Page 21

The greatest fault of a penetrating wit is not coming short of the mark but overshooting it.

A full week passed before Sarah saw Mr. Langworthy again, yet the hiatus would have been much briefer, had she happened to be at home the two times he called at Iffley Cottage.

On the first occasion, however, she was at Perryfield practicing the pianoforte with Frances in advance of the dancing lessons, and on the second she and Maria had been taking a basket to the Cramthorpes.

Still, to be spared the sight of Mr. Langworthy by no means spared her the sound of his name.

“Dr. Rearden and Mr. Langworthy called,” reported Mrs. Barstow the first time. “And while the new curate is everything one could wish for, I was still glad when he went away and Mr. Langworthy remained, so we could have a comfortable coze about Sebastian.”

“It was also good that he went away because Bash would not leave him alone,” Maria put in, keeping her voice low, even though her nephew was in the kitchen having a snack of bread with jam and butter.

“Oh, dear,” fretted Sarah. “What did he do to the poor man?”

“He brought him Poppet to admire and kept saying, ‘Pawpaw’—”

“But we explained that was his way of saying ‘Poppet’—”

“Thank heavens!” Sarah interrupted. “At least now Dr. Rearden will know Bash wasn’t calling him ‘papa.’”

“Though he may yet wonder why Bash was saying ‘Poppet’ when he saw him at church,” Frances observed.

This stopped them for a moment, but no ready rebuttal coming to mind, Maria went on. “Perhaps he didn’t remember. At least, he didn’t ask or mention it. In any event, everything seemed all right until Dr. Rearden leaned down to pet Poppet—”

“Oh, no!” breathed Sarah. “Did he learn nothing on Sunday? Bash didn’t grab his whiskers again, did he?”

“No,” Maria assured her, “but he dumped Poppet straight off and threw his fat little arms around the parson’s knees and just about swooned up at him, crying, ‘Oosker! Oosker!’” To demonstrate the scene, Maria seized her tall sister Frances, but Frances began laughing so hard Maria could hardly hold her.

“The child is in love!” crowed Frances, placing a hand to each side of her face and waving her fingers like fins. “Oosker! Oosker!”

Even Sarah had to giggle over this nonsense, though it made all the talk of Mr. Langworthy which followed come almost as a relief.

Not an enduring relief, however, for it seemed that if Bash now doted upon the new curate, Mrs. Barstow and Maria felt much the same for Mr. Langworthy.

“I brought out the atlas Lord Dere gave us, and Mr. Langworthy showed us everywhere he and Sebastian sailed!”

“Mr. Langworthy told us of a time when that bullying Mr. Beeton was making one of the poor young midshipmen miserable, and Sebastian devised a plan of distraction!”

Of course Sarah wanted to hear the story about Sebastian—all the stories about Sebastian—but in every case, where Sebastian was, Mr. Langworthy was also found, and she ended in hearing as much of Mr. Langworthy as she did her lost husband.

Nor could she let her impatience show, or she would have to make up an acceptable reason for her dislike—a dislike no one else would countenance.

“I wish we had been home to hear him, Sarah,” Frances sighed at last, “because hearing such things makes me quite prepared to adore Mr. Langworthy myself!” Slyly she added, “Of course, I might have given Dr. Rearden the preference initially, but it seems Bash has already earmarked him for you .”

“Pooh,” said Sarah, blushing.

“ May I marry Mr. Langworthy if he offers for me, Mama?” Frances asked. She took Mrs. Barstow by the hands and twirled her on the carpet, narrowly missing two chairs and a side table.

“Foolish girl,” scolded her mother without heat. “What would you live on? Though I would be happy to have such a son.”

“Mrs. Dere would probably pester the baron into giving me a portion, if she could be got to approve of Mr. Langworthy,” Frances answered blithely.

“Oh, don’t frown like that, Mama. I’m only jesting, though he is quite attractive, I think.

Perhaps not so handsome as Adela’s Mr. Weatherill or Jane’s Mr. Egerton, and he hasn’t Dr. Rearden’s magnificent whiskers, but beggars must not be choosers. ”

Frances was more fortunate in being at Iffley Cottage when Mr. Langworthy made his second call (and then it was Maria’s turn to sigh and complain about her bad luck), and more stories and praise and joking ensued, but at last Saturday and its dancing lesson arrived, and all the Barstow ladies were promised their share of the gentleman.

Whether we want it or not , Sarah told herself.

It had been agreed that the Barstows would walk to Perryfield, barring rain or mud, and Gordon having gone ahead for his mathematics and navigation lesson, Sarah knew there was no danger of falling in with Mr. Langworthy.

The sight of the ladies passing the Tree Inn was too much for its landlady, however, and Mrs. Lamb raced out to greet them.

“Good morning! Good morning! Saturday already, is it? Fine day for a walk and nearly warm as April, wouldn’t you say?

I wish you the best for your dance lessons.

What a to-do! I suppose I should be grateful Harry Barbary has no interest in learning to dance, or he would have abandoned me altogether. ”

Since Mrs. Lamb had done nothing but complain of her errand boy’s shortcomings the whole time he had been in her employ, Sarah was not apt to pity her, but she could not help being curious about how Harry now divided his time.

Fortunately, the postmistress delighted in the sharing of information, and the answer followed at once.

“Two afternoons a week I’m to give the boy up, so he might go and do whatever he likes!

I pass over the nonsense of him learning navigation.

Harry Barbary has no more need of navigation than of sprouting a second head.

I tried to talk to Mrs. Barbary about it, but of course she said she can no more get Harry to obey her than the weather, even if she wanted to try.

Useless. She even had the cheek to thank me, as if I had any say in it. ”

“I daresay Mr. Langworthy won’t be in Iffley very long,” Mrs. Barstow soothed her, “and then you will have all the Harry you can manage again. Good day to you! We had better not dally.”

“I’m dying to know more,” Frances said as they turned into the Upper Field.

“Do you suppose Mr. Langworthy really intends to teach such a young boy—and such a one as Harry Barbary!—to find his way by the stars?” But then she shrugged.

“Oh, well. If Mr. Langworthy does not tell us all about it, surely Mrs. Lamb will, the next time we see her.”

“Why, Mrs. Dere, how pleasantly you have arranged things!”

This was not Frances’ usual courteous flattery, but spontaneous praise drawn from all of them, and the mistress of Perryfield lifted a proud chin. “Though my uncle and I have never hosted a ball, we are prepared to do the thing nicely.”

The usual fire blazed in the drawing room, and the sconces were lit, as well as a candelabra beside the pianoforte. All the furniture had been pushed against the walls, the carpet rolled up, and even a side table laid with orange wine, small beer, and a plate of sandwiches covered with a cloth.

Maria looked longingly at the refreshments, and such was Mrs. Dere’s good mood that, instead of looking disapproving, she smiled at the girl, announcing, “And after the lesson we will have apple turnovers, Cook promises.”

They had only looked over the music Mrs. Dere had chosen and talked through the figures while she played rapidly through the opening bars before voices and footsteps were heard. The drawing room door opened again and in walked the baron, followed by Mr. Langworthy and the four pupils.

To judge from the glowing faces and chatter, the first mathematics and navigation lesson was a great success. “—An eyeglass,” Lord Dere was saying, and Mr. Langworthy chuckled, “Yes, perhaps some evening.”

“We learned about triangles!” crowed Gordon, running up to his mother.

“And what the lines are called, from where I stand to a point in the sky like a star or planet and then down to the horizon. And what a degree is, and the most familiar heavenly bodies: important stars, and the sun and moon and planets. Did you know the nautical almanac will even tell us where to find Georgium Sidus in the night sky—”

“Though it is so very far away that Mr. Langworthy says the weather must be nearly perfect to pick it out, even with an eyeglass,” finished Peter.

The ladies were duly impressed by the heap of knowledge conferred on the boys, and the boys so eager, it seemed, to recapitulate the entire lesson for their edification, that Mrs. Dere was forced to clap her hands for their attention after several minutes.

“This is all very well, young gentlemen, but now I must insist we begin lessons equally important and sooner applicable. Come, Peter, you stand here, and Gordon, you here—no, no, Uncle, you must not think to excuse yourself, nor you, Mr. Langworthy, for you will be required to demonstrate the figures.”

Sarah was sorry to see the boys’ enthusiasm silenced, but the way Peter and Gordy grimaced with the effort to contain their further praises made her smile.

As she took the place assigned her opposite Tom Ellis, her eye happened to catch Mr. Langworthy’s, and on impulse she said, “Thank you, sir, for the lesson. You appear to have been a rattling success.”

“I’ll make midshipmen of them yet.”