“Happen I will.”
“Yes, of course. Do you drive yourself, cousin?”
“Nay, I’m no Nonesuch!”
Richmond had been disappointed, but he had said quickly: “No, you haven’t had the opportunity—” He had broken off short, and although no colour could live in the moonlight, Hugo had known that a vivid flush had flooded his cheeks. He had stammered: “I don’t mean—I meant only that you have been doing other things! Things m-more worth the doing! I wish you will tell me, if it isn’t a dead bore, about your campaigns!”
Yes, Hugo thought, reviewing that interlude, a nice lad, young Richmond; but what such an ardent colt was doing hobbled at Darracott Place was a puzzle. If ever a lad was mad after a pair of colours! He had said that his grandfather had set his face against the granting of this desire, but he didn’t look to be the sort of lad to submit docilely to the decree of even so absolute an autocrat as old Darracott. If my lord didn’t take care, thought Hugo, casting off the bedclothes, and swinging his feet to the ground, he would have the lad chin-deep in mischief.
Dismissing Richmond from his mind, he strode to the window, and pulled back the curtains, and stood for a minute or two, leaning his hands on the sill, and looking out. The sprawling house was built on a slight elevation, in parkland which stretched for a considerable distance to the south and east, but merged rapidly into thick woods on the northern and western fronts. Below Hugo’s window, a part of the gardens, which appeared to be extensive though not in very trim order, lay between the house and the park; and the Military Canal and, beyond it, the Weiland Marsh stretched into a distance still shrouded in morning mist The day was fresh but fair; it beckoned compellingly; and within a very short space of time Hugo, fortified by a thick ham sandwich and a pint of Kentish ale, supplied to him by a pleasantly fluttered kitchenmaid, had set out for an exploratory ramble round the park.
He returned by way of the stables, which were situated to the west of the house. They had been built to accommodate many more horses than now stood in the stalls, and were ranged round several cobbled yards. Only two of these seemed to be in use; in the others weeds were pushing up between the cobbles, and rows of shut doors, the paint on them blistered and cracked with age, lent a melancholy air of decay to the scene.
The Major found his groom, a middle-aged Yorkshireman of stocky build and dour countenance, severely repelling the mischievous advances of a plump damsel in a print frock and a mob cap. To judge by the grin on the face of one of the stableboys, who had paused, bucket in hand, to listen to her sallies, she was full of liveliness and wit; but when she saw Hugo coming across the yard she fell into a twitter of embarrassment, dropped a hasty curtsy, and ran away.
“Set up a flirt already, have you?” remarked Hugo. “I’m surprised at you, John Joseph, at your time of life!”
“That giglet!” snorted his servitor. “I’ bahn to take t’gray to the stithy, Mester Hugo: he’s got a shoe loose, like I told you.”
“How’s Rufus?”
“Champion!”
“Good! I’ll take a look at him. All well with you, John Joseph?”
“I’m suited,” responded John Joseph stolidly. He cast an upward sidelong glance at his master’s face, and added in a rougher tone: “Tha knows we mun be suited, Mester Hugo, choose how!”
The blue eyes gave nothing away, but there was a hint of mulishness about the Major’s firm lips. “Maybe! We’ll see!”
“Tha’s quality-make, like t’gaffer used to say,” urged John Joseph. “Nay then, sir—! If tha’s bahn to be a lord, think on—”
“I am thinking,” Hugo answered. He smiled. “Hold thy gab, John Joseph!”
“Mester Hugo! If t’gaffer could hear thee—!”
“I’d get a bang on the lug. But—”
“Sneck up!” commanded his henchman. “Here comes his lordship, and Mester Richmond! I mun fettle t’tits.”
With these words he withdrew into the stable, just as Lord Darracott and Richmond, who had been out at exercise, dismounted.
“Ha! Glad to see you’re up and about!” said his lordship. “I’ve no patience with young fellows who lie abed till all hours. Another morning you may come out with me: no use suggesting it to you last night: you’ll need to rest your horses. I’ll take a look at ’em,”
“Ay, sir, do! They’re neither of them the equal of this fellow,” said Hugo, patting the neck of Richmond’s colt, “but the bay’s a prime fencer, and strong in work. He has need to be!”
“H’m! Pity you’re so big!” commented his lordship. “What do you ride? Seventeen stone?”
“All of that,” admitted Hugo. “Eh, lad, you’ve got a proper high-bred ’un here!”
“Do you like him?” Richmond asked eagerly. “He’s young—pretty green still, but a perfect mover! I broke him myself.”
Lord Darracott, leaving Richmond to show off his treasure, went into the stable, and was soon heard putting curt questions to John Joseph. It seemed doubtful that he would find John Joseph’s answers intelligible, but he apparently understood enough to satisfy him, for when he presently emerged he rather surprisingly told Hugo that he had a good man there, who knew his work. He bestowed moderate praise on Rufus, the big bay, but dismissed the Andalusian with the loose shoe as a clumsy-looking brute, high in flesh. Richmond having gone off to confer with his groom, his lordship commanded Hugo to accompany him back to the house. “I’ve a good deal to say to you,” he informed him. “I’ll see you in the library after breakfast.”
Few members of his family would have sat down to breakfast with much appetite after such a pronouncement as this, but although a slightly wary expression came into Hugo’s eyes his appetite remained unimpaired, and he was soon consuming an extremely hearty meal. The fact that his cousin Anthea had chosen to seat herself on the opposite side of the table troubled him not at all. Glancing dispassionately at her, he was able to verify his first impression that she was a pretty girl, with remarkably fine eyes, and a good deal of countenance. It seemed a pity that she should be so cold and inanimate when a little vivacity would have done so much to improve her.
Neither Vincent nor Claud was an early riser, and each incurred censure for walking into the breakfast parlour when the meal was nearly over. Vincent, never in his sunniest mood before breakfast, furiously resented the scold he received, but betrayed this only by his thinned lips and a certain glitter in his eyes. Claud, on the other hand, was unwise enough to excuse himself. Owing to the stupidity of his man, the carelessness of the laundress, and the inexplicable whims of Fate, which decreed that although one might sometimes achieve a desired result at the first attempt, at others success would elude one until one was exhausted, it had taken him three quarters of an hour to tie his neckcloth. The style he had chosen was the Mailcoach, and as it was as bulky as it was wide, he bore all the appearance of having bound a compress round a sore throat, as his brother took care to inform him.
“Jack-at-warts!” said his lordship bitterly.
Everyone waited for him to develop this theme, but he said no more, merely staring fixedly at Claud under such lowering brows that that unfortunate exquisite became so much discomposed that he took an unwary gulp of tea and scalded his mouth,
“I have it!” suddenly announced his lordship, grimly triumphant. “I’ll set you to work!”
“Eh?” ejaculated Claud, alarmed.
“You are a Bartholomew baby, a park-saunterer, a good-for-nothing Jack Straw!” said his fond grandfather.
“Well, I shouldn’t put it like that myself, sir,” said Claud, “but I daresay you’re right. Well, what I mean is, no use setting me to work: I couldn’t!”
“A smock-faced wag-feather!” pursued my lord inexorably. “Your only talent is for alamodality!”