'I want you to see all the house,' she said, handling her keys again; 'because then you will knowwhat you want done. And so shall I.'
'I do not want anything done,' said Rollo, looking for the meaning of all this, which as yet he did not see.
'Yes you do,' said Hazel. 'Or you will. All sorts of things. So come.'
But instead of that, he put his arm round her and drew her to his side, looking into her changing face.
'Who said you were to be a house steward.'
'Must a thing be said in order to be true?'
'No. But generally speaking, it had better not be said unless it is true. Nicht?'
'I suppose I must be something!' said Hazel, with that pretty half laugh which covered so many thoughts.
'Yes,' said he laughing and stooping to kiss her. 'Do you want me to tell you what?'
'Keeping strictly to fact and not fancy'
'Strictly fact.' And folding her close, and watching her face, sometimes touching it, he went on,'Something, of which it is said that "her price is far above rubies. The heart of her husband doth safely trust in her, so that he shall have no need of spoil. She will do him good and not evil all the days of her life." She does not exactly "seek wool and flax"or if, it is Berlin wool, I believe; but it is certainly true that "she considereth a field, and buyeth it." And "she stretcheth out her hands to the poor; yea, she reacheth forth her hands to the needy. She maketh herself coverings of tapestry; her clothing is silk and purple." I do not think she "makes fine linen;" nevertheless I hope it will be true that "she looketh well to the ways of her household, and eateth not the bread of idleness." And if all her household are not "clothed in scarlet," she is very fond of wearing it herself.'
Wych Hazel listened with eyes looking down, and lips that parted yet did not speak. But now they curled unmistakeably.
'Ha, ha!' she laughed. 'What a mixed piece of fact that is! past, present, and future, in one grand conglomerate. Do you suppose I shall everagainhave a chance to dabble in land? And I thought you had ruled out the 'silk and purple'?'
'Did you? I suppose, in Old Testament language the silk and purple means that she was suitably dressed.'
'Scarlet ditto. But I do not know what 'spoil' can mean. If it said 'supervision,' I could understand that.'
'Spoil means, profits and honours.'
'That makes no sense of the rest of the verse.'
'Excellent sense. The heart of her husband hath such a trust in her, that he can afford to dispense with what makes other men rich.'
'Ois that the way you put it. Romantic, but not practical,' said Hazel, arching her brows. 'It might be so, but he would not find it out. Now come and see the house.'
'I will go and see the house,' said Rollo, speaking with a cool business tone now. 'In fact I suppose I should like to go anywhere where you would go before and open the doors. But what is your thought, Wych?'
'Only a small ceremony of investiture. I want to take you over my haunts,and leave you in possessionof them, and any small facts you may find there.'
But taking one of her hands and holding it, Rollo neither moved towards the door himself nor let her.
'What is going to become of you,' said he, 'after you have left me in possession of your haunts?'
'I shall linger round to do all the mischief I can,after the fashion of abdicators.'
'In that case, what is going to become of me?' said he, not changing his position.
'I have no idea! I feel fearfully like myself since I came home.'
'Do you! And what do you expect me to do with your 'small facts'?Are they kittens?'
'No. Store them up for reference when I am hard to understand.'
'I do not want any references on that chapter. Whatareyour small facts?'
'Little hints of how I have lived,and with what atmosphere and influences. Specimens of the soil wherein Wych Hazel grew to be "all hat and bushes." '
'And when did she abdicate?' said Rollo, bringing both arms round her now.
'Othe precise day does not matter,' said the girl, as a very 'precise' day last winter came full into view. 'Dates are useless things.'
'Tell me!' said he softly. 'When did you abdicate?'
'You mean' she said, hesitating, with her eyes on the ground.
'What you mean.'
'But Olaf' Hazel left her protestation unfinished. 'I suppose, really, it was a year ago,' she said, not looking at him. 'Only that week before Christmas I was worriedand of course I was full of freaks. And soI felt as if I was doing every thing for the last time.' Hazel hung her head, leaving the 'freaks' to their fate.
'How 'for the last time'?' said Rollo, with provoking apparent obtuseness.
'Ah!' Hazel exclaimed,then again submitting to circumstances,'My will had been the law of the houseand the peopleand of myself.Do you understand, sir?'
'Where were your guardians?' said Rollo with cool self-command.
'In my way just often enough to give zest to all other times and places.'
'And what is your opinion of the one guardian you have left? just as a curiosity, I should like to hear it.'
'He gave so fine a comparative description of himself beforehand,' said Hazel with the laugh in her voice. 'It would be quite presuming to suppose he does not mean to act up to it.'
Dane was silent, perhaps considering how he should answer her; for loosening one hand, he stood pushing back the thick curls from her face, looking down at it thoughtfully. Then in the same tone he had used before, he asked, "if she had not learned love's liberty yet?"
'In what sense?' she said, after a moment's hesitation.
'In the sense of being rather more a free and independent sovereign than at any previous time of your life.'
Hazel shook her head. 'If you make me go into that,' she said, 'I shall surely say something you will not understand. I have been as full of freaks this winter as ever in all my life before.'
'I am moved with curiosity to hear what you can say that I shall not understand.'
'I will not gratify you this time, if I can help it,' said Hazel laughing a little. 'Somebody must be headthat is plain, isn't it? and if it is you, it is not I. And before Christmas just that last part got hold of me,and since Christmas'
'Finish it! Since Christmas?'
'Since Christmas I have taken the first part into consideration,'Hazel said demurely.
Perhaps Dane thought illogical treatment was the best, or his patience gave out; for he answered with passionate kisses all over Hazel's face.
'My little Wych!' said he'do you think you are less head atChickaree than you used to be?'
She answered shyly, arching her brows. 'Yes. Of course.'
'Don't you like it?' said he audaciously.
'That?No. I think not. Why should I, if you please?'
'You are head, just because I am head. More than ever; because you have my strength to back your decisions. Now let us go, wherever you want opt take me.'
Wych Hazel's lips curled in a pretty laugh.
'There are two ways of 'backing' a decision,' she said. But then she moved off, and led the way through all the long-unused part of the great house. An old office room, with leather-covered chairs, and empty inkstands, and dry pens, and forgotten day-books of forgotten days! Suites of guest chambers, reception rooms, and music room, and rooms of every sort. Broad bits of hall led to them, and narrow entries, and unexpected stairways: the old bolts turned slowly; the door knobs were dim with the mists of long ago. Old portraits looked down on them suddenly, here and there; the two bright young figures sprang out anew from mirrors that for years had seen nothing but darkness. Wherever they went they opened a window, throwing back blind and shutter; and the spring sunshine streamed in, fresh and gladsome, making the dust of years look even solemn in its still quiet. It was a labyrinth of a house!and Hazel tripped along, in and out, as if she knew it all by heart; with only words of explanation, until suddenly she opened the door into a round apartment at the foot of the flagstaff and the top of the house. The room was nearly all windows , and the waving shadow of the blue banner curled and played in the sunlight upon the floor.
Nearly all: only four broad pannels broke the lookout, one on either side. Hazel laid her hand upon Rollo's shoulder, and softly led him round. The first pannel held two full-length portraits; a stately pair of olden time, in old-time dress; the founders of the house. The ruffles and lappets and powder and hoop told of long ago. Of later date, yet still far past, were the next two; short waist and slim skirt and long silk stockings and small clothes; and curious look of Wych Hazel herself in the lady's face. Hazel's own father and mother came next; and then she passed round to the fourth pannel, which was but half filled. A full length of herself had apparently held first place there; certain marks on the wall told of removal to the second place, where it was now. Hazel paused before the empty side of the pannel.
'You see your duty,' she said with a laugh. 'It is a rule of the house.Now come and look at the view.'
'I think we'll break the rule, Hazel. Why was I never here before?'
'This was one of my particular haunts,so I kept the key. Look, there is Morton Hollow, off that way, where the smoke floats up. And Crocus and the church spires shew from here. Andtherecomes in the road by which you drove me home that very first day. I have lived a great many hours up in this place, with the old portraits.'
On the whole, it was rather an eerie thing to have one's 'haunts' in such a rambling, half-shut up, untenanted old house. One could imagine the loneliness which had followed her about sometimes. Dane took the effect, standing there in the Belvidere; however his words were a very practical question'why his picture should take her side of the pannel?'
'If you look at the order in which the others stand, you will see it isyourside,' said Wych Hazel. 'I put mine there in a mood,when I meant to be head always.'
'Two heads are better than one,' said Dan carelessly.
'YesI may be good for consultation.'She stood there, half behind him, her hand laid lightly on his shoulder, looking off with a smile in her eyes toward Morton Hollow. Had he not always had his own way, already?
'Olaf,' she said suddenly, 'if I had been the Duchess May, what would you have done?'
'I'll think of that,' said he laughing, 'and tell you when I come home to-night. For I must go, Hazel.'
It was a long day before Rollo got home again. Not spent entirely alone by Hazel, for Dr. Arthur came to see his patient, and she had both gentlemen to luncheon. Mr. Heinert proved himself a very genial and somewhat original companion. If he had ever been disheartened on account of his illness, that was all past now; and the simplicity, vivacity, and general love of play in his nature made a piquant contrast with Dr. Arthur's staid humour and grave manliness. He talked of Rollo too, whom he loved well, it was plain; he talked of Göttingen; he talked in short till Arthur ordered him back to his rooms and forbade him to come out of them again even for dinner that day.
And then, as the sharp spring day was growing dusk, the clatter of the horses' hoof beats was heard again before the door. Dan had got home. He and Hazel had dinner alone; with endless things to talk about, in the Hollow and at home; and after dinner the evening was given to one of Doré's great works of illustration, which Hazel had not seen. Slowly they turned it over, going from one print to the next; pausing with long critical discussions, reading of text, comparison of schools, and illustrations of the illustrations, drawn from reading and travel and the study of human nature and the knowledge of art. A long evening of high communion, wholly unhelped by love-making, although it wanted, and they knew it wanted, no other beside themselves to make it perfect.
Perhaps some consciousness of this was in Hazel's mind, as they stood together over the books after they had risen to leave them.
'Sir Marmaduke,' she said suddenly, 'would it tend to your comfortor discomfortto have people here?'
'Both,' said Dane laconically.
'I foresee that you will live in a mixed state of mind then!' saidHazel. 'I am afraid I shall have to be asking people all the time.'
'Whom do you want to ask?' Rollo enquired in some surprise.
'Guess! I should like to get your idea of me,' she said smiling.
'Mr. Falkirk?'
'No!'with a great flush.
'I would try to endure Mr. Falkirk. But I do not at this moment think of any other human being I could endure,besides Hans Heinert.'
'Wellthere it is,' said Hazel, impressively, very busy at taking the measure of his arm just then with her little fingers.
'I do not know. Perhaps not. Let us hear.'
'Olaf,' she said, softly now, 'is not this big empty house a 'talent?' And if it is, you know it must be increased by 'trading.' And I can think of no way but to make it reach out over heads thatfor any reasonneed shelter. One would want to be able to say'Lord, thy house has become ten houses'or a hundred, if it would stretch so far!'
'Go on,' said Dane, his eyes sparkling and growing soft, both at once. 'Who is to be your first guest?'
'Shewill not trouble you. It is only a poor little embroiderer down at Crocus who is dying for rest and good living. Dr. Arthur told me; and I am going to bring her here for awhile. But thereit seems as if I could not help hearing of things now!' said Hazel, again with a half laugh. 'If it was a sick or over-worked guest of some other sorts, theymustcome where you would see them. So what am I to do?'
'I can stand seeing them,' said Dane, watching her.
'But if there was always somebody needing fresh air and dainties,' said Hazel, looking up wistfully. 'Then you would never see me and I should never see youexcept across other people. Must I give that up too?'
'No,' said her husband laughing. 'Where did you get all those "mustesses"as Dingee would express it?'
'If there were always some one else on hand.'
'The house is big enough for them and us too. I am glad I went over it this morning.'
'Yes, big enough for anything,' said Hazel eagerly. 'But then at mealsin the evening.Just when the mills and I do not come into competition!'
Dane smiled now very brightly. 'I will have nothing come in competition with you,' said he. 'Except duty sometimes. And this is not duty. Fit up some of those untenanted rooms, and let them be homes for whoever needs them. And let all such guests be entirely free, and at home, and served each with his meals in his own apartment, except when you choose to ask them to your's. That would sometimes be and sometimes not be; but the sanctity of our own home must be preserved. Do you not think so?' he added gently.
'O if we may!You know much more about it than I do. But suppose somebody sick at heart, or mind-weary? You see I know about that,' said Hazel, her girlish face all wistful again. 'I thought the loneliness was often the chief thing.'
'Let them have drives, and flowers, and books; rest and leisure; the sight of you occasionally; and now and then an invitation to dinner.'
'That might do. I could see them when you are away. Olaf, I have been thinking how I can possibly invest all this money-power you have put in my hands.'
'Wych, it will flow away with the speed of mountain brooks; and in as many and as inevitable channels.'
'But I want to know where it goes. And I have been studying the question out. I want to send some of iteverywhere, and take up bonds all over the world!'
'That greed will make you at last learn economy!' said Dane smiling.
'Will it? I do not know. You mean that I cannot reach round the world, even with ten thousand a year? But if all hands are stretched out, they will meet and so go round. To be sure, everybody cannot afford so much,' said Hazel thoughtfully; 'and so my hands must reach just as far as they possibly can.'
'Ten thousand a year has more to fall back upon,' Dane suggested.
'Yes. I am talking ofmypower,' said Hazel with a laugh. 'You see I have been reading up, and listening, and thinking, all winter. All I find that the 'where,' is everywhere; and the 'how,' in every way; and the 'what'just "what she could." Then there is another thing But you are not obliged to listen to all this!' said Hazel, checking the flow of her projects.
'I think you must be coquettinglike Jeannie Deans when she goes over a bridge.'
'It was left for you to say that!' said Hazel with a glance. 'Nobody else ever did. HoweverI read a story once which I thought simply beautiful,and last night it suddenly announced itself as practical. You remember how pleasant it was last night?'
'I remember very well.'
'In my story the people gave up one evening a week. On that night they always had a particular good tea, and at least one invited guest. The head of the house brought home one of his deserving clerks, suppose,or perhaps some poor acquaintance who never sawpartridges, for instanceat any other time: somebody straitened in business and low in cash. Or he found at home, already arrived, a hard-worked teacher, or a poor girl left alone in the world with her needles and thread. But whoever it was, for that evening they were made to forget everything but pleasure.'
'One evening in a week,' repeated Dane. 'That is not much. You and I have given a great deal more of our time than that,often, to the German, for instance.'
'It might seem 'much'with some people,' Hazel said thoughtfully.'But it would be right to do.'
'Duchess, it would not be disagreeable. It is a good plan. Then one evening in the week we will invite our poor friendshave them to dinner and give them a good time. But for the rest, Hazel, except in particular instances, it will be best on every account to leave them to themselves; those who happen to be in the house, I speak of now. With books, and good care, and all comforts around them, and the freedom of the grounds, and drives when that would be needful. Nothing but necessity would make it right or expedient to have our home privacy broken up.'
'Our home privacy'how new and sweet and strange the words sounded! A sense of all the threethe novelty, the strangeness, the sweetnesswas in the shy brown eyes that looked up and then down; not willing to tell too much. How strange it was, in truth! she thought. Very natural that she should like the privacy, with him to talk to her; but how it should be chosen by him, with only such a wild, wayward, unformed personage as herself,and again the eyes gave a swift glance, fraught with a little wonder this time. But then the strangeness fell back, and the novelty stood aside, and only the sweetness remained. Eyes might go down, and head bend lower, but lips were treacherous and told it all.
The eyes that looked read it, well enough. Yet with a man's wilfulness, drawing Wych Hazel into his arms and bending his face to hers, Rollo asked maliciously,
'Do you love me, Duchess?'
'Well,' said Hazel with demure, 'witchful' face and voice, 'I suppose so. Just a little more than you do me.'
Rollo took laughing revenge for this statement, but otherwise did not attempt to combat it.
'Have you worked your way out of the puzzle you were in the morning?'
'It is not a puzzle. It should be, I think, if nobody were head.'
'Ah!' said Rollo, very tenderly, if there was still a spice of mischief in it. 'You have found out then the solution of Dr. Maryland's old paradox"Love likes her bonds"?'
Hazel laughed a little, colouring too.
'No,' she said. 'Love likes you.'
'Comes to the same thing,' said Rollo heartlessly.
'No,' Hazel said again,'I think I do not like to be made to "stand," any better than the bay. But he does it,for you.'
'He likes it.'
'In that sense,' said Hazel. 'For you. He has come out of his apprenticeship of fear, and so have I; but you may find hidden stores of wilfulness, yet.'
'I have never been under an apprenticeship of fear,' said Rollo laughing; 'and I am not going to begin now.'
'No,' said Hazel, laughing too. 'Youwere always a master hand. Do you remember when I meant to give up waltzing _for you_and you would make me do it on compulsion?'
'Papa,' said Primrose a few days after this,'they are very happy!Duke and his wife, I mean.'
'Yes, my dear, yes,' answered Dr. Maryland; 'they ought to be.'
'Well, papa, theyare;and they are happy in the right way. Papa, I was up there to-day, and I saw Jane Best, that little dressmaker Arthur spoke about, who had got broken down with work; Hazel has invited her to come there and rest out, you know, and get well.'
'Yes, my dear, I remember.'
'Well, I saw her to-day, papa. I was there, and I went into her room. And I wish you could have seen her! Such a bright cheerful room, open to the garden; which to be sure is all bare now, but there is the look-out, and a good piece of blue sky above the tree tops;and it was as prettily furnished as any lady need have; and a bunch of splendid greenhouse flowers stood on the table by her. She was sitting in an easy chair, taking royal comfort, I could see. And while I was there her dinner was brought in; a roast quail, papa, and tea in a dear little china tea-pot, and everything as nice and dainty as it could be. And she told me that the day before, you know yesterday was so mild and pleasant, papa,Hazel had taken her out for a long drive; with herself, papa, under her own fur robes, and had given her a blue gauze veil to save her eyes from the glare, because there is so much snow about yet. You ought to have seen Jane's face when she was telling me! She says she has got among angels.'
'Whose doing was all that?' Prudentia asked.
'And then, oh papa, just think of it! for it is so unlike the way of the world;two nights ago they had her to dine with themwith themselvesand entertained her all the evening. They sang for her, and talked to her. Poor Jane said she thought she was in heaven already!'
Prim's eyes were full of bright tears, and Dr. Maryland's glistened.
'But that does not strike me as judicious,' put in Mrs. Coles. 'That is mixing up things very much. A sewing-woman to dine with them! That is Dane's doing, you may be sure. Hazel never would.'
'They are not of two minds,' said Prim; 'and she likesthis, for she told me about it, when I repeated to her what Jane had said to me. It is only one evening a week; but one evening a week they will entertain whoever is in the house. Being theirguest, Hazel says Duke says, gives them the right. Papa, they are very happy!'
'Ay!' said Dr. Maryland. 'They will be happy; for it is written"He that watereth shall be watered also himself." '
So the gold of Chickaree had begun its work; and if one main channel of the fertilizing flow went through Mill Hollow, that was but one; and the others, larger and smaller, wentto use the old image of the brook on the mountain side, literally wherever they could. To the well and able, men or women, Rollo rarely ever gave anything but work, which he never refused. Every other need met a ready hand and open ear at Chickaree. Let no one imagine that the heads of that house led an easy life; to meet wisely the demands that came, to sift the false from the true, to apportion the help to the need, called for all their best strength incessantly in exercise. Being stewards of so much, less than all their time would not suffice to use it wisely. For let it be remembered, they had not allotted a part to philanthropy and a part to themselves; but had given the whole to God. They were hard workers; and if at evening Rollo threw off work and would have nothing but play, that was needful too.
And did Hazel spend all her income wisely? Not always perhaps, at first; that could hardly be expected. It is not easy for even experienced hands to escape a deception now and then. But slowly, surely, she made progress; chiefly by two things. First, an eager desire to be a good steward with the power put in her hands, which just guided and warned and stimulated too the also eager desire to help everybody. Then Wych Hazel "prayed her way," and took counsel. And by dint of loving all people and feeling for all need, the way generally opened out. One thing was soon decided,she would put her finger in every good work; everywhere her hand touched and left its token. But then went the nameless rills and drops of refreshment to hidden spots and places of need known to nobody else. Poor students fitted out and paid through college; poor invalids served with the best of medical care. Overworked ministers sent on a pleasure trip,wife and all. A nice dress here, a barrel of flour there, a wonderful book somewhere else. Ice to the sick, boxes of tea to the needy. Then from her odds and ends storehouse she showered prettiness upon the lives that were dry and dusty with toil. Flowers to one, a flower dish to anotherwherever she went she left a touch of light and colour. People did not bend to kiss her shadowas of Florence Nightingale: they turned and shaded their eyes to catch the light. Not the sheen of mere wealth, dazzling the sight of their poverty; but the joy and brightness of truth and love, reflected down upon her, and from her to them.
If you would know, dear reader, part of the sequel to all the foregoing, you may, if you will take a walk some summer day through Mill Hollow. We will say it is ten years since Wych Hazel's marriage.
It is June, and you may smell the roses as soon as you get to the entrance of the valley. Wych Hazel's dream has been realized. The valley is a garden of roses. They climb the walls of the cottages, they cluster on the palings, they stand by the way side. They are set in a ground of smoothest green; for the turf everywhere is perfectly cared for as if the valley were a park; smooth and rich and luxuriant, it carpets the whole valley, except only where the footpaths run and where the houses and gardens stand. The houses nowhere stand close together; there is plenty of garden room; and maples and oaks and American elms especially shade the valley deliciously. In another ten years they will be very fine.
The place is as full of business as of roses, and as full of prosperity as of either. You see that at every step. Not a house but is in perfect repair and in perfect condition; the low white paling fences glitter in their purity; the window are bright and clear. And meet whom you will, man, woman or child, no rags or penury or squalor will offend you; but the look is of respectable comfort and real and hopeful life.
And why not? See that substantial stone building a little way up the slope of the valley side; that is the Library. There are reading rooms, for evening use, and well used by the hands. They have a variety of papers and magazines and maps; and the stock of books and pictures is large and excellent. Adjoining is the coffee room, where refreshments of a simple kind are always to be had. There is a reading room for the women and one for the men; large, lofty, airy, well lighted, beautiful rooms, with every comfort of tables and chairs and desks, for writing and reading.
On the other side of the valley, nearly opposite, is another large and sightly edifice. It is the store. Everything the villagers need is to be had there, at little over wholesale prices; it costs the owner nothing, it saves the people a vast deal. Nobody can purchase goods there except the hands and employees of Mill Hollow. There is no place for the sale of liquor in all the village.
You see the two churches; one would not accommodate the population. For Mr. Rollo has not ruined himself; on the contrary his business has grown and spread and increased. He is a richer man to-day than ten years before. That is, his income is larger; his reserve capital never will be. Let us go up out of the valley by one of these gentle and well-trodden ways.
Over the brow of the ridgeand there stretches before you a wide landscape of cultivated park ground. It is a park, of many acres, for the pleasure-taking of the hands of the Hollow. What is not here! Groves and lawns, walks and seats under the trees; prepared places for cricket and base ball and gymnastic exercises; swings for the children. Flowers are cultivated here in profusion, of rare as well as common kinds; and they are in abundance enough to be on hand whenever floral decorations are wanted for a wedding or a funeral in the cottages, or a festival in church or schoolhouse. For there are festivals every now and then, besides the three national ones. The park has great plantations of fruit trees also; the fruit free to all, from the time it is officially declared to be ripe. And I assure you, it is very little disturbed before such announcement. The park is under an excellent police, and nothing but the most perfect order prevails.
On the further edge of the park, if you go so far, you will see a low elegant building of grey stone, with many cosy little windows and doors. It is the home for the disabled and superannuated old people. No herding in one common community of forlornness; each small apartment or establishment is perfect in its way, with its own entrance, and its own little kitchen and sleeping room. There are people appointed to look after the comfort of those who are finishing their days there, but nobody to interfere with it. Wych Hazel is there very often, and her pony chaise never stops before a door but to bring brightness within.
But down in the Hollow there are the schools yet to visit; they are the pleasantest schoolrooms you ever saw. There is the bank. There are the public baths. And I know not what beside. The schools are provided with means and teachers for the art instruction of those who show capability for art proficiency; and designers and mechanics for Roll's work are growing up under Rollo's eyes. And nobody enters work at his mills but wants to stay with him; and nobody ever wishes, in all the Hollow, I think, to do anything but what the master wishes; for they all know he does not live to himself.
A visiter came to the Hollow however, about the time I speak of, who was not ready to take the testimony of his eyes, not yet of his ears, and he had both. It was an old gentleman who had left the railway station a few miles from Crocus, and depositing his baggage at the village inn desired to be driven on to the famous manufacturing establishment in the neighbourhood. He was an elderly man, but vigorous yet, of the sort of frame both of mind and body which holds out a tough resistance to life's wear and tear. That such he had seen, his somewhat set face, overhanging brows, and keen, unrestful eyes, bore witness. The brows were particularly drawn together to-day, and the eyes critical, almost suspicious, in their glance.
It happened, as the old gentleman walked slowly up the Hollow, for he had stopped the carriage at the entrance, that he fell in with Dr. Arthur. It was a very frequent thing to see visiters in Mill Hollow, strangers from other parts of the country and often foreigners from abroad; and Dr. Arthur would have gone his ways with a courteous salutation, but that in the instant of making it his eye caught some indication which obliged him to look a second time; and after that second look Dr. Arthur joined himself to the stranger and offered to be his guide and attendant. Slowly, and very taciturnly on the visiter's part, the various objects and places of interest were gone over; Dr. Arthur explaining and enlarging upon everything that seemed needful, but left very much in ignorance all the while as to the impression made upon his companion. At last, when they had reviewed the park and were sitting down to rest and to look, on one of the many places provided with seats, the old gentleman began to come out. They had passed a great many cherry trees, hanging full of their just ripe fruit; roses were all around them, as well as a multitude of other flowers both old-fashioned and homely and rare; the grounds were perfectly kept; the air was full of perfume. In the midst of all this, the old gentleman began.
'This is all very fine, sir. Do you think the owner holds his own in the matter of money? for after all, that is the test.'
Dr. Arthur smiled. 'One can hardly say of such a man that he has grown "rich," ' he said; 'but Rollo's income increases with every year.'
'Doesn't give it, or fling it, all away then?'
'All the increase he gives away. He does not "heap up riches, not knowing who shall gather them." '
'Hm!Has he nobody to come after him? I am told he has children. I should think this arrangement,' indicating the park and the roses by a vicious movement of his stick, 'would be very open to abuse.'
'Yet you can see that it is not abused. This is the pleasure-ground of the workers, where they rest, and keep well, andgetwell. Where they learn to forget drinking saloons, and to do without low excitements. We have fine band music here every evening in summer, which is a great attraction. The park is kept in order, as you see; the work is given by preference to mill peopletoo old or too young for the steady mill labour. And any child may have his own plot of flowers,ifhe will give it good care. If you enjoy such things, sir,' the young man went on with a glance at his companion, 'it will be worth your while to come here next week to the mill fruit and flower show, and see Mrs. Rollo give out the prizes.'
'Doesshecome here often?' the old gentleman asked in a stifled kind of voice.
'I might say daily. Of all that look after the comfort of those poor worn-out people over there, Mrs. Rollo is chief. An hour ago you would have found her pony chaise here. If you choose to step in, sir, you will find the fragranceherroses have left. They will talk of herthese poor old peopletill she comes again. They will watch for her "in the gates" till she enters there!'
'Hm' said the discontented old man. 'Does she find time to do anything else?'
'Else?' the doctor repeated.
'Yes. These people who do so much abroad are apt to be cyphers at home, in my experience.'
Dr. Arthur laughed a little over the word "cypher."
'Any one who had known Chickaree years ago,' he said, 'with its gay rush of surface pleasure, would find much to study in the full literary and artistic life that now fills the old place.'
'Eh?' said the other in the same way, but pricking up his ears at the same time. 'Literary? Then they do not go much into societyif I understand you?'
'They goand they receiveboth "much," ' said the doctor; 'yet both after an unusual fashion. Where they can confer a favour, or shew a kindness, or get refreshment and help in their life-work, they go. And they receiveall people!for everybody goes there. Yet not to great entertainments; at Chickaree society is not finished off at wholesale. It is the usual dinner, or breakfast, or luncheon, to which rich friends and strangers are welcomed. If there comes one who has known "the loss of all things," 'the doctor paused a moment, with some thought he did not put into words;'if one of the Lord's special guests comes,' he ended abruptly, 'then indeed he is received as such.'
'Do I understand you, that they never give entertainments like other people?'
'Neverwhat are called by that name. Unless to people who are "entertained" nowhere else,' said the doctor with a tone of satisfaction which was every now and then perceptible in his talk. 'Their "feasts" are all "Bible feasts,"but their hospitality is boundless! And the cuisine at Chickaree is perfect.'
'It remains nevertheless,' said the other after a slight pause, and speaking with a certain concealed grumble in his voice, 'that if theyor anybodyneglects the world, the world will neglect them. Concourse is not society, sir.'
'Chickaree hospitality is not preciselyneglect,' said the doctor with some quickness. 'I have yet to see the first personscientific, literary, fashionablewho was not glad of a chance to enjoy it. It isthehouse in all this region where you are sure to meet whoever is worth seeing.'
'Well, sir, well,' said the old gentleman, getting up and giving himself an uneasy shake, 'perhaps I have something to learn!'
If he had, he began upon his course of lessons that very evening, appearing at Chickaree for dinner. A few days after, Mr. Falkirk took possession of his old cottage again; and he has no purpose to forsake it any more.
Typographical errors silently corrected :
Écrit : unshared / gray / eat (ate) / judgment / northeast / visiter / mayhap / realizing / considerative / recognized / pettinesses / troublous / chestnutting / merrymakings / bluebeard / pic-nic? / beringed / promiser / realization / jeopardizing /