Helbeck of Bannisdale Volume I Part 33

The train sped along. They pa.s.sed a little watering-place under the steep wooded hills--a furnace of sun on this hot June day, in winter a soft and sheltered refuge from the north. Further on rose the ruins of a great Cistercian abbey, great ribs and arches of red sandstone, that still, in ruin, made the soul and beauty of a quiet valley; then a few busy towns with mills and factories, the fringe of that industrial district which lies on the southern and western border of the Lake Country; more wide valleys sweeping back into blue mountains; a wealth of June leaf and blossoming tree; and at last docks and buildings, warehouses and "works,"

a network of spreading railway lines, and all the other signs of an important and growing town. The train stopped amid a crowd, and Polly hurried to the door.

"Why, Hubert!--Mr. Seaton!--Here we are!"

She beckoned wildly, and not a few pa.s.sers-by turned to look at the nodding clouds of tulle.

"We shall find them, Polly--don't shout," said Laura behind her, in some disgust.

Shout and beckon, however, Polly did and would, till the two young men were finally secured.

"Why, Hubert, you never towd me what a big place 'twas," said Polly joyously. "Lor, Mr. Seaton, doant fash yoursel. This is Miss Fountain--my cousin. You'll remember her, I knaw."

Mr. Seaton began a polite and stilted speech while possessing himself of Polly's shawl and bag. He was a very superior young man of the clerk or foreman type, somewhat ill put together at the waist, with a flat back to his head, and a cadaverous countenance. Laura gave him a rapid look. But her chief curiosity was for Hubert. And at her first glance she saw the signs of that strong and silent process perpetually going on amongst us that tames the countryman to the life and habits of the town. It was only a couple of months since the young athlete from the fells had been brought within its sway, and already the marks of it were evident in dress, speech, and manner. The dialect was almost gone; the black Sunday coat was of the most fashionable cut that Froswick could provide; and as they walked along, Laura detected more than once in the downcast eyes of her companion, a stealthy anxiety as to the knees of his new grey trousers. So far the change was not an embellishment. The first loss of freedom and rough strength is never that. But it roused the girl's notice, and a sort of secret sympathy. She too had felt the curb of an alien life!--she could almost have held out her hand to him as to a comrade in captivity.

Outside the station, to Laura's surprise--considering the object of the expedition--Hubert made a sign to his sister, and they two dropped behind a little.

"What's the matter with her?" said Hubert abruptly, as soon as he judged that they were out of hearing of the couple in front.

"Who do you mean? Laura? Why, she's well enoof!"

"Then she don't look it. She's fretting. What's wrong with her?"

As Hubert looked down upon his sister, Polly was startled by the impatient annoyance of look and manner. And how red-rimmed and weary were the lad's eyes! You might have thought he had not slept for a week.

Polly's mind ran through a series of conjectures; and she broke out with Westmoreland plainness--

"Hubert, I do wish tha wouldn't be sich a fool! I've towd tha so times and times."

"Aye, and you may tell me so till kingdom come--I shan't mind you," he said doggedly. "There's something between her and the Squire, I know there is. I know it by the look of her."

Polly laughed.

"How you jump! I tell tha she never says a word aboot him."

Hubert looked moodily at Laura's little figure in front.

"All the more reason!" he said between his teeth. "She'd talk about him when she first came. But I'll find out--never fear."

"For goodness' sake, Hubert, let her be!" said Polly, entreating. "Sich wild stuff as thoo's been writin me! Yan might ha thowt yo'd be fer cuttin yor throat, if yo' didn't get her doon here.--What art tha thinkin of, lad? She'll never marry tha! She doan't belong to us--and there's noa undoin it."

Hubert made no reply, but unconsciously his muscular frame took a pa.s.sionate rigidity; his face became set and obstinate.

"Well, you keep watch," he said. "You'll see--I'll make it worth your while."

Polly looked up--half laughing. She understood his reference to herself and her new sweetheart. Hubert would play her game if she would play his.

Well--she had no objection whatever to help him to the sight of Laura when she could. Polly's moral sense was not over-delicate, and as to the upshot and issues of things, her imagination moved but slowly. She did not like to let herself think of what might have been Hubert's relations to women--to one or two wild girls about Whinthorpe for instance. But Laura--Laura who was so much their social better, whose manners and self-possession awed them both, what smallest harm could ever come to her from any act or word of Hubert's? For this rustic Westmoreland girl, Laura Fountain stood on a pedestal robed and sceptred like a little queen. Hubert was a fool to fret himself--a fool to go courting some one too high for him. What else was there to say or think about it?

At the next street corner Laura made a resolute stop. Polly should not any longer be defrauded of her Mr. Seaton. Besides she, Laura, wished to talk to Hubert. Mr. Beaton's long words, and way of mouthing his highly correct phrases, had already seemed to take the savour out of the morning.

When the exchange was made--Mr. Seaton alas! showing less eagerness than might have been expected--Laura quietly examined her companion. It seemed to her that he was taller than ever; surely she was not much higher than his elbow! Hubert, conscious that he was being scrutinised, turned red, looked away, coughed, and apparently could find nothing to say.

"Well--how are you getting on?" said the light voice, sending its vibration through all the man's strong frame.

"I suppose I'm getting on all right," he said, switching at the railings beside the road with his stick.

"What sort of work do you do?"

He gave her a stumbling account, from which she gathered that he was for the time being the factotum of an office, sent on everybody's errands, and made responsible for everybody's shortcomings.

She threw him a glance of pity. This young Hercules, with his open-air traditions, and his athlete's triumphs behind him, turned into the b.u.t.t and underling of half a dozen clerks in a stuffy office!

"I don't mind," he said hastily. "All the others paid for their places; I didn't pay for mine. I'll be even with them all some day. It was the chance I wanted, and my uncle gives me a lift now and then. It was to please him they gave me the berth; he's worth thousands and thousands a year to them!"

And he launched into a boasting account of the importance and abilities of his uncle, Daniel Mason, who was now managing director of the great shipbuilding yard into which Hubert had been taken, as a favour to his kinsman.

"He began at the bottom, same as me--only he was younger than me," said Hubert, "so he had the pull. But you'll see, I'll work up. I've learnt a lot since I've been here. The cla.s.ses at the Inst.i.tute--well, they're fine!"

Laura showed an astonished glance. New sides of the lad seemed to be revealing themselves.

She inquired after his music. But he declared he was too busy to think of it. By-and-by in the winter he would have lessons. There was a violin cla.s.s at the Inst.i.tute--perhaps he'd join that. Then abruptly, staring down upon her with his wide blue eyes--

"And how have you been getting on with the Squire?"

He thought she started, but couldn't be quite sure.

"Getting on with the Squire? Why, capitally! Whenever he's there to get on with."

"What--he's been away?" he said eagerly.

She raised her shoulders.

"He's always away----"

"Why, I thought they'd have made a Papist of you by now," he said.

His laugh was rough, but his eyes held her with a curious insistence.

"Think something more reasonable, please, next time! Now, where are we going to lunch?"

"We've got it all ready. But we must see the yard first.... Miss Fountain--Laura--I've got that flower you gave me."

His voice was suddenly hoa.r.s.e.

She glanced at him, lifting her eyebrows.

"Very foolish of you, I'm sure.... Now do tell me, how did you get off so early?"