CHAPTER LXIV.
THE ALLIED ARMIES ADVANCE ON RAVENSHOE.
"How near the end we are getting, and yet so much to come! Never mind.We will tell it all naturally and straightforwardly, and then there willbe nothing to offend you."
By-and-bye it became necessary that Charles should have air andexercise. His arm was well. Every splinter had been taken out of it, andhe must lie on the sofa no longer.
So he was driven out through pleasant places, through the buddingspring, in one of Lord Hainault's carriages. All the meadows had beenbush-harrowed and rolled long ago, and now the orchises and fritillarieswere beginning to make the grass look purple. Lady Hainault had a lowcarriage and a pair of small cobs, and this was given up to Charles;Lady Hainault's first coachman declined to drive her ladyship out in thedaytime, for fear that the second coachman (a meritorious young man offorty) should frighten Charles by a reckless and inexperienced way ofdriving.
Consequently Lady Hainault went a buying flannel petticoats and thatsort of thing, for the poor people in Casterton and Henley, driven byher second coachman; and Charles was trundled all over the country bythe first coachman, in a low carriage with a pair of cobs. But LadyHainault was as well pleased with the arrangement as the old coachmanhimself, and so it is no business of ours. For the curious thing was,that no one who ever knew Charles would have hesitated for an instant ingiving up to him his or her bed, or dinner, or carriage, or any otherthing in this world. For people are great fools, you know.
Perhaps the reason of it was, that every one who made Charles'sacquaintance, knew by instinct that he would have cut off his right handto serve them. I don't know why it was. But there is the fact.
Sometimes Lady Ascot would go with him and sometimes William. And oneday, when William was with him, they were bowling quietly along aby-road on the opposite side of the water from Henley. And in a secretplace, they came on a wicked old gentleman, breaking the laws of hiscountry, and catching perch in close time, out of a punt, with a chair,and a stone bottle, and a fisherman from Maidenhead, who shall benameless, but who must consider himself cautioned.
The Rajah of Ahmednuggur lives close by there; and he was reading the_Times_, when Charles asked the coachman to pull up, that he might seethe sport. The Rajah's attention was caught by seeing the carriagestopped; and he looked through a double-barrelled opera-glass, and notonly saw Charles and William in the carriage, but saw, through theosiers, the hoary old profligate with his paternoster pulling the perchout as fast as he could put his line in. Fired by a virtuous indignation(I wish every gentleman on the Thames would do likewise), he ran in hisbreeches and slippers down the lawn, and began blowing up like OldGooseberry.
The old gentleman who was fishing looked at the rajah's redbrick house,and said, "If my face was as ugly as that house, I would wear a greenveil;" but he ordered the fisherman to take up the rypecks, and hefloated away down stream.
And as Charles and William drove along, Charles said, "My dear boy,there could not be any harm in catching a few roach. I should so like togo about among pleasant places in a punt once more."
When they got home the head keeper was sent for. Charles told him thathe would so much like to go fishing, and that a few roach would not makemuch difference. The keeper scornfully declined arguing about thematter, but only wanted to know what time Mr. Ravenshoe would like togo, adding, that any one who made objections would be brought upuncommon short.
So William and he went fishing in a punt, and one day Charles said, "Idon't care about this punt-fishing much. I wish--I wish I could get backto the trout at Ravenshoe."
"Do you really mean that?" said William.
"Ah, Willy!" said Charles. "If I could only see it again!"
"How I have been waiting to hear you say that!" said William. "Come toyour home with me; why, the people are wondering where we are. Mydarling bird will be jealous, if I stay here much longer. Come down tomy wedding."
"When are you to be married, William?"
"On the same day as yourself," said William, sturdily.
Said Charles, "Put the punt ashore, will you?" And they did. AndCharles, with his nose in the air, and his chest out, walked besideWilliam across the spring meadows, through the lengthening grass,through the calthas, and the orchises, and the ladies' slippers, and thecowslips, and the fritillaries, through the budding flower garden whichone finds in spring among the English meadows, a hale, strong man. Andwhen they had clomb the precipitous slope of the deer-park, Charlespicked a rhododendron flower, and put it in his button-hole, and turnedround to William, with the flush of health on his face, and said--
"Brother, we will go to Ravenshoe, and you will be with your love. Shallwe be married in London?"
"In St. Petersburgh, if you like, now I see you looking your old selfagain. But why?"
"A fancy of mine. When I remember what T went through in London throughmy own obstinacy, I should like to take my revenge on the place, byspending the happiest day of my life there. Do you agree?"
"Of course."
"Ask Lady Ascot and Mary and the children down to Ravenshoe. LadyHainault will come too, but he can't. And have General Mainwaring andthe Tiernays. Have as many of the old circle as we can get."
"This is something like life again," said William. "Remember, Charles, Iam not spending the revenues of Ravenshoe. They are yours. I know it. Iam spending about L400 a year. When our grandfather's marriage isproved, you will provide for me and my wife, I know that. Be quiet. Butwe shall never prove that till we find Ellen."
"Find Ellen!" exclaimed Charles, turning round. "I will not go nearEllen yet."
"Do you know where she is?" asked William, eagerly.
"Of course I do," said Charles. "She is at Hackney. Hornby told me sowhen he was dying. But let her be for a time."
"I tell you," said William, "that I am sure that she knows everything.At Hackney!"
The allied powers, General Mainwaring, Lady Ascot, Lord Hainault, andWilliam, were not long before they searched every hole and corner ofHackney, in and out. There was only one nunnery there, but, in thatnunnery, there was no young lady at all resembling Ellen. The priests,particularly Father Mackworth's friend Butler, gave them everyassistance in their power. But it was no good.
As Charles and William were in the railway carriage going westward,Charles said--
"Well, we have failed to find Ellen. Mackworth, poor fellow, is still atRavenshoe."
"Yes," said William, "and nearly idiotic. All his fine-spun cobwebs castto the winds. But he holds the clue to the mystery, or I am mistaken.The younger Tiernay takes care of him. He probably won't know you. ButCharles, when you come into Ravenshoe, keep a corner for Mackworth."
"He ought to be an honoured guest of the house as long as he lives,"said Charles. "You still persist in saying that Ravenshoe is mine."
"I am sure it is," said William.
And, at the same time, William wrote to two other people telling allabout the state of affairs, and asking them to come and join the circle.And John Marston came across into my room, and said, "Let us go." And Isaid, "My dear John, we ought to go. It is not every day that we see aman, and such a man, risen from the dead, as Charles Ravenshoe."
And so we went.