The Belton Estate Part 51

THE GREAT NORTHERN RAILWAY HOTEL.

At the door of the hotel of the Great Northern Railway Station they met Captain Aylmer. Rooms had been taken there because they were to start by an early train on that line in the morning, and Captain Aylmer had undertaken to order dinner. There was nothing particular in the meeting to make it unpleasant to our friend Will. The fortunate rival could do no more in the hall of the inn than give his hand to his affianced bride, as he might do to any other lady, and then suggest to her that she should go up-stairs and see her room.

When he had done this, he also offered his hand to Belton; and Will, though he would almost sooner have cut off his own, was obliged to take it. In a few minutes the two men were standing alone together in the sitting-room.

"I suppose you found it cold coming up?" said the captain.

"Not particularly," said Will.

"It's rather a long journey from Belton."

"Not very long," said Will.

"Not for you, perhaps; but Miss Amedroz must be tired."

Belton was angry at having his cousin called Miss Amedroz,--feeling that the reserve of the name was intended to keep him at a distance.

But he would have been equally angry had Aylmer called her Clara.

"My cousin," said Will stoutly, "is able to bear slight fatigue of that kind without suffering."

"I didn't suppose she suffered; but journeys are always tedious, especially where there is so much road work. I believe you are twenty miles from the station?"

"Belton Castle is something over twenty miles from Taunton."

"We are seven from our station at Aylmer Park, and we think that a great deal."

"I'm more than that at Plaistow," said Will.

"Oh, indeed. Plaistow is in Norfolk, I believe?"

"Yes;--Plaistow is in Norfolk."

"I suppose you'll leave it now and go into Somersetshire," suggested Captain Aylmer.

"Certainly not. Why should I leave it?"

"I thought, perhaps,--as Belton Castle is now your own--"

"Plaistow Hall is more my own than Belton Castle, if that signifies anything,--which it doesn't." This he said in an angry tone, which, as he became conscious of it, he tried to rectify. "I've a deal of stock and all that sort of thing at Plaistow, and couldn't very well leave it, even if I wished it," he said.

"You've pretty good shooting too, I suppose," said Aylmer.

"As far as partridges go I'll back it against most properties of the same extent in any county."

"I'm too busy a man myself," said the Captain, "to do much at partridges. We think more of pheasants down with us."

"I dare say."

"But a Norfolk man like you is of course keen about birds."

"We are obliged to put up with what we've got, you know;--not but what I believe there is a better general head of game in Norfolk than in any other county in England."

"That's what makes your hunting rather poor."

"Our hunting poor! Why do you say it's poor?"

"So many of you are against preserving foxes."

"I'll tell you what, Captain Aylmer; I don't know what pack you hunt with, but I'll bet you a five-pound note that we killed more foxes last year than you did;--that is, taking three days a week.

Nine-and-twenty brace and a half in a short season I don't call poor at all."

Captain Aylmer saw that the man was waxing angry, and made no further allusion either to the glories or deficiencies of Norfolk. As he could think of no other subject on which to speak at the spur of the moment, he sat himself down and took up a paper; Belton took up another, and so they remained till Clara made her appearance. That Captain Aylmer read his paper is probable enough. He was not a man easily disconcerted, and there was nothing in his present position to disconcert him. But I feel sure that Will Belton did not read a word. He was angry with this rival, whom he hated, and was angry with himself for showing his anger. He would have wished to appear to the best advantage before this man, or rather before Clara in this man's presence; and he knew that in Clara's absence he was making such a fool of himself that he would be unable to recover his prestige. He had serious thoughts within his own breast whether it would not be as well for him to get up from his seat and give Captain Aylmer a thoroughly good thrashing;--"Drop into him and punch his head," as he himself would have expressed it. For the moment such an exercise would give him immense gratification. The final results would, no doubt, be disastrous; but then, all future results, as far as he could see them, were laden with disaster. He was still thinking of this, eyeing the man from under the newspaper, and telling himself that the feat would probably be too easy to afford much enjoyment, when Clara re-entered the room. Then he got up, acting on the spur of the moment,--got up quickly and suddenly, and began to bid her adieu.

"But you are going to dine here, Will?" she said.

"No; I think not."

"You promised you would. You told me you had nothing to do to-night."

Then she turned to Captain Aylmer. "You expect my cousin to dine with us to-day?"

"I ordered dinner for three," said Captain Aylmer.

"Oh, very well; it's all the same thing to me," said Will.

"And to me," said Captain Aylmer.

"It's not at all the same thing to me," said Clara. "I don't know when I may see my cousin again. I should think it very bad of you, Will, if you went away this evening."

"I'll go out just for half an hour," said he, "and be back to dinner."

"We dine at seven," said the Captain. Then Belton took his hat and left the two lovers together.

"Your cousin seems to be a rather surly sort of gentleman." Those were the first words which Captain Aylmer spoke when he was alone with the lady of his love. Nor was he demonstrative of his affection by any of the usual signs of regard which are permitted to accepted lovers. He did not offer to kiss her, nor did he attempt to take her hand with a warmer pressure now that he was alone with her. He probably might have gone through some such ceremony had he first met Clara in a position propitious to such purposes; but, as it was, he had been a little ruffled by Will Belton's want of good breeding, and had probably forgotten that any such privileges might have been his.

I wonder whether any remembrance flashed across Clara's mind at this moment of her cousin Will's great iniquity in the sitting-room at Belton Castle. She thought of it very often, and may possibly have thought of it now.

"I don't believe that he is surly, Frederic," she said. "He may, perhaps, be out of humour."

"And why should he be out of humour with me? I only suggested to him that it might suit him to live at Belton instead of at that farm of his, down in Norfolk."

"He is very fond of Plaistow, I fancy."

"But that's no reason why he should be cross with me. I don't envy him his taste, that's all. If he can't understand that he, with his name, ought to live on the family property which belongs to him, it isn't likely that anything that I can say will open his eyes upon the subject."

"The truth is, Frederic, he has some romantic notion about the Belton estate."

"What romantic notion?"

"He thinks it should not be his at all."