“A JOLLY MUFF.”

Western Star, Issue 903, 6 December 1884, Page 1 (Supplement)

“A JOLLY MUFF.”

“I thought I should find you with the girls, Mr Godwin. You should have been with us. We’ve had such a scramble over Honister Crag, and brought back no end of flowers for Gertrude. But one thing I must say —that fellow Losford is a jolly muff, though he doesn’t look it. Just a funk, girls, and nothing else. Will you give me some tea, Mrs Godwin ?” “ What nonsense you talk, Bob,” cried his sister, conscious by some feminine instinct that her friend’s face was hotter than a moment before. ‘'You are a perfect mauvais enfant , bursting in like that. I wish Mr Losford would teach you manners.” “ I’d like to see him try. It would take a pluckier man than he is. Why, hei wouldn’t come within yards of the edge, Mrs Godwin!” “ He showed his usual good sense, Master Eobert,” was that lady’s tart reply. She had her reasons for looking favourably upon Walter Losford, of Losford Court, Monmouthshire, by no means the least honoured guest at Mr Godwin’s lake villa. And they were a very cheery and pleasant party —the pleasantest set, Gertrude thought, that her mother had ever got together ; and Gertrude was; a young lady of decided tastes and somewhat difficult to please. Even Bob Marston, when he was not saying malapropos things and appearing where he was not wanted at inopportune moments, was as amusing as any other Eton boy. Nevertheless, at this moment two people at least were ardently longing to make his ears tingle.” “And what is the programme for to-morrow, Mr Godwin ?” resumed the young gentleman, not a whit daunted by the unfavourable reception of his last remark. “ Can we picnic on the Eed Pike ? It would be jolly fun." The host hummed and hawed; he rather preferred an open-air entertainment at a place accessible in an open carriage; But if you have a house among the mountains, up them you must go. “Yes, Bob,” said Gertruda,, suddenly laying down the fan with which she was playing, “we will go to the Bed Pike to-morrow.” ’ I

And. Bob, who thought that, in his own language he Had rather “put.his foot it,” was comforted, and knew that to the Bide Pike he would go. Gertrude’s face as she went up to dress for dinner was thoughtful. “ He showed bis usual good sense,” Mrs Godwin hd said, and the words kept ringing in her daughter’s ear until her lip began to curl with scorn. If there was one thing which Gertrude admired it was courage ; was she beginning, almost more than beginning, to like a man who could be called a coward even by a boy? It made her cheeks tingle with shame and anger. Proud and high spirited herself, good sense of the kind Mrs Godwin meant was not in high esteem with her. And alas 1 the insinuation chimed in with other things. Walter Losford was hardly one to please a romantic girl at first sight. Cold, sensible, and wanting in enthusiasm even in his ambition, trying nearly everything by the arguments of reason with impartial sev. erity, be would have made a just and not too merciful judge. Living by rule of logic, no wonder that he looked older than his thirty years, or that he repelled chance acquaintances, who called him a prig. Generally reticent, he would sometimes tell the truth with rude abruptness. ;f Altogether, his , friends said, a little wanting in charity j too practical; too matter offaot. And yet, poor Gertrude! when she met him at dinner, the hauteur she assumed melted away and she blushed and smiled at his glance; for what is so fascinating as the homage of one who seems utterly, almost contemptuously, careless ot all beside? If Walter had spokeu that evening he would assuredly have gained his object, and Mrs Godwin been made a happy woman. The Bed Pike was red indeed in the evening sunlight, every cliff that buttressed its ruddy top burnished to ruddiness, and yet the party lingered reluctant to abandon the view of sea and land from Forth to Windermere that held them entranced. Tea was over, and the servants had started downwards with the baggage, yet the party, which all day bad wandered separately or in pairs at their several wills, still sat together on the lop. Bob oniy was on the move, skirmishing hither and thither untiringly. “I say, Gertrude, here’s a specimen for you 1 here’s a blue gentian growing on this cliff, and a rare good climb it will be to it.”

The party hastened to the edge of the cliff; in a cranny of the rock about twelve feet down grew the flower Gertrude had been long seeking to obtain. A slight opening in the wall of the cliff made it just feasible, if somewhat dangerous, to reach it.

“ Bobert, don’t go too near !” cried Mrs Godwin. Gertrude turned with her face a little flushed to Losford. “ Can you get it for me, Mr Losford P” she said gently, and with something of appeal in her voice.

“ JNot without a rope,” he answered calmly ; we will bring one up to morrow.”

“ To-morrow!” cried Gertrude, with sudden heat. “I want it now. Bob would get it for me in a moment if J asked him, Mr Losford.”

“ Bob’s head is perhaps steadier than mine,” answered the other, keeping at a safe distance from the edge. He was in no way discomposed until, as he finished, his eyes met the girl’s full of contempt and anger. Stung by the look, he took a hasty step towards the edge of the cliff and bent down to make the attempt. For a moment he remained in that position as if entranced, scanning the depth below, a sheer three hundred feet, and then a green ledge, and then, far beneath, pale-blue Cummock Water, “ I can’t get it for you,” he said hoarsely, falling back, while the others looked at one another in astonishment. “ And quite right too, Mr Losford; don’t try any such foolhardiness, I beg,” cried Mrs Godwin, loudly. Loudly, but not so that he failed to hear the one word “ Coward!” or to distinguish the tone of contempt in which it fell from her daughter’s lips as she turned away. The next instant he was his own calm self again, but he knew that he had his dismissal.

As for the bit of blue gentian, Bob brought it up in a twinkling, and chattered on in such a way as to earn every one’s gratitude. Yet it was a dull party that wended its way down the bill, and clear it was to more than one that a budding romance had come to an end over the little blue flower which nestled so harmlessly in Gertrude’s fair’hair. Yet mothers are sanguine. Mrs Godwin’s face grew scarlet with anger when the spray appeared again at dinner conspicuously fastened in the bosom of her daughter’s dress.

If it was only an awkward hour at dinner that Mrs Godwin feared, fate was to save her hospitality from, to do her justice, an unwonted slur. “Where is Bobert ?” she asked pettishly, after helping the soup. “Ho you know, Violet ?” Miss Marstondid not. Bob was not wont to be punctual, and she was about to say so when the butler, who had been called from the room, entered hastily and whispered something in his master’s ear. Mr Godwin rose quickly. “ My dear, this is bad news- There has been a fall at the lead works.” “ How unfortunate! I anrthankful the men were not at work. Or even worse, we might, have been viewing them, as Bobert has been plaguing us to do, and been all crushed together, like any common labourers. Shocking ! But where can Bobert be ?” “ I am afraid, ma’am,” pat in the butler, in a low voice which every one beard well, with preternatural distinctness, “ that Master Bobert — leastwise he went that way when he came back—is in there. John has gone to the village for help.” There was a dead silence round thkt fair show of linen and glass and gleaming silver, as if the hand which warned Belshazzar had appeared upon the wall. Then Gertrude glided to her friend’s side and put her arm round her. The gentlemen hurried from the room. But almost as soon as they reached the scene the women appeared there also ; the poor boy’ sister could not be restrained, and Mrs Godwin, whose woman’s heart was sound within her, signed to Gertrude to let her go. Anything was better than inaction. Mr Godwin’s wad-hole and works were hardly a quarter of a mile from the house, though hidden from it by a steep shoulder of the hill. , He guessed at once that the boy, anxious to exhibit to the ladies the wonders of the wad-hole, had taken the private key, which usually lay upon the study mantel-piece, and had gone, it might be, to make some preparations, whereby his darling effects would be enhanced. A servant seeking him when dinner was ready discovered the accident, and after giving the alarm in the servants’ hall, had gone on to the village. ' . ; <• la there any hope P” said Gertrude in a low voice, with Violet Marston’s hand firmly clasped in hers. “Are they digging ?!’ <!■„.. The flaring light of a pine-knot fire, just kindled in the little enclosure at the mouth of the hole, fell upon a score or two of strange-looking figures, chiefly women. Some were moving to and fro before the blaze, but most of them stood still and impassive. The shining clothes of the men proclaimed their trade, as they brushed, all distinctions forgotten, ■against the gay dresses of the houseparty. “ No,” replied her father, with a groan. “The props at this end are gone, and the men say the whole hill is coming down. We must wait for help from Heswick.” Gertrude was turning to the group indignantly, but one was before her. “Now, men, I can handle a pick though I am a Londoner. Ten pounds to every man who joins me I Don’t let them say that the Cumberland men left their master’s guest to perish because they were cowards.” The cold impassive face was aglow with energy and excitement. Was it Gertrude’s fancy, or was it that that word in his voice really struck her like a whip P “The hill is on the move, master, and he be dead too,” said the foremost man, but shamefacedly. “ Hush, his sister be there ” put in a woman softly. There was an instant’s hesitation while all watched the big miner j then, after a glance at their faces : “ We’re with you, master 1” cried h@ 9 seising the tool ft hia feet like a

giant aroused. The spell was broken ; and who then so reckless as the Cumberland men ? Losford soon had to check them, and assist the foreman to compel them to underpin, and take other proper precautions as they worked. In time, more men flocked from neighbouring pits to the spot, and the task was carried on by gangs. Notwithstanding Mr and Mrs Godwin’s entreaties, the poor girl most concerned would not leave; and hour after hour, while countless loads of earth were wheeled or carried from the deepening entrance, she walked to and fro, or lay with Gertrude’s hand in hers on the wraps laid in a corner formed by two walls. How each shining worker was gazed at as he came from the darkness into the blaze of the fire and deposited his load! Whoever worked by spells, the figure Gertrude knew best did not appear. But when the faint, lingering hope was dying away one of the other men staying in tie house came quickly up to Violet.

“ Miss Marston, do not be too sanguine. There is hope yet, however. The fall is only partial, and he may be in the main workings. Some of the men fancy that they have heard him knocking. Violet made no reply. She was sobbing on Gertrude’s shoulder. “ Is any one hurt 1” asked the latter eagerly. “No, hardly at all. A few cuts from stones.”

Another hour passed, while the crowd thickened and listened all breathless to the dull, muffled sound of the tools and the creaking of the barrows. A fresh gang were at work, and they came out more quickly. The sky was growing grey, and men’s faces looked so, too, as the fire burned with a paler light and the hilltops came out in cold majesty. ... Suddenly the tools ceased; a barrow on its way out stopped inside the entrance. The crowd outside drew close and breathed more quickly, and women hid their faces as the sound of low murmuring came from the passage. Then a little crowd of men pressed out, and in their midst Walter Losford, stained and ragged, with the boy’s form in his arms. He laid him quickly on the wraps by the women. The blood was trickling from a out in his own forehead, and his face, where it was not lead-grimed, was pallid with fatigue. ‘ i i. “ He has only fainted ” he said, as the doctor bent over the boy. “Just so!” said the latter cheerily. “ He only wants a glass of sherry.” Gertrude rose from the boy to thank his bearer, her eyes dim with happiness. But he had turned away. “The worst time was just before they broke in, Garty. I thought the earth must fall again, or something happen to prevent them reaching me.’’ confided Bob to her when she visited him next day in his room. The whole matter was to Master Bob one for pure congratulation, and he spent his time in rehearsing a graphic account of the adventure for the benefit of his dame’s house. “ But that fellow Losford is no end of a trump. He’s been up to say good-bye, and I told him what an ass I’d made myself about him. That’s a comfort. I heard his voice first of all do you know ? and Mrs Godwin says they wouldn’t have got me out but for him.” The likelihood of this alternative appeared to give Him unmixed satis-, taction.

“I don’t think they would,” murmured Gertrude, eagerly presenting him with a large bunch of grapes from a side-table. I’ll get you some more, Bob.”

“ You bet your boots they wouldn’t. It’s a pity be can’t climb. Fancy a fellow like that with what the doctor calls ‘ constitutional vertigo I* I can’t make it out.” ,i. '

And Bob fell into a brown study, which passed into a doze; and thus refreshed he was enabled to chatter without ceasing all dinnertime, Gertrude stole out of the room, and running down stairs, found him in the hall. He had mislaid a favourite stick. “ Mr Losford,” she began hurriedly, standing before him in she knew not what attitude of pretty humility, “I said something yesterday the memory of which is burning me with shame. I cannot forgive myself; but will you say you do ? Bob has made amends, let me do so. What a foolish girl said cannot have hurt you? she pleaded, as he made no answer. “ Bather, should not have hurt me,” he replied gravely ; “ yet it did cruelly, Miss Godwin. But for the chance occurrence of last night yon would be thinking so still. It was ungenerous as well as thoughtless.” Gertrude winced under each almost contemptuous word. She bad not bargained for this. Too much hurt for tears, she murmured as she turned away, “ I am sorry.” “ A moment, please 1 From any other woman I should have accepted the apology without a word. . I have scolded you that you might know what it was like before I asked you to give me the right to do it. Gertrude, will you be my wife ?*’ And Gertrude said “ Tea.” When she had fully satisfied him upon this point, she asked—- “ And you have quite forgiven me, ■Walter?” “ 1 shall have when you have done the penance I order.” There was a twinkle Jof fun in his eyes a stranger would not have believed could harbour

there. “It is that you wear the bit of blue gentian at dinner this evening-” The sight of which harmless specimen caused Bob to blush the only blush he was guilty of in his school days.