Lionel was still gazing upon the effigies of this airy cavalier when the door behind him opened very noiselessly, and a man of imposing presence stood on the threshold,—stood so still, and the carved mouldings of the doorway so shadowed, and as it were cased round his figure, that Lionel, on turning quickly, might have mistaken him for a portrait brought into bold relief from its frame by a sudden fall of light. We hear it, indeed, familiarly said that such a one is like an old picture. Never could it be more appositely said than of the face on which the young visitor gazed, much startled and somewhat awed. Not such as inferior limners had painted in the portraits there, though it had something in common with those family lineaments, but such as might have looked tranquil power out of the canvas of Titian.
The man stepped forward, and the illusion passed. “I thank you,” he said, holding out his hand, “for taking me at my word, and answering me thus in person.” He paused a moment, surveying Lionel’s countenance with a keen but not unkindly eye, and added softly, “Very like your father.”
At these words Lionel involuntarily pressed the hand which he had taken. That hand did not return the pressure. It lay an instant in Lionel’s warm clasp—not repelling, not responding—and was then very gently withdrawn.
“Did you come from London?”
“No, sir; I found your letter yesterday at Hampton Court. I had been staying some days in that neighbourhood. I came on this morning: I was afraid too unceremoniously; your kind welcome reassures me there.”
The words were well chosen and frankly said. Probably they pleased the host, for the expression of his countenance was, on the whole, propitious; but he merely inclined his head with a kind of lofty indifference, then, glancing at his watch, he rang the bell. The servant entered promptly. “Let dinner be served within an hour.”
“Pray, sir,” said Lionel, “do not change your hours on my account.”
Mr. Darrell’s brow slightly contracted. Lionel’s tact was in fault there; but the great man answered quietly, “All hours are the same to me; and it were strange if a host could be deranged by consideration to his guest,—on the first day too. Are you tired? Would you like to go to your room, or look out for half an hour? The sky is clearing.”
“I should so like to look out, sir.”
“This way then.”
Mr. Darrell, crossing the hall, threw open a door opposite to that by which Lionel entered, and the lake (we will so call it) lay before them,—separated from the house only by a shelving gradual declivity, on which were a few beds of flowers,—not the most in vogue nowadays, and disposed in rambling old-fashioned parterres. At one angle, a quaint and dilapidated sun-dial; at the other, a long bowling-alley, terminated by one of those summer-houses which the Dutch taste, following the Revolution of 1688, brought into fashion. Mr. Darrell passed down this alley (no bowls there now), and observing that Lionel looked curiously towards the summer-house, of which the doors stood open, entered it. A lofty room with coved ceiling, painted with Roman trophies of helms and fasces, alternated with crossed fifes and fiddles, painted also.
“Amsterdam manners,” said Mr. Darrell, slightly shrugging his shoulders. “Here a former race heard music, sang glees, and smoked from clay pipes. That age soon passed, unsuited to English energies, which are not to be united with Holland phlegm! But the view from the window-look out there. I wonder whether men in wigs and women in hoops enjoyed that. It is a mercy they did not clip those banks into a straight canal!”
The view was indeed lovely,—the water looked so blue and so large and so limpid, woods and curving banks reflected deep on its peaceful bosom.
“How Vance would enjoy this!” cried Lionel. “It would come into a picture even better than the Thames.”
“Vance? who is Vance?”
“The artist,—a great friend of mine. Surely, sir, you have heard of him or seen his pictures!”
“Himself and his pictures are since my time. Days tread down days for the recluse, and he forgets that celebrities rise with their suns, to wane with their moons,
“‘Truditur dies die,
Novaeque pergunt interire lunae’”
“All suns do not set; all moons do not wane!” cried Lionel, with blunt enthusiasm. “When Horace speaks elsewhere of the Julian star, he compares it to a moon—‘inter ignes minores’—and surely Fame is not among the orbs which ‘pergunt interire,’—hasten on to perish!”
“I am glad to see that you retain your recollections of Horace,” said Mr. Darrell, frigidly, and without continuing the allusion to celebrities; “the most charming of all poets to a man of my years, and” (he very dryly added) “the most useful for popular quotation to men at any age.”
Then sauntering forth carelessly, he descended the sloping turf, came to the water-side, and threw himself at length on the grass: the wild thyme which he crushed sent up its bruised fragrance. There, resting his face on his hand, Darrell gazed along the water in abstracted silence. Lionel felt that he was forgotten; but he was not hurt. By this time a strong and admiring interest for his cousin had sprung up within his breast: he would have found it difficult to explain why. But whosoever at that moment could have seen Guy Darrell’s musing countenance, or whosoever, a few minutes before, could have heard the very sound of his voice, sweetly, clearly full; each slow enunciation unaffectedly, mellowly distinct,—making musical the homeliest; roughest word, would have understood and shared the interest which Lionel could not explain. There are living human faces, which, independently of mere physical beauty, charm and enthrall us more than the most perfect lineaments which Greek sculptor ever lent to a marble face; there are key-notes in the thrilling human voice, simply uttered, which can haunt the heart, rouse the passions, lull rampant multitudes, shake into dust the thrones of guarded kings, and effect more wonders than ever yet have been wrought by the most artful chorus or the deftest quill.
In a few minutes the swans from the farther end of the water came sailing swiftly towards the bank on which Darrell reclined. He had evidently made friends with them, and they rested their white breasts close on the margin, seeking to claim his notice with a low hissing salutation, which, it is to be hoped, they changed for something less sibilant in that famous song with which they depart this life.
Darrell looked up. “They come to be fed,” said he, “smooth emblems of the great social union. Affection is the offspring of utility. I am useful to them: they love me.” He rose, uncovered, and bowed to the birds in mock courtesy: “Friends, I have no bread to give you.”
LIONEL.—“Let me run in for some. I would be useful too.”
MR. DARRELL.—“Rival!—useful to my swans?”
LIONEL (tenderly).—“Or to you, sir.”
He felt as if he had said too much, and without waiting for permission, ran indoors to find some one whom he could ask for the bread.
“Sonless, childless, hopeless, objectless!” said Darrell, murmuringly to himself, and sank again into revery.
By the time Lionel returned with the bread, another petted friend had joined the master. A tame doe had caught sight of him from her covert far away, came in light bounds to his side, and was pushing her delicate nostril into his drooping hand. At the sound of Lionel’s hurried step, she took flight, trotted off a few paces, then turned, looking.
“I did not know you had deer here.”
“Deer!—in this little paddock!—of course not; only that doe. Fairthorn introduced her here. By the by,” continued Darrell, who was now throwing the bread to the swans, and had resumed his careless, unmeditative manner,