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Now, since my affairs had been growing so strange, and Lord Castlewood had come forward not strongly, but still quite enough to speak of there had been a kind-hearted and genuine wish at Bruntsea to recover me. And this desire had unreasonably grown while starved with disappointment.
Of an English village I know nothing but the little I have seen at Bruntsea, but there they make a very great fuss about any one who comes down with a man-servant." "To be sure," replied my cousin, with a smile; "they would not be true Britons otherwise. Perhaps you would do better without Stixon; but of course you must not go alone.
Major Hockin was laying the foundations of "The Bruntsea Assembly-Rooms, Literary Institute, Mutual Improvement Association, Lyceum, and Baths, from sixpence upward;" while Mrs. Hockin had a hatch of "White Sultans," or, rather, a prolonged sitting of eggs, fondly hoped to hatch at last, from having cost so much, like a chicken-hearted Conference.
"If your honor pleases, I never did pull in," the poor driver answered, being frightened at the excitement of the lord of the manor. "My orders was, miss, to drive along the line coming on now just to Bruntsea, and keep in the middle of that same I did, and this here little wet is a haxident a haxident of the full moon, I do assure you, and the wind coming over the sea, as you might say.
Might not this letter be from his agent, of whom he had spoken as my protector here, but to whom as all unseen I scarcely ever gave a thought? Might not young Stixon, who so often was at Bruntsea, be employed to call at Newport for such letters, and return with them to his master? It was not very likely, for my cousin had the strongest contempt of anonymous doings.
And thus it was that I was left so long in that wretched Southampton, under the care of a very kind person who never could understand me. Bruntsea is a quiet little village on the southeast coast of England, in Kent or in Sussex, I am not sure which, for it has a constitution of its own, and says that it belongs to neither.
He might have used nicer language, perhaps, but his inner sense was manful. "I don't care a damn," he shouted, so that all the women heard him. "I can only say I am devilish glad that I never let one of those houses." So queer and sound is English feeling that now Major Hockin became in truth what hitherto he was in title only the lord and master of Bruntsea.
As soon as all necessary things were done at Bruntsea and at Castlewood, and my father's memory cleared from all stain, and by simple truth ennobled, in a manner strictly legal and consistent with heavy expenses, myself having made a long deposition and received congratulations as soon as it was possible, I left them all, and set sail for America.
I was to have been your godfather; but I fear that you never have been baptized." "What!" cried the Major, staring at us both. "Is such a thing possible in a Christian land? Oh, how I have neglected my duty to the Church! Come back with me to Bruntsea, and my son shall do it. The church there is under my orders, I should hope; and we will have a dinner party afterward.
But my desire to be doing something, or, at least, to get away for a time from Bruntsea, was largely increased by Sir Montague Hockin's strange behavior toward me.