THE PONY CARRIAGE
So soon as daylight came, I made a swift cold water
toilet, and got out into the open air, with a solemn
resolution to see the hated interior of that bed-room
no more. When I met Lord Chelford in his early
walk that morning, I’m sure I looked myself
like a ghost—at all events, very wild and
seedy—for he asked me, more seriously than
usual, how I was; and I think I would have told him
the story of my adventure, despite the secret ridicule
with which, I fancied, he would receive it, had it
not been for a certain insurmountable disgust and
horror which held me tongue-tied upon the affair.
I told him, however, that I had dreamed dreams, and
was restless and uncomfortable in my present berth,
and begged his interest with the housekeeper to have
my quarters changed to the lower storey—quite
resolved to remove to the ‘Brandon Arms,’
rather than encounter another such night as I had
passed.
Stanley Lake did not appear that day; Wylder was glowering
and abstracted—worse company than usual;
and Rachel seemed to have quite passed from his recollection.
While Rachel Lake was, as usual, busy in her little
garden that day, Lord Chelford, on his way to the
town, by the pretty mill-road, took off his hat to
her with a smiling salutation, and leaning on the paling,
he said—
’I often wonder how you make your flowers grow
here—you have so little sun among the trees—and
yet, it is so pretty and flowery; it remains in my
memory as if the sun were always shining specially
on this little garden.’
Miss Lake laughed.
’I am very proud of it. They try not to
blow, but I never let them alone till they do.
See all my watering-pots, and pruning-scissors, my
sticks, and bass-mat, and glass covers. Skill
and industry conquer churlish nature—and
this is my Versailles.’
’I don’t believe in those sticks, and
scissors, and watering-pots. You won’t
tell your secret; but I’m sure it’s an
influence—you smile and whisper to them.’
She smiled—without raising her eyes—on
the flower she was tying up; and, indeed, it was such
a smile as must have made it happy—and she
said, gaily—
’You forget that Lord Chelford passes this way
sometimes, and shines upon them, too.’
’No, he’s a dull, earthly dog; and if
he shines here, it is only in reflected light’
‘Margery, child, fetch me the scissors.’
And a hobble-de-hoy of a girl, with round eyes, and
a long white-apron, and bare arms, came down the little
walk, and—eyeing the peer with an awful
curiosity—presented the shears to the charming
Atropos, who clipped off the withered blossoms that
had bloomed their hour, and were to cumber the stalk
no more.
’Now, you see what art may do; how passee
this creature was till I made her toilet, and how
wonderfully the poor old beauty looks now,’ and
she glanced complacently at the plant she had just
trimmed.
