Lady Bluett was amazed at the coolness of them, and in her heart disappointed; although she was trying to argue it down, and to say to herself, “How wise of them!” She knew how the Colonel loved this young maid, yet never could bear to think of his nephew taking to wife a mere waif of the sea. The lady had faith in herself that she might in the end overcome this prejudice. But of course if the young ones had ceased to care for it, she could only say that young people were not of the stuff that young people used to be.
While she revolved these things in her tender, warm, and motherly bosom, the gentlemen came from the dining-room, to pay their compliments to the ladies, and to have their tea and all that, according to the recent style of it. They bowed very decently, as they came in, not being topers by any means: and the lady of the house arose and curtsied to them most gracefully. Then Rodney, who had found occasion ere this to salute Colonel Lougher and his visitors, led forward the maid, and presented her to them, with a very excellent naval bow.
“My dear uncle, and friends of the family,” he began, while she trembled a little, and looked at him with astonishment; “allow me the favour of presenting to you a lady who will do me the honour of becoming my wife, very shortly, I hope.”
The Colonel drew back with a frown on his face. Lady Bluett on the other hand ran up.
“What is the meaning of this?” she cried. “And not a word of it to your own mother! Oh, Andalusia, how shocking of you!”
“I think, sir,” said the Colonel, looking straight at the youth, “that you might have chosen a better moment to defy your uncle, than in the presence of his oldest friends. It is not like a gentleman, sir. It cuts me to the heart to say such a thing to the son of my own sister. But, sir, it is not like a gentleman.”
The old friends nodded to one another, in approval of this sentiment; and turned to withdraw from a family scene.
“Wait, if you please,” cried Rodney Bluett. “Colonel Lougher, I should deserve your reproach, if I had done anything of the kind. My intention is not to defy you, sir; but to please you and gratify you, my dear uncle, as your lifelong kindness to me and to this young lady deserves. And I have chosen to do it before old friends, that your pleasure may be increased by their congratulations. Instead of being ashamed, sir, of the origin of your future niece—or you my dear mother of your daughter, you may well be proud of it. She belongs to one of the oldest families in the West of England. She is the grandchild of Sir Philip Bampfylde of Narnton Court, near Barnstaple. And I think I have heard my mother speak of him as an old friend of my father.”
“To be sure, to be sure!” exclaimed Lady Bluett, ere the Colonel could recover himself: “the Bluetts are an old west-country family; but the Bampfyldes even older. Come to me, my pretty darling. There, don’t cry so; or if you must, come in here, and I will help you. Rodney, my dear, you have delighted us, and you have done it most cleverly. But excuse my saying that an officer in the army would have known a little better what ladies are, than to have thrown them into this excitement, even in the presence of valued friends. Come here, my precious. The gentlemen will excuse us for a little while.”
“Let me kiss Colonel Lougher first,” whispered Delushy; all frightened, crying, and quivering as she was, she could not forget her gratitude. So she bowed her white forehead, and drooped her dark lashes under the old man’s benevolent gaze.
“Sit down, my dear friends,” said Colonel Lougher, as soon as the ladies had left the room. “My good nephew’s tactics have been rather blunt, and of the Aboukir order. However, he may be quite right if this matter requires at once to be spread abroad. At any rate, my dear boy, I owe you an apology. Rodney, I beg your pardon for the very harsh terms I used to you.”
With these words he stood up, and bowed to his nephew; who did the same to him in silence, and then they shook hands warmly. After which the young Captain told his story, to which they all listened intently—five being justices of the shire, and one the lord-lieutenant—all accustomed to examine evidence.
“It seems very likely,” said Colonel Lougher, as they waited for his opinion. “That David Llewellyn is a most shrewd fellow. But he ought to have said more about the boat. There is one thing, however, to be done at once—to collect confirmative evidence.”
“There is another thing to be done at once,” cried Rodney Bluett, warmly—“to pull Chowne’s nose. And despite his cloth, I will do it roundly.”
“My young friend,” said the Lord-Lieutenant; “prove it first. And then, I think, there are some people who would pardon you.”
LXIII
Polly at Home
Lest anyone should be surprised that Sir Philip Bampfylde could have paid two visits to this delightful neighbourhood, without calling on our leading gentleman, and his own fellow-officer, Colonel Lougher—in which case the questions concerning Delushy would have been sifted long ago—I had better say at once what it was that stopped him. When the General thought it just worth while, though his hopes were faint about it, to inquire into the twisted story of the wreck on our coast, as given by the celebrated Felix Farley; the first authority he applied to was Coroner Bowles, who had held the inquest. Coroner Bowles told him all he knew (half of which was wrong, of course, by means of Hezekiah) and gave him a letter to Anthony
