dealing with the deceptions of nature, and the freedom from, illusion inherent in the unnatural
there was once a woman—obviously a thoughtful woman—who remarked that she had noticed that if she managed to live till friday, she invariably survived the rest of the week. i did not myself know this philosopher, who is preserved to history in one of roscoe conkling’s speeches, but her discovery always recurs to me about this time of year, when february begins to disclose those first freshening glimpses of sunlight and blue skies to bleared, fog-smudged and shivering london. aha! if we have won thus far, if we have contrived to get to february, then we shall surely see the spring. at least the one has heretofore involved the other—and there is confident promise in the smile of a noon-day once more able to cast a shadow, albeit the teeth of the east wind gleam close behind that smile.
it was a day for a walk—no set and joyous rural tramp, indeed, with pipe and wallet, and a helpful spring underfoot in the clean hard roadway, and an honest, well-balanced stick for the bell-ringing gentry who shall come at you on wheels from behind—but just an orderly, contemplative urban ramble, brisk enough for warmth, but with no hurry, and above all no destination. and it was a day, moreover, for letting one’s fellow-creatures pass along with scant notice—a winter-ridden, shuffling, mud-stained company these, conscious of being not at all worth examination—and for giving eye instead to the house-fronts in the sunshine, and radiant chimneypots and tiles above them, and the signs of blessed, unaccustomed blue still further up. there was, it is true, an undeniable disproportion between the inner look of these things, and this gladness of the heart because of them. glancing more closely, one could see that they were not taking the sun seriously, and, for their own part, were expecting more fogs next week. and farther westward, when stucco, brick, and stone gave way to park-land, it was apparent at sight that the trees were flatly incredulous.
they say that in ireland, where the mildness of climate has in the past prompted many experiments with exotic growths, the trees not really indigenous to the island never learn sense, but year after year are gulled by this february fraud into gushing expansively forth with sap and tender shoots, only to be gripped and shrivelled by the icy after-hand of march. the native tree, however, knows this trick of old, and greets the sham spring with a distinctive, though well-buttoned-up wink. in kensington park region one couldn’t be sure that the trees really saw the joke. it is not, on the whole, a humourous neighbourhood. but at all events they were not to be fooled into premature buds and sprouts and kindred signs of silliness. every stiffly exclusive drab trunk rising before you, every section of the brown lacework of twigs up above, seemed to offer a warning advertisement: “no connection with the sunshine over the way!”
happily the flower-beds exhibited more sympathy. up through the mould brave little snowdrops had pushed their pretty heads, and the crocuses, though with their veined outer cloaks of sulphur, mauve, and other tints still wrapped tight about them, wore almost a swaggering air to show how wholly they felt at home. emboldened by this bravado, less confident fellows were peeping forth, though in such faltering fashion that one could scarcely tell which was squill, which narcissus or loitering jonquil. still, it was good to see them. they too were glad that they had lived till february, because after that comes the spring.
and it was better still, as i turned to stroll on, to behold coming toward me down the path, with little swinging step, and shapely head well up in air, none other than our ermyntrude.
i say “our” because—it is really absurd to think of it—it seems only a few months ago since she was a sprawling tom-boy sort of a little girl, who sat on my knee and listened with her mouth open to my reminiscences of personal encounters with unicorns and the behemoth of holy writ. she must be now—by george! she is—not a minute under two-and-twenty. and that means—hélas! it undoubtedly means—that i am getting to be an old boy indeed. at christmas-tide—i recall it now—mrs albert spoke of me as the oldest friend of the family. it sounded kindly at the time, and i had a special pleasure in the smile ermyntrude wore as she, with the others, lifted her glass towards me. i won’t say what vagrant thoughts and ambitions that smile did not raise in my mind—and, lo! they were toasting me as an amiable elderly friend of the fernbank household. no wonder i am glad to have lived till february!
ermyntrude had a roll of music in her hands. there was a charming glow on her cheeks, and a healthy, happy, sparkle in her eyes. she stopped short before me, with a little exclamation of not displeased surprise!
“why, how nice to run upon you like this,” she said, in high spirits. “we thought you must have gone off to the riviera, or algiers, or somewhere—for your cold, you know. mamma was speaking of you only yesterday—hoping that you were taking care of yourself.”
“had i a cold?” i asked absently. the air had grown chillier. we walked along together, and she let me carry the music.
“o—you haven’t heard,” she exclaimed suddenly, “such news as i have for you! you couldn’t ever guess!”
“is it something about crinoline?” i queried. “your mother was telling
“rubbish!” said ermyntrude gaily. “i’m engaged!”
the wind had really got round into the east, and i, fastened my coat at the collar. “i am sure”—i remarked at last—“i’m sure i congratulate—the happy young man. do i know him?”
“i hardly think so,” she replied. “you see, it’s—it’s what you might call rather sudden. we haven’t known him ourselves very long—that is, intimately. you may have heard his name—the honourable knobbeleigh jones. it’s a very old family though the title is somewhat new. his father is lord skillyduff, you know.”
“the shipping man?” i said, wearily.
“yes. he and papa are together on some board or other. that is how we came to know them. papa says he never saw such business ability and sterling worth combined in one man before—i’m speaking of the father, you know. he began life in quite a small way, with just a few ships that he rented, or something like that. then there was a war on some coast in africa or australia—it begins with an a, i know—oh, is there a place called ashantee?—yes, that’s it—and he got the contract to take out four shiploads of hay to our troops—it would be for their horses, wouldn’t it?”
“yes: the asses connected with the military branch are needed at home—or at least are kept there.”
“well, after he started, he got orders to stop at some place and wait for other orders. he did so, and he waited four years and eight months. those orders never came. the hay all rotted, of course: the ships almost moulded away: i daresay some of the crew died of old age—but mr jones never stirred from his post. finally, some english official came on him by accident—quite! and so he was recalled. papa says very few men would have shown such tenacity of purpose and grasp of the situation. mamma says his fidelity to duty was magnificent.”
“magnificent—yes,” i commented; “but it wasn’t war.”
“oh, bless you! there was no war then,” explained ermyntrude. “the war had been ended for years. and all that while the pay for shipping that hay had been going on, so that the government owed him—i think it was ￡45,000. of course he got more contracts, and then he was made a baronet, and could build his own ships; and now he is a lord, and papa says the war office would be quite helpless without him.”
“and the son,” i asked; “what does he do?”
“why, nothing, of course!” said ermyntrude, lifting her pretty brows a little in surprise. “he is the eldest son.”
“i didn’t know but he might have gone in for the army, or parliament, or something,” i explained weakly: “just to occupy his mind.”
she smiled to herself—somewhat grimly, i thought. “no,” she said, assuming a serious face, “he says doing things is all rot, if you aren’t obliged to do them. of course, he goes in for hunting and shooting and all that, and he has a houseboat and a yacht, and one year he was in the all-slumpshire eleven, but that was too much bother. he hates bother.”
we had come out upon the street now, and walked for a little in silence.
“ermie,” i said at last, “you mustn’t be annoyed with me—this is one of my sentimental days, and you know as an old friend of the family i’ve a certain right of free speech—but this doesn’t seem to me quite good enough. a girl like you—beautiful and clever and accomplished, knowing your way about among books, and with tastes above the ruck—there ought to be a better outlook for you than this! i know that type of young man, and he isn’t in your street at all. come now!” i went on, gathering courage, “look me in the face if you can, and tell me that you honestly love this young man, or that you really respect his father, or that you candidly expect to be happy. i defy you to do it!”
i was wrong. ermyntrude did look me in the face, squarely and without hesitation. she halted for the moment to do so, and her gaze, though not unkindly, was full of serious frankness.
“there is one thing i do expect,” she said, calmly. “i expect to get away from fernbank.”
