"And which is Lucy's? Can it be
That puny fop, armed cap-a-pie,
Who loves in the saloon to show
The arms that never knew a foe."--SCOTT.
"My lady's compliments, ma'am, and she would he much obliged if you
would remain till she comes home," was Coombe's reception of Alison.
"She is gone to Avoncester with Master Temple and Master Francis."
"Gone to Avoncester!" exclaimed Rachel, who had walked from church to
Myrtlewood with Alison.
"Mamma is gone to meet the Major!" cried three of the lesser boys,
rushing upon them in full cry; then Leoline, facing round, "Not the
major, he is lieutenant-colonel now--Colonel Keith, hurrah!"
"What--what do you mean? Speak rationally, Leoline, if you can."
"My lady sent a note to the Homestead this morning," explained Coombe.
"She heard this morning that Colonel Keith intended to arrive to-day,
and took the young gentlemen with her to meet him."
Rachel could hardly refrain from manifesting her displeasure, and
bluntly asked what time Lady Temple was likely to be at home.
"It depended," Coombe said, "upon the train; it was not certain whether
Colonel Keith would come by the twelve or the two o'clock train."
And Rachel was going to turn sharply round, and dash home with the
tidings, when Alison arrested her with the question-"And who is Colonel Keith?"
Rachel was too much wrapped up in her own view to hear the trembling of
the voice, and answered, "Colonel Keith! why, the Major! You have not
been here so long without hearing of the Major?"
"Yes, but I did not know. Who is he?" And a more observant person would
have seen the governess's gasping effort to veil her eagerness under her
wonted self-control.
"Don't you know who the Major is?" shouted Leoline. "He is our military
secretary."
"That's the sum total of my knowledge," said Rachel, "I don't understand
his influence, nor know where he was picked up."
"Nor his regiment?"
"He is not a regimental officer; he is on our staff," said Leoline,
whose imagination could not attain to an earlier condition than "on our
staff."
"I shall go home, then," said Rachel, "and see if there is any
explanation there."
"I shall ask the Major not to let Aunt Rachel come here," observed
Hubert, as she departed; it was well it was not before.
"Leoline," anxiously asked Alison, "can you tell me the Major's name?"
"Colonel Keith--Lieutenant-Colonel Keith," was all the answer.
"I meant his Christian name, my dear."
"Only little boys have Christian names!" they returned, and Alison was
forced to do her best to tame herself and them to the duties of the long
day of anticipation so joyous on their part, so full of confusion and
bewildered anxiety on her own. She looked in vain, half stealthily, as
often before, for a recent Army List or Peerage. Long ago she had
lost the Honourable Colin A. Keith from among the officers of the --th
Highlanders, and though in the last Peerage she had laid hands on he was
still among the surviving sons of the late Lord Keith, of Gowanbrae, the
date had not gone back far enough to establish that he had not died in
the Indian war. It was fear that predominated with her, there were many
moments when she would have given worlds to be secure that the newcomer
was not the man she thought of, who, whether constant or inconstant,
could bring nothing but pain and disturbance to the calm tenour of her
sister's life. Everything was an oppression to her; the children, in
their wild, joyous spirits and gladsome inattention, tried her patience
almost beyond her powers; the charge of the younger ones in their
mother's absence was burthensome, and the delay in returning to her
sister became well-nigh intolerable, when she figured to herself Rachel
Curtis going down to Ermine with the tidings of Colonel Keith's arrival,
and her own discontent at his influence with her cousin. Would that
she had spoken a word of warning; yet that might have been merely
mischievous, for the subject was surely too delicate for Rachel to
broach with so recent a friend. But Rachel had bad taste for anything!
That the little boys did not find Miss Williams very cross that day was
an effect of the long habit of self-control, and she could hardly sit
still under the additional fret, when, just as tea was spread for the
school-room party, in walked Miss Rachel, and sat herself down, in spite
of Hubert, who made up a most coaxing, entreating face, as he said,
"Please, Aunt Rachel, doesn't Aunt Grace want you very much!"