Frank Fairlegh Part 23

"You do not mean that in sober earnest?" said I.

"Perhaps not actually in fact," replied Freddy, "but in effect I believe he does. Clara tells Lucy she never sees any one."

"She shall see me to-day, if I can possibly contrive it," said I. "Oh for the good old days of chivalry, when knocking the guardian on the head, and running away with the imprisoned damsel afterwards, would have been accounted a very moral and gentlemanlike way of spending the morning!"

"Certainly, they had a pleasant knack of simplifying matters, 'those knights of old,'" replied Freddy; "but it's not a line of business that would have suited me at all; in balancing their accounts, the kicks always appear to have obtained a very uncomfortable preponderance over the halfpence; besides, the _causa belli_ was a point on which their ideas were generally in a deplorable state of confusion: when one kills a man, it's as well to have some slight notion _why_ one does it; and the case comes home to one still more closely if it's somebody else who's going to kill you."

"You're about right there, Master Freddy," said I, smiling as I shook hands with him, and quitted the house. %

CHAPTER XVII -- THE INVISIBLE GIRL

-145--

"Aye, that's a dolt indeed, for he doth nothing but talk of his horse."

--_Merchant of Venice_.

"Yond young fellow swears he will speak with you. What's to be said to him? He's fortified against any denial."

--_Twelfth Night_.

"Be subject to no sight but mine; invisible To every eyeball else."

--_Tempest_.

ON arriving at the inn, to which I was forced to return to order my horse, I perceived Lawless's tandem waiting at the door, surrounded by a crowd of admiring rustics, with Shrimp, his arms folded with an air of nonchalant defiance, which seemed to say, "Oh! run over me by all means if you choose," stationed directly in front of the leader's head. On entering the parlour I found Lawless busily engaged in pulling on a pair of refractory boots, and looking very hot and red in the face from the exertion.

"How are you, Fairlegh? how are you? That stupid fool has made 'em too tight for anybody but Tom Thumb, and be hanged to him. Ever read fairy tales, Fairlegh? I did when I was a little shaver, and wore c.o.c.k-tailed petticoats--all bare legs and bustle--'a Highland lad my love was born'; that style of thing, rather, you know; never believed 'em, though: wasn't to be done even then; eh? Well, this is a puzzler; I can't get 'em on. Where's the fellow they call Boots? Here, you sir, come and see if you can pull on these confounded namesakes of yours, and I'll tip you half a crown if you succeed; cheaper than breaking one's back, eh?"

"Where are you off to, supposing you should ever get those boots on?"

asked I.

"Eh? I am going to call on the young woman I set alight at the hop last night, and tell her I'm quite down in the mouth about it; explain that I didn't go to do it; that it was quite a mistake, and all owing to the other young woman's being so fresh, in fact; and then offer to rig her out again, start her in new harness from bridle -146--crupper, all at my own expense, and that will be finis.h.i.+ng off the affair handsomely, won't it?"

"I should advise your leaving out that last piece of munificence,"

replied I; "she might think it an insult." "An insult, eh? Oh, if she's so proud as all that comes to I'd better stay away altogether; I shall be safe to put my foot into it there, a good deal faster than I have into these villainous boots--that's it, Sampson, another pull such as that and the deed's done," added Lawless, patting the human Boots on the back encouragingly.

"I was just going to ride over to inquire after Miss Saville myself,"

said I.

"That's the very thing, then," was the reply. "I'll drive you there instead; it will be better for your scorched fin (pointing to my injured arm) than jolting about outside a horse, and you shall tell me what to say as we go along; you seem to understand the s.e.x, as they call the petticoats, better than I do, and can put a fellow up to a few of the right dodges. I only wish they were all horses, and then I flatter myself I should not require any man's advice how to harness, drive, train, or physic them."

"The ladies are infinitely indebted to you," replied I, as I ran upstairs to prepare for our expedition.

A drive of rather less than an hour and a half, during which the thorough-breds performed in a way to delight every lover of horseflesh, brought us to the park gate of Barstone Priory, where Mr. Vernor resided. After winding in and out for some half-mile amongst groups of magnificent forest-trees, their trunks partially concealed by plantations of rare and beautiful shrubs, a sudden turn of the road brought us in front of the Priory--an ancient, venerable-looking pile of building, which had evidently, as its name implied, once belonged to some religious community. The alterations it had undergone, in order to adapt it to its present purpose, had been carried out with more taste and skill than are usually met with in such cases. The garden, with its straight terrace-walks and brilliant flower-beds, contrasted well with the grey stone of which the building was composed, while the smooth-shaven lawn, with an old, quaintly carved sundial in the centre, and, above all, the absence of any living creature whatsoever, imparted an air of severe formality to the scene, which, as the eye rested upon it, seemed to realise all one had read of monastic discipline and seclusion; and one half expected to see a train of dark-veiled nuns or sandalled friars winding slowly forth from the hall-door.

-147--"What a singular old shop!" exclaimed my companion, regarding the structure with a look of displeased criticism; "wretched little windows as ever I saw; they must be all in the dark inside on a dull day, and every day would be dull if one lived there, I should think. It would puzzle a fellow to tell whether that building was clerical or lay, fish or flesh; a castle that had taken a serious turn, or a church out for the day in plain clothes; how people can like to live in such a mouldy, rusty, musty old barn, that looks as full of ghosts as a cheese is of mites, I can't conceive."

"There certainly is an appearance of gloom and loneliness about the place," replied I; "but I think it is chiefly owing to the absence of any living object--a herd of deer in the park, a group of children and dogs playing on the lawn--anything to give animation to the picture, would be the greatest improvement."

"I should just think it would," returned Lawless. "Fancy a pack of hounds under that jolly old oak yonder, the huntsman and whips in their bits of pink, and a field of about fifty of the right sort of fellows on thorough-breds, dawdling about, talking to one another, or taking a canter over the turf, just to settle themselves in the saddle; that would be a sight to make old Vernor look a little better pleased than he did last night, sing out for his boots and buckskins, and clap his leg over the first four-footed beast that came in his way, even if it should happen to be the old cow."

"I hope I may be there to see if he does," replied I laughing.

On inquiring whether Mr. Vernor was at home we were answered in the affirmative by a tall, gaunt-looking man-servant, with a stern, not to say surly, countenance, the expression of which was in some degree contradicted by a pair of quick, restless little grey eyes, which in any other face one should have said twinkled merrily beneath the large grizzled eyebrows which o'ershadowed them.

Having, at Lawless's request, procured a nondescript hobbledehoy of indefinite character to stand at the horses' heads (we had left Shrimp behind, by common consent, that he might be no restraint on our conversation), he conducted us across the hall into a kind of morning-room, fitted up with oak panels, and with a very handsome old carved oak chimney-piece reaching half-way to the ceiling. He was leaving the room to inform his master of our arrival when Lawless stopped him by saying:--

"Here, just wait a bit; tell the young woman--that is -148--to say, don't tell her anything; but I mean, let Miss Saville be made aware (I see you're awake, for all your long face), put her up to our being here; don't you know, eh?" "Tip him," whispered I.

"Eh, stop a bit; you're a very honest fellow, and it's right to reward faithful servants; and--you understand all about it, eh?"

One portion of this somewhat incoherent address he did understand, evidently, for without altering a muscle of his face, he put out his hand, took the money, and left the room with the same unconscious air of imperturbability which he had maintained throughout the whole conference. "Good move that, eh?" exclaimed Lawless, as soon as the door was closed; "that'll fetch her out of her hole, for a guinea. Mind, I shall do my best to cut you out, Master Frank. I don't see why I haven't a right to quite as large a share of her grat.i.tude as you have, for if I hadn't set her on fire you'd never have put her out; so, in fact, she owes it all to me--don't you see?"

"I'm afraid there's a little sophistry in that argument," replied I; "but we had better wait till we find whether we shall have the opportunity afforded us of trying our powers of fascination before we quarrel about the effects to be produced by them. I cannot say I feel over sanguine as to the success of your somewhat original negotiation with that raw-boned giant in the blue plush _sine qua nons_, as Coleman calls them."

"Time will show," rejoined Lawless, turning towards the door, which opened at this moment to admit Mr. Vernor; and, alas! him only.

His reception of us, though perfectly easy and well-bred, was anything but agreeable or encouraging. He answered our inquiries after Miss Saville's health by informing us, cursorily, that no ill effects had ensued from her alarm of the previous evening. He received Lawless's apologies with a calm, half-ironical smile, and an a.s.surance that they were not required; and he slightly thanked me for my obliging a.s.sistance in words perfectly unexceptionable in themselves, but which, from a peculiarity in the tone of voice more than anything else, impressed one with a sense of insult rather than of compliment. Still, in compliance with certain expressive looks from Lawless, who evidently was most unwilling to be convinced of the failure of his little bit of diplomacy, I used every means I could think of to prolong the visit. I first admired, then criticised, the carving of the chimney-piece; I dived into a -149--book of prints which lay upon the table, and prosed about mezzo-tint and line engraving, and bored myself, and of course my hearers also, till our powers of endurance were taxed almost beyond their strength; and, at last, having completely exhausted not only my small-talk, but my entire stock of conversation of all sorts and sizes, I was regularly beaten to a stand-still, and obliged to take refuge in alternately teasing and caressing a beautiful black and tan setter, which seemed the only member of the party thoroughly sociable and at his ease.

At length it became apparent even to Lawless himself that the visit could not be protracted longer, and we accordingly rose and took our leave, our host (I will not call him entertainer, for it would be a complete misnomer) preserving the same tone of cool and imperturbable politeness to the very last. On reaching the hall we encountered the surly old footman, whose features looked more than ever as if they had been carved out of some very hard species of wood.

"I say, old boy, where's the young lady, eh?" exclaimed Lawless, as soon as he caught sight of him; "she never showed so much as the tip of her nose in the room; how was that, eh?"

"If she com'd into the room when gentlemen was calling, master would eat her without salt," was the reply.

"Which fact you were perfectly aware of when you took my tip so quietly just now?"

"In course I was, why should I not be?"

"Done brown for once, by Jove!" muttered Lawless as he left the hall; "a raw-boned old rogue, I'll be even with him some day, though----, we shall see, eh?"

While Lawless was busily engaged in settling some of the harness which had become disarranged the old footman came up to me and whispered, "Make use of your eyes as you drive through the park, and mayhap you'll spy some _game worth looking after_, young gentleman".

Surprised at this unexpected address, I turned to question him as to its meaning, but in vain; for no sooner had he finished speaking than he re-entered the hall and shut the door behind him.

What could he intend me to understand, thought I; he evidently wished to imply something beyond the simple meaning of the words "game worth looking after"; could he mean to----no! the thing is impossible--"absurd!" exclaimed I, as a wild idea shot through my brain and I felt myself colour like a girl.

-150--"What's absurd?" exclaimed Lawless, gathering up the reins as he spoke; "what are you talking about? why, you're ranting and staring about you like a play-actor; what's the matter with you, eh, Frank?"

"Nothing," replied I, taking my seat; "don't drive too fast through the park, I want to look at the view as we go along."

In obedience to the gaunt domestic's mysterious injunction I made the best use of my eyes as we retraced our way through the park, and for my pains had the satisfaction of beholding a solitary rabbit, half-hidden under a dock-leaf, and sundry carrion crows.

CHAPTER XVIII -- THE GAME IN BARSTONE PARK