In a moment everything was changed. The Captain took his hand from my shoulder; the girl took her gaze from my face. There was a clatter of wheels, a trampling of horses hoofs. The coach had drawn up in front of the inn door. We three my Captain, the girl, and myself ran across the hall and out on the portico. There was the usual crowd about the newly arrived coach; but there was only one person in the crowd for whom we looked, and him we soon found.
A lithe figure in a buff travelling coat swung off the box-seat, and Lancelot was with us again. He had an arm around the girls neck, and kissed her with no heed of the people; he had a hand clasped between the two hands of the Captain, who squeezed his fingers fondly. Then he looked at me, and leaving his kindred he caught both my hands in both his, while his joy shone in his eyes.
Raphael, my old Raphael, is it you? he said; but my heart is glad of this.
I wrung his hands. I could scarcely speak for happiness at seeing him again.
You must not call him Raphael any more, the girl said demurely. He is to be Ralph now, for all of us, so my uncle says.
Is that so? said Lancelot, looking up at the Captain. Well, we must obey orders, and indeed I would rather have Ralph than Raphael. Tis less of an outlandish name.
Then we all laughed, and we all came back into the hall of the inn together.
I watched Lancelot with wonder and with pride. He had grown amazingly in the years since I had seen him, and carried himself like a man. He was handsomer than ever I thought, and liker to our islands patron saint. As he stripped off his travelling coat and stood up in the neat habit of a well-to-do town gentleman, he looked such a cavalier as no woman but would wish for a lover, no man but desire for a friend.
Lads and lass, said Captain Amber, it will soon be time to dine. We have waited dinner for this scapegrace and he pinched Lancelots ear so get the dust of travel off as quickly as may be, and we will sit down with good appetite.
At these words I made to go away, for I did not dream that I was to be of the party; but the Captain, seeing my action, caught me by the arm.
Nay, Ralph, he said, you must stay and dine with us. You are one of us now, and Lancelot must not lose you on this first day of fair meeting.
I was indeed glad to accept, for Lancelots sake. But there was another reason in my heart which made me glad also, and that reason was that I should see the girl again who was my Captains darling, the sister whom Lancelot had kissed.
So I said that I would come gladly, if so be that I had time to run home and tell my mother, lest she might be keeping dinner for me.
Thats right, lad, thats right. Ever think of the feelings of others.
My Captain was always full of moral counsels and maxims of good conduct, but they came from him as naturally as his breath, and his own life was so honourable that there was nothing sanctimonious in his way or his words.
As I was about to start he begged me to assure my mother that if she would join them at table he would consider it an honour. I thanked him with tears in my eyes, and saluting them all I left the inn quickly, with the last sweet smile of that girls burning in my memory.
CHAPTER XI A FEAST OF THE GODS
When I got back to the Noble Rose I found our little company all assembled in the Dolphin. No one stayed my entrance this time, for though the same fellow that I had tussled with before saw me enter he made no objection this time, and even saluted me in
a loutish manner; for I was the Captains friend, and as such claimed respect.
Lancelot was leaning against the mantelpiece, and Marjorie and my Captain were sitting by plying him with questions and listening eagerly to his answers. Lancelot had drawn off his travelling boots and spruced himself, and looked a comely fellow. When I entered he broke off in what he was saying to clasp my hand again, while the Captain rang for dinner, expressing as he did so the civilest regrets at my mothers absence. Then we all sat to table and dined together in the pleasantest good-fellowship.
Never shall I forget that dinner, not if I live to be a hundred which is not unlikely, for I come of a long-lived race by my mothers side, and winds and waters have so toughened me that I ought to last with the best of my ancestors. There was a Latin tag Mr. Davies used to tease me with about the Feasts of the Gods. Feasts of the Gods, forsooth! They could not compare, Ill dare wager, with that repast in the Dolphin Room of the Noble Rose, on that crisp spring day when I and the world were younger.
I might well be excused, a raw provincial lad, if I did feel shyish in the presence of such gentlefolk. But they were such true gentlefolk that it was impossible for long not to feel at ease in their society. So when I learnt that Lancelot had not changed one whit in his love for me, and when I found that not the Captain alone, but his beautiful niece too, did everything to make me feel happy and at home why, it would have been churlish of me not to have aided their gentleness by making myself as agreeable as might be.