Janice Meredith Part 7

"He 's as hot-tempered an' high an' mighty as King George hisself," cried one of the drinkers. "But I guess his stinkin'

pride will come down a little afore the committee of Brunswick 's through with him."

"Let thy teeth keep better guard over thy red rag, Zerubbabel,"

rebuked Joe Bagby, warningly. "We want no rattlepates to tell us--or others--what 's needed or doing."

"This Meredith 's a man of property, eh?" asked Evatt.

"He 's been so since he married Patty Byllynge," replied the publican. "Afore then he war n't nothin' but a poor young lawyer over tew Trenton."

"And who was Patty Byllynge?"

"You don't know much 'bout West Jersey, or I guess you 'd have heard of her," surmised Bagby. "'T is n't every girl brings her husband a pot of money and nigh thirty thousand acres of land. Folks tell that before the squire got her, the men was about her like--" the speaker used a simile too coa.r.s.e for repet.i.tion.

"So ho!" said the traveller. "Byllynge, heigh? Now I begin to understand. A daughter--or granddaughter--of one of the patentees?"

"Just so. In the old man's day they held the lands all along this side of the Raritan, nigh up to Baskinridge, but they sold a lot in the forties."

"Then perhaps this is the place to bargain about a bit?

The land looked rich and warm as I rode along this afternoon."

"'T ain't no use tryin' ter buy of the new squire," remarked one man. "He won't do nothin' but lease. He don't want no freemen 'bout here."

"Yer might buy o' Squire Hennion. He sells now an' agin,"

suggested the innkeeper."

"Who's he?" demanded Evatt.

"Another of the monopolisers who got a grant in the early days, before the land was good for anything," explained Bagby.

"His property is further down."

"Ye 'd better bargain quick, if ye want any," spoke up an oldster. "Looks like squar's son was a-coortin' squar's daughter, an' mayhaps her money'll make old Squar Hennion less put tew it fer cash."

"So Squire Meredith is n't popular?"

"He'll find out suthin' next time he offers fer a.s.sembly,"

a.s.serted one of the group.

"He 's a member of a.s.sembly, is he?" questioned Evatt.

"Then he's all right on--he belongs to the popular party?"

"Not he!" cried several.

"He was agin the a.s.sociation, tried tew prevent our sendin'

deputies tew Congress, an' boasts that tea 's drunk at his table,"

said the landlord.

"'T won't be for long," growled Bagby.

"Then how comes it that ye elect him a.s.semblyman?"

"'T is his tenants do it," spoke up the lawyer. "They don't have the pluck to vote against him for fear of their leaseholds.

And so 't is with the rest. The only way we can get our way is by conventions and committees. But get it we will, let the gentry try as they please."

"Well, gentlemen," said Evatt, "here 's the swizzle. Gla.s.ses around, and I'll give ye a toast ye can all drink: May your freedom never be lessened by either Parliament or Congress!"

Two hours of drinking and talking followed, and when the last of the tipplers had staggered through the door, and Evatt, a.s.sisted by the publican, had reeled rather than walked upstairs to his room, if he was not fully informed as to the locality of which the tavern was the centre, it was because his brain was too fuddled by the mixed drink, and not because tongues had been guarded.

Eighteenth-century heads made light of drinking bouts, and Evatt ate a hearty breakfast the next morning. Thus fortified, he called for his horse, and announced his intention of seeing Squire Meredith "about that d.a.m.ned impertinent varlet."

Arrived at Greenwood, it was to find that the master of the house was away, having ridden to Bound Brook to see some of his more distant tenants; but in colonial times visitors were such infrequent occurrences that he was made welcome by the hostess, and urged to stay to dinner. "Mr. Meredith will be back ere nightfall," she a.s.sured him, "and will deeply regret having missed thee if thou rides away."

"Madam," responded Evatt, "American hospitality is only exceeded by American beauty."

It was impossible not to like the stranger, for he was a capital talker, having much of the chat of London, tasty beyond all else to colonial palates, at his tongue's tip. With a succession of descriptions or anecdotes of the frequenters of the Park and Mall, of Vauxhall and Ranelagh, he entertained them at table, the two girls sitting almost open-mouthed in their eagerness and delight.

The meal concluded, the ladies regretfully withdrew, leaving Evatt to enjoy what he chose of a decanter of the squire's best Madeira, which had been served to him, visitors of education being rare treats indeed. Like all young peoples, Americans ducked very low to transatlantic travellers, and, truly colonial, could not help but think an Englishman of necessity a superior kind of being.

The guest filled his gla.s.s, unb.u.t.toned the three lower b.u.t.tons of his waistcoat, and slouched back in his chair. Then he put the wine to his lips, and holding the swallow in his mouth to prolong the enjoyment, a look of extreme contentment came over his visage. And if he had put his thoughts into words, he would have said:--

"By Heavens! What wine and what women! The one they smuggle, but where get they the other? In a rough new country who'd think to encounter greater beauty and delicacy than can be seen skirting the Serpentine? Such eyes, such a waist, and such a wrist! And those cheeks--how the colour comes and goes, telling everything that she would hide! And to think that some b.u.mpkin will enjoy lips fit for a duke. Burn it! If 't were not for my task, I'd have a try for Miss Innocence and--" The man glanced out of the window and let his eyes wander over the landscape, while he drained his gla.s.s-- "Thirty thousand acres of land!" he said aloud, with a smack of pleasure.

His eyes left off studying the fields to fix themselves on Janice, who pa.s.sed the window, with the garden as an evident destination, and they followed her until she disappeared within the opening of the hedge. "There's a foot and ankle," he exclaimed with an expression on his face akin to that it had worn as he tasted the Madeira. "'T would fire enough sparks in London to set the Thames all aflame!" He reached for the Madeira once more, but after removing the stopper, he hesitated a moment, then replacing it, he rose, b.u.t.toned his waistcoat, and taking his hat from the hall, he slipped through the window and walked toward the garden.

Finding that Janice was not within the hedge-row, Evatt pa.s.sed across the garden quickly and discovered the young lady standing outside the stable, engaged in the extremely undignified occupation of whistling. Her reason for the action was quickly revealed by the appearance of Clarion; and still unconscious that she was watched, after a word with the dog, they both started toward the river.

A few hasty strides brought the man up with the maiden, and as she slightly turned to see who had joined her, he said, "May I walk with you, Miss Meredith? I intended a stroll about the farm, and it will be all the pleasanter for so fair a guide."

Shyly but eagerly the girl a.s.sented, and richly rewarded was she in her own estimate by what the visitor had to tell. More gossip of court, of the lesser world of fashion, and of the theatre, he retailed: how the king walked and looked, of the rivalry between Mrs. Barry and Mrs. Baddeley, of Charles Fox's debts and eloquence, of the vogue of Cecilia Davis, or "L'Inglesina." To Janice, hungry with the true appet.i.te of provincialism, it was all the most delicious of comfits. To talk to a man who could imitate the way the Duke of Gloucester limped at a levee when suffering from the gout, and who was able to introduce a story by saying, "As Lady Rochford once said to me at one of her routs--" was almost like meeting those distinguished beings themselves. Janice not merely failed to note that the man paid no heed whatever to the land they strolled over, but herself ceased to give time or direction the slightest thought.

"Oh!" she broke out finally, in her delight, "won't Tibbie be sorry when she knows what she's missed? And, forsooth, a proper pay out for her wrong-doing it is!"

"What mean ye by that?" questioned Evatt.

"She deserves to have it known, but though she called me tattle-tale, I'm no such thing," replied Janice, who in truth was still hot with indignation at Miss Drinker, and wellnigh bursting to confide her grievance against her whilom friend to this most delightful of men. "Doubtless, you observed that we are not on terms. That was why I came off without her."

Evatt, though not till this moment aware of the fact, nodded his head gravely.

"'T is all her doings, though she'd be glad enough to make it up if I would let her. A fine frenzy her ladyship would be in, too, if she dreamt he'd given me the miniature."

"A miniature!" marvelled the visitor, encouragingly. "Of whom?"

"'T is just what--Oh, I think I'll tell thee the whole tale and get thy advice. I dare not go to mommy, for I know she'd make me give it up, and dadda being away, and Tibbie in a snip-snap, I have no one to--and perhaps--I'd never tell thee to shame Tibbie, but because I need advice and--"

"A man with half an eye would know you were no tale-bearer, Miss Janice," her companion a.s.sured her.

Thus prompted and enticed, the girl poured out the whole story. "I wish I could show you the picture," she ended.

"She is the most beautiful creature I ever saw."