Black_Strange_Adventures_of_a_Phaeton.txt topic ['13', '324', '378', '393']
CHAPTER I.
OUR BELL.
" Oh, the oak, and the ash, and the bonny ivy-tree.
They grow so green in the North Countrie ! *'
It was all settled one evening in the deep winter time.
Outside, a sharp east wind was whistling round the
solitudes of Box Hill; the Mole, at the foot of our
garden, as it stole stealthily through the darkness,
crackled the flakes of ice that lay along its level
banks ; and away on Mickleham Downs and on the
further uplands towards the sea ^the cold stars were
shining down on a thin coating of snow.
Indoors there was another story to tell; for the
mistress of the house Queen Titania, ls we call her
^a small person, with a calm, handsome, pale face,
an abundance of black hair, big eyes that are occasion-
ally somewhat cold and critical in look, and a certain
ms^gnificence of manner which makes you fancy her
rather a tall and stately woman has a trick of so
filling her dia^nug-toom mth dexterous traceries of
grass and ferns, with plentiful flowers of her own
rearing, and with a crowded glare of light, that, amid
the general warmth, the glow and perfume, and variety
of brilliant colours, you would almost forget that the
winter is chill and desolate and dark.
Then Bell, our guest and companion for many a year,
lends herself to the deception; for the wilful young
person, though there were a dozen inches of snow on
the meadows, would come down to dinner in a dress
of blue, with touches of white gossamer and fur about
the tight wrists and neck with a white rose and a
bunch of forget-me-nots, as blue as her eyes, twisted;
into the soft masses of her light-brown hair, and with
a certain gay and careless demeanour, meant to let us
know that she, having been born and bred in the
North Country, has a fine contempt for the mild rigours
of our southern winter.
But on this particular evening, BeU our Bell, our
Bonny Bell, our Lady Bell, as she is variously called
when she provokes people into giving her pet names
had been sitting for a long time with an open book
on her knee; and as this volume was all about the
English lakes, and gave pictures of them, and placed
here and there little tail-pieces of ferns and blossoms,
she may have been driven to contrast the visions thus
conjured up with the realities suggested by the fierce
gusts of wind that were blowing coldly through the
box-trees outside. All at once she placed the volume
gently on the white hearth-rug, and said, with a strange
wistfulness shining in the deeps of her blue eyes,
" Tita, cannot you make us talk about the summer,
and drown the noise of that dreadful wind ? Why
don't we conspire to cheat the winter and make
believe it is summer again ? Doesn't it seem to be
^ years and years ago since we had the long light even-
ings; the walks between the hedge-rows, the waiting
for the moon, up on the crest of the hill, and then the
quiet stroll downward into the valley and home again,
with the wild roses, and the meadow-sweet, and the
evening campions filling the warm night air? Come,
let us sit close together, and make it summer I See,
Tita 1 ^it is a bright forenoon you can nearly catch
OF A PHAETON. 3
a glimpse of the Downs ahdve Brighton and we are
going to ?hut up the house, and go away anywhere
for a whole month. liound comes that dear old
mail-phaeton, and ray pair of bonny hays are whinny-
ing for a bit of sugar. Papa is sulky **
"As usual," remarks my Lady, without lifting her
eyes from the carpet.
" for though the imperial has been slung on,
there is scarcely enough room for the heaps of our
luggage, and, like every man, he has a deadly hatred
of bonnet-boxes. Then you take your seat, my dear,
looking like a small empress in a grey travelling
dress; and Papa after pretending to have inspected
all the harness takes tlie reins ; I pop in behind,
for the hood, when it is turned down, makes such a
.pleasant cushion for your arms, and you can stick your
sketch-book into it, and a row of apples and anything
else ; and Sandy touches his forelock, and Kate bobs
a curtsy, and away and away we go ! How sweet /
and fresh the air is, Tita! and don't you smell the
honeysuckle in the hedge? Why, hei we are at
Dorking 1 Papa pulls up to grumble about the last
beer that was sent ; and then Castor and Pollux toss
up their heads again, and on we drive to Guildford,
and to Beading, and to Oxford. And all through Eng-
land we go, using sometimes the old coaching-roads,
and sometimes the by-roads, stopping at the curious
little inns, and chatting to the old country folks and
singing ballads of an evening as we sit upon the hill-
sides, and watch the partridges dusting themselves
below us in the road ; and then on and on again. Is
not that the sea, Tita? look at the long stretch of
Morecambe Bay and the yellow sands, and the steamers
on the horizon ! But all at once we dive into the hills
again, and we come to the old familiar places by Apple-
thwaite and Ambleside, and then some evening ^some
evening, Tita we come in sight of Grasmere, and
then and then -'*
" Why, Bell ! ^what is the matter with you ? " cries
the other, and the next minute her arms are round the
B 2
4 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
light-brown head, crushing its white rose and its blue
forget-me-nots.
" If you two young creatures," it is remarked, " would
seriously settle where we are to go next summer, you
would be better employed than in rubbing your heads
together like a couple of baby calves."
" Settle ! " says Lady Tita, with a smile of gentle
impertinence on her face; "we know who is allowed
to settle things in this house. If we were to settle
anything, some wonderful discovery would be made
about the horses' feet, or the wheels of that valuable
phaeton which was made, I should fancy, about the
time the owner of it was born "
** The wife who mocks at her husband's grey hairs,"
I remark calmly, " knowing the share she has had in
producing them "
Here our Bonny Bell interfered, and a truce was con-
cluded. The armistice was devoted to consideration
of Bell's project, which at length it was resolved to
adopt. Why, after going year after year round the
southern counties in that big, old-fashioned phaeton
which had become as a house to us, should we not
strike fairly northward ? These circles round the south
wo\ild resemble thp swinging of a stone in the sling
before it is projected; and, once we were started on
this straight path, who could tell how far we might
not go?
*' Then," said I, for our thoughts at this time were
often directed to the great masses of men who were
marching through the wet valleys of France, or keeping
guard amid cold and fog in the trenches around Paris,
" suppose that by July next the war may be over,
Count Von Bosen says he means to pay us a visit, and
have a look at England. Why should not he join our
party, and become a companion for Bell ? "
I had inadvertently probed a hornets' nest. The
women of our household were at that time bitter against
the Qermans ; and but half an hour before Bell herself
had been eloquently denouncing the doings of the
Prussians. Had they not in secrecy been preparing
OF A PHAETON, 5
to steal back Alsace and Lorraine; had they not taken
advantage of the time when the good and gentle France
was averse from war to provoke a quarrel ; had not the
King openly insulted the French Ambassador in the
promenade at Ems ; and had not their hordes of men
swarmed into the quiet villages, slaying and destroying,
robbing the poor and aged, and winning battles by mere
force of numbers? Besides, the suggestion that this
young lieutenant of cavalry might be a companion for
Bell appeared to be an intentional injury done to a
certain amiable young gentleman, of no particular pro-
spects, living in the Temple ; and so Bell foithwith
declared her dislike not only of the German officers,
but of all oflScers whatsoever.
"And as for Count Von Eosen," she said, "I can
remember him at Bonn only as a very rude and greedy
boy, who showed a great row of white teeth wh^n he
laughed, and made bad jokes about my mistakes in
German. And now I dare say he is a tall fellow, with
a stiff neck, a brown face, perhaps a beard, a clanking
sword, and the air of a Bobadil, as h^. stalks into an inn
and calls out, ' Kdlnare ! eene Pidle Sect ! und sagen Sie
maly wets hoiben, Si&filr Zeitungen die AUjemeene f ' "
I ventured to point out to Bell that she might alter
her opinion when Von Bosen actually came over with
all the glamour of a hero about him ; and that, indeed,
she could not do better than marry him.
Bell opened her eyes.
" Marry him, because he is a hero ! No ! I would
not marry a hero, after he had become a hero. It would
be something to marry a man who was afterwards to
become great, and be with him all the time of his
poverty and Ids struggles. That would be worth some-
thing to comfort him when he was in despair, to be
kind to him when he was suffering ; and then, when
it was all over, and he had got his head above these
troubles, he would say to you, ' Oh, Kate, or Nell,' as
your name might be, 'how good you were during the
old time when we were poor and friendless I ' But when
he has become a hero, he thinks he will overawe you
6 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
vrilth the shadow of his great reputation. He thinks he
has only to come, and hold out the tips of his fingers,
and say, ' I am a great person. Everybody worships
me. I will allow you to share my brilliant fortune, and
you will dutifully kiss me.' Mcrd, monsieur! but if
any man were to come to me like that, I would answer
him as Canning's knife-grinder was answered * I give
you kisses ? I will see you ' "
" Bell ! " cried my Lady peremptorily.
BeU stopped, and then bhished, and dropped her
eyes.
" What is one to do," she asked, meekly, " when a
quotation comes in ? "
" You used to be a good girl/' said Queen Tita, in
her severest manner, " but you are becoming worse and
worse every day. I hear you sing the refrains of horrid
street sonars. Your love of sitting up at night is
dreadful. The very maid-servants are shocked by your
wilful provincialisms. And you treat me, for whom
you ought to show some respect, with a levity and
familiarity without example. I will send a report of
your behaviour to "
And here the look of mischief in Bell's eyea which
had been deepening just as you may see the pupil of a
cat widening before she makes a spring suddenly gave
way to a glance of urgent and meek entreaty, which
was recognized in the proper (Quarter. Tita named no
names ; and the storm blew over.
For the present, therefore, the project of adding this
young Uhlan to our party Wivs dropped ; but the idea
of our northward trip remained, and gradually assumed
definite consistency. Indeed, as it developed itself
during those long winter evenings, it came to be a
thing to dream about. But all the same I could see
that Tita sometimes returned to the notion of providing
a companion for Bell ; and, whatever may have been
her dislike of the Germans in general, Lieutenant von
Aosen was not forgotten. At odd times, when
" In her hazol eyes her thoughts hj clear
As pebbles in a brok,"
OF A PHAETON, -7
it-88aied to me that she was busy with those forecasts
* which are dear to the hearts of women. One night we
three were sitting as quietly as usual, talking about
something eke, when she suddenly remarked
''I suppose that Count von Kosen is as poor as
Prussian lieutenants generally are?*'
" On the contrary," said I, " he enjoys a very hand-
some FamiUen-^iftungf or family bequest, which gives
him a certain sum of money every six months, oh con-
dition that during that time he has either tmvelled so
much or gone through such and such a course of study.
I wish the legacies left in our country had sometimes
those provisions attached."
"He has some money, then," said my Lady,
thoughtfully.
"My dear," said I, "you seem to be very anxious
about the future, like the man whose letter I read to
you yesterday.^ Have you any further questions
to ask?"
"I suppose he cares for nothing but eating and
drinking and smoking, like other officers? He has
not been troubled by any very great sentimental crisis ? "
"On the contrary," I repeated, "he wrote me a
despairing letter, some fortnight before the war broke
out, about that same Fraulein FaUersleben whom we
saw acting in the theatre at Hanover. She had treated
him very badly she had-
Oh, that is all nothing," said Tita hastily and here
she glanced rather nervously at BelL
Bell, for her part, was unconcernedly fitting a pink
collar on a white cat, and talking to that pretty but
unresponsive animal
1 This is the letter :
"To the Editor of the Hampshire Ass.
" Sir, If the Repablicans who are endeavouring to intToduce a
Republic into this great country should accomplish their dii^gusting
purpose, do you think they will repudiate the National Debt, and pay
110 mors interest on the Consols ?
Iam, Sir,
"Your obedient Servant,
''BoosiKUE, Jan. 18, 1871.'' "A Lovkk of Maxshid.
8 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
"He left her/' I remarked again, "in paroxysms
of anger and mutual reproach. He accused her of
having "
"Well, .well, that will do," says Queen Titania, in
her coldest manner; and then, of course, everybody
obeys the small woman.
That was the last that was heard of Yon Sosen for
many a day ; and it was not until some time after the
war was over that he favoured us with a communi-
cation. He was still in France. He hoped to get over
to England at the end of July ; and as that was the
time we had fixed for our journey from London to
Edinburgh, along the old coach-roads, he became in-
sensibly mixed up with the project, until it was finally
resolved to ask him to join the party.
"I know you mean to marry these two," I said to
the person who rules over us all.
"How absurd you are," she replied, with a vast
assumption of dignity. "Bell is as good as engaged
-even if there was any fear of a handsome yoimg
Englishwoman falling in love with a Prussian lieutenant
who is in despair about an actress."
" You had better take a wedding-ring with you."
"A wedding-ring!" said Tita with a little curl of
her lips. "You fancy that a girl thinks of nothing
but that. Every wedding-ring that is worn represents
a man's impertinence and a woman's folly."
" Ask Bell," said I.
CHAPTER 11.
A LUNCHEON IN HOLBOEN.
'* From the bleak coast that hears
The Gennan Ocean roar, deep-blooming, strong,
And yellow-haired, the blae-eyed Saxon came. '
No more fitting point of departure could have been
chosen than the Old Bell Inn in Holbom, an ancient
hostelry which used in bygone times to send its relays
OF A PHAETON. 9
of stage-coaches to Oxford, Cheltenliam, Enfield, Abing-
don, and a score of other places. Now, from the quaint
little yard, which is surrounded by frail and dilapidated
galleries of wood, that teU of the grandeur of other
days, there starts but a solitary omnibus, which daily
whisks a few country people and their parcels down to
TJxbridge, and Chalfont, and Amersham, and Wendover.
The vehicle which Mr. Thoroughgood has driven for
many a year is no magnificent blue and scarlet dra^,
with teams costing six hundred guineas apiece, with
silver harness, a post-boy blowing a silver horn, and a
lord handling the reins ; but a rough and serviceable
little coach which is worked for profit, and which is of
vast convenience to the folks living in quiet Buck-
inghamshire villages apart from railways. From this
old-fashioned inn, now that the summer had come round,
and our long-looked-for journey to the North had come
near, we had resolved to start; and BeU having gravely
pointed out the danger of letting our young Uhlan
leave London hungry lest habit should lead him to
seize something by the way, and so get us into trouble
^it was further proposed that we should celebrate our
setting-out with a limcheon of good roast beef and
ale, in the snug little parlour which abuts on the yard.
"And I hope," said Queen Titania, as we escaped
from the roar of Holborn into the archway of the
inn, " that the stupid fellow has got himself decently
dressed. Otherwise, we shall be mobbed."
The fact was that Count von Rosen, not being aware
that English officers rarely appear when off duty ii^
uniform, had come straight from St Denis to Calais,
and from Calais to London, and from London to
Leatherhead, without ever dreaming that he ought not
to go about in his regimentals. He drew no distinction
between Herr Graf von Bosen and Seiner Majestat
Lieutenant im ten UhlanenBegimente ; although he
told us that when he issued from his hotel at Charing
Cross to get into a cab, he was surprised to see a small
crowd collect around the hansom, and no less surprised
to observe the absence of military costume in the
13 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
streets. Of course, the appearance of an Uhlan in the
quiet village of Leatherhead caused a profound com*
motion; and had not Castor and Pollux been able
to distance the crowd of little boys who flocked
around him at the station, it is probable he would have
arrived at our house attended by that concourse of
admirers.
You should have seen the courteous and yet half-
defiant way in which the women received him, as if
they were resolved not to be overawed by the tall,
browned, big-bearded man ; and how, in about twenty
minutes, they had insensibly got quite familiar with
him, apparently won over by his careless laughter, by
the honest stare of his light-blue eyes, and by a very
boyish blush that sometimes overspread his handsome
face when he stammered over an idiom, or was asked
some question about his own exploits. Bell remained
the most distant ; but I could see that our future com-
panion had produced a good impression on my Lady, for
she began to take the management of him, and to give
him counsel in a minute and practical manner, which is
a sure mark of her favour. She told him he must put
aside his uniform while in England. She described to
him the ordinary costume worn by English gentlemen
in travelling. And then she hoped he woidd take a
preparation of quinine with him, considering that we
should have to stay in a succession of strange inns,
and might be exposed to damp.
He went up to London that night, armed with a list
of articles which he was to buy for himself before
starting with us.
There was a long pause when we three found our-
selves together again. At length Bell said, with rather
an impatient air
" He is only a schoolboy, after alL Why should he
continue to call you Madame^ and me Mademoiselle^
just as he did when he knew us first at Bonn, and gave
us these names as a joke? Then he has the same
.irritating habit of laughing that he used to have there.
I hate a man who has his mouth always open like a
OF A PHAETON. ri
swallow in the air, trying to catch anything that may
coma And he is worse, I think, when he closes his
lips and tries to give himself an intellectual look,
like like "*
"Like what, BeU?"
*' Like a calf posiDg itself, and trying to look like a
red deer," said Bell with a sort of contemptuous warmth.
*'I wish, Bell," said my Lady, coldly and severely.
** that you would give up those rude metaphors. You
talk just as you did when you came fresh from West-
moreland you have learnt nothing."
Bell's only answer was to walk, with rather a proud
air, to the piano, and there she sat down and played a
few bars. She would not speak ; but the well-known
old air spoke for her, for it said, as plain as words
could say
''A North CountiT maid up to London had strayed,
Althongh witn her nature it did not agree ;
She wept, and she sighed, and she bitterly cried,
' I wish onco again in the North I could be ! ' "
"I think," continued Tita, in measured tones, "that
he is a very agreeable and trustworthy young man not
very polished, perhaps; but then he is a German. I
look forward with great interest to see in what light our
English country life will strike him ; and I hope. Bell,
that he will not have to complain of the want of
courtesy shown him by Englishwomen."
This was getting serious ; so, being to some small and
undefined extent master in my own house, I commanded
BeU to sing the song she was petulantly strumming.
That "fetched" Tita. Whenever Bell began to sing
one of those old English ballads, which she did for the
most part from morning till night, there was a strange
and tremulous thrill in her voice that would have dis-
armed her bitterest enemy ; and straightway my Lady
would be seen to draw over to the girl, and put her arm
round her shoulder, and then reward her, when the last
chord of the accompaniment had been struck, with
a grateful kiss. In the present instance, the charm
12 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
worked as usual ; but no sooner had these two young
people been reconciled than they turned on their mutucd
benefactor. Indeed, an observant stranger might have
remarked in this household, that when anything re-
motely bearing on a quarrel was made up between any
two of its members, the third, the peacemaker, was
expected to propose a dinner at Greenwich. The cus-
tom would have been more becoming had the cost been
equally distributed ; but there were three losers to one
payer.
Well, when we got into the yard of the Old Bell
the Buckinghamshire omnibus was being loaded; and
among the first objects we saw was the stalwart figure
of Von Eosen, who was talking to Mr. Thoroughgood,
as if he had known him all bis life, and examining
with a curious and critical eye the construction and
accommodation of the venerable old vehicle. We saw
with some satisfaction that he was now dressed in
a suit of grey garments, with a wide-awake hat ; and,
indeed, there was little to distinguish him from an
Englishman but the curious blending of colour from
the tawny yellow of his moustache to the deep brown
of his cropped beard which is seldom absent from the
hirsute decoration of a Prussian face.
He came forward with a grave and ceremonious
politeness to Queen Titania, who received him in her
dignified, quaint, maternal fashion ; and he shook hands
with Bell with an obviously unconscious air of indif-
ference. Then, not noticing her silence, he talked to
her, after we had gone inside, of the old-fashioned air
of homeliness and comfort noticeable in the inu, of the
ancient portraits, and the quaint fireplace, and the small
busts placed about. Bell seemed rather vexed that he
should address himself to her, and uttered scarcely a
word in reply.
But when our plain and homely meal was served,
this restraint gradually wore away; and in the talk
over our coming adventures, Bell abandoned herself to
all sorts of wild anticipations. She forgot the presence
of the German lieutenant Her eyes were fixed on the
OF A PHAETON. 13
North Country, and on summer nights up amid the
Westmoreland hills, and on bright mornings up by the
side of the Scotch lochs ; and while the young soldier
looked gravely at her, and even seemed a trifle sur-
prised, she told us of all the dreams and visions she
had had of the journey, for weeks and months back,
and how the pictures of it had been with her night and
day until she was almost afraid the reality would not
bear them out. Then she described as if she were
gifted with second sight the various occupations we
should have to follow duiing the long afternoons in the
North ; and how she had brought her guitar that Queen
Titania might sing Spanish songs to it; and how we
listen to the corn-crake; and how she would make
studies of all the favourite places we came to, and per-
haps might even construct a picture of our phaeton and
Castor and Pollux with a background of half-a-dozen
counties ^for some exhibition ; and how, some day in
the far future, when the memory of our long excursion
had grown dim, Tita would walk into a room in Pall
Mall, and there, with the picture before her, would
turn round with wonder in her eyes, as if it were a
revelation.
" Because," said Bell, turning seriously to the young
Uhlan, and addressing him as though she had talked
familiarly to him for years, " you mustn't suppose that
our Tita is anything but a hypocrite. All her coldness
and afifectation of grandeur are only a pretence ; and
sometimes, if you^atch her eye^and she is not
looking at you ^you will see something come up to the
surface of them as if it were her real heart and soul
there, looking out in wonder and softness at some
beautiful thing just like a dabchick, you know, when
you are watching among bushes by a river, and are
quite still ; and then, if you make the least remark^ if
you rustle your dress, snap ! down goes the dabchick,
and you see nothing, and my Lady turns to you quite
proudly and coldly ^though there may be tears in her
ej^ and dares you to think that she has shown any
emotion."
14 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
I
" That is, when she is listening to you singing? '* said
the Lieutenant, gravely and politely; and at this mo-
ment Bell seemed to become conscious that we were all
amused by her vehemence, blushed prodigiously, and
was barely civil to our Uhlan for half an hour after.
Nevertheless, she had every reason to be in a good
humour ; for we had resolved to limit our travels that
day to Twickenham, w^re, in the evening, Tita was to
see her two boys who \^re at school there. And as the
young gentleman of the Temple, who has already been
briefly mentioned in this narrative, is a son of the
schoolmaster with whom the boys were then living,
and as he was to be of the farewell party assembled in
Twickenham at night. Bell had no unpleasant prospect
before her for that day at least. And of one thing she
was probably by that time thoroughly assured ; no fires
of jealousy were in danger of being kindled in any
sensitive breast by the manner of Count von Eosen
towards her. Of course he was very courteous and
obliging to a pretty young woman ; but he talked
almost exclusively to my Lady; wMle, to state the
plain truth, he seemed to pay more attention to his
luncheon than to both of them together.
Behold, then, our phaeton ready to start ! The pair
of pretty bays are pawing the hard stones and pricking
their ears at the unaccustomed sounds of Holborn.
Sandy is at their head, regarding them rather dolefully
as if he feared to let them slip from his care to under-
take so long and perilous a voyage ; Queen Titania has
arranged that she shall sit behind, to show the young
Prussian all the remarkable things on our route ; and
Bell, as she gets up in front, begs to have the reins
given her so soon as we get away from the crowded
thoroughfares. There are still a few loiterers on the
pavement who had assembled to see the Wendover
omnibus leave ; and these regard with a languid sort
of curiosity the setting-out of the party in the big
dark-green phaeton.
A little tossing of heads and prancing, a little ad-
justment of the reins, and a final look round, and then
OF A PHAETON. 15
xre glide into the vrild and roaring stream of vehicles
^that mighty current of rolling vans, and heavy
waggons, and crowded Bayswater omnibuses, of dex^
terous hansoms and indolent four-wheelers, of brewers'
drays and post-office carts and costermongers' barrows.
Over the great thoroughfare, with its quaint and
huddled houses and its innumerable shops, dwell a
fine blue sky and white clouds that seem oddly dis*
coloured. The sky, seen through a curious pall of mist
and smoke, is only grey, and the clouds are distant
and dusky and yellow, like those of an old landscape
that has lain for years in a broker's shop. Then there
is a faint glow of sunlight shining along the houses on
the northern side of the street ; and here and there the
window of some lobster-shop or tavern glints back tfie
light k% we get farther westward, the sky overhead
gets clearer, and the character of the thoroughfare alters.
Here we are at the street leading up to the British
Museum a Mudie and a Moses on each hand and
it would almost seem as if the Museum had sent out
rays of influence to create around it a series of smaller
collections. In place of the humble fishmonger and
the familiar hosier, we have owners of large win-
dows filled with curious treasures of art old-fashioned
jewellery, china, knick-knacks of fumiture, silver spoons
and kettle?, and stately portraits of the time of Charles
II., in which the women have all beaded black eyes,
yellow curls, and a false complexion, while the men are
fat, pompous, and wigged. Westward still, and we
approach the huge shops and warehouses of Oxford
Street, where the last waves of fashionable life, seeking
millinery, beat on the eastern barriers that shut out
the rest of London. Regent Street is busy on this
quiet afternoon; and BeU asks in a whisper whether
tiie countryman of Blticher, now sitting behind us, does
not betray in his eyes what he thinks of this vast
show of wealth. Listening for a moment, we hear that
Queen Titania, instead of talking to him about the
shops, is trying to tell him what London was in the
last century, and how Colonel Jack and his associates.
l6 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
before that enterprising youth started to walk from
London to Edinburgh to avoid the law, used to way-
lay travellers in the fields between Gray's Inn and St
Pancras, and how, having robbed a coach between Hyde
Park Gate and Knightsbridge, they "went over the
fields to Chelsea." This display of erudition on the
part of my Lady has evidently been prepared before-
hand ; for she even goes the length of quoting dates and
furnishing a few statistics a thing which no woman
does inadvertently. However, when we get into Pall
Mall, her ignorance of the names of the clubs reveals
the superficial nature of her acquirements ; for even
Bell is able to recognize the Beform, assisted, doubtless,
by the polished pUlars of the Carlton. The women are,
of course, eager to know which is the Prince of Wales's
Club, and afterwards look with quite a peculiar interest
on the brick wall of Marlborough House.
" Now," says our Bonny Bell, as we get into the quiet
of St. James's Park, where the trees of the long avenue
and the shrubbery around the ponds look quite pleasant
and fresh even under the misty London sunlight ; " now
you must let me have the reins. I am wearying to
get away from the houses, and be really on the road
to Scotland. Indeed, I shall not feel that we have
actually set out until we leave Twickenham, and are
fairly on the old coach-road at Hounslow."
I looked at Bell. She did not blush; but calmly
waited to take the reins. I had then to point out to
the young hypocrite that her wiles were of no avail.
She was not anxious to be beyond Twickenham; she
was chiefly anxious to get down thither. Notwith-
standing that she knew we had chosen a capricious
and roundabout road to reach this first stage on our
journey, merely to show Von Bosen something of London
and its suburban beauties, she was looking with im-
patience to the long circuit by Clapham Common,
Wimbledon, and Eichmond Park. Therefore she was
not in a condition to be entrusted with the safety of
80 valuable a freight.
" I am not impatient," said Bell, with her colour a
OF A PHAETON. 17
trifle heightened : '* I do not care whether we ever get
to Twickenham. I would as soon go to Henley to-
night, and to-morrow to Oxfords But it is just like
a man to make a great bother and go in prodigious
circles to reach a trifling distance. You go circling and
circling like the minute-hand of a clock ; but the small
hand, that takes it easy, and makes no clatter of ticking,
finds at twelve o'clock that it has got quite as far as
its big companion/'
" This, BeU," I remarked, *' is impertinence."
** Will you give me the reins?"
" No."
Bell turned half round, and leaned her arm on the
lowered hood.
"My dear," she said to Queen Titania who had
been telling the Count something about Buckingham
Palace "we have forgotten one thing. What are we
to' do when our companions are disagreeable during
the day? In the evening we can read, or sing, or
walk about by ourselves. But during the day, Tita?
When we are imprisoned, how are we to escape?"
" We shall put you in the imperial, if yo ire not
a good girl," said my Lady, with a gracious sweetness ;
and then she turned to the Count.
It would have been cruel to laugh at BelL For a
minute or two after meeting witff this rebuff, she
turned rather away from us, and stared with a fine
assumption of proud indifference down the Vauxhall
Bridge Boad. But presently a lurking smile began
to appear about the comers of her mouth; and at
last she cried out
"Well, there is no use quarrelling with a married
man, for he never pets you. He S& familiar with the
trick of it, I suppose, and looks on like an old juggler
watching the efforts of an amateur. See ! how lovely
the river is up there by Chelsea ^the long reach of
rippling grey, the green of the trees, and the curious
silvery light that almost hides the heights beyond.
We shall see the Thames often, shall we not? and
then the Severn, and then the Solway, and then the
l8 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
^at Frith of the Forth ? When I think of it, I fed
like a bird a lark flattering up in happiness and
seeing farther and farther every minute. To see the
Solway, you know, you have to be up almost in the
Uue; azid then all around you there rises the wide
pl^in of England, with fields, and woods, and streams.
Fancy being able to see as far as a vulture, and to
go swooping on for leagues and leagues ^now up amid
white peaks of snow or down through some great
valley or across the sea in the sunset. And only
fancy that some evening you might find the spectral
ship beginning to appear in pale fire in the mist
of the horizon coming on towards you without a
'sound do you know, that is the most terrible legend
ever thought of!"
" What has a vulture to do with the Flying Dutch-
man ? " said niy Lady Tita suddenly ; and BeU turned
with a start to find her friend's head close to her
own. "You are becoming incoherent, Bell, and your
eyes are as wild as if you were really looking at
the phantom ship. Why are you not driving?"
"Because I am not allowed," said Bell.
However, when we got into the Clapham Eoad,
Bell had her wish. She took her place with the air
of a practised whip; and did not even betray any
nervousness when a sudden whistle behind us warned
her that she was in the way of a tramway-car. More-
over, she managed to subdue so successfully her impa-
tience to get to Twickenham, that she was able to
take us in the gentlest manner possible up and across
Clapham Common, down through Wandsworth, and
- up again towards Wimbledon. When, at length, we
got to the brow of the hill that overlooks the long and
undulating stretches of furze, the admiration of our
Prussian friend, which had been called forth by the
various parks and open spaces in and around London,
almost rose to the pitch of enthusiasm.
" Is it the sea down there, yes ? " he asked, looking
towards the distant tent-poles, which certainly re-
sembled a small forest of masts in the haze of the
OF A PHAETON. 19
sunshine. "It is not the sea? I almost expect to
reach the shore always in England. Yet why have
you so beautiful places like this around London so
much more beautiful than the sandy coimtry around
our Berlin and no one to come to it? You have
more than three millions of people here is a play-
ground why do they not come? And Clapham
Common too, it is not used for people to walk in/
as we should use it in Germany, and have a pleasant
seat in a garden, and the women sewing until their
husbands and friends come in the evening, and musid
to make it pleasant, afterwards. It is nothing ~a
waste a landscape very beautiful but not used.
You have children on donkeys, and boys playing
their games ^that is very good but it is not enough.
And here, this beautiful park, aU thrown away no
one here at alL Why does not your Lord Mayor see
the the requirement of drawing away large numbers
of people from so big a town for. fresh air; and make
here some amusements?"
" Consider the people who live all around," said my
Lady, " and what they would have to suffer."
*' Suffer!" said the young Prussian, with his eyes
staring; "I do not understand you. For people to
walk through gardens, and smoke, and drink a glass or
two of beer, or sit under the trees and sew or read
surely that is not offensive to any person. And here
the houses are miles away ^you cannot see them down
beyond the windmill there."
"Did you ever hear of such things as manorial
rights, and freeholders, and copyholders, and the Statute
of Merton?" he is asked.
"All that is nothing a fiction," he retorted. "You
have a Government in this country representing the
people; why not take all these commons and use
them for the people? And if the Government has
not courage to do that, why do not your munici-
palities, which are rich, buy up the land, and provide
amusements, and draw the people into the open
air?"
C 2
20. THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
My Lady lita could scarce believe her ears on
hearing a Prussian aristocrat talk thus coolly of con-
fiscation, and exhibit no more reverence for the tra-
ditional rights of property than if he were a Parisian
socialist. But then these boys of twenty-five will
dance over the world's edge in pursuit of a theory.
Here, too, as Bell gently urged our horses forward
towards the crest of the slope leading down to Baveley
Bridge, Von Bosen got his first introduction to an
English landscape. All around him lay the brown
stretches of sand and the blue-green clumps of furze
of the common; on either side of the wide and well-
made road, the tall banks were laden with a tangled
luxuriance of brushwood and bramble and wild-flowers ;
down in the hollow beneath us there were red-tiled
farm-buildings haK hid in a green maze of elms and
poplars; then the scattered and irregular fields and
meadows, scored with hedges and dotted with houses,
led up to a series of heights that were wooded with
every variety of forest tree ; while over all these undu-
lations and plains there lay that faint presence of mist
which only served to soften the glow of the afternoon
sunshine, and show us the strong colours of the picture
'trough a veil of tender ethereal grey.
We go down the lull, and roll along the valley.
**ThM is the Eobin Hood Gate," says Queen Tita.
"Have you heard of Eobin Hood, Count von Rosen V*
" Oh yes. He was one of those picturesque men
that we have many of in our German stories. We
like huntsmen, outlaws, and such people; and the
German boys, they do know of Bobin Hood as much
as of WiUiam Tell."
"But then, you know," says Tita, gravely, "Eobin
Hood was a real person."
" And was not William TeU ?"
"They say not."
The Lieutenant laughed.
"Madame," he said, "I did not know you were so
learned. But if there was no William Tell, are you
sure there was any Eobin Hood?"
OF A PHAETON. 21
*'0h, yes, I am quite sure," said my Lady,
earnestly; -which closed this chapter of profound his-
torical criticism.
Bichmond Park, in the stillness of a fine sunset,
was worth bringing a foreigner to see. The ruddy light
from the west was striking here and there among the
glades under the oaks; across the bars of radiance
and shadow the handsome little bucks and long-necked
does were lightly passing and repassing; while there
were rabbits in thousands trotting in and about the
blackens, with an occasional covey of young partridges
alternately regarding us with upstretched necks and
then running off a few yards further. But after we
had bowled along the smooth and level road, up and
through the avenues of stately oaks, past the small
lakes (one of them, beyond the shadow of a dark
wood, gleamed like a line of gold), and up to the
summit of Bichmond Hill, Queen TLtania had not a
word to say farther in pointing out the beauties of
the place. She had been officiating as conductor, but it
was with the air of a proprietress. Now, as we stopped
the phaeton on the crest of the hill, she was silent
Far away behind us lay the cold green of the
eastern sky, and under it the smoke of London lay
red and brown, while in the extreme distance we
could see dim traces of houses, and down in the
south a faint rosy mist. Some glittering yeUow rays
showed us where the Crystal Palace, lugh over the
purple shadows of Sydenham, caught the sunlight;
and up by Notting Hill, too, there were one or two
less cUstinct glimmerings of glass. But when we
turned to the west, no such range of vision was per-
mitted to us. All over the bed of the river there
lay across the western sky a confused glare of pale
geld not a distinct sunset, with sharp lines of orange
and blood-red fire, but a bewildering haze that blinded
the eyes and was rather ominous for the morrow.
Along the horizon,
** where, enthroned in adamantine atate,
Fkond of her hiffda, imperial Windsor sits,"
22 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
there was no trace of the grey towers to be made out
but a confused and level mass of sil%'er ^treaks^ and
lines of blue. Nearer at hand, the spacious and
wooded landscape seemed almost dark under the glare i
of the sky ; and the broad windings of the Thames
lay white and clear between the soft green of the
Twickenham shores and the leafy masses of ''um-
brageous Ham."
"Doesn't it seem as though the strange light away
up there in the north and out in the west lay over
some unknown country/' said Bell, with her eyes
filled with the glamour of the sunset, "and that to-
morrow we were to begin our journey into n great
prairie, and leave houses and people for ever behind
us? You can see no more villages, but only miles
and miles of woods and plains, until you come to
a sort of silver mist, and that might be the sea."
"And a certain young lady stands on the edge
of this wild and golden desei*t, and a melancholy
look comes into her eyes. For she is fond of houMS
and her fellow-creatures, and here, just close at hand
down there, in Twickenham, in facl^^there is a com-
fortable dining-room and some pleasant friends, and
one attentive person in particular, who is perhaps a
little sorry to bid her good-bya Yet she does not
falter. To-morrow morning she will hold out her
hand a tender and wistful smile will only half convey
her sadness "
Here Bell rapidly but lightly touched Pollux with
the whip; both the horses sprang forward with a
jerk that had nearly thrown the Lieutenant into the
road (for he was standing up and holding on by the
hood); and then, without another word, she rattled
us down into Bichmond. Getting sharply round the
comer, she pretty nearly had a wheel taken off bgr
the omnibus that was standing in front of the Eiog'a
Head, and just escaped knocking down a youtii in
white costume and boating shoes, who jumped baek
on the pavement with an admirable dexterity. Nop
would she stop to give us a look at the Thames
OF A PHAETON. 2J
feom the bridge we only caught a glimpse of the
bioad bend of the water, the variouB boats and their
white-clad crews, the pleasant river-paths, and the
green and wooded heights all around. She swept ns
on along the road leading into Twickenham, past the
abodes of the Orleanist Princes, and into the narrow
streets of the village itself, iinti], with a proud and
defiant air, she puUed the horses np in front of Dr.
Ashburton's house.
There was a young man at the window. She
pretended not to see him.
When the servants had partly got our luggage out,
the young man made his appearance, and came for-
ward, in rather a frightened way, as I thought, to
pay his respects to my Lady Tita and Bell. Then
he glanced at the Uhlan, who was carefully examining
the horses' fetlocks and hoofs. Finally, as the Doctor
had no stables, Master Arthur informed ns that he
had made arrangements about putting up the horses;
and while the rest of us went into the house, he
volunteered to take the phaeton round to the inn.
He and the Count went off together.
Then there was a wild commotion on the first land-
ing, a confused tumble and rush down stairs, and
presently Bell and Tita were catching up two boys
and hugging them, and pulling out all sorts of myste-
rious presents.
"Hehl how fens tee, Jeck? gaily?" cried Auntie
Bell, whose broad Cumberlandishire vastly delighted
the youngsters. '*Why, Twom, thou's growin' a big
lad, ^thou mud as weel be a sodger as at schuiL Can
tee dance a whompipe yet? what, nowther o' ye?
Dost think I's gaun to gie a siller watch to twa
feckless fallows that canna dance a whompipe?"
But here Bell's mouth was stopped by a multitude
of kisses, and, having had to confess that the two
silver watches were really in her pocket, she was
drawn into the parlour by the two boys, and made
to stand and deliver.
24 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
CHAPTEE III.
"PRINZ EUGEN, DER EDLE RITTER."
** What can Tommy Onslow do ?
He can drive a phaeton and two.
Can Tommy Onslow do no more ? "
Meanwhile, what had become of the Lieutenant and
Arthur, and Castor and Pollux, to say nothing of the
phaeton, which had now been transferred from its
accustomed home in Surrey to spend a night under
a shed in Twickenham? The crooked by-ways and
narrow streets of that curious little village were
getting rapidly darker under the falling dusk, and
here and there orange lamps were beginning to shine
in the blue-grey of the twilight, when I set out to
discover the stable to which our horses had been con-
fided. I had got but half-way to the public-house,
when I met Arthur. The ordinarily mild and gentle
face of this young man which would be quite femi-
nine in character, but for a soft, pale-yellow moustache
looked rather gloomy.
" Where is the Count ? " I asked of him.
"Do you mean that German fellow?" he said.
The poor young man! It was easy to detect the
cause of that hedf-angiy contempt with which he
spoke of our lieutenant It was jealousy with its
green eyes and dark imaginings; and the evening,
I could see, promised us a pretty spectacle of
the farce of Bell and the Dragon. At present I
merely requested Master Arthur to answer my
question.
"Well," said he, with a line expression of irony
the unhappy wretch! as if it were not quite obvious
that he was more inclined to cry ^"if you want to
keep him out of the police-office, you'd better go down
to the stables of the , He has raised a pretty
quarrel there, I can tell you ^kicked the ostler half
OF A PHAETON. 25
across the yard ^knocked heaps of things to smithe-
reens and is ordering everybody about, and fuming
and swearing in a dozen different inarticulate languages.
I wish you joy of your companion. You will have
plenty of adventures by the way; but what will you
do with all the clocks you gather?"
"Go home, you stupid boy, and thank God you
have not the gift of sarcasm. Bell is waiting for
you. You will talk very sensibly to her, I dare-
say; but don't make any jokes not for some years
to come."
Arthur went his way into the twilight, as wretched a
young man as there was that evening in Twickenham.
Now in front of the public-house, and adjoining
the entrance into the yard, a small and excited crowd
had collected of all the idlers and loungers who hang
about the doors of a tavern. In the middle of them
as you could see when the yellow light from the
window streamed through a cMnk in the cluster of
human figures ^there was a small, square-set, bandy-
legged man, with a red waistcoat, a cropped head,
and a peaked cap, with the peak turned sideways.
He was addressing his companions alternately in an
odd mixture of Buckinghamshire 'pal(m and Middlesex
pronunciation, somewhat in this fashion:
" I baint afeard of 'm, or any other darned furrener,
the . An' I've looked arter awsses afore he wur
bom, and I'd like to see the mahn as 11 tell me what
I don't know about 'm. I've kept my plaace for
fifteen yur, and I'll bet the coot on my bahck as my
missus '11 say, there niver wur a better in the plaace ;
an' as fur thaht furrener in there, the law 'U
teach him summut, or I'm worry much mistaken.
Eh, Any? Bain't I right?"
This impassioned appeal from the excited small
man was followed by a general chorus of assent.
I made my way down the yard, between the shafts
of dog-carts, and the poles of disabled omnibuses that
loom^ from out the darkness of a long and low shed.
Down at the foot of this narrow and dusky channel
26 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
a stable-door was open, and the faint yellow light
occasionally caught the figure of a man who was
busy grooming a horse outside. As I picked my
way over the rough stones, I could hear that he was
occasionally interrupting the hissing noise peculiar to
the work with a snatch of a song, carelessly sung
in a deep and sufiKciently powerfid voice. What was
it he sang?
'* Prinz Eugen, der edle Bitter ^hissssssa wolW
dem Kaiser vriedrum kriegen wo! my beauty ^so
ho! Stadt und Festuiig Bdgarad! hold up, my
lad! wo ho!"
"Hillo, Oswald, what are you about?"
"Oh, only looking after the horses," said our young
Uhlan, slowly raising himself up.
He was in a remarkable state of undress his coat,
waistcoat, and collar having been thrown on the straw
inside the stable and he neld in' his hand a brush.
''The fellows at this inn they are very ignorant of
horses, or very careless."
'' I hear you have been kicking 'em all about the
place."
"Why not? You go in to have a glass of beer
and see the people. Tou come back to the stables.
The man says he has fed the horses it is a lie. He
says he has groomed them ^it is a lie. Jott in
Himmel! can I not see? Then I drive him away
I take out com for myself, also some beans ^he
comes back he is insolent I fling him into the yard
^he falls over the pail he lies and groans that is very
good for him ; it will teach him to mind his business,
not to tell lies, and to steal the price of the com."
I pointed out to this cool young person that if he
went kicking insolent ostlers all over the country,
he would get us into troubla
"Is it not a shame they do not know their work?
and that they will ruin good horses to steal a six-
pence from you, yes?"
''Besides," I said, "it is not pmdent to quarrel
with an ostler, for you must leave your h(scmm under
OF A PHAETON, 27
Us care; and if he should be ill-natixFed, he may do
them a mischief during the night."
The Count laughed, as he untied the halter and
led FoUux into a loose box.
"Do not be alarmed. I never allow any man to
lock up my horses if I am among strangers. I do
that myself. I will lock up this place and take the
key, and to-morrow at six I will come round and see
them fed. No \ you must not object It is a great
pleasure of mine to look after horses, and I shall
become friends with these two in a very few days.
You must let me manage them always.**
"And groom them twice a day?"
**Nee, Jott hewahre ! When there is a man who
can do it, I will not; but when there is no one, it
is a very good thing to help yoursett"
lieutenant Oswald von Eosen had clearly learned
how to conjugate the verb requiriren during his sojourn
in Bohemia and in France. He made another raid on
the corn and split beans, got up into the lofk, and
crammed down plenty of hay, and then bringing a
heap of clean straw into the place, tossed it plentifully
about the loose box devoted to Pollux, and about
Castor's stall. Then he put on his upper vestments,
brought away the candle, locked the door, and put
the key in his pocket, humming all the time something
about " die drdmai htmderttausend Mann.**
When we had got to the gate of the yard, he stalked
up to the small crowd of idlers, and said
" Which of you is the man who did tumble over the
pail? Is it you, you little fellow ? Well, you deserve
much more than you got, yes ; but here is a half-crown
for you to buy sticking-plaster with."
The small ostler held back, but his companions,
who perceived that the half-crown meant beer,
urged him to go forward and take it; which he did,
saying
** Well, I doant bear no malice.**
*'And next time that you have gentlemen's honieB
put into your stables, don't try to steal the price of
28 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
their corn," said the lieutenant; and with that he
turned and walked away.
"Who is the gentleman who came with me?" asked
my young friend, as we went back to the house ; " he
is a nice young man, but he does not kuow the differ-
ence between hay and straw, and I begged him not to
remain. And he would not drink the beer of this
public-house ; but that is the way of aU you English-
men you are so particular about things, and always
thinking of your health, and always thinking of
living, instead of living and thinking nothing about
it Ah, you do not know how fine a thing it is
to live until you have been in a campaign, my dear
friend; and then you know how fine it is that you
can eat with great hunger, and how fine it is when
you get a tumbler of wine, and how fine it is to sleep.
You are very glad, then, to be able to walk firm on
your legs, and find yourself alive and strong. But
always, I think, your countrymen do not enjoy being
alive so much as mine ; they are always impatient for
something, tr3dng to do something, hoping for some-
thing, instead of being satisfied of finding every day
a good new day, and plenty of satisfaction in it, with
talking to people, and seeing things, and a cigar now
and again. Just now, when I wake, I laugh to myself,
and say, * How very good it is to sleep in a bed, and
shut yourself out from noise, and get up when you
please !' Then you have a good breakfast, and all the
day begins a&esh, and you have no fear of being
crippled and sent off to the hospital Oh ! it is very
good to have this freedom this carelessness this
seeing of new things and new people every day. And
that is a very pretty young lady become, your Miss
fiell : I do remember her only a shy little girl, who
spoke German with your strange English way of pro-
nouncing the vowels, and was very much bashful over
it Oh yes, she is very good-lookmg indeed ; her hair
looks as if there were streaks of sunshine in the light
brown of it^ and her eyes are very thoughtful, and she
has a beautiful outline of the chin that makes her neck
OF A PHAETON. 29
and throat very pretty. And, you know, I rather like
the nose not hooked, like most of your English young
ladies ; when it is a little the other way, and fine, and
delicate it makes the face piquant and tender, not
haughty and cold, nickt wahri But she is very English-
loolong; I would take her as a as a a type, do
you call it ? of the pretty young Englishwoman, well-
formed, open-eyed, with good healthy colour in her face,
and very frank and gentle, and independent all at the
same time. Oh, she is a very good girl a very good
girl, I can see that."
"Yes," I said, "I think she will marry that young
fellow whom you saw to-night."
" And that will be very good for him," be replied,
easily ; " for she will look after him and give him some
coiomon sense. He is not practical; he has not seen
much; he is moody, and nervous, and thijiks greatly
about trifles. But I think he will be very amiable to
her, and that is much. You know, all the best women
marry stupid men."
There was, however, no need for our going into that
dangerous subject; for at this moment we arrived at
Dr. Ashburton's house. Von Eosen rushed upstairs
to his room, to remove the traces of his recent employ-
ment ; and then, as we both entered the drawing-room,
we found Bell standing right under the central gaselier,
which was pouring its rays down on her wealth of
golden-brown hair. Indeed, she then deserved all that
Von Bosen had said about her being a type of our
handsomest young Englishwomen rather tall, well-
formed, showing a clear complexion, and healthy rosi-
ness in her cheeks, while there was something at once
^ defiant and gentle in her look. Comely enough she
was to attract the notice of any stranger; but it was
only those who had spent years with her, and had
observed all her winning ways, her unselfishness, and
the rare honour and honesty that lay behind all her
pretty aflTectations of petulance, who could really tell
what sort of yoimg person our Bonny Bell was. She
was sufficiently handsome to draw eyes towards her,
y THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
" But if ye saw that which no eyes can see,
The inwaid beauty of her lovely spirit,
Gaxiushed with heavenly gifts of high degree,
Much more then would ye wonder at that sight
There dwell sweet Love and constant Chastity,
Unspotted Faith, and comely Womanhood,
Begard of Honour, and mild Modesty."
And it must be said that during this evening Bell's
conduct was beyond all praise. Arthur Ashburton was
rather cold and distant towards her, and was obviously
in a bad temper. He even hovered on the verge
of rudeness towards both herself and the Lieutenant.
Now, nothing delighted Bell more than to vary the
even and pleasant tenor of her life with a series of
pretty quarrels which had very little element of serious-
ness in them; but on this evening, when she was
provoked into quarrelling in earnest, nothing could
exceed the good sense, and gentleness, and forbearance
she showed. At dinner she sat between the young
barrister and his father, a quiet, little white-haired man
in spectacles, with small black eyes that twinkled
strangely when he made his nervous little jokes, and
looked over to his wife the very matter-of-fact and
roseate woman who sat at the opposite end of the
table. The old Doctor was a much more pleasant
companion than his son ; but Bell, with wonderful
moderation, did her best to re-establish good relations
between the moody young barrister and herself. Of
course, no woman will prolong such overtures inde-
finitely ; and at last the young gentleman managed to
establish a more serious breach than he had dreamed
of. For the common talk had drifted back to the then
recent war, and our Lieutenant was telling us a story
about three Uhlanen, who had, out of mere bravado,
ridden down the main street of a French village, and
out at the other end, without having been touched by
the shots fired at them, when young Ashburton added
with a laugh
"I suppose they were so padded with the watches
QF A PHAETON, 31
and jewelleiy ther had gathered on their way, that tho
bullets glanced off."
Count von osen looked across the table at this
young man, with a sort of wonder in his eyes ; and
then, with admirable self-control, he turned to my
Lady Tita, and calmly continued the story.
But as for Bell, a blush of shame and exceeding
mortification overspread her features. Xo madness of
jealousy could excuse this open insult to a stranger and
a guest. From that moment. Bell addressed herself
exclusiyely to the old Doctor, and took no more notice
of his son than if he had been in the moon. She was
deeply hurt, but she managed to conceal her disap-
pointment; and indeed, when the boys came in after
dinner, she had so far picked up her spirits as to be
able to talk to them in that wild way which they
regarded with mingled awe and delight. For they
could not understajid how Auntie Bell was allowed
to use strange words, and even talk Cumberlandshire
to the Doctor's own face.
Of course she plied the boys with aU sorts of fruit
and sweetmeats, until Tita, coming suddenly back from
the campaign in France to the table before her, per-
emptorily ordered her to cease: Then Bell gathered
round her the decanters ; the boys had their half-glass
of wine ; and BeU swept them away with her into the
drawing-room, when the women left.
"A very bright young lady ^lim ! a very bright and
pleasant young lady indeed," said the Doctor, stretching
out his short legs with an air of freedom, and beginning
to examine the decanters. " I don't wonder the young
fellows rave about her ; eh, Arthur, eh ? "
Master Arthur rose and left the room.
"Touched, ehl" said the father, with his eyes
twinkling vehemently, and his small grey features
twisted into a smile. "Hit hard, eh? Gad, I don't
wonder* at it ; if I were a young fellow myself eh, eh ?
Claret? Yea But the young fellows now don't sing
about their laughing Lalage, or drink to Glycera, or
make jokes with Lydia ; it is aU dreaming, and reading.
32 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
and sighing, eh, eh ? That boy of mine has gone mad
heeds nothing is ill-tempered "
" Very much so, Doctor."
'' Eh ? Ill-tempered ? Why, his mother daren't talk to
him, and we're glad to have hira go up to his chambers
again. Our young friend here is of another sort ; there
is no care about a woman tempering the healthy brown
of the sun and the weather, eh ? is there, eh ? "
" Why, my dear Doctor," cried the Lieutenant, with
a prodigious laugh, "don't you think Lydia's lover
Lydia^ die, you know he was very glad to be away
from rough sports ? He had other enjoyments. I am
brown, not because of my wish, but that I have been
made to work that is all."
The Doctor was overjoyed, and, perhaps, a trifle
surprised, to find that this tall Uhlan, who had just
been grooming two horses, understood his references to
Horace ; and he immediately cried out
" No, no ; you must not lose your health, and your
colour, and your temper. Would you have your friends
say of you, who have just been through a campaign
in France
' Cur neque militaris
Inter seqiiales militat, Gallica nee lupatis
Temperat ora frenis ? *
Eh, eh?"
" Temperat ora frenis it is a good motto for our
driving excursion," said the Lieutenant ; " but was it
your Miss Bell who called your two fine horses by such
stupid names as Castor and Pollux ? "
" Nevertheless," said the Doctor, eagerly, " Castor was
said to have great skill in the management of horses,
eh, eh ? "^
" Certainly," said the Lieutenant. "And both together
they foretell good weather, which is a fine thing in
driving."
"And they were the gods of boundaries," cried
the Doctor.
" And they got people out of trouble when everjrthing
seemed all over," returned the Count ; ** which may also
happen to our phaeton."
OF A PHAETON. 33
"And and and" here the Doctor's* small face
fairly gleamed with a joke, and he broke into a thin,
high chuckle ^" they ran away with two ladies eh, eh,
eh? did they not, did they not?"
Presently we went into the drawing-room, and there
the women were found in a wild maze of maps, eagerly
discussing the various routes to the North, and the
comparative attractions of diflTerent towns. The con-
tents of Mr. Stanford's shop seemed to have been
scattered about the room, and Bell had armed herself
with an opisometer, which gave her quite an air of
importance.
The Lieutenant was out of this matter, so he flung
himself down into an easy chair, and presently had
both of the boys on his knees, telling them stories
and propounding arithmetical conundrums alternately.
When Queen Tita came to release him, the young
rebels refused to go ; and one of them declared that the
Count had promised to sing the " Wacht am Ehein."
" Oh, please, don't," said Bell, suddenly turning round,
with a map of Cumberland half hiding her. "You
don't know thett all the organs here have it. But if
you would be so very kind as to sing us a German
song, I will play the accompaniment for you, if I know
it, and I know a great many."
Of course, the women did not imagine that a man
who had been accustomed to a soldier's life, and who
had just betrayed a faculty for grooming horses, was
likely to know much more of music than a handy
chorus; but the Count, lightly saying he would not
trouble her, went over to the piano, and sat down
unnoticed amid the general hum of conversation.
But the next moment there was sufBicient silence.
For with a crash like thunder" Hei ! das klang wie
Ungewitter!" ^the yoimg Lieutenant struck the first
chords of " Prinz Eugen," and with a sort of upward
toss of the head, as if he were making room for himself,
he began to sing Freiligrath's picturesque soldier-song
to the wild and warlike and yet stately music which
Dr. Lowe has written for it. What a rare voice he had,
D
34 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
too ! deep, strong, and resonant that seemed to throw
itself into the daring spirit of the music with an
absolute disregard of delicate graces or sentimental
eflfect ; a powerful, masculine, soldier-like voice, that
had little flute-like softness, but the strength and thrill
that told of a deep chest, and that interpenetrated or
rose above the loudest chords that his ten fingers struck.
Queen Tita's face was overspread with surprise; Bell
unconsciously laid down the map, and stood as one
amazed. The ballad, you know, tells how, one calm
night on the banks of the Danube, just after the great
storming of Belgrade, a young trumpeter in the camp
determines to leave aside cards for a while, and make a
right good song for the army to sing ; how he sets to
work to tell the story of the battle in ringing verse, and
at last, when he has got the rhymes correct, he makes
the notes too, and his song is complete. " Ho, ye white
troops and ye red troops, come round and listen 1" he
cries ; and then he sings the record of the great deeds
of Prince Eugene ; and lo ! as he repeats the air for the
third time, there breaks forth, with a hoarse roar as of
thunder, the chorus *^Prinz Eugen der edie Bitter!"
until the sound of it is carried even into the Turkish
camp. And then the young trumpeter, not difisatisfied
with his performance, proudly twirls his moustaehe ;
and finally sneaks away to tell of his triumph to the
pretty Marketenderin. When our young XThlan rose
from the piano, he laughed in an apologetic fashion ;
but there was still in his face some of that glow and
fire which had made him forget himself during the
singing of the ballad, and which had lent to his voice
that penetrating resonance that still seemed to linger
about the room. Bell said ''Thank you" in rather a
timid way ; but Queen Tita did not speak at all, and
seemed to have forgotten us.
We had more music that evening, and BeU produced
her guitar, which was expected to solace us much on
our journey. It was found that the Lieutenant could
play that too in a rough fashion ; and he executed at
least a very pretty accompaniment when Bell sang '* Der
OF A PHAETON. 35
Tyroler and sein Kind." But you sbould have seen
the face of Master Arthur when Bell volunteered to
sing a German song. I believe she did it to show
that she was not altogether frightened by the gloomy
and mysterious silence which he preserved, as he sat
in a comer and stared at eveiybody.
So ended our iSrst day : and to-morrow why, to-
morrow we pass away from big cities and their suburbs,
from multitudes of friends, late hours, and the whirl
of amusements and follies, into the still seclusion of
English country life, with its simple habits, and fresh
pictures, and the quaint humours of its inns.
\jScXa hy Queen Titania. " The foregoing pages give a more or less
accurate account of our setting-out, but they are all wrong about BeU.
Men are far worse than women in imagining love-affairs, and supposing'
that girls think about nothing else. Bell wishes to bi let alone, u
gentlemen care to make themselves uncomfortable about her, she*
cannot help it; but it is rather unfair to drag her into any such
compUcations. I am positive that, though ishe has doubtless a little
pity for that young man who vexes himself and his friends because he-
is not good enougn for her, she would not be sorry to see Sim, and
Count von Rosen and some one else besidea'tU. start off on a cruise-
to Australia. She is quite content to be as she is. Marriage will
come in good time ; and when it comes, she will get plenty of it, sure
snougK, In the meantime, I hone she will not be suspected of
enooumging those idle flirtations ana pretences of worship witii whiah
gentlemen think they ought to approach every girl whose goodforhms
i^ if not t be married. T."]
CHAPTEE IV.
ABTHUR VANISHES.
** Hampton me taught to wish her first for mine ;
And Windsor, alas I doth chase me from her sight.
'^ Sain I" cried Queen Titania, as she walked up to
the window of the breakfast-room, and stared reproach-
fully out on cloudy skies, gloomy trees, and the vet
thoroughfares of Twickenham.
" Surely not !" said Bell, in anxious tones ; and there-
with she too walked up to one of the panes, while
D 2
1
36 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
an expression of deep mortification settled down on
her face.
She stood so for a second or two, irresolute and hurt,
and then a revengeful look came into her eyes; she
walked firmly over to my Lady, got close up to her ear,
and apparently uttered a single word Tit-a almost
jumped back; and then she looked at the girL
"Bell, how dare youl" she said, in her severest
manner.
Bell turned and shyly glanced at the rest of us,
probably to make sure none of us had heard; and
then, all this mysterious transaction being brought to a
close, she returned to the table and calmly took up
a newspaper. But presently she threw it aside, and
glanced, with some heightened colour in her face and
some half-frightened amusement in her eyes, towards
Tita; and lo! that majestic little woman was still
regarding the girl, and there was surprise as well as
sternness in her look.
Presently the brisk step of Lieutenant von Sosen
was heard outside, and in a minute or two the taU
young man came into the room, with a fine colour in
his face, and a sprinkling of rain about his big brown
beard.
"Ha! Not late? No? That is very good! *
" But it rains !" said Tita to him, in an injured way,
as if anyone who had been out of doors was necessarily
responsible for the weather.
" Not much," he said. " It may go off; but about six
it did rain very hard, and I got a little wet then, I
think."
" And where were you at six ?" said Tita, with her
pretty brown eyes opened wide.
"At Isleworth," he said, carelessly; and then he
added : " Oh, I have done much business this morning,
and bought something for your two boys, which will
make them not mind that you go away. It is hard,
you know, they are left behind "
"But Bell has given them silver watches!" said
Mamma. " Is not that enough ?*'
OF A PHAETON. 37
'* They will break them in a day. Kow when I went
to the stables this morning to feed the horses, the old
ostler was there. We had a quarrel last night; but ho
matter. We became very good friends ^he told me
much about Buckinghamslure and himself he told
me he did know your two boys he told me he knew
of a pony oh ! a very nice little pony that was for
sale from a gentleman in Isleworth "
"And you've bought them a pony!" cried Bell,
clapping her hands.
" Bell," said Tita, with a severe look, " how foolish you
are ! How could you think of anything so absurd V
"But she is quite right, Madame," said the Lieu-
tenant, '' and it will be here in an hour, and you must
not tell them till it comes.''
" And you mean to leave them with that animal I
Why, they will break their necks, both of them," cried
iny Lady.
"Oh no!" said the Lieutenant; "a tumble does not
hurt boys, not at all And this is a very quiet, small
pony oh, I did pull him about to try, and he will not
harm anybody. And very rough and strong T think
the old man did call him a Scotland pony."
" A Shetland pony."
"Ah, very well," said our Uhlan; and then he began
to turn wistful eyes to the breakfast table.
They sat down to breakfast, almost forgetting the
rain. They were very well pleased with the coming of
the pony. It would be a capital thing for the boys'
health ; it would be this and would be that ; but only
one person there rejected that this addition to the
comforts of the young rogues upstairs would certainly
cost him sixteen shillings a week all the year round.
Suddenly, in the midst of this talk. Bell looked up
and said
" But where is Aithur ?"
" Oh," said the mother of the young man, " he went
up to town this morning at eight He took it for
granted you would not start to-day."
"He might have waited to see," said Bell, looking
58 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
4iown. " I suppose he is not so very much occupied in
the Temple. What if we have to go away before he
comes back?"
*' But perhaps he won't come back," said Mrs. Ash-
burton, gently.
Bell looked surprised ; and then, with a little firm-
ness about the mouth, held her peace for some time.
It was clear that Master Arthur's absence had some
considerable significance in it, which she was slowly i
determining in her own mind.
When Bell next spoke, she proposed that we should
set out, rain or no raia
"It will not take much time to drive down to
Henley," she said. "And if we begin by paying too
much attention to slight showers, we shall never get on.
Besides, Count von Bosen ought to see bow fine are
our English rain landscapes what softened colours are
brought out in the trees and in the greys of the distance
under a dark sky. It is not nearly so dismal as a wet
day abroad, in a level county, with nothing but rows of
poplars along the horizon. Here," she said, turning to
the lieutenant, who had probably heard of her recent
successes in water-colour, "you have light mists hanging
about the woods ; and there is a rough surface on the
rivers; and all the hedges and fields get dark and
intense, and a bit of scarlet say a woman's cloak ^is
very fine under the gloom of the sky. I know you are
not afraid of wet, and I know that the rest of us never
got into such good spirits during our Surrey drives as
when we were dashmg through torrents and shaking
the rain from about our faces; and this is nothing
a mere passing shower and the country down by
Hounslow will look very well under dark clouds ; and
we cannot do better than start at once for Henley !"
"What is the matter. Bell ?" said Tita, looking at the
girl with her clear, observant eyes. " One would think
you were vexed about our staying in Twickenham
until to-morrow, and yet nobody has proposed that yet."
I don't wish to waste time," said Bell, looking down.
Here the Lieutenant laughed aloud*
OF A PHAETON. 39
"Forgive me, Mademoiselle," he said, "but vrhsX
you say is very much like the English people. They
are always much afraid of losing time, though it does
not matter to them. I think your commercial habits
have become national, and got amongst people who have
nothing to do with commerce. I find English ladies
who have weeks and months at their disposal travel
all night by train, and make themselves very wretched.
Why ? To save a day, they tell you. I find English
people, with two months' holiday before them, under-
take all the uncomforts of a night-passage from Dover
to Calais. Why f To save a day. How does it matter
to you, for example, that we start to-day, or to-morrow,
or next week ? Only that you feel you must be doing
something ^you must accomplish something ^you must
save time. It is all English. It is with your amuse-
ments as with your making of money. You are never
satisfied. You are always looking forward ^wishing
to do or have certain things never content to stop, and
vest, and enjoy doing nothing."
Now what do you think our Bell did on being lec-
tured in this fashion ? Say something in reply, only
kept from being saucy by the sweet manner of her
saying it? Or rise and leave the room, and refuse
to be coaxed into a good humour for hours? Why,
no. She said in the gentlest way
'' I think you are right, Count von Sosen. It really
does not matter to me whether we go to-day or to-
morrow."
" But you shall go to-day. Bell," say I, " even though
it should rain Duke Greorges. At four of the clock
we start."
" My dear," says Tita, " this is absurd"
"Probably; but none the less Castor and Pollux
shall start at that hour."
" You are beginning to show your authority somewhat
early," says my Lady, with a suspicious sweetness in
her tone.
" What there is left of it," I remark, looking at Bell,
who descries a fight in the distance, and is all attention*
40 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
" Count von Rosen/' says Tita, turning in her calm-
est manner to the young man, "^ what do you think of
this piece of folly ? It may dear up long before
that: it may be raining heavily then. Why should
we run the risk of incurring serious illness by deter-
mining to start at a particular hour ? It is monstroua
It is absurd. It is it is "
"Well," said the Lieutenant, with an easy shrug
and a laugh, " it is not of much consequence you make
the rule; for you will break it if it is not agreeable.
For myself, I have been accustomed to start at a parti-
cular hour, whatever happens ; but for pleasure, what
is the use?*'
" Yes, what is the use?" repeats Titania, turning to the
rest of us with a certain ill-concealed air of triumph.
*' St Augustine," I observed to this rebellious persoD,
'' remarks that the obedience of a wife to her husband
is no virtue, so long as she does only that which is
reasonable, just, and pleasing to herself."
" I don't believe St. Augustine said anything of the
kind," replied she ; " and if he did, he hadn't a wife,
and didn't know what he was talking about. I will
not allow Bell to catch her death of cold. We shall
not start at four."
**Two o'clock, luncheon. Half-past two the moon
enters Capricorn. Three o'clock, madness rages. Four,
colds attack the human race. We start at four."
By this time breakfast was over, and all the reply
that Tita vouchsafed was to wear a pleased smile of
defiance as she left the room. The Count, too, went
out; and in a few minutes we saw him in the road,
leading the pony he had bought The boys had been
kept upstairs, and were told nothing of the surprise
in store for them ; so that we were promised a stirring
scene in front of the Doctor's house.
Presently the Lieutenant arrived at the gate, and
summoned Bell from the window. She having gone
to the door, and spoken to him for a second or two,
went into the house, and reappeared with a bundle of
coarse cloths. Was the foolish young man going to
OF A PHAETON. 41
groom the pony in front of the house, merely out of
bravado ? At all events, he roughly dried the shaggy
coat of the sturdy little animal, and then carefullv
wiped the mud from its small legs and hoofs. Bell
irent down and took the bridle ; the Lieutenant was
behind, to give a push if necessary.
"Come up, Dick!" she said; and after a few
frightened stumbles on the steps the pony stood in
the Doctor's hall !
The clatter of the small hoofs on 'the waxcloth had
brought the boys out to the first landing, and they were
lookmg down with intense surprise on the appearance
of a live horse in the housa When Bell had called
them and told them that the Count had bought this
pony for them, that it was a real pony, and that they
would have to feed it every day, they came down the
stairs with quite a frightened air. They regarded the
animal from a distance, and then at last Master Jack
ventured to go up and touch its neck.
" Why," he said, as if suddenly struck with the
notion that it was really alive, " 1*11 get it an apple ! "
He went upstairs, three steps at a bound ; and by
the time he came back Master Tom had got in the
saddle, and was for riding his steed into the breakfast-
room. Then he would ride him out into the garden.
Jack insisted on his having the apple first. The mother
of both called out from above that if they went into
the garden in the rain she would have the whole house
whipped. But all the same, Master Tom, led by the
Lieutenant and followed by Bell ^whose attentions in
holding him on he regarded with great dislike ^rode
in state along the passage, and through the kitchen,
and out by a back door into the garden.
" Let me go. Auntie Bell ! " he said, shaking himself
free. "I can ride very well I have ridden often at
Lsatherhead."
. " Oflf you go, then," said the Lieutenant : " lean well
back don't kick him with your heels oflf you go."
The pony shook his rough little mane, and started upon
a very sedate and patient walk along the smooth path.
42 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
'* Fist 1 Hei ! Go ahead ! " cried Master Tom, and he
twitched at the bridle in quite a knowing way.
Thus admonished, the pony broke into a brisk trot,
which at first jo^ed Master Tom on to its neck, but
he managed to wriggle back into the saddle and get
hold of the reins again. His riding was not a masterly
pecformance, but at all events he stuck on ; and when,
after having trotted thrice round the garden, he slid
off of his own will and brought the pony up to
us, his chubby round face was gleaming with pride,
and flushed colour, and rain. Then it was Jack's turn ;
but this young gentleman, having had less experience,
was attended by the Lieutenant, who walked round
the garden with him, and gave him his first lessons in
the art of horsemanship. ^Diis was a very pretty amuse-
ment for those of us who remained under the archway ;
but for those in the garden it was beginning to prove
a trifle damp. Nevertheless, Bell begged h^ for the
boys to be let alone, seeing that they were overjoyed
beyond expression by their new toy ; and it is probable
that both they and their instructor would have got
soaked to the skin had not my Lady Titania appeaml,
with her face full of an awfiil wrath.
What occurred then it is difficult to relate ; for in
the midst of the storm Bell laughed ; and the boys,
being deprived of their senses by the gift of the pony,
laughed also at their own mother. Tita fell from
lier high estate directly. The splendours of her anger
faded away from her Cakce, and she ran out into the rain
and cuffed the boys' ears, and kissed them, and drove
them into the house before her. And she was so good
as to thank the Count formally for his present ; and
with a kindly smile bade the boys be good boys and
attend to their lessons when they had so much amuse-
ment provided for them; and finally turned to Bell,
and said, that as we had to start at four o'clock, we
might as well have our things packed before luncheon.
Now such was the reward of this wifely obedience
that at four o'clock the rain had actually and definitely
ceased; and the clouds, though they still hung low,
OF A PHAETON, 43
were gathering themselves up into distinct forms.
When the phaeton \ras brought round, there was not
even any necessity for putting up the hood ; and Tita,
having seen that everything was placed in the vehicle,
was graciously pleased to ask the Lieutenant if he
would drive, that she might sit beside him and point
out objects of interest.
Then she kissed the boys very affectionately, and
bade them take care not to tumble off the pony. The
Doctor and his wife wished us every good fortune.
Bell threw a wistful glajice up and down the road, and
then turned her face a little aside. The Count shook
the reins, and our phaeton rolled slowly away from
Twickenham.
" Why, Bell," I said, as we were crossing the railway
bridge, and my companion looked round to see if there
were a train at the station, "you have been crying."
"Not much," said BeU, frankly, but in a very low
vcdce.
But why?" I ask.
" You know," she said.
" I know that Arthur has been very unreasonable,
and that he has gone up to London in a fit of temper ;
and I know what I think of the whole transaction,
and what I consider he deservea But I didn't think
you cared for him so much, Bell, or were so vexed
about it."
"Caie for him?" she said, with a glance at the
people before us, lest the low sound of her voice might
iKt be entirely drowned by the noise of the wheels in
the muddy road. "That may mean much or little.
You know I like Arthur very well ; and and I am
a&aid he is vexed with me ; and it is not pleasant to
part like that with one's friends."
" He will write to you, Bell ; or he wiU droj) down
on us suddenly some evening when we are at Oxford,
or Worcester, or Shrewsbury "
" I hope he will not do that," said BeU, with some
expression of alarm. " If he does, I know something
dreadful will happen."
44 , THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
"But Master Arthur, Bell, is not exactly the sort
of person to displace the geological strata."
"Oh, you don't know what a temper he has at
times," she said ; and then, suddenly recovering herself,
she added hastily, "but he is exceedingly good and
kind for all that : only he is vexed, you know, at not
being able to get on ; apd perhaps he is a little jealous
of people who are successful, and in good circumstances,
and independent ; and he is apt to think that ^that
that ''
** His lady-love will be carried off by some wealthy
suitor before he has been able to amass a fortune ? "
"Tou mustn't talk as if I were engaged to Arthur
Ashburton," said Bell, rather proudly, "or even that
I am ever likely to be."
Our Bonny Bell soon recovered her spirits, for she
felt that we had at last really set out on our journey to
Scotland, and her keen liking for all out-of-door sights
and sounds was now heightened by a vague and glad
anticipation. If Arthur Ashburton, as I deemed highly
probable, should endeavour to overtake us, and effect
a reconciliation or final understanding with BeU, we
were, for the present at least, speeding rapidly away
from him.
As we drove through the narrow lane running down
by Whitton Park and Whitton Dean, the warm, moist
winds were blowing a dozen odours about from the far,
low-stretching fields and gardens ; and the prevailing
sweetness of the air seemed to herald our departure
from the last suburban traces of London. Splash!
went the horses' hoofs into the yellow pools of the
roads, and the rattle of the wheels seemed to send an
echo through the stillness of the quiet country-side;
while overhead the dark and level clouds became more
fixed and grey, and we hoped they would ultimately
draw together and break, so as to give us a glimpse of
pallid sunshina Then we drove up through Hounslow
to the famous inn at the cross-roadis which was known
to travellers in the highway-robbery days ; and here
our Bell complained that so many of these hostalries
OF A PHAETON. 45
ahotild bear her name. Tita, we could bear, was telling
her companion of aU the strange incidents connected
with this inn and its neighbourhood which she could
recall from the pages of those various old-fashioned
fictions which are much more interesting to some folks
than the most accurate histories. So we bowled along
the Bath road, over Cranford Bridge, past the Magpies,
through Colubrook, and on to Langley Marsh, when
the Count suddenly exclaimed
*' But the Heath ? I have not seen Hounslow Heath,
where the highwaymen used to be ! "
Alas ! there was no more Heath to show him only
the level and wooded beauties of a cultivated English
plain. And yet these, as we saw them then, imder the
conditions that Bell had described in the morning, were
sufficiently pleasant to see. All around us stretched a
fertile landscape, with the various greens of its trees
and fields and hedges grown dark and strong under the
gloom of the sky. The winding road ran through this
country like the delicate grey streak of a river : and
there were distant farmhouses peeping from the sombre
foliage; an occasional wayside inn standing deserted
amid its rude outhouses; a passing tramp plodding
through the mire. Strange and sweet came the damp,
warm winds from over the fields of beans and of clover,
and it seemed as if the wild-roses in the tall and
straggling hedges had increased in multitude so as to
perfume the whole land. And then, as we began to
see in the west, with a great joy, some faint streaks of
sunshine descend like a shimmering comb upon the
gloomy landscape, lo! in the south there arose .before
us a great and stately building, whose tall grey towers
and spacious walls, seen against the dark clouds of the
horizon, were distant, and pale, and spectral
" It looks Kke a phantom castle, does it not ? " said
Bell, speaking in quite a low voice. " Don't you think
it has sprung up in the heavens like the Fata Morgana,
or the spectral ship, and that it will fade away again
and disappear ? "
Indeed it looked like the ghost of one of the castles
46 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
of King Arthur's time that old, strange time, whea
England lay steeped in grey mists and the fogs blown
about by the sea-winds, when there does not seem to
have been any sunshine, but only a gloom of shifting
vapours, half hiding the ghostly knights and the
shadowy queens, and all their faint and mystical
stories and pilgrimages and visions. The castle down
there looked as if it had never been touched by sharp,
clear, modem sunlight, that is cruel to ghosts and
phantoms.
But here Bell's reveries were interrupted by Lieu-
tenant von Bosen, who, catching sight of the castle in
the south and all its hazy lines of forest, said
" Ah, what is that ? "
"That," said Bell, suddenly recovering from her
trance, "is a hotel for German princes."
She had no sooner uttered the words, however, than
she looked thoroughly alarmed ; and with a prodigious
shame and mortification she begged the Count's pardon,
who merely laughed^ and said he regretted he was not
a prince.
" It is Windsor, is it not ? " he said.
"Yes," replied Bell humbly, while her face was still
pained and glowing. " I I hope you will forgive my
rudeness: I think I must have heard some one saj
that recently, and it escaped me before I thought what
it meant."
Of course, the Lieutenant passed the matter off
lightly, ais a very harmless saying ; but all the same
Bell seemed determined for some time after to make
him amends, and quite took away my Lady's occupa-
tion by pointing out to our young Uhlan, in a very
respectful and submissive manner, whatever she thought
of note on the road. Whether the Lieutenant perceived
this intention or not, I do not know ; but at cdl events
he took enormous pains to be interested in what she
said, and paid far more attention to her than to his own
companion. Moreover he once or twice, in looking
back, pretty nearly ran us into a cart, insomuch that
Queen Tita had laughingly to recall him to his duties.
OF A PHAETON. 47
In this wise we went down through the sweetly-
smelling country, with its lines of wood and hedge and
its breadths of field and meadow still suffering from
the gloom of a darkened sky. We cut through the
village of Slough, passed the famous Salthill, got over
the Two Mill Brook at Cuckfield Bridge, and were
rapidly nearing Maidenhead, where we proposed to rest
an hour or two and dine. Bell had pledged her word
there would be a bright evening, and had thrown out
vague hints about a boating excursion up to the wooded
heights of Cliefden. In the meantime the sun had
made little way in breaking through the clouds. There
were faint indications here and there of a luminous
greyish-yellow lying in the interstices of the heavy
sky ; but the pale and shimmering comb in the west
had disappeared.
"What has come over your fine weather, BeU?"
said my Lady. " Do you remember how you used to
dream of our setting out, and what heaps of colour and
sunshine you lavished on your picture?"
"My dear," said BeU, "you are unacquainted with
the art of a stage-manager. Do you think I would
begin my pantomime with a blaze of light, and bright
music, and a great show of costume ? Ko ! First of
all comes the dungeon scene darkness and gloom
thunder and solemn music ^nothing but demons ap-
pearing through the smoke ; and then, when you have
all got impressed and terrified and attentive, you will
hear in the distance a little sound of melody, there will
be a flutter of wings, just as if the fairies were pre-
paring a surprise, and then all at once into the darkness
leaps the queen herself, and a blaze of sunlight dashes
on to her silver wings, and you see her gauzy costume,
and the scarlet and gold of a thousand attendants who
have aU swarmed into the light."
" How long have we to wait. Mademoiselle ? " said
the Lieutenant, seriously.
" I have not quite settled that," replied Bell, with a
fine air of reflection, " but I wiU see about it while you
are having dinner."
48 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
Comforted by these promises which ought, however,
to have come from Queen Titania, if the fairies were
supposed to be invoked ^we drove underneath the
raUway-line and past the station of Taplow, and so
forward to the hotel by the bridge. When, having
with some exercise of patience seen Castor and Pollux
housed and fed, I went into the parlour, I found dinner
on the point of being served, and the Count grown
almost eloquent about the comforts of English inns.
Indeed, there was a considerable difference, as he
pointed, out, between the hard, bright, cheery public-
room of a German inn, and this long, low-roofed
apartment, with its old-fashioned furniture, its carpets,
and general air of gravity and respectability. Then
the series of pictures around the walls ^venerable
lithographs, glazed and yellow, representing all manner
of wild adventures in driving and hunting amused
him mucL
" That is very like your English humour," he said,
" of the country, I mean. The joke is a man thrown
into a ditch, and many horses coming over on him;
or it is a carriage upset in the road, and men crawling
from underneath, and women trying to get through
the window. It is rough, strong, practical fun, at
the expense of unfortunate people, that you like."
" At least," I point out, " it is quite as good a sort
of public-house ftirniture as pictures of bleeding saints,
or lithographs of smooth-headed princes."
** Oh, I do not object to it," he said, " not in the
least. I do like your sporting pictures very much."
"And when you talk of German lithographs," struck
in Bell, quite warmly, " I suppose you know that it is
to the German printseUers our poorer classes owe all
the possession of art they can afford. They would
never have a picture in their house but for those
cheap lithographs that come over from Germany ; and,
although they are very bad, and even carelessly bad
often, they ai-e surely better than nothing for cottages
and country inns that would never otherwise have
anything to show but coarse patterns of wall-paper."
OF A PHAETON. 49
"My dear child," remarked Queen Tita, "we are
none of us accusing Germany of any crime whatever."
"Bttt it is very good-natured of Mademoiselle to
defend my country, for all that," said the lieutenant^
with a smile. **We are unpopular with you just
now, I believe. That I cannot help. It is a pity.
But it is only a family quarrel, you know, and it wOl
go away. And just now, it requires some courage
to say a word for Germany, yes?"
"Why, Bell has been your bitterest enemy all
through the war," said Tita, ashamed of the defection
of her ancient ally.
"I think you behaved very badly to the poor
French people," said Bell, looking down, and evidently
wishing that some good spirit or bad one would fly
away with this embarrassing topia
The spirit appeared. There came to the open space
in front of the iim a young girl of about fifteen or
sixteen, with a careworn and yet healthily-coloured
face, and shrewd blue eyes. She woi*e a man's jacket,
and she had a shillelagh in her hand, which she
twirled about as she glanced at the windows of the
inn. Then, in a hard, cracked voice, she began to
sing a song. It was supposed to be rather a dashing
and aristocratic ballad, in which this oddly-clad gii)
with the shillelagh recounted her experiences of the
opera, and told us how she loved champagne, and
croquet, and various other fashionable diversions.
There was something very curious in the forced gaiety
with which she entered into these particulars, the
shillelagh meanwhile being kept as still as circum-
stances would permit But presently she sang an
Irish song, describing herself as some free and easy
Irish lover and fighter; and here the bit of wood
came into play. She tiirust one of her hands, with
an audacious air, into the pocket of the jacket she
wore, while she twirled the shillelagh with the other ;
and then, so soon as she had finished, her face dropped
into a plaintive and matter-of-fact air, and she came
forward to receive pence.
so THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
" She is scarcely our Lorelei/' said the Count, " who
sits over the Bhine in the evening. But she is a hard-
working girl, you can see that. She has not -much
pleasure in life. If we give her a shilling, it will be
much comfort to her."
And with that he went out. But what was Tita*s
surprise to see him go up to the girl and begin to talk
to her I She, looking up to the big, brown-bearded
man with a sort of awe, answered his questions with
some appearance of shamefaced embarrassment: and
then, when he gave her a piece of money, she per-
formed something like a curtsey, and looked after him
as he returned whistling to the door of the inn.
Then we had dinner a plain, comfortable, wholesome
meal enough; and it seemed somehow in this old-
fashioned parlour that we formed quite a family party.
We were cut off at last from the world of friends and
acquaintances, and thrown upon each other's society in
a very peculiar fashion. In what manner should we
sit down to our final repast, after all this journey and
its perils and accidents were over ? Tita, I could see,
was rather grave, and perhaps speculating on the
future ; while Bell and the young Lieutenant had got
to talk of some people they lecoUected as living at
Bonn some dozen years before. Nobody said a word
about Arthur.
CHAPTER V.
QUEEN TITANIA AFLOAT.
''Say, Father Thames, for thou hast seen
Full many a sprightly race,
DiaportiBg on thy maigent green,
The paths of pleasure trace,
Who foremost now delight to cleare
With pliant arm thy glassy wave ?*'
At length we hit upon one thing that Count von Sosen
could not do. When we had wandered down to the
side of the Thames, juat by Maidenhead Bridge, and
\
OF A PHAETON. 51
opposite the fine old houses, and smooth lawns, and
green banks that stand on the other margin of the
broad and shallow river, we discovered that the lieu-
tenant wad of no use in a boat. And so, as the young
folks would have us go up under the shadows of the
leafy hills of Cliefden, there was nothing for it but that
Tita and I should resort to the habits of earlier years,
and show a later generation how. to feather an oar with
skill and dexterity. As Queen Titania stood by the
boat-house, pulling off her gloves with economic fore-
thought, and looking rather pensively at the landing-
place and the boats and the water, she suddenly said
" Is not this like long ago ? "
" Tou talk like an old woman, Tita," says one of the
party. *' And yet your eyes are as pretty as they were
a dozen years ago, when you used to walk along the
beach at Eastbourne, and cry because you were {d[raid
of becoming the mistress of a house. And now the
house has been too much for you ; and you are full of
confosed facts, and unintelligible figures, and petty
anxieties, until your responsibilities have hidden away
the old tenderness of your look, except at such a mo-
ment as this, when you forget yourself. Tita, do you
remember who pricked her finger to sign a document
when she was only a schoolgirl, and who produced it
years afterwards with something of a shamefaced
pride?- I
"" Stuff ! " says Tita, angrily, but blushing dioadfoUy
all the same ; and so, wiUi a fixwn and an imperious
manner, she stepped down to the margin of the river.
Now mark this circumstance. In the old days of
which my Lady was then thinking, she used to be very
well content with pulling bow-oar when we two used to
go out in the eveninga Now, when the Lieutenant and
Bell had been comfortably placed in the stem, Tita
daintily stepped into the boat and sat down quite
naturally to pull stroke. She made no apology. She
took the plaice as if it were hers by right Such are
the changes which a few years of marri^ life produce.
So Bell pulled the white tiller-ropes over her shoulder,
B 2
\
52 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
and we glided out and up the glassy stream, into that
world of greenness and soft sounds and sweet odours
that lay all around. Already something of BeU's
prophecy was likely to come true ; for the clouds were
perceptibly growing thinner overhead, and a diffused
yellow light falling from no particular place seemed to
dwell over the hanging woods of Cliefden. It gave a
new look, too, to the smooth river, to the rounded elms
and tall poplars on the banks, and the long aits beyond
the bridge, where the swans were sailing close in by
the reeds.
" Look out ! " cried the Lieutenant, suddenly ; and at
the same moment our coxswain, without a word of
warning, shot us into a half-submerged forest that
seemed to hide from us a lake on the other side. Tita
had so little time to ship her oar that no protest was
possible ; and then Yon Bosen, catching hold of the
branches, pulled us through the narrow channel, and lo !
we were in a still piece of water, with a smooth curve
of the river-bank on one side and a long island on the
other, and with a pretty little house looking quietly
down at us over this inland sea. We were still in the
Thames; but this house seemed so entirely to have
become owner of the charming landscape around and
its stretch of water in front, that Bell asked in a hurry
how we could get away. Tita, being still a littie
indignant, answered not, but put her oar into the out-
rigger again, and commenced pulling. And then our
coxswain, who was not so familiar with the tricks of
the Thames at Maidenhead as some of us, discovered a
north-west passage by which it was possible to return
into the main channel of the stream, and we continued
our voyage.
When, at length, we had got by the picturesque old
mill, and reached the sea of tumbling white water that
came rushing down from the weir, it seemed as though
the sky had entered into a compact with Bell to fulfil
her predictions. For as we lay and rocked in the surge
watching the long level line of foam come tumbling
over in spouts and jets and white masses, listening to
OF A PHAETON. 53
the roar of the fall, and regarding the swirling circles of
white bells that swept away downward on the stream
there appeared in the west, just over the line of the
weir, a paraUel line of dark blood-red. It was but a
streak as yet ; but presently it widened and grew more
intense a great glow of crimson colour came shining
forth and it seemed as if all the western heavens, just
over that line of white foam, were becoming a mass
of fire. Bell's transformation-scene was positively
blinding ; and the bewilderment of the splendid
colours was not lessened by the roar of the tumbling
river, that seemed strangely wild in the stillness of
the evening.
But when we turned to drop quietly down the stream,
the scene around us was so lovely that Queen Titania
had no heart to pull away from it. For now the hang-
ing woods of beech and birch and oak had caught a
glow of the sunset along their masses of yellow and
green, and the broad stream had the purple of its
glassy sweeps dashed here and there with red ; and in
the far east a reflected tinge of pink mingled with
the cold green, and lay soft and pure and clear over
the low woods, and the river, and the bridge. Ii& if
by magic the world had grown suddenly light, ethereal,
and full of beautiful colours ; and the clouds that still
remained overhead had parted into long cirrhous lines,
with pearly edges, and a touch of scarlet and gold along
their western side.
^ What a drive we shall have this evening ! " cried
Bell. " It will be a clear night when we get to Henley,
and there will be stars over the river, and perhaps a
moon, who knows?"
"I thought you would have provided a moon.
Mademoiselle," said the Lieutenant, gravely. "You
have done very well for us this evening oh ! very weU
indeed. I have not seen any such beautiful picture for
many years. You did very well to keep a dark day
all day, and make us tired of cold colours and green
trees; and then you surprise us by this pictiue of
magic oh ! it is very well done."
54 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
''All that it wants;' said Bell, with a critical eje,
'^ is a little woman in a scarlet shawl under the trees
there, and over the green of the rushe^-^one of those
nice fat little women who always wear bright shawls jnst
to please landscape-painters making a little blob of
strong colour, you know, just like a ladybird among
green moss. Do you know, I am quite grateful to a
pleasant little countrywoman when she dresses herself
ridiculously merely to make a landscape look fine ; and
how can you laugh at her when she comes near ? I
sometimes think that she wears those colours, especially
those in her bonnet, out of mere modesty. She does
not know what will please you she puts in a little
of everything to give you a choice. She holds up to
you a whole bouquet of flowers, and says, 'Please,
Miss, do you like blue ? for here is corn-cockle; or red ?
for here are poppies ; or yellow ? for here are rock-
roses/ She is like Perdita, you know, going about with
an armful of blossoms, and giving to everyone what
she thinks will please them.''
" My dear," says Tita, " you are too generous. I am
afiraid that the woman wears those things out of vanity.
She does not know what colour suits her complexion
best, and so wears a variety, quite sure that one of them
must be the right one. And there are plenty of women
in town, as wdl as in the country, who do that too."
" I hope you don't mean me," said Bell, contritely,
as she leaned her arm over the side of the boat, and
dipped the tips of her fingers into the glassy stream.
But if we were to get to Henley that night, there
was no time for lingering longer about that bend by the
river, with its islands and miUs and woods. That great
burst of colour in the west had been the expiring efibrt
of the sun ; and when we got back to the inn, there
was nothing left in the sky but the last golden and
crimson traces of his going down. The river was be-
coming grey, and the Cliefden woods were preparing
for the night by drawing over themselves a thin veU
of mist, which rendered them distant and shadowy,
as they lay under the lambent sky.
OF A PHAETON. 55
The phaeton was at the door; onr bill' paid; an
extra shawl got oat of the imperial although, in that
operation, the lieutenant nearly succeeded in ftntflnhing
Bell's guitar.
" It will be dark before we get to Henley," says Tita.
"Yes/' I answer obedientily.
" And we are going now by cross-roads," she remarks.
** The road is a very good one," I venture to reply.
" But still it is a cross-road," she says.
" Very weU, then, my dear," I say, wondering what
the little woman is after.
"You must drive," she continues, "for none of us
know the road."
* Yes, m'm, please m'm : any more orders ?"
" Oh, Bell," says my Lady, with a gracious air (she
can change the expression of her face in a second),
" would you mind taking Count von Eosen under your
charge until we get to Henley? I am afraid it will
take both of us to find the road in the dark."
"No, I will take you imder my charge. Mademoi-
selle," said the lieutenant, frankly; and therewith he
helped Bell into the phaeton, and followed him-
self.
The consequence of this little arrangement was, that
while Tita and I were in front, the young folks were
behind: and no sooner had we started from the inn,
got across the bridge, and were going down the road
towards the village of Maidenhead proper, than Titania
says, in a very low voice
"Do you know, my dear, our pulling together in
that boat quite brought back old times; and--*and
and I wanted to be sitting up here beside you for a
while, just to recall the old, old drives we used to have
you know, about here, and Henley, and Reading. How
long ago is it, do you think?"
fiiat wife of mine is a wonderful creature. You
would have thought she was as innocent as a Iamb
when she uttered these words, looking up with a
world of sincerity and pathos in the big, clear, earnest
brown eyes. And the courage of the small creature,
56 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
too, who thought she could deceive her husband by
this open, transparent, audacious piece of hypocrisy !
'* Madam," I said, with some care that the young
folks should not overhear, "your tenderness over-
whelms me."
*' What do you mean?" she says, suddenly becoming
as cold and as rigid as Lot's wife after the accident
liappened.
"Perhaps," I ventured to suggest, "you would like
to have the hood up, and so leave them quite alone ?
Our presence must be very embarrassing."
" You are insulting Bell in sayinjjj sach things," she
says warmly ; " or perhaps it is that you would rather
have her for a companion than your own wife."
"Well, to tell you the truth, I would."
"She shall not sit by the Lieutenant again."
" I hope you don't mean to strangle her. We should
arrive in Edinburgh in a sort of unicorn-fashion."
Tita relapsed into a dignified silence that is always
the way with her when she has been found out; but
she was probably satisfied by hearing the Count and
Bell chatting very briskly together, thus testifying to
the success of her petty stratagem.
It was a pleasant drive, on that quiet evening, fipom
Maidenhead across the lonely country that lies within
the great curve of the Thames. Instead of turning
off at the comer of Stubbing's Heath, and so getting
into the road that runs by Hurley Bottom, we held
straight on towards Wargrave, so as to have the
last part of the journey lead us up by the side of
the river. So still it was! The road led through
undulating stretches of common and past the edges
of silent woods, while the sky was becoming pale and
beautiful overhead, and the heights on the northern
horizon ^between Cookham and Hurley were gi-owing
more and more visionary in the dusk. Sometimes,
but rarely, we met a solitary wanderer coming along
through the twilight, and a gruff "good-night" greeted
us ; but for the most part there seemed no life in
this lonely part of the country, where rabbits raa
OF A PHAETON. S7
across the road in front of us, and the last rooks that
flew by in the dusk seemed hastening on to the
neighbourhood of some distant village. It was a mild,
fresh evening, with the air still damp and odorous
after the rain; bxit overhead the sky still remained
clear, and here and there, in the partings of the thin
cloud, a pale star or planet had become faintly visible.
At last we got down into the village (tf Wargrave,
and then it was nearly dark. There were a few people,
mostly women, standing at the doors of the cottages;
and here and there a ray of yellow light gleamed out
from a small window. As we struck into the road
that runs parallel with the Thames, there were men
coming home from their work; and their talk was
heard at a great distance in the stillness of the night.
"How far are we from Henley?" said Bell.
"Are you anxious to get there?" replied Queen
Titania, smiling quite beni^y.
"No," said BeU, *'this is so pleasant that I should
like to go driving on until midnight, and we could
see the moon coming through the trees,"
"You. have to consider the. horses," said the lieu-
tenant, bluntly. ** If you do tire them too much on
the first days, they will not go so long a journey.
But yet we are some way o^ I suppose ; and if
Mademoiselle will sing something for us, I will get
out the guitar."
"You'd better get down and light the lamps, rather,"
I remark to those indolent young people ; whereupon
the Count was instantly in the road, striking wax
matches, and making use of curious expressions that
seemed chiefly to consist of ^*s and /s.
So, with the lamps flaring down the dark road, we
rolled along the highway that here skirts the side of
a series of heights looking down into the Thames.
Sometimes we could see a grey glimmer of the river
beneath us through the trees ; at other times the road
took us down close to the side of the water, and
Castor got an opportunity of making a playful little
shy or two ; but for the most part we drove through
58 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
dense woods^ that completely shut off the starlight
overhead.
More than once, indeed, we came to a steep descent
that was buried in such total darkness that the lien-
tenant jumped down and took the horses' heads, lest
some unlucky step or stumble should throw us into
the river. So far as we could make out, however, there
was a sufficient wall on the side of the highway next
the stream a rough old wall, covered with plants and
moss, that ran along the high and wooded bank.
Suddenly Bell uttered a cry of delight. We had
come to a cleft in the glade which showed us the riv^
running by some sixty feet beneath us, and on the
sor&ce of the water the young crescent of the moon
was clearly mirrored There was not enough moon-
light to pierce the trees, or even to drown the pale
light of the stars; but the sharp disc of silver, as it
glimmered on the water, was sufficiently beautiful, and
contained in itself the promise of many a lovely
night.
" It has begun the journey with us," said BelL " It
is a young moon; it will go with us all the month; and
we shall see it on the Severn, and on Windermere, and
on the Solway, and on the Tweed. Didn't I promise
you all a moon, sooner or later? And there it is !"
" It does not do us much good, BeU," said the driver,
rueMIy, the veiy horses seeming afraid to plunge into
the gulfs of darkness that were spectrally peered into
by the light of the lamps.
"The moon is not for use," said Bell, '*it is for
magic; and once we have got to Henley, and put the
horses up, and gone out again to the river, you shall
all stand back and watch in a comer, and let Queen
Titania go forward to summon the fedries. And as you
listen in the dark, you will hear a little crackling and
rustling along the opposite shore, and you will see
small blue lights come out from the banks, and small
boats, with a glowworm at their prow, come out into
the stream. And then from the boats, and from all the
fields near where the mist of the river lies at night
OF A PHAETON. 59
you will see wonderful small men and women of
radiaat blue flame come forward, and there will be a
strange sound like music in the trees, and the liver
itself will begin to say, in a kind of laugh, * Titcmiay
Tiiania ! you hane leen so long avxiy years and yea/rs
looking after servcMts^ amd ths schooling of hoys, wnd
ths temper of a fractious husband * "
"Bell, you are impertinent"
" There are true words spoken in jest, sometimes,"
says Tita, with a dainty malice.
''Your bearing rein in England is a cruelty to
the horse ^you must take it away to-morrow," said
the lieutenant ; and this continuation of a practical
subject recalled these scapegraces from their jibes.
Here the road took us down by a gradual dip to the
river again, and for the last mile before reaching our
destination we had a pleasant and rapid run along
the side of the stream. Then the Ughts of Henley
were seen to glimmer before us ; we crossed over the
bridge, and swerving round to the right, drove into
the archway of the Bell Inn.
".No, sir," remarked Dr. Jdmson to Mr. Boswell,
** there is nothing which has yet been contrived by man,
by which so much happiness is produced as by a good
tavern or inn." He then repeated, with great emotion,
we are told, Shenstone's lines
*' Whoe'er has trayelled life's dull round.
Where'er his staffes may have been,
}&jnfjli to think he still has found
The warmest welcome at an inn."
And Mr. Boswell goes on to say : '* We happened to lie
this night at the inn at Henley, where Shenstone wrote
these Sues." Now, surely, if ever belated travellers
had reason to expect a cordial welcome, it was we four
as we drove into the famous hostelry which had
awakened enthusiasm in the poets and lexicographers
of bygone days. But as Castor and Pollux stood under
the archway, looking into the great dark yard before
them, and as we gazed round in vain for the appearance
of any waiter or other official, it occurred to Tita that
6o THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
the Bell Inn must have changed hands since Shen-
stone's time. Where was our comfortable welcome?
A bewildered maid-servant came to stare at our
phaeton with some alarm. Plaintive howls for the
ostler produced a lad from the darkness of the stables,
who told us that the ostler was away somewhere.
Another maid-servant came out, and also looked
alarmed. The present writer, fearing that Tony
Lumpkin, transformed into an invisible spirit, had
played him a trick, humbly begged this young
woman to say whether he had driven by mistake into
a private house. The young pierson looked afraid.
"My good girl," says Tita, with a gracious conde-
scension, "will you tell us if this is the Bell Inn!"
" Tes, *m ; of course, 'm."
"And can we stay here to-night?"
"Til bring the waiter, ma'am, directly."
Meanwhile the Lieutenant had got down, and was
fuming about the yard to rout out the ostler^s assist^
ants, or some people who could put up the horses.
He managed to imearth no fewer than three men,
whom he brought in a gang. He was evidently deter-
mined not to form his grooming of the horses at
Twickenham into a precedent.
At last there came a waiter, looking rather sleepy and
a trifle helpless ; whereupon my Lady and Bell departed
into the inn, and left the luggage to be sent after them.
There appeared to be no one inside the house. The
gases were Ut in the spacious coffee-room; some rugs
and bags were brought in and placed on the table;
and then Tita and her companion, not daring to remove
their bonnets, sat down in arm-chairs and stared at
each other.
" I iW from pomp, I fly from plate ;
I fly from falsehood's speoions grin ;
Bat risk a ten times worser fate
In choosing lodgings at an inn : "
this was what Bell repeated, in a gentle voice, on
the very spot that is sacred to the memory of Shen*
stone's satisfaction.
OF A PHAETON. 6i
I requested the young man in the white tie to assign
some reason for this state of affairs; and his answer
was immediately forthcoming. There had been a
regatta a few days before. The excitement in the
small town, and more especially in the " Bell," had been
dreadful. Now a reaction had set in ; Henley and the
" Bell " were alike deserted ; and we were the victims of
a collapse. I complimented the waiter on his philo-
sophical acxmien, and went out to see what had befallen
Count von Bosen and the horses.
I found him standing in a stable that was dimly
lighted by a solitary candle stuck against the wall,
superintending the somewhat amateurish operations
of the man who had undertaken to supply the ostler^s
place. The Lieutenant had evidently not been hec-
toring his companions; on the contrary, he was on
rather good terms with them, and was maldng inquiries
about the familiar English names for chopped hay and
other luxuries of the stable. He was examining the
com, too, and pronouncing opinion on the split beans
which he had ordered. On the whole, he was satisfied
with the place; although he expressed his surprise
that the ostler of so big an inn should be absent
When, at length, we had seen each of the horses
supplied with an ample feed, fresh straw, and plenty of
hay, the men were turned out and the stable-door
locked. He allowed them on this occasion to keep
the key. As we crossed the yard, a rotund, frank,
cheery-looking man appeared, who was presumably
the ostler. He made a remark or two ; but the night-
air was chilL
" Now," said Von Bosen, when we got into the big
parlour, " we have to make ourselves pleasant and com-
fortable. I do think we must all drink whisky. For
myself, I do not like the taste very much ; but it looks
very comfortable to see some people with steaming
glasses before them. And I have brought out Made-
moiselle's guitar, and she will sing us some songs, yes ? ^
" But you must also," says Bell, looking down.
** Oh, a hundred ! a thousand ! as many as you like !**
62 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
he said ; and then, with a sort of sigh^ he took his cigar-
case out of his pocket and laid it pathetically on
the maotelpiece. There was an air of renunciation
in his face. Forthwith he rang the bell; and the
waiter was asked to bring us certain liquors which,
although not exclusively whisky, could be drunk in
those steaming tumblers which the Lieutenant loved
to see.
" 0, come 70a from Newcastle ?
^this was what Bell sang, with the blue ribbon of her
guitar slung round her neck :
" 0, come you from Newcastle ?
Come you not there away ?
And did you meet my true love,
Biding on a bonny bay ?
And as she sang, with her eyes cast down, the lieu-
tenant seemed to be regarding her face with a peculiar
interest He foigot to lift the hot tumbler that was
opposite him on the table ^he had even forgotten
Tita's gracious permission that he might have a cigar
^he was listening and gazing merely, in a bltmk
silence. And when she had finished, he eagerly
begged her to sing another of the old English songs.
And she sang
'' miBtress mine, where are you roaming ?
mistroas mine, where are you roaming ?
O stay and hear, your true love's coming,
That can ting both high and low. "
And when she had finished, he once more eagerly
begged her to sing another of those old songs ; and
then, all of a sudden, catching sight of a smile on
my Lady's face, he stopped, and apologized, and blushed
rather, and said it was too bad that he had forgotten,
and would himself try something on the guitar.
When, at len^, the women had gone upstairs, he
fetched down his cigar from the mantelpiece, lit it,
stretched out his long legs, and said
"How very En^ish she is I "
"Shel who?"
OF A PHAETON, 63
"Why, your Miss Bell. I do like to hear her talk
of England as if she had a pride in it, and mention
the names of towns as if she loved them because they
were English^ and speak of the fairies and stories as
if she was familiar with them because they belong
to her own cotmtry. You can see how she is fond
of everything that is like old times, an old house,
an old milestone, an old bridge everything that is
peculiar and old and English. And then she sings,
oh ! so very well so very well indeed ; and these old
songs, about EngUsh places and English customs of
village-life, they seem to suit her very well, and you
think she herself is the heroine of them. But as for
that young man in Twickenham, he is a very pitiful
feUow."
" How have you suddenly come to that conclusion t "
I inquire of our Lieutenant, who is lazily letting the
cigar*smoke curl about his moustache and beard as he
lies back and fixes his light blue eyes contemplatively
on the ceiling.
"How do I know? T do not know: I think so.
He ought to be very well satisfied of knowing a young
lady like that and very proud of going to marry
her ^instead of annoying her wiih bad tempers."
"That is true. A young man under such circum-
stances cannot be too grateful or too amiable. They
are not always so, however. You yourself, for example,
when you parted from Fraulein Fallersleben **
Here the Lieutenant jumped up in his chair, and
said with unnecessary vehemence
" Donnerwetter ! look at the provocation I had ! It
was not my ill-temper; I am not more ill-tempered
than other men : but when you know you mean very
well, and that you treat a woman as perhaps not all
men would be indined to do in the same case, and
she is a hypocrite, and she pretends much, and at the
same time she is writing to you, she is pfui I I cannot
speak of it ! "
"You were very fond of her."
"Worse luck."
64 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
"And you had a great fight, and used hard words
to each other, and parted so that you would rather
meet Beelzebub than her/*
" Why, yes, it is so : I would rather meet twenty
Beelzebubs than her."
"That is the way of you boys. You don't know
that in after years, when all these things have got
smooth and misty and distant, you will come to l2(e
her again; and what will you think then of your
hard words and your quarrels ? If you children could
only understand how very short youth is, how very
long middle age is, and how very dull old age is, ^if
you could only understand how the chief occupation
of the longer half of your life is looking back on the
first short half of it, ^you would know the value of
storing up only pleasant recollections of all your old
Menda If you find that your sweetheart is a woman
compelled by her nature to fall in love with the man
nearest her, and forget him who is out of the way,
why devote her to the infernal gods ? In after years,
you will be grateful to her for the pleasant days and
weeks you spent with her, when you were both happy
together, and you will look back on the old times
very tenderly; and then, on those occasions when
you Grerman folks drink to the health of your absent
dear ones, won't you be glad that you can include
her who was dear enough to you in your youth ? "
" That is very good ; it is quite true," said the
Lieutenant, in almost an injured tone as if FrSulein
Fallersleben were responsible.
"Look for a moment," I say to my pensive pupil,
"at the puU a man has who has spent his youth in
pleasant scenery. When he gets old, and can do
nothing but live the old life over again by looking
back, he has only to shut his eyes, and his brain is
full of fresh and bright pictures of the old times in
the country; and the commonest landscape of his
youth he will remember then as if it were steeped
in sunlight."
" That is quite true," said Von Eosen, thoughtfally ;
OF A J'HAETO^. 65
but the next moment he uttered an angry exclamation,
started up from his chair, and began walking up and
down the room.
"It is all very well,*' he said, with an impatient
vehemence, "to be amiable and forgiving when you
are old ^because you don't care about it, that is the
reason. When you are young, you expect fair play.
Do you think if I should be seventy I will care one
brass farthing whether Pauline ^that is, Fraulein Fa]-
lersleben was honest or no? I will laugh at the
whole affair then. But now, when you are ashamed of
the deceit of a woman, is it not right you tell her ?
Is it not right she knows what honest men and women
think of her, yes ? What will she think of you if you
say to her, 'Farewdly FrdtUein. You have behaved not
very well ; hd I am amiaile ; I xoUl forgive you.^ "
"There, again: you parted with her in wrath, because
you did not like to appear weak and complaisant in
her eyes."
"At all events, I said what I felt," said the Lieu-
tenant, warmly. " I do think it is only - hypocrisy
and selfishness to say, ' / hate this woman, hU I will he
hind to her, because when I grow old I will look back and
consider myself to have been veri/ good.' "
"Tou have been deeply hit, my poor lad; you are
quite fevered about it now. You cannot even see
how a man's own self-respect will make him courteous
to a woman whom he despises; and is he likely to
be sorry for that courtesy, when he looks at it in
cold blood, and recognizes the stupendous fact that
the man who complains of the inconstancy of a
woman utters a reflection against Providence ? "
"But you don't know ^you don't know," said the
Count, pitching his cigar into the grate, " what a
woman this one showed herself to be. After all, it
does not matter. But when I look at such a woman
as your Miss Bell here "
" Yes : when you look at her ? "
"Why, I see the difference," said the Lieutenant,
gloomily; and therewith he pulled out another cigar.
66 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
. I stopped this, however, and rang for candles. As
he lit his in rather a melancholy fashion, he said
" It is a very good thing to see a woman like that
young-hearted, frank, honest in her eyes, and full of
pleasantness, too, and good spirits oh ! it is very fine
indeed, merely to look at her ; for you do believe that
she is a very good girl, and you think there are good
women in the world. But as for that young man at
Twickenham ''
" Well, what of him ? "
The lieutenant looked up from the candle; but
saw nothii^ to awaken his suspicions.
" Oh," he said carelessly, as we left the room, " I do
think him a most pitifid fellow."
CHAPTER VI.
A GIFT OF TONGUES.
"Ill J lady is an archer rare,
And in the greenwood joyeth she ;
There nerer was a marksman yet who conld compare
In skill with my ladie."
Earlt morning in Henley ! From over the wooded
hills in the east there comes a great flood of sun-
shine that lies warmly on the ruddy side of the
old inn, on its evergreens, and on the slopes of
sweet-scented mignonette, and sweetbriar, and various
blossoms that adorn the bank of the river. The
river itself, lying apparently motionless between
level and green meadows, has its blue surface marred
here and there by a white ripple of wind; the
poplars that stand on its banks are rustling in the
breeze; there are swallows dipping and skimming
about the old bridge, and ducks paddling along. among
the rushes and weeds, and cattle browsing in the deep
green; and further on. some high-lying stretches of
ryergrass struck into long and silvery wavea by the
iQSiiung wind.
OP A PHAETON. 67
All the stir and motion of the new day have come
upon us ; and Henley, clean, white, and red, with its
town-hall shining brightly down its chief street, and
all its high clusters of old-fashioned houses backed by
a fringe of dark-wooded hill, shows as -much life and
briskness as are usually seen in a quaint, small, old-
fashioned English town. But where the silence and
ilie stillness of the morning dwell is away up the reach
of the river. Standing on the bridge, you see the dark
blue stream, reflecting a thousand bright colours under-
neath the town, gradually become greyer in hue until
it gets out amid the meadows and woods ; and then,
with a bold white curve, that is glimmering like silver
in the north, it sweeps under that line of low, soft green
hiUs which have grown pearly and grey in the tender
morning mist. Bell is standing on the bridge, too.
The Lieutenant has brought out her sketch-book, and
she has placed it on the stone parapet before her. But
somehow she seems disinclined to begin work thus
early on our journey ; and, instead, her eyes are look-
ing blankly and wistfully at the rich green meadows
and the red cows, and the long white reach of the river
shiniiig palely beneath the faint green heights in the
north.
** Is Henley the prettiest town in the world, I won-
der?" she said.
"Yes, if you think so. Mademoiselle," replied Von
Bosen, gently.
She lifted her eyes towards him, as though she had
been unaware of his presence. Then she turned to
the stream.
" I suppose, if one were to live always among those
bright colours, one would get not to see them, and would
foiget how fine is this old bridge, with the pretty town,
aod the meadows, and the stream. Seeing it only once,
I shall never forget Henley, or the brightness of this
monring."
With that, she closed her sketch-book, and looked
round for Tita. That small person was' engaged in
making herself extremely wretched, about herboye and
F 2
6S THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
the pony ; and was becoming vastly indignant because
she conld get no one to sympathise with her wild ima^
ginings of diverse perils and dangers.
"Why, to hear you talk," she was saying at this
moment, " one would think you had never experienced
the feelings of a parent ^that you did not know you
were the father of those two poor boys."
" That,'* I remark to her, " is not a matter on which
I am bound to express an opinion."
" Very pretty ^very ! '* she said with a contemptuous
smile. " But I will say this that if ycv, had had to
buy the pony, the boys would have had to wait long
enough before they were exposed to the dangers you
think so little about now."
" Madam," I observe, sternly, " you are the victim
of what theologians call invincible ignorance. I might
Jbave bought that pony and all its belongings for a 202.
note ; whereas I shall have to pay 40/. a year for its
keep."
" Oh, I know," says my Lady, with great sweetness,
" how men exaggerate those things. It is convenient.
They complain of the cost of the horses, of the heavi-
ness of the taxes, and other things ; when the real
fact is that they are trying to hide what they spend
out of their income on cigars, and in their clubs when
they go to town. I counted up our taxes the other
day, and I don't believe that they have been over 8Z.
for the whole of the last six months. Now you know
you said they were nearly 35/. a year."
" And you counted in those that are due next week,
I suppose?"
"Did you leave money to pay for them?" she asks,
mildly.
" And you based your calculations on some solitary
instalment for armorial bearings ? which you brought
into the family, you know."
" Yes," she replies, with an engaging smile. " That
wa^ one thing you did not require before I am sorry
to have caused you so much expense. But you need
not avoid the subject. Mrs. Quinet told me last
OF A PHAETON. , 69
week that she knows her husband pays every year
65/. for club-subscriptions alone, and nearly 407. for
cigars."
" Then Mrs. Quinet must have looked into your eyes,
my dear, and seen what a simple little thing you are ;
for your knowledge of housekeeping and other expenses,
I will say, is as slight as need be, and Mrs. Quinet
has been simply making a fool of you. For the Major
belongs to two clubs, and in the one he pays eight
guineas and in the other ten guineas a year, j&jid
he smokes Manillas at 25^. a hundred, which is equiva-
lent, my dear though you will scarcely credit it ^to
threepence apiece."
" The money must go somehow," says Tita, defiantly.
"That is a customary saying among women; but
it generally refers to their own little arrangements."
"You avoid the question very skilfully."
"I should have thought you would have preferred
that."
" Why ? " she says, looking up.
*' Because you accused me of stinginess in not buying
a pony for the boys, and I showed you that I should
have to pay 40/. a year for the brute."
" Yes, showed me ! I suppose by that pleasing fiction
you will gain another 20/. a year to spend in Partagas,
and Murias, and trumpery stuff that the tobacconists
tell you came from abroad."
"My dear," I say, "^our insolence is astounding."
" If you call speaking the plain truth insolence, I
cannot help it BeU, breakfast must be ready."
" Yes, my Lady," says Bell, coming forward demurely.
" But I wasn't doing anything."
So they went off; and the Count and I followed.
" What is the matter ? " says he.
" Do you know what a * relish ' is at breakfast ? "
" No."
** Then don't marry, or you will find out."
The tall young man with the brown beard and the
light eyes, shrugged his shoulders, and only said, as we
walked to the inn
fo , THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
''Tbttb is a veiy pleasant comedy, when it means
nothing. If it was earnest, you would not find so much
enjoyment in it no, not at all you would not amuse
yourselves, like two children, instead of the parents
of a family. But, my dear friend, it is a dangerous
thing ; for 4ome day you will meet^with a stupid per-
son, who will not understand how JIadame and yourself
do make*believe in that way, and that person will be
astonished) and will talk of it, and you will both have
a very bad reputation among your friends."
However, there was one amiable person at the
l:eakfast-table, and that was our pretty Bell.
'* Bell," I said, " I am going to sit by you. You
never provoke useless quarrels about nothing; you
are never impertinent ; you never argue ; and you can
look after a breakfast-table better than people twiee
your age."
Bell prudently pretended not to hear ; indeed, she
was very busy helping everybody and making herself
very useful and pleasant all round. She seemed to
have forgotten her independent ways ; and was so good-
naturedly anxious to see that the Lieutenant's coffee
w'as all right, that he was apparently quite touched
by her friendliness. And then she was very cheerful
too; and was bent on waking up the spirits of the
whole party but in a bright, submissive, simple fashion
that the audacious young lady did not always affect.
" Did you hear the cocks crowing this morning ? " she
said, turning to Von Eosen with her frank eyes. *' I
thought it was so pleasant to be woke up that way in-
stead of listening to the milkman *coming along a dismal
London square, and calling up the maidservants with
his ' El'ch ! * ' EUcho ! * But did you notice that one
of the cocks cried quite plainly, ' Oh, go away ! ' OA,
go awa-a-ay I * which was a stupid animal to have near
an inn; and another fine fellow, who always started
with a famous flourish, had got a cold, and at the highest
note he went off at a tangent into something like a
plaintive squeak. The intention of that crow, so far
as it went, was far better than the feeble 'Oh, go away!*
OF A PHAETON. 71
of tlie oiher ; and I was quite sorry fot Uie poor atiimaL
Do have some more toast, Count. He lemmded me
of poor Major Quinet, Tita, who begins a sentence vety
weU ; but all at once It jerks up into tbe aiiv-goes off
like a squib, you know, just below his nose ; arid he looks
amazed and ashamed^ like a boy tiia,t has let a bird
escape out of a bag/'
"You need not amuse yourself with the personal
defects of your neighbours. Bell," says Tita, who did not
expect to have Major Quinet brought forward again.
" Major Quinet is a very well-informed and gentlemauly
man, and looks after his family and his estate with tho.
greatest care."
" I must say, Tita," retorted Bell (and I trembled for
the girl), " that you have an odd trick of furnishing
people with a sort of certificate of character, whenever
you hear their names mentioned. Very likely the
Major can manage his affairs in spite of his cracked
voice ; but you know you told me yourself, Tita, that he
had been unfortunate in money matters, and was rather
perplexed just now. Of course, I wouldn't say such a
thing of one of your friends ; but I have heard of bank-
rupts ; and I have heard of a poor little man being so
burdened with debt, that he looked like a mouse draw-
ing a brougham, and then, of course, he had to go into
the Court to ask them to unharness him. ^Do hdve
some more coffee. Count; I am sure that is quite
cold."
"You ought to be a little careful. Bell," says my
Lady. *' You know absolutely nothing of Major Quinet,
and yet you hint that he is insolvent."
"I didn't did I ? " says Bell, turning to her companion.
" No," replies the Count, boldly.
At this Tita looked astonished for a second ; but pre-
sently she deigned to smile, and say something about
the wickedness of young people. Indeed, my Lady
seemed rather pleased by Bell's audacity in appealing
to the Lieutenant ; and she was in a better humour
when, some time after, we went out to the river and got
aix)at.
72 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
Once more upon the Thames, we pulled up the river,
that lies here between wooded hills on the one side, and
level meadows on the other. The broad blue stream
was almost deserted; and as we got near the green
islands, we could see an occasional young moorhen
paddle out from among the rushes, and then go quickly
in again, with its white tail bobbing in unison with its
small head and beak. We rowed into the sluice of the
jnill that lies under Park Place, and there, having floated
down a bit under some willows, we fixed the boat to a
stump of a tree, landed, and managed to get into the
road along which we had driven the previous night. As
we ascended this pleasant path, which is cut through
the woods of various mansions, and looks down upon
the green level of Wargrave Marsh, and the shining
meadows beyond the other bank of the river, the ascents
and descents of the road seemed less precipitous than they
had appesured the night before. What we had taken,
further, for wild masses of rock, and fearful chasms, and
dangerous bridges, were found to be part of the orna-
mentation of a park ^the bridge spanning a hollow
having been built of sham rock-work, which, in the day-
light, clearly revealed its origin. Nevertheless, this road
l^ing through the river*side woods is a sufficiently
picturesque and pleasant one ; and in sauntering along
for a mile or two and back we consumed a goodly por-
tion of the morning. Then there was a brisk pull back
to Henley ; and the phaetoit was summoned to appear.
When the horses were put in, and the phaeton brought
out, I foimd that Yon Bosen had quietly abstracted the
bearing-reins from the harness, some time during the
morning. However, no one could grudge the animals
this relief, for the journey they had to make to-day,
though not over twenty-three miles, was considerably
hilly.
Now Tita had come early out, and had evidently
planned a nice little arrangement She got in behind.
Then she bade Bell get up in front The Lieutenant
had lingered for a moment in search of a cigar-case ;
and my Lady had cleai'ly determined to ask him to
OF A PHAETON. 73
drive so soon as he came out. But, as she had not ex*
pressed any contrition for her conduct of that morning,
some punishment was required ; and so, just as Von
Bosen came out, I took the reins, stepped up beside
Bell, and he, of course, was left to join the furious little
lady behind.
" I thought the Count was going to drive," says Tita.
with a certain cold air. " Surely the road to Oxford is
easy to find."
" It is," I say to her. " For you know all roads lead
to Borne, and they say that Oxford is half-way to Bome
flwyai" "
But knowing what effect this reference to her theo-
logical sympathies was likely to have on Tita, I thought
it prudent to send the horses on ; and as they sprang
forward and rattled up the main street of Henley, her
retort, if any, was lost in the noise. There was a laugh
in Bell's eyes ; but she seemed rather frightened all the
same, and said nothing for some time.
The drive from Henley to Oxford is one of the finest
in England, the road leading gradually up through
pleasant pastures and great woods until it brings you
on to a common ^the highest ground south of the Trent
^from which you see an immeasurable wooded plain
stretching away into the western horizon. First of all,
as we left Henley on that bright morning, the sweet air
blowing coolly among the trees, and bringing us odours
from wild flowers and breadths of new-mown hay, we
leisurely rolled along what is appropriately called the
Fair Mile, a broad smooth highway running between
Lambridge Wood and No Man's Hill, and having a
space of grassy common on each side of it This
brought us up to Assenton Cross, and here, the ascent
getting much more stiff, BeU took the reins, and the
Count and I walked up the hill until we reached Bix
Turnpike.
'' What a curious name ! " said Bell, as she pulled the
horses up.
* Most likely," said the Lieutenant, who was looking
at an ancient edition of Cary's Itinerary^ '' it is from the
74 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
old Saxon heety the beech-tree, which is plentiful heoco.
But in this book I find it is Bixgibwen, which is not in
the modem books. Now what is gibwen ? "
"St. Caedwyn, of course," said Bell, merrily.
"You laugh, but perhaps it is true," replied the Lieu-
tenant^ with the gravity befitting a student : *** why not
St. Caedwyn's beeches ? You do call many places about
here by the trees. There is Assenton ; that is the place
of ash-trees. We shall soon be at Nettlebed ; and then
comes Nuffield, which is Nut-fieldi ^how do you call
your wildnut-tree in England ?"
" The hazel," said Bell. " But that is commonplace ;
I like the discovery about St Caedwyn's beeches
better : and here, sure enough, they are."
The road at this point something less than a mile
past Bix turnpike ^plunges into a spacious forest of
beeches, which stretches along the simimit of the hiU
almost on to Nettlebed. And this road is bordered by
a strip of common, which again leads into a tangled
maze of bracken and briar; and then you have the
innumerable stems of the beeches, showing long
vistas into the green heart of the wood. The sunlight
was shimmering down on this wilderness, lying warmly
on the road and its green margin, and piercing here and
there with golden arrows the dense canopy of leaves
beyond. High as we were the light breeze was shut off
by the beeches, and in the long broad cleft in which the
road lay the air was filled with resinous odours, that of
the tall green and yellow brackens prevailing. An
occasional jay fled screaming down between the smooth
grey branches, giving us a glimpse of white and blue as
it vanished ; but otherwise there seemed to be no birds
about, and the wild underwood and long alleys lay still
and warm in the green twilight of the leave&
" It is very like the Black Forest, I think," said the
Lieutenant.
" Oh, it is much lighter in colour," cried BelL " Look
at all those silver greys of the stems and the lichens,
and clear green overhead, and the light browns and reds
beneath, where the sunlight shines down through a veil.
OF A TJIAETCm. 75
It is ligiiteT, prettier, more cheerful than your miles of
solemn pines, with the great roads cut through them for
ii eaxts, and the gloom and stiUness underneath,
^here there is no growth of underwood, but only level
beds of green moss, dotted with dropped cones."
" You have a very accurate eye for colours, Made-
moiselle ; no wonder you paint so well," was all that
the Lieutenant said. But Tita warmly remonstrated
with Bell.
'You know, Bell,*' she said, "that aU the Black
Forest ki not like tliat; there is every variety of foreet-
soenery there. And pray, Miss Criticism, where were
the gloomy pines and the solemn avenues in a certain
picture which was sold at the Dudley last year for
twenty-five solid English sovereigns?"
" You needn't tell Count von Bosen what my income
is,^' said Bell. " I took two months to paint that picture."
** That is a very good income," said the Lieutenant,
with a smile.
" I do not like people with large incomes," said Bell,
dexterously avoiding that part of the subject " I think
they must have qualms sometimes, or else be callous.
Now I would have everybody provided with a certain
income, say 200/. a year ; but I would not like to pre-
vent ail competition, and so I would fix an income at
which all people must stop. They might strive and
strive if they liked, just like bells of air in a champagne
glass, you know, but' they should only be able to reach
a certain level in the end. I would have nobody with
more than 1,000/. a year ; that would be my maximum.**
"A thousand a year!" exclaimed Tita. "Isn't a
thousand ten hundred ? "
" Yes," said Bell, after a second's calculation.
"And suppose you have one hundred to pay for twe
boys at school, and another hundred for rent, and
another hundred for the keep of two horses, and a
hundred and twenty for servants' wages ^"
"Perhaps, Tita," I suggest in the meekest possible
way, "you might as well tell Count von Bosen what
you pay for a leg of mutton, so that when he next
76 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
comes to dine with us he may enjoy himself the
more."
It is well that the lightning which is said to dart
from women's eyes is a harmless sort of thing a flash
in the pan, as it were, which is very pretty, but sends
no deadly lead out. However, cus Queen Tita Jiad really
behaved herself very well since we set out firom Henley,
I begged Bell to stop and let us in, and Ctien I asked
the Lieutenant if he would drive.
By this time we had walked the horses nearly to the
end of the pleasant stretch of beechwood, which is
about a mile and a half long, and before us was a bit
of breezy common and the village of Nettlebed. Von
Bosen took the reins and sent the horses forward.
"Why did you not continue to drive?" said Tita,
rather timidly, when I had taken my seat beside her.
*' Because we shall presently have to go down steep
hills ; and as the Count took off the bemng-reins this
morning, we may as well hold him responsible for not
letting the horses down."
"I thought perhaps you wanted to sit beside me,"
she said, in a low voice.
** Well, now you mention it, my dear, that was the
reason."
" It would have been a sufficient reason a good many
years ago/' she said, with a fine affectation of tender-
ness; "but that is all over now. You have been very
rude to me."
" Then don't say anything more about it : receive my
forgiveness, Tita."
"That was not the way you used to speak to me
when we were at Eastbourne," she said ; and with that
she looked veiy much as if she were going to ciy. Of
course she was not going to cry. She has had the trick
of looking like that from her youth upward ; but as it is
really about as pretty and pathetic as the real thing, it
invariably answers the same purpose. It is understood
to be a signal of surrender, a sort of appeal for com-
passion ; and so the rest of this conversation, being of a
quite private nature, need not be made public
OF A PHAETON. ri
The Count was taking us at a brisk pace across the bit
of common, and then we rattled into the little clump of
red-brick houses which forms the picturesque village of
Nettlebed. Now if he had been struck with some
recollection of the Black Forest on seeing NetUebed
Wood, imagine his surprise on finding the little inn in
the village surmounted by a picture of a white deer
with a royal Srown on its head, a fair resemblance to the
legendary creature that appeared to St. Hubertus, and
that figures in so many of the Schwarzwald stories and
pictures. However, we were out of Nettlebed before
he could properly express his astonishment, and in the
vast picture that was now opening out before us there
was little that was German.
We stopped on the summit of Nuffield Heath, and
found below, as far as the eye could reach, the great
and fertile plain of Berkshire, with a long and irregular
line of hill shutting it in on the south. In this plain of
Fields as they are called ^Wallingford Field, Didcot
Field, Long Whittenham Field, and so on small
villages peeped out from among the green woods and
pastures, where a faint blue smoke rose up into the
sunshine. Here, as Bell began to expound, for she
had been reading " The Scouring of the White Horse "
and various other books to which that romantic mono-
graph had directed her, some great deeds had hap-
pened in the olden time. Along that smoAbh line of
hill in the south ^now lying blue in the haze of the light
the Bomans had cut a road which is still called the
Bidgeway or Iccleton Street ; and in the villages of the
plain, from Pangboume in the south-east to Shellingford
in the north-west, traces of the Boman occupation were
frequently found. And then, underneath that blue ridge
of hill and down lay Wantage, in which King Alfred
was bom; and further on the ridge itself becomes
Dragon's fill, where St. George slew the beast that
ravaged this fair land, and there, as all men know, is the
figure of the White Horse cut on the slope to com-
memorate the great battle of Ashdown.
78 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
"And Aslidown, is that there also?" asked the
Lieutenant.
" Well, no," said Bell, trying to remember what she
had been told ; " I think there is some doubt about it.
King Alfred, you know, fell back from Eeading, when
he was beaten, but he stopped somewhere on the hills
near "
" Why not the hill we have just come up ? " said the
Lieutenant, with a laugh. "It is near Eeading, is it
not? and there you have Assenton, which is Ashenton,
which is Ashendown, which is Ashdown."
"Precisely," says Tita, with a gracious smila "All
you have to do is to change John into Julius, and
Smith into Csesar, and there you are."
" But that is not fair, Tita," said Bell, taming round,
and pleading quite seriously. " Assenton ts the same as
Ashendon, and. that is the name of the place where the
battle was fought. I think Count von Bosen is quite righf
"Well, if you think so, BeU, that settles it," said my
Lady, looking rather pleased than otherwise.
And so we began to descend into this pl^ of many
memories by a steep road that is appropriately called
Gangsdown Hill. From thence a succession of undula*
tions carried us into the green breadths of Crowmarsh
Meld ; until, finally, we drove into the village of Ben-
smgton, and pulled up at the "Crovm." there, where
we proposed to have some lundieon.
"This is a village of the dead," said Tita, looking
down the main thoroughfare, where not a living sotd
was to be seen.
But at all events a human being appeared, in the
yard not a withered and silent osder, but a stout,
hale, cheerful person, whose white shirt-sleeves and
gold chain proclaimed him landlord. With the aid
of a small boy, he undertook to put the horses up for
an hour or two ; and then we went iato the inn. Here
W6 found that, as the man in the yasd was at onee
landlord and ostler, his wife inside was landlady, oook,
and waitress ; and in a. short '[qoace of time she had
OF A PHAETON. 79
brought lis some excellent chops. Wot much time
was spent over the meal, for the parlour in which we
sat albeit it was a sort of museum of wonderful
curiosities, and was, moreover, enlivened by the
presence of a crack-voiced cockatoo was rather small
and dark. Accordingly, while the horses were having
their rest, we sauntered out to have a look at Ben-
sington.
It is probably not the duUest little village in
England, but it would be hard to find a duller. There
was an old shepherd with a crook in his hand and a
well-worn smockfrock on his back, who was leaning
over the wooden palings in front of a house, and play-
fully talking to a small boy who stood at an open door.
With many old country people it is considered the
height of raillery to alarm a boy with stories of the
pimishment he is about to receive for something, and
to visit him with an intimation that all his sins have
been found out. This old shepherd, with his withered
pippin face, and his humorous grin, and his lazy arms
folded on the top of the palings, was evidently enjoying
himself vastly.
"A wnr a-watchin' 0' thee, a war, and thy vather,
he knaws, too, and hell gie thee thy vairin wi' a good
fham stick when he comes hwom. A zah thee this
mamin', my lad ^thou'lt think nah one wur thear, eh ?"
We left this good-natured old gentleman frightening
the boy, and went round to the outskirts of the village.
Here, at least, we found one explanation of the inordi-
nate silence of Bensington ^the children were all at
their lessons. The door of the plain little building,
which had British School inscribed over the entrance,
was open, and from within there issued a low, confused
murmur. The Prussian, anxious to see something of
tiie interior of an English school, walked up to the
place ; but he had just managed to cast a glance round
on the rows of children when the door was politely
abut in his face, and he returned, sayings
" I am not an inspector; why need liiey fear?"
Bttt when, after wandering about the suburban
8o THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
gardens and by-ways for a space, we returned to
Bensington, we found that important village in a
state of profound excitement In the main thorough-
fare a concourse of five people had assembled three
women and two children and from the doors of the
houses on both sides of the street innumerable faces^
certainly not less than a dozen, were gazing forth. It
is true that the people did not themselves come out
they seemed rather to shrink from courting publicity ;
but they were keenly alive to what was going on, and
Bensington had become excited.
For there had appeared in the main street a little,
dry, odd old man, who was leading a small donkey-cart,
and who was evidently rather the worse for liquor. He
was a seller of peas. He had summoned the inhabit-
ants to come out and buy the peas, and he was offering
them at what we were told were very reasonable terms.
But just as the old man was beginning to enjoy the
receipt of customs, there drove into the pla^e a sharp,
brisk, middle-aged man, with a shiny face, a fine
presence, and a ringing voice. This man had a neat
cart, a handsome pony, and his name was printed in
large letters, so that all could read. He was also a
seller of peas. Now, although this rude and ostenta-
tious owner of the pony was selling his produce at
fourpence, while the humble proprietor of the donkey
sold his at threepence, the women recalled their
children and bade them go to the dearer market.
There was something in the appearance of the man,
in the neatness of his cart, and in the ringing cheer-
fulness of his voice, which told you he sold good peas.
This was the cause of the great perturbation in Ben-
sington; for no sooner did the half-tipsy old man
see that his rival was carrying the day before him
than he leaned his arms over his donkey's head, and
began to make ironical comments on his enemy and on
the people of Bensington. He was apparently in the
best of spirits. You would have thought it delighted
him to see the small girls come timidly forward to him,
and then be warned away by a cry from their mothersf
OF A PHAETON, 8i
that they were to go to the other cart. Nay, he went
the length of advertising his neighbour's wares. He
addressed the assembled multitudes by this time there
were nearly fifteen people visible in Bensington and
told them he wouldn't sell his peas if he was to get a
fortune for them.
**Pay your foppence," he said to them, in accents
which showed he was not of Bensington born, " there
are yer right good peas. It's all along o' my donkey
as you'll not take mine, though they're only thrippence.
I wouldn't seD. I won't sell this day. Take back yer
money. I won't sell my peas at a crown apiece-
darned if I do ! "
And with that he left his donkey and went over to
the proprietor of the pony. He was not in a fighting
mood not he. He challenged his rival to run the
pony against the donkey, and ofiered to bet the donkey
would be in London a week before the other. The man
in the cart took no notice of these sallies. In a brisk,
practical, methodical fashion, he was measuring out
his peas, and handing them down to the uplifted bowls
that surrounded him. Sometimes he grinned in a good-
natured way at the facetious remarks of his unfor-
tunate antagonist ; but all the same he stuck to his
business and drove a thriving trade. How there
came to be on that afternoon so many people in
Bensington who wished to buy peas must remain a
mystery.
"And now," said Bell, as we once more got into
the phaeton, "we shall be in Oxford in two hours.
Do you think the post-office will be open?"
" Very likely," said Tita, with some surprise ; " but
do you expect letters already. Bell?"
"You cannot tell," said the young lady, with just
a shade of embarrassment, ''how soon Kate may send
letters after us. And she knows we are to stop a day
at Oxford It will not be too dark to go hunting for
the post-office, will it ?"
" But you shall not go," said the Lieutenant, giving
a shake to the reins, as if in obedience to Boll's wish.
G
82 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
"When you have got to the hotel, I will go and get
your letters for you."
"Oh no, thank you," said Bell, in rather a liunied
and anxious way. "I should prefer much to go for
them myself, thank you."
That was all that was said on the subject ; and Bell,
we noticed, was rather silent for the first few miles
of our afternoon drive. The Lieutenant did his best
to amuse her, and carried on a lively conversation
chiefly by himself. That mention of letters seemed to
have left Bell rather serious; and she was obviously
not over-delighted at the prospect of reaching Oxford.
The road from Bensington thither is pleasant enough,
but not particularly interesting. For the most part it
descends by a series of undulations into the level plain
watered by the Isis, the Cherwell, and the Thames. But
the mere notion of approaching that famous city, which
is consecrated with memories of England's greatest men
statesmen and divines, melancholy philosophers and
ill-starred poets is in itself impressive, and lends to
the rather common-place landscape an air of romance.
While as yet the old town lies unseen amid the woods
that crowd up to the very edge of the sky, one fancies
the bells of the colleges are to be heard, as Pope heard
them when he rode, a solitary horseman, over these very
hills, and down into the plain, and up to Magdalen
Bridge.1 We cared little to look at the villages, strung
like beads on the winding thread of the road Shelling-
ford, Dorchester, Nuneham Courtenay, and Sandford
nor did we even turn aside to go down to IfiBey and the
Thames. It was seven when we drew near Oxford.
There were people sauntering out from the town to
have their evening walk. When, at last, we stopped
to pay toll in front of the old lichen-covered bridge
across the Cherwell, the tower of Magdalen College,
and the magnificent elms on the other side of the way,
had caught a tinge of red from the dusky sunset, and
1 *' Nothing could have more of that melancholy which once used to
please me, than my last day's journey; for after having jiassed
through my favourite woods in the forest, with a thousand reveries of
OF A PHAETON. 83
there was a Mnt reflection of crimson down on the
still waters that lay amon; the rank green meadows.
Then we drove on into the High Street, and here, in the
gathering dusk, the yellow lamps were beginning to
glimmer. Should we pull up at the ^gel that
famous hostelry of ancient times, whose name used
to be inscribed on so many notable coaches? ''We
put up at the Angel Inn," writes Mr. BosweU, "and
passed the evening by ourselves in easy and familiar
conversation." Alas ! the Angel has now been pulled
down. Or shall we follow the hero of the Splendid
Shilling, who,
" When nif2:htly mists arise,
* To Juniper's Magpie or Town Hall repairs T "
They, too, are gone. But as Castor and Pollux, during
these moments of doubt and useless reminiscence, are
still takincr us over the rough stones of the "High,"
some decision must be come to; and so, at a sudden
instigation, Count von Eosen pulls up in front of the
Mitre, which is an appropriate sign for the High Street
of Oxford, and betokens age and respectability.
The stables of the Mitre are clean, well-ventilated,
and well-managed indeed, no better stables could have
been found for putting up the horses for their next day's
rest. When we had seen to their comfort, we returned
to the inn, and found that my Lady and Bell had not
only had all the luggage conveyed to our respective
rooms, but had ordered dinner, changed their attire, and
part pleasures, I rid over hanging hills, whose tops were edged witii
gropes, and whose feet watered with winding rivers, listening to the
falls of cataracts below, and the munnnring of the winds above ; the
gloomy verdure of Stonor succeeded to these, and then the shades of
evening overtook me. The moon rose in the clearest sky I ever saw,
by whose solemn light I paced on slowly, without company, or any
interruption to the range of my thoughts. About a mile before I
reached Oxford, all the bells tolled in different notes ; the clocks of
every college answered one another and sounded forth (some in deeper,
some in a softer tone) that it was eleven at night All this was no ^
preparation to the life 1 have led since among those old walls, venerable
galleries, stone porticoes, studious walks, and solitary scenes of the
University." Fop* to Mrs, Martha Blatimt [Stonor Park lies about
two miles to the right of Bix turnpike.]
g2
84 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
were waiting for us in the . square, old-fashioned, low-
roofed coflfee-room which looks out into the High Street.
A tall waiter was laying the cloth for us; the lights were
lit all round the wall ; our only companions were two
elderly gentlemen who sat in a remote comer, and gave
themselves up to politics ; and Bell, having resolved to
postpone her inquiry about letters until next morning
in obedience to the very urgent entreaties of the
Lieutenant seemed all the more cheerful for that
resolution.
But if our two friends by the fire-place could not
overhear our talk, we could overhear theirs ; and all the
time we sat at dinner, we were receiving a vast amount
of enlightenment about the condition of the country.
The chief spokesman was a short, *stout person, with a
fresh, healthy, energetic face, keen grey eyes, bushy grey
whiskers, a bald head, and a black satin waistcoat ; his
companion a taller and thinner man, with straight
black hair, sallow cheeks, and melancholy dark eyes:
and the former, in a somewhat pompous manner, was
demonstrating the blindness of ordinary politicians to
the wrath that was to come. Lord Palmerston saw it,
he said. There was no statesman ever like Lord Pal-
merston ^there would never be his like again. For was
not the North bound to fight the South in every
country ? And what should we do if the men of the
great manufacturing towns were to come down on us ?
There were two Englands in this island and the West-
minster Houses knew nothing of the rival camps that
were being formed. And did not the North always beat
the South? Did not Bome beat Carthage? and the
Huns the Somans ? and the Northern States the South-
em States? and Prussia Austria ? and Germany France?
And when the big-limbed and determined men of
Birmingham, Leeds, Manchester, Preston, Newcastle,
and such towns, rose to sweep aside the last feudal
institutions of this country, of what avail would be a
protest on the part of the feeble and self-indulgent South ?
*'This kingdom, Sir," said the gentleman with the
satin waistcoat and gold seals, in such lofty tones that
OF A PHAETON. 85
Count von Bosen scarcely minded his dinner, "this
kingdom, Sir, is more divided at tliis moment than it
was during the Wars of the Boses. It is split into hostile
factions; and which is the more patriotic? Neither.
There is no patriotism left only the selfishness of
class. We care no more for the country as a country.
We are cosmopolitan. The scepticism of the first
French Eevolution has poisoned our big towns. We
tolerate a monarchy as a harmless toy. We tolerate an
endowed priesthood, because we think they cannot
make our peasantry more ignorant than they are. We
allow pauperism to increase and eat into the heart of
the State, because we think it no business of ours to
interfere. We see our lowest classes growing up to
starve or steal, in ignorance and dirt ; our middle classes
scrambling for wealth to get out of the state they were
born in; our upper classes given over to luxury
and debauchery patriotism gone continental nations
laughing at us our army a mere* handful of men with
incompetent officers our navy made the subject of
destructive experiments by interested cliques our
Government ready to seize on the most revolutionary
schemes to get together a majority and remain in power
selfishness, incompetence, indifTerence become para-
mount it is horrible. Sir, it is Orrible."
In his anxiety to be emphatic, he left out that one
" h ; " it was his only slip. Our Lieutenant turned to
Tita, and said :
" I have met many English people in Germany who
have spoken to me like that They do seem to have
a pride in criticising themselves and their country.
Is it because they feel they are so strong, and so rich,
and so good, that they can afford to dispraise themselves?
Is it because they feel themselves so very safe in this
island that they think little of patriotism, yes ? But I
have observed this thing that when it is a foreigner who
begins to say such things of England, your countryman
he instantly changes his tone. He may say himself bad
things of his country; but he will not allow anyone
else. That is very good ^very right But I would
86 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
nttfaer hsve a Frenchman ^o is very vain of his
iiuntiy, and says so at every moment, than an English-
m who is very vain and pretends to disparage it
Tlie Frenchman is more honest."
" But there are many Englishmen who think England
wants great improvements," said Tita,
** Improvements I Yes. But it is another thing you
hear so many Englishmen say, that their country is all
wrong 'going to the dogs' is what you say for that.
Well, they do not believe it true it is impossible to be
true ; and they do not look well with us foreigners when
they say so. For myself, I like to see a man proud of
his country, whatever country it is ; and if my country
were England, do not you think I should be proud of
hn* great history, and her great men, and her powers of
filimg the world with colonies, and what I think most
rf all ^her courage in making the country free to every
an, and protectmg opinions that she herself does not
believe, because it is right ? When my countrymen hear
Bnglishmen talk like that, they cannot understand."
You should have seen our Bell's face the pride and
fine gratitude that were in her eyes, while she did not
^^^saK.
''You would not have us go about praising ourselves
for doing right ? " said Tita.
**No," he said, "but you ought not to go about pro-
fessing yourselves to be less satisfied with your country
than you are."
Before breaking tip for the night, we came to a reck-
oning about our progress, and probable line of route.
Fifty-eight miles ^that was the exact distance, by
straight road, we had got on our way to Scotland at the
end of the third day.
"And to-morrow," said Tita, as she finished giving
the Lieutenant his first lesson in bezique, " counts for
nothing, as we remain here. Fifty-eight miles in
three days looks rather small, does it not? But I
suppose we shall get there in course of time."
"Yes," said Bell, gently, as she put the markers
t?raight, '* in Pollux* course of time."
OF A FHAETON, 9?
My Lady rose, and in her severest tones ordered the
girl to bed.
[Ifoie hy Queen Titania.^-** If tkese jottings of our journey come to
be pfuUished, I beg to say that, so far as I appear in them, they are a
little unfair. I hope I am not so very terrible a person as all that
comes to. I have noticed in some other families that a man of obstmcUe
will and of uncertain temper like? nothing so mnch as to pretend to
his friends that he suffers dreadfully from the tyranny of his wife. It
is merely self-complacency. He knows no one ^res thwart him ; and
so he thinks it rather humorous to give himself the air of being much
injured, and of being very good-natured. I dare say, however, most
people who look at these memoranda will be able to decide whether the
trifling misunderstandings which have been much exaggerated and
made to look serious were owing to me. But as for Bell, I do not
tiiink it right to joke about her position at all. She does her best to
keep up her spirits and she is a brave, good girl, who likes ts be
cheerful if only for the sake of those around her ; but this aifair of
Arthur Ashburton is causing her deep anxiety and a good deal of
vexation. Why she should have some vague impression that she has
treated him badly, I cannot see ; for the very reverse is the case. But
Kurely it is unfair to make this lovers* quarrel the pretext for dragging
Bell into a wild romance, which the writer of the foregoing pages seems
bent on doing. Indeed, with regard to this subject, I cannot do better
than repeat a ccaversation which, with characteristic ing^iuity^ he has
entirely omitted. He said to me, while we wtre wandering about
Bensington and Bell had strolled on with Count von Roaeu
" ' After all, our phaeton is not a microcosm. We have not the
complete elements for a romance. We have no villain with vs.*
** * You flatter yourself,' I remarked ; wliiah did Jiot .seem to pleMe
him, bat he pretended not to hear.
** ' There will be no dank background to our adventures ao crime,
eecrecy, plotting, or malieions thwarting of BeH's happmeaa. It wfll
be like a magic-lantem slide with all the giirepaiDifeed in loae^oeisBr.'
** * What do you mean by Bell's happiness ! ' t aakad.
'"Her marriage with the Lieutenant, and there is no villain to
oppose it Even if we had a villain, there is so roon for faim : the
pBeetoD only holds four comfortably.'
'* Really this was too much. I could scarcely control my impaHenee
with such folly. I have said before that the girl does not wish to
marry anyone ; but if there were any thought of BMuriage in her
mind, surely her anxiety about that letter points in a differenU wmy.
Of course I was immediately taunted with scneming to throw Bell and
Count von Rosen together during our drive. I admit that I did so,
and mean to do so. We ought not to expect young folks to be always
delighted with the society of their elders. It is only natural that tiiese
two young people should become companions; but what of that!
And as to the speech about a villain, who ever saw one T Out of a
novel or a play, I never saw a villain, and I don't know anybody who
ever did. It seems to me there is a good deal of self-satiBfaction in tbe
notion that we four are all so angelic that it wants some disagreeable
person to thrown? into relief. Are we all painted in rose-colour?
liooking Imck over these pages, I do not think eo; but I am not
88 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
snrpriaed conridering who had the itnelding of the brush. And yet I
think we have so far ei^'oyed oursielyes very well, considering that I am
supposed to be very haii to please, and very quarrelsome. Perhaps
none of ns are so amiable as we ought to be ; and yet we manage to
put up with one another somehow. In the meantime, I am grieved
to see Bell, without the intervention of any. villain whatever, under-
going great anxiety ; and I wish the girl had sufficient courage to sit
down at once and write to Arthur i^burton and absolutely forbid
him to do anything so foolish as seek an interview with her. If he
should do so, it is impossible to say what may come of it, for our Bell
has a good deal of pnde with all her gentleness. ^T."]
CHAPTER VII.
f
ATRA CTJRA.
'' gentle wind that bloweth south.
To where my love repaireth,
Convev a kiss to his dear mouth,
And tell me how he fareth ! "
** My dear, you are unphilosophical. Why should you
rebuke Bell for occasionally using one of those qiiaint
Americsui phrases, which have wandered, into this
country? I can remember a young person who had
a great trick of quoting Italian especially in moments
of tenderness but that was a long time ago and
perhaps she has forgotten ''
" It is shameful of you," says Queen Titania, hastily,
" to encourage Bell in that way. She would never do
anything of the kind but for you. And you know very
wcdl that quoting a foreign language is quite a different
tiling from using those stupid Americanisms which af e
only fit for negro-concerts."
" My dear, you are unphilosophical. When America
started in business on her own account^ she forgot to
furnish herself with an independent language ; but ever
since she has been working hard to supply the want.
By and by you will find an American language sharp,
concise, expressive built on the difhse and heavy
foundationB of our own English. Why should not BeU
use those tentative phrases which convey so much in so
OF A PHAETON. 89
few syllables ? Why call it slang ? What is slang but
an effort at conciseness ? "
Tita looked puzzled, vexed, and desperate : and inad-
vertently turned to Count von Bosen, who was handing
the sugar-basin to BelL He seemed to understand the
appeal, for he immediately said
" Oh, but you do know, that is not the objection. I
do not think Mademoiselle talks in that way, or should
be criticised about it by anyone ; but the wrong that is
done by introducing the slang words is, that it destroys
the history of a language. It perverts the true mean-
ing of roots it takes away the poetry of derivations
it confuses the student."
"And who thought of students when the various
objects in life were named t And whence came the
roots? And is not language always an experiment,
producing fresh results as people tind it convenient,
and leaving students to frame laws as they like ? And
why are we to give up succinct words or phrases because
the dictionaries of the last generation consecrated them
to a part^LCular use ? My dear children, the process of
inventing language goes on from year to year, changing,
modifying, supplying, and building up new islands
out of the common sand and the sea. What to-day
is slang, to-morrow is language, if one may be per-
mitted to parody Feuerbach. And I say that Bell,
having an accurate ear for fit soimds, shall use such
woitis as she likes ; and if she can invent epithets of
her own "
" But, please, I don't wish to do anything of the
k^d," says Bell, looking quite shamefaced.
That is just the way of those women: interfere to
help them in a difficulty, and they straightway fly over
to the common enemy, especially if he happens to
represent a social majority.
I begem to perceive about this stage of our journey
that a large number of small articles over which Bell
had charge were now never missing. -Whenever she
wanted a map, or a guide-book, or any one of the things
which had been specially entrusted to her, it was forth-
90 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
oofming directly. Xay, she never had, like Tita, to look
for a hat, or a shawl^ or a scarf, or a packet of bezique-
caxds. I also began to notioe that when she jnissed one
of tiiose things, she somehow inadvertently tamed to
our lieutenant, who was quite sure to know where it
was, and to hand it to her cm the instant. The con-
sequence on this morning was, that when we all came
down prepared to go out for an exploration of Oxford,
we found Bell at the window of the coffee-room, already
dressed, and looking placidly out into the High Street,
where the simlight was shining down on the top of the
old-fashioned houses opposite, and on the brand-new
bank, which, as a compliment to the prevailing style of
liie city, has been built in very distinguished Gothic.
It was proposed that we should first go down and
have a look at Christ Church.
'^ And that will just take us past the post-office," said
BeU.
***VVhy, how do you know that? Have you been
out ? " asked Titania.
" No," replied Bell, simply. " But Count von Bosen
tDld me where it was."
'' Oh, I hove been all over the town this monxiiig,"
saidi^e lieutenant, carelessly. '' It is the finest town
tint I have yet seen a sort of GotMc Munidi, but old,
eiy old ^not new, and white like Mimieh, where the
streets are asking you to loc^ at their fine buildings.
And I ha^e been down to the river that is wry ^ne,
too even the appearance of the old colleges and build-
ings from the meadows that is wonderful."
^ Have you made any other discovenes this morn-
ing?" said Queen Tita, with a gracious smile.
"Yes," said lie young man, lightly. "I have dis-
covered that the handsome young waiter who gave us
our breakfast ^that lie has been a rider in a circus,
which I did suspect myself, from his manner and atti-
tudes and also an actor. He is a very fine man, but
not much spirit. I was asking him this morning why
he is not a soldier. He despises that, because you pay
a shilling a day. That is a pity your soldiers are
OF A THAETON. 91
sot iriiat shall I say ? respectable ; that your best
ymxxig men do not like to go with them, and become
under-officers. But I do not know he is very good stuff
ibr a soldier he smiles too mnch, and makes him self
pleasant Perhaps that is only because he is a waiter."
"Have you made any other acquaintances this
morning?" says Tita, with a friendly amusement in
her eyes.
" No, no one except the old gentleman who did talk
politics last night. He is gone away by the train to
Birmingham."
" Pray when do you get up in the morning ? ''
"I did not look that; but there was no one in the
streets when I went out, as there would be in a German
town ; and even now there is a great dulness. I have
inquired about the students they are all gone home
it is a vacation. And a young lady in a book-shop told
me that there is no life in the town when the students
are gone ^that aU places close eaa*ly ^that even the
milliners' shops are closed just now at half-past seven,
while they are open till nine when the students are here."
" And what," says my Lady, widi a loc^ of innoiSint
woader, ""what have the students to do with milliners'
shops that mich places shoiild be kept open on their
aooottnt?"
No one could offer a sufficient solution of this prob-
lem ; and so we kft the coffee-room and plunged into
the glare of the High Street.
It would be useless to attempt here any detailed
account of that day's long and pleasant rambling through
Oxford. To anyone who knows the appearance and the
associations of the grand old dty wiio is familieur with
the various mass of crumbling colleges, and quiet clois-
ters, and grassy quadrangles who has wandered along
the quaint clean streets that look strangely staid and
orthodox, and are as old as the s^ilendid fOms that break
in continually on the lines and curves of the prevailing
architecture ^to one who has even seen the city at a
distance, with its many spires and turrets set amid fair
green meiidows, and girt about with the silver windings
92 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
of streams any such brief recapitulation would be
wholly bald and useless; while he to whom Oxford
is unknown can learn nothing of its beauties and im-
pressions without going there. Our party absolutely
refused to go sight-seeing, and were quite content to
accept the antiquarian researches of the guide-books on
credit It was enough for us to ramble leisurely through
the old courts and squares and alleys, where the shadows
lay cool under the gloomy walls, or under avenues of
magnificent elms.
But first of all we paid a more formal visit to Christ
Church, and on our way thither the Lieutenant stopped
Bell at the post-office. She begged leave to ask for
letters herself; and presently reappeared with two in
her hand.
" These are from the boys," she said to my Lady :
"there is one for you, and one for Papa."
" You have had no letter ? " said Tita.
" No," answered Bell, somewhat gravely as I fancied ;
and for some time after she seemed rather thoughtful
and anxious.
As we paused underneath the archway in front of
the sunlit quadrangle of Christ Church, the letters
from the boys were read aloud. This is the first one,
which shows the pains a boy will take to write properly
to his mother, especially when he can lay his hands on
some convenient guide-book to correspondence :
"CowLET House, Twickenham.
" My dear Mamma, I take up my pen to let you
know that I am quite well, and hope that this will
find you in the engoyment of good health. My studdies
are advancing favably, and I hope I shall continue to
please my teacher and my dear parents, who have been
so kind to me, and are anxious for my wellfare. I look
foward with much delight to the aproarching hollidays,
and. I am, my dear Mamma,
" Your affectionate Son,
" Jack.
" P.S. He does gallop so ; and he eats beans."
OF A PHAETON. 93
Master Tom, on the other hand, showed that the fear
of his mother was not on him when he sat down to
write. Both of them had evidently just been impressed
with the pony's galloping ; for the second letter was as
follows :
" CowLET House, Tvticesnham.
" My dear Papa, He does gallop so, you can't think
[this phrase, as improper, was hastily scored through]
and I took him down to the river and the boys were
very Impertinent and I rode him down to the river and
they had to run away from their clothes and he went
into the river a good bit and was not afraid but you
know he cannot swim yet as he is very young Harry
French says and Doctor Ashburton went with us yes-
terday my dear papa to the ferry and Dick was taken
over in the ferry and we all went threw the trees by
Ham House and up to Ham Common and back by
Eichmond bridge and Dick was not a bit Tired. But
what do you think my dear papa Doctor Ashburton
says all our own money won't pay for his hay and. com
and he will starve if you do not send some please my
dear papa to send some at once because if he starvves
once he will not get right again and the Ostler says he
is very greedy but he his a very good pony and very
intelgent dear papa Doctor Ashburton has bawt us each
a ridmg-whip but I never hit him over the ears which
the Ostler says is dangerus and you must tell the
German gentleman that Jack and I are very much
obled [scored out] obledg [also scored out] obbliged to
him, and send our love to him and to dear Auntie Bell
and to dear Mamma and I am my dear papa your
affexnate son.
" Tom."
"It is really disgracefiil," said the mother of the
scamps, "the shocldng way those boys spell. BeaUy
Doctor Ashburton must be written to. At their age,
and with such letters as these ^it is shameful."
" I think they are very clever boys," said Bell, " and
94 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
I hope you won't impose extra lessons on them just
as they have got a pony."
"They ought not to have had the pony until they
had given a better account of themselves at schooV'
said my Lady, severely; to which Bell only replied
by saying, in a pensive manner, that she wished she
was a boy of nine years of age, just become possessed
of a pony, and living in th country.
We spent a long time in Christ Church, more
especially in the magnificent Hall, where the historical
portraits greatly interested BelL She entered into
surmises as to the sensations which must have been
felt by the poets and courtiers of Queen Elizabeth's
time when they had to pay compliments to the thin-
faced, red-haired woman who is here represented in
her royal satins and pearls; and wondered whether,
after they had celebrated her as the Queen of Beauty,
they afterwards reconciled these flatteries to their
conscience by looking on them as sarcasm. But
whereas Bell's criticism of the picture was quite
gentle and unprejudiced, there was a good deal more
of acerbity in the tone in which Queen Tita drew
near to speak of Holbein's Henry VIIL My firm
belief is, that the mother of those two boys at
Twickenham, if she only had the courage of her
opinions and dared to reveal those secret sentiments
which now find expression in decorating our bedrooms
with missal-like texts, and in the use of Bitualistic
phrases to describe ordinary portions of the service
and ordinary days of the year would really be dis-
covered to be but let that pass. What harm
Henry VIIL had done her, I could not make out.
Anyone may perceive that that monarch has not the
look of an ascetic ; that the contour of his face and
the setting of his eyes are not particularly pleasing;
that he could not easily be mistaken for Ignatius
Loyola. But why any woman of these present days,
who subscribes to Mudie's, watches the costumes of
the Princess of Wales, and thinks that Dr. Pusey
has been ungenerously treated, should regard a portrait
OF A PHAETON. 9^
of Henry VIII. as though he had done her an injury
only the week before last, it is not easy to discover.
BeU, on the other hand, was discoursing to the Lieu-
tenant about the various workmanship of the pictures,
and giving him a vast amount of mformation about
technical matters^ in which he appeared to take a
deep interest.
"But did you ever paint upon panel yourseK,
Mademoiselle?" he asked.
" Oh yes," said Bell, " I was at one time very fond
of it But I never made it so useful as a country-
man of mine once suggested it might be. He was
a Cumberland farmer who had come down to our
house at Ambleside; and when he saw me painting
on a piece of wood, he looked at it with great
curiosity.
"'Heh, lass,' he said, 'thou's pentin a fine pictur
there, and on wood, too. Is't for the yell-house?*
" No,' I said, explaining that I was painting for
my own pleasure, and that it was not a public-house
sign.
"'To please thysel, heh? And when thou's dime
wi' the pictur, thou canst plane it off the wood, and
begin another that's thy meaning is't?'
" I was very angry with him, for I was only about
fifteen then, and I wanted to send my picture to a
London exhibition."
" Why, I did see it down at Leatherhead ! " said
Von Kosen. "Was not that the picture, on panel,
near the window of the dining-room ?"
"Come, come!" said Titania to the girl, who could
not quite conceal the pleasure she felt on hearing that
the Count had noticed this juvenile effort of hers ;
" come along, and let us see the library before we go
into the open air again."
In the library, too, were more portraits and pictures,
in which these young people were much interested.
We found it impossible to drag them along. They
would loiter in some comer or other, and then, when
we forsook our civil attendant and went back for
96 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
them, we found them deeply engrossed in some obscure
portrait or buried in a huge parchment-bound folio
which the Lieutenant had taken out and opened. Bell
was a fairly well-informed young woman, as times
go, and knew quite as much of French literature as
was good for her; but it certainly puzzled Tita and
myself to discover what possible interest she could
have in gazing upon the large pages of the Ency-
clopaedia, while the Lieutenant talked to her about
D'Alembert. Nor could it be possible that a young
lady of her years and pursuits had imbibed so much
reverence for original editions as to stand entranced
before this or that well-known author whose earliest
offspring had been laid hold of by her companion.
They both seemed unwilling to leave this library;
but Von Sosen explained the matter when he came
out saying that he had never felt so keenly the
proverbial impulses of an Uhlan as when he found
himself with these valuable old books in his hand
and only one attendant near. I congratulated the
authorities of Christ Church on what they had escaped.
Of course we went down to the river some little
time after lunch; and had a look from Folly Bridge
on the various oddly-assorted crews that had invaded
the sacred waters of the Isis in the absence of the
University men. When the Lieutenant proposed that
we, too, should get a boat and make a voyage down
between the green meadows, it almost seemed as if
we were venturing into a man's house in the absence
of the owner ; but then Bell very prettily and urgently
added her supplications, and Tita professed herself
not unwilling to give the young folks an airing on
the stream. There were plenty of signs that it was
vacation-time besides the appearance of the non-
descript oarsmen. There was a great show of painting
and scraping and gilding visible among that long line
of mighty barges that lay under the shadow of the
elms, moored to tall white poles that sent a line of
silver down into the glassy and troubled water beneath.
Barges in blue, and barges in cream and gold, barges
OF A PHAETON. 97
with splendid prows and Gorgon figure-heads, barges
with steam-paddles and light awnings over the uppQr
deck, barges with that deck supported by pointed
arches, as if a bit of an old cloister had been carried
down to decorate a pleasure-boat all these resounded
to the blows of hammers, and were being made
bright with many colours. The University barge itself
had been dragged out of the water, and was also
undergoing the same process; although the cynical
person who had put the cushions in our boat had
just remarked, with something of a shrug
"I hope that the mahn as has got the job '11 get
paid for it, for the 'Varsity Crew are up to their
necks in debt, that's what they are!"
When once we had got away from Christ Church
mesuiows, there were fewer obstructions in our course ;
but whether it was that the currents of the river
defied the skill of our coxswain, or whether it was
that the Lieutenant and Bell, sitting together in the
stern, were too much occupied in pointing out to
each other the beauties of the scenery, we found
ourselves with a fatal frequency running into the
bank, with the prow of the boat hissing through the
rushes and flags. Nevertheless, we managed to get
up to Tffley, and there, having moored the boat, we
proceeded to land and walk up to the old church on
the brow of the hill.
"It's what they calls eerly English," said the old
lady who showed us over the ancient building. She
was not a talkative person; she was accustomed to
get over the necessary information rapidly ; and then
spent the interval in looking strangely at the tall
Lieutenant and his brown beard. She did not betray
any emotion when a small gratuity was given her.
She had not even said "Thank you" when Von
Sosen, on calling for the keys of the church, had
found the gate of her garden unhinged, and had
laboured fully ten minutes in hammering a rusty
piece of iron into the wooden post. Perhaps she
thought it was Bell who had driven down the gate;
n
98 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
but at all events she expressed no sense of gratitude
for its restoration.
Near an old yew-tree there was a small grave
new-made and green with grass on which some care-
ful hand had placed a cross composed exclusively of
red and white roses. This new grave, with these fresh
evidences of love and kindly remembrance on it, looked
strange in the rude old churchyard, where stones of
unknown age and obliterated names lay tumbled about
or stood awry among the weeds and grass. Yet this
Y^ disorder and decay, as Tita said gently, seemed
to her so much more pleasant than the cold and sharp
preciMon of the iron crosses in French and German
grave-yard^, with their grim, fantastic decorations and
^vreaths of immortelles. She stood looking at this new
grave and its pretty cross of roses, and at the green
and weather-worn stones, and at the black old yew-
tree, for some little time; until Bell who knows of
something that happened when Tita was but a girl,
and her brother scarcely more than a child drew
lier gently away from us, towards the gate of the
churchyard.
"Yes," said the Lieutenant, not noticing, but turning
to the only listener remaining; "that is true. I think
your English churchyards in the country are very beauti-
ful ^very picturesque ^very pathetic indeed. But what
you have not in this country are the beautiful songs
about death that we have ^not religious hymns, or
anything like that but small, little poems that the
country-people know and repeat to their children. Do
you know that one that says
Hier schlnmmert das Hezz,
Befreit yon betaubenden Soigen;
s weckt una kein Moigon
Za grofiserem SchmeiZi
And it ends this way
Was weinest denn da f
Ich trage nun mnthig mein Leiden^
Und rnfe mit Frenden,
Im Grabe ist BohM
OF A PHAETON. 99
There was one of my comrades in the war ^he was
from my native place^ but not in my regiment ^he
was a very good fellow and when he was in the camp
before Metz, his companion was killed. Well, he
buried him separate from the others, and went about
tUl he got somewhere a gravestone, and he began to
cut out, just with the end of a bayonet, these two
verses on the stone. It took him many weeks to do
that ; and I did hear from one of my friends in the
regiment that two days after he had put up the stone, .
he was himself killed. Oh, it is very hard to have
your companion killed beside you, and he is away from
his friends, and when you go back home without him
they look at you as if you had no right to be alive
and their son dead. Tliat is very hard I knew it
in Sixty-six, when I went back to Berlin, and had
to go to see old Madame von Hebel. I do hope never
to have that again."
Is there a prettier bit of quiet river-scenery in the
world than that around Iffley Mill? Or was it merely
the glamour of the white day that rendered the place
so lovely, and made us linger in the open stream to
look at the mill and its surroundings ? As I write,
there lies before me a pencil sketch of our Bell's,
lightly dashed here and there with water-colour, and the
whole scene is recalled. There is the dilapidated old
stone building, with its red tiles, its crumbling plaster,
its wooden projections, and small windows, half-hidden
amid foliage. Further down the river there are
clumps of rounded elms visible; but here around
the mOl the trees are chiefly poplars, of magnificent
height, that stretch up lightly and gracefidly into
a quiet yellow sky, and throw gigantic lines of reflec-
tion down into the still water. Then out from tha
mill a small island runs into the stream; the wood*
work of the sluice-gates bridges the interval; there
is a red cow amid the green leafage of the island,
and here again are some splendid poplars, rising
singly up from the river-side. Then beyond is another
house, then a wooden bridge, and a low line of
H 2
loo THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
trees ; and finally the river, in a sharp curve,
glimmers in the light and loses itself behind low-
lying meadows and a marginal growth of willow
and flag.
For very shame's sake, the big Lieutenant was forced
to offer to take Tita*s oar, as we once more proceeded
on our voyage ; but she definitely refused to endanger
our lives by any such experiment. A similar offer
on the part of Bell met with a similar fate. Indeed,
when this little woman has once made up her mind
to do a certain thing, the reserve of physical and
intellectual vigour that lies within the slight frame
and behind a smooth and gentle face, shows itself to
be extraordinary. Place before her some arithmetical
conundrum that she must solve in order to question
the boys, or give her an oar and engage her to pull
for a certain number of miles, and the amount of
patient perseverance and unobtrusive energy she will
reveal will astonish most people. In the meantime,
her task was easy. We were going with the stream.
And so we glided on between the green banks, under
the railway-bridge, past the village of Kennington,
past Rose Isle, with its bowers, and tables, and beer-
glasses, and lounging young fellows in white trousers
and blue jackets, and so on until we got up to
Sandford Lock. Here, also, we fastened the boat to
the bank, close by the mill, and went ashore for half
an hour's strolL But while Tita made direct, as she
generally does on entering a new village, for the
church, the Lieutenant went off in quest of beer ;
and when we came back to the boat, he had a wonder-
ful story to tell us. He had made friends with some
innkeeper or other, and had imbibed from him a
legend which was a curious mixture of fact and in-
ference and blunder. Von Rosen had doubtless mis-
taken much of the Oxfordshire patois ; for how could
any man make a reasonable narrative out of the
following ?
"And he told me it was a farmer's house in the
village the village of Sandford, I suppose and while
OF A PHAETON. loi
they took it down to repair it, they were lifting up
the floors, and many strange things were there. And
he said, among the nonsense and useless rubbish they
were finding there, was a hat; and the man brought
the hat down to him ; and he saw it was a chevalier's
hat ''
"A cavalier's hat," suggested Bell; and the Lieu-
tenant assented.
"Then the farmer went up to the house, and he
found some hidden letters, and one was to Ettrick
to some soldier who was then on a campaitni at the
river Ettrick in the north. And they found that it
was in this very house that Eing Charles the First
did cut oflF his beard and moustache I suppose when
he was flying from the Parliamentary army ; but I am
forgetting all about that history now, and the inn-
keeper was not sure about the battle. Well, then
the news was sent to London ; and a gentleman came
down who is the only surviving descender descendant
of King Charles, and he took away the hat to
London, and you will find it in the British Museum.
It is a very curious story, and I would have come
after you, and showed you the house ; but I suppose,
it is a new house now, and nothing to look at But
do you know when the king was in this neighbourhood
in escaping ? "
Here was a poser for the women.
" I don't remember," says Tita, looking very pro-
found, "to have seen anything about Oxford in Lord
.Clarendon's narrative of the king's escape after the
battle of Worcester."
"Mamma!" said Bell, in accents of reproach, "that
was Charles the Second."
" To be sure it was," returned Tita, with a gesture
of impatience ; " and he couldn't have come this way,
for he went to Bristol. But Charles the First was
continually at Oxford he summoned the Parliament
to meet him here "
" And shaved off his beard to curry favour with
them," it is suggested.
103 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
" You needn't laugh. Of course, when he was finally
defeated he fled from Oxford, and very probably dis-
guised himself/'
" And when did he fly, and whither ?"
"To Scotland," said Bell triumphantly, ''and after
the battle of Naseby."
" Good girl. And where is Naseby ? "
"Well, if he fled north-east from the Parliamentary
army, Naseby must be in the south-west; and so I
suppose it is somewhere down about Gloucester."
"Herr Professor Oswald, where is Naseby?"
" I do not know," says the Lieutenant ; " but I think
it is more in the north, and not far from the country
of your great man Hampden, But he was killed
before then, I think."
" And pray," says Queen Tita, taking her seat, and
putting her oar into the rowlock, "will you please
tefl me what you think of those men of Cromwell
and Hampden and those and what your historians
say of them in Germany?"
"Why, they say all kinds of things about them,"
said the Lieutenant, lightly ^not knowing that he
was being questioned as a representative of the feudal
aristocracy of a coimtry in which the divine right of
kings is supposed to flourish "just as your historians
do here. But we know very well that England has
got much of her liberty through that fight with the
' king, and yet you have been able to keep a balance,
and not let the lowest classes run riot and destroy
your freedom. They were ambitious? Yes. If a
man is in politics, does not he fight hard to make
his side win? If he is a soldier, does not he like to
be victorious? And if I could be King of England,
do you not think I should like that very well, and
try hard for it? But if these men had their own
ambitions, and wanted to get fame and honour, I am
sure they had much of righteousness and belief, and
would not have fought in that way and overturned
the king if they believed that was an injury to their
eountry or to their religion. And besides what could
OF A PHAETON. 103
this man or tliat man have done except he had a
great enthusiasm of the nation behind him if he did
not represent a principle? But I have no right to
speak of such things as if I were telling you of our
German historians. That is only my guess, and I
have read not much about it. But you must not
suppose that because we in Grermany have not the
same political system that you have, that we cannot
tell the value of yours, and the good it has done to
the character of your people. Our German historians
are many of them professors in imiversitied, and they
spend their lives in finding out the truth of such
things; and do you think they care what may be
the opinion of their own government about it? Oh,
no. They are very independent in the universities
much too independent, I think. It is very pleasant
when you are a very young man, to get into a
university, and think yourself very wise, and go to
extremes about politics, and say hard things of your
own country ; but when you come out into the world,
and see how you have to keep your country from
enemies that are not separated by the sea from you
(as you are here in England), you see how bad are
these principles among young men, who do not like
to be obedient, and always want to hurry on new
systems of government before such things are possible.
But you do not see much of those wild opinions
when a war comes, and the yoimg men are marched
together to save their country. Then they forget all
the democratic notions of thiis kind it is their heart
that speaks, and it is on fire and not one is ashamed
to be patriotic, though he may have laughed at it a
week before."
''It must be very hard," said Bell, looking away
at the river, "to leave your home and go into a
foreign country, and know that you may never
retum.**
' Oh, no ; not much," said the Lieutenant ; " for
all your friends go with you. And you are not always
in danger ^you have much entertainment at times.
I04 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
especially when some fight is over, and all your
friends meet again to have a supper in the tent, and
some one has got a bottle of cognac, and some one
else has got a letter from home, full of gossip about
people you know very welL And there is much fun,
too, in riding over the country, and trying to find
food and quarters for yourself and yoilr horse. We
had tnany good parties in the deserted farmhouses,
and sometimes we caught a hen or a duck that the
people had neglected to take, and then we kindled
a big fire, and killed him, and fixed him on a lance
and roasted him well, feathers and all. Then we
were very lucky ^to have a fire, and good meat, and
a roof to keep off the rain. But it was more dangerous
in a house for it was difficult to keep from sleeping
after you had got warm and had eaten and drunk
perhaps a little too much wine and there were many
people about ready to fire at you. But these are not
heroic stories of a campaign, are they. Mademoiselle ? *'
Nevertheless, Mademoiselle seemed sufficiently in-
terested ; and as Tita and I pulled evenly back to Iffley
and Oxford, she continually brought the Lieutenant
back to this subject by a series of questions. This
modern maiden was as anxious to hear of the amuse-
ments of patrols, and the hair-breadth escapes of
dare-devil sub-lieutenants, as was Desdemona to listen
to her lover's stories of battles, sieges, fortunes, and
moving accidents by flood and field.
That was a pleasant pull back to Oxford, in the
quiet of the summer afternoon, with the yellow light
lying warmly over the level meadows and the woods.
There were more people now along tlie banks of the
river come out for the most part in couples to
wander along the pathway between the stream and the
fields. Many of them had a good look at our Bonny
Bell ; and the Badley boys, as they sent their long boats
spinning down the river towards Sandford, were appa-
rently much struck. Bell, unconscious of the inno-
cent admiration of those poor boys, was attending
inuch more to the talk of our Uhlan than to her
OF A PHAETON. 105
tilleT-ropes. As for him but what man would not
have looked contented under these conditions to be
strong, healthy, handsome, and only twenty-five; to
have comfortable means and an assured future; to
have come out of a long and dangerous campaigu
with honour and sound limbs; to be ofT on a careless
holiday through the most beautiful country, take it
for all in aU, in the world; and to be lying lazily in
a boat on a summer's evening, on a pretty English
river, with a pretty English girl showing her friendly
interest and attention in every glance of her blue eyes ?
You should have seen how naturally these two fell
behind us, and formed a couple by themselves, when
we had left the boat and were returning to our inn.
But as we walked up to Carfax, Bell separated her-
self from us for a moment and went into the post-
office. She was a considerable time there. When
she came out, she was folding up a letter which she
had been reading.
"You have got your letter at last," said Tita.
"Yes," said Bell, gravely, but showing no particular
gladness or disappointment.
At dinner she was rather reserved ; and so, curiously
enough, was the Lieutenant. After dinner, when we
were allowed half an hour by ourselves for a cigar,
he suddenly said
'Why do you not interfere with that stupid young
fellow ? "
"Who?" I asked, in blank amazement.
"Why, that young fellow at Twickenham it is
quite monstrous, his impertinence. If I were the
guardian of such a girl, I would kick him I would
throw him into the river and cool him there."
"What in all the world do you mean?"
"Why, you must know. The letter that Miss Bell
did ask for more than once, it is from him ; and now
when it comes, it is angry, it is impertinent she is
nearly crying all the time at dinner. Sackerment ! It
is for some one to interfere, and save her from this
insult this persecution "
io6 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
"Don't bite your cigar to pieces, but tell me, if
you please, how you happen to know what was in
the letter."
"She told me," said the Lieutenant, sullenly.
"When?"
"Just before you came down to dinner. It is no
business of mine no ; but when I see her vexed and
disturbed, I asked her to tell me why ; and then she
said she had got this letter, which was a very cruel
one to send. Oh, there is no mystery none. I suppose
he has a right to marry her ^very well ; but he is not
married yet, and he must not be allowed to do this."
''Bell at least might have told me of it, or have
confided in Tita ^"
" Oh, she is telling her now, I dare say. And she
will tell you too, when ther^ are not all of ua present
It is no secret, or she would not have told me. Indeed,
I think she was very sorry about that ; but she was
very much vexed, and I asked her so plain, that she
answered me. And that is much better to have confi-
dence between people, instead of keeping all such vexa-
tions to yourself. Then I ask her why he is angry ?
and she says only because she has gone away. Pfui ! I
have never heard such nonsense ! "
" My dear Oswald," I say to him, " don't you interfere
between two young people who have fallen out, or you
will sufiFer. Unless, indeed ''
" Unless what ? "
" Unless they happen to be angels."
"Do you know this ^that he is coming to see her ?"
" Well, the phaeton can hold five at a pinch. Why
should not we have an addition to our party ? "
" Very good. I do not care. But if he is rude to
her, he wffl not be very long in the phaeton."
"Why, you stupid boy, you take these lovers*
quarrels au grani sSrieux. Do you think he has been
positively rude to her? Nothing of the kind. He has
been too well brought up for that, although he has a
peevish temper. He might be with us all through the
journey "
OF A PHAETON. 107
"* Jott bevKihre ! " exclaimed the Count, with a kick at
a cork that was lying on the carpet
** ^And these two might be at daggers drawn and
70U wonld see nothing of it Indeed, young people
never get extremely courteous to each other until they
quarrel and stand on their dignity. Now, if you had
seen that letter, you woidd have found it respectful and
formal in the highest degree perhaps a trifle sarcastic
here and there, for the lad imhappily thinks he has a
gift that way but you would find no rhetorical indig-
nation or invective."
The Count threw his cigar into the grate.
" They will be waiting for us/' he said; "let us go."
We found Tita with the b^zique-cards spread out
before her. Bell looked up with rather a frightened
air, apparently conscious that the Lieutenant was likely
to have spoken about what she had confided to him at
the impulse of a momentary vexation. However, we
sat down.
The game was an open and palpable burlesque. Waa
Ferdinand very intent (m giving checkmate when he
played chess with Miranda in the cave ; or was he not
much more bent upon placing his kin^ in extreme
danger and offering his queen so that she had to be
taken? The audacious manner in which this young
Lieutenant played his cards so as to suit Bell was
apparent to everyone, though no one dared speak of it,
and Bell only blushed sometimes. When she timidly
put forth a ten, he was sure to throw away another ten,
although he had any amount of aces in his hand. He
spoiled his best combinations rather than take tricks^
when it was clear she wanted to lead. Nay, as he sat
next to her, he undertook the duty of marking her
various scores, and the manner in which the small brass
hand went circling round the card was singular, until
Tita suddenly exclaimed
"Why, that is only a common marriage ! "
" And do you not count forty for a common
marriage ? " he said, with a fine assumption of innocent
wonder.
io8 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
Such was the ending of our first day's rest ; and then,
jnst before candles were lit, a Cabinet Council was held
to decide whether pn the morrow we should choose as
our halting-place Moreton-in-the-Marsh or Bourton-on-
the-HilL The more elevated site won the day.
CHAPTER VIII.
NEAR WOODSTOCK TOWN.
*' In olde d&yes of tke king Arthoiir,
Of which that Britons speake great honoiir,
AU was this land full filled of faerie ;
The Elf-qiieen, witii her jolly comfmiiy,
Danced full oft in many a green mead.
This was the old opinion, as I read ;
I speak of many a nundred years ago ;
But now can no man see no elves mo'."
The phaeton stood in the High Street of Oxford.
Castor and Pollux, a trifle impatient after the indolence
of the day before, were pawing the hard stones, their
silken coats shining in the morning sunlight ; Queen
Titania had the reins in her hands ; the tall waiter who
had been a circus-rider was ready to smile us an adieu ;
and we were all waiting for the Lieutenant, who had
gone off in search of a map that Bell had forgotten.
If there is one thing more than another likely to
ruflSe the superhuman sweetness of my Lady's temper,
it is to be kept waiting in a public thoroughfare with
a pair of rather restive horses under her charge. I
began to fear for that young man. Tita turned once
or twice to the entrance of the hotel ; and at last she
said, with an ominous politeness in her tone
* It does seem to me singular that Count von Bosen
should be expected to look after such things. He is
our guest It is no compliment to give him the duty
of attending to our luggage."
'' My dear,'' said Bell, leaning over and speaking in
very penitent tones, "it is entirely my fault. I am
very soriy."
IVV^ "y
OF A PHAETON. 109
" I think he is mach too good-natured/' says Tita,
coldly.
At this Bell rather recedes, and says, with almost
equal coldness
" I am sorry to have given him so much trouble. In
future I shall try to do without his help."
But when the Count did appear ^when he took his
seat beside Tita, and we rattled up the High Street and
round by the Com Market, and past Magdalen Church,
and so out by St. Giles's Boad, the remembrance of this
littlQ preliminary skirmish speedily passed away. For
once more we seemed to have left towns and streets
beliind us, and even while there were yet small villas
and gardens by the side of tiie road, the air that blew
about on this bright morning seemed to have a new
sweetness in it, and the freshness and pleasant odours
of innumerable woods and fields. There was quite a
bright light, too, in Bell's face. She had come down-
stairs with an obvious determination to cast aside the
remembrance of that letter. There was something
even defiant in the manner in which she said in strict
confidence, be it observed ^that if Arthur Ashburton
did intend to come and meet us in some town or
other, there was no use in being vexed about iti in the
meantime. We were now getting into the open country,
where pursuit would be in vain. If he overtook us,
it would be through the mechanism of railways. His
only chance of obtaining an interview with Bell was
to Ue in wait for us in one of the big towns through
which we must pass.
'* But why," said the person to whom Bell revealed
these matters, "why should you be afraid to meet
Arthur? You have not quarrelled with him."
" No," said Bell, looking down.
" You have done nothing that he can object to."
** He has no right to object, whatever I may do," she
said with a gentle firmness. " But, you know, he is
annoyed, and you cannot reason with him ; and I am
sorry for him and and and what is the name of
this little village on the left ? "
I lo THE STRANGE AD VENTURES
Bell seemed to shake off this sabject from her^ as too
vexatious on such a fine and cheerful morning.
" That is Woolvercot ; and there is the road that
leads down to Godstow, and the ruins of Godstow
Nunnery, in which Sosamond Clifford lived and died."
"And I suppose she rode along this very highway,"
aid Bell, ''with people wondering at her beauty and
her jewels, when she used to live at Woodstock. Yet
it is a very ordinary-looking road."
Then she touched Tita on the shoulder.
''Are we going to stop at Blenheim ? " she asked.
" I suppose so," said our driver.
"I think we ought not," said Bell; "we shall be
greatly disappointed, if we do. For who cares about
the Duke of Marlborough, or Sir John Vanbrugh's
architecture? You know you will be looking about
the trees for the old knight with the white beard, and
for Alice Lee, and for pretty Phoebe Mayflower, and
for Wildrake and the soldiers. Wouldn't it be better
to go past the walls, Tita, and fancy that all these
old friends of ours are still walking about inside in
their picturesque costume ? If we go inside, we shall
only &id an empty park and a big house, and all those
people gone away, just like the fairies who used to
be in the woods."
"But what are the people you are speaking of?"
said the Count. " Is it from history, or from a
romance ? "
"I un not quite sure," said Bell, "how much is
history, and how much is romance; but I am sure
we know the people very well; and veiy strange
things happened inside the park that we shall pass
by and by. There was a pretty young lady living
there, and a ^ very sober and staid colonel was her
lover. The brother of this young lady was much
attached to the fortunes of the Stewarts, and he
brought the young Prince Charles in disguise to the
house ; and all the gratitude shown by the Prince was
that he began to amuse himself by making love to
the sister of the man who had risked his life to
OF A PHAETON. in
aave him. And of course the grave colonel discovered
it, and he even drew his sword upon Prince Charles ^"
"I beg yoxtr pardon. Mademoiselle/' said the lieu-
tenant, *" but do not trouble to tell me the story ; for
I know it very well. I did read it in Germany years
ago; and I think if Colonel Esmond had thrashed
the Prince "
"Oh no, you are jnistaken," said Bell, with some
wonder ; " it is Colonel Markham, not Colonel Esmond ;
and the brother of the young lady succeeded in getting
the Prince away just before Cromwell had time to
seize him."
"Cromwell!" said our Lieutenant, thoughtfully.
"Ah, then, it is another story. But I agree with
you, ^Mademoiselle: if you befieve in these people
very much, do not go into the park, or you will be
disappointed."
" As you please," said Tita, with a smile. I began
to observe that when the two young folks agreed about
anything, my Lady became nothing more than an echo
to their wishes.
At length we came to the walls that surrounded
the great park. Should we leave all its mysteries
unexplored ? If one were to clamber up, and peep
over, might not strange figures be seen, in buff coats
and red, with bandoleers and helmets; and an aged
knight with a laced cloak, slashed boots, and long
sword ; countrywomen in white hoods and black
gowns ; divines with tail Presbyterian hats and solemn
visage; a braggart and drunken soldier of the king,
and a colonel the servant of Cromwell? Or might
not Queen Elizabeth be descried, looking out as a
prisoner on the fair domains around her? Or might
not Chaucer be found loitering under those great
trees that he loved and celebrated in his verse ? Or,
behind that splendid wall of chestnuts and elms, was
it not possible thlEit Fair Bosamond herself might be
walking all alone, passing Hke a gleam of light through
the green shadows of the trees, or sitting by the well
that still bears her name, or reading in the heart of
112 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
that bower that was surrounded by cunning ways ?
Was* it along this road that Eleanor came ? Or did
Rosamond, surviving all her sin and her splendour,
sometimes walk this way with her sister-nuns from
Godstow, and think of the time when she was mistress
of a royal palace and this spacious park ?
We drove into the town of Woodstock. The hand-
ful of houses thrown into the circular hollow that is
cut in two by the river Glym, was as silent as death.
In the broad street that plunged down into the valley,
scarcely a soul was to be seen ; and even about the
old town-hall there were only some children visible.
Had the play been played out, and the actors gone
for ever? When King Henry was fighting in France
or in Ireland, doubtless Eosamond, left all by herself,
ventured out from the park, and walked down into
the small town, and revealed to the simple folks the
wonders of her face, and talked to them. No mortal
woman could have remained in a bower month after
month without seeing anyone but her attendants.
Doubtless, too, the people in this quaint little town
were very loyal towards her ; and would have espoused
her cause against a dozen Eleanors. And so it hap-
pened, possibly, that when the romance came to an
end, and Rosamond went to hide her shame and her
penitence in the nunnery of Godstow, all the light
and colour went out of Woodstock, and left it dull,
and grey, and silent as it is to this day.
The main street of Woodstock, that dips down to
the banks of the Glym, rises as abruptly on the other
side; and once past the turnpike, the highway runs
along an elevated ridge, which on the one side is
bounded by a continuation of Blenheim Park, and,
on the other, slopes down to a broad extent of level
meadows. When we had got up to this higher ground,
and found before us an illimitable stretch of country,
with ourselves as the only visible inhabitants, the
Lieutenant managed to introduce a remote hint about
a song which ho had heard Bell humming in the
morning.
I
OF A PHAETON. 113
"I think it was about Woodstock," he said; '*and
if you will please to sing it now, as we go along, I
shall get out for you the guitar."
** If you will be so kind," said Bell, quite sub-
-iiissively.
What had become of the girl's independence? Asked
to sing a song at great trouble to herself ^for who
cares to play a guitar in the back-seat of a phaeton,
and with two pairs of wheels rumbling an accompani-
ment ? sTie meekly thanks him for suggesting it I
Nay, it was becoming evident that the girl was school-
ing herself into docility. She had almost dropped
entirely the wild phrases and startling metaphors that
so deeply shocked Tita. Sometimes they dropped out
inadvertently; and sometimes, too, she gave way to
those impulsive imaginative flights that led her un-
thinkingly into aa excitement of talk which Tita used
to regard with a sort of amused wonder. But of late
all these things were gradually disappearing. She was
less abrupt, independent, wayward in her manner.
She waited more patiently to receive suggestions from
others. She was becoming a good listener ; and she
received meekly criticisms that would, but a short
time before, have driven her into a proud and defiant
silence, or provoked some rejoinder a good deal more
apt than gentle. It was very odd to mark this amiable
self-discipline struggling with her ordinary frank im-
petuosity; although sometimes, it is true, the latter
had the best of it
On this occasion, when the Lieutenant had jumped
down and got out the guitar for her, she took it very
obediently ; and then Tita rested the horses for a little
while under the shadow of some overhanging trees.
Of course you know the ballad that Bell naturally
turned to, seeing where she was at the moment^ and
the sort of music she was most familiar with.
" Near Woodstock town I chanced to stray,
When birds did sing and fields were gay,
And by a glassy liver's side
A weeping damsel 1 espied."
I
114 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
This was what she sang, telling the story of the
forlorn maiden who was found weeping for her faithless
lover, who only wished that he might come and visit
her grave, and think of her as *' one who loved, but
could not hate/* Perhaps this old-fashioned ballad
is not a masterly composition; but the music of
it is expressive enough; and we who were familiar
with Bell's ballads had got into a habit of not caring
much what she sang, as long as she only continued
singing.
"You would make your fortune by singing," said
Tita, as BeU finished, and the horses were sent forward.
"Perhaps," said the girl, "if aU my audience were
like you But I think you must have been lent out
as an infant to an old woman with an organ, and so,
by merely sitting on the vibrating wood, you have
become so sensitive to music thai; anything at all
pleases you."
"No, Mademoiselle," said the Lieutenant, "you do
yourself an injustice. I never heard a voice like yours,
that has the tremble of a zither in it, and is much softer
than a zither."
Bell blushed deeply: but to conceal her embarrass'*
ment, she said lightly to Tita
" And how am I to make my fortune ? Oh, I know,
^by coming in after public dinners, to sing grace, and
follow the toasts with a glee. I am in white silk, with
a blue ribbon round my neck, white gloves, bracelets,
and a sheet of music. There is an elderly lady in
black velvet and white pearls, who smiles in a pleasant
manner she sings, and is much admired by the long
rows of gentlemen they have just dined, you know,
and are very nice and amiable. Then there is the tenor
^fair and smooth, with diamond rings, a lofty expres-
sion, and a cool and critical eye, that shows he is quite
accustomed to all this. Then there is the stout, red-
bearded man who sings bass, and plays the piano for
the four of us, and is very fierce in the way he thumps
out his enthusiasm about the Queen, and the Navy,
and the Army, and the Volunteers. What a happy
OF A PHAETON. 115
way of living that must be ! They will give us a nice
dinner beforehand in a room by ourselves, perhaps;
and all we have to do is to return thanks for it in an
emotional way, so that all the waiters shall stand round
in a reverential manner. But when that is over,
then we introduce a few songs sprightly, coquettish
songs, and the gentlemen are vastly amused and you
think "
"Well, what do you think?" said I, seeing that
Bell rather hesitated.
" I think " said Tita, with a smile, " that you are
very amgenerous, Bell, in remembering so much of
what you saw the other night from the gallery of the
Freemasons' Tavern. Is it fair to recall, in open day-
light, in the cool forenoon, the imbecile good-nature
and exuberant loyalty of a lot of gentlemen who have
just dined? I wonder how many of the husbands
there told their wives what sums they signed away
under the influence of the wine?"
" I dare say," says one of the party, " that the wives
would be sorry to see so much money go in charity
which might otherwise have been squandered in milli-
nery and extravagances."
" Don't be ill-tempered, my dear," says Queen Tita,
graciously. "Women are quite as charitable as men;
and they don't need a guinea dinner to make them
think of other people. That is a sort of charity that
begins at home. Pray how much did you put down?"
" Nothing.
I thought so. Gk) to a charity dinner, enjoy your-
seK, and come away without giving a farthii^. You
would not find women doing that."
** Only because they have not the courage,"
"They have plenty of courage in other directions
in getting married, for example^ when they know
what men are."
" Knowing that, is it not a pity they choose to make
martyrs of themselves? Indeed, tiieir anxiety to
become martyrs is astonishing. But what if I say
that in the next published list of subscriptions you
I 2
xi6 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
will find my name down for about as much as your
last millinery bill came to?"
" I think that a great deal more likely, for I know
the state of philanthropy into which men get at
a public dinner fathers of families, who ought to
remember their own responsibilities, and who are
impatient enough if any extra bit of comfort or
kindness is wanted for their own kith and kin."
''Some such trifling matter as a fur cloak, for
instance, that is bought out of a Brighton shop-
window for sixty-five guineas, and is only worn twice
or thrice, because some other woman has the neigh-
bour of it."
" That is not true. You htioy) the weather changed."
"The weather I what weather ? Were you at Brighton
at the time ?"
Titania did not reply for a considerable time. Per-
haps she was thinking of some crushing epigram ; but
at all events Bell endeavoured to draw her away from
the subject by pointing out another river, and asking
whether this or the Glym at Woodstock was the stream
associated with the " Oxfordshire Tragedy " she had just
been singing. We discovered, however, that this small
stream was also the Glym, which here winds round
and through the marshy country that Thomas Wharton
described.^ Bell came to the conclusion that the banks
by the river at this part were not sufficiently pictu-
resque for the scene of the song, where the love-lorn
heroine sits and weeps by a glassy stream, and
complains that her lover is now wooing another
maid.
^ " Within some whispering osier isle,
Where Olym's low banks neglected smile :
And each trim meadow stUl retains
The wintry torrent's oozv stains ;
Beneath a willow, long rorsook,
The fisher seeks his cnstom'd nook ;
And bursting through the crackling sedge^
That crowns the current's cavemed edge,
He startles from the bordering wood
The baahfol wild-duck's early brood."
Ode to the First (^ April,
OF A PHAETON, 117
Meanwhile, my Lady had given expression to the
rebellious thoughts passing through her mind, by ad-
monishing Castor and Pollux slightly ; and these
accordingly were going forward at a rattling pace.
We rushed through Enstone. We dashed along the
level highway that lies on the high ground between
the Charlford Farms and Heythrop Park. We sent
the dust flying behind us in clouds as we scudded
down to Chipping Norton; and there, with a fine
sweep, we cantered up the incline of the open square,
clattered over the stones in front of the White Hart
Inn, and pulled up with a noise that considerably
astonished the quiet village.
This large open space gives to Chipping Norton a
light and agreeable appearance ; and on entering the
big tall inn that looks down over the square, we found
everything very cleanly, bright, and comfortable. The
very maid-servant who served us with lunch was a
model of maid-servants, and wets a very handsome
young woman besides, with shining light-blue eyes
and yellow hair. The Lieutenant at once entered into
a polite conversation with her, and she informed him,
in answer to his respectful inquiries, that she had just
come from Folkestone.
" From Folkestone I that is a seaport a busy place
^a large town, is it not ?"
*' Yes, there was some business doing there," said the
maid, with an inflection of voice which rather cast
discredit on Chipping Norton.
Don't you find this place dull V he asked.
Well, I can't say the people seem to worry them-
selves much," she replied with a slight curl of the lip. '
" That is very good for the health," said the Count
gravely. " Now I do think you have a very nice and
even temper, that does not irritate you "
But here my Lady and her companion came into
the room, and the conversation ceased ; for the Lieu-
tenant had at once to spring up and take charge
of the books, maps, and scarves that Bell had brought
in with her. And then, when we sat down to lunch^
X i8 THE STRANGE AD VENTURES
he was entirely engrossed in attending to her want.
insomuch that he was barely civil to the more elderly
lady who had from the first been his champion. As for
Bell, what had become of her dislike to ofl&cers, her
antipathy to the German race, her horror of Uhlans.
That very morning I had heard on good authority
that Bell had been asking in confidence whether Eng-
land did not owe a great debt to Germany for the gift
of Protestantism which that country had sent us.
"And were not the Prussians mostly Protestant?" asked
BelL What answer was returned I do not know ; for
Queen Titania is strong on the point that the word
"Protestant" is not scriptural
*'But I have quite forgotten to tell you," remarked
the Lieutenant, "that this morning, when I was walking
about in Oxford^ I came into the theatre. I saw some
bills up; I went along a strange passage; I found an
iron gate, and much lime and stone, and things like
that A man came I asked him if I could see the
theatre, and he took me into the place, which they
are repairing now. Oh, it is a very dingy place
small, tawdry, with ridiculous scenes, and the decora-
tions of the galleries very amusing and dirty. Why,
in an old city, with plenty of rich and intelligent
people, you have such a pitiful little theatre? it is
only fit for a country green and wandering actors. In
a great university town, you should have the theatre
supported by the colleges and the bequests, and hire
good actors, iind play all the best dramas of your
igreat writers. That would be a good education that
would be a good compliment to pay to your great
dramatists. But here, in a city where you have much
learning, much money, much of your young men of
good families being educated, you have only a dingy,
small show, and I suppose it is farces they play, and
wretched dramas, for the townspeople and the farmeriN
That is not much respect shown to your best authors by
your learned institutions."
" No wonder students find the milliners' shops more
attractive," said Tita with a smile.
OF A PHAETON. 119
**But I think there is always much interest in an
empty theatre," continued the Lieutenant. "I did go
all over this poor little building, and saw how it imitated
the deceptions of fine theatres in a coarse manner. I
saw the rude scenes, the bad traps, the curious arrange-
ments, which I do not think can diifer much from the
theatre which Shakespeare himself described, where a
man was made to represent a city, if I am right."
" You are familiar with the arrangements of a theatre,
I suppose ? " I say to the Lieutenant
"Pray tell me if you saw anything else in Oxford
this morning," says Tita, hastily.
" I suppose you could produce a pantomime yourself,'*
I observe to the young man.
" Did you visit any more of the colleges ? " said Tita
at the same moment
" Or get up a ballet ? "
" Or go down to the Isis again ? "
Yon Bosen was rather bewildered; but at last he
stammered out
"No, Madame, I did not go down to the river this
morning. I walked from the theatre to the hotel ; for I
remained much too long in the theatre. Yes, I know
something about the interior of theatres. I have been
great friends with the managers and actors, and took great
interest in it. I used to be much behind the sts^e
every night at some times ; and that is very curious to a
young man who likes to know more than other people,
and tiiinks himself wise not to believe in delusions. I
think it is Goethe who has made many of our young
men like to know stage-managers, and help to arrange
pieces. But I find that they always end by being very
much in love with one of the young ladies, and then
they get not to like the theatres, for they do not wish
everybody to admire her and be allowed to look at her.
This is very good for the theatre, however ; for they
take many boxes, and ask their friends to accompany
them, and that pays better than to let out the seats by
the year to families. Some of the young men make
light of this ; others are more melancholy, but afterwards
1
i20 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
they have much interest in some theatres merely for the
sake of the old associations/'
** Oh, Bell," exclaimed Tita, turning anxiously to our
companion, '* did you see that your guitar was properly
put away, or has it been left lying open in the phaeton ? "
" I did put it away, Madame," said the Lieutenant.
" Oh, thank you," said Tita. " I am sure if some of
those ostlers were to have their curiosity aroused, we
should have no more music all the journey."
And thus, having got the Lieutenant away from
mmbling reminiscences of theatres, the little woman took
very good care he should not return to them ; and so we
finished luncheon without any catastrophe having hap-
pened. Bell had been sitting very quietly during these
revelations, scarcely lifting her eyes from the table, and
maintaining an appearance of studied indifference.
Why should she care about the mention of any actress,
or any dozen of actresses? My Lady's anxiety was
obviously unnecessary.
CHAPTER tX.
A MOONLIGHT NIGHT.
" Till tbe live-long daylight fail ;
Then to the spicy nut-brown ale,
With stories told -of many a feat,
How faery Mab the junkets eat."
Chipping Norton is supplied with all the comforts of
life. Before leaving for the more inhospitable regions
in which we are to pass the night, we take a leisurely
walk through Xh^ curious little town, that is loosely
scattered over the side of a steep slopa Here civi-
lization has crowded all its results together ; and Queen
Tita is asked whether she could not forsake the busy
haunts of men, and exchange that hovering between
Leatherhead and London, which constitutes her exist-
ence, for a plain life in this small country town.
"Chemists* shops abound There is a subscription
OF A PHAETON. 121
reading-room. There are co-operative stores. A theatre
invites you to amusement. You may have Lloyd's
News, various sorts of sewing machines, and the finest
sherry from the wood "
"Along with a Wesleyau chapel," she says, with a
supercilious glance at the respectable, if somewhat dull-
looking little building that fronts the main street.
There is no reply possible to this ungracious sneer ;
for who can reason, as one of us hints to her, with a
woman who would spend a fortune in incense, if only
she had it, and who would rejoice to run riot in tall
candles ?
Bell takes us away from Chipping Norton, the Lieu-
tenant sitting beside her to moderate the vehemence of
her pace in the event of her getting into a difficulty.
First the road dips down by a precipitous street, then it
crosses a hollow, in which there are some buildings of a
manufactory, a tiny river, and a strip of common or
meadow, and then it ascends to the high country beyond
by a steep hill. On the summit of this hill we give
the horses a rest for a few seconds, and turn to look at
the small town that lies underneath us in the valley.
There is a faint haae of blue smoke rising from the
slates and tiles. The deadened tolling of a bell marks
the conclusion of another day's labour : for already the
afternoon is wearing on apace; and so we turn westwaurd
again, and set out upon the lofty highway that winds
onward towards the setting sun. Small hamlets fringe
the road at considerable intervals, while elsewhere our
route lies between stretches of heath and long fields.
And still the highway ascends, until we reach the verge
of a great slope ; and, behold! there lies before us a great
landscape, half in gloom, half in the dusky yellow light
of the evening. And over there, partly shutting out
the dark lines of hills in the west, a great veil of rain
stretches from the sky to the earth, and through it the
sun is shining as through ground glass. But so far
away is this pale sheet of yellow mist, that we seem to
be above it, and over the level and dark landscape on
which it descends ; and, indeed, where this veil ends.
122 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
the sunlight sends forth long shafts of radiance that
light up level tracts of the distant and wooded country.
What fate is to befall us when we get down into this
plain, and go forward in search of the unknown hostelry
at which we are to pass the night ?
" I hope the rain will not spread," says Bell, who had
been telling us of all the wonders we should find at
Bourton-on-the-Hill ; " but even if it does rain to-night,
we shall be as well off on a hill as in a swamp."
" But at Moreton-in-the-Marsh," says lita, " there is
sure to be a comfortable inn, for it is a big place ;
whereas Bourton-on-the-Hill appears to be only a small
village, and we may find there only a public-house."
" But suppose it should dear ? " says Bell ; " the moon
will be laiger to-night, and then we can look down on
all this level country from the top of the liiU. We have
not had a night-walk for a long time, and it will be so
much more pleasant than being down in the mists of
a marsh."
" And you are prepared to sleep on a couple of chairs
in the smoking-room of a public-house ? " I ask of Miss
Bell.
''I dare say we shall get accommodation of some
kind," she replies, meekly.
" Oh, I am quite sure Mademoiselle is right ; there
is so much more adventure in going to this small
place on the top of a hill," cried the Lieutenant
Of course Mademoiselle was right. Mademoiselle
was always right now. An^l when that was under-
stood. Queen Titania never even attempted to offer an
objection, so that in all affairs pertaining to our trip
the rude force of numbers triumphed over the protests
of an oppressed and long-suffering minority.
But only change the relative positions, and then what
a difference there was ! When the Lieutenant hinted
in the remotest way that Bell might do so and so with
the horses, she was all attention. For the first time
in her career she allowed the interests of justice to
moderate her partiality for Pollux. That animal,
other^dse the best of horses, was a trifle older than his
OF A PHAETON. 123
companion, and had profited by his years so far as to
learn a little cunning. He had got into a trick accord-
ingly of allowing Castor the latter being younger and
a good deal " freer " to take more than his share of the
work. . Pollux had acquired the art of looking as if ho
were perpetually straining at the collar, while all the
time he was letting his neighbour exercise to the full
that willingness which was his chief merit. Now Bell
had never interfered to alter this unequal division of
labour. Queen Tita knew well how to make the older
horse do his fair share ; but Bell encouraged him in
his idleness, and permitted his companion to work out
of all reason. Now, however, when the Lieutenant
pointed out the different action of the horses, and said
she should moderate the efforts of the one, while
waking up the other to a sense of his duties, she was
quite obedient. When the whip was used at all
which was seldom enough, for both horses were suffix
ciently free it was Pollux that felt the silk. The
Lieutenant fancied he was giving Bell lessons in driv-
ing, whereas he was onl}^teaching her submissiveness.
That golden sheet of rain had disappeared in the
west, and the yellow light had sunk further and further
down behind far bands of dark cloud. A grey dusk
was falling over the green landscape, and the birds
were growing mute in the woods and the hedges. In
the pervading silence we heard only the patter of the
horses' feet and the light rolling of the phaeton, as we
sped onward down the long slopes and along the plain.
We passed Four-shire-Stone, the adjacent shires being
Worcester, Warwick, Gloucester, and Oxford ; and then,
getting on by a piece of common, we rattled into a long
and straggling village, with one or two large and open
thoroughfares.
Moreton-in-the-Marsh was asleep, and we left it asleep.
There were still a few men lounging about the comer
public-house, but the women and children had all
retired into their cottages from the chill night-air. In
some of the windows the light of a candle was visible.
The dark elms behind the houses were growing darker.
124 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
Between Moreton and Bourton you plunge still
deeper into this great and damp valley, and the way
lies through a rich vegetation which seems to have
thriven well in this low situation. The hedges alon
the roadside are magnificent; the elms behind them
constitute a magnificent avenue extending for nearly
a couple of miles ; all around are dense woods. As we
drove rapidly through this country, it almost seemed
as though we could see the white mists around us,
although the presence of the vapour was only known
to us by the chilling touch of the air. On this July
night we grew cold. Tita hoped there would be a fire
at the hostelry on the top of the mountain, and she
besought Bell to muflBe up her throat, so that we should
not be deprived of our ballads by the way.
At last we beheld the hill before us.
" It is not very like the Niessen," says Tita.
" But I have no doubt there is a very good inn at
the top," remarks the Lieutenant ; " for after this hill
the people would naturally stop to rest their horses."
" And we shall get up to see the sun rise, as we did
on the Niessen ? " asks Bell, with a fine innocence ; for
she knows the opinions of some of us on the subject of
early rising. "JDo you remember the fat little woman
who had walked up all by herself in the morning, and
appealed to us all to tell her the names of the moun-
tains, that she might write them down ? "
" And how oddly she turned up again at nearly every
railway station we stopped at, with all her luggage around
her ! " says Tita.
" I believe," says Bell, " she is still sailing all through
Europe on a shoal of bandboxes and portmanteaus. I
wish I could draw the fat little woman balancing her-
self in that circle of luggage, you know, and floating
about comfortably and placidly like a bottle bobbing
about in the sea. She may have drifted up to St
Petersburg by this time."
" I think we have," says the Lieutenant, who is lead-
ing the horses up the steep hill, and who rubs his
chilled hands from time to time.
OF A PHAETON. 125
We reach the centre of the straggling line of houses
which must be Bourton, and, behold ! there is no inn.
In the dusk we can descry the tower of a small church,
and here the cottages thicken into the position which
ought to be dominated by an inn, but there is no sign
of any such thing. Have we climbed this precipitous
steep, and have Castor and Pollux laboriously dragged
our phaeton and luggage up, all for nothing? The
Count asks a startled villager, who points to a wayside
house standing at the higher extremity of the row.
Where is the familiar signboard, or the glowing bar, or
the entrance to the stables ? Yon Eosen surrenders his
charge of the horses, and walks into the plain-looking
house. It is an inn. We begin to perceive in the dusk
that a small board over the doorway bears the name of
" Sbth Dtde." We find, however, instead of a land-
lord, a landlady a willing, anxious, energetic woman,
who forthwith sets to work to take our party into this
odd little place. For dinner or supper, just as we
choose to call it, she will give us ham and eggs, with
either tea or beer. She will get two bedrooms for us ;
and perhaps the single gentleman will accept a shake-
down in the parlour. In that room a fire is lit in a
trice ; a lamp is brought in ; and presently the cheerful
blaze in the huge fire-place illuminates the curious old-
fashioned chamber, with its carpets, and red table-cloth,
and gloomy furniture. A large tray appears an orna-
mental teapot is produced. Sounds are heard of at-
tendants whipping through the place so anxious and
so dexterous is this good woman. And Queen Tita,
who is merciless in one respect, examines the cups,
saucers, forks, and knives, and deigns to express her
sense of the creditable cleanliness and order of the
solitary inn.
Meanwhile, the horses.
" Oh," says the Lieutenant, coming in out of the dark,
" I have found a famous fellow the first man I have
seen in England who does his work well with grooming
a horse. He is an excellent fellow I have seen nothing
like it The horses are well off this night, I can assure
126 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
you you will see how good they look to-morrow
morning."
''It is strange so good an ostler should be found
here," remarks Tita.
"But he is not an ostler," replies the Lieutenant,
ruhbing his hands at the fire ; " he is a groom to some
gentleman near. The ostler is away. He does his
work as a favour, and he does it so that I think the
gentleman must keep some racing horses."
"How do you manage to find out all these things
about the people you meet?" asked Titania, with a
gracious smile.
^*Find out 1 " replied the tall young man, with his
blue eyes staring. "I do not think I find out any
more than others. It is people talk to you. And it is
better to know a little of a man you give your horses
to and there is some time to talk when you are seeing
after the horses and so that is perhaps why they
tell me."
" But you have not to see about your horses when
you are in a bookseller's shop at nine in the morning,
and the young lady there tells you about the milliners'
shops and the students," says my Lady.
" Oh, she was a very nice girl," remarks the Lieu-
tenant, as if that were sufficient explanation.
" But you talk to everyone, whether they are young
ladies, or innkeepers, or grooms : is it to perfect your
pronunciation of English ? "
" Yes, that is it," said the young man, probably glad
to arrive at any solution of the problem.
*' Then you ought not to speak to ostlers."
"But there is no ostler who talks so very bad as
I do I know it is very, very bad "
"I am mre you are mistaken," says Bell, quite
warmly, but looking down ; " I think you speak veiy
good English and it is a most difficult language to
pronounce and I am sure there are few Germans who
can speak it as freely as you can,"
" AH that is a very good compliment, Mademoiselle,"
he said, with a laugh that eaused Bell to look rather
OF A PHAETON. 127
embarrassed. " I am very glad if I could tliink that,
but it is impossible. And as for freedom of speaking
oh, yes, you can speak freely, comfortably, if you are
going about the country, and meeting strangers, and
talking to anyone, and not caring whether you mistake
or not ; but it is diflferent when you are in a room with
very polite English ladies who are strangers to you
and you are introduced and you do not know how
to say those little sentences that are proper to the
time. That is very difficult very annoying. But
it is very surprising the number of your English
ladies who have learned German at school ; while the
French ladies, they know nothing of that, or of any-
thing that is outside Paris. I do think them the most
useless of women ^very nice to look at, and very
charming in their ways, perhaps but not sensible,
honest, frank like the English women, and not familiar
with the seriousness of the world, and not ready to see
the troubles of other people. But your Englishwoman
who is very frank to be amused, and can enjoy herself
when there is a time for that ^who is generous in time
of trouble, and is not afraid, and can be firm and active
and yet very gentle, and who does not think always
of herself, but is ready to help other people, and can
look after a house, and manage affairs that is a better
kind of woman, I think more to be trusted more of
a companion oh, there is no comparison ! "
All this time the Lieutenant was busy stirring up the
fire, and placing huge lumps of coal on the top ; and ho
had obviously forgotten that he was saying these things
to two Englishwomen. Tita seemed rather amused,.
* and kept looking at Bell ; Bell said nothing, but pre-
tended to be arranging the things on the table. ^Vhen
the Lieutenant came back from the fire, he had appa-
rently forgotten his complimentary speech; and was
regarding with some curiosity the mighty dish of ham
and eggs that had come in for our supper.
That was a very comfortable and enjoyable repast*
When the chill of driving through the fogs of the plain
had worn off, we found that it was not so very cold up
128 THE SI RANGE ADVENTURES
here on the hilL A very liberal and honest appetite
seemed to prevail; and there was a tolerable attack
made on the ample display of ham and eggs. As for
the beer that our Lieutenant drank, it is not fair to tell
stories. He said it was good beer, to begin with. Then
he thought it was excellent beer. At length he said he
had not tasted better since he left London.
Women get accustomed to many things during the
course of a rambling journey like this. You should
have seen how naturally Queen Tita brought forth the
b^zique-cards directly after supper, and how unthink-
ingly Bell fetched some matches from the mantelpiece
and placed them on the table. My Lady had wholly
forgotten her ancient horror of cigar smoke in any
case, as she pointed out, it was other people's houses we
were poisoning with the odour. As for Bell, she openly
declared that she enjoyed the scent of cigars; and
that in the open air, on a summer evening, it was as
pleasant to her as the perfume of the wild roses or
the campions.
However, there was no b^zique. We fell to talking.
It became a question as to which could find the freshest
phrases and the strongest adjectives to describe his or
her belief that this was the only enjoyable fashion of
travelling. The abuse that was poured upon trains,
stations, railway porters, and the hurry of cabs in the
morning, was excessive. Time-tables of all sorts were
spoken of with an animosity which was wonderful to
observe when it came along with the soft and pleasant
undertones of our Bonny Bell's voice. Tita said she
should never go abroad any more. The Lieutenant
vowed that England was the most delightful country in
the world to drive through. The present writer remarked
that the Count had much to see yet; whereupon the
foolish young man declared he could seek for no plea-
santer days than those he had just spent, and wished,
with some unnecessary emphasis, that they might go
on for ever. At this moment Bell rose and went to the
window.
Then we heard an exclamation. Looking round, wo
OF A PHAETON. 129
found tlie shutters open, and lo ! througli the window
we could see the white glare of moonlight falling into
the empty thoroughfare, and striking on the wall on the
other side of the way.
*' It cannot be veiy cold outside," Bell remarks.
" Bell ! " cries Queen Tita, " you don't mean to go out
at this time of .night!"
*' Why not, Madame ? " says the Lieutenant. " Was it
not agreed before we came up the hill? And when
could you get a more beautiful night? I am sure it
will be more beautiful than the sunrise from the top of
the Niessen."
" Oh, if you think so," says my Lady, with a gentle
courtesy, " by all means let us go out for a little walk."
That is the way affairs began to be ordered about to
suit the fancies of those young nincompoops. What
little vestige of authority remained with the eldest of
the group was exerted to secure a provision of shawls
and rugs. Bell was not lotL She had a very pretty
grey shawL She had also a smart little grey hat, which
suited it; and as the hat was trimmed with blue,
the grey shawl could not have a prettier decora-
tion than the blue ribbon of the guitar. Who pro-
posed it I cannot say; but Bell had her guitar with
her when we went out into the bright wonder of
the moonlight.
Bourton-on-the-Hill was now a mass of glittering
silver, and sharp, black shadows. Below us we could-
see the dark tower of the church, gleaming grey on the
one side ; then a mass of houses in deep shadow, with
a radiance shining from their tiles and slates ; then the
grey road down the hill, and on one side of it a big wall,
with its flints sparkling. But when we got quite to the
summit, and clambered on to a small piece of common
where were some felled trees, what words can describe
the extraordinary view that lay around us ? The village
and its small church seemed to be now half-way down
the hill; whereas the great plain of the landscape
appeared to have risen high up on the eastern horiason,
where the almost invisible stars met the dark woods of
130 THE STHANGE ADVENTURES
Oxfordshire. Over tliis imposing breadth of wood and
valley and meadow with its dark lines of trees, its
glimmerings of farm-houses, and winding streams the
flood of moonlight lay so softly that the world itself
seemed to have grown clear from underneath. There
were none of the wild glares of white surfaces, and the
ebony blackness of shadows which threw everything
around us into sharp outline; but a far-reaching and
mellow glamour that showed us the mists lying along
the river-tracks, and only revealed to us the softened
outlines and configurations of the land. If there had
been a ruddy light in Moreton-in-the-Marsh, we should
have seen it; but the distant village seemed dead; and
it, as well as all the great tract of wooded country
around it, was whitened over by this softened and silent
and almost sepulchral radiance that lay somehow be-
tween the dark blue vault overhead and the vast plain
beneath. It was but a young moon, but the exceeding
rarity of the air lent strength to its radiance.
" Docs not moonlight give you the impression that
you can hear far?" said Bell in a rather low voice,
as if the silence and the stars had overawed her. " It
is like frost You fancy you could hear bells ringing
a hundred miles across the clear air."
"Mademoiselle, you will let us hear your singing
in this stillness?" said the Lieutenant.
" No, I cannot sing now," she said ; and the very
gentleness of her voice forbade him to ask again.
We passed along the road. The night air was sweet
with the odour of flowers. Out in the west, where
the moonlight was less strong, the stars were faintly
twinkling. Not a breath of wind stirred ; and yet
it seemed to us that if a sound had been uttered any-
where in the world, it must have been carried to us on
this height. We were as gods up here in the cold sky
and the moonlight ; and far over the earth, sleep had
sealed the lips and the eyes of those poor creatures
who had forgotten their sorrows for a time. Should
we send them dreams to sweeten their lives by some
glimpses of a world difierent from their own, and cause
OF A PHAETON. 131
them to awaken in the morning with some reminiscence
of the trance. in their softened memories? Or would
it not be better to drown them in the fast and hard
sleep of fatigue, so that the dawn might bring them a
firmer heart and no vanity of wishes ? Gods as we were,
we had no care for ourselves. It was enough to be.
Could not the night last for ever, and keep us up here
near the stars, and give us content and an absolute want
of anxiety for the morrow ? Queen Titania wandered
on as if she were in an enchanted garden, followed by
a black shadow on the gleaming white road ; and her
face, with all its gentleness and delicacy, seemed to have
gained something of a pale and wistful tenderness as
the white light shone down over the dark woods and
crossed our path. As for Bell ^but who can describe
the grace of the figure that walked before us ^the
light touching the grey shawl, and the fine masses of
brown hair that hung all around the shapely neck and
shoulders? We four were in England, sure enough;
but it seemed to us then that we were very much
alone, and about as near to the starry world as to the
definite landscape lying far away on the plain.
We turned, however, when it was found that the
road did not lead to any view of the western country.
It seemed to run along a high level, cutting through
between sand-pits, farms, and woods ; and so we made
our way back to the bit of common overlooking Bour-
ton, and 'there we had a few minutes* rest before getting
into the small inn, whose windows were gleaming red
into th& white moonlight
* " Now you must sing to us something, Mademoiselle,''
said the Lieutenant ; " and here is a fine big tree cut
down, that we can all sit on ; and you shall appear as
Apollo in disguise, charming the natives of this land-
scape with your song."
"But I do not know anything that Apollo sang,**
said Bell- sitting down, nevertheless, and taking the
guitar from her companion.
"That is no matter. You must think yourself some
one else why not Zerlina, in this strange place, and
K 2
132 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
you see Fra Diavolo sitting alone on the rock, and yon
sing of him, yes ? This is a very good place for highway-
men. I have no doubt they have sat here, and watched
the gentleman's carriage come up the road beneath;
and then, hey 1 with a rush and a flourish of pistols,
and a seizing of the horses, and Madame shrieks in
the carriage, and her husband, trembling, but talking
very brave, gives up his money, and drives on, with
much swearing, but very contented to have no hurt."
"You are very familiar with the ways of highway
robbers,*' said Bell, with a smile.
" Mademoiselle, I am an Uhlan," he replied gravely.
Two at least of the party startled the midnight air
with their laughter over this unintentional rebuke ; but
Bell, conscious of past backslidings, seemed rather discom-
fited, and hastened to say that she would, if he pleased,
sing the song in which Zerlina describes the bandit.
She sang it, too, very charmingly, in that strange
silence. Knowing that we could not well see her face,
she lent herself to the character, and we could hear
the terror of Zerlina thrilling through her experiences
of the dreaded Diavolo. ** Diavolo ! Diavolo I " the
dark woods round us seemed to say. " Diavolo ! Dia-
volo ! " throbbed the bass strings of the guitar ; and
the girl's voice trembled in its low tones as she pro-
nounced the name. If any lonely stranger had been
passing along the highway at this hour, what would he
have thought of this strange thing, a beautiful girl
seated overhead, amid the stars, apparently, with the
moonlight striking on her exquisite face and her masses
of hair, while she sang in a low and impassioned voice,
and struck chords from some strange instrument?
Would she not appear as some wild vision of the
Lorelei ? Or, considering that companions were visible,
aisfd -some talking and jesting occasionally heard, might
not this be a company of stroUing play-actors, such
as all honest persons were aforetime conjured to dis-
countenance and suppress?^
^ *' All persons concerned are hereby desired to take notice of and
appreis aU mountebanks, rope-dancers, ballad-singers, ftc., that have
OF A PHAETON. 133
Yon know that when Zerlina has sung the first
verses of her dramatic song, Diavolo, disguised as a
marquis, suddenly rises and sings the concluding verse
himsel Bell accordingly handed the guitar to Count
von Bosen, with a pretty smile. But would a young
man, on such a night, sing a ballad about a mere ban-
dit ? No I The Lieutenant was not averse to act the
character of Diavolo, so far as his minstrelsy went,
but he adopted one of his gentler moods. Lightly
running his lingers over the strings, he began to sing
of Agnese la Zitella, and how had he learned to
soften his voice so? The pretty Agnes was told that
she was as sweet as the Spring, and then she is
made to call forth her lover because the night is so
fair so much fairer than the day and so silent 'Tis
a pleasant barcarole, and conveys a message as well
as another. But lest he should be thought too bold
probably, our Uhlan rose abruptly when he had finished
the song, and said lightly, with a laugh
" There I was not that touching enough for Diavolo ?
He was a very accomplished person, to have all the
rough delights of a brigand, and then go about dressed
as a marquis, and amuse himself with adventures.
I think they treated him badly in the end, if I do
remember right."
Bell did not answer. She had got back the guitar.
Apparently she was looking far down over the moonlit
plain her eyes grown distant and thoughtful and as
lier fingers wandered over the strings, we heard, almost
as in a dream, the various careless notes shape them-
selves into a melody a wild, sad melody, that seemed
to breathe the tenderness and the melancholy of this
still night. " Silent, Moyle, be the sound of thy
waters '* perhaps that was the air ; or perhaps it was
the heart-breaking '* Coolin " one could scarcely say ;
but when at last we heard no more of it, Tita rose and
not a licence from the Master uf his Majesty's Revels (whicli for the
present year are all printed with black letters, and the king's arms
in red) . . . and all those that have licences with red and black letters,
are to come to the office to change them for licences as they are now
altered. April 17, 1684."
134 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
said we must go indoors. There was something qnite
regretful in her tone. It seemed as if she were bidding
good-bye to a scene not soon to be met with again.
The Lieutenant gave his hand to Bell, and assisted
her down the steep bank into the road ; and we passed
on until the window of the inn was found glimmering
red through the moonlight. We cast a brief glance
around. Bourton lay beneath us, asleep. The great
landscape beyond remained dark and silent under the
luminous whiteness of the air. The silence seemed too
sacred to be broken.
" Good night," said Tita to the Lieutenant ; *' I hope
you have spent at least one pleasant evening with us on
this journey."
"I have spent many, Madame," he said, earnestly,
"and many very pleasant mornings and days, and I
hope we shall have a great many moi-e. I do think we
four ought to turn vagrants gipsies, you call them
and go away altogether, and never go back any more to
a large town."
" What do you say. Bell ?" asked Tita, with a kindly,
if half-mischievous, look.
"I suppose we get to Worcester to-morrow," said
Bell, with not much appearance of joy in her face ;
and then she bade good-night to us aU, and left with
my Lady.
" There it is," said the Lieutenant, with an impatient
flinging down of his cap on the table, " That is what
interferes with all our pleasure. You go away on the
most delightful excursion in the world you have the
most beautiful scenes, and pleasant companions, and
freedom everything you can wish ; and then the young
lady who ought to be more happy than anyone ^who is
at the time of life to have no care but to enjoy her
prettiness and her good temper, and all that who is
the pleasant ornament of the excursion, and is a great
delight to all of us then she is vexed and frightened
because that this ^this ^this contemptible fellow threat-
ens to meet her in one of those big towns. Sacker-
mr-mentl I do hope he will come and have it
OF A PHAETON, 13S
over but if lie is annoying if he troubles her any
more ''
Thus do we poor mortals fret and vex oiuselves in the
midst of our hetppiest circumstances. But at last there
comes a time for sleep. And soon this solitary inn on
the hill was as quiet and peaceful as the great world
outside, where the moonlight seemed to have hushed
the very winds to rest, and where the far woods and the
streams and the low hills along the edge of the land lay
still and dark under the cold majesty of the stars.
\NqU by Qaeen Titatiia, written at Worcester on the evenvng of the
fcUowing day. "Any comment of mine on the foregoing is at the
moment unnecessary ;. we have other matters to engage our attention.
Arthur hot come. I cas And) mo words to express ue deep and serious
annoyance which this escapade* is likely to cause. AU our plans may
be upset ; for he can scarcely explain his present wild proceedings
without provoking some sort of finsl agreement with BelL And
suppose she shoiiad consent to be engaged to him, how are we to
continue our journey f Of course he wul not allow her : if he had not
disliked it, he woidd not be here now. Certainly, I thvnk Bell has
acted imprudently ; for I told her that if she did not answer his letter,
he would be sure to imagine all manner of things, and come and.see
her. The consequence is that she is, I fear, in a great dilemma : for I
do not see how she can avoid either reihising him altogether, or
eonsentine to eotrythvng that he asks. And as we can't continue our
journey tul Monday, he will have a whole day to persecute her into
flying him an answer of some kind ; and then she is so foolishly good-
earted that, if he is only pathetic enough, she will say 'yes' to
everything. It is most provoking. If we could only get this one day
over, and him hack to London I "]
CHAPTEE X
THE AVENGER.
'' Love had ordained that it was Abra's turn
To mix the sweets, and minister the urn."
Surely nine o'clock was early enough for breakfast at
this remote little inn on the top of the hill; and
indeed, when we parted the night before, after our
moonlight improvisation of Fra BiavolOy that was the
hour agreed upon. Nine o'clock 1 Going down at a
136 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
quarter past eight, with some notion that the Lieutenant
might have sat up half the night consuming his wrath
in the smoking of many cigars, and might now be still
in bed, I heard, voices. Sometimes there was a laugh
and no one who had once heard Bell's musical laugh
could ever mistake it. When I went into the parlour
which had been the Lieutenant's bedroom, I found that
all traces of his occupation were gone : a fire was
burning brightly in the grate, the breakfast tray was
laid, and Bell sat at the open window, talking to Yon
Bosen himself, who was standing out on the pavement
in the full blaze of the morning sunshine that now
filled the main thoroughfare of Bourton-on-the-HilL
Bell looks round with a startled air.
" My dear," I say to her, *' travelling is doing you a
world of good. Early rising is an excellent thing for
young peopla"
" I did not know when you might want to start," says
Bell, gently, and rather averting her eyes for which
there was no reason whatever.
At this moment Queen Titania came down, looking
brisk and cheerful, as she always does in the morning.
She glanced at the fire, at the clean table, at Bell sitting
by the window, and at the blaze of sunlight on the wall
on the other side of the street. Apparently, this pleasant
picture put her into an excellent humour, and she said
to the lieutenant, with one of her brightest looks
" Well, have you been making discoveries this morn-
ing ? Have you made the acquaintance of many people ?
Has Bourton-on-the-Hill anything peculiar about it?"
* Oh yes, Madame," said the Lieutenant seriously,
" something very singular, which you will not like to
hear. This is an English village, in the middle of the
country, and yet they never have any milk here never.
They cannot get any. The farmers prefer to make
butter, and they will not sell milk on any inducement."
" Why," said Tita, " that is the reason of our havinj
no milk with our tea last evening. But is there no one
the landlady can beg a little milk from ?"
The Lieutenant looked at Bell, and that young lady
OF A PHAETON. \yj
endeavoured to conceal a smile. They had evidently
been speculating on Tita's dismay before we came down.
" The great farmer in the neighbourhood," continued
the Lieutenant, gravely, " is a Mrs. Phillips. I think
she owns all the cattle all the milk. I did send to her
a polite message an hour ago, to ask if she would
present us with a little of it but no; there is no
answer. At the moment that Mademoiselle came down,
I was going up to Mrs. Phillips's farm, to get the milk
for you, but Mademoiselle was too proud for that, and
would not allow me to go, and said she would not take
it now, since the woman had refused it."
" And how did you propose to overcome Mrs.
Phillips's obstinacy ? " asked Tita, who seemed pos-
sessed by a fear that sooner or later the predatory
instincts of this Uhlan would get us into trouble,
*' Oh, I do not know, but I should have got it some
way," said the Lieutenant ; and with that he held out a
small book he had in his hand. '' See ! I have made
more discoveries this morning. Here is a note-book I
have found, of a young lady at school, who has been
staying, perhaps, at this house; and it has given me
much amusement oh, very much amusement, and in-
struction also. It is just tjie same as if I had been in
the school with her, and she has told me all about her
teachers, and the other girls, and all that. Shall I read
some to you 1 "
" Now, is it fair," said Bell, '* to peep into a young
lady's secrets like that ? "
" But I have done so already," replied Von fiosen,
coolly. " I have read it all and now I will tell you
some of it. First, there are addresses of friends that
is nothing. Then there are stitches of knitting ^that
is nothing, only the young lady seems correct and
methodist no, methodical, I should say. Then there
are notes of lectures, and very much good information
in them, oh, very good indeed I am not surprised your
English young ladies know very much. Let me see :
' Epic poetry we like, because they treat of great men and
great actions, " Paradise Lost " admired for its noble
138 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
langucLge, Milton a Puritan, England receives solidity
of cliaracter from the Puritans, Dryden and Byron are
not read, aith/nigh very great, Byron haied his own race
is not a good poet to read,' This is very good instruo*
tion ; but she hastens now to put down something about
two other girls, who were perhaps at the lecture. She
says : ' Shocking, impertinent, UUbred creatures ; my
spirit recoils from them' Then there is a question
addressed to her neighbour : * Do you see how Miss
Williams has got her hair done V "
Here Queen Titania protested against these revela-
tions, and would have held out her hand for the book;
but the Lieutenant only stepped back a few inches &om
the window, and said, seriously
" There is much better information to coma Here
she puts down in order the phrases which one of the
masters has used to her class : polite pln*ases, she says,
to use to ladies. 1. You degrade yourselves, 2, How
much rrvore kitchsn-maidism f 3. Simply offensive, 4. It
shows hoio you have been brought up. 5. / vnll put a
stop to this impertinence. 6. Silence, ladies ! 7. Pretty
conduct ! I am afraid he has had an imruly class. Then
the young lady has a little piece ef composition which
I think is the beginning of a noveli She says : ' The
summit of Camiberwdl Grove, which forms part of the
lordly elevation known as Denmark Hill, is one of the
most charming and secluded retreats around the great
metropolis. Mere, in the spring-time, groves of lindens
put forth tlidr joyous leaves, and birds of various colours
flit through the branches, singing hymns of praise. On
the one Me, the dreary dty dwells behind an enchanted
veil of trees; on the other, you pass into emerald fields,
which stretch onwards to the Arabian magnificence of tlie
Crystal PaJaee, In this lofty and picturesque spot. Lord
Arthur Beauregard was accustomed to pace, musing on
the mystery and' ghom which had enveloped him since he
left the cradle' There is no more of this very good
story, but on the next page there is a curious tlung ;
there are three lines all surrounded by a scroll, and do
you know what is written? 'A Woman can do any
OF A PHAETON. 139
THING vnth a man hy not contradicting him ; * and under-
neath the scroll is written, ' Doiit I wish this was true t
Hden M .* None of the rest is written so clearly
as this "
" Count von Eosen, I will not listen to any more ! "
cried Tita. " It is most unfair of you to have been
reading this young lady's confessions "
" I get them in a public inn : I have the right, have
I not ? " remonstrated the Lieutenant. " It is not for
pleasure it is for my instruction that I read. Oh,
there are very strange things in this book."
" Pray give it to me," said Bell, quite gently.
He had refused to surrender it to my Lady ; but the
moment that Bell asked for it, he came forward and
handed it in through the window. Then he came in
to breakfast.
Little time was spent at breakfast; the sun was
shining too brightly outside. We called for our bill,
which was brought in. It was entitled '*Bill of Fare."
Our dinner of the previous evening was called tea,
and charged at the rate of one shilling a head. Our
breakfasts were one shilling each. Our bedrooms were
one shilling each. Any traveller^ therefore, who pro-
poses to stay at Bourton-on-the-Hill, cannot do better
than put up at the inn of W. Seth Dyde, especially
as there is no other ; and I heartily wish that he may
enjoy something of the pleasant companionship, the
moonlight, and the morning freshness that graced our
sojourn on the top of this Worcestershire hill.
Then into the phaeton again, and away we go through
the white sunlight and the light morning breeze that is
blowing about these lofty woods ! There is a resinous
odour in the air, coming from the furze and the ferns.
The road glares in the sunlight Overhead the still blue
is scarcely flecked by a cloud ; but all the same there is
a prevailing coolness that makes the driving through the
morning air delicious. It is a lonely country this
stretch of forest and field on the high level between
Bourton and Broadway. We pass Bourton Clump, and
leave Bourton Wood on the right We skirt Upton
140 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
Wold, and get on by Furze Heatk Then, all at once,
the land in front of us seems to drop down ; we come in
sight of an immense stretch of blue plain, from which
the thin mists of the morning have not wholly risen.
We are on the top of the famous Broadway Hill
By the side of the road there is a strange, old-
fashioned little building, which is apparently a wayside
chapel. Count von Eosen jumps down to have a look
at this odd relic of our former Catholicism, which has
remained on the summit of this hill for several centuries.
He can discover nothing but a sign which tells that this
sacred edifice now contains wines, spirits, and beer; so he
comes back, and goes up to the corner of a field opposite,
where a middle-aged man, surrounded by some young
folks, is making hay. In the utter stillness of the place,
we can hear all the questions and answers. The small
building is not so very old ; it never was a church. The
stones there mark the boundary between Gloucester and
Worcester. The view from this place is considered
unrivalled for extent; you can see the Black Sandy
Mountains on a very clear day.
"Indeed!" says the Count "Where are they, the .
mountains you speak of?"
" I don' knaw, sir I've heerd tell on 'em I never
wur theear."
Going down this steep hill Tita looks anxious. A
bad stumble, and we should go rolling over the little
wall into the ravine beneatL One has a far-off reminis-
cence of Switzerland in watching the horses hanging
back from the pole in this fashion, while every bend of
the road seems more precipitous than its predecessor.
Then we get down to the plain, rattle through the level
and straggling village of Broadway, and drive into the
fields again, where the sun is lying warmer than it was
up over the top of the hill
There is a small boy in a smockfrock sitting under-
neath the hedge, whittling a stick, while a shepherd's
dog lies on the grass beside him.
" Evesham ? " calls out the Count, as we pass, merely
because there has been a little doubt about the road.
OF A PHAETON. 141
"Naw, zir," was the answer, uttered with a fine
iang-froid.
Of course we pull up directly.
" Isn't this the way to Evesham ?** I ask.
" Yaas, zir,'* said the boy, coolly looking up from his
stick, but sitting still.
" This is the way to Evesham ? "
Yaas, zir."
" Do you know where it is ? "
" Naw, zir."
** He is a very cautious boy," says the Lieutenant, as
we drive on ; "a very cautious boy indeed."
** If he had been asked properly at first," says Bell,
with great gravity, "he would have given a proper
answer. But when you say, ' Evesham ? ' of com^e the
boy tells you this is not Evesham."
Evesham, when we did get to it, was found to be a
very bright, clean, and lively little town, with the river
Avon, slowly gliding through flat meadows, forming a
sort of loop around it. In the quaint streets a good
amount of business seemed to be going on ; and as we
put up at the Crown, and went off for a brief ramble
through the place, we found quite an air of fashion in
the costume of the young ladies and the young gentle-
men whom we met. But the latter, although they had
copied very accurately the Prince of Wales's dress of the
previous year, and had very stiff collars and prominent
canes, had an odd look of robust health in their cheeks,
which showed they were not familiar with Piccadilly
and the Park ; while the former, although they were
very pretty and very neatly attired, ought not to have
turned and pretended to look into the shop-windows in
order .to have a look at Bell's pretty grey dress and hat,
and at Queen Titania's more severe but no less grace*
ful costume. But Evesham does not often entertain two
angels unawares ; and some little curiosity on the part
of its inhabitants may be forgiven.
The people of Evesham are not much given to boating
on the Avon ; and so postponing our usual river ex-
cursion until we should reach the Severn Bell besought
142 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
us to go into a photograplier's establishment^ and make
experiments with our appearance. The artist in ques-
tion lived in a wooden house on wheels ; and there were
specimens of his handiwork nailed up outside. Our
entrance apparently surprised the photographer, who
seemed a little nervous, and perhaps was a trifle afraid
that we should smile at his efforts in art. But surely
nothing could be more kindly than Bell's suggestions
to him and her conversation with him ; for she, as a
"professional'' herself, conducted the negotiations and
arranged the groups. The artist, charmed to see that
she knew all about his occult processes, and that she
was withal a very courteous and kindly visitor, became
almost too confidential with her, and began to talk to
her of us three as if we were but blocks of wood and of
stone to be played with as these two savants chose. Of
the result of the various combinations into which we
were thus forced, little need be said. Queen Titania
came out very well ; her pale, dark, clear-cut face telling
in every picture, and even making us forget the tawdry
bit of brass and the purple velvet of the frama As for
the rest of us, a journey is not a good time to have one's
portrait taken. The flush of healthy colour produced
by the wind, and by much burning of the sun, may look
very well on the natural face, but is apt to produce a
different effect on glass.
The Lieutenant, for example, roared with laughter
when he saw himself transfigured into a ferocious bandit,
with a great black beard, a dark face, and two white
holes where his eyes should have been. But the
moment he had laughed out, he caught sight of Bell's
face. The young lady looked very much vexed, and her
eyes were cast down. Instantly the young man said,
loud enough for the photographer to hear
** I do seem to myself very ridiculous in this English
costume. When yCu are used to uniforms for a very
long time, and all at once get into this common dress,
you think yourself some other person, and you cannot
help laughing at the appearance yourself makes."
Bell's eyes said "Thank yofl" as plainly as eyes
OF A PHAETON. 143
could speak ; and then she paid a very grave and gentle
compliment to the artist, whom we left beaming over
with pride and gratitude towards the young lady.
" To go flirting with a travelling photographer ! " says
Qneen Tita, as we go in to luncheon: "for shame,
Belli**
** No, it was only Mademoiselle's good nature to the
poor man," replies the Lieutenant, with an unnecessary
tone of earnest protest. " I do think he is the very
happiest person in Evesham to-day that he has not
been so happy for many a day."
" I think the portraits are very good," says Bell,
bravely, " if you consider how he has to work"
" Now you know you can't excuse yourself, Bell,"
says my Lady. " You paid him compliments that
would have turned any man's head; and as for the
truth of them or rather the unblushing perversion
of truth in them ^"
But at this moment Tita happened to be passing
Bell's chair, and she put her hand very gently on the
young lady's head, and patted her cheek a little
caressing action which said more than a thousand
protestations of affection.
Our setting out for Worcester was rather a dismal
business. Were we school-children who had been
playing truant, that we should regard with appre-
hension a return to town ? Or were Bell's vague fears
contagious ? In vain the Lieutenant sought to cheer
her. She knew, and we all of us knew, that if Arthur
Ashburton chose to come and ask to see her, nothing
could be easier than for him to discover our where-
abouts. He was aware of our route, and had been
told the names of the principal towns at which we
should stop. A party of four arriving from London in
a phaeton is not a customary occurrence, and a brief
inquiry at the chief hotels in any town would be likely
to give him all the information he required.
Then, as we afterwards discovered, Bell had returned
no answer to the letter he had sent to Oxford. She
had been too much hurt, and had forborne to reply i'^
144 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
kind. Who does not know the distracting doubts and
fears tliat an unanswered letter when one is at a
certain age in life may conjure up, and the terrible
suspense that may prompt to the wildest action ? We
seemed to share in Bell's . dismay. The Lieutenant,
however, was light-hearted enough, and, as he relin-
quished his attempts to break the silence, he sent the
horses on at a good pace, and hummed to himself
broken snatches of a ballad, and talked caressingly to
Castor and Pollux.
When we were a few miles from Evesham, without
having seen anywhere a glimpse of the obelisk that
stands on the famous Evesham plain, it occurred to
us that we might as weJl ask if we were on the proper
road. There seemed a curious quietness and pictu-
resquencss about the wooded lanes through which we
were driving in the calm of the twilight. At length
we reached a turnpike at the comer of several unfre-
quented paths, and here an old lady was contentedly
sewing, while her assistant, a pretty little girl of
thirteen, collected the sixpences. Well, we had only
come about five miles out of our routa Instead
of going by Pershore, we had struck away north-
ward, and were now in a labyrinth of country lanes,
by any of which we might make our way along
through the still landscape to Worcester. Indeed, we
had no cause to regret this error. The out-of-the-way
road that runs by Flyford Flavell and Broughton
Hackett proved to be one of the pleasantest we had
traversed. In the clear twilight we found ourselves
driving through a silent and jiicturesque district, the
only life visible in which was the abundant game.
The partridges that were dusting themselves in the
road before us, did not get up and disappear with a
strong, level, low flight towards some distant field, but
walked sedately into the grass by the roadside, and
then passed through the hedge. We saw several
pheasants calmly standing at tlie outskirts of the
wooda The plump little rabbits ran about like mice
around the fences. The sound of the phaeton wbeeh
OF A PHAETON. 145
Was the only noise heard in this peaceful solitade;
and as we drove on, the dusk grew apace, and
the movements of bird and beast were no longer
visible.
Then a new twilight arose ^a faint, clear light
shining up from below the horizon, and we knew
that the moon would speedily be glimmering through
the black branches of the woods. The hamlets we
passed showed streaks of red within their windows.
There were glowworms in the road ^points of blue
fire in the vague darkness. Then we drove into the
gloom of the avenues of Spetchley Park ; and finally,
with still another glare appearing in the sky this time
a ruddy hue like the reflection of a great fire we got
nearer and nearer to the busy town, and at last heard
the horses' feet clattering on a stone street
The thoroughfares of Worcester were busy on this
Saturday night ; but at length we managed to make our
way through the people and vehicles up to the Star
Hotel. We drove into the spacious archway, and passed
into the hall, while the people were bringing in our
l^gg^^ The Lieutenant was, as usual, busy in giving
orders about everything, when the head waiter came up
and begged to know my nama Then he presented a
card.
" The gentleman is staying at the ' Crown.' Shall I
send him a message, sir ? "
"No," says Tita, interposing; "I will write a note,
and ask him to come round to dinner~-or supper, which-
ever it ought to be called.**
*' Oh, has Arthur come ? " says Bell, quite calmly.
" So it appears, my dear," says Queen Titania ; and as
she utters the words, she finds that Von Bosen has come
up and has heard.
"All right," he says cheerfully. "Tt will be a
pleasure to have a visitor at dinner, Madame, will it
not ? It is a pity we cannot take him further with ua
when we start on Monday ; but I suppose he has come
on business to Worcester?"
The Lieutenant took the matter very coolly. Ho
L
146 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
handed Bell and Tita upstairs to look after the disposal
of their effects ; and then came into the dining-room to
see what arrangements had been made about dinner.
" If he behaves himself, that is very well and good
You must treat liim civilly. But if not^ if he is
foolish and disagreeable, why ''
The Lieutenant did not say what would happen then.
He bethought himself of the horses, and strode away
down into the darkness of the yard, humming lightly
'* Madele, ruck, ruck, ruck, an meine griine Seite I " He
was evidently in no warlike mood.
CHAPTER XL
SOME WORCESTER SAUCE.
*' Faire Emmeline scant bid ridden a mile,
A mile forth of the towne,
When she was aware of her father^s men
Come galloping over the downe :
'' And foremost came the earlish knight,
Sir John of the north conntraye ;
* Nowe stop, nowe stop, thou false traitonre.
Nor carrye that ladye awaye ! * **
^ My dear," I say to Queen Titania, as she is fastening
a rose in her hair before going down to dinner, " pray
remember that Arthur Ashburton is ' also a vertebrate
animal' He has done nothing monstrous or inhuman
in pajring you a visit."
" Payii^ me a visit ? " says Tita, impatiently. " If he
had come to see me, I should not care. But you know
that he has come to pick a quarrel with Bell ; and that
she is likely to grant him everything he asks ; and, if
she does not, there will be infinite trouble and vexation.
I consider it most provoking and most thoughtless and
incoAsiderate on his part to thrust himself upon us in
this way."
"And yet, after all," I say, as she fastens on a
bracelet which was given her nearly twenty years ago
OF A PHAETON. 147
now, "is there anything more natural? A yonng man
is in love with a young woman "
" It is his own fault," she interposes.
** Perhaps. So much the worsa He ought all
the more to have your compassion, instead of your
indignant scorn. Well, she leaves his charming society
to go off on a wild rampage through the country. A
possible rival accompanies her. The young man is torn
asunder with doubts and fears. He writes to her. She
does not answer. His anxiety becomes a madness ; and
forthwith he sets off in pursuit of her. Is there any-
thing in all this to brand him as an outcast from
humanity ? "
"Why, look at the folly of iti If the girl had
proper spirit, would it not drive her into refxising him
altogether?"
" Foolish, my dear, yes ! but not criminal. Now the
whole of you seem to look on Arthur as a monster of
wickedness, because he is anxious to marry the girl he
is fond of."
My Lady alters the disposition of the thin tracery of
silver cord which runs through the dark masses of her
hair, and as she thus manages to shelve the subject, she
says
" I suppose we shall have a pleasant time at dinner.
Arthur will be fiercely amusing. Plenty of sarcasm
going about. Deadly looks of hatred. Jokes as heavy
as that one Bell talks of that was carried to the
window by four men, and killed a policeman when it
tumbled over."
My Lady is gently reminded that this story was told
of a German, before the date of Bell's conversion ;
whereupon she answers coolly
*' Oh, I do not suppose that Count von Bosen is like
all Germans. I think he is quite an exception a very
creditable exception. I know I have never met anyone
the least like him before."
" But heroes were not common in your county, were
they?"
"They were in yours," says Tita, putting her arm
L 2
148 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
within mine, and speaking with the most gracious sweet-
ness ; ** and that was why they took no notice of you."
We go downstairs. At the head of the large dining-
TOom in front of the fireplace, a young man is standing.
He has a time-table in his hand, which he is pretending
to read, and his hat is on his head. He hastily removes
that most important part of an Englishman's attire,
when my Lady enters the room, and then he comes
forward with a certain apprehension and embarrassed
look on his face. If he had been growing nervous about
his reception, there was nothing, at all events, to be
feared from Queen Titania, who would have welcomed
the * * himself with an effusive courtesy, if only
$he had regarded it as her duty.
" Oh, Arthur," she says, her whole face lighting
up with a gladness which amazed even me, who am
accustomed to wat5h her ways, " I am really delighted
to see you. How good of you to come and spend
the evening with us on so short a notice. I hope
we have not taken you away from any other engage-
ment ? "
"No," says the young man, apparently very much
touched by this kindness, *' and and it is I who ought
to apologize for breaking in on you like this."
" Then you will spend to-morrow with us also ? " says
my Lady, quite pleasantly. Indeed, there is nothing
like facing the inevitable with a good grace.
" Yes," says Arthur, rather humbly, " if you think
I'm not intruding."
" Why, your coming will be quite a relief. I should
never have forgiven you if you had been in our neigh-
bourhood without coming to see us."
You might think that this little speech was of the
nature of a fib. But it was not, just at that moment
When people are absent, Tita is about as cool, and
accurate, and severe in her judgment of them as any
woman can be ; and she is not disinclined to state her
opinipa But once they come near her and especially
if she has to play the part of hostess, and entertain them
^-the natur^.and excessive kindness of the woman
OF A PHAETON. 149:
drives lier into the most curious freaks of unconscious
hypocrisy. Half an hour before she had been talking
of Arthur in a way that would have considerably
astonished that young man, if he had known ; and had
been looking forward with dismay and vexation to all
the embarrassments of his visit. Now, however, that
he was there thrown on her mercy as it were she
showed him a quite inordinate kindness, and that in the
most honest way in the world. A couple of minutes
sufficed to convince Arthur that he had at least one
firm friend in our household.
He began to look anxiously towards the door.
Presently, a voice that he knew pretty well was
heard outside ; and then ominous conjunction ! ^the
Lieutenant and Bell entered together. Von Eosen
had held the door open for his companion, so that
Bell advanced first towards our visitor. Her face was
quite calm and a trifle reserved ; and yet every one
could see that as she shook hands with the young man,
there was a timid, half-concealed look of pleasure and
welcome in her eyes. He, on his part, was gloomily
ceremonious. He scarcely took any notice of the
meeting which the Lieutenant carelessly addressed to
him. He accompanied us over to the table, and took
a seat on the riorht hand of Tita, with a silence that por-
tended evil. We were likely to have a pleasant evening.
Had he possessed a little more worldly prudence or
savoirfaire, he would now have made some light excuse
for his being present He ought, for form's sake, to
have given us to understand that, as he was obliged
to be in Oxford, he had come on by rail to pay us a
visit. But as it was, no explanation was forthcoming.
Our Apemantus had apparently dropped from the skies.
He looked very uncomfortable ; and replied in mono-
syllables to the various and continuous remarks that
Tita addressed to him. He had never spoken to Bell,
who sat next him, and who was herself silent Indeed,
the constraint and embarrassment from which she was
suffering began to vex the Lieutenant, who strove in
vain to conquer it by every means in his power.
I50 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
Tlie barometer steadily fell. The atmosphere grew
more and more gloomy, until a storm of some sort was
inevitable. The anxious efforts of Queen Tita to intro-
duce some cheerfulness were touching to see ; and, as
for Bdl, she joined in the talk about our journey, and
what we had seen, in a series of disconnected obser-
vations that were utt^ned in a low and timid tone, as
if she were a&aid to draw down lightning from the
thunder-clouds. lieutenant von Sosen had at first
addressed a word or two to our guest ; but finding the
labour not productive, he had dropped him entirely
out of the conversation. Meanwhile Arthur had drunk
a glass or two of sherry. He was evidently nettled at
finding the Lieutenant almost monopolizing attention ;
for Tita herself had given up in despair, and was
content to listen. Von Bosen was speaking as usual
of the differences between English and German ways,
and social aims, and what not, until at last he drifted
into some mention of the Eepublican phenomena that
had recently been manifested in this country.
Now what conceivable connection is there between
the irritation of an anxious lover and Republicanism ?
Master Arthur had never alarmed any of us by pro-
fessing wild opinions on that subject or on any other.
We never knew that the young man had any political
views, beyond a sort of nebulous faith in the Crown
and the Constitution. Consider, therefore, our amaze-
ment when, at this moment, he boldly and somewhat
scornfully announced himself a Democrat, and informed
us that the time was come fot dismissing old super-
stitions and destroying the last monopolies of feudalism.
There would be a heavy account to settle with the
aristocracy that had for generations made laws to secure
its own intei:ests, and tied up the land of the country
so that an idle population had to drift into the big
towns and become paupers. All this was over. New
times were at hand. England was ripe for a new
revolution ; and woe to them that tried to stem the tide I
The explanation of which outburst was merely this
that Arthur was so angry and impatient with the state
OF A phaeton: 151
of things immediately around him, that he was possessed
with a wild desire to upset and destroy something.
And there is nothing so easy to upset and destroy, in
rhetoric, as the present political basis of this country.
Well, we looked at the lad. His face was still
aglow; and there was something of triumph as well
as of fierceness in it The hero of the old Silesian song,
when his sweetheaii has forgotten the vows she made,
and the ring she gave him is broken in two, would like
to rush away into battle, and sleep by camp-fires,,
under the stiU night. But nothing half so ordinary
would do for our fire-eater, who, because he could not
very well kill a Prussian lieutenant, must needs attack
the British Crown. Was there any one of us four
inclined to resent this burst of sham heroics? Was
there not in it something of the desperation of wretched-
ness that was far more entitled to awaken compassion ?
Had Arthur been less in love, he would have been
more prudent. Had he controlled his emotions in that
admirable fashion with which most of our young
gentlemen now-a-days seem to set about the business
of choosing a wife, he would not have made himself
absurd. There was something almost pitiable in this
wild, incoherent, ridiculous effort of a young man to
do or say something striking and picturesque before
the eyes of a girl whose affections he feared were
drifting away from him.
The Lieutenant, to whom this outbreak was particu-
larly addressed, took the affair very good-naturedly.
He said, with a smile
** Do you know who will be the most disappointed,
if you should have a Republic in England ? Why, the
Bepublicans that are very anxious for it just now.
Perhaps some of them are very respectable men yes,
I believe that ; but if I am not wrong, the men who
make the great fuss about it in your nation are not
like that. Agitators is not that what you call them ?
And, if you have England a Republic, do you think
the government of the country will be given to those
noisy persons of the present ? No that is not possible.
152 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
I think. When the Republic comes, if it does come at
all and I do not know how much force is in this
demonstration all your great men, your well-educated
men, your men of good position and good breeding and
good feeling tbey will all come forward, as they do
now, to see that the country is properly governed. And
what will become of the present Republicans, who are
angry because they cannot get into Parliament, and who
wish for a change that they may become great persons ?
When you take away the Crown, they will not all be
kings, I think : there is too much of good sense in this
country, and of public spirit, that makes your best men
give up their own comfoit to look after the govern-
ment and so it will be then."
" I hope there will be no violent change in our time,
at least," said Queen Tita.
''Madame is anxious about the Church, I know,"
remarked the Lieutenant, with great gravity ; but be
looked at Bell, and Bell could not altogether conceal
a smila Arthur, watching them both, noticed that
little bit of private understanding ; and the gloom on
his face visibly deepened.
This must be said, however, that when an embar-
rassing evening is unavoidable, a dinner is the best
method of tiding it over. The various small incidents
of the feast supply any ominous gaps in the conver-
sation ; and there is, besides, a thawing influence in
good meat and drink which the fiercest of tempers
linds it hard to withstand. After the ebullition about
Republicanism, Arthur had quieted somewhat. By the
time we had got down to the sweets, and perhaps with
the aid of a little champagne the lad never drank
much at any time, I ought to say his anger had
become modified into a morose and sentimental melan-
choly; and when he did manage to speak to Bell,
he addressed her in a wistful and pathetic manner^
as if she were some one on board a vessel and he
saw her gradually going away from him, her friends,
and her native land. One little revelation, neverthe-
less, comforted him greatly ; and lovers apt to magnify
OF A PHAETON. 15^
their misfortunes will note that he might have enjoyed
this solace long before if only he had exercised the
most ordinary frankness.
" You got a letter I sent you to Oxford, I suppose ? "
he said, with a studied carelessness.
" Yes," said Bell, with a little conscious colour in her
face, as she bent down her eyes.
" I am glad I had the chance of seeing you to-night,"
he continued, with the same effort at self-possession,
" because I 1 fancied you might be unwell or some
accident happened since you did not send the telegram
I begged of you."
Here an awful moment of silence intervened. Every-
body trembled for Bell's reply, which might provoke the
catastrophe we had been seeking to postpone.
" It was only yesterday forenoon I got your letter,"
Bell says, apparently feeling the silence uncomfortable ;
" and and 1 meant ta have answered it to-night "
" Oh, you were going to answer it ? " he says, with
his face suddenly getting bright
"Yes," she says, looking up with some surprise.
"You did not suppose I wouldn't answer it?"
In fact, that was just what he had supposed, con-
sidering that she had been grievously ofifended by the
tone of his letter.
" I meant to have let you know how we all were, and
how far we had got," says Bell, conveying an intimation
that this sort of letter might be sent by anybody to
anybody.
Nevertheless, Arthur greatly recovered himself after
this assurance. She had not broken off with him, after
alL He explained that the letter must have been delayed
on the way, or she would have got it the day before.
He drank another glass of champagne, and said, with a
laugh, that he had meditated surprising us, but that
the design had failed, for everyone seemed to have
expected him.
" I only came down this afternoon ; and I suppose I
must go back on Monday," he remarked, ruefully.
This looked so very like a request for an invitation
154 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
that I was bound to offer him a seat in the phaeton, if
he did not mind a little discomfort You should have
seen the look of amazement and indignation which my
Lady darted across the table at this moment Fortu-
nately, Arthur did not notice it He said he was very
much obliged he feared he would have to return if
he went with us for a day or two, he would inconveni-
ence us sadly but he would consider it before Monday
morning.
After dinner, Yon Bosen got up and proposed that he
and I should go down to the billiard-room which is in
the end of the building abutting on the stable-yard
and smoke a cigar. Surely generosity could go no
further. Arthur looked surprised; and wore quite a
pleasant smile on his face when we rose and left .
But perhaps it was merely selfishness that caused
our Uhlan to leave the field ; for as we two went down
the passage, and made our way up to the spacious
room, he said
" I am rather sorry for Mademoiselle. She does not
seem to be very glad to meet her old Mend ^perhaps
because he ia not in a good temper. That is why I did
say we should go and play billiards ^there will be a
chance of an explanation and to-morrow he will be
all right It is foolish of him to be disagreeable. All
this time of dinner, I was thinking to myself how well
he might make himself agreeable if he only wished
with knowing all the polite phrases with ease, and
being able to talk without thinking. For me, that is
different, you know. I am bound in by stupid limits ;
and when I think to say something nice to anyone
then I stop because I know nothing of the words just
like at a wall."
He sent the red baU up and down the table in rather
a peevish manner ; he felt that Arthur had an advantage,
perhaps.
" But you talk English remarkably well."
*' But I have remarked that you English alwajrs say
that to a foreigner, and will not tell him when he is
wrong. I know I am often wrong and always about
OF A PHAETON. i|5
your past tenses your 'tww loving* aud ' did love,* and
* loved * and like tbat ; and I believe I am very wrong
with always saying ' do * and ' did,' for I studied to give
myself free speaking English many years ago, and the
book I studied with was * Pepys* Diary/ because it is all
written in the first person^ and by a man of good station.
Now I find you do not say */dtd[ think,' but * I thought*
only it is very hard to remember. And as for pronun-
ciation, I know I am very wrong."
Well, he had certainly marked forms of pronunciation,
which I have considered it unnecessary to reproduce in
i-ecording his talk. He said */ hef* for */ have,* and
' a goot shawt 'for * a good shot! He also made occa-
sional blunders in accent, through adopting the accent
of the Latin word from which the English word is
derived. But what were such trifles to the main fact
that he could make himself understood ?
" But this is very strange," he said ; " how much
more clearly Mademoiselle speaks than any English
lady, or any English person I have known yet It is
very remarkable to me, how I have great difl&culty
to follow people who talk like as if they had
several tongues rolling in their mouth and others
speak very fast and others let the ends of the
words slide away but Miss Bell, she is always clear,
distinct^ and very pleasant to hear, and then she
never speaks very loud, as most of your people do
to a foreigner."
" Perhaps," I say, " there is a reason for Bell's clear-
ness of speech."
"Why?"
" Perhaps she takes pains to be very distinct in talk-
ing to you, while she manages not to show it. Perhaps
other people can notice that she speaks with a little
more deliberation to you than to anyone else."
Von Bosen was obviously much struck.
"Is that possible?" he said, with his eyes fiill of
wonder. '' I have not noticed that she did talk slow
to me."
"No she conceals it admirably; but all the same
156 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
such is the fact. It is not so much slowness as a
sort of careful precision of pronunciation that she
affects and you ought to be very grateful for such
consideration."
" Oh, I think it is very good of her very good
indeed and I would thank her for it ^^
** Don't do that, or you will have no more of it. And
at present my Lady is catching up a trick of talking in
the same wav."
" It is very kind," said the Lieutenant, turning to the
table with rather a thoughtful manner. " You would
not have expected a young girl like that to be so
reflective of other people."
Then he broke the balls ; and by fair strength of arm
screwed the white into the corner pocket. Nobody was
more astonished than himself, except the marker. It
was, indeed, the first k)sing hazard he had ever made ;
he never having played before on a table with pockets.
His next stroke was not so successful ; and so he con-
soled himself with lighting a Partaga about eight inches
in length.
"At all events," he continued, "your language has
not the difiference of ' Sie ' and * du/ which is a great
advantage. Oh, it is a very perplexing thing some-
times. Suppose you do know a young lady very well,
and you have agreed with her in private you shall
always caU each other 'du;' and then before other
people you call her * Sie ' it is very hard not to call her
'du,' by mistake, and then everyone jumps up, and
stares at you, and all the secret is known. That is a
very terrible thing."
" And please what is the interesting ceremony with
which you drink brilderschaft with a young lady ? The
same as usual? a large jug of beeryour arms inter-
twined "
" No no no ! " he cried. " It is all a mystery. You
shall not know anything of that. But it is very good
it is a very pleasant thing to have brilderschaft with
a young lady although you drink no beer, and have no
ceremonies about it"
OF A PHAETON. 157
''And what did Fraulein Fallersleben's mamma say
when you called her daughter ' rfi^ ' by mistake ? "
The large empty room resounded with the Lieu-
tenant's laughter.
" That is a good guess oh ! a very good guess but
not just good enough. For it was she who did call me
'dw;' and all the people were surprised and then
some did laugh but she herself oh 1 she was very
angry with herself, and with me too, and for some time
she called me ' Si& * even when we were together, until
^it was likely to be a quarrel. But one more quarrel,"
added the lieutenant, with indifference, " was not much
matter. It was usually one every day and then
writing of sorrowful letters at the night and next
morning some reconciliation Sackerment! what is
the use of talking of all that nonsense?"
And then once more the ball flew about the table ;
finally lodging in a pocket, and scoring three for a miss.
Indeed, our Uhlan was not at home with our biff
English tables, their small balls, pointed cues, and
perpetual pockets. Even when he got a good chance
of a cannon, the smallness of the balls caused him to
fail entirely. But he had a very excellent cigar. It
was something to be away from the embarrassment
that had prevailed at dinner. Perhaps, too, he enjoyed
a certain sense of austere self-satisfaction in having left
to Arthur fuU possession of the field. On the whole
he enjoyed himself very well ; and then, our cigars
being finished, we had a final look at the horses, and
then returned to the coffee-room.
"I am afraid," said Von Rosen, with some i^larm,
" we have been negligent of our duties."
Master Arthur had left some half-hour before. The
ladies had retired. Only one or two of the heaviest
topers were left in the bar-parlour ; the waiters looked
as if they considered their week's work fairly over.
" Tell me," said my Prussian friend, as he got his
candle, "is that young gentleman coming round here
to-morrow ? "
Probably he is."
1 58 THE STRANGE AD VENl URES
" Do you not think, then, it would be good to hire a
vehicle and go away somewhere for a drive all the day
before he comes?"
" To-morrow is Sunday."
"WeU?"
"Do you fancy you would get either Bell or my
Lady to go driving on Sunday? Don't you propose
such a thing, if you are wise. There is a Cathedral in
this town ; and the best thing you can do is to study
its history and associations early in the morning. You
will have plenty of time to think over them to-morrow,
inside the building itself."
" Oh, I do not object to that," he remarked, coolly,
as he went upstairs, "and I do not care to have too
much driving it is only to prevent Mademoiselle
being annoyed, as I think she was at dinner this even-
ing that is all. I suppose we may go for a walk to-
morrow after the church-time? And he will come?
Very well, he will not harm me, I am sure; but but
it is a pity that is all."
And with this somewhat mysterious conclusion, the
Lieutenant disappeared towards his own room.
it
CHAPTEE XIL
THE KIVALS.
When on the gentle Severn's sedgy bank.
In single opposition, hand to hana.
He did confound the best part of an hour
In changing hardiment with great Glendower."
" If we could only get over this one day," that was
the burden of Tita's complaining the next morning.
Arthur had been invited to breakfast, and had declined ;
but he was coming round to go with us to the Cathedral
Thereafter, everything to Tita's mind was chaos. She
dared hardly think of what the day might bring forth.
In vain I pointed out to her that this day was but
as another day ; and that if any deeds of wrath ox
OF A PHAETON. 159
vengeance were bidden away in the vague intentions
of our young friend from Twickenham, there was no
particular safety gained in tiding over a single Sunday.
"At all events," says my Lady, firmly, " you cannot
do anything so imprudent as press him to accompany
us further on our journey."
" Cannot the phaeton hold five ? "
" You know it cannot, comfortably. But that is not
the question. For my own part, I don't choose to have
a holiday spoilt by provoking a series of painful scenes,
which I know will occur. We may manage to humour
him to-day, and get him to leave us in an amiable
mood ; but it would be impossible to do it two days
running. And I am not sure even about this one day."
" But what prevents his dropping down on us at any
time say at Shrewsbury or Chester or Carlisle just
as he has done here at Worcester ? "
"I will."
That was enough. Having some regard for the
young man, I hoped he would submit quietly. But
lovers are headstrong; and jealousy, when it is
thoroughly aroused, leaves no place in the mind for
fear.
It was a bright morning. We could see, through
the wire screens of the windows, the Worcester folks
walking along the pavements with the sunlight shining
on their Sunday finery.
The Lieutenant, as we hurriedly despatched break-
fastfor we were rather late gave us his usual report.
" A very fine town," he said, addressing himself
chiefly to Tita, who was always much interested in his
morning rambles, ** with old religious buildings, and
houses with ivy, and high walls to keep back the river.
'There is a large race-course, too, by the river; and on
the other side a fine suburb, built on a high bank,
among trees. There are many pleasant walks by the
Severn, when you get further down ; but I will show
you aU the place when we go out of the Cathedral.
This is a great day at the Cathedral, they say a Chief
Sheriff of the county, I think they call him, is living at
i6o THE STRANGE AD VENTURES
this hotel, and he is going; and you see those people?
they are loitering about to see him drive away."
Even as he spoke, two resplendent creatures, in
grey and gold, resembling beef-eaters toned down in
colour and gilded, advanced to the archway of the
hotel, with long trumpets in their hands. These they
suddenly lifted, and then down the quiet street sounded
a loud fanfare, which was very much like those an-
nouncements that tell us, in an historical play, that the
King approaches. Then a vehicle drove away from the
door; the High SherifiT had gone to the Cathedral;
while our breakfast .was not even yet finished.
" He does not have the trumpets sounded every time
he leaves the hotel?" said the Lieutenant, retummo;
from the window. "Then why when he goes to
church? Is it exceptional for a High Sheriff to go
to church, that he calls attention to it with trumpets ? "
At this moment, Arthur entered the room. He
glanced at us all rather nervously. There was less
complaisance, too, in his manner, than when we last
saw him ; the soothing influences of dinner had de-
parted. He saluted us all in a somewhat cool way,
and then addressed himself exclusively to my Lady.
For Bell he had scarcely a word.
It is hard to say how Queen Tita managed, as we
left the hotel, to attach Bell and herself to Master
Arthur; but such was the result of her dexterous
manoeuvres ; and in this fashion we hurriedly walked
along to the Cathedral There was a great commotion
visible around the splendid building. A considerable
crowd had collected to see the High Sheriff; and
policemen were keeping a lane for those who wished
to enter. Seeing that we were late, and that the High
Sheriff' was sure to draw many after him, we scarcely
expected to get inside ; but that, at least, was vouch-
safed us, and presently we found ourselves slipping
quietly over the stone flooring. AU the seats in the
body of the building being occupied, we took up a
position by one of the great pillars, and there were
confronted by a scene sufficiently impressive to those
OF A PHAETON. i6i
of us who had been accustomed to the ministratioiis
of a small parish church.
Far away before us rose the tall and graceful lines of
the architecture, until, in the distance, they were lost in
a haze of sunlight streaming in from the south a glow
of golden mist that struck upon the northern pillars^
throwing up a vague reflection that showed us some-
thing of the airy region in which the lines of the great
arches met We could catch a glimpse, too, of the
white-dressed choir, beyond the sombre mass of the
people that filled the nava And when the hushed,
deep tones of the organ prelude had ceased to sound
along the lofty aisles, there rose the distant and
plaintive chanting of the boys ^then the richer tones
of the bass came in and then again burst forth that
clear, sweet, triumphant soprano, that seemed to be but
a single voice ringing sofbly and distfoitly through
the great building. I knew what would occur then.
Somehow Tita managed to slip away from us, and get
into the shadow of the pillar, with her head bent down,
and her hand clasped in Bell's ; and the girl stood so
that no one should see her friend's face, for there were
tears running fast down it It is a sad story, that has
been already briefly mentioned in these memoranda.
Many years ago she lost a young brother, to whom she
was deeply attached. He used to sing in the choir of
the village church. Now, whenever she listens to a
choir singing that she cannot see, nothing will convince
her that she does not hear the voice of her brother in
the clear, distfoit music; and more than once it has
happened that the uncontrollable emotions caused by
this wild superstition have thoroughly unnerved her.
For days after, she has been haunted by the sound of
that voice, as if it had brought her a message firom the
other world as if she had been nearly vouchsafed a
vision that had been somehow snatched away from
her, leaving behind an unexplained longing and unrest
Partly on that account, and partly by reason of the
weariness produced by constant standing, we were not
sorry to slip out of the Cathedral when the first portion
M
i62 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
of the service was over; and so we found ourselves
once more in the sweet air and the siinL'ght.
There was an awkward pause. Tita rather fell
behind, and endeavoured to keep herself out of sight ;
while the other members of the party seemed uncertain
as to how they should attach themselves. Fortunately,,
our first movement was to go round and inspect the
curious remains of the old Cathedral, which are yet
visible ; and as these were close at hand, we started off
in a promiscuous manner, and got round and under
King Edgar's tower without any open rupture.
How still and quiet lay the neighbourhood of the
great church on this beautiful Sunday morning! It
seemed as if all the life of the place were gathered
within that noble building; while out here the winds
from over the meadows, and the sunlight, and the fleecy
clouds overhead, were left to play about the strange old
passages, and simken arches, and massive gateways, and
other relics of former centuries. The bright light that
lay warm on the fresh grass, and on the ivied walls about,
lit up the flaky red surface of the old tower, and showed
us ttie bruised eBgy of King Edgar in sharp outline ;
while through the gloom of the archway we could sea
beyond the shimmering green light of a mass of elms,
with their leaves moving in the sun. From thence we
passed down to the river wall, where the Lieutenant
read aloud the following legend inscribed near the
gate : " On the 18th of November, 1770, the Flood
rose to the lower edge of this Brass Plate, being ten
inches higher than the Flood which happen'd on
December 23, 1672." And then we went through the
' arch, and found ourselves on the banks of the ^vem,
' with its bridges and boats and locks, and fair green
meadows, all as bright and as cheerful as sunlight could
make them*
Tita and myself, I know, would at this moment have
given a good deal to get away from these young folks
and their affairs. What business of ours was it that
there should be a "third wheel to the cart^'' as the
Germans say? Arthur was sadly out of place; but
OF A PHAETON. i6 j
how could we help it ? My Lady having fallen rather
behind as we started on our leisurely stroll along the
river. Bell, the Lieutenant, and Arthur were forced to
precede us. The poor girl was almost silent between
them. Von Eosen was pointing out the various objects
along the stream ; Arthur, in no amiable mood, throw-
ing in an occasional sarcastic comment. Then more
silence. Arthur breaks away from them, and honours
us with his company. Sometimes he listens to what
my Lady says to him ; but more often he does not, and
only scowls at the two young folks in front of us. He
makes irrelevant replies. There is a fierceness in his
look. I think at this moment he would have been glad
to have embraced Morraonism, or avowed his belief in
Strauss, or done anything else desperate and wicked.
Why, it was natural to ask, should this gentle little
woman by my side be vexed by these evil humours and
perversities her vexation taking the form of a pro-
found compassion, and a desire that she could secure
the happiness of everybody? The morning was a
miracle of freshness. The banks of the Severn, once
you leave Worcester, are singularly beautiful Before
us were islands, set amid tall river weeds, and covered
with thick growths of bushes. A grey shimmering of
wiUows came in as a line between the bold blue of the
stream and the paler blue and white of the sky. Some
tall poplars stood sharp and black against the light
green of the meadows behind ; and far away these level
and sunlit meadows stretched over to Malvern Chase
and to the thin line of blue hill along the horizon.
Then the various boats a group of richly-coloured
cattle in the fields a few boys bathing under the
shadow of a great bank of yellow sand all went to
make up as bright and pretty a river-picture as one
could wish for. And here we were almost afraid to
speak, lest an incautious word should summon up
thunder-clouds and provoke an explosion.
" Have you any idea when you will reach Scotland?**
says Arthur, stiU glaring at the Lieutenant and his
companion.
M 2
l64 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
" No," replies Tita ; " we are in no hurry."
"Won't you get tired of it?"
** I don't thui so at alL But if we do, we can stop.*'
" You will go through the Lake Country, of course ?"
Yes."
" It is sure to be wet there," said the young man.
"You don't give us much encouragement," says my
Lady, gently.
" Oh," he replies, ** if people break away from the
ordinary methods of enjoying a holiday, of course they
must take their chance. In Scotland you are sure to
have bad weather. It always rains there."
Arthur was determined that we should look upon the
future stages of our journey with the most agreeable
anticipations.
**Then," he says, "suppose your horses break down?"
*' They won't," says Tita, with a snule. " They know
they are going to the land of oats. They will be in
excellent spirits all the way."
Master Arthur went on to add
" I have always found that the worst of driving about
with people was that it threw you so completely on the
society of certain persons; and you are bound to
quarrel with them."
* That has not been our experience," says my Lady,
with that gracious manner of hers which means
much.
Of course she would not admit that her playful
skirmishes with the person whom, above all others, she
ought to respect, could be regarded as real quarrels.
But at this point the Lieutenant lingered for a moment
to ask my Lady a question ; and as Bell also stopped
and turned, Tita says to him, with an air of infinite
amusement
" We have not quarrelled yet. Count von Sosen ? "
'^ I hope not, Madame/' says our Uhlan, respectfully.
"Because," she continued, with a litUe laugh,
"Arthur thinks we are sure to disagree, merely on
account of our being thrown so much into each othei^s
company."
OF A PHAETON. 165
** I ihink qtdte the opposite will be the r^It of our
society," says the Lieutenant.
" Of course I did not refer particularly to you/' said
Arthur, coldly. '' There are some men so happily con-
stituted that it is of no consequence to them how they
are regarded by their companions. Of course they are
always weU satisfied."
"And it is a very good thing to be well satisfied/'
says the Lieutenant^ cheerfully enough, "and much
better than to be ill satisfied and of much trouble to
your friends. I think, sir, when you are as old as I, and
have been over the world as much, you will think more
of the men "who are well satisfied."
** I hope my experience of the world/' says Arthur,
with a certain determination in his tone, '' will not be
{ained by receiving pay to be sent to invade a foreign
country ^"
*' Oh, Count von Bosen," says BeU, to call his
attention.
"^ Mademoiselle ! " he says, turning instantly towards
her, although he had heard every word of Arthur's
speech.
" Can you tell me the German name of that tall
pink flower down 'by the edge of the water ?"
And so they walked on once more; and we got
further away from the city with its mass of slates
and spires getting fietint in the haze of the sun-
light and into the still greenness of the country,
where the path by the river-side lay through deep
meadows.
It was hard, after all He had come irom London to
get speech of his sweetheart^ and he found her walking
through gi*een meadows with somebody else. No mortal
man and least of all a young fellow not confident
of his own position, and inclined to be rather neivoos
and anxious could suffer this with equanimity; but
then it was a question how far it was his own fault
" Why don't yon go and talk to Bell ? " says my Lady
to him, in a low voice.
** Oil, r don't care to thrust my society on anyone,**
i66 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
he says aloud, with an assumption of iudifferenco.
** There are people who do not know the difference
between an old friendship and a new acquaintance I do
not seek to interfere with their tastes. But of course
there is a meaning in everything. What are those lines
of Pete's
** * O say, what stranger cause, yet unexplored,
Could make a genue belle reject a lord ? '
I should not attempt to cure a woman of her instinctive
liking for a title."
Tita placed her hand on his arm. After all, this
excited young man was an old friend of hers ; and it
seemed a pity to see him thus determined to ruin his
own cause. But the light talking we heard in front
seemed to say that the " gentle Belle " had not over-
heard that pretty speech and its interesting quotation.
At length, coming to a sudden bend in the river,
the Lieutenant and his companion proposed that we
should rest for a while ; and accordingly we chose out
comfortable seats on the steep green bank, covered
by bushes and trees, which here slopes down to the
stream. The picture that lay before and around us
was sufficient to have calmed the various moods and
passions of these young folks, if they had but had
eyes for anything but their own affairs. Bell was the
only one who paid attention to the world of bright
colours that lay around. The Lieutenant impertur-
bable, easy in manner, and very attentive to her
was nevertheless obviously on the watch, and certain
to resent any remark that might by chance miss him
and glance by towards her. Certainly, these were not
comfortable conditions for a pleasant walk. Tita after-
wards declared that she was calculating with satisfaction
that she had already got through several hours of that
terrible day.
The sun was shining far away on the blue Malvern
hills. Along the level meadows the lines of pollard
willows were groy and silvery in the breezy light
riose at hand the rich masses of green were broken
OF A PHAETON. 167
bj the red sandstone bank opposite ; while thci tall trees
above sent straggling duplicates of themselves colotued
in deep chocolate-brown down into the lazy stream
that flowed beneath us. And as we sat there and
listened for the first ominous observation of one or
another of these young folks, lo ! there glided into
the clear white and blue channel of the river a gaily-
bedizened barge that gleamed and glittered in the sun-
light and sent quivering lines of colour down into the
water. The horse came slowly along the road. The
long rope rustled over the brushwood on the bank, and
splashed on the surface of the stream. The orange
and scarlet bands of the barge stole away up and
through that world of soft greenness that lay under
the shadow of the opposite bank ; and then the horse,
and rope, and driver turned the corner of a field, and
we saw them no more.
The appearance of the barge had provoked attention,
and secured silence. When it was gone the Lieutenant
turned carelessly to Arthur, and said
" Do you go back to London to-morrow ? "
*' I don't know," said the young man, gloomily.
" It is such a pity you can't come with us, Arthur,"
Bays Bell, very gentiy, as if begging for a civil reply.
"I have no doubt you will enjoy yourselves very
well," he replies, with a certain coldness in his tone.
** We have hitherto," she says, looking down ; " the
weather has been so good and and the scenery was
so pleasant and ^and ^"
It was Arthur himself, singularly enough, who came
to the rescue, little knowing that he was affording her
such relief.
" I don't think you have chosen the right road," be
remarked. " The real reminiscences of the old stage-
coach days you wUl find on the York and Berwick road
to Scotland. I never heard of anyone going to Scotland
this way."
" Why," says one of the party, with a lau^h that
seemed to startle the stillness around, " that is tiie verjr
reason we chose it"
I68 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
" I have been thinking for some time/* he says coldly,
''of getting a dog-cart and driving up the old route
to Scotland."
The heavens did not fall on him. Queen Tita looked
at the tips of her gloves, and said nothing ; but Bell,
having less of scepticism about her, immediately
cried out
" Oh, Arthur, don't do that ; it will be dreadfully
wretched for you, going away on such an excursion by
yourselt"
But the young man saw that his proposal I will
swear it had never entered his brain before that very
minute ^bad produced an effect; and treated it as a
definite resolve.
" At least, if you are going, you might as well come
with us, or meet us farther on, where the roads join,**
says Bell.
" No, I am not so mad as to go your way," he replied,
with an air of disdain. " I shall keep out of the rainy
districts, and I mean to go where one can find traces of
the old times stiU hanging about."
" And pray," I venture to ask him, " are all the old
inns confined to one part of this unfortunate country ?
And were there no ways of getting to Scotland but by
York and Berwick? Why, over the whole coimtry
there is a network of routes along which stage-coaches
used to run. And if you should be tired of driving
alone, you can do no better than strike across country
firom York by the old coach-road that comes on to
Penrith, and so go up with us through Carlisle and
Moffat on to Edinburgh."
'*I am not so sure that I shall go alone," he said,
quite fiercely.
What did the boy mean ? Was he going to drive a
white elephant about the country ?
"Do you know much of the management of horses V'
says the Lieutenant, meaning no harm whatever.
"Arthur is in the volunteer artillery, ^the field
artillery, do they call it? ^and of course he has to
manage horses," explains my Lady.
OF A PHAETON. 169
"Oh, you are a volunteer?*' said the Lieutenant
with quite an accession of interest " That is a veiy
good thing. I think all the young men of this country
would do much good to their health and their know-
ledge by being volunteers and serving a time of military
service,"
"But we don't like compulsion here,** says Arthur,
bluntly.
'' That/' retorts the Lieutenant, with a laugh, " is why
you are at present a very ill-educated country."
" At all events," says Arthur, rather hotly, " we are
educated well enough to have thrown aside the old
superstitions of feudalism and divine right; and we
are too well educated to suffipr a despotic government
and a privileged aristocracy to have it all their own
way."
"Oh, you do talk of Prussia, yes?" said the Count
* Well, we are not perfect in Prussia. We have many
things to learn and to do, that we might have done
if we had been preserved round about by the sea,
like you. But I think we have done very weU for
all tlmt : and if we have a despotic government, which
I do not think, it is perhaps because what is good for
England is not always good for every other country ;
and if we have an aristocracy, they work for the
country just like the sons of the peasants, when they
go into the army, and get small pay, instead of going
abroad like your aristocracy, and gambling away their
fortunes to the Jews and the horse dealers, and getting
into debt and making very much fools of themselves."
"When we of this country," says Arthur, proudly,
" see the necessity of military preparations, we join the
ranks of a body that accepts no pay, but is none the
less qualified to fight when that is wanted."
" Oh, I do say nothiog against your volunteers.
No, on the contrary, I think it is an excellent thing
for the young men. And it would be better if the
service was continuous for one, two, or three years
and they go away into barrack life and have much
drill and exercise in the open air, and make the young
I70 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
men of the cities hardy and strong. That would be
a very good army then, I think; for when the men
are intelligent and educated, they have less chance of
panic wUch is the worst that can happen in a battle
and they will not skulk away, or lose their courage,
because they have so much self-respect But I do
not know whether this is safer ^to have the more
ignorant men of the peasantry and country people
who will take their dnll like machines and go through
it all, and continue firing in great danger, because
they are like machines. Now, if you had your towns
fighting against the country, and if you had your
town volunteers and your country regiments with
the same amount of instruction, I think the country
troops would win, although each man might not have
as much patriotism and education and self-respect
as in the town soldiers. Because the country troops
would march long distances and would not be hurt
much by rain or the sleeping out at night and they
would go through their duties like machines when
the fight commenced. But your city volunteers ^they
have not yet got anything like the training of your
regular troops that come from the country villages
and towns."
"I know this," says Arthur, "that if there was to
be an invasion of this country by Prussia, a regiment
of our city volunteers would not be afraid to meet
a regiment of your professional soldiers, however
countrified and mechanical they may be ^
'^Ah, but that is a great mistake you make," says
the Lieutenant, taking no notice of the challenge;
"our soldiers are not of any single class ^they are
from all classes, from all towns, and villages, and
cities alike ^much more like your volunteers than
your regular soldiers, only that they have some more
drill and experience than your volunteers. And what
do you say of an invasion ? I have beard some people
talk of that nonsense ^but only in England. Is it
that you are afraid of invasion that you imagine
these foolish things, and talk so much of it?"
OF A PHAETON, 171
" No, we are not afraid of it " says Arthur,
evidently casting about for some biting epigram.
"Yet no one in all Europe speaks or thinks of
such a thing but a few of your people here, who give
great amusement to us at home."
" There would be amusement of another sort going,"
says Arthur, getting a little red.
And just at this instant, before he has time to finish
the sentence, Tita utters a little scream. A stone has
splashed into the stream beneath ns. The author
of the menace is unknown being probably one of
a gang of young rascals hidden behind the bushes on
the other side of the river ^but it is certainly not
anger that dwells in my Lady's bosom with regard
to that concealed enemy. He has afiforded her relief
at a most critical moment; and now she prevents
Arthur returning to the subject by proposing that we
should walk back to Worcester; her suggestion being
fully understood to be a command.
We set out. The Lieutenant wilfully separates
himself from Bell. He joins us elderly folks on the
pretence of being much interested in this question of
Volunteer service and Bell and Arthur are perforce
thrown together. They walk on in front of us, in
rather an embarrassed way. Bell's looks are cast
down ; Arthur speaks in a loud voice, to let us know
that he is only talking about the most common-place
affairs. But at the first stile we go through, they
manage to fall behind ; and when, at intervals, we turn
to see how the river and the meadows and the groves of
trees look in the sunshine, we find the distance between
us and the young couple gradually increasing^ until
they are but two almost undistinguishable figures
pacing along the banks of the broad stream.
" Well, we have got so far over the day !" said my
Lady, with a sigh. " But I suppose we must ask him
to (line with us."
" Is it necessary, Madame ?" says the Lieutenant.
" lUit perhaps you might ask him to bring better
ninnncrs with him."
172 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
*' I am afraid he has oeen very rnde tu you,** said
Tita, with some show of compimction.
" To me ? No. That is not of any consequence
whatever, bmt I did think that all this pleasant walk
has been spoiled to Mademoiselle and yourself by
by what shall I say? not rudeness, but a fear
of rudeness. And yet, what reason is there for it?"
"I don't know," was the reply, uttered in rather
a low voice. " But I hope Bell is not being annoyed
by him now."
You see, that was the way in which they had
got to regard this unfortunate youth as a sort of
necessary vil, which was to be accepted with such
equanimity as Heaven had granted to the various
sufferers. It never occurred to them to look at the
matter from Arthur's point of view, or to reflect that
there was probably no more wretched creature in
the whole of England than he was during this memo-
rable Sunday.
Consider how he spent the day. It was the one
day on which he would have the chance of seeing
Bell for an unknown period. He comes round in
the morning to find her siitting at breakfast with his
rival. He accompanies ihem on a walk into the
country; finds himself "the third wheel to the cart,"
and fdls belund to enjoy the spectacle of seeing her
walk by the side of this other man, talking to him
and sharing yA^ him the beautiful sights and sounds
around. Ye who have been transfixed by the red-hot
skewers of jealousy, think of the torture which this
wretched young man suffered on this quiet Sunday
morning. Then as he walks home with her, he finds her,
as we afterwards learn, annoyed about certain remarks
of his. He explains in a somewhat saucy manner, and
makes matters worse. Then he takes to reproaches, and
bids her reflect on what [leople will say ; and here
again he goes from one blunder to another in talking
in such a fashion to a proud and high-spirited girl,
who cannot suffer herself to be suspected. In his
blindness of anger and jealousy, he endeavours to
OF A PHAETON. 173
asperse the character of the Lieutenant he is like
other officers eveiy one knows what the Prussian
officers, in general, are ^what is the meaning of this
thing, and the dark suspicion suggested by that*
To all of these representations Bell replies with some
little natural warmth. He is driven- wild by her
defence of his rival. He declares that he knows
something about the Lieutenant's reputation and then
she, probably with a little paleness in her face, stands
still, and asks him calmly to say what it is. He will
not He is not going to carry tales. Only, when an
English lady has so little care of what people may say
as to accept this foreign adventurer as her companion
during a long journey
That was all that BeU subsequently told Tita,
The boy was obviously mad and reckless, but none
the less he had wrought such mischief as he little
dreamed of in uttering these wild complaints and
suspicions. When we got back to the hotel, he and
Bell had overtaken us, and they had the appearance
of not being on the best of terms. In fact, they
had maintained silence for the last quarter of an
hour of the walk.
My Lady asked Arthur to dine with us at seven;
so that during the interval he was practically dis-
missed. Seven came, and Arthur appeared. He was
in evening dress; convejdng a rebuke to uncouth
people like ourselves, who were in our ordinary travel-
ling costume. But Bell's seat was vacant After
we had waited a few minutes, Queen Tita wen
to inquire for her, and in a few minutes returned.
''Bell is very sorry, but she has a headache, and
would rather not come down to dinner."
Arthur looked up with an alarmed face; the
Lieutenant soowled; and Tita, taking her seat, said
she was a&aid we had walked too far in the morning.
Stranga If you had seen our BeU walking lightly
up to the top of Box-hiU and running down again
just by way of amusement before lunch ^you woSd not
have expected that a short walk of a mile or two along
174 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
a level river-course would have had such an effect. But
so it was ; and we Lad dinner before us.
It was not an enlivening meal; and the less said
about it the better. Arthur talked much of his
driving to Scotland in a dog-cart, and magnified the
advantages of the York route over that we were now
following. It is quite certain that he had never
thought of such a thing before that morning ; but the
attention that had been drawn to it, and tihe manner
in which he had been led to boast of it, promised
actually to commit him to this piece of foUy. The
mere suggestion of it had occurred at the impulse of
a momentaiy vexation; but the more he tedked of
it, the more he pledged himself to carry out his pre-
posterous scheme. GKta heard and wondered, scarcely
believing; but I could see plainly that the young
man was determined to fulfil his promise if only by
way of triumphant bravado, to show his independence
of us, and perhaps inspire Bell with envy and regret.
When he left that night, something was said about
his coming to see us away on the following morning.
Tita had shown her usual consideration in not re-
ferring at all to our drive of the next day, which
she understood was to be through the most charming
scenery. And when, that same night, she expressed
a vague deske that we might slip away on the next
morning before Arthui^ had come, it was with no
thought of carrying such a plan into execution. Per-
haps she thought with some pity of the young man
who, after seeing us drive away again into the
country, and the sweet air, and the sunlight, would
return disconsolately to lus dingy rooms in le Temple,
there to think of lus absent sweetheart, or else to
meditate that wild journey along a parallel line which
was to show her that he, too, bad his enjoyments.
[iVote. ^I find that the remarlcB which Qaeen Tltania appended to
the foregoing pages when thef were written, have since been torn off ;
and I can gness the reason. A few days aco I receiyed a letter, sent
under coyer to the pablishers, which bore the address of that portion
of the country familiarly called "the Dnkeries." It was written in a
feminine hand, and signed with a fiunily name which has some his-
OF A PHAETON. 175
torical pretensions. Now these were the observations which this silly
person in high pkces had to communicate : ' ' Sir, Ihope you will forgive
my intruding myself upon you in this way; hvZ I am anxious to know
v^kether you really do think living with such a wotnan as your wife is
represented to be, is really a matter for raillery and amnsement. My
object in xcrUing to you is to say that, if you can treat lightly Uu fact
of a wife being waspish at every turn, cuffing her boys^ ears, and talking
of whipping, it wotild have been better not to have made your extra-
ordinary complaisance public ;for what is to prevent the most iU-tempered
woman pointing to these pages, and saying that that is how a reasonable
husband would deal with her t If it is your misfortune to have an
illrtempered tcife, you ought not to try to persuade people thai you are
rather proud of it. Pray forgive my toriting thus frankly to you ; and
J am, Sir, your obedient servant, ." By a great mis-
chance I left this lying letter open on the breakfast-table ; and Tita,
coming in, and being attracted by the crest in gold and colours on the
paper, took it up. With some dismay, I watched her read it. She
let it down stood irresolute for a moment, with her lips getting rather
tremulous ^then she suddenly fled into the haven she had often sought
before in her troubles, and looking up with the clear brown eyes showing
themselves frightened and pain^ like those of some dumb creatnrc
struck to the heart, she said, *' Is it true? Am I really ill-tempered?
Do I really vex you very much ? " You may be sure that elderly lady
up in Nottinghamshire had an evil quarter of an hour of it when we
proceeded to discuss the question, and when Queen Tita had been
pacified and reassured. "But we ought to have known," she said.
"Count von Rosen warned us that stupid persons would make the
mistake. And to say that I cuffed my Doys* ears f "Why, you know
that even in the Sfagazine it says that I cuffed the boys and kissed
them at the same time of course, in fun and I threatened to whip
the whole house of course, in fun, you know, when everybody was
in good spirits about going away and now that wicked old woman
would make me out an unnatural mother, and a bad wife, and I don't
know what 1 I I I will get Bell to draw a portrait of her, and put
it in an exhibition that would serve her right." And forthwith she
sat down and wrote to the two boys at Twickenham, promising them
I know not what luxuries and extravagances when they came home
for the Easter holidays. But she is offended with the public, all
throng that gabbling old lady in Notts ; and will have no more
communication with i^ at least for the present]
CHAPTER Xin.
SAVED !
** Unto the great Twin Brethren
We keep this solemn feast.
Swift, swift the great Twin Brethren
Came spurring from the east 1 "
Castor and Pollux did ns notable service tliat morning
at Worcester. Arthur was coming ronnd to see Bell
176 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
belore we started. Queen Tita was oppressed by
anxious fears ; and declared that now the great crisis
had come, and that the young man from Twickenham
would demand some pledge from Bell as he bade her
good-bye. The dread of this danger drove the kindly
little woman into such exaggerations of his miscon-
duct of yesterday that I began to wonder if this
Arthur were really the same kd she used to pet and
think so much of when he came down to Leather-
head and dawdled with my Lady and Bell along the
Surrey lanes of an evening. What had changed him
since then?
"You are pleased to be profound," says Tita,
abruptly.
Well, I was only pointing out to her that one of
the chief accomplislmients of life is consideration
for the sick; and that whereas nearly all women
seem to have an inherited instinct that way, men
only acquire the habit as the result of experience
and reflection. Ladeed, with most women, the certain
passport to their interest and kindliness is to be
unwell and exact a great deal of patient service from
them. Now I was saying to Tita, when she uttered
that unnecessary rebuke ^why don't women show
the same consideration to those who are mentally
ailing? to the unfortunate persons whose vexed and
irritated brain renders them peevish and ill-tempered?
Once get a patient down with fever, and all his
fractious complainings are soothed, and all his queru-
lous whims are humoured. But when th,e same man
is rendered a little insane by meeting with a disap-
pointmentor if he is unable to stand beiog crossed
in argument, so that the mildest statement about
some such contested subject as the American War,
(rovemor Eyre, or the Annexation of Alseu^e, sends
a flash of flame through his head why should not
the like allowance be made for Ms infirmities? Why
should the man who is ill-tempered because of a fever
be humoured, caressed, and coaxed ; and the man who
is ill-tempered because his reason is liable to attacks of
OF A PHAETON. 177
passion, be regarded as an ill-conditioned boor, not fit
for the society of well-bred ladies and gentlemen ?
"I think," says Tita with a little warmth, "you
do nothing now but try to invent excuses for Arthur.
And it is not fair. I am very sorry for him if he
is so vexed that he loses his temper; but that does
not excuse his being absolutely rude/'
'' But his rudeness is part of his ailment," I venture
to say. "Ordinarily, he is the mildest and gentlest
of young men, who would shrink fix)m a charge of
rudeness as the worst thing you could urge against
him. At present he is off his head. He does not
know what he says or rather, he is incapable of
controlling his utterances. He is really sick with
a fever ^though it isn't one of those, apparently,
that secure the commiseration of even the most
angelic of women."
I regarded that last expression as rather effective;
but no. My Lady remarked that she was not ac-
customed to the treatment of the insane; and that
another day such as that she had just passed would
soon make her as ill as himself.
Our Bonny Bell did not seem so disturbed as might
have been expected. When we went down to the
coffee-room we found the Lieutenant and her sitting
at opposite sides of a small table, deeply engaged over
a sheet of paper. On our entrance the document was
hastily folded up and smuggled away.
"It is a secret," said the Lieutenant, anticipating
inquiry. " Tou shall not know until we are away on
our journey again. It is a packet to be opened in a
quiet place no houses near, no persons to listen ; and
then and then ^"
" Perhaps it will remain a secret ? Bien ! Life is
not long enough to let one meddle with secrets ; they
take up so much time in explanation, and then they
never contain anything."
" But this is a very wonderful thing," said the Lieu-
tenant, " and you must hurry to get away from Wor-
cester that yon shall hear of it."
V
178 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
We were, however, to have another sealed packet that
morning. Master Arthur, knowing full well that he
would have but little chance of speaking privately with
Bell, had entrusted his thoughts to a piece of paper
and an envelope ; and just as we were in the hurry of
departure, the young man appeared. The truth was,
the Lieutenant had ordered the horses to be put in some
quarter of an hour before the time we had said we
should start ; and my Lady showed so much anxiety to
set forth at once that I saw she hoped to leave before
Arthur came.
The phaeton stood in the archway of the hotel,
and on the stone steps were flung the rugs and
books.
" My dear," says Tita, rather anxiously, to Bell, " do
get in ! The horses seem rather fresh, and and "
" Won't you wait to bid good-bye to Arthur ? " says
Bell.
" It is impossible to say when he will come he will
understand I will leave a message for liim," says
Queen Titania, all in a breath; and with that the
lieutenant assists Bell to get up in front.
I have the reins in my hand, awaiting orders. Tlie
last rugs are thrown up, books stowed away, everything
in readiness ; Tita takes her seat behind, and the Lieu-
tenant is on the point of getting up.
At this moment Arthur comes round the comer, is
amazed for a moment to see us ready to start, and then
suddenly brings out a letter.
" Bell,'* he says. " I ^I have there is something here
I want you to see only a moment, and you can give
me an answer now ^yes or no "
The unfortunate young man was obviously greatly
excited ; his face quite pale, and his speech rapid and
broken. He handed up the letter : the crisis that ^ita
had endeavoured to avoid had come. But in this our
darkest hour as I have already hinted Castor and
Pollux came to the rescue. It was the battle of the
Lake Eegillus acted otice again in the gateway of -the
Worcester St^r Hotel. For Pollux, casting his head
OF A PHAETON, 179
about and longing to start, managed to fix his bit on
the end of the pole ; and, of course, a wild scene ensued.
Despite the efforts of the ostler, the horse threw him-
self back on his liaunches; the phaeton described a
curve, and was driven against the wall with a loud
crash ; the people about fled in every direction, and the
Lieutenant jumped out and sprang to the horses' heads.
Pollux was still making violent efforts to extricate
himself, and Castor, having become excited, was plung-
ing about ; so that for a moment it seemed as though
the vehicle would be shattered in pieces against the
wall of the court. The women were quite still, except
that Tita uttered a little suppressed cry as she saw the
Lieutenant hanging on to the rearing horses. He fituck
manfully to their heads, and, with the assistance of the
ostler, at last managed to get the bit off. Then both
horses sprang forward. It would have been impossible
to have confined them longer in this narrow place.
The Lieutenant leaped in behind ; and the next moment
the phaeton was out in the main street of Worcester,
both horses plunging and pulling so as to turn all
eyes towards us. Certainly, it was a good thing the
thoroughfare was pretty clear. The great Twin Brethren,
not knowing what diabolical* occurrence had marked
their setting out, were speeding away from the place
with might and main; and with scarcely a look
at Worcester we found ourselves out in the country
again, amid quiet and wooded lanes, with all the sweet
influences of a bright summer morning around us.
"I hope you are not hurt," said my Lady to the
Lieutenant, who was looking about to see whether the
smash had taken some of the paint off, or done other
damage.
" Oh, not in the least, Madame," he said, " but I find
that one of my boots is cut, so that I think the shoe
of the horse must have done it. And has he caught on
the pole before ? "
" Only once," she says.
" Then I would have the bit made with bars across,
BO that it will be more difficult ; for suppose this did
N 2
i8o THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
happen in the road, and there was a ditch, and he
backed you '*
" I suppose we should go over," remarked Queen Tita
philosophically. ''But it is strange how often acci-
dents in driving might occur, and how seldom they do
occur. But we must really have the bit altered."
"Well," I say to my gentle companion, "what mes-
sage did you leave with Arthur ? "
" I could not leave any," said Bell, " for of course
when the horses went badk, he had to get out of their
way. But he will understand that I will write to him."
"Have you read the letter?"
"No."
"Do, like a good girl, and have it over. That is
always the best way. You must not go into this
beautiful country that lies ahead with a sort of cloud
over you."
So Bell took out the letter, and furtively opened it
She read it carefully over, without uttering a word;
then she continued looking at it for a long time.
*'I am very glad that accident occurred," she re-
marked, in a low voice. " He said I was to answer ' yes '
or ' no.' I could not do that to such a letter as this ;
and if I had refused, he would have been very much
hurt I will write to him from whatever place we stop
at to-night"
This resolution seemed greatly to comfort her. If
any explanation were needed, it was postponed until
the evening ; and in the meantime we had fine weather,
fresh air, and all the bright colours of an English land-
scape around us. Bell rapidly resumed her ordinary
good spirits. She begged to have the reins ; and when
these had been handed over to her, with various cau-
tions, the excitemeut of driving a pair of horses that
yet showed considerable signs of freshness brought a
new colour into her cheeks. The route which we now
followed was one of the prettiest we had yet met with.
Instead of following the old stage-coach route by Droit-
wich, we struck almost due north by a line of small
and picturesque viUages lying buried in the heart of
OF A PHAETON. iSi
this deeply-wooded country. The first of these was
Ombersley a curious little clump of cottages, nearly
all of which were white, with black bars of woodwork
crossed and re-crossed ; and they had odd gables, and
lattices, and decorations, so that they looked almost like
toy-cottages. Wearing white and black in this promi-
nent way, OUT Uhlan immediately claimed them as
Prussian property ; but beyond the fact of their showing
the Prussian colours, there was little else foreign-looking
about those old-fashioned English houses lying along
this level lane, and half hidden amid elms. As we got.
up into the higher ground above Ombersley we found
around us a very pleasant landscape ; and it seemed to
strike my gentle-eyed companion that the names of the
villages around had been chosen to accord with the
tender and sylvan beauties of this pretty piece of
country. One of the sign-posts we passed had inscribed
on it, " To Doverdale and Hampton Lovett." Then in
the neighbourhood are Elmley Lovett, Elmbridge, Cross-
way Green, and Gardeners' Grove ; while down between
these runs Doverdale Brook, skirting Westmoor Park,
the large house of which we could see as a faint blue
mound amid the general leafage. The country, which
is '(flat about Ombersley, gets more undulating about
Hartlebury and on towards Eidderminster. The roads
wind up and down gentle hills, with tall and ruddy
banks of sand on each side, which are hanging with
every variety of wild flower and wayside weed. On
both hands dense woods come down to these tall and
picturesque banks; and you drive through an atmo-
sphere laden with moist and resinous scents.
It was fortunate for us, indeed, that before starting
we had lived for a time in town; for all the various
perfumes of the hedges and fields came upon us with
a surprise. Every now and again, on these cool and
breezy mornings, we would drive past a hay-field, with
the fresh and sweet odours blowing all around Or per-
haps it was a great clump of wild-rose bushes that filled
the aiir with delicate scent. Then the lime-trees were
tn flower ; and who does not know the delight of pass-
1
i82 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
ing und^ the boughs laden with blossom, when the bees
are busy overhead ? More rarely, but still frequently
enough in this favoured country, a whiff of honeysuckle
was borne to us as we passed. And if these things
sweetened the winds that blew about us, consider what
stars of colour refreshed the eye as we drove gently
past the tall hedgerows and borders of woods ^the
golden rock-roses, purple patches of wild thyme, the
white glimmering of stitchwort and campion, the yellow
spires of the snapdragon, and a thousand others. And
then, when we ceased to speak, there was no blank oi
silence. Away over the hay-field the lark floated in the
blue, making the air quiver with his singing ; the robin,
perched on a fence, looked at us saucily, and piped a
few notes by way of remark ; the blackbird was heard,
flute-throated, down in the hollow recesses of the woods ;
and the thrush, in a holly-tree by the wayside, sang out
his sweet, clear song, that seemed to rise in strength as
the wind awoke a sudden rustling through the long
woods of birch and oak.
" Well, touching that sealed packet ? " says my Lady,
aloud.
" Oh no, Madame," replies the Lieutenant " This is
not the time for it. If I must tell you the truth, it
is only a drinking-song I have been trying to remember
of a young Englishman who was at Bonn with me;
and Mademoiselle was so good this morning as to alter
some of the words. But now ? a drinking-song in
this fine, quiet country ? No. After we have got to
Kidderminster, and when we drive away after lunch,
then Mademoiselle will play for you the air I did show
to her, and I will sing you the song. All what is
needed is that you diink some Ekine wine at Kidder-
minster to make you like the song."
" Kidderminster Bhine wine ! " exclaims one of the
party, with a groan. He knows that whatever is sug-
gested now by the Lieutenant finds favour with a clear
majority of the party.
" That was a very good young fellow," continues the
Lieutenant, as we drive over a high slope, and come
OP A PHAETON, 183
ill view of a mass of manufactories. " Very big and
strong lie was ; we did call him der grosse JSngldnder
always; and one time, in the winter, when there was
much snow, we had a supper-party at his room. We
had many duels then, for we were only boys, but the
Englishman was not supposed to be challenged, for he
knew nothing of our swords, but he was always ready
to fight with his fists lor all that. And this evening,
I am afraid we did drink too much beer, and young
Schweitzer of Magdeburg ^lie died at Koniggratz, the
unfortunate, in '66 he was very angry with the
Englander for laughing jit his sweetheart, who was
but a young lady in a school there. And he challenged
the Englishman, and went up to him, and said he would
not go away until there was a fight ; and do you know
what your countryman did ? He lifted Schweitzer up
in his arms, like a baby, and carried him down the
stairs, and opened the door, and put him in the snow
outside, very gently. There was so much laughing over
that, that we all said it was very good ; and Schweitzer
was grown sober by the cool of the snow; and he
laughed too, and I think they swore briiderscha/t about
it afterwards. Oh, he was a very clever fellow, your
countryman, and had more delight in our songs than any
German I ever knew. But do you know how that is ? "
Madame said it was no wonder anyone should be
in love with the Gterman songs; but the Lieutenant
shook his head.
"That is not it at all: no. This is it ^that when
you know only a little of a language, you do not know
what is commonplace in it. The simple phrase which
is commonplace to others that is all full of meaning to
you. So I find it with your English. You would laugh
if I told you that I find much meaning in poetry that
you think only good for children, and in old-fashioned
writing, which looks affected now. Because, Madame,
is it not true that all commonplace phrases meant some
new thing at one time ? It is only my ignorance that
I do not know they have grown old and worth little.
Now the evening at Twick*n]iaiu I difl ho.aT you go
i84 THE STRASGE ADVE.\TURES
over the names of old-fashioned English songs, and
luuch fun was made of the poetry. But to me, that
was very good a great deal of it ^because nothing in
English is to me commonplace as yet."
'* How fortunate you must be," says one of us, with
a sigh.
** You laugh when you say, ^FUno on, thou shining
river ! ' Why ? The river flows : and it shines. I see
a clear picture out of the words ^like the man who
wrote them; I am not accustomed to them so as to
think them stupid. Then I saw you laugh when some
one said, 'I dreamt that I dwelt in marble halls.* I
did read that song ; and although it is stupid that the
man thinks he wUl live in marble halls, I found much
tenderness in it. So with this young Englishman. He
knew nothing of what was commonplace in our lan-
guage. If you gave him children's rhymes, he looked
at the meaning ; and judged it all by that And when
we showed him stiff, artificial verses of old times, he
seemed to go back to the time when they were written,
and believe much in them, and like them. That is
a very good thing in ignorance, I think ^when you
know not much of a language, and every word has
much meaning in it, and there is no conmionplace
anywhere."
This lecture of the Lieutenant took us into Kidder-
minster. What manied man is not familiar with the
name held up to him as an awful threat in reply to
his grumblings about the price of Turkey and Brussels
carpets? As we drove into the busy town, signs .of the
prevailing manufacture were everjrwhere apparent in
tle large red-brick factories. We put up at the " lion,"
and while Von Rosen went off to buy himself a new
pair of boots, we went for a stroll up to the interesting
old church, the fine brasses and marble monuments of
which have drawn many a stranger to the spot Then
we climbed to the top of the tower, and from the zinc
roof thereof had a spacious view over the level and
wooded country, which was deeply streaked by bands
of purple, where the clouds threw their shadows. Far
OF A P ft A ETON. 185
)elow us lay the red, busy, smoky town set amid green
fields ; while the small river ran through it like a black
snake, for the bed had been drained, and in the dark
mud a multitude of boys could be seen wading, scoop*
iug about for eels. When we descended, Von Sosen
had got his. boots, and was prowling about the chnrch-
yard, reading the curious inscriptions there. One of
them informed the world of the person laid beneath
that, ''added to the character of a Gentleman, hia
actions were coeval with his Integrity, Hospitality, and,
Benevolence." But our amiable guide, who had pointed
out to us all the wonderful features of Kidderminster
and its neighbourhood, evidently looked on one par*
ticular grave-stone as the chief curiosity of the place ;
for this, he informed us, was placed over a man who
had prepared the vault and the inscription ten years
befoi*e his death. Here is the legend :
''To the Memory of
John Orton,
A Man prom Lsioestbrshirr,
And when he is dead he most lie under Herb.*'
The man from I/cicestershire was not " alone among
mortals" in anticipating his end in this fashion ; but no
matter. A man may well be allowed to humour him-
self in the way of a tombstone ; it is the last favour he
can ask from the world.
** Now," said the Lieutenant, as we drove away from
this manufacturing town into the fiBsh coxmtiy again,
" shall I sing you the song which the young English-
man used to sing for us ; or shall we wait until the
evening ?"
" Now, by all means," said Bell ; ** and if you will be
so good as to give me out the guitar, I will try to play
you an accompaniment."
"A guitar accompaniment to a drinking-song!" says
Titania.
" Oh, but this is not a drinking-song, exactly,
Madame - it is a very moral song ; and we shall discuss
e,ach verse as it goes along, and you will make altera-
tions of it."
i86 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
So he got out the guitar. We were now far away
firom any houses all around us great woods, that lay
dark and green under a clouded afternoon sky. The
road was very hilly ; and sometimes, from the summit
of a great height, we caught a glimpse of a long western
stretch of country, lying blue and misty under the grey
sky. Behind us Kidderminster looked like a dusky
red splatch in a plain of green ; and all around it the
meadows and fields were low and intense in colour.
But then in the west we could see an occasional glimpse
of yellow in the paU of cloud ; and we hoped the sunset
would break through the veil.
* Ladies and gentlemen," said the Lieutenant, "the
song I am about to sing to you "
Here BeU began to play a light prelude ; and without
further introduction our Uhlan startled the silence of
the woods and fields by singing, in a profound and
melancholy voice, the first two verses of the ballad
composed by the young Englishman at Bonn, which
ran somewhat aa follows:
" Oh, Burgnndy isn't a good thing to drink,
Young niajif I beseech you, consider and think,
Or else in your noae, and likewise in your toes,
You'll discover the colour of Burgundy rose :
Burgundy rose, Burgundy rose,
A dangerous symptom is Burgundy rose.
" 'Tis a very nice wine, and as meUow as milk,
'Tis a -^^Tf nice colour, in satin or silk ;
3ut you'll change your opinion as soon as it shows
jU a halo around the extreme of your nose :
Burgundy rose, Burgundy rose,
Is a very bad thing at the tip of your toes."
"Well, Madame, how do you like it so far as we
have got?'' says the Lieutonant, as Bell is extemporising
a somewhat wild variation of the air.
** I think your young English friend gave you very
good advice ; and I have no doubt the students needed
it very much."
** But you shall hear what he says ; he M'as not a
teetotaller at all.**
And therewith the Licutpuant continued :
OF A PHAETON. 187
" If tippl you must, m beer, spiiits, or wine,
There are wholesome yintaaee hail from tiie Rhine ;
And, take the adrice of a MLow who knows,
Hochheimer's as gentle as any that goes
Bmsimdy rose, Borgondy rose,
Dotn never appear from iJie wine I propose.
*' Oh, Bnrgondy isn't a good thing to drink,
Yoimg man, I beseech yon, consider and think,
Or else in yonr noee, and likewise in yonr toes,
You'll discoTer the colour of Burgundy rose :
Burgundy rose, Burgundy rose,
A fatal affliction is Bnrgondy rose ! "
"Oh, you two scapegraces!" cried Queen Titania.
" I know now why you were laying your heads together
this morning, and poring over that sheet of paper ; you
were engaged in perverting an honest and well-
intentioned song into a recommendation of German
wines. I am sure that third verse is not in the original.
I am certain the young English student never wrote it.
It was written in Worcester this very morning ; and I
call on you to produce the original, so that we may cut
out this very bad moral that has been introduced."
"The original, Madame?" said the Lieutenant,
gravely. " There is no original I have repeated it most
from memory as he used to sing it at Bonn and I
put it down on paper only that Mademoiselle might
correct me about the words. No I have put in no
moral. You think your countryman did not like the
Ehine wines ? Pfui ! you should have seen him drink
them then, if he did not like them ! And the very
dear ones, too, for he had plenty of money ; and we
poor devils of the Germans used to be astonished at his
extravagance, and sometimes he was called ' milord' for
a joke. When we did go to his room to the supper-
parties, we could not believe that any young man not
come of age should have so much money given to him
by his parents. But it did not spoil him one bit ; he
was as good, frank, careless as any man, and when he
did get to know the language better he worked hard,
and had such notes of the lectures as not anyone, I
think, in the whole university had."
1 88 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
A strange thing now occurred. We were driving
along level and wooded lanes, running parallel with the
Severn. The smaU hamlets we passed, merely two or
three houses smothered in elms, are appropriately named
greens Fen Green, Dodd's Green, Bsod's Green, and the
like ; and on either side of us were lush meadows, with
the cattle standing deep in the grass. Xow all at once
that long bar of glimmering yellow across the western
clouds burst asunder ; and at the same moment a glare
of light shone along the southern sky, where there was
evidently abundant rain. We had no sooner turned to
look at this flood of golden mist, than all around us
there was a stir in the hedges and the taU elms by the
roadside we were enveloped in sunshine ; with it came
a quick pattering on the leaves ; and then we found the
air glittering with white drops and slanting streaks.
In the wild glare of the sunlight the shower shone and
sparkled around us, and the heavier it fell ^imtil the
sound of it was like the hissing of the sea on a pebbly
beach the more magical grew the effects of the mingled
light and wet. Nor was it a passing shower merely.
The air was still filled with the gleaming lines of the
rain, the sunlight still shone mistily through it and lit
up the green meadows and the trees with a wonderful
radiance, as we wrapped cloaks round our companions
and drove leisurely on. It was impossible to think that
this luminous rain could wet us like ordinary rain. But
by and by it drew itself off; and then Bell, with a
sudden little cry, besought the Lieutenant to pull up
the horses.
Had we driven under a cloud, and escaped at the
other edge ? Close behind us there was still mingled
rain and sunlight ; but beyond that again the sky was
heaped up with immense dark blue masses. A rainbow
shone in front of this black background. A puff of
white cloud ran across the darkness, telling of contrary
winds. And then when we turned from this gleaming
and glowing picture to continue our course, lo ! all the
west had cleared, and a great dim smoke of yellow lay
over the land, where the sky came down.
PMH
OF A PHAETON, 189
" It is like the sea, is it not ?" said Bell, rising up in
the phaeton and steadying herself to k)ok into this
distant world of gold. "Don't you expect to find the
masts of ships and sea-birds flying about out there V
And then in the cool and fresh evening, with the
dusk coming on, we drove up the valley of the Severn,
by Quat and Quatford, towards our resting-place for
the night As we passed by Quatford Castle, the river,
lying amid the dark meadows, had caught a glow of
crimson fire from the last reflection of the sunsetr A
blue mist lay about the sides of the abrupt hiU on
which the town of Bridgenorth is pitched ; but as we
woimd round the hill to gain the easiest ascent, we
came again into the clear, metallic glow of the west.
It was a hard pull on the horses, just at the end of
their day's wort was this steep and circuitous ascent ;
but at length we got into the rough streets of the old
town, and in the fading twiUght sought out the yellow
and comfortable glow of the Crown HoteL
We had got in passing a vague glimpse of a wide
space around an old town-house, with a small crowd of
people collecting. They had come to hear the playing
of a Volunteer band. Therefore, as we sat down to
dinner, we had some very good music being played to
us from without ; and when at last it was gone, and
the quaint old town on the top of the hill left to its
ordinary silence, we found it was time to light our
cigars and open the b^zique-box.
Probably no one noticed it ; but it is a curious cir-
cumstance that Bell had apparently forgotten all about
her determination to write to Arthur. There was no
shadow of a cloud on her face, and she enjoyed the
winning of various games assisted thereto by the
obvious ministrations of the Lieutenant with as much
delight and careless amusement as though there was
not anywhere in the world a young man sitting in his
solitary chamber and wishing that he had never been
bom. But it was certainly not hard-heartedness that
gave to Bell th enjoyment of that one evening.
""PW^^ivaKr^
190 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
CHAPTEE XIV:
A SHEEWSBUEY PLAY.
"But (trust me, gentles !) never yet
Was dight a masquing half so neat,
Or naif so rich before ;
The country lent the sweet perfumes,
The sea the pearl, the sky the plumes,
The town its silken store.
Ths lieutenant was pensive. He and I had gone out
for a turn before breakfast, and wandered on to the
high promenade which, skirting one portion of the lofty
town, looked down on the valley of the Severn, the
huddled houses underneath the rocky height, and the
bridge spanning the stream. It was a bright and cool
morning; and the landscape that lay around was
shining in the sun.
"England/' he said^ leaning his arms on the stone
parapet of the walk, " is a very pleasant country to
live in, I think."
I thanked him for the compliment.
"You are very free in your actions here: you do
what you please. Only consider how you are at this
moment."
But I had to protest against our young Prussian
friend continually regarding this excursion as the
normal condition of our existence. I showed him that
we were not always eiqoying ourselves in this fashion ;
that a good deal of hard work filled the long interval
of the winter months ; and that even Bell Whom he
had grown to regard as a sort of feature of English
scenery a wild bird for ever on the wing through
sunlight and green leaves worked as hard as any of us.
" It is pleasant to be able to play dexterously on
the piano, or the guitar, or what not, but that accom-
plishment means imprisonment with hard labour stretch-
ing over years. It is very nice to be able to put on
a sheet of paper, with a few ropid touches, the outlines
OF A PHAETON. 191
of a scene which delights you, and to find yourself able
to reprodaee this afterwards in water or oil, and have it
publicly exhibited and sold ; but do you know how
much work it involves ? BeU is a most untiring young
woman, I promise you, and not likely to fall asleep in
counting her fingers."
' Oh, I am sure of that," he said, absently. " She has
too much spirit, too much life, to be indolent. But I
was thinking I was thinking whether, if a man was to
change his country, he would choose England out of all
the other countries to live in. Here it is. Your people
in England who only enjoy themselves must be very
rich, must they not ? Is it a good country, I wonder,
for a man who would have about 800/. a year ?"
"Not without some occupation. Bat why do you
ask?"
He only stared at the bushes down below us on the
rocks, and at the river far below them.
" What would you say," he asked, suddenly, " if I
were to come and live in England, and become natural-
ized, and never go back to my native country again ?"
"And give up your profession, with all its interest
and excitement?"
He was silent for a minute or two ; and then he said
" I have done more than the service that is expected
from every man in Prussia ; and I do not think my
country goes to war for many years to come. About
the excitement of a campaign and the going into battle
well, there is much mistake about that. You are not
always in enthusiasm ; the long marches, the wet days,
the waiting for months in one place there is nothing
heroic in that. And when you do come to the battle
itself, come, my dear friend, I will tell you something
about that."
He seemed to wake up then. He rose from his
recumbent position and took a look round the shining
country that lay along the valley of the Severn.
" All the morning bsfore the battle," said the Lieu-
tenant, " you have great gloom ; and it seems as if the
day is dark overhead. But this is strange ^that you
192 THE STRANGE ^AD VENTURES
think you can see very far, and you can see all your
friends in Gremiany^ and tlimk you could almost speak
to them. You expect to go forward to meet the enemy ;
and you hate him that he is waiting for you upon some
of the lulls or behind his entrenchments. Then the
hurry comes of getting on horseback; and you are yeiy
friendly to all your companions ^and they are all very
pleasant and laughing at this time except one or two,
who are thinking of their home. Your regiment is
ordered forward: you do not know what to think:
perhaps you wish the enemy would run away, or that
your regiment is not needed, and sometimes you have
great wish of anger towards him; but all this is
shifting, gloomy, uncertain, that you do not think two
things one moment Then you hear the sound of the
firing, and your heart beats fast for a little while, and
you think of all your friends in Germany; and this
is the time that is the worst. You are angry with
all the men who provoke wars in their courts and
parliaments ; and you think it is a shame you should
be there to fight for them ; and you look at the pleasant
things you are leaving all behind in your own home,
just as if you were never to see them any more. That
is a very wretched and miserable time, but it does not
last very long if you are ordered to advance ; and then,
my dear Mend, I can assure you that you do not care
one farthing for your own life ^that you forget your
home altogether, and you think no moie of your
friends; you do not even hate the enemy in front
any more ^it is all a stir, and life, and eagerness ; and
a warm, glad feeling runs all through your veins, and
when the great 'hurrah' comes, and you ride forward,
you think no more of yourself; you say to yourself,
* Here is for my good Fatherland V and then ''
A sort of sob stuck in the throat of the big lieu-
tenant.
" BsJi,** said he, with a frown, as if the bright morning
and the &esh air had done him an injury, " what is the
use of waiting out here, and killing ourselves with
hunger ?"
OF A PHAETON. 193
Bell was "writing when we went into the hotel. As
we entered she hastily shut up her small port-
folio.
" Why not finish your letter, Mademoiselle ?" he said,
gently. "It wiU be a little time, before breakfast
comes in."
"I can finish it afterwards," said the girl, looking
rather embarrassed.
Of course, when the Lieutenant perceived that the
attention thus drawn to the letter had caused her some
confusion, he immediately rushed into another subject,
and said to Queen Titania, with a fine affectation of
carelessness
" You will laugh, Madame, at our having yet another
adventure in a stetioner's shop."
" I think," said my Lady, gravely, " that I must put
a stop to these wanderings about in the early morn-
ing. I cannot quite make out why you should
always get up hours before anybody else ; but I find
that generally some story is revealed afterwards of a
young lady."
"But there is no young lady this time," said the
Lieutenant, " but a very worthy man whom we found
in the stationer^s shop. And he has been at Sedan,
and he has brought back the breech of a mitrailleuse
and showed it all to us, and he has written a small
book about his being in France, and did present us
with a copy of it, and would not take any payment
for it. Oh, he is a very remarkable and intelligent
man to be found in a stationer's shop up in this
curious old town on the top of a hill; but then I
discovered he is a Scotchman, and do you not say
here that a Scotchman is a great traveller, and is to
be found everywhere? And I have looked into the
little book, and I think it very sensible and good,
and a true account of what he has seen."
"Then I presume he extols your countrymen?" says
my Lady, with a smile.
" Madame," replies the Lieutenant, " I may assure
you of this, that a man who has been in a campaign
o
194 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
and seen both the armies, does not think either anny
an army of angels and the other an army of demons.
To believe one nation to have all the good, and
another nation to have all the bad, that can only
be believed by people who have seen none of them.
I think my friend the stationer has written so
much of what he saw, that he had no time for
stupid imaginations about the character of two whole
countries."
At this moment the introduction of breakfast broke
our talk in this direction. After breakfast Bell
finished her letter. She asked the Lieutenant to
get it stamped and posted for her, and handed it
openly to him. But, without looking at it, he must
have known that it was addressed to "Arthur Ash-
burton, Esq., Essex Court, Temple."
"Well," said Bell, coming downstairs with her
hat on, "let us go out now, and see the town. It
must be a very pleasant old place. And the day
is so fine; don't you think we have had quite
exceptional weather hitherto. Count von Eosen?"
Of course he said the weather had been lovely;
but how was it that Bell was so sure beforehand that
she would be pleased with Bridgenorth! The delight
was already in her face, and beaming in her eyes.
She knew tiie weather must be fine. She was certain
we should have a delicious drive during the day,
and was positive the country through which we had
to pass would be charming. The observant reader
will remark that a certain letter had been posted.
Eeally, Bridgenorth was pleasant enough on this
bright morning, albeit the streets on the river-side
part of the town were distinctly narrow, dirty, and .
smoky. First of all, however, we visited the crumbling
walls of Bobert de Belesme's mighty tower. Then
we took the women round the high promenade over
the valley. Then we went down through a curious
and precipitous passage hewn out of the sandstone
hiU to the lower part of the town, and visited the
old building in which Bishop Percy was bom, thi
OF A PHAETON. 195
inscription^ on which, by the way, is a standing
testimony to the playful manner in which this nation
has from time immemoriEd dealt with its aspirates.
Then we clambered up the steep streets again until
we reached the great central square, with its quaint
town-house and old-fashioned shops. A few minutes
thereafter we were in the phaeton, and Castor and
Pollux taking us into the open country again.
" Mademoiselle ! " said the Lieutenant----the young
man was like a mavis, with this desire of his to sing
or hear singing just after his morning meal ^''you
have not sung to us anything for a lonjg while now."
" But I will this morning, with great pleasure^"
said Bell.
"Then," said Von Eosen, "here is your guitar.
When I saw you come down to go out tnis morning,
I said to myself, ' Mademoiselle is sure to sing to-
day.' So I kept out the guitar-case."
The horses pricked up their ears. The cords of
the guitar twanged out a few notes. The fresh breeze
blew by from the fields ; and as we drove through the
stillness of one or two straggling woods, Bell sang
' 'J f enemies oppose us.
And England is at war
With any foreign nation,
We fear not wonnd nor scar !
To humble them, come on, lads !
Their flags we'll soon lay low ;
Clear the way, for the fray :
Though the stormy winds do blow ! "
"Mademoiselle," cries the Lieutenant, "it is a
challenge."
Bell laughed, and suddenly altered the key.
" Fair Hebe I left with a cautions design"
^ The inscription inside the door of this old-fashioned building,
which is ornamented by bars of black and white, and peaked gables, is
as follows :
" Except the Lord Bviu) the owse
The Liabonrers thereof evail nothing
Erected by R For 1680."
2
196 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
this was what she sang now
'* To escape from her charms and to drown lore in wine ;
I tried it, bat fonnd, when I came to depart,
The wine in my head, bnt still lore in my heart."
"Well," said Tita, with an air of astonishment,
" that is a pretty song for a young lady to sing ! "
Bell laid down the guitar.
"And what," I ask of Queen Titania, "are the
sentiments of which alone a young lady may sing?
Not patriotism ? Not love ? Not despair ? Goodness
gracious ! Don't'you remember what old Joe Blatxjhers
said when he brought us word that some woman in
his neighbourhood had committed suicide?"
"What did he say?" asked the Lieutenant with
a great curiosity.
" The wretched woman had drowned herself because
her husband had died ; and old Joe brought us the
story with the serious remark, ' Th^ ladies *as their
fedinSy 'asrCt they, fifr, arter allV Mayn't a young
lady sing of anything but the joy of decorating a
church on Christmas Eve?"
"I have never been taught to perceive the hiunour
of profanity," says my Lady, with a serene impas-
siveness.
"Curious, if true. Perhaps you were never taught
that a white elephant isn't the same as a rainbow or
a pack of cards ? "
"My dear," says Tita, turning to Bell, "what is
that French song that you brought over with you
from Dieppe?"
Thus appealed to. Bell took up her guitar, and
sang for us a very pretty song. It was not exactly
French, to be sure. It began
" 'Twas fixst and thro' leet, wid a ffreyming o' snaw,
When I went to see Biddy, the now^r o* diem aw ;
To meet was agreed on at Seymy' deyke nnik.
Where I sauntered wi' mony a se^h and lang Inik. *'
But good honest Cumbrian is quite as foreign to
most of us as French; and no exception could be taken
OF A PHAETON. 197
to the sentiment of Bell's ballad, for none of us could
understand six consecutiye words of it
Much-Wenlock is a quiet town. It is about as
quiet as the spacious and grassy enclosure in whidi
the magnificent ruins of its old monastery stand grey
and black in the sunshine. There are many strange
passages and courts in these noble ruins ; and as you
wander through broken arches, and over courtyards
half hid in the long green grass, it is but natural
that a preference for solitude should betray itself in
one or other of the members of a noisy little party.
We lost sight of Bell and the Lieutenant. There was a
peacock strutting through the grass, and making his
resplendent tail gleam in the sunshine; and they
followed him, I think. When we came upon them
again. Bell was seated on a bit of tumbled piUar,
pulling daisies out of the sward and plaiting them;
and the Lieutenant was standing by her side, talking
to her in a low voice. It was no business of ours to
interfere with this pastoral occupation. Doubtless he
spoke in these low tones because of the great silence
of the place. We left them there, and had another
saunter before we returned. We were almost sorry
to disturb them ; for they made a pretty group, these
two young folks, talking leisurely to each other under
the solemn magnificence of the great grey ruins, while
the sunlight that lit up the ivy on the walls, and
threw black shadows under the arches of the crumbling
windows, and lay warm on the long grass around
them, touched Bell's cheek too, and glimmered down
one side of the loose and splendid masses of her
hair.
Castor and Pollux were not allowed much time
for lunch ; for, as the young people had determined
to go to the theatre on reaching Shrewsbury, their
elders, warned by a long experience, knew that the
best preparation for going to a country theatre is to
dine before setting out. My Lady did not anticipate
much enjoyment; but Bell was positive we should
be surprised.
198 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
" We have been out in the country so much seeing
so much of the sunlight and the green trees, and living
at those little inns that we ought to have a country
theatre as well. Who knows but that we may have
left all our London ideas of a play in London ; and
find ourselves quite delighted with the simple folk
who are always uttering good sentiments, and quite
enraged with the bad man who is wishing them ill.
I thinlc Count von Eosen was quite right "
Of course Count, von Eosen was quite right !
" about commonplace things only having become
commonplace through our familiarity with them," con-
tinued Miss Bell; ''perhaps we may find ourselves
going back a bit, and being as much impressed by a
country drama as any of the farmer-folk who do not
see half-a-dozen plays in their life. And then, you
know, what a big background we shall have ! not the
walls of the little theatre, but all the great landscape
we have been coming through. Eound about us we
shall see the Severn, and the long woods, and Broadway
ffiU "
"And not forgetting Bourton Hill," says the Lieu-
tenant " If only they do give us a good moonlight
scene like that, we shall be satisfied."
"Oh no!" said Bell gravely she was evidently
launching into one of her unconscious flights, for her
eyes took no more notice of us, but were looking
wistfully at the pleasant country around us " that is
asking far too much. It is easier for you to make the
moonlight scene than for the manager. You have only
to imagine it is there ^shut your eyes a little bit, and
fancy you hear the people on the stage talking in a
real scene, with the real country around, and the real
moonlight in the air. And then you grow to believe
in the people ^and you forget that they are only actors
and actresses working for their salaries ^and you think
it is a true story, like the stories they tell up in West-
moreland of things that have happened in the villages
years ago. That is one of the great pleasures of
driving, is it not ? thiat it gives you a sense of wide
OF A PHAETON. 199
space. There is a great deal of air and sky about it ;
aiid you have a pleasant and easy way of getting
through it, as if you were really sailing; whereas
the railway whisks you through the long intervals,
and makes your journey a succession of dots. That
is an unnatural way of travelling, that staccato
method of "
Here Mademoiselle caught sight of Queen Tita
gravely smiling, and immediately paused to find out
what she had been saying.
"Well?" she said, expecting to be corrected or re-
proved, and calmly resolved to bear the worst.
But how could Tita explain ? She had been amused
by the manner in which the young lady had uncon-
sciously caught up a trick of the Lieutenant's in the
construction of his sentences ^the use of "that" as the
introductory nominative, the noun coming in afterwards.
For the moment the subject dropped, in the excitement
of our getting once more back to the Severn ; and when
Bell spoke next, it was to ask the Lieutenant whether
the Wrekin a solitary, abrupt, and conical hill on our
right, which was densely wooded to the top niid not
in a milder form reproduce the odd masses of rock that
stud the great plain west of the Lake of Constance.
; A pleasant drive through ^ fine stretch of open
count^ took us into Shrewsbury; and here, having
got over the bridge and up the steep thoroughfares to
our hotel, dinner was immediately ordered. When at
length we made our way round to the theatre it was
about half-past seven, and the performance was to
commence at twenty minutes to eight.
" Oh, Bell ! " says my Lady, as we enter the building.
She looks blankly round. From the front of the dress
circle we are peering into a great hollow place, dimly
lighted by ten lamps, each of one burner, that throw
a sepulchral light on long rows of wooden benches, on
a sad-coloured curtain and an empty orchestra. How
is all the force of Bell's imagination to drive ofif these
walls and this depressing array of carpentry, and
substitute for them a stage of greensward and walls
aoo THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
composed of the illimitable sky ? There is an odour of
escaped gas, and of oranges ; but when did any people
ever muster up enough of gaiety to eat an orange in
this gloomy hall ?
7.30, by Shrewsbury clock. ^An old gentleman and
a boy appear in the orchestra. The former is pos-
sessed of a bass-viol; the latter proceeds to tune up
a violin.
7.40 which is the time for commencing the play
three ladies come into the pit. The first is a farmer's
wife, fat, ostentatious, happy in a black silk that
rustles ; the two others are apparently Mends of hers
in the town, who follow her meekly, and take their
seats with a frightened air. She sits down with a proud
gesture ; and this causes a thin crackle of laughter and
a rude remark far up in the semi-darkness overhead,
so that we gather that there are probably two persons
in the upper gallery.
7.45. Two young ladies perhaps shop-girls, but
their extreme blushing gives them a countrified look
come into the pit, talk in excited whispers to each
other, smd sit down with an uncomfortable air of
embarrassment. At this moment the orchestra startles
us by dashing into a waltz from " Faust." There are
now five men and a boy in this tuneful choir. One
of them starts vigorously on the comet ; but invariably
fails to get beyond the first few notes, so that the flute
beats him hollow. Again and again the comet atrikes
in at the easy parts; but directly he subsides again,
and the flute has it aU his own way. The music ceases.
The curtain is drawn up. The play has begun.
The first act is introductory. There is a farmer,
whose chief business it is to announce that " his will
is law;" and he has a son addressed throughout as
Weelyam, whom he wishes to marry a particular girl.
The son, of course, has married another. The villain
appears, and takes us into his confidence; giving us
to understand that a worse villain never trod the earth.
He has to interview with the farmer; but this is
suddenly broken ofif a whistle in some part of the
OF A PHAETON. 201
theatre is heard, and we are conveyed to an Italian
lake, all shining with yellow villas and blue skies.
"That is the problem stated," said the Lieutenant;
" now we shall have the solution. But do you find the
walls going away yet, Mademoiselle?"
" I think it is very amusing," said Bell, with a bright
look on her face. Indeed, if she had not brought in
with her sufl&cient influence from the country to resolve
the theatre into thin air, she had imbibed a vast
quantity of good health and spirits there, so that she
was prepared to enjcy anything.
The plot thickens. The woman-villain appears a
lady dressed in deep black, who tells us. in an awful
voice that she was the mistress of Weelyam in France
that being the country naturally associated in the
mind of the dramatist with crimes of this character.
She is in a pretty state when she learns that Weelyam
is married; and events are plainly marching on to a
crisis. It comes. The marriage is revealed to the
farmer, who delivers a telling curse, which is apparently
launched at the upper gallery, but which is really meant
to confound Weelyam; then the old man faUs ^there
is a tableau ^the curtain comes down, and the band, by
some odd stroke of luck, plays " Home, sweet home,"
as an air descriptive of Weelyam's banishment.
We become objects of curiosity, now that the
adventures of the farmer's son are removed. There
are twenty-one people in the pit ^representing con-
jointly a solid guinea transferred to the treasury.
One or two gay young men with canes, and their
hats much on the side of their heads, have entered
the dress-circle, stared for a minute or two at the
stage, and retired.
They are probably familiar with rustic drama, and
hold it in contempt. A good ballet, now, would be
more in their way, performed by a trofwpe of young
ladies whose names are curiously like English names,
with imposing French and Italian terminations. A
gentleman comes into the pit along with a friend, nods
familiarly to the attendant, deposits his friend, utters
202 THE S TRANGE AD VENTURES
a few facetious remarks, and leaves: can it be that
he is a reporter of a local newspaper, dowered with
the privilege of free admission for " himself and one ? "
There must at least be three persons in the upper
gallery, for a new voice is heard, calling out the
graceful but not unfamiliar name of "Polly/* One
of the two rose-red maidens in front of us timidly
looks up, and is greeted with a shout of recognition
and laughter. She drops into her old position in
a second, and hangs down her head; while her
companion protests in an indignant way in order to
comfort her. The curtain rises.
The amotmt of villany in this Shrewsbury drama is
really getting beyond a joke. We are gradually rising
in the scale of dark deeds, until the third villain, who
now appears, causes the other two to be regarded as
innocent lambs. This new performer of crime is a
highwayman ; and his very first act is to shoot
Weelyam's father and rob him of his money. But
lo ! the Trench adventuress drops from the clouds :
the highwayman is her husband : she tells him of her
awful deeds, among them of her having murdered " her
mistress the Archduchess;" and then, as she vows
she will go and murder Weelyam, a tremendous conflict
of everybody ensues, and a new scene being run on,
we are suddenly whirled up to Balmoral Castle.
"I am beginning to be very anxious about the
good people," remarked Tita. "I am afraid William
will be kiUed."
" Unless he has as many lives as Plutarch, lie can't
escape," said Bell
"As for the old farmer," observed the Lieutenant,
" he survives apoplectic fits and pistol-shots very well
oh, very well indeed. He is a very good man in a
play. He is sure to last to the end."
Well, we were near the end ; and author, carpenter,
and scene-painter had done their dead best to render
the final scene impressive. It was in a cavern. Cim-
merian darkness prevailed. The awfal lady in black
haunts the gloomy byways of the rocks, communing
OF A PHAETON. 203
with herself, and twisting her arms so that the greatest
agony is made visible. But what is this hooded and
trembling figure that approaches ? Once in the cavern,
the hood is thrown off, and the palpitating heroine
comes forward for a second to the low footlights, merely
that there shall be no mistake about her identity.
The gloom deepens. The young and innocent wife
encounters the French adventuress; the woman who
did not scruple to murder her mistress the Arch-
duchess seizes the girl by her hands shrieks are heard
^the two figures twist round one another ^then a
mocking shout of laughter, and Weelyam's wife is
precipitated into the hideous waters of the lake ! But
lo ! the tread of innumerable feet ; from aU quarters of
the habitable globe stray wanderers arrive : with a shout
Weelyam leaps into the lake, and when it is discovered
that he has saved his wife, behold I everybody in the
play is found to be around him, and with weeping
and with laughter all the story is told, and the
drama ends in the most triumphant and comfortable
manner, in the middle of the night, in a cavern, a
hundred miles from anywhere.
" No," said Queen Titania, distinctly, " I will not stay
to see La Champagne Ballet or the Pas de FasdruUion,"
So there was nothing for it but to take the ungrate-
ful creature back to the hotel, and give her tea and a
novel. As for the billiard-room in that hotel, it is one of
the best between Holbom and the Canongate. The Lieu-
tenant begs to add, that he can recommend the beer.
CHAPTEE XV.
"LA PATBIE EN DANGER."
" Sometimes on lonely monntain-meres,
I find a magic bark ;
I leap on beard : no helmsman steers
I float tUl aU is dark."
I SIT down to write this chapter with a determination
to be generous, calm, and modest in the last degree.
204 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
The man who would triumph over the wife of his bosom
merely to have the pleasure of sa}ring " I told you so/'
does not deserve to have his path through life sweetened
by any snch tender companionship. Far be it from
me to recall the earnest protestations which my Lady
af&xed to the first portion of this narrative. Not
for worlds would I inquire into her motives for being
so anxious to see Arthur go. The ways of a woman
ought to be intricate, occult, perplexing, if only to pre-
serve something of the mystery of life around her, and
to serve her, also, as a refuge from the coarse and rude
logic of the actual world. The foolish person who, to
prove himself right, would drive his wife into a comer,
and demonstrate to her that she was wrong that she
had been guilty of small prevarications, of trifling bits of
hypocrisy, and of the use of various arts to conceal her
real belief and definite purpose ^the man who would thus
wound the gentle spirit by his side to secure the petty
gratification of proving himself to have been something
of a twopenny-halfpenny prophet but these remarks
are premature at the present moment, and I go on to
narrate the events which happened on the day of our
leaving Shrewsbury, and getting into the solitary region
of the meres.
" I have received a telegram from Arthur," says Bell,
calmly : and the pink sheet is lying on the breakfast-
table before her.
"How did you get \\,V* says my Lady, with some
surprise.
"At the post-office."
"Then you have been out?"
" Yes, we went for a short walk, after having waited
for you," says Bell, looking down.
" Oh, Madame," says the Lieutenant, coming forward
from the fireplace, " you must not go away from the
town without seeing it well. It is handsome, and
the tall poplars down by the side of the river, they are
worth going to see by themselves."
" It was very pretty this morning," continued Bell,
"when the wind was blowing about the light blue
It
tt
OF A PHAETON. 205
smoke, and the sun was shining down on the slates
and the clumps of trees. We went to a height on
the other side of the river, and I have made a sketch
of it "
Pray," says my Lady, regarding our ward severely,
when did yon go out this morning?"
" Perhaps about an hour and a half ago," replies Bell
carelessly ; " I don't exactly know."
" More than that, I think," says the Lieutenant, " for
I did smoke two cigars before we came back. It is
much to our credit to get up so early, and not anything
to be blamed of."
" I am glad Bell is improving in that respect," retorts
my Lady, with a wicked smile; and then she adds,
" WeU ? "
" He has started," is the reply to that question.
" And is going by another route ? "
" Yes : in a dog-cart by himself. Don't you think
it is very foolish of him, Tita ? You know what acci-
dents occur with those dog-carts."
"Mademoiselle, do not alarm yourself," says the
Lieutenant, folding up his newspaper. " It is quite true
what Madame said yesterday, that there are so many
accidents in driving, and so veiy seldom anyone hurt.
You ask your friends ^yes, they have all had accidents
in their riding and driving ; they have all been in great
danger, but what have they suffered ? Nothing ! Some-
times a man is killed ^yes, one out of several millions
in the year. And if he tumbles over ^which is likely
if he does not know much of horses and driving ^what
then? No, there is no fear; we shall see him some day
very well, and go on all together ! "
" Oh, shall we ? " says my Lady, evidently regarding
this as a new idea.
" Certainly. Do you think he goes that way always?
Impossible. He will tire of it. He will study the
loads across to meet us. He will overtake us with his
light little dog-cart ; we shall have his company along
the road."
Tita did not at all look so well satisfied with this
2o6 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
prospect of meeting an old friend as she might have
done.
" And when are you to hear from him next ? " I
inquire of Mademoiselle.
** He will either write or telegraph to each of the big
towns along our route, on the chance of the message
intercepting us somewhere; and so we shall know
where he is."
" And he has really started ? "
Bell placed the telegram in my hands. It was as
follows :
" Havt set out hy Hatfiddy JSuntingdon, and York, for
Edinburgh. Shail follow the real old coach-road to
Scotland; and am certain to find much erUeHamment,^^
"For man and beast," struck in the Lieutenant.
** And I know of a Mend of mine travelling in your
country who went into one of these small inns, and put
up his horse, and when they brought him in his luncheon
to the parlour, he only looked at it and said, ' Very
good, loaiter ; this is very nice ; hU where is the enter-
tainmeni for the man / ' "
I continued to read the telegram aloud
" Shall probaily be in Edinburgh before you; hut will
telegraph or vrrUe to each big town along your r&u/te, that
you may let me know where yaw are!*
"It is very obliging," says the Lieutenant, with a
shrug of his Moulders.
"It is quite certain," observes my Lady, with de-
cision, "that he must not accompany us in his dog-
cart ; for we shall arrive at plenty of inns where they
could not possibly put up three horses and so many
people."
"It would have been so," said the Lieutenant, "at
the place on the top of the hill Bourton was it
called, yes?"
The mere notion of Arthur coming in to spoil the
enjoyment of that rare evening was so distressing, that
we all took refage in breakfast, after which we went for
a long and leisurely stroll through Shrewsbury; and
then had Castor and Pollux put into the phaeton. It
OF A PHAETON, 207
seemed now to ns to matter little at what town we
stayed. We had almost begun to forget the various
points of the journey. It was enough that some hospi-
table place whether it were city, town, or hamlet
afford^ us shelter for the night, that on the next morn-
ing we could issue forth again into the sweet-smelling
country air, and have all the fair green world to our-
selves. We looked with a lenient eye upon the great
habitations of men. What if a trMe of coal-smoke
hung about the house-tops, and that the streets were
not quite so clean as they might be ? We suffered little
from these inconveniences. They only made us rejoice
the more to get out into the leafy lanes, where the air
was fresh with the scent of the bean-fields and the
half-dried hay. And when a town happened to be
picturesque and it was our good fortune to find a con-
siderable number of handsome cities along our line of
route and combined with its steep streets, its old-
fashioned houses, and its winding river and banks, a
fair proportion of elms and poplars scattered about in
clumps to mar the monotony of the grey fronts and the
blue slates, we paid such a tribute of admiration as
could only be obtained from people who knew they
would soon be emancipated from the din and clamour, the
odour and the squalor, of thoroughfares and pavements.
Bell, sitting very erect, and holding the whip and
reins in the most accurate and scientific fashion, was
driving us leisurely up the level and pleasant road
leading from Shrewsbury to Ellesmere. The country
was now more open and less hilly than that through
which we had recently come. Occasionally, as in the
neighbourhood of Harmer Hill, we drove by long
woods; but for the most part our route lay between
spacious meadows, fields, and farms, with the horizon
aroimd lying blue and dark under the distant sky. The
morning had gradually become overcast, and the various
greens of the landscape were darkened by the placid
grey overhead. There was little wind, but a prevailing
coolness that seemed to have something of premonitory
moistness in it.
3o8 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
But how the birds sang under the silence of that cold
grey sky I We seemed to hear all the sounds within a
great compass, and these were exclusively the innu-
merable notes of various warblers ^in the hedges, and in
the road-side trees, far away in woods, or hidden up in
the level greyness of the clouds : Teiwi, teivi, trrrr-weet !
droom, droom, phloee ! tricky tiick, tuck, tuck, feer !
that was the silvery chorus from thousands of throats,
and, under the darkness of the grey sky, the leaves of the
trees and the woods seemed to hang motionless in order
to listen. Now and then Bell picked out the call of a
thrush or a blackbird bom the almost indistinguishable
mass of melody ; but it seemed to us that all the fields
and hedges had but one voice, and that it was clear, and
sweet, and piercing, in the strange silence reigning over
the land.
So we rolled along the imfrequented road, occasion-
ally passing a wayside tavern, a farjoohouse, or a cluster
of cottages, until about noon we caught a glimpse of a
stretch of grey water. On this lonely mere no boat was
to be seen, nor any house on its banks, merely a bit of .
leaden-coloured water placed amid the soft and low-
lying woods. Then we caught the glimmer of another
sheet of cold grey, and by-and-by, driving under and
through an avenue of trees, we came full in sight of
Ellesmere.
The small lake looked rather dismal just then. There
was a slight stirring of wind on its surface, which
destroyed the reflection of the woods aloug its shores,
so that the water was pretty much the coimterpart of
the gloomy sky above. At this moment, too, the
moisture in the air began to touch our faces, and every-
thing portended a shower. BeU drove us pjist the mere
and on to the small village, where Castor and Pollux
were safely lodged in the stables of the " Bridgewater
Arms."
We had got into shelter just in time. Down came
the rain with a will ; but we were tmconcemedly having
luncheon in a long apartment which the landlord had
recently added on to his premises. Then we darted
OF A PHAETON. 209
across the yard to the billiard-room, where Bell and my
Lady having taken np lofty positions in order to over-
look the tournament, we proceeded to knock the balls
about until the shower should cease.
The rain, however, showed no symptoms of leaving
off, so we resolved to remain at Ellesmere that night,
and the rest of the afternoon was spent in getting up
arrears of correspondence and similar work. It was not
until after dinner that it was found the rain-clouds had
finally gathered themselves together, and then, when we
went out for a stroll, in obedience to Bell's earnest
prayer, the evening had drawn 6n apace.
The darkening waters of the lake were now sur-
rounded by low clouds of white mist, that hung about
the still and wet woods. Prom the surface of the mere,
too, a faint vapour seemed to rise, so that the shores on
the other side had grown dim and vague. The trees
were still dropping large drops into the plashing road ;
runnels of water showed how heavy the rain had been :
and it seemed as if the grey and ghostly plain of the
lake were still stirred by the commotion of the showers.
The reflection of a small yacht out from the shore was
blurred and indistinct; and underneath the wooded
island beyond there only reigned a deeper gloom on
the mere.
Of course, no reasonable person could have thought
of going out in a boat on this damp evening ; but Bell
having expressed some wish of the kind, the Lieutenant
forthwith declared we should sooU have a boat, how-
ever late the hour. He dragged us through a wet
garden to a house set amid trees by the side of the lake.
He summoned a worthy woman, and overcame her
wonder and objections and remonstrances in about a
couple of minutes. In a very short space of time we
found ourselves in a massive and unwiddy punt, out in
the middle of this grey sheet of water, with the chill
darkness of night rapidly descending.
'' We shall all have neuralgia, and rheumatism, and
colds to-morrow," said my I^idy, contentedly. "And
all because of this mad girl, who thinks she can see
p
2IO THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
ghosts wherever there is a little mist. Bell, do you
remember ^'
Tita stopped suddenly, and grasped my arm. A
white something had suddenly borne down upon us,
and not for a second or two did we recognize the fact
that it was merely a swan, bent on a mission of
curiosity. Far away beyond the solitary animal there
now became visible a faint line of white, and we knew
that there the members of his tribe were awaiting his \
report.
The two long oars plashed in the silence, we glided
onwards through the cold mists, and the woods of the
opposite shore were now coming near. How long we
floated thus, through the gloomy vapours of the lake, I
cannot tell. We were bent on no particular mission;
and somehow the extreme silence was grateful to us.
But what was this new light that was seen to be steal-
ing up behind the trees, a faint glow that began to tell
upon the sky, and reveal to us the conformation of the
clouds ? The mists of the lake deepened, but the sky
lightened, and we could see breaks in it, long stripes
of a soft and pale yellow. The faint sufiFusion of
yellow light seemed to lend a little warmth to the
damp and chill atmosphere. Bell had not uttered a
word. She had been watching this growing light with
patient eyes, only turning at times to see how the island
was becoming more distinct in the darkness. And
then more and more rapidly the radiance spread up and
over the south-east, the clouds got thinner and thinner,
until all at once we saw the white glimmer of the disc
of the moon leap into a long crevice in the dark sky.
And lo! all the scene around us was changed; the
mists were gradually dispersed and driven to the shores;
the trees on the island became sharp, black bars against
a flood of light ; and on the dark bosom of the water
lay a long lane of silver, intertwisting itself with
millions of gleaming lines, and flashing on the ripples
that went quivering back from the hull of our boat.
We were floating on an enchanted lake, set far away
amid these solitary woods.
OF A PHAETON, 211
" Every day, I think," said Bell, " we come to some-
thing more beautiful in this journey."
" Mademoiselle," said the Lieutenant, suddenly, "your
country it has been too much for me ; I have resolved
to come to live here always, and in five years, if I
choose it, I shall be able to be naturalized, and consider
England as my own country."
The moonlight was touching softly at this moment
the outlines of Bell's face, but the rest of the face was
in shadow, and we could not see what evidence of
surprise was written there.
"You are not serious?" she said.
"I am."
" And you mean to give up your country because
you like the scenery of another, country?"
That, plainly put, was what the proposal of the
Count amounted to, as he had expressed it ; but even
he seemed somewhat taken aback by its apparent
absurdity.
"No," he said, "you must not put it all down to
one reason ; there are many reasons, some of them im-
portant ; but at all events it is sure that if 1 come to
live in England, I shall not be disappointed of having
much pleasure in travelling."
"With you it may be different," said Bell, almost
repeating what I had said the day before to the young
man. " I wish we could always be traveUiug and meet-
ing with such pleasant scenes as this. But this holiday
is a very exceptional thing."
" So much the worse," said the Lieutenant, with the
air of a man who thinks he is being hardly used by
destiny.
" But tell me," broke in my Lady, as the boat lay in
the path of the moonlight, ahnost motionless, "have
you calculated the consequences of your becoming an
exile?"
" An exile ! There are many thousands of my country-
men in England ; they do not seem to suiBfer much of
regret because they are exiles."
" Suppose we were to go to war with Germany ? ''
p 2
212 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
''Madame," observed the Lieutenant, seriously, "if
you regard one possibility, why not another ? Should I
not hesitate of living in England for fear of a comet
striking your country rather than Grermany ? No : I do
not think there is any chance of either ; but if there is
a war, then I consider whether I am more bound to Ger-
many or to England. And that is a question of the ties
you may form, which may be more strong than merely
that you chance to have been born in a particular place."
" These are not patriotic sentiments," remarks my
Lady, in a voice which shows she is pleased as well as
amused by the announcement of them.
"Patriotism ! '* he said, "that is very good but you
need not make it a fetish. Perhaps I have more right
to be patriotic in a country that I choose for my own,
than in a country where I am bom without any choice
of my own. But I do not find my countrymen when
they come to England much troubled by such things :
and I do not think your countrymen, when they go to
America, consult the philosophers, and say what they
would do in a war. If you will allow me to differ from
you, Madame, 1 do not think that is a great objection to
my living in England."
An objection coming from her! The honest Lieu-
tenant meant no sarcasm ; but if a blush remained in
my Lady's system ^which is pretty well trained, I
admit, to repress such symptoms of consciousness
surely it ought to have been visible on this clear moon-
light night.
At length we had to make for the ^hore. It seemed
as though we were leaving out there on the water all
the white wonder of the moon ; but when we had run
the boat into the boat-house and got up among the trees,
there too was the strong white light, gleaming on black
branches, and throwing bars of shadow across the pale
brown road. "We started on our way back to the village,
by the margin of the mere. The mists seemed colder
here than out on the water ; and now we could see the
moonlight struggling with a faint white haze that lay
over all the surface of the lake. My Lady and Bell
OF A PHAETON, 213
walked on in front; the Lieutenant was apparently
desirous to linger a little behind.
"You know," he said, in a low voice, and with a
little embarrassment, " why I have resolved to live in
England."
" I can guess."
" I mean to ask Mademoiselle to-morrow ^if I have
the chance if she will become my wife."
" You will be a fool for your pains."
"What is that phrase? I do not comprehend it,"
he said.
"You will make a mistake if you do. She will refuse
vou."
"And well?" he said. "Does not every man run
the chance of that ? I will not blame her no ; but it
is better I should ask her, and be assured of this one
way or the other."
"You do not understand. Apart from all other
considerations. Bell would almost certainly object
to entertaining such a proposal after a few days'
acqudntanceship "
"A few days!" he exclaimed. "ii* Himmel! I
hav6 known her years and years ago ^very well we
were acquainted "
" But the acquaintanceship of a boy is nothing. You
are almost a stranger to her now."
" See here," he urged. " We do know more of each
other in this week or two than if I had seen her for
many seasons of your London society. We have seen
each other at all times ^under all ways not mere
talking in a dance, or so forth."
"But you know she has not definitely broken off
with Arthur yet."
"Then the sooner the better," said the Lieutenant,
bluntly. " How is it you do all fear him, and the
annoyance of his coming ? Is a young lady likely to
have much sympathy for him, when he is very dis-
agreeable, and rude, and angry ? Now, this is what I
think about him. I am afraid Mademoiselle is very
sorry to tell him to go away. They are old friends.
214 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
But she would like Urn to go away, for he is very
jealous, and augiy, and rude ; and so I go to her, and
say ^no, I will not tell you what my argument is, but
I hope I will show Mademoiselle it wUl be better if
she will promise to be my wife, and then this pitiful
fellow he will be told not to distress her any more.
If she says no it is a misfortune for me, but none to
her. If she says yes, then I will look out that she is
not any more annoyed that is quite certain."
" I hope you don't wish to marry merely to rescue a
distressed damsel."
" Bah," he said, " you know it is not that. But you
English people, you always make your jokes about
these things not very good jokes either and do not
talk frankly about it. When Madame comes to hear
of this and if Mademoiselle is good enough not to
cast me away it will be a hard time for us, I know,
from morning until night. But have I not told you
what I have considered this young lady so very
generous in her nature, and not thinking of herself
so very frank and good-natured to all people around
.her and of a good, light heart, that shows she can
enjoy the world, and is of a happy disposition, and will
be a very noble companion for the man who marries
her ? I would tell you much more, but I cannot in
your language."
At all events, he had picked up a good many flatter-
ing adjectives. Mademoiselle's dowry in that respect
was likely to be considerable.
Here we got back to the inn. Glasses were brought
in, and we had a final game of b^zique before retiring
for the night ; but the Lieutenant's manner towards
Bell was singularly constrained and almost distant,
and he regarded her occasionally in a somewhat timid
and anxious way.
[j\yu by Queen Titania. "It is perhaps unnecessary for me to
explain that I am not responsible for the strange notions that may
enter the heads of two light-hearted young people when they are
away for a holiday. But I must protest against the insinuation-
conveyed in a manner which I will nut describe that I was through-
OF A PHAETON, 215
out sohexnin^ against k rthnr's suit witli our Bell. That poor boy is
the son of two of my oldest friends ; and for himself we have always
had the greatest esteem and liking. If he caused us a little anno3rance
at this time, he had perhaps a sort of excuse for it which is more
than 59me people can say, when they have long ago got over the
jealousies of courtship, and yet do not cease to persecute their wives
with/ar from good-viUwred jests and it is, I thmk, a little unfair to
represent me as being blind to his peculiar situation, or unmerciful
towards himself. On the contrary, I am sure I did everything I could
to smooth over the unpleasant incidents of his visit ; but I did not find
it incumbent on me to become a partisan^ and spend hours in getting
up philosophical philosophical I excuses for a nideness which was
really unpardonable. What I chiefly wish for, I know, is to see all
those young folks happy and enjoying themselves ; but it wold
puzzle vfiser heads than mine to find a means of reconciling them.
As for Count von Rosen, if ho made up his mind to ask Bell to be his
wife, because Ellesmere looked pretty when the moon came out,
I cannot help it. It is some years since I gave up the idea of attempt-
ing to account for the odd freaks and impmses that get into the heads
of what I suppose we must call the superior sea:."]
CHAPTEE XVI.
OUR UHLAN OUT-MAN(EUYRED.
**Como down, come down, my bonnie bird,
And eat bread afif my hand ;
Your cage shall be of wiry goud,
Whar now ifs but the wand."
"You are the most provoking husband I ever met
with," says Queen Titania.
We are climbing up the steep ascent which leads
from the village of EUesraere to the site of an ancient
castle. The morning is full of a breezy sunshine, and
the cool north-wester stirs here and there a grey ripple
on the blue waters of the lake below.
" I hope you have not had much experience in that
direction," I observe.
"Very pretty. That is very nice indeed. We are
improving, are we not?" she says, turning to Bell.
Bell, who has a fine colour in her face from the light
breeze and the brisk walking, puts her hand affection-
ately within her friend*s arm, and says, in gentle
accents
I
2i6 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
*' It is a shame to tease you so, you poor innocent
little tiling. But we will have our revenge. We will
ask sonu)body else to protect you, my pet lamb ! "
"Lamb hml Not much of the lamb visible, but
a j:,'6od deal of the vinegar sauce," says one of us, mind-
ful of past favours.
It was a deadly quarrel. I think it had arisen out
of Tita's inability to discover which way the wind
was blowing; but the origin of our sham-fights had
seldom much to do with their subsequent rise and
progress.
" I wish I had married yMy Count von Eosen," says
my Lady, turning proudly and graciously to her com-
panion on the right.
" Don't alarm the poor man," I say : and indeed the
Lieutenant looked quite aghast.
"Madame," he replied gravely, when he had re-
covered himself, *' it is very kind of you to say so ;
and if you had made me the offer sooner, I should
have accepted it with great pleasure. But would there
have been any difference ? No, I think not ^perhaps
it would be the worse. It is merely that you are
married; and you make believe to chafe against the
bonds. Now, I think you two would be very agree-
able to each other if you were not married."
"Ah, well," said Tita, with an excellently constructed
sigh ; '' I suppose we must look on marriage as a trial,
and bear it with meekness and patience. We shall
have our reward elsewhere."
Bell laughed, in a demure manner. That calm as-
^ sumption of the virtues of meekness and patience was
a little too much; but what was the use of further
fighting on a morning like this ? We got the key of a
small gate. We climbed up a winding path through
trees that were rustling in the sunlight. We emerged
upon a beautiful green lawn a bowling-green, in fact,
girt in by a low hedge, and overlooked by a fancy little
building. But the great charm of this elevated site
was the panorama around and beyond. Windy clouds
of white and grey kept rolling up out of the west, throw-
OF A PHAETON, 217
ing splashes of purple gloom on the bright landscape.
The trees waved and rustled in the cool breeze the
sunlight kept chasing the shadows across the far
meadows. And then down below us lay the waters
of Ellesmere lake here and there a deep, dark blue,
under the warm green of the woods, and here and
there being stirred into a shimmer of white by the
wind that was sweeping across the sky.
" And to-day we shall be in Chester, and to-morrow
in Wales ! " cried Bell, looking away up to tlie north,
where the sky was pretty well heaped up with the
flying masses of cloud. She looked so bright and
joyous then, that one could almost have expected her
to take flight herself, and disappear like a wild bird
amid the shifting lights and glooms of the windy day.
The Lieutenant, indeed, seemed continually regarding
her in rath^ an anxious and embarrassed fashion. Was
he afraid she might escape ? Or was he merely long-
ing to get an opportunity of plunging into that serious
business he had spoken of the night before? Bell
was all unconscious. She put her hand within Tita's
arm, and walked away over the green lawn, which was
warm in the sunshine. We heard them talking of a
picnic on this lofty and lonely spot sketching out
tents, archery-grounds, and what not, and assigning a
place to the band. Then there were rumours of the
" Haymakers," of " Eoger de Coverley," of the " Gua-
racha," and I know not what other nonsense, coming
towards us as the north-wester blew back to us frag-
ments of their talk, until even the Lieutenant remarked
that an old-fashioned country-dance would look very
pretty up here, on such a fine piece of green, and with
all the blue and breezy extent of a great English land-
scape forming the circular walls of this magnificent
ball-room.
A proposal is an uncomfortable thing to carry about
with one. Its weight is unconscionable, and on the
merriest of days it will make a man down-hearted.
To ask a woman to marry is about the most serious
duty which a man has to perform in life, even as some
2i8 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
would say that it is the most mmecessary : and those
who settled the relations of the sexes, before or after
the Flood, should receive the gratitude of all woman-
kind for the ingenuity with which they shifted on to
male shoulders this heavy and grievous burden.
The Lieutenant walked down with ns from the hill
and through the little village to the inn as one dis-
traught He scarcely even spoke ^and never to Bell.
He regarded the getting out of the phaeton with a
listless air. Castor and Pollux whose affections he
had stolen away from us through a whole series of
sneaking kindnesses whinnied to him in vain. When
my Lady, who now assumed the responsibility of ap-
portioning to us our seats, asked him to drive on, he
obeyed mechanically.
Now our Bonny Bell, as I have said, was unconscious
of the awful possibilities that hung over our adventures
of that day; and was in as merry a mood as you
could desire to see. She sat beside the Lieutenant ; and
scarcely had we gone gently along the narrow village
street and out into the broader country road that leads
northward, than she began to tell her companion of
the manner in which Tita tyrannizes over our parish.
" You would not think it, would you ? " she asked.
** No," said the Lieutenant, " I should not think she
was a very ferocious lady."
"Then you don't know her," says a voice from
behind; and Tita says, "Don't begin again," in an
injured way, as if we were doing some soit of harm
to the fine morning.
" I can assure you," said Bell, seriously, " that she
rules the parish with a rod of iron. She knows every
farthing that every labourer makes in the week, and
he catches it if he does not bring home a fair pro-
portion to his wife. * Well, Jackson,' she says, * I hear
your master is going to give you fourteen shillings a
week now.' * Thank ye, ma'am,' he says, for he knows
quite well who secured him the additional shilling to
his wages. 'But I want you to give me threepence
out of it for the savings bank ; and your wife will
OF A PHAETON. 219
gather up sixpence a week until she gets enough
for another pair of blankets for you, now the winter
is coming on, you know.' Well, the poor man dares
not object. He gives up three-fourths of the shilling
he had been secretly expecting to spend on beer, and
does not say a word. The husbands in our parish haive
a bad time of it ''
" One of them has, at least," says that voice firom
behind.
" And you should see how our Tita will confront a
huge fellow who is half bemused with beer, and order
him to be silent in her presence. ' How dare you speak
to your wife like that before me !' and he is as quiet
as a lamb. And sometimes the wives have a turn of it,
too not reproof, you know, but a look of surprise if
they have not finished the sewing of the children's
frocks which Tita and I have cut out for them or
if they have gone into the alehouse with their husbands
late on the Saturday night or if they have missed being
at church next morning. Then you should see the
farmers' boys playing pitch-and-toss in the road on the
Sunday forenoons ^how they scurry away like rabbits
when they see her coming up from church they fly
behind stacks, or plunge through hedges anything to
get out of her way."
" And I am not assisted. Count von Rosen, in any
of these things," says my Lady, " by a young lady who
was once known to catch a small boy and shake him by
the shoulders because he threw a stone at the clergy-
man as he passed."
"Then you do assist, Mademoiselle," inquires the
Lieutenant, " in this overseeing of the parish ? "
" Oh, I merely keep the books," replied Bell. " I am
the treasurer of the savings bank, and I call a fortnightly
meeting to announce the purchase of the various kinds
of cotton and woollen stuffs, at wholesale prices, and to
hear from the subscribers what they most need. Then
we have the materials cut into patterns, we pay so much
to the women for sewing, and then we sell the things
when they are made, so that the people pay for every-
220 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
thing they get, and yet get it far cheaper than they
would at a shop, while we are not out of pocket by it."
Here a deep groan is heard from the hind seat of
the phaeton. That beautiful fiction about the ways
and means of our local charities has existed in our
household for many a day. The scheme is admirable.
There is no pauperization of the peasantry around.
The theory is that Queen Tita and Bell merely come
in to save the cost of distribution ; and that nothing
is given away gratis except their charitable labour. It
is a pretty theory. The folks round about us find it
answers admirably. But somehow or other whether
from an error in Bell's book-keeping, or whether from a
sudden rise in the price of flannel, or some other recon-
dite and esoteric cause all I know is that the system
demands an annual subvention from the head of the
house. Of course my Lady can explain all that away.
There is some temporary defect in the working out of
the scheme; the self-supporting character of it remains
easy of demonstration. It may be so. But a good deal
of bread in the shape of cheques ^has been thrown
upon the waters in a certain district in England ; while
the true author of the charity the real dispenser of
these good things ^is not considered in the matter, and
is privately regarded as a sort of grudging person, who
does not understand the larger claims of humanity.
At length we have our first glimpse of Wales. From
Ellesmere to Overton the road gradually ascends, until,
just before you come to Overton, it skirts the edge of
a high plateau, and all at once you are confronted by
the sight of a great valley, through which a stream,
brown as a Welsh rivulet ought to be, is slowly stealing.
That narrow thread that twists through spacious woods
and green meadows is the river Dee ; far away beyond
the valley that it waters, rise the blue masses of Cym-
y-Brain and Cefn-y-Fedn, while to the south of the
latter range lies the gap by which you enter the magic
vale of IJangollen. On this breezy morning there
were white clouds blowing over the dusky peaks of the
mountains, while ever and anon, from a blue rift over-
OF A PHAETON. -221
head, a shimmering line of silver would strike down,
and cause the side of some distant hill to shine in
pale brown, and grey, and gold.
" That is a very strange sight to me," sjdd the Lieu-
tenant, as the horses stood in the road ; " all these
great moimtains, with, I think, no houses on them.
That is the wild coimtry into which the first inha-
bitants of this country fled when the German tribes
swarmed over here all that we have been taught at
school : but only think of the difficulty the Berlin boy
^living with nothing but miles of flat sand around him
has to imagine a wild region like this, which gave
shelter because no one could follow into its forest and
rocks. And how are we to go? We cannot drive
into these mountains."
" Oh, but there are very fine roads in Wales," said
Bell; ** broad, smooth, well-made roads; and you can
drive through the most beautiful scenery, if you wish."
However, it was arranged we should not attempt
anything of the kind, which would take us too far out
of our route to Scotland. It was resolved to let the
horses have a rest in Chester the next day, while we
should take a run down by rail to Uanrwst and
Bettws-y-Coed, merely to give our Uhlan a notion of
the difficulties he would have to encounter in subduing
this country, when the time came for that little ex-
pedition.
So we bowled through the little village of Overton,
and down the winding road which plunges into the
beautiful valley we had been regarding from the height
We had not yet struck the Dee; but it seemed as
though the ordinary road down in this plain was a
private path through a magnificent estate. As far as
we could see, a splendid avenue of elms stretched on
in front of us ; and while we drove through the cool
shade, on either side lay a spacious extent of park,
studded with grand old oaks. At length we came upon
the stream, flowing brown and clear, down through
picturesque' and wooded banks ; and then we got into
open country again, and ran pleasantly up to Wrexham.
222 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
Perhaps the lieutenant would have liked to bait the
horses in some tinj village near to this beautiful
stream. We should all have gone out for a saunter
along the banks ; and, in the puUing of wild flowers,
or the taking of sketches, or some such idyllic employ-
ment, the party would in all likelihood have got divided..
It would have been a pleasant opportunity for him to
ask this gentle English girl to be his wife ^with the
sweet influences of the holiday-time disposing her to
consent, and with the quiet of this wooded valley ready
to catch her smallest admission. Besides, who could
tell what might happen after Bell had reached Chester ?
That was the next of the laige towns which Arthur
had agreed to make points of communication. I think
the Lieutenant began at this time to look upon large
towns as an abomination, to curse telegraphs, and hate
the penny post with a deadly hatred.
But in place of any such quiet resting-place, we had
to put up Castor and Pollux in the brisk little town
of Wrexham, which was even more than usually busy
with its market-day. The Wynnstay Arms was full of
farmers, seed-agents, implement makers, and what not,
all roaring and talking to the last limit of their lungs
bustling about the place and calling for glasses of ale,
or attacking huge joints of cold roast beef with an appe-
tite which had evidently not been educated on nothing.
The streets were filled with the vendors of various
wares ; the wives and daughters of the farmers, having
come in from the country in the dog-cart or waggonette,
were promenading along th-e pavement in the most gor-
geous hues known to silken and muslin fabrics ; cattle
were being driven through narrow thoroughfares ; and
the sellers of fruit and of fish in the market-place alarm-
ing the air with their invitations. The only quiet comer,
indeed, was the churchyard and the church, through
which we wandered for a little while ; but young folks
are not so foolish as to tell secrets in a building that
has an echo.
Was there no chance for our unfortunate Uhlan ?
"Hurry hurry on to Chester!" cried Bell, as we
OF A PHAETON.
223
drove away from Wrexham along the level northern
road.
A gloomy silence had overtaken the lieutenant. He
was now sitting behind with my Lady, and she was
doing her best to entertain him (there never was a
woman who could make herself more agreeable to
persons not of her own household) ^whUe he sat almost
mute, listening respectfully, and half suffering himseH
to be interested.
Our pretty Bell, on the other hand, was aU delight
at the prospect of reaching the quaint old city that
evening, and was busy with wild visions of our plunge
into Wales on the morrow, while ever and anon she .
hummed snatches of the Lieutenant's Burgundy song.*
" Please may I make a confession ? " she asked, at
length, in a low voice.
'* Why, yes.*'
I hoped, however, she was not going to follow the
example of the Lieutenant, and confide to me that she
meditated making a proposal. Although men dislike
^ Count Ton Hosen, fearing that his English is not first-rat^ begs me
to say that his very ezceUent friend Mr. Charles Oberthiir, with whose
name the public is pretty weU familiar, has been good enonsh to set
this song to music. He thinks Mr. Oberthiir's mnsic better than that
which the yonng Englishman used to sing at Bonn, and Bell thinks so
too : but then her opinion always coincides. However, I am per-
mitted, by the joint kindness of Mr. Oberthiir and the Lieutenant, to
give the music here :
"BURGUNDY HOSE."
jlZZcirro inoderato.
Ifuffo &y Chablss Okexswok
^^
mf Oh, Bur - gun - dy is - n't a good thing to
i
mf -s^
" -J-
i
m
224
THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
this duty, they have a prejudice against seeing it under-
taken by women.
" All our journey has wanted but one thing," said
BelL " We have had everything that could be wished
bright weather, a comfortable way of travelling, much
amusement, plenty of fights indeed, there was nothing
wanting but one thing, and that was the sea. Now did
T
X
=P=t
^
drink. Young man, I be seech 7011, con
I
t
i
^
1
^=
5
m
&-
$
si der and think.
i
-0- 4i-
= ^ K^
^
^^
r
/
3:
m
rf:
^
-&-
C7
:.p=d
Uif9t*riOio
^i
JH:.
^
P-
P Or else in your nose, and like
-- -
BE
-g-
tes^
22:
::=:q-
r^
iei
t:
OF A PHAETON.
225
you ever try to look for it ? Were you never anxious
to see only a long thread of grey near the sky, and be
quite sure that out there the woods stopped on the edge
of a line of sand ? I dared not tell Tita ^f or she would
have thought me veiy ungrateful^ but I may tell you^
for you don't seem to care about anybodjr's opinions
yooo
wise in your toes, You'U dis coy - er the
I I r c c-U^ ^
i
P
JWM
^^
poeo.
Hr-f-i r ' lT f=^F=^
00 * lonr of Bur - gnn - dy rose, Tonll dis
^
^^
jMOO.
I
zz
Rf-^ 1
motto riford.
r g r I r "J^ ^
the CO lour of Bur - gon - dy rose.
1
236
THE STI^ANGE ADVENTURES
bfttt I iiaed to get a little vexed with the coxtstant
meadows^ rivers, farms, hills, woods, and all that over
and over again, and the sea not coming an j nearer. Of
course one had no right to complahi, as I suppose it's
put down in the map, and can't be altered ; but we seem
to have been a long time coming across the country to
reach the sea."
"Why, you wild sea-gull, do you think that was
our only object? A long time reaching the sea! \
Don't imagine your anxiety was concealed. I saw
you perpetually scanning the horizon, p^ if one level
OHOStia A Umpo,
ftvOBI.
Bur ' gnu
p
I
^
^
m
I
A
I
=5c
daa - ge - rons symp - torn
18
^
t
^
3=
^^pfe^l^fe
^
r
^^^^m
u
OF A PHAETON.
337
line were better than any other level line at such
a distance. You began it on Richmond Hill, and
would have us believe the waves of the Irish Chan-
nel were breaking somewhere about Windsor."
*'No no!" pl^edBell; "don't think me ungrate-
foL I think we have been most fortunate in coming
as we did; and Count von Bosen must have seen
every sort of English landscape ^first the river- 1
pictures about Bichmond^ then the wooded hiUs about
Oxfordshire, then the plains of Berkshire, then the
meie-countiy about EUesmere ^and now he is going
into the mountains of Wales. But aU the same we
shall reach the sea to-morrow."
"What are you two fighting about?" says Queen
Titania, interposing.
"We are not fighting," says Bell, in the meekest
possible way ; " we are not husband and wife."
"I wish you were," says the other, cooUy.
"Madame," I observe at this tpoint, "that is rather
a dangerous jest to play with. It is now the second
time you have made use of it this morning."
"And if I do repeat old jokes," says Tita with a
certaiQ calm audacity, *4t must be through the force
of a continual example."
Vnni.
Bur
#
32:
- gun - dy
p
I
^
^
rose.
^ Solo .
f
roRe.
/7N
T
r-f
p^
2. 'Ti*
ooZZajNtrte.
iM
t
t
/7\
/TN
^
g
* For the last three verses see pp. 186, 187.
Q 2
228 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
" And such jests sometimes fix themselves in
the mind until they develop and grow into a serious
purpose."
"]?oes that mean that you would like to many
Bell? K it can be done legally and properly, I
should not be sorry, I know. Can it be done, Count
von Sosen ? Shall we four go back to London with
diflferent partners? An exchange of husbands ^"
Merciful Powers! what was the woman saying?
She suddenly stopped, and an awful consternation
fell on the whole four of us. That poor little mite
of a creature had been taking no thought of her
words, in her pursuit of this harmless jest; and
somehow it had wandered into her brain that Bell
and the Lieutenant were on the same footing as
herself and L A more embarrassing slip of the
tongue could not be conceived; and for several
dreadful seconds no one had the courage to speak,
until BeU, wildly and incoherently ^with her face
and forehead glowing like a rose asked whether
there was a theatrer in Chester.
" No," cries my Lady, eagerly ; " don't ask us to
go to the theatre to-night, Bdl; let us go for a
walk rather.'*
She positively did not know what she was saying.
It was a wonder she did not propose we should go
to the gardens of Cremome, or up in a balloon. Her
heart was filled with anguish and dismay over the
horrible blunder she had made ; and she began talking
^ about Chester, in a series of disconnected sentences,
in which the heartrending effort to appear calm and
unconstrained was painfully obvious. Much as I
have had to bear at the hands of that gentle little
woman, I felt sorry for her then. I wondered what
she and BeU would say to each other when they
went off for a private confabulation at night.
By the time that we drew near Chester, however,
this unfortunate incident was pretty well forgotten;
and we were sufficiently tranquil to regard with
interest the old city, which was now marked out in
OF A PHAETON. 9
the twilight by the yellow twinkling of the gas-
lamps. People had come forth for their evening stroll
round the great wall which encircles the town.
Down in the level meadows by the side of the Dee,
lads were still playing cricket. The twilight, indeed,
was singularly clear; and when we had driven into
the town, and put up the phaeton at an enormous
Gothic hotel which seemed to overawe the small
old-fashioned houses in its neighbourhood, we too
set out for a leisurely walk round the ancient
ramparts.
But here again the Iiieutenant was disappointed.
How could he talk privately to Bell on this public
promenade? Lovers there were there, but all in
solitary pairs. If Tita had only known that she
and I were interfering with the happiness of our
young folks, she would have thrown herself headlong
into the moat rather than continue this unwilling
persecution. As it was, she went peacefully along
watching the purple light of the evening fall over
the great landscape around the city. The ruddy glow
in the windows became more and more pronounced.
There were voices of boys still heard down in the
racecourse, but there was no more cricketing possible.
In the still evening, a hush seemed to fall over the
town; and when we got round to the weir on the
river, the vague white masses of water that we could
scarcely see, sent the sound of their roaring and
tumbling, as it were, into a hollow chamber. Then
we plunged once more into the streets. The shops
were lit. The quaint galleries along the first floor
of the houses, which are the special architectural
glory of Chester, were duskily visible in the light
of the lamps. And then we escaped into the yellow
glare of the great dining-room of the Gothic hotel,
and sat ourselves down for a comfortable evening.
"Well," I say to the Lieutenant, as we go into
the smoking-room, when the women have retired for
th night, "have you asked BeU yet?"
'-Sfo," he answers, morosely.
330 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
"Then you have escaped another day?"
" It was not my intention. I will ask her ^when-
ever I get the chance that I am resolved npon ; and
if she says ' No/ why, it is my misfortone, that is alL"
*'I have told yon she is certain to say 'No.'"
"Very welL"
"But I have a proposal to make."
'*So have I," says the Lieutenant, with a gloomy
smile.
"To-morrow you are going down to see a bit of
Wales. Why spoil the day prematurely? Put it oflf
until the evening, and then take your refusal like a
man. Don't do Wales an injustice."
"Why," says the Lieutenant, peevislily, "you think
nothing is important but looking at a fine country
and enjoying yourself out of doors. I do not care
what happens to a lot of mountains and rivers when
this thing is for me far more important. When
I can speak to* Mademoiselle, I yrHl do so; and
I do not care if all Wales is put under water to-
morrow-' *
"After your refusal, the deluge. Well, it is a
good thing to be prepared. But you need not talk
\\\ an injured tone, which reminds one oddly of
Arthur."
You should have seen the stare on Yon Bosen's face.
"It is true. All you boys are alike when you
fall in love all unreasonable, discontented, perverse,
and generally objectionable. It was all very well
for you to call attention to that unhappy young
man's conduct when you were in your proper senses ;
but now, if you go on as you are going, it will be
the old story over again."
"Then you think I will persecute Mademoiselle
and be insolent to her and her friends?"
"All in good time. Bell refuses you to-moirow.
You are gloomy for a day. You ask yourself why
she has done so. Then you come to us and beg
for our interference. We teU you it is none of pur
business. You say we are prejudiced against you^
OF A PHAETON. 231
and accuse us of forwarding Arthur's suit. Then
you begin to look on him as your successful rived.
You grow so fiiriously jealous "
Here the TThlan broke into a tremendous laugh.
" My good friend, I have discovered a great secret,**
he cried. "Do you know who is jealous? It is you.
You will oppose anyone who tries to take Mademoiselle
away from you. sA I I will try avd I will do it"
IVom the greatest despondency he had leaped to
a sort of wild and crazy hope of success. He smiled
to himself, walked about the room, and talked in
the most buoyant and friendly manner about the
prospects of the mon*ow. He blew clouds of cigar-
smoke about as if he were Neptune getting to the
surface of the sea, and blowing back the sea-foam
from about his face. And then, all at once, he sat
down ^we were the only occupants of the room
and said, in a hesitating way
"Look here do you think Madame coidd speak
a word to her ^if she does say 'No'?"
"I thought it woidd come to that"
"You are what do you call it? very unsym-
pathetic."
" Unsympathetic ! No ; I have a great interest in
both of you. But the whole story is so old, one has
got familiar with its manifestations."
"It is a very old and common thing to be bom,
but it is a very important thing, and it only happens
to you once."
"And falling in love only happens to you once,
I suppose?"
"Oh no, many times. I have very often been in
love with this girl or the other girl, but never until
this time serious. I never before asked anyone
to marry me; and surely this is serious that I
offer for her sa,ke to give up my country, and my
friends, and my profession everjnbhing. Surely that
is serious enough."
And so it was. And I knew that if ever he got
Call to listen favourably to him, he would have
232 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
little difl&culty in convincing her that he had never
cared for anyone before, while she vould easily
assure him that she had always regarded Arthur
only as a friend. For there are no lies eo massive,
audacious, and unblushing as those told by two young
folks when they recount to each other the mstoiy
of their previous love affairs.
CHAPTER XVII.
IN THE FAIRY GLEN.
' Queen, thou knowest I pray not for this :
Oh set us down together in some place
Where not a voice can break our heaven of bliss.
Where nought but rocks and I can see her face
Softening beneath the marvel of thy grace,
Where not a foot our yanished steps can track,
The golden age, the golden age come back ! "
Little did our Bonny Bell reck of the plot that
had been laid against her peace of mind. She was
as joyous as a wild sea-bird when we drew near the
sea. All the morning she had hurried us on; and
we were at the station some twenty minutes before
the train started. Then she must needs sit on the
northern side of the carriage, close in by the window ;
and all at once, when there flashed before us a long
and level stretch of grey-green, she uttered a quick
low ciy of gladness, as though the last wish of her
life had been realized.
Yet there was not much in this glimpse of the
sea that we got as we ran slowly along the coast-
line towards Conway. It was a quiet grey day, with
here and there a patch of blue overhead. Hie sea
was stirred only by a ripple. Here and there it
darkened into a breezy green, but for the most part
it reflected the cold grey sky overhead. The shores
were flat. The tide was up, and not a rock to be
seen. One or two small boats were visible; but no
OF A PHAETON. 233
great full-rigged ship, with all her white sails swelling
before the wind, swept onwards to the low horizon.
But it was the sea that was enough for this mad
girl of onrs. She had the window put down, and a
cold odour of sea-weed flew through the carriage.
If there was not much blue outside, there was plenty
in the deep and lambent colour of her eyes, where
pure joy and delight fought strangely with the half-
saddening influences produced by this first unexpected
meeting with the sea.
Turning abruptly away from the coast-line ^with
the grey walls of Conway Castle overlooking the
long sweep of the festuary ^we plunged down into
the moimtains. The dark masses of firs up among
the rocks were deepening in gloom. There was an
unearthly calm on the surface of the river, as if the
reflection of the boulders, and the birch-bushes, and
the occasional cottages, lay waiting for the first stirring
of the rain. Then, far away up the cleft of the
valley, a grey mist came floating over the hills; it
melted whole mountains into a soft dull grey, it
blotted out dark green forests and mighty masses
of rock, until a pattering against the carriage windows
told us that the rain had begun.
"It is always so in Wales," said my Lady, with
a sigh.
But when we got out at Bettws-y-Coed, you would
not have fancied our spirits were grievously oppressed.
Indeed, I often remarked that we never enjoyed our-
selves so much, whether in the phaeton or out of it, as
when there was abundant rain about, the desperation
of the circumstances driving us into being recklessly
merry. So we would not take the omnibus that was
carrying up to the Swallow Falls some half-dozen
of those horrid creatures, the tourists. The deadly
dislike we bore to these unoffending people was re-
markable. What right had they to be invading this
wonderful valley? What right had they to leave
Bays water and occupy seats at the tahlt$ d*Jidte of
hotels? We saw them drive away with a secret
234 ^^^ STRANGE ADVENTURES
pleasure. We hoped they would get wet, and swear
never to return to Wales. We called them tourists, in
short, which has become a term of opprobrium among
Englishmen ; but we would have periled rather than
admit for a moment that we too were tourists.
It did not rain very much. There was a strong
resinous odour in the air, from the spruce, the larch,
the pines, and the breckans, as we got tJirough the
wood, and ventured down the slippery paths which
brought us in front of the Swallow FaUs. There
had been plenty of rain and the foaming jets of
water were darting among the rocks veiy much like
the white glimmer of the marten as he cuts about
the eaves of a house in the twilight. The roar of
the river filled the air, and joined in chorus the
rustling of the trees in the wind. We could scarcely
hear ourselves speak. It was not a time for con-
fidences. We returned to Bettws.
But the Lieutenant, driven wild by the impossibility
of placing all his sorrows before Bell, eagerly assented
to the proposal that we should go and see the Fairy
Glen a much more retired spot after luncheon. The
dexterity he displayed in hurrying over that meal was
remarkable. It was rather a scramble ^for a number
of visitors were in the place ; and the long table was
pretty well filled up. But with a fine audacity our
Uhlan constituted himself waiter for our party, and
simply harried the hotel. If my Lady's eyes only
happened to wander towards a particular dish, it was
before her in a twinkling. The Lieutenant alarmed
many a young lady there by first begging her pardon
and then reaching over her shoulder to cany ofif some
huge plate; although he presently atoned for these
misdemeanours by carving a couple of fowls for the
use of the whole company. He also made the ac-
quaintance of a governess who was in charge of two
tender little women of twelve and fourteen. He sat
down by the governess ; discovered that she had been
at Bettws for some weeks ; got from her some appal-
ling statistics of the rain that had fallen; then ^for
OF A PHAETON. 235
the maids were rather remiss ^went and got her a
bottle of ale, which be drew for her^ and poured out
and graciously handed to her. Bell was covCTtly laugh-
ing J1 the time : my Lady was amazed.
" Now," he said, turning in quite a matter-of-fact way
to us, " when do we start for this Fairy Glen? "
" Pray don't let us take you away from such charm-
ing companionship," observed my lidy, with a smile.
"Oh, she is a very intelligent person," says the
Lieutenant; "really a very intelligent person. But
she makes a great mistake in preferring Schiller^s plays
to Lessing's for her pupils. I tried to convince her of
thatw She is going to the Bhine with those young
ladies, later on in the year ^to Konigswinter. Would
it not be a very nice thing for us aU, when we leave
the phaeton at your home, to go for a few weeks to
Konigswinter ? "
"We cannot all flirt with a pretty governess," says
Tita.
" Now that is too bad of you English ladies," retorts
the Lieutenant. "You must always think, when a
man talks to a girl, he wants to be in love with her.
If 0 it is absurd. She is intelligent a good talker
she knows very many things and she is a stranger
like myself in an hotd. Why should I not talk to her ? "
" You are quite right, Cpunt von Eosen," says BeU.
Of course he was quite right. He was always quite
right ! But wait a bit
We set off for the Fairy Glen. The rain had ceased ;
but the broad and smooth roads were yellow with
water ; large drops still fell from the trees, and the air
was humid and warm. The Lieutenant lit a cigar
about as big as a wooden leg; and Bell insisted on
us two falling rather behind, because that she liked
the scent of a cigar in the open air.
We crossed the well-known Waterloo Bridge built
in the same year as that which chronicled the great
battle and we heard the Lieutenant relating to Tita
how several of his relatives had been in the army which
came up to help us on that day.
236 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
" You know we had won before you came up," said
my Lady, stoutly.
The Lieutenant laughed.
" I am not sure about that," he said ; " but you did
what we could not have done ^you held the whole
rrench army by yourselves, and crippled it so that our
mere appearance on the battle-field was enough."
" I think it was very mean of both of you," said Bell,
" to win a battle by mere force of numbers. If you had
given Napoleon a chance "
"Mademoiselle," said Von Bosen, "the object of a
campaign is to win battles anyhow. You throw away
the heroic elements of the old single combatants
when it is with armies that you fight ; and you take
all advantages you can get. But who was the braver
then ^your small English army, or the big French one
that lost the whole day without overwhelming their
enemy, and waited until we came down to drive them
back ? That is a very good word a very strong
word our zurilckgeworfen. It is a very good thing
to see that word at the end of a sentence that talks
of your enemies."
At length we got to the neighbourhood of the Fairy
Glen, and found ourselves in among the wet trees, with
the roar of the stream reverberating through the woods.
There were a great many paths in this pretty ravine.
You can go close down to the water, and find still pools
reflecting the silver-lichened rocks ; or you can clamber
along the high banks through the birch and hazel and
elm, and look down on the white waterfalls beneath you
that wet the ferns and bushes about with their spray.
Four people need not stay together. Perhaps it was
because of an extraordinary change in the aspect of the
day that Tita and I lost sight of the young folks.
Indeed, we had sat down upon a great smooth boulder
and were pensively enjoying the sweet scents around,
and the plashing of the stream, when this strange thing
occurred, so that we never remembered that our com-
panions had gone. Suddenly into the gloomy grey day
there leaped a wild glow of yellow fire ; and far up the
OF A PHAETON. 237
narrowing vista of the glen ^where the rocks grew
closer together the sunlight smote down on the gleam-
ing green of the underwood, until it shone and sparkled
over the smooth pools. The light came nearer. There
was still a sort of mist of dampness in the atmosphere
hanging about the woods^ and dulling the rich colours
of the glen ; but as the sunlight came straggling down
the rocky ravine, a dash of blue gleamed out, overhead,
and a rush of wind through the dipping green branches
seemed to say that the wet was being swept ofT the
snoujitains and towards the sea. The Fairy Glen was
now a blaze of transparent green and fine gold, with
white diamonds of raindrops glittering on the ferns and
moss and bushes. It grew warm, too, down in the
hollow ; and the sweet odours of the forest above
woodruff, and campion, and wild mint, and some de^
cayed leaves of the great St John's wort all stole out
into the moist air.
" Where have they gone ? " says Tita, almost sharply.
" My dear/' I say to her, '* you were young yoursdf
once. It's a good time ago but still "
*^ Bell never asked for letters this morning,'' remarked
my Lady, showing the direction her thoughts were taking.
'' No matter, Arthur will be meeting us directly. He
is sure to come over to our route in his dog-cart"
''We must find them, and get back to Bettws-y-
Coed," is the only reply which is vouchsafed me.
They were not far to seek. When we had clambered
up the steep bank to the path overhead. Bell and the
Lieutenant were standing in the road, silent As soon
as they saw us, they came slowly walking down.
Neither spoke a word. Somehow, Bell managed to
attach herself to Tita ; and these two went on idiead.
^ "Ton were right," said the Lieutenant, in a low
voice, very different from his ordinary light and care-
less fashion.
" Ton have asked her, then ? "
"Yes."
"And she refused?"
''Yes."
a3 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
" I thought she would."
''Now" he said, ''I suppose I ought to go back
to Loudon."
"Why?"
''It will not be pleasant for her-^ny being here.
It win be very embarrassing to both of us."
" Nonsense. She will regard it as a joke"
I am afraid our Uhlan looked rather savage at this
moment.
" Don't jrou see,'' I observed to him seriously, " that
if you go away in this manner you will give the afibir
a tremendous importance, and make all sorts of expla-
nations necessary 1 Why not school yourself to meeting
her on ordinary terms ; and take it that your question
was a sort of preliminaiy sounding, as it were, without
prejudice to either?"
" Then you think I should ask her again, at some
future time?" he said eagerly.
" I don't think anything of the kind."
" Then why should I remain here ? "
" I hope you did not come with us merely for the
purpose of proposing to BelL"
" No ; that is true enough but our relations are now
aU altered. I do not know what to do."
"Don*t do anything: meet her as if nothing of the
kind had occurred. A sensible girl like her will think
more highly of you in doing that than in doing some
wild and mad thing, which will only have the effect
of annoying her and yourself Bid she give you any
reason?"
"I do not know," said Yon Bosen, disconsdLately.
" I am not sure what I said. Perhaps I did not ea^lam
enough Perhaps she thought me blunt, rude, coarse,
in asking her so suddenly. It was all a sort of fire
for a minute or two and then the cold water came
and that lasts."
The two women were now far ahead surely they
were walking fast that Bell might have an opportunity
of confiding all her perplexities to her friend.
" I suppose," said Von Eosen, " that I suffer for my
OF A PHAETON, 239
own folly. I might have known. But for this day or
two back, it has seemed so great a chance to me of
getting her to promise at least to think of it and the
prospect of having such a wife as that ^it was all too
much. Perhaps I have done the worst for myself by
the huny ; but was it not excusable in a man to be in a
huny to ask such a girl to be his wife ? And there is
no harm in knowing soon that all that was impossible."
Doubtless it was comforting to him to go on talking.
I wondered what BeU was saying at this moment ; and
whether a comparison of their respective views would
throw some light on the subject. As for the Lieutenant,
he seemed to regard Bell's decision as finaL If he had
been a little older, he might not ; but having just been
plunged from the pinnacle of hope into an abyss of
despair, he was too stunned to think of clambering up
again by degrees.
But even at this time all his thoughts were directed
to the best means of making his presence as little of an
embarrassment to Bell as possible.
"This evening will pass away veiy well," he said,
" for everybody will be talking at dinner, and we need
not to address each other ; but to-morrow if you think
this better that I remain with you ^then you will drive
the phaeton, and you will give Mademoiselle the front
seat for the whole day ? Is it agreed, yes ? "
''Certainly. You must not think of leaving us at
present Tou see, if you went away we should have
to send for Arthur."
A sort of flame blazed up into the face of the
Lieutenant; and he said, in a rapid and vehement
way
" This thing I will say to you ^if Mademoiselle wiU
not marry me good. It is the right of every girl to
have her choice. But if you allow her to marry that
pitiful fellow, it will be a shame and you wil not
forgive yourself, either Madame or you, in the years
afterwaids ^that I am quite sure of!"
"But what have we to do with Bell's choice of a
husband ? '*
240 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
"You talked just now of sending for him to join
your party."
"Why, Bell isn't bound to many everyone who
comes for a drive with us. Your own case is one
in point."
"But this is quite different. This wretched fellow
thinks he has an old right to her, as being an old friend,
and all that stupid nonsense ; and I know that she has
a strange idea that she owes to him "
The lieutenant suddenly stopped.
" No," he said, " I will not tell you what she did tell
to me this afternoon. But I think you know it all ;
and it will be very bad of you to make a sacrifice of
her by bringing him here "
" If you remain in the phaeton, we can't."
"Then I will remain."
" Thank you. As Tita and I have to consider our-
selves just a little bit amid aU this whirl of love-
making and reckless generosity I must say we prefer
your society to that of Master Arthur."
" That is a very good compliment ! " says Von Bosen,
with an ungracious sneer for who ever heard of a
young man of twenty-six being just to a young man
of twenty-two when both wanted to marry the same
young lady?
We overtook our companions. BeU and I walked on
together to the hotel, and subsequently down to the
station. An air of gloom seemed to hang over the
heavy forests far up amid the grey rocks. The river
had a mournful sound as it came rushing down between
the mighty boulders. BeU scarcely uttered a word as
we got into the carriage and slowly steamed away from
the platform.
WTiither had gone the joy of her face? She was
once more approaching the sea. Under ordinary cir-
cumstances you would have seen an anticipatory light
in her blue eyes, as if she already heard the long plash
of the waves, and smelt the sea-weed. Now she sat in
a comer of the carriage ; and when at last we can^e in
view of the most beautiful sight that we had yet met
OF A PHAETON. 241
on our joTuney, she sat and gazed at it with the eyes
of one distraught
That was a rare and wild picture we saw when we
got back to the sea. The heavy rain-clouds had sunk
down until they formed a low dense wall of purple all
along the line of the western horizon, between the sea
and the sly. That heavy bar of cloud was almost
black ; but just above it there was a calm fair stretch
of lambent green, with here and there a torn shred of
crimson cloud and one or two lines of .sharp gold, lying
parallel with the horizon. But away over in the east
again were some windy masses of cloud that had caught
a blush of red; and these had sent a pale reflection
down on the sea a sort of salmon-colour that seemed
the complement of the still gold-green overhead.
The sunset touched faintly the low mountains about
the mouth of the Dee. A rose-red glimmer struck the
glass of the window at which Bell sat ; and then, as the
train made a slight curve in the line running by the
shore, the warm light entered and lit up her face with
a rich and beautifol glow. The lieutenant, hidden in
the dusk of the opposite comer, was regarding her with
wistful eyes. Perhaps he thought that now, more than
ever, she looked like some celestial being far out of his
reach, whom he had dared to hope would forsake her
strange altitudes and share his life with him. Tita,
saying nothing, was also gazing out of the window, and
probably pondering on the unhappy climax that seemed
to put an end to her friendly hopes.
Darkness fell over the sea and the land. The great
plain of water seemed to fade away into the gloom of
the horizon ; but here, close at hand, the pools on the
shore occasionally caught the last reflection of the sky,
and flashed out a gleam of yellow fire. The wild in-
tensity of the colours was almost painfiil to the eyes
the dark blue-green of the shore-plants and the sea-
grass ; the gathering purple of the sea ; the black rocks
on the sand ; and then that sudden bewildering flash of
gold where a pool had been left among the seapweed.
The mountains in the south had now disappeared ; and
B
242 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
weie doubtIess^--ava7 in that mysterious dark]ie8s^-*
wieathing themselves in the cold night-mists that were
slowly rising &om the woods and the valleys of the
streams. Such was our one and only glimpse of Wales \
and the day that BeU had looked forward to with such
eager del^ht had closed in silence and despair.
When we got back to the hotel, a letter from Arthur
was lying on the table.
CHAPTER XVIII.
THE COLLAPSE.
" Thy crowded ports,
"Wliere rising masts an endless prospect yield,
With labour bum, and echo to the shouts
Of htmried sailor, as he hearty waves
His last adieu, and, loosening every sheet,
Besigns the spreadhig vessel to the wind."
The following correspondence has been handed to ns
for publication :
''Cowley Hottbs, Twiokxmbax,
Jtty -^, 1871.
'' Mon cher Mamma, Doctor Ashbnrton dire me que
je^cris a vous dans Fransais je sais Fransais un pettit
et ici est un letter a vous dans Fransais mon cher
Mamma le Pony est trai bien et je sui mon cher
Mamma.
" Voter aime fils,
Tom."
"OOWLBI Hovni, TWIOKXNHiJI
/ttZy 1871.
' My dear Fapa,-^Tom as written Mamma a letter in
French and Doctor Ashburton say.a I must Begin to
learn French too but Tom says it is TSiy dificult and it
takes a long time to write a Letter with the dixonaiy
and he says my dear Papa that we must learn German
Too bui please may I learn German first aad. you will
OF A PHAETOI^. 243
give my love to the German gentleman who gave ns the
poney he is very well my dear Papa and very fat and
round and hard in the sides Harry French says if he
goes on eeting like that he will burst but me and Tom
only laughed at him and we rode him down to Stanes
and back which is a long way and I only tumbbled off
twice but once into the ditch for he wanted to eat the
Grass and I Pooled at him and slipt over is head but I
was not much Wet and I went to bed until Jane dryed
all my close and no one new of it but her Pleese my
dear papa how is Auntie Bell, and we send our lore
to her, and to my decur mamma and I am your
affexnate son,
" Jack.
" F.S. All the monney you sent as gone away for oats
and beans and hay. Pleese my dear Papa to send a
good lot more."
*' Ink, Oakham, Fnday AftemMn,
'*.... You will see I have slightly departed from
the route I described in a telegram to Bell. Indeed, I
find myself so untrammelled in driving this light dog-
cart, with a powerful little animal that never seems
fatigued, that I can go anywhere without fearing there
will not be accommodation for a pair of horses and a
large party. I am sure you must often have been put
to straits in securing rooms for so many at a small
country inn. Probably you know the horse I have
got it is the cob that Major Quinet bought from
Heathcote. I saw him by the merest accident when 1
returned from Worcester to London ^told him what I
meant to do ^he offered me the cob with the greatest
good-nature and as I knew I should be safer with it
than anything I could hire, I accepted: You will see I
have come a good pace. I started on the Tuesday
morning after I saw you at Worcester, and here I am at
Oakham, rather over ninety miles. To-morrow I hope
to be in Nottingham, about other thirty. Perhaps, if
you will allow me, I may strike across country, by
Huddersfield and Skipton, and pay you a visit at Kendal
R 2
344 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
I hope Bell is well, and that you are not haying much
rauL I have had the most delightful weather.
" Tours sincerely,
"AjBTHUE Ashbukton."
" It is a race/' said the Lieutenant, "who shall be at
Carlisle first."
''Arthur will beat/' remarked Bell, looking to my
Lady; and although nothing could have been more
innocent than that observation, it seemed rather to
tflJte Von Bosen down a bit He turned to the window
and looked out.
'' I think it was very foolish of Major Qninet to lend
hiTn that beautiful little bay cob to go on such an
expedition as that," said Tita. '' He will ruin it entirely.
FanQy going thirty miles a day without giving the poor
animal a day's rest !' Why should he be so anxious to
overtake us ? If we had particularly wanted him to
accompany us, we should have asked him to do so."
"He does not propose to accompany you/* I say.
"He is only coming to pay you a visit."
" I know what that means/' says my Lady, with a
tiny shrug ; " something like the arrival of a mother-in-
law, with a carriageful of luggage/'
"My dear," I say to her, "why should you speak
scornfully of the amiable and excellent lady who is
responsible for your bringing up?"
" I was not speaking of my mamma," says Tita, " but
of the abstract mother-in-law."
** A man never objects to an abstract mother-in-law.
Now, your mamma although she is not to be con-
sidered as a mother-in-law *'
"My mamma never visits me but at my own re-
quest," says my Lady, with something of loftiness in
her manner; "and I am sorry she makes her visits
80 short, for when % is in the house, I am treated with
some show of attention and respect."
"Well," I say to her, "if a mother-in-law can do no
better than encourage hypocrisy ^But I bear no
malice. I will take some sugar, if you please."
OF A PHAETON, 245
" And as for Arthur," continues Tita, turning to Bell,
" what must I say to him ?"
" Only that we shall be pleased to see him, I sup-
pose," is the reply.
The Lieutenant stares out into the streets of Chester,
as though he did not hear.
"We cannot ask him to go with us ^it would look
too absurd a dog-cart trotting after us all the way."
" He might be in front," says Bell, " if the cob is so
good a little animal as he says."
"I wonder how Major Quinet could have been so
stupid," says Tita, with a sort of suppressed vexation.
The reader may remember that a few days ago
Major Quinet was a white-souled angel of a man, to
whom my Lady had given one of those formal specifica-
tions of character which she has always at hand when
anyone is attacked. Well, one of the party humbly
recalls that circumstance. He asks in what way Major
Quinet has changed within the past two days. Tita
looks up, with tibit sort of quick, triumphant glance
which tells beforehand that she has a reply ready, and
says
'' If Major Quinet has committed a fault, it is one of
generosity, l^at is an error not common among men
especially men who have horses, and who would rather
see their own wives walk through the mud to the
station than let their horses get wet"
" Bell, what is good for you, when you're sat upon ?"
" Patience," says Bell : and then we go out into the
old and grey streets of Chester.
It was curious to notice now the demeanour of our
hapless Lieutenant towards BelL He had had a whole
night to think over his position ; and in the morning he
seemed to have for the first time fully realized the hope-
lessness of his case. He spoke of it ^before the women
came down in a grave, matter-of-fect way, not making
any protestation of suffering, but calmly accepting it
as a matter for regret. One could easily see, however,
that a good deal of genuine feeling lay behind these
brief words.
TJfi THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
Then, when Bell came down be showed her a vast
amount of studied respect , but spoke to her of one or
two ordinaiy matters in a caxeless tone; as if to assure
everybody that nothing particular had happened. The
gixl herself was not equsd to any such effort of amiable
hypocrisy. She was very timid. She agreed with him
in a hurried way whenever he made the most insig-
nificant statement, and showed h^^elf obtrusively
anxious to take his side when my Lady, for example,
doubted the efficacy of carbolic soap. I^e Lieutenant
had no great interest in carbolic soap- had never seen
it, indeed, until that morning; but BeU was so anxious
to be kind to him, that she defended the compound as
if she had been the inventor and patentee of it
"It is very awkward for me/' said the Lieutenant,
as we were strolling through the quaint thoroughfares
^Bell and my Lady leading the way along the piazzas
formed on the first floor of the houses ; " it is very
awkward for me to be always meeting her, and more
especially in a room. And she seems to think that
she has done me some wrong. That is not so. That
is quite a mistake. It is a misfortune that is all ; and
the fault is mine that I did not understand sooner. Yet
I wish we were again in the phaeton. Then there is
f^tlife amotion something to do and think about,
cannot bear this doing of nothing."
Well, if the Lieutenant's restlessness was to be
appeased by hard work, he was likely to have enough
of it that day; for we were shortly to take the horses
and phaeton across the estuary of the Mersey, by
one of the Birkenhead ferries; and anyone who has
engaged in that pleasing operation knows the excite-
ment of it. Yon Bosen chafed against the placid
monotony of the Chester streets. The passages under
the porticoes are found to be rather narrow of a fore-
noon, when a crowd of women and girls have come
out to look at the shops, and when the only alternative
to waiting one's turn and getting along is to descend
ignominiously into the thoroughfare below. IJ'ow, no
stranger who comes to Chester would think of waUdng
VF A PHAETON, 247
along an ordinary pavement, so long as l^e can pace
through those quaint old gaUeiies that are built on
the roofs of the ground--row of shops and cellars.
The Lieutenant hung aimlessly about ^just as you
may see a husband lounging and staring in Begent-
street while his wife is examining with a deadly interest
the milliners' and jewellers' windows. Bell bought
presents for the boys. My Lady purchased photographs.
In fact^ we conducted ourselves lilse the honest Briton
abroad, who buys a lot of useless articles in every
town he comes to, chiefly because he has nothing else
to do, and may as well seize that opportunity of talking
to the natives.
Then our bonny bays were put into the phaeton,
and, with a great sense of freedom shining on the
face of our Uhlan, we started once more for the north.
Bell was sitting beside me. That had been part of
the arrangement. But why was she so pensive ? Why
this profession of tenderness and an extreme interest
and kindness t I had done her no injury.
" Bell," I say to her, " have you left aJl your wildness
behind you ^buried down at the foot of Box Hill, or
calmly interred under a block of stone up on Mickle^
ham Downs ? Where be your gibes now ? your gambols ?
your songs 1 your flashes of merriment, that were wont
to set my lady frowning at you as if you were an
incorrigible Tom-boy? Come, now, touching that
ballad of the Bailiff's Daughter the guitar has not
been out for a long time ''
A small gloved hand was gently and furtively laid
on my arm. There was to be no singing.
"I think," said Bell, aloud, "that this is a veiy
pretty piece of country to lie between two such big
towns as Chester and Liverpool."
The remark was not very profound, but it was
accurate, and it served its purpose of pushing away
finally that suggestion about the guitar. We were
now driving up the long neck of land lying between
the parallel estuaries of the Dee and the Mersey.
About Backford, and on by Great Sutton and Childer
24^ THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
Thornton to Eastham, the drive was pleasant enough
the windy day and passing clouds giving motion
and variety to tiie undulating pasture-land and the
level fields of the farms. But as we drove carelessly
through the green landscape, aU of a sudden we saw
before us a great forest of masts grey streaks in
the midst of the horizon and behind them a cloud
of smoke arising from an immense stretch of houses.
We discovered, too, the line of the Mersey; and by
and by we could see its banks widening, until the
boats in the bed of the stream could be vaguely made
out in the distance.
'' Shall we remain in Liverpool this evening 1" asks
Bell.
"As you pleasa"
Bell had been more eager than any of us to hurry
on our passage to the north, that we should have
abundant leisure in the Lake country. But a young
lady who finds herself in an embarrassing position may
imagine that the best refuge she can have in the
evening is the theatre.
" Pray don't," says Tita. " We shall be at Liverpool
presently, and it would be a great pity to throw away
a day, when we shall want all the spare time we can
get when we reach Kendal."
Kendal! It was the town at which Arthur was
to meet us. But of course my Lady had her way.
Since Yon Bosen chose to sit mute, the decision
rested with her ; and so the driver, being of an equable
disposition, and valuing the peace of mind of the
party far above the respect that ought to have been
shown to Liverpool, meekly took his orders, and sent
the horses on.
But it was a long way to Liverpool, despite Tita's
assurances. The appearances of the landscape were
deceitful The smoke on the other side of the river
seemed to indicate that the city was close at hand;
but we continued to roll along the level road without
apparently coming one whit nearer Birkenhead. We
crossed Bromborough PooL We went by Primrose
OF A PHAETON. 249
Hill We drove past the grounds apparently sur-
rounding some mansion^ only to find the level road
still stretching on before us. Then there were a few
cottage& Houses of an unmistakably civic look began
to appear. Suburban villas with gardens walled in
with brick studded the roadsida Factories glimmered
grey in the distance. An odour of coal-smoke was
perceptible in the air; and finally, with a doleful
satisfaction, we had the wheels of the phaeton rattling
over a grimy street, and we knew we were in Birken-
head.
There was some excuse for the Lieutenant losing
his temper even if he had not been in rather a gloomy
mood, to begin with. The arrangements for the trans-
ference of carriage horses across the Mersey are of
a nebulous description. When we drove down the
narrow passage to Tranmere Feny, the only official
we could secxure was a hulking lout of a fellow of
decidedly hang-dog aspect Von Bosen asked him,
civilly enough, if there was anyone about who could
take the horses out, and superintend the placing of
them and the phaeton in tike ferry. There was no
such person. Our friend in moleskin hinted in a
surly fashion that the Lieutenant might do it for
himself. But he would help, he said ; and therewith
he growled something about being paid for his trouble.
I began to fear for tibe safety of that man. The river
ia deep just close by.
Bell and Tita had to be got out, and tickets taken
for the party and for the horses and phaeton. When
I returned, the Lieutenant, with rather a firm-set
mouth, was himself taking the horses out^ while the
loafer in moleskin stood at some little distance, scowl-
ing and muttering scornful observations at the same
time.
'*Hal have you got the tickets?" said our Uhlan.
" That is very good. We shall do by ourselves. Can
you get out the nosebags, that we shall pacify them
on going across ? I have told this fellow ^if he comes
near to the horses ^if he speaks one more word to
250 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
me ^he will be in the river the next nkoment ; and
that is quite sure as I am alive."
But there ^vas no one who ootdd keep the horses
quiet like BelL When tiiey were taken down the
' little pier, she walked by their heads, and spoke to
them, and stroked their noses ; and then she swiftly
got on board the steamer to receive tbem. The lieu-
tenant took hold of Pollux. The animal had been
quiet enough, even with the steamer blowing and
pufi&Qg in front of him, but when he found his hoofs
striking on the board between the pier and the
steamer, he threw up his head, and strove to back.
The lieutenant held on by both hands. The horse
went back another step. It was a perilous moment^
for there is no railing to the board which forms the
gangway to those ferry-steamers, and if the animal
had gone to one side or the other, he and Yon Bosen
would have been in the water together. But with a
" Hi I hoop !" and a little touch of the whip fix)m
behind, the horse sprang forward, and was in the boat
before he knew. And there was Bell at his head,
talking in an endearing fashion to him as the lieu-
tenant pulled the strap of the nosebag up ; and one
horse was safe.
There was less to do with Castor; that prudent
animal, with his eyes staring wildly around, feeling
his way gingerly on the sounding board, but not
pausing all the same. Then he too had his nosebag
to comfort him ; and when the steamer uttered a yell
of a whistle through its steam-pipe, the two horses
only started and Imocked their hoo& about on the
deck for they were very weU employed, and Bell
was standing in front of their headS/ talking to them
and pacifying them.
Then we steamed slowly out into the broad estuaiy.
A strong wind was blowing up channel, and the yellow-
brown waves were splashing about with here and
there a bold dash of blue on them from the gusty
sky overhead. Far away down the Mersey the
diipping seemed to be like a cloud along the two
OF A PHAETON. 251
efaoies ; and out on the wide surface of the river
were large Teasels being tugged about, and mighty
steamers coming up to ti&e liveipool piers. When
one of these bore down upon us so closely that she
seemed to overlook our Uttle boat, the two horses
forgot their com and flung their heads about a bit;
but the Lieutenant had a firm grip of them, and
they were eventually quieted.
He had by this time recovered from his fit of
wrath. Indeed, he laughed heartily over the matter,
and said
" I am afraid I did give that lounging fellow a great
fright. He does not understand German, I suppose ;
but the sound of what I said to him had great effect
upon him ^I can assure you of that. He retreated
finun me hastily. It was some time before he could
make out what had happened to him; and then he
did not return to the phaeton.''
The horses bore the landing on the other side very
well; and, with but an occasional tremulous start,
permitted themselves to be put-to on the quay, amid
the roar and confusion of arriving and departing
steamers. We were greatly helped in this matter by
an amiable policeman, who will some day, I hope,
become Colonel and Superintendent of tide Metro-
politan Force.
Weither, amid all this turmoil, was beginning to
forget his sorrows. We had a busy time of it. He
and Bell had been so occupied with the horses in
getting them over that they had talked almost fi^uakly
to each other; and now there occurred some con-
tinuation of the excitement in the difficulties that
beset us. For, after we had driven into the crowded
streets, we found that the large hotels in Liverpool
have no mews attached to them ; and in our endeavours
to secure in one place entertainment for both man
and beast, some considerable portion of our time was
consumed. At length we found stabling in Hatton
Grarden ; and then we were thrown on the wide world
of Liverpool to look after our own sustenance.
253 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
" Mademoiselle/' said the Lieutenant ^rather avoiding
the direct look of her eyes, however "if you would
prefer to wait, and go to a theatre to-night --"
" Oh no, thank you," said Bell, quite hurriedly as
if she were anxious not to have her own wishes con-
sulted; "I would much rather go on as far as we
can to-day."
The Lieutenant said nothing ^how could he ? He
was but six-and-twenty, or thereabouts, and had not
yet discovered a key to the Bosamond's maze of a
woman's wishes.
So we went to a restaurant fronting a dull square,
and dined. We were the only guests. Perhaps it was
luncheon; perhaps it was dinner we had pretty well
forgotten the difference by this time, and were satisfied
if we could get something to eat, anywhere, thrice a day.
But it was only too apparent that the pleasant
relations with which we had started had been seriously
altered. There was a distressing politeness prevailing
throughout this repast, and Bell had so far forgotten
her ancient ways as to become quite timid and ner-
vously formal in her talk. As for my Lady, she forgot
to say sharp things. Indeed, she never does care for
a good brisk quarrel, unless there are people present
ready to enjoy the spectacle. Kghting for the mere
sake of fighting is a blunder; but fighting in the
presence of a circle of noble dames and knights
becomes a courtly tournament. All our old amuse-
ments were departing ^we were like four people met
in a London (hrawing-room ; and, of course, we had
not bargained for tMs sort of thing on setting out.
It had all arisen from Bell's excessive tenderness of
heart. She had possessed herself with some wild
idea that she had cruelly wronged our Lieutenant.
She strove to make up for this imaginary injury by a
show of courtesy and kindness that was embarrassing
to the whole of us. The fact is, the girl had never
been trained in the accomplishments of city life. She
regarded a proposal of marriage as something of con-
sequence. There was a defect, too, about her pulsation :
OF A PHAETON. 253
her heart ^that ought to have gone regularly through
the multiplication table in the course of its beating,
and never changed from twice one to twelve times
twdve ^made feintic plunges here and there, and
slurred over whole columns of figures in oider to send
an anxious and tender flush up to her forehead and face.
A girl who was so little mistress of herself, that on a
winter^s evening, when we happened to talk of the
stimmer-time and of half-forgotten walks near Amble-
side and Coniston tears might suddenly be seen to
well up in her blue eyes, was scarcely fit to take her
place in a modem drawing-room. At this present
moment her anxiety, and a sort of odd self-accusation,
were really spoiling our holiday : but we did not bear
our Bell much malice.
It was on this evening that we were destined to make
our first acquaintance with the alarming method of
making roads which prevails between laverpool and
Preston. It is hard to say by what process of fiendish
ingenuity these petrified sweetbreads have been placed
so as to occasion the greatest possible trouble to horses'
hoofs, wheels, and human ears ; and it is just as hard
to say why such roads ^although they may wear long
in the neighbourhood of a city inviting constant traffic
should be continued out into countiy districts where
a cart is met with about once in every five miles. These
roads do not conduce to talking. One thinks of the
unfortunate horses, and of the effect on springs and
wheels. Especially in the quiet of a summer^s evening,
the frightful rumbling over the wedged-in stones seems
strangely discordant. And yet, when one gets clear
of the suburban slums and the smoke of Liverpool^ a
very respectable appearance of real country-life becomes
visible. When you get out to Walton Kurseries and on
towards Aintree Station and Maghull, the landscape
looks fairly green, and the grass is of a nature to sup-
port animal life. There is nothing very striking in the
scenery, it is true. Even the consciousness that away
beyond the flats on the left the sea is washing over the
great sandbanks on to the level shores, does not help
254 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
much ; for who can pretend to hear the whispering of
the far-ofT tide amid the monotonous rattling over these
abominable Lancashire stones ? We kept our teeth well
shut, and went on. We crossed the small river of Alt.
We whisked through Maghull village. The twilight was
gathering fast as we got on to Augbton, and in the dusk
^lit up by the yellow stars of the street lamps ^we
drove into Ormskirk. The sun had gone down red in
the west : we were again assured as to the morrow.
But what would be the good of another bright
morning to this melancholy Uhlan ? Misfortune seemed
to have marked us for its own. We drove into the
yard of what was apparently the biggest inn in the
place ; and while the women were sent into the inn,
the lieutenant and I happened to remain a little while
to look after the horses. Imagine our astonishment,
therefore (after the animals had been taken out and
our luggage uncarted), to find there was no accommo-
dation for us inside the bxdlding.
''Confounded house!" growled the lieutenant, in
Grerman; "thou hast betrayed me!"
So there was nothing for it but to leave tiie phaeton
where it was, and issue forth in quest of a house in
which to hide our heads. It was an odd place when
we found it A group of women regwled us with a
frightened stare. In vain we invited them to speak.
At length another woman little less alarmed ihan the
others, apparently ^made her appearance, and signified
that we mighty if we chose, go into a fionall parlour
smelling consumedly of gin and coarse tobacco. After
all, we foimd the place was not so bad as it looked.
Another chamber was prepared for us. Our luggage
was brought round. Ham and beer were provided fcr
our final meal, with some tea in a shaky teapot. Thre
was nothing romantic in this dingy hostelry, or in l^ns
dingy little town; but were we not about to reaefa a
more favoured country the beautiful and enchanted
land of which Bell had been dreaming so long
**Keim8t da et wohlf Dahin, dahin,
HSohf ich mit dir, mein GFeliebter, zieBn ! "
OF A PHAETON. 255
[N(^ ly Queen Tiimiia. "I confess that I cannot nnderstand these
young people. On our way from the Fairy Glen hack to Bettws-y-
Coed, Bell told me something of what had occmred ; hnt I really could
not get from her anj proper reason for her having acted so. She was
much distressed, of course. I forbore to press her, lest we should have
a teene, and I would not hurt the girl's feelings for the world, for she
is as dear to me as one of my own children. But she coiUd give no
explanation. If she had said that Count von Bosen had been too
precipitate, I could have understood it She said she had known him
a very short time ; and that she could not judge of a proposition
coming so unexpectedly ; and that she could not consent to nis leavinf
his countiy and his profession for her sake. These are only such
objections as every girl uses when she really means that she does not
wish to many. I asked her why. She had no objections to urge
against lieut^iant von Bosea personally as how could she ? for he is
a most gentiemanly young man, with abilities and accomplishments
considerably above the average. Perhaps, living down in the country
for tixe greater port of the year, I am not competent to judge ; but I
thiak at least he compares very favourably with the genuemen whom
I am in the habit of seeing. I asked her if she meant to mazry
Arthur. She would not answer. She said something about his being
an old friend as if that had anything in the world to do with it.
At first I thought that she had merely said No for the pleasure of
accepting afterwards ; and I knew that in that case the Lieutenant,
who is a shrewd young man, and has plenty of courage,, would soon
make a/MAhtr trial. But I was amazed to find so much of seriousness
in her decision ; and yet she will not say that she means to marry
Arthur. Perhaps she is waiting to have an explanation with him first.
In that case, I fear Const von Bosen's chances are but veir small
indeed ; for I know how Arthur has waaUtmly traded on Bell's great
generosity before. Perhaps I may be mistaken ; but she would not
admit that her decision could be altered. I must sajr it is moii im-
fortwMUe, Just as we were getting on so nicely and emoying oniaelves
so much and just as we were getting near to the Lake country that
Bell so much delights in everyOiing is spoiled by this unhappy event,
for which Bell can give no adequate reason whatever. It is a great
pity that one who shall be nameless ^but who looks pretty fairly after
his own comfort did not abeoltUely forbid Arthur to come vexing us in
this way by driving over to our route. If Dr. Ashburton hSi had
any proper control over the boy, he would have kept him to his
studies m the Temple, instead of allowing him to risk tne breaking of
his neck by driving wUdly about the country in a dog-cart."]
256 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
CHAPTEE XIX.
THE WHITE OWLS OF GABSTANG.
'' As she fled fast through son and shade,
The happy winds upon her played.
Blowing the ringlet from the braid :
She looked so lovely, as she swayed
The rein with dainty finger-tipd,
A man had given all otlier bfiss,
And all his worldly wealth for l^s,
To waste his whole heart in one kiss
Upon her perfect lips."
This state of affairs could not last
"Look here," I say to Queen Titania, ''we must
cut the Lieutenant adrift."
"As you please," she remarks, with a sudden cold-
ness coming over her manner.
" Why should we be embarrassed by the freaks of
these two young creatures? All the sunshine has
gone out of the party since Bell has b^un to
sit mute and constrained her only wish apparently
being to show a superhuman coiurtesy to this per-
plexing young Prussian."
"You very quickly throw over anyone who
interferes witii your own comfort," says my Lady,
calmly.
"I miss my morning ballad. When one reaches
a certain age, one expects to be studied and tended
except by one's wife."
"Well," says Tita, driven to desperation by this
picture of Von Eosen's departure, "I vramed you at
our setting-out that these two would Ml in love with
each other and cause us a great deal of trouble."
Who can say that this little woman is wanting in
courage? The audacity with which she made this
statement was marvellous. She never flinched; and
the brown, dear, true eyes looked as bravely uncon*
scions as if she had been announcing her faith in
OF A PHAETON. 257
the multiplication table. There was no nse in arguing
the point. How could you seek to thwart or influence
the firm belief that shone clearly and steadily under
the soft eyelashes?
"Come," I say to her, "is Von Rosen to go; or
is he to hang on in hope of altering Bell's decision?
I fancy the young man would himself prefer to leave
us I don't think he is in a comfortable position."
My Lady appeared a trifle embarrassed was there
some dark secret between these two women?
"A yoimg man," she says, with a little hesitation,
'^ is the best judge of his own chances. I have asked
Bell; and I really can't quite make her out. Still
-you kaow-a M somethnes is in a manner fright-
ened into saying 'No,' the first time she is asked
and there might be "
She stopped.
"You thmk the Lieutenant should ask her again?"
"No, / don't," says Eta, hastily; "but it is im-
possible to say she had nothing to urge against
Count von Eosen only that Arthur would consider
himself imjustly treated ^"
"So ho! Is that the reason?"
" No, no, no ! " cries the small woman, in an agony
of fright " Don't you go and put any wrong notions
into the young man's head ^"
"Madam," I say to her, "recollect yourself. So
far from wishing to interfere in the afiairs of these two
young people, I should like to bundle them both
back to London, that we might continue our journey
in peace. As for the Lieutenant's again proposing
to marry Bell, I consider that a man who twice asks
a woman to become his wife, forgets the dignity of
his sex."
Tita looks up ^with the mort beautifully innocent
Bmile in her eyes and says sweetly,
"You did yourself."
"That was different."
"Yes, I daresay."
" I knew your heart would have broken if I hadn't."
8
258 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
" Oh ! " she says, with her eyes grown appalled.
" In &ct, it was my native generosity that prompted
me to ask you a second time; for I perceived that
you were about to ask me."
"How many more?" she asks; but I cannot
make out what mysterious things she is secretly
counting up.
" But no matter. There is little use in recalling ,
these bygone mistakes. Justice is satisfied when a
fool repents him of his folly." \
At this moment Bell enters the room. She goes
up to Tita, and takes both her hands.
"You are laughing, in a perplexed way. You
must have been quarrelling. What shall we do to
him?"
"The falling out of faithful friends is generally
made up with a kiss, Bell," it is remarked.
''But I am not in the quarrel," says Miss Bell,
letreating to the window ; and here there is a rumble
of wheels outside, and the phaeton stands at the door. .
"You two must get up in front/' says Tita, as
we go out into the white glare of Ormskirk. "I
can watch you better there."
By this dexterous manoeuvre Bell and the lieute-
nant were again separated. The young lady was never
loth to sit in front under whatever surveillance
it placed her; for she liked driving. On this cool
morning ^that promised a warmer day, after the wind
had carried away the white fleece of cloud that stretched
over the sky she pulled on her gloves with great
alacrity, and, having got into her seat, assumed the
management of the reins as a matter of course.
"Gently!" I say to her, as Castor and Pollux
make a plunge forward into the narrow thoroughfare.
A handbarrow is jutting out from the pavement. She
gives a jerk to the left rein, but it is too late; one
of our wheels just touches the end of the barrow, and
over it goes ^not with any great crash, however.
"Go on," says the Lieutenant, from behind, with
admirable coolness. "There is no harm done ^and
OF A PHAETON. 259
there is no one in charge of that thiog. When he
comes, he will pick it up."
"Very pretty conduct," remarks my Lady, as we
get out among the green fields and meadows again,
"injuring some poor man's property, and quietly
driving away without even offering compensation."
" It was Bell who did it," I say.
"As usual The old story repeated from the days
of Eden downward. The woman thou gavest me
of course, it is she who must bear the blame."
" Madan^," I reply, *' your knowledge of Scripture is
astoxmding. Who was the first Attorney-General in
the Bible?"
^Find out," says Tita; and the'Iieutenant bursts into
a roar of laughter, as if that were a pretty iqpartee.
**And where do we stop to-night?" says our
North-country Maid, looking away along the green
valley which is watered by the pretty Eller Brook.
" Gkustang, on the river of Wyre."
"And to-morrow we shall really be in Westmore-
land?"
"To-morrow we shall really be in Westmoreland.
Wo-ho ! my beauties ! Why, Bell, . if you try to
leap across Lancashire at a boimd like that, you'll
have us in a canal, or transfixed on a telegraph-post."
**! did not intend it," says Bell, "but diey are
as anxious as I am to get north, and they break into
a gallop on no provocation whatever,"
Indeed, the whole nature of this mad girl seemed
to have a sort of resemblance to a magnetic needle-
it was continuously turning to the North Pole, and
that in a tremxdous, undecided fashion, as if, with
all her longing, she did not quite like to let people
know. But at this moment she forgot that we were
listening. It was really herself she was delighting
with her talk about deep valleys, and brown streams,
and the scent of peat-smoke in the air of an evening.
All the time she was looking away up to the horizon,
to see whether she could not make out some lines
of blue mountains, until Tita suddenly said
8 2
26o THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
" My dear I "
'* MeaniDg me, ma'am ? "
'' No, I mean BelL Pray keep a firmer hand on the
horses it* a train were to come sharply by at present
and you see the road runs parallel with the railway-line
for an immense distance/'
" And so should we," says BeU lightly. " There is no
danger. The poor animals wouldn't do anything wicked
at such a time, just when they are getting near to a
long rest."
Under Bell's guidance we do not lose much time by
the way. The road leaves the neighbourhood of the
railway. We drive past the great park of Eufiford HalL
The wind blows across to us from the Irish Sea ; and at
the smaU village of Much Hoole, where the lieutenant
insists on giving the horses a little meal and water as a
sort of soothing draught, we come in sight of the long
red line of the Bibble, widening out into a sandy channel
as it nears the ocean. Bell catches a glimpse of the
smoke of a steamer ; and the vague knowledge that the
plain of salt water is not far away seems to refresh us
all, as we plunge once more into the green and wooded
country, by Longton, Hutton, and Howick.
" Wliat is the greatest wish of your life. Bell? " I ask,
knowing that she is dreaming of living somewhere along
the coast of these islands.
" To see Mamma pleased," says Bell, quite prettily,
just as if she were before a schoolmistress.
" You ask for the impossible. Tita's dream of earthly
bliss is to have the cross in our little church turned to
a crucifix ; and it will never be realized. I think she
would rather have that than be made a Duchess."
'' I do miss that dear little church," says Tita, taking
no heed of the charge preferred against her. " There is
no feeling of homeliness about the churches we go into
up here. You know that you are a stranger, and all
the people are strangers, and you are not accustomed
to the clerg3rman's voice."
"The fact is," I tell her, "you lose the sense of pro-
prietorship which pleases you down at homa There,
OF A PHAETON. 361
the church is your own. Tou set out on a quiet Sunday
morning ^you know all the people coming through the
fields and along the roads and you have an eye on
them, to mark the absentees. There is a family gather-
ing in the churchyard, and a universal shaking of hands
^you are pleased that all the people are coming to
your church. You go in ^the evergreens everywhere
about you put there yourself. The taU white lUies on
the altar you presented to the Vicar ; though I paid for
them. Bell sits down to the organ ^probably tRinking
that her new boots may slip on one of the pedals and
produce a discord in the bass emd you know that your
family is providing the music too. The Vicar and his
wife dined with you the night before ^you are in secret
league with them. Tou know all the people ^Lord
*s butler, who is the most venerable person in the
place that squint-eyed publican, who thrashes his wife
on the Saturday so that she can't come on the Sunday
all the other various pensioners you have, who you
vainly think are being taught to be independent and
economical-- and a lot of smaU boys in knickerbockers
and shiny heads of hair, and pretty yoimg ladies with
sailors' hats, blue ribbons, white jackets, and big wistful
eyes. You are the presiding genius of the place ; and
when Bell begins the music and the sunlight comes
through the small and yellow windows in the southern
aisle and when you see the light shining on the mural
tablets, with the coloured coats-of-arms above you ask
yourself what other place could produce this feeling
of homely satisfaction, and what fashionable London
church, with all its money, could manufacture these
ancient blocks of marble until you think you could
spend aU your own money, and all your husband's too,
in making the small building a sort of ecclesiastical
museum."
" I hope," says Tita, with great severity, " I do not go
into church with any such thoughts. It is an auctioneers
view of a morning service."
" It is the business of an auctioneer, my dear creature,
to estimate the actual value of articles. But I forgot
2^ THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
one thing: After yon bave contemplated tlie* cHurcA
with profonnd satisfaction jnet as if those old knights
and baronets had died in order to adorn the walls for
you your eye wanders up to the altar. It is a pretty
altar-cloth goodness knows how much time you and
Bell spent over it. The flowers on the altar are- also
beautiful or ought to be, considering the price that
Benson charges for them. But that plain gilt cross,
with the three jewels in it that is rather a blot, is
it not?"
"Why don't you go to the zinc chapel?" says Tita,
with some contempt.
" I would if I dared."
" Who prevents you ? I am sure it is not I. I would
much rather you went there, than come to church,
merely to calculate the cost of every bit of fern or yew
that is placed on the walls, and to complain of the
introduction into the sermon of doctrines which you
can't understand."
" May I go to chapel, please ? "
"Certainly. But you are a good deal fonder of
going up to Mickleham Downs than to either church
or chapeL"
"Will you come to chapel, Bell?"
" I am not going to interfere," says Bell, with philo-
sophical indifference^ and paying much more attention
to her horses.
" I should be sorry to go," I observe, calmly, " for I
had half resolved to ask Mr. Lestrange to let me put
in yellow glass in those two windows that are at
present white."
"Oh, will you really?" cries Queen Tita, in a
piteously eager tone, and quite forgetting all her war
of words.
Well, I promise, somewhat sadly. It is not the cost
of it that is the matter. But on those Sunday mornings
when the sunlight is flooding the church with a solemn
glow of yellow, it is something to turn to the two white
windows, and there, through the diamond panes, you
can see the sunlight shimmering on the breezy branches
OF A PHAETON. 263
of an ash-tree. This little glimpse of the bright and
glowing world outside when our Vicar, who, it must be
confessed, is not always in a happy mood, happens to be
rather drowsy and even depressing in the monotony
of his commonplaceness but perhaps it will be better
to say nothing more on this point
"Why the people of the flourishing town of Preston do
not bridge the Bibble in a line running parallel with
their chief thoroughfare and the road leading up from
Harwich, is inexplicable. A pleasure party need not
mind, for the drive is pleasant enough ; but business
folks might be tempted to use bad language over such
an unnecessary injury. The road makes a long double
along the two baoks of the river, the most westerly
bridge forming the end of the loop. First you drive
down the left bank of the stream, over fine green
meadows, then you cross the bridge, and drive back
along the right bank, between avenues of young trees.
Perhaps the notion is to give you as much as possible
of the green and pleasant surroundings of Preston,
before letting you plimge into the streets of the town.
Now, I do not know how it was that from the moment
of our entering Preston a vague feeling of satisfaction
and hope seemed to get possession of our small party.
We had started in the morning under somewhat embar-
rassing and awkward conditions, not likely to provoke
high spirits ; but now we seemed to have a nebulous
impression that the end of our troubles had come. Was
it because we had reached the last of the large manu-
' facturing towns on our journey, and that we should
meet with no more of them ? Or was it because of that
' promise to Queen Titania ? ^for that kindly little woman,
when she is pleased, has a wonderful power of conveying
her gladness to others, and has been known to sweeten
a heavy dinner-party as a bunch of woodrufiF will
sweeten a lumber-room. Or was it that we knew, in
approaching Kendal, we should probably come to a
final settlement of all our difficulties, and have there-
after peace ?
As we were walking, after luncheon, through the
264 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES '
spacious public gardens that overlook the Hibble, the
Lieutenant drew me aside, and said
" My good friend, here is a favour I will ask of you.
We come to-night to Garstang, yes ? "
"Yes, we shall reach Garstang to-night"
" A town or a village ? "
" I don't know. Probably a village."
" 1 did hope it was not a town. Well, this is what I
ask. Tou \nll endeavour to take away Madame for a
few monients ^if we are out waUdng, you know and you
will let me say a few words to Mademoiselle by herself."
" I thought all your anxiety was to avoid her."
" There is something I must say to her."
" All right ; I will do what you ask, on condition you
do not persecute her. When she wishes to rejoin us,
you must not prevent her."
" Persecute her ? Then you do think I will quarrel
with her and make her very miserable merely because
she will not marry me ? Tou think it will be as it was
at Worcester ^when that stupid boy from Twickenham
did go along the river ? Well, aU I ask you is to look
at these two days. Has there been any quarrel between
us ? No, it is quite the opposite."
" Then let it remain that way, my dear fellow. One
Arthur is bad enough for a girl to manage ; but two
would probably send her into a convent for life."
- And the truth was as the Lieutenant had described it.
They had been during these two days more than polite
to each other. Somehow, Bell was never done in paying
him furtive little attentions, although she spoke to him
rarely. That morning she had somewhere got a few
wild-flowers ; and three tiny bouquets were placed on
the breakfast-table. The Lieutenant dared not think
that one of them was for him. He apologized to Made-
moiselle for taking her seat. Bell said he had not ^the
bouquet was for him if he cared to have it, she added
with a little diffidence. The Lieutenant positively
blushed said nothing ^and altogether neglected his
own break&st in offering her things she did not want.
The bouquets given to Tita and her husband were
OF A PHAETON. 265
pinned into prominent positions; but no human eye
saw anything more of the wild blossoms that Bell had
given to Von Eosen. Betting on a certainty is con-
sidered dishonourable ; and so I will not say what odds
I would give that these precious flowers were transferred
to a book, and that at this moment they could be pro-
duced if a certain young man were only willing to
reveal their whereabouts.
Everything seemed to favour us on this fine afternoon
as we drove away northward again. The road grew
excellent, and we knew that we had finally left behind
us that deafening causeway that had dinned our ears
for days past Then the cool breeze of the forenoon
and mid-day had died down, and a still, warm sunset
began to break over the western country, between us
and the sea. We could not, of course, get any glimpse
of the great plain of water beyond the land ; but we knew
that this great fire of crimson and yellow was shining
down on it too, and on the long curves of the shore.
The western sands could not be much more level than
the road that runs up by Broughton and Brock-bridge,
but it takes one through a suf&ciently pleasant country
which is watered by a multitude of brooks and smsdl
rivers. It is a rich and well-cultivated coimtry, too ;
and the far-stretching meadows and copses and fields
seemed to grow darker in their green under that smoke
of dusky orimson that had filled the sky. It is true,
we were stiU in Lancashire, and there was still present
to us a double line of communication with the manu-
facturing towns we had now left behind. At certain
places the road would run by the 6i4e of a railway-line,
and then again we would find a canal winding itself
like a snake through the grassy meadows. But a sunset
is a wonderful smoother-down of these artificial features
in a landscape ; and when the earth-banks of the railway-
line burned crimson under the darkening sky, or when
an arm of the canal caught a flush of flame on its
glassy surface, the picture was rather helped than other-
wise, and we bore the engineers of this favoured land no
deadly grudge.
266 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
A smiBet, by the way, was always favourable to Bell's
appearance. It lent to those fine and wavy masses of
hair a sort of glory ; and the splendid aureole was about
all of his sweetheart that the lieutenant could see, as
he sat in the hind seat of the phaeton. Bell wears her
hair rather loose when she is out in the country, and
greatly likes, indeed, to toss it about as if she were a
young lion ; so that you may fancy how the warm light
of the sunset glowed here and there on those light and
silken heaps of golden-brown as we drove along in
the quiet evening. Sometimes, indeed, he may have
caught the outline of her face as she turned to look over
the far landscape ; and then, I know, the delicate oval
was tinted by the generous colour of the western skies,
so that not alone in the miracle of her hair did she look
like some transfigured saiat
Her talk on this evening, however, was fistr from
saintly. It was as worldly as it well could be ; for she
was confessing to the agony she used to suffer after
going home from dinner-parties, balls, and other godless
diversions of a like nature.
" I used to dread going up to my room," she said,
'' for I could get no rest until I had sat down and gone
over everything that I had said during the evening.
And then all the consequences of my imprudence came
rushing down on me until I felt I was scarcely fit to live.
What you had been led into saying as a mere piece of
merriinent now looked terribly like impertinence. Many
a time I wrote down on a piece of paper certain things
that I resolved to go the next day and make an apology
for to the old ladies whom I am sure I had offend^.
But the next morning, things began to look a little
better. A little reassurance came with the briskness of
the day ; and I used to convince myself that nobody
would remember the heedless sayings that had been
provoked by the general light talk and merriment, I
absolved myself for that day; and promised, and vowed
and made the most desperate resolutions never, never
to be thoughtless in the future, but always to watch
every word I had to say."
OF A PHAETON. 267
i ''And in the evening/' continued my Lady, ''yon
went out to another dance, and enjoyed yourself the
same, and said as many wild things as usuaJ, and went
home again to do penance. It is quite natural. Bell.
Most girls go through that terrible half-hour of reaction,
until they grow to be women ^"
"And then,'* it is remarked, "they have never any-
thing to be sorry about ; for they are adway s circumspect,
self-possessed, and sure about what they mean to say.
They never have to spend a dreadful half-hour in trying
to recollect mistakes and foUies."
"As for gentlemen," remarked Titania sweetly, "I
have heard that their evil half-hour is during the process
of dressing, when they endeavour to recall the speech
they made at the public dinner of the night before, and
wonder how they could have been so stupid as to order
a lot of champagne to oblige a Mend just gone into that
business, and are not very sure how many people they
invited to dinner on the following Friday. Count von
Eosen "
" Yes, Madame."
"When you observe a husband whistling while his
wife is talking, what do you think ? "
" That she is saying something he would rather not
hear," replies the Lieutenant, gravely.
"And is not that a confession that what she says
is true?"
" Yes, Madame," says the Lieutenant, boldly.
" My dear," I say to her, "your brain has been turned
by the last sporting novel you have read. You are a
victim of cerebral inflammation. When you pride
yourself on your researches into the ways and habits of
the sex which you affect to despise, don't take that sort
of farthing-candle to guide you. As for myself, our
young friend from Prussia would scarcely credit the
time I spend in helping you to nail up brackens and
larch and ivy in that wretched little church ; and if he
knew the trouble I have to keep Bell's accounts straight
^when she is reckoning up what the process of pro-
ducing paupers in our neighbourhood costs us why,
1
268 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
he would look upon you as an unprincipled calum-
niator."
''Mamma herself is scarcely so big as those two
words put together," says Bell ; but Mamma is laughing
all this time, quite pleased to see that she has raised a
storm in a tea-cup by her ungracious &nd unwarranted
assault.
In the last red rays of the sun we have got on to a
small elevation. Before us, the road dips down and
crosses the canal; then it makes a twist again and
crosses the Wyre ; and up in that comer are the scat-
tered gables of Qarstang. As we pass over the river
it is running cold and dark between its green banks ;
and the sunset is finally drawing down to the west as
we drive into the silent village, and up to the doorstep
of the Boyal Oak.
'Tis a quaint and ancient hostelry. For aught we
know, the Earl of Derby's soldiers may have walked
over hither for a draught of beer when they were gar-
risoning Greenhalgh Castle over there; and when the
brave Countess, away down at Latham, was herself
fixing up the royal standard on the tower of the castle
as Mr. Leslie's picture shows us and bidding defiance
to the Parliamentary troops. When you tell that story
to Queen Iltania, you can see her gentle face grow pale
with pride sind admiration; for did not the gallant
Countess send out word to Fairfax that she would
defend the place until she lost her honour or her life,
for that she had not forgotten what she owed to the
Church of England, to her prince, and to her lord?
My Lady looks as if she, too, could have sent that
message; only that she would have stopped at the
Church of England and gone no farther.
When we come out again, the sunset h&s gone, and a
wonderful pale green twilight lies over the land. We
go forth from the old-fashioned streets, and find our-
selves by the banks of the clear running river. A pale
metallic light shines along its surface; and as we walk
along between the meadows and the picturesque banks
^where there is an abundance of the mighty burdock*
TX-
OF A PHAETON. 269
leaves that are beloved of painters an occasional
splash is heard, whether of a rat or a trout no one
can say. Somehow the Lieutenant has drawn Bell
away from us. In the clear twilight we can see their
figures sharp and black on the dark green slope beside
the stream. Queen Tita looks rather wistfully at them ;
and is, perhaps, thinking of days long gone by when
she, too, knew the value of silence on a beautiful
evening, by the side of a river.
" I hope it is not wrong," says my Lady, in a low
voice, " but I confess I should like to see the Lieutenant
marry our Bell"
''Wrong? No. It is only the absent who are in
the wrong Arthur, for example, who is perhaps at
Kendal, at this moment, waiting for us."
" We cannot all be satisfied in this world," remarks
Tita, profoundly ; " and as one of these two alone can
many Bell, I do hope it may be the Lieutenant, in
spite of what she says. I think it would be very
pleasant for all of us. What nice neighbours they
would be for us; for I know Bell would prefer to
live down near us in Surrey, and the Lieutenant
can have no particular preference for any place in
England."
"A nice holiday-time we should have of it, with
these two idle creatures living close by and making
continual proposals to go away somewhere."
"Bell would not be idle."
" She must give up her painting if she marries."
"She won't give it up altogether, I hope; and then
there is her music, even if she had no household
duties to occupy her time : and I know she will make
an active and thrifty housewife. Indeed, the only
idler will be the Lieutenant, and he can become a
Captain of Volunteers."
And yet she says she never lays plans! that she
has no wish to interfere between Arthur and Von
Eosen ! that she would rather see Bell relieved from
the persecutions of both of them ! She had already
mapped out the whole affair; and her content was
yjo THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
so great that a beautiful gladness and softness lay in
her eyes, and she began to prattle about the two boys
at school^ and aU she meant to take home to them;
and, indeed, if she had been at home, she would have
gone to the piano and sung to herself some low and
gentle melody, as soft and as musical as the crooning
of a wood-pigeon hid away among trees.
Then she said, "How odd that Bell should have
begun to talk about these imfortunate slips of the
tongue that haunt you afterwards. All these two
days I haven't been able to get lid of the remem-
brance of that terrible mistake I made in speaking
of Count von Bosen and Bell as already marrie
But who knows ? there may be a Providence in such
things."
"The Providence that lies in blunders of speech
must be rather erratic ; but it is no wonder you spoke
by mischance of Bell's marrying the lieutenant^ for
you think of nothing else."
" But don't you think it would be a very good thing \ "
"What I think of it is a different matter. What
will Arthur think of it?"
" The whole world can't be expected to move round
merely to please Arthur," says my Lady, with some
asperity. " The fact is, those young men are so foolish
that they never reflect that a girl can't marry two of
them. They are always falling in love with a girl
who has a suitor already, and then she is put to the
annoyance of refusing one of them, and that one
considers her a monster."
"Well, if anyone is open to that charge in the
present case, it certainly is not Arthur."
My Lady did not answer. She was regarding with
a tender glance those two yoimg folks strolling through
the meadows before us. What were they saying to
each other? Would Bell relent? The time was pro-
pitious ^in the quiet of this pale, clear evening, with
a star or two beginning to twinkle, and the moon
about to creep up from behind the eastern woods. It
was a time for lovers to make confessions, and give
OF A PHAETON. rjx
tender pledges. None of us seemed to think of that
wretched youth who was blindly driving through
England in a dog-cart, and torturing himself in the
horrible solitude of inns. Unhappy Arthur !
For mere courtesy's sake, these two drew near to
us again. We looked at them. Bell turned her face
away, and stooped to pick up the white blossom of
a campion that lay like a great glow-worm among
the du*k herbage. The Lieutenant seemed a little
more confident, and he was anxious to be very
courteous and friendly towards Tita. That lady was
quite demure, and suggested that we might return to
the village.
We clambered up a steep place that led from the
hollow of the river to a higher plain, and here we
found ourselves by the side of the canaL It looked
like another river. There were grassy borders to it
and by the side of the path a deep wood descending
to the fields beyond. The moon had now arisen,
and, on the clear, still water, there were some ripples
of gold. Far away, on the other side, the bams and
haystacks of a farm-house were visible in the pale
glow of the sky.
"What is that?" said Tita, hurriedly, as a large
white object sailed silently through the faint moon-
light and swept into the wood.
Only an owl. But the sound of her voice had
disturbed several of the great birds in the trees, and
across the space between the wood and the distant
farm-house they fled noiselessly, with a brief reflec-
tion of their broad wings falling on the still waters
as they passed. We remained there an unconscionable
time Cleaning on the stone parapet of the bridge, and
watching the pale line of the canal, the ripples of
the moonlight, the dark wood, and the great and dusky
birds that floated about like ghosts in the perfect still-
ness. When we returned to Garstang, the broad square
in the centre of the place was glimmering grey in the
moonlight, and black shadows had fallen along one
side of the street
272 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
"Mj dear Mend/' said Yon Bosen, in an excited
and urgent way, as soon as our two companions had
gone upstairs to prepare for supper, ** I have great news
to tell you."
*' Bell has accepted you, I suppose," said I ^the boy
talking as if that were a remarkable phenomenon in
the world's history.
*' Oh no, nothing so good as that nothing not near
so good as that ^but something veiy good indeed. It
is not all finally disposed of there is at least a little
chance one must wait ^but is not this a very great
*hope?"
*'And is that all you obtained by your hour's
persuasion ? "
'' Pfui ! You do talk as if it did not matter to a
young girl whether she marries one man or marries
another."
"I don't think it much matters really."
"Then this is what I tell you ''
But here some light footsteps were heard on the
stairs, and the Lieutenant suddenly ceased, and rushed
to open the door.
Bell was as rosy as a rose set amid green leaves
when she entered, followed by Tita.
"We are very late," said the girl, as if she were
rather afraid to hazard that startling and profound
observation.
"Madame," said the Lieutenant, "I give you my
word this is the best ale we have dnmk since we
started ; it is clear, bright, very bitter, brisk ; it is
worth a long journey to drink such ale, and I hope
your husband, when he writes of our journey, will
give our landlady great credit for this very good beer."
I do so willingly ; but lest any ingenuous traveller
should find the ale of the Boyal Oak not quite fulfil
the expectations raised by this panegyric, I must re-
mind him that it was pronounced after the Lieutenant
had been walking for an hour along the banks of the
Wyre, on a beautiful evening, in the company of a
very pretty young lady.
OF A PHAETON. 273
We had abolished b&ique by this time. It had
become too much of a farce. Flaying four-handed
b^zique with partners is a clumsy contrivance; and
when we had endeavoured to play it independently,
the audacity of the Lieutenant in sacrificing the game
to Bell's interests had got beyond a joke. So we had
Ikllen back on whist ; and as we made those two
ardent young noodles partners, they did their best. It
wasn't very good, to tell the truth. The Lieutenant
was as bad a whist-player as ever perplexed a partner ;
but Bell could play a weak suit as well as another.
My Lady was rather pleased to find that the lieu-
tenant was not a skilful card-player. She was
deeply interested in the qualities of the young man
whom she regarded in a premature fashion as Bell's
future husband. In fact, if she had only known how,
she would have examined the young fellows who came
about the house ^Bell has had a pretty fair show
of suitors in her time as to the condition of the
inner side of the thumb. It is a bad sign when that
portion of the hand gets rather homy. A man might
as well go about with a piece of chalk, marked
"Thurston and Co.," in his waistcoat-pocket. But the
Lieutenant scarcely knew the difference between a
cue and a pump-handle.
We played late. The people of the inn, yielding
to our entreaties, had long ago gone to bed. When,
at length, my Lady and BeU also retired, the Lieu-
tenant rose from the table, stretched himself up his
full length, and said
"My good friend, I have much of a favour to ask
from you. I will repay you for it memy times again
I will sit up with you and smoke all night as often
as you please, which I think is your great notion of
enjoyment. But now, I have a great many things to
teU you and the room is close let us go away for
a walk."
It was only the strong nervous excitement of the
young man that was longing for this outburst into the
freedom of the cool air. He would have liked, then,
T
274 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
to have started off at a rate of five miles an hour, and
walked himself dead with fatigue. He was so anxious
about it that at last we took a candle to the front
door, got the bolts undone, and then, leaving the candle
and the matches where we knew we should find them,
we went out into the night.
By this time the moon had got well down into thd
south-west ; but there was still sufficient light to show
us the cottages, the roads, and the trees. The night
air was fresh and cool. As we started off on our vague
ramble, a cock crew, and the sound seemed to startle
the deep sleep of the landscape. We crossed over
the cansJ-bridge, and plunged boldly out into the still
country, whither we knew not.
Then he told me all the stoiy ; beginning with the
half-forgotten legend of Fr^ulein Fallersleben. I had
had n6 idea that this practical and hard-headed young
Uhlan had been so deeply struck on either occasion ;
but now at times there seemed to be a wild cry of
ignorance in his confessions, as if he knew not what
had happened to him, and what great mystery of life
he was battling with. He described it as resembling
somehow the unutterable sadness caused by the sudden
coming of the Spring ^when, amid all the glory and
wonder and delight of this new thing, a vague unrest
and longing takes possession of the heart and will
not be satisfied. All his life had been changed since
his coming to England ^turned in another direction,
and made to depend for any value that might be left
in it on a single chance. When he spoke of Bell
perhaps marrying him, all the wild and beautiftd
possibilities of the future seemed to stretch out beforo
' him, until he was fairly at a loss for words. When
he spoke of her finally going away from him, it was
as of something he could not quite understand. It
would alter all his life how, he did not know ; and
the new and wonderful consciousness that by such a
circumstance the world would grow all different to him
seemed to him a mystery beyond explication* He
only knew that this strange thing had occurred ; that
OF A PHAETON. 275
it had brought home to him once more the old
puzzles about life that had made him wonder as a
boy ; that he was drifting on to an irrevocable fate,
now that the final decision was near.
He talked rapidly, earnestly, heeding little the
blunders and repetitions into which he constantly
fell: and not all the vesuvians in the world could
have kept his cigar alight. He did not walk very
fast ; but he cut at the weeds and at the hedges with
his stick, and doubtless startled with his blows many
a sparrow and wren sleeping peacefully among the
leaves. I cannot tell you a tithe of what he said.
The story seemed as inexhaustible as the nebulous
mystery that he was obviously trying to resolve as it
hung around him in impalpable folds. When he came
to the actual question whether Bell had given hin;^ to
understand that she might reconsider her decision, he
was more reticent. He would not reveal what she
had said. But there was no pride or self-looking in
the anxiety about the result which he frankly ex-
pressed ; and it is probable that if Bell had heard him
then, she would have learned more of his nature and
sentiments than during any hour's stroll under the
supervision of her guardians.
When at length we turned, a shock of wonder
struck upon our eyes. The day had begun to break
in the east, and a cold wind was stirring. As yet,
there was only a faint light in the dark sky ; but by
and by a strange, clear whiteness rose up from behind
the still landscape, and then a wild, cold, yellow ra-
diance, against which the tall poplars looked intensely
black, overspread the far regions of the east. Wan
and unearthly seemed that metallic glare, even when
a pale glimmer of red ran up and through it ; and, as
yet, it looked like the sunrise of some other world,
for neither man nor beast was awake to greet it ; and
all the woods were as silent as the grave. When we
got back to Garstang, the wind came chill along the
;rrey stones, the birds were singing, and the glow df
the sunrise was creeping over the chimneys and slates
T 2
276 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
of the sleeping houses. We left this wonderful light
outside ; plunged into the warm and gloomy passage of
the inn; and presently tumbled, tired and shivering,
into bed.
CHAPTER XX.
chlge's garland.
" The pride of every grove I cliose,
The violet sweet and lily fair,
The dappled pink and blushing rose,
To deck my charming Chloe s hair.
"At mom the nymph vouchsafed to place
Upon her brow the various wreatin;
The flowers less blooming than her face,
The scent less fragrant than her breath.
" The flowers she wore along the day,
And every nymph and shepherd said,
That in her hair they looked more gay
Than glowing in their native bed."
Is there any blue half so pure, and deep, and tender,
as that of the large crane's-bill, the Geraniwm pratense
of the botanists ? When Bell saw the beautiftil, rich-
coloured blossoms in the tall hedge-rows, she declared
we were already in the North Country, and must needs
descend from the phaeton to gather some of the wild-
flowers ; and lo ! all around there was such a profusion
that she stood bewildered before them. Everywhere
about were the white stars of the stitchwort glimmer-
ing among the green of the goose-grass. The clear
red blossoms of the campion shone here and there ;
and the viscid petals of the Bagged Bobin glimmered
a bright crimson as they straggled through the thorny
branches of the hawthorn. Here, too, was the beauti-
ful hare-bell the real " blue-bell of Scotland "with
its slender stem and its pellucid colour; and here
was its bigger and coarser relative, the great hedge
campanula^ with its massive bells of azure, and its
succulent stalk. There were yellow maisses of snap^
OF A PHAETON. irn
dragon; and an abundance of white and pink roses
sweetening the air ; and all the thousand wonders of
a luxuriant vegetation. The Lieutenant immediately
jumped down. He harried the hedges as if they had
been a province of the enemy's country, and he in
quest of forage and food. The delight of Bell in these
wild-flowers was extravagant, and when he had gathered
for her every variety of hue that he could see, she
chose a few of the blossoms and twisted them, with
a laugh of light pleasure, into the breezy masses
of her hair. Could a greater compliment have been
paid him?
If it was not really the North-coimtiy which Bell
so longed to enter, it was on the confines of it, and
already many premonitory signs were visible. These
tall hedge-rows, with their profusion of wild-flowers,
were a wonder. We crossed dark-brown streams, the
picturesque banks of which were smothered in every
sort of bush and herb and plant. At last, a breath
of the morning air brings us a strange, new scent,
that is far more grateful than that of any wreath of
flowers, and at the same moment both Bell and Tita
call out
*' Oh, there is the peat-smoke at last ! "
Peat-smoke it is, and presently we come upon the
cottages which are sending abroad this fragreuice into
the air. They are hidden down in a dell by the side
of a small river, and they are surrounded by low and
thick elder-trees. BeU is driving. She will not even
stop to look at this picturesque little nook : it is but
an outpost, and the promised land is nigh.'
The day, meanwhile, is grey and showery ; but some-
times a sudden burst of simshine springs down on the
far, flat landscape, and causes it to shme in the dis-
tance. We pass by many a stately Hall and noble
Park Bell, with the wild-flowers in her hair, still
driving until we reach the top of a certain height,
and find a great prospect lying before us. The windy
day has cleared away the light clouds in the west ;
and there, under a belt of blue sky, lies a glimmer of
278 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
the sea. The plain of the landscape leading down to
it is divided by the estuary of the Lune ; and as yon
trace the course of the river, up through the country
that lies grey under the grey portion of the heavens,
some tall buildings are seen in the distance, and a
fortress upon a height resembling some smaller Edin-
burgh Castle. We drive on through the gusty day
the tail of a shower sometimes overtaking us from the
south and causing a hurried clamour for waterproofs,
which have immediately to be set aside as the sun
bursts forth again, and then we dive into a clean,
bright, picturesque town, and find ourselves in front
of the King's Arms at Lancaster,
Bell has taken the flowers from her hair, in nearing
the abodes of men ; but she has placed them tenderly
by the side of the bouquet that the Lieutenant gathered
for her, and now she gently asks a waiter for a tumbler
of water, into which the blossoms are put. The Lieu-
tenant watches her every movement as anxiously as
ever a Boman watched the skimmings and dippings of
the bird whose flight was to predict ruin or fortune to
him. He had no opportunities to lose. Time was
pressing on. That night we were to reach Kendal;
and there the enemy was lying in wait
Bell, at least, did not seem much to fear that meeting
with Arthur. When she spoke of him to Tita, she was
grave and thoughtful ; but when she spoke of West-
moreland, there was no qualification of her unbounded
hope and delight. She would scarce look at Lancaster ;
although, when we went up to the castle, and had a
walk round to admire the magnificent view from the
walls, an unwonted stir in front of the great gate told
us that something unusual had happened. The Lieu-
tenant went down and mixed with the crowd. We
saw him a head and shoulders taUer than the assem-
blage of men and women speaking now to one and
now to another ; and then at length he came back.
" Madame," he says, " there is something wonderful
to be seen in the castle. All these people are pressing
to get in."
OF A PHAETON. 279
'' Is it some soup plate of Henry the Eighth that has
been disinterred?" she asks, with a slight show of scorn.
Indeed, she seldom loses an opportunity of sticking
another needle into her mental image of that poor
monarch.
'' Oh no, it is something much more interesting. It
is a murderer."
"A murderer!"
" Yes, Madame, but you need not feel alarmed. He
is caged ^he will not bite. All these good people are
going in to look at him."
'I would not look at the horrid creature for
worlds."
" He is not a monster of iniquity," I teU her. " On
the contraiy, he is a harmless creature, and deserves
your pity. All he did was to kill his wife."
"And I suppose they will punish him with three
months' imprisonment," says Queen Tita; "whereas
they would give him seven years if he had stolen a
purse with half-a-crown in it."
"Naturally. I consider three months a great deal too
much, however. Doubtless she contradicted him."
"But it is not true, Tita," says BeU; "none of us
knew that the murderer was in the castle until this
moment. How can you believe that he killed his
wife?"
"There may be a secret sympathy between these
two," says my Lady, with a demure laugh in her eyes,
"which establishes a communication between them
which we don't understand. You know the theory of
brain-waves. But it is hard that the one should be
within the prison and the other without."
" Yes, if s very hard for the one without. The one
inside the prison has got rid of his torment and
escaped into comparative quiet."
She is a dutiful wife. She never retorts ^when she
hasn't a retort ready. She takes my arm just as if
nothing had happaned, and we go down from the
castle square into tlie town. And behold ! as we enter
the grey thoroughfare, a wonderful sight comes into
38o THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
view. Down the far white street, where occasional
glimpses of sunlight are blown across by the wind, a
gorgeous procession is seen to advance glittering in
silver, and coloured plumes, and all the pomp and
circumstance of a tournament. There is a cry of amaze-
ment throughout Lancaster ; and -from all points of
the compass people hurry up. It is just two ; and
men from the factories, flocking out for their dinner,
stand amazed on the pavement. The procession comes
along through the shadow and the sunlight like some
gleaming and gigantic serpent with scales of silver
and gold. There are noble knights, dressed in com-
plete armour, and seated on splendid chargers. They
bring with them spears, and banners, and other ac-
cessories of war; and their horses are shining with
the magnificence of their trappings. There are ladies
wearing the historical costumes which are familiar to
us in picture galleries, and they are seated on cream-
white palfreys, with flowing manes, and tails that sweep
the ground. Then a resplendent palanquin appears
in view, drawn by six yeUow horses, and waving and
trembling with plumes of pink and white. Inside
this great and gilded carriage, the Queen of Beauty-
sits enthroned, attended by ladies whose trains of silk
and satin shine like the neck of a dove. And the
while our eyes are still dazzled with the glory of this
slowly passing pageant, the end of it appears! in the
shape of a smart and. natty little trap, dnven by the
proprietor of the circus in plain clothes. The anti-
climax is too much. The crowd regard this wretched
feUow with disdain. When a historical play is pro-
duced, and we are introduced to the majesty of war,
and even shown the king's tent on the battle-field, the
common sutler is hidden out of sight. This wretched
man's obtrusion of himself was properly resented ; for
the spectacle of the brilliant procession coming along
the grey and white thoroughfares, with a breezy sl^
overshadowing or lighting it up, was sufficiently im-
posing, and ought not to have been destroyed by the
vanity of a person in plain clothes who wanted to let
OF A PHAETON. 281
118 know that he was the owner of all this splendonr,
and who thought he ought to come last, as Noah did
on going into the Ark.
"Gallop apace, you fieiy-footed steeds!" ^that was
the wish I knew lay deep down in Bell's heart as
we went away from Lancaster. If Castor and Pollux
did their work gallantly, we should sleep to*night in
Kendal, and thereafter there would be abundant rest.
This last day's journey consisted of thirty-three miles
considerably above our average day's distance and
we had accordingly cut it up into three portions.
From Garstang to Lancaster is eleven miles ; from
Lancaster to Burton is eleven miles; from Burton
to Kendal is eleven miles. Now Burton is in
Westmoreland; and, once within her own county,
BeU knew she was at home.
'Twas a perilous sort of day in which to approach
the region of the Northern Lakes. la the best of
weather, the great mass of mountains that stand on
the margin of the sea ready to condense any moist
vapours that may float in from the west and south,
play sudden tricks sometimes and drown the holiday-
makers whom the sun has drawn out of the cottages,
houses, and hotels up in the deep valleys. But here
there were abundant clouds racing and chasing each
other like the folks who sped over Cannobie Lea
to overtake the bride of young Lochinvar ; and now
and again the wind would drive down on us the flying
fringes of one of these masses of vapour, producing
a temporary fear. Bell cared least for these pre-
monitions. She would not even cover herself with
a cloak. Many a time we could see raindrops glimmer-
iBg in her brown hair and dripping from thi flowers
that she had again twisted in the folds ; but she sat
erect and glad, with a fine colour in her face that the
wet breeze only heightened. When we got up to
Slyne and Bolton-le-Sands, and came in sight of the
long sweep of Morecambe Bay, she paid no attention
to the fact that all along the far margin of the sea
the clouds had melted into a white bdt of rain. It
382 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
was enough for her that the sun was out there too;
sometiines striking with a pale silvery light on the
plain. of the sea, sometimes throwing a stronger colour
on the long curve of level sand. A wetter or windier
sight never met the view of an apprehensive traveller
than that great stretch of sea and sky. The glimmer
of the sun only made the moisture in the air more
apparent as the grey clouds were sent flying up from
the south-west We could not tell whether the sea
was breaking white or not ; but the fierce blowing of
the wind was apparent in the hurrying trails of cloud
and the rapidly shifting shafts of simlight that now
and again shot down on the sands.
"Bell," said Tita, with a little anxiety, "you used
to pride yourself on being able to forecast the weather,
when you lived up among the hills. Don't you think
we shall have a wet afternoon? and we have nearly
twenty miles to go yet."
The girl laughed.
''Mademoiselle acknowledges we shall have a little
rain," said the Lieutenant, with a grim smile. If Bell
was good at studying the appearances of the sky,
he had acquired some skill in reading the language
of her eloquent fiEu^e.
"Why," says one of the party, *'a deaf man down
in a coal-pit could tell what sort of afternoon we
shall have. The wind is driving the clouds up. The
hills are stopping them on the way. When we enter
Westmoreland we shall find the whole forces of the
xain-fiends drawn out in array against us. But that
is nothing to Bell, so long as we enter Westmoreland."
"Ah, you shall see," remarks Bell; "we may have
a little rain this evening."
" Yes, that is very likdy," said the Lieutenant, who
seemed greatly tickled by this frank admission.
"But to-morrow, if this strong wind keeps up all
night, would you be astonished to find Kendal with
its stone houses all shining white in the sun?"
" Yes, I should be astonished."
"You must not provoke the prophetess," says my
OF A PHAETON. 283
Lady, who is rather nervous about rainy weather, *' or
she will turn round on you, and predict all sorts olf
evil."
We could not exactly tell when we crossed the
border line of Westmoreland, or doubtless Bell would
have jumped down from the phaeton to kneel and
kiss her native soil ; but at all events when we reached
the curious little village of Burton we knew we
were then in Westmoreland, and Bell ushered us
into the ancient hosteliy of the Eoyal Oak as if she
had been the proprietress of that and all the sur-
rounding countiy. In former days Burton was doubt'
less a place of importance, when the stage-coaches
stopped here before plunging into the wild mountain-
country ; and in the inn, which remains pretty much
what it was in the last generation, were abundant
relics of the past. When the Lieutenant and I returned
from the stebles to the old-fashioned little parlour
and museum of the place, we found BeU endeavouring
to get Bome -quivering, trembling, jangling notes out
of the piano, that was doubtless a fine piece of furniture
at one time. A piece of yellow ivory informed the
beholder that this venerable instrument had been made
by "Thomas Tomldson, Dean Street, Soho, Manu-
facturer to his Eoyal Highness the Prince Eegent."
And what was this that Bell was hammering out ?
." The standard on the hraes o' Mar
Is np and streaming rarely t
The gaUiering pipe on Lochnagar
Is sonnding tang and clearly !
The Hif|[hlandmen, from hill and glen,
In martial hue, wi' bonnets blue,
Wi' belted plaids and burnished blades,
Are coming late and early."
How the faded old instrument groaned and quivered as
if it were struggling to get up some martial senti-
ment of its half-forgotten youth! It did its best
to pant after that rapid and stirring air, and laboured
and jangled in a pathetic fashion through the chords.
It seemed like some poor old pensioner, decrepit
284 ^^^ STRANGE ADVENTURES
and feeble-eyed, who sees a regiment passing with their
band playing, and who tries to straighten himself up
as he hears the tread of the men, and would fain
step out to the sound of the music, but that his thin
legs tremble beneath him. The wretched old piano
struggled hard to keep up with the Gathering of the
Clans as they hastened on to the braes o' Mar:
* Wha wonldna join our noble chie(
The Dranunond and Glennnr ;
Macgregor, Murray, Bollo, eith,
Panmure and gallant Harry I
Macdonald's men,
Clan Ranald's men,
M'Eenzie's men,
MacOilvray's men,
Strathallan's men,
The Lowland men
Of Callander and AirUe 1 "
until my Lady put her hand gently on Bell's shoulder,
and said
''My dear, this is worse than eating green apples."
Bell shut down the lid.
"It is time for this old thing to be quiet,** she
said. " The people who sang with it when it was in
its prime, they cannot sing any more now, and it has
earned its rest"
BeU uttered these melancholy words as she turned
to look out of the window. It was rather a gloomy
afternoon. There was less wind visible in the motion
of the clouds, but in place of the flying and hurrying
masses of vapour, an ominous pall of grey was visible^
and the main thoroughfare of Burton-in-Eendal was
gradually growing moister under a slow rain. Suddenly
the girl said
^' Is it possible for Arthur to have reached Kendal ? "
The Lieutenant looked up, with something of a frown
on his face.
"Yes," I say to her, "if he keeps up the pace with
which he started. Thirty miles a day in a light dog-
cart will not seriously damage the Major^s cob, if on^
he gets a day's rest now and again.
OF A PHAETON. 285
''Then perhaps Arthur may be coming along this
road just now?"
"He may; but it is hardly likely. He would come
over by Kirkby Lonsdale/'
"I think we should be none the worse for his com-
pany, if he were to arrive," said Tita, with a little appre-
hension, "for it will be dark long before we get to
Kendal and on such a night, too, as we are likely
to have."
" Then let us start at once, Madame," said the lieu-
tenant. " The horses will be ready to be put in harness
now, I think; and they must have as much time for
the rest of the journey as we can give them. Then
the waterproofs I will have them all taken out, and
the rugs. We shall want much more than we have,
I can assure you of that. And the lamps we shall
want them too."
.The Lieutenant walked off to the stables with these
weighty affairs of state possessing his mind. He was
as anxious to preserve these two women from suffering
a shower of rain as if he thought they were made of
bride's-cake. Out in the yard we found him planning
the disposal of the rugs with the eye of a practised
campaigner, and taking every boy and man in the
place into his confidence. Whatever embarrassment
his imperfect English might cause him in a drawing-
loom, there was no need to guard his speech in a stable-
yard. But sometimes our Uhlan was puzzled. What
could he make, for example, of the following sentence,
addressed to him by a worthy ostler at Garstang : " Taxis,
an ah gied^n a aff hooket 0' cMUed waiter after aJid
weshen 'n t " Of the relations of the Lieutenant with
the people whom he thus casually encountered, it may
be said generally that he was "hail, fellow, well met,"
with anv man who seemed of a frank and communicable
disposition. With a good-natured landlord or groom,
he would stand for any length of time talking about
horses, their food, their ways, and the best methods
of dodiing them. But when he encountered a suSky
ostler, the unfortunate man had an evil time of it*
j86 the strange ADVENTURES
His temper was not likely to be improved by the pre-
sence of this lounging young soldier, who stood whist-
ling at the door of the stable and watching that every
bit of the grooming was performed to a nicety, who
examined the quality of the oats, and was not content
with the hay, and who calmly stood by with his cigar
in his mouth until he had seen the animals eat every
grain of com that had been put in the manger. The
bad temper, by the way, was not always on the side
of the ostler.
A vague proposition that we should remain at Burton
for that night was unanimously rejected. Come what
might, we should start in Kendal with a clear day
before us; and what mattered this running through
our final stage in rain ? A more feasible proposition,
that both the women should sit in front so as to get
the benefit of the hood, was rejected because neither
of them would assume the responsibility of driving
in the dark. But here a new and strange difficulty
occurred. Of late. Bell and the Lieutenant had never
sat together in the phaeton. Now, the Lieutenant
declared it was much more safe that the horses should
be driven by their lawful owner, who was accustomed
to tJiem. Accordingly, my post was in front There-
upon, Bell, with many protestations of endearment,
insisted on Queen Tita having the shelter of the hood.
Bc^, in fact, would not get up until she had seen my
Lady safely ensconced there and swathed up like a
mummy; it followed, accordingly, that Bell and her
companion were hidden from us by the hood ; and the
last of our setting-out arrangements was simply thi^
that the Lieutenant absolutely and firmly refused to
wear his waterproof, because, as he said, it would only
have the effect of making the rain run in streams
on to Bell's tartan plaid. The girl put forward all
manner of entreaties in vain. The foolish young man
he was on the headstrong side of thirty would not
hear of it.
So we turned the horses' heads to the north. Alas !
over the mountainous country before us there lay an
OF A PHAETON. 287
ominous darkness of sky. As we skirted Curwen Woods
and drove by within sight of Clawthorpe Fell, the road
became more hilly and more lonely, and it seemed as
if we were to plunge into an unknown region inhabited
only by mountains and hanging clouds. Nevertheleas
we could hear Sell laughing and chatting to the lieu-
tenant, and talking about what we should have to
endure before we got to Kendal. As the wind rose
slightly and blew the light waves of her laughter
about, Tita caUed through to her, and asked her to
sing again that Gktthering of the Clans on the breezy
braes 0' Mar. But what would the wild mountain-
spirits have done to us had they heard the twanging
of a guitar up in this dismal region, to say nothing
of the rain tibat would have destroyed the precious
instrument for ever? For it was now pattering
considerably on the top of the hood, and the wind
had once more begun to blow. The darkness grew
apace. The winding grey thread of the road took us
up hill and down dale, twisting through a variegated
coimtry, of which we could see little but the tall
hedges on each side of us. The rain increased. The
wind blew it about, and moaned through the trees,
and made a sound in the telegraph-wires overhead.
These tall grey poles were destined to be an excellent
guide to us. As the gloom gathered over us, we grew
accustomed to the monotonous rising and falling of
the pale road, while here and there we encountered
a great pool of water, which made the younger of
the horses swerve from time to time. By and by we
knew it would be impossible to make out any finger-
post; so that the murmuring of the telegraph-wires
in the wind promised to teU us if we were still keep-
ing the correct route to Kendal.
So we plunged on in the deepeniug twilight, splash-
ing into the shallow pools, and listening to the whuitling
of the wind and the hissing of the rain. Bell had
made no attempt to caU out the dans on this wildi
night, and both of the young folks had for the most
part relapsed into silence^ unless when they called
I
288 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
to us some consolatory message or assurance that on
the whole they rather enjoyed getting wet. But at
last the Lieutenant proposed that he should get
down and light the lamps; and, indeed, it was
high time.
He got down. He came round to the front. Why
the strange delay of his movements ? He went round
again to his seat, kept searching about for what seemed
an unconscionable time, and then, coming back, said
rather indiflferently
"Do you happen to have a match with you?"
" No," said I ; and at the same moment Tita broke
into a bright laugh.
She knew the shame and mortification that were now
on the face of the Lieutenant, if only there had been
more light to see him as he stood there. To have an
old campaigner tricked in this way! He remained
irresolute for a second or two ; and then he said in
accents of profound vexation
"It is such stupidity as I never saw. I did leave
my case in the inn. Madame, you must pardon me
this ridiculous thing ; and we must drive on until we
come to a house."
A house ! The darkness had now come on so rapidly
that twenty houses would scarcely have been visible,
unless with yellow lights burning in their windows.
There was nothing for it but to urge on our wild career
as best we might ; while we watehed the telegraph-
posts to teU us how the road went, and Castor and
PoUux, with the wet streaming down them, whirled the
four wheels through the water and mud.
Tita had been making merry over our mishap, but
this jocularity died away in view of the fieict tliat at
every moment there was a chance of our driving into
a ditch. She forgot to laugh in her efforts to make out
the road before us ; and at last, when we drove into an
avenue of trees ulider which there was pitch blackness,
and as we felt that the horses were going down a hill,
she called out to stop, so that one of us should descend
and explore the way.
OF A PHAETON. 289
A blacker night has not occurred since the separating
of light and darkness at the Creation; and when the
Lieutenant had got to the horses' heads, it was with the
greatest difficulty he could induce them to go forward
and down the hill. He had himself to feel his way in
a very cautious fashion ; and, indeed, his managing to
keep the phaeton somewhere about the middle of the
road until we had got from under this black avenue
must be regarded as a feat. He had scarcely got back
into his seat, when the rain, which had been coming
down pretty heavily, now fell in torrents. We
could hear it hissing in the pools of the road, and all
around us on the trees and hedges, while the phaeton
seemed to be struggling through a waterfall No
plaids, rugs, mackintoshes, or other device of man, could
keep this deluge out; and Tita, with an air of calm
resignation, made the remark that one of her shoes had
come off and floated away. To crown all, we suddenly
discovered that the telegraph-posts had abandoned us,
and gone off along another road.
I stopped the horses. To miss one's way in the wUds
of Westmoreland on such a night was no joke.
"Now, Bell, what has become of your knowledge
of this district? Must we go back, and foUow the
telegraph-wires? Or shall we push on on chance?"
" I can neither see nor speak for the rain," cries Bell
out of the darkness. " But I think we ought to follow
the telegraph-wires. They are sure to lead to KendaL"
"With your permission. Mademoiselle," said the
Lieutenant, who was- once more down in the road, " I
think it would be a pity to go back. If we drive on,
we must come to a village somewhere."
" They don't happen so often in Westmoreland as you
might expect," says Bell, despondently.
" If you will wait here, then, I will go forward, and
see if I can find a house," says the Lieutenant, at which
Queen Tita laughs again, and says we should aU be
washed away before he returned.
The Lieutenant struggles into his seat. We puah
on blindly. The rain is still thundering down on us*;
u
29 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
and we wonder whether we are fated to find ourselves
in the early dawn somewhere about Wast Water or
OoBiston.
About two hawra "before midmght, CohmibvA^ 9tamdvng
on tiie forecastle, observed a light at a distance, and
privaitdj pointed it out to Queen Titani&
"'Tis a turnpike^ as I am a living navigator!" ex-
claimed the adventurous man.
A gua would h&ve been fixed firom the deck of the
.Knto to announce these joyful tidings, only that the
raur had washed away our powder. But now that we
were' cheered with the sight of land, we pushed ahead
gaUantly ; the light grew in size and intensity ; there
ooHild be no doubt this wild regian was inhabited by
hnaMoi beings; and at last a native appeared, who
addiessed us in a tongue which we managed with some
difficulty to understand, and, having exacted ficom us a
smidi g&, he allowed us to proceed.
Once more we plunge into darkness and wafc.but we
know that Kendal is near. Just as we are approaching
Urn foot of the hiU, however, on which the town stands,
a wild shriek from Titania startles the air. The black
shadow of a dog-cart ia seen to swerve across in fiK)nt
of the horses' heads, and just skims by our wheels.
The wrath that dwelt in my Lady's heart with, regard
to tdie two men in this phantom vehicle need not be
expressed ; for what with the darkness of the trees, and
the roaring of the wind and rain, and the fact of these
twQ teffvellers comiog at a fine paea along the wrong
aide of the road, we just escaped a catastrophe.
But we survived that danger, too, as we survived the
strife of the elements. We drove up into the town.
We wheeled round by the archway of still another
King's Arms; and presently a half-drowned party of
people with their eyes, grown accustomed to the
dairkness, wholly bewildered with the light were
standing in the warm and yellow glare of the hotel
There was a fluttering of dripping waterproofs, a pulling
Monder of soaked plaids, and a drying of wet and
gleaming cheeks that were red with the rain. The
OF A PHAETON. 291
commotion raised by our entrance was alarming. You
would have thought we had taken possession of tMs
big, warm, comfortable, old-fashioned inn. A thousand
servants seemed to be scampering about the house to
assist us ; and by and by, when all those moist garments
had been taken away, and other and warmer clothing
put on, and a steaming and fragrant banquet placed
on the table, you should have seen the satisfaction that :
dwelt on every face. Arthur had not come at leasts
no one had been making inquiries for us. There was
nothing for us but to attack the savoury feast^ and
rdate with laughter and with gladness all the adven-
tures of the day, until you would have thought that
the grave mother of those two boys at Twickenham
had grown merry with the champagne, whereas she
had not yet tasted the wine that was ficothing and
creaming in her glass.
CHAPTER XXI.
ALL AB0X7T WnnBRlIBllX.
" meekest aoye
Of Heaven I Cynthia, ten- times bright and fair !
From thy bine throne, now filling all the air,
Cnance bat one little beam of tempered H^t
Into my bosom, that the dreadftil might
And tj^Miny of love be somewhat scared."
It is a pleasant thing, especially in holiday-time, when
one happens to have gone to bed with the depressing
consciousness that outside the house the night is wild
and stormy rain pouring ceaselessly down and the
fme weather sped away to the south ^to catch a sudden
glimmer, just as one opens one's eyes in the morning,
of glowing green, where the sunlight is quivering on
the waving branches of the trees. The new day is a
miracle of freshness. The rain has washed the leaves,
and the wind is shaking and rustling them in the warm
light. You throw open the window, and the breeze
U 2
292 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
that comes blowing in is sweet with the smell of wet
roses. It is a new, bright, joyous day; and the rain
and the black night have fled together.
Bell's audacity in daring to hope we might have
a fine morning after that wild evening, had almost
destroyed our belief in her weather foresight ; but sure
enough, when we got up on the following day, the
stone houses of Kendal were shining in the sun, and a
bright light colouring up the faces of the countiy people
who had come into the town on early business, ^d what
was this we heard? ^a simple and familiar air that carried
Tita back to that small church in Surrey over which she
presides sung carelessly and lightly by a young lady
who certainly did not know that she could be overheard
" Hark, hark, my soul, angelic songs are swelling
O'er earth's green fields and ocean's waye-beat shore."
Bell was at her orisons ; but as the hymn only came
to us in fitful and uncertain snatches, we concluded that
the intervals were filled up by that light-hearted young
woman twisting up the splendid folds of her hair. There
was no great religious fervour in her singing, to be sure.
Sometimes the careless songstress forgot to add the words,
and let us have fragments of the pretty air, of which she
was particularly fond. But there was no reason at all
why this pious hymn should be suddenly forsaken for
the *' rataplan, rataplan, rataplan rataplan, plan, plan
plan, plan," of the "Daughter of the Beigiment."
When we went down stairs. Bell was gravely
perusing the morning papers. At this time the Govern-
ment were hunying their Ballot Bill through the House,
and the daily journals were full of clauses, amendments,
and divisions. BeU wore rather a puzzled look ; but she
was so deeply interested ^whether with the Parliamen-
tary Summary or the Fashionable InteUigence, can only
be guessed that she did not observe our entering the
room. My Lady went gently forward to her, and said
** Hark, hark, my soul, angelic songs are sweUing
O'er earth's green fields ^"
OF A PHAETON. 393
The girl looked up with a start, and with a little look
of alarm.
"ToTing ladies," observed Tita, "who have a habit
of humming airs during their toilet, ought to be sure
that their room is not separated by a very thin partition
from any other room."
*' If it was only you, I don't cara"
"It mightn't have been only me."
"There is no great harm in a hymn," says BelL
" But when one mixes up a hymn with that wicked
song which Maria and the Sergeant sing together?
BeU, we will forgive you everything this morning.
You are quite a witch with the weather, and you shall
have a kiss for bringing us such a beautiful day."
The morning salutation was performed.
" Isn't there enough of that to go round ?" says the
third person of the group. " Bell used to loss me
dutifully every morning. But a French writer has de-
scribed a young lady as a creature that ceases to kiss
gentlemen at twelve and begins again at twenty."
"A French writer!" says Tita. "No French writer
ever said anything so impertinent and so stupid. The
French are a cultivated nation, and their wit never
takes the form of rudeness."
A nation or a man it is all the same : attack either,
and my Lady is ready with a sort of formal warranty
of character.
"But why, Tita," says Bell, vdth just a trifle of
protest in her voice, "why do you always praise the
French nation ? Other nations are as good as they are."
The laughter that shook the coffee-room of the
King's Arms in Kendal, when this startling announce-
ment was made to us cannot be conveyed in words.
There was something so boldly ingenuous in BeU's
protest that even Tita laughed till the tears stood in
her eyes, and then she kissed Bell, and asked her
pardon, and remarked that she was ready to acknow-
ledge at any moment that the German nation was as
good as the French nation.
"I did not mean anything of the kind," says Bell,
294 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
looldng rather shamefaced. ''What does it matter to
me what anyone thinks of the German nation f
That was a true observation, at least. It did not
matter to her, nor to anybody. The anthropomorphic
abstractions which we call nations are veiy good pegs
to hang prejudices on; but they do not suffer or
gain much by any opinion we may form of their
" characteristics."
" Where is Count von Eosen ?" says Tita.
"I do not know," answered Bell, with an excellent
assumption of indifference. ''I have not seen him
this morning. Probably he will come in and tell
us that he has been to Windermere."
'' 'So, Mademoiselle," said the Lieutenant, entering
the room at the same moment, ''I have not been to
Windermere, but I am very anxious to go, for the
morning is very fresh and good, and is it possible to
say that it will remain fine all the day? We may
start directly after breakfast. I have looked at the
horses ^they are all very weU, and have suffered
nothing from the rain they are 'looking contented
and comfortable after the bran-mash of last night, and
to-morrow they will start again very well."
"And you have heard nothing of Arthur?" says
my Lady.
"No.*'
Was the Lieutenant likely to have been scouring the
country in search of that yoimg man?
"It is very strange. If he found himself unable
to get here by the time he expected to meet us, it
is a wonder he did not send on a message. I hope
he has met with no accident"
" Ko, there is no fear, Madame," said the Lieutenant ;
"he will overtake us soon. He may arrive to-night,
or to-morrow before we go ^he cannot make a mistake
about finding us. But you do not propose to wait
anywhere for him?"
"No," I say, decisively, "we don't. Or if we do
wait for him, it will not be in Kendal."
The Lieutenant seemed to think that Arthur would
OF A PHAETON. 995
overtake us soon cnongh ; and need not farther eoncecfi
Tia But my Lady appeared to be a little anxioufi
about the safety of the young man until it vms shown
us that, after all, Arthur might have been moved to
give the Major's cob a day's rest somewhere, in which
case he could not possibly have reached Kendal by
this time.
We go out into the sunlit and breezy street. We
can almost believe Bell that there is a peodliar
sweetness in the Westmoreland air. We lounge about
the quaint old town, which, perched on the steep slegte
of a hill, has sometimes those curious juxtapositians
of door-step and chimney-pot which are familiar k^
the successive terraces of Dartmouth. We go down
to the green banks of the river ; and the lieutenant
is bidden to observe how rapid and clear the brown
stream is, even after coming through the dyeing aad
bleaching works. He is walking on in front with BelL
He does not strive to avoid her now on the contrary,
they are inseparable companions ^but my Lady puzzles
herself in vain to discover what are their actual relations
towards each other at this time. They do not seem
anxious or dissatisfied They appear to have drifted
back into those ordinary friendly terms of interoourae
which had marked their setting out ; but how is this
possible after what occurred in Wales? As neither
has said anything to us about these things, nothing
is known ; these confidences have been invariably
voluntary, and my Lady is quite well pleased thi^
Bell should manage her own affairs.
Certainly, if Bell was at this time being pressed
I to decide between Von Bosen and Arthur, that unfartn-
i nate youth from Twickenham was suffering grievously
' from an evil fortune. Consider what advantages the
Lieutenant had in accompanying the girl into thk
; dreamland of her youth, when her heart was openiiig
out to all sorts of tender recbUections, and when, to
confer a great gratification upon her, you had only ito
say that you were pleased with Westmoreland, and its
sunlight, and its people and scenery. What adjecti^
296 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
that perfervid Uhlan may have been using and he
was rather a good hand at expressing his satisfaction
with anything ^we did not try to hear ; but Bell wore
her brightest and happiest looks. Doubtless the lieu-
tenant was telling her that there was no water in the
world could turn out such brilliant colours as those
we saw bleaching on the meadows that no river in the
world ran half as fast as the Kent and that no light
could compare with the light of a Westmoreland sky
in beautifying and clarifying the varied hues of the
landscape that lay around. He was greatly surprised
with the old-fashioned streets when we had clambered
up to the town again. He paid particular attention
to the railway station. When a porter caught a boy
back from the edge of the platform and angnly said to
him, " Wut's thee doin' theear, an' the traain a coomin'
oop?" he made as though he understood the man.
This was Bell's country; and everything in it was
profoundly interesting.
However, when the train had once got away from the
station, and we found ourselves being carried through
the fresh and pleasant landscape with a cool wind
blowing in at the window, and all the trees outside
bending and rustling in the breeze it was not merely
out of compliment to Bell that he praised the brightness
of the day and the beauty of the country around.
"And it is so comforting to think of the horses en-
joying a day's thorough rest," said Tita ; " for when we
start again to-morrow, they will have to attack some
hard work."
" Only at first," said Bell, who was always ready to
show thit she knew the road ; *' the first mile or so is
hilly ; but after that the road goes down to Windermere
and runs along by the lake to Ambleside. It is a
beautiful drive through the trees ; and if we get a day
like this ''
No wonder she turned to look out with pride and
delight on the glowing picture that lay around us the
background of which had glimpses of blue moun-
tains lying pale and misty under light masses of cloud
OF A PHAETON, 397
The small stations we passed were smothered in green
foliage. Here and there we caught sight of a brown
rivulet, or a long avenue of trees arching over a white
road. And then, in an incredibly short space of time,
we found ourselves outside the Windermere station,
standing in the open glare of the day.
For an instant, a look of bewilderment, and even of
disappointment, appeared on the girPs face. Evidently,
she did not know the way. The houses that had sprung
up of late years were strangers to her strangers that
seemed to have no business there. But whereas the
new buildings, and the cutting of terraces and alterations
of 'gardens, were novel and perplexing phenomena, the
general features of the neighbourhood remained the
same ;^and after a momentary hesitation she hit upon
the right path up to EUeray, and thereafter was quite
at home.
ITow there rests in Bell's mind a strange superstition
that she can remember, as a child, having sat upon
Christopher North's knee. The story is wholly impos-
sible and absurd ; for Wilson died in the year in which
Bell was born ; but she nevertheless preserves the fixed
impression of having seen the kingly old man, and won-
dered at his long hair and great collar, and listened to
his talking to her. Out of what circumstance in her
childhood this curious belief may have arisen is a
psychological conundrum which Tita and I have long
ago given up ; and Bell herself cannot even suggest any
other celebrated person of the neighbourhood who may,
in her infancy, have produced a profound impression on
her imagination and caused her to construct a confused
picture into which the noble figure of the old Professor
had somehow and subsequently been introduced; but
none the less she asks us how it is that she can remem-
ber exactly the expression of his face and eyes as he
looked down on her, and how even to this day she can
recall the sense of awe with which she regarded him,
even as he was trying to amuse her.
The Lieutenant knew all about this story ; and it was
with a great interest that he went up to Elleray Cottage,
298 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
and saw the famous chestnut which Christopher Koith
has talked of to the world. It was as if some relative
of Bell's had lived in this place some foster-father or
grand-uncle who had watched her youth ; and who doeB
not know the strange curiosity with which a lover
listens to stories of the childhood of his sweetheart, or
meets anyone who knew her in those old and half-
foigotten years ? It seems a wonderful thing to him
that he should not have known her then ^that all the
world at that timcj so far as he knew, was unconscious
of her magical presence; and he seeks to make himself
familiar with her earliest years, to nurse the delusion
that he has known her always, and that ever sinoe her
entrance into the world she has belonged to him. In
like manner, let two lovers, who have known each other
for a number of years, begin to reveal to each other
when the first notion of love entered their mind ; they
will insensibly shift the date farther and further back,
as if they would blot out the pallid and colourless time
in which they were stupid enough not to have found
out their great affection for each other. The Lieutenant
was quite vexed that he knew little of Professor Wilson's
works. He said he would get them all the moment
that he went back to London ; and when Bell, as we
lingered about the grounds of Elleray, told him how that
there was a great deal of Scotch in the books, and how
the old man whom she vaguely recollected had written
about Scotland, and how that she had about as great a
longing ^when she was buried away down south in the
commonplaceness of London and Surrey to smell the
heather and see the lovely glens and the far-reaching
sea-lakes of the Highlands, as to reach her own and
native Westmoreland, the Lieutenant began to nurture
a secret afiection for Scotland, and wondered when we
Bhould get there.
I cannot describe in minute detail our day's ramble
about Windermere. It was all a dream to us. Many
years had come and gone since those of us who were
familiar with the place had been there ; and somehow,
half unconsciously to ourselves, we kept trying to get
OF A PHAETON. 299
awaj from the sight of new people and new honses, and
to discover the old familiar features of the neighbour-
hood that we had loved. Once or twice there was in
Tita's eyes a moistnre she could scarce conceal ; and the
light of gladness on Sell's bright face was preserved
there chiefly through her efforts to instruct the lieu-
tenant, which made her forget old memories. Bhe was
happy, too, in hitting on the old pailis. When we went
down from Elleray through the private groimds that lie
along the side of the hill, she found no dif&culty what-
ever in showing us how we were to get to the laka She
took us down trough a close and sweet-smelling wood,
where the sunlight only straggled at intervals through
the innumerable stems and leaves, and lit up the
brackens, and other ferns and underwood. There was a
stream running close by, that plashed and gurgled along
its stony channel. As we got farther down the slope,
the darkness of the avenue increased ; and then all at
once, at the end of the trees, we came in sight of a
blinding glare of white ^the level waters of the lake.
And then, when we left the wood and stood on the
shore, all the fair plain of Windermere lay before us
wind-swept and troubled, with great dashes of blue
along its surface, and a breezy sky moving overhead.
Near at hand, there were soft green hills, shining in Ibe
sunlight; and, further off, long and narrow promon-
tories, piercing out into the water, with their dark line
of trees growing almost black against the silver gloiy of
the lake. But then again the hurrying wind would blow
away the shadow of the cloud ; a beam of sunlight would
run along the line of trees, making them glow green
above the blue of the water ; and from this moving and
shifting and shining picture we turned to the far and
ethereal masses of the Langdale Pikes and the moun-
tains above Ambleside, which changed as the changiag
clouds were blown over from the west.
We got a boat and went out into the wilderness of
water and wind and sky. Now we saw the reedy shoves
behind us, and the clear and shallow water at the brink
of which we had been standing, receiving the troubled
500 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
reflection of the woods. Out here the beautiful islands
of Lady Holm, Thompson's Holm, and BeUe Isle were
shimmering in green. Far up there in the north the
slopes and gullies of the great mountains were showing
a thousand hues of soft velvet-like greys and blues,
and even warming up into a pale yellowish green, where
a ray of the sunHght struck the lower slopes. Over
by Purness Fells the clouds lay in heavier masses, and
moved slowly ; but elsewhere there was a brisk motion
over the lake, that changed its beauties even as one
looked at th%m.
" Mademoiselle," observed the Lieutenant, as if a
new revelation had broken upon him, "all that you
have said about your native county is true ; and now I
understand why that you did weary in London, and
think very much of your own home."
Perhaps he thought, too, that there was but one
county in England, or in the world, that could have
produced this handsome, courageous, generous, and
true-hearted English girl for such are the exaggera-
tions that lovers cherish.
We put into Bowness, and went up to the Crown
Hotel there. In an instant ^as rapidly as AUoway
Kirk became dark when Tarn o' Shanter called out ^the
whole romance of the day went clean out and was extin-
guished. How any of. God's creatures could have come
to dress themselves in such fashion, amid such scenery,
our young Uhlan professed himself unable to tell ; but
here were men ^apparently in their proper senses
wearing such comicalities of jackets and resplendent
knickerbockers as would have made a harlequin blush,
with young ladies tarred and feathered, as it were, with
staring stripes and alarming petticoats, and sailors' hats
of straw. Why should the borders of a lake be provo-
cative of these mad eccentricities? Who that has
wandered about the neighbourhoods of Zurich, Luzem,
and Thun, does not know the wild freaks which Eng-
lishmen (far more than Englishwomen) will permit to
themselves in dress ? We should have fancied those gentle-
men with the variegated knickerbockers had just come
OF A PHAETON. 301
down from the Eighi (by rail) if they had had Alpen-
stocks and snow-spectacles with them ; and, indeed,
it was a matter for surprise that these familiar appur-
tenances were absent from the shores of Windermere.
My Lady looked at the strange people rather askance.
"My dear," says Bell, in an undertone, "they are
quite harmless."
We had luncheon in a comer of the great room.
Dinner was already laid; and our plain meal seemed
to borrow a certain richness from that long array of
coloured wine-glasses. Bell considered it rather pretty ;
but my Lady began to wonder how much crystal the
servants would have broken by the time we got back
to Surrey. Then we went down to the lake again,
stepped into a small steamer, and stood out to sea.
It was now well on in the afternoon ; and the masses
of cloud that came rolling over from the west and
south-west, when they clung to the summits of the
mountains, threw a deeper shadow on the landscape
beneath. Here and there, too, as the evening wore on
and we had steamed up within sight of the small island
that is called Seamew Crag, we occasionally saw one of
the great heaps of cloud get melted down into a grey
mist that for a few minutes blotted out the side of a
mountain. Meanwhile the sun had also got well up to
the north-west ; and as the clouds came over and swept
about the peaks of Langdale, a succession of the wildest
atmospheric effects became visible. Sometimes a great
gloom would overspread the whole landscape, and we
began to anticipate a night of rain; then a curious
safiron glow would appear behind the clouds ; then a
great smoke of grey would be seen to creep down the
hill,.iand finally te sunlight would break through, shining
on the retreating vapour and on the wet sides of the
hills. Once or twice a light trail of cloud passed across
the lake and threw a slight shower of rain upon us ; but
when we got to Ambleside, the clouds had been for
the most part driven by, and the clear heavens
irradiated by a beautiful twilight ^tempted us to walk
back to Windermere village by the road.
302 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
You may suppose that that was a pleasant walk for
those two young folks. Everything had conspired to
please Bell during the day, and she was in a dangerously
amiable mood. As the dusk fell, and the white water
gleamed through the trees by the margin of the lake,
we walked along the winding road without meeting a
solitary creature; and Queen Titania gently let our
young friends get on ahead^ so that we could only see
the two dark figures pass underneath the dark avenues
of 'trees.
"Did you ever see a girl more happy?" she says.
"Yes, once at Eastbourne."
Tita laughs, in a low, pleased way ; for she is never
averse to recalling these old days.
" I was very stupid then," she says.
That is a matter upon which she, of course, ought
to be able to speak. It would be unbecoming to inter-
fere with the right of private judgment.
" Besides," she remarks, audaciously, '* I did not mean
half I said. Don't you imagine I meant half what I
said. It was all making fim, you know, wasn't it?"
''It has been deadly earnest since."
" Poor thing i" she says, in the most sympathetic way ;
and there is no saying what feital thunderbolt she might
have launched, had not her attention been called away
just then.
For as we went along in the twilight it seemed to us
liiat the old moss-covered wall was beginning to throw
a slight shadow, and that the pale roieui was growing
warmer in hue. Moved by the same impulse, we turned
suddenly to the lake, and lo ! out there beyond the trees
a great yellow glory was lying on the bosom of Winder-
mere, and somewhere ^hidden by the dark branches
the low moon had come into the clear violet sky. We
walked on until we came to a clearance in the trees, and
there, just over the opposite shore, the golden crescent
lay in the heavens, the puiple of which was suffused by
the sofb glow. It was a wonderful twilight The ripples
that broke in among the reeds down at the shore
quivered in lines Of gold; and a little bit further out a
OF A PHAETON. * 303
small boat lay black as night in the path of the moon-
light. The shadow cast by the wall grew stronger ; and
now the trees, too, threw black bars across the yellow
road. The two lovers paid no heed to these things for a
long time they wandered on, engrossed in talk. But
at length we saw them stop and turn towards the lake ;
while BeU looked back towards us, with her face getting
a faint touch of the gloiy coming over from the soutL
All the jesting had sone out of BeU's face. She
was as grave, and gentle, and thoughtful when we
reached the two of them as Undine was on
the day after her marriage; and insensibly she drew
near to Tita, and took her away from us, and left
the lieutenant and myself to follow. That young
gentleman was as solemn as though he had swaUowed
th& Longer Catechism and the Westminster Con-
feagion of FaitL He admitted that it waa a beautiful
evviiing. He mada a remark about the scenery of
the district which would have served admirably as a
motto for one of those views that stationers put at the
head of their note-paper. And then, with some abrupt-
ness, he asked what we should do if Arthur did not
anive in Kendal that night or next. day.
" If Arthur does not come to-night, we shall probably
have some dinner at the King's Arms. If he does not
come in the morning, we may be permitted to take some
breakfast. And then, if his staying away does not alter
the position of Windermere, we shall most likely drive
along this very road to-morrow forenoon. But why this
solemn importance conferred on Arthur all of a sudden ?"
*' Oh, I cannot tell you."
. "Nobody asked yoiL"
' " But I will give you a very good cigar, my dear friend."
" That is a great deal better but let it be old and dry."
And so we got back to Windermere station and took
train to Kendal. By the time we were walking up
through the streets of the old town the moon had swum
further up into the heavens, and its light, now a pale
silver, was shining along the fronts of the houses.
We went into the inn. No message from Arthur.
304 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
A little flutter of dismay disturbs the women, until the
folly of imagining all manner of accidents ^merdy
because an erratic young man takes a day longer to
drive to Kendal than they anticipated ^is pointed out
to them. Then dinner, and Bell appears in her prettiest
dress, so that even Tita, when she comes into the room,
losses her, as if the girl had performed a specially
virtuous action in merely choosing out of a nulliner's
shop a suitable colour.
\NoU hy Queen Titcmia, " I'hope I am revealing no secrets ; but it
would be a great pity if anyone thought that BeU was heartUss, or
indifferent, a uistako that might occur when she is written about by
one who makes a jest about the most serious moments in one's life. Now
it was quite pitiable to see how the poor girl was troubled as we
walked home that night by the side of Windermere. She as good as
confessed to me ^not in words, you know, for between women the
least hint is quite sufficient, and saves a great deal of embarrassment
that she very much liked the Lieutenant, and admired his character,
and that she was extremely vexed and sorry that she had been com-
X)elled to refuse him when he made her an offer. She told me, too,
that he had pressed her not to make that decision final ; and that she
had admitted to him that it was really against her own wish that she
had done so. But then she put it to me, as she had put it to him,
what she would think of herself if she went and betrayed Arthur in
this way. Really, I could, not see any betrayal in the matter ; and I
asked her whether it would be fair to Arthur to marry him while she
secretly would have preferred to marry another. She said she would
try all in her power not to marry Arthur, if only he would be reconciled
to her breaking with him ; but then she immediately added, with an
earnestness that I thought very pathetic, that if she treated Arthur
badly, any other man might fairly expect her to treat him badly too ;
and if she could not satisfy herself that she had acted rightly through-
out, she would not marry at alL It is a great pity I cannot show the
readers of these few lines our prstty Bell's photograph, or they would see
the downright ahswrdUy of such a resolve as that To think of a girl
like her not marrying is simply out of the question ; but the danger at
this moment was that, in one of these foolish fits of determination, she
would send the Lieutenant away altogether. Then I think there might
be a chance of her not marrying at all ; for I am greatly mistaken if
she does not care a good deal more for him than she will acknowledge.
I advised her to tell Arthur frankly how matters stand ; but she seems
airaid. Under any circumstances, he will be sure to discover the
truth ; and then it wiU be far worse for him than if she made a full
confession just now, and got rid of all these perplexities and entangle-
ments, wmch ought not to be throwing a cloud over a yonng face."]
OF A PHAETOK 305
CHAPTER XXIL
ON CAYIABE AND OTEEEK MATTEBS.
^ At the inn where we stopped he was exceedingly dissatisfied with
some roast mntton which he had for dinner. The ladies, I saw,
wondered to see the great philosopher, whose wisdom and wit they
had been admiring all the way, get into iU-humour from such a
CMtte."
"There is no Paradise without its Serpent/' said my
3Lady, with a sigh, as we were about to leave the white
streets of Kendal for the green heart of the Lake
district
A more cruel speech was never made. Arthur, for
aught we knew, might be lying smashed up in a York-
shire ditcL He had not overtaken us even on the
morning after our arrival in KendaL No message had
come from him. Was this a time to liken him to the
Father of lies, when perhaps the Major's cob had taken
him down a railway cutting or thrown him into a dis-
used coalpit? What, for example, if his corpse had
been brought into the King's Arms in which the above
words were uttered? Would the Lieutenant have
spoken of him contemptuously as '^a pitiful fellow-'Ohy
a very pitiful fellow ! " Would Bdl have borne his
presence with a meek and embarrassed resignation ; or
would Queen Tita have regarded the young man who
used to be a great Mend of hers as one intending to
do her a deadly injury?
"Poor Arthur!" I say. "Whither have all thy
Mends departed?"
'' At leasts he does not want for an apologist," says
Tita, with a UtUe unnecessary fierceness.
''Perhaps thou art lying under two wheels in a
peaceful glade. Perhaps thou art floating out to the
ocean on the bosom of a Mendly stream with all the
companions of thy youth unheeding ''
''StuFl" says Queen Titania; and when I observe
that I will address no furttier appeal to her ^for that a
z
5o6 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
lady who lends herself to match-making abandons all
natural instincts and is insensible to a cry for pity- she
turns impatiently and asks what I have done with her
eau-de-cologne, as if the fate of Arthur were of less
importance to her than that trumpery flask.
Wherever the young man was^ we could gain na
tidings of him ; and so we went forth once more on our
journey. But as the certainty was that he had not
passed us, how was it that Queen Tita feared the
presence of this evil thing in the beautiful land
before as?
'^fFoT," said the Lieutenant, pret^ding he was quite
anxious about the safety of the young man, and, on the
whole, desirous of seeing him, ''he may have gone to
Carlisle, as he at first proposed, to meet us there.
** Oh, do you think so V said Bell, eagerly. Was she
glad, then, to think that during our wanderings in her
native county we should not be accompanied by that
unhappy youth?
But the emotions which perplexed my Lady's heart
at this time were of the most curious sort It wbb ^y
by bits and snatches that the odd contradictions and
intricacies of them were revealed. To begin with^ she
had a sneaking fondness for Arthur, b^otten of old
associations. She was vexed with him because he was
likely to ruin her plan for the marriage of Bell and the
Lieutenant ; and when Tita thought of this deUghtful
prospect being destroyed by the interference of .^thur,
she grew angry, and regarded him as on unreasonable
and officious young man, who ought to be sent about
his business. Then again, when she recalled our old
evenings in Surrey, and the pleasant time the boy had
in sweethearting with oux Bonny Bell during the long
and lazy afternoon walks, she was visited with remorse,
and wished she could do something for him. But a
daimant of this sort who represents an injury is
certain, soon^ or later, to be regarded with dislika
He is continually reminding us that we have ixgured
him, and disturbing our peace of mind. Sometnaes Tita
resented this claim (which was entirely of her own
OF A PHAETON. 307
imagining) so strongly as to look upon Artbar as a
perverse and wicked intermeddler with the happiness of
two young lovers. So the world wags. The person
who is inconvenient to ns does ns a wrong. At the
very basis of our theatrical drama lies the principle that
non-success in a love affair is criminal. Two young
men shall woo a young woman ; the one shall be taken,
and the other made a villain because he paid the girl
the compliment of wanting to marry her, and justice
shall not be satisfied until everybody has hounded and
hunted the poor villain through all the phases of the
play, untQ all the good people meet to witness his
discomfiture, and he is bidden to go away and be a
rejected suitor no more.
It was only in one of these varpng moods that Tita
had shown a partial indifference to Arthur^s fate. She
was really concerned about his absence. When she
took her seat in the phaeton, she looked back and down
the main thoroughfare of Kendal, half expecting to see
the Majoi^s cob and a small dog-cart come driving along.
The suggestion that he might have gone on to Penrith
or CarUsle comforted her greatly. The only inexpli-
cable circumstance waa that Arthur had not written
or telegraphed to Kendal, at which town he knew we
were to stop.
About five minutes after our leaving Kendal, Arthur
was as completely forgotten as though no sudi hapless
creature was in existenca We were all on foot except
Tita, who remained in the phaeton to hold the reins in
a formal fashion. For about a mUe and a half the road
gradually rises, giving a long spell of collar-work to
horses with weight to drag behind them. Tita, who
weighs about a feather and a half, was commissioned to
the charge of the phaeton while the rest of us dawdled
along the road, giving Castor and I^ollux plenty of time.
It was a pleasant walk. The Lieutenant ^with an
amount of hypocrisy of which I had not suspected him
guilty seemed to prefer to go by the side of the
phaeton, and talk to the small lady sitting enthroned
there; but Bell, once on foot and in her native air,
X 2
5o8 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
could not 80 modeiate her pace. We set off up the
hilL There was a scent of peat-reek in the air. A
cool west wind was blowing through the tall hedges
and the trees ; and sudden slmfts and gleams of sunlight
fell from the uncertain sky and lit up the wild masses
of weeds and flowers by the roadside. Bell pulled a
white dog-rose, and kissed it as though a Westmoreland
rose was an old Mend she had come to see. She saw
good jests in the idlest talk, and laughed ; and all her
face was aglow with delight as she looked at the
beautiful country, and the breezy sky, and the blue
peaks of the mountains that seemed to grow higher
and higher the further we ascended the hill.
" You silly girl," I say to her, when she is eager to
point out cott^es built of stope, and stone-walls sepa-
rating small orchards from the undulating meadows,
''do you think there are no stone cottages anywhere
but in Westmoreland?"
''I didn't say there wasn't," she answers, regardless
of grammar*
Yes, we were certainly in Westmoreland. She had
scarcely uttered the words when a rapid pattering was
heard among the trees, and presently a brisk shower
was raining down upon us. Would she return to the
phaeton for a shawl? !No. She knew the ways of
Westmoreland showers on such a day as this ^indeed,
she had predicted that some of the heavy clouds being
blown over from the other side of Windermere would
visit us in passing. In a few minutes the shower
lightened, the wind that shook the heavy drops from
the trees seemed to bring diyness with it, and presently
a warm glow of sunshine sprang down upon the road,
and the air grew sweet with resinous and fragrant
smells.
" It was merely to lay the dust," said BeU, as though
she had ordered the shower.
After you pass Bather Heath, you go down into the
valley of the Gowan. The road is more of a lane than
a hj^way ; and the bright and showery day added to
the picturesqueness of the tall hedges and the wooded
OF A PHAETON. 309
countiy on both sides by sending across alternate
splatcbes of gloom and bursts of sunlight More than
once, too, the tail-end of a shower caught ns ; but we
cared little for rain that had wind and sunlight on the
other side of it ; and Bell, indeed, rather rejoiced in the
pictorial efiects produced by changing clouds, when
the sunshine caused the heavier masses to grow black
and ominous, or shone mistily through the frail sheet
produced by the thinner masses melting into rain
Tita is a pretty safe driver in Surrey, where she
knows every inch of the roads and lanes, and has
nothing to distract her attention ; but now, among
these hilly and stony Westmoreland roads, her enjoy-
ment of the bright panorama around her considerably
drew her attention away from the horses' feet. Then
she was sorely troubled by news that had reached us
that morning from home. An evil-doer, whom she had
hitherto kept in order by alternate bribes and threats,
had broken out again, and given his wife a desperate
thrashing. Now this occurrence seldom happened except
when both husband and wife were intoxicated ; and for
some time back my Lady had succeeded in stopping
their periodical bouts. With these evil tidings came
the report that a horrible old creature of sixty as
arrant a rogue as ever went on crutches, although my
Lady would have taken the life of anyone who dared
to say so of one of her petshad deliberately gone to
Guildford and pawned certain pieces of flannel which
had been given her to sew. In short, as Bell proceeded
to point out, the whole neighbourhood was in revolt.
The chief administrator of justice and Queen's Almoner
of the district was up here skylarking in a phaeton,
while her subjects down in the south had broken out
into flagrant rebellion. History tells of a Scotch parish
that suddenly rose and hanged the minister, drowned
the precentor, and raffled the church bell; who was
now to answer for the safety of our most cherished
parochial institutions when the guardian of law and
order had withdrawn herself into the regions of the
mountains ?
310 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
" That revolt/' it is obsenred, " is the natural conse^
quence of tyranny. For years you have crushed down
and domineered over that unhappy parish; and the
unenfranchised millions, who had no more liberty than
is Youchsafed to a stabled horse or a chained dog, have
risen at last Mart avx tyram I Will they chase us,
do you think, Bell ? "
"I am quite convinced," remarked my Lady, deli-
berately and calmly, "that the poor old woman has
done nothing of the kind. 8he could not do it. Why
should she seek to gain a few shillings at the expense
of forfeiting all the assistance she had to expect
from me?"
"An independent peasantiy is not to be bought
over by pitiful bribes. *Tis a free country; and the
three balls ought to be placed among the insignia of
Koyalty, instead of that meaningless sphere. Can any
student of history now present explain the original
purpose of that instrument ? "
** I suppose," says Bell, '^ that Queen Elizabeth, who
always has it in her hand, used to chastise her maid-
servants with it."
"Wrong. With that weapon Heniy the Eighth was
wont to strike down and murder the good priests that
interfered with his unholy wishes."
** Henry the Eighth *' says my Lady ; but just at
this moment Castor caught a stone slightly with his
foot, and the brief stumble caused my Lady to mind her
driving; so that Henry the Eighth, wherever he is, may
be congratulated on the &ct that she did not finish
her sentence.
Then we ran pleasantly along the valley until we
came in sight, once more, of Windermere. We drove
round the foot of the green slopes of EUeray. We
plunged into the wood, and there was all around us a
moist odour of toadstools and fern. We went by St
Catherine's, and over Troutbeck Bridge, and so down to
the lake-side by Ecderigg House and Lowood. It was
along this road that Bell and her companion had walked
the night before, when the yeUow moon rose up in the
I
OF A PHAETON. 311
south and threw a strange light over Windermere. The
Lieutenant had said not a word about the results of that
long interview ; but they had clearly not been unfavour-
able to him, for he had been in excellent good spirits
during the rest of the evening, and now he was chatting
to Bell as if nothing had occurred to break the even
tenor of their acquaintanceship. They had quite
resumed their old relations, which was a blessing to
the two remaining members of the party. Indeed,
there was no bar now placed upon Bell's singing except
her own talking ; and when a young lady undertakes to
instruct her elders . in the history, traditions, manners,
customs, and peculiarities of Westmoreland, she has not
xsxsSa time for strumming on the guitar. Bell acted the
part of mUit de place to perfection, and preached at us
just as if we were all as great strangers as the Lieutenant
was. It is true our guide was not infallible. Sometimes
we could see that she was in deep distress over the
names of the peaks up in the neighbourhood of the
Langdale Pikes; but what did it matter to us which
wafi Scawfell and which was Bowfell, or which was
Great Gable and which Great End ? We had come to
enjoy ourselves, not to connect the Ordnance Survey Maps.
"I am afraid," said my Lady, when some proposal to
stop at Ambleside and climb Wansfell Pike had been
unanimously rejected, " that we have been throtighout
this journey disgracefully remiss. We have gone to see
nothing that we ought to have seen. We have never
paid any attention to ancient ruins, or galleries of pic-
tures, or celebrated monuments. We have not climbed
a single mountain. We went past Woodstock without
looking in at the gates we did not even go to see
the ol^lisk on Evesham Plain "
** That was because some of you drove the horses the
wrong way," it is remarked.
'Indeed, we have done nothing that we ought to
have done."
"Perhaps, Madame," said the Lieutenant, "that is
why the voyage has been so pleasant to us. One
eannot always be instructing oneself, like a tourist.**
312 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
If you wish to vex my Lady, call her a tourist.
This subtle compliment of the Lieutenant pleased her
immensely : but I confess myself unable to see in what
respects we were not tourists, except that we were a
little more ignorant, and indifferent to our ignorance^
than holiday travellers generally are. What touiist, for
example^ would have done such a barbaric thing as go
through Ambleside without stopping a day there ?
That was all along of Bell, however, who insisted on
our spending the tSreasure of our leisure time upon
Grasmere ; and who was strengthened in her demands
by my Lady, when she came in view of a considerable
number of tourists lounging about the former town.
The poor men were for the most part di'essed as moun-
taineers otherwise they were quite harmless. They
were loitering about the main thoroughfare of Ambleside,
with their hands in the pockets of their knickerbockers,
gazing in at a stationei^s window, or regarding a brace
of setters that a keeper standing in &ont of an hotel had
in leash. They did not even look narrowly at the knees
of our horses an ordinary piece of polite impertinence.
They were well-meaning and well-conducted persons;
and the worst that could be said of . them, that they
were tourists, has been said about many good and
respectable people. A man may have climbed Lough-
rigg Fell, and yet be an attentive husband and an
affectionate father; while knickerbockers in themselves
are not an indictable offence. My Lady made no answer
to these humble representations; but asked for how
long the horses would have to be put up before we
started again.
Bell's enthusiasm of the morning had given way to
something of disappointment, which she tried hard to
conceal Ambleside, one of the places she had been
dreaming about for years, looked painfully modem now.
In thinking about it, down in our southern home, she
had shut out of the picture, hotels, shops, and fashion-
ably-dressed people, and had dwelt only on the wild
and picturesque features of a neighbourhood that had
at one time been as familiar to her as her mother's face.
OF A PHAETON. 313
But now, Ambleside seemed to have grown big, and
new, and strange ; and she lost the sense of proprietor-
ship which she had been exhibiting in onr drive through
the scenery of the morning. Then Loughrigg fell d
us an evil turn gathering up all the clouds that the
wind had driven over, and sending them gently and
persistently down into the valley of the Sothay, so that
a steady rain had set in. The Lieutenant did not care
much how the sky might be clouded over, so long as
Bell's face remained bright and happy; but it was quite
evident she was disappointed, and he in vain attempted
to reassure her by declaring that these two days had
convinced hiTn thab the Lake country was the most
beautiful in the world. She could not foresee then that
this very gloom, that seemed to mean nothing but con-
stant rain, would procure for us that evening by far the
most impressive sight that we encountered during the
whole of our long summer ramble.
Our discontent with Loughrigg Fell took an odd turn
when it discharged itself upon the Duke of Wellington.
We had grown accustomed to that foolish picture of
the Waterloo Heroes, in which the Duke, in a pair of
whitf pantaloons, stands in the attitude of a dancing-
master, with an idiotic simper on his face. All along the
road, in public-houses, inns, and hotels, we had met this
desperate piece of decoration on the walls, and had only
smiled a melancholy smile when we came upon another
copy. But this particular print seemed to be quit^
oflFensively ridiculous. If Henry the Eighth had been
inside these long white pantaloons and that tight coat, my
Lady could not have regarded the figure with a severer
contempt. We picked out enemies among the attendant
generals, just as one goes over an album of photograph?
and has a curious pleasure in recording mental likes
and dislikes produced by imknown faces. Somehow, all
the Waterloo Heroes on this evening looked stupid and
commonplace. It seemed a mercy that Kapoleon was
beaten ; but how he had been beaten by such a series
of gabies and nincompoops none of us could make out.
Then the Lieutenant must needs grumble at the
314 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
luncheon served up to us. It was a good enough
luncheon, as hotels go ; and even my Lady was moved
to express her surprise that a young man who professed
himself able to enjoy anything in the way of food,
and who had told us amusing stories of his foraging
adventures in campaigning time, should care wliether
there were or were not lemon and hread*crumbs with
a mutton cutlet
"Madame," said the Lieutenant, "that is very well
in a campaign, and you are glad of anything ; but
there is no merit in eating badly-cooked food ^none
at all"
" A soldier should not mind such trifles," she said ;
but slie smiled as though to say that she agreed with
him all the same.
"Well, I think," said the young man, doggedly,
" that is no shame that anyone should know what is
good to eat, and that it is properly prepared. It is
not any more contemptible than dressing yourself in
good taste, which is a duty you owe to other people.
You should see our old generals ^who are very glad
of some coarse bread, and a piece of sausage, and a
tumbler of sour wine, when they are riding across a
country in the war ^how they study delicate things,
and scientific cookery, and all that, in Berlin."
"And do you follow their example when you are
at home?"
"Not always; I have not enough time. But when
you come to my house in Berlin, Madame, you will see
what luncheon you shall have."
" Can't you teH. us about it now ?" says Kta.
"Fray do," echoes Bell, after casting another re-
proachM glance at the rain out of doors.
The Lieutenant laughed ; but seeing that the women
were quite serious, he proceeded in a grave and so-
lemn manner to instruct them in the art of preparing
luncheoiL
" First," said he, " you must have Bussian black bread
and French white bread cut into thin slices but you
do not use the black bread yet awhile ; and you must
OF A PHAETON. 315
have some good Bhine "^ne, a little wanned if it is in
the winter; some Bordeaux, a bottle of green Chartreuse,
and some ohampagne, if there are ladies. Now, for the
first, you take a slice of white bread, yon put a little
bntter on it, very thin, and then ymi open a pot of
Bussian caviare, and you put that on the slice of
bread three-quarters of an inch thick, not less than
that Yon must not taste it by little and little, as all
Rnglifth ladies do, but eat it boldly, and you will be
gratefuL Then half a glass of soft Bhine wine if it
is a good Maioobmnner, that is excellent. Then you
oat one slice of the black bread, with butter on it, more
thick than on the white bread. Then you have two,
perhaps three, Norwegian anchovies ^"
"Would you mind my writing these things down?"
aay B my Lady.
The Lieutenant of course assents; she produces a
small bunch of ivory tablets ; and I know, the horrible
purpose that fills her mind as she proceeds to jot down
this programme.
''Yon must have the caviare and the anchovies of real
quality, or eveiything is spoiled. With the anchovies
you may eat tibe black bread, or the white, but I think
wifliout butter. Then half a glass of Bhine wine ^"
"Those half-glasses of Bhine wine are coming in
rather often,'' remarks BeU.
"No, Mademoiselle, that is the last of the Bhine
wine. Next is a thin slice of white bread, very thin
butter, and a very thin slice of Bologna sausage. This
is optional"
"My dear," I say to Tita, "be sure you put down
" With li you have a glass of good and soft Bordeaux
wina Then, Madame, we come to the reindeer^s
tongue. This is the piiee de rAzdance, and your guests
must eat of it just as they have their hour for dinner
in the evening. Also, if they are ladies, they may
prefer a sparkUng wine to the Bordeaux, though the
Bordeaux is much better. And this is the reason:
After the reindeer^s tongue is taken away, and you may
3i6 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
eat an olive or two, then a pdU de jbie groB real from
Strasbnrg '*
"Stop!" cries one of the party. "If I have any
authority left, I forbid the addition to that disastrous
catalogue of another single item! I will not suffer
their introduction, into the house ! Away with them ! **
" But, my dear friend," says the Lieutenant, " it is a
good thing to accustom youi'self to eat the meats of all
countries you know not where you may find yourself."
" Yes," says Bell gently, " one ought to learn to like
caviare, lest one should be thrown on a desert island."
'*And why not?" says the persistent young man,
"You are thrown on a desert island ^you catch a
sturgeon you take the roe, and you Imow how to
make very good caviare "
"But how about the half-glass of Ehine wine?" says
my Lady.
"You cannot have everything in a desert island;
but in a town, where you have time to study such
things "
" And where you can order cofBns for half-past ten,"
it is suggested.
" A good luncheon is a good thing."
"Ladies and gentlemen," said Bell, 'Uhe rain has
ceased."
And so it had. While we had been contemplating
that imaginary feast, and paying no attention to the
changes out of doors, the clouds had gradually with-
drawn themselves up the mountains, and the humid
air showed no more slanting lines of rain. But still
overhead there hung a heavy gloom; and along the
wet woods, and on the troubled bosom of the lake,
and up the slopes of the hills, there seemed to lie
an ominous darkness. Should we reach Grasmere in
safety? The Lieutenant had the horses put to with
all speed ; and presently Bell was taking us at a rapid
pace into the wooded gorge that lies between Nab
Scar and Loughrigg Fell, where the gathering twilight
seemed to deepen with premonitions of a storm.
CF A PHAETON. 317
CHAPTER XXIIl.
AT NIGHT ON GRASIOERE.
" Ye who hare yeamed
With too mach pasaloii, will here stay and pity,
For the mere sake of trtith ; as 'tis a ditty
Not of these days, but lonx ago 'twas told
By a cayem wind unto a forest old ;
And then the forest told it in a dream
To s sleeping lake."
We drove into the solitude of this deep valley without
uttering a word. How could we teU what the strange
gloom and sUence might portend? For away up the
misty and rounded slopes of Loughrigg the douds lay
heavy and thick, and over the masses of Bydal Fell,
on the other side of the goi^e, an ominous darkness
brooded. Down here in the chasm the trees hung cold
and limp in the humid air, crushed by the long rain.
There was no sign of life abroad, only that we heard
the rushing of the river Bothay in among the imder-
wood in the channel of the stream. There was not
even any motion in that wild and gloomy sky, that
looked aU the stranger that the storm-clouds did not
mova
But as we drove on, it seemed to become less likely
that the rain would set in again. The clouds had got
banked up in great billows of vapour; and underneath
them we could see, even in the twilight, the forms of
the mountains with a strange distinctness. The green
of the distant slopes up tihere grew more and more
intense, strengthened as it was by long splashes of a
deep purple where the slate was visible; then the
heavy grey of the sky, weighing upon the summits of
the him
But all this was as nothing to the wild and gloomy
scene that met our view when we came in sight of
Bydal Water. We scarcely knew the lake we had
loTod of old, in bright days, and in sunshine, and
3i8 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
blowing laiiL Heie, hidden away among reeds, lay a
long stretch of dark slate-blue, with no streak of white
along the shores, no ripple off the crags, to show that
it was water. So perfect was the mirror-like surface,
that it was impossible to say in the gathering gloom
where the lake ended and the land began. The islands,
the trees, the fields, and the green spaces of the hills,
were as distinct below as above; and where the dark
blue of the lake ran in among the reeds, no one could
make out the line of the shore. It was a strange and
impressive scene, this silent lake lying at the foot of
tiie hills, and so calm and death-like that the motionless
clouds of the sky lay without a tremor on the sheet of
glass. This was not the Bydal Water we had been
hoping to see, but a solitary and enchanted lake, struck
silent and still by the awful calmness of the twilight
and the presence of the lowering clouds.
We got down from the phaeton. The horses were
allowed to walk quietly on, with Tita in charge, while
we sauntered along the winding road, by the side of
this sombre sheet of water. There was no more fear
of rain. There was a firmness about the outlines of
the clouds that became more marked as the dusk fell.
But although the darkness was coming on apace, we
did not hasten our steps much. When should we ever
again see such a picture as this, the like of which Bell,
familiar with the sights and sounds of the district from
her childhood, had never seen before ?
What I have written above conveys nothing of the
impressive solemnity and majesty of this strange sight
as we saw it ; and indeed I had resolved, before entemig
the Lake district, to leave out of the jottings of a mere
holiday traveller any mention of scenes which have
become familiar to the world through the imperishable
and unapproachable descriptions of tiie great masters
who lived and wrote in these regions. But such jottings
must be taken for what they are worth ^the hasty recoi-d
of hasty impressions; and how could our little party
have such a vision vouchsafed to them without at
least noting it down as an incident of their journey \
OF A PHAETON. 319
We walked on in the darkness. The slopes of Nab
Scar had become invisible. Here and there a white
cottage glimmered out from the roadside; and Bell
knew the name of eyery one of them^ and of the
people who used to occupy them.
" How surprised some of our friends would be/' she
said to Tita, " if we were to call on them to-night, and
walk in without saying a word."
'* They would take you for a banshee/' said my Lady,
*^ on such an evening as this. Get up, Bell, and let us
drive on. I am beginning to shiver ^whether with
fright or with cold, I don't know."
So we got into the phaeton again, and sent the
horses forward. We ^ve along the broad road
which skirts the reedy and shallow end of Bydal Water,
and entered the valley of the stream whieh comes
flowing through the trees from Grasmera It was
now (dmost dark ; and the only sound we could hear
was that of the stream plashing along its rocky bed.
By and by, a glimmer of yellow light was observed in
front; and Bell having announced that this was the
Prince of Wales Hotel, we were soon within its com-
fortable precincts. In passing we had got a glimpse of
a dark steel-grey lake lying amid grey mists and under
sombre hills that was all we knew as yet of Graamere.
But about an hour afterwards, when we had dined,
the Lieutenant came back from the window at which
we had been standing for a minute or two, and said
" Mademoiselle, I have a communication for you."
Mademoiselle looked up.
" If you will go to the window ^'
Bell rose and went directly.
^ I know," said my Lady, with a weU-afGected sajgh.
^ The night has cleared up there is starlight or moon-
light, or something, and I suppose we shall have to
go out in a boat to please these foolish young peoidt.
But I think you will be disappointed this time.
Count von Bosen."
* Why, Madame?"
''This is a respectable hotel Do you think they
320 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
would give you a boat ? Now, if there was some old
lady to be cajoled, I daresay you would succeed ^"
'' Oh, you do think we canuot get a boat, yes ? I do
not suppose there is any trouble about that, if only
Mademoiselle cares about going on the lake. Perhaps
she does not ^but you must see how beautiful this lake
is at present"
The idea of Bell not wishing to go out on Grasmere
^-at any hour of the night so long as there was a
yellow moon rising over the dusky heights of Silver
Home ! The girl was all in a flutter of defight when she
returned from the window ^anxious that we should
all see Grasmere under these fine conditions, just as if
Grasmere belonged to her. And the lieutenant, having
gone outside for a few minutes, returned with the in-
formation that a boat was waiting. for us. There was
no triumph in his face ^no exultation; and it never
occurred to anyone to ask whether this young Uhlan
had secured the boat by throwing the owner of it into
the lake. The women were quite satisfied to accept all
the pleasant things he brought them, and never stopped
to inquire by what tyrannical or disgraceful means the
young Prussian had succeeded in his fell endeavours.
But at all events he managed to keep out of the
police-office.
As a matter of &ct, the boat was not only waiting
when Tita and Bell, having dressed for the purpose,
came downstairs, but was supplied with all manner of
nice cushions, plaids, rugs, and a guitar-case. The
women showed a good deal of trepidation in stepping
into the frail craft, which lay under the shadow of a
small jetty ; but once out in the open lake, we found
sufficient light aroimd us, and Belt pulling her grey
and woollen shawl more tightly around her, turned to
look at the wonders of Grasmere, which she had not
vseen for many years.
It was a pleasant night. All the hiUs and woods on
^e other side of the kkke seemed for the most part in
a black shadow; but out here the moonlight dwelt
calmly on the water, and lit up the wooded island
OF A PHAETON. 321
further down^ and shone along the level shores. As
we went out into the silent plain, the windows of the
hotel grew smaller and smaller, until in the distance
we could see them but as minute points of orange fire
that glittered down on the black surface below. Then,
in the perfect stillness of the night as the measured
sound of the rowlocks told of our progress, and the
moonlight shone on the gleaming blades of the oars
we were all at once startled by a loud and hissing noise,
that caused Tita to utter a slight cry of alarm.
We had run into a great bed of water-weeds, that
was all a tangled mass of water-lily leaves, with mil-
lions of straight horsetails rising from the shallow lake.
We pushed on. The horsetails went down before the
prow of the boat; but all around us the miniature
forest remained erect. The moonlight sparkled on the
ripples that we sent circling out through those perpen-
dicular lines. And then the Lieutenant called out a
note of warning, and Bell plunged her oars in the
water just in time, for we had nearly run down two
swans that were fast asleep in among the tall weeds.
We forsook this shallower end of the lake, and, with
some more hissing of horsetails, pushed out and into
the world of moonlight and still water; and then, as
Tita took the oars, and just dipped them now and again
to give us a sense of motion. Bell rested her guitar
on her knee, and began to sing to us. What should
she sing under the solitude of the hills, when all
our laughter of dinner-time was over, and we were as
silent as the lake itself? There was not even a breath
of wind stirring ; and it was in a veiy low voice, with
something of a tremor in it, that Bell began to accom-
pany the faint touching of the guitar.
" IVe heard the lilting at our ewe-milking/'
she sang, and her voice was so low and tremulous
that Tita forgot to dip the oars into the water that she
might listen to the girl
** Lasses a lilting before the break o' day,
But now they are moaning on ilka green loaning
The Flowers 0' the Forest are a* wede away."
Y
322 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
Had Grasmere ever listened to a more pathetic ballad,
or to a tenderer voice ? It was as well, perhaps, that
the Lieutenant could not see Bell's face ; for as she
sang the last verse
''We hear nae mair lilting at onr ewe-xnilking ; '
'Women and bairns are Heartless and wae ;
Sighing and moaning on ilka green loaning
The Flowers o* the Forest are a' wede away,*'
there was a sort of indistinctness in her voice ; and
when the Lieutenant said that it was the finest English
song that he had yet heard, and that the air was so
very different from most of the old English tunes, she
could not answer him for a minute or two.
But when she did answer him, fancy our astonish-
ment!
" It isn't English," she said, with just a trace of con-
tempt in her tone. " When did you find the English
able to write a song or an air like that?"
"Grant me patience!" cries my Lady, with a fine
theatrical appeal to the moonlight overhead. "This
girl, because she was born, in Westmoreland, claims the
possession of everything north of the Trent."
"Are not you also English, Mademoiselle ?" says the
Lieutenant.
" I belong to the North Country," says Bell proudly ;
"" and we are all the same race up here."
Now you should have seen how this cue was
seized by the Lieutenant. The boy had about as
much knowledge of the colonization of this country
as most youths pick up at schools; but the manner
in which he twisted it about to suit the wild
and audacious statement that Bell had uttered was
truly alarming. Before we knew where we were, we ,
were plunged into the history of Strathclyde, and
invited to consider the consistency of character that
must have prevailed in the great Welsh kingdom that
stretched from Dumbarton to Chester. We had also
some pleasant little excursions into Bemicia and
Deira, with abundance of proof that the Lowland
Scotch speak the best English now going a piece
OF A PHAETON. 323
of information which we accepted with meeknesa.
We were treated to a recapitulation of the settle-
ments of the Angles, together with a learned dis-
quisition on the aims of Ida. This was all veiy
well It passed the time. Bell thought she was
j&rmly established in her position. Her traditional
reverence for the "North Country" and all its belonf;-
ings had, it turned out, some definite historical justi-
fication. She had a right to claim the songs of the
Lowland Scotch; was she not herself of that favoured
race? At length, Queen Tita burst into a merry fit
of laughter !
"I don't know what you mean to prove, Count
von Eoeen,'' she said; "yon prove so much. At one
time you insist that BeU is Scotch ; at another time
you show us that she must be Welsh, if all the
. peofde in Strathclyde were Welsh. But look at her,
and what becomes of all the theories ? Iliere is no
more English girl in all England than our Bell."
"That is no harm said of her," replied the Lieu-
tenant, abandoning all his arguments at once.
"I suppose I am English," said Bell, obstinately,
"but I am North-country English."
Nobody could dispute that; and doubtless the
Lieutenant considered that Bell's division of this
vealm into districts mapped out in her imagination
was of much more importance than the idle inquiries
of historians into the German occupation of England.
Then we pulled away over to the island, and round
imdemeath the shadows of its firs, and back through
the clear moonlight to the small jetty of the hotel.
We entered the warm and comfortable building. The
folks who had been dining had all gone into the
drawing-room; but neither my Lady nor Bell seemed
inclined to venture in among the strangers ; and so
we procured a private sitting-room, in which, by good
luek,' there was a piano.
The Lieutenant sat down.
''Madame," he said, "what shall I play to you?
It is not since that I was at Twickenham I have
Y 2
324 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
touched a piano^oh, that is very bad English, I
know, but I csannot help it/*
''Sing the rataplan song that BeU was humming
the other day," said Tita. "Tou two shaU sing it
^you shall be the old sergeant, and Bell the
daughter of the regiment."
"Yes, I can sing it," he said; "but to play it
that I cannot do. It is too fine for my thick fingers.**
And so he gave way to Bell, who played the
accompaniment dexterously enough, and sang with
a wilL You would have fancied that the camp was
really her birthplace, and that she was determined
to march with the foremost, as the good song says.
The Lieutenant had not half the martial ardour of
this girl, who was singing of fire and slaughter, of
battle and sudden death, as though she had been
the eldest daughter of one of the Mngs of her native
Strathclyde. And then, when she had finished that
performance, it needed only the least suggestion of
the Lieutenant to get her to sing Maria's next song,
"Ciascvm, lo dice,*' so that you would have thought
she had the spirit of the whole regiment within her.
It is not a proper song. The brave Eleventh was
doubtless a very gallant regiment; but why should
they have taught their daughter to glorify their fright-
ening of landlords, their rtations, their fierce flying
hither and thither, like the famous Jager that followed
Hoik? This is the regiment, Maria teUs you, that
fears nothing, but whom aU men fear. This is the
regiment beloved of women; for is not each soldier
sure to become a Field-Marshal? The Lieutenant
laughed at the warlike glow of her singing, but he
was mightily pleased, for all that She was fit to be
a soldier's wife ^this girl with the mantling colour
in her cheek, and the brave voice and gallant mien.
With colours in her cap, and a drum slung round
her neck ^with all the fathers of the regiment petting
her, and proud of her, and ready to drive the soiil
out of the man who spoke a rude word to her ^with
her arch ways, and her frank bearing, and her loyal
OF A PHAETON. 325
and loving regard for the brave Eleventh ^why, Bell,
for the moment, was really Maria, and as bright and
as fearless as any Maria that ever sang *' rataplan !**
Queen Tita was pleased too, but she was bouTid to
play the part of the stately Marchioness. With an
affectionate pat on the shoulder, she told Bell she
mustn't sing any more of these soldier-songs; they
were not improving songs. With which just as if
she had been ordered by the Marchioness to leave the
brave Eleventh Bell began to sing the plaintive and
touching ^'CoTmen partir!* Perhaps we may have
heard it better sung at Drury Lane. The song is
known in Cgvent Garden- But if you had heard
Bell sing it this night with her lover sitting quite
silent and embarrassed with a' shamefaced pleasure,
and with a glimmer of moonlight on Grasmere visible
through the open window ^you might have forgiven
the girl for her mistakes.
A notion may have crossed my Lady's mind that
it was very hard on Arthur that Bell should in his
absence have been singing these soldier-songs with so
much obvious enjoyment Was it fair that this young
Uhlan should flutter his martial scarlet and blue and
gold before the girl's eyes, and dazzle her with
romantic pictures of a soldier's life? What chance
had the poor law-student, coming out from his dingy
ehambers in the Temple, with bewildered eyes, and
pale face, and the funereal costume of the ordinary
English youth? We know how girls are attracted
by show, how their hearts are stirred by the passing
of a regiment with music playing and colours flying.
The padded uniform may enclose a nutshell sort of
heart, and the gleaming helmet or the imposing busby
may surmount the feeblest sort of brain that could
with decency have been put within a human skuU;
but what of that? Each featherbed warrior who
rides from Knightsbridge to Whitehall, and from
Whitehall to Knightsbridge, is gifted with the gloriotOs
traditions of great armies and innumerable campaigns ;
and in a b&d-room the ass in scarlet is a sur more
396 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
atiractiYe spectacle than the Vise man iti hlack.
Perhaps Arthur was not the most striking example
that might hare been got to add point to the con- ,
trast ; but if any such thoughts were running through
Queen Tita's mind, you may be sure that her sym-
pathies were awakened for a young man wliose
chances of marrying fiell were becoming more and
more nebulous.
And tiien my Lady sat down to the piano, and con-
descended to play for us a few pieces, with a precision
and a delicacy of fingering which were far removed
from BeU'e performances in that way. I suppose you
young fellows who read this would have regarded
with indifference the dark-eyed little, matron who
sat there and unravelled the intricacies of the most
difficult music. You would have kept all your attention
for the girl who stood beside her; and you would have
preferred the wilder and less finished playing of Bell,
simply because she had fine eyes, pretty hair, a whole-
some English pleasantness and frankness, and a proud
and gracious demeanour. But a few years hence you
may come to know better. You may get to nnderstand
the value of the quiet and unobtrusive ways of a
woman who can look after a liousehold, ^^d busy
herself with manifold charities, and bring up her
children well and scrupulously, and yet have a tender
smile for the vagaries of young folks like yourselves.
And then, if it is your excellent fortune to have with
you so gentle and fearless and honest a companion if
your own life seems to be but the half of the bmader
and fuller existence that abides beneath your roof
you may do worse than go down on your knees and
thank God who has blessed your house with the
presenoe of a good wife and a good mother.
Tales shall not be told out of school. We may have
sat a little late that eight. We wei^ harming no one
by so doing, except ourselves ; and if our health suf-
fered by such late hours, we were prepared to let it
suffer. For the fact was, we drifted into talk about our
Surrey home ; and now that seemed so far away and
OF A PHAETON. 327
it seemed so long sinle we had been there ^that the
most ordinary details of our bygone life in the south
had grown picturesque. And from that Tita began to
recall the names of the people she had known in the
Lake district, in the old time, when Bell was but a girl,
running about the valleys and hill-sides like a young
goat. That, too, carried us back a long way, until it
seemed as if we had drifted into a new generation of
things that knew nothing of the good old times that
were. There was a trifle of regret imported into this
conversation why, no one could tell; but when we
broke up for the night, Tita*s face was rather saddened,
and she did not follow Bell when the giri called to her
to look at the beautiful night outside, where the rapidly-
sinking moon had given place to a host of stars that
twinkled over the black gulf of Grasmere.
It is no wonder that lovers love the starlight, and the
infinite variety and beauty and silence of the strange
darkness. But folks who have got beyond that period
do not care so much to meet the mystery and the
solemnity of the night. They may have experiences
they would rather not recalL Who can tell what bitter-
ness and grievous heart-wringing are associated with
the wonderful peace and majesty of the throbbing mid-
night sky ? The strong man, with all his strength fled
from him, has gone out in his utter misery, and cried,
" Oh, God, save my wife to me ! " And the young
mother, with her heart breaking, has looked up into
the great abyss, and cried, " Oh, God, give me back
my baby ! " and all the answer they have had was
the silence of the winds and the faint and distant
glimmer of the stars. They do not care any more
to meet the gaze of those sad, and calm, and im-
penetrable eyes.
328 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
CHAPTER XXTV,
AKTHUR'S SONG.
" Along the grass sweet airs are blown
Our way this day in Spring.
Of all the songs that we have known,
Now which one shall we sing f
Not that, my love, ah no !
Not this, my love ? why, so !
Yet both were onrs, but hours will come and go.
" The branches cross above our eyes,
The skies are in a net :
And what's the thing beneath the skies
"We two would most forget ?
Not birth, my love, no no
Not death, my love, no no.
The love once ours, but ours long hours ago."
We stood at the open window, my Lady, Bell, and I,
with the calm laJ^e lying before ns as darkly blue as the
heart of a bell-flower, and with the hills on the other
side grown grey, and green, and hazy in the morning
sunlight. Bell had brought us thither. The Lieutenant
was outside, and we could hear him talking to some
one, although he had no idea of our presence. Was it
fair to steal a march on the young fellow^ and seek to
learn something of the method by which he became
familiarly acquainted with every man, woman, and
child we met on our journey ? In such matters I look
to Tita for guidance. If she says a certain thing is
proper, it is proper. And at this moment she was
standing just inside the curtains, listening, with a
great amusement on her face, to the sounds which
reached us from below.
" Ay, ah wur bom in eighteen hunderd ^thaf s a long
time ago a long time ago," said a quavering old voice,
that was sometimes interrupted by a fit of asthmatic
coughing; "and you don't remember the great comet
the comet of eighteen hunderd an' eleven ! No I See
that now ! And ah wur a boy at that time ; but I can
OF A PHAETON. 329
remember the great comet of eighteen hunderd an'
eleven I remember it well now ^and ah wnr bom in
eighteen hunderd. How long ago is that now ? "
"Why, that's easily counted," said the Lieutenant;
" that's seventy-one years ago. But you look as hale
and as fresh as a man of forty."
"Seventy-one ay, that it is and you don't re-
member the comet of eighteen hunderd an' eleven?"
" No, I don't. But how have you kept your health
and your colour all this time ? That is the air of the
mountains gives you this good health, I supposa"
"Lor bless ye, ah don't belong to these parts. No.
Ah wur bom in the New Forest, in eighteen hunderd
Ringwood, that's the place that's in the New Forest,
a long way from eear. Do you know Eingwood?"
" No."
" Nor Poole ? "
"No."
" Lor bless ye ! Never been to Poole ! Do ye know
Southampton?"
"No."
" Bless my soul ! Never been to Poole ? There now !
And you dcfti't know Southampton, where all the ships
are ? ay, a famous sight 0* ships, I can tell ya And
you've never been to Southampton Lor bless ye, you
ain't much of a traveller ! But there now, ain't you a
Frenchman?"
" No."
" 60 along with you ! Not a Frenchman ? An' you
don't know Poole? It's a big place, Poole, and ah
reckon it's grown bigger now, for it's many a year ago
since ah wur there. When ah wur a boy that's many
a year ago for ah remember well the great comet, in
eighteen hunderd an' eleven ^you don't remember that ?
No ! God bless my soul, you're only a boy yet and
ah wur bom seventy year ago and when ah went up
to Lunnon, ah wur such a simple chap ! "
We could hear the old man laughing and chuckling,
until a fit of coughing seized him, and then he pro-
ceeded :
330 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
" Ah wur taking a bridle dowa to my mahster, and
what's the bridge you go over? Dear me, dear me!
my memory isn't as good as it once was '*
And .at this point the old man stopped, and puzzled,
and hesitated about the name of the bridge, until the
Lieutenant besought him never to mind that, but to
go on with his story. But no. He would find out
the name of the bridge ; and after having repeated
twenty times that he was bom in 1800, and could
remember the comet of 1811, he hit upon the name of
Blackfriars.
"An' there wur a chap standin' there, as come up to
me and asked me if I would buy a silk handkerchief
from him. He had two of 'em Lor bless ye, you don't
know what rare good handkerchiefs we had then
white, you know, wi' blue spots on 'em they're all
gone out now, for it's many a year ago. And that chap
he thought ah'd bin seUin' a oss ; and he made up to
me, and he took me into a smaU public-'ouse, close by,
and says he, * Ah'U be sworn a smart young feUow like
you 11 'ave a tidy bit o' money in your pocket' An' ah
wur a smart young fellow then, as he said, but, God
bless you, that's many a year ago ; an' now, would you
believe it, that chap got five shillins out o' me for two
of his handkerchiefs ^he did indeed, as sure as I'm
alive. Wasn't it a shame to take in a poor countiy
chap as wur up doing a job for his mahster?"
" Five shillings for two silk handkerchiefs with blue
spots ? " said the Lieutenant. " Why, it was you who
did swindle that poor man. It is you that should be
ashamed. And you took away the bridle safe ? "
" Ay, ah wur goin' down to Winchester. Do ye know
Winchester?"
" Nor
"Ha, ha, ha! Ah thought not! No, nor Poole?
Have you ever been to Bristol ^there now!"
" My dear friend, there are few men so great travelleiB
as you have been. Yon should not boast of it"
**But, Lor bless ye, don't ye know the ships at
Poole ? And Winchester that's a fine town, too, is
rw
OF A PHAETOA. 331
Winchester. Ah'd a month at Winchester when ah
wur a young man."
*'A month! What do you mean by that?"
" Yes, that ah did. Lor, they were far stricter then
than they are now."
"But what was this month you are speakhig
about ? "
" Don't ye know what a month in jail is for ketchin
a rabbit?"
" Oh, it was a rabbit, was it ? "
The wicked old man laughed and chuckled again.
' Ay," said he, " ah got one month for ketchin one
rabbit, but if they'd *ave gi'en me a month for every
rabbit and hare as ahVe ketched, Lor bless ye ! ^you
young fellows now-a-days know nothin* ! You're simple
chaps, that's what it is ! Have you ever heard of the
great comet of eighteen hunderd an' eleven ? There
now ! And the crowds as come out to see it stretch-
in' out long jest as it might be the long gown as
mothers put on young things when they're carried
about and that wur in eighteen 'underd an' eleven.
But I'm gettin' old now, and stiff and them rheu-
matics they do trouble one so when they come on
bad in the night-time. I'm not what I was at your
age ^you'll be thirty now, or forty mayhap ? "
"Nearer thirty."
"Ah never 'ad so much hair as you it wur never
the fashion to wear hair on the face at that time."
"And you followed the fashion, of course, when
you were a young fellow, and went courting the girls.
Yes?"
This hint seemed to wake up the old man int
a high state of glee ; and as he began to tell of his
exploits in this direction, he introduced so many
unnecessary ejaculations into his talk that my Lady
somewhat hastily withdrew, dragging Bell with her.
The old rogue outside might have been with our army
in Flanders, to judge by Qie force of his conversation ;
and the stories that he told of his wild adventures
in such distant regions as Poole and Southampton
332 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
showed that his memory treasured . other recollections
than that of the 1811 comet. How the conversation
ended I do not know; but by and by Von Bosen
came in to breakfast
It is a shame for two women to have a secret under-
standing between them, and look as if they could
scarcely keep from smiling, and puzzle a bashful young
man by enigmatical questions.
''Madame/' said the Lieutenant, at last, ''I am
very stupid. I cannot make out what you mean."
''And neither can she," observes one who hates to
see a worthy young man bothered by two artful women.
"Her joke is like the conundrum that was so good
that the man who made it, after trying for two years
and a half to find out what it meant, gave it up and
cut his throat. Don't you heed them. Cut the salad,
like a good feUow, and let Bell put in the oil, and
the vinegar, and what not Now, if that girl would
only take out a patent for her salad-dressing, we
should all be rolling in wealth directly."
" I should call it the Nebuchadnezzar," said Bell.
My Lady pretended not to hear that remark, but she
was very angry ; aod all desire of teasing the Lieutenant
had departed from her face, which was serious and
reserved. Yoimg people must not play pranks with
Scripture names, in however innocent a fashion.
" It is a very good thing to have salad at breakfast,**
said the Lieutenant ; " although it is not customary in
your country. It is very fresh, very pleasant, very
wholesome in the morning. Now, if one were to eat
plenty of salad, and live in this good mountain air,
one might live a long time "
" One might live to remember the comet of eighteen
'underd an* eleven," observed Bell, with her eyes cast
down.
The Lieutenant stared for a moment ; and then he
burst into a roar of laughter.
" I have discovered the joke," he cried. " It is that
you did listen to that old man talking to me. Oh, he
was a very wicked old person ^"
OF A PHAETON. 333
And here, all at once, Von Eosen stopped. A great
flush of red sprung to the young fellow's face he was
evidently contemplating with cKsmay the possibility
of my Lady having overheard all the dragoon-language
of the old man.
"We heard only up to a certain point," says Madame^
sedately. " When he began to bo excited. Bell and I
withdrew."
The Lieutenant was greatly relieved. The septua-
genarian was not a nice person for ladies to listen to.
Indeed, in one direction he was amply qualified to have
written a " Dialogv^ between a Man and a Cat : being
a discussion as to which would like to use the most
bad language when the tail of the latter is trodden
upon!' Such an essay would be instructive in results,
but objectionable in tone.
All this while we had heard nothing of Arthur.
That morning when Tita sent down to inquire if there
were any letters for us at the post-ofl&ce and found
there were none, she must needs send an urgent telegram
to Twickenham, to see if the young man's parents
knew anything of his whereabouts. Of course they
could not possibly know. Doubtless he was on his
way to Carlisle. Perhaps we should have the pleasure
of meeting him in Edinburgh.
But this indefinite postponement of the coming of
Arthur was a grievous irritation to the Lieutenant.
It was no relief to him that his rival was disposed to
remain absent. The very odd position in which he
was now placed made him long for any result that
would put an end to his suspense ; and I think he
was as anxious about seeing Arthur as any of us,
that is to say, presuming Arthur to be certain to come
sooner or later. If it should happen that the dog-cart
had been upset ^but there is no use in speculating on
the horrible selfishness that enters into the hearts of
young men who are in love and jealous.
AU these things and many more the young Prussian
revealed to the sympathetic silence of Grasmere and
the fair green mountains around, as he and I set out
Z^'
334 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
for a long walk. The women had gone to pay visits
in the village and its neighbourhood. It seemed a pity
to waste so beautiful a day in going into a series of
houses ; but my Lady was inexorable whenever she
established to her own satisfaction that she owed a
certain duty.
The Lieutenant bade BeU good-bye with a certain
sadness in his tone. He watched them go down the
white road, in the glare of the sunshine, and then he
turned with a listless air to set out on his pilgrimage
into the hills. Of what avail was it that the lake out
there shone a deep and calm blue under the clear sky,
that the reflection of the wooded island was perfect as
the perfect mirror, and that the far hills had drawn
around them a thin tremulous veil of silver gauze
under the strong heat of the sun? The fireshness of
the morning when a light breeze blew over from the
west, and stirred the reeds of the lake, and awoke a
white ripple in by the shore had no eflfect in brighten-
ing up his face. He was so busy talking of Bell, and
of Arthur, and of my Lady, that it was with a serene
unconsciousness he allowed himself to be led away
from the lake into the lonely regions of the hills.
Even a hardy young XJhlan finds his breath precious
when he is climbing a steep green slope, scrambling up
shelves of loose earth and slate, and clinging on to
bushes to help him in his ascent. There were inter-
ruptions in this flow of lovers' complainings. After
nearly an hour's climbing. Von Bosen had walked and
talked Bell out of his head; and as he threw himself
on a slope of Bydal Fell, and pulled out a flask of
sherry and his cigar-case, he laughed aloud, and
said
** No, I had no notion we were so high. Hee ! that
is a view one does not see that often in my country
all houses and men swept away ^you are alone in the
world ^and all around is nothing but mountains and
lakes."
Indeed, there was away towards the south a network
of hill and water that no one but Bell would have
OF A PHAETON. 335
s
picked to pieces for us ^thin threads of silver lying in
long valleys, and mounds upon mounds rising up into
the clear blue sky that sloped down to tlie white line
of the sea. Coniston we could make out, and Winder-
mere we knew. Esthwaite we guessed at ; but of what
avail was guessing, when we came to that wild and
beautiful panorama beyond and around?
The Lieutenant's eyes went back to Grasmere.
"How long is it you think Madame will pay her
visits ? "
"Till the afternoon, probably. They will lunch
with some of their friends."
" And we do we climb any more mountains ? "
"This is not a mountain it is a hiU. We shall
climb or go down again, just as you please."
"There is nothing else to do but to wait if we
go down?"
"I suppose you mean waiting for the ladies to
return ^no ; our going down won't bring them back
a minute the sooner."
"Then ^let us go on, anywhere."
We had a long, aimless, and devious wandering
that day among the grassy slopes and peaks of Sydal
Fell, until we at length came down by the gorge
through which Eydal Beck plunges, foaming into the
vaUey below. Wherever we went, the Lieutenant
seemed chiefly to be concerned in making out the
chief places of beauty which we should bring the
women to see on the morrow as if Bell did not
know Bydal Beck and all its falls as well as she
knew Walton Heath. And then we got down the
winding road by Eydal Mount, and walked leisurely
back by Bydal Water to Grasmere.
What was this that confronted us as we went into
the hotel, and went forward to the large windows?
The sun was lying brightly on the hills, and the lake,
and the garden in front of us ; and on the lawn
which was a blaze of bright colour three figures stood,
throwing jet-black shadows on the green. Von Eosen
stared, as well he might stare. For there were Bell
336 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
and Tita, engaged in earnest and interesting talk with
a young man ; and tlie young man was Arthnr.
For a second or two the lieutenant did not utter
a word ; but presently he remarked, with a fine affecta-
tion of carelessness
"Have they had lunch, do you think?"
" Let us go and see," I say ; and so our Uhlan stalks
gloomily out into the garden.
Our appearance seemed to cause great embarrass-
ment to the party on the lawn. Arthur, with a flush
on his face, greeted us stiffly ; and then he suddenly
turned to Queen Tita, and continued his talk with
her in an ostentatiously impressive manner, as though
he would give us to understand that he would take
no more notice of us. Bell, apparently, had been
rather left out in the cold. Perhaps she was a little
vexed for even the most amiable of girls have their
notions of pride and so what must she do but im-
mediately turn to the Lieutenant and ask him with
much friendliness all about his forenoon's ramble.
If thankfulness, and kindliness, and all the modest
and grateful respect of love were ever written on a
young man's face, they dwelt in the eyes of our
Uhlan as he was almost struck dumb by this signal
mark of Bell's condescension. He took no great
advantage of the permission accorded to him. He
did not seek to draw her away. In fact, after telling
Mademoiselle, with his eyes cast down, that he hoped
she would come next day to see all that we had
seen, he placed the burden of explanation on me,
who would rather have sat in the back benches and
looked from a distance at this strange comedy.
But the effect upon Arthur of this harmless conduct
of BeU's was what might have been expected. When
we turned to go into the hotel for luncheon, he was
talking in rather a loud way, with a fine assumption
of cynicism. He had not much to tell of his
adventures, for the reason of his coming up so late
was merely that the cob had gone a little lame, and
had been brought with some care to Kendal, where
OF A PHAETON. 337
it was to have a couple of days' rest ^but his con-
versation took far wider sweeps than that The
climax of it came when we were sitting at table. All
this time the lad had not addressed a word to Bell-;
but now he suddenly observed
"You remember that song of Lover^s you used
to sing, about the white sails flowing ? "
" Yes," said Bell she had often sung it to him at
his own request.
" It is a pretty song," said he, with rather a ghastly
smile; "but I heard a version of it the other night
that I thought was a good deal truer. Shall I try
to repeat the verses?"
"Yes, do," says Queen Titania, with no great
cordiality in her tone. She half anticipated what
was coming.
"This is the first verse," said the young man,
glancing rather nervously at Bell, and then instantly
withdrawing his eyes :
" Wliat will you do, love, when I am going.
With wmte sails flowing, the seas oeyond ?
What will yon do, love, i^en waves divide us.
And friends may chide us, for being fond ? "
'* When waves divide us, and Mends are chiding,
Afar abiding, I'll think anew ;
And I'H take another devoted lover,
And I'U kiss him as I kissed you."
A Mghtftd silence prevailed. We all of us knew
that the reckless young man was rushing on self-
destruction. Gould he have devised a more ingenious
method of insidting Bell? He proceeded:
" What will you do, love, if distant tidings
Thy fond confidings should undermine ?
And I abiding 'neath sultiy skies
Should think other eyes were as bright as thine f "
** Ahjjoyful chance I If guilt or shame
Were round thy name, could I be true ?
For I'd take the occasion, without much persuasion,
To have another flirtation that's what I'd do. "
If there are angels who watch over the fortunes
of unhappy lovers, surely they must have wept at
z
338 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
this . moment. These foolish verses and another one
which fear of my Lady prevents my publishing here
^were the actual outcome of all the rebellious
thoughts that had been rankling in his mind like
poison during these last few days. Along the lonely
highway, this was the devil's dirge he had been
crooning to himself. He had fed on its unholy bitter-
ness as he sat in remote inns, and pictured to him-
self, with a fierce satisfaction, the scene in which he
would recite the lines to Bell, before the whole of us.
And now the deed was done. He sat silent for
a moment ; and we were all of us silent. A waiter
said, "Sherry, sir?" behind his ear, and he started.
And then Queen Tita turned to Von Eosen, and asked
him if he had seen Bydal Mount.
It was a pitiable thing. In public life a man may
force himself into the Chancellorship of the Exchequer,
or some such ofi&ce, by departing into a Cave of
AduUam and marshalling the discontented around
him ; but in love affairs, how is a man to profit by
an exhibition of angry passion and recklessness ? Force
is of no avail, threatening is as idle as the wind. And
there was something even more cruel than threatening
in this recitation of the young man's, as only those
who were familiar with our life in Surrey could under-
stand. "What might come of it no one could tell.
[Note hy Queen TUania. ** I am no judge of what ought to be placed
before the public I leave that to those whose sense of good taste and
proper feeling is probably better than mine. But if these most
impertinent verses are to be published, I have to say that the im-
plication contained in the first verse is cruelly false. To hint that
BeU could have thought of kissing either Arthur or the Lieutenant
or would have done so if thev were Princes of ike Blood is most
unjust and insulting to a girl whose pride and self-respect no one
has ever dared to impeach, it is all very well for a stupid young man
to say such things in a fit of wigovemable rage ; but what I know is
that Bell cried very much about it, when she spoke to me about it
afterwards. And both my husband and Count von Rosen sat still, and
never said .a word. If /had been a man, I think I should have told
Arthur veiy plainly what I thought of his very pretty eonduct. But I
suppose they considered it a jest ; for I have frequently found that the
notions of gentlemen about what is humorous are a little peculiar,*'}
OF A FHAETON. 339
CHAPTEE XXV.
AHMAGEDDON.
" Let us go hence, my songs ; she will not hear.
Let us go hence together without fear ;
Keep Buence now, for singing-time is over.
And oyer all old things and all things dear.
She loves not you nor me as all wo love her.
Yea, though we sang as angels in her ear,
She would not hear."
Blow, wind, and shriek, tempests ! Let all the gases be
lowered, and thunder roll through the gloom ! Tremble,
ye forests of canvas, where twisted oaks and shattered
elms bear witness to the agony of the scene ; and let the
low music of the violoncello and the throbbing of muf-
fled drums announce that dreadful deeds are brewing
Alas ! we had no such thrilling accompaniments to the
tragedy being enacted before our eyes on the fair shores
of Grasmere. The lake lay as blue and aa calm as
though no perplexed and suffering human souls were by
its side ; and instead of the appropriate darkness of a
theatre, we had the far hills trembling under the white
haze of the mid-day heat. Yet my Lady saw none of
these things. Her heart was rent asunder by the
troubles of the young folks under her charge : until I
seemed to see in her speechless eyes a sort of despairing
wish that she had never been born.
" And yet," I say to her, " you don't see the worst
of it. If Arthur is driven away by BeU, a far moare
terrible thing will befall him."
" What? " says Queen litania, with the clear, brown
eyes grown solemn.
" He will marry somebody else."
" Bah ! " she says peevisdily ; " is this the time to be
thiuking of jests ? "
" Indeed, I know one who never discovered the joke
of it. But don't you think that he will ? "
" I wish he would."
z 2
340 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
"There's little Katty Tatham, now, would give her
ears to marry him."
" You always fancy girls are very anxious to marry."
"I never asked but one, and I found her ready
enough."
" I refused you."
" You made a pretence of doing so."
" I wish I had kept to my first resolution."
" I wish you had, since you say so. But that's of no
consequence. I saved you from committing suicide, as
I have frequently told you."
The small creature looks up, and with an excellent
calmness and self-composure, sayB
"I suppose you never heard of a young man I
thought him very silly at the time, myself ^who walked
about all night, one night at Eastbourne ; and in the
morning ^long before my mamma was up aroused the
servants, and sent in a letter a sort of ultimatum it
was ^with all sorts of vows of vengeance and despair.
That young man wasn't Arthur Ashburton; but when
you complain of Arthur's mad follies "
" Madam," I say to her, "your sex protects you. Go
and live. But when you say that / complain of Arthur,
and in the next breath accuse me of cdways bringing
forward excuses for him "
But what was the use of continuing the argument ?
My Lady smiles with a fine air of triumph ; confident
that her ingenious logic had carried the day, as, in fact,
it generally does. The man who endeavours to follow,
seize, and confront the airy statements made by a lady
in a difficulty, resembles nothing so much as a railway-
train trying to catch a butterfly; and who would not
\ back the butterfly ?
' We were now placed in an uncommonly awkward fix.
The arrival of Arthur at Grasmere had produced a
complication such as we had not dreamt of; for now it
appeared as if the situation were to be permanent
We had somehow fancied that, as soon as he overtook
us, some definite arrangement would be come to, settling
at once and for ever those rival pretensions which were
OF A PHAETON. 341
interfering with our holiday in a serious manner. At
last, my Lady had considered^ the great problem was
to be finally solved; and, of course, the solution
lay in Bell's hands. But, now Arthur had come, who
was to move in the matter ? It was not for Bell, at
all events, to come forward and say to one of the
young men "Go!" and to the other "Stay!" Neither
of them, on the other hand, seemed disposed to do
anything bold and heroic in order to rid us of this
grievous embarrassment; and so the first afternoon
passed away with some more walking, visiting, and
boating in a stolidly and hopelessly reserved and
dreary fashion.
But every one of us knew that a mine lay close by,
and that at any moment a match might be flung into it.
Every word that was uttered was weighed beforehand.
As for Tita, the poor little woman was growing quite
pale and fatigued with her constant and nervous
anxiety ; until one of the party privately told her that
if no one else asked Bell to marry, he would himself,
and so end our troubles.
" I don't know what to do," she said, sitting down and
folding her hands on her knees, while there was quite a
pitiable expression on her face. " I am afiraid to leave
them for a moment. Perhaps now they may be fight-
ing ^but that does not much matter, for Bell can't have
gone downstairs to dinner yet. Don't you think you
could get Arthur to go away ? "
" Of what use would that be ? He went away before;
and then we had our steps dogged, and letters
and telegrams in every town. No ; let us have it
out here."
" I wish you and he would have it out between you.
That poor girl is being frightened to death."
" Say but one brief word, my dear, and Arthur will be
feeding the fishes among the reeds of Grasmere before
the morning. But would you reaUy like Bell to send
Arthur off? Is he really to be told that she won't
many him ? They used to be pets of yours. I have seen
you regard them, as they walked before us along the
342 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
lanes, with an amiable and maternal smile. Is it all
over ? Would you like him to go away and never see
us any more ? "
" Oh, I don't know ; " cries Tita, with the anxiety and
pity and tenderness in her eyes almost grown into tears.
That was a nice little project of hers with which we
had started from the old tavern in Holborn. It had
been tolerably successful If BeU were not in love with
the Lieutenant, there could be no doubt, at least, that
the Lieutenant was hopelessly and over head and ears
in love with Bell. It was a pretty comedy for a time ;
aad my Lady had derived an infinite pleasure and
amusement from watching the small and scarcely per-
ceptible degrees by which the young folks got drawn
towards each other. What would have been the beauti-
ful pictures of English scenery we had driven thiou^,
without two young lovers in the for^round, trying
to read their fate in each other's eyes, and aJSTordizig
i}S elderly folka all manner of kindly and comic
reminiscencea?
It had all turued out very well; until, suddenly,
came the revelation that the greatest happiness of the
greatest number had demanded a human victim ; and
here he was before us, with goiy locks and piteous
e^ea, demanding justice. Xever before had my Lady
folly realiiied what was meant in the final sending
away of Arthur; and now that she saw before her
all the consequences of her schemes, she was struck
to the heart, and dared scarcely ask for some re-
aasurance as to what she had dona
"Oh," she says, "I hope I have done right"
" You ! Why should you assume any responsibility t
Let the young folks arrange their own affairs as they
like best. Do you think, if Bell had been willing to
break with Arthur, that your packing off the iSeu- ;.
tenant to Germany woxdd prevent her making the ^
acquaintance of some other man? And she has not
broken off with Arthur. If she does so, she does
so, and there's an end of it; but why shonld yon
vex ycwnself about it?**
OF A PHAETON. 343
She was not to be comforted. She shook her head,
and continued to sit there with her eyes full of anxious
cares. When at length she went oflf to dress hastily for
dinner, it was with a determination that from that mo-
ment she would endeavour to help Arthur in every
way she could. That was the form her repentance took*
If the young man had only known that he had
secured such a valuable ally ! But just at this time
amid aU our perplexity as to who should first pre-
cipitate matters what should the reckless feUow do
but startle us all with a declaration which wholly
altered the aspect of affairs !
We were seated at dinner. It was in the private
room we had engaged; and the evening light, re-
flected from the lake outeide, was shining upon Tita's
gentle face as she sat at the head of the table. Bell
was partly in shadow. The two young men, by some
fatal mischance, sat next each other : probably because
neither wished to take the unfair advantage offered
by the empty seat next to BelL
Well, something had occurred to stir up the smould-
ering fires of Arthur's wrath He had been treated
with great and even elaborate courtesy by everybody
but more particularly by Bell during our afternoon
rambles; but something had evidently gone wrong.
There was a scowl on the fair and handsome face
that was naturally pleasant, bopsh, and agreeable in
appearance. He maintained a strict silence for some
little time after dinner was served ; although my Lady
strove to entice him into the general talk. But pre-
sently he looked up, and, addressing her, said in a
forcedly merry way
" Should you like to be startled ? "
'* Yes, please^* Tita would probably have said so
anxious is she to humour everybody ; but just then
he added, in the same reckless and defiant tone
"What if I tell you I am going to get mamed?''
An awful consternation fell upon us.
"Oh," says my Lady, in a hurried fashion^ "you
are joking, Arthur."
344 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
''No, I am not. And when I present the young
lady to you, you will recognize an old friend of yours,
whom you haven't seen for years." -
To put these words down on paper can give no
idea whatever of the ghastly appearance of jocularity
which accompanied them, nor of the perfectly stunning
effect they produced. The women were appalled into
silence. Yon Eosen stared, and indifferently played
with the stem of lus wine-glass. For mere charity's
sake, I was driven into fiUiug up this horrible vacuum
of silence ; and so I asked with what show of
appropriateness married people may judge whether
he had formed any plans for the buying of furniture.
Furniture ! 'Tis an excellent topic. Everybody can
say something about it. My Lady, with a flash of
gratitude in her inmost soul, seized upon the cue,
and said
"Oh, Arthur, have you seen our sideboard?"
Now, when a young man tells you he is about to
get married, it is rather an odd thing to answer " OA,
ArilmTo'c Tom, or Dick, or Harry, as the case may
be luvot you seen our sideboard?" But all that my
Lady wanted was to speak; for Arthur, having ac-
complished his intention of startling us, had relapsed
into silence.
''Of course he has seen the sideboard," I say for
him. ** He was familiar with the whole of that fatal
transaction."
. "Why fatal?" says the Lieutenant.
You see, we were getting on.
"Bell will tell you the history. No? Then I
will for the benefit of all folks who may have to
furmsh a house ; and I hope Arthur after the very
gratifying announcement he has just made will take
heed."
"Oh, yes," says Arthur, gaily, "let us have all
your experience about house matters. It is never too
soon to learn."
"Very welL There was once a sideboard wliich
lived in Dorking "
OF A PHAETON. 345
Heie the lieutenant begged to know what piece
of famituie a sideboard was ; and when that was ex-
plained to him, the legend was continned:
"It was a very grand old sideboard of carved oak,
which had regarded the dinner-parties of several gene-
rations from its recess. At last it had to be sold
at public auction. A certain agreeable and amiable
lady, who lives on the banks of the river Mole, saw
this sideboard, and was told she might have it for
a trifle of ninety-five guineas. She is an impressionable
person. The sideboard occupied her thoughts day
and night; until at last her husband who is the
most obliging person in the world, and has no other
desire in life than to obey her wishes ^"
Here there were some interruptions at the further
end of the table. Silence having been restored, the
speaker went on to say that the sideboard was bought.
"It was the beginning of the troubles of that
wretched man. When you have an old oak side-
board that farmers' wives will drive twenty miles
to look at, you must have old oak chaira When you
have old oak chairs, a microcephalous idiot would
know that you must have an old oak table. By slow
degrees the home of this unhappy man underwent
transformation. Eooms that had been familiar to him,
and homely, became gloomy halls from which ghosts
of a cheerful temperament would have fled in de-
spair. People came to dinner, and sat in the high-
backed chairs with an expression of resigned melan-
choly on their faces ; and now and again an unlucky
lady of weight and dimensions would, on trying to
rise from the table, tilt up the chair and save herself
from falling by clinging to the arm of the man next
her. For of course you can't have castors on old
oak chairs, and when the stumps of wood have got
well settled into the thick Turkey carpet, how is the
chair to be sent back?"
"That is quite absurd," says a voice. "Everyone
says our dining-room chairs are exceedingly comfort-
able."
346 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
''Yours are; but this is anothex matter. Now the
lady of the house did not stop at oak furniture and
solemn carpets and seyere curtains. She began to
dress herself and her children to match her furni-
ture. She cut the hair of her own babes to suit that
sideboard. There was nothing heard of but broad
lace collars, and black velvet garments, and what not;
so that the boys might correspond with the curtains
and not be wholly out of keeping with the chairs.
She made a dress for her own mother, which that
estimable lady contemplated with profound indigna-
tion, and asked how she could be expected to appear
in decent society in a costume only fit for a fancy
ball"
"It was a most beautiful dress, wasn't it. Belli"
says a voice.
" But far worse was to come. She began to acquire
a taste for everything that was old and marvellous.
She kept her husband for hours stifling in the clammy
atmosphere of Soho, while she ransacked dirty shops
for scraps of crockery that were dear in proportion
to their ugliness. During these hours of waiting he
lihought of many things suicide among the number.
Bat what he chiefly ruminated on was the pleasing
and ingenious theory that in decoration everything
that is old is genuine, and everything that is new
is meretricious. He was not a person of profound
accomplishments *'
" Hear, hear ! " says a voice.
'^ and so he could not understand why he should
respect the intentions of artists who, a couple of cen-
turies ago, painted fans, and painted them badly, and
why he should treat with scorn the iutentions of artists
who at this moment paint fans and paint them welL
He could not acquire any contempt for a French vase
in gold and white and rose-colour, even when it was
put beside a vase some three hundred years of age
which was chiefly conspicuous by its defective curves
and bad colour. As for Italian mirrors and blue and
white chiua, he received without emotion the stat&-
OF A PHAETON. 347
ment that all the world of London was wildly running
after these things. He bore meekly the contemptuous
pity bestowed on him when he expressed the belief
that modern Venetian glass was, on the whole, a
good deal more beautiful than any he had seen of the
old, and when he proposed to buy some of it as being
more within the means of an ordinary person. But
when at last after having waited a mortal hour in
a dingy hole in a dingy thoroughfare near Leicester
Square he was goaded into rebellion, and declared
that he did not care a brass farthing, nor even the
half of that sum, when an object of art was made,
how it was made, where it was made, or by whom it
was made, so long as it fulfilled its first duty of being
good in design and workmanship and agreeable to the
eye ^it seemed to him that the end of his conjugal
happiness was reached. Nothing, short of a legal
separation could satisfy the injured feelings of his
wife. That she should have to live with this Goth
and outer barbarian seemed to her monstrous. But at
this time it occurred to her that she might find some
use for even such a creature, considering that he was
stai possessed of a little money ''
"You seldom omit to bring that forward," says
the voice.
" and that there was a drawinsr-room to be trans-
formed. Then he beheld strange things. Phantom
curtains of black and gold began to steal into the house.
Hidden mysteries dwelt in the black, yellow, and red
of the carpet ; and visitors paused upon the threshold
for a moment to collect their wits, after the first stun
of looking in. Then all the oil of Greenland was unable
to light up this gloomy chamber in the evening ; and
so there came down from London mighty sheets
of mirrors to be let into the walls. '"Sowl said this
reckless woman to her husband, ' we must have a whole
aeries of dinner-parties to ask everybody to come
and see what the house looks lika' "
" Oh, what a story ! " cries that voice again. " Bell,
did yon ever hear the like of that ? I wonder he
348 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
does not say we put the prices on the furniture and
invited the people to look at the cost. You don't
believe it, do you. Count von Eosen?"
"No, Madame," said the Lieutenant; "I do not
believe any lady exists such as that one which he
describes."
"But he means me," says Tita.
" Then what shall I say ? " continues the young man.
" May I say that I have never seen ^not in England,
not in Germany ^any rooms so beautifully arranged
in the colours as yours ? And it was all your own
design? Ha! I know he is calling attention to
that for the purpose of complimenting you ^that
is it"
Of course, that mean-spirited young man took
every opportunity of flattering and cajoling Bell's
chief adviser; but what if he had known at this
moment that she had gone over to the enemy, and
mentally vowed to help Arthur by every means in
her power?
She could not do much for him that evening. After
dinner we had a little music, but there was not
much life or soul in it. Arthur could sing an ordinary
drawing-room song as well as another, and we half
expected him to reveal his sorrows in that way, but he
coldly refused. The Lieutenant, at my Lady's urgent
request, sat down to the piano and sang the song that
tells of the maiden who lived "im Winkel am There ; "
but there was an absence of that spontaneity which
generally characterized his rough and ready efibrts in
music, and after missing two of the verses, he got over
his task with an air of relief. It was very hard that
the duty of dispelling the gloom should have been
thrown on Bell ; but when once she sat down and
struck one or two of those minor chords which presaged
one of the old ballads, we found a great refoge from our
embarrassment. We were in another world then ^with
Chloe plaiting flowers in her hair, and Sobin hunting in
the greenwood with his fair lady, who was such a
skilful archer, and all the lasses and lads kissing each
OF A PHAETON. 349
other round the Maypole. With what a fine innocence
Bell sang of these merry goings-on ! I daresay a good
many well-conducted young persons would have
stopped with the stopping of the dancing, and never
told what happened after the fiddler had pkyed ** Pack-
ington's Poimd " and " Bellinger's Round." But our Bell,
with no thought of harm, went merrily on
" Then after an hour
They went to a bower,
And played for ale and cakea.
And kisses too
(Jntil they were due
The lasses held the stakes.
The girls did then begin
To (^narrel with the men,
And bid them take their Idsses back
And give them their own again ! "
In fact, there was a very bright smile of amusement on
her &ce, and you could have fancied that her singing
was on the point of breaking into laughter ; for how
could the girl know that my Lady was looking rather
reserved at the mention of that peculiar sort of betting ?
But then the concluding verse comes back to the realms
of propriety ; and BeU sang it quite gently and tenderly,
as though she, too, were bidding good-bye to her com-
panions in a frolic:
" * Good night,' says Harry ;
' Good night,' says Mary ;
' Good night,' says Dolly to John ;
' kod night,' says Sne
To her sweetheart JBEugh ;
' Good nighty' says every one.
Some walked, and some did run,
Some loitered on the way.
And bound themselves by Kisses twelve
To meet next holiday
And bound themselves by kisses twelve
To meet next holiday ! '*
" Mademoiselle,'' said Yon Bosen, coining forward to
her with quite a paternal air, ''you must not sing any
more to-night. You are always too ready to sing for us
and you do not refiect of the fatigue." And as Bell
35 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
stood rather embarrassed by this exhibition of thought-
fulness, and as Arthur glowered gloomily out from his
comer, the Lieutenant made some excuse for himself
and me, and presently we foimd ourselves out by the
shores of the lake, smoking a contemplative cigar under
the clear starlight.
" Now, my good friend," he said, suddenly, " tell me
is it a lie, yes?"
" Is what a lie ? "
"That foolish story that he will be married."
" Oh, you mean Arthur. I had almost forgotten what
he said at dinner. Well, perhaps it is a lie ^young
men in love are always telling lies about something
or other."
" Heh ! " says the Lieutenant, peevishly ; " you do
know it is not true. How can it be true ? "
" Of course you want me to say that I think it true
you boys are so unreasonable. I don't know anything
about it. I don't care. If he wants to marry some
girl or other, I hope he may. The wish is perhaps not
very friendly "
" Now look at this ! " says the Lieutenant, quite
fiercely, and in a voice so loud that I was afraid it
might reach the windows of the hotel that were now
sending a yellow light over the lawn : " if he means to
marry some other yoimg lady, why is he here ? He has
no business here. Why does he come here to annoy
everyone and make himself miserable ? He ought to go
away ; and it is you that should send him away."
" Bless me ! Surely a man may come and stop at an
hotel at Grasmere without asking my permission. I
have no right to forbid Arthur remaining in West-
moreland or any other county. He does not ask me to
pay his biUs."
" This that Madame says it is quite true, then," says
the Lieutenant, angrily, "that you care only for your
own comfort !"
" When Madame says such things, my good friend, she
retains the copyright. Don't let her hear you repeating
them, if you are wise, or you'll get into trouble. Ab for
OF A PHAETON. 351
myself, this cigar is excellent, and you may let your
vexation take any shape that is handy. I foresaw
that we should soon have two ilrthurs in the field."
The tall young soldier walked up and down for a
minute or two, evidently in great distress, and at last
he stopped, and said, in a very humble voice
" My dear friend, I beg your pardon. I do not know
what I say when I see this pitiful fellow causing so
much pain to your wife and to Mademoiselle. Now,
when you look at them ^not at me at all ^will not
you endeavour to do something?"
He was no great hand at diplomacy, this perplexed
and stammering Uhlan, who seemed bent on inflicting
his anger on his cigar. To introduce the spectacle of
two suffering women so as to secure the banishment
of his rival was a very transparent device, and
might have provoked laughter, but that Grasmere
is deep, and a young man in love exceedingly
irritable.
" He says he is going to marry some other girl : what
moi-e would you like ? You don't want to carry off aU
his sweethearts from the imfortunate youth?"
"But it is not true."
"Very well."
" And you talk of carrying off his sweetheart. Made-
moiselle was never his sweetheart, I can assure you of
that; and besides I have not carried her off, nor am
likely to do that, so long as this wretched fellow hangs
about, and troubles her much with his complainings.
Now, if she will only say to me that I may send him
away, I will give you my word he is not in this part
of the country, no, not one day longer."
"Take care. You can't commit murder in this
country with impunity, except in one direction. You
may dispose of your wife as you please ; but if you
murder any reasonable being, you will suffer."
Indeed, the Lieutenant, pacing up and down the
narrow path by the lake, looked really as if he would
have liked to catch Arthur up and dash him againsi
Mercator's Projection, or some other natural pheuo-
352 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
menon ; and the more he contemplated his own helpless-
ness in the matter^ the more he chafed and fumed. The
moon rose slowly from behind the hills, and ran along
the smooth surface of the lake, and found him nursing
this volcano of wrath in his breast. But suddenly, as
he looked up, he saw the blind of one of the hotel-
windows thrust aside, and he knew that Bell was there,
contemplating the wonderful beauties of the sky. He
ceased his growlings. A more human expression came
over his face ; and then he proposed that we should go
in, lest the ladies should want to say good-night.
CHAPTEB XXVI.
THE LAST OF 6BASMEKE.
^Hu88 ans dem Thai jetzt scheiden,
', Wo alles Lust and Elang ;
Das ifit mein herbstes Leiden,
Mein letzter Gang I
Dich, mein stilles Thai,
Griiss' ich tausend Mai I
Das ist mein herbstes Jjoiden,
Mein letzter Grang ! "
A STILL greater surprise was in store for us next morn-
ing. My Lady had taken leave to discredit altogether
the story of Arthur's approaching marriage. She re-
garded it as merely the wild and reckless utterance of
vexation. For the young man's sake, she hoped that no
one would make any allusion to this topic, and that he
himself would allow it to fall into the rapidly running
waters of oblivion.
Now, he had on the previous day despatched a
message to Kendal to the effect that the dog-cart should
be at once sent to him, if the cob had quite recovered.
He proposed to accompany us as far as Penrith or
Carlisle; further than that he said he did not care
to go. But as the trap was likely to arrive that fore-
noon, and as he had to see the man who would bring it,
he begged us to start for our forenoon's walk by our-
1'
OF A PHAETON. 353
selves a proposal which was accepted with equanimity
by the whole of our party. The young man was quite
complaisant My Lady was very attentive to hiin ; and
we thought we should start for our ramble with the
consciousness tliat we had left behind us no wretched
creature eating away his heart with thoughts of revenge.
Somehow this mood passed rapidly away from him.
The spectacle of BeU and the Lieutenant planning with
a great joy the outline of our morning excursion seemed
to bring back all the bitterness of his spirit. He was
silent for a long time ^until, indeed, we were ready to
leave the hotel ; and then, as he accompanied us to the
door, he produced a letter, and said, with an affectation
of carelessness
" By the way, I have a message for you. It was lucky
I thought of going round to the post-office this morning,
or I should luive probably missed this. Katty Tatham
desires to be remembered to you all, and hopes you will
bring her back a piece of Scotch heather to show that
you went all the way. Ta-ta !"
He waved his hand to us, and went in. My Lady
looked at me solenmly, and said nothing for a moment,
until Bell had passed along the road a little bit, with
the Lieutenant.
"Is that another story, do you think? Do you
believe that Katty Tatham is actually in correspondence
with him?"
"He did not say so."
"He meant that we should iofer it, at all events;
and that, after what he said last night *^
Tita was dreadfully puzzled. She could understand
how vexation of spirit might drive a foolish young man
into making a statement not wholly in accordance with
fact ; but that he should repeat this legend in another
way, and bring the name of a lady into it ^no, Tita
could scarcely believe that all this was untrue.
She hurried up to BeU, and placed her hand within
the young lady's arm.
"Is it not strange that Katty Tatham should be
writing to Arthur, if that was what he meant"
A A
354 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
" Oh no, not at all. They are very old friends ; and,
besides, she does all the letter-writing for her papa,
who is almost blind, poor old man. And what a nice
girl she is, isn't she, Tital"
Of course we were all anxions to persuade each other
that Katty Tatham was the very nicest girl in all
England, although none of us except Bell had seen her
for two or three years ; and it was wonderful how this
sort of talk brightened up the spirits of our party.
The lieutenant grew quite interested in Katty Tatham.
He was nearly praising her himself, although he had
never heard her name until that moment. In short,
the four of us were ready to swear that this poor little
Katty was just as pleasant and honest and pretty and
charming a girl as was to be found anywhere in the
world, or out of it, and that it was most singular that
she had never married. Tita declared that she knew
that Katty had had ever so many offers ; and that it
was not alone the frailties of her father that kept her
from marrying.
* She must have been waiting for some one," said the
small woman, rather slyly.
What a morning it was ! As we walked along the
white road, in the stillness of the heat, the blue waters
of Grasmere gUnmiered through the trees. Never had
we seen the colours of Bell's Fairyland so intense.
The hin.q in the distance had a silvery haze thrown
over their pale purples, but here around us the sharp
clear colours blazed in the sunshine ^the deep blue of
Grasmere, the yellow-white of the road, and the various
rich greens and browns of the trees and the shore.
And then, by and by, we came in sight of Rydal
I Water. How different it was to the weird and gloomy
lake we had found two evenings before lying buried
between the hills. "Sow it seemed shallow and fair
and light, with a grey shimmer of wind across its
surface, breaking here and there the perfect mirror of
the mountain-slopes and woods. In the absolute silence
around us we could hear the water-hens calling to each
other; and out there among the reeds we could see
OF A PHAETON. 355
them paddling abotit^ dipping their heads into the lake,
and fluttering their wings. We walked on to Rydal
bridge, and had a look at the dear brown rivnlet
rushing down its narrow channel between the thick
underwood and the trees. We took the lieutenant up
to Sydal Mount ^the small house with its tree-fuchsias
standing bright and warm in the sunshine and from
the plateau in front beheld the great fair landscape
around the silver- white lake of Windermere. We went
up to the faUs of Bydal Beck, and, in short, went the
round of the ordinary tourist aU for the sake of our
Prussian Mend, we persuaded ourselves. Bell was his
guide, and he looked as though he would have liked
to be led far ever. Perhaps he took away with him
but a confused recollection of all the interesting things
she told him; but surely, if the young man has a
memory, he cannot even now have forgotten that
bright, clear, warm day that was spent about Rydal,
witii a certain figure in the foreground that would
have lent a strange and gracious charm to a far less
beautiful picture.
" Is it not an odd thing," I pay to Queen Titania, who
has been pulling and plaiting wild-flowers in order to
let the young folks get ahead of us, '^ how you associate
certain groups of unheeding trees and streams and
hills wil various events in your life, and can never
get over the impression that they wear such and such
a look?"
" I daresay it's quite true, but I don't imderstand,'
she says, with the calm impertinence that distinguishes
her. '
"If you will cease for a moment to destroy your
gloves by pulling these weeds, I will tell you a story
which will convey my meaning to your small intellect."
*'0h, a story," she says, with a beautiful sigh of
resignatioa
" There was a young lady once upon a time who was .
about to leave SSagland and go with her mamma to live
in the south-west of France. They did not expect to
come back for a good number of years, if ever they came
A a2
356 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
back. And so a young man of their acquaintance got
up a farewell banquet at Eiclunond, and several Mends
came down to the hotel. They sat in a room overlook-
ing the windings of the river, and the soft masses of
foliage, and the far landscape stretching on to Windsor.
The yoimg man had, a little time before, asked the
Joung lady to marry him, and she refused ; but he bore
er no malice '*
''He has taken care to have his revenge since/'
says Tita.
"You interrupt the story. They sat down to dinner
on this summer evening. Everyone was delighted with
the view; but to this wretched youth it seemed as
though the landscape were drowned in sadness, and the
river a river of unutterable grief. All the trees seemed
to be saying good-bye, and when the sun went down,
it was as though it would never light up any other day
with the light of bygone days. The mist came over
the trees. The evening fell, slow, and sad, and grey.
Down by the stream a single window was Ut up, and
that made the melancholy of the picture even more
painful, until the young man, who had eaten nothing
and drank nothing, and talked to people as though he
were in a dream, felt as if all the world had gtown
desolate, and was no more worth having **
*' If I had only known," says Tita, in a voice so low
and gentle that you could scarcely have heard it
" And then, you know, the carriages came round ;
and he saw her, with the others, come downstairs pre-
pared to -leave. He bade good-night to the mamma,
who got into the carriage. He bade good-night to her ;
and she was about to get in too, when she suddenly
remembered that she had left some flowers in the
dining-room, and ran back to fetch them. Before he
oould overtake her she had got the flowers and was
coming back through the passage into the halL 'It
isn't good-night, it is good-bye, we must say ' ^I think
he said something like that and she held out her
hand and somehow there was a very strange look in
her eyes, just as if she were going to cry . But,
OF A PHAETON. 357
you know, there's no. use in your crying just now
about it"
Tita is pretending to smile, but a certain tremor of
the lips is visible ; and so the narrator hurries on :
"Now look here. For the next three months ^for
the soft-hearted creature had hurriedly whispered that
she might return to England then ^that young man
Iiaunted Sichmond. He pretty nearly ruined his pro-
spects in life, and his digestion as well, by continual
and solitary dining at the Star and Garter. He could
have kissed the stone steps of that hotel, and never
entered its vestibule without blessing the white pillars
and blank walls. He spent hours in writing letters
there "
''So that the Biarritz boatmen wondered why so
many envelopes should have the Bichmond postmark,"
says Tita ^though how she could have learnt anything
about it goodness only knows.
'and haled out every complaisant friend he
could lay hands on to moon about the neighbourhood.
Sut the strange thing is this ^that while he was in
love with the vestibule of the hotel, he never saw the
twilight fall over the Bichmond woods without feeling
a cold hand laid on his heart ; and when he thinks of
the place now ^with the mists coming over the trees
and' the river getting dark he thinks that the view from
Bichmond-hill is the most melancholy in all the world."
'' And what does he think of Eastbourne ? "
"That is a very different thing. He and she got into
the quarrelling stage there ^"
" In which they have successfully remained to the
present tima"
"But when she was young and innocent, she would
always admit that she had begun the quarreL"
" On the contraiy, she told stories in order to please
him."
"That motive does not much control her actions now-
a-days, at all events." :
Here Tita would probably have delivered a crashing
reply, but that Bell came up and said
358 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
" What I you two chfldren fighting again I "What w
it all about ? Let me be umpire."
'' He says that there is more red in the Scotch daisies
than in the English daisies/' says Tita;, calmly. It was
well done. Yet you should hear her lecture her two
boys on the enormity of telling a fib.
How sad Bell was to leave the beautiful valley in
which we had spent this happy time I Arthur had got
his dog-cart ; and when the phaeton was brought round,
the Major's cob was also put-to, and both vehicles stood
at the door. We took a last look at Grasmera " Dich,
mein stilles Thai!" said Bell, with a smile; and the
lieutenant looked qxiite shamefaced with pleasure to
hear her quote his favourite song. Arthur did not so
weU like tiiie introduction of those few words. He said,
with a certain air of indifference
''Can I give anybody a seat in the dog-cart? It
would be a change."
" Oh, thank you : I should like so much to go with
you, Arthur," says Tita.
Did you ever see the like of it ! The woman has no
more notion of considering her own comfort than if she
had the hide of an alligator, instead of being, as she is,
about the most sensitive creature in the world. How-
ever, it is well for her ^if she will permit me to say so
that she has people around her who are not quite
so impulsively generous ; and on this occasion it was
obviously necessary to save her from being tortured by
the fractious complainings of this young man, whom
she would have sympathized with and consoled if the
effort had cost her her life.
" No," I say. " That won't do. We have got some
stiff hills to climb presently, and some one must remain
in the phaeton while the others walk. Now, who looks
best in the front of the phaeton ? "
" Mamma, of course," says Bell, as if she had dis-
covered a conundrum ; and so the matter was settled
in a twinkling.
I think it would have been more courteous for Arthur
to have given the phaeton precedence, considering who
V
OF A PHAETON. 359
was drivlBg it; but he was so anxious to show off the
paces of Major Quinet's cob, that on starting he gave
the animal a touch of the whip that made the light and
high vehicle spring forward in a surprising manner.
" Young man, reflect that you are driving the father
of a family/' I say to him.
Nevertheless, he went through the village of Gvas-
mere at a considerable rate of speed ; and when we got
well up into the road which goes by the side of the
Sothay into the region of the hUls, we foimd that
we had left Tita and her company far behind. Then
he began to walk the cob.
" L^k here ! " he said, qidte fiercely ; " is Bell going
to marry that German fellow?"
"How do I know?" I answer, astonished by the
young man's impudence.
" You ought to know. You are her guardian. You
are responsible for her ^"
"To you?"
"No, not to me; but to your own conscience; and
I think the way in which you- have entrapped her into
making the acquaintance of this man, of whom she
knows nothing, doesn't look very welL I may as well
say it when I think it. You ought to have known
that a girl at her age is ready to be pleased with any
novelty ; and to draw her away from her old friends
I suppose you can explain it all to your own satisfac-
tion ^but I confess that to me ^
I let the young man rave. He went on in this
fifcshion for some Uttle time, getting momentarily more
reckless and vehement and absurd in his statements.
If Tita had only known what she had escaped !
" But alter all," I say to him, when the waters of
this deluge of rhetoric had abated, "what does it
matter to you ? We have allowed Bell to do just as
she pleased ; and perhaps, for all we know, she may
rega^ Goimt von Kosen with favour, although she
has never intimated such a thing. But what does
it matter to you? You say you are going to get
married."
36o THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
** So I shall ! '* he said, with an unnecessary amount
of emphasis.
"Katty Tatham is a very nice girL"
" I should think so ! There's no coquetry about
her, or that sort of vanity that is anxious to receive
flattery from every sort of stranger that is seen in
the street "
" You don't mean to say that that is the impression
you have formed of Bell ? "
And here all his violence and determination broke
down. In a tone of absolute despair he confessed that
he was beside himself, and did not know what to do.
What should he do? Ought he to implore Bell to
promise to marry him? Or should he leave her to
her own ways, and go and seek a solution of his
difl&culties in manying this pretty little girl down in
Sussex, who would make him a good wife and teach
him to forget aU the sufiTerings he had gone through ?
The wretched young fellow was really in a bad way ;
and there were actually tears in his eyes when he said
that several times of late he had wished he had the
courage to drown himself.
To teU a young man in this state that there is no
woman in the world worth making such a foss about,
is useless. He rejects with scorn the cruel counsels
offered by middle age; and sees in them only ^taunts
and insults. Moreover, he accuses middle age 'of not
believing in its own maxims of worldly prudence ; and
sometimes that is the case.
" At all events," I say to him, " you are unjust to
BeU in going on in this wild way. She is not a
y coquette, nor vain, nor heartless ; and if you have
' anything to complain of, or anything to ask from her,
why not go direct to herself, insteaii of indulging in
&antic suspicions and accusations?"
" But ^but I cannot," he said. " It drives me mad
to see her talking to that man. If I were to begin
to speak to her of aU this, I am a&aid matters would
be made worse."
"Well, take your own course. Neither my wife
OF A PHAETON. 361
nor myself have anything to do with it. Arrange it
among yourselves ; only, for goodness' sake, leave the
women a little peace."
" Do you think I mean to trouble them ? " he says,
firing up. "You will see."
What deep significance lay in these words was not
inquired into, for we had now to descend from the
dog-cart. Far behind us we saw that Bell and Count
von Bosen were already walking by the side of the
phaeton, and Tita talking to them from her lofty seat.
We waited for them until they came up, and then
we proceeded to climb the steep road that leads up
and along the slopes of the mighty Helvellyn.
" Mademoiselle," said the Lieutenant, " who is it will
say that there is much rain in your native country ?
Or did you alarm us so as to make this surprise all
the better, yes ? "
Indeed, there was scarcely a flake of white in aU the
blue overhead; and, on the other side of the great
valley, the masses of the Wythbum and Borrodaile
Fells showed their various hues and tints so that you
could almost have fancied them transparent clouds.
Then the road descended, and we got down to the
solitary shores of Thirlmere, the most Scotch-looking,
perhaps, of the English lakes. Here the slopes of the
hills are more abrupt, houses are few and far between,
there is an aspect of remoteness and a perfect silence
reigning over the still water, and the peaks of moun-
tains that you see beyond are more jagged and blue
thaQ the rounded hills about Windermere. From the
shores of Thirlmere the road again rises, until, when
you come to the crest of the height, you find the leaden-
coloured lake lying sheer below you, and only a little
stone wall guardii^ the edge of the precipitous slope.
We rested the horses hera Bell began to pull them
handfals of Dutch clover and grasa The Lieutenant
talked to my Lady about the wonders of mountainous
coimtries as they appeared to people who had been
bred in the plains. Arthur looked over the stone wall
down into the great valley; and was he thinkiiig, I
362 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
wonder, whether the safest refuge from all his troubles
might not be that low-lying and silent golf of water
that seemed to be miles beneath him?
When we were about to start again, the Lieutenant
says to Arthur
^If you are tired of driving the dog-cart, you might
oome into the phaeton, and I will drive your horse on
to Eeswiok''
Who prompted him tp make such an offer? Xot
himself, surely. I had formed a tolerable opinion of
his good-nature ; but the impatient and fretful manner
in which he had of late been talking about Arthur
rendered it highly improbable that this suggestion was
his own. What did Bell's downcast look mean?
^ Thank you, I prefer the dog-cart,'' said Arthur coldly,
" Oh, Arthur," says Bell, "you've no idea how steep
the hill is, going down to Keswick, and in a dog-cart
too ^"
"I suppose," says the young man, "that I can drive a
dog-cart down a lull as well as anybody else."
^ At all events," says the Lieutenant, with something
of a frown, "you need not address Mademoiselle as
if that she did you harm in trying to prevent your
breaking your neck."
This was getting serious ; so that there was nothing
for it but to bundle the boy into his dog-cart and order
the Lieutenant to change places with my Lady. As for
the writer of these pages the emotions he experienced
while a mad young fellow was driving him in a light
and high dog-rt down the unconscionable hill that lies
above Keswick, he will not attempt to describe. There
are occurrences in life which it is better to forget ; but
if ever he was tempted to evoke maledictions on the
hotheadedness, and bad temper, and general insanity of
boys in love ^Enough ! We got down to Keswick
in safety.
Kow we had got among the tourists, and no miHtakft.
The hotel was aU alive with elderly ladies, who betrayed
an astonishing acquaintance with the names of the
mountains, and apportioned them ofif for successive days
OF A PHAETON. 363
as if they were dishes for limcheoii and dinner. Tho
landlord undertook to get us beds somewhere, if only
we would come into his coffee-room, which was also a
drawing-room, and had a piano in it. He was a portly
and communicative person, with a certain magnificence
of manner which was impressive. He betrayed quite a
paternal interest in Tita, and cahnly and loftily soothed
her anxious fears. Indeed, his assurances pleased us
much, and we began rather to like him ; although the
Lieutenant privatdy remarked that Clicquot is a French
word, and ought not, under any circumstances whatever,
to be pronounced "Clickot."
Then we went down to Derwentwater. It was a
warm and clear twHighti Between the dark green Lines
of the hedges we met maidens in white with scarlet
opera-cloaks, coming home through the narrow lana
Then we got into the open, and found the shores of the
silver lake, and got into a boat and sailed out upon the
still waters, so that we could face the wonders of a
brilliant sunset.
But aU that glow of red and yeDow in the north-
west was as nothing to the strange gradations of colour
that appeared along the splendid range of mountain-
peaks beyond the laka From the remote north round
to the south-east they stretched like a mighty wall;
and whereas near the gold and crimson of the sunset
they were of a warm, roseate, and half-transparent
purple, as they came along into the darker regions o
the twilight they grew more and more cold in hue and
harsh in outline. Up there in the north they had
caught the magic colours so that they themselves
seemed but light clouds of beautiful vapour ; but as
the eye followed the line of twisted and mighty shapes,
the rose-colour deepened into purple, the purple grew
darker and more dark, and greens and blues began to
appear over the wooded islands and shores of Derwent-
water. Finally, away down there in the south there
was a lowering sky, into which rose wild masses
of slate-coloured mountains, and in the threatening
and yet clear darkness that reigned among these soli-
364 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
tudes we could see but one small tuft of white
cloud that clung coldly to the gloomy summit of
Glaramara.
That strange darkness in the south boded rain ; and,
as if in anticipation of the wet, the fires of the sunset
went down, and a grey twilight fell over the land. As
we walked home between the tall hedges there was a
chill dampness in the air; and we seemed to know
that we had at last bade good-bye to the beautiful
weather that had lit up for us the blue water and green
shores of Grasmere.
\NoU "by Queen Titania. "I begin to think the old lady in
Nottinghamshire had some excuse for what she said, althoiu^h she
need, not have expressed herself so rudely. Of course it is im-
possible to put down all that we spoke about on tiiose happy days
of our journey ; but when all the ordinary talk is eorefully taeludedf
and eyerything spit^l retained, I cannot wonder uiat a stranger
should think that my husband and myself do not lead a very
pUasaiU life. It looks very serious when it is put in t3rpe ; whereas we
nare been driyen into all this nonsense of quarrelling merely to temper
the excessiye sentimentality of those young folks, which is quite
amusing in its way. Indeed, I am afraid that Bell, although she has
neyer said a word to that efect to me, is far more deeply pledged
than one who thinks he has a great insight into such affairs has any
notion of. I am sure it was none of my doing. If Bell had told
me she was engaged to Arthur, nothii^; could liaye giyen me creater
pleasure. In tne meantime, I ho^ no one will read too litera&y tiie
foreffoing pages, and think that in our houM we are continnally
treaoing on luoifer matches and frightening eyeiybody by small
explosions. I suppose it is literary art that compels such a peryersion
of the truth ! And as for Chapter Twenty-six whidi has a great
deal of nonsense in it about Richmond I should think that a yery
rod motto for it would be two lines I once saw quoted somewhere,
don't know who is the author; but they said
** * The legend is as true, I undertake.
As Tristram is, or Latieelot of the Lake^ **]
OF A PHAETON. 3^5
CHAPTEE XXVII.
ALONG THE GBETA.
*' Yon stood before me like a thought,
A dream remembered in a difuan.
Bnt when those meek eyes first did seem
To tell me. Love within yon wronght
Greta, dear domestic stream !
Has not, since then. Love's promptnre deep,
Has not Love's whisper evermore,
Been ceaseless as thy gentle roar t
Sole voice, when other voices sleep.
Dear nnder-song in Clamor's honr."
tt
"Now, Bell," says Tita, "I am going to ask you a
serious qnestioa"
Yes, Mamma," says the girl, dutifally.
Where is the North Country ? "
Good gracious \ This was a pretfy topic to start as
we sat idly by the shores of Derwentwater, and watched
the great white clouds move lazily over the mountain
peaks beyond. For, did it not involye some haphazard
remark of Bell's, which would instantly plunge the
Lieutenant into the history of Strathclyde, so as to
prove, in defiance of the first principles of logic and
the Ten Commandments, that the girl was altogether
right? BeU solved the difficulty in a novel fslshion.
She merely repeated, in a low and careless voice,
some lines from the chief favourite of all her
songs
"While sadly I roam, I regret my dear home,
Where lads and yonng lasses are TnaVfap the hay.
The merry hells ring; and the hirds sweeti^ sing,
And maidens and meadows are pleasant and gay :
Oh I the oak and the ash, and the honny ivy-tree.
They grow so green in the North Coontree I "
"But where is it?" says Tita. *'Tou are always
looking to the North and never getting there. Down
in Oxford, you were aU anxiety to get up to Wales.
Once in Wales, you hurried us on to Westmore-
land. Now you are in Westmoreland, you are still
366 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
hankering after the North, and I want to know wheie
you mean to stop. At Carlisle ? Or Edinbnigh ? Or
John o' Groats?"
The little woman was becoming quite eloquent in
her quiet and playful fashion, as she sat there with
Bell's hand in hers. The girl looked rather embarrassed
and so, of course, the Lieutenant, always on the look-
out for such a chance, must needs whip up his heavy
artillery and open fire on Bell's opponent
"No, Madame," he says; "why should you fix
down that beautiful country to ajiy place? Is it
not better to have the dream always before you? You
are too practical "
Too practical I ^This from an impertinent young
Uhlan to a gentle lady whose eyes are full of wistful
visions and fSeuicies from the morning to the night I
" It is better that you have it like the M Dorado
that the old travellers went to seek always in front
of them, but never just in sight Mademoiselle is
quite right not to put down her beautiful country in
the map."
" Count von Bosen," says my Lady, with some show
of petulance, " you are always proving Bell to be in
the right Tou never help me; and you know I never
get any assistance from the quarter whence it ought
to come. Now, if I were to say that I belonged to
the North Country, you would never think of bringing
all sorts of historical arguments to prove that I did.**
" Madame," says the young man, with great modesty,
"the reason is that you never need any such aigumente,
for you are always in the right at the first"
Here Bell laughs in a very malicious manner; for
was not the retort provoked ? My Lady asks the girl
to watch the creeping of a shadow over the summit of
Glaramara, as if that had anything to do with the
history of Deira.
Well, the women owed us some eicplanation ; for
between them they had resolved upon our setting out
for Penrith that afternoon. All the excursions we had
planned in tlus beautiful neighbourhood had to be
OF A PHAETON. 367
abandoned, and for no ostensible reason whatever. That
there must be some occult reason, however, for this
odd resolve was quite certain ; and the lieutenant and
myself were left to fit such keys to the myBtery as we
might think proper.
Was it really, then, this odd longing of Bell's to go
northward, or was it not rather a secret consciousness
that Arthur would cease to accompany us at Carlisle ?
The young man had remained behind at the hotel that
morning. He had important letters to write, he said.
A telegram had arrived for him while we were at
breakfast; and he had remarked, in a careless way,
that it was from Mr. Tatham, Katty's father. Perhaps
it was. There is no saying what a reckless young
fellow may not goad an elderly gentleman into doing ;
but if this message, as we were given to understand,
had really somel^ng to do with Arthur^s relations
towards Katty, it was certainly an odd matter to arrange
by telegraph.
As for the lieutenant, he appeared to treat the
whole affair with a cool indifference which was pro-
bably assumed. In private conversation ho informed
me that what Arthur might do in the way of marrying
Miss Tatham, or anybody else, was of no consequence
whatever to him.
" Mademoiselle will tell me my fate that is enough,"
he said. ** You think that I am careless, ^yes ? It
is not so, except I am convinced your Mend from
Twickenham has nothing to do with it. No, he will
not marry Mademoiselle that is so clear that anyone
may see it but he may induce her, frighten her, com-
plain of her, so that she will not marry me. (Jood.
If it is so, I will know who has served me that way."
" Tou needn't look as if you meant to eat up the
whole family," I say to him.
" And more," he continued, with even greater fierce-
ness, ''it has come to be too much, this. He shall
not go beyond Carlisle with us. I will not jJlow
Mademoiselle to be persecuted. Tou will say I have
no right that it is no business of mine ^'
368 IHE STRANGE ADVENTURES
"That is precisely what I do say. Leave the girl
to manage her own affairs. If she wishes Arthur to go,
she can do it with a word. Do you think there is
no method of giving a young man his con^i than by
breaking his neck?"
"Oh, you think, then, that Mademoiselle wishes
biTn to remain near her?'*
A sudden and cold reserve had fallen over the young
fellow's manner. He stood there for a moment as if
he calmly expected to hear the worst, and was ready
to pack up his traps and betake himself to the south.
" I tell you again," I say, " that I think nothing
about it, and know nothing about it. But as for the
decree' of Providence which ordained that young
people in love should become the pest and torture
of their Mends, of all the inscrutable, unjust, per-
plexing, and monstrous facts of life, this is about the
worst I will take a cigar from you, if you please."
"That is aU you care for ^yes a cigar," says the
young man, peevishly. ' If the phaeton were to be
smashed to pieces this afternoon a cigar. If
Mademoiselle were to go and marry this wretched
fellow ^again, a cigar. 1 do not think that you care
more for anything around you than the seal which
comes up and shetkes hands with his keeper in the
Zoological Qurdens."
"Got a light?"
"And yet I think it is possible you will get a
surprise very soon Yes ! and will not be so in-
different After Carlisle ^"
"After Carlisle you come to Gretna Green. But
if you propose to run away with BeU, don't take
my horses ^they are not used to hard work."
" Bun away ! You do talk as if Mademoiselle were
willing to run away with anybody. No, it is quite
another thing."
And here the Lieutenant, getting into the morose
state which always follows the fierceness of a lover
begins to pull about the shawls and pack them up.
Nevertheless, the eighteen miles between Keswick
OF A PHAh TON. 369
and Penrith proved one of the pleasantest portions of
OUT journey. There was not much driving, it is true.
We started at mid-day, and, having something like
five or six hours in which to get over this stretch of
mountain and moorland road, we spent most of tho
time in walking, even Tita descending from her usual
post to wander along the hedgerows and look down
into the valley of the Greta. As the white road
rose gradually from the plains of the lakes, taking
us along the slopes of the mighty Saddleback, the
view of the beautiftil country behind us grew more
extended and lovely. The clear silver day showed
us the vast anay of mountains in the palest of hues ;
and as white clouds floated over the hills and the
gleaming surface of Derwentwater, even the shadows
seemed pale and luminous. There was no mist, but
a bewildering glare of light, that seemed at once to
transpose and blend the clouds, the sky, the hills,
and the lake. There was plenty of motion in the
picture, too, for there was a south wind blowing light
shadows of grey across the silver whiteness ; but
there was no louring mass of vapour lying up at the
horizon, and all our evil anticipations of the previous
day remained unfulfilled.
What a picturesque glen is that over which the
great mass of SadcQeback towers ! We could hear
the Greta rushing down the chasm through a world
of light-green foUage; and sometimes we got a
glimpse of the stream itself ^a rich brown, with
dashes of white foam. Then you cross the river
where it is joined by St John's Beck; and as you
slowly climb the sides of Saddleback, the Greta
becomes the Glenderamackin, and by and by you
lose it altogether as it strikes off to the north. But
there are jSenty of streams about. Each gorge and
valley has its beck; and you can hear the splashing
of the water where there is nothing visible but
masses of young trees lying warm and green in
the simshine.
And as for the wild-flowers that grow here in a
B B
370 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
wonderful luxuriance of form and colour, who can
describe them? The Lieutenant was growing quite
learned in English wild blossoms. He could tell the
liifiference between Herb Eobert and Ragged Eobin,
was not to be deceived into believing the rock-rose
$1 buttercup, and had become profound in the study
of the various speedwells. But he was a late scholar.
Arthur had been under Bell's tuition years before.
He knew all the flowers she liked best ; he could pick
them out at a distance without going through the
trouble of laboriously comparing them, as our poor
Lieutenant had to do. You should have seen these
two yoimg men with black rage in their hearts
engaged in the idyllic pastime of culling pretty
blossoms for a fair maiden. Bell treated them both
with a simple indifference that was begotten chiefly
by the very definite interest she had in their pursuit.
She was reaUy thinking a good deal more of her
tangled and picturesque bouquet than of the inten-
tions of the young men in bringing the flowers to
her. She was speedily to be recalled from her
dream.
At a certain portion of the way we came upon a lot
of foiget-me-nots, that were growing amid the roadside
grass, meaning no harm. The pale turquoise blue of
the flowers was looking up to the silver-white fleece of
the sky, just as if there was some communion between
the two that rude human hands had no right to
break. Arthur made a plunge at them. He puUied up
at once some half-dozen stalks and came back with
them to BeU.
"Here," he said, with a strange sort of smile, "are
some foiget-me-nots for you. They are supposed to be
tjrpical of woman's constancy, are they not ? ^for they
keep fresh about half-a-dozen hours."
Bell received the flowers without a trace of surprise
or vexation in her manner ; and then, with the most
admirable self-possession, she turned to the Lieutenant,
separated one of the flowers from the lot, and said, with
a great gentleness and calmness
OF A PHAETON. 371
* Couiit von Eosen, do you care to have one of these ?
You have very pretty songs about the forgeir-me-not, in
Germany."
I believe that young fellow did not know whether he
was dead or alive at the moment when the girl addressed
him thus. For a single second a flash of suiprise and
bewilderment appeared in his face, and then he took
the flower from her and said, looking down as if he did
not wish any of us to see his face
" Mademoiselle, thank you."
But almost directly afterwards he had recovered him-
self With an air as if nothing had happened, he pulled
out his pocket-book, most carefully and tenderly put
the flower in it, and closed it again. Arthur, with his^
face as hot as fire, had begun to talk to Tita about
Threlkeld HalL
It was a pretty little scene to be enacted on this
bright morning, on a grassy wayside in Cumberland,
with all the lakes and mountains of Westmoreland for
a blue and silvery background. But after all, of what
importance was it ? A girl may hand her companion
of the moment a flower without any deadly intent ?
How was anyone to tell, indeed, that she had so turned
to the Lieutenant as a retort to Arthur's not very cour-
teous remark? There was no appearance of vexation in
her manner. On the contrary, she turned and gave
Von Rosen this paltry little forget-me-not, and made a
remark about German songs, just as she might have
done at home in Surrey to any of the young fellows
who come dawdling about the house, wondeiing why
such a pretty girl should not betray a preference for
son J e body. Even as a punishment for Arthur's piece of
im})udence, it might not have any but the most tran-
sitory significance. Bell is quick to feel any remark of
the kind; and it is just possible that at the moment
she may have been stung into executing this ])retty
and pastoral deed of vengeance.
But the Lieutenant, at all events, was persuaded that
sonieiliing of mighty import had just occurred on the
picturesque banks of this Cumberland stream. He hung
B B 2
372 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
about Bell for some time, but seemed afraid to address
her, and had ceased to offer her flowers. He was per-
mitted to bring her a sunshade, however, and that
pleased him greatly. And thereafter he went up to the
horses, and walked by their heads, and addressed them
in yery kindly and soothing language, just as if they
had done him some great service.
Arthur came back to us.
" It looks rather ridiculous," he said, abruptly, " to see
the procession of this horse and dog-cart following your
phaeton. Hadn't I better drive on to Penrith ? "
" The look of it does not matter here, surely/* says
BelL '* We have only met two persons since we
started, and we shan't find many people up in this
moorland we are coming to.''
"Oh, as you please," said the young man, a trifle
mollified. " If you don't mind, of course I don't"
Presently he said, with something of an effort
"How long is your journey to l^t altogether?"
- "I don't know," I say to him. "We shall be in
Edinburgh in two or three days, and our project of
driving thither accomplished. But we may spend a
week or two in Scotland after that."
" Count von Eosen is very anxious to see something
of Scotland," says Bell, with the air of a person con-
veying information.
I knew why Count von Bosen was so anxious to
see something of Scotland he would have welcomed
a journey to the North Pole if 9nly he was sure that
Bell was going there too. But' Arthur said, some-
what sharply
"I am glad I shall escape the duty of dancing
I attendance on a stranger. I suppose you mean to take
' him to the Tower and to Madame Tussaud's when
you return to London?"
'^But won't you come on with us to Edinburgh,
Arthur 1" says Bell, quite amiably.
"No, thank you," he says; and then, turning to
me, "How much does it cost to send a horse and
trap from Carlisle to London?"
OF A PHAETON. 373
''From Edinbiugh it costs 102. 5^.^ so you may
calctilate."
"I suppose I can get a late train to-morrow night
for myself?"
** There is one after midnight."
He spoke in a gloomy way, that had nevertheless
some affectation of carelessness in it. Bell again ex-
pressed her regret that he could not accompany us
to Edinburgh ; but he did not answer.
We were now about to get into our respective
vehicles, for before us lay a long stretch of high moor-
land road, and we had been merely idling the time
away during the last mile or two.
" Won t' you get into the dog-cart for a bit, Bell ? **
says Arthur.
" Oh yes, if you like," says BeU, good-naturedly.
The lieutenant, knowing nothii^ of this proposal,
was jather astonished when, after having called to
bi'm to stop the horses, we came up and Bell was
assisted into the dog-cart, Arthur followiug and taking
the reins. The rest of us got into the phaeton ; but,
of course, Arthur had got the start of us, and went
on in front.
"How far on is Gretna Green?" asks my Lady in
a low voice.
The Lieutenant scowled, and r^arded the two
figures in front of us in anything but an amiable mood.
"You do not care much for her safety to entrust
her to that stupid boy," he remarks.
" Do you think he will really run away with her ? "
says Tita.
"Ran away!" repeats the Lieutenant, with some
scorn; "if he were to try that, or any other foolish
thing, do you know what you would see ? You would
see Mademoiselle take the reins from him, and go
where she pleased in spite of him. Do you think
that she is controlled by that pitiful fellow?"
Whatever control BeU possessed, there was no doubt
at aU that Arthur was taking her away from us at
a considerable pace. After that stretch of moorland
374 ^-^^ STRANGE ADVENTURES
the road got very hilly ; and no man who is driving
his own horses likes to run them up steep ascents
for the mere pleasure of catching a runaway boy
and his sweetheart In the ups and downs of tliis
route we sometimes lost sight of Bell and Arthur
altogether. The Lieutenant was so wroth that he
dared not speak. Tita grew a trifle anxious, and at
last she said
"Won't you drive on and overtake these young
people? I am sxire Arthur is forgetting how hilly
the road is.**
"I don't. Arthur is driving somebody else's horse,
but I can't afiford to ill-treat my own in order to
stop him."
" I am sure your horses have not been overworked/*
says the Lieutenant; and at this moment, as we
get to the crest of a hUl, we find that the two
^gitives are on the top of the next incline.
^'EUlo! Hiel Hdir
Two faces turn round. A series of pantomimic
gestures now conveys my Lady's wishes, and we see
Arthur jump down to the ground, assist Bell to alight,
and then she begins to puU some grass for the horse.
When we, also, get to the top of this hiU, lo ! the
wonderful sight that spreads out before us! Along
the northern horizon stonds a pale line of mountains,
and as we look down into the great plain that lies
between, the yellow light of the sunset touches a
strange sort of mist, so that you would think there
lay a broad estuaiy or a great arm of the sea We
ourselves are in shadow, but all the wide landscape
'^efore us is bathed in golden fire and smoke; and
up there, ranged along the sky, are the pale hills that
stand like phantoms rising out of another world.
Bell comes into the phaeton. We set out again
along the hilly road, getting comforted presently by
the landlord of a wayside inn, who says, "Ay, the
road goes pretty moocli doon bank a' t* waay to
Penrith, after ye get a mile forrit." Bell cannot tell
us whether this is pure Cumbrian, or Cumbrian mixed
OF A PHAETON. 375
with Sootcli, but the Lieutenant insists that it does
not much matter, for "forrit'' is very good Frisian.
The chances are that we should have suffered another
sermon on the German origin of our language, but that
signs of a totni became visible. We drove in fiom the
coimtry highways in the gathering twilight. There
were lights in the streets of Penrith, but the place
itself seemed to have shut up and gone to bed. It was
but haK-past eight; yet nearly every shop was shut,
and the inn into which we drove had clearly got over
its day's labour. If we had asked for dinner at this
hour, the simple folks would probably have laughed at
us; so we called it supper, and a very excellent supper
it was.
CHAPTER XXVIIL
"adb!"
*' Edwin, if right I read my son^,
With slighted passion paced along;
AU in the moony lumt ;
'Twaa near an old enchanted conrt.
Where sportive fiEdries made resort
To rerel out the night."
^ I AM 80 sorry you can't come further with us than
Oarlisle," says Queen Titania to Arthur, with a great
kindliness for the lad shining in her brown eyes.
''Duty calls me back and pleasure, too/' he says,
with rather a melancholy smila '' You will receive a
message rom me, I expect, shortly after I return.
^Where will letters find you in Scotland?"
This was rather a difficult question to answer ; but
it took us away from the dangerous subject of Arthur's
intentions, about which the less said at that moment
the better. The Lieutenant professed a great desire to
spend two or three weeks in Scotland ; and Bell began
to sketch out phantom tours, whisking about from
Loch Lubnaig to Loch Long, cutting round the Mull of
376 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
Cantire, and coming back from Oban to the Ciinan in a
surprising manner.
" And, Mademoiselle," says he, "perhaps to-morrow,
when you get into Scotland, you will begin to tell me
something of the Scotch songs, if it does not trouble
you. I have read some yes of Bums's songs, mostly
through Freiligrath's translations, but I have not heard
any sung, and I know that you know them alL Oh
yes, I liked them very much they are good, hearty
songs, not at all melancholy; and an excellent fellow of
that country I met in the war he was a correspondent
for some newspaper, and he was at Metz, but he was as
much of a soldier as any man of us ^he told me there
is not any such music as the music of the Scotch songs.
That is a very bold thing to say, you know. Mademoiselle;
but if you will sing some of them, I will give you my
frank opinion."
"Very well," says Mademoiselle, with a gracious
smile, " but I think I ought to begin to-day, for there
is a great deal of ground to be got over."
"So much the better," says he.
" But if you young people," says Queen Tita, " who
are all bent on your own pleasure, would let me make
a suggestion, I think I can put your musical abilities
to a bettor use. I am going to give a concert as soon
as I get home, for the benefit of our Clothing Club;
and I want you to undertake, Count von B6sen, to
sing for us two or three German songs Kdmer^s
war-songs, for example."
"Oh, with great pleasure, Madame, if you will
not all laugh at my singing."
Unhappy wretch another victim ! But it was
a mercy she asked him only for a few songs, instead
of hinting something about a contribution. That
was probably to come.
"Bell," says my Lady, "do you think we ought
to charge twopence this time?"
On this tremendous financial question Bell de-
clined to express an opinion, beyond suggesting that
the people, if they could only be induced to come.
it
u
OF A PHAETON. 377
would value the concert all the more. A much more
practical proposal, however, is placed before this
committee now assembled in PenritL At each of
these charity-concerts in our schoolroom, a chamber
is set apart for the display of various viands and
an uncommon quantity of champagne, devoted to
the use of the performers, their friends, and a few
special guests. It is suggested that the expense of
this entertainment should not always fall upon one
person ; there being several householders in the neigh-
bourhood who were much more able to afford such
promiscuous banquets.
I am sure," says my Lady, with some emphasis,
that I know several gentlemen who would only be
too eager to come forward and send those refresh-
ments, if they only knew you were making such a
fuss about it.'*
"My dear," I say, humbly, "I wish you would
speak to them on this subject."
"I wouldn't demean myself so far," says Tita, "as
to ask for wine and biscuits from my neighbours."
"I wish these neighbours wouldn't drink so much
of my champagne."
"But it is a charity; why should you grumble t"
says the Lieutenant.
" Why ? These abandoned ruffians and their wives
give five shillings to the charity, and come and eat
and drink ten shillings' worth of my food and wine.
That is why."
"Never mind," says Bell, with her gentle voice;
''when Coimt von Bosen comes to sing we shall
have a great audience, and there will be a lot of
money ' taken at the door, and we shall be able
to clear all expenses and pay you, too, for the
champagne."
"At sevenpence-hal^nny a bottle, I suppose?"
"I did not think you got it so cheap," says Tita,
with a pleasing look of iimocence ; and therewith the
young folks began to laugh, as they generally do when
she says anything specially impertinent.
378 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
Just before starting for Carlisle, we happened to
be in the old chnrchyard of Penrith, lookmg at the
pillars which are supposed to mark the grave of a
giant of old, and trying to persuade ourselves that
we saw something like Eunic carvings on the stones.
There came forward to us a strange-looking person,
who said suddenly
"Gk)d bless you!"
There was no harm in that, at aU events, but
presently he began to attach himself to Arthur, and
insisted on talking to him; while, whenever the young
man seemed inclined to resent this intrusion, the
mysterious stranger put in another "God bless you!"
so as to disarm criticism. We speedily discovered
that this person was a sort of whiskified Old Mortality,
who claimed to have cut all manner of tombstones
standing around ; and to Arthur, whom he specially
affbcted, he continually appealed with "Will that do,
eh? I did that ^will that do, eh ?" The young man
was not in a communicative mood, to begin with ;
but the persecution he now suffered was like to have
driven hun wild: In vain he moved away : the other
followed him. In vain he pretended not to listen : the
other did not care. He would probably have expressed
his feelings warmly, but for the pious ejaculation
which continually came in; and when a man says
*'Gk)d bless you,'* you can't with decency wish him
the reverse. At leoigth, out of pure compassion, the
lieutenant went over to the man, and said
"Well, you are a very wicked old gentleman, to
have been drinking at this time in the morning/*
" God bless you ! ^
"Thank you. You have given to us your blesfiing
all round : now will you kindly go away ? "
"Wouldn't you like to see a bit of my cutting,
now, ehl"
"No, I wouldn't; I would like to see you go home
and get a sleep, and get up sober."
God bless you ! "
"The same to you. Good-bye ** and behold!
OF A PHAETON. 379
Artlmr was delivered, and returned, blushing like
a girl, to the women, who had been rather afraid of
this half-tipsy or half-silly person, and remained at
a distance.
You may be sure that when we were about to
start from Penrith, the Lieutenant did not forget to
leave out Bell's guitar-case. And so soon as we
were weU away from the town, and bowling along
the level road that leads up to Carlisle, the girl put
the blue ribbon round her shoulder and began to
cast about for a song. Arthur was driving close
behind us occasionally sending on the cob so as
to exchange a remark or two with my Lady. The
wheels made no gr^t noise, however; and in the
silence lying over the shining landscape around us,
we heard the clear, full, sweet tones of Bell's voice
as well as if she had been singing in a room,
" Behind yon hilla where Lngar flows"
^Diat was the first song that she sung; and it was
weU the Lieutenant was not a Scotchman, and had
never heard the cdr as it is daily played on the Clyde
steamers by wandering fiddlers.
"I don't mean to sing all the songs," says BeU,
presently; "I shall only give you a verse or so of
each of those I know, so that you may judge of them.
Now this is a fighting song;" and with that she
srmg with fine courage
** Here's Eexmmre's health in wine, Willie t
Here's Eenmnre's health in wine I
There ne'er was a coward o' Eenmore's blood.
Nor yet o' Gordon's line I
Oh, Eenmnre's lads are men, WiUie t
Oh, Kenmnre's lads are men I
Their hearts and swords are metal tme,
And that their foes shall ken ! "
How was it that she always sang these wild, rebel*
lious^ Jacobite songs with so great an accession of
spirit? Never in our southern home had she seemed
to care anytiiing about them. There, the only Scotch
songs she used to sing for us were the plaintive
38o THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
laments of tinliappy lovers, and snch-like things;
whereas now she was all for blood and slaughter, far
the gathering of the clans, and the general destnictioiL
of law and order. I don't believe she knew who
JKenmure was. As for the Braes o' Mar, and Gal-
lander and Airlie, she had never seen one of these
places. And what was this ''kane" of which she
sang so proudly ?
'* Hark the horn 1
Up i' the mom ;
Bourne lad, come to the march to-morrow 1
Down the Glen,
Grant and his men,
They shall pEiy kane to the Kin^ the mom 1
Down by Enockhaspie,
Down by Gillespie,
Many a red runt nods the horn ;
Waken not Galium,
Rouky, nor AlLin
They shaU pay lame to the King the mom ! ^
"Why, what a warlike creature you have become.
Bell!" says Queen Titania. ''Ever since you sang
those songs of Maria, with Count von Bosen as the
old sergeant, you seem to have forgotten all the
pleasant old ballads of melancholy and regret, and
taken to nothing but fire and sword. Now, if you
were to sing about Logan Braes, or Lucy's Flitting,
or Annie's Tryst ^"
I am coming to them," says Bell, meekly.
No, Mademoiselle," interposes the Lieutenant, '' please
do not sing any more just now. You will sing again,
in the afternoon, yes ? But at present you will harm
your voice to sing too much."
Now she had only sung snatches of three songs.
What business had he to interfere, and become her
guardian? Yet you should have seen how quietly
and naturally she laid aside the guitar as soon as
he had spoken, and how she handed it to Viitw to
put in the case : my Lady looked hard at her gloves,
which she always does when she is inwardly laughing
and determined that no smile shall appear on her
face.
it
OF A PHAETON. 381
It was rather hard upon Arthur that he should
be banished into that solitary trap; but he rejoined
us when we stopped at High Hesket to bait the
horses, and have a snack of something for lunch.
What a picture of desolation is the White Ox of this
village! Once upon a time this broad road formed
part of the great highway leading towards the north ;
and here the coaches stopped for the last time before
driving into Carlisle. It is a large hostelry; but it
had such an appearance of lonelmess and desertion
about it, that we stopped at the front door (which
was shut) to ask whether they could put the horses
up. An old lady, dressed in black, and with a worn
and sad face, appeared. We could put the horses
up, yes. As for luncheon, we could have ham and
eggs. The butcher only came to the place twice a
week; and as no traveller stopped here now^ no
butcher's meat was kept on the premisea We went
into the great stables ; and found an ostler who
looked at us with a wonderful astonishment shining
in his light-blue eyes. Looking at the empty stalls,
he said he could remember when forty horses were
put up there every day. It was the railway that
had done it.
We had our ham and eggs in a large and melancholy
parlour, filled with old-fashioned pictures and orna-
ments. The elderly servant- woman who waited on
us told us that a gentleman had stopped at the inn
on the !Monday night before; but it turned out that
lie was walking to Carlisle, and that he had got afraid
of two navvies on the road, and that he therefore had
taken a bed there. Before him, no one had stopped
at the inn since Whitsuntide. It was all because of
them railways.
We hastened away from this doleful and deserted
inn, so soon as the horses were rested. They had easy
work of it for the remainder of the dajps journey.
The old coach-road is here remarkably broad, level,
and well-made, and we bowled along the solitary high-
way as many a vehicle had done in bygone years.
382 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
As we drove into "merry Carlisle/' the lamps were
lit in the twilight, and numbers of people in the
streets. For the convenience of Arthur, we put up
at an hotel abutting on the railway station, and then
went off to stable the horses elsewhere.
It was rather a melancholy dinner we had in a
comer of the great room. The gloom that overspread
Arthur's face was too obvious. In vain the Lieutenant
talked profoundly to us of the apple legend of Tell
in its various appearances (he had just been cribbing
his knowledge from Professor Buchheim's excellent
essay), and said he would go with my Lady next
morning to see the market-place where William of
Cloudeslee, who afterwards shot the apple from ofiF
his son's head, was rescued from justice by two of
his fellow outlaws. Tita was far more concerned to
see Arthur of somewhat better spirits on this the
last night of his being with us. On our sitting
down to dinner, she had said to him, with a pretty
smile
" King Artlmr liyes in merry Carlisle,
And seemly is to see ;
And there with him Queen Gnenever,
That bride so bright of blee.^'
But was it not an unfortunate quotation, however
kindly meant? Queen Guenever sat there as frank,
and gracious, and beautiful as a queen or a bride
might be ^but not with him. That affair of the.
litfle blue flower on the banks of the Greta was still
rankling in his mind.
He bore himself bravely, however. He would not
have the women remain up to see him away by the
12.45 train. He bade good-bye to both of them
without wincing, and looked after Bell for a moment
as she left; and then he went away into a large
and gloomy smoking-room, and sat down there
in silence. The Lieutenant and I went with him.
He was not inclined to speak; and at length Von
Hosen, apparently to break the horrible spell of the
place, said
OF A PHAETON. 383
" Will they give the horse any com or water on the
journey ? "
"I don't think so," said the lad, absently, "but I
have telegraphed for a man to be at the station and
take the cob into the nearest stables/'
And with that he forced himself to talk of some of
his adventures by the way, while as yet he was driving
by himself ; thoiigh we could see he was thinking^'
something very different. At last the train from the
!(Torth came in. He shook hands with us with a fine
indifference ; and we saw him bundle himself up in a
comer of the carriage, with a cigar in his mouth.
There was nothing tragic in his going away ; and yet
there was not in all England a more wretched creature
than the young man who thus started on his lonely
night-journey ; and I afterwards heard that, up in the
railway-hotel at this moment, one tender heart was
still beating a little more quickly at the thought of his
going, and two wakeful eyes were full of unconscious
tears.
CHAPTER XXDC
OVER THE BOKDBR.
And here awhile the Muse,
High hoyering o'er the broad ceruleaa scezie,
Sees Caledonia in romantic view \
Her airy mountains, from the waving main,
Inyested with a keen, difoaive sky,
Breathing the soul acute ; her forests huge
Incult, robust, and tall, by Nature's hand
Planted of old ; her azure lakes between
Poured out expansiye, and of watery wealth
Full ; winding, deep, and green, her fertile vales
With many a cool translucent brimming flood
Washed lovely from the Tweed (pure jparwi^ strta/m
Whose pastoral banks first heard my Dorio reed.
With sylvan Gled, thy tributary brook)."
That next morning in Carlisle as we walked about
the red old city that is set amid beautiful green meadows
interlaced with streams there was something about
384 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
Queen Titania's manner that I could not understand.
She arrogated to herself a certain importance. She
treated ordinary topics of talk with disdain. She had
evidently become possessed of a great secret. Now,
eyeiyone knows that the best way to discover a secret
is to let the owner of it alone ; if it is of great import-
ance, she is sure to tell it you, and if it is of no
importance, your ignorance of it won't hurt you.
We were up in that fine old castle, leaning on the
parapets of red sandstone and gazing away up to the
north, where a line of Scotch hills lay on the horizon.
That is a pretty landscape that lies around Carlisle
Castle the bright and grassy meadows through which
the Eden winds, the woods and heights of the country
beyond, the far stretches of sand at the mouth of the
Solway, and the blue line of hills telling of the wilder
regions of Scotland.
In the courtyard below us we can see the Lieutenant
instructing Bell iu the art of fortification. My Lady
looks at them for a moment, and says
" Bdl is near her North Country at last"
There is at all events nothing very startling iu that
disdosura She pauses for a moment or two, and is
apparently regarding with wistful eyes the brilliant
landscape around, across which dashes of shadow are
, slowly moving from the west Then she adds
''I suppose you are rather puzzled to account for
Arthurs conung up to see us this last tima"
''I never try to account for the insane actions of
young people in lova"
" Hiat is youp own experience, I suppose? " she says,
daintily.
"Precisely so of you. But what is this about
Arthur?"
*' Don't you really think it looks absurd ^his having
come to join us a second time for no apparent purpose
whatever ? "
* Proceed."
^'Oh," she says, with some little hauteur , '^I am not
anxious to tell you anything."
OF A 'PHAETON. 385
''But I am dying to hear. Have you not marked
my impatience ever since we set out this morning 1 "
" No, I haven't But I will tell you all the same,
if you promise to say not a word of it to the Count"
"I? Say anything to the lieutenant? The man
who would betray the confidences of his wife except
when it suited his own purpose But what have
you got to say about Arthur?"
"Only this that his coming to see us was not
so aimless as it might appear. Yesterday he asked
Bell definitely if she would many him."
She smiles ^with an air of pride. She knows she
has produced a sensation.
" Would you like to know where ? In an old inn
at High Hesket ^where they seem to have been left
alone for a minute or two. And BeU told him frankly
that she could not marry him."
Think of it! In that deserted old inn, with its
forsaken chambers and ^npty stalls, and occasional
visits from a wandering butcher, a tragedy had been
enacted so quietly that none of us had known. If
folks were always to transact the most important
business of their lives in this quiet, undiamatic,
imobserved way, whence would come all the material
for our pictures, and plays, and books ? These yoimg
people, so far as we knew, had never struck an
attitude, nor uttered an exchtmation; for, now that
one had time to remember, on our entering into the
parlour where Bell and Arthur had been left, she
was quietly looking out of the window, and he came
forward to ask how many miles it was to Carlisle.
They got into the vehicles outside as if nothing had
happened. They chatted as usual on the road into
Carlisle. Nay, at dinner, how did those young hypo-
crites manage to make believe that they were on
their old footing, so as to deceive us all?
''My dear," I say to her, "we have been robbed
of a scene."
"I am glad there was no scene. There is more
likely to be a scene when Arthur goes back and tells
386 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
Dr. Ashbuiton that he means to many Katty Tatham.
He is sure to do that; and you know the Doctor
was very much in favour of Arthur's marrying Bell.''
" WeU, now, I suppose, all that is wanted for the
completion of your diabolical project is that Bell
should marry that yoxmg Prussian down there ^who
will be arrested in a minute or two if he does not
drop his inquiries,"
Tita looked up with a stare of well-affected
surprise.
" That is quite another matter, I assure you. You
may be quite certain that Bell did not refuse Count
von Eosen before without some very good reason;
and the mere fact of Arthu/s going away does not
pledge her a bit. No quite the contrary. He would
be very foolish if he asked her at this moment to
become his wife. She is very sorry about Arthur,
and so am I ; but I confess that when I learned his
case was hopeless, and that I could do nothing to
help him, I was greatly relieved. But don't breathe
a word of what I have told you to Count Von Rosen.
Bell would never forgive me if it were to reach
his ears. But oh ! " says Queen Tita, almost clasping
her hands, while a bright light beams over her face,
' I should like to see those two married. I am sure
they are so fond of each other. Can you doubt it^ if
you look at them for a moment or two "
But they had disappeared &om the courtyard below.
Almost at the same moment that she uttered these
words, she instinctively turned, and lo ! there were
BeU and her companion advancing to join us. The
poor little woman blushed dreadfimy in spite of all
her assumption of gracious self-possession ; but it was
apparent that the young folks had not overheard, and
no harm was done.
At length we started for Gretna. There might have
been some obvious jokes going upon this subject, had
not some recollection of Arthur interfered. Was it
because of his departure, also, that the lieutenant for-
bore to press Bell for the Scotch songs that she had
OF A phaeton: 387
promised him ? Or was it not rather that the bright-
ness and freshness of this rare forenoon were in them-
selves sufficient exhilaration ? We drove down by the
green meadows, and over the Eden bridge. We clam-
bered up the hill opposite, and drove past the suburban
villas there. We had got so much accustomed to sweet
perfumes floating to us from the hedgerows and the
fields, that we at first did not perceive that certain
specially pleasant odours were the product of some
large nurseries close by. Then we got out to that
" shedding " of the roads, which marks the junction of the
highways coming down from Glasgow and Edinburgh ;
and here we chose the former, which would take ua
through Gretna and Mofifat, leaving us to strike east
ward towards Edinburgh afterwards.
The old mail-coach road to the North is quite deserted
now, but it is a pleasant road for all that, well-made
and smooth, with tracts of grass along each side, and
tall and profuse hedges that only partially hide from
view the dusky northern landscape with its blue line
of hillfl beyond. Mile after mile, however, we did not
meet a single creature on this deserted highway ; and
when at length we reached a solitary turnpike, the
woman in charge thereof regarded us with a look of
surprise, as if we were a party of runaways who had
blundered into the notion that Gretna-green marriages
were still possible.
The lieutenant, who was driving, got talking with
the woman about these marriages, and the incidents
that must have occurred at this very turnpike, and of the
stories in the neighbourhood about that picturesque
and gay old time. She ^with her eyes still looking
towards our Bell, as if she suspected that the young
man had quite an exceptional interest in talking of
marriages told us some of her own reminiscences with
a great deal of good humour ; but it is sad to think that
these anecdotes were chiefly of quarrels and separations
some of them occurring before the happy pair had
crossed the first bridge on their homeward route.
Whether these stories were not edifying, or whether a
c c 2
388 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
great bank of clouds^ coming up from the north against
the wind, looked veiy ominous. Bell besought her com-
panion to drive on ; and so on he went.
It was a lonely place in which to be caught by a
thunderstorm. We came to the river Esk, and found
its shallow waters flowing down a broad and shingly
channel, leaving long islands of sand between. There
was not a house in sight only the marshy meadows,
the river-beds, and the low flats of sand stretching out
to the Sdway Frith. Scotland was evidently bent on
giving us a wet welcome. From the hills in the north
those black masses of vapour came crowding up, and a
strange silence fell over the land Then a faint glimmer
of red appeared somewhere ; and a low noise was heard.
Presently a long narrow streak of forked lightning went
darting across the black background, there was a smart
roll of thunder, and then all around us the first cluster-
ing of heavy rain was heard among the leaves. We
had the hood put up hastily. Bell and Tita were
speedily swathed in shawls and waterproofs: and the
Ueutenant sent the horses on at a good pace, hoping
to reach Gretna Green before we should be washed
into the Solway. Then began the wild play of the
elements. On all sides of us the bewildering glare of
steel-blue seemed to flash about, and the horses, terrified
by the terrific peals of thunder, went plunging on
through the torrents of rain.
" Mademoiselle," cried the lieutenant, with the water
streaming over his face and down bis great beard^
" your Westmoreland rain, ^it was nothing to this."
Bell sat mute and patient, with her face down to
escape the blinding torrents. Perhaps had we crossed
1 the Border in beautiful weather, she would have got
down from the phaeton, and pulled some pretty flower
to take away with her as a memento ; but now we could
see nothing, hear nothing, think of nothing, but the
crashes of the thunder, the persistent waterfall, and
those sudden glares that from time to time robbed us
of our eyesight for several seconds. Some little time
before reaching the river Sark, which is here the boun-
OF A PHAETON. 389
dary-line between the two countries, we passed a small
wayside inn; but we did not think of stopping theie,
when Gretna promised to aford us more certain shelter.
We drove on and over the Sark. "We pulled up for a
moment at the famous toll-house.
" We are over the Border I *' cried Bell, as we drove
on again ; but what of Scotland could she see in this
wild storm of rain?
Surely no runaway lover was ever more glad to see
that small church perched up on a hillock among trees
than we were when we came in sight of Gretna. But
where was the inn ? There were a few cottages by the
wayside, and there was one woman who kindly came
out to look at us.
No sooner had the Lieutenant heard that there was
no inn in the place, than, without a word but with
an awful look of determination on his face he turned
the horses dean round and set them off at a gallop down
the road to the Sark.
'' Perhaps they can't take us in at that small place/'
said my Lady.
'' They must take us in," said he, between his teeth ;
and with that we found ourselves in England again.
He drove us up to the front of the square building.
With his whip-hand he dashed away the rain firom his
eyes and moustache, and called aloud. Lo ! what strange
vision was that which appeared to us, in this lonely
place, in the middle of a storm ? Through the mist of
the rain we beheld the doorway of the inn suddenly
becoming the frame of a beautiful picture; and the
picture was that of a fair-haired and graceful young
creature of eighteen, in a costume of pearly grey touched
here and there with lines of blue, who regaided us with
a winning expression of wonder and pity in her large
and innocent eyes. Her appearance there seemed like
a glimmer of sunlight shining through the rain; and a
second or two ekpsed before the Lieutenant could
collect himself so far as to ask whether this angel of
deliverance could not shelter us from the rude violence
of the storm.
390 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
''We have no ostler," says the young lady, in a
timid way.
" Have you any stables ? " says the young man.
" Yes, we have stables shall I show them to you % "
" No ^no ! " he cries, quite vehemently. " Don't you
come out into the rain ^not at all ! I will find them
out very well myself; but you must take in the ladies
here, and get them dry."
And when we had consigned BeU and Tita to the
care of -the young lady, who received them with a look
of much friendliness and concern in her pretty face, we
went oS and sought out the stables.
" Now, look here, my good friend," says Von Eosen ;
" we are both wet The horses have to be groomed
that is very good work to dry one person ; and so you
go into the house, and change your clothes, and I will
see after the horses, yes!"
** My yoxmig friend, it is no use your being very com-
plaisant to me," I observe to him. *'I don't mean to
intercede with Bell for you."
"Would you intercede with that beautiful young
lady of the inn for me ? Well, now, that is a devil of a
language, yours. How am I to address a girl who is a
stranger to me, and to whom I wish to be respectful?
I cannot call her Mademoiselle, which is only an old
luckname that Mademoiselle used to have in Bonn, as
j(m know. You teU me I cannot address a young lady
as " Miss," without mentioning her other name, and I
do not know it. Yet I cannot address her with nothing,
s if she were a servant Tell me now what does an
English gentleman say to a young lady whom he may
^ assist at a railway station abroad, and does not know her
name ? And what, if he does not catch her name when
he is introduced in a house ? He cannot say Mademoi-
sella He cannot say Fraulein. He cannot say Miss." -
''He says nothing at all."
" But that is rudeness ^it is awkward to you not to
be able to address her."
"Why are you so anxious to know how to talk to
Jhis young lady?"
OF A PHAETON. 391
'' Because I mean to ask her if it is impossible that
she can get a little com for the horses."
It was tiresome work ^that getting the horses ont
of the wet harness, and grooming them without the
implements of grooming. Moreover, we could find
nothing but a handful of hay; and it was fortunate
that the nosebags we had with us still contained a
small allowance of oats and beans.
What a comfortable little family-party, however, we
made up in the large warm kitchen ! G^lta had struck
up a great friendship with the gentle and pretty
daughter of the house; the old lady, her mother, was
busy in having our wraps and rugs hxmg up to dry
before the capacious fireplace; and the servant-maid
had begun to cook some chops for us. Bell, too ^who
might have figured as the elder sister of this fiaxen-
haired and firank-eyed creature, who had appeared to
us in the storm ^was greatly interested in her; and
was much pleased to hear her distinctly and proudly
claim to be Scotch, although it was her misfortune to
live a short distance on the wrong side of the Border.
And with that the two girls fell to talking about
Scotch and Cumbrian words'; but here BelL had a
tremendous advantage, and pushed it to such an ex-
treme, that her opponent, with a pretty blush and a
laugh, said that she did not know the English young
ladies knew so much of Scotch. And when Bell pro-
tested that she would not be called EngHsh, the girl
only stated. You see, fihe had never had the benefit
of hearing the Lieutenant discourse on the history
of Strathclyde.
Well, we had our chops and what not in the parlour
of the inn ; but it was remarkable how soon the lieu-
tenant proposed that we should return to the kitchen.
He pretended that ho was anxious to learn Scotch;
and affected a profound surprise that the young lady
of the inn should not know the meamng of the word
"spurtle." When we went into the kitchen, how-
ever, it was to the mamma that he addressed htm self
chiefly ; and behold ! she speedily revealed to the
392 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
joxLOg soldier that she was the widow of one of the
Gretna priests. More than that I don't mean to say.
Some of you young fellows who may read this might
perhaps like to know the name and the precise where-
abouts of the fair wild-flower that we found blooming
up in these remote solitudes; but neither shall be
revealed. If there was any of us who fell in love
with the sweet and gentle face, it was Queen Tita;
and I know not what compacts about photographs
may not have been made between the two women.
Meanwhile the Lieutenant had established himself
as a great favourite with the elderly lady, and by and
by she left the kitchen, and came back with a sheet of
paper in her hand, which she presented to him. It
turned out to be one of the forms of the marriage-
certificates used by her husband in former days ; and
for curiosity's sake I append it below, suppressing the
nemie of the priest for obvious reasons.
KINGDOM OF SCOTLAND.
OOUNTT OF DUMrBIB's.
One wet to CettiQ^ to all whom these premit shall eome, thai
from the parish of * * * in the County of * *
and * * from the parish of * in the Counfy of * * *
being now here present, and having declared themselves single persons,
were (his day Married after the manner of the Laws of the Ohvreh of
England, and agreeable to the Laws of Scotland ; as Witness 'our hands,
Allism's Bank Toll-house, thU * * day of * * IB .
Before * * *j
WLxttUMta, I
" That is a dangerous paper to carry about wi' ye,"
said the old woman, with a smile.
OF A PHAETON. 393
* Why so ? " inquired the lieutenant.
'^ Because ye might be tempted to ask a young leddy
to sign her name there;" and what should prevent
that innocent-eyed girl turning just at this moment to
look with a pleased smile at our Bell? The Lieutenant
laughed, in an embarrassed way, and said the rugs
might as well be taken from before the fire, as they
were quite dry now.
I think none of us would have been sorry to have
stayed the night in this homely and comfortable little
inn, but we wished to get on to Lockerbie, so as to
reach Edinburgh in other two days. Moreover, the
clouds had broken, and there was a pale glimmer of
sunshine appearing over the dark green woods and
meadows. We had the horses put into the phaeton
again, and with many a Mendly word of thanks to
the good people who had been so kind to us, we started
once more to cross the Border.
'' And what do you think of the first Scotch family
you have seen?" says Queen Tita to the Lieutenant,
as we cross the bridge again.
"Madame,'' he says, quite earnestly, ''I did dream
for a moment I was in Germany again everything
so friendly and homely, and the young lady not too
proud to wait on you, and help the servant in
the cooking; and then, when that is over, to talk to
you with good education, and intelligence, and great
simpleness and frankness. Oh, that is very good
whether it is Scotch, or Grerman, or any other country
^the simple ways, and the friendliness, and the
absence of all the fashions and the hypocrisy."
"That young lady was very fashionably dressed,
Count von Bosen," says Tita with a smile.
''That is nothing, Madame. Did she not bring in
to us our dinner, just as the daughter of the house in
a German countiy inn would do, as a compliment to
you, and not to let the servant come in? Is it debase-
ment, do you think ? No. Tou do respect her for it ;
and you yourself, Madame, you did speak to her as if
she were an old friend of yours and why not, when
394 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
you find people like that, honest and good-willing
towards you?"
What demon of mischief was it that prompted BeU
to sing that song as we drove through the darkening
woods in this damp twilight? The Lieutenant had
just got out her guitar for her when he was led into
these fierce statements quoted above. And Bell with
a great gravity, sang
*' Farewell to Glenshalloch, a farewell for ever,
Farewell to my wee cot that stands by tbe river ;
The faU is load-sounding in voices that vary,
And the echoes sorroanaing lament with my Mary."
This much may be said, that the name of the young
lady of whom they had been speaking was also Mary ;
and the Lieutenant, divining some profound sarcasm
in the song, began to laugh and protest that it was
not because the girl was pretty and gentle that he
had discovered so much excellence in the customs of
Scotch households. Then Bell sang once more as
the sun went down behind the woods, and we heard
the streams murmuring in deep valleys by the side
of the road
^'Hame, home, hame, O hame fain wonld I be,
Hame, hame, hame, to my ain conntree ;
There's an eye that ever weeps, and a fair face will be fain.
As I pass tlurongh Annan water, wi' my bonny bands again ! "
We drive into the long village of Ecdefechan, and
pause for a moment or two in front of the Bush Tnn
to let the horses have a draught of water and oatmeaL
The Lieutenant, who has descended to look after this
prescription, now comes out from the inn bearing a
small tray with some tumblers on it
"Madame," said he, "here is Scotch whisky you
must all drink it, for the good of the country.''
"And of ourselves," says one of us, calling attention
to the chill dampness of the night-air.
My Lady pleaded for a bit of sugar, but that was
not allowed ; and when she had been induced to take
about a third of the Lieutenant's preparation, die put
dovm the glass with an air of having done her duij/
OF A PHAETON. 395
As for Bell, she drank pretty nearly half the quantity ;
and the chances are that if the Lieutenant had handed
her prussic acid, she would have felt herself bound, as
a compliment, to accept it.
Darker and darker grew the landscape as we drove
through the thick woods. And when, at last, we got
into Lockerbie there was scarcely enough light of Miy
sort to show us that the town, like most Scotch country
towns and villages, was whitewashed. In the inn at
which we stopped, appropriately named the Blue Bell,
the Lieutenant once more remarked on the exceeding
homeliness and friendliness of the Scotch. The land-
lord simply adopted us, and gave us advice in a grave,
paternal fashion, about what we should have for supper.
The waiter who attended us took quite a friendly
interest in our trip ; and said he would himself go and
see that the horses which had accomplished such a
feat were being properly looked after. Bell was im-
mensely proud that she could understand one or two
phrases that were ratner obscure to the rest of the
party ; and the Lieutenant still further delighted her
by declaring that he wished we could travel for months
through this friendly land, which reminded him of his
own country, fferhaps the inquisitive reader, having
learned that we drank Scotch whisky at the Bush Lm
of Ecclefechan, would like to know what we drank at
the Blue Bell of Lockerbie. He may address a letter
to Queen Titania on that subject, and he will doubtless
receive a perfectly frank answer.
\NaU "by (tuem Titania, " I do not see wliy our pretty Bell slionld
lie made &e cbkf salject of all the finegoing rsvelations. I wiU say
tiiia, that ahe and myself were convinced that we never saw two men
more jealous of each other than those two were in that inn near the
Border. The old lady was qaiU amused by U; but I do not think
the girl herself noticed it, for she is a very innocent and gentle yoone
thins:, and has probably had no experience of sach abswrmties. But 1
would like to ask who first mentioned that subject of photographs ;
and who proposed to send her a whole series of engravings ; and who
offered to send her a volnme of German songs. If Arthur had
been there, we shonld have had the langh all on our side ; bat now
I sappose they will deny that anything of the kind took place ^with
the ordinary candour of gentlemen who are fou/nd m/L^
396 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
CHAPTER XXX.
TWEED SIDE.
Ah, happy I^cios ! ^for she wu a maid
More Deautiral than ever twisted hraid,
Or sighed, or blushed, or on spring-flowered left
SpreM a green kirtle to the minstrelsy ;
A yiigin pnrest-Iipped, yet in the lore
Of love deep learned to the red heart's core."
TEm yeiy first object that we saw, on this the first
morning of our waking in Scotland, was a small
boy of seven or eight, brown-faced, yellow-haiied,
bare-footed, who was marching along in the sunlight
with a bag of school-books on his back about as big
as himself.
^ Oh, the brave little fellow I " cries Tita^ regarding
\\\rr\ from the door of the inn with a great softness
in her brown eyes. " Don't you think he will be Lord
CJhancellor some day?"
The future Lord Chancellor went steadily on, his
small brown feet taking no heed of the stones in
the white road.
" I think," says Tita, suddenly plunging her hand
into her pocket, " I thiiok I should like to give him
a shilling."
" No, Madame," says one of us to her, sternly ;
"you shall not bring into this free land the corrupting
influences of the south. It is enough that you have
debased the district around your own home. If you
offered that young patriot a shilling, he would turn
again and rend you. But if you offered him a half-
penny, now, to buy book "
At this moment, somehow or other, Bell and our
Lieutenant appear together; and before we know
where we are^ the girl has darted across the street
in pursuit of the boy.
" What are bools ? " asked the Lieutenant gravely.
'' Objects of interest to the youthfiQ student."
OF A PHAETON. 397
Then we see^ in the white glare of the son, a wistful,
small, fair and sunburned face turned towards that
yoxuig lady with the voluminous light brown hair.
She is apparently talking to him, but in a different
tongue from his own, and he looks frightened. Then
the sunlight glitters on two white coins, and Bell pats
him kindly on the shoulder; and doubtless the little
fellow proceeds on his way to school in a sort of
wild and wonderful dream, having an awful sense
that he has been spoken to by a fair and gracious
princess.
"As I live," says my Lady, with a great surprise,
"she has given him two half-crowns!"
Queen Titania looks at me. There is a meaning
in her look ^partly interrogation, partly conviction,
and wholly kind and pleasant It has dawned upon
her that girls who are not blessed with abundant
pocket-money do not give away five shillings to a
passing schoolboy without some profound emotional
cause. Bell comes across the way, looking vastly
pleased and proud, but somehow avoiding our eyes.
She would have gone into the inn, but that my
Lady's majestic presence (you could have fanned her
out of the way with a butterfly's wing !) barred the
entrance.
" Have you been for a walk this morning. Bell \ "
she says, with a fine air of indifference.
"Yes, Madame," replies our Uhlan as if he had
any business to answer for our Bell.
" Where did you go ? "
" Oh," says the girl with some confusion, "we went
we went away from the town a little way I don't
exactly know ^"
And with that she escaped into the inn.
" Madame," says the Lieutenant, with a great apparent
effort, while he keeps his eyes looking towards the pave-
ment, and there is a brief touch of extra colour in
his brown fece, "Madame ^I ^1 am asked indeed.
Mademoiselle she was good enough she is to be my
wife and she did ask me if I would tell you "
398 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
And somehow he put out his hand just as a German
boy shakes hands with you, in a timid fashion, after
you have tipped him at school and took Tita's hand
in his, as if to thank her for a great gift And the
little woman was so touched, and so mightily pleased,
that I thought she would have kissed him before my
very face, in the open streets of Lockerbie. All this
scene, you must remember, took place on the doorstep
of an odd little inn in a small Scotch country-town.
There were few spectators. The sun was shining down
on the white fronts of the cottages, and blinking on the
windows. A cart of hay stood opposite to us, with the
horse slowly munching inside his nosebag. We our-
selves were engaged in peacefully waiting for breakfast
when the astounding news burst upon us.
" Oh, I am very glad, indeed. Count von Eosen," says
Tita ; and, sure enough, there was gladness written all
over her face and in her eyes. And then in a minute
she had sneaked away from us, and I knew she had
gone away to seek Bell, and stroke her hair and put her
arms round her neck, and say, *' Oh, my dear," with a
little sob of delight
Well, I turn to the Lieutenant Young men, when
they have been accepted, wear a most annoying air of
self-satisfaction.
" Touching those settlements," I say to him ; " have
you any remark to make?"
The young man begins to laugh.
''It is no laughing matter. I am Bell's guardian.
You have not got my consent yet."
" We can do without it ^it is not an opera," he says,
with some more of that insolent coolness. ** But you
would be pleased to prevent the marriagfe, yes? For
I have seen it often ^that you are more jealous of
Mademoiselle than of anyone and it ia a wonder to
me that you did not interfere before. But as for
Madame, now ^yes, she is my very good Mend, and
has helped me very muck"
Such is the gratitude of those conceited young
fellows, and their penetration, too! If he had but
OF A PHAETON. 399
known that only a few days before Tita had taken
a solemn vow to help Arthur by every means in
her power, so as to atone for any injustice she might
have done him ! But all at once he says, with quite
a burst of eloquence (for him)
"My dear &iend, how am I to thank you for all
this? I did not know when I proposed to come to
England that this holiday tour would bring me so
much happiness. It does appear to me I am grown
very rich so rich I should like to give something
to everybody this morning and make everyone happy
as myself ^"
"Just as BeU gave the boy five shillings. All
right. When you get to Edinburgh you can buy
Tita a Scotch collie she is determined to have a
collie, because Mrs. Quinet got a prize for one at the
Crystal Palace. Come in to breakfast."
Bell was sitting there with her face in shadow,
and Tita, laughing in a very affectionate way, standing
beside her with her hands on the girl's shoulder.
Bell did not look up; nothing was said. A very
friendly waiter put breakfast on the table. The land-
lord (kopped in to bid us good morning, and see
that we were comfortable. Even the ostler, the Lieu-
tenant told us afterwards, of this Scotch inn had
conversed with him in a shrewd, homely, and sensible
fashion, treating him as a young man who would
naturally like to have the advice of his elders.
The young people were vastly delighted with the
homely ways of this Scotch inn ; and began to indulge
in vague theories about parochial education, indepen-
dence of character, and the hardihood of northern races
all tending to the honour and glory of Scotland.
You would have thought, to hear them go on in this
fashion, that all the good of the world, and all its beauty
and kindliness, were concentrated in the Scotch town of
Lockerbie, and that in Lockerbie no place was so much
the* pet of fortune as the Blue BeU Inn.
"And to think," says Bell, with a gentle regret,
"that to-morrow is the last day of our driving."
400 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
"But not the last of our holiday, MademoiseUe,**
says the Lieutenant. ** Is it necessary that any of us
goes back to England for a week or two, or a month, or
two months?"
Of course the pair of them would have liked
very well to start off on another month's excursion,
just as this one was finished. But parents and
guardians have their duties. Very soon they would
be in a position to control their own actions; and
then they would be welcome to start for Kam-
schatka.
All that could be said in praise of Scotland had been
said in the inn ; and now, as Castor and Pollux took
us away from Lockerbie into the hillier regions of
Dumfries-shire, our young people were wholly at a loss
for words to describe their delight. It was a glorious
day, to begin with: a light breeze tempering the hot
sunlight, and blowing about the perfume of sweet-briar
from the fronts of ^e stone coinages, and bringing ub
warm and resiuous odours from the woods of laxch and
spruce. We crossed deep glens, along the bottom of
which ran dear brown streams over beds of pebbles.
The warm light fell on the sides of those roclqr defts
and lit up the masses of young rowan-trees and the
luxuriant ferns along the moist banks. There was a
richly cultivated and undulating country lying all
around ; but few houses, and those chiefly farmhouses.
Far beyond, the rounded hills of Mofifat rose soft and
blue into the white sky. Then, in the stillness of the
bright day, we ccune upon a wayside school ; and as it
happened to be dinner-time we stopped to see the
stream of little ones come out. It was a pretty sights
imder the shadow of the trees, to see that ixoop of
children come into the country road ^most of them
being girls, in extremely white pinafores, and nearly all
of them, boys and girls, being yellow-haired, dear-eyed,
healthy children, who kept veiy silent and stared shyly
at the horses and the phaeton. All the younger ones
had bare feet, stained with the sun, and their yellow
hair ^which looked almost white by the side of their
OF A PHAETON. 401
berry-brown cheeks ^was free from cap or bonnet.
They did not say, " Chuck ns a 'apenny/' They did not
raise a cheer as we drove off. ^ey stood by the side
of the road, close by the hawthorn hedge, looking
timidly after tis ; and the last that we saw of them was
that they had got into the middle of the path and were
slowly going off home a small, bright, and varioas-
coloured group imder the soft green twilight of an
avenue of trees.
As we drove on through the ciear, warm day, care-
less and content, the two women had all the talking
to themselves ; and a strange use they made of their
opportunities. If the guardian angels of those two
creatures happen to have any sense of humour, they
must have laughed as they looked down and over-
heard. You may remember that when it was first
proposed to take this Prussian Lieutenant with us
on our sxmmier tour, both Bell and my Lady professed
the most deadly hatred of the German nation, and
were nearly weeping tears over the desolate condition
of France. That was about six months before. Now,
thirty millions of people, either in the south or north
of Europe, don't change their collective character
if such a thing exists ^within the space of six
months; but on this bright morning you would have
fancied that the women were vying with each other
to prove that all the domestic virtues, and all the
science and learning of civilization, and aU the arts
that beautify life, were the exclusive property of
the Teutons. My Lady was a later convert ^had
she not made merry only the other day over Bell's
naive confession that she thought the Grerman nation
as good as the French nation? but now that she
had gone over to the enemy, she altogether distanced
Bell in the production of theories, facts, quotations,
and downright personal opinion. She had lived a
little longer, you see, and knew more; and perhaps
she had a trifle more audacity in suppressing
awkward facts. At all events tifie Lieutenant was
partly abashed and partly amused by her warm
I) D
402 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
advocacy of German character, literature, music, and
a thousand other things ; and by her endeavours to
prov& out of the historical lessons she had taught
her two boys that there had always prevailed in
this country a strong antipathy to the French and
all their ways.
"Their language too," I remark, to keep the ball
rolling. *' Observe the diflference between the polished,
fluent, and delicate German, and the barbaric dis-
sonance and jumble of the French! How elegant
the one, how harsh the other ! If you were to take
Bossuet, now '*
"It is not fair," says Bell. "We were talking
quite seriously, and you come in to make a jest
of it."
" I don't. Are you aware that, at a lecture Coleridge
gave in the Boyal Institution in 1808, he solemnly
thanked his Maker that he did not know a word of
'^f^ frigMfvl jctrgon, the French languageV*
The women -were much impressed. Kiey would not
have dared, themselves, to say a word against the
3B^nch language ; nevertheless, Coleridge was a person
of authority. Bell looked as if she would like to have
some further opinions of this sort; but Mr. Freeman
had not at that time uttered his epigram about the
general resemblance of a Norman farmer to " a man of
Yorkshire or Lincolnshire who has somehow picked up
a bad habit of talking French," nor that other about
a Dane who, "in his sojourn in Gaul, had put on a
slight French varnish, and who came into England to
le washed clean again."
" Now," I say to Bell, " if you had only civilly asked
me to join in the argument, I could have given you aU
sorts of testimony to the worth of the Germans and
tiie despicable nature of the French."
" Yes, to make the whole thing absurd," says Bell,
somewhat hurt. " I don't think you believe anything
aeriously."
" Not in national characteristics even ? If not in
them, what are we to believe ? But I will help yoa
OF A PHAETON. 403
all the same, BelL Now, did yon ever hear of a sonnet
in which Wordsworth, after recalling some of the great
names of the Commonwealth time, goes on to say
** * France, 'tis strange,
Hath brought forth no such souls as we had then.
Perpetual emptiness 1 unceasing change !
Ko single volume paramount, no code,
No master spirit, no determlDod road ;
But equdly a want of books and men !
Does that please you ? "
"Yes," says Bell, contentedly.
"Well, did you ever read a poem called "Hands
aU Eonnd?"
" No."
"Ton never heard of a writer in the Examiner called
'Merlin,' whom people to this day maintain was the
Poet Laureate of England ? "
"No."
" Well, listen :
** ' What health to France, if France be she
Whom martial progress only charms ?
Yet tcU her better to be free
Than vanquish all the world in arms.
Her frantic city's flashing heats
But fire, to blast, the hopes of men.
W^ change the titles of your streets ?
Yon fools, youll want wem all again.
Hands all round !
God the tyrant's cause confound 1
To France, the wiser France, we drink, my friends, '
And the great name of England, round and zoimd 1 '
At that time, Miss Bell, thousands of people in this
country were disquieted about the possible projects of
the new French Government ; and as it was considered
that the Second Napoleon would seek to establish his
power by the fame of foreign conquest "
" This is quite a historical lecture," says Queen Xita
in an undertone.
and as the Napoleonic legend included the
Immiliation of England, many thoughtful men began
to cast about for a possible ally with whom we conld
D D 2
404 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
take the field. To which country did they tum^ do
you think ? "
''To (reimany, of course^'' says Bell, in the most
natural way in the world.
''Liaten again:
'' Gifl^tic dangHter of the West,
We drink to thee across the flood.
We know thee, and we love thee best,
For art thou not of British blood ?
Should war's mad blast again be blown,
Permit not thou the tyrant powers
To fight thy mother here alone,
But let thy broadsides roar with ours.
HandiB all round !
God the tyrant's cause confound !
To our dear kinsmen of the West, my Mends,
And tiie great name of England, round and round 1 "
Bell seemed a little disappointed that America and
not (rermany had been singled out by the poet; but
of course nations don't choose allies merely to please
a girl who happens to have engaged herself to many
a Prussian officer.
"Now," I say to her, "you see what aid I might
have given you, if you only had asked me prettSy.
But suppose we give Germany a turn now suppose
we seait^ about for all the unpleasant things ^
"Oh no, please don't,' says BeU, submissively.
This piece of unfairness was so obvious and extreme
that Yon Bosen himself was at last goaded into takiog
up the cause of France, and even went the length
of suggesting that peradventure ten righteous men
might be found within the city of Paris. 'Twas a
notable concession. I had begun to despair of France.
But no sooner had the Lieutenant turned the tide in
her favour than my Lady and Bell seemed graciously
diBpo*sed to be generous. Chateaubriand was not
Goethe, but he was a pleasing writer. Alfred de
Musset was not Heine, but he had the merit of re-
sembling him. If Auber did not exactly reach the
position of a Beethoven or a Mozart, one had listened
to worse operas than the "Crown Diamonds." The
women did not know much about philosophy; but
OF A PHAETON. 405
wliile they were sure that all the learning and wisdom
of the world had come from Germany, they allowed
that France had produced a few epigrams. In this
amiable frame of mind we drove sdong the white
road on this summer day ; and after having passed
the great gap in the Moffat Hills which leads through
to St. Mary's Loch and aU the wonders of the Ettrick
and the Yarrow, we drove into Moffat itself, and found
ourselves in a large hotel fronting a great sunlit and
empty square.
Our young people had really conducted themselves
very discreetiy. All that forenoon you would scarcely
have imagined that they had just made a solemn
promise to marry each other ; but then tbey had been
pretty much occupied with ancient and modern history.
Kow, as we entered a room in the hotel, the Lieutenant
espied a number of flowers in a big glass vase ; and with-
out any pretence of concealment whatever, he walked up
to it, selected a white rose, and brought it back to BelL
'^ Mademoiselle," he said, in a low voice but who
could help hearing him? ''you did give to me, the
other day, a forget-me-not; will you take this rose?"
Mademoiselle looked rather shy for a moment; but
she took the rose, and with an affectation of uncon-
cern which did not conceal an extra touch of colour in
her pretty face she said, " Oh, thank you very much,"
and proceeded to put it into the bosom of her dress.
'' Mademie," said the Lieutenant, just as if nothing
had occurred, ''I suppose Moffat is a sort of Scotch
Baden-Baden ? "
Madame, in turn, smiled sedately, and looked out
of the window, and said that she thought it was.
When we went out for a lounge after luncheon^ we
discovered that if Moffat is to be likened to Baden-
Baden, it forms an exceedingly Scotch and respectable
Baden-Baden. The building in which the mineral
waters are drunk ^ looks somewhat like an educational
^ " Bien entendn, d'aillenn, que le but du voyaffe
Est de prendre les eaux ; c'est on oompte i&U.
D'eauz, je n'en ai point ru lorsque j'y snis afl^ [Mais
4o6 THE STRANGE AD VENTURES
institutioii, painted white, and with prim white iron
railings. Inside, instead of that splendid saloon of
the Conversationshaus in which, amid a glare of gas, .
various characters, doubtful and otherwise, walk up j
and down and chat while their friends are losing
five-franc pieces and napoleons in the adjoining
chambers, we found a long and sober-looking reading-
room. Moffat itself is a white, clean, wide-streeted
place, and the hills around it are smooth and green ;
but it is very far removed from Baden-Baden. It
is a good deal more proper, and a great deal more
dulL Perhaps we did not visit it in the height of
the season,- if it has got a season ; but we were at
all events not very sorry to get away from it again,
and out into the hilly country beyond.
That was a pretty drive up through Annandale. As
you leave Moffat the road gradually ascends into the
region of the hills; and down below you lies a great
valley, with the river Annan running through it, and
the town of Moffat itself getting smaller in the
distance. You catch a glimmer of the blue peaks of
Westmoreland lying far away in the south, half hid
amid silver haze. The hills around you increase in
size, and yet you would not recognize the bulk of the
great roimd slopes but for those minute dots that you
can make out to be sheep, and for an occasional wasp-
like creature that you .suppose to be a horse. The
evening draws on. The yeUow light on the slopes of
green becomes warmer. You arrive at a great circular
chasm which is called by the country-folks the Devil's
Beef-tub--a mighty hollow, the western sides of which
are steeped in a soft purple shadow, while the eastern
slopes bum yellow in the sunlight. Far away down in
that misty purple you can see tints of grey, and these
are masses of slate uncovered by grass. Tlie descent
seems too abrupt for cattle, and yet there are faint
^Mais qu'on ou pnisse voir, je n'en mets rien en gage ;
Je crois m^me, en honneur, que I'eau de voisinage
A, qnand on rezamlne, nn petit godt sal^."
A. DB MUSSET.
OF A PHAETON. 407
specks whicli may be sheep. There is no house, not
even a farmhouse, near ; and all traces of Moffat and
its neighbourhood have long been left out of sight.
But what is the solitude of this place to that of the
wild and lofty region you enter when you reach the
summits of the hills ? Far away on every side of you
stretch miles of lonely moorland, with the shoulders
of more distant hills reaching down in endless succes-
sion into the western sky. There is no sign of life in
this wild place. The stony road over which you drive
was once a mail-coach road : now it is overgrown with
grass. A few old stalces, rotten and tumbling, show
where it was necessary at one time to place a protection
against the sudden descents on the side of the road;
but now the road itself seems lapsing back into moor-
land. It is up in this wilderness of heather and wet
moss that the Tweed takes its rise ; but we could hear
no trickling of any stream to break the profound and
melancholy stillness. There was not even a shepherd's
hut visible; and we drove on in silence, scarcely
daxlDg to breeik the charm of the utter loneliness of
the place.
The road twists round to the right Before us a long
valley is seen, and we guess that it receives the waters
of the Tweed. Almost immediately afterwards we come
upon a tiny rivulet some two feet in width either the
young Tweed itself or one of its various sources ; and
as we drive on in the gathering twilight towards the
valley it seems as though we were accompanied by in-
numerable streamlets trickling down to the river. The
fire of the sunset goes out in the west, but over there in
the clear green-white of the east a range of liilla still
glows with a strange roseate purple. We hear the low
murmuring of the Tweed in the silence of the valley.
We get down among the lower-lying hills, and the
neighbourhood of the river seems to have drawn to it
thousands of wild creatures. There are plover calling
and whiriing over the marshy levels. There are black
cock and grey hen dusting themselves in the road before
us, and waiting until we are quite near to them before
4o8 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
they wing their straight flight up to the heaths above.
!Far over us, in the clear green of the sky, a brace of
wild duck go swiftly past. A weasel glides out and
over the grey stones by the roadside ; and further along
the bank there are young rabbits watching, and trotting
and watching again, as the phaeton gets nearer to them.
And then, as the deep rose purple of the eastern hills
iades away, and all the dark green valley of the Tweed
lies under the cold silver-grey of the twilight, we reach,
a small and solitary inn, and are almost surprised to
hear once more the sound of a human voice.
CHAPTER XXXI.
OUR EPILOGUE.
" Nor much it grieves
To die, when BTunmer dies on the cold sward.
Why, I have been a bnttorfly, a lord
Of flowers, garlands, love-knots, silly posies,
Groves, meadows, melodies, and arbour-roses :
Hy kingdom's at its death.'*
When you have dined on ham and eggs and whisky
the evening before, to breakfast on ham and eggs and
tea is a great relief the morning after. We gathered
round the table in this remote little inn with much,
thankfulness of heart We were to have a glorious day
for the close of our journey. All round the Crook Ttit^
there was a glare of sunslune on the rowan-trees. The
soft greys and greens of the hills on the other side of
. the river rose into a pale-blue sky where there was not
a single cloud. And then, to complete the picture of
the moorland hosteliy, appeared a keeper who had just
set free from their kennel a lot of handsome setters, and
the dogs were flying hither and thither along the white
road and over the grass and weeds by the tall hedges.
"Do you know," said Bell, "that this used to be
a posting-house that had thirty horses in its own
stables ; and now it is only used by a few sportsmen
OF A PHAETON. 409
who joome here for the fishing and later on for the
shooting ?"
So she, too, had taken to getting up in the morning
and acquiring information.
"Tes," she said, "but it has been taken by a new
landlord, who hopes to have gentlemen come and lodge
here by the month in the autumn."
She was beginning to show a great interest in the
affairs of strangers : hitherto she had cared for none of
these things, except where one of our Surrey pensioners
was concerned.
" And the ostler is such an intelligent and indepen-
dent old man, who lets you know that he imderstands
horses a great deal better than you."
I coula see that my Lady was mentally tracking
out Bell's wanderings of the morning. Under whose
tuition had she discovered all that about the land-
lord? Under whose guidance had she found herself
talking to an ostler in the neighbourhood of the
stables ? But she had not devoted the whole morning
to such inquiries. We remarked that the Lieutenant
wore in his button-hole a small bouquet of tiny
wild-flowers, the faint colours of which were most
skilfully combined and shown up by a bit of fern
placed behind them. You may be sure that i was
not the clumsy fingers of the young Uhlan that had
achieved that work of art
"And now, my dear children," I observe, from the
head of the table, " we have arrived at the last stage
of our travels. We have done nothing that we ought
to have done; we have done everything that we
ought not to have done. As one of you has already
pointed out, we have never visited a museum, or
explored a ruin, or sought out a historical scene
Our very course has been inconsistent, abnormal,
unreasonable indeed, if one were to imagine a sheet
of lightning getting tipsy and wandering over the
country in a helpless a!shion for several days, that
might describe our route. We have had no adven-
tures that could be called adventures, no experiences
4IO THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
to turn our hair grey in a dozen hours ; only a general
sense of light, and fresh air, and motion, and laughter.
We have seen green fields, and blue skies, and
silver lakes ; we have seen bright mornings and
breezy days, and spent comfortable evenings in com-
fortable inns. Shall we not look back upon this
month in our lives^ and call it the month of sunshine
and green leaves?"
Here a tapping all round the table greeted the orator^
and somewhkt disconcerted him; but presently he
proceeded :
" If, at times, one member of our party, in the reck-
less exercise of a gift of repartee which heaven, for
some inscrutable reason, has granted her, has put a
needle or two into our couch of eider-down '*
''I pronounce this meeting dissolved," says Bell
quickly, and with a resolute air.
" Tes, Mademoiselle," put in the Lieutenant *' It is
dissolved. But as it breaks up it is a solemn occasion
^might we not drink one glass of champagne ^"
Here a shout of laughter overwhelmed the young
man. Champagne up in tese wild moorlands of Peebles,
where the youthful Tweed and its tributaries wander
through an absolute solitude ! The motion was nega-
tived without a division ; and then we went out to look
after Castor and Pollux.
All that forenoon we were chased by a cloud as we
drove down the valley of the Tweed. Around us there
was abimdant sunlight falling on the grey bed of
. the river, the brown water, the green banks and hills
i beyond; but down in the southwest was a great mass
: of cloud which came slowly advancing with its gloom.
Here we were still in the brightness of the yellow glare,
with a cool breeze stirring the rowan-trees and the tall
weeds by the side of the river. Then, as we got further
down the valley, the bed of the stream grew broader.
There were great banks of grey pebbles visible, and the
brown water running in shallow channels between,
where the stones fretted its surface, and caused a
murmur that seemed to fill the silence of the smooth
OF A PHAETON. 411
hills around Here and there a solitary fisherman was
visible, standing in the river and persistently whipping
the stream with his supple fly-rod. A few cottages
began to appear, at considerable intervals* But we
came to no village; and as for an inn, we never ex-
pected to see one. We drove leisurely along the now
level road, through a country rich with waving fields of
grain, and dotted here and there with comfortable-
looking farmhouses.
Then Bell sang to us :
" npon a time I chanced
To walk along the green,
Where pretty lasses &iced
In strife, to choose a queen ;
Some homely dressed, some handsome,
Some pretty and some ^y.
But who excelled in dancing
Must be the Queen of mkj**
But when she had sung the last verse
" Then aU the rest in sorrow,
And she in sweet content.
Gave over till the morrow,
And homewards straight they wentL
But she, of aU the rest^
Was hindered by the way,
For eyery youth that met her
Must KISS the Queen of Kay," "%
my Lady said it was very pretty, only why did Bell
sing an English song after she had been trying to
persuade us that she held the English and their music
in contempt?
" Now, did I ever say anything like that ?" said BeU,
turning in an injured way to the lieutenant.
" No," says he, boldly. If she had aaked him to
swear that two and two were seven, he would have said
that the man was a paralyzed imbecile who did not
know it already.
" But I will sing you a Scotch song, if you please,"
says Bell, shrewdly suspecting that that was the object
of Tita's protest.
"WillyegangtotheHielandsy Leesde Lindsay f "
^this was what Bell sang now
412 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
" Will ye gang to the Hielands wi' me ?
Will ye gang to the Hielauds, Leezie Lindflay,
My pride and my darling to be ! "
" To gang to the Hielands wi' you, Bir,
I dinna ken how that may be ;
For I ken nae tlie land that you liye in,
Nor ken I the lad I'm gaun wi'."
And so forth to the end, where the young lady *' kflte
up her coats o' green satin/* and is off with Lord
Ronald Macdonald Probably the Lieutenant meant
only to show that he knew the meaning of the word
"Hielands;" but when he said
"And we do go to the Highlands, yes?" the girl
was greatly taken aback. It seemed as though he
were coolly placing himself and her in the position
of the hero and heroine of the song ; and my Lady
smiled, and Bell got confused, and the Lieutenant,
not knowing what was the matter, stared, and then
turned to me to repeat the question. By this
time Bell had recovered herself, and she answered
hastily
"Oh yes, we shall go to the Highlands, shall we
not? ^to the Trossachs, and Ben Nevis, and Auchen-
asheen *^
"And Orkney too, Bell? Do you know the wild
proposal you are making in laying out plans for
another month's holiday?"
"And why not?" says the Lieutenant. "It is only
a pretence, this talk of much work. You shall send
the horses and phaeton back by the rail from Edin-
burgh; then you are firee to go away anywhere for
another month. Is it not so, Madame?"
Madame is silent She knows that she has only to
say " yes " to have the thing settled ; but thoughts of
home and the cares of that pauperized parish crowd
in upon her mind.
"I suppose we shall get letters from the boys to-
night, when we reach EdinburgL There will be letters
from home, too, saying whether everything is right
down there. There may be no reason for going back
at once."
OF A PHAETON. 413
She was evidently yielding. Was it that she wanted
to give those young people the chance of a summer
ramble which they would remember for the rest of their
life? The prospect lent a kindly look to her face ; and,
indeed, the whole of them looked so exceedingly happy,
and so dangerously forgetful of the graver aspects of
life, that it was thought desirable to ask them whether
there might not be a message from Arthur among the
batch of letters awaiting us in Edinburgh.
'Twas a random stroke, but it struck home. The
conscience of these careless people was touched. They
knew in their inmost hearts that they had wholly for-
gotten that unhappy young man whom they had sent
back to Twickenham with all his faith in human nature
destroyed for ever. But was it pity for him that now
filled their faces, or a vague dread that Arthur might,
in the last extremity of his madness, have gone up to
Edinburgh by rail to meet us there ?
" He promised us an important communication," says
my Lady.
She would not say that it was understood to refer to
his marriage ; but that was the impression he had left.
Very probably, too, she was haunted by speculations as
to how such a marriage, if it took place, would turn
out ; and whether little Katty Tatham would be able
to reconcile Arthur to his lot, and convince him that
he was very fortunate in not having married that faith-
less Bell.
"Madame," said the Lieutenant, suddenly he did
not care to have that pitiful fellow Arthur receive so
much consideration " this is a very sober country.
Shall we never come to an inn? The champagne I
spoke of, that has gone away as a dream ; but on this
warm day a little lemonade and a little whisky that
would do to drink the health of our last drive, yes!
But there is no inn nothing but those fields of com,
and farmhouses."
At last, however, we came to a village. The Lieu-
tenant proposed to pull up and give Castor and Pollux
a mouthful of water and oatmeal it was always
414 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
Castor and Pollux that were supposed to be thirsty.
But what was his amazement to find that in the village
there was no inn of any kind !
" I wish there were some villages of this sort down
in our part of the country," says Queen Tita, with a
sigh. " With us, they build the public-house first, and
that draws other houses."
And with that Bell began to relate to the lieute-
nant how my Lady was once vexed beyond measure
to find just as she was coming out of an obscure
public-house on a Sunday morning, after having com-
pelled the tipsy and quarrelling landlord thereof to
beg forgiveness of his wife a whole group of visitors
at the Squire's house coming along the road from
church, and staring at her as if she had gone into
the public for refreshment. It was a vastly interesting
stoiy, perhaps; but the sulky young man paid little
heed to it. He wore an injured look. He kept looking
far ahead along the road; and, although it was a very-
pretty road, he did not seem satisfied. At length he
piQled the horses up, and hailed a farmer who, in his
white shirt-sleeves, was working in a field dose by,
along with a domestic group of fellow-labourers.
"I say," called out the lieutenant, "isn't there
an inn on this road?"
''Ay, that there is," said the man, with a grim
smile, as he rose up and drew his sleeve across his
forehead.
How far yet?"
" Twa miles. It's a temperance hoose ! "
" A temperance hoose," said the Lieutenant to Bell ;
" what is a temperance hoose ? "
" They don't sell any spirits there, or beer, or wine."
''And is that what is called temperance ?" said the
lieutenant, in a peevish way; and then he called
out again^ "Look here, my good friend, when do we
come to a proper kind of inn ? "
" There is an inn at Ledbum ^that's eight miles on."
^Eight miles! And where was the last one we
passed?"
OF A PHAETON. 4^5
^ Well, that maun be about seven miles back."
" Thank yon. It is healthy for you, perhaps, but
how you can live in a place where there is no public-
house not for fifteen miles well, it is a wonder.
Grood day to you ! "
"Gude day, sir!" said the farmer, with a broad,
good-humoured laugh on his face ; the Lieutenant was
obviously not the first thirsty soul who had com-
plained of the scarcity of inns in these parts.
" These poor horses," growled the Lieutenant as we
drove on. " It is the hottest day we have had. The
clouds have gone away, and we have beaten in the
Tace. And other eight miles in this heat *^
He would probably have gone on compassionating
the horses, but thsft he caught a glimpse of BeU
demurely smiling, and then he said
"Ha, you think I speak for myself, Mademoi-
selle? That also, for when you give your horses
water, you should drink yoursdf always, for the good
of the inn. But now that we can get nothing, Madame,
shall we imagine it, yes ? What we shall (Mnk at the
Ledbum inn ? Have you tried, on a hot day, this
one glass of sparkling hock poured into a tumbler, then
a bottle of seltzer water, then three drops of Angostura
bitters, and a lump of ice ? That is very good; and this
too you put a glass of pale sherry in the tumbler,
then a little lemon juice ''
" Please, Count von Bosen, may I put it down in my
note-book ?" says Tita, hurriedly. *' You know I have
your recipe for a luncheon. Wouldn't these do for it ?"
"Yes, and for you!" says a third voice. "What
madness has seized you, to talk of ice and hock in
connection with Ledbum ? If you get decent Scotch
whisky and ham and eggs for luncheon, you may con-
sider yourselves well off."
" I am a little tired of that sort of banquet," says my
Lady, with a gentle look of resignation. " Couldn't we
drive on to Edinburgh?"
But for the sake of the horses, we should all have
been glad to do that; for the appearance of this
4i6 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
liCdbum inn, when we got to it, impressed us with awe
and terror. 'Tis a cutthroat-looking place. The dingy
dilapidated bmlding stands at the parting of two roads ;
the doors were shut as we drove up to it, there was no
one about of whom we could ask a question. It looked
the sort of place for travellers to reach at dead of night,
and become the subject of one or other of the sombre
adventures which are associated with remote and
gloomy inns in the annals of romance. When we did
get hold of the landlord, his appearance was not pre-
possessing. He was a taciturn and surly person.
There was apparently no ostler, and he helped Yon
Bosen to take the horses out of the phaeton, but he did
so in a fashion which awoke the ire of the lieutenant
to a serious degree, and some sharp words were being
bandied about when I drove the women into the inn.
" That is a dreadful person," said my Lady.
" Why ? He haa become morose in this solitary inn,
that is alL If you were shut up here for a few years,
what would you become?"
We had ham and eggs and whisky in a dingy little
chamber upstairs. The women would touch nothing
^notwithstanding that the Lieutenant came in to an-
nouilce that the shoe of one of the horses had got
loose, and that a smith would have to be sent for from
some distance off. Moreover, when the smith did
come, it was found that our ingenious landlord had not
informed him what was required of him, and con-
sequently he had brought no tools. Should we send
the horse back with him, or would he despatch a boy
for his tools?
'*How many miles is it to Edinburgh?" says my
Lady.
" About a dozen, I should think."
" We couldn't walk that, do you think ? " she says to
Bell, with a doubtful air.
Bell could walk it very well, I know; but she
regards her companion for a moment, and says
"We must not try."
Looking at this fix, and at the annoyance the women
OF A PHAETON. 417
experienced in being detained in this inhospitable
hostelry, that young Prussian got dreadfully enraged
He was all the more wroth that there was no one
on whom he could reasonably veiit his anger ; and, in
fact, it was a most fortunate thing for our host that he
had at last condescended to be a little more civil The
Lieutenant came up into the room, and proposed that
we should play at b^zique. Impossibla Or would
Mademoiselle care to have the guitar taken out?
Mademoiselle would prefer to have it remain where it
was. And at length we went outside and sat in the
yard, or prowled along the uninteresting road, until the
smith arrived, and then we had the horses put in and
set out upon the last stage of our journey.
We drove on in the deepening sunset The ranges
of the Pentland Hills on our left were growing darker,
and the wild moorland country around was getting to
be of a deeper and deeper purple. Sometimes, from
the higher portions of the road, we caught a glimpse
of Arthur's Seat, and in the whiter sky of the noith-
east it lay there like a pale-blue cloud. We passed
through Pennycuick, picturesquely placed along the
wooded banks of the North Esk. But we were driving
leisurely enough along the level road, for the horses
had done a good day's work, and there still remained
a few miles before they had earned their rest.
Was it because we were driving near a great city
that Von Bosen somewhat abrupdy asked my Lady
what was the best part of London to live in! The
question was an odd one for a young man. Bell
pretended not to hear she was busy with the reins.
Whereupon Tita began to converse with her companion
on the troubles of taking a house, and how your Mends
would inevitably wonder how you could have chosen
such a neighbourhood instead of their neighbourhood;
and assure you, with much compassion, tlmt you had
paid far too much for it.
" And as for Pimlico," I say to him, " you can't live
there ; the sight of its stucco would kill you in a
month. And as for Brompton, you can't live there;
E E
41 8 THE STRANGE ADVENTURE^
it lies a hundred feet below the level of the Thames.
And as for South Kensington, you can't live there;
it is a huddled mass of mews. And as for Belgravia
or Mayfair, you can't live there; for you could not
pay the rent of a good house, and the bad houses are in
slums. Paddington ? a thousand miles from a theatre.
Hampstead ? good-bye to your friends. Bloomsbury ?
the dulness of it will send you to an early grava
Islington? ^you will acquire a Scotch accent in a
fortnight. Clapham ? you will become a Dissenter.
Denmark Hill? ^they will exclude you from all the
fashionable directories. Brixton? ^the 'endless meal
of brick ' will drive you mad. But then it is true that
Pimlico is the best-drained part of London. And
Brompton has the most beautiful old gardens. And
South Kensington brings you close to all sorts of
artistic treasures. And Hampstead has a healthy sitoa-
tion. And Mayfair is close to the Park. And Clap-
ham is close to several commons, and oflFers you
excellent drives. And Denmark Hill is buried in
trees, and you descend from it into meadows and
coimtry lanes. And Islington is celebrated for pos-
sessing the prettiest girls in the world. And Brixton
has a gravelly soil so that you see, looking at all these
considerations, you will have no difficulty whatever in
deciding where you ought to live."
" I think," said the young man, gravely, " the easiest
way of choosing a house in London is to take one in
the country."
* Oh, do live in the country ! " exclaims Tita, with
much anxiety. " Tou can go so easily up to London
and take rooms about Bond Street or in Half-moon
Street, if you wish to see pictures or theatres. And
what part of the country near London could you get
prettier than down by Leatherhead ? "
Bell is not appealed to. She will not hear. She
pretends to be desperately concerned about the horses.
And so the discussion is postponed, Bine die, until the
evening; and in the gathering darkness we approach
Edinburgh.
OF A PHAETON, 419
How long the way seemed on this the last night of
our driving I The clear twilight faded away ; and the
skies overhead began to show faint throbbings of the
stars. A pale yellow glow on the horizon told us where
the lights of Edinburgh were afire. The road grew
almost indistinguishable ; but overhead the great worlds
became more visible in the deep vault of blue. In a
perfect silence we drove along the still highway, between
the dark hedges ; and clearer and more clear became the
white constellations, trembling in the dark. What was
my Lady thinking of of Arthur, or her boys at Twick-
' enham, or of long-forgotten days at Eastbourne as she
looked up at all the wonders of the night ? There lay
King Charles's Wain as we had often regarded it from
a boat at sea, as we lay idly on the lapping waves. The
jewels on Cassiopeia's chair glimmered faint and pale ;
and all the brilliant stars of the Dragon's hide trembled
in the dark. The one bright star of the Swan recalled
many an evening in the olden times ; and here, nearer
at hand, Capella shone, and there Cepheus looked over
to the pole-star as from the distance of another universe.
Somehow it seemed to us that under the great and
throbbing vault the sea ought to be lying clear and
dark; but these were other masses we saw before us,
where the crags of Arthur's Seat rose sharp and black
into the sky. We ran in almost under the shadow of
that silent mass of hill. We drew nearer to the town ;
and then we saw before us long and waving lines of red
fire the gas-lamps of a mighty street. We left the
majesty of the night outside, and were soon in the heart
of the great city. Our journey was at an end.
But when the horses had been consigned to their
stables, and all arrangements made for their transference
next day \A London, we sat down at the window of a
Princes Street Hotel The tables behind were inviting
enough. Our evening meal had been ordered, and at
length the Lieutenant had the wish of his heart in
procuring the Schaumwein with which to drink to the
good health of our good horses that had brought us
so far. But what in all the journey was there to equal
420 THE STRANGE ADVENTURES
the magic sight that lay before us as we turned to
these big panes ? Beyond a gulf of blackness, the old
town of Edinburgh rose with a thousand points of fire
into the clear sky of a summer night. The tail houses,
with their eight or nine stories, had their innumerable
windows ablaze ; and the points of orange light shone
in the still blue shadow until they seem^ to form part
of some splendid and enchanted palace built on the
slopes of a lofty hiU. And then beyond that we coxild
see the great crags of the Castle looming dafk in the
starlight, and we knew, rather than saw, that there
were walls and turrets up there, cold and distant,
looking down on the yellow glare of the city beneath.
What was Cologne with the coloured lamps of its
steamers as you see them cross the yellow waters of
the Shine when a full moon shines over the houses
of Deutz or what was Prague with its countless spires
piercing the starlight and its great bridge crossing over
to the wooded heights of the Hradschin compared to
this magnificent spectacle in the noblest city of the
world ? The lights of the distant houses went out one
by one. The streets became silent. Even the stars
grew paler ; but why was that ? A fiednt lights golden
and soft, began to steal along the Castle-hill ; and the
slow, mild radiance touched the sharp slopes, the trees,
and the great grey walls above, which were under
the stars.
" Oh, my dear," says Tita, quite gently, to Bell, " we
have seen nothing like that, not even in your own
country of the Lakes 1 "
[iVofo &y Qiwun IVtoma. "It iieems they have put npon me the
responsibility of saying ihi last icard, which is not quite fair. In the
old comedies it was always the heroine of the piece who came forward
to the footlights, and in her prettiest wav spoke the epilM;ae ; and of
coarse the heroine was always young ana nioe-lookinff. IfBM would
only do that, now, I am sure you would be pleased ; but she is afraid
to appear in public As for mffaelf, I don't know what to say. Count
Yon Rosen suggests that I should copy some of the andent autiiors and
merely say ' Farewell, and clap your hands ; ' but yery likely that is
a joke ^for who can tell when gentlemen intend to be amunngf and
Krhaps thej never said anything so foolish. But, as jou are not to
adaressed by the heroine of the piece, perhaps, considering my age
OF A PHAETON. 421
\oKich I am seldom cUlotoed to forget ^perhaps a word of adTioe may
be permitted. And that is to the ladies and gentlemen who always go
abroad and spend a great deal of time and money in hiring carriages to
drive them in foreign parts. Of coarse everyone on^t to go abroad ;
bnt why every year I I am sore I am not prefudieedf and I never
eigoyed any tour abroad so mnch as this one iJirongh England. I do
consider England (and of course yon must include Scotland and Ireland)
the moat heimtiful eowitry in the toarld. I have never been to America ;
but that does not matter. It eamnot he more beantiful than England.
If it Ib, so much the better, bnt I for one am quite satisfied with
England ; and as for the old-fiuhioned and quaint places you meet on
a driving tour such as this, I am sure the American ladies and gentle-
men whom I have met have always admitted to me that they were
delight/ul. Well, that is alL I wall say nothing about our young
friends, for I think auMeient revelations have been made in the fore-
going nages. Arthur nas only been to see us once since our return,
and of course we could not ask him the reason of his getting married
so tmexpededly, for Katty was with him, and very pleased and happy
she looked. Arthur was very dvil to our Bell ; which shows that ma
marriage has improved him in one respect ; but he was a little cold and
distant at the same time. The poor girl was dreadfully fri^tened ;
but she made herself very friendly to him, and kissed little Katty in
the most affectionate manner when they wero goinff away. Lucidly,
perhaps, Lieutenant von Rosen was up in London ; out when he came
aown next day. Bell had a great deal to tell him in private ; and the
result of the conversation of which we elderlp /otkSf of course, are
not permitted to know anything seemed to be very pleasing to tiiem
both. Then thero was a ti^ between my husband and him iu the
evening about a loose-box in certain stables. Bell came and put her
arm round my waist, and besought me very prettily to tell her what
were the nicest colours for a dnwing-room. It seems then is some
house, about a couple of miles from here^ which thev have visited ;
but I am not going to tell you any more. As our Beu lA too shy to
come forward, I suppose I must say good-bye for her, and thank you
very much indeed for coming with us so &r on such a long and round*
about journey. ^T."]
THE END.
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landscapes and of the emergencies and the fun and the delight of a
picnic jour f ley through them by a party determined to enjoy them'
selveSy and as well matched as the pair of horses which drew the
phaeton they sat in. The real charm and purpose of the book is
its open-air life among hills and dales. ^^ Times. ** TJie great
cfmrm of Mr. Black^s book is that there is nothing hackneyed
about it, nothing overdrawn^ all is bright and lifelike. All $9
told naturally J pleasantly , and with so infectious a sense of enjqy-
menty that the reader longs to have been with him in real earnest,
not merely accompanying him in fancy by the winter fireside.
Should Castor and Pollux take him on any future journeyy he will
not lack eager inquiries for another of his delightjul travel stories ;
none the less delightful that they tell of familiar scenes^ familiar
English faces y homely customs, and ho7fiely pleasures.'^ MORNING
Post.
A PRINCESS OF THULE. Three vols. Fifth Edition. Crown
Svo. 3 1 J. 6d,
; " ^ beautiful and nearly perfect story. " S pectator
BELLES LETTRES.
Brooke. THE FOOL OF QUALITY; or, THE HISTORY
OK HENRY, EARL OF MORELAND. By Henry Brooke.
Newly revised, with a Biographical Preface by the Rev. Charles
KiNGSLEY, M.A., Rector of Eversley. Crown 8vo. 6j.
The Preface to the book tells all that is known of this remarkable man
of last century f and of his varied works. Over ^*The Fool of
Quatily " he spent several years, and in it we have the whole man ;
the education of an ideal nobleman has given him room for all his
speculations on theology, political economy, the, relation of sex and
family, and the training, moral and physical^ oj a country gmtU-
man. The pathos is healthy and simple.
Broome. the stranger of SERIPHOS. a Dramatic
Poem. By Frederick Napier Broome. Fcap. 8vo. 5j.
Founded on the Greek legend of Danae and Perseus, " Grace and
beauty of expression are Mr, Broom^s charactetistics ; and these
qualities are displayed in many passages,*^ ATHENiEUM. " The
story is rettdered with consumtnate beauty, " Literary Church-
MAN.
Cabinet Pictures. oblong folio, price 42J.
This is a handsome portfolio containing faithfully executed and
beautifully coloured reproductions of five well-known pictures :
** Childe Harold's Pilgrimage'* ami " The Fighting Thfih-aire^^*
by J. M, W. Turner; ** Crossing the Bridge,'' by Sir fV, A.
Ctilhott; ** The Cornfidd," by John Constailc ; and ** A Land-
sca/r," by Birket Foster. The Daily News says of tkem^
** They are very beautifully executed, and might be framed and
hung up on the wall, as creditable substitutes for the originals. ^^
CABINET PICTURES. A Seconrl Series.
Contat'iing: ** The Baths of Cahgula'' and ^* The Golden Bough "
by J. IV. M. Turner; " The Little Brigand," by T. L'-^it^ ;
** The Like of Lucerne," by Percival Skclton ; '* Evening Kcst "
by E, M. Wimperis, Oblong folio. 42J.
BELLES LETTRES.
Carroll. Works \^ " Lewis Carroll : "
ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND. With Forty-
two Illustrations by Tenniel. 40th Thousand. Crown 8vo.
cloth, ts.
A GERMAN TRANSLATION OF THE SAME. With Ten-
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AN ITALIAN TRANSLATION OF THE SAME. By T. P.
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^* Beyond question supreme among modern books for children,^*
Spectator. ** One of the choicest and most charming books
ever composed for a child* s reading." Pall Mall Gazette.
** A very pretty afid highly original book, sure to delight the little
world of wondering minds , and which may well please those taho
have unfortunately passed the years of wondering" Times.
THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS, AND WHAT ALICE
FOUND THERK With Fifty Illustrations by Tenniel. Crown
8vo. gilt. dr. 32nd Thousand.
In the present volume is described^ with inimitably clever and
laughter-moving nonsense^ the further Adventures of the Jairy-
favoured Alice, in the grotesque world which she found to exist on
the other side of her mother's drawing-room, looking-glass, through
which she managed to make her way. The work is profusely
embellished with illustrations bv Tenniel, exhibiting as great an
amount of humour as those to which "Alice^s Adventures in
Wonderland" owed so much of its popularity.
Children's (The) Garland, from the best poets.
Selected and arranged byJCovENTRY Patmore. New Edition.
With Illustrations by J. Lawson. Crown 8vo. Cloth extra. 6f.
8 BELLES LETTRES,
Christmas Carol (A). Printed in Colours from Original
Designs by Mr. and Mrs. Trevor Crispin, with Illuminated
Borders from MSS. of the 14th and 15th Centuries. Imp. 4to. doth
inlaid, gilt edges, ;f3 y. Also a Cheaper Edition, 2ij.
c
A most exquisitely ^t up volume. Legend^ card, and text art
preciously enshrined tn its emblazoned pages, and the illuminaUd
borders are far and away the best example of their art we have semt
this Christmas, The pictures and borders are hamumious in their
colouring^ the dyes are brilliant without being rcau^ and the volume
is a trophy 0/ colour-printing. The binding by Bum is in the very
bat taste." Tidies.
Church (A, J.) HOR^ TENNYSONIAN^E, Sive Edogae
e Tennysono Latine redditse. Cura A. J. Church, A.IkL
Extra fcap. 8vo. dr.
Latin versions of Selections from Tennyson. Among the authors
are the Editor^ the late Professor Coningtony Professor Setiey^
Dr. Hessey^ Mr. Kebbel, and other gentlemen. ** Of Mr, Church's
de we may speak in almost unqualified praise^ and the same tm^
be said of the contributions generally.^* V MA. Mall Gazette.
Clough (Arthur Hugh). the POEMS AND PROSE
REMAINS OF ARTHUR HUGH CLOUGH. With a
Selection from his Letters and a Memoir. Edited by his Wife.
With Portrait. Two Vols. Crown 8vo. 2ij.
The late Professor Clough is well known as a graceful^ tender
poetf and as the scholarly translator of Plutarch, The letters
possess high interest, not biographical only, but literary discuss*
ing, as they do, the most important questiotis of the time, always
in a genial spirit. The ^* Remains " include papers on ** Retrench-
ment at Oxford; " on Professor F, W. Newmat^s book, " Tike
Soul ; " on Wordsworth ; on the Formation of Classical English ;
on some Modern Poems [Alattlieio Arnold and the late Alexander
Smith), Sr^. &^c. ** Taken as a whole," the SPECTATOR says^
" these volumes cannot fail to be a lasting tnonument of one of the
most original men of our age." ** Full of charming letters from
Rome," says the Morning Star, **from Greece, from Americet^
from Oxford, and from Rugby,"
BELLES LETTRES.
Clough continued.
THE POEMS OF ARTHUR HUGH CLOUGH, sometime FeUow
of Oriel College, Oxford. Fourth Edition. Fcap. 8vo. 6s.
** From the higher mind o/culiwatedj tdUquesHoning^ but still constT"
votive England^ in this our puxzled generation, we do not know
of any utterance in literature so characteristic as the poems of
Arthur Hugh Clough," Fraser's Magazine.
Clunes. THE STORY OF PAULINE: an Autobiography.
By G. C Clunes. Crown 8vo. 6s,
** Both for vivid ddinecttion of character and fluent lucidity oj style,
* 77u Story oJ Pauline^ is in the first rank of modem fictionJ**
Globe. " Told with delightful vivacity, thorough appreciation of
life, and a complete knowledge oJ character.*^ MANCHESTER
Examiner.
Collects of the Church of England, with a beautifully
Coloured Floral Design to each Collect, and Illuminated Cover.
Crown 8vo. I2s, Also kept in various styles of morocco.
" This is beyond question," the Art JOURNAL says, " the most
beautiful book of the season" ** Carefully, indeed lovingly drawn
and daintily coloured," says the Pall Mall Gazette. The
Guardian thinks it ^* a successful attempt to associate in a ncUural
and unforced manner the flowers of our fields and gardens with the
course of the Christian year
f
Cox. RECOLLECTIONS OF OXFORD. By G. V. Cox, M.A.,
late Esquire Bedel and Coroner in the University of Oxford.
Second and cheaper Edition. Crown Svo. 6s,
Mr, Cox^s Recollections date from the end of last century to ^uite
recent times. They are full of old stories and traditions, epigrams
and personal traits of the distinguished men who have been at
Oxford during thai period. The TIMES says that it ''wUl
pleasantly recall in many a country parsonage the memory ^qf
youthjul days. " ,
lo BELLES LETTRES.
Culmshire Folk. By Ignotus. Three vols. Crown 8vo.
3 1 J. (d.
** Its sparkling pleasantness^ its droUery^ its shrewdness^ the charming
little bits of character which frequently come in^ its easy IrvdimsSf
and a certain cliattiness which^ while it is never vulgar^ brings the
writer very near^ and makes one feel as if the story were being told
in lazy confidence in an fwur of idleness by a fftan who, while
tJtoroughly good-natured y is strongly humorousy and has an ever^
present perception of the absurdities of people attd things*^ Spec-
tator.
Dante, DANTE'S comedy, the hell. Translated by
W. M. RossKTTi. Fcap. 8vo. cloth. 5j.
" The aim oj this translation of Dante may be summed up in one
wordLiterality, To follow Dante sentence for sentence, line
for line, word for word neither more nor less, has been my
strenuotis endeavour,** Author's Preface.
Days of Old ; stories from old English history.
By the Author of "Ruth and her Friends." New Edition.
i8mo. cloth, extra, tj, 6d.
The Contents of this interesting and instructive volume are, ** CareH
doc and Deva,** a story of British life in the first century ;
'* Wolfgan and the Earl ; or. Power,** a story of Saxon Eng^
land : and " Roland/* a story of the Crusaders. * * Full oftnttk-
ful and charming historic pictures, is everywhere vital with moral
and religious principles, and is written with a brightness of de-
scription, and with a dramatic force in the representation of
character, that have made, and will always make, it one of the
greatest favourites with reading boys" Nonconformist.
Deane. MARJORY. By Milly Deane. Third Edition.
With Frontispiece and Vignette. Crown Svo. 4^. (d.
The Times of September i Uh says it is ** A very touching story, JuU
of promise for the after career of the authoress. It is so tenderly
BELLES LETTRES. 1 1
drawriy and so full of life atid grace^ that any attempt to. analyse
or describe it falls sadly short of the original. We will venture
to say that few readers of any natural feeling or sensibility will
take up * Marjory^ without riding it through at a sitting,
and we hope we shall see more stories by the same hand " The
Morning Post calls it *'A deliciously fresh and charming little
love story J*'*
De Verc THE INFANT BRIDAL, and other Poems. By
Aubrey De Vere. Fcap. 8vo. 7j. 6^/.
**^ Mr, De Vere has taken his place among the poets of the day.
Pure and tender feelings and that polished restraint of style which
is called classical, are the charms of the volume^ Spectator,
Doyle (Sir F. H.) LECTURES ON POETRY, delivered
before the University of Oxford in 1868. By Sir Francis
Hastings Doyle, Professor of Poetry in the University of
Oxford. Crown 8vo. 3J. 6d,
Three Lectures : (i) Inaugural, in which the nature of
Poetry is discussed; (2) Provincial Poetry; (3) Dr. NewmatCs
*^ Dream of Gerontius^ "Pull of thoughtful discrimination
and fine insight: the lecture on * Provincial Poetry* seems to
us singularly true, eloquent, and instructive** SPECTATOR.
*^All these dissertations are marked by a scholarly spirit, delicate
taste, and the discriminating powers of a trained judgment,**
Daily News.
Estelle RuSSelL By the Author of "The Private Life of
Galileo." New Edition. Crown 8vo. 6j.
Full of bright pictures of French life. The English family, whose
fortunes form the main drift of the story ^ reside mostly in France, but
there are also many English characters and scenes of great interest.
It is certainly the work of a fresh, vigorous, and most interesting
writer, with a dash of sarcastic humour which is refreshing and
not too bitter, ** PVe can send our readers to it with confidence,**
Spectator.
12 BELLES LETTRES.
Evans. BROTHER FABIAN'S MANUSCRIPT, AND
OTHER POEMS. By Sebastian Evans. Fcap. 8va doth. dr.
" In this volunu we have full assurance that he has * the vision and
the faeulty divine,* . . . Clever and full of kindly humour ^^
Globe.
Evans. THE curse of immortality. By A. Eubule
Evans. Crown 8vo. dr.
** Never ^ probably ^ has the legend of the Wandering yew been more
ably and poetically handled. The author writes as a truepoet^ and
with the skill of a true artist. The plot of this remarkable drama
is not only wdl contrived, but worked out with a degree of simplicity
and truthful vigour altogether unusual in modern poetry, Infact^
since the date of Byron^s * Cain,^ we can scarcely recall any verse
at once so terse, so powerful, and so masterly,^* ^Standard.
Fairy Book. The Best Popular Fairy Stories. Selected and
Rendered anew by the Author of "John Halifax, Gentleman."
With Coloured Illustrations and Ornamental Borders by J. E.
Rogers, Author of ** Ridicula Rediviva." Crown 8vo. cloth,
extra gilt. 6x. (Golden Treasury Edition. i8mo. /^, td.)
**A ddightfitl selection, in a delightful external form, ^* Spectator.
Here are reproduced in a new and charming dress many old
favourites, as *' Hop-d -my- Thumb,'' ''Cinderella," " Beauty and
the Beast," '' Jack the Giant-kUler;' " Tom Thumb,'' '' Rumpd-
stilzchen," ''Jack and the Bean-stalk," "Red Riding-Hood,"
" The Six Swans," and a great many others. "A book which
will prove delightful to children all the year round," Pall Mali
Gazette.
Fletcher. THOUGHTS FROM A GIRL'S LIFE. By Lucy
Fletcher. Second Edition. Fcap. 8vo. 4^. 6d,
"Sweet and earnest verses, especially addressed to girls, by one who
can sympathise with them, ami who has endeavoured to give articulate
utterance to the va^ue aspirations after a better life of pious endeavours
which accompany the unfolding consciousness of the inner life in
girlhood. The poems are all graceful; they are marked throughout
by an accent of reality; the thoughts and emotions are genuine,**
ATHENiUM.
BELLES LETTRES. 13
Garnett. IDYLLS and epigrams. Chiefly from the Greek
Anthology. By Richard Garnett. Fcap. 8vo. 2j. td,
"A charming little book. For English readers^ Mr, Gamdt^s
translations will open a new world of thought^^ Westminster
Review.
Gilmore. STORM WARRIORS ; OR, LIFE-BOAT WORK
ON THE GOODWIN SANDS. By the Rev. John Gilmore,
M.A., Rector of Holy Trinity, Ramsgate, Author of "The
Ramsgate Life-Boat," in Macmillan^s Magazine. Crown 8vo. dr.
** The stories^ which are said to be literally exacts are more thrilling
than anything in fiction. Mr. Gilmore has done a good ivork as
well as written a good booJi'.''DML.\ News.
Gladstone. JUVKNTUS MUNDL ' The Gods and Men of the
Heroic Age. By the Right Hon. W. K Gladstone, M.P.
Crown 8vo. cloth extra. With Map. los. 6d. Second Edition.
This new work of Mr. Gladstone deals especially with the history
element in Horner^ expounding that element and furnishing by its
aid a full account of the Homeric men and the Homeric religion.
It starts, after the introductory chapter, with a discussion of the
several races then existing in Hellas, including the influence of^ the
Phoenicians and Egyptians. It contains chapters * * On the Olympian
System, with its several Deities; " *^ On the Ethics and the Polity of.
the Heroic Age;" '' On the Gco^aphy of Homer ;" ''On the Cha-
racters of the Poems ; " presenting, in fine, a view of primitive life and
primitive society as found in the poems of Homer. To this New
Edition various additions have been made, * * To read these brilliant
details," says the ATHENiUM, **m like standing on the Olympian
threshold and gazing at the ineffable brightness within. " According
/? M^ Westminster Review, "ir would be difficult to point out
a book that contains so much fulness of knazvletige along with so
much freshness of perception and clearness of presentation."
Guesses at Truth. By Two Brother?. With Vignette
Title and Frontispiece. New Edition, with Memoir. Fcap. 8vo.
dr. Also see Golden Treasury Series.
Tfiese ** Guesses at Truth " are not intended to tdl the reader what
14 BELLES LETTRES.
to think. They an rather meant to 5(rvc the purpose of a quarry
in whichj if one is Imilding up his opinions for himself^ and only
wants to be provided with materials^ he may meet with mnny
things to suit him,
Hamerton. a painter's camp. Second Ediiion, revised.
Extra fcap. 8vo, 6j,
Book I. In England; Book IT. /// Scotland; Book III. In France,
** Tluse pageSf written with infinite spirit and hutfwur, bring into
close roomSf back upon tired /leadSf the breezy airs of Lancashire
moors and Higfdand lochs, witfi a freshness which no recent
novelist has succeeded in preserving, " NoNXON FORMIST. * * Ills
pages sparkle with many turns of ixpression, not a feiv wdl-told
anecdotes^ and many observations which are the fruit of attentive
study and wise reflection on the complicated plunometta of
human life, as well as of unconscious nature^"* Westminster
Review.
Heaton. HAPPY SPRING TIME. Illustrated by OsCATC
Pletsch. With Rhymes for Mothers and Children. By Mrs.
Charles Heaton. Crown 8vo. cloth extra, gilt edges. 31. 6/.
** The pictures in this book are capital,^' Athen^um.
Hervey. duke ERNEST, a Tragedy; and other Poems.
Fcap. 8vo. 6j.
** Conceived in pure taste and true historic feeling, and presented with
muck dramatic force, .... Thoroughly original.*^ British .
Quarterly.
HigginSOn. MALBONE: An Oldport Romaiice. By T. W..
HiGGlNSON. Fcap. Svo. 2s. 6d.
The Daily News says: ** Who likes a quiet story ^ full of
mature thought, of clear, humorous surprises, of artistic studious
design ? * Midbone* is a rare ivork, possessing tfuse characteristics^,
and replete, too, with honest literary effort^
BELLES LETTRES. 15
Hillside Rhymes.Extra fcap. 8vo. 5^.
Home. BLANCHE LISLE, and other Poems. By Cecil
HomeI Fcap. 8vo. 4J. 6^.
Hood (Tom). THE pleasant tale of puss and
ROBIN AND THEIR FRIENDS, KITTY AND BOB.
Told in Pictures by L. FroLICH, and in Rhymes by Tom Hood.
Crown 8vo. gilt. 3 J. 6/.
This is a pleasafii little tale of wee Bob and his Sister, and their
attempts to rescue poor Robin from the cruel claws of Pussy. It
will be intelligible and interesting to the meanest capacity^ and is
illustrated by thirteen graphic aits drawn by Fr'dlich, *' Hie
volume is prettily got up^ and is sure to be a favourite in the nursery, "
Scotsman. * * Herr Frolich has outdone himself in his pictures
of this dramatic chase. " MoRNiNG Post.
Keary (A.) Works by Miss A. Keary :
JANET'S HOME. New Edition. Globe Svo. 2s. ed.
** Never did a more charming family appear upon the canvas; and
most skilfully and felicitously have their characters been portrayed.
Each individual of the fireside is a finished portrait, distinct and
lifelike, , . . The future before her as a novelist is tliat of becoming
the Miss Austin of her generation." SuN.
CLEMENCY FRANKLYN. New Edition. Globe 8vo. 2j. 6^.
^^ Full of wisdom and goodness, simple, truthful, and artistic. . . //
is capital as a story; better still in its pure tone and wholesome
influence, " Globe.
OLDBURY. Three vols. Crown Svo. 31J. 6d,
**This is a very powerfully written story. ^^ Globe!. **This is a
really excellent novel," iLiAJsr RATED London News. *' T^
sketches of society in Oldbury are excellent. The pictures of child
life are full of truth,^* ^Westminstek Review.
i6 BELLES LETTRES,
Keary (A. and E.) Works by A. and E. Keary:
THE LITTLE WANDERLIN, and other Fairy Tales. i8mo.
** TTie tales are fanciful and well written, and they are sure to win
favour amongst little readers. " Athenaeum.
THE HEROES OF ASGARD. Tales from Scandinavian
Mythology. New and Revised Edition, Illustrated by Huard.
Extra fcap. Svo. 4^. 6d,
** Told in a light and amusing style, which, in its drollery and
quaintness, reminds us of our old favourite Grimm.** Times.
Ringsley. Works by the Rev. Charles Kingsley, M.A.,
Rector of Eversley, and Canon of Westminster :
Canon Kingsley' s novels, most will admit, have not only com"
mandcd for themselves a foremost place in literature, as artistic
productions of a high class, but ftave exercised upon the age an
incalculable influence in the direction of the highest Christian
manliness. Mr. Kingsley has done more perhaps than almost any
otlier writer of fiction to fashion the generation into whose hands the
destinies of the world are now being committed. His works will
therefore be read by all who wish to have their hearts cheered and
their souls stirred to noble endeavour ; they must be read by all
who wish to know the influences which moulded the men of this
century,
"WESTWARD HO!" or, The Voyages and Adventures of
Sir Amyas Leigh. Ninth Edition. Crown Svo, 6j.
No other work conveys a more vivid idea of 4he surging, adventurous.^
nobly inquisitive spirit of the generations which immediately foU
lowed the Reformation in England, The daring deeds of the
Elizabethan heroes are told with a freshness, an enthusictsm, and a
truthfulness that can belong only to one who wishes he had been
their leader. His descriptions of the luxuriant scenery of the then-
new-found Western land are acknoivledged to be unmatched,,
Eraser's Magazine calls it ^^ almost the best historical novel of '
the day:'
BELLES LETTRES, 1 7
Kingsley (C.) continued.
TWO YEARS AGO. Fifth Edition. Crown 8vo. Is,
**Afr. Jdngsley has provided us all along with such pleasant diversions
such rich and brightly tinted glimpses of natural history^ such
suggestive remarks on vtankind, society^ and all sorts of topics^
t/iat amidst the pleasure of the way , the circuit to be made will be by
most forgotten, "Guardian.
HYPATIA ; or, New Foes with an Old Face. Seventh Edition.
Crown 8vo. df.
The work is fro; n begitming to end a series of fascinating pictures
of strange phases of that strange primitive society ; and no finer
portrait lias yet been ghjen of the tioble-minded lady who was
faithful to martyrdom in her attachment to the classical creeds.
No work affords a clearer notion of the many interesting problems
which agitated the minds of men in those days, and which, in
various phases, are again coming up for discussion at the present
time,
HEREWARD THE WAKE LAST OF THE ENGLISH.
Second Edition. Crown 8vo. 6s,
Mr. Kingsley here tells the story 0/ the final conflict oj the two
races, Saxons and Normans, as if he himself had borne a part in it.
While as a work of fiction ^^ Hernvard^^ cannot fail to delight all
readers, no better supplement to the dry history of the time could be
put into the hands of the young, containing as it does so vivid a
picture of the social and political life of the period,
YEAST : A Problem. Sixth Edition. Crown 8vo. ^s.
In this production the author shows, in an interesting dramatic form,
the state of fermentation in which the minds of many earnest
men are with regard to some of tJie tnost important religious and
social problems of the day,
ALTON LOCKE. New Edition. With a New Preface. Crown 8vo.
4r. 6d,
This novel, which shows Jorth iht evils arising from modern ** caste,**
has done much to remove the unnatural barriers which existed
between i/ie various classes of society, and to establish a sympathy to
some extent bctzveeti the higher and lower grades of the social scale,
B
1 8 BELLES LETTRES.
Kingsley (C.) continued.
Though written with a purpose, it is full of character and interest^
the etuthor shows, to quote the Spectator, **what it is that con
sHiutes the true Christian, God-fearing, man-living genllemanj*
THE WATER BABIES. A Fairy Tale for a ^ani Baby. New
Edition, with additional Illustrations by Sir NoEi. PatqN; R.S. A.,
and P. Skelton. Crown 8vo. cloth extra gilr. 5^.
^^I^funj in humour, and in innocent imagination, as a child's
book we do not know its equal" London Review. "J/r.
Kingsley must have the credit of revealing to us a nciv order of life,
. . . There is in the * Water Babies ' an aimndance of wit, fun ^
g^ood humour, geniality, elan, go^ Times.
THE HEROES ; or, Greek Fairy Tales for my Children. With
Coloured Illustrations. New Edition. i8mo. 4r. 6/.
** We do not think these heroic stories have ever been more attractively
told, . . There is a deep under-current of religious feeling traceable
throughout its pages which is sure to influence young readers power^
fully," London Review. ** One of the children* s books that
will surely become a classic," NONCONFORMIST.
PHAETHON ; or. Loose Thoughts for Loose Thinkers. Third
Edition. Crown 8vo. 2s,
** The dialogue of * Phaethon * has striking beauties, and its sugga^
Oons may meet half-way many a latent doubt, and, like a lighi
breeze, lift from the soul clouds that are gathering heavily, and
threatening to settle down in misty gloom on the summer of many
a fair and promising young life.*^ Spectator.
POEMS ; including The Saint's Tragedy, Andromeda, Songs,
Ballads, etc. Complete Collected Edition. Extra fcap. Svo. 6f.
Canon Kingsley^ s poetical works have gained for their author^
indepefidently of his other ivorks, a high and enduring place in
literature, and are much sought after. The publishers have here
collected the whole of them in a moderately-priced and handy
volume. The Spectator calls ''^Andromeda" ^^ the fittest piece
0/ English hexameter verse t/iat has ever been written. It is a
volume which many readers will be glad to possess."
BELLES LETTRES. i^
" - - I . I - __ L II . _L n vm\.w .
Kingsley {C)-^onHnud,
PROSE IDYLLS. NEW AND OLD. Second Edition. Crown
8vo. 5j.
Contents: y^ Chann of Birds; Chalk; Stream Studies; The
Fens ; My Winter- Garden ; From Ocean to Sea ; North Devon.
^* Altogether a delightful book // exhibits the author's best
traitSy and cannot fail to infect the reader with a Icrve of nature
and of out'door life and its enjoyments. It is well calculated to
bring a gleam of summer with its pleasant associations, into the
bleak winter-time ; while a better companion for a summer ramble
could hardly be found." British Quarterly Review.
Kingsley (H.) Works by Henry Kingsley :
TALES OF OLD TRAVEL. Re-narrated. With Eight full-page
Illustrations by IIUARD, Fourth Edition. Crown 8vo. cloth,
extra gilt. 5j.
In this volume Mr, Henry Kingsley re-fiarrateSy at the same time
presei-ving much oft/u quaintness of the original^ some of the most
fascinating tales of travel contained in the collections of Hakluyt
and others. The Contents are: Marco Polo ; The Shipwreck
of Pelsart ; The Wonderful Adventures of Andrew Battel ; The
Wanderings of a Capuchin; Peter Carder; The Preservation of
the ** Terra iVoz'U ;** Spitzbergcn ; D^ Ermenonvill^ s Acclimatiza-
tion Adventure; T/ie Old Slave Trade; Miles Philips; The
Sufferings of Robert Everard ; John Fox ; Alvaro JVunez; The
Foundation of an Empire, **We ktiow no bttter book for those
who want knowleilge or seek to refresh it. As for the * sensational^*
most novels are tame compared with these narratives" Athk-
NiEUM. ^* Exactly the book to interest and to do good to intelligent
and high-spirited boys." Literary Churchman.
THE LOST CHILD. With Eight Illustrations by Frolich.
Crown 4to. cloth gilt. y. 6d,
This is an interesting story of a littU boy, the son of an Australian
shepherd and his wife, who lost himself in the bush, and who was,
after much searching, found dead far up a mountain-side. It
contains many illmtratiom from thi well-known pencil of Fr'dlich,
^* A pathetic story, and told so as to give children an interest in
B 2
^ BELLES LETTRES,
Kingsley (H.) cotUinued,
Amtralian ways and scenery. " Globe. ** Very charmingly and
very touchingly told'^ SATURDAY REVIEW.
OAKSHOTT CASTLE. 3 Vols. Crown 8vo. 31J. 6^.
** No one who takes up ' Oakshott Castle * will iinllingly put it dawn
until the last page is turned, . . . It may fairly be considered a
capital story f full ofgo^ and abounding in word pictures of storms
and wrcchs J* ^Observer,
KnatchbuU-Hugesscn. Works by E. H. Knatchbull-
Hug ESSEN, M.P. :
Mr. Knatchbull-Hugessen has won for himself a reputation as an
inifnitable teller of fairy-tales. ** His powers y^* says the TIMES,
*^ are of a very high order ; light and brilliant narrative flaws
from his pen, and is fed by an invention as graceful as it is inex^
haustible." '* Children reading his stories,^* the Scotsman says,
**or hearing them read, will have their minds refreshed and in^
vigoratedas much as their bodies would be by abundance of fresh
air and exercise."
STORIES FOR MY CHILDREN. With Illustralions. Fourth
Edition. Extra fcap. 8vo. 5^.
" The stories are charming, and full of life and fun *^ Standard.
** The author has an imagination as fafuiful as Grimm himself ^
while some of his stories are superior to anything that Hans ChriS"
tmn Andersen lias written.'^ Nonconformist.
CRACKERS FOR CHRISTMAS. More Stories. With Illustra-
tions by Jellicoe and Elwes. Fourth Edition. Crown Sva
** A fascinating little volume, which will make him friends in every
household in which tliere are children. ^^ ^Daily News.
MOONSHINE: Fairy Tales. With lUustrations by W. Brunton.
Sixth Edition. Crown 8vo. cloth gilt. 5^.
BELLES LETTRES. 21
Kn^tchbuU-Hugessen (E. lA.)-^ontinued.
Here will be found ** an Ogre^ a Dwarf a Wizard, quantities of Elves
and Fairies, and several animals who speak like mortal men and
women, " There are tivelve stories a nd nine irresistible illustrations.
**A volume of fairy tales, written not only for ungroivn children,
but for bigger, and if you are nearly worn out, or siek, or sorry,
you will find it good reading. " Gra PH la * * The most charming
volume of fairy tales which we have ever read. . . . We cannot
quit this very pleasant book loithout a word of praise to its illus-
trator. Mr, Br union from first to last has done admirably.^
Times.
*
TALES AT TEA-TIME. Fairy Stories. With Seven Illustra
tions by W. Brunton. Fifth Edition. Crown 8vo. cloth gilL 5j.
" Capilally illustrated by W. Brunton. . . . In frolic and fancy they
are quite equal to his other books. The author knows how to write
fairy stories as they should be written. The whole book is full of
the most delightful drolleries. ^^ Times.
QUEER FOLK. FAIRY STORIES. Illustrated by S. E.
Waller. Fourth Edition. Crown 8vo. Cloth gilt. ^s.
" Decidedly the authors happiest effort. . . . One of tlie best story
books of the year. ^' Hour.
KnatchbuU-Hugessen (Louisa) the history of
PRINCE PERRYPETS. A Fairy Tale. By Louisa Knatcm-
bull-Hugessen. With Eight Illustrations by Weicand.
New Edition. Crown 4to. cloth gilt. 3J. 6/.
" A grand and exciting fairy tale. "MORNING POST. * ' A delicious
piece oj fairy nonsense." Iia.vstratkd London News.
Latham. SERTUM SHAKSPERIANUM, Subnexis aUquot
aliunde excerptis fioribus. Latine reddidit Rev. H. Latham,
M.A, Extra fcap. 8vo. 5j.
Besides versions of Shakespeare, this volume contains, among other
pieces^ Gray's *' Elegy," CampbelVs ** Ilohenlinden^" Wolffs
** Burial of Siryohn Moore" and selections from Cowper and
George Herbert,
as BELLES LETTRES.
Lemon. THE LEGENDS OF NUMBER NIP. By Mark
Lemon. With Illustrations by C. Keene. New Edition. Extm
fcap. 8vo. 2^. 6/.
Lifo and Tinxes of Conrad the Squirrel, a Story
for Childrtn. By the Author of "Wandering Willie," 'Effic's
Friends," &c. With a Frontispiece by R. Farrsn. Second
Edition. Crown 8vo. 3^ 6^.
// is sufficient to commend this story oj a Squirrel to the attention of
reader Sy that it is by the author of the beautiful stories qf ^^Wan^
dering Willie" and *'Effi^s Friends.'' It is well calculated t
make children take an intelligent and tender interest in tks Umer
animals.
X^ittle Estella, and other FAIRY TALES FOR THE YOUNG.
iSmo. cloth extra. 2s, 6^.
** This is a fitie story, and we thank heaven for not being too wise to
enjoy //."Daily News.
Lowell. Works by J. Russell Lowell :
AMONG MY BOOKS. Six Essays. Dryden Witchcraft-
Shakespeare once More New England Two Centuries Ago
Lessing Rousseau and the Sentimentalists. Crown Svo, 'js^ 6/.
" IVe may safely say the volu?ne is one of which our chief complaint
must be that there is not more of it. There are good sense and lively
feeling forcibly and tersely expressed in every page of his writing,'^
Pall Mall Gazette.
COMPLETE POETICAL WORKS of James Russell Lowell.
With Portrait, engraved by Jeens. i8mo. cloth extra. 4J. d.
It has been generally acknowledged that Mr. Lowdl is one of the most
readable and most national of the American poets. The neat little
volume contains the whole of his poetical works, including the
famous '*Bigl4nv Papers** and *' Th Cathedral;^* to the former,
a glossary is added, and a truthful portrait of the author, engraved
by Mr, Jeens, is prefixed to the volume.
BELLES LETTkES, 23
Ljrttelton. Works by Lord LVtteltON :
THE "COMUS" OF MILTON, rendered into Greek Verse.
xtra fcap. Zyo. 5/.
THE **SAMSOl^ AGONISttS" OF MILTONy retitod into
Greek Verse. Extra fcap. 8vo. 6lf. ^d,
" Classical in spirit^ full of force^ and true to the original,^*
Guardian.
Maclar^n. THE l-'AliiY family, a serie? of Ballad^ and
Mctrfcal Talfts illustrating the Fairy Wyfhoiogy of Etnro^'6, By
ARCHIBALD Maclaren. With Frontispiece, llhistrsrt^d Title,
aftd Vignette. Crown Svo. gilt, ^s,
*^ A successful attempt to translate into the vernacular some of the
Fairy Mythology of Europe. The verses are very good. There is
no shirking difficulties of rhyme, and the ballad metre which is
oftenest employed has a great deal of the kind of 'go * which wifind
so seldom outside the pages of Scott. The book is of perfnanent
z/.?///^." Guardian.
MdCmillatl'S Magazine. Published Monthly. Prictf rj-.
Volumes L to XXIX. are now ready, yj. bd. each.
Macmillan & Co.'s Half-crown Series of Juvenile
BOOKS. Pott 8vo. cloth extra.
THE PRINCE AND tHE PAGE, ^y the Author of *' Th6 Heir
of Redclyffe." With Illustrations by Farren.
THE LITTLE DUKE. By the Author of "The Heir of Redclyffe."
RUTH AND ft[ER FRIENDS. A Story for Girls.
DAYS OF OLD. By the Author of " Ruth and her Friends."
LITTLE ESTELLA, AND OTHER TALES FOR THE
YOUNG.
LITTLE WANDERLIN, AND OTHER FAIRY TAtES. By
A. and E. Keary.
24 BELLES LETTRES.
Macquoid. patty. By Katharine S. Macquoid. Third
and Cheaper Edition. Crown 8vo. 6j.
** A book to be ready ^Standard. **^ powerful and fascinaHng
story." Daily Telegraph. The G-love, considers it **well-
written^ amusing^ and interesting^ and has the merit of being out
of the ordinary run of novels.*^
Maguire, YOUNG prince marigold, and other
FAIRY STORIES. By the late John Francls Maguire, M.P.
Illustrated by S. E. Waller. Globe 8vo. gilt. 4J. dd,
\ \ " The author has evidently studied the ways and tastes ofchitdren and
got at the secret of amusing them ; and /tas succeeded in what is nai
so easy a task as it may seem in producing a really good children's
book" Daily Telegraph.
Marlitt (E.)THE COUNTESS GISELA. Translated from
the German of E. Marlitt. Crown 8vo. yj. 6d,
** A very beautiful story of German country life.*^ Literary
Churchman.
Ma^$On (Professor). Works by David Masson, M.A.,
Professor of Rhetoric and English Literature in the University
of Edinburgh. (See also Biographical and Philosophical
Catalogues.) ^
BRITISH NOVELISTS AND THEIR STYLES. Being a Critical
Sketch of the History of British Prose Fiction. Crown 8vo. ^s, 6d.
** Valuable for its lucid analysis of fundamental principles, its breadth
of view, and sustained animation ofstyle,*^ SPECTATOR. *^ Mr,
Masson sets before us with a bewitching ease and clearness which
nothing but a perfect mastery of his subject could have rendered
possible, a large body of both deep and sound discriminative criticism^
on all the moit memorable of our British novelists His
brilliant and instructive book^ John Bull.
Mazini. IN THE GOLDEN SHELL ; A Story of Palermo.
By Linda Mazini. With Illustrations. Globe* 8vo. cloth gilt.
4r. 6i^.
BELLES LETTRES. 25
Merivale. KEATS' Hyperion, rendered into Latin Veise.
By C. Merivale, B.D. Second Edition. Extra fcap. 8vo.
Milncr. THE lily of LUMLEY. By Edith Milner.
Crown 8vo. 7j. (xi,
** The novel is a good one and decidedly worth the reading,^''
Examiner. *M pretty j brightly-written story.'''' LITERARY
Churchman. "^ tale possessins; the deepest interest ^ Court
Journal.
Milton's Poetical Works. Edited with Text collated from
the best Authorities, with Introduction and Notes by David
Masson. Three vols. 8vo. With Two Portraits engraved by C.
II. Jeens. (Uniform with the Cambridge Shakespeare).
\Nearly Ready*
Mistral (F.) MIRELLE, a Pastoral Epic of Provence. Trans-
lated by H. Crichton. Extra fcap. 8vo. 6j.
It would be hard to overpraise the sweetness and pleasing Jreshnest,
of tlds charming epic.^' Athenaeum. ** A good translation of
a poem tliat deserves to be known by all students of literature and
friends of old-world simplicity in story-telling.^* NONCON-
FORMIST.
c
Mitford (A. B.) tales of old japan. By A. B.
MiTFORD, Second Secretary to the British Legation in Japan.
With Illustrations drawn and cut on Wood by Japanese Artists.
Two Vols. Crown 8vo. 21J.
** TTiey will always be interesting as memorials of a most exceptional
society ; while^ regarded simply as tales, they are sparkling, sensa*
tionalf and dramatic, and the originality of their ideas and the
quaintness of their language give them a most captivating piquancy.
The illustraiions are extremely interesting, and for the cuncus in
such matters have a special and particular value,** Pall Mall
Gazette.
26 BELLES LETTRES,
Mr, Pisistratus Brown, M,P., in THE HIGHLANDS.
New Edition, with Illustrations. Crown 8vo, 3x. 6d.
** The book is calculated to recall pleasant memories of Jiolidays weH
spentf and scenes not easily to be forgotten. To those who hav_
never been in the Western Highlands^ or sailed along the Frith of
Clyde and on the Western Coast, it will seem almost like d fairy
story. There is a charm in the volume which makes it anything
but easy for a reader who has opened it to put it down until the laji
page has been read" Scotsman.
Mrs. Jerningham's Journal, a Poem purporting to be the
Journal of a newly-married Lady. Second Edition. Fcap. Svo.
3j. 6d,
"ft is nearly a perfect gem. We have had nothing so good jor a
long iimCy and those who neglect to read it are neglecting one of
the Jewels of contemporary history." EDINBURGH DAILY RE-
VIEW. ** One quality in the piece, sufficient of itself to claim a
moment* s attention, is that it is unique original, indeed, is not too
strong a word in the man tier of its conception a/td execution,*''
Pali. Mall Gazette.
Mudie. STRAY LEAVES. By C. E. MuDrn. New Edition.
Extra fcap. 8vo. 35. 6./. Contents: "His and Mine"
"Night and Day" "One of Many," &c.
This little 7'olume consists of a nuvib:r of poems, mostly of a genuinely
dei'otional character. '* They are for the most part so exquisitely
siveet and delicate as to be quite a marvel of composition. They are
worthy of being laid up in the recesses of the heart, and recalled to
m^Moryfrom time to tiyne." Illustrated London News.
Myers (Ernest). the puritans. By Ernest Myers.
Extra fcap. Svo. cloth. 2s. 6d.
^* It is not too much to call it a really grand poem, stately and dig-
nified, and showing not only a high poetic mind, but also great
power over poetic expression?'' Literary CfturcHman.
Myer? (P. W. H.) POEMS. By F. W. H. Myers. Con-
tainiiig "St. Paul," "St. John," and others. Extra fcap. Svo.
4J. (id.
BELLES LETTRES. 27
"7/ M rar^ to find a wriier who cotnhines to such an extent the faculty
of communicating feelings with the faculty of euphonious express
sion" Spectator. *^*St. Paul ' stands without a rival us the
noblest religious poem which has been written in an age which
beyond any other has been prolific in this class of poetry. The sub'
limest conceptions are expressed in language which^ for richness,
taste, and purity, we have tiever seeti excdled" John Bull.
NichoL HANNIBAL, A HISTORICAL DRAMA. By John
NiCHOL, B.A. Oxon., Regius Professor of English Language and
Literature in the University of Glasgow. Extra fcap. 8vo. *js. 6d,
** T/u poem combines in no ordinary degr^ firmness attd workman-
ship. After the lapse of many centuries, an English poet is found
paying to the great Carthagenian the worthiest poetical tribute which
has as yet, to our knowledge, been afforded to his noble afid stainless
name.^^ Saturday Review.
Nine Years Old.By the Author of "St. Glare's,'^ "When I
was a Little Girl," &c. Illustrated l)y Frolick. ^Third Edition.
Extra fcap. 8va cloth gilt. 4^. 6/.
It is believed that this story, by the favourably knoivfi author Oj
*' St. Olav/s," will be found both highly interesting and instriictvve
to the young. The volume contahts eight graphic illustrafions by
Mr. L. Frblick. T/ie Examiner says: ^^ Whether the readers
are nine years old, or tivice, or seven times as old, they must enjoy
this pretty volume."
NoeL BEATRICE, AND OTHER POEMS. By the Hon.
RODEN NOKL. Fcap. 8vo. 6j.
**Itis impossible to read the poefn through without being porwerfodly
moved. There are passages in it which for intensity and tender-
ness^ dear and vivid vision, spontaneous and delicate sympathy,
may be compared with the best efforts of our best living writers."
Spectator. " // is long since we have seen a volume of poems
which has seemed to us so full of the real stuff of which we are
made, and uttering so freely the deepest wants of this complicated
age^'* British Quarterly.
2? BELLES LETTRES.
Norton* Works by the Hon. Mrs. Norton :
THE LADY OF LA GARAYE. With Vignette and Frontispiece.
New Edition. Fcap. 8vo. 4J. 6^.
"^ poem entirely unaffected^ perfectly original^ so true and yet s&
fanciful f so strong and yet so womanly ^ with painting so exquisite^
a pure portraiture of the highest affections and the deepest sorrows^
and instilling a lesson true, simple, and sublime J* Dublin
University Magazi ne. * * Full of thought well expressed, and
may be classed among her best efforts^ Times.
OLD SIR DOUGLAS. Cheap Edition. Globe 8vo. 2J. W.
" This varied and lively novel this clever novel so full of character^
and of fine incidental remark,** Scotsman. ** One of the
pleasantest and healthiest stories of modern fiction.** Globe.
Oliphant. Works by Mrs. Oliphant :
AGNES HOPETOUN'S SCHOOLS AND HOLIDAYS. New
Edition with Illustrations. Royal i6mo. gilt leaves. 4;. 6d,
" There are few books of late years more fitted to touch the hearty
purify the feeling, and qtticken and sustain right principles.**
Nonconformist. *M more gracefully written story it is impos'
sible to desire.** TAii.Y News.
A SON OF THE SOIL. New Edition. Globe 8vo. 2s. 6d.
"It is a very different work from the ordinary run of novels.
The whole life of a man is portrayed in it, worked out with subtlety
and insight.** Athenaeum. ** With entire freedom from any
sensational plot, there is enough of incident to give keen interest to
the narrative, and make us feel as we read it that we have been,
spending a few hours with friends who will make our own lives
better by their own noble purposes and holy Irinng.** British
Quarterly Review.
Our Year, a Child's Book, in Prose and Verse. By the Author
of "John Halifax, Gentleman.'* Illustrated by Clarence
DoBELL. Royal j6mo. y. Cd.
"It is Just the book we could wish to see in the hands of every child**
English Churchman.
BELLES LETTRES, 29
Olrig Grange. Edited by Hermann KuNst, Philol. Professor.
Extra fcap. 8vo. 6j. (xl.
The North British Daily Mail, in reviewing the viork^ speaks
of it as affording ^^ abounding evidence of genial and generative faculty
working in self 'decreed modes, A masterly and original power ofim-
pression^ pouring itself forth in clear, sweet, strong rhythm. , . .
Easy to cull remarkable instances of thrilling fervour, of glowing
delicacy, of scathing and trenchant scorn, to point out the fine and
firm discrimination of character which prevails throughcut, to dwell
upon the ethical power and psychological truth wliich are exhibited^
to note the skill xvith which the diverse parts of the poem are set in
organic relation, . . . It is a fine poem, full of life, of music, and
of clear vision,^*
Oxford Spectator, The. Reprinted. Extra fcap. 8vo.
V^(id,
These papers, after the mantter of Addison* s ^^ Spectator,** appeared
in Oxford from Novanber 1867 to December 1868, at intervals
varying from two days to a week. They attempt to sketch several
features of Oxford life from an undergraduates point of view, and
to give modem readings of books which undergraduates study.
^^ There is** the Saturday Review says, ^^ all the old fun, the
old sense of social ease and brightness a fid freedom, the old medley
oj work and indolence, of jest and earnest, that made Oxford life
so picturesque,**
Palgrave. ^Works by Francis Turner Palgrave, M.A., late
Fellow of Exeter College, Oxford :
THE FIVE DAYS' ENTERTAINMENTS AT WENTWORTH
GRANGE. A Book for ChildreiL With Illustrations by Arthur
Hughes, and Engraved Title-page by Jeens. Small 4to. cloth
extra. 6r.
If you want a really good book for both sexes and all ages, buy
this, as handsome a volume of tales as you*ll find in all the
market. ** Athen^UM. * * Exquisite both inform and substance. "
}vardian.
f
30 BELLES LETTRES.
'PdXgTdiVCcontiHutd.
LYRICAL POEMS. Extra fcap. 8vo. 6/.
** A volusne of pure quiel verse^ spariding with tender melodies^ and
alive unih thoughts of genuine poetry, . . . T^m where we will
throughout the volume, we find traces of beauty ^ tenderness, and
truth ; true poe^s work, touched and refined by the master^hand oj
a real artist, who shows his genius even in trijtes" STANDARD.
ORIGINAL HYMNS. Third Edition, enlaiged. i8mo. is. W.
** So choice^ so perfect^ and so refined, so tender in feeling, and so
scholarly in expression, thcU we look ^oiih special 'interest to euay-
thing that he gives us," Literary. Church MAN.
GOLDEN TREASURY OF THE BEST SONGS AND LYRICS
Edited by F. T. Palgrave. Sec Golden Treasury Series.
SHAKESPEARE'S SONNETS AND SONGS. Edited by F. T.
Palgrave. Gem Edition. With Vignette Title by J e ens. y.6d,
* For minute eUgance no voluvie could possibly excel the * Gem
Edition.* "Scotsman.
Parables. TWELVE PARAHLKS of our lord, illus-
trated in Colours from Sketches taken in the East by McEniry,
with Frontispiece from a Picture by John Jellicok, and lliumi-
nated Texts and Borders. Royal 4to. in Ornamcnial Binding. i6f.
T/ic Scotsman calls this ^^one of the tnost supcib books of the
season.** The richly and tastefully illuminated borders are from
the Brevario Grimani, in St, Mark^s Library, Venice, The
Times calls it *^ one of the most beautiful of modern pictoricU
works ;" while the Graphic says ** nothing in this style, so good,
has ever before been published,"
Patmore. THE children's garland, from the Best
Poets. Selected and arranged by Coventry Patmore. New
Edition. With Illustrations by J. Lawson. Crown 8vo. gilt 6j.
Golden Treasury Edition. i8mo. 41. 6^.
The cJtarming illtistrations added to many 0/ the poems will add
greatly to their value in the eyes of children." Dailv News.
((
BELLES LE TTRES, 3 1
Pcmber. THE tragedy of LESBOS. a Dramatic Pom.
By . H. Fember. Fcap. 8vo. 4J. 6^.
Founded upon the story of Sappho, * ^He tells his story with dramatic
force, and in language that often rises almost to grandeur,**
Athenaeum.
Poole. PICTURES OF COTTAGE LIFE IN THE WEST
OF ENGLAND. By Margaret E. Poole. New and Cheaper
Edition. With Frontispiece by R. Farren. Crown 8vo. 3J, ^,
" Charming stories of peasant life^ written in something of George
Eliot* s style, . . . Her stories could not be other than tJiey are, as
literal as truth, as romantic as fiction, full of pathetic touches
and strokes of genuine humour, , , . All the stories are studies
of actual life, executed with no mean art.** TIMES.
Population of an Old Pear Tree. From the French
of E. Van Bruyssel. Edited by the Author of ** The Heir of
Redclyffe." With lUustrations by Becker. Cheaper Edition.
Crown 8vo. gilt. 4s. 6d.
** This is not a regular book of natural history, but a description of
all the living creatures that came and went in a summef^s day
beneath an old pear treCy observed by eyes that had for the notice
become microscopic, recorded t*y a pen that finds dramas in every-
thing, and illustrated by a dainty pencil, . . . We can hardly
fancy anyone with a moderate turn for the curiosities of insect
life, or for delicate J'nnch esprit, not being taken by these clever
sketches. " G UAKU IAN . * Vf whimsical and charming little book, "
AlHEN/tUM.
{^ealmah* By tUe Author of "Friends in Council." Crown
8vo. 6j.
Rhoades. rOEMS. By Jam-:s Riioades. Fcap. 8vo. 4r. 6^.
Contents: Ode to Harmony ; 7o the Spirit of Unrest; Ode to
Winter ; The Tunnel ; To the Spirit of Beauty ; Song of a Leaf ;
liy the Rothcr ; An Old Orchard ; I^i/ve and Rest ; The Flowers
Surprised ; On the Death of A r tern us Ward ; The T100 Paths ;
J 7te Ballad 0/ Little Maisie ; Sonnets,
32 BELLES LETTRES,
Richardson the ILIAD of the east, a Selectio of
Legends dravn from Valmiki*s Sanskrit Poem, ** The Ramayana."
By Frederika Richardson. Crown 8vo. ^s. 6d,
** It is impossible to rmd it without recognizing the value and interest
of the Eastern epic. It is as fascinating as a fairy tale, this
romantic poem of India, " Globe. * * A c/iarming volume^ which
at once enmeshes the reader in its snares" ATHENiEUM.
Roby. STORY OF A HOUSEHOLD, AND 0THR POEMS.
By Mary K. Roby. Fcap. 8vo. 5j.
Rogers. Works by J. E. Rogers :
RIDICULA REDIVIVA. Old Nureery Rhymes. Illustrated in
Colours, with Ornamental Cover. Crown 4to. 6s.
*' The most splendid^ and at the same time the most really meritorious
of the books specially intended for children, that we have seen,"
Spectator. " These large bright pictures ivill attract children to
really good and honest artistic work, and that ought not to be an
indifferent consideration with parents who propose to educate their
children," Pall Mall Gazette.
MORES RIDICU LI. Old Nursery Rhymes. Illustrated in Colours,
with Ornamental Cover. Crown 4to. 6j.
" These world-old rhymes have never had and need never wish for
a better pictorial setting than Air, Rogers has given them"
Times. ** Nothing could be quainter or more absurdly comical
than most of the pictures, which are all carefully executed and
beautifully coloured." Globe.
Rossetti. GOBLIN MARKET, AND OTHER POEMS. By
Christina Rossetti. With two Designs by D. G. Rossetti.
Second Edition. Fcap. 8vo. 5^.
^^She handles her little marvel with that rare poetic discrimination
which neither exhausts it of its simple wonders by pushing sym^
bolism too fart nor keeps those wonders in the merely fabulous and
capricious stage. In /act, she has produced a true children s poem^
which is far more dtlightjul to the mature than to children, though
it would be delightful to all."SvECrAroK,
BELLES LETTRES. 33
Runaway (The), a story for the Young. By the Author of
" Mrs. Jemingham's Journal." With Illustrations by J. Lawson,
Globe 8vo. gilt. 4J. 6d,
* * This is otid of the best^ ij not indeed the very best^ of all the stories
that has come before us this Christmas. The her aims are both
c/iarmin^f and^ unlike heroitieSy they are as full of fun as of charms.
It is an admirable book to read aloud to the young folk when they
are all gathered round the fire, atid nurses and other apparitions
are still far away" Saturday Review.
Ruth and her Friends, a Story for Girls. With a Frontis-
piece. Fourth Edition. i8mo. Cloth extra. 2s. 6d,
** We wish all the scJiool girls and home'taught girls in the land had
the opportunity of readifig itJ* Nonconformist.
Scouring of the White Horse; or, the Long
VACATION RAMBLE OF A LONDON CLERK. Illustrated
by Doyle. Imp. i6mo. Cheaper Issue. 3^. 6d,
* * A glorious tale of summer Joy, " Freeman. " There is a genial
hearty life about the book." ^JOHN Bull. ** The execution is
excellent. . . . Like * Tom Brown^s School Days^* the * White
Horse^ gives the reader a feeling oj gratitude and personal esteem
towards the author." SATURDAY Review.
Sbairp (Principal). KILMAHOE, a Highland Pastoral, with
other Poems. By John Campbell Shairp, Principal of the
United College, St. Andrews. Fcap. 8vo. 51.
" Kilmahoe is a Highland Pastoral y redolent of the warm soft air
of the western locks and moors^ sketched out with remarkable
grace and picturesquenessj** SATURDAY Review.
Shakespeare. The Works of William Shakespeare. Cam-
bridge Edition. Edited by W. George Clark, M.A. and W.
Aldis Wright, M.A. Nine vols. 8vo. Cloth. 4/. 14J. 6t/.
ThiSf no7v acknowledged to be the standard edition of Shakespeare^ is
the result of many yeari study and research on the part of the
accomplished Editors^ assisted by the suggestions and cofUributions
of Shakespearian students in all parts of the country, Thefolloixnng
are the distinctive charcieteristics qf this edition : x. The text is
34 BELLES LETTRES.
based on a thorough collation of the four Folios, and of all the
Quarto editions ofthi separate plays, and of subsequent editions and
comtfietttaries. 2. All the results of this collation are given in n^tes
at the foot of tlu page, together with the conjectural emefulcttions
collected and suggested by the Editors, or furnished by their cor-
respondents, so as to give the reader a complete view of the existing"
materials out of which the text has been constructed, or may be
amended, 3. Where a quarto edition differs materially from the
received text, the text of the quarto is printed literatim in a smaller
type after the received text, 4. Tlie lines in each scene are num-
bered separately, so as to facilitate reference, 5. At the end of each
play a few notes, critical, explanatory, and illustrative, are added,
6. The Poems, edited on a similar plan, are pritited at the end
of the Dramatic Works. The Preface contains some notes on
Shakespearian Grammar, Spelling, Metre, and Punctuation, and
a history of cdl the chief editions from the Poefs time to the present.
The Guardian calls it an ** excellent, and, to the student, almost
ituUspensable edition /' and //^.Examiner caUs it ** an uftrrvalled
edition,^*
Shakespeare's Tempest. Edited with Glossarial and Ex-
planatory Notes, by the Rev. J. M. Jephson. Second Edition.
x8mo. IS,
This is an edition for use in schools. The introduction treats briefly
of the value of language, the fable of the play and otJier points.
The notes are intended to teach the student to analyse every obscure
sentence and trace out the logical sequefue of the poet's thoughts ;
to point out the rules of Shakespear^s versification ; to explain
obsolete words and meanings ; and to guide the students taste by
directing his attetttion to such passages as seem especially worthy
of note for tlieir poetical beauty or truth to nature. The text is in
the main founded upon tJiat of the first collected edition of Shake-
spear ^ 5 plays.
Slip (A) in the Fens. illustrated by the Author. Crown
8vo. 6j.
'Smith. POEMS. By Catherine Barnard Smith. Fcap.
8vo. 5j.
^^ Wealthy in feeling, meaning, finish, and grace ; not without passion^
which is suppressed, but t/ie keetierfor t/uit," ^ATHSNiBUM.
BELLES LETTRES. 35
Smith (Rev. Walter). hymns of christ and the
CHRISTIAN LIFE. By the Rev. Walter C. Smith, M.A.
P'cap. 8vo. 6j.
** These are among the sweetest sacred poems we have read for a long
time. With no profuse imagery^ expressing a range of feeling
and expression by no means uncommon, they are true and elevated^
and their pathos is profound and jiV//^.*' Nonconformist.
Spring Songs. By a West Highlander. With a Vignette
IllustrationbyGouRLAY Steele. Fcap. 8vb. is. 6d,
" Without a trace of ajfcctation or sentimentalism^ these utterances
are perfectly simple and natural^ ptjfoundly human and pro^
foufuily truey Dailv News,
Stanley, TRUE to life. a SLMPLE story. By Mary
Stanley. Crown 8vo. loj. 6/.
** For many a long day we have not met with a more simple^ healthy^
and unpretending story, *^ STANDARD.
Stephen (C. E.) the service of the POOR; being
an Inquiry into the Reasons for and against the Establishment of
Religious Sisterhoods for Charitable Purposes. By Caroline
Emilia Stephen. Crown 8vo. 6s. 6d.
** Miss Stephen devotes the first part of her volume to a brief history
of religious associations , taiing as specimens /. The Deaconesses of
the Primitive Church ) II. the Beguines ; III the Third Order
oj S. Francis; IV. the Sister^ of Charity of S, Vincent de Paul ;
V, the Deaconesses of Mo Jem Germany. In the second part, she
attempts to show what are the real 7uants met by Sisterhoods, to what
extent the same wants may be effectually met by the organization
of corresponding institutions on a secular basis, and what are the
reasons for endeavouring to do so. **It touches incidentally and
with much wisdom and tenderness on so many of the relations of
women, particularly of single women, with society, that it may be
read with advantage by many who have never thought of etitering
a Sisterhood "Sfkctator,
C 2
|6 BELLES LETTRES,
fitephens (J. B.) CONVICT ONCE. A Poem. By J.
Brunton Stephens. Extra fcap. 8vo. 3j. 6d.
*^ It is as far more interesting than ninety-nine novels out of a
hundred^ as it is superior to thetn in power^ worthy and beauty.
We should most strongly advise everybody to read * Convict OnceJ* "
Westminster Review.
Streets and Lanes of a City : Being the Retniniscences
of Amy Dutton. With a Preface by the Bishop of Salis-
bury. Second and Cheaper Edition. Globe 8vo. 2J. 6^.
This little volume records^ to use the luords of the Bishop of Salis-
bury, ** a portion of the experience, selected out of overJUrann^
materials, of two ladies, during several years of devoted work as
district parochial visitors in a large population in the north of
England^ Every incident narrated is absolutely true, ami only
the names of the persons introduced have been (necessarily) clianged,
*' One of the most really striking books that has ever come before us."
Literary Churchman.
Thring. SCHOOL SONGS. A Collection of Songs for Schools.
With the Music arranged for four Voices. Edited by the Rev. E.
Thking and H. Riccius. Folio. 7f. 6d.
The collection includes the "Agnus Dei," Tennyson's *^ Light
Brigade," Macaulay^s ^^ Ivry," etc, among otlier pieces,
Tom Brown*s School Days. By An Old Boy.
Golden Treasury Edition, 41. 6d. People's Edition, 2s,
"With Seven Illustrations by A. HuGHES and SYDNEY Hall.
Crown 8vo. 6f.
** An exact picture oj the bright side 0/ a Kugby boy's experience,
told with a life, a spirit, and a fond minutatess of detail and recol-
lection which is infinitely honourable to the author,*^ EDINBURGH
Review. ** The most famous boy^s book in the language,^*
Daily News.
BELLAS LETTRES. 37
Tom Brown at Oxford. New Edition. With illustrations.
Crown 8vo. 6s,
** In no other work that we can call to mind are the finer qualities of
the English gentleman more happily portrayed,** DAILY NEWS.
**A book of great power and /rwM." National Review.
Trench. Works by R. Chenevix Trench, D.D., Archbishop
of Dublin. (For other Works by this Author, see Theological,
Historical, and Philosophical Catalogues.)
POEMS. Collected and arranged anew. Fcap. 8vo. *js. 6d.
ELEGIAC POEMS. Third Edition. Fcap. 8vo. 2J. 6d.
CALDERON'S LIFE'S A DREAM : The Great Theatre of the
World. With an say on his Life and Genius. Fcap. 8vo.
4f.6d,
HOUSEHOLD BOOK OF ENGLISH POETRY, Selected and
arranged, with Notes, by Archbishop Trench. Second Edition.
JExtra fcap. 3vo. 5/. Qd.
This volume is called a *' Household Book" by this name implying
that it is a book for all that there is nothing in it to prevent it
from being confidetttly placed in the hands of every member of the
household. Specimens of all cUuses of poetry are grven^ including
selections from living authors. Tlie editor has aimed to produce
a book *' which the emigrant y finding room for little ttot absolutely
necessary y might yet find room for in his trunks and the traveller
in his knapsacky and that on some narroiv shelves where there are
few books this might be one.'''* " The Archbishop hcu conferred in
this delightful volume an important gift on the whole English'
speaking population of the world, " Pall Mall Gazette.
SACRED LATIN POETRY, Chiefly Lyrical. Selected aad
arranged for Use. By Archbishop Trench. New Edition,
Corrected and Improved. Fcap. 8vo. Js,
" 7)5/ aim of the present volume is to offer to members of our English
Church a collection of the best sacred Latin poetry, such as they
shall be Me etUirdy andheartUy to accept and approttea collection^
38 BELLES LETTRES.
Trench (Archbishop) ^^rt/ft/.
ihatis^ in which they shall not be evermore liable to be offended^ and
to have the current of their sympathies checked^ by coming upon that
which, however beautiful as poetry ^ out of higher respects they must
refect and condemn in which, too, they shall not fear that snares
are being laid for them, to entangle them unawares in admiration
for aught which is inconsistent with their faith and fealty to thdr
own spiritual mother ^ Preface.
JUSTIN MARTYR, AND OTHER POEMS. Fifth Edition.
Fcap. 8vo. 6j.
TroUope (Anthony). siR harry hotspur OF
HUMBLETHWAITE. By Anthony Trollope, Author of
"Framley Parsonage," etc. Cheap Edition. Globe 8vo. 2f. dd.
The Times says : ** / this novel we are glad to recogniu a return
to what we must call Mr. Trollops s old form. The characters
are drawn with vigour and boldness^ and the book may do good
to many readers of both sexes *^ The Aru'ESJEUM remarks : **No
reader who begins to read this book is likely to lay tt down until
the last page is turned. This brilliant novd appears to us decidedly
more sueeessful than any other of Mr. Trollops s shorter stories"
Turner, Works by the Rev. Charles Tennyson Turner :
SONNETS. Dedicated to his Brother, the Poet Laureate. Fcap.
8vo. 4J. 6/.
JiMALL TABLEAUX. Fcap. 8vo. 4J. 6d.
Vittoria Colonna. life AND POLMS. By Mrs. Henry
RoscoE. Crown 8vo. 9^.
** It is written with good taste, with quick and intelligetit sympathy,
occasionally with a real freshness and charm of style '^ Pall
Mall Gazette.
Volunteer's Scrap Book. By the Author of " the Cam-
bridge Scrap Book." Crown 4to. *js. (yd.
*'A gemot and clever caricaturist, in whom we may often perceive
BELLES LETTRES. 39
through small details that he has as proper a senst of tht gn^tful
as of the ludicrous. The author might be and probably is a
Volunteer himself so kindly is tlte mirth he makes of all the inci-
dents and phrases 0/ the drill-ground." EXAMINER.
Wallen six weeks in the saddle -. a Painter's journal
in Iceland. By S. E. Waller. Illustrated by the Author.
Crown 8vo. 6s.
"An exceedingly pleasant and naturally written little book. . . Mr.
Waller has a clever pettcUy and the text is well illustrated with his
own sketches." Times.
Wandering Willie. By the Author of " Effie's Friends," and
" John Hatherton." Third Edition. Crown 8vo. 6s.
" This is an idyll of rare truth and beauty. . . . The story is simple
and touching, the style of extraordinary delicacy, precision^ and
picturesqueness. . . . A charming gift-book for young ladies not
yet promoted to navels^ and will amply repay those of their dders
who may give an hour to its perusal." Daily. News.
VS^ebster, Works by Augusta Webster :
" If Mrs. Webster only remains true to herself she will assuredly
take a higher rank as a poet than any woman has yet done.*^
Westminster Review.
DRAMATIC STUDIES. Extra fcap. 8vo. 5^.
" A volume cu strongly marked by perfect taste as by poetic power. ^^-^
Nonconformist.
A WOMAN SOLD, AND OTHER POEMS. Crown 8vo. ^s. 6d.
"Mrs. Webster has shown us that she is able to draw admirably
from the life; that she can observe with subtlety, and render her
observations with delicacy ; that she can impersonate complex con*
ceptions and venture into which few living writers can follow her "
Guardian.
PORTRAITS. Second. Edition. Extra fcap. 8vo. 3J. 6d.
"Mrs, Webster^ s poems exhibit simplicity and tenderness . . . ker
taste is perfect , . . This simplicity is combined with a subtlety oj
BELLES LETTRES.
Webster continued,
tkaughtffeelingy and observation which demand that attention which
only real lovers of poetry are apt to bestow.*^ Westminster
Review.
PROMETHEUS BOUND OF iESCHYLUS. Literally translated
into English Verse. Extra fcap. 8vo. 31. 6d.
" Closeness and simplicity combined with literary skill. ^* Athe-
NiBUM. " Mrs. Webster's * Dramatic Studies^ and * Translation
of Prometheus * have won for her an honourable place among our
female poets. She writes with remarkable vigour and dramatic
realitcUiony and bids fair to be the most successful claimant of Mrs,
Brvwning's mantle,*^^BKiTiSH Quarterly Retiew.
MEDEA OF EURIPIDES. Literally translated into English
Verse. Extra fcap. 8vo. 3j. 6d,
^ Mrs, lVebster*s translation surpasses our utmost expectations, ft is
a photograph of the original , without any of that harshness which
so often accompanies a photograph ""WrjsriAiusTKK Review.
THE AUSPICIOUS DAY. A Dramatic Poem. Extra fcap.
8vo. Ss,
** The * Auspicious Day ' shozos a marked advance, not only in art,
but, in what is of far more importance, in breadth of thought and
intellectual grasp." WEsriAi^STRtL Review. ** This drama is
a manifestation of high dramatic power on the part of the gifted
writer, and entitled to our ivarmest admiration, as a worthy piece
of work. " Standard.
YU-PE-YA'S LUTE. A Chinese Tale in English Verse. Extra
fcap. 8vo, 3j. (id.
Westminster Plays. Lusus Alteri Westmonasterienses, Sire
Prologi et Epilogi ad Fabulas in S^^ Petri Collegio : actas qui Ex-
tabant collecti et justa quoad licuit annonim scrie ordinati, quibus
accedit Declamationum quoe vocantur et Kpigramniatum Delectus,
Curantibus J. Mure, A.M., H. Bull, A.M., C. B. Scott, B.D.
8vO. I2J. dd.
Idem. Pars Secunda, 1820 1864. Quibus accedit Epigrammatum
Delectus. 8vo. 1 5 j.
BELLES LETTRES. 41
When I was a Little Girl, stories for children.
By the Author of "St. 01ave'." Fourth Edition. Extra fcap.
8vo. 4r. 6^. With Eight Illustrations by L. FroliCH.
*^At the kead^ and a long way aheady of all books for girls^ we
place When I was a IMtU Girl.' "Times. ** // m one of the
choicest morsels of child^biography which we have met with,'*
Nonconformist.
White. RHYMES BY WALTER WHITE. 8vo. 71. 6^.
Whittier.JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER'S POETICAL
WORKS. Complete Edition, with Portrait engraved by C. H.
Jeens. i8mo. 4J-. 6^.
" Mr. Whittier has all the smooth melody ami the pathos of the author
of 'Hiawatha,"^ 7uith a greater nicety of description and a
quainter fancy. ^* Graphic.
Wolf. THE LIFE AND HABITS OF WILD ANIMALS.
Twenty Illustrations by Joseph Wolf, engraved by J. W. and E.
Whymper. With descriptive Letter-press, by D. G. Elliot,
F.L.S. Super royal 4to, cloth extra, gilt edges. 21s.
This is the last series of dra'ivings which will be made by Mr. IVolf,
either upon wood or stone. The Pall Mall Gazette says:
" The fierce, untameable side of brute nature has ncz'cr received a
more robust and vigorous interpretation^ and the various ituidents
in 7uhich particular character is shaivn are set forth with rare dra-
piaiic pozuer. Por excelletice that luill eiiJure, we incline to place
this very near the top of the list of Christmas boohs. ^' And the
Art Journal observes , ^^ Rarely, if ez'er, have we seen animal
life more forcibly and beautifully depieteit than in this really
splendid voluvie. "
Wollaston. LYRA DEVONIENSIS. By T. V. Wollaston,
M.A. Fcap. 8vo. 3^. 6^.
**It is the work of a man of refined taste, of deep religious sentiment,
a true artist, and a good Christian." Church Times.
A2 BELLES LETTRES.
Woolner. MY beautiful lady. By Thomas Woolnk*.
With a Vignette by Arthur Hughes. Third Edition. Fcap.
8vo. 5x,
" It is clearly the product of no idle hour, but a kighly-cofutived and
faithfully-executed task, self-imposed, and prompted by that inward
yearning to utter ^reat thoughts, and a wealth of passionate feelings
which is poetic genius. No man can read this poem without being
struck by the fitness and finish of the workmanship, so to speak, as
well as by the chastened and unpretending loftiness of thought
which pervades the whole." Globe.
Words from the Poets. Selected by the Editor of " Rays
of Sunlight" With a Vignette and Frontispiece. i8mo. limp., is.
** The seUction aims at popularity, and deserves it^ Guardian.
Yonge (C. M.) Works by Charlotte M. Yonge. (See also
Catalogue of Works in History, and Educational
Catalogue. )
THE HEIR OF REDCLYFFE. Twentieth EdiHon. With Illns-
trations. Crown 8vo. 6j.
HEARTSEASE. Thirteenth Edition. With Illustrations. Crown
8vo. 6j.
THE DAISY CHAIN. Twelfth Edition. With Illustrations.
Crown 8vo. 6/.
THE TRIAL: MORE LINKS OF THE DAISY CHAIN.
Twelfth Edition. With Illustrations. Cro^^n 8vo. 6^.
DYNEVOR TERRACE. Sixth Edition. Crown 8vo. 6j.
HOPES AND FEARS. Fourth Edition. CroiRTi 8yo. dr.
THE YOUNG STEPMOTHER. Fifth Edition. Crown 8va di.
CLEVER WOMAN OF THE FAMILY. Third Edition,
Crown 8vo. dr.
BELLES LETTRES. 43
Yonge (C. M.)contintud,
THE DOVP: in the eaglets nest. Fourth Edition.
Crown 8vo. 6j.
" Wf fAtnJk the authoress of * The Heir of Redely ffe^ has surpassed
her previous efforts in this illuminated chronicle of the olden time,^'*
British Quarterly.
THE CAGED LION. Illustrated. Third Edition. Crown 8vo. 6j.
" Prettily and tenderly written^ atid will with young people especially
be a great favourite,'^ DAILY News. ** Everybody should read
^/w." Literary Churchman.
THE CHAPLET OF PEARLS; or, THE WHITE AND
BLACK RIBAUMONT. Crown 8vo. 6s. New Edition.
** Miss Yonge has brought a lofty aim as well as high art to the con-
struction of a story which may claim a place among the best efforts
in historical romance,^' Morning Post. ** The plot^ in truths
is of the very first order of merit.** Spectator. " JVe Jtave
seldom read a more charming story?* Guardian.
THE PRINCE AND THE PAGE. A Tale of the Last Crusade.
Illustrated. iSmo. 2s. 6d.
** A tale widchf we are sure, will give pleasure to many otlurs besides
the young people for whom it is specially intended, . . . l^his
extremely prettily-told story does net require the guarantee afforded
by the name of the author of * Tlu Heir of Redclyffe* on the title-
page to ensure its becoming a universal favourite,** Dublin
Evening Mail.
THE LANCES OF LYNWOOD. New Edition, with Coloured
Illustrations. i8mo. 4s. 6d. *
u
The illustrations are very spirited and rich in colour, and the
story can hardly fail to cluxrm the youthful reader,^* MANCHESTER
Examiner^
THE LITTLE DUKE : RICHARD THE FEARLESS. New
Edition. Illustrated. i8mo. zs, 6d,
44 BELLES LETTRES.
Yonge (C. M.)conHnued.
A STOREHOUSE OF STORIES- First and Second Series.
Globe 8vo. 3J-. 6d. each.
Contents of First Series :--History of Philip Quarll
Ooodf Twofihoes The Governess Jemima Placid ^The Perambu-
lations of a Mouse The Village School The Little Queen
Histoiy of Little Jack.
*' Mus Yongi has dime great service to the infantry of this generatioH
by putting these eleven stories of sage simplicity Tvithin their roach.**
British Quarterly Review.
Contents of Second Series t Family Stories Elements of
Morality A Puzzle for a Curious Girl Blossoms of Morality. *
A BOOK OF GOLDEN DEEDS OF ALL TIMES AND ALL
COUNTRIES. Gathered and Narrated Anew. New Edition,
with Twenty Illustrations by Frolich. Crown 8vo. doth gilt. 6s,
(See also Golden Treasury Series). Cheap Edition, is.
*' fVe have seen no prettier gift-book for a longtime^ and none which,
both for its cheapness and the spirit in which it has been compiled,
is more deserving of praise" ATHENiEUM.
LITTLE LUCY'S WONDERFUL GLOBE. Pictured by
Frolich, and narrated by Charlotte M. Yonge. Second
Edition. Crown 4to. cloth gilt. dr.
Miss Yong^s wonderful ** knack" of instructive story-telling to
children is well known. In this volume^ in a manner which
cannot but prove interesting to all boys and girls, she manages
to convey a wonderfid amount of information concerning most of
the countries of the world ; in this she is considerably aided by the
twenty four telling pictures of Mr. Frolich. " * Lucy^s Wofiderful
Globe ' is capital, and will give its youthful readers more idea of
foreign countries and customs than any number of books of geography
or travel." Graphic.
CAMEOS FROM ENGLISH HISTORY. From Rollo to
Edward II. Extra fcap. 8vo. 5^. Second Edition, enlarged. 5j.
A Second Series. THE WARS IN FRANCE. Extra foop,
8vo. 5j.
BELLES LETTRES, 45
Yonge (C. M.) continued.
The endeavour has not been to chronicle facts ^ but to put together a
series of pictures of persons and evefits, so as to arrest the attention ^
and ^7'e some individuality and distinctness to the recollection, by
gathering together details at the most memorable moments. The
" Cameos^* are intemicd as a book for young people just beyond the
elementary histories of England^ and able to enter in some degree
into the real spirit of event s^ and to be struck with characters and
scenes presented in some relief. *^ Instead of dry details,''^ says the
Nonconformist, ** we have living pictures , faithful, %mnd, and
striking."
P's AND Q's ; OR, THE QUESTION OF PUTTING UPON.
With Illustrations by C. O. Murray. Second Edition. Globe
Svo. cloth gilt. 4J. 6(/.
" One of her most successful little pieces .... fust what a narrative
should be, eaek incident simply and naturally related, no preaching
or morcUifing, and yet the moral coming out mosf powerfully, and
the whole story not too long, or with the lea^t appearance of being
spun out.^^ Literary Churchmak.
THE PILLARS OF THE HOUSE; or, UNDER WODE,
UNDER RODE. Second Edition. Four vols, crown Svo. 20s.
** A domestic story of English professional life, which for swestness
of tone and absorbing interest from first to last has never been
rivalled." Standard. '* Miss Yonge has certainly added to
Iter already lUgh reputation by this charming book, which, although
in four volumes, is not a single page too long, but keeps the reader's
- attention fixed to the end. Indeed we are only sorry there is not
another volume to come, and part loith the Underwood family with
sincere regret," Court Circular.
LADY HESTER; or, URSULA'S NARRATIVE. Second
Edition. Crown Svo. 6f.
** We shall not anticipate the interest by epitomizing the plot, butioi
shall only say that readers will find in it all the gracefulness , right
feeling, and delicate perception which they have been long accustomed
to look for in Miss Yonge* s fcvfrt'm^j." GuardiaK.
I
I
I
MACMILLAN'S
GOLDEN TREASURY SERIES.
Uniformly printed in i8mo., with Vignette Titles by Sir
Noel Paton, T. Woolner, W. Holman Hunt, J. E.
MiLLAis, Arthur Hughes, &c Engraved on Steel by
Jeens. Bound in extra cloth, 4^. 6{f. each volume. Also
kept in morocco and calf bindings.
" Messrs, Macfuiilan hat% in their Goldeu Treasury Series, especially
provided eilitions of standard works ^ volumes of seiectcd poetry, and
original compositions, 7vhich eittUle this series to be called classical.
Nothing can be better than the literary excaUion, nothing more
elegant than the material workmanship." Bviiiiisn QUARTERLY
Review.
The Golden Treasury of the Best Songs and
LYRICAL POKMS IK THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.
Selected and arranged, with Notes, by Tkancis TukNR
Palgrave.
*' This delightful little volume, the Golden Treasury, which contains
many of the best original lyrical pieces and sotigs in our language,
grouped with care and skill, so as to illustrate each otlur like the
pictures in a well-arranged gallery.^* Quarterly Review.
The Children's Garland from the best Poets.
Selected and arranged by Coventry Patmore.
** // includes specimens of all the great masters in the art of poetry,
selected with the matured judgment of a man co^uetttrated on
obtaining insight into the feelings and tastes of chUdkood^ and
GOLDEN TREASURY SERIES. 47
dtsirous to awaken ils finest impulses, to cultivate its keenest sensi^
kilities,^* Morning Post.
The Book of Praise. From the Best English Hymn Writers.
Selected and arranged by Sir Roundell Palmer. A New and
Enlarged Edition,
*^ All previous compilatiotis of this kind must undeniably for the
presetU ^e place to the Book of Praise, , , . The selection hcu
been made throughout with iound judgment and critical taste. The
fains involved in this compilation must have been immense, em-
bracings as it does, every writer of note in this special province of
English liieraturey and ranging over the most widely divergent
tracks of religious thought,'*^ SATURDAY Review.
The Fairy Book ; the Best Popular Fairy Stories. Selected and
rendered anew by the Author of "John Halifax, Gentleman."
** A delightful selection, in a delightful external form ; full of the
physical splendour and vast opulettce of proper fairy tales^^'
Spectator.
The Ballad Book, a Selection of the Choicest British Ballads.
Edited by William Allingham.
* * His taste as a fudge of old poetry will be found, by all acquainted with
the various readings of old English ballads, true enough to justify
his undertaking so critical a task" SATURDAY Review.
The Jest Book. The Choicest Anecdotes and Sayings. Selected
and arranged by Mark Lemon.
" Thefidllest and best jest book thai has yet appeared^* Saturday
Review.
Bacon's Essays and Colours of Good and Evil.
With Notes and Glossarial Index. By W. Alois Wright, M.A.
" The beautiful little edition of Bacon^s Essays ^ now before us, does
credit to the taste and scholarship of Mr, Aldis Wright, , , , It
puts the recuier in possession of all the essential literary facts and
chronology necessary for reading the Essays in connection with
Bacon's life and times, *' S pectator. * * By far the most complete
as well as the most elegant edition we possess "-yivSTUlssTEti
Review.
/
48 GOLDEN TREASURY SERIES.
The Pilgrim's Progress from this World to that which is to
come. By John Bunyan.
** A beautiful and scholarly reprint,^* SPECTATOR.
The Sunday Book of Poetry for the Young.
Selected and arranged by C. F. Alexander.
* A Will-teUcUd volumt of Sacred /Vrf/ry." SPECTATOR.
A Book of Golden Deeds of All Times and All Countries.
Gathered and narrated anew. By the Author of *' Thb Heir of
Redclyffe."
"... To the young, for whom it is especially intended, as a most
interesting collection of thrilling tales well told; and to their elders ^
as a useful handbook of referencCf and a pleasant one to take up
when their wish is to while away a weary half-hour. We have
seen no prettier gift-book for a long time* * Athen .-EU m .
\ The Poetical Works of Robert Burns. Edited, with
Biographical Memoir, Notes, and Glossary, by Alsxandkr
Smith. Two Vols.
\
)
*^ Beyond all question this is the most beautiful edition of Bums
rrfwi/." Edinburgh Daily Review.
The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe. Edited from
the Original Edition by J. W. Clark, M.A., Fellow of Trinity
College, Cambridge.
** Mutilated and modified editions of this English classic are so much
the rule, that a cheap and pretty copy of it, rigidly exact to the
original, will be a prize to ntany book'buyers** Examiner.
The Republic of Plato. Translated into English, with
Notes by J. LI. DaVies, M. A. and D. J. Vaughan, M. A.
** ^ dainty and cheap lUile ediiion,^^ Examiner.
The Song Book. Words and Tunes from the best Poets and
Musicians. Selected and arranged by John Hullah, Professor
of Vocal Music in King's CoUege, London.
GOLDEN TREASURY SERIES. 49
'* A choke collection of the sterling songs of Engfandy Scotland^ and
Ireland^ with the music of each prefixed to the Words, How much
true wholesome pleasure such a book can dijjuse^ and will diffuse^
we trust through many thousand families** Examiner.
La Lyre Francaise. Selected and arranged, with Notes, by
Gust AVE Masson, French Master in Harrow School.
A selection of the best French songs and lyrical pieces,
Tom Brown's School Days. By An Old Boy.
" A perfect gem of a book. The best and most healthy book about
boysjor boys that ever was written,^ Illustrated Times.
A Book of Worthies. Gathered from the Old Histories and
written anew by the Author of " The Heir of Redclyffe."
With Vignette.
'^^ An admirable addition to an admirable series,^* Westminster
Review.
A Book of Golden Thoughts. By Henry Attwell,
Knight of the Order of the Oak Crown.
^^ Mr, Attwdl has produced a book of rare value . . . Happily it
is small enough to be carried about in the pocket, and of such a com-
panion it would be difficult to weary:' ?KU. Mall Gazette.
Guesses at Truth. By Two Brothers. New Edition.
The Cavalier and his Lady. Selections from the Works
of the First Duke and Duchess of Newcastle. With an Intro-
ductory Essay by Edward Jenkins, Author of ** Ginx's Baby,"
&& iSmo. 4r. 6d.
* ^ charming HUle volume "Stahdakd.
Theologia Germanica. ^Translated from the German, by
Susanna Winkworth. With a Preface by the Rev. Charles
KiNGSLEY, and a letter to the Translator from the Chevalier
Bunsen.
Milton's Poetical Works. ^Edited, with Notes, &c, by
Professor Masson. Two vols. i8mo. gs. [Shortly,
D
MACMILLAN'S
GLOBE LIBRARY,
BeauHfulfy printed on toned paper and bound in cloth extra, ^iit
edges, price 4r. (id, each ; in cloth plain, 3^. 6^. Also kept tn a
variety oj calf and morocco bindings at moderate prices.
Books, Wordsworth says, are
**the spirit breathed
By dead men to their kind ; "
and the aim of the publishers of the Globe Library has
been to make it possible for the universal kin of English-
speaking men to hold communion with the loftiest ^' spirits
of the mighty dead ; '' to put within the reach of all classes
complete and accurate editions, carefully and clearly printed
upon the best paper, in a convenient form, at a moderate
price, of the works of the master-minds of English
Literature, and occasionally of foreign literature in an
attractive English dress.
The Editors, by their scholarship and special study of
their authors, are competent to afford every assistance to
readers of all kinds : this assistance is rendered by original
biographies, glossaries of unusual or obsolete words, and
critical and explanatory notes.
The publishers hope, therefore, that these Globe Editions
may prove worthy of acceptance by all classes wherever the
English Language is spoken, and by their universal circula-
tion justify their distinctive epithet ; while at the same time
GLOBE LIBRAE K 5 1
they spread and nourish a common sympathy with nature's
most "finely touched" spirits, and thus help a little to
"make the whole world kin."
The Saturday Review says: ** The Globe Editions are admirable
for their scholarly editings their typographical excellence^ their com"
pendious form^ and their cheapness,*^ The British Quarterly
Review says: ^^ In compendiousnessy elegance^ and scholar liness^
the GU^ Editions of Messrs, MacmiUan surpass any popular series
of our classics hitherto given to the public. As near an approach
to miniature perfection as has ever been made,**
Shakespeare's Complete Works. Edited by w. G.
Clark, M. A., and W. Aldis Wright, M. A., of Trinity College,
Cambridge, Editors of the ''Cambridge Shakespeare." With
Glossary, pp. 1,075.
This edition aims cU presenting a perfectly reliable text of the complete
works of " the foremost man in all literature** The text is essen-
tially the same as thcU of the ^*' Cambridge Shakespeare. ** Appended
is a Glossary containing the meaning of every word in the text which
is either obsolete or is used in an aittiquated or unusual sense.
This, combined with the method used to indicate corrupted readings,
serves to a great extent the purpose of notes. The ATHENiEUM says
this edition is **a marvel of beauty, cheapness, and compactness,
. . . For the busy man, above all for the working student, this is
the best of all existing Shakespeares.** And the Pall Mall
Gazette observes: ** To have produced the complete works of
the world's greatest poet in such a form, and at a price within the
reach of every one, is of itself almost sufficient to give the publishers
a claim to be considered public benefactors**
Spenser's Complete Works. Edited from the Orjjrinal
Editions and Manuscripts, by R. Morris, with a Memoir by J.
W. Hales, M.A. With Glossary, pp. Iv., 736.
The text of the poems has been reprinted from the earliest knovm
editions, carefully collated with subsequent ones, most of which were
published in the poe^s lifetime, Spenser^ s only prose work, his
sagacious and interesting ** View of the State of Irdand,** has been
re-edited from three manuscripts belonging to the British Museum,
A complete Glossary and a list of all the most important various
52 GLOBE UBRARY.
readings serve to a large extent the purpose of notes expHanatory
and critical. An exhaustive general Index and a useful *' Index
cf first lines*'' precede the poems ;^ and in an Appendix are gtven
Spenser's Letters to Gabrid Harvey, * ' Worthy and h^her praise
it needs not of the beautiful * Globe Series,* The work is edited
with all the care so noble a poet deserves." Daily News.
Sir Walter Scott's Poetical Works. Edited with a
Biographical and Critical Memoir by Francis Turner Palgraye,
and copious Notes, pp. xliii., 559.
'* Scott,** says Heine, " in his every booh, gladdens, tranquillizes, and
strengthens my heart,* This edition contains the whole of Scotf s
poetical works, with the exception of one or two short poems. While
most of Scott* s own notes have been retained, others have been added
explaining many historical and topographical allusions ; and ori-'
ginal introductions from the pen of a gentleman familiar with
Scotch literature and scenery, containing much interesting infoT'^
motion, antiquarian, historical, and biographical, are prefixed to
the principal poems. '* We can almost sympathise with a middle'
as^ grumbler, who, after reading Mr. Falgrav^s memoir and in^^
troduction, should exclaim ' Why was there not such an edition of
Scott when I was a schoolboy f * *' Guardian.
Complete Works of Robert Bums. the poems,
SONGS, AND LETTERS, edited ftom the best Printed and
Manuscript Authorities, with* Glossarial Index, Notes, and a
Biographical Memoir by Alexander Smith, pp. IxiL, 636.
Burnis poems and songs need not drculate exclusrvdy among Scotch*
men, but should be read by all who wish to know the multi'
tudinous capabilities of the Scotch language, and who have the
capacity of appreciating the exquisite expression of all kinds of
human feding rich pawky humour, keM wit, withering satire,
genuine pathos, pure passioncUe lave. The exhaustive glossariai
index and the copious notes will make all the purdy Scotch poems
intelligible even to an Englishman. Bumis letters must be read
by all who desire fully to appreciate the poefs character, to see ii
on all its many sides. Explanatory notes are prefixed to most
of these letters, and Burn^s Journals kept during his Border
and Highland Tours, are appended. Following the prefixed
biography by the nlitc*', is a Chronological Table of Burns* s Life
GLOBE LIBRARY, 53
and Works. ^* AdmirabU in all respects*^ Spectator. " 7%
cheapest, the most perfect, and the most interesting edition which has
ever been published^ Bell's Messenger,
Robinson Crusoe. Edited after the Original Editions, with a
Biographical Introduction by Henry Kingsley. pp. xxxi., 607.
Of this matchless truth-like story, it is scarcely possible to find an
Undbridged edition, 7%is edition may be relied upon as cofUaining
the whole of *^ Robinson Crusoe*^ as it came from the pen of its
author, without mutilation, and with alt peculiarities religiously
preserved. These points, combined with its handsoftie paper, large
clear type^ and moderdte price, ought to render this par excellence
the ** Globe,** the Universal edition of Defo^ s fascinating narrative,
" A most excellent and in every way desirable edition** Court
Circular. **Macmillan*s * Globe' Robinson Crusoe is a book tt
have and to keep,** Morning Star.
Ooldsmith*s Miscellaneous Works. Edited, with
Biographical Introduction, by Professor Masson. pp. Ix., 695.
This t/olUme comprehends the whole of the prose and poetical works
of this most genial of English authors, those only being excluded
which are mere compilations. They are all accurately reprinted
from the most reliable editions. The faithfulness, fulness, and lite-
rary merit of the biography are sufficiently eUtested by the name of
its author. Professor Masson, It contains many interesting anec'
dotes which will give the reader an insight into Goldsmith's
characters and many graphic pictures of the literary life of London
during the middle of last century, " Such an admirable compen-
dium of the facts of Goldsmith's life^ and so careful and minute a
delineation of the mixed traits of his peculiar character tu to be
a very model of a literary biography in little." Scotsman.
Pope's Poetical Works. Edited, with Notes and Intro-
ctuctory Memoir, by Adolphus William Ward, M.A., Fellow
of St. Peter's College, Cambridge, and Professor of History in
Owens College, Manchester, pp. lii., 508.
This edition contains all Popis poetns, translations, and adaptations,
his now superseded Homeric translations alone being omitted.
The text, carefully revised, is tcdken from the best editions ; Pop^s
awn use of capital letters and apostrophised syllables, frequently
necessary to an understanding of his meaning, has been preserved ;
5 ^ GLOBE LI BR A R K
TUiii/^ ^w uncertain spelling and his frequently perplexing inter*
punctuation have been judicumsly amended, "Abundant notes are
addedf including Fop/s oitm, the best of those of previous editors^
and many which are tlie result of the study and research of the
present editor, TTie introductory Memoir will be found to sh^
considerable light on the political, social, and literary life of the
period in which Pope filled so large a space. The Literary
Churchman remarks : *' The editor's own notes and intro-
ductory memoir are excellent, the memoir alorte would be cheap and
well worth buying at the price of the whole volume.^^
Dryden's Poetical Works. Edited, with a Memoir,
Revised Text, and Notes, by W. D. Christie, M-A., of Trinity
Collie, Cambridge, pp. Ixxxvii., 662.
A study of Drydet^s works is absolutely rucessary to anyone who
wishes to understand thorouglUy, not only the literature, but also
the political artd religious history of the eventful period when he
liv^ artd reigned as literary dictator. In this edition of his works^-
which comprises several specimens of his vigorous prose, the text has
been thoroughly corrected and purified from many misprints and
small changes often materially affecting the sense, which had been
allowed to slip in by previous editors. The old spelling has been
retained where it is not altogether strange or repulsive. Besides an
exhaustive Glossary, there are copious Notes, critical, historical, bio-
graphical, and explanatory: and the biography cofttains the results
of considerable original research, which has served to shed light on
several hitherto obscure circumstances connected with the life and
parentage of the poet, **An admirable edition, the result of great
research and of a cartful retnsian of the text. The memoir prefixed
contains, within less than ninety pages, as rrmch sound criticism
artd as comprehensive a biography as the student of Dryden rued
desire.^* Pall Mall Gazette.
Cowper'S Poetical Works. Edited, with Notes and
Biographical Introduction, by William Benham, Vicar of
Addington and Professor of Modem History in Queen's College,
London, pp. Ixxiii., 536.
This volume contains, arranged under seven heads, the whole of
Cowper^s own poems, iruluding sei'cral nrtfcr before published, and
all his translations except that of Ilomer^s ** Iliad.** The text is
taken from the original editions, and Cowper*s own notes are given
at the foot of the page, while many explanatory notes by the editor
GLOBE LIBRARY, 55
himself are appended to the volume. In the very full Memoir it
will be found that much new light has been thrown on some of
the most difficult passages of Cffivper^s spiritually chequered life,
**Mr. Benham*s edition oj Cowper is one of permanent valine.
The biographical introduction is excellent^ full of information^
singularly neat and readable and modest indeed too modest in
its comments. The notes are concise and accurate^ and the editor
has been able to discover and introduce some hitherto unprinted
matter. Altogether the book is a very excellent one,** Saturday
Review.
Morte d' Arthur. SIR THOMAS MALORY'S BOOK OF
KING ARTHUR AND OF HIS NOBLE KNIGHTS OF
THE ROUND TABLE. The original EdiUon of Caxton,
revised for Modem Use. "With an Introduction by Sir Edward
Strachey, Bart. pp. xxxvii., 509.
This volume contains the cream of the legends of chivalry which
have gathered round the shadowy King Arthur and his Knights
of the Round Table, Tennyson has drawn largely on them in his
cycle of Arthurian Idylls, The language is simple and quaint as
that of the Bible, and the many stories of knightly adventure of
which the book is made up, are fascinating cu those of the ^* Arabian
Nights," The great moral of tJie book is to ^^ do after the good, and
leave the anl,*^ There was a want of an edition of the work cU a
moderate price, suitable for ordinary readers, and especially for
boys : such an edition the present professes to be. The Introduction
contains an account of the Origin and Matter of the book, the Text
and its severed Editions, and an Essay on Chivalry, tracing its
history from its origin to its decay. Notes are appended, and a
Glossary of such words as require explanation. * *// is with perfect
confidence that we recommend this edition of the old romance to every
class of readers,*^ Pall Mall Gazette.
The Works of Virgil. Rendered into English Prose, with
Introductions, Notes, Running Analysis, and an Index. By James
Lonsdale, M.A., late Fellow and Tutor of Balliol College,
Oxford, and Classical Professor in King's College, London ; and
Samuel Lee, M.A., Latin Lecturer at University College,
London, pp. 288.
The publishers believe that an accurate and readable translation of all
the works of Virgil is perfectly in accordance with the object of the
56 GLOBE UBRARY.
*"*" Globe Lihrary^'* A new prose-translation has therefore been made
by two competent scholars y who have rendered the original fxithJuUy
into simple Bible-English^ without paraphrase; and at the same
time endeavoured to maintain as far as possible the rhythm and
majestic flow of the original. On this latter point the Daily
Telegraph says, ** The endeavour to preserve in some degree a
rhythm in the prose rendering is almost invariably successful and
pleasing in its effect;*^ and the Educational Times, that it
" may be readily recommended as a model for young students for
rendering the poet into English^ The General Introduction will
be found full of interesting information as to the life of Virgily the
history of opinion concerning his writings, the notions entertained
of him during the Middle Ages, editions of his works, his infUience
on modem poets and on education. To each of his works is prefixed
a critical and explanatory introduction, and important aid is
afforded to the thorough comprehension of each production by the
running Analysis. Appended is an Index of all the proper names
and the most important subjects occurring throughout the poems
and introductions. " A more complete edition of Virgil in English
it is scaredy possible to conceive than the scholarly work before us,**
Globe.
The Works of Horace. Rendered into English Prose, with
Introductions, Running Analysis, Notes, and Index. By John
Lonsdale, M.A., and Samuel Lee, M.A.
This version of Horace is a literal rendering of the original, the
translators having kept in view the same objects as they had before
them in their edition of Virgil in " Globe Series.** As in the case
of Vtrgil, the original has been faithfully rendered into simple
English, without paraphrase; and at the same time the trans-
lators have endeavoured to maintain as far as possible the rhythm
and flow of the original. The general and particular Introduc-
tions and the Notes will afford the ordinary English reader all
needful information as to Horace and his time, and the allusions
in his works. TTie Standard says, ** To classical and non-
classical readers it will be invaluable as a faithful interpretation of
the mind and meaning of the poet, enriched as it is with notes and
dissertations of the highest value in the way of criticism, illus-
tration, and explanation.''*