CHAPTER FOUR.
The next two weeks passed away all too quickly. The latter part of thevoyage had been chill and stormy, so that when Marseilles was reached,Hector Darcy was seized with a conviction that it would be injudiciousfor him to risk the dangers of an English spring, and that wisdompointed out a preliminary sojourn in the sunny South. This being thecase, it was only natural that he should betake himself to the hotelwhere his friends the Savilles were located, and so make a convenientfourth in their excursions. It would have been difficult to find apleasanter party with whom to travel, for father, mother, and daughterwere all in holiday mood, rejoicing in the prospect of home, and areunion with that redoubtable Arthur, whose exploits and excellenceswere detailed a dozen times a day. They were so happy together,moreover, and there was so friendly an understanding between them, thatthey made an agreeable contrast to those numerous family parties whoreduce a stranger to a condition of misery by their mutual bickerings.So far from labouring under the impression that any manners were goodenough for the members of their own family, the Saville trio were evenmore punctiliously courteous to each other than to strangers, and thatdespite the fact that parents and child were on terms of much greaterintimacy than is usual in such relationships.
Peggy's pride in her father was beautiful to behold, and in the presenceof strangers she paid him a respect so profound that those samestrangers would have been vastly surprised if they could have seen herrumpling his hair in private, and tying his moustache in a neat littlefestoon round his nose, while mother and daughter never seemed tooutgrow the joy of being together again after the years of separation.
"Oh, my Peg, what should I do without you?" Mrs Saville would cry onthose too frequent occasions when a recurrence of the weary Indian fevercame upon her, and Peggy nursed and comforted her as no hired attendantcould ever do. "Oh, my Peg, what should I do without you? What _shall_I do, when you leave me to fly away to a home of your own? You havespoiled me so much during these last years that I don't know what willbecome of me without you, darling."
"I shall never marry, dear," returned Peggy comfortably. "I'll stay athome like a good little girl, and wheel my mammie in a Bath chair.Marriage is a luxury which is forbidden to an only daughter. Her placeis to stay at home and look after her parents!" But at this MrsSaville looked alarmed, and shook her head in emphatic protest.
"No, no--that's a wrong idea! I want you to marry, dear, when the righttime comes. I have been too happy myself to wish to keep you single.Marriage is the best thing that can happen to a woman, if her husband isas good and kind and noble as your father. I'm not selfish enough tospoil your life for my own benefit, Peggy; but when the times comes,remember I shall be very, very particular about the man you choose."
"Where, and how, shall I earliest meet him? What are the words that he first will say?"
chanted Peggy, with so disastrous an attempt at the correct tune thatMrs Saville shook with laughter, despite the pain in her head, andHector Darcy, entering the room, demanded to know the nature of thejoke.
"I was singing a little ditty, and mother derided me, as usual. Peoplealways laugh when I sing, and declare that the tune is wrong. Theydon't seem to understand that I'm improving on the original. We werediscussing my future husband, and the serenade was in his honour,"explained Peggy with an unconscious serenity, at which her twocompanions exchanged glances of astonishment.
"He is quite an imaginary hero as yet," Mrs Saville explained hastily,"but the subject having been introduced, I was explaining to Peggy thatI should be extremely difficult to satisfy, and could not consent tospare her to a man who did not come up to my ideal in every respect."
"And Peggy herself--what does she say? Has she an ideal, too, and whatshape does it take, if one may ask?" queried Hector, with anembarrassment of manner which the mother noticed, if the daughter didnot.
Mrs Saville shaded her eyes with her hands and gazed keenly across theroom to where the two figures stood in the window, the man so tall andimposing, the girl so small and dainty in her pretty white dress.
"Oh, I'm not exacting," said Peggy coolly. "I'm going to marry a manwith `heaps of money and a moustache, and a fireplace in the hall,' asMellicent used to say when we planned out our future in the old school-days. Dear old Mill! I wonder if she is as funny as ever, and if shestill mixes up her sentences in the same comical way. I shall beterribly disappointed if she doesn't. Five, six more weeks before I seeher and all the other vicarage people, and already I'm in a ferment ofimpatience. Every mile we travel nearer home, the more I long for thetime to come; and when we get to London I really don't know how I shalllast out the fortnight before I go down to the country."
"Would it help matters if we invited Mellicent to come and join us inLondon? She would enjoy the experience of living in an hotel and house-hunting with us. You can write and ask her, dear, if you like," saidMrs Saville fondly; and Peggy clasped her hands together in one of theold ecstatic gestures.
"How s-imply lovely! Mother dear, you are an admirable person. Thereis nothing in the world I should like so much, and it would be so wise,too, for Mellicent and I would have time to get through our firstfloodgates of talk before I met the others, so that I should not be tornasunder by wanting to speak to every one at the same time. It will be awild dissipation for the dear old girl to stay in an hotel, and she doesenjoy herself so beamingly when she is out for a holiday that it's apleasure to behold her. I'll write this very minute!"
The invitation was despatched forthwith, and such a rhapsodicalacceptance received by return of post as effectually dispelled Peggy'sfears lest her friend might have outgrown her old peculiarities.Mellicent at twenty-one was apparently as gushingly outspoken, asamazingly irrelevant, as in the days of short frocks and frizzled locks,and the expectation of meeting her in four short weeks lent added zestto Peggy's enjoyment of her new surroundings.
The headquarters of this happy party was at an hotel situated on thehill behind Cannes, and every morning a carriage waited at the door, todrive them to the different places of interest in the neighbourhood.They bought curious plaques and vases at the Vallauris pottery, wentover the scent manufactory at Grasse, where mountains of rose leaves andviolets are converted into fragrant perfumes, and drove along theexquisite Cornichi road, which winds round the hillside, and affords aview of the Mediterranean lying below, blue as a sapphire in the summersunshine. In the afternoons Mrs Saville would retire to rest, tiredout by the morning's exertions, and Peggy would say plaintively:
"Father dear, could you bear the reflections that your only daughter waspining for an ice and a box of chocolates, and that you had refused toindulge her for the sake of a few miserable rupees!" and the colonelinvariably replying in the negative, she would array herself in hersmartest frock, and repair with him to Rumpelmeyer's, who, as every onewho has stayed in the Riviera knows full well, is at once the mostwonderful and the most extortionate confectioner who ever tempted theappetites of men.
At every visit Peggy and her father groaned afresh at the price of thebonbons displayed so daintily in their satin boxes; but though theyagreed that it was impossible to indulge any more in such extravagance,they invariably succumbed to temptation, the colonel ejaculating, "It'sa poor heart that never rejoices. We shall be young only once in ourlives, Peg, so we might as well enjoy ourselves while we can," and Peggyexplaining to her scandalised mother that the expenditure was really aneconomy in the end, since she would keep all the pretty cases, fill themwith jujubes, and present them as Christmas presents to deservingfriends!
At Paris Hector Darcy bade his friends farewell, and Peggy bore hisdeparture in philosophical fashion. It had been delightful having hiscompany, for it had seemed like a "bit of home," but he would have beendreadfully in the way in Paris, where the avowed business of the day wasthe purchase of clothes and fripperies. Mrs Saville and her daughterprepared for the fray with every appearance of enjoyment, and though thecolonel professed a horror of sho
pping, he yet manifested an agreeableinterest in their purchases.
"I can't afford to give you _carte blanche_, with all the expenses ofthe new house before us," he explained, "but one or two pretty frocksapiece you must and shall have, while we are on the spot; so go aheadand make yourself smart, and I'll brace my nerves to face the bill."
There was no fear that Miss Peggy would not go ahead in such anoccupation. The only difficulty was that she went ahead too fast; butby dint of forbearance, mingled with judicious firmness, the choice wasmade at last, and in due time the dresses came home, the bills werepaid, and Colonel Saville, blessing Providence that he had not six womento dress instead of two, hurried on the day of departure from a city ofsuch ruinous fascinations.
On one happy spring morning, then, behold the Saville trio once morenearing the white cliffs of Old England--blessed travellers, whose exilewas over, and who could look forward to spending the rest of their livesin that dear old country which, despite its rain and fog, must ever bethe dearest in the world to true-born Britons.
They stood together, amidst the bustle of arrival, looking withsparkling eyes at the well-remembered scene, for there was no necessityto hurry for the train, and Colonel Saville, with all a soldier'sintolerance of a scramble, decided to wait on board until the generalexodus was over. "Then we will get a porter to take our boxes quietlyashore," he explained to his companions; and, as if his words had beenoverheard, at that very moment a candidate for that post came up frombehind.
"Carry your boxes, sir? Can I carry your boxes?" cried a breezy voice,at the sound of which Peggy gasped, Mrs Saville laid her hand over herheart, and the colonel wheeled round to confront Arthur himself, taller,broader, handsomer than ever.
"My boy!" he cried brokenly.
"Arthur!" gasped his mother, and lay sobbing on the dear, strongshoulder, while Peggy stroked the tails of his coat, and assiduouslylicked away the tears which would insist upon flowing down her cheeks.Why cry, when she was so happy? The thing was absurd! Why do anythingbut laugh, and dance, and sing with mirth, when at long, long last theywere all four together, and Arthur stood before her in solid flesh andblood?
"How tall you are! Taller than your father, my dear big son!"
"How good it is to see you again, my boy! We have wearied for thisday."
"Oh, Arthur, what a big moustache! What a dear you look! We never,never expected to see you before we got to London."
"I was not sure of coming, but I worked it somehow, for I could not waitan hour longer than was necessary. Peg, you're a lady growed! I lookstowards you! Oh, let us be joyful! This is grand to be together again,with no more miserable partings ahead. Welcome to England, mother!First step on the old land--eh? Feels nice and sound beneath your feet,doesn't it? Just the sort of solid, durable old place to take root inafter a roaming life!" And Arthur led his mother on shore, rattlingaway in his old merry style, though the tears shone in his eyes also,and his voice was not so clear as it might have been.
The years that had passed since he had seen his parents last had notbeen altogether easy ones for him. He had had to face the bitterestdisappointment of his life, to adapt himself to a new and uncongenialsphere, and, in spite of all his courage, there had been moments whenthe task had seemed too heavy to bear. It had been an effort to writecheerfully, and to refrain from repinings over his lost hopes, but hehad made the effort, and he was rewarded for his forbearance a hundredtimes over in this moment of meeting, as he noticed the hollows in hismother's cheeks, and the grey locks on his father's brow. It had beenhard enough for them as it was. He was thankful he had not laid on themthe additional burden of his own sufferings.
The reunited family travelled up to town together, and dined in aprivate room in the hotel, so that they might be able to talk withoutinterruption. Arthur was, of course, the hero of the occasion, and washanded about from one to another of his adoring relatives in a mannerwhich would have been amusing to an onlooker. First of all Mrs Savilleclaimed him, and they sat on the sofa together, stroking each other'shands like a charming pair of lovers, as a mother and grown-up sonshould always be. Then she cast an apologetic glance at her husband,and made an excuse to move her position, when Colonel Saville tookpossession of his "boy," and the two tall figures leant against themantelpiece talking "manny talk," as Peggy expressed it, and smokingtheir cigarettes. Finally it was Peggy's own turn, and she sat perchedon Arthur's knee, gazing into the dear, handsome face which had alwaysbeen her ideal of manly beauty.
"Fancy, Arthur, just fancy, we are grown-up ladies and gentlemen! I amtwenty-one, and you are twenty-six! Doesn't it seem wonderful? Youlook so handsome, dear, so big and important! I suppose you areimportant, aren't you? What is your chief like? Does he appreciateyou? Does he defer sufficiently to your advice? Between ourselves, theEnglish Government isn't so well managed as I could wish. There is awant of firmness in dealing with Foreign Powers which annoys me greatly.Next time you get into a muddle at the War Office, just tell them toapply to me, and I'll set them straight! If I could get the chance ofbeing Minister of War for a couple of days, I'd settle them! No shilly-shally for me I I'd show them how the thing ought to be done!"--andPeggy wagged her head in a fierce and defiant manner, which sent Arthurinto a peal of laughter.
"Not any more burdened by modesty than you used to be, I perceive, younglady. I'll be pleased to pass on your message. The chief is aconscientious fellow, and feels his responsibility so much that it willdoubtless be a relief to him to know that Peggy Saville is to therescue. I'll introduce you to him some time soon, when you can have anopportunity of airing your views."
"I should like that. I suppose we shall have any amount of invitationswhen we are really settled, but just at first we want to devote all ourenergies to house-hunting. We are going to drive to the agent's firstthing to-morrow morning, to see what he has to offer us, and thenMellicent arrives in the afternoon. You knew she was coming, didn'tyou, and that I am going home with her at the end of a fortnight?"
Arthur chuckled softly to himself.
"Chubby in London! What delirious excitement! I must try to go aboutwith you sometimes, for it will be great to hear her remarks. She hasnever been in town for more than a few hours at a time on a shoppingexpedition, and has everything to see. Chubby has developed into a verycreditable specimen, I'd have you know, and she don't appreciate beingcalled Chubby no more. Consequently, I make a point of addressing herby no other name! When she gets into a rage she looks surprisingly likethe fat little girl of a dozen years back."
"Too bad!" cried Peggy, laughing. "None of that sort of thing while sheis here, remember! No one shall tease my visitors but myself. I'msimply longing to see the dear old girl, and hear all the news abouteverybody. Rob is at The Cedars, they say, so I must wait to see himthere, but Rosalind is in town. Oh, Arthur, do you see much of her? Doyou meet her often? Is she a great beauty, and does every one talkabout her and make a fuss of her wherever she goes, as we used toimagine they would do when she grew up? Do tell me all about Rosalind!"
Arthur's face stiffened in a curious, unnatural fashion, and his lipslost their laughing curve, and grew straight and hard. The sparkle diedout of his face, and he looked a boy no longer, but a man, and a man whohad not found his life too easy. He was astonishingly like his fatherat that moment, and both mother and sister noted the fact.
"Oh, that would be a long story, and would take up too much time. ForRosalind's doings, see the society papers," he cried, with anindifference too elaborate to be genuine. "To-morrow's issue will nodoubt inform you that she is at some big function to-night, wearing arobe of sky-blue silk, festooned with diamonds and bordered with rubies.That's the proper style of thing, isn't it, for a society belle? I seeher occasionally. Lord Darcy is the kindest of friends, and I havealways a welcome at his house. I don't go very often, but I meet themout, and am vouchsafed a dance, or ten minutes' conversation, if nobodymore important is on the scene. Rosalind is
an important personagenowadays, and can't waste her time on the likes of me; but she isdevoted to you, Peg, and will rush round to see you the moment you lether know that you are at home."
But Peggy set her lips, and privately resolved to be in no hurry toapprise Rosalind Darcy of her return. No one who considered herself toogrand for Arthur should have the chance of associating with his sister.Dear, darling Arthur! Did he still care, then? Was Rosalind'sbeautiful face still a Will-o'-the-wisp to dazzle and ensnare his heart,and was it possible that she, or any mortal woman, could have thehardihood to resist Arthur Saville when he came to woo? Peggy satsilent, but her heart formed a voiceless prayer--a prayer that if in thefuture trouble must come, she might be the one to bear it, and thatArthur might be shielded from a second crushing disappointment.