Roland Cashel, Volume II (of II). Lever Charles James

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СКАЧАТЬ a bit with Charley, pa, and as we left the nags at the stable, they challenged me to a race home; I don’t think they’ll do it again. Do look how they’re blown.”

      Some of the company laughed good-humoredly at the girlish gayety of the scene. Others, among whom, it is sad to say, were many of the younger ladies, made significant signs of being shocked by the indecorum, and gathered in groups to canvass the papa’s indifference and the daughter’s indelicacy. Meanwhile Cashel had been completely occupied with Lady Kilgoff, making the usual inquiries regarding fatigue and rest, but in a manner that bespoke all his interest in a favored guest.

      “Are you aware to what high destiny the Fates have called you?” said he, laughing. “Some attain fortune by being first to seek her, —you, on the contrary, win by dallying. We had decided, a few moments before you came in, that the first lady who entered should be the Queen of our party, – this lot is yours.”

      “I beg to correct you, Mr. Cashel,” cried Lady Janet, smartly; “Miss Meek entered before her Ladyship.”

      “Oh, yes!” “Certainly!” “Without a doubt!” resounded from the whole company, who were not sorry to confer their suffrages on the madcap girl rather than the fashionable beauty.

      “How distressing!” sighed Mr. Meek. “Oh, dear! I hope this is not so, – nay, I ‘m sure, Jemima, it cannot be the case.”

      “You’re thinking of George Colman, Meek, – I see you are,” cried Linton.

      “No, indeed; no, upon my honor. What was it about Colman?”

      “The story is everybody’s story. The Prince insisted once that George was his senior, and George only corrected himself of his mistake by saying that ‘he could not possibly have had the rudeness to enter the world before his Royal Highness.’”

      “Ah! yes – very true – so it was,” sighed Meek, who-affected not to perceive the covert sneer at his assumed courtesy.

      While, therefore, the party gathered around Cashel, with eager assurance of Miss Meek’s precedence, Lady Kilgoff, rising, crossed the room to where that young lady was standing, and gracefully arranging her loose-flowing ringlets into a knot at the back of the head, fastened them by a splendid comb which she took from her own, and whose top was fashioned into a handsome coronet of gold, saying, “The question of legitimacy is solved forever: the Pretender yields her crown to the true Sovereign.”

      The gracefulness and tact of this sudden movement called forth the warmest acknowledgments of all save Lady Janet, who whispered to Miss Kenny feck, “It is pretty clear, I fancy, who is to pay for the crown jewels!”

      “Am I really the Queen?” cried the young girl, half wild with delight.

      “Most assuredly, madam,” said Linton, kissing her hand in deep reverence. “I beg to be first to tender my homage.”

      “That ‘s so like him!” cried she, laughing; “but you shall be no officer of mine. Where ‘s Charley? I want to make him Master of the Buckhounds, if there be buckhounds.”

      “Will you not appoint your ladies first, madam?” said Lady Janet; “or, are your preferences for the other sex to leave us quite forgotten?”

      “Be all of you everything you please,” rejoined the childish, merry voice, “with Charley Frobisher for Master of the Horse.”

      “Linton for Master of the Revels,” said some one.

      “Agreed,” said she.

      “Mr. Cashel had better be First Lord of the Treasury, I suspect,” said Lady Janet, snappishly, “if the Administration is to last.”

      “And if ye a’ways wear drapery o’ this fashion,” said Sir Andrew, taking up the torn fragment of her riding-habit as he spoke, “I maun say that the Mistress of the Robes will na be a sinecure.”

      “Will any one tell me what are my powers?” said she, sitting down with an air of mock dignity.

      “Will any one dare to say what they are not?” responded Cashel.

      “Have I unlimited command in everything?”

      “In everything, madam; I and all mine are at your orders.”

      “That’s what the farce will end in,” whispered Lady Janet to Mrs. Kennyfeck.

      “Well, then, to begin. The court will dine with us today – to-morrow we will hunt in our royal forest; our private band – Have we a private band, Mr. Linton?”

      “Certainly, your Majesty, – so private as to be almost undiscoverable.”

      “Then our private band will perform in the evening; perhaps, too, we shall dance. Remember, my Lords and Ladies, we are a young sovereign who loves pleasure, and that a sad face or a mournful one is treason to our person. Come forward now, and let us name our household.”

      While the group gathered around the wild and high-spirited girl, in whose merry mood even the least-disposed were drawn to participate, Linton approached Lady Kilgoff, who had seated herself near a window, and was affecting to arrange a frame of embroidery, on which she rarely bestowed a moment’s labor.

      CHAPTER II. LADY KILGOFF AT BAY

      I’ll make her brew the beverage herself,

      With her own fingers stir the cap,

      And know’t is poison as she drinks it.

Harold.

      Had Linton been about to renew an acquaintance with one he had scarcely known before, and who might possibly have ceased to remember him, his manner could not have been more studiously diffident and respectful.

      “I rejoice to see your Ladyship here,” said he, in a low, deliberate voice, “where, on the last time we spoke together, you seemed uncertain of coming.”

      “Very true, Mr. Linton,” said she, not looking up from her work; “my Lord had not fully made up his mind.”

      “Say, rather, your Ladyship had changed yours,” said he, with a cold smile, – “a privilege you are not wont to deny yourself.”

      “I might have exercised it oftener in life with advantage,” replied she, still holding her head bent over the embroidery frame.

      “Don’t you think that your Ladyship and I are old friends enough to speak without innuendo?”

      “If we speak at all,” said she, with a low but calm accent.

      “True, that is to be thought of,” rejoined he, with an unmoved quietude of voice. “Being in a manner prepared for a change in your Ladyship’s sentiments towards me – ”

      “Sir!” said she, interrupting, and as suddenly raising her face, which was now covered with a deep blush.

      “I trust I have said nothing to provoke reproof,” said Linton, coldly. “Your Ladyship is well aware if my words be not true. I repeat it, then, – your sentiments are changed towards me, or – the alteration is not of my choosing – I was deceived in the expression of them when last we met.”

      “It may suit your purpose, sir, but it can scarcely СКАЧАТЬ