Upsidonia Part 8

[12] A Bill was then before Parliament which would have burdened brewers in perpetuity with the licences of the public-houses owned by them. Mr.

Perry regarded this proposal as an intolerable oppression of a deserving body of men. The Bill was afterwards amended, and the brewers relieved of a great anxiety.

[13] I had already taken a fancy to her. See page 66.

CHAPTER IX

There were basket chairs on the verandah, and I took the most comfortable of them, after Miriam had chosen hers, which I should have said was the least comfortable of all.

"This is very delightful," I said. "After all, there are some compensations in being rich."

I cast a glance at her as I said this. In her pretty cool white dress, which fitted her beautifully, and with her abundant fair hair, carefully and becomingly braided, she looked just like any other girl, the daughter of well-to-do parents, who had been brought up to a life of wealth and ease. For my part I like to see young girls having a good time, and am not averse to sharing it with them. I was inclined to wonder how far this very charming young girl was permitted to enjoy naturally the good things provided for her, and how far she was affected by the economic curiosities that surrounded her.

She did not reply directly to my endeavours to draw her out. "It is very kind of you to make the best of us," she said a little coldly.

"Please don't be offended at my ignorance of the way things go here," I said. "I have lived all my life in different surroundings, and it is all quite new to me."

This speech did nothing to alter her slight air of coolness. "We don't live in this way for fun," she said; and I made haste to explain further.

"I don't mean that at all," I said. "I mean that the whole life of Upsidonia is new to me, poor as well as rich. In my country things are different altogether."

"How do you mean--in your country?" she asked with a puzzled air.

"I come from England," I said. "It is very much like Upsidonia in some ways; in others it is quite different."

She received my information in the same way as Edward had done.

"England!" she repeated. "Where is that? I thought I was rather good at geography; I took a prize in it at school. But I have never heard of England. What direction is it in, and how did you come here?"

"I walked over the moors," I said. "I have been walking for some days. I found myself yesterday evening in a wood just the other side of Culbut."

A light seemed to break in on her. "Oh, I see!" she exclaimed. "You came over the hills. You are a Highlander! That is very interesting. No wonder you look down a little on us Culbutians! But what made you leave that paradise to come here? And why didn't you tell us before that you were a Highlander? I am sure my father and mother would have been very flattered."

She seemed quite excited, and regarded me with curiosity not unmixed with reverence.[14]

"Well, I have never called myself a Highlander, exactly," I said. "In England we call the Scotch Highlanders."

"England! Scotch!" she repeated. "How extraordinary it is! I must get you to show it to me on a map."

"Yes, I should like to see a map," I said. "You see, everything is very different with us."

"Oh, I know it is. You are the most fortunate people in the world. All this must seem very extraordinary to you, and I'm afraid rather painful.

I wonder you take it all as naturally as you do. I suppose you have never seen a house like this before?"

"It is certainly a very charming house," I said, "but it is not altogether unlike the one I was brought up in near London."

Her air of bewilderment returned. "London!" she said. "I have never heard of any of the places you mention. Is England a district?"

"Yes; a pretty large one."

"There are many districts in the Highlands that we know very little of, but I had no idea that there were houses like this anywhere. I thought you all lived so very simply, and were spared all the difficulties that our rich have to undergo."

"In some parts of the Highlands that may be so. But in England it is different. People who lived in a house like this would be considered very fortunate, and they would certainly prefer it to a little house in a street."

"How very extraordinary!" she said again. "But wouldn't they be looked down upon?"

"Not at all. The people who live in the little houses are apt to be looked down upon."

"But don't the upper cla.s.ses all live in little houses?"

"No, they live mostly in the bigger ones, some of them in much bigger ones than this; and the bigger they are the better they like them."

She became more and more interested. "I never heard anything like that before," she said. "I should think it must be rather nice, if all of them do it. Does the dirty set live in big houses? Oh, but I forgot, you don't have a dirty set in the Highlands."

"We do in England," I said. "But we don't kow-tow to them as people seem to do here. If Lord Potter were to show his face there he would be liable to be locked up. We consider dirt a disgrace."

"Oh, so do we," she said hastily. "My aunt, Lady Blueberry, who is _really_ a great lady, won't have anything to do with the dirty set. My Uncle Blueberry says that the old tradition of Upsidonia was not even extreme poverty, but only just so much as to escape the horrible burdens of wealth."

"Is your uncle----?"

"He is the Earl of Blueberry. He is a postman."

"Well, in England he would not be likely to be that. At least, he might be Postmaster-General. Our n.o.bility is for the most part rich, and they live in the finest houses, although some of them are obliged to work for their living."

"Obliged!" she echoed. "Don't they all exercise their right to work?"

"It is a right that has somewhat fallen into abeyance, but some of them do. Others prefer to amuse themselves. In fact, to make a clean breast of it, we all like to have plenty of money in England, so that we can live in nice houses, and go about and enjoy ourselves, and wear nice clothes, and eat and drink nice things."

A shade of disgust crossed her face. "How very different it all is to what I have been told!" she said. "But I am glad you told me about the eating and drinking. I thought you did what you did at lunch to please Mrs. Lemon, our cook."

I was a trifle disturbed at this speech. "Well, of course, that was partly the reason," I said. "And you mustn't run away with the idea that we encourage greediness. But surely, now, you must like living in a pretty house like this, with this lovely garden, better than being cooped up in a street!"

"Perhaps, if all one's friends did it," she said thoughtfully. "Don't your upper cla.s.ses live in towns at all? Oh, but I forgot, there are no towns in the Highlands."

"There are in England. There is London. It is rather a big town. Our upper cla.s.ses live there part of the year, if they can afford it. Some of them have country houses and town houses as well."

"At what time of the year do they go to their town houses?"

"Late spring and early summer are the times when things are at their gayest."

"But that is when the country is at its loveliest. What do they do with their country houses?"

"They shut them up--leave a few servants in them."

"Ah! I suppose they have to consider their servants. Otherwise it seems absurd for people who like the country to leave it when it is at its best."

"There are very pretty parks in London."