That Boy Of Norcott's Part 18

I shook my bead in dissent.

"Worst of all," said he, half rebukingly, and pa.s.sed on. I now bethought me how remiss I had been. It is true it was through a sense of my own insignificant station that I had not presented myself to my host; but I ought to have remembered that this excuse could have no force outside the limits of my own heart; and so, as I despaired of finding Hanserl, whose advice might have aided me, I set out at once to make my respects.

A long, straight avenue, flanked by tall lime-trees, led from the sea to the house; and as I pa.s.sed up this, crowded now like the chief promenade of a city, I heard many comments as I went on my dress and appearance.

"What have we here?" said one. "Is this a prince or a mountebank?" "What boy, with a much-braid-bedizened velvet coat is this?" muttered an old German, as he pointed at me with his pipe-stick..

One p.r.o.nounced me a fencing-master; but public reprobation found its limit at last by calling me a Frenchman. Shall I own that I heard all these with something much more akin to pride than to shame? The mere fact that they recognized me as unlike one of themselves--that they saw in me what was not "Fiumano "--was in itself a flattery; and as to the depreciation, it was pure ignorance! I am afraid that I even showed how defiantly I took this criticism,--showed it in my look, and showed it in my gait; for as I ascended the steps to the terrace of the villa, I heard more than one comment on my pretentious demeanor. Perhaps some rumor of the approach of a distinguished guest had reached Herr Oppovich where he sat, at a table with some of the magnates of Fiume, for be hastily arose and came forward to meet me. Just as I gained the last terrace, the old man stood bareheaded and bowing before me, a semicircle of wondering guests at either side of him.

"Whom have I the distinguished honor to receive?" said Herr Ignaz, with a profound show of deference.

"Don't you know me, sir? Owen,--Digby Owen."

"What!--how?--Eh--in heaven's name--sure it can't be! Why, I protest it is," cried he, laying his hand on my shoulder, as if to test my reality.

"This pa.s.ses all belief. Who ever saw the like! Come here, Knabe, come here." And slipping his hand within my arm, he led me towards the table he had just quitted. "Sara," cried he, "here is a guest you have not noticed; a high and wellborn stranger, who claims all your attention.

Let him have the place of honor at your side. This, ladies and gentlemen, is Herr Digby Owen, the stave-counter of my timber-yard!" And he burst, with this, into a roar of laughter, that, long pent up by an effort, now seemed to threaten him with a fit Nor was the company slow in chorusing him; round after round shook the table, and it seemed as if the joke could never be exhausted.

All this time I stood with my eyes fixed on the Fraulein, whose glance was directed as steadfastly on me. It was a haughty look she bent on me, but it became her well, and I forgave all the scorn it conveyed in the pleasure her beauty gave me. My face, which at first was in a flame, became suddenly cold, and a faintish sickness was creeping over me, so that, to steady myself, I had to lay my hand on a chair. "Won't you sit down?" said she, in a voice fully as much command as invitation. She pointed to a chair a little distance from her own, and I obeyed.

The company appeared now somewhat ashamed of its rude display of merriment, and seeing how quietly and calmly I bore myself,--unresentingly too,--there seemed something like a reaction in my favor. Foreigners, it must be said, are generally sorry when betrayed into any exhibition of ill-breeding, and hastily seek to make amends for it Perhaps Herr Oppovich himself was the least ready in this movement, for he continued to look on me with a strange blending of displeasure and amus.e.m.e.nt.

The business of breakfast was now resumed, and the servants pa.s.sed round with the dishes, helping me amongst the rest. While I was eating, I heard--what, of course, was not meant for my ears--an explanation given by one of the company of my singular appearance. He had lived in England, and said that the English of every condition had a pa.s.sion for appearing to belong to some rank above their own; that to accomplish this there was no sacrifice they would not make, for these a.s.sumptions imposed upon those who made them fully as much as on the public they were made for. "You 'll see," added he, "that the youth there, so long as he figures in that fine dress, will act up to it, so far as he knows how. He talked with a degree of a.s.surance and fluency that gained conviction, and I saw that his hearers went along with him, and there soon began--very cautiously and very guardedly, indeed--a sort of examination of me and my pretensions, for which, fortunately for me, I was so far prepared.

"And do all English boys of your rank in life speak and read four languages?" asked Herr Ignaz, after listening some time to my answers.

"You are a.s.suming to know his rank, papa," whispered Sara, who watched me closely during the whole interrogatory.

"Let him answer my question," rejoined the old man, roughly.

"Perhaps not all," said I, half amused at the puzzle I was becoming to them.

"Then how came it your fortune to know them,--that is, if you _do_ know them?"

Slipping out of his question, I replied, "Nothing can be easier than to test that point. There are gentlemen here whose acquirements go far beyond mine."

"Your German is very good," said Sara. "Let me hear you speak French."

"It is too much honor for me," said I, bowing, "to address you at all."

"Is your Italian as neat in accent as that?" asked a lady near.

"I believe I am best in Italian,--of course, after English,--for I always talked it with my music-master, as well as with my teacher."

"Music-master!" cried Herr Ignaz; "what phoenix have we here?"

"I don't think we are quite fair to this boy," said a stern-featured, middle-aged man. "He has shown us that there is no imposition in his pretensions, and we have no right to question him further. If Herr Ignaz thinks you too highly gifted for his service, young man, come over to Carl Bettmeyer's counting-house to-morrow at noon."

"I thank you, sir," said I, "and am very grateful; but if Herr Oppovich will bear with me, I will not leave him."

Sara's eyes met mine as I spoke, and I cannot tell what a flood of rapture her look sent into my heart.

"The boy will do well enough," muttered Herr Ignaz. "Let us have a ramble through the grounds, and see how the skittle-players go on."

And thus pa.s.sed off the little incident of my appearance: an incident of no moment to any but myself, as I was soon to feel; for the company, descending the steps, strayed away in broken twos or threes through the grounds, as caprice or will inclined them.

If I were going to chronicle the fete itself, I might, perhaps, say there was a striking contrast between the picturesque beauty of the spot, and the pastime of those who occupied it The scene recalled nothing so much as a village fair. All the simple out-of-door amus.e.m.e.nts of popular taste were there. There were conjurors and saltimbanques and fortune-tellers, lottery-booths and ninepin alleys and restaurants, only differing from their prototypes in that there was nothing to pay. If a considerable number of the guests were well pleased with the pleasures provided for them, there were others no less amused as spectators of these enjoyments, and the result was an amount of mirth and good humor almost unbounded. There were representatives of almost every cla.s.s and condition, from the prosperous merchant or rich banker down to the humblest clerk, or even the porter of the warehouse; and yet a certain tone of equality pervaded all, and I observed that they mixed with each other on terms of friendliness and familiarity that never recalled any difference of condition; and this feature alone was an ample counterpoise to any vulgarity observable in their manners. If there was any "sn.o.bbery," it was of a species quite unlike what we have at home, and I could not detect it.

While I strolled about, amusing myself with the strange sights and scenes around me, I suddenly came upon a sort of merry-go-round, where the performers, seated on small hobby-horses, tilted with a lance at a ring as they spun round, their successes or failures being hailed with cheers or with laughter from the spectators. To my intense astonishment, I might almost say shame, Hanserl was there! Mounted on a fiery little gray, with bloodshot eyes and a flowing tail, the old fellow seemed to have caught the spirit of his steed, for he stood up in his stirrups, and leaned forward with an eagerness that showed how he enjoyed the sport. Why was it that the spectacle so shocked me? Why was it that I shrunk back into the crowd, fearful that he might recognize me? Was it not well if the poor fellow could throw off, even for a pa.s.sing moment, the weary drudgery of his daily life, and play the fool just for distraction' sake? All this I could have believed and accepted a short time before, and yet now a strange revulsion of feeling had come over me and I went away, well pleased that Hans had not seen nor claimed me.

"These vulgar games don't amuse you," said a voice at my side; and I turned and saw the merchant who, at the breakfast-table, invited me to his counting-house.

"Not that," said I; "but they seem strange and odd at a private entertainment I was scarce prepared to see them here."

"I suspect that is not exactly the reason," said he, laughing. "I know something of your English tone of exclusiveness, and how each cla.s.s of your people has its appropriate pleasures. You scorn to be amused in low company."

"You seem to forget my own condition, sir."

"Come, come," said he, with a knowing look, "I am not so easily imposed upon, as I told you awhile back. I know England. Your ways and notions are all known to me. It is not in the place you occupy here young lads are found who speak three or four languages, and have hands that show as few signs of labor as yours. Mind," said he, quickly, "I don't want to know your secret."

"If I had a secret, it is scarcely likely I 'd tell it to a stranger,"

said I, haughtily.

"Just so; you 'd know your man before you trusted him. Well, I 'm more generous, and I 'm going to trust you, whom I never saw till half an hour ago."

"Trust _me!_"

"Trust you," repeated he, slowly. "And first of all, what age would you give that young lady whose birthday we are celebrating?"

"Seventeen--eighteen--perhaps nineteen."

"I thought you'd say so; she looks nineteen. Well, I can tell you her age to an hour. She is fifteen to-day."

"Fifteen!"

"Not a day older, and yet she is the most finished coquette in Europe.

Having given Fiume to understand that there is not a man here whose pretensions she would listen to, her whole aim and object is to surround herself with admirers,--I might say worshippers. Young fellows are fools enough to believe they have a chance of winning her favor, while each sees how contemptuously she treats the other. They do not perceive it is the number of adorers she cares for."

"But what is all this to me?"

"Simply that you 'll be enlisted in that corps to-morrow," said he, with a malicious laugh; "and I thought I 'd do you a good turn to warn you as to what is in store for you."

"Me? _I_ enlisted! Why, just bethink you, sir, who and what I am: the very lowest creature in her father's employment."

"What does that signify? There's a mystery about you. You are not--at least you were not--what you seem now. You have as good looks and better manners than the people usually about her. She can amuse herself with you, and so far harmlessly that she can dismiss you when she's tired of you, and if she can only persuade you to believe yourself in love with her, and can store up a reasonable share of misery for you in consequence, you 'll make her nearer being happy than she has felt this many a day."

"I don't understand all this," said I, doubtingly.

"Well, you will one of these days; that is, unless you have the good sense to take my warning in good part, and avoid her altogether."

"It will be quite enough for me to bear in mind who she is, and what _I_ am!" said I, calmly.