Checkmate Part 34

THE DERBY.

The morning of the Derby day dawned auspiciously. The weather-c.o.c.ks, the sky, and every other prognostic portended a fine cloudless day, and many an eye peeped early from bed-room window to read these signs, rejoicing.

"Ascot would have been more in _our_ way," said Lady May, glancing at Alice, when the time arrived for taking their places in the carriage.

"But the time answered, and we shall see a great many people we know there. So you must not think I have led you into a very fast expedition."

Richard Arden took the reins. The footmen were behind, in charge of hampers from Fortnum and Mason's, and inside, opposite to Alice, sat Lord Wynderbroke; and Lady May's _vis-a-vis_ was Vivian Darnley. Soon they had got into the double stream of carriages of all sorts. There are closed carriages with pairs or fours, gigs, hansom cabs fitted with gauze curtains, dog-carts, open carriages with hampers lashed to the foot-boards, dandy drags, bright and polished, with crests; vans, cabs, and indescribable contrivances. There are horses worth a hundred and fifty guineas a-piece, and there are others that look as if the knacker should have them. There are all sorts of raws, and sand-cracks, and broken knees. There are kickers and roarers, and bolters and jibbers, such a crush and medley in that densely packed double line, that jogs and crushes along you can hardly tell how.

Sometimes one line pa.s.ses the other, and then sustains a momentary check, while the other darts forward; and now and then a panel is smashed, with the usual altercation, and dust unspeakable eddying and floating everywhere in the sun; all sorts of chaff exchanged, mail-coach horns blowing, and general impudence and hilarity; gentlemen with veils on, and ladies with light hoods over their bonnets, and all sorts of gauzy defences against the dust. The utter novelty of all these sights and sounds highly amuses Alice, to whom they are absolutely strange.

"I am so amused," she said, "at the gravity you all seem to take these wonderful doings with. I could not have fancied anything like it. Isn't that Borrowdale?"

"So it is," said Lady May. "I thought he was in France. He doesn't see us, I think."

He did see them, but it was just as he was cracking a personal joke with a busman, in which the latter had decidedly the best of it, and he did not care to recognise his lady acquaintances at disadvantage.

"What a fright that man is!" said Lord Wynderbroke.

"But his team is the prettiest in England, except Longcluse's," said Darnley; "and, by Jove, there's Longcluse's drag!"

"Those are very nice horses," said Lord Wynderbroke looking at Longcluse's team, as if he had not heard Darnley's observation. "They are worth looking at, Miss Arden."

Longcluse was seated on the box, with a veil on, through which his white smile was indistinctly visible.

"And what a fright _he_ is, also! He looks like a picture of Death I once saw, with a cloth half over his face; or the Veiled Prophet. By Jove, a curious thing that the two most hideous men in England should have between them the two prettiest teams on earth!"

Lord Wynderbroke looks at Darnley with raised brows, vaguely. He has been talking more than his lordship perhaps thinks he has any business to talk, especially to Alice.

"You will be more diverted still when we have got upon the course,"

interposes Lord Wynderbroke. "The variety of strange people there--gipsies, you know, and all that--mountebanks, and thimble-riggers, and beggars, and musicians--you'll wonder how such hordes could be collected in all England, or where they come from."

"And although they make something of a day like this, how on earth they contrive to exist all the other days of the year, when people are sober, and minding their own business," added Darnley.

"To me the pleasantest thing about the drive is our finding ourselves in the open country. Look out of the window there--trees and farm-steads--it is so rural, and such an odd change!" said Lady May.

"And the young corn, I'm glad to see, is looking very well," said Lord Wynderbroke, who claimed to be something of an agriculturist.

"And the oddest thing about it is our being surrounded, in the midst of all this rural simplicity, with the population of London," threw in Vivian Darnley.

"Remember, Miss Arden, our wager," said Lord Wynderbroke; "you have backed May Queen."

"May! she should be a cousin of mine," said good Lady May, firing off her little pun, which was received very kindly by her audience.

"Ha, ha! I did not think of that; she should certainly be the most popular name on the card," said Lord Wynderbroke. "I hope I have not made a great mistake, Miss Arden, in betting against so--so auspicious a name."

"I sha'n't let you off, though. I'm told I'm very likely to win--isn't it so?" she asked Vivian.

"Yes, the odds are in favour of May Queen now; you might make a capital hedge."

"You don't know what a hedge is, I daresay, Miss Arden; ladies don't always quite understand our turf language," said Lord Wynderbroke, with a consideration which he hoped that very forward young man, on whom he fancied Miss Arden looked good-naturedly, felt as he ought. "It is called a hedge, by betting men, when----" and he expounded the meaning of the term.

The road had now become more free, as they approached the course, and d.i.c.k Arden took advantage of the circ.u.mstance to pa.s.s the omnibuses, and other lumbering vehicles, which he soon left far behind. The grand stand now rose in view--and now they were on the course. The first race had not yet come off, and young Arden found a good place among the triple line of carriages. Off go the horses! Miss Arden is a.s.sisted to a cushion on the roof; Lord Wynderbroke and Vivian take places beside her.

The sun is growing rather hot, and the parasol is up. Good-natured Lady May is a little too stout for climbing, but won't hear of anyone's staying to keep her company. Perhaps when Richard Arden, who is taking a walk by the ropes, and wants to see the horses which are showing, returns, she may have a little talk with him at the window. In the meantime, all the curious groups of figures, and a hundred more, which Lord Wynderbroke promised--the monotonous challenges of the fellows with games of all sorts, the whine of the beggar for a little penny, the guitarring, singing, barrel-organing, and the gipsy inviting Miss Arden to try her lucky sixpence--all make a curious and merry Babel about her.

CHAPTER x.x.xIV.

A SHARP COLLOQUY.

On foot, near the weighing stand, is a tall, powerful, and clumsy fellow, got up gaudily--a fellow with a lowering red face, in loud good-humour, very ill-looking. He is now grinning and chuckling with his hands in his pockets, and talking with a little Hebrew, young, sable-haired, with the sallow tint, great black eyes, and fleshy nose that characterise his race. A singularly sullen mouth aids the effect of his vivid eyes, in making this young Jew's face ominous.

"Young d.i.c.k Harden's 'ere," said Mr. Levi.

"Eh? is he?" said the big man with the red face and pimples, the green cut-away coat, gilt b.u.t.tons, purple neck-tie, yellow waistcoat, white cord tights, and top boots.

"Walking down there," said Levi, pointing with his thumb over his shoulder. "I shaw him shpeak to a fellow in chocolate and gold livery."

"And an eagle on the b.u.t.ton, I know. That's Lady May Penrose's livery,"

said his companion. "He came down with her, I lay you fifty. And he has a nice sister as ever you set eyes on--pretty gal, Mr. Levi--a reg'lar little angel," and he giggled after his wont. "If there's a dragful of hangels anyvere, she's one of them. I saw her yesterday in one of Lady May Penrose's carriages in St. James' Street. Mr. Longcluse is engaged to get married to her; you may see them linked arm-in-arm, any day you please, walkin' hup and down Hoxford Street. And her brother, Richard Harden, is to marry Lady May Penrose. That will be a warm family yet, them Hardens, arter all."

"A family with a t.i.tle, Mr. Ballard, be it never so humble, Sir, like 'ome shweet 'ome, hash nine livesh in it; they'll be down to the last pig, and not the thickness of an old tizzy between them and the glue-pot; and while you'd write your name across the back of a cheque, all's right again. The t.i.tle doesh it. You never shaw a t.i.tle in the workus yet, Mr. Ballard, and you'll wait awhile before you 'av a hoppertunity of shayin', 'My lord Dooke, I hope your grashe's water-gruel is salted to your n.o.ble tasht thish morning,' or, 'My n.o.ble marquishe, I humbly hope you are pleashed with the fit of them pepper-and-salts;' and, 'My lord earl, I'm glad to see by the register you took a right honourable twisht at the crank thish morning.' No, Mishter Ballard, you nor me won't shee that, Shir."

While these gentlemen enjoyed their agreeable banter, and settled the fortunes of Richard Arden and Mr. Longcluse, the latter person was walking down the course in the direction in which Mr. Levi had seen Arden go, in the hope of discovering Lady May's carriage. Longcluse was in an odd state of excitement. He had entered into the spirit of the carnival. Voices all around were shouting, "Twenty to five on Dotheboys;" or, "A hundred to five against Parachute."

"In what?" called Mr. Longcluse to the latter challenge.

"In a.s.sa.s.sins!" cried a voice from the crowd.

Mr. Longcluse hustled his way into the thick of it.

"Who said that?" he thundered.

No one could say. No one else had heard it. Who cared? He recovered his coolness quickly, and made no further fuss about it. People were too busy with other things to bother themselves about his questions, or his temper. He hurried forward after young Arden, whom he saw at the turn of the course a little way on.

"The first race no one cares much about; compared with the great event of the day, it is as the farce before the pantomime, or the oyster before the feast."

The bells had not yet rung out their warning, and Alice said to Vivian,--

"How beautifully that girl with the tambourine danced and sang! I do so hope she'll come again; and she is, I think, so perfectly lovely. She is so like the picture of La Esmeralda; didn't you think so?"

"Do you really wish to see her again?" said Vivian. "Then if she's to be found on earth you shall see her."

He was smiling, but he spoke in the low tone that love is said to employ and understand, and his eyes looked softly on her. He was pleased that she enjoyed everything so. In a moment he had jumped to the ground, and with one smile back at the eager girl he disappeared.

And now the bells were ringing, and the police clearing the course. And now the cry, "They're off, they're off!" came rolling down the crowd like a hedge-fire. Lord Wynderbroke offered Alice his race-gla.s.s, but ladies are not good at optical aids, and she prefers her eyes; and the Earl const.i.tutes himself her sentinel, and will report all he sees, and stands on the roof beside her place, with the gla.s.ses to his eyes. And now the excitement grows. Beggar-boys, butcher-boys, stable-helps, jump up on carriage-wheels unnoticed, and cling to the roof with filthy fingers. And now they are in sight, and a wild clamour arises. "Red's first!" "No, Blue!" "White leads!" "Pink's first!"