'Have you been at Devorgilla,
Have you seen, at Devorgilla,
Beauty's train trip o'er the plain,--
The lovely maids of Devorgilla?'
Adapted from Edward Lysaght.
The next morning the Old Hall dropped like a ripe rowan berry into our very laps. The landlord of the Shamrock Inn directed us thither1, and within the hour it belonged to us for the rest of the summer. Miss Peabody, inclined to be severe with me for my desertion, took up her residence at once. It had never been rented before; but Miss Llewellyn-Joyce, the owner, had suddenly determined2 to visit her sister in London, and was glad to find appreciative3 and careful tenants5. She was taking her own maid with her, and thus only one servant remained, to be rented with the premises6, as is frequently the Irish fashion. The Old Hall has not always been managed thus economically, it is easy to see, and Miss Llewellyn-Joyce speaks with the utmost candour of her poverty, as indeed the ruined Irish gentry7 always do. I well remember taking tea with a family in West Clare where in default of a spoon the old squire8 stirred his cup with the poker9, a proceeding10 apparently11 so usual that he never thought of apologising for it as an oddity.
The Hall has a lodge12, which is a sort of miniature Round Tower, at the entrance gate, and we see nothing for it but to import a brass-buttoned boy from the nearest metropolis13, where we must also send for a second maid.
"That'll do when you get him," objected Benella, "though boys need a lot of overseeing; but as nobody can get in or come out o' that gate without help, I shall have to go to the lodge every day now, and set down there with my sewin' from four to six in the afternoon, or whenever the callin' hours is. When I engaged with you, it wasn't for any particular kind of work; it was to make myself useful. I've been errand-boy and courier, golf-caddie and footman, beau, cook, land agent, and mother to you all, and I guess I can be a lodge-keeper as well as not."
Francesca had her choice of residing either with Salemina or with me, during our week of separation, and drove in my company to Rosaleen Cottage, to make up her mind. While she was standing14 at my gate, engaged in reflection, she espied15 a small cabin not far away, and walked toward it on a tour of investigation16. It proved to have three tiny rooms--a bedroom, sitting-room17, and kitchen. The rent was only two pounds a month, it is true, but it was in all respects the most unattractive, poverty-stricken, undesirable18 dwelling19 I ever saw. It was the small stove in the kitchen that kindled20 Francesca's imagination, and she made up her mind instantly to become a householder on her own account. I tried to dissuade21 her; but she is as firm as the Rock of Cashel when once she has set her heart upon anything.
"I shall be almost your next-door neighbour, Penelope," she coaxed22, "and of course you will give me Benella. She will sleep in the sitting-room, and I will do the cooking. The landlady23 says there is no trouble about food. 'What to ate?' she inquired, leaning out sociably24 over the half-door. 'Sure it'll drive up to your very doore just.' And here is the 'wee grass,' as she calls it, where 'yous can take your tay' under the Japanese umbrella left by the last tenant4. Think how unusual it will be for us to live in three different houses for a week; and 'there's luck in odd numbers, says Rory O'More.' We shall have the advantages of good society, too, when we are living apart, for I foresee entertainment after entertainment. We will give breakfasts, luncheons25, teas, and dinners to one another; and meanwhile I shall have learned all the housewifely arts. Think, too, how much better you can paint with me out of your way!"
"Does no thought of your eccentricity27 blight28 your young spirit, dear?"
"Why should it when I have simply shaped my course by yours?"
"But I am married, my child."
"And I'm 'going to be married, aha, Mamma!' as the song says; and what about Salemina, you haven't scolded her?"
"She is living her very last days of single blessedness," I rejoined; "she does not know it, but she is; and I want to give her all the freedom possible. Very well, dear innocent, live in your wee hut, then, if you can persuade Benella to stay with you; but I think there would best be no public visiting between you and those who live in Rosaleen Cottage and the Old Hall, as it might ruin their social position."
Benella confessed that she had not the heart to refuse Francesca anything. "She's too handsome," she said, "and too winnin'. I s'pose she'll cook up some dreadful messes, but I'm willin' to eat 'em, to oblige her, and perhaps it'll save her husband a few spells of dyspepsy at the start; though, as far as my experience goes, ministers'll always eat anything that's set before 'em, and look over their shoulders for more."
We had a heavenly week of silliness, and by dint29 of concealing30 our real relations from the general public, I fancy we escaped harsh criticism. There is a very large percentage of lunacy anyway in Ireland, as well as great leniency31 of public opinion, and I fancy there is scarcely a country on the map in which one could be more foolish without being found out. Visit each other we did constantly, and candour obliges me to state that, though each of us secretly prided herself on the perfection of her cuisine32, Miss Monroe gave the most successful afternoon tea of all, on the 'wee grass,' under the Japanese umbrella. How unexpectedly good were her scones33, her tea-cakes, and her cress sandwiches, and how pretty and graceful34 and womanly she was, all flushed with pride at our envy and approbation35! I did a water-colour sketch36 of her and sent it to Ronald, receiving in return a letter bubbling over with fond admiration37 and gratitude38. She seems always in tone with the season and the landscape, does Francesca, and she arrives at it unconsciously, too. She glances out of her window at the yellow laburnum-tree when she is putting on her white frock, and it suggests to her all her amber39 trinkets and her drooping40 hat with the wreath of buttercups. When she came to my hawthorn41 luncheon26 at Rosaleen Cottage she did not make the mistake of heaping pink on pink, but wore a cotton gown of palest green, with a bunch of rosy42 blossoms at her belt. I painted her just as she stood under the hawthorn, with its fluttering petals43 and singing birds, calling the picture Grainne Mael [*]: A Vision of Erinn, writing under it the verse:--
'The thrushes seen in bushes green are singing loud--
Bid sadness go and gladness glow,--give welcome proud!
The Rover comes, the Lover, whom you long bewail,
O'er sunny seas, with honey breeze, to Grainne Mael.'
* Pronounced Graunia Wael, the M being modified. It is one of the endearing names given to Ireland in the Penal44 Times.
Benella, I fancy, never had so varied45 a week in her life, and she was in her element. We were obliged to hire a side-car by the day, as two of our residences were over a mile apart; and the driver of that vehicle was the only person, I think, who had any suspicion of our sanity46. In the intervals47 of teaching Francesca cooking, and eating the results while the cook herself prudently48 lunched or dined with her friends, Benella 'spring-cleaned' the lodge at the Old Hall, scrubbed the gateposts, mended stone walls, weeded garden beds, made bags for the brooms and dusters and mattresses49, burned coffee and camphor and other ill-smelling things in all the rooms, and devoted50 considerable time to superintending my little maid, that I might not feel neglected. We were naturally obliged, meanwhile, to wait upon ourselves and keep our frocks in order; but as long as the Derelict was so busy and happy, and so devoted to the universal good, it would have been churlish and ungrateful to complain.
On leaving the Wee Hut, as Francesca had, with ostentatious modesty51, named her residence, she paid her landlady two pounds, and was discomfited52 when the exuberant53 and impetuous woman embraced her in a paroxysm of weeping gratitude.
"I cannot understand, Penelope, why she was so disproportionately grateful, for I only gave her five shillings over the two pounds rent."
"Yes, dear," I responded drily; "but you remember that the rent was for the month, and you paid her two pounds five shillings for the week."
All the rest of that day Francesca was angelic. She brought footstools for Salemina, wound wool for her, insisted upon washing my paint brushes, read aloud to us while we were working, and offered to be the one to discharge Benella if the awful moment for that surgical54 operation should ever come. Finally, just as we were about to separate for the night, she said, with insinuating55 sweetness, "You won't tell Ronald about my mistake with the rent-money, will you, dearest and darlingest girls?"
We are now quite ready to join in all the gaieties that may ensue when Rosnaree welcomes its master and his guests. Our page in buttons at the lodge gives Benella full scope for her administrative56 ability, which seems to have sprung into being since she entered our service; at least, if I except that evidence of it which she displayed in managing us when first we met. She calls our page 'the Button Boy,' and makes his life a burden to him by taking him away from his easy duties at the gate, covering his livery with baggy57 overalls58, and setting him to weed the garden. It can never, in the nature of things, be made free from weeds during our brief term of tenancy, but Benella cleverly keeps her slave at work on the beds and the walks that are the most conspicuous59 to visitors. The Old Hall used simply to be called 'Aunt David's house' by the Welsh Joyces, and it was Aunt David herself who made the garden; she who traced the lines of the flower-beds with the ivory tip of her parasol; she who planned the quaint60 stone gateways61 and arbours and hedge seats; she who devised the interminable stretches of paths, the labyrinthine62 walks, the mazes63, and the hidden flower-plots. You walk on and on between high hedges, until, if you have not missed your way, you presently find a little pansy or rose or lily garden. It is quite the most unexpected and piquant64 method of laying out a place I have ever seen; and the only difficulty about it is that any gardener, unless he were possessed65 of unusual sense of direction, would be continually astray in it. The Button Boy, obeying the laws of human nature, is lost in two minutes, but requires two hours in which to find himself. Benella suspects that he prefers this wandering to and fro to the more monotonous66 task of weeding, and it is no uncommon67 thing for her to pursue the recalcitrant68 page through the mazes and labyrinths69 for an hour at a time, and perhaps lose herself in the end. Salemina and I were sitting this morning in the Peacock Walk, where two trees clipped into the shape of long-tailed birds mount guard over the box hedge, and put their beaks70 together to form an arch. In the dim distance we could see Benella 'bagging' the Button Boy, and, after putting the trowel and rake in his reluctant hands, tying the free end of a ball of string to his leg, and sending him to find and weed the pansy garden. We laughed until the echoes rang, to see him depart, dragging his lengthening71 chain, or his Ariadne thread, behind him, while Benella grimly held the ball, determined that no excuses or apologies should interfere72 with his work on this occasion.
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1
thither
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| adv.向那里；adj.在那边的，对岸的 | |
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determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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appreciative
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| adj.有鉴赏力的，有眼力的；感激的 | |
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tenant
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| n.承租人；房客；佃户；v.租借，租用 | |
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tenants
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| n.房客( tenant的名词复数 )；佃户；占用者；占有者 | |
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premises
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| n.建筑物，房屋 | |
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gentry
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| n.绅士阶级，上层阶级 | |
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squire
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| n.护卫, 侍从, 乡绅 | |
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poker
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| n.扑克；vt.烙制 | |
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proceeding
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| n.行动，进行，(pl.)会议录，学报 | |
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apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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lodge
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| v.临时住宿，寄宿，寄存，容纳；n.传达室，小旅馆 | |
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metropolis
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| n.首府；大城市 | |
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standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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espied
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| v.看到( espy的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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investigation
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| n.调查，调查研究 | |
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sitting-room
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| n.（BrE）客厅，起居室 | |
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undesirable
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| adj.不受欢迎的，不良的，不合意的，讨厌的；n.不受欢迎的人，不良分子 | |
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dwelling
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| n.住宅，住所，寓所 | |
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kindled
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| （使某物）燃烧，着火( kindle的过去式和过去分词 )； 激起（感情等）； 发亮，放光 | |
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dissuade
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| v.劝阻，阻止 | |
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coaxed
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| v.哄，用好话劝说( coax的过去式和过去分词 )；巧言骗取；哄劝，劝诱 | |
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landlady
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| n.女房东，女地主 | |
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sociably
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| adv.成群地 | |
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luncheons
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| n.午餐，午宴( luncheon的名词复数 ) | |
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luncheon
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| n.午宴，午餐，便宴 | |
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eccentricity
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| n.古怪，反常，怪癖 | |
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blight
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| n.枯萎病；造成破坏的因素；vt.破坏，摧残 | |
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dint
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| n.由于，靠；凹坑 | |
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30
concealing
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| v.隐藏，隐瞒，遮住( conceal的现在分词 ) | |
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31
leniency
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| n.宽大（不严厉） | |
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cuisine
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| n.烹调，烹饪法 | |
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scones
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| n.烤饼，烤小圆面包( scone的名词复数 ) | |
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34
graceful
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| adj.优美的，优雅的；得体的 | |
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approbation
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| n.称赞；认可 | |
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sketch
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| n.草图；梗概；素描；v.素描；概述 | |
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admiration
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| n.钦佩，赞美，羡慕 | |
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gratitude
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| adj.感激，感谢 | |
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amber
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| n.琥珀；琥珀色；adj.琥珀制的 | |
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drooping
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| adj. 下垂的，无力的 动词droop的现在分词 | |
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hawthorn
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| 山楂 | |
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rosy
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| adj.美好的，乐观的，玫瑰色的 | |
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petals
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| n.花瓣( petal的名词复数 ) | |
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44
penal
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| adj.刑罚的；刑法上的 | |
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varied
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| adj.多样的，多变化的 | |
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sanity
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| n.心智健全，神智正常，判断正确 | |
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intervals
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| n.[军事]间隔( interval的名词复数 )；间隔时间；[数学]区间；（戏剧、电影或音乐会的）幕间休息 | |
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prudently
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| adv. 谨慎地，慎重地 | |
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mattresses
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| 褥垫，床垫( mattress的名词复数 ) | |
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devoted
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| adj.忠诚的，忠实的，热心的，献身于...的 | |
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51
modesty
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| n.谦逊，虚心，端庄，稳重，羞怯，朴素 | |
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discomfited
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| v.使为难( discomfit的过去式和过去分词)；使狼狈；使挫折；挫败 | |
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53
exuberant
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| adj.充满活力的；（植物）繁茂的 | |
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surgical
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| adj.外科的，外科医生的，手术上的 | |
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55
insinuating
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| adj.曲意巴结的，暗示的v.暗示( insinuate的现在分词 )；巧妙或迂回地潜入；（使）缓慢进入；慢慢伸入 | |
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administrative
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| adj.行政的，管理的 | |
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baggy
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| adj.膨胀如袋的，宽松下垂的 | |
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overalls
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| n.（复）工装裤；长罩衣 | |
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conspicuous
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| adj.明眼的，惹人注目的；炫耀的，摆阔气的 | |
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quaint
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| adj.古雅的，离奇有趣的，奇怪的 | |
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gateways
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| n.网关( gateway的名词复数 )；门径；方法；大门口 | |
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labyrinthine
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| adj.如迷宫的；复杂的 | |
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mazes
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| 迷宫( maze的名词复数 )； 纷繁复杂的规则； 复杂难懂的细节； 迷宫图 | |
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piquant
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| adj.辛辣的，开胃的，令人兴奋的 | |
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possessed
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| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
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monotonous
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| adj.单调的，一成不变的，使人厌倦的 | |
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uncommon
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| adj.罕见的，非凡的，不平常的 | |
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recalcitrant
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| adj.倔强的 | |
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labyrinths
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| 迷宫( labyrinth的名词复数 )； （文字，建筑）错综复杂的 | |
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beaks
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| n.鸟嘴( beak的名词复数 )；鹰钩嘴；尖鼻子；掌权者 | |
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lengthening
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| （时间或空间）延长，伸长( lengthen的现在分词 )； 加长 | |
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interfere
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| v.(in)干涉，干预；(with)妨碍，打扰 | |
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