Tom Bullekeley of Lissington. A novel

Front matter

TOM BULLEKELEY OF LISSINGTON. & jpUrtjd. BY R. MOUNTENEY JEPHSON. IN THREE VOLUMES. VOL. II. LONDON : RICHARD BENTLEY AND SON. 1873- [All Rights Reserved.} CONTENTS OF VOL. II. CHAPTER PAGE I. WINE, LOVE, AND SONG . . .1 II. DAVID AND JONATHAN . . .40 III. INFANDUM RENOVARE DOLOREM . . 63 IV. EASTWARD HO ! . . . .81 V. TREMBLING IN THE BALANCE . . 93 VI. THE BAD ANGEL . . . .'124 VII. THE INDIAN LETTER . . -165 VIII. ADIEU! MY DAINTIEST DREAM . .184 IX. GOOD-BYE, SWEETHEART, GOOD-BYE ! . .196 X. CRUEL AS THE GRAVE . . .223 XI. IMMEDIATE AND PRESSING . . • 245 XII. A STARTLING DISCLOSURE . . . Contents. IV CHAPTER PAGE 27S 29I XIII. A BITTER PILL XIV. THE UNPLEASANT SPECTRE XV. " THE WORM i' THE BUD " 3°3 XVI. LEADEN-EYED DESPAIR 3i9

Chapter I. Wine, Love, And Song

" Sed convivatoris, uti ducis, ingenuum res Adversæ nudare solent, celare secundæ." Horace. E have been doing penance for the last few chapters in having to deal with such unhappy subjects as Purghatorree and Leonard Helstone ; and it is with feelings of relief that we take up our pen with the consciousness of its having a pleasanter duty before it than paint ing the wretchedness and misery of either the one or the other. It takes a leap from grave to gay, from black darkness to bright sunshine, when it VOL. II. I leaves Leonard Helstone and his repinings, and goes, with ink still wet with the unpleasant task, to bright, cheery little Kit Trevor. Not Kit Trevor, mind you, as we saw him last, in debt and desponding ; but Kit Trevor, beaming and radiant ! Kit Trevor — words of a joyous signification fail us, so we fall back on his own — " ready to jump out of his skin " with health and happiness.

We could not possibly have paid him a visit on a happier or brighter occasion than on this identical May morning. He was in a delightful glow of anticipation. It was going to be to him the brightest, happiest day in all the glad New Year. Not that he was going to be exactly the Queen of the May, for, rather, May was the queen of him. Nor had he, although he had risen betimes, been dependent on his mother for calling him early, that office having been performed as usual by Full Private Swivel, in the usual manner —a shake of the shoulder, and " Tub's ready, sir !" But he was going to bask in the sun shine of the Queen of his May — the May of his young life. Fortune had been smiling kindly on Kit lately, but on this identical morning she seemed positively to have broken into a broad grin. Everything had been going on well.

First and foremost, an old grandaunt, whom he did not know, and therefore could not regret, had died just in the nick of time, and left all the long string of little Trevors legacies ; and Kit had not only insisted on sending back Tom's hundred and fifty, much against that individual's will, but had also burst out into the dignity of a banking-book. " Yes, everything had prospered with the little fellow. He was flush of cash ; the " gee," as he called his one horse, was as " fit as a fiddle," and held out promise of great things next season ; Vie had presented him with a most beautiful litter of puppies, and both mother and children were doing well. In short, everything in the establish ment had prospered and multiplied. Kit, generally, represented the prosperity, and Vie the multiplication.

But all these strokes and caresses of for tune, all this run of good luck, seemed to be brought to a culminating point on this happy May day. i — It was almost noon, and everything about the tiny quarter wore an air of bustling activity and preparation. Coming events were not casting their shadows over it; but, on the contrary, were bathing it in rays of joyous light. There was evidently something in the wind. Something very nice and delightful it must have been, and in a wind, too, that was setting straight in the direction of No. 23 Room, Right-hand Block, and No. 23 was not going to be found unprepared for it ! It had on a festive garment. Its portable iron bed stead had gone to No. 22, opposite, and a hired sofa reigned in its stead. Its scantily clothed nymphs who had bathed, or danced on one toe, against its walls were removed, and pretty proprieties, bought expressly for the purpose, substituted.

Kit had been as particular as any Lord Chamberlain on the subject. Its mantelpiece scarcely knew itself with vases of bright and sweet-smelling spring flowers upon it. Its portable wash-hand stand had made way for a piano — cleanliness, for the nonce, had ceded place to music — and, most wonderful of all, taking up nearly the whole of the remainder of the room, was a table covered with snow-white linen, and cut glass and flowers, and hot-house fruits, and dried fruits, and preserves, and all the deli cacies, in and out, of the season. Such a spread No. 23 had never seen before. But we said No. 23 was not going to be found unprepared, and No. 23 looked worthy of the occasion. But these were not nearly all the tokens of approaching festivity. There was Kit in his shirt-sleeves, busily arranging more flowers ; and there was Regi nald Brunton, also in his shirt sleeves, making cup.

There, too, was Mr. Swivel, attired in a gorgeous new livery which did not at all be come his style of beauty, bringing in more glasses and more delicacies, and playing him self into the room with a kind of musical jingling, and there was Vie, released for a short time from the cares and duties of mater nity, with a bran new collar on ! The reader must be on the tip-toe of ex pectation to know what all these grand preparations meant, so we shall not withhold the secret any longer. Kit's father had run down to see him for a few days, and, at the instigation of Tom, Kate Chichester had insisted on his putting up at Lissington, which was also sheltering under its hospitable old roof Fane and Blanche Vereker, on a short visit from Hawley ; and the whole party were going to honour En sign Christopher Trevor with their company at luncheon.

A few words about Kit's father. He quite deserves them. He was a handsome, mild looking old man, whose manner, appearance, and speech stamped him at once as an Eng lish gentleman, a scholar, and a clergyman, a happy combination commanding the respect of even the thoughtless and giddy. Although leading a pure and blameless life, he mixed freely with the world, and entered into its harmless pleasures and amusements, if they came in his way, with keenness and zest, on the principal of whatever is worth doing at all is worth doing well. He loved his son, Kit, fondly, and was proud of the little soldier lad. The boy had never done a dishonourable action in his life, and Sir Edward had never laid hands on him. But though he had spared the rod, he had not spoiled the child. Nevertheless, it must be confessed, Master Kit had been " tickled up " pretty frequently at school.

The guests — to return to Number 23 — were as follows : — Mrs. and Miss Chichester ; Colonel and Mrs. Vereker; the Rev. Sir Edward Trevor ; Tom Bullekeley, who had run over from Hawley expressly for the occa sion, directly after parade ; Reggy Brunton, who was to assist in doing the honours, in addition to his other duties as cup-brewer ; and two brother ensigns, invited in return for services rendered on the festive occasion ; Number 24, next door, who had given up his quarter to be converted into a ladies' cloak room ; and Number 22, who was a waif and stray without a habitable home, until the return of Kit's bed and wash-hand stand to their accustomed corners ; making, with Kit himself, a total of ten, and, with the three ser vants, a grand total of thirteen — a total that threatened to be a great deal too grand for, and utterly to swamp, No. 23.

Some such uneasy thought must have oc curred to Kit, for he remarked — " I say, Reggy ! I'm afraid it will be a pretty tight fit, eh ?" " Yes, a devil of a squash, and no mistake !" said Brunton, smacking his lips — that cup required a great deal of tasting — " we'll have to sit awfully close to each other." " Ahem ! so we shall — awfully close, yes. I say, where do you think, ah, Miss — ahem ! aha ! — I mean Mrs. Chichester, ought to sit now ?" " Oh, anywhere ! The great thing in en tertaining in this sort of style is to let people shake down in their own way, and not go fretting yourself about it. Look here, send old ' Right -about -three -quarters -turn ' for some more liquor — a couple more bottles of fizz, a couple more claret, some more brandy, and another bottle of curacoa. There's not half enough cup here.

It diminishes so in the making, you see." There was no doubt Reggy Brunton was a capital brewer of cup, but there must have been some extraordinary compound intro duced by him, causing rapid evaporation of the liquids, with the exception of the soda water which did not appear to be so much affected by it ; for by the time his brews were ready for general consumption, they always had sunk down to nearly half their proper quantity. There seemed always to be a sort of tide at work, which was at full ebb when he began the operations, and when he ended, was at low water. " It's wonderful," he remarked, "what a lot goes in leakage, and wastage, and " " Tasteage, you thirsty old sinner, Reggy !" said Kit with a laugh. " Oh, ay, yes, tasting. Yes, you must allow to a certain extent for that. Tasting in making cup, you see, is much the same as what feeling your way is in marching through an enemy's country.

They're precautionary measures, equally, both of them, for providing against failure. If you don't taste, you work in the dark ; for instance, I'm not quite sure about the sugar" (ladling out a tumblerful and sipping). " H'm ! a little too much, I think " — -(another sip). " I don't know, though — hardly enough, perhaps. One can't taste in these wretched little mouthfuls " — (a pull at it). "H'm! I'm divided in my opinion" (another and a strong pull). "Something wrong somewhere. Something rotten in the state of Denmark !" " Lemon peel, perhaps," suggested Kit. "No, that's right enough. I don't think it's the sugar, after all. I think I've shoved in too much curacoa " (another and a longer pull). " No, it's not the curacoa, it's the borage. I'm not sure, though " (a strong pull, a long pull, and a pull which leaves nothing at all in the tumbler but the smell).

" I don't know, though. I think it's about right. It will do. It will have to be tasted, though, at intervals, to see that it does not deteriorate in any way. Now, Kit, holloa out for old ' Shuffle-up-half-a-pace,' and tell him to look sharp about getting that liquor over from the mess — we shall never have our arrangements completed in time." Now old " Shuffle-up-half-a-pace " in the last paragraph, and old " Right-about-three quarters-turn " a few paragraphs back, were names invented on the spot for Mr. Swivel, and modelled on the principles adopted by the old Puritans, who christened themselves with long-sounding combinations of Biblical words and phrases, such as — " Captain Hew- Agag-in-pieces-before-the-Lord," or " Sergeant Throw - down - the - mighty - from - their - seats," with this difference, that whereas the Puritans drew their designatory materials from the Bible, Brunton drew his from Mr. Swivel's bible, the drill-book.

He hardly ever repeated the same name, but conferred a new one every time, all drawn from the same source, and all fitting the military stiltedness of Mr. Swivel's general be haviour and appearance to a nicety, and as this example was followed pretty generally throughout the regiment, Full Private Swivel, if he could have enlisted afresh under each new name that was bestowed on him, would not only have amassed a pretty large fortune in bounty-money, but would have become a mighty host in himself, quite a strong battalion — on paper. In obedience to Reggy, who was a regular despot in his department, Swivel obtained the renewed supply of liquids ; the cup was com pleted, even to its brewer's satisfaction, and the arrangements proceeded smoothly, with the exception of the temporary inconveniences occasioned by a fixed idea that had taken root in Mr. Swivel's mind, that the piano was a new and highly-ornamented cup board, a species of buffet, intended for the safe and cool custody of articles of food, until such time as they should be wanted.

No amount of explanation could disabuse his mind of this; not even a performance of " God save the Queen," with one finger by Brunton, could dispel the illusion, and veal pies and cold chickens were every now and again missing, and then being dug up from its re cesses, to which they invariably returned in a few minutes, when neither Kit nor Reggy Brunton were on the look-out. There had been a council of war held on the previous day as to the advisability of dis pensing with Mr. Swivel's services on the occasion, but the objection to him had at last been overruled by Brunton, who held that he would be " half the fun of the fair," and, after all, could not do much damage with one of the new waiters, and his own servant to keep an eye on him. " What made the Captain of his company send him as a servant, I wonder ?" asked Brunton, as he and Kit were at work extri cating sundry articles of light confectionary from the interior of the piano.

" Well, I believe Barret was anxious to get him out of the ranks as soon as possible, for you see he's so awfully smart, that he makes the rest of the men look like an awkward squad of recruits. You can spot him in the company a mile away by his martial bearing. So when I joined, and was posted to the company, they sent the old image to me. I've got accustomed to him now. In fact, I wouldn't part with him for anything ; but I know he'd drive some fellows wild in a week." " So I should think," said Brunton, disen gaging a small jam tart from the strings. " The tones of this old instrument ought to be pretty sweet after this." This last article having been resuscitated, there was now nothing more to be done but for Kit and Brunton to complete their toilets, and then to wait for the arrival of the guests.

With Kit the time dragged along on leaden wings, but it went quicker with Brunton, who beguiled it with frequent visits to the cup, to discover, and at once nip in the bud, any de terioration that might be setting in. "Ton my soul, Reggy, you'll be squiffy before we sit down to lunch, if you don't let that cup alone !" " No, you're quite mistaken, Kit, my boy. I know its nature thoroughly. It's the iden tical cup that cheers, but not inebriates. I shall be cheered, not inebriated, and the more I drink, the more cheered, cheery, cheerful, and amusing I shall become, without verging towards inebriation. So it's in your interest, as host, to induce me to drink as much as possible, if you want to secure the services of an amusing and agreeable young man for your small luncheon party !" While Kit and Brunton thus waited above, Swivel, in obedience to an order from his master to be " on the look-out," seated him self on a form outside, and watched with much interest a batch of recruits at drill.

This was a favourite amusement of his. Next to drilling himself, he liked to see others at it ; and of all kinds of drill, that which afforded him most pleasure as a spectacle, was recruits' drill. It was so soothine and delightful to look down on their mistakes and awkward blunders from his own pinnacle of perfection. The recruit drill Sergeant was himself worth looking at. There never was such a tyrant as this Sergeant. He was in a perpetual passion ; he was always red in the face, except when he became purple, and was rampant and ranting, bellowing and blatant all day— and all night too, we sup pose, for it was impossible that such a storm as was always raging during the day could subside in one night ; but as he was not heard during the still hours, the Drum-Major must have muffled him as he did the big drum for a funeral, and then taken the muffler off at reveillie, for his voice was heard the first thing in the morning at it again.

His favourite position was in the middle of the barrack square, feet a little apart, hands crossed behind him toying with a rattan, chest stuck out, and head thrown a little back, roaring out his words of command with such a rolling of his Rs, and such a peculiar intonation in his voice, and such a ferocious glare, that the stoutest recruit trembled at the very sight of him. His powers of invective were great, of sarcasm, perhaps greater ; in fact, so terribly did he wield this last weapon of speech that he must have occu pied some time of the night in the muffler concocting and sharpening up these wordy daggers. There was no limit to his terrors ; nothing could stop him. He was not allowed by the rules of the service to hit the men, but he had a way of whizzing his rattan within a hair's breadth of their noses that was quite as disconcerting to their nerves ; and then, if a recruit required dressing up or dressing back, there was no objection to giving him a smart tap before or behind, as the occasion might demand.

And then, again, although he could not well curse at the top of his voice in the middle of the square — at least not very much — yet he had such a knack of hissing his words between his teeth that it put a sort of twist on them, so that although they may have left his mouth in the form of a blessino by the time they reached the object they were something quite the reverse. It was terrible, too, the way in which he would roar out, " Not a-move ! R-r-r-r-ight or w-r-r-r-ong, not-a m-o-o-ve!!!" when some unlucky wight had made a mistake, and then rush across the square at him in so savage a manner that an uninitiated bystander would feel inclined to interpose between him and the delinquent, to avert murder. It was fearful, too, to see him pull up in his savage rush, only just in the nick of time to prevent his inflamed nose from gouging one of the wretched man's eyes out, and then, after scathing him with a long glare, retire backwards, still keeping his eyes on his victim, and preserving a silence which made the whole proceeding more awful, until he got back to his position in the middle of the square, when he would let out such a torrent of abuse that it was wonderful how the wretched man it was hurled at was ever able to "stand at ease" again.

Oh. it was all terrible ! This Sergeant was a great hero in the eyes of Mr. Swivel, who was never tired of watching him licking the recruits into shape, which, to give him his due, he certainly did in an incredibly short space of time. As he was more than usually down on his squad this afternoon, Mr. Swivel, as he sat on his bench,- supposed to be on the " look-out " for vol. 11. his master's guests, became more than ever wrapt in admiration for the great man ; and the more he watched the more interested he became in his sayings and doings, so that the minutes of expectation which crawled along so slowly with his master passed quickly and pleasantly with him. Exactly as the hands of the barrack clock pointed to twenty-three minutes and a half to two, Kit Trevor's heart came up into his mouth, and Mr. Swivel's wooden countenance broke into a heavy, but still appreciative smile ; for simultaneously at that moment a wagonette entered the barrack gate, and the long string of recruits suddenly tied itself into a hopeless state of entanglement.

It is needless to specify which of the two circumstances stirred respectively the heart of master and man. " Here they are !" exclaimed Kit, with a wild flutter, as he caught a glimpse of a fair little face. " Not-a-move ! R-r-r-r-ight or w-r-r-r-ong, not-a-mo-o-o-ve !" roared the drill Sergeant, as he swooped down on his prey. " He-he ! I never see such a so," chuckled Mr. Swivel, as he settled the two wooden forms — his own and the one he was sitting on — into better position for seeing and listening. On came the wagonette, containing, as of course it did, the whole party from Lissington Towers, and, piloted by Tom, it drove up opposite to No. 23 room. As the party alighted, Kit was thrown into such a state of fluster by the contemplation of a little figure in a light blue and white striped dress, that he quite lost his presence of mind, and danced about between the window and the door, and the door and the window, in a painful state of indecision whether to rush down stairs and receive his guests with open arms, or to wait for them where he was.

" What the devil is Swivel about, that he doesn't show them up ?" he said, peeping out of the window. "What's up with old ' Wait-for-the-last sound-of-the-bugle ?' " said Brunton, peeping out of the other. But Mr. Swivel neither moved nor stirred. He was too engrossed with the other scene to have noticed anything else. 2 — " All right ; come along !" said Tom, " It's somewhere in this block, I know. Come along, Colonel !" As the mystic sound " Colonel " fell upon Mr. Swivel's ear, something seemed to touch a spring somewhere about his heels, and send him shooting up to " attention." He then has tened to do his master's bidding, and to show the guests the way. Being anxious to get rid of the party as soon as possible, in order not to lose any of the thrilling spectacle going on in the square, and, having his mind still running on it, his first act was to show them all into a room on the ground floor, in which its occu pant, the junior Ensign, was refreshing him self with a mid-day tub, after the fatigues of a two-hours' drill.

On this, the unhappy boy, with ostrich-like instinct, held his sponge be fore his face and groaned, while the party tumbled over each other into the passage in dire confusion. Kit soon came to their rescue, however, and conducted them upstairs, amidst a great deal of suppressed laughter, which broke out more openly when the ladies were by themselves in No. 24, taking of their " things," and the gentlemen were by themselves in No. 23 ; and Mr. Swivel, if only for the absurdity of the thing, was forgiven by every one, ex cept the unfortunate youth with the ostrich like instinct, who blushed, even in his sleep, for a fortnight afterwards, and refused to be comforted. And when the ladies came in, and Kit in formed the whole party of the hallucination under which Mr. Swivel laboured with regard to the piano, there were such shouts of laughter from every one — particularly when May de tected one solitary jam tart in the interior of the instrument — -that it appeared, after all, that Mr. Swivel, instead of bringing utter disgrace and failure on the whole entertain ment, was turning out its most brilliant and amusing feature, and was indeed proving, as Brunton had predicted, " half the fun of the fair."

Kit's duties as host were not trying. Every one was not only determined to be pleased, but was really so, from force of cir cumstances. The little room had such a holiday look on, that it was impossible to be gloomy in it, and No. 23, for those few hours, had succeeded in compressing into its small space as much jollity and happiness as could be contained in a gilded saloon of the most magnificent proportions. Every one was pleased and happy. Kate Chichester was pleased, as it was only her nature to be when she saw every one else so. Kit's father was pleased, and beamed on his boy with a benevolence that was bound to break out into a " tip " sooner or later, or as Reggy Brunton said afterwards, he had a " tippical look about him the whole time." Blanche Vereker was pleased and happy, without knowing in the least the deadly cup she was holding to her lips.

Make the most of it, Blanche, while it lasts, for it's a happiness with a terribly rotten foundation ! May was pleased, as she always was when in Kit's company, for she was "so amused, and liked looking at that funny pretty little Mr. Trevor." Tom was pleased — of course he was ; there is no necessity to record that, and his handsome face lit up with good humour, was enough to illuminate half-a-dozen No. 23's. Fane Vereker was pleased — there was no help for it. Reggy Brunton was decidedly pleased, for, as he himself said, "when the liquor was good, and the company was to match, he was not the man to complain." Of the former he had thoroughly satisfied himself, and of the latter there could be no doubt whatever. The two Ensigns, Nos. 24 and 22, though hot and shy, were also pleased. And as to Kit himself, there could be no doubt about his unalloyed pleasure.

" What a dear little room !" said May. "Is yours at Hawley bigger, Tom ?" " Oh, yes ! then I'm bigger than Kit, you see," replied Tom. " But that doesn't make any difference, does it ?" " Of course it does. You get a room served out to fit you." " Yes," said Brunton, " it's the case, Miss Chichester. The first thing to be done on joining a regiment is to get measured for your room." " Do you really ?" said May, innocently. "Well I never knew that. Of course that accounts, then, for this being such a tiny little one." " Don't believe a word of it, Miss Chi chester !" said Kit, vehemently. " They wouldn't give me a bigger one than this if I were sixteen feet high, and had to sleep with my head up the chimney, and my feet hang ing out of the window." " By the way, where do you sleep — not being sixteen feet high ?

I don't see any signs of a sleeping arrangement," said Blanche Vereker, laughingly. No. 22 looked as if he could a tale, as well as a turn-up bedstead, unfold, but was too shy to make the disclosure, so he wriggled and smiled with a consciousness of the weighty secret ; while Tom said — " Really, you've touched upon a very painful subject, particularly in the presence of Sir Edward, too. It's very shocking, certainly, but the fact is, that our young friend here is of such a wide-awake and convivial disposition that he never goes to bed at all." " Well, he must sleep somewhere or some how," said Blanche Vereker, "or he wouldn't look so rosy." " Blanche," said Fane, reprovingly. " Well, so he does look rosy, doesn't he, May ?" persisted Blanche. Under the thrilling operation of being raked fore and aft by the artillery of May's bright eyes, Kit became such a roseate spectacle of blushes that, whatever doubts there might have been before about his com plexion, there could not be the shadow of one now.

"Confound it! I'm afraid I'm blushing," thought Kit. "I think we had better have lunch," he added aloud. " Now, the first think to be done is to take our places, for the servants can't get round the table unless we do. Mrs. Chichester, will you sit there ? Mrs. Vereker, will you — ahem ! It's so hard to move about, I think you had better all sit down in the places in front of you." Oh, wise, discriminating youth! that was a stroke of generalship, for at that moment May Chichester happened to be standing at the corner of the table nearest to him. Kit's little ruse was quite successful. May sat next to him, and all the rest soon settled down, Tom and Fane Vereker, as possessing the longest bodies, being accommodated on the hired sofa, which, in accordance with those strict rules of economy of space necessary to be observed on the occasion, was made to do duty at one side of the table.