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Page 2
Hildegarde quoted:
"'I saw them come; one horse was blind,
The tails of both hung down behind,
Their shoes were on their feet.'
"Mr. and Mrs. Miles Merryweather, six children, cook, housemaid
and seamstress, two dogs, two cats (at least the basket mewed, so
I infer cats), one canary bird, and fourteen trunks."
"Do I understand that Miss Grahame has been looking through the
gap in the hedge?"
"You do, madam. And oh, mammina, it was such fun! I really could
not help it; and no one saw me; and they came tumbling in in such
a funny, jolly way! I rather think we shall like them, but it will
be strange to have such near neighbours."
"I wonder what the Colonel will say!" Mrs. Grahame commented.
"He is pleased," said Hildegarde; "actually pleased. He knows Mr.
Merryweather, and likes him; in fact, he has just been telling me
about them."
"Hildegarde, you are becoming a sad gossip," said Mrs. Grahame,
severely. "I think you would better sit down and work these
buttonholes at once."
"So that I can repeat the gossip to you," said this impertinent
young woman, kissing her mother lightly on the forehead.
"Precisely, dear madam. Where is my thimble? Oh, here! Where are
the buttonholes? Oh, there! Well, now you shall hear. And I fear I
have been a gossip, indeed.
"It began with obedience to my elders and betters. You told me to
go down and see how Mrs. Lankton's 'neurology' was; and I went. I
found the poor old thing in bed, and moaning piteously. I am bound
to say, however, that the moans did not begin till after I clicked
the latch. It is frightful to see how suspicious a course of Mrs.
Lankton always makes me. I went in, and the room was hermetically
sealed, with a roaring fire in the air-tight stove."
"To-day!" exclaimed Mrs. Grahame; "the woman will die!"
"Not she!" said Hildegarde. "I was nearly suffocated, and
protested, with such breath as I could find; but she said, 'Oh,
Miss Grahame, my dear! you don't know anything about trouble or
sickness, and no need to before your time. A breath of air, my
dear, is like the bellers to my neurology--the bellers itself! Ah!
I ain't closed my eyes, not to speak of, since you was here last.'
"I tried to convince her that good air was better than bad, since
she must breathe some kind of air; but she only shook her head and
groaned, and told me about a woman who got into her oven and shut
the door, and stayed there till she was baked 'a beautiful light
brown,' as Mrs. Lincoln says. ''T was a brick oven, dear, such as
you don't see 'em nowadays; and she was cured of her neurology,
slick and slap; but I don't never expect no such help of mine, now
Mr. Aytoun's dead and gone. Not but what your blessed ma is a
mother to me, and so I always tell the neighbours.'
"Do you want any more, missis? I can go on indefinitely, if you
like. I stayed as long as I dared, and managed to hold the door
open quite a bit, so that a little air really did get in; and I
gave her the liniment, and rubbed her poor old back, and then gave
her a spoonful of jelly, and ran. That is the first part of my
tale. Then, I was coming home through the Ladies' Garden, and I
found my Hugh playing Narcissus over a pool, and wondering whether
freckles were dirt on his soul that came out in spots--the lamb!
And I had to stay and talk with him a bit, and he was so dear! And
then I walked along, and just as I came to the gap in the hedge,
Mrs. Grahame, my dear madam, I heard the sound of a lawn-mower on
the other side, and a man's voice whistling. This was amazing, and
I am human, though I don't know whether you ever noticed it. I
looked, I did; and so would others, if they had been there. A
wagon stood at the back door, all piled with trunks and bags and
baskets; I liked the look of the baskets, I can't tell exactly
why. And at that very moment a carriage drove up, with two
delightful brown horses, and a brown man who looked delightful,
too, driving. I know it must be Mr. Merryweather, mammy, and I am
sure we shall like him. Tall and straight and square, with clear
blue eyes and broad shoulders; and handled his horses well, and--
what are you laughing at, Mrs. Grahame, if I may be permitted to
ask?"
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