The Master of the Ceremonies Part 21

"I'm getting used to it now, Cora, my dear," panted the old woman. "I don't feel so squirmy inside, and as if I should be obliged to go home for a drop of brandy. Humph! I wish you wouldn't bow to him."

"Why not? He's our neighbour," said Cora tartly, as Richard Linnell took off his hat. "He's the most thorough gentleman in this town."

"P'raps he is, but I don't think anything of such gentlemen as he is-- now Betsy, do a' done. Don't drive like that. I was getting used to it, but now you've made my pore 'art fly up into my mouth."

A sharp s.n.a.t.c.h at the reins had made the ponies rear up, and Richard Linnell, who was looking after them, started to go to Cora's help, but a cut of the whip sent the two ponies on again, and the carriage spun along, past the wide opening to the pier, down which Richard Linnell turned to think out how he might get over the prejudice he knew that Mr Denville had against him, and to wonder why Claire had grown so cold and strange.

"I am getting well used to it now, Betsy," said Mrs Dean, as they drove right along the London road for a mile or two; "but, I say, hadn't you better turn their heads now? Let's get back on the cliff, where they can see us. I hate these fields and hedges. Let's go back by the other road, down by Lord Carboro's house, and through the street down to the pier."

"Very well," said Cora shortly; and she turned the ponies, and took the upper road.

Now, it so happened that after a short promenade Lord Carboro' had found out that it was going to rain, by a double barometer which he carried in his boots.

"Confound these corns!" he grumbled. "Ah, Barclay," he cried to a thick-set man whom he met at that moment, "collecting your dues? It's going to rain."

"Yes, my lord. My corns shoot horribly."

"So do mine; doosid bad. I'm going to get the carriage and have a drive. Can't walk."

He nodded and went back to his handsome house and grounds, contenting himself with sitting down in the lodge portico while the gardener's wife ordered the carriage to be got ready.

"It isn't handsome, but it suits me," his lords.h.i.+p used to say, "and it's comfortable. If I can't have things as I like with my money, and at my time of life, why it's doosid strange."

So he waited till a groom brought the carriage down the drive, and then looked at it as it came.

"Don't do to go wooing in," he said, with a chuckle, as he got in and took the reins; and certainly it did not look like the chariot of love, for it was a little, low basket carriage, big enough to hold one, and shaped very much like a bath-chair. It was drawn by a very large, grey, well-clipped donkey with enormous ears, quite an aristocrat of his race, with his well-filled skin and carefully blackened harness.

"Thankye, John. Thankye, Mrs Roberts," said his lords.h.i.+p, as he shook the reins. "Go on, Balaam."

Balaam went deliberately on, and just as they were going out of the great iron gates, and his lords.h.i.+p was indulging in a pinch of snuff, there was the rattle of wheels to his right, and Cora Dean came along with her ponies at a smart trot, her mother looking like an over-blown peony by her side.

"Juno, by Jove!" said his lords.h.i.+p, preparing to raise his hat.

But just then--it was a matter of moments--Balaam stood stock still, drew his great flap ears forward and pointed them at the ponies, and staring hard, lifted his tail, and, showing his teeth, uttered with outstretched neck a most discordant roaring--_Hee-haw--Hee-haw_!

Cora's ponies stopped short, trembling and snorting. Then, with a jerk that threatened to snap the harness, and as if moved by the same impulse, they plunged forward and tore down the road that, a hundred yards further on, became busy street, and went down at a sharp angle right for the pier.

"Betsy!" shouted Mrs Dean.

Cora sat firm as a rock, and caught up the second rein to pull heavily on the curb, when--_snap_!--the rein parted at the buckle, and with only the regular snaffle rein to check the headlong gallop, the driver dragged in vain.

The road became street almost like a flash; the street with its busy shops seemed to rush by the carriage; a bath-chair at a shop door, fortunately empty, was caught, in spite of Cora's efforts to guide the ponies, and smashed to atoms, the flying pieces and the noise maddening the ponies in their headlong race.

It was a steep descent, too, and with such bits even a man's arm could not have restrained the fiery little animals as they tore on straight for the sea.

"By Jove!" panted Lord Carboro', jumping out of his little carriage, and, forgetful of all infirmities, he began to run; "they'll be over the cliff. No, by all that's horrible, they'll go right down the pier!"

Volume One, Chapter XVII.

MISS DEAN'S PONIES.

Richard Linnell was very blind as he walked down the pier, stopping here and there to lay his hand upon the slight rail, and watch the changing colours on the sea, which was here one dazzling sheen of silver, there stained with shade after shade of glorious blue, borrowed from the sky, which was as smiling now as it was tearful but a few days back, when it was clouded over with gloom.

Then he gazed wistfully at a mackerel boat that could not get in for want of wind, and lay with its mast describing arcs on the ether, while its brown sails kept filling out and flapping, and then hanging empty from the spars.

It was a glorious day; one that should have filled all young and buoyant hearts with hope, but Richard Linnell's was not buoyant, for it felt heavy as lead.

He told himself that he loved Claire Denville truly a man could love; and time back she had been ready to respond to his bows; her eyes, too, had seemed to look brightly upon him; but since that dreadful night when he had been deluded into making one of the half-tipsy party gathered beneath her window, and had played that serenade, all had been changed.

It was horrible! Such a night as that, when, judging from what he could glean, the agony and trouble of father and daughter must have been unbearable. And yet he had been there like some contemptible street musician playing beneath her window, and she must know it was he.

That white hand that opened the window and waved them away was not hers, though, but old Denville's, and that was the only relief he found.

He was very blind, or he would have seen more than one pair of eyes brighten as he sauntered down the pier, and more than one fan flutter as he drew near, and its owner prepare to return his bow while he pa.s.sed on with his eyes mentally closed.

He was very blind, for he did not see one of the attractive ladies, nor one of those who tried to be attractive as he dawdled on, thinking of the face that appeared, somehow, among the flowers at Claire Denville's window; then of pretty little blossom-like May Burnett, who people said was so light and frivolous.

Then he asked himself why he was frittering away his life in Saltinville with his father instead of taking to some manly career, and making for himself a name.

"Because I'm chained," he said, half aloud, as he returned a couple of salutes from Sir Harry Payne and Sir Matthew Bray--rather coldly given, condescending salutations that brought a curl of contempt to his lip.

These gentlemen were near the end of the pier, and he pa.s.sed them, and went on to look out to sea on the other side, where a swarthy-looking man was wading nearly to his arm-pits, and pus.h.i.+ng a pole before him, while a creel hung upon his back.

"I tell you what," said a loud voice, "let's go back now, Josiah, and wait till he comes ash.o.r.e, and then you can buy a pint o' the live s'rimps, and I'll see them boiled myself."

"No, no. Here's Major Rockley," said the speaker's companion, Josiah Barclay, twitching his heavy brows. "He wants to see me about some money. Why he looks as if he was going to buy shrimps himself. How do, Mr Linnell!"

Richard bowed to the thick-set busy-looking man, and to his pleasant-faced plump lady, who smiled at him in turn, and then pa.s.sed on, walking back and pa.s.sing the Major, who did not see him, but watched the fisherman as he lifted his net, picked out the shrimps, shook it, and plunged it in again to wade on through the calm water, and pus.h.i.+ng it before him as he went.

There were other looks directed at the handsome young fellow, who seemed so unconscious, and so great a contrast to the bucks and beaux who were waving clouded canes, taking snuff from gold boxes, and standing in groups in studied att.i.tudes.

Even Lady Drelincourt in her deep mourning, and with a precaution taken against any further mishap to her pet, in the shape of a delicately thin plated chain, smiled as Richard Linnell drew near, and waited for an admiring glance and a bow, and when they did not come, said "Boor!" half audibly and closed her fan with a snap.

"Beg pardon, m'lady," said the tall footman.

"Turn the chair and go back."

The tall footman in black, with the great plaited worsted aiguillettes looped so gracefully up to the b.u.t.tons on his breast, did not turn the chair, but turned round and stared with parted lips and a look of bewildered horror towards the sh.o.r.e end of the pier, from whence came all at once a rus.h.i.+ng sound, shrieks, cries, and then the rapid beating of horses' feet, sounding hollow upon the boards, and the whirr of wheels.

"Take care!"

"Run!"

"Keep to the side!"

"No. Get to the end."

There was a rush and confusion. Ladies shrieked and fainted. Gentlemen ran to their help, or ran to their own help to get out of the way. Sir Harry Payne and his friend climbed over the railing and stood outside on the edge of the pier, holding on to the bar to avoid a fall into the water. Major Rockley did likewise on the other side, and all the while the rush, the trampling, and the hollow sound increased.