CHAPTER SIX.
BEN MARTLET FEELS RUSTY.
"Come to me in half an hour, Roy," said Master Pawson, as they rose fromthe table, the boy hurrying away to the armoury to find Ben busy asever, and engaged now in seeing to the straps and fittings of theItalian suit of bronzed steel.
"Thought I'd do it, sir," he said, "in case you ever asked for it; but Is'pose it's all over with your learning to be a man now."
"Indeed it is not," said Roy, sharply. "I'm sure my father would notobject to my learning fencing."
"Sword-play, sir."
"Very well--sword-play," said Roy, pettishly; "so long as I do notneglect any studies I have to go through with Master Pawson."
"And I s'pose you've been a-neglecting of 'em, sir, eh?" said the oldman, drily.
"That I've not. Perhaps I have not got on so well as I ought, butthat's because I'm stupid, I suppose."
"Nay, nay, nay! That won't do, Master Roy. There's lots o' things Ican do as you can't; but that's because you've never learnt."
"Master Pawson's cross because I don't do what he wants."
"Why, what does he want you to do, sir?"
"Learn to play the big fiddle."
"What!" cried the man, indignantly. "Then don't you do it, my lad."
"I don't mean to," said Roy; "and I don't want to hurt my mother'sfeelings; and so I won't make a lot of show over learning sword-playwith you, but I shall go on with it, Ben, and you shall take the swordsor sticks down in the hollow in the wood, and I'll meet you there everymorning at six."
"Mean it, sir?"
"Yes, of course; and now I must be off. I was to be with Master Pawsonin half an hour."
"Off you go, then, my lad. Always keep to your time."
Roy ran off, and was going straight to Master Pawson's room in thecorner tower, but on the way he met Lady Royland, who took his arm andwalked with him out into the square garden.
"Why, mother, you've been crying," said the boy, tenderly.
"Can you see that, my dear?"
"Yes; what is the matter? I know, though. You're fretting about nothearing from father."
"Well, is it not enough to make me fret, my boy?" she said,reproachfully.
"Of course! And I'm so thoughtless."
"Yes, Roy," said Lady Royland, with a sad smile; "I am afraid you are."
"I try not to be, mother; I do indeed," cried Roy; "but tell me--isthere anything fresh? Yes; you've had some bad news! Then you've heardfrom father."
"No, my boy, no; the bad news comes through Master Pawson. He has heardagain from his friends in London."
"Look here, mother," cried the boy, hotly, "I want to know why he shouldget letters easily, and we get none."
Lady Royland sighed.
"Father must be too busy to write."
"I am afraid so, my dear."
"But what is the bad news he has told you this morning?"
They were close up to the foot of the corner tower as Roy asked thisquestion; and, as Lady Royland replied, a few notes of some air beingplayed upon the violoncello high up came floating down to their ears.
"He tells me that there is no doubt about a terrible revolution havingbroken out, my boy; that the Parliament is raising an army to fightagainst the king, and that his friends feel sure that his majesty'scause is lost."
"Then he doesn't know anything about it, mother," cried the boy,indignantly. "The king has too many brave officers like father who willfight for him, and take care that his cause is not lost. Oh, I say,hark to that!"
"That" was another strain floating down to them.
"Yes," said Lady Royland, sadly; "it is Master Pawson playing. He iswaiting for you, Roy."
"Yes, playing," said the boy, hotly. "It makes me think of what I readwith him one day about that Roman emperor--what was his name?--playingwhile Rome was burning. But don't you fret, mother; London won't beburnt while father's there."
"You do not realise what it may mean, my boy."
"Oh, yes, I think I do, mother; but you don't think fairly. You are tooanxious. But there! I must go up to him now."
"Yes, go, my boy; and you will not cause me any more anxiety than youcan help?"
"Why, of course I won't, mother. But if it is going to be a war, don'tyou think I ought to learn all I can about being a soldier?"
"Roy! No, no!" cried Lady Royland, wildly. "Do I not suffer enough onyour father's account?"
"There, I won't say any more, mother dear," said Roy, clinging to herarm; "and now I'll confess something."
"You have something to confess?" said Lady Royland, excitedly, as shestopped where they were, just beneath the corner tower, and quiteunconscious of the fact that a head was cautiously thrust out of one ofthe upper windows and then drawn back, so that only the tip of an earand a few curls were left visible. "Then, tell me quickly, Roy; youhave been keeping back some news."
"No, no, mother, not a bit; just as if I would when I know how anxiousyou are! It was only this. Old Ben is always grumbling about the placegoing to ruin, as he calls it, and I told him, to please him, that hemight clean up some of the big guns."
"But you should not have done this, my dear."
"No; I'll tell him not to, mother. And I'd made an arrangement with himto meet him every morning out in the primrose dell to practisesword-cutting. I was going to-morrow morning, but I won't go now."
Lady Royland pressed her lips to the boy's forehead, and smiled in hisface.
"Thank you, my dear," she said, softly. "Recollect you are everythingto me now! And I want your help and comfort now I am so terribly alone.Master Pawson is profuse in his offers of assistance to relieve me ofthe management here, but I want that assistance to come from my son."
"Of course!" said Roy, haughtily. "He's only the secretary, and if anyone is to take father's place, it ought to be me."
"Yes; and you shall, Roy, my dear. You are very young, but now thistrouble has come upon us, you must try to be a man and my counsellor sothat when your father returns--"
She ceased speaking, and Roy pressed her hands encouragingly as he sawher lips trembling and that she had turned ghastly white.
"When your father returns," she said, now firmly, "we must let him seethat we have managed everything well."
"Then why not, as it's war time, let Ben do what he wanted, and we'llput the place in a regular state of defence?"
"No, no, no, my dear," said Lady Royland, with a shudder. "Why shouldyou give our peaceful happy home even the faintest semblance of war,when it can by no possibility come into this calm, quiet, retired nook.No, my boy, not that, please."
"Very well, mother. Then I'll go riding round to see the tenants, andlook after the things at home just as you wish me to. Will that do?"
Lady Royland smiled, and then pressed her son's arm.
"Go up now, then, to Master Pawson's room," she said; "and recollectthat one of the things I wish you to do is to be more studious than youwould be if your father were at home."
Roy nodded and hurried up into the corridor, thinking to himself thatMaster Pawson would not like his being so much in his mother'sconfidence.
"Then he'll have to dislike it. He has been a bit too forward lately,speaking to the servants as if he were master here. I heard him quitebully poor old Jenk one day. But, of course, I don't want to quarrelwith him."
Roy ascended the staircase and entered the room, to find the secretarybending over a big volume in the Greek character; and, as he looked upsmiling, the boy felt that his tutor was about the leastquarrelsome-looking personage he had ever seen.
"Rather a long half-hour, Roy, is it not?" he said.
"Yes, sir; I'm very sorry. My mother met me as I was coming across thegarden, and talked to me, and I could not leave her in such trouble."
"Trouble? Trouble?" said the secretary, raising his eyebrows.
"Of course, sir, about the bad news you told her this morning."
"Indeed! And did Lady Roylan
d confide in you?"
"Why, of course!" said Roy, quickly.
"Oh, yes,--of course! Her ladyship would do what is for the best.Well, let us to our reading. We have lost half an hour, and I am goingto make it a little shorter this morning, for I thought of going acrossas far as the vicarage."
"To see Master Meldew, sir?"
"Yes; of course. He has not been here lately. Now, then, where we leftoff,--it was about the Punic War, was it not?"
"Yes, sir; but don't let's have anything about war this morning."
"Very well," said the secretary; "let it be something about peace."
It was something about peace, but what Roy did not know half an hourlater, for his head was in a whirl, and his reading became quitemechanical. For there was the trouble his mother was in, her wishes asto his conduct, and his secret interview with Ben, to keep on buzzing inhis brain, so that it was with a sigh of relief that he heard thesecretary's command to close his book, and he gazed at him wonderingly,asking himself whether the words were sarcastic, for Master Pawsonsaid--
"I compliment you, Roy; you have done remarkably well, and been veryattentive this morning. By the way, if her ladyship makes any remarkabout my absence, you can say that you expect Master Meldew has asked meto stay and partake of dinner with him."
"Yes, sir."
"Not unless she asks," continued the secretary. "In all probability shewill not notice my absence."
Roy descended with his books; then felt that he should like to be aloneand think, and to this end he made his way to the gloomy old guard-roomon the right of the great gate-way, ran up the winding stair, and soonreached the roof, where he lay down on the breastwork over themachicolations, and had not been there long before he heard steps, and,looking over, saw Master Pawson cross the drawbridge and go out of thefarther gate-way, watching him unseen till he turned off by the pathwayleading through the village and entering the main road.
Then it occurred to Roy that, as he had an unpleasant communication tomake, he could not do better than get it over at once. So he descended,and began to search for the old soldier; but it was some time before hecould find him out.
Yet it seemed to be quite soon enough, for the old fellow looked verygrim and sour as he listened to the communication.
"Very well, Master Roy," he said; "the mistress is master now, and it'syour dooty to obey her; but it do seem like playing at fast and loosewith a man. There, I've got no more to say,--only that I was beginningto feel a bit bright and chirpy; but now I'm all going back'ard again,and feel as rusty as everything else about the place."
"I'm very sorry, Ben, for I really did want to learn," said Roy,apologetically.
"Yes, sir, I s'pose you did; and this here's a world o' trouble, and thelonger you lives in it the more you finds out as you can't do what youlike, so you grins and bears it; but the grinning's about the hardestpart o' the job. You're 'bliged to bear it, but you aren't 'bliged togrin; and, when the grins do come, you never has a looking-glass aforeyou, but you allus feels as if you never looked so ugly afore in yourlife."
"But you'll have to help me in other things, Ben."
"Shall I, sir? Don't seem to me as there's anything else as I can helpyou over."
"Oh, but there is,--while the war keeps my father away."
"War, sir? Nonsense! You don't call a bit of a riot got up by someragged Jacks war."
"No; but this is getting to be a very serious affair, according to whatMaster Pawson told my mother this morning."
"Master Pawson, sir! Why, what does he know about it?"
"A good deal, it seems. Some friends of his in London send him news,and they said it is going to be a terrible civil war."
"And me not up there with Sir Granby!" groaned the man. "Oh, dear! oh,dear! it's a wicked, rusty old world!"
"But I've promised to help my mother all I can, Ben, and you mustpromise to help me."
"Of course, sir; that you know. But say, sir, war breaking out, and weall rusted up like this! We ought to be ready for anything."
"So I thought, Ben; but my mother says there's not likely to be troublein this out-of-the-way place."
"Then bless my dear lady's innocence! says Ben Martlet, and that's me,sir. Why, you never knows where a spark may drop and the fire begin torun."
"No, Ben."
"And if this is sure to be such a peaceful spot, why did the oldRoylands build the castle and make a moat and drawbridge, and all therest of it? They didn't mean the moat for nothing else, sir, but carp,tench, and eels."
"And pike, Ben."
"No, sir. They thought of very different kind of pikes, sir, I can tellyou,--same as they I've got on the walls yonder in sheaves. But there;her ladyship gives the word to you, and you gives it to me, and Ishouldn't be worth calling a soldier if I didn't do as I was ordered,and directly, too, and--Hark!"
The old soldier held up his hand.
"Horses!" cried Roy, excitedly. "Why, who's coming here?"