A Group of Noble Dames | Page 4

THE FIRST--THE FIRST COUNTESS OF WESSEX By the
Local Historian

King's-Hintock Court (said the narrator, turning over his memoranda
for reference)--King's-Hintock Court is, as we know, one of the most
imposing of the mansions that overlook our beautiful Blackmoor or
Blakemore Vale. On the particular occasion of which I have to speak
this building stood, as it had often stood before, in the perfect silence of
a calm clear night, lighted only by the cold shine of the stars. The
season was winter, in days long ago, the last century having run but
little more than a third of its length. North, south, and west, not a
casement was unfastened, not a curtain undrawn; eastward, one
window on the upper floor was open, and a girl of twelve or thirteen
was leaning over the sill. That she had not taken up the position for
purposes of observation was apparent at a glance, for she kept her eyes
covered with her hands.
The room occupied by the girl was an inner one of a suite, to be

reached only by passing through a large bedchamber adjoining. From
this apartment voices in altercation were audible, everything else in the
building being so still. It was to avoid listening to these voices that the
girl had left her little cot, thrown a cloak round her head and shoulders,
and stretched into the night air.
But she could not escape the conversation, try as she would. The words
reached her in all their painfulness, one sentence in masculine tones,
those of her father, being repeated many times.
'I tell 'ee there shall be no such betrothal! I tell 'ee there sha'n't! A child
like her!'
She knew the subject of dispute to be herself. A cool feminine voice,
her mother's, replied:
'Have done with you, and be wise. He is willing to wait a good five or
six years before the marriage takes place, and there's not a man in the
county to compare with him.'
'It shall not be! He is over thirty. It is wickedness.'
'He is just thirty, and the best and finest man alive--a perfect match for
her.'
'He is poor!'
'But his father and elder brothers are made much of at Court--none so
constantly at the palace as they; and with her fortune, who knows? He
may be able to get a barony.'
'I believe you are in love with en yourself!'
'How can you insult me so, Thomas! And is it not monstrous for you to
talk of my wickedness when you have a like scheme in your own head?
You know you have. Some bumpkin of your own choosing--some petty
gentleman who lives down at that outlandish place of yours,
Falls-Park--one of your pot-companions' sons--'

There was an outburst of imprecation on the part of her husband in lieu
of further argument. As soon as he could utter a connected sentence he
said: 'You crow and you domineer, mistress, because you are
heiress-general here. You are in your own house; you are on your own
land. But let me tell 'ee that if I did come here to you instead of taking
you to me, it was done at the dictates of convenience merely. H-! I'm
no beggar! Ha'n't I a place of my own? Ha'n't I an avenue as long as
thine? Ha'n't I beeches that will more than match thy oaks? I should
have lived in my own quiet house and land, contented, if you had not
called me off with your airs and graces. Faith, I'll go back there; I'll not
stay with thee longer! If it had not been for our Betty I should have
gone long ago!'
After this there were no more words; but presently, hearing the sound
of a door opening and shutting below, the girl again looked from the
window. Footsteps crunched on the gravel-walk, and a shape in a drab
greatcoat, easily distinguishable as her father, withdrew from the house.
He moved to the left, and she watched him diminish down the long east
front till he had turned the corner and vanished. He must have gone
round to the stables.
She closed the window and shrank into bed, where she cried herself to
sleep. This child, their only one, Betty, beloved ambitiously by her
mother, and with uncalculating passionateness by her father, was
frequently made wretched by such episodes as this; though she was too
young to care very deeply, for her own sake, whether her mother
betrothed her to the gentleman discussed or not.
The Squire had often gone out of the house in this manner, declaring
that he would never return, but he had always reappeared in the
morning. The present occasion, however, was different in the issue:
next day she was told that her father