The Revellers Part 56

This record of a Yorkshire village--a true chronicle of life among the canny folk who dwell on the "moor edge"--might well be left at the point it reached when one of its chief characters saw before him the smooth and sunlit road of a notable career.

But history, though romantic, is not writ as romance, and the story of Elmsdale is fact, not fiction. After eight years of somnolence the village awoke again. It was roused from sleep by the tumult of a world at war; mayhap the present generation shall pa.s.s away before the hamlet relapses into its humdrum ways.

Martin was twenty-two when his father and he journeyed north to attend the annual sale of the Elmsdale herd, which was fixed for the two opening days of July, 1914. Each year Colonel Grant brought his son to the village for six weeks prior to the twelfth of August; this year there was a well-founded rumor in the little community that the colonel meant to buy The Elms.

The announcement of Bolland's sale brought foreign agents from abroad and well-known stock-raisers from all parts of the Kingdom. No less than forty animals entered the auction ring. One bull, Bainesse Boy IV., realized 800. Bainesse Boy IV. held a species of levee in a special stall. He had grown into a wonder. On a table, over which Sergeant Benson mounted guard, were displayed five championship cups he had carried off, while fifteen cards, arranged in horseshoe pattern on the wall, each bore the magic words, "First Prize," awarded at Islington, Birmingham, the Royal, and wherever else in Britain shorthorns and their admirers most do congregate.

The village hummed with life; around the sale ring gathered a mult.i.tude of men arrayed in Melton cloth and leather leggings, whose general appearance betokened the wisdom of Dr. Johnson's sarcastic dictum: "Who drives fat oxen should himself be fat."

Martha and a cohort of maids boiled hams by the dozen and baked cakes in fabulous quant.i.ties. John graced the occasion by donning a new suit and new boots, in which the crooked giant was singularly ill at ease.

Mrs. Pickering drove over from Nottonby--Kitty was married two years before to a well-to-do farmer at Northallerton--and someone rallied her on "bein' ower good-lookin' te remain a widow all her days."

She laughed pleasantly.

"I'm far too busy at Wetherby to think of adding a husband to my cares,"

she said; but those who knew her best could have told that she had refused at least two excellent offers of matrimony and meant to remain Mrs. Pickering during the rest of her days.

At the close of the second day's sale, when the crowd was thinned by the departure of a fleet of cars and a local train at five o'clock, the White House was thronged by its habitus, who came to make a meal of the "high tea."

Colonel Grant and John had just concluded an amicable wrangle whereby it was decided that they should jointly provide the considerable sum needed to acquire The Elms and some adjoining land. The house and grounds were to be remodeled and the property would be deeded to Martin forthwith.

The young gentleman himself, as tall as his father now, and wearing riding breeches and boots, was standing at the front door, turning impatient eyes from a smart cob, held by a groom, to the bend in the road where it curved beyond the "Black Lion."

A smartly-dressed young lady pa.s.sed, and although Martin lifted his hat with a ready smile his glance wandered from her along the road again.

Evelyn Atkinson wondered who it was that thus distracted his attention.

A few yards farther on, Elsie Herbert, mounted on a steady old hunter, pa.s.sed at a sharp trot. Evelyn's pretty face frowned slightly.

"If _she_ is home again, of course, he has eyes for n.o.body else," she said to herself.

And, indeed, it was true. Elsie had been to Dresden for two years. She had returned to Elmsdale the previous day, and a scribbled note told Martin to look for her after tea.

The two set off together through the village, bound for the moor. Many a critical look followed them.

"Eh, but they're a bonny pair," cried Mrs. Summersgill, who became stouter each year. "Martin allus framed to be a fine man, but I nivver thowt yon gawky la.s.s o' t' vicar's 'ud grow into a beauty."

"This moor air is wonderful. Look at the effect it has on you, Mrs.

Summersgill," said Colonel Grant with a twinkle in his eye.

"Oh, go on wi' ye, Colonel, pokin' fun at a poor owd body like me. But I den't ho'd wi' skinny 'uns. Martha, what's become o' Mrs. Saumarez an'

that flighty gell o' hers. What did they call her--Angel? My word!--a nice angel--not that she wasn't as thin as a sperrit."

"Miss Walker told me, last Christmas twel'month, they were i' France,"

said Martha.

"France? Ay, maist like; it's a G.o.d-forsaken place, I'll be boun'."

"Nay," interposed Bolland, "that's an unchristian description of onny counthry, ma'am. Ye'll find t' Lord ivverywhere i' t' wide wulld, if ye seek Him. There's bin times when He might easy be i' France, for He seemed, iv His wisdom, to be far away frae Elmsdale."

Mrs. Summersgill snorted contempt for all "furriners," but Martha created a diversion.

"Goodness me!" she cried, "yer cup's empty. I nivver did see sike a woman. Ye talk an' eat nowt."

Martin, now in his third year at Oxford, was somewhat mystified by the change brought about in Elsie by two years of "languages and music"

pa.s.sed in the most attractive of German cities. Though not flippant, her manner nonplussed him. She was distinctly "smart," both in speech and style. She treated a young gentleman who had already taken his degree and was reading for honors in history with an easy nonchalance that was highly disconcerting. The last time they parted they had kissed each other, she with tears, and he with a lump in his throat. Now he dared no more offer a cousinly, or brotherly, or any other sort of salute in which kissing was essential, than if she were a royal princess.

"You've altered, old girl," he said by way of a conversational opening when their horses were content to walk, after a sharp canter along a moorland track.

"I should hope so, indeed," came the airy retort. "Surely, you didn't expect to find the Elmsdale label on me after two years of _kultur_?"

"Whatever the label, the vintage looks good," he said.

"You mean that as a compliment," she laughed. "And, now that I look at you carefully, I see signs of improvement. Of course, the Oxford sw.a.n.k is an abomination, but you'll lose it in time. Father told me last night that you were going in for the law and politics. Is that correct?"

Martin, masterful as ever, was not minded to endure such supercilious treatment at Elsie's hands. He had looked forward to this meeting with a longing that had almost interfered with his work; it was more than irritating to find his divinity modeling her behavior on the lines of the Girton "set" at the University.

They had reached a point of the high moor which overlooked Thor ghyll.

Martin pulled up his cob and dismounted.

"Let's give the nags a breather here," he said. "Shall I help you?"

"No, thanks."

Elsie was out of the saddle promptly. She rode astride. In a well-fitting habit, with divided skirt and patent-leather boots, she looked wonderfully alluring, but her air of aloofness was carried almost to the verge of indifference.

She showed some surprise when Martin took her horse's reins and threw them over his left arm.

"Are you going to lecture me?" she said, arching her eyebrows. "It would be just like a fledgling B. A., who is doubtless a member of the Officers' Training Corps, to tell me that my German riding-master taught me to sit too stiffly."

"He did," said Martin, meeting the sarcastic blue eyes without flinching. "But a few days with the York and Ainsty and Lord Middleton's pack will put that right. You'll come a purler at your first stone wall if you ride with such long stirrup leathers. However, I want you to jump another variety of obstacle to-day. You asked me just now, Elsie, if I was going in for the law. Yes. But I'm going in for you first. You know I love you, dear. You know I have been your very humble but loyal knight ever since I won your recognition down there in the valley, when I was only a farmer's son and you were a girl of a higher social order. I have never forgotten that you didn't seem to heed cla.s.s distinctions then, Elsie, and it hurts now to have you treat me with coldness."

Elsie, trying valiantly to appear partly indignant and even more amused at this direct attack, failed most lamentably. First she flushed; then she paled.

She faced Martin's gaze confidently enough at the outset, but her eyes dropped and her lips quivered when she heard the words which no woman can hear without a thrill. Still, she made a brave attempt to rally her forces.

"I didn't--quite mean--what you say," she faltered, which was a schoolgirl form of protest for one who had achieved distinction in a course of English literature.

Martin took her by the shoulders. The two horses nosed each other. They, perforce, were dumb, but their wise eye's seemed to exchange the caustic comment: "What fools these mortals be! Why don't they hug, and settle the business?"

"I must know what you do mean," said Martin, almost fiercely. "I love you, Elsie. Will you marry me?"

She lifted her face. The blue eyes were dim with tears, but the adorable mouth trembled in a smile.

"Yes, dear," she murmured. "But what did you expect? Did you--think I would--throw my arms around you--in the village street?"

After that Martin had no reason to accuse Elsie of being either stiff or cold. When the vicar heard the news that night--for Martin and the colonel dined at the Vicarage--he stormed into mock dissent.