The Pastor's Wife Part 14

The d.u.c.h.ess stared. "It's a party," she said. "To celebrate the betrothal. Don't you know?"

"I am gratified," said Herr Dremmel, "to find the parents so evidently pleased. It adds a grace to what was already full of charm. But would it not have been more complete if they had invited me?"

"I quite agree with you," said the d.u.c.h.ess. "Much more complete. Well, anyhow, here you are. So you think my soil wants nitrogen?"

"Certainly, madam. In the form of rape cape and ammonia salts--but combined with organic manure. Artificial manure alone will not, in hot weather--who is that?" he broke off, pointing with his umbrella to the Bishop advancing along the path, his eyes on the ground, sardonically meditating.

"What?" said the d.u.c.h.ess, intent on the notes she was making of his recommendations in her note-book.

"That," said Herr Dremmel.

The d.u.c.h.ess looked up. "Why, the Bishop, of course. Go on about the hot weather."

"Her father," said Herr Dremmel; and he advanced, hat in hand, and the other held out in friendliest greeting, to meet him.

The d.u.c.h.ess went after him. "Bishop," she said, "this is a man who knows all the things worth knowing." And the Bishop, taking this to be her introduction of a friend, cordially returned Herr Dremmel's handshake.

He was never cordial again.

"Sir," said Herr Dremmel, "I am greatly pleased to make your acquaintance. My name is Dremmel. Robert Dremmel."

The Bishop had just enough self-control not to s.n.a.t.c.h his hand away, but to let Herr Dremmel continue to hold and press it. His mind began to leap about. How to get the d.u.c.h.ess away; how to get Herr Dremmel turned, noiselessly, out of the house; how to prevent Ingeborg's coming at any moment along the path behind them with Lady Pamela....

"We have every reason, sir," said Herr Dremmel, holding the Bishop's hand in a firm pressure, "to congratulate each other, I you, on the possession of such a daughter, you me--"

"Isn't she a lovely girl," said the d.u.c.h.ess, for whom only Judith existed in that family. "Would rape cake and the other thing help my flowers at all, or is it only for the mangels?"

"Mangels!" thought the Bishop, "Rape cake!" And swiftly glanced behind him down the path.

"Sir," said Herr Dremmel, desiring to be very pleasant to the Bishop and slightly waving the d.u.c.h.ess aside, "permit me also to congratulate you--"

"_Have_ you had any tea?" inquired the Bishop desperately of the d.u.c.h.ess, turning to her and getting his hand away.

"Thank you, yes. Well, Mr. Dremmel? Don't interrupt him, Bishop, he's _most_ interesting."

"--on the results," continued Herr Dremmel to the Bishop, "of your autumnal activities. This blaze of flowers is sufficient witness to the devotion, the a.s.siduity--"

"You don't suppose he did it himself, do you?" said the d.u.c.h.ess.

"And your costume, sir," said Herr Dremmel, concentrated on the Bishop and earnestly desiring to please, "suggests a quite particular and familiar interest in what this lady rightly calls the things really worth knowing."

"But he can't help wearing that," said the d.u.c.h.ess.

Again Herr Dremmel, and with some impatience, waved her aside.

"It is a costume most appropriate in a garden," he continued. "Even the gaiters are horticultural, and the ap.r.o.n is pleasantly reminiscent of the innocence of our first parents. So Adam might have dressed--"

"Oh, but you _must_ come to Coops!" cried the d.u.c.h.ess. "Bishop, he's to come back with me."

"Sir," said Herr Dremmel with something of severity, for he was beginning to consider the d.u.c.h.ess forward, "is this lady Mrs. Bishop?"

"Oh, oh!" screamed the d.u.c.h.ess, while Herr Dremmel watched her disapprovingly and the Bishop struggled not to seize him by the throat.

"My dear Bishop," said the d.u.c.h.ess, wiping her eyes, "I never had such a compliment paid me. The best-looking bishop on the bench-"

"_Do_ come indoors," he implored. "I can't really let you stand about like this--"

"Thank you, I'm not in the least tired. Go on, Mr. Dremmel."

"Sir, can I see you alone?" said Herr Dremmel, now without any doubt as to the d.u.c.h.ess's forwardness. "On such an occasion as this, before we begin together openly to rejoice it seems fitting we should first by ourselves, unless this lady is your daughter's mother--"

"Oh, oh!" again screamed the d.u.c.h.ess.

The Bishop turned on him in a kind of blaze, quite uncontrollable. "Yes, sir, you can," he said. "Come into my study--"

"What? Are you going to take him away from me?" cried the d.u.c.h.ess.

"My dear d.u.c.h.ess, if he has business with me--" said the Bishop. "I'll take you indoors first," he said, offering her his arm. "This gentleman"--he glared at him sideways, and Herr Dremmel, all unused as he was to noticing hostility, yet was a little surprised at the expression of his face--"will wait here. No, no, he won't, he'll come, too"--for approaching round the bushes behind which grew the pear-tree the Bishop had caught sight of skirts. "Come on, sir--"

"But--" said the d.u.c.h.ess, as the Bishop drew her hand hastily through his arm and began to walk her off more quickly than she had been walked off for years.

"Come on, sir--" the Bishop flung back, almost hissed back, at Herr Dremmel.

"One moment," said Herr Dremmel holding up his hand, his gaze fixed on what was emerging from the bushes.

"Come _on_, sir!" cried the Bishop, "I can only see you alone if you come at once--"

But Herr Dremmel did not heed him. He was watching the bushes.

"Will you come?" said the Bishop, pausing and stamping his foot, while he held the d.u.c.h.ess tight in the grip of his arm.

"Why," said Herr Dremmel without heeding him, "why--yes--why it _is_--why, here at last appears the Little Sugar Lamb!"

"The little _what_?" said the d.u.c.h.ess, resolutely pulling out her hand from the Bishop's arm and putting up her eyegla.s.s. "Heavens above us, he can't mean Pamela?"

But n.o.body answered her; and indeed it was not necessary, for Herr Dremmel, gone down the path with a swiftness amazing in one of his appearance, was already, in the sight of all Redchester and most of the county, enfolding Ingeborg in his arms.

"Of course," was the d.u.c.h.ess's comment to the Bishop as she watched the scene with her eyegla.s.s up and the placidity of relief, "of course they will conquer us."

CHAPTER XI

And so it came to pa.s.s that Herr Dremmel, armed only with simplicity, set aside the resistances of princes, potentates, and powers, and was married to Ingeborg by her father the Bishop in his own cathedral. And it was done as quickly as the law allowed, not only because Herr Dremmel was determined it should be, but because the enduring of his daily arrival for courting purposes from Coops, where he was staying, became rapidly impossible for the Bishop. Also there was the Master of Ananias, spurred to a frenzy of activity by Herr Dremmel's success in getting things hurried on, insisting that he had been engaged long enough and demanding to be married on the same day.

In the end he was, and Ingeborg's wedding, being Judith's as well, was unavoidably splendid. All along the line the Bishop's hand was forced.