Major Carlile

Front matter

BY HATTIL POLL Xon&on DIGBY LONG & CO. PUBLISHERS 1 8 Bouverie Street Fleet Street E.C. AU Rights Reserved CONTENTS CHAP. PAGE I. LANDING A BIG FISH ON THE BANKS OF THE LITTLE RIVER CARRANT 7 II. IN WHICH MAJOR CARLILE IS WARNED OF THE DANGER OF KNIGHT-ERRANTRY . 31 III. LUCY HUTTON AT HOME .... 43 IV. "EARLY TO RISE," AND ITS CONSEQUENT WISDOM ; TOGETHER WITH A SLIGHT SKETCH OF A GREAT FINANCIER . . 59 V. TWO GENTLEMEN VERSUS ONE YOUNG LADY 69 VI. "JOURNEYS END IN LOVERS MEETING" . 87 VII. IN WHICH MAJOR CARLILE DRAWS SEVERAL CONCLUSIONS 103 VIII. IN VINO VERITAS ; OR, THE MARKET VALUE OF A DAUGHTER 113 IX. MOTHER AND DAUGHTER . . . .132 X. " HEY FOR A LASS Wl' A TOCHER ! " . . 143 XI. IN WHICH MR AMOS BUBB FINDS THE BECK OF BUSINESS MORE URGENT THAN THE CALL OF CUPID 1 62 XII. LUCY'S DETERMINATION, TOGETHER WITH THE EFFECT OF AN ARGUMENTUM AD MISERICORDIAM 17' CONTENTS PAGE CHAP. XIII.

IN WHICH A VILLAGE VULCAN AND THE SON OF APHRODITE ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR AN UNSATISFACTORY MEETING . 193 XIV. MRS BURFORD MAKES A NOT UNNATURAL MISTAKE, AND LUCY HUTTON RECON- SIDERS HER POSITION .... 203 XV. MRS CARLILE IS AGREEABLY SURPRISED AT THE WISDOM AND PRUDENCE DIS- PLAYED BY HER NEPHEW . . . 214 XVI. IN WHICH COLONEL AND MRS COSTELLE'S GUESTS ARE A PUZZLE TO THEM . . 228 XVII. LUCY HUTTON MAKES A STATEMENT, AND COLONEL AND MRS COSTELLE DRAW UP A SYLLOGISM 244 XVIII. MAJOR CARLILE MUSES ON KNIGHT- ERRANTRY, AND MISS SYMES REGRETS THE WANT OF A FAIRY PRINCE . . 259 XIX. MAJOR CARLILE DECIDES TO VOLUNTEER FOR ACTIVE SERVICE .... 270 XX. XXI. MR BUBB BECOMES THE TALK OF THE TOWN 28 1 THE RECTOR OF MICKLEHURST BEGINS TO PULL HIMSELF TOGETHER . . . 290 XXII. A FRIEND IN NEED IS A FRIEND INDEED .

Chapter I Landing

A BIG FISH ON THE BANKS OF THE LITTLE RIVER CARRANT WITHIN three days of his arrival at Micklehurst Grange, Arthur Carlile began to feel that in the month of April his uncle's place was just a little dull. The West Marlshire Hounds, on account of the hardness of the ground from drought, and the forwardness of the crops, had finished an open and brilliant season rather earlier than usual, thereby depriving him of the day or two's hunt ing which he had hoped to enjoy ; and the young rabbit, shot with a pea rifle in the evening, formed but a tame substitute for the pig and the tiger which had quite lately, and for some years, been giving him sport in India. It was not, however, that Major Carlile was without resources of his own, for he was a man of considerable parts, spending with pleasure two or three hours at a time in his uncle's excellent library — one of the best in the county — in preference to improving himself in the spot stroke in the billiard-room, or to chatting with the grooms in the stable-yard.

In a modest way, too, he was himself an author, having lately written a short treatise on " Ex peditions against the Hill Tribes," from personal experience on several occasions of that very sport ing kind of warfare, as he himself termed it ; and the little book had not only been favourably noticed in military circles, but had just won the honour of a second small edition. Still, to an active man, Micklehurst was undeniably dull. No young people were at home, and Mr and Mrs Carlile were well stricken in years. The Squire certainly walked or rode round his home farm every morning, and his nephew not only duti fully but cheerfully accompanied him, doing his best, too, to learn and appreciate the points of the highly-bred shorthorns, the black-faced Hampshire Downs, and the still blacker Berkshire pigs.

But this pleasant and instructive little bucolicism lasted but to luncheon time, after which the old man invariably slumbered, peacefully or otherwise, according to the position in which he dropped off; while at the same time Mrs Carlile — unless she considered the weather warm enough for a drive — retired upstairs, presumably to follow in greater seclusion her husband's tempting but somewhat unsociable example. The Major had arrived on a Monday, and it was after luncheon on the following Thursday, as he strolled aimlessly into the garden, that he seriously found the want of some definite and active employment for his afternoons. Between the puffs of his cigarette he mused on the truth of the remark which his uncle had made the first evening at dinner, that he feared he would find the time pass but slowly : and then he suddenly recollected a further remark, to which at the time he had paid little heed, namely, that if he were a fisherman he could have very fair sport with the trout in the little river which bounded the property on the other side of the village.

" If he were a fisherman " had sounded almost like a rebuke, but he had said nothing to dis abuse his uncle of his mistake. Of course he was a fisherman — a fly fisherman too — for had he not once on a Scotch loch caught thirty-five trout in less than two hours. People talked of the skill required, of " fine and far off," of the necessary colour for your coat and hat, of striking, of not striking, and of various other minutiae, without attention to which he had been told that a man might as well remain at home. Now, with regard to these sine quibus non, he felt that there was a considerable amount of twaddle, just as there was, he thought, in the absurd enthusiasm and con versational technicalities connected with the game of golf. So he quickly determined he would fish this stream, and surprise his uncle and aunt by returning that very afternoon with a good basket of trout.

Armed, therefore, with the requisites, which he discovered in the gun-room, he soon found himself on the banks of as lovely a stream as any one that ripples, and sulks, and eddies, and flows, in any county of England. The day was almost a perfect one for a fisher man — an individual not easily satisfied in the matter of sky, wind, and water. One hyper critical, or supremely careful to discount future failure, would, of course, have declared that the sky was too bright. Doubtless it was if the water had been clear, but that was exactly of that beer-like colour — the result of a storm on the peaty uplands — which is not unfavourably influ enced by sunshine. Nor was the sky after all monotonously Italian, but was softly blotched here and there with genuine English cloud, which dappled and enriched the unsullied and glittering verdancy of the opposite hill sides with ever moving patches of sombre shadow.

A gentle breeze, too, from the south, which, as the old rhyme has it, blows the fly into the fish's mouth, completed the tale of propitious circumstances, surely sufficient to render any empty-creeled angler an object of friendly derision. A nice little pebbly beach, with the stream gently swirling under the opposite alder-shaded bank, tempted the Major to at once put together his rod and commence operations. The fish were rising freely, and he quickly resolved that a Certain big fellow, who was quietly sucking in some gray winged delicacy a few yards below him, should have the honour of the first place in his basket. Possibly the Major's preparations were hurried, lest the meal should be finished before he could contribute towards it ; or possibly he was ignorant of the fact that a large, and therefore a dis criminating fish, would view with suspicion in the month of April a fly usually in existence only in June and July, and attached to an imperfectly soaked gut collar, which consequently lay on the water in a series of serpentine coils.

Be that as it may, the fearless footfall and imposing presence of the fisherman were alone sufficient to promptly send that fish into temporary seclusion behind the roots of the alders ; and it was in vain that that gaudy insect, born out of due time, dashed noisily into the water anywhere within a ten-foot radius of salmo fario's sanctum. So after a time this intrepid angler moved on down stream, quickly found other feeding fish, and went through ad nauseam the same unsatis factory performance as before. " It's real bad luck," he muttered to himself; " every fish seems to have just finished feeding as I get near him." But that was not by any means the only misfortune which befel him, for he was continually getting hung up, sometimes in the alders before him, and sometimes in the bushes behind him ; so that by the time he had fished a couple of fields he had lost several flies and many feet of gut.

Luckily he possessed a remarkably even temper, and contemplated these casualties and failures with no greater displeasure than a marked feeling of disparagement for his uncle's trout-stream when compared with his old friend the Scotch loch. He continued therefore moving on in the hope of finding more open water, feeling that he was in honour bound to study economy in the matter of flies not his own. But, as he progressed, the stream became still more thickly overhung with alder and hazel ; so that, in despair of getting a fly anywhere near the water, he finally sat down on a fallen log to admire, and wonder at, the ever-varied charms of nature just then emerging from the tomb of winter's decay into the glorious regeneration of spring. What a marvellous wealth of life and colour and sound there was in the air around him, only to be fully noted and appreciated when remaining motionless and in perfect seclusion.

Life, ranging from the parasitical fungus, with its blood-red cup peeping from its bed of moss on the decayed stem at his elbow, to the lordly oak of many centuries in the adjoining meadow ; and from the tiny shrew, rustling in the crisp brown leaves at his feet, to the shrill-voiced pass-man from the fourth standard of the Micklehurst School scaring rooks in the far distance from some spring-sown crop. And there, lightly floating above his head, were the delicately tinted and gauze-winged insects of a day ; while the hum of the gnat, and the hoarse note of the funereal crow, proclaiming some domestic intelligence to its mate, fell upon his ear. And then his thoughts reverted to Chaucer's quaint and simple description of an English spring ; until from the poet, and his pilgrims of the past, he was vividly recalled to the present by the flash of a burnished kingfisher, and the cautious excursion of a subfuscous-coated water vole under the further bank of the stream.

The trout were still rising, so Arthur Carlile, mindful of his empty creel, resumed his quest of some stickle or run where the fishing would be less " tight," watching as he went the uncertain flight of a brimstone butterfly, its gaudy gold in faultless harmony with the varied greens of burst ing vegetation. And after that the nervous movements of the undecided ouzel, flirting its tail, and hesitating when to start from one rocky island to another, demanded his attention, only to be suc ceeded by the lazy flap of the passing heron, and the weird cry of the " wanton lapwing," as with well-preened crest he rose in wheeling flight from his courtship on the meadow. This lapwing not unnaturally reminded the Major of the smartened spring liveries of the robin and the dove, and then he quoted with a slight touch of cynicism in his voice the further line which paints the fickle fancy of the youthful light-o'-love.

At the same instant he noticed lying at his feet on the grassy bank by far the smartest fly-book that he had ever seen. A combination of the finest vellum, watered silk, and Russia leather, together with silver mountings and an elaborately engraved monogram of the letters L.H. in the same metal, is not an every-day find ; and this not very ardent fisherman sat down again the better to appreciate its beauties. The contents, indeed, were no less admirable and artistic than the case. Flies of all descriptions, colours, and sizes, from the gaily-attired May-fly to the skimpily-tied black gnat, were methodically arranged and neatly kept in place by little coloured bands. There were flies for spring, flies for summer, and flies, too, for the autumn. Flies for every month from February to October inclusive, all duly ticketed, until Major Carlile began to wonder why there were not flies for Monday and flies for Tuesday.

He examined the book most carefully, searching through its dainty pockets for some indication of the name and address of its fair owner — for fair he deemed the owner of such a gem must be — but without success. The initials in no way enlightened him, and he could only think that they must be those of a duchess, or at least of an American millionaire, not that Micklehurst or its neighbourhood harboured, to his knowledge, either the one or the other. Of one thing, however, he felt sure, namely, that the person— fair lady, fop, or dude— who had suffered this loss was very much of an amateur in the fisherman's art, for the book showed no sign of use, and might, from its appearance, have left the maker's hands no earlier than yesterday. To restore this treasure to its owner was now of course the Major's first thought ; and as he had walked some distance down stream without seeing anyone, he considered it most probable that the owner was in front of him, and therefore changed his leisurely stroll to a good round walking pace.

In less than a minute he felt sure that he was going in the right direction, for there on the damp sand were the unmistakable prints of a very ser viceable little boot — one that evidently possessed a thick sole, a good flat heel, and several nails to prevent its wearer from slipping. Whereupon Major Carlile indulged in the hope of before long running the owner into view. But in the meantime his deductive powers rather puzzled him than otherwise, for he felt that if he had been called upon to delineate the boot of the owner of the fly-book, he should have made its heel less flat, its sole less thick, and its toe more pointed, while as for the nails, he would have omitted them altogether. The general shape, however, he owned he should have made very similar ; and his conclusion, therefore, was to the effect that with his present data he might reason ably deduce more from the boot than from the book.

Why he should have derived any pleasure from this conclusion it is a little difficult to say ; but undoubtedly he did. Although it might be easier to explain his reasons for drawing mental and personal characteristics more truly from the impression of a boot than from a fly-book, it is perhaps unnecessary to do so, more especially as a walk of two or three hundred yards brought him within sight of the lady in question. A grey tweed fore-and-aft cap visible above the top of a newly-laid whitethorn hedge gave him at first more the idea of a young man than of a lady; and it was only the further appearance of a loose twist of decidedly feminine hair which convinced him that that sober-coloured headgear covered not the pate of some uninteresting youth. This fair follower of the gentle craft was so engrossed with making a long cast under the opposite bank that Arthur Carlile had every opportunity of noting unobserved each point in detail as it gradually became visible above the fence.

Now he was certainly not a susceptible man, neither was he what is generally known as a lady's man ; that is to say, he did not think it necessary on each and every occasion of finding himself in a lady's society to ingratiate himself with forced smiles and delicate attentions. Nor was he a marrying man ; for even out of the trying ordeal of Anglo-Indian society he had emerged scathless — a circumstance eloquent in itself. Still Arthur Carlile was no misogynist, nor even blind to the charm of a pretty face or a good figure, both of which he now found himself earnestly studying. The twist of hair — almost ruddy in its warmth of gold — which had dissipated the uninteresting youth theory, was glistening in the rosy light of the declining sun, while a stray lock of gossamer like texture was being gently blown across a cheek no less perfect in contour than radiant with health and the excitement of the moment — exuberante de globules rouges, as M. Gabriel Mourey has it in his admiration of England's daughters.

A blue serge dress, loose in the bodice and short in the skirt, which had evidently seen better days, was perhaps not the happiest costume for effect, but it was eminently fitted for the work in hand, and detracted but little from a figure which needed not to rely for the symmetry of its lines on any effort of the costumier. So much was very evi dent, also the fact that the fair angler was in height above the medium, and in age — some " sweet and twenty " ; at any rate no less than the former, nor more than the latter. Her face, however, was partly turned away, and although the Major had crossed the fence and was within thirty yards of her, she was apparently unaware of his approach, so intent was she upon covering every inch of that smoother water, which curled B along close to the bank and out of the direct current.

He began to think that he ought to cough, or kick a stone, or do something to announce his presence ; yet so loth was he to put an end — as he feared he might — to movements of such perfect grace that he stood a few seconds to watch, hopeful that such skill would be shortly crowned with the success it deserved. His per sonal experience of the lady fly-fisher was small ; but the frantic and ungainly efforts of two girls in Scotland, who always, he remembered, looked as if they were about to pitch on their noses into the loch, had hitherto imbued him with the idea that such a person was an object rather of pity than of admiration. Of course for a lack of perfect grace in throwing a fly the gallant Major might have looked a little nearer home, but then it is always so much easier to see the way in which some one else casts than to notice the manner in which one does it oneself.

Now the great question of the moment was whether this young lady was the owner of the lost fly-book. She was evidently the owner of the boots which had made the footmarks on the sand, of that the Major felt very confident. But he had, it will be remembered, unhesitatingly classed the loser of the book as a very dilettante exponent of her art, while here was one altogether a past mistress of it, while the weathered serge, too, seemed antagonistic to the supposed ownership. After all, as he soon decided, the simplest thing to do was to patiently wait until the young lady was less deeply engaged, and then to politely ask her the question. But, on the instant, she was evidently more absorbed than ever in her sport ; and then a shortly-uttered and self-satisfied " Ah ! " reached the Major's ears, while her rod was suddenly bent nearly double, and its reel screeched out that harsh little song so sweet to a fisherman's ear.

Arthur Carlile moved a few steps nearer the river to watch the contest that now ensued. The fish was undoubtedly one of no mean size, for it immediately struck off down stream for nearly twenty yards until it reached the deep waters of the pool near the head of which it had been hooked, the blue serge following with her rod well up, and her elbows neatly at her sides. In the pool salmo fario paused, but an increased pressure was at once put upon him, not only to prevent any possible attempt to go lower, where the stream was rocky and the water broken, but also to keep him gently on the move, and so the quicker to tire him out. His first rush, however, had taken him to what he considered secure quarters, and he was loth at first to stir from them ; but, the additional strain inconveniencing him, he soon moved to the bend of the rod and was gently reeled in.

It was not, however, that the fight was over — far from it — sor, catching sight of his fair antagonist, he was off to the opposite bank with a wilder though shorter rush than his first. Frustrated in his intention of gaining shelter there, and of causing a break by entangling the line amongst the roots, he executed a bold and vigorous leap into the air, which, however, served only to exhibit the skill and coolness of his opponent, who deftly counter acted its effect by quickly dropping the point of her rod. Then, to her relief and delight, he slowly bored up stream. A subdued exclamation of surprise and admira tion from the Major at the sight of the fish when it sprang out of the water had, however, caused his presence to become known, and two or three minutes later, as the fish was being cautiously reeled in and towed with the current to drown it, a clear voice called out, " Arthur, come now and help me land him ; I think he's nearly done."

To be thus accurately and intimately addressed by an unknown young lady was naturally a little startling. But with soldier-like promptitude to obey an order, and one withal of so pleasant a nature, the Major quickly advanced, saying, " With the greatest pleasure, but please tell me exactly what you wish me to do, for I am no great fisherman." So marked was his modesty in the presence of what he had seen to be the very acme of skill. Possibly his answer was not just what it should have been. But the situation was a difficult one. If the call had been for " John," or " Thomas," or in fact for any one but "Arthur," the wording of his response would have been — as he afterwards de cided — easy enough, " I fear John is not here, but may I assist you ? " He could not con scientiously say that Arthur was not there, and so, as he saw there was no time for explanations, he simply obeyed the summons without any dilatory reference to his identity.

Now, the simpler answer of " Yes, Miss," in a well known local accent, was what had been expected. So the polished tones and the polite words which greeted the young lady's ear caused her to quickly turn her head in very considerable embarrassment, and at the same time to risk losing her fish by suddenly slackening the line. " Oh, I beg your pardon," she hastily exclaimed, with a quick blush as her eyes met those of the gallant Major, " I thought it was Arthur," and then she again turned her attention to the trout, which was off again quite briskly down the stream. " And so it is," thought the Major, though what he said was " But may I not help you ? I have my net here." " Thank you very much," she replied, " if you really don't mind the trouble I should be very glad if you would. He is such a fine fish I wouldn't lose him for anything.

I am only afraid now he will get down into that rough water amongst the stones, and then, you know, goodbye to him for ever. — Oh, no ; not yet for the net, please," as the Major with more zeal than discretion was preparing to scoop him out. " If you would kindly go and stand on that little rock, the nearest one I mean, so as to keep him in the pool. I think two or three more minutes will finish him." So with one boot full of water Major Carlile took up the required position, and in obedience to the orders of his chief gently waved the net in front of him. " Thanks, that's capital," was the commenda tion he quickly received, as the fish again turned up stream ; while the reel clicked out its last little song, and shortly afterwards the swirl from a broad tail, and then the appearance of a golden side, announced that the gallant fight was all but over.

" Now, if you will come here, I think you can land him." So the Major, more accustomed to command than to obey, quitted with much alacrity his little island, regained the mainland at the expense of a second boot full of water, and was quickly at the side of his instructress. " Hadn't you better kneel down though ? " she said. " I think I should ; he won't see you if you kneel ; and then, you know, get the ring of the net close to the water, and I'll run him down right into it." Again were the orders obeyed to the letter, and in half a minute there lay gasping and flopping at a safe distance from the stream the biggest trout that this keenest of anglers had ever killed. And there, too, on the grass knelt, with the prize between them, busily engaged in disen tangling the two dropper flies from the meshes of the net, as happy and satisfied a pair of God's creatures as probably just then existed in the world ; the ruddy golden locks and the fresh coloured English complexion of the one contrasting strongly with the dark brown closely-cropped hair and Indian sunburned skin of the other.

Occupied as they were, the hands of each were naturally much in evidence to the other, and it did not escape the Major's notice that the long shapely fingers of his companion were destitute of all ornament. He had not exactly looked to see if it were so ; the fact was rather borne upon him, none the less pleasurably perhaps, that she was therefore neither married nor engaged to be — an ideal type of the purest womanhood, " in maiden meditation fancy free." " Ah, do you see how lightly he was hooked ? " she remarked, unconsciously disturbing the Major's incipient reverie. " The fly is actually out of his mouth : it could only have been just stuck on some bony part. I wonder he didn't get rid of it when he made that jump, or when I so foolishly slackened the line ; but I was so startled at hearing a strange voice when I called, that for the moment I forgot all about the fish.

I knew there was some one behind me, and I thought it must be Arthur Sallis ; he is our factotum, and was to come here about six o'clock, if my father had returned. I hope you have pardoned my rude ness and stupidity. And I really don't know how to sufficiently thank you for helping me, for hooked as he was I scarcely think I should ever have landed him myself." It was rather a long speech for one little more than a girl to make to a stranger — a man, too, whom women were generally at first a little afraid of. But the Major noted not only the naturalness but even the grace and the charm with which her apologies and thanks were uttered ; and he assured her that he was only too delighted to have been of any help ; and then explained how he was staying with his uncle at the Grange, which he had not visited for more than ten years.

" About a year before we came, then," a remark, however, which did not serve to enlighten the Major as to the identity of the speaker. " And now," she added, returning to the subject of the fish with unabated interest, " we must weigh him. I have a little spring balance in my pocket. Two pounds and a half, I think — or at anyrate I hope." And then took place that interesting, and, alas, too often disappointing ceremony of testing the accuracy of the estimate ; the Major running the hook of the balance through the fish's under jaw, and holding him up for his captor's judgment. " Two pounds — six — seven — seven ounces. Not quite the half, is it ? " with an unmistak able tone of regret in her voice. Major Carlile could not honestly say it was, though he felt that he would cheerfully give a month's pay to do so, if thereby he could dis sipate that little cloud of disappointment which one short ounce had caused to dim the sunny face before him.

He replied, however, with a smile, " Why not take the ounces like a cabman does the miles, what's over one is two ? And look, if I jig it ever so little, it goes to the half ! " " But you must not jig it, not even ever so little, you know ; " and the Major felt the rebuke, gentle as it was, and spoken almost as much in jest as in earnest. " Well, at any rate, he is a splendid fellow, and you judged his weight to within an ounce ! " " Yes, and what condition, too ! Look at the brightness of his spots, and his silveriness ! It was the blue-upright that killed him ; but I daresay you noticed that." Now Arthur Carlile had never even heard of a blue-upright, and was candid enough to admit the fact. Nor was he even up to spotting a fly which he had seen capture a good fish ; so the learned and professional conversation which might have ensued at once fell flat.