The Toll-Gate Read online

  John rinsed the soap from his hands, and turned to pick up the towel. ‘There’s nothing I should like better, but – I have seen your mistress this morning, and she tells me that he must not be worried by visitors.’

  ‘He won’t be worrited,’ responded Lydd calmly. ‘The only thing as ’ud worrit him ’ud be if we wasn’t to obey orders. What’s more, Miss Nell don’t know as he wants to see you, guv’nor, because he ain’t told her, nor no one’s got to tell her.’

  ‘What does his valet say?’ John asked abruptly.

  ‘He says as Squire’s got something on his mind, and he’d as lief have it took off. He did take the liberty of suggesting to Squire as p’raps he hadn’t better have no visitor today, but he got his nose snapped off for his pains, Squire being on his high ropes, and telling the pair of us he ain’t burnt to the socket yet. Damned our eyes proper, he did,’ said Lydd, with simple pride.

  ‘If he is well enough to see me this evening, I’ll come,’ John said. ‘But I can’t leave the boy alone here after dark: he’s scared. Will you mind the gate for me?’

  ‘That’s all right and tight, guv’nor. The way Mr Winkfield and me has it planned, I’ve sent the stable lad off home, and told him he needn’t come back till the morning, so there won’t be no one in the stables, them two beauties of Mr Henry’s and Mr Coate’s, which calls themselves grooms, taking themselves off regular to the boozing-ken up the road each evening. If they’re back afore midnight it’ll be for the first time, nor it wouldn’t matter if they was, because they’ll be too muddled to notice a strange horse – even if they was to go into the stables, which I never knew them do yet, not at that time o’ night. You don’t catch them making sure all’s right afore they turns in!’ said Lydd, with bitter scorn. ‘If Squire’s still of the same mind, I’ll come along here when he’s had his dinner, and I’ll tell you the way. It ain’t difficult, and the moon’ll be up. All you got to do, guv’nor, is to turn in the first gate you come to, right-handed, a matter of a mile up the road. It’ll take you to the stables: it don’t go past the house. There’s a path which leads up to the side-door: you can’t mistake it. Mr Winkfield will be there to take you to Squire.’

  Thus it came about that when Ben, released after his dinner from attendance on the gate, returned at dusk after an afternoon of illicit adventure with Master Biggin, he was surprised to find the Captain’s horse stabled once more in the shed. When he slid, somewhat guiltily, into the kitchen, he was startled to perceive that his protector was wearing the shirt ironed that morning by Mrs Skeffling, a well-tied cravat, and his top-boots. He had not put on his coat or his waistcoat, and he was engaged in the homely occupation of frying eggs in a pan over the fire, but those gleaming top-boots filled Ben with foreboding. In patent dismay he stood staring up at the Captain, his ruddy cheeks whitening.

  John turned his head, surveying him with the hint of a smile in his eyes. ‘I suppose, if I did my duty by you, I should send you supperless to bed, shouldn’t I?’ he remarked. ‘What devilry have you been up to, you young rascal?’

  ‘Guv’nor – you ain’t going away?’ Ben blurted out, his lip trembling.

  ‘No, I’m not going away, but I have to go out this evening. You needn’t look so scared, you silly little noddy! Mr Lydd is coming to mind the gate, so you won’t be alone.’

  ‘You’re going to tip the double!’ Ben said, his face sharp with suspicion. ‘Don’t go, guv’nor, don’t go! You said you wouldn’t leave me, not till me dad comes back!’

  ‘Listen, Ben! Whatever happens, I shan’t go away without telling you! You’ll find me here when you wake up in the morning: that’s a promise! Mr Lydd will stay here till I come back. Now, you wash all that dirt off your face and hands, and set the plates out!’

  Ben, whose experience had not taught him to place any degree of reliance on the promises of his elders, burst into tears, and reiterated his conviction that he was to be left to his fate.

  ‘Good God!’ exclaimed John, setting the frying pan down in the hearth. ‘Come here, you wretched little goosecap!’ He picked up a candle, took Ben by the ear, and led him to Brean’s bedroom. ‘Does that look as though I meant to run away?’

  Ben stopped knuckling his eyes. When he had assimilated the fact that the Captain’s ivory brushes still graced the chest of drawers, together with his shaving tackle, and the knife he used for paring his nails, he became very much more cheerful; and by the time Joseph Lydd arrived at the toll-house, soon after eight o’clock, he was able to greet him with perfect equanimity.

  Lydd, who was riding the cob, slid from the saddle, and winked broadly at the Captain. ‘You’re looked for, sir,’ he said. ‘Pretty bobbish he is – considering!’

  ‘Bring the cob round the back, to the shed, then,’ John said. ‘Beau’s there. I must saddle-up.’

  ‘Begging your pardon, guv’nor, that’s my trade! Come on, booberkin! You show me this big prancer I’ve heard so much about!’

  Half an hour later, Captain Staple trod up the path which led from the stables at Kellands to the eastern wing of the house. As he approached it, a door was opened, and lamp-light showed him the silhouette of a man, who stood aside, and bowed, saying, in a quiet, precise voice: ‘Good evening, sir. Will you be pleased to step this way?’

  Captain Staple, entering the house, found himself in a flagged passage. An old chest stood against one wall, and he laid his hat and whip on this. As he straightened his cravat, he glanced down at Winkfield, seeing an elderly man, with grizzled hair, a pair of steady gray eyes set in an impassive countenance, and the unmistakable stamp of the gentleman’s gentleman. ‘You’re Sir Peter’s man? How is your master?’

  Some flicker of emotion crossed Winkfield’s face. He replied: ‘He is – as well as can be expected, sir. If you will follow me – ? You will excuse my taking you up this staircase: it is not desirable that I should conduct you to the main hall.’

  ‘No, I know. I am quite ready.’

  He was led up to the gallery where the Squire’s rooms were situated, and ushered into the dressing-room. ‘What name should I say, sir?’ enquired Winkfield.

  ‘Captain Staple.’

  ‘Winkfield bowed again, and opened the door into the big bedchamber. Sir Peter was seated in his wing-chair, motionless; and beside him, reading to him a sporting article in one of the weekly journals, was his granddaughter. She looked up as the door opened.

  ‘Captain Staple!’ said Winkfield.

  Nine

  The journal was cast aside; Nell rose swiftly, her face a study of conflicting emotions. Astonishment, incredulity, anger were all there. She looked magnificent, her eyes flaming, her colour suddenly heightened, and her breast, very white against the green of her old velvet gown, heaving with her quickened breath. Captain Staple, pausing on the threshold, met the challenge and the reproach in her eyes with the ghost of a rueful smile, and the slightest shake of his head.

  ‘Pray come in, Captain Staple!’

  The words, which were uttered by her grandfather, made Nell look quickly down at him, a still greater astonishment widening her eyes. He had raised his head, and was holding his quizzing-glass up. Through it he unhurriedly surveyed the Captain from head to foot. Then he let it fall, and held out his hand. ‘How do you do? I am glad that you have found yourself able to visit me, sir. You will forgive me for not rising to greet you: it is not, I regret to say, within my power to get up without assistance.’

  The Captain came across the room, and took the hand in his. ‘How do you do, sir? It is I, rather, who should ask your pardon for coming to you so improperly dressed. Indeed, I have never more regretted being parted from my baggage!’

  Sir Peter sought his quizzing-glass again, and levelled it. ‘Just as I thought: Scott!’ he remarked.

  The Captain smiled. ‘Why, yes, sir!’

  ‘Schultz used to make my coats, but you military men always g
o to Scott. I fancy, Captain Staple, that you need no introduction to my granddaughter?’

  ‘No, sir.’ John turned to shake hands with Nell. His fingers gripped hers reassuringly. ‘I made Miss Stornaway’s acquaintance three days ago.’

  ‘Just so!’ said Sir Peter, regarding them from under drooping eyelids. ‘You must know, Nell, that Captain Staple is here in response to my invitation. I have had a great curiosity to meet him.’

  ‘Miss Stornaway knows, sir, that it has been my earnest wish to visit you. Had it not been for your indisposition, I must have requested permission to do so.’

  ‘Ah! I am, unfortunately, beset by persons who, from folly and goodwill, seek to spare me the least excitement, and succeed only in vexing me beyond bearing!’ said Sir Peter acidly.

  John laughed. ‘It is too bad, sir! But I perceive that you contrive, in spite of anything they may do, to get your own way!’

  As he spoke, he gently compelled Nell to seat herself again, and himself went to the chair on the opposite side of the fireplace to his host’s. Winkfield came back into the room, carrying the tea-tray. He shot one look at his master, and appeared to be satisfied, for he did not look at him again, but instead permitted himself to smile primly at Nell, as he set the tray down on a small table in front of her.

  She began to pour out. Sir Peter said: ‘Don’t be alarmed! When my granddaughter has retired, you shall try my brandy.’

  ‘To own the truth, sir,’ said John, getting up, and going to the tea table to receive from Nell’s hands a cup and saucer, ‘the sight of a tea-tray is most welcome!’ He glanced round the room, saw a small table, and brought it to Sir Peter’s chair, and set the cup and saucer down on it, within reach of his right hand. ‘In my present – er – employment, such niceties are unknown. Such guests as I have prefer to take their refreshment out of a barrel or a bottle.’ He took his own cup from Nell, and went back again to his chair.

  Sir Peter gave a dry chuckle. ‘No doubt! Do you find your present employment congenial?’

  ‘Not entirely,’ returned the Captain. ‘I think it would soon grow to be excessively irksome. One’s movements are so restricted! I must own, however, that there is more to gatekeeping that I had previously supposed. I had no notion how many people there were in the world bent on cheating the tolls, for instance!’

  Nell saw that her grandfather was looking amused. Her inward agitation grew less; she found herself able to put in a word, encouraging the Captain to continue on these lines. Her meetings with him had all been informal; she now realized that his manners, on more conventional occasions, had just that well-bred ease which she knew must please Sir Peter. He talked like a sensible man, and with a great deal of humour; and she soon saw that there was no need for her to feel anxious lest he should let fall some remark which would perturb her grandfather. Her heart did indeed take a jump into her mouth when Sir Peter asked him what he supposed had become of Brean; but he replied without hesitation, and with a twinkle in his eye, saying: ‘I’m much afraid, sir, that he may be languishing in gaol, and I trust, for his sake, it won’t come to the ears of his employers. It seems pretty plain that he went off on the spree, dipped rather too deep, and ended the night by falling foul of the watch. I expect there was a lively mill: four out of five of my troopers were always fatally ready to sport their canvases as soon as they became top-heavy!’

  ‘You were in the cavalry, Captain Staple?’

  ‘3rd Dragoon Guards, sir. I sold out in ’14.’

  ‘You should be a hunting man. Shires?’

  The Captain shook his head. ‘Above my touch. I’ve had a day or two with the Quorn, but the most of my hunting is provincial. My home is in Hertfordshire. I find I get very good sport there with a modest stable. A friend of mine, who hunts regularly with the Quorn, assures me that a minimum of ten horses is necessary to him – and, having ridden over his country, I can readily believe it.’

  ‘Twelve! Better, fourteen!’ said Sir Peter, roused to animation. ‘I remember…’

  His granddaughter, calling down silent blessings on her lover’s head, leaned back in her chair, and was content to listen to Sir Peter enjoying himself. His stories, which she had heard many times, she did not much attend to: it was enough to know that he was happy, forgetting present trouble in memories of bygone and better days. Had he shown clumsiness in his dealings with Sir Peter, she must still have loved Captain Staple; but his tact, which sprang, she knew, from kindliness, could not but enhance his value in her eyes. She fell into a pleasant reverie, from which she was aroused presently by hearing Sir Peter say: ‘Staple… There was a Staple up at Oxford in my time. Are you related to Saltash?’

  ‘I’m his cousin, sir.’

  ‘You are, are you?’ Sir Peter picked up his snuff-box, and placed it in his enfeebled left hand, flicking it open. ‘The man I knew must have been his grandfather. We made the Grand Tour at much the same time. I remember meeting him in Rome, in ’63, or ’64 – I forget. He had some kind of a tutor in tow, but he was getting his education from a charming little barque of frailty. Called herself a Contessa. No such thing, of course, but nobody cared for that. First and last, she cost him a pretty penny, but he used to be very well blunted. Gave capital parties, too: all the bucks and the Cyprians used to go. Iced champagne punch: he had a way of mixing it he learned from some fellow in Frankfurt: made you devilish castaway, if you weren’t accustomed to it. Staple was, of course: carried his wine very well. Never saw him really shot in the neck, though he wasn’t often stone-sober, in those days. Believe he settled down when he came into the title.’

  Captain Staple, who had listened with great enjoyment to these engaging reminiscences, said: ‘From anything I’ve ever heard of him, that sounds very like my grandfather, sir. Didn’t they call him Mops-and-Brooms?’

  ‘Mops-and-Brooms!’ echoed Sir Peter. ‘That was it! So you’re his grandson!’

  It was plain that his relationship to this erratic peer did Captain Staple no disservice in the eyes of his host. Sir Peter, saying regretfully that there were few men of his stamp alive today, lapsed into a silence charged with memory, and sat staring into the fire until Winkfield came into the room to remove the tea-tray. John, who had been watching him, exchanged a glance with Nell, nodded in response to the message in her eyes, and rose to his feet.

  The movement seemed to bring Sir Peter back with a jerk to the present. He raised his head from his breast, and said authoritatively: ‘Time you were off to your bed, Nell! Captain Staple will excuse you.’

  ‘I think it is time I too was off, sir,’ John said.

  ‘Nonsense! Sit down! Don’t humbug me you go to bed at this hour!’

  ‘May I not come to see you again tomorrow?’ John suggested.

  ‘You might not find me, young man,’ Sir Peter said, with a grim smile. ‘I don’t know how much time I have left to me, and I can’t afford to waste it. Set out the brandy, Winkfield, and then take yourself off! I’ll ring when I want you.’

  ‘I shall be in the dressing-room, sir,’ said Winkfield.

  He appeared to address his master, but his eyes were on John’s face. John nodded, and he bowed very slightly.

  ‘You may kiss me good night, Nell, and then be off to Rose. You will not go downstairs: do you hear me, girl?’

  She bent over him, and kissed his brow. ‘Very plainly, dearest! Indeed, I do not mean to go downstairs. Pray do not keep Captain Staple too long from his gate!’

  He waved her away impatiently. She crossed the room to the door, which John was holding open, and paused, holding out her hand. ‘Good night – Captain Staple!’

  He carried her hand to his lips. ‘Good night – Miss Stornaway!’ he returned, smiling down at her.

  She went out, and he closed the door behind her, and turned to see Sir Peter’s quizzing-glass raised again.

  ‘H’m! Pour yourself out some brandy!’<
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  ‘Later, perhaps, sir, if I may.’

  ‘Well-primed, eh? Think if you drink it, I shall – and damn the doctor!’

  ‘No, I’ve not been primed. Am I to pour some for you, sir?’

  ‘No. There’s some damned cordial or other: Winkfield will bring it, if I ring – or even if I don’t. Sit down! Now then, young man! We’ll have the gloves off, if you please! I was never one to stand on ceremony, and there’s too little time left – perhaps not even enough for what I must do. But, by God, I’ll make a push to see it out! What do they say of the Squire in the village? Queer as Dick’s hatband, eh?’

  ‘They speak of you with affection, sir.’

  ‘Don’t you bamboozle me! I know ’em! I’m baked, but not backed yet, and not queer in my attic, I assure you! Did you think I sent for you out of an idle curiosity? I didn’t.’

  ‘I think you sent for me to see what kind of a man it might be who had fallen in love with your granddaughter,’ said John.

  ‘Here’s a high flight! In three days?’ said Sir Peter, on a jeering note.

  ‘No, in three seconds.’

  ‘Do you fall out of love as easily as you fall into it?’ demanded Sir Peter.

  ‘I can’t tell that, sir, for I never did it before,’ John replied, laughter in his eyes.

  ‘Good God, boy, are you telling me you were never in love before?’

  ‘Oh, no! I have thought myself in love, but I never before met a woman whom I knew to be the one above all others I wanted to call my wife.’

  ‘How old are you?’

  ‘Twenty-nine, sir.’

  ‘Well, you ought to know your own mind – and you look as though you did, in all conscience!’

  ‘I do.’

  ‘Then you had better know that she has not a penny to her name!’ said Sir Peter harshly.

  ‘I am not a wealthy man, sir, but my father left me in the possession of a small estate. I believe I can convince you that I am sufficiently beforehand with the world to be able to support a wife.’