Sir Everard

“ A girl in velveteen shooting-jacket and pantaloons, handsome as some dusky Indian princess, lay asleep before him.
Sir Everard Kingsland, in the last stage of bewilderment and amaze, retreated precipitately and shut the door.
The instant the chamber door closed the mysterious young man raised himself on his elbow, very wide awake, his handsome face lighted with a triumphant smile.
"So," he said, "step the second has been taken, and Sir Everard has discovered the sex of his preserver. As he is too delicate to disturb a slumbering lady in disguise, the slumbering lady must disturb him!" ”

“ Nowadays he's no will about anything; her ladyship keeps it for him under lock and key. Her will is her husband's will and her own too. Everything's done through her. Sir Everard daren't--or if he dare he won't--give an order direct to any of the servants. What he does is to say, 'My dear, don't you think that such-and-such a thing ought to be done?' or, 'What is your idea, love, about so-and-so?' And then her ladyship decides, and whichever way she decides, it seems all one to Sir Everard. ”

“ Harrie, this is the son of my oldest friend."
"Papa's friends are all mine!"
The voice was clear and sweet as the beaming eyes. She held out her hand with a frank grace, and Sir Everard took it, its light touch thrilling to the core of his heart.
Sir Everard Kingsland rode back to Carteret Park beside the Indian officer and his daughter as a man might ride in a trance. Surely within an hour the whole world had been changed! He rode on air instead of solid soil, and the sunshine of heaven was not half so brilliant as Harriet Hunsden's smile. ”

“ Now Sir Everard despised his younger brother as a turncoat (and indeed something little better than a spy) , but he could not gainsay a father's authority, even though he himself had brought the boy up to be his heir.
"I am willing that you should be a soldier," he said to Edward; "your ancestors have always been of that profession. ”

“ Everard colored and frowned, then burst forth.
"Grandfather's quite too ridiculous! Why shouldn't I take out the car if I want to? I can drive as well as Milner! He behaved as if I were a kid! It's more than a fellow can stand sometimes! He likes to keep everything tight in his own hands; at his age it's time he began to stand aside a little and let me look after things! I shall have to take charge of the whole property some day, I suppose!"
Mr. Bowden was gazing at Everard with the noncommittal air often assumed by lawyers. ”

“ It is wonderful that you should mind so much, Everard, but you do, and I love you for it.”
“Mind?” he groaned. “Mind!”
“You are so like him and yet so different,” she went on meditatively. “You drink so little wine, you are always so self-controlled, so serious. You live as though you had a life around you of which others knew nothing. The Everard I remember would never have cared about being a magistrate or going into Parliament. He would have spent his time racing or yachting, hunting or shooting, as the fancy took him. And yet—”
“And yet what?” Dominey asked, a little hoarsely. ”

“ Sir Everard paced up and down till the door re-opened, and the doctor made him a sign to come in.
He entered, and advanced to the side of the sofa. The room was so dark that he could only see the outline of the curly head, lying back among the pillows, but a little hand came out, and pulled him down.
"Father," in a voice which was hardly above a whisper, "it's all right. He isn't hurt a bit—not even a cold. I am so glad it is me that is hurt instead of him."
"Oh, hush! hush! my darling." ”

“ Sumners had, with delicate tact, retired the moment Sir Everard made his appearance; for he, as well as the whole body of officers, was aware of the close friendship that subsisted between the young men, and he felt, at such a moment, the presence of a third person must be a sort of violation of the sacredness of their interview. ”

“ He is trying to realize that the lawns and gardens will know his joyous presence no more. Surrounded by the haunts of the young life, he is forcing himself to believe that all henceforth shall be lone and silent, that never again shall they echo to his light footstep, or ring with his merry laugh; that the active limbs shall be motionless, and the busy hands for ever still. And only one word rose to his lips, "Impossible!"
At moments like these, how our feelings are reflected on all things around. Never before had Sir Everard so keenly realized the endless motion of nature. ”

“ And now, sir, give me time to see my bandboxes in safety, and I’m for supper.”
Even as she spoke she started. Her eye became fixed, her lips fell open upon a gasp of amazement. The healthy white bloom of her countenance turned to deathly pallor, and then a tide of blood rushed crimsoning to her forehead. Beholding this evidence of strong emotion, it scarcely needed the sight that met Sir Everard’s glance as he followed the direction of her eyes to confirm his instant conclusion. The young man, of course! Stay, the young man is a gentleman—poor nymph! ”

“ My darling, it is so early and so cold. Better wait a little!"
"The insides of houses are so hot, mother; please say I may go out!" ...
Had the boy ever walked? Had he ever done anything but run?
Sir Everard could not recall one instance of meeting him out of doors, except running and rushing headlong, jumping over everything which obstructed his path.
Once again, there rose the thought of the motionless little figure sitting pale and silent in a cripple's chair. God help the poor father! In the bitterness of his spirit he had almost said, "Sooner than clip his wings, let him soar away." ”

“ Is it true that unless I remember all the battles of the Wars of the Roses, I shall never be able to go into parliament?"
"Does Virginie say so?" enquired Sir Everard.
"Yes," said Humphrey. "She says, of course all the members of parliament know [Pg 115] the names at the tips of their fingers and could say them in order; and which were won by Yorkists and which by Lancastrians."
Sir Everard felt very thankful that he held his seat on less frail a tenure, and sincerely hoped his son was not going to put him to the test. Vain hope! ”

“ Everard's mind, as the boy asked the question. The recollection of the children's conversation with their uncle came back to him, and he was at his wit's end.
"Wild men, Humphrey?" he said, with a sickly smile, "what are you dreaming about? There are no wild men here."
"You know what I mean, father," the child answered, in the same clear voice, making his way straight across the room to Sir Everard; "the wild men of the woods, that you and Uncle Charlie were talking about last Saturday, and who you said you were going to have to dinner. ”

“ But it was only the regular intervals between Everard’s snores in the silent parlour below. “It’s Dad!” she murmured; and the sound of that deep bass snore soothed her soul as though it were the music of the singing spheres. She took off her blouse, undid the lace corsage, loosened the sash swathing till her semi-oriental attire fell rustling to her knees. “Am I so beautiful?” she murmured, as she looked half in fright and guilt at herself in the oval bamboo mirror. Her eyes sparkled like stars in the gloom as she peeped through her bronze-gold tresses. ”

“ Sir Everard could not help saying.
"I presume so—I did not read it. How placid the sea looks this morning, aglitter in the sunlight. And yet I have been in the middle of the Atlantic when the waves ran mountains high."
"You are quite a heroine, Miss Hunsden, and a wonderful traveler for a seventeen-year-old young lady. You see, I know your age; but at seventeen a young lady does not mind, I believe. How long have you been in England this time?" ”

“ I feel it easier since I saw how wicked I could be myself. And I feel it easier, too, that I have not long to live. I forgive him with all my heart, and I will take no revenge. I will not tell one who he is. I have never told any one yet. But I will tell you. His name is George Everard—Captain Everard. I came to know him when I was apprenticed at Addicehead. I would not tell you, sir, if I did not know that you will not tell any one. I know you so well that I will not ask you not. ”

“ The feelings which then dictated his proceedings were those of a young man, and at an agitating period. Since that time Sir Everard's Jacobitism had been gradually decaying, like a fire which burns out for want of fuel. His Tory and High-Church principles were kept up by some occasional exercise at elections and quarter-sessions; but those respecting hereditary right were fallen into a sort of abeyance. Yet it jarred severely upon his feelings, that his nephew should go into the army under the Brunswick dynasty ”

“ By the time the turret clock struck ten, Everard would be strolling back through the park in the direction of his rooms, with no company save a cigar and his own thoughts. At such seasons, with the fresh night air blowing about him, with the stars raining down sweet influences upon him, and with the huge ghost-like trees to sentinel him on his way, whither ought a young man’s thoughts to wing their flight save to the one fair being, fairer to him than all the world beside, who holds captive his heart, a willing prisoner! ”

“ But the inquisitio post mortem expressly styles this Everard Digby as an 'esquire,' which makes it plain that he is not identical with the divine and author, who, as a fellow of St. John's College, Cambridge, must have been unmarried at the time of Sir Everard's birth in 1578. The divine's parentage cannot be precisely stated. ”

“ We have never heard of him since that letter to father,” was Everard’s reply, and after a moment his companion continued:
“And this girl,—is she pretty and bright, and how old is she now?”
“Rossie must be thirteen,” Everard said, “and the very nicest girl in the world, but as to being pretty, she is too thin for that, though she has splendid eyes, large and brilliant, and black as midnight, and what is peculiar for such eyes, her hair, which ripples all over her head, is a rich chestnut brown, with a tinge of gold upon it when seen in the sunlight. ”

“ It is sufficient to say that Everard’s eyes brightened as Macka’s heart softened, until the brown man quite forgave the white man for his sins. Indeed that dim-lit parlour became a kind of confessional-box, whilst Everard fell on his knees and Gabrielle trembled in mighty trouble at her former wicked thoughts over so noble, so holy a missionary.
Then the Rajah bode Everard rise, and said: “O white Everard, think no more of thy sorrows and thy sins; frailty is the great inheritance, it is the dark shadow that maketh the light to shine and so doth beautify human existence.” ”

“ What is a husk from which the kernel has been taken, or a casket from which the jewel is gone?
Sir Everard was not a worldly man, and in those moments he did not dwell on the blighted youth, and blasted manhood; he did not think of the earthly career for ever clouded, the hopes of earthly distinction for ever shut out. He did not see that his boy was debarred from every path of usefulness [Pg 229] or honor which man delights to tread—alike shut out from active service, and learned profession. Results painful enough in themselves ”

“ Nay, it was even said, that at the arrest of Sir William Wyndham, the leader of the Tory party, a letter from Sir Everard was found in the pocket of his night-gown. But there was no overt act which an attainder could be founded on, and government, contented with suppressing the insurrection of 1715, felt it neither prudent nor safe to push their vengeance farther than against those unfortunate gentlemen who actually took up arms.
Nor did Sir Everard's apprehensions of personal consequences seem to correspond with the reports spread among his Whig neighbours. ”

“ It is your safer way, Everard, for remember there is a bar between you and any other face which may look to you inexpressibly fair and sweet, and all the sweeter and fairer because possession is impossible.”
These letters reached Everard the same evening, and he found them in his office on his return from the Forrest House, where he had sat with Rossie an hour on the piazza, with the moonlight falling on her face and softening the brilliancy of her great black eyes. ”

“ If you've an ounce of pluck among you, you'll give me a sporting chance!"
"Ecco! E giusto!" said a fresh voice, presumably that of the captain. "Signore, you shall have your will!"
At this a knife was passed rapidly through the ropes that bound him, and at the same moment a hand snatched the bandage from his eyes. Dazed with the sudden light, Everard stared round as one in a dream. ”

“ Not but what her nest will be pretty well feathered without that, should she outlive my uncle."
"Yes; although not especially wealthy for a man of his rank and social position, Sir Everard is a long way from being a pauper. As I happen to know, he has always made a point of living well within his income, although what he will do, or be persuaded into doing, now that he is married, it might be dangerous to prophesy. His only extravagance, if such a term may be applied to it, has been that he could rarely or never resist a 'bargain' in the way of curios, coins, or bric-à-brac ”

“ Everard replied, softening now as much as possible what he had still to tell of the man whose trial would come on very soon, and for whom there was no escape.
“Couldn’t you save him, Everard, if you should try? Couldn’t I do something?” she asked.
“No, Rossie,” he answered. “You could not save him, and ought not if you could. Men like him must be punished,—must answer for their misdeeds, else there is no such thing as justice or protection for any one. You are not angry with me, Rossie?” ”