Mildred Arkell. Vol. 2 (of 3). Henry Wood
and Henry Arkell told his love to the ear, as well as to the eye and heart, the explosion must have place, and he would know how he had been deceived. What would her excuse be? that she liked him; that she liked his companionship; that she could not afford to reject his admiration? The gratification of the present moment was paramount with Georgina.
But what was Mrs. Beauclerc about, to suffer this? Mrs. Beauclerc! Had her daughter flirted with the whole forty king's scholars on a string, and the head master's private pupils to boot, she would never have seen it; no, nor understood it if pointed out to her. Her daughter was Miss Beauclerc, a young lady of high degree, and the college boys were inferior young animals with whom it was utterly impossible Georgina could possess anything in common.
"But how did you get in here, Harry?" began Miss Beauclerc, slipping the locket on her chain. "Has crusty old Williams gone to sleep this evening?"
"The bishop brought me in. He has given Williams orders that I am to be admitted here."
"Has he? What a glorious fellow! I'll give him ten kisses for that, as I used to do when I was a little girl. And now, pray, what became of you this afternoon? You said you should be in the cloisters."
"I know. I could not get out. I was doing Greek with my father."
"Doing Greek! It's always that. 'Doing Greek,' or 'doing Latin,' it's nothing else with you everlastingly. What a wretched pedant you'll be, Harry Arkell!"
"Never, I hope. But you know I must study; I have only my talents to depend upon for advancement in life; and my father, his heart is set on seeing me a bril—a good scholar."
"You are a brilliant scholar already," grumbled Georgina, bringing out the word which his modesty had left unspoken. "There's no reason why you should be at your books morning, noon, and night. I always said Mr. Peter Arkell was a martinet from the first hour he came to drill literature into me. Which he couldn't accomplish."
"The school meets in a week or two, you know, and–"
"Tiresome young reptiles!" interjected Miss Beauclerc. "We are quieter without them."
"And I must make the best use of my holidays for study," continued Henry. "They wish me to get to Oxford early."
"Goodness me! you might go now, if that's what you mean; you know enough. Harry, I do hope when you are ordained you'll get some high preferment."
"Such luck is not for me, Miss Beauclerc. I may never get beyond a curacy; or at most a minor canonry."
"Nonsense, and double nonsense! With the influential friends you may count even now! You know that everybody makes much of you. I should like to see you dean of this cathedral."
"And you–" Henry stopped in time. A tempting vision had mentally arisen, and for the moment led him out of himself. Did Georgina scent the treason, all but uttered? She resumed volubly, hastily—
"I have a great mind to tell you something; I think I will. But don't you let it go farther, Henry, for it is a secret as yet. There's going to be a school examination."
"No!" exclaimed Henry, some consternation in his tone.
"Why! are you afraid of it?"
"I am not. But I was thinking how very unfit the school is to stand it. What will Mr. Wilberforce say?"
"There's the fun," cried Georgina in glee. "When I heard papa talking of this, I said it would drive the head master's senses upside down. The dean and chapter are going to introduce all sorts of improvements into the school."
"What can have set them on to it!" exclaimed Henry, unable to recover his surprise and concern.
"The spelling, I think," said Georgina, pursing up her pretty mouth. "Jocelyn—and he'll be the senior boy this next half, you know—wrote a letter to his aunt; she rents her house and land under old Meddler, and knows the Meddlers—visits them, in fact. What should she do but take the letter to old Meddler, and asked him whether it was not a disgrace to any civilized community. Old Meddler kept the letter and brought it here, when he came into residence last week, and showed it to papa. There were not ten words spelt right in it. Altogether, there's going to be something or other done. But I'm sure you need not look so concerned over it, Henry Arkell; you are safe."
"I am safe. Yes, thanks to my father, I have enjoyed great advantages. But I am thinking of the others."
"Serve them right! They are a lazy set. Papa said, 'I should think Henry Arkell does not write like this!' I could have answered that, you know, had I chosen to bring out some of your letters."
There was a pause of silence. The tone had been significant, and his poor heart was beating wildly. "What a lovely rose!" he exclaimed, when the silence had become painful. "I wish I dare pluck it!"
"Dare! Nonsense! Pluck it if you wish."
"I thought it was forbidden to touch the flowers here!"
"So it is," said Georgina, snapping off the rose, one of the variegated species, and a great beauty. "But I do as I please. I would pluck all the flowers in the garden for two pins, just to see the old gardener's dismay."
"What would the visitors say to you?"
"Bow to me, and wish they dare perform such feats. Pshaw! I am the dean's daughter. Here, Harry, I will make you a present of it."
She threw the rose into his hand as she spoke, and she saw what the gift was to him.
"What shall you do with it, Harry?"
"Had I plucked the rose myself, I should have given it to my mother. I shall keep it now—keep it for ever. I may not," he added, lowering his tone, and speaking, as it were, to himself, "part with your gifts."
Georgina laughed lightly, an encouraging laugh.
Oh! it was wrong; wrong of her to act so. They reached the end of the shady walk and turned again.
"How long are you going to remain in that precious choir?" resumed Georgina, "wasting your time for the public benefit."
"Mr. St. John put the very same question to me this morning. He–"
"Mr. St. John!" she interrupted, in startling, nay, wild impulse, and her face became one glow of excitement. "But what do you mean?" she added, subsiding into calmness as recollection returned to her. "He is not in Westerbury."
The words, the emotion, told their own tale; and their true meaning flashed upon his brain. It was an era in the unhappy boy's life. How was it that he had been blind all these years?
"You take a strange interest in him, Miss Beauclerc," and there seemed to be no life left in his pale face, as he turned to her with the question.
"For another's sake," she evasively answered. "I told you some time ago Frederick St. John was in love with her."
He knew to whom she alluded. "Do you think it likely that he is, Miss Beauclerc?"
"If he's not in love with herself, he is in love with her beauty," said Georgina, with a laugh. "But you know what the popular belief is—that the heir of the St. Johns, whatever he may do with his love, may only give his hand to his cousin, Lady Anne."
"I hope it is so. She is the nicest girl, and he deserves a good wife. I used to sing duets with her when she was last at the Palmery."
"Oh!" said Georgina, turning her pretty nose into the air, "and so you fell in love with her."
"No," replied Henry; "my love was not mine to give."
Another pause. Georgina snatched a second flower—a carnation this time—and began pulling it to pieces.
"I suppose you heard from him this morning?"
"Yes."
"And where is he now?"
"In Spain. But he talks of coming home."
He stole a glance at her; at the loving light that shone in her bright blue eyes; at the soft glow, red as the carnation she was despoiling, on her conscious cheek. Why did he not read the signs in all their full meaning? Why did hope struggle with the conviction that would have arisen in his heart?
"Have