'Prim,' she said suddenly, 'did you ever stay all night up here?'
'No. Never.'
'Then of course you do not know where we are to make believe sleep.'
'I suppose it will be in that room where our things were laid. Mrs. Boërresen will tell us. Hazel, will you mind, if I say something I want to say?'
'I cannot tell whether I shall mind or not.'
'Shall I say it?'
'Yes, if you want to,' said Hazel, devoting herself to the tongs and the fallen brands.
'It is only just this.What are you going to do about dress?'
If ever anybody was astonished, it was perhaps Miss Kennedy just then.
'Dress!' she echoed, looking at Primrose and then down at the trim, invisible brown riding-habit, which, looped up and fastened out of the way had been perforce retained through the evening. Very stylish, no doubt, as all her dresses were; though in this case the best style happening to be simplicity, the brown habit with its deep white linen frills was almost severely plain. 'Prim,I have not the faintest idea what you mean!'
'I don't mean now, to-night, of course.'
'Any time. What do you mean by "do"?'
'Manage' said Prim. She looked as if she were searching into the subject, with a doubtful mood upon her. She went on. 'Do you suppose Dane would like you to dress as you have been accustomed to do?'
Wych Hazel rose to her feet. Whatever Mr. Rollo's own right to comment upon her or her dress might be, she was not in the least disposed to take the comments at second hand.
'I should think your recollection might tell you,' she said, 'that Mr. Rollo feels quite free to find fault with me whenever he sees occasion.'
'But Hazel,' said Prim meekly,'don't be angry,Do you want to wait for that?'
Hazel gave a half laugh. 'People always think I am angry,' she said.'I wonder if I am such a tempest?'
'You are not a tempest at all,' said Prim still meekly; 'not now, certainly; but I know you can feel things, and I don't want you to feel anything I say, except pleasantly. Indeed I don't, Hazel.'
'I'm glad you think I can feel things, but I suppose my comprehension is less lively. I do not even know what "managing" about my dress would be. I never "manage"!' said Hazel, with a fierce onset upon the brands.
'I know you haven't. But don't you thinkperhapsyou will have to? Don't you think it will be best?'
'I don't know how, and I never do it, and I do not know what you mean,' Miss Wych answered, sending a column of sparks up the chimney and shewing a few in her own eyes. Which however she did not turn upon Primrose. Primrose eyed the sparks which flew up chimney, with an unrecognizing face.
'You know, Hazel,' she began again, 'your dress is always so beautiful.'
'Well? If my guardians ever find it out, they never object.'
'But you know, Hazel! you know!' exclaimed Primrose in some distress. 'How shall I speak to you? Yourguardianswould not meddle, I suppose, either of them; but don't you think,now, that Dane will want you to do a little as he does? Do you think he will like you to dress so expensively? and you know youdo, Hazel. And he gave up his cigars long ago.'
If Prim could have known all the minute thorns she was sticking into her friend! Hazel was vexed enough to laugh, or to cry, or to do anything, almost.
'I am glad he has,'she said, 'but really I have nothing answering to cigars in all my list of expenses.'
'O Hazel! don't you think so?'
'No. I suppose you like them better than I do.'
'What, cigars?'
'Yes. I should think any man would be thankful to get rid of them.Mr. Falkirk never smokes.'
'I don'tlikethem. But men do. And Dane always smoked such delicious cigarsI used to catch the sweet scent of them often in summer time, when windows were open, and then I knew he was lingering about somewhere near; in the garden or the meadow.' Prim gave the least little unconscious sigh as she spoke. Hazel glanced at her, and her own face grew very thoughtful. The subject of dress was left quite in the distance.
'And he has given all that up,' Prim went on; 'and I thought, perhaps, you had not thought about it. All this about dress, I mean.'
'No, I have not,' said Hazel. 'Especially as I do not know what "all this" is. What to do with cigars seems clear; but my dresses hang in the dark. Never mind,a girl with two guardians is not likely to go very far in any direction.' And Hazel carefully set the tongs in place, and swept up the hearth; and then suddenly caught up her shawl again and wrapped it round her.
'What can have become of that fire?' she said. 'It is an age since we came in. Let's go and see.'
But opening the door revealed only the quiet, clear, starry sky and the still air. No glare of fire; no sound of voices; the crickets seemed to be going on comfortably and much as usual. The air was a trifle more chill, too; and after a few minutes of fruitless watching the two girls came indoors again; but they would not accept Gyda's proposition and go to bed. It was not very late, they said; and once more the three women sat down round the fire to wait. After a time however, Primrose gave it up and went off. Hazel sat still, pondering. Not in her great chair now, but down at the corner of the hearth; with a disturbed mind going over Prim's enigmas. Something about her was sure to displease,that seemed to be as near as she could come to it; and a restless, uneasy sort of pain crept into her heart and over her face. But the minute returning steps were heard outside the door, Hazel darted away to where Prim was already asleep.
Could Prim have been set to talk to her? she thought as she looked. But it was no use to raise that question to-night. Nevertheless the question lifted its own head now and then,that, and one other sorrowful thought which the evening had left: she was ready to join him in singing anythingexcept just what he loved best! And Hazel went to sleep with a sigh upon her lips.
Wych Hazel sat watching her friend at her toilet.
'Prim,' she said, 'willyoube angry?'
'Me? Angry? No. About what?'
'Because,' said Hazel, 'your dress is not looped right. And I want to alter it.'
Primrose laughed a little. 'What's the use?' she said. 'Next time it will be wrong again. I can't reach the mystery of your loopings. Theyareloopings, but your dress is never in a bunch anywhere only falls into place in a lovely manner. I can't be like that, Hazel.'
Hazel's busy fingers were making changes.
'There!'she said. 'Now it is a great deal more "beautiful." Do you feel demoralized?'
'Hazel!' said Prim facing round,'did you suppose I meanthat?When Dane likes everything to be as beautiful, and asright, every way, as it can be? Look at his horses; and look at his own dress.'
'Ask him to look at your's,'Hazel said with a laugh, and pushingPrim gently before her into the next room.
Breakfast was well seasoned with talk, and the talkers lingered over their meal, until Dr. Arthur declared that if the rest could stay there all day, he could not; and so broke up the sitting.
'Miss Kennedy,' he said as they left the table, 'will you come to the door a moment, before you put on your hat, and let me see your eyes?'
'See my eyes!'Hazel followed him doubtfully.
'Yes, I want to know how they look now they are open. How nearly do you feel like yourself again?' he said, in the midst of a somewhat close and earnest examination.
'I am perfectly well, thank you.'
' "Perfectly well."For instance, did you thoroughly enjoy riding on horseback yesterday?'
In spite of the evident good faith of the doctor's question, Wych Hazel's cheeks gave such instant swift answer, that he was fain to turn his eyes away.
'Not the October air,' he went on gravely, 'nor the coloured leaves, nor the sunshine; nor even the exhilaration; but theexercise. How is that, compared with a year ago?'
'I am not quite so strong for it, I think,' Hazel answered unwillingly.
'_Im_perfectly well,' said Dr. Arthur. 'And for what are you most inclined when the ride is over?'but again the tell-tale face warned him of dangerous ground.
'I have not been riding much'she said deprecatingly. 'I am all out of practice.'
'That goes for something. Always supposing that it always used to be so when you happened to be "out of practice." '
Hazel was silent.
'These guardians!' said Dr. Arthur with some emphasis. 'I cannot imagine what Mr. Falkirk was thinking of, when he kept you away all summer, letting you wear yourself out!'
'He did not keep me. I kept myself,' said Wych Hazel.
'Did you! Suppose Mr. Falkirk had kept himself here?'
Rollo came to the conference at this point. He knew the reason of his friend's care, for he had questioned him with relation to his professional curiosity the evening before. But he had a clue to Wych Hazel's three days' sleep, which Dr. Arthur could not have.
'Dr. Maryland, I thought you had more sense!' said the girl impatiently. 'The last time you saw me, you said the only thing was to let me have my own way.'
'Depends a little upon what direction the "way" takes,' said Dr.Arthur. 'You don't want another sleep, do you?'
'Thank you,I have had one.'
'Had one!' Dr. Arthur exclaimed. 'Not like that?'
'Not precisely like that,' said Hazel demurely. 'I have had several different ones.'
Dr. Arthur laughed, and gave up his research.
'I begin to comprehend Mr. Falkirk!' he said. 'Dane, if you can brave this lady's displeasure, I wish you would see that she does not overtax herself for three months to come. Nor then, without my permission.'
'But it is miles and miles from here to Chickaree!' said Miss Wych as she ran in.
The inconvenience of having two guardians is, that when you have got rid of one you have to face the other. And that other had to be faced at the dinner table to-day. It was well that the twelve miles' ride had not taken down Hazel's strength below the mischief point. Rollo, it must be remarked, had been obliged to gallop back again after very slight tarrying.
'Good evening, Miss Hazel,' said her elder guardian as he met her in the dining room. 'I think I have not seen you since this time yesterday.'
'A little later than this, sir. It was after dinner when we parted.'
'Quite so. Why did we not meet at breakfast? I was here. You were not.'
'No, sir. That seems to have been the reason.'
'Why were you not at home?'
'Well, sir, I was in charge of my other authority, and could not get home till he said the word.'
Mr. Falkirk surveyed his ward.
'Miss Hazel, your motions are usually determined by your own will, and by nothing else,in my experience.'
'My dear sir, if you remember your experience so imperfectly, it cannot do you much good. Have I ever been allowed to go anywhere alone?'
'Why did not Rollo bring you home in proper time?'very shortly.
'First there was a man in trouble, and then a mill,' said Miss Wych, composedly pouring water from her carafe. 'And so of course such small affairs as women had to wait.'
'What was the matter?'
'The man met with an accident. The mill was set on fire. But both were cared for satisfactorilyyou need not be uneasy, Mr. Falkirk. Two such energetics as Mr. Rollo and Dr. Arthur suffice for all the common events of life.'
'And you,where were you?'
'Miss Maryland and I, sir, were summarily bestowed at Mrs.Boërresen's for safe keeping.'
'Who is Mrs. Boërresen?'
'My dear Mr. Falkirk!if you only would stir about a little you would learn so much!' said Wych Hazel. 'Mrs. Boërresen is a quite remarkable person of foreign birth who lives near Morton Hollow.'
'Rollo's old nurse!' said Mr. Falkirk.
Wych Hazel bowed her head with extreme sedateness and went on with her dinner. Mr. Falkirk made a gesture of extreme impatience.
'It seems to me, Miss Hazel, that your other guardian had time to see you safe home, before allowing himself to be claimed by his own affairs. If you had not discretion enough to come, he should have had enough to bring you.'
'It needs valour as well as discretion to run away from one's guardians,' said Miss Kennedy lifting her brows. 'I should have been quite happy, sir, I am sure, to ride home alone.'
"Why didn't he bring you?' growled the elder guardian. 'Or why didn't you make him bring you?'
'Yes, sir. Did you ever try to make Mr. Rollo do anything?'
'Quite out of order!' grumbled Mr. Falkirk; 'quite out of order! Miss Hazel, it may need valour and discretion both, as you seem to intimate, but I must beg that you will not have the like thing happen again. If you cannot get home in proper time, I prefer that you should not ride with him. I thought the fellow knew better!'
A glance, lightning-swift, from under the dark lashes fell upon Mr. Falkirk's unconscious face. The girl waited a little before she made reply.
'How am I to know beforehand, Mr. Falkirk? Mills are uncertain things. And men. You are really sure of nothing but women in this world.'
'What do you mean about a mill burning?' came very deep out ofMr. Falkirk's throat.
'Some of the Charteris men set it on fire. The mill was not burned, because watch had been kept; and at the first sign of fire all hands went to work taking out cotton bales till the fire was reached. There was something of a bonfire outside.'
'Hm. How much loss?'
'Not much. A thousand or two.'
Mr. Falkirk went no further into the subject, or into any other, till the dessert had been taken away and he was fingering the nuts. Mr. Falkirk took no dessert. And in the midst of cracking a hard nut, effort availed to crack something else.
'Do we go to town this winter, Miss Hazel?'
'I have taken no thought whatever about the winter, sir.'
'Do you intend to stay here?'
'I thought we agreed, sir, to let the winter question wait?'
'I made no such agreement, Miss Hazel. On the contrary, if we let the question wait, there will be no house to receive you when you make up your mind to go.'
'Then we will wait.'
'No, Miss Hazel, if you please I will have your decision. If it makes no difference to you, it makes some to me. Either here or New Yorkbut you must say which.'
'O if you put me in a corner, Mr. Falkirk, I shall stay here,' saidWych Hazel.
'I suppose so. And now, Miss Hazel, will you kindly go a little further and give me your reasons?'
'My dear Mr. Falkirk, you know we agreed long ago, that between you and me reasons should be left to take care of themselves. Do let the winter question rest!'
'I thought we agreed long ago that between you and me there should be confidence,' said her guardian somewhat bitterly.
Now Mr. Falkirk was unreasonable, but it is not in the nature of men to know when they are unreasonable. So making a great and ill-adjusted effort with his nut-cracker, it slipped and did Mr. Falkirk's finger some harm, instead of the nut. Mr. Falkirk dipped his finger into cold water, wrapped it in his handkerchief, and went off, disgusted with the world generally.
'We never did!' thought Hazel to herself. 'I plainly told him it could not be.' But for all that she felt just a little bit troubled and hurt.
Four days of storms, during which Mr. Falkirk passed himself off for sugar and salt, and even Mr. Rollo was somewhat hindered of his pleasure, ended at last in a brilliant Saturday afternoon. But though Wych Hazel did send some wistful glances out of the window, she knew perfectly well there could be no coming from Morton Hollow that night. Still, the feminine mind is good at devices; and Miss Kennedy was not the first girl who (for the nonce) has enacted the part of Mahomet. The mountain could not stir,therefore
She thought it all out, sitting opposite to Mr. Falkirk at dinner; and when that gentleman had taken his departure, the young mistress of the house fell into a sudden state of activity; her last move being to smother herself in a huge dingy cloak, akin to those worn by the mill people in their improved condition.
'Look at me, Byo,' she said, pulling the rough hood up over her silky curls.
'My dear,' began Mrs. Bywank,'Miss Wych,if Mr. Rollo should see you!'
'He would see nothing but my cloak.'
'My dear, I'm not so sure. He has wonderful sharp eyes. And you don't wear your cloak like a mill girl.'
'Don't I look like a new hand?' said Hazel laughing.
'And if heshouldfind out, what would he think!' said Mrs.Bywank.
'He would think you had a cold and couldn't come,' said Wych.'There's the gig!'and down she ran, slipping out unseen to joinReo in the darkness.
Riding in an old gig was rather a new experience. The way was still, starlight, and lonely, until they came out into the neighbourhood of the mills. When the lights were visible, and a certain confused buzz of still distant voices gave token of the lively state of the population in the Hollow, Hazel and her faithful attendant left the gig and went forward on foot.
The Charteris mills were silent and dark; the stir was ahead, where a cluster of lights shewed brilliantly through the darkness; and soon Wych Hazel and Reo found themselves in the midst of a moving throng. A large shed, it was hardly better, open to the street and to all comers, was the place of illumination, and the centre of savoury odours which diffused themselves refreshingly over the whole neighbourhood. Coffee, yes certainly Mr. Rollo's coffee and hot buns were on hand there; and truly they began to be on hand more literally among the crowd. Wych Hazel loitered and looked and kept herself out of the lamp shine as well as she could. Men and women were going in and coming out, eating and drinking, talking and jesting; there was a pleasant let-up to business in the Hollow; it looked like a fair, except that there was no buying and selling other than the viands. There were long deal tables in the shed, besieged by the applicants for buns and coffee, and served by women stationed behind the tables. The crowd was orderly, though very lively. Reo's curiosity and admiration were immense; I think he would have tried the buns for himself, if he had not been in close attendance upon his mistress. Women came out from the shed guarding a pile of the hot buns in their hands; others stood by the tables taking their supper; men came out and lounged about talking and eating, with a mug in one hand and a bun in the other. To anybody that knew Morton Hollow it was a pleasant sight. It spoke of a pause from grinding care and imbruting toil; a gleam of hope in the work-a-day routine. The men were all more or less washed and brushed up; for changing their dress there had been no time.
Hazel was afraid to linger too long or scan too closely; she passed on to the mill with the throng, waited near the door until the reader went in, passing so close that Hazel could have touched him. Then she followed and took her place at the end of a form near the door. That was policy.
The reading room was the huge bare apartment where the fire had been laid, and tracked, a few nights before. The rafters still shewed some smoke, and there was a less number of bales piled up at the end of the room than when Hazel had seen it the first time. Lamps hung now from the beams overhead, enough of them to give a fair illumination; for as Rollo explained to her afterwards, he wanted to have a view of his hearers. Their view of him was secured by a well arranged group of burners in that quarter. The audience room was as rough as the audience.
It was a strange experience for the little lady of Chickaree. In the midst of all that crowd of mill hands, with their coarse dresses and unkempt heads and head gear, she was in a part of the world very far from her own. A still, respectful crowd they were, however. Looking beyond and over them, to the circle of lights at the end of the cotton bales, she could just see Dane's head, where he was standing and speaking to some one; then presently he mounted upon his rude rostrum and the light illumined his whole figure.
'He ain't keerful about shewin' hisself,'said a drawling native voice in Wych Hazel's neighbourhood. 'Hain't no objection to folks' reck'nin' his inches.'
'He's baulder'n I'd loike to be' said another voice, Wych Hazel could not guess of what nationality.
'A can bear it,' answered a woman. 'I'd loike to seeyoua standin' up for your picter, Jim!'
'He don't mind!' said a brisk lass. 'You bet, he knows all about it.Don't he, though!'
'Is he a married mon?'
'Na, he's got nobody to look arter him.'
'He don't mindthat, ayther.'
'He's mighty onconsarned, anyhow,' said the first speaker. 'Lawk, I never could be a orator.'
'Don't, then,' said the girl. 'You hush, or he'll hear.'
Rollo did them justice, as far as not minding anything went. His first action after taking his stand, was to fold his arms and take a somewhat prolonged survey of the company. The quick gray eyes came everywhere; did they know Hazel? It appeared not; for after a few minutes of this silent survey, Rollo bade his audience 'good evening' and began his work.
He gave them in the first place the principal items of the week's news out of several papers which he had at hand. This, it was plain, was an extremely popular part of the entertainment. He read and talked, explaining where it was necessary, sometimes responding to a question from some one in the crowd. The papers were both English and German, American and foreign; the bits of intelligence carefully chosen to interest and to stimulate interest. This part of the programme took up something over a half hour. The next thing was the story if the "Chimes." And here also the reading was exceedingly successful. Knowing his hearers more thoroughly than is the privilege of most readers, Rollo could give them a word of help just where it was necessary to make them understand the author; briefly, and only as it was needed; for the rest, he made the story speak to their hearts. Perhaps the simplicity of his aim, which had no regard whatever to his own prominence in the performance, gave him an advantage over most people who read in public; perhaps Rollo was uncommonly gifted; but Wych Hazel certainly thought, when she had time to think about it, that it was no wonder Miss Powder or anybody else should make parties to come and hear him, and rather wondered the whole countryside were not there. And as for the rough audience who were present, they were entranced. They forgot themselves. They forgot everything in the world but Tiny Tim and his father and all the humble experiences of the family; and tears and laughter alternately testified to what a degree the reader had them all in his hand. Hazel for her part laughed and cried when the rest did,and when they did not.
Just as this part of the reading was finished, there came a slight disturbance down near the door; but all that appeared to the reader was that one of the mill girls got up and went out.
'Where's the master?' a small frightened child had said, peering in.'I wants him.'
'Well you can't have him,' answered the rough cloak imperiously.'Don't you see he's busy?'
Whereupon the small girl lifted up her voice in lamentation, and was instantly smothered in the cloak and swept out of the mill; neither one appearing on those boards again that night. But the reading went on, and the hours too; and it was eleven o'clock, all told, before the audience were dismissed. Coming out at last into the starlight darkness, Mr. Rollo ran full up against Dr. Arthur Maryland.
'Arthur!What now?'
'Dane, you can tell meWhere is the Patrick who has no wife?I've been to six and they're all happy men.'
'Patrick? who has lost his wife? It is Rafferty. What do you want him for?'
'Something the matter there.'
'What?Come, I'll shew you the way. What is it?'
'A child hurt. The father away drinking, the young ones at home fighting,as near as I can make it out. This one got a fall.'
Rollo had used his voice a good deal that evening, namely, for two and a half consecutive hours. He said scarcely a word more until they got to the house in question; but as he went he thought what he would do with the gin shops whenever he should get control in the Hollow. The cabin of the wifeless Patrick was high up the valley and high up on the bank, a short way after all. A little stream of light came out to meet them from the open door; and once in line with this, Dr. Arthur stopped short with a suppressed exclamation, and Rollo looked up.
The door had probably been left open of intent for air; for on some low seat in the middle of the floor sat Wych Hazel, still muffled partly in the cloak, which she had not taken time to throw off. The hood had fallen back, and the cloak fell away on either side from her silken folds and white laces; Hazel's attention was wholly absorbed by the child on her lap. A little tattered figure lay with its head on the young lady's breast; while both Wych Hazel's hands, the one passed round the child as well as the other, were clasped tight around one little arm. So they sat, quite still,the child's eyes upon her face; while a small circle of great admiration stood around; fingers in mouth, hands behind back, wholly absorbed in the vision or spell-bound with the voice. For she was softly singing.
'You'll never be in Adam's case of destitution,that's one thing!' was Dr. Arthur's comment, as his friend sprang past him into the cabin. Then however, like a wise man, postponing other things to business, Rollo only demanded calmly what the matter was? Hazel had not expected him, and there was a look of surprise and a minute's flush; then her thoughts too went back to business.
'I think her arm is broken. I have been holding it in place.'
'And she let you?' queried Dr. Arthur.
'I would do it. She is more quiet now.'
'Sixteen carats fine!' said Dr. Arthur. 'Half the women I know would have dropped the arm the moment they saw me, and nine- tenths of the others would not have touched it at all! Now let me see.'
But first a change was made. Rollo took the child into his own arms. It was done too swiftly and skilfully for the poor little creature to make any objection, but its dismay and displeasure were immediately proclaimed. The new hands that held it were however both kind and strong, and the master's voice was already known, even by these little ones. So the worst was soon over, thanks to the firmness that had kept the arm quiet till the doctor came. It was true; she "had the fight in her," as Dane had once said; though now the woman was taking her revenge, and Hazel sat behind the others with blanched cheeks. Dr. Arthur glanced at her once or twice.
' "Ever so far away to Chickaree"!' he said,'I should think it was!Dane, can you find a substitute to watch this child to-night?'
'I'll see to that,' said his friend briefly; and laying the child out of his arms as soon as its arm was made secure, he went to Wych Hazel, pulled her hood on again, and drawing her hand through his arm took her out of the cabin. Then asked her 'how she expected to get home?'
'O Reo is here, somewhere.'
'With the carriage?"
'With an incognito gig.'
Rollo put her into a chair, stationed Dr. Arthur to keep ward over her, and went to look for Reo. It seems that in the interest of the reading Reo had missed the episode of his mistress's leaving the assembly room, and had thereafter been wholly without a clue by which to seek her. Near the mill Rollo found him, and presently brought up the gig to Patrick Rafferty's cottage. Unsuspiciously Wych Hazel allowed herself to be put into it. Then, standing with the reins in his hand, Dane spoke to the doctor.
'It is late, Arthur; come up to my house and I'll take care of you.Reo, take the road straight up to Mrs. Boërresen's.'
With which he jumped into the gig and put the horse in motion; with such good will that before Dr. Arthur could get to the foot of the hill the gig had climbed to Gyda's door, and Rollo had lifted Wych Hazel out.
'But I did not mean to come here!' she said dismayfully. 'I was thinking of something else! Mr. Rollowhat made you do so?'
'The obvious necessity of the case.'
'But I must go home.'
'To-morrow.'
He staid no further question. He opened the gate and led the little lady across the few steps to the door.
'Gyda,' said he as they went in, 'let us have some coffee and anything else that can be had quickly. Three people wanting it.' And with that he went into the next room for the cushions.
'I shall stand for an upholsterer one of these days,' he remarked, as he arranged and prepared Wych Hazel's easy chair. 'There! Now!'
He unfastened and threw off the rough cloak, much as if he did not like it; took Wych Hazel's hands and put her in her place.
'What have you got to say to me?' he queried softly.
Hazel felt extremely shy and discomposed at the course things had taken. It had been no part of her plan to have her escapade known to any but the old servants at home; and here she was, not only discovered but carried off,and that with Mr. Falkirk's strictures still sounding in her ears. Yet her first words went to another point.
'You should not touch me,' she said with a gentle little push,'I have not washed my face. And you know I had to use every means I could think of to quiet the child.'
Hazel shivered a little, thinking what the screams had been at first when she took the case in hand. Dane's eyes laughed and sparkled, but he only disregarded her admonitions, and remarked that she 'did not answer him?'
'Mr. Rollo, Imustgo home. Mr. Falkirk will be so vexed.'
'What else have you got to say me?'
'What do you want to hear about?' said Hazel demurely. 'I liked the reading very much,all that I heard of it. And the people seemed to like you.'
'Did you think I would not find you out?'
'And you did not!' she said triumphantly.
'I should have found you out in another half hour. I saw you, and you bothered me very much, but the lights were in my eyes. Did you hope I would not see you, Hazel?'
She laughed gaily. 'Of course I hoped that! How did I "bother" you, please?'
'Something I did not understand. Gyda, won't you take MissKennedy where she can wash her face?'
Gyda led the way to her kitchen, a little detached building connected with the house by a covered way. It was warm and light with fire and full of savoury odours from the cookery going on. Here the young lady was supplied with a bowl of water and a napkin, and Hazel came back very much refreshed.
It was now half-past twelve o'clock and more. Dr. Arthur was come, and there were preparations on foot for supper. Reo had come to, and was sent to Gyda's little kitchen to get some refreshment, while the others supped.
'Now,' said Rollo, as he gave Wych Hazel some porridge and filled her cup, 'you may begin and give an account of yourself.'
'Autocratic,' said Hazel. 'I am no longer a mill girl, Mr. Rollo.'
'You came into my dominions with my livery. There's no help for you now.'
'Well,'said Hazel,'the only drawback to the pleasure of my drive over from Chickaree, was the state of mind in which I had left Mrs. Bywank.'
'Well?' said Rollo, proceeding to take care of the doctor's cup. 'Go on. Arthur and I are very curious.'
'After that, I wanted a bun, and saw no invitation to strangers.'
'You were there, were you! Isn't it a good institution?'
'Veryfor people who are not strangers. Reo and I devoured things with our eyes for some time. Then I When the reading began, I was in my place.'
'I should say, you were in somebody else's place. Never mind! If it was not so late, I'd send down and get a bun for you.'
'What came in between the "Then" and the "When"?' said Dr.Arthur. 'If one may inquire. Mere blank space?'
'Not quite,' said Hazel laughing and colouring. 'Just private, scientific business. I was testing theories.'
'We are both interested in that, the doctor and I,' said Dane.'Theories, and scientific business. Pray explain, Hazel.'
'I once heard a short lecture on magnetism,' said Miss Wych, all grave except the gleam in her eyes; 'and it occurred to me to put it to the proof. So I stood by the door and saw the people go in.'
Dr. Arthur laughed, but asked no further questions.
'Your true lovers of science are always ready to venture a good deal in the pursuit of it,' observed Dane drily.
Wych Hazel's lips curled with mischief.
'When I got in,' she said, 'before the reading, I heard a good deal about the reader. Most of it striking, and some of it new.'
'That at least all may hear,' remarked Dr. Arthur. 'Science may have its reserves; but public news about Dane!'
'It's very old indeed,' said the person concerned. 'Only new to this witness. May be safely passed over.'
If Mr. Rollo was good at reading faces, he might see that remarks about him were considered quite too much her own personal property to be repeated to anybody in the world but himself. Wych Hazel sat silent, stirring her coffee.
'We are ready to hear the rest,' he remarked with a smile. 'Go on to the broken arm. How did you get hold of that?'
'One of the children came for you. And somebody had to go,' she answered simply.
'And "somebody" had to keep the broken arm in place, I suppose. But how came you to think of doing that?' said Rollo, who all the while was looking after the comfort of his two guests in his own fashion of quick-eyed ministry.
'I did not, till I had the child in my lap,' said Hazel; 'and then I remembered all of a sudden something in one of my old Edgeworth story books. So I tried, and succeeded.'
'I wish every one read story books to as good purpose,' said Dr. Arthur. 'There is no describing from what you saved the child. But at first I suppose she made great resistance?'
'Very great.'Hazel did not want to enlarge upon that part of the subject. And here Reo entered.
'Ha, Reo! are you made up for your journey already?' said Rollo. 'You can report to Mrs. Bywank that Miss Wych was too much fatigued to take the drive home; and bring the carriage over in the morning.'
Wych Hazel looked up, but her courage failed her for a protest.She was obliged to let the order stand.
The fire was bright, the coffee was excellent, the little party so oddly thrown together were happy in mutual confidence and sympathy. Such hours are not too common, and a certain kindly recognition of this one sat upon every face. Gyda was busy preparing a room for Miss Kennedy and had not joined them.
'How does the work of the world look to you, Arthur, from this corner?' said Dane, when they had subsided a little from supper to the consideration of each other.
'Every spot of true Christian work is a centre,' said his friend. 'The "corners" are for darknessnot light. Work is the most enticing thing in the world to me, Dane!'
'Gyda's fireside was the corner I meant,it's not dark just now! and I was thinking, that from this nook of quiet the work looks easy. So it is! It is a hand to hand and foot to foot battle; but it is easy to follow the captain that one loves.'
'I don't know that it is always easy,' said Dr. Arthur; 'but it can be done. Once in a while, you know, we are sent to carry a redoubt with only his orders before us. The Lord himself seems to be in quite another part of the field.'
'That is, to those who do not know.'
'Of course. I speak only of the seeming. But I like the fight, and I like the struggle. I like to measure battlements and prepare my scaling ladders, and lead a forlorn hope. It suits me, I believe.'
'Battlements?' Hazel repeated. 'Do you mean heights of difficulty?'
'Guarded by depths of sin,' said Dr. Arthur.
Hazel looked from one to the other. Yes, she could like that too, if she were a man. How much could she do, being a woman?
'And that is all seeming too, Arthur,' his friend went on. 'Really, the fighter need never be out of that "feste Burg." I was thinking just now, not only that work looks easy, but that it looks small. Individual effort, I mean; the utmost that any one man can do. It is a mere speck. The living waters that shall be "a river to swim in," are very shallow yet; and where the fishers are to stand and cast their nets, it is a waste of barrenness. You have never been on the shores of the Dead Sea, Arthur; you do not know how a little thread of green on the mountain side shews where a spring of sweet water runs down through the waste.'
'What then, Mr. Rollo?' said Wych Hazel.
'It is such a tiny thread of life upon the universal brown death.'
'Is that what the world looks like to you?' said Hazel, wondering.
'And the work is even far smaller than that, if you look at it in its minute details. Did you ever read the life of Agnes Jones, Arthur?'
'Yes.'
'Prim lent me the book; and I found a good word in it the other day. The writer says, I cannot give you the exact words,"If we do every little thing that comes to us, God may out of our many littles make a great whole." Therein lies the very truth of our work. It is so in Morton Hollow. Not building schoolhouses or making villages; anybody can do that; it is the word of interest to one, the word of sympathy to another; the holding a broken arm; giving help and refreshment in individual cases. Love, in short, like the sun, working softly and everywhere. As those threads of green on the mountain side are made up of multitudinous tiny leaves and mosses, nourished by countless invisible drops of spray.'
'Working in all sorts of ways'said the Doctor; while Hazel sat thinking of the green that was beginning to line the banks of Morton Hollow. 'You may notice that a real spring goes literally wherever it can. Men may wall it in with stone channels, or force it into the air; but let it alone, it follows every possible opening. The deep main stream, and the little side rills, and the single drops that go each to a single leaf.'
Rollo looked up and smiled. 'There is Gyda coming to fetch you,Hazel.'
'Well,' said Hazel. 'And you will go on talking all sorts of things that I ought to hear.'
She rose up and stood looking down into the fire. The other two rose also and stood looking at her. It was a pretty picture. Gyda, a little apart, watched them all with her little bright eyes.
'But,' Hazel began again,'to do that,for every little drop to do thatthere must be a head of water. It is not the mere trickling down of something which happens to be at the top!'Whereupon the little fingers took an extra knot.
'Each drop may do the ministry of one, may it not?' said Rollo. 'You need not count the drops. The only thing is that they be living water.'
'Yes, the living water comes with a will. I remember,in Mme. Lasalle's brook,how busy the drops were. Not in a hurry, but in such sweet haste.'
'True!' said Dr. Arthur. 'Each with a clear bright purpose, if not a plan.'
'Perhaps, best not the plan,' said Rollo.
She stood gravely thinking for a moment, then looked up and shook hands with Dr. Arthur, wishing him good night. But no words came when she gave her hand to Mr. Rollo; onlyperhaps in default of wordsa beautiful, vivid blush.
The room to which the old Norsewoman conducted her was a very plain little place, with whitewashed walls and the simplest of furniture. Gyda manifested some concern lest her guest should suffer for want of a fire. 'But the gentlemen had to have the other room,' she said.
'O the fire is no matter,' said Hazel. 'But where do you sleepwith such a houseful?'
'I have my little nest just by, my lady. I'd be glad to keep it! And yet this is a strange place for my lad to have his home; and it's been his home now for a year, nearly. How much longer will I keep him, my lady?'
Gyda asked the most tremendous questions with a sort of privileged simplicity; she looked now for her answer.
'Keep him?'Hazel repeated the words in a maze.
'Yes, my lady. I know I must lose my lad fromthishome; but when is it to be?'
'A great whileI don't know,nobody knows,' said Hazel very much disturbed. 'Nobody thinks anything about it yet. So you need not even recollect it, Mrs. Boërresen.'
Gyda looked at her with a tender, incredulous, pleased smile upon her face. 'Do you think he will wait a great while, my lady?' she said. And then she came up and kissed Wych Hazel's hand, and went away.
Mr. Falkirk did not go out to breakfast that Sunday morning; and no one at Chickaree but the two old retainers knew how Miss Wych had tired herself, nor where she had rested overnight. Monday came and went in uneventful rain, and Tuesday was the day of the party in the woods.
A simple enough affair,just chestnuts and lunch; but rarely had the young lady of the domain been so hard to please in the matter of her dress. For words do leave their footsteps, drive them out as we will; and this Prim's words had done. Not quite according to Prim's intent, however; for the one clear idea in Wych Hazel's mind, was that Mr. Rollo was (or would be when he noticed it at all) dissatisfied with her dress. And that was precisely the line in which she had never before met criticism. Hazel took off one colour after another, until Phoebe was in despair and Mrs. Bywank turned away and smiled out of the window.
'And dear me, ma'am,' cried Phoebe at last, 'there comes a carriage!'
Hazel looked towards the window, caught the old housekeeper's eye, and suddenly embellishing her proceedings with a pair of scarlet cheeks, she opened another press, seized the first white dress that came to hand, and put it on without more ado. A dainty white piqué, all on the wing with delicate embroideries and lace, and broad sash ends of the colour of red gold.
'But Miss Wych!' Mrs. Bywank remonstrated. 'The wind is very fresh.'
Wych Hazel made another plunge after sealskin jacket and cap; turned over a box of gloves till she matched her ribbands; gave Mrs. Bywank a laugh and a flash from her eyes, and was off. But that carriage it seemed had rolled by, and there was no one at the meeting place in the woods when the girl seated herself there to await her guests.
' "Do you think Dane will like to have you dress as you do?" 'so ran her thoughts. 'Well,how do I dress?'
She sat looking into the soft silence of the October air, feeling that for her life was changing fast. The old bounds to her action had somehow now stretched out to take in her will; her own pleasure now often in the mood to wait, uncertain of its choice, till she knew the pleasure of somebody else. There was the least bit of rebellion at this here and there; and yet on the whole Wych Hazel by no means wished herself back in the old times when nobody cared. Ah how lonely she had been!and how full the world seemed now, with that secret sense of happiness pervading all things! Meanwhile, as Prim had said, what was she going to do about dress?
It happened that the first interruption to her meditations came from a visiter who did not intend to be a guest. No less than Gov. Powder; a portly, gentlemanly, somewhat imposing personage, who was less known to society than were his wife and daughters. However, without wife and daughters, here he was.
'Good morning, my dear, good morning!' he began blandly, shaking Wych Hazel's hand with a sort of paternal-official benignity. 'Your guardian has not come upon the scene yet? I thought I should find him here. Why how cool you look, for October!'
'Yes, sirI like to look cool,' said Hazel, conscious that she could not always accomplish the feat. 'Especially when I have the world on my hands. Just now I am undefended., Gov. Powder; but I suppose both my guardians will be here by and by.'
'What do you do with two guardians, eh? Keep 'em both in good humour?'
'One at a time is as much as I often try for,' said Hazel. 'But Gov. Powder, I wish you would let me have a little fun right over the heads of them both.'
'I?' said the ex-governor, somewhat surprised. 'Eh? It does not often happen to me now-a-days to have the honour of such an appealunless from my own mad daughters. In what direction do you want me to come over your guardians, Miss Kennedy? and which of them?'
'O it is nothing mad at all, in my case,' said Hazel. 'And neither of them must know. But will you walk a little way down the wood with me, sir? I do not want them even to see a consultation.'
A man must be much set in his own purposes who would not go more than 'a little way' after such a voice; and Gov. Powder was but an ordinary man. So, finding the white ruffles a very pretty sort of a convoy, the ex-governor strolled down among the golden hickories and ruddy oaks, and never once guessed that he had a siren at his elbow.
'Last winter,' Hazel began, speaking fast now, to keep pace with the minutes, 'I had quite a large legacy left to me.'
'Somebody who wanted to protect you against misfortune, eh?' said the governor.
'Or who did not believe in guardians, sir; for mine were to have no control over it whatever.'
'I see!' said the governor. 'Pocket money to purchase sugar-plums.'
'But perhaps you know, sir, that we girls like sugar-plums of many sorts.'
'Miss Kennedy, do you know my daughters?'
'Well sir,' said Hazel weighing her words, wondering to herself whether diplomats get along without telling fibs; and if they do,howthey do,'it would be quite a novelty of a bonbon to invest this money in some splendid way, all by myself. Not the whole of it, you know, sir,only a few thousands.' She was so eager! and so terribly afraid of shewing her eagerness.
'That is a sort of bonbon that is very tempting to old fellows like me; but, pardon me, I should think it was more in Mr. Falkirk's way than in yours?'
'Mr. Falkirk may admire it afterwards, if he chooses, butIwant to make the investment. And I learned from somebody,' said Hazel, careful of her words, "that the best thing I could do, was to buy that bit of land of yours, Gov. Powder, lying just at the head of the Hollow. It is not worth more than twenty thousand, is it?' she went on, suggestively. 'And I was told, sir, that you were ready to dispose of it.'
'Somebody spoke too fast,' said the governor, looking unmistakably surprised this time. 'Really, I am in no hurry to dispose of that piece of land. Its value is in its water power. You don't want to build mills, do you?'
'No, sir,the whole of my legacy would not coverthat. And I would rather not invest more than twenty thousand at first.'
'Twenty thousand' has a pleasant sound to a man with 'mad' daughters, and other expenses! Nevertheless the governor looked steadily into the face of facts.
'My dear Miss Kennedy, I must remark to you, that if you do not want to put mills on that ground, it would be a very poor investment for your twenty thousand. The water power is all the value there. And Paul Charteris has been trying to get it of me for his own purposes. Now I know whathewants; but I do not see what you want with land in Mill Hollow.'
'Why Governor Powder,' said Hazel, 'Mr. Falkirk would go to sleep in luxury, if he could only seewhyI want things! One might as well be a manor Mr. Paul Charterisat once!'
'Isn't Paul Charteris a man?' inquired Gov. Powder laughing. Hazel laughed too, but returned to the charge.
'I shall not invest in him,' she said, 'even so much as an opinion.What I want is the land, and the water power, and the fun.'
Gov. Powder stepped back and took a survey of the little lady.
'You mustn't break your teeth with a bonbon,' said he. 'Suppose you let me speak to my friend Mr. Falkirk about it?'
'No indeed, sir! Mr. Falkirk never approves of anything he does not suggest himself. All great men have their weak points, Gov. Powder,' said Wych Hazel.
'Well, let us say Rollo then. I think he is a wild man with his own fortune; but I reckon he would look out for yours. By the way! he may want the land for himself? eh?'
'Of course he may,' said Wych Hazel, 'but not half so much as I do. To consult him, would be saying no to me, Gov. Powder. And you know you are going to say yes.'
'I don't understand doing business with ladies!' said the poor governor, shaking his head. 'I can get along with my own sort. Miss Kennedy, there are certain complications, which I cannot explain to you. Paul Charteris has been at me to get those very acres that you want. What would he say, if I threw him over and sold them to you? I guess you must let me settle with him first.'
'Tell him you sold the land to somebody who offered more,' saidHazel. 'That is easy enough. How much would he give, sir?'
'Ah but, the thing is, there are complications,there are complications,' repeated the governor. 'Give? He don't want to give above the half of your twenty thousand; and I couldn't in conscience take the whole. The land is not worth so much as that, Miss Kennedy. But young ladies don't understand complications,' he added with a smile. 'I can't just throw Paul over, without a word.'
'Push him off,' said Hazel. 'Nobody can teach me anything about complications!Push him off, sir. Just give him a negative and do not say why.'
'What do you want it for?'
'Just now,' said Hazel, 'I want to get ahead of Mr. Charteris.'
'I may tell him I have an offer of twelve thousand?' said the governor, who was badly in want of money.
'Certainly, sir. If you will first say three words to make sure Mr.Charteris shall not get ahead of me.'
'Well, well!' said the governor'here come people, Miss Kennedy,he shall not get ahead of you. At any rate, I'll settle nothing with him without letting you know. He can't outbid you you're pretty safe. Do I understand that you want this affair kept private, between you and me?'
'O yes, sir!' cried Hazel softly,'it is to beterriblyprivate. And if you will only let women vote, Gov. Powder, I will certainly vote for you.Mr. Falkirk, if you knew how long Gov. Powder has been impatient for you, you would be grieved to have left him so long with me!'And Miss Kennedy flitted off, with eyes in a sparkle that was dangerous to come near. I think Gov. Powder's eyes sparkled a little too, poor man; they had grown a little dull with looking so long into ways and means.
And after this little bit of business, the pleasure of the day set in with a flood tide. You have all seen such days. Nature had laid out a wonderful entertainment, to begin with; and put no hindrances in the way; and it appeared that every creature came with spirits and hopes on tiptoe. Dresses were something captivating, so much attention and invention had been exercised upon them. And the facilities for flirtations which the scene and the sport afforded, were most picturesque. The parties in the trees could display their agility; the parties on the ground could show their costumes in charming attitudes. For a time the care of the hostess was needed in assigning the people to their proper posts of usefulness or pleasure; but when all were come and all was in train, the thing would run itself, and Wych Hazel became as free as anybody else.
'Look here,' cried Josephine Powder, 'I've been waiting all day to speak to you. Nobody wants you now, Hazel; come here and sit down. I'm in awful trouble.'
Wych Hazel sat down and pulled off her gloves, and then the glittering fingers went diving into her pocket after chestnuts.
'Well?' she said,'what now? There is a big onetry that.'
'I used to like chestnuts once,' said Josephine looking at it. 'I wonder if there'll be fun in anything ever any more for me?'
'Depends a good deal upon where you look for it,' said Miss Kennedy, biting her nut. 'Are you playing pendulum still, for pity's sake?'
'Pendulum? No. I'm fixed. I've accepted John Charteris.'
'Have you!' said Hazel, thinking that her business interview had been just in time. 'How much down, Josephine? and how much on bond and mortgage?'
'What do you mean?'
'The trouble is, you can never foreclose,' said Hazel. 'Are the diamonds satisfactory?'
'You are not,' said Josephine energetically. 'Now be good, Hazel! I came to you, because I thought you were the only creature that would have a little feeling for me. Everybody else says it's such a grand thing.'
'Well, Ihavesome feeling for you, and so I don't say it. Much more feeling than patience. Why do you sell yourself, if you do not like the price, Josephine Powder?'
'What can one do?' said the girl disconsolately.
'Let me see the first instalment,' said Hazel. 'Is it paid in?'
'I don't know what you mean,' said Josephine. 'I tell you, they were all at me, and said I should be such a fool if I let it slip; and that I should be very happy;but I don't feel so.'
'Not when everybody says you are?' Hazel enquired with slight scorn.
'Of course one likes to have other people think one is happy,' saidJosephine; 'you don't want to have them pitying you. I thought Ishould feel better when I was engaged and the whole thing settled.I wish people could live without getting married!'
'Well,' said Wych Hazel, 'there is one thing I could not do without,if I had to marry John Charteris.'
'What is that?'
'A pocket pistol.'
'A pocket pistol, Hazel! He isn't as bad as that. What's the matter with him?'
'Just a trifle. You do not love him.'
'They said that would come,' said Josephine dolefully.
'By express, from the land of nowhere,' said Miss Wych nibbling her nuts. 'Marked "Very perishable!!!" '
'But I don't find that it comes.'
'No,' said Hazel coolly, 'that land is a good way off. Isn't it cold work waiting all alone with the diamonds?'
Josephine displayed a magnificent finger. But she looked at it with no reflection of its light in her eyes. 'You speak very coolly,' she said, then letting her hand drop. 'I thought you would feel for me somehow.'
'I tell you I do, or I should not take the trouble of pinching you to see if you have any feeling left for yourself. Does not that ring make you shiver?'
'Sometimes. But what can I do, Hazel? It may as well be John Charteris as anybody else, as long as one can't please oneself. One must marry somebody. You know onemust!'
'Look at them,' said Hazel. 'As cold and hard as he is. Flashing up nothing deeper than the pocket they came from.'
'There is no fault in the diamonds,' said Josephine sulkily. 'They ought to be hard. And these are beauties. And Charteris isn't harder than other people, that I know of. It is only thatI don't want to marry him. And he is in an awful hurry. If it was a long way off, I wouldn't mind so much.'
Wych Hazel dropped the chestnuts.
'Josephine,' she said gravely, 'do you see these rings on my hands?'
'Yes. I have seen them and admired them often enough. There's a splendid emerald though. I never saw that before. O Hazel!' the girl cried suddenly. 'It's onthatfinger!'
The hands were something to look at, in their glitter or strange old- fashioned rings, with many-coloured stones and various settings. Only a close observer would have noticed that the emerald alone was a fit.
'Every one of all the eight is a betrothal ring,' Hazel went on, not heeding; 'every one has been a token between people who chose each other from all the world. They were not all rich, you see, here is a poor little silver hoop among the diamonds. And they were not all happy; for this ruby has seen a death-parting, and the pearls are not whiter than the face that had waited for twenty years. But not one ring has the stain of a broken troth, nor the soil of a purchase. The people suffered, they waited, they died,but they never so much as thought of any one but each other, in all the world!' Wych Hazel folded her hands in her lap again, looking at Josephine with eyes that were all alight.
'Butthat'syours,' Josephine went in impatiently. 'Who put it on?'The girl's accent was of more than curiosity.
'There are several of them you have never seen before,' said Hazel. 'Josephine, do you understand what I say to you? People starve to death upon diamonds.'
'Ah well, but do tell me!' said the girl, with a curious mixture of coaxing and distressful in her tone. 'Do tell me who it was, Hazel. I just want to know.'
'You just want shaking, I think,' said Wych Hazel. 'I did not say anybody put it there. And I thought you wanted to talk of your own affairs? If not, I will go and attend to my guests."
'You are very cruel,' said Josephine, quite subdued. 'Just tell me if it wasStuart Nightingale?'
'No I shall not. You have nothing to do with Mr. Nightingale. You belong to Mr. Charteris.'
'You put me off!' cried Josephine, laying her face in her hands for a moment. 'It don't matter. I can find out some other way; there are ways enough.'
She looked towards the opening where gleams of colour could now and then be seen flitting among the trees. Wych Hazel laid one little hand on her shoulder.
'Josephine,' she said, 'I wish you would break this off!'
'What?'
'Any sort of engagement with John Charteris.'
'I can't,' said the girl drearily. 'They all want me to marry him. There's be an awful row if I broke it off now. And what difference does it make? If you can't have what you would like, all the rest is pretty much one thing. It's a bore; but one may as well get all out of it one can.'
'See!' said Hazel in her sweet persuasive tones,'you never know what you can have. And you can always have yourself. I would break itfeeling as you doif I were half way through the last yes.'
'Yes, it will do for you to talk,' said Josephine; 'but everybody is not rich like you. And even you, I suppose, don't choose to live as you are for ever. You'll marry too; your finger says so. And I must, I suppose. But I can't tell you how horrid it is. I tell you what, Hazel; one must like a man very much to be willing to give up one's liberty!'
Hazel was not fond of that way of stating the case, even yet. She wet back to the former words.
'Horrid?' she said,'there is no English strong enough. And "must" is absurd, so long as your liberty is in your own power. If ever I "don't choose," as you say, it will be because I don't choose.'
Poor Josephine rose up, straightened herself, with a bearing half proud half defiant, and looked away. Then in another minute, seeing her chance, she darted or glided from her covert, and before Hazel's indignant and pitying gaze, plunged into a gay bit of badinage with her lover who was passing near. No trace of regret or of unwillingness apparent; Josephine was playing off her usual airs with her usual reckless freedom; she and Charteris were presently out of sight.
'And she presumed to bring him here without my leave, andthencame down upon me for pity! Wellthe supply is unlimited,she can have all she wants.'And Hazel looked down at her own ring, which meant so much; thinking of the diamonds which meant so little; and went off among her guests, to keep them in more respectful attitudes than even ever before. For Miss Kennedy was extremely remote this day, placing herself at such a dainty distance as was about equally fascinating and hard to bear. Somehow she evaded all the special little devotions with which she was beset; contriving that they should fall through so naturally, that the poor devotee blamed nothing but his own fingers, and followed the brown eyes about more helplessly than ever. Only one or two lookers-on saw deeper. Mr. Kingsland smiled, pursing his studies.
'This ethereal power which one cannot get hold of,' he remarked to himself, 'becomes truly terrific in such hands. Now there is young Bradford,he picked up out those chestnuts solely and exclusively for the heiress of Chickaree,and in some inexplicable way she has made him hand over to Molly Seaton. Not a cent but what her brothers may give her. And how Tom Porter comes to be walking off with Miss May, nobody will ever know but the sorceress herself. She will none of him,nor of anybody else. Who has won?'
'You are expecting more guests, I see, even at this late hour,' he remarked aloud to Mr. Falkirk.
'Why do you judge so?'
'I notice a certain absence,' said Mr. Kirkland. 'Also a vacant place which no one here is allowed to fill. "Trifles light as air," perhaps,and yet'
'Where is your associate counsel to-day, Mr. Falkirk?' said Kitty Fisher, interposing her pretty figure. 'Do you and he take it "off and on"?'
Now this young lady being Mr. Falkirk's special aversion, he deigned no reply to her impertinence; confronting her instead with an undeclarative face and manner of calm repression.
'What is on the carpet?' said a new comer.
'Now whatever possessed you to come on it?' said Miss Fisher with a pout. 'We were just going to scare up a German!'
'Perhaps I can be of some slight assistance.'
Kitty Fisher clapped him affectionately on the shoulder.