Airy Fairy Lilian. Duchess
Perhaps the widow is wise in declining to have anything to do with our festive gatherings. I begin to think there is method in her madness."
"Miss Chesney doesn't agree with you," says Guy, casting a quick glance at Lilian: "she would go any distance to a ball, and dance from night till morning, and never know depression next day."
"Is that true, Miss Chesney?"
"Sir Guy says it is," replies Lilian, demurely.
"When I was young," says Lady Chetwoode, "I felt just like that. So long as the band played, so long I could dance, and without ever feeling fatigue. And provided he was of a good figure, and could dance well, I never much cared who my partner was, until I met your father. Dear me! how long ago it seems!"
"Not at all," says Cyril; "a mere reminiscence of yesterday. When I am an old gentleman, I shall make a point of never remembering anything that happened long ago, no matter how good it may have been."
"Perhaps you won't have anything good to remember," says Miss Lilian, provokingly.
"Guy, give Miss Chesney another glass of wine," says Cyril, promptly: "she is evidently feeling low."
"Sir Guy," says Miss Chesney, with equal promptitude, and a treacherous display of innocent curiosity, "when you were at Belmont last evening did you hear Miss Bellair say anything of a rather rude attack made upon her yesterday at the station by an ill-bred young man?"
"No," says Sir Guy, rather amazed.
"Did she not speak of it? How strange! Why, I fancied – "
"Miss Chesney," interposes Cyril, "if you have any regard for your personal safety, you will refrain from further speech."
"But why?" – opening her great eyes in affected surprise. "Why may I not tell Sir Guy about it? Poor Miss Bellair! although a stranger to me, I felt most genuine pity for her. Just fancy, Sir Guy, a poor girl alone upon a platform, without a soul to take care of her, what she must have endured, when a young man —apparently a gentleman – walked up to her, and taking advantage of her isolated position, bowed to her, simpered impertinently, and was actually on the very point of addressing her, when fortunately her cousin came up and rescued her from her unhappy situation. Was it not shameful? Now, what do you think that rude young man deserved?"
"Extinction," replies Guy, without hesitation.
"I think so too. Don't you, Lady Chetwoode?"
Lady Chetwoode laughs.
"Now, I shall give my version of the story," says Cyril. "I too was present – "
"And didn't fly to her assistance? Oh, fie!" says Lilian.
"There was once an unhappy young man, who was sent to a station to meet a young woman, without having been told beforehand whether she was like Juno, tall enough to 'snuff the moon,' or whether she was so insignificant as to require a strong binocular to enable you to see her at all."
"I am not insignificant," says Lilian, her indignation getting the better of her judgment.
"Am I speaking of you, Miss Chesney?"
"Well, go on."
"Now, it came to pass that as this wretched young man was glaring wildly round to see where his charge might be, he espied a tall young woman, apparently in the last stage of exhaustion, looking about for some one to assist her, and seeing no one else, for the one he sought had meanly, and with a view to his discomfiture, crept silently behind his back – "
"Oh, Cyril!"
"Yes, I maintain it; she crept silently behind his back, and bribed her maid to keep silence. So this wretched young man walked up to Juno, and pulled his forelock, and made his very best Sunday bow, and generally put his foot in it. Juno was so frightened by the best bow that she gave way to a stifled scream, and instantly sank back unconscious into the arms of her betrothed, who just then ran frantically upon the scene. Upon this the deluded young man – "
"That will do," interrupts Lilian, severely. "I am certain I have read it somewhere before; and – people should always tell the truth."
"By the bye," says Guy, "I believe Miss Bellair did say something last night about an unpleasant adventure at the station, – something about a very low person who had got himself up like a gentleman, but was without doubt one of the swell mob, and who – "
"You needn't go any further. I feel my position keenly. Nevertheless, Miss Bellair made a mistake when she rejected my proffered services. She little knows what a delightful companion I can be. Can't I, Miss Chesney?"
"Can he, Lady Chetwoode? I am not in a position to judge."
"If a perpetual, never-ceasing flow of conversation has anything to do with it, I believe he must be acknowledged the most charming of his sex," says his mother, laughing, and rising, bears away Lilian with her to the drawing-room.
CHAPTER VII
"A dancing shape, an image gay,
To haunt, to startle, and waylay."
– Wordsworth.
When seven long uneventful days have passed away, every one at Chetwoode is ready to acknowledge that the coming of Lilian Chesney is an occurrence for which they ought to be devoutly thankful. She is a boon, a blessing, a merry sunbeam, darting hither and thither about the old place, lighting up the shadows, dancing through the dark rooms, casting a little of her own inborn joyousness upon all that comes within her reach.
To Lady Chetwoode, who is fond of young life, she is especially grateful, and creeps into her kind heart in an incredibly short time, finding no impediment to check her progress.
Once a day, armed with huge gloves and a gigantic scissors, Lady Chetwoode makes a tour of her gardens, snipping, and plucking, and giving superfluous orders to the attentive gardeners all the time. After her trots Lilian, supplied with a basket and a restless tongue that seldom wearies, but is always ready to suggest, or help the thought that sometimes comes slowly to her hostess.
"As you were saying last night, my dear Lilian – " says Lady Chetwoode, vaguely, coming to a full stop before the head gardener, and gazing at Lilian for further inspiration; she had evidently remembered only the smallest outline of what she wants to say.
"About the ivy on the north wall? You wanted it thinned. You thought it a degree too straggling."
"Yes, – yes; of course. You hear, Michael, I want it clipped and thinned, and – There was something else about the ivy, my child, wasn't there?"
"You wished it mixed with the variegated kind, did you not?"
"Ah, of course. I wonder how I ever got on without Lilian," says the old lady, gently pinching the girl's soft peach-like cheek. "Florence, without doubt, is a comfort, – but – she is not fond of gardening. Shall we come and take a peep at the grapes, dear?" And so on.
Occasionally, too, – being fond of living out of doors in the summer, and being a capital farmeress, – Lady Chetwoode takes a quiet walk down to the home farm, to inspect all the latest arrivals. And here, too, Miss Lilian must needs follow.
There are twelve merry, showy little calves in one field, that run all together in their ungainly, jolting fashion up to the high gate that guards their domain, the moment Lady Chetwoode and her visitor arrive, under the mistaken impression that she and Lilian are a pair of dairy-maids coming to solace them with unlimited pans of milk.
Lilian cries "Shoo!" at the top of her gay young voice, and instantly all the handsome, foolish things scamper away as though destruction were at their heels, leaving Miss Chesney delighted at the success of her own performance.
Then in the paddock there are four mad little colts to be admired, whose chief joy in life seems to consist in kicking their hind legs wildly into space, while their more sedate mothers stand apart and compare notes upon their darlings' merit.
This paddock is Lilian's special delight, and all the way there, and all the way back she chatters unceasingly, making the old lady's heart grow young again, as she listens to, and laughs at, all the merry stories Miss Chesney tells her of her