Duchess

“ I shall come and live here, George—no use in your putting me off! I’m determined. It is a promise, then’—to Susan, smiling vivaciously—‘that you will come to-morrow, and another day. We must arrange another day—you will bring me up this small Adonis,’ patting Bonnie’s cheek as he smiles at her (children love all things pretty) ‘to see me?’
‘I shall be very glad,’ says Susan tremulously. Then Lady Forster trips away to rejoin her friends, who are standing beside the different carriages, and quarrelling gaily as to who shall go home with whom, and for a second Crosby is alone with Susan. ”

“ Crosby is a big man, if anything, and she is the tiniest creature. Her features are tiny too, but exquisitely moulded. The coquettish mouth, the nose ‘tip-tilted like a flower,’ the well-poised 240dainty head, the hands, the feet—all are small, and her figure slender as a fairy’s. She is wonderfully pretty in a brilliant fashion, and her bright eyes are alight with intelligence. She is altogether the last person in the world Susan would have imagined as Crosby’s sister. ”

“ It is impossible to let her little beloved one fall off her knees, so quickly, if reluctantly, she brings down her right hand so as to clasp him securely.
‘What are you crying about?’ goes on Crosby, very proud of the success of his first manœuvre. ‘Because somebody wanted to kiss you? You will have a good deal of crying at that rate, Susan, before you come to the end of your life.’
He is laughing a little now, and as Bonnie has climbed up on her knees, and is pulling away the other hand from her face, Susan feels she may as well make the best of a bad situation. ”

“ Tommy, not understanding, but scenting fun, laughs gaily.
‘I don’t think you ought to encourage him like that,’ says Susan, whose pretty mouth, however, is sweet with smiles.
‘One should always encourage a genius,’ says Crosby, undismayed.
There is a little stir here. Tommy has wriggled out of Crosby’s lap and has gone back to Ella, who receives him with—literally—open arms.
Wyndham is watching her curiously. Her manner all through Tommy’s absorbingly interesting tale has been a revelation to him. ”

“ How on earth can she ever summon up courage enough to go and lunch up there with all these fashionable people? It is she who will be the stranger in a strange land.
‘That is settled then,’ says Crosby quickly. Had he feared she would go on to say something more—to say that she had an engagement? ‘I will call for you at twelve.’
‘Oh no,’ says Susan. ‘I’—confusedly—‘I can walk up. It—it is too much trouble.’
‘George doesn’t think so,’ says Lady Forster, with a faint grimace. ‘Is this your brother?’
She bends in her quick way, and turns up Bonnie’s beautiful little face and looks at it earnestly. ”

“ Betty leads the way after about a moment’s awful pause, and then they all go off into shrieks of laughter. Jacky, alone, sullen, silent, not understanding, stands as if petrified. Susan has pushed Bonnie from her, and has risen to her feet. Her face is crimson now; her eyes are full of tears. Involuntarily Crosby rises too. ”

“ The smart little cart, with its wonderful pair of ponies, rattled up to the door, and Miss Barry, who had known that someone would come to fetch Susan, and had therefore put on her best bib and tucker, emerged from the flower-crowned porch of the Rectory to receive Lady Forster, her old face wreathed in smiles. It was sweet to her to see Susan accepted and admired by the Park people. ‘Our own sort of people’ proudly thought the poor old maid, who had struggled with much poverty all her life. ”

“ So ardent, so bloodthirsty, is the chase, it is matter for wonder that the hens, having once gone through such an encounter, could ever brave it again. But hens are amongst the bravest things living—Amazons in their own line. It is indeed popularly supposed in our neighbourhood that the souls of those defunct termagants have entered into them, and, at all events, there does not rest a doubt now in the minds of Susan and Betty that in half an hour’s time those hens will have returned to the charge, as fresh as ever. ”

“ I do, badly.’
‘What is it?’ asks Tommy, whose views of amusement as a rule mean lollipops, and those only, and who has no knowledge of cameras or kodaks.
‘It’s painful, as a rule,’ says Crosby. ‘But children seldom suffer. It’s only people of my age who come out with their noses twisted. Did you ever have your nose twisted, Tommy? It hurts awfully, I can tell you. But’—with a glance at Susan—‘other things hurt worse. You ought to speak to Susan, Tommy—to tell her that prolonged cruelty sometimes ends in the death of the victim.’
At this Susan faces round. ”

“ If I can say a good word for you, I—Oh, how d’ye do, Mr. Crosby? Brought your racket, too, I see. Carew, now we’ll make up a set: Mr. Crosby and—’
‘Miss Susan, if I may,’ says Crosby, looking into Susan’s charming face whilst holding her hand in greeting. There are any amount of greetings to be got through when you go to see the Barrys. They are all always en évidence, and all full of life and friendliness. Even little Bonnie hurries up on his stick, and gives him a loving greeting. The child’s face is so sweet and so happily friendly that Crosby stoops and kisses him. ”

“ To live with Carew, if he were well off enough to have her, would, Susan thinks, be a most delightful arrangement.
‘It seems she prefers to live with another fellow,’ says he.
Susan stares at him. He nods back at her.
‘Fact,’ says he. ‘Horrid taste on her part, isn’t it?’
‘Oh, I see,’ says Susan slowly. ‘She’s married.’
‘Very much,’ says Crosby. ‘At all events, her husband is. She doesn’t give him much rope. However, you’ll see her soon, as she is coming to stay with me. She always makes a point of coming to me for my birthday, whenever I chance to be in Ireland or England for it. ”

“ Wyndham tells himself that he could hardly have made a better choice of a companion for this strange girl who has been so inconveniently flung into his life. Miss Manning’s face, too, is one to inspire instant confidence. Her eyes are earnest and thoughtful; her mouth kind, if sad. That she has endured much sorrow is written on every feature; but troubles have failed to embitter a spirit made up of Nature’s sweetest graces. ”

“ Barry, not that,’ says Wyndham impatiently. ‘I expect I’m about the most grudging devil on earth. And if you think I enjoy helping this girl, or Miss Manning, or anyone else, you make a mistake. What I really want is to be left alone, to run my life on my own rails without the worry of being crossed or stopped by passengers, or goods, or extras.’
‘Ah, we can none of us hope for that,’ says the Rector. ‘The most selfish of us have to live, not only for ourselves, but for others. ”

“ Oh, blame me, despise me, if you like, but anyone would have been glad to die, if they felt as homeless and as starving as I did that night!’
‘Who is blaming you?’ says Wyndham roughly. ‘Good heavens! is there a man on earth who could blame you, after hearing so sad a story? Because you have met one brute in your life, must you consider all other men brutes?’
His manner is so vehement that Ella, thinking he is annoyed with her, shrinks from him. ”

“ Not so well born as the rest of us? You must be mad, Susan! A creature like Dr. Mulcahy to talk of birth at all is absurd. Why, his father was a draper in Dublin. But that he should cavil at Kate Blake’s birth is outrageous. Why, the Blakes—’ She stops, as if overcome by wrath, and Dom takes up the parable. ”

“ And now the big woman whom Susan had noticed at luncheon has seated herself at the piano, and the poet has caught up a fiddle, and if the big woman can do nothing else on earth, she can at least play dance music 271to perfection, and the poet, ‘poor little fellow,’ as Susan calls him to herself—if he could only have heard her!—does not make too many false notes on the fiddle, so that she dances very gaily, feeling as if her feet are treading on air, and answering Captain Lennox’s whispered honeyed words with soft smiles and hurried breathing. ”

“ Miss Barry, now turning away from him with a heart decidedly heavy, directs her conversational powers on Crosby.
‘I congratulate you on being in good time,’ says she. ‘When Betty and I started, we had great trouble in getting Carew and Dominick to come with us. They were dreadfully late, and we said then—Betty and I—that you would surely be late. But you’—smiling and wagging her curls—‘have behaved splendidly. I do appreciate a young man who can be punctual.’
Susan glances quickly at her. ‘Young man!’ Is she in earnest, and after all that Betty had said?
‘Young man!’ Is he a young man? ”

“ Pray don’t trouble about me. I’—with a crushing glance at poor Susan—‘have no desire whatever to interfere with your amusement. I hope’—turning to Crosby—‘later on I may be able to see more of you, but to-day I am specially busy. I have many worries, Mr. Crosby, that are not exactly on the surface.’
49‘Like us all,’ says Crosby, nodding his head gravely. ‘Life is full of thorns.’
‘Ah!’ says Miss Barry. She feels that she has now ‘impressed’ him indeed, and is satisfied. ”

“ After all, I am sure I should not have asked you.’
‘You can ask me anything you like,’ says Crosby with resignation. ‘Yours is to command, mine to obey. Yes’—comfortably, if surreptitiously, disposing himself on the tail of Susan’s gown—‘I acknowledge it. I have had my little disappointment. It was a frightful affair. I don’t believe anyone was ever so much in love as I was—then. I was just twenty-one, and she was just—something or other. It’s bad to remember a lady’s age. Any way, I know I loved her—I loved her,’ says Crosby, rising now to tragedy, ‘like anything. ”

“ Love half regrets to kiss it dry.’ As Susan appears, the guilty ones upon the tennis-ground move simultaneously towards her, Betty with a shy little rush, and holding out to her her racket.
‘Come and have another game, Susan, and you, too, Mr. Crosby.’
‘Yes, do,’ says Carew. ‘Tea will be here in a moment.’ He evidently holds this out as an inducement to Crosby to remain. Mr. Fitzgerald nobly backs him up.
‘Also Aunt Jemima!’ he says enthusiastically.
This joke, if it is meant for one, is a dead failure. No one even smiles. ”

“ Good gracious! it’s growing very late. We must run. Bonnie’s shirts can’t be done to-day, but I’ll help you with them to-morrow. Oh, there’s auntie—’
‘Susan, you must make haste,’ cries Miss Barry, hurrying round the corner. ‘There is no time to be lost. And, my dear, your hair! How fortunate you washed it to-day! When neatly done up it will look beautiful. Betty, I have been thinking of having you taken with your hat on. ”

“ Lady Forster, indeed, is one of those women who look as if they ought to be called ‘Baby’ or ‘Birdie,’ but in reality she was named Katherine at her birth, with a big and a stern K, not a C—which we all know is much milder—and never did Susan hear her called anything less majestic by anyone. ”