The Romantic Adventures of a Milkmaid

Chapter 4

But whether the Baron, in naming such a distant spot for the

rendezvous, was in hope she might fail him, and so relieve him after

all of his undertaking, cannot be said; though it might have been

strongly suspected from his manner that he had no great zest for the

responsibility of escorting her.

But he little knew the firmness of the young woman he had to deal

with. She was one of those soft natures whose power of adhesiveness

to an acquired idea seems to be one of the special attributes of that

softness. To go to a ball with this mysterious personage of romance

was her ardent desire and aim; and none the less in that she trembled

with fear and excitement at her position in so aiming. She felt the

deepest awe, tenderness, and humility towards the Baron of the

strange name; and yet she was prepared to stick to her point.

Thus it was that the afternoon of the eventful day found Margery

trudging her way up the slopes from the vale to the place of

appointment. She walked to the music of innumerable birds, which

increased as she drew away from the open meads towards the groves.

She had overcome all difficulties. After thinking out the question

of telling or not telling her father, she had decided that to tell

him was to be forbidden to go. Her contrivance therefore was this:

to leave home this evening on a visit to her invalid grandmother, who

lived not far from the Baron's house; but not to arrive at her

grandmother's till breakfast-time next morning. Who would suspect an

intercalated experience of twelve hours with the Baron at a ball?

That this piece of deception was indefensible she afterwards owned

readily enough; but she did not stop to think of it then.

It was sunset within Chillington Wood by the time she reached Three-

Walks-End--the converging point of radiating trackways, now floored

with a carpet of matted grass, which had never known other scythes

than the teeth of rabbits and hares. The twitter overhead had

ceased, except from a few braver and larger birds, including the

cuckoo, who did not fear night at this pleasant time of year. Nobody

seemed to be on the spot when she first drew near, but no sooner did

Margery stand at the intersection of the roads than a slight crashing

became audible, and her patron appeared. He was so transfigured in

dress that she scarcely knew him. Under a light great-coat, which

was flung open, instead of his ordinary clothes he wore a suit of

thin black cloth, an open waistcoat with a frill all down his shirt-

front, a white tie, shining boots, no thicker than a glove, a coat

that made him look like a bird, and a hat that seemed as if it would

open and shut like an accordion.

'I am dressed for the ball--nothing worse,' he said, drily smiling.

'So will you be soon.'

'Why did you choose this place for our meeting, sir?' she asked,

looking around and acquiring confidence.

'Why did I choose it? Well, because in riding past one day I

observed a large hollow tree close by here, and it occurred to me

when I was last with you that this would be useful for our purpose.

Have you told your father?'

'I have not yet told him, sir.'

'That's very bad of you, Margery. How have you arranged it, then?'

She briefly related her plan, on which he made no comment, but,

taking her by the hand as if she were a little child, he led her

through the undergrowth to a spot where the trees were older, and

standing at wider distances. Among them was the tree he had spoken

of--an elm; huge, hollow, distorted, and headless, with a rift in its

side.

'Now go inside,' he said, 'before it gets any darker. You will find

there everything you want. At any rate, if you do not you must do

without it. I'll keep watch; and don't be longer than you can help

to be.'

'What am I to do, sir?' asked the puzzled maiden.

'Go inside, and you will see. When you are ready wave your

handkerchief at that hole.'

She stooped into the opening. The cavity within the tree formed a

lofty circular apartment, four or five feet in diameter, to which

daylight entered at the top, and also through a round hole about six

feet from the ground, marking the spot at which a limb had been

amputated in the tree's prime. The decayed wood of cinnamon-brown,

forming the inner surface of the tree, and the warm evening glow,

reflected in at the top, suffused the cavity with a faint mellow

radiance.

But Margery had hardly given herself time to heed these things. Her

eye had been caught by objects of quite another quality. A large

white oblong paper box lay against the inside of the tree; over it,

on a splinter, hung a small oval looking-glass.

Margery seized the idea in a moment. She pressed through the rift

into the tree, lifted the cover of the box, and, behold, there was

disclosed within a lovely white apparition in a somewhat flattened

state. It was the ball-dress.

This marvel of art was, briefly, a sort of heavenly cobweb. It was a

gossamer texture of precious manufacture, artistically festooned in a

dozen flounces or more.

Margery lifted it, and could hardly refrain from kissing it. Had any

one told her before this moment that such a dress could exist, she

would have said, 'No; it's impossible!' She drew back, went forward,

flushed, laughed, raised her hands. To say that the maker of that

dress had been an individual of talent was simply understatement: he

was a genius, and she sunned herself in the rays of his creation.

She then remembered that her friend without had told her to make

haste, and she spasmodically proceeded to array herself. In removing

the dress she found satin slippers, gloves, a handkerchief nearly all

lace, a fan, and even flowers for the hair. 'O, how could he think

of it!' she said, clasping her hands and almost crying with

agitation. 'And the glass--how good of him!'

Everything was so well prepared, that to clothe herself in these

garments was a matter of ease. In a quarter of an hour she was

ready, even to shoes and gloves. But what led her more than anything

else into admiration of the Baron's foresight was the discovery that

there were half-a-dozen pairs each of shoes and gloves, of varying

sizes, out of which she selected a fit.

Margery glanced at herself in the mirror, or at as much as she could

see of herself: the image presented was superb. Then she hastily

rolled up her old dress, put it in the box, and thrust the latter on

a ledge as high as she could reach. Standing on tiptoe, she waved

the handkerchief through the upper aperture, and bent to the rift to

go out.

But what a trouble stared her in the face. The dress was so airy, so

fantastical, and so extensive, that to get out in her new clothes by

the rift which had admitted her in her old ones was an impossibility.

She heard the Baron's steps crackling over the dead sticks and

leaves.

'O, sir!' she began in despair.

'What--can't you dress yourself?' he inquired from the back of the

trunk.

'Yes; but I can't get out of this dreadful tree!'

He came round to the opening, stooped, and looked in. 'It is obvious

that you cannot,' he said, taking in her compass at a glance; and

adding to himself; 'Charming! who would have thought that clothes

could do so much!--Wait a minute, my little maid: I have it!' he

said more loudly.

With all his might he kicked at the sides of the rift, and by that

means broke away several pieces of the rotten touchwood. But, being

thinly armed about the feet, he abandoned that process, and went for

a fallen branch which lay near. By using the large end as a lever,

he tore away pieces of the wooden shell which enshrouded Margery and

all her loveliness, till the aperture was large enough for her to

pass without tearing her dress. She breathed her relief: the silly

girl had begun to fear that she would not get to the ball after all.

He carefully wrapped round her a cloak he had brought with him: it

was hooded, and of a length which covered her to the heels.

'The carriage is waiting down the other path,' he said, and gave her

his arm. A short trudge over the soft dry leaves brought them to the

place indicated.

There stood the brougham, the horses, the coachman, all as still as

if they were growing on the spot, like the trees. Margery's eyes

rose with some timidity to the coachman's figure.

'You need not mind him,' said the Baron. 'He is a foreigner, and

heeds nothing.'

In the space of a short minute she was handed inside; the Baron

buttoned up his overcoat, and surprised her by mounting with the

coachman. The carriage moved off silently over the long grass of the

vista, the shadows deepening to black as they proceeded. Darker and

darker grew the night as they rolled on; the neighbourhood familiar

to Margery was soon left behind, and she had not the remotest idea of

the direction they were taking. The stars blinked out, the coachman

lit his lamps, and they bowled on again.

In the course of an hour and a half they arrived at a small town,

where they pulled up at the chief inn, and changed horses; all being

done so readily that their advent had plainly been expected. The

journey was resumed immediately. Her companion never descended to

speak to her; whenever she looked out there he sat upright on his

perch, with the mien of a person who had a difficult duty to perform,

and who meant to perform it properly at all costs. But Margery could

not help feeling a certain dread at her situation--almost, indeed, a

wish that she had not come. Once or twice she thought, 'Suppose he

is a wicked man, who is taking me off to a foreign country, and will

never bring me home again.'

But her characteristic persistence in an original idea sustained her

against these misgivings except at odd moments. One incident in

particular had given her confidence in her escort: she had seen a

tear in his eye when she expressed her sorrow for his troubles. He

may have divined that her thoughts would take an uneasy turn, for

when they stopped for a moment in ascending a hill he came to the

window. 'Are you tired, Margery?' he asked kindly.

'No, sir.'

'Are you afraid?'

'N--no, sir. But it is a long way.'

'We are almost there,' he answered. 'And now, Margery,' he said in a

lower tone, 'I must tell you a secret. I have obtained this

invitation in a peculiar way. I thought it best for your sake not to

come in my own name, and this is how I have managed. A man in this

county, for whom I have lately done a service, one whom I can trust,

and who is personally as unknown here as you and I, has (privately)

transferred his card of invitation to me. So that we go under his

name. I explain this that you may not say anything imprudent by

accident. Keep your ears open and be cautious.' Having said this

the Baron retreated again to his place.

'Then he is a wicked man after all!' she said to herself; 'for he is

going under a false name.' But she soon had the temerity not to mind

it: wickedness of that sort was the one ingredient required just now

to finish him off as a hero in her eyes.

They descended a hill, passed a lodge, then up an avenue; and

presently there beamed upon them the light from other carriages,

drawn up in a file, which moved on by degrees; and at last they

halted before a large arched doorway, round which a group of people

stood.

'We are among the latest arrivals, on account of the distance,' said

the Baron, reappearing. 'But never mind; there are three hours at

least for your enjoyment.'

The steps were promptly flung down, and they alighted. The steam

from the flanks of their swarthy steeds, as they seemed to her,

ascended to the parapet of the porch, and from their nostrils the hot

breath jetted forth like smoke out of volcanoes, attracting the

attention of all.