The Actress in High Life | Page 6

he soon found a dangerous rival to
take the wind out of his sails, in the person of Major Lumley, who,
possessing great taste and skill in music, accidentally heard Lady
Mabel singing in one room, while he was conversing with her father in
the next. "She has," thought and said the major, "the sweetest voice in
the world; and it only needs a little more cultivation to make it
heavenly!" Lord Strathern thought so too. The major's instructive
talents were put into requisition, and, from private practice, her father
led her on, somewhat reluctant, to more public display, and soon the
major and herself discoursed exquisite music to the ears of a score of
officers, at a musical soirée. If, with the powers, she did not acquire the
confidence of a prima donna, it was not his lordship's fault. Had
propriety permitted, he would have brought up the brigade in close
column of divisions, to hear Lady Mabel sing; and he could not help
saying to the gentlemen beside him: "I have heard you young fellows
talk about the nightingale, and have even known some of you spend
hours in the moonlit grove, listening to their music, but my bird from
foggy Scotland can out-warble a wood full of them." And no one felt
disposed to contradict him.
How many others, irresistibly attracted, sought, each in his own way, to
make himself agreeable, we will not undertake to say. Perhaps Ensign
Wade, who, not yet eighteen, had just been rubbing off the school-boy
in the last campaign, was the most madly in love with her; unless he

was surpassed by little Captain Hatton, who, being but five feet three,
had, to the great injury of his marching powers, magnanimously added
an extra inch to his boot heels, that Lady Mabel might not look too
much down upon him, when so happy as to stand beside her.
Hers was a curious position for a lady, and, yet, more for one so young.
She instinctively looked round for the countenance and support which
only female companions could give. But, of the very few ladies with
the brigade, Mrs. Colonel Colville was at Portalegre, where her
husband's regiment was quartered, the wife of Major Grey was shut up
with him in his sick room; Mrs. Captain Howe had come out from
home less to visit her husband than to cure her rheumatism in the
balmy climate of Elvas; and the wife of Captain Ford had just, very
injudiciously, presented him with two little Portuguese, who might
have made very good Englishmen, had they first seen the light in the
right place. If the brigade had suffered heavy loss in the last campaign,
the ladies of the brigade were absolutely hors de combat, and could not
furnish Lady Mabel even a sentinel in the shape of a chaperon. She felt
that this was awkward; but, said she to herself, "If there were any
impropriety in my situation here, Papa would not open his house so
freely to the officers of the brigade." For she loved and admired him far
too much to doubt his judgment on such a point. Now, Lord Strathern
had dined the better part of his life at a regimental mess table; and
when promotion at length removed him from that genial sphere, he felt
selfish and solitary, if he took his dinner and wine without, at least, a
corporal's guard of his brother officers around him. So far from
deeming his daughter's arrival a reason for excluding them, she was a
strong ally, and a delightful addition to his means of entertaining his
friends. So she found herself suddenly the centre of a circle, composed
of gentlemen only, most of them unmarried, young and gay, and
admiring her. In short, Lady Mabel was finishing off her education in a
very bad school, worse, perhaps, than a Frenchified academy, devoted
to the education of the extremities, in the shape of music, dancing and
gabbling French, with a dash of mental and moral training in the
development of the sickly imagination of the head and the empty
vanities of the heart.

For a time the dilapidated condition of kitchen and refectory restricted
the scale of hospitality at headquarters. But Lady Mabel soon
completed her reforms of house and household, in which she found old
Moodie an able assistant. Captain Cranfield had to bring his labors of
love to an end, and Lord Strathern celebrated the event by feasting a
large party of his friends.
While the company was assembled, Lady Mabel led a party of the first
comers through the apartments, to admire the results of the labor and
taste bestowed upon them. Some of the more prying peeped into the
kitchen to see what was going on there.
"I am glad to