A Veldt Official Part 3

To say truth the aspect of Doppersdorp was calculated to impress n.o.body in its favour. It lay upon an open plain, shut in on three sides by bare and craggy mountains, and consisted at first sight mainly of a couple of hundred mud-coloured tenements looking like lumps of clay dropped upon the veldt and left to dry in the sun. It improved, however, on closer inspection. The streets were broad and well laid out, and bordered by willows--and on the lower side of the town were gardens, which made a pleasant oasis of green against the prevailing aridity. Some of the houses were double-storeyed, but the most prominent building of all was the Dutch Reformed Church, an appalling specimen of architecture, staringly new, and surmounted by a badly proportioned steeple. The inhabitants of this place were firmly under the impression that Doppersdorp was the most attractive, and nearly the most important, town in the world; which was a comfortable form of belief for themselves, if a bore to the new arrival, who was expected to acquiesce.

"What d'you think of Doppersdorp?" was fired into the said new arrival by every one with whom he was brought into contact, socially or officially, unawares or with premeditation. And each individual querist would be sure to continue in a tone of complacency, which might convey the idea that it owed its attractiveness, if not its very existence, mainly to himself:

"Ah, it's not half a bad little place, Doppersdorp; not half a bad little place."

To which Roden Musgrave would agree, from the double-barrelled motive of expediency, and the needless exertion entailed by maintaining the contrary. His real opinion, like everything else, he held prudently in reserve.

CHAPTER FOUR.

CARTE AND TIERCE!

"I wonder what the new magistrate's clerk is like!"

And the speaker who had been staring meditatively skyward, her hands locked together behind the coiled ma.s.ses of her brown hair, raises her magnificent form from the hammock in which it has been luxuriously resting, and, sitting upright, stretches her arms and yawns. The hammock is slung beneath a group of green willows whose drooping boughs afford a cool and pleasant shade. Beyond, bordered by a low sod wall and a ditch, is a large garden planted with fruit trees soon to be weighed down with golden apricots and ripening peaches, albeit these are at present green. Over the tree-tops s.h.i.+mmers the corrugated iron roof of a house.

"It's awfully hot still, but not so hot as it was," continues the speaker. "Why, Grace, I do believe you're asleep!"

The other occupant of this cool retreat starts violently, nearly falling from her chair with the awakening. She is a tall, slightly built woman, some years older than the first speaker; good-looking, albeit with rather a faded and 'washed-out' air.

"Yes, I was; nodding, at any rate. What were you trying to say, Mona?"

"I was saying, 'I wonder what the new magistrate's clerk is like!'"

"Why didn't you go into Doppersdorp with Charlie this morning? Then you could have seen for yourself."

"Charlie would insist on starting at each an unholy hour. Charlie delights in turning me out at four o'clock if he can, and I am const.i.tutionally lazy. Charlie is a barbarian."

"I wonder what Gonjana will get? A year, I hope. Mr Van Stolz has been heavily down upon sheep-stealing of late."

"Grace Suffield, I'm surprised at you! That's a most unchristian sentiment. You ought to be more merciful to the poor benighted heathen, who doesn't know any better."

"He's the worst 'boy' we have ever had on the place, and I for one shall be heartily glad to get rid of him."

"Bother Gonjana! I was talking of the new magistrate's clerk, 'Roden Musgrave!' It has quite a romantic sound, hasn't it?"

"Romantic fiddlestick!" laughs Mrs Suffield. "You're not in luck's way this time, Mona. They say he isn't young, and is awfully reserved and stiff; quite a middle-aged fogey, in fact."

"Not young, eh! That makes him the more interesting, if only for a change. I believe I'm beginning to have enough of boys."

"Oh, poor Mr Watkins! Why, Mona, I believe you were more than half engaged to that poor boy, and now you are preparing to throw him over for his successor."

"Poor fellow, he was rather fond of me!" is the complacent rejoinder.

"I don't know that I ever saw any of them so cut up as he was when he said good-bye. But, look here, Gracie. He is no older than am, and has only been a couple of years in the Service! What sort of aged and wrinkled hag shall I be by the time he gets even a third-cla.s.s magistracy?"

"Quite so. And having broken his heart--done your best to I should say, for hearts don't break at young Watkins' age--you are going to set to work to subjugate his successor."

"What is life worth without its little excitements?" is the soft, purring reply; but no attempt does the speaker make to repudiate the imputation.

"Little excitements, indeed! Did you ever try and count the number of men you have made fools of? Let's begin. There was young Watkins here; the new doctor at Villiersdorp; then there was that man on board s.h.i.+p-- two rather--for I hear you were playing off one against the other. And while you were in England--"

"Oh, that'll do, that'll do! I didn't make fools of them. They made fools of themselves."

"You'll do it once too often one of these days. You'll end by singeing your own wings, and that when you least expect it. And when you do it'll be a scorcher, my child--a scorcher, mark my words."

"I don't know that I'd mind that. I believe I should positively enjoy it. Such an experience would be delicious."

"Wait until it comes, Mona, and then tell me how 'enjoyable,' how 'delicious' you find it," is the reply, given rather shortly, and, it might be thought, with a dash of bitterness.

But Mona Ridsdale says nothing as she slides from her hammock, and, standing upright, stretches her magnificent limbs and again yawns.

Looked at now she is seen to be a splendidly developed, and perfectly proportioned specimen of womanhood: whose lines the fall throat and bust, the symmetrical curves of the waist, and the swelling, rounded hips, show faultless in the lithe, natural grace of her att.i.tude. The face, however, is a puzzling one, for its upper and lower parts are contradictory. The higher aspirations, a great capacity for tenderness, and the better and n.o.bler qualities suggested in the broad, smooth brow and melting hazel eyes, are negatived by the setting of the lower jaw and the straight compression of the lips, which convey the idea of a hardness of purpose--when purpose runs on the same lines as inclination--a recklessness of consequence, self-will, ruthlessness.

The effect of these contradictions is not a little curious, and is calculated to draw from the observer of character a mingled verdict, to convey an uncomfortable impression of unreliability. It is a face which has just missed being beautiful, and, as it is, can become wondrously attractive; as, judging from the foregoing conversation, some must already have discovered, to their cost.

"Why, I believe Charlie has come back!" cries Mrs Suffield, rising to her feet. "What a noise the dogs are making. Yes, it is him," as a male voice is heard, pacifying those faithful, if uproarious, guardians.

Then its tones are mingled with those of another; and they are approaching. "Who on earth has he got with him?" she continues.

Two men appear among the fruit trees, and, getting over the low sod wall, now come up.

"Hallo, Grace!" cries the foremost. "Thought we'd find you and Mona lazing somewhere, so instinctively made for the coolest spot. I've brought you a visitor. This is Mr Musgrave, Watkins' successor."

The effect upon Grace Suffield of this introduction is strange--to the two witnesses thereof inexplicable. Quite a rush of colour comes into her ordinarily pale face, and there is the trepidation of suppressed eagerness in her manner.

"Well, this is an unexpected pleasure! I _am_ glad to see you, Mr Musgrave." Then, turning to her mystified husband, "Charlie, this is the gentleman who was so kind to me during that awful post-cart journey.

That horrible river--ugh!" with a shudder.

"The deuce it is! Then, Musgrave, you must accept my best thanks, and a thousand per cent, more of hearty welcome," says Suffield. "My wife swears her days would have been numbered but for you. She has done nothing but talk of your kindness to her ever since."

"That's a pity, because it's making a great deal out of very little," is Roden's reply. "But I am very glad we have met again, Mrs Suffield. I often wondered how you had got on after your scare and hards.h.i.+ps in general."

"And you neither of you knew each other's names!" says Suffield. "That reminds me, I haven't completed the introduction. My cousin, Miss Ridsdale."

And then these two stand mentally appraising each other in one quick, searching glance, while their hands meet, and, as though conveyed in the magnetism of the touch, very much the same idea runs through the mind of each,--namely, that between this their first meeting, and the eventual and final parting, lie grave and boundless potentialities.

A little more desultory talk, and a move is made towards the house, and Suffield, owning to a magnificent drought after their eight-mile ride in the sun, produces a bottle of grog; then presently, excusing a temporary absence on the ground of it being time to count in the stock, departs, for the sun is touching the craggy heights which bound the view on every side; and already, over the bare treeless plains stretching away for miles in front of the house, are moving white patches, the flocks returning to their nightly fold.

As he disappears so does his wife, for the uproar and occasional howl emanating from an adjacent nursery seem to require her presence. Mona Ridsdale thus left to entertain the stranger, fails to do so, unless as a dumb show, for she is standing at the open window in silence, gazing meditatively out over the veldt, her splendid figure outlined against the blus.h.i.+ng glow of the sunset sky. A hostile witness might even have insinuated that she was "posing."

"Well, Mr Musgrave," she says at length, alive to the necessity of saying something, "how do you think you will like Doppersdorp?"

"Ah! Now that is something like a rational version of the question I am by this time prepared to answer, from sheer force of habit before it is asked, wherever I make a new acquaintance. The stereotyped form is, 'How do you like Doppersdorp?' not how do I think I will. Now, between ourselves, I _don't_ like it at present, I don't say I never shall, but so far I don't. I don't say I dislike it, for both sentiments are too active to define my views towards it. I simply make the best of the place. And you, do you live here always?"

"Oh yes. This is my home. Charlie and Grace are the only relatives I can at all get on with, and we pull very well together."

"Well, and how do _you_ like Doppersdorp? It is a refres.h.i.+ng novelty to be able to ask the question instead of answering it."

"My answer is the same as yours. I make the best of it."