Wilfrid Cumbermede Part 17

I accepted it, but somehow did not quite relish being lumped with boys in that fas.h.i.+on. As I ate it, which I should have felt bound to do even had it been less acceptable in itself, she resumed--

'Wouldn't you like to see the company arrive? That's what I came for. I wasn't going to ask Goody Wilson.'

'Yes, I should,' I answered; 'but Mrs Wilson told me to keep here, and not get in their way.'

'Oh! I'll take care of that. We shan't go near them. I know every corner of the place--a good deal better than Mrs Wilson. Come along, Wilfrid--that's your name, isn't it?'

'Yes, it is. Am I to call you Clara?'

'Yes, if you are good--that is, if you like. I don't care what you call me. Come along.'

I followed. She led me into the armoury. A great clang of the bell in the paved court fell upon our ears.

'Make haste,' she said, and darted to the door at the foot of the little stair. 'Mind how you go,' she went on. 'The steps are very much worn. Keep your right shoulder foremost.'

I obeyed her directions, and followed her up the stair. We pa.s.sed the door of a room over the armoury, and ascended still, to creep out at last through a very low door on to the leads of the little square tower. Here we could on the one side look into every corner of the paved court, and on the other, across the roof of the hall, could see about half of the high court, as they called it, into which the carriages drove; and from this post of vantage, we watched the arrival of a good many parties. I thought the ladies tripping across the paved court, with their gay dresses lighting up the Spring twilight, and their sweet voices rippling its almost pensive silence, suited the time and the place much better than the carriages das.h.i.+ng into the other court, fine as they looked with their well-kept horses and their servants in gay liveries. The sun was down, and the moon was rising--near the full, but there was too much light in the sky to let her make much of herself yet. It was one of those Spring evenings which you could not tell from an Autumn one except for a certain something in the air appealing to an undefined sense--rather that of smell than any other. There were green buds and not withering leaves in it--life and not death; and the voices of the gathering guests were of the season, and pleasant to the soul. Of course Nature did not then affect me so definitely as to make me give forms of thought to her influences. It is now first that I turn them into shapes and words.

As we stood, I discovered that I had been a little mistaken about the position of the Hall. I saw that, although from some points in front it seemed to stand on an isolated rock, the ground rose behind it, terrace upon terrace, the uppermost of which terraces were crowned with rows of trees. Over them, the moon was now gathering her strength.

'It is rather cold; I think we had better go in,' said Clara, after we had remained there for some minutes without seeing any fresh arrivals.

'Very well,' I answered. 'What shall we do? Shall you go home?'

'No, certainly not. We must see a good deal more of the fun first.'

'How will you manage that? You will go to the ball-room, I suppose. You can go where you please, of course.'

'Oh no! I'm not grand enough to be invited. Oh, dear no! At least I am not old enough.'

'But you will be some day.'

'I don't know. Perhaps. We'll see. Meantime we must make the best of it. What are _you_ going to do?'

'I shall go back to the library.'

'Then I'll go with you--till the music begins; and then I'll take you where you can see a little of the dancing. It's great fun.'

'But how will you manage that?'

'You leave that to me.'

We descended at once to the armoury, where I had left my candle; and thence we returned to the library.

'Would you like me to read to you?' I asked.

'I don't mind--if it's anything worth hearing.'

'Well, I'll read you a bit of the book I was reading when you came in.'

'What! that musty old book! No, thank you. It's enough to give one the horrors--the very sight of it is enough. How can you like such frumpy old things?'

'Oh! you mustn't mind the look of it,' I said. 'It's _very_ nice inside!'

'I know where there is a nice one,' she returned. 'Give me the candle.'

I followed her to another of the rooms, where she searched for some time. At length--'There it is!' she said, and put into my hand _The Castle of Otranto_. The name promised well. She next led the way to a lovely little bay window, forming almost a closet, which looked out upon the park, whence, without seeing the moon, we could see her light on the landscape, and the great deep shadows cast over the park from the towers of the Hall. There we sat on the broad window-sill, and I began to read. It was delightful. Does it indicate loss of power, that the grown man cannot enjoy the book in which the boy delighted? Or is it that the realities of the book, as perceived by his keener eyes, refuse to blend with what imagination would supply if it might?

No sooner however did the first notes of the distant violins enter the ear of my companion than she started to her feet.

'What's the matter?' I asked, looking up from the book.

'Don't you hear the music?' she said, half-indignantly.

'I hear it now,' I answered; 'but why--?'

'Come along,' she interrupted, eagerly. 'We shall just be in time to see them go across from the drawing-room to the ball-room. Come, come.

Leave your candle.'

I put down my book with some reluctance. She led me into the armoury, and from the armoury out on the gallery half-encompa.s.sing the great hall, which was lighted up, and full of servants. Opening another door in the gallery, she conducted me down a stair which led almost into the hall, but, ascending again behind it, landed us in a little lobby, on one side of which was the drawing-room, and on the other the ball-room, on another level, reached by a few high, semi-circular steps.

'Quick! quick!' said Clara, and turning sharply round, she opened another door, disclosing a square-built stone staircase. She pushed the door carefully against the wall, ran up a few steps, I following in some trepidation, turned abruptly, and sat down. I did as she did, questioning nothing: I had committed myself to her superior knowledge.

The quick ear of my companion had caught the first sounds of the tuning of the instruments, and here we were, before the invitation to dance, a customed observance at Moldwarp Hall, had begun to play. In a few minutes thereafter, the door of the drawing-room opened; when, pair after pair, the company, to the number of over a hundred and fifty, I should guess, walked past the foot of the stair on which we were seated, and ascended the steps into the ball-room. The lobby was dimly lighted, except from the two open doors, and there was little danger of our being seen.

I interrupt my narrative to mention the odd fact that so fully was my mind possessed with the antiquity of the place, which it had been the pride of generation after generation to keep up, that now, when I recall the scene, the guests always appear dressed not as they were then, but in a far more antique style with which after knowledge supplied my inner vision.

Last of all came Lady Brotherton, Sir Giles's wife, a pale, delicate-looking woman, leaning on the arm of a tall, long-necked, would-be-stately, yet insignificant-looking man. She gave a s.h.i.+ver as, up the steps from the warm drawing-room, she came at once opposite our open door.

'What a draught there is here!' she said, adjusting her rose-coloured scarf about her shoulders. 'It feels quite wintry. Will you oblige me, Mr Mellon, by shutting that door? Sir Giles will not allow me to have it built up. I am sure there are plenty of ways to the leads besides that.'

'This door, my lady?' asked Mr Mellon.

I trembled lest he should see us.

'Yes. Just throw it to. There's a spring lock on it. I can't think--'

The slam and echoing bang of the closing door cut off the end of the sentence. Even Clara was a little frightened, for her hand stole into mine for a moment before she burst out laughing.

'Hus.h.!.+ hus.h.!.+' I said. 'They will hear you.'

'I almost wish they would,' she said. 'What a goose I was to be frightened, and not speak! Do you know where we are?'

'No,' I answered; 'how should I? Where are we?'

My fancy of knowing the place had vanished utterly by this time. All my mental charts of it had got thoroughly confused, and I do not believe I could have even found my way back to the library.

'Shut out on the leads,' she answered. 'Come along. We may as well go to meet our fate.'

I confess to a little palpitation of the heart as she spoke, for I was not yet old enough to feel that Clara's companions.h.i.+p made the doom a light one. Up the stairs we went--here no twisting corkscrew, but a broad flight enough, with square turnings. At the top was a door, fastened only with a bolt inside--against no worse housebreakers than the winds and rains. When we emerged, we found ourselves in the open night.