CHAPTER XXI.
CAPTAIN SHRAPNELL.
THE next afternoon Miss Charity Etherage and her sister Agnes, werejoined in their accustomed walk upon the green of Cardyllian by CaptainShrapnell, a jaunty half-pay officer of five-and-fifty, who representedto his own satisfaction, the resident youth and fashion of that quietwatering-place.
"I give you my honour, Miss Etherage," said he, placing himself besideMiss Agnes, "I mistook you yesterday, for Lady Fanny Mersey. Charmingperson she is, and I need not say, perfectly lovely." A little arch bowgave its proper point to the compliment. "She has gone, however, Iunderstand; left Llwynan yesterday. Is that young Verney's boat? No, ohno--nothing like so sharp. He's a very nice fellow, young Verney."
This was put rather interrogatively, and Miss Agnes, thinking that shehad blushed a little, blushed more, to her inexpressible chagrin, forshe knew that Captain Shrapnell was watching her with the interest of agossip.
"Nice? I dare say. But I really know him so very slightly," said MissAgnes.
"Come, come; that won't do," said the Captain, very archly. "You forgetthat I was sitting in our club window, yesterday evening, when a certainparty were walking up and down. Ha, ha, you do. We're tolerablyclear-sighted up there, and old Rogers keeps our windows rubbed; and theglass is quite brilliantly transparent, ha, ha, ha! hey?"
"I think your windows are made of multiplying glasses, and magnifyingglasses, and every kind of glass that distorts and discolours," saidMiss Agnes, a little pettishly. "I don't know how else it is that youall see such wonderful sights as you do, through them."
"Well, they _do_, certainly. Some of our friends do colour a little,"said the Captain, with a waggish yet friendly grin, up at the great bowwindow. "But in this case, you'll allow there was no great opportunityfor colour, the tints of nature are so beautiful," and Shrapnell firedoff this little saying, with his bow and smile of fascination. "Nor, byJove! for the multiplying glasses either, for more than three in thatparty would have quite spoiled it; now, _would_n't it, hey? ha, ha, ha!The two principals, and a gooseberry, eh? Ha, ha, ha!"
"What is a _gooseberry_?" inquired Miss Charity, peremptorily.
"A delightful object in the garden, Miss Etherage, a delightful objecteverywhere. The delight of the young especially, hey, Miss Agnes? ha,ha! hey? and one of the sweetest products of nature Eh, Miss Agnes? ha,ha, ha! Miss Etherage, I give you my honour every word I say is true."
"I do declare, Captain Shrapnell, it seems to me you have gone_perfectly mad_!" said Miss Charity, who was out-spoken and emphatic.
"Always a mad fellow, Miss Etherage, ha, ha, ha! Very true; that's mycharacter, hey? ha, ha, ha, egad! So the ladies tell me," said the gay,young Captain. "Wish I'd a guinea for every time they've called me mad,among them. I give you my honour I'd be a rich fellow this moment."
"Now, Captain Shrapnell," said Miss Charity, with a frank stare with herhonest goggle eyes, "you are talking _the_ greatest _nonsense I_ everheard in my life."
"Miss Agnes, here, does not think so, hey?" giggled the Captain. "Now,come, Miss Agnes, what do you think of young Verney, hey? There's aquestion."
How Miss Agnes hated the gibing, giggling wretch, and detested the clubof whose prattle and gossip he was the inexhaustible spokesman; andwould at that moment have hailed the appearance of a ship-of-war withher broadside directed upon the bow window of that haunt, with just, ofcourse, such notice to her worthy father, whose gray head was visible init, as was accorded to the righteous Lot--under orders, with shot,shell, rockets, and marlin-spikes, to blow the entire concern intoimpalpable dust.
It must be allowed that Miss Agnes was unjust; that it would not havebeen fair to visit upon the harmless and, on the whole, good-naturedpersons who congregated in that lively receptacle, and read the _Times_through their spectacles there, the waggeries and exaggerations of theagreeable captain, and to have reached that incorrigible offender, anddemolished his stronghold at so great a waste of human life.
"Come, now; I won't let you off, Miss Aggie. I say, _there's_ aquestion. What do you say? Come, now, you really must tell us. What _do_you think of young Verney?"
"If you wish to know what _I_ think," interposed Miss Charity, "I thinkhe's _the very nicest_ man I _ever_ spoke to. He's _so_ nice aboutreligion. Wasn't he, Aggie?"
Here the Captain exploded.
"Religion! egad--do you really mean to tell me--ha, ha, ha! Upon mysoul, that's the richest thing!--now, _really_!"
"My goodness! How frightfully wicked you are," exclaimed Miss Charity.
"True bill, egad! upon my soul, I'm afraid--ha, ha, ha!"
"Now, Captain Shrapnell, you _shall not_ walk with us, if you swear,"said Miss Charity.
"_Swear!_ I didn't swear, did I? Very sorry if I did, upon my--I giveyou my word," said the Captain, politely.
"Yes, you _did_; and it's _extremely wicked_," said Miss Charity.
"Well, I won't; I swear to you I won't," vowed the Captain, a littleinconsistently; "but now about Master Cleve Verney, Miss Agnes. I said Iwould not let you off, and I won't. I give you my honour, you shall saywhat you think of him, or, by Jove!--I conclude you can't trust yourselfon the subject, ha, ha, ha! Hey?"
"You _are_ mad, Captain Shrapnell," interposed Miss Charity, withweight.
"I can't say, really, I've formed any particular opinion. I think he israther agreeable," answered Miss Agnes, under this pressure.
"Well, so do _I_" acquiesced the Captain.
"Master Cleve can certainly be agreeable when he chooses; and you thinkhim devilish good-looking--don't you?"
"I really can't say--he has very good features--but----"
"But what? Why every one allows that Verney's as good-looking a fellowas you'll meet with anywhere," persisted the Captain.
"_I_ think him _per_fectly _be-au_tiful!" said Miss Charity, who neverliked people by halves.
"Well--yes--he may be handsome," said Miss Agnes. "I'm no very greatcritic; but I can't conceive any girl falling in love with him."
"Oh! as to _that_--but--_why_?" said Captain Shapnell.
"His face, I think, is so selfish--somehow," she said.
"Is it now, really?--_how_?" asked the Captain. "I'm _am-azed_ at you!"exclaimed Miss Charity.
"Well, there's a selfish hook--no, not a hook, a _curve_--of his nose,and a cruel crook of his shoulder," said Miss Agnes, in search offaults.
"You're determined to hit him by hook or by crook--ha, ha, ha--I say,"pursued the Captain.
"A _hook_!" exclaimed Miss Charity, almost angrily; "there's _no_ hook!I _wonder_ at you--I really think, sometimes, Agnes, you're thegreatest _fool_ I ever met in the whole course of my life!"
"Well, I can't help thinking what I think," said Agnes.
"But you _don't_ think _that_--you _know_ you don't--you _can't_ thinkit," decided her elder sister.
"No more she does," urged the Captain, with his teazing giggle; "she_doesn't_ think it. You always know, when a girl abuses a man, she_likes_ him; she does, by Jove! And I venture to say she thinks MasterCleve one of the very handsomest and most fascinating fellows she everbeheld," said the agreeable Captain.
"I really think what I said," replied Agnes, and her pretty face showeda brilliant colour, and her eyes had a handsome fire in them, for shewas vexed; "though it is natural to think in a place like this, whereall the men are more or less old and ugly, that any young man, eventolerably good-looking, should be thought a wonder."
"Ha, ha, ha! very good," said the Captain, plucking out his whisker alittle, and twiddling his moustache, and glancing down at his easywaistcoat, and perhaps ever so little put out; but he also saw over hisshoulder Cleve crossing the Green towards them from the jetty, and notperhaps being quite on terms to call him "Master Cleve" to his face, hementioned a promise to meet young Owen of Henlwyd in the billiard-roomfor a great game of pyramid, and so took off his hat gracefully to theladies, and, smirking, and nodding, and switching his cane, swaggeredswiftly away toward the point of rendezvous
.
So Cleve arrived, and joined the young ladies, and walked beside Agnes,chatting upon all sorts of subjects, and bearing some occasionalreproofs and protests from Miss Charity with great submission andgaiety, and when Miss Charity caught a glimpse of "the Admiral's"bath-chair, with that used-up officer in it, _en route_ for the HazeldenRoad, and already near the bridge, she plucked her watch from her belt,with a slight pallor in her cheek, and "_declared_" she had not an ideahow late it was. Cleve Verney accompanied the ladies all the way toHazelden, and even went in, when bidden, and drank a cup of tea, attheir early meal, and obeyed also a summons to visit the "Admiral" inhis study.
"Very glad to see you, sir--very happy, Mr. Verney," said Mr. VaneEtherage, with his fez upon his head, and lowering his pipe with thegravity of a Turk. "I wish you would come and dine at three o'clock--thetrue hour for dinner, sir--I've tried every hour, in my time, fromtwelve to half-past eight--at three o'clock, sir, some day--anyday--to-morrow. The Welsh mutton is the best on earth, and the Hazeldenmutton is the best in Wales!" The "Admiral" always looked in the face ofthe person whom he harangued, with an expression of cool astonishment,which somehow aided the pomp of his delivery. "An unfortunatedifference, Mr. Verney--a dispute, sir--has arisen between me and youruncle; but that, Mr. Verney, need not extend to his nephew; no, sir, itneed _not_; no need it should. Shall we say to-morrow, Mr. Verney?"
I forget what excuse Mr. Verney made; it was sufficient, however, and hewas quite unable to name an immediate day, but lived in hope. So havingwon golden opinions, he took his leave. And the good people ofCardyllian, who make matches easily, began to give Mr. Cleve Verney topretty Miss Agnes Etherage.
While this marrying and giving in marriage was going on over manytea-tables, that evening, in Cardyllian, Mr. Cleve Verney, the hero ofthis new romance, had got ashore a little below Malory, and at nightfallwalked down the old road by Llanderris church, and so round the paththat skirts the woods of Malory, and down upon the shore that windsbefore the front of the old house.
As he came full in sight of the shore, on a sudden, within little morethan a hundred paces away, he saw, standing solitary upon the shingle, atall man, with a Tweed rug across his arm, awaiting a boat which wasslowly approaching in the distance.
In this tall figure he had no difficulty in recognizing Sir BoothFanshawe, whom he had confronted in other, and very different scenes,and who had passed so near him, in the avenue at Malory.
With one of those sudden and irresistible impulses, which, as they failor succeed, are classed as freaks of madness, or inspirations of genius,he resolved to walk up to Sir Booth, and speak to him upon the subjectthen so near to his heart.