Peter's Mother Part 45

"And you are like a Cosway miniature yourself, my dear," said Lady Tintern, peering out of her dark eyes at Lady Mary's delicate white face. "Eh--the bright colouring must be a little faded--all the Setouns have pretty complexions--and carmine is a perishable tint, as we all know."

"Sarah has a brilliant complexion," struck in Mrs. Hewel, zealously endeavouring to distract her aunt from the personalities in which she preferred to indulge.

"Sarah looks like a milkmaid, my love," said the old lady, who did not choose to be interrupted, "And when she can hunt as much as she wishes, and live the outdoor life she prefers, she will get the complexion of a boatwoman." She turned to Lady Mary with a gracious nod. "But _you_ may live out of doors with impunity. Time seems to leave something better than colouring to a few Heaven-blessed women, who manage to escape wrinkles, and hardening, and crossness. I am often cross, and so are younger folk than I; and your boy Peter--though how he comes to be your boy I don't know--is very often cross too."

"You have been very kind to Peter," said Lady Mary, laughing. "I am sorry you found him cross."

"No; I was not kind to him. I am not particularly fond of cross people," said the old lady. "It is Sarah who has been kind," and she looked sharply again at Lady Mary.

"I am getting on in years, and very infirm," said Lady Tintern, "and I must ask you to excuse me if I lean upon a stick; but I should like to take a turn about the garden with you. I hear you have a remarkable view from your terrace."

Lady Mary offered her arm with pretty solicitude, and guided her aged but perfectly active visitor through the drawing-room--where she stopped to comment favourably upon the water colours--to the terrace, where John was sitting in the shade of the ilex-tree, absorbed in the London papers.

Lady Mary introduced him as Peter's guardian and cousin.

"How do you do, Mr. Crewys? Your name is very familiar to me," said the old lady. "Though to tell you the truth, Sir Peter looks so much older than his age that I forgot he had a guardian at all."

"He will only have one for a few days longer," said John, smiling. "My authority will expire very shortly."

"But you are, at any rate, the very man I wanted to see," said Lady Tintern, who seldom wasted time in preliminaries. "I would always rather talk business with a man than with a woman; so if Mr. Crewys will lend me his arm to supplement my stick, I will take a turn with him instead of with you, my dear, if you have no objection."

"Did you ever hear anything like her?" said poor Mrs. Hewel, turning to Lady Mary as soon as her aunt was out of hearing. "What Mr. Crewys must think of her, I cannot guess. She always says she had to exercise so much reticence as an amba.s.sadress, that she has given her tongue a holiday ever since. But there is only one possible subject _they_ can have to talk about. And how can we be sure her interference won't spoil everything? She is quite capable of asking what Peter's intentions are. She is the most indiscreet person in the world," said Sarah's mother, wringing her hands.

"I think _Peter_ has made his intentions pretty obvious," said Lady Mary. She smiled, but her eyes were anxious.

"And you are sure you don't mind, dear Lady Mary? For who can depend on Lady Tintern, after all? She is supposed to be going to do so much for Sarah, but if she takes it into her head to oppose the marriage, I can do nothing with her. I never could."

"I am very far from minding," said Lady Mary. "But it is Sarah on whom everything depends. What does she say, I wonder? What does she want?"

"It's no use asking _me_ what Sarah wants," said Mrs. Hewel, plaintively. "Time after time I have told her father what would come of it all if he spoilt her so outrageously. He is ready enough to find fault with the boys, poor fellows, who never do anything wrong; but he always thinks Sarah perfection, and nothing else."

"Sarah is very fortunate, for Peter has the same opinion of her."

"Fortunate! Lady Mary, if I were to tell you the chances that girl has had--not but what I had far rather she married Peter--though she might have done that all the same if she had never left home in her life."

"I am not so sure of that," said Peter's mother.

Lady Tintern's turn took her no further than the fountain garden, where she sank down upon a bench, and graciously requested her escort to occupy the vacant s.p.a.ce by her side.

"I started at an unearthly hour this morning, and I am not so young as I was," she said; "but I am particularly desirous of a good night's rest, and I never can sleep with anything on my mind. So I came over here to talk business. By-the-by, I should have come over here long ago, if any one had had the sense to give me a hint that I had only to cross a muddy stream, in a flat-bottomed boat, in order to see a face like _that_--" She nodded towards the terrace.

John's colour rose slightly. He put the nod and the smile, and the sharp glance of the dark eyes together, and perceived that Lady Tintern had drawn certain conclusions.

"There is some expression in her face," said the old lady, musingly, "which makes me think of Marie Stuart's farewell to France. I don't know why. I have odd fancies. I believe the Queen of Scots had hazel eyes, whereas this pretty Lady Mary has the bluest eyes I ever saw--quite remarkable eyes."

"Those blue eyes," said John, smiling, "have never looked beyond this range of hills since Lady Mary's childhood."

The old lady nodded again. "Eh--a State prisoner. Yes, yes. She has that kind of look." Then she turned to John, with mingled slyness and humour, "On va changer tout cela?"

"As you have divined," he answered, laughing in spite of himself.

"Though how you have divined it pa.s.ses my poor powers of comprehension."

Lady Tintern was pleased. She liked tributes to her intelligence as other women enjoy recognition of their good looks.

"It is very easy, to an observer," she said. "She is frightened at her own happiness. Yes, yes. And that cub of a boy would not make it easier. By-the-by, I came to talk of the boy. You are his guardian?"

"For a week."

"What does it signify for how long? Five minutes will settle my views.

Thank Heaven I did not come later, or I should have had to talk to him, instead of to a man of sense. You must have seen what is going on. What do you think of it?"

"The arrangement suits me so admirably," said John, smiling, "that I am hardly to be relied upon for an impartial opinion."

"Will you tell me his circ.u.mstances?"

John explained them in a few words, and with admirable terseness and lucidity; and she nodded comprehensively all the while.

"That's capital. He can't make ducks and drakes of it. All tied up on the children. I hope they will have a dozen. It would serve Sarah right. Now for my side. Whatever sum the trustees decide to settle upon Sir Peter's wife, I will put down double that sum as Sarah's dowry. Our solicitors can fight the rest out between them. The property is much better than I had been given any reason to suspect. I have no more to say. They can be married in a month. That is settled.

I never linger over business. We may shake hands on it." They did so with great cordiality. "It is not that I am overjoyed at the match,"

she explained, with great frankness. "I think Sarah is a fool to marry a boy. But I have observed she is a fool who always knows her own mind. The fancies of some girls of that age are not worth attending to."

"Miss Sarah is a young lady of character," said John, gravely.

"Ay, she will settle him," said Lady Tintern. Her small, grim face relaxed into a witchlike smile.

"The lad is a good lad. No one has ever said a word against him, and he is as steady as old Time. I believe Miss Sarah's choice, if he is her choice, will be justified," said John.

"I didn't think he was a murderer or a drunkard," said Lady Tintern, cheerfully. Her phraseology was often startling to strangers. "But he is absolutely devoid of--what shall I say? Chivalry? Yes, that is it. Few young men have much nowadays, I am told. But Sir Peter has none--absolutely none."

"It will come."

"No, it will not come. It is a quality you are born with or without.

He was born without. Sarah knows all about it. It won't hurt her; she has the methods of an ox. She goes direct to her point, and tramples over everything that stands in her way. If he were less thick-skinned she would be the death of him; but fortunately he has the hide of a rhinoceros."

"I think you do them both a great deal less than justice," said John; but he was unable to help laughing.

"Oh, you do, do you? I like to be disagreed with." Her voice shook a little. "You must make allowances--for an old woman--who is--disappointed," said Lady Tintern.

John said nothing, but his bright hazel eyes, looking down on the small, bent figure, grew suddenly gentle and sympathetic.

"It is a pleasure to be able to congratulate somebody," she said, returning his look. "I congratulate _you_--and Lady Mary."

"Thank you."

"Most of all, because there is nothing modern about her. She has walked straight out of the Middle Ages, with the face of a saint and a dreamer and a beautiful woman, all in one. I am an old witch, and I am never deceived in a woman. Men, I am sorry to say, no longer take the trouble to deceive me. Now our business is over, will you take me back?"

She took the arm he offered, and tottered back to the terrace.