The Daltons Volume II Part 37

"Just let me sit here, and watch the rippling of that s.h.i.+ning river!"

sighed Mrs. Ricketts, laying her hand on Dalton's, and, by a melting look, withdrawing him from Scroope's unlucky reminiscence. "If I could but pa.s.s the night here, I feel it would be ecstasy."

"What easier, if it's in earnest you are?" cried Dalton. "We never make use of this little drawing-room. Nelly will get you a bed put up in five minutes."

"Is n't that Irish, Scroope?--is n't that what I often told you of Ireland?" cried Zoe, as her eyes glistened.

"Well, but I'm not joking," resumed Dalton; "small as the place is, we can make room for you all. We 'll put Miss Martha in Nelly's room, and the General can have mine; and there's a mighty snug t.i.ttle place for you in the garden."

"Oh, dear, dear, dear Ireland, how I love you!" said Mrs. Ricketts, closing her eyes, and affecting to talk in her sleep.

"There's worse places," murmured Dalton, who drank in national flattery as the pleasantest "tipple" after personal. "But say the word, now, and see if we won't make you comfortable."

"Comfortable!----you mean happy, supremely happy," e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Zoe.

"And there's no inconvenience in it, none whatever," continued Dalton, who now was breast-high in his plot. "That's a fine thing in this little town of Baden; you can have everything at a moment's warning, from a sirloin of beef to a strait-waistcoat."

Now Mrs. Ricketts laughed till her eyes overflowed with tears, at Dalton's drollery; and Scroope, too, cackled his own peculiar cry; and the old General chimed in with a faint wheezing sound,--a cross between the wail of an infant and a death-rattle; in the midst of which Dalton hurried away to seek Nelly, who was showing the garden to Martha.

"Now, mind me, Scroope," cried Mrs. Ricketts, as soon as they were alone; "no selfishness, no eternal trouble about your own comfort. We may probably pa.s.s the summer here, and--"

"But I--I----I won't sleep under the stairs, I--I----I promise you,"

cried he, angrily.

"You had a dear little room, with a lovely view, at Noeringen. You are most ungrateful."

"It was a d-d ear little room, six feet sqnare, and looked ont on a tannery. My skin would have been leather if I had st-st-stayed another week in it."

"Martha slept in a wardrobe, and never complained."

"For that matter, I pa.s.sed two months in a sh-shower-bath," cried Scroope; "but I--I won't do it a-any more."

To what excesses his rebellious spirit might have carried him it is hard to say, for Dalton now came up with Nelly, who was no less eager than her father to offer the hospitalities of the villa. At the hazard of detracting in the reader's esteem from all this generous liberality, we feel bound to add that neither Dalton nor his daughter ever speculated on the lengthened sojourn which Mrs. Ricketts's more prophetic spirit foreshadowed.

The accidental mistake about the hotel first suggested the offer, which of course the next day was sure to obviate. And now, as it has so often been an unpleasant task to record little flaws and frailties of the Rickettses' nature, let us take the opportunity of mentioning some traits of an opposite kind, which, even as a "set-off," are not valueless. Nothing could be more truly amiable than the conduct of the whole family when the question of their stay had been resolved upon. Had Scroope been bred a cabinet-maker, he could n't have been handier with bed-screws, laths, and curtain-rods. Martha, divested of shawl and bonnet, arranged toilet-tables and looking-gla.s.ses like the most accomplished housemaid; while, reclining in her easy-chair, the fair Zoe vouchsafed praises on all the efforts around her, and nodded, as Jove might, on mortal endeavors to conciliate him.

Poor Nelly was in ecstasy at all this goodness; such a united family was a perfect picture. Nothing seemed to inconvenience them,--nothing went wrong. There was a delightfully playful spirit in the way they met and conquered little difficulties, and whenever hard pushed by fate there was a wonderful reticule of Mrs. Ricketts's which was sure to contain something to extricate them at once. Since Aladdin's lamp, there never was such a magical contrivance as that bag; and the Wizard of the North, who makes pancakes in a gentleman's hat and restores it unstained, and who, from the narrow limits of a snuff-box, takes out feathers enough to stuff a pillow-case, would have paled before the less surprising but more practical resources of the "Rickettses' sack."

Various articles of toilet necessity, from objects peculiar to the lady's own, down to the General's razors, made their appearance. An impertinent curiosity might have asked why a lady going to dine at a public ordinary should have carried about with her such an array of flannel jackets, cordials, lotions, slippers, hair-brashes, and nightcaps; but it is more than likely that Mrs. Ricketts would have smiled at the short-sighted simplicity of the questioner, as she certainly did at poor Nelly's face of quiet astonishment.

It was a downright pleasure to make sacrifices for people so ready to accommodate themselves to circ.u.mstances, and who seemed to possess a physical pliancy not inferior to the mental one. The General wanted no window to shave at. Martha could bestow herself within limits that seemed impossible to humanity. As for Scroope, he was what French dramatists call a "grand utility,"--now climbing up ladders to arrange curtain-rods, now descending to the cellars in search of unknown and nameless requisites. A shrewd observer might have wondered that such extensive changes in the economy of a household were effected for the sake of one night's accommodation; but this thought neither occurred to Dalton nor his daughter, who were, indeed, too full of admiration for their guests' ingenuity and readiness, to think of anything else.

As for honest Peter, a house full of company was his delight. As he took his place that evening at the supper-table, he was supremely happy. Nor was it wonderful, considering the pleased looks and bland faces that he saw on each side of him. All his stories were new to his present audience. Mount Dalton and its doings were an anecdotic mine, of which they had never explored a single "shaft." The grandeur of his family was a theme all listened to with interest and respect; and as Mrs.

Ricketts's flattery was well-timed and cleverly administered, and Scroope's blunders fewer and less impertinent than usual, the evening was altogether a very pleasant one, and, as the cant is, went off admirably.

If Nelly had now and then little misgivings about the over-anxiety to please displayed by Mrs. Ricketts, and a certain exaggerated appreciation she occasionally bestowed upon her father's "Iris.h.i.+sm," she was far too distrustful of her own judgment not to set down her fears to ignorance of life and its conventionalities. "It would ill become _her_," she thought, "to criticise people so well-bred and so well-mannered." And this modest depreciation of herself saved the others.

It was thus that the hosts felt towards their guests as they wished them good-night, and cordially shook hands at parting.

"As agreeable an old lady as ever I met," said Dalton to his daughter; "and not wanting in good sense either."

"I like Miss Martha greatly," said Nelly. "She is so gently mannered and so mild, I'm sure Kate was fond of her."

"I like them all but the little chap with the stutter. He seems so curious about everything."

"They are all so pleased--so satisfied with everything," said Nelly, enthusiastically.

"And why wouldn't they? There's worse quarters, let me tell you, than this! It is n't under Peter Dalton's roof that people go to bed hungry.

I wouldn't wonder if they'd pa.s.s a day or two with us."

"Do you think so?" said Nelly, scarcely knowing whether to be pleased or the reverse.

"Well see to-morrow," said Dalton, as he took his candle and began to climb up the stairs to the room which he was now to occupy instead of his own chamber, singing, as he went, an old ballad,----

"The whole Balrothery hunt was there, And welcome were they all!

With two in a bed, and four on the stairs, And twelve in the Bachelor's hall!"

Leaving Dalton to con over the stray verses of his once favorite ballad as he dropped off to sleep, we turn for a moment to the chamber which, by right of conquest, was held by the fair Zoe, and where, before a large mirror, she was now seated; while Martha was engaged upon that wonderful head, whose external machinery was almost as complex as its internal. Mrs. Ricketts had resolved upon adopting a kind of materno-protective tone towards Nelly; and the difficulty now was to hit off a coiffure to sustain that new character. It should combine the bland with the dignified, and be simple without being severe. There was something Memnonic in that large old head, from which the gray hair descended in ma.s.sive falls, that seemed worthy of better things than a life of petty schemes and small intrigues; and the patient Martha looked like one whose submissive nature should have been bent to less ign.o.ble burdens than the capricious fretfulness of a tiresome old woman. But so is it every day in life; qualities are but what circ.u.mstances make them, and even great gifts become but sorry aids when put to base uses!

There was another figure in the group, and for him no regrets arise as to talents misapplied and tastes perverted. Nature had created Scroope Purvis for one line of character, and he never ventured to walk out of it. In a large and showy dressing-gown belonging to his host, and a pair of most capacious slippers from the same wardrobe, Scroope had come down to a.s.sist at a Cabinet Council. He had just performed a voyage of discovery round the house, having visited every available nook, from the garret to the cellars, and not omitting the narrow chamber to which Nelly herself had retired, with whom he kept up an amicable conversation for several minutes, under pretence of having mistaken his room. Thence he had paid a visit to old Andy's den; and, after a close scrutiny of the larder and a peep between the bars at the dairy, came back with the honest conviction that he had done his duty.

"It's sm-small, sister----it's very small," said he, entering her chamber.

"It's not smaller than Mrs. Balfour's cottage at the Lakes, and you know we spent a summer there," said the lady, rebukingly.

"But we had it all to--to ourselves, sister."

"So much the worse. A cook and a cellar are admirable fixtures.--The curls lower down on the sides, Martha. I don't want to look like Grisi."

There was something comforting in the last a.s.surance, for it would have sorely tested poor Martha's skill had the wish been the reverse.

"They don't seem to ha-have been long here, sister. The knif eboard in the scullery has n't been used above a--a few times. I should n't wonder if old Da-Da-Dalton won the villa at play."

"Fudge!--Fuller on the brow, Martha--more expansive there."

"Is n't the girl vulgar, sister?" asked Scroope.

"Decidedly vulgar, and dressed like a fright!--I thought it was only you, Martha, that rolled up the back hair like a snail's sh.e.l.l." Martha blushed, but never spoke. "I suppose she's the same that used to cut the pipe-heads and the umbrella tops. I remarked that her fingers were all knotted and hard."

"Her smile is very pleasing," submitted Martha, diffidently.

"It's like her father's laugh,--far too natural for my taste! There's no refinement, no elegance, in one of your sweet, unmeaning smiles. I thought I had told you that at least twenty times, Martha. But you have grown self-willed and self-opinionated of late, and I must say, you couldn't have a graver fault! Correct it in time, I beseech you."

"I 'll try," said Martha, in a very faint voice.

"If you try, you 'll succeed. Look at your brother. See what he has become. There's an example might stimulate you."

Another and a far deeper sigh was all Martha's acknowledgment of this speech.

"He was the same violent, impetuous creature that you are. There, you need n't tear my hair out by the roots to prove it! He wouldn't brook the very mildest remonstrance; he was pa.s.sionate and irrestrainable, and what I have made him. Oh, you spiteful creature, how you hurt me!"