Nicholas and Philip could bear.lhey joined their mirth to his.7heir laughter was more than Mary and Meg could withstand. All their dislike of Malahide was loosed in shrill feminine merriment.

  Boney rocked in his perch, ribald, relentless, screaming to make himself heard above the confusion he had created. He leered from one face to the other and repeated: -

  "Hell - hell - hell with Cousin Malahide - Paji - Haramzada - Iflatoon - Kuza Pusth - Sugprast- hell - hell - hell - with Malahide!"

  Malahide Court rose slowly to his feet and took a long, menacing step in the direction of the parrot. He said, with his lip lifted in a snarl: -

  "To hell with you, I say! And to hell with the one who taught you these insulting words! You swear at me? Listen then: Soor - Soor - Kunjus - Kutni! Churail!Afimche!"

  Bent on his perch, with cocked head, drinking in every oath that Malahide had uttered, as though listening to the ravings of another parrot, Boney could now restrain himself no longer. More furiously than before he screamed:

  "Hell with Malahide! Hell with Malahide! Hell - hell - hell! Iflatoon! Chore!"

  "Filthy bird," sneered Malahide, drawing a step closer. "Nimak Haram! Nimak Halo!! Sakth Dii!"

  `Hyman! Sala! Dagal! To hell with Malahide!"

  "Piakur! Subakhis!Jab kute!"

  In a paroxysm of rage Boney rocked and cursed. It seemed that he would choke with the hate that was in him. And the louder he screamed his imprecations the more his listeners abandoned themselves to laughter - all but Adeline and Malahide.

  Renny exclaimed, in Meg's ear - "This is all too much! I shall die of joy."

  Her lips formed the words - "Me too!"

  Adeline sat, with one heavily ringed hand shading her face, of which it could be seen that the colour was steadily deepening.

  Squatting on his perch, with drooped wings, while waves of fury shook his brilliant plumage, Boney confronted Malahide. Their two mouths upcurving beneath their drooping beaks gave them a curious resemblance.

  As Malahide delivered himself of a litter of black curses and shook a long forefinger in the parrot's face, Boney thrust out his head and caught the finger in his beak. Malahide doubled up in pain.

  Before he could retaliate Boney leaped the length of his chain and settled on Adeline's shoulder. He began to peck wickedly at the ribbons on her cap.

  "Too bad, too bad, Malahide," said Philip, ordering his face to calmness.

  Malahide turned on him. "Don't you sympathize with me! You have insulted me."

  "No, no - but the bird was so damn funny."

  Mary said - "I hope you're not hurt."

  Malahide almost screamed - "No, you don't! You hope very much that I am hurt. And I am! Look at that!" He shook his finger at her, from which the crimson drops sprang.

  "Have another whiskey and soda," advised Nicholas.

  "I want nothing from this house! I leave tonight."

  "Come," said Philip. "We've not treated you badly."

  "Badly! Your young ruffian has made life here a hell for me."

  At the word Boney swayed on Adeline's shoulder and rasped "Hell - hell - hell with Malahide!"

  Adeline snatched the antimacassar from the back of her chair and threw it over his head.

  Malahide continued - "Yes, it was he who taught the parrot that insult."

  Adeline said - "He shall apologize."

  Philip turned to his son. "I agree. You must apologize to Malahide."

  "I'm damned if I will."

  "What - what -" said Philip, glaring at him, but with laughter in his eyes. "You refuse?"

  "I apologize," said Renny, grinning. "I apologize for teaching Boney to say `To hell with Cousin Malahide!

  Boney raved under the antimacassar: -

  "Hell - hell - hell!"

  Malahide bowed elaborately to Renny. He said, in concentrated passion: -

  "We will have this out - when the night of the Show comes. Then you - and your bucking bronco - shall bite the dust."

  "Well said, Malahide!" declared Adeline. "Now come and let me bind your poor finger."

  With something of childlike docility he went to her, while keeping a watchful eye on the parrot. She took her own handkerchief and deftly tied up the wound.

  Philip, with a long look into Nicholas's eyes, pushed the decanter toward him. Molly began softly strumming on the piano, while Renny and Meg disappeared behind the long window curtains i
n a pretended search for the new moon.

  TENTING TONIGHT

  IT WAS WITH difficulty that Adeline had restrained her amusement at the duet between her parrot and her kinsman. It had been a scene after her own heart, and when she and Boney were in the seclusion of her room, she gave him not a little praise for the manner in which he had performed his part in it. Yet she was troubled about Malahide. If, as it seemed, he was to nurse his anger too fiercely, it might have an ill effect on his nerves. He and Harpie must win at the Show. Robert Vaughan had set his heart on it. Her championing of Malahide must be justified, her desire to triumph over Philip and Renny gratified. In the days intervening between now and the event, Malahide must be protected, humoured, praised.

  But when he appeared next morning at her door he brought with him a gloom that her archest smile could not disperse. He seemed already sick with the taste of defeat. An impersonal blackness seemed engendered at his very core. Her smile wavered as she looked into his face.

  "This is the end," he said. "I shall go."

  "Go!" she repeated, frowning. "But where?"

  "God knows! Anywhere away from here!"

  She took the lapel of his coat and drew him into the room. "You're flurried," she said, "and no wonder. But let me tell you how much I admired the challenge you flung at that young rascal."

  "That," he said, "was in the heat of the moment. This morning I have no more bowels than a jellyfish."

  "Now, I'll tell you what," she said, "you shall spend the time between now and the Show at Vaughanlands. The change will do you good. The congenial company - everyone on your side - will put new life into you."

  If it were possible to look blacker, he now did.

  "Well," she said, impatiently, "what have you against the Vaughans?"

  He dropped into a chair and took his head in his hands. "It is no use, Cousin Adeline," he said. "I could not endure the atmosphere of that house. Robert Vaughan and his wife bore me, crush me, take away what energy I have left. I shall send a cable to my mother and tell her that she must receive me. I must go home." And he added, bitterly - "If one can call it a home."

  Adeline's shaggy red brows went up to her cap. She pulled her bell cord and asked Eliza to bring Mr. Court a glass of gin and bitters. He was far from well. Eliza had a great contempt for Malahide. She obeyed grimly.