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Updated: September 28, 2025
Had personal prominence in the scene been at this moment proportioned to intentness of feeling, the whole audience, regal and otherwise, would have faded into an indistinct mist of background, leaving as the sole emergent and telling figures Bob and Anne at one point, the trumpet-major on the left hand, and Matilda at the opposite corner of the stage.
The trumpet-major helped her into it over the slippery blocks of stone, one of the young men spread his jacket for her to sit on, and as soon as they pulled from shore John climbed up the blue-grey cliff, and disappeared over the top, to return to the mainland by road. Anne was in the town by three o'clock.
Garland, Bob being mostly away during the day with his brother, the trumpet-major, on various errands, one of which was to buy paint and varnish for the gig that Matilda was to be fetched in, which he had determined to decorate with his own hands.
'But we've promised to wait! said the trumpet-major in surprise. 'Promised to wait! said Anne indignantly. 'As if one ought to keep such a promise to drunken men as that. You can do as you like, I shall go. 'It is hardly fair to leave the chaps, said Loveday reluctantly, and looking back at them. But she heard no more, and flitting off under the trees, was soon lost to his sight.
'You know our great trouble, John? said Robert, gazing stoically into his brother's eyes. 'Come and sit down, and tell me all about it, answered the trumpet-major, showing no surprise. They went towards a slight ravine, where it was easier to sit down than on the flat ground, and here John reclined among the grasshoppers, pointing to his brother to do the same.
To throw it away would seem stupid, and to keep it was awkward. She held it between her finger and thumb, twirled it round on its axis and twirled it back again, regarding and yet not examining it. Just then she saw the trumpet-major coming back. 'I can't find David anywhere, he said; and his heart was not sorry as he said it.
John looked so brave and shapely and warlike that, even in Bob's present distress, he could not but feel an honest and affectionate pride at owning such a relative. Yet he fancied that John did not come along with the same swinging step he had shown yesterday; and when the trumpet-major got nearer he looked anxiously at the mate and waited for him to speak first.
'Certainly; I shall be down in a minute, screamed Anne's mother in a slanting voice towards the staircase. When she descended, the outline of the trumpet-major appeared half-way down the passage. 'This is John, said the miller simply. 'John, you can mind Mrs. Martha Garland very well? 'Very well, indeed, said the dragoon, coming in a little further.
Anne wondered what infatuation was possessing her mother, declined to take the arm, and contrived to get in front with the miller, who mostly kept in the van to guide the others' footsteps. The trumpet-major was left with Mrs. Garland, and Anne's encouraging pursuit of them induced him to say a few words to the former.
At Portsmouth Bob seemed disposed to remain, for though some time elapsed without further intelligence, the gallant seaman never appeared at Overcombe. Then on a sudden John learnt that Bob's long-talked-of promotion for signal services rendered was to be an accomplished fact. The trumpet-major at once walked off to Overcombe, and reached the village in the early afternoon.
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