A Rose of a Hundred Leaves Part 11

"That is because you have appealed to Ulfar's feelings instead of to his judgment. When Ulfar considers how savagely primitive these dalesmen are in their pa.s.sions, he will understand that discretion is the n.o.bler part of valour. In Russia he thought it a very prudent thing to get out of the way when a pack of wolves were in the neighbourhood."

"The law will protect me in this house. Human beings have to mind the law."

"There are times when human beings are a law unto themselves. How would you like to see a crowd of angry men shouting around this house for you? Think of your sister,--and of me, if I am worth so much consideration."

"I am not to be frightened, Sarah."

"Will you consider, then, that as far as Keswick and Kendal on one side, and as far as Dalton and Whitehaven on the other side, every local newspaper will have, or will make, its own version of the affair? The Earl of Lonsdale, with a large party, is now at Whitehaven Castle. What a _sauce piquante_ it will be to his dinners!

How the men will howl over it, and how the women will snicker and smile!"

"Sarah! you can think of the hatefullest things."

"And Lonsdale will go up to London purposely to have the delight of telling it at the clubs."

"Sarah!"

"And the 'Daily Whisper' will get Lonsdale's most delectable version, and blow it with the four winds of heaven to the four corners of the civilized world."

"Sarah Sandys, I--"

"Worse still! that poor girl whom you treated so abominably, must suffer the whole thing over again. Her name will be put as the head and front of your offending. All her sorrows and heartbreak will be made a penny mouthful for country b.u.mpkins and scandalous gammers to 'Oh!' and 'Ah!' over. Ulfar, if you are a man, you will not give her a moment's terror of such consequences. You may see that she fears them, by her sending her brother to entreat your absence."

"And I must be called coward and runaway!"

"Let them call you anything they like, so that you spare her further shame and sorrow."

"Your talking in this fas.h.i.+on to me, Sarah, is very like Satan correcting sin. I loved Aspatria when I met you in Rome."

"Of course! Adam always has his Eve ready. 'Not my fault, good people!

Look at this woman! With her bright smiles and her soft tongue she beguiled me; and so I fell!' We can settle that question, you and I, again. Now you must ring the bell, and order your horse--say, at four o'clock to-morrow morning. You can have nearly six hours'

sleep,--quite enough for you."

"You have not convinced me, Sarah."

"Then you must ride now, and be convinced afterward. For your sister's sake and for Aspatria's sake, you will surely go away."

Lady Redware was crying, and she cried a little harder to emphasize Sarah's pleading. Ulfar was in a hard strait. He looked angrily at the handsome little woman urging him to do the thing he hated to do, and then taking the kerchief from his sister's face, he kissed her, and promised to leave Redware at dawn of day.

"But," said he, "if you send me away now, I tell you, our parting is likely to be for many years, perhaps for life. I am going beyond civilization, and so beyond scandal."

"Do not flatter yourself so extravagantly, Ulfar. There is scandal everywhere, and always has been, even from the beginning. I have no doubt those nameless little sisters of Cain and Abel were talked about unpleasantly by their sisters and brothers-in-law. In fact, wherever there are women there are men glad to pull them down to their own level."

"Is it not very hard, then, that I am not to be permitted to stay here and defend the women I love?"

Sarah shook her head. "It is beyond your power, Ulfar. If Porthos were on earth again, or Amadis of Gaul, they might have happy and useful careers in handling as they deserve the maligners of good, quiet women. But the men of this era!--which of them durst lift the stone that the hand without sin is permitted to cast?"

So they talked the night away, drifting gradually from the unpleasant initial subject to Ulfar's plan of travel and the far-off prospect of his return. And in the gray, cold dawn he bade them farewell, and they watched him until he vanished in the mists rolling down the mountain.

Then they kissed each other,--a little, sad kiss of congratulation, wet with tears; they had won their desire, but their victory had left them weeping. Alas! it is the very condition of success that every triumph must be baptized with somebody's tears.

This event, beginning in such a trifle as an almost accidental visit of Aspatria to the vicar, was the line sharply dividing very different lives. Nothing in Seat-Ambar was ever quite the same after it. William Anneys, indeed, quickly perceived and acknowledged his fault, and the reconciliation was kind and complete; but Aspatria had taken a step forward, and crossed clearly that bound which divides girlhood from womanhood. Unconsciously she a.s.sumed a carriage that Will felt compelled to respect, and a tone was in her voice he did not care to bluff and contradict. He never again ordered her to remain silent or to leave his presence. A portion of his household authority had pa.s.sed from him, both as regarded Aspatria and Brune; and he felt himself to be less master than he had formerly been.

Perhaps this was one reason of the growing frequency of his visits to Frostham. There he was made much of, deferred to, and all his little fancies flattered and obeyed. Will knew he was the most important person in the world to Alice Frostham; and he knew, also, that he only shared Aspatria's heart with Ulfar Fenwick. Men like the whole heart, and nothing less than the whole heart; hence Alice's influence grew steadily all through the summer days, full to the brim of happy labour and reasonable love. As early as the haymaking Will told Aspatria that Alice was coming to Seat-Ambar as its mistress; and when the harvest was gathered in, the wedding took place. It was as noisily jocund an affair as Aspatria's had been silent and sorrowful; and Alice Frostham, encircled by Will's protecting arm, was led across the threshold of her own new home, to the sound of music and rejoicing.

The home was quickly divided, though without unkind intent. Will and Alice had their own talk, their own hopes and plans, and Aspatria and Brune generally felt that their entrance interfered with some discussion. So Aspatria and Brune began to sit a great deal in Aspatria's room, and by and by to discuss, in a confidential way, what they were to do with their future. Brune had no definite idea.

Aspatria's intents were clear and certain. But she knew that she must wait until the spring brought her majority and her freedom.

One frosty day, near Christmas, as Brune was returning from Dalton, he heard himself called in a loud, cheerful voice. He was pa.s.sing Seat-Ketel, and he soon saw Harry Ketel coming quickly toward him.

Harry wore a splendid scarlet uniform; and the white snow beneath his feet, and the dark green pines between which he walked, made it all the more splendid by their contrast. Brune had not seen Harry for five years; but they had been companions through their boyhood, and their memories were stored with the pleasant hours they had spent together.

Brune pa.s.sed that night, and many subsequent ones, with his old friend; and when Harry went back to his regiment he took with him a certainty that Brune would soon follow. In fact, Harry had found his old companion in that mood which is ready to accept the first opening as the gift of fate. Brune found there was a commission to be bought in the Household Foot-Guards, and he was well able to pay for it.

Indeed, Brune was by no means a poor man; his father had left him seven thousand pounds, and his share of the farm's proceeds had been constantly added to it.

Aspatria was delighted. She might now go to London in Brune's care.

They discussed the matter constantly, and began to make the preparations necessary for the change. But affairs were not then arranged by steam and electricity, and the letters relating to the purchase and transfer of Brune's commission occupied some months in their transit to and fro; although Brune did not rely upon the postman's idea of the practicability of the roads.

Aspatria's correspondence was also uncertain and unsatisfactory for some time. She had at first no guide to a school but the advertis.e.m.e.nts in the London papers which Harry sent to his friend.

But one night Brune, without any special intention, named the matter to Mrs. Ketel; and that lady was able to direct Aspatria to an excellent school in Richmond, near London. And as she was much more favourably situated for a quick settlement of the affair, she undertook the necessary correspondence.

Will was not ignorant of these movements, but Alice induced him to be pa.s.sive in them. "No one can then blame us, Will, whatever happens."

And as Will and Alice were extremely sensitive to public opinion, this was a good consideration. Besides Alice, not unnaturally, wished to have the Seat to herself; so that Aspatria's and Brune's wishes fitted admirably into her own desires, and it gave her a kind of selfish pleasure to forward them.

The ninth of March was Aspatria's twenty-first birthday; and it was to her a very important anniversary, for she received as its gift her freedom and her fortune. There was no hitch or trouble in its transfer from Will to herself. Honour and integrity were in the life-blood of William Anneys, honesty and justice the very breath of his nostrils.

Aspatria's fortune had been guarded with a super-sensitive care; and when years gave her its management, Will surrendered it cheerfully to her control.

Fortunately, the school selected by Mrs. Ketel satisfied Will thoroughly; and Brune's commission in the Foot-Guards was in honourable accord with the highest traditions and spirit of the dales.

For the gigantic and physically handsome men of these mountain valleys have been for centuries considered the finest material for those regiments whose duty it is to guard the persons and the homes of royalty. Brune had only followed in the steps of a great number of his ancestors.

In the beginning of April, Aspatria left Seat-Ambar for London,--left forever all the pettiness of her house life, chairs and tables, sewing and meals, and the useless daily labour that has to be continually done over again. And at the last Will was very tender with her, and even Alice did her best to make the parting days full of hope and kindness. As for the journey, there was no anxiety; Brune was to travel with his sister, and see her safely within her new home.

Yet neither of them left the old home without some tears. Would they ever see again those great, steadfast hills, that purify those who walk upon them; ever dwell again within the dear old house, that had not been builded, but had grown with the family it had sheltered, through a thousand years? They hardly spoke to each other, as they drove through the sweet valleys, where the suns.h.i.+ne laid a gold on the green, and the warm south-wind gently rocked the daisies, and the lark's song was like a silvery water-fall up in the sky.

But they were young; and, oh, the rich significance of the word "young" when the heart is young as well as the body, when the thoughts are not doubts, and when the eyes look not backward, but only forward, into a bright future!

CHAPTER VI.

"LOVE SHALL BE LORD OF SANDY-SIDE."

During thirty years of the first half of this century Mrs. St. Alban's finis.h.i.+ng school for young gentlewomen was a famous inst.i.tution of its kind. For she had been born to the manner of courts and of people of high degree; and when evil fortune met her, she very wisely turned her inherited social advantages into a means of honest livelihood.

Aspatria was much impressed by her n.o.ble bearing and fine manners, and by the elaborate state in which the twelve pupils, of whom she was one, lived.

Each had her own suite of apartments; each was expected to keep a maid, and to dress with the utmost care and propriety. There were fine horses in the stables for their equestrian exercise, there were grooms to attend them during it, and there were regular reception-days, which afforded tyros in social accomplishments practical opportunities for cultivating the graceful and gracious urbanity which evidences really fine breeding.

Many of Aspatria's companions were of high rank,--Lady Julias and Lady Augustas, who were destined to wear ducal coronets and to stand around the throne of their young queen. But they were always charmingly pleasant and polite, and Aspatria soon acquired their outward form of calm deliberation and their mode of low, soft speech. For the rest, she decided, with singular prudence, to cultivate only those talents which nature had obviously granted her.