Part 36 (1/2)
[252 ADVENTURES OF MR VERDANT GREEN]
was standing with her sister), seized Miss Kitty by the hand, and placed his moustache under her nose, and then seized Miss Patty by ~her~ hand, and removed the ly and as a matter of course, out in the sunshi+ne, and before the servants! Mr Verdant Green retreated without having been seen, and, plunging into the shrubbery, told his woes to the evergreens, and while he listened to
”The dry-tongued laurel's pattering talk,”
he thought, ”It is as I feared! I ah, why he so morosely arrived at this idea it would be hard to say Perhaps other jealous lovers have been si in their conclusions, and, of their own accord, run to the dark side of the cloud, when they
But when Frank Delaval had been seen, and heard, and made acquaintance with, Verdant, as rounds for so doing, entered (even after half an hour's knowledge) into the band of his <vg252jpg> ad-roo one of Schulhoff'sby her side, and turning over the music-leaves, Verdant privately declared, over a chessboard, to Miss Patty, that Mr Frank Delaval was the handsohtful man he had ever met And when Miss Patty's eyes sparkled at this proof of his truth and disinterestedness, Verdant
[AN OXFORD FRESHMAN 253]
the cause why (as they continued to speak of her cousin) she ious blunder, that caused her opponent to pronounce the word ”Mated!” he regarded it as a fatal omen, more especially as Mr
Frank ca lady laughed, and said, ”What a goose I aht within hiical and perverse conclusions), ”It is very plain what she is thinking about! I was afraid that she loved him, and now I know it” So he put up the chess-men, while she went to the piano with her cousin; and he even wished that Mr Bouncer had interrupted their apple-tree conversation at its co in ti rejected in favour of another Then, in five ed his mind, and had decided that it would have spared him much misery if he could have heard his fate from his Patty's own lips Then he wished that he had never coan to think how he should spend his tiatory that Honeywood Hall would now be to hiain placed his moustache beneath HER nose Mr Verdant Green turned away his head at such a sickly exhibition It was a presumption upon cousinshi+p Charles Larkyns did not kiss her; and he was equally as much her cousin as Frank Delaval
And yet, when the young oing to bed, Verdant was so delighted with that handsoirl, I should think as ~she~ does”
”And why should she not love hi awake in his bed that self-saht, rendered sleepless by the pain of his neound; ”why should she not love hiether as they have been fro to each other as 'Patty' and 'Fred'- kissing each other - and being as brother and sister Would that they were so! How he kept near her all the evening - co chess with ~ her accompaniments She said that no one could play her accoood taste, and such a fir, she said how she hadthe view froether Then he showed her his last drawings - and they were beautiful What can I do against this?” groaned poor Verdant, from under the bed-clothes; ”he has accoood looks, and I haven't;
[254 ADVENTURES OF MR VERDANT GREEN]
he has a moustache and a pair of whiskers, - and I have only a pair of spectacles! I cannot shi+ne in society, and win ad to offer her but my love Lucky fellow! he is worthier of her than I aht, Verdant felt highly the reverse, and went off into dis, when Miss Patty and her cousin were setting out for the hill called Brankhaarden-seat beneath a fine old cedar, was roused from a very abstracted perusal of ”The Dream of Fair Women,” by the apparition of one who, in his eyes, was fairer than the for you everywhere,” said Miss Patty ”Ma with the others, so I knew that you must be somewhere about I think I shall lock up my ~Tennyson~, if it takes you so much out of our society Won't you coly if you wish it,” answered Verdant, though with an unwilling air; ”but of what use can I be? - Othello's occupation is gone Your cousin can fill rateful you are!” said Miss Patty; ”you really deserve a good scolding! I allow you to watch ain a lesson, and just when you are beginning to learn soive up But, at any rate, take Fred for your master, and coo to any of the great men to have a lesson of them, all that they would do would be to paint before you, and leave you to look on and pick up what knowledge you could I know that ~I~ cannot draw anything worth looking at, -”
”Indeed, but -”
”But Fred,” continued Miss Patty, as going at too great a pace to be stopped, ”but Fred is as good as many e to you to come and look over him”
”I think I should prefer to look over you”
”Now you are paying compliments, and I don't like them But, if you will come, you will really be useful You see I am mercenary inmaterials; won't you take pity on him, and relieve him of my share of his burden?”
If I could take ~you~ off his hands, thought Verdant, I should be better pleased But Miss Patty won the day; and Verdant took possession of her sketching-block and drawing materials, and set off with them to Brankham Law
Frederick Delaval was a yachtsman, and owner of the ~Fleur-
[AN OXFORD FRESHMAN 255]
de-lys~, a cutter yacht, of fifty tons Besides being inclined to amateur nautical pursuits, he was also partial to an amateur nautical costume; and he further dressed the character of a yachts round him his telescope, which was protected from storms and salt water by a leathern case This telescope was, in a ht to bear upon everybody and everything, at every opportunity, in proper nautical fashi+on, being used by hilass for nearer things And no sooner had they arrived at the grassy ~plateau~ that marked the su, and its proprietor swept the horizon - for there was a distant view of the ocean - in search of the ~Fleur-de-lys~
”I a255jpg> her out; the distance is alh the whiteness of her sails would assist us to a recognition If the skipper got under way at the hour I told hi the headland that you see stretching out yonder”