time to distinguish one from another, the actors assuming their own characters, grandmamma and Mrs. Roger Langford asking dozens of questions in a breath, and Mr. Roger Langford fast asleep in his great arm-chair, till roused by Dick tugging at his arm, and Willy hammering on his knee, he slowly arose, saying, 'What, Roger, my boy, is it you? I thought it was all their acting!'
'Ah! Miss Jessie,' exclaimed Roger; 'that is right: I have not seen such a crop of shining curls since I have been gone. So you have not lost your pink cheeks with pining for me. How are they all at home?'
'Here, Roger, your Aunt Mary,' said his mother; and instantly there was a subduing of the young sailor's boisterous mirth, as he turned to answer her gentle welcome. The laugh arose the next moment at the appearance of the still half-disguised actors: Alex without Bassanio's short black cloak and slouched hat and feather, but still retaining his burnt cork eyebrows and moustache, and wondering that Roger did not know him; Uncle Geoffrey still in Shylock's yellow cap, and Fred somewhat grim with the Prince of Morocco's complexion.
'How d'ye do, Phil?' said Roger, returning his cousinly shake of the hand with interest. 'What! are not you Philip Carey?'
'O, Roger, Roger!' cried a small figure, in whom the Italian maiden predominated.
'What, Aunt Geoffrey masquerading too? How d'ye do, aunt?'
'Well done, Roger! That's right! Go on!' cried his father, laughing heartily.
'Is it not my aunt? No? Is it the little Bee, then? Why you are grown as like her! But where is Aunt Geoffrey then? Not here? That is a bore. I thought you would have all been in port here at Christmas. And is not this Philip? Come tell me, some of you, instead of laughing there. Are you Fred Langford, then?'
'Right this time,' said Fred, 'so now you must shake hands with me in my own name.'
'Very glad to do so, and see you here at last,' said Roger, cordially. 'And now tell me, what is all this about? One would think you were crossing the Line?'
'You shall hear what it is all about, and see too,' said Mr. Langford. 'We must have that wicked old Jew disappointed, must not we, Willy? But where is my little Portia? What is become of her?'
'Fled, I suspect,' said her mother, 'gone to turn into herself before her introduction.'
'O, Roger, it was so jolly,' Carey was now heard to say above the confusion of voices. 'Uncle Geoffrey was an old Jew, going to cut a pound of flesh out of Fred, and Henrietta was making a speech in a lawyer's wig, and had just found such a dodge!'
'Ha! like the masks in the carnival at Rio! Ferrars and I went ashore there, and-'
'Have you been at Sutton Leigh, Roger?' 'Have you dined?' 'Cold turkey-excellent Christmas pie, only too much pepper-a cup of tea-no, but we will have the beef in-'
Further conversation was suspended by these propositions, with the answers and thanks resulting therefrom, but in the midst grandpapa exclaimed, 'Ah! here she is! Here is the counsellor! Here is a new cousin for you, Roger; here is the advocate for you when you have a tough law-suit! Lucky for you, Master Geoffrey, that she is not a man, or your nose would soon be put out of joint. You little rogue! How dared you make your mother and grandfather cry their hearts out?'
'I was very glad to see you as bad as myself, sir,' said Mrs. Frederick Langford. 'I was very much ashamed of being so foolish, but then, you know, I could hardly ever read through that scene without crying.'
'Ah! you are a prudent mamma, and will not let her be conceited. But to see Geoffrey, with his lips quivering, and yet frowning and looking savage with all his might and main! Well, you are a capital set of actors, all of you, and we must see the end of it.'
This was the great desire of Beatrice, and she was annoyed with Henrietta for having thrown aside her borrowed garments, but the Fates decreed otherwise. The Christmas pie came in, grandpapa proceeded to carve it, and soon lost the remembrance of the charade in talking to his eldest grandson about his travels. A sailor just returned from four years on the South American coast, who had doubled Cape Horn, shot condors on the Andes, caught goats at Juan Fernandez, fished for sharks in the Atlantic, and heard parrots chatter in the Brazilian woods, could not fail to be very entertaining, even though he cared not for the Incas of Peru, and could tell little about the beauties of an iceberg; and accordingly everyone was greatly entertained, except the Queen Bee, who sat in a corner of the sofa, playing with her watch-chain, wondering how long Roger would go on eating pie, looking at the time-piece, and strangling the yawns induced by her inability to attract the notice of either of her squires, whose eyes and ears were all for the new comer. She was not even missed; if she had been, it would have been some consolation; but on they went, listening and laughing, as if the course of the Euphrosyne, her quick sailing, and the adventures of her crew, were the only subjects of interest in the world. He was only at home for a week, but so much the worse, that would be till the end of Beatrice's own visit, and she supposed it would be nothing but Euphrosyne the whole time.
There was at last a change: Roger had half a hundred questions to ask about his cousins and all the neighbours.
'And has Philip Carey set up for himself at Allonfield? Does he get any practice? I have a great mind to be ill; it would be such a joke to be doctored by Master Philip!'
'Ah! to think of your taking Mr. Frederick for poor Philip,' said Jessie. 'I assure you,' nodding to Fred, 'I take it as a great compliment, and so will Philip.'
'And is Fanny Evans as pretty as ever?'
'Oh! grown quite fat and coarse,' said Jessie; 'but you may judge for yourself on Monday. Dear Mrs. Langford is so kind as to give us a regular Christmas party, and all the Evanses and Dittons are coming. And we are to dance in the dining-room, the best place for it in the county; the floor is so much better laid down than in the Allonfield assembly-room.'
'No such good place for dancing as the deck of a frigate,' said Roger. 'This time last year we had a ball on board the Euphrosyne at Rio. I took the prettiest girl there in to supper-don't be jealous, Jessie, she had not such cheeks as yours. She was better off there than in the next ball where I met her, in the town. She fancied she had got rather a thick sandwich at supper: she peeped in, and what do you think she found? A great monster of a cockroach, twice as big as any you ever saw.'
'O, you horrid creature!' cried Jessie, 'I am sure it was your doing. I am sure it was your doing. I am sure you will give me a scorpion, or some dreadful creature! I won't let you take me in to supper on Monday, I declare.'
'Perhaps I won't have you. I mean to have Cousin Henrietta for my partner, if she will have me.'
'Thank you, Cousin Roger,' faltered Henrietta, blushing crimson, with the doubt whether she was saying the right thing, and fearing Jessie might be vexed. Her confusion was increased the next moment, as Roger, looking at her more fully than he had done before, went on, 'Much honoured, cousin. Now, all of you wish me joy. I am safe to have the prettiest girl in the room for my partner. But how slow of them all not to have engaged her before. Eh! Alex, what have you to say for yourself?'
'I hope for Queen Bee,' said Alex.
'And Jessie must dance with me, because I don't know how,' said Carey.
'My dears, this will never do!' interposed grandmamma. 'You can't all dance with each other, or what is to become of the company? I never heard of such a thing. Let me see: Queen Bee must open the ball with little Henry Hargrave, and Roger must dance with Miss Benson.'
'No, no,' cried Roger, 'I won't give up my partner, ma'am; I am a privileged person, just come home. Knight Sutton has not had too much of Henrietta or me, so you must let us be company. Come, Cousin Henrietta, stick fast to your engagement; you can't break the first promise you ever made me. Here,' proceeded he, jumping up, and holding out his hand, 'let us begin this minute; I'll show you how we waltz with the Brazilian ladies.'
'Thank you, Cousin Roger, I cannot waltz,' said Henrietta.
'That's a pity. Come, Jessie, then.'
If the practice of waltzing was not to be admired, there was something which was very nice in the perfect good humour with which Jessie answered her cousin's summons, without the slightest sign of annoyance at his evident preference of Henrietta's newer face.
'If I can't waltz, I can play for you,' said Henrietta, willing not to seem disobliging; and going to the piano, she played whilst Roger and Jessie whirled merrily round the room, every now and then receiving shocks against the furniture and minding them not the least in the world, till at last, perfectly out of breath, they dropped laughing upon the sofa.
