Sprig Muslin

Chapter 18

It was immediately apparent that although the three gentlemen bearing down upon the group under the apple-tree had arrived together at the Bull, this had not been through any choice of theirs. All were looking heated, and Lord Widmore was glaring so hard at Summercourt that it was not until Mr. Whyteleafe ejaculated: “Sir Gareth Ludlow! Here—and with Lady Hester?” that he became aware of the identity of the figure in the brocade dressing-gown. Since not even his wildest imaginings had pictured Hester in Sir Gareth’s company, he was so dumbfounded that he could only goggle at him. This gave the General an opportunity to step into the lead, and he was quick to pounce on it. Brushing past his lordship, and annihilating Mr. Whyteleafe with the stare which had in earlier days turned the bones of his subordinates to water, he strode up to Sir Gareth’s chair, and said, in a sort of bark: “You will be good enough, sir, to grant me the favour of a private interview with you! When I tell you that my name is Summercourt—yes, Summercourt,sir!—I rather fancy that you will not think it marvellous that I have come all the way from London for the express purpose of seeking you out! I do not know—nor, I may add, do I wish to know, who these persons may be,” he said, casting an eye of loathing over Lord Widmore and the chaplain, “but I might have supposed that upon my informing them that I had urgent business to discuss here, common civility would have prompted them to postpone whatever may be their errand to you until my business was despatched! Let me say that these modern manners do not commend themselves to me—though I should have known how it would be, from a couple of cow-handed whipsters as little able to control a worn-out donkey as a pair of carriage-horses!”

“It was not my chaplain, sir, who was driving down a narrow lane at what I do not scruple to call a shocking pace!” said Widmore, firing up.

“The place for a parson, I shall take leave to tell you, sir, is not on the box of a curricle, but in his pulpit!” retorted the General. “And now, if you will be good enough to retire, I may perhaps be allowed to transact the business which had brought me here!”

Mr. Whyteleafe, who had been staring at Hester with an expression on his face clearly indicative of the feelings of shock, dismay, and horror which had assailed him on seeing her thus, living, apparently, with her rejected suitor in a discreetly secluded spot, withdrew his gaze to direct an austere look at the General. The aspersion cast on his driving skill he disdained to notice, but he said, in a severe tone: “I venture to assert, sir, that the business which brings Lord Widmore and myself to call upon Sir Gareth Ludlow is sufficiently urgent to claim his instant attention. Moreover, I must remind you that our vehicle was the first to draw up at this hostelry!”

The General’s eyes started at him fiercely. “Ay! So it was, indeed! I am not very likely to forget it, Master Parson! Upon my soul, such effrontery I never before encountered!”

Lord Widmore, whose fretful nerves had by no means recovered from the shock of finding his curricle involved at the cross-road in a very minor collision with a post-chaise and four, began at once to prove to the General that no blame attached to his chaplain. As irritation always rendered him shrill, and the General’s voice retained much of its fine carrying quality, the ensuing altercation became noisy enough to cause Lady Hester to stiffen imperceptibly, and to lay one hand on the arm of Sir Gareth’s chair, as though for support. He was aware of her sudden tension, and covered her hand with his own, closing his fingers reassuringly round her wrist.

“Don’t be afraid! This is all sound and fury,” he said quietly.

She looked down at him, a smile wavering for a moment on her lips. “Oh, no! I am not afraid. It is only that I have a foolish dislike of loud, angry voices.”

“Yes, very disagreeable,” he agreed. “I must own, however, that I find this encounter excessively diverting. Kendal, do you care to wager any blunt on which of my engaging visitors first has private speech with me?”

The Captain, who had bent to catch these words, grinned, and said: “Oh, old Summercourt will bluster himself out, never fear! But who is the other fellow?”

“Lady Hester’s brother,” replied Sir Gareth. He added, his eyes on Lord Widmore: “Bent, if I know him, on queering my game and his own!”

“I beg pardon?” the Captain said, bending again to hear what had been uttered in an undertone.

“Nothing: I was talking to myself.”

Hester murmured: “Isn’t it odd that they should forget everything else, and quarrel about such a trifle?” She seemed to become aware of the clasp on her wrist, and tried to draw her hand away. The clasp tightened, and she abandoned the attempt, colouring faintly.

Mr. Whyteleafe, whose jealous eyes had not failed to mark the interlude, took a quick step forward, and commanded in a voice swelling with stern wrath: “Unhand her ladyship, sir!”

Hester blinked at him in surprise. Sir Gareth said, quite amiably “Go to the devil!”

The chaplain’s words, which had been spoken in a sharpened voice, recalled the heated disputants to matters of more moment than a grazed panel. The quarrel ceased abruptly; and the General, turning to glare at Sir Gareth, seemed suddenly to become aware of the lady standing beside his chair. His brows twitched together in a quelling frown; he demanded: “Who is this lady?”

“Never mind that,” said Lord Widmore, directing at Sir Gareth a look of mingled prohibition and entreaty.

Sir Gareth met it blandly, and turned his head towards the General. “This lady, sir, is the Lady Hester Theale. She has the misfortune to be Lord Widmore’s sister, and also to dislike heated altercations.”

His lordship’s angry but incoherent protest was overborne by the General’s more powerful voice. “Have I been led here on a fool’s errand?” he thundered. He rounded on Captain Kendal. “You young jackass, I told you to keep out of my affairs! I might have known you would lead me on a wild goose chase!”

Captain Kendal, quite undismayed by this ferocious attack, replied: “Yes, sir, in a way that’s what I have done. But all’s right, as I will explain to you, if you care to come in the house for a few minutes.”

A look of relief shot into the General’s eyes; in a far milder tone, he asked: “Neil, where is she?”

“Here, sir. I sent her upstairs to wash her face,” said the Captain.

“Here? With this—this—And you tell me all’s right?”

“I do, sir. You are very much obliged to Sir Gareth, as I shall show you.”

Before the General could reply, an interruption occurred. Amanda and Hildebrand, attracted by the sounds of the late altercation, had come out of the house, and had paused, surprised to find so many persons gathered around Sir Gareth. Amanda had washed away her tear stains, but she was looking unwontedly subdued. Hildebrand was carefully carrying a brimming glass of milk.

The General saw his granddaughter, and abandoned the rest of the company, going towards her with his hands held out. “Amanda! Oh, my pet, how could you do such a thing?”

She flew into his arms, crying that she was sorry, and would never, never do it again. The Captain, observing with satisfaction that his stern instructions were being obeyed, transferred his dispassionate gaze to the chaplain, who, upon recognizing Hildebrand, had flung out his arm, pointing a finger of doom at that astonished young gentleman, and ejaculating: “That is the rascal who lured Lady Hester to this place, my lord! Unhappy boy, you are found out! Do not seek to excuse yourself with lies, for they will not serve you!”

Hildebrand, who had been gazing at him with his mouth at half-cock, looked for guidance towards Sir Gareth, but before Sir Gareth could speak Mr. Whyteleafe warned him that it was useless to try to shelter behind his employer.

“Oh, Hildebrand, is that Uncle Gary’s milk?” said Hester. “What a good, remembering boy you are! But I quite thought I had given the glass to Amanda, which just shows what a dreadful memory I have!”

“Oh, you did, but she threw it away!” replied Hildebrand. “Here you are, sir: I’m sorry I have been such an age, but it went out of my head.”

“The only fault I have to find is that it ever re-entered your head,” said Sir Gareth. “Is this a moment for glasses of milk? Take it away!”

“No, pray don’t! Gareth, Dr. Chantry said that you were to drink a great deal of milk, and I won’t have you throw it away merely because all these absurd people are teasing you!” said Hester, taking the glass from Hildebrand. “And Sir Gareth is not Mr. Ross’s employer!” she informed the chaplain. “Of course, my brother-in-law isn’t his employer either, but never mind! It was quite my fault that he was obliged to be not perfectly truthful to you.”

“Lady Hester, I am appalled! I know not by what means you were brought to this place—”

“Hildebrand fetched me in a post-chaise. Now, Gareth!”

“You misunderstand me! Aware as I am, that Sir Gareth’s offer was repugnant to you, I cannot doubt that you were lured from Brancaster by some artifice. What arts—I shall not say threats!—have been used to compel your apparent complaisance today I may perhaps guess! But let me assure you—”

“That will do!” interrupted Sir Gareth, with an edge to his voice.

“Yes, but this is nothing but humdudgeon!” said Hildebrand. “I didn’t lure her! I just brought her here because Uncle Gary—Sir Gareth, I mean—needed her! She came to look after him, and we pretended she was his sister, so you may stop looking censoriously, which, though I don’t mean to be uncivil to a clergyman, is a great piece of impertinence! And as for threatening her, I should just like to see anyone try it, that’s all!”

“Oh, Hildebrand!” sighed Hester, overcome. “How very kind you are!”

“Good boy!” Sir Gareth said approvingly, handing him the empty glass. “Widmore, if you can contrive to come out of a state of what would appear to be a catalepsy, assemble the few wits God gave you, and attend to me, I trust I may be able to allay your brotherly anxiety!”

Lord Widmore, who, from the moment of Amanda’s arrival on the scene, had been standing in a spellbound condition, gave a start, and stammered: “How is this? Upon my soul! I do not know what to think! This goes beyond all bounds! That is the girl you had the effrontery to bring to Brancaster! So it was to take her to those relations of hers at Oundle, was it, that you went chasing after my uncle? Not that I believe it! I hope I am not such a gull!”

“That girl, sir,” said Captain Kendal, dropping a restraining hand on Sir Gareth’s shoulder, and keeping his penetrating eyes on Lord Widmore’s face, “is Miss Summercourt. She is shortly to become my wife, so if you have any further observations to make on this head, you may address them to me!”

“Widmore, do try not to be so silly!” begged Hester. “I can’t think how you can have so little commonsense! It is quite true that I came here to nurse Gareth, for he had had a very serious accident, and nearly died; but also I came to be a chaperon for Amanda—not that there was the least need of such a thing, when she was in Gareth’s charge, but although I have not a great deal of sense myself I do know that persons like you would think so. And I must say, Widmore, that it is very lowering to be so closely related to anyone with such a dreadfully commonplace mind as you have!”

He was so much taken aback by this unprecedented assault that he could find nothing to say. Amanda, who had poured the tale of her odyssey into her grandsire’s ears, seized the opportunity to address him. “Oh, Lord Widmore, pray excuse me for having been so uncivil as to run away with your uncle without taking leave of you and Lady Widmore and Lord Brancaster, or saying thank you for a very pleasant visit! And, please, Uncle Gary, forgive me for having been troublesome, and uncivil, and telling people you were abducting me, which Neil says you didn’t, though I must say it is abducting, when you force people to go with you. However, I am truly grateful to you for having been so kind, and letting me have Joseph. And Aunt Hester too. And now I have begged everybody’s pardon, except Hildebrand’s,” she continued, without the smallest pause, “so, please,Neil, don’t be vexed with me any more!”

“That’s a good girl,” said her betrothed, putting his arm round her, and giving her a slight hug.

“Amanda!” said the General sharply, as she rubbed her cheek against Captain Kendal’s arm. “Come here, child!”

The Captain released her, and her grandfather bade her run away and pack her boxes. She looked mutinous, but Captain Kendal endorsed the command, upon which she sighed, and went with lagging steps into the house.

“Now, sir!” said the General, turning to Sir Gareth. “I am satisfied that you have behaved like a man of honour to my granddaughter, and I will add that I am grateful to you for your care of her. But although I do not say that you are to blame for it, this has been a bad business—a very bad business! Should it become known that my granddaughter has been for nearly three weeks living under your protection, as I cannot doubt it will, since so many persons are aware of this circumstance, the damage to her reputation would be such as to—”

“Dear me, didn’t she tell you that I have been here all the time?” enquired Lady Hester.

“Ma’am,” said the General, “you were not with her at Kimbolton!”

“I beg pardon, sir,” put in Hildebrand diffidently, “but nobody saw her there but me, except the servants, of course, and they didn’t think anything but that she was Uncle Gary’s ward. Well, I thought she was, too!”

“What you thought, young man,” said the General crushingly, “isof no value! Be good enough not to interrupt me again! Ludlow, I am persuaded that I shall not find it necessary to urge you to adopt the only course open to a man of honour! You know the world: it has been impossible to keep my granddaughter’s disappearance from her home a secret from my neighbours. I am not so simple as to suppose that conjecture is not rife amongst them! Or, let me add, that your zeal in pursuing her sprang merely from altruistic motives! She is young, and I do not deny that she has some foolish fancies in her head, but I don’t doubt that a man of your address would very speedily succeed in engaging her affections.”

“Believe me, sir, you flatter me!” said Sir Gareth dryly.

“Ludlow, am I to demand that you should do the only thing that lies on your power to protect my granddaughter’s reputation?”

“I begin to see that in blaming the circulating libraries for the extremely lurid nature of Amanda’s imagination I have been unjust,” remarked Sir Gareth. “You will permit me to tell you, sir, that you are being absurd.”

“Not absurd!” struck in Captain Kendal. “Ambitious!”

Lord Widmore, who had been standing wrapped in hurried and constructive thought, suddenly made his presence felt. “Quite absurd! Laughable, indeed! Miss Summercourt—pooh, a schoolgirl! I venture to say that her youth is protection enough! You may be easy, General: I give you leave to inform your acquaintance that she has been visiting Lady Widmore at Brancaster, should you think it necessary to put out some story to satisfy the curiosity of the vulgar. But my unfortunate sister’s predicament is a different matter! She is not a child! I do not say that the blame for her having been mad enough to come here is to be laid at your door, Ludlow, but I must deem you grossly to blame for her continued presence here! I would not have believed that you could have been so careless of her reputation had I not been aware of what passed between you at Brancaster. I cannot do other than censure the means you have thought proper to employ to induce my sister to give you another answer than the one you received from her not so long since, but no other course is open to me than to tell her that she has no choice but to become your wife!”

“Kendal!” said Sir Gareth. “Be so good as to act as my deputy, and kick Widmore out! Try if you can find a midden!”

“Yes, pray do!” said Lady Hester cordially.

“With all the pleasure on earth!” said the Captain, stepping forward in a purposeful fashion.

“Hold!” commanded Mr. Whyteleafe, in such throbbing and portentous accents that every eye turned towards him. “His Lordship is mistaken! One other choice lies open to Lady Hester, which I dare to think must be preferable to her than to be linked to a fashionable fribble! Lady Hester, I offer you the protection of my name!”

“Two middens!” said Sir Gareth savagely.

“No, because I am persuaded he means it very kindly,” intervened Hester. “I am so much obliged to you, Mr. Whyteleafe, but it is quite unnecessary for anyone to offer me the protection of their names, because Widmore is talking nonsense, as he very well knows. And I shall be still more obliged to you if you will take him away!”

“You do not mean to remain here?” exclaimed the chaplain, in horror.

She did not answer, for she was a little agitated. It was Hildebrand who said hotly: “She needn’t scruple to do so, because I shan’t leave Uncle Gary, and I will take very good care of her, I assure you! That is to say, I should, if he was the sort of person you think, but he is not! Uncle Gary, let me throw him out!”

“No,” said Sir Gareth. “You may instead help me out of this chair! Thank you! No, I don’t need any further support. Now! You have all talked yourselves out, I trust, for I am going to say a few words! First, let me make it plain to you that I have not the slightest intention of allowing myself to be coerced into offering marriage to either of the ladies whose reputations I am alleged to have damaged! Second, I have not, in fact, damaged anyone’s reputation. It would be hard to imagine how I could have done so during the time I have been in this inn, and as for the one night at Kimbolton, your granddaughter, General, passed as my ward, as Hildebrand has already told you. Let me add that in no other light have I at any time during my acquaintance with her regarded her. So far from having, as you seem to think, a tendre for her, I can think of few worse fates than to be married to a girl who is not only young enough to be my daughter, but who has what I suspect to be an ineradicable habit of flinging herself into the arms of the military. I suggest, if you feel her fair name to have been smirched in the eyes of your neighbours, that you lose no time in getting her out of the country. No doubt Captain Kendal will be happy to assist you in achieving this object!”

“Thank you: I will!” said the Captain briskly.

“Nothing will induce me—” began the General.

“Just let me say what I have to, sir, if you please!” interposed Captain Kendal. “I have hitherto acquiesced in your resolve not to allow Amanda to become my wife while she is still so young. Our attachment is of pretty long standing, but the force of your objections was fully realized by me. I shall not expatiate on that head, because this prank she has played has made me change my mind. It is quite obvious to me, sir, that neither you nor Miss Summercourt has the smallest control over her, and if I don’t take her in hand now she will be utterly ruined! She doesn’t play these tricks on me, so you needn’t be afraid she’ll get into mischief when I have her in Spain: I’ll see to that! And you needn’t be afraid, either, that she won’t be happy, because I’ll see to that, too! I should wish to marry her by special licence, with your consent. If you continue to withhold your consent, I shall be obliged to postpone the ceremony until we reach Lisbon. That’s all I have to say, sir.” He perceived his betrothed coming through the trees, and called: “Here, Amanda, I want you!”

“You know, General, I am quite, quite sure that Captain Kendal is just the man for her,” said Hester persuasively.

He groaned. “To be throwing herself away on Neil Kendal! It is not what I wish for her!”

“Throwing herself away?” said Sir Gareth. “My dear sir, that young man is clearly destined to become a Marshal!”

“Young Neil?” said the General, as though such a notion was new to him.

“Certainly! If I were you, I would give in with a good grace. If you could incarcerate her until Kendal had left the country, I should be astonished if I did not hear next that she had stowed away on a vessel bound for Spain.”

The General shuddered. His granddaughter, having been informed, very kindly, by her strongminded lover, that if she was a good girl, and did as she was told, he would marry her after all, and take her to Spain, first embraced him fervently, then flung her arms round the General’s neck, and ended by hugging both Lady Hester and Sir Gareth for good measure.

It was fully an hour before the Bull Inn sank back into its accustomed quiet. The General’s party was the first to leave, and if he was by no means reconciled to his granddaughter’s engagement a suggestion made by his prospective son-in-law that he should accompany the bridal pair to Lisbon had undoubtedly found favour with him.

Lord Widmore lingered, alternately commanding and beseeching his sister to return immediately to her home. In these exhortations he was joined by the chaplain. Lady Hester listened to them with patience, but although she said she was sorry to vex her brother, she remained gently determined not to desert her patient. Lord Widmore then declared that since she was of age she might please herself, but that for his part he washed his hands of her.

“Oh, do you?” she said. “I am so glad, for it is what I have longed for you to do for such a time! Pray give my love to Almeria! I must take Gareth his medicine now: excuse me, please!”

Sir Gareth, left alone in the orchard to recover from the exhausting effects of his guests, watched her come towards him, carrying his medicine. “I am glad you haven’t left me to my fate,” he remarked.

“Oh, no! Such nonsense! Here is this evil-smelling dose which Dr. Chantry says is what you should take.”

“Thank you,” he said, receiving the glass from her, and pouring its contents on to the grass.

“Gareth!”

“I have had enough of Dr. Chantry’s potions. Believe me, they taste worse than they smell! Hester, that brother of yours is a sapskull.”

“Oh, yes, I know he is!” she agreed.

“I meant what I said, you know. I don’t think myself bound to offer you the protection of my name—did you ever listen to so much fustian? I’ll swear I never did!—because the suggestion that I have compromised you is as ludicrous as it is nauseating.”

“Of course it is. Don’t let us talk about it! It was so stupid!”

“We will never mention it again, if you will give me your assurance that you have no qualms. Look at me!”

She obeyed, with a tiny smile. “Gareth, it is too foolish! How can you ask me such a question?”

“I couldn’t bear to think, love, that you might consent to marry me for such a reason as that,” he said quietly.

“No,” she answered. “Or I that you might ask me for such a reason as that.”

“You may be very sure I would not. This is not the first time I have asked you to marry me, Hester.”

“Not the first time, but this is different—I think?” she said shyly.

“Quite different. When I asked you at Brancaster I held you in affection and esteem, but I believed I could never be in love again. I was wrong. Will you marry me, my dear and last love?”

She took his face between her hands, and looked into his eyes. A sigh, as though she were rid of a burden, escaped her. “Yes, Gareth,” she said. “Oh, yes, indeed I will!”