‘a merrier hour was never wasted there.’
august came—a real august—with cloudless blue skies, and scorching noontides, and a brief storm now and then to clear the atmosphere. the yellow corn-fields basked in the sun’s hot rays, scarce stirred to a ripple by the light summer air. the broad atlantic seemed placid as that great jasper sea men picture in their dreams of heaven. the pine trees stood up straight and dark and tall and solemn against a background of azure sky. ocean’s wide waste of waters brought no sense of coolness to the parched wayfarer, for all that vast expanse glowed like burnished gold beneath the splendour of the sun-god. the road across the purple moor glared whitely between its fringe of plantations, and the flower-gardens at penwyn manor made patches of vivid colour in the distance. the birthday of the heir had come and gone, with many bonfires, sky-rockets, much rejoicing of tenants and peasantry, eating and drinking, bounties to the poor, speechifying, and general exultation. at twelve months old churchill penwyn’s heir, if not quite the paragon his parents and his aunt believed him, was fairly worth some amount of rejoicing. he was a sturdy, broad-shouldered little fellow, with chestnut locks cut straight across his wide, fair forehead, and large blue eyes, dark, and sweet, and truthful, a loving, generous-hearted little soul, winning the love of all creatures—from the grave, thoughtful father who secretly worshipped him, to the kitten that rolled itself into a ball of soft white fur in his baby lap.
the general rejoicings for tenants and cottagers, the public celebration, as it were, of the infant’s first anniversary, being happily over, with satisfaction to all—even to the irish reapers, who were regaled with supper and unlimited whisky punch in one of the big barns—mrs. penwyn turned her attention to more refined assemblies. lady cheshunt was at penwyn, and had avowed herself actually charmed with the gathering of the vulgar herd.
‘my dear, they are positively refreshing in their absolute na?veté,’ she exclaimed, when she talked over the day’s proceedings with madge and viola in mrs. penwyn’s dressing-room. ‘to see the colours they wear, and the unsophisticated width of their boots, and scantiness of their petticoats, and the way they perspire, and get ever so red in the face without seeming to mind it; and the primitive way they have of looking really happy—it is positively like turning over a new leaf in the book of life. and when one can see it all without any personal exertion, sitting under a dear old tree and drinking iced claret cup—how admirably your people make claret cup!—it is intensely refreshing.’
‘i hope you will often turn over new leaves, then, dear lady cheshunt,’ madge answered, smiling.
‘and on thursday you are going to give a dinner party, and show me the genteel aborigines, the country people; benighted creatures who have no end of quarterings on their family shields, and never wear a decently cut gown, and drive horses that look as if they had been just taken from the plough.’
‘i don’t know that our cornish friends are quite so lost in the night of ages as you suppose them,’ said madge, laughing. ‘brunel has brought them within a day’s journey of civilization, you know. they may have their gowns made in bond street without much trouble.’
‘ah, my love, these are people who go to london once in three years, i dare say. why, to miss a single season in town is to fall behind one’s age; one’s ideas get mouldy and moss-grown; one’s sleeves look as if they had been made in the time of george the third. to keep abreast with the march of time one must be at one’s post always. one might as well be the sleeping beauty at once, and lose a hundred years, as skip the london season. i remember one year that i was out of health, and those tiresome doctors sent me to spend my spring and summer in germany. when i came to london in the following march, i felt like rip van winkle. i hardly remembered the names of the ministry, or the right use of asparagus tongs. however, sweet child, i shall be amused to see your county people.’
the county families assembled a day or two afterwards, and proved not unintelligent, as lady cheshunt confessed afterwards, though their talk was for the most part local, or of field sports. the ladies talked chiefly of their neighbours. not scandal by any means. that would have been most dangerous; for they could hardly have spoken of any one who was not related by cousinship or marriage with somebody present. but they talked of births, and marriages, and deaths, past or to come; of matrimonial engagements, of children, of all simple, social, domestic subjects; all which lady cheshunt listened to wonderingly. the flavour of it was to the last degree insipid to the metropolitan worldling. it was like eating whitebait without cayenne or lemon—whitebait that tasted only of frying-pan and batter. the young ladies talked about curates, point lace, the penny readings of last winter, amateur concerts, new music—ever so old in london—and the school children; or, grouped round viola, listened with awful interest to her descriptions of the season’s dissipations—the balls, and flower shows, and races, and regattas she had assisted at, the royal personages she had beheld, the various on dits current in london society about those royal personages, so fresh and sparkling, and, if not true, at least possessing a richness of detail that seemed like truth. viola was eminently popular among the younger branches of the county families. the sons played croquet and billiards with her, the daughters copied the style of her dresses, and chose their new books and music at her recommendation. mrs. penwyn was popular with all—matrons and maidens, elderly squires and undergraduates, rich and poor. she appealed to the noblest and widest feelings of human nature, and not to love her would have been to be indifferent to virtue and sweetness.
this first dinner after the return to penwyn manor was more or less of a state banquet. the manor house put forth all its forces. the great silver-gilt cups, and salvers, and ponderous old wine-coolers, and mighty venison dishes, a heavy load for a strong man, emerged from their customary retirement in shady groves of green baize. the buffet was set forth as at a royal feast; the long dinnertable resembled a dwarf forest of stephanotis and tremulous dewy-looking fern. the closed venetians excluded the glow of a crimson sunset, yet admitted evening’s refreshing breeze. the many tapers twinkled with a tender subdued radiance. the moon-like silber lamps on the sideboard and mantel-piece gave a tone of coolness to the room. the women in their gauzy dresses, with family jewels glittering star-like upon white throats and fair round arms, or flashing from coils of darkest hair, completed the pleasant picture. churchill penwyn looked down the table with his quiet smile.
‘after all, conventional, commonplace, as this sort of thing may be, it gives one an idea of power,’ he thought, in his half-cynical way, ‘and is pleasant enough for the moment. sardanapalus, with a nation of slaves under his heel, could only have enjoyed the same kind of sensation on a larger scale.’