Books: My Young Alcides

C >> Charlotte M. Yonge >> My Young Alcides

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"Never mind, Harold," I said, "you can give your flower-pot all the
same."

"You may," said Harold.

"Why should not you?"

He shook his head. "I've no business," he said; "Eustace is
chairman."

I said no more, and I hardly saw Harold the two following days, for
he was gone in the twilight of the January morning and worked as long
as light would allow, and fortunately the moon was in a favourable
quarter; and Phil, to whom the lighter part of the task was allotted,
confided to his companion that he had been wishing to get father to
see things in this light for a long time, but he was that slow to
move; and since Harold had been looking about, Mr. Bullock had
advised him not to give in, for it would be sure to end in the
raising of his rent, and young gentlemen had new-fangled notions that
only led to expense and nonsense, and it was safest in the long run
to trust to the agent.

However, the sight of genuine, unflinching toil, with nothing of the
amateur about it, had an eloquence of its own. Farmer Ogden looked
on grimly and ironically for the first two hours, having only been
surprised into consent in the belief that any man, let alone a
gentleman, must find out the impracticability of the undertaking, and
be absolutely sickened. Then he brought out some bread and cheese
and cider, and was inclined to be huffy when Harold declined the
latter, and looked satirical when he repaired to wash his hands at
the pump before touching the former. When he saw two more hours go
by in work of which he could judge, his furrowed old brow grew less
puckered, and he came out again to request Mr. Harold to partake of
the mid-day meal. I fancy Harold's going up to Phil's room, to make
himself respectable for Mrs. Ogden's society, was as strange to the
farmer as were to the Australian the good wife's excuses for making
him sit down with the family in the kitchen; but I believe that
during the meal he showed himself practical farmer enough to win
their respect; and when he worked harder than ever all the afternoon,
even till the last moment it was possible to see, and came back with
the light the next morning, he had won his cause; above all, when the
hunt swept by without disturbing the labour.

The farmer not only turned in his scanty supply of men to help to
finish off the labour, and seconded contrivances which the day before
he would have scouted, but he gave his own bowed back to the work. A
pavement of the court which had not seen the day for forty years was
brought to light; and by a series of drain tiles, for which a
messenger was dispatched to the pottery, streams were conducted from
the river to wash these up; and at last, when Harold appeared, after
Eustace had insisted on waiting no longer for dinner, he replied to
our eager questions, "Yes, it is done."

"And Ogden?"

"He thanked me, shook hands with me, and said I was a man."

Which we knew meant infinitely more than a gentleman.

Harold wanted to spend Thursday in banking up the pond in the centre
of the yard, but the idea seemed to drive Eustace to distraction.
Such work before going to that sublime region at Erymanth! He laid
hold of Harold's hands--shapely hands, and with that look of latent
strength one sees in some animals, but scarred with many a seam, and
horny within the fingers--and compared them with those he had nursed
into dainty delicacy of whiteness, till Harold could not help saying,
"I wouldn't have a lady's fingers."

"I would not have a clown's," said Eustace.

"Keep your gloves on, Harold, and do not make them any worse. If you
go out to that place to-day, they won't even be as presentable as
they are."

"I shall wash them."

"Wash! As if oceans of Eau-de-Cologne would make them fit for
society!" said Eustace, with infinite disgust, only equalled by the
"Faugh!" with which Harold heard of the perfume. In fact, Eustace
was dreadfully afraid the other hunters had seen and recognised those
shoulders, even under the smock-frock, as plainly as he did, and he
had been wretched about it ever since.

"You talk of not wanting to do me harm," he said, "and then you go
and grub in such work as any decent labourer would despise."

So miserable was he, that Harold, who never saw the foolery in
Eustace that he would have derided in others, yielded to him so far
as only to give directions to Bullock for sending down the materials
wanted for the pond, and likewise for mending the roof of a cottage
where a rheumatic old woman was habitually obliged to sleep under a
crazy umbrella.

CHAPTER VII. THE BIRDS OF ILL OMEN.

Nothing stands out to me more distinctly, with its pleasures and
pains, than the visit to Erymanth Castle--from our arrival in the
dark--the lighted hall--the servants meeting us--the Australians'
bewilderment at being ushered up to our rooms without a greeting from
the host--my lingering to give a last injunction in Eustace's ear,
"Now, Eustace, _I won't_ have Harold's hair greased; and put as
little stuff as you can persuade yourself to do on your pocket-
handkerchief--orders I had kept to the last to make them more
emphatic; then dashing after the housekeeper, leaving them to work--
my great room, where it was a perfect journey from the fire to the
toilet-table--my black lace dress, and the silver ornaments those
dear nephews had brought me from London--and in the midst of my hair-
doing dear little Viola's running in to me in one of her ecstacies,
hugging me, to the detriment of Colman's fabric and her own, and then
dancing round and round me in her pretty white cloudy tulle, looped
up with snowdrops. The one thing that had been wanting to her was
that her dear, darling, delightful Lucy should be at her own ball--
her birthday ball; and just as she had despaired, it had all come
right, owing to that glorious old giant of ours; and she went off
into a series of rapturous little laughs over Dermot's account of her
uncle's arrival pick-a-back. It was of no use to look cautious, and
sign at Colman; Viola had no notion of restraint; and I was thankful
when my dress was complete, and we were left alone, so that I could
listen without compunction to the story of Lord Erymanth's arrival at
Arked House, and solemn assurance that he had been most hospitably
received, and that his own observation and inquiry had convinced him
that Mr. Alison was a highly estimable young man, in spite of all
disadvantages, unassuming, well-mannered, and grateful for good
advice. Dermot had shown his discernment in making him his friend,
and Lucy had, in truth, acted with much courage, as well as good
judgment, in remaining with him; "and that so horrified mamma," said
Viola, "that she turned me out of the room, so I don't know how they
fought it out; but mamma must have given in at last, though she has
never said one word to me about it, not even that you were all to be
here. What a good thing it is to have a brother! I should never
have known but for Dermot. And, do you know, he says that my uncle's
pet is the cousin, after all--the deferential fool of a--cousin, he
says."

"Hush, hush, Viola!"

"I didn't say so--it was Dermot!" said the naughty child, with a
little arch pout; "he says it is just like my uncle to be taken with
a little worship from--well, he is your nephew, Lucy, so I will be
politer than Dermot, who does rage because he says Mr. Alison has not
even sense to see that he is dressed in his cousin's plumes."

"He is very fond of Harold, Viola, and they both of them do it in
simplicity; Harold does the things for Eustace, and never even sees
that the credit is taken from him. It is what he does it for."

"Then he is a regular stupid old jolly giant," said Viola. "Oh, Lucy,
what delicious thing _is_ this?"

It was the little flower-pot, in which I had planted a spray of
lemon-scented verbena, which Viola had long coveted. I explained how
Harold had presided over it as an offering from the Hydriot Company
to its youngest shareholder, and her delight was extreme. She said
she would keep it for ever in her own room; it was just what she
wanted, the prettiest thing she had had--so kind of him; but those
great, grand giants never thought anything too little for them. And
then she went into one of her despairs. She had prepared a number of
Christmas presents for the people about the castle to whom she had
always been like the child of the house, and her maid had forgotten
to bring the box she had packed, nor was there any means of getting
them, unless she could persuade her brother to send early the next
morning.

"Is Dermot staying here?"

"Oh yes--all night; and nobody else, except ourselves and Piggy.
Poor Piggy, he moves about in more awful awe of my uncle than ever--
and so stiff! I am always expecting to see him bristle!"

There came a message that my lady was ready, and was asking for Miss
Tracy to go down with her. Viola fluttered away, and I waited till
they should have had time to descend before making my own appearance,
finding all the rooms in the cleared state incidental to ball
preparations--all the chairs and tables shrunk up to the walls; and
even the drawing-room, where the chaperons were to sit, looking some
degrees more desolate than the drawing-room of a ladyless house
generally does look.

Full in the midst of an immense blue damask sofa sat Lady Diana, in
grey brocade. She was rather a small woman in reality, but dignity
made a great deal more of her. Eustace, with a splendid red camellia
in his coat, was standing by her, blushing, and she was graciously
permitting the presentation of the squirting violet. "Since it was a
birthday, and it was a kind attention," &c., but I could see that she
did not much like it; and Viola, sitting on the end of the sofa with
her eyes downcast, was very evidently much less delighted than
encumbered with the fragile china thing.

Lord Erymanth met me, and led me up to his sister, who gave me a cold
kiss, and we had a little commonplace talk, during which I could see
Viola spring up to Harold, who was standing beside her brother, and
the colour rising in his bronzed face at her eager acknowledgments of
the flower-pot; after which she applied herself to begging her
brother to let his horse and groom go over early the next morning for
the Christmas gifts she had left behind, but Dermot did not seem
propitious, not liking to trust the man he had with him with the
precious Jack o'Lantern over hills slippery with frost; and Viola, as
one properly instructed in the precariousness of equine knees,
subsided disappointed; while I had leisure to look up at the two
gentlemen standing there, and I must say that Harold looked one of
Nature's nobles even beside Dermot, and Dermot a fine, manly fellow
even beside Harold, though only reaching to his shoulder.

I was the greatest stranger, and went in to the dining-room with his
lordship, which spared me the sight of Eustace's supreme satisfaction
in presenting his arm to Lady Diana, after she had carefully paired
off Viola with her cousin Piggy--i.e., Pigou St. Glear, the eldest
son of the heir-presumptive, a stiff, shy youth in the Erymanth
atmosphere, whatever he might be out of it, and not at all happy with
Viola, who was wont to tease and laugh at him.

It was a save-trouble dinner, as informal as the St. Glear nature and
servants permitted. Lord Erymanth carved, and took care that Harold
should not starve, and he was evidently trying to turn the talk into
such a direction as to show his sister what his guests were; but
Eustace's tongue was, of course, the ready one, and answered glibly
about closed beershops, projected cottages, and the complete drainage
of the Alfy--nay, that as to Bullock and Ogden hearing reason, he had
only to go over in person and the thing was done; the farmyard was
actually set to rights, and no difficulty at all was made as to the
further improvements now that the landlord had once shown himself
concerned. That was all that was wanting. And the funny part of it
was that he actually believed it.

Dermot could not help saying to Harold, "Didn't I see you applying a
few practical arguments?"

Harold made a sign with his head, with a deprecatory twinkle in his
eye, recollecting how infra dig Eustace thought his exploit. The
party was too small for more than one conversation, so that when the
earl began to relate his experiences of the difficulties of dealing
with farmers and cottagers, all had to listen in silence, and I saw
the misery of restless sleepiness produced by the continuous sound of
his voice setting in upon Harold, and under it I had to leave him, on
my departure with Lady Diana and her daughter, quaking in my satin
shoes at the splendid graciousness I saw in preparation for me; but I
was kept all the time on the outer surface; Lady Diana did not choose
to be intimate enough even to give good advice, so that I was very
glad when the carriages were heard and the gentlemen joined us,
Harold hastily handing to Viola the squirting violets which she had
left behind her on the dining-table, and which he had carefully
concealed from Eustace, but, alas! only to have them forgotten again,
or, maybe, with a little malice, deposited in the keeping of the
brazen satyr on the ante-room chimney-piece.

Dermot had already claimed my first dance, causing a strange thrill
of pain, as I missed the glance which always used to regret without
forbidding my becoming his partner. Viola was asked in due form by
Eustace, and accepted him with alacrity, which he did not know to be
due to her desire to escape from Piggy. Most solicitously did our
good old host present Eustace to every one, and it was curious to
watch the demeanour of the different classes--the Horsmans mostly
cordial, Hippa and Pippa demonstratively so; but the Stympsons held
aloof with the stiffest of bows, not one of them but good-natured
Captain George Stympson would shake hands even with me, and Miss
Avice Stympson, of Lake House, made as if Harold were an object
invisible to the naked eye, while the kind old earl was doing his
best that he should not feel neglected. Eustace had learnt dancing
for that noted ball at Government House, but Harold had disavowed the
possibility. He had only danced once in his life, he said, when
Dermot pressed him, "and that counted for nothing." To me the pain
on the bent brow made it plain that it had been at the poor fellow's
wedding.

However, he stood watching, and when at the end of our quadrille
Dermot said, "Here lies the hulk of the Great Harry," there was an
amused air about him, and at the further question, "Come, Alison,
what do you think of our big corroborees?" he deliberately replied,
"I never saw such a pretty sight!" And on some leading exclamation
from one of us, "It beats the cockatoos on a cornfield; besides, one
has got to kill them!"

"Mr. Alison looks at our little diversion in the benevolent spirit of
the giant whose daughter brought home ploughman, oxen, and all in her
apron for playthings," said Viola, who with Eustace had found her way
to us, but we were all divided again, Viola being carried off by some
grandee, Eustace having to search for some noble damsel to whom he
had been introduced, and I falling to the lot of young Mr. Horsman, a
nice person in himself, but unable to surmount the overcrowing of the
elder sisters, who called him Baby Jack, and publicly ordered him
about. Even at the end of our dance, at the sound of Hippa's
authoritative summons, he dropped me suddenly, and I found myself
gravitating towards Harold like a sort of chaperon. I was amazed by
his observing, "I think I could do it now. Would you try me, Lucy?"

After all, he was but five-and-twenty, and could hardly look on
anything requiring agility or dexterity without attempting it, so I
consented, with a renewal of the sensations I remembered when, as a
child, I had danced with grown-up men, only with alarm at the
responsibility of what Dermot called "the steerage of the Great
Harry," since collision with such momentum as ours might soon be
would be serious; but I soon found my anxiety groundless; he was too
well made and elastic to be clumsy, and had perfect power over his
own weight and strength, so that he could dance as lightly and safely
as Dermot with his Irish litheness.

"Do you think I might ask Miss Tracy?" he said, in return for my
compliments.

"Of course; why not?"

When he did ask, her reply was, "Oh, will you indeed? Thank you."
Which naivete actually raised her mother's colour with annoyance.
But if she had a rod laid up, Viola did not feel it then; she looked
radiant, and though I don't believe three words passed between the
partners, that waltz was the glory of the evening to her.

She must have made him take her to the tea-room for some ice, and
there it was that, while I was standing with my partner a little way
off, we heard Miss Avice Stympson's peculiarly penetrating attempt at
a whisper, observing, "Yes, it is melancholy! I thought we were safe
here, or I never should have brought my dear little Birdie.... What,
don't you know? There's no doubt of it--the glaze on the pottery is
dead men's bones. They have an arrangement with the hospitals in
London, you understand. I can't think how Lord Erymanth can be so
deceived. But you see the trick was a perfect success. Yes, the
blocking up the railway. A mercy no lives were lost; but that would
have been nothing to him after the way he has gone on in Australia.--
Oh, Lord Erymanth, I did not know you were there."

"And as I could not avoid overhearing you," said that old gentleman,
"let me remind you that I regard courtesy to the guest as due respect
to the host, and that I have good reason to expect that my visitors
should have some confidence in my discrimination of the persons I
invite them to meet."

Therewith both he and Miss Stympson had become aware of the head that
was above them all, and the crimson that dyed the cheeks and brow;
while Viola, trembling with passion, and both hands clasped over
Harold's arm, exclaimed, in a panting whisper, "Tell them it is a
wicked falsehood--tell them it is no such thing!"

"I will speak to your uncle to-morrow. I am obliged to him."

Everybody heard that, and all who had either feeling or manners knew
that no more ought to be said. Only Lord Erymanth made his way to
Harold to say, "I am very sorry this has happened."

Harold bent his head with a murmur of thanks, and was moving out of
the supper-room, when Dermot hastily laid a hand on him with, "Keep
the field, Harry; don't go."

"I'm not going."

"That's right. Face it out before the hags. Whom shall I introduce
you--There's Birdie Stympson--come."

"No, no; I don't mean to dance again."

"Why not? Beard the harpies like a man. Dancing would refute them
all."

"Would it?" gravely said Harold.

Nor could he be persuaded, save once at his host's bidding, but
showed no signs of being abashed or distressed, and most of the male
Stympsons came and spoke to him. The whole broke up at three, and we
repaired to our rooms, conscious that family prayers would take place
as the clock struck nine as punctually as if nothing had happened,
and that our characters depended on our punctuality. Viola was in
time, and so was Eustace; I sneaked in late and ashamed; and the
moment the servants had filed out Viola sprang to Eustace with
vehement acknowledgments; and it appeared that just before she came
down her missing box of gifts had been brought to her room, and she
was told that Mr. Alison had sent for them. Eustace smirked, and
Lady Diana apologised for her little daughter's giddy, exaggerated
expressions, by which she had given far more trouble than she ever
intended.

"No trouble," said Eustace. "Harold always wants to work off his
steam."

"What, it was he?" said Viola.

"Yes, of course; he always does those things," said Eustace, speaking
with a tone of proprietorship, as if Harold had been a splendid self-
acting steam-engine. "I am very glad to have gratified you, Miss
Tracy--"

"Only he did, and not you," said Viola, boldly, luckily without being
heard by her mother, while Eustace murmured out, rather bewildered,
"It is all the same."

Viola evidently did not think so when Harold came in with beads of
wet fringing his whiskers, though he had divested himself of the
chief evidences of the rivers of muddy lane through which he had
walked to Arked House, full four miles off.

Viola's profuse thanks were crossed by Lady Diana's curt apologies;
and as poor Piggy, who had genuinely overslept himself, entered with
his apologies--poor fellow--in a voice very much as if he was trying
to say "Grumph, grumph," while he could only say "Wee, wee," they
were received solemnly by his uncle with, "The antipodes are a rebuke
to you, Pigou. I am afraid the young men of this hemisphere have no
disposition to emulate either such chivalrous attentions or exertions
as have been Mr. Harold Alison's excuse."

When so much was said about it, Harold probably wished he had let the
whole matter alone, and was thankful to be allowed to sit down in
peace to his well-earned breakfast, which was finished before Dermot
lounged in--not waited for by his uncle, who offered an exhibition of
his model-farm-buildings, machines, cattle, &c. Fain would Viola and
I have gone in the train of the gentlemen, but the weather, though
not bad enough to daunt a tolerably hardy man, was too damp for me,
and we had to sit down to our work in the drawing-room, while Piggy,
always happier without his great-uncle, meandered about until Lady
Diana ordered off Viola to play at billiards with him, but kept me,
for, as I perceived, the awful moment was come, and the only
consolation was that it might be an opportunity of pleading Harold's
cause.

With great censure of the Stympsons' ill-breeding and discourtesy to
her brother (which seemed to affect her far more than the direct
injury to Harold), and strong disclaimers of belief in them, still my
mother's old friend must inquire into the character of these young
men and my position with regard to them. If she had been tender
instead of inquisitorial, I should have answered far more freely, and
most likely the air of defiance and defence into which she nettled me
had a partisan look; but it was impossible not to remember that Miss
Woolmer had always said that, however she might censure the scandal
of the Stympsons, they only required to dish it up with sauce piquant
to make her enjoy it heartily.

And really and truly it did seem as if there was nothing in the whole
lives of those poor youths on which those women had not contrived to
cast some horrid stain; working backwards from the dead men's bones
in the pottery (Dermot had told her they used nothing but live men's
bones), through imputations on Mr. George Yolland's character, and
the cause of the catastrophe at the "Dragon's Head;" stories of my
associating with all the low, undesirable friends they picked up at
Mycening, or in the hunting-field; and as to the Australian part of
the history, she would hardly mention to me all she had heard, even
to have it confuted.

I was not sure how far she did believe my assurances, or thought me
deceived, when I strenuously denied all evil intent from Harold
towards his poor wife, and explained that he had merely driven over a
precipice in the dark, and had a brain fever afterwards; all I could
see was that, though not perfectly satisfied or convinced, she found
that her brother would not allow the separation to be kept up, and
therefore she resumed her favourite office of adviser. She examined
me on the religious habits of my nephews and niece, impressing on me
that it was for the sake of the latter that my presence at Arghouse
was excusable; but insisting that it was incumbent on me to provide
her with an elderly governess, both for her sake and my own. I was
much afraid of having the governess at once thrust upon me; but,
luckily, she did not happen to have one of a chaperon kind of age on
her list, so she contented herself with much advice on what I was
teaching Dora, so that perhaps I grew restive and was disposed to
think it no concern of hers, nor did I tell her that much of the
direction of Dora's lessons was with a view to Harold; but she could
not have been wholly displeased, since she ended by telling me that
mine was a vast opportunity, and that the propriety of my residence
at Arghouse entirely depended on the influence I exerted, since any
acquiescence in lax and irreligious habits would render my stay
hurtful to all parties. She worried me into an inclination to drop
all my poor little endeavours, since certainly to have tried to
follow out all the details of her counsel would have alienated all
three at once.

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