Complete Works of Thomas Hardy (Illustrated) (313 page)

‘No; I can’t do it,’ he said.  ‘‘Tis underhand.  Let things take their chance.’

He moved away, and then perceived that Anne, tired of waiting, had crossed the stream, and almost come up with him.

‘What is the noise about?’ she said.

‘There’s company in the house,’ said Loveday.

‘Company?  Farmer Derriman is not at home,’ said Anne, and went on to the window whence the rays of light leaked out, the trumpet-major standing where he was.  He saw her face enter the beam of candlelight, stay there for a moment, and quickly withdraw.  She came back to him at once.  ‘Let us go on,’ she said.

Loveday imagined from her tone that she must have an interest in Derriman, and said sadly, ‘You blame me for going across to the window, and leading you to follow me.’

‘Not a bit,’ said Anne, seeing his mistake as to the state of her heart, and being rather angry with him for it.  ‘I think it was most natural, considering the noise.’

Silence again.  ‘Derriman is sober as a judge,’ said Loveday, as they turned to go.  ‘It was only the others who were noisy.’

‘Whether he is sober or not is nothing whatever to me,’ said Anne.

‘Of course not.  I know it,’ said the trumpet-major, in accents expressing unhappiness at her somewhat curt tone, and some doubt of her assurance.

Before they had emerged from the shadow of the hall some persons were seen moving along the road.  Loveday was for going on just the same; but Anne, from a shy feeling that it was as well not to be seen walking alone with a man who was not her lover, said —

‘Mr. Loveday, let us wait here a minute till they have passed.’

On nearer view the group was seen to comprise a man on a piebald horse, and another man walking beside him.  When they were opposite the house they halted, and the rider dismounted, whereupon a dispute between him and the other man ensued, apparently on a question of money.

‘‘Tis old Mr. Derriman come home!’ said Anne.  ‘He has hired that horse from the bathing-machine to bring him.  Only fancy!’

Before they had gone many steps further the farmer and his companion had ended their dispute, and the latter mounted the horse and cantered away, Uncle Benjy coming on to the house at a nimble pace.  As soon as he observed Loveday and Anne, he fell into a feebler gait; when they came up he recognized Anne.

‘And you have torn yourself away from King George’s Esplanade so soon, Farmer Derriman?’ said she.

‘Yes, faith!  I couldn’t bide at such a ruination place,’ said the farmer.  ‘Your hand in your pocket every minute of the day.  ‘Tis a shilling for this, half-a-crown for that; if you only eat one egg, or even a poor windfall of an apple, you’ve got to pay; and a bunch o’ radishes is a halfpenny, and a quart o’ cider a good tuppence three-farthings at lowest reckoning.  Nothing without paying!  I couldn’t even get a ride homeward upon that screw without the man wanting a shilling for it, when my weight didn’t take a penny out of the beast.  I’ve saved a penn’orth or so of shoeleather to be sure; but the saddle was so rough wi’ patches that ‘a took twopence out of the seat of my best breeches.  King George hev’ ruined the town for other folks.  More than that, my nephew promised to come there to-morrow to see me, and if I had stayed I must have treated en.  Hey — what’s that?’

It was a shout from within the walls of the building, and Loveday said —

‘Your nephew is here, and has company.’

‘My nephew
here
?’ gasped the old man.  ‘Good folks, will you come up to the door with me?  I mean — hee — hee — just for company!  Dear me, I thought my house was as quiet as a church?’

They went back to the window, and the farmer looked in, his mouth falling apart to a greater width at the corners than in the middle, and his fingers assuming a state of radiation.

‘‘Tis my best silver tankards they’ve got, that I’ve never used!  O! ‘tis my strong beer!  ‘Tis eight candles guttering away, when I’ve used nothing but twenties myself for the last half-year!’

‘You didn’t know he was here, then?’ said Loveday.

‘O no!’ said the farmer, shaking his head half-way.  ‘Nothing’s known to poor I!  There’s my best rummers jingling as careless as if ‘twas tin cups; and my table scratched, and my chairs wrenched out of joint.  See how they tilt ‘em on the two back legs — and that’s ruin to a chair!  Ah! when I be gone he won’t find another old man to make such work with, and provide goods for his breaking, and house-room and drink for his tear-brass set!’

‘Comrades and fellow-soldiers,’ said Festus to the hot farmers and yeomen he entertained within, ‘as we have vowed to brave danger and death together, so we’ll share the couch of peace.  You shall sleep here to-night, for it is getting late.  My scram blue-vinnied gallicrow of an uncle takes care that there shan’t be much comfort in the house, but you can curl up on the furniture if beds run short.  As for my sleep, it won’t be much.  I’m melancholy!  A woman has, I may say, got my heart in her pocket, and I have hers in mine.  She’s not much — to other folk, I mean — but she is to me.  The little thing came in my way, and conquered me.  I fancy that simple girl!  I ought to have looked higher — I know it; what of that?  ‘Tis a fate that may happen to the greatest men.’

‘Whash her name?’ said one of the warriors, whose head occasionally drooped upon his epaulettes, and whose eyes fell together in the casual manner characteristic of the tired soldier.  (It was really Farmer Stubb, of Duddle Hole.)

‘Her name?  Well, ‘tis spelt, A, N — but, by gad, I won’t give ye her name here in company.  She don’t live a hundred miles off, however, and she wears the prettiest cap-ribbons you ever saw.  Well, well, ‘tis weakness!  She has little, and I have much; but I do adore that girl, in spite of myself!’

‘Let’s go on,’ said Anne.

‘Prithee stand by an old man till he’s got into his house!’ implored Uncle Benjy.  ‘I only ask ye to bide within call.  Stand back under the trees, and I’ll do my poor best to give no trouble.’

‘I’ll stand by you for half-an-hour, sir,’ said Loveday.  ‘After that I must bolt to camp.’

‘Very well; bide back there under the trees,’ said Uncle Benjy.  ‘I don’t want to spite ‘em?’

‘You’ll wait a few minutes, just to see if he gets in?’ said the trumpet-major to Anne as they retired from the old man.

‘I want to get home,’ said Anne anxiously.

When they had quite receded behind the tree-trunks and he stood alone, Uncle Benjy, to their surprise, set up a loud shout, altogether beyond the imagined power of his lungs.

‘Man a-lost! man a-lost!’ he cried, repeating the exclamation several times; and then ran and hid himself behind a corner of the building.  Soon the door opened, and Festus and his guests came tumbling out upon the green.

‘‘Tis our duty to help folks in distress,’ said Festus.  ‘Man a-lost, where are you?’

‘‘Twas across there,’ said one of his friends.

‘No! ‘twas here,’ said another.

Meanwhile Uncle Benjy, coming from his hiding-place, had scampered with the quickness of a boy up to the door they had quitted, and slipped in.  In a moment the door flew together, and Anne heard him bolting and barring it inside.  The revellers, however, did not notice this, and came on towards the spot where the trumpet-major and Anne were standing.

‘Here’s succour at hand, friends,’ said Festus.  ‘We are all king’s men; do not fear us.’

‘Thank you,’ said Loveday; ‘so are we.’  He explained in two words that they were not the distressed traveller who had cried out, and turned to go on.

‘‘Tis she! my life, ‘tis she said Festus, now first recognizing Anne.  ‘Fair Anne, I will not part from you till I see you safe at your own dear door.’

‘She’s in my hands,’ said Loveday civilly, though not without firmness, ‘so it is not required, thank you.’

‘Man, had I but my sword — ’

‘Come,’ said Loveday, ‘I don’t want to quarrel.  Let’s put it to her.  Whichever of us she likes best, he shall take her home.  Miss Anne, which?’

Anne would much rather have gone home alone, but seeing the remainder of the yeomanry party staggering up she thought it best to secure a protector of some kind.  How to choose one without offending the other and provoking a quarrel was the difficulty.

‘You must both walk home with me,’ she adroitly said, ‘one on one side, and one on the other.  And if you are not quite civil to one another all the time, I’ll never speak to either of you again.’

They agreed to the terms, and the other yeomen arriving at this time said they would go also as rearguard.

‘Very well,’ said Anne.  ‘Now go and get your hats, and don’t be long.’

‘Ah, yes; our hats,’ said the yeomanry, whose heads were so hot that they had forgotten their nakedness till then.

‘You’ll wait till we’ve got ‘em — we won’t be a moment,’ said Festus eagerly.

Anne and Loveday said yes, and Festus ran back to the house, followed by all his band.

‘Now let’s run and leave ‘em,’ said Anne, when they were out of hearing.

‘But we’ve promised to wait!’ said the trumpet-major in surprise.

‘Promised to wait!’ said Anne indignantly.  ‘As if one ought to keep such a promise to drunken men as that.  You can do as you like, I shall go.’

‘It is hardly fair to leave the chaps,’ said Loveday reluctantly, and looking back at them.  But she heard no more, and flitting off under the trees, was soon lost to his sight.

Festus and the rest had by this time reached Uncle Benjy’s door, which they were discomfited and astonished to find closed.  They began to knock, and then to kick at the venerable timber, till the old man’s head, crowned with a tasselled nightcap, appeared at an upper window, followed by his shoulders, with apparently nothing on but his shirt, though it was in truth a sheet thrown over his coat.

‘Fie, fie upon ye all for making such a hullaballoo at a weak old man’s door,’ he said, yawning.  ‘What’s in ye to rouse honest folks at this time o’ night?’

‘Hang me — why — it’s Uncle Benjy!  Haw — haw — haw?’ said Festus.  ‘Nunc, why how the devil’s this?  ‘Tis I — Festus — wanting to come in.’

‘O no, no, my clever man, whoever you be!’ said Uncle Benjy in a tone of incredulous integrity.  ‘My nephew, dear boy, is miles away at quarters, and sound asleep by this time, as becomes a good soldier.  That story won’t do to-night, my man, not at all.’

‘Upon my soul ‘tis I,’ said Festus.

‘Not to-night, my man; not to-night!  Anthony, bring my blunderbuss,’ said the farmer, turning and addressing nobody inside the room.

‘Let’s break in the window-shutters,’ said one of the others.

‘My wig, and we will!’ said Festus.  ‘What a trick of the old man!’

‘Get some big stones,’ said the yeomen, searching under the wall.

‘No; forbear, forbear,’ said Festus, beginning to be frightened at the spirit he had raised.  ‘I forget; we should drive him into fits, for he’s subject to ‘em, and then perhaps ‘twould be manslaughter.  Comrades, we must march!  No, we’ll lie in the barn.  I’ll see into this, take my word for ‘t.  Our honour is at stake.  Now let’s back to see my beauty home.’

‘We can’t, as we hav’n’t got our hats,’ said one of his fellow-troopers — in domestic life Jacob Noakes, of Muckleford Farm.

‘No more we can,’ said Festus, in a melancholy tone.  ‘But I must go to her and tell her the reason.  She pulls me in spite of all.’

‘She’s gone.  I saw her flee across park while we were knocking at the door,’ said another of the yeomanry.

‘Gone!’ said Festus, grinding his teeth and putting himself into a rigid shape.  ‘Then ‘tis my enemy — he has tempted her away with him!  But I am a rich man, and he’s poor, and rides the King’s horse while I ride my own.  Could I but find that fellow, that regular, that common man, I would — ’

‘Yes?’ said the trumpet-major, coming up behind him.

‘I,’ — said Festus, starting round, — ’I would seize him by the hand and say, “Guard her; if you are my friend, guard her from all harm!”‘

‘A good speech.  And I will, too,’ said Loveday heartily.

‘And now for shelter,’ said Festus to his companions.

They then unceremoniously left Loveday, without wishing him good-night, and proceeded towards the barn.  He crossed the park and ascended the down to the camp, grieved that he had given Anne cause of complaint, and fancying that she held him of slight account beside his wealthier rival.

CHAPTER X.

THE MATCH-MAKING VIRTUES OF A DOUBLE GARDEN

Anne was so flurried by the military incidents attending her return home that she was almost afraid to venture alone outside her mother’s premises.  Moreover, the numerous soldiers, regular and otherwise, that haunted Overcombe and its neighbourhood, were getting better acquainted with the villagers, and the result was that they were always standing at garden gates, walking in the orchards, or sitting gossiping just within cottage doors, with the bowls of their tobacco-pipes thrust outside for politeness’ sake, that they might not defile the air of the household.  Being gentlemen of a gallant and most affectionate nature, they naturally turned their heads and smiled if a pretty girl passed by, which was rather disconcerting to the latter if she were unused to society.  Every belle in the village soon had a lover, and when the belles were all allotted those who scarcely deserved that title had their turn, many of the soldiers being not at all particular about half-an-inch of nose more or less, a trifling deficiency of teeth, or a larger crop of freckles than is customary in the Saxon race.  Thus, with one and another, courtship began to be practised in Overcombe on rather a large scale, and the dispossessed young men who had been born in the place were left to take their walks alone, where, instead of studying the works of nature, they meditated gross outrages on the brave men who had been so good as to visit their village.