Читать книгу The Girls of the Hamlet Club - Elsie Jeanette Dunkerley - Страница 3

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The lattice window of the ancient inn opened with a jerk, and Cicely leaned out to sniff the sweet air joyously. Last night she had been too tired to notice her surroundings, but after eight hours of restful sleep she felt ready for anything. A robin on the thatch over her window chirped a greeting, and she laughed back at him, then retreated as a stable-boy slouched into the yard.

The sun was just rising, for it was October, and the nights were growing long. The sky still held splashes of colour, but she could not see the sun, because a green patch of hill shut in her view. Apparently the hill rose steeply behind the inn and cast a shadow over it. But from that smooth top one could see the sunrise, and perhaps something of the country besides. Her instinct was always to get to the bottom of things, if possible. In this case it was the top of things, so far as she could see them, that attracted her. It was only six o’clock, but she began to dress eagerly, wondering if she should wake her father or explore alone.

Her wavy dark hair gave her trouble that morning. ‘Of course, since I’m in a particular hurry!’ She struggled with the curly tangles, and ruefully resolved never again to be in such a hurry for bed that she had not time to plait it. But she had been glad to roll into bed last night.

It had been one of those exciting days which came occasionally during her father’s brief holidays. For many months of each year business kept him in Ceylon, but he always came home during the summer for a few weeks with his only girl, and these visits were packed with enjoyment for Cicely. Lessons—exams.—went to the wall; her father became a boy again, just a few years older than herself, and they gave themselves up to merrymaking. She helped in his shopping for his next trip; he insisted on buying her winter outfit, so that he would be able to picture her when he was far away. They spent happy days in town, and often went off at a moment’s notice to some place he had known long ago, or some resort whose pictured advertisement had taken her fancy on the hoardings, and which generally proved a woeful disappointment.

She had awakened yesterday to the news that they were going into the country for a few days. ‘The country’ sounded delightfully vague, and was a novelty. Once they had gone to the Isle of Wight, once to Cornwall, and last year, spreading their wings as Cicely grew older, to Paris. She had asked many questions, but had been told to wait and see.

There had been hurried packing of suit-case and portmanteau, a morning train to town, and a couple of hours of shopping. Now that Cicely was fourteen, her father was not allowed to choose all the articles of her wardrobe; but Mrs Gaynor, her guardian in his absence, agreed that he might provide her winter coat and hat, if he wished. Cicely laughed as she remembered the lengthy deliberations before he was satisfied with a pretty, brown ulster with big yellow collar and cuffs, and a brown beaver hat to match. And she wondered what Mrs Gaynor would say when the things arrived, for they were handsomer than any one else would have bought. But that was always the result of allowing father to do shopping. Once he had seen the best, nothing less would satisfy him—a fact which both Cicely and the shopkeepers had quickly appreciated. Naturally she preferred that he should do her shopping, when possible.

When this arduous task had been followed by lunch in the dome at Whiteley’s, they had made a hurried pilgrimage to Kensington Gardens for a first sight of Peter Pan in bronze, and then had spent the afternoon at their regular haunt when in town—Maskelyne and Devant’s. Her father never grew tired of this, and enjoyed it even more than Cicely herself. Nothing could compare with it in his affections, unless Peter Pan happened to be running.

After tea in the roof-garden at Selfridge’s, they had taken a taxi to Paddington as dusk was falling. Cicely’s home was in a northern suburb, and from the time they left Oxford Street all had been strange to her. But it was too dark to see the country as the train raced along, and she had only been able to distinguish an occasional light in the heavy blackness of the night.

‘It’s awfully dark. Are there no houses?’ she had asked. ‘Have you been this way before, dad?’

‘Yes, kiddy. No; it’s woods and hills and fields, except near the stations.’

‘I’d like to see it. I wish we’d come earlier.’

‘And missed those cakes’——

‘Oh no,’ she laughed. ‘Not for anything.’

‘You’ll see it to-morrow,’ he had promised.

The train had stopped at many stations, and she had been very tired before they left it at last and found an ancient cab awaiting them. It was too dark to see anything, and she had grown very sleepy as the cab jogged along. The lights of the inn, the welcome of the motherly landlady—who had been told to prepare for a lady and gentleman, and had not expected so youthful a lady—and supper in the homely parlour, all seemed like a dream this morning. But the weariness, after all the excitement, was gone, and with the sun lighting the faces of the Michaelmas daisies in the yard, she was eager to know to what kind of place she had come.

She had often stayed in hotels with her father, and had no shyness in making her way downstairs alone. There was generally a door leading into yard or garden by which one could slip out without meeting customers. The staircase made her laugh, because the steps were so high and crooked and narrow; and then she stopped to admire, for she knew old oak when she saw it, and this panelling was black with age.

‘It’s really old, I do believe,’ she murmured. ‘It’s a real old ancient inn, that has been here for hundreds of years. How ripping!’ and she touched the old walls and marvelled. ‘It’s like Hampton Court, or those old houses we went to in Edinburgh. And yet it’s just a little public-house! I wonder what it’s like outside.’

A door stood open to the back-yard, and a gate showed the way to the front. Cicely slipped through, and found herself in the courtyard, open to the road.

‘Oh!’ and she dropped on a bench to gaze and admire.

It was a very little inn. The walls were white-washed, but nearly hidden by the great leaves of a vine, whose strong brown branches encircled the lattice windows. The thatched roof hung over the windows in long eaves, and was broken by two sharp little gables. The sign, ‘The Old Beech Tree,’ swung above the door. Two great beeches, with smooth gray trunks and a golden glory of autumn leaves, shaded the courtyard, and beneath them the ground was thick with leaves and ruddy shining nuts.

But it was not only the inn which drew that cry of delight from Cicely. A glance showed her that it stood in a worthy setting. Opposite and on each side were the cottages of the hamlet, all thatched, all ancient, all covered with creepers, vines, or climbing roses, all surrounded by tiny gardens full of Michaelmas daisies and autumn flowers. It was evidently a sheltered spot, for the cottage opposite was covered with yellow roses, while an orchard behind was heavy with apples.

‘It’s the duckiest village I ever saw. It’s a picture,’ Cicely decided. ‘I wonder what they call it.’

She put the question to a maid who appeared at the door to shake a duster, and looked much surprised to see her out so early.

‘Whiteleaf! How queer!’ she mused, and then asked the way to her father’s bedroom.

But the girl informed her that he was up and out also; so Cicely laughed, and set out to explore on her own account.

‘He thought I’d still be asleep. I’ll get to the top of that hill before breakfast, and be able to tell him I’ve been energetic too.’

A small boy told her that a path ran up the hill between cottages. She found it easily, and climbed up a lane barely two feet wide, overhung by branches of honeysuckle. This led to open grass, and a faint track soon brought her out on the smooth turf she had seen from her window.

She faced the risen sun, streaming out from behind a golden beech-wood. The colours had faded from the sky, and all was sunshine. The turf was soft as a cushion over the round edge of the hill.

She turned to look down at the inn and her hamlet. Then once more she gave a cry of delighted surprise, and sank down to gaze; then scrambled up hastily as she found the turf drenched in dew. Near by was a great white splash on the green—an old chalk-pit, perhaps, only a foot deep, but stretching away across the hillside. She sat down on the bare ground which did not hold the dew, and gazed at the prospect before her.

She seemed to be looking out over several counties. The thatched hamlet was hidden in trees, and only a peaked roof here and there was visible. But beyond lay miles of flat country, meadows, hedges, golden woods, glistening water. To right and left were other round hills, and a faint blue shadow on the horizon hinted that another range lay there, hidden in mist. But between lay the plain, drowned in sunshine, with clusters of houses dotted about—one little town with a pointed spire and rows of small houses, and another even smaller, surrounded by trees and gardens, with an ancient square tower rising among the roofs. Every hedge and wood, every tree, was a glory of red or gold, orange or brown.

‘Well, kiddy, so you’ve found the Cross?’

She sprang up. ‘Daddy, isn’t it beautiful? I do like this place!’

‘I’m glad to hear that’——

‘But what did you mean? The Cross? I haven’t seen any cross.’

He laughed. ‘You shall see it presently. What do you think I’ve been doing?’

‘Exploring, like me? I couldn’t wait.’

‘Well, so I have. I’ve been hunting a pony and trap. After breakfast we’re going over the hills and far away.’

‘Jolly! But we’ll come back to Whiteleaf? I do like the name, and I love the old inn. It’s really old, isn’t it, daddy?’

‘Very old. You’ll find a date somewhere—fifteen something. Oh yes, we’ll sleep here again to-night. And you like the view of the Vale?’

‘The Vale? Do you mean all that?’ and she waved her hand toward the sunny plain.

‘Just that. This little town with the square tower is Monk’s Risborough. That pointed spire is Princes Risborough, where we left the train last night.’

‘I wondered how we came. Oh, I do like it, dad! And isn’t the air sweet? I’m starving for breakfast.’

He laughed. ‘Come along. Down this way. Yes, it’s a little longer, but I want to show you something.’

‘The Cross you spoke about?’ and she took his hand and followed him down a narrow track to the white road below the chalky splash in the turf. ‘I don’t see it anywhere. Is it a monument? Oh, look! Wasn’t that a rabbit? Right across the road—fancy!’

The road ran round the foot of the hill, and turned a sharp corner toward the village. Cicely chattered on, but at the bend her father stopped her.

‘Now, Cis, turn round and you’ll see the Cross.’

‘Oh!’ She swung round in surprise. ‘Oh!’

Where they had been standing on the hill there lay a great white cross, with arms outspread, placed on a high, sloping, white base.

Cicely stared, round-eyed. ‘But where did it come from? It wasn’t there a minute ago. We were up there, and we never saw it.’

‘No, because you were too close.’

‘Was I sitting on it?’

‘Exactly!’ he laughed. ‘Sitting on one of the arms. It doesn’t show well from up there, does it?’

‘I thought it was a chalk-pit or a quarry. It’s cut out of the grass, isn’t it? And who keeps it in order?’

‘It’s kept scoured by the owner of Hampden,’ he explained.

‘Hampden!’ Cicely looked up at him eagerly. ‘Is that the same? John Hampden?’

He nodded. ‘He’s one of your heroes, isn’t he? Would you like to see his house?’

‘Oh yes!’

‘We’ll ask our pony to take us there. You’re only about a mile from Hampden here.’

‘I am glad we came to this place, daddy. And who made the Cross?’

‘Ah! Danes—Britons—Roundheads! Nobody can tell that.’

They were turning away, when Cicely caught his arm. ‘Stop! Listen,’ she said.

Down the hill, from the road which climbed up among the trees, came a high, sweet voice, carrying far in the still air:

‘Once I loved a maiden fair,

But she did deceive me.

She with Venus might compare

In my mind, believe me.’

Cicely’s foot tapped the ground responsively. Some of her happiest hours were those of her dancing lessons, and she knew the quaint old measure which belonged to the quaint old air. ‘Wait, daddy. Let’s see who it is. She’s got a ripping voice.’

‘She was fair, past compare—

Love is sore temptation.

Who will say but maidens may

Kiss for recreation?’

A schoolgirl, with a strap of books slung over her shoulder, came swinging along the road. She walked briskly, with a long, steady stride, her head erect, her cheeks smarting in the fresh morning wind, her bright fair hair blown back from her face and swinging in a long plait to her waist. She wore a neat dress of dark-green serge, belted at the waist, a green cap, and no coat, though the air was sharp.

Cicely looked at her approvingly, though her song had ceased abruptly at sight of them. Then she gave another look at the Cross as they turned the corner. ‘And to think I was sitting on it, and never knew!’ she said aloud.

The schoolgirl heard and glanced at her, a smile leaping up in her eyes as if she understood. But she did not pause, but swung on downhill toward Risborough and the train, her song breaking out again as soon as she was out of sight:

‘Three times did I make it known

To the congregation

That the church should make us one,

As priest had made relation;

Married we straight must be

Altho’ we go begging;

Now, alas! ’tis like to prove

A very hopeless wedding.’

Cicely chuckled. ‘I wish Nancy and the others were here, so that we could dance while she sings. Her voice is splendid. Daddy, that’s a nice girl. I wonder where she lives, and where she goes to school. Whiteleaf has no school for girls as big as that, I’m sure. She is older than I am.’

‘Wycombe, probably; by train from the station there.’

‘What a long walk! Would she do it every day? But she just looked it. Didn’t she look awfully well?’

‘Suppose we say beautifully well?’ laughed her father. ‘She was very pretty.’

‘She looked ripping!’ Cicely said emphatically.