Part 35 (1/2)

”Who're you grandadding? I was big enough o' the chest when I could neck meat and drink enough to fill me out. Now!”

As he spoke he gripped a handful of the waistcoat that hung loosely about him, and added, ”Once it was a fair fit, my master. It's cold and late for my old bones to be creaking about, but Trusty's the dog for the tail-end of the hunt, and a Blount's a Blount and mun be served.”

”Fetch him out!” I repeated. ”I've ridden hard and far to serve him.”

The ancient took another look at me and said to himself in a loud whisper, after the manner of old and favoured serving-men, ”A farmering body all but his hat, and none o' your ride-by-nights.”

”Fetch him out!” said I again, not for want of fresh words to say to the candid old dodderer but to keep him to the point.

”Oh-aye,” said he, and shuffled off.

He left me fuming, for his last mutteration, as he shook his lantern to stir the flame up a bit, was, ”Knows a true man when he sees one. More used to a carving-knife than a sword, I'll be bound. What did he say?

Wheatman o' sommat! Reg'lar farmering name!”

I kicked the door wide open and watched the lantern bobbing along the hall. The light made pale s.h.i.+mmerings on complete suits of mail hanging so life-like on the high, bare, stone walls, that it seemed for all the world as if the knights had been crucified there and, little by little, age after age, had dropped to dust, leaving their warrior panoplies behind--empty sh.e.l.ls on the sh.o.r.e of time from which the life had dripped and rotted. The old man toiled up the grand staircase at the far end of the hall and turned to the right along a gallery. The friendly light disappeared, leaving me darkling and alone. Sultan sniffed his way to the door, pushed in his head and neck, and rubbed his nose against my breast in all friendliness. I flung my arms round his neck and caressed him, and in those anxious minutes in the doorway of Ellerton Grange he was comrade and sweetheart to me, and comforted my spirit greatly.

Footsteps and a voice within made me turn my head. A man came at a run down the stairs and along the hall. After him the old serving-man hastened, lantern in hand, as best he could.

”Sir James Blount?” said I.

”The same,” said he curtly and confusedly.

”I bring you a letter from a very exalted person, Sir James,” I explained.

He took it from me much as he would have taken a bowl of poison. ”The light! The light! You slow old fool! The light!” he said, jerking the words out as if his soul was in distress, and the ancient, barely half-way down the hall, quickened his poor pace up to his master. He, tearing the lantern out of the feeble hands, and rattling it down on a table, ripped open the letter and devoured its contents.

The light of the lantern revealed the face of a man still young, but at least a half-score years my elder. He had a thin-lipped, sensitive mouth, a great arched nose, and quick, eager eyes. His mind was running like a mill-race, and his fine face twitched and wreathed and wrinkled under the stress of the flow. Another thing plain enough was that the old man had lied when he said his master was abed, for he was fully and carefully dressed and his wig had not in it a single displaced or unravelled curl.

This was no half-awakened dreamer, but a man with the issues of his life at stake.

He crushed the letter in his hand and paced up and down the hall, muttering to himself. I turned and rubbed Sultan's nose to keep him quiet and happy. The old servant took charge of the lantern again, and followed his master up and down with his eyes.

”A year ago, yes! A year ago, yes!” I heard Sir James say. He quickened his steps and the words came in jerks, mere nouns with verbs too big with meaning for him to utter them. ”A word! A dream! A dead faith! Yes, father! The devil! Sweetheart!”

There is a great line in the Aeneid which I had tried in vain a hundred times to translate. Three days agone I would have tilted at it once more with all the untutored zeal of a verbalist. I should never need to try again. There are some lines in the Master that life alone can translate.

_Sunt lachrymae rerum et mentem mortalia tangunt._

After a turn or two in silence, Sir James broke off his pacing and came to me.

”Sir,” he said, ”you will know enough to excuse my inattention to a guest. I must make it up if I can. Give me the lantern and wait for us here, Inskip. Come with me, sir, and stable your horse. Gad so, sir,”

holding up the lantern, ”you ride the n.o.blest animal I have ever seen.

Woa, ho, my beauty! All my men are abed, so we must do it ourselves, but, by Heaven, it will be a pleasure, Master--what may I call you, sir?”

”Just the plain name of my fathers--Oliver Wheatman of the Hanyards.”

”A good strong name, sir, though my fathers liked it not.”

”And you, Sir James?”